Grammuary 2018

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Khemehekis
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Grammuary 2018

Post by Khemehekis »

After Lexember, it's Grammuary!

The goal is to come up with one new grammar rule for each of the 31 days in January. If you miss a day, get caught up with two bits of grammar the next day! It's also OK to come up with more than one grammar rule in advance on one day and then skip the next day or next few days.

As of December 31, 2017, my Kankonian grammar at http://khemehekis.angelfire.com/basic.htm ran to 133 pages and took up 42,965 words to write. Let's see how much our grammars have expanded by the end of Grammuary!
♂♥♂♀

Squirrels chase koi . . . chase squirrels

My Kankonian-English dictionary: 86,336 words and counting

31,416: The number of the conlanging beast!
Khemehekis
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Re: Grammuary 2018

Post by Khemehekis »

January 1

The future tense is used with "lidye" (until) when it refers to a point that is still in the future:

Dzena rotuos va adat lidye wan shuyesos torturkhazid.
Dzena keep-FUT VA run until 3s cross-FUT finish_line
Dzena will keep running until she crosses the finish line.

Is os sadamos lidye is wahazos rehin barud fuzwufi na is.
1s NEG go_to_bed-FUT until 1s be_able_to-FUT find hippopotamus stuffed of 1s
I won't go to bed until I can find my stuffed hippo.
♂♥♂♀

Squirrels chase koi . . . chase squirrels

My Kankonian-English dictionary: 86,336 words and counting

31,416: The number of the conlanging beast!
Davush
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Re: Grammuary 2018

Post by Davush »

This could be fun, although I doubt I'll end up doing all 31 days.

Full Reduplication
Since I heard that languages with partial reduplication are likely to also make use of full reduplication, I thought Qutrussan could do the same.

Reduplication of monosyllable or disyllable nouns indicates 'all' of something or a large group. Reduplication of monosyllables is the most common. Anything more than 2 syllables can't be reduplicated. Interestingly, reduplicated nouns take singular agreement.

par - a man
paru - the men
par-par - all the men

Par-par zúruvmi curuḥ.
All the men go to the mountains.

rua - fish
rua-rua - all the fish, a large group of fish

Haicalmiqqa rua-rua tsuná!
Look at all the fish in the lake!
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Re: Grammuary 2018

Post by gestaltist »

Alright, let’s do it.

Day 1: Nakarian will have polypersonal agreement with the main verb taking subject agreement and the participle taking object agreement.
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Re: Grammuary 2018

Post by spanick »

I’m down. I need motivation to work on my new conlang. I’m really bad at a priori languages so hopefully this will help.

Day 1: Trińat (working name) will use nom-acc alignment for Animate nouns in classes I and II but Erg-Abs for class III animated and inanimates.
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Re: Grammuary 2018

Post by Davush »


a postposition/particle meaning 'from, for, because of' - can be used with nominalised verbs or subjunctive. Can be used with plain adjectives to mean 'because of being xxx'

Căn cúcŭr rá / cussurta rá
because you went

With the genitive, it means 'because of', usually in a negative sense:

Shăn rá yaḥ!
It's because of him!

When used with a locative case, it means 'from' as in from a certain place. This is usually limited to the names of towns and cities.

Ná Hitsalmirrim rá yan.
I am from Hitsalmirrim.
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Re: Grammuary 2018

Post by spanick »

Day 2: Trińat has obligatory marking of natural gender for Class A-1 nouns. This takes the form of a thematic vowel added to the noun stem. The masculine thematic vowel is -e and the feminine thematic vowel is -u.
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Re: Grammuary 2018

Post by gestaltist »

Day 2 (and probably a few days after): I'm cleaning up my morphophonology rules. Posting them here would be too messy, but work is being done.
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Re: Grammuary 2018

Post by Fluffy8x »

The creator of ŋarâþ crîþ v9.
Khemehekis
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Re: Grammuary 2018

Post by Khemehekis »

gestaltist wrote: 01 Jan 2018 23:06 Alright, let’s do it.
I like that attitude! (And your polypersonal agreement is cool too.)

January 2

Indirect quotes may use the "oyezizen dyu" type construction if "az" is placed at the beginning: [NOTE TO READERS WHO AREN'T KANKONIAN SPEAKERS: Oyezizen dyu means "was said by", while az means "that".]

Az wan hauess zos adod 150 dibas oyezizas dyu Liyandra.
that 3s know-PRS pi to 150 place-PL say-PSV-PRS by Liyandra
Liyandra says that she knows pi to 150 places.

