Re: Question

In a message dated 04/16/02 1:05:02 PM, sudika@DPG.HU writes:

<< but none of verbs or sentences. >>

    Welcome.  :)
    The language in my signature down there is the first language I ever
created, and it was based on the Arabic tri-consonantal system.  I can tell
you how its verbs work.  I could also do Arabic, but my knowledge is limited.
 Anyway, here's my language:

Megdevi:
Root: dZ-r-b (eating)

So, you have nouns and adjectives...
dZerIb = one who eats
dZirejbat = eating (the act of)
dZaribad = eating (present participle verb)
dZ&rIb = eating utencil

Et cetera.  Then the verb forms.  In my language, there's a distinction
between perfective and imperfective aspect.  I do this with internal vowels:

dZaraba = to eat (imperfective, active)
dZIrIbI = to have eaten (perfective, active)

    These are actually the command forms.  For present, past, future and
irrealis there are suffixes.  So here they are:

dZarabi = eats (present)
dZarabu = ate (past)
dZarabA = will eat (future)
dZarabo = might/could/would eat (irrealis)

    They don't incode subject or number distinctions.  You can add some
affixes that change it up, though.  For instance, "to eat" is a naturally
transitive verb.  If you wanted to make it intransitive, you could by adding
the prefix: dZa-

dZadZaraba = to eat (no object) (like in the English sentence, "What are you
doing?", "I'm eating.")

    There's also the passive, which can only get added to stems, -is:

dZarabisa = to be eaten

    Then there's the inchoative, which is the infix -Ull-:

dZarUllaba = to become eaten (with this verb, there's not much of a
difference between the passive
    and the inchoative, but there can be)

    So, that's how my system works.  It's fairly simple.  In Arabic, there's
agreement between person, number and, in some cases, gender.  Here's "to eat"
in Arabic--no, wait, that one's kind of irregular.  Let's just do "to write":

Root: k-t-b
Present:
I write: aktub
You (male) write: taktub
You (female) write: taktubin
He writes: jaktub
She writes: taktub
We write: naktub
You (plu.) write: taktubu:n
They write: jaktubu:n

Past:
I wrote: katabtu
You (male) wrote: katabta
You (female) wrote: katabti
He wrote: kataba
She wrote: katabat
We wrote: katabna
You (plu.) wrote: katabkum (?  Knowledge slipping away...)
They wrote: katabu:

    And so forth, in the dual and different tenses.  You can also form
lexically different verbs in various processes--the only one I know of is
making the middle consonant a geminate in order to change the verb to a
causative-type verb, so "kataba" is "to write" and "kattaba" is "to make
write", or "to dictate".
    As for sentences, in the Arabic I learned, it's plain SVO: First comes
the subject (unless it's a pronoun, in which case you leave it out), then
comes the conjugated verb, then comes the object: ar-raZul jaqra al-kita:b.
The-man reads the-book.  I heard it used to be VSO in the olden days...

-David

"fawiT, Gug&g, tSagZil-a-Gariz, waj min DidZejsat wazid..."
"Soft, driven, slow and mad, like some new language..."
                    -Jim Morrison

Reply