English Language Learners

Anonymous

20:00

For the most part, the orthography is pretty good :-)

Fantasier

Thank you for all the information :) Should help me in listening and dictation stuff.

Damkerng T.

I still have to remember あ

Fantasier

I think I should go to bed. It's 3AM. See you all later!

Anonymous

You can do it! Write, write, write!

Anonymous

@Fantasier おやすみなさい＾＾

Fantasier

20:01

おやすみ!

Damkerng T.

See you soon!

(Switching keyboard layout too often is not very fun for me.)

Anonymous

D'oh!

Damkerng T.

(I will get used to it soon, I think.)

Anonymous

I have mine set to switch between English and Japanese with shift-space.

Anonymous

I haven't really juggled more than two input methods at once

Damkerng T.

20:03

I tried to type some Japanese, then switched to English, and what I typed in Japanese was gone.

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. You need to confirm what you're entering by hitting enter

Damkerng T.

Ahh... That's not what I'm used to yet.

Anonymous

Reason being, you aren't just entering kana, you're also optionally converting it to kanji (or other things)

Damkerng T.

See you　＜ーー I typed this in Japanese keyboard.

Anonymous

I type yajirusi to get やじるし, which is Japanese for "arrow (sign)", and then I hit space to get Unicode arrows! ↘ And then I hit enter to confirm.

Anonymous

20:05

@DamkerngT. Ahh, using the Japanese keyboard for English!

Damkerng T.

See, it's very confusing for me. :D

Anonymous

ＵｓｉｎｇｔｈｅＪａｐａｎｅｓｅｋｅｙｂｏａｒｄｆｏｒＥｎｇｌｉｓｈｌｅｔｓｙｏｕｔｙｐｅｗｉｄｅｃｈａｒａｃｔｅｒｓ

Damkerng T.

Oh! That's interesting. How could I do that?

Anonymous

On mine, it's F9 (after you've typed it)

Damkerng T.

Ｌｅｔ　ｍｅ　ｔｅｓｔ　ｉｔ．

Oh, it works!

Anonymous

20:07

やった！

Anonymous

(yatta!)

Damkerng T.

Oh！　やった！

Ah, I see what happened a bit. My Japanese keyboard can think on its own.

Anonymous

やった literally means "did [it]!" That is, the speaker or someone else accomplished something. It's used as an interjection sometimes, like "Woo hoo!" :-)

Damkerng T.

I remember Hiro said it, several times!

Anonymous

Notice the little っ (little tsu). Instead of やつた yatsuta, with little tsu it becomes yatta.

Anonymous

20:09

The little tsu is a gemination marker, indicating a doubled consonant.

Anonymous

So まっしろ masshiro まっか makka やった yatta にっぽん nippon

Damkerng T.

Ahh... Thank you!

Anonymous

See in each one, the little っ doubles the following consonant?

Anonymous

Phonetically, that means you hold that consonant for an entire beat.

Damkerng T.

Yes.

Anonymous

20:10

So the "sh" sound in masshiro lasts for an entire mora before continuing.

Anonymous

Long consonant!

Anonymous

(Masshiro and makka are literally "true white" and "true red" respectively)

Damkerng T.

Oh, so it's not like /mas-shi-ro/, it's more like /mash-shi-ro/, I think?

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. Yes, that's right. Phonemically it's /massiro/, phonetically it's [maɕːiɾo]

Damkerng T.

Thanks!

Anonymous

20:14

Some indicate the っ phonemically with a /Q/, although I feel this is confusing

Anonymous

So they'd write /maQsiro/

Anonymous

That way, you see the /si/ which you know gives you the "sh" allophone of /s/, and the Q tells you to stretch that consonant out

Anonymous

I can give you an example. :-)

Damkerng T.

@snailboat That's really confusing.

Anonymous

►

Anonymous

20:15

At about 0:20

Damkerng T.

nods -- There's no /s/ sound there indeed.

