Wednesday, January 30, 2002

04.20.02.01.30.14.41

I’ve noticed that i’ve had some confusion as to the order of genitive constructs when eliminating the preposition. I see that i’ve used both áran clag (library) and djε§t lað (king). In keeping with the order that makes the most sense to me and the correlatives, the official rule shall now be: genetive particle first followed by subject. Hence:

library – clag arán ruler – djε§t lað dlatci – dlát§i glơd bedtime – caiþ ðlai
school – bul arán student – bul lað german – doit§ glơd morning – tεmέt (ðlai)

and so on... And note the invention of caiþ, the word for sleep.

Well, time to revise the lexicon again.

Saturday, January 19, 2002

04.20.02.01.19.10.43

Just some words i’ve been tossing around in my head. Let’s see if we can come up with something for them to mean... What words do i still need? Prepositional adverbs might be good; i have a few, but i’m not sure if i like them. Then again nothing beats good old fashioned nouns and adjectives. Then again, probably i should just hold onto them until i come up with something i need.

caiþ
mεc
brau
stax
vlaið

Anyway, moving on, i foresee a sort of revolution coming on for malt§έgj... i’m thinking of merging the language, at least language family-wise, with barac. Of course the grammar is completely different, but i think a few cognates would help along barac’s development as well as give an interesting sense of history for the two. Of course, this won’t really affect malt§έgj very much, but i thought i’d bring it up anyway.

Thursday, January 10, 2002

04.20.02.01.10.11.52

A couple new words spawned from an email i wrote to a friend about malt§έgj:

vlag = to teach (hence,
lað vlag = teacher,
lað rac vlag = student, &c.)
jiv = beer
nac = now (see above)

nos dyd ðac almítra, “mεn ðac jalc að ðblεucþ έloi.” e dyd bran pul mεs talp e dyd culóm ut ul ga§ág a, e dyd t§ơ§ am wára parþ ap. e dyd ðac pul am harέc bórga oc: lơ bad t§ơ§ ðblεucþ naur o§ mέlεm að, mεn grol§ pul it, mal lơ εc pul u ac bweð xa§ e tεlx. e lơ t§ơ§ pul u ac fwi naur o§ mέlεm εð, mεn gεlc mέlεm pul a, mal lơ dyd nag patáx ul styx huct mέlεm að, úla, rac stáfad calc pul u ac áro§ e. e ðac pul naur o§ mέlεm a, cwégir pul a, mal lơ dyd nag patáx pul u harέc naxád a§ mέlεm u ac vlaj, lεf naxád a§ batár yen u gwárxo. ðrímiὲm lεf anácne ðblεucþ mέlεm að, t§a nag clớgεx pul mέlεm að. lεf εc pul mέlεm u dúmbwe i, t§a εc pul mέlεm u xóre§à i. lεf t§ơc mεs pul mέlεm u ac §ála a, e §adé pul ul ac ro§ að narán javlé jadío iþ (calc?) rac báralà, t§a nag t§ơc na§ pul mέlεm u ac rεnáþ a, e báralà a§ parþ að parþ u fástnar o mó§arà a. nag scrav ðblεucþ úli ac ðrax cúluì að mέlεm a, ðrímiεm nag patáx mέlεm apþan ac jomεn að mεs baxέf u, e, úla apþan oc, cleg nag patáx mέlεm ðráupnir am þrε§ að báldrεf u baxέf u. rεb §él, mέlεm u §ax vul, lơ nag cúlεn mέlεm tárεx ðblεucþ u wára e ðblεucþ u bjólεt að, ðrímiεm εc nan bjólεt, clεg lơ blánaþ mέlεm mεs bwíliò að e t§ơc ut ðblεucþ u lacþ §afát o, som alm múndi e, ùlarán e nag hahár mέlεm, rεb blεg mέlεm u hahár cúluì að, e nag wahár, rεb blεg mέlεm u ac §iþ cúluì að.

Yay! Well, now that that’s all over with, and the new words have been added to the lexicon, we can finally move on...

04.20.02.01.10.01.40

I’m again starting to feel the need for some sort of alphabet for malt§έgj. Don’t worry though, i’ll try to keep it to myself for as long as possible.

I think the word mεs should be considered an article of some sort. A reflexive demonstrative adjective, if you will. Something like the difference between hennes and sin in swedish or hæra and sǽna in τsœxısca. Only it can apply to any pronoun, no matter the person, because it is only used in conjunction with the pronoun it modifies if that pronoun is the subject. Hence,

I saw my sister = Dγd culóm jơg mεs adína að. But,

He saw my sister = Dγd culóm pul jơg u adína að.

