Re: more blabbing about Tech, the eternally unfinished conlang

En réponse à Danny Wier <dawier@...>:

>
> But that's for Old Tech. In the modern language, short vowels in open
> syllables disappear, leaving only the residue of a palatized (for /i/
> and
> /e/) or labiovelarized (for /u/ and /o/) preceding consonant, but no
> change
> with /a/ and /@/. Words with no vowels at all will occur rather
> frequently,
> like /bwlw?\/ "to blossom, mature, prosper".
>
I suppose you're a fan of Tamazight? ;)))))

> 2) There will be a complex, two-dimensional case system, like I and
> some
> other members of this list discussed just earlier -- local cases have
> the
> two axes of location and movement, and non-nominative cases can be
> genitivized (as in Basque).
I love this feature! My Moten is basically built on it :)) .

>
> 3) Words have a literal meaning and a number of metaphorical meanings.
> In
> fact, I was able to apply Bomhard's Nostratic roots in the context of
> an
> "erotoglossia" -- a specialized language for sexual purposes. I won't
> get
> into the specifics here since this is a family-oriented forum....
>
Bah! American categories don't apply here! If it was a French forum you
wouldn't even think of not sharing that with us ;))))) .

>
> 5) Labiovelars in Common Tech, i.e. /kw/ and /gw/, have the reflexes
> /kp)/
> and /gb)/ (and mutations /xf)/, /Gv)/ and /Nm)/) in at least one
> African
> dialect. Another dialect somewhere has /fw/ and /vw/, while one in
> Central
> Asia has /xv/ and /Gv/. Most dialects have vowel harmony/Umlaut along
> the
> lines of Uralic and Altaic.
>
That's a whole lot of things! I know that Itakian has plenty of dialects too
(including one with no fricatives! What's stops in other dialects are rendered
as clicks, and what's fricatives is rendered as stops :)) . I know, I'm
evil ;)))))) ), but I just cannot work on them, they're too much! (I still
don't know how Itakian is actually *pronounced* by the way. The distance
between the phonemic layer and the phonetic one is considerable in that
language)

> 6) There may be one African dialect that has clicks, but I don't know
> how
> I'm going to come up with those, if I do in the first place.
>
Do you have voiced implosives? If you lose the voice, they could become
ingressive clicks I suppose (I'm not a phonetician, but that doesn't sound
implausible). And ejectives would become egressive clicks of course ;)) .

> 7) Neuter nouns use the ergative, which will probably be a reversal of
> nominative and accusative.
>
Reversal? Do you mean that for neuter nouns the accusative will be the ergative
and the nominative the absolutive?

I do like split-ergative systems anyway ;))) .

> 8) Adjectives follow nouns and agree in case, number and gender -- and
> definiteness, meaning ALL words take the definite article if the noun
> does.
> But there's the issue of "construct state", the |id.afah| of Arabic,
> where
> the head noun doesn't take the definite article, or something like
> that.
>
Indeed.

> But the definite article in the modern language has disappeared except
> before words beginning with /?/, leaving only mutation of the initial
> consonant that changes according to gender, number and case.
>
Nice! Funny enough, Maggel's construct state is often marked by initial
mutation! (although the kind of mutation for which the mutated form of [b] is
[D], the mutated form of [s] is [4], and the mutated form of [T] is [C]! ;)))
Are you planning on having maggelitinous mutations? ;))) )

> I really need to get a homepage for this langauge; I only have one rough
> FAQ
> in the Files section for this Yahoo! list. ~Danny~
>
Well, you know my proposal :)) . Just contact me privately if you want
webspace! :)

Christophe.

http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr

Take your life as a movie: do not let anybody else play the leading role.

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