Conlang Year: Week 19
I'm taking advantage of the holiday weekend to catch up on conlanging! At this rate, I might dig out of the hole to get back on track just in time to be derailed by my upcoming travel. Once again, prompts are here.
I've been thinking a bit more on my possession confusion and talking it over with a friend, who pointed out that it probably makes sense to add a genitive case of the personal pronoun to indicate possession of the niece. This is what the sentence looks like when I do that -
"My niece will make me hold her container."
ca.3.a.fu.HOLD niece.nom i.gen i.acc container.gen - bu.ʒɛʎ.aɪ.xɛɪ.pɛɪ dwʌɢ.ʃɾaɪ.ɾa ɛɪ.ɛt ɛɪ.oŋ ta.xɛɪ.pɛɪ.ɢat
I think this works. When initially looking at it I was concerned that it might not be clear which of the nouns the possessive is indicating, but right now the syntax means that genitives always follow the head they're describing so I think if someone was a native speaker of Thekkish this would make perfect sense. On with the show!
Day 127 - Brainstorm ideas for adjective development
I like the idea that adjectives come from noun sources; an adjective is used to say that one noun possesses qualities that are associated with another noun. As mentioned in the prompt, this can easily take the form of an affix that means "-like" appended to an existing noun. I'm inclined to use the adposition sɪn (meaning of/with) to do this as an affix to the nominative case of the noun.
Day 128 - Make a plan for your adjectives
I laid out the plan in yesterday's notes. One question I have here is if I could extend the use of the adposition to turn nouns into adjectives and use it on adjectives, for example, the English red which becomes reddish. It seems like a reasonable way to use the process.
Day 129 - Create adjective forms in your language
If I'm going to be making adjectives, I think I'm going to be adding a bit more color today.
pʎʌ adjective light/white
bɛmd adjective dark/black
uʒ.baqθ adjective red
aɪs.yʒ adjective yellow
βɛnq.βy adjective green
ɣmu adjective blue
waʃ.sɛɪ adjective cyan
I am also trying out turning nouns into adjective forms.
qaɪ.ɢa.sɪn hilly, hill-like
pɛp.ɾa.sɪn rainy
nɪðβ.ɾa.sɪn windy
ʃɸoŋ.ɾa.sɪn goat-like
ʃɪθ.βan.ɢa.sɪn rocky
Ʌθ.ɣy.ɢa.sɪn sharp, knife-like
sθɪ.wom.ɾa.sɪn intelligent, mind-like
ɢyɾ.ɢa.sɪn beautiful
Day 130 - List examples of noun & adjective pairs
Since right now the adjectives don't require agreement with the noun they are modifying, that makes this pretty easy.
beautiful spouse.nom - ɣʒɪŋ.ɾa ɢyɾ.ɢa.sɪn
rocky field.acc - ŋaɪ.ɢaŋ ʃɪθ.βan.ɢa.sɪn
sharp claw.dat - ʃaɪθ.ɣy.ɢaɪm Ʌθ.ɣy.ɢa.sɪn
red fruit tree.nom (apple tree) - θaɪ.ɢa uʒ.baqθ
rainy morning - ɛɪɾ.ɸm.ɢaŋ pɛp.ɾa.sɪn
Day 131 - Plan the structure of NPs with multiple modifiers
Fortunately, I don't have articles to worry about. The prompt doesn't mention it, but I think Thekkish will care about adjective order in much the same way English does, though it won't be quite as rigid about it. Other orders will be unusual but not wrong, per se.
This is the order I plan to start with: noun - demonstrative - quantifier - adjective (color, shape, material, origin, size, age, purpose, opinion) - nominal modifier - genitive
Day 132 - Expand your example NPs
Alright, let's make those five noun phrases from Day 130 a bit bigger:
my beautiful, intelligent spouse.nom - ɣʒɪŋ.ɾa ɢyɾ.ɢa.sɪn sθɪ.wom.ɾa.sɪn ɛɪ.ɛt
that rocky goat pasture.acc - ŋaɪ.ɢaŋ ɾɪmʃθ ʃɪθ.βan.ɢa.sɪn ɾɪm ʃɸoŋ
this sharp, scary claw.dat - ʃaɪθ.ɣy.ɢaɪm θyʃ Ʌθ.ɣy.ɢa.sɪn ðax.ʃm.ɢa.sɪn
some red fruit trees.nom (apple tree) - θaɪ.ɢa sʌθ uʒ.baqθ
rainy, foggy morning - ɛɪɾ.ɸm.ɢaŋ pɛp.ɾa.sɪn zmɛɣ.ɢa.sɪn
Day 133 - Write an introduction to adjectives
Once again, this is something I've been keeping in my documentation as I go along. Right now I have basic adjectives, nouns used as modifiers, and nouns with adjective forms. I don't have plans to add verb-sourced adjectives at this point, but never say never!