Linguistics Tea Room

[Badiranium]

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[Catherineanne]

How is everyone doing!? I'm a linguistics student so I've decided to try and revive this old thread!

Good idea. And I will contribute my one and only linguistics joke;

I used to be a structuralist, but now I'm not de Saussure.

 

[Badiranium]

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[Badiranium]

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[Catherineanne]

Okay, we will review the Sound Pattern of English (1968). Why? Because I need to!

Fair enough, but firstly which English is that, and secondly 1968 is a long time ago; there will be changes.

 

[Badiranium]

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[Catherineanne]

Haha, I know but in a scientific field you can't avoid past theories if you want to understand the new ones. What I need to know is not the English phonology (we're mostly looking at French) but the way it works. What is coronal, what is sonorant, etc. That doesn't seem to change too much since only distributed is not on my Quebec French chart (probably because it's not useful) unless it's old too . And I believe it's American English.

Yes, it is probably American. English English is different. But even saying American begs the question, which American? There are lots of variants.

My linguistics knowledge is very rusty by now; that was my BA many thousands of years ago. But I do remember being advised that there is nothing better than standing in front of a mirror making noises, and seeing which bits are used to make which noise.

Voiced and unvoiced is easy; just whisper and see whether there is a distinction or not; that is always fun.

I don't know why some people get linguistics and some don't; I think it is far more interesting than dissecting sonnets; as with animals you really can't do that without killing them.

 

[Badiranium]

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[Catherineanne]

I guess you meant talk because whisper is always unvoiced? Also, phonetics is really useful to teach someone how to pronounce sounds that are new to them. Wish it was taught in English classes here!

No, whisper pat and bat and see if there is a difference. If there is no difference then you know that they are a pair; one voiced and the other unvoiced.

I agree. I love linguistics, it's awesome. I love talking about it and I don't think I'll ever get bored of it! I hope this time I'll be able to understand the syntax though. The trees, I mean. Last time, I was completely lost.

They can be a problem, yes. I learned Latin when I was in High School, and that helps a huge amount with those trees. I recommend it!

 

[Badiranium]

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[Badiranium]

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[Badiranium]

Hahaha, I just found this avatar!

 

[MariaRegina]

I love your avatar.

It sure was tense.