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Introduction - basic characteristics
Daman Diwan (earlier Dama Diwan, abbreviated as Daman) is a language created wholly by means of sortition operated through randomness (almost exclusively electronic true randomness). The process of randomness ensures the language’s neutrality towards all other natural or constructed languages and towards all human groups or individuals.

Its most preferred word order is OSV (object - subject - verb), secondly SVO, while other word orders are also possible. Not stating the verb subject (a feature called “subject-drop”) is applied freely and very extensively, while other arguments of a sentence can be omitted too as long as the user’s message can be understood.

It is a left-branching (head-final) language, using postpositions rather than prepositions and suffixes rather than prefixes, although there are ways to occasionally use prepositions if so desired and the extended mode of Daman (see below) can make use of prefixes, even infixed vowels too.

The syntactic alignment is basically "nominative - accusative": this means that a nominative (ending in -O) can be either the subject of a predicate (in a relatively passive sense) or of an active verb (ending in -E). For example, BARO WUBO = "the metallic object (is itself) bent" versus BARO WUBE "the metallic object bends (something else)"; TANO BUKO "the machine (e.g. computer) is asleep" versus TANO BUKE "the machine causes sleep (e.g. by its monotonous noise)". However, it is possible to use variations of alignment, either by marking the subject by auxiliary verbs (e.g. BE "doing", NE "creating", SE "having" etc.) or by using different patterns which may employ no verb at all, e.g. O WO KUNO BUNO RASA A MA WUNO "a supplication from us the distressed to you" (which is roughly equal to "we humbly beg you").

There are various kinds of copulas, but mostly the zero copula is used.

The vocabulary that learners need to memorize consists of 258 short stems (with 4 particles added to the extended Daman mode). Each stem of the type C- or CVC- can be suffixed so as to become a noun, a verb, and an adverbial word. This vocabulary cannot be extended as all permissible combinations of the phonemes are already used.

The most prominent characteristics of Daman are the quest for simplicity combined with functionality, logic, sound aesthetic, and neutrality ensured by the random function by which the language was made including the grammar and syntax. Daman minimizes the need for memorization while it increases the need for logic and creativity; it encourages metaphorical usage, but prohibits idioms unless they are explained in the text.

Its main purpose is easy international communication, but all other purposes a language can serve are included, as intellectual exercise, artistic creation, cryptography, entertainment, and divination. Many random texts have been received, especially by electronic means, and they make sense as oracular phrases, some of them quite impressive because of explicitness and succinctness. Such phrases taken at random are a useful exercise and a motive to learn Daman Diwan, as there is always some (at least notional) person that speaks to the user of Daman Diwan, and that can be done by taking at random from the 34 syllabic elements which alone make the whole Daman Diwan language. Because all combinations of the 34 syllabic elements are actual words of Daman, it is the only language where any random series from 34 syllabic elements is meaningful words in grammatically meaningful sentences.

Phonology, reading and writing
Reading Daman Diwan is easy; publicly written with up to 16 letters of the Latin alphabet, all letters are used as in the IPA or nearly so; the only thing that sometimes confuses the beginners is the letter J, which is used in various different ways in modern natural languages.

Consonant phonemes are nine:

j w b r m s n k t

and vowel phonemes are three:

a i u.

(This order, obtained by random, has an esoteric meaning, explained in this page). The phonemes are not presented in a chart because the letters are easily understood, as used in IPA, and because there is no exact position of the phonemes in a chart, as, for example, "t" can be interdental or alveolar or retroflex, "k" can be uvular, velar or palatal, and similarly variable are the other phonemes.

These 12 phonemes can have many allophones, but it is suggested to avoid /p/ and especially /l/ if possible, in order to conserve the acoustic character of Daman Diwan.

In the standardized version, closer vowels (i, u) are preferred for the stems and opener vowels (e, o) for the suffixes; if practicable, a closer “a” (e.g. /ǝ/ or /ɐ/ still written “a”) may be used for the first (penultima) syllable and /ä/ for the second (ultima) syllable; “k” should be non-aspirated and unvoiced, “t” aspirated unvoiced, and “b” not aspirated but voiced. Another feature of the standardized version is that all disyllabic words are stressed on the first syllable (penultima); monosyllabic words, if semantically joined to the previous disyllabic word, are not stressed at all but pronounced joined to the previous disyllabic; otherwise monosyllabic words are stressed on their only syllable and in such a case each monosyllabic takes as much duration in speech as one disyllabic.

While the ultima syllable must always be distinguished from the penultima by some means (e.g. stress, tone, length, openness of vowel) it is important to note, however, that the standardized version is not obligatory for any user, and hitherto nobody seems to follow it exactly; it is necessary, though, to have this standardized version for various reasons, e.g. if a software is made to read Daman texts aloud, it should follow the standardized version. Also, people who wish to learn or familiarize with the language, want to see a standardized, although theoretical, version of it.

