Today I created a little excercise in zen conlanging: a conlang with 7 phonemes. It's only a short sketch, but I'll share it anyways.
Phonemes (I'll use Z-Sampa, since the explorer I use at work doesn't get along very well with unicode)
t k ' n s /t k ? n s/
e a /@ a/
Syllabic structure: (C)(C)V(C)(C)
Stress: falls on the penultimate syllable in it's closed and on the last syllable if not
E.g.
katenke /kA."din.kU/
kateke /kA.dI."gu/
Phonotactics
@[+str] -> i / [t,n,s]_(*C)@
@[-str] -> I / [t,n,s]_(*C)@
@[+str] -> u / [k,?]_
@[-str] -> U / [k,?]_
@[+str] -> e
a -> O / [k,?]_[k,?]@
a -> A / [k,?]_
a -> { / [t,n,s]_
nt -> nd / #_
nk -> Ng / #_
[t,k] -> [d,g] / V_V
[?t,?k] -> [t_>,k_>]
s -> 4 / V_V
n -> 4 / _t
Some examples:
nekente /n@."k@n.t@/ [nI."gu4.t@]
nka'esa /nka.?@."sa/ [NgO.?U."r{]
a'taseske /a?.ta."s@s.k@/ [a.t_>{."4is.kU]
That's it for now. I'll come back when I have some morphosyntax going on.
Monday, December 17, 2007
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Ok. Why I hate being like this, for real
So, ADHD or not, I was going to write about something completely different and got sidetracked. That happens a lot to me, not lately but since ever, which is why I ended up writing that awful rant.
I wanted to talk about my earlier posts.
The first one talked about my progress in Proto Pekemí-Aescal (poem included). Proto Pekemí-Aescal is the parent of a whole family of conlangs (17 to be precise).
The second discussed my difficulties in working on the diachronics for the Noshal family of languages. The Noshal family consists of more than two dozens of conlangs (26 to be precise).
In the third post I confessed my conlanger's block (apparently a common problem in the community). So instead of focussing on either Proto Noshal or Proto Pekemí-Aescal, I began a reading marathon...
Which ended around my fourth post, when I started writing my novel for NaNoWriMo. That was cool. I didn't win, but I got to write some of my best 30000 words ever. I was on fire, writing up to 6000 words per day. So why oh why didn't I write the fucking 50000 words? Let me talk about something else first.
In that same post I said I had an unpublished post, interrupted by work. It's true; it's at work. Honestly, I have no clue as to its contents, but I believe it was juicy. I'll see what I can do about it. Stupid 56k dial-up connection at work makes it kinda hard, though.
So, NaNoWriMo. I had a hell of a start. During the first week, everything around me was a notebook. I wrote on napkins, books, photocopies, old notepads... I wrote in class, at work, in my bed, while having dinner, well going to the bathroom. Then I saw the link to the zbb at my browser's bookmarks. I had not been there for months -I think- and in fact I felt no urge to go back; not that I was upset with someone there or anything, I just didn't get cold turkey. And that was remarkable, really. Me, feeling no need to visit the zbb? Out of curiosity I clicked the link and, almost instantly, got hooked to that precious, addictive forum. Again.
Long story short, I'm working on Proto Pekemí-Aescal once again, doing some syntax and the soundchanges for its two daughters: Proto Pekemí and Proto Aescal (duh).
I'm also doing some mapping, after almost a year. Feels nice to be back.
I just wish I could open Word and finish that damned novel.
In other news, I'm sitting here writing this post which no one but me will ever read, while I have a final tomorrow.
Fuck, I hate being me.
I wanted to talk about my earlier posts.
The first one talked about my progress in Proto Pekemí-Aescal (poem included). Proto Pekemí-Aescal is the parent of a whole family of conlangs (17 to be precise).
The second discussed my difficulties in working on the diachronics for the Noshal family of languages. The Noshal family consists of more than two dozens of conlangs (26 to be precise).
In the third post I confessed my conlanger's block (apparently a common problem in the community). So instead of focussing on either Proto Noshal or Proto Pekemí-Aescal, I began a reading marathon...
