The Omaya Language So Far

The Omaia are a tribal people who live in the forests of the Northern Mountains which form the northern border of Virestia. They have their own language, unrelated to the High Speech or any other known languages of the former empire. Below I have copied and pasted my notes of what is known about their language so far.

Pronouns

There are two sets of pronouns in omaya.

1. Subject, object pronouns, possessives

ay I, me, my

ow you, you, your

iy, y' he, she, it; him, her, it; his, her, its

There are no plural forms. To express the plural, if necessary, the prefix h' can be attached before the second pronoun, thus: ay'h'ow 'you and I (we)', ay'h'iy 'he and I (we)' and so on. But usually omaya speakers rely solely on context for plural meaning.

2. Subject pronouns of “suffix verbs”

he I

yi you

There is no third person pronoun. Instead, the suffixes applied to these verbs would simply be applied directly to the noun or adjective desired.

Ex: alya he't I am tall.

m'owehu yi'p You're going home.

inyawu'k He has a friend.

Perfective Tense pronouns

Unlike English, or Paiodd, for that matter, the Omaya language indicates tense in subject pronouns. The perfective pronouns are as follows:

(u)w' I

ah you

(e)r he, she, it

Examples: w'ow'ayihe. I saw you.

ah'ay'ayihe. You saw me.

ateli w'ayihe. I saw the warrior.

ateli ayu r'ayihe ta. The warrior saw me.

ayu r'ayihe. He saw me.

Note that we must use the pronoun (e)r even when the subject is expressed. This is the most common way to indicate the past tense.

The other way is only possible when the direct object is a pronoun. The object pronoun is formed from the perfective pronoun in the same way that one makes object pronouns out of the regular pronouns, that is, add the suffix -u and place it in the normal direct object position.

Examples: ateli wu ayihe. The warrior saw me.

ichiwu ru alhe. The chief called him.

olwu ah wune. The wolf bit you.

Suffix Verbs

As the examples above show, there are three so-called "suffix verbs", which can attach to the special pronouns he I, and yi you, or directly to a noun that they describe, or to an adjective that describes a third person pronoun. These suffixes are:

-'t to be

-'p to go

-'k to have

Examples:

he't I am he'p I go he'k I have

yi't you are yi'p you go yi'k you have

atelu't it is a war atelu'p he goes to war atelu'k he/they has/have a war

As you can see, the third person meaning requires another word to attach to.

Syntax

The most important thing to note about omaya syntax is that many stems have a basic meaning to which any of three suffixes can be attached to indicate whether the word is to be used as a noun, verb, or adjective.

-u indicates nouns.

-e indicates verbs.

-a indicates adjectives.

Thus, we can take the stem ruy and add each of these endings to get

ruyu truth

ruye be true, act truly, tell the truth

ruya true

Here are some other examples:

atelu battle, war inyawu friend wihu fish

atele do battle, make war inyawe make friends wihe to fish

atela warlike inyawa friendly wiha fishy (fish-like)

There is one more suffix, -i which indicates that the attached stem modifies a person, group, or thing, hence it shows up often in the name of tribes, or the most common word for the omaya themselves: omayi 'the people of the mountains'

Some other examples: ateli warrior, warriors wihi fisherman, fishermen

Word Order

The basic word order in an omaya sentence is subject-object-verb. This is the order, for instance, in sentences where the subject and object are both pronouns:

ay'ow'owe I love you.

y'ay'ayihe OR iy'ay'ayihe He sees me.

ay'iy'nohe I know him.

When the direct object is a noun, however, the fact that subject pronouns must be prefixed to the verb makes this order impossible. Thus, such a sentence would be:

umyu ay'ayihe I see the woman.

olwu y'ohunye He is hunting a wolf.

inu ow'owe You love the man.

In the opposite case, where the subject is a noun and the direct object is a pronoun, we run into trouble. We can't attach the pronoun without getting it confused with the subject. That is, if we simply attached the pronoun, we wouldn't know if

olwu y'ohunye means 'He is hunting a wolf.' or 'A wolf is hunting him'! Quite a difference, as you can see!

Instead, then, we separate the pronoun from the verb and attach the noun ending -u, and we use the normal subject-object-verb order, with just one catch. See if you can spot it below.

olwu iyu ohunye ta The wolf is hunting him.

Well, the meaning is much clearer now! But there is this strange word ta at the end of the sentence, isn't there? What do we make of that?

