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Layra-chan

PostPosted: Sun Oct 21, 2007 11:53 am


Polysynthesis is often complicated by large clumps of consonants that are hard to pronounce.

So to deal with that, I'm getting rid of the cononants.

Alphabet (note: may be reworked, since I can't actually tell what I'm doing when I make these sounds)
a: /a/
e: /E/
h: /e/
i: /i/
o: /A/
u: /M/
v: /V/
w: /7/
l: /l=/
m: /m=/
n: /n=/
r: /r=/


No dipthongs unless noted below:

Note: u followed by a non-syllabic and not preceeded by a syllabic can be pronounced like "w" and i before a non-syllabic can be pronounced like a "y"
Similarly, a syllabic before a non-syllabic can be pronounced in a non-syllabic manner
Syllabics being l, m, n, and r, just to be clear.

I'm tempted to make everything rolled just to make it sound that much more like a cat.

I just realized that breathing would be very difficult in this language, given the lack of plosives and lack of spaces.
PostPosted: Sun Oct 21, 2007 11:55 am


Basic grammar:

Nouns:
Nominative: -or
Accusative: -ol
Dative (indirect object): -om
Ablative (prepositional): -on

Adjectives:
Agree with noun:
Nom: -ar
Acc: -al
Dat: -am
Abl: -an

Verbs:
Indicative:
Future: -oh
Present: -oe
Past: -oi
Imperative:
Future: -ouh
Present: -oue
Past: -oui
Subjunctive:
Future: -ovh
Present: -ove
Past: -ovi

No pronouns, no "person." Everything is third person.

Adverbs:
Same o->a shift as the adjectives.

Prepositions:
End in: -rl
Stuck to end of prepositional noun.

Word order: fairly rigid S(DO)(IO)V, with adjectives and adverbs directly after the words they're modifying.

Layra-chan


Layra-chan

PostPosted: Sun Oct 21, 2007 12:00 pm


Consider the word for cat:

cat: mr

So, from this we get:

Nom: mror
Acc: mrol
Dat: mrom
Abl: mron

So, since I'll probably end up applying the same "all types" lexical style that I did for nerurav, we can make the sentence:

mrormrarmrolmroemrae
The catty cat cats the cat catly.

mrormrarmrolmrommrohmrah
The catty cat will cat the cat to the cat catly

mrormrarmrolmrovemrae
The catty cat would cat the cat catly.
PostPosted: Sun Oct 21, 2007 12:04 pm


Other vocab:

nia join/with/and
nr bad (derived from the noise I make when I'm upset)
w- not

So wnr would be the stem for good.

Layra-chan


Layra-chan

PostPosted: Tue Oct 23, 2007 3:38 pm


I was about to ask myself "How do people know where words end?" when I realized, "this is a polysynthetic language. Words? What are those?"
PostPosted: Tue Oct 23, 2007 7:21 pm


x3

-inhelpful comment-

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Xeigrich
Vice Captain

PostPosted: Wed Oct 24, 2007 2:29 pm


O_o My brain is stuck to the roof of my skull, like old gum under a school desk. Lemme take a whack at this....

"The bad cat joins the good cat."

(cat)(nom)(bad) (cat)(accusative)(not)(bad) (to join)(present).
mror nrar mrol wnral niaoe.
mrornrarmrolwnralniaoe.

surprised That's really.... difficult to pronounce.
"m-roarn r-armor ol wehnral nee-ow-eh" ...Something like that? I feel uncomfortable not saying any plosives in such a long sentence-word.

Interesting, though! sweatdrop
PostPosted: Wed Oct 24, 2007 3:45 pm


If I were you, I'd add /R=/. Is a very catty sound.

Eccentric Iconoclast
Captain


Layra-chan

PostPosted: Thu Oct 25, 2007 6:08 pm


Initially, this language wasn't meant to be about cats. It was supposed to be about slurring, noises that one can make easily while asleep. I have a habit of spewing out long strings of these sounds when I'm tired. Also, I wanted to make a language without consonants. And a polysynthetic language. Basically, I combined too many ideas and that's why it's somewhat difficult to pronounce.
It turned into cats when the only vocab I could think of using those sounds was a cat noise.
PostPosted: Fri Oct 26, 2007 9:01 am


Ironically, I've been toying off and on with the idea of making a cat language... with possible sound combinations that just aren't humanly possible, but are possible for the standard domestic cat (I.E. purring and meowing at the same time)

Looking at this would probably be a good place to start xd

Rimbaum

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Conlang Grammar and Lessons

 
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