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; highly formal 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 syntax and permanent vocabulary yet with unlimited possibilities for creating new terms. It is not based on any human language. All the vocabulary comes from the sky, hence the name Dama (or tama) "by the sky" and it is for the earth, hence it is Dewan / Diwan (or tiwan) "of 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 / kiwo nijo

If you know the meaning of Dama Diwan words and the head-final word order, you don't need to know any other grammar. "Grammar" means things obligatory to express, such as gender, case, number, tense, aspect of verb, mood and so on. All such things are available in Dama, but almost nothing is obligatory to express. In fact, it is better to omit anything that is easily understood without mentioning it. What is obligatory (and therefore, grammatical) in Dama, is that every word must end with one of the 3 vowels, and that vowel presents the word as a noun or adverb or verb; so, these 3 suffixes, along with the word order and the possible -n constitute the whole grammar of formal Dama. The 3 suffixes o / a / e 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 : tubo. (be, ne, bibe, nuje…). It means an active verb, something realized in time.

MODIFIERS TO NOUNS / ruro nuna juno

So for example JASO is a tooth / teeth; JASA is the adverb "teeth-way", with (the) teeth, teeth-like, by means of teeth; and JASE is the verb: to use the teeth, bite or chew. All these can be used as predicates (after the subject) or as adjectives / modifiers (before the modified word); suppose the modified word is a noun such as BASO (fish); then JASO BASO = "the teeth-fish" or "the fish of teeth" (implying an important role of teeth, so it is a shark, if the context agrees). A noun as a modifier functions like the genitive case in many languages. In JASA BASO the modifier is an adverb; an adverb modifying a noun works much like a derivative adjective, in this case "teethy", "teeth-like", or "teeth-using", a such kind of fish. A practical way to understand the meaning of an adverb is to use the word -"way" or the English suffixes -"wise", -"ly", -"like" or "with"-. Very often in Dama the modifier of a noun is a verb, then it is equal to an active verb participle: JASE BASO =the biting fish =the fish that bites.

MODIFIERS TO VERBS / tubo nuna juno

Supposing the verb is JASE (uses the teeth, bites). A noun before the verb is its subject: BASO JASE =the fish is biting. An adverb before the verb is in the most proper adverbial function: BASA JASE =(s/he) bites like a fish, (s/he) bites the way fish do. A verb before another verb is dependent to the second verb; in all cases, the modified comes last and the modifier comes before it. So, NUJE JASE "catches-bites" means "bites in a catching way, bites so as to catch"; while WASE JASE "presses-bites" means "uses the teeth in a pressing way", i.e. "is chewing". In many cases, especially with the monosyllabic verbs as main, the modifying verb works as the object of the second verb, e.g. JASE RE "bite-want" =it wants/tries to bite.

MODIFIERS TO ADVERBS / jeno nuna juno

Like all words, adverbs can be modified by all words; adverbs very often work as POSTpositions or adverbs of time/place/mode in relation to a noun, so the main word here is the postpositional adverb which comes second: JASO JENA "teeth-using" =by using the teeth. JASO RAMA ="tooth-inside" =inside the tooth. JASO RINO RAMA "teeth-row-inside" =inside the row of the teeth. An adverb can modify another adverb (again, the modifier comes first): JENA =using, by means of; MIWA JENA "big-way using" =much using, making much use of. A verb modifying an adverb is common for adverbs functioning as postpositions or conjunctions: e.g. KA "in order to; must", so JASE KA AN-MARA "in order to bite - comes close"; JASE KA! (bite!) is a possible order to a dog that has been taught Dama. That is not so hard, as a dog can learn 500 expressions in the first year of its life, while Dama has only 262 - 264 morphemes (depending on the way of counting them).

THE SUFFIXED -N / mibo -n

All the 3 suffixes can be extended by a final nasal, which is best pronounced as velar if possible to the speaker. The final nasal is the connecting indicator: it goes between the object (called SUTO) and its ruler (SUTE) to connect them. A mnemonic device to remember the role of -n is the word "next", as -n joins primarily with the next word. In Dama, the mnemonic word is "NUJO" (catching), as it "catches" the next words, or "NUTO" (fruit, result), as it connects to the result (object) of the word. The -n can be considered as an abbreviated form of "NO" (thing): it is understood as "the thing, which...".

