User:Thiswascreatedforthis/ProtoLang

This is page for my ProtoLang Si'onbe'ez /siʔonðeʔez/. The most simple edits to make it clearer for me will be here at first, and then I will make it more accessible to other users. A dictionary may be found here: http://pastebin.com/aBCDyc2W

Phonology and Latin Script
From here on out r = ɾ, v = b͡v, w = b͡ʋ, f = ʃ, j = ʒ, b = ð.

Morphology
The root by itself contains no grammatical information, only an idea. Only suffixes and other pieces of information can be used to determine what function they serve in the language. However the root may be used as a suffix to convey information about the root before it. See grammar for more details.

Basic root
Roots follow this pattern

FvNP

where F is a fricative, v is a vowel and NP is a non-plosive. Affricates can either be treated as plosives or non-plosives depending on positioning. The vowl may not be in the zero grade.

A root functions as an idea that is usually physical in nature, or something that is standalone. EX: Water and smart work as a root, however stream and thought-creation do not work as basic roots because those words have implied meanings(stream either implies size or movement and thought-creation implies ownership or mental change). A simple way to determine whether a word could be a root or not is through asking this in regards to an idea: "Can this idea be simplified?" if so it has no basic root. These processes are clearly very subjective. For the sake of consistency what I decide is final in these regards.

Infixes
Roots can be modified through an an infix. Infixes follow this pattern:

vP

where v is a vowel and P is a plosive. The vowel may be in the zero grade.

An infix is an idea, just like a root is. This idea is something that isn't standalone, and it combines to create a more complex idea. The idea is often used to talk about something else, but is rarely used to discuss something else. EX: ongoing would work as Infix, but time would not because ongoing is a concept that can be applied to other things, but time can not be applied to other things.

Complex roots
A complex root is a basic root with an infix in it.

F(vP)vNP

The idea in a complex root is the logical outcome of applying the infix's meaning to the basic root. Any infix can be used with any root, but some are much less common because they don't make logical sense. The idea in the complex root itself is very clear and broad but a lot of the times they contain very specific meaning. For example jun means love, and p means singular and individual. Broadly it means one love or a love moment but specifically means sex.

Markers
Since the root does not indicate the grammatical function of a word there are markers at the end of a word to determine it's grammatical function. A marker is a plurality root + an infix. The plurality marker is only used for agreement and the infix determines the grammatical function. However in adjectives the infix also is used for agreement purposes. Markers are listed in the following sections.

Plurality
Plurality in this language is very different from English. When we think about a noun, we think about it as an individual and scale it up for making plurals. For the speakers of this language the opposite would happen. They think about all, every single one of some kind and scale down. There is a small problem with this though. When the speaker uses a noun they both refer to the the parent and the realized noun itself(Ex: using 4th with water refers to all water, including seas and rivers as the parent, and whatever body it is being referred to, whether it be an individual stream or one ocean as the realized noun). So if the adjective angry is applied to 2nd beavers am I talking about a couple of beavers that are angry or a couple of beavers from all angry beavers in the world? Adjectives and all the like conjugate to tell whether they are referring to the parent or the realized object.

Also mass nouns can only use 3-5 because you cant have one water, or a couple airs.

Pronouns
The concept of pronouns does not exist in this language. Mental concepts exist for the original speakers of the language, not grammatical. The language is only a synthesis of mental concepts, not refined communication tool. However this can be very disorienting when talking about a specific subject so daughter languages have adopted different kind of pronouns.

Zero root
Noun roots can stand alone sometimes and can work to some degree as a pronoun. The speakers do not attach the mental string we do to pronouns to the zero root. The interpretation of these zero roots is very broad and therefore confusing so it is rarely used in speech.

Verbs
Unlike in most PIE languages, in this language verbs are only declined by aspect, not by tense. The timing of the verb is usually determined by the context, or if it is ambiguous, the locative. There is no such thing as mood in this language. There is only the indicative.

Subjunctive
The subjunctive might seem a bit off because it is a kind of mood and is classified with the aspects. It is a kind of irregular tick of this language. It is something that the speaker either wishes to happen or thinks is a possibility. For example describing a possible move in chess would use the Subjunctive. The aspect is usually implied based on the context, but by default is perfective.

Passive
The passive is created by placing the inanimate infix, ag, between the root and the marker.

Adjectives
Adjectives are not as common as infixes however they do have a presence in the language. Infixes modify the parent noun, so the only way to modify the realized noun is through an adjective.

Animacy + number must agree with the noun. Animacy infix is placed within the number suffix. An infix between the suffix and root is placed to indicate whether the parent or realized noun is modified. The infix is zero if modifying the realized object, else it is o.

Word order
This language allows a very flexible word order because of its inflectional syntax. Ordinary prose follows the pattern of Subject, Indirect Object, Direct Object, Adverbial Words or Phrases, Verb (SIDAV). Adjectives usually directly follow nouns, unless they are adjectives of beauty, size, quantity, goodness, or truth, in which case they precede the noun being modified. Relative clauses are commonly placed after the antecedent which the relative pronoun describes. Since grammatical function in a sentence was not based on word order but on inflection, the usual word order is often abandoned with no detriment to understanding but with various changes in emphasis. This language being pro-drop often omits the Subject if it is redundant.

Grammaticalized vs Non-Grammaticalized
All dialects fall into either the Grammaticalized category or the Non-Grammaticalized. Grammaticalized dialects force the affricates to become plosives or fricatives depending on their position in the root. This dialect tries to maintain the structure F(vP)vNP because it is viewed as grammatically correct. In essence the speakers misinterpreted the language's phonotactics and created an incorrect rule. So /b͡ʋib͡vaɾ/ -> /ʋibaɾ/. b͡ʋ is in the fricative position so it becomes ʋ and b͡v is in the plosive position so it becomes b. These dialects are less likely to invent new endings and marker's because the culture they are placed in had more emphasis on grammar rules.

Non-grammaticalized dialects are any other dialects that do not try to follow this rule.

Fronting vs backing
Certain consonants such as ʒ and ð sound very similar and dialects will choose to only use one or the other. Fronting dialects prefer to keep the consonant that is farther front in the mouth, while backing dialects choose the consonant in the back of the mouth.