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--- In romconlang@yahoogroups.com, Jan van Steenbergen <ijzeren_jan@y...> wrote: > --- Jeff Jones skrzypszy: > > > I've been hoping to get some issues resolved before my turn in > > the romlang relay. I can always make snap decisions, but I hate > > putting things into a relay text that have to be taken out of > > the language later. > > Sure. The version of the language you use in a relay will be frozen > forever. Of course, you can always keep an updated version of it on > one of your own pages, and I'll be happy to add a link to it. > > > Some of the issues are: > > * The language has no name yet. > > > > This is a very generic language, spoken in an alternate universe. > > From the standpoint of *here*, it's a mixture of features from > > different romance branches. So I don't know where it's spoken. > > I don't particularly like a name like "Generic", but it depends of > course on how much you'd like to mimic the real world. > > If that's the case, well, then I think you have the following > options: > > - a name based on ROMAN- or LATIN-: not the most attractive or > ambitious solution, I admit, but credible nonetheless; True -- that's what I did with Rubaga. > - a name based on a substrate (like Wenedyk < VENEDI); this might > not work in your case, because you don't seem to work with any > particular sub-, super- or adstrate; True. > - the name of the region; if you should decide to have it spoken in > Malta, for example, then you can simply call it "Maltese", or > "Alt-Maltese"; > - a description of the region; for example "Portugal" < PORTUS > CALUS. > This may be the best solution in your case. The problem is selecting a region or a description. > > |Saexón| sounds nice, but would be too confusing. > > Indeed. > > > |Izlar| would limit me to an island and |Granvallés| to a > > large valley. > > Personally I like Granvallés. Mind you, a valley can also be > located on an island, and how large large is is largely relative. Granvallés does sound the best (after Saexón). I thought of putting the large valley on a small island, but I forgot the mountains to put the valley in, causing the island to disappear. :) > > My *best* idea is |Scolar| (or |Escolar|), after the scholars in > > charge of orthography conversion when borrowing learned words. > > Hmm, not my favourite. Maybe not Scolar, but I'm leaning toward something deriving from schola, if only because it's one part of the extralinguistic circumstances I know something about. Scolés? Scolarés? I could claim later that this isn't the correct name (when I come up with one), but an epithet. > > * There are some sound changes I'd like to confirm first. > > Unlike French, Spanish, etc. one thing I want to do is keep the > > development of VL tj (tz, dz, zz) distinct from cj and fronted > > c (c[e], g[e], ss). I think at least some varieties of Italian > > do this? > > VL dj will still merge with gj (g[e], s), and fronted g with j. > > Yes? So, what do you need confirmation about? I like it. For the earliest sound changes I want to stick closely to common Romance. I suppose I'll have to commit to this since changing it would involve redoing the orthography completely. > > * I need to decide on a number of pronoun forms. > > Before I can tell you anything, could you please explain the > concepts "situational", "indefinite specific", etc.? I use "situational" to mean referring to a situation (represented by a clause), rather than an entity (represented by a phrase). "Indefinite": the speaker doesn't expect the addressee to know which referent is intended. "Specific": the speaker knows which referent is intended. > > Good, I'm going to present more problems in another email. And > > later, some preliminary texts. > > Yes please! :) I meant to write up something on verb problems before going to sleep but never got to it. That will be next. After breakfast. I thought up a piece of dialog, but haven't been able to write it down. That's unfortunately a low priority. Jeff > > Right now all I have is stuff like: "Pellos buens filhes de San > > Giosafad!" > > I read all your messages under the header "New Lang" today. I think > it is a very promising project, and I'd surely like to see more of > it. There's little I can comment about the phonology bit, except > this: if you use this language in the relay, and you have the > necessary equipment, then I'd love to hear it spoken as well. > > Generic as it may be, the look-'n'-feel of the language is clearly > Western Romance. At least, that's my impression based on what little > info I've seen. I would say, it's located on a place somewhere > between Portugal, France and Italy. > > Cheers, > Jan > > ===== > "If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping in a closed room with a mosquito." >