So, between a noun object and its verb: BASON NUJE = "fish-catches" = "s/he catches fish", while BASO NUJE = the fish catches (prey). If the verb goes first, NUJEN BASO "s/he catches fish". But in NUJE BASO, "baso" canNOT be the object, so it is the case of a verb modifier to a noun: "the catching fish", the fish that catches (prey).

Not only verbs, but also adverbs, conjunctions and adpositions have their objects, so the -n also joins the adposition or time/place/mode adverb to its object.

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.

UNTIL 2016 MARCH 03, the suffix -an was 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.

AFTER 2016 MARCH 04, it has been decided to abolish the use of PREpositions except IN and use only POSTpositions, which, anyway, have always been preferred in Dama. So now the suffix -AN forms the genitive of nouns, and this solves the main problem of Dama, which was that the same form with the suffix -O could be used both for nominative and for genitive, with optional means to distinguish between them.

In general it is advisable to use the -n as sparingly as possible. Although now there is no more the facility to use both prepositions and postpositions, still a prepositional syntax can be imitated with the help of the indeclinable preposition IN: the most normal way is to say, e.g. SURA SURA TARO IN RABO KUTA or SURA SURA TARO RABAN KUTA =the monkey is up the tree, but we can also say the same as SURA SURA TARO KUTA IN RABO. So, Dama acquired the distinction between nominative and genitive without losing essentially anything.

Other parts of speech / junan womo sijo

These are: the 3 pronouns (naro juno): a (you, second person), i (third person), o (I, first person); and

the 3 logical particles (sime juno / sime kumo), used like prepositions except in the end of clause where they are used as predicates: an (become), in (indicating position), un (the negative particle).

Informal Dama Diwan / jiro nijo wuwa Dama Diwan

jiro nijo wuwa Dama Diwan kiwo jan sen wa wiko mujo: 1."jume", 2."i kiban", 3."kaso", 4."nanon".

Informal Dama Diwan can express four "degrees" (mujo) which bear the native names : 1."jume", 2."i kiban", 3."kaso", 4."nanon".

This is done by expressive usage of vowels, as follows:

• 1."jume" (intensification), means that informal Dama can lengthen (double, triple, or even more) the first or only vowel of a word in order to express largeness, e.g. baako =a big body (bako), taaamo =the huge sky, muuko =a big volume, wiiiwo =huge water (ocean), and so on.

• 2."i kiban", which, in theory, means that only the lengthened suffix (of disyllabic words only) is emphasized according to the lengthening of its vowel; in practice, this is asserting the grammatical function of the word on the cost of its stem; so e.g. if we say raboo, this means we assert it is a noun, an extant thing, because the extant thing in this case is very small and tends to be neglected, so raboo means a small tree (rabo), and likewise taroo= a small animal (taro), jutooo is a tiny piece of skin (juto). It works the same way with verbs and adverbs; so, if we say "jajee" it means that (s/he) gave money indeed, but it was so little money (jaj-). An example with an adverb is sunaaa "in the past", which is very very near past. So this function lessens, makes light, or even makes fun, of the stem meaning.

Formal Dama uses no augmentative / diminutive devices unless adjectives as miwo (big) and sano (small).

• 3."kaso", is the "vrddhi" function which is formed as "vrddhi" in Sanskrit; that is, an "a" is added immediately after the first consonant (before the stem vowel) of a disyllabic word, so e.g. "niwo" becomes "naiwo" and "wajo" becomes "wa'ajo".

Note that if an "a" is marked with another "a" in vrddhi function, there must be a separatiting mark (') after the first "a" (wa'aro, na'amo etc.), which is shown in pronunciation by a glottal stop or an "h" or a similar "light" laryngeal sound. The usefulness of the vrddhi (a+vowel) word is primarily to express a color, e.g. tino =a blue gem, taino =blue; (some other common colors are wauko =yellow, i.e. of citrus fruit, taiko =green [of plants], saito =red [of blood], maimo [of fire] or saujo [of the sun] =golden color, jauso [of the moon] =silvery white). 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, "ran-" for similarity, and "kawa" for outer appearance.

