Tanpun: Difference between revisions

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This is a highly experimental engineered language, ultimately focused on flirting with ambiguity and a lack of grammar.

This is a highly experimental engineered language, ultimately focused on flirting with

ambiguity and a lack of grammar. It is spoken by no one because it is set in the real world

and not set for a fictional people. Tanpun itself means "atomic language" or "individual

language".

<!-- Example categories/headings:

Line 23:

Line 26:

-->

~~~~

~~~~

~~<!-- Here are some example sub-/other categories:~~

==Phonology==

===Consonants===

Consonants are fairly minimal. This table contains the written letter and the sound it makes.

{| class="wikitable"

|+ Hi

Line 38:

Line 42:

| W /w/ || S /s/ || Y /j/

|}

Not found in this table is the glottal stop, which is written with H.

~~Vowel inventory~~

~~Consonant inventory~~

~~Syllable structure~~

~~Stress~~

~~Intonation~~

~~-->~~

~~==Phonology==~~

~~~~

~~~~

~~<!-- Here are some example sub-/other categories:~~

~~Vowel inventory~~

~~Consonant inventory~~

~~Syllable structure~~

~~Stress~~

~~Intonation~~

~~-->~~

~~===Orthography===~~

~~===Consonants===~~

===Vowels===

~~===Prosody===~~

Vowels contain a standard five vowel system generally, viz. A /a/, E /e/, I /i/, O /o/, U

~~====Stress====~~

/u/.

