Hàäsdáïga

In-world background

Hàäsdáïga is a dead language spoken by ancient people in Gaïdaäna. In the day, there was only one language in the continent, shared by people from five peoples: Wood farmers, Fire hunters, Earth monks, Metal smiths and Water seafarers. They embraced the philosophy and that reflected in their languages. They not only used the language to communicate, but also to define a method with which they could control these five natural forces.

Later, as these peoples mixed up, their ability to harness these five natural forces strengthened for some and weakened for the others. Most notably, the Metal and Water people lost almost all of this power, and only a minority could still use it. Science and trade thus became their main strength. On the other hand, Fire and Wood people could control it so well, they no longer needed the language to guide their power. Earth monks were the most pure with this power, but chose to distance themselves from others' affairs. Naturally, the language was divided into five different languages (and two pidgins) and the old way of using natural force was forgotten.

Incidentally, Franzo, the son of Zacero and Jaare, re-invented the way. Born as a child of a Metal mage warrior and a magicless aristocrat in a science-oriented society, he learned to use one heritage to support the other. He tried to reconstruct the ancient language and defined a way to use it to combine his magic ability. Independently, Siza also discovered it by reading old text he was lucky to find

We are interested in the linguistic features of this language as well as its magical structure. In this book we discuss both of them.

Phonology

• Consonants
• Vowels
  • Diphthongs and long vowels
• Tones
• Phonotactics

Consonants

Main consonants are listed in the table below:

Notes:

• n is pronounced as /ŋ/ only if it is followed by another consonant
• The glottal stop /ʔ/ is not written. It's implied when a syllable does not have other consonants (similar to Vietnamese).
• nj is pronounced as /ɲ/ even when the two letters are from different words. The sames go for other digraphs (ng, ch, gh). There is therefore no ambiguous way of pronouncing a word given a romanization.
• Some dialects may pronounce s, z as

Vowels

Note: the schwa sound /ə/ is not written in the native script. However, for ease of writing on computer, it is romanized as y. Both kýn and ḱn are acceptable as the romanization for the same syllable. This document is in favor of using explicit form instead of implicit form.

Diphthongs and long vowels

Long vowels are written as duplicated vowels, with the second character having a diaresis (for example aä is pronounced /aː/). For vowels whose romanizations contain two characters, the later vowel is duplicated (for example, long version of aë is aëë)

Diphthongs are written similarly. They're listed below:

• aï /aɪ/
• aü /aʊ/
• eï /eɪ/
• oï /oɪ/
• uï /uɪ/

Tones

There are three tones in Hàäsdáïga:

• level tone (a) /˧˧/
• rising tone (á) /˧˥/
• falling tone (à) /˥˩/

Phonotactics

Syllables in Hàäsdáïga have a simple structure: CVT(C)

The final consonants can't be sonorants, /h/, /ʔ/, and voiced vowels if they have voiceless equivalents. Other than that, there isn't any constraints.

There are thus:

\( 22 × (6 × 2 + 6 ) × 3 × 11 = 18876 \) (possible syllables)

Note: These numbers mean:

• 22 consonants
• 6 vowels and their long version
• 6 diphthongs
• 3 tones
• 10 final consonants

Morphology

This section concerns which forms exist for each category and not how to use them. That will be covered in the section Parts of Speech.

Nominal

Nominal declension is based on case, gender, and number, in order. Each parameter is indicated by a phoneme, respectively consonant, vowel, and tone, effectively forming a syllable.

Case

There are five cases:

• nom nominative: s
• acc accusative: n
• abl ablative: t
• dat dative: d
• gen genitive: c

There is also vocative case, which is unmarked, but this is rarely used.

Gender

There are five genders, named after five phases in wǔxíng:

• wo wood: a
• fi fire: e
• ea earth: i
• mt metal: o
• wa water: u
• unknown/mixed: y

Number

There are three numbers:

• sg singular: level tone
• sv several: falling tone
• pl plural: rising tone

Verbal

Verbal conjugation are decided by mood, tense, and aspect. Infinitive verbs all have the ending -zy, which is changed by conjugation. They are respectively indicated by a vowel, a tone, and a consonant.

Mood

There are five moods:

• ind indicative: a
• rit ritual: e
• int interrogative: i
• imp imperative: o
• sub subjunctive: u

Tense

• pst past: falling
• prs present: level
• fut future: rising

Aspect

• hab habitual: j
• cnt continuous: r
• prf perfective: unmarked

Gender

In the ritual mood, another vowel representing verb's gender is added after the aspect consonant. The vowel is the same as for nominal gender. Note that it is not uncommon to use ritual mood without gender, such as when insulting.

