Posted by GreenDragon on 14:00 7/12/02
In reply to: Vocabulary Creation?!? posted by Matt on 17:01 7/1/02
The reason that I feel disatisfied by computer generating words for a lexicon is because I don't feel that they are "mine". Also i don't know which words to derive or to create. I get confused thinking that I need a set ammount of roots and then i just derive all the words from those. If that is the case, what are the roots that i am supposed to make up? Matt
Do you think there's an 'official list of roots'? Most languages have a few thousand roots, at least, and what's a root in one language may be a derived word in another.
It might help to read an introductory book on semantics; or examine the etymologies in any good dictionary. There's many ways to derive a word; for instance, here are a few ways to derive 'world':
ordered arrangement (Greek)
inhabited (lands) (Greek)
(place of) peace (Russian)
foundation (Irish)
home (Norse)
middle enclosure (Germanic)
under the sun (Lithuanian)
open space (Sanskrit)
the great place (Cadhinor)
the place of life (Cuezi)
earth and sea (Cadhinor)
all land (Kebreni)
Of course, if you're making a conlang, it's fine to just make up a word too. It's not very important which words are roots. Derive words from other words where you can think of a derivation; where you can't, don't worry about it.