link to midekh tools webpage

[Wiki] / Sources / Page / Languages / Midekh.djot

# Midêkʰ

This is one of several conlanguages [][@:Rinna] is working on for an
eventual Dark Dungeons X (BECMI D&D retroclone) setting.
(fae welcomes input.)
Some useful (HTML-and-JS) tools for working with Midêkʰ words may be
found [here.
](https://ekiru.github.io/conlang-tools/midekh/){title="Midêkʰ tools"}

rinna uses the token "TKTK" to mark places where more stuff is needed
later.

a minimal map of the world in question is below for a bit of context.
it is also necessary to know that all or most sentient creatures in the
setting are anthropomorphic animals, but that the corresponding
ordinary animals also exist but are considered non-sentient.

![map of an as-yet unnamed world, with three contents and a few
islands](https://lyssa-rpg-docs.neocities.org/media/blorb-world-map-minimal.png){width=600}

Rinna has the following goals for Midêkʰ:

* it will serve as a proto-language for a number of languages spoken
  along the west coast and within the temperate interior (mostly the
  30°-45° zone) of the southeastern continent, possibly plus some
  further-flung offshoots.
* fae wants to build it around a system of biliteral or triliteral
  consonantal roots (as in Afro-Asiatic languages such as Tamazight,
  Egyptian, Amharic, Hebrew, Akkadian, etc.)
* fae is inclined to include few vowel qualities, but with some
  additional complication such as pitch accent, vowel length, or
  extensive use of diphthongs that may develop into a more extensive
  vowel system in daughter languages.
* it should not be too difficult to pronounce for the native US
  English and Rioplatense Spanish speakers likely to play in the
  setting, particularly since the most likely places for faese games
  to start out will have this language prominent.
  but some such difficulties can be resolved in daughter languages via
  sound change.
* the proto-language and descendant languages will mostly but perhaps
  not exclusively be used for names (of people/places/texts/etc.)

## Phonology

To help with approachability for English/Spanish speakers, [][@:Rinna]
opted to draw inspiration from
[Wikipedia's account of Proto-Indo-European phonology](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proto-Indo-European_phonology#Vowels){title="Wikipedia on reconstructed PIE phonology"}.

Consonant table:

|           | labial | coronal | p.velar | velar | l.velar | glottal |
|-----------|:------:|:-------:|:-------:|:-----:|:-------:|:-------:|
| nasal     | m      | n       |         | ŋ     |         |         |
| voiceless | p      | t       | kʲ      | k     | kʷ      |         |
| voiced    | b      | d       | gʲ      | g     | gʷ      |         |
| aspirated | pʰ     | tʰ      | kʲʰ     | kʰ    | kʷʰ     |         |
| fricative | f      | s       |         |       |         | h       |
| liquid    |        | r l     |         |       |         |         |


The language featured three series of stops: voiceless, voiced, and
aspirated (voicing was not phonemic in aspirated consonants).
Each of these series included a labial stop, a coronal (dental or
alveolar) stop, and three variants of a velar stop: a plain variant, a
palatalized variant, and a labialized variant.

There were three fricatives: a (bi)labial fricative, a coronal
fricative, and a glottal fricative.

There were three nasal stops: labial, coronal, and velar.
There were two coronal approximants: rhotic and  lateral.
Both the nasals and the approximants could be used as syllable nuclei.

There were three vowels: `*e` (mid front), `*o` (mid back), and `*i`
(close front).
Each vowel could be pronounced long or short, which was phonemic.
Long vowels are transcribed with a macron.

One syllable in each multisyllabic word was emphasized, likely with a
raised pitch (marked with an acute accent on the vowel).
Long vowels of accented syllables are marked with a circumflex for
ease of processing.

A syllable begins with a consonant followed by either a vowel, a nasal,
or an approximant as a nucleus.
A syllable with a short vowel can additionally have a final consonant.

## Morphology

Most content words are derived from a "root" (TKTK) consisting of two
to four (but usually three) consonants, which are combined with a
particular template (TKTK) of surrounding and intervening sounds
(mostly vowels) to form a particular word.
Roots will be represented with their consonants separated by hyphens,
for example: `m-d-kʰ` (which is the root for language).
Templates can include any vowel but only  certain consonants: nasal
stops (n m ŋ), the coronal and glottal fricatives (s h), and the
voiceless coronal stop (t).

