World Hybrid Auxlang - 4 year in the works and needs input!

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avdenio
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World Hybrid Auxlang - 4 year in the works and needs input!

Post by avdenio »

I'm Luke - I've been composing a language meant for international communication called Avdenio. It draws vocabulary from 15 of the most populous world languages, and has a symmetrical phonology representing (what I think is) the mean of global sound systems. It builds on a system of gender-neutral roots that can be appended with other word-parts to make new vocabulary. Through the use of articles that can be had either as prepositions or suffixes, all parts of speech can be as analytic or agglutinative as the speaker likes. These can even be omitted leaving much to context, though specificity of meaning is always available through added compounds and articles. So far I have about 1200 lexicon entries and have translated some phrases and other text. I've even made an Avdenio aphabet based on the major writing systems.

I could really use some feedback from those who are well versed in conlanging, and even some help working on this massive undertaking. I started a basic website for Avdenio so you can get in depth information there. The full guide there is very detailed. In the mean time, here are some phrases and phonological details from said guide. Comments are welcome!

More Info: http://www.avdenio.weebly.com

Basic Phrases

Hello: Rivéstė. / Néiho.
Hey / Hi: Hoe.
Peace (to you): Sálmė (go te).
Good morning: Havpáj. / Paj hávi.
Good day: Haválo. / Álo hávi.
Good evening: Havmaelám. / Maelám hávi.
Good night: Havvám. / Vam hávi.
Goodbye: Havékia. / Ádeo.
Bye: Boe.
I'll see you later: Ver vea démoa. / Ve hao démoa te.
See you later: Haodémoa.
Until the next meeting: Vis reodémo.
Later: Vis.
How are you?: Te ra hésti?
Are you doing well?: Mae te ra hávi? / Mae te hávra? / Mae te ra hávėsti?
All well?: Hàvéle?
I'm fine, and you?: Ve ra hávi, mae te? / Ve hávra, mae te? Ve ra hávėsti, mae te?
Fine thanks, you?: Hav daniávae, te?
What's happening?: He ra bínda? / He véizra
What's up?: He bínda? / He véiza? / He ra?
What's new?: He ra jáedi? / He jáedra?
Welcome: Huénio.
Thanks: Daniáv.
Thank you: Daniáv go te.
Thank you very much!: Mèdaniáv go te!
My pleasure: Aléir ven.
Please: Bídae.
Please excuse/pardon me: Daniávae iónsoia ve.
Pardon: Iónso.
Nice to meet you: Hàvfamiála te / Hàvfamiál.
What is your name?: Ésmė ten a he? / Te a veo he? / Te ésmėta he? / Te ésma he?
What are you called?: Te a héveo?
My name is ~: Ésmė ven a ~. / Ve ésma veo ~.
Where are you from?: Te a hédan? / Te kámda dan héan?
I am from ~: Ve a ~dan. / Ve kámda dan ~.
Yes / No / Maybe: Hae / Nae / Kánae
Do you speak English?: Mae te kása Ingélio?
Is there someone here who speaks Avdenio/English?: Mae ra óeu sjéan se kása Avdénio/Ingélio?
I don't speak Avdenio (well): Ve nae kása (hávėsti) Avdénio.
Could you please speak more slowly?: Bídae te mae kásea sti miéldor? (pol.) / Bídae kásia miéldor? (fam.)
How do you say ~ in Avdenio? Óeu hésti kása ~ feo Avdénio?
I don't understand: Ve nae vístėra.
I don't know: Ve nae jídora.
How much does it cost?: Héval a klaev jen? / He kláeva je
Where is the washroom?: Uòjgáedė sa héan?
Where is the toilet?: Tóer sa héan?

Problems and Emergencies

Can you help me?: Mae te kánea séuta ve? (pol.) / Te kànséuta ve? (fam.)
I'm lost: Ve ra lózi.
I've lost my bag/purse/wallet: Ve lózda kaván/bérsė/bárto ven.
It's an emergency!: Ra diarór!
Help! / Police! / Fire!: Séutia! / Jaréigias! / Fého!
Leave me alone!: Láesia sálmė (ven)!
Look out!: Sàmsáovia! / Sáov!
Careful!: Sjasínia! / Sjasín!
Stop, thief!: Djéria, tjóuras!
Don't touch me!: Nae tásjtia ve!
I'm sick/injured: Ve ra pénoi/gáemoi.
I need a doctor: Ve nésa arkiámas.
I need to go to a hospital: Ve nésa éka nan arkiámrie.

Phonology

In the common mode the language uses 23 roman characters and three additional digraphs (single sounds written with two characters): p b f v m t d s z j r l n k g h a e i u o ė tj dj sj (the last four can also be rendered y q x c respectively.) In the euphonic mode, each one of these letters represents a single unambiguous sound, with the digraphs representing fricative or affricate sound combinations. In more relaxed speech many letters and combinations can blend, but to be understood, speaking exactly as one reads is all that is required. The following is an explanation of standard pronunciation by letter, tailored towards English speaking students of Avdenio.
Avdenio letters and digraphs are clarified with English speaking pronunciation in parenthesis. Transliterations using the International Phonetic Alphabet or IPA will appear in brackets, the left most value being the recommended pronunciation in common mode.

