Languary - Days 5 and 6

[clare_dragonfly]

I was ready to post yesterday, but I ran out of time after work, so here are the posts for both day 5 and day 6,

After much pondering, I have decided to give Gavāth grammatical gender. It is indicated by the first vowel of the noun.
a/ā/ai: masculine
e/ē/ei: feminine
i/ī/ę/u/ui: neuter

Adjectives form agreement by changing their final vowels to match the noun--a/ā for feminine, e/ē for masculine, i/ī for neuter. The vowel length from the base adjective is retained.

So, for example, a man from the empire is "Gavāth zāk," a woman from the empire is "Gavēth zēk," and a nongendered person from the empire is "Gavīth zuk."

The word for "tall," however, has a short vowel, thus: "fainan zāk," "fainen zēk," and "fainin zuk."


The verb "to be," gāl, is an irregular verb--one of very few in the language. Below are the conjugations for the present tense.

1st singular (I am): gei
1st plural (we are): akāl
1st plural formal: kul
2nd singular formal (you are): gui
2nd plural formal (you all are): keil
2nd singular informal: alā
2nd plural informal: ul
3rd singular formal (he/she/it is): gai
3rd plural formal (they are): kēli
3rd singular informal: lākā
3rd plural formal: gla'

Any questions? I'll try to answer!

Comments

[aldersprig]

Your zaks are the same for long and short, was that on purpose?

[clare_dragonfly]

Yes, zak is the noun, so the length of its vowel does not change.

I probably could have picked a better example--instead of three nouns that are the same other than gender, I should have used entirely different nouns.

[aldersprig]

Also, what made you decide to make "to be" irregular?

[clare_dragonfly]

Habit, mostly, I think. It's very irregular in English, of course, and in Spanish, the language I am second most familiar with, the two words for "to be" are among the few highly irregular verbs. I think it's irregular in Welsh, too, though I don't actually know the rules for Welsh verb conjugation.

It also seems like a very basic verb to me, one that therefore would have retained old forms, like in English ("went" comes from "wend," which I believe is Anglo-Saxon).

[aldersprig]

That makes sense!

I need to play more with old-forms of language.

Although Whispers Drop is an odd case, being a constructed language of sorts IC as well. <>

[novel_machinist]

man, the level of work in this is really inspiring! Thank you so much for sharing.

[clare_dragonfly]

Ha, thanks, but mostly I'm pulling weird sound combinations out of thin air and writing them down! ;)