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Re: Ng'and'ana

From:Elliott Belser <renyard@...>
Date:Thursday, January 24, 2002, 15:07
> >In what circumstances does this turning occur?
Any time an Adam appears on a letter. I'd send the script if I could.
>>(This > turns to that.) >> >>V > B >>K > Q (Like the 'Ch' in Chanuka) >>D > T >>F > P >>G > NG (Like the Ng in Ring, but is it's own letter.) >>H (Must be used at the end of a word that would have a vowel end.) >>L >>M > N >>R > RH (Rolled R - the infamous 'kitty purr' as Terran >>linguists have it.) > >Is rolled R the same as a trilled one? And what does the unturned "R" >denote?
Unrolled R is an English R, and a rolled one is a back-of-the-throat purr.
>>S > Z (Sometimes pronounced J) > >There doesn't seem to be much of a system in these turnings. V and F turn to >the corresponding stops, K to the corresponding fricative and G to the >corresponding nasal, D simply unvoices and M shifts to alveolar/dental >position! Is there any rationale for this seemingly random changes?
Ummm.... I found out that they aren't the same. The Adam makes sounds harsher but not nessecarily guttural... B is a harder V, like in Hebrew; ditto F and P. The rationale is twofold: One, the Nganda think it makes the sounds 'harder' hence the name Adam and Two, I don't know enough lingustics to fill a mosquito's nose.
>>Also, ideals in a word are seperated by a 'sfir' ('breath,' sfir'u >>'inspired') that look like and are represented by an apostrophe. >>It's a glottal stop in linguistic terms, the difference between 'uh' >>and 'oh.' >> >>So this is an Ng'and'ana sentence: Am'galahad ben'a Eliout. >>Em'ben'a lom gloz'adi. (My name is Elliott. I am a linguist.) > >Lemme guess - _ben'a_ means "am/are/is", _em'_ is a first person singular >marker (corresponds to the English pronoun "I") and _am'_ is a first person >sg possessive? Then _galahad_ means "name", _gloz'adi_ means "linguist" >(more than a chance resemblance to _glossa_="word"?), while _lom_ would seem >to be an indefinite article. Is this reasonably close to the truth?
Ben is the ideal Being, 'a is present indicative. Em is first person singular, yes, and Am first person posessive. Galahad is name. Gloz is 'mouth' and also 'language,' and yes it's derived from Glossa. Adi is the 'sentient' gender. Lom is also a shamelessly English word - it means 'a single.' Lom. Lon. Lone!
>> >>Incedentally, Ng is 'a sharing,' and Anda is 'the soul.' The racial >>name Ng'anda means 'ones of shared soul.' Ana is just a gender >>marking a word as a language, so Ng'and'ana is 'the language of those >>who share souls.' >> >>Grammar is next... > >Is this your first conlang? If so, it does seem rather more innovative than >my early attempts.
Yes and no... I tried to do a version of Elven for some classical Tolkienic elves once, with genders in spanish including Lo, a neuter. But I never wrote it down. My first serious attempt. Thanks. INcidentally, I'm writing a song in Ng'and'ana for learning the sounds of the letters... Sho'ben'a tahl.