From: Surinna Curtis Date: Thu, 5 Sep 2024 21:29:40 +0000 (-0300) Subject: initial work on Midekh. X-Git-Url: https://git.ladys.computer/Wiki/commitdiff_plain/2ff3df7c5d6b607bc003c1f95aaf20fdba86dc38 initial work on Midekh. --- diff --git a/Sources/Page/Languages/Midekh.djot b/Sources/Page/Languages/Midekh.djot new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b3e70b4 --- /dev/null +++ b/Sources/Page/Languages/Midekh.djot @@ -0,0 +1,193 @@ +# Midekʰ + +This is one of several conlanguages [][@:Rinna] is working on for an +eventual Dark Dungeons X (BECMI D&D retroclone) setting. +(fae welcomes input.) + +for context: a minimal map of the world in question + +![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] + +Rinna has the following goals for Midekʰ: + +* 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. + +### Adjectives + +Adjectives are marked for number, gender, and case to match the noun +modified. + +TKTK + +### 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. + +TKTK + +### 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 passive voice are marked elsewhere in a +snetence. + +There are three special forms of a 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 + +TKTK + +## 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 + +TKTK