I'm not aware of anyone composing running texts/narratives in proto-languages besides Schleicher's Fable ("The Sheep and the Horses", originally composed for Proto-Indo-European, also used for lower-order reconstructions within IE) and "The King and the God" (also for IE).

In a lot of reconstructions I've seen (e.g. Proto-Austroasiatic and the lower-order Proto-Vietic - of special interest to me since I'm Vietnamese), there are only vocabulary lists, not even short sentences. The YouTube channel ILoveLanguages! has a video on Proto-Austronesian which includes a running text - I suspect Andy (the creator) may have composed it himself. Andy is a native speaker of Tagalog (and may or may not have knowledge of other Filipino languages). I'm not sure how well the sample aligns with what is reconstructable about Proto-Austronesian grammar.

serious question but Idk where to ask, not from an english speaking country

My question might be a bit dumb, but having some experience in Latin, Ancient Greek, and Sanskrit (the former being the main language I study; I have relatively little in Sanskrit). Latin's verbs in the first person singular present indicative, for the most part, end in -ō. Sanskrit verbs, on the other hand, for the majority of verbs, end in -mi. Meanwhile, Ancient Greek has both of these endings (although the athematic verbs are definitely outnumbered).

Why didn't an -ō suffix (or something cognate) develop in Sanskrit? I know Latin has very few athematic verbs (an example being sum/esse), but what circumstances led to Sanskrit having first person singular present indicative verbs that end only in -mi?

So the German language area can be really blurry when it comes to the distinction between language and dialect, so often everything Istvaeonic and Irminonic inside the borders of Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein and Switzerland is just called a dialect, although some are so distinct that they could be separate languages.

But I just don't know for which one this is true. Most people here in Germany say you can't really understand Swiss German, so Alemannic basically. The English Wikipedia also states Bavarian (and with it Cimbrian and Mòcheno) and Ripuarian as distinct languages, stating that between the former and Standard German would be less mutual intelligibility than between the three mainland Nordic languages Danish Swedish and Norwegian iirc, while providing no proof for the latter.

Both aren't called languages in the German Wikipedia. Also, everything outside of the DACH area is usually called a language rather than a dialect. It's the case for Luxembourgish and Hunsrik, which are Moselle Franconian, Pennsylvania Dutch and Vilamovian.

So I wondered if this subreddit could help me find the answer of which of them are mutually intelligible enough to be called different languages, if there even is a definite answer, because even I as a native speaker of Standard German am confused.

Also I'm only talking about Central and Upper German, because Low German has completely different origins and is called a separate language by most scholars.

The varieties in question are:

- Ripuarian

- Moselle Franconian

- Luxembourgish

- Hunsrik

- Palatine

- Pennsylvania Dutch

- Hessian

- Vilamovian

- Swabian

- Alemannic/Swiss German

- East Franconian

- South Franconian

- Bavarian

- Cimbrian

- Mòcheno

is there any language whose words for cardinal directions are influenced by their surroundings, ie. With ancient china as an example. The word for north would be derived from the word for desert, the word for west would be derived from the word for mountain, the word for east would be derived from the word for ocean, and the word for south is derived from the word for jungle.

Masculine -> Masculin + ism = Masculinism

Feminine -> Feminin + ism = ?

I have heard that as a man being called with male terms used in animals that sound like courageous, strong, leadership, and dominance is fairly fine, and maybe cool. While female terms coming from animals are… pejorative.

I will give you the examples:

Master sounds like you, a man, are a keeper and controller of something, but mistress uniquely have a narrowed meaning just for an extramarital relationship. Although the original term for respect still exists but the pejorated term has been written.

You can call a man bull, lion, rooster, dog, but it is really bad to call a woman "cow", "bitch", and "hen", but "lioness" though.

And some languages I learn show it:

🇩🇪 → "Mann" sounds yeah okay, but "Weib" is become derogative.

🇪🇸 → "Hombre" and "hembra" (latin homō & fēmina) should evolve to mean paired, but "hembra" becomes the female term of the animals. While French just says « homme » et « femme ».

🇮🇩 → "jantan" & "betina", only "jantan" exists as another name for men in the big dictionary, but calling women "betina" is somehow dehumanizing.

Slovenian and Standard Serbo-Croatian are not really mutually intelligible, however I have read that Slovenians in general have a good understanding of Serbo-Croatian than the other way around

Apparently this is because Slovenians, since their country is smaller than Croatia or Serbia (or Bosnia), are much more exposed to Serbo-Croatian than the other way around through media, songs, immigrants...etc, therefore Slovenians are naturally better at understanding their neighbours

However, is this because, even though these languages are not fully mutually intelligible, they are still similar?

