Search found 205 matches

by CaesarVincens
Sat Oct 04, 2014 2:18 pm
Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
Topic: Sound Change Game
Replies: 2673
Views: 495656

Re: Sound Change Game

Bol Ou tasiiwági [ta.ziːˈwa.gi] :> Hellenic-esque τασιυακι [ta.si.wa.ki] Bol Ou káiji [ˈka.i.dʒi] :> Hellenic-esque καιζι [kaɪ.tsi] Bol Ou kóuli [ˈko.u.li] :> Hellenic-esque κουλι [ko.u.li] Bol Ou tóusiŋi [ˈto.u.zi.ŋi] :> Hellenic-esque τουσινκι [to.u.siŋ.ki] Those might be seen as locatives with no...
by CaesarVincens
Wed Oct 01, 2014 7:27 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Lexicography - considerations?
Replies: 2
Views: 1046

Re: Lexicography - considerations?

What is your goal?
by CaesarVincens
Mon Sep 29, 2014 12:20 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Pauses with or instead of Long Vowels
Replies: 12
Views: 2813

Re: Pauses with or instead of Long Vowels

I was thinking about the concept of a musical rest and how musicians are encouraged to "play" it. I wondered whether that could be applied to language. Is there any precedent of a pause in a word with a similar beat to a long vowel? And I don't mean with gemination or glottal closure--simply just a...
by CaesarVincens
Sat Sep 27, 2014 2:46 pm
Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
Topic: How to begin an a priori conlang
Replies: 12
Views: 5115

Re: How to begin an a priori conlang

Turtles all the way down. Realistically though look at it like PIE. We know that's not the earliest form, but we can't realistically recreate anything much earlier, so at some point you just have to say, I'm going to make this stuff up for this ancestor language and then use the rules of derivation ...
by CaesarVincens
Thu Sep 25, 2014 1:12 pm
Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
Topic: ASCA v0.1.6 - NEW
Replies: 125
Views: 31667

Re: ASCA v0.1.6 - NEW

Qwynegold wrote:Is this still alive? Is the program stabile? The ASCA website is down. :(
Morrigan left the ZBB a while back. I don't know anything about her site.
by CaesarVincens
Wed Sep 24, 2014 10:19 am
Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
Topic: Grammaticalization Quickie Thread
Replies: 94
Views: 39092

Re: Grammaticalization Quickie Thread

On a similar note, is there any semantic realm that English typically has to talk about paraphrastically, but cross-linguistically, it is common to make lexical distinctions? (I don't know if that's quite the right terminology) How about direction of movement? English has a bunch of handy words for...
by CaesarVincens
Mon Sep 22, 2014 11:43 pm
Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
Topic: Jel language grammatical sketch
Replies: 4
Views: 2765

Re: Jel language grammatical sketch

Much better. For the phonemic inventory (alphabet, whatever), I suggest if not a table, at least put the vowels in one section and consonants in a second, for extra points, arrange them roughly by type (so stops, fricatives, etc.). So for example: Vowels /a e~ɛ i~ɪ ɤ ɯ/ <a e i o u> Consonants Stops ...
by CaesarVincens
Fri Sep 19, 2014 3:48 am
Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
Topic: Jel language grammatical sketch
Replies: 4
Views: 2765

Re: Jel language grammatical sketch

Yes, please set up the phoneme inventory in a chart a la an IPA chart. The case marking might be a little clearer in a table also. And I prefer glosses and translations not to be spaced out from the original (it's much easier to see what goes with what if a line break separates examples rather than ...
by CaesarVincens
Thu Sep 18, 2014 3:35 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Modal Questions in English
Replies: 4
Views: 1659

Re: Modal Questions in English

As I am aware, to ask a question with a modal verb (or main verb, in the cases of 'be' and traditionally 'have') in English, it moves to the start with its subject in front of it and the modified verb after: 'Can you swim?' 'Must I go?' But what of negative questions? With pronouns, the pronoun is ...
by CaesarVincens
Tue Sep 16, 2014 5:05 pm
Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
Topic: Sound Change Game
Replies: 2673
Views: 495656

Re: Sound Change Game

Wendoth ṭosofeṭow [ʈöʂöfəˈʈow] :> Hellenic-esque τοσοπατο [tosopaˈto]
Wendoth xohov [χöˈʁov] :> Hellenic-esque κορο [koˈro]
Wendoth ngaweved [ŋgawəˈvəd̪] :> Hellenic-esque καυπαδα [kauˈpada]
Wendoth ṭocani [ʈöçaˈni̤] :> Hellenic-esque τοζανι [totsaˈni]
by CaesarVincens
Sun Sep 14, 2014 12:21 pm
Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
Topic: Sound Change Game
Replies: 2673
Views: 495656

Re: Sound Change Game

@Ryan of Tinellb, I think this occurs most when people run the changes through their language derivations, and forget to tack on new syllables as might be appropriate to their language. Monosyllables have only so much variation. So some new words: Orthographic > Hrindarat /,or.sog.'ra.p j ek/ Astrol...
by CaesarVincens
Mon Sep 08, 2014 4:28 pm
Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
Topic: Grammaticalization Quickie Thread
Replies: 94
Views: 39092

