Lady’s Gitweb - Wiki/blob - Sources/Page/Languages/Midekh.djot

   1 # Midekʰ
   2
   3 This is one of several conlanguages [][@:Rinna] is working on for an
   4 eventual Dark Dungeons X (BECMI D&D retroclone) setting.
   5 (fae welcomes input.)
   6
   7 for context: a minimal map of the world in question
   8
   9 ![map of an as-yet unnamed world, with three contents and a few
  10 islands][https://lyssa-rpg-docs.neocities.org/media/blorb-world-map-minimal.png]
  11
  12 Rinna has the following goals for Midekʰ:
  13
  14 * it will serve as a proto-language for a number of languages spoken
  15   along the west coast and within the temperate interior (mostly the
  16   30°-45° zone) of the southeastern continent, possibly plus some
  17   further-flung offshoots.
  18 * fae wants to build it around a system of biliteral or triliteral
  19   consonantal roots (as in Afro-Asiatic languages such as Tamazight,
  20   Egyptian, Amharic, Hebrew, Akkadian, etc.)
  21 * fae is inclined to include few vowel qualities, but with some
  22   additional complication such as pitch accent, vowel length, or
  23   extensive use of diphthongs that may develop into a more extensive
  24   vowel system in daughter languages.
  25 * it should not be too difficult to pronounce for the native US
  26   English and Rioplatense Spanish speakers likely to play in the
  27   setting, particularly since the most likely places for faese games
  28   to start out will have this language prominent.
  29   but some such difficulties can be resolved in daughter languages via
  30   sound change.
  31 * the proto-language and descendant languages will mostly but perhaps
  32   not exclusively be used for names (of people/places/texts/etc.)
  33
  34 ## Phonology
  35
  36 To help with approachability for English/Spanish speakers, [][@:Rinna]
  37 opted to draw inspiration from
  38 [Wikipedia's account of Proto-Indo-European phonology][https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proto-Indo-European_phonology#Vowels]{title="Wikipedia on reconstructed PIE phonology"].
  39
  40 Consonant table:
  41
  42 |           | labial | coronal | p.velar | velar | l.velar | glottal |
  43 |-----------|:------:|:-------:|:-------:|:-----:|:-------:|:-------:|
  44 | nasal     | m      | n       |         | ŋ     |         |         |
  45 | voiceless | p      | t       | kʲ      | k     | kʷ      |         |
  46 | voiced    | b      | d       | gʲ      | g     | gʷ      |         |
  47 | aspirated | pʰ     | tʰ      | kʲʰ     | kʰ    | kʷʰ     |         |
  48 | fricative | f      | s       |         |       |         | h       |
  49 | liquid    |        | r l     |         |       |         |         |
  50
  51
  52 The language featured three series of stops: voiceless, voiced, and
  53 aspirated (voicing was not phonemic in aspirated consonants).
  54 Each of these series included a labial stop, a coronal (dental or
  55 alveolar) stop, and three variants of a velar stop: a plain variant, a
  56 palatalized variant, and a labialized variant.
  57
  58 There were three fricatives: a (bi)labial fricative, a coronal
  59 fricative, and a glottal fricative.
  60
  61 There were three nasal stops: labial, coronal, and velar.
  62 There were two coronal approximants: rhotic and  lateral.
  63 Both the nasals and the approximants could be used as syllable nuclei.
  64
  65 There were three vowels: `*e` (mid front), `*o` (mid back), and `*i`
  66 (close front).
  67 Each vowel could be pronounced long or short, which was phonemic.
  68 Long vowels are transcribed with a macron.
  69
  70 One syllable in each multisyllabic word was emphasized, likely with a
  71 raised pitch (marked with an acute accent on the vowel).
  72 Long vowels of accented syllables are marked with a circumflex for
  73 ease of processing.
  74
  75 A syllable begins with a consonant followed by either a vowel, a nasal,
  76 or an approximant as a nucleus.
  77 A syllable with a short vowel can additionally have a final consonant.
  78
  79 ## Morphology
  80
  81 Most content words are derived from a "root" (TKTK) consisting of two
  82 to four (but usually three) consonants, which are combined with a
  83 particular template (TKTK) of surrounding and intervening sounds
  84 (mostly vowels) to form a particular word.
  85
  86 ### Adjectives
  87
  88 Adjectives are marked for number, gender, and case to match the noun
  89 modified.
  90
  91 TKTK
  92
  93 ### Nouns
  94
  95 Nouns are marked for number (singular and plural) and case using a
  96 prefix for case and a suffix for number.
  97 Each noun also has a gender: either masculine, feminine, or neuter.
  98
  99 The cases present in the language were:
 100
 101 * Nominative: used for the subject of the verb.
 102 * Accusative: used for the object of transitive verbs.
 103 * Vocative: used for a party directly addressed by the speaker.
 104 * Dative: used for the recipient or beneficiary of an action.
 105 * Prepositional: used for the complement of most prepositions, although
 106   some prepositions require or allow other cases.
 107
 108 TKTK
 109
 110 ### Verbs
 111
 112 Verbs are inflected for tense, aspect, mood, person, and number.
 113 Person is first, second, and third.
 114 Number is either singular or plural.
 115
 116 There are two tenses, which reflect the time at which the action
 117 occurred:
 118
 119 * Non-past: used for events happening now, in the future, in the
 120   immediate past, or at an uncertain time.
 121 * Past: used for events that started in the past, but not the immediate
 122   past.
 123
 124 There are three aspects, although the continuous and habitual are only
 125 distinguished in the indicative mood:
 126
 127 * Continuous: used to describe an ongoing process.
 128 * Habitual: used to describe a recurring or cyclical activity.
 129 * Perfective: used to describe an action as a single unit.
 130
 131 There are three moods:
 132
 133 * Indicative: used for statements of facts.
 134 * Optative: used for wishes and hopes, conditional events, and some
 135   commands.
 136 * Subjunctive: used for hypothetical events, future events, and more
 137   polite commands.
 138
 139 Issues such as questions and passive voice are marked elsewhere in a
 140 snetence.
 141
 142 There are three special forms of a verb:
 143
 144 * The verbal noun, which functions as a noun and can represent the act
 145   of the verb occuring or a object related to the activity described by
 146   the verb.
 147   The gender of a verbal noun is determined by the verb's conjugation
 148   group, but they receive affixes for number and case normally.
 149 * The active participle, which functions as an adjective or adverb and
 150   indicates that the modified word is related to the subject of the
 151   verb.
 152 * The passive participle, which functions as an adjective or adverb and
 153   indicates that the modified word is related to the verb's object.
 154
 155 Both participles receive the normal affixes for number, gender, and
 156 case agreement.
 157
 158 ## Derivational Morphology
 159
 160 TKTK
 161
 162 ## Syntax
 163
 164 As a summary of word order concerns:
 165
 166 * Adjectives always follow the noun, but demonstratives and numerals
 167   precede it (demonstratives preceding numerals when both are present)
 168 * Relative clauses follow the noun.
 169 * Prepositions
 170 * Typically subject-verb-object, but it may vary
 171 * The question particle begins the sentence
 172 * Questions do not alter sentence order
 173 * Conditional sentences typically places the condition before the
 174   conclusion
 175 * Comparisons are of the form adjective-marker-standard (i.e. the
 176   adjective being compared, an analogue to "than", then the standard
 177   against which the comparison is being made)
 178
 179 ## Semantics and Pragmatics
 180
 181 TKTK
 182
 183 ## Writing System
 184
 185 TKTK
 186
 187 ## Examples
 188
 189 TKTK
 190
 191 ## Lexicon
 192
 193 TKTK