If you created your own language, would you style it after any in particular? What would you call it?

Interesting you mention that about Tolkien because Welsh has a Scandinavian tone to me when I hear it. When I was in Wales last year, I pointed this out to the guide and she didn’t hear it (she was from Scotland), but she said, if true, it would be the other way around as Welsh was in existence first.

To answer your question, though, my language would have to be styled after Klingon because it is so expressive when spoken.

I think I’d just mirror mine form a mix of English and French. Could be an interesting combination.

dunno what I’d call it. Ribbish… (after me… Ribbons)

@cage: There is Cajun English, which would go well with your handle.

@cage I have always been a fan of franglais.

I’m a big enough language nerd that I’ve already made my own auxiliary language called Pan-Idoma Latine. It is based on Latin, Italian, Spanish/Portuguese (even though Pan is from Greek). The closest thing it would resemble would be Interlingua, but still a lot different. It is a much simpler language with no articles or plural change in nouns.
Yes. I am a big nerd!

@Chuck- Do you find a lack of articles/plural nouns makes your language more or less precise?

No need for them.
example- Io vere home translates as
I see a person or I see the person.
Io vere dece home is I see ten people.
If you just want to say I see people or the people you would say Io vere home plura or many – multe.
I actually have a fairly large vocabulary.
If I say I have 3 child, you know that I mean children. If I have only one, I say one child instead of a child. If I mean the child then you can tell by the context of the sentence. The ancient Romans got by without direct and indirect articles just fine.

@AstroChuck Could have fooled me. ;) Oh, you mean in your own language. Oops.

Romans had, however, all those inflections for verbs, and three declensions and seven cases for nouns and adjectives (masculine, feminine and neuter).

And don’t get me started on ancient Greek. Over 240 forms to memorize for the verb “to teach” – padeo. I gave up after learning the present tense. The subjunctve aortist was too much, even for me.

I would pattern mean after Xhosa, one of the click languages of the African Bushmen. I would call it Klick-Klack

edit; subjunctive.

I don’t know about the styling, but I would only have one way to spell each sound. It drives me nuts in English to have 3 or more ways to spell the same sound!

@gail. Latin, as in all natural languages, was spoken before it was written. As you know, it evolved with a strong Greek, Sabine & Etruscan influence, all of which had declensions and irregular verbs, as all modern languages do today. (Not trying to talk down. I know you know all of this.) But if you can create a language from the ground up, you can eliminate inflections, gender, as well as the grammatical cases ( nominative, vocative, accusative, genitive, etc.). You can streamline a natural language such as Latin; eg. Latino Sine Flexione (Latin without Flexions) or go a different way such as Romanova. or Interlingua. These are all easier to learn, esp. Interlingua. I’ve tried to make it even simpler than that. I know it will never amount to anything but it has been fun to do. I can tell you one thing; Pan Idoma Latine is much easier, and more logical, than Esperanto.
This all is so geeky, I guess. But I am a huge linguaphile and this is how I get my jollies. Sad, huh.

I wouldcall it
......

Ah la la !

Not at all sad, AC, amazing. Go ahead and shoot for the stars!

@AC: why geeky? And certainly not sad. Why so self-deprecating? Millions (including) me) love the study of languages; wish I were young enough to learn a few more.

I have a funny friend who learned Italian by going to the opera a lot. As he said, he was then able to jump into a cab in Rome and say,“Take me to the house of the commendatore so I may seek revenge for my daughter.” Pavarotti never sang, “Where is the nearest toilet,” it seems.

Do created languages ever catch on? Don’ they have to evolve organically and orally, as you said, starting with “Grunt” and proceeding to “Feed me.”

AC Maybe you should consider a website on the subject. I, for one, would certainly look at it.

I second that.

@Gail and Astrochuck, for those of us who have yet to be initiated into the supercool world of language geeks:

What is a declension? What’s a grammatical case?

I’m sure I’ll be in way over my head momentarily, but I’m curious!

Noun declension
“n.
1. Linguistics.
1. In certain languages, the inflection of nouns, pronouns, and adjectives in categories such as case, number, and gender.
2. A class of words of one language with the same or a similar system of inflections, such as the first declension in Latin.”

Grammatical case

In grammar, the different forms (inflections) taken by nouns, pronouns, and adjectives depending on their function in a sentence. English is a language with four inflections; most words have no more than two forms. For example, six pronouns have one form when they are the subject of the verb, and a different form when they are either objects of the verb or governed by a preposition. The six are: I/me, he/him, she/her, we/us, they/them, who/whom. In ‘I like cats’, I is the subject of the sentence. In ‘Cats hate me’, me is the object. Latin has six cases, and Hungarian more than 25.
“Case: In grammar, the different forms (inflections) taken by nouns, pronouns, and adjectives depending on their function in a sentence. English is a language with four inflections; most words have no more than two forms. For example, six pronouns have one form when they are the subject of the verb, and a different form when they are either objects of the verb or governed by a preposition. The six are: I/me, he/him, she/her, we/us, they/them, who/whom. In ‘I like cats’, I is the subject of the sentence. In ‘Cats hate me’, me is the object. Latin has six cases, and Hungarian more than 25.”

I think some of the more interesting conlangs (constructed languages) have been the one that experiment with grammar not sound. Most of the languages I’ve seen that concentrate on sound have little to no imagination when it comes to grammar. There are conlangs out there that attempt to make language with no adjectives, or languages made up of only nouns.
Láadan has some great fun with the concept of an “evidence” particle that is added at the end of a sentence to describe how the speaker knows the information to be true or untrue.

I would use a very simplified phonetic language using the most recognized letters – the English ones – with a common letter/symbol represent multiple consonant sounds like sh and ch. There would be one letter for each sound, like the f and no gh or any silent letters whatsoever.

I would call it Twainish.

Too late to edit – I hate multiple posts, however, if you have yet to see this:

Spelling reform

A Plan for the Improvement of English Spelling

For example, in Year 1 that useless letter c would be dropped to be replased either by k or s, and likewise x would no longer be part of the alphabet. The only kase in which c would be retained would be the ch formation, which will be dealt with later.

Year 2 might reform w spelling, so that which and one would take the same konsonant, wile Year 3 might well abolish y replasing it with i and Iear 4 might fiks the g/j anomali wonse and for all.

Jenerally, then, the improvement would kontinue iear bai iear with Iear 5 doing awai with useless double konsonants, and Iears 6–12 or so modifaiing vowlz and the rimeining voist and unvoist konsonants.

Bai Iear 15 or sou, it wud fainali bi posibl tu meik ius ov thi ridandant letez c, y and x — bai now jast a memori in the maindz ov ould doderez — tu riplais ch, sh, and th rispektivli.

Fainali, xen, aafte sam 20 iers ov orxogrefkl riform, wi wud hev a lojikl, kohirnt speling in ius xrewawt xe Ingliy-spiking werld.

Mark Twain