Consonants

p, b, f, v, m, t, d, z, n, k, h > As in the received pronunciation of 21st Century English, though preferably crisp and un-aspirated as per their value in the IPA.
s > [s] Always as in pass, never as in misery.
g > [g] Always hard as in gain, never as in gene.
j > (zh) [ʒ, ʑ, ʐ, zʲ] Soft and voiced, as in French jour or English treasure, but never as in Jack or jet.
sj > (sh) [ʃ, ɕ, ʂ, sʲ] As English 'sh' in short. Also acceptably written /c/.
dj > (j) [ʤ, ʥ, ɖʐ, dʲ] Always as English 'j' in judge. Also acceptably written /x/.
tj > (ch) [ʧ, ʨ, ʈʂ, tʲ] As English 'ch' in change. Also acceptably written /q/.
l > [l, ɫ] Pronounced with the tip of the tongue against the roof of the mouth; the pharyngeal 'dark l' is acceptable.
r > [ɾ, r, ɽ, ɹ, ɻ, ʀ, ʁ, ɚ] Flicked or trilled in the common mode, as in Spanish and Italian, though acceptably pronounced as the approximate 'dark r' in North American English or the guttural trill of French, German, or Hebrew. When appearing before other consonants or word-finally, /r/ is also acceptable as the rhoticized vowel of Danish or British English.

Vowels

a > (ah / uh) [a, ɑ, æ, ə] As Spanish casa or English farm. Non-standard variants such as the vowels of bank or pawn are available, as well as the unstressed ‘schwa’ of sauna.
e > (eh / ay) [ɛ, e] As English met or vein, never as in meme or seem.
i > (ee) [i, ɪ, ɪ̯, j] As Italian vino or English tier, never as in sign or dime. When appearing before or after another vowel, it is optionally pronounced as a semivowel, as in English billiard or the ‘y’ in yacht. Unstressed variants such as the vowel in sit are permitted but nonstandard.
u > (oo) [u, ɯ, y, ʊ, ʊ̯, w] As German Buch or English soup, never as shut or use. When appearing before or after another vowel, it is optionally pronounced as a semivowel, as in English equal or the ‘w’ in was. The iotacized realization of French tu or the reduced vowel of English should is accepted but nonstandard.
o > (oh / oa) [ɔ, o] As English roam or cove, never as do, dot or done.
ė > (eh, uh, ih) [ɛ, ɜ, ə, ɪ, ʏ, ɨ, ʉ] Any unstressed ‘schwa’ sound or central mid-close vowel, as in English led, dug or edit. This is the euphonic or 'linking' vowel that is used to connect word parts. It is commonly written and pronounced /e/, since its position usually differentiates it from the cardinal vowel /e/. Otherwise /y/, /ë/, /ĕ/, /ə/ are acceptable if the dotted /ė/ is unavailable but the distinction from /e/ is desired. The uses of this vowel are addressed in detail in a later section.

Diphthongs

In its purest form, written Avdenio has a strict character-to-sound correspondence. That means that all Avdenio words can be spoken exactly as they are written, letter for letter. In many cases two or more vowels can appear in a row. Speakers are advised to pronounce each vowel individually, such as are the diphthongs found in Italian and Japanese. Common vowel combinations are explained below:

ai > (ah-ee / eye) [aɪ̯, ɑɪ̯, æɪ̯, əɪ̯, ai] As in rhyme, vine or Shanghai; never as rain or renaissance.
ae > (ah-eh / eye) [aɛ̯, ae̯, aɪ̯, ae] As the joint vowels in rawest, though acceptably pronounced the same as /ai/ above; never as in Gaelic or aesthetic.
au > (ah-oo / ow) [aʊ̯, ɑʊ̯, æʊ̯, əʊ̯, au] Most like Spanish auto and English owl, out or Audi; never as author or sauce.
ao > (ah-oh / ow) [aɔ̯, ao̯, aʊ̯, ao] As in Mandarin 好 hăo or the combined vowels of English law-ordinance, though acceptably the same as /au/.
ei > (eh-ee / ay) [eɪ̯, ɛɪ̯, ei] As in gain, lane or day; never as German ein or English receive.
eu > (eh-oo / ehw) [ɛʊ̯, eʊ̯, eu] Similar to the vowels in the phrase may-use, or as the Spanish city Ceuta; never as in Eugene or re-use.
eo > (eh-oh / ay-oh) [ɛɔ̯, ɛo̯, ɛʊ̯, eo] Most like Italian teologica or the joint vowels of English day-o¬ld; acceptably realized the same as /eu/.
ea > (eh-ah / ay-ah) [ɛa̯, ea̯ eǝ̯, ea] As in both vowels of the phrases day-off or optionally stay-up; never as react or really.
oi > (oh-ee / oy) [oɪ̯, ɔɪ̯, oi] As in boy, coil or optionally coincidence.
oe > (oh-eh / oy) [ɔɛ̯, oɛ̯, oe] Most like coexist or low-end, with optional articulation as the prior dipthong /oe/; never pronounced as in canoe or Oedipus.
ou > (oh-uu / ohw) [oʊ̯, ɔʊ̯, ou] As in bow or though; never as in route, could or through.
oa > (oh-ah / ow-ah) [ɔa̯, oa̯ oǝ̯, oa] As in English coauthor, go-away or Spanish yo-abro; never as in boat or broad.
ui > (oo-ee / wee) [ʊ̯i, ʊ̯ɪ, ui] As in Spanish cuidado and English suite, queen or to-eat; never as in quite or suit. A non-standard lax pronunciation, as in quit, is possible.
ue > (oo-eh / weh) [ʊ̯ɛ, ʊ̯e, ue] As in quest, suede or Suez; never as query or hue.
uo > (oo-oh / woh) [ʊ̯ɔ, ʊ̯o, uo] As in quote, won’t, or the vowels of new-order.
ua > (oo-ah / wah) [ʊ̯a, ʊ̯ə, ua] As in quarry, watt, or dual; never as equate or square.
ie > (ee-eh / yeh) [ɪ̯ɛ, ɪ̯e, ie] As in Spanish siempre and English Yale, yesterday, or re-ai¬m; never as tier, fried or diet.
io > (ee-oh / yoh) [ɪ̯ɔ, ɪ̯o, iɔ, io] As in Japanese Tokyo and English creole or yoke; never as lion or biology.
iu > (ee-oo / yoo) [ɪ̯u, ɪ̯ʊ, iu] As in reunion, use, or yew.
ia > (ee-ah / yah) [ɪ̯a, ɪ̯ə, ia] As in Spanish día and English Austria, yard or realign; never as dial.

