Language Personalities

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LanguagePersonalities
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Let's Play . . .
Guess the Language!
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EN TI-KRAMPOUEZH Ar mevel o komz ouzh Soaz. M.
? Salud deoc'h. Petra ho po da zebriñ? S. ? Da
gentañ, ur grampouezhenn ed-du, gant ognon ha
tomatez, mar plij. M. ? Mat-tre, ha petra ho
po goude? S. ? Ur grampouezhenn gwinizh gant
mel. M. ? Ha petra ho po d'evañ? Chistr? S. ?
N'em bo ket chistr. Laezh-ribod am bo, mar
plij. M. ? Kafe ho po goude? S. ? N'em bo ket.
Met ur banne te am bo.
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Let's Play . . .
Guess the Language!
Round 2
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Kurssi koostuu eri aihepiirien teksteistä, jotka
on jaettu lyhyisiin kappaleisiin. Kunkin
kappaleen lopussa on ymmärtämistä testaavia
monivalintatehtäviä. Kappaleisiin sisältyvät myös
sanastot ja kielioppiosuudet. Yhteistä sanastoa
täydentää vielä kattava yleisimpien verbien (yli
600) eri muodot sisältävä luettelo.
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Let's Play . . .
Guess the Language!
Round 3
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Language Personalities

• How the Interplay of Phonology, Phonotactics and
  Morpho-phonology Creates a Linguistic Aesthetic

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The liquid vowels of the Polynesian tongues
conjure up visions of loveliness and languor,
full moon and bright lagoon. Contrariwise, the
gutturals of the German language sound, to a
non-German, as harsh and forbidding as winter in
the Black Forest. The swoops and swirls of
Persian script seem, to a Westerner, as
voluptuous and sensual as the quatrains of Omar
Khayyám. But Goethe wrote tender and lyrical
word-music in German, and Persian is prosaically
utilitarian for keeping the accounts of Iranian
oil companies. The personality of a language,
like that of a man, is the sum of many things not
always apparent to the casual eye or ear.
Gary Jennings, Personalities of Language
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While the national language of a people has its
own personality, a Sprachgefühl distinct from
even closely related tongues, it is at the same
time a complex of sublanguagesregional dialects,
trade jargons and the likeeach of which has its
own idiosyncrasies. Take a New York stockbroker
and an Alabama share-cropperor for that matter,
any teen-ager and his grandfather. Each pair
speaks one national language, but with
worlds-apart difference.
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Džícet? Nàà. Tskwît. Wadžavin máin?
Haubautái? Kêj.
? Did you eat yet? ? No. ? Lets go eat. ? What
did you have in mind? ? How about Thai? ? OK.
(SBA) Supposedly shes an heiress or something
like that. (Teen) Shes like sposed to be a
fucking heiress or some shit.
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Phonoaesthetics
Phonasthetics is the reason that Aragorn, having
defeated the evil lord of Mordor, becomes King of
the West and takes the name Elessar Telcontar,
rather than having defeated the evil lord of
Ailuanyemarë and being crowned under the name
Kratchmurg Brogzdoodle.
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CONSONANT INVENTORY OF UBYKH
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Qui a dit que les chiens nepouvaient pas
apprendre à parler?
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çççççwçwçwçwçwuuuuuušwšwšwšwšwšwššššššççççwçwçw

pššššššçççççççkšššššssss
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Noon sum pa frond say ma new poo Vaughn deer day
parole come bun we. Nous ne sommes pas
français, ma nous pouvons dire des paroles comme
bonne nuit.
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Y eu haute ou cette à août tout pis comme somme
faim me sou est-ce te heure nAix pleurent
heure. You ought to set out to become some
famous Western explorer.
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Ailles ou ans tout crié te Cannes langue
tout.
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CREATING A PHONAESTHETIC FEEL FOR YOUR
CONLANG

• Fundamental questions re phoneme inventories
• Distribution of front vowels vs. back vowels
• Front vowels To round or not to round? / 2, 9,
  Y, y /
• Schwa or no schwa?
• /j/ and /w/ onsets (rising diphthongs) after
  consonants
• Guttural sounds? / x, q, X, R, R\, H /
• Affricates or no affricates?
• Glottal stop?
• Secondary articulations or not? palatalization,
  labialization, gemination, rhotacization,
  pharyngealization, ejectivization, aspiration,
  nasalization
• Exotic phonemes /K/ /M\/

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CREATING A PHONAESTHETIC FEEL FOR YOUR CONLANG

• Phonotactic Patterns and Constraints
• Frequency of front vs. back vowels should I have
  vowel harmony?
• Frequency of rounded front vowels
• Frequency of /j/ and /w/ onsets following
  consonants
• Frequency of sibilants and other fricatives
• Syllable Structure CV vs. CVC vs. CCVCC, etc.
• Ratio of open syllables to closed syllables

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CREATING A PHONAESTHETIC FEEL FOR YOUR CONLANG

• Vowels
• Diphthongs?
• Dyssyllabic vowel conjuncts?
• Allophony Ubykh has 10 or 11 audible vowel
  phones but only two vowel phonemes.
• Consonants
• Key concept is phonetic assimilation
• Complexity and variety of consonant clusters

