Heocg

[Chagen]

Finally got this finished.


All of this below until you reach the phonology is fluff. You don't have to read it, though it would be nice.

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Heocg is a language isolate spoken on the planet Thooselqat on the continent of Dorishar (T-selqat's rough equivalent to Southeast Asia--the name comes from Azenti, the once-lingua franca of Dorishar, and is short for "Doris Harghretjo", meaning "Shining Islands"). It is spoken by people known as the Heocg themselves, though their country is called "Hecizuotys", an Azenti term. Hecizuotys is located roughly where Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam would be on Earth (though remember that in Thooselqat there is not the "protrusion" that these countries appear to lie in, but rather a flat coastline), but a little further south; it also contains a large island, roughly the size of Japan, that lies about 5 miles from the coastline. Like most of Dorishar, Hecizuotys is wet, covered in rivers, and hot. Much of the country is a tropical rain forest.

The Heocg ply their skill in trading. Through them, the Azen, who live in the southern seas can trade with the Sunago, Satkicz, and Queng that lie north. Despite the advent of modern technology, Heocg is still a important port for Dorishar tol Vyaja (the islands of Dorishar, equivalent to Indonesia and the like on Earth) and Dorishar tol Sadmami (the land countries of Dorishar, roughly equivalent of Cambodia, Vietnam, Japan, China, Korea, etc.). The Heocg are not ones for war, normally, a trait that has cost them sometimes in the political turmoil of Dorishar. But, they are lucky enough to emerge in the top 20 economies of Thooselqat, and are a very-well off people, enjoying all sorts of modern conveniences.

Heocg itself is an isolate, as said before, but even isolates cannot resist the power of areal influence. Heocg exhibits of many features that apply to the Dorishar Sprachbund:

- Distinguishing aspirated voiced stops from modally voiced stops, front rounded vowels, alveolar affricates, and using vowel apophony as a grammatical feature (though nowhere near what Azenti does)
-Possessing large amount of inflections on verbs, but no marking of person or number
-Having three numbers for nouns: Singular, Dual, and Plural
-Distinction of three verbal voices: Active, Middle, and Passive
-Having more stops than fricatives (though, ironically, Azenti, the model for Dorishar languages, due to lenition of aspirated voiceless stops, has roughly the same amount of fricatives as stops)
-Phonemic gemination and vowel length (though Azenti does not have the latter)
-Having a small amount of sandhi
-Basic SOV order

One of the things that's unique about Heocg, and what makes it so hard for linguists on Thooselqat to pin down relatives for it, is that is uses cases to mark word relationships. Dorishar languages are very averse to cases, instead preferring to use postpositional particles (of which Heocg has none). However, Heocg's case inflections, especially the genitive, act quite oddly, sometimes acting more like clitics, implying that they may have once been particles now being turned into affixes (and nearly complete in that respect).

Heocg is also notable for being the first language to gain a script in ALL of Thooselqat. The Heocg love stories and for a very long time, to be a storyteller meant that you were near the absolute top of the social strata. Eventually a woman known only as Wedhwas, literally "The one who speaks" (the word is an active present participle of wedh, meaning "to speak", used as a substantive), dedicated 5 years to making a native script for Heocg. It is highly notable in that it is a complete alphabet, capable of writing out Heocg completely (though new letters had to be made for sounds that came later). Since it was built expressly for writers, it possesses some truly bizarre characteristics: there is an entirely different alphabet for names, a third alphabet for writing quotations, and endless extra characters that have no meaning but serve as shorthand for inflections allowing writers to jot down their stories as efficiently as possible. Many of these features are unused today except in formal writing, though every Heocg is expected to know them as they are used in textbooks, newspapers, books, movie posters, video game cases, manuals for electronic devices; basically anything professional.

Heocg and Azenti are highly influenced by each other, despite not being related. Each language has many loanwords from the other, and indeed, a rough line can be drawn through both Hecizuo and Azehar--as one travels southeast through this line, Heocg starts becoming more and more influenced by Azenti until the middle, where the two have practically merged into a creole/mixed language called Hecitipuzzrovamiris Azenti (Azenti, lit. "Heocg-incoporated Azenti). Past this line, Heocg-influenced Azenti shows up and becomes less and less influenced as one goes downwards till a place of "pure" Azenti is spoken (though it still contains high amounts of Heocg loanwords).

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The prestige dialect of Heocg, spoken in the capital city of Higcwaz, has this sound inventory:

/m n ŋ/
<m n ng>

/p b bʰ t d dʰ k g gʰ q/
<p b bh t d dh k g gh q>

/s f θ x/
<s f ð x>

/w~v j r~ɾ~ɻ/
<w y r>

/ts dz tʃ dʒ/
<c z cg gc>

Short vowels:
/i e a o u/
<i e a o u>

Long vowels:
/iː eː aː oː uː ɛ æ y aj uj oj ej ew aw/
<į ę ą ǫ ų eo ea y ay uy oy ey eu au>

Diphthongs are considered long vowels as they take up two morae. /ɛ æ y/ derive from diphthongs, evidenced by the spelling of the first two, while /y/ comes from an early /iw/ diphthong.

Heocg possesses not much in the way of allophony, but what is there can cause sandhi to happen when inflecting words:

V: ieaouɛæ (Any phonetic monophthong)
F:fsθx (unvoiced fricatives)
Z:vzðɣ (voiced fricatives)
A: bh/dh/gh (voiced aspirate stops)
P: pbtdkg (non-aspirated stops)
H: iyu (high vowels)
M:ieaou (short vowels)
L:įęąǫų (long monophthongs)

i y/e u/_j

F/Z/V_V

i u/e o/q_

i/j/_V

j//_H

M[the same vowel)/L/ (TLDR a vowel lengthens if next to the same vowel at which point the second drops)

A+Homorganic-P/AA/ (basically, "bh+p/b = bbh, and so on)

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Nominals and Adjectives:

Nouns and adjectives in Heocg act very similar. Both have various declensions (Nouns have 5, Adjectives have 4), and both distinguish 7 cases in 3 numbers. Heocg is head-initial and thus uses Noun-Adjective.

