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Pinned
#Burushaski
KEYWORDS for easily-confused consonants

D as in DángalaThas (ogress)
dd as in ddasín (girl)

T as in yáTis (head)
tt as in tteéle (there)

Th as in Thúmuk (meet)
tth as in ttham (king)
Húnza
'snow leopard'
ttá, obl. ttáa

Compare Tibetan སྟག /stag/ 'tiger'
November 8, 2025 at 5:51 AM
'cry / weep'
inf. héras < *haQr-ahs
ptcp. nuhér < *n(u)-haQr
neg. oó(w)aras < *a(u)-haQr-ahs

'say'
inf. sénas < *saQn-ahs
ptcp. nusé(n) < *n(u)-saQn
neg. oósanas < *a(u)-saQn-ahs
November 8, 2025 at 5:29 AM
#Burushaski

'she has to/should sleep'
móyanas bo

'she isn't going to sleep at all'
móyanas apó

'bc she isn't tired, she won't sleep'
amóyanas bo
November 8, 2025 at 5:17 AM
#Burushaski
Húnza dialect

'weep, cry'
hér- : ptcp. nuhér
: neg. oówar-

the onset w- in the negative may derive from a labializing lenition process acting on root-initial /h/ (compare 'wash' with -wáaltt- alongside báaltt-, from root *pa[h]altt-)
...
November 8, 2025 at 4:28 AM
ʕimmānū-ʔēl
Mācrōn
October 30, 2025 at 3:49 AM
ψ81.6
ego dixi:
dii estis,
et filii excelsi omnes
October 30, 2025 at 3:14 AM
#Burushaski
so far no verb roots found with initial
l-
r-
rw-
z-
cr- crh-

cy- (unless varying with cyh-)
c- (unless varying with ch-)

one with initial j-

only a few have s-
October 24, 2025 at 10:28 PM
Reposted by LanGo Institute
Noam Chomsky: “colorless green ideas sleep furiously” is a sentence that is grammatically correct but semantically nonsensical

Me, #MtG player:
September 24, 2025 at 3:14 PM
Reposted by LanGo Institute
The past tense of ‘to go’ is ‘went’, but this form used to belong to the verb ‘to wend’.

We call such verbs suppletive.

Surprisingly, ‘to bring’ is suppletive too: ‘brought’ comes from a different verb.

My new graphic tells you all about their past.

In certain varieties of English, ... 1/
September 17, 2025 at 6:36 PM
Reposted by LanGo Institute
9. missed this one! here's more contrived tongue twisters idk what else i have:

bʕūd bʕīd bʕūd bʕīd bʕūd bʕīd bʕūd bʕīd bʕūd
"i will return on a holiday with a faraway oud; i again repeat: with a faraway oud i will return"

bʕīd bʕīd bʕīd
"i repeat & repeat & repeat"/"i repeat on a faraway holiday"
September 15, 2025 at 3:13 AM
Reposted by LanGo Institute
‘cucumber’

Hunza-Nager Burushaski láaỵ
Balti laḍu, lalu
Gilgit Shina láa
Srinagar Kashmiri ləər
Anantnag Kashmiri ləəḍ
September 7, 2025 at 4:00 PM
χo napa[ŋ]-ri ltilpi [1
bu biti latitasiŋ
un up χaŋ-paŋ-ril
uppisu baŋ-ri
žeχalpaỵmaćaŋ [5
kuỵ daŋ-ratti

3 "up" and 4 "uppisu" may be related;
compare 3 "-paŋ" with 4 "baŋ"

Clusters -lp- and -lt- (the latter still common in Bsk) may have <l> for a lateral fricative dev. from *s
3rd attempt.
Mid vowels only adjacent to h (uvular). Common final ŋ (> -mu(-c)) maybe a noun ending; clitics begin w/ r

χo napa[ŋ]-ri ltilpi
bu biti latitasing
un up χaŋ-paŋ-ril
uppisu baŋ-ri
žeχalpaỵmaćaŋ
kuỵ daŋ-ratti
September 3, 2025 at 4:56 AM
Reposted by LanGo Institute
Are you in the Seattle area? Come see me at Third Place Books in Ravenna on Sept 16, 7pm. I'll be talking about and reading from my new book, followed by Q&A and a book-signing session. Would love to see you there.

Check out the link for more info, to RSVP, and to pre-order a book for signing.
www.thirdplacebooks.com
September 2, 2025 at 11:07 PM
Reposted by LanGo Institute
Yes, Mr Bluesky, cdj2jygzzk9o is the way they say this in Polish
September 2, 2025 at 6:21 AM
Brilliant.
"Picture of a scene" is imo the best way to interpret characters like
化 (2 human bodies in diff directions: change)
尾 (hair at the posterior: tail)
漁 (fish outside water: fishing)

neither part is a determiner or classifier
... is a picture of a scene, which has become resolved into two distinct parts in later forms of the graph. Neither the 人 nor the 木 is a classifier. What I mean by that is that 'resting' is not a type of tree or a thing made of wood; nor is 'resting' a kind of person.
September 2, 2025 at 5:29 AM
1st attempt at segmenting into words on the basis of [+voi] being restricted to initial position; respelling –voi codas:

