Alon grammar from the top down
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syntax, mophology and something about conworld
This public article was written by [Deactivated User], and last updated on 12 Sep 2020, 00:44.
[comments] alongrammarmorphology
?FYI...
This article is a work in progress! Check back later in case any changes have occurred.
This article is a work in progress! Check back later in case any changes have occurred.
I have to admit that it seems a challenge for me to write a so long article, especially tutorial, with English. And I can't sit too long for some health issues recently. So actually I can't assure I can complete this article. Then, I may read articles everybody wrotes here for references to learn how to make a beautiful tutorial.
Going back to the topic,
Alon is a priori conlang, of which grammar is inspired by Japanese and part of Chinese, and thus could be characterized by:- agglutinative
- verb-final
- head-final
- relative clause head gapped
- pronoun dropping
- expressive onomatopoeias
- sometimes loooong but never verbose
Since it's in progress, there are still many uncertain things, like the numeral system, and numerous words to create.
In order to take examples smoothly, please allow me to use blue-colored temporary loanwords, which means they are still to be created or not considered existing in Alon.
Akamary is the conworld where Alon is the lingua franca and means world literally. Etymologically, root kam means cover, conceal. And ancient residents on Akamary considered sky as akam, a great cover, and the world is thus akamary, a huge stuff covered with sky.
Any clause in Alon must be made up of at least one verb as its predicate. The other parts of the clause is not required and function as modifiers of the predicate(s), whatever it's a subject or an adverbial phrase or so.
2.1 the main clause
The verb ends with a mood marker if and only if it is the last predicate of the main clause.
1.1.1 Vosyes asonos yanetona!In 1.1.2, kavos is a predicate equivalent to faroso but not the last one, so it must not end with any mood marker.
vosy-es
2Second person (person)
addressee (you)-GENGenitive (case)
possessive ason-os
will-NOMNominative (case)
TRANS subject, INTR argument yanet-ona
come.true-OPTOptative (mood)
'wish, hope'
May your will be done!
2.1.2 Kavosaryum kavose faroso.
kavosary-um
article-ACCAccusative (case)
TRANS direct object; patient kavos-e
write-THENUnknown code faros-o
burn-INDIndicative mood (mood)
a common form of realis
I write an article, then burn it.
In spoken language, the predicate can be omitted when its potential meaning is obvious or can be understood from the context.
2.1.3 Anedonum dolostanim.
anedon-um
loyalty-ACCAccusative (case)
TRANS direct object; patient dolostan-im
ruler-DATDative (case)
indirect object; recipient, beneficiary, location
I pledge my loyalty to the king.
2.2 the relative clause
Since it is relative clause head gapped, a verb without a mood mark denotes the adjective clause is ending.
2.2.1 Kavosor nagaryos yanaro.However, for the same reason, what argument the antecedent can be in relative clause is limitted. The accessibility reduces in following order:
kavos-o-r
write-VOLVolitional (role)
volition, with intention, not by accident-CONTContinuative (tense/aspect)
continuous or durational action nagary-os
climax-NOMNominative (case)
TRANS subject, INTR argument yanar-o
be.true-INDIndicative mood (mood)
a common form of realis
I'm writting.
Nominative > Accusative > Dative(excluding the meaning of comparative) > Locative > Instrumental(excluding the meaning of causal) > Genitive > Others
Notice, Others is inaccessible. So in this case, the way of speaking should be changed.
2.2.22.2.2 is a bad example, so the rain is changed into the subject of the relative clause in 2.2.3. Of course, we can improve the accessibility by some approaches, like attaching suffix -as/es/os in any cases listed above not only Others.Turetyos kamotor lisonos posa-posa netero.
turety-os
3Third person (person)
neither speaker nor addressee-NOMNominative (case)
TRANS subject, INTR argument kamot-o-r
stay (at home)-VOLVolitional (role)
volition, with intention, not by accident-CONTContinuative (tense/aspect)
continuous or durational action lison-os
rain-NOMNominative (case)
TRANS subject, INTR argument posa-posa
adverb for raining heavily net-e-r-o
AUXAuxilliary-CONTContinuative (tense/aspect)
continuous or durational action-PASSPassive voice (valency)
be verb-ed-INDIndicative mood (mood)
a common form of realis
2.2.3 Turetyum kamotas lisonos posa-posa netero.
turety-um
3Third person (person)
neither speaker nor addressee-ACCAccusative (case)
TRANS direct object; patient kamot-a-s
stay (at home)-NVOLNon-volitional (role)
non-volitional, by accident-CAUSCausative (valency/mood)
cause an action to occur, force another argument to act lison-os
rain-NOMNominative (case)
TRANS subject, INTR argument posa-posa
adverb for raining heavily net-e-r-o
AUXAuxilliary-CONTContinuative (tense/aspect)
continuous or durational action-PASSPassive voice (valency)
be verb-ed-INDIndicative mood (mood)
a common form of realis
The rain for which he stay at home is heavy.
