Re: I just got a great idea! (was: Re: "Bauhinese")

Hiro and Earmon,

 I am in the very beggining of my project. Before I heard you two talking about
yours, I was even sure I was going to do it, because the task seem too huge.
But if we can share knowledge and resources, it becomes quite different.
 At first I was not thinking of doing a language based on asian languages, but
a language with a history similar to asian languages. I mean first create some
"middle chinese", and a propo-other-language very different (just like korean
or japanese are), then make this proto-think evolve under the strong influence
of my virtual middle chinese, and why not, make also the "chinese" one evolve.
 But I think This project has quite a few drawbacks. First of all, I don't know
if any one but tolkien ever succeded in creating a whole family of languages
with evolution through time. And when I started to think about re-creating a
writting system similar to chinese characters without using them, I just got a
"fatal brain error".
 The second thing is since what I want to do is really "asian-like" it would be
a pity not to take this opportunity to learn more about real asian languages.
So I changed my mind to what I will describe now.


General
----------
It will not create a "chinese dialect". I am thinking of something more similar
to japanese. Not that I want to borrow much to it, but I mean i want to create
non chinese language that has been heavily influenced by chinese. I little bit
like Korean or japanese were.


Vocabulary
--------------
As I said a big part of the vocabulary will be borrowed from chinese. But I yet
have to find from which Chinese I should take It. Middle or archaic chinese
seems a good choice, but after all, why not bauhinese, if it turns to be really
"chinese like". I also want to have quite a few "exotic" words taken from
various languages that are ( or once were) in contact with mine. Those figures
are far from final, but I am thinking of something like 60% of chinese (or
bauhinese)loadwords, 30% of native words, maybe 5% from an other important
language in the area, and another 5% from various exoctic speeches.


Phonology
-------------
I kinda like the way the japanese language sounds, but I think it is a bit poor.
I want to have something a little bit more sophisticated. I wont go for some
monosyllabic language, but somehing closer to japanese or korean (thought I may
borrow sounds from elsewhere) I think I will go for a little bit more vowels
(maybe 7 instead of 5 in jap), and a slightly different consonant system I will
probably make a difference between R and L for example. I don't think I will
use tones. I consider having 3 different vowel lenght : normal long and short.
For the short one, it will almost disapear between the surounding consonants.
maybe I will use some stress to make some more variations. I am thinking of
some kind of "liaison" system but I don't know yet how it will work.

Script
-------
I want to use a mixed system, like kanja+hangul or kanji+kana. What I don't know
yet is how much chinese characters will be used. I have not decided whether I
wuld only use a few one for the most frequent words, assuming that all other
are no longer in use, or if I will ahve a lot of them. I will most probably
used traditional form, or maybe a sightly simplified version as japanese do,
but not the simplified version of the People's Republic of China. For the
phonetic part of the sript, I like the way hangul works, but not the look of
it. I may have to create my own system. I never thought of a third scipt like
you suggested , hiro, but now that you said it, I wonder If I can not go for
something similar.

Grammar
-----------
For this part I think I will borrow features from many languages. I basicly opt
for a SOV order, aglutinating and slightly inflective style (like jap) but for
the details, I intend to learn as much as possible about the other asian
language to see what intresting Idea I could use. There are many things I like
in the japanese syntax, but also quite a few that I don't like so much (a good
thing, otherwise I might have recreated japanese ;) )


Ok, that will be all for know. It is just a simple introduction, but as i told
you, I a just beginning with it, so I can not really say more, eventhough I
have some Ideas in mind, but not yet clear enought to be explained here.

Btw, what is this "Brithenig/Breathanach/Kerno" you mentioned?

bye,
Florian



>Hiro,
>
>I'd certainly love to work with you.  As Florian said he was
>considering a project of his own, perhaps we can each assist with
>each other's personal projects as they are all related.  Perhaps
>Bauhinese and Florian's language will exist in a relationship
>similar to Cantonese and Mandarin.  At any rate, let's see what
>exactly Florian has in mind and I'd love for the three of us to
>share our work and knowledge with each other and collaborate on each
>other's projects.
>
>Perhaps we'll end up with an Asian system similar to that of
>Brithenig/Breathanach/Kerno.  {By the way, how do Asian languages
>fit in to the Brithenig world?}
>
>I suppose the name "Bauhinese" is stuck now that's entered a usage
>outside myself - besides, I've already designed the website logo. :)
>
>Anyway Hiro, I'll try to e-mail you and Florian tonight with my
>"sketches" and ideas.
>
>Cheers,
>Eamon
>
>"Hiro M." wrote:
>>
>> Perhaps Eamon, Florian and I could do a joint project?
>>
>> As I stated before, I'm designing a language, and it's
>> based on Japanese and Korean. Like Japanese and
>> Korean, I was thinking that my language could have
>> loanwords, except instead of loanwords from Chinese,
>> they could be loanwords from Bauhinese. Perhaps we
>> could also create a conculture around Bauhinese as
>> well.
>>
>> What do you think so far?
>>
>> --
>> Hiro2k