Hallon - An old conlang created by Paul V.S. Townsend

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Hallon - An old conlang created by Paul V.S. Townsend

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Foreword(by k1234567890y)

Hallon is not my conlang, it is a very old conlang created by Paul V.S. Townsend, maybe some older conlangers still remember it.

I don't know if Paul V.S. Townsend is still active in conlanging communities or even on the Internet, and I don't know if Paul V.S. Townsend allows me to do so, if he doesn't allow me to introduce his conlang without his consent, then this page can be deleted.

As I am not the creator or co-worker of Hallon, and has never really learned Hallon, I won't answer any question about it, you may need to contact Paul V.S. Townsend for any question about Hallon if you are still able to contact him.

Information below is taken from http://www.webring.org/l/rd?ring=modell ... rai_jei%2F , a cached page of Hallon, and http://www.silentnight.web.za/translate/hallon.htm

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1. The Alphabet and Pronunciation

The language uses 20 letters - the letters K, Q, W, X, Y and Z are not used. There are no accents in use.
Most of the letters are pronounced as in English. The following points should be noted with certain letters and combinations:

A As a final letter in polysyllabic words, this is quite "weak" and can become the obscure sound (E of "the") or even dropped entirely. In other positions it must be fully pronounced.

C Before A, O or U, the letter has the "hard" (K) sound.

CH Represents the K sound before E, I, another consonant, or finally, e.g. vech (six). (C without H once had a different pronunciation in these positions, but this is now obsolete.)

E Must be fully pronounced (as in "best") in all positions.

G Before A, O or U, the letter has the "hard" sound as in "go" or "get". Before E or I, the letter is pronounced as H. Example: gerat (child) pronounced "herat".

GH Represents the hard "G" sound before E or I. (It does not occur finally.)

I As in "machine". If preceded by another vowel, it becomes a Y-sound.

J Strictly as in English - no Y-sound here. Thus jei (eye) is pronounced like the English name of the letter.

SH As in English.

U As "oo" in "boot".

Note that the combinations CH, GH and SH are not considered to be single letters.

A word may only end with a vowel, or one of L, M, N, P, S, T or the combination CH.

The stress falls on the penultimate syllable. This applies even when the final -a is not pronounced - it is counted as a syllable, so that the stress falls on the last pronounced syllable. Thus in meshada (night), the stress falls on the first A even if the second is dropped completely.

Where two or more vowels come together, except when the second one is I, both must be pronounced separately. Thus suava (house) has three syllables, with the stress falling on the first A.

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2. Dropping the final -a

When one word ends with a weak -a (including the monosyllables ha and na) and the next word begins with a vowel, the weak -a is dropped and the two words run together. This applies regardless of the grammatical function of the words involved.
The correlative series sha, sa, da, and their compounds, end with a strong -a and so do not join to following words in this way. The strong -a must always be pronounced. A few borrowed words, e.g. sura (canto of the Koran), are also considered to end with a strong -a. No accent or other sign normally distinguishes the strong -a, though for musical purposes a grave accent may be placed on a final -a (weak or strong) to indicate that the letter is fully pronounced (cf. English "bless�d").

Jeima Shofim, cui u ev�. Alleluia. (Note: the � here is presumably "a" - by k1234567890y)
Shegu eva piol Na, Alleluia,
Shegus voi ji li u rev�. Alleluia. (Note: the � here is presumably "a" - by k1234567890y)
Dos baloi u Shut vul ha. Alleluia. (Regina Caeli)

An apostrophe may optionally be used at the point of joining, particularly in long compounds. The apostrophe is compulsory if one or other element is a proper name, or otherwise requires a capital letter. In shorter or well-established instances, however, there is no special mark to indicate the joining point.

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3. Nouns and Adjectives

Nouns do not vary between singular and plural. If it is necessary to stress that a noun is singular or plural, this must be indicated in some other way.
Adjectives do not vary to "agree" with the noun. An adjective is placed before the noun it refers to, unless used predicatively. Pesha suava = large house, large houses; suava pesha = the house is large.

Comparison of adjectives is obtained by additional defining words placed before the adjective. The comparative is expressed by nul "more" or riva "less". The superlative is represented by nuvada "most" or riovada "least".

The words "than" after a comparative, and "of" after a superlative, are both represented by valun.

