Glossopoetic Non-concatenative Writer's Block

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holbuzvala
cuneiform
cuneiform
Posts: 189
Joined: 01 Jan 2017 14:03

Glossopoetic Non-concatenative Writer's Block

Post by holbuzvala »

Hi all.

I'm playing with a bi-consonantal root-structure language, but I'm having trouble actually choosing the shapes the words will have, insofar as choosing how vowels will arrange around a given root to produce a given derivation.

I have 8 noun classes that follow an animacy hierarchy
Spoiler:
human, human plural, animate, animate plural, inanimate, inanimate plural, abstract, places
and want to have words for: 1, agents of transitive verbs; 2, subjects of intransitive verbs; 3, adjectives; 4, objects of transitive verbs; and 5, "themes" of transitive verbs. It kinda boils down to this grid with 40 blanks in it (though the 'theme' column might be got rid of):

Code: Select all

    agent  subj  adj  obj  thm
h
hp
a
ap
i
ip
ab
loc
Now, let's call each half of a bi-consonantal root X and Y, and the vowels that exist around them as V. I think the derived forms ('templates', if you will) would then be:

XVYV
XVY
VXVY
VXYV
VXVYV

(I've decided against any reduplication (for now)) ---- and vowels can be: a i u (and maybe the diphthongs au and ai)

However, having got this far I am now stuck as to which templates should correspond to which part of the grid, and furthermore which vowels to put around them! Any pointers as to where to go from here would be most helpful.
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eldin raigmore
korean
korean
Posts: 6352
Joined: 14 Aug 2010 19:38
Location: SouthEast Michigan

Re: Glossopoetic Non-concatenative Writer's Block

Post by eldin raigmore »

I like your questions.
I had some thoughts, but as I was typing them, I thought, “Nah, that’s stupid”.
So I guess I’m as blocked as you are.
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