Wednesday, August 28, 2013

So, this language -- which is no longer pfft but whose new name is in flux -- has brewed on over the years unexposed.  But it now has a handful of words and a program.  The program is to write and deliver a brief description (15 minutes tops) of the language in the language and "film" the presentation with an overprint of the text and translation, then write up the text with additional comments about the internal structure and also the process of creation.  Right now, the first three sentences are tentatively done.

The fiction is that a retired academic is delivering the lecture to explain the development that led to vowellessness and the moves to maintain it.  But, to do so, he must say a bit about the structure of the three languages that feed into this final project and what gets borrowed/ devolves from each.  So background languages with a kitchen sink of features and a naturalistic development to something feasible.  There is also an inherited spelling system which develops along with the various parent languages and continues though being replaced by a more scientific one.  The old spelling helps to explain some phonological developments, since it show earlier forms with intact vowels to work their phonetic magic.  The new system shows the latest results.

What exists so far:

tcc
Taisio 
greetings
[ba taixo]

pccn djjm fnn fllstmmts mm
Poinktsianen giamen fini filostaemits mimen
I am Porquier, an emeritus member of the Academy.
[Pig seller family(subj) member (perf asp) sage tribe (partitive) I
Poink testu (cf tetestu  thht "merchant"). Ian (family, cf staem, stmm, tribe, group generally, vasle vssl  nation gr). Filo(sofo) sage staem "tribe, organization", its partitive [en],  mim I, me -(e)n lost after final nasals.  Family full form ghian qnn
cf Pfft wedding , marriage pepod redup for importance of pod sale, barter see also redup on member for officer, again for president of academy, tribes generally: gegiamen gjjm Councilors and qqdjjm Officers'
Djjm giama,  member [lb djime]. Fnn – fini perfective aspect [lat]

Xhhnsk drr knnh drr mmf  bwwn hnn

Chothanisk der quonute der mimou .borinen iten
This is a lecture about my language , Chothanisk.
[Chothanisk about language about my possessive lecture subj this subj
Chothanisk Chotan a place name + -isk generic adj former [gr khthon] knnh [back to front of tongue, so the whole thing, hence also language] der dative of reference sorta [la de re] f/v –ou partitive genitve en [gr]] borin lecture [en duh!] hh ite this near point

What is missing here is the information that /c/ is esh,  /h/ is theta,  /j/ is ezh, /q/ is gamma, /r/ is retroflex r, /w/ is trill r, /x/ is chi and /y/ is edth.  double letters are syllabic peaks (the alternative of using a dummy vowel here was rejected for aesthetic reasons).

The first line in each case is the phonetic version, the second the old spelling, the thrid the English.  The rest is commentary, still somewhat higgledy-piggledy.