Apollo's Constructed Languages
Dozhu:n
Dozhun is the most complete of my conlangs, however much of the grammar still
exists only on sheets of paper piled here and there.
Babel Text
X-Sampa transcription: ë=/@/, ï=/1}/, ä=/{/
gh=/G/, j=/J\/, sh=/S/, x=/x/, zh=/Z/, q=/?/, r=/r/, y=/j/
(1) Boperoy boghemerox wenoy dozhuner zheghoy dozhaper pïjojïkat.
(2) Perozhatped qixkish viqïgu shinarassë coreter giqas ginagat - givizhat.
(3) Giduzhash "cici ritamener sïklokamok - sïcicetamok."
(4) Ritamenun pamnafäb kalofun treyazh gigerat.
(5) Giduzhash "cici dologer jafener - dwo bonejonishshë sïklokamok gaqazhzhë
xïgibomïgerakamo gaqazhzhëboperoy boghemerish nujo nïxekam."
(6) Gaqavvë mïrïmïlajushed perozhateddë pädologer
päjafener - dwo gizhogha - xïgizhuvat.
(7) Giduzhi "wenoy dozhunap xïdozha digeraj gaqushshënïmoghderäbka
nïcuserjlonji.
(8) Dozhunemka sïgizhoghmïr - sïgizhmefmïrït gaqazhzhënïqicoynash.
(9) Gaqindë mïrïmïlajushed giqin boperoy
boghemerish nujo gixekmïrït dologer bikloki.
(10) Gaqingë babelap gzhakit gaqigë
giqassë mïrïmïlajushed boperoy boghemerox dozhuner gizhmefmïrït.
(11) Giqin boperoy boghemerish nujo gixekmïrït.
(1) Now the whole world had one language and one manner of speaking.
(2) As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.
(3) They said to each other, "Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly."
(4) They used brick instead of stone and tar for mortar.
(5) They said to each other, "Come, let us build ourselves a city,
with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves
and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth."
(6) But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the men were building.
(7) The Lord said, "If as one people speaking one language they have begun to do this,
then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them."
(8) Come let us go down and confuse their language so they won't understand each other.
(9) So the lord scattered them from there all over the earth, and they stopped building
their city.
(10) That is why it was called Babel — because there the lord confused the language
of the whole world.
(11) From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.
My Conlang Sketchbook
- The first versions use the latin alphabet,
possibly with diacritics and other variants. For some of these
characters, a Unicode font may be necessary.
- The 7-bit versions use only basic 7-bit ascii characters. They
should be readable by anyone, even text-browsers.
- The others use a variety of unusual scripts. Unicode is used
for most, though some may require additional fonts.
Most of these are bare fragments, possibly just a phonology. So they are
better called "Sketchlangs".
Alphabetical List:
- (***) Blabwa
(7-bit),
ejoomoflopougou umupykoqnoemrq bromoiboibooboo.
The (two) frogs/toads/lizards/(pears) are biting an elephant/banana/nose-hair.
OVS; absurd Phonology; infixed Case-marking on nominals;
Aspect is connected/disconnected; etc.
- (****) Chrol
(7-bit),
(Cyrillic),
(Runic)
grych kkakkac-kkakkac gchan 6een jryylgryj c'ykkykr.
A troll was walking in a field.
Chrol is intended for a non-human race of "trolls", hence the
implausible phonological system. It has a pleasantly hideous sound
when pronounced out loud (which takes a bit of practice), so I consider
this a successful experiment. There is one story translated so far.
OVS; Ergative/Absolutive/Nominative case system marked with prefixed
particles; TMA is marked with preverbal particles
- (*) Cobber
(7-bit)
xmexnvxse fnvhxxandvker xmixftxiqhehmahkbeqqvx.
That spider (that we know) ate a few two-leggers.
Another non-human language. This language has the most
complicated phonetic system of all the languages here. It was
inspired by the nasal-spreading in the Colombian language Cubeo.
SOV; Agglutinative morphology
- (*) Csera
(7-bit)
(bu) bayks (yin) fbcediyfan.
I hit you with a stick.
- (****) Fleen
Kudúvordal sagólïn, sigí-kegep kizûk lavófan.
A man travelling across a field encountered a tiger.
The phonological and case systems are similar to Finnish, but the verbal
system is different. There is one story (same as Chrol) translated.
VSO; verbal TMA is marked with post-verbal particle constructions
- (**) Funis
(7-bit),
gi-niqílibwak-xesar!
You'll get old, too; so there!.
A semitic-type consonant-root-with-vowels conlang. The phonology was made to
fit the Phoenecian alphabet.
SOV; the root+vowel constructions are derivational
- (***) Giantish
(7-bit),
(Armenian)
uxutwúnweq.
(I heard) they were being made to go
OSV; a simplistic language (one of my earlier attempts).
- (**) Gimugimu
li kamimabaka dakalusagumisibibila.
(S)he is about to cook those turtles.
Polysynthetic with minimal phonology.
