Arangothian
Arangothian Arangothek | |
---|---|
Timeline and Universe: | Arangoth |
Spoken: | Arangoth |
Total speakers: | In-game, approx. 2 million. Real-world, unknown. |
Genealogy: | Family: |
Typology | |
Morphosyntactic alignment: | Nominative-Accusative |
Basic word order: | SVO |
Credits | |
Creator: | Patrick "Pfeaster" Feaster |
Created: | <2003 |
Arangothian ( also Arangothek, "(speech) of the land" ) is an a priori fictional language which was created by Patrick Feaster prior to 2003. It is nominative-accusative in alignment.
The language is used for the fictional concountry of Arangoth, and in particular the port city of Drache, which is also the de-facto capital of that land. This language is also occasionally used in the related roleplay chatroom #blkdragon*inn on irc.darkmyst.org. The status of any actual speakers is unknown, though there has recently been some interest in continuing development and propagation of the language.
The website offers a "teach yourself"-styled introduction to the language with 8 lessons, a list of common Arangothian names, and an Arangothian-English dictionary. There are currently approximately 1300 words in the language, with room to form many more with provided suffixes.
Grammar
Nouns
Nouns have no separate ending which distinguishes them from verbs (or vice-versa), which can make telling the two apart a skill which must be acquired through much practice (or learning the language natively).
Nouns decline only by number.
Definite article
There are is only one article, '-(o)th', which marks both singular and plural nouns. It functions as a suffix:
- tespe (meaning 'woman')
becomes
- tespeth (meaning 'the woman')
- pej ('dog')
becomes
- pejoth ('dogs')
Declining by number:
- tespe (meaning 'woman')
becomes
- tespel (meaning 'women')
Note that to create a plural one simply adds +(e)l to the noun. To give a further example of creating a plural noun, we'll use 'pej', which means dog.
- pej ('dog')
becomes
- pejel ('dogs')
To form plurals with the definite article, one stacks the suffixes as PLURAL+ARTICLE, thus:
- tespel (meaning 'women')
becomes
- tespeloth (meaning 'the women')
- pejel ('dog')
becomes
- pejeloth ('the dogs')
Declining by case:
- tespe (meaning 'woman')
becomes
- ai tespe (meaning 'woman (acc.)')
- pej ('dog')
becomes
- ai pej ('dog' (acc.))
Pronouns
Subject pronouns decline like any other noun in Arangothek. One simply adds an "ai" before the noun:
Subject | Object | |
I (1ps) | min | ai min |
You (2ps) | ken | ai ken |
He (3ps.m) | da | ai da |
She (3ps.f) | da | ai da |
It (3ps.n) | da | ai da |
We (1pl) | melin | ai melin |
You (2pl) | kalin | ai kalin |
They (3pl) | delin | ai delin |
Possessive pronouns
Arangothek doesn't have possessive pronouns per se, but instead forms the possessive with suffixes.
Base pronoun | Possessive suffix | |
I (1ps) | min | (n)im |
You (2ps) | ken | (n)ek |
He (3ps.m) | da | (n)ond |
She (3ps.f) | da | (n)ond |
It (3ps.n) | da | (n)ond |
We (1pl) | melin | (n)imil |
You (2pl) | kalin | (n)etil |
They (3pl) | delin | (n)ondil |
Adjectives
Adjectives decline neither by number or case. They are not marked to distinguish them from other words in a sentence, but they generally precede their intended noun:
- sarla tespe "pretty woman"
Arangothek has a freeish word order, though, so "tespe sarla" is also accurate, if less commonly seen.
Adverbs
WIP
Verbs
Infinitive verbs end with -ua.
Infinitive form | Meaning |
sartua | to drink |
korkua | to thank |
pipua | to drink |
Present tense
Present tense adds a particle, "ve", and drops the infinitive verb ending, switching for the activated form "-ix".
Infinitive form | Present-tense form |
sartua | ve sartix |
korkua | ve korkix |
pipua | ve pipix |
Past tense
Present tense adds a particle, "in", and drops the infinitive verb ending. It also uses the activated form "-ix".
Infinitive form | Past-tense form |
sartua | in sartix |
korkua | in korkix |
pipua | in pipix |
Future tense
Future tense mirrors the construction of the present and past, but uses the particle "di".
Past tense
Command formation mirrors that of all the above, with the substitution of the particle "an".
Conditional
Formation of the conditional is unknown.
Auxiliary "tenses"
Arangothek has two "auxiliary tenses", one of which isn't really a verb tense at all, but both are included here on account of how they are formed.
Infinitive | "kor" form | rough translation | "er" form | rough translation | |
sartua | kor sartix | "before drinking" | er sartix | * | |
korkua | kor korkix | "before thanking" | er korkix | * | |
pipua | kor pipix | "before seeing" | er pipix | * |
Working with "er"
"er" is an especially hard form to translate. When used in sentences like
- "Koi min er pipix ai ken, in serpix bedelta ai ken."
- "but" I * see(actv) acc. you, past love only acc. you.
