Vocabulary
Starter Verbs
mata. trans. verb. to eat
janya. trans. varb. to go
nyaga. trans. verb. to want/enjoy/need
bawa. trans. verb. to talk/speak
waba. trans. verb. to hear/listen
kata. trans. verb. to learn
taka. trans. verb. to teach
pita. trans. verb. to drink
lana. intrans. verb. to sleep
nala. intrans. verb. to wake up
budja. trans. verb. to move
djuba. trans. verb. to rest
kesa. trans. verb. to read
seka. trans. verb. to write
tsuma. trans. verb. to see
wemea. trans. verb. to play
bikia. trans. verb. to work hard at something, or put in effort (try)
Pronouns
ipi. pronoun. First-person singular (me/I)
ipimi. pronoun. First person plural (we/us)
ulu. pronoun. Second person singular (you)
ulumu. pronoun. Second person plural (y'all)
enye. pronoun. Third person singular (they/he/she/it)
enyeme. pronoun. Third person plural (they)
la. pronoun. it, a thing, the thing, placeholder noun
drie. pronoun(?). some (of x)
Starter Nouns
lekatu . noun. school, or a place where learning happens - see also, letaku (Der. from kata)
letaku . noun. school, or a place where teaching happens - see also, lekatu (Der. from taka)
pum. noun. bread
rititi. noun. circle
pumriti. noun. bagel (Der. from bread-circle)
buru. noun.. cheese
burdu. noun.. cream cheese (Der. from cheese)
letu. noun. home
pa'am. noun. water
djebe. noun. bed
ketise. noun. book
. noun. website
bruspi. noun. friend
. noun. computer
Starter Adjectives & Adverbs
quickly. adverb. quickly
quickly. adverb. slowly
ware. adjective. big
Other
ne. particle. in (as in inside of a building/place - not just near or at the location)
yalu. particle. to (a location)
minu. particle. from (a location)
bru. adposition. to (a person)
daru. adposition. from (a person)
tsuru. adposition. on (physically on top of)
wa. conjunction. and
walaj. conjunction. but
siri. subordinating conjunction. if
seri. subordinating conjunction. then
waseri. subordinating conjunction. therefore
Morphology
A growable language
The CONLANG should be easy to expand upon by building with the roots and elements of existing words. For example, certain verbs are closely linked phonemically and in terms of their meanings. "taka" means to teach, while "kata" means to learn. This can be expanded by using the location affix "le-", such that "letaku" means the place of teaching, or the school. A student may refer to the school as "lekatu" instead, since they experience the location as learners, rather than teachers. The affix has its origins in the core place - home, or "letu".
Grammatical markers
The CONLANG has prefixes to mark noun phrases as either subject, direct object, or indirect object:
Subject: de-
Combinations wtih common pronouns:
de + ipi = dipi
de + ulu = dulu
de + enye = denye
de + la = dela
Examples:
ja dulu mata. = You ate.
ja denyeme mata. = They ate.
Direct object: ki-
Combinations wtih common pronouns:
ki + ipi = kipi
ki + ulu = kulu
ki + enye = kenye
ki + la = kila
Examples:
ja kipumriti mata. = I ate a bagel.
ja kiware kipumriti mata. OR ja kipumriti kiware mata. OR ja mata kiware kipumriti. = I ate a big bagel.
ja kipumriti kmidrie mata. = I ate some bagel.
ja mata kila. = I ate something.
ju-ju mata kidrie kila. OR ju-ju kirdrie kila mata. = Eat something.
ja burdu tse kipumriti mata. OR ja kipumriti burdu tse mata. BUT NOT ja burdu tse mata kipumriti. = I ate a bagel with cream cheese.
Indirect object: le-
Combinations wtih common pronouns:
le + ipi = lipi
le + ulu = lulu
le + enye = lenye
le + la = lela
Examples:
ja kila lela taka. OR ja dipi lela kila taka. = I taught it to you.
ja kesa kiketise lelu. OR ja lelu kiketise kesa OR ja kiketise lelu kesa. OR ja kiketise kesa lelu. = I read a book to you.
Adverbial adpositions that modify verbs:
The adposition must always go between the verb and its adverbial phrase: V-adposition-adverb or adverb-adposition-V.
Examples:
je lana tsuru letu. OR je letu tsuru lana. = I will sleep on the bed.
