Fad'ami Was: A scratchpad

[Travis B.]

I figured I would play around some with a conlang that is now named fad'ami, literally "our (exclusive) language", so here goes.

Provisional phonology

/m n/ <m n>
/b d dz/ <b d j>
/ɓ ɗ/ <b' d'>
/tʰ tsʰ kʰ qʰ/ <t c k q>
/tʼ tsʼ kʼ qʼ/ <t' c' k' q'>
/f s x χ/ <f s h x>
/z ɣ/ <z g>
/ɾ l/ <r l>
/w j/ <w y>

/i ɛ a ɔ u/ <i e a o u>
/iː eː aː oː uː/ <ii ee aa oo uu>

Syllables are one of CV, CVC, or CVː, except for initial syllables, which may also be V, VC, or Vː.

Stress falls regularly on the leftmost heaviest syllable of the last three syllables of a word.

Provisional syntax

The basic word order is VSO, noun-adjective, and noun-possessors. Note, however, that VOS is also common, and is distinguished from VSO by a combination of case-marking, agreement, and direct-inverse marking on the verb.

Provisional verbal morphology

Voice:

• antipassive: if following a vowel, if long, then shorten it, then add -n, if following a consonant, add -an
• passive: -ta
• causative: -raa
• reflexive: if following a short vowel, then lengthen it, and in any case add -fa

Applicatives:

• dative applicative: if following a vowel, add -di, if following a consonant, add -i
• instrumental applicative: if following a vowel, add -lee, if following a consonant, add -ee
• comitative applicative: if following a vowel, add -xaa, if following a consonant, add -aa
• locative applicative: if following a vowel, add -c'a, if following a consonant, add -ic'a
• ablative applicative: if following a vowel, add -bi, if following a consonant, add -ebi
• allative applicative: -yo

Agent agreement:

Note that the optional vowel is only present if the morpheme follows a consonant. Note that in intransitive clauses this is used for agentive arguments.

	sg.	du.	pl.
1	-(i)m	-(a)tam	-(a)mu
1+2	n/a	-(a)tah	-(a)hu
2	-(i)n	-(a)tan	-(a)nu
3 anim.	-	-(a)taka	-(a)ka
3 inam.	-(i)qa	-(a)tagu	-(a)gu

Tense/aspect:

• past perfective, stative: no morpheme
• past imperfective: if following a short vowel, lengthen vowel, if following a long vowel, add -la, if following a consonant, add -a
• present: if following a vowel, add -ye, if following a consonant, add -e
• habitual: if following a vowel, add -nu, if following a consonant, add -u
• future: -ro

Patient agreement:

Note that the optional vowel is only present if the morpheme follows a consonant. Note that in intransitive clauses this is used for patientive arguments.

	sg.	du./pl.
1	-(e)ma	-(u)mi
1+2	n/a	-(u)hi
2	-(e)na	-(u)ni
3 anim.	-(u)fa / -*	-wi
3 inam.	- / -ya*	-ya

* These are for marked-inanimate-patient verbs, particular verbs for inanimates as patients.

Direct/inverse:

• direct: no morpheme
• inverse: if following a vowel, if long, then shorten it, then add -m, if following a consonant, add -um

Indirectivity:

• not indirect: no morpheme
• indirect: -ha

Negation:

• negative: after a vowel, -t'a, after a consonant, -it'a
• prohibitive: after a vowel, -fud, after a consonant, -ud

Interrogative:

• yes/no question: after a vowel, -la, after a consonant, -ila

Provisional nominal morphology

Pronominal possession:

	sg.	du.	pl.
1	-ma	-mit	-mi
1+2	n/a	-hit	-hi
2	-na	-nit	-ni
3 anim.	-du	-kat	-ka
3 inan.	-qi	-gut	-gu

Demonstrative and interrogative marking:

Note that the optional vowels are only present after consonants.

	anim.	inan.
prox.	-(i)daa	-(i)zaa
dist.	-(i)dun	-(i)zun
interr.	-(u)faa	-(u)baa

Number:

• singular: no morpheme
• collective: no morpheme
• singulative: add -de if preceding ending ends in a vowel, add e if preceding ending ends in a consonant
• plural: add -m if preceding ending ends in a vowel (shorten the vowel if long), add -am if preceding ending ends in a consonant

Cases:

• direct: no morpheme, used for animate agents, inanimate patients and applied arguments
• ergative: lengthen final vowel if noun ends a short vowel, add -ta if noun ends in a long vowel, add -a if noun ends in a consonant, used for inanimate agents
• accusative: add -n if noun ends in a vowel (shorten the vowel if long), add -in if noun ends in a consonant, used for animate patients and applied arguments
• genitive: if following a vowel, shorten the vowel if long, then add -t, if following a consonant, add -it, used for possessors and compounding

Provisional adjective morphology.

