Conlang mini-ideas

[mira]

Think I might bring back this thread as there's so much interesting stuff on it.

I had an idea to make a vocabulary set based purely on the combinations from the Doodle God series of games... A most novel idea, but I'm not doubting it. One would need a way to derive verbs/adjectives though.

I also had an idea for a CV language with only one vowel. It would be like the Judoon from Doctor Who.

[Sglod]

I started to make a phonetically reversed version of English a couple of years ago.

For example:

language > [ʒdɪʊ̯gˈŋal] <
computer > [ətˈʉ̯ɵɪ̯ʰpməʰk]

The syntax is also reversed:

[ni̯ɪʊ̯˞g zɪ ʊ̯˞əˈlɜʰk ʔəʊ̯˞ˈvɪ̯ɛf ɪ̯ɑm]
green is colour favourite my

[Iyionaku]

I would love to combine two of my favourite hobbies. Playing Nintendo and Conlanging. Likely the Hylian Language from the Legend of Zelda exists but sadly only fragments of the language can be found. Not only do I want to contribute to the Hylian Language I also have wanted for a long time wanted to make a language for the Mushroom Kingdom of Super Mario that's related to Hylian.

As the history of the Legend of Zelda is about 1500 years, you could even do some language evolution. And you could experiment in how the different timelines might change the languages, resulting in a stronger Gerudo influence in one, but splitting in many small dialects in another (due to the land flooding and existence of only small islands)... so you could have sister languages from different timelines...

Ooooh, that sounds so fun I might even do it on my own if you don't

[Frislander]

An idea for a pronominal system: SAPs are split not into 1st and 2nd person, but into humble, neutral/polite and respectful. Speakers would the ranks based on relative social status, with the following caveats:

• Speakers of equal status (close friends) assign ranks reciprocally: the speaker takes the polite/neutral and the listener is given the respectful.
• Parents speaking to children: parents = neutral, children = humble.
• Common people speaking to officials/bureaucrats: commoners = neutral/humble, officials = respectful.

However, the most respectful thing to do is to use a vocative noun with third-person morphology. Actually "vocative" is not really the right word, as the word in this form can fill any role in the sentence. This is used when referring to the king or a deity/deities. In these instances, most people use the humble forms: officials/nobles will only use the neutral forms when commoners are not present.

[k1234567890y]

An idea for a pronominal system: SAPs are split not into 1st and 2nd person, but into humble, neutral/polite and respectful. Speakers would the ranks based on relative social status, with the following caveats:

• Speakers of equal status (close friends) assign ranks reciprocally: the speaker takes the polite/neutral and the listener is given the respectful.
• Parents speaking to children: parents = neutral, children = humble.
• Common people speaking to officials/bureaucrats: commoners = neutral/humble, officials = respectful.

However, the most respectful thing to do is to use a vocative noun with third-person morphology. Actually "vocative" is not really the right word, as the word in this form can fill any role in the sentence. This is used when referring to the king or a deity/deities. In these instances, most people use the humble forms: officials/nobles will only use the neutral forms when commoners are not present.

sounds nice (:

I heard that some languages in Southeastern Asia have a similar system, are you inspired by them? (:

I would love to combine two of my favourite hobbies. Playing Nintendo and Conlanging. Likely the Hylian Language from the Legend of Zelda exists but sadly only fragments of the language can be found. Not only do I want to contribute to the Hylian Language I also have wanted for a long time wanted to make a language for the Mushroom Kingdom of Super Mario that's related to Hylian.

As the history of the Legend of Zelda is about 1500 years, you could even do some language evolution. And you could experiment in how the different timelines might change the languages, resulting in a stronger Gerudo influence in one, but splitting in many small dialects in another (due to the land flooding and existence of only small islands)... so you could have sister languages from different timelines...

Ooooh, that sounds so fun I might even do it on my own if you don't

I have ever made a doujin lang for Kirby Star series and incorporated triplication of monosyllabic words as a way to form personal names...although I have stopped working on it as of now...

[Frislander]

An idea for a pronominal system: SAPs are split not into 1st and 2nd person, but into humble, neutral/polite and respectful. Speakers would the ranks based on relative social status, with the following caveats:

• Speakers of equal status (close friends) assign ranks reciprocally: the speaker takes the polite/neutral and the listener is given the respectful.
• Parents speaking to children: parents = neutral, children = humble.
• Common people speaking to officials/bureaucrats: commoners = neutral/humble, officials = respectful.

However, the most respectful thing to do is to use a vocative noun with third-person morphology. Actually "vocative" is not really the right word, as the word in this form can fill any role in the sentence. This is used when referring to the king or a deity/deities. In these instances, most people use the humble forms: officials/nobles will only use the neutral forms when commoners are not present.

sounds nice (:

I heard that some languages in Southeastern Asia have a similar system, are you inspired by them? (:

Maybe such a language exists, but I was mostly taking my hints from Zompist's Dhekhnami and Munkhâshi, the main difference being that third persons aren't assigned ranks in this system.

