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 Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2008 7:41 pm
CONTEST- Whomever can come up with a beautiful sounding name written in the language's own alphabet that both I and my girlfriend agree suits the language and rolls off the tongue shall receive 10,000 gaia gold. I am quite bad at naming things and so this may be the only way it will ever get named. Contest over.
CONTEST- For accepted vocabulary additions I will award 200 gaia gold per word. These may be nouns, adjectives, or verbs. I prefer to come up with pronouns and prepositions myself. For ease in learning/memorizing new words, it is recommended it be derived from a pre-existing (Earth) language. Regardless of origin, fluidness of pronunciation and prettiness of the word is priority.
CONTEST- For accepted amendments to currently existing vocabulary I will award 50 gaia gold per word. You may suggest an amendment for ANY word, regardless of word type.
Anyway- on to describing my language 3nodding I have spent many years studying cryptography and writing styles, I love foreign languages, and I am self-taught in a couple as well as at least understanding basic structure in many others (though not nearly fluent). I have worked with and practiced countless ways to write information as well as studied phonetics. I also have studied the grammar of English and several other languages. What I had not done up until now was create a unique vocabulary.
This is my first conlang, and probably will be my only one. It is a baby at that. I am looking to Catalán (omg, pure sex in language form), Arabic, Mandarin Chinese, Pashto, Italian, Malay, Croatian, Spanish, French, and English to get ideas for word roots (infinitive verbs and the like). I shall modify these roots only for aesthetic purposes. I want to create the most elegant and beautiful sounding language ever conceived.
Along with this goal of creating a language of pure beauty, I want a language that is easy to learn and speak. It will be very natural, use inviting word forms, and be completely phonetic. I also plan to keep word origins at least recognizable for mnemonic purposes. What is important, however, to remember is that the primary speakers of this language will be myself and my girlfriend. For this reason all vocabulary must be accepted by both myself and her, although if the two of us have agreement then anyone may feel free to suggest new words.
That aside, I will begin to post some information about the language ranging from the *almost* official alphabet to grammar rules. Anyone, feel free to post at any point if you have suggestions, comments, questions, or concerns. I am open to all opinions ^_^
EDIT - NEW contest
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Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2008 7:49 pm
Aei'amaera eye/am/air/uh ye like that?
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Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2008 7:58 pm
Fealihyear, fail/ee/he/yar (as in yard) that any good?
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Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2008 8:10 pm
Alphabet / alvμbet :
Letter / letr - Name / neim - Pronunciation / prμnμsieiσμn
a -------------- ah --------------- father
b -------------- bey -------------- baby
σ -------------- shi --------------- shirt
d -------------- doh -------------- dance
e -------------- eh --------------- bet
g -------------- goh -------------- give
θ -------------- thee ------------- feather
i --------------- ee ---------------- sheet
τ* ------------- ih ---------------- sit
k -------------- koh -------------- koala
l --------------- loh --------------- less
m ------------- moo ------------- more
n -------------- nee -------------- nine
o -------------- oh --------------- coat
r ---------------roh -------------- (Similar to Spanish)
s -------------- soo --------------- save
t -------------- tey --------------- tear
u -------------- oo --------------- boot
μ -------------- uh --------------- gut
v -------------- vey -------------- every
*This symbol was severely butchered by gaia. I tried displaying it on a larger font and it still did not look correct. For an idea of how it is supposed to look, check out the third symbol on the bottom row: http://www.greece.org/gr-lessons/gr-english/Gif/script.gif
Some things you may notice about the alphabet:
First, it is entirely phonetic. None of the half-phonetic crap. All letters will have one pronunciation. There are 19 20 phenomes on the language, and 19 20 letters in the language. And so it shall stay. If you require a long A, you may spell it "ei". A long I, "ai". A w can be replaced with a "u". This will make it easier to pick up and much easier to read. No guessing and how to pronounce things.
Also, you may want to comment on how it's English-derived. I figured this alphabet was ideal since all Latin-derived languages (and Germanic languages) use the same alphabet, and it is recognized in most of the world. Also, myself and my friends would be much more familiar with it than had I written it in カタカナ or similar.