Degree:

• positive: no morpheme
• comparative: -fa
• superlative: after a short vowel, add -nta, after a long vowel, shorten the vowel and add -nta, after a consonant, add -inta
• elative: after a short vowel, add -gwa, after a long vowel, shorten the vowel and add -gwa, after a consonant, add -igwa

Adjectives are marked for case and number as nouns are.

[bradrn]

Was this by any chance inspired by the conversation with Ahzoh over on the Conlang Random Thread?

[Travis B.]

An example sentence

• herder: xaala
• goat (collective): nitku
• tiger: saha
• eat: yoori

Yooriwim nitkun xaalat saha
eat-PAT.3.P.ANIM-INV goat.COLL-ACC herder-GEN tiger
The herder's goats were eaten by the tiger.

[Travis B.]

Was this by any chance inspired by the conversation with Ahzoh over on the Conlang Random Thread?

Slightly, but I do like playing around with alignments a lot.

[Travis B.]

I should note that this language also exhibits fluid-intransitivity for a subset of verbs (i.e. those that are lexically intransitive, as opposed to lexically transitive verbs which must take antipassive or passive marking to reduce their valency).

[Travis B.]

This language makes heavy use of relational nouns, which are typically also body parts, combined with applicatives. Here are some examples:

• above (lit hair): niiha
• top (lit. head): qot
• front (lit. breast): zet'a
• middle (lit. stomach): goole
• back (lit. back): yoxa
• bottom (lit. buttocks): faka
• below (lit. feet): b'in
• around (lit. wheel): lalli
• through (lit. heart): xub

One key note about these is that when used as relational nouns these are treated as inanimate while when used as body parts (or wheels) these are treated as animate.

[Travis B.]

Here is another example:

• burn (intr.): ruuh
• house: q'oma
• lightning: tik'aa
• complementizer: ha
• when (lit. time): fera
• hit (trans.): gich

Ruuhraatac'a q'omahi fera hat gich tik'aa.
burn-CAUS-PASS-LOC house-POSS.1+2.P time COMP.GEN hit lightning
Our house burned when it was hit by lightning.

[Travis B.]

Another example:

• a moment ago: cola
• pizza: ficca
• a moderate amount: aqwa

Yooric'am aqwa ficcat cola.
eat-LOC-AGT.1.S some pizza-GEN moment.ago
I just ate some pizza

[Travis B.]

Here are some nominalizers:

• action: -daa
• agent, instrument: after a vowel, add -k and shorten the vowel if long, after a consonant, add -uk
• patient: after a vowel, add -gyi and shorten the vowel if long, after a consonant, add -yi
• place, after a vowel, add -hwa and shorten the vowel if long, after a consonant, add -wa
• concrete noun from an adjective, add -wa after a vowel, add -ewa after a consonant

Here are some verbalizers:

• do as agent, with instrument: -ra
• do as patient: after a vowel, add -hu, after a consonant, add --ihu
• do at a place: after a vowel, add -yu, after a consonant, add -oyu
• do as a resultative: lengthen the final vowel if short, add ka otherwise

Here are some verbal adjectifiers:

• agent, instrument: after a vowel, add -qa, after a consonant, add -iqa
• patient: after a vowel, add -ja, after a consonant, add -aja
• place: -yagi

Here are some nominal adjectifiers:

• generic: after a short vowel lengthen the vowel, then add -se
• similarity: after a vowel add -ku, after a consonant, add -aku

[Travis B.]

Demonstratives and interrogatives:

	sg.	du.	pl.
prox. anim.	da	kit	ki
prox. inan.	qo	gat	ga
dist. anim.	dan	katan	kan
dist. inan.	qon	gotan	gon
inter. anim.	fa	rot	ro
inter. inan.	be	nat	na

Note that there are no non-demonstrative independent 3rd person pronouns.

Independent 1, 1+2, and 3 pronouns

	sg.	du.	pl.
1	ma	mut	mu
1+2	n/a	hut	hu
2	na	nut	nu

[Ares Land]

Interesting! If you're looking for things to provide more detail on, I'd like to see how the direct-inverse logic works.

