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Category Archives: Language is Great!
Bulgarian words for try
Sorry I don’t have much for this week’s Wonderful Awful ideas. Just four Bulgarian words that might all be translated as English “try.” Opitvam se (опитвам се) is related to pitam (I ask). As in opitah se da pobedya, “I … Continue reading
Securing Emergent Thrive-ity
I was thinking about the political system of the “Present day” (2145) in The Centuries Unlimited, and also about the ways I have the English language evolving in the next ~140 years (fast+weird). The result is the following: Far’s via … Continue reading
Trolls-ish
I have watched the Trolls movie so many times, you guys… Help me Uh, I mean, ahem! <in universe voice> Trollish (Silampampsun Gi’impsun, Gi’impsun, Impish, or Turxulsun (archaic) ) is the language of the Troll People of the Melean Mountain Range. In its standard dialect, centered … Continue reading
The Thitherlands
Japanese is great! Today I was talking with my teacher about the word yo (世). In general, it means “world” as in yo no naka ni wa iro-iro na ningen ga histyou da (世の中にはいろいろな人間が必要だ, or “in this world, you need different sorts … Continue reading
The History of Niwyowid
proto-Niwyowid (PNV) Xe eisi yi zuha vei yi xe yi skyay avan eyii tyi exi. /ɣe eˈihi dzi ˈzɯha ˈvei dzi ɣe dzi skjaj ˈavan eˈjii ci ˈeɣi/ “And stood his hat holding he and his wet face turned to the wind” … Continue reading
Every morning I am subjected to the performance that my daughter doesn’t want to go to school
My Japanese teacher is as much a language nerd as I am, I had ten minutes between Japanese class and my next class, so here we are, talking about cool stuff that the Japanese language can do. We started by … Continue reading
The Andzhijans
The Andzhijans (pronounced [ʌnd͡ʒ’ijənz] or [‘anʒjənz]) (Andzhijan: Ъndжista, Andzhista, [ɤnd͡ʒ’iʃtɐ], also spelled Ънджийчиtе, Ανγιση, Andжijani, and Ăngițile. Reich spellings: Ænġista, Angista — dated exonym: Vrans, Vrani) are a Balkan ethnic group composed of the roughly two million citizens of the Macedonian Republic of Andzija, an additional … Continue reading
Babytalks: And he became a beybo gwegwe
My daughter can now recite “the very hungry caterpillar” from memory. Which is great because it gives me a direct one-to-one comparison for her utterances. Here’s one of the more bizarre. Instead of saying “beautiful butterfly” (the last two words … Continue reading
Baby Talks: Approximantation
Yes, my baby is still practicing fricative harmony. She’s also doing something else, which is approximanting? Is that even a word? She makes stops into approximants, is what I mean. I speak General American English, so my intervocalic dental stops become … Continue reading
Learning Kalispel: phonotactics and sentence structure
Back again with more lessons on the Kalispel language. The workbook is getting into some simple questions and answers, so this time I can talk about what I think might be Kalispel sentence structure. I won’t know if I’m right … Continue reading
