Re: Lighting Some Flames: Towards conlang artistry

From: "David Peterson" <DigitalScream@...>
> Let's take the simplest phonology out there that I know of: Hawaiian (a e i o
> u p k h v l m n ?).  So, let's say that in this new language, every verb has
> to be CVCVC.  So, you have two verbs: hakuv and palam.  (Their meanings, of
> course, are irrelevant, since you made no mention of semantics.)  Let's say
> you have four tenses: Present, Past, Future and Irrealis.  Here's how you'll
> conjugate the verb:
>
> Present: hakuv, palam
> Past hak:uv, pal:am
> Future: ha:kuv, pa:lam
> Irrealis: hakvu:, palma:
>
>     Unnatural?  I'd have said so last year before I came across Miwok.  All
> their verbs work this way.  And only their verbs; they don't have a system
> like Arabic.  Their noun system is agglutinative.
Yoink.
New version of Rami, I realized just last night, would probably be exactly like
that.

[BTW, I saw the Time Machine last night... I found it rather odd how
well-preserved the Eloi accent of "stone language" was...among the other
seriously weird additions to the book's content.]

    *Muke!