Page 1 of 3

Olarrthe

Posted: Sat Sep 11, 2021 11:25 pm
by WarpedWartWars
Example texts:
tɑ tɑ tɑ tɑ θiθɾ eɾloθ tɑ moew θerts olɑrk siθe
of of of of death abyss of moew kingdom sand witch-PLURAL
The witches of the desert of the kingdom of Moew of the Abyss of Death
tɑ toɾose koɾot tsɑx
of apple-PLURAL magic cold
cold magic of apples
Phonology:
Consonants:
Consonants BilabialDentalAlveolarVelar
Nasal mnŋ
Stop ptk
Affricate tskx
Fricative ɸθsx
Approximant wj
Lateral l
Tap ɾ
Trill r
Vowels:
VowelsFrontBack
Highiu
Mideo
Lowɑ
Lexicon:
  • θiθɾ 'death'
  • tɑ 'of'
  • eɾloθ 'abyss'
  • θerts 'kingdom'
  • moew 'moew'
  • olɑrk 'sand'
  • siθ 'witch'
  • toɾos 'apple'
  • koɾot 'magic'
  • tsɑx 'cold'
  • klɑnuɸ meaning unknown
Number names: (copy-pasted from a PM from JANKO GORENC)
0: sɑx
1: tɑx
2: nɑx
3: ɾɑx
4: tɾɑx
5: xɾɑx
6: pɾɑx
7: tsɾɑx
8: ɸɾɑx
9: sɑtɑx
10: tɑtɑx
11: nɑtɑx
etc. The construction for 9-∞ is ones-root+nines-root+81s-root+...+"x"; the root of a number is the number name without the final "x". All numbers end with "ɑx" except for the roots, which end in "ɑ". Number roots are used with prefixing.

Grammar:
Possession is done by 'of' + possessor + possessed
VSO
nouns before adjectives
possessors before possesseds
adposition-noun order unknown, probably adposition then noun
noun-relative clause order unknown, probably relative clause then noun

Edit: Renamed topic.

Edit 2: Changed possession, added glosses to the lexicon, and added numbers.

Edit 3: Added section on number names.

Re: New conlang, please help me give it a name

Posted: Sat Sep 11, 2021 11:39 pm
by dɮ the phoneme
Do you have any other features of the conlang completed besides this sample text? Any phonology, grammar, vocabulary, internal history etc.? Any of those details would help us help you name it more easily.

Re: New conlang, please help me give it a name

Posted: Sun Sep 12, 2021 4:19 am
by Pabappa
you could follow me and just use exonyms for all your languages .... that way if you change the language later on, the name wont go out of date. most of my languages are just English words, like Moonshine, which is what started me on that trend many years ago.

Re: New conlang, please help me give it a name

Posted: Sun Sep 12, 2021 4:32 am
by alice
Mallory?

Re: New conlang, please help me give it a name

Posted: Sun Sep 12, 2021 8:47 am
by Moose-tache
WarpedWartWars wrote: Sat Sep 11, 2021 11:25 pm The only example text is my signature. However, I will include it here, for reference:
Hlithr ta Erloth ta Hlerrts ta Moew ta Olarrk ta Sithe.
death of abyss of kingdom of Moew of sand of witch-PLURAL.
The witches of the desert of the kingdom of Moew of the Abyss of Death.
1) Hlither and Thither
2) Ta Ta For Now
3) Revenge of the Sithe
4) Dave the Language

Re: New conlang, please help me give it a name

Posted: Sun Sep 12, 2021 9:07 am
by Jonlang
I've been working on three conlangs as part of a family for ~6-7 years now and I still don't have names for them. They've always been P, Q, and L, named after aspects of the languages that inspired them. I'll get around to naming them one day. :roll:

Re: New conlang, please help me give it a name

Posted: Sun Sep 12, 2021 9:47 am
by Vardelm
Witchlang are you talking about?

