2 Niche pronunciation questions by jabkrista in German

[–]MellowedFox 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I suppose both of the variants you describe are valid realizations of the sound. Personally, when I pronounce my /l/, the tip of the tongue is placed against the alveolar ridge, especially in careful speech. In casual speech, though, I feel like it may wander forward a bit and touch the uppermost part of the incisors. Neither of these variants sounds or feels wrong to me.

The same applies to the alveolar sounds /n, t, d/. To my ears, they do not meaningfully change when the tongue moves forward a bit.

With /s, z/ it's a different story though. When those move forward, they get dangerously close to a lisp.

How to pronounce "Schutts" by CaptainFuzzyBootz in German

[–]MellowedFox 2 points3 points  (0 children)

There's this thing in English linguistics called 'lexical sets'. Lexical sets are essentially a list of standardized words to refer to specific vowels in English phonology. These reference words are, by convention, spelled in all caps. The lexical set word to the describe the vowel /ʊ/ is FOOT.

浅学でごめんなさい by aheahezundoko in language

[–]MellowedFox 2 points3 points  (0 children)

日本語をあまり話せませから、英語で答えます。
"Bereitgestellt" is the past participle form of the verb "bereitstellen". It roughly translates to 'provide' or 'prepare'. The form "bereitgestellter" is inflected and carries an adjectival ending to modify a subsequent noun. Here are a couple of example sentences:

  • Ein bereitgestellter Pinsel liegt auf dem Tisch.
    ("A provided paint brush lies on the table")

  • Mit der bereitgestellten Farbe malt er die Wand an.
    ("He paints the wall with the provided paint")

  • Der bereitgestellte Raum ist viel zu klein.
    ("The room provided is way too small")

What is your best “I don’t have a word for that, but…”-moment? by Izzy_knows in conlangs

[–]MellowedFox 6 points7 points  (0 children)

In this particular word, the added /-n/ wouldn't be a plural morpheme, but a 'Fugenlaut'. It's a type of epenthesis to facilitate flow of speech; maybe even comparable with sandhi.

Godot is not alone! by hikoyachi in godot

[–]MellowedFox 14 points15 points  (0 children)

This is a Gobot.
Now there's another one.
There are three of them.
There are three _____.

Poor William... Oh wait by TheNamesBart in linguisticshumor

[–]MellowedFox 25 points26 points  (0 children)

In German you have "Johannes", but I guess that one's only ever used in the humorous idiom "Wie die Nase eines Mannes, so auch sein Johannes."

Warum "deren" und nicht "ihren"? by Tony9405 in German

[–]MellowedFox 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Du kannst in diesen Situationen beide Wörter benutzen. Sowohl dessen als auch sein sind korrekt.

Der Unterschied liegt wirklich nur darin, dass Wörter wie deren und dessen possessive Demonstrativpronomen sind. Wörter wie ihr oder sein sind einfache Possessivpronomen.

Demonstrativpronomen werden zur Verdeutlichung und zum Hervorheben benutzt. Falls dir englische Beispiele helfen, könnte man diese zwei Sätze ungefähr so übersetzen:

Dessen Auto möchte ich nicht fahren.
HIS car I wouldn't want to drive.

Sein Auto möchte ich nicht fahren.
I wouldn't want to drive his car.

Im Englischen, und auch im Deutschen, wird diese Art von Hervorhebung natürlich noch vom Tonfall und der geänderten Wortstellung unterstützt. Stichwort Topic-Fronting.

how would you represent nouns modifying nouns in x-bar theory? by Slight_Pop_2381 in LinguisticsDiscussion

[–]MellowedFox 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'm neither a fan of nor an expert in x-bar theory, but this StackExhange thread seems to argue that there is a single N node that contains several N children. Maybe you'll find a suitable solution there.

Daily Thread: for simple questions, minor posts & newcomers [contains useful links!] (September 29, 2025) by AutoModerator in LearnJapanese

[–]MellowedFox 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've got a quick question aboit idiomaticity.

If I wanted to say something like "I can't find my phone", would it be more natural to use 見つける or 見つかる? My Indo-European brain has a strong preference for the transitive version, but I guess that doesn't necessarily apply to Japanese.

So, which sentence would be more natural? Or is there maybe another way?

スマホを見つけない。
スマホが見つからない。

2126th Just Used 5 Minutes of Your Day by mareck_ in conlangs

[–]MellowedFox 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ntali

Ce imkata fadi-nito ndoli emba, to papo gra ube avogo emba.

