Verbs

            In Fĺuðét verbs are modified by very little except by adverbs, so I will talk about large parts of adverbs with verbs, and vice versa. The most important things the adverb shows are tense and perfectiveness, which are shown together in a set of three particles combined in certain ways. Habitualness is also implied by certain imperfective markings. The three particles can be combined not only to show present, past, and future, but also mixtures of the three (e.g. past imperfective, present imperfective, and future perfective all together as one).

            There are six rules that define how the three particles can be combined to make the different combinations of perfectiveness and tense. These rules were once very regular, and are used that way in very formal speech, or old texts, but most of them have irregular forms (albeit fairly regular ones); these are shown in parentheses after the regular form. There are only three forms of tense, for which the three particles are: past: po, present: þe, future: fŕ.

            Alone these particles are each the perfective of their tense, so þe is present perfective, po is past perfective, and fŕ is future perfective. Where applicable in combinations þe always comes before po and fŕ, and po always comes before fŕ. Now for the rules.

           

1. A particle can be doubled to form the imperfective of its tense.

þe + þe = þeþe (þeþ) - present imperfective

popo (pop) - past imperfective

fŕfŕ (fŕf) - future imperfective

Fiéþ     veću        popo.

ref-1 cause to walk  imp.pas

I was walking.

            The present imperfective is one that is always used as a present habitual (“I eat food” vs. “I used to eat food” or “I am eating food”).

2. A particle can be placed between two of another particle to form the imperfective of both of their tenses.

þe + fŕ + þe = þefŕþe - present/future imperfective

þepoþe (þepþe) - present/past imperfective

pofŕpo - past/future imperfective

þeþepofŕfŕ (þeþofŕfŕ) - present/past/future imperfective

Pi źédð þefŕþe.

2    know imp.pre.fut

You do and will know (but you didn’t).

            Here is the first example of two things: particle order and multiple tenses. Particle order is a little simpler than multiple tenses and was explained well enough, I believe up above, but multiple tenses may need an English example to clarify. So, if we use þefŕþe, in a sentence about a dog eating fish, it would come out like “The dog eats (fish), and will be eating fish” (remember present imperfective is used as the habitual). This set also has a special one: þeþepofŕfŕ which is basically the same thing, except with all three particles.

3. A doubled particle can be put before a single particle to show the imperfective of the doubled particle’s tense and the perfective of the single particle’s tense.

þe + þe + po = þeþepo (þeþo) - present imperfective/past perfective

þeþefŕ (þeþwhŕ) - present imperfective/future perfective

popoþe (popþe) - past imperfective/present perfective

popofŕ (popŕ) - past imperfective/future perfective

fŕfŕþe - future imperfective/present perfective

fŕfŕpo (fŕfo) - future imperfective/past perfective

Eþ ðidoś feśéwiboć þeþepo.

1     make    abl-toy      imp.pre-per.pas

I have made a toy and (now) I make them (all the time).

            These are the mix of one perfective and one imperfective tense. These are the second example of multiple tense, and particle order, which I just spoke about.

4. A doubled particle can be put before two single particles to show the imperfective of the doubled particle’s tense, and the perfective of the singles’ tenses.

þe + þe + po + fŕ = þeþepofŕ (þeþofŕ) - present imperfective/past/future perfective

popoþefŕ (popþefŕ) - past imperfective/present/future perfective

frfŕþepo (frfŕþo) - future imperfective/present/past perfective

Fifĺ  źit                popoþefŕ.

3.ref cause to travel imp.pas-per.pre-per.fut

He was traveling, he is traveling (now), and he will be traveling (in a while).

            I seem to have a lot less to say about the verb tenses than I did about word order, but I suppose that’s probably because the tenses are all just the same things arranged differently.

5. A particle surrounded by two of another particle with one of another particle following them shows the imperfective of the surrounding and the surrounded particles’ tense and the perfective of the final particle’s tense.

þe + po + þe + fŕ = þepoþefŕ (þepþefŕ) - present/past imperfective/future perfective

þefŕþepo (þefŕþo) - present/future imperfective/past perfective

pofŕpoþe (pofŕpe) - past/future imperfective/present perfective

            fĺ       þwébét  bét þefŕþepo                  réþu fĺ       fe     ćobu    po.

