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Category Archives: Language is Great!
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
Future English
‘S arrived into my life likea a train wreck. /sə.’ɹ̠avʔ inʔ ma ‘lajef ‘lajegə ə tə’ren ɹ̠æʔ/ — The Centuries Unlimited. The development of American English from 1900 to 2100 is characterized by phonological simplification, a shift toward isolating sentence structure, and … Continue reading
Posted in Language is Great!, Short Stories
Tagged Constructed Language, The Centuries Unlimited
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Japanese Phrasal Verbs?
I was going to write this week about Kalispel numbers, but yesterday I learned something interesting in Japanese class. I already knew the verb hikkosu (引っ越す*; to move house), but yesterday I learned the verb ikineku (生きねく; to survive something**) … Continue reading
Learning Kalispel: Orthography
Okay, I had a dream in Kalispel Salish* last night, which I guess is a signal I need to talk about it. It all started when I found this webpage of the Kalispel Tribe which has both written and recordings … Continue reading
Bulgarian has words for:
to wake up completely: разсънвам се (razsanvam se) Raz-san-vam se glosses as “apart-dream-verb reflexive” something like “I break up my dreams.” You can add the same suffixes and prefix to buzh- (the root for “wake,” cognate to Sanskrit “Buddha”) to get разбуждам се … Continue reading
Japanese Junction
(scroll down for the English translation) （吉田の携帯が鳴る） 吉田：もしもし？ 誰 – ？ お、かしこまりました！ もちろん。 （松森に携帯を上げる）竹田さんです。 松森：はい? 竹田：君はね、英語話せるよね？ 松森：必要ほどできます。 あの、ご存知じないかもしれませんが、撮影の途中でございますし。 竹田：締め切ろ！ 荷造りして出発の準備しよ。 松森：出発ですか？ 吉田：え？ （携帯をつかむ）どうも、松森くん。 （松森は、吉田が携帯をつかんだことに苛立つ。キャリアが低下していることと吉田が尊敬しないことを心配する。） 松森：何が起こっている？ どうしたの? 吉田：（松森を追い払う）残念ですけど不可能でございます。 お金はもう。。。キャンセルされた？（顔が赤く変わる）でわ、お帰りになるとおっしゃるんですか。 竹田：（くすくす笑う）まったく帰るつもりはないよ。 松森：どういう意味？ （携帯をつかむ）竹田さんは別の場所で撮影させようしますか？ この撮影は最後にすると通知いらっしゃいました。 私は健康ではないですし。 そして、東京で、あの、重要な会議がありますし。 竹田：松森くんの奥さんの弁護士たちは待てる。ヘリコプターのほうは待たせないぞ。 松森：（怒りを見せる）いったいなんでヘリコプター？ （ドアが叩かれる。背景で声が聞こえる。竹田は他の人と話している。） 竹田：（上司に話す）はい。 そうでございます。 そういたします。 … Continue reading
Bulgarian root: Mah “wave”
In Bulgarian class yesterday, we were reading about eagles (like you do) and came across the phrase: Размах на крилете – Raz-mah na kril-e-te – “Wingspan” (lit. apart-wave of wing-s-the). But while English span comes from a root meaning “to stretch” (other … Continue reading
Ergatinglish!
Ha ha, suckers! You thought you were going to get a short story today, but instead I’m going to lecture you about made-up future English. Wait don’t go! It’ll be a form of English that has evolved ergative-absolutive alignment! Wait … Continue reading