Conlang Diaries

[turcolianoblr]

Most Common Turkish Verbs

Inspired by this post of @langblrspace

olmak - to be 

sahip olmak - to have 

yapmak- to do, make

yapabilmek - to be able, can

söylemek, anlatmak - to say, tell

gitmek - to go

görmek - to see

vermek - to give

bilmek - to know (information)

istemek, sevmek - to want, love

ulaşmak, gelmek - to arrive, come, reach

geçmek, zaman harcamak - to pass, to spend time

koymak - to put, place, set

gözükmek - to seem, appear

kalmak - to stay, remain

inanmak - to believe

konuşmak - to speak

taşımak, getirmek - to carry, bring

terk etmek, bırakmak - to leave, abandon, to let, allow

takip etmek, devam etmek - to follow, continue

bulmak - to find

gelmek - to come

düşünmek - to think

bırakmak, gitmek - to leave, go out

dönmek - to return

tanımak - to know (people)

yaşamak - to live

hissetmek - to feel

davranmak - to treat

izlemek, bakmak - to watch, look at

başlamak - to begin, start

beklemek, umut etmek - to wait for, to hope

aramak - to search for, look for

çıkmak - to exist

girmek - to enter, go in, come in

çalışmak - to work

yazmak - to write

kaybetmek - to lose

üretmek - to produce

anlamak - to understand

istemek - to request, ask for

hatırlamak - to remember, remind

bitmek - to finish, end

izin vermek - to permit, allow

çıkarmak - to take out, stick out

ihtiyaç duymak - to need, require

okumak - to read

düşmek - to fall

değişmek - to change

tanıştırmak - to introduce

yaratmak - to create, to make

açmak - to open

değerlendirmek - to consider

duymak - to hear

dönüştürmek, değiştirmek - to convert, change

kazanmak - to win, gain, earn, get

ayırmak - to divide

ölmek - to die

kabul etmek - to accept, approve, to agree to

başarmak - to achieve, attain, accomplish

varsaymak - to suppose

açıklamak - to explain

sormak - to ask

dokunmak, çalmak - to touch, to play (an instrument)

tanımak - to recognize

çalışmak - to study

doğmak - to be born

yönetmek - to direct

koşmak - to run

kullanmak - to use

ödemek - to pay, pay for

yardım etmek - to help

memnun etmek - to please, be pleasing

oynamak - to play (a game or sport)

dinlemek - to listen

tamamlamak - to fulfill

teklif etmek - to offer

keşfetmek - to discover

kaldırmak - to raise, to lift

denemek - to try, attempt

[conlangdiaries]

Testing ruqöl syntax #1

Link to the wiki.

The sun shines. to_shine.II.PR.CON.IND.DIR sun.ESS jholyef jhülox

The sun is shining. to_shine.II.PR.PRO.IND.DIR sun.ERG jholyıf jhülam

The sun shone. to_shine.II.P.CON.IND.DIR sun.ESS jholyiaf jhülox

The sun will shine. to_shine.II.F.CON.IND.DIR sun.EXE jholyof jhülokh

The sun has been shining to_shine.II.R.CON.IND.FAC sun.ESS jholhuif jhülox

The sun is shining again. to_shine.II.PR.HAB.IND.DIR sun.ERG jholyëf jhülam

The sun will shine tomorrow. tomorrow to_shine.II.F.PRO.IND.DIR sun.EXE döhor jholyüf jhülokh

The sun shines brightly. to_shine.II.R.CON.IND.DIR bright.ADV sun.ESS jholyüf röxojh jhülam

The bright sun shines. to_shine.II.R.CON.IND.FAC sun.ESS bright.ESS jholhuif jhülox röqox

The sun is rising now. to_rise.II.PR.PRO.IND.DIR sun.ERG now chänmıf jhülam dëher

[conlangdiaries]

Conlang Journal #1

döhor torbhena ༺ sıvdar ༻ ghetazël shaezeshan | sö:dahrnrua maftan hum༔ phäð-sädhesam༔ ha:ghetaz karin ༺ raicerx käf ||

/d̪oɦɔɾ t̪ɔɾbʱɛnɑ ʂɪʋd̪ɑɾ ɡʱɛt̪ɑzel ʂʰɑe̯zɛʂʰɑn ʂod̪ɑɦɾnɾu̯ɑ mɑft̪ɑn ɦum pʰaɽ ʂad̪ʱɛʂɑm ɦɑɡʱɛt̪ɑz kɑɾin ɾɑi̯ʈʰɛɾx kaf/

