Riagi: Difference between revisions

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Revision as of 21:18, 25 July 2014

Riagi
Rīagi
Pronunciation[/ɾiːaɰi/]
Created byMiguel Bartelsman
Date2014
SettingAokae world
Riagi
  • Riagi
Official status
Regulated byAcademy of spiritual and magical arts
Language codes
ISO 639-3qrr

Riagi is an a priori constructed language designed to be the mother-thong and language-of-the-gods in the constructed fantasy world of Aokae. The language is widely used throughout the world in rituals and scriptures and to communicate with powerful spirits and gods. Even though it has no native speakers, it is believed to have been the first language to be spoken and most languages in the world are derived either directly or indirectly from it.

Its phonology is inspired by the descriptions of the Eloi language given in the book of The Time Machine and by Polynesian languages such as Maori and Hawaiian, likewise, the script it uses is vaguely derived from the Rongorongo inscription found in Easter Island and by Javanese and its parent Old Kawi.

Its grammar is not directly derived from any one language, instead is a mix of grammatical features meant to give it a unique feel. It’s a language focused on the reasons behind actions and their context rather than in actions themselves.

Phonology

Even though Riagi does not have a large amount of different sounds, it compensates for it by distinguishing between long and short vowels and long and short stops changing the amount of phonemes from 13 consonants and 5 vowels to 16 consonants and 10 vowels.

Consonants

Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasal /m/ /n/ - /ŋ/ -
Stop /p pː/ /t tː/ - /k kː/ /ʔ/
Fricative /f/ ~ /ʃ/ - - -
Approximant /β/ ~ /ð/ /j/ /ɰ/ /h/
Flap - /ɾ/ - - -

Riagi has a wide range of free variation, the labio-alveolar voiceless fricative, being the only fricative in the inventory, has free variation between [ɸ], [f], [θ], [s] and [ʃ]. Similarly, the labio-alveolar voiced approximant has free variation between [β], [ʋ] and [ð]. And because Riagi has no voiced fricatives of any sort, all voiced approximants can be 'correctly' pronounced as their voiced fricatives equivalents.

Gemination

Phonemic gemination is only found in Riagi in the voiceless stops /p/, /t/ and /k/.

Vowels

Front Back
Close /i iː/ /u uː/
Close-mid /e eː/ /o oː/
Open /a aː/ -

Long vowels

Unlike consonants, vowel elongation is found in all vowels

Diphthongs

Short diphthongs are formed by a central or back vowel followed by an equal or closer vowel: /ae/, /ao/, /ai/, /au/, /oe/, /oi/, /ou/, /ui/

Long diphthongs are formed by a long vowel followed by /a/: /eːa/, /oːa/, /iːa/, /uːa/

Phonotactics

The syllable structure in Riagi is quite simple, it consists of an optional onset consonant followed by a vowel or diphthong, or (C)V(V).

Stress

Riagi has a predictable stress that falls on the penultimate syllable, irregular words (often loanwords) have their stressed syllable marked by an acute diacritic on the last vowel.

Romanization

  • /m/ → m
  • /n/ → n
  • /ŋ/ → ng
  • /p/ → p
  • /pː/ → pp
  • /t/ → t
  • /tː/ → tt
  • /k/ → k
  • /kː/ → kk
  • /ʔ/ → '
  • /f/ ~ /ʃ/ → s
  • /β/ ~ /ð/ → v
  • /j/ → j
  • /ɰ/ → g
  • /h/ → h
  • /r/ → r
  • /a/ → a
  • /aː/ → ä, ā
  • /e/ → e
  • /eː/ → ë, ē
  • /i/ → i
  • /iː/ → ï, ī
  • /o/ → o
  • /oː/ → ö, ō
  • /u/ → u
  • /uː/ → ü, ū

