A method of generating "flavored" words
From: | Gary Shannon <fiziwig@...> |
Date: | Saturday, August 5, 2006, 2:15 |
Here's an interesting procedure I stumbled upon while playing with word
generation. Take words from a lnaguage whose flavor you wish to capture. This
can be your own conlang to generate "matching" words, or any natlang you would
like to copy the flavor of. Or it could even be a combination of two or more
different natlangs to get a blended flavor.
Collect a few dozen or more words. Divide those words into VCV groups where the
V's represent ALL the adjacent vowels in a word and the C represents ALL the
adjacent consonants. For example, the English word "miniature" would become
"-mi", "inia", "iatu", and "ure". "school" would become "-schoo" and "ool".
These groups will be assembled together with other groups from other words with
the rule being that the complete set of adjacent ending vowels must match the
complete set of starting vowels for the attached group.
Thus "inia" (from "miniature") could be followed by "iate" (from "alleviate"),
but it could NOT be followed by "ave" (from "have") because "a" does not
completely match "ia".
Here are a few random samples to show how the generated words usually retain
the general flavor of the language from which the groups were drawn:
== English ==
-mi miniature
ino dinosaurs
octo doctoral
ore more
-> minoctore
-vo volunteers
ofe professional
eti meticulously
ishe established
ent- student
-> vofetishent
-si sites
inia miniature
ude student
-> siniatude
-pro professional
olo paleontologists
on- season
-> prolon
-sta started
aleo paleontologists
eove moreover
entra concentration
aci racing
ity rigidity
-> staleoventracity
== Italian ==
-inco incontro
orto ritorto
ore dictore
-> incortore
-cru cruciale
utto farabutto
ola regolare
-> cruttola
-so sotto
oro caloroso
oso difettoso
-> soroso
-nu nullo
umi incolumita
ile amabile
ento momento
-> numilento
== Swahili ==
-da dadisi
amba mamba
asi masizi
-> dambasi
-hu hutubu
uli tambulika
inga ingawa
anda jamanda
-> hulinganda
-mga mganda
abi thabiti
izu kizuka
ungu mungu
-> mgabizungu
== Dutch ==
-kni knippen
ichte berichten
ergaa ondegaan
aap slaap
-> knichtergaap
Try it. You'll like it.
--gary
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