Search found 173 matches

by evmdbm
Mon Feb 11, 2019 5:51 am
Forum: Conlangery
Topic: Salvian Thread: Hieroglyphs
Replies: 26
Views: 22318

Re: Salvian Thread: Family and Phonology

The second, the Hapālausun, linked the languages of the Five--representing what would become the prestige dialects of the five regions of the Salvian Peninsula--together and made it so that all parties who spoke those languages and understood the contract would understand the other--and their desce...
by evmdbm
Fri Feb 08, 2019 4:47 am
Forum: Conlangery
Topic: Pretistelen Mega-Project
Replies: 7
Views: 3936

Re: Pretistelen Mega-Project

I like this, but wow are the verbs highly inflected - Ancient Greek but worse! Very well set out too. I wonder if the necessitive mood is ripe for merger with the subjunctive if the only difference is vowel length?
by evmdbm
Thu Jan 24, 2019 4:22 am
Forum: Languages
Topic: If natlangs were conlangs
Replies: 584
Views: 519522

Re: If natlangs were conlangs

Also they do a terrible job at making their characters actually distinct from each other, like in one of the phonemic systems has sa, chi and ki be distinguished from each other by being mirror-images or plus an extra stroke, and in the other their shi and tsu syllables are only distinguished by th...
by evmdbm
Wed Jan 23, 2019 6:35 am
Forum: Ephemera
Topic: ZBB Census 2018
Replies: 89
Views: 132764

Re: ZBB Census 2018

Basics Username: evmdbm Birthplace: Hexham, England Place of residence: Leeds Identity Gender: Male Measurements Age and date of birth: 43 Languages (including level of fluency!) Native language(s): English Other languages: French, German, Spanish, Latin (intermediate); Russian, Japanese (beginners)...
by evmdbm
Tue Jan 15, 2019 8:12 am
Forum: Conlangery
Topic: Telpahké: the thread - Verbal Morphology
Replies: 76
Views: 75207

Re: Telpahké: the thread - Transitivity and voice assignment

I think I have this - just about, although since it's alien to every language I've ever learnt I'm not sure. I'm also not sure unergative and unaccusative help as terms. If it needs to be consciously done, surely it's ergative (work is being done, unergative suggests the opposite) but that is nabbed...
by evmdbm
Sat Jan 12, 2019 6:17 am
Forum: Conlangery
Topic: Why do some conquerors replace the language and some not?
Replies: 18
Views: 7084

Re: Why do some conquerors replace the language and some not?

Not much to add, but there's a very good book called Empires of the Word by Nicholas Ostler if you want to know more, explaining what makes a "prestige" language.
by evmdbm
Thu Dec 20, 2018 3:23 am
Forum: Conlangery
Topic: The most difficult things about conlanging
Replies: 31
Views: 15213

Re: The most difficult things about conlanging

If you do words as you need them or just a few at a time it must be easier.

I think it'll be the syntax and working out idiomatic constructions that aren't just copies of English or French or whatever
by evmdbm
Mon Dec 10, 2018 7:21 am
Forum: Conlangery
Topic: Would YOUR concountry join the European Union?
Replies: 25
Views: 11178

Re: Would YOUR concountry join the European Union?

Maybe Since I'm positing a world with technology 2-300 years in advance of our own and on the verge of making the Alcubierre drive work (yes I know... but screw Einstein) the EU would get more out of the arrangement, but I suspect a global confederation is just round the corner. The main powers are ...
by evmdbm
Fri Nov 23, 2018 6:40 am
Forum: Conlangery
Topic: Martian con-economics: Water as currency
Replies: 20
Views: 8985

Re: Martian con-economics: Water as currency

So you'd probably be importing services and exporting manufacturing? Raw materials would be relatively available, and you could be extremely polluting (because who cares), whereas with a small population and very high living costs, anything based on human labour is going to be expensive. Although o...
by evmdbm
Fri Nov 23, 2018 5:31 am
Forum: Conlangery
Topic: Tehemne mythology (meet the áhash!)
Replies: 41
Views: 25088

Re: Tehemne mythology (now with more drama)

