Category: Language

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Language

Sabir Verbs and Diinlang

Recently, I came across some information that the points of the traditional Mediterranean compass rose were named in the Italian variant of Mediterranean Lingua Franca.
Mediterranean Lingua Franca, also known as “Sabir” was a pidgin language widely used for several hundred years. Traces of Sabir have been identified in such diverse places as place names, “pirate talk”, Algerian slang and Polari.
Some of the features of Sabir may also be seen in later pidgins and creoles used outside the Mediterranean area. This could have been direct transfer or have been parallel design, or some mixture of both.
For its vocabulary, Sabir seems to have selected existing words from older languages. Many words have an obvious Romance origin, but borrowings from Turkish, Greek, French, Hebrew and Arabic have also been identified. Most readers with some familiarity with Romance languages can usually puzzle out the gist of a Sabir sentence, even if they do not understand every word.
Sabir was successfully used for centuries by the members of a wide variety of cultures and backgrounds. Obviously, if we are interested in designing a more efficient language, Sabir may have things to teach us.
Frustratingly, very little written material on Sabir seems to exist. Much of what I could find was lists of the words used and analysis on the possible origin of these words, rather than information on the grammar.
Looking at what little information I could find on Sabir, it seemed to use a bare infinitive for most of its verbs. This, of course, is a common feature of pidgins and creoles, especially when the parent tongues have complicated systems of conjugation.
Most of the verbs that I can identify are apparently taken from Spanish or Portuguese and ending in -er, -ir, or -ar. It is possible that some are of Italian origin, dropping the terminal -e of regular verbs.

Sabir-type Verbs

Suppose we consider a similar convention for Diinlang?
What if most verbs in Diinlang adopt the form of ending in -er, -ir, or -ar like the verbs in Sabir and the regular verbs in Spanish?
On the downside, nearly all these verbs become at least two syllables. This may enhance euphony and comprehension, however. It did not seem to be a hindrance to Sabir.
Many nouns could be formed by dropping the terminal -r of the verb infinitive, or the verbal version of a verb stressed by rolling or trilling the terminal -r.
For example, Sabir had “pesca/pescar” for “fish/to fish”. With most verbs ending in -r, forming participle adjectives and verbal nouns becomes simple and regular: “pescarin/pescaren” for “fishing”, “pescarte” for “fished”.
Likewise, agent nouns: pescaro, pescara, pescare, pescaru, pescari = fisherman, fisherwoman, fisher (neuter), fisher (instrument neuter inanimate), fished (patient noun, may be made redundant for some meanings by the past perfect verbal noun form).

Exceptions

In Diinlang, we are not restricted to using words from existing languages. Our priorities are clarity, compactness and comprehension.
With this in mind, some verbs will not follow the above proposed format. It is logical that those verbs that are most used be represented by short, single syllable words.
As the primary auxiliary verbs, “to be” and “to have” continue to be “bi/be” and “he”. With these we may group “fe/du” (to do) and “ge” (passive to be/to become). The modal verbs, once decided, will also be of a compact form.
The duoverbs, which are mainly verbs of communication, should also be compact and single syllable. Rather than using the preverbal “te” or using it as a suffix, the past form of a duoverb might be rendered by simply adding the suffix “-t”. “No!” zo le, ma za let “Ya!”
Several other verbs, such as “go” (to go) and “fa” (to make) will also be more useful as verbs of the compact class. Likely candidates are the 16 (later 18) verbs of Ogden’s operators, or Hogben’s 20 verboids.
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Language

Eliminating Doubled Consonants

In English, a doubled consonant often indicates that the preceding vowel does not take a long sound. For example “hop” becomes “hopping” and “hopped”, while “hope” is “hoping” and “hoped”. Note that the second consonant itself is usually not pronounced.
Like so many English rules, this applies except for the times that it doesn’t! Even fluent native speakers of English are often uncertain if a word should be spelt with doubled consonants.
A simple idea for reforming English would be to eliminate the doubled consonants. Very few words would become homographs if this measure were applied. Such incidences may be addressed by the adoption of a more regular, phonetic spelling.
“Desert” and“dessert” become “disert” and “deesert”. “Hoped” and “hopped” become “hohped” and “hoped”, respectively, or possibly “hohpd” and “hopd”.
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Language

Compact Written Constructed Language: CWCL

Version 1.0

Some time ago I was rewatching “Living Planet”.
In the ocean depths, where sunlight never reaches, a great variety of creatures produce their own light for a variety of purposes.
The treasure that is David Attenborough notes that visual communication is most likely the most commonly used communication on Earth.
Why I am reminded of this is recently a friend sent me an article.
The article claimed that typing was a thing of the past, since voice recognition was now so good.
I have to use Microsoft Teams for meetings and I can assure you that this is not the case! Transcriptions are sometimes amusing, and often baffling. Part of this is that most human beings do not talk in a particularly structured or clear fashion.
The irony that my friend had written an email to tell me about this article, and the article itself was written, was not lost on me. Even more ironic was the article was from a newspaper, a medium that is probably more likely to become obsolete soon than typing will.
I will not go into all the reasons that I believe this article is wrong, nor the good reasons for hoping that this is the case.
The article did get me thinking on a quite contrary tract.
We tend to think of language as being sound, but this is only partially true.
Writing is one of the greatest and most important inventions of mankind. The majority of our centuries of knowledge is preserved as the written word, be it in books, clay tablets, scrolls or computer memory.
Creating a constructed language (conlang) is an amusing (and sometimes frustrating) diversion, but if we are honest, most of us know the majority of human society is not going to adopt yet another spoken language, no matter what advantages it may offer.
Most people assimilate information in a written form quicker than they may if it is given verbally. Comprehension may possibly be better from written sources.
Some conlangs work much better in written form than spoken. Some creators neglect phonology or euphony, or miss that many different letter combinations will be pronounced the same by certain users.
What if, I wondered, we attempt to create a conlang that is only intended to be written and read, and not spoken? Thus began CWCL: Compact Written Constructed Language.
English is often clearer in written form than spoken.
Many of the English homophones with distinct meanings have different spellings: night,/knight, week/weak, waste/waist. meet/meat, which/witch, whether/weather/wether, write/right, by/buy, break/brake, duel/dual, two/to/too, there/their/they're, your/yaw/you’re; although the latter often catch the sloppy or inattentive writer.
One of the stumbling blocks of creating a conlang is fleshing out the vocabulary. Basing CWCL on English gives an extensive range of short words, and a large body of abbreviations or contractions for longer words. Words not in the CWCL dictionary may be adopted from sources such as the Oxford Dictionary of Abbreviations.
The meaning of a sentence in CWCL will often be understandable to many readers familiar with English, even if English is not their native language.
Since words are intended to be understood, but not expected to be pronounced, we have a much greater option of letter combinations.
This means we may communicate the same meaning with less keystrokes.
Additionally, more meaning may be applied in to a small area of text, useful for warning labels or lists of ingredients.
Isn’t this texttalk, some of you will be asking? Yes and no.
The transcription of text talk is entirely up to the individual writing, and limited by their imagination (or lack of). Very often the meaning is a puzzle to the recipient.
As a constructed language/form of controlled English, CWCL has an actual dictionary that may be used as a reference.
Ideally, this dictionary may be incorporated into word processors, allowing the writer to select the correct words, the reader to easily translate a message, and the author to easily and quickly enter text in CWCL and have it converted to traditional English.
CWCL would also attempt to address some of the stumbling blocks of traditional written English.
The majority of verbs will be regular.
Some of the more confusing or ambiguous features of English will be eliminated.
Grammar will become more logical and the meaning clearer.
This page is a work in progress. Expect updates and changes.

