Talk:Conlang/Beginner/Words

-able
-able is an awkward example, because "able" is a word, though with a somewhat different meaning from the suffix. --Pi zero (talk) 19:54, 9 November 2010 (UTC)

Vocabulary
The second paragraph of this section, dealing with differences between meanings, treats words as if each had only one meaning, which does not mesh well with the point from the first paragraph about words having multiple meanings. --Pi zero (talk) 20:01, 9 November 2010 (UTC)

"hip hop" example unclear
Why is there a "hip hop" in the "hizouse" example? Could someone clarify?

--Pg4919 (discuss • contribs) 14:46, 7 April 2020 (UTC)


 * The infix -iz- is not a general English thing; it's specifically to hip-hop. I wonder if we should add a hip hop entry to the glossary. --Pi zero (discuss • contribs) 15:35, 7 April 2020 (UTC)

"Latin is a language with relatively few different words" might need more nuance
Yes, I agree. Latin has few basic word stems. It forms most of its meaning through clever combinations of these words and a plethora of grammatical applications, with most verbs able to take multiple meanings depending on the form of its accompanying nouns. Still, look at any Latin dictionary and you'll find it absurdly weighty. This is indeed partly because of the many different functions any given word can take in specific hapaxly legomenonned situation and the many distinct examples that thus need to be given, but it is also partly due to the many variations on the same morphemes that are brought forth by agglutinative affixes and derivational morphology. Latin still has few morphemes, but it has words for days. Shouldn't we word this section differently, then? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2a02:a450:2825:1:d9f0:309d:c7e2:3b56 (talk • contribs) 22:02, 26 November 2020 (UTC)
 * I'm open to suggestions. The point being made ought to come out simple, but I don't disagree there's nuance to it.  Also keeping in mind this is the beginner level, which shouldn't prevent us from being accurate but does suggest we shouldn't expect our explanation to come out complicated.  Beware the term, btw, which iirc isn't beginner-level. --Pi zero (discuss • contribs) 23:14, 26 November 2020 (UTC)