Dama Diwan

Dama Diwan
Template:Dama Diwan / Dama
Created by	–
Native to	the whole earth
Native speakers	3 billion (2016)
Language family	ProtoHuman Dama Diwan
Early form	ProtoHuman language
Dialect	informal Dama

It took me 5 days to learn all the Dama Diwan vocabulary. It can take a week, but once you know it, you have a treasure: the International Auxiliary Language, minimal but all efficient, artistic and perfectly logical, flexible and permanent. It is not based on any human language. All the vocabulary comes from the sky, hence the name Dama (or tama) "of the sky" Dewan (or tiwan) "with the earth". It allows wonderful freedom of word order within the frame of the head-final syntax. Well worth to devote one week to learn it.

Grammar

If you know the meaning of Dama Diwan and the head-final word order, you don't need to know any other grammar. Every stem can take one of the 3 affixes o / a / e, which can be further expanded to on, an, en. So we have 6 possible suffixes, which the have the following native names (with examples in brackets):

-o : ruro. (to, taro, no, wano…). It means a nominal word, something existing in space.

-a : jeno. (rasa, taba, na, kuka…). It means an adverbial word, expressing some notion of causality.

-e : bo. (be, ne, bibe, nuje…). It means an active verb, something realised in time.

-on : suto. (ton, taron, non, wanon…). Marks an object placed not after its verb.

-an : nujo. (rasan, taban, nan, kukan…). Marks an adverb used as a preposition or conjunction.

-en : raso. (ben, nen, biben, nujen…). Marks a verb which is going to be followed by its direct object.

-a / -an adverbials

The difference between -e / -en, -o / -on, has been sufficiently explained.

Adverbial words are very often used as postpositions, prepositions or conjunctions.

The suffix -an is used when the adverb is used as a preposition or conjunction, or more generally to show that the adverb connects primarily to the following word and not to the previous.

The suffix -a is used when the adverb is used as a postposition, or more generally to show that the adverb is connected primarily with the previous words before the meaning is joined to the following.

If there is no question whether the adverb joins primarily to the previous or to the next, -a is taken to mean "of" or "in relation to" the word it marks, while -an is taken to mean "with" or "by having" the word that follows -an.

Informal Dama Diwan

Informal Dama Diwan can use the "vrddhi" function which is formed as "vrddhi" in Sanskrit; that is, an "a" is added immediately after the first consonant of the word, so e.g. "niwo" becomes "naiwo" and "wajo" becomes "waajo".

The meaning of the vrddhi (augmented vowel) word is primarily to express a color, e.g. tino =a blue gem, taino =blue; if the original word cannot be used for its color, the vrddhi is used for its similarity, e.g. buso =a dog, bauso =an animal similar to a dog, e.g. the Tasmanian tiger; or for outer appearance, as in nuro =normal, nauro =something that seems to be normal, ordinary.

Formal Dama does not use the vrddhi (augmented vowel) function; instead, it uses "buwo" for color, "rano" for similarity, and "kawa" for outer appearance. Informal Dama is only to be used in spoken language when one has to be very quick in expressing something.

Another feature of informal Dama is its possibility to omit the final -o / -u of words, especially if they work as adjectives. This is a feature frowned upon in formal Dama.

Correctness

The whole Dama Diwan language has already been described. Everything expressed according to the above rules is considered perfectly correct, as long as it can be understood.

Phonology and phonotactics

Dama has 3 vowel phonemes: a, i/e, u/o

and 9 consonant phonemes: k/g, t/d/ts, b, n, m, j, r, w, s.

There are many possible allophones, such as /v/ or /ɸ/ for w, but the use of "p" and especially of "l" (lateral sounds articulated with the tongue) is not acceptable. The word final -n is best pronounced as /ŋ/ if possible, or it must conform to the articulatory position of the following consonant.

Writing system

The aforementioned 16 letters of the Latin alphabet are permitted to be used for Dama.

Every other writing system can also be used for writing Dama; however, the Latin alphabet is preferred.

Links and tools for learning the Dama Diwan language

1) http://users.sch.gr/ioakenanid/kuba%20no%20reja.pps for discovering by yourself;

2) http://users.sch.gr/ioakenanid/dama%20diwan.xls for getting random texts and interpreting them;

3) http://konlangerz.com/conlang/85/Dama_dewan for a concise description;

4) http://konlangerz.com/conlang/85/Dama_dewan/texts for texts to read;

5) http://lingojam.com/Damadiwan for quick reference;

6) http://lingojam.com/tolearnDamaDiwanwords for an online dictionary (input stems only).

There are also some documents in the files of the group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/omado.sosti.matiko/files/ and in https://crete.academia.edu/GiannhsKenanidhs/Dama-Diwan-Language