Re: Time words and that ZBB game (was Re: Reviving an old tradition)

On Thu, Feb 9, 2006 at 10:44 PM, Mark J. Reed wrote:

> On 2/9/06, Paul Bennett <paul-bennett@...> wrote:
> > Here's a thought: I'll throw open the floor to anyone who wants to play
> > that ZBB game with Br'ga. I need roots, with syllable shape CV(C) of up to
> > three syllables,
>
> Looking over your number names, Br'ga seems to be a posteriori instead
> of a priori; random syllables (whether generated by a computer program
> or a group of enthusiastic volunteers from CONLANG) would not seem to
> be appropriate for such a language?
The deal is the Br'ga people live on a tropical or even equitorial island
somewhere. I'm not entirely sure where, but I'm thinking of the south-west or
southern Indian ocean, possibly.

The majority of words are going to be a priori, but I'm going to have some
borrowings from European languages, primarily Portuguese, as well as Dutch and
English, and possibly some words of Sanskrit/Pali origin. The words borrowed
would tend to be words for which there was no native need prior to discovery by
the west. Of course, the degree of borrowings will depend heavily on when
exactly in time I place them. I'm teetering between the 17th and 21st
centuries. The former gives me plenty of scope to create a "pure" native
culture, and the latter lets me indulge in far more interesting translation
exercizes. I may try more or less hard to have at least some native words be
vaguely Nostratic in origin, but it's not something I'm going to rigorously
apply -- a few chance resemblances do a language good, IMO.

> > 1 /cCQ/
>
> Yow.  It hurts just to think about pronouncing that. :)
Really? Huh. I find it instinctively easy. I don't think it'll become the indefinite
article, btw. That honor, if awarded, will go to something like /hun/ or /un/,
depending on how I end up feeling about initial vowels.

It's /cC)Q/, btw, but I was lazy in marking my affricates.

> > 2 /s_m7n/
>
> So via assimilation that would come out as [s_m7~m], right?  What does
> /s_m/ signify in (C)XS(AMPA) ?
/_m/ is the "laminal" diacritic. Technically /s_m7n/ is [s_m7n_m] -- that's another
thing I want to think about wrt when the language is set. Should I assimilate
"strictly" or "lazily"? Would /nAwA/ become [mAwA] or [Nm)AwA], for instance?
I'm thinking /Nm)/ (i.a.) would be the older form, and /m/ (i.a.) the form
after at least a few generations of Europeanization.

> > suffixed particles:
> > nth /ku/
> > (last - n)th /dan/
>
> Hm.  Martial arts fan, by any chance? :)
Er, no, at least not consciously. I realise /dan/ is a syllable found in some
martial arts grading/ranking systems, but does /ku/ have significance as well?
I may very well have to change it if that's the case.



Paul