Soo ta Aangii

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Evynova
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Soo ta Aangii

Post by Evynova »

Hey everyone :) I have decided to begin another conlang that I had in mind after kinda losing motivation and inspiration for the first one lel., namely: Soo ta Aangii.

To give it a little bit of context, Soo ta Aangii is a group of closely related dialects spoken by semi-independent tribes living in forests and swamps to the East of their country, Olita Ekema (shortened to O´Ekema). This is the language as spoken by the first Aangiian settlers on the island, after the big Urkhan deportation (aka Old Aangiian).

Side note, I just wanted to say Polynesian languages such as Maori and Hawaiian are my main sources of inspiration when it comes to the phonology and some aspects of its grammar, but Soo ta Aangii is of course entirely a priori.
Just like the other topic that I kind of left behind, I will update as I progressively finish its different aspects. I hope to do better than K'anerhtówhí, which I don't like so much after all.

So enough blabbering, here's what I have so far:

Phonology
Consonants

/p t k ʔ/ <p t k ´>
/m n ŋ/ <m n ng>
/s h v~ʋ ʝ/ <s h v j>
/ɭ~ɽ/ <l>

~> <l> is a retroflex approximant /ɭ/ if: word-final; before another consonant
~> <l> is a retroflex flap /ɽ/ if: intervocalic; after another consonant.
~> Can be either in the onset, depends on the coda of the preceding word.


Vowels

/æ æː ɛ ɛː i iː ɔ~ʊ~u ɔː~ʊː~uː/ <a aa e ee i ii o oo>

~> <o> is typically /ɔ~o/ but often realised as /ʊ/ when word-final.
For example: Ono /ɔnʊ/ (ant); pikoko /pikokʊ/ (bird).


Dipthongs

/a͡i e͡i u͡i/ <ai ei oi>
/a͡e/ <ae>

Phonotactics

Syllable structure: (C)V(C)(C)
<j, v, h, ´> not allowed in the coda.
<j, v, h, ´> cannot be followed by <l>
<p, t, k> become <m, n, ng> if word-final
<m, n, ng> become <p, t, k> if followed by <l>
If <t> is followed by <l>, an voiceless schwa is inserted in-between.

Stress occurs on the 1st syllable of words.

Syntax & Grammar

Basic word order is OSV (I know it's extremely rare but I like it)

Soo ta Aangii is mainly isolating: verbs & nouns don't inflect. Conjugation is mainly achieved by means of clitics and particles when necessary. Nouns have no grammatical gender, but an animate-inanimate distinction is made, as shown in pronouns, and adjective prefixes. TPlural is unmarked.

More details in posts to come.
Last edited by Evynova on 09 Dec 2017 14:17, edited 6 times in total.
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Omzinesý
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Re: Soo ta Aangii

Post by Omzinesý »

A good start!

Small phonologies often make interesting languages.

How does stress work in the language. Does it affect the realizations of the vowels?
My meta-thread: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5760
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Re: Soo ta Aangii

Post by Frislander »

I do also rather like this start. I'm slightly thrown by the diphthongs though, because you have both /e͡i/ and /ɛ͡i/, but they are so close as to be hard to distinguish, and you're not going for crazy vowels like some natlangs, so I feel it might be better if it were /e͡i/ and /æ͡i/, but then you go and romanise them the opposite way round to how I'd do it based on that!

It's otherwise a nice phonology, I feel.
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Re: Soo ta Aangii

Post by Evynova »

Omzinesý wrote:A good start!

Small phonologies often make interesting languages.

How does stress work in the language. Does it affect the realizations of the vowels?
Thanks :) Oh, how so? I just wanted a language that sounds light and musical (the complete opposite of what I did with the previous one), so I'm giving more weight to vowels. I fell completely in love with how Hawaiian and Maori sound and I wanted to reproduce their vibes, if that makes sense.