[conlangdiaries]

ruqöl case agreement I - verb voice

Let's take four verbs, each from one voice:

to search (VT) - whaech

to go (VI) - jäq

to listen (IT) - lhel

to sleep (II) - khaeb

and construct some sample sentences (I will be using the gender neutral pronoun they because that's the most accurate translation). Dog is wof. they searched for the dog to_search.VT.P.PFV.IND.DIR 3.PR.F.NOM dog.ACC C1-nh-C2 whaeshac jhëwhofoi /ˈɽ͡rae̯ʂʰɑʈ ʐʱeˈɽ͡rɔfɔi̯/

Now you may be wondering, wait, it says nh in the conjugation above but in the word itself there's an sh, this is because of retroflex assimilation, both the root letters are retroflexes while nh is a denti-alveolar consonant. So the nasal shifts to the next best thing it can find in the retroflex class, sh. Similarly jh is a retroflex but w is an alveolar trill, so it shifts to a retroflex trill. One more rule, when a syllable ends in an aspirated consonant and the next word begins with an unaspirated one, the aspiration 'jumps' to the next consonant and the previous one becomes unaspirated. So here, ch -> c and j -> jh.

they listened to the dog to_listen.IT.P.PFV.IND.DIR 3.PR.F.ERG dog.ABS C1-C2(‘)-b lhelyab jëham wof /ɬ̪ɛlɻɑb ʐeɦɑm rɔf/ Here, the ' marker indicates a previous gemination which then shifted consonants to the next place of articulation, consonant dissimilation, so each consonant has its pair which is usually the consonant that immediately follows it in the articulation table. So for l it is y...

they slept to_sleep.II.P.PFV.IND.DIR 3.PR.F.ERG C1-C2(‘)-f khaebdaf jëham /kʰae̯bd̪ɑf ʐeɦɑm/ And for b it is d.

they went to_go.VI.P.PFV.IND.DIR 3.PR.F.NOM C1-mh-C2 jämhaq jëh /ʐam̥ʰɑh ʐeɦ/ In the end of syllables, the pharyngeal fricative q [ħ] is realised as a voiceless glottal fricative h. Now you'll notice one thing, all of these verbs have the same TAME 'category' but their conjugation is completely different because they are in different 'voices'. Furthermore, for each of these verbs, the case markers differ. But with the subjects you'll notice a pattern, when the voice is volitional, the subject will be in the nominative (NOM) and when it is involutional, the subject will be in the ergative (ERG). This is because ruqöl is a split-ergative language which displays case agreement with the verb.

[conlangdiaries]

With this one, let’s take a look at comparative adjectives. You know how in English we would say dark, darker, darkest as three degrees of comparison, well ruqöl has six. Now you know how we’ve been talking about various case markers like dative (DAT), partitive (PRT), accusative (ACC) etc…well, these case markers also act as comparison markers when added to adjective roots. For eg:

Comparative – “more X” → hungrier, brighter, stronger, darker  Dog.NOM ACC.dark cat.SOC  The dog is darker than the cat 

wof faikoys miumhab

Superlative – “most X” → hungriest, brightest, strongest Dog.NOM TRN.dark The dog is the darkest 

wof fömkoys

Equative – “as X as” → as hungry as, equally bright Dog.NOM SOC.dark cat.SOC  The dog is as dark as the cat 

wof fabkoys miumhab

Contrastive – “X but not Y” (highlighting difference) → hungry (unlike you), bright (but not warm) Dog.NOM ERG.dark cat.SOC  The dog is dark unlike the cat 

wof famkoys miumhab

Sublative – “less X / under-X” → less hungry, dimmer, weaker Dog.NOM PRT.dark cat.SOC  The dog is less dark than the cat 

wof foykoys miumhab

Excessive – “too X / over-X” → too hungry, overly bright, excessively strong Dog.NOM BEN.dark  The dog is extremely dark 

wof fazkoys

Now you know how we saw classifiers in the last instalment, well, when used with comparative adjectives they function as intensifiers. For eg:

The dog is a little darker than the cat - Fractional Dog.NOM ACC.dark CL.1.fractional.intelligence cat.SOC 

wof faikoys-kuic miumhab

The dog is somewhat darker than the cat - Amount Dog.NOM ACC.dark CL.1.amount.intelligence cat.SOC 

wof faikoys-küc miumhab

The dog is much darker than the cat. - Innumerable Dog.NOM ACC.dark CL.1.innumerable.intelligence cat.SOC 

wof faikoys-kauc miumhab

“The dog is nearly as dark as the cat” - infinitesimal  Dog.NOM SOC.dark CL.1.infinitesimal.intelligence cat.SOC 

wof fabkoys-kiuc miumhab You'll notice that before the cases there is the letter f, when writing vowels always have to be enclosed by consonants, so the last consonant is repeated across the first syllable and the first repeated letter remains silent.