### Adjectives

Unlike nouns and verbs, adjective are not derived from using a
combination of root and template, with the exception of the active and
passive participles of verbs.
Some adjectives are fixed words, but most are the result of affixation
of other words.

Adjectives are marked for number, gender, and case to match the noun
modified.

### Nouns

Nouns are marked for number (singular and plural) and case using a
prefix for case and a suffix for number.
Each noun also has a gender: either masculine, feminine, or neuter.

The cases present in the language were:

* Nominative: used for the subject of the verb.
* Accusative: used for the object of transitive verbs.
* Vocative: used for a party directly addressed by the speaker. 
* Dative: used for the recipient or beneficiary of an action.
* Prepositional: used for the complement of most prepositions, although
  some prepositions require or allow other cases.

### Verbs

Verbs are inflected for tense, aspect, mood, person, and number.
Person is first, second, and third.
Number is either singular or plural.

There are two tenses, which reflect the time at which the action
occurred:

* Non-past: used for events happening now, in the future, in the
  immediate past, or at an uncertain time.
* Past: used for events that started in the past, but not the immediate
  past.

There are three aspects, although the continuous and habitual are only
distinguished in the indicative mood:

* Continuous: used to describe an ongoing process.
* Habitual: used to describe a recurring or cyclical activity.
* Perfective: used to describe an action as a single unit.

There are three moods:

* Indicative: used for statements of facts.
* Optative: used for wishes and hopes, conditional events, and some
  commands.
* Subjunctive: used for hypothetical events, future events, and more
  polite commands.

Issues such as questions and the active or passive voice are marked
elsewhere in a sentence.

There are three special forms of each verb:

* The verbal noun, which functions as a noun and can represent the act
  of the verb occuring or a object related to the activity described by
  the verb.
  The gender of a verbal noun is determined by the verb's conjugation
  group, but they receive affixes for number and case normally.
* The active participle, which functions as an adjective or adverb and
  indicates that the modified word is related to the subject of the
  verb.
* The passive participle, which functions as an adjective or adverb and
  indicates that the modified word is related to the verb's object.

Both participles receive the normal affixes for number, gender, and
case agreement.

## Derivational morphology

The derivational morphology of Midêkʰ is based around the combination
of a root with a template to form a stem (TKTK).
These stems are further modified by infection to arrive at final word
forms.

This section and the following one on inflectional morphology will
represent roots using their consonants separated by hyphens: e.g.
m-d-kʰ, p-ŋ-r, h-s-t.
Groups of roots sharing only certain components will be represented
with a question mark `?` for any unspecified consonants: p-?-r would
include p-ŋ-r, p-k-r, p-s-r, etc.
Templates will be written with their surrounding and intervening sounds
and with the position of each root consonant represented by a plus
sign, for example: `+i+ē+`.
Groups of templates sharing certain components will be represented
using a question mark for any unspecified template positions: for
example, `?+i+?+?` represents all noun templates (which all place a
short /i/ between the first two consonants).

This section and the following will primarily use the root `m-d-kʰ` as
an example to express how roots are combined with templates to form
stems or words.

### Derivation of noun stems

All noun templates place /i/ between the first two consonants of the
root, other than the verbal noun patterns which place /ī/ there, a long
vowel, instead.
These are summarized below, with more details below:

| pattern | description  | m-d-kʰ   | gender | english gloss            |
|---------|--------------|----------|--------|--------------------------|
| +i++é   | abstraction  | midkʰé   | f      | linguistics/all language |
| +i+ê+   | prototype    | midêkʰ   | varies | the Midêkʰ language      |
| so+í+i+ | place        | somídikʰ | n      | TKTK                     |
| mi+í++o | instrument   | mimídkʰo | n      | pen, stylus              |
| +i+és+e | emphasis     | midéskʰe | m/f    | conversation/command     |
| hê+i+o+ | personal     | hêmidokʰ | m/f    | orator, author, sage     |
| hi+i++í | diminutive   | himidkʰí | f      | word                     |
| ŋô+i++o | derogative   | ŋômidkʰo | m      | nonsense, pleading       |