The three numbers nominals have are Singular, Dual, and Plural. The dual is obligatory whenever two things are referenced. The plural is strictly for groups of 3 objects or more.

The cases Heocg distinguishes are Nominative, Accusative, Dative/Benefactive, Possessive, Genitive, Vocative, and Instrumental. Most have uses that are rather typical and expected of their names, but the Genitive and Instrumental have some unique uses.

Some of the vocab used in this section:

Stayfų: boy
Ųðras: girl
Muqqas: woman
Komąr: man
Keðnu: tree
kru(es): to see
gem: to run
zwaq: to give
knaų: fast, quick
baðų: slow
hacnas: happy

The cases and their uses as follows:

Nominative: The nominative marks the subject of an action, as to be expected:

Stayfų gem
boy-NOM.SG run.PRES
The boy runs

Accusative: Marks the direct object of an action. Nothing besides that.

Ųðras stayfuwa kru
girl-NOM.SG boy-ACC.SG see
The girl sees the boy

Dative/Benefactive: Usually shortened to "dative", this marks the beneficiary/indirect object of an action.

Komąr keðnuyoy muqqat zwayq.
man.NOM.SG tree-PL.ACC woman-DAT.SG give.PST
The man gave the trees to the woman.

Possessive: Used to indicate a possessor of something. What is possessed goes before the possessor. It is also put in the Genitive (this will be explained later)

Keðnuyrs muqqos
tree-GEN.PL woman-POSS.SG
The trees of the woman.

Genitive: Alright, now we get to the interesting part. The Genitive is the most bizarre case of the group. Any time two nouns are put together and modifying each other, the noun that is modified is put in the genitive. The most important purpose of this is when using adjectives: adjectives do not agree with nouns in Heocg. Rather, the modified noun is put into the genitive, and the adjective is then inflected for whatever case the noun would have been if the adjective wasn't there. For example, take a previous sentence:

Ųðras stayfuwa kru
girl-NOM.SG boy-ACC.SG see
The girl sees the boy

Say we want to say "the fast boy" instead. We would take the noun "boy" and put it in the genitive, and then take the word fast, place it after "boy", and then inflect that to the accusative:

Ųðras stayfur knauwa kru
girl-NOM.SG boy-GEN.SG fast-ACC.SG see
The girl sees the boy

The genitive marks the noun as being modified by the adjective. You can see why possessive phrases require the genitive for the thing being possessed--the possession is modifying it, so is it placed in the gentive. Indeed, the a noun in the possessive is not actually a noun anymore--it's an adjective. Witness:

Fah keðnuyrs muqqosa kruyogyu.
1SG.NOM tree-GEN.PL woman-POSS.SG-ACC see-POT.PST-NEG
I couldn't see the woman's trees.

The inflectional endings this noun-turned possessive adjective take are ALWAYS singular, never dual or plural, because the noun itself indicates the number. So:

Fah keðnuyrs muqqadhisa kruyogyu.
1SG.NOM tree-GEN.PL woman-POSS.PL-ACC see-POT.PST-NEG
I couldn't see the women's trees.

The word "muqqadhisa" still uses the consonant-stem class' ACC.SG ending, -a, despite the noun now being plural (if it took plural adjective endings, it would have been *muqqadhisyoy).

The genitive is incredibly common in Heocg due to the sheer amount of words that require it. All demonstratives, partitives, and the like (and there are many of them) require it:

writoys stoy
love-GEN.SG DEM.DIPH-NOM.SG
this love

wreccoirð cruwibhu
person-GEN.PL most-NOM.PL
most of the people

hacnurora Alðnarisor heofas
happiness-GEN.SG Alðna-POSS.SG-GEN.SG some-NOM.SG
some of Alðna's happiness

Prepositions also take it (except for a very small amount that take the instrumental instead)

Vocative: The vocative is used to call out to people. In some numbers it is conflated with the nominative, but out of the 15 VOC inflections, 9 are still distinct.

Ah, stayfibhrta ųðriðra!
INTERJECTION boy-VOC.PL girl-VOC.PL
Ah, you boys and girls!

It can be used with adjectives as well:

Ah, baðrsi!
INTERJECTION, slow-VOC.SG
Hey, slow one (over there)!

Instrumental: The instrumental marks the instrument with which an action was done. But, it also marks and oblique agent in a passive sentence. Also, sometimes, especially in older/antiquated speech, it marks the agent in a middle sentence. With a more metaphorical bent, the instrumental can also indicate cause or reason:

Yað stuwa stirbhwigayos cnof!
just 3SG.M-ACC machine.gun-INSTR.SG kill
Just kill him with a machine gun!

Stayfų ųðrayos krutyuryagyu
boy-NOM.SG girl-INSTR.SG see-PASS-PAST-POT-NEG
The boy could not be seen by the girl.

Writoys stusyo, stau wanyogyu.
love-GEN.SG 3M-GEN.SG-INSTR.SG, 3F-ACC hate-POT.PST-NEG
Out of/because of/thanks to love, he could not hate her.

But the most interesting aspect is with adjectives. Heocg does not have semantic adverbs. Rather, an adjective in the instrumental is used before or after the verb (usually after to make sure it's understood as modifying the verb:

(As you can see, I really like <y>)

Muqqas stayfuwa cnyf hacnayos.
woman-NOM.SG boy-ACC.SG kill.FUT happy-INSTR
The woman will happily kill the boy.

