zompist bboard

Where do you get the idea that IE language's verbal systems have changed more or faster than other verbal systems around the world? Did I have such an idea? No, I meant that IE languages' verbal system evolved more quickly that IE languages' noun morphology. Mentioning it as an example of "short-ti...

I've read somewhere about "grammaticalization cycles" - changes leading from isolationg to agglutinating structures, from agglutinating to fusional ones, and from fusional back again to isolating. These cycles can be classified to groups, by time of duration of each of them: "short-timed" - like Jes...

How did "the" stopped being used with nouns in nominative and other case roles? I read sometimes about changes like that (demonstrative/def. article > some case), but I don't know, what can cause them...

I have had a pdf with some information about attributive constructions (constructions with an adjective linked to a noun by a pronoun, or other type of word). In the text, there was an explanation how such a construction could give rise to gender agreement markers on adjectives and to "construct sta...

@Boskobènet, I wanted to make it, too, because I wanted to transform two-way distance oriented demonstrative contrast in my conlang into three-way person-oriented one. I don't have any ideas how it would emerge in an other way... However, I've never found a language with 3-way person oriented demons...

Do you know any attested examples of creation of new demonstrative pronouns? What were their diachronic sources?

Is palatalization of ejectives possible? If so, what outcome would it have?

Thanks for your answers. Another question I'd like to ask: How do you perform grammaticalization in your conlangs? Does anyone do it?

Is that true that grammatical words can undergo sound changes different from a standard set? If so, what sound changes are common among them?

TaylorS wrote:One common way of changing the word order is to do what French is doing:

Yes, this is one of my ideas, too . You say it's common: where does it happen, except French?

@TaylorS, switching word order by influence of other language is much easier... But it's not what I'm looking for. I want to create whole language family, descendant from single proto-language, and I want some of it's members to change their word order because of internal causes...

After some time, I'm working on word order change again. And these are changes that I invented recently, but first I'll explain some terms: O.GEN - direct object of verb, being in genitive case V.Noun - verbal noun, action of doing something Part. - a particle, of course :) Remaining terms should be...

I thought about some grammaticalization paths. For example same+time, time>when, while In sentences like: "Mike was cribbing in time of his teacher's not-watching"> Mike was cribbing while his techer wasn't watching while, after > who, that by reanalysis of sentences like: Mike met a girl after her ...

Another question: what can be diachronic source of conjuntions?

heck, even wikipedia describes a complex sentence as 'a sentence with at least one dependent clause (subordinating clause)'. And that's what I meant :). Languages that I know make complex sentences other than relative clauses by using subordinate conjuctions. I'd like to know, what other ways can b...

Whatc different strategies do natlangs use for making different types of complex sentences? I'm asking, because in my conlangs (now there are two of them ) I can make only simple sentences for now... and I would like to change it, but I don't want to copy all strategies from european languages.

How can a natural language change its word order (SVO, SOV, VSO, etc.) during its evolution?