Az Dark anas kababo emam emiyaizen dyu Namisha ad Tzayasha.
that Dark have-PRS nipple three-ORD tell-PSV-PST by Namisha to Tzayasha

Az Dark anas kababo emam emiyaizen ad Tzayasha dyu Namisha.
that Dark have-PRS nipple three-ORD tell-PSV-PST by Namisha to Tzayasha
Namisha told Tzayasha that Dark had a third nipple.
♂♥♂♀

Squirrels chase koi . . . chase squirrels

My Kankonian-English dictionary: 86,336 words and counting

31,416: The number of the conlanging beast!
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Re: Grammuary 2018

Post by gestaltist »

Day 3: revised the Morphophonology of Nakarian, consolidating the inconsistent ideas I had so far. I am pasting the whole thing under a spoiler in case anybody is interested but it's still somewhat messy and I can't be bothered to recreate the formatting, so read at your own risk. I will make a thread on the forum about this language in a month or two when I feel it is more complete. (I hope Grammuary will help me get to that stage.)
Spoiler:
Nakarian Morphophonology 0.5

Notes on proto-Nakarian
Proto-Nakarian was a (C)V(C) language with four vowels /a e i o/ and the following consonants: /p b t d ʈ ɖ k g m n ɳ ŋ ɸ s ʂ x l w j/

It had breathy-voiced vowels contrast with modal-voiced vowels. Breathy voice became low tone in modern Nakarian.

It allowed all consonants except for /ŋ/ in the onset but had some restrictions in the coda: it prohibited labials in that position.

With time, retroflex consonants merged with the alveolars, leaving behind front-back vowel harmony and adding the vowels /ə ɯ/.

Coda stops simplified to a glottal stop, ultimately leading to modern checked syllables. Fricatives in the coda merged as /h/, and voiced stops shifted from /d g/ to /r ɰ/.

In addition, some wider shifts happened. The “great labial shift” had the following chain: p → b → v and ɸ → h. Additionally, /l/ became /r/.

Finally, the conquest of the Crater Territory led to Samhan influence, and the acquisition of /q χ/. During that time, /ɰ/ from former /g/ became /ʕ/ and initial /x/ became/χ/ - also under Samhan influence. It is also to be noted that Samhan dentals became labials in borrowings if next to /o u/, and alveolars otherwise.

This leads to the current “primary” phonemic inventory as outlined below.

Phonemic Inventory
Primary inventory (this is the inventory allowed in word roots in deep phonology, i.e., before crasis and coda neutralization)

- /ʕ h/ pattern like approximants (e.g., being allowed in codas)
- there is a front-back vowel harmony between /e i/ and /ə ɯ/ stemming from previous retroflex environments
- /ə ɯ/ are actually closer to [ʌ̟ ɤ̝]
- coronals used to be dental historically but merged with retroflexes as alveolar consonants; however, they can become labials in labial environments - i.e., this coincides with front vowel harmony
- low tone belongs in the primary inventory if it stems from historical breathy voice; both high and low tone can result from (de)voicing in the secondary inventory
- long vowels only appear on checked syllables in the primary inventory

Stops: /b t k kʷ q/ <b t ?k ?cu q>
Nasals: /m n ŋ/ <m n ng>
Taps: /ɾ/ <r>
Fricatives: /v s χ ʕ h/ <v s ?ch ?gh h>
Approximants /w w̃ j/ <u ṵ y>
Vowels: /a e i o ə ɯ/ with canonical representations of [ä ɛ i o ʌ̟ ɤ̝] romanized as <a o e i ạ ẹ>
Low tone vowels: /ä˨ o˨ ɛ˨ i˨ ə˨ ɯ˨/ <à ò è ì ạ̀ ẹ̀>
Long vowels: /äː oː ɛː iː əː ɯː/ <â ô ê î ậ ệ> (or maybe mark with ā ???)

