Re: Making your language sound nice

Personally, and as someone for whom "linguistic aesthetics" is crucial, I
think that you need the occasional "jar" to make your language have a sense
of realism. Tolkien himself thought that Quenya was too pretty (I'm
paraphrasing him, but that's clearly what he meant). After all, there are
few real-world languages that are completely mellifluous.
Incidentally, is "chalo" related to Romany "Chavi" ?
Mike
----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Martin" <masonheart@...>
To: <CONLANG@...>
Sent: Saturday, June 14, 2008 7:26 PM
Subject: Making your language sound nice


> Hello,
>        I am a very amateur conlanger. I have been fiddling with making a
> language for a few years now. I've lurked on this list and have read some
> conlang related websites. I've been working on it on and off (mostly off).
> I
> was doing pretty well developing my language, but then something happened
> that has me kind of stumped. I've been able to come up with root words
> that
> I like but sometimes when I modify these words using the grammar I
> developed
> I end up with words that are hard to pronounce or even words that sound
> terrible to my ears. It may be easier to explain by example.
>
>        The word chalo (pronounced /tSAlOU/) is the nominative form of the
> word meaning "child." The accusative form is chala /tSAlA/. So far, so
> good.
> Now, I had this idea that other cases would be formed by adding a
> consonant
> to the end of the word, so that it is possible to have a nominative and
> accusative form of each of the other cases. For example, with the locative
> suffix -l you can have a nominative-locative, -ol, and an
> accusative-locative, -al. So, you can have the word, chalal /tSAlAl/ which
> doesn't sound too bad, but the word chalol /tSAlOUl/ sounds kind of ugly
> to
> me.
>
>        So what is the solution when your own grammar rules yield words
> that
> sound terrible to you? Do you change the grammar? Change the suffix?
> Create
> an irregular word? Or do I just need to practice harder at pronouncing my
> own language?
>
>        Are there sound harmony rules in languages that I should learn
> about? I've read people talking about vowel harmony.
>
>        It seems like no matter what I try I always end up with some
> root-suffix combinations that sound really awful to me. Some advice would
> be
> appreciated.
>
> Thanks.
>
>
> ... ..... .......
> Michael D. Martin (AKA: Masonheart)
> http://masonheart.blogspot.com/
> Master Mason, S. W. Hackett #574
> Free & Accepted Masons of California
> http://www.calodges.org/no574/
> ... ..... .......
>
>
>
>
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