Archive for March, 2014

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Recap #2, Part III: Modifiers

Monday, March 31st, 2014

Quantifiers

basic -i form -na form
all nadi nadna
many aŋo
some amba
two ɛnna

Adjectives

Adjectives inflect to match the noun they modify.

base form -ɨdɛn or -ɨdi form -na form
happy andabal andabalna
finished boda bodna
lost do
wild gyɛttaɬ gyɛttaɬna
broken gube gubɨdɛn
small, little ɨsa
bright lo
giant nonno
black siye
pretty syoɬe syoɬɨdi

Adverbs of Time

ala now
galaba before
goɬi for some time
iyɛ iyɛ again
iyɛnɛ twice
ɨdeba after, afterwards
lannal tomorrow
tilɛnya long ago, once long ago

Adverbs of Manner

andabalya happily
bɛldɛnya while spinning or turning
dugaŋya around, surrounding, encircling
kadeya directly across, reflectedly
loya brightly
mɨdeya carefully, cautiously
olaya up, upwards
tadya down, downwards
tosya slow

Adverbs that only modify other adverbs

alam too, too much
no more, much

All done. More sentences in a few days.

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light is aryt (of low weight)

Monday, March 31st, 2014
aryt = light (of low weight) (adjective) (some things Google found for "aryt": an uncommon term; Aryt Industries Ltd. is an Israel-based company primarily engaged in the manufacture of detonators; a rare last name; a very rare first name; title of a song by Nick Stoynoff; similar Aryta is the name of a place in Russia)

Word derivation for "light" (of low weight) (adjective) :
Basque = arin, Finnish = kevyt
Miresua = aryt

The word light doesn't appear in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. It does appear in Through the Looking-Glass, but, again, not with this meaning.

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Recap #2, Part II: Verbs and Some Other Things

Sunday, March 30th, 2014

Verbs of Motion

We’ve seen 5 out of 8 in various forms:

IMP PRF ITR
aŋi onnɨt anna
eyaŋi eyonnɨt
mɛhaŋi mɛhonnɨt
evi tavi evna
ono tono onna
pɛsi pɛstɛ pɛsna
tɨŋi otni tɨnna
dantɨŋi danotni
notɨŋi noyotni
olatɨŋi olotni
tattɨŋi tadotni

Verbs of Stance

We’ve seen 2 out of 3:

IMP PRF
sɛdɛ sɛttɛ
alansɛdɛ alansɛttɛ
tɛndɛ tɛttɛ
notɛndɛ notɛttɛ

Clause Particles

ka hortative
ki imperative

Clausal Conjunctions

nɛnsi and so

Modals and Evidentials

bala non-visual, other sensory evidential
dɛga future modal
dɛstɛ reported or hearsay evidential
giya ability and potentiality modal
tɛlɛ inference evidential

OK? Questions?
Part 3 coming tomorrow.

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Recap #2, Part I: Nouns and Pronouns

Saturday, March 29th, 2014

I’m splitting this recap into 3 posts, and adding a little, too.

In 49 sentences, we’ve seen the following:

Class I Nouns

MT.sg MT.pl SS.sg SS.pl
baby kyɨbe kyɨbna kyɨbava kyɨbnavi
boy koda kodna kodava kodnavi
child hɨse hɨsna hɨsava hɨsnavi
girl laki lakina lakyava lakinavi
person ɛlɛ ɛlɛna ɛlava ɛlɛnavi

Kinship terms also belong in Class I. While we haven’t seen any yet, the words koda and laki double as kinship terms, but with differing sessile forms.

MT.sg MT.pl SS.sg SS.pl
boy koda kodna kodava kodnavi
son koda kodna kodeya kodɨdiya
girl laki lakina lakyava lakinavi
daughter laki lakina lakyeya lakyɨdiya

Class II Nouns

MT.sg MT.pl SS.sg SS.pl
belly kye kyena kyehava kyenavi
cat idɛl idɛlna idɛlava idɛlnavi
eye(s) doŋi doŋina doŋyava doŋinavi
kitten iddɨse iddɨsna iddɨsava iddɨsnavi
mist syaggaga syagna syagava syagnavi
rain tadan tadna tadava tadnavi
river tanan tanna tanava tannavi
sun loho lonna lohava lonnavi

