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Re: Introducing Paul Burgess and his radioactive imagination!

From:Paul Burgess <paul@...>
Date:Friday, March 7, 2003, 22:28
--- In conlang@yahoogroups.com, Peter Clark <peter-
clark@B...> wrote:

> Three questions: one, Sally mentioned that you
were fluent in "Hermetic"
> (what's the "native" name of the language again?)--is
this true? In Hermetic, Hermetic is called "mna Vanantha." ("The name of the language is..." "The name of the language is called..." Yikes! Shades of Lewis Carroll :) I'm fluent in Hermetic in the sense that I can speak it at a moderate conversational speed, occasionally halting or stumbling. Beer seems to lessen slips of the tongue. If I use a subordinate verb (used in subordinate verb clauses), that increases the likelihood of a stumble. The high water mark of my fluency in Hermetic was in my early 20s (now 25 years ago), when I could speak Hermetic just about as rapidly and fluently as English. But I began to back off a little when I noticed subtle Hermeticisms creeping into my English syntax (in subordinate clauses, as you might guess)-- rather frightening! But if I'm going to say something simple like, "Gaimoz it omfoghravos ocho panw'omchonalzisor" ("What am I going to write in response to this person?")... that comes pretty readily.
> Two, does your conlang have a script? Looking
at the picture of "The
> Celestial Labors," it looks like it has a unique
script. Details, please. Yes, the "native" script of Hermetic is called "mna Thiposo." Visible on my website so far only in those pictures. Alphabetic portion of 17 letters, called "mna Jondir-Aosthilo." Plus various syllabic signs, ligatures, diacritical marks. And not terribly phonetic.
> Three, how many words does your language have?
Would you say that it is
> "related" to any other natural language? And of
course, we would love details
> on the phonology, morphology, syntax, etc.
How many words? No idea. I did a word list back around 1974 which had hundreds of words on it, and a few very fragmentary supplemental word lists in college. But by and large, I carry the vocabulary in my head. My best guess, and it's just a wild guess, is at least 1000 word roots. With various words being formed off each root. I dunno, that could be off. I borrowed word roots, often with random phonetic mutations, from whatever came to hand-- usual from Indo- European languages, sometimes from other languages such as Hebrew or whatever. Some of the word roots in Hermetic I simply coined out of thin air. But the Hermetic language as a whole is not "related" to any natural language-- the grammar, I cobbled together one detail at a time, again from whatever bright ideas or sources came to hand. Details on the rest? Forthcoming in good time, I hope! Paul Burgess --------------------------------------------- E-mail paul@paulburgess.org Website http://www.paulburgess.org ---------------------------------------------

Replies

Peter Clark <peter-clark@...>
Christophe Grandsire <christophe.grandsire@...>
BP Jonsson <bpj@...>