            3.nom vegetable eat  pre.imp-fut.imp-pas.per but     3.nom 3.acc like-nes pas.per          

            He eats, will eat, and ate vegetables, but he did not like them.

            It may seem like it wouldn’t be very useful to have a “present/past imperfective/future perfective”, or even a “future imperfective/past perfective” and I agree it wouldn’t be, but (and this is for all of the preceding and the following combinations) as I said before present imperfective is basically a habitual; this is also generally the case for past and future when in combinations. So the “present/past imperfective/future perfective” would be used less for “I was eating, I eat, and I’m going to eat”, but more “I used to eat, I eat, and I’m going to eat”, which is still probably not used much, but it is made easy, and so, can be used to make nice clarifications and distinctions.

6. Particles can be put together to show the perfective of the particles’ tenses.

þe + po = þepo (þpo) - present/past perfective

þefŕ (þwhŕ) - present/future perfective

pofŕ (pŕ) - past/future perfective

þepofŕ (þepŕ) - present/past/future perfective

foðét      śéwi þepo.

your.child play   pre.per-past.per

Your child played and is playing.

Like rule 2, rule 6 also has the all-three-particles outlier, but this one fits into the rule better.

One of the few if not the only thing that is attached directly to verbs is the marking of intentionality. Intentionality is also deeply connected to affectivity and perceptivity. These are determined lexically, and should be fairly easy to figure out without a definition telling you: most verbs are affective, but some verbs namely those of perception (see, feel, hear), are perceptive, which means they take a patient rather than a focus.

Affectivity has little affect on verbs’ use, but perceptivity with the help of intentionality affects when verbs can be made intransitive or passive. Affective verbs are intentional by default, and perceptive verbs are unintentional by default, but both can be changed. Unintentional, perceptive verbs can be made intransitive, but not passive. If they are made intentional (see > look, hear > listen, feel > touch) then they can be made into the passive, but not the intransitive. Huh, let’s make a table.

	Affective	Perceptive
Intentional	Passive or Intransitive (default)	Passive only
Unintentional	Passive or Intransitive	Intransitive only (default)

Affectivity and perceptivity are determined lexically, but intentionality is shown with a prefix. An affective verb can be made unintentional by adding tĺf- to the beginning, or a perceptive verb can be made intentional by adding þiś-.

There is one more thing on verbs, and it too is one of the few things attached directly to verbs. Verbs can be made into two types of nouns: the gerund and the agent. The gerund is made by treating the verb as a noun, and the agent is made by adding the suffix -boć to the end of the verb and using it as a noun. -boć is also a very useful derivational suffix with nouns, which I will talk about in that post.

Now, Dunta, what’s new?

World Map

So this is the world so far. It has changed a lot since my last post on it. I am making the migrations of the early people, so I can make sketches of their cultures and languages and evolve them to the time that I want to focus on most where I will develop the languages and culture.

The black dots on the map are tribal people or small villages unless they are surrounded by a colored boundary with orange dots, then they are towns under the rule/alliance of the orange dots which are more cities or highly populated areas. At this point the map is far from finished, and a lot of the boundaries are imperfect or not there, and overall this is mostly a plan to show major migrations; I wouldn’t say each and every dot is actually a single city, but it might be a couple.

I’ve put the earliest migrations during a glacial movement, so that is why the climate is in such flux.

Syntax and Pronouns

Fĺuðét has a set pattern for syntax, but it is not super strict; it can be twisted in several ways by way of one special pronoun with many forms. The basic syntax is SOV as I said in the first post, but I’m going to go into a tad bit more detail in this post.

First of all there are mainly two different types of sentences: mono-verbal, and bi-verbal. The mono-verbal sentence is basically just your good ole sentence, but the bi-verbal sentence is one that one might use a “to”, or a “that” to separate two clauses (e.g. “I want you to eat it”, “I think that this is red”).

