Re: protolang

On Mon, 11 Sep 2000 00:35:11 -0500, Mario Bonassin <zebuleon@...>
wrote:

>I have basically three phonological  naming languages.  they have some
>similarities.  I want to create a common source language so I can
>develop the naming languages further.  I'm not to sure how or where I
>should start.
Well, it may depend on where you are, and where you go... ;)

There are loads of various things behind your question - I think you
know ;)

Perhaps it's easier to answer with a specific example before the eyes.

But if you accept a quick and dirty trick (OK, actually, it's *me* who
thinks it's quick... and not so dirty, after all) - here it is:

Find a group of related natlangs whose phonologies resemble yours in some
respect, and imitate the correspondences between them (and their
protolang). BTW, an easy way to learn a lot about how it works!

>I was also wondering if the frequency of certain sounds or "letters"
>plays in your word building.
Yes, to some extent. When I model language development, I try to watch
that the phonemic frequency patterns remained naturalistic all the way
(It's another question what I think is naturalistic... ;) ). But mostly
this does not involve much calculation. Rather, some reasoning like
'this change will approximately double the frequency of voiced stops,
which may imply reinterpreting 'voiced vs. voiceless' as 'plain vs.
aspirated', etc.

>I have studied cryptography and have been
>using tricks I learned there and have been experimenting with things
>like French sounds but with a frequency of German.
Ehm?! Tell us more! Sounds interesting, and... like something new!

>
>Mario

Basilius