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Language

Verb System Quick Update

This is a new page describing the updated verb system for Diinlang. See here for changes to pronouns and definite article.
The most recent change is that I have changed the past tense marker to “wen”, taken from Hawaiian Creole. This frees up the word “pre” for other uses, such as meaning “before”. The future marker, “gon” was also from Hawaiian Creole. The progressive affix has recently been changed to “is-” and the perfect marker to “dun-”. “ge-” makes a clause passive.
These markers are used in a set order:
Wen/gon ; (zou) ; dun ; is– ; ge
If you know a statement will be past continuous you will know to place “wen” before “is”. If a statement is future passive progressive “gon”, “is”, “ge” is the correct order. A past perfect statement uses “wen dun”. A conditional perfect statement uses “zou dun”.
is-” and “ge-” are used as prefixes when creating active and passive adjectives. It needs to be decided if this is also done with verbal usage. For passive progressive marking they may be combined into one word “isge”.
I have made a little progress towards modal verbs/markers. In addition to the conditional “zou” we possibly have:
Fi –indicating obligation, ie “should”, “ought to”.
Afi -indicating necessity.
Gofi -indicating inceptive, intent, planned actions etc.
(Adapted from Jamaican Patois)

Simple Present, Past and Future

These are formed with the bare infinitive and a tense marker if necessary. When a verb in future or past tense is being used as a copula the infinitive may be dropped if the meaning remains clear.

Mi du
I do
Zo du
He does
Zo wen du
He did
Zo gon du
He will do/He is going to do.
Za zou du
She would do

Transitive and Intransitive Verbs

Transitivity is flexible. If an object is added after an intransitive verb, the verb becomes transitive. This may alter the meaning of the verb so that it has a meaning similar to “causes (the object) to …”
Compare the English “I burn”. with “I burn it.”

Progressive/Continuous Aspect

The progressive/continuous aspect is formed using the “is-” prefix. In English this verb aspect is accompanied by some form of the auxiliary/copular verb “to be”. In Diinlang the addition of the auxiliary is not necessary.
Mi isdu
I am doing
Zo isdu
He is doing
Zo wen isdu
He was doing
Zo gon isdu
He will be doing/He is going to be doing.
Za zou isdu
She would be doing

Perfect Aspect

The perfect aspect is formed using “dun”. In English this verb aspect is accompanied by some form of the auxiliary verb “to have”. In Diinlang the addition of the auxiliary is not necessary. Perfect aspect in regular English verbs takes an –ed ending. Many irregular verbs take –en as an ending (eaten, riden, beaten etc).

Mi dun du
I have done
Zo dun du
He has done
Zo wen dun du
He had done
Zo gon dun du 
He will have done/He going to have done.
Za zou dun du
She would have done

Perfect Progressive

The perfect and progressive (continuous) aspects can be combined, usually in referring to the completed portion of a continuing action or temporary state: “I have been doing…” In Diinlang this is formed by combination of “dun before a continuous form of the main verb.

Mi dun isdu
I have been doing
Zo dun isdu
He has been doing
Zo wen dun isdu
He had been doing
Zo gon dun isdu
He will have been doing/He going to have been doing
Za zou dun isdu
She would have been doing.

Passive Voice

To form the passive voice (where the subject denotes the undergoer, or patient, of the action) the prefix “ge-” is used. In English passive voice is formed either with the verb “to be” or “to get” and a past-participle verb form. “get” is used in the meaning of “becoming” or “becomes”. (Remember perfect tense uses “have” with the past participle form in English) If “to be” can be replaced with “to get” or “to become” without a loss of meaning the sentence is passive voice and requires the “ge-” prefix in Diinlang. Some perfect construction clauses are inherently passive. “It ge du” and “It dun du” have the same meaning.
In many languages the passive voice is formed by a combination of the perfect form of the verb used with the verb for “to be”. This construction may also be used in Diinlang. Often in Diinlang there will be more than one correct way to do something!
Tense
Subject
Tense and Aspect
Past-Participle/Infinitive
Present passive
It
It
is/gets/becomes
ge-
done
du
Past passive
It
It
were/got/became
wen ge-
done
du
Future passive
It
It
will be/get/become
gon ge-
done
du
Present perfect passive
It
It
has been/has got/has become
dun ge-
done
du
Past perfect passive
It
It
had been/had got/had became
wen dun ge-
done
du
Future perfect passive
It
It
will have been/will have got/will have became
gon dun ge-
done
du.
Present progressive passive
It
It
is being/is getting/is becoming
isge-
done
du
Past progressive passive
It
It
was being/was getting/was becoming
wen isge-
done
du
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Language

