Unitican

This is a work in progress, expected to be finished by March 2015

General information
An imaginary language created for few people who decided that talking in English was too mainstream. Its grammar is heavily based on English, with only one or two exceptions

Nah.. Created for a novel currently in writing (for pleasure) as a language used by the people living on the planet Earthy. The planet Earthy is created in an imaginary world, partially resembling Coruscant in Star Wars. It is the Lingua Franca there the same way English is the Lingua Franca here. Unitico is the democratic republic that surrounds the entire planet, hence the name of the language being Unitican. It is around 3000 years old, so has gone through many eliminations to make the language easier and simpler to write and say (though the alphabetical system remains awful).

My classmates, friends and I (mistaknomore) [we live in Singapore] use this language to talk amongst ourself during online gaming to prevent others from knowing what we are saying. Personally, I use it to write diary entries. Amongst ourselves, we usually use less than 500 words, as my friends are not very acquainted with it.

This language is meant for actual use, so it is extremely heavily based on English, so that English speakers like myself can use it as a code.

According to some, it sounds like Russian! What do you think?

Phonology
The IPA letters are on the left, while the romanization is on the right.

Consonants
Also, there is compound consonant "X" which is pronounced /ks/

Vowels
There are compound vowels, "uue" /juə/ "uué" /juei/   é/ei/ y/ai/

Alphanumeric System
There are alot, alot, alot of letters used in Unitican, especially diacritics and accents. However it was planned in mind that evetually with use, one can read words without the use of most accents. There are compound letters and weird letters.

Phonotactics
Unlike english, when an "e" follows a word it has to be pronounced, for instance

Myne is pronounced "My-ne" not "Mine (english)"

The "r" in Unitican is usually to aid pronounciation, but actually when it comes to IPA breakdown (for the experts) most of them are rhoticities.

The arrow sign over letters (vowels) means that you pronouce it the way you read it while singing the ABC song (in English), for example "a cap" is pronounced [eɪ], the same way you pronounce it when you sing the song (ey); "e cap" is [iː] so on and so forth.

For experienced users
When an "e" comes after a "c" it is pronounced :    ə

When an "e" comes after an "s" it is pronounced :   ɛ

When an "e" comes at the end of a word, it is pronounced :  ə

Grammar
It follows Subject - Verb - Object.

For example, Ya cin te fean shidg'rins - I like to eat potatoes

But you are free to put the the Verb infront, and object subject behind in verbs, for example,

Zy uueveyaye? - (Do lovemeyou?) Do you love me?

Ahnnen anchroyahey te they lexinhyalyn - ( Father fetchmehe to the school) Father fetch me to school

Ya zy'nnx biané cinyhenya - (I don't really likeherme) I don't really like her

But it is ok not to use this sort of grammar ( Rules to be set some time in the future)

To indicate possession, such as this sentence, "The computer is Tom's", you use the word "set" at the back. I.e. Thai x'lintoz tom set" . This literally means, the computer tom (belongs). Similarly this means u can express other sentences that indicate possession in the same way. For example, "My house is the best house" can be expressed in two different forms. First is "Yars hyalos sy thai en'foryaz hyalos", or it can be expressed as "Hyalos ya set sy thai en'foryaz". The "set" form of speaking and writing is deemed more formal, and is used in work and buisness

Tenses
There are 5 tenses in Unitican - Past, Past Perfect, Present, Present Continuous Future

Present Tense

This this the verb being itself

Present Continuous

A simple affix of -so [so] behind the verb.

Future Tense

A simple affix of -to [toh] to the verb.

Past Perfect Tense

A simple affix of -lem [lɛm] to the verb.

Past Tense

Past tenses in Unitican are the worst yet you will come across... with an enormous amounts of exceptions

In short*, you can be safe to assume that all words that end with -'t, -an and -yx are past tense of verbs. These are some of the rules that apply to past tenses. For now you can just apply 't to all verbs to make them past tense


 * - And there are the EXCEPTIONS.

Here is a non-exhaustive list that may prolong as new words are being created.