* The noun of abstraction represents the abstract category of the root,
  both the set of all of the things (or at least a particular type of
  thing) encompassed by the root, the idealized concept of the root,
  and sometimes the academic, artistic, or other sort of field related
  to the root.
  The noun of abstraction is not normally used in the plural, but this
  may have occasionally happened in poetic language to refer to many or
  all things belonging to the category.
* The prototype noun represents the prototypical object related to a
  root.
  For some roots, the prototype refers to a specific thing (as "Midêkʰ"
  for the language) as a proper noun, in which case it cannot be used
  in the plural and it has feminine gender.
  In other cases, it refers to a typical type of object related to the
  root (e.g. p-s-ŋ 'liquid' has the prototype pisêŋ 'water'), in which
  case the noun may be used in the plural and has neuter gender if it
  refers to a mindless animal and masculine gender otherwise.
* Nouns of place refer to a place associated with the root.
* Nouns of instrument refer to a tool used in performing actions
  associated with the root.
* Nouns of emphasis refer to a repetition or intense form of an action
  related to the root.
  They are usually masculine, but in some cases a root gives rise to
  two nouns of emphasis with identical form but with one masculine and
  one feminine.
  When this occurs, typically the feminine noun relates to intense
  action and the masculine noun relates to repeated action.
* The personal noun refers to a type of person associated with the
  root's meaning.
  The noun is gendered according to the individual being referred to.
  When not referring to a particular individual of known gender, the
  word is typically masculine except when the meaning of the word was
  strongly associated with women.
* Diminutives refer to something small or dear related to the root.
* Derogative nouns refer to something disapproved of related to the
  root.
* There are also several "common noun" patterns which can give rise to
  various nouns associated with the root without specific semantic
  implications from the pattern.
  Each root only is used with a subset of the common noun patterns.
  Some patterns for common nouns (with the resulting noun's gender in
  brackets) include "+í+o+" (f), "to+i+í+" (n), "te+i++ó" (m),
  "no+i+é+" (f), "si+í+e+" (m).
* Finally there are verbal noun patterns that are treated below.

### Derivation of verb stems

Verbs are similarly formed by combining a semantic root with one of
several patterns.
Unlike nouns, the patterns for verbs are grouped into several "forms",
each form consisting of several patterns for different uses of a verb.
The application of the patterns of a form to a given root are
considered different variations of the same verb.

Verb forms will be distinguished using a number (e.g. 1st form, 2nd
form).
Each form has patterns for the non-past tense stem, the past tense
stem, the verbal noun, the active participle, and the passive
participle.
The verb stems must then be inflected for aspect, mood, aspect, number,
and person to be used.

The patterns for each verb form are indicated in the following table,
with information about typical semantics and other properties of the
forms described after the table.

| Form | non-past | past     | verbal noun | active part. | passive part. |
|------|----------|----------|-------------|--------------|---------------|
| 1st  | +é++i    | +e+í+    | +ī++é       | +ó++o        | +o+ó+         |
| 2nd  | +én+i+   | +e++ín   | +î++en      | +ó++on       | +o+nó+        |
| 3rd  | hō+e++ó  | hō+é+o+o | he+ī+é+     | +ó+ohi+      | he+o++ó       |
| 4th  | +é++it   | te+é+i+  | +ī++ís      | +ó+si+o      | +o+is+ó       |
| 5th  | fe+é+e+  | fí+e+ē+  | fi+ī++í     | fo+ó++o      | fo+o+ó+       |
| 6th  | +ém+e+   | +em+ē+é  | +ī+mó+      | mo+o+ó+      | mo+ó++o       |

