Re: Take my poll on the Conlang Page

Quoting Costentin Cornomorus <elemtilas@...>:

> --- Andreas Johansson <andjo@...> screeved:
>
> > Quoting Akhilesh Pillalamarri
> > <valardil@...>:
> >
> > >
> > > Take my poll on the conlang page: what group
> > > of languages is your language closest too?
> >
> > It would be nice if you posted the link to the
> > poll. I'm not even sure
> > what "the conlang page" is; at Yahoo, where I
> > seem to recall we've had earlier polls?
>
> Is the poll even necessary? We've just had
> complaints that Conlang is too clogged with OT
> stuff. Here's an actual opportunity to talk ABOUT
> conlangs!
Let's give it a try.

Well, Kalini Sapak is easy; it's designed to be semitiquesque. But as is so
wisely said (by me, infact!) on the Essentialist Explanations page, "Kalini
Sapak is essentially Arabic spoken by a Swede who doesn't know Arabic".  That
translates into Kalini Sapak as "Kalini Sapuk ginda Irba Sapak, lik Sawud, wa
nayn-lusawu Irba Sapak, supaku sa"; those who know Arabic may judge its truth
for themselves.

The Klaishic languages, whose most well-known representant is Tairezazh, my
oldest serious conlang (serious as in being something more than a collection
of names with a coherrent phonology and some basic derivation), are not
designed to resemble anything in particular. However, grammar and phonology
are pretty IEoid, partly because I wasn't aware of other ways of doing things
back when I started off with Tairezazh and Steienzh.

Altaii is meant to be vaguely Romance-like phonologically, while the grammar
isn't modelled on anything specific. Accusative SOV langs are pretty wide-
spread.

Meghean is meant to sound and look "Elvish". In practice this means that
phonology and orthography are based vaguely on Sindarin and Insular Celtic,
but with alot of twists. The cliticized pronouns are nicked from French.

Yargish is similarly designed to sound "Orkish" (the name should be a clue!).
There being less of consensus what's Orkish than Elvish, I've just pleased
myself. The phonemic inventory is a bit odd by human standards, featuring no
bilabials and no rounded vowels. The ergativity is there just before I was
tired of accusativity when I made it. The postpositions which combine with
various cases are based on what I've heard some Caucasian languages do.

                                                          Andreas