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Re: New Conlanger

From:Joshua Shinavier <ajshinav@...>
Date:Saturday, May 15, 1999, 12:32
Questions and comments (from a loglang veteran):

> Could anyone give me a little advice on starting a conlang? I have just > discovered conlanging and am devoloping a very logicalconlang called > GUILTERE. Here is what I have so far: >=20 > The alphabet, tenses, suffixes, and prefixes > ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXY
All besides the Z, eh? What sounds do they (the rest) represent? I see you use a z for your plural. Is it reserved exclusively for this suffix?
> F =3D English P sound > P =3D English PH sound
Patrick already mentioned this, but I think you should switch these two.
> bob =3D currently doing (prefix) > dad =3D going to do(prefix) > mim =3D already did(prefix)
So you use these to indicate tenses for your verbs? e.g. bob"go" =3D going dad"go" =3D will go mim"go" =3D went You should probably translate these as "be" rather than "do", it's a more general concept (and therefore neccessary for a loglang!)
> NUMBERS - NOMBRA'ez
Apostrophe a glottal stop? Is e pronounced [e] (as in "bane") or [E] (as i= n "ben") ?
> YUN =3D one > YAN =3D two > YEN =3D three > YON =3D four > YIN =3D five > LUN =3D six > LAN =3D seven > LEN =3D eight > LON =3D nine > LIN =3D ten
Uy, I shy strongly away from words of similar meanings with too-similar sou= nds. It produces a nice effect give related words common sounds but not to the p= oint where they can be confused with one another. Your words for 1 and 4 might cause an especial lot of frustration. Even German "zwei" and "drei" tend t= o be confuseable which is why you tend to use a different word "zwo", for 2, when reciting a phone number, for instance.
>=20 > YUN-ET-_____ =3D 1_ > YAN-ET-_____ =3D 2_ > YEN-ET-_____ =3D 3_ > YUN-ET-____-ET-____ =3D 1__ > YAN-ET-____-ET-____ =3D 2__ > YEN-ET-____-ET-____ =3D 3__ > ect.
A good pattern. So when referring to a number itself you use the plain number-name, and when specifying a certain number of things you use an infi= x, -et-.
> PEOPLE - XORG'ez > TI('ez) =3D he(s)/she(s) > TU =3D you, they > DERJ =3D I, me > DETU =3D us,we >=20 > SIZES - SEIS'ez > CHI =3D small > LEE =3D big > MEE =3D medium
Interesting blend of English-based and original words. Are the English-ish words there to make the language easier to learn? =20
> EATING/FOOD - bobLAL/LAL > CHA =3D meat OR carnivore > WHA =3D vegtable OR herbivore > WHACHA =3D meat/vegtable OR omnivore > LAL =3D food, non-specific(if prefix added EAT or ATE or EATING depending=
on
> prefix) >=20 > ANIMALS - ONI'ez > ONI-CHI-WHACHA =3D animal, small, omnivore (cat, dog, etc.) > ONI-LEE-WHA =3D animal, small, herbivore(cow, goat, etc.)
Cows are small? So what's a mouse? How about a gnat? :-) Also, what are these descriptions based on? The earth, for instance, is small when compared to the Sun, but rather large when compared to your livi= ng room. Also, what sound does the C make? And the WHA -- do you literally pronounc= e this w-ha ? Are the double E's in LEE and MEE especially long [e]s ? Is this SEIS really pronounced [seis]?
> SENSES - KOLAP'ez
definition =3D ?
> SMU =3D smell > SMA =3D taste > GENWAK =3D sight > TELCH =3D touch > THCH =3D hearing > add prefixes/sufixes to make see, saw, look, smelled, smell, etc. > EXAMPLE > !TU bobSMU ONI-CHI-WHA > You smell (like a) cow. (see next section to understand why there are no > words for like and a)
Lowercase for syntactic words, caps for semantic?
>=20 > Constructing Sentences > Subject, verb, object should be the order in constructing sentences. The =
are
> no like or as or the words in GUILTERE, so if you are translating you hav=
e to
> add them. Since there are no words like as, are, like, and do, for questi=
ons
> you must identify them by at begining of the sentence saying QEST and at =
the
> end of the sentence saying QEST. Also new sentences are denoted by a !
>=20 > EXAMPLES >=20 > !QEST TU bobGENWAK DERJ QEST > (Do) You see me?
Do you sight me? So how do you distinguish between GENWAK as "sight" and GENWAK as "to see"? =20
> !GENWAK'ock ONI-CHI-WHACHA > Look (at the) cat. >=20 > !TU SMU > You smell.
etc. Keep on, have fun, Josh _/_/ _/_/ _/_/_/_/ Joshua Shinavier =20 _/ _/ _/ Loorenstrasse 74, Zimmer B321=20 _/ _/ _/_/_/_/ CH-8053 Z=FCrich =20 _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ Switzerland =20 _/_/_/_/ _/_/_/_/ _/_/_/_/ jshinavi@g26.ethz.ch Danov=EBn pages: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Crete/5555/ven.htm