Ving, Vang, Vong

Before I decided to place my thoughts on Diinlang on this blog I was using the word sequence “ving”, “vang”, “vong” for the words “here”, “there” and “yonder”. The acoustics of ving, vang, vong made them easy to remember that they were related. I expected to use the same system for other sequences of related words.

The start of the blog coincided with an interest in Dutton Speedwords so I considered a shorter series of words and proposed “sa”, “si” and “so”. Despite the brevity I have not been particularly satisfied with this change. “Si” and “sa” also had the meaning of “this” or “that” and by implication “so” could mean “that which is very distant”.

If the use of ving, vang and vong is reinstituted it may be more logical to place them in alphabetical order so the sequence becomes “vang”, “ving”, “vong”. The concept of “near” could also be added to the sequence, giving us “vang”, “veng”, “ving” and “vong” for “here”, “near”, “there/ far” and “yonder/ very far”. If used as demonstrative pronouns (this, that, these, those) the definitive article or another determiner is used to indicated noun/ pronoun status. Compare to "det här" in Swedish. Hence “de vang, de ving, de vangz/ dez vang, de vingz/ dez ving”. These may mutate to “dang” and “ding” so keep these words free for this potential use.

This also makes it more practical to resume use of “se” as a reflexive pronoun, as it is used in Portuguese and some Scandinavian languages. Pronunciation would most likely be “she” in Diinlang.

Whether to use “ving” also as a relative pronoun needs to be considered. Interglossa uses “su” from “subject” as a relative pronoun, which I quite like. It is possible Diinlang could use both “ving” and “su” but have them fully interchangeable.