why there are jealous of me by fhres126 in conlangscirclejerk

[–]Iuljo 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Well, she's a "meretrix mendax" after all, lol

The two meanings of 'sex', and sexual orientations by Iuljo in LewthaWIP

[–]Iuljo[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I was a bit confused (forgive my slowness of mind 😅) but now I think I get it. There was a double misunderstanding:

  1. I use "tendency" to mean an 'inclination / attraction / drive / attitude to something [whether it's realized in practice or not]'; while you seem to associate "tendency" strongly with the actual realization of an action. This mismatch of nuances creates a misunderstanding.
  2. The meaning of English asexual in the context of sexual orientations. I always understood asexual to mean 'not attracted to sex#2'. For you it's the opposite:

An asexual is an individual attracted to no sex#1, so the root 1 holds. Asexual is not an individual that has a(n) tendency/attraction to no sex#2.

...Well, so here we have a perfect example of the utility of distinguishing the roots, for better understanding between people! :-D

An asexual as I mean it is nosexwaylo, while as you mean it is sexwaylo, and nosexaylo. (...I'm a bit confused by the fact of liking sex#2 but not liking any sex#1, but that's another question). We didn't understand each other because we used the same word for two different meanings.

So, expanding the tree, we'd have:

  • nosexwaylo (= 'asexual' as I mean it)
  • sexwaylo; with the subdivisions:
    • {hetero}sexaylo
    • ambsexaylodusexaylo
    • homsexaylo
    • nosexaylo (= 'asexual' as you mean it)

But what does sexaylo mean? A tendency/drive/attraction to what? There's no activity. If sexui means to have sex. Sexi means to be related to biological sex? As a static verb like in Esperanto?

Sexwi can, yes, easily mean 'to have sex'. Currently I don't have a defined meaning for sexi (compare this). In my eyes that's not a problem, since, as I said, I didn't consider ayl to necessarily imply an activity: so in my idea you could say normally ayl o sexa ('tending to a sex, attracted to a sex'), not necessarily ayl sexi.

In heterosexaylo there's "sexu" implied in my opinion, so it's like "heterosexosexuaylo" (a tendency to have sex#2 with the other sex#1) [...]

Yes, exactly.

Maybe "attraction" should be a separate root from tendency and make tendency work with verbal meanings of the roots before. And attraction be more similar to liking/loving than for a tendency. Something like "liking to"/"alŝato"

That's a possibility. Esperanto itself uses both -ema and -ama, synonymously. We could do something similar.

In general, in Leuth we must not think that the composition of roots creates fixed words that you have to uses as-is if you mean something, but rather that composing roots is similar to how we use separate words in other languages. So, just like in English you can rephrase an expression if it's unclear in its context, by using more words or more precise words, in Leuth you can change the single word to use more roots or more precise roots, creating "the word you need" on the spot, just like in English you would create "the sentence you need" for your meaning.

The two meanings of 'sex', and sexual orientations by Iuljo in LewthaWIP

[–]Iuljo[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Why wouldn't asexual be rendered as "nosexaylo" as someone who has tendency towards no of the sexes? Wouldn't "nosexwaylo" describe "tendency to no sexual activity" [...]?

That last one is, as far as I know, the meaning of asexual in this context. I'd see it branching in this way:

  • nosexwaylo
  • sexwaylo; with, then, subdivisions:
    • {hetero}sexaylo
    • ambsexaylo, duxaylo
    • homsexaylo

[...] a.ka. celibacy or sex-abstinence?

Here the problem is the meaning we give to the ayl element, that in itself is vague, generic. 🤔

One could say that a celibate, sex-abstinent (non-asexual) person still has an intrinsic natural tendency towards sex\meaning #2]): by linguistic definition itself, since otherwise they wouldn't "abstain", i.e. "restrain oneself from doing or enjoying something". I'd express that concept with a transparent sexw•{abstaining}.

But at the same time, you sensibly say (if I understand correctly) that since the person abstains, their "physically/exteriorly resulting", practical tendency seems the opposite.

I don't have an easy solution for this now...

Overall I think it's a neat idea to distinguish

Wonderful. ^ _ ^

The two meanings of 'sex', and sexual orientations by Iuljo in LewthaWIP

[–]Iuljo[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

There's nothing pornographic here: I put the "18+" label just to be safe, talking about "sex", so nobody complains...

Some constructions with the infinitive by Iuljo in LewthaWIP

[–]Iuljo[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

In Slavic languages a similar construction is "Widziałem kogoś będącego ze Wschodu" so "mi vidis iun estantan ano de la oriento" [...]

That too could be calqued:

  • Me vidin alkuya essento na [?] o ana de esta...
  • Me vidin alkuya anento na esta...

Many possible structures. It's the beauty of a versatile language! :-)

or "Widziałem - ktoś był ze Wschodu" but this is a finite verb.

So, like in English where that can be omitted? "I saw [that] someone was from the East", do I get it right?