[conlangdiaries]

Ok so this is quite a straightforward one, wof, dog. And with this one I’m going to show you how to count in ruqöl. ruqöl doesn’t have a system of individual numbers, instead it uses a system of classifiers where a classifier phrase contains a numeral + quantifier + classifier. The table for the list of classifiers is given below. Each consonant of the language contains a classifier quality and acts as a numeral, the latter when added to the beginning of the classifier phrase and the former the opposite. The vowels similarly have a quantifier quality with the vowels agreeing in front-back vowel harmony with the root of the modifying word. 

For eg: 

One dog  CL.1.cardinal.intelligence Dog.PRT  

koc-whofoy

Two dogs  CL.2.cardinal.intelligence Dog.PRT  

khoc-whofoy

Three dogs  CL.3.cardinal.intelligence Dog.PRT

goc-whofoy 

A pair of dogs  CL.2.cardinal.group Dog.PRT

khomh-wofoy

A group of few dogs  CL.30.amount.group Dog.PRT

nhümh-wofoy

A pack of 30 dogs CL.30.cardinal.group Dog.PRT

nhomh-wofoy

A group of dogs (A pack of dogs)  CL.600.amount.group Dog.PRT

phümh-wofoy

Fourth dog in a line of dogs  CL.4.ordinal.intelligences Dog.PRT

ghuc-wofoy 

Fifth dog  CL.5.ordinal.intelligences Dog.PRT  

xuc-wofoy 

The fourth dog in a pack of dogs  CL.4.ordinal.groups  Dog.PRT

ghumh-wofoy

Innumerable dogs (there were a sea of dogs)  CL.inf.innumerable.groups  Dog.PRT

qaumh-wofoy

There were no dogs  CL.0.void-null.intelligences Dog.PRT

hoec-whofoy

Now this may seem like an unnecessarily complex system for such a simple thing as counting but this is actually quite a logical system when it is extended to other classes as measure words. For eg: let’s take the word for ocean, baqs and add in the measure words. 

A cup of ocean water  CL.1.bundles.liquid ocean.PRT

kökh-baqsoy

A litre of ocean water  CL.1.amount.liquid ocean.PRT

kükh-baqsoy

A drop of ocean water  CL.1.infinitesimal.liquid ocean.PRT

kiukh-baqsoy

Half a cup of ocean water  CL.1.fractional.liquid ocean.PRT

kuikh-baqsoy

A spray of ocean water  CL.1.shattered-many.liquid ocean.PRT

koukh-baqsoy

A flood of ocean water  CL.1.innumerable.liquid ocean.PRT

kaukh-baqsoy

An endless ocean  CL.1.infinite.liquid ocean.PRT

kaikh-baqsoy

A current of ocean water  CL.1.temporal.liquid ocean.PRT

käukh-baqsoy

A splash of ocean water  CL.1.actions.liquid ocean.PRT

kakh-baqsoy

A mirage of ocean water  CL.1.imaginary.liquid ocean.PRT

köekh-baqsoy

Drop by drop of ocean water  CL.1.distributives.liquid ocean.PRT

kiakh-baqsoy

So once you understand the logic of the system, it becomes quite simple to form various measure words for different classes of nouns whereas in English you would have to learn quite a lot of measure words for the same concept. 

[conlangdiaries]

Isa is the only root that is inverted with a VCV structure. This is because vowels are considered soul letters (ruq-ë-rup) lit: soul form and consonants are considered body letters (sor-ë-rup) body form. The ë particle signifies a reciprocal relationship as in the soul is in these forms and the forms are within the soul. So the speakers consider the soul to be within the body to give shape to life, hence the CVC structure is the most predominant with all vowels being covered by consonants. The VCV structure is an inversion of this idea with the cosmic soul, the divine, containing within them the body. Additionally this is the only word in the language with a capital letter, I.