Prepositions and Directions for Diinlang Part Two

Some further thoughts on directives and the related field of prepositions. I find it helpful to envision a cube. There are six directions that we can be from the cube: Above, below, left, right, beyond and before. We can also be outside the cube or inside it. The cube has six surfaces, although these surfaces may have an outside or inside.
Suppose, for Diinlang, we designate each of these eight parameters with a single syllable word. These are:
Up/Loh
Lev/Deks
Van/Hin
In/Eks
These are, respectively, up/down, left/right, front/back, in/out. Some of these may change, since eks and deks are similar in sound.
Up refers to height and positive vertical distance in general. It can take the diminutives and augmentative suffixes to become “upta” and “upko”, meaning “high/very high” or “not-high”. “Lohko” would mean shallow and “lohta” would mean “deep”.
These words can also take –ha and –ho to create comparative and superlative forms: loh, lohha, lohho = low, lower, lowest.
The above terms assume egocentric relative directions are being used. In other words it treats the side of an object nearest to the viewer as the front, the farthest as the back etc. When it is necessary to indicate the “proper left” or an equivalent the objective marker “-em” can be added. The starboard side of a ship is therefore “deksem”. Something in front of a bird would be “vanem”. It may be simpler and clearer to instead suffix with pronouns so proper left is “zelev”. This also gives us “tulev” = “your left” and “milev” =“my left”.  
The suffix “-ru indicates a static place or surface. Therefore the top of an object is upru, the left side/surface is levru, the underside lohru etc.
When dimensions need to be expressed the syllable “leng” is added. In English the question “how high is the plane” can be ambivalent. It may mean the distance from bottom to top or its distance above the ground. In Diinlang the first would be “ke upleng?” and the second “ke up?” or “ke upta?”. “Uplengta” means “tall” and “uplengko” means “short”. “Width” is “spanleng”, with “spanglengta” being thick or wide and “spanlengko” being narrow or thin. Horizontal depth or thickness is “traleng” from the word “tra” for “through”. A thin wall would be “tralengko”.
Another suffix is used to indicate movement in one of these directions. In a previous blog I suggested “-ki” for this. “upki” is therefore “upwards”, “inki” is inwards and “levski” leftwards. It would be useful to have an afferent and efferent form of “ki”. This could compactly convey such actions as something rising towards a point of reference or something rising away. “-ka” and “-ke” cannot be uses since “ke” is already in use. Possibly “-aki” and “-eki”?
“-pas”, derived from “pass” can be used to form additional turns. “Uppas” would mean to go over so has the meaning “across”. “inpas” and “ekspas” would mean “entrance” and  “exit”.
These directives would work with some prepositions. In previous posts I have called “del” a generic conjunction. In practice its use may be more specific, having the meaning “of”, “from” (to indicate origin) and possibly “for”. It will see frequent use with directive phrases. “Vanen del ze aves” = “In front of the bird/to the bird’s front”. “Up del ship” =”above the ship”.
On” is used similarly to how it is used in English, but has the added sense of being in contact with something. Something can be on surfaces other than the top. Something could be up on” or on up(ru)” but also could be on van” or on lev”. “On” also has some of the applications of the English word “at”. You can say you will meet “on a bridge” but also “on the café”. This can be thought of as being “on the same location as…”
Ad” in Diinlang means “to” and “apo” is “from”. These are from ISV and may be used instead of or in addition to afferent and efferent forms of “-ki”. “Upki ad mi”= “asending to me”. “Upki apo mi” = “rising up away from me”. These words can be used with some of the other suffixes suggested in this blog. “Adki”= “towards”, “apoki” = “from-wards”, in ad” = into”. eks ad” = out to”, eks apo”=out from”.
Veng” means “near” and is used in many of the instances that “at”, “by”, “on” or “in” might be used in English. The use of these prepositions in English is eccentric and can be confusing to the learner. Diinlang generally uses “veng” for indicating near or outside a location or “in” for a location within something.
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Language

