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[Wikineurotic] Wiki page Voksigid changed by najrut
The page Voksigid was changed by najrut at 13:11 UTC
You can view the page by following this link:
http://www.lojban.org/tiki/Voksigid
You can view a diff back to the previous version by following this link:
http://www.lojban.org/tiki/tiki-pagehistory.php?page=Voksigid&compare=1&oldver=5&newver=6
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The changes in this version follow below, followed after by the current full page text.
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[http://ViewsOfLanguage.host56.com/voksigid/index.html]
+
+ {HTML(wiki="0")}
+ <html><head>
+
+ <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1">
+
+ <title>Bruce R. Gilson's Voksigid Page </title>
+
+ </head>
+
+ <body BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF">
+
+ <center><h1>Voksigid</h1></center>
+
+ <p>
+
+ </p><hr>
+
+ Voksigid was an attempt to construct a predicate language of a different
+
+ type from those which had gone before. The first predicate language
+
+ (<a href="http://www.loglan.org/";>Loglan, </a> developed by James Cooke Brown),
+
+ and its descendant <a href="http://xiron.pc.helsinki.fi/lojban/lojban.nf.html";>Lojban,</a>
+
+ developed by Robert LeChevalier, both used word order to mark
+
+ the various places in the predication. I felt that remembering which
+
+ position meant which role in the predication might be beyond easy
+
+ memorization for most people. In October 1991 I made <a href="http://viewsoflanguage.host56.com/voksigid/revjap-proposal.html";>a proposal to the Conlang group</a> putting forward
+
+ some ideas for a language that I envisioned. I assembled a development committee
+
+ following that post, and for several months we worked on the language, which we
+
+ named Voksigid. The language has a <a href="http://viewsoflanguage.host56.com/voksigid/syntax.html";>syntax</a> which
+
+ was (as mentioned in the proposal letter) somewhat influenced by <a href="http://www.wg.omron.co.jp/cgi-bin/j-e/jap.guide.txt";>Japanese</a> (but
+
+ reversed; Japanese is verb-last and postpositional, Voksigid is verb-first
+
+ and prepositional), and a <a href="http://viewsoflanguage.host56.com/voksigid/words.html";>vocabulary</a> based mostly on European
+
+ language roots.
+
+ <br><br>
+
+ After some time, I became aware that many of the ideas we were using in the
+
+ construction of Voksigid resembled the theory of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Case_grammar";>case grammar</a> propounded by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_J._Fillmore";>Charles J. Fillmore</a> (See also
+
+ <a href="http://linguistics.berkeley.edu/people/person_detail.php?person=14";>this
+
+ site</a> for more about Fillmore. Note that he was also interested in Japanese!). Had
+
+ we been working longer on this project, perhaps there would have been more use of
+
+ Fillmore's ideas; if anyone would like to consider restoring the Voksigid project, I
+
+ would certainly recommend some study of those ideas.)
+
+ <br><br>
+
+ <center>
+
+ <a href="http://viewsoflanguage.host56.com/voksigid/ortho.html";></a>
+
+ <br>
+
+ <a href="http://viewsoflanguage.host56.com/voksigid/morph.html";></a>
+
+ <br>
+
+ <a href="http://viewsoflanguage.host56.com/voksigid/syntax.html";></a>
+
+ </center><p>
+
+ The project was formally ended in a message I submitted as a <a href="http://viewsoflanguage.host56.com/voksigid/final-report.html";>final report to the Conlang group</a> on July 23, 1992.
+
+ (Please note that all e-mail addresses shown are no longer valid!)</p><p>
+
+ Anyone who might wish to build upon the foundation of this project is welcome to <a href="mailto:brg1942@gmail.com";>communicate with me, but at my present e-mail address.
+
+ </a><br>
+
+ <br></p><center></center><br>
+
+ This page was originally a part of my site on Geocities, maintained until 1998.
+
+ The last edit on the Geocities page was made on May 24, 1997. The pages on Geocities
+
+ could not be edited between 1998 and 2009, and were preserved as they were, until
+
+ download in preparation for migration to this site took place on May 22, 2009.
+
+ <br>
+
+ Please <a href="mailto:brg1942@gmail.com";>inform me </a> of
+
+ dead links and any other problems.<br>
+
+ <br><center><br><br>
+
+ Last modified by <a href="mailto:brg1942@gmail.com";>B. R. Gilson
+
+ (brg1942@gmail.com)</a> June 24, 2009.<br>
+
+ <br><br></center>
+
+ <b>
+
+ <center><table border="3"><tbody><tr><td>
+
+ <a href="http://www.000webhost.com/";><font><b>Sign up for your own site</b></font></a>
+
+ </td></tr></tbody></table>
+
+ <big></big> Back to my <a href="http://viewsoflanguage.host56.com/index.html";>home page</a></center><br>
+
+ <br><br><a href="http://www.000webhost.com/";></a><a href="http://www.hosting24.com/";></a>
+
+ </b></body></html>
+
+ <html><head>
+
+ <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1">
+
+ <title>Voksigid: Orthography etc.</title>
+
+ <body BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF">
+
+ <center><h3>The Orthography, Phonology, and Phonotactics of Voksigid.</h3></center>
+
+ <hr>
+
+ <p>
+
+ </p><dt>1. The alphabet consists of all the Roman letters except <b>q</b> and
+
+ <b>x.</b>
+
+ <br>
+
+ The letters <b>l</b> and <b>r</b> will never be used to distinguish two words,
+
+ so that in a technical sense they will be considered the same phoneme. In fact,
+
+ however, the official sounds of <b>l</b> and <b>r</b> will be as shown below.
+
+ Because people whose native languages have only one sound similar to both, as
+
+ Japanese and Korean, may use that sound for both letters, we will never use them
+
+ to distinguish minimal pairs. A similar comment holds for <b>s</b> and <b>z</b>;
+
+ Spanish, for example, has no /z/ while German tends to pronounce initial
+
+ <b>s</b> as [z] and Italian does the same with intervocalic <b>s</b>.
+
+ <p>
+
+ </p></dt><dt>2. The sounds of the letters are as follows:
+
+ <p>
+
+ </p></dt><dd><b>a</b> (Eng. art, Fr. la)
+
+ <br>
+
+ </dd><dd><b>b</b> (Eng. boy)
+
+ <br>
+
+ </dd><dd><b>c</b> (Ital. cento = ch in Eng. chief, sh in Eng. shoe)
+
+ <br>
+
+ </dd><dd><b>d</b> (Eng. dog)
+
+ <br>
+
+ </dd><dd><b>e</b> (Eng. bed, Ger. Bett, beten)
+
+ <br>
+
+ </dd><dd><b>f</b> (Eng. find)
+
+ <br>
+
+ </dd><dd><b>g</b> (Eng. girl)
+
+ <br>
+
+ </dd><dd><b>h</b> (Eng. have, Ger. Bach) -- the [x] sound is allowed for the benefit
+
+ of such as Russian speakers who cannot pronounce [h].
