zompist bboard

The title, I think, is pretty self explanitory, what's your favorite Almean language, and what about it is so cool to you?

For me at least, I truley admire the completeness and complexity of Verdurian, and have great respect for the conlang megalith that it is, I must say that I love its foppish cousin, Isma?n. I love the phonology, especially the retroflexes, the syllabic consonants, and just how it sound when I pronounce it (ok, when I think of how it sounds, my tongue always seems to slaughter the pronunciation). I also love the morphology, especially the nominal morphology, and in that, especially the use of the ablative for genitive-ish constructions. For some reason that just makes my inner conlanger happy inside. I'm even trying to learn it now, piecing together a tutorial for myself to use.

But what about you all? Come join me in my attempt to stroke Zomp's ego and sing the praises of his languages. Tell us what you like and why.

I like Cu?zi most - it looks most distinct and it has got the coolest features: Pitch accent, a rather minimal phonology and an expressive verbal system
I would love to listen to a longer sample

To be honest, the other languages (especially Cadhinor and her daughters) *look* a bit too similar, and Verdurian appears to me too Slavonic-like - I adore the slavic languages, especially Russian, for there richness and their literature - but I don't like them that much (as Greek or the Indish languages)

I only recently looked into Axhunasin, and was impressed, but there's a lot of stuff in Zomp's languages in general that is worthy of mentioning.

But currently, Axhunasin would be my favourite.

Perhaps because syntax is my pimp.

Frankly, I'll wait for Old Skourene to show up (despite my jinx) before I declare a favorite, but Cuolese and Jeori are cool.

I don't really have a favourite; as someone or other with an aptitude for corny figures of speech said, 'Who can choose the brightest among stars?'

All of zompist's work is masterful, and I find all of it equally an inspiration. I must say, however, that Axuna?in stands out especially to me.

If I'm allowed to pick one whose grammar isn't up yet, I'd say Xurnese. Don't know exactly why.

I do like Wede:i, though, for the principle reason that its agglutinating grammar just seems to make sense. The very first conlang I ever wrote, before I had any knowledge of linguistics, was also largely agglutinating.

I have a soft spot for Cadhinor.

Indeed, I am most in love with Verdurian but touched most by all the others. Hands down, though, Elkar?l is Mark's best work yet.

Nobody's put in a word for Flaidish yet. So I will.

I like them all, but there's something I really like about Elkar?l. It has some novel, or at least uncommon, ideas, such as that repition of affixes and the different forms of colour made in a regular way with changes in the place vowels are said. I also like the feel - a bit Dwarvish, but not Dwarvish.

I find Kebreni the mosf aesthetically pleasing, and morphologically interesting.

In terms of uniqueness and interesting features, Elkaril hands down. I especially like the assignment anaphora system.

In terms of how the language actually sounds, Cuezi is tied with Cadhinor. Apart from those I don't care much for the Cadhinorian branch of the Eastern family- the language are too Indo-European. I realize that's by design, but it's still a little offputting.

I would have to say Elkaril, as most of the others were too European.

Eddy the Great wrote:I would have to say Elkaril, as most of the others were too European.

several people have mentioned this, so it would be good to point out that the european-oid languages are simply the ones that have been completed so far. Lenani, Mgunikpe, and Mei languages have yet to be done!

I'd just like to say that I don't like Elkar?l just becuase it's not very Indo-European - there's just something that clicks about it that makes me want to learn it. I also feel that way about Flaidish, although I haven't looked at that much. I think it may actually be the effect of the background colour .

EDIT: I've just realised how much I like elkaril culture too.

Verdurian is still the most impressive for me as an overall exercise in well-developed and lovingly detailed conlanging. It's also an excellent demonstration of just how much a good conlang can enrich a fictional culture, and vice versa; of all the Almean languages, it conveys the most vivid sense of having emerged organically from a living culture.

I'm also more than passing fond of Flaidish, Kebreni and Axunashin, which are all -- not coincidentally, I should think -- used by Almean cultures that intrigue me.

I'm very impressed with the Almean languages I've seen so far -- they all have the feeling of being organically grown out of culture and circumstance according to a believable process, whereas many conlangs I've seen seem to exist in a vacuum. My favorite, though, is Kebreni. I remember looking at a grammatical sketch of Hawaiian while working on my own stuff, and on seeing the benefactive in it I wound up thinking "wow, Kebreni does so much more with this nifty feature..."

Also, I stole the idea of group nouns for Capovar, which already didn't inflect nouns for number. The idea of a group noun construction was just too cool to pass up.

tombom wrote:I'd just like to say that I don't like Elkar?l just becuase it's not very Indo-European - there's just something that clicks

For a second, I was thinking, "Elkar?l has clicks???" Please excuse me, I haven't slept inawhile.

I love Verdurian for its comlpexity and its sound, it seems very cool to me!
In my list, after it, I put Barakhinei that I like for its irregularities, I will be never tired of reading and re-reading them

I like Cadhinor, its kinda like latin

Old Skourene for me.

Kebreni or Elkaril, not overly sure which though.

Awfully hard to decide, but I really really like Flaidish.

Ismain would be my #2.

Kebreni. Gotta be Kebreni. H'em pansiri kebren nizgu!

Probably Elkaril