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imuybemovoko · 2 years ago

Text

so I made a language where the verbs outsource nearly everything to the nouns

I saw the thing Wolof does with its tenses and decided to do that, but more. It got away from me, but I actually quite like the result.

I call this language Ładäk Hŕlegŕz, or Hŕładäk for short.

This ought to be interesting.

PHONOLOGY

Romanization is in the pointy brackets where it's different from the IPA. I'll be using the romanization for most of the examples I give; I don't have a good way of making a font for the script, or at least I don't know how, for reasons I'll explain.

For the most part, stress falls on the first syllable that historically contained a long vowel, though in some speakers all diphthongs will trigger stress in the same way. Since the syllabic ɹ̩ comes from both historical long and short vowels, and collapses a wide variety of vowels into it, minimal pairs can exist where a following vowel would take stress. For an example, though, let's use a near-minimal pair constructed by way of the past-tense marker (which, like most tenses, forms with a suffix on the subject):

yŕl /jɹ̩l/ "clothing", yŕlal /ˈjɹ̩lɑl/ "clothing-PST; yŕs /jɹ̩s/ "egg" yŕs /jɹ̩ˈsɑl/ "egg-PST".

The stress falls on the syllable containing the ɹ̩ in one of these words, but on the other syllable whose vowel was historically long in the other. Thus, stress is contrastive, exclusively in /ɹ̩/. (The romanization doesn't have a particularly good way of distinguishing this. As I'll explain later, the kigeil script does.)

Breathy vowels and /ɤ æ/ always defer stress, and whether diphthongs other than /aj ej/ do varies by dialect. More conservative dialects assign primary stress exclusively to those; others have spread it to many or even all diphthongs. (In my examples, I will probably vary the way I assign stress to diphthongs other than /aj ej/ for this reason.)

Also, you may have noticed that Hŕładäk allows some crunchy consonant clusters, but I'll find a few fun illustrative examples in the form of common words:

sfre /sfrɛ/ "bug"; stmai /stmaj/ "fish"; cfen /ʃfɛn/ "end, edge"; sva /svɑ/ "side"; ucs /uʃs/ "shelter".

KIGEIL SCRIPT

The Kigeil script is an alphabet, but it forms syllable blocks a bit like Hangeul does and is written top to bottom and then left to right. (That means it's obnoxious as hell to make a font for and I don't know how. I'll be using hand-written samples from my art software.) I took some inspiration from the Latin alphabet for many of the forms.

Here are the consonants:

/m n ɲ/ /p t k/ /b d g/ /f s ʃ h/ /v z ʒ/ /t͡s t͡ʃ/ /d͡ʒ d͡z/ /w r j/ /l ʎ/

The glyphs for /w r j/ also represent /u ɹ̩ i/, though as we'll see there's some diacritics that become relevant.

/ɑ ɛ i ɔ u ɹ̩/ /a̤ e̤ i̤ o̤ ṳ ɹ̩/ /æ ɤ/

Breathy vowels and an unstressed syllabic in an environment where the contrast matters are marked with a diacritic that's very similar to the acute accent.

Diphthongs are formed by stacking glyphs and rotating the orientation where relevant:

/aj ja ej je oj jo uj~wi ju~iw/ /aw wa ew we ow wo/

(There's not a good way of distinguishing /uj ju/ and /wi iw/ that's standard, although some speakers will use the diacritic for /wi iw/.)

Syllables are formed by placing glyphs into blocks that are read left to right and then top to bottom. Up to two onset consonants will sit on the same line, followed by the vowel if there is not a third. Any third consonant will sit on the second line, followed by the vowel. Then the coda goes below. For a few examples:

/stmaj/ "fish"; /sæzgæ/ a common given name; /si̤ˈlukinu/ a god of war and evil; /ˈvɹ̩zɹ̩zɑ/ "ocean, sea"; /mɹ̩ˈskɑrɤ/ "ruins"

Kigeil also has several punctuation marks:

stop; interrogative; paragraph marker; imperative; exclamation; open and close quotes.

