Re: New (Well, Revamped) Language: TIEG'EW / GABWE

On Thu, 9 Nov 2000, Steg Belsky wrote:

> So, i have a character in my local Live Action Role Playing group.
> And he's from a far exotic place in it's world.
> What's there to do?
> Why, invent a language for him, of course!  :-)
>
> Introducing:
>
> TIEG'EW / GABWE
> the standard dialect of Goblin adopted as an official language of the
> short-lived Goblinoid-friendly nation of Tiere.
ROFL!  Have you seen Froud & someone's _A Field Guide to Goblins_?  I
challenge some knowledgable conlanger to figure out a language from *that.*

> Possible Syllable Structures Are:
>
> C, V, CV, VC, CVC, CRV, VRC, CVRC, CRVC, CRVRC.
> (R = glide, approximant, flap)
> (C = any consonant, including G/A/Fs)
Question: when you figure out syllable structure and you're *not* doing
the cheesy (C)V(C) thing like I tend to do, how do you figure out
something that will avoid messy consonant-cluster jams that are really
difficult to pronounce?  (I find the latter part of German "du sprichst"
really hard.)  Your example is neat...do you use a particular system?
Knowledge of phonetics?  I just picked upa book on phonetics, intro, so I
wonder if that'd help....

> There is no case in Gabwe - everything is done by a combination of
> word-order and stress.
> Roots used as Nouns and Modifiers (Adjective/Adverb) are capitalized and
> stressed, while verbs are stressed but not capitalized in writing.  In
> writing, unstressed pronouns (used in commands) are not capitalized.
Is this stress by making-syllable-louder?  Neat idea!  :-)  I bet it will
end up sounding unusual and, well, goblinesque.

On a side note, I did a hash job of "phonology" for a play-by-email
fantasy roleplaying campaign my sister and I are running, Shazrad: City
of Veils (http://www.bigfoot.com/~shazrad/).  I am sure that any
conlanger who happens across the site will wince...but at the time I
hadn't picked up any books on phonology/phonetics and we wanted a "naming
guide" for people so they would know what sorts of names fit into the
language and culture.

YHL, returning to Evil Abstract Algebra Homework