Just like the blurring of sound and form in other aspects of the language, here too we find the same condition. Isa literally means lord, master (keep in mind this is a gender neutral language, everything that sounds masculine doesn’t really apply like masculine and everything that sounds personified, like pronouns him don’t apply) but within sound symbolism it means i is the internal and a is the external, the darkness and the light, the kinetic and potential, with the two kept together by the body but also the body within them for the body cannot express itself without the soul and the soul cannot materialise without the body. The religion of the people is called Isarah, the path of the lord, the name being a compound noun of Isa + rah = lord path.

[conlangdiaries]

The desert is a little different, it's rhetorical nature is named after what is called a psychological mimetic, i.e mimicking an emotional state which in this case is rage. But let's get back to building sentences. How are we going to the desert? how.to_go.F.CON.IND.PER desert.DAT edjägoq whachah

We are going to the desert like that  to_go.F.CON.IND.DIR 3PR.AB.how jämhoq dëhed lit: going through that manner When are we going? when.to_go.F.CON.IND.PER erjägoq Now 3PR.AB.when dëher That time (then) - kind of to mean (we already went that time) or we'll go sometime soon 3M.AB.when döher Some time - to mean we'll go later but never really will 3D.AB.when daher

Which day are we going? which_day.to_go.F.CON.IND.PER orjägoq

Today  3PR.AB.which_day dëhor

yesterday / tomorrow  3M.AB.which_day döhor

Someday  3D.AB.which_day dahor You'll notice that yesterday and tomorrow are the same word, well it depends on the verb conjugation, if the verb is past tense it will mean yesterday and if its future tense tomorrow. Same goes for the combo then and later. Interestingly, the word for time itself is dahr, although it comes from completely different etymological source, Arabic. We'll discuss that in more detail later.

[conlangdiaries]

Ok so this is also another word under the same category as mountain and forest. Now the reason dictionary forms explicitly mark this as a rhetorical form, onomatopoeia is not just for a fun fact but because these words can be conjugated just like verbs. For eg, take the phrase, the waves crashed, the adjective crashed would more accurately be translated as the sound of the waves themselves, so baqs-baqs.P.PRO.IND.DIR, with the rhetoric form conjugating like a verb, so the gloss would look like rhet.ocean.II.P.PRO.IND.DIR for baqs-baqsxäf Now for the entire phrase the waves crashed, the gloss would be rhet.ocean.II.P.PRO.IND.DIR ocean.n.form V.NOM baqs-baqsxäf baqseb The form V is the stochastic form reflecting randomness or probability made by C1-V1-C2-e/o-C1. Now let's do one more for the leaves rustled in the forest. In ruqöl it would simply be, the forest rustled. rhet.forest.II.P.PRO.IND.DIR forest.NOM lhıl-lhılyäf lhıl  If I were to say, I felt cold in the mountains rhet.mountain.II.P.PRO.SUB.PER mountain.ADE küwh-küzäwh küwhrui

Ok, why is the subjunctive mood used in the above sentence even though 'felt' is supposed to be an emotion right? Well feeling cold is basically seen as the mind's domain and the physical symptoms following it so it's conjugated with the subjunctive, personal. The adhesive case (ADE) is equivalent to the preposition 'on' because you physically cannot be inside the mountain. If I were to say I felt cold in the forest, it would be rhet.mountain.II.P.PRO.SUB.PER forest.INE küwh-küzäwh lhıldar So the inessive (INE) case, because I'm inside the forest not on the forest. Now if I were to say, the forest startled me, I can say

rhet.forest.form IX.II.P.CON.IND.DIR forest.NOM.5PO lhıl-lhıläyiaf lhılan 

basically the forest rustled me or more literally the forest caused rustling to me. Here, as you can see, the possessive pronoun -an is functioning like an 1st person object pronoun. Here the continuous aspect (CON) is added because it is a momentary thing and we are focusing not on the progression of the action itself but the beginning of the action. One of the coolest things about the phrase above is that when we analyse it from a literary perspective it's quite packed with literary devices. From alliteration, assonance, onomatopoeia and reduplication focused on the phonaesthetic level, the whole phrase itself causing a phonaesthetic effect sounding like “liquid, rustling,” which mirrors the forest’s noise and metonymy, personification, metaphor (experiential) and causative construction shifting the agency to the forest, making the environment an acting character focused on the grammatical level. The layering of form and meaning blurs the boundary between poetics and grammar, which is something many ancient ritual languages like Vedic Sanskrit, Biblical Hebrew, Classical Nahuatl, Classical Tamil leaned on heavily. In everyday speech however if I were to say I feel so cold I would simply say küwh-küwh like brrr...