For an example of what this looks like in practice, here's a sample of a legend I've been working on detailing the apotheosis of Bavedail:

Sílukinunal jätc haskwa u legŕz: “Ála, ya tsai! lenal yŕl yŕkende su nal bíga hŕsayi?” Cainal draw satc neiz. [si̤ˈlukinunɑl ʒæt͡ʃ hɑskwɑ u lɛˈgɹ̩z a̤ˈlɑ ja t͡saj | lɛˈnɑl jɹ̩l jɹ̩kɛndɛ su nɑl bi̤ˈgɑ ˈhɹ̩sɑji | ʃajnɑl draw sɑt͡ʃ nejz] mind.eater-PST evil laugh and say aha hey fuck | 2S.PST come ABL-village REL.what 1S.PST recently poison | 3Sm.PST slow walk LOC.3Sf “Sílukinu laughed wickedly and said: ‘Oh right, fucking hell! You came from that village I just poisoned?’ He slowly walked towards her.” (Later on I'll take some time to explain how tsai works, but for now suffice it to say it's a versatile profanity. The in-setting speakers of this language, the Naładäk, don't care even as much as we tend to about profanity.)

Again, no font for this, plus the directionality makes the format obnoxious to deal with (that's a TALL sample, and Tumblr seems to have stretched it horizontally enough that the glyphs get fuzzy), so I'll use the romanization from here on.

GRAMMAR

Word order is SVO, and descriptors always come before, as does the possessor, and indirect objects always come after the object.

NOUNS

Nouns mark for number, case, and most tenses. Number and case mark with prefixes, but the tenses form suffixes.

Hŕładäk has a marked dual and plural, sa- and ma- respectively. Example: yúl "year"; sayúl "two years"; mayúl "years".

Cases are marked with a prefix that precedes any number markings. There is a nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, and ablative case. The dative also functions as a locative and sometimes an allative, and the ablative case functions as an elative or instrumental as well. The nominative is unmarked.

The accusative is the prefix yai-; since word order is strict, with the exception of some of the personal pronouns, i.e. the first person singular, it's just about only used in relative clauses and similar contexts, though can appear on a simple object for emphasis. It also appears reasonably often in common idioms, i.e. zet yaisít, lit. "to hold the reins", referring to controlling one's own destiny, having agency, etc. In some dialects it can also serve as a definite article, but that's not technically standard.

The genitive is the prefix nail-. This is most often used to mark the possessor of another noun. Example: NailSílukinu la! "Sílukinu's blood!" (a common profanity expressing frustration or disgust.)

The dative is the prefix nei-. It marks indirect objects, i.e. Nal hail melgin neiPaci "I gave the bread to Paci", but is also used as a locative, i.e. neilin sait "to ride in rain" (an idiom used to describe good fortune), and can also function as an allative as in Cainal vei neitijä "He went to the city".

The ablative is the prefix yŕ- or yŕd- (typically retaining the d if the noun has an initial vowel, though that's not the only sort of environment where that happens). It typically means "from (x)" as in yŕkende "from the village" from the text sample, but it also operates as an instrumental, i.e. Zenal had cai naiz yŕdicak neimakaz "She struck him in his legs with her icak". (An icak is a culturally significant type of one-handed sword.)

That's cases; now let's get fonky.

Here's the tenses that affix to the subject (and I'll explain what each is more specifically below). There are two common suffix forms, often depending on the presence of a final vowel (but not always).

Habituals in nonpast forms are marked by reduplication of the first syllable of the verb; more on that later.

The optative (Opt.) refers to things the speaker wishes for, but it serves double duty as a future tense. An example of each sense: Tsuti kin stais "The goat wishes to eat grass"; Säzgägi húseiskatc "Säzgä will survive".

The imperative (Imp.) marks commands. It's a bit unusual in that it can attach to an indirect object or locative (i.e. something marked with the dative case) or occasionally other forms in addition to just the subject. An example of a regular one, then an example of that: Legain til! "Run!"; Neilinain sait! "Ride in rain!" (an idiom wishing someone good fortune). Gain can function as a particle in lieu of the second person singular or dual pronoun, but (usually) not the plural.

The abilitive (Abilit.) expresses the ability or possibility to do something, as well as some forms of understanding. Example: Fitadban ła nan małi yŕdstoga yŕdõlts ŕsaygas "Fitad could not gather water from the oasis because of the poison"

The permissive (Perm.) expresses permission or consent to do something. It also functions as a conditional. Examples: Lenait tcasä stret giñä "You may ask again later"; Wagunait deyŕsayi deil "The fruit might poison someone".

The obligative (Obl.) expresses a necessity. Examples: Dalis su Mailawá han "I think that Maila needs to sleep".

Because of the cases and the TAM, personal pronouns have a wild amount of forms.

The case forms:

The distinction in the first-person plurals is that inclusive means including the listener and exclusive means not including the listener.