Stress

The grammatical system of Avdenio depends on a system of root words, as does syllabic stress. Excepting articles, all words are built on word roots containing one or two syllables, and at least two letters. Aside from proper nouns - names and places - no native roots have more than two core syllables, with the exception of an initial or final /ė/ for ease of pronunciation. All roots end in the consonants /p, t, k, b, d, g, f, s, v, z, j, h, m, n, l, r/, digraphs /tj, dj, sj/ or vowels /e, o, u/. In any word or word combination, the stress always falls on the nucleic root noun; more specifically, it falls on the syllable before the last consonant of that root. While not necessary for everyday writing in Avdenio, this tutorial makes use of the acute accent (i.e. the signs á, é, í, ú, ó) to clarify primary stress and the grave accent (à, è, ì, ù, ò) to show secondary stress caused by word compounds. At the same time the accents indicate where the roots of a given word form are. Below are a few examples of words and their stress:
• kás (kahs) “speech” > There are two consonants and one syllable, and so the stress is on the single vowel preceding the final /s/.
• jé (zheh) ”it, he, her” > This is an example of a one-syllable root, a pronoun with no final consonant. Stress can only fall on the final /e/.
• arvéis (ahr-veys) “work” > The final consonant of the root is /s/, and it is preceded by the stressed vowels /ei/. This is true of the root when standing alone, or with any suffix (Example: arvéisa ”to work”, arvéisrun ”great work”, arvéisfeos ”work tool”)
• ákoi (ah-koy) “wrong” > This root ends in two vowels, and the last consonant is /k/ and thus the stress is on the preceding /a/.
• iuhán (yoo-hahn) “travel” > Like the third example, this root has two syllables. The last consonant is /n/ and the stress is put on the preceding single /a/.
• vérėn (veh-rehn) “our” > This word also ends in the consonant /n/, but this is a suffix and not part of the root word ve ”me, I”. The stress is on a syllable of the root, not necessarily the last consonant of the entire word. Many words have suffixes and even prefixes, so the stress assists in clarifying the root core of a word, thus disambiguating the meaning.
• Tjónguir (choan-gweer) “the people of China” > There are two parts: the proper root /tjong/ “China” and the articles /u+ir/ meaning a collective or group of living things. If the first word stood alone, it would be stressed as Tjóngė before the last consonant cluster /ng/, and it is likewise stressed even when given a collective suffix.
• mèosásjtė (meh-ohs-ash-teh) “highest regard, greatest notice, standing out” > This is actually a compound word made of more than one root. The parts comprising it are /meos/ ”most, greatest” and /asjt(ė)/ ”notice”. In compounds of roots, the last root in the sequence in the head, and all those prefixed to it are modifiers. Thus it is before the final consonant of the final root that stress is always heard. In ambiguous situations, the secondary stress of the modifying root can be indicated with a grave accent - à, è, ì, ù, ò – exemplified in kànpéndai ”flexible”. The hardest stress in on the head adjective, péndai ”bending”, but a softer stress before the last consonant of the first root, kan ”ability”.
It should be remembered that stress is only a peripheral aspect of Avdenio. If clearly pronounced, words don’t necessarily need to exhibit stress to be understood, much as in Japanese. Other non-standard accent systems available to Avdenio speakers include placing a pitch accent over the first, penultimate, or last vowel of each entire word, regardless of the location of the root. This provision is offered to assist use with speakers of languages that do not use stress in the occidental fashion.

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Salmoneus
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Re: World Hybrid Auxlang - 4 year in the works and needs inp

Post by Salmoneus »

The problem with trying to give feedback on something like this is that we don't know what your objectives are, or how you intend to achieve them. What are you trying to do, exactly, and why?
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I'se so silly to be flowing but I no canna stay!

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Re: World Hybrid Auxlang - 4 year in the works and needs inp

Post by avdenio »

What I am trying to do is create a language for international use, which draws vocabulary from 15 of the most widely spoken languages across several language families. I am trying to design a grammar that is regular but flexible, such that it can mimic the trends of many different natural languages. Basically Avdenio is governed by guidelines rather than rules, and is far more adaptable and inclusive than past projects like Lojban, Esperanto, Novial etc. I've tried to lean away from Eurocentrism or gender/culture biases. I've also paid attention to making is pleasant to speak; this is something that I think has been overlooked by conlangs made for really world use. Some might call Avdenio a largely a posteriori artlang (both in artificiality and artistry), and I think it is, but I do insist that it's main purpose is as an auxiliary language. It just needs speakers. The goals and purpose of this language are covered in detail at www.avdenio.weebly.com - especially look at the "full guide".

I fully recognize that artificial IALs are out of fashion in the conlang community, and that by publicizing Avdenio I am walking against the wind of popular trends. All the same, I think that there are advantages in using an artificial and globally derived language as a lingua franca, rather than using one or several natural languages. I think that natlangs like English, Mandarin etc. come with political and economic agendas, and their complex structure and writing conventions make language learning unnecessarily time consuming. Languages like Esperanto can be largely learned in months - English can take years or decades depending on what the learner's L1 is. Also, every natlang may be nuanced in some ways, but they all have shortcomings and difficulties in other departments. For example, English has no gender-neutral third person pronoun (the singular 'they' has become used for this in many dialects), so this makes mentioning gender compulsory in that case. Mandarin does have such a pronoun, at least in the spoken language. Avdenio took this cue to introduce /je/ meaning 'he/she/it', with optional gender-suffixed pronouns /jien/ 'she' /jiov/ 'he' and animate/inanimate /jeu/ 'he/she/they' and /jez/ 'it'. Gender and animacy are only mentioned if the speaker wants to make those distinctions. The rest can be covered by context.

