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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

Conjunctions in Diinlang Part One

Version 1.2

I have noticed that I have not posted anything on the blog about conjunctions in Diinlang. The section below is taken from a draft I wrote when the project first started. As with most Diinlang, nothing is carved in stone and may be subject to change and modification.
Originally Diinlang was to observe a CVn format for words. I felt that Diinlang conjunctions should not have to follow CVn format but should be phonetically distinct. They should be short -two letters for the most often used, three for the less common.
I did consider that it might be possible to expand on this basic set to allow some more logical constructions such as Loglan does.
Fourteen short words serve most of the conjugate needs in Diinlang. These can be used in combination and for some uses may need to be combined with simple words like “only” or “even”.
The first conjunctions to learn are “en”, “or”, “enor” and “nor”
en means “and” and presents non-contrasting item(s) or idea(s): “Zez gamble en zez smoke.” Following Chinese practice this conjunction may be optional in a sentence if the meaning remains clear. “Kom” (with) is an acceptable alternative. While an English speaker would be inclined to say “Dean en Jon” in Deanlang some nationalities are more inclined to use the construction “Dean kom Jon”.
In the original draft “et” was the word for “and”. Despite its use in French and some other languages a “-t” ending did not seem right for this particular conjunction. Many languages use just “e” but this is not so elegant when “and” is combined into other words, so I have selected “en”, which is used in a number of languages and is phonetically intuitive to English speakers. This may mean the word “enje” for “any” will need changing.  
or means the same as in English and presents an alternative item or idea: “Every day they gamble or they smoke.”
enor means “and/or” and presents options that may be either inclusive or exclusive. This was originally “etor”. Potentially we could have the word “komor” for “with/or”.
“You may have cake enor ice cream!”
nor presents a non-contrasting negative idea (“They do not gamble, nor do they smoke.”)
Del has a role as a non-specific conjunction. If you are unsure of which conjunction to use, use “del”. Scots uses “o”  for  “of/from” and this may be adopted in Diinlang instead, forming a nice counterpoint for the possessive marker “vo”.
dhen, but, yet, ergo, kos
dhen is “then” and is a conjunction that is also a preposition. It is used like and/en 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”.  “dhen” is likely to be changed.
but/yet are both used to presents a contrast or exception. While their use is similar it is not fully interchangeable in English and the distinctions will become apparent when using subordinating conjunctions.
    “They gamble, but they don't smoke.”
    “They gamble, yet they don't smoke.”
Whether it is worth keeping “yet” in Diinlang remains to be decided.
Ergo is “so” or “thus” in English and presents a consequence
“He gambled well last night ergo he smoked a cigar to celebrate.”
It may be more logical to keep the shorter and more versatile English word “so”.
Kos is used for the conjunctions “because” or “for” (freeing "for" for other applications) The use of kos compliments “ergo” since it presents a cause rather than a consequence.
    “We went inside because it rained.” = “Miz pre go intra kos it dunpotsu”.
    “It rained so we went inside” = “It dunpotsu ergo miz pre go intra.

Update

“Kos” is unfortunately a homophone of “koz” (few). The word “per” may serve for many of the applications that we use “because” for in English. For some applications constructions such as “per ke”, “per li”, “per sa” may be needed instead. Possibly the most apt construction will be “per ifa”.
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. “Dean bi taha kwah Jon”, “Ray bi iso kwah Jon” (Dean is much bigger than Jon, Ray is equal/same as Jon).
It may be better to use “as” in this application. Scots uses  “nor” for “than”, which I find logical and is my current preference.
If, as : If is mainly used with correlative and subordinate conjunctions and indicates a conditional statement.
“as” presents an explanation ("He is gambling with his health, as he has been smoking far too long.")  As can mean “the same way” or “at the same time”. It is may be used instead of “than”/”kwah” when the things discussed are even or equivalent or nearly so in some way. Possibly “as” can be used for “too/also”.
“per” is used much the same as in English and can be used as “with respect to/wrt”. It may also mean “for each”, “to each”, “in each”, “in accordance with” or “via the”. Per also serves as a preposition.
 The fourteen basic conjunctions are therefore en, or, enor, nor, dhen, but, yet, ergo, kos, kwah, if, as, per, del.
 

Correlative Conjunctions

Correlative conjunctions are formed using combinations of the above words.
either…or                           (or)…or  The first “or” is optional.
not only…but (also)           but….but (?)
neither…nor                       nor…nor
both…and                          probably redundant! Diinlang has singular and plural, no dual.
whether…or                           if…or
if…or                                       if…or   
if…and                                    if…et
if…then                                  if…dhen
just as…so                               ergo…ergo //if…ergo
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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 have “ta” 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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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