[conlangdiaries]

höm So we've seen every other verb conjugation, this is the VI (volitional-intransitive) i.e the I'm doing the action voluntarily and I am the one going. The table for the mood-evidentiality conjugation is below.

Now that we have quite a diverse vocabulary, let's start forming sentences and keep it very simple! I went to the forest jäqam lhılah to_go.P.PFV.IND.PER forest.DAT I went to the dark forest  jäqam lhılah koysah  to_go.P.PFV.IND.PER forest.DAT dark.DAT I went to the black forest  jäqam krsun lhılah to_go.P.PFV.IND.PER black.GEN forest.DAT

I went into the forest  jäqam lhılıl  to_go.P.PFV.IND.PER forest.ILL I went by the forest / I went past the forest  jäqam lhıläb  to_go.P.PFV.IND.PER forest.SOC

These are constructions we're already quite familiar with, the verb comes in the beginning, followed by the subject. If it is a colour, it behaves like a possessor noun and comes before the possessed. Adjectives agree with the noun in case lhılah koysah, forest.DAT dark.DAT. The dative case (DAT) is basically the preposition 'to' the illative case (ILL) the preposition 'into' and the sociative case (SOC) the preposition 'by'. We will discuss changing the verbs in another lesson because it would be easier if we have the other components of the grammar down before we get to that. So pronouns...in our last lesson, we saw the 2nd person pronoun. Let's now look at the 3rd person pronouns. The 3rd person pronouns don't function like English ones, there is no gender, instead they are determiner pronouns. So if I were to say this is him/her/them (person), I can use one of three different forms depending on how close I am to them, very familiar (VF), familiar (F) and polite (P). If I were to say, this is it, it can be an animal/plant, an object or an abstract concept (like this is it, my life is over). Each of these have a different form.

So if I were to say This person yëh That person jëh

However when it comes to the animate, inanimate and abstract, we say This forest / That forest lhıl fëhal / lhıl föhal forest-NOM 3PR.A.which / forest-NOM 3M.A.which yes the forest is considered animate, so are the ocean, wind, fire, storms, mountain etc. If you say fëlhıl, you are saying this is the forest. These phrases align with the question particles al- and a- respectively, both of which translate to 'which' but the first translates to “which (specific)”, so which forest? allhıl

this forest lhıl fëhal

and the other translates to 'which one' or 'what' alhıl (which forest are we going to?) This one fëlhıl Here, a- must be followed by a noun — it can’t stand on its own. Now let's learn an easy one, where? en-

Where is the forest?  enlhıl where.forest-NOM

The forest is here  lhıl fëhen  forest-NOM 3PR.IA.which

The forest is there  lhıl föhen 

Note: In the last lesson I glossed a- as 'who' which is also true. Consider who is going? ajäghıq to_go.P.PRO.IMP.DIR everyone ahöma

Now everyone has two different forms: inclusive and exclusive. Inclusive includes the speaker and exclusive doesn't, ahöma is exclusive. If you were to ask this question as..

who is going? ajägıq to_go.P.PRO.IMP.PER everyone (inclusive) höma a- as you can see is quite a tricky question particle as it directly doesn't exactly translate one-to-one with English but with exposure you'll get to used to it. If you say

who is going? ajäghıq to_go.P.PRO.IMP.DIR like this and they reply with

everyone (inclusive) höma They're saying hey! you're also included, come along... Note: Questions always conjugate in the imperative mood. The DIR (direct evidential) is basically saying, hey I see you're all ready to get going so who are all going. While the personal says, who are all going from our group? (me included).

[conlangdiaries]

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One of my favourite words is this one, just like our küwh, mountain, example, there are different, seemingly unconnected meanings between the three states that this root can take. But the main idea behind the verb is that when walking in the forest all noise both external and internal disappear, the main focus must be on listening, either to the rustle of leaves for predators or to the bird song and the silence. This is the kind of forest that offers companionship and space, its only wisdom is in the silence of being. For my fellow conlangers out there, the lh sound, the lateral fricative is quite a common phoneme but this is a softer version, the denti-alveolar lateral fricative inspired by Toda, one of my favourite languages in terms of phonology. To pronounce it put the tongue right behind the teeth but then pronounce an h around it, air should release from the sides of your mouth. Now you might notice that the verb, to listen falls under another category, IT (involutional-transitive) which means I don't choose to listen, its an action that just happens and it is an action that can only be brought upon by something, I can only listen to something, we've already seen the verb conjugation for VT, to eat and II, to remember. Now the same system of tense-aspect applies to this one as well but again the mood-evidentiality changes to the one in the table below.