Re: New conlang, please help me give it a name

Posted: Sun Sep 12, 2021 2:54 pm
by WarpedWartWars
dɮ the phoneme wrote: Sat Sep 11, 2021 11:39 pm Do you have any other features of the conlang completed besides this sample text? Any phonology, grammar, vocabulary, internal history etc.? Any of those details would help us help you name it more easily.
I have some phonology:

hl = [ɬ]
i = [i]
th = [θ]
r = [ɾ]
t = [t]
a = [a]
e = [e] except when after a vowel, then it's [i]
l = [l]
o = [o]
rr = [r]
ts = [ts]
m = [m]
w = [w] normally, [u] after a vowel
k = [k]
s = [s]

("after a vowel" exceptions are mostly to preserve the pronunciation of "Moew".)

About grammar, the only things I have so far are these:

ta, "of", is reversed when compared to English "of":
    "a ta b" is "b of a" or "a's b".
-e is a pluralizer, i.e. Sith, "witch", turns into Sithe, "witches".

Re: New conlang, please help me give it a name

Posted: Sun Sep 12, 2021 6:57 pm
by WarpedWartWars
Moose-tache wrote: Sun Sep 12, 2021 8:47 am
WarpedWartWars wrote: Sat Sep 11, 2021 11:25 pm The only example text is my signature. However, I will include it here, for reference:
Hlithr ta Erloth ta Hlerrts ta Moew ta Olarrk ta Sithe.
death of abyss of kingdom of Moew of sand of witch-PLURAL.
The witches of the desert of the kingdom of Moew of the Abyss of Death.
1) Hlither and Thither
2) Ta Ta For Now
3) Revenge of the Sithe
4) Dave the Language
Those sound more like book titles than conlang names.

Re: New conlang, please help me give it a name

Posted: Sun Sep 12, 2021 8:02 pm
by bradrn
WarpedWartWars wrote: Sun Sep 12, 2021 2:54 pm hl = [ɬ]
i = [i]
th = [θ]
r = [ɾ]
t = [t]
a = [a]
e = [e] except when after a vowel, then it's [i]
l = [l]
o = [o]
rr = [r]
ts = [ts]
m = [m]
w = [w] normally, [u] after a vowel
k = [k]
s = [s]
OK, this is helpful. Putting it in tabular format:

LabialDentalAlveolarVelar
Nasalm
Stopk
Affricatets
Fricatives
Approximantw
Laterall ɬ
Tapɾ
Trillr
Vowels: /a e i o u/

So obviously this is very incomplete. Let me take the liberty of expanding it out with at least a few sounds which I assume your language will have:

LabialDentalAlveolarVelar
Nasalm n
Stopptk
Affricatets
Fricatives
Approximantw j
Laterall ɬ
Tapɾ
Trillr

(Yes, I know that /j/ isn’t exactly velar, but it’s easier than trying to add another column to the table…)

(Also, I should note that stuff like ‘⟨e⟩ = [e] or [i]’ is more a matter of orthography than phonology. If your language distinguishes [e] and [i] in speech, then they’re both phonemes. If not, then they aren’t separate phonemes. The spelling doesn’t happen to be particularly relevant here.)

But unfortunately, even with a phonology, there’s only so much we can do for you with regards to giving your language a name, especially given the fact that it currently seems to be at an extremely early stage of development. We’d need at least a reasonable wordlist and some derivational morphology to get a reasonable name — anything else would just be a guess. Honestly, I’d recommend just choosing a name you personally like, without worrying too much about justifying it. (Certainly there’s plenty of natlangs with names of obscure etymology.)

And besides, do you even need a name at this point? One of my most well-developed languages still doesn’t have one.
WarpedWartWars wrote: Sun Sep 12, 2021 6:57 pm
Moose-tache wrote: Sun Sep 12, 2021 8:47 am 1) Hlither and Thither
2) Ta Ta For Now
3) Revenge of the Sithe
4) Dave the Language
Those sound more like book titles than conlang names.
I don’t think Moose-tache was being particularly serious there. As I said, it’s tricky for us to supply a name for your own language when we don’t know much about it.

