Re: New to the List and New Languages

Quoting Joseph Fatula <fatula3@...>:
> 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.
    Ditto for probably 90% of the people on the list here--i.e., we're mostly
amateur (amateur both in the English sense of "unpaid hobby" and the French
of "lover of...") linguists with various backgrounds and careers. But never
fear, the list itself can be quite an educational experience.

> Silwen Nunáth - A mostly inflectional language, with three grammatical
> "genders" (though based on divisions of the world, not masc/fem/neut),
    What are the divisions? A gender for women, fire, birds, and dangerous
things? :) (Dyirbal, an Australian language.)

> a
> case division rather like ergative/absolutive, and a total of 12 cases.
    So essentially it is Basque spoken by a Finn. :)

> 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.
    What attitudes can be expressed with the noun inflections? Like, dislike,
neutrality, uncertainty? Are they required for all nouns, completely optional,
or for the main subject alone? What's the cultural usage--i.e., are there
certain nouns that almost inevitably require a certain attitude? For instance,
see the Japanese "o", "honorable", which seems to be stuck to a great many
words.

> 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.
    So it's like a Semetic language with a consonantal root system, except with
tone. :)

> 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.
    Have you devised rules for how words would be realized in your other
languages yet?

> 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.
    You certainly have a great many. How far along are they--vocabulary size,
grammar, syntax, etc? How about posting a more in-depth review of one of your
langauges (preferably the one farthest along) and include a text, interlinear
translation, and free translation of it?
    :Peter

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