+
+ <br>
+
+ </dd><dd><b>i</b> (Eng. in, machine)
+
+ <br>
+
+ </dd><dd><b>j</b> (Eng. jam, Fr. journal)
+
+ <br>
+
+ </dd><dd><b>k</b> (Eng. key)
+
+ <br>
+
+ </dd><dd><b>l</b> (Eng. love, Ger. Liebe)
+
+ <br>
+
+ </dd><dd><b>m</b> (Eng. man)
+
+ <br>
+
+ </dd><dd><b>n</b> (Eng. sun; before <b>k</b> or <b>g,</b> as in Eng. sung)
+
+ <br>
+
+ </dd><dd><b>o</b> (Brit. Eng. on, aw in Am. Eng. dawn, Ger. so)
+
+ <br>
+
+ </dd><dd><b>p</b> (Eng. pin)
+
+ <br>
+
+ </dd><dd><b>r</b> (Eng. red, Fr. rouge, Span. rojo)
+
+ <br>
+
+ </dd><dd><b>s</b> (Eng. sing)
+
+ <br>
+
+ </dd><dd><b>t</b> (Eng. top)
+
+ <br>
+
+ </dd><dd><b>u</b> (Eng. push, rude)
+
+ <br>
+
+ </dd><dd><b>v</b> (Eng. very)
+
+ <br>
+
+ </dd><dd><b>w</b> (Eng. wash)
+
+ <br>
+
+ </dd><dd><b>y</b> (Eng. yet)
+
+ <br>
+
+ </dd><dd><b>z</b> (Eng. zero)
+
+ <p>
+
+ </p></dd><dt>It should be noted that for the letters <b>c e h i j n o u,</b> sounds are
+
+ included that are in some languages considered distinct phonemes; this is
+
+ done to allow for ease in pronouncing by speakers of as many languages
+
+ as possible.
+
+ <p>
+
+ For items 3-5, the following terminology applies:
+
+ </p><p>
+
+ <br>
+
+ </p></dt><dd><i>Vowel</i> = <b>a e i o u,</b> or any of the <i>diphthongs</i> listed.
+
+ <br>
+
+ </dd><dd><i>Diphthong</i> = <b>ai au oi.</b>
+
+ <br>
+
+ </dd><dd><i>Pure consonant</i> = <b>b c d f g h j k p s t v z.</b>
+
+ <br>
+
+ </dd><dd><i>Liquid</i> = <b>l r.</b>
+
+ <br>
+
+ </dd><dd><i>Nasal</i> = <b>m n.</b>
+
+ <br>
+
+ </dd><dd><i>Glide</i> = <b>w y.</b>
+
+ <br>
+
+ </dd><dd><i>Semivowel</i> = any <i>liquid, nasal,</i> or <i>glide,</i> as defined
+
+ here.
+
+ <br>
+
+ </dd><dd><i>Consonant</i> = any <i>pure consonant</i> or <i>semivowel,</i> as defined
+
+ here.
+
+ <br>
+
+ </dd><dd><i>Voiced consonant</i> = <b>b d g j v z.</b>
+
+ <br>
+
+ </dd><dd><i>Unvoiced consonant</i> = <b>c f h k p s t.</b>
+
+ <p>
+
+ </p></dd><dt>3. A syllable consists of one to four phonemes, of the form [P] [S] V [C]
+
+ where bracketed elements are optional, P is any pure consonant, S any
+
+ semivowel, V any vowel, and C any consonant, except:
+
+ <br>
+
+ </dt><dd>a. The final consonant of a syllable may not be a glide or <b>h</b>.
+
+ <br>
+
+ </dd><dd>b. The final consonant of one syllable, combined with the initial
+
+ consonant(s) of an immediately following syllable in a word, may not make any of
+
+ the combinations forbidden in 4.
+
+ <p>
+
+ </p></dd><dt>4. The following consonant combinations are forbidden:
+
+ <br>
+
+ </dt><dd>a. Voiced + unvoiced consonant or vice versa.
+
+ <br>
+
+ </dd><dd>b. Nasal consonant + nonhomoorganic stop. This specifically forbids the
+
+ combination of <b>m</b> + any of (<b>c d g j k t</b>) and the combination
+
+ of <b>n</b> with (<b>b p</b>)
+
+ <p>
+
+ </p></dd><dt>5. If a word ends in a pure consonant and the following word does not begin
+
+ with a pure consonant, or if a word ends in a semivowel and the following word
+
+ begins in a vowel, a distinct pause must be articulated at the word boundary.
+
+ In other cases, a pause <i>may</i> be made at a boundary, but need not be. A word
+
+ boundary is defined as anywhere where a blank space is written.
+
+ <p>
+
+ <br></p><center></center><br>
+
+ This page was originally a part of my site on Geocities, maintained until 1998.
+
+ The last edit on the Geocities page was made on May 24, 1997. The pages on Geocities
+
+ could not be edited between 1998 and 2009, and were preserved as they were, until
+
+ download in preparation for migration to this site took place on May 22, 2009.
+
+ <br>
+
+ Please <a href="mailto:brg1942@gmail.com";>inform me </a> of
+
+ dead links and any other problems.<br>
+
+ <br><center><br><br>
+
+ Last modified by <a href="mailto:brg1942@gmail.com";>B. R. Gilson
+
+ (brg1942@gmail.com)</a> June 13, 2009.<br>
+
+ <br><br></center>
+
+ <b>
+
+ <center><table border="3"><tbody><tr><td>
+
+ <a href="http://www.000webhost.com/";><font><b>Sign up for your own site</b></font></a>
+
+ </td></tr></tbody></table>
+
+ <big></big> Back to my <a href="http://viewsoflanguage.host56.com/index.html";>home page</a><br>
+
+ <big></big> Back to the <a href="http://viewsoflanguage.host56.com/voksigid/index.html";>Voksigid top page</a></center><br><br>
+
+ <br><br><a href="http://www.000webhost.com/";></a><a href="http://www.hosting24.com/";></a>
+
+ </b></dt></body></html>
+
+ <html><head>
+
+ <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1">
+
+ <title>Voksigid: Morphology</title>
+
+ <body BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF">
+
+ <center><h3>The Morphology of Voksigid.</h3></center>
+
+ <hr>
+
+ (Consult <a href="http://viewsoflanguage.host56.com/voksigid/syntax.html";>the document entitled "The Syntax of Voksigid"</a> for
+
+ any terminology needed to understand this document.)
+
+ <hr>
+
+ <p>
+
+ 1. Predicates will be constructed as two-syllable or longer words ending in a
+
+ vowel; tags will be single-syllable words that both begin and end in
+
+ consonants; other particles will be single-syllable words that either begin or
+
+ end in a vowel or both.
+
+ </p><p>
+
+ 2. Words which can be used as nouns or adjectives (the specific usage being
+
+ governed by paragraph 4 of the syntax document) will be derived from verbs by
+
+ nominalizing suffixes which are identical in form to the tag/preposition words.
