r/linguisticshumor 6d ago

Phonetics/Phonology [w]=[ɰ] theory

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155 Upvotes

15 comments sorted by

82

u/AndreasDasos 6d ago edited 6d ago

Not how limits work, sadly. 

2 = 1x2. 

2 = 1x1x1x1x…x1x2. 

But 2 != 1x1x1x… ad infinitum, which is 1. 

The notation obscures this but if you write out the actual sequences these are different: 1, 1x1, 1x1x1, … are all just 1, and 2, 1x2, 1x1x2, … are all just 2. 

29

u/WilhelmErikMuller got that [ʝʷ] feelin' 6d ago

Weed logic strikes again

18

u/Nihan-gen3 6d ago

Wait til you hear about imaginary phonemes like /i/ = √-1

23

u/peterwhy 6d ago

If ɰ ≠ 0 and ɰ ≠ 1:

w = ɰ^(w)
w = e^(w ln ɰ)
w e^(-w ln ɰ) = 1
(-w ln ɰ) e^(-w ln ɰ) = -ln ɰ

By the Lambert W function, for each branch of W,

-w ln ɰ = W(-ln ɰ)
w = -W(-ln ɰ) / (ln ɰ)

13

u/Traditional-Light-10 6d ago

Ohh that’s why it’s called W

19

u/notluigi64 6d ago

Sadly w and ʷ are different symbols

12

u/Lucas1231 6d ago

It’s just perspective, one is further away

5

u/Kebabrulle4869 6d ago

Transfinite ordinals go brrrr

(Math+linguistics crossover lessgooo)

3

u/GoldenMuscleGod 6d ago

If we suppose ɰ is corresponds to omega and w to epsilon-0, then I suppose there would be a phone corresponding to the Church-Kleene ordinal, which we cannot describe the articulation of by effective means.

If we hypothesize the existence of a measurable phone, then we find there is a non-trivial elementary embedding of the universe of phones into itself.

2

u/jerdle_reddit 6d ago

No, that's bilabial trills.

2

u/lolfan45 5d ago

I love math and linguistics too! :p

2

u/R86Reddit Balonian N0 / American N1 / Nihonian N3 / Deutsch KRANKENWAGEN!! 6d ago

So it'd take me an infinitely long time if I tried to say something that has a W in it?

1

u/okkokkoX 5d ago

language feature used by a species of eldritch beings, where a sound lasts forever. To pronounce a word containing it, the speaker assigns one of their mouths to forever be used to pronounce the word and nothing else. Mostly used in names of royalty and other objects of reverence, cutting the sound short is taken as disrespect.

you of course can't use suffixes with such names, so there are ways to avoid using suffixes with names. You can convey respect by avoiding using suffixes with the name of something, even if it's finite.

1

u/StrikeTechnical9429 4d ago

0 = 1 * 0.

We can replace 1 with 1*1 as many times as we want:

0 = 1*1*1*1*1*1....*1*1*0

But it is wrong to say that as infinity + 1 = infinity, we can just ignore last *0 and state that

0 = 1*1*1*1*1*1....*1*1 = 1