Re: Fakelangs

On Thu, 24 Jun 2004 15:57:41 +0200, Christian Thalmann <cinga@...>
wrote:

>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
This sounds interesting.

>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.
/gwi:n/ looks vaguely IE (cf. *gWo:us).  Initial clusters presume a non-
initial accent scheme?

>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.
Whatever people existed in North-Central Europe before the Germanic
invasion, they probably spoke a language (or group thereof) with word-
initial accent, like Uralic.  This seems evident to me in the Germanic
accent system.  Such languages generally avoid initial clusters.

I'd say make it ergative or active.  Vowel harmony is iffier :-p

- Rob