The letters “g” and “d” can also be used in place of “k” and “t” respectively (in actual practice that is only done very rarely, e.g. writing SIGO to avoid the resemblance to Turkish “sik” that can sound obscene).

Given the simplicity of phonology, Daman Diwan can be written with any writing system that has at least 10 distinct symbols. There is actually a system of writing Daman Diwan with the ten numerical digits; also a version of Braille that uses only 10 or 11 symbols (of 4 dot positions all in a single column) has been devised.

Moreover there are two systems of writing Daman Diwan by using sets of 10 symbols being elemental lines (first system) or elemental shapes (second system). These two systems combine their elements so as to form sketches suggestive of the meaning of each word, while the same elements render the phonemes of the word. Therefore, these two systems are helpful for memorizing the vocabulary.

Other sets of 10 symbols being body parts sketches or architectural parts sketches or simply invented elements have been devised, but not been used so far.

Proper names are written as in the language they come from (or the respective romanised form), and pronounced as close to the original as possible.

Vocabulary
All morphemes of Daman Diwan are produced from the 12 roots (“TIRA RASO”) which coincide with the 12 phonemes (“KUMO JURO”):


 * The 9 consonants combined with the 3 vowels form 27 syllables which can be further extended by another consonant to form the 243 biconsonantal roots; these 243 roots can also be conceived as 81 pairs of consonants, each pair containing one of the 3 vowels which modify the basic meaning of the consonant pair.
 * The single consonants are the most common morphemes, along with the single vowels being the pronouns (which cannot be affixed).
 * The single vowels joined with the final nasal form the 3 particles.
 * At the end of consonantal morphemes the vowels work as suffixes.

This application of the 12 phonemes/roots gives the total of morphemes (“TIRA JURO”) as follows:

(with V for vowel and C for consonant):


 * 1) V - these are the 3 pronouns (O : first person, A : second person, I : third person).
 * 2) VN - these are the 3 connecting and logical particles (UN : negation, AN : becoming, IN : position).
 * 3) C- the 9 consonants form the monosyllabic words, with very useful auxiliary meanings, performing grammatical functions of other languages.
 * 4) CVC- these 243 form the vast majority of Daman vocabulary.
 * 5) The 3 vowel phonemes are used as suffixes (only on C- and CVC- stems) to designate the part of speech of words.
 * 6) A final nasal (ideally /ŋ/ if possible to the speaker), written N (n) can be added after the vowel suffixes for functions that will be described.

Parts of speech of the CV and CVCV words:
The parts of speech refer to the elements of time, space, and causality.


 * Nominal words (things realized by space) end in –O
 * Verbs/participles (realized by time) end in –E
 * Adverbial words (realized by causality) end in –A.

All words (whether ending in -O, -E, or -A) can be used as adjectives/modifiers when placed before a noun, but especially the adverbials (-A) before nouns correspond to what is commonly known as “adjectives derived from nouns”.

(Pairs of suffixes in extended Daman create more parts of speech, e.g. E+A contracted to -JA is the "way of a verb", e.g. WUMJA "by means of causing change", while WUME = causing change; SUB-A-O, contracted to SUBAW means "a nominal word (-O) with the property (-A) of SUB- (house, home), e.g. homemade, homely, pertaining to a house; in actuale practice, however, paired suffixes have never been used, all features of extended Daman being only marginally used until now).

An example of the root MIM- with all vowel classifiers and possible meanings:

MIMO
fire-O

fire

e.g. MIMO KAJE SARO (fire leaving dust) “the fire left ashes” or “the ashes that the fire left”.

(note: -O denotes the subject of verb when it goes directly before the verb or when other words are between subject (-O) and verb (-E) but the subject (-O) is not joined to those other words.

Also, as zero copula or another copula is used, every nominal word (-O) can have the meaning of a passive verb: BIWO MIMO “coal fire” =the (char)coal is burnt; BIWO IN MIMO “coal position fire” =the (char)coal is being burnt; BIWO AN MIMO “coal becoming fire” =the (char)coal caught fire.

MIME
fire-E

burn, cook, set fire to

e.g. MUTO MIME NIMO (woman fire-E flesh) “the woman is cooking the meat” (not "burning the meat", because that would mean turning it to carbon, for which action the proper verb in Daman is BIWE, as BIWO is "carbon, coal, charcoal, soot").