[Travis B.]

Direct-inverse is pretty simple. The personhood/animacy/topicality hierarchy is as follows:

The first most basic hierarchy is the personhood/nominal hierarchy:

1. 1st person
2. 1st+2nd person
3. 2nd person
4. demonstratives
5. proper nouns
6. common nouns

The second hierarchy after that is the animacy hierarchy:

1. animate
2. inanimate

The third hierarchy after that is the topicality hierarchy:

1. topical
2. not topical

These are combined to provide an order by which the agent and patient of a noun can be established for transitive clauses. If the agent is lower in the hierarchy than the patient, then the clause is inverse, else it is direct.

[Travis B.]

I am changing how how equational copula ta works, such that, unlike other verbs, if both the "agent" and "patient" are animate or inanimate and singular, they are not marked on the verb (and both arguments are in direct case). However, inverse marking still applies.

[Travis B.]

Another note is that predicatively adjectives behave like inanimate singular nouns and are used with the equational copula ta.

[Travis B.]

One thing to note, is that in addition to being fluid-S, this language uses the ergative with inanimate subjects of antipassive verbs and the accusative with animate subjects of passive verbs.

[Travis B.]

Now, material for Janko...

• one, ni*
• two, ca*
• three, sam*
• four, dura*
• five, lise
• six, mik
• seven, yola
• eight, wat
• nine, lahi
• ten, tim
• eleven, ni* ut tim
• twelve, ca* ut tim
• thirteen, sam* ut tim
• fourteen, dura* ut tim
• fifteen, lise ut tim
• sixteen, mik ut tim
• seventeen, yola ut tim
• eighteen, wat ut tim
• nineteen, lahi ut tim
• twenty, yen
• twenty-one, ni* ut yen
• twenty-nine, lahi ut yen
• thirty, tim ut yen
• thirty-one, ni* ut tim ut yen
• thirty-nine, lahi ut tim ut yen
• forty, yen ca
• forty-one, ni* ut yen ca
• forty-nine, ahi ut yen ca
• fifty, tim ut yen ca
• fifty-one, ni* ut tim ut yen ca
• fifty-nine, lahi ut tim ut yen ca
• sixty, yen sam
• sixty-one, ni* ut yen sam
• sixty-nine, lahi ut yen sam
• seventy, tim ut yen sam
• seventy-one, ni* ut tim ut yen sam
• seventy-nine, lahi ut tim ut yen sam
• eighty, yen dura
• eighty-one, ni* ut yen dura
• eighty-nine, lahi ut yen dura
• ninety, tim ut yen dura
• ninety-one, ni* ut tim ut yen dura
• ninety-nine, lahi ut tim ut yen dura
• one hundred, lodde
• one hundred and one, ni* ut lodde
• one hundred and nine, lahi ut lodde
• one hundred and ten, tim ut lodde
• one hundred and eleven, ni* ut tim ut lodde
• one hundred and nineteen, lahi ut time ut lodde
• one hundred and twenty, yen ut lodde
• one hundred and thirty, tim ut yen ut lodde
• one hundred and forty, yen ca ut lodde
• one hundred and fifty, tim ut yen ca ut lodde
• one hundred and sixty, yen sam ut lodde
• one hundred and seventy, tim ut yen sam ut lodde
• one hundred and eighty, yen dura ut lodde
• one hundred and ninety, tim ut yen dura ut lodde
• two hundred, lodde ca
• one thousand, haswa
• nine thousand, nine hundred, and ninety nine, lahi ut tim ut yen dura ut lodde lahi ut haswa lahi
• one myriad, yiseka

I am sick of defining number so this is as many as Janko will get.

* note that this is treated like an adjective when used attributively

[Travis B.]

Existential copula:

The existential copula is ga, which is an intransitive verb that is special because it is not marked for 3rd person singular arguments regardless of animacy.

Relative clauses:

Relative clauses are placed directly after the qualified NP, and for core arguments rely a gap strategy, while for non-core arguments resumptive pronouns are used.

Locative relative clauses:

Locative relative clauses are a subset of relative clauses used to provide a locative attributive meaning to an NP. These use the existential copula ga combined with an applicative and applied argument to provide a locative meaning to the NP.

