I'm back from a visit to Wellington. A pleasant weekend away, I got to see jousting, mediaeval re-enactment, and metal weapons combat. What fun!
Also I got to raid second-hand book stores for new material for my eclectic language project. Three new Teach Yourself books added to my collection.
The first two are TY Welsh and TY Beginner's Hindi. These are later publications from the Hodder&Stoughton period of this franchise. I'm pleased with finding them. I have an earlier TY Welsh from the English Universities Press period so I was glad to find a more modern version. I didn't have a good Hindi title in this series so Beginner's Hindi was a good find. Perhaps one day I will find more good introductions to this language.
As these are later titles they don't list the irregularities or highlighted words in the contents that I want to use and incorporate into my eclectic language. I will add them to the stack of books I want to work through and see if they add any new material in my write-up of my own grammar.
The third book I found was irresistable! TY Hausa from 1973! The patron saints of invented languages have been looking after me this weekend! It's an interesting language with glottalised and non-glottalised stops, and tense-marking in pronouns! I like the latin orthography, a very attractive language.
Following the rules of incorporation into my eclectic language I have three new extracts to note for my grammar creation of an eclectic tongue: 1. some new notes on the verb 'to be'; 2. the future aspect of the verb 'to go'; and 3. notes on the relaters sai and da.
I was also tempted by a modern edition TY Swahili. I resisted as I felt I had made enough dents into my budget. Perhaps it will still be there in a future visit.
Showing posts with label grammar. Show all posts
Showing posts with label grammar. Show all posts
Monday, 18 February 2013
Sunday, 3 June 2012
McGuffey 1:1-6
The Journal of an Eclectic Tongue has been dormant for the first half of 2012. Did you miss it? I needed an exercise that would give this project some life. McGuffey's First Reader seemed like a good exercise to challenge me. It's available from Gary Shannon's website Fiziwig. Here's a go at the first page.
[1] Bodú bin údnígo taknok, I see a boy.
[2] Bodú bin údnan kalkan, I see a girl.
[3] Bodú bin tago taknok ís kalkas, I see the body and the girl.
[4] Ta taknok pohat bina dan kalkan, The boy can see the girl.
[1] Bodú bin údnígo taknok, I see a boy.
[2] Bodú bin údnan kalkan, I see a girl.
[3] Bodú bin tago taknok ís kalkas, I see the body and the girl.
[4] Ta taknok pohat bina dan kalkan, The boy can see the girl.
[5] Bodú poham bina dan kalkan as taknoka, I can see the girl and the boy.
[6] Bodú poham bina dan kalkan, I can see the girl.
That's a lot of information.
Bodú is the usual word for the pronoun I.
Bin is the word for see, look at. The infinitive form of the verb is bina.
Poha is the stem for the auxiliary verb can, be able to. If the subject of poha is bodú then the ending is -m. If the subject of poha is a noun then the ending is -t.
Údnígo and údnan are both articles meaning a (certain one). Údnígo is masculine animate accusative, and údnan is feminine accusative. The Eclectic Tongue is heavily inflected and the inflections have to be learned.
Taknok means child, boy. It is a masculine noun in the Eclectic Tongue. Masculine nouns do not alter in the ending in the nominative and accusative forms. After as in sentence [5] taknok takes the genitive ending -a.
Kalkan means girl, with the accusative ending -n, which is added to feminine nouns. Feminine nouns in the Eclectic Tongue do have a separate accusative form of the noun, unlike masculine nouns. The nominative form, kalka, is not used in this group of sentences. After ís in sentence [3] kalkan replaces the accusative ending with the genitive ending -s.
Ta is the definite masculine nominative article. Ta takes the ending -go before an accusative masculine noun. Dan is the feminine accusative definite article.
Ís and as are conjunctions and both mean and-the. After both conjunctions the noun is always in the genitive form, although it is not always a possessive. In these sentences it is understood to accompany the previous noun, not to be the possessor of it.
That's enough for this lesson. Bye for now.
