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Lashel

 
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achemel



Joined: 29 Mar 2009
Posts: 556
Location: up for debate

PostPosted: Wed Mar 11, 2015 8:48 am    Post subject: Lashel Reply with quote

Introducing a new conlang! I've done the Babel translation in this one already but never put down anything about it, so here is the phonology and a basic outline for now. More to come.

Laśel: belongs to the nymphean language family, to include ra cel and tadváradcel which I had posted previously. It has both agglutinative and fusional aspects to its grammar, generally follows SVO order, and has a lot of articles combining number, gender, and animacy.

The romanization below is a revised version, as the original was a mix of capital and lower case letters much like Klingon and it didn't make sense to me anymore. Laśel has its own writing which includes a traditional script and one based on ra cel. Natively, laśel is read right to left.


Phonology:
Vowels:
/ a u i e o y w ä ü ë ö/
[a~ɑ u i ɛ ɔ ɪ~ɨ ʊ~ɯ æ œ ə o~ɒ]

All vowels can be doubled; in romanized orthography can be doubled letter (e.g. /aa/) or acute accent (e.g. /á/)
Irregular stress is represented with a grave accent (e.g. /à/)
/ý, yy/ is pronounced [e:] or [ej]
/ẃ/ is pronounced [o:]
/ëë/ is pronounced [ɐ:] or [ɜ:] and may be spelled /ḗ/ /ế/ or /ē/ for lack of an “e” with both umlaut and acute diacritics. Irregular stress, then, would be the same with the grave.

Diphthong restrictions are similar to those found in ra cel:
/o/ may not appear in onset
/i, e/ cannot be followed by a high vowel, but /ä/ could
V + VV or VV + V is not considered a true diphthong and may break the above rules (e.g. /i/ + /eo/, pronounced [jɛɔ])


Consonants - I've included the old capitals as well in case I use any in examples later, but the single lower case letters are newest:
/ b c C,S,ś,ş,ç d dh,ð g G,ğ h H,j l m n N,ng r s T,t/
[p~b_0; k ʂ~ɕ t~d~d_0; ð~dˠ~f ɢ~g ɴ~ɣ ʔ~h x~χ l~ʎ~lʲ m n ŋ r~ɾ~ʀ~ʁ s θ/θ̺]

ð->[f]/ [ɛ œ æ]_, _[ɛ œ æ] [s k]_, _[s k]
ð->[dˠ]/[ɑ o: u:]_, _[ɑ: o: u:] [r]_ (Note that the pronunciation of this is often actually more like ɣd or just ɣ)
d->[t]/[ɛ œ æ]_, _[ɛ œ æ] [s k x]_, _[s k x]
b->[p]/[ʊ u ə]_, _[ʊ u ə] [s p b k x θ̺]_, _[s p b k x θ̺]
l->[λ lʲ]/[ɑ ɛ e: ə]_, _[ɑ ɛ e: ə]
ğ->[ɣ]/#_
r->[ɾ] when unstressed
r->[ʁ]/[p t f s]_
n->[+vowel+nasal]/_[+obstruent] <---- basically, /n/ may simply represent non-contrastive nasalization of vowels before obstruents, especially in coda (e.g. “tree” /cint/ = [kĩθ] rather than [kinθ]

The following consonants may be made geminate:
/ b c d ð l m n s t/
[pp kk tt ff/ðð ll mm nn ss θθ/θɕ]


For the rest, which I will cover in my next post(s), I will talk about pronouns, articles, animacy, verbs and everything about that, adjectives, adverbs, interjections, and the very versatile word /awc/.

That's all for now - I spent way too long making kimbap tonight and I must sleep.


Edit: I see now that the title didn't come out properly. Changed it.
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achemel



Joined: 29 Mar 2009
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Location: up for debate

PostPosted: Sat Mar 14, 2015 3:22 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Laśel makes use of the following noun cases with associated functions, which all have long been lost in racel and tadváradcel:

nominative
dative
genitive (of X)
terminative (end at/with X)
locative/lative (at X)
benefactive (pos. for X)
malefactive (neg. for X)
inelative (from/out of)
intrative (between/amidst)
temporal (at X-time)
prolative (by way of/as/for)
diminutive
abessive (without/-less)
translative (become[ing] X)
evitative (fear of X/ lest X)
ablative (from X)
instrumental (with/using X)
subessive (under X)
comitative (COM/ASS) (with X)
vocative (X!!)
agentivity (doer/blame)

All nouns must fall into either feminine, masculine, or neuter gender, which can be both a characteristic of the word and also representative of the actual noun. For example, the word "dog" (and most other animal words) is inherently feminine, but it would decline in the masculine to describe a male dog, or neuter if the speaker is unsure.