Accessibility and Convenience

CWCL should be capable of being written using the keys of a US 104 key keyboard, as this is the type most likely to be encountered globally.
Accented letters, diacritics and symbols that need more keystrokes than the use of one key and the shift, ctrl or alt key are to be avoided, at least for the most commonly used words.
If you cannot recall a CWCL word, or just choose not to, it makes little difference if you type the longer, more traditional form.

Four Items or Less

CWCL is based on an idea I have previously discussed and called 4lsh. Representing every word in English with just four letters or less may not be achievable, but hopefully this may be achieved for the majority of the most commonly used and useful words.
Some of the most commonly used or useful words will be represented by words of three or less letters.

Five Letter Words

Some five letter words from traditional English may easily be converted to four letter CWCL words.
Many five letter words end in doubled consonants that contribute nothing. Hence shell, skill, grass, class and kill are simplified to shel, skil, gras, clas and kil. Note this may be used on words already with four letter to create shorter words.
Similarly, -ck may be simplified as just -k, shack and rack becoming shak n rak.
Agent nouns or other words with the endings -er, -ar, -or become -r.
Four letter CWCL nouns become five letters or longer if pluralized (-s or -es). Four letter or less CWCL verbs become longer if made into agent nouns (-r), participles or inflected (-g, -d/-n).
A terminal -e may be omitted if it does not contribute to the preceding vowel sound. Therefore, edge and live become edg and liv.
Adoption a more phonetic spelling may be used to shorten some words. Noise becomes noyz.

Verbs

The majority of verbs in CWCL will become regular.
Third person present singular inflection will not be used: I wash, you wash, he wash, she wash, we wash, they wash.
For simple past, the verb takes the ending -d (representing -ed). This may be used on the perfect tense and is used on the past participle.
The ending -g (representing -ing) may be used for the progressive and continuous tense. It is always used for the present participle.
The future tense is indicated by the use of the auxiliary verb “will” (w/wl).
The continuous/progressive tense is indicated by the use of the auxiliary verb “be” (b/bn). The ending -g (representing -ing) may be used for the progressive and continuous tense, although this is optional since the auxiliary verb established the tense.
The perfect aspect is indicated by the use of the auxiliary verb “have” (h/hd). The ending -d (representing -ed) may be used for the perfect aspect, although this is optional since the auxiliary verb established the aspect.
The present and past participles derived from regular verbs always have the ending -g or -d, respectively.
A very small number of verbs in CWCL are irregular. These happen to be some of the most widely used verbs, so learning these exceptions is relatively easy.
The most irregular CWCL verb is the verb “be (b/ws)”
“b” is used for the simple present, and with “w” for the future tense. The simple past is formed with ws (was) and the subjunctive with wr (wr).
The continuous/present participle is “bg (being)” and the perfect/past participle “bn (been)”.
The use of wr for past tense is permissible, and alternatives for present are am (first person singular), s (is), and ar (are).
The verb “do” is irregular, but considerably less so than “be”. Present/future is d/w d (do/will do). Past is dd (did). The continuous/present participle is “dg (doing)” and the perfect/past participle “dn (done)”. Only the perfect/past participle is irregular.
The verb “go” is more irregular. Present/future is g/w g (go/will go). Past is wnt (went). The continuous/present participle is “gg (going)” and the perfect/past participle “gn (gone)”.
The verb “have/had” is regular.
Verbs of communication (write, read, talk, say, state, ask etc) may have a different form to other verbs. To be decided.

Problem Verbs

Some verbs in English cause considerable unnecessary problems.
Problems with the verb lie-lay-lying-lain (intransitive) and lay-lying-laid (transitive) have been previously discussed. Add to this the unrelated meaning of lie and lying as practicing a falsehood.
The former usage may need a single transitive verb with the option of using a reflexive pronoun.
“Borrow” and “lend/loan” essentially describe the same action, but in different direction. A single verb combined with a relevant proposition could serve instead/
That “affect” is a verb, and an “effect” a noun confuses many.
By treating CWCL as a controlled language, some of these problems may be resolved.

Vowel Precedence

Or “Elves In An Obscene Union!”
“E” is the most common vowel used in English, “U” the least.
“Elves In…” is my phrase for remembering the order of vowel precedence “EIAOU”.
Vowel precedence is a tool I am trying for creating and interpreting CWCL words.
For example, should “crst” be used for “crust” or “crest”? Vowel precedence tells us crest. Should “wnt” be want, went, wont? The answer is went.
If we read “cnt”, what is it most likely to mean? Cent is a word, but one that already has a more widely used abbreviation, symbol or contraction. Cint is not an English word, so next we try “cant”.. This is a valid English word, but more common is “can't/cannot”, which is the correct answer and may also be revealed by context.

Proper Names

In general, proper names should be written in full. If a shorthand for such is to be used, it should be introduced and defined at or near the first use of the longhand term. This is just good practice in any writing. For example: “I w see Paul Brown (PB) in Winchester (wchr). PB knw e hsry of wchr.”