Next, you may notice that I added some letters. For any letters that I added I used Greek symbols. I did this for a couple reasons. First, nearly everyone has seen Greek and will recognize (to some degree) the symbols present. Next, Greek is very familiar to me personally. Last, Greek can be typed on a computer (thus allowing me to type in my language)
Finally, you may notice a large amount of letters were removed. After all- I added 4 new letters (θ, σ, τ, μ) and yet I have 19 20 compared to English's 26. Here is a list of what I removed and why:
c - Only made the sounds of "s" or "k". No unique sound to add
f - Same as "v", only without vocalization. "V" was prettier
h - Any language can do without. In most languages it is silent. Besides- heavy breathing isn't pretty
j - Just an ugly sound.
p - Same as "b", only without vocalization. "B" was prettier
q - Only made "k" or "kw" sound. No unique sound to add
r - Too similar to "L". Not even present in many East-Asian languages ADDED so I can spell Amber/eμmbμr
w - Similar to "u"
x - Only made "z" or "ks" sound. No unique sound to add
y - Similar to "ee"
z - Same as "s", only with vocalization. "S" was prettier
EDIT - Added r
EDIT - Swapped z for s
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Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2008 8:11 pm
Kawazoe Michiyo Aei'amaera eye/am/air/uh ye like that? Perhaps the contest will be a bit more fair now that I have posted the alphabet. Continue with suggestions, though ^_^ ^--------------The unimportant stuff-----------------^ v---------------The important stuff-------------------v This being my first un-used post, I shall be using it for vocabulary! Once we have too big of a dictionary vocabulary will be moved off of gaia to an external source and I'll post a link. For now, relish in our few words! 3nodding The origin of the word shall be posted to the right of the English. If multiple possible origins exist, the simplest for American English speakers to remember will be used. Pronaunsuo - "I, me, myself" (Mandarin Chinese - "wo") uis - "we, us, ourselves" (original - modified "uo") dau - "you, yourself" (Middle English - "thou") dais - "you all, yourselves" (original - modified "dau") lo - "it" (Spanish - "lo") Preposτσμnseta - "to, at, towards" (English - "at") min - "of, from" (Urdu - "minjaanib") al - "at (a place)" (Spanish - "al") ke - "compared to" (Catalán or Spanish - "than") kwo - non-inquisitive "which" (describing the specific of a group) (Spanish - "cual") VrbsRegularσei - to be (Spanish - "ser") μrai - to hear (Spanish - "oir") vulei - to see (Catalán - "vuere") sebri - to taste (Catalán - "sabor") hesai - to feel (as in- touch) (Urdu - "ehsaas") - to feel (as in- emotion)
lorai - to smell (Spanish - "olor")
bari - to withstand/bear/resist (Urdu - "bardaasht")
Helper
kapsi - to be able to (Catalán - "capaç")
Nauns
deliri - love (Catalán - "deliri")
uτn - a lip (Mandarin - "wěn")
sensa - a feeling (emotion) (English - "sense")
miθ - sweetness (Urdu - "miitha")
Cμmperτsμn wμrds
da - much greater (Japanese - "dai" as in "daihen" or "daisuki")
- slightly greater
ik - equal to (English - "equal")
- slightly less
- much less
Speσμl wμrds
Verb tense words
sτn - (English - "then")
Numbers
none yet
Etc.
