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<div class="">Begin forwarded message:</div>
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<span style="font-family: -webkit-system-font, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, sans-serif; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1.0);" class=""><b class="">From:
</b></span><span style="font-family: -webkit-system-font, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, sans-serif;" class="">"Arnold M. Zwicky" <<a href="mailto:zwicky@STANFORD.EDU" class="">zwicky@STANFORD.EDU</a>><br class="">
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<span style="font-family: -webkit-system-font, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, sans-serif; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1.0);" class=""><b class="">Subject:
</b></span><span style="font-family: -webkit-system-font, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, sans-serif;" class=""><b class="">Re: the platypus of languages</b><br class="">
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<span style="font-family: -webkit-system-font, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, sans-serif; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1.0);" class=""><b class="">Date:
</b></span><span style="font-family: -webkit-system-font, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, sans-serif;" class="">July 15, 2019 at 2:12:58 PM PDT<br class="">
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<span style="font-family: -webkit-system-font, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, sans-serif; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1.0);" class=""><b class="">To:
</b></span><span style="font-family: -webkit-system-font, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, sans-serif;" class=""><a href="mailto:ADS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU" class="">ADS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU</a><br class="">
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<span style="font-family: -webkit-system-font, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, sans-serif; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1.0);" class=""><b class="">Reply-To:
</b></span><span style="font-family: -webkit-system-font, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, sans-serif;" class="">American Dialect Society <<a href="mailto:ADS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU" class="">ADS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU</a>><br class="">
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<div class="">i know that it's annoying to repeat a requestion for information, but my experience is now that (for one reason or another) many people don't notice the first postings, so that it's only when i say i'm giving up my search that material starts
pouring in. (it's also true that i've been advised not to post requests on weekends -- and *never* on US holiday weekends -- because they'll go unnoticed.)
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on this topic, there seem to be two largely separate platypodal matters: one lexical, one morphosyntactic. i *think* the original query concerned English as a language with two strata of vocabulary (the writers seem to think this makes English extraordinary,
but in fact such languages are as common as sand). on the second, i *think* the reference is to wave rather than tree models of language relationships. but these are guesses; i haven't been able to consult any of the sources.<br class="">
<br class="">
i'm forwarding these exchanges to the language typology mailing list.<br class="">
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<blockquote type="cite" class="">On Jul 15, 2019, at 5:32 AM, ADSGarson O'Toole <<a href="mailto:adsgarsonotoole@GMAIL.COM" class="">adsgarsonotoole@GMAIL.COM</a>> wrote:<br class="">
<br class="">
Arnold M. Zwicky wrote:<br class="">
<blockquote type="cite" class="">a friend quotes this to me on Facebook:<br class="">
French was the swan, German the beaver, and thus English is the platypus of languages.<br class="">
new to me. i did find<br class="">
<a href="https://www.nerdonomy.com/the-platypus-of-languages/" class="">https://www.nerdonomy.com/the-platypus-of-languages/</a><br class="">
the Nerdonomy site, with a podcast "The Platypus of Languages" (not dated)<br class="">
this has probably been investigated here, but in case not...<br class="">
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<br class="">
Here is a different match for the same figure of speech.<br class="">
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Year: 2010<br class="">
Book: The Pleasures of Contamination: Evidence, Text, and Voice in<br class="">
Textual Studies<br class="">
Author: David C. Greetham<br class="">
Quote Page 159<br class="">
Publisher: Indiana University Press, Bloomington, Indiana<br class="">
<br class="">
[Begin excerpt]<br class="">
Germanic is, in stemmatic terms, unmappable with any consistency,<br class="">
since different features would place it in different positions: it is<br class="">
the duck-billed platypus of languages.<br class="">
[End excerpt]<br class="">
<br class="">
Garson<br class="">
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------------------------------------------------------------<br class="">
The American Dialect Society - <a href="http://www.americandialect.org" class="">
http://www.americandialect.org</a><br class="">
</blockquote>
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The American Dialect Society - <a href="http://www.americandialect.org" class="">
http://www.americandialect.org</a><br class="">
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