Th- Words

Many English words that begin with “th-” are useful words such as determiners or pronouns. Learning the CWCL for these should be one of the first steps in mastering CWCL. Most of these words still begin with th-, Note that the “exception” is the word “the”, which is represented by the single letter “e”.
that: tht, the: e, their: thr', then: thn, them: thm, there: thr, they: thy, this: ths

Wh- Words

The interrogative and relative words beginning with “Wh-”, with “how” as an honorary member, are also worth learning early on.
what: wht, when: whn, where: whr, which: whc, who: who(wh), how: hw, whom: whm, whose: wh'.

Other Symbols

The standard US keyboard offers symbols other than letters, and some of these should be utilized in writing CWCL.
The symbol @ may be used instead of the word “at”, and this meaning is already widely understood. & or + may be used in place of “and”, although using “n” involves less keys.
w/o represents “without”, and w/ is “with”.
q? represents the words “query” or “question”.
There is little point in typing out the names of numbers such as four or fifteen when we already have keys for their symbols, such as 4 or 15.
These may be combined as necessary: 3ngl and 4ngl may be read as “triangle” and “quadrangle”.
Ordinal numbers are represented by a numeral followed by the symbol “~”, so first, third, twentieth become 1~, 3~, 20~.
Fractions become a slash followed by the denominator numeral, so half, third, quarter, fifth, twentieth become /2, /3, /4, /5, /20. Logically, this suggests that /1 would mean “whole” or “complete”.
The word “number” may use the symbol “#”, the word “smile” becomes “s)” and so on.
Texttalk often uses “puns” such as B4 for before, H8 for hate, 2 for to/two/too. My gut instinct to to avoid these. Many CWCL alternatives are just as easy to use, and I am not sure how well such shorthands are understood by those for whom English is a second language.

Regular Plurals and Possessives

As already described for 4lsh, plurals are formed by adding a terminal -s. Singular words ending in one or more “s” take -es.
Irregular plurals from traditional English become regular plurals by adding -s/-es to the singular term. Hence child/children is chld/chlds, knife/knives is knif/knifs and sheep is shep/sheps.
A noun or pronoun becomes possessive by adding “-'” without any additional “s”. Unlike traditional English, all possessive pronouns in CWCL take an apostrophe.

Less Words and More Words

In his book, “Plea for an American Language”. p.121, Elias Molee describes what he considers a number of defects of traditional English. This is interesting reading, since in the century or more since, no progress has been made.
Many of Molee's comments concern phonology and euphony, which obviously have no relevance to a written-only language such as CWCL.
Comments that are relevant include that English suffers both from too many, and too few words.
In many instances, we have numerous differing words that have the same meaning. We also have various words that have multiple, different and sometimes contrasting meanings.
Of the latter, Molee give the examples “light” and “sound”. Light may mean illumination, not-heavy or not-dark. Sound may mean noise, healthy or sturdy, or the depth of water. Molee proposes separate words for each meaning.
STE attempts to assign single meanings to the English words it uses, but the meaning of the same word in different parts of speech may vary. “Light” as an adjective means not-heavy, while as a verb it refers to illumination.
“Live” in English may mean “to be living” or as an adjective such as “live (not recorded) broadcast”. The pronunciation is different so in CWCL the related but distinct meanings are represented by “liv” and “lyv”.
Systems such as STE, Special English and Plain English may be useful in refining the CWCL dictionary, although some suggested substitutions are not direct equivalents.
English has a certain amount of snobbery and reverse snobbery when it comes to word selection. CWCL will attempt to prioritize communication and clarity instead. Words made from compounding other words are often clearer in meaning. water-pipe technician, eye-doctor and fish-researcher and more transparent in meaning than plumber, oculist and ichthyologist.
CWCL needs less words than English, but more words with clear meanings.

New Grammar

Traditional English grammar is simpler than that of many languages, but there is still room for further improvement.
Many of the ideas detailed on the page on ACE grammar should be used in CWCL. This includes the hyphenation of phrasal and prepositional verbs, binding order, and rules for anaphora resolution. Some of the style suggestions given for STE are also worth consideration, keeping in mind some suggestions only apply to writing technical manuals.
CWCL may use the reflexive pronoun “se”. When used as the object of a verb it replaces such words as myself, himself, themselves etc.
Sentences in CWCL may sometimes be treated like arithmetical statements. For example, in traditional English a statement like “he saw the angry John, Alan and Jane” may be encountered. How many of these individuals are angry is not clear.
Instead, the sentence could have been more clearly written :
“he saw the angry {John}, Alan and Jane”
“he saw the angry {John, Alan} and Jane”
“he saw the angry {John, Alan and Jane}”
This concept may also be used to clarify anaphora resolution. For example:
“{John and two friends} walk. They are tired” This makes it clear John and both his friends are all tired.
CWCL sentences may also be constructed like statements in simple (symbolic) logic. Such an approach clearly identifies the failing of conlangs such as Esperanto which use binary approaches to word derivation.
For example, in Esperanto, beautiful is bela, ugly is malbela. varma is hot, malvarma is cold.
In reality, there are very few true binary opposites. Life is messy and the universe various degrees of grey rather black or white.
If we adopt “bela” as “beautiful” in CWCL, “n-bela” is “not beautiful”, or everything else that is not described or has the property of beautiful.
N- is an exclusion rather than an opposite.
In symbolic logic this would be represented as the relationship of p to ¬p.
A work in progress. Refer back to this page for changes and updates.
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Language

Additional Collective Nouns for English

I was amusing myself looking at Wiktionary's collection of collective nouns.
There are some that do need to be added, however:
• A density of students
• A magnum of PIs.
• A corps of zombies
• A crew of gremlins
The last two were used in my book “Hell-Ay/Angel Town”.
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Language

Diphthong Phonetics Changes

Following the change to the representation of the diphthong /aʊ/ from “ou” to “au”, some additional changes:
“iy” is changed back to “ai”, since many conlangs use this diphthong representation and it is closer to IPA /aɪ/.
I am in two minds as to whether “oy” should be changed to “oi”.
“o” and “i” often occur together when they do not represent a diphthong, such as when the suffix “-ing” is used.
Similar objections apply to changing “ay” to “ei”.
This gives the long vowels and diphthongs represented as ah, oh, au, ay, ai, oi/oy, uu, ee, ir, ayr and uur.
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Language

Design Criteria for Alternate Alphabets

Like many children, I created some alien and fantasy alphabets when I was younger.
I did not understand about phonemes back then, so these were actually simple character substitutions.
I was remined of this recently when a colleague jokingly offered to send me a message in Windigs. I responded that I could reply in Tenctonese font. I am pretty certain he did not understand the reference.

