Tainiren

[Ashucky]

So, it's been a while since I've made a new conlang. But the other day I decided to create a new one. The conlang is supposed to be rather simple (well, simple from my point of view, good thing it's all relative ). I'm still working on it and things may change.

The name of the conlang is Tainyren /ˈtai̯nəɾen/ and the name doesn't mean anything for now, but that will probably change at some point (the meaning, not the name). The language is spoken in the same conworld as the rest of my conlangs (except one).

Orthography and phonology:
Consonants:
<m n nn ŋ> /m n n: ŋ/
<p pp b t tt d k kk g> /p p: b t t: d k k: g/
<s z h x> /s z x ɣ/
<l r j w> /l ɾ j w/
<c q> /t͡s d͡z/

Vowels:
<a e i o u y> /a e i o u ə/

The syllable structure is (C(j))(V)V(V)(n/s), the '(V)' being the non-vocallic part of diphthongs. Any consonant (except the long ones) can appear in the onset position, but only two in the coda position: n and s. There are four types of consonant clusters allowed: /nC/, /Cj/, /sk/, and /st/; the first one last two only inter-vocally, /Cj/ can occur word-initially as well, none are legal word-finally. Vowel clusters are allowed as well as any combination of Vi, iV, Vu, and uV diphthongs.

Allophony:
- /np nb/ <np nb> usually become [mp mb]
- /nm/ <nm> is usually pronounced as [m:]
- /t͡sj d͡zj/ <cj qj> and /tj dj/ <tj dj> usually palatalise to [t͡ɕ d͡ʑ]
- similarly, /sj zj/ <sj zj> palatalise to [ɕ ʑ]
- /p b/<p b> may be fricativised to [f v] when the surrounding syllables contain fricatives
- /e o/ <e o> can be lowered to [ɛ ɔ] when word-final and unstressed or just unstressed
- the schwa /ə/ <y> may be omitted in certain word-final syllables or when between certain consonants
- the non-vocallic part of diphthongs may be lowered: /i̯ u̯/ to [ɪ̯ ʊ̯]

Omittion of schwa:
- within a word: /nəC/ → [nC] or [ŋC] if C = [k g x ɣ]
- word-final: /nə mə ŋə sə lə xə ɾə/ → [n: m: ŋ: s: l: x ɾ], and /pə/ → [f]

Orthograpic conventions:
- allophony is not represented in the standard orthography, but there is an alternative, more phonetic orthography
- the combinations with n and a velar are always written with <n>, even though the nasal is pronounced as [ŋ] ([ŋk] or /ŋk/ is written as <nk> and not <ŋk>)
- the nasal /ŋ/ is written as <ŋ> but it can be written as <ng> as well, in which case the actual <ng> [ŋg] is written with an apostrophe inbetween: <n'g>


This is more or less it, I think. I may change some bits but probably not. Anywho, any thoughts/comments/questions? Now I have to figure out how those tables work again, and then I can move to grammar ... declensions and conjugations look nice in tables, don't they?

[Ashucky]

Nouns! And declenstions, of course. I can't go without genders (or noun classes), numbers, and cases.

Numbers: singular, dual, paucal, and plural. Needless to say, singular is for one entity, dual for two, paucal for entities between (inclusive) three and ten/eleven/twelve, and plural for anything above ten/eleven/twelve.

Cases: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, stative prepositional, and active prepositional. The stative prepositional case is used with prepositions of place (eg. in, on, at) and the active prepositional case is used with prepositions of movement (eg. into, onto, towards). The majority of the prepositions can go with either or both prepositional cases, but there are some that can (also) go with genitive, dative, or accusative.

Genders: masculine, feminine, common, and neuter. The first two should be more or less self-explanatory, the common gender consists of animate entities where the sex is unimportant or can't be easily determined, the neuter gender is for inanimate entities. Of course, there are exceptions and words may not always belong to the most logical gender. An example would be the word for water, era, which is common, even though logically it should be neuter.

Declensions: four declensions, presented below. Where there are two possibilities, the first always corresponds to the first ending in nominative singular, and the second possibility corresponds to the second ending in nom. sg. (Scroll to the bottom of the post to see additional notes regarding declensions if you don't want to go through the tables.)

