Re: Kibrik article (was Re: theory (was: Re: Greenberg's Word Order Universals)

On Tue, Sep 19, 2000 at 10:41:31PM -0400, Jonathan Chang wrote:
[snip]
>     Where could I get a copy of this article?  (I might use certain ideas for
> my 2nd ConLang... one full of strange free-order structures & nasty inhuman
> consonants, hehe...)
[snip]

Hmm. I've barely started my current conlang, and I'm already wondering
about a second conlang for another con-universe parallel to my current
one. This conlang will have some rather nasty consonants... lotsa nasty
consonant clusters, and perhaps even words made entirely out of
consonants. (I've this idea about zero-grade vowels between consecutive
consonant clusters... or perhaps it's something like voiceless short
vowels?) As for inhuman consonants, yes, they will be quite inhuman, since
they will be spoken by beings that aren't very like humans at all.

I like the idea of free-order structures... now, without inflection and
without strict word-ordering, it'd be hard to stick with traditional
verb-noun systems. I'm thinking of perhaps a lang where the distinction
between verb and noun is blurry. The speakers of the lang don't care much
about precision in speech; hence they will go for "gestures" -- blurry
words/phrases that don't have a fixed meaning, but understood well in
context. Anyway I'm just throwing ideas off the top of my head ATM...
perhaps I should work things out more first :-)


T