Speedlanging weekend IV: Weekend of April 8th

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shimobaatar
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Re: Speedlanging weekend IV proposal: Weekend of April 8th

Post by shimobaatar »

I personally think the two threads should be merged, especially since speedlanging weekend participants have always put their entries in the same thread as the original "proposal" before, to the best of my knowledge, but it's up to the mods, of course.
Nachtuil
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Re: Speedlanging weekend IV proposal: Weekend of April 8th

Post by Nachtuil »

Welcome to speedlang weekend IV! I am posting a bit earlier than I said I would but I am sure that won't be an issue. I am eager to see what people come up with and hope people have fun with this!

Theme:
The theme is "fantasy world" to be interpreted as you see fit. Maybe a language for dwarves, elves, wizards, vampires or perhaps just a sea faring group with some words for dragons and trolls. You are welcome to use this theme as lightly or heavily as you desire.

Phonemic Constraints
Maximum 25 phonemes, vowels and consonants. Go crazy with allophony if you wish.
Maximum 2 fricatives.
Maximum 2 affricates.
Minimum 2 central vowels of those found in this link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_vowel

Grammatical constraints
1. Plurality-neutral nouns:
Your language cannot mark plurality directly on nouns, even with suffixes. Pronouns may still indicate plurality.
Spoiler:
Strategies to consider include possibly using classifiers, having definite or indefinite articles showing plurality, and perhaps verb forms. There are likely more.
2. Split Ergativity:
Your language must have ergativity in some aspect of its grammar. What gets absolutive-ergative alignment and what doesn't and how is up to you.
Spoiler:
Some possibilities to consider:
1. Marking can occur in word order, or from suffixes, or verb forms.
2. Some languages use ergativity only in the past tense or in the perfect aspect.
3. Many languages have a type of agency or animacy hierarchy with higher nouns using nominative-accusative and lower nouns using ergative-absolutive.
4. A known pattern related to the above includes marking first and second person in nominative-accusative and third in ergative absolutive.
Nachtuil
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Re: Speedlanging weekend IV proposal: Weekend of April 8th

Post by Nachtuil »

shimobaatar wrote:I personally think the two threads should be merged, especially since speedlanging weekend participants have always put their entries in the same thread as the original "proposal" before, to the best of my knowledge, but it's up to the mods, of course.
It doesn't bother me either way. I just deleted the other thread a moment ago and stuck the outline in here.
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Re: Speedlanging weekend IV: Weekend of April 8th

Post by Creyeditor »

So here's my try:

Fantasy world language


Phoneme inventory (with orthography)

/ɨ a/<i a>
/p b t d ʈ ɖ c ɟ k g q/<p b t d to do c j k g q>
/m n ɳ ɲ ŋ/<m n no ne nu>
/l ɭ ʎ ʟ/<l lo le lu>
/r/<r>
/j w/<y w>
Gemination is indicated by doubling the first letter of a grapheme.

Allophone inventory
[i ɨ u]
[ɪ ɪ̈ ʊ]
[e ɘ o]
[ə]
[ɛ ɜ ɔ]
[æ a ɒ]
[p b t d ʈ ɖ c ɟ k g q]
[pf bv ts dz ʈʂ ɖʐ cɕ ɟʑ kx gɣ qχ]
[f v s z ʂ ʐ ɕ ʑ ʝ x ɣ χ~h]
[m n ɳ ɲ ŋ]
[mː nː ɳː ɲː ŋː]
[β̃ ð̠̃ ɻ̝̃ ʝ̃ ɣ̃]
[l ɭ ʎ ʟ]
[tɬ ʈɭ̝̊ cʎ̝̊ kʟ̝̊]
[ɬ ɭ̝̊ ʎ̝̊ ʟ̝̊]
[r]
[j w]


Syllable structure
CV(N)

Allophony
Plosives /p b t d ʈ ɖ c ɟ k g q/ become fricatives [f v s z ʂ ʐ ɕ ʑ x ɣ χ~h] between vowels
Plosives /p b t d ʈ ɖ c ɟ k g q/ become africates [pf bv ts dz ʈʂ ɖʐ cɕ ɟʑ kx gɣ qχ] after nasals
Nasals /m n ɳ ɲ ŋ/ become nasalized fricatives [β̃ ð̠̃ ɻ̝̃ ʝ̃ ɣ̃] between vowels.
Nasals /m n ɳ ɲ ŋ/ fuse with preceding nasals to form long nasals /mː nː ɳː ɲː ŋː/
Laterals /l ɭ ʎ ʟ/ become affricates [tɬ ʈɭ̝̊ cʎ̝̊ kʟ̝̊] at the beginning of a word, if the preceding word ends in a consonant.
Laterals /l ɭ ʎ ʟ/ become fricatives [ɬ ɭ̝̊ ʎ̝̊ ʟ̝̊] at the beginning of a word, if the preceding word ends in a vowel.
Approximants /j w/ become fricatives [ʝ ɣ] at the beginning of a word, if the preceding word ends in a vowel.

