Fifth Linguifex Relay/Idaltu

Text in Idaltu

bajuljuceqebaja!

maxarirsumeqetedaqechulu
njarqapemeqeshuxuhawnaxzamexzashuda
majbanarsulapfachymnubxa
qfekajeturgu manirshunuhilu

Some grammar notes

Idaltu is designed to be a non-recursive language. It has been theorised that recursion is the only feature of language unique to humans (Hauser, M., Chomsky, N. & Fitch, W. T. 2002. The Language Faculty: What is it, who has it, and how did it evolve? Science, 298, 1569-1579), which I interpret to mean that it was the last major innovation of human speech before we reached the condition we have today, a modern, flexible language with full freedom of expression. Recursion probably is hard-wired in us, because it is a reasonable guess that features that are universal or near universal in human language (or human characteristics in general) are hard-wired. Many of the other universals (or near-universals) that do not depend on recursion are present in Idaltu. However, it does not, by definition, have statements and clauses like normal human language. Instead, I will refer to them as calls. They are more structured than usual animal calls, and the structural elements are similar to the ones of modern language, thus I will mostly use commonplace terminology when referring to them. Each call has this structure:

<aspect>-VERB-<tense>-<mood>-<evidentiality>-<subject>-<voice>-<object>-<other arguments>, where only the VERB is mandatory.

Which looks pretty commonplace for a polysynthetic language at first glance. In my model of language history the languages were polysynthetic at first when they reached the recursive stage, and have been evolving towards more analytic structures since, though not necessarily in a linear fashion.

In place of a complex syntax, Idaltu has complex semantics. The things we can say just by adjusting the syntax a little, or a lot – in principle there's no limit – Idaltu has to invent new words for. It has been suggested (http://www.sciencemag.org/content/332/6027/346.abstract) that there is a correlation between the size of a language's phoneme inventory and its geographical distance from the site of the origin of the human species. This indicates that pre-human language had rich phoneme inventories, which is an advantage if you need such a large vocabulary. But the evolution of logical structures like the above probably reduced the need for huge inventories a bit, as before them you had to invent new words for each logical distinction. The phonetic ability of humans probably evolved to its full extent before this logical structure evolved. Then the need for it declined, and modern languages get by with just a small fraction of the sounds that it's actually possible for us to make. For Idaltu, I propose a comparatively rich inventory, which I will represent by the reasonably close Latin letters and digraphs to save me from too much work. I'm not a natural IPA typist.

Each of the subject, object or other arguments above are nominal items. They are declined for singular, dual and plural number and for a large number of cases. Pronouns are not in principle different from other nouns and work in the same way. Since the nominal arguments are marked, they can switch places for emphasis. The scheme above is the neutral one. All nouns as well as verbs have theme vowels, and attribute markers can be inserted between them and the roots. The structure of a nominal argument is as follows:

NOUN-<attribute>-<theme>-<number>-<case>, where only the NOUN is mandatory.

There is a large number of verbal aspects, plenty of moods and a number of voices, but only 3 tenses, past, present and future.

For the vocabulary below I have used Bengtson's and Ruhlen's 27 Proto-World reconstructions (http://www.jdbengt.net/articles/Global.pdf) as my main inspiration. Not because I believe they have reached an accurate description of what language was like before it started to diverge, but because I like them and think they are a nice starting point for this experiment. I think however that the freedom of word invention, which amounts to the starting point for divergence, was evolved long before the invention of recursion, so Proto-World belongs to a much earlier stage than Idaltu. But the 27 of B & R have a moderately rich phoneme inventory which is suitable for my purpose. Sergei Starostin's online database (http://starling.rinet.ru/cgi-bin/query.cgi?root=config&morpho=0&basename=\data\eura\globet) has been useful for the rest.

Idaltu is currently rather experimental and so far I have done away with all verbal and nominal class distinctions. But I can foresee that something will crystallise out of the theme vowel system if I ever have time to work further on it.

As for pronunciation, the letters have their IPA values, except c = /ç/, ch = /χ/ and sh = /ʃ/.

