
[This was written in ascii plaintext in September 1995. HTML and 
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Vorlin
a planned language for international 
communication and linguistic experimentation

by Rick Harrison


Introduction

Vorlin is a planned language (which might also be called an artificial
language, a universal language, or a constructed language, depending
on your preference in terminology).  The creation of Vorlin began in
late 1989 and the first published version appeared in March, 1991.  
Since that time, I have continued refining the design.  These changes 
have partly been inspired by suggestions from others who have used the 
proto-language, and are partly the result of my ongoing studies of 
linguistics and language design issues.  The main objective of the design 
is still vor, our word for "a compromise between technical and aesthetic 
criteria," in other words, the avoidance of extremism in the design of
things. 

noteworthy features of Vorlin:

* The vast majority of root-words in Vorlin are nouns, for two reasons: 
1) I believe it is easier to translate nouns which refer to discreet 
objects and perceptions into other languages than it is to translate 
verbs, prepositions and other kinds of words; 2) Vorlin uses affixes to 
derive most of its verbs, adjectives, adverbs and prepositions from 
nouns, which gives us a relatively regular and predictable grammar, and 
reduces the number of morphemes that must be memorized.

* Vorlin is not a highly inflected language.  The adjectives, for 
example, do not change their form to reflect the case, number, or gender 
of the nouns which they describe.  Nouns do not go through contortions to 
indicate case or number.  Verbs do not change form to indicate the person 
or number of their subject; indication of tense is optional and is 
accomplished with adverbs.

* The vocabulary is taken from a wide variety of sources.  The morphology 
is carefully designed to provide vor.  Most morphemes are relatively 
brief (2 or 3 letters).



Orthography and Pronunciation


alphabet:

Vorlin uses these 25 letters: abcdefghijklmnoprstuvwxyz.  (Q is absent.)


capitalization:

Only proper nouns and their derivatives begin with upper-case letters; 
Vorlin does not automatically "capitalize" the first letter of a 
sentence.  This style of capitalization enhances the difference between 
proper names and identical-looking Vorlin compound words.  


pronunciation:

Vorlin's rules of pronunciation are simple and have no exceptions. There 
are no silent letters.  The following table explains the phonemes 
represented by each Vorlin letter.  The English equivalents which are 
given here refer to Standard American English, not British English.

a: as in 'father.' (open, front, not rounded)

b: as in 'bubble' (voiced bilabial plosive)

c: like the 'sh' in 'ship' (voiceless postalveolar fricative)

d: as in 'deed' (voiced dental or alveolar plosive)

e: When 'e' is followed by a consonant within a word, it is like the 
'e' in 'ten men'.  When 'e' occurs at the end of a word, it is longer 
and more frontal, more like the 'ey' in 'they' but hopefully without 
the diphthongal off-glide which occurs in English.

f: as in 'fluff' (voiceless bilabial or labiodental fricative)

g: as in 'gargle', not as in 'ginger' (voiced velar plosive)

h: as in 'heat' (never silent).  The guttural ch of German 'bach,' 
Scottish 'loch,' Yiddish 'chutspah' is an acceptable alternative 
pronunciation for persons (e.g Spanish-speakers and Russians) whose 
native languages do not contain an English-style 'h'.  (voiceless
velar or glottal fricative)

i: as in 'machine' and 'ski,' not as in 'stick' (close, front, not
rounded)

j: as in French 'bonjour.'  This sound is also heard in the English 
words 'vision, pleasure, azure.'  (voiced postalveolar fricative)

k: as in 'key-stroke' (voiceless velar plosive)

l: as in 'legal'

m: as in 'memory' (voiced bilabial nasal)

n: as in 'noon' (voiced alveolar nasal)

o: as in 'note,' Spanish 'ocho' (close-mid, back, rounded)

p: as in 'pop' (voiceless bilabial plosive, preferably aspirated)

r: always distinctly spoken; use a Spanish (voiced alveolar) trill, or a 
German (voiced uvular) trill.

