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<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">Hi Richard,</font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">I used this method with a Mon-Khmer
language many years ago just to collect words, but I also checked it against
my CVC distribution chart and found certain combinations that were avoided
for unknown reasons--maybe they didn't sound good or carried bad connotations--and
certain areas for special use. The one that I remember is that children's
given names shared an area on the distribution chart that was not used
for anything else. This was particularly interesting because their is a
sanction against using the same name as anyone else known to be living
or dead. I guess that a population explosion could force them into using
other areas for making names.</font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">Dick</font>
<br>
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<p><font size=3>Hi Richard,<br>
<br>
I did this kind of thing in the early days of our language project in PNG.
I had worked out the consonant and vowel phonemes for Amele and that word
roots could be one, two or three syllables. I then had someone at Ukarumpa
High School write a program (this was in 1978) to generate possible word
roots in Amele based on the phoneme inventory and the syllable patterns.
The lists for the one and two syllable roots weren't too long but the list
for the three syllable roots was enormous! I then distributed these lists
to various Amele people for them to try and identify actual word roots.
They thought this was great fun. But the hard work was then confirming
that the roots indicated were actual words and what their meaning and usage
were.<br>
<br>
Another SIL member I know (who I met again just recently) used the same
method for their language project. He said when he gave the lists out to
people one of the men asked, "Do you want all the dirty words too?"<br>
<br>
But as I recall, this method of "generating" words in a language
was somewhat frowned upon by the linguistic establishment in SIL-PNG in
those days. But I found I got a lot of words that I might not have got
hold of otherwise - such as taboo words.<br>
<br>
I believe there is software available in SIL now that can do this kind
of thing for you. You don't have to ask a high schooler to do it for you.
Oh, and the people you are working with need to be literate in their own
language.<br>
<br>
John Roberts<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
Richard Gravina wrote: </font>
<br><font size=2 face="Arial">I'm interested in knowing more about the
method of data collection based on 'potential' words. This is where you
create lists of artificial words by randomly combining letters, and then
go through the lists with native speakers to see if the words actually
exist in the language.</font>
<p><font size=3> </font>
<br><font size=2 face="Arial">Does anyone have any experience of using
this? Do you know of any resources or software that would help?</font>
<br><font size=3> </font>
<br><font size=2 face="Arial">Richard Gravina</font>
<br>
<br>
<p><font size=3 color=white></font>
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