Antique forms (was Re: Magick (...))

Dan Sulani <dnsulani@...> writes:

>     Hmmm. Question for those conlangers who write stories or play RPGs
> in langs other than English: how do you get a similar effect in other langs?
The same way as in English: by using antique forms.  For example,
"magick" would be translated into German as "Zauberey" (a spelling
common in the 18th century; the modern spelling is "Zauberei").

>    ObConlang: does anybody's conlang have a way of giving the feeling of
> "old, ancient" without coming right out and using adjectives? (In rtemmu,
> I can express "ancient" as a tense, for example,  but it doesn't carry any
> special
> "ancient flavor". )
If you give your conlang a (fictional) history, you can achieve it the
same way as in natlangs - by using antique forms.  One more reason to
develop conlangs from con-protolangs!  Esperanto, for example, cannot do
that, because it doesn't have that historical depth.

Jörg.

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