Table 46

Conlang Year: Week 21

I've made it back for another week of language fabrication! It will likely be the last for a few weeks as I'll be traveling for most of the month without access to a device with the multiple monitors I rely on for looking at all of my language docs. As always, prompts are here.

Day 141 - Make a plan for numbers in NPs

Thinking it out a little more, what I might do here is use cardinal numbers a bit like an adjective when they're counting a specific noun, but conjugate them as nouns when they are the subject. To use the example in the prompt, two cats would be "cats.a.nom two" and I see two would be "1.a.pr.see i.nom two.acc." I think I might leave out the class marker much as I have for pronouns.

As I mentioned last week, I'm going to be making a base-12 system of numbers. One thing I haven't decided on yet is whether the societies of the Jewelsea have invented the concept of zero. I'll probably make a word for it anyways; I can always decide not to use it later.

Day 142 - Create basic cardinal numbers

Here's the cardinal numbers from zero to twelve. I decided to reuse the pronoun "none/nothing" as the word for zero as well.

number nominative accusative genitive dative
zero mɛʃs mɛʃ.soŋ mɛʃ.sɛt mɛʃ.sɪm
one ʎa ʎa.oŋ ʎa.ɛt ʎaɪm
two wa wa.oŋ wa.ɛt waɪm
three xy xy.oŋ xy.ɛt xy.ɪm
four ŋɛθ ŋɛθ.oŋ ŋɛθ.ɛt ŋɛθ.ɪm
five qɾuʃ qɾuʃ.oŋ qɾuʃ.ɛt qɾuʃ.ɪm
six θʌŋ θʌŋ.oŋ θʌŋ.ɛt θʌŋ.ɪm
seven ʃɛx ʃɛx.oŋ ʃɛx.ɛt ʃɛx.ɪm
eight ɪβ.mɛɪ ɪβ.mɛɪ.oŋ ɪβ.mɛɪt ɪβ.mɛɪm
nine ʃap ʃap.oŋ ʃap.ɛt ʃap.ɪm
ten ɢɛɣ ɢɛɣ.oŋ ɢɛɣ.ɛt ɢɛɣ.ɪm
eleven ʎɛɪ ʎɛɪ.oŋ ʎɛɪ.ɛt ʎɛɪ.ɪm
twelve qɛb.ɛɪ qɛb.ɛɪ.oŋ qɛb.ɛɪt qɛb.ɛɪm

Day 143 - Create compound cardinal numbers

I'm going to shorten the form of the number for twelve and append it to the end of the base roots to make the counter for the number of bases, much like the "ty" particle that comes from the English "ten" or the "ante" particle used for similar purposes in French.

number nominative accusative genitive dative
twelves qeb qeb.oŋ qeb.ɛt qeb.ɪm
12^3 ʌd.qma ʌd.qma.oŋ ʌd.qma.ɛt ʌd.qma.ɪm
12^3s ʌd ʌd.oŋ ʌd.ɛt ʌd.ɪm
12^5 yt.pɛɪ.du yt.pɛɪ.du.oŋ yt.pɛɪ.du.ɛt yt.pɛɪ.du.ɪm
12^5s yt.du yt.du.oŋ yt.du.ɛt yt.du.ɪm

In this system, 17 would be ʎa.qeb qɾuʃ, 32 wa.qeb ɪβ.mɛɪ, 144 would be qɛb.ɛɪ.qeb, and 5,187 would be xy.ʌd xy.

Day 144 - Create examples of numbers in context

Here's a few examples of numbers being used in context -

"The monkey has three knives!"

3.a.pr.POSSESS monkey.nom knife.acc three  - ʒɛx.ɪ.us.ʃwɪ ŋɢaɪ.dʌ.ɾa Ʌθ.ɣy.ɢaŋ xy 

“The bird made two dozen insects run.”

ca.3.a.pa.RUN bird.nom crawling arthropod.acc - bu.ʒɛx.ðʌx βax.ɾa aɪʃ.zɾaŋ wa.qeb

"She has forty seven."

3.a.pr.POSSESS she.nom 47.acc - ʒɛx.ɪ.us.ʃwɪ qyɸ xy.qeb.oŋ ʎɛɪ.oŋ

Day 145 - Plan a strategy for ordinal numbers

Since I went with a strategy where the numbers don't agree with the noun they describe, word order is not a good option here - it would lead to confusion as to which noun they're modifying when nouns appear in succession. I'm going to add some form of particle to existing numbers that turns them into ordinal numbers.

Day 146 - Create ordinal number forms

I'm going to use "waθ," the word for when, as a particle to indicate a number is ordinal, appearing appended to the beginning of the number phrase.

wa.qeb ʎa (25) becomes waθ.wa.qeb ʎa (25th)

I also added an irregular form for first, ʎam.ʒøŋʃ.

Day 147 - Create examples with ordinal numbers

Here's a few examples:

"He wanted to be first."

3.a.pa.DESIRE inf.BE he.nom first.acc - ʒɛx.aɪb.as ʃa tas qyɸ ʎam.ʒøŋʃ.oŋ

"The cat hunts a third antelope."

3.a.pr.HUNT cat.nom antelope.acc ord.three - ʒɛx.ɪ.ɾoŋ.ʃɪθ.usθ βðøm.ɾa ɢuʎɸʃ.ɾaŋ waθ.xy

Since numbers are conjugated the same way that pronouns are, it's easy to use them as such:

"The fifth is smart."

3.a.pr.BE ord.five.nom smart - ʒɛx.ɪ.tas waθ.qɾuʃ sθɪ.wom.ɾa.sɪn