In cybalist@..., Håkan Lindgren <h5@...> wrote:
> Let's say we cut off all international communication and transport
tomorrow - would anyone like to speculate how fast such a fracturing
might happen? My guess is that it would happen pretty fast. A couple
of generations and there would be obvious differences. Any conlangers
out there who would like to construct such a future language
developed from English for a change, instead of yet another
Tolkienesque elvish language or yet another Volkspraak based on Ur-
Germanic? I'd be interested to hear the results of such an
experiment.
Haakan, just in defence of my hobby, very few of us
create "Tolkienesque elvish language or yet another Volkspraak based
on Ur-Germanic". What we do is very different. As for a future-
english conlang, I did a sketch of one while bored and posted it to
the conlang mailing list; I've presented it below.
Ecoi is the language of the people who live on the planet woDakawi
(which is
from the Proto-Ecoi /w3:D@'fVka:wi:/), who call themselves the saKoni
(singular form koni). The sketch presented below is based on the
dialect of
the Holy City, nyoNulon. Etymological information is given in
brackets.
Phonology and Alphabet.
The saKoni use an alphabet which is very similar to the Terrestrial
Roman
alphabet. It has twenty letters, transliterated: a, c, d, e, f, i, j,
k, l,
m, n, o, p, r, s, t, u, v, w, y and z. They each have only one
pronunciation- i.e. all are as the IPA except c /S/, j /Z/ and y /j/.
Acute
accents can occur on vowels, which mark irregualr stress.
Stress is on the first syllable of the root word. Thus prefixes are
not
stressed and in the orthography are never capitalised. Proper nouns
are
capitalised, as are adjectives derived from them. The first word in a
sentance, however, is not capitalised.
Nouns
Nouns do not have gender. They inflect for six cases- nominative,
ablative,
dative, genitive, illative and locative. The noun distinguishes two
umbers,
singular and plural, although this distinction is optional. The noun
tan
"area" is given fully inflected below, with the proto-form in
brackets.
singular
nom tan (p-e /ta:n/)
abl rotan (p-e /fr@...:n/)
dat tutan (p-e /tu:ta:n/)
gen vatan (p-e /Vv@...:n/)
ill otutan (p-e /oftu:ta:n/)
loc natan (p-e /in@...:n/)
plural
nom satan (p-e /samta:ns/)
abl rosatan (p-e /fr@...:ns/)
dat tusatan (p-e /tu:samta:ns/)
gen assatan (p-e /@fsamta:ns/)
ill otusatan (p-e /oftu:samta:ns/)
loc isatan (p-e /insamta:ns/)
Note that Ecoi does not posess definate or indefinate articles.
Adjectives
Adjectives always come before the nouns they qualify: vi tan "big
area". If
the noun is inflected, the inflection moves to the adjective: rosavi
tan
"from big areas", not vi rosatan.
Verbs
Ecoi verbs do not distinguish tense, although they do distinguish
aspect by
means of particles before the verb. Verbs inflect for person. The
verb tuyo
"to go" is inflected below, in both affirmative and negative forms:
infinitive: tuyo
affirmative negative
I om yowimi, ono yowimi
you ya yowinya, yana yowinya
he iz yowinim, ina yowinim
she ciz yowina, cina yowina
it es yowinda, ena yowinda
we wia yowino, wiano yowino
you (pl) ya yowinyalo, yana yowinyalo
they dia yowindem, diana yowindem
As can be seen, tu- is a prefix which marks the infinitive. Note that
the -w- between the o and the i is merely epenthetic, verbs which end
in a
consonant, e.g. turot "to write" do not have this: om rotimi, not om
rotwimi.
Aspect markers come between the preverbal particle and the verb
itself.
These particles are:
foin- emphatic aspect, emphasises the positivity or negativity of the
pre-verb (p-e /fVkn=/)
stiu- imperfect aspect (p-e /stIl/)
yen- repetitive aspect (p-e /@gEn/)
reva- aorist aspect (p-e /frEv@/)
yona- volitionary aspect (p-e /gon@/)
Pronouns
Pronouns are inflected like nouns, save that they always take singular
inflections, whether or not they are gramatically singular.
I o /oj/
you yu /ju:/
he i /i:/
she ci /Si:/
it e /I?/
we (inc) manyo /mi:an_ju:/
we (exc) ulo /uslO?/
you (pl) yulo /yu:lO?/
they (m) di
they (f) dic
they (n) de /DeI/
It is obligatory to use pronouns before verbs.
Numbers
1 wan
2 tu
3 ri
4 fo
5 fov
6 sis
7 sevan
8 ey
9 non
10 ten
11 levan
12 dwel
13 fuyin
14 foyin
15 fitin
16 sitin
17 senin
18 eyin
19 nonin
20 dweni
Sample:
And I do remember, to love another person is to see the face of god.
an om foin memrimi, tulev nova muc es siyinda fes vayoz
and PREVERB-1s-aff EMPH remember-1s, inf-love other person PREVERB-
3sn-aff
see-1sn face gen-god.
The Story Behind Ecoi.
As you may have worked out, Ecoi is a future form of a certain English
dialect. The premise is that two coachloads of people from London we
abducted by aliens, had bizarre tests performed on them and then
dumped on
an uninhabited planet with basic equipment for survival. Jokingly they
called themselves "the cockney exiles", and "koni" is thus
from "cockney".
The name "Ecoi" is from our word "Estuary", referring to the so-called
"Estuary English" prevalent here in the UK.
The name of the planet itself is descended from the original
settler's cries
of "where the fuck are we?". Eventually, their descendants regressed
to a
more primitive level of culture and mythologised late 20th Century
Britain.
Their original settlement named New London became Nulon, and the
priests
here preached a religion where the cheif god is called Tonile and the
arch-demon is Wiyomey (Tony Blair and William Haig). There is a large
cult
which is devoted to the Martyred Good Goddess, Pisesta (Princess
Diana).