Re: Avoiding near-collisions in vocabulary coinage

Sometimes this is simply going to be unavoidable, especially if one is
working with a definite phonological area. Indeed, sometimes it will
probably be intentional (witness Tolkien lifting both the word and the
meaning from Finnish, with quenya tie "road" and tul- "to come" for
example). In my case, where there is inherently some causal connection being
posited in the mythos with very-Proto-European (not PIE) then some roots
will remain noticeable. I can remember nasi- having to do with "nose" as an
example from Omina, and aito- "father".
I don't shy away from correspondences, sometimes I want them! Omina's not
derived from either a conlang or a natlang (some overt Basque influences
though) but what I'm after is an impression of inner consistency. I wouldn't
dream of using any computer resources for generating words. I have to feel
them.
Mike


How do y'all avoid coining new words in your conlangs that are
too similar to existing ones?  -- In a naturalistic artlang, whether a
posteriori
or a priori but derived diachronically from an earlier a priori
artlang, you'll have homonyms and near-homonyms result from sound change
merges, of course; it's expected and desired.  But for an engelang
or a more abstract, less naturalistic artlang, what methods have you
found useful to avoid creating new words that sound too similar to existing
ones?

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