Languages! Are! Weird!

I did look there, aside from saying it comes from Gaulish there isn't much to work with.

Most german words that end on '-und' are masculine: der Schwund, der Grund, der Hund, der Fund usw.

There's coarser words for "mouth" as well, and they run the gender gamut: das Maul, die Fresse, der Schnabel, etc.

It's rather amusing looking at some English words with their gender reattached.

M. The Anvil, The Moon, The Wall, The Shield, The Dream

F. Tho Sun, Tho Earth, Tho Mind, Tho Might, Tho Nose

N. That Light, That Sword, That Vat, That Blood, That God

I used tho because it fits better than the sho that the feminine article would have become. 'Sides se was replaced by the so why not seo? I put 'god' in italics because it's historically Neuter, however the Christian god is referred to as masculine.

I always thought the "b" in "debt" was not silent.

I've still been screwing around with my own personal little spelling system. It's barely anything like actual English spelling to start off with. Then again, it's not meant to be. Heck I got the ÿ idea off Dutch.

"Here's a health to the company, if I've named you not, do not think for a moment it's because you're forgot, I will treasure thy memories, as I call you my friends, and I hope some day very soon, we'll all meet again."

"Hÿɛrs ei hɛlþ tu þø cømpønÿ, if aiv neimd ju not, du not þinc fɛr ei its bÿcøz jɛr fɛrgot, ai wil chrɛʒɛr þai mɛmrÿz, æz ai col ju mai frɛnz, ænd ai houp søm dei verÿ sun, wÿøl ol mÿt øgɛn."

To quote my Things you didn't know until very recently post:

"The word damn should apparently have a P in it. It comes from Middle English dampnen which comes from Old French dampner which was it's self an alternation of Old French damner. The P was considered unetymological as a result.

It also seems like the P was pronounced aswell."

Here's how that would be written in my conlang's transliteration scheme(s). Sanim:

Arcane:

Sanim doesn't distinguish between long and short I (i/ɨ). Arcane also uses the short ɨ letter for diphthongs (ai, ei, ir, etc).

edited 24th Apr '14 12:32:48 PM by Blueeyedrat

You guys would be interested in my first language then, Irish. Don't call it Gaelic, or Celtic, or anything else. No one here has ever called it anything but Irish and Gaeilge (which is guess what? Irish for Irish)

There is no word for yes or no, for every question you just simply state the positive or negative reply. "Will you go to the shop?" "I will go to the shop."

That sounds inefficient.

Yeah I guess, but I suppose all languages look like that from the outside. When I was first learning english one of the most difficult parts was the pronunciation on vowels like apple compared to all. Same letter but pronounced differently. That complication isn't in Irish and tons of other languages I'm sure. We use a thing called a fada on all vowels to change how they sound, so its á é í ó ú as well as a e i o u

edited 24th Apr '14 1:20:04 PM by Ferret

English isn't complicated. I completely mastered the language by the time I was four.

But it all seriousness Irish is a really, really easy language to learn. I hear Duolingo is going to have a course in it pretty soon, so thats pretty rad.

I gained a functional understanding of English after being exposed to it for about a year. Unfortunately, I also neglected my Russian, so now I have complete mastery of English, but the Russian skills of a foul-mouthed kid. XD

English had it's own yes no problems for a while.

Yes is a compound of gea pronounced 'yayuh' and sie pronounced 'see-ay'. Essentially it's a contraction of the phrase 'so may it be'.

No is a reduced form of none which is a compound of ne pronounced 'nay' and an pronounced like 'on'. Essentially meaning 'not a one'.

These meanings were actually important back in the day. As when a question was asked in a specific way you had to answer differently.

Will he go? Yea. 'It is so'

Will he go? Nay. 'It is not so'

Will he not go? Yes. 'He will go'

Will he not go? No. 'He will not go'

After a while both negative and both positive answers became interchangeable.

And here's me screwing with my own little alphabet again:

"Hÿrs ė helþ tu þø kømpønÿ, if ȧv nėmd yu nat, du nat þink fer ė moment its bÿkøz yer fergat, ȧ wil creʒer þȧ memrÿz, æz ȧ kal yu mȧ frenz, ænd ȧ hop søm dė verÿ sun, wÿøl al mÿt øgen."

edited 24th Apr '14 2:07:38 PM by blackcoldren

Don't you just use the verb? I didn't think you had to re-say the whole sentence. (Like "I will go" or something.) Irish English uses similar constructions ("Have you seen the new film?" "I have." "Is it good?" "It is."), as does Portuguese, but neither requires re-casting the entire sentence in a positive or negative light.

Keep in mind that Portuguese-speaking people use "Sim" (Yes) and "Não" (No), so your comparison doesn't fully work.

DO IT NAO!

Apparently the L in Almond is not meant to be pronounced. The L was tacked on back in Old French as a way of differentiating it from a similarly spelt word.

Not in my area of Ireland, for the most part anyway. The language changes, like the accent, basically from village to village. But I'm from the west, which is where most of the language is spoken, so I suppose we would probably speak a "proper" version.

"Não" is not pronounced like that. But good joke nonetheless.

Thanks.

I finally figured out a verb conjugation scheme I'm okay with for Arcane. Roots for past/present/future, affixes for perfect and progressive, the works. It's not fully laid out yet (only worked out for active verbs, passive is sorta up in the air), but it's coming along well.

Apparently the stereotypical Southern Drawl is the result of vowel breaking. That is to say that stressed vowels are becoming laxed at the cost of becoming longer.

One common example through most dialects is the word beer.

My own dialect breaks beam, bead and sometimes even bad.

I was always told it was just the way that the British Mercenaries spoke. Is that just an old story? Whats the actual origin of the southern accent?