Hesdiva

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hippopotame
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Hesdiva

Post by hippopotame »

So my conlang is called Hesdiva. It's spoken in the nation of Divaarha. I haven't developed the conworld much.

Anyway.
I have created a writing system for this. Actually it was for another conlang but I trashed that.

The Romanized alphabet:

Image

Phonological constraints: (C)(C)V(C)(C)

Now the grammar.

Hesđiva is an OVS language, and the position of the prepositions and adjectives depend on if the noun is an object or a subject or an adverbial phrase

Objects: Adjective after noun, Preposition before
Subjects: Adjective before noun
Adverbial Phrase: same as Object; AP generally goes at the beginning of a sentence.

K so let's see...

NOUNS
(If the noun ends with a vowel and the suffix starts with a vowel, add an "r" to the end before adding the suffix, OR omit the last vowel of the noun)
(Examples are italicized. I'm using "thároosh" (ocean) and "seeya" (gift))

Subject/ Nominative : -no suffix : thároosh / seeya
Object/ Accusative : -essa/ -ë : thárooshessa/ thárooshë / seeyaressa/ seeyarë
Object with adjective/ Adjectival Accusative : -hessë : thárooshessë/ seeyahessë
Subject with adjective/ Adjectival Nominative : -hess : thárooshhess/ seeyahess
Possessive : -y- / -ë- (in between the possessor and possessed nouns) : thárooshëseeya = the gift of the ocean
Composition: -isra : seeyadhisra thároosh = ocean of gifts


PRONOUNS

1st person singular: khooda
2nd person singular: imma
3rd person singular (he/she): ál
3rd person singular (ambiguous; "one" in English): áli
3rd person singular (objects; "it"): át

1st person plural (inclusive): khooth
1st person plural (exclusive): khoom
2nd person plural: immeth
3rd person plural (people): állath
3rd person plural (ambiguous): álith
3rd person plural (objects): áth

A mixture of 3rd person plural and 1st person : khool
(When you're talking about general characteristics a group of people that happens to include yourself. For example, if you said "Humans are alive. They need water to survive." In that case you would use this mixed-person-pronoun (unless you're not human)).


VERBS

So the verb infinitives all end in the suffix "-ryyn."

I pretty much used the same tenses that exist in English. Here's an example conjugation, with the verb "hvisseryyn", which means to feel (physically).

CONJUGATION (PRESENT TENSE)

Khooda hvisseza
Imma hvissem
Ál hvisse

Khooth hvissesh
Immeth hvissen
Állath hvisseth

Here's the different tenses in first person singular.

I feel (present) : hvisseza
I feel (habitual) : hvisseheza
I felt : hvisserááza
I used to feel : hvisseherááza
I just felt (near past) : hvisserátaaza
I will feel : hvissezááda
I am going to feel (near future) : hvissezátaaza
I am feeling : hvisseyááza
I was feeling : hvisseyárááza
I will be feeling : hvisseyázááda
I have felt : hvissemiza
I had felt : hvissemirááza
I will have felt : hvissemizááda
I have been feeling : hvissemyááza
I had been feeling : hvissemyárááza
I will have been feeling : hvissemyázááda
I would feel : hvissezáádyl
I would be feeling : hvisseyázáádyl
I would have felt : hvissemizáádyl
I would have been feeling : hvissemyázáádyl




More grammar in the fourth post.
Last edited by hippopotame on 06 Apr 2013 05:10, edited 3 times in total.
Prinsessa
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Re: Hesdiva

Post by Prinsessa »

It kind of looks like Navaho when written. The correspondence between your phonemes and the letters that you have chosen for them strikes me as very weird and kind of inconsistent, though. Is it meant to be a historical orthography, or simply a language spoken at a point in your history and development of writing where such orthographies would not be completely unexpected? Not complaining, just asking. I should at least point out that your table does not correspond to the romanisation that you actually used in the topic, though, such as the tie bar instead of the duplicated accented vowel.

The grammar is interesting, and the possibility to express some complexity with single, long words adds further to the North American feeling, of course, though I suspect that the actual pronunciation of the words would sound nothing like such a language.

