Omni-kan

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Pastok
Pronounced: /pas·tok/
Timeline and Universe:
Species: Human
Spoken:
Total speakers:
Writing system:
Genealogy:
Typology
Morphology:
Morphosyntax:
Word order:
Credits
Creator: Qwynegold
Created: 2009

Pastok is an auxlang, though not one that actually strives to become an international language. It is only created for the sheer challenge of creating a conlang that could potentially be spoken by as many people as possible on Earth. For this reason the phonemic inventory is rather small, and several phonological constraints exist for ease of pronunciation. Yet homonyms are avoided at all costs. Pastok has borrowed all of its words from other languages. There are 49 languages that have been especially prioritized in word borrowing and phonology: Modern Standard Arabic, Mossi (Mòoré), Yoruba, Swahili, Armenian, Albanian, Tamil, Turkish, Kazakh, Uzbek, Mongolian, Hungarian, Finnish, Vietnamese, Indonesian/Malay, Mandarin, Burmese, Thai, Quiché (K'iche'), Quechua, (Paraguayan) Guaraní, Tok Pisin, Tashelhiyt, Hausa, Oromo, Fula, Akan (Twi dialect), Kanuri, Bambara, Telugu, (White) Hmong, Persian, Hindi/Urdu, Spanish, English, Russian, Ancient Greek, Portuguese, Bengali, French, Japanese, German, Punjabi, Javanese, Marathi, Korean, Italian, Wu (Shanghai dialect), Cantonese (Canton dialect). All major language families, and major branches of the largest families, are present among these 49 languages. At least 3,88 billion, and possibly as many 8 billion people (including second language speakers) speak these languages.

Phonology

Phoneme inventory

Pulmonic consonants
  Bilabial Labiodental Dental Alveolar Postalveolar Retroflex Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyngeal Epiglottal Glottal
Nasal /m/ <m>   /n/ <n>     [ŋ] <g>        
Plosive /p/ <p>   /t/ <t>     /k/ <k>          
Affricate         /tʃ/ <c>              
Fricative     [f] <f>     /s/ <s>                       /h/ <h>
Approximant   /ʋ/ <w>     /j/ <j>        
Trill     [r] <r>              
Tap or flap                    
Lat. fricative                    
Lat. approximant     /l/ <l>              
Lateral flap                    
Co-articulated pulmonics
  Labial-palatal Labial-velar Alveolo-palatal Palatal-velar
Fricative          
Approximant        
Vowels
  Front Near-front Central Near-back Back
Close /i/ <i>         /u/ <u>
Near-close            
Close-mid                
Mid /e/ <e>             /o/ <o>
Open-mid                    
Near-open          
Open     /a/ <a>    

The sounds of Pastok can be pronunced in several ways depending on what the speaker is capable of, but the most desirable pronunciations have been marked in the above tables. Each of these desirable sounds can be replaced by any other sound whose cell has the same color. The sounds in brackets are not quite phonemes because they are not contrastive. [ŋ] has complementary distribution with /n/, [f] with /p/, and [r] with /l/. The former ones can be replaced by the latter ones if the speaker can't pronunce any of the alternatives given in the above phoneme charts. /tʃ/ can also be realized as a retroflex or post-alveolar fricative, if it doesn't conflict with the pronunciation of /s/.

There are also six diphthongs: /ui, oi, ai/, [ei, ou, au]. The final /i/ could optionally be [j], and the /u/ could be [w]. The diphthongs can also be split up into two syllables, with an optional [ʔ] between. The au and ou are have complementary distribution with other phonemes.

Phonological constrains

The syllable structure of Pastok is (C)V(C). The onset can be any consonant except g, while the coda can be any of m, n, g, p, t, k, f, s, l. M can't appear at the end of a word though. The allowed medial clusters are:

  • mp mf
  • nt nc ns nj nw nr nl
  • gk
  • pt ps pr pl
  • ft fr fl
  • tn tw tr tl
  • kn kp kt kc ks kw kr kl
  • sn sj sw sr sl
  • lm lp lf lt lk lc ls lj lw

The sequences ji, wu, wo, and word-final e and m are unallowed.

Complimentary distribution

In the following list · stand for either syllable break or word boundary.

