Introducing Mashish and conlang survey correction

Corrections:
Sorry I spelled your name wrong (blushing).
It should be H. S. Teoh and also

> Base number
> 10:  45%
> 20:  3%
> Others:
> 3 - Ebisidean
[snip]

>That's spelt "Ebisedian", please. :-)
BTW, does anybody live near or in Las Vegas?  I'm
going to be there the next couple of weeks.  I've
never actually seen another conlanger's work (other
than on the internet) and I'm really curious to
actually hold somebody else's conlang in my own hands.

Mashish:

I don't know how to explain how the phonetics are
pronounced.  While the phonetics have specific ways of
pronunciation, I don't know SAMPA or anything like
that.

> > "Kulok`u" is pronounced "Kulo", but "Kulok-" is
> > considered to be the noun's root.
>
> Interesting. So the written word is different from
> the spoken word?
Well, most.  Spelling is very strait forward and
accurate.  But what's the fun in that?  So I have a
couple of, well, not exceptions, but they're close.
One is in the example above.  Another is with compound
words.  So . . .
cha = nature
n`an`a = jewel
When compounded, the n is assimilated and presto!
chan`aa = flower
(And oops, just discovered another of my broken vowel
harmony rules.  Slippery things, . . .)
Anyway, the "`a" in chan`aa is really considered to be
over-environmentalized by the strong vowel "a" so both
together are pronounced "a".
Sometimes there are words that just add a extra strong
vowel to the end for no reason (druzhduu - doom) and
sometimes a short vowel-strong vowel combination
occurs for no reason (shm`een~ - oil).  If the short
and long vowels are different from each other, strong
vowels rule.

> Very interesting idea. Is this purely emphatic (as
> in, emphasizing a
> sentence) or is it part of a noun (the "stronger"
> word actually means
> "professional chef" as opposed to "I know how to
> cook")?
Well, I've actually found it to be a really useful
tool, so I'm using it all sorts of ways.  In general,
tone means the opposite of "figurative language."  In
nouns, its really nothing but a definite article.  In
verbs, it implies "obvious action"  So, you don't want
to "tone" the verb "spy" when speaking of an agent
watching a suspect, unless you are emphasizing that
that agent is a clown who parked his camara in obvious
(!) view in the street.

In adj its a little more complicated.  Sometimes it is
a definite article, sometimes a comparative technique,
sometimes a strengthening of the word, and sometimes
it serves as an ironic purpose.  Like in another poem,
I was writing about golden apples, silver rings, honey
and oil, bitter and jealous and all these adj (honey
and oil considered to be adjs) represented words and
the power of words.  So I toned these adj to emphasize
their meaning and contrast.  But tone as I had defined
it meant "the real meaning of the word" but in the
poem this couldn't be true because the "real" meaning
of "golden" was the elemental formula of gold.  But I
left it, because sometimes if one really emphasizes
one thing, the another is understood also.

I made Mashish because I was frustrated at the library
system. I couldn't find any books to teach me Sumerian
grammar, so I decided to create a "Sumerian" of my
own.  (Now I found a grammar, and I'm blushing as I
read it.)  I created a syllabary from Mashish, looking
just like cuneiform.  I even found the best way to
write those litte wedge things - glue sticks!  Tree
stick, reed sticks don't work, but just wittle those
craft hot glue sticks and wedge away!  Wish I knew
something about computers, I'd post an example.

Heather

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