#but today i feel allowed!

[official-linguistics-post]

on reconstruction and historical linguistics

to follow up on today's reblog, i want to comment briefly on the apparent misapprehension that linguistic reconstruction is just guesswork with a fancy name, because that's not accurate!

reconstruction is based on specific, well-attested constraints of linguistic development. we know from centuries of investigation that languages tend to change in predictable ways. we also have a decent understanding of the complexities introduced by phenomena like language contact, which can result in borrowing on multiple structural levels. our methods are well established and borne out by evidence.

comparative reconstruction involves applying these known constraints ("rules") in reverse on a collected body of words in related descendant languages. when possible, we also incorporate historical written evidence, which often provides midpoint references for changes in progress. it is always recognized by historical linguists that reconstruction can be imperfect; we cannot know what information has been lost.

the results of reconstruction can be mixed, but i'll let campbell (2013:144) explain:

How Realistic are Reconstructed Proto-languages? The success of any given reconstruction depends on the material at hand to work with and the ability of the comparative linguist to figure out what happened in the history of the languages being compared. In cases where the daughter languages preserve clear evidence of what the parent language had, a reconstruction can be very successful, matching closely the actual spoken ancestral language from which the compared daughters descend. However, there are many cases in which all the daughters lose or merge formerly contrasting sounds or eliminate earlier alternations through analogy, or lose morphological categories due to changes of various sorts. We cannot recover things about the proto-language via the comparative method if the daughters simply do not preserve evidence of them. In cases where the evidence is severely limited or unclear, we often make mistakes. We make the best inferences we can based on the evidence available and on everything we know about the nature of human languages and linguistic change. We do the best we can with what we have to work with. Often the results are very good; sometimes they are less complete. In general, the longer in the past the proto-language split up, the more linguistic changes will have accumulated and the more difficult it becomes to reconstruct with full success. (emphasis mine)

or, to quote labov's (1982:20) pithier if less optimistic approach:

Historical linguistics may be characterized as the art of making the best use of bad data, in the sense that the fragments of the literary record that remain are the results of historical accidents beyond the control of the investigator.

in sum, historical linguists are very realistic about what we can achieve, but the confidence we do have is genuinely well earned, because linguistics is a scientific field and we treat our investigations with rigor.

---

Campbell, Lyle. 2013. Historical Linguistics: An Introduction. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Labov, William. 1982. "Building on Empirical Foundations." In Perspectives on Historical Linguistics. Winifred P. Lehmann and Yakov Malkiel, eds. Pp. 17-92. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

[ohplasticheart]

i've been loving year of shadow

[coffee-in-europe]

thank u keira knightley for allowing yourself to age you are so beautiful and we need you

[lautakwah]

Hey what's up it's Ling your favorite neighborhood nonbinary lesbiasian (or not, maybe you know someone cooler i wouldn't know) and I'm here to be insufferable about it being my birthday month <3

In all seriousness though, I'm currently unemployed (again) and it's hell out there for a uni dropout so if anyone's feeling generous I'd appreciate it a lot!! Also running a sale on my Etsy until the end of the month so if anyone feels like getting anything that'd be nice too :)

ppal | ko-fi

[fairyhaos]

cruelest thing that kpop has ever done is impose a "you can't eat anything" rule on their idols in the country that says "have you eaten today?" as a way of showing love

[amphibianaday]

day 1769

[royalarchivist]

Fit: I get really– I get really nervous in situations like this, Pac. Um–

Pac: Yeah, me too.

Fit: Do you wanna like, bring it in for a hug, maybe? Just like...

Pac: Yeah, no, yeah– I'm down for a hug!

Fit: Yeah, baby steps, baby steps! I'm working on myself, I'm working on myself.

Pac: It's all good, Fit. It's all good. 🫂💕

I know everyone clowned on poor cubito Fit for giving Pac a hug on their date instead of a kiss or something, but I honestly thought this was the sweetest possible ending, and it made me happy :')

[ Full Subtitle Transcript + (some RA commentary) ↓ ]

—

I loved how patient and willing q!Fit and q!Pac were to match each other's pace. My age may be showing when I say this, but I really appreciated the slow and steady (or maybe I should say "baby steps") approach Fit and Pac used to depict their cubito's relationship. It felt more realistic, and this specific brand of queer representation really appealed to me. I love them a lot! :') 💕

—

Pac: It's a nice sunset, right?

Fit: Oh, yeah... [He moves to the edge of the dock and stares at the setting sun in silence for a few moments] It is. Yeah, and like– especially with all the fish around, and...

Pac: Yeahhh, right? In the middle of nowhere... Yeah...

Fit: ...Yeah. Um– I- I get really like– I get really nervous in situations like this, Pac. Um, may- may–

Pac: Yeah, me too.

Fit: Do you wanna like, bring it in for a hug, maybe? Just like...

Pac: Yeah, no, yeah– I'm down for a hug!

[They embrace each other]

Fit: Yeah, baby steps, baby steps!

Pac: Baby steps.

Fit: You know, like I said, I- I- I got like... Uh– I'm working on myself, I'm working on myself.

Pac: No, yeah– it- it's all good, Fit. It's all good.

Fit: Yeah. [Laughs] No, thank you.