- But after I had seen you, I loved only you.
It shows something which happened previous to the action in the main clause, and thus functions as kind of a specialised past tense.
Another example of "er":
- "Gossath er flarix menxa, an branorgix ai orgod."
- the-king * say(actv.)thus, cmd dispatch acc. messenger.
- After/when the king says so, send a messenger.
Word-forming affixes
This may not be a complete list. bornfor is adding them as he finds them.
Suffixes
-(a)dossa
Forms a noun from an adjective.
- blax dull (not sharp)
- blaxadossa dullness
-(a)lua
Verbs nouns.
- gorrathair foundation of a building (*gol- + *rath-air, understonage)
- gorrathairalua to build (a building)
-altua
Unattested
-(a)nth
Forms a noun which is used for something. (Esperanto -ilo)
- prakanth an anvil
- prak-ua to strike, hi
-at
Forms a tangible noun from a verb.
- lebdat a kiss
- lebd-ua to kiss
-axua
unattested; possible:
- ank wood
- ankaxod a carpenter
- ankax-ua to work with wood, to make something out of wood
-(e/a)dossa
with e:
- gord bright
- gordedossa brightness
- kelt-ua to be able to
- keltedossa ability
- mu no, not
- mudossa nothing
with a:
- malgadossa start, beginning (n)
- malg-ua to start, begin
- bralk high
- bralkadossa height
-ethrua
Unattested; "to make something some way",
- hurn red
- hurnethrua to make red
-eti
- ank wood
- anketi wooden, made of wood
-etto/ist
Forms a (not necessarily *closely*) related noun.
- ap "over" (preposition); before an adjective, "too much," in excess
- appettod master (of a craft or skill)
- brog inn
- brogetto bar
- enxe hand
- enxetto a mitten, glove
-(i)re/-(l)od*-
Forms a doer of something, a person who earns their living in a certain way. -od is a fossilised suffix and no longer used to create new words.
- pantr-ua to play
- pantrire a musician
- alfrinair a forest
- alfrinairod a forester
-ia
Forms an abstract noun from a noun or an adjective:
- grax merciful, compassionate
- graxia mercy, compassion
- gossa king
- gossia kingship
- lathra pure, unadulterated
- lathria purity
-k
Forms an adjective from a noun:
- gossa king
- gossak royal
-(n)air
Forms collective nouns.
- alfri tree
- alfrinair forest
- gossa king
- gossanair the royal family
- drelth the world
- drelthair the universe, the cosmos.
-igi
Diminuitive of nouns.
- sarnu bear
- sarnunigi little bear
-nimmo
unknown.
- enxenimmo wrist
-(o)lta
Diminutive of adjectives- makes things "-ey", "-ish". Also works for nouns and verbs:
- sil the ocean, sea
- silolta vast, oceanic
- sarpolta useful
- sarp-ua to use
- sarmapir summer
- sarmapirolta summery
-(o)nth
Variant form of "(a)nth"; in current use designates a tool used for something OR a place (highly localised, often actually an object) at which something occurs.
- pantr-ua to play
- pantronth a musical instrument
- kanonth a sawmill
- kan-uato saw
-ovath
Makes a noun from an infinitive.
- arrovath an attempt
- arr-ua to try, to attempt
- sarpovath a use for something
- sarp-ua to use
Sometimes forms words which mean an event or happening of some kind, too:
- bobalovath guarding, guard duty
- bobal-ua to guard
- bortovath a burial, a funeral
- bort-ua to bury
-pir
Creates a season. Likely a fossilised suffix.
- opte dark
- optepir fall (season)
-st
"forms a noun from an adjective"
- thratessast knowledge
Table of Correlatives for Arangothek
Question Singular | Question Plural | Near | Far | Plural Near | Plural Far | Indefinite/Universal Singular | Indefinite/Universal Plural | No- | |
Individual | sintha | selintha | dan | " | delin | " | lintha | lelintha | mulintha |
Object | simni | selinmi | mek | ket | melek | kalit | linmi | lelinmi | mudossa |
Place | sinumpi | mekumpi | ketumpi | linumpi | |||||
Time | sinpir | mekpir | ketpir | linpir | |||||
Manner | sinxa | minxa | ketsa | linxa | |||||
Reason | sindra | mindra | ketra | ||||||
Precise* | sin | mete | kete | lin |
The "precise" correlatives correspond to questions and answers relating to the English word "which". sin = which (one), "meke" = "this (particular) one", etc. These are distinguished from the "Individual" and "Object" categories only by their specificness. "dan" = this, he/she/it ; mek = "this thing". "Precise" category correlatives can be used for either people OR objects, and are not limited in use like the "Individual" and "Object" category correlatives.
Numbers
WIP
External links
- Home page of the Arangothek language (live web)
- Arangothek-English dictionary (live web)
- Two short texts in Arangothek (live web)
This article is one of a few about Arangoth.
Languages: Arangothian * Igmerind |
This article is part of the Conlang Rescue Project. This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.5 ( Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 Unported License ). |