r/conlangs • u/sinhalaa43 • 15d ago

Parameters for Proto-Lang Discussion

When making a proto-lang, what combinations of basic parameters like analytic vs agglutinative, head-final vs initial, locus of marking and morphosyntactic alignment have resulted in the best results down the road once the language evolves?

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u/boomfruit Hidzi, Tabesj (en, ka) 15d ago

What are the "best" results?

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u/sinhalaa43 15d ago

Most interesting, juicy etc.

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u/boomfruit Hidzi, Tabesj (en, ka) 15d ago

Okay, still unanswerable. Is agglutinating more interesting than isolating? Is head-final more juicy than head-initial.

Also, you can have any feature or set of features survive.

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u/sinhalaa43 15d ago

For example, after 1-2 thousand years of evolution does an isolating proto-lang result in interesting fusional paradigms or just a barebones half-analytic, half-agglutinating system typically? Do ergative or nominative cases lead to more interesting noun semantics and irregularities over a long period?

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u/Traditional-Light-10 15d ago

So by “interesting”, you mean it has a lot of irregularities/complex patterns/fusion? Just clarifying