Zompist Bboard Again

So, I don't know whether to go for /mw/ > /nw/ or > /mm/... I don't really like the sound of /mw/ and geminites are totally a thing in my L conlang. But, I have words where sometimes the /nw/ version sounds better or sometimes the /mm/ sounds better, but there's no phonetic justification for both in...

I don't write much about my conlang projects... maybe I should. I feel like writing it down helps me to process thoughts and ideas and maybe others may be interested in what other conlangers are up to. So I've just undone the Finnish-style consonant gradation stuff in my L * conlang that I put a goo...

Travis B. wrote: ↑Tue May 16, 2023 5:30 pm

Jonlang wrote: ↑Tue May 16, 2023 4:24 pm Does an adposition + locative make sense?

I see no reason to not employ it. I would even use multiple locative cases (e.g. plain locative, ablative, and allative) with prepositions to make them more specific.

That's the idea!

Regarding cases and adpositions: If I have a locative case but I want to be more precise then adpositions are employed, which seems perfectly natural. Say tree.LOC could mean 'in/on/at/near the tree' then the usual meaning would be 'in' as in "amongst the branches" like a bird as that is m...

I can't really add anything more insightful than what has already been said, but you haven't said how important the inclusion of Old Japanese is to the novel. Is it just for names? Will there be dialogue in it? Will it be used for very Japanese things for which we have no satisfactory English word? ...

It is, but a Redditor pointed me to a Google Drive account with it. Not sure if posting the link here is allowed though.

The Pile has been deleted from Mega. Does anyone know if it's moved or is it gone?

Tolkienesque rant Do we get a welsh lord of the rings out of this perchance? Because his languages led to stories? Tolkien's was more than that - he had as much drive to write his mythology for England as he did to make languages. I only really have the drive to make languages, it just seems a bit ...

The likelihood of my project actually ever seeing the light of day is so low that I often think "what's the point?" The ambition is to hold a book in my hands which tells stories of my world. I'm not so vain as to think that it will be of much interest to anyone else because it is purely f...

Today I've done a bit of easy Sunday conlanging - which means mostly pondering and trying stuff out rather than getting anything done. One of my conlangs is supposed to be Latin-ish with SOV order but it is pretty free to move stuff about in its literary register and a more rigid SVO order in its co...

Are Old English and Old Norse actually mutually intelligible? To what degree? I have heard conflicting things. I'm not sure how we'd know. I know Prof. Tom Shippey (who spoke both languages) made this argument, but in the absence of empirical evidence or reliable testimony it's a purely speculative...

but I have no idea why I instinctively put the verb first, but placing it last seems wrong in this context... but I can't even explain what this context is ! Unless I'm missing something, it seems to me you analyzed it in the same order as English has? Anyway, I'd think that SOV would have "wi...

I have an SOV conlang, but when I just came to attempt to translate the following: "To know wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding." – The Book of Proverbs, 1:2. I instinctively analysed it as: know.INF wisdom.NOM and.CONJ instruction.NOM; perceive.INF words.NOM und...

foxcatdog wrote: ↑Sun Apr 09, 2023 3:27 am

Jonlang wrote: ↑Sun Apr 09, 2023 3:25 am Could someone who's familiar with Albanian tell me if the change of PIE *dw > *erk only occurs initially or does it occur elsewhere too?

I believe that change is from Armenian.

Shit. I'll change it.

Could someone who's familiar with Armenian tell me if the change of PIE *dw > erk only occurs initially or does it occur elsewhere too?

Thanks for the replies. I coined a word for one of my conlangs: gwors , and I had been playing around with it for a whole day when I remembered it should have lost the /w/ in the sequence /ɡwɔ/ and it ought to have been gors . And so the search began for a reason why this particular word retained it...

It seems that for almost every sound change law an exception can be found - words which do not follow the expected evolution if we apply all sound changes which, as far as we know, should apply, resulting in (often) inexplicable developments of particular words. Do we have any reasons why this occur...

Does anyone here put "Easter eggs" into their conlangs? I mean like little things which could be overlooked by the casual reader but some people may see what you've done. I was discussing this elsewhere today. For example, the Welsh word for 'waterfall' is rhaeadr [ˈr̥ʰeɨ̯.adr̩] and the na...

Pretty funny coincidence; I picked up The Sopranos on DVD recently. (I wanted to re-watch the show, they had it at the library and it's not available on streaming.) My long suffering better half and I have been (re-)watching the revived Doctor Who from the beginning in anticipation of David Tennant...

doctor shark wrote: ↑Thu Jan 19, 2023 5:16 pmthe plea deal was for a sixteen year old, which really doesn't make it better

Age-wise, that's not really a big deal for Europeans. It's still illegal for teachers/students. But 16 isn't even the lowest age of consent in Europe.