Re: Jovian's Verbs From Hell

 --- Christian Thalmann wrote:

> Alright, they're not that evil; certainly not as evil as Latin or
> Maggel.  ;-)
I agree with most of the others: I find nothing evil in Latin; on the contrary,
it's a really nice toy-box for a conlanger. And Jovian is even less evil than
Latin: it's clear, straightforward, and pretty.
About the rest I agree with you: Maggel is definitely evil! :)

> More info on all tenses and passive voice (haven't written about the
> moods yet) can be obtained on my homepage about the Jovian language:
>
>      http://catharsis.netpeople.ch/langmaking/jovian.htm
I just did. Your first sentence reads: "This is an idea for a romlang (romance
conlang (yeah, as if we didn't have enough of those already))". Well, I don't
fully agree with that. Don't forget that the vast majority of those conlangs
are IALs, Euroclones, etc., which fall into a completely different category.
The object of the more "artistic" kind of romlang - the type we are dealing
with here on this list - is to create a language that COULD have emerged, if
history had been different. This is quite a special "genre" of conlangs, and
there are not so many of them at all; I estimate their number somewhere between
20 and 30. And besides, there is always place for a good conlang.

I have a question. Jovian has four cases: nominative, accusative, oblique, and
genitive, but you never explain how they are used. Especially the oblique case
evokes my curiosity. May I assume it is a merger of Latin dative and ablative?

Especially your second person plural is funny in its behaviour:
  candare > candame/candaese
  haever > havime/havise
  faeger > faegim/faegis
  ere > sume/essi
  vajer > vaeme/vaesi

I must admit that I never saw the endings of those two forms be so irregular!

About the "look" of the language: I don't have the impression that it has been
influenced too much by English, but in general it clearly shows (at least in my
perception) some Germanic influence. I remember to have written earlier that it
reminded me of Gothic, but now it seems to come closer to Old English.
If I were to categorize Jovian, I would probably place it under the header
"Germano-Romance" conlangs.
I don't exactly remember your backstory. All I know is that it is spoken on
Jupiter or on one of its moons, but I don't recall how they got there and if
there is some Germanic or other substratum.

Accidentally, does Jovian have numbers, too? :)

Jan

=====
"Originality is the art of concealing your source." - Franklin P. Jones

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