Anonymous

The lyrics go: furi-hajimeta yuki wa, ashiato keshite / masshiro na sekai ni, hitori no watashi

Anonymous

(Hepburn romanization)

Damkerng T.

The /o/ sound in Japanese is in-sync with the animation lots of times. :)

Anonymous

I find it disconcerting when it's out of sync, but when it's in sync I don't think I notice

Damkerng T.

20:18

(I mean the whole lot of /*o/.)

Anonymous

Hey, listen to 0:51 to 0:59.

Anonymous

The lyrics are それももうやめよう. Transliterated, that's sore mo mou yameyou

Damkerng T.

nods

Anonymous

But note that what she sings is sore mo moo yameyoo

Damkerng T.

Oh, the long /o:/.

Anonymous

20:19

Long vowels written like they're /ou/ sequences, when in fact they're /o:/!

Anonymous

A perfect example :-)

Anonymous

Another /mo:/ that would be written もう at 1:39

Anonymous

And at 1:52, a /so:/ that would be transcribed そう

Damkerng T.

I think she added a little hint of the /u/ sound in it.

Anonymous

Ah, orthographic influence is already getting to you :-)

Damkerng T.

20:22

Ahh!

Anonymous

By the way, Japanese phonology in songs, for trained singers, is slightly different than spoken Japanese phonology

Damkerng T.

It might be because it's singing.

Anonymous

In this case there's no difference

Anonymous

But there are some places you'll notice, for example を being pronounced /wo/ anachronistically

Anonymous

That's very typical of singing

Damkerng T.

20:24

I mean to prolong the /o/ sound, I guess she rounded her lips a bit between the first and the latter part of the same long /o/ sound.

Anonymous

Where at?

Damkerng T.

Like that /so:/ at 1:52.

I think she tensed her throat a little too. Just a little.

Anonymous

I hear no change in vowel shape, but a slight dip in intensity to mark the boundary

Anonymous

By the way, Japanese /u/ is unrounded

Damkerng T.

Ahh... probably just only the throat thing, not the lips. I think you're right.

Anonymous

20:26

But it does have lateral compression

Anonymous

Ahh, she's a really good singer :-)

Damkerng T.

nods :D

Anonymous

Her name is Takako Matsu (Japanese order: MATSU Takako)

Anonymous

I still habitually written given name before surname in English, although I've noticed lately people do it the other way around more often than they used to

Anonymous

I guess it's not an issue with Thai, since you put names in the same order as in English, right? :-)

Damkerng T.

20:30

I guess so. We just have a rather long name; that's all.

:D

Oh, she's beautiful too!

Hmm... why does her face look so familiar?

Is is possible that she is in some dorama or TV shows too?

Anonymous

→ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takako_Matsu#Filmography

Anonymous

That slight dip between the repeated vowels isn't always there

Damkerng T.

nods

Anonymous

So for example, tamago o (with the を "wo" accusative case marker written here as o) is typically pronounced /tamago:/

Anonymous

With a long vowel at the end

Anonymous

20:33

You have to get used to hearing that particle as part of long vowels

Anonymous

Do you know what tamago means?

Damkerng T.

No.

Anonymous

Egg! :-)

Damkerng T.

Ahh!

Anonymous

So たまごを tamago o is "egg (direct object)"

Damkerng T.

20:35

Do they raise the tone of this を?

Anonymous

It forms a single phonological word with たまご

Anonymous

I think the pitch would be taMAgoo

Anonymous

Some words have more than one possible pitch accent pattern, and that is one of them

Damkerng T.

Ahh... tamagotchi

Anonymous

Let's see if we can find someone saying 卵を産む (tamago o umu "lay egg(s)")

Anonymous

20:38

►

Damkerng T.

Oh, that's fast!