2.3 the topic-comment structure
The topic is a noun phrase marked with suffix -(V)ng/(V)nk where (V) is to repeat the nearest vowel if it goes behind a consonant. And the topic often is put at the first position of the sentence.
2.3.1 Adonadang tanaryos aro.You can feel the nuance in this way.
Adon-ad-ang
house-LOCLocative (case)
'in, on, at' etc-TOPTopic (syntactic)
the topic (key reference point) of a sentence tanary-os
person-NOMNominative (case)
TRANS subject, INTR argument ar-o
be-INDIndicative mood (mood)
a common form of realis
There is someone in the house.
2.3.2 Tanaryos adonad aro.
tanary-os
person-NOMNominative (case)
TRANS subject, INTR argument adon-ad
house-LOCLocative (case)
'in, on, at' etc ar-o
be-INDIndicative mood (mood)
a common form of realis
The man is in a house./Someone is in the house.
The object of topic could be omitted or replaced with a pronoun behind.
In particular, if the topic is a nominative or accusative, the case marker can be omitted.
I'm glad to introduce this part of the work. Frankly, I'm very proud of it.
Basically, this part is inspired by and based on some studies on the nuance among pattern [A], pattern [Aq], pattern [Ari], pattern [An] of Japanese onomatopoeias and the nuance between pattern [ABAB], pattern [AABB] of Chinese onomatopoeias.
Before giving the morphological charts, I have to introduce several concepts.
3.1 root
there are 3 types of root in onomatopoeias.
- CVT
- CSCVT
- CS?CVT
T is the tail which can be a C or a NC, or nothing.
S is a vowel that I like to call Secondary Vowel. It can be changed into an another vowel in type 2 or be omitted in type 3 to convey specific meanings.
3.2 reduplication
The original form of a onomatopoeia is to discribe a sound/motion/feeling occurring only once or a momentary action showing a property, quality or manner of a object. In contrast, The reduplication form is to discribe a continuous sound/motion or to convey a property, quality or manner of a object.
num: to discribe sticking into or pulling a solid stuff seeming to melt or sticky liquid, like a plasticine, a heated cheeze and so on.We have to know 3 aspects of the scene we wan to depict before reduplicating.
num-num: to discribe the state of being melting seemlingly or being sticky.
To help you get the sense, I will take 4 roots godum, bada, pata, klang as examples.
- Frequency
level 1. The frequency of repeating is anomaly high.
>>> gdum-gdum: to discribe fast heartbeating or a scared/nervous/excited feeling.
level 2. The frequency of repeating is normal or the repeating occurs one after another.
>>> godum-godum: to discribe normal heartbeating or the envirionment silent as if you can hear your heartbeating.
>>> bada-bada: to discribe toppling or falling like dominoes.
level 3. Every repeating occurs at intervals.
>>> godulum-godulum: This word is not existing actually. But if you really want to discribe someone with this word, perhaps you should give him/her a first aid first.
- Rhythmicity/Uniformity Positive(+): The interval is uniform. Or what you discribe is distributed uniformly on a surface or in a space.
- Alternation Positive(+): The sound/motion/visual pattern/feeling has two phase which switch quickly.
>>> bada-bada: to discribe toppling or falling like dominoes.
Negative(-): The interval or distribution is not uniform. And it often implys negative emotions.
>>> bda-bada: to discribe toppling or falling in different directions or at different time. It can be used to discribe the street hit by hurricane.
>>> klaklong-klaklong: to discribe the sound of a train running on a rail.
Negative(-): Default one.
>>> klang-tlang: to discribe metal stuffs hitting each other in a closed container, like coins hitting each other in a shaked pocket.
3.3 free vibration
Free vibration is a nearly pefect explaination of the phisical meaning of the concept I want to convey. However, it sometimes implys an aesthetical meaning like echoes in mind.
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