Adam An

FWIW I think I saw a lone dʰ with no voiceless aspirates in Santa Ana Zegache Zapotec in a handout by Franco at SSILA 2024 that I can't find at the moment

Wait wait wait. Am I seeing this right (Wikipedia, uncited) that Chakma has the Kelabit / PIE / "this shouldn't exist" T D Dʰ stop system? Know of any accessible sources on its phonology?

Wow I really just said this on my professional account didn't I

My even hotter take is that just like syllabic sonorants in English can be analyzed as schwa+sonorant, schwas were way more present in PIE (dare I say phonemically?) than even Byrd proposes as breaker uppers of consonant clusters.

My hottest take of all is that the consonant/vowel divide is FAAAAKE

Like if the Indo-Europeanists get to eliminate high vowels out of the inventory by calling them glides, then I do too.

I'm a /ɘ a/ truther.

Hate when people analyze Sinitic phonologies in terms of rhymes / finals as a way of copping out of how many vowels there are. Commit! Mandarin has a two-vowel vertical system!

I had to describe fufu to someone who'd never had it and the description I came up with was... sourdough mochi? 🤔🫣

A pillar that says "Spot the waffle impostor! Can you find the Brussels waffle in between the Liège waffle?" A large graphic demonstrates that a Brussels waffle is square. The rest of the pillar is covered in smaller images of circular Liège waffles.

I found the Brussels waffle and I'm pointing to it.

Je l'ai trouvé

I think this is how I say them! Southern USA

I'M ON MY WAY HOME

I found a Kinyarwanda pedagogical text!!!!! FINALLY!!!!! Nziga uru rurimi!!!

I started bowing here in Rwanda. It's not a thing here, but when you don't know what to do culturally or linguistically, I've found it to be a universal nonverbal sign of acknowledgement and respect.

Agreed, especially with my shell of a mental grammar just dying to be filled in with vocabulary

I will not tolerate this intestine slander.

A juicy, cut -up mango ready to be eaten.

The way I just ate this mango is not reflective of my character.

Rwandan people have strong intuitions about (C)(C)(C)(C)V syllabification, as do Zulu people (but I think isiZulu only goes up to 3).

I always wonder how syllabification is acquired - is it solely through pedagogical tradition or is there truly something phonetic to latch on to?

Kinyarwanda is completely allergic to codas - that [ɾgw] CCC onset never gets old.

You can even slap a nasal at the start for CCCC: [ká.ɾi:.ndgwi] 'seven'

[simvúgiciɲaɾgwa:nda né:za ɾgwô:s]
Si-n-vug-á i-ki-nyarwaanda ná-izá rw-óose.
NEG-1sg-speak-FV.REL AUG-7-Kinyarwanda ADV-good 11-all
'I definitely don't speak Kinyarwanda well.'

Being a linguist is like
"I've been working with this language since 2018"
"Oh so you must speak it well, right?"
"No."

New fear unlocked 😱

Screenshot of audio files uploading in progress

Cat looking intently in the distance with the caption (heavy breathing)

The way you can't breathe until your field recordings are safely uploaded in the cloud

Zotero has changed my life for the better. What a marvelous piece of software.

Me in a classroom looking tired with my hair messed up. Papers are strewn across desks and an audio recorder is in the corner.

Five consultants, five hours of elicitation, three of them consecutive. I'm spent but my heart is full. 🇷🇼🇷🇼🇷🇼🇷🇼🇷🇼

A plate of food with beef, peas and cabbage, yuca, pumpkin, white rice, fufu and peanut sauce, and mashed plantains.

I feel like y'all / you is T/V in the plural, but there's no equivalent for the singular.

I've just eaten the best mango of my life.

An aerial view of the Sahara desert with an airplane wing visible.

I never thought I'd one day see the Sahara desert with my own eyes.

Ndi i Kigali! 🇷🇼