Ujo

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teotlxixtli
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Ujo

Post by teotlxixtli »

Ujo

Ujo is a constructed language created by me. It is part of the first generation of the Ujoan language family alongside its sister languages, so far yet to be created. Its proto-language, Proto-Ujo, was primarily phonologically inspired by Swahili, while Ujo included some more Arabic-inspired phonology. I hope you all are interested! I'll post the grammar in sections.
Last edited by teotlxixtli on 12 Jan 2021 04:24, edited 1 time in total.
teotlxixtli
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Re: Ujo

Post by teotlxixtli »

Phonology

m, b <m, b>
n, t, d, s, z, r, l <n, t, d, s, z, r, l>
dʒ, ʃ, ʒ <j, sh, zh>
k, g, w <k, g, w>
h <h>

i, i:, u, u: <i, ī, u, ū>
e, e:, o, o: <e, ē, o, ō>
a, a: <a, ā>

(C)(C)V(C) syllable structure
Onset clusters take the form obstruent + [w]
- bwef, meaning "try, attempt"
Vowels must be separated by a consonant
[h] is inserted between unalike vowels in compounds
- duzhihuzu, meaning "assembly, council", derived from duzhi, meaning "call, summon", and uzu, meaning "together", separated with an additional h
Only [m f n t s r l ʃ k] appear in the word-final coda
- fūdahesh, meaning "size"
Penultimate stress unless final closed and/or long, then final stress
- abe is pronounced /'abe/
- babur is pronounced /ba'bur/
- badē is pronounced /ba'de:/

h is realized as ç prior to i and x prior to u
- dohish is pronounced /do'çiʃ/
- fihu is pronounced /'fixu/
Last edited by teotlxixtli on 15 Jan 2021 03:02, edited 1 time in total.
teotlxixtli
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Re: Ujo

Post by teotlxixtli »

Grammar

Agglutinative language
Adjectives are actually types of verbs

Verb-Subject-Object word order
Noun phrases are consistently head-initial
Adjectives follow nouns
Possessors follow possessees
Auxiliaries precede lexical verbs
Prepositions

Personal pronouns are distinguished by person (1st, 2nd, and 3rd Person), number (Singular, Dual, Paucal, and Plural), and gender (Masculine, Feminine, Neuter) in the 3rd Person. The Masculine is used for mixed groups

Personal Pronouns

u (I, me) jan (we two) nīdi (we few) juba (we, us)
ka (thou) kajan (you two) kanīdi (you few) kajuba (you)
wi (he) wijan (they two) winīdi (they few) wijuba (they)
da (she) dajan (they two) danīdi (they few) dajuba (they)
fo (it) fojan (they two) fonīdi (they few) fojuba (they)

The 1st Person forms are realized as u, ujan, unīdi, and ujuba when suffixed to nouns, adjectives, and verbs; abi means “chest”, bihujan means “we two’s chest”
The personal pronoun u is realized as a long vowel when the word it is suffixed to ends in an u; abu means “grin”, bū means “I grin”
The 2nd Person Singular is realized as –k when suffixed alone; bik means “your chest”
The 3rd Person Neuter forms are realized as bo, bojan, bonīdi, and bojuba when suffixed to nouns, adjectives, and verbs; abi means “chest”, bibo means “it’s chest”, not *bif
Dual markers are realized as jani, kajani, wijani, dajani, and bojani when suffixed in addition to possession markers; abe is “bag” but bejanihu means “my two bags”

Nouns are marked for plurality, possession, and article
There are four grammatical numbers: Singular (one thing), which is unmarked; Dual (two things), which is marked with –jan; Paucal (between three to eight things), which is marked with –nīdi; and Plural (greater than eight things), which is marked with –juba
Mass nouns are those to which adding more of the substance does not result in countably more of the substance, like liquids, gases, and abstractions, among other things
Possession is indicated by suffixing the personal pronoun of the possessor onto the noun being possessed; abi is “chest”; bihu is “my chest”, bik is “your chest”, biwi is “his chest”, etc.
If a noun is pluralized and possessed, pluralization appears closest to the root followed by the possession marker; abe is “bag”, bejanihu means “my two bags”
Articles suffix onto the nouns they appear with; fijoji is “the fish”; fijohar is “a fish”. Articles appear furthest from the root in the noun template: fijojaniji means “the two fish”
Case relationships are indicated with word order (in the case of subject and object) and prepositions (in the case of all other arguments); āgo bawu is “off the person”
Augmentatives are formed by suffixing –hesh onto the noun; dohu is “fire”, dohuhesh is “conflagration”. Diminutives are similarly formed by suffixing –būda; dohubūda is “spark, cinder”