s: as in 'sissy', not as in 'rose' (voiceless alveolar fricative)

t: as in 'tight' (voiceless dental or alveolar plosive, preferably aspirated)

u: as in 'truth,' German 'du.' (close, back, rounded)

v: as in 'valve' (voiced labiodental fricative)

w: as in 'water'

x: like the 'ch' in 'church'

y: as in 'yes' and 'yo-yo' 

z: as in 'zigzag' (voiced alveolar fricative)

Rule for accentuation of polysyllabic words: If a word ends with a vowel, 
stress the next-to-last syllable.  For words ending in consonants, stress 
the final syllable.  

Some languages contain 'digraphs' - special combinations of two letters 
which represent single sounds.  English examples of digraphs are the 'sh' 
in 'ship' and the 'th' in 'bath.'  Vorlin root-words don't contain any 
digraphs.  However, you may occasionally find unofficial digraphs used in 
Vorlin text to re-spell foreign names; for example, 'dj' represents the 
sound of 'J' in 'James,' 'ay' represents the /ai/ diphthong in 'Kyle' and 
'Mike,' 'ey' represents the e-gliding-to-i in 'Cey' and 'Kay,' and 'oy' 
represents the /oi/ diphthong in 'Roy.'




Vorlin Grammar in a Nutshell


nouns: 

No flexion to indicate case, number, or anything else.


compounds: 

In the formation of compound words, the most significant root-word comes 
last, and is preceded by its modifiers.  For example, ful (meaning 
'bird') and hus ('house') combine to form fulhus ('birdhouse' - a 
man-made dwelling-structure for birds); ful plus gan (which means 'song') 
produces fulgan ('birdsong' - the song of birds) or ganful ('songbird' - 
a bird associated with singing).


pronouns: 

The personal pronouns are mi (I), vi (you singular), li (he), zi (she), 
ta (he/she), di (it), mo (we), vo (you plural), lo (they).  All nouns are 
represented by the neuter pronoun di unless they refer to animate, 
sentient creatures.  Add -xe to form possessives: mixe (my), loxe 
(their).  The relative pronoun is kel: vi bi hom kel havo dat xa pola 
nuva lin ma? = are you (the) person who has information about many new 
languages?


articles:

Vorlin does not have definite articles (equivalent to the English
word "the") or indefinite articles (like English "a").  Articles in
a universal language project are usually a by-product of Euro-centric
bias.  The rules that govern the usage of articles vary from language to 
language, and are a great difficulty for people whose native languages 
do not have articles (and many languages do not).



verbs: 

The four verbs are:

i -- intransitive, meaning "to do, to engage in (a specified activity)"
o -- transitive, meaning "impart quality X to Y, do process X to Y"
bi -- intransitive copula, equivalent to some uses of English "to be"
wi -- intransitive, meaning "become, acquire the quality/status"

derivatives:
                                    i       o       bi      wi
gerund:                             ind     ond     bin     win
active participle, adjectival:      inda    onda    binda   winda
active participle, adverbial:       inde    onde    binde   winde
passive participle (noun):          -       it      -       -
passive participle, adjectival:     -       ita     -       -
passive participle, adverbial:      -       ite     -       -

The verbs i, o, wi usually appear as quasi-suffixes attached to other 
root-words, but bi normally appears in free-standing form.  A few simple 
phrases illustrating the use of verbs:

        zi lofo li.           She loves him.
        li lofo zi.           He loves her.
        zi volo lofo li.      She wants to love him.
        lixe fac rubwi.       His face reddened (became red.)
        li bi bona hom.       He is a good person.
        zi bi lofita.         She is loved.
        moxe lofita lin       our beloved language
        lofinda hom           a loving person 
        homlofinda hom        a people-loving person

Some of these could be expressed in other ways:

        lixe fac rubwi = lixe fac wi ruba = lixe fac nifo bi ruba
        homlofina hom = hom kel lofo heta hom

The transitive -o is normally used when the "object" of the verb is a
phrase beginning with ke: mi keno ke vi filo Vorlin (I know that you
like Vorlin).

