Lortho

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Introduction

Lortho (IPA:[ˈloɾ·tʰo]) is an a priori constructed language created by Brian Bourque in the beginning of 2003. It originally started as a prop for a strategy board game where only the script was created for aesthetics. Fast forward about 13 years and it has now evolved into a fusional-agglutinative language. The verbs are conjugated with suffixes and nouns are declined to denote case.

Inspiration

A friend was creating a board game similar to Risk; however, instead of taking place on Earth, this new game was to take place on an inter-planetary scale. The game creator wanted to develop an alien theme and requested a fictional script. The name of the race on this game is "Lortho" and thus the seed was planted. The author was unable to work on this piece for quite sometime until he joined the CONLANG mailing list and observed both seasoned and novice conlangers discussing all aspects of linguistics. Since then he decided to move forward and bring Lortho into fruition.

Another inspirational source is Brian's daughter. Through her development of learning how to make speech sounds, Brian found certain "words" to use in Lortho which help in its phonology.

Setting

UNDER DEVELOPMENT

The people who speak Lortho live on a planetary system which orbits a binary star.

Phonology

Orthography

Lortho Alphabet

The Lortho alphabet is a pseudo-abjad. All letters are consonants except for one vowel. All other vowels are written as diacritics.

Lortho Alphabet
Lortho Alphabet

Consonant Inventory

Bilabial Labiodental Alveolar Postalveolar Velar Glottal
Plosive p pʰ b t tʰ d dʰ k kʰ ʔ
Nasal m mː n nː
Tap or Flap ɾ
Fricative f s ʃ h
Lateral Approximant l lʰ

Vowels and Diphthongs

Vowel Inventory

There are five vowels in Lortho and are strictly pronounced regardless of placement:

Front Central Back
Close i u
Close-mid o
Open-mid ɛ
Mid ɑ

Diphthongs

The following diphthongs exist in Lortho:

  • [aɪ], [aʊ], [eɪ], [ɔɪ]

Prosody

Stress

There are a few rules that govern stress (with exceptions):

  1. Stress is always on the second to the last syllable of the root or infinitive except:
    • -n verbs will always receive stress on the last syllable of the infinitive or root.
  2. If the word is only two syllables long, then the stress is on the first syllable.
  3. Stress is never given to prefixes or suffixes.


Intonation

Lortho is still in development and has not enough information to explain the rules of intonation.

Phonotactics

Morphophonology

Morphology

Nouns

Introduction

Nouns in Lortho have three distinct features:

  1. They are one of three genders: masculine, feminine, or neuter
  2. All nouns are declined to denote case
  3. All nouns end in a vowel
Masculine Feminine Neuter
-i -u

Grammatical Case

Lortho has ten cases.

Case Modifier Example Translation
Nominative - kɑnsɑptʰɑ woods, forest
Accusative -mɛ kɑnsɑptʰɑmɛ forest (direct obj.)
Dative -mɛlɑ kɑnsɑptʰɑmɛlɑ forest (indirect obj.)
Genitive -nɑlo kɑnsɑptʰɑnɑlo of the forest
Sublative -ɪnɑ/-ɛnɑ kɑnsɑptʰaɪnɑ in/into the forest
Ablative -(ɛ)nɑt kɑnsɑptʰɑnɑt out of/from the forest
Allative -dɑn kɑnsɑptʰɑdɑn to/towards the forest
Prolative -dɑnɑɾ kɑnsɑptʰɑdɑnɑɾ through/via/by way of the forest
Instructive -lɛn kɑnsɑptʰɑlɛn using the forest
Vocative fɑ- still in development

Personal Possessive Prefix

The personal possessive is formed using a prefix which is gender and number specific.

Person Singular Plural
1st person ni- nu- - nimɑ- numɑ- -
2nd person lin- lun- - nɑni- nɑnu- -
3rd person li- lu- lɑ- limi- limu- limɑ-

Pluralization

Each noun is pluralized by gender and in some cases, the plural ending is changed for ease of pronunciation.

  1. Feminine nouns (-u): simply add the plural ending -.
    • Example: [kɑnsɑpʰu] (n. fem) tree; pl [kɑnsɑpʰu]
  2. Masculine nouns (-i): subtract the -i and add the plural ending -ɛni except :
    • Masculine nouns that end in -ni, the plural ending will be changed to -ɛmi.
    • Examples:
    1. [olɑkʰi] (n. masc) boat; pl [olɑkʰɛni]
    2. [pʰoɾɛnːi] (n. masc) peak, summit; pl [pʰoɾɛnːɛmi]
  3. Neuter nouns (-ɑ): simply add the plural ending - (many neuter nouns are collective nouns such as [hɑmːunɑ] weather)
    • Example: [hɑdikʰɑ] (n. neut) land, country; pl [hɑdikʰɑ]

Verbs

Introduction

Verbs are conjugated in gender and in number which is all governed by the noun.

Conjugation

Present Tense
-o verbs [konpʰɑɾo] to speak
verbal root: konpʰɑr
-t verbs [pʰɾɑmit] to push
verbal root: pʰɾɑmid
-n verbs [ʃaɪlɑn] to sit
verbal root: ʃaɪlɑn
Singular Plural Singular Plural Singular Plural
masc fem neut masc fem neut masc fem neut masc fem neut masc fem neut masc fem neut
1st pers konpʰɑɾin un - -inɑn -unɑn - pʰɾɑmidin -dun - -dinɑn -dunɑn - ʃaɪlanin -un - -inɑn -unɑn -
2nd pers konpʰɑɾɑnːi -ɑnːu - -ɑmin -ɑmun - pʰɾɑmidɑnːi -dɑnːu - -dɑmin -dɑmun - ʃaɪlanɑnːi -ɑnːu - -ɑmin -ɑmun -
3rd pers konpʰɑɾi -u -ɑ -imi -imu -imɑ pʰɾɑmidi -du - -dimi -dimu -dimɑ ʃaɪlani -u -ɑ -imi -imu -imɑ

Syntax

Coming soon.

Example texts

Other resources

Word Order

In Lortho, the word order is verb, (subject), object. Lortho contains a lot of information in the verb and objectival noun. The verb is conjugated by person and gender and thus pronouns are unnecessary. The nouns are altered to denote case, removing almost entirely the need for prepositions.

Word Agreement

The three following rules govern agreement between words:

  1. Verbs must agree in gender and number with the subject
  2. Nouns are not pluralized when counted
  3. Adjectives must agree with the noun in gender, but not in grammatical case or number