Re: Ideas for a cant-derived conlang

-----Original Message-----
From: Constructed Languages List [mailto:CONLANG@LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU] On
Behalf Of Roger Mills
Sent: Monday, December 15, 2003 11:53 AM
Yes, and other American phrases.
Gnarly = Sweet = Good
Nasty = Cool

And then there is the frequent use of sarcasm to reverse the meaning of a
positive.

To: CONLANG@LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU
Subject: Re: Ideas for a cant-derived conlang

Peter Bleackley wrote:


> I've had an idea for a conlang which ultimately derived from a cant. This
> is the language of a culture of itinerant river traders, who used cant to
> discuss matters of trade with each other without being understood by
> outsiders. In time the cant developed into a fully featured language.
> Processes involved included
> Semantic inversions, eg "house" swaps meaning with "boat", "land" swaps
> meaning with "water", genitive becomes a construct case.
Rare, but has actually been observed; there's a language of Borneo where a
number of adjectives have undergone reversal of meaning.  And of course
there's American slang "bad" = good