Re: Made some progress...

En réponse à Jan van Steenbergen <ijzeren_jan@...>:

>
> Well, that's the funny thing when a language grows bigger! It starts
> to
> generate its own vocabulary. If you have 200 "basic" verbs and about
> 20
> prefixes, it doesn't require much thinking to derive 300 new verbs in
> one day.
> For example: "en" (in) and "hynze" (to come) -> "enhynze" (to enter). I
> must
> add that most derived verbs of this type are a bit more creative,
> though.
>
That's the nice thing of allowing compounding and/or having a posteriori
conlangs: the mechanisms of derivation are easy to make, and it's easy then to
create a lot of words in short time. Unfortunately my conlangs tend not to be
compounding (I used to have compounding conlangs but I find them a bit boring.
Who wants to reinvent German anyway ;)))) ), 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 :)))) .

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 :))
(taking again the example of the deadjectivised nouns describing a person or
object, the usual way to derive them is to add the prefix |ma-| [m&] to them -
[&] is ae-ligature in IPA -. However, some adjectives take |joa-| [Za] instead,
and some others have an irregular derivation. And it's not quite
straightforward to know which form of the adjective is to be prefixed ;)))) ).

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 :))))) .

Hehe, is the grammar as evil as the orthography in your opinion? :))))

>
> > (damn real life! I'm gonna propose a refererendum to extend days up to
> 48
> > hours! God is gonna have to learn what democracy is :))) ).
>
> I'll vote yep!
>
Noted!

>
> I've been thinking about it for a while. I wanted to get rid of the
> name
> "Hattic" for the family and have it replaced by something that both
> sounds nice
> and credible and fits somehow with the languages. "Khadurian" seemed to
> meet
> those criteria. It is cognate with "Hattic" and with "chardura"
> (mountain).
>
Makes me think of "Tocharian" (which makes me wonder: what is the origin of the
name "Tocharian" for those Eastern IE languages?).

>
> Depends. If you become Minister of Education, and you try to introduce
> Maggel
> as the IAL to end all IALs, I might rather consider introducing a museum
> of
> natlanging, instead :)
>
LOL ;))))) . Actually, as a minister of education I would put mandatory courses
in language creation in primary school, as well as plenty of options to learn
constructed languages later on :)))) .

> Frankly, our conspiration is SOOOOO perfect that we don't even know
> about it
> ourselves :))
>
LOL "I've just learned I was part of a conspiration and I didn't even know
it!" :))) . IMHO the best conspirations are the ones whose members don't even
know they participate it ;))))) .

Christophe.

http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr

Take your life as a movie: do not let anybody else play the leading role.

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