Sounds good ... er, "bad"? ;)

Wesley Parish

On Tue, 22 Mar 2005 18:49, Geoff Horswood wrote:
> As usual, all comments & suggestions welcome.
>
> Partly in the interests of sheer perversity, I'm trying to create an orc-
> language with a mostly "elvish" phonology.  Noygwexaal is what I have come
> up with, spoken by the Noygooras, or goblin peoples.
>
> Phonology
> ---------
>
> Character   CXS value
> p           /p/
> b           /b/
> t           /t/
> d           /d/
> c           /k/
> g           /g/
> cw          /kw/
> gw          /gw/
> m           /m/
> n           /n/
> y           /N/
> yw          /Nw/
> f           /f/
> v           /v/
> x           /T/
> q           /D/
> s           /s/
> z           /z/
> š           /S/
> r           /r/
> l           /l/
> w           /w/
> j           /j/
>
> a           /a/
> aa          /a:/
> e           /e, E/
> ee          /e:, E:/
> i           /i, I/
> ii          /i:, I:/
> o           /o, O/
> oo          /o:, O:/
> u           /u, U/
> uu          /u:, U:/
>
> Doubled vowels can be written as vowel-macron, but this font won't handle
> macrons :P.  I was thinking of transcribing /S/ as k, but that's just a
> little too perverse.
>
>
> Grammar
> -------
>
> OSV syntax, just to continue the perversity.  Plurals and collectives[1]
> are formed by ablaut of the final vowel in a regular pattern for each
> vowel.  There are 6 noun classes: warm/bright, hard, soft, liquid/wet,
> abstract/immaterial, and magical.  Most living things are in the
> warm/bright category, but so are fire, hot rocks, the sun, the moon and so
> on.  Some animals are in the hard or soft categories, and most magical or
> completely eldritch creatures fall into the magical category, as does any
> complex machinery.
> There are only 2 tenses: Present and Oblique.  (When you spend almost all
> of your existence underground, time is less of an issue.)  However, there
> are 4 levels of evidentiality: direct knowledge, direct report, tradition
> and hearsay.
>
> Some example sentences
> ----------------------
>
> ga-reqan ec vuur-carwaanduu vuur-i-xanoor deriil.
> /ga 'rED.an Ek vu:r` kar'wa:n.du: vu:r i Tan'O:r dEr'i:l/
> ga-reqan ec vuur-carwa.anduu vuur-i-xanoor der.iil
> the(h)-pickaxe to the(w)-work_party.leader the-SUBJ-thanor give.3sgl(w)_obl
> Thanor gave the pickaxe to the overseer.
>
> ga-reqen ec vuur-carwaanduu vuur-i-xanoor deriil.
> /ga 'rED.En Ek vu:r` kar'wa:n.du: vu:r i Tan'O:r dEr'i:l/
> ga-reqen ec vuur-carwa.anduu vuur-i-xanoor der.iil
> the(h)-pickaxes(pl) to the(w)-work_party.leader the-SUBJ-thanor
> give.3sgl(w) _obl
> Thanor gave the pickaxes to the overseer.
>
> tarl ga-nen i-gwiin biijeruqiin.
> /tarl ga nEn I gwi:n bi:'jEr.UD.i:n/
> tarl ga-nen i-gwiin biijer.uqiin
> in the(h)-cave SUBJ-bats fly.3pl(w)_prs_2ev
> (I have been told that) Bats fly (around) in the cave.
>
> ga-nen i-lumaara telejwestuu.
> /ga nEn i lu'ma:r.a tE'lej.wEs.tu:/
> ga-nen i-lumaara telej.westuu
> the(h)-cave SUBJ-waters(c) tunnel.3c(l)_obl_3ev
> (It is the tradition that) Water carved this cave.
>
> puu-heerulindwaara nejr iloornuu.
> /pu: 'hE:.ru.lIn"dwa:.ra nejr I'lo:r.nu:/
> puu-heeru.lindwaara nejr iloor.nuu
> the(m)-black.dragon[2] you(formal) slay.2sgl(f)_obl_2ev[3]
> You will slay the black dragon.
>
>
> [1] collective forms.  eg the singular of "person" is "person", and the
> plural is "people", which in Noywexaal has the sense of "some people"
> or "these people" (of a limited number).  The collective form has the sense
> of "all the people", "the tribe", "the crowd" and so on.
> [2] modifiers, especially adjectives, are usually conjoined to the front of
> their head to create long compound words.  The exception is in sentences
> like "the dragon is black".
> [3] future events are usually couched in less certain evidentiality, as
> (prophecy notwithstanding) the future is uncertain.
>
>
> What do you think?  I'm currently vocabulary-generating as a prelude to
> working on a Babel translation.
>
> Geoff

--
Clinersterton beademung, with all of love - RIP James Blish
-----
Mau e ki, he aha te mea nui?
You ask, what is the most important thing?
Maku e ki, he tangata, he tangata, he tangata.
I reply, it is people, it is people, it is people.