Re: CHAT: The Conlang Instinct

On Fri, 3 Dec 1999, FFlores wrote:

> languages. My main concultural setting is based on this, especially
> on the linguistic level. I have the Dr=E1selhadh, speaking Drasel=E9q,
> which slowly becomes Curco in the north, being heavily influenced
> (and forced to pidginize somehow) by Ciravesu. OTOH the Ciravesu
> people is expanding south into the Dr=E1selhadh's territory, and
> the Shej-freshta' are coming north, so the Dr=E1selhadh are allying
> with the Biy=FAza. Each of these peoples have different languages.
> Drasel=E9q is by far the most developed one, but I'm working on
> the others; by the time these empires collide, I hope I'll know
> enough of the langs to mix them appropriately. Curco is the first
> part of this experiment; it's Drasel=E9q (VSO, prepositional, allowing
> (fric)(stop)(liquid)(glide)(vowel)(vowel)(C)(C)(C) syllables) being
> influenced by Ciravesu (SOV, postpositional, (C)V(liquid or /s/)
> syllables) and acquiring a massive amount of Ciravesu words, plus
> many, many semantic shifts. If I had some more time...
>=20
that's one are with which I'm fascinated, too - and Denden is the
(more-or-less) living example of a conlang that's the product
of the contact between conlangs. It is very much communis opinio
that Denden started out as a military pidgin, then developed into
a low-status creole, only to gain ascendancy as an important cultural,
literary and native language when the Charyan empire crumbled into
many, many small pieces.

(Of course, on another level, Denden is the product of a lot
of natural languages, too. There are traces of French, Classical
Chinese, Tibetan and Nepali in it, at least - possibly a lot more,
even though I've conciously copied features.)

Boudewijn Rempt  | http://denden.conlang.org