As for stress, good question. I was going for a ery boring, nothing-fancy-at-all stress. Though, because of the short-long vowel system, I'm starting to wonder if stress isn't superfluous. At the very beginning, I was considering a high-low pitch accent but with the short and long vowels, I'm afraid this will complicate the phonology more than I want it to. I might shift the stress to the first syllable of words and call it a day. Or maybe not use stress at all? Which would be better?
Frislander wrote:I do also rather like this start. I'm slightly thrown by the diphthongs though, because you have both /e͡i/ and /ɛ͡i/, but they are so close as to be hard to distinguish, and you're not going for crazy vowels like some natlangs, so I feel it might be better if it were /e͡i/ and /æ͡i/, but then you go and romanise them the opposite way round to how I'd do it based on that!

It's otherwise a nice phonology, I feel.
Thanks again! :) That's a good point. I'm hesitating though; I'm wondering if merging the two together is a bad idea. Considering they sound similar I assume it wouldn't be odd to see them merge if it were a natlang.
I'm still going for naturalism as much as possible ^-^
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Re: Soo ta Aangii

Post by Evynova »

More grammar
Grammatical gender
As explained in the first post, there are two semantic categories, rather than genders: animate and inanimate. Although it is impossible to guess a noun's gender just by seeing it*, they generally follow a logical pattern. Words related to animals and human beings are animate, while objects, tools, food, and so on, are typically inanimate. Certain ideas and concepts, especially cultural and religious, may be animate.
Certain words may have both genders, but will as a result carry a different meaning depending on whether they are one or the other.
*see Pronouns & articles.

Examples:
Eione, animate - woman, girl
Naali, inanimate - lake
Naali, animate - puddle (does not last)
Mijaa, animate - love
Lohos, inanimate - hunger

Pronouns & articles
Image

Soo ta Aangii does not have articles. It is however possible to use a pronoun as a determiner, or as a definite article.

Example:
Eione = a woman, women
Kii eione = the/this woman
Kiitai eione = the/these women

Naali = a lake, lakes
Ko´e naali = the/this lake
Kojae naali = the/these lakes

Quantifiers can also be used to mark indefinite plurals. Words like maka (several, an unspecified amount of), jii (many, much) and eeng (few, a bit of) are all possible options. The quantifiers are the same, whether nouns are countable or uncountable.

Examples:
Maka ivis, maka eione
Some water, some women

Jii ivis, jii eione
A lot of water, many women

Eeng ivis, eeng eione
A bit of water, few women

Conjugation
In theory, Soo ta Aangii verbs do not conjugate. Context is usually sufficient in determining what time a verb refers to, but if need be, a clitic may follow the verb. There are three of them: he (now, right now), voi (later, at some point in the future) and ma´a (earlier, at some point in the past).

Examples:
Iko´i ime satii.
/ikɔʔi imɛ sætiː/
I see/saw/will see Iko´i.

Iko´i ime satii he.
/ikɔʔi imɛ sætiː hɛ/
I see Iko´i (now, at present)

Iko´i ime satii voi.
/ikɔʔi imɛ sætiː vu͡i/
I will see Iko´i (later).

Iko´i ime satii ma´a.
/ikɔʔi imɛ sætiː mæʔæ/
I saw Iko´i (earlier).

Conditional
Soo ta Aangii does not have a conditional mood. Conditional clauses are constructed with the postposition ves, equivalent of English if, and the rest of the clause with an unmarked verb.

Example:
Ves ime Iko´i mijaa, kii ime haeiima.
/vɛs imɛ ikɔʔi miʝaː , kiː imɛ ha͡e.iːmæ/
if 1SG Iko´i love , 3SG-AN 1SG marry
If Iko´i loved me, I would marry her.

Imperative
The imperative is formed with the particle sa placed between the subject and the verb. Unlike English, the imperative can also affect the first and 3rd person.
Sa is derived from the modal saan (must). The sentence will be constructed differently, with the infinitive verb treated as an object, and preceded by the particle ea, used to introduce an infinitive verb.

Examples:
Ivis jaa piki sa!
/ivis ʝæː sæ piki/
water 2SG drink IMP
Drink water!