Masculine declension or the E/I-declension:

Case	Singular	Dual	Paucal	Plural
Nominative:	-e/-i	-a	-ai	-o
Genitive:	-ei/-ii	-ea/-ia	-es/-is	-oi
Dative	-es/-is	-as	-ys	-os
Accusative	-i	-ie	-in	-un
Stative prep.:	-en/-in	-an	-yn	-on
Active prep.:	-ire	-era/-ira	-ere	-iro

Feminine declension or the O/U-declension:

Case	Singular	Dual	Paucal	Plural
Nominative:	-o/-u	-eu	-ei	-e
Genitive:	-oi/-ui	-io	-os/-us	-ui
Dative	-os/-us	-es	-ys	-as
Accusative	-u	-ou/-uu	-un	-un
Stative prep.:	-on/-un	-an	-on/-un	-an
Active prep.:	-ore/-ure	-ori/-uri	-ori/-uri	-oro/-uro

Common declension or the A/Y-declension:

Case	Singular	Dual	Paucal	Plural
Nominative:	-a/-y	-o	-oi	-ei
Genitive:	-ai/-yi	-ie	-as	-ui
Dative	-as/-ys	-os	-ys	-os
Accusative	-a	-io	-an/-yn	-en
Stative prep.:	-an/-yn	-ain/-yin	-ein	-un
Active prep.:	-ari/-yri	-are/-yre	-ary/-yry	-yri

Neuter declension or the N/S-declension:

Case	Singular	Dual	Paucal	Plural
Nominative:	(-n/-s)	-o	-ai	-ei
Genitive:	-e	-ia	-as	-yi
Dative	-ti	-to	-y	-an
Accusative	-a	-oi	-ia	-ie
Stative prep.:	-(n)na/-(t)ta	-(n)ni/-(t)ti	-(n)ni/-(t)ti	-(n)ne/-(t)te
Active prep.:	-ta	-ty	-ty	-tia

Notes:
- when the nouns in the masculine, feminine, or common (MFC) declensions end in -Vi or -Vu diphthongs, the non-vocallic part changes, -i to -t, and -u to -n; the suffixes stay the same; the -iV and -uV diphthongs are regular (eg. -ie belongs to the masculine declension).
- if the last single consonant before the monophthong in nom. sg. in the MFC declensions can be lengthened, then it is lengthened for all forms of the -i, -u, and -y paradigms where there is no difference between the two paradigms within the same declension (there are some exceptions where the lengthening doesn't occur); the consonants are: n, p, t, k, and they change to nn, pp, tt, kk, respectively.
- similarly to the above change, if the last consonant before the monophthong in nom. sg. in the MFC declensions is long (written as two consonants), then the long consonant is shortened; the consonants are: nn, pp, tt, kk,, and they change to m, b, d, g,, respectively.
- nouns ending in -s (neuter declension) change to -t in the stative prepositional case (the change is also shown in the paradigm above).
- nouns ending in a stressed word-final vowel belong to the neuter declension and if the suffix is the same as the stressed vowel, then the stem vowel is replaced by the suffix (which becomes stressed), if the vowel is different, then it is simply added to the (unaltered) stem.


Well, that's all regarding nouns, I think. I will probably make more detailed rules regarding what (types of) words belong to which gender, but the main stuff is here. Adjectives need some tweaking now, and verbs as well. I'll post one or the other as soon as I have things set. Haven't started working on my pronouns or numerals, yet, though.

[Quetzalcoatl]

Good work, I like conlangs with genders and declension classes, it makes them appear much more natural than conlangs without any exceptions or variations... Good work, although I find it a little weird to use "q" for "dz"

[Ashucky]

Good work, I like conlangs with genders and declension classes, it makes them appear much more natural than conlangs without any exceptions or variations... Good work, although I find it a little weird to use "q" for "dz"

Thanks. I tried to do a conlang without any cases or anything like that but I couldn't, it just didn't feel right. And I think all my conlangs have dual xD
As for the q for /dz/ ... I know it's a rather unusual choice but I didn't want to use a digraph or a letter with a diacritic. I decided to use only the basic Latin letters with the addition of ŋ. The only two letters I don't use are f and v but neither are any better choice for /dz/ as q is. At least in my opinion.