+
+ These can be resolved into predicate + suffix, because in all cases the last
+
+ three letters (consonant + vowel + consonant) will be a nominalizing suffix.
+
+ As nouns, their meaning will be "noun with the relationship defined by the tag
+
+ to the predication implied by the verb meaning of the word," e. g. a tag meaning
+
+ "indirect object" attached to the word for "give" means "recipient." As
+
+ adjectives, their meaning will be "having the relationship defined by the tag to
+
+ the predication implied by the verb meaning of the word," so that the same word
+
+ means "receiving."
+
+ </p><p>
+
+ 3. Suffixes used to create predicates from tags, from other particles, or from
+
+ strings of particles, will be of the form consonant + diphthong. No simple
+
+ predicate will end in a diphthong, so that any predicate ending in a diphthong
+
+ consists of a particle or string of particles followed by a predicatizing
+
+ suffix.
+
+ </p><p>
+
+ 4. Gender will be expressed by the use of the prefix <i>mas-</i> (for masculine)
+
+ or <i>fem-</i> (for feminine). No assumption is to be made as to the sex of the
+
+ referent in the absence of these prefixes. The prefix <i>mas-</i> is altered to
+
+ <i>maz-</i> before voiced sounds and <i>fem-</i> to <i>fen-</i> before nonlabial
+
+ stop consonants to avoid prohibited clusters.
+
+ </p><p>
+
+ <br></p><center></center><br>
+
+ This page was originally a part of my site on Geocities, maintained until 1998.
+
+ The last edit on the Geocities page was made on May 24, 1997. The pages on Geocities
+
+ could not be edited between 1998 and 2009, and were preserved as they were, until
+
+ download in preparation for migration to this site took place on May 22, 2009.
+
+ <br>
+
+ Please <a href="mailto:brg1942@gmail.com";>inform me </a> of
+
+ dead links and any other problems.<br>
+
+ <br><center><br><br>
+
+ Last modified by <a href="mailto:brg1942@gmail.com";>B. R. Gilson
+
+ (brg1942@gmail.com)</a> June 13, 2009.<br>
+
+ <br><br></center>
+
+ <b>
+
+ <center><table border="3"><tbody><tr><td>
+
+ <a href="http://www.000webhost.com/";><font><b>Sign up for your own site</b></font></a>
+
+ </td></tr></tbody></table>
+
+ <big></big> Back to my <a href="http://viewsoflanguage.host56.com/index.html";>home page</a><br>
+
+ <big></big> Back to the <a href="http://viewsoflanguage.host56.com/voksigid/index.html";>Voksigid top page</a></center><br><br>
+
+ <br><br><a href="http://www.000webhost.com/";></a><a href="http://www.hosting24.com/";></a>
+
+ </b></body></html>
+
+ <html><head>
+
+ <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1">
+
+ <title> Voksigid: Syntax</title>
+
+ <body BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF">
+
+ <center><h3>The Syntax of Voksigid.</h3></center>
+
+ <hr>
+
+ <p>
+
+ 1. The parts of speech are predicates (verbs), tags (prepositions), and other
+
+ particles. (the terms "predicate" and "verb" will be used interchangeably, as
+
+ also "tag" and "preposition." The term "other particle" will include
+
+ conjunctions, modal/aspectual particles, ending markers, and such others as
+
+ become necessary to define the syntax. All content words will be understood as
+
+ verbs. Those which represent primarily constructs that English uses nouns or
+
+ adjectives for will officially mean "to be X." Predicates can be used as nouns
+
+ or adjectives by the use of nominalizers as described tn the morphology
+
+ document.
+
+ </p><p>
+
+ 2. All sentences begin with a verb, possibly preceded by aspectual or modal
+
+ particles. All other elements of the predication are expressed by the use of
+
+ prepositional phrases. These include the elements that would in English be
+
+ expressed by subject and direct and indirect object, as well as adverbial
+
+ phrases. No distinction is made between these phrases, and if more than one
+
+ phrase is used, they may be placed in any order, depending on the speaker/
+
+ writer's desire to emphasize one or another.
+
+ </p><p>
+
+ 3. Clauses consist of a conjunction followed by the elements that compose a
+
+ sentence according to the previous paragraph. No distinction between coordinate
+
+ and subordinate clauses will be made in structure.
+
+ </p><p>
+
+ 4. The same form defined in 1 as a noun can be used as an adjective by being
+
+ placed after the noun which it modifies. Thus a nominalized verb which
+
+ immediately follows a preposition is a noun; one that follows another such
+
+ is an adjective modifying the noun that precedes it.
+
+ </p><p>
+
+ 5. Neither definite nor indefinite articles will be necessary. Each preposition
+
+ will delimit a noun phrase, since all prepositional phrases can be analyzed as
+
+ a preposition, an object-of-preposition noun, and zero or more nouns-used-as-
+
+ adjectives.
+
+ </p><p>
+
+ 6. Ending markers will comprise end-of-phrase, end-of-clause, and end-of-
+
+ adjective/adverb markers. The end-of-phrase marker is treated as a right
+
+ parenthesis with the nearest tag prior to it as the corresponding left
+
+ parenthesis. It is only necessary if another modifier (nominalized-verb-used-
+
+ as-adjective, clause, or tag/preposition + noun phrase) follows it. The end-of-
+
+ clause marker is treated as a right parenthesis with the nearest conjunction
+
+ prior to it as the corresponding left parenthesis. It is only necessary if
+
+ another modifier (nominalized-verb-used-as-adjective, clause, or tag/preposition
+
+ + noun phrase) follows it. The end-of-adjective/adverb marker signifies that the
+
+ word before it is an unmodified adjective or adverb, and is needed only to
+
+ indicate that a following modifier is to be attached, not to the adjective/
+
+ adverb in question, but to the word it modifies. The end of a sentence terminates
+
+ all unclosed phrases and clauses.
+
+ </p><p>
+
+ 7. A relative clause is introduced by a special subordinating conjunction
+
+ (<i>su</i>) and is constructed as in paragraph 3. It is inserted in the sentence
+
+ after the word it modifies. The place in the relative clause where the relative
+
+ relates to the clause is filled by the relative pronoun (<i>lau</i>).
+
+ </p><p>
+
+ 8. Another equivalent of a relative clause in other languages is a phrase
+
+ constructed with a special case tag governing a nominalization of the verb which
+
+ was the clause main verb. The nominalization indicates which case the restricted
+
+ phrase is supposed to fit. When necessary (in the rare instances where the
+
+ restricted phrase is not going to be an argument of the clause verb) or desired
+
+ for stylistic reasons, nominalize with <i>cen</i> (abstraction) and use
+
+ <i>lau</i> as a pronoun to represent the restricted phrase, with its proper
+
+ case tag. This will be designated a quasi-relative phrase.