But you must be used to this by now, so we'll discuss something new here, the derivational system but not the morphology (their form), which I'll come to in a later instalment but the meanings themselves.

Now imagine you're in a forest clearing with birdsong playing and the soft rustling of leaves in the wind, think of all these different meanings above, no don't think them, simply feel them, whatever you immediately feel when seeing those words. Internalise the different forms, feel all of those emotions of those forms to the fullest. This is what is more important, to feel the language. We can come to the forms themselves later. For now, just simply sit in the sunlit clearing breathing in the crisp oxygen and feel.

[conlangdiaries]

We've seen so much of this language but don't yet know how to say hi or bye. Well, there are a certain word class called seed syllables in ruqöl. Think of them like a combination of a mantra, prayer and koan. They are not just used ubiquitously in the religious context but are used quite heavily in everyday speech too. So what is a seed syllable? You are not supposed to think of a seed syllable by using reason. Since this is very hard to do, the goal is to, quite literally, think outside the box of your mind. The aim is to provoke a realization (lit. "seeing one's nature"), akin to a mystical experience. This is perhaps why seed syllables have developed: they of course use words, but they are made in such a way that solving them (knowing about them) is a tool to help the practitioner subvert language in order to have a true, conventional-mind-transcending realization. Think of this explanation "for most people, and especially for most educated people like you and I, what we perceive and experience is heavily mediated, through language and concepts that are deeply ingrained in our ways of thinking and feeling. Our objective here is to induce in ourselves and in each other a psychological state that involves the unmediated experience of the world, because we believe that that state has certain desirable properties. It's impossible in general to reach that state through any particular form or method, since forms and methods are themselves examples of the mediators that we are trying to avoid. So we employ a variety of ad hoc means, some linguistic like seed syllables and some non-linguistic like meditation, in hopes that for any given student one or more of our methods will, in whatever way, engender the condition of non-mediated experience that is our goal. And since even thinking in terms of mediators and goals tends to reinforce our undesirable dependency on concepts, we actively discourage exactly this kind of analytical discourse."

Based on this, the closest way of thinking about höm is the mantra om, and yes it is etymologically from that mantra. When saying it, one immediately feels the oneness of all, for example when saying it as a greeting the person both simultaneously acknowledges the divine and the person they are speaking to. It is one of the reasons the 1st person pronoun I doesn't exist, it is seen as a separation of the self from everything else, the inflation of the ego. One of the most common phrase derived from höm is höm-ö-rülal /ɦom o rʊl.ˈɑlꜛ/ lit: by god's grace gloss: S1-CP_1-grace.INS exp: yes and no

höm edzünða /ɦom o zʊn.ˈɽɑꜛ/ hi, how are you? (Friend) Gloss: S1 how-2VF-EP.1 höm-ö-rülalða azün /ɦom o rʊl.ˈɑlꜛ.ɽɑ ˈɑꜛzʊn/ by god's grace, you? Gloss: S.1-CP.1-grace-INS who-2VF

In more conservative sub-cultures in the galaxy, parents of households use it quite frequently... can I go out? höm-ö-rülal. And really it is open for interpretation from context whether it is yes or no. You'll notice in the gloss above 2VF (2nd person, very familiar). This is because this language distinguishes between honourifics very familiar, familiar and polite in the 2nd person given in the table below.

The universal pronouns are derived from this as well anybody - ahöm /ɑɦom/ - who.S1 anything - ehöm /ɛɦom/ - what.S1 everybody - ahöma - who.S1.who everything - ehöme - what.S1.what somebody - ahömoy /ɑɦomɔɻ/- who.S1.PRT everything - ehömoy /ɛɦomɔɻ/ - what.S1.PRT

nobody - lahöm - NEG.who.S1 nothing - lehöm - NEG.what.S1 The PRT (partitive) case -oy / -ey is used to emphasise indefiniteness, a part of something, it is the case primarily used with numbers and the progressive aspect and the INS (instrumental) case -al is used primarily as the prepositions 'with', 'by'.