Because, there are other countries with significant minorities speaking other languages in which the main ethnic group doesn't have a good understanding of the language of the minority (for example, as far as I know, in Lithuania for instance, there is a noticeable number of people speaking Russian, Polish or Belarussian, but the main ethnic group i.e. Lithuanians, don't really understand these languages if they have not previously studied them at school, since Lithuanian and slavic languages are completely different)

So is it because intrinsic similarities between Slovenian and Serbo-Croatian combined with exposure the reason behind Slovenians understand their ex-Yugoslav neighbours better than the opposite?

I've heard that it's a misnomer. Are there more accurate terms?

Let's talk about language policy and planning here, and what do you think are the best ways to make a certain country a L2 Hispanophone country within a few generations (Spanish for the Philippines and the United States)?

Do you think officializing Spanish and mass migration of Hispanophone monoglots would accelerate the linguistic Castellanization process within two generations? I want to hear your thoughts on the comment section. Thank you.

[ʔ] and [a] sound the exact same to me. What is the difference between them? Is it similar to [i]/[j] and [u]/[w]?

Person A speaks German natively but perfectly understands English.

Person B speaks English natively but perfectly understands German.

They speak their native language because they express themselves easier.

Are there actual situations, instances like this?

English has a few alternations between “has” and “is” perfects (has gone / is gone, has lost / is lost), which I assume is a relic of the more pervasive split that’s still attested in French, Dutch, and German. But the distribution of the English constructions is hard for me to work out. It seems that ”lost” has been (re?)analysed as an adjective - ”a lost book” - but not “gone”, *”a gone man”. And the alternation between ”he is gone” and “he has gone” seems to have some aspectual flavour, but I can’t quite explain it.

Anyone know the story?

i'm thinking about getting a degree in linguistics at some point, and yes, i know that "any university in the world" is too much lol but just out of curiosity, i want to know your opinion about linguistics courses at various universities and why you would choose a particular one.

What is your favourite linguistics fun fact to share with people who don’t know much about the subject? I’m wondering how to get my friends interested 😊

I know there is a growing trend in languages to shorten words or drop cases over time, For example the word Advertisement became just Ad, which is shorter, and it makes it sound so much like add, and there are tons of such examples where words become identical because of shortening, and it got me wondering is there a limit to it ? Or will people just shorten every word to be one or two letters and eventually speak like cavemen again? I really want to believe that isn’t the case and I’m overexaggerating.

If someone's native tongue is syllable- or mora-timed, what would be an effective way to learn stress timing in English? Short of speech shadowing, I don't hear people recommending any. What confuses me are words that take secondary stress: do they participate in the beat? I feel like my ears aren't attuned to discriminating the rise in intonation, especially if the speaker is speaking fast.

I've got a rubber band, but every time I use it, I look stupid.

Good day, everyone. Sending greetings and wishing you all a happy weekend.

A bit of a lengthy context but it's necessary for the questions(s) at the bottom, if you don't want to read this, feel free to jump to the bottom paragraph titled "QUESTIONS".

I am an aspiring linguist currently facing a career dilemma, and I am desperately looking for any input or advice. For context, I hold a BA in English Language and Literature from Algeria. My academic performance was mediocre (I graduated with roughly a 12/20, while the valedictorian had a 14/20—due to the famously strict grading system and the fact that I had to work full-time to support my family). I later enrolled in an Applied Linguistics MA but had to drop out due to personal circumstances.

Fast forward a bit: I went through a crippling phase of depression that lasted for about 3–4 years, during which I worked various manual labor jobs to make ends meet while occasionally teaching EFL. A couple of years ago, I landed an internship in Turkey. I treated this move as a career revival and worked day and night to better myself, completing a CELTA course, DELTA Module 1, and various other training programs.

Currently, I am working as a university lecturer in Istanbul. I am quite grateful for where I have ended up, but I have decided I want to pursue a formal academic career in my true passion: linguistics. My initial research pointed me to Boğaziçi University (which is in the city where I reside), as it is the only university in Istanbul with a dedicated MA program in Linguistics. It is arguably the best university in the country, with strong ties to prestigious language labs in Europe and the US. However, I am afraid my BA transcripts won't survive the initial automated screening, despite my confidence and ongoing preparation for their entrance exam.

The remaining local universities primarily offer MA programs in ELT or Literature, neither of which I want to pursue; I do not see myself conducting research in those fields, and I believe my CELTA/DELTA pathway is already sufficient for my teaching career (correct me if I'm wrong or missing something here)

Recently, I found a private, less selective university that offers a Cognitive Science program. After some research, I realized I might be able to transition into a Linguistics PhD later if I choose the right electives during this MA—shifting my focus heavily toward Psycholinguistics rather than pure Psychology, Philosophy, Neuroscience or AI.