Sometimes an noun can be used as well:

Hocǫraru praðayo!
live-MID-NECC truth-INSTR.SG
Live true to yourself/selves! (lit. "Live with/by means of truth!" and used as a traditional way of dismissing/saying goodbye)

However, unlike with verbs, an adjective in the instrumental cannot be used with another adjective to form an adverbial phrase. Such a phrase simply puts the first adjective into the genitive and then the second one is inflect for case like normal:

Komąr stayfur gemwar baðuwa kru.
man-NOM.SG boy-GEN.SG run.PTCPL.ACT.PRES-GEN.SG slow-ACC.SG see
The man sees the slowly running boy.

As seen above, this can result in a double-genitive situation. With a even more complex phrase:

Fah keðnuyrs cnofwirð baðibhyo muqqadhisa kruyogyu.
1SG.NOM tree-GEN.PL die-PTCPL.PRES.ACT-GEN.PL slow-GEN.PL woman-POSS.PL-ACC see-POT.PST-NEG
I couldn't see the slowly dying trees of the women.

And thus we have a TRIPLE genitive. Woo.

A few adverbs (Heocg DOES have some, but none derived from adjectives) clearly are instrumental nouns, like kayo (as long as) or muyo (until), but they have no other forms, and thus are called

This concludes the description of the cases. Of course this is a basic overview--there's more to it than that--but this describes them quite adequately for the time being.

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Next I will go over the declensions. Then verb basics.

Please tell me of any typos I made, I looked over it already but you never catch them all.

[KathTheDragon]

You forgot to say how the affricates are written.

[Chagen]

How did I miss that?

Fixed.

[cromulant]

The Heocg are not ones for war, normally, a trait that has costed cost them sometimes in the political turmoil of Dorishar.

[Quantum]

Heocg is also notable for being the first language to gain a script in ALL of Thooselqat. The Heocg love stories and for a very long time, to be a storyteller meant that you were near the absolute top of the social strata. Eventually a woman known only as Wedhwas, literally "The one who speaks" (the word is an active present participle of wedh, meaning "to speak", used as a substantive), dedicated 5 years to making a native script for Heocg. It is highly notable in that it is a complete alphabet, capable of writing out Heocg completely (though new letters had to be made for sounds that came later). Since it was built expressly for writers, it possesses some truly bizarre characteristics: there is an entirely different alphabet for names, a third alphabet for writing quotations, and endless extra characters that have no meaning but serve as shorthand for inflections allowing writers to jot down their stories as efficiently as possible. Many of these features are unused today except in formal writing, though every Heocg is expected to know them as they are used in textbooks, newspapers, books, movie posters, video game cases, manuals for electronic devices; basically anything professional.

How did Wedhwas know to break Heocg down phonemically/phonetically? Where did she get this idea? If writing never existed on Thooselqat to begin with, then how are/were languages analyzed? How did Thooselqat linguists record their languages?

Say we want to say "the fast boy" instead. We would take the noun "boy" and put it in the genitive, and then take the word fast, place it after "boy", and then inflect that to the accusative:

Ųðras stayfur knauwa kru
girl-NOM.SG boy-GEN.SG fast-ACC.SG see
The girl sees the fast boy

But the most interesting aspect is with adjectives. Heocg does not have semantic adverbs. Rather, an adjective in the instrumental is used before or after the verb (usually after to make sure it's understood as modifying the verb:

Muqqas stayfuwa cnyf hacnayos.
woman-NOM.SG boy-ACC.SG kill.FUT happy-INSTR
The woman will happily kill the boy.

Sometimes an a noun can be used as well:

Hocǫraru praðayo!
live-MID-NECC truth-INSTR.SG
Live true to yourself/selves! (lit. "Live with/by means of truth!" and used as a traditional way of dismissing/saying goodbye)

I really like this use of the instrumental.

Also, how is <h> pronounced?

Overall, cool stuff. Keep it coming.

[KathTheDragon]

Might borrow that idea in part, the instrumental being used for adverbs.

[Chagen]

I'd be honored--it was an old idea of mine I finally got to implement into this language.

I've finished the post on noun declensions, but since my computer for whatever reason hates the school internet (I'm using one of the school computers right now) so it'll be like 5 hours before I can post it. It's really short so I'm probably gonna post the verbal basics soon afterwards.

[communistplot]

The Heocg are not ones for war, normally, a trait that has costed cost costed them sometimes in the political turmoil of Dorishar.

Both are used depending on which side of the pond you live on.

[KathTheDragon]

The Heocg are not ones for war, normally, a trait that has costed cost costed them sometimes in the political turmoil of Dorishar.

Both are used depending on which side of the pond you live on.

Continued use of 'costed' instead of 'cost' as the past participle will cost you dearly.

[Nortaneous]

The Heocg are not ones for war, normally, a trait that has costed cost costed them sometimes in the political turmoil of Dorishar.

Both are used depending on which side of the pond you live on.

what, do brits say 'costed'

[sangi39]

The Heocg are not ones for war, normally, a trait that has costed cost costed them sometimes in the political turmoil of Dorishar.

Both are used depending on which side of the pond you live on.

what, do brits say 'costed'

None that I know of (including myself), except by children who generalise the -ed past tense suffix (in the same way you get thing like "runned" or "ranned" instead of "ran").

[prettydragoon]

If you mean cost as in 'to estimate the cost of', then yes, its past tense is costed.

"The company hadn't costed the marketing campaign, which cost them dearly."

[KathTheDragon]

"... a trait that has estimated the cost of them sometimes..."

[WechtleinUns]

Interesting stuff, Chagen. Although, anyone trying to pronounce this is going to butcher the sounds, especially with that "c" being used for "ts". Having said that, I had a good time practicing the pronunciations, and eventually got to a point where it sounded pretty cool, at least too my ears. The novel use of the genitive was pretty cool, as well, although I got a question. In really long adjectival phrases, say, with 4+ adjectives/modifiers, would there be some process to reduce the number of genitive case markings?