Stressed vowels /ɨ a/ are tense [ɨ a], unstressed vowels are lax [ɪ̈ ə].
Low vowels /a/ become raised [ɜ] in a syllable directly after a stressed /i/.
High vowels /ɨ/ become lowered [ɘ] in a syllable directly after /a/
Vowels /ɨ a/ become fronted [i æ] after palatal consonants /c ɟ ɲ ʎ j/
Vowels /ɨ a/ become backed and rounded [u ɒ] after labial consonants /p b m w/.

Stress is on the first syllable if heavy or monosyllabic and on the second syllable if the first one is light.

Morphology

Verbs agree with their ergative argument in number and with their absolutive in number and noun class.
The same is true for nouns and their modifiers. Unmodified nouns take a classifier that agrees with the noun in number and noun class.

Verbal absolutive Agreement and nominal concord

Code: Select all

    SG       PL
I   -0     -nuinu 
II  -ki    -noano
III -leine -noano
IV  -leine -0
V   -leinu -0
VI  -leinu -nuinu 
Verbal ergative agreement

Code: Select all

SG PL
-0 -ca
Noun classes:
I Male
II female
III human
IV animate
V inanimate
VI locations

Syntax

SOV
modifiers before nouns
no articles and no
postverbal particles indicate TAM

Example sentences

Leine yiwim nuakileine.
/ʎɨɲ jɨwɨm ŋakɨʎɪɲ/
[ˈʎiɲ jɪˈwum ŋəˈxɨʎɪɲ]
leine yiwim nuaki-leine
IV.SG sun shine-IV.SG
'The sun shines'

Nan gi neimticanuinuca leiragi.
/nan gɨ ɲɨmtɨcaŋɨŋca ʎɨragi/
[ˈnan ˈgɣɨ ˈʝ̃imtsɪ̈ɕɛɣ̃ɪ̈ŋcɕɛ ʎ̝̊ɪˈraɣɜ]
nan gi neimtica-nuinu-ca leiragi.
we you.PL catch-I.PL-E.PL PRF
We (female) have caught you (male, plural)!

Vocabulary
I thought of a conceptual metaphor IMAGINING is CREATING. This is my interpretation of the theme.

yiwim /jɨwɨm/ [jɪˈwum] sun
nuaki /ŋakɨ/ [ŋəˈxɨ] shine
leine /ʎɨɲ/ [ˈʎiɲ] IV.SG
banoluino /baɳʟɨɳ/[ˈbɒɳʟɜɳ] to imagine, to create
leinu /ʎɨŋ/ [ˈʎiŋ] V.SG, VI.SG
neimtica /ɲɨmtɨca/ [ˈɲimtsɪ̈cɛ] catch
leiragi /ʎɨragɨ/ [ʎiˈraɣɜ] - PRF
noano /ɳaɳ/ [ˈɳaɳ] II.PL, III.PL
noinoino /ɳɨɳɨɳɨ/ [ɳɨˈɻ̝̃ɨɻ̝̃ɨ] - imagination, power
nuinu /ŋɨŋ/ [ˈŋɨŋ] - I.PL, VI.PL
ki /ˈkɨ/[ˈkɨ] - II.SG
ca /ca/[ˈcæ] - E.PL
gi - you (plural)
nan - we
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opipik
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Re: Speedlanging weekend IV: Weekend of April 8th

Post by opipik »

/p b t d c ɟ k ɡ/ <p b t d c j k g>
/m n ɲ ŋ/ <m n ny~n ng>
/ɾ r/ <r r̄>
/s h/ <s h>
/ʦ/ <ts>
/l/ <l>

/i~j e/ <i~y e>
/ɨ ɘ a/ <v w a>
/u~w o/ <u o>

Stress is contrastive. It occurs most frequently on the first syllable. If it occurs on any other syllable than the first, it's written with an acute accent over the vowel.
/li/ is pronounced [ʎ] before a vowel and written <ly>
/i u/ are pronounced [j w] before a vowel and written <y u>
Homorganic nasal + stop clusters are pronounced as prenasalized consonants.
Syllable structure is (N)CVC
Spoiler:
Vocabulary:

ngv "I"
mwngv́ "place"
kayu "live"
-ẃ~ngẃ "PRS"
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k1234567890y
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Re: Speedlanging weekend IV: Weekend of April 8th

Post by k1234567890y »

nasals: /m n ŋ/<m n ng>
plosives: /p pʰ ɓ t tʰ ɗ k kʰ/ <p ph b t th d k kh>
fricatives: /s h/ <s h>
sonorants: /w r l j/ <w r l y>

vowels: /ə ɪ ʊ a: e: i: o: u:/<a i u aa e ii o uu/

syllable: (C)(C)(C)V(C), final vowel can only be /m n ŋ p t k/

----------------
Syntax

basic word order: VOS
adpositions are prepositions
adjectives, possessors, numerals, demonstratives precede the noun they modify; relative clauses follow the noun they modify

there's no definite articles, definiteness are marked by demonstratives, and indefinite nouns can be incorporated to the verbal root.

relative clauses and nominal clauses are introduced by the relativizer ta, which is put in the initial position of the subordinate clause.

