"South Africa has the highest number of official languages in the world with 11. This is 11 more than the number of languages Torn's citizens speak fluently"
Not true, countries like Zimbabwe have more. Apologies if this belongs in bugs
I'm curious what people's favorite languages are. What are your top five? (Less if you have less than five favorites). Explanations encouraged but optional.
My top five:
1) Nivaclé. Nivaclé is an indigenous language of Paraguay in the Matacoan language family. Speaker estimates vary, so I'll go with the 15,000 cited by Lyle Campbell. Nivaclé is my favorite because it easily has some of the most unique grammar I've ever seen, and is full of grammatical features not found in any other languages. It also has some banger songs by Bianca Orqueda on Youtube.
2) Guaraní. Guaraní is also spoken in Paraguay, which I swear is coincidental. Guaraní has 5.5 million speakers, and is a co-official language of Paraguay. It has more speakers than Spanish in Paraguay. (Not by much). Guaraní is a Tupian language.
3) Quechua. Quechua has 10 million speakers, and is spoken in Peru, Ecuador, Chile, Bolivia, and surrounding countries. Quechua technically isn't a single language, rather than a massive continuum of languages and varieties. The reason I didn't specify a variety is that the Quechuan macro-language is quite hard to subdivide, and there are many ways to split it up into languages. If I had to pick, South Bolivian Quechua would be my favorite. Quechua as a whole is the sole member of, and composed the entirety of, the Quechuan language family.
4) Nahuatl. We're finally out of South America... and into central America. Classical Nahuatl was the language of the Aztec empire, and Modern Nahuatl still has 1.7 million speakers today. It is a member of the Uto-Aztecan language family.
5) Taking a sudden turn, we leave the Americas altogether for Basque. Basque is a language Isolate spoken in Northern Spain and Souther France. Being a language isolate, it is wholly unrelated to any other language, making the grammar very unique compared to its Indo-European neighbors. Basque is the only pre-european language (and culture) that was never fully conquered or displaced by the Indo-European invasion or their descendants. I honestly don't know how it hung on that long.
Are there any linguists or people interested in linguistics on Torn? Or questions about linguistics?
Could be any topic in linguistics, but my specific interests are linguistic fieldwork, South American linguistics, sociolinguistics, historical-comparative linguistics, and linguistic typology.
The languages I do the most work with are Nivaclé & Pilagá.
Any linguists or linguistics enthusiasts here? I kind of just want to chat about what you study / what you're interested in. I'm doing some work with a language of Paraguay called Nivaclé, but more generally I've been studying the various ways languages can (or don't) mark Tense, Aspect, Mood & Evidentiality.
Any linguists or anyone interested in linguistics here? What do you study / are interested in? Want to know anything about it? What do you want to know?
Tense, aspect, mood, & evidentiality are my focuses, but I'm also interested in documentation and language variation.
Also right now would be a great time to think about a career in applied linguistics, Natural Language Processing and Human Language Technology are exploding right now, there's a reason Google just opened an entire department.
Plus there's always a need for linguistic fieldworkers, and the need is always growing.
Are there any linguists or people interested in linguistics on Torn? Or questions about linguistics?
Could be any topic in linguistics, but my specific interests are linguistic fieldwork, South American linguistics, sociolinguistics, historical-comparative linguistics, and linguistic typology.
The languages I do the most work with are Nivaclé & Pilagá.
Having ideas or interests and asking about / learning more about them will never be stupid, even if the question wouldn't work. That's how you can become the person answering questions like this.
I learned a lot about my current area of study by asking questions that may have seemed dumb to others and getting answers. Even if I didn't fully get the answers at the time, they would always get me asking more questions and getting more each time.
This is an extremely long shot: Does anyone here speak or know a speaker of Khoemana? It also goes by !Orakobab, Korana, !Ora, and Griqua. It has ~6 speakers and is spoken in South Africa and Namibia. It would be neat to get in contact with a speaker.
What kind of resources are you interested in? There are always apps, but there are also forums, learner's books, and sites. I can look around for some good resources in these categories.
It's completely up to personal opinion, English does interesting things too, rare sounds, and rare grammatical structures to boot. I chose the languages I did because I'm personally interested in how they work and sound, not to be "poncie". There's no wrong answer when it comes to a favorite language. (I mean one could say some awful things in their justification I suppose)
I'm curious what people's favorite languages are. What are your top five? (Less if you have less than five favorites). Explanations encouraged but optional.
My top five:
1) Nivaclé. Nivaclé is an indigenous language of Paraguay in the Matacoan language family. Speaker estimates vary, so I'll go with the 15,000 cited by Lyle Campbell. Nivaclé is my favorite because it easily has some of the most unique grammar I've ever seen, and is full of grammatical features not found in any other languages. It also has some banger songs by Bianca Orqueda on Youtube.
2) Guaraní. Guaraní is also spoken in Paraguay, which I swear is coincidental. Guaraní has 5.5 million speakers, and is a co-official language of Paraguay. It has more speakers than Spanish in Paraguay. (Not by much). Guaraní is a Tupian language.
3) Quechua. Quechua has 10 million speakers, and is spoken in Peru, Ecuador, Chile, Bolivia, and surrounding countries. Quechua technically isn't a single language, rather than a massive continuum of languages and varieties. The reason I didn't specify a variety is that the Quechuan macro-language is quite hard to subdivide, and there are many ways to split it up into languages. If I had to pick, South Bolivian Quechua would be my favorite. Quechua as a whole is the sole member of, and composed the entirety of, the Quechuan language family.
4) Nahuatl. We're finally out of South America... and into central America. Classical Nahuatl was the language of the Aztec empire, and Modern Nahuatl still has 1.7 million speakers today. It is a member of the Uto-Aztecan language family.
5) Taking a sudden turn, we leave the Americas altogether for Basque. Basque is a language Isolate spoken in Northern Spain and Souther France. Being a language isolate, it is wholly unrelated to any other language, making the grammar very unique compared to its Indo-European neighbors. Basque is the only pre-european language (and culture) that was never fully conquered or displaced by the Indo-European invasion or their descendants. I honestly don't know how it hung on that long.
"South Africa has the highest number of official languages in the world with 11. This is 11 more than the number of languages Torn's citizens speak fluently"
Not true, countries like Zimbabwe have more. Apologies if this belongs in bugs
Any linguists or anyone interested in linguistics here? What do you study / are interested in? Want to know anything about it? What do you want to know?
Tense, aspect, mood, & evidentiality are my focuses, but I'm also interested in documentation and language variation.
Any linguists or linguistics enthusiasts here? I kind of just want to chat about what you study / what you're interested in. I'm doing some work with a language of Paraguay called Nivaclé, but more generally I've been studying the various ways languages can (or don't) mark Tense, Aspect, Mood & Evidentiality.
Anyone else in here interested in conlanging (creating languages) and/or linguistics (studying language)? I need more places/people to discuss these topics with.