Conlang Thoughs and Conjugation Dreams ====================================== (C) Keith Gaughan, 1999-2000 Permanent Location: First Created: Wednesday, 28 June 2000 03:39:39am Last Modified: Wednesday, 28 June 2000 03:39:39am I. Some notes on a possible case system for a language (sometime between the 5th of April, 1999 and the 26th of April, 1999) In this language, each noun is marked for case except the topic/focus (I know there's a difference, I'm just unsure what it is) of the sentence. The verb in the sentence takes a modifier which indicates the topic's role in the context of all the other elements in the sentence, so it may be correctly interpreted. As a rough example of this in English, this effect is in part performed by mood. Take the sentence: Beavers build dams ^^^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^ 'Beavers' is the topic of the sentence and is therefore what is being talked about and the sentence is true, but if we pacify it, we get: Dams are built by beavers ^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^ In this case, 'Dams' is the topic and the sentence is false because it means that all dams are built by beavers. This is so because we are changing the item being talked about although the content is the same. In this language, the topic and it's predicate should always exist although the predicate need only consist of the verb alone. Another example would be the two sentences 'I made mistakes' and 'Mistakes were made'. While they both have the same meaning, the passive one allows you to drop the agent who performed the action (the making of the mistake) because it's not the topic of the sentence. II. (sometime between the 5th of May, 1999 and the 18th of June, 1999) I've been looking though my stuff and found this on a page (must have been an idea I had): Genders * Nominal kind <- (I think this was an error): Things found in nature eg. birds, mammals, plants, carbon, mountains, etc. * Artifacts: Man-made objects. * Nominal kind: Categories specified by a precise definition like senators, bachelors, brothers, provinces, etc. III. (18th of June, 1999) Moved in with all my other notes on Ternaru on 4th July, 2000. IV. (26th of June, 1999) A few notes on creating an IAL: 1. When setting down your 'fundamento', make sure all the rules are consistant and do not contradict each other without reason. 2. Complications such as agreement and grammatical gender should be kept out of and IAL -- they complicate the language unnecessarily and rarely serve any real purpose. 3. Keep the number of compulsory affixes to a minimum -- tense, number, natural gender, etc. V. Odd Pronounal System (3rd of April, 1999) This was merged into Kaityanna around 29th June, 2000. Removed 29th June, 2000. VI. Kaityanna (Date Unknown) This is my personal language. Removed 29th June, 2000. VII. Unknown language (Date Unknown) Articles Definite (pl.): len(a) lan(a) Determiners: so this san that No actual definite article, but Án can be used, optionally, following the NP can be the adverbal 'avan' - 'alone'. L'aibitr - the alphabet. VIII. Interesting Property of Irish (Date Unknown) Use of posessive adjectives with verbal nouns can be the equivalent of use of the present participle in English and its subject. Eg. He is hitting us = Tá sé ár bhualadh or = Tá sé ag bualadh muidne