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Overview
This private article was written by [Deactivated User], and last updated on 8 Sep 2019, 03:11.
[comments] unogrammarverbnounadjectivephonologymorphologyorthographysyntaxhistory
This article gives an overview of
Proto-Unicon and is recommended for reading before Lessons, because they presume you know these basics.I'm not a professional linguist, so I use a bit different terminology in some cases, that could be confusing for professionals but I hope it would be more clear for adventurers like me.
Comments and suggestions are welcome!
P.S. Please use PM to report typos.
Universal Constructed Language first appeared as a multi-directional conscript on top of Russian speed writing grammar with some awful encryption about 15 years before it was published at CWS. It took a while to understand that compression and encryption are not parts of a language, because they require constant upgrades that break back compatibility. On the other hand quick transfer, recognition and processing speed of information between writer or speaker and recipient really are!
Modern
Proto-Unicon was designed as a golden mean of Toki Pona, Ithkuil and Ârahau - it provides much freedom using a small set of consistent rules that are easy to learn. I took in account natural Asian languages - Chineese, Japanese, Korean, Turkish, Sanscrit; Romanic languages - English, Spanish, French, German; some American, east Russian and Australian natives' languages; Conlangs - Esperanto, Ido, Hymmnos, Volapük, Loglan, Lincos, some CWS influence took place of cause; borrowed something from Tengwar and Inuktitut scripts, plus some structural ideas of Quipu system; I also explored some modern computer programming languages, network protocols, compression formats and encryption methods, because computer interactions have been built of best human practices.The Conscript was designed mostly for travallers - to make notes on the go. Each letter should be written in a single move and it can't be mixed with another one. Ideally, all notes should be readable even if you make them while riding a horse! After some research I came to a conclusion that vertical "Mongolian writing style" with boustrophedon is more advanced to "European" from this point of view. Someone may say it's inconvenient and makes issues for math, but in fact it doesn't! It's just a question of composition and a matter of habit. Computers also have very weak support for vertical languages but that's just a question of demand. Left-handed people should feel it like Chinese right-handed - not perfect but acceptable.
Proto-Unicon mostly uses vertical boustrophedon conscript, where text starts from upper left corner and goes down&up snake-like while columns go from left to right. You can also write some horizontal text in "European style" but without boustrophedon. The horizontal version of conscript should be used for titles and some short notes,- like...
- bullet...
- lists.
∮ormulas should be written horizontally using regular math signs and Latin letters. Paragraphs should first go above formula or image and then below it.
It is recommended to use notepad with wide lines. Keep notepad vertically and flip pages upward. Web pages with Unicon texts should be scrolled horizontally rather than vertically.
Let's break down a "Lorem Ipsum" example paragraph by paragraph (check the image):
- Upper page starts with horizontal title;
- We start with a regular vertical block that goes down through the whole page;
- Next we may want to have a formula in the middle of the page... why not;
- So we start next paragraph above the formula...
- ...and continue below
- Behind the right border of the formula we can continue "normally";
- On the second page you can see how "Lorem Ipsum" fits a wide line of a regular notepad.
You may wonder why Syntax chapter appeared before alphabet or morphology... It's not a mistake, that's because I believe that (natural) languages are being grouped in families by syntax, while dialects differ by the rest stuff. Well, at least Unicon works this way! The dictionary and alphabet at
Proto-Unicon page are for the reference only and could be overwritten in its dialects. Each sentence is a so-called Tuple, that consists of Heads (nouns, pronouns, names, etc), Actions(verbs) and their Properties(adjectives, adverbs, etc), each of which is directly marked with a single vowel affix, called Markers. Each Head may lead a clearly marked Sub-Tuple.
There are 6 types of Head Markers:
| Romanized -affix | Sound | Name | Meaning with Noun | Meaning with Verb |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| -a | [a] | Subject | who? | did what? |
| -u | [u] | Object | whom? | affected by who? |
| -o | [o] | Method | (using) what? | did how? |
| -ы | [ɨ] | Temporal | what time? | did when? |
| -i | [i] | Locational | where at? | did where? |
| -э | [ɛ] | Auxiliary | - | - |
Here is a simple example that illustrates what Head Marker is and how to use all 5 major Tuple Types:
Unicon loves freedom and thanks to Markers it has a free word order with just a few limitations related to Properties and Complex Tuples! The rule of thumb is - put the most important words first and the least significant words at the end.
