Re: Diom quote

daniel andreasson wrote:
>
> David Stokes wrote:
>
> > (For more information about the language Diom see my web page
> > http://www.bloomington.in.us/~dstokes/diom_intro.html )
>   [ ... ]
> > Ampiros aernost sharusae, vi at Enfors Vilandenae, vi je tais
> > zhangoln. The Empire's greatest strength is not the Iron Army,
> > but its language.
>
> This is more of a "great work!" posting than an actual commenting
> posting. And I'm sorry it's a bit late. I've been busy. And it
> seems there weren't that many comments on Diom when you delurked.
> Anyway.
>
> Diom feels somewhat like a European language, grammarwise. And
> also somewhat phonologically. It has some words that look like
> they're borrowed from Latin. Like _sygnae_ 'swan', _volan_ 'to
> fly', _dorman_ 'to sleep', _ami_ 'to love', etc. It also seems
> to be inspired by Verdurian. Is this correct?
>

When Diom first started it was simply a few words to spice up a
role-playing game. Those were taken from heraldry terms. Which, in turn,
were taken mostly from medieval French. So yes, some of the vocabulary
ends up looking borrowed from Latin. In particular verbs taken from the
"poses" and colors. 'Ami' I think was just subconscious.

As the language developed I've tried to steer the vocabulary away from
being too romantic. I've rejected some words that accidentally
(subconsciously ?) ended up too close to Latin. I'm not trying to make a
con-romance language, its on a different planet. But I do want to keep
the feel I have going.


> I also have some questions regarding the phonology.

Any discrepancies are due to my ignorance. I don't know the terminology
too well and will sometimes make mistakes. For consonants, go with my
examples, not what I called them.

For the vowels I've had a terrible time since English (esp southern US
English) dipthongizes so many things. I want the vowels in Diom to be
pure vowels, but I've had a hard time finding examples and just tried to
get close. Also, because of my native dialect, I've had a hard time
figuring out which IPA symbol goes with which vowel sound. Help with
such problems would be appreciated.

For your specific examples: {ch} should be a post-aveolar affricate
similar to the English sound. Of course, there are a lot of dialects of
Diom and some of them probably change that to a palatal fricative. But
not the classical dialect I had in mind.

{ae} shouldn't be a diphthong, but a pure vowel somewhere close to the
initial sound in the diphthong in 'snake'. (Does that make any sense?)
So would that be /e/ ? And {o} should be a pure vowel /o/ as well.

Sorry about the confusion. I knew there were problems and I was hoping
someone would help me find them. Daraezhilom ! (Thanks)

David Stokes

Ampiros aernost sharusae, vi at Enfors Vilandenae, vi je tais zhangoln.
The Empire's greatest strength is not the Iron Army, but its language.



>In the
> table it says that {ch} is a palatal fricative (ich-laut), but
> then you exemplify it with the English word 'chime', which
> is a post-alveolar affricate. Which one is it?
>
> The vowels are also somewhat confusing. {ae} you say is a mid,
> front, tense vowel, exemplifyied by 'snake'. Do you really mean
> the diphthong /ej/ of 'snake' or is it rather just an /e/ or /E/?
> The other vowel I'm not sure of is {o}. Is it the diphthong /@w/
> or /Ow/ or is it the 'pure' vowel /o/?
>
> But overall I like it very much. Very neat thought out declensions
> and spiced up with a few irregularities here and there. Great work!
>
> daniel
>
> --
> <> QHEIL RYNENYA ALANDEA <> daniel.andreasson@telia.com <>
> <>           RINYA LAWEA <> Daniel Andreasson           <>