Re: the i-language

daniel andreasson wrote:
>
> Hello y'all/[jau]/you guys/etc.
>
> In Swedish (and probably most European languages) there is a
> game called _i-språket_ or rather _i-sprikit_ 'the i-language',
> when you change all the vowels to /i/. Thee riseelt is finny,
> bit yee still indeersteend ivrything thit is sid.
>
> So the question is, would this work in all languages? Even in
> ini/nine? Would it work in languages with only CV-syllables?
>
> I don't know why I'm asking. Just curious about how much of
> the speak that is context and if the language E would work
> in reality. And other things that I really haven't thought
> about yet, but which probably will come up if there is any
> interest in this topic.
>
> Daniel
Chances that this would work in Ini are about nill.  Here's why:
Even in English, which has a pretty big phonology (so nowhere near all
possible words are used up) some of the words with /i/ instead of the
normal vowel can be mistaken for another real word -- bit (/bit/), which
is supposed to be but, is identical to beet and beat.  Not only that but
it's also the same as what bat, bot, boat, bit (/bIt/), bet, and bought
would sound like.  In English, however, (and presumably in Swedish)
that's okay, because other words can't be mistaken (like funny, result
and understand) -- you get the meaning from context.  In Ini, however,
most words would have the potential to be mistaken, and you would have
little if any context to deduce what they were.  I believe this would
happen in any CV language, because the vowel plays a bigger part in the
syllable (it's half of it, or 1/3 if CVC) and changing something that is
such a big part of the phonemic info in the syllable would have a bigger
impact than in English or Swedish.

An example from Ini (the first sentence of the Babel text):
Pam pamum ta natan’a anin’kin na anam nu tu mimpimi kunatamun.

This would be:
Pim pimim ti nitin'i inin'kin ni inim ni ti mimpimi kinitimin.

The first word presents a big problem because the aspect of the verb is
represented in the vowel, so instead of being imperfect this could be
interpreted as terminative.
The third word, ta/ti, misrepresents natan'a/nitin'i as being feminine
when it is really masculine (the *whole* world had one language, not
just the women in it).
Anam/inim is a problem because it changes "language" to "wrist".
The antepenultimate word changes neuter gender to feminine gender,
making "word" female.  This also happens with the plural prefix
kun-/kin- on the final word.

None of the other words can (yet) be directly mistaken for another Ini
word, but this would definitely happen if the sentence had two-syllable
words, almost all of which are already used up.  For example, "impi"
could be interpreted as impu "fire", impi "love", impa "throat", ampa
"ice", ampi "bread", ampu "music", umpa "hat" or umpu "spine".  Only
"umpi" is not yet a word.


Nicole
--
nicole.eap@snet.net
http://www.geocities.com/nicole_eap
AIM sn:  iiiieeeee