For example, in English phrase "I've got a dog!" you are not sure, why there is an exclamation sign at the end - maybe because "I've seen dogs before and now I have one", or because "I had cats and now there is a dog"... The direct translation of this phrase to Unicon with same word order means "everyone had one and now I've got it too". In fact, this could be a sad fact, that is simply not reflected in English version... but Unicon takes care of emotions too! Instead of confusing exclamation sign at the end of sentence, Unicon requires an Emoji at the beginning, so reader knows in advance how to read it. Nothing indicates the end of the sentence (i.e. Tuple). The conscript Font contains Emoji, but generally you are free to use any custom smiles:
😐 .
🤔 ?
😒 ...
😞😟😈😠🙂😃😄 !
Did you find some on the image from previous chapter?
Action has six Tenses:
| PT.PERF | PT.CONT | PRS.INDF | PRS.CONT | FT.PERF | FT.CONT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| L | (2xHeadMarker)L | (2xHeadMarker)M | M | Н | (2xHeadMarker)Н |
To mark a Property you just add 'й' /j/ right after the Marker. When adding a property to the Action (i.e. adverb), you have to repeat Tense as well.
So now we can rewrite our example:
From free word order perspective, Markers require additional letter for each word, that increases the size of text (12 additional letters for example above), but I've found that using crazy grammatical case affixes is even worse in complex sentences... plus conscript has some tricks too. Semantics become more predictable and suitable for analysis and automatic parsing, that is really cool for AI projects and automatic translations!
So, simple sentence is a Tuple without a Head where Action (a Verb) is Linked to the Subject (Noun), so they both have the same Head Marker:
Each of five major Heads may also lead a Sub-Tuple that clarifies what happens to it or describes it in a few words. It's kind of expanded Property. In such case, Sub-Elements get additional Tuple Marker, that is same as Marker of its Head:
So, here Subject (I) is_walking again, but this time we specify that Subject.A was_surprized. The Sub-Tuple consists of only one Action.ULA. The last A tells us that it is a Sub-Tuple that is Linked to the Head that is marked with same Marker (I.A in this case). The U Link works in opposite way - it tells what's the new role of Head in this Sub-Tuple. In this particular case it says that I.A now plays the role of Object I.U in Sub-Tuple.
As a result, Unicon's version of this phrase is much shorter than English:
You don't need to write "I was" again, because it is linked; the word "while" is not need, because sub-tuple is clearly marked; and past tense "-ed" is reflected as a single letter tense affix "-L/M/Н".
Sub-Tuples don't work as conjunction, in such case you should use the dedicated subordinating, coordinating and correlative conjunction words Marked as "Auxiliary" with " -э " /ɛ/ affix.
Each Tuple in conjoining construction stay independently and don't use Sub-Tuple affixes and Links:
You can change word order withing each tuple but you can't mix tuples - this is the first limitation of word order that I mentioned above, and we will discuss second limitation in the next chapter.
Please note, that you still can mix Sub-Tuple words with main Tuple that it belongs to as you like. That shall unlock much freedom for rhyme and poetry!
Good news everyone - There is no punctuation in Unicon, except emoji at the beginning of sentence!
If you need to make a list of something - you just tell one item after another. Since each word is clearly marked, there is no confusion and you can separate items and put them wherever you like within a tuple.
Now, here is a second limitation of word order, as I promised: the above statement works only for Heads and Actions. Single or listed Properties should always be on the right side of Head or Action that they describe. If that Head or Action is also in the list, try to put some word between them to make it obvious where property belongs to. The Possessive Properties are on the left side and ownership should be read from right to left, just like in English "My <- Father's <- Money":
😞My.AЙ Father's.AЙ Money.A depreciated.AM Mother's.AЙ shares.A ( , / and ) account.A credit.AЙ...
So in this example we state that money, shares and credit account are all deprecated - they are all listed Subjects with -a affix. Here we separated money and shares with Action because otherwise "mother" can be perceived as a property of "money" rather than owner of "shares". We also swapped "credit account" because credit is a property of account, not an owner.
Everything below this chapter is not related to Unicon Language Family itself and should be implemented in Dialects. In fact, we've just invented one by using English words with Unicon Syntax above!
Unicon comes with a good example of Morphology, Dictionary and Alphabet that can be expanded and improved in dialects. So let's see what it offers.
As you may have already noticed, we covered whole syntax without a word about Parts Of Speech...