Okay, i’m feeling better about that one now. So what’s next? I am still a bit concerned about clauses regarding this latest nutso sentence structure craze. But that’s probably something i’m going to have to worry about later when [REDACTED].

I need some simple words to break down some complex ideas. At first i was all about compound words like “úla ðlai o§” to mean “when” and such, but it’s getting really annoying. Some new words that i need:

who- - the other person the same person everyone anyone someone noöne
whatthisthatthe other thingthe same thingeverythinganythingsomethingnothing
whennowthenthe other timethe same timealwaysanytimesometimenever
whereherethereyonderthe same placeeverywhereanywheresomewherenowhere
whyhereforetherefore------
how-----anywaysomehowno way
how muchthis muchthat much-the same amount-anysomenone

Of course i modified the traditional esperantoèsqueness of this table, which i actually worked out quite nicely in dlatci, but i don’t think that malt§έgj, being a more random and a priori language, really requires too many words. By the way, can i mention just in passing that I actually came up with this table for dlatci and had it all worked out long before i ever heard of the esperanto correlatives, and it really pissed me off when i found out about them. Fortunately not too much, however, since mine are better! Therefore:

mlau lað, mlað- - úlot lað, uláð
the same person everyone anyone someone blεg lað, blað
mlau ðrax, mlaxúli (ðrax)úla (ðrax)úlot (ðrax)the same thingeverythinganythingsomethingblεg ðrax, blax
mlau ðlai, mlaiúli ðlai, nacúla ðlai, naurúlot ðlaithe same timealwaysanytimesometimenever
mlau arán, mlaránúli aránúla aránúlot aránthe same placeeverywhereanywheresomewhereblarán
mlímiὲmðrímiὲm-----blímiὲm
mlau cþiðúli cþiðúla cþið---anywaysomehowblεg cþið
mlau máraúli máraúla mára-the same amount-anysomeblára

Wednesday, January 9, 2002

04.20.02.01.09.14.35

04.20.02.01.09.14.35

I believe i need to rethink the way certain words are put together, and really come up with something solid as far as sentence structure goes. I’m not sure why, but it’s really been bothering me the last couple of days. I think partly it has to do with adjectives: in particular, the demonstrative kind. So let’s analyze that for moment, if we can...

Let’s see... demon adjectives consist of:

am(a)
ul(the)
úli(this)
úla(that)
úlot(the other)
calc(that, which)
mlau(what, which)
blεg(no, none)
jơg u(my, mine)
mέlεm u(your, yours)
mεlmíne u(your, yours)
pul u(his)
pεl u(her, hers)
paj u(its)
jalc u(our, ours)
parþ u(their, theirs)

My brain is foggy today, and i think i might be coming down with some malevolent virus, so if i don’t make a whole lot of sense, or if i overlook something fundamental, forgive me. However, thinking on a much lower level like this actually opens me up to interesting new ideas, which i’ll most likely have to undo as soon as i’m well again.

My confusion lies herein: if we are to treat these words as adjectives, they should, naturally, follow the noun they modify. However, i have been preceding the noun with most of these, which is fine as long as we can establish a decent rule for it. The problem with the possessives, in particular, is that they contain a pseudo-suffixed preposition, which conflicts with any preposition the noun might be using. So my initial solution is to declare that all demonstrative adjectives precede the noun they modify. So using that idea, let me see what still bothers me about changing around this translation...

nos dyd ðac almítra, “mεn ðac jalc að ðblεucþ έloi.” e dyd bran pul mεs ul talp mεs e dyd culóm ut ul ga§ág a, e dyd t§ơ§ am wára parþ ap. e dyd ðac pul am harέc bórga oc: lơ bad t§ơ§ ðblεucþ úla ðlai o§ mέlεm að, mεn grol§ pul it, mal lơ εc pul u ac bweð pul u xa§ e tεlx. e lơ t§ơ§ pul u ac fwi pul u úla ðlai o§ mέlεm εð, mεn gεlc mέlεm pul a, mal lơ dyd nag patáx ul styx huct mέlεm að, úla, rac stáfad calc pul u ac áro§ e. e ðac pul úla ðlai o§ mέlεm a, cwégir pul a, mal lơ dyd nag patáx pul u harέc pul u naxád a§ mέlεm u ac vlaj mέlεm u a§, lεf naxád batár yen u gwárxo . ðrímiὲm lεf anácne ðblεucþ mέlεm að, t§a nag clớgεx pul mέlεm að. lεf εc pul mέlεm u dúmbwe i mέlεm u, t§a εc pul mέlεm u xóre§à i mέlεm u. lεf t§ơc mεs pul mεs mέlεm u ac §ála a mέlεm u, e §adé pul ul ac ro§ narán javlé jadío iþ (calc?) rac báralà, t§a nag t§ơc na§ pul na§ mέlεm u ac rεnáþ a mέlεm u, e báralà parþ að parþ u fástnar o mó§arà a parþ u...

