Search found 530 matches
- 11 Apr 2024 17:13
- Forum: Conlangs
- Topic: Commonthroat: a language that only a dog could probably pronounce
- Replies: 92
- Views: 26516
Re: Thinking machine
Yinrih long ago abandoned the idea of cybernetics in favor of wearable tech. There are just too many risks associated with body modification to justify it except where a severe disability is being corrected, and even then it's considered a last resort. The biggest risk is obsolescence, planned or o...
- 09 Apr 2024 15:36
- Forum: Conworlds & Concultures
- Topic: The Lonely Galaxy Megathread (comments encouraged)
- Replies: 264
- Views: 32471
Re: The Lonely Galaxy Megathread (comments encouraged)
Wouldn't the ring render space travel difficult? Our concerns about space debris seem puny in comparison.
- 19 Mar 2024 20:40
- Forum: Conlangs
- Topic: Arayaz's thread so that she doesn't flood the forum
- Replies: 48
- Views: 2751
Re: Arayaz's thread so that she doesn't flood the forum
I want to attempt another a posteriori diachronic language, after the failures of Techomonic and Goidheug. I'm not quite sure exactly what I'll do, though. I know that I want to go off of something that's well-reconstructed. I'm definitely not going to work from Proto-Indo-European (we know how wel...
- 15 Mar 2024 17:58
- Forum: Conlangs
- Topic: The Great Exposition of Ruykkarraber
- Replies: 32
- Views: 1896
Re: The Great Exposition of Ruykkarraber
This looks quite interesting; I always have a soft spot for languages with /p/ as a gap (as opposed to /g/ or other common stops.) What's the deal with these nominalized verbs? --------- On the Mark Rosenfelder stuff, I'm always appreciative of his work. Verdurian may be a Euroclone, but it's a sel...
- 14 Mar 2024 22:54
- Forum: Conlangs
- Topic: The Great Exposition of Ruykkarraber
- Replies: 32
- Views: 1896
Re: The Great Exposition of Ruykkarraber
I'd say the conversation was more as follows, though: Mark Rosenfelder misused several terms regarding ergativity when he wrote his Old Skourene grammar and some other resources, and that misuse misinformed future conlangers, including Arayaz. Also, his conlangs are overrated and mediocre, Verduria...
- 14 Mar 2024 14:11
- Forum: Conlangs
- Topic: The Great Exposition of Ruykkarraber
- Replies: 32
- Views: 1896
Re: The Great Exposition of Ruykkarraber
To be fair, one has to consider two things. 1. Almea started as a setting for a Dungeons & Dragons game when Mark Rosenfelder was in high school. This shows in a number of points, you can even recognize the D&D playable races: elcari are essentially Dwarves, flaids are essentially Halflings,...
- 13 Mar 2024 19:36
- Forum: Conlangs
- Topic: The Great Exposition of Ruykkarraber
- Replies: 32
- Views: 1896
Re: The Great Exposition of Ruykkarraber
Please don't use the word "experiencer" for 'intransitive subject'. It's WRONG . Rather, "experiencer" is a semantic role that may or may not be an intransitive subject. Many, in fact, most intransitive subjects aren't experiencers. [:x] [:$] [>_<] Thank you; I've looked it up, ...
- 13 Mar 2024 16:04
- Forum: Conlangs
- Topic: The Great Exposition of Ruykkarraber
- Replies: 32
- Views: 1896
Re: The Great Exposition of Ruykkarraber
Please don't use the word "experiencer" for 'intransitive subject'. It's WRONG . Rather, "experiencer" is a semantic role that may or may not be an intransitive subject. Many, in fact, most intransitive subjects aren't experiencers. [:x] [:$] [>_<] Thank you; I've looked it up, ...
- 12 Mar 2024 17:09
- Forum: Conlangs
- Topic: The Great Exposition of Ruykkarraber
- Replies: 32
- Views: 1896
Re: The Great Exposition of Ruykkarraber
Please don't use the word "experiencer" for 'intransitive subject'. It's WRONG. Rather, "experiencer" is a semantic role that may or may not be an intransitive subject. Many, in fact, most intransitive subjects aren't experiencers.
- 12 Mar 2024 14:33
- Forum: Linguistics & Natlangs
- Topic: would rescuing an endangered language have a similar effect to israeli hebrew?
