3 This is one of several conlanguages [][@:Rinna] is working on for an
4 eventual Dark Dungeons X (BECMI D&D retroclone) setting.
7 rinna uses the token "TKTK" to mark places where more stuff is needed
10 a minimal map of the world in question is below for a bit of context.
11 it is also necessary to know that all or most sentient creatures in the
12 setting are anthropomorphic animals, but that the corresponding
13 ordinary animals also exist but are considered non-sentient.
15 ![map of an as-yet unnamed world, with three contents and a few
16 islands](https://lyssa-rpg-docs.neocities.org/media/blorb-world-map-minimal.png){width=600}
18 Rinna has the following goals for Midêkʰ:
20 * it will serve as a proto-language for a number of languages spoken
21 along the west coast and within the temperate interior (mostly the
22 30°-45° zone) of the southeastern continent, possibly plus some
23 further-flung offshoots.
24 * fae wants to build it around a system of biliteral or triliteral
25 consonantal roots (as in Afro-Asiatic languages such as Tamazight,
26 Egyptian, Amharic, Hebrew, Akkadian, etc.)
27 * fae is inclined to include few vowel qualities, but with some
28 additional complication such as pitch accent, vowel length, or
29 extensive use of diphthongs that may develop into a more extensive
30 vowel system in daughter languages.
31 * it should not be too difficult to pronounce for the native US
32 English and Rioplatense Spanish speakers likely to play in the
33 setting, particularly since the most likely places for faese games
34 to start out will have this language prominent.
35 but some such difficulties can be resolved in daughter languages via
37 * the proto-language and descendant languages will mostly but perhaps
38 not exclusively be used for names (of people/places/texts/etc.)
42 To help with approachability for English/Spanish speakers, [][@:Rinna]
43 opted to draw inspiration from
44 [Wikipedia's account of Proto-Indo-European phonology](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proto-Indo-European_phonology#Vowels){title="Wikipedia on reconstructed PIE phonology"}.
48 | | labial | coronal | p.velar | velar | l.velar | glottal |
49 |-----------|:------:|:-------:|:-------:|:-----:|:-------:|:-------:|
50 | nasal | m | n | | ŋ | | |
51 | voiceless | p | t | kʲ | k | kʷ | |
52 | voiced | b | d | gʲ | g | gʷ | |
53 | aspirated | pʰ | tʰ | kʲʰ | kʰ | kʷʰ | |
54 | fricative | f | s | | | | h |
55 | liquid | | r l | | | | |
58 The language featured three series of stops: voiceless, voiced, and
59 aspirated (voicing was not phonemic in aspirated consonants).
60 Each of these series included a labial stop, a coronal (dental or
61 alveolar) stop, and three variants of a velar stop: a plain variant, a
62 palatalized variant, and a labialized variant.
64 There were three fricatives: a (bi)labial fricative, a coronal
65 fricative, and a glottal fricative.
67 There were three nasal stops: labial, coronal, and velar.
68 There were two coronal approximants: rhotic and lateral.
69 Both the nasals and the approximants could be used as syllable nuclei.
71 There were three vowels: `*e` (mid front), `*o` (mid back), and `*i`
73 Each vowel could be pronounced long or short, which was phonemic.
74 Long vowels are transcribed with a macron.
76 One syllable in each multisyllabic word was emphasized, likely with a
77 raised pitch (marked with an acute accent on the vowel).
78 Long vowels of accented syllables are marked with a circumflex for
81 A syllable begins with a consonant followed by either a vowel, a nasal,
82 or an approximant as a nucleus.
83 A syllable with a short vowel can additionally have a final consonant.
87 Most content words are derived from a "root" (TKTK) consisting of two
88 to four (but usually three) consonants, which are combined with a
89 particular template (TKTK) of surrounding and intervening sounds
90 (mostly vowels) to form a particular word.
91 Roots will be represented with their consonants separated by hyphens,
92 for example: `m-d-kʰ` (which is the root for language).
93 Templates can include any vowel but only certain consonants: nasal
94 stops (n m ŋ), the coronal and glottal fricatives (s h), and the
95 voiceless coronal stop (t).