The dictionary form shows this gender even though it is not in ritual mood.

Derivational Morphology

Nominalization

In all following transformations, where a noun has unknown gender mark -y, it is replaced with an ambiguous, idiomatic gender or the gender of a closest noun that defines it. In the former case, such words would be listed in the dictionary.

Verbalization

Compounds

TBD

Parts of Speech

This section concerns the main parts of speech and how they are used. Note that it does not discuss how they are ordered, which is the content of [Syntax].

In this section as well as [Syntax], there will be glosses, indicating how the sentences are constructed.

They are written as quotes, in following order:

• Romanization (in bold)
• Gloss
• English translation (in italic)

Noun

Cases

Nominative

The nominative is used for the subject of a sentence and for vocative.

It is also used as predicative for some verbs:

• wítzy (be)
• voïczy (become)

TODO: add examples

Accusative

Accusative case is used for direct object.

TODO: add examples

Ablative

Ablative case is used to express the motion away from something

TODO: add examples

Dative

Dative case is used to express the motion to a location, or being at the location (locative). The meaning is determined by whether the verb takes object or not.

TODO: add examples

Genitive

Genitive case is used to express possession or relation.

cibansy wítar súngsa fènci
this-nom.sg be.ind.prs.cnt book-nom.wo.sg I-gen.ea.sg
This is my book.

cisúngsa wítar fènci
this-book-nom.wo.sg be.ind.prs.cnt I-gen.ea.sg
This book is mine.

Relations also include relations constructed by postposition.

tènze vamá fèncu chát
he-nom.fi.sg stay-ind.fut.prf I-gen.wa.sg with
He will stay with me.

vifar bissy wócci mèng
stand-ind.prs.cnt man-nom.sg shop-gen.ea.sg (in front of)
There is a man standing in front of the shop.

Genitive is also used for family name, which is placed before the given name.

Gender

Individuals

Nouns' gender are arbitrarily assigned, based on the philosophy. Generally, it is quite intuitive, for example, (tree), (seed), (wood) are wood. However, there are some cases it is unclear, like (liver) being wood, and even counter-intuitive, like (flower) being fire. This is because liver is is controlled by wood in the philosophy, and flower represents the outburst state which matches more with fire.

For people, gender is determined by their date of birth (people born in wood months are wood). For people who can use magic, their magic affinity is their gender.

Mixed groups

The gender of a group of objects with different genders is determined by the majority group. The majority group is defined as the group with:

• more than half of the group
• has more than 10 members, if any other group has more than one member.

Number

• singular: zero or one
• several: two to ten, inclusive
• plural: more than ten

Pronoun

Pronouns are nominal anaphora, that is, short words that are used to refer to a noun or a noun phrase. Pronouns usually have nominal morphology, though not strictly. Pronoun is a closed class.

Personal pronouns

There are 15 personal pronouns in total. Dual pronouns and 1st person inclusive pronouns are in fact formed by compounding others.

Reflexive

Reflexive pronouns occur as clitic. They are formed by removing the gender vowel and number tone from corresponding personal pronoun.

fènsu fèngòngàr zápmỳfo
I-nom.wo.sg I-acc-look-ind.pst.cnt mirror-dat.mt.sg
I was looking at myself in the mirror.

It also works for indirect object:

tènsa tènfnìchá púürijinsechne
he-nom.wo.sg he-dat-buy-ind.fut.prf birthday-gift-acc.fi.sg
He'll just buy himself a birthday gift.

There is a difference between reflexive and reciprocal for plural pronouns.

lúccynsỳ lúcnmeërá'ar
you-nom.dual you-acc.sg-love-ind.prs.cnt
You love yourselves

lúccynsỳ lúccyǹmeërá'ar
you-nom.dual you-acc.dual-love-ind.prs.cnt
You love each other.

Note: there is also a idiomatic use of reflexive pronouns:

fènsu fèncwítar I-nom.wa.sg I-gen-be.ind.prs.cnt
I am alone.

fènsu fèncbochar ringyno
I-nom.wa.sg I-gen-repair.ind.pst.prf vehicle-acc.mt.sg
I fixed the car myself.

