Difference between revisions of "Dhaana (language)"

Revision as of 23:23, 23 August 2006

Dhaana (or, spelled more acceptably, Dhāna), is the official language of the nation of Dhānō, anglicised as Dhaana. Some things Dhāna features:

• Nine nominal cases: nominative, accusative, locative, ablative, allative, prolative, benefactive, dative, and genitive; originally divided into three groups: syntactic: nominative and accusative; prepositional: locative, ablative, allative, prolative; and relative: benefactive, dative, genitive. These distinctions are starting to waver, however (or rather, cases are starting to move: prolative>relative, dative>syntactic).
• A complex verbal system: three voices: active, passive, middle; four moods: indicative, subjunctive, optative, imperative; two numbers: singular, plural; between one and six tenses per mood: present, perfect, aorist, imperfect, pluperfect, future; and three persons, with a total of 144 distinct verb forms. The person-marking consonants shift in the subjunctive and optative active from m, s, t to n, ṡ, d and ṅ, c, th respectively. The middle voice is formed by using a passive verb with a reflexive pronoun.
• Morphology is easily broken down into recognizable patterns.
• Adverbs are based on the adjective stem, but conjugate (:o) to agree with the verb(s) they modify.
• The phonology recently progressed from my strange attempt at voiced ejectives to plain old aspirates.

Phonology

Dhāna features a complex system of consonants, inspired by Sanskrit. To read the phonetic notation used, go here. Phones are noted in /slashes/ and orthography is noted in <angle brackets>.

• Plosives/Affricates: /p t tS k b d dZ g/

• Aspirates: /p_h t_h tS_h k_h b_h d_h dZ_h g_h/ <ph th ch kh bh dh jh gh>
• Nasals: /m n N/ <m n ṅ>
• Fricatives: /s S h/ < s ṡ h>
• Approximants: /l r w j/ <l r w y>

These are supplemented by ten vowels; five long, and five short:

• ā /a:/
• ē /e:/
• ī /i:/
• ō /o:/
• ū /u:/
• a /a/
• e /e/
• i /i/
• o /o/
• u /u/

Dhāna syllables take the form (C)(C)V(C)(C). Note, however, that there are many fewer consonant clusters than this would seem to indicate.

Verbal Morphology

As mentioned above, Dhāna morphology is easily broken down into recognizable patterns. There are two important grammatical formulae: one for verbs, one for nouns. The verbal formula is seen below:

-theme vowel-(passive infix)-(passive mood vowel)-person consonantal marker-(aspect vowel)-(plurality marker)

To conjugate a verb, remove the final -V(C)(C) from the verb infinitive to isolate the stem. Then, to form an indicative, subjunctive, or optative verb, add back the final -V, shortening it if it is long (in the imperative mood, lengthen the vowel if it is short): this is the stem vowel. For example: paldrūn swim becomes paldr- and then paldru-. The passive infix is -m-. The passive mood vowels are as follows:

• -e-: indicative
• -i-: subjunctive
• -o-: optative
• -a-: imperative

The person consonantal markers are below:

• -m: first person
• -s: second person
• -t: third person

In the subjunctive and imperative moods, active voice, these become -n, -ṡ, -d. In the optative mood, active voice, these become -ṅ, -c, -th. The aspect vowels are:

• -a: simple (occurred once)
• -ø (no vowel): habitual (occurs repeatedly, or is incomplete)
• -u: perfective (completed)

The plurality marking suffix is -ī. If, however, there is an aspect vowel, it becomes -i. For example, let's conjugate yōṡun wash in the second person plural perfect indicative passive:

yōṡun > yōṡ- > yōṡu- > yōṡum- > yōṡume- > yōṡumes- > yōṡumesu- > yōṡumesui: you have been washed

There are also two temporal prefixes in the indicative mood, used in tenses that are not in the present: a- for past and e- for future. A full list of Dhānas verb tenses, the moods in which they appear, their temporal alignment (in the indicative mood only), and their aspect, is below:

• Present: indicative, subjunctive, optative, imperative; present, habitual
• Perfect: indicative, subjunctive, optative; present, perfective
• Aorist: indicative, subjunctive, optative; past, simple
• Imperfect: indicative; past, habitual
• Pluperfect: indicative; past, perfective
• Future: indicative; future, no aspect

Explanations

So, what does all of this mean? I'm sure that's what you're wondering now. I'm going to tell you.

Mood

Mood doesn't mean that a verb is happy or sad; the mood of a verb describes how real the speaker perceives the action described by the verb to be.

• Indicative: the indicative mood describes an action that is real, in the mind of the speaker (therefore, stories are told in the indicative). The indicative is the "default mood", and the only mood in which time exists (see below).
• Subjunctive: the subjunctive mood expresses need, possibility, and contrafactual (untrue) statements. It can also be used, with reflexive pronouns (see below), to form the hortatory subjunctive, a kind of polite suggestion (e.g. "please do this for me"). The subjunctive takes a place also in the sequence of moods with primary (present and future) tenses.
• Optative: the optative mood expresses hope, wish, or intent. It can also be used, with reflexive pronouns (see below), to form the cohortative optative, a type of polite request (e.g. "would you please do this for me?"). The optative takes a place in the sequence of moods with secondary (past) tenses.
• Imperative: the imperative mood expresses a command. It is considered very impolite to use the imperative with anyone older than you, or with anyone of equal status without the emphasis of a polite emphatic pronoun (see below).

Tense

Tense doesn't mean the verb is under pressure; rather tense expresses the aspect of a verb (how the verb occurs), and, in the indicative mood, the time at which a verb occurs.

• Present: the present tense is the basic tense of a verb. In the indicative mood, it expresses the present time (i.e., the action is happening simultaneously to the speaking). In all the moods, it expresses the habitual or progressive aspect, i.e. the action is unfinished or in progress, or the action is repeated: the speaker usually undertakes it. It is equivalent to the English "I swim" or "I am swimming".
• Perfect: the perfect tense is the second most basic tense of a verb. In the indicative mood, it expresses the present time. In all moods, it expresses the perfective or completed aspect, i.e. the speaker is in a state of having completed a certain action. It is equivalent to English "I have swum".
• Aorist: the aorist tense is the third and final basic tense of a verb. In the indicative mood, it expresses the past time, i.e. the action happened before the speaking. In all moods, it expresses the simple aspect, i.e. the action takes place at a very specific time, with a definite beginning and ending. It is equivalent to English "I swam".
• Imperfect: the imperfect tense expresses the past time and the habitual or progressive aspect. It is equivalent to English "I swam" or "I was swimming".
• Pluperfect: the pluperfect tense expresses the past time and the perfective or completed aspect. It is equivalent to English "I had swum".
• Future: the future tense expresses future time (e.g. the action has yet to occur). It has no specific aspect, as it is impossible to tell whether a future action will occur only once, repeatedly, or if it will be completed. It is equivalent to English "I shall swim".

Voice

Voice doesn't mean that a verb is speaking, but rather describes the relationship between the agent (the one doing the verb) and the subject and/or object of the sentence. Dhāna has three voices: active, passive, and middle.

• Active: an active sentence is a sentence in which the agent is the subject, e.g. "I wash".
• Passive: a passive sentence is a sentence in which the agent is the indirect object, e.g. "It is washed by me".
• Middle: a middle sentence is a sentence in which the agent is both the subject and object, e.g. "I wash myself". In Dhāna, this is expressed reflexively, using the passive voice with a special set of reflexive pronouns: [mī] mo yōṡumem I wash myself, literally "I myself am washed.