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Conlanging in Gullivers Travels- Jonathan Swift

From:Samuel Rivier <samuelriv@...>
Date:Friday, January 4, 2002, 6:41
I'm sure many of you have read Gullivers Travels by
Jonathan Swift. Well, in my version of the book, there
is an introduction that goes into some basic detail on
how words in the languages were translated i.e.
"Yahoo" is a combination of "Yah" and "Ugh", for
disgust.

So anyway I was thinking that, as a challenge, we
could synthesize some of these conlangs using some of
the hints already given.

For starters, the language of Laputa (the flying
island) was said by Gulliver to sound a lot like
Italian. The island hovers over a continent near to
Japan, and its language focuses primarily on the
concrete.

From this we can establish a phonology and morphology,
resembling Italian, a basis for vocab origins,
resembling Japanese, and a wordbank based on japanese
and the concrete. Also, I can't remember the
complexion of the islanders, but that can key in to
what type of grammar or vocabulary the language would
have.

Anyway, if anyone else wants to join this project
(using the instant conlang generator program) email
me, and I'll set up a small site.

Or, if it's already been done, tell me where I can
look at it.

-Samuel Rivier


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Replies

Mario Bonassin <zebuleon@...>
The Gray Wizard <dbell@...>
Heather Rice <florarroz@...>