(Note: tense, aspect and mood can be indicated by additional auxiliary words, like MA “going to”, SA “having, already”, SUNA “in the past”, KA “aiming to” etc. Tense and aspect are usually left to be understood from the context, so Daman Diwan is a tenseless language; mood of the verb can also be left unmarked, but it is usually indicated by various postpositions).

All verbs are active in Daman Diwan, but in the “JARO” mode (see below) it is possible to make passive verbs with the prefix E- and reflexive verbs with the prefix A-. However, even in the extended (“JARO”) mode, the prefix E- is hardly ever used on verbs, because there are easier ways to express the meaning of passive voice. The easiest way is probably to use -ON (marking the object before the verb) instead of -O (marking the subject): NIMON MIME (flesh-O-N fire-E; subject not stated) “the meat is cooked” (literally: somebody fires the meat).

Verbs are identical to participles; before a nominal word (-O) they are participles; following a nominal word, they are verbs: SUKO BAME = the mouse is eating; BAME SUKO = the mouse which is eating. In the paradigm -O -E -O (JAKO BAME SUKO “cat eating mouse”) JAKO+BAME is modifying SUKO, so the meaning is “what the cat is eating, is a mouse” or “the mouse that the cat is eating” or “the mouse (is) eaten by the cat”, therefore “the cat is eating the mouse).

In the paradigm SUKON BAME JAKO “mouse-O-N eating cat”, SUKON+BAME modifies JAKO, so the meaning is again that the mouse is eaten by the cat, given that -O-N indicated the object before the verb, see below).

MIMA
fire-A

(before a verb): using fire / hotly / as a fire would do:

e.g. I, MIMA JIRE RABO (that, fire-A hard-E wood-O) “by means of fire they hardened the wooden piece”.

(before a noun): having fire, hot, glowing, flame-like:

e.g. I WIME MIMA BIWO (that feet-E fire-A charcoal-O) “they walk on the hot charcoals”.

Note: extended (JARO) Daman Diwan can also make use of prefixes, infixed vowels, couples of suffixes, and absence of vowel (absence of vowel is considered to be the vowel “A” missing), all for the purpose of derivation. The word stems are the same as in ordinary Daman Diwan, but the extended usage can also include another 4 particles: AJ, AW, AJN, AWN.

Modes of using (derivation and syntax)
There are 3 modes of using Daman Diwan;


 * the main mode is called JURO, a word which can be translated as “element; individual; individual character; individual personality; distinct item; unit of measurement; essence; original essence; basic”, so “Daman Diwan KIWO JURO” is the basic Daman Diwan: it uses no other affix or modification except the three suffixes -O (for nominals) -A (for adverbials) -E (for active verbs), all three can be extended by -N which indicates the direction of dependency as will be detailed.
 * The other modes are: JIRO (which uses no final -N except for the unchangeable particles AN, IN, UN); JIRO means “hard / tough / inflexible”, although it still has some flexibility of syntax which is absent in English and other languages, however the absence of -N makes it less flexible than basic Daman; and
 * JARO which means “stretched out, elastic”, because it can produce derived words by means of forming a kind of diphthongs, infixes, prefixes, and even allowing consonants not followed by vowels (unless possibly the epenthetic vowel of Daman, pronounced with clenched teeth).

These three modes are not separate: the “JIRO” and the “JARO” modes can freely mingle into basic Daman, although in practice basic Daman is mostly used alone.

Relationship of direct object to verb
Daman recognises 3 main types of object:


 * the created object (NO NE I) expressed in “JIRO” Daman by the postposition NA;
 * the modified object (NO BE I) expressed in “JIRO” Daman by the postposition BA;
 * the receiving object (NO ME I) expressed in “JIRO” Daman by the postposition MA;

For example, the object WUSO (fiber, yarn, thread, rope) will be used:

WUSO-NA I BAJE means “s/he skillfully makes yarn” (here the yarn is created);

WUSO-BA I JARE means “s/he stretches out the cord” (here something is done to the cord);

WUSO-MA I WIWE means “s/he wets the thread” (here the thread receives water);

However, the main device to denote the direct object (in ordinary Daman, which is the mode used almost always until now) is the -N placed in between the direct object and the verb; this -N is normally joined to, and written together with, the previous word. In simple sentences of the type SVO, when all the three arguments (subject, verb, object) are present, the -N is not necessary (but still possible). In constructions like TIK-O-N WIWE (plant-O-N watering), “watering the plants”, the resulting ending -ON is reminiscent of the accusative marker -on in Esperanto, however it is different, because Daman Diwan syntax can express the same as WIW-E-N TIKO (water-E-N plant) as well as e.g. TO WIWE TIKO (person watering plant) “that person, or somebody, water(s) the plants”; also, the Daman ending -ON is only formed on the head noun and not on its modifiers, e.g. BUBO TIK-O-N WIWE (young plant-O-N watering): -N only marks the head noun TIKO (plant) and not the modifying nominal word BUBO “young, new” (whereas Esperanto would mark as accusative both the noun and all the words that modify it, whether before or after the verb).