Friday, 27 May 2011
How to learn an eclectic language
The conlang list was talking about this link a week ago as I write. Without considering the debate on the list I wondered how the sentences would work in Bâha:
Ta yablok tí kidmit, The apple is red.
Ta tí yablok a Yônú, It is John's apple.
Bodú dô ta yablok kapena Yône, I give the apple to John.
Nas dôyen ta yablok kapena tamú, We give him the apple.
Ta dôt ten kapena Yône, He gives it to John.
Da dôt ten kapena damú, She gives it to her.
Bodú mí múhant dôyant ten kapena tamú, I must give it to him.
Bodú wol dôyant ten kapena damú, I want to give it to her.
Well, creating the sentences and comparing them proved to be an interesting exercise. The first sentence shows how to use a predicative adjective, although says nothing about attributive adjectives. The rest of the first group of sentences give examples of various pronouns with number and gender and how they work. More enquiry would fill in more gaps. There is no example of a noun as subject. It also shows that Bâha declines nouns. From the examples above a learner has all the forms of the present tense finite verb, which is lucky.
And, my god, this is a long-winded language, especially when auxiliaries are used!
I think the theory has merit. A learner could be introduced to a language. It would take longer to master it, at least to the point ordering beer!
Ta yablok tí kidmit, The apple is red.
Ta tí yablok a Yônú, It is John's apple.
Bodú dô ta yablok kapena Yône, I give the apple to John.
Nas dôyen ta yablok kapena tamú, We give him the apple.
Ta dôt ten kapena Yône, He gives it to John.
Da dôt ten kapena damú, She gives it to her.
Bodú mí múhant dôyant ten kapena tamú, I must give it to him.
Bodú wol dôyant ten kapena damú, I want to give it to her.
Well, creating the sentences and comparing them proved to be an interesting exercise. The first sentence shows how to use a predicative adjective, although says nothing about attributive adjectives. The rest of the first group of sentences give examples of various pronouns with number and gender and how they work. More enquiry would fill in more gaps. There is no example of a noun as subject. It also shows that Bâha declines nouns. From the examples above a learner has all the forms of the present tense finite verb, which is lucky.
And, my god, this is a long-winded language, especially when auxiliaries are used!
I think the theory has merit. A learner could be introduced to a language. It would take longer to master it, at least to the point ordering beer!
Friday, 3 December 2010
Not dead but re-lexing
Just popped in to say this blog hasn't died. I got distracted by creating a complete lexicon for this language. Everything is being sorted out and placed into a list of words based on Rick Harrison's lexicon. I have an old copy of it on my computer under the heading UWL for Universal Word Lexicon. I have had to add a section for words that come outside the lists in the collection.
In the time that I have been silent I have not yet managed to complete working through my list of verbs. Currently I have reached a section from Bengali about verbs which mark the agent with the instrumental preposition in the past tense, and those which don't. It adds a curious restriction on the language as many of them are common verbs.
Afterwards I shall move on to including my notes on Substantives, Pronouns and Chuvmey (mostly particles). You may hear from me soon.
In the time that I have been silent I have not yet managed to complete working through my list of verbs. Currently I have reached a section from Bengali about verbs which mark the agent with the instrumental preposition in the past tense, and those which don't. It adds a curious restriction on the language as many of them are common verbs.
Afterwards I shall move on to including my notes on Substantives, Pronouns and Chuvmey (mostly particles). You may hear from me soon.
Thursday, 18 November 2010
Sentences 4.26-27
Ten ítí eng kotte ot niwú?
Moniant pena kebalnia tratia, magari ya kembí en dâkotte
Where are there some on sale (It be-at some sold away-from-speaker at.where?)
If you go on the main street perhaps you may buy some (going-on in main street, perhaps of you some come-buy)
Interesting structure to the sentence, borrowed from the original Chinese dialogue, just to confuse me.
Moniant is the verbal noun, to go up, to mount, to ascend. It appears that it is even used to what would be flat ground, on main street.
Kebalnia, main, has the adjective ending for a feminine noun. The stem of the word means 'head'; and tratia is 'street'.