[Ashucky]

Adjectives! I don't have everything fully figured out yet but at the main stuff is. This is just a quick introduction.

Endings: -ng- (the default ending), -ri-, -st-, -nd- (possessive adjectives), and -(i/u/y)ci- (adjectives derived from verbs).

I haven't decided yet whether the -ri- and -st- endings will have a particular meaning behind them or just secondary endings (-ng- being the primary ending). I will most likely introduce a few other specialised endings, like the English -able and the like.

Agreement: adjectives agree with the noun in all four categories - declension, gender, number, and case.

The general overview of adjectival declensions is as follows:

Case	Singular	Dual	Paucal	Plural
Nominative:	-V	-V	-V	-V
Genitive:	-V*	-V	-is*	-V
Dative	-es	-as	-ys/-y**	-os
Accusative	-V	-V	-Vn/-ia**	-in*/-ie**
Stative prep.:	-en	-an	-un	-on
Active prep.:	-eri	-ari	-uri	-iri*

Notes:
- suffixes marked as -V are the same as the suffixes of nominal declensions
- suffixes marked with an asterisk (*) lose the first -i- when the adjectival stem ends in -i-
- suffixes marked with two asterisks (**) are used with the neuter declension
- when the neuter declension has suffixes beginning in a consonant, they're replaced by the suffixes of the common declension (except in nominative singular of -ri- adjectives)

Degrees of comparison are formed by altering the original ending:
- comparative: ng → ngen, ri → rin, st → tti, nd → nan, (i/u/y)ci → (i/u/y)qen
- superlative: ng →kki, ri → llen, st → han, nd → nai, (i/u/y)ci → (i/u/y)qed
- elative: ng → ngar, ri → rah, st → skui, nd → war, (i/u/y)ci → (i/u/y)tes
(elative refers to the "too X" form)

That's it! Simple, really.

[Ashucky]

Right, verbs. As expected, verbs are conjugated. I have 3 persons and 3 numbers (singular, dual and plural; paucal goes under plural). There are only three tenses: present, past and future. I'm not sure how many aspects I will have, if any. Most likely, though, I'll go with a simple perfective - imperfective system or something like that, possibly including a variety of other aspects (following the Slavic logic). There are also several moods, I've decided to go with indicative (obviously), conditional, optative, subjunctive, imperative and jussive. The indicative and the conditional are the only moods for which I have a full set of suffixes for now, and I'm working on the others.

Indicative has all three tenses (past, present, future), conditional has two (past and present), optative will probably have two, subjunctive also has two (past and present), imperative one, and jussive two (present and future). Imperative is only used in the 2nd person and 1st person dual and plural, jussive in the 1st and 3rd person.

I'm still thinking how to include reflexivity and reciprocal, or whether I should have both, anyway. Having active is evident and I'll probably have a form of passive (possibly even a stative - dynamic system), and impersonal passive. A form of causative is also still an option. But most of these features will most likely be expressed analogically (aka using auxiliaries and the like).

There are also several types of verbs. The infinitival endings are -is, -us and -ys. Here's a simplified table (for the indicative):

	PR -is	PS -is	FT -is	PR -us	PS -us	FT -us	PR -ys	PS -ys	FT -ys
1SG	-e	-a	-o	-ui	-ua	-ou	-yi	-ia	-oi
2SG	-te	-de	-no	-tu	-du	-nu	-ty	-dy	-ny
3SG	-i	-re	-ri	-u	-ru	-rou	-y	-ry	-oi
1DU	-es	-as	-os	-us	-uas	-ous	-ys	-ias	ois
2DU	-tes	-tas	-tos	-tus	-tuas	-tous	-tys	-tias	-tyis
3DU	-nes	-nas	-nos	-nus	-nuas	-tous	-nys	-nias	-tyis
1PL	-en	-(h)an	-on	-un	-(h)un	-tuon	-yn	-(h)yn	-toin
2PL	-ten	-tan	-non	-tun	-tuan	-tuon	-tyn	-tian	-noin
3PL	-nen	-ran	-ron	-nun	-run	-ruon	-nyn	-ryn	-ryin

However, the above suffixes may change a bit for certain subtypes (in the form above they're only used for the subtype a, see below). Some of the subtypes also have a relatively high degree of syncretism.