As it turns out, omaya uses a system of particles, usually coming at the end of a clause, to tell us what kind of sentence it is. The particle ta simply tells us that this is a normal omaya sentence, with the subject first, followed by the direct object, followed by the verb. There are several more particles, each defining different kinds of sentences or clauses, but we will get to them in due time.

For now, you need to know that ta is necessary at the end of a sentence where both the subject and the direct object are full nouns (or, like in the example above, where the subject is a noun and the direct object is a pronoun).

Notice, of course, that we didn't use it in such sentences as ay'ow'ayihe 'I see you'. Can you guess why? The answer is simple: The subject ay and the direct object ow are both pronouns. The first one is the subject, the second one is the object.

Similary in the sentence olwu y'ohunye 'He is hunting a wolf', we have no need of ta, because here the subject is a pronoun.

We only need ta when:

1. both subject and direct object are nouns, or
2. when the subject is a noun and the direct object is a pronoun.

How about some more examples?

inu umyu owe ta The man loves the woman.

umyu ayu owe ta The woman loves me.

Now that you've got that under wraps, let's introduce a few more particles.

pa is one you'll see a lot. It means that the sentence is a regular omaya sentence, but it's negative. In other words, it's kind of like the word not in English, with the added stipulation that the sentence is in subject-object-verb order. Let's look at this with some of our previous examples:

inu umyu owe pa The man does not love the woman.

umyu ayu owe pa The woman doesn't love me.

Easy, right? Unfortunately, there is a catch, but it's not too hard! Take a look at the following examples:

ay'ow'ayihe pa I don't see you.

y'ay'owe pa She doesn't love me.

Unlike ta, we can use pa with sentences that have all pronouns for subject and object. This is simply because there is no other way to make the negative in omaya, at least not in main clauses. But this actually makes things easier on you, since it means there's only one word to learn: pa.

The third basic particle is ka. This also means that the sentence is normal subject-object-verb order, but with an added element. ka tells us that the very first word (or phrase!) is used adverbially. Examples, please!

im onyuhi li ayihe ka The hunter sees the elk now.

w'eyu umyu oyu ohe ka The woman is cooking food today.

owar ay'iy'owe ka I loved her once.

Notice that in the last example, ka is used with a pronominal sentence (where the subject and direct object are both pronouns).

ti is the next particle. It makes the clause before it relative to the clause before it. It's very similar to the relative pronoun that in English.

ohunyi riya'li rihe ti ay'ayihe I see that the hunters bring fine elk.

ateli iyu nore ti ichiwu sihe The chief asks that the warriors salute him.

omaya prefers to have a stated subject and object wherever possible, and although the examples just given are perfectly correct, you will often hear sentences like the following:

riya'li iy'rihe ti ohunyi ay'ayihe I see the hunters, that they bring fine elk.

y'iy'nore ti ichiwu ateli sihe The chief asks the warriors that they salute him.

The important thing in these sentences, which are the preferred versions of the examples from the previous point, is that both clauses have subject and object.

What happens, though, if you have an intransitive verb (that is, one with no direct object)? If the intransitive sentence is all there is, then it's easy: simply write the subject followed by the verb, as in:

umyu ohe The woman cooks.

idreyu liwe The children are playing.

However, if there is another clause to be added, there's a particle for that:

ay'nohe ki idreyu liwe I know that the children are playing.

ichiwu nohe ki y'ateli riy'ola't The chief knows that his warriors are the best.

pi: negative subordinate

to: object phrase marker

ko: temporal or locative marker for nouns or noun phrases (i.e. the day when, the mountain where)

po: negative object phrase marker (not the day when, not the mountain where)

tu: object changes state, possession, or ownership to modifier (-a word), in other words, marks theme/ditransitive sentences

ku: instrumental

ki: intransitive subordinate clause marker

pu: negative of either of the above

[ni: imperfective (durative, progressive)]

[ŋi: imperfective with modifier]

[mi: negative imperfective]

[no: interrogative]

[ŋo: interrogative with modifier]

[mo: negative interrogative]

[ne: imperative]

[ŋe: imperative with modifier]

[me: negative imperative]

Note: The particles in brackets are not established yet, merely the result of some brainstorming. I considered a corresponding set of particles to indicate the perfective tense (na, ŋa, ma) but decided on pronouns instead, so many of these are likely to change as well.