~~====Intonation====~~

===Phonotactics===

~~~~

Syllables go in the format of CV(C) (consonant vowel consonant). Consonants can include glides,

~~===Morphophonology===~~

but not in coda positions. Vowel slot can include diphthongs, and diphthongs can have all

~~==Morphology==~~

permutations. Vowel length is not a feature.

<!-~~- How do the words in your language look? How do you derive words from others? Do you have cases? Are verbs inflected? Do nouns differ from adjectives? Do adjectives differ from verbs? Etc~~. ~~-->~~

When a syllable ends with a particular consonant and the next syllable begins with that same

consonant, gemination is produced. This is not strictly phonemic but instead a contextual

feature. Syllable-final stops generally are unreleased but this is not itself phonemic.

~~<!-- Here~~ are ~~some~~ example ~~subcategories:~~

Nasals do not phonemically assimilate but this may happen anyway.

===Stress===

Stress falls on the last root of the word.

==Orthography==

Being an engineered language, it has many choices for orthography. By default it is written

in the Latin script, but it can be written in various other scripts, however those such

scripts do not have an official or standardized orthography. Latin however works as

described above.

===Spaces===

Spaces are somewhat optional, many sentences could go without spaces. For example, is the

sentence '''Tianmentouh''' which means "it is good". This also can be written "Tian mentouh".

Spaces are intended to disambiguate nouns and other things, all different grammatical objects or

entities. Copular sentences are the only sentences which can go wholly without spaces in theory.

Spaces are up to the author.

~~Nouns~~

==Grammar==

~~Adjectives~~

===Roots===

~~Verbs~~

The primary atomic element in Tanpun are roots. A root is in essence, a CVC syllable which

~~Adverbs~~

represents a semantic concept and does not have an inherent part of speech aside from pronouns,

~~Particles~~

numbers, and conjunctions. For example, the root "piur" means fire, burning, to burn, flame, and

~~Derivational morphology~~

other such things; that list is not exhaustive.

===Prefixes===

Roots can take prefixes. Prefixes are inseparable from the root and the prefix modifies the root

in a specific way, such as negation, position, temporal deixis, definiteness, number (singular vs

plural), and honorific. A root with prefixes is analogous to a phrase in Early Middle Japanese.

Prefixes, when attached to the first root of the sentence, are understood to modify the

whole word.

===The mechanics of root combinations===

Roots combine in a semantic way, later roots within a word constrain earlier ones, and the first

root of the word is considered the most fundamental. For example, the 'word' teksik decomposes

into tek-sik, whose roots are art/science/skill and soul/mind/intent/brain respectively. The

first root comprises the type of object, and the second root clarifies the domain. This word

would thus mean possibly psychology, mental faculty, or soul technique. To make it more narrow,

more roots would be added, or possibly choosing a different root like lok, which means discourse

or study, instead of tek, but such a thing depends on what is intended.

-->

Generally, later roots can be understood as constraining the previous roots by domain, i.e. "in

terms of" or "with respect to" or other equivalent phrases.

===Words===

Words are defined in a strongly atypical way. A word represents a singular grammatical argument,

concept, object, entity, idea, and any such thing. Noun phrases are generally considered to be

within the same word, as well as adjectives and other modifiers. As stated, the first root

generally represents the type of object and later roots fill in the details, so a word like "hiatporkap" can be understood as sound-neat-writing, sound-neat is neat sound, or more

specifically song, and writing clarifies that it is written, so with all of this together, this

would represent a poem.

==Syntax==

===~~Constituent order~~===

The syntax is unusual due to the language itself being so unusual. The word order can be

===~~Noun phrase~~===

described as SOV, though this is inaccurate. More accurately, the language follows a topic

~~===Verb~~ phrase~~===~~

comment structure.

~~===Sentence~~ phrase~~===~~

===Pronouns===

===~~Dependent clauses~~===

There are four pronouns. Pronouns do not distinguish number on their own. Pronouns do not

<!-~~- etc~~. ~~etc~~. ~~-->~~

distinguish animacy and do not imply or necessitate personhood or humanity.

{| class="wikitable"

|+ Pronouns

|-

! Pronoun !! Usage

|-

| Yah || First person pronoun

|-

| Nak || Second person pronoun

|-

| Touh || Third person pronoun

|-

| Pen || Prominent third person pronoun; implies the topic or otherwise notable person. For when the subject and object are both third person.

|}

===Verbs===

The main verb of the sentence is always last. The main verb is always a verb phrase, and marking

person is required. The sequence is always, in order:

* Auxiliary verb(s) (optional)

* Object (Or predicate) (optional)

* Content verb

* Subject (Always a pronoun)

