Re: CHAT: (no subject)

----- Original Message -----
From: "Robert B Wilson" <han_solo55@...>
To: <CONLANG@...>
Sent: Wednesday, July 30, 2003 1:00 AM


> On Tue, 29 Jul 2003 23:17:44 +0100 Joe <joe@...> writes:
> >
> > > i've been working on an a posteriori conlang and i finally started
> > > translating the babel text today.  here's what i have so far:
> > >
> > > gela erða hagd agn ðunga unð ssart vrasa. wa menu raft ast, gi vuð
> > velðu
> > > in senar unð gemvuðlat ðar.
> > > ðe zagt ðezalve, "suvan, wel masan zzusas unð basan gi vulig." gi
> > nadat
> > > slaga vur zdana unð ðeru vur liva.
> > >
> > > what do y'all think?
> >
> > Odd...you just posted a near identical post to mine.
>
> i think i missed your post, but now that i look at it they are very
> similar... i've been working on this conlang for a few days and i was
> looking for something to translate and my bible was sitting on the desk
> right here.  great minds think alike, i guess.
>
> > Anyway...it looks...English.  It's West Germanic, I think, but I
> > couldn't
> > say any more.
>
> i'm not sure what you mean when you say it looks english.  i'm not really
> satisfied with it yet, "ðunga", "vrasa", "velðu", "slaga", and "ðeru"
> should probably be "nunga", "mrasa", "melðu", "nhlaga", and "neru" (see
> the pattern?), but i'm not sure what to do with "zdana" and "liva"...

When I say it looks English, I means it looks closely related to English.
You use |g| for [j], which is a very OE thing to do(though North Germanic
langs do it too).  Juging by 'vuð', having the dropped |n| before a
fricative(is |ð| just a general dental fricative, or just a voiced one?) I'd
say it's definitely West Germanic, and closer to English than German.
Though it looks odd having both |vuð| and |unð|.

So...voiced stops>fricatives, voiceless stops and fricatives>nasals?
Actually, I am stuck by the distinct lack of non-final voiceless stops.