It seems to me a natural result from having to repeate she same morpheme that many times in so close succession.

[Chagen]

Yeah guys, this conversation is very funny and all but this is a conlang thread, not a prescriptivist soapbox.

Anyway:

I've been avoiding this post for a while but fuck I have to do it. Goddamn tables...sorry if they look like shit.

Noun/Adjective Declensions

Those of you gifted with sight will notice that the various nouns/adjectives above have some differing inflections for the same roles. Heocg possesses various classes of nouns--if the classes had any kind of meaning, that's been lost for a long time. Now, one must merely remember what declension each nominal belongs to.

Nouns have 6 classes/declensions: -ų stems, -as stems, -V stems, -C stems, Diphthong stems, and -om stems Adjectives have all of these except the Diphthong stems and -om stems, though nearly all the -V and -C stem adjectives are verbal participles. Note that this is not a gender system--there is no agreement between various words modifying each other, except in the case of several demonstratives and possessive pronouns.

Now, the declensions:


-ų stems:

One of most common classes. Named for its Nominative in -ų. Various examples include Stayfų (boy), Baðų (slow), Writtų (river); the first is given in the paradigm below:

Code: Select all

            SG          DU           PL
NOM     Stayfų      Stayfǫ      Stayfibhu
ACC     Stayfuwa   Stayfǫw   Stayfibhoy
DAT     Stayfut      Stayfǫs    Stayfibhuh
POSS   Stayfus     Stayfǫs    Stayfibhos
GEN     Stayfur     Stayfor     Stayfibhr
VOC    Stayfrsi     Stayfors    Stayfibhrta
INSTR  Stayfuyo   Stayfoyos  Stayfibhyos

Take note of some internal sandhi--none shows up for Stayfu, nouns ending in *-ių (not very common however) have a NOM.SG in -iu, since trimoraic vowel combinations are frowned upon (something similar happens in the NOM, ACC, and DAT of the dual). In addition, in the plural distinctive -i in the endings is lengthened to -į (thus, the noun Nemiu (book) has the plural Nemįbhu, Nemįbhoy, etc)

-as stems:

Another extremely common type. Named for its Nominative in -as. This class clearly shares many of the inflections of the -ų stems, but demonstrates a though the dual's <mr> and the plurals <ð> can slightly obscure this. Of some note is that many nouns referring to women are in this class--Ųðras (girl), Muqqas (Woman), and so on. This is possible evidence for an old gender system though the actual class itself has no gendered meaning anymore. Anyway, the inflections:

The paradigm for Ųðras is thus:

Code: Select all

          SG          DU           PL
NOM     ųðras      ųðramrt     ųðraði
ACC     ųðrau      ųðramrta   ųðraðoy
DAT     ųðrat      ųðramrta    ųðraðuh
POSS    ųðros      ųðramris    ųðradhis
GEN     ųðrar      ųðramr       ųðrirð
VOC     ųðras     ųðramrt      ųðriðra
INSTR   ųðrayo   ųðramryo   ųðraðyos

One can clearly see that the -u stems and the -as stems are related, especially in the singular where they share the desinences -u (ACC), -t (DAT), -s (POSS--though the -as stems have -os instead of expected *-as to make sure that it is not identical to the NOM.SG), -r (GEN) and -yo (INSTR--indeed, basically all of the classes form their instrumentals with -Vyo).

-C and -V stems:

These two classes are incredibly similar, to the point where they could practically be considered the same, except for some slight differences. Thus, I will talk about both in this section, though do note that many demonstratives (which have different forms agreeing with each class) keep them seperate (e.g, the all-purpose demonstrative st- has the form st- for the consonant-stems but the form sto- for the vowel ones). This class is mostly dominated by nouns, though technically many adjectives are of this class--the present and future participles of suffixing verbs, as well as their present middle participles are of these two classes (Ablaut verbs--you'll learn about the differences between these verbal classes later--have their middle participles in the consonant-stems).

The examples for these two classes are both participles: Kruesto (see-PTCPL.PASS.PRES) and and Sneyghið (work.PRES-PTCPL.MID:

Code: Select all

           SG                                 DU                                  PL
NOM    Kruesto | Sneyghið           Kruestoen | Sneyghiðip        Kruestoya | Sneyghiðya
ACC    Kruestoka | Sneyghiða       Kruestoeni | Sneyghiðen      Kruestoyoy | Sneyghiðyoy
DAT    Kruestoku | Sneyighiðyt     Kruestoent | Sneyghiðen      Kruestoyuh | Sneyghiðyuh
POSS   Kruestoris | Sneyghiðar     Kruestoyeos | Sneyghiðeos   Kruestoyn | Sneyghiðin
GEN     Kruestora | Sneyghiðor     Kruestoes | Sneyghiðes        Kruestoyrs | Sneyghiðyrk
VOC    Kruestoy | Sneyghiðy        Kruestompi | Sneyghiðip       Kruestoy | Sneyghiðya
INSTR  Kruestoyo | Sneyghiðoy     Krestoeyu | Sneyghiði         Kruestoyos | Sneyghiðoyus

(Not super satsified with the dual here, doesn't look as good as I'd want. Probably gonna change it.)

Moving on:

Diphthong grade:

One of the more unique classes. Named because it possesses diphthongs in all of its numbers. Interestingly enough, all of the desinences are the same in each number--the only difference is the diphthong inbetween the desinences, which is -oy- in the singular, -uy- in the dual, and -ay- in the plural. This class is small, but many deverbal nouns are formed this way (cf. writ, to love, and writoy, love) and many demonstratives are of this class. The example paradigm for this class will be a demonstrative itself: hytoy (much, many), but other such examples are yuðoy (nothing, none), and ascoy (someone). No adjectives are in this class at all.