Indefinite pronouns

These are indefinite pronouns in Hàäsdáïga:

• hipsy: somewhen
• vàtsy: somewhere
• cotsy: somehow
• bansy: someone
• wón: which

Construction of other pro-forms are totally regular:

• It is interrogative when its verb is in interrogative mood.
• Its proximity is determined by a determiner prefix: ci (this) la (that)
• So are any, all/every, other, with zòt, rýnj, púch, respectively.
• Negative forms are formed by negating the "all/every" form. See [Negation].
• The equivalent relative pronouns is unchanged.

Examples:

TODO: add glosses

vungà las hipfy
happen-ind.pst.prf that-nom somewhen-dat
It happened at some point.

saändasi Aäratraäce voö'ir vàtfy
city-nom.ea.sg ember-gen.fi be_located_at-int.prs.cnt somewhere-dat
Where is Ember city?

wónjannane lúcfi càhánì
which-name-acc.fi.sg you-dat.ea.sg give-int.pst.prf
What is your name?

vifi bansy civàtfy
stand-int.prs.cnt someone-nom.sg this-somewhere-dat
Is there anyone here?

rýnjbansý càï'ar njizy lan
every-someone-nom.pl can-ind.prs.cnt do that-acc Everyone can do that.

dy njéna bansa lúcna daïnè'à, connar fènsu
<sub> woman-acc.wo.sg who.nom you-acc.wo.sg help-ind.pst.prf, know-ind.prs.cnt I-nom.wa.sg
I know the woman who helped you.

Verb

Tense

There are 3 tenses: past, present, and future. They are used according to time.

Reported speech

Unlike in English and some other languages, tense is not propagated in reported speech. Instead, the tense is relative to the time spoken. For example, if John said to Mary "I will meet you at noon" and now is after that, you would say:

John-nom.sg Mary-dat.sg say-ind.pst.prf <sub> he-nom.sg her-acc.sg meet-ind.pst.prf noon-dat.fi.sg
John told Mary he would meet her at noon.

If the future is indefinite, it will stays in the future, whether the event has happened or not.

he-nom.fi.sg believe-ind.pst.cont <sub> she-nom.ea.sg back-come-ind.fut.prf, that-acc.sg she-nom.ea.sg do.ind.pst.prf
He believed she would come back, and she did.

Narration

Narration is always present tense, even when the story obviously happened in the past.

Mood

• indicative: the action actually occurs
• interrogative: the action is in the question
• imperative: the action is a command
• subjunctive: the action does not happens, and usually used in conditional or wish
• ritual: the action is the intend of the spellcaster

Ritual mood is also used for cursing and profanity. In such case, the gender affix is removed so the speaker does not accidentally cast the actual curse. Because cursing is quite literal for Hàäsdáïga speakers, it is never used in the same manner as in the modern society.

Aspect

• habitual: the action happens repeatedly in the period of time
• continuous: the action or the state persists over the duration
• perfective: the action happens once and finished

Postposition

This section list an exhaustive list of postpositions.

Location

Time

Other

Conjunction

Numerals

Constructing numbers:

• 14 = 10 + 4 : nonjngúf
• 143 = 100 + 4 × 10 + 3 : ghèpngúfnonjtys
• 2021 = 2 × 1000 + 0 × 100 + 2 × 10 + 1 : lènlùngzỳghèplènnonjjyng
• 1000000 = 100 × 10000 : ghèpbif

To construct ordinals, add -se to the number

21st: lènnonjjyng

To construct fractions, use it as a wood-gendered noun in genitive case.

a half: jyng lènca

Constructions

This section concerns various syntactic constructions. We discuss both conversational and magical constructions in parallel where relevance.

Sentence order

In conversation, the sentence order is relatively loose: SVO, OSV, VSO, VOS, SOV are all used. Particularly, they're preferred to be used like described below:

• SVO: when the subject is the topic of the sentence
• OSV: when the object is the topic of the sentence; it's also used as equivalent for passive voice, which Hàäsdáïga does not have
• VSO: when the verb is the topic, or when the question is about the object
• VOS: when it's a question and it's about the subject
• SOV: when the object is a pronoun, especially a reflexive pronoun.

Examples:

he-nom.ea.sg have-ind.prs.cnt many money-acc.mtl.pl
He has a lot of money.

die-RESULT-acc.wa.sg he-nom.fi.sg not fear-ind.prs.cnt
Death, he does not fear.

curse-int.pst.prf you-nom.wo.sg neck-wearing-acc.mtl.sg not?
Did you curse that necklace?

choose-int.fut.prf you-nom.wo.sg path-acc.ea.sg
Which path will you choose?

pay-int.fut.prf meal-money-acc.mtl.pl who.nom.sg
Who will pay for the meal?

