Re: The 30-Minute Conlang: A Challenge or two

Here's my own (it took 45 minutes, but hey! not bad!):
North

This is a syllabic language designed to be quick and easy to learn. The
syllables each have a meaning and are attached to each other to form words
with independent meanings. Almost anyone (knowing the use of the syllables)
can discern the meaning of almost any word.

Alphabet

The letters of North are as follows:
N: alveolar nasal
D: voiced alveolar plosive
T:  unvoiced alveolar plosive
R: alveolar tap; double "r" alveolar trill
Z: alveolar fricative; double "z" ("zh") postalveolar voiced fricative
U: close-mid back rounded; double "u" close-mid central rounded
O: open-mid back rounded
I: close-mid front unrounded

Syllables

        N       D       T       R       Z       U       O       I
N       nn      dn      tn      rn      zn      un      on      in
D       nd      dd      td      rd      zd      ud      od      id
T       nt      dt      tt      rt      zt      ut      ot      it
R       nr      dr      tr      rr      zr      ur      or      ir
Z       nz      dz      tz      rz      zh      uz      oz      iz
U       nu      du      tu      ru      zu      uu      ou      iu
O       no      do      to      ro      zo      uo      --      io
I       ni      di      ti      ri      zi      ui      oi      --

As you can see, no vowel can be repeated. So, we get the syllabic list (with
meanings):

nn-denotes verb
nd-denotes formal
nt-denotes noun
nr-past
nz-future
nu-and
no-but
ni-if
dn-then
dd-the
dt-a/an
dr-animal
dz-altar
du-angel
do-weapon
di-arm
tn-beast
td-beauty
tt-drink
tr-food
tz-tongue
tu-you
to-they
ti-I
rn-he/she
rd-hair
rt-flow
rr-fire
rz-water
ru-earth
ro-metal
ri-horse
zh-cow
zn-wind
zd-speed
zt-power
zr-staff
zu-bone
zo-muscle
zi-head
un-single
ud-paucal
ut-many
ur-black/darken
uz-white/light
uo-red
ui-blue
uu-yellow
on-tree
od-come
ot-mountain
or-plain
oz-sea
ou-river
oi-shows emphasis
in-small
id-large
it-go
ir-box
iz-farm
iu-city
io-to




The order of word formation is with the article, then the adjective (if
there is one), then the base, then part of speech and formality or emphasis
modifiers. So:
"Large blue river" is:
id   +   ui   +   ou   +   nt
large  blue    river     noun
"iduiount" = "large blue river"

Any word can be constructed like this. If a word is all consonants (two or
more consonant syllables) an "o" is placed between syllables. When there are
two (or more) consonants in a row, each consonant is pronounced
independently (unless it is a syllable).

Grammar

North is, like many languages, an SVO language. This means that in a
sentence, the subject comes first, then the verb, then the object. Each of
these should generally be one word; separate sentence parts are shown with
separate sentences. No tense is shown for the present in a verb.

So "The large blue river flows speedily through the forest" would be:
Ddiduiount zdortnn.ddonornt.
subject         verb       object
Lit. "The large blue river flows fast through the tree plain."

Alternately, these can be switched if they include part of speech modifiers.



Question--can you attach things to emails for Conlang?

-----Original Message-----
From: Constructed Languages List [mailto:CONLANG@LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU] On
Behalf Of Gary Shannon
Sent: Tuesday, December 16, 2003 4:54 PM
To: CONLANG@LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU
Subject: Re: The 30-Minute Conlang: A Challenge or two

--- Sylvia Sotomayor <kelen@...> wrote:

<snip>

> >
> > Cobato muyu fibatu banudi lubazayu bisa.  Baluli
> > dulayu hobbe ginu tohabbe wukina dodowa sobita.
> Banudi
> > kouta sokidabbe hobbe natevuteru gabo.  Cidanu
> yitoku
> > tahakisa rodenada?
> >
>
> Cat my fat and lazy is. All day he in the win-dow
> sit. And out-side he
> never go. Can you this read?
>
> My cat is fat and lazy. All day he sits in the
> window. And he never goes
> outside. Can you read this?
>
> Heh.
> -Sylvia
Excellent!

The rules, as if they are not obvious enough, are to
put any consonant you choose before every vowel, and
any vowel you choose after every consonant.  The
exception is that double vowels may optionally be
treated as one vowel so that "book" might become
"bokoloko" or "bulooko", for instance.

Optionally, an additional vowel can be added in front
of the word for aesthetic reasons, or to further
disguise obvious words. "it" can become "bito" or
"ubito".  If the translated word begins with a vowel
then that vowel is discarded before back-transalting
into English.

Optionally, an additional consonant can be added on
the end of the word, (perhaps to be used as a case
marker or perhaps just for aesthetic reasons, as to
create a pair of rhyming words to order).  If any
translated word ends in a consonant then that
consonant must be dropped before the word is
back-translated into English.

Back translation is done by dividing the word into CV
letter pairs and selecting the correct letter from
each pair to form an English word: "cobato" -> "Co" +
"bA" + "To" -> "cat".

This procedure can create amibiguities at times so
that "cobato" (co + ba + to) can be back translated as
any one of these: cbt, cbo, CAT, cao, obt, obo, OAT,
oao.  Thus, both "cat" and "oat" are possible English
translations.  My granddaughter has observed that this
can form the basis of puns or word plays in
_Sapulenako Muyu_ ( = "my-speak", her name for the
language). (Is "malenalo cobatu" the cat's dinner, or
oatmeal?  It could be either.  An elaborate joke could
be built around leading the listener to believe it was
oatmeal only to reveal at the punch line that it was
the cat's dinner.)

A few refinements include putting "o" as the final
vowel of nouns and pronouns, "u" for adjectives and
other modifiers, "a" for verbs, and so forth.  Thus
"cat" in "My cat is fat" could be "cobato", but "cat"
as in "cat food" would be "cobatu."  But these are
optional, and haven't been worked out in detail.  They
may become standard in future generations of
Sapulenako Muyu, (as may case consonant endings such
as "cobato", "cobatos", "cobator", "cobaton", etc.)

Verbs are usually used in only one form for a given
tense so that "have" -> "has" ("I have a book" becomes
"I has a book" before translation.  Wherever possible
the verb form that ends in a consonant is choosen so
that "a" can be appended.  Thus "is" or "am" would be
choosen over "are" or "be".). Future generations of
Sapulenako Muyu may mark the tense of verbs by
appending the presently optional consonant, such as
"bisa" (is), "bisat" (was), "bisal" (will be).

Case distinctions are tossed out before translation so
that "I" = "me" = "my" = "mine" and, if possible, the
form that ends in a consonant is choosen so that the
proper vowel ending (and optional consonant case
marker) can be appended. Thus "I, me, my, mine" all
beomce "muyu" (before being case-marked in Sapulenako
Muyu.)

Verbs go as close to the end of the sentence as they
can possibly be placed and still make sense.  Noun
modifiers always follow the nouns they modify and
adverbs always precede the verb.  These word orders
become less significant if the words in the sentence
are all marked with their gramatical function as in
some possible future generation of the language.

Finally, long words can be optionally divided into two
shorter words ("window" -> "win dow") if it improves
the verbal flow or proves necessary to further
disguise an otherwise obvious word.  (The imaginary
justification is that it may be the case that the
Sapulenako Muyu word for window is in fact two words,
as in "wall hole", or "glass hole", or "glass wall".
Thus there is not always a one-to-one correspondence
between English words and words in Sapulenako Muyu.)