Code: Select all

          SG          DU         PL
NOM    hytoy     hytuy      hytay
ACC    hytoya    hytuya    hytaya
DAT    hytoyt    hytuyt     hytayt
POSS  hytoyt    hytuyt     hytayt
GEN    hytoys    hytuys    hytays
VOC   hytoy      hytum     hytay
INSTR hytoyo    hytuyo    hytayo

The terminations for this class are -Ø, -a, -t, -t, -s, -Ø, -o for the whole paradigm, with only the inner diphthong shifting. How this arose is anyone's guess.

-om stems: The final class. Somewhat common, mainly because the passive infinitive ends in this. Anyway, this class' endings are somewhat unique, with many labials, but it still possesses some characteristic endings like an instrumental in -yo (though it has become -ye in this class). I'll use the word writom, "being loved" (the passive infitive of "writ", "to love"--infinitives in Heocg do double duty as gerunds and sometimes triple duty as supines):

Code: Select all

             SG          DU           PL
NOM      writom     writeybo    writowa
ACC      writama    writeyba    writowa
DAT      writana    writeyt       writowot
POSS    writym      writeym     writowy
GEN      writu        writeyma    writowu
VOC     writanr      writey        writowr
INSTR   writewo    writebye     writowye

Now, these are all the declensions. Here's a little bit of derivational morphology for you:

To turn nouns in adjectives, take the bare stem of the noun, and add -on(ų/as) to it. Do note that there is an actual difference for which ending you add. Each noun usually can form two adjectives--one in -onų, and one in -onas. The first one usually indicates a kind of "concrete" kind of adjective, while the second is more metaphorical. An example is about the only way to explain this:

If we take stayfų (boy), then we can derive stayfonų and stayfonas from it. The first means, roughly "of or relating to boys". The second means "puerile, immature":

Puttonar stas br stayfonų
conversation-GEN.SG DEM.A-NOM.SG be boy-ADJ1
This conversation is concerning boys (for whatever reason)

Wyubayu, gonur stayfonar ksas!
mess.around.FUT-NEG, idiot-GEN.SG immature-GEN.SG hated.thing.A-NOM.SG
Stop messing around, you fucking immature idiot!

To turn adjectives in nouns (i.e "happy" -> "happiness"), take the stem of adjectives and add -uro; the result is a -V stem noun:

hacnas (happy) -> hacnuro (happiness)
knau (quick) -> knauro (speed)
smanas (funny) -> smanuro (humor, funniness)

Obviously these aren't the only methods, or the only derivational morphology. But those will get their own post soon enough.


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Next to verbs. Already working on that, should be done soon.

Also can someone tell me how to make my tables not look like shit?

[Chagen]

Let it begin:

By the way, I've decided to start writing the syllabic trill with the dot underneath a la Sanskrit romanization, because it looks cool and makes it more distinct.

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Heocg Verbs:


Ah, now we reach the part we've all been waiting for (well, I hope you've all been waiting for it...). Like any good Dorishar language, Heocg has a LOT of stuff going on with the verbs. However, also like any good Dorishar language, there is absolutely no person or number marking. Heocg verbs, barring some minor exceptions, go at the end of the sentence, a quite peculiar situation given that Hoecg is head-initial. Only one non-finite verb can be in a Heocg clause, barring some tiny exceptions; the language gets around this with MANY finite verb forms.

Heocg verbs distinguish 3 tenses--past, present, and future--and two moods--indicative and subjunctive. The subjunctive is used in subordinate clauses; however, in Modern Heocg, only a few verbs are actually used in the subjunctive--you'll see what happened later.

Heocg verbs clean segment into two classes--ablaut and suffix. The difference between the two lies in how they distinguish tense. ablaut verbs use apophony (think Germanic strong verbs), while suffix verbs suffix specific tense markers. ablaut verbs, unlike Germanic strong verbs, are incredibly common in Heocg, nearly equaling the suffix verbs in number. The ablaut patterns are completely regular--if you know a verb is an ablaut one, and what it's ablauting vowel in the present is, you can perfectly predict the future and past forms.

In addition, because the root itself already encodes tense, ablauts have much less inflections. For instance, here are the participles for the verb męt (to eat, ablaut):

Active: mętirom (Present), mǫtirom (Past), mųtirom (Future)
Passive: mętikų, mǫtikų, mųtikų
Middle: mętið, mǫtið, mųtið

Since the tense is already indicated by the ablauting vowel, only three inflections (-was, -ikų, -ið) are needed; one for each voice.

Compare this to the participles of the verb kru(es) (to see, suffix, note that ending in a vowel results in a linking -y- being added before affixes beginning with /u/):

Active: kruerom, kruyuras, kruhwas
Passive: kruesto, kruirų, kruiro
Middle: kruesi, kruyuzų, kruazų

9 different inflections are needed, one for reach voice and tense combination. Actually, due to this little property, almost every inflection in Heocg has two versions: an invariant one that is used with ablaut verbs and an ablauting variant that is used on suffix verbs to make them as succinct as possible. For instance, the negative forms of the two verbs above are:

mętayu: does not eat
mǫtayu: did not eat
mųtayu: will not eat

kruaye: does not see
kruayo: did not see
kruayu: will not see

Hopefully you noticed that the suffix -ay(e) for kru(es) undergoes the same alterations as męt does above (except that męt's vowel is long, but the qualities are still the same). ANY ablaut verb with an /e/ in the present will have an /o/ in the past and an /u/ in the future. Here are all the ablauting paradigms:

(Present/Past/Future)
e/o/u (gem/gom/gum--to run--sometimes there's a long version as seen above with męt)

a/ay/į (raci/rayci/rįci--to swim)

o/oy/y (hlow/hloyw/hlyw--to enjoy/like/have fun)

u/wa/wo (budd/bwadd/bwodd--to count--extremely rare, however)

ea/eo/eu (sceað/sceoð/sceuð--to aimlessly walk about)

