A Japanese based conlang

[Aurora Rossa]

@Rainlander: From what language is it translated?

[clawgrip]

@Rainlander: From what language is it translated?

Japanese (Miriwosu onanto raji kumiko monōshi anma → みりをすおなんとらじくみこものおしあんま)

Fair enough. Personally though, my inspiration usually comes from things I know, whether it be a language I know, specific grammatical or phonological ideas I know about and want to try implementing, or something else. If I don't know anything about a language, I may be interested in learning it, or possibly making a language resembling it in certain ways, but not really in modifying it a posteriori, which generally requires a detailed knowledge of the language. This is why I am a little confused.

I'm not sure if legolasean MEANT a posteriori. I think he might have just wanted to copy the aesthetic. Because of Japanese's distinct sound, lot of conlangers enjoy making langs that sound like "Miriwosu onanto raji kumiko monōshi anma" (some Japanese sounding gibberish I just made up). Maybe OP wanted to run with the whole Japanese thing in the syntax and morphology as well. I don't know, he wasn't all that clear about.

It seems clear enough that he wants to use Japanese grammar as a base for his conlang:

I want to create a conlang based on Japanese.
The problem is I don't know nothing about the Grammar of Japanese.

To me this is akin to saying you want to try painting in the style of Manet, while not actually knowing anything about Manet's style. Again, I'm not saying he shouldn't do it, just that I don't understand his motivation.

[PVER•PVERVM•AMAT]

Fair enough. Personally though, my inspiration usually comes from things I know, whether it be a language I know, specific grammatical or phonological ideas I know about and want to try implementing, or something else. If I don't know anything about a language, I may be interested in learning it, or possibly making a language resembling it in certain ways, but not really in modifying it a posteriori, which generally requires a detailed knowledge of the language. This is why I am a little confused.

I'm not sure if legolasean MEANT a posteriori. I think he might have just wanted to copy the aesthetic. Because of Japanese's distinct sound, lot of conlangers enjoy making langs that sound like "Miriwosu onanto raji kumiko monōshi anma" (some Japanese sounding gibberish I just made up). Maybe OP wanted to run with the whole Japanese thing in the syntax and morphology as well. I don't know, he wasn't all that clear about.

If you're trying to make pseudo-Japanese, at least get it right: miriwosu is an impossible word. It would be みりをす, but only the accusative particle uses を these days. In any case, usually in Romanization it's written o, identically to お; the sounds are the same in modern Japanese (although singers occasionally pronounce them differently. Because of this, transcriptions of songs tend to write wo for を, and お gets o. Some singers even pronounce historical を differently, like in 音無し おとなし otonashi; this is never made not of in transcription, except for the accusative particle).

[finlay]

Why are you adding to a two year old thread just to say that? Like maybe you're right with respect to modern Japanese but... so? It was meant to be gibberish. Plus what with the nature of this forum, if someone recreated Japanese phonology exactly in their conlang, they'd be laughed out of town.

[PVER•PVERVM•AMAT]

Sorry. I really shouldn't of done that. My (pathetic, really) reason for doing so is that <wo> struck me as naggingly un-Japanese.

[finlay]

Also: it's not.

[Chagen]

To be fair, they're kind of right. <wo> unfailingly became <o> in Japanese (<wa> is now left as the ONLY <wV> mora in it now) and only remains because the language unfailingly writes the accusative marker <wo> with the otherwise non-used <を>. Which is pronounced /o/ anyway.

[cntrational]

/wo/ exists in foreign loans in Modern Japanese.

[finlay]

To be fair, they're kind of right. <wo> unfailingly became <o> in Japanese (<wa> is now left as the ONLY <wV> mora in it now) and only remains because the language unfailingly writes the accusative marker <wo> with the otherwise non-used <を>. Which is pronounced /o/ anyway.

Thanks einstein, but that like, doesn't make it "naggingly" un-Japanese. And like, living here you'd think I'd already know that, no?

[clawgrip]

To be fair, they're kind of right. <wo> unfailingly became <o> in Japanese (<wa> is now left as the ONLY <wV> mora in it now) and only remains because the language unfailingly writes the accusative marker <wo> with the otherwise non-used <を>. Which is pronounced /o/ anyway.

In careful speech, people will and do often pronounce the accusative marker を as /wo/.