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Long Languages

From:From Http://Members.Aol.Com/Lassailly/Tunuframe.Html <lassailly@...>
Date:Tuesday, May 4, 1999, 17:02
I would appreciate collecting yall's experience about the following nagging
issue :
The instinctive structure of my conlang makes words and sentences very long
although there are very few information crammed in them (not even gender,
number, tense, aspect, deictic, etc). When I was younger I didn't care very
much about that because it just flowed from my pen and mouth so fluently. But
one day I realized it was much longer than the longest natlang I knew
(Tahitian, derided for that among Langues O students) so I tried to
"compress" it. I tried making one-syllable words, cases, verbs, etc. To no
avail. When I "speak" it, the original structure naturally comes back and I
really can't get rid of it. I have been in a stalemate for years. So a few
months ago I finally accepted to "unzip" the original structure of my
conlang. To such an extent that that language which I called "Tunu" ("the
Language") now is "Tunu-isi-Pukipuki"  : "the Very Long Language" (Tunu
sounds a bit like Samoan because it has only 7 consonants and 5 vowels) :-(
I would really like to know whether there are natlangs and conlangs whose
minimal structures are even "longer" than mine (putting aside all optional
weaponry some of us specialize in ;-), and how you feel handling these
languages. Is a "long language" a "retarded language" ? For instance, if I
definitely freed that language from my hitherto "compressing inhibition",
then very simple sentences would be that long :

Tunu okokana otiTunu.
I speak Tunu.

Keta osiwa koti omikana omekamu.
I don't love you.

Taka isipini ekonana wenitoma ?
Who is singing ?

Numi onukana otiwa kamu esirerama weripani utewa rate otukamu.
I think you're a jerk when you laugh.

(I precisely love English for its concision. So I feel depressed when I
realize I need 4 times more syllables to express the same idea with twice as
less information.)

Mathias
Taka-itu-Tunu