Re: basic vocab

In a message dated 2000:09:15 6:02:58 AM, hsteoh@QUICKFUR.YI.ORG writes:

>On Fri, Sep 15, 2000 at 08:26:09AM -0400, Yoon Ha Lee wrote:
>[snip]
>> I remember trying the dictionary approach with my first quasi-conlang
>(in
>> middle school, basically an English/French clone), Eivaredd.  Didn't
>> work.  I'm sure it could for others, but with a dictionary I'd have to
>> sort through all the modern terminology that wouldn't appear in a
>>society with Renaissance-ish technology, Western culture terms, >>technical
jargon,
>> etc.
>[snip]
>
>Yep. I'm going to avoid using the dictionary at all, if possible, for
>creating words in my conlang. One of the problems is, like you said,
>sorting through modern terminology, technical jargon, etc.; the *other*
>problem, which IMHO is a more significant problem, is that generating
>words from an English dictionary causes the vocabulary of your conlang
>to be English-like, with English-like semantics and English-like
>idiosyncrasies.
>
>I much prefer to generate words by writing native texts, because that way,
>the words created will be idiosyncratic according to the conculture, and
>will give the conlang a more unique "feel". Translating existing texts
>from other langs sometimes also suffer from this dictionary problem,
>though not as much.
>
>(Of course, if you're creating a pidgin, then all this doesn't quite apply
>:-)
>
    Depends on the lexifier language(s) and the substrate language(s).
Pidgins (and some pidgins that have evolved into creoles) tend to be polyglot
mixtures of more than 2 (yes, more than TWO) languages.
    Frinstances, Tok Pisin is an English-lexifier pidgin with lotsa substrate
input (indigenous - Papua NiuGini has 850-some languages/regionalects - as
well as loan words from Malay, Portuguese, German, military slang, Aussie
slang, etc). Bislama, or Beche-le-mer, is a somewhat close relative to Tok
Pisin and has a bit of French influence besides native Vanatuan languages
(more than 100 languages for a population of less than 200,000 people).
Bislama has some degree of Portuguese, Malay, Chinese (Cantonese) influence
as well.

    With my conlang Vivo, I am working from a custom dictionary I have made
up of non-Western(ized) concepts that have no concise equivalent in any
EuroAmerican language (i.e., Sanskrit _lila_, Japanese onomatopoeia and
Japanese terms regarding aesthetic qualities, as well extended meanings of
Italian music terms like _allegro_, _rubato_, etc.).
    ...Vivo: "applied science fiction ConLanging..." :)

    czHANg