Re: Eihdan and Maggelity

En réponse à Joseph Fatula <fatula3@...>:

> Reading the recent thread about conlang terms, specifically Maggelity,
> I
> realized something interesting.  I've got a language, Eihdan, that might
> at
> first seem maggelitinous in its grammar,
The adjective, as far as I've seen it used, is "maggelish".
Although "maggelitinous" has quite a sound for it ;))) .

 but in actual fact is a very
> regular language.
Then, as Tristan said, it's not maggelity but etabnannery. I wished that word
had took on too, since it covers a nice lexical gap, but I guess it's not so
often used because nobody can remember how to write it down ;))) ("maggelity",
on the other hand, doesn't look so strange as an English word, which is
probably one of the reasons it caught on so well - another being my Maggel
propaganda ;))) <Mwahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!> -).

  It just follows an unusual set of rules.  Here are
> some
> examples:
>
[snip]

>
> I'd be interested in any theories as to how this language works.
>
Well, if you provided with an interlinear, it might be easier ;)) . I have a
few ideas on how it could work, but I have difficulties to express them. But
let's try:

> Htoruiza hteähd farurh, lhäur teu.
> /To4uiza Tea:D farur_0 l_0a:u4 teu/
> The wolf looks for the human.
>
Seeing the third sentence, I'd guess the verbal root there is |hteähd|. It
covers a semantic space of "searching-finding" (or are |hteähd| and |hteaht|
just related and the first one means "look for" and the second one "find"?).
|htoruiza| means "human" and |farurh| "wolf" (is the language OVS? That'd be
neat :)) ). I wouldn't know what to do with the last part, separated by the
comma. I'd guess something having to do with the wolf actively moving, meaning
he didn't find the human yet, and thus clearing up the meaning of the verb?

> Htananh zi htoruiza, na?
> /Tanan_0 zi To4uiza na/
> Where is the human?
>
|htananh| is probably "where" (or is it "place"?). What would |zi| be? A
swapping particle, indicating that the object and the subject have swapped
place, or a copula? And I'd guess |na| is a final interrogative particle...

> Htoruerha hteaht farurh.
> /To4ue4_0a TeaT fa4u4_0/
> The wolf finds the human.
>
The object here seems to be in another form than the object in the first
sentence. Maybe here it's a patient and in the first sentence it was a goal or
something like that, and that would explain the meaning change of the verb?
(but it doesn't explain why the verb has a different form in both sentences and
why the first has that "add-on"). Anyway, this sentence seems to confirm the
idea that the word order is OVS, but it could also be that the language uses a
trigger system or something like that, and the order would just be TVO, i.e.
topic-verb-oblique, nothing special :)) .

> Farurh zi htoruaza, sazgën teu.
> /fa4u4_0 zi To4uaza saZe:n teu/
> The wolf eats the human.
This time, the |zi| comes back, the subject comes in front of the object (thus
seemingly confirming the idea that |zi| swaps their positions, but it may be a
big mistake of analysis) and there's no verb between them this time. Instead,
there is again this "add-on" with a different first word, but the same |teu|
last word. And the word for |human| took again a different form... I must admit
I'm lost here. The syntax looks extremely baroque and I can't find a way to
analyse it with so few examples. I'd need a few more to give a better analysis.

But then again, I'd rather have you explain what it's all about ;)) . It looks
like an interesting language with a grammar I really would like to understand
(especially what those "add-ons" are and why they are separated with a comma).
I also like the orthographical conventions (ht and hd for /T/ and /D/, like in
Teonaht, zg for /Z/, a lovely one :)) , the trema for long vowels and an added
h to unvoice voiced consonants. All nice things - in Maggel too, |h| is one of
the main change marker. But it is not used as regularly as here ;)))) -).

|Eihdan| is pronounced /eiDan/ I suppose? Where do you put the stress?

Christophe.

http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr

Take your life as a movie: do not let anybody else play the leading role.

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