Anonymous

That is spoken pretty clearly, so you can see the を is actually pronounced distinctly

Anonymous

The basic unit of Japanese, psychologically speaking, is the mora, and long vowels can always be separated into halves

Anonymous

ta MA go o

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. All I did was search Youtube for 卵を産む :-)

Anonymous

20:40

Kin is "gold" and mendori is "female bird [hen]"

Damkerng T.

It's more like it's for children than Japanese learners, I think.

Anonymous

Japanese has a pair of old morphemes me- and o- which mean female and male, and tori is bird.

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. I didn't watch the video past the point where they say たまごを :-)

Anonymous

Let's see.

Damkerng T.

LOL

Anonymous

20:41

Ah, it looks like it's for kanji practice!

Anonymous

They show a word written in kanji in context then wait before pronouncing it

Damkerng T.

Oh!

Anonymous

Oh! The hen laid a golden egg :-)

Damkerng T.

The story is quite familiar.

Anonymous

This story is kin no tamago o umu mendori "the hen that lays golden eggs"

Anonymous

20:42

In English, I would have expected "the goose that laid the golden egg"

Anonymous

Listen at 0:33

Anonymous

She pronounces /kiNiro/ "golden colored"

Anonymous

That's with the moraic placeless nasal /N/

Anonymous

ki N i ro

Anonymous

You can hear how in this case it's realized as a nasalized vowel, right?

Damkerng T.

20:44

I'm listening to 0:35, I think it sounds like tamago(w)o.

@snailboat Oh, yes, I can hear it!

Anonymous

In tamago, the pitch accent is usually on ma.

Anonymous

The basic Japanese pitch accent pattern is this:

Anonymous

Every word has 0 or 1 accented morae.

Anonymous

If there's an accent, there's a DROP after the accented mora.

Damkerng T.

But wait, if you didn't tell me, I think I will hear it as kiiro.

Anonymous

20:45

so tama↓go

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. It's tricky. You have to distinguish it from kiiro, because that is also a word ("yellow-colored")

Anonymous

The other rule is: in normal speech, every word changes from high to low, or low to high after the first mora.

Anonymous

So! The possible pitch patterns look like this:

Anonymous

HLLLLLLLLLLL
LHLLLLLLLLLL
LHHLLLLLLLLL
LHHHLLLLLLLL
LHHHHLLLLLLL
LHHHHHLLLLLL
LHHHHHHLLLLL
LHHHHHHHLLLL
LHHHHHHHHLLL (etc.)

Damkerng T.

Oh!

Anonymous

20:48

That's if a word contains an accent.

Anonymous

If it doesn't contain an accent, then it looks like this: LHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Anonymous

So in our たまご tamago, we know the accent is on the SECOND mora

Anonymous

and we end up with LHL

Anonymous

taMAgo

Anonymous

If we add to the word by adding particles like を, then

Anonymous

20:48

taMAgo o

Anonymous

They're low, too.

Anonymous

There are a few particles which carry distinctive intonation, however.

Anonymous

But that's usually discussed separately.

Anonymous

When you listen to Japanese words, listen for their melodies.

Anonymous

Every word has one.

Anonymous

20:50

(Some words have some variation, so be willing to accept that, too :-)

Damkerng T.

I will. :D

Anonymous

Of course, this idea must be familiar to you, since you've already done the same listening to English! Although English is a little different in that respect

Anonymous

Oh, no!

Anonymous

This story has a tragic ending

Damkerng T.

The golden egg?

Anonymous

20:55

Yep :-) I just hit play to let it finish

Anonymous

I guess it's the same story I heard as a child

Damkerng T.

I guess it's rather like the English version. :)

Anonymous

The Goose That Laid the Golden Eggs

To kill the Goose That Laid the Golden Eggs is an idiom used of an unprofitable action motivated by greed. It refers to one of Aesop's Fables, numbered 87 in the Perry Index. The story and its moral Avianus and Caxton tell different stories of a goose that lays a golden egg, where other versions have a hen, as in Townsend: "A cottager and his wife had a Hen that laid a golden egg every day. They supposed that the Hen must contain a great lump of gold in its inside, and in order to get the gold they killed it. Having done so, they found to their surprise that the Hen differed in no respect...