I-nom.fi.sg you-acc.wa.sg love-ind.prs.cnt
I love you.

While casting magic, the sentence order is always SVO. Here is an example of air shield spell, which is a very simple one:

air-nom.wa.pl flow-rit.prs.cnt.wa and protect-rit.prs.cnt.ea I-acc.wa.sg
The air shall flow around me and protect me.

Negation

To negate a sentence, simply put the negative adverb in front of the verb. For each sense of negativity, there is a separate word:

• not: cèë
• not yet: niï
• never: chon

Following are the opposite of them:

• yes: daä
• already: voc
• always: réïn

Question

The preferred word orders are discussed in previous sections. Verbs must be used in interrogative mood.

One may have noticed in the Sentence order section that yes/no questions are formed by adding a negative adverb at the end of the sentence. Here are two examples with niï and chon:

Have you ever been to the capital?

Do you really never eat meat?

Adjectives and comparison

Adjectival verbs

Some verbs play the function adjectives do in other languages. Such verbs are called adjectival verbs.

In the predicative form, it is used in the same way as other verb.

man-nom.mt.sg is_old-ind.prs.cnt
The man is old.

In the descriptive form, it is attached before the noun without any conjugation.

is_old-man-nom.mt.sg catch-ind.pst.cnt fish-acc.wa.sg The old man caught the fish

Comparison

Comparison is done via prefixing.

Comparative form

The comparative form has prefix jìs.

Superlative form

The superlative form has prefix haät.

Writing system

The native writing system has not been created yet.

Glyph structure

Each syllable is represented by a glyph with a structure as shown here:

When a component in the syllable is missing, the other components expand to fill up the gap. Long vowel is represented as a horizontal line in the V2 position.

Because it requires more than a font to be able to write these glyphs, I cannot create a font to represent it. There will be a tool to generate svg/png for generaating glyphs from a word, however. All text samples in this book will be romanized, from which you can generate the native scripts.

Order

Hàäsdáïga does not have an alphabetic order. The alphabet order is used for us to more conveniently list words. The order for letters with tones is level, falling, and rising.

Letters

Letters used to form glyphs are listed in the table below:

Latin	Letter
a
b
c
ch
d
e
f
g
gh
h
i
j
l
m
n
ng
nj
o
p
r
s
t
u
v
w
y	(empty)
z
long vowel
rising tone
falling tone
level tone	(empty)
glottal stop /ʔ/
.
,
:
!
?
( or “
) or ”

Punctuation usage:

• Sentence punctuation . ! ? : are put at the beginning of the sentence, rather than the end.
• Colon is considered a sentence punctuation. It is put at the beginning of the quoted phrase.
• Comma is used in a similar way as in English.
• Brackets are used for both quotation and explanation. In case of quotation, there should be a colon preceding the phrase.

Input for glyph generation

While this is not a part of the language, in order to generate native script with the provided tool, one MUST follow this guideline for writing romanization, which is not the same as the normal romanization guideline.

• If there is a tone, the schwa y must be explicit. That is, never put the tone on a consonant.
• The second vowel should not come with the diaresis.
• Long vowel should be represented by a tilde ~ rather than duplicating vowels.
• Always write syllables separately. For example càhánzy (to give) must be written as cà hán zy.
• The glottal stop must be explicit. For example aäratse (ash) must be written as 'a~ rat se.
• Punctuations should be separated from syllables.
• Spaces should be noted with a hyphen.

The output may look bad; you can blame my poor drawing skills (I did not align some of the strokes) and the limitation of technology (the letters are stretched and therefore the thickness is not consistent).

Lexicon

Below are the list of words in the lexicon. They're translated form Hàäsdáïga to English.

Abbreviations:

A

aäratse

1. (n.) ash

B

bansy

1. (pron.) someone
2. (pron., interrogative), who

bissy

1. (n.) man

bochzo

1. (n.) repair

C

càhánza

1. (v.) give

càïzo

1. (v.) can

cèë

1. (interjection) no
2. (adv.) not

chaäswúze

1. (v.) to award, to give a prize

chát

1. (pp.) with

chech

1. (conj.) but

chon

1. (adv.) never

chónso

1. (n.) machine

chopmensu

1. (n.) thought

chopzu

1. (v.) think

chỳc

1. (pp.) near

cicso

1. (n.) angle

cong

1. (pp.) opposite of

connyzo

1. (v.) know (personal)

cotsy

1. (pron.) somehow
2. (pron., interrogative) how

D

dácza

1. (v.) search for
2. (v.) find

daä

1. (interjection) yes
2. (adv.) an emphasizing particle

daüza

1. (v.) make, create

daïnèza 1** (v.) help

dàm

1. (pp.) beyond

daänrása

1. (n) plant
2. (n.) tree

dún

1. (pp.) up

dúnjgaso

1. (n.) prize

dy

1. (particle) that (subordinate particle, <sub>)

