I just figured I'd post some more about my conlang (still unnamed, whoops.) I wanted to create it to be somewhat easy to remember, so I've based it around stem-words or concepts (these can be very general, ie the word for seat and chair is the same, coming under 'a thing to sit down on', or more specific than English - having words for two different kinds of light.)
This stem-word (the noun) can then be modified to become a verb, adjective or adverb. This basically means there is less for anyone to remember.
To become a verb - add a 'tense' prefix.
To become an adjective - add an 'ae' suffix.
To become an adverb - add an 'aí' suffix.
Example: melusine.
As a noun, melusine means happiness.
melusine : happiness (n) (meh-liu-seen) (x)-melusine : smile (v) melusinae : happy (adj) (meh-liu-see-NAH) melusinaí : happily (adv) (meh-liu-see-nah-ee)Information on the (x) for the verb later. Just going to explain the rules about adjectives/adverbs.
Note that normally ae / aí are simply added onto the end of a word. There are just a couple of exceptions. If the noun ends in a or e, then both ae / aí replace the a / e. If the noun ends in i or ai, then aí replaces that. No noun ends in ae.
Examples:
marin (the sea/ocean) -> marinae / marinaí (ma-RIN) (ma-RI-NAY) / (ma-RI-NAH-ee)
scioa (knowledge/understanding) -> scioae / scioaí(skyo-ah) (skyo-ay) / (skyo-ah-ee) .... and so on.
Now, a little about verbs.
You will notice that the verb for melusine was written (x)-melusine. This is because the prefix changes depending on the verb's tense. The prefix is actually the one irregular verb - to be.
Below is the conjugation for the verb, to be (or, to exist.)
li : present tense. (I) am, (you) are, (it) is. lé : past tense. (I/it) was, (you) were. lor : future tense. (I/you/it) will be.These are the most basic! But there are others too... Note, these following 'tenses' can be further modified themselves by the past/future tenses. Not the present, it's assumed they're in the present.
kou : conditional tense. (I) can. aou : perfect tense. (I) have been. hou : 'desire' tense. (I) want. sou : (I) should. vou : (I) must (imperative, ruder than 'so').These are most of them, but there are others also. I don't think they're so commonly used, though. Also note that these are 'to be' when used with VERBS only, not nouns or adjectives (there's a different set to maintain distinction between verbs and nouns.)
So, I will conjugate a verb in this way. I'll choose votchka, the verb to speak.
llui li-votchka - I speak / I am speaking.
llui lé-votchka - I spoke / I was speaking.
llui lor-votchka - I will speak / I will be speaking
llui kou-votchka - I can speak
llui aou-votchka - I have been speaking.... and so on!
Extras. Basically to show how to modify the second lot of tenses.
llui aou'lé-votchka - I had been speaking.
llui kou'lor-votchka - I will be able to speak.
Pretty neat, right? At least, I like to think so.
Another important point about about 'to be' - it's also the only verb that can be used on its own without any sort of prefix. For example, to use with adjectives. As well as the ae suffix, you can tell it's not a verb because 'to be' changes :
mi : present tense (I am, you are)
meí : past tense (I was, you were)
meor : future tense (I will be)
aó : perfect tense (I have been)
kó : conditional (I can, I could)
só : I should, you should
vó : I must, you must
hó : I want, you want
It's also not written with a -, since it isn't absolutely necessary - although it would normally appear before an adjective it doesn't have to. For example, if someone asked you what you thought of something, you might just respond with "Pretty" if you were being lazy - or in this conlang, where you don't actually need to refer to the something again since it is clear what is being talked about.
xue mi melusinae - they are happy.
xue meí melusinae - they were happy... etc.
llui mi ó pantalion - I am a cat
One more note on sentence structure in general. If there's more than one noun in a sentence, the noun before the verb is the thing doing the action and the noun after the verb is having the action done to it. If there's just one noun, it doesn't matter which way you put it. An adjective follows the noun it refers to. An adverb follows directly after the verb it describes, and can be considered as part of the verb.
And when it comes to adverbs... See, this sentence here:
xue lé-melusine melusinaí - they smiled happily....
Would not probably be used because, while it is grammatically correct, sounds a bit stupid!
Melusine and melusinaí come from the same concept stem. It is already presumed that when someone lé-melusine, they did it happily, since the word comes from the stem for happiness! You could say smiled widely, smiled slightly, or even smiled sadly. But not smiled happily! This is a huge pet peeve of mine when I'm reading/writing.
It's like someone saying 'running quickly.' Why!? It's such a waste of words. If you're running, I assume you're moving quickly without you needing to describe it further. Either use running on its own, or swap it for something like 'sprinting' if you really want to emphasise the point. Unless there's something unusual about the verb, that isn't already implied by the verb, and there isn't a better verb that will get the point across without a stupid -ly word, don't use one. It drives me bonkers. It's a one-way-street to over-description, which just distracts from the story/what you're actually trying to say. Come the glorious revolution, -ly words will be first on the block. I literally go back on my work and cut them out where I use them most of the time, I can't stand them. 90% of the time they get overused and the writer ends up sounding about thirteen. I went through that awful over-description phase - 'Look at me, I'm a writer and I know words and I'm going to use them to describe Literally Everything just in case my readers are too thick to imagine it for themselves!'
Never again. It's just not nice.
So, I deliberately made this conlang in a way that should stamp out some of these ridiculous over-descriptions. Thank you. You're welcome.
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