FrathWiki:Idle chatter

Forum for random and possibly off-topic discussions. Relays, calls for collaboration, conlangs in the news, the price of PEZ in China...

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Conlang-related chat tends to take place at the ZBB - but you probably already knew that. --Vlad 21:39, 12 Sep 2004 (PDT)

I tend to get my conlang-related chat from mailing lists instead of web boards... actually I don't go by the ZBB at all. Maybe I should check it out? —Muke Tever | ✎ 05:53, 13 Sep 2004 (PDT)

Useless definitions being added, see Linux.definition, PHP.definition, Av.definition.

Deleted. If the contributor wants them back, they can login and explain what relevance they have here. —Muke Tever | ✎ 05:53, 13 Sep 2004 (PDT)

Glottal stop vs. null consonant

What is the difference? Is the null consonant actually an abbreviation of the glottal stop? (By null consonant I mean the "consonant" before the vowel in [a].) Are there languages which exhibit a minimal pair between the two? I know that certain dialects of Japanese have minimal pairs for [pʔi] and [pi] and similar. - 刘 (劉) 振霖 04:46, 17 Sep 2004 (PDT)

I believe that some Polynesian or Pacific languages contrast initial [ʔa] and [a]. I believe in languages that do so the glottal stop is generally more distinctively pronounced than the non-phonemic use of glottal stop in other languages. Alternately to emphasize glottalless [a] one would use a vocalic onglide, such as [ḁa] or [a̯a]. —Muke Tever | ✎ 07:42, 17 Sep 2004 (PDT)

Some Tibetan dialects distinguish what is allegedly either /ʔ/ and zero or /ʔ/ and /ɦ/. Against the /ɦ/ hypothesis speaks that Hindi speakers don't hear the Tibetan འ as [ɦ]. OTOH the Lhasa dialect, which is kind of standard, has merged the two as /ʔ/ with the following vowel in high or low tone. Possibly it is /ʔ/ vs. /ɰ/ since Tibetan has /x/ as well, or the realization of 'zero' differs across dialects. BPJ 12:50, 10 May 2005 (PDT)

Um, well, if you look at it like difference for diphthongs. Let's say, the Cockney distinction between Bottle and Bowel. The word "Bottle" would be pronounced /baʔul/ (the dark /l/ turns the schwa /ə/ into an /u/ through velarisation), whereas "Bowel" would be pronounced /baul/ (it might be slightly different but it's phonetically possible in cockney). So there we have a distinction between a glottal stop and a null, the latter of which helps with diphthongisation. If anyone has any questions about it, feel free to message me.--Blackkdark 17:43, 11 August 2008 (UTC)

The Logo

Anyone else noticed that it looks a little like Firefox's if you squint?

(This has been a Pointless Edit, thanks for reading.) John Vertical 04:49, 1 November 2007 (PDT)

'Happy Christmas' in People's Conlangs?

• Jodenjeol fram Njuvpisceotärosem - Happy Christmas from New Pisces and Taurus

  /jodənjeol fɹaːm ɲuvpiskeotɛəɹoses/

  [Good-advent-and-Christmastide from New-Pisces-Taurus(DAT)]

Riddle

What do you call a part of a Sanskrit sentence in which every word influences the sound of an adjacent word? PierreAbbat 17:54, 29 December 2007 (PST)

Sandhstorm? --Qwynegold 22:36, 21 April 2010 (UTC)

Deletion request

Would you mind deleting File:Anoé-Tuillal-A.svg? Thanks! Calculator Ftvb 02:03, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

And File:Tuillal a.svg? :-P I hoped that it was the é in the filename causing the error... Calculator Ftvb 02:05, 7 March 2010 (UTC)