Diinlang 2.0: Asking Questions.

Asking questions in Diinlang is very easy. The grammar of Diinlang resembles that of English but is more regular and simpler.

Asking a question in English often uses inversion. One says “Have you a phone?” instead of “You have a phone?”. English also makes use of “do-support” so the above inquiry might be “Do you have a phone?”. Diinlang makes use of neither mechanism, so the equivalent translation would be “Yu av je fohn?”

In fact, a Diinlang speaker would generally add the interrogative “ke” to the sentence and say either “Ke yu av je fohn?” or “Yu av je fohn, ke?” As you can see, this may occur at either the start or the end of a sentence. In the initial position you can think of it as having a similar function as “do-support”, although the literal meaning of “ke” is not “do”. At the end of a sentence it is rather like how some English speakers will add “eh?” to the end of a question. Alternately, think of it as an audible question mark.

On its own, ke means “what?” It can be combined with a number of other words to construct alternative interrogations, which would usually be used at the start of a sentence. Some of the possibilities are:

Ke? What?
Ke do? Where? (What place/ area?)
Ke per? Why (What for?)
Ke tem? When? (What time?)
Ke zem/jhen? Who? (What person?)
Ke li? How? (What manner?)
Ke jeve/un? Which one? (What each?)
Ke ving? What is that/there?
Ke vang? What is this/here?
Ke ta? How much/big?
Ke taz How many?

Note that a different word (su) is used for “who, what, which”, that when they are used as relative pronouns for connecting parts of sentence.

Diinlang 2.0: Thickness Modifiers.

The four thickness adjectives/adverbs are:

Gou.

Dep.

Eng.

Sou.

Gou denotes vertical distance, mainly of something that is solid or continuous. If something is tall it is “tagou”, if someone is short the are “kogou”. Mountains are tagou, but so is the Earth’s crust. For altitude and vertical distances through the air you would use “up”. You could describe a thick cloud as tagou, however.

Dep is also vertical, and covers such properties as deep, depth and deepness. Dep therefore usually describes downward directions. Water or a hole might be dep. “Kodep” is shallow, “tadep” very deep. Like any modifier these can be modified as comparisons or superlatives.

Eng is width and is horizontal. “Koeng” is thin or narrow, “Taeng” is broad. Using “ze-” or “it-” as a prefix makes it obvious that a statement is relative to an object’s orientation, rather than the speaker’s viewpoint.

Sou is horizontal depth or thickness. You might say that the drawers of a desk are “tasou”, for example. Sou also sees uses that in English we might use “long” for. If a trip is a long way through a deep forest in Diinlang tasou would be used for both “long” and “deep”.

Gou, dep, eng, sou.

Diinlang 2.0 Prepositions Group 2

Version 1.4

Here is the second group of updated prepositions for Diinlang 2.0. These are probably the class of words Ogden called “directives”. To facilitate learning the prepositions will be given in clusters of no more than seven items. 

Up/lo are the Diinlang words used for “up” and “down”. Their use is a little more general than their English homophones. One possible option is to have a single term for vertical height/altitude and use “ko” for low/decreasing properties and “ta” for high/increasing. This may still need another property for things below the observer. In the system below up and lo are relative to the observer or another reference. If you look up you would describe something using “up”, if down, “lo”. “Ta” and “ko” then describe if the distance is large or small, respectively. Up and lo can be used with the words “ta ”(large/big) and “ko” (little/small) to make positives, comparisons and superlatives. This gives twelve potential combinations but some of these will see less use than others. The potential combinations are as follows:

taup            very high/ high above
artaup        more higher
ustaup        highest/ top
koup           not very high/ just above
arkoup       less higher
uskoup       least highest

talo        very low/ low down
artalo    more lower
ustalo    most lowest/ bottom
kolo       not very low/ just below
arkolo   less lower
uskolo   least lowest 

Dek/lev are right/left, collectively called “siy” (side(s)). If necessary these can become positives, comparisons and superlatives, as can other directives. Dek/lev often combine with pronouns to make the Diinlang equivalent of “my left”, “your right”. When the third person pronoun is used (ze, zo, za or it), zelev means “port” and zedek or itdek means “starboard”. Directions are relative to the front of the object, creature or vessel, assuming it has an obvious front.