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Re: World Hybrid Auxlang - 4 year in the works and needs inp

Post by CatDoom »

Right off the bat, I feel there are a few potential concerns with regard to the phonology, assuming that you want the language to be easy for speakers of most major world languages to pronounce.

First of all, both English speakers and speakers of most varieties of Chinese may have difficulty distinguishing voiced stops from voiceless, un-aspirated stops. It might be preferable for the voiced/voiceless contrast to optionally surface as an aspirated/un-aspirated contrast, at least word-initially.

Secondly, voiced fricatives are rarer than their voiceless counterparts, and monolingual Spanish speakers (for instance) may have some difficulty with the distinction between [s, ʃ] and [z, ʒ]. vs. [v] is another contrast that may be problematic for many speakers.

The contrast between /l/ and /r/ is pretty widespread, but speakers of Standard Chinese may have difficulty with the contrast between /r/ and [ʐ] (in addition to being relatively unfamiliar with voiced fricatives as a category), and speakers of Japanese and Korean will, of course, have more difficulty with the distinction.

I'm curious as to why the language has vowel sequences at all. Hiatus is an uncommon feature of language, and a number of the corresponding diphthongs which you describe are quite rare as well. It seems like it would make more sense to break up the vowel sequences with semivowels or something similar.

I would also advise against having so many coda consonants; having mostly or only open syllables would make the pronunciation easier for speakers of many languages.

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Re: World Hybrid Auxlang - 4 year in the works and needs inp

Post by avdenio »

All excellent observations, many of which I have been anticipating. For the sound system of Avdenio there are two considerations: function and aesthetics. For the former I have avoided consonant clusters of two plosives or three phonemes in general. No root has more than two vowels in sequence, though this may happen when a root is suffixed with an article. The reason why I have allowed consonant clusters at all is because it allows for fewer syllables in a root (no more than two as a rule); also, I think they sound nice. The same reasons apply to the diphthongs I have allowed.

I could have gone the simplistic route and stuck strictly to CV or CVN syllable structure, which I see the merit of. Toki Pona did this to make pronunciation as easy as possible. However, I think this ignores the task of making 'nice-sounding words', and also it makes sentences long winded and word borders hard to find. In Avdenio, many of the close-sounding diphthongs like /ae/ and /ai/ are in complimentary distribution, so no confusion would arise if they are pronounced the same anyway. /ai/ and /oi/ never occurs in nominal roots - it's always /ae/ and /oe/. By the way, vowel sequences like /ei/ and /ou/ are not necessarily to be thought seperate syllables [e.i] and [o.u]. They can be pronounced as diphthongs [ej] and [ow], and in fact this is how I pronounce them myself.

I did not want to make Avdenio so phonetically bare-bones as to make it seem elementary. I want this language to encourage its speakers to also study the languages from which it is derived. So I included many sounds that, while not rare, are a bit less common in the grand scheme of natural speech. If Avdenio does not push its speakers to be familiar with these sounds, it won't prepare Avdenio speakers to learn the natural languages of its ancestry. I don't want Avdenio to supplant natural language; I want it to foster them and offer cohesion to their many differences.

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Re: World Hybrid Auxlang - 4 year in the works and needs inp

Post by Yiuel Raumbesrairc »

As a speaker of an auxlang myself, and as a big critic of its linguistic issues, I might comment on the phonology you have described.

Probably my biggest complain would be the accent system. You want prosody to be fairly simple, if not completely flat. It's boring, but then again, boring yet practical. Natural languages can very widely, but common tongues, even of the natural kind, seem to dispense with highly irregular prosody. You can't beat French and its total destruction of accent leading to accent always falling on the last vowel of words. However, I like the idea that you do have a stress pattern defined for compounds; Esperanto failed hard there, but Esperanto speakers have evolved a secondary stress to compensate.

Also, I'll go with the too-many-diphthongs. The problem isn't much about their presence, but their shear number. If anything, I'd get rid of them, and have a vowel system as simple as possible.

Unlike CatDoom, however, I won't be complaining about the consonants and how they are used. Learning to distinguish sounds is a difficult task, but if you can make it as straightforward as possible, any system can, eventually, be mastered (however, it will take time if your consonant system is extensive). Note that I would avoid adding vowels; if Volapuk is any indication, more vowels is only asking for trouble.
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Re: World Hybrid Auxlang - 4 year in the works and needs inp

Post by avdenio »

Thanks for your comments Yiuel, very helpful. I definitely see the point of reducing diphthongs, though I'm glad you don't have a problem with my consonant patterns. I'm a bit more married to those. Question: Do you feel like the diphthongs are too frequent, or that there are two many kinds, or both? Many could be at least orthographically eliminated by introducing [w] and [j] graphemes for syllable-onset glides. That is, spell words like /ionso/ "forgiveness" as /yonso/ and /suarti/ "black" as /swarti/. I chose not to do this at the beginning as a matter of taste - I don't like /y/ as a consonant, or /w/ at all really - but that's not defensible as a grounds for practicality. I also think /i/ and /u/ for this purpose allow for more options in pronunciation.

