____Languages and Peoples of the World V. 2*
(18 previous messages)Pseudoerasmus - Dec 20, 2003 3:51 pm (#19 of 2730)
Finnish-Estonian is probably the European language with the fewest consonants. But the distinction of being the world's second and first goes to Hawaiian (8 consonants) and a Papuan language called Rotokas (6 consonants: P, T, K, V, R, G), according to The Cambridge Encyclopaedia of Language. Hawaiian, however, has the world's fewest phonemes (13). Languages with few consonants or few phonemes are known to produce very long words. I wonder how long are common words in Hawaiian or Rotokas?
Sukey
- Dec 20, 2003 11:11 pm (#20 of 2730)
Well, if Bill Russel were here, he could probably tell us.
- Dec 21, 2003 2:48 pm (#21 of 2730)
I thought it was the other way around. The languages that I most associate with long words are those like German and Turkish languages that are highly agglutinated. I don't know much about Welsh, but from a cursory glance it appears to have the longest words of any language in the world (just look at the names they give their towns!).
DrLohrM
- Dec 21, 2003 9:43 pm (#22 of 2730)
And a Volapuk Christmas to all of you...
Even if no one *has* found me the kanji for "Big Robots" yet.
6 consonants: P, T, K, V, R, G
Amasing. I can’t imagine a language without M and N.
DrLohrM
- Dec 21, 2003 9:50 pm (#24 of 2730)
Or a language written in Kartvelianesque script that has *only* M and N as consonants.
- Dec 21, 2003 9:54 pm (#25 of 2730)
Well, tonite I met a girl who introduced her English name as "Vienna". I said, "What?!" and it transpired that her actual English name was "Fianna" (who knows where she got that). So, Chinese can't distinguish between 'V' and 'F', apparently.
I can’t imagine a language without M and N.
It was hard for me to imagine a language without B, F, P, R or V, but Cherokee is one.
- Dec 22, 2003 4:52 am (#27 of 2730)
It was hard for me to imagine a language without B, F, P, R or V, but Cherokee is one.
I understand, times are tough. I heard UNESCO had to raise funds to buy them a vowel.
a language without B, F, P, R or V,
There are many languages without one or some of these consonants. Absence of “M”, on the other hand, is very unusual, probably – unique.
Stuart Crow
- Dec 22, 2003 1:51 pm (#29 of 2730)
Fianna is Irish for "soldier".
- Dec 22, 2003 8:41 pm (#30 of 2730)
Death Sentence, The Decay of Public Language.
The book charts how "managerial language" has infiltrated the English of politics, business, bureaucracy, education and the arts. The book is about the rise of core strategies and key performance indicators, and the death of clarity and irony and funny old things called verbs. It is about a new language that Watson calls sludge and clag and gruel. Those three blunt words speak to the book's larger intention. Death Sentence is also a manifesto, the first shots, Watson hopes, in a campaign everyone can join to bring the language back to life.
Claude-Mohamed Dorsel - Dec 22, 2003 8:47 pm (#31 of 2730)
An excellent article, Ruth. I do hate myself that cheap managerial lingo.
- Dec 22, 2003 8:49 pm (#32 of 2730)
Dorsel, un monde sans connasses est possible. Quand vas-tu te tirer une balle dans la tęte?
DrLohrM
- Dec 22, 2003 9:57 pm (#33 of 2730)
Wherever can one get Coptic and Arabic language Christman cards? Someone must be selling them... (Ditto Old Church Slavonic cards)
There used to be a stationery store just off York Street on Broadway in New Haven that sold foreign-language Xmas cards back when I was at Yale... So they *do* exist?
Anyone out there know of suppliers/catalogs?
- Dec 23, 2003 4:55 am (#34 of 2730)
BTW, Wolf, I'm still waiting for that explanation of the significance of Ararat.
The etymology of “Ararat” is a very vast subject. We’ll leave for later, because I am supposed to show up in the hospital early in the morning, for my surgery, and the doctor said I can’t have anything to eat or drink after midnight (I am gulping as much beer as my stomach can handle before the clock shows 12).
Besides, without Sikander, who loves to rebuff everything I say, it won’t be interesting.
Marc-A
- Dec 24, 2003 5:10 pm (#36 of 2730)
(2694 following messages)
____Languages and Peoples of the World V. 2*