Re: The 30-Minute Conlang: A Challenge or two

Gary, your concept is pretty cool, especially since it allows
for a single word to be written in various ways so as to foil
codebreaking.  Then again, this list didn't seem to have much
trouble seeing through it...  and I'm not too fond of the
ambiguity.


--- In conlang@yahoogroups.com, Gary Shannon <fiziwig@Y...> wrote:

> Your other challenge, should you wish to accept it, is
> to design your own 30-minute conlang.
I once had the following idea for an instalang:  Do letter
(or phoneme) replacements in the natlang of your choice, in
such a way that the phonology remains pronounceable.  For
example, simply rotate the three main consonant trees by
one position (dental->velar->labial->dental), switch l and
r, use s for sh and ch, and ch for s (likewise with voiced
sibilants), mirror the vowels across the vertical plain.
The lone h phoneme could be replaced by a glottal stop,
written q.

One could either reduce English to a simpler vowel system
(dZAme:kA-style), write that phonetically with |a e i o u|,
and transform it; or one could simply apply the rules to
the written vowel letters and pronounce the result
phonetically.  Obviously, it's going to be very easy to see
through...  but for low-security applications such as
primary school, why not?  ;-)

In order to avoid easily recognized words such as |gho| for
"the", use no articles, leave away the plural -s whenever
non-critical (or maybe pluralize by adding a copy of the
last vowel of the word)...  and switch word order to OVS
for good measure.  And sequence of modal/aux verb phrase
invert might we as well.

Rupo ghuch reep yeirg lochirk.  UNQE, uk nuchkapo peirg
engo thel nelo cholueich appontk ak pengranum.  ;-P


-- Christian Thalmann

Replies