Regarding stress and prosody, these are only peripheral in Avdenio phonology and don't even need to be written or expressed. I include them in the guide as a way for learners to quickly find the root(s) of words, though if I were to write casually in Avdenio I would not use them myself. Anyone who was well familiar with the language would not need accents to recognize roots and articles. In the guide it is explained that this stress system can be completely leveled like in Japanese, or made initial, penultimate or ultimate like German, Spanish and French respectively. However, I'm open to the idea of tossing it out if it adds to much complication. Food for thought I suppose.

I wanted to get more feedback on something other than the phonology of Esperanto too, so here are a few snippets from the full guide explaining some grammar. Also a section of the lexicon showing the etymologies of some words:


Basic Parts of Speech

A recurring theme in the Avdenio language is the idea of building upon roots. Roots are not the only kind of basic word though; conjunctions and articles make up a large part of the available vocabulary. In fact many articles can be used much as roots when modified with suffixed articles. To begin with, it behooves the learner to be familiar with the basic forms and endings of most Avdenio words.

• Root Nouns: All words ending in consonants or the vowels /-e/, /-ė/, /-o/, /-u/. Standing alone, roots always refer to a noun or pronoun; a person, being, place, thing, time, act, or quality. Example: Rien “human”, dru “pig”, he “what”, álo “daytime”, ámbo “happiness”, táepė “answer”, hávėstis “goodness”.
• Animate Nouns: All words ending in or suffixed with /-u/ refer to living things: People, animals and any other organic life, even if already deceased. Example: Kavénu “spouse”, Áejou “Asian (person/being)”, áensu “goose”.
• Inanimate Nouns: All words ending in /-(ė)z/ refer to non-living objects. Example: Láevaz ”laugh”, biévtaz “beverage”.
• Verbs: All words ending in /-a/ refer to actions and states, like English “to run” and “to relax”. When lacking this ending, roots referring to actions function as gerunds - verbal nouns such as English “running” or “relaxation”. Verbal endings that refer to tense, aspect and mood likewise end in /a/ and will be addressed more fully in subsequent sections. Example: Óera "hear", djúva “cook”.
• Adjectives: All words ending with /-i/ refer to descriptions and qualities that modify adjacent roots; words in English like “small” and “clean”. Many roots are inherently adjectival, describing a trait or manner of being, but when the ending /-i/ is absent the word becomes a substantive adjective, such as English “smallness” or “severity”. Example: Stékėtai “plugged up”, sváoi “flimsy”.
• Adverbs: All words suffixed with /-(ė)sti/ function as adverbs. A subclass of adjectives, they modify or describe the qualities of verbs, and sometimes other adjectives. They share the descriptive /-i/ ending. These are words that describe how things are done, Example: Fisiéntėsti “sufficiently", dúrėsti “at length”.
• Participles: All words suffixed with /-ai/ function to treat verbs as adjectives, either in the infinitive or other conjugations. In English such phrases as “the walking man” and the “the departed boats” exemplify participles, which describe words using actions or states. Example: Áedrai ‘aging’, kànaléirai ‘enjoyable’.
• Conjunctions: All words ending in or suffixed with /-ae/. The previous parts of speech are used to assemble words into a clause, but conjunctions are instrumental in linking clauses. They include English words like “moreover”, “then” and ”meanwhile”. Example: Fáejae “surprisingly”, téoskae “furthermore”.
• Compounds: Two or more roots affixed to each other, with the modifying root being prefixed to the head – the final root word of the combination. Neologism and specifications of terms are often created using compounds. These broaden the scope of Avdenio vocabulary without adding more fundamental roots to its word stock.

Euphonic /ė/

This vowel is often used in the common mode before, between, and after roots and articles. /ė/ is a linking vowel that is used to space apart consonant clusters and follow many hard final sounds that some speakers may find difficult to pronounce. The pronunciation of /ė/ is covered in Part 2; its default sound in the common mode is the same as /e/, or else more lax like the vowel in English “tug” or “landed”. In the common mode this sound never takes stress, and there are a few advised conventions regarding its use.

1. After roots ending in the voiceless plosive consonants /p, t, k/ or any consonant clusters. It is impartially allowed by the common mode that voiced plosives /b, d, g/ not be followed by /ė/, but in the dictionary they are listed with a final linking vowel. Examples of the use of the euphonic vowel are roots /asjt/+/ė/ > ásjtė ”notice”, /naek/+/ė/ > náekė ”deprivation”. It is suggested in particular that the above consonants and clusters containing /p, t, k/ should take the suffix /ė/, but not necessarily those containing /b, d, g/ or any liquid consonants. In the common mode, the following root endings are acceptably euphonic without /ė/: liésj ”history” because /sj/ is really a single sound [ʃ] represented by a digraph, and tals ”three” because both final consonants are soft non-plosives, or ‘liquids’. Nonetheless all final clusters are normally listed in the Avdenio lexicon with the final /ė/.
2. Between word compounds and suffixed articles, mainly to divide the resultant consonant clusters which the speaker finds difficult to pronounce. The common mode holds that geminates (double consonants like /tt, gg, ss/) are allowable, being pronounced twice as long or otherwise emphatically, e.g. /mir+ra/ > mírra ”seeing, sees”. Two-letter clusters are allowed if at least one is a liquid consonant, e.g. /hav+sul+i/ > hàvsúli, “good-sounding, euphonious”. Two consecutive plosives (p, t, k, b, d, g) are not recommended, e.g. /naek+(ė)+tai/ > náekėtai ”being withheld” instead of náektai. Clusters of three consonants are not advised in the common mode (thus /pend+ra/ >péndėra ”is bending” but in natural speech such clusters are conceivable if at least two are liquids, e.g. péndra.
3. In the euphonic mode, the purpose of which is to optionally eliminate all dense consonant clusters. In this mode, the euphonic /ė/ can be prefixed or suffixed to all roots and articles, but the characters within roots should not be altered. Thus the roots /plen/ “plan” and /jeig+ra/ “building, builds” in the common mode are rendered plènjéigra ”designing”, but in a more euphonic mode they could become ėplènėjéigėra. A plausible hyper-euphonic rendering might even be pėlènėjéigėra. Learners should note that it is not advised by the common mode to alter the roots themselves; this could obscure meaning or neglect brevity. It is the preference of the Avdenio project to encourage pronunciation as a skill, and this is why certain final consonants and consonant clusters are encouraged. Notwithstanding this, euphonic and hyper-euphonic renderings are offered for those learners whose mother tongues prefer more “consonant-vowel” syllable structure with limited final consonants, such as Japanese, Italian and Mandarin. Adding /ė/ before a root starting in two consonants would likewise assist speakers of Spanish or Farsi, who might find such clusters difficult without an initial vowel.