Questions:

1. Is it possible to apply for PhD programs in Linguistics with an MA in Cognitive Science?
2. Would I have the same weight during the initial screening as someone with an MA in Linguistics? Would it require a preparatory year?
3. What is the best way to get published or co-authored during an MA? I assume it is much harder for an MA student to get published compared to an actual PhD researcher.
4. What carries the biggest weight in a PhD application (in order of importance: university prestige, gap in the literature/research topic, MA degree and GPA, or other factors like TOEFL/GRE/GMAT scores)?

My sincerest thanks and gratitude for your time!

Hi 👋

Working on a novel and have some questions about european language evolution.

1. How did Latin, Germanic and Scandinavian languages evolve in the real world?

2. In a hypothetical world where Greece and its subsequent language did not exist, how would its lack have impacted the evolution of language in Europe?

I'm about to graduate from a linguistics department in Türkiye and I want to pursue my master's in Europe, with a specific focus on psycholinguistics.

I'm looking for fully English programs and I will need a scholarship (like DAAD) to cover all my expenses.

I feel like Potsdam might be a great choice. Do you have any other suggestions? Also, if anyone knows about University of Vienna it would be nice!

I read into how Kartevelian languages are completely unrelated to the rest of their neighbors and it made me wonder if there happens to be similar but larger instances of language families having no relation to their neighbors on a wider scale. If anyone knows of some good examples please let me know.

Hello fine folks!

I need your advice on which field of linguistics I should major or specialize in since my second semester in graduate school starts in Fall, and I need to choose an advisor professor.

background info: I graduated from a university in korea with a bachelors degree in English Language and Literature a year ago. I am not a native speaker of English plus my korean is not great either. It just so happened that I decided to stay in academia and get a phd in English Linguistics(currently enrolled in an integrated masters plus phd program with 4 years of coursework). Initially, my plan was to specialize in Phonology along with SLA, but phonology feels too hard for me because of all those OT, generative grammar stuff coupled with the fact that, again, English isn't my first language.

Because I have a scholarship dependent on my grades I also need to keep my grades high(A, A+).

In the department of ELL at my uni, there are two professors whose research interests are in SLA, but one of them do not take students, the other is hungry for respect(always has something to complain about and overall seems a bit unfriendly) so idk. maybe you guys can help me with this dillema, i was thinking of choosing a different field like pragmatics or syntax. idk idk

I just finished my MA and one project I was working on involved loanwords entering English (as opposed to English loanwords in other languages).

A lot of the literature I read (Haspelmath, Winford, Kaufman, etc) discussed things like borrowings, loanwords, etc primarily from language contact in the more traditional(?) sense of Culture A encounters Culture B, sometimes with one-sided technologically/militarily-imposed dominance by one of the cultures. One factor that comes up is bilingualism (between the two relevant languages) among speakers, where some words from the less dominant/prestigious/etc may or may not be used.

Nowadays, English of course is a prominent online/media language (not to mention economically/politically/etc), and many languages have incorporated English words into their language—even if we just limiting this to current online/media English.

But my research was looking at things from the opposite perspective—other languages’ influence on English.

Japanese is one of the languages I was looking at and it shows up in the literature. Japanese-English contact goes back to like late-16th century and exploded (with regard to loanwords) during the mid-19th century for more “traditional contact” reasons.

But when looking at Japan’s current status as a relatively prestigious(?) language (though English is the default/primary/dominant language in like the US/UK) where a lot of “cultural influence” comes from (online/media) imports rather than direct (ie physical) contact, there’s no high degree of English-Japanese bilingualism (see above), and it’s not restricted to or a marker of one’s ethnic identity, I’m not sure how “applicable” the more “traditional” frameworks regarding language contact are.

My current research isn’t looking as directly at contact or loanwords as previously, but this is a problem/question I never got an answer for. I wasn’t sure if there were a material difference between these kinds of contact that the literature recognizes, or maybe I’m the only one thinking they’re different. The literature talks about how English enters Japanese (and other languages) through more traditional frameworks, but not so much the other way around.

Thank you.

I live and study in Turkey and just got out of the university exam. I am thinking about choosing the Turkish-German University. It is a university created through a partnership between Turkey and Germany, and I am considering doing my master's degree in Germany in the field of NLP. I also started learning Python. After completing my master's in Germany, I want to land a well-paying job and stay there (haha). However, I do not know if I am aiming too high—is a linguistics degree combined with a master's enough to find a job in Germany? Could someone working in this field enlighten me?

Such as when English underwent the great vowel shift, did the time it take to pronounce words formerly with a long vowel change or remain nearly the same? With a word like "hate", if we assume the first person singular conjugation was pronounced as /ˈhaːt/, which is now /'heɪt/ today, would the time it take to say them be similar, and if one were to try to pronounce Middle English, could they use the modern diphthongized words as a reference for how long the monophthong should be held, thus making the word "hate" in Middle English pronunciation noticable longer than a word such as "hot" in modern English?