Garrett Jones <conlang@...> writes:
> I'm curious about the distribution of the types of conlangs on this list.
> So, a survey. Maybe it will generate some on-topic discussions. Answer it
> for your respective conlangs:
>
> multiple choices can be selected for any of these questions if that makes
> sense for your conlang.
I'll go through this twice, once for each of my chief conlang projects,
Germanech and Low Elvish. Low Elvish (also known as Nur-ellen)
is in the midst of a major redesign now, and Germanech is currently dormant.
First run, for Germanech:
> 1. morphological type
b. fusional/inflecting
> 2. Word order
b. SVO
But SOV in subclauses, and infinite verb forms are placed at the end
of the clause.
> 3. adposition/noun order
a. noun - preposition
> 4. adjective/noun order
b. noun - adj is the normal order, but adj-noun is also possible,
wherein the adjective attains a more figurative meaning:
_un hom grand_ 'a big man' (e.g., a six-footer)
_un grand hom_ 'a great man' (an important personality)
> 5. genitive/noun order
b. noun - genitive
> 6. relative clause/noun order
b. noun - rel. clause
> 7. main verb/aux verb order
b. aux verb - main verb
The usual order is Subject - aux verb - object - main verb.
> 8. adverb/verb order
b. verb - adv
Adverbs are placed at the end of the clause.
> 9. compounding type
a. head-last compounding
> 10. case type
a. nominative/accusative
> 11. tense system
a. time (past/present/future)
> 12. script
a. latin
> and some free answer questions:
>
> 13. number of genders/noun classes
Two. Masculine and feminine.
> 14. number of cases
There is no case marking in Germanech. Subject and object are distinguished
by word order.
> 15. number of phonemes
20 consonants (if I don't have mis-counted) and 8 vowels.
> 16. lexicon size
A few hundred words.
And now the data for Low Elvish (a language currently under revision,
but most typological properties are fairly stable):
> 1. morphological type
b. fusional/inflecting
> 2. Word order
g. free
Underlyingly VSO, but the topic is usually placed first.
> 3. adposition/noun order
b. preposition - noun
> 4. adjective/noun order
b. noun - adj
> 5. genitive/noun order
b. noun - genitive
> 6. relative clause/noun order
b. noun - rel. clause
> 7. main verb/aux verb order
b. aux verb - main verb
> 8. adverb/verb order
b. verb - adv
> 9. compounding type
a. head-last compounding
> 10. case type
c. split ergative
Low Elvish has an "active" case-marking system distinguishing between agent and patient.
> 11. tense system
a. time (past/present/future)
b. aspect
> 12. script
a. latin
c. con-script
The con-script is not worked out yet.
> and some free answer questions:
>
> 13. number of genders/noun classes
Two: animate and inanimate. 3rd person animate pronouns also distinguish
masculine, feminine and common.
> 14. number of cases
Two: agentive and objective.
> 15. number of phonemes
18 consonants and 7 vowels; vowels can be short or long.
> 16. lexicon size
Only a few words yet, and currently under revision.
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