• 4."nanon". This can apply only to the disyllabic words with i/e or u/o in their stem; then the stem vowel (other than "a") can take an "a" after it, thus the stem vowel becomes a semivowel (j / w, not different from i/e and u/o respectively, only that the stem vowel must be weaker or not stronger than the added "a"); thus, nimo → njamo / niamo, kiwo → kjawo / kiawo, tube → twabe / tuabe, nuwe → nwawe / nuawe, etc.

This expresses the negative or opposite of the stem; e.g. nimo =meat, niamo =meatless, kiwo =word, kiawo =without words, tube =give, twabe =not give, refuse, nuwe =to make unclear, nuawe =to clarify.

Formal Dama uses instead the negative particle "un" and the stem bim- "to undo, reverse".

So, informal Dama can form long vowels and diphthongs which are absent in formal Dama; moreover informal Dama is known for its possibility to omit a weak o/u, except in case of a possible confusion when a final o/u is preceded by a nasal (n/m).

Informal Dama may only be used in spoken language when one has to be very quick in expressing something. In written texts, informal Dama may appear in order to render accurately some informally spoken phrases, or in poetry for metric reasons.

Highly formal Dama Diwan / miba jeto Dama Diwan

Highly formal Dama Diwan can use a W (or unstressed o/u) before the i of a stem and a J (or unstressed e/i) before the u of a stem in order to express the abstract aspect of a word.

Every Dama noun (and consequently every adverb and verb) can refer to a concrete thing (NO) or an abstract concept (WANO). E.g., BAMO can be “food” or “eating”; NUKO can be “road” or “trip”; SAMO can be a seat or “sitting”.

This distinction is usually not to be marked at all, as it is understood by the context or it makes no difference; e.g. if i say “A RUKO?” it can be taken as “you tired?” or “your fatigue?”, both ways meaning the same “are you tired?”; if necessary, the distinction is shown by adding words as NO (thing) or WANO (abstract concept).

However, highly formal Dama can mark the abstract aspect of a word as described above; e.g. RUSO =eye, RJUSO = “βλέμμα, glance, way of looking”; KURO =safe, KJURO =safety; RIMO =promise, vow, RWIMO =assertiveness; KIKO =strong, KWIKO =strength, and so on.

This feature can be difficult for some people to use; in fact, it has never been in actual usage until now (the first months of the year 2016); on the other hand, this features completes all possibilities of making diphthongs with the vowels of Dama, and its use may be useful in the future for elaborate or artistic expounding of ideas.

Correctness, personalization and limitations / jeto jino, wiso jino, nejo mijo

Some people expect a great language to be a show of complexity like some constructed languages. Dama is nothing like that, as it is not even a conlang; it is not a language constructed by people, but one acquired through divination (called "random" functions by the skeptic). Its non-conlang character is obvious because conlangs are regulated by people, so they are always subject to additions, new regulations and alterations. Conlangs are adjusted by their makers, while on the other hand the Dama users have to adjust themselves to the very simple means of Dama. After all, it is not possible to add anything to it, because all the possible combinations of its phonemes have already been used.

Dama can further evolve by discovering new combinations of words - to that, we can find no limit. The limitation is that every new combination discovered and everything else should be expressed according to the above rules; then it is perfectly correct; of course, when we say something in Dama, we should imagine ourselves in the receiver's position: "what would I understand if somebody told me that?".

Although so simple, the Dama Diwan language can be personalized in as many ways as there are people on earth. There are two main styles of using Dama: the oriental style, and the western style.

By the oriental style disyllabic words use open vowels in the first syllable and closed vowels in the suffix; by the western style, closed vowels are used in the stem and open ones in the suffixes of disyllabic words. E.g. “space, room” is “biro” (western style) or “beru” (oriental style). None of these is objectively better than the other, although the western style has prevailed in actual usage until now.

