Re: Survey (a new one!)

On Wed, 30 Sep 1998 10:52:48 -0300 Pablo Flores
<fflores@...> writes:
>Hi all,
>
>I'm starting a new conlang and I was curious:
>what are your first words in these cases? Do you have
>a special "test bed" for your conlangs, such as a text
>to be translated? Where do your words come from?
>
>(Take your time to answer, if you want to. This is like
>a little survey and we've had one just a few days ago --
>forgive me, Sally, for I've taken thine ideas :)
>
>
>--Pablo Flores
Well, my first words of Rokbeigalmki existed before the language did.
For my character Stygius (Stiigiyus in Rokb.) on ElendorMUSH i wanted to
flesh out an unusual history, so i made him an immigrant from a far away
land, and created a few words for his History.

Rokbeigalm-a = "the riders of the waves", his tribe.
(from this came _Rokbeigalmki_, the name of the language)

Dayaghut = just a name, but "Rokbeigalmki-sounding"

Flurazha = just a name, "Rokbeigalmki-sounding" but actually from a
7th-grade myth composition i wrote, where the actual name was
Eiliflurazha

bre' = son of.  this word actually became obsolete when Rokbeigalmki was
made, but i kept it as a quirk of names.

bra' = daughter of.  same history as _bre'_

nededh = "wanderer", based on the Hebrew root N-D-D

yagh = "fisherman", based on the Hebrew word _dayag_.  Most of these
original words are based heavily (or directly grabbed) from Hebrew,
because i didn't realize that a whole language was starting.  This is
where i figured out from that "do-er" nouns are going to have "softened"
consonant endings:
neded = wander
> nededh = wanderer
yag = fishing
> yagh = fisherman
daghalub = elevation
> daghaluv = elevator
etc.

tza' = of (coming from Spanish _de_, i'm not exactly sure how i got to it
from there)

tzraap = village/city (comign from Hebrew _tzrif_, "hut")

-a = the (from Aramaic)

nga' = from

Tolosed = "Island of Peace", Stiigiyus's homeland.  based on Tolkien's
Elvish.


That's about it....the entire beginnings of Rokbeigalmki.  Most of the
subsequent words have been based on (less direct borrowing now) from
Hebrew and English, and/or if the word just "sounds right" to me, which
usually ends up being similar to the word in a language i already know.
I have taken words from strange places, like _iip_ "love", from the
example of _ai`_ in a Chinese pocket dictionary at a friend's house, or
_ktis_ "work" from a Jewish History textbook which mentioned the Greek
idea of _ktistes_, worship of a (semi-)mythical founder of a city.  "to
worship" and "to work" are the same word in Hebrew, hence the meaning
turnover in the Rokbeigalmki word.  Now most of the words are just things
that "sound right", and i usually have "growth-spurts" when i'm trying to
translate something for Conlang, like the Babel text or the Horse Story.

-Stephen (Steg)
"i ilu sudmihs, u-mishm,
 ga'umzoi-dadeijhwi esh..."
                -maarihlihn mainsihn

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