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Re: Double minimal pairs

From:J R <tanuef@...>
Date:Wednesday, September 3, 2008, 8:42
On Wed, Sep 3, 2008 at 7:00 AM, Herman Miller <hmiller@...> wrote:

> Mark J. Reed wrote: > >> "Don't let this happen to you. Order your Phonomatic(TM) Random >> Syllable Generator today, and keep your posteriori out of your a >> priori languages." >> > > > ;-) one method I've used successfully to avoid English bias (or > anti-English bias for that matter) is to manually create a bunch of words > without meanings, then randomly assign meanings to them. A few of the > Tirelat words were assigned this way, including "kiv" meaning "cave" and > "ret" meaning "reptile". I never would have chosen words so similar to > English, but that sort of coincidence isn't entirely unexpected. > > Tirelat has fewer randomly-assigned words than some of my other langs, but > some of them have become well-established, e.g. > > ċakni "rich, wealthy" > drambi "sand" (later expanded to include "(ground) pepper") > kezyl "plant" (n.) > kinež "cup" > kwëna "to hear" > luġi "holy, sacred" > maraat "basket" > miłwi "soon" > mizu "onion" > nirik "cheese" > nusu "silent" > sënt "bone" > šmaj "always" > šuuru "door" > tadru "much" > taka "there" > tipa "to enter" > turma "hammer" > vaasa "lid, cover" > xiłki "planet" > zaaxĕn "cellar" >
Do you accept all of the random pairings, or will you reject ones that strike you as really off? Personally, I haven't used any random methods, and wouldn't, except perhaps in very small doses (Mark's catchy advert notwithstanding!). It kind of takes the con- out of conlanging for me. If I want randomness, I'll look at a natlang :-) Josh Roth

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Herman Miller <hmiller@...>