Zompist Bboard Again

I was looking up the Latin -que and -ve suffixes today – the ones which mean 'and' and 'or' because I'm basically stealing it for a conlang. I'm not all that familiar with Romance languages though and I was wondering if these actually persisted into any modern languages?

Let’s start with your preferred formatting for this information. What does a useful dummy entry look like for you? Something like 7 columns: Proto | Lang 1 | Lang 2 | Lang 3 | Root | English | Notes – which can sort alphabetically by column. I don't really need a search function, I can just scroll ...

I'm about to re-build my conlangs lexicons. The three languages are all related and share etymologies. So what I need is a means of having all three terms be searchable, with the English translations, their cognates and original proto-form. I have an old app called iDatabase but it's pretty poor. I'...

Short answer: yes. Unpredictable verbal nouns are quite typical for the older stages of IE languages; you mention Celtic. Only in IE the pathway was the other way round - verbal nouns are the older formation. Gerunds, infinitives, etc., have been formed later in the history of the IE laguages based...

Would it be reasonable to have unpredictable suffixes in a proto-language for simple/basic verbs? So, in my P conlang it is going to have three possible suffixes for verbnouns (like Celtic): these are - ed , - eb , - ia (/ja/). These perform the functions of infinitive, present/active participle, an...

Lots to think about... much obliged everyone!

Am I right in thinking that an SOV language generally has an order like Subject - Object - Object's verb - Subject's verb, i.e. "I see her come" as "I her come see" ? Or "I need her to see" as "I (for) her to see need" ? I’m not quite sure what you mean by ‘o...

Am I right in thinking that an SOV language generally has an order like Subject - Object - Object's verb - Subject's verb, i.e. "I see her come" as "I her come see"? Or "I need her to see" as "I (for) her to see need"?

I stupidly decided that I would make one of my conlangs SOV for no reason other than "it's different to the others". This language is supposed to be kinda Latin-y in having "free word order" but its default is SOV, and I basically want it to be SOV but to have the freedom to chan...

Combe is an old and somewhat unusual word, plus nd/mb looks Elvish enough. One problem is that it loses the meaning. A combe is more of a roundish kind of valley -- I think the English equivalent would be hollow . I think the English equivalent would be co(o)mbe , seeing as both the English and Fre...

The German translators rendered most of the English names as German names, not always to the best effect. For instance, Rivendell became Bruchtal , and Shadowfax became Schattenfell . IMHO, they could have left the English names intact, which sound foreign but recognizable to German readers, and no...

hwhatting wrote: ↑Mon Jun 12, 2023 4:46 am

Ahzoh wrote: ↑Sun Jun 11, 2023 9:18 am So that's why Gandalf's horse is named Shadowfax...

It has meanwhile been established that Tolkien recorded the name incorrectly.

I think "shadow" alludes to his grey colour which made him almost invisible at night. (At least, according to this fan page.)

I'm going to bring back the word fax as in head-hair, animal mane. It's a travesty that this word was allowed to die.

How plausible is it that adverbs could arise from using the instrumental case suffix with adjectives? So fast.INSTR = quickly with the sense of "with/by means of speed". And then later being eroded or the suffix becoming disassociated with the instrumental and thought of as just being the...

How plausible is it that adverbs could arise from using the instrumental case suffix with adjectives? So fast.INSTR = quickly with the sense of "with/by means of speed". And then later being eroded or the suffix becoming disassociated with the instrumental and thought of as just being the ...

Does the whole of Europe use a PAYE system for income tax? I don't know the rules for every country, but a lot of Europaen countries use deduction at source for income from employment. There are countries where you don't even have to submit an income declaration if your only income is from employme...

Does the whole of Europe use a PAYE system for income tax?

There's not much dialectal variation really, in sound or meaning. You mean, in your language? Ok, then. There are other ways to justify the results you want. Lack of dialectal variation might be a little surprising. Dialect variations shows up even in tiny areas or populations. Yeah. There is anoth...

I suppose I could go /mw/ > /mm/ before a rounded vowel and /mw/ > /nw/ elsewhere... so amwo > ammo , amwa > anwa , it's something of a compromise. That works too. I second the recommendation of interdialectal borrowing. It's very common, and you should have some anyway :) There are countless examp...

I suppose I could go /mw/ > /mm/ before a rounded vowel and /mw/ > /nw/ elsewhere... so amwo > ammo, amwa > anwa, it's something of a compromise.