Caryatic: Difference between revisions

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(→‎Involvement of other conlangers: I didn't meet David until 2000, so Eric actually has priority.)
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Like most of my conlangs, it draws much inspiration from the classical languages, but has broader influence from the rest of the Indo-European family. The three-vowel system was at least partially inspired by Sanskrit's propensity for the phoneme /a/.
Like most of my conlangs, it draws much inspiration from the classical languages, but has broader influence from the rest of the Indo-European family. The three-vowel system was at least partially inspired by Sanskrit's propensity for the phoneme /a/.


==== Involvement of other conlangers ====
==== Involvement of other conlangers ====
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* '''Eric Christopherson''' was aprobably the first conlanger ever to see the language. He received a letter (snail-mail, if I remember right) containing a number of my language files with a cover-letter describing them all. This seems to have been around fall 1998. He quickly became a big fan of my work, often liking my languages more than I myself did, and after various system upgrades and harddrive crashes resulted in barely legible files he even created his own version of the Caryatic file, which corrects some errors and gathers some materials that I had missed.  
* '''Eric Christopherson''' was aprobably the first conlanger ever to see the language. He received a letter (snail-mail, if I remember right) containing a number of my language files with a cover-letter describing them all. This seems to have been around fall 1998. He quickly became a big fan of my work, often liking my languages more than I myself did, and after various system upgrades and harddrive crashes resulted in barely legible files he even created his own version of the Caryatic file, which corrects some errors and gathers some materials that I had missed.  
* '''David Salo''' was another early fan and critic of the language, and, furthermore, enjoyed proposing material for it. He submitted two proposals for the writing system, and at least one map (these would have been ca. 2000—2002). None of these ever became official, though I had intended to use them as a basis for whatever did.
* '''David Salo''' was another early fan and critic of the language, and, furthermore, enjoyed proposing material for it. He submitted two proposals for the writing system, and at least one map (these would have been ca. 2000—2002). None of these ever became official, though I had intended to use them as a basis for whatever did.
* [[user:Nicomega|Nicomega]] probably first learned of the language in the mid 20-aughts, but never got to see all the materials. He was enjoying trying to piece things together from the fragments I gave him, and as of April 2014 was even working on a "Caryatic Report," writing up a description of the language, like some sort of scholar working from limited ancient evidence. He therefore is simultaneously excited and disappointed to see me posting a fullish description here.
* '''[[user:Nicomega|Nicomega]]''' probably first learned of the language in the mid 20-aughts, but never got to see all the materials. He was enjoying trying to piece things together from the fragments I gave him, and as of April 2014 was even working on a "Caryatic Report," writing up a description of the language, like some sort of scholar working from limited ancient evidence. He therefore is simultaneously excited and disappointed to see me posting a fullish description here.


=== Goals ===
=== Goals ===
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* I may have overdone the small case system.
* I may have overdone the small case system.
* The tense/aspect system is a bit confused.
* The tense/aspect system is a bit confused.
* A lot of the sound changes seem wildly implausible.
* A lot of the sound changes seem wildly implausible. The treatment of laryngeals is particularly unlikely.
* In particular, while "[[#Sigmatization|sigmatization]]" seemed like a cool idea at the time, it now strikes me as confusing and generally a pain.
* In particular, while "[[#Sigmatization|sigmatization]]" seemed like a cool idea at the time, it now strikes me as confusing and generally a pain.
* I was not very careful about the ordering of the soundlaws, resulting in many contradictions.
* I was not very careful about the ordering of the soundlaws, resulting in many contradictions.
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** ''Alfagīnakā'' (province)
** ''Alfagīnakā'' (province)
*** ''Bātavaiks'' (provincial capital)
*** ''Bātavaiks'' (provincial capital)
**** ''Dīvakunis''
** (Other Caryatic cities, whose province has not been specified)
** (Other Caryatic cities, whose province has not been specified)
*** ''Lākas'' (imperial capital)
*** ''Lākas'' (imperial capital)
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** ''Timuris''
** ''Timuris''
** ''Kāsapa'' (''Asis''?)
** ''Kāsapa'' (''Asis''?)
** ''Tanhās''
{{Multicol-end}}
{{Multicol-end}}


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The language presumably has other demonstratives, but they have yet to be described.
The language presumably has other demonstratives, but they have yet to be described.


=== Articles ===
=== Articles ===
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| ti<sup>n</sup>s
| ti<sup>n</sup>s
|}
|}
=== Postpositions ===
Caryatic has an extensive set of postpositions. Most of these are used with the oblique case, a few take a genitive. Due to the minimal declension system, postpositions are often called to serve in the place of the cases Caryatic lacks. Here is a selection:
* ''-ad'', "to, towards" (sometimes used in place of the dative)
* ''-anā'' (+ gen.), "regarding, about"
* ''-an'' "at"
* ''-a'' "in"
* ''-sa'' "with" (instrumental)
* ''-sānt'' "with" (equivalent to Latin "ablative of description")


===Verbs ===
===Verbs ===
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===Verb phrase===
===Verb phrase===
Verb phrases go in the following order
Verb phrases go in the following order
: ('''{indirect object}''' or '''{Prepositional Phrase}''') ('''{direct object}''' or '''{dependent clause}''') '''Verb'''
: ('''{indirect object}''' or '''{Postpositional Phrase}''') ('''{direct object}''' or '''{dependent clause}''') '''Verb'''


===Sentence phrase===
===Sentence phrase===
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There appears to be a particle ''-an'' for hypotheticals, but its usage is at present unclear.
There appears to be a particle ''-an'' for hypotheticals, but its usage is at present unclear.
When two main clauses occur in a row that should take the same sentence determiner, the first one may be replaced by ''-pā'', which effectively means "and," e.g. ''Kūs āsi-pā pātas sāhasi-ra?'' "Are you a fish, and do you have feet?"


===Dependent clauses===
===Dependent clauses===
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