Criteria for New Alphabets

Some of my criteria for creating a new alphabet have been overtaken by technology. Most of our correspondence is now entered by keyboard or the equivalent. A device can form any letters with equal ease.
• The most used characters should be quick and easy to form. My last attempt only got as far as the vowels and a few consonants.
• Characters should be easily formable by a single pen stroke.
• Readers distinguish characters by the upper half, so that should be where the distinctive features are.
• No character should closely resemble another. For example: l, I, 1 (el, ai/iy, wun)
• Characters that are inverted or reversed should not be confused with other characters, including those that are alphabetic, common mathematical, punctuation or numeric. The chracter for number six may be mistaked for a nine, or sometimes an eight.
• Character combinations should not resemble other characters. No more “m” or “rn”.
• Possibly, classes of similar letters might share some common distinguishing feature while still remaining distinctive from each other. I am thinking of Sona’s division of the alphabet into 6 vowels, 6 aspirates, and two groups of 6 consonants, or Shavian voiced/voiceless pairing.
• The most commonly used characters should have some logical resemblance to traditional/Roman/English alphanumeric. ^ for A/a, `for i/I, – for e/E.
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Language

Diinlang Dynamic Dictionary

One of the current problems of Diinlang is the lack of vocabulary, or rather, a lack of an up-to-date central resource of the words created.
Over the years this project has been running many words have been tried. Some have entered use, some have been changed, and some have been forgotten along the way.
To try an address this issue, I am creating this page as a dynamic dictionary of Diinlang. Expect this page to expand. Words or meanings may be changed as better alternatives are found.
Keep an eye on the page version number to ensure your wordlist is up-to-date.
Version 1.0.4.7
Prefixes Suffixes a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

Prefixes

mo- : forms comparatives. 
no-/non- : negates or makes opposite the meaning of the word to which it is attached. Use is similar to SOME of the uses of the suffix un- in English.
re- is used at the start of some Diinlang words with the same or similar meaning to its use in English.
ve mo- : forms superlatives; “the most…”.

Suffixes

-a : The suffix -a when applied to pronouns and certain animate nouns indicates feminine gender. For nouns the suffix -za is now preferred.
-adre : repetitive modifier
-adu : Created verbs from nouns that are not suited for unmodified use as verbs.
-ali : “of or pertaining to the root”.
-ayt : substrate or produce of a verb.
-ele : patient noun (neuter). Gendered forms -elzo (male) and -elza (female).
-er : possible agent noun ending for inanimates.
-fu : measurement full (eg handful)
-i (-yi)/-hi : forms generic adjectives or adverbs. Generic adjective suffix: “inclined to ~” or “having the quality of ~”. For example, kwahi = watery. Added to a noun it may form a possessive phrase. Deani kwa = Dean's water.
-ibel :  forms passive modifiers resembling many English words ending in -ible/-able.
-ija : means to become or begin to be in the state described by the root. It forms inchoative/inceptive verbs. Using the same examples “redija” means “to become red” (“to blush” perhaps?) and “duija” “to start doing”.
-ika : creates a verb meaning the action of making, causing or rendering into the root or causing an object to gain the characteristic of the root. –ika verbs are causative.
-imu : creates verbs from nouns with the meaning of turning something into the root.
-in/-hin : makes a verb into an active participle adjective or verbal noun. As a noun it usually describes a process and/or product of that process. See -ng/-ing.
-ire : forms modifiers expressing time intervals (daily, monthly etc).
-iso : When compounded with a word means closely resembling that quality. Equivalent of -like in English.
-ge : makes a verb into a passive participle adjective or noun designating a completed action.
-kom : has the quality described or includes that specified. literally “with ~ (included)”.
-li : forms adverbs that mean “in the manner of ~”.
-n/-en : (obsolete) Suffix creating simple past form . Not required for past perfect form which includes “ha” as an auxverb. 
Simple past form is also used for past-participle/adjectives and as a verbal noun.
The -n/-en form is possibly used for passive voice, although only really needed if “bi” is used as an auxverb rather than “ge”.
“-n” after most constonants, “-en” after nasals (-n, -m, -ng) and vowels except “-e”. “-hen” after words ending in “-e”. “rn” often resembles “m” so -ren may be used instead.
-ng/-ing : Creates the gerund/verbal noun and active/present participle forms of a verb. “–ŋ/-iŋ” may be used where available.
Follows same rules of word construction as “-n/-en”.
-o : The suffix -o when applied to pronouns and certain animate nouns indicates male gender. For nouns the suffix -zo is now preferred.
-or : agent noun for animates. Optionally, -orze.  -orzo: male agent(s), -orza female agent(s). 
-osi : abundant modifier. ~full, in the sense of “hateful”.
-par : when used as a suffix/compound on a word means something seems to resemble that word. Used like -oid in words like “humanoid”.
-te : -te, when used with a duoverb, indicates that the verb is in past tense.
-z : -z is used on pronouns and certain non-verbs to indicate plurality.
-za : added to animate nouns to indicate female. May or may not be hyphenated. 
–zo : added to animate nouns to indicate male. May or may not be hyphenated.

