tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967806610957360397.post8223870219667752935..comments2023-09-29T00:18:58.055-07:00Comments on Marshall Ryan Maresca: Worldbuilding: Shortcuts for Language BuildingMarshall Ryan Marescahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06259367667777920728noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967806610957360397.post-10298832106700507542013-10-31T11:54:52.978-07:002013-10-31T11:54:52.978-07:00From what I understand, English has 23-26 vowel so...From what I understand, English has 23-26 vowel sounds, depending on who you ask. Spanish, to contrast, has five. And, as I pointed out, English has complicated and contradictory ways to express those vowel sounds.Marshall Ryan Marescahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06259367667777920728noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967806610957360397.post-40737636101279762592013-10-31T11:54:34.718-07:002013-10-31T11:54:34.718-07:00The Swadesh list (of which there are a few variati...The Swadesh list (of which there are a few variations) is a great tool to build a very basic vocabulary as well as playing around with the sound changes in related languages or dialects.Darrell Pursifulhttp://intothewonder.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967806610957360397.post-36911943354216144412013-10-31T10:08:46.975-07:002013-10-31T10:08:46.975-07:00A few other tidbits:
-If you have an unvoiced con...A few other tidbits:<br /><br />-If you have an unvoiced consonant, you will probably also have its voiced counterpart and vice versa. (Eg if you have a "t" sound, you'll almost certainly have a "d" sound.)<br /><br />-Sometimes vowels do interesting things to the preceding consonant. The "ee" sound ("i" in the IPA) is notorious for this. For example, in Japanese, "i" changes "s" to "sh." When this happens you often don't have the mutated sound without that vowel (ie no "sh" without "i"). You can add some internal consistency that way as well.<br /><br />-If I remember correctly, compared to many other languages, English has a whole lot of vowel sounds. I think there are languages that have plenty more, but a lot of languages only have a small handful.<br /><br />I'm sure there are plenty of other things I could add, but those are what came to me first :)A. Lockwoodhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04978856161066277320noreply@blogger.com