Van/hin are front/back. These can be combined with pronouns, positives, comparisons and superlatives if necessary.

In/eks are in/out. These four pairs of words can be remembered by visualizing a cube or box. It has six sides and also an inside and outside. Diinlang  uses “in” for some uses not commonly seen in English. “In” is used as a preposition for travelling to geographical and physical locations. The Diinlang for “Are you going to France?” is “Ke (yu) bi go in Franca?” It could be said this is a contraction of “into” in English. Rather than travelling “on a train” or “by a train” Diinlang uses the more logical “in un trayn”, although “on un trayn” may also be used.

The words above can combine with other words for related meanings. The word “do” (pr. doh) means a place or location. “Usta-up-do” is thus the highest part of something. “Indo” is inside of something. In an older post I suggested the word “ru” for surface, and this could be used like do. The prepositions ad, po and di can be combined with the words mentioned above, to describe a location in relative terms. “Ad/po zedev” means to/from portside. “Ad syn” - “beside/to the side”. Inad =into, although “adin” may be more logical.

The directives can be combined with “go” to describe movement in a particular direction. “Upgo” is to move upwards/ascend, “eksgo” is to move outwards. This mechanic extends to other words. “Trago” would mean “to move-through” and “imigo” “to move between”.

Sub/ov respectively mean under/below and above/over.  “Sub” is used with this meaning in many languages, but its antonym “super” has become fuzzier in its meaning, and is a little long, so “ov” can be used instead. There are alternate terms that can be constructed using the words above. “Up po”, literally “up from” can mean above, and “lo po” down-from, or under.

A related system to the above will be constructed for describing height, depth, width and thickness.

Group 2: Up/lo, dek/lev, siy, van/hin, sub/ov.

Since I first wrote this page I came across the Novial adverbs subu (down, downwards), inu (inside) and eku (out, outside), derived from the prepositions sub (under), in (in) and ek (out of, out from). These are simple and clear. To these I suggest up/upu for up/upwards, above.

Diinlang 2.0 Prepositions Group 1.

Here is the first group of updated prepositions for Diinlang 2.0. To facilitate learning the prepositions will be given in clusters of no more than seven items. It will be noted, however, that some of these are pairs of related words, such as on/af and ad/po. “In” is a word in Diinlang with the same meaning as in English, and is used in the below. In and its complement will be formally introduced in a later post. 

Di, may be used as one of the default prepositions of Diinlang. It denotes an association or origin, so can mean “of/from, from, since, by” If you are stuck for a preposition, di will often serve. A play is “of/from” Shakespeare rather than being “by” him, so di is used. A person is of/from Rome, so di. “Book di Shakespeare”, like the English equivalent “Book of Shakespeare”, is a little ambivalent. To stress that something is about or by a subject we may use “on” instead.

On, as in English, means “on” or “about/concerning”. “On” can be used to mean “about” in the context of “a book about …” The literal translation in Diinlang would therefore be “a book on”. Constructions such as “talk about…” could either be “talk of (yak di)…” or “talk on (yak on)…”. On is also sometimes used where English would use “at”. The ball is not “at the edge” but “on the edge”. The Diinlang word for “off” is “af”.

“Ad” is the word used for “to” in Diinlang. It may also used like “at” in English for contexts such as “at 7.00pm”. In Diinlang you can also say “..as 7.00pm” rather than “at” In Diinlang the opposite of “ad” is “po” meaning “from” or “away”. This is more concerned with direction but there is some overlap with “di”. For example “left of (di) ship” or “left from (po) ship” can sometimes be used interchangeably, but may also have distinct differing meanings. Ad, po and di are often used with words for directions. One way to say something is over/above something is “...up po/di...”.