A

a : a used on its own, marks that the verb it is with is in future tense. Pronounced “ah”. Shortcode : a. See “va”.
ad : to (movement). Zo a kum ad em = He will come to me. “ad” is also used like “at” in English for contexts such as “at 7.00pm”. May adopt “a” instead.
adin : into.
ad sy: to the side, by, near to.
Adjectives : Adjectives (and adverbs) are often marked by the endings -i, -in, -ge. Attributive adjectives are placed before the noun they describe and between the noun and its determiner or article. Predicative adjectives are placed after the noun. If a copula is used, it is placed between the adjective and noun.
Adverbial-Affix : Creation of new verbs by compounding with adverbs. Link
Adverbs : As modifiers, adverbs are often marked by the endings -i, -in, -ge. The -i ending is optional for well-known and obvious adverbs, such as mal or bon.
ajude : to help or aid.
apis : bee (insect).
as…as : “as” can be used for comparisomes, such as in the English phrasing “You are nearly as tall as me!”. Possibly in Diinlang “as” can be used as a more general purpose conjunction and used instead of “than” even when there is a considerable difference between the items.
at : “At” is used to designate points in space or time, and in most cases replaces the use of “on” in English. It substitutes for “in”, although either can be used when the “within/during” requirement is met.
au : diphthong for [aʊ̯]. In English, this is the sound in “loud”, “ouch”, “plough”, “cow”. In earlier versions of Diinlang “ou” was used. Link
Auxverb : A verb used as an auxiliary verb. Changes the tense and/or voice of the verb that follows it.
av : “off”; not in operation; not in contact (with). (preposition, adverb and adjective).
ave : bird.
ayen/ayeni/ayenhyu : orange-yellow/gold colour or orange-yellow/gold coloured. 

B

bayj/bayji/bayjhyu : yellow-brown colour or yellow-brown coloured. 
bi : to be (verb). When uses as an auxiliary bi indicates the verb tense is progressive/continuous. Spelling be used on some pages. Shortcode : b
blak/blaki/blakhyu : black colour or black coloured.
blu/blui/bluhyu : blue colour or blue coloured.
bohn : bone.
bon/boni : good.
Both : Diinlang does not have specific words for two items, such as “pair”, “both” or “brace” in English. Instead, constructions such as “pan by” (all two), “moje by” (every two) or “jeve by” (each two) are used instead. Such constructions can be used with greater number values.
brun/bruni/brunhyu : brown colour or brown coloured. 
buub : boob

C

Colours : red (red), brun (brown), oren (orange), bayj (yellow-brown), ayen (orange-yellow/gold), yahn (yellow), laym (yellow-green), kwin (green), sian (blue-green/cyan), blu (blue), viol (violet), purp (purple), majn (magenta), pink (pink), blak (black), gri (grey), viyt (white). Link
Copula : copula verbs may be dropped if the meaning is clear. The preferred copula is par (to seem), reminding us that observations and statements are not necessarily reliable. When a more definite statement is warranted, the verbs bi (to be) and ha (to have) may be used. Saying an object “has heat” is preferable to saying it “is hot”.
CV : Consonant(s)-Vowel(s) format. Diinlang uses CV format for many words that are commonly used or particularly useful.
CVC : Consonant(s)-Vowel(s) format. The option of CVC words was introduced into Diinlang when it seemed likely that CVn would not produce enough words. CVC allows for Diinlang words with “hard” endings and for onomatopoeic words.
CVN : Original concept of Diinlang was that all/most words/syllables should have a CVn format. “C” represents a consonant(s), “V” a vowel(s) and “N” a nasal such as -m, -n or -ng. CVN format is mainly verbs or nouns. Issues such as acceptable consonant clusters have yet to be finalized. 

D

de : “De” is used as a non-specific preposition, to be used when the use of po or per is uncertain, or to substitute for on, in or at. It is the closest word that Diinlang has for “of” in that it complements “vo”: “Jon vo kanis” means “Jon’s Dog” while “Kanis de Jon” is “Dog of Jon”. “Book de Shakespeare”, like the English equivalent “Book of Shakespeare”, is a little ambivalent. To stress that something is about or by a subject we may use “po” or “on”.
Use of de should be based on its use in Lingua Franca Nova (LFN): It acts like “from” in that it can present something as an origin, or introduces a person or thing that something belongs to; it acts like “of” by indicating a general association between things and actions, qualities or other things; it may be used to join two nouns to create a compound noun; when added to another preposition it indicates motion away or forms an adverb meaning from a location.
Deanlang : Constructed language project. My own input begain around 2014.
dek : right (direction)
dep : depth/deep/deepness. Quantity of vertical distance downwards.
dg : digtaph used to represent the English “j” sound (IPA: /ʤ/) since March 2024. Thus, edge=edg, gem=dgem and jam=dgam. The pronounciation or spellingof some Diinlang words will need to be changed accordingly.
dhen : “then” in English. Dhen is a conjunction that is also a preposition. It is used like “and”(e) when the items being described occur in a sequence. In English we say “They got married and had children” but it is more accurate to say “They got married then had children”.
dia : through.
Diinlang : Diinlang when spelt with two i's represents the language in prototype form.
du : to do (verb). Using du as an auxiliary indicates the verb is to be treated as a full-infinitive. Used with a noun it converts the noun to a verb.
Duoverb : Duoverbs are a small group of verbs in Diinlang that have separate present and past tense form. Duoverbs are typically verbs of communication.
duzn : dozen, the number 12. Used when dealing in dozenal (base 12) numbers.
Prefixes Suffixes a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

E

e/eh : and (conjunction). Shortcode : e
eje : any
eks : out. Shortcode : x
ekwis : horse (animal)
elva : the number 11 when dealing in base 12/dozenal numbers. One less than duzn.
em : I; first person singular pronoun. Alternative to mi.
emz : We; first person plural pronoun. Alternative to miz.
emask : please
English : Many conlangs avoid using English. English has many useful single syllable words, many of a suitable CV or CVn format.
eo : and/or; pronounced “ə-oh”
ergo : Ergo is “so” or “thus” in English, and presents a consequence:
“He gambled well last night ergo he smoked a cigar to celebrate.” The shorter and more versatile English word “so”, which is also used in Diinlang, may be more useful.

F

fe : fe was introduced in Diinlang 2.1 to replace du for “to do”. It allowed the use of “f” as a shortcode. Du may be reinstated as it is better phonetically.
felis : cat (animal).
felisjhenza : catwoman.
fing : thing.  
fiyr/fyr : fire
flam : flame.
flamzhan : inflamable
fohn : phone
fohnla : to communicate by phone.
fohnry : to communicate by texting
fohnyak : to speak by phone.

G

gau : nine (9).
gaung : tallness/shortness. Thick in vertical distance/substance upwards.
ge : to get (verb). Creates passive voice when used as an auxiliary with another verb. Shortcode : g
gri/grihi/grihyu : grey colour or grey coloured.
go : to go. Used much the same way as the English verb.
grohs : 144; 100 in base 12/dozenal numbers.
gun : a gun, firearm or item shaped like one.

