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Re: [romconlang] Slezan



Jan van Steenbergen a sk�ipt:


> --- Isaac Penzev a sk�ipt:
> > Or is it _sk�ypt_?
>
> No. Wenedyk makes the distinction between [i] and [I]. Slezan
doesn't:
> everything becomes [i]. <y> exists in Slezan, but fulfills the
role of
> non-palatalising <i>.

Well, that was clear, but I was expecting some consonants might have
influence on vowels.

> Because Latin /i/ always palatalises in the regular
> development of the language, <y> occurs only in later borrowings
from other
> languages.

Clear. But strange.

> > I would not mind, but I don't think I'm ready to talk about
words if
> > I'm not sure about sounds and sound changes!
>
> Then be patient an await my GMP! :)) I might have something online
tonight. A
> draft, at least.

Oh no! I mean that I understand how they work. I'm just not
completely satisfied with them. Too much palatalising. Or is it my
subconscious reaction to differences between Russian (maximal
palatalization) and Ukrainian (much less palatalized phonemes, and
full of non-palatalizing /e/'s and /I/'s...

> > Well, that's not "synchro", those are just lectures in exegesis.
A
> > prof says a couple of words, I interprete, he speaks on etc.
Taking
> > a breath when looking for a precise quotation.
>
> Ah, I see. That's a relief. I'd say that so many hours of
simultaneous
> translation is virtually impossible, unless somebody is some kind
of "idiot
> savant".

You are right. 30-35 minutes, and you're a squeezed lemon, if you're
doing synchro.

> > No time for conlanging activity :(
>
> Oh well, that's life. Unless of course you can succeed in making
money out of
> it. Isn't Ukraine going to produce a SF movie sooner or later?

Mocking? Hehe.

> > > > > The transformation is more or less
> > > > > regular: _diurnum_ > _*djr.nU_ (_r._ = syllabic _r_) >
_*dzrn_ >
> > > > > _zrn_.
> >
> > First /u/ is long. Does it have no influence?
>
> Not yet. :) But that may still change. If we do this together,
I'll take no
> more than 51 % of the shares. :))

That's fair. If we can come to agreement as concerns excessive
palatalization and some other sound change rules, I promise to keep
all the initial material intact, and work only on further
development.

> > Ru. is "me�a".
>
> Oops. So much for my Russian!

You can always rely on me as a native speaker.

> > I see. I need to investigate Czech sound changes
> > table more thoroughly. I just don't feel it ok!
>
> Just don't investigate them too closely (at least not for this
project). I
> explicitly don't want Slezan to do with Czech what Wenedyk does
with Polish.
> Slezan undoubtedly has something in common with Czech: part of its
orthography
> is based on it, and it borrows some Czech sound changes too. But
nothing more
> than that.

I see. I'll keep in line with it.

> And there are considerable differences too: no _�_ (e-hachek),

That's the thing I miss most of all. In all this Slezan seems closer
to Slovakian, btw.

> > It might be _edz�_. But take into account that _o_ in _hodie_ is
> > stressed.
>
> Is it? I would have assume _ho.'di.e_ rather than _'ho.di.e'_.

No. It's clearly _"ho.di.e_. Cf. It. _'oggi_, Es. _hoy_.

> > So it may be hodie > odje > odzďż˝ > vodzďż˝ (with prothetic _v_).
>
> Hahaha! I hadn't thought of prothetic _v_. I must say that in
Polish (and Czech
> AFAIK) it is virtually unknown. But of course, that shouldn't keep
us from
> having it in Slezan!

So, let's have it. It's very Slavic!

> Do you have any idea under which conditions prothetic _v_ occurs
in Russian and
> Ukrainian?

It's rare in Russian (maybe, because of Church Slavic influence),
but are abundant in Ukrainian. Almost all initial /o/'s and /u/'s
get prothetic /v-/ in native words: _visim_ (< *osIm) 'eight',
_voho�_ 'fire', _vulycia_ 'street'.

> For the rest, I suppose you are right: _(v)odz�_. But now that I'm
working on
> the GMP I'm wondering if we shouldn't turn all instances of _dz_
into _z_. In
> that case we would get _(v)oz�_ (or perhaps _(v)oze_).

It's up to you. As for _voz�_, I like it.

> > Latin _lt_ cluster often behaves like _ct_. See VL multu, lacte
>
> > Sp. mucho, leche.
>
> Interesting. Does this phenomenon occur in any other romlang than
Spanish
> (which after all is quite far away from Slezan)?

_ct_ mutates in most langs, probably due to Celtic substratum, _lt_
is less frequent. But anyway, _l+C_ often behaves strange.

> Nevertheless, I like your idea, and added it to the GMP. However,
in that case
> we would get _mucht_ [muxt] or perhaps _much_ [mux]. This is how
it works:
> _multum_ > _ml.tU_ > _mu5xtU_ > _mucht_. Or something like that.

It needs further investigation, as Adam Walker wrote:
> So, it looks like Spanish, and Portuguese pattern then
> together while Italian and Romanian do not.

Iberia is too far from Slezia. So, _mltu_ can be more possible.

> > And I don't like two similar words next to each other: _�est
jest_
> > is terrible. If you don't want shorter variant form for _jest_,
try
> > an alternative for _�est_, e.g. _�e_, thus having smth like
_ďż˝'est_.
>
> I absolutely agree! A excellent idea. One thing: I would shift the
apostrophe
> one position: _�e'st_. That would also have another advantage: we
can easily
> apply the same thing to other cases:
>
> _�e'st_ < _�est jest_ "this is"
> _�i'st_ < _�i jest_ "who is"
> _ko'st_ < _ko jest_ "what is"
>
> and perhaps even:
> _i'st_, _il'st_, _ile'st_ < _il jest_ "he is"
> _ila'st_ < _ila jest_ "she is"

Very good. And if we have _jen_ for isolated preposition 'in'
instead of _je_, keeping it merging into _jela_, _jelu_ etc., it may
liberate _je_ for alternative parallel form for _jest_.

> Hmm. I would still say "tot bon". Or perhaps "totev bon", but that
would have a
> different meaning.

Ok. "Tot bon" sounds fine.

> > Even if I start designing alternative non-standard Slezan
dialect
> > instead of joining yours, you can always ask me about
vocabulary.
>
> Hehe. I fully count on you, and I hope you will send me every prog
ress you make
> with it! BTW, Slezan does not really have a standard dialect
anyway.

Serious work may start only after Feb 9. I think we'd better discuss
it privately off-list, and present here the final product.

My usual approach is as follows: I mutate real words till they start
sounding aestheticly pleasing, and then analyse the sound changes
:))

A �evider i tot bon,
-- Yitzik