Re: Saprutum website update
| From: | Keith <kam@...> |
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| Date: | Wednesday, March 5, 2003, 0:02 |
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Be Mon, 3 Mar 2003 wektaba "Isaac A. Penzev" <isaacp@...>
> Keith Mylchreest scripsit:
> Fascinating! A rare occasion of a Semitic conlang!
I'm surprised they're not more popular, given the high profile of this
language group. Wasn't there an Arabic based conlang used in the Dune
trilogy? I seem to remember seeing an appendix about it years ago.
> Unfortunately, I cannot guess the adstratum origin.
Just about every (generally unknown) early mediterranean/ Iberian lang.
The speakers of Saprutum were traders who established bases across the
mediterranean during the bronze age, and then more or less lost touch
with the middle east when the early Greeks arrived and stirred
everything up. By the time the Phoenicians/ Carthaginians got their act
together, the Saprutum speakers were all up the altlantic seaboard of
Iberia and probably beyond. Which was where the classical language was
finally codified, probably a reaction to the large number of refugees
from the Punic wars and subsequent Roman genocide that had joined the
Saprutum community speaking their own rather different semitic lang.
(OK, where _did_ all the Carthaginians go, even the thorough Romans
can't have killed them all?)
Please subscribe me, my e-mail is "carrot@clara.net"
The initial motivation was to wind up the guys on Celticonlang who've
more or less exterminated the celtic langs in their world, in favour of
Celtic flavoured romance. I thought it might be nice to see how a
Latin-free celtic would look, but I needed an equivalent "classical"
language to fill the gap. Of course like all things con-linguistic, it's
taken on a life of its own, and it might be quite a while before the
Meic Miled set sail for Ireland from a Saprutum outpost :-)
> In particular, I'm interested in the origin of its regularity (which always
> makes me suspicious) and the vocabulary:
At present the vocab is fairly provisional "common semitic" with
Phoenician influence (which means that if all else fails I use mangled
Hebrew roots). My main effort so far has been to sort out the basic
morphology and syntax, then I need to straighten out the historical
phonology, then do the vocabulary properly. But obviously you have to
start somewhere.
Saprutum developed as a trade language, and as a link between scattered
settlements, so the "official" common form was probably always a bit
artificial and over-regular, compared to all the various local
varieties. Nevertheless it was seen to be an essential tool for the
unity of their culture, and was carefully cultivated over a long period
of time.
> I understand that "saprutum" is a
> regular formation from "saprum", but why to avoid a Common Semitic
> "lisanum"?
_lixnum_ : tongue, the prime articulator, also useful for licking
stamps;
_dabrum_ : word; collective _dabrutum_ : words, speech;
derived abstract noun _dabratum_ : spoken language, verbiage
_saprum_ : report, account, message, annal etc.;
collective _saprutum_ : language, discourse;
derived abstract noun _sapratum_ : science, history, etc.
The concept of "language" is nearer to the modern idea of _information_
or to Greek _logos_ than to _speech_. "Tongue" might be used
figuratively to mean "speech", but not "language" in this more abstract
sense.
Nentatam,
Keith Mylchreest
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