Rolig, just wanted to let you know that there are indeed situations in which moving from certain parts of the site to other parts of the site logs you out. Engineers are working on it. The rest of us are putting wood on the fire.
I'm unable to hear your pronunciations! I can play the audio files, but they all come across as a few seconds of silence (or white noise). Are you previewing them before saving, just to make sure your microphone's working?
Thanks for getting back to me on the Czech no/ano question. I was curious because I think Latvian (a Balto-Slavic language) has a word spelled "no," which means something more like "of" or "from."
Hi rolig, wanted to apologize for the character encoding issues that have appeared on some of your lists. It's my doing--the Wordie database was kind of a mess after a few years not always careful noodling. We did the best we could moving things over, but some characters got a bit mangled.
I had been asking Milosrdenstvi about the etymology of the Czech no/ano, but Milosrdenstvi said that would be probably more up your alley. Any suggestions?
Thank you; a labour of love. I find your lists and comments unique and noteworthy.
It's hard to know what's a goodly time to reach comment or word quantities here...there's a bizarre absence of date-stamping on Wordie. Does anyone know why?
The distinction between 'dis-' and plural '-s' is that the former is derivational, the latter inflectional. The non-existence of a free noun *'scissor' doesn't mean that the bound base 'scissor' can't be used in various ways: by conversion it can be used as a verb; it can take plural endings to become a free noun; and it can be used as a noun in attributive function ('scissor parts').
It's a bit difficult to see because in English bases almost always have free existence: unlike in Latin or Greek where there's no such thing as simply the 'word for' X, but rather a bound base with obligatory complex inflexion.
On *scissor, *underpant, *hijink—sorry, I only saw this yesterday—I've had a look through a couple of books and the closest I can find is the CGEL term bound base. They distinguish bases from affixes, so 'lighthouses' contains bases 'light' and 'house', and 'disperse' and 'discombobulate' contain bound bases, ones that can't exist as words once the affix 'dis' is removed. Some pluralia tantum bound bases have some marginal independent (or loosely-bound) existence in attributive constructions, as in 'trouser leg', 'scissor blade'.
Witajcže K'nam, I'm a 5th generation Texan whose family came from Reichswald Hoyerswerda Germany in 1854. Unfortunately I know nothing about either Sorbian dialect/language.
I'm only really able to answer anything about my Sorbian ancestors from right at and after the time they left Lusatia Germany.
Hi. Would you like to be on Identify the Wordie #2? You'll need to email identifythewordie@yours.com with your Wordie nick and the single word that best describes you. Cheers!
Hi Rol. I have a few short stories, poems, bits and pieces at au.360.yahoo.com/mondialdreaming. Piazza 111 should be published about November. Having said that, I'm not at all sure Green Door (publisher) will have their act together. Might slip over to early 2009. I'll be happy to send you a copy when it's out. B
Hello rolig,
Thank you for sharing the word stridulation but even moreso thank you for the wonderful citation about John Collier and Fancies and Goodnights. I plan to try to get a copy of it today.