Depuy

[hak yau]

I want to introduce my conlang, i am a newbie in conlanging, so i think my conlang do not have innovative (yet attractive) feature, i also somewhat copy some language grammar syntax (i think you will know those).

Depuy language (/depʊj/)

Phonology

Depuy has 14 consonants, and five vowels:
/p,p̪/ p /b,b̪/ b
/t/ t /d/ d
/ɡ/ g /ŋ/ ng
/s/ s /h/ h
/w/ w /ɱ/ m
/ɺ̢ / l /n/ n
/r/ r
/j/ y

a /a/; i /i/; u /ʊ/; e /e/; o /ɒ/
and a diphthong, ao /aɒ/

Phonotactics

Depuy language has ending of word rules, which rules the ending (last vowel+last consonant) of all words based from the connection of the first word ending with the next word ending, also this rule changes the word ending with the suffixes. The rules are:

-Vb : if meets -Vb ending->-Vw, the rests are same
-Vd : if meets -Vd ending->-Vy, if meets -Vt ending->-Vn, the rests are same
-vg : if meets -vg & -vng -> -vn, the rests are same
-vk : if meets -eg->-ek, if meets -vg (other vowel)->-vg,
-vt : if meets -vt->-vd, -vn->-vy,
-vng : if meets -vng->-vg,
-vn : if meets -v->-vn,
-vw : if meets -u->aw,
-vs : if meets -vs->-vy,
-v : if meets -i -> -> -ay, if meets -u & -o -> -aw

for suffixes:
for the words with -ing ending, if + ing suffix > iging (not inging)
for the words with -ing ending, if + ung suffix > igang (not ingung)
for the words with -ing ending, if + ong suffix > igong (not ingong)
for the words with -it ending, if + it suffix > igit (not itit)
for the words with -non ending, if + non suffix > nongon (not nonnon)
for the words with -non ending if + no suffix > nong (not nonno)
for the words with -as ending if + aos suffix > asay (not asaos)
for the words with -ay ending if + ay suffix > anay (not ayay)
for the words with -ay ending if + uy suffix > atuy (not ayuy), + ing > ig (not aying)
for the words with -ag ending if + ag suffix > akag (not agag)
for the words with -ag ending if + ig suffix > angig (not agig)
for the words with -ing ending if + ing suffix > iging (not inging)
for the words with -ot ending if + ot suffix > ot (not otot)
for the words with -ad ending if + ad suffix > angad (not adad)
for the words with -og ending if + ig suffix > ogay (not ogig)
for the words with -ing ending if + ing suffix > iging (not inging)
for the words with -ib ending if + ib suffix > igib (not ibib), + ob > igob
for the words with -ob ending if + ib suffix > ogib (not obib), + ob > ogob
for the words with -ub ending if + ib suffix > ubiw (not ubib), + ob > ubaw
for the words with -od ending if + ad suffix > odad (not oday), + od > odon
for the words with -uy ending if + ay suffix > uday (not uyay), + uy > uyu
for the words with -ig ending if + ag suffix > ikag (not igag), + ig > igig, + og > igog
for the words with -aw ending if + iw suffix > awig (not awiw)
beside these, another endings do not change

Grammar

Depuy word order is SOV, it is agglutinative language, the verb, noun and adjectives can be modified by adding affixes.

languy > kalanguy ; to start swimming (inchoative)
kitag > magakitag ; can to see (abilitive)
kawag > warkawag ; walker
kitag > makikitag ; have to see, must see
yawan > pangiyawan ; to laugh together (reciprocal)
yawan > yakawan ; to make laugh (causative)
payas > tupayas ; to kill (unintentionally)
dabnag > damobnag ; to think (transitive)
tawnag > taniwnag ; (subject) heard (perfective)
yamaw > yamaway ; (subject) will come
suwan > surawan ; dogs (plural)
tawnag > tutadawnagan ; momentane
yawan > kun yawan ; to finished laugh (terminative)
dakaw > dadakaw ; to walk for a while (delimitative)
dakaw > mo dadakaw ; to walk occasionally
kitag > i kitag ; to very see (intentional)
dabnag > dabnagot mo ; think (stative)
ngokan > ngokanyan ; eating (progresive)
ngokan > ngokadanyan ; still eating (continuative)
kitag > kitagtag ; almost see, yawanwan ; almost laugh
languy > langukangay ; stop swim for a while
languy > dilahanguy ; resume swim, dikihitag ; resume see
payas > pahayas ; kill again, ngohokan ; eat again
kitang > tikitangan ; have seen many times (experiental), tatandinan ; have slept