99 Unlike nouns and verbs, adjective are not derived from using a
100 combination of root and template, with the exception of the active and
101 passive participles of verbs.
102 Some adjectives are fixed words, but most are the result of affixation
105 Adjectives are marked for number, gender, and case to match the noun
110 Nouns are marked for number (singular and plural) and case using a
111 prefix for case and a suffix for number.
112 Each noun also has a gender: either masculine, feminine, or neuter.
114 The cases present in the language were:
116 * Nominative: used for the subject of the verb.
117 * Accusative: used for the object of transitive verbs.
118 * Vocative: used for a party directly addressed by the speaker.
119 * Dative: used for the recipient or beneficiary of an action.
120 * Prepositional: used for the complement of most prepositions, although
121 some prepositions require or allow other cases.
125 Verbs are inflected for tense, aspect, mood, person, and number.
126 Person is first, second, and third.
127 Number is either singular or plural.
129 There are two tenses, which reflect the time at which the action
132 * Non-past: used for events happening now, in the future, in the
133 immediate past, or at an uncertain time.
134 * Past: used for events that started in the past, but not the immediate
137 There are three aspects, although the continuous and habitual are only
138 distinguished in the indicative mood:
140 * Continuous: used to describe an ongoing process.
141 * Habitual: used to describe a recurring or cyclical activity.
142 * Perfective: used to describe an action as a single unit.
144 There are three moods:
146 * Indicative: used for statements of facts.
147 * Optative: used for wishes and hopes, conditional events, and some
149 * Subjunctive: used for hypothetical events, future events, and more
152 Issues such as questions and the active or passive voice are marked
153 elsewhere in a sentence.
155 There are three special forms of each verb:
157 * The verbal noun, which functions as a noun and can represent the act
158 of the verb occuring or a object related to the activity described by
160 The gender of a verbal noun is determined by the verb's conjugation
161 group, but they receive affixes for number and case normally.
162 * The active participle, which functions as an adjective or adverb and
163 indicates that the modified word is related to the subject of the
165 * The passive participle, which functions as an adjective or adverb and
166 indicates that the modified word is related to the verb's object.
168 Both participles receive the normal affixes for number, gender, and
171 ## Derivational morphology
173 The derivational morphology of Midêkʰ is based around the combination
174 of a root with a template to form a stem (TKTK).
175 These stems are further modified by infection to arrive at final word
178 This section and the following one on inflectional morphology will
179 represent roots using their consonants separated by hyphens: e.g.
180 m-d-kʰ, p-ŋ-r, h-s-t.
181 Groups of roots sharing only certain components will be represented
182 with a question mark `?` for any unspecified consonants: p-?-r would
183 include p-ŋ-r, p-k-r, p-s-r, etc.
184 Templates will be written with their surrounding and intervening sounds
185 and with the position of each root consonant represented by a plus
186 sign, for example: `+i+ē+`.
187 Groups of templates sharing certain components will be represented
188 using a question mark for any unspecified template positions: for
189 example, `?+i+?+?` represents all noun templates (which all place a
190 short /i/ between the first two consonants).
192 This section and the following will primarily use the root `m-d-kʰ` as
193 an example to express how roots are combined with templates to form
196 ### Derivation of noun stems
198 All noun templates place /i/ between the first two consonants of the
199 root, other than the verbal noun patterns which place /ī/ there, a long
201 These are summarized below, with more details below:
203 | pattern | description | m-d-kʰ | gender | english gloss |
204 |---------|--------------|----------|--------|--------------------------|
205 | +i++é | abstraction | midkʰé | f | linguistics/all language |
206 | +i+ê+ | prototype | midêkʰ | varies | the Midêkʰ language |
207 | so+í+i+ | place | somídikʰ | n | TKTK |
208 | mi+í++o | instrument | mimídkʰo | n | pen, stylus |
209 | +i+és+e | emphasis | midéskʰe | m/f | conversation/command |
210 | hê+i+o+ | personal | hêmidokʰ | m/f | orator, author, sage |
211 | hi+i++í | diminutive | himidkʰí | f | word |
212 | ŋô+i++o | derogative | ŋômidkʰo | m | nonsense, pleading |
214 * The noun of abstraction represents the abstract category of the root,
215 both the set of all of the things (or at least a particular type of
216 thing) encompassed by the root, the idealized concept of the root,
217 and sometimes the academic, artistic, or other sort of field related
219 The noun of abstraction is not normally used in the plural, but this
220 may have occasionally happened in poetic language to refer to many or
221 all things belonging to the category.
