Re: tlhn'ks't, ngghlyam'ft, and other scary words

From: "daniel andreasson" <danielandreasson@...>
Subject: Re: tlhn'ks't, ngghlyam'ft, and other scary words


> Danny Wier wrote:
>
> > !Xu~ 95 (48 clicks)
> > Lak 60
> > an unidentified variety of Arabic 56
>
> 8<-- snip rest of list of most consonants -->8
>
> Does anyone have a similar list of languages with the
> most vowels? I know about that site which describes
> different vowel systems, and it ranks Swedish among
> the highest with like 19 vowels (even though phonemically
> it's just nine). Surely there must be languages with
> more vowels than that? Or do you have to resort to long/
> short/overlong, nasalized, pharyngealization, et al. to
> beat that?
>
> Daniel Andreasson
If it's of any interest, I've got a conlang with 14 phonemic vowels, none of
them distinguished by length, nasalization, pharyngealization, etc.  It has
front rounding, and lax/tense contrast.  I suppose I could try and make one
with more, but it never seemed interesting.  With Morgenón, the point was to
make a conlang where the word /gl&stenOn/ was possible.

On that note, anyone else find interesting origins of their conlangs?
Looking back at some of my current projects' origins:

Tunugruc/Silwen - started as a creole derived from Proto Finno-Ugric and
PIE.  It went way off on a tangent when I decided this was to be the _one_
great language project I was ever to make, and that it had to have all the
neat features of the world's languages.  That didn't last long, but it sure
changed how the language worked.

Stumbrin - started without much of a purpose, just filling in a blank in my
conworld.  But when my friends told me it sounded like some sort of Orkish,
that idea took hold.  It's funny, I never thought Orkish would be a tonal
language, but apparently it is!

Okay, those are probably the only interesting stories.  A number of conlangs
were made specifically to be able to use a particular word that sounded
cool, like Glástenón.