Pac: Yeah.

Fit: I- I- But–

Pac: [Pac falls off the dock] AY–

Fit: Oh no! Oh– No–

Pac: Ope– No no, it's all good! It's- it's all part of the... [He struggles trying to climb back on the dock] All part of the exper– You know? All part–

Fit: Uh, yeah, yeah! Yeah...

Pac: Fit– [Embarrassed laugh] Fit, oh Fit– Can I destroy a little bit of this? I'm sorry, oh my god–

Fit: Yeah, of course! It- it's just– It's a dock, you know, you just blow it up, yeah– We could destroy this all, if you wanted! Anything you want.

Pac: [Pac repairs the dock] Like this– Boom! Nobody saw it. Sorry.

Fit: Oh, nice. No, yeah– [Laughs]

I know everyone clowned on poor cubito Fit for giving Pac a hug on their date instead of kissing him or something, but honestly, I thought this moment was really sweet! I loved how patient they were, and how willing they were to match the other's pace. My age may be showing when I say this, but I really appreciated the slow and steady approach these two had to depicting their cubito's relationship. It felt more realistic, and this specific brand of queer representation really appealed to me personally.

[susielesbianism]

you know I was going to type up something about this but honestly this image pretty much sums up everything I want to say

Cause I really think some people in this fandom are getting a little too confident about what’s going to happen in this game

[mellarked-katnisseverdeen]

Maybe a hot take....

But Katniss Everdeen having children and being married isn't agasint feminism. It's representing a kind of woman certein circles of feminism don't consider feminist.

Females wanting to be mothers and wives, and being extreamly HAPPY with that life is (or at least SHOULD be) extreamly feminist. JUST AS MUCH as woman wanting careers, or to be warriors, or leaders. The only way it's NOT is if it is potrayed one of these paths are the ONLY thing woman should want/can acomplish.

Katniss is able to choose the life that brings her joy and happyness as she works to heal. And that choice is backed up by many things in text that show that, given her own say in anything, she'd want a world where she can have these things.

That, to me, is FAR MORE feminist that half of the more recent "strong female characters" and I said what I said.

[chrliekclly]

oh charlie kelly loose identity tied to emotions nd changing on a whim we're really in it now....

[c0smicdaisy]

what do we think?

[intotheelliwoods]

What was that about One falling asleep whenever he can and feels comfortable enough because the boy needs it? Hm? Something about him feeling safe around Poptart and not needing to keep his guard up was it? @dianagj-art *uses your own tags against you*

[just-start-the-tape]

I see so much more about Edwin than Charles, as if Charles isn't also a main character, so I just want to make it clear that while I am deeply attached to Edwin, he's wiggled his way into my brain and I doubt he'll ever leave, Charles is actually my favorite character, and my second is Niko, and I think y'all should acknowledge him more than I've been seeing, this is not the Edwin Payne show, and Jayden did too much of a good job for it to not be as appreciated

[stupidrant]

Hey yall I dont wanna damper anyones day but @bellaaldamas brought to my attention that trolls potentially messed with Angrb*da’s searches on google to flood it with only mentioning the wh*tew*shing m0d that got deleted back when the PC version came out. This might very well be the case since prior to that, it wasnt ONLY mentioning the mods or mentioning something like that AT ALL. Not to mention the wh*tew*shing m0d picture is one of the main images you see if you search her up. What the actual fuck. Its bad enough theres troll activity or just negativity when you search her up regardless but this is next level deranged. What really confuses me so much is that most people literally dont know, care or even like this mod as much as these trolls are pushing so what exactly is the goal and did they think nobody was gonna notice either?

Maria found more info and apparently you cant even put the mod in the game. The only point of it was to be a model of anti-woke/sweet baby inc. similarly to that of the horrendous angrb*da facetune that predates it 😐 it serves no purpose outside of it being a model so it was literally a FAIL and come to find out, the creator of the mod doesnt even know or care about god of war. WTF.

[squuote]

this silly line of secret dialogue you get in the demo when you try to go back through the entry you came from is kinda sending me places. is this why he hid the memory zone in the files away from the developers

[rayofmisfortune]

How did Tucker and Sam first find out about phantom? Was it just that some weird ecto shit was going on nearby and Danny sorta changed without trying to and all, and Sam and Tucker just kinda saw it going “what the fuck-“/silly

Okay and an add on to that, has anyone ever seen Danny change that shouldn’t have, since if he can’t really control it in this AU, I wouldn’t be surprised if there were some close calls because Tuck and Sam found a way to cover him

Seconds after Danny leaves for the restroom, a ghost (the Lunch Lady) shows up. In the panic, Sam and Tucker run to check if Danny's okay. Or just generally, get his low blood sugar, close to passing out butt away from the danger zone.

As to how they find out? They rush into the closest restroom. And kinda see the idiot(s) passed out on the floor mid-transformation 👍

I fiddled a lil with the timeline so now the au is kinda no one knows? But Sam and Tuck find out the second the first big bad ghost shows up. In the Dannys' defense, neither of them had any idea what was happening.

Actually... not really? Since Danny and Phantom have Tucker and Sam to cover for them and the two are at Danny's side 24/7, pretty much no one has seen them transform. Wes is the no one.