Conlang Random Thread

[Pabappa]

The creator of Láadan said that most of the people interested enough to buy her book were men ... And I'm one of them. Láadan interests me and I'm interested to see more languages in the same mold. It influenced my own conlangs too, but most of what I borrowed from Láadan has been slowly wrung out.... my cultures tend to be more feministic than earth's, but they were like that from before I'd ever heard of Láadan.

[bbbosborne]

great new jokelang idea:
inflect things according to zodiac sign/year

[Elizabeth K.]

The creator of Láadan said that most of the people interested enough to buy her book were men ... And I'm one of them. Láadan interests me and I'm interested to see more languages in the same mold. It influenced my own conlangs too, but most of what I borrowed from Láadan has been slowly wrung out.... my cultures tend to be more feministic than earth's, but they were like that from before I'd ever heard of Láadan.

Suzette Haden Elgin was writing back in the 70s and 80s - perhaps the situation had changed since then. At least, I hope it has.

[Salmoneus]

Huat! Gāsa-Denhō thāsō hāsāth aba glōirō uī,
aba theod-cuinningem in dagem ieorō, ād hū framtēn ēht
herō atheleng; Sceald oft Scābinga fram slōgō scathin
fram manegēm theodom, miod-setlen abatāh,
ād agesōid thā Irelēn, bisioith āirsta hī fand
gahista uarth; dīned fāth hī fuilgedē
ta thamm; uagsdi hī binitherē uilcn, thāh
hī eosom ūder; allesg thamm tha thorftēn
sa ōegelca ūbsittend bioberē thas huala-pathas hes
hluisniena, cāin-gealda himm ōgebena – that
uas āinna gōda cuinninga!

ta himm after ēna aferō galāmnōd uarth, ēna iuinglinga
in hes gardem, sādda aba Déachtfír liud ta socrehtōna; tha arbēidō
thāsō āgastāsō stōth sīunn uith Him, tha biforē
thā than cēsōdēn, cendlōsa ta langē tīdō.
ta thas fragab sa libn-ab īath thāim
ualdāria uulthō: Bōe uas brōimm, allud brād
gasprāidōd – sa aferō Scealdō in Scaithenlādē. sui efniōn
stāith ana mann iunga, gōden uuirhtom, balthen
hordagiftom, bi leppin fador, ana bāgē commhaldēn
in aild fast gasiothin, folca folgon an ōrē
comthogbāilō bicwēmmongō; dēidom formoledbāirēm sui
man ūder liodō thīna huarohther scal.

[Travis B.]

Ich weiß nicht, was das sagt, aber ich kann wissen, dass das auf eine germanische Sprache ist.

[Dē Graut Bʉr]

Ig iss oss ymē oss dy dē múligbigryvig zyt. Mar somm worrts iss letig oss bigryvē, enn dē zyging "that uas āinna gōda cuinninga" iss oppfig: "dē wast a gut kiks".

[Pabappa]

It's Beowulf .... I recognize the first line... and I like the way it looks in this language,.... I've always liked macrons in particular.

[mae]

-

[Bob]

Working on my English descendant. A short two sentence sample:
[wɨ̃ wə sɛ:n laˀ keəl d̪ə kɛske:ɾɨ̃z t̪ɪ̃ˀ wə tambaɾ ə vɛtʃtəbəl || bəˀ keəl kɨˀ bi ə ʔɛ̃nməl tɨw]

This is from the 22nd century. Almost all of it should be recognizable still, I'd say. But other than some phonological changes you've got some slight grammatical differences as well.

I did something like that a couple weeks ago. I rarely do future Englishes. The one I did was totally unrecognizable, like 5,000 years or something. I'm big on semantic shifts but not on phonology so the sound changes were not realistic.

[Salmoneus]

It's Beowulf .... I recognize the first line... and I like the way it looks in this language,.... I've always liked macrons in particular.

The downside of translating Beowulf is that then you realise you've ended up with a dozen different words that basically translate as 'fame' or 'glory' or 'honour' or the like.

On the positive side: it turns out the term in this language for Scania is almost exactly, or even exactly, the same as the term for "land of injuries" or "harmful land", purely coincidentally. Which is nice.

