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--- In romconlang@yahoogroups.com, "Christian Thalmann" <cinga@g...> wrote: > --- In romconlang@yahoogroups.com, "rodlox" <rodlox@h...> wrote: > > > > > anybody have any thoughts about it? (it's in > > > > the Files section). > > Dude, you just took an arbitrary slice out of an > online dictionary, with very inaccurate glosses > (which isn't your fault, strictly speaking... but > still, a tool misused is not necessarily a bad > tool) and had the computer make one or two automatic > letter subsitutions. I'm all for supporting new and > inexperienced conlangers, but that's just lazy. > > Your "unnamed conlang" as posted on the conlang list > is already a lot more original. Less automation, > more manual work, that's the way. Takes a lot more > time, granted, but at least you'll end up with an > artwork of your own, rather than grafitti scrawled > over someone else's paintings. > > > As far as that word list goes: It seems to me that > the English glosses are words that *appear* in the > full explanation of a Latin word, rather than being > *the* translation. For example, you have "abide" as > the translation of *29* different Latin words! > Doesn't that seem strange to you? Especially since > very basic words like STO, primarily meaning "to > stand", are also translated as "abide". > > Hope that helps. You clearly favor palatalization, which is a good starting point. [k] > [x] and [g] > [d_Z], however, can't exist as simultaneous diachronic processes. [k] > [x] and [g] > [G] or [0], or [k] > [t_S] and [g] to [d_Z] are possibilities. If you wish to use both, you need to construct a scenario in which one Romance-speaking group is dominant linguistically over another. Once you know which is the dominant language, you have to think what sort of words each would contribute. In samoe cases, you get doublets by this method, while favoring one or the other. Remember to set out the conditions under which the changes occur - initial consonant only, before a front vowel, between two vowels of the same type ([ara] > [aa] > [a]), etc.. The semantic differences (herding vs. farming, for example, or farming vs. fishing, or farming vs. mercantile) between the two sets of words could offset the conservativism of the dialect. You seem to favor dropping final vowels. This, too, is a good start. Consider the variant forms that this, combined with palatalization, produces in declensions and conjugations - and make sure you have a reference for the two. About length: you are certainly free to declare that the length distinction was lost in this conlang; but then you must observe how the stress patterns of Latin fall, so that at the very least you know from what you are changing them. Latin stress is very simple for the most part. A word is stressed on the penultimate syllable if that syllable is long. It is stressed on the antepenultimate if the penultimate syllable is short.If you add -que to the word, -que is treated as an integral syllable of that word for the purposes of reckoning stress. > > > > -- Christian Thalmann