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reconlangmo 7: discourse (#155)
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title: "ReConLangMo 7: Discourse"
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date: 2020-05-25
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series: reconlangmo
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tags:
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- conlang
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- lewa
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---
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# ReConLangMo 7: Discourse
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Previously on [ReConLangMo][reconlangmo], we covered a lot of new words for the
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lexicon of L'ewa. This helps to flesh out a lot of what can be said, but
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conversations themselves can be entirely different from formal sentences.
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Conversations flow and ebb based on the needs/wants of the interlocutors. This
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post will start to cover a lot of the softer skills behind L'ewa as well as
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cover some other changes I'm making under the hood. This is a response to [this
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prompt][rclm7].
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[reconlangmo]: https://christine.website/blog/series/reconlangmo
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[rclm7]: https://www.reddit.com/r/conlangs/comments/gqo8jn/reconlangmo_7_discourse/
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## Information Structure
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L'ewa doesn't have any particular structure for marking previously known
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information, as normal sentences should suffice in most cases. Consider this
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paragraph:
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```
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I saw you eat an apple. Was it tasty?
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```
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Since `an apple` was the last thing mentioned in the paragraph, the vague "it"
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pronoun in the second sentence can be interpreted as "the apple".
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L'ewa doesn't have a way to mark the topic of a sentence, that should be obvious
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from context (additional clauses to describe things will help here). In most
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cases the subject should be equivalent to the topic of a sentence.
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L'ewa doesn't directly offer ways to emphasize parts of sentences with phonemic
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stress like English does (eg: "I THOUGHT you ate an apple" vs "I thought you ATE
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an apple"), but emotion words can be used to help indicate feelings about
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things, which should suffice as far as emphasis goes.
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## Discourse Structure
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Conversationally, a lot of things in L'ewa grammar get dropped unless it's
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ambiguous. The I/yous that get tacked on in English are completely unneeded. A
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completely valid conversation could look something like this:
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```
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<Mai> xoi
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<Cadey> xoi
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<Mai> xoi madsa?
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<Cadey> lo spalo
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```
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And it would roughly equate to:
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```
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<Mai> Hi
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<Cadey> Hi, you doing okay?
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<Mai> Yes, have you eaten?
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<Cadey> Yes, I ate an apple
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```
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People know when they can speak after a sufficient pause between utterances.
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Interrupting is not common but not a social faux-pas, and can be used to stop a
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false assumption from being said.
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## Utterances
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An utterance in L'ewa is anything from a single content word all the way up to
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an entire paragraph of sentences. An emotion particle can be a complete
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utterance. A question particle can be a complete utterance, anything can be an
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utterance. A speaker may want to choose more succinct options when the other
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detail is already contextually known or simply not relevant to the listener.
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L'ewa has a few discourse particles, here are a few of the more significant
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ones:
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| L'ewa | Function |
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|-------|------------------------------------------------------|
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| xi | signals that the verb of the sentence is coming next |
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| ko | ends a noun phrase |
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| ka | marks something as the subject of the sentence |
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| ke | marks something as the verb of the sentence |
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| ku | marks something as the object of the sentence |
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## Formality
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The informal dialect of L'ewa drops everything it can. The formal dialect
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retains everything it can, to the point where it includes noun phrase endings,
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the verb signaler, ka/ke/ku and every single optional particle in the language.
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The formal dialect will end up sounding rather wordy compared to informal slangy
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speech. Consider the differences between informal and formal versions of "I eat
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an apple":
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```
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mi madsa lo spalo.
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```
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```
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ka mi ko xi ke madsa ku lo spalo ko.
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```
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Nearly all of those particles are not required in informal speech (you could
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even get away with `madsa lo spalo` depending on context), but are required in
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formal speech to ensure there is as little contextual confusion as possible.
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Things like laws or legal rulings would be written out in the formal register.
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## Greetings and Farewell
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"Hello" in L'ewa is said using `xoi`. It can also be used as a reply to hello
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similar to «ça va» in French. It is possible to have an entire conversation with
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just `xoi`:
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```
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<Mai> xoi
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<Cadey> xoi
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<Mai> xoi
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```
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The other implications of `xoi` are "how are you?" "I am good, you?", "I am
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good", etc. If more detail is needed beyond this, then it can be supplied
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instead of replying with `xoi`.
