Subepas

Presentation
Subepas (pronounced [subepas]) is a conlang which incorporates several features of real languages as well as vocabulary. Its vocabulary mainly comes from Indo-European languages as well as Japanese and Semitic languages. It is an agglutinative language, meaning that affixes can be added to some words depending on their function in the sentence.

General Information
(Page is still currently being created) Subepas is an agglutinative language with a nominative-accusative alignment, with special structures to express active, passive or causative voice. The order is SVO in general. Verbs can vary depending on tense, person and number, and other suffixes can be added (case suffixes) if the verbal phrase occupies a certain function in a sentence. There are 46 cases (I know, that's a lot), which gives the language the peculiarity to not have any prepositions, since case endings are added to replace their use. A few cases have a spatial and a temporal version, a different connotation or an inessive, illative and elative version, which explains the gigantic number of cases. Subepas' phonology is rather simple and international, which is, by the way, the main purpose of this language.

Writing System
Subepas can be written with the Latin alphabet or the Subepas writing system. I will put a link to a file with information about the Subepas writing system (which is an abugida inspired by the Latin, Greek and Thai alphabets)

Nouns
Nouns in Subepas do not change according to gender (I absolutely hate this concept, just like tones). However, they can change according to their function in the sentence (cases). They can also change according to number by adding the suffix -tish, but this can be omitted, especially when the noun is the subject of the sentence, since the verb form already shows the number of the subject. There are 46 cases in Subepas, which all have an invariable ending (unlike Indo-European languages where the ending depends on the gender and number of the noun or in Turkic where it depends on vowel harmony) (Notice that I invented the name of some cases because I couldn't find any equivalent name for them in any language): Nominative, Accusative, Dative, Genitive, Spatial Inessive, Spatial Elative, Spatial Illative, Translative, Exessive, Instrumental, Compagny-ive, Positive Causal, Negative Causal, Neuter Causal, Superessive, Sublative, Sublative, Delative, Final, Abessive, Agentive, Causative, Antessive, Postessive, Apudessive, Illative Apudessive, Elative Apudessive, Subessive, Illative Subessive, Elative Subessive, Intrative, Illative Intrative, Elative Intrative, Mediative, Illative Mediative, Elative Mediative, Perlative, Essive, Subjective, Referative, Vocative, Anterioritive, Simultaneive, Posterioritive, Temporal Inessif, Temporal Elative and Temporal Illative.

Phew! That's a lot of cases, you might be wondering! Here is a table showing the different uses and forms of Subepas cases:

Verbs
Verbs in Subepas vary according to person, number, tense and positivity / negativity. Tenses and negativity are marked with prefixes whereas person and number are marked with suffixes. Verbs are positive in their default form (a prefix is added to mark negativity). There are only three tenses: past, present and future. The pronouns (ong (I), ing (you), taj (he, she, it), ongtish (we), ingtish (you (plural)), tajtish (they)) are often omitted if they are the subject of the verb (except where several names are involved, to avoid any ambiguity). However, they must be used when they are in another form than the nominative (accusative, genitive, etc...). All verbs (with the only exception of "hay" (there is), which is an impersonal verb) end in -rah (even the verb "bikrah" (to be) !). Also note that verbs can be followed by case endings to be nominalized. We will take for example the verb anaghirah (to eat):

The prefix sha- is added to mark the past tense."Shaanaghirong. = I ate / was eating / have eaten / have been eating."The prefix mir- is added to mark the future tense. "Miranaghirong. = I will eat / will be eating."The prefix mik- is added to change a verb into its negative form. ''Mikanaghirong. = I don't eat / am not eating.''

''Mikshaanaghirong. = I didn't eat / wasn't eating / haven't eaten / haven't been eating.'' The past participle is created by replacing -rah by -rutta."Anaghirutta = Eaten"The present participle is created by adding neus- before the verb."Neusanaghirah = Eating"The passive is created with this pattern: Patient + bikrah ("to be") (conjugated according to the patient) + verb in the past participle + agent in the agentive case (followed by -khaman)"Musu bikraj anaghirutta goyangkhaman. = The mouse is being eaten by the cat. ('mouse' (nominative case) - 'to be' (present, 3rd pers. sing.) - 'to eat' (past participle) - 'cat' (agentive case))"The causative is created with this pattern: Causer + sasekrah ("to do, to make") (conjugated according to the agent) + causee in the causative case (followed by -tadek) + verb in the infinitive + ..."Shasasekrong ongeuk goyangtadek anaghirah musurav. = I made my cat eat the mouse. ('to make' (past, 1st pers. sing.) - 'my' - 'cat' (causative case) - 'to eat' (infinitive) - 'the mouse' (accusative case))"To change a verb into its imperative form, all we need to do is to add -assada after the verb in the present tense."Anaghiringassada! = Eat!"

Adjectives
Adjectives in Subepas are invariable, meaning that they stay the same no matter their position in the sentence."Anaghirong khort apalrav. = I'm eating a good apple. ('to eat' (present, 1st. pers. sing.) - 'good' (invariable) - 'apple' (accusative)"

Adverbs
Adverbs, as in most (if not all) languages on the planet, are invariable. Some of them have a proper form (such as "tarik" (enough) and "nunka" (never), but most of them are formed by adding the prefix lop- before an adjective ("lopkhort" (well), "lopsekyur" (safely)).

