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YANC! Totally isolating language - Ilank

From:Daniel Seriff <microtonal@...>
Date:Friday, June 16, 2000, 4:42
I started yet another new conlang on a whim tonight. I tried to minimize
the phonology, as Mungayod has such a big one. I started to think about
an isolating language not too long ago, and I thought it would be fun to
make one. I've called it Ilank (get it? YANC = Ilank! nyuk, nyuk, nyuk ;).

Consonants:

S: p t k
N: m n
L: 4 l
F: f s

The [l] can be a normally functioning consonant or a syllabic liquid.
[l] can never followed by a schwa (not even in clusters), so {l'}
signifies the syllabic version.

Vowels:

i     u
 E @ O
   A

In Roman transcription, vowels are written {a, e, i, o, u}, and the
schwa is written as an apostrophe (so {f'ni} is [f@ni]).

no diphthongs at all, and the only clusters are (syllable-initial)
[F/S]L and (syllable-final) [L/N]S

I love complex gender systems, so I've made one even more
non-Indo-European than Mungayod. There are 7 genders: masculine human,
feminine human, child human, animal, vegetable, inanimate matter, and
conceptual. There is a singular, dual, and a plural.

So far, all I've come up with is a simple verbal system. I'd like to
expand it into a super-crazy-complex system, with all kinds of
postpositions to indicate lots of tenses, aspects, and moods, and all
other kinds of verbal nuances.

to be - "me" [mE] - so:

I am - "me l'"
we are - "me lo"
etc., see below

                sg.             du.             pl.

1P              l'              -               lo
2P              ka              kat             slant
3P, masc.       nu              nut             nant
3P, fem.        ku              kut             kant
3P, child       i               it              int
3P, a.  kil             kilit           kilant
3P, veg.        min             mit             mint
3P, matt.       pos             poslit  pos'nt
3P, conc.       f'ni            f'nit           f'tint

I haven't decided yet what I want the sentence order should be, but I
know it will be postpositional. I think I'd like an
ideo-/logo-/picto-graphic script (seems the easiest (and probably the
most likely, historically), doesn't it?).

All I've got time to do right now. Comments? Questions? :)

--
Daniel Seriff
microtonal@sericap.com
http://members.tripod.com/microtonal