So, when the verb object is denoted by the -N or merely by the SVO construction, the exact relationship of the object to the verb depends upon the pragmatic meaning of the words, and, especially, upon the type of the verb: it has been observed that all Daman stems of the CVC (consonant - vowel - consonant) type fall into three categories according to the stem vowel:

cUcO (stem vowel U) are things that cause or create, and they are characterised by what they do (words for sensory organs like RUSO “eyes”, TUKO “ears”, JUTO “skin” fall in this category, and they mean not only the sensory organs but the corresponding sense as well, because the important thing with the cUcO nouns is what they do);

cIcO (stem vowel I) are things created or caused by something else; the cIcO are abstract nouns when on their own, and they work as adjectives for concrete things when they modify nouns, e.g. KIBO is length, but KIBO SASO is a long stick; TISO is life, but TISO BASO is a live fish.

cAcO are things described by mode of usage or some other adverbial concept (e.g. words for placement, like JAMO “hind”, RAMO “interior”, JAWO “surrounding”, NAMO “middle” etc.  are mostly of this category).

This distinction of stems according to their inherent vowel affects their derivatives too, first of all the verbs, so:


 * cUcE verbs mean “to give the property of the corresponding cUcO noun (to the object)” therefore “to turn something into the cUcO noun”, e.g. RUSE means to “turn somebody into an eye”, that is “to give the property of seeing”, in other words, to make somebody see, to show. So, RUSEN MUWO (eye-E-N child) means “to make the child see; to show to the child”.
 * cIcE verbs mean “to give the corresponding cIcO noun itself (to the object)”, e.g., from TISO “life”, TISEN RABO (life-E-N tree) means to enliven the tree (the subject can be the good weather etc., but it is not necessary to state the subject in Daman Diwan).
 * cAcE verbs mean “to give the use of the corresponding cAcO noun (to the object)” therefore: to use as; to use by making/doing or make/do by using” (“JINE IN BE, BE IN JINE”). These verbs have quite often a metaphorical sense, e.g. from KANO “arm, hand” the verb KANE means “using as one’s own hand”, that is “employing”: so, KANEN JIKO (hand-E-N multitude) “employing a multitude (of people)”. The cAc- stems with a positional meaning show the object as occupying (“using”) the corresponding position, e.g. RAMO=inside, RAME=entering; JAWO=around, JAWE=being/going around, surrounding: WIWO JAWEN TIWO (water around-E-N land) “water surrounds the land”.

In some cases, the nature of the noun necessitates the cAcE verb to mean “turn something into”; e.g. if we say SAREN TUSO (powder-E-N seed), to give the use of powder to seed, it is necessary to turn the seed into powder, i.e. pulverize, make flour; because we cannot use the grains as powder if we do not turn the grains to powder.

The -N on adverbials (-A-N)
As the final nasal (-N) does not change the part of speech but only the direction of grammatical government, words suffixed with -AN are adverbials like those ending with -A, but while the -A adverbs show where something goes (in terms of space, time, or status), the -AN adverbs show where something starts. Because adverbial concepts are expressed in natural languages by means of cases, the -A and -AN adverbs work very much like cases; -A is similar to ancient Greek dative (also with comitative, instrumental and locative functions), but Daman -A primarily has an instrumental/comitative meaning (translated as “with”); -AN is similar to ancient Greek genitive (also with ablative function), but in Daman Diwan -AN is more for an ablative meaning rather than for genitive.

Postpositions
Every Daman Diwan adverb in -A can be used as a postposition, and every postposition functions as a grammatical case, so, in theory, Daman Diwan has potentially 252 cases. The theory of using adverbs as postpositions is that in the paradigm x-O y-A (TAMO RASA) the words are taken as “(with) x being y”, e.g. TAMO RASA = “with the sky being the origin/start” = the sky being the origin/start = from the sky. So RASA, one of the commonest disyllabic postpositions, means “from”. The most common postpositions are the monosyllabic adverbs: JA, WA, BA, RA, MA, SA, NA, KA, TA, and of these the commonest is MA “toward, to”: as MO means direction, using SUBO (house) for an example, SUBO MA = “the house being the direction” = to the house. The second commonest postposition is SA “with” (as SO is something owned or present somewhere, JIMO SA means “salt being owned/present” = “with salt”. An interesting postposition that is absent in most natural languages is TIBA: as TIBO is service or the object of service, TIKO TIBA = “plant(s) being served”, so we can say “TIKO TIBA TIWON WIWE” = “the plants being served, the earth is watered” = they water the land for the sake of the plants.