Well, good news everyone -
Proto-Unicon doesn't use them at all!There are three Members of Sentence instead - Heads, Actions and Properties that can be derived from same roots by adding special Markers. They tell the role of a word in a sentence, and silently incorporate parts of speech in semantic meaning.
In addition, all words share same Tail Affixes, except Actions have a few extras. Tail affixes make word more specific and clarify speaker's opinion about each word.
So Unicon is highly agglutinative and you can grow whatever you need from relatively small amount of roots.
Here is the basic word structure:
The colored affixes are mandatory and the rest are optional, including Root. The Tense only applies to Action and its Properties. Mood applies only for Action.
There are three Polarities:
| Romanized -affix | Sound | Meaning | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| -ц | /t͡s/ | Yes | Agree or just tells that something works as it should, like we say "car-car" for the good car. |
| -r | /r/ | Anti | Reflects an opposite meaning, like Ghostbusters is opposite of Ghost |
| -b | /b/ | Abessive case | It's similar to English "Not" and "No" in meaning of absence. |
There are three Numbers:
| Romanized -affix | Sound | Meaning | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| -k | /k/ | Singular | i.e. a dog, a pen... |
| -z | /z/ | Additive Plural | A set or a bunch, like "boot.Z" means a pair of boots |
| -v | /v/ | Innumerable | Many, a lot, like Tribbles. |
Here is a Grammar Table for both.
Polarity, Number and Auxiliary Tuple Marker -э (a placeholder) are optional but you may want to add one just to make the word more pronounceable. Generally, there is no need to repeat, for example, Number every time, if it's known from previous context.
There are six Moods:
| Romanized -affix | Sound | Mood | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| default | - | Indicative | You sure what you say. Can be used for Declarative mood as well |
| -ш | /ʂ/ | Inferential | A nonwitnessed event without confirming it, or some well known fact... |
| -f | /f/ | Hypothetical | Whatever you not sure about, could/would be, if... |
| -h | /h/ | Obligatory | Have to, should, must... |
| -t | /t/ | Imperative | You can turn it into Perative mood just by adding "Please" and 🤔 Emoji |
| -s | /s/ | Propositive | Suggestion. Also used as Jussive mood. Propositive mood is when you suggest to "us". |
There are lots of tricks to make all kinds of moods from these six... you can learn them in Lessons, after finishing this article.
The "Tail" consists of four optional parts, but if you planning to have more than one, they must go in this order:
1. Location&Movement
2. Comparison
3. Description
4. Participation (used only by Actions)
Location&Movement affix is build up of two letters Consonant+Vowel:
| Romanized -affix | Sound | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| -v | /v/ | Front |
| -f | /f/ | Back |
| -b | /b/ | Top |
| -p | /p/ | Bottom |
| -d | /d/ | Right |
| -t | /t/ | Left |
| -z | /z/ | Inside |
| -s | /s/ | Outside |
| Romanized -affix | Sound | Meaning |
| -ѹ | /u/ (or /o/) | To |
| -æ | /a/ (or /ɛ/) | On/At |
| -ӹ | /i/ (or /ɨ/) | From/Away/out |
| -Ӕӹ | /ai/ (or /aɨ/,/ɛi/,/ɛɨ/) | Through |
| -Ѹӹ | /ui/ (or /uɨ/,/oi/,/oɨ/) | Over |
So, for example, affix "-bæ" means "on top of", and "-zѹ" means "into"...
Note, you can't leave only one letter or two Consonants or two Vowels, so for example, if you want to say "outside", it's not just "-s", you have to say "outside+at" "-sæ".
If you want to say "at some location", no matter whether it's "on" or "in" - simply use Locational Head Marker -i .
