Rówok

Rówok
Rówok
Pronunciation	[[Help:IPA|ro:wok]]
Created by	Ioscius
Date	1200
Setting	Vaguely undefined pre-industrial period, thought to be around 1200 CE.
Native speakers	~10,000 ()
Language family	Proto-Ruk Ruk ? Rówok
Early form	Ruk
Official status
Regulated by	Intertribal agreement

Nota bene, care lector, this is a work in progress

Rówok is an artlang created by Ioscius.

It is the only known daughter language of the as yet presumed language isolate Ruk.

Introduction

Setting

A typical day for a Rówok speaker.

Spoken by a rather reclusive community that lived high in the preindustrial Ural range, Ruk was an extremely isolating language, with largely monosyllabic words and next to no inflection of any sort. Rówok on the other hand is morphologically complex. This is the result of the Ruk speakers, after centuries of living mostly on their own, having underwent a period of dispersion and travel through lands inhabited by Finnic and Slavic speakers. This resulted in both a cultural explosion and a rapid evolution of the language, as affected by analogy with speakers picking up the languages of the peoples they mingled with.

Armed with new knowledge and now speaking a radically altered language, the nation moved back up to the hills, and Rówok represents a stage of the language's evolution in about the 3rd generation of leveling after their return to the homeland. It is mostly stable, but there are some forms still competing for widespread acceptance (cf., e.g., copula).

Rówok speakers live in a mountainous, forest environment with snow-cover nearly year round, with just a tiny bit of summer of which to speak. They are intimately dependent and symbiotic with their dogs, and there are thus many, many semantic elements of or relating to canines and canine/human interaction, not to mention a huge amount of idioms containing references to dogs. Lastly they are extremely mathematically, if not technically, advanced and utterly areligious.

Design goals

The main motive behind creating Rówok was to explore patient and agent relationships, and to employ and self-indulgently tweak and torture a complex and fully productive middle voice system.

Other motivating (syntactical) considerations were:

• trying a set of uniform case endings (barring vowel harmony and reduction) instead of the typical IE several declension patterns, so that all the case endings are recognizable throughout all grammatical numbers
• a vague attempt at trying vowel harmony in a conlang
• blurring the lines between adjective/substantive/verb, so the same root can easily be used in any of those categories, and implicitly an extensive participial system
• having a strict and productive dual in all applicable grammatical categories

Inspiration

Rówok’s creator placed the speech community where he did, wanting to steal liberally from both Finnic and Slavic semantics and grammar without having to justify himself to anyone. You could say the natlangs that had the greatest impact on the author’s aesthetics and inspirations were Latin, Ancient Greek, Pan-Slavic, Finnic and Sami, just a tiny bit of Basque, and enormous inspiration from the author’s absolute favorite, simply darling language that he’s never learned: Guarani.

Phonology

Rówok's phonology is fairly conservative, a result primarily of the author's desire to be able to actually speak it.

All of the sounds are found in English, save for /r̝/.

Notable absences from the phonology are /f/ and /h/, especially noting that /p/, /b/, /v/, and /g/ and /k/ all exist.

Orthography

Rówok is written using largely the Latin alphabet as extended for South Slavic, with the addition of <ŧ> for the voiceless interdental fricative /θ/, and <đ> is used for the voiced interdental fricative /ð/, instead of for /dʑ/ in South Slavic.

There is also <ř> to indicate the same sound as in its inspiration in Czech, namely /r̝/.

That gives us in Latin order:

a b d đ č e g i k l m n o p r ř s š t ŧ u v w y z ž

See the alphabet grouped by feature in the tables below.