Nouns also fall into three levels of animacy, with an additional two which are not inherent:
Animate-rational (e.g. the gods, nymphs and other humanoids, most animals)
Animate (e.g. things that grow, wind, water)
Inanimate (e.g. rocks, bones, dead things)

The other two classes are natural and unnatural. These are marked by an article or other classifier. Natural things are the basic components of a whole, such as the wood with which you make a shelf but not the shelf itself, while unnatural things are created things like a house or things that are shaped quickly, even if they are in reality a natural thing like a tornado. The exception to the natural/unnatural classification is writing, which is animate.

Many nouns belong to more than one class but may be realized as more dominant in one than another; the dominant class in a given context determines the article and may change the ultimate declension of the word and its associated article.

So speaking of articles, then, laśel has four articles - definite, indefinite, negative (none of the noun), and deific - all of which inflect for gender and animacy to agree with the noun, and also are marked for number (singular, singulative, dual, paucal, plural). The noun takes a prefix to indicate number as well. Some articles can be combined to expand their meaning, in particular the negative with either the definite or indefinite article.

Here are some examples to clarify.

Let's start with a common noun: we'll go with "child" because that's what's in my original notes. The word for "child" is /lait/ [laiθ]. /lait/ is inherently animate-rational and feminine. Declined for all the cases listed at the beginning, in the singular of all three genders, it would go like this:

http://i627.photobucket.com/albums/tt351/achemel/lashel%20noun%20declensions.png~original

If anyone can figure out how to make the image not tiny I can put this up as an image. Whatever I did, it came out about a 10th its size and was totally unreadable so I just linked it instead. Also you'll see that I used /C/ instead of /ś/, because I did the chart in Excel and it was too much trouble to copy in /ś/ every time I needed it.

Anyway, for /lait/ and most words like it, declension is very regular as shown, though sometimes there might be a change in stress (e.g. the dual prefix must be stressed, so in most of the cases it must be marked to show irregular stress) or a consonant might become geminate. There are a number of phonological rules that determine how the masculine and neuter forms are derived from a feminine noun, or how f/n derive from masculine and so on, which can then affect how the case and number will behave. For example, apical consonants in coda in the feminine form will often back in the masculine, thus turning /lait/ to /laij/. Masculine is also often formed by using a fricative in place of a stop, or a backed or palatalized fricative instead of a plain fricative. For example, again with the dual prefix, the feminine version is /as/ while the masculine changes to /aś/ (which would be [aʂ] or [aɕ] depending on the placement of the following sound).

Below are the articles:


Their formation is very regular and they fall before the noun. Usually it’s the deific article that can combine with the other three, but it is possible to combine the definite and negative to emphasize complete lack of something, and the indefinite and negative to indicate uncertainty about or emotional distance from the lack of something -
e.g. DEF-NEG-dog.(f.)pl. – “there are absolutely no dogs here” (láğ bábe buðöğ)
e.g. INDEF-NEG-dog.(f.)pl. – “there are no dogs here… or are there?” or, “there aren’t any dogs and I don’t care.” (láğ bóbe buðöğ). This may be equivalent to certain tones of voice in English rather than any set phrase, though don’t rule out further definition in translation. In some dialects of laśel, the INDEF-NEG can also be used with a noun in the vocative case, followed by a phrase reflecting emotion to indicate an extreme feeling about something. For example, if you really really hate dogs, you could say it like this: INDEF-NEG-dog.(f).pl.VOC, I.s. INDIC IMPERF hate.(f).s.PRES /bóbe buðöğë, má sélia hóji/.