+
+ </p><p>
+
+ <br></p><center></center><br>
+
+ This page was originally a part of my site on Geocities, maintained until 1998.
+
+ The last edit on the Geocities page was made on May 24, 1997. The pages on Geocities
+
+ could not be edited between 1998 and 2009, and were preserved as they were, until
+
+ download in preparation for migration to this site took place on May 22, 2009.
+
+ <br>
+
+ Please <a href="mailto:brg1942@gmail.com";>inform me </a> of
+
+ dead links and any other problems.<br>
+
+ <br><center><br><br>
+
+ Last modified by <a href="mailto:brg1942@gmail.com";>B. R. Gilson
+
+ (brg1942@gmail.com)</a> June 13, 2009.<br>
+
+ <br><br></center>
+
+ <b>
+
+ <center><table border="3"><tbody><tr><td>
+
+ <a href="http://www.000webhost.com/";><font><b>Sign up for your own site</b></font></a>
+
+ </td></tr></tbody></table>
+
+ <big></big> Back to my <a href="http://viewsoflanguage.host56.com/index.html";>home page</a><br>
+
+ <big></big> Back to the <a href="http://viewsoflanguage.host56.com/voksigid/index.html";>Voksigid top page</a></center><br><br>
+
+ <br><br><a href="http://www.000webhost.com/";></a><a href="http://www.hosting24.com/";></a>
+
+ </b></body></html>
+
+ <html><head><title>Voksigid final report</title></head>
+
+ <body>
+
+ <center><h1>The Voksigid final report</h1></center>
+
+ <br><br>
+
+ Originally posted on the Conlang mailing list, July 23, 1992.
+
+ <br><br>
+
+ Date: 23 Jul 92 09:09:00 EDT<br>
+
+ From: "61510::GILSON" <gilson%61510.decnet@cfe1.nrl.navy.mil><br>
+
+ Subject: Final (I think) status report to Conlang group on the Voksigid project<p>
+
+ <br><br>
+
+ This functions both as the apparent final progress report on the Voksigid
+
+ project to the conlang group and the apparent final communication to the
+
+ Voksigid development group, a. k. a. the newlang group. If anyone, either
+
+ by sending to the Voksigid group as a whole at newlang@buphy.bu.edu, or by
+
+ emailing to me at brgilson@highlite.gotham.com, evinces an interest in
+
+ reviving the Voksigid project, the possibility of continuing the effort
+
+ still exists, but I am pessimistic about the chances.
+
+ <br><br>
+
+ My observations are that the demise of the effort was not due to any
+
+ impracticality of implementing the concept that Voksigid represented. I still
+
+ feel that we might have, if a few non-linguistic happenings had been different,
+
+ come out with something better than Lojban at the things Lojban is best at,
+
+ while being easier to learn.
+
+ <br><br>
+
+ Voksigid went through three phases:
+
+ <br><br>
+
+ 1. In a preliminary organization phase, we eliminated two people whose ideas
+
+ were so far removed from what the rest oif us had in mind that compromise was
+
+ clearly impossible. One of them, I feel, could well have contributed a lot of
+
+ useful ideas, but was so firmly wedded to an a priori vocabulary that we could
+
+ not hold him. His loss was unfortunate because I think he knew a lot about some
+
+ aspects of grammar that most of us did not know. The second of those would at
+
+ least have given us some input from a person whose native language was not
+
+ English, but it was very clear from early on that there was no compromise that
+
+ could embrace both him and myself; on one occasion I went so far toward his
+
+ proposal that it was making me ill to conceive of what was being done, and yet
+
+ he was accusing me of being unwilling to compromise. With the departure of those
+
+ two from the group, we were able to come up with some documents to define the
+
+ language, and at that point it looked as if we were making progress.
+
+ <br><br>
+
+ 2. At that point, we began filling in the details. We developed a vocabulary,
+
+ fleshed out a few grammatical details, and I thought we'd soon have a language
+
+ created. Then disaster struck. One of us, who had been the most prolific source
+
+ of ideas in the first phase (and who, more than I, was the person whose
+
+ structure as first proposed turned out to be the one that the final Voksigid
+
+ resembled most closely) had to leave to devote full time to his dissertation.
+
+ Another changed schools. I myself, for a while, was incommunicado because I
+
+ lost the ability to receive e-mail at my work computer and needed to establish
+
+ a new location. That led to phase 3:
+
+ <br><br>
+
+ 3. We got to a point where a proposal would be made, and nobody would respond.
+
+ It was clear that nothing more was going to happen. This is where we are now.
+
+ I think we have to give Voksigid a decent burial. The defining documents are
+
+ still, I assume, to remain on the PLS, and if someone sends a copy of Dave
+
+ West's final version of the lexicon to the PLS archives, they will have a
+
+ basis on which to proceed if anyone wants to take the role that Ashby and Clark
+
+ took to Hogben's Interglossa.
+
+ <br><br>
+
+ Observations:
+
+ <br><br>
+
+ Apparently, for an experimental language, the only organization scheme that
+
+ works is something like what happened in Lojban. One person (in that case, JCB)
+
+ developed a language, and a group was set up only much later, but the group
+
+ was much larger than we had, so that dropping out by 1 or 2 or 3 did not leave
+
+ them so shorthanded that paralysis started whenever two people disagreed. The
+
+ voting mechanisms I devised worked when we had 5 or 6 people; when we got down
+
+ to 3 we were lost. They would have worked better if we had the 9 or 10 I'd
+
+ originally envisioned. Lojban had one unfortunate experience, the split between
+
+ JCB and lojbab that required them to construct a totally new vocabulary from
+
+ scratch -- they'd be a year or two further along, I think, if that hadn't happened.
+
+ But (even though I can't read the language well enough to follow everything that goes
+
+ on) I think the group works well. I'd hoped that we could do that kind of thing
+
+ eventually. The only problem is getting to that point. A committee such as we had
+
+ doesn't seem to work. I'm sorry it doesn't. John Ross and Jim Carter, at least, had
+
+ useful ideas without which the language, if it had depended on me alone, would never
+
+ have been as good as the one we were on the threshold of developing. Jim, in
+
+ particular, even though he has his own creation (guaspi) and is also an active
+
+ participant in the Lojban group as well, was able to grasp the spirit of Voksigid
+
+ well enough that his suggestions were frequently right to the point, even though they
+
+ had to be different from the way guaspi or Lojban would handle the same problem. I
+
+ wish we had been able to get the same from the one person I mentioned earlier who
+
+ was the first to get off the boat.