Keep writing.
hippopotame
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Re: Hesdiva

Post by hippopotame »

Skógvur wrote:The correspondence between your phonemes and the letters that you have chosen for them strikes me as very weird and kind of inconsistent, though. Is it meant to be a historical orthography, or simply a language spoken at a point in your history and development of writing where such orthographies would not be completely unexpected?
Honestly, the orthography I used was just so it would be easier for me to read and type without having to copy/paste too many accented letters and such. Hesdiva has it's own script. Maybe I'll post that later.
Skógvur wrote: I should at least point out that your table does not correspond to the romanisation that you actually used in the topic, though, such as the tie bar instead of the duplicated accented vowel.
Yeah, I realized that the tie bar didn't show up on the forum so I'm using the duplicated vowel instead on the forum.
hippopotame
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Re: Hesdiva

Post by hippopotame »

Grammar continued:

ADJECTIVES/ PREPOSITIONS

Adjectives come before subjects and after objects.
Suffix for adjectives is "-is"
For example,
red (noun) = zváánna
red (adjective) = zváánnis


Superlatives:
red = zváánnis
redder = zváánnith
reddest = zváánniqh


Prepositional Prefixes: Hesdiva has prepositional prefixes that are affixed to verbs. (Actually they're not all prepositions...)
Image
and "with" = " i-"


If the verb starts with a vowel and suffix ends with a vowel, [h] is added in between.

Examples:
essëryyn = to see
myhessëryyn = to foresee
Kelsyghë mesygharááza. = I sat on the bench.
Kelsygh = bench, sygharyyn = to sit, me- = on
Khooda ivaayara = Come with me.
khooda = I, vaayara = imperative form of vaayaryyn (to come), i- = with
I came and sat on the bench. = Syvaayarááza kelsyghë mesygharááza.
(Literally: After I came, I sat on the bench.)



ADVERBS

Adverbs come before intransitive verbs and after transitive verbs.
Suffix for adverbs is -effa
If the adjective form of the word ends with -is, the adverb form becomes -iffa
New = sunnis
Newly = sunniffa


Adjectives used with "to be" become adverbs
Happy = hvessis
To be = iyáryyn
I am happy. = Hvessiffa iyáza.



PLURALIZATION:

If a word ends with a consonant, pluralization suffix is -or
If a word ends with a vowel, pluralization suffix is -adh
If a word ends with -r, pluralization suffix is -osh

ocean = thároosh
oceans = thárooshor
carpet = rhoovra
carpets = rhoovradh
path = vizyyr
paths = vizyyrosh



VERBS PART 2
Direct and indirect object pronouns become suffixes to verbs.

Direct object pronouns:
Suffixes are as follows
(verb) -me = -a
-you = -u
-him/her/it = -i
-us = -á
-you (pl) = -o
-them = -e
If the subject is first person, then the suffixes become -na, -nu, -ni, -ná, -no, and -ne, due to the first person's conjugations ending with a vowel.

Example: saahlaryyn = to love
You love me. = saahlama
I love you. = saahlazanu
I love him. = saahlazani
He loves us. = saahlahá
I love you (pl). = saahlazano
I love them. = saahlazane



"THAT" AND "WHICH"
There are three forms of this type of conjunction in Hesdiva.
iy = that; used with sensory verbs
ey = that; used with other verbs
uv = which; used to describe nouns

The "that"-clause comes before the verb and subject.
"That" comes at the end of the clause.
Examples:
Hvessiffa iyá ey háállaza. = I think he is happy.
hvessiffa = happily, iyá = he is, ey = that, háállaza = I think
Áláá iy essëza. = I see him eat.
Áláá = he eats, iy = that, essëza = I see.




That's all for now. Pardon my inconsistent font color choices.
Linguist_Wannabe
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Re: Hesdiva

Post by Linguist_Wannabe »

Phonological constraints: (C)(C)V(C)(C)
Is this the only restriction on syllable shapes i.e. can you have consonant clusters with mixed voicing, syllables the end in aspirated consonants, alveolar consonants next to dentals / postalveolars, /h/ clustered with other consonants (and if so, if there a phonemic contrast with the aspirated consonants).

Also, I would have to say that is is not naturalistic how you have four contrastive phonations for velars stops, but only two for stops at other POAs. Normally, the number of voiced stop phonemes at the velar position is usually less or equal to the number of voiced stop phonemes at other positions. http://wals.info/chapter/5 But this only applies if you're going for a naturalistic conlang.
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