Secondary inventory (this is the actual synchronic phonemic inventory after crasis and coda neutralization)

Stops: /b t k kʷ q/
Pharyngealized geminate stops: /bˤː tˤː kˤː/
Geminate stops: /bː tː kː kʷː qː/
Prenasalized stops: /ᵐb ⁿt ᵑk ᵑkʷ/
Affricates /t͜ʃ d͜ʒ/
Geminate affricates /d͜ʒː/
Nasals: /m n ŋ mː nː/ <m n ng mm nn>
Taps and trills: /r ɾ/ <rr r>
Fricatives: /v θ ð s ʃ ʒ χ ʕ h/
Pharyngealized geminate fricatives: /vˤː sˤː/
Geminate fricatives: /vː sː χː/
Prenasalized fricatives: /ᵐv ⁿs ᵑx/
Approximants /w w̃ j/ <u ṵ y>
Geminate approximants /wwː jː/ <uu yy>
Vowels: /ä o ɛ i ə ɯ/
Low tone vowels:
High tone vowels:
Long vowels (optionally with contour tones): /äː oː ɛː iː əː ɯː/ <â ô ê î ậ ệ> (if checked) or <aa oo ee ii ạạ ẹẹ> (otherwise)

Phonotactics
(C)V(R) is the maximal syllable structure where:
* C is any consonant but /ŋ/ is forbidden morpheme-initially
* V is any vowel
* R is any of /ɾ j ʕ h n ŋ/
Consonants allowed morpheme-initially: all except /ŋ ʕ/
Consonants allowed in the coda: non-labial nasals and approximants, and the glottal fricative, i.e.: /n ŋ ɾ j ʕ h/
Vowels allowed in a morpheme: all short vowels with back-front harmony

Syllable weight
Syllable weight is a key feature for understanding Nakarian tone and stress. A syllable is heavy if any of the following is true:
* it has a coda
* it is followed by a geminated consonant on the next syllable (“mora leaking”)
* it is followed by a prenasalized stop on the next syllable (“mora leaking”)
* it is word-initial and has a geminated consonant in its onset
* it is word-initial and has a prenasalized stop in its onset
* it has a long vowel
A syllable is light if it doesn’t have any of the above properties.

Superheavy syllables are not allowed - i.e., any given syllable can only have one of the above properties.

Checked syllables
Word-final voiceless stops underwent lenition to a glottal stop at an earlier stage of the language. The glottal stop lent these syllables some interesting properties which remained even after the glottal stop itself elided completely.

These so-called checked syllables are marked with a circumflex on the vowel (tâ) and:
* they are always open (have no coda)
* they resist acquiring tone - always keeping mid tone (see “Tonogenesis” below)
* their vowels never undergo crasis with adjacent vowels (tâ+e = tâe)
* the onset of a syllable following a checked vowel undergoes fortition:
* stops become geminate (tâ+ka = tâkka)
* nasals become prenasalized voiceless stops (tâ+na = tântà)
* coronal fricatives become affricates (tâ+sa = tâtsa)
* non-coronal fricatives, including /ʕ h/, resist fortition (tâ+va = tâva)
* glides also resist fortition
* they resist vowel lengthening but are pronounced as long unless they triggered fortition in the previous step

Voicing assimilation and consonant gradation
Voicing assimilation plays an important role in Nakarian morphophonology. The following rules are to follow:
1. a voiceless consonant becomes voiced between vowels unless the vowel preceding it is checked (see below)
2. word-initial voiced consonants devoice (??? - maybe not???)
3. a consonant preceded by -h- gets devoiced
4. what is meant by “voicing” here is moving down one consonant grade - and by “devoicing” - moving up a consonant grade
5. nasals (including prenasalized consonants), approximants, as well as q χ ʃ resist gradation
6. Changes in voicing leave behind compensatory tone on the vowel. See “Tonogenesis” for further information.

Consonant grades can be somewhat unintuitive due to historical lenitions:
(p-?)b-v
t-r-∅
k-ʕ
kʷ-w
f-v
s-z
θ-ð
j-d͜ʒ (yes, /j/ becomes [d͜ʒ] between vowels)

Samhan borrowings
Samhan has a lot of phonemes that don’t exist in Nakarian, and the way they were borrowed is somewhat inconsistent. There are, however, some themes which also affect morphophonology of related words and should be noted:
- Samhan coronals are dental. They are generally borrowed as alveolars. However, they are often borrowed as labials next to /o *u/ (Samhan /u/ generally became /o/ in Nakarian). This is important in compounds: *t̪aɾu became /taru/ but when the prefix so- is applied, it becomes *soparu > sobáru. This process is strongly limited by analogy but several commonly used words do undergo this mutation - and some other words acquired this alternation due to hypercorrection.

Vowel crasis
With the exception of checked syllables, Nakarian doesn’t allow vowel clusters and tries to resolve them. Due to the restriction on syllable weight, a different set of rules is applied to a (C)V+V cluster than is to a (C)V+VC.

