How are Globasa's words selected?
Preliminary Step: Before rushing to expand Globasa's dictionary with a new root word, determine if the desired word can potentially be expressed through an already established root word or through a word formation method (affixing or compounding). Based on that determination, decide whether or not to introduce a new root word.
Two-Part Methodology:
(1) Establishing the etymological source for the word
(2) Determining the exact form (lettering) of the word
Establishing the Etymological Source
Caveats: The following caveats must be kept in mind during the source selection process. Whenever necessary, an effort should be made to adapt word forms based on the caveats below using the most widely international etymological source. However, if this is not possible, a less widely international source should be used instead.
Never adopt minimal pairs with v and w, s and z or word-final position m and n.
Unless there is absolutely no other option and it has been thoroughly investigated for potential issues with affixed words, never adopt minimal pairs with plus/minus a consonant at the beginning/end of words.
Whenever possible, avoid minimal pairs with l and r, b and p, f and p, c and j, c and x, h and r or minimal pairs with plus/minus a vowel at the beginning/end of words: Whenever there is more than one option, regardless of number of language families represented, choose the one that does not create one such minimal pair.
Whenever possible, avoid any minimal pair: Whenever there is more than one more or less equal word-form option, choose the form that does not create a minimal pair.
Whenever possible avoid any similar-sounding pair: Whenever there is more than one more or less equal word-form option, choose the form that does not create a similar-sounding pair.
Whenever possible, avoid one-syllable words and words longer than three syllables: Whenever there is more than one more or less equal source option, choose the source with two or three syllables, or add an a posteriori vowel to produce a two-syllable word.
Whenever possible, avoid words that appear to be affixed: Whenever there is more than one more or less equal word-form option, choose the form that does not appear to be affixed.
Source Selection:
Check the following languages on Google Translate, Wiktionary and Wikipedia as well as use print dictionaries as support when in doubt: English, French, German, Russian, Spanish, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Hindi, Telugu, Arabic, Swahili, Persian, Turkish, Indonesian, Filipino. You may also want to try the the Globasa Etymology Helper app.
Select the source with the most language families represented.
If there is a tie in number of families represented, the order of priority for source selection is as follows:
If there is no agreement, do a more thorough search with other parts of speech or with synonyms.
If there is still no agreement, choose the most appropriate source based on the following order of priority.
Keep in mind that the caveats above always trump the source selection guidelines.
Apply the caveats above.
Try finding a middle ground when creating a blend between the words in the various languages. An effort should be made to keep blends as natural as possible. That is, there should be a difference of only one phoneme from the form of any natural language. A difference of two phonemes is also acceptable if the phonemes are close to those of any natural language.
Select consonants and vowels that are the least common in Globasa.
Root words in Globasa tend to end in a vowel, preferably an a posteriori vowel found in at least one of the major languages or language families.
An a priori vowel should only be added if the last consonant is one which phonotactic rules do not allow in word-final position (b, c, d, g, h, j, k, p, t, v, z) or to create a two-syllable word if the source word consists of one syllable. To select an a priori vowel, use the following guidelines: