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