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conlang survey part 1

From:Heather Rice <florarroz@...>
Date:Thursday, November 28, 2002, 16:13
About two months ago, I sent out a survey for
conlangs.  Based on the responses I received, and a
little investigated of my own, I have compiled 100
relatively complete surveys of 100 conlangs.  I
thought you all would enjoy it if I would post a few
of my results here.

Before you read on, let me say a few things.
1)  This is not a comprehensive report.  I have much
more information about the conlangs than what I show
here.  It’s just that I am constrained for time
(school and all, you know how it is).
2)  I am quite certain I mis-typed, mis-quoted,
mis-wrote many things.  So if you find something
wrong, just email me off-list. I plan to compile all
your corrections, then email it to the list as one
email.
3)  If you want to fill out a survey and haven’t yet,
hey, that’s great!
4)  If you have any questions about any of these
conlangs, just email me.
5)  I didn’t list the sources of my information.  I’m
making a really long email as it is.  If you want a
source, just email me.


Here are the languages with their authors in
parenthesis.  The order that they appear is
unintentional, and I didn’t include accent or other
para-script marks marks for fear of it messing up in
the emailing process.

Mashish (Heather Rice), Quenya, Sindarin (J. R. R.
Tolkien), Adelic (S.A. MacLagan), Skuodian (Pavel
Iosad), Lisanre (Wayne Chevrier), Sohlob (Benct Philip
Jonsson), Hattic, Askaic (Jan van Steenbergen), Taalen
(Aidan Grey), Kash (Roger Mills), Long Wer (Abraham
Zsofia), Tirelat, Cispa (Herman Miller), Almaline
(Bryant K.), Gearthnuns (Douglas Koller), Kelen
(Sylvia Sotomayor), Amman Iar (David Bell), An’dorian
(Spence Hill), Bac (Matthew Butt), Bendeh (Nathaniel
Lew), Choba (Thomas Leigh), Ebisedian (H.S. Tioh),
Gevey (Rik Roots), Gladilatian (Dennis Paul Himes),
Helxalthermia (Andrew B.) Karath (Thomas Lawrie),
Kerno (Padraic Brown), Kontoko, Kinsi Rorotan (Robert
Wilson) Angelican (Angel Serrano Sanchez de Leon),
Arkian (Jan Havlis), aUI (John W. Weilgart), Blaanian
(“Lord Blaa”), Liotan, Mahren, Kadhrein, Ivrien,
Genistien, Astarien, Lemyzon, Dekavurian, Breathanach
(Geoff Allan Eddy), KoJomu (Gracie M. Groove), Lahabic
(Anthony Marcus Miles), Megdevi, Kamakawi, Zhyler,
Nyaama (David Peterson), Brithenig (Andrew Smith),
Bruceish (Bruce Brejta), Ceperjoleddicg (Chris Paull),
Druseleq, Ciravesu, `Ngwei-koo`lei (Pablo David
Flores), Ifnat (Daniel Quernheim), Delason (Nizar
Habash), Danoven/Aroven (Joshua Shinavier), D’ni
(Richard Watson), Obrenje (Christian Thalmann), Rhean
(Michael E~), Denden, Broian (Boudewiyn Simon Anthonie
Rempt), Tairezazh (Andreas Johansson), Tsumhetyan
(Phil Wayne), Uatakassi (Nik Taylor), Ozay, Vosh
(Daniel Myers), Ellandh (Jedrzej Gren), Erone (Carrie
Shutrick), Yiklamu (Mark P. Line), Zitwbata (Joseph
Hill), Goesk (James Steven Grossman), Ferengi (Timothy
Miller), Fith (Jeffrey Henning), Jameld (James
Campbell), Esei, Ipetas (Tuomo Sipola), Kardii
(Jayelinda Suridge), Kwaadakw, Vong, Viku  (Victor
Medrano), Elet Anta (John Fisher), Veldan, Kal Poh
Ling, Ceranese, Taroan, Thagnarvi, Anglysc,
O:radiendela (Cian Ross), Odonien (Steve Oostrom),
Tokana (Matt Pearson), Toki Pona (Christian
Richard), Skerre (Doug Ball), Anawanda (Tommaso
Donnarumma), Mesogeoika (Alex Katsaros), Patrienish
(Micheal Brooker), Miapimoquitch (Dirk Elzinga), and
finally, Flestrin (Maurizio Rovatti),