Tense forms:

(I put the nominative forms at the top of this table for clarity.)

Since TAM forms should just about exclusively mark on the nominatives, that's all I included in the table.

Yeah. Nouns are a lot in this language.

VERBS

We just about exclusively have the imperfective, passive, and causative here. They outsourced ALL that other stuff to the subject.

The passive is marked with the prefix ve- or vem- on the verb. The agent, if present, is marked with the ablative case. Example: Nal venäplaju yŕSäzgä "I was greeted pleasantly by Säzgä".

The causative is marked with the prefix hai- or hail- on the verb. The object, where present, is marked with the dative case. Example: Cainal haijitä Maila neyŕnäd "He caused Maila to fire the arrow."

The imperfective, which also functions as a habitual, is marked with a reduplication of the first syllable of the verb root, often the onset and vowel only. Example (and comparison): E tcasä rogwan "I wake up early"; E tcasä rorogwan "I often wake up early".

Oh, also, there's not a copula. No "to be", not in the standard dialect especially. You just handle it with juxtaposition: E tradeil 1S <COP> soldier "I am a soldier" like that.

That's just about all that happens with verbs. :^)

INTERROGATIVES

Questions are generally constructed with these terms, and they double as relative pronouns. We have: yä "why"; kõ "how"; hä "when"; kul "who"; so "where"; and su "what".

If what's in question is the object of the verb, these most often precede it: Lenal su keuli? "What have you found?"

If what's in question is the subject, these interrogatives take subject position and take the TAM markings: Kulnal hon yei? "Who saw you two?"

Other questions, the interrogatives modify the verb, i.e. Lenal kõ keuli yai? "How did you find me?"

RELATIVE CLAUSES

The interrogative terms are also the relative pronouns. Subjects and direct objects can be relativized directly; indirect objects and obliques have to use a passive or a causative; the standard dialect does not allow relativization of genitives or comparatives in any form, but some dialects do allow those with passive or causative constructions. For a few examples:

Subject: Säs keiduzema kul ŕn "That is the man who used to hunt" Säs keid kul caizema ŕn "That is the man who used to hunt" (Using the pronoun places further emphasis on the action)

Object: Säs keid kul nal hon "This is the man who I saw" Säs yaikeid kul nal hon "This is the man who I saw" (an alternate construction that differentiates the object of the main clause from the subject of the relative clause; not strictly necessary in this case, but sometimes you have ambiguity)

Indirect object: Zeir kul zenal vehail yailidá yŕd kikin wag "The woman who was given a flower by me is eating fruit" Zeir kul nal hainal lidá kikin wag "The woman who I caused to have a flower is eating fruit" (Causative constructions emphasize the action).

Oblique: Keidunal zema hailŕn naica äct neica neig "The man whose brother I used to bring hunting with me died" (Obliques generally use the causative exclusively, but some speakers will use passives for them too).

NEGATION

The particle ła is used for negation, simply preceding whatever it's meant to negate. Depending on context, it can negate either the sense of the TAM attached to a verb or the verb itself. There's not a morphological way to distinguish between those contexts. A quick example of negation:

Säs glibon ła pälsu ni rákajai. "This illusion is not a good or scary one."

So that's about it for the grammar. Kinda.

PROFANITY

I'd like to explain a few of my favorite profanities in the language. There's a couple of wildly useful words, and then a few really entertaining phrases.

Let's start with tsai. Its function is a bit like the English "fuck", except minus the sexual connotations. It's a great single syllable that's good to just insert places and really lean into. So that's kind of what happens with it, often. You can stick it in any place in a sentence and it works, though it'll mean slightly different things. Let's grab one of our sample sentences from earlier:

Nal hail melgin neiPaci "I gave the bread to Paci"

Tsai nal hail melgin neiPaci would cast the entire action as an unfortunate thing.

Nal tsai hail melgin neiPaci would land as an angry, rude way of saying "I already did this thing".

Nal hail tsai melgin neiPaci would land as either the above or as a slight against the bread itself depending on context.

Nal hail melgin tsai neiPaci is a slight against Paci.

Nal hail melgin neiPaci tsai is a bit like "I'm annoyed that I have to say this."

You also get a few fun phrases that develop from tsai.

Ya tsai is a bit in the direction of "fucking hell", "fucking listen to me", or "what the fuck" as an exclamation.

La tsai is a bit more "fuck yeah".

U säs ya tsai (na... [name or pronoun]) is a bit like "And what the fuck is this?" You can add the vocative particle na and a name or pronoun to specify who you're addressing.

