zompist bboard

You probably need some intermediates for the second change (v > b > p works). sorry if this has been asked before, but how do you derive complex phonotactics from a simple open-syllable structre without being too contrived? Lose unstressed vowels. Voila: lots of consonant clusters. Or lose some int...

sorry if this has been asked before, but how do you derive complex phonotactics from a simple open-syllable structre without being too contrived?

[EXTREMELY tentative translation into Kjogon]:

Zomi daimas amasu ekegwo gogozaimas?
Do what fun you-all [question]?
What do you all do for fun?

So what exactly is it you're trying to go for in a proto-language? Just another idea for a language, or do you need to come up with a few rough ideas of outcomes first and then see how that might be derived or do you look at other proto-languages and become inspired by those or what? For me, the his...

I AM a liberal for your information. Look who's assuming now.

We weren't being hostile; we were being skeptical, as is to be expected when such a claim as yours is made. I have to agree, however, that from a cursory glance at WALS, there seems to be slightly more synthesis in languages spoken by traditionally simple-technology societies. I don't believe that ...

Anyway, didn't mean this to turn into a sociolinguistics debate or whatever this is. I'm just wondering what sorts of things you guys look for in a proto-language. is it even that important to you? As someone who has never cared that much about history or things like that i find myself oddly compell...

My original source was "Through the Language Glass: Why the World Looks Different in Other Languages" (took me a hell of a time to look through my amazon history to figure out where I first heard it). Alas, I don't have the book anymore and cannot site the sources he uses. Google search does not see...

Wow. I think I accidentally touched on some sort of taboo around here. I didn't make up the morphological complexity thing. Also, pointing out that there exists exceptions to a general statement does not invalidate the mathematical correlation found. Not every langauge is going to fit on the line, b...

[A]s a matter of fact, more technologically primitive cultures have a tendency to have greater morphological complexity than modern, literate, industrialized societies who tend toward the analytic. Do you believe this tendency to be more than coincidence? I do. I can't repeat the original argument ...

here ya'll go:
http://i.imgur.com/a8DlN.png

i don't know how, maybe later I'll make a graph and upload it as a picture.

Protolanguages are no simpler than any other kind of language. The term simply refers to languages which have given rise to language families. The languages which spawned those families had all the functionality and complexity of modern languages. You need only look at Proto-Indo-European to see th...

Modern Kjogon
m n
p, b t, d, k, g
z zh
w j

Old Kjogon
m n ng
p, b t, d c k, g
f, v s, z sh, zh x
w j r

Both have the basic a, e, i, o, u vowel system.


crap, my spaces were deleted. D:

Having finally after many years of "not quite perfect enough" stuggling, I've finally gotten down some basic grammar and vocabulary for my Conlang, I immediately realized I had a new problem awaiting me: the proto-language. My conlang will not be complete until I've derived it from a Proto-language ...