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Otvei (Scratchpad)

Posted: 04 Nov 2016 00:04
by Dezinaa
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Otvei

I've been wanting to do something with this lang for a while. I don't have much yet, but I'm going to use this thread to post new things. I'll try to post something small every few days. Some of this post is copied and pasted from other posts, but I wanted to consolidate it.

Otvei is meant to be a personal language (not spoken by a conpeople). I'm not going to worry too much about naturalism, especially with regularity. It's going to be a pretty straightforward language.

Phonology

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The orthography is the same, except /ŋ/ is written <g>.

The actual phonemic realizations of /r, e, o, a/ in most positions are /ʀ, ɛ, ɔ, ɑ/, but it's easier to use more basic symbols (especially since they don't contrast).

Hangul orthography (No reason, other than that Hangul works well with this.)

/ma na ŋa pa ta ka va sa za ha la ra/
<마 나 가 파 타 카 바 사 자 하 다 라>

/a e i o u/
<아 애 이 오 우>

[jɑ jɛ jɔ ju wɑ wɛ wi wɔ]
<야 얘 요 유 와 왜 위 워>

Example:
웈리우 존자윔 마일, 매힘 수마일.
Ukriu zonzauim mair, mehim sumair.

Syllable Structure
(C)V(C)
Any consonant can be in the onset or coda.

Allophony
/p, t, k/ → [b, d, g] / N_, _[v, z], [v, z]_
/s, z/ → [ʃ, ʒ] / _i, i_$
/h, l, r/ → [χ, ɬ, r̥] / V_$
/l/ → [ɾ] / _i
/n, ŋ/ → [ɴ] / _r*
/i, u/ → [j, w] / V_, _V
∅ → [ʔ] / [a, e, o]_[a, e, o]

→ = phoneme(s) become(s) the following phone(s)
/ = under following conditions
_ = position of affected phoneme(s)
$ = syllable boundary
V = vowel
N = nasal

*[ɴʀ] is always written <nr>.

Stress is not phonemic, but tends to be on heavier syllables towards the right side of a word (optimally penultimate). Coda consonants and/or [j w] make a syllable heavier.

Morphophonological changes
These may actually be more allophonic changes, but they only happen at morpheme boundaries. They are represented in the orthography.

/np/ → /mp/
/nk/ → /ŋk/ (/ŋk/ is always written <nk>, not <gk>.)
/nv/ → /mv/
/tŋ/ → /kŋ/
/sz/ → /z/
/zs/ → /s/
/zh/ → /z/
/CC/ → /C/

Script

Here's the script I made. It's difficult (impossible?) to make curved corners work in Fontstruct, with all the different character combinations, so I decided to stick with the blocky look for now.

It's a featural syllabic alphabet. Each character is divided into three parts: the top section is for an optional onset consonant, the middle is for the vowel, and the bottom section is for an optional coda consonant.

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To see what I mean, here are all the possible syllabic blocks (Warning: big):
Spoiler:
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Upcoming

As far as grammar goes, I don't have much yet.
Word order: SOV
Nominative-Accusative alignment
Cases: Nom, Acc, Gen, Dat, Prepositional, possibly Instrumental
Noun-Gen order
Noun-Adj order
Prepositions
Subject marking on verbs

If you read all this, thanks for sticking around. Hopefully I'll post some more in the next few days. [:)]

Re: Otvei (Scratchpad)

Posted: 04 Nov 2016 00:08
by k1234567890y
nice (: can we borrow the writing system for our conlangs?

Re: Otvei (Scratchpad)

Posted: 04 Nov 2016 00:21
by Dezinaa
k1234567890y wrote:nice (: can we borrow the writing system for our conlangs?
Sure! I can share the url to download the font later.

Edit: removed link

Re: Otvei (Scratchpad)

Posted: 04 Nov 2016 14:47
by Creyeditor
I really like the phonology section so far. One question. Is there intervocalic lenition (voicing of voiceless plosives)?

Re: Otvei (Scratchpad)

Posted: 04 Nov 2016 17:57
by Dezinaa
Creyeditor wrote:I really like the phonology section so far. One question. Is there intervocalic lenition (voicing of voiceless plosives)?
No, they stay voiceless, except after nasals, or adjacent to voiced fricatives.

Re: Otvei (Scratchpad)

Posted: 08 Nov 2016 22:26
by Dezinaa
I made a ConWorkShop page for Otvei. Hopefully I can figure it out. (http://conworkshop.info/view_language.php?l=OTI)

Cases

I also made a noun declension with cases. I decided on including nominative, accusative, dative, genitive, and prepositional cases. All cases are marked with suffixes, but nominative singular is unmarked. Plural is marked with -u, which is inserted between the noun and the case marker.