Which ended around my fourth post, when I started writing my novel for NaNoWriMo. That was cool. I didn't win, but I got to write some of my best 30000 words ever. I was on fire, writing up to 6000 words per day. So why oh why didn't I write the fucking 50000 words? Let me talk about something else first.
In that same post I said I had an unpublished post, interrupted by work. It's true; it's at work. Honestly, I have no clue as to its contents, but I believe it was juicy. I'll see what I can do about it. Stupid 56k dial-up connection at work makes it kinda hard, though.
So, NaNoWriMo. I had a hell of a start. During the first week, everything around me was a notebook. I wrote on napkins, books, photocopies, old notepads... I wrote in class, at work, in my bed, while having dinner, well going to the bathroom. Then I saw the link to the zbb at my browser's bookmarks. I had not been there for months -I think- and in fact I felt no urge to go back; not that I was upset with someone there or anything, I just didn't get cold turkey. And that was remarkable, really. Me, feeling no need to visit the zbb? Out of curiosity I clicked the link and, almost instantly, got hooked to that precious, addictive forum. Again.
Long story short, I'm working on Proto Pekemí-Aescal once again, doing some syntax and the soundchanges for its two daughters: Proto Pekemí and Proto Aescal (duh).
I'm also doing some mapping, after almost a year. Feels nice to be back.
I just wish I could open Word and finish that damned novel.
In other news, I'm sitting here writing this post which no one but me will ever read, while I have a final tomorrow.
Fuck, I hate being me.
Why I hate being like this
Everyone has ADHD.
Let me rephrase
Everyone on the internet has ADHD.
Wait.
Everyone on the internet is self-diagnosed with ADHD.
Almost evryone on the internet is self-diagnosed with ADHD.
There. Better.
The problem is, I really think everyone's exaggerating. Well, not everyone -listen, I'm not doing the little "Psalms" exercise I did above all over again; you get what I mean- but many people feel, in my opinion, they need an excuse to be fucking lazy. Or to excuse their children attitudes. I mean, both you and your partner work and your kids were raised and spoiled by your mother, I know. Why give it a name and prescribe fucking Ritalin?
The readines to diagnose ADHD in the US is truly alarming. 10% of males and 4%percent of females are diagnosed with ADHD there. I invite you to read for a while and find the criteria used to diagnose ADHD. According to it, we ALL have ADHD.
Not related to ADHD, but to american psychiatry: The other day I laughed my ass out at the movies. I went with my girlfriend to see The Invasion. Nicole Kidman play a shrink who is visited by a woman who says her husband is not her husband. So, what does she do? Ten seconds after hearing the poor woman's story, she prescribes an anti-psychotic and sends her home. If that's how psychotherapy's done over there, please leave me here with all these Lacanians!
Hmmf. I wasn't going to write about this. I was about to do that paper for college. Damned ADHD! I don't think any of this made sense.
Let me rephrase
Everyone on the internet has ADHD.
Wait.
Everyone on the internet is self-diagnosed with ADHD.
Almost evryone on the internet is self-diagnosed with ADHD.
There. Better.
The problem is, I really think everyone's exaggerating. Well, not everyone -listen, I'm not doing the little "Psalms" exercise I did above all over again; you get what I mean- but many people feel, in my opinion, they need an excuse to be fucking lazy. Or to excuse their children attitudes. I mean, both you and your partner work and your kids were raised and spoiled by your mother, I know. Why give it a name and prescribe fucking Ritalin?
The readines to diagnose ADHD in the US is truly alarming. 10% of males and 4%percent of females are diagnosed with ADHD there. I invite you to read for a while and find the criteria used to diagnose ADHD. According to it, we ALL have ADHD.
Not related to ADHD, but to american psychiatry: The other day I laughed my ass out at the movies. I went with my girlfriend to see The Invasion. Nicole Kidman play a shrink who is visited by a woman who says her husband is not her husband. So, what does she do? Ten seconds after hearing the poor woman's story, she prescribes an anti-psychotic and sends her home. If that's how psychotherapy's done over there, please leave me here with all these Lacanians!
Hmmf. I wasn't going to write about this. I was about to do that paper for college. Damned ADHD! I don't think any of this made sense.
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