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"Goodbye" is said using `xei`. Like `xoi` it can be used as a reply to another
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goodbye and can form a mini-conversation:
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```
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<Cadey> xei
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<Mai> xei
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<Cadey> xei
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```
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## Emotion Words
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Feelings in L'ewa are marked with a family of particles called "UI". These can
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also be modified with other particles. Here are the emotional markers:
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| L'ewa | English |
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|-------|----------------|
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| `a'a` | attentive |
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| `a'e` | alertness |
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| `ai` | intent |
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| `a'i` | effort |
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| `a'o` | hope |
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| `au` | desire |
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| `a'u` | interest |
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| `e'a` | permission |
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| `e'e` | competence |
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| `ei` | obligation |
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| `e'i` | constraint |
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| `e'o` | request |
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| `e'u` | suggestion |
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| `ia` | belief |
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| `i'a` | acceptance |
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| `ie` | agreement |
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| `i'e` | approval |
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| `ii` | fear |
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| `i'i` | togetherness |
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| `io` | respect |
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| `i'o` | appreciation |
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| `iu` | love |
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| `i'u` | familiarity |
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| `o'a` | pride |
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| `o'e` | closeness |
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| `oi` | complaint/pain |
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| `o'i` | caution |
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| `o'o` | patience |
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| `o'u` | relaxation |
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| `ua` | discovery |
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| `u'a` | gain |
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| `ue` | surprise |
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| `u'e` | wonder |
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| `ui` | happiness |
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| `u'i` | amusement |
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| `uo` | completion |
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| `u'o` | courage |
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| `uu` | pity |
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| `u'u` | repentant |
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If an emotion is unknown in a conversation, you can ask with `kei`:
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```
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<Mai> xoi, so kei?
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hi, what-verb what-feeling?
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<Cadey> madsa ui
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eating :D
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```
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This system is wholesale stolen from [Lojban](https://lojban.github.io/cll/13/1/).
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## Connectives
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Connectives exist to link noun phrases and verbs together into larger
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noun phrases and verbs. They can also be used to link together sentences. There
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are four simple connectives: `fa` (OR), `fe` (AND), `fi` (connective question),
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`fo` (if-and-only-if) and `fu` (whether-or-not).
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### OR
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```
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ro au madsa lo spalo fa lo hafto?
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Do you want to eat an apple or an egg?
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```
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### AND
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```
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ro au madsa lo spalo fe lo hafto?
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Do you want to eat an apple and an egg?
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```
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### If and Only If
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```
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ro 'amwo mi fo mi madsa hafto?
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Do you love me if I eat eggs?
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```
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### Whether or Not
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```
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mi 'amwo ro. fu ro madsa hafto.
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I love you, whether or not you eat eggs.
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```
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### Connective Question
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```
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ro au madsa lo spalo fi lo hafto?
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Do you want to eat apples and/or eggs?
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```
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## Changes Being Made to L'ewa
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Early on, I mentioned that family terms were gendered. This also ended up with
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me making some gendered terms for people. I have since refactored out all of the
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gendered terms in favor of more universal terms. Here is a table of some of the
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terms that have been replaced:
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| English | L'ewa term | L'ewa word |
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|-------------------------|-------------|------------|
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| brother/sister | sibling | xinga |
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| mother/father | parent | pa'ma |
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| grandfather/grandmother | grandparent | gra'u |
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| aunt/uncle | parent | pa'ma |
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| cousin | sibling | xinga |
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| man/woman | Creator | kirta |
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| man/woman | human | renma |
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In some senses, gender exists. In other senses, gender does not. With L'ewa I
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want to explore what is possible with language. It would be interesting to
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create a language where gender can be discussed as it is, not as the categories
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that it has historically fit into. Consider colors. There are millions of
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colors, all sightly different but many follow general patterns. No one or two
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colors can be thought of as the "default" color, yet we can have long and
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meaningful conversations about what color is and what separates colors from
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eachother.
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I aim to have the same kind of granularity in L'ewa. As a goal of the language,
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I should be able to point to any content word in the dictionary and be able to
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say "that's my gender" in the same way I can describe color or music with that
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tree. These will implicitly be metaphors (which does detract a bit from the
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logical stance L'ewa normally takes) because gender is almost always a metaphor
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in practice. L'ewa will not have binary gender.
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Issue [number two](https://tulpa.dev/cadey/lewa/issues/2) on the L'ewa repo will
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help track the creation and implementation of a truly non-binary "gender" system
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for L'ewa.
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---
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I've been chugging through the Swaedish list more and more to build up more of
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L'ewa's vocabulary in preparation for starting to translate sentences more
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complicated than simple "I eat an apple" or "Do you like eating plants?". One of
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the first things I want to translate is the classic [tower of babel
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story][babel].
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[babel]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_of_Babel
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Be well.
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