Angos is an IAL-type worldlang I've been developing for a few years. Here's a fairly thorough overview. Comments/criticisms are greatly appreciated.
Orthography and Phonology
Alphabet = IPA unless otherwise noted, allophones in brackets
a, b, c (tʃ), d, e [ɛ], f, g, h, i, y (j), k, m, n ([ŋ] when succeeded by k or g), o [ɔ], p, l [r/l], s, t, u, v, w, /ʔ/ (see phonotactics below)
Diphthongs
au (final), aw /aʊ/
eu (final), ew /ɛʊ/
ou (final), ow /oʊ/
ai (final), ae, ay /aɪ/
ei (final), ey /ɛɪ/
oi (final), oy /oɪ/
Syllable structures and phonotactics
Syllable structures with examples (S = semivowel):
(C)(S)V(S)(C)
/l/ can not be adjacent to another C; S or V must precede/follow it.
For compound words, the uninflected roots must be looked at individually. If they do not belong in any of the above structures, then an 'e' sound is placed between the boundary.
Examples of 'e' usage:
aksal-pulof - /ʔak.sa.le.pu.lof/
yang-seson - /jan.ge.se.son/
aksal-ipos - /ʔak.sa.le.ʔi.pos/ (see below)
Root-initial vowels will always have /ʔ/
mek-omo - /mek.ʔo.mo/
dawa-omo - /da.wa.ʔo.mo/
kino-omo - /ki.no.ʔo.mo/
Consonant gemination may occur if the boundaries are identical:
ays-seson - /ays:eson/
Grammar and Morphology
Angos uses vowel part-of-speech markers as in Esperanto. It is necessary to note that verbs, adjectives, and adverbs of manner are derived from nouns.
-o = noun
-a = noun action (any action you do to or with the noun in context)
-i = noun quality (shares a quality with the noun)
-u = noun manner (does in the manner of the noun)
The roots can be further inflected with -s to denote a man-made/artificial quality:
leiso = natural shelter (cave, canopy, den)
leisos = man-made shelter (house, bunker)
All particles (prepositions, conjunctions, interjections) end in -e, and all numbers end in -n. Numbers and prepositional particles may be inflected.
Nouns in Angos are static; they do not change for definitiveness, number, or case.
leisos - a/the house
le leisos - houses (the particle le signals plurality)
de leisos - to a/the house (where de signals direction towards something)
Articles (a/an, the) are not present in Angos. Instead, determiner radicals can be used to indicate definitiveness.
Following the use of the noun ending -o and the plural particle le, pronouns have the following configuration:
wo I, me
to you
lo he/she/it, him/her/it
le wo we, us
le to you all
le lo they, them
Verbs in Angos are ambitransitive; they can act transitively or intransitively depending on the presence of an object or prepositional phrase. Verbs do not conjugate for person, number, tense, aspect, or mood.
Wo ala. - I eat / I am eating.
Wo ala tofao. - I eat an apple.
Wo sona. - I sleep.
Wo sona lo. - I cause him/her to fall asleep
Reflexivity can be expressed or emphasized with the adverb idu
Wo idu sona. - I cause myself to fall asleep (I fall asleep).
Because there are no inherent verb roots in Angos, the meaning of a word with the verb ending is dependent on the context of the noun root used. For example, ota, from the root ot- meaning "fire", does not inherently mean "burn". It is instead any action related to the use of "fire" in context.
Vao ota. - The tree is burning.
Wo ota momos. - I light the candle. (in this sense, applying fire to something)
Present Tense is unmarked. General past tense is denoted by the particle me and general future by the particle ke. These markers are not obligatory and may be omitted if it can be understood by context. There are no perfect, imperfect, continuous, conditional, imperative, or subjunctive forms.
The agent, patient, object, and subject are all unmarked. Angos uses Subject-Verb-Object word order, with direct modifiers preceding what they modify.
Mao ala nesumo.
[The] cat eats [the] mouse.
Thus a sentence with modifiers would follow the pattern [subject adjective]-Subject-[adverb]-Verb-[object adjective]-Object.
Bali mao hilosu ala lavi nesumo.
[The] big cat quickly eats [the] small mouse.
For modal verbs such as bisaa "can" or desa "want", the secondary verb (if there is one), is placed after the modal.
Lo bisaa aksala.
He/She can write.
Descriptors will still precede each of the verbs.
Lo bisaa hilosu aksala
He/She can write quickly.
The passive voice in Angos is formed with the particle te, placed immediately in front of the verb.
Kalimo te aksala dave ipos
[The] word is written on [the] paper.
Vindawgos me te tayla ve wo
[The] window was broken by me.
Prepositional phrases are formed with a preposition, modifiers of the object, then the object(s) of the preposition.
Los ine leisos
It [is] in [the] house
Mao ala nesumo ine leisos.
The cat eats the mouse in the house. (describes the position of the action)
To construct relative clauses, the particle lae is used.
Na-omo lae wo me via - The man who I saw
Oyo lae me cea - The place where it happened
Leisos lae (lis) vindawgos tayli - The house whose (its) windows are broken
Angos uses a set of radicals that are inflected with the vowel classifiers to create determiners.
k - what
f - this
d - that
m - some
y - any
fet - few
val - many
os - every
ne - no
For example, when the k radical is inflected:
ko - what
ki - which
ka - do what
ku - how
Compounds in Angos are formed by the junction of two roots, separated by a hyphen, and a final vowel classifier.
Sample Text
Has-ku-bavelo me aolaa, lo sefe makti. Yango me sukoba, tave makto kinoa kulameo. "Le wo ke hadaya", te ansa ve Yango. Wase le lo, na-omo safala davale ofidi hodos. Lo me ba ays-seson-volos. "Kinoa makt-hadayo", te ansa ve Yango, "Le wo sevame atempa wesa volos ve di na-omo". "Wo ke vakalu da, isoma lo wesa li le volos," te ansa ve Bavelo. Bavelo sefe isomu me bavela. Le cilo panha de le vao, ye ealo te mena mwe hauco ye ipo. Mice, hie ceo lae lo isomu bavela de hodos, na-omo he sele isomu me ba li volos. Hie di ceo, yango idu me wesa ve mego. Lo me tepula ealo ye aysi nehaso. Na-omo dave hodos wes-botaa li le volos. Yango sipotu sele otu lusa. Na-omo me sensa tepulo ye sayu wesa li le volos ye idu esa yase vao. "To ku me da?", te cimuna ve Bavelo. "Wo me vakalu da," te ansa ve Yango, "Wo me lusa hio. Wo me kinoa kulameo liana."
The North Wind boasted of great strength. The Sun argued that there was great power in gentleness. "We shall have a contest," said the Sun. Far below, a man traveled a winding road. He was wearing a warm winter coat. "As a test of strength," said the Sun, "Let us see which of us can take the coat off of that man." "It will be quite simple for me to force him to remove his coat," bragged the Wind. The Wind blew so hard, the birds clung to the trees. The world was filled with dust and leaves. But the harder the wind blew down the road, the tighter the shivering man clung to his coat. Then, the Sun came out from behind a cloud. Sun warmed the air and the frosty ground. The man on the road unbuttoned his coat. The sun grew slowly brighter and brighter. Soon the man felt so hot, he took off his coat and sat down in a shady spot. "How did you do that?" said the Wind. "It was easy," said the Sun, "I lit the day. Through gentleness I got my way."