clearly none yet
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Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2008 8:22 pm
ah hm.....im no good with this, call it Shilurea (using your spelling of course my computer is just inadequate for such things
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Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2008 8:41 pm
Kawazoe Michiyo ah hm.....im no good with this, call it Shilurea (using your spelling of course my computer is just inadequate for such things σilulea? confused Hmm... The double-L seems a bit complicated (note there is no R). Easy to trip on. σolea might work better. (For the 4 Greek symbols in the language I just keep θστμ on my clipboard, then I can ctrl+v when I need a letter and delete the three I don't want xd ) ^--------------The unimportant stuff-----------------^ v---------------The important stuff-------------------v Grammar 1 - verbs and tensesIt had to come to it eventually. For now we will keep the grammar lesson simple. Later I will go into more details. Verbs will be conjugated based on positive or negative. The verb σei is "to be", the verb σenai is "to not be". Verbs ending in i are, by default, positive. By removing the i and appending nai the verb is converted to the negative. vulei - to see vulenai - to not see There is no conjugation for subject. uo vulei - I see dau vulei - you see There may be verbs in the future that do not end in i. I have decided on nothing on this subject. If someone suggests a word for a verb that ends in anything other than i then I will develop conjugation rules as necessary. At the moment, all verbs end in i and so no further conjugation rules are needed. Because there is no infinitive form for verbs, to actually say "to see" you must append the prefix for "matching the definition of". (I have a list of prefixes that I wish to use, however I have not developed Alemur for these prefixes. All prefixes will be posted in this post when they are created) On the subject of prefixes, here is the list (so far) of prefixes that will be available. Prefixes may be appended to any word regardless of whether it be a noun, verb, adjective, etc. "matching the definition of" "a exaggerated version of" "a meager version of" "the opposite of" "a poor excuse for" (Realized this was the same as "a meager version of") "incomplete/missing something" "whole/content" "an abstract" Back to verbs for a bit. Some people may be wondering about present, past, future, and even progressive tense. Alemur will have tense words that go before the verb. Thus, "I saw" would roughly be written "I (past) ". As well, "I came home" becomes "I (past) to/at/towards home". Like prefixes, I will post these when I decide on something definite.
Present - uo ____ - "I ____"
Preterit - uo (past) ____ - "I ____ed"
Future - uo (future) ____ - "I will ____"
And the progressive tense? You will merely place your "to be" verb followed by the verb in its "ongoing/continuous" tense.
Progressive - uo σei (ongoing) ____ - "I am ____ing"
Imperfect - uo (past) σei (ongoing) ____ - "I was ____ing"
So what about helper verbs? And how do these work with negations and past tenses? Either the helper verb OR the verb it precedes may be negated (this gives different meanings). The tense word will come before the helper verb.
"I (past) nai " -> "I didn't need to eat"
"I (future) nai" -> "I will want to not play" (NOT "I will not want to play")
So that leaves only a couple of verb-related things untouched. We still need to cover probable, subjunctive, and reflexive. If I missed anything, please tell me.
Probable tense-
This translates to something like "I may go to the store". Since this is neither a positive or a negative, I am considering a third conjugation for it. I have nothing definite, although expect I will most likely have another possible verb ending.
Subjunctive -
This is a form that confuses many people. Whenever someone refers to a verb, it is something that occurs. When someone uses the probable tense, they say that it is a verb that may or may not occur. The subjunctive tense refers to the doing of a verb, without any hint that the verb occurred or will occur. An example in English would be "I wish you would clean your room". We do not know if they cleaned their room. We do not even know if it is probable. We were not referring to them cleaning their room, nor mentioning that they would clean it in the future. We were referring to the action of cleaning the room with no definite tie to an instance of the verb occurring.
Subjunctive will be handled by adding the prefix for "an abstract". An abstract room cleaning is the perfect way to refer to the idea of cleaning a room without referring to any instance of it being cleaned.
Reflexive -
This is one of the easiest. Any verb technically can be reflexive. You merely need to do it to/towards/at an object.
