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Re: Lexicons and Langauge Borrowing

From:Kristian Jensen <kljensen@...>
Date:Tuesday, March 16, 1999, 15:23
Herman Miller wrote:

>On Mon, 15 Mar 1999 12:14:10 -0500, Michael Mouatt ><arcangel@...>
>wrote: >
>>Also, is it considered bad form to borrow too much from real >>languages? I'm creating some conlangs based on the Scandanavian >>and Germanic branches. So far I've borrowed heavily from Icelandic >>phonology. > >I think borrowing phonology is perfectly fine. Even borrowing words >within limits is okay with me. Tolkien borrowed "nar" from Arabic >and "velike" (velikii) from Russian, for a couple of examples. But >unless you have a specific fictional reason for the similarity >(e.g., is your fiction set in an alternate-history Scandinavia?), >it might be better to create your own words if you want a realistic >fictional language.
Boreanesian borrowed a lot of words from the Austronesians, who were somewhat of a cultural despot in the past - introducing domesticated animals, agriculture, metals, and writing. Words pertaining to these areas are Austrsonesian in origin. E.g.: /m@nuw?/ from manok "chicken", /s@laG?/ from sulat or surat "writing". I have also considered having a few Spanish loan words from the time when Boreanesian was a landing outpost for the Manila galleons sailing to and from Mexico and the Philippines. The only one I have so far is /n@p@taG?/ from navidad "christmas". Words describing objects of the modern era are Boreanesianized English words, e.g.: /w@t@juwh/ for "video", /h@tilh/ for "hotel", /l@t@juwh/ for "radio". Just thought I'd share that, -kristian- 8-)