Re: TROLLS!!

From: "Andreas Johansson" <and_yo@...>

| Danny Wier wrote:

| >This is the language of the Trolls (species _homo erectus_ still
| >surviving),
|
| To me, the word "troll" suggest something rather broader, bulkier and
| generally ungainlier than an erectid. While that, primarily, is my problem,
| don't you think the name is more confusing than enlightening? Or is this
| deliberate?

Yeah, I have to brush up on my knowledge of early man. I'm thinking of a burly,
hairy, slouching, less intellectually advanced (and larger) variant of humanity.
The term "troll" is applied to the race derogatively by humans.

The most likely model would be like a "Bigfoot" or sasquatch-type of creature.
They do live in frigid regions anyway, though not by choice.

I also have in mind a tragically accidental mutation resulting from an attempt
to preserve the genes of remains of older incarnations of humanity -- or they
just used gorilla genes -- and mixed it with human genes. It was an effort to
create a fierce soldier with more brute strength, and since the product was so
mean and ugly, it was treated as expendable.

A lot of this needs to be explained in my futuristic world, which falls under
the heading of conculture or RPG....

| >A I U E O / K S T N P M Y L W
|
| I guess these have pretty "standard" values? Something like
|
| [a i u E O k s/ts/S/tS t n p m j l/r w]?

Actually [a/A i/I u/U/1 e/E/@ o/O, k/g/h s/ts/S/tS/z/dz/Z/dZ t/d n p/b/f m j l/r
w] -- but I did change the alphabet (see previous post and the URL to the .txt
page).

| You mean AFTER a nasal? What you write above seems to rule out clusters like
| /kn/ ...

It does. Or in loanwords from English with initial kn-, the K is silent.

| Eight free allophones? Yay! Remind me to create a conculture where
| pronouncing a dental /t/ as alveolar will get you shot ...

It might among the Elves, the evil ones that are plotting to take the world from
the humans....

| No corresponding fricativization of /t/, into say [s]? A nifty idea would
| have to have a such change restrict the acceptable pronunciations of /s/ to
| the affricates, unless you imagine the Trolls to be physilogically unable to
| distinguish [s] from [ts].

I haven't worked that out yet.

| They write? I'm impressed by the old erectids ... Do they have much use for
| writing in their society, and BTW, how do they manage the survive in the
| polar conditions down there? (Real-world erectids apparently never got
| nearer to either pole than northern China.)

They somehow learned to write, and they did learn how to make fires and
insulated homes more or less. They ended up using seals for meat, clothing and
fuel oil (not very P.C. I know), but penguin meat was an acquired taste.

| Cute. Rather pidginesque, I guess?

Well since it's a language imposed on an unrelated population, it pretty much is
a pidgin. But a pidgin not for equally-intelligent humans, but for a somewhat
advanced version of apes.

| Mathematically inclined guyz - I get more and more interested in what kind
| of society made up by erectids needs a number system much more complicate
| than that used in many Homo sapiens societies!

Why, it's a simple base-10 system. Should I use base-5 instead?

| I do find the scenario intriguing, altho' extremely implausible. More
| explanations, please? Please?

When I get the details worked out in my scenario. Homo erectus might not be a
good model, but a lot of genetic engineering comes into play.

~Danny~