Apart from these two, the user of Dama can choose between k/g, t/ts/d, o/u, e/i depending on many factors that can influence one’s choice; such factors are:

• differentiation: a user may choose to use open vowels (o/e) with /n/ and closed vowels (u/i) with /m/; or (o/e) with /t/ and (u/i) with /k/. If you feel a chance to confuse m to n, you can pronounce m somewhat longer (like mm), and if you feel a "k" might be confused with "t", pronounce "t" aspirate (just like English "t", or even Japanese "ts").
• dissimilation for taboo reasons: e.g. those who have Turkish as their first language, may choose to pronounce sek or sig instead of sik- which in Turkish means "penis". While Greeks can prefer "mon" (door, window, gate) to "mun" which reminds of the Greek word for "vulva".
• facilitating the memory; e.g. an English speaker may prefer to pronounce "godu" instead of "kuto" (high), so as to connect the word to "God" in memory; while a Turkish speaker may find it better to pronounce the same "kuto", so as to be reminded of "kut" (divine favor).
• influences of the speakers' first language: e.g. if the speaker has no /w/ sound in his/her native language (as happens with Germans, Greeks, Italians, Turks, and others), can pronounce ɸ / β / f / v / ʋ in the place of /w/. Hungarians may pronounce a Hungarian "a" in the second syllabe and a Hungarian "á" in the first syllable.

Some languages make the vowels e/o when stressed and i/u when unstressed, while other languages do the opposite.

• simply personal taste: a user may prefer "tsawo" instead of "tawo" (sharp / acid / sour), just because the "tsawo" sounds more "acid" to his/her feeling.
• facilitating word division in oral use: so, for example, it is preferable to pronounce the final /n/ as /ŋ/, and /h/ (or similar sounds) can freely be pronounced before word-initial vowels, while /x/ can be freely added to the end of monosyllabic words ending in vowels.

Of course, there must be some limitations in such personalization, so that the Dama can function as an international auxiliary language:

• It is strongly recommended that the disyllabic words have different stress / pitch / length / vowel openness (height) on their two syllables, or at least monosyllabic words should take as much time as disyllabic ones in pronunciation when not pronounced together with the previous word.
• To pronounce Dama words together is not only permitted but also encouraged, for showing in speech how words group together (in writing this can be facilitated by hyphens and punctuation). The 6 monosyllabic words a, i, o, un, in, an can freely be enclitics or proclitics (joined in pronunciation with the previous or next word), but the 27 monosyllabic words starting with consonants and ending with vowels can be joined (as enclitics) to their preceding word only; it can be a bad habit (for possibly creating some confusion) to pronounce such monosyllabic words joint (as proclitics) to their following ones.
• To write Dama words together as one word might help to show how the words combine together, but that can greatly confuse the learners. Writing several words without word division might be used some time in the future if people are proficient in Dama; even in that case, the rule should be that no monosyllabic word starting with a consonant should be jointly written with other words, unless that monosyllabic is in the end of the set or is ending with -n in the beginning of the set. The best way to join Dama words together is by using a hyphen and not absence of dividing space.
• Only the 16 letters a b d e g i j k m n o r s t u w (including the combinations ts and ds) may be used when writing Dama with the Latin alphabet. Palatal sounds (e.g. /c/, /ɟ/) should be considered phonetically same as velar (k/g), and not same as dentals (t/d). The sound /p/ should be avoided, at least by making it emphatic or ejective, and lateral sounds should not be accepted in Dama.

These limitation define the acoustic "flavor" and character of Dama, just like a Pythagorean or analogous musical scale that has limited positions so that everything played on it sounds pleasant and harmonious.

Invitation / wono

Here is the invitation to Dama Diwan language, and if interested you can be a member of the open group.

Phonology and phonotactics / kumo sijo, kumo nijo

Dama has 3 vowel phonemes: a, i/e, u/o. It is also possible to use two allophones of "a" like, for example, /ɑ/ and /ɐ/, if that feels better for native speakers of a language that differentiates between a higher and a slightly lower "a";

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 can conform to the articulatory position of the following consonant.

