Re: Made some progress...

 --- Christophe wrote:

> Unfortunately my conlangs tend not to be compounding [...], but rather like
> to use non-immediately-recognizable derivations. And that's much more
> difficult to create for an a priori conlang :(( . Maggel is extremely bad in
> that respect: it's even less compounding than French! I've not yet worked
> out the derivation system, but most of it will come from set phrases in
> which slowly the elements lose their independence and blend together in a
> single word due to sound erosion. The result is words with apparently
> strange morphology (like words which change the middle syllable to mark
> number :))) ) which can only be explained historically :)))) .
That will be really nice, I think. Looking forward to see more Maggel.
Unfortunately, in my languages, modelled after Greek, Tocharian, Slavic and
Germanic, such a system just wouldn't fit. But I will come up with a fully a
priori language, I'm sure about that. I just don't know when...

> Of course you can find some more straightforward derivation (like the
> substantivisation of adjectives into nouns describing a person or object
> having the quality given by the adjective), but even then exceptions are
> numerous :))
Well, isn't it the exceptions that make the language?

> The worst until now in Maggel is the derivation of adverbs of manner from
> adjectives. Actually Maggel doesn't really derive adverbs from adjectives
> (although it does have true adverbs). Instead, it takes the noun of quality
> connected to the adjective (which can be derived from it, or be the form from
> which the adjective is derived, or even be a different root!!!), and makes a
> prepositional phrase with it, using the preposition |do| [dV]. Why is such a
> construction even discussed with adjectives then? Well, maybe because for
> many common adjectives it is the structure which is predicatively used,
> rather than the normal adjective form :))))) .
Looks promising. I can understand now that you don't produce 300 new Maggel
words a day :))
What does the name "Maggel" mean, by the way? In my Dutch ears it sounds a bit
like a name for a duck ;)))

But no worries, such a production is quite exceptional for me, too. If every
day would be like that, I would already have been the proud father of at least
900 languages the size of Hattic and Askaic, I guess. I'm not sure if the world
would be served with that :))

> Hehe, is the grammar as evil as the orthography in your opinion? :))))
Not yet. It still depends a bit. Are you going to come up with a 48 case
system, partly ergativity, in combination with OSV word order system? Not to
mention 309 noun classes and 81 verb conjugations...

> Makes me think of "Tocharian" (which makes me wonder: what is the origin of
> the name "Tocharian" for those Eastern IE languages?).
I'll answer that question a bit later... Keep your shirt on!

Jan

=====
"Originality is the art of concealing your source." - Franklin P. Jones

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