From 4f6ddfcbb811518cff1507abfc5e52b76566af34 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Christine Dodrill Date: Fri, 22 May 2020 21:39:42 -0400 Subject: [PATCH] reconlangmo 6: lexicon (#151) * reconlangmo 6: lexicon * Update reconlangmo-6-lexicon-2020-05-22.markdown * Update reconlangmo-6-lexicon-2020-05-22.markdown --- .../reconlangmo-6-lexicon-2020-05-22.markdown | 183 ++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 183 insertions(+) create mode 100644 blog/reconlangmo-6-lexicon-2020-05-22.markdown diff --git a/blog/reconlangmo-6-lexicon-2020-05-22.markdown b/blog/reconlangmo-6-lexicon-2020-05-22.markdown new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bc41ea6 --- /dev/null +++ b/blog/reconlangmo-6-lexicon-2020-05-22.markdown @@ -0,0 +1,183 @@ +--- +title: "ReConLangMo 6: Lexicon" +date: 2020-05-22 +series: reconlangmo +tags: + - conlang + - lewa +--- + +# ReConLangMo 6: Lexicon + +Previously in [this series][reconlangmo], we've covered a lot of details about +how sentences work, tenses get marked and how words work in general; however +this doesn't really make L'ewa a _language_. Most of the difficulty in making a +language like this is the vocabulary. In this post I'll be describing how I am +making the vocabulary for L'ewa and I'll include an entire table of the +dictionary words. This answers [this +prompt](https://www.reddit.com/r/conlangs/comments/gojncp/reconlangmo_6_lexicon/). + +[reconlangmo]: https://christine.website/blog/series/reconlangmo + +## Word Distinctions + +L'ewa is intended to be a logical language. One of the side effects of L'ewa +being a logical language is that each word should have as minimal and exact of a +meaning/function as possible. English has lots of words that cover large +semantic spaces (like go, set, run, take, get, turn, good, etc.) without much of a +pattern to it. I don't want this in L'ewa. + +Let's take the word "good" as an example. Off the top of my head, good can mean +any of the following things: + +- beneficial +- aesthetically pleasing +- favorful taste +- saintly (coincidentally this is the source of the idiom "God is good") +- healthy + +I'm fairly sure there are more "senses" of the word good, but let's break these +into their own words: + +| L'ewa | Definition | +|-------|------------------------------------| +| firgu | is beneficial/nice to | +| n'ixu | is aesthetically pleasing to | +| flawo | is tasty/has a pleasant flavor to | +| spiro | is saintly/holy/morally good to | +| qanro | is healthy/fit/well/in good health | + +Each of these words has a very distinct and fine-grained meaning, even though +the range is a bit larger than it would be in English. These words also differ +from a lot of the other words in the L'ewa dictionary so far because they can +take an object. Most of the words so far are adjective-like because it doesn't +make sense for there to be an object attached to the color blue. + +By default, if a word that can take an object doesn't have one, it's assumed to +be obvious from context. For example, consider the following set of sentences: + +``` +mi qa madsa lo spalo. ti flawo! + +I am eating an apple. It's delicious! +``` + +I am working at creating more words using a [Swaedish list][swaedish207]. + +[swaedish207]: https://tulpa.dev/cadey/lewa/src/branch/master/words/swaedish207.csv + +## Family Words + +Family words are a huge part of a language because it encodes a lot about the +culture behind that language. L'ewa isn't really intended to have much of a +culture behind it, but the one place I want to take a cultural stance is here. +The major kinship word is kirta, or "is an infinite slice of an even greater +infinite". This is one of the few literal words in L'ewa that is defined using a +metaphor, as there is really no good analog for this in English. + +There are also words for other major family terms in English: + +| L'ewa | Definition | +|-------|-------------------------| +| brota | is the/a brother of | +| sistu | is the/a sister of | +| mamta | is the/a mother of | +| patfu | is the/a father of | +| grafa | is the/a grandfather of | +| grama | is the/a grandmother of | +| wanto | is the/a aunt of | +| tunke | is the/a uncle of | + +Cousins are all called brother/sister. None of these words are inherently +gendered and `brota` can refer to a female or nonbinary person. The words are +separate because I feel it flows better, for now at least. + +## Idioms + +L'ewa strives to have as few idioms as possible. If something is meant +non-literally (or as a [conceptual metaphor][cmet]), the particle ke'a can be used: + +[cmet]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conceptual_metaphor + +``` +ti firgu +This is beneificial + +ti ke'a firgu +This is metaphorically/non-literally beneficial +``` + +--- + +I have been documenting L'ewa and all of its words/grammar in a [git +repo][lewarepo]. The layout of this repo is as follows: + +| Folder | Purpose | +|----------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| +| `book` | The source files and build scripts for the L'ewa book (this book may end up being published) | +| `nix` | [Nix][nix] crud, custom packages for the eBook render and development tools | +| `script` | Where experiments for the written form of L'ewa live | +| `tools` | Tools for hacking at L'ewa in Rust/Typescript (none published yet, this is where the dictionary server code will live) | +| `words` | Where the definitions of each word are defined in [Dhall][dhall], this will be fed into the dictionary server code | + +I also have the entire process of building and testing everything (from the +eBook to the unit tests of the tools) automated with [Drone][droneci]. You can +see the past builds [here](https://drone.tulpa.dev/cadey/lewa). After I merge +the information from the latest blogpost into this repo, I will put a rendered +version of it [here](http://lewa-book-devel.kahless.cetacean.club:43001/). This +will allow you to browse through the chapters of the eBook while it is being +written. Eventually this will be automatically deployed to my Kubernetes cluster +and the book will be a subpath/subdomain of `lewa.christine.website`. + +I have created a system of defining words that allows you to focus on each word +at once, but then fit it back into the greater whole of the language. For +example here is `kirta.dhall`: + +```dhall +-- kirta.dhall +let ContentWord = ../types/ContentWord.dhall + +in ContentWord::{ + , word = "kirta" + , gloss = "Creator" + , definition = + "is an infinite slice of an even greater infinite/our Creator/a Creator" + } +``` + +This is put in `words/roots` because it is a root (or uncombined) word. Then it +is added to the `dictionary.dhall`: + +```dhall +-- dictionary.dhall +let ContentWord = ./types/ContentWord.dhall + +let ParticleWord = ./types/ParticleWord.dhall + +in { rootWords = + [ -- ... + ./roots/kirta.dhall + -- ... + ] + , particles [ -- ... + ] +``` + +And then the build process will automatically generate the new dictionary from +all of these definitions. Downside of this is that each new kind of word needs +subtle adjustments to the build process of the dictionary and that +removals/changes to lots of words requires a larger-scale refactor of the +language, but I feel the tradeoff is worth the effort. I will undoubtedly end up +creating a few tools to help with this. + +I will keep working on additional vocabulary on my own, but [here][vocab] is the +list of vocabulary that has been written up so far. + +[vocab]: https://git.io/JfaeF + +Be well. + +[lewarepo]: https://tulpa.dev/cadey/lewa +[nix]: https://nixos.org/nix/ +[dhall]: https://dhall-lang.org/ +[droneci]: https://drone.io