Re: Towards a less Preliminary Sketch (was Re: Preliminary Sketch)

On Tue, Dec 07, 2004 at 07:51:35PM -0500, Paul Bennett wrote:
> On Tue, 07 Dec 2004 11:12:57 -0800, H. S. Teoh <hsteoh@...>
> wrote:
>
> >On Mon, Dec 06, 2004 at 05:16:42PM -0500, Paul Bennett wrote:
> >>This afternoon, during a slightly slack period at work, I jotted down
> >>some
> >>notes of a language unlike my previous projects.
> >>
> >>Here are my notes in full. Any thoughts, questions or suggestions?
> >>
> >>br /B\/
> >
> >Interesting. I don't know of any lang that uses the bilabial trill
> >phonemically. Cool! :-)
>
> There are some, or else the IPA is lying.
I wonder what they might be.


> Either way, I'm bloody well using it, in part because it's so much
> fun to say ;-)
:-)


[...]
> >>ee /i/
> >
> >This looks a bit too English, IMHO.
> >
> >[...]
> >>oo /u/
> >
> >Again, this looks a bit too English to me. You could have other ways
> >of writing [u]: e.g., /ou/ ala Greek. Just MHO of course.
>
> The whole point of the alphabet is specifically to look as though it were
> devised by a person encountering it for the first time for whom
> linguistics is not the main field of study. It might become a Lostlangs
> candidate.
Ah, I see.


[...]
> >>Language is modifier-head,
> >
> >You mean modifier-initial?
>
> Yeah. I've encountered Head-Modifier and Modifier-Head for Head-First and
> Head-Last, or modifier-last and modifier-first. For some reason, it sticks
> in my head better.
OK.


[...]
> Verbs of motion supplete for path instead of manner, with adverbs for
> manner.
> e.g. br'gar "go along", ngana "go toward", shoo ngana "go walkingly
> towards", drork ngana "go stealthily towards", drork chovbr'gar
> "stealthily traverse a beach", warde ngana "go runningly towards",
> cheptjen "go through", tuk' "meander within"
[... snip very cool examples ...]

Ah, so the verb only indicates direction, whereas the actual action
(walk/run/fly) is indicated by adverbs? That's a very interesting
idea.


T

--
Help a man when he is in trouble and he will remember you when he is in
trouble again.

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