Re: Futurese

>> 4) Syllable structure: (C)V(C)
>> (glottal stop inherent in syllable-initial vowels)
>>
>> 5) Basic vocabulary: MONOSYLLABIC
>
>Um, there aren't that many possible words that can be formed from
>monosyllables of the form (C)V(C).
2,646 monosyllables, if I remember correctly.


>I suppose that means either (a) tones to differentiate syllables that
>sound otherwise alike, or (b) multi-syllable combinations (as in modern
>Chinese, e.g. shen "body" + ti "body" --> shenti "body", to distinguish
>from the other characters pronounced "shen" or "ti"). In which case,
>why not call "shenti" one word? But then your language would not be
>monosyllabic any more.
>
>I don't think a language with a "pure" monosyllabic structure is ever
>going to work, since its vocabulary will, by necessity, be far too
>limited unless it forms fixed phrases of two or more monosyllabic words
>which will have to be learned as separate lexical items -- and which
>thus become new "words", for all intents and purposes from the point of
>view of the language learner. (Think of "make good" from Basic
>English.) No point in limiting yourself if you're going to inflate
>artifically later.
Would you say English compounds such as "plane crash",
"fire exit", "adult content" and the like are just one
word each?

A basic vocabulary shouldn't consist of more than around 2,000
items, and that number can be covered by the above mentioned
syllable structure without introducing tones. The language
would then make use of compounding, but not to create
undecipherable idioms such as "make good", but in a logical way
(the extensive use of idioms, particularly phrasal verbs, is what
makes Basic English not that easy for non-native speakers).

Those 2,000 basic words would then, combined, render about
20,000 compounds (the meaning of which would be readily
understandable from their components, such as in "plane
crash", "fire exit" and "adult content"). Even those most
educated people won't ever use more than about 15,000-25,000
words in English in the span of their whole life, so those
20,000 compounds should suffice for the most usual needs.
Polysyllabic borrowings would then be admitted for very
specific notions.

Cheers,
Javier