Sally back, and conlang survey part 1 and 2

Dear Heather, I've come back from the dead (nomail), and am being inundated
with fascinating questions about statistics and about LAadan.  Hi
everybody!!!  Please count me in on your survey.  So sorry to have missed
it!   Teonaht is essentially nominative/accusative, but it has what I call a
split nominative that makes a distinction between agents and experiencers.
It's structurally SOV but in formal moments OSV, which is rare and difficult
and impossible to think in.  I've created a number of poems and songs in it.

Sally Caves
scaves@frontiernet.net
http://www.frontiernet.net/~scaves/teonaht.html
http://www.frontiernet.net/~scaves/contents.html
        best stuff on my extended grammar pages.  Still not complete, a
working professor,
        loads of publication demands and of course the teaching, the
teaching, the teaching.
        Got interviewed on NPR in the summer of 2001, I think it was.
        Published article on CONLANGING in the electronic journal _Media and
Culture_:
        http://www.media-culture.org.au/0003/languages.html
    "Audience, Uglossia and Conlang: Inventing Languages on the Internet.

I'm due to speak at Berkeley on Celtica and Conlang, so you'll probably be
seeing me here, with another "lunatic survey."  Yours sounds very technical.
May I participate?  Please send me the questionaire!  :)

firrimby (grateful),
Sally

A hundred surveys of 100 conlangs?  Wow!

----- Original Message -----
From: "Heather Rice" <florarroz@...>
To: <CONLANG@...>
Sent: Thursday, November 28, 2002 11:13 AM
Subject: conlang survey part 1