“Per” is used a little more broadly in Diinlang than in English. “Per” is used for “for” in uses such as “leave for Rome” or “bus for Milan”. In the past Diinlang has also used “pro” to mean “for” in the context of being in favour of something or inclined towards something. This usage needs to be considered in greater depth. When in doubt, use per before pro. Per may introduce an intended goal or recipient: “Work per money”. An exchange: “Money per nothing.” An intended period of time: “Gone per a week”. Something favoured or represented: “I spoke per you/ voted per it”. As in English it can mean “for each”, “in accordance with.” or “to each, in each” : miles per hour, price per person, per your idea. It can mean “through/using” in contexts such as “leave per the door”. The reflexive pronoun se combines with per to create per se with the same use as in English. Statements that cannot use “di” may be understandable with “per”.

Veng, is a Diinlang word for “near” and can be used as a preposition. Veng is one of the words that should be considered where you would use “at” or “by” in English, and this can be used instead of “by” or “at”. Rather than “meet by the café” or “at 7.00pm” veng can be used in either case.

Tra. In Italian “tra” and “fra” are interchangeable and mean “between” or “within (a time)”. Diinlang now uses the word “tra” to mean “through”, as is done in several other conlangs. The Diinlang word “dia” also means “through”.

Imi is the Diinlang preposition meaning “between”, “amoung”, “during” or “within (a time)”. The English “I get married in two years” would use “imi” rather than “in” in Diinlang. “Imi” can mean “than” in comparisons. Jon arta imi Dean = Jon bigger between Dean = Jon bigger than Dean.

Group 1: di, on/af, ad/po, per, veng, tra, imi.

Diinlang 2.0: Useful Verbs

Afrikaans makes no distinction between the present and infinitive forms of verbs, with the exception of the verbs for “to be” and “to have”. Diinlang uses the bare infinitive for all verbal uses, although the past form may be optionally suffixed with “-te”. I suspect there may be no need to form clauses with a full infinitive. If a full infinitive is needed it is formed with the word “du”, rather than the word for “to”, “ad”. Thus we have the verbs “du bi” and “du av”. The verb for “to do” is only written as “du”, not “du du”. To name a verb in Diinlang we state its infinitive/pastform.

The verb “bi/bite” has a number of uses, one of which is as an auxiliary verb. Placed before another infinitive it makes the verb of continuous/ progressive aspect. Zo bi go = He is going.

Similarly, the verb “av/avte” acts as an auxiliary making a verb of perfect aspect. Zo av go = He has gone. The two auxiliaries are used together to create perfect progressive forms. Zo av bi go = He has been going. A verb to create habitual statements is planned.

The verb “ge/gete” is another auxiliary which has the effect of making a clause in the passive voice. Zo ge nyam = He got chewed. “-ge” placed at the end of an infinitive makes the past/passive participle of a verb.

“Par/pate” is a very useful verb for using as a copula. Par means “to seem, or to appear to be”. In English we often say that something is something. Par makes a less definite but more realistic statement. Ving ave par blu hu = That bird appears blue coloured. Used as a suffix/terminal compound -par describes something has having a resemblance to something else. Hence “Avepar” would mean bird-like or birdoid.

“Ija/ijate” is a verb that means “begin to cause”, “become” or “start to be.” and is thus used to make inchoative or inceptive statements. The suffix -ija is used to create inchoative/ inceptive verbs from other roots. “Za redija” would the equivalent of the English “She reddens”.

Diinlang 2.0: The Vocab Plan

Version 1.1

Part of the original plan for Diinlang was for words to have a “CVn” format, where “C” is a consonant, “V” a vowel and “n” a nasal such as m, n or ng. One problem is that this would give us a very limited number of words if homophones were to be avoided. The second is one of definitions. Are C and V single letters, or should they be phonemes? If the latter, what sort of consonant clusters should be permitted? The problem that “w” poses to some speakers may mean that “kv” is to be treated as a homophone of “kw”. This has yet to be finalized, but I am working with the idea that no more than two consonant phonemes occur at the start of the word. Certain double letter combinations such as th, st, sh, kw, jh are counted as one phoneme, as may be the three-letter “eks”. Thus a word such as “strong” is permissible in Diinlang.

Diinlang will have some CVC words and syllables. Hard terminal sounds such as -t and -k are useful for some words. There are likely to be CVCV words too, given currently certain adverbs are made by adding “-i” or “-li” to the end of a word. Also, certain words are gendered by adding “-o” or “-a”.

