Re: NATLANG: Scary Document

BP Jonsson wrote:

(re creating new words out of syllables in a phrase)

>I haven't tried it for my conlangs, yet, though it is a nice idea.  Tibetan
uses this technique of taking the first syllable of each words in a phrase,
turning it into an "acrosyllabic compound" (a term I just made upon the
spot :-)
so that _Pandrita chenpo_ becomes _Panchen_, _Drölma karpo_ becomes
_Drölkar_,
_Ngagki wangpo_ becomes _Ngawang_ (the last incidentally my Tibetan name
:-)>

This is extremely common in Malay/Indonesian, and probably in other
Austronesian langs.  A long time back I sent in someone's data from
Sundanese; and some humorous back-formations in BI from the time of the
Suharto fall (e.g. Suharto's name was analyzed as "SUdah HARus TObat"
'should have repented' etc.).  Earlier, the authorities tried to replace the
(supposedly) Chinese word "bécak" 'three-wheeled human-powered pedicab" with
"roga" < roda tiga '3 wheels' but it didn't catch on...

Most such creations probably are short-lived; but there's a suspicion
amongst comparativists that some Ml/Ind. vocabulary items that only
_partially_ correspond to known proto-forms are remnants of this process.

(ObConlangConfession:  I've done this in Kash, but usually 1st syl plus last
syl, usually as a means of avoiding a 3- or 4-syl. compound. Needless to
say, I often forget what I've done, and later look at the word and say, Wow,
that must be related to XXX!!