If both vowels belong to light syllables:
* if the second vowel is high (i.e., one of /i ɯ/), it becomes a glide [j] or [ɰ~ʕ] and the rules found in the chapter on palatalization are applied, else:
* if the first vowel is an /o/ preceded by a (historical) velar *k *g *ng, it makes the velar into a labiovelar
* both vowels coalesce as a long version of the second vowel (ea → aː, etc.)

If the second vowel belongs to a syllable with a coda or the first vowel has a moraic onset, an epenthetic consonant is added:
* if the second vowel is /i/ -j- is added between the vowels
* if the second vowel is /ɯ/ -ʕ- is added between the vowels
* if the second vowel is /o/ -w- is added between the vowels
* if the second vowel is one of /a e ə/ -h- is added between the vowels

Stress
In Nakarian, the syllable with the penultimate mora carries the main word stress, i.e., the stress falls on the last syllable if it is heavy, and otherwise on the penultimate syllable.

(If a light syllable is stressed, it can undergo rhythmic lengthening in some dialects - i.e., the vowel is pronounced with double the normal length (/sarabe/ is pronounced [saraːbɛ]). However, it is still treated as one mora for all intents and purposes.)

In addition, Nakarian words try to follow a trochaic pattern with every second mora getting secondary stress. This can lead to stressed (and tone-carrying) codas. The most characteristic result is semi-syllabic nasals which is prominent in Nakarian songs and poetry.

An important feature of Nakarian stress is that unstressed syllables try to keep mid tone, and tone can be shifted up or down in adjacent syllables to satisfy this requirement.

Tonogenesis
Nakarian word roots only contain three tonal qualities: neutral (mid tone), low (from historical breathy voice) and checked (strongly mid tone - see checked syllables). Voicing changes and rhythmic considerations generate further instances of low tone, as well as high tone, and their allophones on long vowels: falling and rising tones.

Since tone is mora-based and not syllable-based, long vowels are treated as two separate segments, with only one of them carrying tone.

The tonal pattern of a Nakarian word can be derived with the use of the following rules:
* vowel crasis needs to be applied before any of the following
* change of voicing in the onset leaves behind tone; this happens according to consonant gradation rules
* if an originally voiced onset consonant becomes voiceless, the syllable nucleus acquires low tone (or mid tone if it already had high tone)
* if an originally voiceless onset consonant becomes voiced, the syllable nucleus acquires high tone (or mid tone if it already had low tone)
* this stage is blocked if the syllable in question is checked
* in long syllables the first segment is treated as the nucleus, giving a falling tone as the allophone of high tone, and a raising tone as the equivalent of low tone
* coda assimilation rules and initial vowel elision need to be applied concurrently
* finally, the following adjustments are applied to adhere to the rule that unstressed syllables are strongly preferred to keep mid tone:
* the tone level of syllables around the syllable carrying word stress is modified in a way that best preserves their relative relation while making unstressed syllables mid, e.g., MH would become LM instead
* this adjustment spreads right-to-left
* in most cases, this leads to trochaic pitch alternation
* checked syllables don’t acquire tone this way

Initial vowel elision
Word-initial vowels consistently elide if phonotactics permit. Synchronically, this can lead to the impression that a lot of roots add an epenthetic vowel when taking a prefix. It also makes voiced allophones of some consonants phonemic.

Historically, the elision of Initial vowels stems from their reinterpretation as glides after open syllables which got generalized to all positions later. This leads to a few caveats:
* a vowel that carries main word stress doesn’t elide
* a vowel doesn’t elide if it would lead to a superheavy syllable
* initial /o/ never elides because coda labials were forbidden
* initial /i/ triggers palatalization (see below) only if it elides (since the vowel /i/ doesn’t trigger palatalization)
* initial /ɯ/ behaves like coda /ʕ/ (through the intermediate stage of ɰ~ɯ in both) if it elides
* initial /a e ə/ don’t affect the following consonant, eliding without a trace