Subject and object are marked on the verb in the order ROOT-SUBJECT PERSONAL PRONOUN – OBJECT PERSONAL PRONOUN
- jābōvi + (h)u = jābōvihu, meaning “I insist”
- emi + (h)u + k(a) = mihuk, meaning “I bother you”
- There are 400 possible combinations of subject and object on a verb
There are three tenses; Future (marked with the prefix dōvu-), Non-future (unmarked), Imperfective (marked with reduplication), and Perfect (marked with the prefix dōzu-)
- fwohu means “I work”; dōvufwohu means “I will work”
- fafwohu means “I am working”; dōzufafwohu means “I have been working”
Words that previously started with a vowel will have a different reduplication pattern, wherein the first consonant of the word plus the theme vowel are prefixed onto the verb; dobezhe means “determine”, dadobezhe means “determining”
There is also the Infinitive, formed with the prefix ba-. Note that subject and object marking does not appear on infinitives
- bafawo means “to work”
Commands are formed with the bare verb: fawo! means “work!”
Further aspectual and modal distinctions are formed with auxiliary verbs. Auxiliary verbs receive all verb marking and the lexical verb follows that complex
Verbs are negated by suffixing –howi; hojehu is “I worship”; hojehuhowi is “I do not worship”
Negation appears after person marking: sohukahowi means “I do not see you”
Reflexives are formed by possessing the word “self” do with the pronoun doing the reflexive action. This is combined with the same pronoun appearing in the subject and object verb slots; dohū dohu means “I excite myself”. Saying dohū would be like saying “I excite me”
This is not the case for the third person, where the absence of the reflexive pronoun complex is interpreted as the presence of separate arguments; dwiwi by itself would mean “he excites him”, wherein the second third person personal pronoun is a different person than the first refers to
Adjectives act like verbs and are marked in the subject slot on the verb template for the personal pronoun of the noun they modify, though they do not take tense marking; jāje zhibo means “tiny brain”
Nouns are distinguished by gender when combined with adjectives. Thankfully gender is totally semantic. When agreeing with the adjective in person and number, the subject marking slot in the adjective template must agree in gender with the noun it modifies
- Masculine nouns refer exclusively to nouns referring to male humans and their respective titles, occupations, etc as well as male animals. it, meaning “man”; it bwutafiwi meaning “free man”
- Feminine nouns refer exclusively to nouns referring to female humans and their respective titles, occupations, etc as well as female animals. es meaning “woman”; es bwutafida meaning “free woman”
- Neuter nouns refer to anything not included in the previous categories, including non-gendered human terms; bawu, meaning “person”; bawu bwutafibo meaning “free person”

Numbers are base-eight. Numbers greater than eight are formed with the sequence NUMBER + lo + ūbu up to the number fifteen; shedilohūbu means “fourteen”. Numbers do not agree in gender with nouns, and merely follow the noun they modify; ēdo ar means “one cat”

Comparatives are formed with suffixes on the verb īja and then using that verb as an auxiliary to the adjective; ījahe means “be more”; ījabūdahe means “be less”; ījazu means “be most” and ījabūdazu means “be least”; ījahe aju means “broader, wider”; ījazu aju means “broadest”
Yes-no questions are formed by ending the question with either “yes” ewo or “no” owi, depending on what the expected answer is
- dōvusokabo bibo, ewo? means “You will see the house, yes?”
All other questions are formed by plugging in the interrogative pronoun in the sentence wherever appropriate; sokabo bu? means “What do you see?” (literally “You see what?”)
teotlxixtli
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Re: Ujo

Post by teotlxixtli »

Irregularities

- Some words beginning with f will have that f change to b when prefixed; fāviji means “surround”, but dōvubāviji means “will surround”.
- Some verbs that begin with ʃ will have that ʃ change to dʒ when prefixed; shes means “come”, but dōvujes means “will come”.
- Words that contain an obstruent and a w separated by a vowel will have that vowel disappear when stress moves away from that vowel; shiwe means “farm”, but shwehu means “my farm”
- Words that previously began with h but lost it due to sound change will have that h reappear when prefixed; oji means “defend”, but dōvuhoji means “will defend”.
- Words that previously began with a vowel but lost it due to sound change will have that vowel reappear when prefixed; gehizu means “describe”, but dōvuhagehizu means “will describe”.
- Words that begin with a short vowel will lose that vowel when suffixed; abi is “chest” but bihu is “my chest”, not *abihu
- Words that previously ended in a vowel but lost it due to sound change will have that vowel reappear when suffixed; it is “man”, but tijan is “two men”.
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