conlang survey ( Géarthnuns )

>Language name,
Géarthnuns

>creator's name,
Douglas Koller

>relative date of creation,
Academic '76/'77.

>country and first language of creator,
US, English.

>purpose of conlang
>(auxlang, conlang, loglang, . . . )
Conlang, artlang.

>Phonetics:  number of consonants,
28: /b/, /d/, /g/, /z/, /D/, /dZ/, /v/, /p/, /t/, /k/, /s/, /T/, /S/,
/w/, /Z/, /C<vcd>/, /f/, /C/,/N/, /m/, /n/, /l/, /*/, /R/ (/X/?),
/tS/, /x/, /h/, /j/

>number of vowels,
10: /a/, /u/, /I/, /Y/, /E/, /O/, /y/, /i/, /o/, /e/
4 diphthongs: /YI/, /aI/, /aU/, /oI/

>presence of nasalization,
Occurs in the environment [vowel] /n//s/, where it becomes /vowel~s/,
but is not phonemic.

>tone and how many,
Nope.

>where the accent generally falls
Inconsistent, like English. I don't know enough about accent to tease
out patterns, except that when case endings are added to nouns,
primary accent shifts to the penultimate; if primary accent was
elsewhere originally, that syllable retains a secondary stress.
Regularly formed adverbs are always stressed on the penultimate;
irregular adverbs and polysyllabic postpositions are most often
stressed on the ultimate. Beyond that it's pretty catch-as-catch-can,
I think.

>Morphemes:  presence of allomorphs, mutation,
>assimilation,
If I understand the term correctly: limited assimilation with nasal
syllables (eg: mbanökh, nzdanez, ngkafíkh) but it has nothing to do
with morphemes.

>prefixes, suffixes, infixes,
More suffixes than prefixes; some infixes.

>suprafixation, dicontinuation, exclusion, total
>fusion, subtraction,
Don't know these, sorry.

>reduplication.
One conjugation uses reduplication à la grecque to form the
hortative/jussive, but that's it.

>  Is the conlang
>agglutinating, isolating or fusional?
agglutinating

>Nouns and such:
>presence of cases and how many and what
>kind,
7: nominative, accusative, dative, instrumental, postpositional,
genitive, locative

>kind of possession (alienable, inalienable, no distinction, etc.)
Different sentence structures occur, but it's not a hard and fast
distinction; it's more about how the speaker feels about the
possessed.

>presence of gender,
Used to exist, but, in theory at least, is no longer present in the
modern idiom.

>number,
3: sing., dual, pl.

>articles,
Definite and indefinite, agreeing with the noun in declension,
number, and "polarity" (aff/neg) (making 42 forms of each).

>demostratives,
Three-way distinction of the this-that-yon type.

>adjectives,
Yes, following and agreeing with the noun in declension, number,
polarity, and case.

>quantatives.
Don't know what this is.

>Are comparatives expressed by affix, word order or both?
By adverbs and postpositions

>Do pronouns express gender, number, declension?
Qualified yes ('cause gender and declension is a gelatinous distinction).

>Are there indefinite pronouns,
Like "anyone"? These words operate like proper nouns in Géarthnuns.

>possessed pronouns?
Like "mine"? These words operate like common nouns in Géarthnuns.

>Are prepositions bound, unbound?
Bound. And Géarthnuns uses postpositions.

>How many prepositons (approximate).
No idea, but lots ('cause there are single words for concepts like
"in case of" and "on behalf of", and distinctions between things like
"par-dessus/au-dessus" and "-ból/-ban/-ba").

>Presence of clitics.
No. Well, maybe.

>Is derivational morphology mostly by compounding words or
>by affix or both?
Both.

>Verbs and such:
>Are person, number, object expressed with the verb?
No.

>Are there static verbs (to be)?
Yes.

>Is the object
>incorporated into the person marker (making a
>phonetically different affix like in the Native
>American languages)?
No.

>Is transitivity marked for
>transitive, intransitive, bitransitive or other?
No.

>Is
>the person inclusive, exclusive, no distiction?  Kind
>of gender.
No.

>Are past, present, future expressed?
Yes.

>Recent, remote?
No.

>Is mode express, what kind?
Indicative, interrogative, speculative, conclusive, imperative,
discoursive, hortative.

>  Is voice expressed?  What kind?
Active, passive, dative passive, causative, causative passive,
reflexive, impersonal.

>Manner?  Aspect?  Please list
>what kinds of manner and aspect the conlang expresses
>in its verbs.
If expressed at all, it would be through adverbs and verbs.

>   Presence of adverbs
Yes.

>  Can
>nouns, adjectives, adverbs be changed to verbs and
>vice versa?
adj <--> n
n <--> v
adj --> adv

>Presence of adjective, adverbial clauses and relative
>pronouns.
Yes.

>Sentences:
>Does the conlang have an ergative or accusative
>system?
Accusative.

>  Word order and is it free or strict?
Strictly verb final, noun elements are free to move around but it
usually turns out SOV.

>Are
>adjectives, adverbs and prepositions before or after
>the modified word?
After, though adverbs that modify verbs are usually placed right
before the final verb.

>Is the word order changed in a
>question?
No. Final verb is in the interrogative mood. Information question
words are placed where the answer would be expected to go.

>How many (approximately) conjugations are
>there?
Native speakers identify seven. There is an eighth miniclass (mostly
stative verbs), but natives consider these "irregulars".

>Other:
>What is the number base for the numeral system (10?
>12?)?
10

>Presence of idioms,
Yes.

>irregular forms of nouns
>and verbs.  Is the language syntax very predictable,
>or are there many exceptions?
No irregular nouns, and as stated above "irregular verb" depends on
how you view "irregular". I'd say syntax is rather predictable, if
baroque and byzantine.

>How much literature has
>been produced and what kind (I'm not talking about
>translations, but stuff you wrote yourself).
None, really. But a corpus of diverse translated stuff.

>Is there
>a history and dictionary of the conlang?
Yes.

>Script invented?
Yes.

>Other conlangs produced by the creator of
>this one.
None. (Well, I *have* toyed with a half-hearted, demi-project tonal
language called Ösang, but I really can't face rearing a new lang
from infancy when I've gotten Géarthnuns grown up and out of the
house :) )

>If you could summarize your conlang in a sentence,
>what would you write?
Well, it's a priori. When asked on this list a while back to describe
my lang in terms of a foodstuff, I chose chutney, as it was a
strange, exotic, sumptuous, pungent condiment which I like. Several
of those who have had to deal with Géarthnuns for various list
activities have said it has an Indoeuropean feel, and grammatically,
I think that's probably right (making sense since Latin, German,
Russian, and French were grammatical influences heavily drawn upon in
the earliest stages (and perhaps some decisions about phonetics,
too);  but when looking at it or speaking it *now*, I feel definite
nods to Hungarian, Japanese, Swedish, and a dab of Sanskrit as well).
In terms of vocabulary, at least as far as the concepts and ideas
engendered are concerned, there is also a distinct soupçon of Eastern
flavor (also making sense as its creator lived in the East for
thirteen years or most of his adult life). So, a language meant to be
spoken by its creator and the genteel folk of the isle of Géarthtörs
in the Sea of Japan; our world, our time, in the 'alternate,
parallel' universe. Westerners with an Eastern overlay. Those faint
of heart at initial consonant clusters need not apply :)

Kou