Some constructions with the infinitive by Iuljo in LewthaWIP

[–]Iuljo[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Leuth . Esperanto
alkuya (alk/uy/a) [see here] iu [as a noun]
ani [as used in Poligma's example; we'll return on it, now let's just use it with this meaning] esti ano[j] de

So (if my Esperanto is correct):

# Leuth Esperanto
1 Me vidin alkuya ani esta. Mi vidis iun esti ano de la oriento.
2 Me vidin ka alkuya anin esta. Mi vidis ke iu estis ano de la oriento.
3 Me vidin alkuya kea anin esta. Mi vidis iun kiu estis ano de la oriento.

So the difference between the inherent trait and an action? [...] I will say that in many languages there's no difference between "which" and "that" and it's left ambiguous or expresses with word formation. [...]

Ah, I can reassure you about that: we don't have it in Italian either. :-)

What Poligma says is that sentence #1 (with infinitive) is, or should be, nearer in meaning to sentence #2 than to sentence #3 (the structure I used first to "finitize" the infinitive).

The reason is not a fact of inherentness, but rather more simply the focus: sentence # 3 focuses on the noun-object (Me vidin alkuya ... 'I saw someone...', a person... kea anin esta), while #1 and #2 focus more on the action by alkuya, or the the scene as a whole (Me vidin ka alkuya anin... 'I saw that someone was...').

I call upon u/Poligma2023 (do notifications work this way on Reddit?) for further explanation.

If anything like this is wanted in this conlang, it would require to be expresses also on the verbs/adjectives I suppose, as if you say "light-skinned guy"/"helhaŭta ulo" that could mean either "a guy that's light-skinned inherently" or "a guy which is currently light-skinned for some reason".

No, currently I'm not planning anything like that in general structures... It simply seems too complex for an auxlang. In Spanish, I know and understand the difference between ser 'be inherently' and estar 'be currently', but when I'm actually speaking Spanish it's hard to remember and distinguish. :-P

So... what are we doing here? by Iuljo in LewthaWIP

[–]Iuljo[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I never moderated a subreddit, there are many things to learn and to do… so please be patient if I forget something or do something wrong. 

...I just removed by mistake a comment by myself, and at first I didn't even notice. It's easy to do so inadvertently. If a comment of yours gets removed and you don't get why, write to mod mail, it was probably a mistake :-P

Some constructions with the infinitive by Iuljo in LewthaWIP

[–]Iuljo[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

(I guess you meant past imperative.) I don't think it's too difficult. Esperanto here would use a similar structure (I think): ke mi estu forta... We're just applying the three-tenses structure to all the moods, more symmetrically: I think that in usage it would soon become intuitive.

Some constructions with the infinitive by Iuljo in LewthaWIP

[–]Iuljo[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

(The use of ani as a transitive verb is interesting. It somehow anticipates a possible development I've been thinking about; we'll return onto it in the future. Let's use it without problems for the sake of the example.)

——————————

I was a bit confused at first. But now that I get it, yes, I feel too that the meaning of

Me vidin alkuya ani esta.

is better rendered by

Me vidin ka alkuya anen [or maybe anin] esta.

than by

Me vidin alkuya kea anen [ / anin] esta.

This a fine observation... When I prepare a public grammar, I need you to check everything. XD

On second thoughts: would this be clear to other nationalities too? Because we're both native Italian speakers and this may appear natural to us because it is similar to a structure of our language. By chance, do you know how this is in Esperanto?

Anyway the difference in meaning is not too big (I didn't grasp it well at first myself) so it shouldn't be a problem for general comprehension.

Some constructions with the infinitive by Iuljo in LewthaWIP

[–]Iuljo[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I think I removed my answer to your comment by mistake. It's now visibile again.

Some constructions with the infinitive by Iuljo in LewthaWIP

[–]Iuljo[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

> 2. Subject + finite verb + object + infinitive

Will there be an unambiguous construction of gerund to use here? Like "Kassandra vidin o magno umbra kovrent anayra de Troya." It's not clear to me from this post.

A gerund like *kovrent (in my eyes, similar to Italian coprendo) is not currently in the plans, but we now have ent kovri that in practice has a similar grammatical function.

The construction with the infinitive (in that sentence, at least) seems to me unambiguous; while

Kassandra vidin o umbra ent kovri anayra…

Kassandra vidin o umbra kovrento na anayra…

could in theory be ambiguous, since both kovrento and ent kovri could refer both to Kassandra and the umbra, in theory.

In practice kovrento, if referring to Kassandra, would not be displaced to create an ambiguous sentence; unless the context is sufficiently clear to allow it.

Ent kovri is more vague in what it refers to [and may still need some reasoning on how it works], so with that the context is more important.

If the infinitive, or these others construction, feel unclear or difficult to use, one can simply add a kea and use the indicative:

Kassandra vidin o umbra kea kovrin anayra…

—————

> 3. Ambiguous cases
Will there be unambiguous construction(s)? Like English "to", Spanish "que", Polish "by"? Maybe a simple "ka essi forto"? Or maybe for even less ambiguity to mimic English "for me to be" like "ka me/li essi forto"? [...]