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4. Personal Pronouns

Only four different personal pronouns are in use:
Ha = I, also "we" when the person addressed is not included in "we".
Ava = We (including person addressed )
Eva = You (no distinction between singular/plural, familiar/respectful)
Si = He, she, it, they.

Earlier forms of the language had uste "she", and eda "it" when referring to inanimate objects (si had always been used for living creatures of all species.) These are really obsolete, but uste is still occasionally used (a) to give an archaic flavour, (b) in Biblical style when it is appropriate to personify Jerusalem, Divine Wisdom, the earth or the Church as female, (c) in a contemptuous sense to refer to a female of high (real or affected) distinction.

Again in earlier forms of the language, the sequence u eva was sometimes condensed to uva. This form is now obsolete. The scrunching of domashu eva ("Thank you") to domashuva gives the impression of simply speaking a formula rather than having any genuine feeling of thanks.

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5. Verbs

The following verbs are not represented in Hallon:
"To be" - simple juxtaposition of subject and complement is used. Where it is necessary to mark the division between subject and complement, the little word on is inserted. Note that on is not any part of "to be" - the word has no direct equivalent in English.

"To have" - the usual construction is to use the preposition seda ("with") between subject and possession.

"To come" and "to go" - again the subject is followed by a prepositional phrase introduced by valun ("from") or u ("to") indicating the place in question, or some other phrase to indicate the direction, mode, style or speed of motion. The absolute use of "to go", i.e. without naming a place, may be represented by osoi ("away").

"To do" - the thing done, or the state brought about, is indicated by a subordinate clause beginning with dos, and in this construction dos effectively becomes the verb.

Other verbs do not vary according to person, number or tense. Again, where it is necessary to stress that an action is in the past or future, the prepositions valun ("from") and u ("to") may be placed before the verb to indicate that an action precedes or follows another, respectively. (Cf. French "venir de", "aller �".)

Since there is nothing to indicate cases, the subject-verb-object order becomes essential in Hallon, as in English.

The negative is formed by placing mu ("no") immediately before the verb, or before any other word when it is necessary to stress its negation. Similarly ji ("yes") may be placed before a word to emphasize that word in a positive sense.

Hallon does not have different verb forms for the passive voice. A passive form is indicated simply by omitting the subject. The passive form is used quite frequently, even where English would have a vague "you" or "they" as the subject:
Gom vija lomash'udum sha taluba nu em sodil.
"Can see orange-stone that drop-it-to in water."
You can see an orange stone that has been dropped into the water.

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6. Prepositions/Adverbs

As in English, prepositions may also be used absolutely as adverbs.
The preposition "of" is not represented - the posession comes first, followed immediately by the posessor. Again on may be inserted when the separation point needs to be marked explicitly.

Common prepositions include:
aba up
adran about (in the sense of "concerning")
daluch through
em in
li back
lumat around
mat under
miol near
pidasem between
pisemat behind
seda with
tusam down
u to
ufil over
vada out of (implying physical motion)
valun from, also "out of" in the sense of "selected from" or "made from".

The preposition "by" should be represented according to its sense. If used in the sense of "near" then miol is the appropriate translation. In the sense of "using" the combination sedau (seda + au, "with the use of") is appropriate. Where "by" follows a passive verb, and introduces what is really the subject of an active verb, the entire sentence should be rearranged into an active one.

More than one preposition may be placed together if required to specify the direction of motion or the destination:

Si tusam u em sira
"He down to in hell"
He descended into hell.

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7. Conjunctions

The usual conjunctions are:
meno but, however
mo and
mogra and (second level)
om if (after "then")
ul or
vul in order to

Two words are provided for "and". The usual word is mo, but if it is necessary to join two lists, each of which itself contains "and", then mogra is used to join the lists.

The conjunction om for "if-then" deserves some attention. Whereas English uses the sequence "if A then B", the usual sequence in Hallon is "B if A". Example:

Dasu valun sa pam udoi om ifileshu joduma.
"Two from these buns remain if everybody eats-one."
If everybody eats one of these buns there will be two left.

The conjunction vul expresses "in order to" when it is not appropriate to use a correlative of the she series (e.g. if one has already appeared). Example:

Ha mu gom urieba, mo se ha vadu sil vul ruvashu udol.
"I not can sleep, and for-this-reason I out-to here in-order-to look-to star."
I couldn't sleep, so I came out here to look at the stars.

