Mm. Interesting. First line sounds latinate, but the rest of it sounds more Asian...
If you've done any browsing of my website away from the DW stuff, you'll know that I dabble in artificial languages, too, though I go about it in a
different way. After I settle on the grammar and the basic mechanics of word construction, I decide on the phonemes (and the distribution thereof) that match
the "feel" I want the language to have, and then write a program to generate words. After I have a sampling, I start looking for natural patterns
within the generated words and begin assigning those elements to grammatical roles. I also have several rules of thumb I use when assigning words to meanings
-- frequently-used words will be short, for instance. (Example: consider the difference in how Japanese and English use the word "I", and the
difference in syllables between the various Japanese equivalents and English's one.) And of late I've begun using Soundex algorithms to catch words
with similar pronunciations, which I then set up with common ancestries and similar (or related) meanings. Also consider cultural elements when assigning word
meanings. My Elven language has two very similar words -- one for "human", the other for "thief" -- because of the "historical"
relationship between humans and elves in that world.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
If you've done any browsing of my website away from the DW stuff, you'll know that I dabble in artificial languages, too, though I go about it in a
different way. After I settle on the grammar and the basic mechanics of word construction, I decide on the phonemes (and the distribution thereof) that match
the "feel" I want the language to have, and then write a program to generate words. After I have a sampling, I start looking for natural patterns
within the generated words and begin assigning those elements to grammatical roles. I also have several rules of thumb I use when assigning words to meanings
-- frequently-used words will be short, for instance. (Example: consider the difference in how Japanese and English use the word "I", and the
difference in syllables between the various Japanese equivalents and English's one.) And of late I've begun using Soundex algorithms to catch words
with similar pronunciations, which I then set up with common ancestries and similar (or related) meanings. Also consider cultural elements when assigning word
meanings. My Elven language has two very similar words -- one for "human", the other for "thief" -- because of the "historical"
relationship between humans and elves in that world.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.