Affiliate Notice
💡
The Amazon links on this site are affiliate links, which means that I earn a small commission from Amazon for purchases made through them (at no extra cost to you).
If you’d like to support Linguistic Discovery, purchasing through these links is a great way to do so! I greatly appreciate your support!
Check out my entire Amazon storefront here.
If you’d like to support Linguistic Discovery, purchasing through these links is a great way to do so! I greatly appreciate your support!
Check out my entire Amazon storefront here.
Conventions
ℹ️
How to read linguistics examples
Linguistics uses a special format for presenting examples that allows anybody to read and understand the example, even if they don’t know the language. This format is called an interlinear gloss. The number of lines can vary, but they are usually something like the example below.
A list of glossing abbreviations can be found here.
Linguistics uses a special format for presenting examples that allows anybody to read and understand the example, even if they don’t know the language. This format is called an interlinear gloss. The number of lines can vary, but they are usually something like the example below.
A list of glossing abbreviations can be found here.
| Line | Description |
|---|---|
| Central Alaskan Yup’ik (Inuit–Yupik–Unangan; Alaska) | A header with some language information, such as its family and where it is spoken |
| tuntussuqatarniksaitengqiggtuq | A transcription of the example in the language. |
| tuntu-ssur-qatar-ni-ksaite-ngqiggte-uq | A breakdown of the morphemes (meaningful parts like stems, prefixes, and suffixes) in each word. |
| reindeer-hunt-FUT-say-NEG-again-3SG:IND | The glosses (brief definitions) for each morpheme. Grammatical categories are glossed using Latinate technical terms and labeled in SMALL CAPS. The meanings of the abbreviations are usually provided in a footnote or table somewhere in the text. You can see the abbreviations used in Linguistic Discovery’s content here. |
| ‘He had not yet said again that he was going to hunt reindeer.’ | The translation for the example. |
| Payne (1997: 28) | The bibliographic source of the example. |
Early Access
This article is available early for paying subscribers. It will be made publicly available 6 months after the publication date.
If you’d like to read it early, become a Linguistic Discovery supporter!
✨ Perks ✨
- bonus articles/videos ➕
- early access to articles 👀
- early access to chapters of my book 📘
- support my mission to educate the public about the science and diversity of language! 💝
Price: $5/month (USD)
You can also subscribe on Substack if you prefer to use that platform instead. You’ll get all the same content and extras.
Not ready to become a supporter? Check out the entire archive of public posts here.
Read Online
💡
This post contains some special formatting. For a better reading experience, read this post in a browser instead.
Signup
Support
Unsubscribe
Video
Prefer a video version of this post? Watch here!