----------------

morphology

noun:

nouns don't inflect for cases, numbers or genders, but for possession, plurality is indicated by verbal agreements

possessive prefix:

- 1.sg: te-
- 2.sg: nge-
- 3.sg: ha-
- 1.pl: si-
- 2.pl: ki-
- 3.pl: wi-
- 3.sg.indef: mu-

nouns indicating kinship terms and body parts are obliged to have possessive prefixes. e.g. mu-kin - 3.sg.indef-child - "(a) child"

when indicating possessive relationship, the 3.sg and 3.pl possessive prefixes are used. e.g. Yohan ha-kin - John 3.sg-child - John's child; Yohan ha-dam - John 3.SG-house - John's house, etc.

verb:

affix order: (absolutive)-(ergative)-(negation)-(TAM)-(voice)-root

when there are aux verbs, the aux verb take ergative, negation and TAM prefixes; the main verb take the absolutive affixes

agreement:

absolutive prefix:

- 1.sg: ta-/t-
- 2.sg: nga-/ng-
- 3.sg: Ø-
- 1.pl: so-
- 2.pl: ko-
- 3.pl: ma-/m-

ergative prefix:

- 1.sg: te-
- 2.sg: nge-
- 3.sg: ha-
- 1.pl: si-
- 2.pl: ki-
- 3.pl: wi-
- reflexive: sa-

negation prefix: mu-

TAM prefix:

- present simple: Ø-
- present progressive/continuous: ri-
- past simple: ya-
- past progressive: ye-
- subjunctive: no-
- imperative: ki-
- prohibitive: ni-

voice prefix:

- anticausative: na-
- causative: k-/ka-
- applicative:
-- benefactive: p-/pa-
-- locative: me-
-- instrumental: t-/ta-

epenthesis: -h-

----------------
some words

pronouns:

- 1.sg: ta
- 2.sg: nga
- 3.sg: a
- 1.pl: so
- 2.pl: ko
- 3.pl: ma

self: sa

- this/these: kii
- that/those: taa
- here: kim
- there: tam

adpositions:

- at/to: ka
- from: du
- with(instrumental): man
- with(comitative): ya

conjunctions:

- and: te
- or: ho
- but/only: ni

----------------

examples:

- hayataan taa blii Yohan - Ø-ha-ya-taan taa blii Yohan - 3.SG-ABS-3.SG-ERG-PST-see that fish John - John saw that fish
- hayataan Yohan taa blii - Ø-ha-ya-taan Yohan taa blii - 3.SG-ABS-3.SG-ERG-PST-see John that fish - that fish saw John

- iim blii - Ø-iim blii - 3.SG.ABS swim fish - a fish swims
- miim blii - ma-iim blii - 3.PL.ABS-swim fish - fish swim
- hamehiim blii mik - Ø-ha-me-h-iim blii mik - 3.SG.ABS-3.SG.ERG-APPL-EPEN-swim fish water- a fish swims in water
- wimehiim blii mik - Ø-wi-me-h-iim blii mik - 3.SG.ABS-3.PL.ERG-APPL-EPEN-swim fish water- fish swim in water
Last edited by k1234567890y on 09 Apr 2017 22:19, edited 2 times in total.
I prefer to not be referred to with masculine pronouns and nouns such as “he/him/his”.
protondonor
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Re: Speedlanging weekend IV: Weekend of April 8th

Post by protondonor »

I decided to pull out an old conworld that I haven't done anything with in 3 years and build my first conlang for it. This is Sîmăr Tedasu, a language spoken by a semi-aquatic/amphibious group of humanoids living on and around an island chain in a brackish subtropical inland sea.

Phoneme inventory
/m n ŋ/ m n ŋ
/p t ts~tʃ k ʔ/ p t c k ɂ
/b d dz~dʒ g/ b d j g
/s~ʃ h/ s h
/ʋ r~ʒ̞ l j/ v r l y

Phonotactics
(C)V(p, t, k, ɂ, s, h, m, n, ŋ, y, w)
only word-internal clusters are homorganic nasal+stop or glide+C

Allophony
/i ɨ e ɜ a o~ɵ u~ʉ/ i î e ă a o u
o, u -> ɵ, ʉ after /s ts dz/ and before y or Ci
ts, dz, s, r -> tʃ, dʒ, ʃ, ʒ̞ before /i e ɵ ʉ/
word final -h realized as voiceless vowel (after voiceless C) or breathy vowel (after voiced C), unless the following word begins with a vowel
ă is also used as an epenthetic vowel
going to be a complex set of sandhi rules affecting word-final consonants before a word beginning with a consonant but I haven't worked those out yet

Pronouns
Image

Demonstratives
Demonstrative stems indicate 4 levels of referentiality: indefinite, definite proximal, definite distal visible (or audible, etc.), and definite distal nonvisible. Demonstratives are typically required for most NPs.
Image
Prepositions and possessives (which are identical to pronouns minus the independent pronoun suffix -a) cliticize onto demonstratives.