Anonymous

They mention that sometimes it's a hen!

Damkerng T.

Poor goose!

Oh, そしてまた ~ also.

Anonymous

20:59

By the way, as a result of the pitch patterns discussed above

Anonymous

Pitch ends up being a very important way of telling where words begin in Japanese

Damkerng T.

It seems so!

Isn't that like how modems work? :-)

Anonymous

Well, Japanese isn't actually binary in pitch :-)

Anonymous

I'm sure you noticed all sorts of pitch contours

Damkerng T.

I think there are two patterns that could complicate the matter: HLLLLLLLLLLL and LHLLLLLLLLLL.

@snailboat nods

Anonymous

21:01

But in terms of lexical accent, it's often described as being low-high.

Anonymous

In fact, the pitch doesn't have to rise (but typically does)

Anonymous

The only part that's necessary to distinguish words / sound natural is to have the downstep

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. This is true, and as in other languages you end up having to listen for word boundaries based on words you know exist in the language

Anonymous

That part, I think, is something you learn to do automatically

Damkerng T.

nods -- It must be doable, otherwise native speakers wouldn't understand each other. :)

Anonymous

21:04

But for example in the hen video, at 0:53 you can hear omotta ijo:-ni takaku uremashita

Anonymous

And based on the pitch, you can hear it divided into four phonological words

Anonymous

(It's five "words", though: the particle -ni there is normally considered a separate word, but it's pronounced as part of the preceding word it attaches to)

Anonymous

You can also hear the sentence dwindle down to a falling pitch at the end, as declarative sentences so often do

Damkerng T.

This is typical for most particles, I think.

Anonymous

Yes

Anonymous

21:06

In Japanese, most particles attach like that.

Anonymous

In terms of pronunciation, they become part of the preceding word.

Anonymous

But in terms of syntax, people wouldn't like to consider them suffixes.

Anonymous

(I feel like I just wrote a sentence that sounds non-native.)

Damkerng T.

Japanese themselves?

Anonymous

Syntacticians.

Damkerng T.

21:07

Ahh

Anonymous

As far as native speaker intuition goes, it's influenced by whatever grammatical theories are taught.

Damkerng T.

What does it sound non-native? Because of the wouldn't?

Anonymous

Yeah, I think so.

Anonymous

I don't know what's wrong with my brain today :-)

Damkerng T.

I see.

Anonymous

21:08

Maybe "People would prefer not to consider them suffixes" is better

Anonymous

Well, I do still have a fever.

Anonymous

So please bear with me if I'm operating below capacity :-)

Damkerng T.

Hehe.

Anonymous

Hashimoto's grammar was very influential in Japan, and it taught that they do form single words.

Anonymous

That is, Hashimoto considered the bunsetsu (phonological word) the primary unit of Japanese grammar.

Damkerng T.

21:10

I can't really detect any difference, if exists.

That makes sense.

Anonymous

But if you actually talk about Japanese grammar as though this is true, lots of people call you on it.

Damkerng T.

Oh!

Anonymous

Some of them out of ignorance. One person I talked to said that only one Western grammarian ever considered Japanese particles to be affixes

Anonymous

Which is, well, false :-)

Anonymous

There are linguists who still do. But they don't have the mainstream mindshare these days.

Anonymous

21:11

In terms of pronunciation, you can definitely think of them as attaching like suffixes.

Anonymous

There's just a couple complications

Anonymous

Some of these suffixes are accent-canceling, removing the accent from the previous word

Anonymous

Either optionally or obligatorily

Anonymous

And some have their own distinct intonation patterns.

Damkerng T.

Hmm...

Anonymous

21:13

These aren't generally taught to learners, but you can pick them up naturally with your ear

Damkerng T.

Perhaps all particles are not equal.

Anonymous

That is a good perhaps.

