Gopalakrishnan R

One like, one Arabic linguistics opinion

New goal: learn enough about any topic that I can do something like this.

One like, one Greek linguistics opinion.

46:
Noga Ayali-Darshan's recent idea that the unique title of the Ugaritic god of Death – Mot – that appears in KTU 1.23 – mt wšr – actually means "Mot-Osiris" is... pretty cool!

A Tale of Ṭēths, Thētas and Coughing Qôphs: Emphatics and Aspirates in Northwest Semitic, Greek and Egyptian, and the Ugaritic Verbs mẓʾ (“meet”) and mġy (“come”) (Ugarit-Forschungen 52, 2021 [2022], ... The article discusses complex and contradictory data on the ancient realisation of the emphatics of Ugaritic and Northwest Semitic generally. Inferences are drawn from the mapping of Phoenician graphe...

(for my arguments for 41, see here: )

www.academia.edu/77669502/A_T...

33:
The tradition of an "Araunah" having owned land in Jerusalem probably goes back to an actual Hurrian-speaking presence (as the "name" is actually a Hurrian title meaning "the king" or "the lord").

I've been caught transcribing my own recordings!

For me "Nimrodic languages" = "idiotic languages" 😆 "Nimrod" only has the pejorative meaning in my vocabulary.

Doing god's work, turning english strong, one verb at a time.

So, do we know what the *bʰ-series actually was, phonetically, in Pre-Proto-Greek? If they were IA-style breathy voiced, how did they become voiceless aspirates?

There's the proposed [spread-glottis] feature, but IDK much about this.

Maybe it's an appositive? "A place, where they can never find". That works for me, but "A place where they can never find" is odd.

Old Georgian consonant cluster of the day
ჰქმნნე
/hkʰmnne/
(aor cjv 2s N ქმნა)

as in Ruth 3:4 (Gelati)
მან გითხრნეს რომელნი ჰქმნნე
"he'll let you know what to do"

By "I can see this happening", I meant this change happening in tamil, if I squint hard.

I also saw a QT mentioning retail "What do we want?". That doesn't work w/ 1pl.inc in Tamil, though.

huh weird thing happening in Brunei Malay (Clynes 2001)

The 2SG polite pronoun seems to be etymologically from the 1st person inclusive pronoun. Idk if this is ad hoc? Seems like a reasonable grammaticalization of removing the 1st person from the picture.

I can see this happening if I squint. You need a way to not address the, well, addressee directly. If you use 1pl.inc, you're technically asking about a group inc. yourself and them, but pragmatically you're really asking about them. If this gets pragmaticalised, I can see 1pl.inc > 2.sg.pol.

Thanks! Is the subordinate conjunction used for other subordinate constructions as well? This is cool.

#New on #OCIANA: 3 #Dhofari texts, attesting much in the way of grammar: a preposition k-, a suffixed article, and a new verb, s³ʿl, the meaning of which is unclear.

Find more:
ociana.osu.edu/inscriptions...
ociana.osu.edu/inscriptions...
ociana.osu.edu/inscriptions...

Is there something else marking the antecedent of the conditional, because otherwise what's preventing it from being interpreted as "I would have money if I went to New York"?

Read about the decipherment of the #Dhofari script in @science.org: www.science.org/content/arti...

The Dhofari inscriptions are slowly being translated and inserted into #OCIANA. See this fascinating inscr. that invokes the exalted Sun, Shams, to heal a woman: ociana.osu.edu/inscriptions...

I like to think of them as copular suffixes, whom-st = Turkish kim-sin

“... so that you can quick switchly—switchly quick—you can quick switchly between them.”

That's shocking. I remember attending the Greater Magadha Symposium back in 2020. RIP.

Thinking about Johannes Bronkhorst (UPDATED) On May 15, Harry Falk announced on the Indology mailing list that Johannes Bronkhorst had “left this world”. In the following weeks the mailing list (and, I am sure, other online forums) has been virt...

In memory of Johannes Bronkhorst:
elisafreschi.com/2025/07/09/4...

Speaking of which, I was talking to a Punjabi linguist and he mentioned that in Patiala, the contrast due to breathy voiced consonants is not tonal but something else. He couldn't reproduce it well, but I thought it might be vowel phonation there & not tone. Do you know anything about this?

If I recall correctly, doesn't Dinka have phonation contrasts in the vowels rather than consonants? Does their /da̤/ sound like our /d̤a/?

In our paper, we consider *imposition* as a factor in linguistic borrowing 🧵
We often imagine borrowing in a certain way: A speaker learns a new language (L2) and then adopts words from the L2 into their native language (L1).
Imposition is the mirror image of this scenario: 1/5
#linguistics

How to talk about age in Coptic • The Coptist We discuss how to ask "How old are you?" and reply "I am X years old" in idiomatic Coptic, plus grammar and illustrations from literature.

The Coptist: How to talk about age in Coptic

Do you know how to ask “How old are you?” and respond with “I am X years old” in natural, idiomatic Coptic? In this post, we’ll find out with the help of examples from literature. We’ll also talk about the grammar behind these expressions.

Wait, I understood "it's raining men" as equivalent to "it's raining cats and dogs". Is that not it? 😅

Thank you! Do we know where imāla began as a process? Is it possible to know?