Re: OT: Random word generators (was Re: Worthwhile Engelang Goal)

Hi!

Jeffrey Jones <jsjonesmiami@...> writes:
>...
> I thought the il/la thing was hilarious too.
Hehe.  I couldn't believe what I saw, actually.  Some God fooled me. :-)

But regarding words that I don't like, I now tend to construct
phonologies that are so strange that I cannot judge immediately
whether I like a word or not.  If I don't like it, there must be
something wrong with the phonology. :-) I have to love all the words.

Hard job and it led to excluding many classes of sounds to suit my
taste.  (The classes don't seem to correlate much with what my L1
offers.)

> I tried random generation years ago, but it didn't work too well -- I got
> repeating strings after a couple hundred or so.
Yeah, that's when I do start to filter out word -- at least at an
early stage I try to avoid repeating patterns, or even similar
patterns if the meaning is close.  But if a sound of a word is unique
enough, I allow a new word in a language no matter what it's supposed
to mean.

> >> > I have similar reservations against random word generators, though
> >> > I never used any.  I feel that they are to conlanging what rhythm
> >> > machines are to music.
> >>
> >> I *love* electronic music if it's programmed well! :-)
> >
> >It is of course a matter of taste.  I prefer hand-made music
> >(especially progressive rock - which often uses plenty of electronic
> >sounds, but they don't come from a robot, but are played manually
> >on keyboards), and also hand-made conlangs.  Your mileage may vary.
>...
> Give me analog synthesizers or give me death!
:-)))

But why?  (Digital) electronic music is very, very diverse.

**Henrik