+
+ <br><br>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ Bruce
+
+ <br>
+
+ <br><center><br>
+
+ <br><br>
+
+ Please <a href="mailto:brg1942@gmail.com";>inform me </a> of
+
+ dead links and any other problems.<br>
+
+ <br><center><br><br>
+
+ Last modified by <A HREF = "mailto:brg1942@gmail.com";>B. R. Gilson
+
+ (brg1942@gmail.com)</a> June 20, 2009.<br>
+
+ <br><br></center>
+
+ <b>
+
+ <center><table border=3><tr><td>
+
+ <a href="http://www.000webhost.com/";><font><b>Sign up for your own site</b></font></a>
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+
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+
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+
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+
+ <H1>[conlang_learners] More about Voksigid</H1>
+
+ <B>Jim Henry</B>
+
+ <A HREF="mailto:conlang_learners%40conlang.org?Subject=Re%3A%20%5Bconlang_learners%5D%20More%20about%20Voksigid&In-Reply-To=%3C8e02713f0907191224i6f3e632dm3b36fca282b00492%40mail.gmail.com%3E";
+
+ TITLE="[conlang_learners] More about Voksigid">jimhenry1973 at gmail.com
+
+ </A><BR>
+
+ <I>Sun Jul 19 12:24:49 PDT 2009</I>
+
+ <P><UL>
+
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+ <HR>
+
+ <PRE>Voksigid was an engelang created by Bruce Gilson, Jim Carter, John
+
+ Ross and others in 1991-1992. It remained somewhat unfinished; the
+
+ vocabulary comprises 256 words and affixes, and the grammar pages,
+
+ though the syntax and morphology are described thoroughly at a high
+
+ level of abstraction, lack any example sentences. The phonology is
+
+ clearly defined except for stress, though the presentation uses
+
+ multiple natlang examples for each phoneme and its allophones rather
+
+ than IPA. It uses a purely ASCII phonetic orthography, with 24
+
+ letters representing 19 consonants and 5 vowels. The vocabulary comes
+
+ from a variety of natlangs, mostly European.
+
+
+
+ Basically, Voksigid is a verb-initial active language with free
+
+ ordering of the phrases following the verb, each phrase consisting of
+
+ a preposition, a noun, and potentially one or more adjectives and/or
+
+ modifying particles. Fairly specific case tags (prepositions) mark
+
+ the subject as well as the objects and complements. Content roots
+
+ are always verbs (e.g., "katse" is defined as "to be a cat"); nouns
+
+ and adjectives are derived from root verbs with case tags used as
+
+ nominalizing suffixes. I infer that "katselen" would mean "a cat"
+
+ or "pertaining to (a) cat(s)" (depending on context), although use of
+
+ specific nominalizers is not discussed. ("len" is defined as "subject
+
+ of a non-quantifiable statal predicate� and seems to be the most
+
+ appropriate of the case tags for this kind of nominalization. "tor"
+
+ is "active subject", i.e. agent I suppose, so "katsetor" would seem to
+
+ mean "one who is deliberately being a cat".)
+
+
+
+ Some details of the grammar are underspecified and would have to be
+
+ (re)created based on the clues in the lexicon and grammar documents.
+
+ In particular, the definitions of the case tags aren�t always specific
+
+ enough to give the reader a clear idea of how they�re used. However,
+
+ I think it would be quite possible for us to study the Voksigid
+
+ documents, discuss them, and come up with a more ample reference
+
+ grammar (with lots of example sentences) and lessons. It would also
+
+ be necessary to coin more words based on the principles described in
+
+ the morphology document. Voksigid was clearly not intended to be a
+
+ lexically minimalist language, given the kinds of concepts to which
+
+ root words are devoted in the extant lexicon; the small vocabulary is
+
+ due to the project having ended prematurely.
+
+
+
+ Figuring out the grammar from the terse documents on the Voksigid
+
+ website would take some time and effort, but once someone has done
+
+ that and written an expanded reference grammar and/or lessons, I think
+
+ Voksigid would be relatively easy to learn. The hard part would be
+
+ getting used to the way case tags and nominalizers are used (and
+
+ perhaps the way relative clauses are formed); there�s no inflection,
+
+ much less irregularity thereof, and the phonology should be easy for
+
+ anyone who already speaks a European language (and many who don�t).
+
+
+
+ --
+
+ Jim Henry
+
+ <A HREF="http://www.pobox.com/~jimhenry/";>http://www.pobox.com/~jimhenry/</A>
+
+ </PRE>
+
+ <HR>
+
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Voksigid created by an Internet working group led by Bruce R. Gilson, attempts to construct a predicate language of a different type from those which had gone before. Its syntax was somewhat influenced by Japanese, and its vocabulary was based mostly on European language roots. Loglan and Lojban both use word order to mark the various places in the predication, but because remembering which position means which role in the predication might be beyond easy memorization for most people, Voksigid was designed in order to overcome this issue. It uses an extensive set of very semantically specific prepositions to mark the roles of verb arguments, instead of positional order as in Loglan and Lojban.
[http://ViewsOfLanguage.host56.com/voksigid/index.html]
{HTML(wiki="0")}
<html><head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1">
<title>Bruce R. Gilson's Voksigid Page </title>
</head>
<body BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF">
<center><h1>Voksigid</h1></center>
<p>
</p><hr>
Voksigid was an attempt to construct a predicate language of a different
type from those which had gone before. The first predicate language
(<a href="http://www.loglan.org/";>Loglan, </a> developed by James Cooke Brown),
and its descendant <a href="http://xiron.pc.helsinki.fi/lojban/lojban.nf.html";>Lojban,</a>
developed by Robert LeChevalier, both used word order to mark
the various places in the predication. I felt that remembering which
position meant which role in the predication might be beyond easy
memorization for most people. In October 1991 I made <a href="http://viewsoflanguage.host56.com/voksigid/revjap-proposal.html";>a proposal to the Conlang group</a> putting forward
some ideas for a language that I envisioned. I assembled a development committee
following that post, and for several months we worked on the language, which we
named Voksigid. The language has a <a href="http://viewsoflanguage.host56.com/voksigid/syntax.html";>syntax</a> which
was (as mentioned in the proposal letter) somewhat influenced by <a href="http://www.wg.omron.co.jp/cgi-bin/j-e/jap.guide.txt";>Japanese</a> (but
reversed; Japanese is verb-last and postpositional, Voksigid is verb-first
and prepositional), and a <a href="http://viewsoflanguage.host56.com/voksigid/words.html";>vocabulary</a> based mostly on European
language roots.
<br><br>
After some time, I became aware that many of the ideas we were using in the
construction of Voksigid resembled the theory of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Case_grammar";>case grammar</a> propounded by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_J._Fillmore";>Charles J. Fillmore</a> (See also
<a href="http://linguistics.berkeley.edu/people/person_detail.php?person=14";>this
site</a> for more about Fillmore. Note that he was also interested in Japanese!). Had
we been working longer on this project, perhaps there would have been more use of
Fillmore's ideas; if anyone would like to consider restoring the Voksigid project, I
would certainly recommend some study of those ideas.)