H

h & u : when there is a vowel clash between syllables or words that are being compounded, a “-h-” is inserted. In the event of a consonant clash, “-u-” is used.
ha : to have (verb). This may be the better choice than he since it is phonetically more distinct. Short code : h
he : to have (verb). Creates perfect tense when used as auxiliary. Note that the vowel sound is very short. ha may be phonetically better. Shortcode : h
hey : greeting or salutation. Time independent. Pronounced : “hay”.
hin : back.
hyu, -hyu/hju, -hju : colour, hue

I

iban : possible auxiliary verb or preverbal marker for habitual tense.
if…o : Correlative conjunction used like “whether…or” or “if…or” in English.
if…dhen : Correlative conjunction used like “if…then” in English.
if…e : Correlative conjunction used like “if…and” in English.
if…so : Correlative conjunction used like “just as…so” in English.
ija : begin to cause, start to be.
imi : than/between/within/during
in : in. “In” has a wider range of use in Diinlang than in English. When travelling, you travel in a vehicle rather than by a vehicle. The exception is when you are physically on top of something such as a horse, camel or bike. Then you travel on, rather than by or in. In can be used for when you are within a location, or for during a time period. You would be “in France” or “in Summer”. Italian also uses “in” for constructions such that indicate travel towards a large area. “Vai in Francia” rather than “go to France”. Shortcode : i. Note that some programs automatically capitalize a solitary letter “i” if set for English.
ISV : Where possible, Diinlang uses words compatible with International scientific vocabulary (ISV). For example, the names of many animals are derived from their taxonomic name.
it : neuter third person pronoun for inanimates.
itz : neuter third person pronoun for multiple inanimates. Used when plurality must be emphasized.
iy : the diphthong [aɪ], pronounced as in “eye”, “aye”, “-igh”, “lied” and various other spellings in English. When used within a Diinlang word and placed after a consonant other than “h”, the i may be omitted and just a y used. Link
iso : iso/the same/equal/also. Note in Diinlang the first letter is pronounced as a short-i sound, rather than [aɪ] as used in English.

J

j : Since March 2024, the character “j” is used to represent the phoneme “yod” or IPA:/j/, which in English is the sound given to “y-” at the start of words or some syllables. This will require the respelling of many words or a change in pronounciation. The English “j” phoneme will be represented by the characters “dg”.
je/jez : je a/an. indefinite article. jez: some, plural form definite article.  When jez is placed before a numeral or equivalent, it has the same meaning as “approximate, about, circa”. May be pronounced with a IPA:/j/ or /dʒ/ phoneme. Shortcode : j, jz
jeve : each
jhen : person. jhen-zo: male person, jhen-za: female person. Plural means  “people”.
jahn/jahni/jahnhju : (March 2024 reformed spelling) yellow colour or yellow coloured. .
jak/jakte : (March 2024 reformed spelling) to talk (duoverb)
ju/dgu : reason; to reason.
Prefixes Suffixes a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

K

kanis : dog (canis)
kanen : gratitude.
ke : “what?”. Used as an interrogative or marks a clause or sentence as a question when placed at the start or end. Its resemblance to the Franco-Latin “que” may see it used as a relative pronoun (English “that”) or for comparison (like English “than”).
ke it? : what (thing)? interrogative.
ke jhen? : who?/what person? interrogative.
ke jeve? : Which one? (What each?) interrogative.
ke li? : what manner?/how? interrogative.
ke tem? : when?/what time? interrogative.
ke to? : how big? interrogative.
ke toz? how much? interrogative.
ke un? : which one?/who? interrogative.
ke vang? : what here?/what is this? interrogative.  
ke ving? : what there?/ what is that? interrogative.
ke ze? : who? interrogative.
klok : a clock.
ko : small, little (quality)
kodep : shallow; not deep.
kogaung : vertically short; not tall.
koleng : a short distance; having little horizontal depth.
kovid : narrow; lacking in width.
koz : small, few (quantity/number)
kom : with.
kuk: cook, to cook.
kum : to come (movement)
kwa : water.
kwah : “kwah” is used like “than” in English and separates things being compared. Unlike “than” in English, it can be used in a statement that things are equal or similar if the rest of the sentence is suitably constructed.
kwin/kwini/kwinhyu : green colour or green coloured. 

L

lang : language.
la/late : to say (duoverb) non-past/past. Shortcode : l, lt
laym/laymi/laymhyu : yellow-green colour or yellow-green coloured.
Lego Words : Where possible new words in Diinlang should be created by compounding. To this end the most commonly used or most useful words in Diinlang are of a form that can easily be combined. 
leng : distance, measure, dimension; horizontal distance/length
lev : left (direction)
lexverbs : verbs in Diinlang that are not duoverbs. 
ler (lerte) : to read (duoverb?)
li : manner or way of doing something.
likwe : liquid.
ling, -ling : young and small
lo : low

M

majn/majni/majnhyu : magenta/purple-red colour or magenta/purple-red coloured.
mal/mali : bad
matra : mother
mek : machine/mechanism.
mete : measuring device or instrument; a meter.
mi : I; first person singular pronoun. Alternative to em. Mi is abbreviated with the single letter “m” so it is inevitable that it will also be read as “em”. The spelling me is used on some old pages. Shortcode : m
miz : We; first person plural pronoun. Alternative to emz.
Modifier : generic term for adjective or adverb.
moje : every.
moko/mokoz : lesser, littler, smaller/fewer.
mota/motaz : bigger, larger/many, more numerous.

N

nau : now/present
NAAV : words that belong to noun, adjective, adverb or verb parts of speech.
ne : conjunction serving as an exclusive “and”. Has the meaning “but”, ”yet”, “nevertheless” and “however”.
ne…ne : Correlative conjunction used like “not only…but (also)” in English.
no/non : no, not. non is used for vowel clashes when forming compound words. Shortcode : n
no…no : Correlative conjunction used like “neither…nor” in English. Either or both no may be noz if before a plural.
noje : nothing
nojhen : no-one/no-body
nokom : without
nom : name. 
noniso : uneven, different, not-level.
noz : plural form of no, used to indicate that the subject being negated is plural. Shortcode : nz.
nyam : to chew

O

o/oh : or (conjunction). Shortcode o
o…o : Correlative conjunction used like “either…or” in English.
om : optional marker to indicate accompanying noun or pronoun is the direct object of the statement. When used before a predicative adjective om may function like a copula.
on : “On” sees less use as a preposition than in English. It is generally reserved for when physically on an object. You ride on a bike, meet on a bridge or are on a mountain. In most cases that English would use “on”, in Diinlang the preposition “at” would be used instead. You meet at the high street, at the bank, at one at Tuesday. “Veng” (near) may be used instead. The other use of “on” has the meaning “about”. Rather than having a book about Shakespeare or book of Shakespeare, in Diinlang the translation would be a book on Shakespeare. Constructions such as “talk about…” could either be “talk of (de)…” or “talk on (on)…”
oren/oreni/orenhyu : orange colour or orange coloured.
ovis : sheep (animal).
oy : the diphthong [ɔɪ̯] in Diinlang. The sound in ”oil” and “boy” in English.