Magari is the word for 'perhaps', borrowed from Italian, and looking a bit too obvious, IMO. I may have to disguise it further. It is followed by the preposition ya, which in this position acts as a jussive, let.
And en is the pronoun some, which takes the n-ending before a word beginning with D.
Moniant pena kebalnia tratia, magari ya kembí en dâkotte
Where are there some on sale (It be-at some sold away-from-speaker at.where?)
If you go on the main street perhaps you may buy some (going-on in main street, perhaps of you some come-buy)
Interesting structure to the sentence, borrowed from the original Chinese dialogue, just to confuse me.
Moniant is the verbal noun, to go up, to mount, to ascend. It appears that it is even used to what would be flat ground, on main street.
Kebalnia, main, has the adjective ending for a feminine noun. The stem of the word means 'head'; and tratia is 'street'.
Magari is the word for 'perhaps', borrowed from Italian, and looking a bit too obvious, IMO. I may have to disguise it further. It is followed by the preposition ya, which in this position acts as a jussive, let.
And en is the pronoun some, which takes the n-ending before a word beginning with D.
Sunday, 14 November 2010
Sentence 4.26
Ten ítí nassodin kotte ot dâ
There were none on sale here.
The pronoun none is based on Italian nessuno. The first morpheme is na- rather than ne- in this language so the vowel changed. Then I substituted the second morpheme uno for slavic odin which has become the default for 'one' in this language. I kept the linking double-ss in the centre so it's the same word really.
There were none on sale here.
The pronoun none is based on Italian nessuno. The first morpheme is na- rather than ne- in this language so the vowel changed. Then I substituted the second morpheme uno for slavic odin which has become the default for 'one' in this language. I kept the linking double-ss in the centre so it's the same word really.
Saturday, 13 November 2010
Sentence 4.25
A ítí ten eng kotte ot dâ?
Are there any on sale here?
Ten ítí, it is-at, is used to mean 'there is'.
We have used em twice in these sentences. Eng is a varient form that occurs before words starting with k-. It is an example of sandhi at work in this language.
We have seen dâkotte, buy, or transaction coming to me. Its partner is kotte ot, sell, or transaction away from me. Away-from-speaker has its own particle, ot.
The stem of the verb 'come' ends the sentence being used as an adverb of place.
Are there any on sale here?
Ten ítí, it is-at, is used to mean 'there is'.
We have used em twice in these sentences. Eng is a varient form that occurs before words starting with k-. It is an example of sandhi at work in this language.
We have seen dâkotte, buy, or transaction coming to me. Its partner is kotte ot, sell, or transaction away from me. Away-from-speaker has its own particle, ot.
The stem of the verb 'come' ends the sentence being used as an adverb of place.
Friday, 12 November 2010
Sentence 4.24
Nimaraga
In the market.
A sentence of a single step. The stem word is maraga, market. It's classified as a place word and can take the coordinate prefixes, the same as was used in the previous sentence.
In the market.
A sentence of a single step. The stem word is maraga, market. It's classified as a place word and can take the coordinate prefixes, the same as was used in the previous sentence.
Thursday, 11 November 2010
Sentence 4.23
Kembí ve dâkotte te niwú?
Where did you buy them? (You bought them at-where)
Two new words:
Dâkotte, bought. The stem is kop-, buy or sell. With dâ-, come, prefixed the transaction is towards the buyer.
Niwú, where. The interrogative place word wú, where, has a coordinate of place ni-, at or in, prefixed to it.
Where did you buy them? (You bought them at-where)
Two new words:
Dâkotte, bought. The stem is kop-, buy or sell. With dâ-, come, prefixed the transaction is towards the buyer.
Niwú, where. The interrogative place word wú, where, has a coordinate of place ni-, at or in, prefixed to it.
Wednesday, 10 November 2010
Sentences 4.21-22
Te katatôkí tí duon, kodin?
Shim monion duon
Those cigarettes are good, aren't they?
Not very good.
The word for 'very' is the neuter of moní, great, used to mean 'greatly'
Shim monion duon
Those cigarettes are good, aren't they?