[Creyeditor]

An idea for a pronominal system: SAPs are split not into 1st and 2nd person, but into humble, neutral/polite and respectful. Speakers would the ranks based on relative social status, with the following caveats:

• Speakers of equal status (close friends) assign ranks reciprocally: the speaker takes the polite/neutral and the listener is given the respectful.
• Parents speaking to children: parents = neutral, children = humble.
• Common people speaking to officials/bureaucrats: commoners = neutral/humble, officials = respectful.

However, the most respectful thing to do is to use a vocative noun with third-person morphology. Actually "vocative" is not really the right word, as the word in this form can fill any role in the sentence. This is used when referring to the king or a deity/deities. In these instances, most people use the humble forms: officials/nobles will only use the neutral forms when commoners are not present.

This is similar to the Indonesian system, where oftentimes people are referred to by kinship terms. These nouns used as pronouns are sometimes called imposters. This is dependent on social ranks, but also on relative social age. Between friends you use kakak and adek (older sibling and small sibling) dependet on age. When the age difference is one generation or more or you don't know the people, you use bapak and ibu (father and mother), somrtimes also om and tante (uncle and aunt). These words are often shortened though.

[zyma]

An up-to-date version of my list of a posteriori conlang ideas:

• A descendant of Etruscan spoken in the Balearic Islands.
• A descendant of Gothic spoken in Italy.
• A descendant of Old English spoken in northeast North America.
• A descendant of Aeolic Greek spoken in Central Macedonia.
• A South Germanic language spoken in northern Italy.
• A Northeast Germanic language spoken in Kaliningrad.
• A North Semitic language spoken in Russia.
• An Indo-European language spoken in the Carpathian Mountains.
• A Sami language spoken on Svalbard.
• A Romance language spoken along the Rhine.

I have many other potential ideas, but I'd consider these my most well-developed ones, if only because these have at least a language family and a location.

[Ahzoh]

a language with Slavic phonology but with clicks and Non-Indo-European grammar.

[Adarain]

A Romance language spoken along the Rhine.

The non-engadine dialects of romansh are spoken along 5he Rhine (unless you don't count the anterior and posterior rhine as "rhine" yet, in which case only the dialect of Domat/Ems is spoken on the Rhine). [/pedantry]

I've always kinda wanted to try making a Germanic language that somehow ended up in Sub-Saharan africa, but I don't really know how to justify the premise, the Atlantic is quite a different beast from the European seas.

[clawgrip]

a Germanic language that somehow ended up in Sub-Saharan africa

Afrikaans too modern?

[DesEsseintes]

Three very silly ideas:

1. A monosyllabic, isolating language with Oneida phonology and phonotactics.
2. Diachronically deriving an isolating tonal language with largely mono- and disyllabic words from an Iroquoian language. (But unlike idea 1, the new language would have a very different phonology.)
3. A wholly unnaturalistic language with only clicks, fricatives/approximants and vowels. Oh and glottal stops of course.

[Adarain]

a Germanic language that somehow ended up in Sub-Saharan africa

Afrikaans too modern?

Yea, I meant descended from perhaps some variety of Old Norse and separated from the other Germanics for a long time before globalization. Basically "what if the Vikings went to Africa instead of America"

[elemtilas]

3. A wholly unnaturalistic language with only clicks, fricatives/approximants and vowels. Oh and glottal stops of course.

Can't find a video clip of it, but it does remind me of the clicky-squeaky-sign-language that Pseudolus and Gymnasia use to talk to each other in Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (the original movie). I don't even think this one had vowels.

[Lao Kou]

One wishes tones were as hep as clicks.

[Ælfwine]

a Germanic language that somehow ended up in Sub-Saharan africa

Afrikaans too modern?

Yea, I meant descended from perhaps some variety of Old Norse and separated from the other Germanics for a long time before globalization. Basically "what if the Vikings went to Africa instead of America"

Perhaps if they crashed into Cape Verde before the Portuguese (!?)

[DesEsseintes]

One wishes tones were as hep as clicks.

Have you attempted an a priori tonal language, brother Kou?

[Lao Kou]

One wishes tones were as hep as clicks.

Have you attempted an a priori tonal language, brother Kou?

I did have a dalliance in the late 90's with a lang called Ö Sang ("Green Speech") (seven tones). It was my red convertible, mid-life crisis, front-rounded tonal conlang. And then you realize that Géarthnuns is your one and only. I simply can't bring myself to bang 'em out. Even Japoné語, a little lovechild, is like passing a kidney stone.

[zyma]

A Romance language spoken along the Rhine.

The non-engadine dialects of romansh are spoken along 5he Rhine (unless you don't count the anterior and posterior rhine as "rhine" yet, in which case only the dialect of Domat/Ems is spoken on the Rhine). [/pedantry]

Ah, sorry, I definitely wasn't specific enough. Likely because I've never studied European geography or spent more than three weeks at a time in Europe, when I think of "the Rhine" I tend to just think of the stretch between Cologne and Mainz, approximately, because that's the area where I happened to have stayed once.

The Romance language I had in mind would be spoken around that part of what is Germany in our world, and might have some connection to the historical Moselle Romance.

[Adarain]

Fair enough. There was a talk on LCC6 about romlangs and the guy who presented it showed his own romlang which was set somewhere in, afaik, Swabia. It was a pretty good presentation and the entire event is on youtube, might wanna track it down.