There are also lots of potentially useful words that can be formed from CV or VC. Hogben makes this interesting observation about the potential of Dutton’s Speedwords:

“One advantage of a language designed to achieve maximum word-economy in Ogden’s sense recalls R. J. G. Dutton’s Speedwords, an ingenious system of international shorthand which makes use of monosyllables in Roman script, thus cutting out the effort of learning a new and esoteric system of symbols. With 5 vowel and 20 consonant symbols we can build 100 open syllables like to or be, and 100 open monosyllables like at or up, making 205 pronounceable elements, if we add simple vowels to the list. Closed monosyllables like pat or top containing no consonant clusters add another 2,000 possibilities. Since Basic English gets along with a word-list of 850 essential items, it is clearly possible to design a language of which all the root words would be monosyllabic, like the root words of a Chinese language. A language so designed need not be compromised by a superfoetation of homophones, as in Chinese; but it could not be a language based exclusively on current international roots, many of which are polysyllables.” 

It is logical that two-letter words be used for the most common concepts and uses. This includes various pronouns, determiners and conjunctions. In actual fact I have already represented some common conjunctions by single letters. In Diinlang we have 17/18 potential consonants. The letter “c” is redundant, “q” is represented by “kw” and “x” by “eks”. The utility of an initial “w-” has yet to be finalized. In the previous post I looked at the idea of having sixteen vowel sounds. Only five of these can be written as a single letter. Also, the terminal rule states that “-a” or “-o” at the end of a word use the phonemes “ah” or “oh” and “-u” uses “uu”.

Our potential CV words are thus: “Ca, Ce, Ci, Co, Cu, Cay, Cee, Cor, Ciy, Coy, Cou, Cyu, Cuh” but only 85-90 are possible two-letter configurations. There may be less since some Ce and Ci forms may be near homophones. Some CV words using “eks-” are potentially five letters long.

85-90 gives us a useful pool of two-letter words we can use for pronouns and other suitable uses. Add to this a number of potential two letter VC words and single-letter V words.

Once these are fleshed out, more thought can be given to CVn, CVC and CVCV words. Ideally the former pair are each single syllables that represent a useful concept, permitting logical and easily understood compounds. Some of the “spare” and longer CV words will see similar use. For example, “kwa” would be a useful word for “water”. “kwamek”: “water-machine”, “kwajhen”: “water-person” and so on.

Pitman Phonetics

The other day I came across an alphabet using different shapes of leaves instead of letters. This was a basic substitution of the 26 letters, with no attempt at phonetics or other innovations. It occurred to me more could have been done with the idea. Using the simplest leaf shapes for the vowels and more common letters was an obvious one. The idea that the symbols could be used both stem down and stem up reminded me of the shavian alphabet which used tall letters for voiceless consonants and deep letters for voiced.

Thinking about the shavian alphabet took me to Quikscript, and on the theme of quick writing, to Pitman shorthand.

One thing I noticed in the article about Pitman was that it used six long vowels, six short and only four diphthongs. These were remembered by :“That pen is not much good”  /ðæt pɛn ɪz nɒt mʌt͡ʃ ɡʊd/ for the short; “Pa, may we all go too?” /pɑː | meɪ wiː ɔːl ɡoʊ tuː/ for the long and “I enjoy Gow’s music.” /aɪ/, /ɔɪ/, /aʊ/, /juː/ for the diphthongs.

In the phonetics system I developed for Diinlang these would be represented:

Short: a, e, i, o, u, uh. “Dhat pen iz not mutsh guhd.”

Long: ah, ay, ee, or, oh, uu. “Pa(h) may wee orl go(h) tu(u)?”

Diphthong: iy, oy, ou, yu “Iy enjoy Gou’s myusik”

This is only sixteen “vowel-type” sounds. This is less than my previous attempts at phonetics, although the above generally ignores combinations of vowel or diphthong with -r. In Diinlang the short e also represents schwa. This article shows systems with up to 24 vowel sounds for English.