/i/a/au (iri/ira/irau--Passive of verb "br", "to be")

The last two classes act oddly--the first of them prefixes an augment and always has a syllabic trill. The reason why could set any linguistic convention in Thooselqat on fire, but most linguists assume that the syllabic trill comes from an earlier schwa-trill combination, the schwa then disappearing:

/ṛ/a-ṛ/ų-ṛ/ (wṛsk/awṛsk/uwṛsk--"to fuck, fornicate")

The second also involves the syllabic trill: all words in this class have a long monophthong (ą ę į ǫ ų) next to a trill in the present, and are closed with another consonant; in the past, the vowel dropped, turning the trill syllabic...but then the vowel (now short) is suffixed to the root; the future then reduplicates the first vowel with this still-short vowel:

/Lr/ṛ-V/CVCṛ/ (mǫrdh, mṛdho, momṛdh--to drive)

Voiced aspirate stops reduplicate as their unaspirated equivalents (e.g bhųrt/bhṛtu/bubhṛt--to move)

If you care, this comes from the historical forms *moərdh, *mərdho, *omərdhə

If a verb is an ablauting one, it WILL be in one of these paradigms and thus the forms are perfectly predictable.

Meanwhile, suffix verbs merely have these endings for tense:

es/ur/ayh (wedhes/wedhur/wedhayh--to speak, talk)

However, present tense almost never uses the -es, as the bare stem of the verb usually suffices. However, for certain suffixes, it is mandatory (and in verbs, where the stem ends in in an awkward way, such as wach (to receive), it is often added for ease of pronunciation). You should also remember that many inflections, as said above, have their own ablauting vowels for tense when used with suffix verbs. Only one suffix indicating tense needs to be added to a suffixing verb--after it, other affixes can be the invariant forms.

For example, in this complex verb: krutyesaruyagyu!, "(you) must be able able to see!", the first suffix, the passive marker -ty(es) is used to indicate that the tense is present. Then, the next three suffixes use their invariant forms, -aru, -yag, -yu, which don't mark tense at all (if the verb had used all the tense marking forms, it would be *krutyesareyegye, which is pointless because it marks for present tense four times.

In dictionary entries, ablaut verbs simply list the bare present stem (possibly with a remark if it's an unusual class), while suffix verbs list the stem with the present tense -es ending added on. Ablauting inflections are marked by putting their alternating vowel in parentheses.

A final thing that has to be said is that when a verb stem ends in a vowel, and and a suffix beginning with the same vowel is added, a linking -y- is inserted between. For instance, the verb krues (to see) has the past tense kruyur.

Now, let's get onto to some derivation--first finite verb forms, then non-finite ones:

Voice: Like any Dorishar language, Heocg distinguishes three voices--Active, Passive, and Middle. The active is used like any other active, and so is the passive. The middle is used for many different kinds of actions, from reflexives ("he shaved [himself]"), to actions where the subject is the agent and patient at the same time ("he dies", "she despairs", "we enjoy", etc.). It also is used with several verbs of acquiring, such as acquire", "get", "receive" among others, where the subject is put in the dative and what is acquired is put in the accusative. If there is a giver, they are placed in the instrumental; an example:

Muqqayo, keðnuka stat zwayqǫr
woman-INSTR.SG tree-ACC.SG 3F-DAT.SG give-MID-PST
The woman gave a tree to her (lit. Through the woman, she is benefited by being given a tree).

This is also seen with the verb ǫl (to use, and a word which is inherently middle):

Baððowo ǫl.
seat-INSTR.SG use.MID
(He) is using a seat (lit. "[He] is benefitting [himself] by means of a seat

Now, the active has a zero ending, while the passive is formed with the suffix -tya (Ablaut), -ty(es) (Suffix), and the middle is formed with -ǫr (Ablaut), -or(es) (Suffix).

Some verbs change meaning depending on voice--cnof means "to kill" in the active and "to die" in the middle:

Stų cnoyf
3M-NOM.SG kill.PST
He killed

Stų cnoyfǫr
3M-NOM.SG kill.PST-MID
He died.


Negative: You've already seen this. ablaut verbs take invariant -ayu, suffix -ay(e).

Ullayo wreccaði wreccirð ulowa mętayu.
usual-INSTR.SG person-NOM.PL person-GEN.PL other-ACC.PL eat.PRES-NEG
Usually, people do not eat other people.

Dewyo gṛhu nayama wrskayo?
surely cat-GEN.SG 1SG.POSS.OM-ACC.SG fuck-NEG.PST
Surely you did not fuck my cat?

Potential: Another highly important inflection, this translates to "can, could, will be able to" in English. -yag (Ablaut), -y(e)g (Suffix). When the negative is suffixed to this, the <a> often drops resulting in -yagyu, -y(e)gyu

Scįbyo ųðricar nayau awṛskyag?
last.night-INSTR daughter-GEN.SG 1SG.POSS.A-ACC.SG PST-fuck-POT
Last night, could you fuck my daughter?

(A little cultural detail--the Heocg are on the "guess" side of the Guess-Ask continuum, so this is what a father would say while interrogating a terrified young teenage male. They prefer to ask vague questions like this--a conversation between two Heocg can feel like a game where each of them is trying to trip up the other)

Mudhyana drųrafiyegyu!
future-ACC predict-POT.PRES-NEG
I can't predict the future!

(Fun fact--this sentence is nothing but Azenti loanwords--"mudhyan", from Azenti mudhjan "future", from "mu", the future copula, and "dhjan", a nominalizing suffix, and then it had "drųrafi", from Azenti drurafi, "to predict, prepare for the future", from "dru-", a verbal prefix with the basic meaning "before" [itself from "iddru", a preposition meaning "before" in the sense of location only], and "rafi", "to see")

Next....

