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Last time on ReConLangMo I covered word order and some of the finer points about how sentences work. This time we are covering how nouns and verbs get modified (some languages call this conjugation or declension). This is a response to this prompt.
At a high level, noun-phrases can be marked for direct ownership or number. The general pattern is like this:
<article> [pronoun] [negation] [number] <verb>
Here’s some of the pronouns:
| English | L’ewa |
|---|---|
| me, I | mi |
| My system and I | mi’a |
| you | ro |
| we (all-inclusive) | mi’o |
| your system and you | ro’a |
| This (near me) | ti |
| That (near you) | ta |
| That (far away) | tu |
Numbers are in base six. Here are a few numerals:
| Decimal | Seximal | L’ewa |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | 0 | zo |
| 1 | 1 | ja |
| 2 | 2 | he |
| 3 | 3 | xu |
| 4 | 4 | ho |
| 5 | 5 | qi |
| 6 | 10 | jazo |
| 36 | 100 | gau |
Here are few non-numerals-but-technically-still-numbers-I-guess:
| English | L’ewa |
|---|---|
| all | to |
| some | ra’o |
| number-question | so |
As L’ewa is more of a logical language, it has several forms of negation. Here are a few:
| English | L’ewa |
|---|---|
| contradiction | na |
| total scalar negation | na’o |
| particle negation | nai |
na can be placed before the sentence’s verb too:
ti na spalo
This is something other than an apple
Verbs have one form in L’ewa. Aspects like tense or the perfective aspect are marked with particles. Here’s a table of the common ones:
| English | L’ewa |
|---|---|
| past tense | qu |
| present tense | qa |
| future tense | qo |
| perfective aspect | qe |
Modality is going to be expressed with emotion words. These words have not been assigned yet, but their grammar will be a lot looser than the normal L’ewa particle grammar. They will allow any two vowels in any combination that might otherwise make them not “legal” for particles.
In case it is otherwise confusing, ko can be used to end noun phrases grammatically.
I will probably be fleshing this out some more, but for now this is how all of this works.
This article was posted on 2020 M5 15. Facts and circumstances may have changed since publication. Please contact me before jumping to conclusions if something seems wrong or unclear.
Series: reconlangmo
Tags: #conlang #lewa