The Celtic languages have an unusual feature: inflections suffixed to most simple prepositions used with pronouns. I discuss below: conjugated prepositions in Welsh, and in Irish; conjugated postpositions in the 2 main Uralic languages (Hungarian and Finnish); conjugated adpositions (prepositions or postpositions) in languages around the world. Welsh In Welsh, the suffix forms typically have…… Continue reading Conjugated prepositions in Welsh and Irish (and Hungarian and Finnish)
Tag: Historical linguistics
Inscription in Old Spanish in Cordoba
The Mezquita in Cordoba (Spain) has a rich and varied history, having been a mosque and later a cathedral. It contains many inscriptions. Many are in Arabic, but here is a picture of one in Latin or old Spanish. Online sources suggest that the non-Arabic inscriptions are in Latin (perhaps medieval Latin). But I see…… Continue reading Inscription in Old Spanish in Cordoba
When many more languages were in use
A paper published this year reports estimates of the number of languages spoken on Earth over the last 12,000 years. The authors estimate that the number of languages: was around 4,500 to 6,200 (and perhaps as low as 3,300 to 7,800) 12,000 years ago, when the estimated world population was around 4 to 7 million…… Continue reading When many more languages were in use
Glottle
The word guessing game Wordle continues to inspire new variations on the theme. I’ve just come across Glottle, a game that involves trying to guess a mystery language. For more on Wordle, please see Wordle – Language Miscellany You start by guessing a language. The game then shows a tree displaying the target language,…… Continue reading Glottle
Russian verbs of motion
In Russian, verbs referring to motion include 14 pairs of verbs. Each of those verbs differs from its pair in a systematic way. Sometimes, the label ‘determinate’ is used for one member of each pair and the name ‘indeterminate’ is use for the other member: the determinate verbs refer to motion in one direction (not…… Continue reading Russian verbs of motion
Enjoyable history of English letters
Danny Bate’s recent book Why Q needs U: a history of our letters and how we use them (2025) is an entertaining guide to the histories and shapes of the letters in the modern English alphabet. It contains 26 chapters (‘numbered’, unsurprisingly, A to Z), and an introduction and an epilogue. Content Each chapter address…… Continue reading Enjoyable history of English letters
The Italian Language Today
The Italian Language Today, by Anna Laura Lepschy and Giulio Lepschy (2nd edition, 1988) is a useful guide for anyone who has been through a basic to intermediate Italian course. The book has 2 parts: part one The Linguistic Situation in Italy has 4 sections: Italian today; a historical view; Italian dialects; varieties of…… Continue reading The Italian Language Today
The Indo-European Lexicon project
The aim of the Indo-European Lexicon (IELEX) at The University of Texas at Austin is to collect the individual words of Proto-Indo-European (PIE), the common parent of the Indo-European (IE) family of languages. No documents of PIE exist because it predates the invention of writing. Historical linguists use the ‘comparative method’ to reconstruct elements of…… Continue reading The Indo-European Lexicon project
Welsh challenge (4)
This post is the 4th instalment of the Welsh leg of my current Celtic challenge. It covers chapter 3 of Colloquial Welsh. For earlier instalments, please see Welsh Archives – Language Miscellany Possession Welsh has no transitive verb meaning have. Instead, the verb mae is used with the preposition gyda (‘with’), or in speech often…… Continue reading Welsh challenge (4)
Italian places and their inhabitants
Italian place names generally have related adjectives. Many of them are formed in fairly predictable ways by just adding a suffix to the place name (eg romano from Roma, Milanese from Milano and Napoletano from Napoli). Common suffixes used in place names include (in the masculine plural form) -ani, -tani, -esi, -ensi, -i, -ali, -giani,…… Continue reading Italian places and their inhabitants