Re: Lexicon Making

Quoting Amanda Babcock Furrow <langs@...>:

> On Mon, Apr 24, 2006 at 11:32:04AM -0500, James W. wrote:
>
> > I've done both, although I tend to prefer to make words first
> > and then translate later. I tend to relex English less that
> > way.
>
> This is so true :(  I get a lot of English relexes from conlang relay
> translations.
Yup, been there, done that.

Luckily, words coined for the immediate purpose of translation is the minority
in the lexica of my conlangs. The best way, I find, of expanding the lexicon
while avoiding relexification is developing vocabulary and conculture in
tandem. For instance, one of the aspects of Tairezan culture that's better
developed is political structure and ideology, which has resulted in a fair
number of political terms which are anything but intentionally obscure, but
defy easy translation to English.

An example may be the concepts _oisaid_ and _muzaid_, meaning respectively the
state of affairs when political officials are elected from below and appointed
from above.

                                              Andreas