Re: Conlang Guilt

> in a project I began yesterday, Purified Nzva, I feel it necessary to mak=
e
> the genitive singular ending and the plural endings -s/-z/-es and -s/-z/-=
ez
> respectively (varying as english does.  After realizing that this is
> painfully similar to their English correlaries and felt an almost
> irresistable urge to change it to something more *exotic*.  Have any of y=
ou
> felt this need to intentionally steer away from the convention in natlang=
s
> familiar to you?
Yes, though it obviously hasn't been a very strong need, considering all th=
e
Germanic influence which still remains in my lang :)
I intentionally based the first version of the language (called Danvet) on
German and English, with influences from other languages, and a pre-existin=
g
vocabulary, and worked from there.  These languages were obviously flawed a=
nd
inefficient (my reason for creating my own grammar!), but taking them as a
starting point meant I didn't introduce any flaws or inefficiencies which
weren't already known to me -- and therefore fixable.  These days the outri=
ght
Germanic elements of the language have largely faded away though the basic
sounds of Aroven are still definitely Germanic -- but put to better use :-)
The latest version of the language looks much more like Finnish than German
as I've been drastically simplifying its phonology and word structure.
Exotic-ness has never been an issue, though -- even in the associated ficti=
on
it is a conlang invented by Teutons and Celts!

Josh

        _/_/      _/_/  _/_/_/_/   Joshua Shinavier            =20
         _/        _/  _/         Loorenstrasse 74, Zimmer B321=20
        _/        _/  _/_/_/_/   CH-8053 Z=FCrich              =20
 _/    _/  _/    _/        _/   Switzerland                 =20
_/_/_/_/  _/_/_/_/  _/_/_/_/   jshinavi@g26.ethz.ch

Danov=EBn pages: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Crete/5555/ven.htm