Na tsai is like "you motherfucker" kinda.

(Gain) vei neitsai is a bit like "Go to hell" or "go fuck yourself"; adding the dative suggests "tsai" is either a place or action that's negative somehow.

Ya nailõlts tsai doesn't have a particularly useful direct translation into English; it's literally "Oh wind of fuck", which is ...janky. But this is an extreme expression of frustration or rage. It's also possible to add other phrases after this, i.e. Ya nailõlts tsai nab "What in the wind's fucking asshole?" Generally the more you add, the more intense it is.

Satsai is like "you also, fucker", often a response to insults etc.

Cta tsai is like if "capisce" was derived from "fuck".

Phrases that aren't (necessarily) just full of tsai

Gain nan masalí neitagí "Go gather cacti in your ass", basically a spicy "fuck off", even spicier if you add something like an instrumental after this, i.e. yŕpŕbas "using a shovel", yŕyav "using a dick".

Tarinabey is a compound, literally "wounded-asshole-mouth", a useful term for someone with dangerous ideas or someone who's generally just an actively, dangerously terrible person.

Kołõr (naidja) neyŕná literally translates to "to shit in someone's eye"; it's a way of referring to lying.

Kołvit lit. "shit-axe", draws on the metaphorical sense of axes as referring to creating fire, so basically "shit-burner". Refers to someone who makes the world worse with their actions.

And there's some of my favorite profanities. I don't always flesh out the profanity this much in my conlangs, but I went pretty deep with this one and I really enjoy the result.

TRANSLATIONS

Here's a few fun translations I have lying around.

Big Bill Hell's

Na tsai Baltõmor! VOC fuck Baltimore “Fuck you, Baltimore!”

Ci le tava slujätc kõ neidec leg haiplic ŕz huábac, ci le tava sludak kõ lenait yŕl neianá nailBil Helz Mawábac! if 2S enough dumb REL.method today 2S.OPT buy new car then 2S enough idiot REL.method 2S.PERM come LOC-field GEN-Bill Hells P-car “If you’re enough of an idiot that you’re going to buy a new car today, then you’re enough of an idiot that you’ll come to Bill Hell’s field of cars!”

Magliblic! Mawábac su kokoc! Mabodjeil! P-scam | P-car REL.thing IPFV-break | P-thief “Scams! Cars that always break! Thieves!”

Ci le cilin su leg keuli pälsu plic neiBil Helz, ci lenait hata nail tagí! if 2S think REL.thing 2S.OPT find good money LOC-Bill Hells then 2S.PERM taste 1S.GEN ass “If you think that you’ll find a good deal at Bill Hell’s, then you may taste my ass!”

Naisa hŕgact, le tava ya tsai sludak su le dadalis säs gliblic – danal vehałal! 1Pexc.GEN belief 2S enough hey fuck idiot REL.thing 2S IPFV-trust this scam | 3Sn-PST CAUS-guarantee “Our belief: You’re enough of a motherfucking idiot that you always fall for this scam- that is a guarantee!”

Ci le keuli kay pälsu plic, ci legain nan masalí yŕdzäs! if 2S find more good money then 2S.IMP gather P-cactus ABL-this “If you find a better deal, gather cacti in your ass with it!”

Jai, lenal tsats yai, legain tsai nan masalí yŕdzäs! yes 2S.PST hear 1S.ACC 2S.IMP fuck gather P-cactus ABL-this “Yes, you heard me, gather cacti in your ass with it!”

Gain nan naile bruz huábac! IMP gather 2S.GEN old car “Bring your old car!”

Gain nan naile lazaku! IMP gather 2S.GEN document “Bring your documentation!”

Gain nan naile venivi! IMP gather 2S.GEN lover “Bring your lover!”

Neg cili da! Jai, neg cili naile venivi! 1Pexc.OPT sex 3Sn | yes 1Pexc.OPT sex 2S.GEN lover “We’ll screw them! Yes, we’ll screw your lover!”

Yŕdõlts le tsai neiäzaig sasait neiBil Helz! because 2S fuck LOC-sand IPFV-ride LOC-Bill Hells “Because at Bill Hell’s you’re always fucking unfortunate!”

Sílukinu neiäzaigain sait – neiBil Helz! Sílukinu LOC-sand-IMP ride LOC-Bill Hells “Ride in sand, demon– to Bill Hell’s!”

