Please keep in mind that this is meant to be very easy, and thus you may also find it boring and ugly, and I even do myself, because I love irregularities, haha! However, hopefully someone will find this kind of approach interesting as well, and have something to say about it.
This will be a short topic, and that should hopefully say something about whether my attempt is successful or not; it should be easy to learn, and only vocabulary should have a steep learning curve, which is of course simply a matter of memory. I do try to reuse stems a lot.
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Basics
Word order is SVO. Attributes are placed before the words that they are modifying; placing them after them replaces the non-existent copula.
The vocabulary is usually created from existing (generally Romance and Greek) roots, but because of the minimalist set of sounds and certain endings forced onto different word classes, they are often mangled beyond recognition.
I also try to keep the number of words low, meaning that the word for 'vehicle' would probably be the most commonly used word for 'car', and then derivations such as 'air vehicle' or 'flying vehicle' could be used for 'airplane', and 'floating vehicle' for 'boat' and 'ship'. This means that some words will be intentionally short, so that they can be compounded without becoming annoyingly long.
Phonetics
I am trying to keep the sound system as simple as possible, but I currently allow for up to three vowels in a row (although unstressed /i/ and /u/ may be realised as glides for simplification), so if that should be a great problem for some people, please let me know.
Vowels
/a i e u o/
Consonants
/p t k m n s/
They are spelled in the same way. Syllable structure is (C)V, and stress is always on the penultimate syllable. All vowels count as syllables and there are no diphthongs or triphthongs; sequential vowels are pronounced separately, although allophonic rules allow for /i/ and /u/ to be realised as glides, since there is no chance of ambiguity.
Nouns
Nouns are completely uninflected, even for number, and always end in -a.
If there is a specific need to disambiguate number, there is the adjective seu, meaning 'several'; 'many'; 'more than one'.
There are no articles.
Personal pronouns
This is the only class to be inflected for number, for convenience, since this is something that people would probably want to disambiguate more often, and most people would probably have no native language bias or problem in understanding singular and plural personal pronouns.
There is also the impersonal pronoun sia; 'one'; 'you'.
Adjectives
Adjectives are completely uninflected, and always end in -u.
Adverbs can be specifically expressed through the phrase (e) ADJECTIVE maia; literally '(in) ADJECTIVE manner'.
For variation, things can usually be rephrased; 'happily' could be expressed as 'with joy'.
Verbs
Verbs are completely uninflected, and always end in -i. They always require a subject, except for in the imperative, which forces no subject, for disambiguation. Tense, aspect and mood are determined through context or by means of helper words, such as verbs and adverbials.
Attributes and the lack of a copula
There is no copula, so word order is important. ADJECTIVE NOUN means 'ADJECTIVE NOUN', while NOUN ADJECTIVE means 'NOUN is/was/will be/has been/had been ADJECTIVE'.
Code: Select all
piaku kata; 'white cat'
kata piaku; 'a/the cat(s) is/are white'
pekenu kata piaku; '(the) little cat(s) is/are white'
Interrogation
For disambiguation, questions always end with the negative particle ne, and follow the same word order as any other sentence and clause.
The interrogative pronouns are all based on the basic interrogative word ku; 'what'.
Demonstrative pronouns and related adverbials
Numerals
Cardinal numerals end in -a, and ordinal ones end in -u.
Yes. tusa was taken from Germanic languages, because I felt something like miia could probably be put to better use somewhere else.
Examples
Mia kopi neuu a iosu iekiia e kasa ti uena.
'I bought a new, red car at the store.'
1PS buy new and red vehice LOC house POSS sell.NOM
"I buy new and red vehicle in house of vending."
Nama ti piia ti ia Adam.
'His/her child's name is Adam.'
name POSS child POSS 3PS Adam
"Name of child of he/she Adam."
Mia ami tia.
'I love thee.'
1PS love 2PS
"I love thou."
Tia ami mia ne?
'Dost thou love me?'
2PS love 1PS INT
"Thou love me eh?"
Tutu uma peu komo ipiu, ko ekuu uaoa a iaka.
'All humans are born free and equal in dignity and rights.'
all human carried as free, with equal value and let.NOM
"All human born as free, with same value and letting."
Sia ami mas ponu ta sia oti.
'It is better to love than to hate.'
IMPERS love more good than IMPERS hate
"One/you love more good than one/you hate."