The meanings of o:  From the point of view of an English-speaking person, 
the meaning of o varies somewhat depending on the noun (or other root-word) 
to which it is attached.  

1.) When the root-word refers to an abstract quality, o means "impart the 
quality to something else."  Examples:

        hol (completeness) + o = holo (to complete something)
        rub (redness) + o = rubo (to redden something)

As a metaphorical extension of the above principle, o can mean "apply the
named substance to something else."  Example:

        sal (salt) + o = salo (to salt something), e.g. temur
                             salo tol vun ("time salts all wounds")

2.) When used with a noun that refers to a relationship, o means "have
the relationship toward something."  Examples:

        sen (lack of) + o = seno (to lack, be without)
        sim (similarity) + o = simo (resemble, be similar to)

3.) When used with a noun that refers to an activity or process, o means 
"do the process or activity to something."   Examples:

        vid (vision) + o = vido (to see)
        don (giving) + o = dono (to give)

4.) In keeping with item 3, when the noun refers to an emotion, o means 
"feel that emotion toward..."  Vorlin is much more consistent about this 
than English and other languages, so be careful when translating terms of 
emotion into Vorlin.  (Rather than saying "that interests me" or "she makes 
me angry," a speaker of Vorlin generally takes responsibility for his/her 
own emotions and says the equivalent of "I do fascination to that" or "I do 
anger to her.")  Examples:

        lof (love) + o = lofo (to love someone)
        fob (fear) + o = fobo (to be afraid of, to fear something)

5.) The verb o is seldom or never attached to nouns that refer to plants
or animals, periods of time (such as 'year' or 'day'), or geographical 
features (such as 'ocean' and 'mountain').  Attaching o to a preposition,
numeral or particle should generally be avoided because it is likely to 
create a word that might be interpreted in several different ways.

causatives:

The notion of "causing someone to do something" can be expressed by the 
verb kazo; the infix -ok- can be used with transitive verbs.  Please note
how the verb's "arguments" are arranged when -ok- is used; the "causee  
tag" ce points out who is being caused to do whatever is being done.  
Examples:

        zi senoko lof ce mi.  (She deprived me of love; literally
            "she lack-cause love 'ce' me.")
        li vidoko buk ce zi.  (He showed her the book; literally
            "he see-cause book 'ce' her.")
        zi diroko mi ce pafel.  (She aimed the gun at me; literally
            "she aim:at-cause me 'ce' gun.")

The sentences above could be re-phrased as:

        zi kazo mi seno lof.  (She caused me to lack love.)
        li kazo zi vido buk.  (He caused her to see the book.)
        zi kazo pafel diro mi.  (She caused the gun to point toward me.)



numerals: 

The basic cardinal numerals are: yun (1), dus (2), tri (3), fir (4), zag 
(5), sor (6), sep (7), hac (8), kyu (9), dek (10), hun (100), kil (1000), 
wan (10 000), meg (1 000 000), gig (1 000 000 000).

For the sake of discussion, we will call the numerals dek, hun, kil, wan, 
meg, gig "powers-of-ten words."  Prefixing a numeral-word ranging from 2 to 9 
onto a powers-of-ten word indicates multiplication.  Therefore, dusdek means 
"twenty," sepdek means "seventy," etc.  Note that dek by itself means "ten;"
it is not necessary to say *yundek.

In naming integers larger than ten, we create a compound word, starting with 
the multiple of the largest powers-of-ten word and working our way down to 
the hundreds, tens, and units.  These words are written with hyphens after 
each powers-of-ten word to make reading them easier. Examples: 11 = dek-yun,
21 = dusdek-yun, 365 = trihun-sordek-zag, 7654 = sepkil-sorhun-zagdek-fir.