"Too" in Diinlang

Version 1.1
The English word “too” is one that seems to confuse many writers on the internet.
It has two common and distinct meanings:
  1. It can been “as well”, “in addition”, “besides”, “as well” “along with”, “likewise” or “also”. Effectively it is a synonym for “also”.
  2. It can also mean “to an excessive degree”, “more than enough”, “excessively”, “extremely” etc.
We cannot use the word “too” in Diinlang since it is a homophone with “tu”. Its two distinct meanings would also require it to be replaced by two words.
For the first meaning the TV conlang Trigedasleng uses the word seintaim” from “same-time”. In Diinlang phonetics this would be “saymtiym”. It is a bit long, and does not cover all of the nuances of “also”, for example in the sentence above “it can also mean…”. Perhaps just the word “saym” will serve. The scientific prefix “iso-” means “same”, “equal” or “equivalent” so “iyso” could serve as the Diinlang equivalent of “also”.
For the second meaning, words meaning “overmuch”, “overmany”, “undersize” may serve. We already haveta” for large quantities, “ko” for small quantities and “taz” and “koz” for large and small numbers. In this use “too” usually accompanies another word so the French word “trop” might be adopted and used with a Diinlang word for quantities. “trop ta”= “too much”, “trop ko”= “too little”, “trop koz”= “too few”.
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Language

Comparatives and Superlatives Part Four

Establishing the comparative and superlative system for Diinlang has proved troublesome. Part of the problem is that English words like “more” and “most” are also used as nouns, pronouns and determiners as well as being adverbs.
My most recent strategy is to approach these words from a different direction by considering their use as quantifiers. The new Diinlang system of pluralizing the determiner rather than the noun has actually helped clarify things.
Wikipedia tells us that:
English has the following quantifier pronouns:
Uncountable (thus, with a singular verb form)
  • enough – Enough is enough.
  • little – Little is known about this period of history.
  • less – Less is known about this period of history.
  • much – Much was discussed at the meeting.
  • more – More is better. (Also countable plural; see there.)
  • most – Most was rotten. (Usually specified, such as in most of the food.) (Also countable plural; see there.)
  • plenty – Thanks, that's plenty.
Countable, singular
  • one – One has got through. (Often modified or specified, such as in a single one, one of them etc.)
Countable, plural
  • several – Several were chosen.
  • few – Few were chosen.
  • fewer – Fewer are going to church these days.
  • many – Many were chosen.
  • more – More were ignored. (Often specified, such as in more of us.) (Also uncountable, see there.)
  • most – Most would agree. (Also uncountable, see there.)
The original Diinlang comparative and superlative system used –ha and –ho as suffixes, the equivalent of the English system of using –er and –est. “Good, better, best” becomes “bon, bonha, bonho” in Diinlang.
-ta” has been introduced as an augmentative in Diinlang and “-ko” as a diminutive. Logically these words on their own would mean “big/ large quantitiy/ much” or “small/ little/ not much”. It therefore logically follows that taha and taho would mean “more” or “most” of an uncountable quantity. Koha and koho would mean a lesser or least amount. (Bear in mind that in English “less” is sometimes used as a comparative instead of “lesser”).
When used with countable nouns “many”, “more” and “most” are only used with plural nouns and often mean “high number of”, “higher number of” and “highest number of/ majority of”). Since in Diinlang the determiner is usually pluralized rather than the noun we get taz, tazha and tazho (or taz, tahaz or tahoz). Few, fewer etc, meaning “a small number of” and so on become koz, kozha etc.
Words concerned with numbers  of things therefore have a plural “-z” ending while those concerned with size or other quantities that may be uncountable do not.
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Language

Updated Determiners

Version 1.3
Having upgraded the articles and touched on the subject of quantifiers it seems prudent to post some ideas on other determiners. Some of my older suggestions were based on the comparative/ superlative endings and the definite and indefinite articles, all of which have now changed.
 
any                  enje
Derived from Mandarin “rènhé”, it sounds very close to English term too.
 
all/ every        pan or omni
This was originally a superlative of the indefinite article. The ISV term “pan” is simpler. Depending on phrase syntax this word can also mean “whole/ entire”. “Pan dez kanis” = “All the dogs” ; “Pan jez kanis” = “All dogs (indefinite)” ; “De pan kanis” = “The whole dog”. Instead of using a word for “both” the Diinlang speaker would say “pan duo”, “all two”. This more versatile construction can be used with other numbers, for example, “pan tet”, “all four”.
 
