Re: basic vocab

> From: Jim Hopkins
>
> Mario asked about what wordlists may have been used as templates for
> beginning a basic conlang vocabulary.
>
> For Druni (at first) I created words at random as they came to
> mind.  Later I
> used a variety of basic wordlists that I had used as a student in learning
> French and Italian.
>
> A very good set of Wordlists is found in the book "Loom of Language by
> Fredrick Bodmer (W. W. Norton & Company 1944).   Druni now has a
> vocabulary
> approaching 10,000 word and being very derivational is highly expressive.
A good derivational system was the key to productivity for amman iar.  Since
amman iar is remotely related to JRRT's languages having early lexical
influences, I started with a list of modified roots from JRRT's etymologies
and then computer generated phonologically sound additional roots to fill in
the semantic gaps.  I then systematically applied the derivational system
and adjusted for morphophonemic processes. This was all done with software
that I wrote expressly for this purpose. The software combined every root
with every affix (maximum number of affixes per word was adjustable) to
generate a potential lexeme with a suggested gloss based on the root/affix
combination. This process generated an inventory of some 20,000+ potential
lexemes complete with potential glosses.  These get promoted into the actual
lexicon as they are needed.  Usually, I am able to promote whole networks of
semantically related lexemes at a time.  Occasionally, I will reject a
lexeme suggested by the inventory as being ... well, not quite right.
Fortunately, the derivational system is robust enough to provide multiple
avenues to the same semantic result, so rejection usually implies taking a
different derivational route (no pun intended at least for those of you who
pronounce "route"  homophonously with "root").  During the process of
promotion, I try to extend the suggested glosses into "real definition"
adding synonyms culled from alternative derivations usually, but sometimes
outright borrowings from Sindarin.  Of course, the process never quite went
as smoothly as I have just implied.  Often I would change the form of an
affix and sometimes even its semantics.  This requires a complete regression
through my approved lexicon to ensure consistency, a process I have yet to
get around to automating, so errors do creep in. A small sample of the end
result cane be seen on my site at
http://www.graywizard.net/Conlinguistics/amman_iar/ai_lexicon.htm.

David

David E. Bell
The Gray Wizard
www.graywizard.net

"'Yes, I think I shall express the accusative case by a prefix!'

A memorable remark! Just consider the splendour of the words!  'I shall
express the accusative case.'  Magnificent!  Not 'it is expressed' nor even
the more shambling 'it is sometimes expressed', nor the grim 'you must learn
how it is expressed'.  What a pondering of alternatives within one's choice
before the final decision in favour of the daring and unusual prefix, so
personal, so attractive; the final solution of some element in a design that
had hitherto proved refractory.  Here were no base considerations of the
'practical', the easiest for the 'modern mind', or for the million – only a
question of taste, a satisfaction of a personal pleasure, a private sense of
fitness."

(from The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays - A Secret Vice,
by J.R.R. Tolkien [Houghton Mifflin Company 1984])