19th Century England

[ID: youtube comment from Hal Sawyer:

My favorite relic English still used everywhere is the word "the" used in phrases like: "the more I look at this, the stranger it seems, or "the bigger they come, the harder they fall". This "the" is not the article of any noun, it is a different word, a conjunction descended from the old English "þā", pronounced "tha" which means either "when" or "then". Back in early Middle English the structure "if - then" had not taken over and if you wanted to express an if - then relationship you said "þā whatever, þā whatever", meaning "when such-and- such, then such-and-such". "þā" sounds almost the same as "the" and the spelling of the two converged, but the meaning remained totally different. "the more, the merrier" literally means "when more, then merrier" or "if more, then merrier'; same as centuries ago.

end ID]

this is so cool

now with added wiktionary link

This challenge will teach you the basics of linguistics step-by-step over the course of 12 months.

This month, we’ll start with: an introduction to linguistics & phonology.

Each month you get a few exercises (depending on how complex the topic is), so you can take breaks in between days or use those days to revise and practice. I’ve put links to all the topics on which i made blog posts, but you’re very welcome to do your own research online.

This challenge is based on what I learned in the first semesters of my linguistic studies at uni, and it’s aimed at giving you a broad introduction and teaching you the most important concepts from several different fields of linguistics. 

Throughout the month, you’ll get the chance to apply your new knowledge in some exercises and tasks. If you want, you can share your work via reblog with the tag #linguisticschallenge, i’d love to see your contributions :)

Also, feel free to follow me so you won’t miss next month’s challenge!

Inform yourself about what linguistics is and the different fields of linguistics. During the course of these monthly challenges, you’ll probably learn more about each one of them

Inform yourself about the linguistic fields of phonetics and phonology and what they analyse

Look at the IPA alphabet (the English one is enough for now, the international one is quite big and complicated) and try to understand how it works

Find out the differences between vowels and consonants

Look at the vowel charts and learn where in the mouth vowels are pronounced and how you can describe/define vowels by their position (e.g. open vs. closed, front vs. back)

Task: Make a list of all the vowel phonemes and their descriptions based on their positions in the vowel chart

Look at the consonant chart. First off, look at the different ways consonants can be articulated (fricative, plosive, etc.)

Now, look at the consonant chart and look at the different places where consonants can be articulated (bilabial, palatal, glottal, etc.)

Learn the difference between voiced and voiceless consonants

Task: Make a list of all the consonants and their descriptions based on the place of articulation, the way of articulation, and whether they’re voiced or voiceless

Find out what graphemes, phonemes, and allophones are and what kinds of brackets are used for them (e.g. <…>, /…/, […])

Learn about stress in words and sentences, what kinds of words are stressed (if you don’t know about word types yet, don’t worry, you’ll learn about them soon), and how to show stress in phonetic transcriptions

Learn about the rules for when to use unstressed [i] and [u] in phonetic transcriptions

Task: Use the IPA chart and try to phonetically transcribe some words, e.g. your name, your favourite animal, etc. (e.g. Espen = /‘espən/, bears = /bæz/). There are several programmes where you can check your transcriptions

Inform yourself about linguistic liaison

Task: Use the IPA chart and try to phonetically transcribe a quote, lyric, joke, etc. Again, you can use a programme to check your work.

If you’re quick or want to learn more, you could check out my linguistics masterpost to see if i made any new posts on this topic after creating this challenge. You could also take a look at these book tips:

Book tips:

Skandera, Paul and Peter Burleigh. “A manual of English phonetics and phonology.” Tübingen: Narr. 2016.

Roach, Peter. “English Phonetics and Phonology. A practical course.” Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2009.

McCully, Chris B. “The sound structure of English: an introduction.” Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2009.

Crystal, David. “A dictionary of linguistics and phonetics.” 2008.

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"The higher we soar the smaller we appear to those who cannot fly."

Caspar David Friedrich (September 5, 1774 – May 7, 1840)

Synaulia is a musical group that recreates Ancient Roman music, since none survives. This beautiful piece recreates the sounds of a cithara, a stringed instrument from the lyre family. The cithara usually accompanied poem recitals and dances, and was often played at drinking parties, banquets and gatherings.

National Library Of The Girolamini Oratory, Naples, Italy

Hans Holbein c. 1533