zompist bboard

Kts?!kis@oi'a kno@seniuf?t?s? k?t?l@u?@seniukus?. Kts?!kis@oi'a kno-@seni-u-f?-t?-s? k?-t?l@u-?-@seni-u-ku-s?. Country yet-control-passive-not-3SOI-3SSI habitual-person-plural-control-passive-3POA-3SSI. Literally: Kts?!kis@oi'a is not controlled by it is controlled by the people. Kts?!kis@oi'a is no...

The word for democracy is k?t?l@u?@seniukus?(it-is-controlled-by the-people).

I took your suggestions about verbs as nouns, Jburke. Here's the word for camera.

K?nts?!i?lk?latuni
K?-nts?!i-?-lk?la-tu-ni
habitual.aspect-image-immaterial.plural-remember-3POI-3SSA
It remembers images.

I think that covers most major grammer points. Are there any minor points that I haven't discussed here?

I was translating something similar to "working is dificult".

'One-builds-buildings-with-difficulty'

That's the same thing as people-work-with-dificulty but with work replaced by build-building. It would be K?k'?lasni'a'ik?lami.

The act of constructing a building is dificult.

You mean so the adjective exists without a verb? Like this:

K'?la'ik?uni sni'a(A-building-being-built dificult)

So I have to "unlearn what I have learned". I'll keep that in mind. I could say something like:

K'?la'ik?uni sni'aksani.(A-building-being-built is-dificult)

Again, you're wanting to hew to the formal structure of English grammar and just re-arrange the pieces. It doesn't work that way. Here's a clue: 'work-hards' or 'work-difficults'. But I can't say "work hards" because work as a noun isn't in my conlang. All languages can express similar things; but ...

I know. I'm merely trying to figure out how I'd translate gerunds into my conlang. I'll translate them as "When I fish, I am caused to be happy." and "people workwith dificulty." If all languages don't expressthings that other languages express, translating is impossible.

How would you say "I like fishing." or "Working is hard."?

Are there words like "fishing" and "working" in the languages you've studied? How are they made? Do I have to use them, because I don't like them a whole lot?

That would be !demlutqsa k?@aksaemet.(basically "Be at this place again some time, please"

What's a delayed imperitive? Something you want them to do in the future?

T?l@uilgo// has two forms of the imperitive. One is asking unforcefully, like please, the other is a direct command, like an order. Now that I've gotten the basic concepts of grammer worked out and have about 400 or so roots, I think my conlang is coming along quite well. I just need to flesh out th...

How do express need, wishing, hoping, etc. using an imperitive? Yo need some way of expressing this kind of thing.

So I could have "you" be in a special case denoting that it is the doer in X wants Y to do something to Z? Here is a sample: St?t?l@u?tq? mli?tniquxliksama. St?-t?l@u-?-tq? mli-?-tniqu-xli-ksa-ma all-person-plural-doer you-equat.-nice-wish-be-1SSA I wish everyone was as nice as you. "doer" is the ca...

So in my conlang it would be like this:

K'?la xe'ik?kama.
building want-build-you(object)-I(subject).

Can you explain what a topical is? I think I know, but I want to be sure.

So ne- in Cheyenne is 2nd person object? Doesn't the verb have to agree with the building? There is no affix for this on your sample. Does the prefix indicating wanting have to come right before the verb? I assume it only has to in Cheyenne. The literal translation appears to "Building. I want to bu...

So basically it means "I want to build you" but the addition of the word for building and context make sure that it means "I want you to build a building."

I understand what you have said so far, except for how to make it clear that I is the wanter and you, the builder.

I have never seen a grammer of a poly lang on the internet and it costs a lot of money to learn a language, so both are out for me. So it would be a-building, build-want-it-you-I or something? At least try to explain it to me.

If I wanted to say "I want to you build build a building." how would I handle that? It would be like "I-want-build-you-building". I know this annoying but can you give an example?

No, an affix for 'want'.

Explain how'd you say "I want you to work."

How about how you'd say "I want you to work" Would you use an affix for work or what?