Re: A wacky language
| From: | M. Astrand <ysimiss@...> |
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| Date: | Wednesday, February 4, 2004, 19:45 |
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>Date: Tue, 3 Feb 2004 19:22:39 -0500
>From: Trebor Jung <treborjung@...>
>Subject: A wacky language
>
>Merhaba!
>
>I'm interested in creating a wacky conlang, one with a crazy phonology,
morphology,
>and syntax. Any features I should think about - that are crazy, unexplainable,
>or just weird?
The language should contain 30+ declinations and conjugations. Same forms
show up in all of these, but their meanings differ; thus, if suffix of prefix
X on a 1st conjugation verb means 'present', the same affix on a 3rd conjugation
verb will mean 'preterite subjunctive' and on a 14th conjugation one 'hypothetical
distant future'. Besides, affixed to a 5th declination noun, it means 'terminative
dual definite'.
Moving a word from a conjugation or declination to another will change its
meaning just as derivation does in some other languages, in a way that is
often predictable but not always.
In addition to "definite" (known to both the speaker and the listener) and
"indefinite" (known to neither the speaker nor the listener) it also has
"specific" (known to the speaker but not to the listener) and especially
"huh-ite" (known to the listener but not to the speaker).
The language will have a gender system with masculine, feminine, animate
neutral and inanimate. A word's gender has little to do with which class
it naturally belongs to - but adjectives and agree with the *natural* class.
If the word for "dog" is of inanimate gender, a female dog will get an inanimate
article, but a feminine adjective.
Alternatively, one could have a noun class system based on the distinction
good/neutral/evil, or possibly just good/evil to keep things simple. (I was
half-seriously planning this for the language of a conculture whose world-view
is a Christian-Zarathustrian-Tolkienian type dualism.)
(A corrupted version thereof would have nouns inflected for whether the speaker
is currently pleased with the referent or not. Yes, I can see how this could
happen.)
I think these are still mostly usable.
>Thanks,
>--Trebor
- M. Astrand
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