Dama Diwan: Difference between revisions

It can take a week to learn all the '''Dama Diwan''' vocabulary, (I tried, it took me 5 days) but once you know it, you have a treasure: the International Auxiliary Language, minimal but all efficient, artistic and perfectly logical, flexible syntax and permanent vocabulary yet with unlimited possibilities for creating new terms. It is not based on any human language. All the vocabulary comes from the sky, hence the name Dama (or tama) "by the sky" and it is for the earth, hence it is Dewan / Diwan (or tiwan) "of the earth".  

It allows wonderful freedom of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head_(linguistics) word order] within the frame of the head-final syntax. Well worth to devote one week to memorize it.

suppose the modified word is a noun such as BASO (fish); then JASO BASO = "the teeth-fish" (implying an important role of teeth, so it is a shark, if the context agrees).

In JASA BASO the modifier is an adverb; an adverb modifying a noun works much like a derivative adjective, in this case "teethy", "teeth-like", or "teeth-using", a such kind of fish. A practical way to understand the meaning of an adverb is to use the word -"way" or the English suffixes -"wise", -"ly", -"like" or "with"-.

UNTIL 2016 MARCH 03, the suffix -an was used when the adverb is used as a PREposition or conjunction, or more generally to show that the adverb connects primarily to the FOLLOWING word and not to the previous.

AFTER 2016 MARCH 04, it has been decided to abolish the use of PREpositions except IN and use only POSTpositions, which, anyway, have always been preferred in Dama. So now the suffix -AN forms the genitive of nouns, and this solves the main problem of Dama, which was that the same form with the suffix -O could be used both for nominative and for genitive, with optional means to distinguish between them.

Although now there is no more the facility to use both prepositions and postpositions, still a prepositional syntax can be imitated with the help of the indeclinable preposition IN: the most normal way is to say, e.g. SURA SURA TARO IN RABO KUTA or SURA SURA TARO RABAN KUTA =the monkey is up the tree, but we can also say the same as SURA SURA TARO KUTA IN RABO. So, Dama acquired the distinction between nominative and genitive without losing essentially anything.

These are: the 3 pronouns (naro juno): a (you, second person), i (third person), o (I, first person); and

:the 3 logical particles (sime juno / sime kumo), used like prepositions except in the end of clause where they are used as predicates: an (become), in (indicating position), un (the negative particle).

:Informal Dama Diwan can express four "degrees" (mujo) which bear the native names : 1."jume", 2."i kiban", 3."kaso", 4."nanon".

*1."jume" (intensification), means that informal Dama can lengthen (double, triple, or even more) the first or only vowel of a word in order to express largeness, e.g. baako =a big body (bako), taaamo =the huge sky, muuko =a big volume, wiiiwo =huge water (ocean), and so on.

*2."i kiban", which, in theory, means that only the lengthened suffix (of disyllabic words only) is emphasized according to the lengthening of its vowel; in practice, this is asserting the grammatical function of the word on the cost of its stem; so e.g. if we say raboo, this means we assert it is a noun, an extant thing, because the extant thing in this case is very small and tends to be neglected, so raboo means a small tree (rabo), and likewise taroo= a small animal (taro), jutooo is a tiny piece of skin (juto). It works the same way with verbs and adverbs; so, if we say "jajee" it means that (s/he) gave money indeed, but it was so little money (jaj-). An example with an adverb is sunaaa "in the past", which is very very near past. So this function lessens, makes light, or even makes fun, of the stem meaning.

:Formal Dama uses no augmentative / diminutive devices unless adjectives as miwo (big) and sano (small).

*3."kaso", is the "vrddhi" function which is formed as "vrddhi" in Sanskrit; that is, an "a" is added immediately after the first consonant (before the stem vowel) of a disyllabic word, so e.g. "niwo" becomes "naiwo" and "wajo" becomes "wa'ajo".

Note that if an "a" is marked with another "a" in vrddhi function, there must be a separatiting mark (') after the first "a" (wa'aro, na'amo etc.), which is shown in pronunciation by a glottal stop or an "h" or a similar "light" laryngeal sound.

The usefulness of the vrddhi (a+vowel) word is primarily to express a color, e.g. tino =a blue gem, taino =blue; (some other common colors are wauko =yellow, i.e. of citrus fruit, taiko =green [of plants], saito =red [of blood], maimo [of fire] or saujo [of the sun] =golden color, jauso [of the moon] =silvery white).

If the original word cannot be used for its color, the vrddhi is used for its similarity, e.g. buso =a dog, bauso =an animal similar to a dog, e.g. the Tasmanian tiger; or for outer appearance, as in nuro =normal, nauro =something that seems to be normal, ordinary.

:Formal Dama does not use the vrddhi (augmented vowel) function; instead, it uses "buwo" for color, "ran-" for similarity, and "kawa" for outer appearance.

*4."nanon". This can apply only to the disyllabic words with i/e or u/o in their stem; then the stem vowel (other than "a") can take an "a" after it, thus the stem vowel becomes a semivowel (j / w, not different from i/e and u/o respectively, only that the stem vowel must be weaker or not stronger than the added "a"); thus, nimo → njamo / niamo, kiwo → kjawo / kiawo, tube → twabe / tuabe, nuwe → nwawe / nuawe, etc.

This expresses the negative or opposite of the stem; e.g. nimo =meat, niamo =meatless, kiwo =word, kiawo =without words, tube =give, twabe =not give, refuse, nuwe =to make unclear, nuawe =to clarify.

:Formal Dama uses instead the negative particle "un" and the stem bim- "to undo, reverse".

:So, informal Dama can form long vowels and diphthongs which are absent in formal Dama; moreover informal Dama is known for its possibility to omit a weak o/u, except in case of a possible confusion when a final o/u is preceded by a nasal (n/m).

Highly formal Dama Diwan can use a W (or unstressed o/u) before the i of a stem and a J (or unstressed e/i) before the u of a stem in order to express the abstract aspect of a word.

By the oriental style disyllabic words use open vowels in the first syllable and closed vowels in the suffix; by the western style, closed vowels are used in the stem and open ones in the suffixes of disyllabic words. E.g. “space, room” is “biro” (western style) or “beru” (oriental style). None of these is objectively better than the other, although the western style has prevailed in actual usage until now.