Re: Grammaticalization Quickie Thread

Sure you can use the term "case" for grammatical roles and it can do a fair job at it especially in describing core roles in languages that lack morphological case. My preference is just to reserve the term for the language specific morphological categories especially since very often single morpho...
by CaesarVincens
Mon Sep 08, 2014 9:11 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Idiolectal pronunciations
Replies: 50
Views: 9696

Re: Idiolectal pronunciations

I have the pen-pin merger and engma tensing so I have something like /streɪŋθ/ and /leɪŋθ/
by CaesarVincens
Mon Sep 08, 2014 1:06 am
Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
Topic: giant swamps
Replies: 13
Views: 3845

Re: giant swamps

A hard soil could help. Much of Alaska consists of swamps because permafrost stays frozen and the rain that falls in summer can't penetrate through the frozen soil the way it would in a warmer climate. Much of the year, of course, the water is frozen so while it is still considered a swamp it would...
by CaesarVincens
Sun Sep 07, 2014 11:05 pm
Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
Topic: giant swamps
Replies: 13
Views: 3845

Re: giant swamps

A hard soil could help. Much of Alaska consists of swamps because permafrost stays frozen and the rain that falls in summer can't penetrate through the frozen soil the way it would in a warmer climate. Much of the year, of course, the water is frozen so while it is still considered a swamp it would...
by CaesarVincens
Sun Sep 07, 2014 7:25 pm
Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
Topic: giant swamps
Replies: 13
Views: 3845

Re: giant swamps

It's your world and it seems plausible enough to me, so go for it.
by CaesarVincens
Thu Sep 04, 2014 10:56 am
Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
Topic: The Ultimate Proto-Language
Replies: 39
Views: 10968

Re: The Ultimate Proto-Language

I interst that letters (sound) /ʘ ǀ ! ǁ/ /ᵑʘ ᵑǀ (ᵑ!) (ᵑǁ)/ <nʘ nǀ n! nǁ> /ʘʰ ǀʰ !ʰ ǁʰ/ <ʘh ǀh !h ǁh> similar as Khoisan languages of the South African republics? Yes, those represent various types of clicks. The first row is plain, the second nasal(ized), the third aspirated. They are in order: bil...
by CaesarVincens
Tue Sep 02, 2014 10:48 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Is This Grammatical To You?
Replies: 52
Views: 10379

Re: Is This Grammatical To You?

A sign on a building near me reads "EXCITING NEW RETAIL ANNOUNCED SOON". Does this work for any of you? IMD, you can't just drop to be from a construction like that, not even in "headline style". Without the to be I have difficulty reconciling the semantic future of "soon" and the grammatical not-f...
by CaesarVincens
Mon Sep 01, 2014 2:14 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Borrowings
Replies: 13
Views: 3363

Re: Borrowings

Assuming you mean words, new technologies are high on the list. Even the Hittites and Akkadians borrowed their word for clay tablets from the Sumerians. Although it seems like some languages prefer calques or might calque along with a borrowing, with or without an official language body deciding on ...
by CaesarVincens
Sun Aug 31, 2014 3:48 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Is This Grammatical To You?
Replies: 52
Views: 10379

Re: Is This Grammatical To You?

Hey guys, what do you think of these sentences? How else could these be said? a. The flavor of cantaloupes is beautiful. b. The flavor is beautiful of cantaloupes. (Sounds good to me, but a little funky to my dad.) a. Of what is the flavor beautiful? (Sounds archaic, I've never heard such a constru...
by CaesarVincens
Wed Aug 27, 2014 8:33 am
Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
Topic: Dealing with homophone mergers
Replies: 6
Views: 2081

Re: Dealing with homophone mergers

There was study one of my professors mentioned that found that homophones occur at a rate above chance in the languages examined (I think it was Austronesian or Polynesian languages). I believe the rate of homophones varies by language, but for some languages can be fairly high. There may be a psych...
by CaesarVincens
Tue Aug 19, 2014 10:41 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Is This Grammatical To You?
Replies: 52
Views: 10379

Re: Is This Grammatical To You?

How about this: Can you tell me what’s the difference between…and…? To me, what's wrong with it is that the verb should come after 'difference', not after 'what', or else there should be a colon after 'me'. But since it's hard to judge the placing of colons in fluent speech... I'm with Sal in that ...
by CaesarVincens
Mon Aug 18, 2014 9:55 am
Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
Topic: Need PIE conjugation and declension tables for conlang.
Replies: 16
Views: 7705

Re: Need PIE conjugation and declension tables for conlang.

Hopefully Sihler's book should be available at some libraries (university libraries if you have access), but yeah, it costs monies.

Also, Kath's link contains a pdf of Sihler's book, so nice!
by CaesarVincens
Sun Aug 17, 2014 11:28 pm
Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
Topic: Need PIE conjugation and declension tables for conlang.
Replies: 16
Views: 7705

Re: Need PIE conjugation and declension tables for conlang.

Andrew Sihler's New Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin has paradigms of declensions and conjugations, though despite mentioning many roots he does not include a root list. He is of course mainly focused on the results in Greek and Latin.
by CaesarVincens
Sat Aug 16, 2014 1:55 pm
Forum: None of the above
Topic: Linguistic Quackery Thread, take 2
Replies: 812
Views: 203509

Re: Linguistic Quackery Thread, take 2

Someday I will create a ur-proto-language with no words less than three syllables, that is the most logical way to equate all languages in my mind. This language group lost these syllables, that language group lost those, viola.