Class III Nouns

MT.sg MT.pl SS.sg SS.pl
campfire nolɨdɛn nolɨdi nolako noliko
doll gyɛdɨdɛn gyɛdɨdi gyɛddan gyɛdi
flower maladɨdɛn maladɨdi malad maladi
home kohɨdɛn kohɨdi ko ko
ink syɛtɨdɛn syɛtɨdi syɛttan syɛti
letter ɨɬkɨnɨdɛn ɨɬkɨnɨdi ɨɬkɨn ɨɬkɨni
plain mesɨdɛn mesɨdi mese mesi
table tɛbɨdɛn tɛbɨdi tɛbɛ tɛbi
tree mɛdɨdɛn mɛdɨdi mɛdɛ mɛdi
village dɛspɨdɛn dɛspɨdi dɛspɛ dɛspi

Class IV Nouns

MT.sg MT.pl SS.sg SS.pl
game, play gyɛdeya gyɛdɨdiya gyɛdɛ gyɛdi
hope kyɛsyeya kyɛsyɨdiya kyɛsi kyɛsyi
light logeya logɨdiya logatan logi
place soteya sotɨdiya sota soti
road, path toneya tonɨdiya tona toni
settlement dɛspeya dɛspɨdiya dɛspɛdan dɛspi
shout umeya umɨdiya ume umi
sleep syɛɬeya syɛɬɨdiya syɛɬɛ syɛɬi
visit madateya madatɨdiya madat madati
work kɛbeya kɛbɨdiya kɛbɛdan kɛbi

Pronouns

Personal pronouns come in motile and sessile forms as well, and a reduced form used for possessive constructions and relative clauses.

MT SS REDUCED
1P.SG lene leneya le
1P.CO/DU leni lenɨdiya le
1P.PL lɛnna lɛnnavi le
2P.SG ŋidi ŋideya ŋi
2P.CO/DU ŋidiyi ŋidɨdiya ŋi
2P.PL ŋɨdna ŋɨdnavi ŋi
3P.SG mava maveya ma
3P.CO/DU mavi mavɨdiya ma
3P.PL mavna mavnavi ma
N2.SG ha hava ha
N2.CO/DU hayi hanavi ha
N2.PL hana hanavi ha
N3.SG dɨdɛn da da
N3.PL dɨdi dayi da
N4.SG deya da da
N4.PL dɨdiya dayi da

Words that are neither nouns or pronouns because they don’t inflect.
These two words are only used as a source or destination:

daka path, way
susi here, there, place

OK? All clear? Questions?
Part 2 coming tomorrow.

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Detail #83: Some fun with grammatical number

Saturday, March 29th, 2014
Recall how there are two types of all-quantifiers in English (and in many other languages as well):

every man / each man vs. all men
In English, the former is formed and perceived as singular, the latter as plural. Semantically, there's some differences in meaning, but for some utterances, the difference is almost stylistic more than pertaining to any real difference in the situation described. (Such examples are somewhat few and far between, though).

However, what if we extended this to other things referring to a non-singular number of entities:

somery man vs. some men
anery man vs. any men
We could even extend it to the plural itself:
ery man vs. men vs. ery men (several men taken as individuals vs. a bunch of men perceived as a group vs. bunches of groups of men taken as individual groups), thery man vs. the men vs. thery man (same but definite)
fivery man vs. five men vs. fivery men (five men considered on an individual basis, vs. a bunch of five men considered as a group vs. groups of five men)
This per se isn't that interesting, but how does it interact with other things in the language?

Some people may want to be able to distinguish
the thieves hid themselves
each of the thieves hid himself  
In a language with the system described above, you'd get
the thieves hid themselves
thery thief hid himself
Further it might be possible to stack these:
ery five men :   all groups of five men
thery fivery men : any set of a particular set of men as individuals considered in a combination of five of them.
 Not a particularly new idea per se, but few conlangers ever discuss how introducing something like this affects things like reflexives and so on.
 

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Ba dalkai

Friday, March 28th, 2014
I actually sat down the other night and traced out Sandic letters into Gimp and made a transparency of them.  I can write in Sandic itself now, with a little bit of effort on my part!  It makes me happy beyond belief.

I'm having to adapt the the more rigid character of the "print" characters after having only seem handwriting for the last ten years. :p

Still, when I printed something in it yesterday, I couldn't contain my excitement.  I ended up dancing in place and then immediately running out to stick it on my car.  Bahaha.

Anyway, below is "The creative adult is the child that survived." ("Ba dalkai ohii ka baahl iat aan ma ba gezo kaahl, iat bajjew.")


