DLAB Cross-Linguistic Comparison Flashcards

Hawaiian has only 8 consonants (p, k, ʔ, m, n, l, w, h) and 5 vowels. English has about 24 consonants and 14+ vowels. What does Hawaiian's smaller inventory mean for its syllable structure?

Answer: It has simpler syllable structure (mostly CV) with longer words

With fewer phonemes, Hawaiian needs more syllables per word to maintain enough distinctions. Hawaiian uses simple CV syllable structure (no consonant clusters, no closed syllables). This means Hawaiian words tend to be longer: 'humuhumunukunukuapuaʻa' (a fish name) versus English's compact monosyllables.

In German, all nouns are capitalized: 'der Hund' (the dog), 'das Buch' (the book). In English, only proper nouns are capitalized. This is a difference in:

Answer: Orthographic convention

Noun capitalization in German is an orthographic (writing system) convention, not a linguistic feature. The sounds, meanings, and grammar of German nouns would be the same without capitalization. Different languages have different writing conventions that don't affect the spoken language.

Swahili noun classes group nouns by semantic category with matching agreement: 'm-toto m-zuri' (cl.1: child good) vs. 'ki-tabu ki-zuri' (cl.7: book good). What linguistic feature is this?

Answer: Noun class system with concordial agreement

Swahili has a noun class system (18+ classes) where the class prefix on the noun determines agreement prefixes on adjectives, verbs, and other elements. Class 1 'm-' triggers 'm-' on the adjective; class 7 'ki-' triggers 'ki-.' This is far more elaborate than European two/three-gender systems.

English marks questions with word order change and/or intonation: 'She is happy' → 'Is she happy?' Mandarin Chinese adds a particle: 'Tā gāoxìng' → 'Tā gāoxìng ma?' Which strategy is more common worldwide?

Answer: Question particles (like Mandarin)

Question particles are more common worldwide than subject-auxiliary inversion. Many languages (Japanese, Korean, Turkish, Mandarin) use sentence-final particles for yes/no questions. English's inversion strategy is actually less common globally and mostly found in European languages.

In Russian, adjectives agree with nouns in gender, number, and case: 'krasiv-aya devushk-a' (beautiful-FEM.SG.NOM girl-FEM.SG.NOM). English adjectives don't change form at all: 'beautiful girl.' What does Russian's system provide?

Answer: Redundancy that aids comprehension, especially in complex sentences with free word order

Agreement morphology creates redundancy — the same information (gender, number, case) appears on multiple words. While seemingly redundant, this helps listeners correctly parse sentences, especially with Russian's free word order. If you miss one marker, others still signal the relationship.

Thai has no verb conjugation: 'phom kin' = 'I eat,' 'khao kin' = 'he eats,' 'phom kin mua-wan' = 'I ate yesterday.' How does Thai express tense?

Answer: Through context, time words, and aspect particles

Thai expresses time through context, explicit time words (mua-wan = yesterday), and optional aspect particles rather than verb morphology. The verb form never changes. Many Southeast Asian languages work similarly, relying on pragmatic and lexical means rather than inflection.