Hallo!

On Fri, 2 Oct 2009 18:56:05 GMT, "[log in to unmask]" wrote:

> Hi all. Over the past 5 years I've been trying to start a language - not 
> merely construct one, but teach it to family members and see if it has the 
> ability to survive and grow. In designing it I tried to balance logic and 
> precision, aesthetics, and ease of use. Unfortunately I haven't been able to 
> find any useful information on how to design a *good* conlang, and I want to 
> know about common pitfalls to avoid, features which make a language more 
> precise or easier to learn, and so forth. Can anyone offer advice on what 
> makes a conlang good or bad?       

Depends on the purpose of the conlang.  A language of a fictional
human ethnic group is something else than an international auxiliary
language, and a language of an alien species in a science fiction
story is yet something else.  Your language seems to be more or less
a personal language, so you can do what feels right to you.

> The language so far uses:
> 
> * Agglutinative word construction

Why not?  Makes the language easier to use than it would be if it
admitted irregular forms.

> * SOV word order (since this is very common in natlangs)
> 
> * generic modifiers which follow nouns and verbs

In most SOV languages, modifiers precede what they modify, but
why not?

> * plural (indicated by the prefix /s/)

A plural *prefix* is an interesting variation.

> * definite article, but no indefinite article
> 
> * 2 cases: 1. nominative/accusative vs 2. dative/lative

Similar to Rumanian (which has a nominative/accusative and a
genitive/dative), but why not?

> * 4 verb tenses: present, past, future, & progressive

As others have commented, the progressive is an aspect, which
can combine freely with the three tenses, as in English.

> * 10 basic colors: RGB + CYM + white, gray, brown, black (essentially, 
> English -orange -purple +cyan)  

Having basic colour terms for cyan and magenta is quite odd, but
it is *your* language, you can do what you feel right.

> * 5 sense words: see, hear, smell/taste, touch, & feel(emotion)
> 
> * base-six number system (i.e. 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 11...)
> 
> * a phonetic alphabet modified from Greek & Latin
> 
> * 7 vowels: /a/ /ae/ /e/ /i/ /o/ /u/ /ɛ/

That's quite an unbalanced inventory (5 degrees of vowel height
from /a/ to /i/ - few languages do that - vs. 3 degress from /a/
to /u/).

> * 15 consonants: /k/ /p/ /t/ /h/ /x/ /s/ /θ/ /f/ /v/ /w/ /y/
> /l/ /r/ /m/ /n/ (so, no voiced plosives, one voiced fricative /v/) 

Why not?

> Are there any visible problems, or features which should be added?

It should work.

... brought to you by the Weeping Elf