222 * The prototype noun represents the prototypical object related to a
224 For some roots, the prototype refers to a specific thing (as "Midêkʰ"
225 for the language) as a proper noun, in which case it cannot be used
226 in the plural and it has feminine gender.
227 In other cases, it refers to a typical type of object related to the
228 root (e.g. p-s-ŋ 'liquid' has the prototype pisêŋ 'water'), in which
229 case the noun may be used in the plural and has neuter gender if it
230 refers to a mindless animal and masculine gender otherwise.
231 * Nouns of place refer to a place associated with the root.
232 * Nouns of instrument refer to a tool used in performing actions
233 associated with the root.
234 * Nouns of emphasis refer to a repetition or intense form of an action
236 They are usually masculine, but in some cases a root gives rise to
237 two nouns of emphasis with identical form but with one masculine and
239 When this occurs, typically the feminine noun relates to intense
240 action and the masculine noun relates to repeated action.
241 * The personal noun refers to a type of person associated with the
243 The noun is gendered according to the individual being referred to.
244 When not referring to a particular individual of known gender, the
245 word is typically masculine except when the meaning of the word was
246 strongly associated with women.
247 * Diminutives refer to something small or dear related to the root.
248 * Derogative nouns refer to something disapproved of related to the
250 * There are also several "common noun" patterns which can give rise to
251 various nouns associated with the root without specific semantic
252 implications from the pattern.
253 Each root only is used with a subset of the common noun patterns.
254 Some patterns for common nouns (with the resulting noun's gender in
255 brackets) include "+í+o+" (f), "to+i+í+" (n), "te+i++ó" (m),
256 "no+i+é+" (f), "si+í+e+" (m).
257 * Finally there are verbal noun patterns that are treated below.
259 ### Derivation of verb stems
261 Verbs are similarly formed by combining a semantic root with one of
263 Unlike nouns, the patterns for verbs are grouped into several "forms",
264 each form consisting of several patterns for different uses of a verb.
265 The application of the patterns of a form to a given root are
266 considered different variations of the same verb.
268 Verb forms will be distinguished using a number (e.g. 1st form, 2nd
270 Each form has patterns for the non-past tense stem, the past tense
271 stem, the verbal noun, the active participle, and the passive
273 The verb stems must then be inflected for aspect, mood, aspect, number,
274 and person to be used.
276 The patterns for each verb form are indicated in the following table,
277 with information about typical semantics and other properties of the
278 forms described after the table.
280 | Form | non-past | past | verbal noun | active part. | passive part. |
281 |------|----------|----------|-------------|--------------|---------------|
282 | 1st | +é++i | +e+í+ | +ī++é | +ó++o | +o+ó+ |
283 | 2nd | +én+i+ | +e++ín | +î++en | +ó++on | +o+nó+ |
284 | 3rd | hō+e++ó | hō+é+o+o | he+ī+é+ | +ó+ohi+ | he+o++ó |
285 | 4th | +é++it | te+é+i+ | +ī++ís | +ó+si+o | +o+is+ó |
286 | 5th | fe+é+e+ | fí+e+ē+ | fi+ī++í | fo+ó++o | fo+o+ó+ |
287 | 6th | +ém+e+ | +em+ē+é | +ī+mó+ | mo+o+ó+ | mo+ó++o |
289 * The 1st form refers to the action seen as most directly connected
290 with the meaning of the root.
291 They may be either transitive or intransitive depending on the
292 meaning of the verb, although ditransitive 1st form verbs are rare.
293 The verbal noun is of neuter gender.
294 * The 2nd form typically has a meaning related to some action with a
295 lasting effect or impact, although in some cases it is instead an
296 emphatic or more intense version of the root's 1st-form verb.
297 They may be either transitive or intransitive.
298 The verbal noun is of neuter gender.
299 * The 3rd form often functions as a causative, representing a
300 ditransitive form of a transitive 1st or 2nd form verb, or a
301 transitive form of an intransitive 1st or 2nd form verb.