Nom: Used for the subject of an intransitive verb, and the agent of a transitive verb.
Acc: Used for the object of a transitive verb.
Dat: Used for the indirect object in a verbal clause with three arguments.
Gen: Possessive/shows relationship to. Used for both alienable and inalienable possession.
Prep: Used for the object of a prepositional phrase.

Code: Select all

     SG   PL
NOM       -u
ACC  -im  -uim
DAT  -toi -utoi
GEN  -un  -uun
PREP -e   -ue
Example declension, with gona "person/human":

Code: Select all

     SG        PL
NOM  gona      gonau
ACC  gonaim    gonauim
DAT  gonatoi   gonautoi
GEN  gonaun    gonauun
PREP gonae     gonaue
Geez, this thing is quickly getting out of hand. I'm gonna need to seriously tone down the craziness if this language is ever going to work.

Re: Otvei (Scratchpad)

Posted: 12 Nov 2016 05:06
by Dezinaa
Pronouns

Na made some pronouns. Ev are pretty self-explanatory. What do nei think?

Code: Select all

     SG   PL
1    na   vuo/pa
2    i    nei
3    ol   ev
Vuo is inclusive, and pa is exclusive. Pronouns decline like normal nouns, but without the plural suffix -u (it's unnecessary).

I'm also working on translating country names. They're based on the countries' autonyms.

Amerika - America
Espania - Spain
Intonesia - Indonesia
Italia - Italy
Kanata - Canada
Mehiko - Mexico
Nitzieria - Nigeria
Pakistan - Pakistan
Parat - India
Purazil - Brazil
Siunkuo - China
Toitsiulantu - Germany
Vuransu - France

Re: Otvei (Scratchpad)

Posted: 12 Nov 2016 07:54
by DesEsseintes
Dezinaa wrote:Na made some pronouns. Ev are pretty self-explanatory. What do nei think?

Code: Select all

     SG   PL
1    na   vuo/pa
2    i    nei
3    ol   ev
Na like ev. Na like the aesthetic of i's language. [:)]

Re: Otvei (Scratchpad)

Posted: 23 Nov 2016 05:05
by Dezinaa
Numbers

Here are the numbers 1-10. I haven't decided exactly how I want to do larger numbers yet. Probably something like 11 - siva, 12 - sizai, 13 - sizoh, etc.

1 - va - Image
2 - zai - Image
3 - zoh - Image
4 - teu - Image
5 - ik - Image
6 - las - Image
7 - po - Image
8 - niu - Image
9 - rom - Image
10 - si - Image

Re: Otvei (Scratchpad)

Posted: 26 Feb 2017 22:29
by Dezinaa
It's been a while, but I've made a small development. I decided how I want to handle numbers larger than 10. Let's take the number 654. This would be literally translated as "hundred six ten five four," or (100 x 6) + (10 x 5) + 4. This is because adjectives follow the word they modify. Also, numbers cannot take the plural suffix -u.

But for a number like 102, this could be confusing. Instead of saying "hundred two," which could be interpreted as meaning "two hundred," you would say "hundred and two."

Similarly, 112 would be literally translated as "hundred ten and two." This can't be confused with the grammatically incorrect 1002 (*ten hundred and two), because 1000 would have its own word.

If the rules for when to add the word "and" are confusing, just leave it out unless it's necessary for disambiguation. As for numbers larger than 9999, I don't know yet.

Re: Otvei (Scratchpad)

Posted: 14 Oct 2018 01:01
by Dezinaa
Colors

I'm back for more 'langing, and I brought some color terms with me! Otvei distinguishes 12 basic taagu (colors): red, orange, yellow, green, cyan/turquoise/azure, blue, purple, magenta/pink, brown, black, gray, and white. Basically, it's just English's basic color terms + cyan.

Here's a color wheel with boundaries for each color (not counting brown, black, gray, or white):
Spoiler:
Image
vaui [ˈvɑwi] red
itzu [ˈidzu] orange
pog [pɔŋ] yellow
lagta [ˈlɑŋdɑ] green
esu [ˈɛsu] cyan, turquoise, azure
tez [tɛz] blue
sool [ˈsɔʔɔɬ] purple
reo [ˈʀɛʔɔ] magenta, pink
nov [nɔv] brown
ut [ut] black
vin [vin] gray
hio [hjɔ] white

In addition, several words are used to distinguish variations of a color.

iles [ˈilɛs] n. hue
riataki [ʀjɑˈtɑki] n. saturation (lit. brightness), from riata bright, vivid and -ki "-ness"
ziki [ˈʒiki] n. lightness, value, from zi light and -ki "-ness"

mevu [ˈmɛvu] adj. dull, desaturated
riata [ˈʀjɑtɑ] adj. bright, vivid, highly saturated
mor [mɔr̥] adj. dark
zi [ʒi] adj. light