Morphology

Riagi is a predominantly agglutinative language with a fair share of fusion

Nouns

Cases

Case Agentive Patientive Instrumental Locative Benefactive Origative Metative
Abbrev - PAT INS LOC BEN ORI MET
Case Abbrev Affix -o -oe -ae -a -i -ui
Nominative NOM ø -o -oe -ae -a -i -ui
Absolutive ABS -t - -to -toe -tae -ta -ti -tui
Dative DAT -m - -mo -moe -mae -ma -mi -mui
Argument Cases
  • Nominative
    Marks the agent of a transitive verb and the active subject of an intransitive verb
  • Absolutive
    Marks the object of a transitive verb and the passive subject of an intransitive verb
  • Dative
    Marks the indirect objects of a verb
Thematic Cases
  • Agentive
    Marks the entity which carries out the action, this theme is exclusive to the nominative case.
  • Patientive
    Marks the patient or theme, that is the entity that undergoes the action
  • Instrumental
    Marks the instrument or entity with which the action was carried out, this can be a tool or a person.
  • Locative
    Marks the location or time at which the action was performed
  • Benefactive
    Marks the entity for whose benefit the action occurs, this includes recipients with verbs that express change of possession
  • Origative
    Marks the place, time, motive or cause from which the action originated
  • Metative
    Marks the direction, purpose or objective towards which the action aims

Verbs

Coverbs

Coverbs are special auxiliary verbs that accept TAM inflections in order to allow TAM stacking or negation.

Tense

Rjargi has four tenses:

  • Past (pst)
  • Present (prs)
  • Future (fut)
  • Gnomic (gno)

Aspect

Rjargi has five aspects:

  • Perfective (pfv)
  • Retrospective (ret)
  • Continuous (cont)
  • Prospective (prosp)
  • Habitual (hab)

Mood

Moods are divided in External, Internal and Evidential

  • External
    • Permissive (prm): Used to express permission
    • Requisitive (req): Used to express requests or suggestions
    • Compulsory (cls): Used to express orders and commands
    • Impositive (ims): Used to express expectations or imposed actions
  • Internal
    • Promissory (pms): Used to express for promises oaths or threats
    • Desiderative (des): Used to express willingness or intent
    • Aspirative (asp): Used to express hopes, fears or wishes
    • Necessitative (nec): Used to express needs or obligations
  • Evidential
    • Factual (fac): Indicates the certainty of the action
    • Probable (pbl): Indicates the likelyhood of the action
    • Improbable (ipb): Indicates the unlikelyhood of the action
    • Potential (ptn): Indicates the posibility of the action

Negation

There are two basic ways to negate

Negating the main verb
Negates the action but not the TAM
You may not-work
Negating the coverb
Negates the TAM but not the action
You may-not work

The coverb needs not to be fully inflected, one may only negate mood, tense/aspect or both, allowing for sentences like I didn't use to need to take my medicines by negating only the tense on I used need to take my medicines

Non-Finite forms

Infinitive
Dictionary form
Used when employing the verb as a noun
Gerund
Used when employing the verb as an adjective or adverb


Pronouns

First Person Dual Person Second Person Third Person
Singular Plural Singular Plural Singular Plural Singular Plural
1s 1p Ds Dp 2s 2p 3s 3p
Fourth Person Fifth Person
Singular Plural Singular Plural
4s 4p 5s 5p
Zero Person
Singular Plural
0s 0p
  • The First person plural is exclusive
  • The Dual person singular indicates both the Speaker and the Addressee
  • The Dual person Plural is an inclusive version of the first person plural
  • The Fourth person is an indefinite category that encompasses First and Dual persons. "These ones think so" (referring to themselves)
  • The Fifth person is similar to the fourth but covers Second and Third persons.
  • The Zero person is a completely generic category. "One could say so"

Determiners

Conjunctions

Adpositions

Adjectives

Adverbs

Numerals

Derivational morphology

Nouns

Noun > Noun

Noun > Verb

Noun > Adx

Verbs

Verb > Verb

Verb > Noun

Verb > Adx

Adverbs and Adjectives

Adverbs and adjectives are essentially the same and can be used interchangeably, their lexical category is only determined by their position on a sentence. Because of this, both will be abbreviated as 'Adx'

Adx > Adx

Adx > Verb

Adx > Noun

Morphophonology

Syntax

Word Order

Nouns
Before the verb if its indefinite
After the verb if its definite
Adjectives
Before the noun
Multiple adjectives need a commitative particle
Adverbs
Before the word they modify
Prepositions
Adjacent to the verb
After the verb if the subject is definite
Before the verb if the subject is indefinite
Verbs take only one preposition
Nested prepositional phrases must be separated by a subordinator
Cardinal numbers
Before the noun and it's adjectives and adverbs
Ordinal numbers
Treated as adjectives

Writing System