It is possible also to use the adverb as preposition with the ending -AN; such a usage can be seen in the proverb NANO RUSO, MAN NUMO KUSO “the disabled eye, to the best piece” (instead of the usual syntax NANO RUSO, (IN) NUMO KUSO MA; the proverb applies when the least qualified person aspires for the most desirable thing). It is strongly recommended to avoid such a usage, because it can cause confusion, and, although accepted as marginal, it is apparently against the left-branching principle of the language.

However, the connecting particle IN can work like a preposition, but much broader than English “in”. In Daman, what is before IN is found after it, whether in terms of time, or space, or status; it can also connect parts of reasoning, e.g. I NABEN A, IN SAKEN A = “she loves you, because (she) knows you”.

Arrangement of the 34 syllabic elements
The 34 syllabic elements of which the whole Daman language consists, are:

1. a, 2. an, 3. nu, 4. wu, 5. si, 6. sa, 7. ju, 8. ma, 9. un, 10. ki, 11. ru, 12. ni, 13. bi, 14. na, 15. mu, 16. mi, 17. ri, 18. su, 19. n, 20. ra, 21. ti, 22. ja, 23. u, 24. ku, 25. i, 26. ka, 27. ji, 28. wa, 29. in, 30. ba, 31. ta, 32. tu, 33. wi, 34. bu.

This order has been obtained in the year 2016 by randomizing the 34 elements using electronic true randomness; the purpose of this ordering was to assign a number to each syllabic element so as to be able to get random texts by electronic means, i.e. by taking a series of numbers and “translating” it to a series of syllabic elements. Much later, perhaps one year after assigning the numbers to the syllabic elements, a question arose whether the 34 elements themselves in this order could make sense as a text; the resulting text is: “A AN NUWO SISA JUMA UN KIRO NIBE NAMO MIRE SON RATE JA O KO I KAJE WA IN BATA TUWE BO”; it is uncanny and inexhaustible in meaning, as some new idea can always be discovered from this short text, but the most important points are probably these:

A AN NUWO SISA JUMA =you get densely into an indistinct smell; JUMA “densely” can also imply “in difficulty”, or “frequently”; (then) UN KIRO NIBE NAMO MIRE SON =you do not by yourself find the middle which divides the available means, or rather, the middle which cuts the whole material existence into two equal parts being the yin and yang; SON RATE JA O =I am able to break (i.e. divide not into equal parts but just as i like) those available means or rather the whole material existence; O KO =I am the aim (of life; of all beings); ''O KO I =I am the aim (of life; of all beings) but also I am the other one, the “enemy”! (because everything is a part of me);'' I KAJE WA =by means of / for those that the other one (the “enemy”) releases, IN BATA TUWE BO =I am (occupied) in the activity of making permanent (those released by the “enemy”) BATA =in nature / by natural means / by means of the natural laws.

This poem uses the 34 syllabic elements of Daman only once each; it is analogous to the Japanese “iroha uta” (the poem that uses all the Japanese kana once each).

As the natural numbers up to 34 are named by a syllable each, this also makes one of the systems for naming the numbers; higher than 34 can be expressed by means of number powers (exponentiation).

Name and flag of the language
The language was first named Dama Diwan, Dama natively meaning TAMA (i.e. pertaining to the sky, heavenly) and Diwan being a spelling of TIWAN (“of the earth”). TAMA refers to the origin of the language which has been divination by means of random which came from atmospheric noise being electromagnetic activity in the sky, so the name TAMA is fully justified; TIWAN refers to the convincement that it is a language ideal for international use (namely “of the whole earth”), and also that all the morphemes of Daman Diwan exist in the natural languages of the world, either in a very similar form or a distorted one, both in ancient languages and in modern ones; one example is Daman SASO “a stick; rod; pole; any long, typically straight and hard thing”, the same root can be found in modern “shashlik”, Russian шашлык (šašlýk), from Old Turkic sış "a stick with a pointed end"; Sum. "si" (elephant's tusk) and “se” (animals' horn) are probably from the same root; as well as Japanese 刺す sas- "using a pointed stick", cognate to “sashi” (bones, hence “sashi-mi”, literally “bone fish”, and “gyu-sashi”, literally “ox-bones”); hundreds of such examples show that all the roots of Daman Diwan exist in modern languages, and even more so in ancient ones, although, it should be noted again, all roots and rules of Daman Diwan were established by means of true randomness.