* The 1st form refers to the action seen as most directly connected
  with the meaning of the root.
  They may be either transitive or intransitive depending on the
  meaning of the verb, although ditransitive 1st form verbs are rare.
  The verbal noun is of neuter gender.
* The 2nd form typically has a meaning related to some action with a
  lasting effect or impact, although in some cases it is instead an
  emphatic or more intense version of the root's 1st-form verb.
  They may be either transitive or intransitive.
  The verbal noun is of neuter gender.
* The 3rd form often functions as a causative, representing a
  ditransitive form of a transitive 1st or 2nd form verb, or a
  transitive form of an intransitive 1st or 2nd form verb.
  When the 3rd form is a causative, it usually serves as causative for
  both the 1st and 2nd form, not just one of them.
  Even when not causative in meaning, the 3rd form is always transitive
  or ditransitive.
  The verbal noun is of masculine gender.
  The active participle of ditransitive 3rd form verbs often relates to
  either or both of the agent and patient of the action, with the
  passive participle relating solely to the recipient or benefactor.
* The 4th form often refers to a reciprocal or repeated action related
  to the root.
  4th form verbs interact atypically with the case system: when they
  have reciprocal meaning, all parties typically take the nominative
  case, although for emphasis a single participant can be treated as
  the subject while a preposition is used to identify other
  participants;
  if the verb can ever have reciprocal meaning, it never takes an
  accusative object;
  even when the particular verb cannot have reciprocal meaning, any
  patient of the described action must be marked for the dative case.
  The verbal noun is of feminine gender.
  The active and passive participles are generally used to refer to
  different aspects of the subject(s), often but not always using the
  active participle for a more agentive aspect of the action.
* The 5th form often has a meaning related to either capability of
  performing some action or the acquisition or possession of a
  non-physical quality (capability of action perhaps being considered a
  non-physical quality);
  in some cases the verb may be used for both meanings.
  5th form verbs are only transitive when used to indicate capability.
  The verbal noun is of masculine gender.
  The passive participle of 5th form verbs is usually used as a sort of
  negative: it indicates that something does not have the quality or
  cannot perform the action.
* The 6th form often has a meaning related to either resulting from an
  action or having or gaining some physical quality, such as colour or
  shape.
  As with the 5th form, many of these verbs may be used for both meanings.
  6th form verbs are never transitive.
  The verbal noun is of neuter gender.
  The active participle of 6th form verbs, similar to the passive
  participle of 5th form verbs, usually serves as a negative: it
  indicates that something does not result from the action or does not
  have the quality.

### Derivation of adjectives

As noted above, adjectives are not derived via the combination of a
root and pattern (other than the participles of verbs).
Instead most of them arise from affixation of existing words.

Some of these derivational affixes are listed below:

* The prefix "lo-" forms the "relational" adjective from a noun, which
  indicates that the modified noun is in some fashion related to the
  noun.
* The prefix "tr-" negates an adjective.
* The suffixes "-kor" and "-kel" produce comparative forms of an
  adjective, with "-kor" indicating more and "-kel" less.

TKTK

## Inflectional morphology

### Noun and adjective inflection

Nouns receive a prefix for case and a suffix for number.
Each gender uses a separate set of case prefixes.
Adjectives use the same set of number suffixes, and they use the same
case markers as neuter nouns when modifying a neuter noun.
Adjectives modifying masculine or feminine nouns use slightly different
case markers from those used by the noun.

Here are the case prefixes:

| case          | m.noun | m.adj. | f.noun | f.adj. | neuter |
|---------------|--------|--------|--------|--------|--------|
| nominative    | -      | -      | gr-    | gi-    | pl-    |
| accusative    | de-    | de-    | ge-    | ke-    | po-    |
| vocative      | tʰo-   | to-    | kʰo-   | ko-    | pl-    |
| dative        | te-    | ti-    | gn-    | go-    | bo-    |
| prepositional | dē-    | dē-    | kī-    | kī-    | pō-    |

And the number suffixes, which differ depending on whether the stem
ends in a vowel or a consonant:

| number   | after vowel | after consonant |
|----------|-------------|-----------------|
| singular | -k          | -               |
| plural   | -hi         | -i              |

### Verb inflection

Verb stems produced by derivation are inflected for aspect, mood,
number, and person.
One affix marks aspect and mood, a prefix marks person, and a suffix
marks number, with aspect-mood applied before person and number (such
that an aspect-mood prefix follows the person prefix and an aspect-mood
suffix precedes the number prefix).
The verb agrees in person and number with the syntactic subject (the
noun or pronoun in the nominative case).

