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Saturday, December 22, 2012

Sasxsek


Salam,
This interesting language created by Dana Nutter is simple in design and has its own naturalistic sound to it. Dana thought of everything for this language including: Numbers, dates, time, colors and more. Sasxsek has an SVO word order.


Sasxsek is an artificial (or constructed) language designed to be used as an auxiliary
language which is simple to learn but powerful enough to cover the full range of human
expression.


 Alphabet
Sasxsek writing is based on the Roman alphabet, however there is no distinction between
upper or lower case.  Text can be written in either all lower case, or all upper case (for
headlines, titles, etc.), but not to be mixed within words and phrases. Generally, headings
and titles should be in upper case while the text of a document is in lower case. There are 6
vowels and 18 consonants for a total of 24 letters.  The letters W and Y are not used.


Particles
o = Vocative particle.
ai = Exclamatory particle (!).
e = Subject particle.
a = Object particle


Grammatical and derivational suffixes
-a passive. (ies = eat; iesa = be eaten)
-e performer (fab = build; fabe = builder)
-o manifestation   (vid = see; vido = sighting)
-i qualifier (boni = good; well)
-ai female (bovai = cow)
-au male (bovau = bull)




Inflection
Neither nouns nor pronouns inflect for case, number or gender and therefore have only one
form each.   Articles do not exist, neither definite (the) nor indefinite (a, an, some).
 
kitab = book; a book; the book; books; some books; the books.



Case
Noun functions (case) are indicated by word order and the use of prepositions.  
mo don kitab fu lo.
I (subject) give book (object) to he (indirect object).
I gave him a book. / I gave a book to him.
 
mo don kitab fu so mu kitabuk.
I (subject) give book (object) to this (indirect object) from libarary.
I gave him a book from the library.  

The above information is just a tiny amount of the 46 page document which explains grammar in much greater detail. Also check out the 114 page dictionary he has available. Dana also has several other conlangs on his site but most are under construction and being updated at the time of this writing.

Although there are many International Auxiliary Languages (IAL's) such as Esperanto, Interlingue, Folkspraak, Slovianto and others, Sasxsek has some great potential, I think, because  of its mixture of being an a-priori and a-posteriori (in my opinion) because it uses some vocabulary which is "international" and understood immediately and also creates its own vocabulary. Another feature I like is the fact that countries and languages are pronounced according to the local language, for example:
 iqglis = Englishhaniu = Chinese, misr = Egypt. 

At first glance the language looks difficult but once you really look at it and study it, even a little, I believe you will enjoy it as much as I do!

Hedon! (Enjoy!)






Friday, December 14, 2012

Kah Language

Mai ninku! Good morning! 

Kah is an artificial language which was designed to be very easy to learn, easy to master and easy to pronounce.
 Having taken a look at this interesting language I am not 100% in agreement that it is easy to learn but the basic grammar is easy enough.

Weka Kah si. I speak a little Kah.

 Here are the basic highlights of Kah:


Kah can be described rather quickly with the following list of features:


FeatureDescriptionExample
 SVOSubject precedes the verb precedes the objectHuan nenju shukiJuan     like  candy
Juan likes candy
N ModNouns are followed by their modifierssunda yam sun yebike     red  two that
those two red bikes
topicalizationConstituents which are the topic of the phrase are moved to the frontshuki Huan nenjucandy  juan   like 
it is candy Juan likes
pro-dropPronouns functioning as subject or object rarely are expressedjoknow  
I know
oligosyntheticThe lexicon consists of several hundred roots which form new words by compoundingne  +  ni  =  nenibird  +  vehicle  =  airplane
no inflectionWords have one form and take no morphemeskaiko - book, books
kaiko wi - 
many books
kaiko yem - three books 
serial verbsSubjects can have more than one verb with different objects each. yu za tuya tu sekishe take knife cut meat  
she cut the meat with a knife
Possd PossrPossessed items precede the possessor linked by a markerkwando na Huanschool   of  juan  
Juan's school
 The Kah website offers a 78 page of detailed grammar here.

