Re: conlan/natlang coincidences

"Mark J. Reed" <markjreed@...> wrote:

>On Tue, Jun 17, 2003 at 01:26:12PM -0400, James W wrote:
>> This got me wondering about how we all approach the specific
>> creation of words in conlangs, and how closely we try to relate them
>> (or not!) to natlangs.
>
>It depends on the type of vocabulary, of course.  Both of my current
>projects are a priori; Methkaeki's roots come from enciphered words
>from natlangs, while Okaikiar's roots are generated randomly by
>computer. In both cases, I rarely have conicidental similarities to
>natural language words with which I'm familiar.
>
>I'm becoming disenchanted with both approaches, though; they're too,
>I don't know, easy.  Productive.  I can always pull a brand new word
>out of an orifice whenever I need it, no effort required. If
>the encipherment comes out unpronouncible, or the random word isn't
>mellifluous, I just pick a different natural root or fire the
>randomizer again.
I had actually thought that using a computer to generate roots would be the way
I approached Orêlynna, but that has not turned out to be the case. Instead, I
painstakingly :) create each root individually from my chart of all the
possible mono- and disyllabic roots. My syllable construction is fairly
limiting, so it was easy to chart all of the possibilities.

>I would really like to derive a language in steps from a protolanguage.
>The protolanguage could still have randomly-generated roots, but there'd
>be a small, fixed number of them, probably all monosyllabic, and I'd have
>to come up with ways they may have been combined to represent new ideas
>over time, as well as sets of sound changes, morphology changes
>(separate turning into inflections, like "verb-did" -> "verbed" in English),
>etc.  It would be intense, difficult, time-consuming - and very satisfying.
I agree. I am actually thinking that Orêlynna may turn out to be a
proto-language, which I can then use for deriving others. I had also thought
originally that I would make it an a priori language, from Latin, but decided
against it. But making a priori languages from one's own protolanguage is
another thing all together!

>Ah, well.
Indeed.

>-Mark
=============
James Worlton

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