Linguistic Terms in Your Conlangs
Posted: Thu Sep 22, 2011 12:33 pm
I thought we had a thread about this, but I couldn't find it.
I'm working on writing up a basic grammar of Lowan with what I've discovered so far, and for whatever stupid/awesome reason, I decided that the headings are all going to be in Lowan with English translations underneath. (I think my reasoning was, "Well, if this was a real language, and a real book about the language, they'd probably do something like that for 'flavoring'.)
Of course, being that the language is barely started, I'm having to come up with words for things like adjectives, orthography, and syllables -- which I don't think I've done for any language before, at all!
I think it'd be interesting to see how various conlangs name their parts of speech. For instance, I'm using English and Dutch as inspiration for "How might these terms be translated", but I"m sure there's many different ways to describe the same function of something. For instance, English (via Latin) adjective means "something thrown next to" something else; Dutch bijvoeglijk naamwoord is similar: an 'added-next-to name-word'. Lowan goes for agþēdand wor -- a 'describing word' or 'clarifying word'.
So, share your parts of speech in your conlangs! And give meanings for them (literal meanings) so we can see how your con people think about their parts of speech
Lowan (thus far)
gareþ - language ('[thing which is] spoken')
Ēngelsstage - Latin alphabet ('English characters')
līrstage - native runic alphabet ('read[ing] characters')
wanscap - 'normal' spelling standard/convention ('ordinary shape')
computerscap - spelling standard/conventions used in digital communication ('computer shape')
gastagscap - alphabet/orthography ('written shape')
drūje - sounds/phonemes ('sounds')
ōpen drūj - vowel ('open sound')
nar drūj - consonant ('narrow/closed sound')
wordesgascēg - word stress ('word pressure/striking')
nawor - noun ('name-word')
gaslag - grammatical gender/class ('sort, type, kind')
hwamekhei - grammatical number ('how-much-ness')
talkuneghei - grammatical countability ('count-able-ness')
drokkesscap - grammatical case ('function-shape')
agþēdande wor - adjective, adverb ('describing word')
dāwor - verb ('act/move/do-word')
[Edited: agþēdande wor now describes adjectives and adverbs, since Lowan doesn't really make a firm distinction; changed talferhai to talkuneghei to reflect a grammatical change in the language]
I'm working on writing up a basic grammar of Lowan with what I've discovered so far, and for whatever stupid/awesome reason, I decided that the headings are all going to be in Lowan with English translations underneath. (I think my reasoning was, "Well, if this was a real language, and a real book about the language, they'd probably do something like that for 'flavoring'.)
Of course, being that the language is barely started, I'm having to come up with words for things like adjectives, orthography, and syllables -- which I don't think I've done for any language before, at all!
I think it'd be interesting to see how various conlangs name their parts of speech. For instance, I'm using English and Dutch as inspiration for "How might these terms be translated", but I"m sure there's many different ways to describe the same function of something. For instance, English (via Latin) adjective means "something thrown next to" something else; Dutch bijvoeglijk naamwoord is similar: an 'added-next-to name-word'. Lowan goes for agþēdand wor -- a 'describing word' or 'clarifying word'.
So, share your parts of speech in your conlangs! And give meanings for them (literal meanings) so we can see how your con people think about their parts of speech
Lowan (thus far)
gareþ - language ('[thing which is] spoken')
Ēngelsstage - Latin alphabet ('English characters')
līrstage - native runic alphabet ('read[ing] characters')
wanscap - 'normal' spelling standard/convention ('ordinary shape')
computerscap - spelling standard/conventions used in digital communication ('computer shape')
gastagscap - alphabet/orthography ('written shape')
drūje - sounds/phonemes ('sounds')
ōpen drūj - vowel ('open sound')
nar drūj - consonant ('narrow/closed sound')
wordesgascēg - word stress ('word pressure/striking')
nawor - noun ('name-word')
gaslag - grammatical gender/class ('sort, type, kind')
hwamekhei - grammatical number ('how-much-ness')
talkuneghei - grammatical countability ('count-able-ness')
drokkesscap - grammatical case ('function-shape')
agþēdande wor - adjective, adverb ('describing word')
dāwor - verb ('act/move/do-word')
[Edited: agþēdande wor now describes adjectives and adverbs, since Lowan doesn't really make a firm distinction; changed talferhai to talkuneghei to reflect a grammatical change in the language]