Vreleksá

twix93 · Joined: 23 Jul 2009 Posts: 57 Location: England

Isimal literally means "language of ice" because it is intended to sound as if it is spoken in a cold country.
Isimal isn't intended to be particularly naturalistic or unnaturalistic, it is intended to be interesting to me and look quite different to English.
Isimal has more long words than short words because it is either agglutinating or inflecting (I can't tell the difference to be honest).
It has no script but I have a few ideas in my head for one.

I will post more vocabulary and grammar when I have worked out how to present and explain it over the nekt few weeks but here's the phonology for now.

Feel free to say what you like and dislike about it.

Pronunciation (IPA)

Vowels

a /ɑ/
ä /æ/
e /ə/
i /i/
o /o/
ö /ø/
u /ʉ/
ai /ɑɪ/
au /ɑʊ/
ei /ɛɪ/
oi /oɪ/

Other combinations

i + any of the above (except <ii>)
u + any of the above (except <uu>)

Consonants

f /f/
h /x/
j /ʒ/
k /k/
l /l/
m /m/
n /n/
ny /ɲ/
p /p/
q /ʔ/
s /s/
sy /ç/
ş /ʃ/
t /t/
ty /c/
v /v/
w /ɸ/
y /j/

Other combinations include:

At the beginning or middle of words:

Fricative (f, s, ş) (but not <h>) + Plosive (k, p, q, t,)
<ts> <t>

At the middle of words

<nt>, <mp>

Stress: On the syllable before the final consonant of the root word (prefixes and suffixes do not change stress)
Examples:

tşokol (chocolate)
tşokolak (the chocolate)
kawa (river)

If you want to see some sample texts, look here: http://conscripts.s4.bizhat.com/viewtopic.php?t=160&start=40

Conscript now ready:

http://conscripts.s4.bizhat.com/viewtopic.php?p=7006#7006

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

I like it so far. Did you take /kawa/ from Japanese or was that a spontaneous vocab word? Are some of your words based on English (e.g. "open" and "cat")? Is accusative just /u/ or does it change in different environments? How about other cases or verb tenses? I can't wait to see the grammar when you've figured out what to post! Very Happy

From your examples in the other thread, I can pick out some of your grammar (actually in Isimal, I mean, thanks to your gloss) but with it do you think you could post an example with the Isimal sentence broken down as well? I do that with my language Ualaxx because the words get really really long and sometimes vowels get put in or disappear. Just for clarification, y'know. Wink

_________________
I have some small knowledge of:
English, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Spanish, French
I would like to learn:
Italian, Norwegian, Gaelic
Main conlangs:
ddamachel, tadvaradcel, ra cel, lashel, hemnalg, nomah

twix93 · Joined: 23 Jul 2009 Posts: 57 Location: England

Tolkien_Freak · Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2009 10:05 pm Post subject:

I think he means glossing.

Looks interesting so far ^_^

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

Well, the colors certainly are interesting! But, yes, I was meaning more along the lines of glossing, especially rules 2 and 4 on that link. But if you want to do colors, I'd go for that as well. (^_^) Though, if green and blue were to occur next to each other perhaps you could separate them so it's easier to distinguish... for me, anyway... Rolling Eyes

_________________
I have some small knowledge of:
English, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Spanish, French
I would like to learn:
Italian, Norwegian, Gaelic
Main conlangs:
ddamachel, tadvaradcel, ra cel, lashel, hemnalg, nomah

twix93 · Joined: 23 Jul 2009 Posts: 57 Location: England

twix93 · Joined: 23 Jul 2009 Posts: 57 Location: England

Here is some noun grammar

I will use the example "kät" (meaning cat) which is a regular noun.

cat = kät
the cat = kätak (If the word already ends in a vowel, add -k)
cats = kätul (If the word already ends in a vowel, add -l)
the cats = kätulak (never: kätakul)

To mark the accusative case, the prefix "u-" is used. (or "uq-" before nouns starting with "u-")