Is the moral "Don't fuck up?"
by evmdbm
Thu Nov 22, 2018 6:06 am
Forum: Conlangery
Topic: Telpahké: the thread - Verbal Morphology
Replies: 76
Views: 75207

Re: Telpahké: the thread - Clothing

dewrad wrote: Sun Nov 18, 2018 4:52 pm Out of interest, have you worked out which natlang inspired this system?)
I hate it when people do that. I over-think it completely and end up with something ridiculous like English ;-)
by evmdbm
Mon Nov 12, 2018 6:25 am
Forum: Conlangery
Topic: The Yonutian Language Family (Scratchpad, I guess?)
Replies: 7
Views: 4493

Re: The Yonutian Language Family (Scratchpad, I guess?)

[ When an agent is lower on the animacy hierarchy than the patient, ergative marking of the agent is disallowed. In this scenario, special "inverse constructions" are employed, based on the topicality of the agent. If the agent is topical, the A=T (Agent=Topic) inverse construction is used...
by evmdbm
Fri Nov 09, 2018 6:37 am
Forum: Conlangery
Topic: Telpahké: the thread - Verbal Morphology
Replies: 76
Views: 75207

Re: Telpahké: the thread - Personal Pronouns

This really is my unattainable counsel of perfection! Having said that.... In the first and second persons, the personal pronouns of Telpahké are complex. As well as marking case and number, they grammaticalise several distinctions not found elsewhere in the language: politeness, gender and (in the ...
by evmdbm
Wed Nov 07, 2018 4:29 am
Forum: Conlangery
Topic: Advice on Sound Changes
Replies: 8
Views: 4787

Re: Advice on Sound Changes

I guess the Nakhese would probably just assume trempa was feminine and decline it Acc trempu, Dat trempu, Gen trempem (or trempe once the -m is dropped) in the singular. I think my main concern once I started mucking around with the SCA was to create something naturalistic. As it stands there are no...
by evmdbm
Tue Nov 06, 2018 7:20 am
Forum: Conlangery
Topic: Advice on Sound Changes
Replies: 8
Views: 4787

Advice on Sound Changes

If you have an inflected ur-conlang and you want to bring it on a few hundred years, do you guys just take the base citation version of a noun (say the nominative singular) and apply the sound changes you choose to that or do you apply the sound changes to all the different forms of the noun of whic...
by evmdbm
Mon Oct 29, 2018 5:17 am
Forum: Conlangery
Topic: Telpahké: the thread - Verbal Morphology
Replies: 76
Views: 75207

Re: Telpahké: the thread - Nominal Morphology

Ah. All clear now. At some later point in a later post you'll have to tell us how topicalisation works then.
by evmdbm
Fri Oct 26, 2018 8:46 am
Forum: Conlangery
Topic: Telpahké: the thread - Verbal Morphology
Replies: 76
Views: 75207

Re: Telpahké: the thread - Nominal Morphology

aruné would be accusative case, yes, so I concede the verb might not mark the number of accusative objects in accusative aligned sentences, but the verb might mark the number of the absolutive subject in those sentences. I think that runs up against the problem that if third party sentences are erga...
by evmdbm
Fri Oct 26, 2018 7:36 am
Forum: Conlangery
Topic: Telpahké: the thread - Verbal Morphology
Replies: 76
Views: 75207

Re: Telpahké: the thread - Nominal Morphology

Supposing this psychotic break from reality were to continue and you saw a rat eating the coconuts; duly concerned, you might turn to your companions and say "kóreθ ehkaná in arunmá", informing them that a rat is eating the coconuts. They would again correct you to arún, as number is alre...
by evmdbm
Thu Oct 25, 2018 11:07 am
Forum: Conlangery
Topic: Lexicon Building
Replies: 428
Views: 384672

Re: Lexicon Building

Vedreki:
khem: canvas
inöqanun: to shelter

kheminöq canvas roof = tent

Next: Television
by evmdbm
Tue Oct 23, 2018 8:58 am
Forum: Conlangery
Topic: Lexicon Building
Replies: 428
Views: 384672

Re: Lexicon Building

vedreki: dralnim (draleq = to hang; nim = leaf)

Next - upload (to the internet)