Ordinals are formed by adding the suffix -a; adverbials are formed by adding 
-e: yuna = first, yune = firstly; dusa = second, duse = secondly.

Fractions are formed by the suffix -yet: tri firyet = three fourths, 3/4; 
fir sepyet = four sevenths, 4/7.

Serial numbers, such as the name of a year or a telephone number, are 
normally spoken digit by digit.  The year 1957 is called "yun kyu zag sep"
rather than *kil-kyuhun-zagdek-sep.



adjectives and adverbs: 

Adding the suffix -a to a noun or preposition forms an adjective meaning 
"characterized by" or "pertaining to."  Examples: ful = bird, fula = avian; 
bon = goodness, bona = good; son = sound, sona = sonic.

The suffix -a by itself is brief but ambiguous; if you need more precision, 
you have other options.  The suffix -oj means "having a larger than usual 
amount or heavier than normal concentration of"; -uj means "having an 
ordinary amount or typical concentration of"; and -ij means "having a 
smaller than ordinary amount or thinner concentration of."  (By the way,
these words ending with -oj, -uj, -ij can be used either as adjectives or 
adverbs.)  Additionally, you can use xa- to indicate pertinence, -hava to 
indicate that something "has" or "is furnished with" something else, or 
-sena to indicate a lack of something.  Examples:

        bom          tree
        boma         arboreal (= xaboma or bomhava)
        xaboma       arboreal, pertaining to trees
        bomhava      tree-ed, having tree(s)
        bomsena      tree-less, devoid of trees
        bomoj        having a large quantity of trees, a dense tree population
        bomuj        having an ordinary concentration of trees
        bomij        having a sparse tree population, having few trees

        hit          heat
        hitoj        hot
        hituj        warm or lukewarm or "room-temperature"
        hitij        cool

-oj, -uj and -ij can also be used with verbs to indicate intensity.
duti = to blow (i.e. to move as a current of gas); dutiji = to puff or
waft (to move as a current of gas with very little intensity).

The opposite meaning of an adjective (if a direct opposite would make any 
sense) can be formed by adding the prefix kan- (related to Spanish contra-).  
Thus bona means "good" and kanbona means "bad," fula means "avian" 
(pertaining to birds) so kanfula would be a nonsense word and would not be 
used in normal communication.  Do not equate kan- with English un-.  
There is nothing equal to kan- in English, although it is much like contra- 
in the medical term "contra-indicated," and like anti- in "anti-matter."

Some commonly-used root-words have been given separate opposites.  For 
example, mala has the same meaning as kanbona.  These opposites prevent 
monotonous over-use of kan- and increase the brevity of common words.

Adding -e to a root-word forms an adverb.  The -e suffix has a meaning 
similar to "in the manner of" or "using a method involving..."  (Similar to 
the English suffix -ly.)  Examples: bon = goodness, bone = well; 
mal = badness, male = poorly, badly.

Comparatives are created like so:
        bona            good
        ho bona         better, more good
        hostu bona      best, most good
        hi bona         less good
        histu bona      least good
        hobono          to improve (something), "more-good-render"



prepositions:

Many of Vorlin's prepositions are derived from other morphemes using the 
relational suffix -u.  (Actually, many of these derivative words can 
function as prepositions or conjunctions; such words are called 
"relators.")  Creating prepositions in this manner might help to prevent 
new users of Vorlin from creating word-for-word encodings of idiomatic 
usages of prepositions from their native languages.  It also might prevent 
Vorlin's relators from developing the polysemy and idiomatic usages which 
afflict the adpositions of most languages.

The exact meaning of the suffix -u can only be explained in the context 
of a phrase.  In the hypothetical phrase 'bab cacu dad', the -u indicates 
that 'bab' has a status or relationship of 'cac' when compared to 'dad',
or that 'bab' is in or at the 'cac' of 'dad'.  ful levu zixe kap = 
"'bird' has a relationship of 'upward/higher' compared to 'her head'",
or (translated more freely) "bird above her head."  nav mesu mer =
"'ship' in or at 'middle' of 'ocean'" = "ship in the middle of the sea."