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8. Correlatives

These are the important little words for "who", "what", etc. In Hallon they are constructed on a regular pattern. For example, here is the shoda ("what") series:
shoda = what
soda = this (thing)
doda = that (thing)
mushoda = nothing
vonishoda = the same thing
erashoda = something, a certain thing
ifileshoda = everything
umareshoda = the only thing

In some of the series there are further entries: mat- "not enough", ora- "all", ufil- "too much". In the shim ("when") series we have:
shim = when
sim = now
dim = then
mushim = never
vonishim = at the same time
erashim = sometime
ifileshim = every time (discrete occasions)
matshim = not enough time, too few occasions
orashim = all time (continuously)
ufilshim = too long, too many occasions

The following is a list of the series available, although the list is by no means exhaustive!
sha = which (one) - note that the final -a is strong
shu = who
shoda = what
she = why
shus = how
shim = when
shil = where
shavulda = what type of
shanome = how many
shavol = how far away
shanaga = how much

The "double" correlatives are used to join a "d-" correlative with a following "sh-", providing a more elegant way to express "he who" etc. The double correlatives are formed by introducing the syllable -eg(h)- after the sh-. In the shoda series we have:
shegoda = the thing that
mushegoda = nothing that
erashegoda = something that
ifileshegoda = everything that

while in the "shim" series, where the additional -h- is inserted to retain the hard pronunciation of the -g-, the double correlatives would express the following ideas:
sheghim = at the time when
musheghim = on no occasion that
erasheghim = on one occasion that
ifilesheghim = whenever
orasheghim = for as long as

Naturally, some correlatives are more frequent than others, but common groups include:
sheghe dos = "for the reason which is that" = because
u sheghim = "to the time when" = until

The da- forms of the correlatives of measure (e.g. danaga "that much") are used absolutely to express "so much" etc. when a consequence follows:
Shut rufa sularat danaga, dos Si shef'umare Vuma si, dos orashegu pirajifem Si on mu bilius, meno ji seda reva mu sed'imat. (John 3:16)

The consequence may be implied rather than expressed:
Shut ha, Shut ha, she dos Eva riofa ha, mo davol valun siraba ha, mo sult gale ha? (Psalm 22:1)

The sheg- double correlatives may be used absolutely with "this is" implied:
Shegu ha voi adran na, Ovadil hon nom shu ufil ha, sheghe dos si pivul ha.
"[This is] he-who I say concerning [him], After me-[separator] man who over me, for-the-reason-which-is that he before me." (John 1:30)

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9. Relatives - use of "na"

The "question" correlatives, i.e. the sh- series, also double as relatives. When used as a relative, the appropriate correlative must appear at the start of its clause to mark the start of that clause. If this is not the logical position of the relative, i.e. if it is not the subject of its clause, it is still placed at that point, and the little word na marks the logical position of the relative.
U Shut Shu mu shamus Na
"To God Who not know----n"
To the Unknown God (Acts 17:23)

In this example, the verb shamus ("to know") is used in a passive form, by omitting the subject. To show that Shu ("who") is not the subject of shamus it is essential to place Na as appropriate. Omission of this word would indicate that the Athenian altar were dedicated to the ignorant God!

Note the divine capitals for Shu and Na - any pronoun or other word referring to the deity is capitalised.

Watch for na coalescing with em, on or u - these are not usually marked with an apostrophe, and you will not find nem, non or nu in any dictionary!

To close a relative clause and resume the main clause, the little word on is used again:

Redara shelara shu ha shamus nem uguron sim seda dasu redara shelara valun si.
"Little girl who I know na-in school-on now has two little girls of her own."
The little girl I knew in school now has two little girls of her own.

The use of na as the subject of its clause should be avoided. Here it may be translated as the rather archaic use of "the same", and the result is particularly heavy emphasis on the fact that the subject of the main clause is identical to that of the relative. There are two instances in the New Testament where this construction is appropriate - in each case an occasion of surprise and shock

Shegu dos somada Vodil ha shu em shofim on, na ji paludil ha, mo veftil ha, mo nudil ha. (Matthew 12:50)

Shegu ha shevu on, na ji si - surat si vovada. (Matthew 28:48)

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10. Subordinate clauses - "dos"

The word "dos" is probably one of the most important in Hallon. Technically it is simply the word "that" introducing a subordinate clause:
Ha shamus dos mushu dil.

"I know that nobody there."

