VULKAN: my first attempt at a 'serious' conlang

[pizua]

Edit: update & important note 2

This post is really, really bad since i've devloped VULKAN way past this and will make an actual good quality post presenting it when i'm done, but i can't really stop you if you wanna read this, just know it's just a bare-boned idea of what vulkan will really be lol

+!VOK

Or, hi.

Before i present this, there's a few things i'd like to note:

• I am NOT a linguist and will very likely never be. This conlang is severely limited to my knowledge of lingusitics

• My entire knowledge of linguistics comes from languages I can speak, a bit of esperanto, toki pona and conlang critic videos. (You'll see how that influences this conlang)

• This is my first ever 'serious' attempt at a conlang, so don't expect it to be perfect or even probably decent

• Lastly, i'm open to critiscism, just please be nice or i'll probably cry or something

Anyway, VULAN is an artlang(?) created for creative purposes, used by the (fictional) natives of the island of Volcania (VULKANA). This island was (fictionally) discovered by european colonizers somewhere around the 18th century. Thing is, the natives of the island are not human, they're a sort of 'anthropomorphic volcano-people' which evolved accustomed to extremely hot temperatures...so, altough the colonization was unsucessful, they unintentionally affected the volcanian language. This caused "old volcanian" to go extinct, replaced by the current "modern volcanian" (this one).

PHONETICS & ORTOGRAPHY:

vowels: /a/, /e/, /o/, /u/
consonants: /p/, /d/, /k/, /m, /n/, /v/, /z/, /ʃ/, /x/, /j/, /l/

Vowels are pronounced as they are in spanish or japanese.
/ʃ/ is a "sh" sound
/x/ is like the esperanto "Ĥ"
/j/ is pronounced like a y

Digraphs and dipthongs are nonexistent (/j/ is considered a consonant).
Syllables may end in consonants if they're either /n/ or /l/, or in any consonant if they're the last syllable of the word. (except /j/, /ʃ/ and /x/ because those always go before vowels.)
This creates a total of a whopping 400+ possible syllables. (wow)

The language can be typed out/latinized if you write in ALL CAPS and /ʃ/ as 'SH'', but it also has its own phonetical script.
Here are the letters drawn out be my in ms paint (terribly):


(pretty cheesy, might change later...)

As for the language spoken out, the stressed syllable is the first of the word if it has 2 or 3. For words over 4, the stressed syllable is always the third last.

GRAMMAR, SENTENCE STRUCTURE AND STUFF

The word order is OVS (object-verb-subject). So sentences are in reverse (relative to english), pretty much.

Nouns can be modified by articles to indicate gender, though they are gender-neutral by deafult.
Adjectives and some other words follow the words/phrases they modify.
(personal pronouns can also follow a word/phrase to modify indicating possessive case).
Adverbs and articles go befrore the words/phrases they modify.

VULKAN also adds tone/mood indicators, little symbols that go at the very start of a sentence so the message conveyed is more clear and make punctuation unecessary. They are:

+ - indicates content, an affirmation, or a statement.
- - (not to be confused with negation) indicates negativety, uncertainty, discontent.
? - Question, interrogative mood.
! - Indicates strong emotion or intensity.
. - Indicates imperative mood.
¡ - Indicates unseriousness, joking, satire.

(And yes, these can be combined.)

LEXICON & VOCAB

Now, this part is actually a WIP. I haven't come up with a complete, polished lexicon (yet), though i have created a nice amount of words for VULKAN (the semantic primes and a few other stuff). Alot of these words are very obviously influenced by other languages though

Some words are based off volcanian nature/culture, and can have multiple meanings. For example, the word for 'good' is 'VOK' (taken from portuguese 'fogo'), which can also mean fire, heat or a greeting, like at the start of this post. In constrast, the word for 'bad' is 'KOLDA', which can also mean cold, or 'bye'.