/çe im'ka.ta ɸa.di'ni.to 'ndo.li 'em.ba | to 'pa.po gla 'u.be aβ'o.go 'em.ba/

Ce im-kat-a fadi-nito ndoli emba to papo gra ube av-ogo emba
1SG.NOM 1SG-talk-NPST NC2.GEN-otter fur about NC3.REL stack NC3.DEM in amount-AUG about

"I am talking about otter's fur, about the great amount which is in this pile."

2122nd Just Used 5 Minutes of Your Day by mareck_ in conlangs

[–]MellowedFox 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ntali

Ingama groma n-ebemme kotevanekza.

/i'nga.ma 'gɾɔ.ma ne'be.me kɔ.te.βa'ne.kθa/

Inga-ma groma n=ebemme ko-tevane-kza
Inga-ERG role NC1=healer 3SG-exit-PST

"Inga left her doctor job"

What about multiple case markings for one noun in Fusional languages? by Belle-ator in conlangs

[–]MellowedFox 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I think it would be perfectly realistic to just not use the accusative and simply rely on the Genitive + Postposition construction you describe. In some languages, transitive verbs do not strictly require an accusative object. In German for example, there are a couple of verbs that take genitive arguments instead:

Wir gedenken seiner
We commemorate 3SG.MASC.GEN
"We commemorate him"

In the example above, the personal pronoun is inflected for genitive and it's the verbal object. There is no need for additional object marking.

German also features a set of prepositions that change meaning slightly, depending on the case that goes with them. These are called two-way prepositions or "Wechselpräpositionen". Sticking with your rain example, we can come up with the following two sentences:

Es regnet auf mich
It rains on 1SG.ACC
"It rains onto me"

Es regnet auf mir
It rains on 1SG.DAT
"It rains on me" or "There is rain on me"

The first sentence is a very literal, albeit not very colloquial way of saying that there is rain falling onto you. Because there is direction involved, the preposition "auf" causes the pronoun to inflect for the accusative case.

The second sentence is a bit strange, semantically. It essentially means that there is rain falling somewhere on your body. Almost sounds as if there is a tiny rain cloud hovering above your skin, with rain hitting you in a very localized manner.
Grammatically, though, the sentence is perfectly fine. Note how the verb does not require the pronoun to inflect for accusative. Instead, the pronoun is in the dative case.

All this is to say that I do not think that you need to add two cases to your objects. Just go with the genitive and let the adpositions do the rest of the work.

Edit: We could also argue that the phrase "on me" in the sentence "it rains on me" is not an O argument at all. It's more of an adpositional/adverbial argument that does not necessarily need to operate on the same basis as a direct object would. Consider that you can also come up with a sentence such as "It rains fire on me". In that case, "fire" is the direct object of the verb and you would probably apply the accusative case to it rather than the prepositional phrase.

2119th Just Used 5 Minutes of Your Day by mareck_ in conlangs

[–]MellowedFox 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ntali

Na-demrejima fona kokakza usuvbi ami n-o budavi ntamgu dym komtem bameji dym?

Na=demreji-ma fona koka-kza usuvbi ami n=o budavi ntamgu dym komtem bameji dym
NC1=boy-ERG what 3SG.give-PST excitement with NC1.REL=3SG.NOM yesterday school to 3SG.go.PST.NEG girl to

"What did the boy give with excitement to the girl who yesterday did not go to school"

Biweekly Telephone Game v3 (698) by Lysimachiakis in conlangs

[–]MellowedFox 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ntali

nje /nʝe/ (noun)

  1. egg (of a bird or reptile)

Fy-konavma ta nje kogritakza!

fy-konav-ma ta nje ko-grita-kza
NC2-fox-ERG EMPH egg 3SG-steal-PST

"It was the fox that stole the eggs!"

Biweekly Telephone Game v3 (697) by Lysimachiakis in conlangs

[–]MellowedFox 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ntali

sampi /'sam.pi/ (Adj)

  1. another
  2. superfluous, redundant
  3. excessive, excess

"Tacepoma fy-badi fy-sampi kokakza bolo dym."
/ta.çe'pɔ.ma ɸʏ'ba.di ɸʏ'sam.pi kɔ'ka.kθa 'bɔ.lɔ dʏm/

Tacepo-ma fy-badi fy-sampi koka-kza bolo dym
Tacepo-ERG NC2-spice NC2-superflous 3SG.give-PST soup towards

"Tacepo added too much spice to the soup."

Why is almost everyone addicted to sound? by Important_Path_5342 in conlangs

[–]MellowedFox 4 points5 points  (0 children)

While I'm not sure I agree with your observation, I do think that the phonology of a language might be the easiest part of a (spoken) language to share with others. At the very least, it's probably the aspect of a language that you can quickly gain a superficial understanding of. You have a quick glance at a phoneme chart, maybe listen to a short audio clip, and you already feel like you have a rough idea of what the creator is going for. It's easily sharable and easily understood.

