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Conlang born of a boring meeting

From:Gary Shannon <fiziwig@...>
Date:Tuesday, January 6, 2004, 0:07
So I'm sitting in a business meeting this morning, and
after the first fifteen minutes the agenda moved on to
things of no concern to me or my department, so I
began doodling on my notepad and I sketched out the
crude beginnings of an inflected conlang with a
basically English lexicon.

Here 'tis:

Nouns:

Article or indicative pronoun as a suffix and case as
a prefix.  Root word is ordinary English word with
possibly minor spelling change, especially to get rid
of final vowels when that works better with the
affixes.  "book" -> "buk", "farmer" -> "famar",
"house" -> "haus" "tree" -> "tri"

Nominative singular / plural

boy / boys ............... boy     / boyen
a boy / some boys ........ boya    / boyena
the boy / the boys ....... boyat   / boyenti
this boy / these boys .... boyatis / boyatim
that boy / those boys .... boyada  / boyenda
all boys ......................... / boyenu

Genative singular / plural

boy / boys ............... saboy     / saboyen
a boy / some boys ........ saboya    / saboyena
the boy / the boys ....... saboyat   / saboyenti
this boy / these boys .... saboyatis / saboyatim
that boy / those boys .... saboyada  / saboyenda
all boys ..........................  / saboyenu

Dative singular / plural

boy / boys ............... deboy     / deboyen
a boy / some boys ........ deboya    / deboyena
the boy / the boys ....... deboyat   / deboyenti
this boy / these boys .... deboyatis / deboyatim
that boy / those boys .... deboyada  / deboyenda
all boys ..........................  / deboyenu

 English = book    tree      house     farmer
           buk     tri       haus      famar
           buken   trien     hausen    famaren
           buka    tria      hausa     famara
           bukena  triena    hausena   famarena
           bukat   triat     hausat    famarat
           bukenti trienti   hausenti  famarenti
           bukatis triatis   hausatis  famaratis
           bukatim triantim  hausantim famarantim
           bukata  triata    hausata   famarata
           bukenta trienta   hausenta  famarenta

the farmer's books  -> buken safamarat

Verbs normally begin a sentence.  When a verb is not
at the beginning of the sentence mark it with v' (for
"verb") prefix, as in "Go" at the start of the
sentence and "v'go" elsewhere.

Verbs get suffix for tense, mood, voice, person

(no sufix for first person singular except present
tense -o. -us suffix for first person plural)

v'bringo    I bring - present tense
v'bringam   I was bringing - imperfect
v'bringer   I brought - perfect

-u  second person singular

v'bringu    You bring - present tense
v'bringamu  You were bringing - imperfect
v'bringeru  You brought - perfect

v'bringat   Bring - imperative

-as third person singular ( -i third person plural )

v'bringas    He/she/it brings - present tense
v'bringamas  He/she/it was bringing - imperfect
v'bringeras  He/she/it brought - perfect

-na negates the verb as in

I brought these books but I did not bring those books.
Bringer debukatim but bringerna debukenda.

Giveras famarat sabuka deboyenti. Denisami boyenti
ioifil en essaifil.

  -> Gave the farmer a book to the boys. Then-were the
boys joyful and excited.

Bringat tame detoyenu vik v'breakeras boyatis des
careless

  -> Bring (to) me all the toys that broken-were by
this careless boy.

Who says long boring meetings are a waste of time!! ->

Sayamas hu des v'areo meetinen dewaista sataim!!

--gary