Verbs

All roots, even those referring to actions, states and behaviors, are nouns in their unaffixed root form. Only when suffixed with or preceded by the verbal article /a/ can the root function as an action or state. For example, the common mode recognizes that the phrase te kása vántji várėr means “you say five words”, whereas te kas vántji várėr approximately means “you speech five words". While /a/ is the basic article of a verb, many other endings based on this word-part fall within the class of verbal articles. They function to specify tense, mood, aspect, and other attributes of states and actions.

• Indicative Mood: /-a/ (prep. /a/) - Verbs being performed in reality, whether at an unspecified time, or a time that is already clear through context. The indicative is also used when modifying one verb with another through copula, as in the phrase jer éka arvéisa “we go to work” or te kána óera "you can hear". In this way the tense-less indicative doubles as an infinitive. This article can stand alone as the indicative verb /a/ “to be, is, exists” without marking person, number or tense.
• Present Tense: /-(ė)ra/ (prep. /ra/) - Verbs being performed at the time of the discourse, i.e. “being, running, working”. Standing alone /ra/ acts as the present tense verb “is, am, are, exists”. Example: O istúrias sángėra. “The instructor is playing music.”
• Past Tense: /-(ė)da/ (prep. /da/) - Verbs being performed before the time of the discourse, i.e. “did, ran, worked”. Standing alone /da/ acts as the past tense verb “was, were, existed”. Example: Imánien ven kuómda. “My sister ate.”
• Future Tense: /-(ė)va/ (prep. /va/) - Verbs being performed after the time of the discourse, i.e. “will do, will run, will work”. Standing alone /va/ acts as the future tense verb “will be, shall exist”. Example: He bitánva? “What will happen?”
• Subjunctive Mood: /-ea/ (prep. /ea/) - Verbs referring to actions and states of varying unreality; wishes, possibilities, suggestions, conditions, and hypothetical situations, e.g. “would do, could run, may work”. Standing alone /ea/ acts as the present subjunctive verb “would be, may exist”. Example: Rein ea páska rástir ten. “Rain would nourish your plants.” As with all articles, the subjunctive can be matched with any other ending, but the following three articles are most common.
• Present Subjunctive: /-(ė)rea/ (prep. /rea/) - Verbs being hypothetically performed at the time of the discourse, i.e. “would be existing, could be running, might be working”. Standing alone /rea/ acts as the present subjunctive verb “would be, might now exist”. Example: Je ábrea an sje éslae je kánrea. “He/she would be living here if he/she could.”
• Past Subjunctive: /-(ė)dea/ (prep. /dea/) - Verbs being hypothetically performed before the time of the discourse, i.e. “would have been, could have ran, might have worked”. Standing alone /dea/ acts as the past subjunctive verb “would have been, could have existed”. Example: Sao dea hávi. “Such would have been good.”
• Future Subjunctive: /-(ė)vea/ (prep. /vea/) - Verbs being hypothetically performed after the time of the discourse, i.e. “would be, could run, might later work”. Standing alone /vea/ acts as the future subjunctive verb “would then be, may exist in the future”. Example: Márko kérvea súra jez hàodáej. “Marco would want to do ittomorrow.”
• Habitual Mood: /-(ė)sa/ (prep. /sa/) Verbs regularly or ritually performed, either due to inherent nature or conscious repetition. English examples lie in the phrases “geese fly, humans live, the planet rotates”. When alone, /sa/ stands for the habitual verb “generally is, habitually exists”. Example: Húkėr to fílėr kátlėsa. “Dogs and cats (generally) fight.” Tenses and other moods can be specified in habitual verbs, but alone the article does not have inherent tense. The common mode prefers the prior markers in this list to come before the habitual, whether as endings or prepositions. This and following articles are usually suffixed to words in the order of this list, unless another style feels more natural to the speaker.
• Passive Mood: /-(ė)ta/ (prep. /ta/) Actions that are being done to the subject, rather than being done by the subject. Thus the subject of the sentence becomes the patient of the verb, reversing the nominative/accusative roles that were previously discussed. An example is the English passive in “the young woman was met by a friend” contrasting with the active “the young woman met a friend”. Standing alone /ta/ means something like “is done to”. Example: Ver da fánota . “We were separated.”
• Causative Mood: /-(ė)ja/ (prep. /ja/) - When one noun causes or compels another to act, that verb is marked by this article. In the English phrase “Uncle made his dog go outside”, the “made...go” construction is the causative verb. Standing on its own /ja/ signifies “causes to be”. Example: O viaháduir daja kamiéla végo o arvéis. “The company had me finish the work.”
Note: Causative verbs have two agents; one that compels the action, and one that actually performs it. In transitive verbs there will also be a patient; that to which the act is done. While word order can sufficiently clarify all three roles (je mirja ve o tso “he/she makes me see the mistake”), it is also suggested for extra clarity to mark the compelled agent with the oblique /go/, and optionally the compelling agent with nominative /ės/ and the patient (if any) with the accusative /ėm/. Thus the prior example could be clarified as je mírja végo o tso, or even jes mírja végo o tsom.