There are six Comparison affixes:
| Romanized -affix | Sound | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| -ж | /ʐ/ | AUG.SUP : the biggest |
| -g | /g/ | AUG : big |
| -k | /k/ | AUG.COMP : bigger |
| -ш | /ʂ/ | DIM.SUP : the smallest |
| -г | /ɦ/ | DIM : small |
| -h | /h/ | DIM.COMP : smaller |
Description affix specifies a subjective opinion of the speaker about the word. This affix may use up to four letters. They all start with -r /r/. The structure of this affix is relatively complicated, but that dramatically reduces demand in Roots with close meanings:
So there are three groups of affixes here: first group expresses some generic meaning, we will skip opinion for now, and last group has topics with sub-items. Let's see what meaning we can get out of this set (the Opinion is replaced with underscore _ ):
| Romanized -affix | Sound | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| -r_ | /r/_ | Placeholder to express only opinion |
| -rf_ | /rf/_ | Exchange |
| -rt_ | /rt/_ | Logic |
| -rk_ | /rk/_ | Science |
| -rs_ | /rs/_ | Ideological affilation |
| -rш_ | /rʂ/_ | State of process |
| -rp_ | /rp/ | Mechanics |
| -r_k | /r/_/k/ | Scientist |
| -r_ks | /r/_/ks/ | Teacher/Master |
| -r_kш | /r/_/kʂ/ | Boss/Lead |
| -r_kt | /r/_/kt/ | Student |
| -r_kf | /r/_/kf/ | Participant/Support |
| -r_t | /r/_/t/ | Construction |
| -r_ts | /r/_/ts/ | Portion/Amount of/Part |
| -r_tш | /r/_/tʂ/ | Tool |
| -r_tf | /r/_/tf/ | Container |
| -r_f | /r/_/f/ | Provider |
| -r_fs | /r/_/fs/ | Storage |
| -r_fш | /r/_/fʂ/ | Transfer |
| -r_ft | /r/_/ft/ | Receiver |
| -r_p | /r/_/p/ | Mechanism |
| -r_ps | /r/_/ps/ | One of the group |
| -r_pш | /r/_/pʂ/ | Craft |
| -r_pt | /r/_/pt/ | Setting |
| -r_pk | /r/_/pk/ | Professional/Artisan |
Both Comparison and Description are accompanied with Opinion:
| Romanized -affix | Sound | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| -ѹ | /u/ (or /o/) | Good, nice, cute... Japanese ニャ or Kawaii |
| -æ | /a/ (or /ɛ/) | Neutral placeholder for better pronunciation |
| -ӹ | /i/ (or /ɨ/) | Bad, ugly, unwanted... |
Put -r before Opinion if you don't need to specify Comparison or Description.
Participation affix is used only with Actions - it reflects how Subject and Object participate in it.
This affix has up to three letters.
First one:
| Romanized -affix | Sound | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| -ц_ | /t͡s/_ | Subject |
| -ч_ | /t͡ɕ/_ | Object |
and the rest three:
| Romanized -affix | Sound | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| -_ѹ | _/u/ (or _/o/) | Easy |
| -_æ | _/a/ (or _/ɛ/) | Accidentally |
| -_ӹ | _/i/ (or _/ɨ/) | Not aware |
| -_ѹr | _/ur/ (or _/or/) | Actively resists |
| -_ær | _/ar/ (or _/ɛr/) | Passively resists |
| -_ӹr | _/ir/ (or _/ɨr/) | Can't resist |
| -_ѹp | _/up/ (or _/op/) | Actively supports |
| -_æp | _/ap/ (or _/ɛp/) | Passively supports |
| -_ӹp | _/ip/ (or _/ɨp/) | For their own good |
For example, "beetle bites an elephant but elephant doesn't notice that" can be expressed as short as "beetle bites.чӹ elephant".
Dictionary is something that should really be overwritten in Dialects. The Unicon's Dictionary exists purely for demonstration purpose and grammar test. On the other hand it shows some technics that may have wider usage in Dialects.
Unicon is very friendly for loan words - this is a core feature of the language family, because at some point any language sucks-in loan words in a form of barbarism or adapts them. And a second choice is obviously better!
This also makes it easy to learn it, because you can simply put Unicon rules on top of your Native Language roots/words... That's exactly how early versions functioned 15 years ago.
Not all humans are professional composers and opera singers, but obviously we need as many letters, as human is able to pronounce and hear clearly to produce the shortest words.
The composition also matters - for example if you have 3 vowels and 10 consonants, you can produce 300 CVC and 90 VCV words... adding another vowel will give 400/160 words, while adding another consonant instead - only 363/99.
We also want to utilize them in the most efficient way, because even if you have short roots, extra affixes may ruin the whole idea.
Finally, Webster & Oxford Dictionaries have about 470,000 words, world’s largest electronic reference dictionary of Russian by V. N. Trishin, containing 565,000 words and phrases - that should somehow be reflected in a modern human language...
...With all that in mind, Unicon offers 6 Vowels and 20 Consonants plus 4 more Consonants reserved for loan words and artistic needs. In fact, Unicon allows adding extras as needed, so those 4 are just an example. Additionally sound /j/ is available but it appears as Diacritic Symbol. There are also diacritics for double vowel and tone change.