Anonymous

One accusation leveled at the "particle" category of grammar is that it's a wastebasket category--people lump too many unlike things together and call them all by that name! :-)

Damkerng T.

Haha.

Anonymous

In Japanese grammar, depending on whose theory you follow, there are eight-ish categories of particle.

Anonymous

21:14

Again for some reason this is not usually taught to learners, who end up learning that they're all "particles"

Anonymous

Which I think is too bad, really

Damkerng T.

Oh. You mean not knowing that will trouble them in some ways?

Anonymous

Yes.

Anonymous

You need to have a clear mental picture of where you can use each sort of particle.

Anonymous

The categories are somewhat arbitrary, though--even within categories, the particles aren't all alike

Anonymous

21:16

(Although perhaps a more coherent categorization could be made...)

Anonymous

The most basic sort of particle is the case particle.

Anonymous

Case particles typically attach to a noun phrase, and mark the relationship between this NP and the following predicate

Damkerng T.

Like wo.

Anonymous

Yes, that marks a direct object.

Anonymous

Ga marks a subject.

Anonymous

21:17

Ni marks an indirect object.

Anonymous

Ga, wo, ni are the most central case particles.

Anonymous

No is the only one traditionally referred to as a case particle which doesn't link to a following predicate.

Anonymous

No is the genitive particle, like the English clitic 's

Anonymous

No typically links a noun phrase to a following noun phrase

Anonymous

So we could generalize and say:

Anonymous

21:19

A case particle marks a NP, linking it to the following predicate or another NP

Anonymous

So I think you're at least somewhat familiar with this class of particle

Anonymous

They generally show a syntactic relationship with something that follows.

Anonymous

Completely different is the discourse particle, like yo

Damkerng T.

I couldn't think of a real example.

Anonymous

Yo appears at the end of a sentence and asserts that the sentence contains information the speaker thinks the listener doesn't have, or that the speaker feels strongly about

Anonymous

21:21

It doesn't mark any kind of syntactic relationship. It attaches to sentences, not to noun phrases. And it has distinctive pitch contours, unlike the case particles.

Anonymous

In fact, it has pretty much nothing in common with ga, o, or ni, besides them both being called "particles" :-)

Anonymous

(What does the label mean, then? A function word which does not inflect is a typical definition, I think. They do have this in common.)

Damkerng T.

Ah, this kind of yo particle is easy for me.

Anonymous

Yo can have rising or falling intonation.

Anonymous

You'll hear it a lot.

Anonymous

21:23

(Some people might talk about even more subtle distinctions in intonation, but I'm not confident enough to explain those here.)

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. A real example of what?

Anonymous

A case particle?

Anonymous

Watashi-no tamago "My egg"

Damkerng T.

Of no.

Anonymous

The story we watched was titled kin no tamago o umu mendori

Anonymous

21:25

Kin is gold, so Kin-no tamago is lit. "egg of gold" = "golden egg"

Anonymous

> [ [ kin-no tamago ]-o umu ] mendori

Anonymous

Kin-no tamago "golden egg" is marked as a direct object with -o

Damkerng T.

Oh, it's parsed like that?!

Anonymous

Notice that both case particles link to something that follows.

Anonymous

-no links kin to tamago

Anonymous

21:27

-o links kin-no tamago to the following verb umu

Anonymous

[ kin-no tamago ]-o umu　　＝　　lay [ egg of gold ] (literally)

Anonymous

And then this entire clause is placed before the noun mendori "hen"

Anonymous

That makes it a relative clause!

Anonymous

Roughly half of all Japanese sentences contain relative clause.

Anonymous

In this case, it plays the missing subject role:

Anonymous

21:29

mendori-ga [ kin-no tamago ]-o umu　　　　　　　　"The hen lays golden eggs"

Anonymous

[ ________ [ kin-no tamago ]-o umu ] mendori　　 "The hen [ (that/which) ____ lays golden eggs ]"

Damkerng T.