About the year 2019, the name was modified to Daman Diwan, according to a numerological theory that the couple of numbers 5-5 (letters in “Daman Diwan”) is even more auspicious than the couple 4-5 (letters in “Dama Diwan”). The name Dama Diwan is still in use along with “Daman Diwan”, abbreviated into “Dama” and “Daman” respectively, rarely also as “DDL” (L standing for Language) or merely “DD”.

The flag is a simplistic combination of the two “D” into a circle (alluding to the earth’s globe), half of the circle being colored light blue (alluding to the sky above) and the other half yellow (alluding to the earth below). The circle was drawn on paper using a spool of transparent sticky tape, and the words Dama(n) Diwan were written around by hand on the paper - not only because of the enthusiasm to prepare the language quickly for presentation (saving the time to digitize the design with a computer) but also with a hint to the idea that the human factor should have dominance over modern technology and not reversely. The  “a” of the second syllable in both the words Dama(n) and Diwan was left white inside, giving a subtle impression of an eye (sight; idea) in the sky connected to an eye (transfer of idea) on earth, so visualizing the process of “downloading” the language from the sky by means of true randomness operated by measuring the atmospheric noise.

Current status
The main random function that formed Daman Diwan was operated on the 1st of January 2015, and the language was presented on the internet (Facebook groups, forums and sites related to constructed languages) first before the middle of the same month (January 2015).

Since that time, the language has been presented in many discussions on Facebook, and forums, and on some sites related to constructed languages, despite the debate about the classification as a constructed language (see section below). The language has won numerous opposers and supporters. It was presented at an interview in the electronic magazine “Conlangs Monthly” (which is no more edited) and in the LILA conference held in Istanbul, July 2016.

There is a wealth of texts on various subjects, both translated from other languages and originally in Daman, as well as materials for learning the language, via other languages (mostly English, but also Russian, Greek, and Marathi) and through pictures without a medium language. There is an effort to collect all or most materials in a hub web page called NAMO TUTO (literally “centre sheet”), especially in Google documents format so the texts can instantly be enriched and improved or corrected if any need arises. While the NAMO TUTO is publicly available at the Academia.edu site, there is a closed Facebook group named “Dama Diwan kiwo jeno” (literally “Dama Diwan speech use/way”) intended as the central venue to discuss about the language, to collect learning materials and texts, and occasionally to compare other languages to Daman Diwan. Another Facebook group named “Oligosynthetic Conlangs” contains mostly material related to Daman Diwan, but that group is hardly active. There is also a Facebook page by name “Daman Diwan kiwo jino” (a more standardized wording of “Dama Diwan kiwo jeno”) and another page by name “Dama diwan buta kiwo” (BUTA KIWO meaning literally “openly speech”). The main Facebook group currently has 193 members (May 2020), many of them not friends of the main promoters, while some close friends of them have rejected membership. Although Daman Diwan appears very easy, it has been reportedly difficult for some users, because simplicity is not the same as easilness: what makes a language easy is the similarity to a person's first language; then, the facts that Daman favors no other language (consequently national or social group) and it is not (yet) endorsed by any level of government or favored by any authority have made only a few people actually learn the full language. The exact number of users is unknown, as it is possible that some people may not want to appear that they know (therefore support) the language, e.g. they may be using the language only to secretly read Daman Diwan texts which are confidential, not much publicized and not translated in any language. However, judging from discussion on the internet, there are about five people who currently can use the language without or with very little support from a dictionary, while a few more had shown enthusiasm and learnt (at least some of) the language in the near past but do not seem to support the language now.

The debate whether “natural” or “artificial”
The claim that Daman Diwan language was not made by a person or group of persons has, expectedly, given rise to a debate on the internet whether this language should rightfully be called “a constructed language” or “artificial language” or something else. The separating line between a “natural” and a “constructed” language is not always clear, as there are languages strongly modified, regulated, or established by groups of people and yet used by whole populations; modern Hebrew is an outstanding example: it is debated whether it should be considered a natural or artificial language; Modern Standard Arabic is similar: it is based on Quranic Arabic (with some modification of pronunciation and enriched vocabulary for modern era terms), which is not a live language today, yet it is used for all communication needs between people speaking different versions of Arabic. Standard Modern Greek too is not so natural as people may think: it has been strongly modified by Katharevousa (a puristic form of Greek imitating as much as possible ancient Greek while using the very different modern Greek pronunciation, especially of vowels), and Katharevousa is surely a language constructed by literate people although itself influenced to various degrees by the contemporary Greek spoken language. Actually, all official languages today are regulated by certain regulating bodies, and this is an artificial element.

