Akuriga (Finalish revision)

[qwed117]

Akuriga
Akuriga is a really plain conlang, matching the features of a Romance language except without the Latin vocabulary.
I'm making this for a diachronic conlanging project
I'm using this thread to organize my thoughts before they go on the wiki
Phonology
It's consonantal phonology is available here.
The vowel system is a bit mucky, but I'll get to fixing it eventually.
/a i ʌ ʉ/ a e u o
From these, any "true diphthong" can be made. A true diphthong uses the same monophthongs represented by the characters used
/ai aʌ aʉ/ ae au ao
A "hidden diphthong" is a diphthong that contains two characters that aren't present in monophthongs or a diphthong that contains characters that don't correspond with the monophthongs.
/ia aɪ/ ia i
This has all been changed. The most accurate version is on the wikia.
Phonosyntactics (or Whatever)
There are consonants (m n p b t d k g), liquids (s z f v sh zh r y l) and vowels (diphthongs and monophthongs). The vowels cannot be triphthongized or quadraphthongized. Consonants can only ve in CC clusters

[qwed117]

Parts Of Speech
There are several POS in Akuriga, similar to English (The list will be shortened because certain forms are grouped in with others)

• Nouns
• Articles
• Adpositions
• Adjectives
• Interjections
• Verbs
• Conjunctions
• Pronoun
• Numerical POS
• Other special catagories

Notable is the lack of a true adverbial catagory. Similar to spanish, they are formed by adding a syllable to the end of an adjective. The syllable changes depending on the tense, mood or purpose evoked by the adverb. The most important part of Akuriga is the articles, which affect almost every POS.
There are a lot of articles

Code: Select all

               Male  Neuter Female
Plural Def     Atar  Akar   Ashar
Sing Def       Ata   Aka    Asha
Plural Undef   Atum  Akum   Ashum
Sing Undef     Atu   Aku    Ashu

Do you notice the pattern?

[qwed117]

Nouns
Nouns aren't very special. Most nouns are assigned the neuter category. If an object is animate, then it is assigned a gendered category. It is given a gender depending on its type gender or its actual gender.
Plants
For fruits, the gender is always feminine
For nuts, the gender is always masculine
For tubers and other root vegetables, it is feminine
For trees, it is feminine
For flowers, it is masculine or feminine depending on color (which we'll get to in a sec)
For leaves and stem, it is masculine
For fungi, it (again) depends on color
For the entire plant, it is masculine
Animals
For insects, the gender is feminine
For ruminants, the gender is feminine
For horses, it is masculine
For spiders, the gender is masculine
For crabs, the gender is feminine
For prawn, lobster, and shrimp it is masculine
For fish, it is masculine
For sharks, it is feminine
For birds, it is masculine
For rays and mantas, it is feminine
For primates, it is feminine
For amphibians, it is masculine
For reptiles, it is feminine
For microbiota, it is feminine
For humans, it is neuter
For spiritual beings, it is neuter
For large carnivores, it is feminine

[Creyeditor]

I like that kind of semantic gender assignment

[qwed117]

Thanks for coming to look at my conlang. Those other hundred views are my own

[gestaltist]

I like that kind of semantic gender assignment

I enjoy it, too.

I don’t know why you said in the OP that your language is like a Romance language. I can see quite a few differences already...

[thaen]

I like that kind of semantic gender assignment

I'm guessing you'll have a lot of redundant agreement?

[qwed117]

I like that kind of semantic gender assignment

I enjoy it, too.

I don’t know why you said in the OP that your language is like a Romance language. I can see quite a few differences already...

The reason I said such, was because my minimal knowledge of grammar comes from Romance (Read Here:Spanish) languages (English, I have discovered, is a terrible source for most things lingustic). It will inflect solely based on number (unlike English or Spanish), and will have adjective system that inflects on gender (Similar to Spanish).

[Lao Kou]

(English, I have discovered, is a terrible source for most things linguistic)

[qwed117]

(English, I have discovered, is a terrible source for most things linguistic)

A native is not to be trusted with his or her own language (Say in a mystique voice)

[thaen]

(English, I have discovered, is a terrible source for most things linguistic)

I think I see what they are getting at, but "terrible" is a terribly strong word.

[qwed117]

Verbs
Akuriga has an infinitive form, which is also compounded with the gerund form (I haven't foreseen any problems yet).

Infinitives are marked with the prefix ek-

For example
ekkalok- to become purple
ekbeyvre- to drink
ekganuk- to kill purposefully

Present Tense Active
This is one of the simplest forms, and is conjugated solely on number
If it the subject is singular or dual, we keep the verb as is.
Else, we suffix -asr or -sr to the verb
ekkalokasr
ekbeyvresr
ekganukasr

[qwed117]

Adjectives
Adjectives inflect or vary with gender. Some adjectives (you know which) are feminine only, while others have an absurdly masculine overture (of which you know(Wow! This is fun!))

In general,
a feminine adjective terminates with -re
a masculine adjective terminates with -ro

In speaking, this tends to be lost completely, and replaced with-ere

There is no marker for adjectives, so words like kalok (lit. purple) can be used both as a color (e.g. Purple is my favorite color) and as a state (e.g. the purple soldiers are my favorite). I, again, haven't foreseen any problems yet.

Edit: Almost forgot: Discussionable Topic here (Now talk about this)

[Thrice Xandvii]

I wonder why in your phonotactics section you describe fricatives as "liquids" along with /r/, but then group /l/ (one of he most common liquids) with your consonants?

[qwed117]

I wonder why in your phonotactics section you describe fricatives as "liquids" along with /r/, but then group /l/ (one of he most common liquids) with your consonants?

While that is correct, /l/ is treated as a consonant in the language (and in the corresponding orthography). It will not appear with a consonant like liquids, and can be followed by a liquid.

[Fanael]

There are consonants (m n p b t d k g l), liquids (s z f v sh zh r)

I'd call the former group occlusives and the latter continuants.
What kind of process caused /l/ to be considered an occlusive?

[qwed117]

There are consonants (m n p b t d k g l), liquids (s z f v sh zh r)

I'd call the former group occlusives and the latter continuants.
What kind of process caused /l/ to be considered an occlusive?

Sorry for this (scathing) remark.

Spoiler:

If you just looked in the actual phonotactics, you would know!

[Creyeditor]

There are consonants (m n p b t d k g l), liquids (s z f v sh zh r)

I'd call the former group occlusives and the latter continuants.
What kind of process caused /l/ to be considered an occlusive?

Some linguistic theories consider /l/ to be [-continuant] or occlusive, because the airstream is blocked in the center of the mouth.

[Fanael]

If you just looked in the actual phonotactics, you would know!

I'm afraid that's not the case. I see is that it is, and I see the effects of it, but I see no real explanation of why and how /l/ began to behave so unlike /l/ in most languages.

This is more like what I had in mind:

Some linguistic theories consider /l/ to be [-continuant] or occlusive, because the airstream is blocked in the center of the mouth.

[qwed117]

If you just looked in the actual phonotactics, you would know!

I'm afraid that's not the case. I see is that it is, and I see the effects of it, but I see no real explanation of why and how /l/ began to behave so unlike /l/ in most languages.

This is more like what I had in mind:

Some linguistic theories consider /l/ to be [-continuant] or occlusive, because the airstream is blocked in the center of the mouth.

Tbh I don't like the sound of a tl, dl, gl, kl, etc. It really annoys me, and I am the creator of the language, so I get to do things the way I want. While I appreciate your comment on that feature, it doesn't seem to be one that I'll readily change.