A con-Creole

Continuing references to Creoles on this list reminds me of this project
which I have gently simmering away on a back element.  I wanted to do a
creole.  An excellent site on the Internet by Alan Corre had a very
thorough wordlist of Lingua Franca.  The grammar is Atlantic creole
borrowed from Holm's Pidgins and Creoles.  Every so often I open a copy
of the Universal Word Lexicon and see if I can fill in a few of the
empty slots.  I looked at a mural on the side of a travel agency, a
sunny mountainous island in the sea, and I thought, Wow, that's just the
sort of the place that I would like the Feringistanis, the speakers of
this creole to live on.  One day I must remember to put some film in my
camera so I can preserve a copy of that mural.  I may need a map...

I posted a Babel text for Feringistani ages ago.  I thought it was about
time I wrote a bit more.

Please note that I use the name Feringistan with the old meaning of
'land of the foreigners', it has nothing to do with bumpy-headed aliens.
:)

Vowels: i, e, a, o, u (approximating Spanish values)

Consonants: b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, v, y, z.

c /ts/ before i and e, else /k/

c, /ts/, used before a, o, u; c-cedilla

cu /k/ before i and e, otherwise /kw/

ch /tS/

sh /S/

k /k/ used to avoid vowel clusters

g /dZ/ before i and e, else /g/

gu /g/ before i and e

j /dZ/

z /dz/

r /R/ uvular-r

Yes, I know it's an unorthodox orthography for a creole, but I like it,
so there! :P

Pronouns:

mi, -ya/-i/-ni: first person singular
ti, -(a)c: second person singular
elu, su, li,: third person singular
ela, su, li, (-a): third person singular feminine
noi, -na: first person plural
voi, -cu(m): second person plural
elus, loro, -um: third person plural
elat, loro, -um: third person plural feminine

The suffixes are borrowed from Arabic and indicate possessor or direct
object.  They can be replaced with the simple pronoun marked with a
preposition.  -ya/-i is used after nouns and -ni with verbs.  The
suffixes are incomplete as no forms exist for the third person singular
exists, instead the possessive su is used, or the indirect object li.  A
feminine object marker -a, is reported in conjunction with this, but its
exact nature is in flux and awaits further studies.  The third person
plural also retains a indirect object loro.  Ela(t) is used with female
persons, and can be used with a-nouns.

Verbs:

Once the context has been established the simple verb is used: 'fa';
make, do.  Feringistani has a past participle 'fato' (for a creole it
tends to be posh!)  The language has the following markers:

sta: progressive
staba (participle): anterior
staba (simple verb): progressive-anterior
sa: habitual
fi: completive
bezonya: irrealis
sera: irrealis-anterior
de: complementiser
ne...(no): negative participle
e: emphatic, always fronted

Nouns:

The plural is -s.  If the noun ends in -a, the plural is -t.  Possession
follows the noun, 'cane d'umbre', man's dog.  The definite article is
il, it can be attached to nouns.  There is one known demonstrative,
cuesto/cuesta.  Adjectives follow nouns and do not harmonise for gender
or number.  As predicates they can take verb makers.  Word order is SVO.

Well, I hope that some have found this worthy of inspiration and others
worthy of correction. :)

- andrew.
--
Andrew Smith, Intheologus                       hobbit@griffler.co.nz
alias Mungo Foxburr of Loamsdown
http://hobbit.griffler.co.nz/homepage.html

It's all over now.  They stand backs to the wall
Waiting for the fascist's sword to fall
In the desperation of a young life about to end
He turns before the bullet, And forgives a friend.
                               - Johnny Clegg and Savuka, Warsaw 1943

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