Palatalization and Vj diphthongs
A preceding /j/ or word-initial unstressed (and usually elided) /i/ palatalize the following consonant:
* if followed by an alveolar or velar (but not labiovelar) obstruent, it palatalizes it, with some caveats due to history:
* t > t͜ʃ
* r > d͜ʒ if stemming from historical *d
* r > ʒ if stemming from historical *r
* k > ʃ
* s > ʃ
* ʕ > ʒ if stemming from historical *g (this is only a consideration in a few exceptions - the only cases where ʕ doesn’t stem from *g are borrowings, and they often abide by this rule due to analogy)
* z > ʒ
* if followed by another /j/, by /h/ or by /ʕ/ not stemming from *g, it becomes geminated; in the case of /h/ it counts as voicing and triggers tonogenesis
* uvular, and glottal segments are not affected
* labial segments get weakly allophonically palatalized which isn’t reflected in the orthography

The vowel before a /j/ or initial /i/ interplays with it in the following ways:
* the initial eliding /i/ only affects the preceding word if it ends in an open short vowel
* it lengthens a preceding front vowel: /ej ij/ > /eː iː/
* it behaves like /ʕ/ in back harmony words -> basically, coda -ʕ and -j create the same diphthongs, with the differences being the palatalization of the following consonant, and that -ʕ only does it for continuants
* for back-harmonizing words, it merged with the vowel /ɯ/ creating the following diphthongs:
* aɯ̯ > əː
* oɯ̯ > oː
* əɯ̯ > əː
* ɯɯ̯ > ɯː
* for front-harmonizing words:
* aj > eː
* ej > eː
* ij > iː
* oj > ʷeː before a historical velar (creating a labiovelar) i.e.:
* *k+oj > kʷeː
* *g+oj > gʷeː > weː
* *ŋ+oj > ŋʷeː > w̃eː [wẽː]
* oj > iː

Coda Neutralization
An important consideration in Nakarian phonotactics is that of mora preservation. If a coda consonant is followed by a vowel-initial syllable, it becomes the onset of that new syllable, and a mora is lost from the original syllable. The language strives to preserve the number of morae.

Nakarian also doesn’t allow consonant clusters other than rC. It is to be noted that geminate consonants and consonants with a secondary articulation (e.g., labialized) don’t count as clusters although geminates and prenasalized consonants do contribute an additional mora to the preceding syllable or to their own syllable if word-initial.

Because of the two facts above, the following rules need to be followed for syllables with a coda:

* if any coda is followed by a vowel-initial syllable, the vowel in the original syllable becomes lengthened, and the coda becomes the onset of the following syllable
* if a coda is word-final, the rules below don’t apply unless stated otherwise
* uvulars become velars if prenasalized
* if the first syllable ends with a nasal, and the second begins with...
* …a homorganic stop: both assimilate as a geminated nasal at the POA of the second nasal
* …a nasal: no change
* …a stop at another POA: they assimilate as a prenasalized stop at the POA of the original stop
* …a fricative: it becomes a prenasalized fricative at the POA of the fricative unless the fricative is /h/ in which case the POA of the nasal is preserved
* … a glide: it assimilates in POA to the glide:
* it becomes [w̃] (from *ŋʷ) before a labial
* it becomes [ŋ] before /ʕ/); the glide then elides
* if the first syllable ends with an /h/, the aspiration spreads backwards to the whole syllable, and /h/ gets assimilated with the onset of its own syllable, creating an aspirated consonant; the aspirated consonants resolve as follows:
* this rule is valid even for word-final syllables
* however, this rule is blocked by a preceding heavy syllable
* in this case, coda -h is deleted, and the nucleus gets lengthened to compensate
* in this case, coda -h also triggers devoicing of a preceding consonant
* uvulars delete the /h/
* stops resolve into fricatives: *bh *th *kh = v θ χ
* nasals resolve into prenasalized fricatives
* fricatives delete the /h/
* glides behave a bit unpredictably:
* hVh becomes hVː but makes the previous syllable checked if available (i.e., there is one, and it is open. A long vowel will be shortened in the process.)
* rVh becomes ðVː
* ʕVh becomes χVː (with low tone)
* jVh becomes ʃVː (with low tone)
* wVh becomes hóV, and ultimately hój for /e i/ and hóo for all other vowels
* the nucleus gets lengthened to keep the syllable weight, if needed
* if the first syllable ends with a /ʕ/:
* it makes the tone of the nucleus low
* before sonorants (nasals and approximants), It is reanalyzed as a non-syllabic vowel [ɯ̯] (hailing to the times when it was /ɰ/), creating the following effects:
* see the chapter on palatalization
* for front-harmonizing words, it got reanalyzed as [j] by analogy, creating the same diphthongs /j/ would, but without palatalization of the following consonant
* before stops and fricatives, it pharyngealizes and geminates them
* pharyngealization doesn’t affect uvulars
* labiovelars lose their velar component
* if the first syllable ends with a /j/:
* see chapter on palatalization
* if the first syllable ends with a /r/:
* if followed by /j/, the cluster becomes /d͜ʒː/
* if followed by /w ʕ/, the cluster becomes /wː/
* if followed by a front-harmonized alveolar (i.e., a historical dental), the cluster becomes /r/ (trill instead of tap)
* remains in place in all other cases

