Re: My new project - comments appreciated

David Barrow wrote:

> Joe wrote:
>
>> Gary Shannon wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>
>>> <snip>
>>>
>>> There is no need for the tie breaker.  Look up "ken"
>>> in a good English dictionary.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>> Well, yes, 'ken' and 'wot' are (obsolete)  English verbs, but I am
>> basing this on the modern languages.  I doubt anyone would accept their
>> use as being Standard English.
>
>
> except in the expression 'to wit'  'wit'  being the infinitive   'wot'
> being the present singular.
>
Okay then.

> In forming your words will you be going by cognates (a word contributes
> regardless of its current meaning) or by semantics (only if a word has
> kept the same meaning as the others)?
>
A combination of both, I suppose.  A word shouldn't be used in one sense
if there is a better alternative(eg. one that means the same in all
dialects), but if it's a tie, congnates have to be included.

> And wouldn't something like Platdeutsch be closer to
> English/Scots/Frisian than Dutch?

Well, it's all part of the same Dialect continuum, really.  It's
something like this:

             Scots-English-Frisian-Low Saxon-German
                                     /
                                 Dutch
Or something like that.  It's not an ancestry diagram, more a contact
one, if you see what I mean... I could have included the whole Western
Germanic family, but that would have been harder.

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