Here is the Babel text in Kah:


Tau yula kwambe le yuka kwa 
Now the whole world had one language

ai aka nyoshi.
and a common speech.

Eta uyu nudora tinuno,
As men moved eastward,

henyun huan la Shinaran ai nudora lai.
they found a plain in Shinar and settled there

Yunyo ka noyom:
They said to each other:

'Lo, om jam duzu ai shanzu tuntu.'
'Come, let's make bricks and bake them thouroughly,'

Za duzu yompo adu, ai toisau yompo doshum.
They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar.

Tai ka: 'Lo, om jando walonyo dola
Then they said: 'Come, let us build ourselves a city

ya le wendo ya deche tilan,
with a tower that reaches to the heavens,

eno jam walonyo senka
so that we make a name for ourselves

ai eno al nong membe wanyo
and not be scattered

tunu kuchi na yula kwambe,'
over the face of the whole earth,'

Esto Tifa vunu
But the Lord came down

eno yun dola ai wendo be uyu jando ya.
to see the city and the tower that the men were building.

Tifa ka: 'Tonto shi unyo kwa
The Lord said: 'If as one people

la kaza yuka kwashi,
speaking the same language

yunyo nuku jam awau,
they have begun to do this,

tontoye yayang be yunyo jankuren jam ya teneng tos yunyo.
then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.

Lo, om vunu ai moren yuka na yunyo.
Come, let us go down and confuse their language

eno nong denu jebo noyom,'
so they will not understand each other,'

Echu Tifa membe yunyo chu lai tunu yula kwambe,
So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth,

ai yunyo bas jando dola.
and they stopped building the city.

Amun chumunye en al kaka Babal --
That is why it was called Babel --

chumun lai Tifa moren yuka na yula kwambe.
because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world.

Chu lai Tifa membe yunyo tunu kuchi na yula kwambe.
From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

To me, Kah looks like a language which is totally unique, unlike Esperanto or Occidental which are based on Romance languages or Slovianto  which is based on Slavic languages. Kah looks like something Tribal Afrika, over all, I like Kah but I still don't know how "easy" it is to learn or how useful it will be.

However it is a fun language to look at and study simply for the fun and enjoyment of language.

 Om wayun (good bye)

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Whistling languages

There are approximately 70 languages throughout the world where whistling is the means of communication.
Wikipedia gives a listing of languages here.
Whistling Languages in Kuskoy Turkey YouTube.



Here is a longer example of Gomera Whistling: 


Solresol is a musical language created by François Sudre beginning in 1827 the book Langue musicale universelle was published after his death in 1866   Solresol words are made up of from one to five syllables or notes. Each of these may be one of only seven basic phonemes, which may in turn be accented or lengthened. There is another phoneme, silence, which is used to separate words: words cannot be run together as they are in English. 

More information about Solresol can be found here



Sunday, December 2, 2012

Bahasa Indonesia


Compared to European languages, Indonesian has a strikingly small use of grammatically gendered words; the same word is used for he and she or for his and her. Most of the words that refer to people (family terms, professions, etc.) have a form that does not distinguish between the sexes; for example, adik can both refer to a (younger) brother or sister; no distinction is made between girlfriend and boyfriend. In order to specify gender, an adjective has to be added: adik laki-laki corresponds to brother but really means male younger sibling. There is no word like the English man that can refer both to a male person and to a human being in general.

Note: There are some words that are gendered, for instance putri means daughter, and putra means son; words like these are usually absorbed from other languages (in these cases, from Sanskrit through the Old Javanese language). In Jakarta and some other areas, abang may be used for older brother; kakak (older sibling) is then used to mean older sister.

Plurals are expressed by means of reduplication, but only when the plural is not implied by the context. Thus person is orang, and people is orang-orang, but one thousand people is seribu orang, as the numeral makes it unnecessary to mark the plural form. (Reduplication has many other functions, however).

There are two forms of we, depending on whether you are including the person being talked to.