Diinlang Numbers

Version 1.1
Like most of Diinlang the numbering system is a work in progress and subject to change.
Numbers in Diinlang derive from ISV prefixes with some modifications for increased clarity.
1 uni               8 okt               36 triten heks
2 duo              9 niyn             42 tetten duo
3 tri                10 ten             54 pentteni tet
4 tet                11 ten uni       69 hekten niyn
5 pent             12 ten duo     78 septten okt
6 heks             13 ten tri        83 oktten tri
7 sept              20 duoten     99 niynten niyn
The use of deka for 10 would make 20 duodeka and cause confusion with terms such as duodecimal and hexadecimal. The English “ten” has the merit of being one syllable. Likewise “niyn” is clearer than the Latin and Greek derived “ennea” and “nona”.
Larger numbers are hekta (100), kila (1000), mega (1,000,000), tera (1,000,000,000,000 or 1012 ) and yotta (1024). Other numbers are formed from combinations of these: deka kilia is 10,000, kilia mega is 1,000,000,000.
Ordinal numbers (the equivalent of “first”, “third”, “eighty second” etc could be formed by adding “-nd” to the final number word. Therefore “unind”, “trind” “oktten duond”. It may be clearer to use the system where ordinals are formed by placing the number after the thing described. Hence “tri kanisiz” is “three dogs” while “kanisi tri” is “third dog”. This is consistent with the proposed system of placing adjectives after the noun. Cardinal numbers are treated as determiners, ordinal numbers as adjectives
A suffix/ word for “group” could be used to form words such as “dual”, “pair”, “trio” etc.
“Duzn” is an alternate word for 12 and used when working in dozenals. “Elva” (from Swedish) is an alternate for 11. When working with dozenals 144 or 122 is “grohs” and 123 or 1728 is a tsagiir.

Update

Using “ten” may cause confusion with the “ten-” radio code system. “Diis”, adapted from Haitian Creole may be a more suitable word for 10 and  has the advantage that it is closer to the words used in many European languages.
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Interjections

Version 1.
I have not devoted much time to interjections since most interjections are going to arise naturally so it is pointless to try to define them. There are going to be natural sounds like “huh” and “umm”. The Diinlang word “ke” can serve as a verbal marker for questions, the most likely use being to replace the sound “eh?” at the end of a statement.
I would suggest adopting “hey” as the standard greeting. It already fits the pronunciation standards of Diinlang, is already in wide use and is widely understood by the speakers of various languages. It serves to say “hello”, “I am here” and also “I acknowledge you”.
“Tshou” may be used as either a greeting or parting phrase. This is a phonetic rendition of the Italian “ciao” which has come to be used by many other nationalities. Both tshou and hey are time-independent greetings, useful in the modern world where people routinely communicate from different time zones.
“Sori” (sorry) seems like a good word to retain/ adopt for Diinlang. “No” is already in use in Diinlang and widely understood.
“Ya” or “yah” is used for “yes”. This allows us to retain the convention of “Y or N” with computers.
Originally I had the term “pro favori” for “please” but this is too many syllables. The word “miask” (from “I ask”) is used for “please” when making a request. It has been selected for verbal compactness and to remind the speaker that they are making a request, not a demand.
The word “kanen” means “gratitude” and can be used for “please” and for “thank you?” I do not recall how I selected this word but it will do for now.
“Sku”  is used for “apology” or an alternate for “sorry”.
“Skuz” therefore means “many apologies”.
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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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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 pronoun “tu” 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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Comparatives and Superlatives Part Three

Sometimes, I have been known to take my own advice…
I have been thinking further on the topic of comparatives and superlatives. In my last post in this vein I proposed “plu-”, “plust-”, “min-”, “minst-” for the “more, most” and “less, least/ fewer, fewest” sequences. Using words that are common to several other constructed languages can be a mixed blessing. I notice that Interglossa makes considerable use of “plu” but uses it as an article to indicate plurality. A bigger problem is that I have words for the comparatives and superlatives but no related word for the positives: “much/ many” and “few/ little”.
In my post on the “vang, veng, ving, vong” progression I mentioned that when I came up with the concept of relating words by an alphabetical vowel progression I had expected to make more use of it than I had.
Thinking on this I now propose the sequences “mas, mes, mos” and “las, les, los”. The first is easy to remember since some of the words resemble English words such as “mass” and “most”. “Mas” is reminiscent of “mais”, the Portuguese word for more/ most. “Les” phonetically resembles its English meaning, “less”. All of the words have the common theme of ending in “-s”.
Some languages use an “absolute superlative”. To do this in Diinlang use mos– with the augmentive suffix –ta or los– with the diminutive suffix, –ko.
The use of “mes” here means that we can no longer use it for the small/ medium/ large progression. In another recent post I remarked on the tendency to create new words were familiar English ones would do. “Gros” is somewhat ambiguous since it can also indicate a number (144), a quantity or something unpleasant. The English word “big” is, however, widely understood and has surprisingly few alternate meanings, even in other languages. Using “big-“ as a prefix has echoes of various pidgins and creoles but that is not necessarily a bad thing. Those are languages that evolved for clearer communication so have some features worth examining. “Mes” in this progression gets replaced with “mid”, another simple word whose meaning will be clear and logical to many who encounter it.
Small/Medium/Large are now represented in Diinlang by “mik, mid, big”. These may be combined to indicate intermediate graduations using the words “mikmid” and “midbig”.