Front-back harmony
One word can typically only either have /e i/ (front harmony) or /ə ɯ/ (back harmony). This is triggered by historical retroflex consonants, so words without coronals typically always have front harmony - which is the default.
There are some words with back harmony without coronals where intervocalic *ɽ elided (i.e., they will always have some form of vowel crasis applied.) However, these words are gradually losing back harmony due to the unconscious connection between back vowels and coronals.
Back harmony is dominant in that attaching any back-harmonizing morpheme to a front-harmonizing one results in the whole word becoming back-harmonizing. This needs to be applied before coda neutralization rules as it changes the behavior of some codas (most notably -j and -ʕ). It also needs to be applied before vowel elision and crasis.
Because of that, palatals appear in back-harmonizing words a bit more rarely. They are also typically pronounced as retroflexes in such words (i.e., /ʃ/ becomes [ʂ]) etc.

In some dialects, word-final /e/ is pronounced as a schwa, creating further confusion with regard to back harmony in those dialects.
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Re: Grammuary 2018

Post by Fluffy8x »

Day 3.

TL;DR possessive construction is also used when compounding would be used, but dependent is larger than a single noun. Also some numeral stuff.
The creator of ŋarâþ crîþ v9.
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Re: Grammuary 2018

Post by Parlox »

I think i'll participate in this, though i need to catch up.

Day 1
, i have decided basic pronouns in Lozkazmat agree with a verb when the verb is negated.

Day 2, Polar questions in Lozkazmat are formed by placing a question particle at the end of a phrase, an example.

Eup nezask naz leuzëmz, ön?
[əp nezask naz ləzømz, on]
that dog IPFV gift, QUESTION
The dog is a gift, no?

"Yes" answers are formed by doubling the question particle, while "no" is formed by placing any aspect after a verb.

Day 3, plural pronouns in Lozkazmat are formed by placing -p on any affirmative pronouns besides the epicene. The epicene singular is one and the same with the epicene plural.
:con: Gândölansch (Gondolan)Feongkrwe (Feongrkean)Tamhanddön (Tamanthon)Θανηλοξαμαψⱶ (Thanelotic)Yônjcerth (Yaponese)Ba̧supan (Basupan)Mùthoķán (Mothaucian) :con:
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spanick
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Re: Grammuary 2018

Post by spanick »

Day 3

Trińat declines Class A-1 nouns according to six cases (Nominative, Accusative, Genitive, Dative, Comitative, and Ablative) and three numbers (Singular, Dual, Plural). These endings are applied after the gendered thematic vowels described on Day 2.
Spoiler:
Singular/Dual/Plural
Nom -Ø/-ś/-n
Acc -ru/-śru/nu
Gen -s/-s/-ns
Dat -le/-le/-len
Com -me/-me/-men
Abl -le/-lje/-len
Dnukta'u has Nom-Acc alignment and SOV word order.
Ælfwine
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Re: Grammuary 2018

Post by Ælfwine »

Day 1: I've decided to redo my noun declension entirely in Mannish. The definite article remains synthetic like in other NGmc languages, but as a preclitic instead of a postclitic, and causes initial mutation of the noun. So for example, take the noun "trell" (ON. <þræll) which mutates to ntrell after the definite article (the /t/ is epithetic)

Day 2: Having thought about Mannish verbs, I've decided to do two things: Eliminate subjunctive marking from Old Norse, but instead innovate a conditional mood and a future, probably from skulu/skyldi. Perhaps it even becomes prefixed onto the verb as in Irish and the subject becomes a postclitic (as was a tendency in Old Icelandic, for example hafða ek -> hafðak). I need to research more, but it is a start at least.

