A selection from the grammar of my first conlang.
2014-04-30 23:36:52
Anthologica Universe Atlas / Users / Nortaneous / A selection from the grammar of my first conlang.

A selection from the grammar of my first conlang.

It is pretty bad.
[snip]

I will begin with one of the example sentences:
étanren xélat i ná étanren túɬat xas vinasen xélat zdas étanren l xélat i túɬat r zde srmeren
if and only if I want a beer, then I will drink a beer and not eat cereal; otherwise, if I want cereal, I will drink beer and eat cereal, and if I do not, I will die

Yes, that was the sort of thing the grammar was concerned with. For bonus points: "I will only drink a beer if I want a beer" is étanren xélat xas vinasen xélat. Conditionals were described as equivalent to the ternary operator.

——

Inventory
/p b t d k g/ <p b t d k g>
/f v θ ð s z ɬ ɮ ʃ ʒ x~ɣ~h/ <f v þ ð s z c ɬ š ž x> or <f v th dh s z c lh sz zs x>
/m n l ɹ j w/ <m n l r j w>

/æ ɑ ɛ œ ʌ e o ɪ i u/ <á a e ó ú é o y i u> or <aa a e oo uu ee o y i u>

——

Introduction

Foolang is a relatively simple and logical language. Unlike other languages, Foolang only possesses two distinct types of words: those that can be conjugated, and those that can't. This means, for example, that for a 'verb' to be a 'noun', one just has to supply an appropriate ending.
Verb Grammar

The following is 'to be' conjugated. To conjugate other words, just add the appropriate form of 'to be' on the end. Note that this means that the base word is actually an object. The infinitive is el.
sing plu Eng sing ex
present
1st en én I am
2nd eš éš You are
3rd et ét He is
past
1st ven vén I was
2nd veš véš You were
3rd vet vét He was
future
1st ren rén I will
2nd reš réš You will
3rd ret rét He will
present perf
1st sen sén I have been
2nd seš séš You have been
3rd set sét He has been
past perf
1st jen jén I had been
2nd ješ jéš You had been
3rd jet jét He had been
future perf
1st xen xén I shall have been
2nd xeš xéš You shall have been
3rd xet xét He shall have been
past imperf
1st ben bén I was being
2nd beš béš You were being
3rd bet bét He was being

Mood and voice suffixes are added between the root and the tense suffix. The order is root-mood-voice-tense.
imperative eþ
passive ec
subjunctive em
Modifiers

Modifiers are basically just words that modify the meaning of a verb or a noun. To make an word a modifier, add 'un' to the end of the word.

Commonly words used as modifiers:
Foolang English
ná not
je intensifier (e.g very)
ðy relaxer (e.g a little)
vn superlative (e.g most)
vr what (e.g least)

If one modifier is mean to modify another modifier instead of the noun, group them together. See FoolangExamples Note that if the modifiers are grouped, one only needs to add the 'un' ending once.
Object Grammar
genitive -as
dative -an
accusative -at

Plurals are formed by adding ak. The linking vowel a is dropped for objects ending in a. There is no grammatical gender because grammatical gender is fucking retarded, but you can specify the gender of a noun with the prefixes vi (masculine) and ga (feminine).
Delimiters

Delimiters are used to enclose conditionals and other things. They are similar to curly brackets in some programming languages, except they enclose the conditional keywords instead of just the statements in the conditional.
left delimiter { l
right delimiter } r

Delimiters are only used to separate things embedded in sentences, not when the conditional/other thing is the whole sentence. ("If I want a beer, I will get a beer." would not be delimited, but the conditional in "Since I will get a beer if I want a beer, I get many beers." would be. Delimiters are optional.
Conditionals

Conditionals have the syntax <foo> ASSUMING <bar> OTHERWISE <baz>, which is equivalent to the ternary operator statement <bar> ? <foo> : <baz>. They are enclosed by delimiters.
assuming as
assuming (iff) xas
otherwise (else) zde
otherwise (elseif) zdas
Indefinite and Definite

Whether an object is indefinite (like "a beer"​) or definite (like "the beer"​) is usually implied in Foolang, but the definiteness of a word may need to be specified.
indefinite (a) cn
definite (the) ek

Nortaneous 9 years ago

Comments

9 years ago
blogs have comments
9 years ago
Well, as far as Engelangs go I have seen worse.
9 years ago
It seems stereotypically first-conlang-ish to have noun-verbs that can be inflected either way. (.... although if we're counting seriously it wasn't until my fourth that I did that. The first three are ungodly heaps of shame that should be forgotten as much as possible.)
9 years ago
I don't think I've ever done that. I just checked the ones I have on my computer (which includes my first), and nouns and verbs are always distinct.
9 years ago
It took me until Insular Kett to stop doing that. Which was probably like two years. (Though I think I took it out of Kannow later.)

I am pretty sure Gehui will have some noun-verb zero-derivation but it won't be as shit as it was everywhere else.
9 years ago
Also you can use [snip] so it doesn't clutter up your user page as badly.