Re: New to the List and New Languages

Thanks to Cristophe and Jan for the ideas so far, and to any others who
might post some suggestions as well.

So, first things first.  I'm not a linguist, nor anything close, I'm a
student studying computer graphics but considering theology or education
instead.  But I do have a moderate understanding of various parts of
linguistics, and some exposure to a wide variety of languages.  Most of the
language projects I've got going are for a world I'm making.  It's said to
be for a story, but I've done so little work on the book, and far more on
the world it's set in, particularly the languages.  Some of the languages
I'm working on are intended to evoke the feel of some real-world ones, but
as they evolve in my fictional world, they grow less and less like their
ancestors.

So here are some of the languages.  If any of them look interesting, just
give me a shout, and I'll post more on them.  Most of them have a basic set
of grammatical rules in place, all have their phonologies largely
determined.  Most have at least one text translated into them, whether
Schleicher's Tale, the Lord's Prayer, or for one, the opening 11 lines of
Beowulf (in a similar meter!).

Silwen Nunáth - A mostly inflectional language, with three grammatical
"genders" (though based on divisions of the world, not masc/fem/neut), a
case division rather like ergative/absolutive, and a total of 12 cases.  It
is the main descendant of the old language Tunugruc Emeth (which, rather
unimaginatively, means "ancient one" or "ancient truth"), and is spoken in a
period rather like our early Bronze Age.  Vowels and consonants can be
either long or short, and there is some amount of lenition of initial
consonants.

Torum Morgénón - A highly agglutinative lanugage, where 7-9 endings may be
placed on a single noun.  There are 14 different vowels, divided into 7
tense and 7 lax, including 2 front-rounded vowels of each.  A set of 4 noun
inflections can make known some of the speaker's views concerning the noun.
Verbs are inflected for subject, object, and a number of mood and voice
categories.

Thanyar - Most words in Thanyar consist of two or three consonants, and in
the case of nouns and adjectives, a root vowel.  Vowel alteration and
reduplication make up the bulk of the grammatical changes.  There are 4
basic vowels, 3 of which can hold a raising or falling tone, or be unvoiced
at the beginning of a word.

Altsag Venchet - A language meant to sound something like Mongolian,
agglutinative.  It has vowel harmony dividing front-rounded vowels from
their unrounded equivalents.  Nouns are divided up into animate and
inanimate genders, with many naturally inanimate objects considered animate
for cultural reasons.

Teuthurev - One of my newest language projects, Teuthurev is a non-human
language, and is intentionally made to look that way.  The phonology is all
suited to humans (me, to be specific), but the grammar is rather different
than any human languages I know of.  There are no clear verbs beyond an
implied "to be".  Nouns may be used as adjectives for compounding purposes
(not unlike English, cf. bathroom, horsecart), giving a wide derived
vocabulary.  A large number of number-type inflections exist.  This is the
one I've translated a little piece of Beowulf into.

Pahalor - Not the name of it, but a word from it, as I haven't yet made up a
name.  This is another non-human language, not quite as odd as Teuthurev,
but still different.  The intent of the one doing the action and who knows
about it is reflected by various verb and noun endings.

Stûmbrin - An isolating language with high, mid, and low tones.  I started
making it partly to provide a consistent language from whence most falconry
terms come in my world, as its speakers invented the art, but partly to
experiment with syntax, as it is an area of linguistics I am rather weak in.
The language allows a large range of consonant clusters, and distinguishes
velar consonants from uvular.  Some of my friends (those who can bear to
hear yet another one of my languages) think it sounds absolutely horrible,
and that it ought to be an orkish language, but I pay them no heed.  :-)


That's about it for the moment.  I've got a number of other languages in my
world, some related to these, others unrelated, but these are some of the
more interesting ones.  So tell me if any of these sound interesting to you,
and I'll gladly post some more about them.

Joe Fatula


----- Original Message -----
From: "Christophe Grandsire" <christophe.grandsire@...>
To: <CONLANG@...>
Sent: Tuesday, November 26, 2002 5:28 AM
Subject: Re: New to the List and New Languages


> En réponse à Joseph Fatula <fatula3@...>:
>
> > Hello everyone!
> >
> > I've posted a few times in the last week or so, and noticed that many
> > others
> > signing on are introducing themselves.  So, about a week late... I'm
> > new
> > here!
> >
>
> So, about a week late, Welcome here!
>
> Well, I see Jan already answered before me :((( . That will teach me:
working
> during worktime is a Bad Idea(TM) ;))) .
>
> >
> > What I'm interested in is how one usually goes about presenting a new
> > language project to the group.  I've got a few that I'd like some input
> > on,
> > as I don't know how feasible they are, or how realistic their behaviors
> > are.
> > Any input is greatly welcomed.
>
> Well, it all depends on the questions you have yourself. If you give too
broad
> a presentation, we'll give too broad replies (Jan already explained that).
If
> you have questions, just introduce particular points of your conlangs you
want
> our input on, and make bigger introductions later. Personally, I love big
> introductions of a conlang, but not everybody does ;)) . At least, always
add
> specific questions. The usual "comments/questions anyone?" is often too
broad
> to provoke useful input.
>
>   (As long as it proceeds beyond the
> > "you're
> > an idiot" point,
>
> Nah, you'll never hear that here. This is the most flame-free mailing list
of
> the web (despite what the folks at World-building are saying ;))) ). We
reserve
> our "you are an idiot"s to auxlang politics flames ;)))) (a rare beast on
this
> list, they are explicitely forbidden). Of course, if you happen to be a
gay
> bearded left-handed Lithuanian, then that's another matter ;))))) .
>
>  and especially if it consists of "I love your work,
> > here's
> > a thousand dollars, send me your book.")
> >
>
> Still waiting for this one, although you can keep your stinkin' dollars.
Gimme
> Euros or gold bars ;))))) (a thousand gold bars? Wow!).
>
> Christophe.
>
> http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr
>
> Take your life as a movie: do not let anybody else play the leading role.

Replies