Consonants

	Labial		Interdental		Alveolar		Postalveolar		Velar
	unvoiced	voiced	unvoiced	voiced	unvoiced	voiced	unvoiced	voiced	unvoiced	voiced
Stops	p /p/	b /b/			t /t/	d /d/			k /k/	g /g/
Nasals		m /m/				n /n/
Affricates							č /tʃ/
Fricatives		v /v/	ŧ /θ/	đ /ð/	s /s/	z /z/	š /ʃ/	ž /ʒ/
Liquids		w /w/			l /l/	r /r/+		y /j/
Trills							ř /r̝/

Vowels

	Front		Central		Back
	short	long	short	long	short	long
Close	i /i/	í /iː/			u /u/	ú /uː/
Mid	e /e/	é /eː/			o /o/	ó /oː/
Open			a /a/	á /aː/

Word structure

Roots in Rówok are overwhelmingly triglyphs, with /a/ being the only vowel that can occur either initially in a root, or medially. All roots have an underlying "theme vowel" for lack of a better term in the author's attempt at vowel harmony, either /a/ or /o/, which shift to /e/ and /u/ in perfect verbal stems and many nouns derived from verbal stems. Additionally words with /w/ in any position have some stems where /w/ is reduced to [u]. The rules are simple for the majority of stems, and are as follows:

If /a/ appears in the root (by law only initially or medially), the theme vowel is automatically /a/. If the root is tri-consonantal and does not contain /w/, the theme vowel is also /a/. As a note, roots with medial /a/ are almost exclusively (specific) plants, and thus lack verbal roots, and thus have only two principal parts: nom/erg/voc, and oblique.

If /w/ appears medially or finally in a root, the theme vowel is /o/.

Exceptions:

• There are some rare, quad-consonantal roots. These are always of the the form C*XCC, where C* can only be /b/, /p/, /d/, /t/, /g/, /k/, /z/ and /s/, and X can be /w/, /l/, or /r/; ones with /w/ have /o/ as the theme vowel, and those with /l/ or /r/ have /a/.
• Roots with initial /w/ are very old stems and anything goes as far as theme vowels; this is the only word type whose vowel structure isn’t deducible from the form of the root and just need to be learned.

Vowel harmony

See aspect.

Prosody

Prosody is not unlike something you'd hear in the South Slavic languages. It is not particularly singsongy, and a lot of consonant clusters perhaps give Rówok a a bit of a rough sound. Nonetheless, there is a lot of epenthesis, augment, and other interesting vocalic patterns that nonetheless give the language an aesthetic flow and lends itself to mellifluous constructions, even if they might not be a characteristic of common speech.

Stress

Every word has a primary stress accent, which tends toward the penult or antepenult, and the language is stabilizing to a system like the Latin one, just that the length of the syllable determining the penult or antepenult is based solely on position, as there are no phonemic long vowels in Rówok.

After the primary stress in tri- and more-syllabic words all successive vowels are reduced to schwa, but not in disyllabic words (cf. rówok /ro:wok/, but razánka /raza:nkə/)

Morphology

Roots and principal parts

Dictionary entries are listed with principal parts in the following order:

• lemma - definition; finite verbal stem-, participial stem (de facto the nom/erg singular imperfect active participle), vocative stem+, ergative/nominative form, oblique stem-, adverbial form

+The similative and partitive cases are also based on the vocative stem, as well as adjectives.

As explained above in the phonology section, verbal stems tend to group in (C)VCC and participial stems in (C)V(C)C; nominative/ergative stems tend to be CVCVC, and oblique nominal stems CCVC if allowed by phonotactics. Unstressed epenthetics are inserted where needed, giving possible ^VCC(C/V) instead of expected CC(C/V), or CVCVC instead of expected CCVC.

Examples, starting with theme vowel [a]:

medial /a/:

• pan - moss; pan, pna-

Triconsonantal roots with no /w/ and those with medial /w/ are the easiest. Both are very regular in their pattern.