I will use the examples "squs" and "fötuatsiai" ("dog" and "chased")

The cat chased the dog = Kätak fötuatsiai usqusak
The dog chased the cat = Squsak fötuatsiai ukätak
This is SVO but it can be any word order. These are the other five ways of saying that:
Squsak ukätak fötuatsiai
Ukätak squsak fötuatsiai
Ukätak fötuatsui squsak
Fötuatsiai squsak ukätak
Fötuatsiai ukätak squsak

Here are some of the case endings, similar to Hungarian and Finnish

cat! (vocative) = kätit!
inside the cat = kätakifas
outside/exterior to the cat = kätakeşim
near the cat = kätakontu
by/next to the cat = kätakufpu
between the cats = kätulakutsuon
between the cat and the dog = kätakutsuon squsak
from the cat = kätakumil
towards the cat = kätakewo
the cat's/of the cat = kätaki (-qi is added if the noun already ends in -i)

Irregular nouns in plural

When -ul is added to a noun, there are two types of changes that could happen:

1. Vowel change - there are three possible changes that the last vowel of the word makes

a -> ä
ö -> e
u -> ö

This doesn't mean that every noun where the last vowel is ä, ö or u will change, some are still regular

Here are some examples of irregular nouns

girl = suam, girls = suämul
dog = squs, dogs = sqösul
pig = skö, pigs = skel

2. Consonant change - this can only happen when words end in -l. In plural, the -l changes to -t. Again, this doesn't mean every single noun that ends in -l willl change.

Example

chocolate = tşokol, chocolates = tşokotul

I also use a form of vowel change to distinguish genders of people.
So if a noun is used for a male person, and it has the only the possible vowels ä, e, i and/or o, you can make the word female with these changes:

e -> ö
i -> u
o -> a

Examples

man = viqo
woman = vuqa

boy = siom
girl = suam

king = emono
queen = ömana

To make the noun genderless again, add vu- to the male version of the noun.

adult = vuviqo
child = vusion
ruler = vuemono

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

Oo, very interesting! Very Happy

It makes me think of Turkish.

Your edited gloss was awesome, thanks! Wink

Question:

Tolkien_Freak · Posted: Fri Jul 24, 2009 10:56 pm Post subject:

It does indeed look like Turkish.

So the various vowel modifications are only for irregular words and gender change?

twix93 · Joined: 23 Jul 2009 Posts: 57 Location: England

Yeah, it does look like Turkish (although it wasn't influenced by it), especially because of the long words and because of the letter ş.

twix93 · Joined: 23 Jul 2009 Posts: 57 Location: England

Pronouns

I = ja
you (singular) = lau
you (plural) = lawul (forgot to mention: If nouns/pronouns end in -au, -au changes to -aw before adding an ending, same thing applies for -ai/-ei/-oi = -ay/-ey/-oy.)
he/she = il
it = ok
they (animate) = itul (remember: l -> t change)
they (inanimate) = okul
one = ji
we (inclusive) = tek
we (exclusive) = läk

Verbs

I will use the example "to eat'': mak-

The verbs come in 5 tenses (actually the last two aren't really tenses but I don't know what they are called): Past, Present, Future, Conditional and "should".
They can either be used to show a repeated action or an action that is only done once. Verbs are simple because you don't need to learn different endings when you change the pronoun.

These are the endings describing an action happening once:

I am eating = ja makei (lau makei, lawul makei etc.)
I ate = ja makai
I will eat = ja makoi
I would eat = ja makuq
I should eat = ja makiq

These are the endings describing an action repeatedly happening:

I eat = ja makeko
I used to eat = ja makako
I will start eating = ja makoko
I would eat = ja makuko
I should eat = ja makiko

Imperative marker:

eat! = makota!

Add "ne" before a verb to negate it. Example:

I don't eat = ja ne makeko
don't eat! = ne makota

If these endings cause vowels to be next to each other that shouldn't, you should use a -q- to split them, so if a verb stem ends in -a, and you want to add -ako, you say -aqako.