Writing systems / kiwon rijo

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

Words, mainly proper names, inserted from other languages, follow their original spelling and are written with only their first letter capital, while the true Dama words use only lower or only upper case letters.

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

• Dama can also be written by using only the 10 numerical digits, as follows:

1 =I, i, e, j

2 =N, n

3 =M, m

4 =A, a

5 =S, s

6 =b, B

7 =T, t, d

8 =R, r

9 =g, G, k

0 =O, o, u, w.

So the 10 digits are quite enough to write the 12 phonemes of Dama Diwan language.

• Such a small number of indispensable digits to represent Dama means we can use only those for Morse code, so if we symbolise a dot by “.” and a dash by “-”, the necessary Morse symbols (by order of brevity, the shorter for the more frequent) are:

. =0 =O, o, u, w.

- =1 =I, i, e, j

.. =4 =A, a

-. =2 =N, n

.- =3 =M, m

-- =8 =R, r

... =7 =T, t, d

-.. =5 =S, s

.-. =9 =g, G, k

..- =6 =b, B

(In Dama, the difference between i/e, u/o is not phonemic. J and W as phonemes are different, but Dama words only start with CONSONANTS (including j, w), and then there is always a vowel after each consonant with the exception of final n (which is better, but not compulsory, to be pronounced as ŋ). Therefore, 14102 can only be jajon or jajun, both correct in Dama; and the same happens with all other Dama words: they can be rendered totally correctly by the use of only the 10 digits, that is with a pad of only 10 digits plus a space key. The connection of the 10 digits to Latin letters is obvious, based on similarity of shape.)

• Dama Braille (described in the last pages of https://www.academia.edu/12434367/theory_history) also uses only 10 symbols and it can be learnt in 3 minutes, while formal Braille has a repertoire of 256 possible signs and requires at least 3 months to be learnt with the quickest teaching course.
• Dama is also unique in having its own writing system which is logographic and phonemic at the same time, as explained in https://www.academia.edu/12434367/theory_history .

Links and tools for learning the Dama Diwan language / Dama Diwan kiwo sijon kije sage ma muno tano

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

2) http://users.sch.gr/ioakenanid/selfteach.pdf for discovering the whole Dama Diwan language.

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

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

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

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

7) http://lingojam.com/tolearnDamaDiwanwords for an online dictionary (input words other than suffixed with -n).

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, including the explanation why Dama is not really a language constructed by a person or people. Although Dama Diwan is a perfect language, human knowledge of it is still (2015) not perfect; We know that it is the ideal international auxiliary language because it has already been proven capable to create many good texts conveying successfully knowledge of any kind.

Sample texts / kiwo rano

[johuwax]

jetu wanu nomu bomu rora / jito wano numo bumo rura / 1170 0420 2030 6030 8084

nomu tesu rora / numo tiso rura / 2030 7150 8084

nomu tesu man jetu / numo tiso man jito / 2030 7150 342 1170

i jetu boma nomu ma jetu / i jito buma numo ma jito / 1 1170 6034 2030 34 1170

[ooomm]

this is a translation of the most sacred text of the ancient Persian monotheistic religion:

“Honesty is the most complete good

(honesty) is happiness

happiness to the honest

who is honest for the sake of the best Honesty”.

[johuwax]

kata-sute-kuto ke, i-ka seje-i-jeto-bumo-rasa numo-sako-tubo-won-sa kukan kuta-kikon-sa in-ruro be-wo man sake-bumo rure-kuto i-man-jeto-buno-wo tuben kure-i.

[ooomm]

this is a translation of the other most sacred text of the ancient Persian monotheistic religion, which is rendered here in Cyrillic alphabet:

Яѳаа Аһуу Ваиријоо Аѳаа Ратуш Ашаат-чиит Һачаа

Ваңһыыуш Даздаа Манаңһоо Шяоѳынанаам Аңһыыуш Маздааи

Хшаѳрымчаа Аһурааи Аа Јим Дрыґубјоо Дадат Ваастаарым.