Gaaziketti: Lexicon: Difference between revisions

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== Background ==
See also:


I invented Gaaziketti for the fun of it. I wanted it - among other things - to have a grammar which parses unambiguously, i.e. so that you always know what qualifies what in a sentence. I also wanted the grammar to be flexible and uniform, i.e. to be very ''general'', with few or no exceptions and few "sub-rules". Also it had to be reasonably concise, but while being fairly easily pronounceable, having few consonant clusters, few vowels and diphthongs, and few rare consonants. Also, I wanted no two words in the lexicon that differed only ''slightly'', i.e. I built redundancy into it, as in real languages (although the way I built it in was somewhat artificial and "automatic"). Also I wanted to respect as far as possible the language "universals" that are true of most natural languages. And I wanted easily to be able to make new words by just conjoining two existing ones. On the other hand, I didn't care about resemblance between the Gaaziketti lexicon and that of natural languages. 
[[Gaaziketti]]


Trying to reconcile all these goals was something of a challenge, but I think I've got something I'm reasonably happy with.
[[Gaaziketti: Experimental page]]


There a bit more to it than what is below, incl. a (lazily auto-generated) provisional vocab of 1600 words. But I've yet to finalise a lot of the "small" words like personal pronouns, postpositions, conjunctions, tense-markers and so forth.
This started out as a completely random sample from the lexicon. But I've started deliberately adding some of the more useful words to it and hope to add more over time.  


== Basic idea behind the grammar ==
Almost all morphemes are disyllabic, with a long syllable followed by a short syllable, though some very common words are monosyllabic, or even consist of only one phoneme (e.g. '''l''' meaning 'the' (singular)).


In Gaaziketti, just about any kind of word can modify (qualify) just about any other kind of word. Verbs, nouns and adjectives fall into essentially a single part of speech.
You can form compound words by juxtaposition, head word last. E.g. a '''moogimotti''' is an ant-egg. '''Kossakaidu''' means 'jeweller' - literally "jewel-worker".


For example, '''kossakaidu''' means 'jeweller' -- if thought of as a noun.
= Frequently used words =
=== Copula ===
*'''paa''' to be (Only used for linking two '''noun phrases''', both of which are put in the nominative. Do not use for adjectives.)


But consider this one-word sentence: '''Kossakaidu.'''  
=== Demonstratives ===
*'''taa'''          that, those. N. B. you need to add a (case-inflected) article. As adjective, comes after noun, before article (rather than before the noun like most adjectives). As a pronoun, just add the article. E.g.: '''Kooba taa le''', ''that jacket'' (nom.). '''Taa le''', ''that'' (as pronoun). '''Taa ke''', ''those'' (nom.). '''Kooba taa se''', ''one of those jackets'' (nom.).
*''' nii   ''' this, these. You need to add an article: same rules as for '''taa''', ''that''.


Here '''kossakaidu''' acts as a verb, meaning: 'There is a jeweller.'
=== Postpositions ===
All govern the genitive/accusative case


'''Kossakaidu le raazu.''' means 'The jeweller criticises (something).'
*'''baa''' with, using, via, by means of.
*'''bii''' in
*'''coo''' for, for the benefit of, for the purpose of
*'''daaqi''' near, close to
*'''meepi''' like, similar to
*'''nuuta''' on
*'''zaa''' at


But '''raazu''', thought of as a noun, means 'criticising' (n.) or 'criticism'.
=== Articles ===
These are placed ''after'' their nouns, and declined for case ('''-e, -o, -ai''' for nominative, accusative/genitive, and dative, respectively.)  


Thus " '''Kossakaidu le raazu.''' " can be read as 'There is criticising by the jeweller.'
*'''le, lo, lai''' the (singular)
*'''ke, ko, hai''' the (plural)
*'''se, so, sai''' (indefinite singular article)
*'''me, mo, mai''' (indefinite plural article)