Japanese is like English in reversed. :D

Anonymous

I'm trying to make it line up, but it's hard :-)

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. Exactly!

Anonymous

I did it! (At least on my screen :-)

Damkerng T.

21:32

Yatta!

Anonymous

やったね＾＾

Anonymous

That's yatta ne!

Anonymous

Ne is a very commonly used discourse particle with no direct translation, but it's associated with agreement, often used when eliciting agreement from a listener, but is used in many other contexts as well

Anonymous

Maybe you can get it intuitively thanks to Thai

Anonymous

My yatta ne was a response to your yatta :-)

Damkerng T.

21:33

nods

Anonymous

So you can see the relative clause has no subject (marked with ga).

Anonymous

Japanese relative clauses have the following features:

Anonymous

1. The location of the gap is entirely unmarked. You can't tell what sort of role the head noun plays except from context.

Anonymous

2. There are no relative pronouns or subordinators like that or which

Anonymous

They are very simple. You just put a clause before a noun. :-)

Anonymous

21:35

That's it!

Damkerng T.

:)

Anonymous

[ lay golden eggs ] hen

Damkerng T.

It works nicely. :D

Anonymous

Is it anything like Thai?

Damkerng T.

Hmm...

I think it's a little different.

It's kind of things (nouns, adjectives, ...) are floating around.

You can put them sequentially and let the reader/listener makes sense of the sequence themselves.

Anonymous

21:37

Oh, hmm

Anonymous

Oh, in Japanese, a pre-noun adjective is indistinguishable from a relative clause

Damkerng T.

You can suggest some kind of structure with some words, and it will work pretty much like in English.

Anonymous

You can put a clause before a noun.

Anonymous

You can put an adjective before a noun!

Anonymous

You can put a noun before a noun, as long as you connect them with no :-)

Damkerng T.

21:37

You can bind them other ways too.

Anonymous

Oh, how so? You do have relative words in Thai, right?

Damkerng T.

Yes, that's when it works rather like English.

I think this is not the core of our language.

That must have acquired it at some point in our history, through translations I believe.

Anonymous

Oh yeah?

Anonymous

Westernization, y'think?

Damkerng T.

It's not like that. I think it happened before that. Through trading and cultural exchanges, I think.

Anonymous

21:40

Japanese has acquired some grammatical structures from translation. The modern passive is sometimes referred to as "the translation-ese passive"

Anonymous

Linguists usually call it the "direct passive".

Anonymous

Oh, in Japanese, the word most similar to English "like" is morphologically a nominal adjective

Anonymous

And the grammar is very unlike English

Damkerng T.

Even putting words in sequence is also tricky.

Anonymous

You would say [watashi-wa] X-no-koto-ga suki[-da]

Damkerng T.

21:42

Most people (native Thai speakers too) think that we have a particular order of words, but I think it's much more flexible than that.

Anonymous

Marking the object of "liking" (X) as though it's a subject, with -ga

Anonymous

But due to English influence, some people now treat suki like it's a verb and use the direct object particle, o!

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. Ahh

Anonymous

Linguists sometimes debate whether languages with free word order have a basic word order

Damkerng T.

See, what do you think I mean if I just say, "hen gold egg"?

No affixes, no particles, just words in sequence.

Anonymous

21:43

Hmm. I would guess there are two noun phrases "hen" and "gold egg", and a verb is missing, possibly placing them as subject and object

Anonymous

Or, if there's no omitted verb, then it would just be a phrase

Anonymous

And they would have some noun-to-noun relationship like "hen's gold egg"

Damkerng T.

I think I can phrase the kin no tamago o umu mendori in Thai with three words. ไก่ไข่ทองคำ　~ [hen-egg-gold].

And most of us will understand what it means.

Anonymous

Is that the most typical way of expressing it?

Damkerng T.

If I twist the order a bit, to ไข่ไก่ทองคำ　~ [egg-hen-gold], it will mean something else: "hen's gold egg"

@snailboat I believe it's the most typical way.

