Sandic

Sandic ba sandi, jae ba kajaloni
Timeline and Universe:	Earth, present day
Spoken:	Continental United States
Total speakers:	3
Genealogy:	Family: Weyr
Typology
Morphosyntactic alignment:	Nominative-Accusative
Basic word order:	OVS
Credits
Creator:	bornforwater
Created:	2004-

Sandic (ba sandi) is an a priori personal conlang. It most closely fits the definition of heartlang. Its vocabulary is mostly unique to itself, however there are numerous (and usually obvious) exceptions. As the language was previously associated with a conworld, it is also a fictional language.

The language's creator is very fond of this monster, and has worked on it since around 2004.

The name of the language (ba sandi) means 'the thing that is known', or 'piece of knowledge'.

Letters and Sounds

Note: all pronunciations are based off of the sound of the highlighted parts of the given words as they appear in American English, except where otherwise stated.

Words are spelled as they were pronounced at one time, but over the growth and evolution of this language some sounds (such as the accusative plural ending -bin and the plural adjective marker -in) have changed from the way they are written. Thus the written form of some words varies in many cases from how the word is actually said.

Vowels

a â e é i î o u ú y ia

• a as in ball (IPA: /ɑː/ ) but also sometimes ( IPA: /xɑː/ )
• aa as in hall (IPA: /hɑː/ )
• e as in grief (IPA: /i/ )
• ee as in lay (IPA: /e/ )
• i as in in (IPA: /ɪ/ )
• ii as in eye (IPA: /aɪ/ )
• o as in over (IPA: /o/ )
• u as in you (IPA: /u/ )
• uu as in under (IPA: /ʌ/ )
• y as in yesterday (IPA: /j/ )
• ia as in elephant (IPA: /ɛ/ )

Consonants

b c d f g h j jj k l m n p r s t v w ŵ x z lē

• b as in ball (IPA: /b/ )
• c and s as in snake (IPA: /s/ )
• d as in dull (IPA: /d/ )
• f as in fast (IPA: /f/ )
• g as in girl but also sometimes as in click (IPA: /g/ but also sometimes /k/ )
• h as in how (IPA: /h/ )
• j as in shoe (IPA: /ʃ/ )
• jj as in just (IPA: /dʒ/ )
• k as in cow (IPA: /k/ )
• l as in late (IPA: /l/ )
• m as in man (IPA: /m/ )
• n as in number (IPA: /n/ )
• p as in purse (IPA: /p/ )
• r as pronounced in spanish (IPA: /r/ )
• rr as in rare (IPA: /ɹ/ )
• t as in toggle (IPA: /t/ )
• v as in fast but also sometimes as in vest (IPA: /f/ but also sometimes /v/ )
• w as in vest (IPA: /v/ )
• ww as in water (IPA: /w/ )
• le: sort of like in German ach (IPA: /x/ )

Exceptions: A note on the pronunciation of some words

This is by no means a comprehensive list of the exceptions, but rather a sampling.

• Though the accusative plural ending for nouns is spelled -bin, in modern speech this is reduced to '-pi'. The written form -bin persists, however.

• Singular accusative '-b' is changed in speech to '-p'.

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).

There are two definite articles: Ba and Ta, of which Ba marks singular nouns and Ta marks plurals.

A third, "lee", is used to denote totemic spirits or to speak in wide generalisations about something. It can be used with either singular or plural-form nouns (lee naks, "Cat"/Cats in general - "lee naksan", "Cats in general").

Nouns decline both by number and by case.

Declining by number:

• naks (meaning 'cat') /nɑks/

becomes

• naksan (meaning 'cats') /nɑks'ɑn/

Note that to create a plural one simply adds +(a)n to the noun. To give a further example of creating a plural noun, we'll use 'jeemee', which means tree.

• jeemee ('tree') /ʃeme/

becomes

• jeemeen ('trees') /ʃe'men/

Declining by case:

• naks ('cat') /nɑks/

becomes

• naksab ('cat' in the accusative) /nɑks'ap/

• naksan ('cats') /nɑks'ɑn/

becomes

• naksabin ('cats' in the accusative) /nɑks'ɑ'pi/

Again, we'll use jeemee as a second example:

• jeemee ('tree') /ʃe'me/

becomes

• jeemeeb ('tree' in the accusative) /ʃe'mep/

• jeemeen ('trees') /ʃe'men/

becomes

• jeemeebin ('trees' in the accusative) /ʃe'me'pi/

Pronouns

Subject pronouns decline like any other noun in the language- by number and case.

However, Sandic is decidedly pro-drop when it comes to subject pronouns. They are rarely seen except when used as emphasis, or when used in childrens' and instructional texts. This pro-drop tendency does not extend to the object pronouns or the "faé/frn" forms however.

	Subject	Object	Fuun/Faee	To ____
I (1ps)	Fele:	iab	me	fian
You (2ps)	Peeha	piab	pee	pian
He (3ps.m)	Ka	kiab	ka	kian
She (3ps.f)	Aee	atiab	ae	atian
It (3ps.n)	Ba	biab	ba	bian
We (1pl)	Aww	wwiab	aww	wwian
You (2pl AND 2pl.fml)	Peele:a	le:iab	le:ee	le:ian
They (3pl)	eels	otiab	op	otian

Pronoun verb markers

Every pronoun has an associated verb-marker which is derived from the full form of the given pronoun. These are used to conjugate verbs (see the verb section for more details).