Before we start I would like to introduce the notation of the syntactical rules and glosses that I use (if there are real, conventional rules, I would love to see something on those):

Syntax notations:

italics = fĺuðét word

() = necessary for a complete sentence; two words/word groups inside of parentheses separated by a hyphen - mean that one or more of them must be present

- = separator of words/word groups

Gloss notations:

1 = I/me/we/us

2 = you

3 = he/she/it/him/her/they/them

col = collective

par = partitive

ref = reflexive/passive

imp = imperfective

per = perfective

pre = present

pas = past

fut = future

nom = nominative

gen = genitive

abl = ablative

rel = relative clause

pos = affirmative statement

poq = affirmative question

nes = negative statement

neq = negative question

cau = causative

dat = dative

. = separates attribute-of-word meaning

- = separates affix-on-word meaning

(parentheses) = implication

italics = direct translation of word

The MONO-VERBAL SENTENCE is made like so:

fi - Causative Nominative - ((Nominative - Accusative) - Verb) - (Adverb)

                        éþ            diće         diślot         þe.

Nominative Accusative Verb             Adverb

1                  animal        take care of  pre.per

I am taking care of an animal.

fidićeboć éþ vubét        fŕ

meat            1  cause-to-eat fut.per

The meat will cause me to eat.

It may seem that the causative would be put with the bi-verbal sentence, and it probably was originally in the parent language, but causatives got all tangled up with intransitive verbs and left everything crooked, so now verbs, both lexically causative, and grammatically causative just go in a sentence where most verbs do, just with an extra noun at the beginning, and a form of the super special pronoun: fi right before that noun.

Just to make sure it’s clear the mono-verbal sentence does not have to be causative, as shown by the parentheses, but the “causative nominative” is where the noun goes if it is causative.

The parentheses also show that a verb can be optional, which is for two reasons. The first is that there is no verb when introducing an adjective (“the cow is red”), and the second is that there is no verb when introducing a noun (“there is a cow”).

The BI-VERBAL SENTENCE is made like so:

Causative Nominative - (Primary Nominative) - (Primary Verb) - (Primary Adverb) - (Secondary Sentence)

fidiće       ćob  fŕ      éþ fĺ bét po

cau.animal want fut.per  1    3   eat  pas.per

The animal will want me to have eaten it.

The “Primary” parts are what make up the first clause (the “I want” in “I want you to eat the cow”), and the “Secondary Sentence” is the second clause which can be either of the two types of sentences (the “you eat the cow”).

Both the primary and the secondary parts have tense. The primary tense is when the primary verb was done, and the secondary tense is when the secondary verb was done relative to the secondary verb. So if we use the example sentence above: “I want you to eat the cow”, and we leave the primary (“I want”) in present tense, but make the secondary (“you eat the cow”) in past tense, we get something more like “I want you to have eaten the cow”, or “I wish you ate the cow”. Also note that this type of sentence can be causativized, causativated, or made into the causative, but it is causing the primary clause, NOT the secondary, it has its own causitivization.

The NOMINATIVE ORDER is made like so:

fĺ - Nominative Relative Clause - Adjective - (Nominative Noun) - Negation/Question - Ablative/Genitive Relative Clause - Genitive - Ablative

fĺ    śéwi  diće    bét po.

nom happy  animal eat pas.per

The happy animal ate.

This is the order of words affecting and including the nominative noun. And what do you know there is another form of the super special pronoun: fĺ. It is mostly used with gerund verbs, to clarify their nounlyness (like fĺuðét which is the gerund of uðét which means “to speak”, so fĺuðét means speaking, or speech), and to mold and manipulate the word order for emphasis or poetic reasons. fĺ is used to show the nominative of another noun, but it also means “he/she/it/her/him/they/them/one (singular generic pronoun)/all (plural generic pronoun)/person” in the nominative, which brings up another matter plurality. The funny thing is that there isn’t any! That is why the definition of fĺ is so long, since it has to include both singular and plural (aside from the fact that it can be almost any 3^rd person pronoun and some).

I talked about fi above and about its use as how it was needed for causative nouns, but that’s not the only use for it. Causatives tangle with intransitives and reflexives and  gave fi the other job of showing reflexivity, by attaching it to the front of the nominative noun and removing the accusative.

