Angos

Angos started out as an auxiliary language for English, Chinese, and the Romance languages; it featured a balance between each language's complexity and expressive features. Currently, the language draws its vocabulary from a number of different languages, including Swahili, Arabic, Japanese, and even Basque.

This language was co-developed by users Detectivekenny, Panglossa, and Razlem, with a little help from others. "Angos" ['aŋ.gos] simply means "Artificial Language".
 * Please use the talk page for this article to discuss about the page content. Main discussion for the project is going on at the forum.

Phonology
Vowels: [a], [e], [i], [o], [u]

Consonants: [p], [t], [k], [b], [d], [g], [m], [n], [w], [j], [h], [f], [s], [r] (rhotic is allowable), [l], [v]

The digraph ng may be pronounced [ŋɡ]

Diphthongs: aw, iw, ow, yw, aj, ej, oj

Stress: Penultimate

Syllable Structure (C = consonant; V = vowel; S = semivowel)
 * V
 * VC
 * CV
 * SV
 * CVS
 * SVC
 * CVC
 * SVS
 * CCV
 * CSV
 * CSVS
 * CSVC

Language Characteristics
The idea is for it to be lightly inflected with a tendency to isolate. A few unique innovations are also present in the language:

Medial Vowel System
Drawing from similar IALs, this language features a classification system where the last vowel indicates the part of speech.

Nouns: 'o' or 'os' (see Noun Distinction below)

Verbs: 'a'

Adjectives: 'i'

Adverbs: 'e'

Other (conjunctions, prepositions, particles): u

Natural and Artificial Noun Distinction
In this language, parts of speech are distinguished as either "Natural" or "Artificial" (i.e man-made). Natural words take a vowel, and to denote an artificial quality, an "s" can be added.

Word Derivation
Angy is a noun-based language, meaning every non-particle has a noun root.

What? Impossible you say? Maybe. But I've found a way (kinda) to make it work with traditional verbs. Each verb is roughly "to [noun]"

For example, the full inflection of the word sil meaning "fire".

Now for a usual verb, "to have". The noun for this is a "grip" or "hold", b-

A word of caution: words in this language are meant to be ambiguous as to facilitate conversation. The reasoning behind this system is the equation (VERB + noun), where the verb is whatever the context allows. The first example sila "to fire", can be taken as "go to a fire" or "to start a fire". The second example verb is "to have a grip of something" or "to get a grip of something", as in to make something in your grip or hold, to have it in your grip or on your person.
 * ba - to get, have, know, understand, take

"But wait Razlem! What about 'to be'?"

Omitted. Completely. Yeah, you heard me.

I am a [noun] = Wo [noun]

I am [adjective] = Wo [adjective]

See the Vocabulary section for more examples.

Other Derivatives

Person who is doing VERB = endocentric compound (giomo = runner)

Person who does VERB habitually = seme (seme giomo = runner)

Person who does VERB professionally = profes (profes giomo = professional runner)

Place with lots of NOUN, Place where VERB is done = -oj- (arbojo = forest) (alojos = kitchen)

Determining Gender
Person - omo

Male - na-

Female - ni-

Man = naomo

Male runner = nagiomo

Woman = niomo

Female runner = nigiomo

No Plural Inflections
This language does not include inflections for plurals normally found in other IALs, nor does it include traditional articles. The particle "lu" functions as a plural marker. Demonstrative adjectives are used in place of definite articles.


 * I see a cow - Wo via tiro [lit. I see cow]
 * I see cows - Wo via lu tiro [lit. I see (more than one) cow]
 * I see the cow - Wo via fogu tiro [lit. I see this cow]
 * I see the cows - Wo via fogu lu tiro [lit. I see this (more than one) cow}

Particles
Angy employs heavy use of particles to determine aspect, tense, mood, etc. The polar particles si and nu can be attached to other particles to emphasize or negate.

Tense:


 * Present tense is unmarked
 * Past Tense - mu
 * Past Tense - mu


 * Wo mu ala - I cooked
 * Future Tense - ku


 * Wo ku ala - I will cook

Moods:


 * Interrogative - tsu (must always begin the question): Tsu wo ala? - Do I cook? (this is only used if there is no interrogative correlative)
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 * Modal Particles
 * Positive
 * Translation
 * Negative
 * Translation
 * Ability
 * sualu
 * can
 * nualu
 * can not
 * Permission
 * sustu
 * may
 * nustu
 * may not
 * Necessity
 * sumju
 * must, have to
 * numju
 * must not
 * }
 * numju
 * must not
 * }


 * The negative necessity modal numu means explicitly "must not" as in "You must not cook": To numu ala. To say something like "You do not have to cook", you would place a negative marker in front of the positive modal: To nu sumju ala (You no must cook)
 * Directive commands can be expressed with just the verb: Ala! (Eat) Nu ala! (Don't eat)
 * Volitive commands are expressed with -vamu: Suvamu gia! (Let's go!) Nuvamu gia (let's not go)
 * Volitive commands are expressed with -vamu: Suvamu gia! (Let's go!) Nuvamu gia (let's not go)

Evidentiality and Epistemic Modality:


 * Wo sutinu ala - I evidently cook
 * Wo nutinu ala - It is doubtful that I cook
 * Lu lo sutinu mu gia - They evidently walked
 * Lu lo nutinu mu gia - It is doubtful that they walked
 * Lo ansa to nutinu ba viamekos - He doubts that you have a TV [lit. he says you [doubt] have TV]

Comparison:


 * Less - nuru: Wo nuru fajhi du to - I [am] less green than you
 * More - suru: Wo suru fajhi du to - I [am] more green than you
 * Least- nufu: Wo nufu fajhi du osiju - I am the least green of all
 * Most - sufu: Wo sufu fajhi du osiju - I am the most green of all

Polarity:


 * Affirmative - su
 * Wo su gia - Yes, I am going
 * Negative - nu
 * Wo nu gia - I am not going

Particle Placement
Particles go before whatever they enhance, so there is no standardized placement in terms of word order. Some placement examples have been shown above.

Syntax
Word order is strictly SVO

Verb Transitivity
Transitive and intransitive verbs are unmarked.

Transitive: Wo kambia [object] = I change [an object]

Intransitive: Wo bala = I dance

Compounding
Angy uses endocentric compounding, in which A+B denotes a special kind of B. In Angos, compounding is generally used for artificial words with no natural counterparts.

Store
 * mir = merchandise
 * oj = place
 * mir + oj + Part of Speech Marker = mirojos = store [lit. merchandise place]

Windmill
 * kas = product
 * oj = place
 * kas + oj + POS marker = kasojos = factory [lit. product place]
 * fan = wind
 * fan + kasojos = fankasojos = windmill [lit. wind product place]

Television


 * vi = eye


 * mek = machine, mechanism


 * vimekos = TV [lit. eye machine]

Telephone


 * ans = sound


 * mek = machine, mechanism


 * ansmekos = telephone [lit. communication machine]

Computer


 * ser = brain


 * mek = machine, mechanism


 * sermekos = computer [lit. brain machine]

Vocabulary
This isn't terribly organized, and doing full inflections would require a tremendous amount of space, so just bear with me for the time being :)

Particles (prepositions, conjunctions, other)

Dictionary
UNDER CONSTRUCTION :)

The Tower of Babel (2010)
This is an older version of Angos. I'll leave it here for archiving purposes.