Re: A natlang-independant project

badraic kov ra:

> Not that this is a bad idea, but these first words you've listed
>  seem a bit abstract. How would you picture "light" or "sound"?
>  A pictoral of some sort might be misconstrued by a reader of your
>  book. Just a point to keep in mind!
I'd thought about this.  at first, i think a large variety of objects would
be pictured under the heading for a word such as "light".  for example, I was
thinking that, for light, I would probably picture a light bulb, the sun, a
fire, a lightning bug, basically, anything that gives off light.  the single
word would refer not only to the light (pictured as rays emanating from the
sun/lightbulb/fire/lightning bug) but to light-giving objects themselves.
sound would be pictured as "rays" emanating from a mouth, a radio, a teapot,
the handset of a phone and would refer in kind to all of these objects.  I
believe this is called holophrasis (?).  as the project evolved, I would
either use compounding (e.g. "sound-mouth" for "talk" or "word") or the
defining of words with existing words in the language, such as:
taras - sound
open - mouth
helgu - taras open (speak)
I have a good idea of what the sound system and early grammar will be like,
but I don't like to write Ideas for my language out in advance (I had the
ideas behind rodnús milling around in my head for a month before I did
anything about it).
    The essence of the project may become continuous refinement.  for
example, I was considering beginning by categorizing all concepts extant in
the language in the early stage by the main sense to which they appeal,
followed by categorization within that frame.  for example, I would start
with sight, sound, taste, smell (or taste/smell), and touch.  eventually a
category such as "touch" would be refined to light and dark, then by other
visual data until eventually objects would be dealt with by their function.
No, actually know that I think about it, it would take ages before I could
describe an animal (see what I mean about constant evolution?).  It's much
more practical to begin descriptions at the basic level, and this is probably
what I'll do, more or less, basing the earliest word categorizations on
sensory input (especially appearance).  but regardless of what I plan to do
now, I don't know exactly what will happen when I start the project, It will
take on a life of its own very quickly (not quickly enough to take part in
any relays any time soon, because I have decided not to create any words for
it out of an immediate necessity, and add words at the best possible pace for
the language.
to be honest, i'm a little worried about avoiding the use of any english. I'd
even briefly considered creating new letters "on the spot" without using
roman letters even to explain them, but I believe that would prove far too
abstract for me to sustain in the long run.

joe mondello