Necessative: Indicates "must/need to", often used as an imperative as well. Formed with -aru (Ablaut), -ar(e), a suffix that actually derives from the verb "wares", meaning " to be required". When used with the passive they collapse into -tyaru, -tyrar(e):

Meoyo, heoscoys ǫlonau nicaru!
one.time, something-GEN.SG useful-ACC.SG do-NEC
Do something useful for once! (lit. "[You] must do something useful for once!")

Bak ghwouyo, writoy brare dat.
for write-INFIN.ACT-INSTR.SG, love-NOM.SG be-NEC.PRES 2SG.DAT
To write, you need a passion (lit. "For the purpose of writing, a love must exist for your benefit)

Hortative: This inflection is present tense only. It roughly corresponds to "let's X" in English, though it it can also be used to politely request or state something that will happen in the future. For all verbs this is formed by the suffix -kuð (from the verb "kuðt", meaning "to suggest") , as there's no need to mark tense:

Mętkuð.
eat.PRES-HORT
Let's eat.

tucc bhṛddirð notkuðyu...
in.front.of car-GEN.PL stand-HORT-NEG
Let's not stand in front of cars... or Please don't stand in front of cars...

Stative: Welcome to the first periphrastic construction (they'll show up more once we get to the subjunctive, however). This is formed with the genitive singular infinitve (you'll learn more about that later in the deverbal section) and the verb "not", meaning "to stand, stay". The infinitive and "not" must agree in tense and voice..

The stative indicates an ongoing situation for a long time. For instance, the verb "qoð", meaning "to think", when used in a normal construction, is for when you are talking about a situation you think is going on right now:

Qoð eka gṛhu nayama mǫtur ira!
think COMP cat-GEN 1SG.POSS.M-ACC.SG eat.PST-INFIN.ACT-GEN.SG be.PST.SUBJ
(I) think (she) ate my cat!

(The second clause is a subjunctive construction you'll see later)

But in the stative, the same verb is for long-term opinions you hold:

Qoður not eka Asiaði ira gonibhu...
think-INFIN.ACT-GEN.SG stand COMP azen-NOM.PL be.SUBJ idiot-NOM.PL
(I) think that Azen are idiots...

These are not ALL the various finite inflections, but they are the most important ones. There are a lot of suffixes derived from verbs or periphrastic conjugations, many with rather unique meanings. Now onto the deverbals....

[Chagen]

Interesting, as I chose those (especially <eo>) because I saw them in Old English.

Now, then:


Heocg Deverbals:


Heocg has many non-finite forms that can be derived from verbs. Let's go through them, shall we?

First of all, it's important to note that like before, ablaut verbs frequently have fewer suffixes than suffixing ones. However, the suffixing verbs' inflections usually are formed from a combination of the tense markers es/ur/ayh and the inflections used on the ablaut verbs--you'll see this in action later.


Participles: Heocg's verbal adjectives. Each verb has nine of them, one for each combination of tense and voice. For ablaut verbs, the suffixes -irom (Active), -ikų (Passive), -ið (Middle) (note that if a stem ends in a vowel the active and passive are frequently formed by -rrom and -kkų) are used to form them all, the apophony doing the work of encoding tense. For instance, for the verb nųrt (to walk):

Active: nųrtirom (present), nṛturrom (past), nunṛtirom (future)
Passive: nųrtikų, nṛtukkų, nunṛtikų
Middle: nųrtið, nṛtuið, nunṛtið

Suffix verbs, of course, require 9 different endings for their participles. All of these endings are from fusions of the tense and participle morphemes; however, some of the participle morphemes are older ones no longer used except in these fused suffixes. Thus, I will show how each of the 9 suffixes are made, using the word fug(es), "to fly":

PRS.ACT: es + irom = fugerom
PST.ACT: ur + was = fuguras
FUT.ACT: ayh + was = fughyas

PRS.PASS: es + wrto = fugesto
PST.PASS: ur + ikų = fugirkų
FUT.PASS: ayh + wrto = fugaro

PRS.MID: es + ið = fugesi
PST.MID: ur + hyt = fuguzų
FUT.MID: ayh + hyt = fugazų

Overall, not too tricky. Participles are used as simple adjectives:

Oh, kruor wreccirð cnoyfiðyoy!
oh, see-MID person-GEN.PL die-PTCPL.MID-PL.ACC
Woah, look at all the dying people!

In participial phrases (the participle must agree with the noun it is standing for in number but not case):

Wreccaði, ek macgar writoyo mṛdhokkibhu, stoya fecgur gaccayo.
person-NOM.PL, to moon-GEN.SG love-INSTR.SG drive.PST-PTCPL.PASS-PL.NOM, DEM.D-ACC.SG thank-PST gracious-INSTR.SG
The people, driven to the moon by love, thanked it graciously.

bhąrtirowu reskibhṛ payowa, ahurora lighatar sayayo zuscrataroya, gom knauyo.
soldier-GEN.PL pathetic-GEN.PL 3PL.POSS.O-NOM.PL strength-GEN.PL glorious-GEN.SG 1PL.POSS.V-INSTR.SG slaughter-PTCPL.PASS.FUT-NOM.PL, run.PST quick-INSTR.SG
Their pathetic soldiers, about to be slaughtered by our glorious strength, quickly ran.