[χ]onapan_riltilpi bu biti latitasing un up hangpang_ril uppisu bang_riže halpa-i ma[k]ang[q]u-i dang_ratti

Curious that each /r/ follows a nasal, not sure what to make of that
“Ho na pan ril til pi bu bi ti la ti ta sing un ub hang pang ril ub pi su bang ri že hal pai ma kyang kui dang rad ti”

B. Laufer 1908:7
September 2, 2025 at 3:09 AM
Onsets
p t k ky
b d -
[ ] s [ ] h
[ ] [ ] ž
m n
[] r

zero
“Ho na pan ril til pi bu bi ti la ti ta sing un ub hang pang ril ub pi su bang ri že hal pai ma kyang kui dang rad ti”

B. Laufer 1908:7
September 1, 2025 at 7:35 PM
“Ho na pan ril til pi bu bi ti la ti ta sing un ub hang pang ril ub pi su bang ri že hal pai ma kyang kui dang rad ti”

B. Laufer 1908:7
September 1, 2025 at 4:32 PM
Reposted by LanGo Institute
Burushaski

Hunza qarúuỵo, Nager ġarúuỵo ‘(some kind of) crane/heron’
(Varmā said ‘moa’, but Berger’s ‘Reiher’ probably closer to truth)

Berger compares Sanskrit lexicographical karaṭu- ‘demoiselle crane’, but there’s also the mythical raptor garuḍá- in Sanskrit.
August 30, 2025 at 9:36 PM
Reposted by LanGo Institute
Gilgit Shina bać ‘lightning’, but Bailey bac̣ (mishearing?)
Hunza-Nager Burushaski barć id.

Shina bać < *baj́ < Sanskrit váj́raḣ

If the Burushaski form is more archaic (rather than spontaneously generated), then Shina only lost the /r/ recently.

This would imply Skt. -VĆra- > Shina -VrĆ(a-) ...
September 1, 2025 at 4:11 AM
Reposted by LanGo Institute
Sanskrit kʰēṭa- (*-i-?) ‘shield’ > Palula kʰeéṛ

Skt. kʰēṭ-ikā “little shield”
> Shina kʰeéy (< *kʰeéṛi) → HN Burushaski kʰií
> Khowar kʰełí → Y Burushaski kʰilí

Skt. pāṭakaḣ ‘wedge’
> Shina *páaṛo → HN Burushaski páaỵo
> Khowar *páłu (cf. Kalasha pạɡóyak) → Y Burushaski pâlu
September 1, 2025 at 4:55 AM
Compare Korean
같이 'together'
[kaćhi]

graphically <kath i>
morphemically /kath =hi/ imo, adverbial =hi onto root /kath/ 'go together, converge'

This palatalization of a dental only at morph boundary, not generally for the syllable .thi. !
Could @-cyhí- 'give' be cognate with tthí- 'pour'?

@-cyhí- is part of a suppletive system of roots for 'give':

@-ú- for [h/x]-class obj.
@-cyhí for [y sg]
@-ghún- for [y pl]

The prototypical things in [y sg] Class are liquids.

ćhí < *tʲhi
with progressive palatalizat'n spreading from 3s i-
bél-aTe jii 0 bacyátt
how-INST life [ABS] save

àa-cy-áa ke
1S:APPL-do:IPFV-[2s] COMP

dd-á-us
dP-1S-withdraw

je 0 mamú 0
I [ABS] milk [ABS]

gu-cyhí-cy-am
2S-give:y-IPFV-1S:npr
August 31, 2025 at 4:49 AM
Could @-cyhí- 'give' be cognate with tthí- 'pour'?

@-cyhí- is part of a suppletive system of roots for 'give':

@-ú- for [h/x]-class obj.
@-cyhí for [y sg]
@-ghún- for [y pl]

The prototypical things in [y sg] Class are liquids.

ćhí < *tʲhi
with progressive palatalizat'n spreading from 3s i-
bél-aTe jii 0 bacyátt
how-INST life [ABS] save

àa-cy-áa ke
1S:APPL-do:IPFV-[2s] COMP

dd-á-us
dP-1S-withdraw

je 0 mamú 0
I [ABS] milk [ABS]

gu-cyhí-cy-am
2S-give:y-IPFV-1S:npr
August 31, 2025 at 4:45 AM
#Burushaski UNT Archive
MattumK # 228

'If you save my life in whatever way (and) get me out of here, I will give you milk'
(speaker is pleading with a cat)

bélaTe jii bacyátt àacyáa ke ddáus je mamú gucyhícyam
August 31, 2025 at 3:48 AM
Reposted by LanGo Institute
🎙️ I'm on a podcast! 🎙️

I was interviewed about my book Chinese Characters Across Asia for the @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social , you can find the episode here: newbooksnetwork.com/chinese-char... .

My first time ever on a podcast. I was nervous at first, but Miranda Melcher was a great host.
Zev J. Handel, "Chinese Characters Across Asia: How the Chinese Script Came to Write Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese" (U Washington Press, 2025) - New Books Network
newbooksnetwork.com
May 4, 2025 at 3:52 AM