diff --git a/blog/reconlangmo-2-phonology-writing-2020-05-08.markdown b/blog/reconlangmo-2-phonology-writing-2020-05-08.markdown index 36c2679..72f5d25 100644 --- a/blog/reconlangmo-2-phonology-writing-2020-05-08.markdown +++ b/blog/reconlangmo-2-phonology-writing-2020-05-08.markdown @@ -83,7 +83,7 @@ Particles will mostly fall into the following forms: Proper names _should_ end with consonants, but there is no hard requirement. L'ewa is a stressed language, with stress on the second-to-last (penultimate) -syllable. For example, the word "[zh]asko" would be pronounced "[ZH]Asko". +syllable. For example, the word "[z]asko" would be pronounced "[Z]Asko". Syllables end on stop consonants if one is present in a consonant cluster. Two stop consonants cannot follow eachother in a row. diff --git a/blog/reconlangmo-3-typology-2020-05-11.markdown b/blog/reconlangmo-3-typology-2020-05-11.markdown new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0a38750 --- /dev/null +++ b/blog/reconlangmo-3-typology-2020-05-11.markdown @@ -0,0 +1,152 @@ +--- +title: "ReConLangMo 3: Morphosyntactic Typology" +date: 2020-05-11 +series: reconlangmo +tags: + - conlang + - lewa +--- + +# ReConLangMo 3: Morphosyntactic Typology + +In the last post of [this series][reconlangmoseries], we covered the sounds and +word patterns of L'ewa. This time we are covering morphosyntactic typology, or +how words and sentences are formed out of root words, details about sentences, +word order and those kinds of patterns. I'll split each of these into their own +headings so it's a bit easier to grok. This is a response to [this +prompt][rclm3]. + +[reconlangmoseries]: /blog/series/reconlangmo +[rclm3]: thttps://www.reddit.com/r/conlangs/comments/ghvo48/reconlangmo_3_morphosyntactic_typology/ + +## Word Order + +L'ewa is normally a Subject-Verb-Object (SVO) language like English. However, +the word order of a sentence can be changed if it is important to specify some +part of the sentence in particular. + +I haven't completely finalized the particles for this, but I'd like to use `ka` to +denote the subject, `ke` to denote the verb and `ku` to denote the object. For +example if the input sentence is something like: + +``` +/mi/ /mad.sa/ /lo/ /spa.lo/ +mi madsa lo spalo + I eat an apple +``` + +You could emphasize the eating with: + +``` +/kɛ/ /mad.sa/ /ka/ /mi/ /lo/ /spa.lo/ +[ke] madsa ka mi lo spalo +V eat S I an apple +``` + +(the `ke` is in square brackets here because it is technically not required, but +it can make more sense to be explicit in some cases) + +or the apple with: + +``` +/ku/ /lo/ /spalo/ /kɛ/ /mad.sa/ /mi +ku lo spalo ke madsa mi +O an apple V eat I +``` + +L'ewa doesn't really have adjectives or adverbs in the normal indo-european +sense, but it does have a way to analytically combine meanings together. For +example if `qa'te` is the word for `is fast/quick/rapid in rate`, then saying +you are quickly eating (or wolfing food down) would be something like: + +``` +/qaʔ.tɛ/ /mad.sa/ +qa'te madsa +is fast [kind of] eat +``` + +These are assumed to be metaphorical by default. It's not always clear what +someone would mean by a fast kind of language (would they be referencing +[Speedtalk][speedtalk]?) + +[speedtalk]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speedtalk + +L'ewa doesn't always require a subject or object if it can be figured out from +context. You can just say "rain" instead of "it's raining". By default, the +first word in a sentence without an article is the verb. The ka/ke/ku series +needs to be used if the + +## Morphological Typology + +L'ewa is a analytic language. Every single word has only one form and particles +are used to modify the meaning or significance of words. There are only two word +classes: content and particles. + +### Alignment + +L'ewa is a nominative-accusative language. Other particles may be introduced in +the future to help denote the relations that exist in other alignments, but I +don't need them yet. + +### Word Classes + +As said before, L'ewa only has two word classes, content (or verbs) and +particles to modify the significance or relations between content. There is also +a hard limit of two arguments per verb, which should help avoid the problems +that Lojban has with its inconsistent usage of the x3, x4 and x5 places. + +As the content words are all technically verbs, there is no real need for a +copula. The ka/ke/ku series can also help to break out of other things that +modify "noun-phrases" (when those things exist). There are also no nouns, +adjectives or adverbs, because analytically combining words completely replaces +the need for them. + +Nouns and verbs do not inflect for numbers. If numbers are needed they can be +provided, otherwise the default is to assume "one or more". + +## Conscript + +I am still working on the finer details of the conscript for L'ewa, but here is +a sneak preview of the letter forms I am playing with (this image below might +not render properly in light mode): + +![The letters in the L'ewa +conscript](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EXwr2rIWAAE95co?format=png&name=4096x4096) + +My inspirations for this script were [zbalermorna][zbalermorna], Hangul, Hanzi, +Katakana, Greek, international computer symbols, traditional Japanese art and +the [International Phonetic Alphabet][ipa]. + +[zbalermorna]: https://mw.lojban.org/images/b/b3/ZLM4_Writeup_v2.pdf +[ipa]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabet + +This script is very decorative, and is primarily intended to be used in +spellcraft and other artistic uses. It will probably show up in my art from time +to time, and will definitely show up in any experimental video production that I +work on in the future. I will go into more detail about this in the future, but +here is my prototype. Please do let me know what you think about it. + +--- + +As a side note, the words `madsa`, `spalo` and `qa'te` are now official L'ewa +words, I guess. The entire vocabulary of the language can now be listed below: + +**Content Words** + +| L'ewa word | IPA | English | +| ---------- | --- | ------- | +| `l'ewa` | `/lʔ.ɛwa/` | is a language | +| `madsa` | `/mad.sa/` | eats/is eating | +| `qa'te` | `/qaʔ.tɛ/` | is fast/quick/rapid in rate | +| `zasko` | `/ʒa.sko/` | is a plant/is vegetation | +| `spalo` | `/spa.lo/` | is an apple | + +**Particles** + +| L'ewa word | IPA | English | +| ---------- | --- | ------- | +| lo | /lo/ | a, an, indefinite article | +| ka | /ka/ | subject marker | +| ke | /kɛ/ | verb marker | +| ku | /ku/ | object marker | +| mi | /mi/ | the current speaker |