Not very good.
The word for 'very' is the neuter of moní, great, used to mean 'greatly'
Tuesday, 9 November 2010
Sentence 4.20
Nam, da tí meskoren
No, it belongs to the teacher.
Usually tí is followed by ya when it means 'belong'. An exception is made here. The word for teacher is made of two parts. The first part means 'my', a possessive adjective; and the second part means 'lord' or 'sir' as a title. The first part of the word has the genitive ending mes so ya is dropped; the second part of the word has the oblique ending koren. Literally the sentence is It is of-teacher.
No, it belongs to the teacher.
Usually tí is followed by ya when it means 'belong'. An exception is made here. The word for teacher is made of two parts. The first part means 'my', a possessive adjective; and the second part means 'lord' or 'sir' as a title. The first part of the word has the genitive ending mes so ya is dropped; the second part of the word has the oblique ending koren. Literally the sentence is It is of-teacher.
Monday, 8 November 2010
Sentence 4.19
A tí da butilka inon yiha dua?
Is the bottle of ink his too?
Butilka, bottle, is a new word. Readers might recognise it from Russian. Yiha, his, is taken from a Indo-European language I have taken several attempts to create. I used this form because it turns up in various forms in different languages. So the third person possessive pronoun comes from a different stem than the other forms of the pronoun. The sentence ends with the balance word dua, which can be translated here as 'too, also'.
Is the bottle of ink his too?
Butilka, bottle, is a new word. Readers might recognise it from Russian. Yiha, his, is taken from a Indo-European language I have taken several attempts to create. I used this form because it turns up in various forms in different languages. So the third person possessive pronoun comes from a different stem than the other forms of the pronoun. The sentence ends with the balance word dua, which can be translated here as 'too, also'.
Sunday, 7 November 2010
Sentence 4.18
Da tíhim a bodú. Da tí ya shadrome bodú
It is not mine. It belongs to my friend.
Literally She is-NEG of 1s. She is of friend 1s.
The negative adverb is him after a vowel, and shim after a consonant. It comes from the Welsh not ddim. In this language TH and DH sounds become S. The deep grammar form of this word is *sim. Between two vowels S becomes H producing -him, and on a whim I decided to disguise *sim as -shim after a consonant.
Friend is shadrom, shadrome in the indirect object case. This is a last minute change. I have played with príant from Germanic and mik from Romance. This third option comes from a Turkish construct where friend means back-fellow (fellow at your back?). Says something about how Turks perceive friendship! This means I will have to go back and change the causative verb for 'accompany, get up'.
It is not mine. It belongs to my friend.
Literally She is-NEG of 1s. She is of friend 1s.
The negative adverb is him after a vowel, and shim after a consonant. It comes from the Welsh not ddim. In this language TH and DH sounds become S. The deep grammar form of this word is *sim. Between two vowels S becomes H producing -him, and on a whim I decided to disguise *sim as -shim after a consonant.
Friend is shadrom, shadrome in the indirect object case. This is a last minute change. I have played with príant from Germanic and mik from Romance. This third option comes from a Turkish construct where friend means back-fellow (fellow at your back?). Says something about how Turks perceive friendship! This means I will have to go back and change the causative verb for 'accompany, get up'.
Saturday, 6 November 2010
Sentence 4.17
Da trinia tugika tí ya kembi, kodin
The writing brush is yours, isn't it?
Well that troubled me for a moment. Why had I introduced a new adjective into the sentence, trinia? The masculine would be triní. I looked at the original text and it fell into place. The stem of the word means 'hair'. So trinia tugika means 'hair-like writing-tool', a writing brush. So this language makes its own concepts.
At least I used the correct pronoun for 'yours' unlike in sentence 4.14. I must go back and correct it in the dialogues.
