Hololang

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Hololang
Holo
Pronunciation[[hɔ.lɔː]]
Created byMadoka
DateAug 2021
SettingAlt-Earth
EthnicityHoloCouncil
Native speakers5 (2021)
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Introduction

Goals

The goal of this artlang is to create a fun and simple experiment, making the members of HoloCouncil actually react to it and maybe create a memrise course when everything is 100% ready to be launched.

Setting

Hololang is the language that used to be spoken by the members of the HoloCouncil (if you know the Hololive english second generation), since they have been here on the universe before the appearance of the human race and therefore the surgiment of human language. This is the language that was used during the meetings of the Council.

Phonology

Consonants

→ PoA
↓ Manner
Labial Labiodental Alveolar Alveolopalatal Palatal Velar Uvular Glottal
Nasals m m n n ny ɲ ng ŋ
Plosives Voiceless p p t t c k q
Voiced b b d d g ɡ
Affricates Voiceless ts ts ch
Voiced dz dz dj d͡ʒ
Fricatives Voiceless f f s s sh/ss ʃ h h
Voiced v v z z j ʒ rr ʁ
Approximant y j
Trill r r
Tap or flap <r ɾ>
Lateral Approximants l l ly ʎ

Vowels

Front Central Back
High i i u u
Mid e ɛ o ɔ
Low a a

Orthography

Hololang's orthography is very recent since it was mostly a spoken language before the existence of the writing systems, after observing the humans for hundred of times, HoloCouncil adopted the Latin alphabet as the main script for the language. The graphemes of each phoneme are written in bold on the respective tables, but the things that grab attention are mostly the voiced postalveolar fricative being written as j and the voiced palatal approximant being written as y. The voiceless velar plosive is normally written as c but in loan words it is written as k. The voiceless postalveolar fricative has two written methods, one when this phoneme is at the beginning of a word sh and the other when the sound is found at the middle or end of a word ss.

Letter Names and pronunciations

Letter Name (in IPA) Sound (in IPA) English equivalent

Diacritics

The macron (ˉ) is the only diacritic used in Hololang and it's only used on vowels, its function is to increase the lenght of the vowel sound.

Phonotactics

Most of the consonant clusters are allowed in Hololang. Other rules that apply to Hololang:

  • r becomes ɾ between vowels or between a plosive and a vowel
  • Vowels get longer when placed at the end of a word, in a diphthong or between a vowel and a nasal consonant for example in the words vē vɛː (english: we), sofēng sɔfɛːŋ (english: seven) and Havaī havaiː (english: Hawaii}}

Morphology

There are no cases or gramatical gender in Hololang.

Nouns

Nouns deflect on number,singular and plural, and degree (augmentative, normal and diminutive)

kores = planet rozē = rose
Augmentative Normal Diminutive Augmentative Normal Diminutive
Singular koresān kores koresīn rozēnyān rozē rozeīn
Plural koresāns koress koresīns rozēnyāns rozes rozeīns

Nouns are divided in three families: common, colective and proper.

Pronouns

Personal and Possessive pronouns are related to each other they only inflect in person.

Personal Possessive
1SG moī
2SG tuī
3SG jaī jaī
1PL venyī
2PL tiss tissuī
3PL jaīs jaīs

There's also the demonstratives, the relatives and the indefinites

Demonstrative Pronouns

Proximal Distant
Singular djā tsā
Plural djas tsas

Relative Pronouns

Refering to People qāng
Refering to Living Things qāny
Refering to Things qām
Refering to Places qarū
Refering to Time qacē
Refering to Possession qatsī

Interrogative Pronouns are based on the relative pronouns.

Indefinite Pronouns

All Part of Any No
People chāmal chānil chānyol charraj
Living Things rūmal rūnil rūnyol rurraj
Things rīmal rīnil rīnyol rīrraj
Places qāmal qānil qānyol qārraj
Time nyēmal nyēnil nēnyol nyerraj

Articles

Singular Plural
Definite lyā
Indefinite yas lyas

Verbs

for list of verbs check Hololang/Verbs

There are 5 tenses in Hololang: present, past, future, neutral and infinitive. The later one usually appears in negative and imperative sentences. Neutral tense has a gnotic aspect, using this tense normally refers to a absence of time. The verb used in the examplification is tēnē (to have)

Present Past Future Gnotic/Neutral
te terrū te tēnē
tetos nyus teras tess
jaī te nyū terāng tes
tefos tehus tedjas tedzē
tiss tefoīss tehuīs tedjaīs tedzes
jaīs tetoīs nyuīs teraīs tez