Type 1 or the -IS verbs:
a) -(V)nis
b) -(V)sis, -(V)tis
c) -(V)kis, -(V)pis, -(V)lis
d) -(V)Cis, -(V)ŋis
e) -nCis, -sCis
f) Cis (monosyllabic verbs; they follow a different paradigm, see below)
g) nis (to be; irregular, see below)

Type 2 and 3 or the -US and -YS verbs:
a) -(V)nus; -(V)nys
b) -(V)sus, -(V)tus; -(V)sis, -(V)tis
c) -(V)kus, -(V)pus, -(V)lus; -(V)kys, -(V)pys, -(V)lys
d) -(V)Cus, -(V)ŋus; -(V)Cys, -(V)ŋys
e) -nCus, -sCus; -nCys, -sCys
(there are no monosyllabic verbs here)

Here's the paradigm for the monosyllabic verbs (example verb: dis to see):

	Present	Past	Future
1SG	deu	dau	dou
2SG	dei	dai	doi
3SG	dii	die	dio
1DU	deis	dais	dois
2DU	dies	dias	dios
3DU	des	das	dos
1PL	dein	dain	doin
2PL	dien	dian	dion
3PL	den	dan	don

And as always, the verb nis to be is irregular:

	Present	Past	Future
1SG	neu	nau	nou
2SG	nei	mai	moi
3SG	nii	mii	rii
1DU	neis	nais	nois
2DU	teis	tais	tois
3DU	nes	nas	nos
1PL	jen	hain	jon
2PL	tein	tain	noin
3PL	nen	rain	roin

That's it for now. More to come. Also, guys, feel free to post a comment or a thought regarding the language.

[Kshaard]

For me, Wikipedia was too confusing, so I'm not sure the difference between imperative and jussive. When would one be used instead of the other?

[Ashucky]

Well, the main difference is that imperative is used with the second person, whereas the jussive is used with the first and third persons. The difference in usage of the actual moods isn't so great, I think, as they both express very similar things. But you can technically give an order only to someone in the second person. Of course, you can give an order in the second person (plural), too. In English that requires the use of a different structure ("let's"), in some language it is covered by the imperative (as in Slovene). For the third person, it gets more complicated since you can't really give an order to someone directly (aka using the imperative). In English you simply use the to-infinitive ("Tell him to go"), in Slovene we use either the indicative or an optative construction. This is where the jussive comes in, it basically replaces that to-infinitive in English.

Hope that made it a bit clearer. If not, ask again.

[Ashucky]

Pronouns! Well, personal pronouns only, for now. They exist for each number and are fully declined in all six cases. First and second persons aren't declined for gender but the third person is, in all four numbers. However, there is a a high degree of syncretism in the 3rd person pronouns. There isn't much more to tell about personal pronouns in Tainyren. Some of the pronouns may not be pronounced as expected, in such cases I wrote the pronunciation next to the pronoun (this includes allophony, too).

Singular:

Case	1SG	2SG	3SG M	3SG F	3SG C	3SG N
Nominative:	wa	ga	qe	qo	qa	qji [d͡ʑi]
Genitive:	wei	gei	qei	qoi	qai	qjei [d͡ʑei̯]
Dative	wai	gai	qai	qui [d͡zʷei̯]	qei	qje [d͡ʑe]
Accusative	wi	gi	qi	qu	qau	qja [d͡ʑa]
Stative prep.:	wan	gan	qen	qon	qan	qjan [d͡ʑan]
Active prep.:	wari	gari	qire	qore	qari	qjari [d͡ʑaɾi]

Dual:

Case	1DU	2DU	3DU M	3DU F	3DU C	3DU N
Nominative:	hora	sora	kora	koru	koro	koro
Genitive:	hie [xi̯e]	sje [ɕe]	kai	koi	kai	kai
Dative	hori	sori	kori	kore	kory	kory
Accusative	hio [xi̯o]	sjo[ɕo]	keu	kou	kia [ki̯a]	kia [ki̯a]
Stative prep.:	horan	soran	koren	koran	koren	koren
Active prep.:	holli	solli	kolle	kolli	kolla	kolla

Paucal:

Case	1PA	2PA	3PA M	3PA F	3PA C	3PA N
Nominative:	roka	boka	toka	toke	toka	toka
Genitive:	rei	bei	dei	dou	dei	de
Dative	roki	boki	toko	toku	toko	toko
Accusative	rai	bai	dai	dui [dʷei̯]	dai	dai
Stative prep.:	roken	boken	tokyn	tokon	tokyn	tokyn
Active prep.:	rokki	bokki	tokki	tokki	tokki	tokki

Plural:

Case	1PL	2PL	3PL M	3PL F	3PL C	3PL N
Nominative:	lei	nei	toi	tii [tii̯]	tei	tei
Genitive:	lui [lʷei̯]	nui [nʷei̯]	tui [tʷei̯]	tui [tʷei̯]	tui [tʷei̯]	tui [tʷei̯]
Dative	lo	no	to	ta	to	to
Accusative	le	ne	te	ti	te	te
Stative prep.:	lun	nun	ton	tan	ten	ten
Active prep.:	leri	neri	tori	tori	tori	tori

[Ashucky]

Ok, it's been a while since I posted here so it's time for a new update - more about verbs.

The conditional is formed similarly to the indicative. The suffixes are actually rather similar, they're mainly formed from the indicative suffixed by adding an -i to the original suffix. There are, of course, exceptions and there's an even higher degree of syncretism.

Here's a simplified table of the conditional suffixes:

	PR -is	PS -is	PR -us	PS -us	PR -ys	PS -ys
1SG	-ei	-ai	-ua	-uai	-ou	-iai
2SG	-tu	-dei	-tua	-duai	-tou	-dyi
3SG	-u	-rei	-uu	-rau	-yu	-ryi
1DU	-eis	-ais	-uis	-uais	-yis	-iais
2DU	-teis	-tais	-tuis	-tuais	-tyis	-tiais
3DU	-neis	-nais	-nuis	-nuais	-nyis	-niais
1PL	-ein	-ain	-uin	-uain	-yin	-uyin
2PL	-tein	-tain	-tuin	-tuain	-tyin	-tiain
3PL	-nein	-nain	-nuin	-raun	-nyin	-ryin

As with the indicative, the paradigm for the monosyllabic verbs (example verb: dis to see):

	Present	Past
1SG	deui	daui
2SG	deia	daia
3SG	diui	diei
1DU	deuis	dauis
2DU	dieis	diais
3DU	deis	dais
1PL	deuin	dauin
2PL	diein	diain
3PL	dein	dain

And the verb nis to be:

	Present	Past
1SG	neui	naui
2SG	neia	maia
3SG	niui	miui
1DU	neuis	nauis
2DU	teuis	tauis
3DU	neis	nais
1PL	jein	hauin
2PL	teuin	tauin
3PL	nein	rauin

Let's move to the imperative. This mood is also formed by adding appropriate suffixes to the verb stem. There are forms for 2nd p. singular, dual and plural, and for 1st p. dual and plural. Each of the three types has a set of different suffxies (but they do not differentiate between the various subtypes).

	-IS verbs	-US verbs	-YS verbs
2SG	-ai	-oi	-ui
1DU	-ie	-iu	-iy
2DU	-ia	-io	-iy
1PL	-eii	-uii	-yii
2PL	-aii	-oii	-yii

Apart from the indefinite, there's another non-finite form in the language, the supine. It is used to form the remaining moods (optative, subjunctive and jussive). Its formation is simple and straightforward: replace the indefinite -s with -n. So, dis becomes din in the supine.

Before moving to the other moods, there are two important (semi-)auxiliary verbs worth mentioning. They're usually translated as auxiliary to be verbs: sis and sjis. The verb sis is used to form the optative and the subjunctive, the verb sjis is used to form the jussive.