...So there are 27 major sounds
Unicon also uses so-called Iotated or Free Variant Vowels that are never stressed, while six Major Vowels /u/, /o/, /a/, /ɛ/, /ɨ/, /i/ are always stressed. Five free Variant vowels sound exactly like Major Vowels! The difference is that you have a choice between two nearby sounds:
/u/ or /o/
/o/ or /a/
/a/ or /ɛ/
/ɛ/ or /ɨ/
/ɨ/ or /i/
The idea here is that in most natural languages we clearly pronounce only stressed vowel and "swallow" others... when you say "water" you can pronounce /wôtər/ or /wôtɛr/ or /wôtar/ or even /wôtr/ and everyone shall understand what you talking about because there is no word "watar" or "watr" in English that could be confused with "water". On the other hand when you hear /wôtar/ you may not write the unstressed vowel correctly, because you don't really recognize it and in different regions people may used to pronounce it differently.
Free Variant Vowels in Unicon make spelling and writing of unstressed vowels predictable and give some freedom for regional subdialects!
50 Diphthongs are also available but don't worry, they are blocks of regular vowels, designed similarly to Hangul syllabic blocks.
Consonants are being split in three groups (extras are highlighted):
1. /m/, /L/, /n/ and /ŋ/;
2. /ð/, /v/, /b/, /d/, /z/, /t͡s/, /ʐ/, /r/, /g/, /k/
3. /θ/, /f/, /p/, /t/, /s/, /t͡ɕ/, /ʂ/, /ǀ/, /ɦ/, /h/
Groups reflect some major ideas of Morphology. Dialects may regroup them as needed.
Same statement goes to conscript characters - they should also reflect the Grammar somehow.
Regarding graphical representation - remember, there are three writing directions right, down and up, that with diacritics and Emoji produce about 130 font characters but that shouldn't be a problem for learning, since they are consistent with the writing system.
Proto-Unicon conscript helps to identify writing direction by Consonants "Tails". Here is how it works (colors are same as groups above, here orange reflects 1st group of Consonants and Vovels)
Note: Consonants /m/, /L/, /n/ and /ŋ/, all Vowels, including Iotated, Diacritics and Diphthongs look the same for both vertical directions.
Note: two characters represent Each vowel - upper and lower ("superior" and "inferior" from superscript standpoint) to be used in Diphthong blocks.
Note: To get a Romanized version of a letter - simply copy it from the table below to any text field or notepad.
Note: Vertical version of this Font is monospace (all characters have same width), while Horizontal characters have variable width. Unfortunately CWS supports only one font file per conlang, and that means I had to fit both versions into one file, that has constant height for all characters... and this leads to bigger vertical characters. Please lower the size of your text manually or use a dedicated vertical font.
Alternatively, there is a way to rotate text line using HTML/CSS to render a vertical line that is written horizontally, but not all text editors support this trick... So, I guess, the best way to render vertical text identically in any text editor for now - is simply by typing columns using monospace font.
1. Horizontal left-to-right characters
| /u/ | /o/ | /a/ | /ɛ/ | /ɨ/ | /i/ | Tone | Upper /j/ | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Uu | Oo | Aa | Ээ | Ыы | Ii | oі | ЍOo | ||
| /u/ or /o/ | /o/ or /a/ | /a/ or /ɛ/ | /ɛ/ or /ɨ/ | /ɨ/ or /i/ | Double | Mid /j/ | |||
| Ѹѹ | Ҩҩ | Ӕæ | Ѥѥ | Ӹӹ | oї | OЙo | |||
| /m/ | /L/ | /n/ | /ŋ/ | All | lower /j/ | ||||
| m | l | н | n | ЍOЙoйїійі | oй | ||||
| /ð/ | /v/ | /b/ | /d/ | /z/ | /t͡s/ | /ʐ/ | /r/ | /g/ | /k/ |
| ð | v | b | d | z | ц | ж | r | g | k |
