Re: first try at conlanging

En réponse à erwan ar skoul <erwan.arskoul@...>:

>
> Yes, one should write a grammar of the French language as it really
> works. I
> wonder how many frenchmen would recognize their language :-)
>
Probably not many, since most educated people in France are absolutely unable
to make the difference between language and orthography. Ask a French man how
many vowels there is in French, he'll answer invariably: 5 (a, e, i, o, u) (or
6 if he considers y as a vowel), how to mark plural: "add an s at the end of
the word in general". He'll answer to questions about phonology and grammar by
orthographic considerations. And guess why I'm mad at the French system of
education!! :)))

>
> Well, I happen to have got a Malagasy grammar (quite an oldie, published
> in 1926)
> and word order is described as follows :
> - the verb is generally first
> - the object is always after the verb
> -the subject is last but may be fronted for emphasis
> So, I think that malagasy can be described as a VOS language.
Oops! Sorry, my mistake.

 By the
> way, I think
> your 5% figure refers to all languages which put object before verb
> (OSV, OVS,
> VOS).
No, now I've checked it, it refers to the VOS languages only. In the book, the
author was answering to soembody's claim that OS languages were exceedingly
rare, and he answered that in his sample of languages, VOS languages alone were
5% of them, and OVS and OSV languages were present too (5% for them).

>
> The figures for the more common types (SVO, SOV, VSO) are :
>
>  SOV (Turkish, Quechua, Latin) : a bit more than 40%
>  SVO (English, French, Breton, Chinese) : a bit less than 40%
>  VSO (Welsh) : 15%
>
I'll check the figures I have, but I agree with the figure on VSO. You just
have to put a little less on the two others.

>
> As for making a web page, yes I am working on it, but I must first
> fomalize the
> grammar and refine the world
>
I like this expression "refine the world" :))) . If only it referred to the
real world... :))

Christophe.

http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr

Take your life as a movie: do not let anybody else play the leading role.

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