Adjectives

for list of adjectives check Hololang/Adjectives

Adjectives inflect in number, degree and politeness. The following table showcases the inflection of three adjectives by degree and politeness.

bōnyij = beautiful, handsome niēsij = nice vīnij = thin
Complimentary Pejorative Complimentary Pejorative Complimentary Pejorative
Normal bōnyij habōnyij niēsij haniēsij vīnij havīnij
Comparative bōnyān habōnyān niēsān haniēsān vīnān havīnān
Superlative Relative bōnyoqū habōnyoqū niēsoqū haniēsoqū vīnoqū havīnoqū
Superlative Analytic bōnyetsū habōnyetsū niēsetsū haniēsetsū vīnetsū havīnetsū
Superlative Synthetic bōnyirrēn habōnyirrēn niēsirrēn haniēsirrēn vīnirrēn havīnirrēn

Note that habōnyij is an adjective in his insult form, doesn't mean "ugly" it means "beautiful" in an evil/pejorative manner.

Contraditory Prefix

a- is the prefix used to give the opposite of the mentioned adjective. The following table will showcase three adjectives on the normal degree and complimentary manner with the contraditory prefix.

Original Adjective Contraditory Meaning
bōnyij abōnyij 'not beautiful'
niēsij āniēsij 'not nice'
vīnij avīnij 'not thin'

Note that "abōnyij" can mean "ugly" but the literal/most used meaning is "not beautiful". In pejorative manner, the prefix becomes before the pejorative prefix. For example:
bōnyij (beautiful, complimentary) -> abōnyij (not beautiful, complimentary)
habōnyij (beautiful, pejorative) -> ahabōnyij (not beautiful, pejorative)

Exceptions

The adjectives like bōnē (good), malē (evil, bad), ricō (rich), paūbris (poor) doesn't have a regular degree format and doesn't have a contraditory form.

Adjective Subclasses

  • Qualifying - give a quality to the subject
  • Numeral - check the number table (ordinal section)
  • Relative / Relational - establishes a relationship

Adverbs

Prepositions

Hololang doesn't have prepositions. Pronouns, adverbs and relational adjectives are replacements

Numerals

Numerals are an extra word class, there are several suffixes for the meaning of the numeral. There's the cardinals, the ordinals, the multiplicatives, the dividers, the days, the months.

Cardinal Ordinal Multiplicative Divider Day Month
0 zerō zeroīng N/A N/A N/A N/A
1 ōny ōnyīng ōnyarrū ōnyirā ōnyidraī ōnyimōnf
2 tvū tvuīng tvuārrū tvuīrā tvuīdraī tvuīmōnf
3 tarē tareīng tareārrū tareīrā tareīdraī tareīmōnf
4 foīng foārrū foīrā foīdraī foīmōnf
5 siqē siqeīng siqeārrū siqeīrā siqeīdraī siqeīmōnf
6 shiz shizīng shizarrū shizirā shizidraī shizimōnf
7 sofēng sofēngīng sofēngarrū sofēngirā sofēngidraī sofēngimōnf
8 hutā hutaīng hutārrū hutaīrā hutaīdraī hutaīmōnf
9 nīnē nīneīng nīneārrū nīneīrā nīneīdraī nīneīmōnf
10 taj tajīng tajarrū tajirā tajidraī tajimōnf
11 tajōny tajōnyīng tajōnyarrū tajōnyirā tajōnyidraī tajōnyimōnf
100 ōnyitaj ōnyitajīng ōnyitajarrū ōnyitajirā ōnyitajidraī N/A
1000 utaj utajīng utajarrū utajirā N/A N/A
īnfuss īnfussīng N/A N/A īnfussidraī īnfussimōnf

Syntax

Constituent order

The normal word order for a sentence in Hololag is SOV. In interrogative and negative sentences this changes to a OSV order. Sentences of commands and requests are in SOV excluding negative commands.

Negative Sentences

Negative sentences follow an OSV order. In negation, verbal tenses happen to change. Normally it only happens with the Neutral tense. But:

  • Neutral tense will always change into Infinitive
  • Future tense might change into Present tense if only the speaker is sure that the action in the future won't really happen

Orders/Requests - Imperative Sentence

There's no imperative mode for the verbs in Hololang, the infinitive is used to give orders. SOV order except negative order or requests (interrogative orders), that is the OSV order.

Give me diamonds! - moī djaīmōnes derē!
Can you give me diamonds? - djaīmōnes moī derē?

Example texts

Other resources