Re: conlang survey

On Saturday 21 December 2002 4:56 pm, Heather Rice wrote:
> I think there were a few people on the list asking
> about a conlang survey, so I decided to repost it.
>
> No, it's not multiple choice, although some questions
> are just yes/no.  I tried on the other questions to
> leave it as open-ended as possible.  And yes, I missed
> something things like trigger languages, but then
> again, I knew I could included everything
> linquistically possible on the survey, so the
> questions are meant at least to stimulate some sort of
> answer.

Hmm...I've done one for Zitwbata...better do one for Muëuä too...

> So, if you look over this and don't like it, feel free
> to just throw the whole thing out and start typing me
> your own grammatical sketch.
>
> Language name, creator's name,
Muëuä, Joseph Hill

>realative date of creation (just any old number will do)
um, sometime this year

>country and first language of creator,
UK, English

>purpose of conlang
> (auxlang, conlang, loglang, . . . ).
For a conculture...


> Phonetics:  number of consonants, number of vowels,
13, 12, respectively
> presence of nasalization,
Lots of it!
>tone and how many,
um, no

>where the accent generally falls.
Depends on the Grammatical mood ;-)
In the Indicative, it falls on every third syllable in a clause, starting with
the first.

> Morphemes:  presence of allomorphs,
no, not really
>mutation,
Only Phonological
>assimilation,
See above
>prefixes,
Yes
> suffixes,
Yes
>infixes,
no
> suprafixation, dicontinuation, exclusion, total
> fusion, subtraction, reduplication.
just Reduplication and fusion
> Is the conlang agglutinating, isolating or fusional?
fusional, I suppose

> Nouns and such:  subclasses of nouns (common/proper,
> abstract,
No.
>things that may not be expressed explicitly
> in affixes), presence of cases and how many and what
> kind
7, Absoloutive, Ergative, Locative, Dative, Instrumental, Allative and
Ellative.
>kind of possession (alienable, inalienable, no
> distinction, etc.)
no distinction.
> presence of gender, number,
4 classes, (2 genders, and 3 sub-genders in the Animate gender) (Inanimate,
Animate Earth, Animate Air, and Animate Water). 3 numbers, Singular, Plural
and Abstract/Collective.
> articles,
The articles are prefixes.  The indefinite article is dissapearing.
>demostratives,
Yes
>adjectives,
Yes
> quantatives.
Yes
>Are comparatives expressed by affix, word order or both?
Reduplication.
> Do pronouns express gender, number, declension?
Yes

>Are there indefinite pronouns, possessed pronouns?
No.
> Others?  Are prepositions bound, unbound?
What Prepositions?
>How many prepositons (approximate).
None.
>Presence of clitics.  Is derivational morphology mostly by compounding words
>or by affix or both?
Both.

> Verbs and such:
> Are person, number, object expressed with the verb?
Person, not number, and not object.
> Are there static verbs (to be)?
Yes...four or five of them...
>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?
Well, apart from that Transitive take the Ergative case..no.

>Is the person inclusive, exclusive, no distiction?
no distinction.
>Kind of gender.
Not on verbs
>Are past, present, future expressed?
Yes.
> Recent, remote?
No.
>Is mode express, what kind?
Imperative, Indicative, Subjunctive and Optative
>Is voice expressed?
No.

>Manner?  Aspect?  Please list what kinds of manner and aspect the conlang
>expresses in its verbs.
Aspect...Perfective, Imperfective, Inchoative(start), Cessative(finish),
Habitual, Protractive(still), Premature(already)

>Presence of adverbs, pro-drop.
Yes

>Can nouns, adjectives, adverbs be changed to verbs and
> vice versa?
Not easily.

>
> Sentences:
> Does the conlang have an ergative or accusative
> system?
Ergative

>Word order and is it free or strict?
VSO, Free-ish
> Are adjectives, adverbs and prepositions before or after
> the modified word?
After. No prepositions though.
>Is the word order changed in a question?
Yes..S and O are always reversed.
>How many (approximately) conjugations are
> there?
3, I think.

> Other:
> What is the number base for the numeral system (10?
> 12?)?
 16
>Presence of idioms, irregular forms of nouns
> and verbs.
The odd one.

> Is the language syntax very predictable,
> or are there many exceptions?
Lots of Exceptions
> How much literature has
> been produced and what kind (I'm not talking about
> translations, but stuff you wrote yourself).
 But one Paragraph...

Acuädiëmuë, laniöniäm aniëlälï muälä.  Täuëräl, laniöniäm guäniëlö
aniä, däuïniïm täuä amuälö. Däniëniïm niümuä niäuä tiä lä niäuä
tiä.  Tarëniïm aniäuë muïniärë cuëniärë guäniärë, 'Péniäï guäniï
raniýniä, amuëräniá, muïräm tauëmuë täuëlö niäguë, cámuá muërïn guánií
muäniä.' Tarëniïm aniäuë liäniärë cuëniärë guäniärë, 'Péniäï guäniï
tiäliýniä, aniïlyrë, láguí guäniï niíló, cámuá guäniï guániá
niïluniá.'  Tarëniïm aniäuë tiärë, 'Pániï guäniä, cië daniïm muänië
muëguëmuë tenië, láguí lämuä guánií.'

It means -

In the beginning, God created the mountains.  And then he created man,
who lived in the mountains.  And among the men were three brothers,
and three sisters.  And the First brother said to his Wife,' let us go
north, to the plains, where it is lush, and we may graze animals'.
And the Second brother said to his wife, 'let us go south, to the sea,
so we might fish, and feed ourselves on fish.'  And the third
brother said 'Let us stay here, for there are creatures here that
we may kill and eat.'

It's a creation myth

> Is there a history and dictionary of the conlang?
Kind of...

>Script invented?
No, I have a kind of block when it comes to scripts
>Other conlangs produced by the creator of this one.
Zitwbata

> If you could summarize your conlang in a sentence,
> what would you write?
An attempt to make the most attractive Conlang I could, which actually
succeded.

> On my servey, I knew I couldn't possibly cover
> everything that conlangs will be, so I included a long
> notes section.  If you want to provide any other
> information about the conlang, just keep typing!
>
> Thanks a lot all!
>
> Heather
>