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My conlang blog (check first post for latest post)

Posted: Mon Apr 18, 2011 1:33 am
by roninbodhisattva
I've decided in the past couple days that I really need a place to talk about the various conlanging projects and ideas that I have going. So I started a blog. I'll probably keep updating it pretty regularly, or try to at least.

The blog will be a place for me keep documentation for the various conlanging projects that I have going, or the random ideas that pop into my head from time to time. Currently, I only have one language to document, an as of yet nameless conlang which I'ved deemed Project 1 (P1 for short). The language draws heavy inspiration from Matt Pearson's Tokana, but also from Germanic languages, Uralic languages, and some areal features found in the Pacific Northwest.

The latest posts can be found here:

Turning Japanese

Dơk Nhuang: Beginnings



I'd love to hear feedback, and I'd appreciate it either over there or here. Though here might facilitate discussion better.

Re: My (brand new) conlang blog

Posted: Mon Apr 18, 2011 11:55 am
by WeepingElf
That's a nice phonology you have there, with interesting things going on. If the rest of the language keeps up this quality, you will arrive at a very fine conlang. ROCK ON!

Re: My (brand new) conlang blog

Posted: Mon Apr 18, 2011 2:11 pm
by roninbodhisattva
Thank you! I just put up a short post about glide + vowel sequences, and later tonight I'll be posting more about the overall typological plan of the language.

Re: My (brand new) conlang blog

Posted: Mon Apr 18, 2011 2:34 pm
by Ashroot
I could reply in vicktor77's words, "Why should I care?" but you have a nice blog, a nice format and a nice writing style. It is worth my time.

Re: My (brand new) conlang blog

Posted: Mon Apr 18, 2011 3:33 pm
by Ossicone
You should care because Ronin has a habit of posting quality conlang related content.

Re: My (brand new) conlang blog

Posted: Mon Apr 18, 2011 3:43 pm
by Nortaneous
uh, <j> for /ð/?

also, fuck yeah coronal harmony.

Re: My (brand new) conlang blog

Posted: Mon Apr 18, 2011 5:54 pm
by Trailsend
Ashroot wrote:I could reply in vicktor77's words, "Why should I care?" but you have a nice blog, a nice format and a nice writing style. It is worth my time.
Ronin's opening post tells you why you should care.
a place to talk about the various conlanging projects and ideas that I have going
the first substantive post deals with the phonology of a language I've been tossing around in my head
I'd love to hear feedback
Whereas your post about your blog contained nothing but a link, giving no information about what the blog was about or why anyone might find it interesting. That is not how advertising works.

Re: My (brand new) conlang blog

Posted: Mon Apr 18, 2011 7:31 pm
by roninbodhisattva
uh, <j> for /ð/?
Yeah, well, since it's a approximant I figured it was fine.
Trailsend wrote:Whereas your post about your blog contained nothing but a link, giving no information about what the blog was about or why anyone might find it interesting. That is not how advertising works.
Fair point. I'll expand the information in the first post. But it hopefully has gotten people to look at it...did you?

Re: My (brand new) conlang blog

Posted: Mon Apr 18, 2011 7:50 pm
by Trailsend
roninbodhisattva wrote:Fair point. I'll expand the information in the first post. But it hopefully has gotten people to look at it...did you?
XD Sorry, I was unclear. That was directed at Ashroot--his comment about Viktor was a reference to a thread he started in Ephemera about his blog which elicited the quoted response. The difference between his thread and yours is that you offered information about the content and purpose of the blog to help people decide if they would be interested in reading it, whereas Ashroot's thread contained nothing except a link to the page.

I did take a brief look. Sketches or not, your work is cool, so it'll be nice to have it all in one place.

Re: My (brand new) conlang blog

Posted: Mon Apr 18, 2011 8:49 pm
by roninbodhisattva
Aha! My bad! Well, it was probably a good idea to put up some more info anyway.
Trailsend wrote:I did take a brief look. Sketches or not, your work is cool, so it'll be nice to have it all in one place.
Well thankee!

Re: My (brand new) conlang blog

Posted: Tue Apr 19, 2011 1:07 am
by roninbodhisattva
Two brand new posts, one on P1 word order (briefly) and one on little phoneme inventories I've been coming up with.

Re: My (brand new) conlang blog

Posted: Tue Apr 19, 2011 3:59 pm
by Risla
Because I am completely shameless, I have done the same thing. At least I credited you for the idea. :mrgreen:

Re: My conlang blog (check first post for latest post)

Posted: Tue Apr 19, 2011 11:51 pm
by roninbodhisattva
Risla wrote:Because I am completely shameless, I have done the same thing. At least I credited you for the idea. :mrgreen:
Nice! I'll blogroll you :)

Also, I've added a post on phonotactics and consonant clusters in P1. Check the first post for new links from now on!

Re: My conlang blog (check first post for latest post)

Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2011 1:07 am
by MagitekElite
Nice blog.