Verbs are notable for their 'interesting' nature. Firstly, they all include either 'AXA', 'EXE', 'OXO', or 'UXU' to indicate that they are a verb. This is because alot of them are rooted from nouns. Example: 'VULKA' = person, being, life form. 'VULKAXA' = to be, to exist, to live.
Secondly, verbs can recieve conjugation by tense to indicate it in the sentence. This is done by adding either -N (past) or -L (future) to the 'double vowel' parts. For example,'VULKAXAN' = existed, and 'VULKAXAL' = will or is going to exist.

Articles and pronouns of VULKAN:

AL - article for something of the male gender
EL - article for something of the female gender
ON - article for something that is gender neutral
(Note that these are definite articles. When something is not known, articles are not used.)

JA - Me, I, my, mine, myself
JE - You, your, yours, yourself (singular and plural)
JO - Us, our, ours, ourself
ONA - Them, theirs, themselves (singular and plural)
AKA - it, its, itself.
ELE - He, him, his, himself
ELA - She, her, hers, herself
KEL - Any interrogative pronoun (what, which, why, etc. Note that these are always the object of the sentence in a question.)

Edit: 'ONA' used to be both 'them' and 'it'...kinda dumb how i let that through

For those wondering, yes, numbers do exist in VULKAN. They're base 10, and each word represents a digit.

NADA - 0 (also the word for 'nothing')
ONE - 1
DU - 2
TE - 3
KA - 4
VA - 5
ZIN - 6
ZEL - 7
OTO- 8
NON - 9
(You can just use arabic numerals if you're typing or writing instead.)

EXAMPLE SENTENCES & ADDITIONAL STUFF

Now, the part you've all been waiting for...or probably skipped to.
Here's some basic sentences in VULKAN:
(Note that they are all OVS word order)

"+MAKAMA MAKAMAXAN EL VULKA"
(STATEMENT) "Someone/a person (female) ate food."
+ - positive tone indicator
MAKAMA - (taken from 'magma') 'food'. (object of sentence)
MAKAMAXAN - 'ate', conjugated into past tense as indicated by "AXAN"
EL - female definite article
VULkA - Person, being, life form. (subject of sentence.)

".ON ZUNO VOK AXAVE JE"
(IMPERATIVE) "have a good day."
. - Imperative tone indicator
ON - definite gender-neutral article
ZUNO - 'sun', but can also mean 'day' (object of sentence)
VOK - good, warm
AXAVE - to have, to possess
YE - you (subject of sentence)

Lastly, i'd like to proudly present to you, in its full glory...

THE OFFICIAL FLAG OF VULKANA!!




And i think that's about everything i wanted to present. Again, please note this language is still a work in progress and will very likely change over time. If you all have any criticisms, comments, or questions, post them and i'll gladly reply

But for now,
+!KOLDA

[Omzinesý]

Few conlangers are linguists, but after having this as their hobby for a time, they factually are. You always learn the things you do much.

Your lang is not written in the linguistics jargon, but who cares.

Verbs are notable for their 'interesting' nature. Firstly, they all include either 'AXA', 'EXE', 'OXO', or 'UXU' to indicate that they are a verb. This is because alot of them are rooted from nouns. Example: 'VULKA' = person, being, life form. 'VULKAXA' = to be, to exist, to live.
Secondly, verbs can recieve conjugation by tense to indicate it in the sentence. This is done by adding either -N (past) or -L (future) to the 'double vowel' parts. For example,'VULKAHAN' = existed, and 'VULKAHAL' = will or is going to exist.

Articles and pronouns of VULKAN:

AL - article for something of the male gender
EL - article for something of the female gender
ON - article for something that is gender neutral
(Note that these are definite articles. When something is not known, articles are not used.)

Using linguist's terms, you could probably say
VULKA is the stem of the verb.
The tense suffixes are
-XV 'present' (Is this the present 'exists' or the infinitive 'to exist or both?)
-HVN 'past'
-HVL 'future'
Where V stands for the last vowel of the stem.

I'm I right?
AL VULKA 'the man'
EL VULKA 'the woman'
ON VULKA 'the person'

Are all words that cannot have a biological sex ON?