Day 3: Going back to my Hungarian romlang and also thinking about verbs, I was notified that the Latin synthetic passive, as the future, was completely abandoned in favor of new forms. So what if Pelsodian had never innovated a new passive but instead organized its syntax in a way that allowed for it to become topic prominent? This is something I wish to explore further.
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Khemehekis
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Re: Grammuary 2018

Post by Khemehekis »

January 3

"Azad" [the Kankonian word for "for which" or "for whom"] is also used in the equivalents of English constructions wherein the word "which" is used much in a way similar to the prepositional "about which", "with which", etc., but wherein "which" does not immediately follow a preposition:

Memis zash "heyes", azad weos az hom o namiyass wan uweyas hesori we shuyes tzehimezes, ien e tzaimakis met ad em id re*eviz.
concept APPOS like for-which means REL by one express-PRS 3s vary-PRS ADV across language-PL would BE interesting 3e for see done_to translate-PSV
The concept of "to like", the means of expressing which varies wildly across languages, would be an interesting one to see translated.

Which leads to . . .

January 4

When the main verb is an infinitive, the verb in the witnessed event is passive, AND the whole such phrase is the object of "ad" (to, in order to), place the infinitive verb, then "id", then a passive infinitive verb at the end of the clause, after "ad":

Argas dephudanas oyezas az atzwanes alhekhizas ad ovai id turdiz.
many anarchist-PL say-PRS that law-PL create-PSV-PRS for watch done_to break-PSV
Many anarchists say laws are created to watch being broken.

Which leads to . . .

January 5

Such a construction can also be used with "ai" (to have), instead of a verb such as "to see" or "to watch":

Ham deshing arditzizen ad ai id zriziz dyu arheyizhas.
this essay write-PSV-PST for have done_to tear_apart-PSV by deconstructionist-PL
This essay was written to have torn apart by the deconstructionists.
♂♥♂♀

Squirrels chase koi . . . chase squirrels

My Kankonian-English dictionary: 86,336 words and counting

31,416: The number of the conlanging beast!
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gestaltist
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Re: Grammuary 2018

Post by gestaltist »

Day 4: I have rethought the noun class system of Nakarian. I decided they are derived from a historical mix of number and gender. Brave souls can look at my messy notes under the spoiler.
Spoiler:
Nakarian noun classes

Proto-Nakarian had no noun classes (a few millenia ago). It had gender and number: male, female, lower animate (including body parts and some other inalienably possessed things), inanimate, and singular, dual, plural, respectively. In addition, it had a “universalist” gender-number outside of the system. It is suspected that this “universalist” gender-number triggered the shift that ultimately changed the gender-number pairs into the noun classes of today.

Probably stages of the formation of noun class system:
1. it is to be noted that subject agreement stays in place throughout
2. loss of dual
1. dual for natural pairs becomes the default used for both singular and for a pair
2. inanimate dual gets reinterpreted (under influence from natural pairs - like eyes) as meaning objects with two clear sides or ends - it starts to denote singular objects that are either flat and two-sided (coin, pebble, door) or thin and have two points/ends (rope, spear, stick)
3. inanimate dual is now used for flat or long objects
4. animate duals get a secondary genitive meaning:
1. female dual starts denoting human affiliation (e.g., tribal) and origin (later: also from a place)
2. male dual is repurposed for “works of man” - products of a specific occupation, and later - all tools and human artifacts
3. lower animate dual is now used for body parts, and animal species - especially companion plants, symbionts, and parasites (this is a very gradual change in meaning) - and by extension domesticated animals
5. at this stage, there is no dual, and former duals no longer conform to the gender system - noun classes are born
3. lower animate singular becomes increasingly associated with children and small things, and becomes the class used for diminutives, partitives and fractions
1. lower animate plural becomes the new class used for animals (esp. wild), losing the plural meaning -> and later, under the pressure of “animate dual” - also wild plants
4. under the pressure from the previous stage, number marking is no longer seen as obligatory (due to multiple nouns not having number marking) and plurals get repurposed as noun classes
1. some of the previous duals managed to acquire gender and plurals, which led to some shifts between classes
2. inanimate plural gets repurposed for collectives and mass nouns
3. female plural now denotes languages and customs and human tendencies and abstracts (“humanity”, “goodness”, etc.)
4. male plural acquires a honorific meaning
5. the universalist gender acquires a secondary meaning for non-human collectives
5. participial system and polypersonal agreement
1. the introduction of polypersonal agreement links old roots even stronger with class prefixes - they often secondarily gain the prefixes by hypercorrection, since they are already used in noun incorporation on participles
2. former singulars are often without a prefix - but the earlier agreement markers become repurposed as prefixes, and seen as such (and used for newer words)
6. introduction of further noun classes
1. at this stage, we have a full fledged class system with no number marking and 13 noun classes
2. under samhan influence, a pejorative/augmentative class is added, as well as a diminutive/terms of affection

