Please Help w/ Conlang Attempt
Please comment on this conlanging attempt...I'm a bit of a newbie, so be nice, but point out things that are wrong or could use some help. Sound set and romanization (I have a script, but I can't type it): /m n J N/ <m n nh ng> /p t c/ <p t k> /b d J\/ <b d g> /p\ T s S x/ <f th s sh x> /B D z Z h\/ <v dh z j h> /l r L/ <l r ll> /w ts tS dZ/ <w c ch zh> /i u Y E O a/ <i u y e o a> All vowels also have a nasalized version(´), or can be doubled, which lengthens them. Words will be primarily composed of CV or CVC syllables, however, syllabic consonants occur whenever two (or more) consonants would occur word-initially. In terms of grammar, so far I have only created verbs nouns, and pronouns, though I plan to add things like prepositions, conjunctions, and whatnot, though they may be included as addons to other words instead of standing separately. Adjectives I plan to indicate through compound nouns. Noun structure is as follows. All nouns begin as base stems, for example, "vul" (life). There are 6 classes a noun may be made into, as well as 6 numbers which can be expressed. Class A: thinking. Mavul: a thinking life form Class B: animate. Vavul: an animate life form Class C: alive. Lavul: a life form Class D: imbued*. Xavul: a corpse, a vessel which one held life Class E: object. Savul: a sculpture of a life form, a doll Class F: concept. Pavul: life *This indicates that the object is considered to have a spirit - for example, a fire, or a river, which are obviously not alive but considered to have their own "life". It's a cultural thing for the conpeople who speak this language. Numbers are: Nullar: Movul - no thinking being Singular: Mavul - a thinking being Dual: Mevul - two thinking beings Plural: Mivul - thinking beings Indefinite: Myvul - some thinking beings Inclusive: Muvul - all thinking beings At the moment, I'm working with a case system for nouns, but I may change it. I've created grammar for the following cases: Absolutive: Mávul Ergative: Mavul Genitive: Mmavul Dative: Nmavul My current verb system shows subject and object by concords (which are the same as the pronouns), and morph to indicate tense, mood, and aspect. For example, the verb 'vul', (live) **Yes, the words are the same. They take different prefixes and suffixes, though** Tense: present, past, past in past, future in past, future, past in future future in future I live - Jovul I lived - Jovur I will live - Jovull Aspect: Plain, progressive, perfective, inceptive, prospective I live - Jovul I am living - Dhjovul I have lived - Jonhvul I begin to live - Zhjovul I am going to live - Jongvul Mood: Indicative, imperative, conditional, general I live - Jovul Live! - Jvul I would live - Jovúl I live (generalized statement) - Jovuloki Negation: I do not live - Jovuul Nouns can be negated in the same way - for example, 'Vuul' is 'un-life', or 'death' An example sentence: Jo mavul dhvul, jó xavul, jovúúl. 1sing A.sing.life prog.live, 1sing.cond D.sing.life 1sing.neg.cond.live I, a thinking being, am alive, but were I nonsentient, I would not live. Pronominal system: 1 sing: jo 2 sing: chy 3 sing: zhi 4 sing: nhá Indeterminate: ngó 1 pl in: joch 1 pl ex: jozh 2 pl: chyzh 3 pl: zhinh 4 pl: nházh Numbers 1 - llaj 2 - ned 3 - zer 4 - wedh 5 - beg 6 - bell 7 - bend 8 - bez 9 - bedh 10 - meg 11 - megllaj 12 - megned 20 - npeg 21 - npegllaj 30 - zbeg 40 - dhbeg 50 - beeg 60 - bellbeg 70 - bembeg 80 - bezbeg 90 - bedhbeg 100 - megbeg 123 - megbegnpegzer 200 - nedmegbeg 1000 - megmbeg 10000 - megmbegbeg 100000 - megmbegmbeg 1000000 - megmbegmbegbeg

mmm.. suprasegmental transitivity casing :) Are both <nh> and <g> supposed to represent /J/? its ok if they do, just thought it might be a typo... how much vocabulary do you have so far and is your noun class system (though i think its technically something else the way you're using it) flexible enough? like if you're talking about something more concrete than "life", say...dunno, a table? I do like the lang tie with the culture, nice touch. I think, overall, you have a very good basic concept. you need to flesh out more vocab (don't worry if you need to toss it away later to rebuild, just make some disposable stuff) and work out a sketch for how simple statements work. try some of the translation challenges, most of them aren't really too challenging and will give the rest of use a better idea of where you're thinking of going with your lang.

Hi! Nice to see you here too! For the sake of asking twice: You said that your adjectives will simply be added to the noun. The only problemme I see with having adjectives as add ons is what if there is no need for a noun? How would you express "Is it green, blue or red?", or would those all be tacked onto the pronoun? Also, how will you differentiate between absolutive and ergative? Will absolutive retain its accent where as with ergative the infix is lost like in mmovul? What I mean is will vul decline like so: máovul movul mmovul nmovul Also, is the m prefix the only one that is lost that way? Would vavul decline: mávavul mavavul mmavavul nmavavul?