I went to a class on how to do Chinese calligraphy a couple of weekends ago. It was cool. The brush is held between the first two fingers and the thumb of the right hand. The second two fingers are held against the same side of the brush as the thumb. It is always held in the right hand, no allowances for southpaws as is now the practice in writing the latin alphabet. There are eight basic strokes to be learned. In writing the stroke resting the brush against the page, and lifting it at the end of the stroke is part of good calligraphy. It was a fascinating class to do and a good introduction to how another culture records information.
The writing brush is yours, isn't it?
Well that troubled me for a moment. Why had I introduced a new adjective into the sentence, trinia? The masculine would be triní. I looked at the original text and it fell into place. The stem of the word means 'hair'. So trinia tugika means 'hair-like writing-tool', a writing brush. So this language makes its own concepts.
At least I used the correct pronoun for 'yours' unlike in sentence 4.14. I must go back and correct it in the dialogues.
I went to a class on how to do Chinese calligraphy a couple of weekends ago. It was cool. The brush is held between the first two fingers and the thumb of the right hand. The second two fingers are held against the same side of the brush as the thumb. It is always held in the right hand, no allowances for southpaws as is now the practice in writing the latin alphabet. There are eight basic strokes to be learned. In writing the stroke resting the brush against the page, and lifting it at the end of the stroke is part of good calligraphy. It was a fascinating class to do and a good introduction to how another culture records information.
Wednesday, 3 November 2010
Sentence 4.16
Ai da em?
What about that one?
I like this sentence. It surprised me when I created it. It's not the way I normally think in language.
Ai is a question marker. It is used when the next word is not a verb. In this case it is the pronoun da, so that is grammatical. Ai and a, which comes before verbs in questions, are borrowed from Welsh. Em is another pronoun introduced in this dialogue modifying da so it becomes that one (of them) or that one (of two).
A question made of two pronouns. I like it!
What about that one?
I like this sentence. It surprised me when I created it. It's not the way I normally think in language.
Ai is a question marker. It is used when the next word is not a verb. In this case it is the pronoun da, so that is grammatical. Ai and a, which comes before verbs in questions, are borrowed from Welsh. Em is another pronoun introduced in this dialogue modifying da so it becomes that one (of them) or that one (of two).
A question made of two pronouns. I like it!
Monday, 1 November 2010
Sentence 4.15
Da dônia tugika tí ya bodú
That steel pen is mine.
One new word, steel, dôní. It's an adjective and have the common adjective ending -ní. In the above sentence it agrees with the noun and takes the feminine ending. It is singular so it doesn't take the n- ending found in plural cases.
That steel pen is mine.
One new word, steel, dôní. It's an adjective and have the common adjective ending -ní. In the above sentence it agrees with the noun and takes the feminine ending. It is singular so it doesn't take the n- ending found in plural cases.
Sunday, 31 October 2010
Sentence 4.14
A tí te yilian tugikí a bodú?
Are those two pens yours?
The new word in this sentence is yilí. It is an adjective and means two. Before the feminine plural noun tugikí, writing tool, it takes the an-ending. It comes from the Swahili adjective -wili. As words in Swahili can change their initial consonant due to the prefix attached to it I have looked sideways for a rule to adapt and borrowed a sound change from Hebrew which says that an initial w- changes to y- on verbs and applied it to the adjective yilí, just to make it look different.
Are those two pens yours?
The new word in this sentence is yilí. It is an adjective and means two. Before the feminine plural noun tugikí, writing tool, it takes the an-ending. It comes from the Swahili adjective -wili. As words in Swahili can change their initial consonant due to the prefix attached to it I have looked sideways for a rule to adapt and borrowed a sound change from Hebrew which says that an initial w- changes to y- on verbs and applied it to the adjective yilí, just to make it look different.
Saturday, 30 October 2010
Sentence 4.13
Nam, bodú kusshim tôkí
No, I don't smoke.
In the middle of a dialogue that is diverted off subject to talk about cigarettes this sentence turns up! As we say in New Zealand Yeah, Right. If you need that explained I suggest you goggle the Tui Billboard ads, a surprisingly robust ad campaign for a New Zealand brewery that has been going on for several years. I have translated the tag into Brithenig (Si, druith), haven't done it for this language yet. Give it time.