Relative Clauses
Relative clauses are linked to the main clause with the relative pronoun tikki. Note that tikki is placed right after the noun it refers to and takes the ending of the case that the noun has in the relative clause (this structure is similar to German). ''Goyang tikkieuk fitsomdaliper bikrajish wess anaghiraj musurav. = The cat whose paws are white eat the mouse.'' (cat (nominative) - (relative pronoun, genitive) - paws (nominative) - to be (present, 3rd pers. plur.) - white - to eat (present, 3rd pers. sing.) - mouse (accusative))

''Missadha tikkiyaki sumurong bikraj mashipolinax. = The house in which I am living is close to the town.'' (house (nominative) - (relative pronoun, inessive) - to live (present, 1st pers. sing.) - to be (present, 3rd pers. sing.) - city (apudessive))

Example text
Here's the Tower of Babel text translated into Subepas:

Babeleuk Taxindha

1. Todo Gayaeuk supak shaizpoluzarajish sajikorom pasrav dax sajikorom kokpasrav.

(entire - Earth (genitive) - people (nominative) (here "supak" is in the singular form, the plural form would be "supaktish", but we can guess it is plural by the context) - to use (past, 3rd pers. plur.) - same - language (accusative) - and - same - words (accusative))

2. Temkhi supak shaperkanyarajishwan higagayalikad, shasahafayndarajish prodzorav Shineargwodjayaki dax shasevetrajish kokoyaki.

(but - people (nominative) - to go (past, 3rd pers. plur., simultaneive) - orient (illative) - to discover (past, 3rd pers. plur.) - meadow (accusative) - country of Shinear (spatial inessive) - and - to settle (past, 3rd pers. plur.) - here (spatial inessive))

3. ''Shashukhrajish lopokotmi : « Moldarongishassada biriktishrav dax kosharongishassada tajtishrav tawobenyaki ! ». Birik shabikrajish izpoluzarutta petrasawa dax asfalt shabikraj izpoluzarutta mortaryosawa.''

(to say (past, 3rd pers. plur.) - to each other (mutually) - to mold (make) (imperative, 1st pers. plur.) - brick (plur. accusative) - and - to bake (imperative, 1st pers. plur.) - they (accusative) - oven (inessive) - brick (nominative) - to be (past, 3rd pers. plur.) - to use (past participle) - rock (essive) - and - asphalt (nominative) - to be (past, 3rd pers. plur.) - to use (past participle) - mortar (essive))

4. ''Shashukhrajish : « Mirsasekrongish mashipolirav dax taxindharav tikkieuk toppo mirtokaraj tyanrav. Nareurongishassada sapinon mikmirbikrongishpura sparsay todo Gayawon. »''

(to say (past, 3rd pers. plur.) - to build (make) (future, 1st pers. plur.) - city (accusative) - dax - tower (accusative) - (relative pronoun, genitive) - top (nominative) - to touch (future, 3rd pers. sing.) - sky (accusative) - to become (imperative, 1st pers. plur.) - known - to be (negative future, 1st pers. plur., final) - scattered - entire - Earth (superessive))

5. Yahawaha shaperkandaraj mimirahpura mashipolirav dax taxindharav tikkirav Adameuk dantrathurakkahtish shasasekrajish.

God (nominative) - to go down (past, 3rd pers. sing.) - to see (infinitive, final) - city (accusative) - and - tower (accusative) - (relative pronoun, accusative) - Adam (genitive) - son (plural nominative) - to build (make) (past, 3rd pers. plur.))

6. ''Yahawaha shashukhraj : « Hey, sankri tajtish bikrajish appena in supopolo dax in pas dax shishut bikraj tajtisheuk indama sasek ! Nao, niet tikkirav mimilyerajish sasekrah mirbikraj buperkabil tajtishkhib !''

God (nominative) - to say (past, 3rd pers. sing.) - hey (interjection) - every (each of) - they (nominative) - to be (present, 3rd pers. plur.) - just, only - one- people (nominative) - and - one - language (nominative) - and - this (thing) (nominative) - to be (present, 3rd pers. sing.) - they (genitive) - first - work (deed) (nominative) - now - nothing (nominative) - (relative pronoun, accusative) - to want (future, 3rd pers. plur.) - to do (infinitive) - to be (future, 3rd pers. sing.) - unreachable - they (dative))

7. ''« Perkandarongassada dax damajarongassada tajtisheuk pasrav, chong mikwakamurajishpura lopokotmi ! »''

to go down (imperative, 1st pers. sing.) - and - to scramble (imperative, 1st pers. sing.) - they (genitive) - language (accusative) - no longer - to understand (negative present, 3rd pers. plur., final) - mutually, each other

8. Shi walshikik, Yahawaha shasparsaraj tajtishrav todo Gayawon dax shastoparajish sasekrah mashipolirav.

this - time (temporal inessive) - God (nominative) - to scatter (past, 3rd pers. sing.) - they (accusative) - entire - Earth (superessive) - and - to stop (past, 3rd pers. plur.) - to build (infinitive) - city (accusative)

9. Suxantr shi mashipoli shabikraj nomarutta Babelsawa, shi bikrajdakar zomti tikkiyaki Yahawaha shadamajarajish todo Gayaeuk pasrav, dax tikkiyaki Yahawaha shasparsaraj supakrav todo Gayawon.

also - this - city (nominative) - to be (past, 3rd pers. sing.) - to name (past participle) - Babel (essive) - this - to be (present, 3rd pers. sing., neuter causal) - place (nominative) - (relative pronoun, spatial inessive) - God (nominative) - to scramble (past, 3rd pers. sing.) - entire - Earth (genitive) - language (accusative) - and - (relative pronoun, spatial inessive) - God (nominative) - to scatter (past, 3rd pers. sing.) - entire - Earth (superessive)