<br><br>
<center>
<a href="http://viewsoflanguage.host56.com/voksigid/ortho.html";></a>
<br>
<a href="http://viewsoflanguage.host56.com/voksigid/morph.html";></a>
<br>
<a href="http://viewsoflanguage.host56.com/voksigid/syntax.html";></a>
</center><p>
The project was formally ended in a message I submitted as a <a href="http://viewsoflanguage.host56.com/voksigid/final-report.html";>final report to the Conlang group</a> on July 23, 1992.
(Please note that all e-mail addresses shown are no longer valid!)</p><p>
Anyone who might wish to build upon the foundation of this project is welcome to <a href="mailto:brg1942@gmail.com";>communicate with me, but at my present e-mail address.
</a><br>
<br></p><center></center><br>
This page was originally a part of my site on Geocities, maintained until 1998.
The last edit on the Geocities page was made on May 24, 1997. The pages on Geocities
could not be edited between 1998 and 2009, and were preserved as they were, until
download in preparation for migration to this site took place on May 22, 2009.
<br>
Please <a href="mailto:brg1942@gmail.com";>inform me </a> of
dead links and any other problems.<br>
<br><center><br><br>
Last modified by <a href="mailto:brg1942@gmail.com";>B. R. Gilson
(brg1942@gmail.com)</a> June 24, 2009.<br>
<br><br></center>
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<title>Voksigid: Orthography etc.</title>
<body BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF">
<center><h3>The Orthography, Phonology, and Phonotactics of Voksigid.</h3></center>
<hr>
<p>
</p><dt>1. The alphabet consists of all the Roman letters except <b>q</b> and
<b>x.</b>
<br>
The letters <b>l</b> and <b>r</b> will never be used to distinguish two words,
so that in a technical sense they will be considered the same phoneme. In fact,
however, the official sounds of <b>l</b> and <b>r</b> will be as shown below.
Because people whose native languages have only one sound similar to both, as
Japanese and Korean, may use that sound for both letters, we will never use them
to distinguish minimal pairs. A similar comment holds for <b>s</b> and <b>z</b>;
Spanish, for example, has no /z/ while German tends to pronounce initial
<b>s</b> as [z] and Italian does the same with intervocalic <b>s</b>.
<p>
</p></dt><dt>2. The sounds of the letters are as follows:
<p>
</p></dt><dd><b>a</b> (Eng. art, Fr. la)
<br>
</dd><dd><b>b</b> (Eng. boy)
<br>
</dd><dd><b>c</b> (Ital. cento = ch in Eng. chief, sh in Eng. shoe)
<br>
</dd><dd><b>d</b> (Eng. dog)
<br>
</dd><dd><b>e</b> (Eng. bed, Ger. Bett, beten)
<br>
</dd><dd><b>f</b> (Eng. find)
<br>
</dd><dd><b>g</b> (Eng. girl)
<br>
</dd><dd><b>h</b> (Eng. have, Ger. Bach) -- the [x] sound is allowed for the benefit
of such as Russian speakers who cannot pronounce [h].
<br>
</dd><dd><b>i</b> (Eng. in, machine)
<br>
</dd><dd><b>j</b> (Eng. jam, Fr. journal)
<br>
</dd><dd><b>k</b> (Eng. key)
<br>
</dd><dd><b>l</b> (Eng. love, Ger. Liebe)
<br>
</dd><dd><b>m</b> (Eng. man)
<br>
</dd><dd><b>n</b> (Eng. sun; before <b>k</b> or <b>g,</b> as in Eng. sung)
<br>
</dd><dd><b>o</b> (Brit. Eng. on, aw in Am. Eng. dawn, Ger. so)
<br>
</dd><dd><b>p</b> (Eng. pin)
<br>
</dd><dd><b>r</b> (Eng. red, Fr. rouge, Span. rojo)
<br>
</dd><dd><b>s</b> (Eng. sing)
<br>
</dd><dd><b>t</b> (Eng. top)
<br>
</dd><dd><b>u</b> (Eng. push, rude)
<br>
</dd><dd><b>v</b> (Eng. very)
<br>
</dd><dd><b>w</b> (Eng. wash)
<br>
</dd><dd><b>y</b> (Eng. yet)
<br>
</dd><dd><b>z</b> (Eng. zero)
<p>
</p></dd><dt>It should be noted that for the letters <b>c e h i j n o u,</b> sounds are
included that are in some languages considered distinct phonemes; this is
done to allow for ease in pronouncing by speakers of as many languages
as possible.
<p>
For items 3-5, the following terminology applies:
</p><p>
<br>
</p></dt><dd><i>Vowel</i> = <b>a e i o u,</b> or any of the <i>diphthongs</i> listed.
<br>
</dd><dd><i>Diphthong</i> = <b>ai au oi.</b>
<br>
</dd><dd><i>Pure consonant</i> = <b>b c d f g h j k p s t v z.</b>
<br>
</dd><dd><i>Liquid</i> = <b>l r.</b>
<br>
</dd><dd><i>Nasal</i> = <b>m n.</b>
<br>
</dd><dd><i>Glide</i> = <b>w y.</b>
<br>
</dd><dd><i>Semivowel</i> = any <i>liquid, nasal,</i> or <i>glide,</i> as defined
here.
<br>
</dd><dd><i>Consonant</i> = any <i>pure consonant</i> or <i>semivowel,</i> as defined
here.
<br>
</dd><dd><i>Voiced consonant</i> = <b>b d g j v z.</b>
<br>
</dd><dd><i>Unvoiced consonant</i> = <b>c f h k p s t.</b>
<p>
</p></dd><dt>3. A syllable consists of one to four phonemes, of the form [P] [S] V [C]
where bracketed elements are optional, P is any pure consonant, S any
semivowel, V any vowel, and C any consonant, except:
<br>
</dt><dd>a. The final consonant of a syllable may not be a glide or <b>h</b>.
<br>
</dd><dd>b. The final consonant of one syllable, combined with the initial
consonant(s) of an immediately following syllable in a word, may not make any of
the combinations forbidden in 4.
<p>
</p></dd><dt>4. The following consonant combinations are forbidden:
<br>
</dt><dd>a. Voiced + unvoiced consonant or vice versa.
<br>
</dd><dd>b. Nasal consonant + nonhomoorganic stop. This specifically forbids the
combination of <b>m</b> + any of (<b>c d g j k t</b>) and the combination
of <b>n</b> with (<b>b p</b>)
<p>
</p></dd><dt>5. If a word ends in a pure consonant and the following word does not begin
with a pure consonant, or if a word ends in a semivowel and the following word
begins in a vowel, a distinct pause must be articulated at the word boundary.
In other cases, a pause <i>may</i> be made at a boundary, but need not be. A word
boundary is defined as anywhere where a blank space is written.
<p>
<br></p><center></center><br>
This page was originally a part of my site on Geocities, maintained until 1998.
The last edit on the Geocities page was made on May 24, 1997. The pages on Geocities
could not be edited between 1998 and 2009, and were preserved as they were, until
download in preparation for migration to this site took place on May 22, 2009.