  • V1n - V1
  • au - o
  • ei - e
  • f - p
  • g - n
  • ou - o, u
  • r - l
  • s· - t·
  • ti - ci

Borrowing scheme

When borrowing words, the word might need to be changed to fit Pastok's phonological constrains. Generally, e is used to split up non-word final consonant clusters, while o is used at the end of words. If possible, the vowel is placed so that the consonants are still adjacent. Here some other rules, which take precedence over the above:

  • #CiV > CijV
  • #CuV > CuwV (but see wo and wu below)
  • Cː > C
  • CCiV > CCijV
  • CCuV > CCuwV (but see wo and wu below)
  • Vː > V
  • Vst > Vt
  • eu > e
  • iV > jV
  • ji > i
  • m# > mo
  • r· > l·
  • wo > o
  • wu > u

Grammars

Prepositions

Pasetok has four locational prepositions, which are often used together with location nouns.

  • Tou has the meaning that something is located somewhere, like the words in, on and at in English.
  • Ta has the meaning that something is coming from somewhere, like the word from in English.
  • Si means that something is going somewhere, like the words to and for in English.
  • Menten is used for telling what way something is going, like the words along, through and via in English.

See Location for examples of how locational relations are expressed.

Syntax

Location

Location is usually expressed by a locational preposition followed by a noun in genitive and a locational noun. The preposition tells the direction: to, from, along or not moving. The locational noun (LOC.NOUN) tells the actual place. The locational can be combined with the prefix ka-, which means that the subject has physical contact with the place. In the following list, the different ways of telling location has been likened to different noun cases.

  • Adessive - tou NOUN GEN fukan.
  • Apudessive - tou NOUN GEN wijeri.
  • Inessive - tou NOUN GEN in.
  • Intrative - tou NOUN and NOUN GEN aita.
  • Pertingent - tou NOUN GEN ka-LOC.NOUN.
  • Subessive - tou NOUN GEN alat.
  • Superessive - tou NOUN GEN (ka)-soharu.
  • Ablative - ta NOUN GEN fukan
  • Delative - ta NOUN GEN (ka)-soharu.
  • Egressive, initiative - ta NOUN (GEN LOC.NOUN).
  • Elative - ta NOUN (GEN in).
  • Allative - si NOUN GEN fukan.
  • Illative - si NOUN GEN in.
  • Terminative - si/tou NOUN (GEN LOC.NOUN).
  • Perlative (penetrating) - menten NOUN GEN aita.
  • Perlative (going through a space) - menten NOUN GEN in.
  • Prosecutive - menten NOUN GEN soharu.
  • Vialis - with NOUN GEN use.
  • Temporal (at an exact point of time) - tou TIME.NOUN (GEN in).
  • Temporal (around some time) - tou TIME.NOUN GEN fukan.
  • Temporal (sometime during a time span) - tou TIME.NOUN GEN aita.
  • Benefactive - si NOUN (GEN sake).
  • Dative, orientative - si NOUN.
  • Exessive - ta NOUN (GEN LOC.NOUN) (si NOUN (GEN LOC.NOUN))

Derivation

There are many derivational suffixes in Pasetok, used for creating new words. All derivational suffixes are actually shorter forms of other words with independent meanings. An -s- is added between a root that ends with a vowel and a suffix that begins with a vowel. If the root ends with, and the suffix begins with a consonant, an -e- is inserted between them.

Derivational suffixes
Original word Meaning Suffix Meaning/use Example
aprofa child -apro Turns a word for an animal specie into a word meaning "the infant form of that animal". hunto (dog) > huntosapro (puppy)
epitatai know -epi Used for making words with the meaning "the teaching of X". kanatlai (animal) > kanatlaisepi (zoology)
mama mother -mam Turns a word for an animal specie into a word meaning "a mother of that specie". *** (goose) > ***mam (mother Goose)
mekas big -meka Adds a meaning of "largeness". winakil (human) > winakilmeka (giant)
mikros small -mikro A diminutive suffix. winakil (human) > winakilmikro (dwarf)
ona woman -on Makes a word feminine. aprofa (child) > aprofason (girl)
otoko man -oto Makes a word masculine. aprofa (child) > aprofasoto (boy)
papa father -pap Turns a word for an animal specie into a word meaning "a father of that specie". awahahufokaho (bird) > awahahufokahopap (bird father)
sekop stick -seko Used for deriving a word for the handle of a tool. *** (broom) > ***seko (broomstick)
toktok language -tok Used for deriving names of languages from names of countries or ethnic groups. If added to a country name ending with -lanto, the -lanto is deleted. Thailanto (Thailand) > Thaitok (Thai language)
winakil human -wina Used for deriving words of mythical beasts who are half human, half animal. awahahufokaho (bird) > awahahufokahowina (birdman)
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