With medial liquid:

• srn - claw; sarn-, srn, srna, sáran, srán-, sarná
• drb - fall/to fall/fallen; darb-, drb, drba, dárab, dráb-, darbá
• bls - snow; bals-, bls, blsa, bálas, blás-, balsá

non-liquid medial:

• bgs - bags-, bags, bágsa, bágas, bagás-+, bagsá
• zpt - zapt-, zapt, zápta, zápat, zpát-+, zaptá

+If the cluster is not allowed initially, like [bg], epenthetic /a/ is inserted. Further, /zp/ is definitely going to be realized as [zb]

• ddz - idle mischief/fiddling/to idle about; dadz-, dadz, dádza, dádaz, đaz-+, dadzá

+if a reduplicated letter can fricativize/affricatize, it will in the oblique nominal stem

• pps - imitation/to fake/artificial; paps-, paps, pápsa, pápas, pas-+, papsá

+if the reduplicated consonant cannot fricativize, it reduces so ppas=>pas (since /f/ is lacking in the inventory).

There are variations if the initial or medial consonant is /y/, where /y/=>/i/:

• dym - light/shine/bright; daym-, dim, díma, dáyam, dyamá-, dimá
• ryz - seed/to plant/incipient; rayz-, riz, ríza, ráyaz, ryazá-, rizá
• ygn - a cared for object/to rear/lovingly; yágn-, ígan, igána, yágan, igná-, yagná

Roots with initial /a/:

• azl - life; ázl-, zal, zála, azála, azalá-, zalá
• ayt - run; áyt-, yat, yáta, ayáta, ayatá-, yatá
• akb - count; ákb-, kab, kába, akába, akabá-, kabá

Now examples where /o/ is the theme vowel, starting with medial /w/:

• pwt - clearing/to clear/deobstructed; powt-, pot, put, pówot, pwót-, putú
• rwk - tongue/speak/of or relating to tongue or speech/language; rowk-, rok, ruk, rówok, orwók-, rukú+

+as a semantic tidbit, Rukú is how you would say "in Rowok", as opposed to rwógdo (tongue.inst) "(doing something) with your tongue", and Ruk is the name of Rowok's protolanguage.

final /w/:

• gdw - tool/to fashion/skillful; gódw-, gdo, gódu/gódw-+, gódow, gdów-, godú

+In roots with final /w/ the vocative is CóCu, while the similative and partitive are built off of CoCw

• lsw - running water/flow/fluent; lósw-, ólso, lósu/losw-, lósow, olswó-+, losú

+A similar variation as above when a final /w/ root begins with /y/:

• ybw - still water; yóbw-, íbow, íbu, yóbow, ibwó-, ibú

Cw/r/lCC:

• p(w)zn - non potable water, to flow destructively, to pollute; powzn-, pozn, pwózno, powózon, pzón-, puznú
• brds - to lie, fib, in the middle to bullshit; bards-, bards, brádsa, barádas-, brdás-, bradsá

The occasional initial /w/, some a-stems, some o-stems, lots of /u/ even in imperfect stems and even in words that otherwise have /a/ as their theme vowel:

• wst - sky; wásta-, wast, ústa, awásata, áwsat-, ustá
• wkd - kill; úkdo-, úkod, úkud, wókod, úkod-, kudú

Participial stem

(de facto the nom/erg singular imperfect active participle)

Adverbial form

The adverbial form of a verb has a couple of meanings:

• as a simple adverb
• following a noun in the nominative it functions as an adjective
• following a noun in the instrumental it functions like a Latin ablative absolute.

For more cf. copula.

Nouns

For more cf. participles.

Nominal number

Nouns and participes are declined in three numbers:

• singular
• dual
• plural

The dual infix is -l-, -il-, or -li-.

The plural infix is -in-.

Ratio casuum

Vocative

The nominative form of the noun is one of the principle parts.

It does not have an ending, but is realized as the minimum extension of the root's vowel structure.

It is used in the following way:

• solely as a pure vocative

The vocative as a stem is also used in many nominal compounds.

Nominative/ergative

The nominative form of the noun is one of the principle parts.

It does not have an ending (except for rare circumstances to mark gender); instead it is realized as the full extension of the root's vowel structure.