<br>
Please <a href="mailto:brg1942@gmail.com";>inform me </a> of
dead links and any other problems.<br>
<br><center><br><br>
Last modified by <a href="mailto:brg1942@gmail.com";>B. R. Gilson
(brg1942@gmail.com)</a> June 13, 2009.<br>
<br><br></center>
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<title>Voksigid: Morphology</title>
<body BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF">
<center><h3>The Morphology of Voksigid.</h3></center>
<hr>
(Consult <a href="http://viewsoflanguage.host56.com/voksigid/syntax.html";>the document entitled "The Syntax of Voksigid"</a> for
any terminology needed to understand this document.)
<hr>
<p>
1. Predicates will be constructed as two-syllable or longer words ending in a
vowel; tags will be single-syllable words that both begin and end in
consonants; other particles will be single-syllable words that either begin or
end in a vowel or both.
</p><p>
2. Words which can be used as nouns or adjectives (the specific usage being
governed by paragraph 4 of the syntax document) will be derived from verbs by
nominalizing suffixes which are identical in form to the tag/preposition words.
These can be resolved into predicate + suffix, because in all cases the last
three letters (consonant + vowel + consonant) will be a nominalizing suffix.
As nouns, their meaning will be "noun with the relationship defined by the tag
to the predication implied by the verb meaning of the word," e. g. a tag meaning
"indirect object" attached to the word for "give" means "recipient." As
adjectives, their meaning will be "having the relationship defined by the tag to
the predication implied by the verb meaning of the word," so that the same word
means "receiving."
</p><p>
3. Suffixes used to create predicates from tags, from other particles, or from
strings of particles, will be of the form consonant + diphthong. No simple
predicate will end in a diphthong, so that any predicate ending in a diphthong
consists of a particle or string of particles followed by a predicatizing
suffix.
</p><p>
4. Gender will be expressed by the use of the prefix <i>mas-</i> (for masculine)
or <i>fem-</i> (for feminine). No assumption is to be made as to the sex of the
referent in the absence of these prefixes. The prefix <i>mas-</i> is altered to
<i>maz-</i> before voiced sounds and <i>fem-</i> to <i>fen-</i> before nonlabial
stop consonants to avoid prohibited clusters.
</p><p>
<br></p><center></center><br>
This page was originally a part of my site on Geocities, maintained until 1998.
The last edit on the Geocities page was made on May 24, 1997. The pages on Geocities
could not be edited between 1998 and 2009, and were preserved as they were, until
download in preparation for migration to this site took place on May 22, 2009.
<br>
Please <a href="mailto:brg1942@gmail.com";>inform me </a> of
dead links and any other problems.<br>
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Last modified by <a href="mailto:brg1942@gmail.com";>B. R. Gilson
(brg1942@gmail.com)</a> June 13, 2009.<br>
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<title> Voksigid: Syntax</title>
<body BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF">
<center><h3>The Syntax of Voksigid.</h3></center>
<hr>
<p>
1. The parts of speech are predicates (verbs), tags (prepositions), and other
particles. (the terms "predicate" and "verb" will be used interchangeably, as
also "tag" and "preposition." The term "other particle" will include
conjunctions, modal/aspectual particles, ending markers, and such others as
become necessary to define the syntax. All content words will be understood as
verbs. Those which represent primarily constructs that English uses nouns or
adjectives for will officially mean "to be X." Predicates can be used as nouns
or adjectives by the use of nominalizers as described tn the morphology
document.
</p><p>
2. All sentences begin with a verb, possibly preceded by aspectual or modal
particles. All other elements of the predication are expressed by the use of
prepositional phrases. These include the elements that would in English be
expressed by subject and direct and indirect object, as well as adverbial
phrases. No distinction is made between these phrases, and if more than one
phrase is used, they may be placed in any order, depending on the speaker/
writer's desire to emphasize one or another.
</p><p>
3. Clauses consist of a conjunction followed by the elements that compose a
sentence according to the previous paragraph. No distinction between coordinate
and subordinate clauses will be made in structure.
</p><p>
4. The same form defined in 1 as a noun can be used as an adjective by being
placed after the noun which it modifies. Thus a nominalized verb which
immediately follows a preposition is a noun; one that follows another such
is an adjective modifying the noun that precedes it.
</p><p>
5. Neither definite nor indefinite articles will be necessary. Each preposition
will delimit a noun phrase, since all prepositional phrases can be analyzed as
a preposition, an object-of-preposition noun, and zero or more nouns-used-as-
adjectives.
</p><p>
6. Ending markers will comprise end-of-phrase, end-of-clause, and end-of-
adjective/adverb markers. The end-of-phrase marker is treated as a right
parenthesis with the nearest tag prior to it as the corresponding left
parenthesis. It is only necessary if another modifier (nominalized-verb-used-
as-adjective, clause, or tag/preposition + noun phrase) follows it. The end-of-
clause marker is treated as a right parenthesis with the nearest conjunction
prior to it as the corresponding left parenthesis. It is only necessary if
another modifier (nominalized-verb-used-as-adjective, clause, or tag/preposition
+ noun phrase) follows it. The end-of-adjective/adverb marker signifies that the
word before it is an unmodified adjective or adverb, and is needed only to
indicate that a following modifier is to be attached, not to the adjective/
adverb in question, but to the word it modifies. The end of a sentence terminates
all unclosed phrases and clauses.
</p><p>
7. A relative clause is introduced by a special subordinating conjunction
(<i>su</i>) and is constructed as in paragraph 3. It is inserted in the sentence
after the word it modifies. The place in the relative clause where the relative
relates to the clause is filled by the relative pronoun (<i>lau</i>).
</p><p>
8. Another equivalent of a relative clause in other languages is a phrase
constructed with a special case tag governing a nominalization of the verb which
was the clause main verb. The nominalization indicates which case the restricted
phrase is supposed to fit. When necessary (in the rare instances where the
restricted phrase is not going to be an argument of the clause verb) or desired
for stylistic reasons, nominalize with <i>cen</i> (abstraction) and use
<i>lau</i> as a pronoun to represent the restricted phrase, with its proper
case tag. This will be designated a quasi-relative phrase.
</p><p>
<br></p><center></center><br>
This page was originally a part of my site on Geocities, maintained until 1998.
The last edit on the Geocities page was made on May 24, 1997. The pages on Geocities
could not be edited between 1998 and 2009, and were preserved as they were, until
download in preparation for migration to this site took place on May 22, 2009.
<br>
Please <a href="mailto:brg1942@gmail.com";>inform me </a> of
dead links and any other problems.<br>
<br><center><br><br>
Last modified by <a href="mailto:brg1942@gmail.com";>B. R. Gilson
(brg1942@gmail.com)</a> June 13, 2009.<br>
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<html><head><title>Voksigid final report</title></head>
<body>
<center><h1>The Voksigid final report</h1></center>
<br><br>
Originally posted on the Conlang mailing list, July 23, 1992.
