Conlangs of the World

This is my submission, for Nik or JAM or whoever will be collecting data
on our conlangs.

Translated passage: Ecclesiastes 1, 1-5;12-18
[' = accute, " = diaeresis, ^ = circumflex (over the previous vowel)

 1 Vaimmi'nkrones bu^rth, themoldoren porr, Davides teumus, Ierusalmes dantur.
 2 Fra"th aubelas, bur themoldoren, fra"th aubelas mi vaubelef tanqa'th.
 3 Lif pon laihar lif fol bais qgafrar tiarpa'n ren qenthn? Nefa'r piossu'th,
 4 rrif piossu'th, elena'r dhrith tadh. Gevva'dh bais, gebbo'dh bais,
 5 mi qualgevvadhdien frafu"'lu"ssan qinatre's.
[...]
 6 Siqe's sar, Vaimminkron, Ierusalmu"r Israiles dantur. I on fol bais gu"ftenkar
 7 dhinnailu"^n olmamu"t m idlimaril dunsadhu"t. Dt, qes attha"tht olmampar i bu"d
 8 burfudhu"aq Elan renhandh. I on fol bais gentsar rrosailu"t, mi lelu"t vaubelef
 9 tanqa'th, a"mtresten nedann bu"rr. Thurfarenammia'th enmia'thtentar, thurfaro'nd
10 itu"maldnel qathn.
11 Tenkalu"t sar, qata^nafunu"t qrevans nafunu"eq Ierusalmes san fanqesonth bu"rrn;
12 sunta^ qgulalu"t qrevans mi naians. En qrevas mi naias, tumbethas mi affu'th
13 tenkalu"t, farbu'n naf sar qes i anthn dhinnailu"n muinsil a"mtresten nedann.
14 Fudh satta^maikte^n qrevas maikte^n idlima^nth; lif odhek qre'vnentan
15 ta^rodhek rra'dhdentan.

IPA transcription (r" = alv flap, r = alv trill, G" = voiced uvular stop)

 1 vaIm'minkr"ones bu:r"T Temol'dor"en poR da'vides 'teUmus jer"u'salmes 'dantur"
 2 fr"&T aU'belas bur" Temol'dor"en fr&T aU'belas mi vaU'belef tan'qaT
 3 lif pon 'laIhar" lif fol bais 'G"afr"ar" tjar"'pan r"en qenTn  ne'far" pjos'suT
 4 rif pjos'suT ele'nar" Dr"iT taD  gev'vaD baIs geb'boD baIs
 5 mi qwalgev'vaDdjen fr"a'fylyssan qina'tr"es
 6 si'qes sar" vaIm'minkr"on jer"u'salmyr" is'raIles 'dantur"  i on fol baIs gyf'tenkar"
 7 Din'naIly:n ol'mamyt midli'mar"il dun'saDyt  &t qes at'T&aTt ol'mampar" i byd
 8 bur"'fuDaq 'elan 'r"enhanD  i on fol baIs 'gentsar" ro'saIlyt mi 'lelyt vaU'belef
 9 tan'qaT &m'tr"esten 'nedann byr  Tur"far"enam'mjaT en'mjaTtentar" Tur"far"'ond
10 ity'maldnel qaTn
11 ten'kalyt sar" qata:na'funyt 'qr"evans na'funyeq jer"u'salmes san fan'qesonT byrn
12 'sunta: G"u'lalyt 'qr"evans mi 'najans  en 'qr"evas mi 'najas tum'beTas mi af'fuT
13 ten'kalyt far"'bun naf sar" qes i anTn Din'naIlyn 'mwinsil &m'tr"esten 'nedann
14 fuD satta:'maIkte:n 'qr"evas 'maIkte:n idli'ma:nT  lif 'oDek 'qr"evnentan
15 ta:'r"oDek 'raDdentan

