Conlang???

[Rubberduck]

E is the word I generally use for non-gendered intelligent entities, such as AI. In the case of this language the one point where I used it was in relation to god.

"The great builder saw the light was good, and e spread the light, and created islands of light in the darkness. And e rested for the first day."

http://therubberduck.net/edenabove/bible.html

http://therubberduck.net/edenabove/dictionary.html

[Servant Of Thor]

Here is my most complete with almost 1000 words, I need more verb tenses though, I only have present past and future; hmm, maybe I'll get going on those. Also I only have the indicative form of verbs, no subjunctive or imperative. But they look alike because I went with a more militaristic structure. I.E. easy to use logically based.

------------------Singular---------------Plural

First person-----khaz-thitoghâs------menu-thitoghâr

Second person--thaz-thitoghâz------thoz-thitoghân

Third person----ghaz-thitoghâl-------ghoz-thitoghâm

[nai888]

In the conlang which I've been working on, Eindo, for which I am currently creating a map, the translation of the above phrases would be completely different depending on the context of the sentence. Eindo is a highly agglutinating language, meaning (partially) that derivation is done by adding affixes to the roots of the words. I have a suffix which means "to be [a noun]," and another which means "to be [an adjective]."

For example, to say "I am a student," one would say "Žealošimaŧofan" which is pronounced /ʒe'älo.ʃimä.θofän/ in which the final -ofa- signifies the verb "to be," the following -n signifies the first person singular, and the rest of the word is the noun "student." (This one word, in fact, contains seven morphemes, if you include the -n conjugation, because I derived the word student from the root noun "alo," knowledge, through various other derivations, which demonstrates some of the possible agglutination in this language.)

Similarly, in order to say "I am happy," one would say "Řinisan" which is pronounced /'rinisän/ in which the final -isa- signifies the verb "to be."

The only time the verb "to be" is a separate verb is to say essentially that an object exists, takes place (when speaking of an event), or with some locative phrases, though in most cases these should also be expressed with suffixes. As this is the only way that I can actually translate your text without having any more information, I will use this verb, despite its much more limited usage than in most European languages. It just happens to be, quite literally, the most simple verb in the language, with the infinitive form, "ađa," being comparable to the hypothetical Spanish verbs "ar," "er," and "ir" (though not the one meaning "to go," since it is such an idiosyncratic conjugation), in which essentially the whole word would be the infinitive suffix.

I'll also include the pronouns in parentheses, even though they are rarely included except for clarification or emphasis. It should be noted, though, that there are also more persons than there are in most European languages as I've included a third number between singular and plural: paucal, which essentially means "a few" and is used for numbers between 2 and 4 or 5, and I've also included an inclusive/exclusive distinction as well as a human/non-human distinction.

An (no). - I am.
As (so). - You are.
At (to). - He/She is.
Al (lo). - It is.
Aan (noa). - We few (including the addressee) are.
Aař (řoa). - We few (excluding the addressee) are.
Aas (soa). - You few are.
Aat (toa). - They few are.
Aal (loa). - They (non-human) few are.
Ain (noi). - We (including the addressee) are.
Aiř (řoi). - We (excluding the addressee) are.
Ais (soi). - You all are.
Ait (toi). - They are.
Ail (loi). - They (non-human) are.

So you see, it's not always such an easy thing to do to translate something like that, especially with a verb like "to be" which is pretty much always idiosyncratic in some way, because of its such varied definitions (after all, Spanish, which is European, has two distinct verbs which both mean "to be," with slightly different definitions).


Wow, I feel like I just wrote an essay! I felt like it definitely needed explanation, though. And to think, I was considering attempting to make a polysynthetic language, which has even MORE agglutination than mine does, which means that even longer, more complex phrases or sentences could be expressed with single words!

[hunab.cu]

Okay, linguistics, a hobbyhorse of mine
These come for ather'neiv, one of conlangs for a world I'm working on for sometime now. The text is arranged as:
ather'neiv phrase = meta-language notation (logical meaning) = English equivalent

Are/Ide/Dre se = {me-male}/{me-female}/{me-nonhuman} {'to be'-present time-first person singular} = I am
Arre/Idre/Drere sare = {you-male}/{you-female}/{you-nonhuman} {'to be'-present time-second person singular} = You are
Arge/Idege/Drege sade = {he}/{she}/{non-human} {'to be'-present time-third person singular} = He/She/"It" is

Arve/Ideve/Dreve se = {we-males-with you}/{we-females-with you}/{we-with you} {'to be'-present time-first person singular inclusive} = We are
Arthe/Idethe/Drethe se = {we-males-without you}/{we-females-without you}/{we-without you} {'to be'-present time-first person singular exclusive} = We are
Arte/Ite/Drete se = {you-males}/{you-females}/{you-plural} {'to be'-present time-second person plural} = You are
Arshe/Ideshe/Dreshe se = {they-males}/{they-females}/{they} {'to be'-present time-third person plural} = They are

It's hard to notice from this example, but the language itself is highly agglutinative and very precise. As you can see above, the same pronoun group (dre, drere etc.) has a different meaning when singular and plural. The 'nonhuman' meaning in singular is meant for all things non-sentient, while plural is just for anything: sentients of any gender, animals, stones...
I've got also few other conlangs for this universe coming up, but none of them is usable yet.