- Replies: 28
- Views: 2015
Re: would rescuing an endangered language have a similar effect to israeli hebrew?
I don't have much to contribute here, but as it happens, I have just finished reading Michael Adams (ed.), From Elvish to Klingon , which is mostly of course about conlangs, but also contains a chapter about language revitalization which addresses just the issues discussed here, such as the question...
- 10 Mar 2024 17:32
- Forum: Conworlds & Concultures
- Topic: Fredauon Fun Facts
- Replies: 107
- Views: 9553
Re: Fredauon Fun Facts
There is a theory that the tradition of Dwarves in European folklore is rooted in just that kind of miners.
- 27 Feb 2024 14:20
- Forum: Conlangs
- Topic: (Conlangs) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here
- Replies: 1732
- Views: 360887
Re: (Conlangs) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here
Yes. Some Uralic languages (such as Nents, Nganasan, Khanty and Mansi) show object agreement only in number, while subject agreement is, as in all Uralic languages, in person and number. There is no gender in these languages.
- 27 Feb 2024 14:18
- Forum: Conlangs
- Topic: Project Stubby-Holder
- Replies: 6
- Views: 566
Re: Project Stubby-Holder
Oh, I thought retroflexes were typical of Australian languages, and that there were hardly any without them. But hey, I am not an Australianist, and know only little about those languages.
- 25 Feb 2024 18:44
- Forum: Conlangs
- Topic: A note on the Voynich Manuscript
- Replies: 5
- Views: 386
Re: A note on the Voynich Manuscript
Yes, I am of course not the first to conjecture a conlang. That makes more sense than the assumption that it is encrypted Latin (or whatever known language), given how puerile the ciphers of those times were - it would probably have been broken long ago. Yet, I wouldn't expect a particularly sophist...
- 25 Feb 2024 13:54
- Forum: Conlangs
- Topic: A note on the Voynich Manuscript
- Replies: 5
- Views: 386
A note on the Voynich Manuscript
I have spent some thoughts on the Voynich Manuscript (VMS) which I wish to share with you. I think I need not tell you what the VMS is, should you have not heard of it yet, see Wikipedia . Nobody has managed to decipher it yet. The many illustrations in the VMS give a hint at the content matter, whi...
- 25 Feb 2024 13:31
- Forum: Conlangs
- Topic: Project Stubby-Holder
- Replies: 6
- Views: 566
Re: Project Stubby-Holder
Fine - but where are the retroflexes?
- 24 Feb 2024 12:41
- Forum: Linguistics & Natlangs
- Topic: False friends and other unfortunate coincidences
- Replies: 883
- Views: 279248
Re: False friends and other unfortunate coincidences
The Celtic definite articles are not cognate to the Romance and Germanic indefinite ones. The Romance and Germanic indefinite articles are from the numeral 'one', which is cognate between the two groups, ultimately from PIE *oinos . The Celtic definite articles are from a Proto-Celtic form *sindos o...
- 22 Feb 2024 22:51
- Forum: Linguistics & Natlangs
- Topic: False friends and other unfortunate coincidences
- Replies: 883
- Views: 279248
Re: False friends and other unfortunate coincidences
I still am sometimes confused by the Insular Celtic definite articles resembling Germanic and Romance indefinite ones:
an, yn etc. vs. a(n), un etc.
an, yn etc. vs. a(n), un etc.
- 22 Feb 2024 17:20
- Forum: Conlangs
- Topic: Non-decimal number systems in conlangs
- Replies: 18
- Views: 1048
Re: Non-decimal number systems in conlangs
I plan to have a base-12 system in Old Albic (based on the thumb against the segments of the other four fingers mode of counting), but I am not sure yet because I don't know how much sense that makes in an Indo-European language of Bronze Age Britain.
- 20 Feb 2024 18:12
- Forum: Conlangs
- Topic: How do your languages treat (in)definiteness?
- Replies: 28
- Views: 1518
Re: How do your languages treat (in)definiteness?
The indefinite article indicates number, but the definite article does not, and it's not morphologically indicated on the noun either. This feels wrong to me. Definite NPs are more likely to have number distinctions than indefinite ones. There is not much difference in meaning between 'An elephant ...