Notes:
Most word orders are acceptable within each grammatical unit (S, DO, IO, V). However, there are some limits to order of these units within a sentence:
If the first-person or second-person pronoun can be assumed, but is added for emphasis, it must always come first in the sentence. In the IO example above, "ja dipi lela kila taka" is correct, but "ja lela kila dipi taka" is not because dipi (I) is the assumed subject and need not be included, except for emphasis.
Prepositional phrases that are part of the S, DO, IO, or V must remain next to the head of that grammatical unit. See the example above: ja burdu tse mata kipumriti. "burdu tse" is a prepositional phrase that acts as an adjectival phrase for "kipumriti" (the bagel). Therefore, the verb cannot be place between the adjectival phrase and the DO of the verb.
Notice that "burdu tse", the prepositional/adjectival phrase does not take the ki- marker. The ki- marker can be added if not having it creates ambiguity in which grammatical unit is being modified. If added, the sentence would read, "ja kiburdu tse kipumriti mata." OR "ja kipumriti tse kiburdu mata." OR "ja kipumriti kiburdu tse mata."
Prepositions must be directly next to the other term in the prepositional phrase. For example, "bagel with cream cheese" could be written as "burdu tse pumriti" OR "pumriti burdu tse" OR "pumriti tse burdu" but never "tse pumriti burdu" or "burdu pumriti tse". These latter phrases would read as "cream cheese with bagel," which could be used jokingly but not literally.
If the prepositional adjectival phrase comes before the noun it modifies, the order must always be "noun preposition", as in "burdu tse". However, if the prepositional adjectival phrase comes after the noun, the order could be "prep noun" or "noun prep". See, for example: "burdu tse pumriti", "pumriti burdu tse", "pumriti tse burdu" but NOT "tse burdu pumriti".
Word order can be used to increase clarity by using intuitive order in terms of importance. For example, the defualt would be S-V-O. So, to say "I talk to the person with you," the clearest word order would be "dipi bawa kila ulu tse." If it is very important to emphasize with whom you are speaking, then "dipi kila ulu tse bawa" would also be fairly clear. In general, clarity is more important than emphasis and word order should prioritize that clarity.
Certain phrases are common enough to have a set order. For example, "drie la" means some stuff or some things or anything. This will not be seen as "la drie."
Syntax
Adpositions for "to" and "from": ji letu bru janya and ja letu daru janya
"ji letu bru janya" translates as "I might go home soon." To break down each term: "ji" is the tense marker for the hypothetical (assumed to be near future); "letu" is the noun for home; "bru" is the adposition "to" (as in going to a location), which appears after its object; and "janya" is the verb "to go", as in traveling/moving locations.
The sentence has many alternative word orders, which affect the mood and meaning:
"ji janya letu bru" puts the verb earlier in the sentence, placing emphasis on it. This may be interpreted as a desire to get out of this location, with a suggestion/plan to go specifically home. The focus, however, is getting out of here. I'm envisioning someone a lil overwhelmed who's like, "I wanna dip and go home." There could even be a comma after ji janya to indicate that going home is a supplemental detail/idea, not the main point.
"ji letu bru nyaga janya" includes the word "nyaga" - to want. This addition suggests that going home is a more active plan as opposed to a statement of one possible trajectory.
ji letu bru janya nyaga" is nearly the same, but emphasizes the action of going over wanting. This indicates a more definitive plan than "ji letu bru nyaga janya." The original sentence is the most casual of these three options by leaving out "nyaga", although all essentially communicate the same thing.
"ji nyaga letu bru janya" reads as a more urgent NEED to go home. Your introvert friend is DONE with this party.
The second sentence: "ja letu daru janya" uses the same construction, but with the word for "from" - "daru". The verb is the same because it describes the same physical movement or action. Whether you are going to or from a place is determined by the adposition used. I also included the past tense marker, so this sentence translates as, "I came from home."
Object suffix
If you do something to someone or in a way that affects them, the suffix -kaj ("aj" sounds like eye) on their name/pronoun/noun indicates that they are the object/non-agent. For the pronouns, this becomes: "ipikaj", "ulukaj", "enyekaj", "ipimakaj", "ulumakaj", and "enyemakaj". For example, "she ate me" would be "ja enye ipikaj mata" or "ja ipikaj enye mata" or "ja mata ipikaj enye" or even "ja mata ipikaj" or "ja ipikaj mata" depending on emphasis and what can be assumed from context. The actor doesn't need to be named if obvious because the object is marked by the suffix and won't be mistaken for the subject.