Zompist Bboard Again

How many distinct registers do you all build into your conlangs? I've done up to three, but most often zero. Martin Joos believed there were five registers in English, but I've never worked out that many for a conlang in any detail. Honestly I haven't really done much of anything with register in m...

After all we've tested this with (say) planes and spacecraft, to say nothing of particles circling accelerators: they all go slower from our perspective. We even have tested that the speed of particles affects their decay times. For instance, this is why muons can reach the Earth's surface ─ from o...

Of course, any physical object aside from an elementary particle at a 0.99c speed in an orbit would not be able to maintain any kind of structural integrity and would rapidly disintegrate as it approached the object it was orbiting around.

The idea therefore being that nouns are unmarked when they appear in their expected position, and marked when they appear in a position which contradicts their animacy. The basic idea is really ‘marked vs unmarked’, not ‘ergative vs absolutive’. (You can even merge the accusative and ergative cases...

I’d go a bit further here, and say that the ‘typical’ animacy-based split looks like this: mouse-∅ runs mouse-∅ bites man-ACC mouse-∅ bites cheese-∅ pillar-∅ falls piller-ERG crushes man-ACC pillar-ERG crushes cheese-∅ The idea therefore being that nouns are unmarked when they appear in their expec...

I have a number of verbs such as icha 'please' which have the experiencer as a patient, this results in an awkward situation where (typically) animate experiencers are marked when they would actually be unmarked given that, well, experiencers tend to be animate. Yet at the same time, I do not want t...

On second thought, this system seems different from mine in that my direct case is unmarked, being the bare stem without any ending, and both my ergative and accusative cases are explicitly marked by their very nature (hence why I named them such), whereas in Vrkhazhian there are really are no unmar...

Man in Space wrote: ↑Fri May 17, 2024 11:02 pm On Wikipedia just now, I have found a natlang (Bai) that spells /ɯ/ as e (/e/ is ei). I am quite astounded.

This is probably inspired by Hanyu Pinyin, in which /ə/ by itself is written ⟨e⟩ but is actually pronounced [ɤ] while ⟨ei⟩ is pronounced [ei].

[kj] > [c] [còːd.dʑé] 偽 | へうりぇう | ひょーっぎぇ | 허러 | hyōggye Kanji | Traditional Hiragana | Reformed Hiragana | Hangeul | Romanization "perjury; alibi, especially if dubious; (military slang) cover story, pretext, what’s released to the public (especially if fabricated)" [tʰ] > [tsʰ] [ka'tsʰeə̯...

• special, fooka

Ichaziyema ha mad ha xacaleemetha zo xacagyim fookalaa.
please-AGT.3.S.INAN-PRES-PAT.1.S COMP able COMP write-INST-AGT.1.M-PRES-NEG PROX.S.INAN write-PAT-P special-P
I like that I can write this without using special characters.

people (coll.), nuuxa all, aana bear a child (trans.), d'awaa free (as in liberty), agim equal, qaala dignity, ayet right, denti endow (with an ability) (trans.), loobe think (trans.), ximaa conscience, yuuri act (intr.), thinna each other, aq'at spirit, eekan brother, jalli D'awaataxayewi nuuxa aa...

Yorkish, yorkis emph. (adv.), t'a German, jerman north, haakha mutate (lit. change) (intr.), wiib'a Ichazinumam t'a yorkisa. please-AGT.3.S.INAN-HAB-PAT.1.S EMPH Yorkish-ERG I do like Yorkish. Nawizinu zona fad'a jermanse haakhat wiib'aja. appear-AGT.3.S.INAN-HAB DIST.S.INAN-ERG language German-ADJ...

• come (intr.), xalaa
• old, chii
• English, ingalis

Xalaabizi yoha <g> chii bakizim ingalisa chiita.
come-ABL-AGT.3.S.INAN yogh-ERG <g> old use-AGT.3.S.INAN-PST.IPFV-INV English-ERG old-ERG
The yogh came from the old <g> used with Old English.

That's messed up. [joins in the snarling] Don'tcha love HR? [forms a snarling chorus with those already snarling] I know! Though it looks like it's a bit of a blessing that my move is a bit delayed, because it turns out the apartment I put a lot of money down as a deposit to rent was faker than my ...

The only thing I would criticize about your table there is that I'd call what you call 'intransitive' 'direct' instead. It's the Official(tm) terminology for the S case in tripartite alignment, and Ergative for the A and Accusative for the P/O. Thing is, you don't have tripartite alignment. I'm not...

The only thing I would criticize about your table there is that I'd call what you call 'intransitive' 'direct' instead.

[ɟ.ɟ] > [d.dʑ] [xjòːd.dʑé] 偽 | へうりぇう | ひょーっぎぇ | 허러 | hyōggye Kanji | Traditional Hiragana | Reformed Hiragana | Hangeul | Romanization "perjury; alibi, especially if dubious; (military slang) cover story, pretext, what’s released to the public (especially if fabricated)" [æː] > [eə̯] [kas'...

Man in Space wrote: ↑Fri May 17, 2024 3:37 pm

Travis B. wrote: ↑Fri May 17, 2024 12:46 pm

bradrn wrote: ↑Fri May 17, 2024 12:40 pm

I interpret them as simply heterorganic affricates — e.g. [tx] is attested in Navajo.

Not merely heterorganic but also heterovoiced affricates like [bx] and [dx] seem, well, strange to me...

It’s supposed to be velar frication like in Lakota.

Ah gotcha.

[ɟʎ] > [ɟ.ɟ]

[xø̀ːɟ.ɟé]
偽 | へうりぇう | へーうぐりぇ | 허러 | heûglie
Kanji | Traditional Hiragana | Reformed Hiragana | Hangeul | Romanization
"perjury; alibi, especially if dubious; (military slang) cover story, pretext, what’s released to the public (especially if fabricated)"

Start date in Luxembourg got delayed to 15 August due to the slugs at the HR not getting me the documents I need to apply for the residence authorization! [insert snarling noises] That's messed up. [joins in the snarling] Don'tcha love HR? [forms a snarling chorus with those already snarling]