each                jede
Formed by combining indefinite article “je” with the general definite “de”.
 
very                 reta
A combination of the prefix meaning repetition “re-” with the augmentive ending-ta”.
 
much             mas
many             masiz
In English “much” is used with uncountable nouns and “many” with countable nouns. It remains to be seen if such a distinction is needed in Diinlang. Use with a plural noun may be distinction enough. As an adverb “mas is used as a prefix. As a determiner or pronoun it may be a stand alone word or part of a phrase. The same comments apply to “las” for “few/ little”. Words for quantity or number might be used instead or combined with “mas-” serving as a prefix. In the newer system these words are “ta” and “taz”.
 
other              olt
Olt” is a phonetic spelling of “alt” derived from “alternative”.
 
another/ one more      uni mes  (uni eta)
The words for “another” are a direct translation of “one more”.
 
a few/ a little            uni las. (uni ko)
This resembles in structure translations in a number of other languages. “A lot” would logically be uni mas. (uni ta)
 
everything          pande/panje/panit
Literally “all things” – once the preferred term for “things” is decided.
none, no one, nothing      noze, noje or nojhen.
Jhen” is person so “no one” is logically “nojhen”. The term for “nothing” will depend on the final form of “everything”.  

Update

These determiners can also be used as indefinite pronouns to form the equivalents of “no one, nobody, somebody, anybody, everything, the other” etc.
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Language

Updated Definite Article

Version 1.1
In a previous post I proposed the idea that the Diinlang words for “this” and “that” could be met with the Diinlang words for “here” and “there”, which are “vang” and “ving”. The plural forms of these words, vangz and vingz serve as “these” and “those”.
A similar economy can be gained by using the third person pronouns as the definite article. This also frees up “di to mean from or of. “Ze” is the default form, with “zo” or “za” being used when gender needs to be stated or emphasized. The use of “ze” becomes “fuzzier”. Ze can be used for singular or plural. Ze can be used of animate or inanimate. Ze can be used where the gender is unknown or unstated.
Ze kanis bi vang. = The dog is here.
Ze bi vang. = It is here.
Zo bi vang. = He is here.
Zo kanis bi vang. = The (male) dog is here.
This idea meshes nicely with the idea of gendering words by using “zo-” or “za-” as prefixes, creating the equivalent of constructions such as “she-wolf” or “he-goat”. When a word is so prefixed a preceding definite article is unnecessary.
Some nouns in Diinlang already have a gender. This includes agent nouns that use “-zo” or “-za” or their plural forms as a suffix. In such cases the definite article and the noun gender should not contradict. You can use a neutral article (ze) with a gendered noun or a gendered article with a neutral noun. You cannot use a feminine article with a masculine noun or a masculine article with a feminine noun!
For certain sentences the second person pronoun may be used as a definite article. A likely context would be when addressing several people directly but attempting to signify one in particular. For example, in English a waiter might say “The gentleman will taste the wine?” In Diinlang the second person pronountu” would be used as the definite article instead of “ze”, “zo” or “za”, creating a sentence that translates as “You gentleman will taste the wine?”

Update

The definite article has earned a reprieve! It occurred to me that the above use of “ze” may make it difficult to identify nouns from verbs. The system of using articles to identify plurality remains in place however. The definite article will be “de” with “dez” as the plural form. The indefinite article is “je” or “jez”. When “zo-/ za-” or “zoz-/ zaz-” are used to indicate gender the definite article can be ommited.
Sona uses the definite article to also serve as a word for “it”. “De” on its own could have the same use. By the same logic “je” on its own could have the meaning “something”.
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More on Plurals

In English one of the ways to determine if a word is a noun is to see if it has a plural form.
This does not work with uncount nouns, so another useful indicator is to see if the word  or phrase has a definite or indefinite article.
This suggests that in Diinlang a phrase can be made plural by pluralizing the article rather than the noun or noun phrase.
One objection to such a system is that articles may be dropped. Consider an exclamation such as “Dogs!” A single, pluralized syllable conveys the presence of dogs and that there is more than one.
If a number or quantifier is used in place of an article it may be argued that pluralizing the noun may be redundant. A sentence such as “Five chicken ran” can be ambiguous without background context. It could mean five chickens were running but might also indicate a particular chicken with the name or number “five”. The option of pluralizing the noun can clarify the meaning.
In Diinlang it might be said that plurals are formed by article form and/or with a noun suffix. In some languages article and noun are required to agree. If an article is plural the noun should be a plural form too. In Diinlang this is unnecessary and redundant. It should not be considered to be incorrect, however. The variations in pluralizing will suit users of different native language backgrounds or may improve the euphonics of a phrase.
Often in Diinlang there is more than one correct way to say something. The objective is to promote communication and clarity rather than observance of unnecessary rules.
Plurals are formed in Diinlang by adding “-z”. For words that end in a sibilant such as “s” “-iz” is used instead.  Thus “Dogs!” could be translated as:
Kanisiz!
Zez kanis!
Ze kanisiz!
Zez kanisiz!
Jez kanis!
Je kanisiz!
Jez kanisiz!