(there are more verb articles after this --- just giving an example)

And some sample vocabulary:
Entry Format:
common mode; academic mode/article suffix (Root/Proper Root *ab/"xy) - part of speech. definition(s) [source language, source word, romanization]


kas (Root *kas) N. speech, saying, uttering, verbal language [HI कहो kahō ID kata RU сказать skazat']
kasa; kása (*kas•a) V. to speak, to say, to utter, to verbalize
kasas; kásas (*kas•as) N. speaker, announcer, narrator
kasi; kási (*kas•i) Adj. spoken, saying, verbal, vocal, relating to speech
kasio; kásio (*kas•io) N. spoken language
kassataz; kássataz (*kas•sa•taz) N. common saying, proverb, adage; lit. something that is habitually said
kastaz; kástaz (*kas•taz) N. declaration, speech, announcement; lit. something said
katla; kátla (*katl•) V. to fight, to battle, to contend
katlas; kátlas (*katl•as) N. fighter, contender, warrior
katle; kátlė (Root *katl) N. fight, battle, contention [AR قتال qātala]
katli; kátli (*katl•i) Adj. fighting, contentious, relating to battle
kavan; kaván (Root *kavan) N. bag, sack, satchel [KO 가방 gabang]
kavana; kavána (*kavan•a) V. to bag, to be/put in a sack
kavani; kaváni (*kavan•i) Adj. bagged, relating to sacks
kaven; kavén (Root *kaven) N. marriage, matrimony [ID menkawini]
kavena; kavéna (*kaven•a) V. to marry, to wed
kaveni; kavéni (*kaven•i) Adj. married, wed, marital, relating to matrimony
kavenien; kavénien (*kaven•ien) N. wife; lit. female spouse
kaveniov; kavéniov (*kaven•iov) N. husband; lit. male spouse
kavenu; kavénu (*kaven•u) N. spouse
Kazake; Kazákė (Proper Root "kazak) N. Kazakhstan, the Kazakhstani region/nation/people [KK Қазақстан Qazaqstan, Қазақ Qazaq]
keda; kéda (*ked•a) V. to give, to gift, to offer
kede; kédė (Root *ked) N. giving, gift, offering [MN 给 gěi]
kedi; kédi (*ked•i) Adj. giving, gifted
keita; kéita (*keit•a) V. to please, to be gratified, to delight
keite; kéitė (Root *keit) N. pleasure, gratifation, delight [SW kukidhi]
keiti; kéiti (*keit•i) Adj. pleasant, gratifying, delightful
keijo; kéijo (Root *keijo) N. shape, form, contour [JA 形状 keijō]
keijoa; kéijoa (*keijo•a) V. to shape, to take form, to mold
keijoi; kéijoi (*keijo•i) Adj. shapely, formed, modeled

and here is an example of the derivations of the article /dran/ "during"

dran; -(ė)dran (Root •dran) Art. during, while, throughout, all along [BE ধরিয়া dhariẏā EN through ES durante HI दौरान daurāna PT durante]
dransoa; dransóa (•dran*so•a) V. to last, to carry on, to happen for a while, to endure
dransoe; dransóe (•dran*so•e) N. endurance, carrying on, extended occurrence
dransoi; dransói (•dran*so•i) Adj. enduring, lasting

vokzhen
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Re: World Hybrid Auxlang - 4 year in the works and needs inp

Post by vokzhen »

Well, you said you wanted more than critique of phonology, but that's what I have for you. And as a side note, while it's obvious for the most part, you should try and maintain the distinction between /phonology/ and ⟨orthography⟩ (or <orthography>, but not /orthography/ as you have in several places).

One thing I haven't seen many people address directly is language change, not just native language interference. It's going to happen if you start to have native speakers of the language, it's inevitable; some pretty interesting grammatical changes have happened among native speakers of Esperanto. Simpler to try and account for is sound change, though. Avoiding sound change might not be part of your goals, so maybe this is off-mark, but personally I'd consider it important for something seriously trying to become an auxlang.

Intentional or not, you do this well with consonants in the phonology, with two possible exceptions. The presence of /ʃ ʒ tʃ dʒ/ should help keep either the alveolars or velars from palatalizing, which is probably the single most common sound change to account for (though it's obviously not foolproof, a t-ts-tʃ or t-tɕ-tʂ system is still possible). You have a contrast between /v/ and the glide allophone of /u/, which might be a problem. A bigger issue is probably the presence of /h/. Realistically it's a very common sound, but it easily drops intervocally (and in the coda, if you allow coda /h/), which then can easily change into vowel length, diphthongs, or new vowel qualities that could really mess with things.

A really big problem would be if a plain-voiced contrast lenited to a stop-fricative system. It would probably be possible to reduce the chance of such changes, but at a guess the more stable systems might be fortis-lenis-ejective or plain-prenasalized system, the former of which isn't nearly as intuitive for people to understand and the latter of which works better (or at least easier) with minimal clustering.

You could intentionally put certain things under heavy semantic load to help. If there's a lot of important words that contrast /ti tʃi ki/, you're less likely to get palatalization; on the other hand, if /ki/ is nearly non-existent, it could easily merge with /tʃi/.

