Saturday, September 14, 2002

Henaudute numbers [β]

Why all these numbers? They're easy. Ah well...

1-10: hin, hau, kē, haphtha, nottha, thokhtha, pōstha, khophtha, haltha, rhettha.

(Yes, the aspirated stops in 6=thokhtha and 8=khophtha remain. The stems are thok- and khob-, with the aspiration coming from the -tha.

11-19: himbráltha, haubráltha, kēbraltha, ambráltha, nobráltha, thobráltha, pōbraltha, khombráltha, halbráltha.

20: lou. (Or, possibly loutha—both could be valid.)

30-90: kērrhethas, habrétthas, notrétthas, thokrétthas, pōrretthas, khobrétthas, haldrétthas.

100: listha. (Or littha—but not both.)

200-: haulísthas, kēlisthas, hablísthas, etc.

1000: petha.

The ubiquitous -tha is just the adjective suffix. It can be added to 1, 2, and 3... but not necessarily.

Muke Tever 7:05 AM

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Tuesday, September 10, 2002

Per spoq's request, you can hear Ibran one to ten: ibnums.wav (180 K).

I seem to have lost my wav > mp3 converter.

Muke Tever 9:42 PM

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Ibran numbers [ε]

Okay, and here are the numbers for Ibran (cardinals only). Also, I know that people are seeing a little spiral instead of d-cedilla but I havent the faintest idea why.

1 - une - [jin]
2 - dos - [do?]
3 - tris - [tri?]
4 - càtre - ["k{t@]
5 - cinc - [SV~x]
6 - seis - [ze?]
7 - şett - [ZEt]
8 - oet - [OET]
9 - nuif - [nO:f]
10 - ḑez - [dZES] (ḑ = d-cedilla)
11 - unz - [A~S]
12 - doz - [dOS]
13 - triz - [triS]
14 - càtorz - ["k{tO:S]
15 - quinz - [kV~S]
16 - şez - [ZES] (ş = s-cedilla)
17 - ḑecett - [dZE"SEt]
18 - ḑezoet - [dZES"OEt]
19 - ḑeznuif - [dZES"nO:f]
20 - vint - [vV~T]
30 - trint - [trV~T]
40 - càreint - ["k{reV~T]
50 - cinqueint - ["SV~keV~T]
60 - seseint - ["zEzeV~T]
70 - setteint - ["zEteV~T]
80 - octuint - ["OxtO:V~T]
90 - noneint - ["nOneV~T]
100 - cent - [SV~T]
1000 - miul - [mjil]

Muke Tever 9:22 PM

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Kirumb numbers [γ]

Fished through sources and now have the set of Kirumb numbers, which ought to be final. Er, since the stress isnt exactly final, and vowel reductions depend on it, it may not be entirely good but it'll be close enough, especially the disyllables :p "~" is for eng here.

[update 12 Sep: changing o to u, so I can read it properly]

	Cardinal "one"	Ordinal "first"	Adverbial "once"
1	winus /wI"nUs/	furus /fU"rUs/	hamílai /xAmi:"lAj/
2	dúu /"du:wU/	a~cerus /"ANtSErUs/	dwis /dwIs/
3	stráis /"strQ:wIs/	striceyus /strItSE"jUs/	stris /strIs/
4	kituris /kItU"rIs/	ktúrus /ktu:rUs/	kiturús /kItUru:s/
5	fi~k /fINk/	fi~[k]tus /"fINtUs/	finkús /fIN"ku:s/

[Suddenly got struck by acute déjà vu...]

6	wist /wIst/	wistus /wI"stUs/	wistús /wI"stu:s/
7	hifta /xI"ftA/	hiftemus /xIftE"mUs/	hiftús /xI"ftu:s/
8	ustuw /U"stUw/	ustemus /UstE"mUs/	ustús /U"stu:s/
9	nía /"ni:jA/	níu~tus /ni:"jUNtUs/	níús /ni:"ju:s/
10	jisat /dZI"sAt/	jisitus /dZIsI"tUs/	jisitús /dZIsI"tu:s/

Adverbs regular in -ús from there on out.

11-19: "hinjisat, duji"sat, "strayjisat, ki"turjisat, "finkijisat, wisji"sat, hifti"jisat, u"stuwjisat, níu~jisat. 11th-19th: replace -jisat with -jisi"tus

20-90: "wísat, strí"sumt, ki"twúrsumt, finkí"sumt, wist"sumt, hi"fcímpsumt, ustuw"sumt, ni"wí~sumt. 20th-90th: "wísestus. replace -sumt with -sumpstus in the rest.

[NB how did "kitwursumt" get in there? [twu] shouldn't exist anymore...]

Hundreds: 100 = sa"tum. 100th = himpsi"tumtus. 200 = dusi"tum, dusi"tumtus, etc., using the number form from the teens series (stray-, kitur-,...)

Thousands: 1000 = šillum. 1000th = himpšillumtus. 2000 = dušillum. Etc., as for hundreds.

Everything else: Too much.

Muke Tever 8:26 AM

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Sunday, September 08, 2002

Negative verbs... have to be thought through. We have some lexical negatives (such as have ~ lack, remember ~ forget) but we can always have more (there ought to be one somewhere for "know")...

Incidentally, English has a severely damaged verb system. The copula and the so-called "auxiliary" verbs are the only ones that appear to be fully functional: main verbs can't be negativized, not even the ones the auxiliaries are derived from.

He is a cat. ~ He isn't a cat. (He is not a cat.)

He will have milk. ~ He won't have milk. (He will not have milk.)

He wants cheese. ~ He doesn't want cheese. (not *He wantsn't cheese/*He wants not cheese.)

He did something. ~ He didn't do something. (not *He didn't something.)

He has eaten ["eat" as the verb] : He hasn't eaten.
He has rabies ["has" as the verb] : He doesn't have rabies (not *He hasn't rabies.)

I dont know if (m)any conlangs have a verb system messed up differently from this. (Yeah, it's easy to imagine a language without it, such as through Spanish influence, or a conlang created with this difference, through contamination from English, but has anyone out there got other systems?)

Muke Tever 7:12 AM

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Wednesday, September 04, 2002

I just finished rereading Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis (first book in an excellent series).

Anyway, I'd really like to develop a conlang extending Malacandrian, the hressa hlab (language of the hrossa). It pretty much appears to be another triconsonantal root language (with really powerful plurals like oyarsa ~ oyéresu, hnakra ~ hnéraki, sorn ~ séroni...) Initial sonorants (even y and w!) are devoiced. Only two verb forms are given though, so that'd be pretty rough to deal with...

Muke Tever 8:47 AM

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Monday, September 02, 2002

I want to see more morphological punctuation.

English differentiates in writing between the homophonous cats, cat's, and cats' by means of an apostrophe. (However cats [plural noun] and cats [third person singular verb] are not differentiated.)

Maybe could build a conlang that uses punctuation like this more extensively...

Muke Tever 8:12 PM

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