Vorlin relators ending in -u can often be loosely translated into English 
transitive verbs in their active voice: desu = 'departing', havu = 
'having', komu = 'reaching (arriving at)'.  Thinking of the relators in 
this way can help you to correctly translate English prepositions into 
Vorlin; for example, to translate the word 'with', you must first 
determine whether it means "having" or "accompanying" or "using."



syntax: 

The preferred word order is: subject, verb, direct object, indirect 
object (if present).  Adjectives and adverbs generally appear before the 
words which they modify.  Example: zi dono nuva buk ge mi (she gave me
the new book).

A declarative sentence can be turned into a question simply by inserting 
the word ma at the end.  The reply to a 'yes or no' question consists of 
ya or no followed by the main verb from the question: vi kuso mi ma? (= 
Do you hear me?)  no kuso. (= Not hear = No, I don't hear you.)

The presence of an interrogative word (such as the equivalent to 'where?' 
or 'what?') does not cause a change in word order.

The conjunctions wa (and) and we (or) are normally repeated between
each pair of items in a list: mi kudo Esperanto wa Interglossa wa Loglan 
wa Vorlin.  (I am familiar with Esperanto, Interglossa, Loglan and 
Vorlin.)  This might seem strange to English-speakers but it occurs in
other natural languages (e.g. Japanese) and it seems to be an easy way
to prevent certain ambiguities.

In poetry and in casual or hurried conversation there may be departures 
from normal syntax.




Morphology and Vocabulary Design

All nouns have the form CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant), CVCVC, or
CVCVCVC.  Most suffixes begin with a vowel or semivowel.  Most conjunctions, 
personal pronouns and grammatical particles are CV or CSV (where S = 
semivowel 'w' or 'y').

Vorlin's vocabulary is designed around the idea that a basic vocabulary 
of about 1000 radicals can be re-combined into various compound words 
that can express most everyday concepts.  The creation of compound words
and/or a process of 'borrowing' can handle the need for culture-specific 
terms such as local plant and animal species, foods and beverages, and 
technical terminology.

In searching for a morpheme to express a particular concept, we begin by 
seeking a CVC or CVCVC root that exists in several languages, such as lun 
for 'moon' and sal for 'salt' (both from Latin, occurring in various 
Romance languages, and also seen in the English words 'lunar' and 
'saline').  If that approach yields nothing, we begin searching natural 
languages one by one for a suitable morpheme, usually beginning with 
Germanic languages, then moving on to Slavic, Romance, and Asian 
languages.  

If we still have not found what we need, we consider more esoteric 
possibilities, such as: other artificial languages; the Greek roots found 
in pan-European scientific vocabulary; English slang; extinct languages 
and hypothetical reconstructions of ancient tongues.  In a few cases, we 
have created words by spelling their opposites backwards (e.g. nif from 
fin), a trick borrowed from Solresol.  A few morphemes are nearly-random 
a priori constructions.

CVCVC morphemes cannot end with VC couplets that are suffixes, for 
example, a CVCVC morpheme cannot end in -aj, -et, -im.  In order to 
reduce the frequency of difficult consonant clusters within compound 
words, morphemes do not begin with j- or end in -x.  (The suffix -ax is 
the only exception.)  h can only occur at the beginning of a syllable.




A Word about Translations

I believe it is advisable for students to learn the Vorlin vocabulary
one morpheme at a time, and then begin expressing their own thoughts 
(rather than someone else's thoughts) in the language.   Translations
of foreign material can become an important part of any culture's
literature, but I believe Vorlin enthusiasts should focus on developing 
an original culture (based on vor) and original literature, rather than 
subsisting parasitically on the works of other cultures.


---
Rick Harrison 
1995.09.17


