The Conlang Coven

This is for conlangers making languages, but can also be for discussing and criticizing other conlangs.

Conlang away!

Here's the phoneme inventory for the proto-lang I'm working on:

The most interesting part I think is the ATR distinction in the vowels. I plan to simplify it in the daughter languages, but in different ways and with different effects on the consonants.

No fricatives? Not even /s/? That's pretty interesting.

But then again, Hawaiian.

Yep, no fricatives. They'll show up later through spirantization in individual languages.

In my language, there was a sound change that led to some forms of /p/ becoming /f/. Later, the voiceless stops became occasionally voiced before splitting off into their own phonemes, and another where /s/ became palatalized next to /j/. Now another sound change is going on where /f/, /s/, and /ʃ/ occasionally become /v/, /z/, and /ʒ/ between vowels and voiced consonants. Whether this will lead to a split or not is beyond me.

It would make sense for past tenses of future, abilitative, and obilgative auxiliaries (like "will," "can/may," and "shall/must") to become conditionals (like "would," "could," and "should), right? Because that's what happens with auxiliaries in my language (Alfeme, for the record).

Yeah... pretty much...

Edited by TheWhistleTropes on Aug 27th 2020 at 3:30:42 PM

Isn't that what happened in English? If not, I still think it makes sense.

What would you say are some quirks your language has, at least so far?

Well, there's a gender system, but it's not based on sex. Instead, it's based on animacy. Adjectives of animate nouns and verbs with animate subjects take the suffix -ka, but inanimate ones take -nda. These suffixes can also derive new nouns from old ones of the opposite "gender".

There's also noun incorporation, so direct objects get directly compounded onto verbs, and any indirect object then becomes the new direct object and takes the accusative case.

That is actually somewhat similar to mine. For example, the trees ("cafil") are inanimate, while people and animals (like "alfa"—dragon—and "isma"—spider-snake) are animate.

However, there are some anomalies. For example, while the stars are inanimate, the moon, sun, and planets are animate. This is because their moon has a tail from the ice being blown off by the sun, and how both visibly affect its tides (whose highs and lows can vary by up to 44 meters). Mythologically, this is the everlasting between two sibling gods over control of the water (the planet is a water-world).

In Navajo, lightning is animate. So anything can be animate.

...Are there any other tropers who conlang?

How would you have fixed Esperanto?

I have one or two conlangs, but haven't worked on them for awhile.

My main project is inspired mainly by Swahili (in its phonology) and Navajo (similar syntax and grammar).

I think my next project will take influences from Malay and Filipino languages.

Welcome to the Coven! What's it called?

So apparently I made an Esperanto translation of the Esperanto page.

Edited by TheWhistleTropes on Aug 28th 2020 at 4:05:22 AM

I don't really have a name for it, yet, but I'm leaning towards Pekaw.

Sounds like a nice name.

I thought in my language that there are nominative, accusative, dative, and genitive cases, but dative is only being used in formal speech. The formal second-person pronouns (are also falling somewhat into disuse, though they are still used commonly to refer to Maci (the moon), the sun, and the Fis—the divine king of the island. Even his children refer to him by formal pronouns.

Recently, people have taken to using the informal second-person pronoun when talking to the Fis. This is especially true with those who supported what Fis Poleca had did before the Lelfe overthrew him.

What do you think of Thandian?

I found a way to imply activity, passivity, and causality without adding a new verb ending—it uses noun case.

Nominative = active. "Lu pade" = I see
Accusative = passive. "Lola pade" = I am seen (lit. Me see)
Genitive = causative. "Ling pade" = I show (lit. My see)
Dative = casuative passive. "Lem pade" = I am shown (lit. Me-DAT see)

Edited by TheWhistleTropes on Sep 1st 2020 at 5:06:13 AM

Bump.

Why do so many interlangs have /eu/ as a diphthong?

Not sure. I don't think it's super common.

Exactly the reason it's so strange! I mean, I guess Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese have /eu/, but aside from that it's a really rare diphthong!

Exactly the more reason to insert it into a fictional language.

I just started on a new conlang. Currently unnamed.

It's got a more complex syllable structure this time around, with CCVC. Okay, it's not that complex, but almost all of my previous projects are CVC at the most.

While I didn't consciously base it on any natlang in particular, it's starting to look and sound somewhat like Spanish or Greek.

Mine sounds kind of like a bizarre fusion between Japanese, Chinese, Arabic, and Portuguese.