Nouns
Referentiality and number are marked on the demonstrative. There is no nominal case. Order of the noun phrase is Gen Poss=Dem=Prep Num Adj N. Examples of noun phrases:
  • pîɂubaŋ vună ɂă PL-DEF.DIST.VIS-LOC shallow water "in the shallow waters"
  • moynov săŋ node 1PE-DEF.PROX three seal "our three seals"
Verb system
There is (so far) one valency marking device, the causative, which infixes -te- after the first vowel. This infix comes after person/number and aspect infixes. (I will probably add a passive and antipassive, and maybe an inverse, later.)

Verbal person marking is through prefixes on the verb. If the verb is double marked, then A precedes P.
  • 3rd person animate S and P share the same marking, prefix he-. Example: helulojot mapăvăŋa gisăh 3AN.ABS-sleep<IPFV>1PI-DEF.DIST.NVIS guest "our guest is sleeping"
  • 3rd person animate A is unmarked, as is 3rd person inanimate S and P. Example: sucă sa sîmăr ɂu pîsay cook INDEF person DEF.DIST.VIS bivalve "someone cooked clams"
  • 3rd person inanimate A is marked by gi-. Example: gicopeɂ nov coɂ ŋa sîmăr 3INAN.ERG-burn DEF.PROX flame DEF.DIST.NVIS person "the flame burned the person"
  • 1st person A, S marked by me-. Example: menăco (mia) nov ɂalaɂ gaɂonjî 1.NOM-forge (1SG) DEF.PROX coral cuirass "I forged this coral cuirass"
  • 1st person P marked by mo-. Example: motătelah (hisa) (mia) 1.ACC-choke<CAUS> 3SG.AN (1SG) "he/she choked me"
  • 2nd person A, S marked by re- and 2nd person P marked by ri-.
Non-singular number is always marked on an intransitive verb. For transitive verbs, the number of the more topical participant is marked. Speech act participants always outrank non-SAPs for topicality. Among speech act participants, first person outranks second person.
  • dual is marked by -it- after the first C. Example: cituliluk hunt<DU,IPFV> "the two of them are spearfishing"
  • plural is marked by -ap- after the first C. Example: ŋapusă sa sogontîy moypîŋa node eat<PL> INDEF dragon.turtle 1PE.POSS-PL-DEF.DIST.NVIS seal "a dragon turtle ate our seals"
Default aspect is perfective, and imperfective aspect is marked by the infix -ul- after the first C.

Order of infixes is: number-aspect-valency.
Last edited by protondonor on 10 Apr 2017 20:50, edited 1 time in total.
wintiver
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Re: Speedlanging weekend IV: Weekend of April 8th

Post by wintiver »

Language of the Carriers of Weight

Overview of the speakers and the world

The speakers of [LANGUAGE] are tall, muscular yet lankily proportioned sentient species. They are physically proportioned something like a mix between a giant (just in sheer stature) and perhaps a dark elf (in their more elongated faces and wide eyes). The Carriers of Weight were a species that were begat upon creation of the world. They are the ones who put in the work building, sculpting, separating the chaos from the order. They sculpted the valleys, and filled the oceans, they draw the tides and move the moons and stars. They typically live in small communes scattered about a large archipelago which stretches thousands of miles from a massive continents shore into the isolated ocean.

Phonology & Phonotactics
Consonants
  • Nasals: /n̪/ <n>
  • Voiceless Stops: /t̪ t͡s t͡ʃ k ʔ/ <t ts c k ʔ>
  • Voiced Stops: /d̪ g/ <d g>
  • Fricatives: /s h/ <s h>
  • Voiceless Sonorants: /r̥ ʍ/ <hr hw>
  • Voiced Sonorants: /r w/<r w>
Vowels & Syllabic Consonants
  • High: /i ɨ u/ <i y u>
  • Mid: /e̞ ə o̞/ <e ă o>
  • Low: /æ ɑ/ <æ a>
  • Syllabics: /n̩ r̩ l̩1/ <ń ŕ ł>
1. Consonantal /l/ was assimilated into other sounds and subsequently lost, but its syllabic/vocalic counterpart was retained.

(Quick question: do diphthongs and triphthongs count against our phonemic inventory numbers? If so, I can leave them out, if they wouldn't count I'd like to add some. Thank you.)

An Brief Overview of Allophony

Syllable Structure & Phonological Constraints
A maximum allowable syllable structure of CCVCC exists. Syllables of that form however are quite marginal in distribution with the majority of syllabes being found in CV, VC, CVC form.

Onset and Coda Allowances:
  • Single Consonant Onset Allowances:
    Any single consonant can occur at onset, save for /ʔ/ which is only phonemic in coda position.
  • Onset Cluster Allowances:
    • Ch Clusters: <th tsh dh>
    • Cr Clusters: <tr dr kr gr>
    • Cw Clusters: <nw tw cw kw dw gw sw>
  • Single Consonant Coda Allowances:
    Any single consonant can occur in coda position. This includes /h/ and /ʔ/ as well.
  • Coda Cluster Allowances:
    • nC Clusters: <nt nts nc nk>
    • FC Clusters: <st sk ht hts>
    • rC Clusters: <rt rts rc rk rd rg rr>
    • wC Clusters: <wn wt wts wc wk wd wg ws>

Morphology

Nouns lack any inflectional morphology whatsoever offloading the entire burden onto verbs. Pronouns have retained some distinctions - among 1st and 2nd persons plurality is inflected on the pronouns. On 3rd person pronouns only Humans, Sentient Species, and Animates get a singular/plural distinction.

