Riagi

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DISCLAIMER: Due to recent changes in the phonology the name Rjargi is going to change.

Background

This language is meant to be one of the main languages in a yet unnamed conworld. This language is also known as the "language of gods" as it is the language that the gods and powerful spirits use to communicate with mortals, this makes the language immutable. For this reason most languages are either derived or influenced by it.

Features

  • Definiteness and politeness marked by word order
  • Fluid-S alignment
  • Simple phonology
  • Thematic themed (heh :P) noun cases
  • Extensive mood declensions


Phonology

Consonants

Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasal /m/ m /n/ n - /ŋ/ ŋ -
Stop /p/ p /t/ t - /k/ k /ʔ/ '
Fricative /f/ ~ /ʃ/ s - - -
Approximant /β/ ~ /ð/ v /j/ /ɰ/ g /h/ h
Flap - /ɾ/ r - - -

There is free variation between all voiceless labial and coronal fricatives, free variation also exists between /β/, /ʋ/ and /ð/. This variation is mostly regional.

Vowels

Vowels can be either short of long.

Front Back
Close /i iː/ i ii /u uː/ u uu
Close-mid /e eː/ e ee /o oː/ o oo
Open /a aː/ a aa -

Diphthongs

The following diphthongs are allowed: /ae ao ai au ea oa oe oi ou ia ua ui/

Stress

Stress is marked by intonation and pitch. It falls on the second to last syllable of a word and the first vowel of a diphthong. Any irregular words have their stressed syllable marked by an acute diacritic.

Phonotactics

Syllables consist of a short vowel, long vowel or a diphthong with an optional onset consonant. The syllable structure thus is (C)V(V)

Morphology

Verbs

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

Nouns

Noun Cases

Nouns can be marked for up to two cases, an argument case and a thematic case

  • Argument Cases
    • Nominative (nom): Agent, defaults to Agentive thematic case
    • Accusative (acc): Object, defaults to Patientive thematic case
    • Dative (dat): Indirect object, defaults to Benefactive thematic case
  • Thematic Cases
    • Agentive (-): Agent (exclusive to the nominative case)
    • Patientive (pat): Patient, Theme
    • Instrumental (ins): Intrument, Sociate
    • Locative (loc): Location, Time
    • Benefactive (ben): Beneficiary, Recipient
    • Origative (ori): Origin, Source, Cause
    • Metative (met): Goal, Direction, Purpose

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