Re: Strong/weak verbs

Den 18. aug. 2007 kl. 05.21 skrev Eric Christopherson:

> My book of choice would be Sihler's _New Comparative Grammar of
> Greek and Latin_. It does emphasize Greek and Latin, but gives
> examples from lots of other IE languages too. It's very detailed
> and a little dense -- I find it takes a while to get through. Also,
> it's the only large PIE work I've looked at; there might be better
> ones out there, or at least better for your purposes.
I've actually got that book. You are right, it does take a while to
get through. I didn't know that the IE verb was treated so well
there, but it looks promising.

>> I have been thinking that the Urianian verb could actually be
>> simplified because they monophthongised at an early stage, losing
>> some of the ablaut distinctions. The rest of it might have been
>> lost due to analogies. Still I think ablaut adds some charm and I
>> think I will retain these remains now, at last in some dialects,
>> and maybe add some prenasal raising or similar stuff, taking care
>> to be not to imitative of course...
>
> It can be challenging getting the right balance of inspiration from
> other languages without imitating them too much, although it
> depends on your esthetics and philosophy regarding your conlang.
> Some conlangs I've come up with were intended pretty much as
> imitations, and in those cases borrowing features liberally is
> perfectly fine.
Of course. But I wouldn't dream of imposing anything upon my
Urianians that they wouldn't take on of their own free will. Maybe I
am crazy to give my childhood creation so much respect, but it's
always amazed me what an enormous cauldron of creativity I was back
then. I have kind of looked up to my former self. Maybe if I loosen
up a little, I can become as creative again...

LEF