The CBB

I love the concept behind Solresol: a language that can use music and colors to express sentences. However, I find the execution of Solresol to be lackluster. My biggest qualm are the syllables. I get they are based on music notes: do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, si, but I find that only seven of them is ...

I'm trying to construct a demonstrative system with a five-way contrast and I'm not sure what the five degrees should be. I know that Malagasy makes a distinction between visible and non-visible referents, but that's not quite the same as different degrees, you know? Anyone know of any languages tha...

Every once in a while I encounter a conlang that shatters my notions of what a conlang can be. This is one such example. I have yet to learn how to properly pronounce tones (being a monolingual American), so the whole system here and in Iau is a little mind blowing, but I love the clicks here and I ...

Creyeditor wrote: ↑14 Sep 2021 22:20 Why not call the form negative causative or causative negative?

I had seen the combination of the Imperative and the Negative being called the Prohibitive, so I wondered if there were other such named combined forms

Is there such a thing as a Preventative mood? I have a Negative prefix that can co-appear with the Causative suffix and would have the meaning "to cause not to be" or something like that. Would the combination of these two forms constitute a new mood? Takhi pi roranoratsu /'taxi pi rorano'...

(Maybe too Chinese?) It is quite Chinese, but the vowels are sufficiently different and the absence of the retroflex sibilants helps to make it feel a little different. Overall I like it, especially the possibility of /hw/, which is a favorite sequence of mine for whatever reason. I will say z for ...

Do implosives occur in consonant clusters? I find it hard to articulate

Creyeditor wrote: ↑22 Jul 2021 09:00 What about paper-like or curtain-like walls that are easy to repair?

Or perhaps gigantic yurts made from some sort of woven fiber or skins recovered from carcasses?

I'm trying to develop a tense system with four past tenses and two future tenses, but I have no idea how to go about generating those endings organically. How does such a system evolve in the real world? In at least one natlang the four past tenses are accomplished with a stem-alternation and an au...

I'm trying to develop a tense system with four past tenses and two future tenses, but I have no idea how to go about generating those endings organically. How does such a system evolve in the real world?

Really good stuff, Torco. I can really tell you thought through the details on this species to make a real complete picture with all the variation of human beings. I wonder what kind of foods these guys make. I imagined the Tembo as being master salad makers, with all kinds of different sauces and l...

Are there any documented languages with a syllabic ŋ? the cantonese surname https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ng_(name) also exists. they also have a syllabic /m/, and, though i havent looked, i imagine there's probably a syllabic /n/ too. I had heard of this surname before but I wasn't certain if it w...

Are there any documented languages with a syllabic ŋ?

I read about Estonian syllable length and stressing and am quite fascinated. I must make a lang that utilizes length as a marker of morphological forms. I think I cannot stuck it to any of my old langs. But I leave this as a note to myself. Do you also plan on including three degrees of distinguish...

The Babel Text Ay lĩ muy ĩ piitë lëyint’ë ĩ niigëwt’ë mëtayt’ë. Taa ngananmũ suynũ wũgant’ë, am nu angĩtë Shinayzngit’un ĩ am shatë p’ënt’um. Am niik’um ngamp’igan ngananmũgan, “Khim, wam ĩgan mũ nganzhimaatë ĩ wam ĩgan ant’ë khi t’imazmũ mayum.” Am k’um jimaatë kan lun ĩ litiñuutë tiñumaa lun. K’ũ...

Irregularities Words that end in a nasal will have that nasal assimilate to the following consonant when suffixed Words that once began with /ŋ/ will have that /ŋ/ reappear when prefixed. Some words that begin with /x/ will have that /x/ become /ʔ/ when prefixed with a prefix that ends in a vowel a...

*tsitǽ.ɑ-k => tsitǽ.ɑ́ʔ 'was a boy for a while' (whatever that means) This made me laugh when I read it, but it also made me think of the potential for the con culture to have non-Western ideas about gender and sex. And trans people exist, of course Actually, it is any limited time. 'He was a boy w...

I'm torn regarding no dwellings for elephants, tbh. on the one hand, sure, they're large and strong, but I mean... they do get sunburns (though mud helps) and probably are as discomforted by cold, wind and ambient noise as anyone else. chimps, after all, also sleep outside, and even our nomads carr...

Syntax Word order in Shëyzngaa is Subject-Verb-Object in most clauses and Subject-Object-Verb when the object of the sentence is a pronoun, with adjectives that precede nouns, possessors that precede possessees, auxiliaries that follow lexical verbs and postpositions. Uy luy uyë watë ënuyt'ë /uj lu...

Three very different, but all highly fertile areas! Africa has no problem with agricultural production: most of Africa, even wildly under-utilised as it is, is able to provide more than enough food for the entire population of 21st century Africa - hundreds of times more people than in early agricu...