P

pan : all, whole. Can mean “every”.
panje : everything/all things.
pan-yu : all of you
par : (copulative verb) “to seem to be”, “to appear to be”.
pe/per : for/leave for, associated with/with respect to. “Per” is  used in Italian, English and Diinlang. Its use in Italian is a little more broader than in English and these applications should also be used in Diinlang. “Per” is used for “for” in uses such as “leave for Rome” or “bus for Milan”. It has the meaning “for/to” and now becomes the complement of “po”. It can also have the meanings “during” (per annum), “for each” (per person), “to each/ in each” (per metre, per hour), “in accordance” (per your request), “by means of” (Li skribis per plumo, Sono passato per il centro) and in some cases mean “as, with, by, via”.
Generally,it may be simpler for pe/per to be used like its equivalent in Lingua Franca Nova (LFN): for; to introduce a goal or recipient; indicate an exchange of items; or indicate a relationship to a unit of time or other measure. May simply adopt pe in place of per. Shortcode : p
per li : because
per se : meaning same as in English. For itself, in itself, for myself etc.
pink/pinki/pinkhyu : pink colour or pink coloured.
Plurality : Nouns are made plural by using an article or other determiner ending in -z, or using a quantifier or numerical determiner of a value greater than one. Plural pronouns end in -z.
po : “Po” means “from” and is derived from “apo”, used in a number of other languages. It is used with various verbs and directives for constructions such as “down-from” or “run-from”. Po is used to construct more logical terms. Rather than saying “a play by Shakespeare”, Diinlang would say “a play from/po Shakespeare”.
potsu : Word used for rain in earlier versions of Diinlang. “Rayn” is probably a better alternative.
pro : in favour of.
purp/purpi/purphyu : purple colour or purple coloured.
Prefixes Suffixes a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

R

re : On its own, re is used to mean “again”. “la ving re!” = “say that again!”. “re la ving!” = “repeat that!”.
rekum : to return.
red/redi/redhyu : red or red coloured. 
reta : very
run : to run. This is the same as the English verb and used in many of the same ways in a variety of meanings.
ry/ryte, riy/riyte : to write (duoverb) present/past

S

sang : blood
se : reflexive pronoun. When combined with a pronoun makes a phrase meaning “myself”, “yourself”, “themselves” etc. When uses as the object of a verb clause refers back to the subject.
Shortcode : Shortcodes are single characters that represent commonly used words in written Diinlang. Link
sian/siani/sianhyu : blue-green/cyan colour or blue-green/cyan coloured.
Single Syllable Strategy : Policy in Diinlang that the most commonly used or most useful words should be a single syllable/phoneme for easy compounding.
siy/sy : side (physical location).
Sixteen Vowels : Derived from Pitman phonetics. The short vowels are a, e, i, o, u, uh. The long vowels are ah, ay, ee, oh, or, uu. The diphthongs are au, iy, oy, yu.
sku : apology
skuz : many apologies.
so: so; used as in English.
sori : sorry
su/suz : relative pronoun used to join two clauses. This can be remembered from the English word “subject”. It is the equivalent of the English “who”, “what”, “which”, or “that” when used in a non-interrogative sense. For “whose” it combines with “vo” as “su vo”.

T

ta : large, big, great (quality)
tadep : deep.
tagaung : vertically high; tall.
taleng : a long distance; having a lot of horizontal depth.
tavid : wide; broad; abundant in width.
taz : large, big (quantity/number).
te : When used with verbs, te is a preverbal marker to indicate that the verb is in past tense. Shortcode : t
tem : time
temtem : frequent; frequency.
temmete : time measuring device; clock; timer; chronometer.
tok : clock noise.
tra : Diinlang now uses the word “tra” to mean “through”, as is done in several other conlangs. The Diinlang word “dia” also means “through”.
trayn : train.
traleng : horizontal depth
trop/trop ta : too (many)
trop ko, trop koz : too little, too few.
tsageer : 1728; 1000 in base 12/dozenal numbers.
tsau : greeting/hello/leaving/goodbye
tu : Diinlang originally used tu as the second person pronoun. It is retained as some users familiar with some natural languages may find this more intuitive. tu is used exactly the same as yu in Diinlang. The two words are fully interchangeable and one should not be considered less formal than the other.

U

un : alternate singular indefinite article, equivalent to “1, one, a, or an” in English. It can be pronounced with a long “uu” sound like the French “une”, or short like “en” or “an”. Shortcode form may be the numeral “1”, since “u” is already used for a pronoun. Un may also be used when an impersonal pronoun is required. It is the equivalent of the English use of “one” in context such as “One should always brush one's teeth”.
Uncount/Mass Nouns : Uncount or mass nouns are treated as singular in Diinlang when selecting articles.
un mota : one more, another.
un ta : a lot.
up : up
upgo : to  ascend or move upwards
upta : high,
upko : not-high; low down but still above,

V

va : Verbal marker indicating future tense.
val : to fall
van : front
vang : this/here.
vangz : these
ve/vez : “the”. definite article. vez: plural form of definite article. ve/vez used without a noun is used as a third person inanimate pronoun. Shortcode : v, vz
ve vang/ving/vangz/vengz : emphasised use as a demonstative determiner. this/that/these/those.
veng : near
verd : leaves/foliage
vetem : when; the time (that) (non-interrogative).
vid : width; lateral horizontal distance.
ving : that/there.
vingz : those.
viol/violi/violhyu : violet/purple-blue colour or violet/purple-blue coloured.
vo : optional genitive marker used with pronouns and nouns. Placed after the noun or pronoun of the owner and before the owned object. Dean vo un kanis = Dean's dog.
vong : yonder, distant.
viyt/viyti/viythyu : white colour or white coloured.
Prefixes Suffixes a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

