Conlang: Ori, continued

Image here is the kind of flower I always envisaged as the national symbol of Orikrindia.

Last time I showed you some Ori verbs and how they are conjugated. I mentioned that there are essentially three ways to conjugate verbs (1st, 2nd, 3rd conjugations), and showed you some verbs from the 1st class of those verbs. I kind of lied, as it is not quite as simple as that sounds. Despite all verbs ending in -i and in all alveolars being grouped as one class, there is a little variation inside the conjugation, depending what the individual sound in the verb stem ends in. I go into a little more detail for the 1st conjugation below. Note some of the differences marked in bold where there are some variations in the stems and endings.

Verbs in –i

meri-m ‘I dance’

meri-t ‘you dance’

meri-r ‘he/she/it dances’ (animate, inanimate)

meri-l ‘he/she/it dances’ (celestial, abstract)

 

meri-bra ‘we dance’

meri-dra ‘you all dance’

meri-nda ‘they (an, inan) dance’

meri-lta ‘they (cel, abs) dance’

–

Verbs in -n

Note difference in some endings/stems.

boltin-im ‘I keep’

boltin-it ‘you keep’

boltin-ir ‘he/she/it keeps’ (an, inan)

boltinil ‘he/she/it keeps’ (celestial, abstract)

 

boltim-bra ‘we keep’

boltin-dra ‘you all keep’

boltin-da ‘they keep’  (an, inan)

bolti-lta ‘they keep’ (cel, abs)

 

Verbs in -l

Note changed suffix:

potil-im ‘I think’

potil-it ‘you think’

potil-ir ‘he/she/it thinks’ (an, inan)

potil-il ‘he/she/it thinks’ (cel, abs)

 

potil-bra ‘we think’

potil-dra ‘you all think’

potil-nda ‘they think’ (an, inan)

potil-ta ‘they think’ (cel, abs)

 

Verbs in -s

Note devoicing on plural endings with verbs ending with unvoiced consonants

cetis-im ‘I cut’

cetis-it ‘you cut’

cetis-ir ‘he/she/it cuts’ (an, inan)

cetis-il ‘he/she/it cuts’ (cel, abs)

 

cetis-pra ‘we cut’

cetis-tra ‘you all cut’

cetis-ta ‘they cut’ (an, inan)

cetis-ta ‘they cut’ (cel, abs)

 

Verbs in -d

Note some stem changes.

trellid-im ‘I walk’

trellid-it ‘you walk’

trellid-ir ‘he/she/it walks’ (an, inan)

trellid-il ‘he/she/it walks’ (cel, abs)

 

trellim-bra ‘we walk’

trellid-ra ‘you all walk’

trelli-nda ‘they walk’ (an, inan)

trelli-lta ‘they walk’ (cel, abs)

 

Verbs in -t

Note differences in stems and endings.

grasit-im ‘I scrape’

grasit-it ‘you scrape’

grasit-ir ‘he/she/it scrapes’ (an, inan)

grasit-il ‘he/she/it scrapes’ (cel, abs)

 

grasi-pra ‘we scrape’

grasi-tra ‘you all scrape’

grasi-nda ‘they scrape’ (an, inan)

grasi-lta ‘they scrape’ (cel, abs)

 

Verbs in -r

Note difference in some stem forms.

lar-im ‘I laugh’

lar-it ‘you laugh’

lar-ir ‘he/she/it laughs’ (an, inan)

lar-il ‘he/she/it laughs’ (cel, abs)

 

lar-bra ‘we laugh’

lar-dra ‘you all laugh’

lar-nda ‘they laugh’ (an, inan)

la-lta ‘they laugh’ (cel, abs)

~

Alright, that’s it for the regular 1st conjugation verbs. Many of the variations in these verbs are mirrored elsewhere and are probably results of semi-regular morphophonotactic rules…but I’ll need to figure out exactly what those appear to be later on.

Another Ori topic I wanted to talk about are definite articles. Ori has them. It doesn’t have any other articles (like indefinite artcles, e.g. English ‘a/an’, French ‘un(e), des’). These definite articles are roughly equivalent to English ‘the’, but the usage varies in Ori and may not always align with English usage (i.e. you might see an Ori article where you wouldn’t in English (or whatever other language), and vice versa). In Ori, the definite articles are proclitics. They are written with a hypen before the noun, and like other things in Ori, they have to agree with the noun class of the noun. See some examples below.

 

tu-syalanyas ‘the queen’ (animate, singular)

tun-hilunyan ‘the merchats’ (animate, plural)

ti-yutar ‘the cloud’ (celestial, singular)

tin-celunyas ‘the priests’ (celestial, plural)

lye-buni ‘[of] the house’ (inanimate, singular)

lyen-kapyan ‘the desks’ (inanimate, plural)

co-sestas ‘the life’ (abstract, singular)

con-gerumin ‘the deaths’ (abstract, plural)

As you can see, the plural forms of these articles are made by adding -n to the end. You can get a little preview of some of the case system for nouns too in the above examples….soon we’ll see the rest!

 

Mintaka