Re: THEORY: morphological processes

On Wed, 19 Jan 2000 16:34:54 -0700, dirk elzinga
<dirk.elzinga@...> wrote:

> <...> These processes include:
>
>1.      vowel ablaut
>2.      consonant mutation
>3.      root and pattern/templatic morphology
>4.      reduplications of various kinds
>5.      truncation
>6.      other kinds of stem manipulations such as lengthening,
>        shortening, and deletion of vowels or consonants
- It seems that a while ago I worked on something not mentioned in your
list: *consonants* alternating with *vowels*.

I had a couple sketches of conlangs in which syllable-final consonants
(appearing in this position as a result of Semitic-type apophony or
simply syncope) merge or fall out, but their lost features are
'inherited' by the preceding vowels.

However, I didn't go far beyond the alternation tables.

<...>
>*       What role does the process play in the esthetics of your
>        language?
- I wanted a "Pacific" sounding (various restrictions for syllable
structure) combined with complicated morphology.

>*       What do you think the inclusion of such processes says
>        about you as a language creator? (Does it say anything?)
I'm not sure if it says much about me, but I know what my purpose was.

Actually, I thought of a group of small nations whose languages developed
together. Most of the languages had to descend from Latin, and I found
it boring to design standard Romance langs, stuffed with inherited
Latin lexica plus bookish borrowings from Latin and Greek. I wanted
an additional source of loanwords.

So I thought of developing some 'dead' languages, not spoken but taught
in schools. I wanted those 'old tongues' to have weird but logical
morphology, so loanwords should be analyzable for the learned public but
work as simple roots in the structure of each 'living' language.

I haven't made much progress, though.


Best wishes,
Basilius