Re: Lighting Some Flames: Towards conlang artistry

Muke Tever <alrivera@...> writes:

> 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.]

Oh what a stupid stupid movie!! Although, the explanation of the preservation of
their accent is thus:

There was that Data-Machine in that cavern (the remains of the Manhattan's Library),
that could talk...so presumably the Eloi found that and learned how to
pronounce English from him...now, how a piece of glass and an enery system
survived for 800,000 years...THAT's where the explanation fall apart.

Elliott Lash.