Fakelangs

(Feel free to coin a better word for "fakelangs"...)

Reading about conlangs that pretend to be part of Earth's history
rather than a con-Earth's, like Dirk's Tepa/Miapimoquitch or Joerg's
Albic, has always intrigued me.  I'm tempted to make one of those
langs myself, maybe even complete with a web page from an imaginary
language institute presenting some gathered data "reconstructed"
from old engravings and written accounts dating back a few centuries
when actual speakers of the language were still known to exist.

The culture has its own religion, and survived past the middle
ages as a local minority.  Often pursued as heathens, they
sometimes had to keep their identity or at least their beliefs
secret.  For that reason, it is not clear when exactly the
language and culture died out.  Some fringe scientists even
conjecture that a secret society of them might still be around.
;o)

For the flavor of the language, I'd like something rough and
ancient-looking like what is left of PIE (which strikes me as
having lots of guttural sounds and labiovelars).  On the other
hand, it should be very non-PIE, predating all other languages in
the region (Germany or Switzerland? ;-).  I could find a few
German or Swiss-German proper names with uncertain etymologies,
and claim that they actually descended from my lang.  =D

I haven't decided much yet, except that I'd like to have a
labiovelar consonant series, aspirated /hr hl/, and initial
clusters like /xt ft st/.  I've decided that /gwi:n/ should mean
"cattle", and that /'hajro/ is either the name of a Goddess or
the language itself.

Any comments or advice on the premise so far?  What features
should I avoid/add to make the language decidedly un-Germanic
and un-Celtic, yet realistic?  No trigger stuff please...
though ergativity and maybe even vowel harmonies wouldn't be a
bad idea.


-- Christian Thalmann

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