An example of combination with the deific article would be referencing God, in any religion where there is only one - (DEF(n.)-SGL(dei.)-god.n.sgl.) – ola-ada -> olda oloháð
In this case the articles truncate instead of keeping or lengthening the middle [a]. It's worth mentioning that the deific article has in more modern times morphed into a sort of honorific instead, although it is reserved only for the upper class, religious figures, and foreign dignitaries of equal or higher status.
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I would like to learn:
Italian, Norwegian, Gaelic
Main conlangs:
ddamachel, tadvaradcel, ra cel, lashel, hemnalg, nomah
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achemel



Joined: 29 Mar 2009
Posts: 556
Location: up for debate

PostPosted: Mon Mar 23, 2015 4:37 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Next entry! On to verbs, adverbs, and hating all of them.


Of the nymphean languages I've presented, laśel has probably the most complex conjugation system. As the vocabulary is still a work in progress there is currently only one irregular verb - to be. All other verbs fall into one of two types based on the infinitive ending; /að/ verbs, which includes verbs ending in /að/, /äð/, /oð/, /uð/, /ëð/, and /öð/, and /eð/ verbs, which includes verbs ending in /eð/, /ið/, /yð/, /wð/, and /üð/. There may be some slight variation due to the final consonant in each verb stem, and some variants in some areas may render certain verb endings unusable, such as only having the /eð/ /ið/ and /wð/ endings or only having the basic /að/ and /eð/ infinitive form for all verbs. This does not affect the conjugation of most verbs, it is merely regional variation.

So on to the meat of this section, verbs conjugate for each person in singular, dual, and plural, except for first person which only conjugates for singular and plural. The exclusivity of a group of two including the speaker and one other person can be indicated with the form of the pronouns. Additionally verbs conjugate for the following tenses: present, immediate past, imperfect past, perfect past, ancestral past, and remote future.

Laśel also indicates the following moods, aspects, and voices as prefixes or separate words which fall before the verb:
Mood:
Indicative
Subjunctive
Imperative
Permissive
Mirative
Hortative
Deliberative

Aspect:
Gnomic
Imperfective

Voice:
Passive
Causative
Reciprocal

The indicative and mirative moods are only conjugated for feminine singular, dual and plural, but they can combine with the imperfective, which along with the other moods/aspects/voices conjugates for singular, dual and plural f/m/n. Only the permissive conjugates for all numbers and genders (f/m/n singular/dual/plural/paucal) and may be used before another verb like an auxiliary or otherwise suffix to a verb conjugated to match the person and number. Voice does not attach to a verb at all, but rather falls before it.

The first person hortative mood is partially reflexive, and is rather like saying “you can do it! - I say to myself”. However, there is no reflexive morpheme per se, or verbal conjugation for it. It is expressed with the proper number and gender, + awc + the correct noun declension (usually singulative or plural first person BEN or DAT).
the first persons’ permissive mood is used in questions to ask for permission, and in statements to declare having obtained permission for something. In all other persons, it is the speaker granting or questioning permission about somebody else.
The gnomic aspect will prefix to the present, imperfect, past, and future tense conjugations to indicate the following: general truths/maxims, episodic occurrences, things that have been known to happen, and things that are likely to happen given prior circumstances or occurrences. The morpheme must agree in gender and number with the verb conjugation


All right, so, here is a table of all the above stuff. Again, being an Excel file originally I used the old letters to make it easier on myself:
http://i627.photobucket.com/albums/tt351/achemel/lashel%20verb%20declensions.png



Edit: Now for adverbs. As it turns out, they are formed from adjectives, so it seems it would be better to start with those.

