Re: Lexicons and Langauge Borrowing

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-)