A conlang where /l/ is realized as its “light” [l] or “dark” [ɫ] variant based on the perceived brightness of the speaker’s environment, such as the time of day outside, proximity to light sources, whether or not their eyes are closed, if you’ve just been reading a Russian novel, etc.
Archive for July, 2016
#464
Sunday, July 17th, 2016Sargaĺk Participles and their Use
Sunday, July 17th, 2016- "heavy" embedded VPs are more often rendered as subclauses than by participles
- "heavy" clauses with an additional subclause that could be rendered by a participle often have participles rather than an additional subclause
- topics prefer subclauses
- focus prefers participles
- certain participles form compound-like lexical structures, and these form an inseparable unit with their head noun. These generally have very full case congruence, and their evidentiality is inferential*. Examples include
- "xalval ecdo", sweating house or house that sweats, essentially 'sauna'. xalval is not a gerund or anything like that; to some extent, this is a sort of implicit causative, 'house that sweats (you)'.
sanət - be [reputed to/inferred to/seen to/heard to/...] verbThis requires the active form of the present or past participle. (Uninflected). This auxiliary basically emphasizes the content of the evidentiality marker.
xk'arp- - resume
mər- continue
mərmər- continue despite attempts by others to stop one from doing
tomŕ- cease (participle in the ablative)
Finally, there exists an adverbial case that only exists for participles. This signifies by doing. Its marker is -(k)o, which also reduces the previous syllable's vowel if morphophonologically possible. This conflates a fair share of forms as well.
Sargaĺk: Adjective Congruence and the Copula
Sunday, July 17th, 2016Adjective Congruence
mascfemsg-ti-dapl-er-so
mascfemsg-ta-napl-sa-sair
present:
k'iʒ | k'ip | k'ir | k'iva
k'iko | k'iyo | k'ivo | k'ivo
past perfective:
fem:sg: ak'omasc:
pl: ak'yosg: ak'ə
pl: ak'e
past imperfective:
k'aʒa | k'apa | k'ara | k'ava
k'avi | k'aya | k'ava | k'ava
present:
əvin | əvi | əvir | əvo
əko | əvyo | əvo | əvo
past:
an | avi | avir | ava
aki | ava | ava | ava
future*:
k'əvk (singular)
k'əvka (plural)
#463
Saturday, July 16th, 2016Why doesn’t your next language try morpheme communism?
That is, you figure out how many non-root morphemes might be in your sentence (tense, aspect, mood, cases, evidentiality, politeness,etc.) and distributes them to all roots, so that they all have about the same number.
Sargaĺk: Participles and Evidentiality
Friday, July 15th, 2016Imperfect aspect or non-past tensePerfect aspect and past tense
typical transitivity: voice: evidentiality: ditransitive active first-hand primary -al first-hand non-primary -saŋ second-hand -sur inferential -sapud recipient first-hand primary -tŕ first-hand non-primary -tŋ́ second-hand -tud "recipient-hand" -təvŕ inferential -təpud passive first-hand -sək second-hand -səŋək inferential -sənul transitive active first-hand primary -al first-hand non-primary -saŋ/-tŋ́ second-hand -tud "subject-hand" -təvŕ inferential -təpud passive first-hand -sək second-hand -səŋək inferential -təpud intransitive markers as ditr.
recipient
typical transitivity: voice: evidentiality: ditransitive active first-hand primary -jir first-hand non-primary -jir(u) second-hand -surem inferential -sepem recipient first-hand primary -trem first-hand non-primary -teŋm second-hand -rem "recipient-hand" -trem inferential -tremud passive first-hand -səm second-hand -səmək inferential -səmem transitive active first-hand primary -jir first-hand non-primary -jir(u) second-hand -rem "subject-hand" -trem inferential -sepem passive first-hand -sər second-hand -səmək inferential -təpem intransitive markers as transitive
passive
seventeen is sezpintima
Friday, July 15th, 2016Word derivation for "seventeen" :
Basque = hamazazpi (from ten + seven)
Finnish = seitsemäntoista (seven + -teen)
Miresua = sezpintima (seven + -teen)
Another new word which is more Finnish than Basque. Not sure what I can do about it, it's partly because the Finnish word is a humongous 15 letter word.
The word seventeen doesn't occur in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland or Through the Looking-glass.
seventeen is sezpintima
Friday, July 15th, 2016sezpintima = seventeen (number) (adjective) (some things Google found for “sezpintima”: an unique term, did not match any documents; vaguely similar Septima is an unusual feminine first name which means seventh in Latin; vaguely similar sentima means fearless in Esperanto)
Word derivation for “seventeen” :
Basque = hamazazpi (from ten + seven)
Finnish = seitsemäntoista (seven + -teen)
Miresua = sezpintima (seven + -teen)
Another new word which is more Finnish than Basque. Not sure what I can do about it, it’s partly because the Finnish word is a humongous 15 letter word.
The word seventeen doesn’t occur in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland or Through the Looking-glass.
A Public Service Announcement
Thursday, July 14th, 2016Tsarmuvex kulpity ɕmargɕity xistvëmxi xarda, ɕixue ɕvaraɕ kama. Tërsi ɕtekan lrexmud kerfeklër ɕxarda. Nədvər, ednën rufal, tatsek. Anzïmub teka du kar iskrar. "Bəcək nədvərśkə xuršupuru", ednën rufalïr tersëk furaven ixutë.
Ćwarmins are insulted by signs of human decay and death, such as worms and rot. Insulting certain rituals (insults) them too. Baptism, first washing, head (among these). Insults often join the two: "Bəcək nədvərśkə xuršupuru" - in your first washing, the worms swim.
Detail #299: An Idea for a Morphophonology
Monday, July 11th, 2016passive: {+back}l{-occlusive +voiced}
first person: {/ +semivowel}a
{+back}l{-occlusive +voiced}{/ +semivowel}a → {+back}lwa
Sargaĺk: Detransitivization
Sunday, July 10th, 2016tŕp'ə- - to spin something
tĺp'ə- - to spin (reflexive)
kar- - to carry something
kačń- - to hold up, to stand while burdened, to withstand
fakń- to bring something
fačń - to reach
ŕma- - to raise
ĺma- - to rise
ŕman- - to rise
(c.f. adjectives ĺmi- 'ascending', ŕmi - high)
ops- - to give
id- - to show
vŕ- - to sell
p'rik- - to pass someone something
lonkə- - to tell
k'əda- - to throw someone something
p'əspə- - to teach someone something
t'ošni- - to confirm something to someone
vəšni- - to negate something to someone
partə- - to stand as someone's representative to someone
ĺvoʒa- - to betray someone to someone
kŕvoʒa - to betray someone to someone
ops → opil promotes object to subject
id → idil promotes object to subject
vŕ → vril promotes object to subject
p'rik → p'rikil- promotes i.o. to subject
lonkə →lonkə (!) promotes object to subject
k'əda → k'ədil promotes object to subject
t'ošni → t'ošni (!) promotes i.o. to subject
vəšni → vəšni (!) promotes i.o.
partə → partil promotes object
lvoʒa → lvoʒil promotes i.o.
kŕvoʒa → kŕvoʒil promotes d.o.