Ne nal kejá hŕsiwra. Jai, kejá hŕsiwra! 1Pexc have hard pissing | yes hard pissing “We have difficult pissing! Yes, difficult pissing!”

U säs vei kõ? and this go how “And how does this work?”

Ci leyiban siwra ige majuda neityul u ła sádzal le yŕdzäs, ci lewá ła hail gé plic! if 2S-ABL pee six P-foot LOC-sky and NEG wash 2S ABL-this then 2S.OBL NEG give first money “If you can piss six feet in the sky and not wash yourself with it, then you don’t give us the first payment!”

Gain ła humij! Gain ła gada! Gain ła sta nail yav, ni neg zeyŕd naile cilecó! IMP NEG wait | IMP neg be.content | IMP neg bite 1S.GEN dick or 1Pexc pluck 2S.GEN scrotum “Don’t wait! Don’t be content! Don’t bite our dick, or we’ll pluck off your scrotum!”

Aya neiBil Helz, tcitáná so ne legŕz, “Sílukinu neiäzaigain sait!” only LOC-Bill Hells market REL.where 1Pexc say Sílukinu ride in sand “Only at Bill Hell’s, the store where we say, ‘Fuck directly off!’”

Gain til, botcuyav! IMP run dickstealer “Run, you stealer of penises!”

Säs tsei neig hä le haiplic, u dawá seiskatc ni leg neig, na tsai! this time die when 2S purchase and 3Sn-OBL survive or 2S.OPT die O fuck “This moment dies when you buy, and [your purchase] had better survive or you’re going to die, motherfucker!”

Gain vei neitsai – neiBil Helz Mawábac! IMP go LOC-fuck LOC-Bill Hells P-car “Go fuck yourself- at Bill Hell’s cars!”

Vŕzjätc neiBaltõmor u aya näyá so vŕz rákajai tsai maSílukinu nailMariland neikaucŕ - danal vehałal! worst LOC-Baltimore and only house where most scary fuck P-Sílukinu GEN-Maryland LOC-edge | 3Sn-PST CAUS-guarantee “The worst in Baltimore, and the only home of the scariest motherfucking demons in Maryland’s borders- that is a guarantee!”

A bit of the Dagger of the Mind monologue

This one has two English renderings, the original Shakespeare and a rendering that reflects how I translated things a bit more closely. I'll color the retranslation purple.

E hon touza yŕd, zená nail neigan? 1S see knife ABL.1S grip 1S.GEN LOC-hand Do I see a knife before me, its grip towards my hand? “Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand?”

Legain yŕl; wá cayi le. 2S-IMP come 1S.OBL touch 2S Come; I must touch you. “Come, let me clutch thee.”

E ła nal le u gál kain hon le. 1S NEG have 2S and but now see 2S I don’t have you but I see you now. “I have thee not and yet I see thee still.”

Na zoltai hŕlon, le vehon u vekiude? o deadly vision 2S PASS-see and PASS-feel O deadly vision, are you seen and felt? “Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible To feeling as to sight?”

Ni liká neisílu touza, liká glib yŕdzíluná kul hŕkal fefeja? or simply LOC-mind dagger simply lie ABL-brain REL heat IPFV-imprison Or simply a dagger in the mind, a lie from the brain that that the heat oppresses? “Or art thou but A dagger of the mind, a false creation Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?”

E kain hon le, u yiban kiude le sai säs kul e kain zeyŕd. 1S now see 2S and 1S.ABL feel 2S like this REL 1S now draw I see you now and I can feel you like this one who I now draw. “I see thee yet, in form as palpable As this which now I draw.”

Le leleit yai neimas so nal sasatc, u gi had pac sai säs. 2S IPFV-lead 1S.ACC LOC-path where 1S.PST IPFV-walk and 1S.OPT use tool like this You’re leading me on the path where I was walking, and I plan to use a tool such as this. “Thou marshal'st me the way that I was going, And such an instrument I was to use.”

So there's that. Big Bill Hell's Cars felt like a very fitting thing to translate for this language. The speakers would enjoy that kind of shitpost, I think. Anyway, I'll probably do more with this later. And an eagle-eyed reader who also saw some art I posted a while ago (which... I don't have a following on here at this point so probably no one fits this description but whatever) might notice some Kigeil in a painting I made earlier. I will do more at some point though lmao

Enjoy :^)

#conlang #neography #big bill hells #macbeth #this language has an unorthodox division of labor so christians probably hate it #half of my translations are stabby #I wrote swear words that filters don't know exist :^)#the great verb boycott

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