Adjectives are generally treated as verbs. E.g. '''cooqi''': to be silent. For such an "adjective" (which is really a verb), if you want to treat it as an attributive adjective, e.g. as in 'the silent movie', then you put it like this: 'the movie which is silent'. This isn't particularly unwieldy in Gaazketti, because there is a concise relative pronoun ('''d'''). Thus '''cooqi de haiga le''' means 'the movie which is silent'/ 'the slient movie'.
= Less frequently used words =
*''' beetu   ''' garden
*''' booru   ''' to drown (intrans.)
*''' cainu   ''' mustard
*'''cecca''' soldier
*''' ceeza   ''' army
*'''cooqi''' to be silent
*''' cuuku   ''' wife
*''' daubu   ''' organ (of body)
*'''deela''' enemy
*''' gooma   ''' referee, umpire
*''' haiga''' movie
*''' hauka   ''' curtain
*'''kaidu''' worker
*''' kauna   ''' populace
*''' kooba   ''' jacket
*'''kossa''' jewel
*'''kuubu''' slave
*''' luudi   ''' goat
*''' luuli   ''' pan, frying pan
*'''mennu''' name (n.)
*''' moogi   ''' ant
*''' motti   ''' egg
*''' naapa   ''' cotton
*'''nauzu''' to be original
*''' paumu''' person
*''' pauqa   ''' sign (as in a streetsign or public notice)
*''' qassi''' to have
*''' qeetu   ''' mirror
*''' qocci   ''' beard
*''' raalu   ''' arrow
*'''raazu''' to criticise
*''' raucu   ''' wealthy, rich
*''' riigu   ''' scale (as in measuring device)
*''' sombi   ''' to run
*''' tiicu   ''' pig
*''' tuuza   ''' helmet


The syntax tends to be agglutinative.
[[Category:Gaaziketti]]
 
[[Category:General lexica]]
== Sounds ==
 
The vowels are read approximately as in Spanish. But double vowels are pronounced long. Double consonants are pronounced double. Like Finnish.
 
'q' is pronounced like the 'ni' in 'onion'.
 
'c' is pronounced like the 'ch' is 'chair'.
 
'n' when at the ''end'' of a word, is pronounced like the 'ng' is 'song'.
 
'ai' is pronounced like 'eye' in 'eye'.
 
'au' is pronounced like the 'ow' in 'cow'.
 
Other sounds are pretty much pronounced as one would expect. But unvoiced consonants are not aspirated. E.g. 'p' is pronounced always as in 'spot', never as in 'pack'.
 
== Some example sentences and vocab for illustrative purposes ==
 
I have picked the following random words from the lexicon for the purposes of illustrating grammar.
 
'''kossakaidu'''        jeweller
 
'''nauzu'''              to be original
 
'''mennu'''              name
 
'''raazu'''              to criticise
 
'''cooqi'''              to be silent
 
'''haiga'''              movie
 
'''kuubu'''              slave
 
'''deela'''              enemy
 
'''cecca'''              soldier
 
'''paa'''                to be (only for linking noun phrases)
 
 
'''Kuubu lo deela les cecca len paa.'''
 
The slave’s enemy is the soldier.
 
 
'''Kossakaidu les haiga lo mennu lon raazu.'''
 
The jeweller criticises the movie’s name.
 
== Word order ==
 
subject-object-verb (usual)
 
or
 
object-subject-verb
 
Adjectives precede what they modify.
 
== Articles ==
 
These ''follow'' the noun and are, in general, ''compulsory'', for any phrase intended to function as a noun phrase. But pronouns, of course, do not need articles.
 
Articles receive compulsory ''case endings''. (See below.)
 
Sing. def. '''l'''
 
Pl. def. '''k'''
 
Sing. indef. '''s'''
 
Pl. indef. '''m'''
 
== Case endings ==
 
nominative '''-e'''
 
accusative/ genitive '''-o'''
 
dative '''-ai'''
 
Note that these are added to articles and pronouns, but not to nouns.
 
== Parsing markers ==
 
These markers indicate exactly what qualifies what. They can be added to any morpheme ending in a vowel (or diphthong).
 
Gather one element, modify next element '''(nil)'''
 
Gather one element, do not modify next element         '''-s'''
 
Gather two elements, modify next element '''-n'''
 
Gather two elements, do not modify next element         '''-k'''
 
It's kind of hard to explain how these work. If you've got a noun phrase, say, and it's modifying the next phrase to appear in the sentence, then you don't need to tack on any parsing marker at all. But say you want noun phrase X ''not'' to modify the very next phrase in the sentence. Then you tack on '''-s'''. Say the order of phrases is XYZ. Say you want X to modify Z ''and'' Y to modify Z. This generally occurs when Z is appearing as a verb, and X and Y are the subject and object respectively. Then X gets '''-s''' and Y gets '''-n'''. But say you've got WXYZ. You want W, X and Y each to modify Z. Then W gets '''-s''', X gets '''-k''' (which serves to "gather" W and X into a unit containing two phrases, both of which will end up modifying the same unit, ''without'' modifying the very ''next'' unit), and finally '''-n'''. Note that Z gets no marker, because it appears as a verb.
 