[Kharon Alpua]

Does anyone have a conlang?
If so please translate this:

All of these are íc (pronounced like "each") constructions in my primary conlang -- the verb does not vary by person, number or gender, only by tense. The pronouns vary by number and gender, but verbs do not shift to match the gender or number of a pronoun, only the timing, completion, or adverbial state of the action. The contruction itself will never stand alone with the exception of Xi íc, and even this stands alone only as a name meaning "The one which is"; the full name is "xi íc, xi ícikun, xi íns", or "the one which is, the one which was, the one which will be", and it's a divine name shortened to a four-letter Word as XIÍC or XIIC.

I        Yi    íc
You      Ci    íc
He       Ji    íc
She      Si    íc
It       Xi    íc  (can specifically mean a non-gendered being or an object)
We       Ki    íc
You all  Aci   íc
They     Shi   íc

All of these are often shortened in casal use, both spoken and written, with the initial consonant flowing directly into the íc, and although xi is a special case as noted above, it's distinguished plainly in writing (all proper names are written entirely in greater form letters, and the language does have spacing between words), sometimes of "it is" the unique term "híc" is used in speaking, to avoid confusion with the divine name -- the compound makes no sense at face value of "and is", only that in speech /x/ and /h/ are sometimes interchanged (both ways) by dialect, slur, or complex artistic choice.

[phlegethon]

I'm working on Nga right now. By all rights, it's a tonal language, but I don't like writing all those tones out. So, here you are.

SIngular
I am- Huvag geñi wozhub ya
You are- Huvag dura wozhub ya
He/She/It is- Huvag none wozhub ya
Dual
We are- Huvag geñim wozhub ya
You are- Huvag duram wozhub ya
They are- Huvag nonem wozhub ya
Plural
We are- Huvag geñij wozhub ya
You are- Huvag duraj wozhub ya
They are- Huvag nonej wozhub ya

You'll notice that the only thing that changes is the pronoun. To tell the truth, the verb doesn't even vary from tense to tense (as an example, consider Huvag nonem wozhun ya, or "They will be". The verb modifier is the only thing that varies.

[Miker]

I might as well jump in with my language. It's an IE lang but doesn't conjugate for person/number/gender and does not have a plural third person pronoun(being derived from demonstratives). Pronouns are similar to English on purpose.
I am: Ic eseth
You are: Ya eseth
He/It is: So eseth
She is: Se eseth
We are: Wei eseth

[daemaree]

Those phrases are impossible to translate into my conlang, Lybran without context.

In Lybran, there is no verb "to be"... and pronouns don't exist. But, it's interesting to think about these kinds of translation issues.

[ManOfSteel]

EBENESE

TO BE

Sohn du (I am)
Kreh du (you are)
Seh du (he is (prime))
Sehnis du (he is (secondary))
Veh du (she is (prime))
Vehnis du (she is (secondary))
Keh du (it is)
Sohnam du (we are, excluding you)
Sohna du (we are, including you)
Na du (y'all are)
Gra du (they are (prime))
Granis du (they are (secondary))
Gran du (plural it is... i.e. they (objects) are)

There are even pronouns for third and forth subjects. The prime and secondary are employed to differentiate between two or more subjects. For instance, in English, if you said, "Bob sat next to Fred. He put his hand on his thigh." Bob is the subject so he's considered prime, but did Bob put his hand on his own thigh, or is Bob trying to get frisky with Fred? You can't tell. But in Ebenese you'd use the prime pronoun for Bob and the secondary pronoun (in this sentence you'd use the possessive mahve) for Fred, and that way you'd know that Bob and Fred's friendship is special.

Now if you were at a party and you told your friend "We're going to get ice cream," does that mean that they're all going to the ice cream store and they'll see you later? Or does it mean all of us are going to get ice cream so get in the car? It can be an awkward situation not knowing if you're being told goodbye or being invited. With sohnam and sohna there's no doubt.