You can find the dictionary of approximately 250 words so far here:
http://cd.langwiki.info/search/OM

The Making of a Conlang

I thought I would take this week's blog entry to unravel some of the thought processes that went into the creation of Paiodd, or as much as I can remember, since I've been working on this language for at least 15 years. Still, I am certainly still aware of a lot of the influences and events that went into creating my own language. I'll start by sharing the original motivation, and some of my early exposures to linguistics and other factors that made me want to create my own language. Depending on how long this ends up being, I may break it up into parts. For now, on with the show!

The First Cause

In reality, it may be more complex than this, because many things were happening at the same time. Nonetheless, one of the primary motivating factors in my conlanging was my first exposure to C. S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia. We read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe in fifth grade, and, not content with that, I went to the local library and checked out the other six, one-by-one, until I had read them all. Having always been an avid reader, and interested in writing as well, I decided I wanted to write my own fantasy series. It was then that The Chronicles of Virestia and Holas were born. Originally a simple revenge story, of a boy from a tribal, Native-American-like people of the mountains, that has morphed into just a small part of a much larger story, in a world with a fairly complete history and mythology all its own. The first version may still survive in a notebook somewhere, written in faded pencil, and all of 20-something pages long.

After completing the Narnia series, my mom suggested I read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. I did so, and LOTR quickly became my favorite story of all time, as it is to this day. Of course, learning that J. R. R. Tolkien had invented his own language for his stories, I felt it was only right that I do the same for Virestia.

The Space Between Letters

Another important influence on my conlanging results from growing up in a christian family. Around the same time, or shortly thereafter, I was visiting my grandparents. They had a small wooden plaque which simply had the name of Jesus printed on it. However, the letters were printed in such a way that there were many interesting shapes between them, which seemed to compose the name. I thought it would be interesting to make an entire script based on the space between letters formed by combining them. This actually resulted in one of my first conscripts, which still survives, and I should probably post it here at some point. It's hard to say whether this was the first inkling of creating my own language, or if it was my desire to write a fantasy novel, or that first exposure to Latin.

Word Order is not the Only Way

Another milestone event happening somewhere around this time to influence my conlanging was my first exposure to Latin. It happened on another family visit, to a great aunt, the sister of the grandmother who had the Jesus plaque. Aunt Jeanette's house had a living room with a fairly large bookcase built into the wall, filled with all of these wonderful old books! Drawn to this bookcase, I pulled out Harkness's Easy Latin Method, and began to read the first several Lessons. I was absolutely enthralled to realize that Latin did with suffixes what English does with word order, particularly denoting subjects and direct objects. I began to wonder what other ways there might be to express these relationships and others.

It was when I got home from that visit that I first remember making genuine attempts to create my own languages. Fascinated by the idea of case, and potential other ways to express it, I came up with three different languages that had as many cases for as many functions as I could think of. Naturally enough, I also began reading up on case systems, and realizing how widespread it actually is, even in modern languages like German and Russian, I decided case wasn't exotic enough for me. I wanted something more, a way to express the relationships between words that was not case, exactly, but would be able to cover the important uses of case.

The first thing I tried was to have an article that inflected for case, rather than endings on the nouns themselves, but that wasn't satisfactory, either. I needed something still more exotic. Eventually, this resulted in the idea of the dual-inflection system that Paiodd has today, where nouns inflect to show whether they are related to verbs or to other nouns, with invariable suffixes to indicate more precisely how they are related. The actual form of this inflection, as well as that of verbs, is a result of the next influence I will discuss.

Making the Irregular, Regular

I had always been mystified and fascinated by the weird way irregular verbs like run had past tenses with internal vowel changes, eg. ran. So it was only natural that I would think to make these irregular forms the regular way to inflect verbs for different tenses. With this kind of vowel-alternation in place for the verbs, it seemed natural enough to extend it to nouns as well, and thus the vowel-change to indicate verbal or nominal inflection was born.

Just Add 'H'

Of course, there is another aspect of the verbal and nominal inflection in nouns besides the vowel-change in the stem. Final consonants change as well. I don't remember exactly the order of events in this case, but I had some awareness already that /b/, /p/, /v/, and /f/ were related, as were the alveolar stops and fricatives, and the velars (though I didn't know those terms at all; that wouldn't come until graduate school). And of course, English had the orthographic 'th', 'sh', 'ch', and more rarely 'ph'. In the original conscript that I intended for use with Paiodd - which didn't have a name for a long time, until I decided to name it for my middle name, calling it Kirkian - there were only independent letters for the voiceless stops. I decided the plural morpheme would be the letter for 'h' and the resulting sound would be what I later learned were called fricatives.

