WALS Conlang Tool

Substantial postings about constructed languages and constructed worlds in general. Good place to mention your own or evaluate someone else's. Put quick questions in C&C Quickies instead.
Post Reply
Birdlang
Avisaru
Avisaru
Posts: 427
Joined: Sat Dec 27, 2014 5:34 am
Location: Virginia

WALS Conlang Tool

Post by Birdlang »

Copy the texts you find most interesting from this conlang tool
http://sasha.sector-alpha.net/~ptsnoop/wals.php Not a natlang tool. A conlang tool.
Put the consonant and vowel inventory you would imagine from it.
Hello there. Chirp chirp chirp.

User avatar
finlay
Sumerul
Sumerul
Posts: 3600
Joined: Mon Dec 22, 2003 12:35 pm
Location: Tokyo

Re: WALS Conlang Tool

Post by finlay »

Fixed Stress Locations : No fixed stress
Weight-Sensitive Stress : Fixed stress - no weight-sensitivity
Weight Factors in Weight-Sensitive Stress Systems: Lexical stress

Doesn't seem to be any cross referencing between the different fields

vokzhen
Avisaru
Avisaru
Posts: 352
Joined: Sat Aug 09, 2014 3:43 pm
Location: Iowa

Re: WALS Conlang Tool

Post by vokzhen »

Yea it's kind of a mess. I got voicing in plosives and fricatives, but no fricatives. Four, sex-based genders but no gender. None-marking in the clause but head-marking overall. SVO & SV & VO but SVO&SOV and OV+Post and VO+NRel. Both A & P marked but only one of A & P are marked. Applicatives are for non-benefactives only, but benefactives only. Negatives are NegV, but obligatorily NegVNeg, but optionally NegV, but preverbal negatives are absent, but negatives are immediately preverbal.

EDIT: I guess it does warn of this in the opening, but it's really not useful if you're basically having to decide on half the things anyways.

User avatar
ivazaéun
Sanci
Sanci
Posts: 55
Joined: Mon Oct 22, 2012 3:14 pm

Re: WALS Conlang Tool

Post by ivazaéun »

finlay wrote:Doesn't seem to be any cross referencing between the different fields
Order of Subject, Object and Verb : SVO
Order of Subject and Verb : VS
Order of Object and Verb : OV
No, there doesn't!

User avatar
Ryan of Tinellb
Sanci
Sanci
Posts: 56
Joined: Thu Jul 10, 2014 9:10 am

Re: WALS Conlang Tool

Post by Ryan of Tinellb »

ivazaéun wrote:
finlay wrote:Doesn't seem to be any cross referencing between the different fields
Order of Subject, Object and Verb : SVO
Order of Subject and Verb : VS
Order of Object and Verb : OV
No, there doesn't!
Makes sense to me. Transitive sentences are SVO, intransitives are VS and passives are OV. </rationalisation>
High Lulani and other conlangs at tinellb.com

User avatar
Zaarin
Smeric
Smeric
Posts: 1136
Joined: Sun Aug 15, 2010 5:00 pm

Re: WALS Conlang Tool

Post by Zaarin »

Ryan of Tinellb wrote:
ivazaéun wrote:
finlay wrote:Doesn't seem to be any cross referencing between the different fields
Order of Subject, Object and Verb : SVO
Order of Subject and Verb : VS
Order of Object and Verb : OV
No, there doesn't!
Makes sense to me. Transitive sentences are SVO, intransitives are VS and passives are OV. </rationalisation>
Then how do you rationalize when it says that you don't have /g/ and also aren't missing any common consonants? :P
"But if of ships I now should sing, what ship would come to me,
What ship would bear me ever back across so wide a Sea?”

User avatar
Pogostick Man
Avisaru
Avisaru
Posts: 894
Joined: Sat Jul 25, 2009 8:21 pm
Location: Ohio

Re: WALS Conlang Tool

Post by Pogostick Man »

I guess that if there's a contradiction you just pick from the options you're given.
(Avatar via Happy Wheels Wiki)
Index Diachronica PDF v.10.2
Conworld megathread

AVDIO · VIDEO · DISCO

vokzhen
Avisaru
Avisaru
Posts: 352
Joined: Sat Aug 09, 2014 3:43 pm
Location: Iowa

Re: WALS Conlang Tool

Post by vokzhen »

Zaarin wrote:
Ryan of Tinellb wrote:
ivazaéun wrote:
finlay wrote:Doesn't seem to be any cross referencing between the different fields
Order of Subject, Object and Verb : SVO
Order of Subject and Verb : VS
Order of Object and Verb : OV
No, there doesn't!
Makes sense to me. Transitive sentences are SVO, intransitives are VS and passives are OV. </rationalisation>
Then how do you rationalize when it says that you don't have /g/ and also aren't missing any common consonants? :P
Or my awesome set of contradicting negatives above:
- NegV, no double negation
- Obligatory NegVNeg
- Optional NegV/NegVNeg
- No preverbal negatives
- All negatives are immediately preverbal

(And on a side not, that's not what it means by SVO/VS/OV, as something can't be both SVO and VS&OV as WALS uses the definitions).

Like I said earlier, if you've gotta pick half the features yourself anyways, it's not really great a tool in the first place.

cromulant
Avisaru
Avisaru
Posts: 402
Joined: Tue Jul 25, 2006 10:12 pm

Re: WALS Conlang Tool

Post by cromulant »

Some of these contradictions are not actually contradictions under the WALS definitions.

"Common consonants" are fricatives, nasals and bilabials. /g/ is none of these. So that one is fine.

SVO and VS are fine, as "Order of Subject and Verb" gives priority to intransitive word order if it differs from transitive.

Other contradictions mentioned here are what they seem. OV can't be reconciled with SVO as they are interested in dominant, unmarked word order, which rules out justifying it with passives.

On the other hand, WALS itself has contradictions aplenty in the way it applies it's own rules.

Post Reply