The ACCUSATIVE ORDER is made like so:

fe - Nominative Relative Clause - (Accusative Noun) - Negation/Question - Ablative/Genitive Relative Clause - Genitive - Ablative

fe      tiðébŕ þédop     þe.

3.abl   tree        crash into pre.per

He/she/it is crashing into trees.

Here is another form of the super special pronoun: fe. This one can be used for two things: the accusative as seen above, and for the ablative. The accusative also makes use of fi, and in a similar way to the nominative getting rid of the other major noun. In this case it shows passivity and rids the sentence of the nominative, but generally fi is not even used and the nominative is just removed.

The ADVERB ORDER is made like so:

(Tense/perfective) - Negation/Question - Mood - Adverb - Verbal Ablative

pi śośo śolo þeþe    fŕliði     śéwi   fetu      luþi.

2    key   want  pre.imp  can-poq  happily abl-with  dog

Can you collect keys, with a dog?

The most important part of the adverb is tense and perfectiveness, which will be spoken of more in the post on verbs. After those comes the negation and interrogative marker, which I’ve made it this far without mentioning. The two seemingly separate things are mixed together into one set of particles, which will be spoken of later (Ha, I’m continuing to evade them). Next comes mood markers and a couple of certain verbs namely ones similar to “can” and “need” which are shown by adverbs that are treated like mood rather than bi-verbal sentences. After that comes the more adjective like adverbs: manner adverbs (adjectives can generally be put in the adverbial position too just like the next thing). The ablative comes next, that is the ablative that describes the verb rather than the noun. The accusative probably also once resided in the verbal ablative (being the thing the verb is done to), but putting the accusative in front of the verb may have been used for emphasis, and eventually became the norm.

                       

                       

The RELATIVE CLAUSE ORDER is made like so:

(Nominative/fĺ - Accusative/fe) - (Verb) - (Adverb)

fĺ    ćob bebét   þe      luþi beb źĺtu þe.

3.rel want  poultry pre.per dog   bird  kill   pre.per

The dog that is craving poultry is killing a bird.

           

fifebeb        luþi fe    ćob þe      źĺtu þe.

ref-3.abl-bird dog   3.rel eat    pre.per kill   pre.per

The bird that is being craved by the dog is being killed.

The relative clause uses two forms of the super special pronoun that we have already seen before: fĺ and fe. In this case they are used merely as place holders for the noun being modified. I only have them written down for being applicable to the nominative and the accusative, but this is hardly true. They can replace any noun in the clause, and thus represent that noun in that clause. The relative clause generally comes after the noun, but if the noun is the nominative of the clause, then the relative clause comes before (I demonstrated this difference in the examples above).

The GENITIVE ORDER is made like so:

fo - Nominative Relative Clause - (Noun) - Negative/Question Ablative/Genitive Relative Clause - Genitive - Ablative

fi-fĺ  źétu             popo    fe-roć léþŕd  fo rofép tu  vośi fo vośiboć.

ref-3  cause to think pas.imp  abl-like fall      of   rock     and blow of  wind

They thought for the same reason a rock falls, and the wind blows.

I call this the genitive, but really it is one of two. This genitive is used for inalienable possession. Alienable possession is shown using ðibéþ “have” in a relative clause. The main things that are inalienable are body parts, friends/spouses/pets (I’m relating pets to friends, not spouses), clothes (but not gloves, hats, or jackets), and actions; about everything else is alienable including parents and children.

The ABLATIVE ORDER is made like so:

fe - Preposition - Nominative Relative Clause - (Noun) - Negative/Question - Ablative/Genitive Relative Clause - Genitive - Ablative

fi-fĺ  źétu            popo    fe-roć léþŕd  fo rofép tu  vośi fo vośiboć.

ref-3  cause to think pas.imp  abl-like  fall      of    rock     and blow of   wind

They thought for the same reason a rock falls, and the wind blows.

           

The ablative is everything that the genitive, the nominative, and the accusative are not, and it is even closely related to the accusative, which used to be included in the ablative, but eventually got moved in front of the verb, probably for emphatic reasons (as I spoke of earlier). The ablative can be used to describe a nouns position spatially, mannerally, or temporally relative to another noun, or it can describe the action of a noun spatially, mannerally, or temporally relative to another noun. In other words an ablative can describe a noun (adjectival) or it can describe a verb (adverbial), with little to no difference, except for one thing: I marked above that the fe in an ablative is not mandatory, but if it is an adverbial ablative, or if it is out of place for emphatic or poetic reasons as spoken of above then it is mandatory.

