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Re: Isolating languages

From:Christian Köttl <christian.koettl@...>
Date:Sunday, May 29, 2005, 19:01
> > > 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 -- --------------------------------- Christian Köttl