[spanick]

vowels: /a/, /e/, /o/, /u/
consonants: /p/, /d/, /k/, /m, /n/, /v/, /z/, /ʃ/, /x/, /j/, /l/

I like the sounds here and the very minimalistic phonology. I noticed there are several unusual phonological gaps such as there being no /i/ and several voiced consonants /d v z/ without their voiceless counterparts, which is typologically rare. Was there a reason for this either in-universe or just in your own preferences?

The language can be typed out/latinized if you write in ALL CAPS and /ʃ/ as 'SH'', but it also has its own phonetical script.

Why is it written in all caps?

Verbs are notable for their 'interesting' nature. Firstly, they all include either 'AXA', 'EXE', 'OXO', or 'UXU' to indicate that they are a verb

What is the difference between these four forms? Is it just dependent on the phonology of the root?

AL - article for something of the male gender
EL - article for something of the female gender
ON - article for something that is gender neutral
(Note that these are definite articles. When something is not known, articles are not used.)

I'm not sure what you mean in the parenthetical here, but I'm wondering if there are indefinite articles too (e.g. "a, an").

JA - Me, I, my, mine, myself
JE - You, your, yours, yourself (singular and plural)
JO - Us, our, ours, ourself
ONA - Them, theirs, themselves (singular and plural), it, its, itself.
ELE - He, him, his, himself
ELA - She, her, hers, herself
KEL - Any interrogative pronoun (what, which, why, etc. Note that these are always the object of the sentence in a question.

Why is it that the second and third person pronouns are the same for singular and plural but the first person pronouns distinguish singular and plural?

"+MAKAMA MAKAMAHAN EL VULCA"

I really like the way this language sounds. Are the punctuation marks which indicate mood pronounced in any way or are they only written?

Welcome to the CBB, I hope you enjoy yourself and you might consider jumping to Lexember to grow your vocabulary. I'm interested to see more of this language.

[pizua]

Few conlangers are linguists, but after having this as their hobby for a time, they factually are. You always learn the things you do much.

Your lang is not written in the linguistics jargon, but who cares.

Fine, i'll admit it. I am a linguist; just very, very far from a good one

Using linguist's terms, you could probably say
VULKA is the stem of the verb.
The tense suffixes are
-XV 'present' (Is this the present 'exists' or the infinitive 'to exist or both?)
-HVN 'past'
-HVL 'future'
Where V stands for the last vowel of the stem.

I'm I right?
AL VULKA 'the man'
EL VULKA 'the woman'
ON VULKA 'the person'

Are all words that cannot have a biological sex ON?

For the verb thing, yes, that's pretty much it.

As for the articles, yes, words that cannot have a biological sex are 'ON' by deafult
(which hint hint is a slight nod to a certain language i happen to be quite pona at...)

[pizua]

I like the sounds here and the very minimalistic phonology. I noticed there are several unusual phonological gaps such as there being no /i/ and several voiced consonants /d v z/ without their voiceless counterparts, which is typologically rare. Was there a reason for this either in-universe or just in your own preferences?

Alot, if not most of the choices were the good old 'simply because i wanted to' (including this one). But i guess i could give you a conworld-contextual explanation for the rest.

Why is it written in all caps?

Volcanians really like efficiency...for some reason. Punctuation and tone are already replaced by the indicators. And besides, having two sets of letters you can write for the sake of correctness sounds stupid (looking at you, japanese).

What is the difference between these four forms? Is it just dependent on the phonology of the root?

Yeah, pretty much. H + previous vowel + either -N for past, nothing for present, or -L for future. Again, efficiency.
(Altough this does unintentionally make verbs more complicated instead of making them easier to identify like i intended to )

I'm not sure what you mean in the parenthetical here, but I'm wondering if there are indefinite articles too (e.g. "a, an").

I meant to say that when articles are not used, it means the object/thing is indefinite. Just 'VULKA' would be 'A person'.

Why is it that the second and third person pronouns are the same for singular and plural but the first person pronouns distinguish singular and plural?

