| dual pronouns |
[Dec. 27th, 2009|08:45 pm] |
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Would it be unusual to have dual pronouns such as "the two of us" if your conlang typically only has a single or plural number?
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| Crossposted from my own journal |
[Dec. 26th, 2009|02:12 pm] |
Someone reading the old Babel Text translation into Nuirn to an accompaniment of industrial noise. The pronunciation goes quite astray. Part of the difficulty was occasioned by the langmaker site itself where this was preserved; that site's code would not display 'þ' properly ten years ago when the text was submitted, so both it and muted 't' appear as 'th'.
http://ia301530.us.archive.org/2/items/GlebMaltsevBabelo_1/PICHISMOBabelo23_Nuirn.mp3
Slightly corrected source text, a rendition of Genesis 11:1-9:
Annúr hædde an viheilen véird le haonur tál yn ath upsanna uôrda. Yn dym fáranai deffrá'n oeste, quammanai a'r an lándu na Sìnar, yn þider stodanai. Yn aidden le haonur a'r upsannam, "Dá vineath. Gceirem na'r teglene, yn viheilenne brenne lem. Yn haddanai tegle æpt stéinn, yn stickem æpt meuerbrycke. Yn aidden, "Dá vineath. Byggem óss stadan, yn teuer le'h an stáng-sa i himri, yn gceirem namn æptensi, ne øfver an viheiles veirdes flattana sæmenest'ui. Quam an Drottan an, forat seen stadan ga'n teuern, som byggde 'n manlungar. Yn aidde 'n Drottan, Sé pá seónan haonur folc, yn hannai haonur tál; yn sy þæt nur an børghenn n'alle som gceirennei; inget som hugainnei sca blian ungceirsem le'm. Vinnem'ui; stithe vóss an, yn tuiflemui an tálar-sa, ne forstáhannai le haonur an tál n'elleres. Dá, sæmed an Drottan dom øfver yn frá dem þeirc an héla na véirde, yn stinteney at byggen an stad. Dá hetistet Babel, for thonna som tuiflede 'n Drottan an tála na héla véirdes, yn deffrá þider sæmed an Drottan dom øfver yn frá dem þeirc an héla na véirde.
For those who care, the first sentence should sound more like:
əˈnuːɹ hæɖ ən vɪˈheːlən vɛɪɾd lə hønˠɹ̩ tɔl ɪnə ˈtʊpsanə wuːrdə |
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| Loan / Import words? |
[Dec. 24th, 2009|06:58 am] |
So, I'm working on another conlang (trying this one from a different "angle" so to speak) and (in brief) I have a noun class reserved for [1] Proper nouns (for inflection purposes), [2] Specialized terminology (for science and medicine and such) and import / loan words.
Well I got to thinking, how often do import words appear in constructed languages? What would be good to constitute a loan word? As it's already synthetic, I get to bypass the actual process by which a word is "adopted" into a language. Thus far I have dubbed miracle whip (dictionary building for me involves me just expressing whatever I happen to be doing) a loan word. Although Sandwich Spread can of course be properly expressed I don't think product names really translate well (and how else do you describe that stuff?).
Anyway, do you (guys / gals / beings) use loan or import words in your conlangs? Do you take them from natural languages? Any other thoughts on them? |
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| Alvnëan |
[Dec. 24th, 2009|01:17 am] |
Alotica! (that is, 'Hello')
Hello everyone. I've been developing and perfecting my conlang for four to five years now. After all this time I'm finally ready to share it, but as I've never shared this with anyone, I'm looking for a place and community to post it on. Does anyone know of a place to host it? To share it? Would anyone want to look at it? I'm glad to find a community about my passion ^o^. |
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| Grammar sketch for a polysynthetic conlang: am I doing this right? |
[Dec. 23rd, 2009|03:47 pm] |
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| |  curious | ] |
Okay, let me just say a few things. Although this is not my first attempt at a conlang of any sort (far from it), it is my first time with a polysynthetic language. I'd, first of all, like to know if everything seems...right and/or makes sense. Second, and I know this seems out of the blue, but something of key importance is that I need to be able to say, for instance, 'inanimate object-turned-human' or 'human being-turned-abstract concept' with relative ease.
Without further ado, here is what I have so far. Phonology I will work out soon, after I know that the grammar makes sense. I have a system of sound symbolism worked out in chart forms, but not an actual inventory of phonemes for the language.
( Lots more under the cut... ) |
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| Na'vi language -- partial description... |
[Dec. 21st, 2009|08:52 am] |
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I don't know what's going on with the links I just posted -- they worked yesterday, but today they return only 404s. However, if you go to Google and type -- "Some highlights of Na'vi" Language Log -- in the search box you can get to the article. |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 20th, 2009|01:30 am] |
One of my conlangs (which is as of yet unnamed) is intended to be a special-purpose pidgin which makes use of only a limited array of sounds. Originally it was spelled with only 15 letters (a, e, f, i, j, k, l, n, o, p, r, s, t, u, w). More recently I have considered the use of another 4 with limited frequency (b, c, h, y) for a bit more variety, though some or all may not make the cut. [I also considered, early on, using "h" as a sigh-like pseudovowel, but that might be problematic for some people and violates the semi-Germanic tone I was going for.]
Anyway, I have noticed that all of the words which I have experimented with using fit into just a few fairly complex but very restricted patterns; for example, 'jept' (which I have been using to mean 'gossip') fits perfectly within the "three-consonant" pattern whereas 'apolp' violates it in 3 different ways (the word starts with a vowel, L's never follow vowels, and P is used twice). Note that each pattern does not follow the same set of "rules". And that I didn't create any of those patterns on purpose, or at least not consciously - probably just an overzealous drive to give it a particular flavor.
( Read the other 5/8ths of this ) |
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| How many phonemes are there in the world? |
[Dec. 18th, 2009|01:52 am] |
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The IPA has only 100 some phonemes, if I understand correctly. But there are clearly more sounds than this in all the spoken languages of the world. One language of Africa has 40+ clicks in it alone. I would be interested to know how many there are total, and I would REALLY be interested in being able to hear them all. |
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| BBC program on conlangs... |
[Dec. 17th, 2009|11:00 am] |
I've just done a thirty-minute interview about LAadan for the BBC, as part of a segment they were doing on conlangs; other guests on the segment included Arika Okrent, author of _In the Land of Invented Languages_, someone talking about Klingon, and perhaps a few more. The interview went very well; however, I have no idea how much of the thirty minutes will actually be used.
The show is called "Word of Mouth", and this episode goes out on 5 January at 16:00 [GMT]; you can also listen again for a week at the Radio 4 website which is www.bbc.co.uk/radio4 . |
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| Are you fluent in your Conlang? |
[Dec. 16th, 2009|03:31 pm] |
I hate to keep dominating this board, but no one else seems to post much. ;-)
I was just wondering how many of you are actually fluent in your own conlang. I want to become fluent in mine, which is part of the reason I'm not straying too far from the grammatical structures I'm most familiar with (those of English, Spanish, French and Hebrew). My vocabulary has a few loanwords but mostly I'm making that up on my own. Vocabulary has always been easy for me to learn, but grammar is another story.
Anyway, how did you reach your degree of fluency? I assume it's just like learning any other language. You would think that since a conlang is your own creation, it would be easier to learn, but I'm finding that doesn't really seem to be the case. |
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