Dark Matter Doesn’t Exist, and other things I know better than experts

I wanted a place to put all my heresies, so here it is. The number in front of the items is my confidence. X/Y means it will be correct X times out of Y, and most of them will be greater than 1/2. The exact method I used to arrive at these numbers is by …

《廣東通志初稿》卷十四：風俗（方言）

註：句逗為我添加。如有錯漏，敬請見諒。 有方言、有方音、有俗字。廣人謂父曰「爹」、曰「爸」。母曰「媽」、曰「阿妞」。哥1嫂輙以「亞」先之、亦曰「阿如」。兄則曰「亞哥」、嫂曰「亞嫂」之類。叔舅亦然。児2女排行、亦先以「亞」。逰樂曰「則劇」。按朱子語類亦言「則劇」。閩廣有此語。問何如曰「點様」。詰人曰「蔑地」。無曰「毛」。移近曰「埋」。呼児曰「仔」。其不倹3者曰散仔。斥男女之賎者、男曰「獠」（《五代史．南漢世家》所謂「憝獠者」可証）、女曰「夫娘」。見輟耕錄4甚至以物形状、如子弟汰而不曉事者、曰「大頭蝦5」。至扵6外縣、每十里不同。如游7樂、南海曰「僊欣」、順徳曰「僊」、東莞曰「料」。新會指何處曰「蓬蓬」。此類皆方言也。廣城四聲皆無訛者、如「來」近「黎8」、「〩9」近「苟」、皆不甚相遠。惟東莞10謂「東」曰「凍」、是以平為去也、「筦」曰「官」、是以上為平也。香山城內大近正音、而差濁谷字。都黄、旗角則皆閩語、殊侏离11、如謂「人」曰「能」、是以真入蒸也。增12城有東、話語尤13竒偗14、謂屋曰竄15、是以入為上也。新會下海、東莞16南頭、謂刀曰「多」、是以豪入歌17也。此類皆方音也。范成《大虞衡18志》記19臨桂数字雖甚鄙野、而偏旁亦有依附。「⿱大坐」、音「穩」。大坐、穩也。「⿱不高」、音「矮」。不高、故矮也。亦作「⿱不長」。不長、亦矮也。「奀」、音「勒」。不大謂「瘦」也。「⿱石山」、音「磡」、山石之巖窟也。「閂」、音「扌褱20」、横関也。「氽」、音「酋」、人在水也。「氼」、音「魅21」、人沒入水下也。「閄」、和馘反、言隱身、忽出以驚人之聲也。「⿺毛口」、音「鬍」、毛口也。「井」、東敢反、以䂖撃水之聲也。今廣亦有之。又無曰「冇22」、音「耄」、謂與「有」相反也。季子曰「孻」、力求反、子之盡也。新會曰「屘」、極23命反、子之至尾者也。兩廣謂巖峝曰「⿱巾山」、亦龍反、兩山之間也。順徳謂石梗曰「䂖𬒔」、「盖」取諧聲。番禺、從化謂地之寬平者曰「慕24」、音「胤25」、則又無所取義。此俗字也。

Tangut prenasalization, pre-initial consonants, and rhyme book rhyme categories

Continuing from my last post on Tangut, Gong Xun (2022) re-interprets Gong Hwang-cherng's long vowels ("column 2 rhymes") in the "major cycle" as a nasal pre-initial. Evidently, the reason that GHC reconstructs long vowels for these rhymes is the fact that rhymes of the same "column" are used in Sanskrit transcriptions to transcribe Sanskrit long …

Tangut being a West Rgyalrongic language and the uvularization hypothesis

This conclusion is reached entirely based on one paper and the title of another: Uvulars and uvularization in Tangut phonology by Gong Xun (2020) and Tangut as a West Gyalrongic language by Lai Yunfan et al. (2020), which Gong Xun is coäuthor of. Introduction Tangut is a Trans-Himalayan (i.e. Sino-Tibetan) language spoken by the people …

Notes on Tangut phonology

First of all, a disclaimer: I am definitely not an expert. An interested layman, at best. But that said, here are some thoughts I had while reading Gong Xun's (GX's) Uvulars and uvularization in Tangut phonology (2020) and Nasal Preinitials in Tangut Phonology (2021). I'll say outright that GX's reïnterpretation of Gong Hwang-cherng's (henceforth GHC's) …

The FDA’s vaccine delay: What was the death toll?

A while ago, economist Garett Jones has suggested that the vaccine delay cost 100 thousand US lives. Here's the Atlantic kind-of-sort-of disagreeing. Who is right? I don't know. But in its article, the Atlantic brought up what I saw are 3 main points. From strongest to weakest, I would order them like so: 1. The …