The CBB

Simple verbs ghiv 'like' kuhë 'want' kër 'see', kur 'saw' pil 'eat/drink', pul 'ate' tulh 'move about' tut 'cook, prepare' Coverbs ëfäm 'love' mumtë 'flow' vëtki 'write' Nouns ëssä 'book' (ëCCa, ëCCë - - (ëCCë) hëppë 'village' (CëCCë, - - - ) huklë 'cake' ih 'water' (äCä,ih, no, no) krhëhi 'town' (C...

There are two noun cases: Nominative and Partitive. Syntactic uses Partitive is the case of direct objects that are not affected completely or that do not participate in the event as whole. In (1), the case codes resultative vs. irresultative aspect. (1a) Tsut-vëtkimi i ëssa. t<s>ut-vëtki-mi i ëssa ...

Nouns have six gender-number classes Masculine singular (animate nouns that refer to males) Feminine singular (animate nouns that refer to females) Animate plural (plural of masculines and feminines) NeuterI singular (some of inanimate nouns) NeuterII singular (the other inanimate nouns) Inanimate p...

Infinitive and complement clauses Complement clause is a clause that is the object (or some other obligatory argument) of the matrix clause. In Ast-amu, they are nonfinite, i.e. the verb form can code less categories than that of the other clauses. The verb form of complement clause is called Infini...

Preliminary morphology of simple verbs I have started dozens of lang with verbs as a closed class. Because they are a closed class, I decide that they can be morphologically very irregular, like the most used verbs in many languages. Then I run into trouble. Ast-amu simple verbs have a polypersonal ...

My current problem with the syntax. 'Horse' could be "le'-tezuuk" 'a riding animal' But how do I say 'The animal is a horse.' "Le', tezuuk." means 'The animal rides.' or 'The animal is ridden.' but not 'The animal is a horse.' Compound nouns can be more ideosyncratic and specifi...

Verbs An ast-amu predicate can either have a simple verb, (1), a complex verb of a simple verb and a coverb, (2), or a simple verb with an incorporated object, (3). (1) Psä kkrhëhi. [psæk.kr̥ə.'ħi] p<s>ä k-krëhi go<SG1> DEF-town 'I went to the town.' (2) Psärezkan kkrhëhi. [psæ.rəz.kɑŋk.kr̥ə'ħi] p<s...

Ast-amu, [ɑst.ʔɑ'mu], the language of the Amu people, is my newest project. I don't know if it will go on or not. I' also recycling the ideas I have been playing with lately. Features Phonology - French-style stressing of phrases instead of words - Allows many consonant clusters - a small-scale vowe...

I hope I didn't kill this thread. It's still interesting.

Finnish usually distinguishes (often one derived from the other) stems for transitive and (unassusative) intransitive verbs. One interesting example is palaa 'to burn (intr.) and polttaa 'to burn (tr.)'. Polttaa is clearly derived from palaa with causative suffixe -ttaa , but there is some irregular...

Nice!
I think that message could be pinned.

Newest idea - the phoneme inventory below - light verb + coverb predicates, could also have Greenlandic-style very productive verb derivation/ incorporation - maybe partitive objects - VSO, information structure not couded in the most frequent clausal constructions - semitic-style morphology Somethi...

Uses of the cases Absolutive Is the normal case of intransitive (= no direct object) subjects and copula complements. Case of affected transitive objects. Citation and vocative case. Partitive The case of less affected objects. (I have to think how that interacts with aspect.) The case of some intra...

Declension and cases There are six cases: Absolutive, Locative, Dative, Partitive, Ergative, and Ablative. Absolutive is the old nominative. Locative is the old locative. Dative is the old dative. It though codes goal beside recipient, which is not the natural direction of grammaticalization from co...

Phonology and sound changes Phonology The phonology is more or less borrowed from Chirdau, my older project. p t t͡ɕ* k <p t c c/ch> f θ s ɕ* x*** <f s x x/xh> m n <m n> l <l> r <r> j w** <j u> * Palatals /ɕ t͡ɕ/ can only appear before front vowels i, ɪ, e. ** The status of /w/ is questionable. It ...

I have been thinking about a new IE lang lately. Its ideal place has been moving around Eurasia (Spain, Latvia ...) but ATM I think it could be positioned on an island next to Sri Lanka. Some of its sound changes could be explained by Dravidian influence. Some features: Phonology - Merger of all thr...

My current problem with the syntax. 'Horse' could be "le'-tezuuk" 'a riding animal' But how do I say 'The animal is a horse.' "Le', tezuuk." means 'The animal rides.' or 'The animal is ridden.' but not 'The animal is a horse.' Compound nouns can be more ideosyncratic and specific...

Something that got inspiration from Berber.

p t ts k q
f s r̥ h
v z r l j ɣ~ʁ
m n

i u
ə
æ ɑ

There is a vowel harmony between æ and ɑ. They cannot appear in one word.

r̥ is my new favorite sound.

could it be said that there is a noun-verb gradient, then? And where one particular word falls on it depends on the language - perhaps even on case-by-case usage of that word in different phrase constructions - with additional provision for situations where the language doesn't distinguish between ...

When my father's father's father, Xiang Po, came from Manchuria to Beijing, he had to work hard to disguise his ancestry. The Ming rulers of China had grown weak, and so when the Manchu conquered the Ming in 1644, I was finally able to reveal my true heritage. Dleesoop Peelii SaPo, weedome hii'-Mads...