Considerations of the Noun

Though nouns lack any direct inflection, the are conceptually understood to have noun class. This distinction is indicated on the verb but before we launch into verbal morphology I wanted to pore over the salient noun classes in the language.

The seven major distinctions of noun class:
  • Class I: C1: Carriers
  • Class II: C2: Other Sentient Species
  • Class III: Animates
  • Class IV: The Marginally Animate
  • Class V: Topographic
  • Class VI: Objects
  • Class VII: Substances
Each of these is further divided into four categories based on how easy the entity is to deal with. Each of the four noun-class divisions are:
  • Benefactive: Ben: indicates in sentients or animates a beneficent relationship one based on cooperation, friendship and kindness. Of the innanimates it indicates sheer ease of use or enjoyment of the object or substance. Of topographic elements it often indicates their ability to host a colony of Carriers or is merely indicative of loveliness or general habitability.
  • Pliable: Pli: indicates a neutral sentiment among animates and sentients. It indicates normal ease of use with objects or substances. Of landforms it indicates a sort of default state. This is the citation form of all the noun classes.
  • Resistant: Resist: indicates that there is some difficulty, tension, unease or distrust with other sentients or animates. It may difficulty in use or poor quality of an object or substance. In terms of topography it indicates unusable land or less-than-attractive vistas. It can also mean slightly difficult land to traverse through or work with.
  • Malefactive: Mal: This indicates active hostility from another sentient or animate. This indicates danger in using an object or substance whether it is from a defective object or poisonous/toxic material. Of landforms it indicates danger as well, indicating for instance steep cliffs, volcanoes, pocket canyons, peat bogs that may trap you etc.
Morphosyntactic Alignment

[LANGUAGE] exhibits split-ergative, and more specifically, split-S morphosyntactic alignment. Verbs are, for the most part, split into either stative or non-stative verbs. Some verbs for instance, like răn "attacking" mark the subject of this intransitive verb as it would treat the subject of a transitive verb (exhibiting Nom-Acc-like behavior).

In verbs such as yts "relaxing/not working", the intransitive subject is treated like a transitive object and thus is marked as it would be in an Erg-Abs system.

Ostensibly what the language is marking is the agentivity (or patienthood) of a given noun by inflecting that information on the verb. Other forces govern how the verb is marked besides the stative/non-stative nature of the given predicate. For instance, though it is not marked on the noun itself, nouns have noun class. How each class interacts with verbs depends on the noun class and its orientation up-or-down the animacy hierarchy. Typically the higher the animacy, the more likely the verb will be marked with Nom/Acc like marking and the lower the animacy, the more likely the verb will exhibit Erg/Abs marking.

Verbal Morphology
Stative and non-stative verbs are not distinguished morphologically but are determined by their semantics. An easy way to distinguish between the two is to note if the intransitive verb affects the subject or acts upon the subject or indicates information about location, direction, state of mind or any condition than the verb is most likely stative. If the verb indicates an act that is being perpetrated by the intransitive subject than the verb is non-stative.

As a brief side note: I have chosen to use the terminology "Stative" and "Non-Stative" as opposed to stative and active, because grammatical voice plays a roll in the morphology as well and the language contains an Active Voice. So to avoid confusion, I am going to be using stative/non-stative for the nature of a verb.

Subject Infixes
Verb roots take a subject infix which indicates person, number, noun case (either patient or agent) and noun class.

For first and second persons:
1st person: -at-
2nd person: -aw-

For third persons:
  • C1: Carriers: -ek- -ăk- -ak- -uk-
  • C2: Sentients: -eh- -ăh- -ah- -uh-
  • C3: Animates: -enw- -ănw- -anw- -unw-
  • C4: Marginally Animate: -ehw- -ăhw- -ahw- -uhw-
  • C5: Topographic: -erg- -ărg- -arg- -urg-
  • C6: Objects: -eʔ- -ăʔ- -aʔ- -uʔ-
  • C7: Substances: -ewk- -ăwk- -awk- -uwk-
Benefactive: eC
Pliable: ăC
Resistant: aC
Malefactive: uC

Plural infix: -iw-

Inverse marking prefix: ŕ-/ră-

Each noun class has its own default agentivity. If the noun inflected is not of that noun case it is inflected with "inverse marking" to indicate if a noun was supposed to be an agent but is a patient or vice versa.

Below I will indicate which noun classes default to what noun case:

C1: Default = Agent
C2: Default = Agent
C3: Default = Agent
C4: Default = Patient
C5: Default = Patient
C6: Default = Patient
C7: Default = Patient

The plural marker is placed immediately before the Subject infix.

