Re: Introduction and sandhi scripting question.

Hello, Edgard!

On 7/4/06, Edgard Bikelis <bikelis@...> wrote:
> Hi!
>
> I'm creating a conlang (now unexpected here!), called Ausónia Bhâmaa,
> Ausonian, or 'golden speech', etymologically. Well, it is an indo-european
> conlang, with its morphology almost done, and syntax almost completely to
> do. For those wanting to take a look, here it is:
>
> http://ausonia.parnassum.org/grammar_0.3.9.3.pdf , or
> http://www.parnassum.org/ausonia/grammar_0.3.9.3.pdf
>
> It is a jungle of errors, as English is not my native language, and
> the text is not too up-to-date compared with my 'mental version'.
> Anyway, there is too my conscript, that at least I myself like. Nice
> comments are very welcome ; ). Note too that it is not intended to be
> a scientific description, at least within our science. Ausónos was
> quite excentric, mind you...
I looked at the PDF, and I must say that I find the physical
appearance of the description to be quite pleasing. You'll have to
tell me how you did it.

I also noticed that there seems to be a three-way "tug-of-war", if you
will, in the style of the description. First, you seem to have in mind
a "native" grammatical tradition from which you draw terms such as
'dubious sounds' (for glides) and 'rude' (for aspirated). Second, you
use traditional/linguistic terms such as 'voiced/voiceless',
occlusive, etc. Third, there are terms which I suspect you are
translating directly from your native language (Portuguese?) which
don't quite work in English, or words which are used incorrectly, such
as 'semivowel' for the group of sounds /y w r l/ (the term
'approximant' would be better here, if a standard linguistic term is
needed). The term 'semivowel' in my experience is reserved for the
sounds you call 'dubious sounds'. Of course, it may be that the terms
I've identified as belonging to a "native" grammatical tradition might
well be literal translations from your native language.

I'm afraid I can't help with the technical questions you pose, but we
have a lot of knowledgeable people on the list who may be able to
help.

Dirk

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