Re: New conlang, please help me give it a name

Posted: Sun Sep 12, 2021 8:58 pm
by Rounin Ryuuji
The language looks vaguely Celtic, so I would suspect the language would have an inventory like this

Nasal: /m n/ < m n >
Stop: /p b t d k g/ < p b t d c g >
Affricate: /ts/ < z >
Fricative: /f θ x s/ < f th ch s >
Resonant: /l r ɾ w j/ < l rr r w e >
Vowel: /i e u u2 a o/ < i e w u a o >
Diphthong: /iu eu u2i ai au oi ou/ < iw ew ue ae aw oe ow >

I imagine "e" is also the general "palatalising" grapheme, if the language has one, such that if /t/ or /k/ ends up palatalised to [c~t͡ʃ~c͡ɕ~c͡ç], I imagine it would be graphically < te/ce > + vowel, or vowel + < et/ec >. I'm not clear on what I expect the value of a putative /u2/ to be, either something like [ʉ] or [ɨ], which I believe one finds in Welsh, or [y], because it's a high rounded vowel.

Re: New conlang, please help me give it a name

Posted: Sun Sep 12, 2021 9:29 pm
by WarpedWartWars
bradrn wrote: Sun Sep 12, 2021 8:02 pm -snip-
I'm thinking something like this for phonemes:
ConsonantsBilabialAlveolarVelar
Nasalmnŋ
Stopp, bt, dk, g
Affricatepftskx
Fricativefsx
Approximantwj
Lateral Fricativeɬ, ɮ
Laterall
Tapɾ
Trillr
VowelsFrontMiddleBack
Highiu
Mideəo
Lowa

Re: New conlang, please help me give it a name

Posted: Sun Sep 12, 2021 9:41 pm
by Rounin Ryuuji
All right, now we're getting somewhere!

Do you have a name for the people who speak the language? That is, perhaps uninterestingly, how real languages get their names.

Addendum: Or, if this is a Classical language, it might have a name that means something to the effect of "Proper" or "Refined", as was the origin of the name of Sanskrit.

Re: New conlang, please help me give it a name

Posted: Sun Sep 12, 2021 9:57 pm
by WarpedWartWars
Rounin Ryuuji wrote: Sun Sep 12, 2021 9:41 pm Do you have a name for the people who speak the language?
Probably "Olarrk ta Sithe", "The witches of the desert".

Re: New conlang, please help me give it a name

Posted: Sun Sep 12, 2021 10:09 pm
by Rounin Ryuuji
Then I imagine the language would be called "Desert", "Desert Witch", "Witch", "Olarrk" or "Sithe".

Is it Celtic? It looks vaguely Celtic.

Re: New conlang, please help me give it a name

Posted: Sun Sep 12, 2021 10:18 pm
by WarpedWartWars
Rounin Ryuuji wrote: Sun Sep 12, 2021 10:09 pm Then I imagine the language would be called "Desert", "Desert Witch", "Witch", "Olarrk" or "Sithe".
If I use the "Olarrk ta Sithe", I would want both "Olarrk" and "Sithe" in the lang name, even if squashed together, like "Olarrthe".
Rounin Ryuuji wrote: Sun Sep 12, 2021 10:09 pm Is it Celtic? It looks vaguely Celtic.
Not that I know of, so far. I might be being influenced by Welsh, so maybe.

Re: New conlang, please help me give it a name

Posted: Sun Sep 12, 2021 10:33 pm
by Rounin Ryuuji
How are the words stressed?

Re: New conlang, please help me give it a name

Posted: Sun Sep 12, 2021 11:27 pm
by Ryan of Tinellb
Rounin Ryuuji wrote: Sun Sep 12, 2021 10:33 pm How are the words stressed?
Just trying to get through their day, I guess, same as the rest of us :P

Re: New conlang, please help me give it a name

Posted: Mon Sep 13, 2021 1:36 am
by Jonlang
WarpedWartWars wrote: Sun Sep 12, 2021 10:18 pm
Rounin Ryuuji wrote: Sun Sep 12, 2021 10:09 pm Is it Celtic? It looks vaguely Celtic.
Not that I know of, so far. I might be being influenced by Welsh, so maybe.
Good lad.

Re: New conlang, please help me give it a name

Posted: Mon Sep 13, 2021 4:15 pm
by WarpedWartWars
Rounin Ryuuji wrote: Sun Sep 12, 2021 10:33 pm How are the words stressed?
I haven't actually decided on that yet.