Update

It is unnecessary to pluralize a noun if the noun is accompanied by a plural form of pronoun, article, determiner, numeral or quantifier. If a noun has a plural form of gender prefix ( zoz-, zaz-) it is also obviously plural. If a noun does not have an article etc it can be pluralized by adding the neuter equivalent of the plural gender prefix.
Hence, “zez-kanis” = “dogs”.
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Language

Creating Adjectives

Version 2
In previous posts I have touched on the subject that certain nouns and verbs will require more than one adjective form. It would be very nice if one could simply produce a set of rules that says “adjectives with this suffix in English become this word form in Diinlang”. Unfortunately, suffixes in English are far too diverse and inconsistent for this to be practical. Hogben gives some insights into the problems inherent in such an approach.
As Hogden notes, many of the more modern adjectives have been created by using a noun or verb-derived noun. In Diinlang the progressive/continuous form of the verb and the perfect form have both been designed so they can be used as single word nouns or adjectives. The progressive/continuous form for the verb “VERB” would be “isVERB”. The perfect form would be “dunVERB”. As in English the progressive/continuous form may be considered to be active in nature and the perfect passive in nature. Therefore rather than the perfect form we use the passive, “geVERB” form. From the verb root we can also create animate and inanimate agent nouns: VERBze and VERBit. These may also provide adjectives, as potentially the derived patient noun, VERBge.
A large number of adjectives for Diinlang can be created from verbs and nouns by using the active or passive participle. To do this it is necessary to determine if the adjective would have an active or a passive role in a noun phrase using it. As Hogben notes, an “-ing” or “-ed/ en” ending in English as they are used is not always reliable. Replacing the adjective in English with an “-ing” or “-ed” form can give a hint to whether it is passive or active. A “scary man” can be termed a “scaring man” so this is active. A “scared man” is not the same as a “scaring man”. “Scared man” is passive.
If the adjective describes something that the noun is feeling, experiencing or doing then it is active and the “isVERB” form should be used.
If the noun is the recipient of the effect the adjective describes the passive (“geVERB”) form is used. i.e. something is “being/getting/got done” to the noun or the noun has that status or state.
The above system will deal with the majority of adjective (or adverb) generation for Diinlang. A smaller collection of words may require different solutions.
Firstly, there are the words whose primary function is adjectival. These include words for colour or size, for example. The above protocol can be used to modify these words if necessary. A “blue compound” can become a “bluing compound” or a “blued compound” by adding a “is-” or “ge-” prefix to the word selected for “blue”. An adjective can be converted to a concrete noun by adding “-it” to make it into an inanimate agent noun. An abstract noun can be created by adding the suffix “-ia”. Hence the Diinlang word for “blueness” would end in “-ia”.
Many of the variations of words will be created by compounding words rather than using a long list of empty suffixes. Many English adjectives that end in –able or –ble therefore are a compound with “zhan” (to be able). Words for edible, readable, drinkable may all be compounds of “-zhan”. The potential passiveness of some meanings may need to be addressed.
Words that denote something is caused or evoked will also be compounds, probably using the word “fiy” for to make or construct. Thus to words for “weaponize” or “liquidize” will be closer in sound to their alternative of “weaponify” and “liquefy”. To change something into water would be to “kwafiy”.
Another compound will be created to mean “becoming” or “beginning”.
English words that use the suffix “–less” in the sense of not having a property will most likely be constructed as a compound with the word “zero”, although for some senses “no” or “non-“ might be used instead.  The opposite of “-less” words in English often have the suffix “-ful” in the sense of completely having a property. Logic suggests Diinlang use a compound with a word for “total” for this sense. Terms such as “handful” and “cupful” can be translated literally.
A large variety of English suffixes indicate that the subject contains the quality described. Logically words such as “sugary”, “hairy” might be translated into compounds with the word “kom” (“with”), possibly combined with a comparative.
A potentially useful suffix would be “-yi”, the equivalent of “-y”, “-ie”, “-e” and “-ey” in English. Creates the meaning of “having the quality of” when used with nouns and adjectives and “inclined to” on verbs. Examples in English include slimy, baggy, runny etc. “-li” might be used to make adverbs and adjectives of manner.
Saying that something is “wooden” or “metallic” is redundant when one can simply use “wood” or “metal” as an adjective. Metallic also has the sense that something resembles metal in some respects but is not necessarily metal. Compound words that indicate varying degrees of resemblance will also be needed. “-ish” and “-oid” are potential candidates already in wide use in many other languages. The word “iso” for “same” may also see use.
There are still some words that do not fit into the categories above. Many adjectives have a meaning of “pertaining to” or “to do with” without denoting a particularly active or passive meaning. For such adjectives the suffix “-al” can be used, although it can be regarded as optional and can be omitted if the word will not be confused with a noun. Possibly the ending “-an” would be used for adjectives relating to space and time, such as the names of nationalities.
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Language

