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Re: How to minimize "words" (was "Re: isolating conlangs")

From:Henrik Theiling <theiling@...>
Date:Friday, February 23, 2007, 12:59
Hi!

Jeff Rollin writes:
>... > I read somewhere that the notion of "word" only applies to literate > societies that attempt to segment written communication into > definable chunks, > insteadofputtingthemalldowninonelongsequenceliketheromansandgreeksusedtodo. > In that context, so-called "polysynthetic languages" would exist as > a distinct subset of human languages > onlybecauseAmericanistlinguistschosetoseethemthatway. >...
Usually at least stress patterns show you were word boundaries are, it is not only the writing. (And in som cases, phonological and graphemic word boundaries do not coincide.) Nevertheless, words do exists outside the realm of writing.
> My own conlang/artlang, provisionally called Vallian (Vn), attempts > to minimize the number of independent "words" in a sentence by using > as many suffixes as possible (the language is exclusively > suffixing).
Qþyn|gài does that, too. It is regarded good style to minimise the amount of words by using suffixes. This is the Pater Noster: Stàu=kístiu. Kxàustùn=gístiuqþakxáuqlái syqlùsty!xáuqþúihhítlùxkiu. Syn|u=ustáqláitaxkiu. Syxátrundàindandáxkiu saqrùqláitruqþauxáuqlái|ai. Ràrqùqlaqlystiuqþáin||gái=u syxuhhynqá||ká||káin|iusty. Syxá!kusùrundanqá|íusùstiu =au!ky!sùrundanqá|íusùn|austiustyhhú. Syn|y!=urutsuqþándárítsanda||kýsty. Sán|iu|au sy!ky!ný|aundatsuqþúqþìusty. Taihhà trai||ky kxyxástiu rqyqláita rqytiuhhú rqytrá=aurìqýhhú. The description is here: http://www.kunstsprachen.de/s7/ There you can also listen to my attempt to pronounce the above (Under 'Texts'/'Pater Noster')... **Henrik