[conlangdiaries]

Ok so this might be quite an odd one for you, you will notice that in the dictionary above, black is labelled a noun. So in English, colours are treated like adjectives, black mountain, but in ruqöl colours take what is known as the genitive case and come before the noun they are modifying, so they essentially possess the object. So if I were to say black mountain it would be

krsun küwh /kɹ̩ʂ.ˈunꜛ kʊɽ͡r/

lit: black's mountain or mountain of black

the gloss: black-GEN mountain-NOM

To say the mountain is black, we say krsun-ë-küwh ( -ë- functioning as an existential particle ) /kɹ̩ʂ.ˈunꜛ e kʊɽ͡r/

lit: of black is mountain or more comprehensibly, mountain is of black in colour

the gloss: black-GEN-CP_E-mountain-NOM (CP_E : conjunct particle_existential)

Contrast this with the adjective root koys, meaning dark,

mountain is dark (predicative adjective)

koys küwh /ˈkɔ˞ʂꜛ kʊɽ͡r/

gloss: dark-NOM mountain-NOM

the dark mountain (attributive adjective)

küwh koys / kʊɽ͡r ˈkɔ˞ʂꜛ/

gloss: mountain-NOM dark-NOM Here the word order simply changes just like in English but ruqöl does not have the verb 'to be' so there is no 'is', the word order of ruqöl is just the opposite of English. The NOM (nominative) is basically the unmarked case, nouns take different cases depending on their role in the sentence, so in the first case the noun black is possessing the mountain so it is in the genitive case.

This may already be a lot to take in so I'll leave the (A) verbs for later but the verb 'to preserve' itself comes from the idea that black contains within it all colours and the 'black flame' an idea that we'll explore in a later instalment contains within it all of existence, that darkness predates light, preserving all within it.

[conlangdiaries]

In the last instalment I showed how the verb to eat has quite a lot of meanings that are associated with the verb to eat, many roots however, don't have such obvious meanings. Take the word above for eg, the meaning associated with the verb form of mountain comes from the idea that people retreat to the mountains to "remember who they are", it is a remembrance of the true self and similarly the adjective diminish comes from the same idea, the contraction of the external self and the diminishing of the external self for the internal to arise. More literally, the root of the word is both derived and used in literary contexts as the imitation of a shivering sound.

While I will get to the grammar, you'll notice quite an odd phoneme in this one, the wh /ɽ͡r/. This is the voiced retroflex trill and it was inspired by the Toda language, a dravidian language. To pronounce this sound, pronounce the Spanish r, carro (car) which is the w consonant in ruqöl. It's lighter and quicker than the typical English "r" and involves a light tap of the tongue against the alveolar ridge (the gum ridge behind your upper teeth, wh is more strongly trilled than w w with the tongue curled back. However, it is not purely retroflex. Although the tongue starts out curled back, trilling involves the tip of the tongue, so it is moved forward toward the alveolar ridge.

Now again in the last piece we saw that the word xäf, to eat is a VT verb. This verb kowh, to remember, is an II (involutional-intransitive) verb. This means that the action happens to me, so only I can remember and it's an involuntary action, it just happens, I can't control it. You would think that the dominant mood for to remember would be the subjunctive but this remember is in the optative, a remembrance of the heart, if you will.

The tense-aspect table remains the same but the mood-evidentiality table will take the II conjugation.

So take the sentence I remembered the mountain koyawh küwhoi / kɔ.ˈɻaɽ͡r kʊɽ͡r.ɔi̯ꜛ/ Gloss: to_remember-P.PFV.OPT.PER mountain-ACC

The ACC (accusative) is a noun case that is used for the object of a sentence. Here I am the subject and ruqöl doesn't have the I pronoun, the mountain is the object. If I were to say, I wanted to remember the mountain

koyäwhok küwhoi /kɔ.ɻaɽ͡r.ˈɔk kʊɽ͡r. ɔi̯ꜛ/

Gloss: to_remember-Form II.P.PRO.OPT.PER mountain-ACC

Here the form II is the reflexive form, remember the optative mood is generally used to indicate a desire, when using the reflexive form it basically emphasises the original desire. The conjugation for the form is: kowh + C1-e/o-C2-V1-C1 + C1-yä-C2 -> koyäwhok

The progressive aspect is used because I am emphasising the doing of the action, the remembering.

But this verb cannot be used with something like I remembered to eat, it will sound wrong, because this is an emotional process but the remembered there is a mental process if that makes sense. So that remember will conjugate for the subjunctive mood by default.

