Re: Fakelangs

From: "Christian Thalmann" <cinga@...>

> (Feel free to coin a better word for "fakelangs"...)
First thing that came to mind was 'altlang', short for 'alternative history
language' or 'alternative Earth language'. Or is that already taken?

> 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.
I've posted a lot of my own real Earth-based conculture, the Techs (which
are becoming more and more modelled after the jinn). I don't think I'll go
as far as set up a website for any Republic of Taqistan... not until I
already have the book written and published at least. And I still have a lot
of research to do to make it as real-world as possible. (My theory is that
the jinn, which according to Islamic teaching, were created from fire, while
humans came from earth, are beings of energy rather than matter, but they
can materalize if they feel the need. Wasn't there a race in the classic
Star Trek series like that?)

> 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)
I had a religion for the Techs, but then I decided they all would convert to
Islam, Christianity or Buddhism. There is some Jewish, Zoroastrian and Hindu
influence in the culture. The Techs are highly mystical, and have their own
Sufi order, known as Taqiyah or Jinniyah.

(Actually, _taqiyah_ is a term in Shi'ism referring to hiding one's Muslim
faith in self-defense, which is frowned upon by Sunnis, so the latter might
be a better word.)

> 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 have something in a book that claims that a number of words in
Indo-European are of Northwest Caucasian origin, though the Caucasus ain't
the Alps. Kabardian and Abkhaz are definitely 'rough and ancient-looking';
you could use those for a model.

But what did the pre-IE people of Alpine Europe speak? Basque? Finnic?

> 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
/xt/, /ft/, /st/, /St/... you just described Farsi. ;)

> "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.
The North Caucasian languages are ergative, and they're true ergative too,
unlike Kartvelian, which are mixed-ergative. Chechen and Ingush have a form
of vowel harmony, but it might be better described as Umlaut. Chechen also
has eight 'genders', I think.

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