Globasa
| Globasa Globasa | |
| Spoken in: | worldwide; mainly North America |
| Conworld: | real world; hypothetical island |
| Total speakers: | ~15 (2025) |
| Genealogical classification: | constructed language
|
| Basic word order: | SVO |
| Morphological type: | analytic |
| Morphosyntactic alignment: | nominative-accusative |
| Writing system: | Latin alphabet |
| Created by: | |
| Hector Ortega | 2019 |
Globasa (globa "world" + -sa "language") is an international auxiliary language designed by American linguist Hector Ortega. It is a worldlang that draws vocabulary from 10 of the world's language families. Its analytic grammar is inspired by creole languages, following a strict word order and making use of particles and affixes. It was introduced to the public in 2019 after two years of development.
According to the hypothetical premise laid out by Ortega, Globasa is the product of three generations of linguistic evolution after 1,000 people from around the world are selected at random and settled on an island.
Phonology
Consonants
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ||||||
| Plosive | pʰ | b | tʰ | d | kʰ | g | ||
| Affricate | t͡ʃʰ | d͡ʒ | ||||||
| Fricative | f | v | s | z | ʃ | x | ||
| Approximant | l | j | w | |||||
| Tap | ɾ | |||||||
Vowels
| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u |
| Mid | e̞ | o̞ |
| Open | ä | |
Orthography
Globasa is written with the standard Latin alphabet minus the letter q. Globasa has no concrete stance on whether capital letters should be used, though in common practice, words and sentences follow a capitalization system similar to that of English.
| Uppercase | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |
| Lowercase | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | r | s | t | u | v | w | x | y | z |
| IPA | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ä | b | t͡ʃʰ | d | e̞ | f | g | x | i | d͡ʒ | kʰ | l | m | n | o̞ | pʰ | ɾ | s | tʰ | u | v | w | ʃ | j | z |
The names of the letters are among the few a priori word forms in Globasa:
- Consonants (i-e): ibe (b), ice (c), ide (d)...
- Vowels: (a-a): aya (a), eya (e), iya (i)...
Grammar
Pronouns
Pronouns in Globasa distinguish animacy and plurality, but not gender (except when emphasis is desired).
| Singular | Plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st person | mi | imi | |
| 2nd person | yu | uyu | |
| 3rd person | Animate | te | ete |
| Inanimate | to | oto | |
| Indefinite | ren | ||
| Reflexive | se | ||
| Resumptive | da | ||
Possessive pronouns are created by taking the pronouns above and adding the suffix -su. To emphasize gender, third-person pronouns may optionally take the prefixes fem- (feminine) and man- (masculine).
Nouns and verbs
In Globasa, a class of words called benjilexi ("essence words") function both as nouns and as verbs without any change in form, and their role is determined by their placement in a sentence.
Nouns in Globasa do not distinguish plurality or definiteness. For example, ituka can mean "brick", "bricks", "a brick", or "the brick". If one wishes to specify, then the following modifiers can be used: un ("one"), plu ("multiple"), and hin ("this").
Tense
Tense can be indicated by means of particles and affixes. The simplest of these are le, placed before a verb to indicate the past tense, and xa, placed before a verb to indicate the future tense. The prefix du- indicates the continuous tense, and it can also turn a verb into a noun that represents a continuous action.
Adjectives and adverbs
Tosifulexi ("describing words") are a class of words that represent both adjectives and adverbs, as Globasa does not distinguish between the two morphologically. They are usually placed before the words that they modify, but they can be placed in other parts of a clause if they're modifying the main verb. Adverbs that modify other tosifulexi must take the suffix -mo.
Conjunctions
Globasa uses three main conjunctions: ki, hu, and ku. Ki is a complementizer, hu introduces a relative clause, and ku creates indirect questions.
- Mi jixi ki mi sen manixu hu da jixi ku da fale keto.
- "I know that I'm a man who knows what he's doing."
Questions
Polar questions differ from declarative sentences only by the addition of kam to the beginning.
- Timoteo suki espageti. Kam Timoteo suki espageti?
- "Timothy likes spaghetti. Does Timothy like spaghetti?"
Open questions contain a "ke" correlative in the place of the unknown word. The word order stays identical to that of declarative sentences.
- To sen ke satu? To sen satu lima.
- "What time is it? It's five o'clock."
Numbers
The numbers 1–10 are as follows: un, dua, tiga, care, lima, sisa, sabe, oco, nue, des.
Sample text
From Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll:
| Globasa | English |
|---|---|
| Alis xoru na hisicu pilopul kos na side fe comen de tesu femsodar per nahir-byen, ji kos na hare nilto cel na fale: un or dua mara, te oko kitabu hu tesu femsodar doxo da, mas no hay imaje or intrepala in to, ji Alis fikir, "Nenhar imaje or intrepala, cele de kitabu sen keto?" | Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, "and what is the use of a book," thought Alice, "without pictures or conversations?" |
External links
- Official website
- r/Globasa
- Pepper&Carrot in Globasa
- SCP articles in Globasa
- Song lyrics in Globasa
- Globasa number generator
| This article is part of a series on International Auxiliary Languages. Romance-based Auxlangs: Aercant * Atlango * Interlingua * Latin Nov * Novial * Occidental (Interlingue) * Panroman * Romanal |