Why not English?

The article here makes a very good point.
There seems to be a widespread reluctance with conlang constructors to draw upon English.
Admittedly English is often highly irregular in both spelling and verb structure.
It has many homophones and the same word can sometimes have widely differing, even contradictory meanings.
Consider “boat made fast” -was the boat modified to be faster, or tied up so it did not move?
On the other hand, the basic grammar of English is relatively simple if we ignore eccentricities such as do-support and inversion of questions.
A selling point of English is that it is the most widely spoken language.
Chinese may be spoken by more individuals but English is spoken globally.
Many people across the world have some measure of English as a second or third language.
As is noted, a big chunk of the world speaks bad English, which includes a very large number of British and Americans!
English has many words that will be comprehensible to non-English speakers.
Many of these words are single syllable words too, making them good choices for “bricks” for Diinlang.
Providing that such words have limited or relatively small interrelated meanings such words can be a good source for the Diinlang vocabulary.
There is little point in creating a two or three syllable pseudo-Latin/Greek/European word when a single syllable English word will be more concise and intelligible.
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Language

Prepositions and Directions for Diinlang

When I first started fielding ideas for Diinlang a subject that causes a few headaches was that of prepositions. This area is still not completed but some new inspirations came to me last night.
English has a lot of prepositions and words that resemble them. Being English the system is irregular and words originate from many different sources.
My current working model is that these can be treated as three related groups.
The first group has directions such as up, down, forward, back, left, right, in and out. These can be treated as a point in space or a movement. Something might be “inside” or moving “inward”. In English the suffixes may not be used for some of the listed words or their use variable. I can say “up from Bill” or “upwards of Bill”. This suggests that a relatively logical and regular system for Diinlang can be constructed using “-ki” for motion and “-ru” for static as suffixes.
The second group are relative directions. They refer to a point relative to another point. Above, below, beside, port, starboard, before, beyond, under, on, against, abaft, abeam, super-, sub- etc. Possibly this variety can be covered by words for up, down, forward, back, left, right, in and out with some addition to indicate they are relative. Many of the existing words use “a-” or “be-”. “A-” derives from the meaning “up” or “out” rather than from the Latin “ad-” for “to”. “Be-” is Old English/ Germanic for “throughout” or “around”. Some of these words substitute for phrases such as “XXXwards of/ from” or “XXX from”.
The third group are adjectives that can be confused with prepositions and may have some overlap in use. High, tall, deep, low, thick, thin, narrow, wide, etc. To this list we can add related nouns such as height, length, depth, width, etc.
(It has just occurred to me that “etplu” in Diinlang would be more elegant than saying “etcetera” or “eksset”)
The above is not a comprehensive list, of course. I have stuck to basic linear motion and not considered circling motions, for example. In English using the above words in phrases with “to” or “from” can modify the meaning and how this can be done in Diinlang needs consideration.
The basic categorization proposed does give an idea of how prepositions in Diinlang should be approached. The basic directions/ points can be modified with affixes such as  “-ki and “-ru”. These basic words can then be modified for terms for relative directions. These words can possibly replace many of the adjectival words or create words whose relationship is clear.