Summary:

male sg >> men and occupations
female sg >> women and anthropomorphisms, female occupations
anim sg >> small objects, diminutives, partitives, fractions, children (to an ever lesser extent)
inanim sg >> standard inanimate class, especially for formless or round objects

male dual >> tools, human artifacts, products of an action or profession, food
fem dual >> terms of affiliation and origin
anim dual >> body parts, domesticated animals, parasites (including plants), symbionts, vermin
inanim dual >> flat or long-and-thin objects

male pl >> honorific
fem pl >> languages, customs, human tendencies and abstracts (“humanity”, “goodness”, etc.)
anim pl >> wild animals and plants
inanim pl >> human collective, mass nouns, especially small particles coming in large quantities)

univ >> abstracts, universals, nominalizations, non-human collective (especially animals and plants), expanses/places

+
pejorative/augmentative
diminutive/terms of affection/children
Davush
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Re: Grammuary 2018

Post by Davush »

I hate adjective related stuff, but I quite like this idea so I'll probably use it. Qutrussan has inherited a closed set of adjectives which agree in number when used attributively. Perhaps all adjectives agreed in number in Proto-Qutrussic, but only the following do so in Qutrussan. There is also a reduced form of the singular which is often used in compounds.

*ráma > rama~ram big
*ráma-ja > rámya

*s’ine > tsini~tsin small
*s’ineje > tsínni

*kʰɔːs > hós~hŭs / -s- good
*kʰːɔːs-jo > hósyu

*ʃajja > shazza~shai bad, evil
*ʃajja-ja > sházya

*nuːʕm > nuam~nú beautiful, pretty, pleasing
*nuːʕm-ja > nuamya

*kɛːwit > cévit~cé weak, petty, unimportant
*kɛwit-je > cévizzi

*askáus > cós~có important, big, strong
*askáus-ja > cósya

*wiːsne > viani~via young
*wiːsne-je > vianni

*lɔɾɔl > lŭrŭl ~lŭr old
*lɔrɔl-jo > lórŭlyu
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spanick
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Re: Grammuary 2018

Post by spanick »

Day 4

Trińat declines Class A-2 nouns according to the same cases and numbers as A-1 but there are some notable differences. The whole class uses an ungendered thematic vowel -a. The declensions will be show in the spoiler. When the gender of an A-2 noun is specified (cow vs. bull) it is declined like an A-1 noun. Likewise, when an A-1 noun is used without reference to gender (i.e. man/woman vs. human) it is declined like an A-2 noun. Full example declensions will be down in the second spoiler.
Spoiler:
Singular/Dual/Plural
Nom -Ø/-kha/-s
Acc -Ø/-klo/-so
Gen -k/-k/-h
Dat -lji/-lji/-ljis
Com -ńi/-ńi/-ńis
Abl -lelji/-lji/-ljis
Spoiler:
Class A-1, Masculine: athane "man"
Nom athane/athaneś/athanen
Acc athaneru/athaneśru/athanenu
Gen athanes/athanes/athanens
Dat athanele/athanele/athanelen
Com athaneme/athaneme/athanemen
Abl athanele/athanelje/athanelen

Class A-1, Feminine: athanu "woman"
Nom athanu/athanuś/athanun
Acc athanuru/athanuśru/athanunu
Gen athanus/athanus/athanuns
Dat athanule/athanule/athanulen
Com athanume/athanume/athanumen
Abl athanule/athanulje/athanulen

Class A-2: athana "human"
Nom athana/athana /athanas
Acc athana /athanaklo/athanaso
Gen athanak/athanak/athanah
Dat athanalji/athanalji/athanaljis
Com athanańi/athanańi/athanańis
Abl athanalji/athanalji/athanaljis
Dnukta'u doesn't use adjectives. Rather, it has a special class of stative verbs which function like adjectives. These are formed by using <i> as the nucleus of the base root. Nouns are formed by using <u> and action verbs by using <a> Ex: hVlk > hulk "living being, animal"; halk "to live"; hilk "to be living, alive"
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Lambuzhao
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Re: Grammuary 2018

Post by Lambuzhao »

Don't knwo if I can do this every day.

Love the idea, tho.
And the name !!!

[:D]

Lexember
Grammuary

What's next, I wunder?
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