Re: New to the List and New Languages

> (from Peter Clark)
> > 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.)
There is a concept in their culture of all things being from the earth, the
sea, or the sky.  Just about anything dealing with water is a sea noun, most
abstract nouns are sky nouns (as the sky gods are in charge of time,
thought, etc.), and most human objects are earth nouns.  Usually you can
figure out what gender something is without looking it up.

> > a
> > case division rather like ergative/absolutive, and a total of 12 cases.
>     So essentially it is Basque spoken by a Finn. :)
That'd not be a bad way of putting it!  Unlike Finnish, though, most of the
cases are not directional/spatial, but are more hmm... case-like?

> > 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.
I wasn't aware of the Japanese "o", but that seems like the right idea.
"-úm" is used to make a word polite, honorable would be a good way to put
it.
"-im" makes a word seem cute and small, like "-chen" in German.
"-ur" does almost the opposite, it makes a word seem very big, but
specifically to the speaker.  This could be good or bad depending on what
the thing is.
"-uth" makes it rude, any obscene words in this language would have this
ending.

> > 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. :)
Yes, it's like a Semitic language.  Although it sure doesn't sound like one.

> > 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?
The main language that they are in contact with (Ulzu Qhalda) has a pretty
consistent way of adopting them, but as Stûmbrin words have been adopted at
various points along Ulzu Qhalda's evolution, they haven't always mapped to
the same sounds.  For instance, the qh sound (an unvoiced uvular affricate)
was borrowed from Stûmbrin, so now some of the words come across closer to
the original.

> > 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
As for vocabulary size, a quick check reveals:
Teuthurev has 370 words
Silwen Nunath and all the Chovur-derived languages are around 200-300
Thungwaz has 200
Torum Morgenon has 165
Stumbrin, Thanyar, Valattsene, and Atsadalzur all have about 130
Pahalor has only 20
Fogrann has 10

The grammar systems of Silwen Nunath, Torum Morgenon, and the Chovur
languages are pretty well set.  I'm still exploring some other uses of
various cases, but I've tried translating a number of things into these
languages and feel pretty comfortable with their statuses.

Thungwaz has the most developed syntax, but that's partly because it was
based quite heavily on early Germanic, so someone had already put some time
into its development.  :)

I think I'll make up some sort of text as you suggested.  Thanks!

Joe Fatula