Search found 528 matches

by WeepingElf
19 Mar 2024 20:40
Forum: Conlangs
Topic: Arayaz's thread so that she doesn't flood the forum
Replies: 29
Views: 873

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...
by WeepingElf
15 Mar 2024 17:58
Forum: Conlangs
Topic: The Great Exposition of Ruykkarraber
Replies: 27
Views: 835

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...
by WeepingElf
14 Mar 2024 22:54
Forum: Conlangs
Topic: The Great Exposition of Ruykkarraber
Replies: 27
Views: 835

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...
by WeepingElf
14 Mar 2024 14:11
Forum: Conlangs
Topic: The Great Exposition of Ruykkarraber
Replies: 27
Views: 835

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,...
by WeepingElf
13 Mar 2024 19:36
Forum: Conlangs
Topic: The Great Exposition of Ruykkarraber
Replies: 27
Views: 835

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, ...
by WeepingElf
13 Mar 2024 16:04
Forum: Conlangs
Topic: The Great Exposition of Ruykkarraber
Replies: 27
Views: 835

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, ...
by WeepingElf
12 Mar 2024 17:09
Forum: Conlangs
Topic: The Great Exposition of Ruykkarraber
Replies: 27
Views: 835

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.
by WeepingElf
12 Mar 2024 14:33
Forum: Linguistics & Natlangs
Topic: would rescuing an endangered language have a similar effect to israeli hebrew?
Replies: 28
Views: 1275

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...
by WeepingElf
10 Mar 2024 17:32
Forum: Conworlds & Concultures
Topic: Fredauon Fun Facts
Replies: 99
Views: 5304

Re: Fredauon Fun Facts

There is a theory that the tradition of Dwarves in European folklore is rooted in just that kind of miners.
by WeepingElf
27 Feb 2024 14:20
Forum: Conlangs
Topic: (Conlangs) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here
Replies: 1678
Views: 347449

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.
by WeepingElf
27 Feb 2024 14:18
Forum: Conlangs
Topic: Project Stubby-Holder
Replies: 6
Views: 459

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.
by WeepingElf
25 Feb 2024 18:44
Forum: Conlangs
Topic: A note on the Voynich Manuscript
Replies: 5
Views: 356

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...
by WeepingElf
25 Feb 2024 13:54
Forum: Conlangs
Topic: A note on the Voynich Manuscript
Replies: 5
Views: 356

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...
by WeepingElf
25 Feb 2024 13:31
Forum: Conlangs
Topic: Project Stubby-Holder
Replies: 6
Views: 459

Re: Project Stubby-Holder

Fine - but where are the retroflexes?
by WeepingElf
24 Feb 2024 12:41
Forum: Linguistics & Natlangs
Topic: False friends and other unfortunate coincidences
Replies: 881
Views: 275178

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...
by WeepingElf
22 Feb 2024 22:51
Forum: Linguistics & Natlangs
Topic: False friends and other unfortunate coincidences
Replies: 881
Views: 275178

Re: False friends and other unfortunate coincidences

I still am sometimes confused by the Insular Celtic definite articles resembling Germanic and Romance indefinite ones:

:irl: an, :wls: yn etc. vs. :eng: a(n), :fra: un etc.
by WeepingElf
22 Feb 2024 17:20
Forum: Conlangs
Topic: Non-decimal number systems in conlangs
Replies: 18
Views: 857

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.
by WeepingElf
20 Feb 2024 18:12
Forum: Conlangs
Topic: How do your languages treat (in)definiteness?
Replies: 28
Views: 1177

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 ...
by WeepingElf
17 Feb 2024 14:11
Forum: Conworlds & Concultures
Topic: Does my take on Godzilla break the Law of the Conservation of Energy?
Replies: 12
Views: 661

Re: Does my take on Godzilla break the Law of the Conservation of Energy?

Arayaz wrote: 17 Feb 2024 03:48
WeepingElf wrote: 12 Feb 2024 21:15 And the LORD slaughters a host of catgirls...
what
There is a saying I have found several times on the Net: Each time real science is drawn into the discussion of a fantasy story, God kills a catgirl. Please be mindful of the catgirls.
by WeepingElf
14 Feb 2024 19:15
Forum: Linguistics & Natlangs
Topic: (L&N) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here
Replies: 1110
Views: 282405

Re: (L&N) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here

In the novel The Mote in God's Eye by Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven, there is a Church of Him.