Thread: The Principles of Doomspeak

"Doomspeak" is merely the working title until I have a suitable name within the language itself. Until then, it's Doomspeak.

A definition of Doomspeak begins with the following conventions:

1: Doomspeak is an aggultinative language, semantic meaning being derived from separate particles added to root words.

2: The basic word order of Doomspeak is in the form: Subject, Object, Verb.

3: Doomspeak syllables follow these constraints:
~3.1: All syllables shall have one nuclear vowel.
~3.2: A syllable may have one consonant as an onset.
~3.3: A syllable may have one consonant as a coda.
~3.4: A syllable may not contain doubled consonants. *Currently irrelevant.

4: The phonemes of Doomspeak are as follows:
~4.1: Vowels: [i] [ï] [e] [ë] [a] [u] [ü] [o] [ʌ] [ə], pronounced as in English bit, beet, bet, chaos, cot, boot, book, no, nut, appeal; respectively.
~~4.1.1: Diphthongs: [ei] [ai] [au] [ju] [ae] [ui] [oi] pronounced as in English bait, by, how, abuse, at, buoy, choice; respectively.
~4.2: Consonants: [t] [d] [k] [kh] [g] [gh] [m] [n] [nh] [ng] [ngw] [v] [th] [dh] [s] [sh] [zh] [l] [lh] [r] [rh] [j] [hw]

I have quickly built a simple computer program that has given me a preliminary list of all possible syllables under these rules.

More to come later (grammar, etc.). These rules are subject to change.

An explanation of the consonants is in order:

[t] as in "ten"
[d] as in "den"
[k] as in "Ken"
[kh] this is a "harder" k sound, between the 'k' pronunciation and German 'ch'. Make a 'k' sound a bit further back in your mouth, as if you're going to lead into an 'h'
[g] as in "get"
[gh] "harder" 'g' sound leading into an 'h', as with 'kh'
[m] as in "meet"
[n] as in "neat"
[nh] "harder" 'n' sound as in 'kh'
[ng] as in "finger"
[ngw] as in "penguin"
[v] as in "vase"
[th] as in "thin"
[dh] as in "this"
[s] as in "sail"
[sh] as in "pressure"
[zh] as in "fusion"
[l] as in "language"
[lh] "hard" 'l' sound, as with 'kh'
[r] as in "ring"
[rh] "hard" 'r' sound, as with 'kh'
[j] as in "you"
[hw] as in "when"

I am considering adding a trilled 'r'.

I have abandoned the attempt to make even the most rudimentary 2-syllable word generator after a little forethought, as over 150 million combinations will fry my computer.

Major revision 1: Some consonants removed, some added, some diphthongs removed, r-series added. Dropped rule 3.4.

Current number of possible syllables: 9576

Current phonemes:

[i] as in "bit"
[ï] as in "beet"
[e] as in "bet"
[ë] as in "bay"
[a] as in "cot"
[u] as in "boot"
[ü] as in "book"
[o] as in "no"
[ʌ] as in "nut"
[ə] as in "appeal"

[aï] as in "by"
[au] as in "how"
[ae] as in "at"
[eï] as in "bait"
[oï] as in "choice"
[ui] as in "ruin"

[ër] as in "air"
[ïr] as in "here"
[ur] best rendering: "oor"

[d] as in "den"
[dh] as in "then"
[dzh] as in "judge"
[g] as in "get"
[gh] glottal 'g'
[k] as in "can"
[kh] glottal 'k'
[kw] as in "quick"
[l] as in "let"
[lh] glottal 'l'
[n] as in "neat"
[ng] as in "finger"
[ngk] as in "tank"
[r] as in "ring"
[rh] glottal 'r'
[rk] as in "dark"
[s] as in "sail"
[sh] as in "pressure"
[t] as in "ten"
[th] as in "thin"
[v] as in "vase"
[z] as in "zip"
[zh] as in "fusion"
[zg] as in "Nazgul" (couldn't think of an English example of this one)

This boils down to 7 basic consonants: k, l, n, r, s, t, and v. All others are variations of these. This will be accounted for when the alphabet (which shall be phonetic) is created.

Current ruleset (forgive the terrible outline-style formatting):

1. Doomspeak shall be an agglutinative language.

2. The word order of Doomspeak shall be ‘Subject, Object, Verb’.

3. Syllables shall be constrained by the following limitations:
~3.1. Syllables shall have one nuclear vowel.
~3.2. Syllables may have one onset consonant.
~3.3. Syllables may have one coda consonant.

4. Phonemes shall be the following:
~4.1. Vowels: /a/ /e/ /E/ /i/ /I/ /o/ /u/ /U/ /uh/ /schwa/
~~4.1.1. Diphthongs: /ae/ /aI/ /au/ /eI/ /oI/ /ui/
~~4.1.2. R-series /Er/ /Ir/ /Ur/
~4.2. Consonants: /k/ /kh/ /kw/ /g/ /gh/ /l/ /lh/ /n/ /ng/ /ngk/ /r/ /rh/ /rk/ /s/ /sh/ /z/ /zh/ /zg/ /t/ /th/ /d/ /dh/ /dzh/ /v/
~~4.2.1. The consonant /kw/ is restricted to the onset of a syllable.
~~4.2.2. The consonants /ng/ /ngk/ /rk/ are restricted to the coda of a syllable.

5. Syllable list is complete.

6. Rules of grammar:
~6.1. Nouns:
~~6.1.1. A noun or pronoun may be made plural with a plurality suffix.
~~6.1.2. A noun may be made proper with a ‘properness’ prefix.
~~~6.1.2.1. A specific person shall be denoted with a ‘personal’ prefix.
~~6.1.3. A noun may be made possessive with a ‘possessiveness’ suffix.
~~6.1.4. A noun or pronoun may be marked as the subject of a clause by a subject marker added directly after the noun.
~6.2. Pronouns:
~~6.2.1. Pronouns fall into the following categories:
~~~6.2.1.1. First Person Singular
~~~6.2.1.2. First Person Plural
~~~6.2.1.3. Second Person Singular
~~~~6.2.1.3.1. Second Person Singular Formal
~~~6.2.1.4. Second Person Plural
~~~~6.2.1.4.1. Second Person Singular Formal
~~~6.2.1.5. Third Person Singular
~~~~6.2.1.5.1. Third Person Singular Formal
~~~6.2.1.6. Third Person Plural
~~~~6.2.1.6.1. Third Person Plural Formal
~~~6.2.1.7. Demonstrative Singular Category:
~~~~6.2.1.7.1. Impersonal Singular Proximal
~~~~6.2.1.7.2. Impersonal Singular Medial
~~~~6.2.1.7.3. Impersonal Singular Distal
~~~6.2.1.8. Demonstrative Plural Category:
~~~~6.2.1.8.1. Impersonal Plural Proximal
~~~~6.2.1.8.2. Impersonal Plural Medial
~~~~6.2.1.8.3. Impersonal Plural Distal

Originally Posted by Marvo

I am constructing a language. I would have thought that such would be obvious by context.

Shall I draw you a diagram?

Originally Posted by Marvo

Bricks were shat.

I did some reading about linguistics a while back and was considering making my own constructed language, but I didn't have the massive ammounts of time or the willpower to make my self sit down and work on it.

You should use the same pronoun for 'he' and 'she', 'him' and 'her', and 'his' and 'hers'. You could also try a separate prefix or sufix for some numbers rather than just a general plural. Some languages do this for 2 and 3 and might have separate morphemes for plural-a small number and plural-a large number.

If you pull this off and get a functioning language it would be cool to see an example.