The verb phrase is the only part of a sentence which breaks the typical rules for root

interactions. It also must always be its own word. For example, the earlier sentence

"Tianmentouh" is itself a verb phrase. The root "tian" means good, "men" being the copula, and

"touh" being the third person pronoun. And again means "it is good" but the gloss is

<nowiki>[good-COP-3]</nowiki>. As mentioned, "tian" can be its own word.

With an auxiliary, there can be more variety, such as "wustianmentouh" which is

<nowiki>[PAST-good-COP-3]</nowiki>, which means "it was good". This can also be expressed saying

"Tian wusmentouh," although it is better with pen: "Tian wusmenpen".

===Subject and object===

There is no singular accusative prefix or accusative expression, this ultimately depends on

the verb. There is no case in Tanpun and generally such a thing is expressed with the object

as a distinct word, followed by the verb phrase with "touh". For example, the above sentence

could be expanded "man tian wustouhmenpen" with "man" meaning human or human being. So this

means "person was good". Dative can be expressed with the prefix "ti-" meaning for,

alternatively "ta" (to, towards) can be used. Other such relationships are up to specific

deictic prefixes.

==Example texts==

===UDHR Article 1 first sentence===

'''Watengman raihkorokostaengrouptouh ketensotnom kokesotrokumsek taohpiertouh.'''

===Gloss===

Wa:teng-man raih-ko:ro:kos-taeng-roup-touh ke:ten-sot-nom ko:ke:sot-ro:kum-sek taoh-pier-touh. <br>

TOPIC:all-human free-and:NEG:rank-REL-possess-3 DEF:thing-respect-name and:DEF:respect-NEG:can-cut passive-bear-3.

==Other resources==

@@ Line 14: / Line 14: @@
 <!-- Design goals, inspiration, ideas, who speaks it?, when was it created?, where does it come from?, any peculiarities? -->
-This is a highly experimental engineered language, ultimately focused on flirting with ambiguity and a lack of grammar.
+This is a highly experimental engineered language, ultimately focused on flirting with
+ambiguity and a lack of grammar. It is spoken by no one because it is set in the real world
+and not set for a fictional people. Tanpun itself means "atomic language" or "individual
+language".
 <!-- Example categories/headings:
@@ Line 23: / Line 26: @@
 -->
-<!-- ***Phonology*** -->
-<!-- What sounds does your language use? -->
-<!-- Here are some example sub-/other categories:
+==Phonology==
+===Consonants===
+Consonants are fairly minimal. This table contains the written letter and the sound it makes.
 {| class="wikitable"
 |+ Hi
@@ Line 38: / Line 42: @@
 | W /w/ || S /s/ || Y /j/
 |}
+Not found in this table is the glottal stop, which is written with H.
-Vowel inventory
-Consonant inventory
-Syllable structure
-Stress
-Intonation
--->
-==Phonology==
-<!-- ***Phonology*** -->
-<!-- What sounds does your language use? -->
-<!-- Here are some example sub-/other categories:
-Vowel inventory
-Consonant inventory
-Syllable structure
-Stress
-Intonation
--->
-===Orthography===
-===Consonants===
 ===Vowels===
-===Prosody===
+Vowels contain a standard five vowel system generally, viz. A /a/, E /e/, I /i/, O /o/, U
-====Stress====
+/u/.
-====Intonation====
 ===Phonotactics===
-<!-- Explain the consonant clusters and vowel clusters that are permissible for use in the language. For example, "st" is an allowed consonant cluster in English while onset "ng" isn't. -->
+Syllables go in the format of CV(C) (consonant vowel consonant). Consonants can include glides,
-===Morphophonology===
+but not in coda positions. Vowel slot can include diphthongs, and diphthongs can have all
-==Morphology==
+permutations. Vowel length is not a feature.
-<!-- How do the words in your language look? How do you derive words from others? Do you have cases? Are verbs inflected? Do nouns differ from adjectives? Do adjectives differ from verbs? Etc. -->
+When a syllable ends with a particular consonant and the next syllable begins with that same
+consonant, gemination is produced. This is not strictly phonemic but instead a contextual
+feature. Syllable-final stops generally are unreleased but this is not itself phonemic.
-<!-- Here are some example subcategories:
+Nasals do not phonemically assimilate but this may happen anyway.
+===Stress===
+Stress falls on the last root of the word.
+==Orthography==
+Being an engineered language, it has many choices for orthography. By default it is written
+in the Latin script, but it can be written in various other scripts, however those such
+scripts do not have an official or standardized orthography. Latin however works as
+described above.
+===Spaces===
+Spaces are somewhat optional, many sentences could go without spaces. For example, is the
+sentence '''Tianmentouh''' which means "it is good". This also can be written "Tian mentouh".
+Spaces are intended to disambiguate nouns and other things, all different grammatical objects or
+entities. Copular sentences are the only sentences which can go wholly without spaces in theory.
+Spaces are up to the author.
-Nouns
+==Grammar==
-Adjectives
+===Roots===
-Verbs
+The primary atomic element in Tanpun are roots. A root is in essence, a CVC syllable which
-Adverbs