Example: natsăr "scraping, gouging"

1s: natatsăr : I'm scraping.
1p: niwatatsăr : We're scraping.
2s: nawatsăr : You're scraping.
2p: niwawatsăr: Y'all're scraping.

3C1
  • Ben.: nekatsăr : s/he (a friend/ally) is scraping.
  • Pli.: năkatsăr : s/he is scraping.
  • Resist.: nakatsăr : s/he (a stranger, perhaps a suspicious person) is scraping.
  • Mal.: nukatsăr s/he (an enemy, a dissident) is scraping.
3C2
  • Ben.: nehatsăr : s/he (an alien friend/ally) is scraping
  • Pli.: năhatsăr : s/he (an alien) is scraping
  • Resist.: nahatasăr : s/he (an alien stranger/suspicious individual) is scraping
  • Mal.:nuhatsăr s/he (an alien and an enemy) is scraping
3C3
  • Ben.: nenwatsăr : it/an animal (a friendly one) is scraping.
  • Pli.: nănwatsăr : it/an animal is scraping
  • Resist.: nanwatsăr : it/an animal (an unfamiliar/timid/weary one) is scraping.
  • Mal.: nunwatsăr it/an animal (a dangerous/aggressive one) is scraping.
3C4
  • Ben.: nehwatsăr : it/a tool/body part (a good one) is being scraped.
  • Pli.: năhwatsăr: it/a tool/body part (one in general) is being scraped.
  • Resist.: nahwatsăr : it/a tool/body part (a strange one/some random person's one) is being scraped.
  • Mal.:nuhwatsăr : it/a tool/body part (a dangerous one/one belonging to an enemy) is being scraped.
3C5
  • Ben.: nergatsăr : it/a landform (an inviting, inhabitable one) is being scraped.
  • Pli.: nărgatsăr : it/a landform is being scraped.
  • Resist.: nargatsăr : it/a landform (a less-than ideal one, ugly one) is being scraped.
  • Mal.: nurgatsăr : it/a landform (a dangerous/threatening one) is being scraped
3C6
  • Ben.: neʔatsăr : it/an object/thing (a good one, a precious, useful one) is being scraped
  • Pli.: năʔatsăr : it/an object/thing is being scraped
  • Resist.: naʔatsăr : it/an object/thing (a sort of shoddy one, a weird, or unfamiliar one) is being scraped.
  • Mal.: nuʔatsăr : it/an object/thing (a dangerous or threatening one) is being scraped.
3C7
  • Ben.: newkatsăr: it/(some good, useful) material is being scraped.
  • Pli.: năwkatsăr: it/(some) material is being scraped.
  • Resist.: nawkatsăr: it/(some less-than-useful, poor-quality) material is being scraped.
  • Mal.: nuwkatsăr: it/(some dangerous/toxic) material is being scraped
and their inverses -

1s: ŕnatatsăr : I'm being scraped.
1p: ŕniwatatsăr : We're being scraped.
2s: ŕnawatsăr : You're being scraped.
2p: ŕniwawatsăr : Y'all're being scraped.

...well you get the idea... an ŕ comes before the verb....

(More to come)
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k1234567890y
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Re: Speedlanging weekend IV: Weekend of April 8th

Post by k1234567890y »

proposal: maybe we can make a world for all languages of this contest? (:
I prefer to not be referred to with masculine pronouns and nouns such as “he/him/his”.
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Re: Speedlanging weekend IV: Weekend of April 8th

Post by Nachtuil »

wintiver wrote:
(Quick question: do diphthongs and triphthongs count against our phonemic inventory numbers? If so, I can leave them out, if they wouldn't count I'd like to add some. Thank you.)
They would count against but maybe you can get them in via allophony. If you want to develop further of course then that is your choice. :)
k1234567890y wrote:proposal: maybe we can make a world for all languages of this contest? (:
I like that idea. Then i could make one for myself to add.
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k1234567890y
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Re: Speedlanging weekend IV: Weekend of April 8th

Post by k1234567890y »

Nachtuil wrote: I like that idea. Then i could make one for myself to add.
nice (: you don't need to make a speedlang for the world though

also I have not had an official background for my speedlang yet...
I prefer to not be referred to with masculine pronouns and nouns such as “he/him/his”.
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Re: Speedlanging weekend IV: Weekend of April 8th

Post by DesEsseintes »

I'm gonna try and submit a lang later in the week.
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Re: Speedlanging weekend IV: Weekend of April 8th

Post by shimobaatar »

DesEsseintes wrote:I'm gonna try and submit a lang later in the week.
Same here, though I'll probably want to submit something very late for the 3rd speedlanging weekend thread first.
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Re: Speedlanging weekend IV: Weekend of April 8th

Post by qwed117 »

shimobaatar wrote:
DesEsseintes wrote:I'm gonna try and submit a lang later in the week.
Same here, though I'll probably want to submit something very late for the 3rd speedlanging weekend thread first.
I can't wait to see what you make. As for me, I think I'm going to sit this one out. The constraints and stuff don't jam well with me, and I personally am trying to keep with what I already have on my plate. I look forward with anticipation to seeing what you make.
Spoiler:
My minicity is [http://zyphrazia.myminicity.com/xml]Zyphrazia and [http://novland.myminicity.com/xml]Novland.

