goals.qmd

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title: Goals
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Shókë is a thought experiment to explicitly reconstruct language evolution following Guy Deutscher's
_The Unfolding of Language_ (occasionally referred to herein as _TUoL_). Another closely followed
resource is David J. Peterson's _The Art of Language Invention_ (TAoLI).

I don't define any linguistic terminology in this document; TAoLI or any introductory linguistic
textbook will suffice as background.

The Old Shókë language is minimal, with a small paleolithic lexicon of nouns, verbs, and pointing
words -- onomatopoeic when possible.  Syntax is unsophisticated isolating SOV.  The Middle Shókë and
New Shókë languages are artificial milestone-markings along the gradual path of change of the
language over time, from (mild) agglutination to (mild) fusion.

The lexicon shown in this document is minimal -- no attempt is made to make even a vocabulary which
would get a person through even the most routine of days. In reality the language would have a bigger
lexicon; one can think of this document as presenting a sample of it for discussion.

While I want to explore agglutination and fusion along with the formation of more complex grammar
over time, in a strongly non-English/non-head-initial and ergative/absolutive context, I want to
(perhaps unrealistically so) avoid "complex" grammar, e.g. what distinguishes Russian or Turkish
from Bahasa Indonesia.  There will be, for example, TMA markers for verbs but at no point do I
intend to introduce words ten syllables long, or verb systems fully inflected for number, person,
gender, tense, and so on.

While this is primarily a linguistic experiment -- more _conling_ than _artlang_, as it were -- I
choose to make things pleasant to my ear (although as of January 2023 Old Shókë comes off as a bit
on the harsh side). Similarly, I'll actively avoid gender affixes, primarily because I simply choose
to do so. Likewise, I dislike complex vowel systems, as in English and French. A great many natural
languages get along quite fine with _aeiou_ or _aiu_ -- I hope to see where simulated evolution of
this constructed language goes with its _aeæiou_ vowels.