Round Robin Conlang

The round robin conlang is a collaborative conlanging game in progress, begun and overseen by Pete Bleackley (here). To quote the rules:

Each person in turn [...] creates one new rule and one new root, plus some examples to show the consequences, and passes it on to the next person on the list. When it gets back to me, we start another loop, and keep going for as long as we feel necessary.

The grammar presented here is from the end of round 2.

Game organisation

The current turn order is

• Pete Bleackley
• Matthew Turnbull
• Daniel Demski
• John Vertical
• Alex Fink
• Patrick Dunn
• Vincent Pistelli
• Mechthild Czapp
• Brett Williams
• Alex Bicksler

and back to Pete Bleackley to complete the round.

Grammar

Morphology

• Roots are CVC and verbal in meaning
• Verbal 1st person is indicated by derivational suffix [-af] which triggers spirant lenition.

Ex. bivaf - I ask, tiɣaf - I speak, tsʼuð˜af - I die.

• Verbal 2nd person is marked by the suffix -es, which changes the stem analogue to the 1st person.

Frex: ha bives: you asked, vijes: you create (if I understood rule 1 correctly)

• Dual verbal number is indicated by the particle [i.ɔ] at the end of the clause.
• Plural verbal number is indicated by reduplicating the VC of the verbal root, copying any lenition. When [iɔ] cooccurs with this it has distributive rather than dual force.

Eg. kʼéχéχaf - we (all) come (together), kʼéχéχaf iɔ - we (all) come one at a time.

• Simple past is marked by the particle "ha" before the verb.

Ex. ha bivaf iɔ - We two asked.

• There is a different past tense for events which happened before the conscious lifetime of the speaker or in myths. This tense uses the particle "χu". It can also be used instead of "ha" to indicate that the speaker is unsure about the truth of the statement.

"χu bives" You asked (either before my lifetime or only maybe)

• A prefix [í-] derives agents (also, it seems, some experiencers/undergoers from intransitiv roots). Note this being mark'd for high tone - default tone is not indicated. This also does not trigger spirantization.

Eg. [ítig] "speaker", [ítsʼun] "mortal", [íkʼeb] "man"

• Patient nouns are formed by infixing a homoorganic nasal before the last consonant
  • bimb - question
  • boimb - attempt
  • kant - arrow
  • tiŋg - word
  • vent - sight
  • viñj - artefact
• The intensive of the verbal root is formed by suffixing -aq, which triggers gemination of the previous consonant.

Eg. [bib] "to ask" [bibbaq] "to interrogate"; [tig] "to speak" [tiggaq] "to give a speech."

• The imparativ mode is express'd by changing the person suffix' initial vowel to <e> and geminating the root-final consonant (if not geminated yet).
  • kattes - Shoot! (singular)
  • katattes - Shoot! (plural)
  • katattef - Let us shoot! (plural)
  • tiggaχes - Interrogate! (sing.) (Not *tiggaqqes nor *tigggaχes)
  • tigiggaχes - Interrogate! (plur.)
• A participle is formed from the verb by spirant lenition and appending a vowel, [-e] if the stem vowel is front and [-o] if it's not. Participles do not distinguish active from passive.
  • k'eb "be male", k'eve "male (adj.)"
  • tap "break", tafo "broken" or "which has broken s.t."
• Nominal paucal number is derived from count nouns by the suffix [-ól], for mass nouns this derivational process signifies a sufficiency of the noun.
  • bimból - a few questions
  • kantól - a few arrows
  • ventól - some sights
  • boimból - a few attempts
  • íbetsʼól - sufficient sand
• Possessive pronouns are treated as participles formed from the pronominal root.
  • gɔs - "I"
  • gɔso - "my"
  • sɛt - "you"
  • sɛse -- "your"
  • bimb gɔso "my question"

Syntax

• I thought I'd gently dip our toes in some larger structure, with conjunctions that go between phrases, for instance "vigi" meaning "because", that is that the first clause is implied, caused or

motivated by the second:

• • "tiggaχes vigi ha bivaf" -- You give a speech because I asked.
  • "ha boivaf iɔ vigi kʼeves" -- We two tried because you're a man.
  • "tsʼununnaχes iɔ vigi ha kʼéχéχes" -- You each die a terrible death because you all came.
• Word order is VSO but pronouns, if present, go before the verb. When the subject, pronouns match the number of the verb, and are correspondingly distributive or collective.
• tsai ha vet íbetsʼaqól iɔ - The two saw enough powder (flour).
• tsov gɔs vetet iɔ - Each sees me.
• Modifiers of the noun follow the noun they modify.
  • kant tafo - broken arrow

Vocab

offset entries are derivations from the root above them

Roots

bib

ask

bibbaq

to interrogate

bimb

question

boib

try

boimb

an attempt

betsʼ

be_a_grain (like sand)

betsʼaq

be_a_powder (like flour)

íbetsʼ

sand

kat

shoot

kant

arrow

kim

be female

kʼéq

come

tap

break

tig

speak

tiggaq

to give a speech

tiŋg

word

tsʼun

die

tsʼunnaq

to die a terrible, torturous death

vet

see

vent

sight

k'eb

be male

vij

create

viñj

artefact

nuk

be female

Nouns

lɛqat

goose

Pronouns

tsoi

3rd person dual

tsov

3rd person distributive plural

gɔs

1st person

sɛt

2nd person singular informal

Particles

ha

simple past

iɔ

two, dual; distributive

Conjunctions

vigi

because

tontevigi

although

vani

if

tontevani

lest