The indicative mood uses a prefix for aspect-mood in the continuous
aspect, a suffix in the habitual aspect, and the plain stem in the
perfective aspect.
The indicative habitual suffix is identical to the continuous prefix.
In contrast, the optative and subjunctive moods uniformly use suffixes
for aspect-mood and do not distinguish the continuous and habitual
aspects.
All of these aspect-mood aspects are indicated in the table below (with
the hyphen marking where the stem is attached):

| mood        | continuous | habitual | perfective |
|-------------|------------|----------|------------|
| indicative  | bi-        | -bi      | -          |
| optative    | -r         | -r       | -n         |
| subjunctive | -l         | -l       | -m         |

The number suffixes for verbs differ depending on whether they follow a
vowel or a consonant, and are listed in the table below:

| number   | after vowel | after consonant |
|----------|-------------|-----------------|
| singular | -g          | -               |
| plural   | -hē         | -ē              |

The person suffixes are invariant and are listed in the table below:

| person | prefix |
|--------|--------|
| 1st    | kʰo-   |
| 2nd    | tm-    |
| 3rd    | -      |

As an example, here are a few inflections of the 2nd-form non-past
stem "méndikʰ" (write):

* biméndikʰē: they are writing (indicative non-past continuous
  3rd-person plural)
* tmbiméndikʰ: you(sg.) are writing (indicative non-past continuous
  2nd-person singular)
* kʰoméndikʰnē: we write (indicative non-past perfective 1st-person plural)

## Syntax

As a summary of word order concerns:

* Adjectives always follow the noun, but demonstratives and numerals
  precede it (demonstratives preceding numerals when both are present)
* Relative clauses follow the noun.
* Prepositions
* Typically subject-verb-object, but it may vary
* The question particle begins the sentence
* Questions do not alter sentence order
* Conditional sentences typically places the condition before the
  conclusion
* Comparisons are of the form adjective-marker-standard (i.e. the
  adjective being compared, an analogue to "than", then the standard
  against which the comparison is being made)

## Semantics and Pragmatics

TKTK

## Writing System

TKTK

## Examples

TKTK

## Lexicon

Lists here are sorted using roughly the collation order of English.

### Roots

* m-d-kʰ: language
* p-s-ŋ: liquid/water

TKTK

### Word stems

Format: stem (root): part of speech. gloss (notes).

Parts of speech: **n**oun (**m**asculine, **f**eminine, **n**euter,
**v**arying by referent), **v**erb (**t**ransitive, **i**ntransitive,
**d**itransitive, **4**th form), **adj**ective.
Verbs are listed with the present stem separated from the past stem by
a slash, but collated according the present stem.