| /θ/ | /f/ | /p/ | /t/ | /s/ | /t͡ɕ/ | /ʂ/ | /ǀ/ | /ɦ/ | /h/ |
| θ | f | p | t | s | ч | ш | q | г | h |
2. Vertical up-down boustrophedon
| /u/ | /o/ | /a/ | /ɛ/ | /ɨ/ | /i/ | Tone | Upper /j/ | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ǖǔ | Ǒǒ | Ǡǡ | Ǯǯ | Ȣȣ | Ǐǐ | ǒȊ | ɉǑǒ | ||
| /u/ or /o/ | /o/ or /a/ | /a/ or /ɛ/ | /ɛ/ or /ɨ/ | /ɨ/ or /i/ | Double | Mid /j/ | |||
| ʘʚ | Ȁȁ | Ǽǽ | ȸȹ | Ǿǿ | ǒȉ | Ǒɨǒ | |||
| /m/ | /L/ | /n/ | /ŋ/ | All | Lower /j/ | ||||
| M | L | Н | N | ɉǑɨǒɫȉȊ | Ǒǒɫ | ||||
| /ð/ | /v/ | /b/ | /d/ | /z/ | /t͡s/ | /ʐ/ | /r/ | /g/ | /k/ |
| ƕ | V | B | D | Z | C | G | R | X | K |
| /θ/ | /f/ | /p/ | /t/ | /s/ | /t͡ɕ/ | /ʂ/ | /ǀ/ | /ɦ/ | /h/ |
| Ɣ | F | P | T | S | J | W | Q | Y | H |
3. Vertical down-up boustrophedon
| /u/ | /o/ | /a/ | /ɛ/ | /ɨ/ | /i/ | Tone | Upper /j/ | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ǖǔ | Ǒǒ | Ǡǡ | Ǯǯ | Ȣȣ | Ǐǐ | ǒȊ | ɉǑǒ | ||
| /u/ or /o/ | /o/ or /a/ | /a/ or /ɛ/ | /ɛ/ or /ɨ/ | /ɨ/ or /i/ | Double | Mid /j/ | |||
| ʘʚ | Ȁȁ | Ǽǽ | ȸȹ | Ǿǿ | ǒȉ | Ǒɨǒ | |||
| /m/ | /L/ | /n/ | /ŋ/ | All | Lower /j/ | ||||
| M | L | Н | N | ɉǑɨǒɫȉȊ | Ǒǒɫ | ||||
| /ð/ | /v/ | /b/ | /d/ | /z/ | /t͡s/ | /ʐ/ | /r/ | /g/ | /k/ |
| Љ | В | Б | Д | З | Ц | Ж | Р | Г | К |
| /θ/ | /f/ | /p/ | /t/ | /s/ | /t͡ɕ/ | /ʂ/ | /ǀ/ | /ɦ/ | /h/ |
| Њ | Ф | П | Т | С | Ч | Ш | Ъ | Щ | Х |
Diphthong superscript blocks is an optional feature that combines two sounds to keep writing short. You read upper symbol first and then lower symbol. When assembling a Diphthong of Free Variant and Major Vowel, the Major one sounds stronger. When two Free Variants combined - it's up to you, which one is stronger. When you need two Majors - first one wins.
Diphthongs and Gemination diacritic do not change the original sound, they should be pronounced like Finnish word "maali" (means paint).
Stress always falls on the first Major Vowel in word which must never appear in any Roots, including loan words - you must use Free Variant instead. This makes it simple to understand where the root is and where additional affixes are. Also, according to Morphology, first Major Vowel is always a Head Marker, so listener can easily recognize the role of each word, because it is stressed and clearly pronounced.
Gemination diacritic #ї (that i reflect in IPA transcription as /::/) with Major Vowels appears only in Actions to reflect Past Continuous, Present Indefinite and Future Continuous.
With Free Variants and Consonants it may only appear in Roots.
It is recommended to group Free Variants separately from Major Vowels when more than two in a line.
Tone diacritic #і changes tone of the word (it is recommended but not limited to change it simply upper or lower depending on Emoji). This character follows first Major Vowel or Gemination and mostly appears in sentences to highlight the Answer to the question and to specify the reason of exclamation:
😒I like reіd color
😄That's myі favorite color 😐pick another one
Please note, Emoji appears at the beginning, and there is no other sign at the end, like question, answer, exclamation mark or any other symbol for any type of sentence, so tone is important. It is also allowed to set tone in regular sentences for artistic purpose too.
Good news, everyone - you've just learned all the basics of
Proto-Unicon .Now you can print this small half-page image with all major features of the language and continue with Lessons, that will detail most important techniques:
Now you are ready for the Lessons... Unfortunately, not all Lessons are ready for you.
- Lesson #1 Conscript
- Lesson #2 is in progress...
✎ Edit Article ✖ Delete Article
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