Of course, Daman Diwan language would not exist on earth (so it would not be “TIWAN”) if there were no physical person to bring it to the world, and this is the reasoning to classify Daman Diwan as an artificial language. On the other side, Ioannis Kenanidis (informally Giannhs Kenanidhs), the first promoter of Daman Diwan, denies the authorship of it on the following arguments (presented in the Facebook page and the Facebook group for Daman Diwan and elsewhere on the internet):

''“In Chinese “artificial” is 人工, literally “human work” or “made by a person/people”, which is exactly the case of all languages considered natural: they were made by people, regulated by an elite, and in many cases enforced by a small number of people over large populations: e.g., all Romance Languages spoken today all over the world came from the language of only one city: Rome; natural is 天然 (“sky-so”, being so as made by the sky) or 自然 (“self-so”, being so by themselves); Daman Diwan is 自然 “so by itself”, because it was made by random, and random is so by itself, and even more it deserves the term 天然 “being so by the sky”, because the randomness used came from atmospheric noise in the sky; it does not fit the term 人工 as explained above. If a book containing a language fell from the sky and somebody caught and brought it to the people, it would not be rightfully called a human-constructed or an artificial language; and this is again the case with Daman Diwan, a book from the sky containing a language, although not a book written on paper with ink, rather written with lightnings (atmospheric noise) on a transistor”.'' Originally, I. Kenanidis used a pseudonym to present Daman Diwan on various internet sites, and changed to his real name only because of Facebook’s policy to accept only real names. The random functions that formed the Daman Diwan language are explained in detail in this page.

Minimizing ambiguity
The main causes of grammatical ambiguity in languages are the lack of indicators for the part of speech, compounding of words where the relationship between the components can greatly vary, and ambitransitivity where the same verb form can function both as active and as passive. These features are very common in English, but also in constructed languages as Toki Pona; Angos, although carefully marking the part of speech by suffixes, freely uses compounding and ambitransitivity as mentioned. Daman Diwan avoids both, in order to minimize grammatical ambiguity. Combining words is very common in Daman because the basic stems are only 258, but combined words are not joined in compounds where the relationship of components may greatly vary. Such compounding is notorious in Sanskrit, an example often cited is that both the beggar and the king are called “bhūpala” literally “protector of the earth” (being the king) but the same can mean “the one who has a protector of the earth” (being the beggar). Another example is Narādhama “lowest of all people”, intended as an insult to Kṛṣṇa, but the same word Narādhama can be interpreted as “the one to whom all people are lowest”.

On the other side, when Daman Diwan combines words, they can be written as separate words or joined with a hyphen (-) or plus (+) mark and each of the combined words keeps its suffix so that the relationship between them is explicit. Quite often, the first word of the combination carries the suffix -A which has the largest variety of uses, but still it is different from the other suffixes. For example, a bowstring is SAWA WUSO “bow-A string-O”, but not *SAWO WUSO, because x-O y-O (two successive words ending in -O) are related as x=y (subject and predicate), so SAWO WUSO is a cord which is itself a bow, i.e. a cord or rope in the shape of a bow or arch. A refrigerator is SUME JATO “cold-E container” i.e. a container that makes things cold, and not *SUMO JATO, because SUMO JATO means a container which is cold; nor SUMA JATO, because SUMA JATO is a container with cold (which can be a refrigerator that works by containing ice, but not one that works by electricity). SUMAN JATO is a container from the cold, which can be e.g. a can of beer that has been taken out of the refrigerator (in contrast to a can which was not refrigerated).

Regarding ambitransitivity, all Daman verbs are active and considered transitive even if the object is not mentioned or not specified. So, for example, while WIJO means “sense; feelings”, the verb WIJE means “to cause a feeling” and not “to feel”. For “I feel”, expressions with WIJO are used, e.g. O SEN WIJO “I have a feeling”; TUKE means “to make others hear”, and not “to hear”. To say “you hear” we may use “A TUKO” or “A AN TUKO” (as TUKO means “ears” but also “the sense of hearing”; the particle AN is used for the transition of not being into being). This is why all nouns (-O) can be used as passive verbs while the corresponding verbs are active.

Sample texts (glossed)
(Note: a special system of glossing has been devised for Daman Diwan, whereby each Daman word is glossed by one English, or other natural language's, word, while the Daman suffix may optionally be added to the gloss; an arrow, or improvised arrow like "<-" shows the function of -N, that is the direction from the verb to its direct object) O RURE “i (am) the Creator”

O JO KUSE “(and) I (am) the ability that divides”;

O RIBA “beyond me”

UN KIKO “(there is) no power”

The above is probably the most impressive text taken at random by means of an MS Excel spreadsheet, which has been programmed to randomly fetch four lines of text, each line containing one of the main stems with a suffix, possibly preceded by a pronoun and/or a particle and/or a monosyllabic word. Whether true or false in meaning, this text, perfectly using the vocabulary and grammar of Daman Diwan, is so explicit and rich in meaning that the reader must be reminded again that it is a phrase obtained wholly by random at one press of a button in MS Excel, about 4 years after the creation of Daman Diwan.

