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Finally... => Creative Projects => Topic started by: Ehndras on November 02, 2017, 10:20:28 pm

Title: Linguistics, Grammar, Stylistics (Modern, Ancient, & Constructed Languages)
Post by: Ehndras on November 02, 2017, 10:20:28 pm
Any fans of linguistics and/or constructed languages here? Been studying Old Norse, Sumerian, and Arabic most recently.

I'd love to learn about and discuss whatever languages you speak or are interested in - be they Klingon or German. :) We can add to the thread as we go, making it easy for newcomers to read/hear/study what we discuss! Constructed languages are fare-game too. (Designed a few of my own over the years, and still do.)

(Personal Language History: Fluent in English and Portuguese (formal & informal); moderately fluent in Spanish (low-formal, mid-conversational); understand (barely speak; mostly read) varying levels of Latin/French/Italian/German/Norse; very slowly learning bits of Dutch, Russian, Arabic. Other languages are for research purposes only, such as Sumerian.)

Randomness you may enjoy:

Spoiler: Assorted Sumerian Terms (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Old Norse - Essentials, Combat, Cheers, Curses (click to show/hide)
Title: Re: Linguistics, Grammar, Stylistics (Modern, Ancient, & Constructed Languages)
Post by: Ehndras on November 02, 2017, 10:20:44 pm
Spoiler: (History of) Writing by by R. A. Guisepi - The International History Project, 1999 (click to show/hide)
Title: Re: Linguistics, Grammar, Stylistics (Modern, Ancient, & Constructed Languages)
Post by: Ehndras on November 02, 2017, 10:21:10 pm
<Reserved>
Title: Re: Linguistics, Grammar, Stylistics (Modern, Ancient, & Constructed Languages)
Post by: Loam on November 05, 2017, 01:01:25 pm
My main language experience (aside from English) comes from Latin, which I took ~6 years of in high school/college. I also took two years of Russian in college, to the point that I could probably read/write well enough with the help of a dictionary (my vocabulary is очень плохо) -- don't ask me to speak it, though, and definitely not to understand it. Apart from that I have some cursory knowledge of other languages here-and-there: bought a book about an extinct Native American language (Timucuan) on a whim, which I glance at now and then; and of course whatever I can pick up from Wikipedia.

I'd like to learn more languages, but I'm not entirely sure where to begin. Also the need isn't very pressing, and my travel options are quite limited at the moment, so there's no incentive other than personal interest--which unfortunately isn't usually enough to get me to do something.

As for constructed languages: Tolkien's were what really got me into linguistics. I took a look at Quenya in particular, though I didn't study it in-depth (I do remember the writing system pretty well though). For anyone interested, the site Ardalambion (https://folk.uib.no/hnohf/) is definitely the place to begin, as it contains pretty much all info and documentation there is on Tolkien's languages.
Title: Re: Linguistics, Grammar, Stylistics (Modern, Ancient, & Constructed Languages)
Post by: Ehndras on November 06, 2017, 06:31:47 am
Very nice! I'll be sure to poke around that site.

Since your strength seems to lie in Latin, why not learn the Romance languages?
Title: Re: Linguistics, Grammar, Stylistics (Modern, Ancient, & Constructed Languages)
Post by: Loam on November 10, 2017, 07:26:06 pm
I've been thinking about French and Spanish; they seem like they wouldn't be too hard to pick up, being as you say fairly close to a language I'm familiar with.

I've been working on a language for a world-building project of mine: a proto-language, from which I will eventually derive the extant languages of the world. Mostly inspired by PIE (because the extant languages are meant to resemble different Indo-European languages), but with some other systems mixed in: I'm thinking it will be partly polysynthetic in nature, with many morphemes tacked together to form phrase-long "words."

A tonal element would also be present - instead of absolute tones, however, these would be relative to the tone of the previous syllable. So for instance, say an utterance begins on C; if the next syllable rises in pitch - to mark a genitive, maybe - the tone rises to D, where it remains until it rises again or falls. It's hard to explain without an example, but the effect I'm hoping for is that the entire spoken language sounds like singing or chanting. I don't know of any real-world languages that work like this, so I'm not sure how realistic it is, but that's not really the point.

It's early days yet though. I might try posting some progress here if I make any. My interest in "conlang-ing" waxes and wanes.
Title: Re: Linguistics, Grammar, Stylistics (Modern, Ancient, & Constructed Languages)
Post by: Ehndras on November 11, 2017, 02:35:59 pm
OooOOooh. I like! Would you be willing to record yourself/someone speaking a phrase or some such? Vocalization is a big part of a reader's ability to comprehend conlang, or any language really. I've noticed that once I started recording my attempts, it led to a more robust, dynamic, and intelligible lexicon. Plus, it can be REALLY fun!