Caryatic: Difference between revisions

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Iustinus

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 === Goals ===
 [[File:Porch_of_Maidens.jpg|thumb|Tai Kāriātās τὰς Καρυάτιδας sasaihant-ra?]]
-Caryatic is a deliberate break from my previous conlanging work. Seeking to go in the opposite direction, I gave it a small phonetic inventory, few cases, and a name right from the start. In the real world, the name "Caryatic" was certainly inspired by the word [[wikipedia:caryatid|caryatid]], but its in-story etymology is unclear. The speakers of the language are sometimes referred to by the Pseudo-Latin name "Caryates" (implying Caryatic ''*kāriātās''). It is likely that caryatids exist in-story, and quite plausible that they were invented by the Caryates. Perhaps this is a coincidence.
+Caryatic is a deliberate break from my previous conlanging work. Seeking to go in the opposite direction, I gave it a small phonetic inventory, few cases, and a name right from the start. In the real world, the name "Caryatic" was certainly inspired by the word [[wikipedia:caryatid|caryatid]], but its in-story etymology is unclear. The speakers of the language are sometimes referred to by the Pseudo-Latin name "Caryates" (implying Caryatic ''*kāriātās''). It is likely that caryatids exist in-story, and quite plausible that they were invented by the Caryates. Perhaps this is a coincidence. (Note as well that the Greek word contains plain stops, while the name of Caryatic uses aspirated ones.)
+==== Involvement of other conlangers ====
+Among other conlangers, the following have been involved in some way:
+* '''David Salo''' was probably the first conlanger ever to see the language. He was the earliest fan and critic of the language, and, furthermore, enjoyed proposing material for it. He submitted two proposals for the writing system, and at least one map. None of these ever became official, though I had intended to use them as a basis for whatever did.
+* [R] was another early fan. He received a letter (snail-mail, if I remember right) containing a number of my language files with a cover-letter describing them all. This seems to have been around fall 1998. After various system upgrades and harddrive crashes resulting in barely legible files he even created his own version of the Caryatic file, which corrects some errors and gathers some materials that I had missed.
+* [N] probably first learned of the language in the mid 20-aughts, but never got to see all the materials. He was enjoying trying to piece things together from the fragments I gave him, and as of April 2014 was even working on a "Caryatic Report," writing up a description of the language, like some sort of scholar working from limited ancient materials. He therefore is simultaneously excited and disappointed to see me posting a fullish description here.
+==== Evaluation ====
+Unlike many conlangers, I do not like to revise my languages. So if there are problems, I tend to be stuck with them. Here are some issues with Caryatic:
+* I may have overdone the small case system.
+* The tense/aspect system is a bit confused.
+* I was not very careful about the ordering of the soundlaws, resulting in many contradictions.
+* David Salo has suggested that it is unrealistic that the stops are never voiced under any conditions. Perhaps I should make a rule that the unaspirated stops retain voicing when adjacent to a sonorant? In any case this is not the rule as things stand.
 === Setting ===
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 ==== Allophonic variation ====
 * '''Voicing:'''
-*# Vowels are always voiced. Stops are always voiceless. Liquids default to voiced, and fricatives to voiceless.
+*# Vowels are always voiced. Stops are always voiceless. Resonants default to voiced, and fricatives to voiceless.
-*#Liquids lose their voicing when adjacent to stops.
+*#Resonants lose their voicing when adjacent to stops.
 *#Fricatives are voiced between voiced sounds.
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 ===Letter to The Salos===
 Sent to David and Dorothea Salo, this letter s actually a slightly modified version<ref>In fact, they vary only in their salutation: the original reads ''Yūdīs Masfīus Andrayā Sīlir-ad''.</ref> of one originally written for Andrew Sihler. Both versions were likely sent in early January 1998.
-:Yūdīs Masfīus<sup>[SIC]</sup><ref name="Masfīus">It really should be "Yūdīs Masfīld dās Salūnas-ad." The error results from blindly changing the name of the addressee in the salutation, without paying attention to how this changes the phonetic environment. I have however kept this in the phonetic description, as that is how it is read in the soundfile.</ref> tās Salūnas-ad
+:Yūdīs Masfīus<sup>[SIC]</sup><ref name="Masfīus">It really should be "Yūdīs Masfīld dās Salūnas-ad" [ˈjuːtiːz masˈfiːł̥t tʰɑːssaˈłuːnazat]. The error results from blindly changing the name of the addressee in the salutation, without paying attention to how this changes the phonetic environment. I have however kept this in the phonetic description, as that is how it is read in the soundfile.</ref> tās Salūnas-ad
 :Ti taisam Kaimānam Pirâda-an āsmi. Sas vaiks anāï “''Hell''” nāma-sānt ādi-ga. Au sī pirâdā a “upānā” au kavānā âdi-ga. Ti mama dimba-sa garfu-ga. Tād āh nāma “Kāriātikā” âdi-ga. Igu tua ī-sa, tāssānt ī “Indaurupayā” âdi, garfu-ga. Tū pid hāsi-ra? Tū tī dimba gankasi-ra?
 : ''Justin Mansfield to the Salos''
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 Pronunciation:
 : Yūdīs Masfīus<ref name="Masfīus"/> tās Salūnas-ad
-: [ˈjuːtiːz masˈfiːws tʰɑːssaˈluːnazat]
+: [ˈjuːtiːz masˈfiːws<ref name="Masfīus"/> tʰɑːssaˈłuːnazat]
 :
 : Ti taisam Kaimānam Pirâda-an āsmi.