There’s a slight factor, which Chris Lo has already pointed out in comments, but it’s only slight.
Spanish does not have length contrast in vowels or consonants. As a result it is syllable-timed, and it is spoken quite fast.
Italian has audible vowel length differences (stresses vs unstressed), and also long and short consonants. That makes it spoken a bit slower, and there’s more phonetic variety, which (for me) makes it a bit easier to pick out words.
The closest we have that I know of (and it’s really not very close at all) are the Pseudo-Dosithean Hermeneumata. They’re a third century AD Berlitz phrasebook of Greek and Latin. Nothing about language teaching methodology, and of course not much of a language teaching methodology is on display anyway.
I did find the following exchange in the Berlitz funny though:
Colloquium Harleianum:
23. Isn’t that Lucius who’s got my silver coins? Here he is. Then I’ll go and say hello to him. Hail, householder! Am I still not going to get back what you’ve owed me for so long? What are you talking about? You’re crazy. I lent you silver, and you call me crazy? You thief, don’t you know who I am? Why don’t you go look for whoever you made a loan to; I don’t owe you anything. You swear that to me. I’ll swear wherever you want me to; let’s go. Swear in the temple. By the God over here, you did not lend me a thing. Well, fair enough; it’s no good to doubt the word of a free man and householder.
24. And this animal-fighter is making fun of me? Let me go, and I’ll smash his teeth in. Yeah, well I’ll poke your eyes out. I can see what you would do to me. I’ll have you sent to jail, where you deserve to grow old. You’re making fun of me, you prison-guard. I don’t care what you do. You have a friend, and you’ll find one in me. Well said. OK, I forgive you.
… I dunno, maybe the Romans were onto something with their language teaching.
Supplemental to the list given by David Rosson (ah, your American bias is showing, David 🙂
Oh, and phoneticians’ papers look just like psychology papers. Four pages long, with graphs. Historical linguists’ papers are old-school chatty. Syntax papers have at least some pretence of rigour. The style of the papers lines up to the kinds of science (or Geistwissenschaft) their subdisciplines aspire to be.
As Patrick Ehlert has pointed out, some very popular topics are blocked from having MVW:
- How Much Does X Cost? (2.1K questions, 2.5K followers)
- Survey Question (253.5K questions, 28.4K followers)
- Quora Community (29.7K questions, 10.9K followers)
- Best of X (58.6K questions, 112.2K followers)
I remember seeing somewhere that “adult” topics don’t have MVW lists either. Nothing in Pornography or Porn Stars, for instance.
No, because the Roman and Greek letters for constants are treated as international standards: Greek is not going to rewrite E = mc[math]^2[/math] as Ε = μτ[math]^2[/math].
The very most you’ll see is High School algebra pretending x y are the Greek letters χ ψ through strategic use of Greek cursive.
What Konstantinos Konstantinides said, but recall that there are constraints on what topics have MVW lists. Refer:
If there aren’t 10 users posting more than 3 answers in a month on a topic, there is no point having a MVW list.
Anecdotally, some topics are banned from having MVW lists, as Patrick Ehlert’s answer to What determines whether a Quora topic has a “Most viewed writers” statistic associated with it? notes. For example, Survey Question. I remember seeing somewhere that “adult” topics don’t have MVW lists either. Nothing in Pornography or Porn Stars, for instance.
Otherwise, if there is reasonable traffic in a topic, the MVW list will come; I have seen it happen once (though devil knows where).
I assume there’s a prize at the end of this?
No?
Well, I wouldn’t win it anyway.
Grade: B-. Could do better.
OP; putting this question up because other Quorans have envied me my access to the IPA.
I have the following six keyboard layouts installed on my Mac:
ABC Extended gives me all the Eastern European diacritics as well as the Western. Australian gives me the extended punctuation signs I’m more familiar with from two decades of Mac use: ¡™£¢∞§¶ †°±«»… And because… Straya!
I was 8: it was the flight on which we returned to Greece from Australia for four years: 1979. Singapore Airlines, I believe.
I don’t remember much about the last time I flew to Sydney, let alone anything from the ’70s. But I do remember:
I can tell why the question was posed, which amuses me.
Clearly Quora is a Social Media site: there is interaction between members of the kind we recognise from Social Media. And clearly all respondents so far have said “duh, of course it is.”
But that was not the intent of The Founders. The Founders wanted a serious Expert forum, Enhancing the World’s Knowledge, and Able to Serve as a Substitute for Google and/or Wikipedia.
To The Founders, any of this socialising crap has been a distraction. If you wanted socialising, you know where to find Facebook. In fact, they know where to find Facebook, since that’s where they came from.
That’s why the Top Writer cabals are set up on Facebook, not here. That’s why the social media functionality on Quora is rudimentary. That’s why The Founders, if they had their way, would have done away with comments, and with the unwashed masses contributing.
(Because that worked out so well with Citizendium.)
(OK, that’s an unfair comparison; Quora weren’t seeking out academics as experts at the start: they were the experts themselves. Which is why in 2010, Quora was Silicon Valley and Startups, 24/7.)
The stated intent of The Founders was that it not be a Socialising site, and Quorans who agree with the Founders’ agenda take a dim view of “The Other Quora” (Indians using Quora much more like a Social Media site). The downgrading of comments (deletable, not sharable, not searchable) and Blogs (not googlable, hidden as a misfeature) are also consistent with this orientation.
The Earth however does continue to move. Eppur si muove.