It is used in the following ways:

• as the subject of an active transitive verb
• as the subject of constructions construed as copular
• as the subject of a middle verb that in which the subject is not also the patient of the action (see agency)

Genitive

For more info cf. telicity

The genetive case has the ending -rXz or -Xrz, which comes from the root jrz, "seed".

It is used in the following ways:

• as a pure genitive, i.e. a possessive
• as an indication of familial relationships instead of possessive pronouns
• as the object of a non-telic transitive verb

Partitive

For more info cf. telicity

Benefactive

The benefactive case has the ending -prX or -pXr, which comes from the root wpr, "gift".

It is used in the following ways:

• as the indirect object of a transitive verb, much like a normal Indo-European dative
• as a pure benefactive, "on whose behalf" or even "in whose honor"
• as the object of approprinquative motion, in the sense of "toward" or "in the general direction of"
• as the "object" of some otherwise intransitive, e.g. dayma, "to shine", so whatever the light shines on

Telic

For more info see telicity and voice.

The telic case has the ending -nkX or -nXk, which comes from the root nkw, "destination".

It is used in the following ways:

• as the subject of an active transitive verb used in the sense of completed action
• as the subject of a middle transitive verb in which the subject or subjects are the patient of the action, even if they are also the agent(s)
• as the subject of a passive verb
• as a reached destination with verbs of motion, or the intended goal of a verb of motion.

Locatives

The locative case has the ending -bi or -pi, which comes from the root bwy, "place".

It is used in the following way:

• as a pure locative

Like the instrumental, the locative features a semantic allophonic variant. Namely the voiced variant -bi has the semantic in or between, while the unvoiced version -pi carries the basic semantic of on or at. The meanings, when needed, are complemented by certain postpositions.

Examples:

root bls, "snow":

balážbi áldawon

snow.in play.impf.3.pl

they are playing in the snow

balášpi áytawon

snow.on run.impf.3.pl

they are running on/along the snow

With other phonemes at the end, for instance:

root mwk, "dog", => plural: mowokín

mwokímbi kórowin

dog.pl.on worms

there are worms in dogs (idiomatically, dogs have worms)

mwokínpi sarabín

dog.pl.on fleas

there are fleas on dogs (idiomatically the dogs have fleas)

Instrumental/(a)comitative

The instrumental case has the ending -gdX or -gXd, which comes from the root gdw, "tool".

It is used in the following ways:

• as a pure instrumental
• along with the adverb in the sense of a Latin ablative absolute
• as a comitative

Like the locative, the instrumental features a semantic allophonic variant. Namely the voiced variant -gdx/gXd has the meanings listed above, largely translated by with in English, while the unvoiced version -ktX/-kXt is used as a caritive or acomitative.

Similative

The similative case has the ending -Xm, which comes from the root wwm, "match/unity".

It is used in the following way:

• as a pure similative

Verbs

Verbal number

Verbs are conjugated and participes are declined in three numbers:

• singular
• dual
• plural

Aspect

There are two primary aspects in Rówok, namely imperfective and perfective.

These aspects is formed by ablaut of the verb's (or participle's or even noun's).

From imperfective to perfective:

• a => e
• o => u

The sense of the primary aspects is complemented further mainly by derivational infixes and the like.

Voice

There are three possible voices in Rówok:

• active
• middle
• passive

Active voice

The active voice is used for the following:

• when the subject is the agent of a transitive action

Subjects of verbs in the active voice are in the nominative.

Middle voice

The middle voice is extremely widespread and productive.

It is used for the following:

1. for the subject of stative verbs
2. when the subject is in a mutual relationship of non transitive action with someone (e.g. loving, talking on the phone, bonding)
3. for inanimate subjects of several verbs that would otherwise be active (he/she runs = áyta; it (a stream, for instance) runs = áyŧa)
4. for several idiomatic verbs where it is unclear who the actor is and who the acted upon; this includes verbs like follow (not leading, not being led), hunt (conceived as following the animals movements as opposed to transitively killing it), etc.
5. when the subject or subjects of a transitive verb are also the patient

Subjects of verbs in the middle voice from examples 1-4 are in the nominative, while subjects in example 5 are in the telic.