Ok, so for some reason my backslash isn't appearing in the post above...it ought to be /p backslash/ for <f> and /J backslash/ for <g>. I guess I didn't specify well. The accent is added to the existing vowel, so the declination would be móvul movul mmovul nmovul vávul vavul mvavul nvavul The adjectives would stand alone in that case, acting as nouns "green-thing, red-thing, blue-thing", while using the same form. Hope this is clear?

Take a look at my conlang's root system, it's amazingly similar to yours. That looks good! Can you give an example of a word that requires more than two syllables?

Updated pronouns: 1 s: jo 2 s: chy 3 s: zhi 4 s: nhá Indeterminate: ngó 1 in s/s: jach(a) 1 in s/d: jache 1 in s/p: jachi 1 in d/s: jecha 1 in d/d: jech(e) 1 in d/p: jechi 1 in p/s: jicha 1 in p/d: jiche 1 in p/p: jich(i) 1 ex d: jezh 1 ex p: jizh 2 d: chezh 2 p: chizh 3 d: zhenh 3 p: zhinh 4 d: nheng 4 p: nhing Some Vocabulary: question marker: aarchu life - vul death - vuul motion in space: xezh motion in time: xech motion in self: xec thought: shon speech: shen communication: shan act: shun emotion sense: sham wite: zhem read: zhym psychic aura: zhin emotion: zhan energize: zhom see: vong har: vang taste: fing smell: feng hear: vung sense energy: fyng psychic sense: fang affect: jan influence: jen coerce: jon create: jun energizer: zhovul psychic: zhivol healer: xecvel demon: wozh angel: weng god: bal energy: k charm: sank ward: zong stone: dhon mountain: dhov moving water: cef still water: ceef sun: dux moon: rill star: zhox light: rox dark: roox wind: cell heat: purox cold: puurox ice: puufir steam: pufir ash: huv smoke: lyp dust: dhuv mud: zunh spirit: nhux mind: shul plant: nej animate: muv intelligent: pum imbued: lux object: xus concept: sup food: tal drink: bach energy absorption: ngom number: tech time: choj space: jek aural extent: ga aura: wag long: kush short: kuush big(small): we(e)zh tall(short): go(o)ch wide(narrow): le(e)ch thick(thin): zhy(y)ll up(down) py(y)l black: a white: y red: i blue: o orange: ile rust: eli yellow: olu lime: ulo green: u magenta: ilo amethyst: oli brown: e rose: ily pink: yli sienna: ali crimson: ila gray: aly silver: yla indigo: alo midnight blue: ola myrtle: alu jade: ula auburn: ale burnt umber: ela periwinkle: oly baby blue: ylo celadon: uly chartreuse: ylu beige: yle fallow: ely gold: uli goldenrod: ilu burgundy: eli mahogany: ile emerald: ulo pine green: olu prussian blue: ole liver: elo olive: elu asparagus: ule no one: hox that one: hax those two: hex some: hyx those: hix all of them: hux I've also finished the script, so I just need to get my scanner working and I can post that up. Example sentences: The brown stone is wet. D.sing.brown.stone 3s.wet Xaedhon zhifir. No red stars are dark. D.null.red.star in.neg.shine Xoizhox ngóroox. Those two plants are green, not olive. C.du.plant 3d.green, 3d.neg.olive. Lenej zhenhu, eeluu. Is the blue fire moving, aging, or developing? ? D.sing.blue.fire 3s.move, 3s.age,, 3s.develop Aarchu xaopux zhixezh, xech, xec? I see all the ash from the big fire. E.inc.abs.ash gen.D.s.big.fire 1s.3s.see Suhúv nxawezhpux jozhivong.

Alphabet created. I have a history of the letters if anyone's interested. I also am working on a mystic rune type system for it - i.e. each letter will have an associated meaning.

That's cool and angular looking. What's the sample mean and say?

The samples are the same as the ones in my previous post.

OK, I wrote out my alphabet history in a legible fashion and scanned it in. The letters are descended from pictograms of various words. m: muv "animate" n: nej "lant" nh: nhux "spirit" ng: ngom "energy absorption" i: hix "those" p: pux "fire" t: tech "number" k: k "energy" u: hux "all" b: bal "god" d: dux "sun" g: ga "aural extent" y: hyx "some" f: fir "water" th: thuv "earth" s: sup "concept" sh: shul "mind" x: xa "void" e: hex "those two" v: vul "life" dh: dhon "stone" z: zunh "mud" j: jek "space" h: huv "ash" o: hox "none" l: lyp "smoke" r: rill "moon" ll: lled "air" a: hax "that one" w: wag "aura" c: cef "moving water" ch: choj "time" zh: zhox "star"