Conlang Year: Week 15
Week 15! I've come a long ways and this thing is starting to feel like something that real ideas could be expressed in. Once again, prompts are here.
Day 99 - Create any forms you need for marking tense/aspect
I'd prefer to avoid adding really lengthy, unwieldy prefixes to all my verbs, so I'm going to try to work out a way to add these in with the markers I made for subject last week. I've got to add indicators for present and future tense.
The adpositions for during (ɪx) and after (aɪt) seem like a great point to start for lexicalization. I'll add the vowels from each of those to the existing prefixes, leaving me with this:
| Past | Present | Future | |
|---|---|---|---|
| First-person | ɛɪx | ɛɪx.ɪ | ɛɪx.aɪ |
| Second-person animate | tax | tax.ɪ | tax.aɪ |
| Second-person inanimate | taʎ | taʎ.ɪ | taʎ.aɪ |
| Third-person animate | ʒɛx | ʒɛx.ɪ | ʒɛx.aɪ |
| Third-person inanimate | ʒɛʎ | ʒɛʎ.ɪ | ʒɛʎ.aɪ |
As today's prompt mentions, more complicated aspects of tense can probably be managed with adverbs or other separate words at a later date so I think I'm going to stick to my past, present, and future tense for now rather than adding complication.
Day 100 - Create examples to show non-finite verb forms
I already decided how the infinitive form of verbs would look - using the adposition "ʃa" with the base form of the verb, e.g. ʃa ŋwɛʃ.xaɸ meaning "to weigh." Now, I'll try making sentences using them.
"The man walks out to plant."
out 3.a.pr.WALK inf.PLANT man.nom - ŋa ʒɛx.ɪ.βɛɪ ʃa an.ɪ xɪɾ.ɾa
"I will lie down to sleep."
1.fu.LIE DOWN inf.sleep I.nom - ɛɪx.aɪ.pɾɛɪ ʃa syɸ ɛɪ
This also means I've decided that these infinitive forms should follow the verb in word order rather than the subject and that the adpositions should precede it. I might change this later.
Day 101 - Map out the components of your verb structure
I think the table I include on Day 99 already solves this problem admirably. I've copied it into my documentation as well.
Day 102 - Create more example sentences
Here's a few more examples!
"Y'all walked to that rock."
2.a.WALK y'all.nom for(purpose) demonstrative rock.acc - tax.βɛɪ ut ɾɪm ɾɪmʃθ ʃɪθ.βan.ɢaŋ
"The monkey has a knife!"
3.a.pr.POSSESS monkey.nom knife.acc - ʒɛx.ɪ.us.ʃwɪ ŋɢaɪ.dʌ.ɾa Ʌθ.ɣy.ɢaŋ
"I will use my sword to fight."
1.a.fu.USE inf.fight I.nom sword.gen - ɛɪx.aɪ.boŋ ʃa aɸ.ʎaq ɛɪ zɛɪ.ɢat
Day 103 - Explore options for negating verbs
Thekkish doesn't have words for affirmation or negation yet, so the lexical sources here might be interesting. I think that mɛʃs, "none/nothing," is probably the best bet here. I could see it being reduced to merely "ɛʃ" in this context.
Day 104 - Create a negation strategy
I think verb will be negated by creating ɛʃ as a separate word that immediately follows a verb, causing it to mean it's opposite.
"Y'all did not walk to that rock."
2.a.WALK neg y'all.nom for(purpose) demonstrative rock.acc - tax.βɛɪ ɛʃ ut ɾɪm ɾɪmʃθ ʃɪθ.βan.ɢaŋ
"The monkey doesn't have a knife."
3.a.pr.POSSESS neg monkey.nom knife.acc - ʒɛx.ɪ.us.ʃwɪ ɛʃ ŋɢaɪ.dʌ.ɾa Ʌθ.ɣy.ɢaŋ
"I will not use my sword to fight."
1.a.fu.USE neg inf.fight I.nom sword.gen - ɛɪx.aɪ.boŋ ɛʃ ʃa aɸ.ʎaq ɛɪ zɛɪ.ɢat
Day 105 - Start documenting your verb inflections
I've added some notes to the existing tense/person/subject animacy chart I made to note how negation works.