There are 7 cases in Depuy language:
Nominative : ag (/ag/) (postositional particle)
Accusative : -ng (/ŋ/) (after consonant, -ang)
Genitive : ay (/aj/) (postpositional particle)
Locative, dative, lative : -as (pronounced /aɒs/)
Ablative : -ek (/ek/)
and a topic marker, may (/maj/)

Ariw may arawog
/arɪw maj arawɒg/
He is alive

to be continued

[decem]

There are 7 cases in Depuy language:
Nominative : ag (/ag/) (postositional particle)
Accusative : -ng (/ŋ/) (after consonant, -ang)
Genitive : ay (/aj/) (postpositional particle)
Locative, dative, lative : -as (pronounced /aɒs/)
Ablative : -ek (/ek/)
and a topic marker, may (/maj/)

Ariw may arawog
/arɪw maj arawɒg/
He is alive

Do the cases decline to anything? (Number, gender, animacy, whatever) If not, they're more likely something like postpositions. Also, can you give a gloss for that sentence "ariw may arawog"?

[hak yau]

Yes, they decline to animacy, do you mean grammatical gloss?
Ariw may arawog
Ariw(3. sg) may (topic marker) arawog (adj.)

[Avo]

No they do not, maybe some cases likely to be pospositions, but for acc., dat., lat., loc. and abl. it attaches on the noun.
Do you mean grammatical gloss?
Ariw may arawog
Ariw(3p) may (topic marker) arawog (adjective)

A gloss is an explanation of how your language works, kinda. It's the stage in between the original sentence and the English translation. See also the Leipzig glossing rules for an overview how to gloss.

How is arawog formed? Is it derived from a verb or a noun or is it a root on its own? From what I can tell, a gloss for your sentence could look like this:

Ariw may arawog
3SG TOP alive
"He is alive"

[hak yau]

thank you for your explanation, i have corrected it
arawog is simply an adjective, it uses topic marker after the topic noun

[Micamo]

Do the cases decline to anything? (Number, gender, animacy, whatever) If not, they're more likely something like postpositions.

What? Monoexponential case is a thing, decem. And there's not a single linguist I've ever heard of that argues for functional cases like the accusative to be the result of adposition incorporation (though there are a few that make this argument for semantic cases like locatives).

[hak yau]

Cases Inflection (actually, this made because i want to make this language has cases )

Nominative:
Oguku ag yanimaw
1 sg. NOM to come (perfective)
I come

Daha ngan suy agayang sagsaw
soil NOM. 2. sg GEN. foot ACC. to suck
The soil sucks your foot

Genitive:
Oguku ay rima
1 sg. GEN. hand
My hand

Darawan ing kuraw
lake GEN. fish
Fish of lake

Accusative:
Oguku ag madogang langay
1 sg. NOM fruit ACC to sell
I sell a fruit

Sug oguku ay wariging kinitag?
2 sg. TOP 1 sg. GEN younger sibling ACC to see
You see my younger sibling? (perfective)

Oguku ag wagin aen kitag (without changes, waging ae)
1 sg. NOM sky ACC to see
I see the sky (sky treated as abstract noun)

Locative, dative, lative:
In locative, abstract nouns mean inanimate, and non-abstract nouns mean animate, and the living nouns do not take locative.
Oguku may warlayas
1 sg. TOP house LOC
I am in the house
Iroiro may dapaymataot
3 pl. TOP fearness LOC
They are in fearness (abstract object)
Oguku may warlayas
1 sg. TOP house LAT
I (go) to the house

Ablative:
Maonu ag suy warlayenek dakaw
chicken NOM 2 sg. house ABL to walk
The chicken walk from your house
Iro ag oguku ay paydabnagek
demonstrative NOM. 1 sg. GEN. thought ABL
That (goes) from my thought

to be continued

[hak yau]

