Re: Most developed conlang

Dirk wrote:
<<
Fair enough. But it seems to me that if a model of language is
inadequate for natural languages (as I believe the dual-route model
is), using it for constructed languages is misguided.
 >>

Hey, I recognize that.  That was like the exact point of my talk
at LCC1.  :)

Herman wrote:
<<
You'd think that "sew" + "-er" would be blocked by "sewer", but not
so according to the dictionary.
 >>

This is not so much directly related, but what about words that
end in [A] in English?  Words like:

law
saw
draw

Evidently, there used to be a strategy for taking care of the
awkward ending vowel when adding /-er/:

law > lawyer
saw > sawyer

Neither of those today, I think, can be considered productive.
I doubt anyone on their own would produce "drawyer".  And
if someone wanted to talk about someone who was sawing,
they'd probably say "sawer", but, at least in my case, would do
so reluctantly or uncomfortably.  If "drawer" came from "draw",
it's seems like the resolution was to radically change the pronunciation
(/drOr/).  And I don't know if this is a symptom of the same
uncertainty, but when I was in first grade, several of classmates
would often tell me that I was a good "drawler", because they
liked the way I drew.

Is this just an unfortunate circumstance that had a resolution
which has long since been forgotten, and is, perhaps, seeking
a new solution?  Does anyone else have purely a vowel length
distinction between these two?

car
cawer (one who caws)

I guess this is kind of YAEPT, but it seems interesting to me in
a morphological way, as well.

-David
*******************************************************************
"A male love inevivi i'ala'i oku i ue pokulu'ume o heki a."
"No eternal reward will forgive us now for wasting the dawn."

-Jim Morrison

http://dedalvs.free.fr/

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