Y

y : from March 2024, the English initial “y-” sound (“yod” or /j/) will be represented by the character “j” in Diinlang. “Y-” as a phoneme effectively becomes redundant in Diinlang. Diinlang words begininng in “y-” should be respelled with “j-”. Only ya and yu and their derivations will be written with an intitial “y-”.
ya : yes. Shortcode : y
yahn/yahni/yahnhyu : yellow colour or yellow coloured. .
yak/yakte : to talk (duoverb)
yay, nay : alternatives of ya/ye and no/ne.
ye, ne : alternatives of ya and no.
yu : you; second person pronoun, either singular or plural. Shortcode : u. Also represents the dipthong /ju/ in Diinlang.
yu-em/yu-emz : construction used when it desired to distinguish that an inclusive-we is being used. Literally, “you-me”.
yuz : you (plural), y'all, youse; second person pronoun used when it is desired to make clear that more than a single individual is being addressed.

Z

za : female third person singular pronoun for animates.
zau : subjunctive/conditional preverbal marker.
zaz : female third person plural pronoun for animates.
zhan : to be able to.
ze : neuter third person singular pronoun for animates. Shortcode : z
zez : neuter third person plural pronoun for animates. Shortcode : zz
zo : male third person singular pronoun for animates.
zoz : male third person plural pronoun for animates.

Prefixes Suffixes a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z
Categories
Language

Au Nau Braun Kau

In English, dipthongs are represented by two letter combinations (digraphs). Of course, English being English, digraphs may represent more than one dipthong, and some dipthongs are represented by more than one digraph!
In English, the dipthong “//aʊ//” in IPA is represented by “ou” or “ow”, but is also used in the words “Maori”, “Mcleod”, “sauerkraut” and “umlaut”.
In Diinlang we try to improve on this, with each dipthong only being represented by a single digraph.
In the past, the dipthong represented by “//aʊ//” in IPA has been represented in Diinlang by the digraph “ou”.
Recently it has occurred to me that “//aʊ//” might be better represented by the digraph “au”. This will be more intuitive for users familiar with IPA. It also reduced the number of dipthongs in Diinlang that have digraphs beginning in “o-”.
Categories
Language

Euphony and Syllable Identification

I came across these passages of dialogue in a novel:
“Talekli lamo da ti saso ma, hasi de los padremaso tik de lama… Masa tu so gladji beri rama…”
“… saso ti da mati namo, zara ti raguesta di la ramo…”
“… maso si nami lama”
“Slami makto, shaba tlek na doura rashamateran…”
“Sama slektli, Tara oorsi sa mamda lami se tarakogla me so sani ta deloka de somata so se hakara de sao soma…”
Euphorically, I find this language quite pleasing. There is something of a Mediterranean feel to it, probably due to the numerous open syllables. This is somewhat ironic, since in the novel the languag is supposed to be demonic, or at least trans-dimensional!
There are clear advantages to having a conlang that is both clear and easy to listen to.
Why are these words so pleasing? Euphony is subjective, of course, and one factor will be how the reader will render these letters into sounds. For me, at least, even the longer words were easy to pronounce since my inclination was to treat the words as though composed of Japanese mora: for example “ra-sha-ma-te-ran”. Nearly all these words are treated as being composed of CV or CVn mora. Exceptions to this include “kli”, “tli” “dre” “gla” (CCV), “los”, “tik”, “slek”, “tlek” “es”, “oor” (VC), and “glad”.
This suggests that I have a tendency to treat certain letters as being more likely to terminate a syllable. -k or -d after a vowel are treated as the end of a syllable rather than the start of a following mora. Would the voiced/voiceless equivalents of these letters be treated the same? According to this article on cryptograms, the most common letters to end a word (rather than a syllable) in English are: e, s, t, d. The ending -t suggests to me a perfect or finished aspect. Odd that the word “stop” in English ends in a -p, although one sometimes encounters “stopped” spelt “stopt” in older texts .
Since Diinlang will attempt to utilize compound words, with each syllable being a corresponding “normal” word, there are obvious advantages if there are simple, consistent rules for recognition of where on syllable ends and another starts.
Categories
Language

Why You Should Never LOL

Someone recently repeated to me the old chestnut, “language changes”. I thought about this for a few minutes, and realized this was not actually correct. If anything, “language mutates”. Some of these mutations are useful, others are not, and need to be culled.
I was recently reading Alvin Toffler’s “The Third Wave”. This is one of those books that everyone should read. I would suggest that it be required reading in schools, but it highlights many of the flaws of the Second Wave education system, so very likely not going to happen! I was reading an article on the book, and right in the middle the author makes some comment like “LOL floppy disks”. I did not bother finishing that article. Other than chewing gum with your mouth open while wearing your baseball cap backwards with a tee-shirt saying “Im an Idiot”, I cannot think of a better way to negate any point you were trying to make.
I have, incidentally, worked with someone who would actually laugh out loud at the most trivial of things. It is nowhere as much fun as you might think, and he was a true idiot. On my DVD collection there is a cast interview with an individual who ends every answer he makes with a loud guffaw. It did not make him witty or affable.
Multi-talented comedian Bill Bailey has suggested that any use of LOL be immediately countered with “NELI” (Not Even Laughing Inwardly).
This highlights one of the main flaws in using LOL as a response. Generally it is applied to a comment that was not particularly funny, let along “laugh out loud” funny.
When made as a response to a statement that was not intended to be amusing, it is outright insulting.
Infinitely worse, however, is adding a LOL to your own comment. As the actor referenced above illustrates, laughing at your own jokes does not put one in a good light. It has been considered a social gaffe since long before the internet.
Before I escaped from facebook, I observed there was effectively a rule to using LOL. The rule was:
“If you want to add LOL to the end of a statement, what you said isn’t funny. If it isn’t funny, perhaps you should not say it and look stupid”.
True humour or wit does not need a “rim-shot” or other marker. People will be laughing without being instructed to do so.
Using “LOL” does not make you funny. Instead it comes across as an affected, pretentious, pathetic, self-indulgent plea for affirmation.