• I -- e / y
• You -- pee
• He -- ka
• She -- ee
• It -- ba
• We -- aww
• You (pl/fml) -- le:ee
• They -- o

Adjectives

Adjectives decline only by number and not by case. Adjectives have distinct markers which make them easy to distinguish in sentences. Adjectives which modify singular nouns end with -i and adjectives which modify plural nouns end in -in.

Adverbs

Technically speaking, adverbs do not exist in Sandic. There is no particular case or genre of word associated with them, and though several things in the language function *as* adverbs, a single word cannot be determined to be an adverb or not just on its own. It is only the way that the word is used which determines whether or not, in that particular case, the word is an adverb.

Example sentence #1

Natul kasen. Fast/Quick he.past.run. He ran quickly.

Example sentence #2

natul = quick / sudden / rapid / all of a sudden

Kian natul esves.
To-him sudden I-hit(past).
I hit him suddenly/quickly.

Here, "natul" is acting as an adverb.

Verbs

Sandic verbs are very regular, with some notable exceptions which will be discussed below.

	Present	Past	Future	Conditional	Suggestion
Fele:	ejae	esjae	etejae	otejae	ejaeig
Péhâ	Peejae	Peesjae	Peetejae	opeejae	peejaeig
Ka	kajae	kasjae	katejae	okajae	kajaeig
Aé	ajae	asjae	atejae	otajae	ajaeig
Ba	bajae	basjae	batejae	obajae	bajaeig
Aww	awwjae	awwsjae	awwtejae	otawwjae	awwjaeig
Peele:a	le:eejae	le:eejae	le:eetejae	ole:eejae	le:eejaeig
eels	ojae	otejae	osjae	otojae	ojaeig

These are the 'core' verb forms. Some additional 'forms' of verb conjugation exist:

Jae, to speak

jaeto (wwee) - to speak as though (a false comparison)

jaeco (wwee) - to speak as (a true comparison)

jaera - to truly speak, to speak with emphasis (speaker is certain)

jaenia - to possibly speak (the speaker is uncertain)

Core-form verb exceptions

Any verb which begins with a vowel (such as uuraj, which means "to meet") will take a vowel-separating consonant between the pronoun marker and the verb itself. Thus, uuraj is conjugated in the present tense in this manner:

Uuraj, to meet

ytuuraj

peetuuraj

katuuraj

etc.

The separating consonant is also found in the progressive and other tenses for all verbs except ahl (see below).

Progressive

Jae, to speak

ahl kajaei - to be speaking

ahl katejaei* - to be going to be speaking

ahl kasjaei* - to have been speaking

ahl kajaeigi* - to be possibly speaking

While all forms use the marker ka-, these forms are not restricted to ka- (third person singular) marked verbs. The marker does not vary between pronouns, but remains ka- for every one. See examples below for clarification.

• While these forms are technically correct, they are hardly ever used in normal speech. Older texts preserve them, but normally these are now rendered as ahl katejaei -> '__teahl kajaei', ahl kasjaei -> '___sahl kajaei', ahl kaejaeigi -> '___ahlig kaejaei'.

The progressive *will* take the vowel-separating consonant "t" if the verb inside of the progressive form begins with a vowel.

• olo (to knit) -> katoloi (knitting/person who is knitting)

Example sentences

Kajaei kaahl.
He-speak-adj he-is.
He is speaking.


Asahl kajaei.
she-past-is he-speak-adj.
She was speaking.


Awwsahlig kajaein.
We-(past)are-cond he-speak-adj.
We would have been speaking.

On other verb exceptions

• The verb 'ahl', which expresses a state of being (impermanent), does not take the vowel-separating consonant 't'. Thus, its conjugations are "yahl, peeahl, kaahl, aahl, baahl, awwahl, oahl, le:eeahl".

Numbers

Cardinal Numbers

• neot - zero / nothing
• tree - one
• jee - two
• kee - three
• wwor - four
• peen - five
• kis - six
• har - seven
• getee - eight
• jek - nine
• soir - ten
• sosoir - (one) hundred
• zasoir - (one) thousand
• zasoiran oahl soir - ten thousand
• zasoiran oahl sosoir - (one) hundred thousand

Other Numbers

• soir mee tree - eleven
• soir mee jee - twelve
• soir mee kee - thirteen
• soir mee wwor - fourteen
• soir mee peen - fifteen

• soiran oahl jee mee tree - twenty-one
• soiran oahl jee mee jee - twenty-two

• sosoiran oahl jee wii soir mee tre - two hundred eleven
• zasoiran oahl kis wii sosoiran oahl kee wii soiran oahl jee mee tree - six thousand three hundred and twenty-one

Etc, etc.

Ordinal Numbers

For numbers 1-10, write the number word and then add -i (adjective marker thing). For numbers larger than ten (numbers which take the form of phrases when written out), use the format "ba ialth ee (NUMBER)".

• treei - first
• ba ialth ee zasoiran oahl soir - ten thousandth
• ba ialth ee zasoiran oahl kis wii soiran oahl kee wii soiran oahl jee mee tree - the six thousand three hundred and twenty-first

Etc, etc.

Examples

This section aims to familiarize the viewer with the 'look and feel' of Sandic Weyr. Below are some examples of texts which have been translated into or have originated in Sandic Weyr.

... Actually, Aaron is feeling a bit lazy to re-write the Babel text again, so instead, have a handy blog full of Sandic stuff to gawk at: ytemiinia.blogspot.com and also wytn-awake.blogspot.com :)