Morgenon

----- Original Message -----
From: "Rob H" <magwich78@...>
To: <CONLANG@...>
Sent: Friday, December 13, 2002 6:01 PM
Subject: Re: ______Re:_Weekly_Vocab_1.1_&_1.2_-_Morgen ón


> --- Joseph Fatula <fatula3@...> wrote:
> >
> > Questions are always welcome.
> >
>
> How many noun cases?
There are 13 basic noun cases, with a separate mark for genitive.  To
translate "in the dragon's mouth", you would use something like
"dragon.genitive.inessive mouth".  Nouns are also marked for number,
"intensity", and possession.

Here's how a noun works.  Take the root word and add endings.  If the root
ends in a vowel and the first ending starts with one, drop the root word's
last vowel.  We'll go through and conjugate a noun, garod "wolf".

:: garod

- Intensity
There are four intensity markers.  Imagine that we are speaking about a wolf
that lives in the king's forest and is protected by law.  And imagine that
we're speaking to the king about it.  We would use the polite marker for the
wolf, as anything else would be inappropriate.  There is a diminutive marker
that would make it seem like a cute little wolf-cub, but unless you're some
sort of nobleman, you wouldn't talk like that to the king.  There is an
augmentative, the opposite, but in this case it'd sound like you were in awe
or fear of the wolf.  Not the intended effect here.  And the final one is an
invective marker, which you certainly wouldn't use.  It would make the wolf
sound like a pitiful, wretched creature that ought to be shot.

:: garod-úm (polite)

- Number
There are five number categories.  Singular and plural are simple.  None is
for, well, none of the given object.  Partitive, for a part of an object or
a member of a group.  Entire is for all instances of an object.  In this
case, we're talking about a bunch of wolves, so we'll use the plural.

:: garodúm-an (plural)

- Possession - Person
If the wolves are possessed by someone, the ending goes here.  What we're
saying in English would be "your wolves", so in Morgenón, it'd be
"wolf-plural-your".

:: garodúman-íf (2nd person possession)

- Possession - Number
But maybe we're addressing the king and his noble buddies who hunt in the
woods where the wolf lives.  So we might be using the plural you, given the
context.

:: garodúmaníf-ón (plural possession)

- Possessive
This is like a regular genitive, like the 's ending in English.  So far we
have "your wolves", let's make it "your wolves' ".

:: garodúmanífón-ós (possessive)

- Case
There are 13 cases.  Nominative and accusative are both unmarked, but
nominative always goes before the verb and accusative after, so there's no
confusion.  Dative is "to" or "for" the noun.  Inessive is "in", superessive
"over" or "on top of", subessive "under", locative "at".  Imitative means
"in the manner of", transformative "into" as in "turning into".  Causative
is for something being made to do something - if we were making the wolves
cross a river, the wolves would take the causative ending.  Instrumental is
"using" or "by way of", the tool, agent, or method of the action.
Associative is "with", and temporal is "during".  Many of these have other,
secondary uses, but this sums up the basic situation.

:: garodúmanífónós-ün (inessive)

- Motion
And one last noun ending, motion.  There is a marker for motion into
(allative), out of (ablative), and through/across (transitive).  For
example, "put the book on the table" would have table-superessive-allative.
And, "get the car out of the garage" would have garage-inessive-ablative.
Finally, "throw the ball through the hoop" would have
hoop-inessive-transitive.

:: garodúmanífónósün-ür (transitive)

So our final word is the incredibly long:
- garodúmanífónósünür
/ga4odUmanIfOnOsynyr/
wolf.polite.plural.2nd's.plural's.genitive.inessive.transitive

And it might translate as "through the wolves'" in "We quickly ran through
the wolves' forest.".  Normally, you'd never need a word this long, but it's
possible.  Kind of a long answer for "How many noun cases?", but that's how
it is.

> Are there genders?
No.

> What are the verb inflections?
Verbs inflect for voice, mood, tense, negation, subject, and object.  We'll
make up a sample here as well, using d'ir, "to be made happy by something".
Usually I'd translate this as "to like", but the voice is a bit different.
By the way, Morgenón (lit. "our language") distinguishes dental from
alveolar, using the Slovak characters d', t', and n with an acute accent.
They usually don't show up in e-mail, so I'm just using d', t', and n'.  The
dentals are practically interdental, and the alveolars nearly retroflex.  If
they weren't they'd probably disappear (which they do in one descendant
language).  But I digress.

:: d'ir

- Voice
Verbs come in four different voices, combining several functions.  First is
active-transitive.  This is for acting upon something.  Reflexive is for
acting upon oneself.  Passive-intransitive is for simply being in a state,
mood, or ongoing action.  Passive-transitive is for being acted on by
something.  D'ir is a passive-transitive verb.  If used as its own natural
voice, a verb takes no voice ending.  But here, we're going to actively
enjoy something, using the active-transitive.  Maybe you've been on a
vacation and Dad said something like, "We're going to the park, and you kids
are going to enjoy it whether you like it or not."  If your childhood was
traumatic enough to have heard such a thing, "enjoy" in this sentence would
be in the active-transitive voice.  Or maybe you have no idea what I'm
talking about.  That's possible too.  Likely, even.

:: d'ir-ad (active-transitive)

- Mood
Indicative and imperative verbs take no ending.  Questions use the
interrogative ending.  Hypothetical verbs are in the subjunctive.  The
optative is used for hopes and polite requests.  The infinitive refers to
the action, and can also be used for actions that happen generally, but
aren't happening right now.

:: d'irad-ag (interrogative)

- Tense
Simple: past, present, future.

:: d'iradag-um (past)

- Negation
If it's not the case, there's an ending for that.

:: d'iradagum-or (negative)

- Subject
There is an ending for 1st and 2nd person, none for 3rd, as it is the
default.

:: d'iradagumor-un (1st)

- Object
If there is no noun used as the object, an ending is required.  Like a
pronoun in English.

:: d'iradagumorun-on (3rd)  >> there is a double-acute over the "o" in "on"

What we end up with is:
- d'iradagumorunon
/d_di4adagumorun8n/
enjoy.active.interrogative.past.negative.1st.3rd

I'd translate this as "I didn't enjoy it.".

> Prepositions or postpositions (or both or neither)?
Quite possibly both.  I've only got one right now (pre-), but with this many
case-type inflections, I haven't had much need.  What would make more sense
for this sort of language?

> Finally: are you no longer interested in collaborating on OT?
I'm still interested.  I take it you just want me to start coming up with
words?  If that's all, I'll have a bunch for you in no time.

>
> - Rob
>
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