== Verbal endings ==
 
Indicative “there is” '''(nil)'''
 
Imperative (informal)         '''(nil)'''
 
Imperative (formal) '''-vaa'''
 
Infinitive '''-ce'''
 
== Relative pronoun ==
 
The relative clause precedes the modified noun.
 
There are two versions of the relative pronoun. There is a concise version which cannot handle more complicated types of construction; and there is a less concise version, which can handle complex constructions better.
 
 
''The concise option'': '''d-'''
 
Declined according to the modified noun's case with respect to the verb in the relative clause.
 
Placed directly ''after'' the relative clause's verb. The relative clause's verb is in the indicative.
 
 
''The flexible option'': '''siim-'''
 
Declined according to case within relative clause.
 
Placed within the relative clause itself, i.e. somewhere ''before'' the relative clause's verb.
 
The relative clause's verb is in put into the infinitive.
 
== Some example sentences to illustrate the above principles ==
 
(Notice also the various ways in which the verb “to be silent” is used.)
 
(Verbs, adjectives and nouns all belong to the same “part of speech”.)
 
'''Kossakaidu les haiga lo mennu lon raazu.'''
The jeweller criticises the movie’s name.
 
'''Kossakaidu les siimo mennu lon raazuce haiga le nauzu.'''
The movie whose name the jeweller criticised is original.
 
'''Haiga lo mennu lo raazu de kossakaidu le cooqi.'''
The jeweller who criticises the movie’s name is silent.
 
'''Cooqi de kossakaidu les haiga lon raazu.'''
The silent jeweller critises the movie.
 
'''Kossakaidu les haiga lok cooqi den raazu.'''
The jeweller critices the movie silently.
(Can be read as: "There is some criticising, which is (a) by the jeweller, (b) of the movie, and (c) silent.)

Latest revision as of 19:00, 26 January 2006

See also:

Gaaziketti

Gaaziketti: Experimental page

This started out as a completely random sample from the lexicon. But I've started deliberately adding some of the more useful words to it and hope to add more over time.

Almost all morphemes are disyllabic, with a long syllable followed by a short syllable, though some very common words are monosyllabic, or even consist of only one phoneme (e.g. l meaning 'the' (singular)).

You can form compound words by juxtaposition, head word last. E.g. a moogimotti is an ant-egg. Kossakaidu means 'jeweller' - literally "jewel-worker".

Frequently used words

Copula

  • paa to be (Only used for linking two noun phrases, both of which are put in the nominative. Do not use for adjectives.)

Demonstratives

  • taa that, those. N. B. you need to add a (case-inflected) article. As adjective, comes after noun, before article (rather than before the noun like most adjectives). As a pronoun, just add the article. E.g.: Kooba taa le, that jacket (nom.). Taa le, that (as pronoun). Taa ke, those (nom.). Kooba taa se, one of those jackets (nom.).
  • nii this, these. You need to add an article: same rules as for taa, that.

Postpositions

All govern the genitive/accusative case

  • baa with, using, via, by means of.
  • bii in
  • coo for, for the benefit of, for the purpose of
  • daaqi near, close to
  • meepi like, similar to
  • nuuta on
  • zaa at

Articles

These are placed after their nouns, and declined for case (-e, -o, -ai for nominative, accusative/genitive, and dative, respectively.)

  • le, lo, lai the (singular)
  • ke, ko, hai the (plural)
  • se, so, sai (indefinite singular article)
  • me, mo, mai (indefinite plural article)

Less frequently used words

  • beetu garden
  • booru to drown (intrans.)
  • cainu mustard
  • cecca soldier
  • ceeza army
  • cooqi to be silent
  • cuuku wife
  • daubu organ (of body)
  • deela enemy
  • gooma referee, umpire
  • haiga movie
  • hauka curtain
  • kaidu worker
  • kauna populace
  • kooba jacket
  • kossa jewel
  • kuubu slave
  • luudi goat
  • luuli pan, frying pan
  • mennu name (n.)
  • moogi ant
  • motti egg
  • naapa cotton
  • nauzu to be original
  • paumu person
  • pauqa sign (as in a streetsign or public notice)
  • qassi to have
  • qeetu mirror
  • qocci beard
  • raalu arrow
  • raazu to criticise
  • raucu wealthy, rich
  • riigu scale (as in measuring device)
  • sombi to run
  • tiicu pig
  • tuuza helmet
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