[conlangdiaries]

All words can mostly occur in all three states. Here's a common word that occurs in all these states. You will notice the VT (volitional-transitive) sign next to the word, this says that the verb to eat can only be done to something and can only be done if one wishes to do it, this is called the voice of the verb in ruqöl grammar. The second thing you'll notice is that in the dictionary entry it uses the form 'to eat', this form of a verb is called the infinitive which ruqöl doesn't have. The root of the verb cannot independently, it has to be conjugated so xäf doesn't actually meaning anything without the conjugation being added, like the semitic root k-t-b, 'to write'. if you want to say a sentence like 'I want food', you would simply say xälüf lit: I want to be eating, because eating implies food. The gloss of this would look like to_eat-VT.F.PRO.OPT.PER

What does the gloss mean, well the whole thing is given in the table below. What the tables say is basically, you must choose first the tense-aspect vowel and then mood-evidentiality consonant. If the consonant is inserted between the root consonants, the tense-aspect vowel will be in the 2nd slot. So for the gloss to_eat-VT.F.PRO.OPT.PER, xäf+ü+C1-l-C2 -> xälüf

In the last instalment I explained that the optative mood is the mood of the heart, when the optative occurs with any other verb and the personal evidential it signifies a desire for it. The personal evidential is used for any statement where the speaker is the sole authority for the evidence of that statement so in this case, I am the authority for my desire for food. My need for food signifies that in the future I want to be eating i.e I want to be in the process of having food which is the progressive aspect and the future tense.

Now consider these sentences I ate - P.PFV.IND.PER - xäfan /ˈxafꜛɑn/ - here the action has been finished and it is a real statement so it is the perfective and indicative.

In the following sentences it implies that the process of eating may, should, must occur, so the action must begin not on the internal unfolding of the action itself so it is the continuous aspect.

I may eat - F.CON.SUB.PER - xädof /ˈxad̪ꜛ.ɔf/- in this sentence may signifies an indecision on my part so it takes the subjunctive

I should eat - F.CON.IMP.PER - xäxof /ˈxaxꜛ.ɔf/ - here, it is an advice I am giving myself so it takes the imperative

I must eat - F.CON.IMP.INF - xäfok - /ˈxafꜛ.ɔk/here it is again a command I’m giving myself but it implies a necessity, or I will faint etc..so it is imperative and inferential evidence

In our first eg: xälüf /ˈxalꜛ.ʊf/, I’m stressing that I want to be eating (the focus is not on beginning the action but on already in the process of performing the action in the future). So to make it succinct: perfective: emphasis on the finishing, progressive: emphasis on the doing, continuous: emphasis on the beginning or state.

In everyday speech using xälüf by its own is almost rude, there must be an emotive particle attached.

xälüfða /xalʊf.ˈɽɑꜛ/ which basically means “I want food, dude”, these particles are basically like emojis. You'll notice that in this sentence, the stress and pitch shift to the particle, most emotive particles have that effect on words.

[conlangdiaries]

Der. root r4z “to bloom, to delight, garden” → Form IX.M causative riaza “to cause delightful blooming”. A love marked by play, laughter, and divine intimacy; evokes dancing in ballrooms, singing in rain, and the the fleeting companionship of young love, a love that emphasises living in the moment.

ruqöl has many of these words that express inexpressible emotions in English and many of them are formed using Form IX which is formed by repeating the vowel in the root if it is a singular vowel or the second vowel of a diphthong which is written like this:

C1-V1-C2-V1

This is because not only does form IX indicate a causative quality but is also associated with the spiritual, aether or energetic plane and such intense emotions are said to derive from that plane. M in the above gloss Form IX.M refers to the modal state, which is the root state of adjectives and adverbs. The 4 in r4z refers to the vowel gradation class, basically a pair of consonants can take any of 8 vowels which then shift to various states. The 4 is the vowel states: i-ia-ai, meaning nouns take the vowel i, adjectives/adverbs take ia and verbs take ai. Note: emotive verbs will conjugate for the optative mood by default which is essentially the mood of the heart. The other three moods are: subjunctive (mood of mind), imperative (command mood) and indicative (mood of reality).

Within the galactic civilisation that the people live in, timescales and distances are vast and it isn't ever certain if someone will see each other again so it is always emphasised to feel the complete extent of the moment.

[conlangdiaries]

Here's the first vocabulary card which is the name of the language itself as the speakers call it. Etymologically tracing back the roots of the words, it is seen that the word for soul, ruq, comes from the perso-arabic word روح (ruh) and also means 'life' and the word rül, comes from the tamil word அருள் (arul) meaning grace, boon with the construction following what is known as an ezafe construction, called a chain link construction in this language, with -ö- the possessive linking particle with the possessor coming before the possessed. Because the soul is seen as being in oneness with the divine, the meaning also implies 'the grace of the divine'. Chain link constructions get treated like single words which means there is only one accent throughout the phrase. To see an overview of the language, visit this article.