The words of Ecclesiastes, preacher, son of David, king of Jerusalem.
There is no reason, says the preacher, there is no reason and everything
is absurd. What does the man get from his fatigue and his work under the sun?
A generation comes, a generation goes, but the land stays forever. The sun
rises, the sun sets, and without stopping it runs to rise again.
[It has been] I, Ecclesiastes, king of Israel in Jerusalem.
I sharply looked and critically examined everything [that is] done under
the sun. [And so], it is an unpleasing task that God has commanded [on] men.
I looked at what happens under the sun, and found that everything is absurd,
[and] chasing the wind. It is impossible to untangle that which is entangled,
it is impossible to replace anything that is deficient.
I thought [to] myself, [that] I made knowledge progress more than anyone of my
predecesors of Jerusalem did; a lot I tasted of knowledge and science. I reflected
about knowledge and science, stupidity and madness, [and] thus I saw that studying
this is chasing the wind too. Too much wisdom brings a lot of trouble; the more
the knowledge, the more the suffering.

Name: Drasele'q (Draseliq, with accute over second <e>)
Type: fictional, a priori
Spoken by: human beings, _dra'selhadh_ (lit. "the crossers")
Spoken in: Kingdom of Thaqulm, in the continent of Rronamon

Website:
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Shire/1021/draseleq.html (Draseliq main page)
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Shire/1021/thaqulm.html (History of Thaqulm)

Some details:

Drasele'q is an inflecting language, moderately synthetic, using prefixes,
suffixes and (to a lesser degree) infixes. Some traces of agglutination.
Verbs inflected by person (distinguishes inclusive vs. exclusive we) and tense
(habitual present, actual present, past, past anterior, future, future posterior),
also optionally by voice, aspect (lots), and style (degree of politeness).
Nouns inflected by number (singular, unique singular, plural, group plural)
and case (nominative, accusative, genitive, locative, comparative).
Adjectives are morphologically verbs. Prepositions, not governing any case.
Word order: quite rigid VSO (sometimes OVS), strictly head-first except for
relative clauses.

Some remarkable features: nouns and especially pronouns can be "relativized"
and used in place of a proper relative pronoun. Verbs have several active and
passive participles to be used in different occasions according adjectival
or adverbial use.

Script: _eqalar_ (literally "rope, string"), with wide winding letters for
consonants and smaller signs for vowels; not cursive though not "squared";
written vertically from top to bottom and from left to right.

Brief internal history: the modern _Dra'selhadh_ came crossing the ocean,
in the year 243 of their calendar, from their former northern lands, where
they were nomads. The language derives from a protolanguage (unnamed so far)
that has been preserved in old scripts, but barely. Drasele'q was recognizable
as such since c.100 DC, and didn't change much in the next one hundred years,
except for borrowings from the Rronamon's original inhabitants' language, Khurwich
(briefly sketched, bi- and triconsonantal roots, heavily inflecting). The Khurwich
people were assimilated without any conflict arising.

External history: Drasele'q began as part of a fantasy story where a fictional
conworld invented by a conlanger for a conlang of his becomes mixed with our "real"
universe. That gave the name and a few words, no real grammar. It grew from there.
Revised a lot of times, stored in text files, then a Works database, currently an
Access database. Major revision just some time ago: completely changed the verb
inflection system, and revised the protolanguage stems and the Draseliq words to match
(BTW that killed a sister language... redoing it soon). A medium-sized reference
grammar available. Texts: a little hymn (_Na siar vel soimar_ "For us amidst the mist"),
and translation: Babel text, Psalm 23, the book of Ecclesiastes chapters 1 and 2,
the lament of Galadriel in "Farewell to Lo'rien" (LotR), the hymn "A Elbereth Gilthoniel"
(LotR), some not revised pages of "The Hobbit", songs "Innuendo" and "These are the
days of our lives" (Queen), some scattered phrases and sayings.

Current status: 1025 words, about 500 morphemes (noun and verb stems, prefixes,
suffixes, etc.), steadily growing.


Hope this is you are planning!


--Pablo Flores