> About two months ago, I sent out a survey for
> conlangs.  Based on the responses I received, and a
> little investigated of my own, I have compiled 100
> relatively complete surveys of 100 conlangs.  I
> thought you all would enjoy it if I would post a few
> of my results here.
>
> Before you read on, let me say a few things.
> 1)  This is not a comprehensive report.  I have much
> more information about the conlangs than what I show
> here.  It's just that I am constrained for time
> (school and all, you know how it is).
> 2)  I am quite certain I mis-typed, mis-quoted,
> mis-wrote many things.  So if you find something
> wrong, just email me off-list. I plan to compile all
> your corrections, then email it to the list as one
> email.
> 3)  If you want to fill out a survey and haven't yet,
> hey, that's great!
> 4)  If you have any questions about any of these
> conlangs, just email me.
> 5)  I didn't list the sources of my information.  I'm
> making a really long email as it is.  If you want a
> source, just email me.
>
>
> Here are the languages with their authors in
> parenthesis.  The order that they appear is
> unintentional, and I didn't include accent or other
> para-script marks marks for fear of it messing up in
> the emailing process.
>
> Mashish (Heather Rice), Quenya, Sindarin (J. R. R.
> Tolkien), Adelic (S.A. MacLagan), Skuodian (Pavel
> Iosad), Lisanre (Wayne Chevrier), Sohlob (Benct Philip
> Jonsson), Hattic, Askaic (Jan van Steenbergen), Taalen
> (Aidan Grey), Kash (Roger Mills), Long Wer (Abraham
> Zsofia), Tirelat, Cispa (Herman Miller), Almaline
> (Bryant K.), Gearthnuns (Douglas Koller), Kelen
> (Sylvia Sotomayor), Amman Iar (David Bell), An'dorian
> (Spence Hill), Bac (Matthew Butt), Bendeh (Nathaniel
> Lew), Choba (Thomas Leigh), Ebisedian (H.S. Tioh),
> Gevey (Rik Roots), Gladilatian (Dennis Paul Himes),
> Helxalthermia (Andrew B.) Karath (Thomas Lawrie),
> Kerno (Padraic Brown), Kontoko, Kinsi Rorotan (Robert
> Wilson) Angelican (Angel Serrano Sanchez de Leon),
> Arkian (Jan Havlis), aUI (John W. Weilgart), Blaanian
> ("Lord Blaa"), Liotan, Mahren, Kadhrein, Ivrien,
> Genistien, Astarien, Lemyzon, Dekavurian, Breathanach
> (Geoff Allan Eddy), KoJomu (Gracie M. Groove), Lahabic
> (Anthony Marcus Miles), Megdevi, Kamakawi, Zhyler,
> Nyaama (David Peterson), Brithenig (Andrew Smith),
> Bruceish (Bruce Brejta), Ceperjoleddicg (Chris Paull),
> Druseleq, Ciravesu, `Ngwei-koo`lei (Pablo David
> Flores), Ifnat (Daniel Quernheim), Delason (Nizar
> Habash), Danoven/Aroven (Joshua Shinavier), D'ni
> (Richard Watson), Obrenje (Christian Thalmann), Rhean
> (Michael E~), Denden, Broian (Boudewiyn Simon Anthonie
> Rempt), Tairezazh (Andreas Johansson), Tsumhetyan
> (Phil Wayne), Uatakassi (Nik Taylor), Ozay, Vosh
> (Daniel Myers), Ellandh (Jedrzej Gren), Erone (Carrie
> Shutrick), Yiklamu (Mark P. Line), Zitwbata (Joseph
> Hill), Goesk (James Steven Grossman), Ferengi (Timothy
> Miller), Fith (Jeffrey Henning), Jameld (James
> Campbell), Esei, Ipetas (Tuomo Sipola), Kardii
> (Jayelinda Suridge), Kwaadakw, Vong, Viku  (Victor
> Medrano), Elet Anta (John Fisher), Veldan, Kal Poh
> Ling, Ceranese, Taroan, Thagnarvi, Anglysc,
> O:radiendela (Cian Ross), Odonien (Steve Oostrom),
> Tokana (Matt Pearson), Toki Pona (Christian
> Richard), Skerre (Doug Ball), Anawanda (Tommaso
> Donnarumma), Mesogeoika (Alex Katsaros), Patrienish
> (Micheal Brooker), Miapimoquitch (Dirk Elzinga), and
> finally, Flestrin (Maurizio Rovatti),
>
> Countries represented in this sample:  USA, UK,
> Malaysia, Italy, Canda, Philipines?, Greece, Scotland,
> Netherlands, Sweden, Poland?, Argentina, Germany,
> Palestine?, Switzerland, South Africa, Czech
> Republic?, Zambia, Russia, Hungary.
>
> Note:  percentages, unless noted are of the entire 100
> samples.  If the percentages don't add up, assume the
> missing number is of conlangs in which the feature is
> either unknown or not applicable, unless otherwise
> noted.
>
> Phonetics:  (note, while these percentages are in
> relation to all 100 samples, only 91 samples have a
> complete phonetic inventory.)
> Consonants:
> 73% fall within 15-29 range of consonants.
> 9% have <15 consonants
> 8% have >29 consonants.
> The most number of consonants listed were 51
> (Tsumhetyan), and 43 (Megdevi).
> The least number of consonants listed were 7 (Viku)
> and 9 (Toki Pona).
> The average number of consonants (average taken from
> the 15-29 range) was 20.79.
>
> Vowels:
> 79% have <11 vowels.
> The most number of vowels listed was 24 (aUI), and 22
> (Gevey).
> The least number of vowels listed was 3 (Viku and
> Uatakassi).
> The average number of vowels was 6.72.
> It seemed that the less amount of consonants, the more
> amount of of vowels, but this could just be
> imagination.  I'll have to do some more math on this.
>
> Tone:  7-8% of the conlangs had tone. These conlangs
> are `Ngwei-koo`li (4 tones), Vong (3 tones), Yiklamu
> (pitch accented), Tsumhetyan (3 tones), Nyaama (2
> tones), Lisanre (2 tones), Kelen?, and Gevey (3
> tones).
>
> Morpheme "Stickiness":
> 66% fusional
> 23% agglutinating
> 9% isolating
>
> Suffixes were by far the most preferred affix, with
> prefixes coming next, infixes a far third.
>
> Cases:  63% have cases.
> (Note:  Absolutive, ergative were considered to be
> normative, accusative in these numbers.  However, I
> realize this isn't a completely correct use of these
> cases.)
> Least amount:  2 (Almaline, Lisanre, Mahren, Kerno,
> Megdevi, Elet Anta)
> Most amount: 56 (Arkian) and 57 (Zhyler).  Danoven
> mentions having about 100 cases, but I couldn't find
> any examples or lists.
> Number of cases (i.e. these percentages of the 63%
> that have case.  Example:  7.9% is 7.9% of 63, not of
> the 100 samples.):
> <6  50.79%
> 6-10  28.57%
> 11-20  7.9%
> 21-30  0
> 31-40  4.7%
> 41-50   0
> >50  3%  (2 conlangs)
> Most commonly chosen cases are (besides the nomative
> form):
> Genitive: 84.6 %
> Accusative: 76.9%
> Dative: 71.1%
> The average number of cases (from conlangs having 10
> or less):  5
>
> Gender on nouns:  (When gender occurs only on the
> pronouns it was not considered gender in this survey):
>
> 36% have gender
> 58% did not have gender
> Of those that have gender (in percentages of 36):
> 50% have masculine and feminine gender
> 41% have neuter gender
> 30% have animate, inanimate or both
> 20% have some other kind of gender
>
> Articles:
> 59% have articles
> 28% do not have articles
>
> Verbs:
> Personal affixes:
> 56% have person on the verb
> 32% do not have person
>
> Tense:
> 79% have some sort of tense
> 10% have another kind of system
>
> Of those that have tense (i.e. the percentage of 79):
> 70.88% have past/present/future tenses
> 21.5% have past/present tenses
> 5% have non-past/past tenses
> 2.5% have present/future tenses
>
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