* femédekʰ/fímedēkʰ (m-d-kʰ): vi. to be or become sapient, to be
  capable of language
* fepéseŋ/fípesēŋ (p-s-ŋ): vi. to be variable or flexible, to change
* fimīdkʰí (m-d-kʰ): nm. sapience
* fipīsŋí (p-s-ŋ): nm. mutability, variability, change
* fomódkʰo (m-d-kʰ): adj. sapient, capable of language
* fopósŋo (p-s-ŋ): adj. variable, flexible, changing
* fomodókʰ (m-d-kʰ): adj. non-sapient, incapable of language, mindless
* foposóŋ (p-s-ŋ): adj. static, rigid, unmoving
* hemīdékʰ (m-d-kʰ): nm. dictation, decree, declaration
* hêmidokʰ (m-d-kʰ): nv. orator, author, sage
* hepīséŋ (p-s-ŋ): nm. pouring, a pour, a cupful
* hêpisoŋ (p-s-ŋ): nv. cupbearer
* himidkʰí (m-d-kʰ): nf. word
* hipisŋí (p-s-ŋ): nf. pond, lake
* hemodkʰó (m-d-kʰ): adj. being dictated to, subservient,
  representative of  
* heposŋó (p-s-ŋ): adj. being poured into, filled
* hōmedkʰó/hōmédokʰo (m-d-kʰ): vt/vd. to dictate, to cause to say or
  write
* hōpesŋó/hōpésoŋo (p-s-ŋ): vt/vd. to pour (trans.); to pour onto/into
  (ditrans.)
* médkʰi/medíkʰ (m-d-kʰ): vi/vt. speak, say, utter
* médkʰit/temédikʰ (m-d-kʰ): v4. to converse or correspond
* mémdekʰ/memdēkʰé (m-d-kʰ): vi. to be noisy, to make noise
* méndikʰ/medkʰín (m-d-kʰ): vi/vt. write
* midêkʰ (m-d-kʰ): nf.sg. the Midêkʰ language 
* midéskʰe (m-d-kʰ): nf. command, order
* midéskʰe (m-d-kʰ): nm. conversation, dialogue (this can refer to a
  spoken conversation or a written dialogue)
* midkʰé (m-d-kʰ): nf.sg. linguistics, language in general
* mīdkʰís (m-d-kʰ): nf. act of conversing or corresponding (in the
  singular it normally refers to one utterance or letter and its
  response; in the plural it can refer to an entire conversation or the
  entire correspondence between two or more people)
* mīdmókʰ (m-d-kʰ): nn. noise, sound
* mídokʰ (m-d-kʰ): nf. book, scroll
* mimídkʰo (m-d-kʰ): nn. pen, stylus, other writing instrument
* mipísŋo (p-s-ŋ): nn. canal
* mīdkʰé (m-d-kʰ): nn. utterance, speech, act of speaking
* mîdkʰen (m-d-kʰ): nn. text, act of writing
* módkʰo (m-d-kʰ): adj. speaking, vocal
* módkʰon (m-d-kʰ): adj. literate, writing
* modiskʰó (m-d-kʰ): adj. comprehending, listening
* modnókʰ (m-d-kʰ): adj. written, textual, literary
* módohikʰ (m-d-kʰ): adj. dictating, imperious, acting indirectly
* modókʰ (m-d-kʰ): adj. spoken, verbal, oral
* módsikʰo (m-d-kʰ): adj. communicating, expressive
* momódkʰo (m-d-kʰ): adj. noisy, loud
* momodókʰ (m-d-kʰ): adj. quiet, noiseless, silent
* mopósŋo (p-s-ŋ): adj. melted, liquid, wet
* moposóŋ (p-s-ŋ): adj. dry
* nomidékʰ (m-d-kʰ): nf. message, letter
* ŋômidkʰo (m-d-kʰ): nm. nonsense, pathetic request
* nôpisŋo (p-s-ŋ): nm. urine
* pémseŋ/pemsēŋé (p-s-ŋ): vi. to become liquid, to melt, to be or
  become wet
* pénsiŋ/pesŋín (p-s-ŋ): vi/vt. pool (intr.); cover in liquid, flood,
  overflow (trans.)
* pésŋi/pesíŋ (p-s-ŋ): vi. flow
* pésŋit/tepésiŋ (p-s-ŋ): v4. to rise and fall over time (as tides or
  water level in a lake or river)
* pisêŋ (p-s-ŋ): nm. water 
* pisésŋe (p-s-ŋ): nm. flood
* pīsmóŋ (p-s-ŋ): nn. melting
* pisŋé (p-s-ŋ): nf.sg. liquids (the state of matter, and the science
  of its behavior)
* pīsŋé (p-s-ŋ): nn. act of flowing
* pîsŋen (p-s-ŋ): nn. pool, puddle, act of pooling
* pīsŋís (p-s-ŋ): nf. tide, change in level (especially of a fluid)
* pósŋo (p-s-ŋ): adj. flowing, fluid
* pósŋon (p-s-ŋ): adj. pooling, overflowing, stagnant
* posnóŋ (p-s-ŋ): adj. submerged, flooded, overflowed
* pósohiŋ (p-s-ŋ): adj. pouring (the one pouring a fluid), being
  poured, raining
* posóŋ (p-s-ŋ): adj. watered (as e.g. plants, soil), irrigated
* simídekʰ (m-d-kʰ): nm. language, script
* sipíseŋ (p-s-ŋ): nm. mouthful (esp. of liquids)
* somídikʰ (m-d-kʰ): nn. TKTK (some sort of language place)
* sopísiŋ (p-s-ŋ): nn. body of water or other liquid, esp. an ocean
* tepisŋó (p-s-ŋ): nm. blood
* tōmidíkʰ (m-d-kʰ): nn. sentence
* tōpisíŋ (p-s-ŋ): nn. cup, waterskin, jug