- (***) Ineval
(7-bit),
ecemlaragak maro.
I was/am/will not be loved by him/her.
An indo-european style language. There is a nice-looking script for this
language which exists only on paper now.
- (**) Khatl
(7-bit),
sjedjorzeex guusjykyys gyc-sjyyvthuusqyq
In the desert of caves, I ate (lots of) bugs.
A complicated phonological inventory and verbal system,
unfortunately not really described here. I don't like the
romanization here, the IPA transcription I have in my
notebook somehow is nicer looking.
- (*) Lunielu
(7-bit),
ice ki odysjo zw nigef'& iefuca kaomais'oibu.
My dog kept chasing a cat into a tree.
A simple language with grammatical similarities to Japanese. The phonology is a
bit unnatural but (to me) mellifluous.
- (*) Mang
(7-bit),
ulholmúmma
She has been kissed.
Just an idea jotted down...
- () Mors
(7-bit),
(Cyrillic)
fshqkqt bjheldvavd gvibnochisa.
The cat ate its fill of birds.
A slavic-inspired language with complicated morpho-phonological changes.
The description here is seriously incomplete (verbal system is missing, etc.)
The cyrillic alphabet matches better than roman.
- (*) The inevitable "Future-English"
(postscript)
(pdf),
thpIIk prr? ?sitsal ngxItmI.
The big bird saw us and kicked me.
Just a sketch of some ideas, basically; it will probably change quite
a bit in the future.
- (*) Nowkl
gakáf anésxu. / ganés akáfxu.
The coffee is good. / The good one is coffee.
A start on a language where morphemes have no inherent morphological category, any
morpheme can be used in any context.
- (*) Oloi
léveual óloi.
The ooloi was leisurely swimming along with the current.
For a race of sea-dwelling folk.
- (**) Oqam
(7-bit),
(Ogham)
aso'rg oceqna'l ozaji'na bijina' nobage's tufba'.
The cow just came up and really kicked the tree.
The phonology was designed to match the Oggham script. The verbal
system has some interesting twists, but it is not completely explained here.
(Notice the prefixes on subordinate/superordinate verbs in complexes.)
- (*) Sith
plyx cmyx bzi kduv bnos.
That dog bit me.
Here I just wanted to record a single idea or two. Hardly complete enough
to deserve the epithet of a fragment.
- (**) Snake
hiqtar:ci:qamiqi:sysji:ml:et:
They say they(2) were bitten (but I doubt it).
An early attempt to design a language for snake-like creatues.
Thus it is probably impossible for a human to consistently distinguish the sounds.
Every sound is voiceless, there is
minimal vocalism, 4 lengths, most consonants are sibilants, and large consonant
clusters are allowed.
- (**) Tchoncy
dcucma dcucma bacu.
[J\M_?\m J\M_?\m bO_?\]
(S)he is sitting.
The romanized orthography is hideous, but I can't manage to
come up with something better. This language is completely
isolating with only monosyllabic words. There are only some
example sentences here yet, no grammar is online.
- (**) Thirbal
(7-bit)
Ngálathurànha úkinjiwàthiri álhangintàrra cíkathalhù múlirralà.
A man travelling across a field encountered a tiger.
Dyirbal-inspired language. I am pleased with the
sound and flow of the one sentence produced so far.
- (*) Vagwvil
(7-bit),
umu kwalgolo ikmlu evikiza sni rewoxaxa.
A man was crossing the field.
The verbal-prefix system here is clearly inspired by the slavic languages.
Ye Merrye Conlangre: Translation Exercises
A compilation of links mentioned on the ConlangList:
Suggestions by Roger Mills on ConlangList (June 25, 2004):
- simple declarative, intrasitive S+V and transitive S+V+O(+IO)
- examples of N+Adj (how many adjs. permitted?) and verb+adv.
- questions, yes-no as well as WH-
- imperatives (singular and plural subjects)
- negative sentences
- relative clause constructions
- active/passive, if relevant
- prepositional phrases
- adverbials
- comparatives, superlatives
- numerals and other quantifiers
- sentence complements "think/say THAT..." etc.
- infinitive complements "want to..." etc.
- word order or emphatic variations, if relevant
- use of cases, if present; use of tenses, if present
- derivations of nouns and verbs/adjectives, if relevant
- subordinate clauses "when..., after..., because..., since..." etc.
- conjoined sentences-- and, but, or
Ye Merrye Conlangre: Conlanging Notes
This is a collection of summaries of literature on various aspects
of language. The idea here was to collect and synthesize some of the
linguistic literature on cross-linguistic phenomena as a resource for
conlanging. Both for ideas and as a way to systematize description
of some aspects of languages. For example, the book on indefinite
pronouns was an interesting and useful book for me.
Unfortunately, I have not had time to transfer my notes from scribbles
to html. The following is just bare-bones skeletons.
"Conlang"?
A "conlang" is a "constructed language", an artificial language constructed
for various reasons.
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Apollo Hogan, Berkeley, California, USA