Re: CHAT: Three questions from a lurker

In a message dated 11/2/98 6:53:23 PM, you wrote:

>Hi all list people.  I am generally a lurker, but I have to ask: am I the
>youngest conlanger on this list?  I'm 16
I'm 16 too (born june 14, 1982) tho I joined th elist when I was 15.

> and have made five languages.
>Right now I'm working on one based on Welsh.  Oh, and I have another two
>questions, because somehow I didn't get the responses the first time.
>How do you decide on your vocabularies/morphemes?
Some words I just make up---sometimes I think of an English word and then
think for a minute or 2 and come up with a word thats sounds right for it in
Eloshtan, and sometimes vice versa.  Then I have several ways of deriving
words, which I use often.  I have a bunch of suffixes that I tack on to words
to make new words from them,,,for example

Kye=literature
kye + fe=literature + do/use=read
kye + lye=literature + thing/example=document
kyelye + ski=document + diminuitive=card, note
kyelyeski + gle=card + intensify/special=greeting card
kyelye + mbe {this shortens to kyembe}=document + big=book
kyembe + gle=book + intensify/special=bible
kyembe + hye=book +container=slipcase
kyembe + nte=book + medium.sized.place.of=bookcase
kyembe + nti=book + large.sized.place.of=library
kyembe + ski= book + diminuitive=booklet, pamphlet
.....etc........

And then you can combine an adjective or adverb with a noun or verb.....

raf=take
ob raf=badly take
oraf=steal

and

gepe=animal
e gepel=good animal
egepe=pet

and then there's the rare type:

redji tec cafo=hand its language=hand's language
redjitecife=sign language

in the that example "cafo" changed to "cife" because of vowel harmony; its
back vowels were converted to front vowels like the rest of the word, and also
the 2 c's merged into 1.

>And what computer
>program do you use.  I use Excel myself because of the ease of
>alphabetizing.
I use ClarisWorks....  it works ok for me.  I have 2 separate
documents---ENglish-ELoshtan and Eloshtan-English.  When I make a new word, I
enter it separately into each document, putting it in the appropriate
place---I make the alphabetical order myself---its easier to alphabetize as
you go along than it is to have a big jumbled list of words and try to
alphebetize that.

>Well, I'll go back to lurking.  Thanks a lot.
>David
I hope you decide to come out again soon!

Josh