Re: restricted semantics language

> [mailto:CONLANG@listserv.brown.edu] On Behalf Of R A Brown
> Rick Harrison wrote:
> > On Tue, 17 Jun 2008 22:45:40 -0400, li_sasxsek@NUTTER.NET
wrote:
> >
> >>> phonosemantics sounds interesting. does this mean that you
invent
> >>> a phonosemantical system on your own from scratch or are
there
> >>> any sources from other languages that you refer to?
> >
> >> What I'm attempting is something based on known universals.
> >> Unfortunately I haven't
> > found much on the subject
>
> A guy called Joseph Scarisbrick attempted this in his auxlang
called
> Lips-Kith, which he published in 1912. His vocabulary is
composed of
> what of what he considered to be "universal" root words. He
divided his
> vocabularies up into what he called 'Mimetic Roots' and
> 'Structural Roots'.
I see no mention as to whether he researched any universals or
not, but what he has is interestingly in line with other
articles I've read.


> > Ken Frisco, who wrote the article on onomatopoeia for
Invented
> > Languages magazine, has lent me his copy of _The
Sound-Symbolic
> > System of Japanese_ by Shoko Hamano. I highly recommend this
book to
> > anyone seeking info on phonosemantics in languages other
than
> > English. It's fascinating. I don't have time to prepare a
proper
> > summary but for example the author claims that
> >
> > /t/ (as the second consonant in a CVCV mimetic adverb)
appears in
> > contexts where hitting is involved... variations such as
'coming into
> > close contact' and 'complete agreement'
> >
> > /r/ indicates rolling...
> [etc. snipped]
>
> Scarisbrick's 'Mimetic Roots' are just such phonosemantic
roots. I have
> the full list of the roots, but haven't done any analysis of
them.
> According to Ivan A. Derzhanski:
> {quote}
> [These roots] "are those which appeal to the intellect": the
> meaning of
> the whole is somehow composed of the conventional meanings of
the
> individual sounds. They may contain only what Scarisbrick
considers
> to be the oldest speech sounds. This includes nine
> "primitive" consonants:
>
> "s" action, stir
> "k" close union, coalition
> "p" pointing, projection
> "t" touching, without union
> "m" mouth
> "n" nose
> "r" undulations
> "l" gliding, sliding by
> "w" deflexion, twisting
My system has a voiced-unvoiced distinction, using a fairly
generic phonology.

j	division (separation), within out of
h	heat, breath
g	great change
k	change, sharp, union
dZ	great, great change, steep
tS	ability
r	liquid (water), flowing liquid (river), movement, action
l	surface, flat (even, smooth, etc.), level
z	energy, life, existence
s	one, sea, crystal grain, sun
d	divide, split, two
t	that
n	absence
w	movements, waters, locations, origins
f	remote, pejorative
b	round, curve, bump, opening, child
p	pole, shaft, stalk, rod
m	origin, source, produce

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