Re: Personal langs and converse of aux

Brian Phillips sikayal:

> hello all,
>   first off to introduce myself, I'm Brian, live in DC, am a medic and
>  a student.
>   I am rather new to the "secret vice" and I look forward to being able to
> toss questions out on the list and hopefully get some ideas and guidance
>  from those that have been playing this wonderful game for some time.
Allow me to be the first to welcome you to conlang!

>   My primary interest in conlangs is in artlangs.  I am working on Esperanto
> but mainly as a means of teaching myself applied linguistics before I start in
> on the construction of
> a conlang of my own.
Ah, artlangers.  Artlanging is, ihmo, the only *pure* form of
conlanging.  >>wink to the IAL-ers out there<<

>   Would someone care to suggest a top ten list of features found most
> everywhere that are very difficult to master
> if they aren't found in one of your native languages?  I will be asking the
> list questions about phoneme selection and phonology in the future. :)
This is an interesting question.  The features that are found 'most
everywhere' are by definition very easy for almost everyone to pronounce,
since they're already in everyone's language.  These are probably things
that would be in your language anyway, things like voiced stops, more than
3 vowels, etc.

On the other hand, here are some phonological features that are found in a
significant fraction of the worlds languages or in important world langs,
but which can be very difficult for people that lack them in their native
language:

Aspirated stops distinct from unaspirated stops
Rounded front vowels
Unrounded back vowels
The phones [T] and [D]
The trilled /r/
The untrilled American English /r/
Four different vowel heights, e.g. [i e E a] or [u o C a]
Front /a/ versus back /a/
Phonemically distinct geminates

There are others, too, but a language incorporating even these would have
a bulky, expansive phonology indeed.

>   How would a conlang such as I am theorizing be categorized? Is this a
> "philosophical" one..or just "other"?
This is probably a philosophical or experimental lang.

>   Similarly I would include Sign/gestural components into the PPC,
> infant-signing/gesture being one of those things that fascinate me, and it
> would prep them for mastering ASL.  I would try to include as many
> "developmentally-enriching" traits as possible.  Has anyone else thought
> about this sort of thing?
I have, but I soon abandoned the project as impossible.  Hope that you
stick with it.

> I will shut up now..but suggestions are welcome.
> Brian
> deepbluehalo@earthlink.net
Jesse S. Bangs jaspax@u.washington.edu
"It is of the new things that men tire--of fashions and proposals and
improvements and change.  It is the old things that startle and
intoxicate.  It is the old things that are young."
-G.K. Chesterton _The Napoleon of Notting Hill_
Conlanger code: CLI> l%p+++ cS:R:N:H a++ y n18d:6 X+++ A-- E-- L-- N2.5
Idmp k++ ia-- p+ m++ o+++ P d++ b++ Yivríndil