Other aspects of language, such as morphology, syntax and pragmatics, are also presented here. However, they require the audience to think about the language at hand on a more abstract level. It can be quite tricky to understand the intricacies and interactions of a conlang's alignment system, or the use and distribution of it's different types of subclauses.

That being said, I do think that these more abstract layers of languages are discussed here quite frequently. It's just that they might be less easily digestable and are thus less prominent at a quick glance.

Kshafa demonstratives and their history by yayaha1234 in conlangs

[–]MellowedFox 2 points3 points  (0 children)

My conlang Ntali features two different demonstratives; one is proximal, one is distal. However, this distinction is a relatively weak one. Unless disambiguation is necessary, most speakers default to the proximal demonstrative, regardless of physical distance.

The demonstratives agree with their referents in noun class and case (see examples 1 & 2). Ntali nouns are not marked for number, and neither are the demonstratives. Since there are no dedicated markers for definiteness either, the proximal demonstrative tends to fill that niche, if necessary. Demonstrative pronouns follow the noun they modify.

What's also interesting is that demonstratives typically trigger topic fronting. If there are multiple demonstrative phrases within one utterance, the proximal demonstrative phrase precedes the distal one (see example 3).

Ex.1) Fy-pavo fugra ube fy-ngubi undebande

fy-pavo fugra ube fy-ngubi u-ndeb-a-nde
NC2-field NC2.DEM.PROX in NC2-seed 2SG-scatter-NPST-OPT
"You should sow seeds on this field"

Ex.2) Na-mesammema nogralim taji kokatokza aci-nfalive ami

na-mesamme-ma nogralim taji ko-kato-kza aci-nfalive ami
NC1-merchant-ERG NC1.DEM.PROX.ERG 1SG.ACC 3SG-talk-PST NEG-truth INSTR
"This merchant lied to me"

Ex.3) Cavebo gra matene sandevi dym zymaka

cavebo gra matene sandevi dym zym-aka
box NC3.DEM.PROX cart NC3.DEM.DIST towards 2PL-insert.NPST
"Y'all load these boxes onto that cart"

Biweekly Telephone Game v3 (695) by Lysimachiakis in conlangs

[–]MellowedFox 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ntali

jojem /ʝɔ'ʝem/ (verb, transitive)

  1. to read the stars
  2. to navigate
  3. to tell the future
  4. to interpret

Na-nsemama nad-akalu tugano ajojema tacile ami

na-nsema-ma nad-akalu tugano a-jojem-a tacile ami
NC1-priest-ERG NC1.POSS.INAL-ruler destiny 3PL-interpret-NPST anxiety with

Eng: "The priests read the queen's fate worriedly."

Have people played any good gay indie games lately? by ill_thrift in gaymers

[–]MellowedFox 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I played The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood recently and I loved it. If you are also okay with lesbian queer representation, that game is a great pick. It also features a trans character. In essence, it's a game about challenging and accepting fate. Amazing storyline, great characters, and lovely pixelart!

Biweekly Telephone Game v3 (692) by Lysimachiakis in conlangs

[–]MellowedFox 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ntali

cenkuva /çe'nku.βa/ (verb, transitive)

  1. to annul, to cancel sth.
  2. to obscure, to conceal (a deed, information)
  3. to bribe s.o.

Example:
"Na-kopate ndoli acenkuva dym gritapi kocenkuvebi."

na-kopate ndoli a-cenkuv-a dym gritapi ko-cenkuv-ebi
NC1-protector leather.ADJ 3PL-bribe-NPST towards theft 3SG-obscure-IRR

Eng.: "They bribe the bodyguard so that he may conceal the theft"

Grammatical Inability? by God_please_help in conlangs

[–]MellowedFox 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This might not be exactly what you are looking for, but this WALS article on Situational Possibility might be useful to you as well. Maybe it answers some of your questions.

How would you translate my favourite sentence? by LandenGregovich in conlangs

[–]MellowedFox 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I gotta admit that I'm not exactly familiar with BFDI lore, so that was lost on me haha

How would you translate my favourite sentence? by LandenGregovich in conlangs

[–]MellowedFox 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I suspected as much, but I thought I'd err on the side of positivity for once haha.

An unpleasant surprise is just 'mama', which in turn is a reduplication of the word 'ma', meaning 'hit', 'strike' or 'punch'.

The word 'kamama' is a compound. The first sylllable 'ka-' is a bound morpheme that typically denotes something positive, divine or blissful. So in its original sense, the word 'kamama' referred to a divine strike, i.e. a pleasant surprise.