<br><br>
Date: 23 Jul 92 09:09:00 EDT<br>
From: "61510::GILSON" <gilson%61510.decnet@cfe1.nrl.navy.mil><br>
Subject: Final (I think) status report to Conlang group on the Voksigid project<p>
<br><br>
This functions both as the apparent final progress report on the Voksigid
project to the conlang group and the apparent final communication to the
Voksigid development group, a. k. a. the newlang group. If anyone, either
by sending to the Voksigid group as a whole at newlang@buphy.bu.edu, or by
emailing to me at brgilson@highlite.gotham.com, evinces an interest in
reviving the Voksigid project, the possibility of continuing the effort
still exists, but I am pessimistic about the chances.
<br><br>
My observations are that the demise of the effort was not due to any
impracticality of implementing the concept that Voksigid represented. I still
feel that we might have, if a few non-linguistic happenings had been different,
come out with something better than Lojban at the things Lojban is best at,
while being easier to learn.
<br><br>
Voksigid went through three phases:
<br><br>
1. In a preliminary organization phase, we eliminated two people whose ideas
were so far removed from what the rest oif us had in mind that compromise was
clearly impossible. One of them, I feel, could well have contributed a lot of
useful ideas, but was so firmly wedded to an a priori vocabulary that we could
not hold him. His loss was unfortunate because I think he knew a lot about some
aspects of grammar that most of us did not know. The second of those would at
least have given us some input from a person whose native language was not
English, but it was very clear from early on that there was no compromise that
could embrace both him and myself; on one occasion I went so far toward his
proposal that it was making me ill to conceive of what was being done, and yet
he was accusing me of being unwilling to compromise. With the departure of those
two from the group, we were able to come up with some documents to define the
language, and at that point it looked as if we were making progress.
<br><br>
2. At that point, we began filling in the details. We developed a vocabulary,
fleshed out a few grammatical details, and I thought we'd soon have a language
created. Then disaster struck. One of us, who had been the most prolific source
of ideas in the first phase (and who, more than I, was the person whose
structure as first proposed turned out to be the one that the final Voksigid
resembled most closely) had to leave to devote full time to his dissertation.
Another changed schools. I myself, for a while, was incommunicado because I
lost the ability to receive e-mail at my work computer and needed to establish
a new location. That led to phase 3:
<br><br>
3. We got to a point where a proposal would be made, and nobody would respond.
It was clear that nothing more was going to happen. This is where we are now.
I think we have to give Voksigid a decent burial. The defining documents are
still, I assume, to remain on the PLS, and if someone sends a copy of Dave
West's final version of the lexicon to the PLS archives, they will have a
basis on which to proceed if anyone wants to take the role that Ashby and Clark
took to Hogben's Interglossa.
<br><br>
Observations:
<br><br>
Apparently, for an experimental language, the only organization scheme that
works is something like what happened in Lojban. One person (in that case, JCB)
developed a language, and a group was set up only much later, but the group
was much larger than we had, so that dropping out by 1 or 2 or 3 did not leave
them so shorthanded that paralysis started whenever two people disagreed. The
voting mechanisms I devised worked when we had 5 or 6 people; when we got down
to 3 we were lost. They would have worked better if we had the 9 or 10 I'd
originally envisioned. Lojban had one unfortunate experience, the split between
JCB and lojbab that required them to construct a totally new vocabulary from
scratch -- they'd be a year or two further along, I think, if that hadn't happened.
But (even though I can't read the language well enough to follow everything that goes
on) I think the group works well. I'd hoped that we could do that kind of thing
eventually. The only problem is getting to that point. A committee such as we had
doesn't seem to work. I'm sorry it doesn't. John Ross and Jim Carter, at least, had
useful ideas without which the language, if it had depended on me alone, would never
have been as good as the one we were on the threshold of developing. Jim, in
particular, even though he has his own creation (guaspi) and is also an active
participant in the Lojban group as well, was able to grasp the spirit of Voksigid
well enough that his suggestions were frequently right to the point, even though they
had to be different from the way guaspi or Lojban would handle the same problem. I
wish we had been able to get the same from the one person I mentioned earlier who
was the first to get off the boat.
<br><br>
Bruce
<br>
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<H1>[conlang_learners] More about Voksigid</H1>
<B>Jim Henry</B>
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TITLE="[conlang_learners] More about Voksigid">jimhenry1973 at gmail.com
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<I>Sun Jul 19 12:24:49 PDT 2009</I>
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<PRE>Voksigid was an engelang created by Bruce Gilson, Jim Carter, John
Ross and others in 1991-1992. It remained somewhat unfinished; the
vocabulary comprises 256 words and affixes, and the grammar pages,
though the syntax and morphology are described thoroughly at a high
level of abstraction, lack any example sentences. The phonology is
clearly defined except for stress, though the presentation uses
multiple natlang examples for each phoneme and its allophones rather
than IPA. It uses a purely ASCII phonetic orthography, with 24
letters representing 19 consonants and 5 vowels. The vocabulary comes
from a variety of natlangs, mostly European.
Basically, Voksigid is a verb-initial active language with free
ordering of the phrases following the verb, each phrase consisting of
a preposition, a noun, and potentially one or more adjectives and/or
modifying particles. Fairly specific case tags (prepositions) mark
the subject as well as the objects and complements. Content roots
are always verbs (e.g., "katse" is defined as "to be a cat"); nouns
and adjectives are derived from root verbs with case tags used as
nominalizing suffixes. I infer that "katselen" would mean "a cat"
or "pertaining to (a) cat(s)" (depending on context), although use of
specific nominalizers is not discussed. ("len" is defined as "subject
of a non-quantifiable statal predicate� and seems to be the most
appropriate of the case tags for this kind of nominalization. "tor"
is "active subject", i.e. agent I suppose, so "katsetor" would seem to
mean "one who is deliberately being a cat".)
Some details of the grammar are underspecified and would have to be
(re)created based on the clues in the lexicon and grammar documents.
In particular, the definitions of the case tags aren�t always specific
enough to give the reader a clear idea of how they�re used. However,
I think it would be quite possible for us to study the Voksigid
documents, discuss them, and come up with a more ample reference
grammar (with lots of example sentences) and lessons. It would also
be necessary to coin more words based on the principles described in
the morphology document. Voksigid was clearly not intended to be a
lexically minimalist language, given the kinds of concepts to which
root words are devoted in the extant lexicon; the small vocabulary is
due to the project having ended prematurely.
Figuring out the grammar from the terse documents on the Voksigid
website would take some time and effort, but once someone has done
that and written an expanded reference grammar and/or lessons, I think
Voksigid would be relatively easy to learn. The hard part would be
getting used to the way case tags and nominalizers are used (and
perhaps the way relative clauses are formed); there�s no inflection,
much less irregularity thereof, and the phonology should be easy for
anyone who already speaks a European language (and many who don�t).
--
Jim Henry
<A HREF="http://www.pobox.com/~jimhenry/";>http://www.pobox.com/~jimhenry/</A>
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