302 When the 3rd form is a causative, it usually serves as causative for
303 both the 1st and 2nd form, not just one of them.
304 Even when not causative in meaning, the 3rd form is always transitive
306 The verbal noun is of masculine gender.
307 The active participle of ditransitive 3rd form verbs often relates to
308 either or both of the agent and patient of the action, with the
309 passive participle relating solely to the recipient or benefactor.
310 * The 4th form often refers to a reciprocal or repeated action related
312 4th form verbs interact atypically with the case system: when they
313 have reciprocal meaning, all parties typically take the nominative
314 case, although for emphasis a single participant can be treated as
315 the subject while a preposition is used to identify other
317 if the verb can ever have reciprocal meaning, it never takes an
319 even when the particular verb cannot have reciprocal meaning, any
320 patient of the described action must be marked for the dative case.
321 The verbal noun is of feminine gender.
322 The active and passive participles are generally used to refer to
323 different aspects of the subject(s), often but not always using the
324 active participle for a more agentive aspect of the action.
325 * The 5th form often has a meaning related to either capability of
326 performing some action or the acquisition or possession of a
327 non-physical quality (capability of action perhaps being considered a
328 non-physical quality);
329 in some cases the verb may be used for both meanings.
330 5th form verbs are only transitive when used to indicate capability.
331 The verbal noun is of masculine gender.
332 The passive participle of 5th form verbs is usually used as a sort of
333 negative: it indicates that something does not have the quality or
334 cannot perform the action.
335 * The 6th form often has a meaning related to either resulting from an
336 action or having or gaining some physical quality, such as colour or
338 As with the 5th form, many of these verbs may be used for both meanings.
339 6th form verbs are never transitive.
340 The verbal noun is of neuter gender.
341 The active participle of 6th form verbs, similar to the passive
342 participle of 5th form verbs, usually serves as a negative: it
343 indicates that something does not result from the action or does not
346 ### Derivation of adjectives
348 As noted above, adjectives are not derived via the combination of a
349 root and pattern (other than the participles of verbs).
350 Instead most of them arise from affixation of existing words.
352 Some of these derivational affixes are listed below:
354 * The prefix "lo-" forms the "relational" adjective from a noun, which
355 indicates that the modified noun is in some fashion related to the
357 * The prefix "tr-" negates an adjective.
358 * The suffixes "-kor" and "-kel" produce comparative forms of an
359 adjective, with "-kor" indicating more and "-kel" less.
363 ## Inflectional morphology
365 ### Noun and adjective inflection
367 Nouns receive a prefix for case and a suffix for number.
368 Each gender uses a separate set of case prefixes.
369 Adjectives use the same set of number suffixes, and they use the same
370 case markers as neuter nouns when modifying a neuter noun.
371 Adjectives modifying masculine or feminine nouns use slightly different
372 case markers from those used by the noun.
374 Here are the case prefixes:
376 | case | m.noun | m.adj. | f.noun | f.adj. | neuter |
377 |---------------|--------|--------|--------|--------|--------|
378 | nominative | - | - | gr- | gi- | pl- |
379 | accusative | de- | de- | ge- | ke- | po- |
380 | vocative | tʰo- | to- | kʰo- | ko- | pl- |
381 | dative | te- | ti- | gn- | go- | bo- |
382 | prepositional | dē- | dē- | kī- | kī- | pō- |
384 And the number suffixes, which differ depending on whether the stem
385 ends in a vowel or a consonant:
387 | number | after vowel | after consonant |
388 |----------|-------------|-----------------|
389 | singular | -k | - |
390 | plural | -hi | -i |
394 Verb stems produced by derivation are inflected for aspect, mood,
396 One affix marks aspect and mood, a prefix marks person, and a suffix
397 marks number, with aspect-mood applied before person and number (such
398 that an aspect-mood prefix follows the person prefix and an aspect-mood
399 suffix precedes the number prefix).
400 The verb agrees in person and number with the syntactic subject (the
401 noun or pronoun in the nominative case).
