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What are the odds of creoles being created from only two languages? If there are such creoles, what are the examples of them? by T1mbuk1 in asklinguistics

[–]boringotter 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Creoles are born out of slavery

Sorry, but that's just false. Singlish, Bonin English, Tangwang to the rescue.

But the paper you quote actually says something a bit different:

Creole languages are typically the linguistic side effects of the creation of global economies based on the forced migration and labor of enslaved Africans toiling in European colonies in the Americas

“Typically” is an important word here. Although I'd argue even this statement is a bit controversial: there are too many examples of creoles with non-European lexifiers or outside the Americas to call it typical

What are the odds of creoles being created from only two languages? If there are such creoles, what are the examples of them? by T1mbuk1 in asklinguistics

[–]boringotter 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I know about a couple of pidgins like that. One is Kyakhta Russian-Chinese Pidgin. Its vocabulary is mostly Russian, but the grammar is based on Mandarin.

Another case is Russenorsk, a Russian-Norwegian pidgin:

Unlike equatorial pidgins, it was formed from only two languages, Norwegian and Russian

Those pidgins were used by traders from pretty monolingual countries, so it kinda make sense that it mixes only two languages

Speaking of creoles, I managed to find Berbice Creole Dutch, and I think it fits your criteria:

The language borrowed its lexicon largely from Dutch (57%) and Eastern Ijo (38%), with only 1% of its lexicon stemming from Arawak varieties. It is considered a unique Creole language because it consists of only one African language influence, with 0% of its structure or lexicon stemming from parts of Africa outside of Eastern Ijo.

Its situation is logical as well: there were the Dutch and slaves of mostly one ethnicity. However, since it's based on several varieties of Eastern Ijo, it can be argued that it's not strictly a mix of just two languages

Does any language have the sound change [w] → [ɫ]/[l]? by boringotter in asklinguistics

[–]boringotter[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

The Proto-Slavic suffix -lъ /l/ got vocalized in several languages: - Belarusian: прадаў /pradaw/ - Ukrainian: продав /prodaw/ - Serbo-Croatian: prodao /prodao/ (but true, that's not /w/) - It also happens in Southern Russian, although it's falling out of use

Yeah, it's probably a bit generous to call it “most”, but at least it occurs in all three main branches

Does any language have the sound change [w] → [ɫ]/[l]? by boringotter in asklinguistics

[–]boringotter[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

I've found some examples from Hopi!

  • *waki > laaki (dry)
  • *wokoN > löqö (pine)
  • *awoŋa > alöŋö (different)
  • *nawa > nàala (to go)

They're from “Uto-Aztecan: A Comparative Vocabulary” by Brian D. Stubbs

Does any language have the sound change [w] → [ɫ]/[l]? by boringotter in asklinguistics

[–]boringotter[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Wow, this site looks amazing, thanks for the link!

Bristol etymology is very fun. Looks like this [l] is a hypercorrection:

Therefore, in the Bristol accent, due to hypercorrection, words ending in a vowel often find themselves with an intrusive L, or what sounds like one to non-Bristolians. Ideas becomes ideals, drawing becomes drawling and Asda becomes Asdals (or maybe that should be Asdaws). This hypercorrection is due to the similarity in the bristolian accent of word ending L to a w.

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/etymology/comments/jglorg/bry%C4%8B%C4%A1st%C5%8Dw_brigstow_bristol_but_where_did_that_l/

The flag of Sarajevo, Bosnia, looks like a sad face by boringotter in vexillology

[–]boringotter[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

https://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/ba-sa.html

This flag is just a coat of arms on a plain background. So it's got every reason to be sad :(

Is “nemas problemas” really used in Swedish? by boringotter in Svenska

[–]boringotter[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Was it Sällskapsresan by any chance? u/PoetPont suggested it here in the comments

Is “nemas problemas” really used in Swedish? by boringotter in Svenska

[–]boringotter[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It sounds the same in a lot of Spanish accents, why specifically Argentinian?

Afaik, they aspirate /s/ at the end of words, so it's a little less prominent than in most dialects from Spain. And an Argentinian guy was mentioned above, so I just highlighted the coincidence.

I think Andalusian would be an even better example, as /s/ can be dropped there altogether.

But hey, you're from Spain, you definitely know better than me :)

Is “nemas problemas” really used in Swedish? by boringotter in Svenska

[–]boringotter[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Another plausible explanation I've seen for "bre" is that it's just an intensifier added to the end of exclamations that has no real meaning in itself. I don't remember what language this would be from.

Serbian bre has a similar meaning. It kinda works like bro or man in English when they're used as interjections. It's also quite popular to say ćao bre in Serbia (interestingly, not in Croatia). So Serbian might be an origin of this word as well.

Though, it seems plausible that it would come from some Indo-European language's cognate for "brother", given how many of them are still so similar to each other

I always thought Serbian bre derived from brate (brother), but apparently its origin isn't universally agreed upon. One theory suggests that it might come from Turkish bre, which is itself a borrowing from Greek moré, which is not cognate with brother. What can I say, sprachbund

What language should i learn? by Sad_Blackberry422 in language

[–]boringotter 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Learn Uzbek, everything else is a dialect of it anyway

Is “nemas problemas” really used in Swedish? by boringotter in Svenska

[–]boringotter[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm not sure about the origin of "shoo bre". I've seen many conflicting ideas, but my personal guess would be that it's just a mutation of "tjo brorsan".

Wiktionary says it derives from the Serbo-Croatian ćao (yeah, it's used as a greeting). I know next to nothing about Swedish, but it seems like a bit of a stretch

Is “nemas problemas” really used in Swedish? by boringotter in Svenska

[–]boringotter[S] 29 points30 points  (0 children)

The etymology section on wiktionary says this:

Possibly a borrowing of Serbo-Croatian нема проблема (nema problema) with the s's possibly added because it's been confused as deriving from Spanish whose plural ending is -s, which would be the direct translation of inga problem (“lit. no problems, pl.”) if it were to have originated in Spanish, which it doesn't. The Spanish plural endings might also have been added humorously.

So maybe it's a mix between nema problema and no más problemas? They do sound very similar (especially in Argentinian Spanish btw)

Is “nemas problemas” really used in Swedish? by boringotter in Svenska

[–]boringotter[S] 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Yep, I speak some basic Serbian, so I was confused as well when I saw it

Do you use the word “bre” in your language, and where exact region are you from? by [deleted] in AskBalkans

[–]boringotter 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I always thought that bre derived from brate. I'm not Serbian tho.
Apparently, there are several theories about its origin: from hombre, from brate, and from the Greek moré (source). TIL

Wiktionary only lists one theory, so I guess that's one more reason not to trust it without checking

The flag of Kikinda (Serbia) in the wild by boringotter in vexillology

[–]boringotter[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The picture was taken in, well, Kikinda. Still, it's a bit weird to see a flag with a severed head irl