Countries represented in this sample:  USA, UK,
Malaysia, Italy, Canda, Philipines?, Greece, Scotland,
Netherlands, Sweden, Poland?, Argentina, Germany,
Palestine?, Switzerland, South Africa, Czech
Republic?, Zambia, Russia, Hungary.

Note:  percentages, unless noted are of the entire 100
samples.  If the percentages don’t add up, assume the
missing number is of conlangs in which the feature is
either unknown or not applicable, unless otherwise
noted.

Phonetics:  (note, while these percentages are in
relation to all 100 samples, only 91 samples have a
complete phonetic inventory.)
Consonants:
73% fall within 15-29 range of consonants.
9% have <15 consonants
8% have >29 consonants.
The most number of consonants listed were 51
(Tsumhetyan), and 43 (Megdevi).
The least number of consonants listed were 7 (Viku)
and 9 (Toki Pona).
The average number of consonants (average taken from
the 15-29 range) was 20.79.

Vowels:
79% have <11 vowels.
The most number of vowels listed was 24 (aUI), and 22
(Gevey).
The least number of vowels listed was 3 (Viku and
Uatakassi).
The average number of vowels was 6.72.
It seemed that the less amount of consonants, the more
amount of of vowels, but this could just be
imagination.  I'll have to do some more math on this.

Tone:  7-8% of the conlangs had tone. These conlangs
are `Ngwei-koo`li (4 tones), Vong (3 tones), Yiklamu
(pitch accented), Tsumhetyan (3 tones), Nyaama (2
tones), Lisanre (2 tones), Kelen?, and Gevey (3
tones).

Morpheme “Stickiness”:
66% fusional
23% agglutinating
9% isolating

Suffixes were by far the most preferred affix, with
prefixes coming next, infixes a far third.

Cases:  63% have cases.
(Note:  Absolutive, ergative were considered to be
normative, accusative in these numbers.  However, I
realize this isn’t a completely correct use of these
cases.)
Least amount:  2 (Almaline, Lisanre, Mahren, Kerno,
Megdevi, Elet Anta)
Most amount: 56 (Arkian) and 57 (Zhyler).  Danoven
mentions having about 100 cases, but I couldn’t find
any examples or lists.
Number of cases (i.e. these percentages of the 63%
that have case.  Example:  7.9% is 7.9% of 63, not of
the 100 samples.):
<6  50.79%
6-10  28.57%
11-20  7.9%
21-30  0
31-40  4.7%
41-50   0
>50 3% (2 conlangs)
Most commonly chosen cases are (besides the nomative form): Genitive: 84.6 % Accusative: 76.9% Dative: 71.1% The average number of cases (from conlangs having 10 or less): 5 Gender on nouns: (When gender occurs only on the pronouns it was not considered gender in this survey): 36% have gender 58% did not have gender Of those that have gender (in percentages of 36): 50% have masculine and feminine gender 41% have neuter gender 30% have animate, inanimate or both 20% have some other kind of gender Articles: 59% have articles 28% do not have articles Verbs: Personal affixes: 56% have person on the verb 32% do not have person Tense: 79% have some sort of tense 10% have another kind of system Of those that have tense (i.e. the percentage of 79): 70.88% have past/present/future tenses 21.5% have past/present tenses 5% have non-past/past tenses 2.5% have present/future tenses __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com

Replies

Nik Taylor <yonjuuni@...>
Sally Caves <scaves@...>Sally back, and conlang survey part 1 and 2