[quinterbeck]

Working on my English descendant. A short two sentence sample:
[wɨ̃ wə sɛ:n laˀ keəl d̪ə kɛske:ɾɨ̃z t̪ɪ̃ˀ wə tambaɾ ə vɛtʃtəbəl || bəˀ keəl kɨˀ bi ə ʔɛ̃nməl tɨw]

This is from the 22nd century. Almost all of it should be recognizable still, I'd say. But other than some phonological changes you've got some slight grammatical differences as well.

This wasn't actually obvious to me, here's what I think the above means:

More: show

When we're saying, like, "kale" the cascadans think we're talking about a vegetable. But kale could be a animal too

[Salmoneus]

...finally gotten back to 'finishing up' a piece I was writing months ago about a musical instrument (or family thereof) in my conculture.

...and then I make one little paragraph about related instruments in neighbouring cultures, aaaand now I'm developing the whole phonological history of a dozen different dialects/languages comparatively at the same time.

This is why I never get anything done...

[Xwtek]

What is this pronoun called?

Usages

He is a doctor that you meet him at the town.
I said that I'll go.
I watch him so that he will not escape.

This looks like a combination of relative pronoun (but not fronted), logophoric pronoun, and reflexive pronoun.

The pronoun refers to the focus of the sentence. But for relative pronoun, it refers to the modified noun.

Also is the change to relative pronoun is good:
1. New focus construction for obliques, where oblique noun phrases can be fronted. If the possessor is focused, it will be stranded.
2. Make interrogative pronoun and relative pronoun receive focus.
3. Meaning shift of the relative pronoun so it's exclusively used for relative pronoun.

[akam chinjir]

What is this pronoun called?

Usages

He is a doctor that you meet him at the town.
I said that I'll go.
I watch him so that he will not escape.

This looks like a combination of relative pronoun (but not fronted), logophoric pronoun, and reflexive pronoun.

The pronoun refers to the focus of the sentence. But for relative pronoun, it refers to the modified noun.

The first is a resumptive pronoun, I guess, though it's not really correct to use one there. (English sometimes tolerates resumptive pronouns in relative clauses to sort of satisfy island constraints, but it's not very common.)

The other two are just regular pronouns.

I doubt it's got anything special to do with focus. E.g., in the second one, nothing rules out focus on the sentence as a whole, or on I'll go.

[Salmoneus]

Yup. Second and third are just how pronouns work; first isn't anything because it's not a valid English sentence, but it might be the ungrammatical way someone might try to convey the concept of a resumptive pronoun.

The second two are logophoric, and all three (like most pronouns) are anaphoric.

[Xwtek]

No, I'm not talking about English "him." But I cancelled the question because I found another way to derive a relative pronoun. (When a relativizer fuses with the pronoun)

[mèþru]

Idea: a prompt about conlanging or worldbuilding every( few )day(s) in this thread

[Raphael]

*Loooong sigh*


This is a really weird thing to say on a conlang-centered board whose members basically have all been conlanging for a while, but, well, I think I might start to do some conlanging myself. (In case you're wondering, I'm here mainly as a kind of legacy from the original Virtual Verduria Message Board.)

Thing is, I have some conhistory lying around, but no one in it has any names, because I don't have any languages for it from which the names could be derived yet. So I'll need at least naming conlangs. And the conhistory in question involves people and places from several fictional cultures and linguistic communities, so I have to come up with several conlangs, preferably some related and some fairly distinct ones. I want the names and the rules they're derived from to be plausible, original, and preferably not too stereotypical or clichéd - no English/German/Latin imitation no. 789,346,340,436, no pseudo-Elvish, no "evil guttural" language, nothing completely familiar, but preferably nothing ultra-"exotic"-for-the-sake-of-being-ultra-"exotic" either. I don't want to mess up. And it's all very overwhelming.

Anyway, for a start, I bought myself the LCK. Guess I'll see how it goes.

[Zju]

Whatever happened to the translation challenges? Are we not doing these anymore?

[Salmoneus]

Me in the past:

So I'll need at least naming conlangs. And the conhistory in question involves people and places from several fictional cultures and linguistic communities, so I have to come up with several conlangs, preferably some related and some fairly distinct ones.

Fast foward twenty years...

Me now:

OK, so, now I'm just a year or two away from having a rough sketch of at least one language spoken a continent away from my original setting, and THEN I can get started on the prehistory of my original project!