Passive voice

The passive voice is used for the following:

• when the subject is the patient of a transitive action

Subjects of verbs in the passive voice are in the telic with agents in the instrumental.

Participles

Particles in Rówok are a bloody mess, as they exist for every number, voice, and aspect.

In that order:

• singular, dual, plural
• active, middle, plural
• imperfect, perfect, future, future perfect

Here is an example of the possible participial forms a verb can have before various forms of pre- and infixation.

ayt, "to run"
		Imperfective	Perfective	Future	Future perfect
Singular	act	yát	yét	yátkay	yétkey
	med	yáŧ	yéŧ	yáŧkay	yéŧkey
	pass	yatának	yetének	yatánkay	yeténkey
Dual	act	yátli	yétli	yatkáyli	yetkéyli
	med	yáŧli	yéŧli	yaŧkáyli	yeŧkéyli
	pass	yatánkli	yeténkli	yatankáyli	yetenkéyli
Plural	act	yatín	yetín	yatkayín	yetkeyín
	med	yaŧín	yeŧín	yaŧkayín	yeŧkeyín
	pass	yatnakín	yetnekín	yatnakayín	yetnekeyín

• The imperfect is used in the sense of the English imperfect: doing (actively or statively) and being done.
• The perfect is used in the sense of the English periphrastic perfect participle: having done or having been done.
• The future is used with the sense of the Latin future active participle: about to do or be done (or in the South we might say fixin'/fittin' to (be) do(ne) ;))
• The future perfect has two functions:
  • In the active and some middle voice constructions it is used as in English: having done.
  • In the passive and some middle voice constructions it is used as in the Latin gerundive: needing to do or be done (Karthago delenda est! = Kárŧag ukudúnkuy!).

Some of these forms are rare just due to situational circumstances (for instance how often would you need to talk about yetenkéyli or two things needing to have been run?), but theoretically all verbal roots can exist in all of these forms.

Derivational morphology

Rówok has quite a bit of derivational morphology.

Aspect and tense

There are 2 aspectual infixes and two tense infixes. The language shows main aspect differentiation by ablaut /a/=>/e/ and /o/=>/u/. In the following X represents a dummy vowel in infixes, determined by the vowel quality of the word.

The aspectual infixes are frequentative -ts- and inchoative -sp-. The tense aspects are future -kXy-, and past -rX-. They can theoretically all together be infixed onto a verb, or participle. Grouping the tense aspects gives a special meaning, depending on which comes

so an example with the imperfect active participle of the root ayt- (to run) "yát", meaning a running thing when used in apposition, or a runner when used alone:

• yát - a runner
• yáts - a frequent runner (yát+ts=>yáts)
• yátasp - a beginning runner
• yátkay - a future runner
• yátra - a former runner

now combining:

• yátsasp - a beginning frequent runner
• yatkáyra - a future ex runner (someone who will take it up and quit)
• yatrákay - an ex future runner (someone who showed talent, perhaps, but never lived up to potential)

most perverse:

• yatsaspakáyra - a person who will begin to frequently run but then stop
• yatsasparákay - a person who began to run frequently and then stopped

so the case endings are added to the ends of these forms, just as the verb endings would be added to the end as well, cf:

aytaín (they run, are running) => aytsaín (they frequently run), aytaspaín (they begin running), aytraín (they ran in the past), aytkayaín (they will be running in the future), and of course the possible but ungodly aytsasprakayaín (they were beginning to be about to be running frequently but then didn't)

Diminutives and augmentatives

Diminutives and augmentatives (one of which functions as the comparative as well) are formed through root mutation and suffixation, respectively. As with most all derivational morphology they can be applied to almost all lexical categories.

