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Denobulan/Language: Difference between revisions
Adding first draft of Morphology.
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==Disclaimer== | ==Disclaimer== | ||
The language was seen and heard on-screen, but the writers have confirmed that those words and sentences had no system or grammar. The version of the language delved into here is merely inspired by what was seen, but is more realistic. The two versions will be incompatible. Sometimes, decisions made for this version of the language don't make much sense | The language was seen and heard on-screen, but the writers have confirmed that those words and sentences had no system or grammar. The version of the language delved into here is merely inspired by what was seen, but is more realistic. The two versions will be incompatible. Sometimes, decisions made for this version of the language don't make much sense linguistically; often, this is to have an explanation for a weird thing in what was seen on-screen. Please reach out to [[User:Pholin]] before editing anything major. Also, feel free to reach out to [[User:Pholin]] if you want to learn the language, he will gladly help you if circumstances allow doing so. | ||
Throughout this page, the International Phonetic Alphabet is used. For more information about that, please visit [[wp:Help:IPA|this article]]. | Throughout this page, the International Phonetic Alphabet is used. For more information about that, please visit [[wp:Help:IPA|this article]]. | ||
==Phonology== | ==Phonology== | ||
''For a non-linguistic summary of the phonology, [[#Romanization|click here]]. | ''For a non-linguistic summary of the phonology, [[#Romanization|click here]].'' | ||
===Consonants=== | ===Consonants=== | ||
The following table shows the consonant phonemes of Denobulan: | The following table shows the consonant phonemes of Denobulan: | ||
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'''''Note:''' The script is supported on the wiki. Type in it by using ''<nowiki>{{Denobulan|textgoeshere|size=xx}}</nowiki>''. For more info about the font, go to [[Template:Denobulan|the template's page]]. | '''''Note:''' The script is supported on the wiki. Type in it by using ''<nowiki>{{Denobulan|textgoeshere|size=xx}}</nowiki>''. For more info about the font, go to [[Template:Denobulan|the template's page]]. | ||
[[Category:Languages]] | [[Category:Languages]] | ||
==Morphology== | |||
===Nouns=== | |||
In Denobulan, nouns are categorized in a grammatical gender system based on animacy. A noun will always be either animate (<span style="font-variant: small-caps">an</span>) or inanimate (<span style="font-variant: small-caps">inan</span>). Nouns are animate when they relate to (parts of) people, animals, plants or other (things perceived as) living beings. Nouns are inanimate when they relate to concrete or abstract objects, natural forces or ideas. Often though, a noun is found in an unexpected gender. Therefore, a speaker of the language memorizes the gender alongside the meaning of a word. | |||
===Case=== | |||
Grammatical case is a special category of a word that can change its grammatical function. Federation Standard does this for pronouns only (compare "she" and "her"), Denobulan does this for nouns, pronouns and adjectives, however. Denobulan features four cases, although not all can be applied to all words. Before the function of each case can be understood, Denobulan's sentence structure must be described. | |||
There are two (simple) types of verbs, intransitive (<span style="font-variant: small-caps">intr</span>) and transitive (<span style="font-variant: small-caps">tr</span>). Intransitive verbs take a subject but no object: "Phlox sleeps." On the other hands, transitive verbs take a subject ''and'' an object: "Phlox drinks tea." In Federation Standard, the subject of a transitive verb and the subject of an intransitive verb behave the same; they are placed before the verb. Denobulan, though, has a more complicated system. To distinguish the two different kind of subjects, we will call the subject of a transitive verb the ''agent''. To summarize: | |||
* '''Subject:''' "<u>Phlox</u> sleeps." | |||
* '''Agent:''' "<u>Phlox</u> drinks tea." | |||
* '''Object:''' "Phlox drinks <u>tea</u>." | |||
As said, in Federation Standard the subject and agent behave the same way. In Denobulan, three different things can happen. For the first (I, me) and second (you) pronouns, Denobulan is the same as Federation Standard. The subject and agent act as one. For the third person (he, she) pronouns, all three behave differently. For each kind, subject, agent or object, there is a different form of the word. For nouns (tea), something different happens. No longer do the subject and agent behave as one, the subject and ''object'' act the same. This can seem backwards to speakers not used to this. To explain, let's pretend Federation Standard does the same: | |||
* Transitive verb: "He likes her." - 'he' is the agent, and 'her' is the object. | |||
* Intransitive verb: "Likes her." - 'her' is the subject, and acts the same as an object. This translates to "she likes" in normal Federation Standard. | |||
With this explained, the functions of the grammatical cases can be explained. The fourth case will be described below. | |||
* The '''ergative''' (<span style="font-variant: small-caps">erg</span>) marks the agent for the third person pronoun and nouns. | |||
* The '''patientive''' (<span style="font-variant: small-caps">pat</span>) marks the object for pronouns and also the subject for nouns. | |||
* The '''nominative''' (<span style="font-variant: small-caps">nom</span>) marks the subject and agent for the first and second person pronouns. | |||
This can also be visualized in a table. | |||
{| class="wikitable" | |||
! | |||
! Subject | |||
! Agent | |||
! Object | |||
|- | |||
| style="font-weight:bold; background-color:#efefef;" | 1st and 2nd person | |||
| style="font-variant: small-caps; text-align: center;"| nom | |||
| style="font-variant: small-caps; text-align: center;"| nom | |||
| style="font-variant: small-caps; text-align: center;"| pat | |||
|- | |||
| style="font-weight:bold; background-color:#efefef;" | 3rd person pronoun | |||
| style="font-variant: small-caps; text-align: center;"| nom | |||
| style="font-variant: small-caps; text-align: center;"| erg | |||
| style="font-variant: small-caps; text-align: center;"| pat | |||
|- | |||
| style="font-weight:bold; background-color:#efefef;" | (In)animate nouns | |||
| style="font-variant: small-caps; text-align: center;"| pat | |||
| style="font-variant: small-caps; text-align: center;"| erg | |||
| style="font-variant: small-caps; text-align: center;"| pat | |||
|} | |||
The fourth and final case is the '''genitive''', is used to mark a word that modifies a noun. It is comparable to Federation Standard's «of» and «'s». It can be used to express composition (bowl <u>of soup</u>), possession (<u>Captain's</u> orders), origin (people <u>of Denobula</u>) or apposition (Mount <u>Fuji</u>). | |||
<!-- TODO: Add better examples and work out exactly what this genitive is used for. --> | |||