Conlang Books Google Group

Discussion on links

piman...@gmail.com (Sally Caves) — Sun, 10 Dec 2006 20:26:17 UT

Sai, are these projects still being considered? In reading the
Encyclopedia for Fictional and Fantastic Languages, newly published, it
seems that we should make a go of ASP, at least, since the authors of
EFFL have made a call for a "sociological consideration" of CONLANG.
Besides, I think Greenwood Press could be a venue. Also, Edwin Mellen.

Re: [CLBP] Re: ASP: Sapir Whorf

sai...@gmail.com (Sai Emrys) — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 18:16:00 UT

Let me just say that I cannot now, as far as I know... but that, if
Chiang is correct, I would not tell you if I could... ;-)
(As a minor quibble: *some* of the strokes appear to be involved in
multiple [perhaps all] parts of the sentence-symbol. But not all in
all.)
One could ask whether Arabic calligraphers experience any such shift -

Re: ASP: Sapir Whorf

ar...@bgu.ac.il (Arik) — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 15:39:21 UT

Yes, "of course" is appropriate - it's a great resource.
Unfortunately, this book is more than a quarter century old now, so it
misses out on much interesting SF, as well as on more recent linguistic
theory. Also, it has a very specific take on many issues which, while
legitimate, is not the only possible one.

Re: [CLBP] Re: ART: Previous messages

sai...@gmail.com (Sai Emrys) — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 20:53:13 UT

No, just low traffic at the moment.
- Sai

Re: ART: Previous messages

threewordsthewi...@gmail.com — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 09:54:12 UT

Has this project - or at least this part - been abandoned?

Re: ASP: Sapir Whorf

piman...@gmail.com (Sally Caves) — Sun, 12 Nov 2006 05:29:34 UT

Hello, Arik! Did you (of course) use Walter Meyer's wonderful book
_Aliens and Linguists_ in your class?
Sally

Re: [CLBP] ASP: Sapir Whorf

sai...@gmail.com (Sai Emrys) — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 19:55:28 UT

Arik -
Glad to see you here. :-)
Could you elaborate on this - e.g. a sketch of an outline, topics or
examples you'd want to cover?
- Sai

ASP: Sapir Whorf

ar...@bgu.ac.il (Arik) — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 19:38:33 UT

Hi all,
My name is Arik Cohen, and I am a semanticist from Ben-Gurion
University, Israel. I heard about this project, and am fascinated.
I have never tried to design a language myself, but I have just
taught an introductory course on "linguistics through science fiction".
This course was aimed at students who had had no previous exposure to

Re: ART: Previous messages

threewordsthewi...@gmail.com — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 11:27:17 UT

Which would give-
/p t k ?
p_h t_h k_h ?_h/
/p_h\ t_h\ k_k\ ?_h\/ or /p_? t_? k_?/
/pp\ px tS tx kx ?x
pp\_h px_h tS_h tx_h kx_h ?x_h/
/pp\_h\ px_h\ tS_h\ tx_h\ kx_h\ ?x_h\/ or /pp\_? px_? tS_? tx_? kx_?/
/m n N/
/p\ s S x h/
/r l L\/
/i 6 u/
Thoughts on the glottalisation/preaspiration suggestion?
Y ¿Donde estan los otros? :(

Re: [CONLANG] [CLBP] Participation agreement

sai...@gmail.com (Sai Emrys) — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 11:31:27 UT

's my attempt at fairness.
Primary / co authorship in this case is meant as "what goes on the
cover", basically.
The reason for max-3 is simply that AFAIK that's the normal limit
practically speaking.
On digging out my Ling 1 book (Contemporary Linguistics , it seems I
was wrong on that - there are 4 coauthors listed.

Re: [CLBP] Re: ENGE: Noise resistant language (WAS: ENGE: More thoughts on design)

jimhenry1...@gmail.com (Jim Henry) — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 00:02:56 UT

This last sounds like a neat feature.
.....
That makes some amount of sense.
So ... in a bit simpler system, where every root has three senses,
you might have words like
tef - 1. man 2. dog 3. tree
kaS - 1. sing 2. bite 3. cut
then
tef kaS tef
would mean something like "a man cuts (down) a tree"

Re: ENGE: Noise resistant language (WAS: ENGE: More thoughts on design)

sai...@gmail.com (Sai Emrys) — Sat, 28 Oct 2006 15:59:51 UT

*grin* Exactly.
Redundancy alone without a balancing factor is too easy, because you
could just take the tack the Army currently uses: repetition.
Boooring.
Whereas your suggestions - e.g. minimum two distinctive features - is
more compact IMO.
We'd have to further elaborate what "noise" means. Speaking under

Re: [CLBP] Re: CL101: "What is language"

sai...@gmail.com (Sai Emrys) — Sat, 28 Oct 2006 15:55:47 UT

I think this would work well as an aspect of an essay on necessary vs
happenstance linguistic universals. Could make some pretty important
points really; most of modern descriptive linguistics is
straightjacketed by the fact that they can basically only do
observational tests, not experimental ones, and consequently only know

Re: [CLBP] Re: CL101: "What is language"

jimhenry1...@gmail.com (Jim Henry) — Sat, 28 Oct 2006 15:47:54 UT

Maybe an essay about how linguists' core notions of what
(natural) langauge is and isn't do and do not apply to
various kinds of conlangs? Perhaps combined with
something about how apparent linguistic universals
are violated in some conlangs, some of which turn
out to be fluently speakable, which suggests that some

Re: [CLBP] ENGE: Noise resistant language (WAS: ENGE: More thoughts on design)

jimhenry1...@gmail.com (Jim Henry) — Sat, 28 Oct 2006 15:42:02 UT

In addition to the phonological redundancy technique I
outlined in the essay linked above, there is another
technique that could be used as well or instead: no
two phonemes differ by less than two distinctive
features. E.g. you might have /p/, /z/, /x/, but having
those would rule out /b/, /d/, /k/, /G/. If two phonemes