Elements

I'm trying to decide how to handle the elements of the periodic table. Should they have a characteristic ending? It would be systematic to do it that way, but there are elements, like gold, that would be sort of distorted that way.  How about selecting a word that means "element," like "jen" (from the English ending in oxygen, etc., and then making compounds? As things stand, kin, from Japanese, means "gold". So maybe kinjen would mean "gold as an element." But many elements, if they're derived from other Ceqli words would have to be compounds. I want to preserve as far as possible the similarity of the symbols to the words, so I figure "helium" would be helijen, rather than sunjen, and as yet heli has no meaning in Ceqli. And I think that's okay.  And in Ceqli, "California" is kalifornet (names have to end in -t) but it would drop the -t to make the element. And since it's not really all that useful to have the element name resemble the place name, I'm inclined to want to make it resemble its symbol, Cf, instead, and call it californjen. 

So unless I'm talked out of it, I'm going to go with making the element names first of all suggest the symbols, unless the symbols don't begin with a cwazim, and in those cases I'll either put an h- in front, as in heynsteynjen, or just use a form, like kinjen, borrowed directly from one language or another. I was going to follow the pattern of German, and call hydrogen panijen,  but I think it's more important to follow the symbol, so it will be hidrojen.

Suggestions welcome.

Ceqli Through Pictures

Ceqli through pictures is revised:
Click HERE.
Comments, criticisms, suggestions, etc. welcomed.

Lesson 10 - Jin, Jini, jino, pe, ba, xi, jo

Lesson 10 is up HERE. It clarifies some grammar, and differences between Ceqli and Loglan.

Names Reworked

I believe I have the name problem solved. All names to end in -t. Plus a logical way to show what they are names of without overcomplicating things. Take a look HERE.
Comments and suggestions welcome.

Names

A quick thought about names.  Currently, Ceqli names have the form of a Ceqli morpheme or compound, plus the suffix -zo. This gives clarity, but it makes all names one extra syllable long. Now, the Loglan rule was that all names end in a consonant followed by a pause, and that kept names short. I'm beginning to wonder about that possibility. As of now, before the -zo, all Ceqli names have a falozim —a vowel, semivowel, nasal, or R or L. How about this rule:

All Ceqli names end in -t plus a pause, except when the preceding letter is q, in which case they end with -k, or when it's m, in which case the ending is -p.

We'd have names like:

Tomp Jefersont
Heybrahamp Hlinkont
Jant
Samp
Bilt
Salit
Jerit
Biqk

Or I could make it always -t, and when the preceding letter is q or m, make it -at.  Those above would be
Tomat
Heybrahamat
Samat
Biqat

An advantage to this system, either with t, k, p, or with t, -at, would be that a pause afterwards wouldn't be so crucial, as it's natural for an English speaker, at least, to make a clear disjuncture.  I mean

Jant sa
doesn't sound much like
Jan tsa
at all because the latter is a pretty clear affricate, and the former has little tendency to become one.

All that would work fine with people's names, but it gets trickier with, say, names of things.  Say:

Japant - Japan

But what about Japanese language, Japanese person, etc? Is it ambiguous or problematical to say:

Da Japantjin.  He is Japanese.
Da Japantbol. It is Japanese language.
or
Da Japanthaym. It is Japan.
or
Da Japant sa komxo. It is Japan's (Japanese) food.

With those three endings it isn't, because of course a word can't begin or end with tj, tb, or th, so the morphology still self-segregates. And the sa seems to work okay when I pronounce it.  That is, I clearly distinguish

Japant sa
Japan tsa

At this point, I'm inclined to go with -t, -p, -k.

For foreign names that remain in foreign form, like mine, Rex May, which doesn't fit Ceqli phonology at all, I can use the "article" ta, and to avoid ambiguity, close it with beta:

Go bekyam ta Rex May beta. My name is Rex May. I could also Ceqli-fy it thus:

Sreksat Smeyt

or flat-out translate it, as it means "King fifth-month," as:

Kiqot Fayzemxart

Or, taking "may" as the verb meaning having permission, which is "kuna" from Swedish:

Kiqot Kunat

More Revision

The Wiki

is up to date, and so are both glossaries there. Please point out any errors to rmay@mac.com

Revision

I'm in the process of revising the CeqliWiki. I've reverted a few things back to the original form, clarified the alphabet and pronunciation and given the letters names. I've abandoned the Loglan notion of retaining CV for grammar words and making everything else a content word. It's simply too restricting and some words, like numerals and other mathematical terms, don't fall clearly in either classification.

My next step is to prepare a dictionary, and then I'll revise Ceqli through Pictures.

P.S. I have a good start on the Ceqli-English glossary.

Phonology Change?

I just had the darnedest idea for extending the Ceqli phonology.  I've been bothered for awhile that there's no zh sound (as in 'treaSure') in it, though there's a j and both a x and a c for the sounds in SHoe and CHew.  Symmetry demands something better.  I could set j to stand for zh, and then indicate the former j sound with dj. But if I did that, symmetry demands that I drop c and use tx to make that sound. Then I'd have an extra letter, c, that would be good for nothing.  So then I thought of, not adding accented letters, which are a nightmare, but using double letters. Since double letters simply can't occur in Ceqli as it is, double letters could be regarded as letters all by themselves, opening up lots of new phonemes — not that I'd use them all in Ceqli, but they'd be handy for ZH, and also for transcribing foreign words, especially names.

So let's say zz = the sound in treaSure
Then tt = TH as in THin
dd = THere
ff = Japanese bilabial F
vv = Spanish bilabial B

You see where I'm going.

Also, vowels could double, and
aa = cAt
ee = bUt
ii = thIs
oo = German ö
uu = German ü

Again, the only thing I'd regularly use would be zz.  I'd especially like to replace ja je ji jo ju with zza, etc.

Any reactions?