An example of this is:

• bee (coll.), ifa
• nest, jat'a
• tree (coll.), haane
• see (trans.), leeca

Leecam jat'a ifat gac'a haanede.
see-AGT.1.S nest bees-GEN exist-LOC trees-SING
I saw the bees' nest in the tree.

Conjunctions:

• and, ut
• or, ay
• but, waa
• so, la

[Travis B.]

Modals:

Well, this language does not have conventional modals in the way that IE languages tend to. Rather, it has verbs that take a subordinate clause as an argument which it qualifies. Here are some such verbs:

• want (trans.), sii
• need (trans.), mag
• would (intr.), yaa
• is able to be (intr.), mad
• is required to be (intr.), te
• is supposed to be (intr.), aari

Note that yaa is often used similar to the subjunctive of other languages, and can be combined with these verbs in forms such as:

• eat, qiina
• taco, tako
• satiated, fuuhi

Yaac'aye ha magime ha qiiname tako ha tamet'a fuuhi.
would-LOC-PRES COMP need-AGT.1.S-PRES COMP eat-AGT.1.2-PRES taco COMP COP-AGT.1.S-PRES-NEG satiated
I would need to eat the taco if I was not full.

[Travis B.]

• equals, copula, ta
• language variety, fad'a
• to bore, qham
• bad, yoh
• to mean, wanni
• just, merely, sun
• new, gani
• sky, siima
• give, yaalu
• things (coll.), d'at
• myriad, yiseka
• nurture, wohade
• humankind, gaare
• have, own, possess, enna
• good, wot
• return, eeta
• die, t'aw
• surprise (trans.), coxi
• need (trans.), mag
• explain (trans.), lehha
• seven, yola
• stele, monolith, siga
• would (intr.), yaa
• include (trans.), k'ay
• obvious, alle
• too, jo
• please (trans.), ica
• carry (trans.), q'in
• thank (trans.), koma
• exist, existential copula, ga
• yogh, yoh
• reason, nayad
• any, le
• real, mut'
• use (trans.), bak
• vocative particle, a
• appear, naw
• Latin, latin
• write, scratch, xaca
• tradition, rihta
• read, wiita
• is able to be, mad
• only, faari
• part, kham
• come (intr.), xalaa
• old, chii
• English, ingalis
• Yorkish, yorkis
• emph. (adv.), k'a
• German, jerman
• north, haaka
• mutate (lit. change) (intr.), wiib'a
• people (coll.), nuuxa
• all, aana
• bear a child (trans.), d'awaa
• free (as in liberty), agim
• equal, qaala
• dignity, ayet
• right, denti
• endow (with an ability) (trans.), loobe
• think (trans.), ximaa
• conscience, yuuri
• act (intr.), tinna
• each other, aq'at
• spirit, eekan
• brother, jalli
• special, fooka
• problem, teelat
• speak (trans.), laxa
• strange, oha
• less, fewer, gak
• high, caale
• compress, squeeze, loohi
• sounds (coll.), saxaa
• all, fiza
• crazy, gawa
• suspicious, t'ake
• know (trans.), lig
• way, method, hanna
• pretty, iste
• type, key, kita
• mark (trans.), toone
• design (trans.), q'iika
• small, little, c'enna
• ask, ika
• add, install, t'ommi
• department, k'ulle
• technology, yuuti
• information, laga
• board, waha
• computer, machine, system, box, yeera
• come up with, think up, yoqe
• name, joot'a
• collect (trans.), qarre
• go (intr.), aagi
• words (coll.), ibba
• post, message, kab'a
• difficult, rixaa
• Japan, jafan
• very, strongly, deeply, soole
• alphabet, alfabet
• letter, character, sign, symbol, kaafu
• vary (intr.), caat'e
• many (coll.), niina
• agree with (trans.), q'atti
• make, create, kayta
• state, status, q'awwa
• past, faabi
• unitary, nire
• merge, combine, kayah
• important, lanni
• thing, matter, factor, ayuuca
• time, motti
• good, nice, neat, c'ahhu
• version, revision, release, kawku
• zeptoforth, zeftoforta
• live (intr.), waab'a
• again, thiya
• occasionally, aceeq'u
• today, these days, hib'a
• focus on (trans.), liddu
• program, code (n., coll.), nammeq
• place. tod'a

[Travis B.]

I have decided to combine the past perfective with a stative aspect, which are both unmarked. Henceforth the present tense is specifically imperfective, and where in many cases in my examples I have used the present I would instead use the unmarked merged past perfective/stative.