Hello again, fellow, linguiphiles (with the русскоязычные among you in particular)! About a month ago, I posted a survey regarding nonce words in Russian, and 170 of you answered. Thank you so much! Many of you gave me very useful and insightful comments, and you were all a great help. I didn't respond to any comments in that post because I didn't ( Read more... )

Hello linguaphiles!

OK, so “I’m comfortable doing that” is right, but *”I’m comfortable to do that” is wrong.  Conversely, “I’m ready to do that” is right, but *”I’m ready doing that” is wrong.

Then, “It started raining” and “It started to rain” are both right, while “We stopped to talk” and “We stopped talking” are both right but mean different ( Read more... )

Greetings, fellow linguaphiles! I am a Ph.D. student collecting some preliminary data on native intuition in Russian speakers. I have a list of nonce words (made-up words) in the survey below. If a speaker were to hear that word and assume that it was a real Russian word, I am curious how they would treat it. For example, if I said to someone "Это ( Read more... )

Okay, I'm having fun with a fantasy story of mine. So much fun I started getting ahead of myself and had to stop to think about this. XD This isn't a terribly urgent question or set of questions rather, but it's been bugging me for a while and I'm kind of overwhelmed by the possibilities now that it finally hit me what a massive undertaking I was ( Read more... )

This is a departure from the norm, but I didn't think anyone would mind if I asked a few questions to satisfy my own curiosity. Why are you a linguaphile? How many languages do you speak fluently, which are you learning, and why did you choose to learn them? On a related note, I feel that a major problem in many American high schools is that they ( Read more... )

I recently came across a figure of speech that makes no sense to me: "I wouldn't spit on him if he were on fire." Apparently this means that you hate someone so much, you wouldn't spit on them if they were on fire. I don't see how this makes sense; NOT spitting on that person would be the polite thing to do, no? After all, spitting on them will not ( Read more... )

Beware of possibly incoherency due to lack of sleep ( Read more... )

I recently came across an interesting book that devoted a chapter to the impact of language on learning math. It didn't come as a surprise to me that the author slated Chinese (and other Asian) students as having a natural advantage in math, because of the language they learn it in.

( The rest is under a cut for length! )

I can has language play: Construction of Language and Identity in LOLspeak from Lauren Gawne on Vimeo.

Linguistic study of LOLspeak, pretty cool!

Hi guys,

There's a new blog up that you might like - The Mezzofanti Guild | An Online Community For Serious Language Learners.

- Mezzofanti -