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Re: juvenalia (was: Fictional auxlangs as artlangs)

From:Benct Philip Jonsson <bpj@...>
Date:Thursday, December 18, 2008, 11:44
On 2008-12-18 Ph.D. wrote:
 > I got my best friend at the time to learn it, and we did
 > have some conversations in it.

When I was around ten I and my best friend learnt
enough of the ape language in Tarzan comics to
have 'conversations' in it.  He wouldn't play
along when I wanted to make vocab additions,
not to mention learning my own nascent conlang.

 > estiro - I will be estiros - we will be

Was this -ir- morpheme from Spanish _ir_ "to go"
used as a relex of English "going to"?

At one point I created a "Future Swedish" which
had developed inflectional person endings from
personal pronouns. The idea built on the fact
that Swedish has 'inverted word order' (actually
the old Germanic verb-second rule) when the
phrase starts with a temporal adverb, so from
phrases like

- _Då gick jag_ "Then went I"
- _Nu går jag_ "Now go I"
- _Sen går jag_ "Afterwards go I"

Future Swedish developed complex verb forms

- _doyikya_ 'I went'
- _nûgoya_ 'I go'
- _sengoya_ 'I'll go'

For a first conjugation verb like _tala_ 'speak',
where the past tense ending -de of _talade_
'spoke' is usually silent in colloquial Swedish
the former adverbs became the sole tense markers:

- _dotalaya_ 'I spoke'
- _nûtalaya_ 'I speak'
- _sentalaya_ 'I'll speak'

The personal endings were as follows:

Singular
1. _Nu talar jag_ > _nûtalaya_ (*)
2. _Nu talar du_ > _nûtalarû_ (**)
3. _Nu talar den_ > _nûtalare_ (***) Plural
4. _Nu talar vi_ > _nûtalawi_
5. _Nu talar ni_ > _nûtalani_
6. _Nu talar dom_ > _nûtalarow_ (****)

(*) Future Swedish was r-dropping, and in addition
remaining /rr/ had become /Z/ written _j_ distinct
from /4/ _r_ < /r/. Otherwise both vowel and
consonant lengt was lost, which caused former length-
dependent differences in vowel quality to become
phonemic, so that there were twelve vowel phonemes
each with its own letter: _a â ä e ê i o ô ö
u û ü_. These twelve letters did *not*
correspond to the twelve vowel phonemes of many
Gautic accents of Swedish; rather there had been
first a split between all long and short vowels
and vowels with following /r/ followed/accompanied
by some mergers:

- _a_ /A/ < /a:/, /a(:)r/
- _â_ /a/ < /a/
- _ä_ /&/ < /E(:)r/
- _e_ /e/ < /e:/, /e:r/, /i/
- _ê_ /E/ < /E(:)/
- _i_ /i/ < /i:/, /i(:)r/
- _o_ /o/ < /o(:)/
- _ô_ /9/ < /2/, /2(:)r/, /8/
- _ö_ /2/ < /2:/, /8(:)r/
- _u_ /u/ < /u(:)(r)/
- _û_ /8/ < /8:/, /y/
- _ü_ /y/ < /y:/, /y(:)r/

As can be seen the spelling of Future Swedish
was influenced by Future French and Future
German. The not very well developed idea was
that the orthographic traditions of the
languages of Northern Europe were lost.
Apheresis, syncope and consonant cluster
simplification made Future Swedish look similar
to Japanese or an African language:

- _Sen *arrangerar jag färdigt hans kärra_
- 'I'll finish fixing his car(t)'
- > _Sejâheya hwädi acäja_

As can be seen Future Swedish was also nasal and
/h/ dropping; FS /h/ was from Contemporary Swedish
/X/: _arrangera_ /arraN'Xe:ra/ became _-jâhe-_
'fix, mend'.

(**) Contemporary Central Swedish has a sandhi
rule whereby cliticized pronouns beginning in /d/
change this to /r/, but I later invented a general
rule whereby /rd/ [d`] > /4/.

(***) The /rd/ > /4/ rule, /h/ loss and nasal loss
conspired to make clitic _den_ 'that' _det_ /de:/
'that' (neuter) _hon_ 'she' and _han_ 'he' merge
into a single ending _-re_. IIRC poetical FS had
separate feminine _-ru_ and _-ra_ endings.

