Re: Arabic/Hebrew Structure For Conlangs

<<In addition, if anyone out there has created a language using a two or three
root system, would you, could you, give a gloss of how you accomplished it,
or if you have it online, point my browser your way?>>

Well, I have (in case anyone was wondering why the heck I was on this list in the
first place). The very first language I created had a triconsonantal system.
Here's how I did things (and there are some differences):

(note: /a/="a" in "sofa"; /A/="a" in "father"; /o/="o" in "no"; /e/="ay" in "hay";
/E/="e" in "get; /i/="ee" in "see"; /I/="i" in "sit"; /ae/="a" in "cat";
/u/="oo" in "too"; /U/="u" in "put"; /j/="y" in "yet"; /Z/="z" in "azure";
/dZ/="j" in "jam"; /'/=glottal stop, and /?/ means that's where one of the
letters of the triconsonantal group goes.)

Nouns:
Natural Nouns (Human, Animal, Plant, etc.): ?e?I?, example metIl (apple)
Utility Nouns (things used to do something): ?ae?I?, example 'aeksIl (gun--/ks/ is one consonant)
Object Nouns (things that have things done to them): ?A?o?, example sAsol
(book--comes from the root "to read": s s l)
Verbal Nouns (something like an infinitive and the musDar in Arabic): ?i?ej?at,
example sisejlat (reading, the action of)
Place Nouns: ?i?E?, example hilEf (Heaven--comes from the root for "happy": h l f)

Adjectives:
Natural Adjective (the normal occurence of words having to do with this root is an
adjective): ?a?i?, example maZil (beautiful)
Nominal Adjective (like adding "-like" to any noun in English): ?U?u?, example mUtul
(apple-like, appley)
Verbal Adjective (gerund): ?a?i?ad, example sasilad (reading, as in "the reading rainbow")
Object Adjective (past participle): ?u?ae?, example susael ("read", as in "the read
book is never as interesting the second time around")
Place Adjective: ?ae?E?, example haelEf (heavenly)

Verbs:
Active Radical: ?a?a?, as in sasal- ("read")
Passive Radical: ?I?I?, as in sIsIl- ("have read")
Imperative: -I, or -a, to agree with above: sasala ("read!")
Present: -i, as in sasali (I/s/he/you/we/they read(s) [there are no endings for person
or number in my language)
Past: -u, as in sasalu (I...read)
Future: -A, as in sasalA (I...will read)
Uncertain Mood: -o, as in sasalo (I...might/should/could read)
Passive: -is, as in sasalisi (I...am read)
To make a transitive verb Intransitive: dZa-, as in dZamaZali (I...become beautiful)
To make an intransitive verb transitive: trA-, as in trAjasali (I sing something
[verb normally intransitive])

As you may already have noticed (or maybe not), this differs from traditional
triconsonantal systems because of the prefixes and suffixes, as opposed to
having every form in the language be an infix. For example, in Arabic, nouns of
a certain class (I-X) get particular endings. One class is faa'ila, and the
plural is faa'ilaat, whereas another is fa'al whose plural is 'af'aal. So, I
freely mix prefixes, suffixes and circumfixes along with the infixes. For
instance, to pluralize any noun or adjective you add the suffix -aeZ in my
language. Anyway, here are some more forms:

Color (adj. or n.) ?i??a, as in kizra (red)

Day of the Week: ?A??o, as in kAwmo (Sunday)

Month of the Year: ?e?E?, as in MegEv (September)

Season: ?E?E?, as in mEnES (fall [S is "sh"])

Number (0-9): ?A?U?, as in 'AnUl (one)

Number (10, 20, 30, etc.): ?A?ej?, as in lApejl (50--I have forms from 0-9 to
quadrillion; I won't get into them all)

Geez, I can't remember anymore off hand. But, I do have forms for hours, minutes,
seconds, years, decades, centuries, millenia, the study of something, the
practice of something, if something is a drinkable substance, and a few more
(and I add every so often). But anyway, I think you can see how my system
works. If you have any more questions, you can e-mail me specifically so I
don't have subject the rest of the group to my language.

-Jenesis (Again, formerly David)

Lakota, eh?  Did you read Black Elk Speaks?