"I the book to/towards/at you" -> "I gave you the book"
"I to/towards/at me" -> "I wake myself" ("I wake up")
Again- If I missed anything, PLEASE tell me
But I think that covers verbs and tenses. Next we go into adjectives, adverbs, and modifiers 3nodding
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Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2008 8:42 pm
spider_desu Kawazoe Michiyo ah hm.....im no good with this, call it Shilurea (using your spelling of course my computer is just inadequate for such things σilulea? confused Hmm... The double-L seems a bit complicated (note there is no R). Easy to trip on. σolea might work better. (For the 4 Greek symbols in the language I just keep θστμ on my clipboard, then I can ctrl+v when I need a letter and delete the three I don't want xd ) Amazing! great idea! and yeah σolea might work good no? it sounds poetic in a way
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Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2008 8:45 pm
Kawazoe Michiyo spider_desu Kawazoe Michiyo ah hm.....im no good with this, call it Shilurea (using your spelling of course my computer is just inadequate for such things σilulea? confused Hmm... The double-L seems a bit complicated (note there is no R). Easy to trip on. σolea might work better. (For the 4 Greek symbols in the language I just keep θστμ on my clipboard, then I can ctrl+v when I need a letter and delete the three I don't want xd ) Amazing! great idea! and yeah σolea might work good no? it sounds poetic in a way Not too sure I like a double-vowel after a soft consonant, though >.< too much movement of the tongue without a stopping of air. Sounds a bit slurred. You'll find I am very picky when it comes to this language xd Hence the reason we have a vocabulary of 4 official words so far ^^;; We're well on our way to 7, though xd σolena? σelona? σonela? - sigh - σovela? I'm waaaay too picky xd This could be a while ^--------------The unimportant stuff-----------------^ v---------------The important stuff-------------------v Grammar 2 - adjectives, adverbs, and modifiersThis is going to be one of the simplest grammar lessons you will receive. Adjectives (though none exist yet) will be modifiable nouns. There will be an ending you may append to certain nouns to turn them into adjectives. For example: happiness -> happiness~end (happy) Of course this clearly can't apply to every single noun in the world. I don't know what adjectives would stem from "car" or "pencil". It should be obvious when you can and can't use it. Although this does mean that with certain words we will have to change how we think. Rather than "edible", we will have a word for "edibility" (a word that no one actually uses in English) In a sentence, adjectives will come before the word they modify. Simple as that. No conjugating for gender or number. Just pop the adjective out in front. "I [deliciousness]~end ice cream"
Adverbs will be similar, only a different ending will be applied for them. (Neither of these endings have been determined yet, but they should be simple enough)
Note that because of this change towards nouns and away from adjectives, I expect normal speech to follow suit. One can just as easily say that a house owns largeness as they can say that a house is large. In mere descriptions of objects or when possible it will be expected to do so. If the object is being referred to by its description, however, then the use of the adjective form is acceptable. Thus:
"The house is large" -> "The house has largeness"
Because the house is doing nothing, but merely being described
"The large house caught fire" -> "The largeness~adj house caught fire"
Because this time the description is used to specific which house caught fire, rather than simply to describe the house.
Comparisons, like descriptions, will use nouns. An object will contain more or less of a noun, rather than be to a greater or lesser degree defined by an adjective.
Is that all? For now.
EDIT - I have decided upon an ending. τr shall be appended to a noun to transform it into an adjective.
Example:
miθ (sweetness/deliciousness) -> miθτr (sweet/delicious)
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Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2008 8:48 pm
σolinama!...........................................σolikoza?...................
σolevis!
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Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2008 8:52 pm
Kawazoe Michiyo σolinama!...........................................σolikoza?................... σolevis! I like where you're going with σoleviz. "sho/leh/veez". Sounds almost like the French phrase "c'est la vie". Very pretty. ^--------------The unimportant stuff-----------------^ v---------------The important stuff-------------------v Grammar 3 - Proper nouns, formality, and titlesOne idea I considered was for all proper nouns to act as adjectives. In this way, instead of "I am Steven", you say "I am a Steven-type person". This would simplify things like possession (rather than "That pen belongs to Joe", or "It is Joe's pen"- you merely say "It is a Joe pen"). This works especially well with our sentence structure. It complicated one thing, though. Adjectives. In an effort to make adjectives very simple to remember and very simple to use (I feel the ability to add adjectives to your speech can vastly multiply the objects you can portray) I decided on the simple idea of appending an "adjectivifying" ending to nouns. This completely runs my plans for proper nouns, however. So I have decided that proper nouns will behave exactly like in English. Then there is an issue un-addressed. Pronunciation. While Alemur allows for names like Tamμs (Thomas), Bab (Bob), or Stefμni (Stephanie)- there are certain sounds that are too brutish for such an elegant language. The name Jacob cannot be made (the J sound is too harsh and violent). For J I suggest using "di" (dieikμb = dee-ay-cub = Jacob) and for the A in Adam I suggest "e" (edμm = eh-dum) Formality time! I will attempt to have two versions of most nouns. This also means there will be two versions of all adjectives (as adjectives are made from nouns). One of these will be used when talking to someone of higher status, one when talking to someone of equal or lower status. This is really just a general "to be polite" thing, and needn't be obeyed. It will be included for courtesy reasons. The word "you" will not have two forms. It shall be assumed to be formal (addressing someone when you don't have permission to call them by name). If you wish to refer to someone informally without using their name, refer to them by description. Example: "boy, get over here" And titles? I will include under Speσμl wμrds new forms for the common (mister, miss, etc.) however for professional titles (doctor, president, etc.) you must simply try to pronounce them as best as possible. As with English- put them before the name. Example: Presedτnt Buσ
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Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2008 8:56 pm
spider_desu Kawazoe Michiyo σolinama!...........................................σolikoza?................... σolevis! I like where you're going with σoleviz. "sho/leh/veez". Sounds almost like the French phrase "c'est la vie". Very pretty.