(****) Postvocalic /m/ was not totally lost, but
rather changed into /w/. Nasals before stops were
also preserved.

Browsing around in the old binders I even found
"The North Wind and the Sun" in Future Swedish.
It is clear that I failed to predict some changes
in pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar in recent
Swedish, like the breaking up of obstruent +
sonorant clusters with [@], the now ubiquitous
filler word _typ_ 'like' and the loss of _att_
as an infinitive marker.

 > ## A-Nurawinde oso a-Sule
 >
 > Nggoso dojälarow a-Nurâwinde oso a-Sule nki
 > wemarow sondoware mêsataka. Yôtó dokowre ê
 > kele sondoyeke powêge sondoware pokeda iê coka
 > yâka. Dosobetênderow âte denarow
 > sondokôndere ohwo aw a-kele yâka doware deso
 > mêsataka. Dolosere a-Nurawinde wäjowäje fâse
 > doso dojysere a-kile ba wäjowäje soronêpere
 > siyâka osoronöte siâsôke merora nki sihêke.
 > Oso dokôhwôsökare a-Sule. Oso dohene a-Sule
 > meromera wama oso dotuge-ase a-kile siyâka.
 > Soyiketé donä dobewisare a-Sule âte doware-á
 > sondoware mêsataka ûtarow.

Literal 'translation' into Contemporary Swedish
with stresses marked:

 > ## Han Nordanvinden och så han Solen
 >
 > En 'gång så då 'grälade dom han
 > 'Nordanvinden och så han 'Solen om'kring vem
 > 'av dom som då 'var den 'mesta 'starka. Just
 > 'då då 'kom det en 'kille som då 'gick den
 > på 'vägen som då 'var den 'påklädda i en
 > 'tjocka 'jacka. Då så 'bestämde dom 'att det
 > är den 'av dom som då 'kunde den att få 'av
 > han 'killen 'jackan då 'var det 'den som 'mesta
 > 'starka. Då 'blåste den han 'Nordanvinden
 > 'värre och 'värre 'fastän 'då så då
 > 'fryste den han 'killen bara 'värre och 'värre
 > så då 'knäppte den sin 'jacka 'och så då
 > 'knöt den sin 'halsduken mer(a) 'hårda
 > om'kring sin 'stjälken. Och så då 'skulle
 > försöka den han 'Solen. Och så då 'sken den
 > han 'Solen 'mera och 'mera 'varma och så då
 > 'tog den 'av sig han 'killen sin 'jacka. Så
 > gick det 'till 'då när då be'visade den han
 > Solen 'att det är då 'var det 'han som då
 > 'var den 'mesta 'starka ut'av dom.

Smooth contemporary Swedish translation:

En gång grälade Nordanvinden och Solen om vem av
dom som var den starkaste. Just då kom det en
kille/man gående på vägen klädd i en tjock
jacka/rock. De bestämde att den av dem som kunde
få av killen jackan var den starkaste.
Nordanvinden blåste värre och värre men då
frös killen bara värre och värre så han
knäppte han sin jacka och knöt sin halsduk
hårdare om sin hals. Så skulle Solen försöka.
Solen sken varmare och varmare och då tog killen
av sig sin jacka. Så gick det till när Solen
bevisade att han var den starkaste av dem.

Literal English translation:

One time so then argued they he the_North_wind and
so he the_sun around who of them which then was
the most the_strong. Just then so then came it a
guy which then walked it (walking) on the_road who
then was it clothed (clad) in a thick the_jacket.
Then so decided they that it is the [one] of them
which then could it to get off him the_guy
the_jacket then was it the [one] which most
the_strong. Then blew it he the_North_wind worse
and worse although then so then freezed it he
the_guy only worse and worse and so then tied it
his the_scarf more the_hard around his the_stalk
(neck). And so then should try it he the_Sun. And
then shone it he the_Sun more and more the_warm
and so then took it off him he the_guy his jacket.
Thus it went [to] then when then proved it he
the_Sun that it is then was it he which then was
the [one] most the_strong of them.

Replies

Peter Collier <petecollier@...>
Ph.D. <phil@...>