+represents a semantic concept and does not have an inherent part of speech aside from pronouns,
-Particles
+numbers, and conjunctions. For example, the root "piur" means fire, burning, to burn, flame, and
-Derivational morphology
+other such things; that list is not exhaustive.
+===Prefixes===
+Roots can take prefixes. Prefixes are inseparable from the root and the prefix modifies the root
+in a specific way, such as negation, position, temporal deixis, definiteness, number (singular vs
+plural), and honorific. A root with prefixes is analogous to a phrase in Early Middle Japanese.
+Prefixes, when attached to the first root of the sentence, are understood to modify the
+whole word.
+===The mechanics of root combinations===
+Roots combine in a semantic way, later roots within a word constrain earlier ones, and the first
+root of the word is considered the most fundamental. For example, the 'word' teksik decomposes
+into tek-sik, whose roots are art/science/skill and soul/mind/intent/brain respectively. The
+first root comprises the type of object, and the second root clarifies the domain. This word
+would thus mean possibly psychology, mental faculty, or soul technique. To make it more narrow,
+more roots would be added, or possibly choosing a different root like lok, which means discourse
+or study, instead of tek, but such a thing depends on what is intended.
--->
+Generally, later roots can be understood as constraining the previous roots by domain, i.e. "in
+terms of" or "with respect to" or other equivalent phrases.
+===Words===
+Words are defined in a strongly atypical way. A word represents a singular grammatical argument,
+concept, object, entity, idea, and any such thing. Noun phrases are generally considered to be
+within the same word, as well as adjectives and other modifiers. As stated, the first root
+generally represents the type of object and later roots fill in the details, so a word like "hiatporkap" can be understood as sound-neat-writing, sound-neat is neat sound, or more
+specifically song, and writing clarifies that it is written, so with all of this together, this
+would represent a poem.
 ==Syntax==
-===Constituent order===
+The syntax is unusual due to the language itself being so unusual. The word order can be
-===Noun phrase===
+described as SOV, though this is inaccurate. More accurately, the language follows a topic
-===Verb phrase===
+comment structure.
-===Sentence phrase===
+===Pronouns===
-===Dependent clauses===
+There are four pronouns. Pronouns do not distinguish number on their own. Pronouns do not
-<!-- etc. etc. -->
+distinguish animacy and do not imply or necessitate personhood or humanity.
+{| class="wikitable"
+|+ Pronouns
+|-
+! Pronoun !! Usage
+|-
+| Yah || First person pronoun
+|-
+| Nak || Second person pronoun
+|-
+| Touh || Third person pronoun
+|-
+| Pen || Prominent third person pronoun; implies the topic or otherwise notable person. For  when the subject and object are both third person.
+|}
+===Verbs===
+The main verb of the sentence is always last. The main verb is always a verb phrase, and marking
+person is required. The sequence is always, in order:
+* Auxiliary verb(s) (optional)
+* Object (Or predicate) (optional)
+* Content verb
+* Subject (Always a pronoun)
+The verb phrase is the only part of a sentence which breaks the typical rules for root
+interactions. It also must always be its own word. For example, the earlier sentence
+"Tianmentouh" is itself a verb phrase. The root "tian" means good, "men" being the copula, and
+"touh" being the third person pronoun. And again means "it is good" but the gloss is
+<nowiki>[good-COP-3]</nowiki>. As mentioned, "tian" can be its own word.
+With an auxiliary, there can be more variety, such as "wustianmentouh" which is
+<nowiki>[PAST-good-COP-3]</nowiki>, which means "it was good". This can also be expressed saying
+"Tian wusmentouh," although it is better with pen: "Tian wusmenpen".
+===Subject and object===
+There is no singular accusative prefix or accusative expression, this ultimately depends on
+the verb. There is no case in Tanpun and generally such a thing is expressed with the object
+as a distinct word, followed by the verb phrase with "touh". For example, the above sentence
+could be expanded "man tian wustouhmenpen" with "man" meaning human or human being. So this
+means "person was good". Dative can be expressed with the prefix "ti-" meaning for,
+alternatively "ta" (to, towards) can be used. Other such relationships are up to specific
+deictic prefixes.
 ==Example texts==
-<!-- An example of a translated or unique text written in your language. Again, it is recommended that you make sure that the phonology, constraints, phonotactics and grammar are more or less finished before writing. -->
+===UDHR Article 1 first sentence===
+'''Watengman raihkorokostaengrouptouh ketensotnom kokesotrokumsek taohpiertouh.'''
+===Gloss===
+Wa:teng-man raih-ko:ro:kos-taeng-roup-touh ke:ten-sot-nom ko:ke:sot-ro:kum-sek taoh-pier-touh. <br>
+TOPIC:all-human free-and:NEG:rank-REL-possess-3 DEF:thing-respect-name and:DEF:respect-NEG:can-cut passive-bear-3.
 ==Other resources==
 <!-- Example: Word order, qualifiers, determinatives, branching, etc. -->