Re: HELP: Adding irregularities to conlangs?

On Jul 20, 2004, at 3:28 AM, Carsten Becker wrote:

> Hello!
>
> Daléian and Ayeri, my only serious conlangs up to now, both suffer of
> too much regularity I think. The problem is, how can I add a *sensible*
> amount of irregularity to my conlangs to add a little spice? How do
> irregularities evolve naturally, anyway?
One thing you could do is to introduce phonologically conditioned
allomorphy, and then extend one of the allomorphs to forms which
normally wouldn't condition it. For example, the regular plural suffix
in English has three phonologically conditioned allomorphs: /1z/ is
affixed to stems ending in a sibilant, /s/ is affixed to stems ending
in a non-sibilant voiceless consonant, and /z/ is affixed to all other
stems undergoing regular pluralization. If one of these allomorphs were
to be extended outside of its conditioning environment, you would get
irregularity of a particular type.

> I think this topic also may be interesting for any Conlanger.
> Personally, missing irregularity adds a clinically clean feeling to
> conlangs that I don't like. I guess there are many other people who
> feel
> the same.
I suppose it depends on your design goals. I can't imagine Livagian,
for example, with irregularities; it seems (to me) to be antithetical
to And's design of the language. I think that there is emerging
irregularity in Miapimoquitch, though I don't have enough forms yet to
be sure. But I can tell you where it will happen when it does.

Dirk
--
Dirk Elzinga
Dirk_Elzinga@byu.edu

Grammatica vna et eadem est secundum substanciam in omnibus linguis,
licet accidentaliter varietur. - Roger Bacon (1214-1294)