Whoo! That was a long post! I was going to put an update about the world, but I think that can wait to the next one on verbs, which will hopefully be a bit shorter.

The Phonetics that I Forgot

I forgot one thing, and intentionally left out another. The thing that I forgot is a fairly small matter, but is very important to pronunciation: stress. The thing that I left out intentionally is a bit larger, but will probably not be important for much time to come: derivational phonetic simplifications.

            Stress in fĺuðét is fairly simple. It comes on the end of the word unless the vowel of that syllable is an é, then the stress comes on the first vowel before it that that is not an é. If all of the vowels in the word are é’s, then stress comes on the last syllable. So veću, "walk" is stressed: ve-ĆU, and fĺuðét is stressed: fĺ-U-ðét, because its last syllable’s vowel is an é, and the syllable before that is a u, which can have stress. And one more thing that I forgot: é cannot end a word without a consonant after it.

           

Fĺuðét derives words from other words by attaching affixes, which leads to odd series of consonants that do not always fit in one’s mouth. Because of this there are certain rules that one can follow to simplify the sounds of unwieldy mixtures.

A couple of preliminary rules:

1. The preceding sound always modifies the following sound, and not vice versa.

2. If three or more sounds come together, then first expand semi-vowels into regular vowels, then if there are still groups of three or more consonants, then keep only the first and last sound of each group, and simplify them.

The sounds are simplified according to the following set of rules:

1. Stop + Stop:

a. Initial p > unvoice following sound and remove p except before ć or j where j is unvoiced and the initial t (t + ś = ć) is replaced with p.

b. Initial b > voice following sound and remove b except with ć or j where the ć is voiced and the initial d (d + ź = j) is replaced with b.

c. Initial t > remove initial t.

d. Initial d > voice following sound and remove initial d.

e. Initial ć > unvoice following sound and remove initial t before t.

f. Initial j > voice following sound and remove initial d before d.

Stop + Fricative:

a. Initial p > align inital p to following sound’s voicing and remove f or v.

b. Initial b > remove f or v.

c. Initial t > unvoice following sound and turn f into wh.

d. Initial d > voice following sound and turn v into w.

e. Initial ć > align ć to following sound’s voicing and turn f into wh and v into w.

f. Initial j > turn f into wh and v into w and remove initial d (d + ź = j) before t or d.

Fricative + Stop:

a. Initial f > align initial f to following sound’s voicing and remove initial f before p and b.

b. Initial v > voice following sound and remove initial v before p or b.

c. Initial þ > align initial þ to following sound’s voicing and remove t, d, ć, and j.

d. Initial ð > voice following sound and remove d, and j.

e. Initial ś > align to following sound’s voicing.

f. Initial ź > voice following sound.

Fricative + Fricative:

a. Initial f > remove f

b. Initial v > voice following sound and remove initial v.

c. Initial þ > align þ to following sound’s voicing, turn f into wh, and turn v into w, and remove initial þ before ś or ź.

d. Initial ð > voice following sound, turn v into w, and remove initial ð before ź.

e. Initial ś > align ś to following sound’s voicing and turn f into wh, and turn v into w.

f. Initial ź > voice following sound and turn v into w.

Fĺuðét Intro and Phonetics

WARNING: You will not be able to read certain things (the fĺuðét alphabet parts) without downloading and installing this font: Runic-Fuludhet-Short.ttf, or refer to the alphabet at right, and below.
Fĺuðét is a language that I started that has little or no relation to the world (Dunta) that I am creating, but instead is a language that I am making to entertain myself in the realm of constructed languages while I continue work on the history of my world. I may also post on the history in the background, since that is what this blog is for.