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Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2008 8:59 pm
Kawazoe Michiyo spider_desu Kawazoe Michiyo σolinama!...........................................σolikoza?................... σolevis! I like where you're going with σoleviz. "sho/leh/veez". Sounds almost like the French phrase "c'est la vie". Very pretty. x_x Gah. Getting too confusing. Not to mention we don't have a Y ^^;; Maybe I should name the language after a character I really like or something from mythology. I was just thinking of different vowels that could follow σ and I thought of "Shiva" suddenly xd ^--------------The unimportant stuff-----------------^ v---------------The important stuff-------------------v Grammar 4 - Comparisons, superlatives, and degreesThere comes a time in every man's life when he must compare one thing to another. That, or he is as dumb as a brick. Or dumber. Or slightly less dumb. So is he more intelligent, or less dumb? Comparisons cause a lot of confusion even in our own language, so it stands to reason that they should cause confusion in other languages. Especially with the "as ___ as" structure (in which each "as" serves a different purpose, and therefore has a different translation in most languages. See Spanish: "tan ___ que"). Well my language is supposed to be easy to learn, but it's also supposed to be elegant and easy to translate. Having words with several possible translations (or several words with the same translation) can make things difficult. In Alemur there will be five simple comparison words. I will decide on exactly what words I want to use before today is over. The words will translate as follows: Much greater Slightly greater Equal Slightly less Much less These words go out in front of any adjective and you now have a simple comparison. "[much greater] speed~adj" = much faster Now superlatives are the greatest. One might also call them the most likely to throw me into a fit of sarcasm. Superlatives will be handled in a very simple manner. If you are the "fastest" kid in school, then you are "[slightly greater] speed~adj than all in school". If you are just the "fastest kid" (forget about school), then you are "[slightly greater] speed~adj than all". If you are faster than all, then you are the fastest. More to come later. Off to school with me.
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Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2008 9:18 pm
I was just very sad. I may add an R to the language but require it be slightly trilled. I just tried to spell my girlfriend's name with my alphabet and L wasn't good enough to replaced the R crying
ztiven (or ztivμn) is possible (my name can be spelled). But Amber isn't possible gonk
I guess I will go back and edit the alphabet <.< R didn't seem to useful with I considered languages without it (or without L) and when I considered the sounds of made-up words. Now I think I may need it, though.
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Posted: Fri Mar 14, 2008 7:07 am
spider_desu I was just very sad. I may add an R to the language but require it be slightly trilled. I just tried to spell my girlfriend's name with my alphabet and L wasn't good enough to replaced the R crying ztiven (or ztivμn) is possible (my name can be spelled). But Amber isn't possible gonk I guess I will go back and edit the alphabet <.< R didn't seem to useful with I considered languages without it (or without L) and when I considered the sounds of made-up words. Now I think I may need it, though. make a new letter that uses both R and L with the eid of an accent marker? eh?
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