Re: Isolating languages

>
>  > Steven Williams <feurieaux@...> writes:
>>  >...
>>  > > Are there many non-tonal isolangs?
>>  >
>>  > English. Other than that, I don't know. Are you
>  > > looking for monosyllablic non-tonal isolangs?
>>
>>  Isn't Khmer non-tonal?
>
>I thought it _was_ tonal. At least, I was reading
>about tone spelling in either Khmer or Mon a few
>months ago...
While many neighbouring and related languages are
tonal, Khmer itself is a non-tonal language.
However, in the Phnom Penh dialect, a slight
tonal influence could have crept in. (Caution: I
have read this, but could not verify it).

A good overview over the Mon-Khmer language family can be found at:
  http://www.anu.edu.au/~u9907217/languages/languages.htm by Paul Sidwell

Some inspiration for fictional isolating
languages can be found there, for sure, as the
members of the Mon-Khmer family have a very
analytical structure.

On a sidenote, I have wondered for some time how
isolating languages deal with word derivation
(e.g. deriving a state word from an action word).
There a sure several techniques, from compounding
to special particles or just a large lexicon ;-)
If anyone can offer real-word insight, I would
appreciate it.

Christian
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Christian Köttl