The first ever random text received in Daman Diwan (on 2015 January 1st) is the following:

KAWO BUWEN A UN WOTEN IN TUBEN

"spectacle imbuing you not pouncing IN giving"

This text was received when the Daman Diwan vocabulary had almost wholly been defined but nobody on earth knew it yet. It can be noticed that all verbs employed in it are of the cUcEN type; at that time, the spreadsheet referred to previously was so programmed that it would fetch -N endings with equal frequency as endings without the -N. The direct object of WOTEN (or WUTEN) and TUBEN is not stated, which is something expectable from a text with so limited length. This text can be liberally translated as "the things that you watch imbue you (your mind) so that you do not readily start moving in giving service or something wanted from you". (The verb WUT- / WOT- can be translated "throw; shoot; jump; pounce" etc., indicating starting a movement while previously in inertia. Also note that "A", the second person pronoun, is here both the object of BUWEN "colouring, imbuing" and the subject of WOTEN; a kind of usage frequent in Daman Diwan: the same word serving two different syntactical roles).

"non-serving-desire reaching what-A"
(An arrow “<-” is used here to show the object before the verb; The form TIABE or TJABE is form extended Daman: it is TIBE “serving” infixed with A indicating a negative form)

UN-TIBE-RE-TO, NUTA RABAN BUNA SAME.

not-serving-want-person, fruit tree-AN under sitting.

NUTON RE, WISO KANON UN MAME RE.

fruit<- want, own hand<- not move want.

SANO MATO KUKA, RABO KAJE NUTO AN BUNA, I TO SIGA,

little time added, tree abandoning fruit became down, that person side-A,

TO, NUJE-KA KANON UN MAME RE.

person, hold-aim hand<- not move want.

SANO MATO KUKA, I MARA NUKA, WUMO TO WIME.

little time added, that near road-A, other person walking.

TIBE-RE-TO (UN-TIBE-RE-TO) WUNE:

serv ing-want-person (not-serving-want-person) calling:

“NUMO TO A, O BAKA NANO, KANON UN MAME JE;

“good person you, I body damaged, hand<- not move can;

I NUTON O SIWO-MA A NUJE JE?”.

this fruit<- I mouth-to you hold can?”.

I NUMO TO, I TAN SIWO-MA MITO NUTON NUJE, I SIWE BAME KA;

that good person, that person-AN mouth-to sweet fruit<- holding, that mouth-E eat-E to;

I MATA, TIBE-RE-TO (UN-TIBE-RE-TO), KIRO-MA KIWEN:

that time-A, serv ing-want-person (not-serving-want-person), self-to saying:

“O TIBA, I NUTO-MA JASE JASE TON O SE RA! I MIWA RA O!”.

“me served-A, this fruit-to teeth-E teeth-E person<- I have desire-A! that greatly desire-A I!”.

BUBA MATA NE BAJO SA, BUMA TO AN I-RANA TIABE-RE (UN-TIBE-RE).

new-A time-A making skill have-A, all-A person become that-like serv ing-want (not-serving-want)

KATO WANON I MIJE? TISON UN TUNON RA MIBA, TISON TUME MIJE!

what status<- that reaching? life not heavy<- want-A excess-A, life<- ending reaching!

MIJON SE, MIBON RE.

reach<- having, excess<- want-E.

WAJO WUSO JINA BAJO, MIJO. 5G BAJO, MIBO.

light-thread use-A skill, reach-O. 5G skill, excess-O.

MIJON SAKE, TISON KURE.

reach<- knowing, life<- saving.

A liberal translation:
"A lazy person was sitting under a tree. He wanted some of the fruit, but (he) was too lazy to move his hands! After a while, an apple fell from the tree just next to that person; still he was too lazy to take it! A little later, somebody happened to walk near there. The lazy person called out to him, saying “dear sir, I am disabled; (which was not true); can you please hold this apple in front of my mouth so i can eat it?”. That good person held the apple to the other person’s mouth, so he could eat it. Then the lazy person said to himself: “if only there were somebody to chew it for me now!”.

With modern technology, all people are getting lazy like that. What will that come to? With too much desire to make (their) life easy, they will put an end to (their) life! (They) have made sufficient accomplishments, but want excessive things. (MIJO means “reaching”, “accomplishment”, therefore “enough”). The optical fibres technology - it is the MIJO (accomplishment; sufficient); the 5G technology - it is the MIBO (excessive). To know the sufficient, is to preserve life". Category:International auxiliary languages