there are /o/ and /i/ type adjectives. Let’s consider these to be the basic kinds but allow for others, like those ending in other vowels or sonorants. They are grouped the way verbs are grouped; /o/ type adjectives include those ending in /a/ /o/ /ë/ /u/ /ö/ and possibly /ä/, and /i/ type adjectives include those ending in /i/ /e/ /y/ /w/ and /ü/.
Adjectives will need to agree in gender and number with nouns but not animacy. Let’s say the base form of any adjective is feminine singular or singulative. There should be no difference numerically between the two except that singulative emphasizes there being only one of something. To pluralize an adjective, it will take the base vowel (o or i) lengthened. So, “free” /däi/ becomes /däí/, effectively becoming two syllables rather than a diphthong. Masculine is shown through suffixation of /j/, and neuter through /t/. So, “free (m)” is /däij/ and “free (m, pl.)” is /däíj/. Neuter then would be /däit/, /däít/. Plurals here are greatly simplified; there is no need to identify specifics, as they are already clarified in the noun form – you only need singular or plural for an adjective, and the correct gender.
Comparative adjectives can be made by prefixing /ci/, which is related to the word “tree” suggesting more or higher. So, “freer, more free” is /cidäi/. This affix is not affected by number or gender, which only need to be clarified on the base adjective.
Superlative adjectives can be made by prefixing /tu/, which is related to the word “canopy” suggesting most or highest. So, “freest, most free” is /tudäi/. Again, no need to clarify number or gender on the affix.
Adverbs can be formed by changing the base vowel /o, i/ to /ú, é/ and adding /-r/. It is possible that /r/ will assimilate to the last consonant (or in some cases/areas, the first) and become either a nasal or a stop in the same place of articulation. So, “freely” would by any standard be /däúr/, but it could also be /däúd/.

In instances where the adjective begins with a vowel, the superlative and comparative may be reduced to their onset, or may take a lengthened vowel.
e.g. “better” /cata/ (from ci-ata, although /ciata/ would be allowed if desired)
e.g. “sickest” /tójağë/ (from tu-ojağë)

Color adjectives generally do not follow the adjective rule and instead act only as nouns. They become adjectives by following the described noun with “of color” (or, /rá…/). The color then can follow the course of normal noun cases, but can be made comparative and superlative as with normal adjectives.
e.g. “blue” /suğ/ “bluer” /cisuğ/ “bluest” /tusuğ/
“blue sky” /ğirt rá suğ/ “bluer sky” /ğirt rá cisuğ/ “bluest sky” /ğirt rá tusuğ/
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Main conlangs:
ddamachel, tadvaradcel, ra cel, lashel, hemnalg, nomah
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achemel



Joined: 29 Mar 2009
Posts: 556
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PostPosted: Sun Apr 12, 2015 3:57 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm not sure what else to put in here or what I've missed... Suggestions? Requests? The language could still use more development.
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ddamachel, tadvaradcel, ra cel, lashel, hemnalg, nomah
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eldin raigmore
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PostPosted: Sun May 31, 2015 2:28 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Sorry it's been so long since I logged on.
I like your comprehensive posts about your new conlang.

How do you handle biclausal and mutliclausal constructions?
How do you handle subordinate clauses -- clauses that are embedded in another clause, "as if" they were nouns (complement clauses) or "as if" they were adjectives (relative clauses) or "as if" they were adverbs (adjunct clauses), AND ALSO partially depend for their exact meaning on the clause in which they are embedded?

How do you handle conditionals?
Is there a special mood for the protasis (hypothesis)?
Or maybe two -- one for a realis protasis and one for an irrealis protasis?
Is there a special mood for the apodosis (consequence)?
Or maybe two -- one for if the protasis is realis, another for if the protasis is irrealis?
Or three?
I can see three combinations of realis/irrealis for the protasis and apodosis.
1. The protasis is realis, so the apodosis has to be realis.
2. The protasis is irrealis, and the apodosis is also irrealis.
3. The protasis is irrealis, but the apodosis is realis anyway.

__________________________

Some of your terms (like "perfect past tense" and "imperfect past tense"), I don't immediately fully understand on first reading.
I'll read everything again, and post again.

_________________________

Could you translate XKCD's "Thing Explainer" into your conlang? It "uses only the ten hundred most common [English] words".

Or how about the Graded Sentences for Analysis that Fiziwig put online for us conlangers?
(or see this search.)

And, btw, where is the Babel translation (Genesis 11:1-9)? Is this it?

__________________________

Isn't animacy part of gender? Especially if articles must agree with it?

Locative would be synonymous with adessive, not with lative nor any -lative case. -Lative cases have to do with movement (from the Latin verb for "carry" or "bear", which was doubly suppletive so -fer, -late, and "tolerate" are all from that same verb); -essive cases have to do with location (except that bare "essive" (without prefix) usually means "as or is").