Ivis ea piki jaa saan.
/ivis ɛ.æ piki ʝæː sæːn/
water INF drink 2SG must
Water to drink you must

You must drink water.
Last edited by Evynova on 11 Nov 2017 22:50, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Soo ta Aangii

Post by shimobaatar »

Looks good so far.
Evynova wrote:/æ æː ɛ ɛː i iː ɔ~ʊ~u ɔː~ʊː~uː/ <a aa e ee i ii o oo>

~> <o> is typically /ɔ/ but tends to /u/ if word-final.
When is it realized as /ʊ/?
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Re: Soo ta Aangii

Post by Evynova »

shimobaatar wrote:Looks good so far.

When is it realized as /ʊ/?
Thanks! Well, I don't know if it was clear enough in my post but it depends on the speaker: /ɔ/, /ʊ/, /u/ are practically allophones. Word-final <o> just happens to be often realised as /u/.
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Re: Soo ta Aangii

Post by Frislander »

Evynova wrote:/ɔ/, /ʊ/, /u/ are practically allophones
Given your uncertainty, are you sure you mean allophones with defined environments or do you mean that they are in free variation?
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Re: Soo ta Aangii

Post by Evynova »

Frislander wrote:
Evynova wrote:/ɔ/, /ʊ/, /u/ are practically allophones
Given your uncertainty, are you sure you mean allophones with defined environments or do you mean that they are in free variation?
Can they be in free variation, but with certain environments favouring a sound more than another? If this is too unnatural I'll just go for a simple free variation instead.
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Re: Soo ta Aangii

Post by Evynova »

Relative clauses
Because of the OSV syntax of the language, subordinate clauses precede the main clause. I originally intended for the language not to allow imbedded clauses, but it's not very practical, and unnecessarily quirky.
The main clause may or may not pronominalise the preceding subclause with a pronoun, which may serve as a "pivot" between the two clauses; some sort of relative pronoun/conjunction.

Kii vita´i ma´a, (ko´e) ime saali.
3SG-AN come PST, (3SG-INAN) 1SG know
He/she came, that I know.

I know that he/she came.

Possessives
Possessive pronouns do not exist in Soo ta Aangii. In order to express possession, the preposition ta is used between the possessee and the possesser.

Eione ta ime.
My wife.

Sako ta eione ta ime ime vaken ma´a.
Sako ta eione ta ime, kii ime vaken ma´a.
My wife's brother/sister. I saw him/her.
I saw my wife's brother/sister.

In this example, grammar doesn't necessarily impose the use of the relative pronoun kii between the two clauses, but it would be natural to use it to avoid two imes in a row.

Adjectives
As said in the previous posts, neither nouns nor verbs inflect in Soo ta Aangii. The only class that inflects, though to a very limited extent, is adjectives: if they refer to an animate noun, they will receive a prefix a-; if the refer to an inanimate noun, they will receive the prefix ee-
Evikeii eione
A beautiful woman.

Aajonae ngipite
A wonderful idea

The placement of the adjective changes depending on whether its respective noun is the object or the subject of a verb. Adjectives are placed before their noun if it is the object, and follow if it is the subject.

Evikeii eione ime aa´i ma´a.
AN-beautiful woman 1SG see PST
I saw a beautiful woman.

Aajonae ngipite eione evikeii paales ma´a.
INAN-great idea woman AN-beautiful unearth PST
The beautiful woman got a great idea.
Last edited by Evynova on 20 Nov 2017 16:52, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Soo ta Aangii

Post by Evynova »

Prepositions
Being an isolating language, Soo ta Aangii uses an array of prepositions. Here is a (non-exhaustive) list of them:

- ken = English "to", as in "I gave it to him". Dative.
Ex: Ko´e ken kii, ime kaaki ma´a.
3SG-inan to 3SG-an, 1SG give PST
I gave it to him/her.

- ta = marks possession, genitive. ~English "of".
Ex: Soo ta Aangii
person of forest
The forest people. Implied the forests "own" them, that they belong to them.

