Thursday, November 12, 2015

A few word roots (outdated)

to be (estar) -> est
to be (ser) -> es
[^these are almost definitely going to be changed]
to have -> pos
male -> f'ir'
female -> fes'
to love -> ker'
to cause -> kas'
to become -> p'it
language, speech -> púk
good -> k'út
bad -> p'at'
right (side, direction) -> t'eks
left (side, direction) -> sif'
dog -> t'ak'
cat -> kát
parent -> f'at
to write -> skip'

the English borrowings "kas', k'út, p'at', t'ak', and kát" sound really corny... Probably need an automated program to make words for me - but then I'd have to figure out what combinations of letters are permitted. :-/

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Grammatical endings (outdated)

Verb endings:

Past: -et'
Present: -eh
Future: -ep'
Unspecified: -ej
Infinitive: -e

Conditional (added after tense ending): -a
Imperative/volitive (added after tense ending): -o

Noun singular: -ét
Noun plural: -és
Adjective: -ik
Adverb: -ik'
Possesive: -if'

Pronouns (outdated)

Pronouns are in two categories: singular and plural. For each singular pronoun, there is a plural counter part.

I, me -> tét
we, us (non-inclusive) -> tés

thou, thee -> f'ét
ye, you -> f'és

he, him -> két
they, them (male) -> kés

she, her -> jét
they, them (female) -> jés

s/he, him/her -> jkét
they, them (people) -> jkés

it -> cét
they, them (things) -> cés

one (someone unspecified) -> hét
they, you (unspecified people, people in general) -> hés

himself, herself, itself, oneself (reflexive singular, third person) -> sét
themselves (reflexive plural, third person) -> sés

----------
"we" means "me and some other people" and by default does not include the one addressed: if "we" does mean "me and you", it is recommended to specifically say "me (or us) and thee (or you)"  Also, the "thee/you" distinction is just a matter of number, not of respect, poetic register, endearment, etc.

Here, again, all is provisional. The gender-specific pronouns might be dropped; also, the whole list may be changed to make the pronouns more distinct one from another. I mostly just took the Esperanto pronoun list and amended it to make it more symmetrical - that's just something to start from. Also, it is not determined whether animals are properly "jkét/jkés", as they are animate, or "cét/cés", as they aren't people.


provisional phonetics (outdated)

So, I've gotta start somewhere...
 The (provisional) alphabet:

 a á c ć e é f f' h h' i í j j' k k' o ó p p' r ŕ s ś t ť u ú z ź

 There should be twice as many consonants as vowels,  if I counted correctly. The diacritic or, when I couldn't get a diacritic, the apostrophe, represents a voiced sound when used on a consonant, and with vowels it's mostly just arbitrary; it usually indicates merely a sound that is not the same as Latin and the like.

a: as a in father
á: as a in apple
c: as ch in cheese (ĉ)
ć: as g in gem (ĝ)
e: as e in pet
é: as e in the (schwa)
f: as f in fruit
f': as v in vain
h: as th in thin
h': as th in this
i: as i in machine
í: as i in insect
j: as sh in ship
j': as s in pleasure (ĵ)
k: as k in kitten
k': as g in gas
o: as o in code
ó: as o in cold
p: as p in party
p': as b in bug
r: like a trilled/rolled r, but unvoiced
ŕ: trilled/rolled r, as in Spanish
s: like s in soap
ś: like z in zebra
t: like t in time
ť: like d in dark
u: like oo in food
ú: like oo in book
z: like z in pizza or nazi
ź: like dz in adze

Vowels are named by their sound; consonants by their sound + i (ci, ći, fi, etc)
Actually, I don't much like this system and will probably change it. It seemed like a great idea when I first came up with it, but I'm having a hard time getting by without the letter m. Also, I don't so much like the way this one looks...