Sally Caves wrote:

>..and how would you characterize it in fifty words more or less?
>You've been overwhelming me with wonderful revelations.  For those of you
>who have answered at length but not divulged, it would help me to know:
>
>                 11) what your conlang is called,
>
>                 12) what are its unique features, and
>
>                 13) whether you have a website.

Hi Sally,

Always a pleasure to reply.

11) My conlang's name is Draseleq (accute indicates stress).
It comes from the ancient root NARAS- "cross" with some personal
suffixes, roughly "the language of the ones who crossed".

12) Not unique perhaps, but...

* Nouns with no gender, compulsory indication of number.
Five cases: nominative (no markers), accusative, genitive, locative, comparative.
Four numbers: singular, "unique" singular, plural, and grupal/general plural.
The grupal plural refers to (i) natural groups like fingers, hands, etc.,
(ii) tightly-bound groups like "the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost",
or "the Two Trees".

* Prepositions and preposed particles. No postpositions.
No case is governed by a preposition, though there might be combinations.

* Verbs inflected for tense, person and number. Also can be added prefixes and
infixes to indicate aspect (static, progressive, perpetual, repetitive, duplicative),
degree of deference (master to subordinate, informal, etc.), intensification,
decreasing force, maximization, minimization, etc. The verbs have an infinitive
marked by a fixed ending out of a closed set, and several active and passive
participles.

* Adjectives: they are verbs like any others; you use the participles for
adjectival uses.

* Relative clauses: the original pronoun (or the pronoun corresponding to the
noun phrase in question) is inflected to show relativization, and stays in place.
(Some special nouns might relativize in formal or poetic use.)

* Word order: V-S-O or dirO-V-S-indirO. Modifiers precede heads,
except for subordinate clauses.

* General sound: consonantal, "septentrional" or "Germanic", tho not based on
any natlang. Most words end in a consonant; words ending in vowels are mostly
particles. No unusual sounds except /q/ and its voiced counterpart.

* Cons: inconsistent phonological system, too much use of compounds for
simple concepts.

* Pros: generally well-sounding and still brief, easy fluency, no farfetched ideas.

* Context: a developed conculture, sister and daughter languages in sketch,
a consistent collection of protolanguage roots and derivation rules,
allowing for easy extension.

* Translation projects: "The Hobbit", the book of Ecclesiastes, the Babel text
(finished), the Lament of Galadriel in Lorien (finished), some conculture texts.

13) My website is at <http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Shire/1021/>. There you
can find a Language Creation page (at <language.html>), and the Draseleq pages
at <draseleq.html>). These include Phonology, Grammar, Corpus and Lists of Useful
Things (calendar, numbers, etc.)


>                 14) Also: Mikhail Bakhtin wrote (in _Problems of
Dostoevsky's Poetics_):
>
>        The life of the word is contained in its transfer from
>        one mouth to another, from one context to another context,
>        from one social collective to another, from one generation
>        to another generation.
>
>Of course this is precisely what we CAN'T say about "private languages."
>Does that bother you that your language has a speaker of one?  Some of
>you get together and learn each other's languages.  I'm thinking in
>particular of Brithenig and Kernu (whose inventors have remained notably
>silent!)  Is one of the appeals of a private invented language that you
>alone know its secrets and control its development?
>
>        What would happen if someone got hold of your conlang and
>        vast numbers began using it and speaking it and changing it?
>        Remember the "No Rich Aunt" scenario?  What if she made you
>        a village?

It bothers me a bit that my language has a speaker of one, just because
there's no-one to talk to. But I certainly like to have absolute control
of the things I start and put my efforts on... I mean, I like getting
new ideas, but not so many as to make my conlang a stranger to myself.

If many people spoke Draseleq, they'd certainly change it. But I wouldn't
resent that -- what I wouldn't like would be if some uptight grammarian
began creating his own prescriptive rules for it and impose them on speakers.
I'm the only one who can tell you how to speak Draseleq! :)


--Pablo Flores
<http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Shire/1021/draseleq.html>

A Elbereth Diniasnuthon,            A Elbereth Star-Kindler
terrpalu^n gasainerg brafthalai     glittering like jewels it slants
lif nain diniasstes enthain!        from the sky the glory of stars
Na taneftulm nef sinailu^n          To faraway lands far having looked
lif mas-miathtentan frungnulmadh,   from tree-woven middle lands
gradn navanat, Eltamalis,           to thee I will sing, Everwhite
rinul rros, faik rinul tarros!      in this side of the sea, here
                                      [ in this side of the ocean


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