So, I have a conlang called Teune, which I've had sitting on my hard drive for a very long time. I'm having trouble continuing it, because besides what I've written in my grammar document already, every time I look at it I just can't really think of what other features I need to account for. Also, it doesn't help that the last 10 years of my life have been... well, absolute hell. I currently feel like a shattered relic in a world that has moved on for a thousand years, and more.
But I do still want to see if I can get some feedback on my grammar document, because fuck it, why not? Maybe starting to work on this thing will help me pick the pieces of my life back together again, and help me heal, even if just a little.
What I'm looking for, beyond any general commentary and critique that one might typically expect from this sort of thing, is:
- Specific language features that you would like to see developed or elaborated on. This can be features that my grammar document hasn't even touched at all, if you so wish.
- Suggestions regarding how I might organize and structure the content in my grammar document. As things stand, I don't really like the general structure of how I am presenting the reference document for this conlang. Any suggestions you could make would be greatly appreciated.
The Grammar Document: The Teune Language
Finally, I would like to bring up some interesting features about this language that help make it unique:
1. Usage of a single lexical term as a general-purpose, catchall locative. The word, 'ender' not only serves as a preposition denoting any of the following: "in, at, on, near, in between, around, underneath, inside, et al" e.g. a term describing any and all static position, but ALSO can act as a preposition denoting the emotional and/or mental state of animate objects! For example, " <subject phrase> ender <noun>" could actually be used as a sort of prepositional phrase describing the emotional or mental state of the subject in question, depending on the <noun> used.
2. The language has dual systems of noun-phrase construction: One which utilizes high levels of compounding of various root forms and other types of lexical tokens, and another that is primarily preposition based. I know that, in reality, such a system in a natural language would be considered highly unstable. Unfortunately, I ended up developing both systems to a high level of sophistication, and can't bring myself to get rid of one or the other. So any suggestions regarding how these two systems can co-exist would be lovely.
3. Finally, there is a high level symbolic overlap for a variety of language elements and constructs. What I mean by this is that a lot of very distinct and unrelated language features are implemented with morphemes and lexical tokens that are identical in form and pronunciation. Some interesting examples of this:
- The form '-en' is both the verb infinitive ending, as well as the noun plural ending marker.
- The form '-e' is both the noun single ending marker(which is elited in a huge number of cases!) as well as the verb present/future tense.
- And many other odd curiosities like this!
Well, that's about it. I guess I'll just drop this post here and come back to check on it in a day or two.
For anyone who may be curious about who I am and what confluence of life events brought me here. Well, basically, I'm just a guy who spent the last decade desperately trying to crawl out of a really fucked up life situation. I ended up making a lot of progress, but ultimately am now burned out, probably near 100K in debt, with various goals and dreams that ended up collapsing before my eyes, and who collapsed from exhausting and emotional numbness not *too* long ago. And now I'm just... trying to find a direction to go, I guess.