Pronouns, Demonstratives and Pronoun suffixes

Pronouns:
Oguku 1 sg (normal); Oganon 1 sg + to use Oguwot; 1 sg + to become; Ogub 1 sg + to have; Ogunig 1 sg + to get something
Su 2 sg & pl; sug (with NOM; suy (with GEN); sung (with ACC), saos (with DAT and LAT), singek (with ABL)
Ariw 3 sg (medial); iriw 3 sg (distal); iroiro 3 pl

Usually, 1 pl is not used, but the verb preposition kogos is used to indicate agents plurality in the verb if really needed

Oganon may sikay kogos padpay
1 sg+use TOP this book
We use this book

Demontratives:
sikuy : proximal
idaw : medial (mesioproximal, visible)
iro: medial (mesioproximal, unvisible)
idoyan : (mesiodistal, visible)
iruyan : (meiodistal, unvisible)
iduy : distal

idoyan tawalib may waray
that (mesiodistal) horse TOP big
that horse is big

Pronoun suffixes
Depuy language usually does not use 2nd and 3rd (except for several ocasions), instead, these suffixes are used to replace pronouns, each suffixes contain a pairs of pronouns
1st-1st uy; 12 x; 13a x; 13b x

2nd-1st non; 22 on; 23a aos; 23b ot;

3rd-1st no; 32 an; 3a3a og; 3b3a ag; 3a3b ob; 3b3b ib
a means medial pronoun, b means distal pronoun

hidlingnon?
to choose 2nd+1st?
Are you choose me?

to be continued

[hak yau]

Verb Morphology

Depuy verbs have 5 forms/stems, every stem has different function.
Stem 1
for this verb form, all ay, uy, og, ag & ob endings will turn into i, in, ong, ang & ub
-for indicating past tense (+Vw)
ngokanaw, yawanaw, kitangaw(kitang+aw), langinaw(langin+ay), langiw(langi+w), yamow(yamo+w), hidlingaw
(ate, laughed, saw, swam, sold, came, chose)
-perfective ("ni" infix)
yanimo (come)
Stem 2
-indicative
ngokan, yawan, kitag, languy, langay, yamaw, hidling
(to eat, to laugh, to see, to swim, to sell, to come, to choose)
+future (+ay)
nokanay, langanay(without a change, langayay), langunay (wihout a change, languyay)
Stem 3
With adding "wa" infix, ex: ngokawan, yamawaw
the verb phonology follows stem 2
-to make a verb change into an adjective
stem 3 verb NOUN
ngokawan dagwas (an eating spider)
Stem 4 (desiderative)
+wi if the verb is transitive and the object is plural or if the object is not mentioned
+wan if the verb is transitive and the object is dual
+won if the verb is transitive and the object is singular
for those 3 sufixes, if the verb is ended with consonant, that consonant is disappeared
+asay (or +say) if the verb is intransitive
the verb phonology follows stem 2
ngokawi (want to eat), yamawasay (want to come)
Stem 5 (imperative)
In this form, VwV, VyV->V, CyV -> CV, VhV -> V
+ad for imperating proximal 3p (this)
+od for imperating medial and distal (and its variations) 3p (that)
+un for imperating 2p
ngokanad!, ngokanod!, ngokanun!
((as for him) eat!, (as for him) eat!, eat!)
yanad!, yanod!, yanun!
((as for him) laugh!, (as for him) laugh!, laugh!)

Negative verb
ogus for singular animate subject
ogay for singular inanimate subject
ogan for dual inanimate and animate subject
og for plural inanimate and animate subject
Oguku ag monun ogus ngokan (I do not eat chicken)
Daha ngan suy agayang ogay sagsaw (The soil does not suck your foot)

-Negative desiderative
As for this, "ogus, ogay & ogan" lose its last consonants, and add the desiderative suffixes
And for "og", the desiderative suffxes will lose its first consonant
if suffix "say" is used ("asay" never be used) for "og", the "g" disappeared
Oguku may oguwi ngokan (I do not want to eat)
iroiro may osay yawan (They do not want to laugh)

-Negative imperative
Simply by adding ad, od & un suffixes to "ogus, ogan & og"
Ogusun yan (Do not laugh!)

to be continued

[hak yau]

Tenses

Depuy has thirteen tenses, the tenses are: remote past, 1st day* past, 2nd day* past, 3rd day* past, 4st day* past, 5th day* past, recent past, yesterday past, last night past, today past, early morning past, non-past, and tomorrow future.
*In Depuy calendar the days are divided into five days in a week.

