Re: quantitative meter, accent and verse form

On Wed, 17 Apr 2002 17:49:22 -0400 Andreas Johansson <and_yo@...>
writes:
> Dan Jones wrote:
> >William Annis escreva:
> >>            1) if anyone has created any languages where vowel
> >>quantity is significant;
-

Actually, Rokbeigalmki has phonemic vowel quantity, although i didn't
originally plan to have it.
Rokbeigalmki vowels can come in three lengths:
'normal', ex. |a|  (plain vowel)
'accent-lengthened', ex. |á|  (vowel + rising accent mark)
'tilde-lengthened', ex. |ã|  (vowel + tilde)

Accent-lengthened vowels are found in the stressed syllable(s) of names
(which is why names are always marked for their accented syllable), and
in the last vowelled syllable of construct compounds:

stíígiyus (stIIgiyus)  ['sta:jgijus]  ~ Stygius, my 2nd ElendorMUSH
character
urgámn (urgAmn)  [ur'ga:mn=]  ~ Elnar, my 1st ElendorMUSH character

^aole^lesnam  [aw'lE:lEs'na:m]  = "artistic-creation of languages"
(conlanging)
aole  [awlE] = "artistic-creation"
lesnam  [lEsnam] = "languages"

Tilde-lengthened vowels are generally associated with 'big' and
'powerful' and 'strong' words derived from other words.  There are also
other words that use tilde-lengthening, but not all of them seem to have
this intensive meaning.  Many tilde-lengthened words developed when the
phoneme /H/  |hh|  (voiceless pharyngeal fricative) almost completely
dropped out of the language, leaving two same or similar vowels adjacent
to each other.

yãmil (ya~mil)  [ja::mil]  = "north";  see |yamli| 'right'

kõz (ko~z)  [ko::z]  = "find";  as of yet no *|koz| attested

he~t  [hE::t]  = "nostril";  see |het| 'smell'
(note: |hetmoo| "nose" is derived from |he~t|, from |he~tmu| "pair of
nostrils")

galãlag  [gala::lag] = "tsunami", from |galahhalag|, from |gal| "wave"

shus  [Sus]  = "want"
shu~s  [Su:s]  = "desire, yearn"


Actually, besides distinguishing between the parts of construct compounds
and their independent words, there is a pair of words which are only
distinguished by their accent-lengthening:

ilúka (ilUka)  [ilu:ka]  = "such a"
íluká (IlukA)  [i:luka:]  = "the same as"

ilúka (ilUka) lihrihkh oz = "he's such an annoying person."
íluká (IlukA) ish ez = "you're the same as her."


-Stephen (Steg)
 "hey hey!  ho ho!  this orange peel has got to go!"
     ~ what happens to my friend saH after too many political rallies