I know there will be nobody there.

The word dos must never be omitted in Hallon, unlike the English "that".

Used absolutely, dos expresses such ideas as "do", or "bring about", or "see to it that", and in such constructions it becomes almost a verb itself, and so can be used as a command:

Mo Shut voi, Dos reshada, mo ji reshada.
"And God said, Bring about light, and indeed light."
And God said, Let there be light, and there was light. (Genesis 1:3)

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11. Questions

Questions in Hallon may be expressed by two different constructions.
The "w-" questions are formed by the appropriate sh- correlative at the beginning of a sentence.

Shim dos eva li u sun?
"When that you back to home?"
When did you return home?

"Yes/no" questions are formed by the little word go, placed before the word actually being queried. The position of go is important:

Go eva li u sun?
"(Question) you back to home?"
Was it you who went back home?

But:

Eva li u go sun?
"You back to (question) home?"
Did you go back home (or somewhere else)?

If it is an entire sentence that is being queried, the construction go dos is used:

Go dos eva liot sa puvasha?
"(Question) you read this book?"
Have you read this book?

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12. The Numbers

0 = hilu 5 = vefa 10 = dima
1 = uma 6 = vech
2 = dasu 7 = vifim
3 = taran 8 = shada
4 = vual 9 = mem

Larger numbers up to 99 are formed on the pattern, e.g. 65 = vech dima mo vefa.

Large round numbers (one or two significant figures) are formed by giving the significant figures followed by dimu ("ten to [the power of]") and the appropriate power of 10:

5,000 = Vefa dimu taran

200,000,000 = Dasu dimu shada

Similarly:

0.000 000 004 = Vual dimu mem pirus ("Four times ten to nine below")

If all the digits of a large number are significant, the easiest way to give the number is to simply recite the digits in order, with no other words: 33,550,336 = Taran taran vefa vefa hilu taran taran vech.

Numbers do not vary between "cardinal" and "ordinal" forms, instead their position is changed. When denoting a quantity, the number is placed before the noun: dasu toja = two days. When denoting a position, the number is placed after the noun: toja dasu = the second day ("day two").

When an ordinal form is used absolutely (i.e. without a noun preceding it), for example as a house number, the word for "number", manapil, is placed before the actual number.
Ha tasira micada tuval u eva. Eva tasirem manapil dima mo dasu, ha tasirem manapil dima mo taran.
I live next door to you. You live at No. 12, I live at No. 13.

When giving the set or collection from which an object comes, it is introduced with valun:
Matsaleda soludub'oda sual dima mo uma, valun toja dima mo uma, valun numada dima mo uma.
"Under-write war-stop-at hour ten and one, from day ten and one, from month ten and one."
The armistice was signed at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.

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13. Sample Text - Hallon version of Silent Night(added by k1234567890y, taken from http://www.silentnight.web.za/translate/hallon.htm)

Jaidà meshada

Jaidà meshada, sure meshada,
Orà gorn, ora pleshada,
Lumat Gerat mo Felashem.
Rulat on Mevil em Betlehem:
Urieb'em biogà,
Urieb'em bioga.

Jaidà meshada, shà em nedara,
Usivilt dalus suvara.
Omashira dos reshadu ushe,
Vemashu Shut ji dos sharule;
Rulat Christ piol Nà;
Rulat Christ piol Nà.

Jaidà meshada, sure meshada,
Vuma Shut, dalai reshada.
Usem rufa valun sure voga,
Tosam u nom sà vofà shaloga.
Jesus, shim piol'Evà;
Jesus, shim piol'Eva.

Literal translation:

Silent night, holy night,
All is calm, all is bright,
Round the Child and the Virgin.
The Lord is an Infant in Bethlehem.
Sleep in peace,
Sleep in peace.

Silent night, in the midst of which
The shepherds are struck with fear.
Angels light up the sky
Singing to the glory of God.
The Lord Christ is born,
The Lord Christ is born.

Silent night, holy night,
Son of God, the true Light
Shining with love from the holy face,
Dawn for mankind of that saving grace.
Jesus, when You were born,
Jesus, when You were born.

Notes:
1. Final -a is not pronounced unless marked à.
2. Final -e is always pronounced.
3. The initial G of "Gerat" is pronounced as H, the word does not sound like
German "Gerät".
I prefer to not be referred to with masculine pronouns and nouns such as “he/him/his”.
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