New CBB

Hello. Some of you may know me from the Conlang mailing list where I have made a minor appearance. Below is the description of my second conlang Veletan (my first is still quite bad and needs to be reworked). I intended this language to be relatively easy to speak for native English speakers while still being relatively distant from said English - specifically for myself and a group of friends. For this reason the language is not exactly naturalistic, but it isn't an auxlang either. The language also has no adpositions or correlatives or other such small words because I just despise them for no reason I can discern.

Writing system:

Veletan has its own script which looks rather like Mongolian/Manchu script (see below)



Which is used for ceremonial documents and such, while the limitations of computers limit the language to a modified latin script for day-to-day stuff.

Phonology:



Phonotactics:

CVCV(V)CVCV(V)...CCVCCV...CC

(Veletan is highly agglutinative)

Each root word is CVC and then the various declensions and such of the word are CC. Both types are separated by linking vowels which as the name suggests link root words and endings to each other. The linking vowels also can be used as "brackets" within a word. The normal order of roots within a word is that a root that comes before another is its modifier, while the endings are such that an ending that comes after another is its modifier. An example of a word with this basic root word order:

visuturuvo'tutl (a gift of a fraction of a circle)
gift.part.circle.ABS

Circle is the original root, part is what modifies it, and gift is what modifies the resulting circle-part. Other times the brackets are needed to go against this order. Consider the phrase "Bike lane". It would be translated as follows:

tinujumuvo'tijumuseceturunihutl
((2.nonabstract.circle).nonabstract.going).part.road.ABS

In this phrase brackets were needed to avoid a different meaning that would exist without these brackets.

Grammar:

Veletan is ergative because ergative alignment is best alignment. It also has 19 cases, 8 aspects, 6 tenses, 7 word types (6 of which have their own endings), and 6 conjunctions (the logic gates). Together it has 45 endings (all CC), most of which can be combined with others on a word for extra meaning.



There is no gender.

There are no articles, but the proper noun ending jt often behaves like a definite one (this being said in hindsight).

The pronouns have inclusive vs exclusive distinction as well as a simple T-V distinction.

Verbs conjugate only for tense, aspect, and mood (the latter two are often optional), and nouns are declined according to case (and can have conjunctions attached as well).

Syntax:

Word order is VSO and the language is head-final.

Samples:

Tucujruvj r'omujruvj n'epuzmunpunj zo'gujc hizutl lerugz jululogugzuvj.
freedom.ADV.COM equality.ADV.COM life.PRES.INHC.PROG whole.CLAS person.ABS honour.COND abstraction.requirement.COND.COM
'All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.'

Tar'uzm ro'tugm gamujcutlun'c sorutl?
have.PRES you-superior.ERG big.CLAS.ABS.(interrogative) year.ABS
How old are you?

Any feedback, negative or positive, is appreciated, and questions as well. I would very much be interested in knowing which parts of my language are boring/bad and need improvement, and which are interesting/unusual.

_________________
ILR 5 =
ILR 4 =
ILR 3 = None
ILR 2 =
ILR 1 = None
Abandoned = (Scots), , ,
Current Obsession = ASL

Since I’m not too good yet on judging the language parts, I’ll keep my comments and question to the script. I like it in general. It seems like it all works together with itself and would be easy to write with a pen or pencil. I like the note about computing, I tried to make a top-bottom font and computers just don’t like it (at least Word didn’t when I tried)

How many characters do you have? And is there any significant as to which side of the line they fall? I notice there are some loops to the left and some to the right.

Do you have a chart explaining the script?

Also, unless you left out some points and ots then it does not look like Manchu/Mongolian to me. Sure, an approximation, but look ta these:

one

two

You see? Lots of dots and points, where you have none.

It's a basic alphabet so there are 21 characters - one for each phoneme. Many of the characters are flipped to create another letter because the script was supposed to be easy to write quickly and at the same time having easily recognisable letters, which limited me to about a dozen unique characters, many of which I flipped to accommodate the remaining letters.

_________________
ILR 5 =
ILR 4 =
ILR 3 = None
ILR 2 =
ILR 1 = None
Abandoned = (Scots), , ,
Current Obsession = ASL

I do have such a chart, although it is sloppy so it may be a while before I create a neater one.

I guess, although I meant the up - down writing fashion and the joining of letters within a word. Another difference is that while Mongolian script is left-right, Veletan script is right-left (like Chinese).

Please also note that the script sample is both an obsolete translation (of the first article of the UN declaration) and uses an obsolete version of the script (although the letter forms are the same, I just wanted to give you an idea of what it looks like).

_________________
ILR 5 =
ILR 4 =
ILR 3 = None
ILR 2 =
ILR 1 = None
Abandoned = (Scots), , ,
Current Obsession = ASL

Correct me if im wrong, because I bet I am, but when I see this:



I feel this is incorrect. Phonotactics are suppoed to diagram syllable structure, right? if I read it correct, this is the phonotactics of whole words? So it should be:

(C)CV(C).

Quite possibly, although I wanted to highlight that CC can only pop up near the end of the word and CVC at the start.

_________________
ILR 5 =
ILR 4 =
ILR 3 = None
ILR 2 =
ILR 1 = None
Abandoned = (Scots), , ,
Current Obsession = ASL

Hijutl! After some major changes, I return with a possibly better-organised grammar book for Veltanepizu'tl. Warning: Includes some laymen terms because it is intended to be spoken by a non-linguisti group of colleagues. A chart of the Veletan script is also available.

Link: http://commons.microwiki.org.uk/images/ ... rammar.pdf

_________________
ILR 5 =
ILR 4 =
ILR 3 = None
ILR 2 =
ILR 1 = None
Abandoned = (Scots), , ,
Current Obsession = ASL