The phrase for smoking tobacco is kuhant tôkí, eating tobacco. In Dialogue 2 the phrase Have you eaten yet? as a courtesy phrase was introduced. The past tense of the verb is baget (from Greek phago). So we have two stems for eat-verbs. Kus- or kuhant for eating food in general, and baget as the past tense.
No, I don't smoke.
In the middle of a dialogue that is diverted off subject to talk about cigarettes this sentence turns up! As we say in New Zealand Yeah, Right. If you need that explained I suggest you goggle the Tui Billboard ads, a surprisingly robust ad campaign for a New Zealand brewery that has been going on for several years. I have translated the tag into Brithenig (Si, druith), haven't done it for this language yet. Give it time.
The phrase for smoking tobacco is kuhant tôkí, eating tobacco. In Dialogue 2 the phrase Have you eaten yet? as a courtesy phrase was introduced. The past tense of the verb is baget (from Greek phago). So we have two stems for eat-verbs. Kus- or kuhant for eating food in general, and baget as the past tense.
Friday, 29 October 2010
Sentence 4.12
Kú ye bodú, kembí em wolt, kodin?
I have, do you want some?
The same possessive phrase as sentence 4.11 is repeated. Then it is followed by a question. The verb is wolt, want, wish, would like, be willing. Shamelessly Euroclone!
Then we have the object pronoun em. It comes before the verb, and also is a part of the language's Euroclone heritage. It's borrowed from French en (I have it on loan) and is used to mean of it, of them, some. This is its first appearance in Dialogue 4 and will appear a couple of more times.
I have been to the Conlang Card Exchange to update my address. This year I hope to use this language and its culture and be creative with it. I am looking forward to it.
I have, do you want some?
The same possessive phrase as sentence 4.11 is repeated. Then it is followed by a question. The verb is wolt, want, wish, would like, be willing. Shamelessly Euroclone!
Then we have the object pronoun em. It comes before the verb, and also is a part of the language's Euroclone heritage. It's borrowed from French en (I have it on loan) and is used to mean of it, of them, some. This is its first appearance in Dialogue 4 and will appear a couple of more times.
I have been to the Conlang Card Exchange to update my address. This year I hope to use this language and its culture and be creative with it. I am looking forward to it.
Wednesday, 27 October 2010
Sentence 4.11
Ei ullan shapalkí kú ye kembí, kodin?
Do you have any matches? Literally Topic any matches at of you, question
ull is an adjective meaning 'any'. In this phrase, after the topic marker ei and before a plural noun it takes the ending -an. The vowel -a- suggests the following word is feminine. (I suspect that this language would appeal to anyone who read the recent article on alien languages in Speculative Grammarian. The speakers probably come from a planet called Earthos!)
Shapalkí means matches. It has the same plural ending as katatôkí. It does have a singular form, shapalka.
Kú is a preposition meaning at, especially at a place. It is used with ei to mark the owner of a possessed object. Together ei andkú mean have. Ei marks the possessed object, kú the possessor. The possessor in this case is kembí, you. As kembí is a uninflected pronoun and kú takes the dative case the oblique accompanative preposition ye is used between them making a composite long preposition. Now I wonder if it should be kuye as a single word...
Do you have any matches? Literally Topic any matches at of you, question
ull is an adjective meaning 'any'. In this phrase, after the topic marker ei and before a plural noun it takes the ending -an. The vowel -a- suggests the following word is feminine. (I suspect that this language would appeal to anyone who read the recent article on alien languages in Speculative Grammarian. The speakers probably come from a planet called Earthos!)
Shapalkí means matches. It has the same plural ending as katatôkí. It does have a singular form, shapalka.
Kú is a preposition meaning at, especially at a place. It is used with ei to mark the owner of a possessed object. Together ei andkú mean have. Ei marks the possessed object, kú the possessor. The possessor in this case is kembí, you. As kembí is a uninflected pronoun and kú takes the dative case the oblique accompanative preposition ye is used between them making a composite long preposition. Now I wonder if it should be kuye as a single word...
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