Re: MeloChalaka

Wow, I love it, Heather!  This is quite a nice little
conlang, "klu klu" being one of my favorite words
of yours.  Your accentual and rhythmic rules are
fascinating, and I also like your afferent, efferent, infferent
and exfferent voices.  Original.  Welcome to the list.
I've been conlanging for about thirty years,  and had
far less exposure when I was a teenager to linguistics
than you have.  So you're on the right track here!
Mellifluous name for a conlang, too.

Sally Caves
scaves@frontiernet.net
http://www.frontiernet.net/~scaves/teonaht.html
http://www.frontiernet.net/~scaves/whatsteo.html
http://www.frontiernet.net/~scaves/teoreal.html

Niffodyr tweluenrem lis teuim himo an
"Even the gods have retractible claws."
                                    The Gospel of Bast

----- Original Message -----
From: Heather Rice <florarroz@...>
To: <CONLANG@...>
Sent: Sunday, September 23, 2001 12:30 AM
Subject: MeloChalaka


> Finally!  I'm here now.  Here is that clip of a poem in MeloChalaka I
> said I would post.  I included the translation with it.
>
> G`rüshk   klú klú               Bluebird   chuckles(verb)
> Tád'á   vív                     Woodpecker   buzzes(verb)
> Gád   yágló                     Bluejay   warbles(verb)
> Wádwí   tyí                     Bobwhite   whistles(verb)
>
> Â  fá  vâl  lí  fâl     And more beautiful than all
> Ylí  D'râç                      Breath of-forrest
> Sñétwín  â  sñéchlâyn   C-E-tweet-3p. and C-E-sing-3p
> Chíláyí  çånå  ón               Song haunt his (possesive pronoun)
>
> Â ¡ú'ínë!                               And look! (no morphology, just
some word that
>                                         sounds right)
> Vûltsú  sîyå                    Sky W-I-Hm-brighten
> Syér  sîshlå                    Cloud W-I-Hm-tearapart
>
> Sfí  -dgó                               Com-NP-I   do(verb)
> Sfí  d'yåy'l mgó                Com-NP-I  day make(verb)
> Sfí móg gwló                    Com-NP-I  work(noun) finish(verb)
> Sfí ké'ú -dgó                   Com-NP-I  painter do(verb)
>
> C = Cyclical aspect
> E = Efferent, i.e. the action is going out from subject
> 3p = third person
> W = Waxing aspect, i.e. its getting more and more
> I = Infferent, i.e. all the action is occuring within the subject
> Hm = Happy mood, the person who says this is happy about it.
> Com = completed aspect
> NP = proximal past, the action has just happened.
>
> Now, there are two things in this language about which I am very proud,
> the accent, or metrical system and the voices.
>
> The accent system is built for poetry.  It is very simple, but can be
> used very effectively.  There are three rules.
> 1.  The accent always falls on the first syllable.
> 2.  A word cannot consist of more than three syllables. NO EXCEPTIONS.
> 3.  Every word in an utterance gets the same amount of time.  So,
> whether it has one, two or three syllables, each gets the same abount
> of time, like a beat for music.
>
> The third rule makes all the fun.  Note in the first stanza the order
> of syllable is 1-2, 2-1, 1-2, 2-1.  Try saying the first stanza and
> beating the time with your hands.
>
> I think it would also be fun to experiment with pauses, vowel
> harmonization and putting all this to real music.
>
> The second thing I am proud of is the voices.  There are four,
> Afferent, Efferent, Infferent and Exfferent.  Efferent is like an
> Active voice.  Afferent is like a Passive voice.  Infferent means all
> the action is occuring WITHIN the person, Reflexive, sort of.  "My
> heart beats" would be infferent, but "I beat myself" would be afferent.
> Exfferent means all the action is occuring outside the speaker, the
> speaker is merely the observer.  So, you can keep the person the same,
> but change the voice, or keep the voice the same and change the person.
>
> I thought this was a great language, but the speakers took one look at
> it and threw it back at me.  They said it was to impractical for daily
> use, what with the metrical system and all.  They did grudginly agree
> that they would use it for poetry, but told me to go invent another
> language for daily use.  So, I'm back at inventing a new one again.
>
> chao,
>
> Heather
>