And, finally, many participles (mostly present ones--though some past ones as well, with present meanings) have lexicalized meanings--in English, the active ones can usually be translated with "X-or/er", as agent nouns, though the passive ones can be a little obtuse though still logical:

nųrtirom: walker
buddikų: number ("that which is counted")
bhąrtirom: soldier, warrior ("that which fights")
bhṛtakkų: enemy ("that which is fought")
naucikų: agenda, list of things to do later ("that which is to be done")
mųtikų: meal ("that which is to be eaten")
mętirom: mouth ("that which eats")
kruerom: eye ("that which sees")

Sometimes the distinctions can get quite specific:

sneygikų: work that you are working on at this moment
snoygikų: work that you have finished working on
snuygikų: work that you plan to work on later but not right now

Many Heocg names are actually participles--for instance, the most popular female name in Modern Hecizuotys is Hoskirom, literally "singer".

Up next we have....

Infinitive: ....This. The infinitive in Heocg is a noun used where English would use an infinitive, gerund or supine. As such, it gets a LOT of use, and therefore has short inflections. Ablaut verbs form it with -(y)ų (Active), -(y)om (Passive), and -oras (Middle); so, to take the word bhąrt (to fight):

Active: bhąrtų, bhṛtayų, babhṛtų
Passive: bhąrtom, bhṛtayom, babhṛtom
Middle: bhąrtoras, bhṛtaoras, babhṛtoras

Suffix verbs use these three endings fused with the tense markers. Unlike the participles, there are no fusions with now-lost markers (indeed that only ever happens in the participles). Using the word wan(es) (to hate):

Active: wanesų, wanurų, wanahų
Passive: wanesom, wanurom, wanayom
Middle: waneras, wanuras, wanaras

The present infinitive can function as a gerund meaning "the act of doing X". The gerund can take an object:

Inarbhyoy mętų bṛ tabbun!
sword-ACC.PL eat.PRES-INFIN be really.cool
Eating swords is really cool!

In the instrumental singular, the infinitive means "while X-ing", or can be used for two actions being done at the same time; this may also take an object. If used to indicate two concurrent actions, the infinitive's tense is relative to the main verb's tense:

Gṛhu datama cnofuyo, lurrar datau awṛsk.
cat-GEN.SG 2SG.POSS.O-ACC.SG kill.PRES-INFIN-INSTR.SG mother-GEN.SG 2SG.POSS.A-ACC.SG PST-fuck
While murdering your cat, I fornicated with your mother.

(THIS WILL BE THE LAST CAT MURDER JOKE GUYS I SWEAR)

The infinitive is also used when two verbs must be put together for whatever reason--you already saw this in the stative construction in the previous post. But many other verbs take it as well. This is most important for the subjunctive: let's get to that now:


Before we get to it, though, I'll have to talk about the copula of Heocg, "bṛ". Like any good little copula, it's highly irregular and even has the guts to be suppletive at some parts. Unlike most copulas, it has passive and middle forms, which are only ever used in subjunctive constructions where they serve as meaning-less auxiliaries (which probably explains why they are suppletive). Here's its various forms--obviously it doesn't have a few:

ACT: bṛ (Present), brar (Past), by (future)
POT.ACT: bug, brag, bayg
NEC.ACT: bera, brau, byru

ACT.SUBJ: iri, ira, irau
POT.ACT.SUBJ: iriya, iraya, irauya
NEC.ACT.SUBJ: irir, irar, iraur

PASS: ire, iro, iru
POT.PASS: iyeg, iyog, iyug
NEC.PASS: irer, iror, irur

MID: un, wan, won
POT.MID: uni, way, woni
NEC.MID: unar, wąr, wǫr

Participle (Active only): usom, uskų, usit

Infinitive: bǫrų, bǫrom, bǫrras

Other derivations, such as the negative, are formed normally.

Now, the subjunctive: The subjunctive is a form used in both relative clauses and other subordinate clauses denoting hypothetical or unsure events. Therefore, the sentence "I told him to work" would not require the subjunctive in Heocg because the event described is factual (unless you were, for whatever bizarre reason, unsure of whether or not you told him to work). On the other hand, the Heocg equivalent of "I think my car is gone" would be in the subjunctive, because it denotes a situation which may or may not be true. The subjunctive actually comes from a former relative mood and an optative, which explains why it governs those two uses.

The subjunctive is formed by adding -am to ablaut verbs and -(e)ro to suffix ones.

...Except most verbs don't take it like that. The most common way to form the subjunctive is to take the infinitive of a verb, put it in the genitive, and then use it with an auxillary in the subjunctive. If there is no auxillary, then the copula is used as a "dummy" verb. Thus, the sentence "The girl who loved" can be expressed two ways in Heocg:

ųðras was wratam
girl-NOM.SG REL.A-NOM.SG love.PST-SUBJ

ųðras was wratuyo ira
girl-NOM.SG REL.A-NOM.SG love.INFIN be.SUBJ.PST

The first is the old-fashioned and formal way to say it (and what you'd see in newspapers/books/speeches/etc.). The second is the one you'd actually hear in a real conversation. In the passive and middle, the second method is THE only way to form subjunctive statements. The active has, by the blunt force of analogy, been swept up by this method. Of course, if there's an auxiliary already, it can be used:

Komąr wan cnoforar sadǫramyu
man-NOM.SG REL.C-NOM.SG die-INFIN.MID-GEN.SG would-MID-SUBJ-NEG
A man who would not die.


With adjectives, the infinitive in the dative can be used with adjectives in the genitive to mean "[adjective] to [verb]" (cf. the similar Latin construction with the supine eg. mirabile dictū, "amazing to say"):

Stoy bṛ wanonur wedhesut.
DEM-NOM.SG be hateful-GEN.SG talk-PRES.INFIN-DAT.SG
That is hateful to say.

This construction can still take objects:

Qǫðð lighatar datas bṛ yusnegas ęffṛyut stuwa!
even strength-gen.SG 2SG.POSS.A-NOM.SG be not.enough overcome.PRES-INFIN.ACT-DAT.SG 3M-ACC
Even your strength is not enough to overcome him!