403 The indicative mood uses a prefix for aspect-mood in the continuous
404 aspect, a suffix in the habitual aspect, and the plain stem in the
406 The indicative habitual suffix is identical to the continuous prefix.
407 In contrast, the optative and subjunctive moods uniformly use suffixes
408 for aspect-mood and do not distinguish the continuous and habitual
410 All of these aspect-mood aspects are indicated in the table below (with
411 the hyphen marking where the stem is attached):
413 | mood | continuous | habitual | perfective |
414 |-------------|------------|----------|------------|
415 | indicative | bi- | -bi | - |
416 | optative | -r | -r | -n |
417 | subjunctive | -l | -l | -m |
419 The number suffixes for verbs differ depending on whether they follow a
420 vowel or a consonant, and are listed in the table below:
422 | number | after vowel | after consonant |
423 |----------|-------------|-----------------|
424 | singular | -g | - |
425 | plural | -hē | -ē |
427 The person suffixes are invariant and are listed in the table below:
435 As an example, here are a few inflections of the 2nd-form non-past
436 stem "méndikʰ" (write):
438 * biméndikʰē: they are writing (indicative non-past continuous
440 * tmbiméndikʰ: you(sg.) are writing (indicative non-past continuous
442 * kʰoméndikʰnē: we write (indicative non-past perfective 1st-person plural)
446 As a summary of word order concerns:
448 * Adjectives always follow the noun, but demonstratives and numerals
449 precede it (demonstratives preceding numerals when both are present)
450 * Relative clauses follow the noun.
452 * Typically subject-verb-object, but it may vary
453 * The question particle begins the sentence
454 * Questions do not alter sentence order
455 * Conditional sentences typically places the condition before the
457 * Comparisons are of the form adjective-marker-standard (i.e. the
458 adjective being compared, an analogue to "than", then the standard
459 against which the comparison is being made)
461 ## Semantics and Pragmatics
475 Lists here are sorted using roughly the collation order of English.
480 * p-s-ŋ: liquid/water
486 Format: stem (root): part of speech. gloss (notes).
488 Parts of speech: **n**oun (**m**asculine, **f**eminine, **n**euter,
489 **v**arying by referent), **v**erb (**t**ransitive, **i**ntransitive,
490 **d**itransitive, **4**th form), **adj**ective.
491 Verbs are listed with the present stem separated from the past stem by
492 a slash, but collated according the present stem.
494 * femédekʰ/fímedēkʰ (m-d-kʰ): vi. to be or become sapient, to be
496 * fepéseŋ/fípesēŋ (p-s-ŋ): vi. to be variable or flexible, to change
497 * fimīdkʰí (m-d-kʰ): nm. sapience
498 * fipīsŋí (p-s-ŋ): nm. mutability, variability, change
499 * fomódkʰo (m-d-kʰ): adj. sapient, capable of language
500 * fopósŋo (p-s-ŋ): adj. variable, flexible, changing
501 * fomodókʰ (m-d-kʰ): adj. non-sapient, incapable of language, mindless
502 * foposóŋ (p-s-ŋ): adj. static, rigid, unmoving
503 * hemīdékʰ (m-d-kʰ): nm. dictation, decree, declaration
504 * hêmidokʰ (m-d-kʰ): nv. orator, author, sage
505 * hepīséŋ (p-s-ŋ): nm. pouring, a pour, a cupful
506 * hêpisoŋ (p-s-ŋ): nv. cupbearer
507 * himidkʰí (m-d-kʰ): nf. word
508 * hipisŋí (p-s-ŋ): nf. pond, lake