The jussive mood. As mentioned, it is formed by the auxiliary verb sjis and the supine. The jussive has only two tenses: present and future. Any verb can be used in the present tense, but only the auxiliary sjis can be used in the future tense. Furthermore, the future tense does not require any supine, the future jussive form of sjis are enough. The jussive mood is also used only in the 1st person and in the 3rd person.

	Present	Future
1SG	sjei [ɕei̯] (+ supine)	sjii [ɕii̯]
3SG	sjai [ɕai̯] (+ supine)	sjii [ɕii̯]
1DU	sjes [ɕes] (+ supine)	sjis [ɕis]
3DU	sjas [ɕas] (+ supine)	sjis [ɕis]
1PL	sjen [ɕen] (+ supine)	sjin [ɕin]
3PL	sjan [ɕan] (+ supine)	sjin [ɕin]

There are only two moods left and both of them are formed very straightforward.

The optative: the auxiliary verb sis in the indicative plus a lexical verb in the supine.

The subjunctive: the auxiliary verb sis in the conditional plus a lexical verb in the supine.

And one final thing for now: negation. It is formed fairly simple, just add a negation verb in front of the verb (which does not change in any way). However, each number requires a different negation. There are also clitic forms which are hyphenated to the verb; the clitic forms would be less formal. Therefore, add ija/-ja for the singular, ije/-je for the dual, and iie/-e for the plural.
There's another change involved with negation. Namely, if the direct object of a transitive verb is in accusative when affirmative, then the direct object switches to genitive when negated.


Well, that's all for now. Still working on how to form perfective verbs from the imperfective ones, but I have an idea. Will show it once I've thought about it more.

[Ashucky]

Wow, it's been ages since I last posted here, amazing Anyhow, recently I've decided to revise this conlang (especially since I now use it a different project, so I kind of need it to be more active and a bit more complete). The language also has a different script, and I had to adjust its phonology to fit it.

First off, the language has been renamed to Tainiren.

1) Word order: VSO, with adjectives before nouns, prepositions before their objects, auxiliaries before the main verb, and relative clauses following the main clause.

2) Phonology:
Consonants:
/m n ŋ/ <m n ŋ>
/p b t d k g/ <p b t d k g>
/s z x ɣ/ <s z h x>
/l ɾ j w/ <l r j w>
/t͡s d͡z/ <c đ>

Geminates:
/nː/ <nn>
/pː tː kː/ <pp tt kk>
/lː r/ <ll rr>

Vowels:
/a e i o u/ <a e i o u>

Syllable structure: (C)(j)V(n/s)

Allophony and sound changes:
- /np nb/ <np nb> → [mp mb]
- /nm/ <nm> → [m:]
- palatalisation: /t͡sj d͡zj/ <cj đj> and /tj dj/ <tj dj> → [t͡ɕ d͡ʑ] and [c ɟ], respectively
- palatalisation: /sj zj/ <sj zj> and /xj ɣj/ <hj xj> → [ɕ ʑ] and [ç ʝ], respectively
- palatalisation of other consonants when followed by /j/ <j> → [ʲ]
- fricativisation: /p b/<p b> → [ɸ β] or [f v] when intervocalic
- lowering: /e o/ <e o> → [e̞ o̞] or [ɛ ɔ] in unstressed positions
- the non-vocalic part of diphthongs may be lowered: /i̯ u̯/ → [ɪ̯ ʊ̯]
- /ui̯/ <ui> → [wei̯] or [ʷei̯], unless word-initial
- monophthongisation: /ei̯ ou̯ uu̯/ → [eː oː uː]

3) Writing system
I've decided to go with Japanese Hiragana as its main writing system. However, since Hiragana doesn't have enough characters for the sounds I needed, I used several Hentaigana characters to supplement the missing sound series. I also changed the Hiragana H-series to the P-series in my script, and added a new Hentaigana H-series (this also affected its voiced counterparts, the B-series and X-series). The supplemented Hentaigana series are the closest corresponding sounds (eg. the original Hentaigana T-series is now my C-series, and so on).

Here's the full chart (without the palatalised series):