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Making it real Was: Re: The 30-Minute Conlang

From:Gary Shannon <fiziwig@...>
Date:Wednesday, December 17, 2003, 0:20
As far as Sapulenako Muyu becoming a full-blown
conlang, that could be accomplished as follows:  Add a
system of case endings on nouns and a system for verb
declensions that are functionally equivalent to those
used in Latin.  Then adopt Latin conventions for word
order.  Finally, let the words evolve into more usable
forms.  For example, "lazy" -> "lubazayu" -> "bazu",
or "never" -> "natevuteru" -> "entevu", (or by loosing
it's center to become "nateru").  At this point
neither the vocabulary nor the grammar bears any
resemblence to the original English.  After that, its
grammar can evolve in any manner that seems
interesting.  I this way, the language is born with a
full vocabulary and a rich grammar on it's first day
of existence, and yet provides a flexible test bed for
experimentation.

To create verb declensions words like "I" -> "my" ->
"muyo" can become suffixes to the verb, as long at
they still end in "a".

"sit" -> "sobita"
"I sit" -> "sit+I+a" -> "sobita+muyo+a" ->
"sobitayo+a" -> "sobitaya"
"you sit" -> "sit+you+a" -> "sobita+yakotu+a" ->
"sobitatu+a" -> "sobitata"
"he sits" -> "sit+him+a" -> "sobita+hanimo+a" ->
"sobitamo+a" -> "sobitama"
"we sit" -> "sit+we+a" -> "sobita+waze+a" ->
"sobitaze+a" -> "sobitaza"
etc.

Noun cases could be some arbitary suffix appended to
the noun stem:

cobato - cat, nominative singular
cobatin - cats, nominative plural
cobatos - cat's, genative possesive singular
cobatinos - cats', genative possesive plural
etc.

then "Sapulenako Muyu" should really be "Sapulenako
Muyos" which might, over the years, loose it's center
to mutate into something like "Sanako Muyos".

The write lots of poetry in the language to test the
boundries of its expressive power, and stretch those
boundaries where necessary by using poetic license
with the grammar.  Then  arbitrarily throw out a few
of the grammar rules, allow two dozen irregular verbs
that disobey all the rules, throw in some systematic
sound shifts such as might happen over a dozen
centuries, then introduce spelling reforms and after
all that it would bear no resemblence to either of its
parents, English or Latin.

Not only that, but you'd have a complete history of
the evolution of the language from its most ancient
form (as created yesterday) to it's modern form a few
dozen (virtual) centuries later.

As for pronunciation, I see no reason to labor over
the pronuciation of a conlang.  There is no single
correct pronunciation of English, yet a person from
Bombay can converse with a person from Texas and they
can comprehend each other perfectly well.
Pronunciation, as long as it falls witin soom veery
brode leemuts ees nut mooch oaf a preblum, and
serdenly not wirt opsessink ofer.