Minicity has fallen :(
The SqwedgePad
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Re: Speedlanging weekend IV: Weekend of April 8th

Post by DesEsseintes »

shimobaatar wrote:
DesEsseintes wrote:I'm gonna try and submit a lang later in the week.
Same here, though I'll probably want to submit something very late for the 3rd speedlanging weekend thread first.
You rebel you. [:P]
Edit: OMG 4000th post! [:O]
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Re: Speedlanging weekend IV: Weekend of April 8th

Post by shimobaatar »

DesEsseintes wrote:
shimobaatar wrote:
DesEsseintes wrote:I'm gonna try and submit a lang later in the week.
Same here, though I'll probably want to submit something very late for the 3rd speedlanging weekend thread first.
You rebel you. [:P]
Edit: OMG 4000th post! [:O]
[;)]

Congratulations!
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Re: Speedlanging weekend IV: Weekend of April 8th

Post by Nachtuil »

Congratulations DesEsseintes! :)
I am still reading through them but I am really blown away by some of these!

Ky, i probably would just try my hand at the constraints anyway. Maybe we can make a thread or wiki for a little world. I can even provide a map.
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Re: Speedlanging weekend IV: Weekend of April 8th

Post by Inkcube-Revolver »

So I screwed up.
Edit: again!
I read the first page of another thread as if it were the actual challenge for this year, and posted mine over there! I completely overlooked the dates, I just wanted to participate, and went to work for 3 hours and 40 minutes for two speedlangs...each. felt pretty bummed and silly afterwards, but I'll still show everything I did on the 8th, including the actual parameters for this year. It's going to be formatted weird because I made changes as I went.
Spoiler:
Speedlang (started around 2:56 pm. ET)
ptkq <ptkq>
pʼ tʼ kʼ qʼ <px,b tx,d kx,g qx,xh>
ɓ ɗ ɠ ʛ~ʔ~ə <mb nd ng nq>
x ɣ β ɕ <xybc>
s m n l~r <s m n l,r>
ʁ <gh,a> (21st consonant)
ɣ~ɛ <y,e>

dɛ + ɣa > dɛːa or dɣ̩ːa
ʁ~a <gh,a>
j~i~ʑ <j,i>
w~u~β <w,u>

adʁ
adʁ + ana > adʁː̩na~adaːna

<mbeya> ɓɣ̩ːʁ "sheep"
ˈal "hand"
aˈlʁː "hands"
<mbeyagh> ɓ

Biggest change: Speedlang became a conlang for an alien race of chickens and other avians. Quickly began to resemble a kitchen sink.

New phonology:
p k kp pʼ kʼ tʼ
b g gb ɓ ɠ ɗ
ʈ ɖ ʂ~ʐ ɕ~ʑ
ʙ ʁ ʀ l~ɭ~ɺ

V V̤ (breathy voice) V̰ (creaky voice) Ṽ (nasality)

ɓɑʁ "sheep"
gʀ "canine, lupine, houndlike animal/creature"
ˈbgobgo "turkey's snood; magnificence
bãõ "cat, feline"
ãʔ "Hey! Yo! No! Whoa!"

[ʔ] is not distinguished in lang as seperate phoneme, breaks up vowels and may even have allophonic values with implosives and ejectives, ɠ and kʼ in particular.

bãːbãː "duck, duck person"

implosives and ejectives(?) cannot be beside nasal vowels, but mostly because pronouncing both implosives and nasal vowels is incredibly difficult (true for myself but maybe not for others?), so here are rules for when these occur:
*ɓã > a) bãC[-liquids, -rhotics] or b) ɓaːC[+liquids, +rhotics]
*ɓãl > ɓaːl
*ɓãg > bãg

gbḛgbḛ -"orb, shiny thing! 'Lovely for the eyes!'"
ɓeɓe "
ɠabo "chicken, person, another, 'one of us'"
ɓaːg ɓaːg "clucking, greeting, salutation, hello, welcome; voice, spirit"
ˈɠɓoːɠɓa "impressive" (??) "fascination"

ɠi "so"
ɺḛ "look, seem, like"

ˈɠi ɺḛ "such, like so, as"

revision: (was ɓˈgãː , now) ʙˈgãː "I, me
ˈɓao "you"
ˈijo ˈɓao "thou, your grace" (very formal)
pʼo "he"
kʼa "she"
ˈʈoːˌoː "it, that, this; thing"
igbo "body, flesh, corporeal matter, essence"


ˈɓao̯ ˈɠɓoː˧ɠɓa˧ ˈɠi ɺḛ ˈʙag˥ ˈʙɪk˧ʙḛ˩
(you) + (fascination) + (such) + ("creature")
"You are a creature of fascination."