[Bagliun Edar]

I have a conlang on which I have been working for about a year now. It's intended to be nice sounding and have an alien feeling, it's a humanization of an etheric language spoken by the gods. Originally, it was just a naming language to be used to name the character souls, so that I could track them reincarnation to reincarnation. It's now much more than just a naming language. More importantly, it's my vehicle to amateurly learn about linguistics. So here goes my attempt to translate the op sentences.

Godspeech (my conlang's name) does not have a copula ("to be" verb) per se. Most of the times, an adjective used as a verb is the way to translate copula-using sentences. The op sentences, exactly as they are, are untranslatable to Godspeech, so they must be translated by using other means.

The following is a declaration of divine authority, identifying the subject as a divine lord. The subject is omitted in this example:
Arbeja.
[ˈaɾbɛʒa]
arbe-ja
I_am-IND.BL
I am

EDIT: BL: blunt. When spoken by a higher ranking being, the it's blunt. It's rude otherwise.

A more complete sentence would be:
Bagliun Edar arbeja.
meaning "I am Lord Bagliun".
The nickname I'm using in this board is a name of a character of mine who is one of the gods who speak the original etheric language on which Godspeech is based. Edar is a title meaning divine lord, Bagliun is his proper name, from bagli "to perceive" and -un meaning "doer" (not exactly).

Godspeech limits the use of personal pronouns and discourages their usage. Personal pronouns are clitics for first and second persons only.
Amēnjoabil.
[ˈamɛːnʒɔˌabil]
amēn-jo-abil
ADJ-IND.POL-1SG.NOM
I am

Amēnjoamel.
[ˈamɛːnʒɔˌamɛl]
amēn-jo-amel
ADJ-IND.POL-2SG.NOM
You are

Amēnjovam.
[ˈamɛːnˌʒɔvam]
amēn-jo-vam
ADJ-IND.POL-1PL.NOM
We are

Amēnjother.
[ˈamɛːnˌʒɔðɛɾ]
amēn-jo-ther
ADJ-IND.POL-2PL.NOM
You are

Word amēn is a pro-adjective. It takes a meaning given by the context in which it appears, so any of the above sentences mean "I/you/we am/are [anything defined by context]".

The gods use noun phrases instead of pronouns more often; the third person cannot be supplied by pronouns, and must be provided with noun phrases. Noun phrases used for this purpose include the proper name of the person being spoken of, his title or profession, some kind of socially defined reference, or just "this (or that) person" when there is no other way.

Abameurodo amēnjo.
[ˈabamɛuˌɾɔdɔ ˈamɛːnʒɔ]
abam-e-uro-do amēn-jo
person-SG.DEF.MASC-1.this-TOP ADJ-IND.POL
I am
Lit. This person is.

Abamearedo amēnjo.
[ˈabamɛaˌɾɛdɔ ˈamɛːnʒɔ]
abam-e-are-do amēn-jo
person-SG.DEF.MASC-2.that-TOP ADJ-IND.POL
You are
Lit. That person is.

Abameazomdo amēnjo.
[ˈabamɛaˌzɔmdɔ ˈamɛːʒɔ]
abam-e-azom-do amēn-jo
person-SG.DEF.MASC-3.that-TOP ADJ-IND.POL
He is
Lit. That person is.

Abamiazomdo amēnjo.
[ˈabamiaˌzɔmdɔ ˈamɛːnʒɔ]
abam-i-azom-do amēn-jo
person-SG.DEF.FEM-3.that-TOP ADJ-IND.POL
She is
Lit. That person is.

Izauazomdo amēnjo.
[ˈizauaˌzɔmdɔ ˈamɛːnʒɔ]
iza-u-azom-do amēn-jo
thing-SG.DEF.NEUT-3.that-TOP ADJ-IND.POL
It is
Lit. That thing is.

The word "iza" means "useful thing". To refer to a "useless thing" you use "izi", and similarly "izu" is equivalent to "trash".

Abamjilurodo amēnjo.
[ˈabamʒiluˌɾɔdɔ ˈamɛːnʒɔ]
abam-jil-uro-do amēn-jo
person-DU.DEF.MASC-1.this-TOP ADJ-IND.POL
We are

Abamjilaredo amēnjo.
[ˈabamʒilaˌɾɛdɔ ˈamɛːnʒɔ]
abam-jil-are-do amēn-jo
person-DU.DEF.MASC-2.that-TOP ADJ-IND.POL
You are

Abamjirazomdo amēnjo.
[ˈabamʒiɾazɔmdɔ ˈamɛːnʒɔ]
abam-jir-azom-do amēn-jo
person-DU.DEF.NEUT-3.that-TOP ADJ-IND.POL
They are

For the English plurals, there are far more choices in Godspeech to translate these three sentences. I chose to use the dual number for all three, and the neuter gender for the last one. Godspeech's table of noun inflections is quite big.