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Re: New Conlang

From:# 1 <salut_vous_autre@...>
Date:Sunday, July 24, 2005, 21:17
Last night, I tought of a new conlang.

It would be ergative-absolutive, but that's not what's special


All the nouns (an pronouns) are made of a root of vowels "-(V)(V)V-V(V)(V)-"
made of two groups of mono/di/triphtongs that can take affixes. The preffix
would indicate number and definiteness, the infix indicates the case.

When the case is absolutive, the infix is the verb, made of one or more
consonants. Its time is indicated by a suffix.

To be able to make a lot of verbs with only consonants, there are 36
consonants that can be used as verbal infixes. When adding the permitted
groups of two consonnants, it makes 134 possibilities of verbs. It would
make more if I counted the groups of three consonants or the groups in which
there would have syllabics.

The consonants are:

(/-/ = |-|)
p = p
b = b
t = t
d = d
k = k
g = g
p\ = fh
B = vh
f = f
v = v
s = s
z = z
S = sh
Z = zh
x = kh
G = gh
h = h
T = th
t_N = tl
d_N = dl
s_N = sl
z_N = zl
l = l
l_N = ll
K = thh
L\_o_r = khh (unvoiced lateral velar fricative)
m = m
n =n
n_N = nl
N = gn (ng is for /Ng/)
B\ = cc
r = rr
R\ = xx
B\_o = c (billabial flap)
4 = r
R\_o = x (uvular flap)


These are the consonants that will mean a verb infixed in a noun, there can
also have groups of consonants that are usually regular except a few:

/s/+/l/ = s'l
/z/+/l/ = z'l
/s_N/+/l_N/ = sll
/z_N/+/l_N/ = zll
/t_N/+/s_N/ = tsl
/d_N/+/z_N/ = dzl
/n_N/+/t_N/ = ntl
/n_N/+/d_N/ = ndl
/N/+/k/ = nk
/N/+/g/ = ng


There are also two consonants that do not mean verbs

/?/ = q
That marks the ergative

/w/ = /w/
That has other uses but that can't mean a verb


The vowels are:

(/-/ = |-|)
i = i
e = e
a = a
y = y
2 = ö (o¨)
1 = î (i^)
u = u
o = o
@ = ë (e¨)

The diphtongs are: /i@/, /ei/, /ai/, /2y/, /iu/, /eu/, /au/, /oi/, /ui/, and
/ou/
The triphtongs are: /ai@/, /ei@/, /ui@/, /oi@/, /iu@/, and /aui/ (in which
the principal is the /a/)

So it makes 25 possibilities, two times in the roots, so 625.


Examples:

Absolutive 1st person singular pronoun = i-e
Absolutive 2nd person singular pronoun = o-o
Ergative 1st person singular pronoun = wi
Ergative 2nd person singular pronoun = wo
(pronouns are the only words that do not use the absolutive root with -q-
infix to form the ergative)

man = u-o
woman = au-i
dog = ai-ië

to sleep = -p-
to eat = -v-
to love = -ll-

I sleep = ipe
you sleep = opo

I eat you = wi ovo
you eat me = wo ipe

I love you = wi ollo

The nouns take a prefix to indicate definiteness and number

vhuqo qaulli = This man loves a woman
vh- = demonstrative singular
q- = indefinite singular

mauqi shullo = All the women love these two men
m- = definite collective
sh- demonstrative dual


Genitive is marked like ergative but placed after its noun that is marked
definite

vhuqo baulli wi = This man loves my woman
b- = definite singular

baipië vhuqo = This man's dog sleeps

baiqië bauqi wi baillië wo = My woman's dog loves your dog


The tense is marked with a suffix on the absolutive noun that carries the
verb and the voice by another suffix

I still have to think about the moods and a lot of things but I think that
this is promising

Comments? Remarks?

Thanks in advance

- Max

Replies

Jörg Rhiemeier <joerg_rhiemeier@...>
Simon Clarkstone <simon.clarkstone@...>