Re: conculture; vocabulary

J.Barefoot <ataiyu@...> wrote:
> Grrr. I still can't figure out how to join the conculture list. Could'y=
a say
> that again, more slowly this time? Repetez, s'il vous plait, plus lente=
ment?
> (Gotta keep up on my French.)
>=20
> Also, I'm working  on fleshing out the vocabulary for Asiteya, and this
> afternoon I derived 19 words from one root. I guess that's _OK_, but I =
sort
> of don't like having so many words that all _sound alike_. Plus, they g=
et to
> be kind of long after a while (i.e., nyeifidime, a perfectly lovely wor=
d,
> but all that for "creator"?). Anyway, does anyone know of/has anyone us=
ed
> another way for creating realistic vocabulary? (I think I know the answ=
er to
> this one, but humor me, please.)
Well, if you have a culture, have some lexicographers coining
formal words from ancient languages, and then make them common
among the people. For example, if you have an old word meaning
"creator", a guy can pick it up from old religious scripts and
then use it as a name for the Creator; then you can replace the
regular "creator" for this word. Or else borrow words from other
languages. For example, Drasel=E9q has borrowed some terms from
its sister lang Biyuron:

Ancient /uj'Sa/ 'heart'
Drasel=E9q /y'Tar/ (intrusive -r flap) 'heart'
Biyuron /i'Sa/ 'heart' borrowed as 'core, centre'
 and replacing standard D. /riT/ in this sense

Ancient /'mbuR_0u/ 'say, speak' (R =3D alveolar trill)
Drasel=E9q /bur/ 'say'
Biyuron /'musu/ 'speak aloud', borrowed as 'claim, boast'


I have no problem with having a lot of words from the same root,
though, even if they're long. But if you have an ancient language,
you can have words change according to the affixes you add to form
new words. I mean, in Nolt Lethar (the mother of D. and B.), there
was an infix /uniw/ that appears in Drasel=E9q words as /ynv/, /unv/,
and /niv/ according to the different environments. Like this:

1. kw-uniw-'ogo- > q-ynv-'og-
   (the /i/ umlauts the /u/ giving /y/ before being lost)

2. s-uniw-'aen- > s-niv-'&n-
   (the /u/ is syncoped when unstressed under these conditions)

3. gw-uniw-o'Rok- > G"-unv-o'Rok-
   (the /i/ is syncoped, somehow not affecting the /u/, probably
    because of the stress pattern)

Hope this gives you some ideas.

PS Just a thought: don't have so many productive affixes!
Or have several of them for each function.
Don't try to exhaust all the possible derivations.
If you don't like a word, create a different root for
some of its derivations. Synonyms are _good_. :)


--Pablo Flores