Diminutives

Diminutives are formed by changing the root’s rightmost possible consonant into its corresponding fricative or affricate according to the chart below. X indicates that the phoneme does not have a possible fricativized variant, e.g. p=>X, since /f/ is lacking in Rówok. In this event the next rightmost consonant is fricativized.

Additionally more than one consonant can be fricativized, for a sort of double diminutive effect, which indicates either extreme smallness or lends a cutesy feel. Cf. root bls-, bálas (snow) => bálaš (snowflake) => varašín (the finest snowflakes you ever saw; powder); or root mwk-, mówok (dog) => mówoč (puppy *one of maaaany words for puppy) => móvoč (cute little puppy doggie)

Augmentatives

Augmentatives are formed through infixes between the root and the case or conjugation endings. In the following /X/ is a dummy vowel determined by the quality of the verb.

The most common are:

• -yXš- = great, grand, noble, relatively large (also functions as a comparative)
• -nXč- = the biggest, greatest

Examples:

• -yXš-
  • root mwk, "dog" => mwókyoš, "a big dog"
  • root ayt, "run" => ayátyaš, "a long run"

• -nXč-
  • root mwk, "dog" => múknuč, "the greatest dog you ever had"
  • root ayt, "run" => áytnač, "a marathon"

Syntax

Basics

Constituent order

Word order in Rówok tends in normal circumstances toward SOV, but it's really whatevs.

Number

There are three numbers in Rówok:

• singular
• dual
• plural

Verbs are conjugated for all three numbers, as are participles, nouns, and adjectives declined.

Gender

Gender in Rówok is complicated; there are indeed two types of vowel structure in a word (either -a/-e or -o/-u, but there is no semantic association to either category, and adjectives do not change to agree with their head nouns in any way but number and case.

The protolanguage Ruk did not have gender, and what little bits of gender there are in Rówok are new inventions picked up from contact with IE speakers. Even then, the language's internal vowel structure doesn't allow for the inherited endings to show in both vowel types. So -o can be added to an o-vowel word do emphasize a things masculinity, and -a can be added to an a-vowel word to emphasize its femininity, but there is no way to explicitly show the feminine in an o-vowel word and no way to show the masculine in an a-vowel word.

Person

There are the standard three persons in all numbers, as well as an inclusive 1st person dual and plural. For more see pronouns.

Agency

A little about agency in Rówok. Below are 6 sentences, the first of each set showing the middle voice and how agency differs between them depending on the semantic of the verb. Then follow provided active and passive examples with the same grammatical subject and main verb just for comparison. Basically it's like this: if the subject of the middle verb is the agent but not (necessarily) the patient, it is marked ergatively/actively; if it is both the agent and patient it is marked in the telic. Also the subject of a passive verb is in the telic.

1) root krp- to fight

mowokín kárpŧawan

dog.pl.erg fight.3.pl.MID

the dogs are fighting (each other/amongst themselves)

+The key being that the dogs are the agents of fighting in a mutual exercise, but not patients, due to the semantics of 'fight'.

mowokín razánka kárpawan

dog.pl.erg bear.tel fight.3.sg.ACT

the dogs are fighting a bear

mwokíngod razánka kárpanak

dog.pl.inst bear.tel fight.3.sg.PAS

the bear is being fought by the dogs

2) root wkd- to kill

mwokínok wokóđowon

dog.pl.tel kill.3.pl.MID

the dogs are killing each other

+Here the dogs are both agents and patients, doing the killing action, of which they are also patients*

mowokín saráynka wokódowon

dog.pl.erg rabbit.tel fight.3.pl.ACT

the dogs are killing a rabbit

mwokíngod saráynka wokódonok

dog.pl.inst rabbit.tel fight.3.sg.PAS

the rabbit is being killed by the dogs

Example texts

Idioms

• bálsa belsénkpre, "it is snowing upon fallen snow" = to beat a dead horse; to preach to the choir