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CREATING A PHONAESTHETIC FEEL FOR YOUR CONLANG

• Influence of semivowels diphthongs
• Heterogenous consonant conjuncts , e.g.,
  septiembre settembre setembre
• Effect of liquids Latin root clam- ?
  cllam-, llam- ,cham-
• Metathesis and apocope, e.g., pericolo
  peligro perigo

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CREATING A PHONAESTHETIC FEEL FOR YOUR CONLANG

• Morpho-phonology
• Reduplication, vowel loss (syncope, apocope,
  aphaeresis), epenthesis
• Vocalic mutation umlaut/ablaut,
  diphthongization, dyssyllabification
• Consonantal mutation nasal, rhotic, lateral,
  fricativization, voicing/devoicing, gemination
• Sandhi and juncture rules assimilation again
• Stress shifts
• Tone shifts / tone sandhi

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ir to go ( )-ir ( ) INFINITIVE
yendo going ( )-iendo ( ) GERUND
id go! ( )-id ( ) 2nd PLURAL
IMPERATIVE
venir to come
ven come! ven-( ) come 2nd SG.
IMPERATIVE
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Ven!
!
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Apo ket olua taraskentel brihaprai.
Happói yeutta ööhlü tra?kãcel bžöfré.
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Apo ket olua taraskentel brihaprai.
Pho qetlh ûrwagh trašqetnálh gridzoprââ.
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Verdurian Mark Rosenfelder So hepdën pirei
esë Piro esë e fascotene uestu. E so sanno
Buyelei, im dáluan Verdúrë. Eluá, mun racontretu,
er lelmo tal fascotene e. Scúreden, zet ecite
fruece er hicete soem bouem pro utron. Eššane
ti-velec atücy velne ana is can nocín. Širden,
rihe soa dumora domei cum hozënán taë er miran
esë. Oce lyö faše er mis dy eu trodonecî, dy e
gašul uestu, dy deve vagir soi diteli com precun
feyämán. Nikto ro nime cuesan eta so lešel
šualië, escatelië er vinei lië.
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amman îarby David Bell i rîellisse életh an
alanin erthendelon.The girl kissed him. alan
életh an nerin erhiron narnen. He told me a
story. alan életh áni dais cûos erechöiron i
daurar. He killed the tiger with a bow in the
forest.
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Minhast by Nick Campanilla
Phonology Egyptian Colloquial Arabic, Persian,
Akkadian, Korean. Grammar/Syntax Iroquoian,
Ainu, Yupik, Georgian, Arabic, Persian, Basque,
Tagalog, Ilocano
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Rrldhla by Tom Corcoran Estyesh jye lhrrln
nal chrr nrr rrpludh egeik lrrzbagrrn rmp
rhaolh, jye mrlelhrthr nrr ye'rr tu zdhu
estyesh tu rrshle. Estyesh na m'mrlelhrthr
rngrrl trr oimrrzdhye kla chrr'r
la'rrstae'in, estyesh na m'zboi kla trr rgya
chrr'r la'rrstae'in.
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Hwaerd Raaz by Durandal Brytting
Hwa! C'prex'rraa, b'lac drrang'loc fece jonte,
cadz'dz' kloc flec ruc gorrontruk te borgarj
farex. You smell dreadful, as if you have spent
the last weeks rolling around in rotting camel
corpses and the excrement of elephants. Hwa!
Barc'gl þutte ruc an tomp el c'lodz, þu j'lep
j'mekrunt. Drown yourself in a vat of mud, you
worthless sack of fat. Hwa! Gowecar spoce p'fp
dzamae un þun blec. Your hair frightens little
children.
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Qþyngài by Henrik Theiling
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Phonoaesthetics Music

• Suitability of phonotactical patterns to the type
  of music, e.g.,
• Samba and Brazilian Portuguese
• Soukous and Lingala
• Mbalax and Wolof

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Phonoaesthetics Music

• On the Conlang front
• Christian Vanders Magma and Kobaian

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Phonoaesthetics Music

• Poor fit between music and language, e.g.,
• Rap/hip-hop and French
• Renaissance polyphonic liturgical music and Latin

Loquebantur variis linguis apostoli,
alleluia. Magnalia Dei, alleluia.
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Phonoaesthetics Music

• The Ultimate Language for Song

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Po vdes nga etja pranë një burimi, Kur zjarri
ndizet, dhëmb mbi dhëmb kërcet, Djeg zhegu,
dridhet buza nga thëllimi, Në vendin tim jam si
në vend të shkretë. Si krimb i çveshur, veshur
porsi mbret, Mes lotësh qeshem dhe me shpresa
rri, Mua më jep zemër veç dëshpërimi i
zi. Dëfrehem dhe asgjë nuk më gëzon. I fortë jam
pa forcë, pa fuqi. Kudo më presin, gjithëkush
më zbon.
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LanguagePersonalities