But we could make it long (we prefer something long)...

ไก่ที่ออกไข่เป็นทองคำ　~ [hen-that-lay-egg-as-gold]

What I think is this...

It's easy to learn Thai, given that we want to construct understandable sentences.

But it's very difficult to think of all the possibilities to arrange the words.

Anonymous

21:49

What happened with ไข่เป็นท and ไข่ท? It seems like the end of that word changed

Anonymous

Oh, wait

Damkerng T.

This might be better: ไก่ ที่ ออก ไข่ เป็น ทองคำ

Anonymous

I thought for a minute เป็น might be an infix inserted into ไข่ท :-)

Damkerng T.

ไก่ ~ egg, ที่ ~ at/that, ออก ~ out/lay, ไข่ ~ egg, เป็น ~ is/as, ทองคำ ~ gold

It's not an infix. :D

Anonymous

What is ท?

Damkerng T.

21:51

It's just a letter. Its sound is similar to /t/.

So, ไข่ท has no meaning. It will look like a typo. ไข่, with a ท.

Anonymous

Oh!

Anonymous

I failed at figuring out the word boundaries :-)

Damkerng T.

We usually write them without any spaces.

Anonymous

Japanese is like that, but there you have kanji to indicate word boundaries most of the time.

Anonymous

Actually, Latin and Greek letters used to be used without spaces.

Damkerng T.

21:54

(I'm sorry. I wasn't careful enough. It could potentially be a problem indeed.)

@snailboat Oh! That's new to me!

Anonymous

Scriptio continua

Scriptio continua ("Continuous script" in Latin; also scriptura continua) is a style of writing without word dividers, that is, without spaces or other marks between words or sentences. In the West, the oldest Greek and Latin inscriptions use word dividers, but these are rare in the later periods when scriptio continua becomes the norm (in Classical Greek and late Classical Latin). By around 1000 AD, alphabetical texts in Europe are written with spaces between words. Scriptio continua is still in use in Thai, other Southeast Asian abugidas (Javanese, Balinese, Sundanese script), and in lan...

Anonymous

Damkerng T.

That looks like it's in English!

Scriptio continua - Cool!

Anonymous

Since so many words in English are from Latin, if you know English, you can make out quite a bit of Latin with only a little training :-)

Anonymous

21:56

I mean, if you didn't know what scriptio continua meant, you'd be able to figure it out, right?

Anonymous

Even though Latin is grammatically quite unlike English

Damkerng T.

Hehe. That's quite true!

Anonymous

> Scriptio continua is still in use in Thai

Anonymous

So I see! :-)

Damkerng T.

Indeed!

This part of Wikipedia is accurate enough. :D

Anonymous

21:59

ANDLITERATEREADERSOFENGLISHCANRE
ADENGLISHEVENWHENITSWRITTENLIKET
HISALTHOUGHMOSTOFUSWOULDPREFERN
OTTOBECAUSEWEARENTUSEDTOIT

Damkerng T.

ITHINKIAGREE!

Anonymous

アカヒゲ can refer to a type of cute bird: suntory.co.jp/eco/birds/encyclopedia/72.html — snailboat ♦ 5 hours ago

Anonymous

@snailboat I like that you say "type of cute bird" rather than "cute type of bird". — Earthliŋ 5 hours ago

Anonymous

Oh, no! Which is it? :-)

Anonymous

"Type of cute bird" or "cute type of bird"? :-)

Damkerng T.

22:00

Doesn't "cute type" sound odd in English?

Anonymous

I don't know anymore :-)

Damkerng T.

lol

Anonymous

Hopefully no one makes me give up my native speaker's license

Damkerng T.

In any case, the bird does look cute.

They must refer to this movie, I think.

Hmm... Probably not this one.

BBL

Anonymous

22:19

Ah, I don't know the movie

Anonymous

I have some Kurosawa DVDs I've never watched

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