509 * hemodkʰó (m-d-kʰ): adj. being dictated to, subservient,
511 * heposŋó (p-s-ŋ): adj. being poured into, filled
512 * hōmedkʰó/hōmédokʰo (m-d-kʰ): vt/vd. to dictate, to cause to say or
514 * hōpesŋó/hōpésoŋo (p-s-ŋ): vt/vd. to pour (trans.); to pour onto/into
516 * médkʰi/medíkʰ (m-d-kʰ): vi/vt. speak, say, utter
517 * médkʰit/temédikʰ (m-d-kʰ): v4. to converse or correspond
518 * mémdekʰ/memdēkʰé (m-d-kʰ): vi. to be noisy, to make noise
519 * méndikʰ/medkʰín (m-d-kʰ): vi/vt. write
520 * midêkʰ (m-d-kʰ): nf.sg. the Midêkʰ language
521 * midéskʰe (m-d-kʰ): nf. command, order
522 * midéskʰe (m-d-kʰ): nm. conversation, dialogue (this can refer to a
523 spoken conversation or a written dialogue)
524 * midkʰé (m-d-kʰ): nf.sg. linguistics, language in general
525 * mīdkʰís (m-d-kʰ): nf. act of conversing or corresponding (in the
526 singular it normally refers to one utterance or letter and its
527 response; in the plural it can refer to an entire conversation or the
528 entire correspondence between two or more people)
529 * mīdmókʰ (m-d-kʰ): nn. noise, sound
530 * mídokʰ (m-d-kʰ): nf. book, scroll
531 * mimídkʰo (m-d-kʰ): nn. pen, stylus, other writing instrument
532 * mipísŋo (p-s-ŋ): nn. canal
533 * mīdkʰé (m-d-kʰ): nn. utterance, speech, act of speaking
534 * mîdkʰen (m-d-kʰ): nn. text, act of writing
535 * módkʰo (m-d-kʰ): adj. speaking, vocal
536 * módkʰon (m-d-kʰ): adj. literate, writing
537 * modiskʰó (m-d-kʰ): adj. comprehending, listening
538 * modnókʰ (m-d-kʰ): adj. written, textual, literary
539 * módohikʰ (m-d-kʰ): adj. dictating, imperious, acting indirectly
540 * modókʰ (m-d-kʰ): adj. spoken, verbal, oral
541 * módsikʰo (m-d-kʰ): adj. communicating, expressive
542 * momódkʰo (m-d-kʰ): adj. noisy, loud
543 * momodókʰ (m-d-kʰ): adj. quiet, noiseless, silent
544 * mopósŋo (p-s-ŋ): adj. melted, liquid, wet
545 * moposóŋ (p-s-ŋ): adj. dry
546 * nomidékʰ (m-d-kʰ): nf. message, letter
547 * ŋômidkʰo (m-d-kʰ): nm. nonsense, pathetic request
548 * nôpisŋo (p-s-ŋ): nm. urine
549 * pémseŋ/pemsēŋé (p-s-ŋ): vi. to become liquid, to melt, to be or
551 * pénsiŋ/pesŋín (p-s-ŋ): vi/vt. pool (intr.); cover in liquid, flood,
553 * pésŋi/pesíŋ (p-s-ŋ): vi. flow
554 * pésŋit/tepésiŋ (p-s-ŋ): v4. to rise and fall over time (as tides or
555 water level in a lake or river)
556 * pisêŋ (p-s-ŋ): nm. water
557 * pisésŋe (p-s-ŋ): nm. flood
558 * pīsmóŋ (p-s-ŋ): nn. melting
559 * pisŋé (p-s-ŋ): nf.sg. liquids (the state of matter, and the science
561 * pīsŋé (p-s-ŋ): nn. act of flowing
562 * pîsŋen (p-s-ŋ): nn. pool, puddle, act of pooling
563 * pīsŋís (p-s-ŋ): nf. tide, change in level (especially of a fluid)
564 * pósŋo (p-s-ŋ): adj. flowing, fluid
565 * pósŋon (p-s-ŋ): adj. pooling, overflowing, stagnant
566 * posnóŋ (p-s-ŋ): adj. submerged, flooded, overflowed
567 * pósohiŋ (p-s-ŋ): adj. pouring (the one pouring a fluid), being
569 * posóŋ (p-s-ŋ): adj. watered (as e.g. plants, soil), irrigated
570 * simídekʰ (m-d-kʰ): nm. language, script
571 * sipíseŋ (p-s-ŋ): nm. mouthful (esp. of liquids)
572 * somídikʰ (m-d-kʰ): nn. TKTK (some sort of language place)
573 * sopísiŋ (p-s-ŋ): nn. body of water or other liquid, esp. an ocean
574 * tepisŋó (p-s-ŋ): nm. blood
575 * tōmidíkʰ (m-d-kʰ): nn. sentence
576 * tōpisíŋ (p-s-ŋ): nn. cup, waterskin, jug