Copied from english. Those damn british colonizers...
(also because i got lazy but we dont talk about that)

I really like the way this language sounds. Are the punctuation marks which indicate mood pronounced in any way or are they only written?

Welcome to the CBB, I hope you enjoy yourself and you might consider jumping to Lexember to grow your vocabulary. I'm interested to see more of this language.

The 'punctuation marks' are only written to indicate the tone of how it would be spoken out.

Thanks for your words and interest, i'm looking forward to this forum

[spanick]

Alot, if not most of the choices were the good old 'simply because i wanted to' (including this one). But i guess i could give you a conworld-contextual explanation for the rest.

When conlanging this is as good a reason as any.

I meant to say that when articles are not used, it means the object/thing is indefinite. Just 'VULKA' would be 'A person'.

Gotcha, and so there’s no way to indicate “a woman” or “a man” then?

Copied from english.

Well English does have third person plural pronouns (they/them/their), which is why I asked but I see that the plural third person doubles as the singular neutral gender?

How they handle a sentence like “They saw it”?

Speaking of which, how do you pluralize nouns?

[pizua]

Gotcha, and so there’s no way to indicate “a woman” or “a man” then?

When it's indefinite, i guess not. I should probably make a word for 'male' and 'female'...but it's not like gender matters much to the vulcanese.

Well English does have third person plural pronouns (they/them/their), which is why I asked but I see that the plural third person doubles as the singular neutral gender?

How they handle a sentence like “They saw it”?

Speaking of which, how do you pluralize nouns?

Oh...i see the problem now.
"ONA LUKAXA ONA" does sound kinda stupid
I guess i'll change that right now by keeping "ONA" as the plural third person/singular gender-neutral third person and making "AKA" it, its, itself (Would now be AKA LUKAXA ONA).

As for plurals...they don't really exist? You can say the specific amount you have of one thing, or just that you have 'many' or 'multiple' of that thing.

Like i said, this language is a WIP. There's alot of things i forgot to think through, and some things might change along the way.

[WeepingElf]

The numerals '1' to '4' look quite Indo-European to me. And nada is of course the Spanish and Portuguese word for 'nothing'. Coincidence?

[Arayaz]

Vowels are pronounced as they are in spanish or japanese.

I'm pretty sure I know what you mean, but Japanese does not in fact pronounce /u/ the same as Spanish, or likely VULKAN (of course none of the vowels are identical, but it's a different IPA sound)

The Japanese sound written <u> in romaji is actually /ɯ/, or even [ɨ], which is very different from /u/ ─ both are unrounded vowels, and /ɨ/ is central

KEL - Any interrogative pronoun (what, which, why, etc. Note that these are always the object of the sentence in a question.)
[...]
MAKAMA - (taken from 'magma') 'food'. (object of sentence)

I might've missed it, but what if they're...not the object of the sentence?

[pizua]

I'm pretty sure I know what you mean, but Japanese does not in fact pronounce /u/ the same as Spanish, or likely VULKAN (of course none of the vowels are identical, but it's a different IPA sound)

The Japanese sound written <u> in romaji is actually /ɯ/, or even [ɨ], which is very different from /u/ ─ both are unrounded vowels, and /ɨ/ is central

Yeah, kinda didin't know that at the time

I might've missed it, but what if they're...not the object of the sentence?

That was actually kinda stupid of my part, but they're just used normally as the object of the sentece

Anyway, i might delete this post soon because it's in very poor quality and was pretty much more of a concept showcase. I've been developing the lang way more since and i'm gonna make a proper, actually good post showcasing it when i'm done, so for now please just ignore the existence of this thread cuz it sucks and VULKAN's a bit better now

[Arayaz]

Anyway, i might delete this post soon because it's in very poor quality and was pretty much more of a concept showcase. I've been developing the lang way more since and i'm gonna make a proper, actually good post showcasing it when i'm done, so for now please just ignore the existence of this thread cuz it sucks and VULKAN's a bit better now

I don't think non-mods can delete posts, but you can make a new one