Re: Hot, Cold, and Temperature

John Quijada:
> My brother Paul once created a conlang for an alien species in an
> unpublished novel where the entire morpho-phonology of word-stems was
based
> on phonaesthetic principles -- so that "negative/undesirable" concepts and
> entities were associated with plosive phonemes (especially velars), back
> vowels and C-V-C syllabic structure, while "positive/desirable" concepts
> were associated with continuants, particularly liquids and nasals, front
> vowels and C-V syllables.  I'm sure this was inspired to some extent by
> Tolkien's languages (e.g., compare the morpho-phonologies of Elvish vs.
> Black Speech), but in my brother's novel, words were consciously created
> by "poet-mystics" based on their feelings and introspection and presented
> to the population at large as reflecting the "essence" of the new concept.
Livagian is thus, except that not all stems are phonaesthetic, that
the phonaesthesia is partly mimetic and partly phonaesthemic, and
that the phonaesthetic principles are not as crude as those you
describe here. But (self-appointed) poet-mystics do create words and
submit them to the Senate (the language committee whereof may elect
to codify them).

--And.