Re: conlang survey
| From: | Aidan Grey <grey@...> |
|---|
| Date: | Saturday, October 26, 2002, 5:09 |
|---|
>...>Language name,
Taalen
>...>creator's name,
Aidan Grey
>...>realative date of
>creation (just any old number will do)
2001
>...>, country and
>first language of creator
USA, English
>...>, purpose of conlang
>(auxlang, conlang, loglang, . . . ).
Artlang, magiclang, religion-lang,
something-to-avoid-homework-with-lang
>...>Phonetics: number of consonants, number of vowels,
>presence of nasalization, tone and how many, where the
>accent generally falls.
Cons: 22
Vowels: 9
no nasalization or tones
accent primarily penultimate
>...>Morphemes: presence of allomorphs, mutation,
Mutation: soft (nasalized, voicing) and breathed (fricativization)
>...>assimilation,
lots
>...>prefixes, suffixes, infixes,
yes
>...>suprafixation, dicontinuation, exclusion, total
>fusion, subtraction, reduplication. Is the conlang
>agglutinating, isolating or fusional?
mostly inflecting. I don't even know what half those things above
mean.
>...>Nouns and such: subclasses of nouns (common/proper,
>abstract, things that may not be expressed explicitly
>in affixes), presence of cases and how many and what
>kind,
3 cases, nominative (for subject and object), oblique (for dative
and prep. with motion), and genitive (alienable).
>...>kind of possession (alienable, inalienable, no
>distinction, etc.)
alienable - case marking
inalienable - conversion to a stative verb
>...>presence of gender, number,
singular, plural, and a special paucal suffix which creates a word
indicating an easily countable number of something. The paucal can then
appear in sg or pl. A pl. paucal form would indicate discrete groups of
arranged items.
gender: animate and inanimate
>...>articles, demostratives,
only a def. art., before sg. inanimate nouns causes breathed
mutation (lenition)
>...> adjectives, quantatives.
adjectives: stative verbs (lun 'be blue' : in eyan lunna 'the bird
which was blue, the formerly-blue bird')
numerals: nouns in effect, which take gen. sg. nouns (i.e. 5 of
bird = 5 birds)
>...> Are
>comparatives expressed by affix, word order or both?
both. affix to verb, requires a particular construction (an old
relative clause).
>...>Do pronouns express gender, number, declension?
distinguish number, and gender only in 3s. There is an
obviative/4th person pronoun.
>...>Are
>there indefinite pronouns, possessed pronouns?
>Others?
yes.
>...> Are prepositions bound, unbound?
unbound.
>...> How many
>prepositons (approximate)
3. I haven't got too far with them yet...
>...>. Presence of clitics.
not yet
>...>Is
>derivational morphology mostly by compounding words or
>by affix or both?
both
>...>Verbs and such:
>Are person, number, object expressed with the verb?
object isn't. person, number, gender are
>...>Are there static verbs (to be)?
yes
>...> Is the object
>incorporated into the person marker (making a
>phonetically different affix like in the Native
>American languages)?
no.
>...> Is transitivity marked for
>transitive, intransitive, bitransitive or other?
no.
>...> Is
>the person inclusive, exclusive, no distiction?
no distinction.
>...> Kind
>of gender.
animate/inanimate
>...>Are past, present, future expressed?
yes. past as imperfect and preterite.
>...>Recent, remote? Is mode express, what kind?
one subjunctive tense.
>...>Is voice
>expressed? What kind?
only passive, sort of. It is indicated by a verb in the 4th
person. Technically not a passive, it still functions like a passive in
most utterances.
>...> Manner? Aspect? Please list
>what kinds of manner and aspect the conlang expresses
>in its verbs.
Don't know yet.
>...>Presence of adverbs, pro-drop.
adverbs, yes. prodrop-sometimes. in relative clauses, it depends
on the kind of clause.
>...> Can
>nouns, adjectives, adverbs be changed to verbs and
>vice versa?
easily. and verbal markers can create new nouns: adan 'person' +
-ne IMPF = adanne 'ancestors, the people who used to be'
>...>Presence of adjective, adverbial clauses and relative
>pronouns.
yes.
>...>Sentences:
>Does the conlang have an ergative or accusative
>system?
acc.
>...>Word order and is it free or strict?
strict.
>...>Are
>adjectives, adverbs and prepositions before or after
>the modified word?
after.
>...> Is the word order changed in a
>question?
no, but the form of the verb changes (Are you happy? Ae launach? I
am happy. Launin. )
>...>How many (approximately) conjugations are
>there?
2. Strong or Weak.
>...>Other:
>What is the number base for the numeral system (10?
>12?)?
10, but 9 is culturally significant too.
>...> Presence of idioms, irregular forms of nouns
>and verbs.
yes
>...> Is the language syntax very predictable,
>or are there many exceptions?
predictable
>...>How much literature has
>been produced and what kind (I'm not talking about
>translations, but stuff you wrote yourself).
not much yet, but i have grand plans
>...> Is there
>a history and dictionary of the conlang?
not yet
>...> Script
>invented?
creating a version of the font I like right now.
>...> Other conlangs produced by the creator of
>this one.
Aelya, Yllis (a future-english), Dele and Taxa (for a world family
project)
>...>If you could summarize your conlang in a sentence,
>what would you write?
Taalen = tal 'tree' + ra 'speak' + en '-er'
Aidan