- nai = marks origin. ~English "out of/from".
Ex: Nai Kaelaa ime taniaa.
from Kaelaa 1SG be
I come from Kaelaa

- niin = marks destination. ~English "to/towards".
Ex: Niin Kaelaa ime pepiin.
to Kaelaa 1SG walk
I'm going to Kaelaa.

- san = marks intent, a goal. ~English "to, in order to/for/so that".
Ex: San Ikasi eejita atae, vesa ime paeng.
for Ikasi AN-happy be, food 1SG make
I made food to make Ikasi happy.

- nos = "as", "in the state of being", but also "because" or "like"
Ex: Nos e-pota´a kii ees atae, ken kii ime ees mosii.
as AN-good 3SG-AN NEG be, to 3SG-AN 1SG NEG speak
I don't talk to him because he's not nice OR As he isn't nice, I don't talk to him.

- tisan = "by means of", "thanks to"; "with", instrumental.
Ex: Tisan kaki, onil kii pateng.
with rock, coconut 3SG-AN break
He/she used a rock to break open a coconut.

Some locative prepositions
- tii = with, comitative
=> ees tii = "not with" = without
- ina = on, ontop of; up
- os = below, underneath; down
- e´asi = in front of, before (physically & in time)
- pikaa = behind, after (physically & in time)
- ingi = in, inside of
- nai = outside of
- naini = next to, near, by
- o´a = against (physically & metaphorically)
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Re: Soo ta Aangii

Post by Evynova »

Reduplication

The use of reduplication is very common in Soo ta Aangii and serves multiple purposes.

Comparatives and superlatives

Comparatives and superlatives are formed using reduplication. For a comparative, you repeat the first syllable of the adjective, whereas for a superlative, you repeat the word itself. For example:

Monea (big); momonea (bigger); moneamonea (the biggest)
Oo'i (sad); oo'oo'i (sadder); oo'ioo'i (the saddest)
Nii (small); niinii (smaller); niinii (the smallest)

In the case of monosyllabic adjectives, the result will be the same, but to avoid mistaking one form with the other, the superlative will require the use of the personal pronouns in front of the adjective. This only happens with adjectives whose comparative and superlative are identical. For example:

Eniinii kii atae.
S/he is smaller.

Kii eniinii kii atae.
S/he is the smallest.

Capability
Repeating the last syllable of a verb has the same meaning as the English suffix -able, although this sometimes changes the meaning of the verb. For example:

I'ana (want); i'anana (desirable)
Paales (dig up, unearth; find after intentionally looking); paaleses (real, lit. "dig-upable")
Mijaa (love); mijajaa (lovable; worthy of being loved).

Of course, these newly formed qualifiers can undergo the comparative and superlative reduplications.

Mijajaa (lovable); mimijajaa (more lovable); mijajaamijajaa (the most lovable)

Miscellaneous
Though this is no longer a productive method of creating nouns, reduplication can be found in a number of common nouns:

Ono (ant) -> onono (insect, bug)
Iki (flower) -> ikiki (plant, vegetal; vegetable)
Ii (hand) -> i'ii (arm)
Ang (foot) -> akang (leg)*

*In this last example, <ng> turns into <k> because of a phonological change that turned plosives /p t k/ into nasals /m n ŋ/ when word-final.
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Re: Soo ta Aangii

Post by DesEsseintes »

I like the look of Soo ta Aangii, but then I’m probably too easily drawn to lots of long vowels.

I must admit the repeated reduplication of mijaa → mijajaa → mijajaamijajaa gives me a (very) slight headache though. [:P]
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Re: Soo ta Aangii

Post by Evynova »

DesEsseintes wrote: 20 Nov 2017 16:44 I like the look of Soo ta Aangii, but then I’m probably too easily drawn to lots of long vowels.

I must admit the repeated reduplication of mijaa → mijajaa → mijajaamijajaa gives me a (very) slight headache though. [:P]
Thanks!

I suppose, for reduplicated superlatives, I'll use a hyphen and spell mijajaa-mijajaa instead of mijajaamijajaa for clarity. Some reduplications can get pretty heavy if I write them into a single word, like ijaenanaijaenana, "the most credible".
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