Re: Lason Agsem

I think, Pat, that you can make whatever you want to happen happen as
long as you stipulate that the language is a consciously created
product (a conlang which, even in its fictional setting, is a conlang)
rather than a product of unconscious sound change and code switching.

---------------------------------------------------------------------
                       edheil@postmark.net
---------------------------------------------------------------------
"Bill Gates is a white Persian cat and a monocle away from becoming
another James Bond villain. 'No Mr Bond, I expect you to upgrade.'"
                                           --Dennis Miller
---------------------------------------------------------------------


Patrick Dunn wrote:

> Okay, my new language has undergone some major revisions in the last
> twenty four hours.  It's moved from isolating to inflecting, for instance,
> and adopted a stack of irregular verbs.  I'm wondering if some of the
> changes are plausable -- or rather, possible: I know they're not
> plausible.
>
> Here's the background: a group of British mages around 1600 get together
> and create a secret order of magicians called "Agsem Maji".  In order to
> communicate and protect their information from profane and hostile eyes,
> they begin using a mixture of English, Latin, Hebrew, and Enochian.
>
> Let me give you some examples of paradigms, and see what you think:
>
> l'ehef - to love
> ehefen - loved
> ehefendo - loving
>
>                 perfect
> 1       ehefti          ehefnu
> 2       ehefta          eheftem
> 3       ehef            ehefu
>
>                 imperfect
> 1       ehef            nehef
> 2       tehef           tehef
> 3       jehef           jehefu
>
> la cur - to care
> curan - cared
> curando - caring
>
> (Verbs from the Latin -are, -ire, -ere conjugations retain their theme
> vowels only in the participles.  Otherwise, the participial endings are
> -en and -endo
>
>                 perfect
> 1       curti           curnu
> 2       curta           curtem
> 3       cur             curu
>
>                 imperfect
> 1       ecur            nicur
> 2       ticur           ticuru
> 3       jicur           jicuru
>
> Nouns:
>
> sad - demon     sades - demons
> amijo - friend  amiji - friends
> seme - seed     semi - seeds
> miseri - mystery miseres - mysteries
> nimpa - nymph   nimpaj - nymphs
>
> Pronouns
>
> There are three levels of formality in pronoun usage.
>
> Superior to Inferior (mage to demon, adept to student)
>
> 1       vel             ja
> 2       nonci           nonci
> 3       i, e, id        ei
>
> Equal to Equal (adept to adept, student to student)
>
> 1       ejo             no
> 2       tu              vo
> 3       i, e, id        ei
>
> Inferior to Superior (mage to god, student to adept)
>
> 1       ani             anecnu
> 2       at              atam
> 3       hu, hi          em
>
> There are also a set of pronominal suffixes used to indicate possesion.
> These are:
>
> 1       -ki             -nu
> 2       -ta             -tem
> 3       -hu, -ha        -ma, -na
>
> Examples:
>
> You are like serpents of fire, you angels of the night sky.
>
> Atam esti ci nacases de icni, o merifres de cjel lajla.
> You  are  like serpents of fire VOC angels of sky night.
>
> Come unto me, spirits of healing!  There is light within your wings!
>
> venu la vel, o sades de sanando!  jes or in alajtem!
> come(IMP, PL) to me, VOC demons of healing!  there.is light in your.wings
>
> God gave the truth to his prophet, and his prophets gave the truth to the
> adepts, and the adepts give the truth to us.
>
> Deo natan et-a-vero al nafeshu, va nafeshu natanu et-a-vero al a adepti,
> va a adepti natanu et-a-vero al no.
>
>
> --------
>
> Are these sound changes plausable:
>
> invocalic g -> j
> ng -> nc
> gn -> cn
> -us -> -o
> -s -> 0
> -n -> 0
> -m -> 0
>
> Is it likely with a multi-source language that sound changes might only be
> applied to one of the source languages -- for instance, a different set of
> changes might apply to Hebrew roots than Latin ones?
>
>
>  --------
>
> I know most of these changes and mixings aren't plausible, but do you
> think they'll work -- or even better, any cool ideas to incorporate?  I
> actually do intend to use this language at some point for magic, maybe
> even keep a grimoire in it.