You do well with consonants, but vowels... those diphthongs are a problem. Diphthongs are pretty prone to change on their own, and you've got a lot of odd ones. Contrasts like /ai ae a/, /o oa ao/, and /eu eo ev/ are not realistically going to stay around for long, which means you're introducing an auxlang that's *expected* to split into dialects rather quickly as different speakers find different ways to resolve the density of vowels. You don't want that. /ai au/ are as safe as you're going to get, /oi/ is also really stable as far as diphthongs go, and /eu/ is probably safe as well (though beware /ev/). /ai au/ almost always collapse to /ɛ ɔ/ or /e: o:/ so they don't interfere with /e o/, while /oi eu/ either harmonize to /ei ou/ or front to /ø(y)/ (likely along with a merge of iu ui > y), so they're still not interfering with other vowels. I wouldn't have more falling diphthongs than those. While I aesthetically like ones like /oa ie iə/, they're just too likely to collapse for inclusion in an auxlang that's taking itself seriously.

On a shorter note, the orthography. I understand pulling from multiple sources, but there's a big problem with native orthography influence. As an English speaker, the letters for /a i u d s ʃ n/ all look extremely similar to English letters without sounding like them. That causes problems when they're alongside the the genuinely-Roman-influenced letters for /o p r z/. It may not be feasible (I'm not sure, the only alphabets I know are Roman, Greek and Cyrillic), or maybe you already tried and this is the best that was possible, but it seems worthwhile to really try to get graphemes that look like the donor language, without looking like any of the other donor language's graphemes. And I'd also probably remove the lower-case versions of the letters, or at least the different graphemes for /i u f v s z m/ and make them all identical save for size. In a language with a shallow orthography the alphabet might be by far the easier part of the learning process, but different miniscule letters still seems like a needless complication.

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Re: World Hybrid Auxlang - 4 year in the works and needs inp

Post by zompist »

What leaps out at me is the near-uselessness of the cognates. You've based the words on natlangs but hidden the resemblance. This is much like Lojban, but I don't think it works there either— most people don't even realize Lojban is a posteriori. It seems like you want the artistic consistency and malleability of an a priori language while retaining a claim to being a posteriori. But if the words are neither recognizable nor predictable, what are you even borrowing for?

Some examples:

arvéis (ahr-veys) “work” — Why not arbéis, which would at least reference Arbeit and Rus. rabotatj? Why lose the t, which would enhance the resemblance?

"Tjónguir (choan-gweer) “the people of China” > There are two parts: the proper root /tjong/ “China” and the articles /u+ir/ meaning a collective or group of living things."

From your phonology section it seems you don't actually have an ŋ sound. If you do much borrowing from Mandarin this is going to be weird. But look at the phonetics of this borrowing: [tʂʊŋ] :> [ʧong]. Not a single segment in common, though you do list [tʂ] as an allophone of <tj>. Dividing ng between two syllables makes it even more unrecognizable.

Also, if this is intended to make the word easy for a Chinese person, they would perhaps expect it to be the same word as in Chinese— i.e. 'middle'. Is it? If you want to refer to the Hàn ethnicity, you might use that word.

"Áejou Asian" — Why use an English pronunciation and thus distort the word for everyone who has simple s (or z)? Why the extra e?

(If you're thinking of Mand. Yàzhōu, the 'Asia' part is just yà; zhōu is here 'continent'.)

katle [AR قتال qātala]
kavan [KO 가방 gabang]
dran; [BE ধরিয়া dhariẏā EN through ES durante HI दौरान daurāna PT durante]
Ingélio - English

More inexplicable changes. What would be wrong with katale, gaban? Why remove the vowel in d*ran- when 4 of your 5 sources have it? If you really need an epenthetic vowel in "ngl" why stress it?

Sorry to sound critical. The words are quite pretty and these things would be fine and even desirable in an artlang. But if you're explicitly aiming at an auxlang, it just seems to be making difficulties for people.

A couple other quibbles...

-- Esperanto's worst idea was word endings determining part of speech. This is far less useful than you might think, and makes for a repetitive phonotactics. There is no need for a suffix to mark conjunctions! The total set should be small enough to memorize.

-- The morphology in general is very Indo-European. If you haven't already, you should read my Language Construction Kit to see what other ways there are to do things.

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Re: World Hybrid Auxlang - 4 year in the works and needs inp

Post by Bryan »

Hi Avdenio, as someone who's working on a similar project myself (for about a decade, and still almost nothing online!), I'm both encouraged to post in your thread and discouraged to do so. Encouraged because it's an area I take an interest in. Discouraged because I wouldn't want to be precious about my own ideas or be unduly critical of yours. But I thought I'd offer some basic advice and opinions. I've tried to not replicate other people's comments (as I agree with most other comments in this thread).

I like your ideas, such as trying to enable people to retain many of their first language habits without straying into ungrammaticality.

I'm not keen on diacritics or modifications to letters. Esperanto made that mistake -- although more grievously than you. Keep it to the basic Roman alphabet.

There are too many diphthongs -- and many of yours don't seem to be diphthongs in any case, e.g., "e-o" in "creole" is two vowels. You make this mistake often. A diphthong is a single vowel -- no syllable break -- whose quality changes during the articulation.

Stress, accent, prosody etc are all things which are hard for learners of a language to master. I really can't see how such things have a place in an auxlang of the kind you describe. To clarify, a regional auxlang for speakers of Chinese languages and Vietnamese might allow tone, and a regional auxlang for Germanic speakers might allow word stress and a stress timed language, but a language which aims to bring together speakers of highly divergent languages is always going to be problematic.

Also, what Zomp said; the following sums up your biggest / one of your biggest problems: What leaps out at me is the near-uselessness of the cognates. You've based the words on natlangs but hidden the resemblance. This is much like Lojban, but I don't think it works there either— most people don't even realize Lojban is a posteriori. It seems like you want the artistic consistency and malleability of an a priori language while retaining a claim to being a posteriori. But if the words are neither recognizable nor predictable, what are you even borrowing for?

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