Re: sound change question

Yoon Ha Lee sikayal:

> Thanks!  I feel better.  I keep looking at lists of common sound changes
> trying to find ones that get me to the target phonology (I'm working
> bass-ackwards trying to construct a protolang that will result in
> something like the conlang I had in mind), but sometimes I can't find
> ones that I think might be plausible.  Unfortunately I screwed up the
> original query (I apparently did away with aspirates in the latest
> version of Arakis), but maybe I should go back to having aspirates...
<<laughing>> Don't worry, I've done the exact same thing with Yivríndil
and its "parent" languages.  It *is* a pain, but in many ways it's more
like what real linguists do trying to reconstruct proto-languages ;-).  I
danced for joy the day that I realized I could relate the words
"kenda" and "kéha", and I danced again when I realized I could solve so
many problems in explaining Yivríndil morphology by positing syllabic
consonants!  So I encourage you to keep plugging along.  It's frustrating
and insane and rewarding, just like everything else in conlanging.

Jesse S. Bangs jaspax@u.washington.edu
"It is of the new things that men tire--of fashions and proposals and
improvements and change.  It is the old things that startle and
intoxicate.  It is the old things that are young."
-G.K. Chesterton _The Napoleon of Notting Hill_