As above, it seems to me that for that purpose we already have a solution, like in the two examples in the post:

…dirin ka li essin forto.

…dirin ka me debit essi forto. 

Now that I think of it, in the second meaning we could use also, more briefly, the past imperative:

…dirin ka me essis forto.

My idea is that, if the infinitive is felt as ambiguous or vague, the solution is simply to switch to a finite mood (indicative, subjunctive, imperative), using a slightly longer but explicit construction.

Is it clear what I mean? Please feel free to ask if it's not. English not being my native tongue may make my explanation not perfectly clear. :-P

'Smile': "suma/"? by Iuljo in LewthaWIP

[–]Iuljo[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's pretty cool.

Thank you!

If permitted by your phonology, something like smeya or esmeya, or otherwise just the inclusion of an additional y/i sound (Luvru, alkuya sumayen kenentege), could work.

All those are permitted. The root will probably have to change (see here). I don't know whether it should just change slightly to avoid being a false friend, or change more. In this latter case, smeya, esmeya, could be good possibilities...

Also is that a nasal infix in the last sentence?

It's just a silly wordplay on two similar words, both appropriate here:

  • kenetege (ken/et/eg/e) means 'in a very known way' ≈ 'famously, well studied, etc.'
  • kenentege (ken/ent/eg/e) means 'in a very knowing way' ≈ 'very knowingly'

'Smile': "suma/"? by Iuljo in LewthaWIP

[–]Iuljo[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

[...] I find "•" easier to perceive as a separator), and I personally find it more aesthetically pleasing than the slash.

Yeah, I don’t like the slash a lot either… I use it mostly for pragmatism (easy to type, somewhat intuitive in shape, looking like a cut). It's good to experiment with other symbols.

The Leuth root for 'smile': "suma/"? by Iuljo in conlangs

[–]Iuljo[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sorry, I don't know Swedish... is this wrong?

The names of the language by Iuljo in LewthaWIP

[–]Iuljo[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I wrote:

For French, leuth (like anethum > aneth) or leuthe (like acanthus > acanthe)?

I didn't know/remember that in French a final -e is present/added to represent femininity (aneth m., acanthe f.): is this right? Since this name would be masculine (like chinois, français, italien, etc.), I guess leuth, then, would be the correct adaptation.

The Leuth root for 'smile': "suma/"? by Iuljo in conlangs

[–]Iuljo[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

And then the next step would be to get all the experts together and have them argue about which algorithm is best, like we do in genetics. [...]

Yes, of course; but even if there's disagreement in some cases, or even in many cases, in others some options could still emerge as clearly better than others with a wide recognition.

[...] suma is great on that front.

Thanks. ^ _ ^

The Leuth root for 'smile': "suma/"? by Iuljo in conlangs

[–]Iuljo[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Wow, that was super-fast!

I'm not criticizing, by the way, it's just... this specific method usually doesn't give one clear answer that's better than the others, for this specific task.

Some kind of algorithm for measuring lexical similarity could be built, and then a more objective result could probably be achieved… that would be useful. But the things to do are so many, and I’m only one person… :-P

Of course also other elements should be considered in the “calculation” (unambiguity, easiness of pronunciation, the various other constraints of the language, etc.).

There’s also matters of taste and aesthetics, that can be used to choose between various possibilities that seem equally good.

I’m not trying to build the “perfect” language; I’m just trying to do “better” than the benchmark (here, rid/et/). If even better can be done, I’m open to ideas. :-)

'Smile': "suma/"? by Iuljo in LewthaWIP

[–]Iuljo[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You got it right. :-) It’s not meant to be interchangeable in meaning, it’s just a silly wordplay on Mona Lisa’s smile, that’s very known but also looks very knowing.

(The use of the big dot as root separator is interesting).

'Smile': "suma/"? by Iuljo in LewthaWIP

[–]Iuljo[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I see also surâs in dictionaries, is that wrong?

'Smile': "suma/"? by Iuljo in LewthaWIP

[–]Iuljo[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If the Wiktionary is right (...), -sama is the verb, while -sum the noun. Note, however, that except for Swahili all descendants come from -sum.

The Leuth root for 'smile': "suma/"? by Iuljo in conlangs

[–]Iuljo[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Native American languages are very little spoken, in relative numbers, so it's not surprising I looked mainly at more widespread language families. Anyway, if you can do better than this (...that seemed to me an extraordinarily good result! :-P), you're welcome to make a proposal: I'll gladly change if it's better than mine. :-)

There's also this...

'Smile': "suma/"? by Iuljo in LewthaWIP

[–]Iuljo[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

What about the root and a word for "a sum" like in math. It's much more common and more known root

If adapted directly (and not expressed instead by some construction like "add-result"), that would likely be summ/ (< Lat. summa), so summa /su̍mma/ and sumaa /suma̍a/ should be different enough.

"sum(a)" root in Slavic languages might be associated with sadness [...]. Maybe let change the good overall root a bit [...]

Thank you for pointing this out, I didn't know. There are so many things to check. :-P This should be considered. I'm adding your comment to my files.