Double the Fun!

Similarly, the double consonants at the end of most nouns were originally because writing a consonant doubled turned voiceless consonants into voiced ones. This terminology I did know at the time, somehow, because the logic for double consonants being voiced was that, to my linguistically ignorant mind, 'voiced' meant that voicing had been added to the sound, therefore the voiced sounds were stronger. Of course I now know that, linguistically speaking, it is actually the opposite, and voiceless sounds are considered 'strong' because they impede the flow of air much more strongly than voiced sounds!

Adjectives? Adverbs? Who Needs 'Em!

Once I had established the verbal nominal inflection system, it soon became clear that an unintended consequence of this was the utter lack of need for separate word classes of adjectives and adverbs. After all, why do you need a separate part of speech for a word meaning 'big' when you can simply take the word for 'size' in nominal inflection (showing that it is related to a noun, not a verb) and add the suffix meaning 'with', or 'of', or even '-y', giving a word meaning '(a noun) with size' or 'of size' or 'size-y'. Perhaps a better way to think of it is 'sizeable', such that just like in English, saying 'a sizeable income' means a big one, a lot. habb 'size' becomes hapía 'with size, of size, sizeable, big'

Likewise, if there is a noun meaning 'quiet', if we put it in the verbal inflection and add the same suffix meaning 'with' or 'of', we would get '(an action) with quiet' or 'of quiet', or in other words, 'quietly'. Thus, Paiodd adjectives and adverbs are really just nouns in nominal or verbal inflection, respectively. The same process results in a natural form of compounding words. If we want a noun, for example, we can take the main noun (the 'head') and attach to it a nominally-inflected noun. If we want a verb, we can take the verb and attach a noun in verbal inflection. The word for 'to sleep', among many others, is formed this way, literally meaning 'to take sleep', with the verbal-inflection form of the noun 'sleep' followed by the verb 'to take'. ashedd 'sleep' attached to mré 'to take' becomes ashidmré 'to sleep'.

Word Order

One final interesting aspect of Paiodd is the word order. It is most usually OSV (that is, the direct object comes first, the subject next, and the verb next), another result of some linguistic ignorance on my part. To 15-year-old me, the relationship between subject and verb seemed extremely important, much more so than the relationship between the verb and objects that may or may not even be there. Thus, I decided that the subject would always be directly adjacent to its verb in Paiodd. Now, of course, I understand the concept of a predicate much better, and if I were creating Paiodd for the first time today, I probably would not make it OSV. Unless, of course, I liked it because of its exotic quality, which would be more likely. I now know, fifteen years and an MA later, that OSV languages do exist, although they are rare - which is why Yoda-speak sounds so alien to us, even though we can usually figure out what it means. 'Long have I watched this one.'

That's All, Folks!

I hope you've enjoyed this peak into the mind of a conlanger, albeit a rather immature, ignorant one when I started the process fifteen years ago or more. A huge motivation in my continued work with this conlang, and others is the desire to find more exotic or even completely innovative ways of expressing the relationships between words. A more recent idea, for instance, has been to have some sort of particle, either at the beginning or end of a sentence, that tells you what word is what, subject, object, verb, or other. I've tried to work this into the language of the Native-American-like people among whom my fantasy-novel's hero, Holas, was raised, and I've also considered using it in a language I've started in honor of my wife. These may never be as fully developed as Paiodd, but just experimenting with ideas like this one is its own reward, and most exciting of all to me is when a language I've created begins to take on a life of its own, such as doing away completely with adjectives and adverbs, something I never intended, but was a natural consequence of the structure of the language in other areas.

Canjom Virestia

This is the Canjom Virestía, The History of Virestia, in Paiodd script, transliteration, and English. I wrote most of it quite a long time ago, but this version was rewritten from scratch, and I tried not to refer to the original English too much. It was actually quite fun, since it showed me how much of Paiodd I remember, and was mostly a composition in Paiodd instead of a simple translation. Here is the link:
https://acrobat.com/#d=PLqpMZFp9DzdEVzxx510lQ

Should you need a refresher on Paiodd script, the link is here: https://acrobat.com/#d=CLHyICY0gGudMOp-ZaIC*g

And finally, if you want to try looking up the words, check out my dictionary at Conlanger's Dictionary: http://cd.langwiki.info/search.php?l=PO