© 2001 by Christian Thalmann, cinga (at) gmx (dot) net>
My first conlang, Obrenje, was conceived with high goals: Aesthetics, fluency and efficiency in one, along with some original non-trivial grammar. As work on the language progressed, aesthetics suffered more and more to accommodate the other principles. In the end, I got a conlang that's reasonably fluent and efficient, but much less aesthetic than I hoped.
Inspired by renewed exposure to Quenya, Sindarin, Aelya, Vaior and other beautiful creations, I set out to start a whole new language, and resolved to do everything right this time. Thus Caelva was born. Whether or not it lives up to my lofty expectations is not yet clear. Even in the very first steps of langmaking, I've encountered what seems to be an entropic tendency of aesthetic phonologies to turn into Orc-like grunting.
My notations are "English", Caelva, /phonemic/, [phonetic].
The latter two are written in X-SAMPA.
A Caelvan syllable has the basic structure (C)(C)V(C). A word-final
syllable may also have two trailing consonants. V can be a simple vowel,
long vowel, or diphthong.
A syllable is called free if it has no final consonant (or, if it is the final syllable, if it has not more than one final consonant). A syllable with a final consonant (or, in a final syllable, two consonants) is called bound. This distinction plays a role in the placement of stress and the pronunciation of diphthongs.
The assignment of stress is completely regular:
Simple vowels:
a /a/, e /E/, i /i/, o /O/, u /u/,
y
/y/.
Long vowels:
á /a:/, é /e:/, í /i:/, ó
/o:/,
ú
/u:/.
Diphthongs in free syllables:
ae /aI/, oe /OI/, ei /eI/, ue /y:/, ea
/E:/,
oa
/O:/,
ao
/aU/,
ou
/oU/,
io
/i@/,
uo
/u@/,
eo
/e@/.
Diphthongs in bound syllables:
ae /E/, oe /a/, ei /e/, ue /y/, ea /E/,
oa
/O/,
ao
/O/,
ou
/u/,
io
/i/,
uo
/u/,
eo
/E/.
The letters i and u are also used for the glides /j/ and
/w/, so the letter combinations uo, io, ue can also mean /wo/, /jo/,
/we/ rather than the diphthongs /u@/, /i@/, /y:/. Futhermore, the
glides i and u are usually silent between s or z
and a back vowel, being "used up" in the palatizing/depalatizing of the
sibilant. These uses of i and u are not distinguished
orthographically.
c: /k/.
g: /g/.
ng: /N/ at the end of a word, /Ng/ otherwise.
nc: /Nk/.
s: /S/ before front vowel, /s/ otherwise.
z: /Z/ before front vowel, /z/ otherwise.
ch: /C/ before front vowel or syllable-finally after front vowel,
/x/ otherwise.
th: /T/.
dh: /D/.
h: /h/.
See the chapter "Vowels" for the consonantic uses of i and u.
All other consonant letters sound like their IPA equivalents.
Prepositions mutate the following nouns, and every component of
a noun phrase or verbal phrase (vector + verb + predicate) mutates the
following component. Mutations are not written, but pronounced.
There are two types of mutations:
| Next word begins with: | Which softens to: |
| /p t k/ | /b d g/ |
| /f s x S/ | /v z h Z/ |
| /g/ | /h/ |
| /d n/ | /D D/ |
| /b m/ | /v v/ |
Examples:
| paen | /paIn/ | wood |
| fadhu paen | /"fa.Du."baIn/ | wooden table |
| siuo fadhu | /"Su@."va.Du/ | table-leg |
| Next word begins with: | Assimilation of /m/: | Assimilation of /n/: | Assimilation of /N/: |
| /p t k b d g/ |
|
||
| /v D h/ |
|
||
| /s z S Z/ |
|
||
| /#/ (any vowel) | /m#/ | /n#/ | /Ng#/ |
| /r l/ | /mbr mbl/ | /ndr ndl/ | /Ngr Ngl/ |
Examples:
| an hei | /aN"NeI/ | he makes |
| an lech | /an"dlEC/ | he plays (an instrument) |
| an sív | /an"dZi:v/ | he lives |
The universal all-purpose vector is |am|, which can be translated as "to be" when used with a predicative noun phrase, as "to do" when used with a verb participle, or even "to go" in conjunction with a directional reference. Its inflected forms are rather irregular, which is why most of them are listed in the following charts.
Apart from |am|, there is a closed number of other vectors that can also be used, but inflect much more regularly. They comprise modal verbs (can, want, should etc), a negation, and the two verbs "to have" and "to give", which can be used for a wide range of idiomatic expressions.
Here are all the inflected forms of the vector |am|. The columns
indicate the implied personal pronoun of the subject, and the rows show
the implied personal pronoun of the object. The zero person is chosen
if no personal pronoun is needed (e.g. if the subject or object will be
explicitly mentioned later in the sentence). As can be seen, the
personal pronouns for both objects and subjects are merged into one single
form for the present tense of |am|, but in the other tenses, the object
pronoun is usually a separate word.
| am "be/do/go" | Present | Past | Future | ||||||||||||||
| obj\subj | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3a | 3i | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3a | 3i | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3a | 3i | ||
| 0 | — | ae | ao | an | al | ne | nae | nao | nan | nal | so | soe | sou | son | sol | ||
| 1 | ze | zei | ziao | ian | ial | zin | ze nae | ze nao | ... | ios | ze soe | ze sou | ... | ||||
| 2 | gu | guae | gou | uan | ual | uin | gu nae | ... | gus | gu soe | ... | ||||||
| 3a | me | mae | mao | man | mal | min | ... | mos | ... | ||||||||
| 3i | le | lae | lao | lan | lal | lin | los | ||||||||||
| refl | he | hae | hao | han | hal | chin | hos | ||||||||||
Examples with the verb |cel| "see" and the two nouns |urael| "elderly man" and |aru| "dog":
For all other vectors, the object pronoun is never incorporated
into the vector itself, it is always a free-standing word before the vector.
Therefore, we only need to list the forms with zero object person for those
vectors.
| Present | Past | Future | |||||||||||||||
| subj | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3a | 3i | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3a | 3i | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3a | 3i | ||
| ta "not" | ta | tae | tao | tan | tal | ante | antae | antao | tanne | tarne | taso | tasoe | tasou | tason | tasol | ||
| ce "have" | ce | cei | cio | cen | cel | ence | enci | enco | cenne | cerne | ceso | cesoe | cesou | ceson | cesol | ||
| bul "give" | bul | buil | buol | bun | bul | bulne | bulni | bulno | bunne | burne | burso | bursoe | bursou | burson | bursol | ||
| vis "can" | vis | vís | vys | vin | vil | virne | virni | virno | vinne | virne | visso | vissoe | vissou | visson | vissol | ||
| cuo "want" | cuo | cuoe | cuo | cuon | cuol | cune | cuni | cuno | cunne | curne | cuso | cusoe | cusou | cuson | cusol | ||
| hez "should" | hes | heis | heos | hen | hel | herne | herni | herno | henne | herne | hesso | hessoe | hessou | hesson | hessol | ||
| ral "would" | ral | rael | raol | ran | ral | ralne | ralni | ralno | ranne | rarne | rarso | rarsoe | rarsou | rarson | rarsol | ||
| tiv "must" | tiv | tív | tyv | tim | til | timme | timmi | timmo | tinne | tirne | tisso | tissoe | tissou | tisson | tissol | ||
Examples:
(That's all I have so far.)
© 2001 by Christian Thalmann <cinga(at)gmx(dot)net>