Vocabulary

akud (a) last
arj (a) wild
awyasi (v) be
baja (n) joy
baju (v) find
bana (v) bloom, spring out
bau (interj.) dog’s bark
bawa (v) bark
bele (v) fear
beng (n) news
buqi (n) wildness, madness
ce (pron) 2p
cheha (n) hunger
chuk (a) strange, bent, crooked
chym (n) land
chymnu (n) world
dagu (v) show
diru (n) tree
dawa (n) day
efal (a) many
faxe (v) break
faza (n) pot
Federfann (n) personal name
gar (v) bring
hafa (v) kick
hala (n) food
hamnetu (n) journey
hantu (n) front
haqe (v) see
hara (v) trade, exchange, switch
harahamnetu (n) trading journey
haramano (n) merchant
hawa (n) river
hawna (n) desire
heri (v) destroy
hiwkul (n) gold (yellow stone)
hule (v) eat
hurxura (n) wagon
huxu (n) brother
hwy (v) love
Idaltu (n) place name
jen (v) speak
kaje (v) go
kame (v) grasp
kamo (n) family, parents
kanu (v) tie
katse (v) hold, keep
kocha (n) basket
kole (v) fall
kolu (n) fall
koza (n) house
kuna (n) woman
kurku (n) cage
kwano (n) male dog
lapu (n) leaf
laxa (v) loosen
loqi (v) jump
makaq (n) word
makaqware (n) story
mako (n) boy
mani (v) stay, remain
mano (n) man
mari (v) walk
Marwalla (n) place name
maxari (v) die
me (pron) 1s
miro (n) ruler, king
mora (n) mare, female horse
nawahi (v) wait, expect
nguki (v) be shocked, surprised
nuhi (n) indefinite time
oh (interj.) surprise
p (a) near, proximate
pajar (n) princess
para (n) edge, side, shore
purch (v) beg
qabaw (v) weave
qape (v) hold on to, maintain
qaich (n) animal
qarto (n) knot
qazu (n) piece
qechu (n) end
qiru (n) door
qudu (n) inside
qurduni (v) be insufficient
quxa (v) look, look for
sayam (n) grass
Sento (n) personal name
sha (pron) 3s, fem.
Shambara (n) place name
shi (pron) 3s, neut.
Shinnerell (n) personal name
sho (pron) 3s, masc.
shu (pron) 3s, inanim.
shule (v) liberate, get free
shulu (n) freedom
shuxu (n) wisdom
siha (n) fight
sihte (v) fight
sto (pron) 3p
tano (v) pull, draw
tanxane (v) harness (a draft animal) to something
te (pron) 2s
tinu (v) sit
tuku (v) show, display
turgu (n) walk, time
tyak (v) steal
wiltengu (v) not will
ware (n) rope
weda (v) hit
wola (n) greatness, bigness, muchness
wæri (v) make, prepare
xogu (v) be hurt, feel bad
xur (a) young
za (pron) demonstrative
zahe (v) put, set
zeqe (v) run
zuhe (v) appear, turn up

Formants

- (null) unmarked: present tense, indicative mood, active voice, punctual-stative aspect, singular number, absolutive case
a (a) progressive - emphasising progress in action
ad (t) past
ara (a) contrary - indicating contrariness to the previous statement
bxa (c) locative - indicates place
da (c) benefactive - what an action is done for the benefit of
dbe (m) jussive - indicates an order
de (m) optative - indicates wish or hope
dxa (c) dative - marks indirect object
esmu (a) simultaeous - indicates simultaneous action
etse (a) terminative - marks finalising action
fa (n) plural
hi (c) allative - indicates movement towards
hnu (a) intensive - intensifying the action
iqe (a) inceptive - marks start of action
iqne (a) inchoative - marks start of state change
jo (t) past
kaja (v) potential - marks ability to do the verb
kla (c) circumferential (around, about)
lju (m) desiderative - indicates wish
lu (c) instrumental - means, manner (adverbial) or time
maj (a) resumptive - marks resumed action
mi (m) conditional - verb states a condition for another actio
mne (a) iterative - marks repetition
na (nom) active participle
ngme (c) ablative - movement or action away from, out of
ngo (v) middle - allows the subject of a transitive action to be marked other than by the ergative, for example to act upon itself.
njar (a) habitual - marks habit
ptu (m) speculative - marks speculative statement
pu (c) adessive - marks adjacent location
qe (c) ergative - marks the subject in a transitive action
qfe (a) protractive - marks action that goes on and on
qqa (c) superessive - marks location on top of something
r (t) future
she (a) continuous - marks continued action
so (c) illative - movement into
su (m) declarative mood - indicates more emphasis than the indicative mood but less than the energetic mood
tli (c) prosecutive - movement along, across
ur (t) future
wke (e) quotative - marks a statement that the subject has been told
xa (c) comitative - marks accompaniment, togetherness
xza (c) genitive - possession
yatin (a) episodic - marks a particular episode
yne (e) reportative - marks the reporting of unwitnessed events
za (c) translative - marks turning from one state to another
zfe (c) pertingent - marks something that touches another thing
æki (a) delimitative - indicates finite extent

Abbreviations

1S - 1st person singular
2P - 2nd person plural
2S - 2nd person singular
3S - 3rd person singular
a - aspect, or attribute
BENE - benefactive
c - case
DECL - declarative
DES - desiderative
e - evidentiality
ERG - ergative
FUT - future
GEN - genitive
HAB - habitual
INST - instrumental
LOC - locative
m - mood
n - number, or noun
nom - nominaliser
PL - plural
PROT - protractive
RES - resumptive
t - tense
v - verb, or voice

Interlinear

bajuljuceqebaja
find-DES-2P-ERG-joy

maxarirsumeqetedaqechulu
die-FUT-DECL-1S-ERG-2S-BENE-end-INST

njarqapemeqeshuxuhawnaxzamexzashuda
HAB-maintain-1S-ERG-wisdom-desire-GEN-1S-GEN-3S-BENE

majbanarsulapfachymnubxa
RES-spring_out-FUT-DECL-leaf-PL-world-LOC

qfekajeturgu
PROT-go-time

manirshunuhilu
remain-FUT-3S-indefinite_time-INST Happy translating!