"Maleficiary" is generally a kind of "beneficiary". The "beneficiary" is either the entity the speaker is saying was saliently affected, or the entity the agent intended to affect. It's usually still called the "beneficiary" whether the effect is good or bad or neutral. -- But, in English, we use different prepositions for "maleficiary" than for beneficiaries who were not negatively affected; "Christ died for me" versus "my car died on me". So it's not unreasonable that some language would have a "malefactive" case distinct from its "benefactive" case. I merely wonder whether you might want to expand the definition of "benefactive" to include all saliently-affected or intended-to-be-affected entities (other than patients and recipients etc.) where the effect is not negative and/or not intended to be negative.

_________________________________


All-in-all pretty good I think.
It could use some polishing IMO.
Still it's very admirable work so far.
Thanks for showing it to us.


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achemel



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PostPosted: Mon Jun 01, 2015 1:52 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I agree that it could use some polishing, haha. Even without having started from scratch it's a lot of work. I'll have to get back to you about the questions - I just wanted to let you know that I have read them. ^_^ And the links look like they could be good exercises so I'll definitely try them out! I've been kind of worn out with work lately so I haven't been doing anything I enjoy. I mostly come home, feed the dog, and then fall asleep on the couch with a movie in the background before it even hits 8 p.m.. I'll find the energy to do some conlanging this week. I miss it!
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eldin raigmore
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PostPosted: Tue Jun 02, 2015 4:51 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Do you at least walk/run the dog?

I found my dog to be the best preventative against workaholism.

I had to get home before sundown because the sidewalks were too uneven to run him in the dark.
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PostPosted: Sat Jul 16, 2016 1:06 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

How much more Polishing and Finnishing does your project need, do you think?
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PostPosted: Sat Jul 16, 2016 8:08 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

So much more. D: I will still have to get back to your questions, and as for the last one I walk the dog as often as I can, but sometimes sleeping takes precedence and I have to bully a roommate into doing it instead. I'm less of a workaholic now - I have fully separated my work life and my home life, but even at home there's always a bunch of stuff to do.
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I have some small knowledge of:
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I would like to learn:
Italian, Norwegian, Gaelic
Main conlangs:
ddamachel, tadvaradcel, ra cel, lashel, hemnalg, nomah
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eldin raigmore
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PostPosted: Sun Aug 28, 2016 3:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

achemel wrote:
So much more. D: I will still have to get back to your questions,

I look forward to it, whenever. I'll enjoy it just as much regardless of when I see it.


achemel wrote:
and as for the last one I walk the dog as often as I can, but sometimes sleeping takes precedence and I have to bully a roommate into doing it instead.

By "a roommate" do you mean your husband? When I was young some of my older friends at work referred to my then-wife as my "roommate".


achemel wrote:
I'm less of a workaholic now - I have fully separated my work life and my home life, but even at home there's always a bunch of stuff to do.

That's good, and important
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PostPosted: Thu Sep 01, 2016 11:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

No, I share a house with three other people to handle the rent, so I mean roommate. ^^ The dog only really belongs to two of us, but sometimes the others take him for walks, like if they were going for a jog anyway and then offer to take him along. I definitely ask the co-owner to help out though, when I get tired of taking care of him and picking up around the house by myself.

I re-read your questions from ages ago and the suggestion to translate The Thing Explainer is in there! I knew it was you! Speaking of which, I did some more in ddamychal but the page is not complete yet. All of the words which were coming easily to me before do so no longer, as I am so out of practice. I've been reading the Wheel of Time series instead of pretty much everything else I like to do, so maybe once I've finished I'll have the focus to get back to this. I really want to, I swear.
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eldin raigmore
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PostPosted: Sun Sep 04, 2016 4:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Good to hear from you! Hope you're enjoying a long weekend, and a Labor Day holiday.

I want to do many more things than I actually have time to do.
Now that I'm retired, I have fewer things I must do; yet still, even when I put off some of them, I don't have time to do all the things I want to do.
So I sympathize, and I don't judge. I enjoy the results of any of your efforts. But I'm not "jonesing" for them (the way some Game of Thrones/ Song of Ice and Fire fans are "jonesing" for George R.R. Martin's writings). (I hope that re-assures you, rather than discourages you!)
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