All past tenses following stem 1 verb
Remote past: dakow (walked)
1st day past: dangakow
2nd day past: dagngakow
3rd day past: damakow
4th day past: damikow
5th day past: dagmikow
recent past: dakoraw
yesterday past: dakongaw
last night past: dakogtaw
today past: dakogsow
early morning past: didakogsow
Non-past and tomorrow future tense follow stem 2
non-past: dakaw
tomorrow future: dagkakaw

Oguku ag suy surawaning kigngatag (before a change, kigngatang)
1s NOM 2p+GEN dogs+ACC 2nd day tense to see
I saw your dogs in the 2nd day.
Sug karaybun ogus dingotogsogtog?
2s+NOM the sticks+ACC not early morning past to cut+defective
Did not you almost cut the sticks this morning?
Iroiro may dakawyan
3p TOP non-past to walk+pogresssive
They are walking

[Khemehekis]

Is this supposed to be based on Tagalog and other Austronesian languages? Because I find Tagalog so awesome.

[hak yau]

Yes, this language is very inspired by Abaknon and Tagalog, and some swadesh list words are based from proto-austronesian, proto-puyuma, proto-tsou and proto-rukai. But actually the grammar is not based by those languages, since I almost have never read about the grammar of them.

[Xing]

There are 7 cases in Depuy language:
Nominative : ag (/ag/) (postositional particle)
Accusative : -ng (/ŋ/) (after consonant, -ang)
Genitive : ay (/aj/) (postpositional particle)
Locative, dative, lative : -as (pronounced /aɒs/)
Ablative : -ek (/ek/)
and a topic marker, may (/maj/)

Is there a reason why some of the case markers are analysed as suffixes, and others as postpositional particles?

[hak yau]

There is no reason for that, but for accusative there are three inflections, one of them is a postposition.

[Valosken]

No desire to stifle creativity - but does anyone else feel like the tense system's a bit kitchen-sinky?

[MrKrov]

I suppose 11 past tenses is a bit much. Yes.

[k1234567890y]

It seems that the Lepcha language may have a similar case system to Depuy:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lepcha_language

According to Plaisier (2007), Lepcha has only two true "cases" that modify the noun morphologically: the definite article -re and the dative case marker -m. All other noun markers, including for example the genitive marker, are actually invariable postpositions.

[Micamo]

I suppose 11 past tenses is a bit much. Yes.

It's not so much that there's a lot of them, it's that they overlap with each other in a really nonsensical way. What's the difference between "yesterday" and "day #1 past"? Here's an 11-tense system that's more naturalistic:

Immediate (Within the past few minutes)
Semi-Immediate (within the past hour or so)
Earlier this morning (anything from when the speaker woke up this morning to an hour or so ago)
Last Night
Yesterday (during the day)
Day Before Yesterday (at any point)
Recent (Anywhere from 3 days to a week ago)
Remote (Anything from a week to a year ago)
Far remote (Anything from a year ago to the point where the speaker was born)
Historic (before the speaker was born, but during which people still alive today were around)
Legendary/Mythic (before anyone currently alive was born)

It's still more tenses than any natlang actually has, but all of these distinctions make sense and work with each other and they're all tense categories that natlangs have. (There's just no natlang that has all of them combined.)

[hak yau]

Actually the 1st day past is the action that was happened in the #1 day, the #1 day means the 1st day in Depuy calendar's week, so this is actually like sunday in Gregorian calendar, so this tense means like "I did it in sunday", not "I did it a day ago" , if yesterday is not "sunday" the speaker cannot use #1 day past to indicate yesterday action and about when "sunday" was, the speaker can clarify it by adding other certain word (like last sunday, sunday two weeks ago). So the action that was happened in five days ago uses recent past also if the speaker does not decide what the day was (uses either recent or remote).

[hak yau]

It seems that the Lepcha language may have a similar case system to Depuy:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lepcha_language

According to Plaisier (2007), Lepcha has only two true "cases" that modify the noun morphologically: the definite article -re and the dative case marker -m. All other noun markers, including for example the genitive marker, are actually invariable postpositions.

Thanks for the info, I had changed the "cases" system, all Depuy cases are inflected by animacy