F

fá

1. (pp.) across, through

fènvynsỳ

1. (pron., dual, exclusive) we

fènsy

1. (pron.) I

fènvynsỳ

1. (pron., dual, inclusive) we

G

gaiza

1. (v.) start, begin

ghósmense

1. (n.) drawing, picture

ghósze

1. (v.) draw

gonsi

1. (n.) rock, stone

gòngze

1. (v.) look

H

hipsy

1. (pron.) somewhen
2. (pron., interrogative) when

J

jaächdynsỳ

1. (pron., several, inclusive) we

jaächsỳ

1. (pron., several, exclusive) we

jannase

1. (n.) name

jinsi

1. (n.) day (the time for the planet to complete a rotation)
2. (n.) date

jím

1. (pp.) under, below

jos

1. (pp.) inside

L

leë'chanzo

1. (v.) calculate

lìmsi

1. (n.) human
2. (n.) person

lìmgáchsi

1. (n.) giant

lìmzìssi

1. (n.) dwarf

lòn

1. (pp.) down

long

1. (pp.) between

lúccynsỳ

1. (pron., dual) you

lúcsy

1. (pron., singular) thou

M

meëráze

1. (v.) love (personal)

mèng

1. (pp.) in front of

mochso

1. (n.) net

músnech

1. (pp.) after

mỳfgháä

1. (pp.) before

mỳsu

1. (n.) glass

N

naändèsi

1. (n.) world

néëcsỳ

1. (pron., several) you

ngèëse

1. (n.) day (as opposed to night)

ngeënsý

1. (pron., plural) you

ngỳch

1. (pp.) above

nìchzi

1. (v.) buy

niï

1. (adv.) not yet

njésy

1. (n.) woman

njizi

1. (v.) do

njongù

1. (pp.) during

nùchsa

1. (n.) kid, child

nùchzìssa

1. (n.) baby

nunjsu

1. (n.) night

P

pam

1. (pp.) over

panatzo

1. (v.) to gift, to give something as a present
2. (v.) to dedicate (to the public)
3. (v.) to dedicate (to someone, in an art work)

púüriza

1. to be born

R

raäse

1. (n.) fire

rèëchdynsý

1. (pron.) we (plural, inclusive)

rèëchsý

1. (pron.) we (plural, inclusive)

réïn

1. (adv.) always, forever

ringyso

1. (n.) vehicle

rung

1. (pp.) outside

rypnersy

1. (n.) teacher

rypzi

1. (v.) teach

S

saändasi

1. (n.) city

sànj

1. (pp.) without

sechse

1. (n.) gift

sés

1. (pp.) until

siïvỳlmensa

1. (n.) life

siïvỳlza

1. (v.) live

siïpzu

1. (v.) send

synza

1. (v.) be new, be young (age)

súngsa

1. (n.) book

T

tèf

1. (pp.) behind

tèndynsỳ

1. (pron., dual) they

tènsy

1. (pron.) ze (singular third person pronoun)

téërense

1. (n.) star

V

valusa

1. (n.) number

vamzi

1. (v.) stay

váp

1. (pp.) to

vàtsy

1. (pron.) somewhere
2. (pron., interrogative) where

vifzi

1. (v.) stand

voözi

1. (v.) be located at (for immobile objects like cities, mountains)

voc

1. (adv.) already

voïczu

1. (v.) become

vungze

1. (v.) happen

W

wítzi

1. (v.) be (copula)

wócsi

1. (n.) shop, store, market

wuüpsi

1. (n.) dog

wuüpzìssi

1. (n.) puppy

Z

zápmỳso

1. (n.) mirror

zápzu

1. (v.) reflect

zaätza

1. (v.) to say
2. (v.) to speak

Examples

Here are some collections of sample:

Translations

• XKCD (webcomic)
• Schneewittchen (German fairy tale)
• Le Petit Prince (French novella)
• The Legend of Saint Gióng (Vietnamese legend)

I would like to translate A Game of Throne prologue and some chapters in The Lord of the Rings as well, but since they're not yet in public domain and they are not published under a free license (e.g. Creative Commons), I would avoid them for legal reasons, even though such use might be considered as fair use.