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