The language is great too, I like your consonants. Cute, as you called them. My kind of sound. :mrgreen:

Re: My conlang blog (check first post for latest post)

Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2011 9:16 am
by Risla
roninbodhisattva wrote:
Risla wrote:Because I am completely shameless, I have done the same thing. At least I credited you for the idea. :mrgreen:
Nice! I'll blogroll you :)

Also, I've added a post on phonotactics and consonant clusters in P1. Check the first post for new links from now on!
Spiffy! I'll blogroll you too, though I don't know what to call your blog. :P

Re: My conlang blog (check first post for latest post)

Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2011 9:23 am
by roninbodhisattva
Risla wrote:Spiffy! I'll blogroll you too, though I don't know what to call your blog. :P
Well, Drawing MIttens is the title, so call it that.

Re: My conlang blog (check first post for latest post)

Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2011 9:23 am
by Risla
Aha, okay.

Re: My conlang blog (check first post for latest post)

Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2011 9:27 am
by roninbodhisattva
*tips hat*

Re: My conlang blog (check first post for latest post)

Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2011 10:46 am
by Bristel
I should start one too, just to keep track and show off. LOL

I know it isn't helpful, but for some reason it might motivate me more.

Re: My conlang blog (check first post for latest post)

Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2011 2:12 pm
by roninbodhisattva
It's useful, it's definitely kept me thinking about the project.

Anyway, I'ved posted something new. I've come to a crossroads about a change I'm considering on the phonology. There are two options, what would people choose?:

1) Leave the phonology as it is, plus the changes from this post. This would leave coronal harmony in place.
2) Scrap coronal harmony. Move /t̪/ to /d/ and add a voiced labial stop /b/. Also, to compensate further for the lack of coronal harmony, add /ɬ/, perhaps with some kind of remnant coronal relationship with /ts/.

Re: My conlang blog (check first post for latest post)

Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2011 3:45 pm
by Dewrad
roninbodhisattva wrote:The language draws heavy inspiration from Matt Pearson's Tokana, but also from Germanic languages, Uralic languages, and some areal features found in the Pacific Northwest.
Honestly, I normally wouldn't bother clicking on an outside link to a conlang description. I'm too lazy. But you had me at the mention of Tokana: it's one of my all-time favourite conlangs ever (and an inspiration for my own Telpahke). So I took a look, and I like what you've got so far: I particularly like the coronal harmony, and I think it's worth keeping. (Personally, I'd bring back /D/ and add in /K/. While common phonemes in conlangs, it would be interesting to see them in a fairly minimal inventory.)

Also, Oulipo's an awesome blogtheme.

Re: My conlang blog (check first post for latest post)

Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2011 6:26 pm
by roninbodhisattva
Dewrad wrote: Tokana: it's one of my all-time favourite conlangs ever (and an inspiration for my own Telpahke)
Yeah, it's a great lang. Do you have any online documentation for Telpahke on the web? I'd love to see it. Also, Matt has revised it extensively into something called Okuna. I've actually got the grammar if you'd like to look at it.
Dewrad wrote: I particularly like the coronal harmony, and I think it's worth keeping. (Personally, I'd bring back /D/ and add in /K/. While common phonemes in conlangs, it would be interesting to see them in a fairly minimal inventory.)
Yeah, I do think I'll keep the coronal harmony in the end, though I might play with it a bit. What I'm thinking is that I'll have three coronal fricatives: lamino-dental, apico-alveolar and lateral alveolar, and one apico-alveolar affricate: /s̻ s̺ ts̺ ɬ/ <z s ts lh>. The lamino-dental one would probably vary with [θ]. The coronal harmony would only operate over the sibilant fricatives and affricate: /s̻/ vs /s̺ ts̺/. Hell, I could even have the lateral participate in it.

This would be if I ended up added /b d/. I think I'll cut /v/, in the end, as I really don't want something too crowded. Also, I added the /ɨ~ʉ/ vowel because of the want for something to replace /ð̞/, so I'll probably end up leaving it out. Basically, I'm debating these three inventories:

Image

Hell, I don't know.

Re: My conlang blog (check first post for latest post)

Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2011 12:59 pm
by Cathbad
I'm on your blogroll - thanks! :) Reciprocity shall ensue once I figure out how to do mine.

I like how it exposes your conlanging development in open stages-as-posts - something I could never do :( Is there any way to make it RSS-able?

Re: My conlang blog (check first post for latest post)

Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2011 1:29 pm
by roninbodhisattva
I'm actually not completely sure about the rss...I thought it was probably just automatic. But I'll try to figure it out! When I'm not on an iPad.

Re: My conlang blog (check first post for latest post)

Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2011 1:49 pm
by Cathbad
roninbodhisattva wrote:I'm actually not completely sure about the rss...I thought it was probably just automatic. But I'll try to figure it out! When I'm not on an iPad.
Just drag the Meta widget to your sidebar and it should work. (there's probably a way for me to get the feed without this anyway, but I'm too lazy to try find out how :P)