Re: Question about Romlangs/CeltiConlangs

--- Jan van Steenbergen <ijzeren_jan@...>
wrote:
> Hello!
>
> It might not have escaped your attention that I am
> working on a new romlang,
It is difficult for a new Romance conlang to escape
our attention! I've been following Wenedyk, though
haven't had any comments as of yet.

> called Wenedyk (previously Slovanik). I have the
> impression that romlangs form
> a very particular type of conlangs, since both
> vocabulary and grammar are
> (almost) fully derived from Vulgar or Classical
> Latin, in many cases mixed with
> influences from another, non-Latin substratum.
Indeed. It's a peculiar branch of the Art, and I think
in many ways more of a challenge than a priori
conlanging. Particularly if you try to do what Andrew
did and make a historically plausible Romancelang.

> Now, I have a very simple question to the creators
> of these languages.
>
> Are your languages really 100 % a posteriori, or did
> you introduce a priori
> elements (words, grammar) as well? Just curious.
I'd say, for my part, everything's pretty much
posteriori. Some of Kerno's grammar may be unusual for
a Romance language; but I think most of that can be
explained by Celtic influence and, curiously, by
English influence. Or more likely that it and it's
speakers are simply ornery. The only words I can think
of that are actually priori are "quimpeor" (fancy),
"gouach" (cry of pain) and "grouex" (grrrr!).

There are some things that already exist in real IE
languages but don't exist in either Celtic or Romance.
For example, literary Kerno of ages past borrowed the
middle participle from Greek for poetic purposes. It
spread from there into prose and then into the common
speech. It's now quite at home alongside the active
participle in forming compound tenses:

yoc me ar cantant, I'm gonna sing (act)
yoc me ar mangeoment, I'm gonna eat (mid)
fe sa poz avinyement, she's almost here (mid)

While the passive in -r barely exists in Gaelic (I
think), its Latin descendant has taken new territories
in Kerno. The true passive is generally formed with
ystar or esser; but some verbs still have 3s forms in
-teor, which have become impersonals: deckteor (it is
said), etc. An old passive in -eor has taken on the
realm of necessity or habit: fereor me l' acoua di 'c
vonten, I always get my water from this well;
deckeorme te la gouertat!, tha must tell me the truth!

One thing that may be priori are the multiple
conjugated compound verbs (found in flowery
literature). [If any real Romance language has this
feature, I bet it'd be French.] An example is the
secondary compound  "anticipatory future": avuram
istam cantoes. Same or different auxilliaries are
conjugated in different tenses, followed by the past
participle. The whole of this example means "I look
forward to singing". Change the tenses of the
auxilliaries or change the tense or voice of the
participle and the meaning changes: avuram istaba
cantoes, "I will sing, and then no more". Clearly
these aren't natural developments, as this is what the
Bards get up to in their eisteddfods. I'm sure a good
portion of their 20 year education has to do with
sorting out all these verb forms and all the byzantine
uses of preverbs, prepositions and the old case
system. If you were curious, I think they are up to
the quaternary compound tense system.

> Jan
Padraic.


=====
Percumion farfer, ec nasteros em purfelos, polim ed siramet.
     -Pomperios Perfurios.

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