ˈʙoː˥gɪˌʙiːɺ˧
"planet (lit.'earth egg/great egg')"

ˈʙoː˥ "egg, source, beginning, life, birth"
ˈɺ̩ɖa "?
seje~ʂeje "sky, wind, air, breeze"
tɕʼkʼe "hen, lady, woman, female"
ʙɺ̩ː˥ (? almost like a mix of [ɺ] and simul.) "cow, bovine, bull"
ˈʙɺː̩˥ ˌʂe˧je˧ "Bull of Heaven ('sky-bull')"

kʼɕaː̰
pʼu

ˈha̤ja̤ "relax, calm, smooth, tranquil; peace, love"
ˈho̰jo̰ "famine, starvation, hunger"

ɖuɖu "peck, jab, irritate, bother"
'jẽjẽ "distress, agony; irritation, vexation, annoying"


'ho̰jo̰ ɖuɖu pʼkʼẽ jɪjɪ kʼwe ˈʙɖo kuɺu pʼo jʏːkʏ ˈɕi.ɪ kʼwe
"Famine, go peck at another's skin and feathers!"

jɪjɪ (vb.) "go"
pʼkʼẽ (imp. aux. vb.)
ɕi˥˩/ˈɕi.ɪ "feather"
bẽ "many" (pl. marker)
ʙɖo "someone, anyone, who"
kuɺu "skin"
pʼo jʏːkʏ "of his, his own ("he+from,of")"


ɗuɗu "hollow, empty; hatched"

approx. 3 hr 40 min.

And now, my response to the actual challenge that was put up:

Spoiler:
gum "earth, land, ground, soil"
lu (DEF SG. ARTICLE)
-ka (standard plural marker, attatches to articles)
lu-ka gum "the lands, the grounds, settlements, territories, etc."

da- "to, for, towards" (Dative? Allative?)
da-gum "to ground, to earth, to home" ?
da-lu gum "to the earth, for the earth" ?


es-lu gum "in/within the earth/ground" (implies something was naturally found in ground or hidden in ground)
hi-lu gum "in(to) the ground" (implies action was made that involved placing something or doing something into the ground)

kanujju "shovel" (at moment, no derivational method available for construction of word)

kanujju es-lu gum "(a) shovel in the ground (it was found there)"
vs.
kanujju hi-lu gum "(a) shovel in(to) the ground (it was being used, it's sticking out, someone is still using it and just left it there for now)"

-ra (Agentive suffix, denotes agent and transitivity)
ˈniwa- "to bite"
-u (past tense)
kaˈnujju-ra ˈniwa-u ˈhi-lu gum "a shovel bit into the ground"

paˈrat "to hit, beat, strike"
pa.ˈrat-u "struck, beat (past)
pa-pa.ˈrat-u "beaten, stricken" (redupl? or pa-+-u = "past perfect" ?)

ʃi "it (prn.)
hi-pa.ni'wa-u ʃi. "it was bitten into."
jago "to go"
-oma (Imperative)
jaˈgoːma da.ʃi "Go to it!"
ʃi-ra joma ? ʃi joma-ra "it is raining"

ni.wˈa-oma gai! or
ni.woːma gai! "Don't bite! (lit. 'Bite not!')"
pa-ˈni.wa-u ʃi "it was bitten." ?
ˈgamuz "ogre, troll"
ˈjaːju "ear"
iˈwaːwaː "alas"
ˈdupat "to fall, succumb to something, wither, die"
haiʃa "breath, lungs, life; pause, moment"
jo, o (possessive marker) (possessor /jo/ possessee)

hi-lu gum pa-pa.ˈrat-u ˈim.ma lu ˈgam.uz
pa-ˈniwa-u xe.jem ʃi o ˈjaː.ju.
niwoː-ma gai! puʃt-u iˈwaːwaː pa-ˈdupat-u es.su haiʃa jo eːkudu.

"She had beaten the ogre into the ground.
His ear was bitten away/off.
'Bite not!' he screamed, but he had already fallen/alas, he had fallen in a breath's time."

This ergative-lang took close to 3 hours. I had to read up on split-ergativity again to understand how it works. I'm still unsure if I did it right, per se. Oh wells. I do like the lang, it is admittedly, and noticeably, inspired by Sumerian. Also unsure whether it's more fusional or aggglutinative, probably somewhere in between.


Hoo-whee! What a challenge these were! xD
The biggest challenges were the syntax and morphology, especially with my second submission. I've neglected much of basic morphology recently due to a conlang I've been pouring months into that's very analytical, and I've been working with phonological changes and constraints since December...

All in all, I fucking LOVE these speedlangs, especially yours, Wintiver, the worldbuilding and concept and language itself are all awesome!
I like my languages how I like my women: grammatically complex with various moods and tenses, a thin line between nouns and verbs, and dozens upon dozens of possible conjugations for every single verb.
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Re: Speedlanging weekend IV: Weekend of April 8th

Post by Nachtuil »

Inkcube, I absolutely feel for you! At least you got two nice sketches out of it :)

Do you have a phonological break down of the second language? I think it is awesome you were channeling Sumerian. That is actually one of the prime influences for this challenge and has interested me lately.

Also, i totally love Wintiver's sketch too!
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