The Dailies. May 29
Did you work on your language today? Create any new rules of grammar or syntax? New progress on a script? New words in your lexicon?
On the other hand, do any excavating or reading or enjoying stuff you’ve already created? Do you have any favorites to share?
How did you conlang today?
9 thoughts on “The Dailies. May 29”
Finally got around to making an account here.
Today, I finally (4 months later) added vowel harmony to my word generator. It turns out that regular expressions aren’t enough, so I had to add a finite state machine to do it, but it works! Gůslitati! (“I am joyous!”, which unfortunately doesn’t show off any harmony.)
This also means that I’ve finally finished my vowel harmony system, and should go over my lexicon and bring it into compliance with the new rules. Which I should document. So:
Firen’s vowels are divided into three groups: front (/i e ɚ aɪ/), back (/u o ɔ˞ aʊ/), and central (/ɵ a ɑɚ/). Central vowels are neutral, and harmonize with either front or back. The first non-central vowel in a word starts the harmony, but an accented non-central vowel will break it (and re-start it). Every weak suffix has a “default” vowel, which will present if the preceding word consists only of central vowels, and in that case a series of suffixes will harmonize with the first. The accenting of penultimate syllables happens after this, so they have no particular effect on harmony.
Another thing I’ve done recently is drop the copular particle čas, because it was somewhat limiting. Instead, either zero-copula expressions are used (which in some cases may have inserted pronouns) or, as can be seen above, nouns may be inflected as verbs (with the suffix -(t)a). There is also still the copular verb, but it’s not very often used.
So good to see you here! And vowel harmony, fun!
Mind if I ask how the particle was limiting?
Was that email checkbox there yesterday? If so I didn’t see it.
The issue with čas was that it just never really felt to me like it fit in with the rest of the language, and someone advised me that it limited the possibilities for (poly)synthesis. (Firen was always supposed to be polysynthetic, but after I redid cases I just never did figure out how to fit it in. The fact that some of the most common sentences didn’t use verbs at all probably contributed to that.)
Also, čas had no etymology and I couldn’t think of anything that was even remotely plausible for that particular form. I mean, there is a reason I’m making a proto-language, but it was just too distinct from every word of any related class.
Nope. Part of the plugins add. Got a couple more in the works, besides the cert thing.
All good reasons to move over, though I admit to being surprised that a copular particle would negatively affect polysynthesis. I’m merrily chugging away at analysing the loads of copular synthesis Akachenti engages in. But at the same time, it has clear etymological background, so better reason to keep it.
Tell me how the protolanguage goes! I’m not doing so great on that front myself right now, and am insanely curious about anyone else’s process.
Oh, sorry, Firen is the protolanguage. I’m not doing anything terribly special for it, though.
Ah. Sorry I misunderstood. I do like it though. 😀
shina (adv.) well
lʰasha (adv.) softly
meni (adv.) badly, severely
Note: all adverbs end in a vowel and do not take case markers
shin (adj.) good
men (adj.) bad
shana (n. neut) scent, odor; pl shanane
Imperative phrase:
sahetʰamun shina
Good-bye (lit: Go well)
Lexicon:
sahet (v.i.) to go; 1sg masc sahedin
-amun 2rd person plural feminine verb ending
I decided to use the infinitive with the personal endings to denote the imperative mood. It seems to work with -t verbs, but I will have to experiment with -o and -n verbs since they conjugate differently.
> men (adj.) bad
So, men are bad? 😀
> sahetʰamun shina
Any abbreviation? If this language was spoken by fluent speakers, they would surely end with just two syllables. In Catalan, “goodbye” is “adéu”, but we even skip the first a and say “déu” (which means “god”, btw).
Go well, I love that! A great set of words!