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light is varga (of color) (revisited)

Thursday, March 27th, 2014
varga = light (of color) (adjective) (some things Google found for "varga": a very common term; a uncommon to common last name that can be Hungarian; Varga girls refers to the pin-up girl paintings of Alberto Vargas; Varga Photography; Varga Bar in Philadelphia; Varga store is a ladies fashion boutique; Varga is a Canadian metal band; an unusual first name; a term in Indian astrology which refers to the division of a zodiacal sign into parts; Varga is a Filipino comics super heroine created in the late 1940s; name of a place in Hungary; Varga Mahala is the name of a place in Kosovo)

Word derivation for "light" (of color)(adjective) :
Basque = argi, Finnish = vaalea
Miresua = varga

My previous Miresua word for light (of color) was vigla. This change is make it similar to the noun light, my previous word.

The word light doesn't appear in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. It does appear in Through the Looking-Glass, but not with this meaning.

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Wednesday’s word – guta

Wednesday, March 26th, 2014

Mychai has several postural verbs that can double as copulae with certain nuances.
One such example is guta which can mean to stand or to be.
When it bears the meaning of stand it is used intransitively much like in English.

Le Aladh dai guta.
le Ala-dh dai guta
1sub wife-ass 1gen stand
I am standing with my wife.

It cannot be used in a transitive sense as Stand the lamp back up. For that see last week’s word: set

However, guta can also be used as a copula to express that the subject has some control over the relationship being described, or rather that the subject is very highly agent-like. While their is a sense of control, such statements are generally permanent or very long lasting.

These meanings can only be used for high animate subjects (people, gods, mystical creatures), and perhaps oddly tall subjects namely tall trees, buildings taller than three or so stories, and mountains. This probably comes from associations with the position of people when standing.

So that example above could have a second reading:
Le Aladh dai guta.
le Ala-dh dai guta
1sub wife-ass 1gen stand
I am with my wife forever, till death do us part.

Ed Thau nguiguta rala.
ed Thau nguiguta rala.
that tree has.been forever
That has been here forever and will be here for a long time.

Additionally, because guta‘s thematic vowel is u, and not a, it is an irregular verb:

Pfv. Ipfv. Retro.
Prs. —- guta nguiguta
Past gauta​ géunda nguigéunda
Fut. gusta​​ géusta nguigéusta

Prec. guarta


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Wednesday’s word – guta

Wednesday, March 26th, 2014

Mychai has several postural verbs that can double as copulae with certain nuances.
One such example is guta which can mean to stand or to be.
When it bears the meaning of stand it is used intransitively much like in English.

Le Aladh dai guta.
le Ala-dh dai guta
1sub wife-ass 1gen stand
I am standing with my wife.

It cannot be used in a transitive sense as Stand the lamp back up. For that see last week’s word: set

However, guta can also be used as a copula to express that the subject has some control over the relationship being described, or rather that the subject is very highly agent-like. While their is a sense of control, such statements are generally permanent or very long lasting.

These meanings can only be used for high animate subjects (people, gods, mystical creatures), and perhaps oddly tall subjects namely tall trees, buildings taller than three or so stories, and mountains. This probably comes from associations with the position of people when standing.

So that example above could have a second reading:
Le Aladh dai guta.
le Ala-dh dai guta
1sub wife-ass 1gen stand
I am with my wife forever, till death do us part.

Ed Thau nguiguta rala.
ed Thau nguiguta rala.
that tree has.been forever
That has been here forever and will be here for a long time.

Additionally, because guta‘s thematic vowel is u, and not a, it is an irregular verb:

Pfv. Ipfv. Retro.
Prs. —- guta nguiguta
Past gauta​ géunda nguigéunda
Fut. gusta​​ géusta nguigéusta

Prec. guarta


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Detail #82: Restricted imperatives

Monday, March 24th, 2014
A language where imperatives cannot have adverbs of time, adverbs of location nor adverbs of manner. Not all verbs have proper imperatives, and the imperative is often slightly irregularly formed. A complement is generally mandatory (although a kind of empty dummy complement also exists). Other arguments are also rather limited - instruments can appear, but if so tend to be marked as objects instead, and seldom co-appear with direct objects. Indirect objects sometimes do appear with direct objects, but generally speaking either the direct or the indirect object tends to be understood.

More complex orders - anything involving a non-present time, non-present location or more complicated tools are expressed using various periphrastic means often involving irrealis moods or indirect statements.

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