The basic word order is SVO. Verbs are not inflected for person or number, and there are no tenses; tense is denoted by time adverbs (such as yesterday) or by other tense indicators, such as sudah, meaning already. On the other hand, there is a complex system of verb affixes to render nuances of meaning and denote active-passive voices. Such affixes include prefixes, infixes, suffixes, and their combinations; all of which are often ignored in daily conversations.
Vowles

a
like 'a' in "father"
e
like 'e' in "vowel"
é
like 'e' in "bed", usually the difference between a schwa and an e is not indicated in writing
i (ie, j)
like 'i' in "thin"
o
like 'ow' in "low", in open positions or like 'o' in "top" in close positions
u (oe)
like 'oo' in "hoop", in open positions or like 'o' in “hope” in close positions

Consonants 
b
like 'b' in "bed"
bh
like 'b' in "bed", only in Sanskrit borrowings
c (ch, tj)
like 'ch' in "China"
d
like 'd' in "dog"
dh
like 'd' in "dog", only in Sanskrit borrowings
f
like 'ph' in "phone"
g
like 'g' in "go"
h
like 'h' in "help"
j (dj)
like 'dg' in "edge"
k
like 'c' in "cat", often silent at the end of a word
kh (ch)
like 'ch' in "loch"
l
like 'l' in "love"
m
like 'm' in "mother"
n
like 'n' in "nice"
ng
like 'ng' in "sing"
ny
like 'ny' in "canyon"
p
like 'p' in "pig"
q
like 'q' in "quest" (with "u", almost always, only in Arabic borrowings)
r
like 'rr' in Spanish "perro"
s
like 'ss' in "hiss"
sy (sj)
like 'sh' in "sheep"
t
like 't' in "top"
v
like 'ph' in "phone"
w
like 'w' in "weight"
x
like 'cks' in "kicks"
y (j)
like 'y' in "yes"
z
like 's' in "hiss", like 'z' in "haze", like 'dg' in "edge"

Dipthongs

ai
like 'ay' in "say"
au
like 'ow' in "cow"
oi
like 'oy' in "boy"

Basic phrases

Hello.
Halo. (HUH-lo)
Hello. (informal)
He. (Hey)
How are you?
Apa kabar? (AH-pAh KAH-bar?)
Fine, thank you.
Baik, terima kasih. (BAYK, TREE-muh KUS-see)

What is your name?
Namanya siapa? (NUM-muh-nyuh shah-puh?)
My name is ______ .
Nama saya ______ . (NUM-MUH suh-yuh _____ .)
Nice to meet you.
Senang bertemu anda. (SNUNG burr-tuh-moo UN-duh)
Please.
Silakan. (see-LUH-kunn)
Please. (request)
Tolong. (TOH-long)

Thank you.
Terima kasih.
You're welcome.
Terima kasih kembali.
Yes.
Ya. (EEYUH)
No.
Tidak. (TEE-duh), Tak (TAH)

Excuse me. (getting attention)
Maaf. (MUH-UFF)
Excuse me. (begging pardon)
Maaf, permisi.
I'm sorry.
Maaf.
Goodbye
Selamat tinggal.
Goodbye (informal)
Dadah. (DUH-DUH)

I can't speak Indonesian [well].
Saya tidak bisa berbahasa Indonesia [dengan baik].
Do you speak English?
Bisa bahasa Inggris?
Is there someone here who speaks English?
Ada orang yang bisa bahasa Inggris?
Help!
Tolong!
Look out!
Hati-hati!

Good morning.
Selamat pagi. (slum-mut PUH-GUEE)
Good afternoon.
Selamat siang.
Good evening.
Selamat sore.
Good night.
Selamat malam.
Good night (to sleep)
Selamat tidur.
I don't understand.
Saya tidak mengerti.
Where is the toilet?
Di mana toiletnya? (DEE muh-nuh TOY-leht-nyuh?) 

Bahasa Indonesia is phonetic and easy to pronounce and since it does not change for gender or case it is easy to remember the words since they don't change or conjugate like Spanish does, for example.

Over all, I like Bahasa Indonesia and would love to learn this language better. Bahasa Indonesia is spoken by approximately 77 Million people or 1.16% of the worlds population.