Re: Lason Agsem

On Mon, 24 Jan 2000, Ed Heil wrote:

> 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.
Well, sure, but not *all* the changes are conscious.  After all, even
adepti are likely to submit to linguistic changes in 400 years.

>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>                        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.
>