Well, that looks a little different. New rules: adverbial particles (gads, i can’t even think of the proper names for things... those little end-of-the-sentence things that aren’t quite prepositions) will now DIRECTLY FOLLOW the verb they modify. This being a language with no changeable words, we have to stick related things as close together as possible so we can keep track of them!

Here’s an idea that just seeped out of my addled brain. It might be interesting one day to create an alternative malt§έgj language that would actually incorporate all the adverbs and particles and prepositions into their respective nouns and verbs and pronouns and such... the pronunciation would remain the same, but the orthography would change significantly... for instance instead of

e dyd bran mεs pul ul talp e dyd culóm ut ul ga§ág a, e dyd t§ơ§ am wára parþ ap.

one might write

e dydbran mεspul ultalp e dydculomut ulga§aga, e dydt§ơ§ amwara parþap.

or something vaguely similar that would allow for a slightly less rigid sentence structure. But that’s a project for a different day.

The other thing i wanted to take care of was a standardization of the orthography concerning diphthongs. I’ve been rather wishy-washy about it and i’d like to get something set in stone. I’m just not sure what. I think i’d feel a lot better about it if i had some other vowel that i could use for “y,” because right now it’s [ɪ] and [j] and [i]. The trouble is, i need something that has a full range of diacritics so i can indicate if it’s stressed or not. Perhaps ι? That would at least give me ι, ί, and ὶ, but it looks a little too similar to i, í, and ì. и, и́, ѝ? No. I can use some random character and play around with combining diacritics, too, i suppose. Then again there’s also ê, ế, and ề, but that seems a little excessive on the diacritic front. η, ή, ὴ? Maybe... or υ, ύ, ὺ. Yes, that does bring out that lovely welsh feel to it, even though it’s a greek letter.

Ευρηκα! How about i break a couple rules of what’s supposed to be a consonant and what’s supposed to be a vowel and i just use γ? Perfect.

So... γ will now represent the short i [ɪ], diphthongs will be formed with i, and glides will remain y. Similarly, although this isn’t as i’d planned it, diphthongs will be formed with u and glides with w. So mote it be!

Which means i have to go mess with the lexica again.

Ack. I forgot about the voiced velar fricative. That’s y too, and by rights it should have the first stab at γ. Too late now... that shall become...um...ђ? ג? That might look a little weird. But since i haven’t really used that letter yet that i can remember, i’ll just say that theoretically, should i ever use it, it will be ђ, just because i kinda like that letter. Then again, since it’s a consonant and i really don’t have to worry about diacritics and such, it could be just about anything. ğ perhaps. Actually, i’m not going to worry about it until i have a need for it.

Monday, January 7, 2002

04.20.02.01.07.13.08

A few rules to review, which i’m not sure if i’ve made rules before, or if i’m just breaking them now:

The plural particle ac shall now and evermore directly precede the noun it modifies.

The following rigid sentence structure shall hereby be adhered to:

– conjucntion – particle [§lþ – lơ – dyd – nag – cwarþ – blai – rac] – verb – adverb – (ac) subject (adjective) – (ac) temporal or spatial clause (adjective) (preposition) – secondary verb – (ac) direct object (adjective) (preposition) –

I think there are a few more things that will eventually fit into that diagram as well, but for now, let that serve as a model for all sentences until i can find something to add to it.

...ðrímiὲm lεf anácne ðblεucþ mέlεm að, t§a nag clớgεx pul mέlεm að. lεf εc pul dúmbwe i mέlεm u, t§a εc pul xóre§à i mέlεm u. lεf t§ơc pul mεs ac §ála a mέlεm u, e §adé pul ul ac ro§ narán javlé jadío iþ rac báralà, t§a nag t§ơc pul na§ ac rεnáþ a mέlεm u, e báralà parþ að fástnar a§ mó§arà a parþ u...