Afa-Mutu - an auxlang

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Omzinesý
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Afa-Mutu - an auxlang

Post by Omzinesý »

Luka-Mutu Afa-mutu is an auxlang I have been thinking about a couple of weeks.

Its lexifier is mostly English because it just is the lingua franca. Some words are taken form other languages, mostly European ones because I don't know Asian ones, and some are just found up.

I try make it somewhat oligosynthetic for making its vocabulary learnable as easily as possible, but I don't want to overshoot it.

Afa means 'language' or 'mouth'. It is borrowed from Somali word af with the same meanings.

The first big change was that I decided to get rid of a stative class. All adjectives need a copula when they are used as predicates.

Luka means 'language' or 'tongue' .
Mutu means 'this'.
So its name is as surprising as 'This Language'.
Last edited by Omzinesý on 25 Dec 2022 18:48, edited 5 times in total.
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Re: Afa-Mutu - Phonology

Post by Omzinesý »

The consonant inventory is easy, as one could guess.

p t t͡s k
m n
f s
l j w

It seems that I started writing /j/ with <y>.
/t͡s/ is of course <ts> in the orthography.

The "standard" pronunciation is that /t/, /t͡s/, and /s/ are post-dental and /n/ and /l/ are alveolar, but if you want to pronounce all of them post-dental or alveolar it is considered "dialectal variation". You can even make /t͡s/ post-alveolar if you want.

The only clear allophony is that /n/ assimilates with the POA of a following consonant.


The vowel inventory has no surprises either.

i, u
e, o
ä

/ä/ is of course written without dots <a> in the orthography.
/e̝/ and /o̝/ are of course written <e> and <o> respectively.


Word structures

All verbs are of the pattern
CV(L) where "L" stands for /n/ or /l/.

All countable and uncountable nouns (I still don't know how to call them.) have the pattern
(C)V(L)CV

Grammatical words have similar patterns.

Stressing and timing

The "standard" way of timing Luka-Mutu is syllable-timing. That is, all syllables are pronounced equally long. But if you are used to stress timing, it is again "dialectal variation" to code stress with length too.

To make it easier for those used to stress-timed languages, unstressed syllables are always open and they cannot have mid vowels /e/ or /o/.

Disyllabic words are stressed on the first syllable.
Compounds always consist of disyllabic roots, and thus get a trochaic rhythm. The first syllable of the first root has the main stress and the first syllables of the other roots have secondary stresses.

There is a meaningful distinction between primary and secondary stresses.
Pasa-yonka [ˈpäsäˌjoŋkä] mans 'child' while pasa yonka [ˈpäsäˈjoŋkä] means 'a young person'. In practice, the borderline between compounds and N+N phrases is often fluid.
Last edited by Omzinesý on 02 Jan 2023 20:14, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Afa-Mutu - an auxlang

Post by Omzinesý »

Dictionary

Emotions
lafa 'love'
la 'to like', 'to feel (positive)'

Body parts
afa 'mouth'
finka 'finger'
finka-afa 'tongue' (mouth finger)
manu 'arm', 'hand'

Numerals
manu 'five'

Communication
afa 'language'

People
- usually it's no need to specify the sex
mapa 'parent'
mapa-fema 'mother'
mapa-matsu 'father'
pasa 'person'
pasa-fema 'woman'
pasa-matsu 'man'
pasa-yonka 'child'
posu 'spouse'
posu-fema 'wife', 'girlfriend'
posu-matsu 'husband', 'boyfriend'

Characteristics
yonka 'new', 'young'
matsu 'male'
fema 'female'

food and drink
alku 'alcohol'

Colors
kasi 'red'
kasi-sini 'violet'
sini 'blue'
sini-yelo 'green'
taki 'black, dark'
yelu 'yellow'
yelo-kasi 'orange'
wati 'white, light'
Last edited by Omzinesý on 27 Dec 2022 13:58, edited 7 times in total.
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Re: Afa-Mutu - an auxlang

Post by Omzinesý »

Verbs

Verbs are a closed class in Afa-Mutu.
Verbs always have one syllable.

la 'like', 'be happy', 'feel (positive)'

ka 'be'
It combines two nouns so that the first belongs to the group of the second.

Si ka pasa-yonka.
'She/he is a child.'

It expresses a physical characteristic.

Si ka yonka.
'She/he is young.'

ma 'have', 'there is'
man 'eat', 'drink'
pu 'make', 'create', 'give birth to'
tsu 'hate', 'dislike'
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Re: Afa-Mutu - an auxlang

Post by Omzinesý »

Pronouns

I have probably explained them somewhere.

The personal pronouns are

mi 'I'
ti 'you'
si 'he/she'

They can be combined

miti 'we (= I and you)'
misi 'we (= I and he/she/they)'
tisi 'you (= you and he/she/they)'
mitisi 'we (= I, you, and he/she/they)
sisi 'they'

The demonstratives are

mu 'this'
tu 'that (near you)'
su 'that (near him/her/them)

The only combined demonstrative is

mutu 'here (near me and you)'

There are no distinct words for 'here' or 'there'. They are just combinations of prepositions i 'in/at', a 'to', and u 'from'.

i mu 'here'
i mutu 'here'
i tu 'there'
i su 'there'

The interrogative pronouns are

ki 'who/what/which'
ku 'who/what/which'

"ku" is not used alone but always as a modifier or with a preposition.

kasa ki 'whose house'
kasa ku 'which house'

a ki 'to whom'
a ku 'to where'
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Re: Afa-Mutu - an auxlang

Post by Omzinesý »

Ma is a verb that can be translated as 'to have'. Theoretically it is called an existential verb.
I borrowed it from Polish. English have has /h/ which is difficult.

It codes

1) possession
Mi ma casa.
'I have a house.'

2) Kinship
Mi ma mapa.
'I have a parent.'

3) Part-whole relation
Kasa ma wala-upa.
'The house has a roof.'

4) "there is"
Suka-panta ma pasa-pasa.
'There are people in the park.
lit. 'Park has people.'

If a more specific location is deeded a PP is added in the end.
Kasa ma pasa-pasa i nela si.
'There are people inside the house.'
lit. 'The house has people in its inside.'

If no location is specified, su 'that/there' is used. It is actually very close to English they.
Ku ma pasa.
'There is a person.'


It is negated by negating the object.
Mi ma no kasa.
'I have no house.'
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Re: Afa-Mutu - an auxlang

Post by Omzinesý »

There are two words for games and competition.

kompi expressed one can and tries to win the game, competitive game
pela expresses that the players are not there to win, its just for enjoyment

Mitisi to pola-futu. 'We are playing football.'

Mitisi to kompi pola-futu. 'We are playing football (competitively).'
Mititsi to pela pola-futu. 'We are playing football (just for fun).'
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Re: Afa-Mutu - an auxlang

Post by Omzinesý »

Modalities

I wonder why "have to" expresses necessity instead of ability or will.

Afa-Mutu has an expression with a parallel syntax. Actually, it's even closer to Spanish "Tengo que ...".

Mi ten ke ...
sg2 have COMPL ...

It means all 'I have to...', 'I can ...', and 'I must ...', depending on the context.

You can however add a noun to specify the modality.

Mi ten niti ke ...
SG1 have need COMPL
'I need to ...'

Mi ten wili ke ...
SG1 desire need COMPL
'I want to ...'

Mi ten kapa ke ...
Sg1 have capability COMPL
'I can ...'


The expression with the noun often refers to physical needs.

Mi ten ke man.
SG1 have COMPL eat
'I am hungry.'
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