Fĺuðét is a language with SOV word order, an adverb based tense, mood, and aspect system, and a conculture, but no world except our own. It started out being a language that I would not put down on paper, or record in any other way so as to force myself to learn it, but I never got past the phrase: éþ vechu se (“I am walking”). The phonetics, the Romanization, and most of the grammar have thoroughly changed since then, but that sentence is still similar: fiéþ veću þeþe. My no-recording plan did not build the language very large, and it’s pretty hard to learn a language with only three words, so I eventually gave up and put it down on paper, and then a word document, and now a blog.

            Fĺuðét has one peculiarity that may challenge common thought on phonetics: the use of l and r as vowels. I have seen very little on the idea that l and r are vowels. I found only one forum where someone brought it up (see that here), and even the IPA does not realize l and r for their full potential. Even so, I do use l and r as vowels. I use the sounds full (IPA: /əl/), and fur (IPA: /ɛr/) respectively for l and r. I write them ĺ, and ŕ in vowel form for the Romanization (you might not be able to see it, but they have acute accents on top of them).

            All of the vowels in fĺuðét are shown together in the following table:

Romanization	IPA	English Example	Fĺuðét Alphabet
o	/o/	so (like French)	o
u	/u/	rude	u
ŕ	/ɛr/	sure	Ŕ
ĺ	/əl/	gull	Ĺ
i	/i/	machine	I
e	/e/	make (no i glide)	E
é	/ɛ/	wet	é

            The consonants in fĺuðét are all almost all in English, except for the wh (which I suppose is in some dialects of English), and the bilabial fricatives. Fĺuðét (or the speakers of (whoever they may be)) treat ć and j as plosives in most cases rather than affricates. It will mostly only matter in the derivational phonetic simplifications, which are yet to come.

            All of the consonants of are shown in the following table (unvoiced, voiced):

	Bilabial			Alveolar			Post-Alveolar
	Roman	IPA	Fĺuðét	Roman	IPA	Fĺuðét	Roman	IPA	Fĺuðét
Plosive	p, b	p, b	p b	t, d	t, d	t d
Affricate							ć, j	ʧ, ʤ	ć j
Fricative	f, v	φ, β	f v	þ, ð	θ, ð	þ ð	ś, ź	ʃ, ʒ	ś ź
Semi-Vowel	wh, w	ʍ, w	w w	l	l	l	r	r	r

            NOTE: The      is not a part of the fĺuðét letter, but is rather the symbol used to show spaces.

 Fĺuðét Alphabet

Sile Degod Sa

     In other words "Religion in Dega."

     Since I keep saying it's either going to be a long time until I post on Dega or more recently I probably won't post at all I thought I might as well put up the rest of the creation story in Dega.

Rom - Dolate arari isan duntod te lin dolate okoda ko isisa ko odoni.

Zor - Dolatase riz odolati zanad ko serad ko ikuzad te, ta teduse ogor odoni.

Min - Zunatase aradani ogor Duntod zu donod kit ki kulatase ogor arari.

Det - Kulatase ozoni ko eseri dortod zu zor ri ki kidatase ogor dortod zu zor isi ri ko kulate kikuzi raterod ri.

Dast - Natede ozoni eta kit kulate ogor enakala.

Gol - Keate ozoni “kidasus olo kulotatod etes ri ko kulasus olo kikuzod gu zu nase ete kulo enakala” eserod da.

Tul - Kidate eseri zu tede ogor lilo ozoni re.

Kat - Late ozoni lilinzani ekaŋ rum keate ozoni “magasus olo rarozi do zu nase ete kulo god etel ri.” eserod da.

Sut - Ta sedate eseri “natede ozoni isiz” rum zumate eseri isisa kulo arari meg kulo tatod ozonos ri rum natede ozoni ilo.

Kur - Zumate eseri okoda sizo isisa meg.

Kit - Zumate ozoni adana kulo isisa meg, ta gagate isu ozoni “nase adana sizi” zu ted adana leze isisod re, ta natede adan isiz, ko manenate isu ogor ozoni.

Rotak - Rum natede ikuzi eku, ko natede okoda idira, ko natede zona lelig sera re.

Note: things that one thinks and knows are written in quotation marks like speech.

I am also going to put up my complete dictionary on the dictionary page and the grammar in a new grammar page. So if there is a word that you do not recognize you should be able to find in there.