Coyalis (Check) = Coyalisan

Hin (Will) = Han

Zy (Do) = Zix

Kay (Can) = Xay

Erx (Must, Need) = Eyx

Was (Say) = Wes

Vhs (Take) = Vhysh

Further Grammar
If you are proficient enough in English, this should be redundant, as Unitican's Voices, Moods and Aspects are copied over from English. No originality. Haiz, I know. However the following are the exceptions

There are only 3 cases, possessive, accusative and nominative. There are 3 exceptions. Just as in English, the word "you" originally had a nominative form "ye", it eventually fell out of use and "you" also became the nominative AND accusative form. In Unitican, I ; You ; He ; She all experience this. The Nominative and Accusative Form for these 4 pronouns are the same. Only for We ; They  and You all have accusative forms.

To-Infinitive

The "to-infinitive" forms of verbs have a -e attached to the end. What this means is that a sentence like "I want to eat" becomes "Ya kisey féane". The to-verb becomes verb-e.

Particles
-sos                   the English equalvalent of -ly                                ( immense to immensely, na'fahn to na'fahnsos)

-so                     the English equalvalent of -ing                              (Present Active Participle, walk to walking, horen to horenso)

-lyn                    to make the word a noun                                        ( happy to happyness, forlyn to forlynlyn)

-vo                     to make the word a verb                                          ( beautiful to beautify, fuyeul to fuyeulvo)

-sif                     to make the word an adjective

(Adjective Participle, government to governmental, renxihyadexous to renxihyadexoussif)

an-                     to make the word the reverse meaning                 (good to bad, foryaz to anforyaz)

Indications

-hyalyn             to symbolise an area or building for                          (Inryhyalyn - Bank)

-hyalos              to symbolise a house or place of residence for      (Inryhyalos - Treasury)

-toz                    an object                                                                        (Inrysutoz - Wallet)

-troz                   a large object                                                                (Inrysutroz - Vault)

Adverbs

cru-                    to make the verb, adj have less impact

do-                     to make the verb, adj, have slightly more impact than usual

so-                     to make the verb, adj have more impact than usual, comparable to English's -er

en-                     to make the verb, adj have much more impact than usual, comparable to English's -est

na-                     to make the verb, adj have significantly more impact than usual (rarely used)

Vocabulary
The Unitican language boasts an enormous vocabulary due to its aggultinative nature and currently has over 4500 words ( 3 October 2013), though it has only around 1500 to 2000 root words, and most are for gaming and daily simple conversation.

For the full dictionary, please refer to the full dictionary, which is currently a work in progress! :) [search Unitican Dictionary]

If you want a more specific list, you can view Unitican followed by Water, Mood, School, Physics, Human Body and so on.

Here are some conversation starters :)

Numbers and Maths
Zero - Non

One - Dian

Two - No

Three - Zen

Four - Xers

Five - Diez

Six - Ziyn

Seven - Kien

Eight - Kite

Nine - Dexi

Ten - Ent

Eleven - Diantlyian

Hundred - Encos

Thousand - Nacos

Million - Ianron

Billion - Noron

Trillion - Zenron

Pi - Xeho

e - Sya'Xe

Infinity - Na'Xe Four hundred and twenty- two - Xersencos e nolyo

Three Billion Two Hundred and Fourty-Seven - Zennoron Noencos e Xerslyien

Integration - Liate (Those who know integration by parts XD)

Differentiation - Dedeax (Those for know differentation XD)

Factorial - Jyrialyn

Times - Join

Plus - Lof

Minus - Yex

Divide - Dous

Sin - Eain

Cos - Yov

Tan - Zint

Arcsin - Aneain

Arccos - Anyov

Arctan - Anzint

Cosec - En'Eain

Cot - En'Zint

Sec - En'Yov

Sqaure - Nonex

Root - Fae

Log - Loxh

Ln - Syaloxh

Factorize - Xe' Cro

Expansion - Fah' Xehlyn

Example text

It is quite easy to learn Unitican, as it is almost completely based on English; that is, if you are good in English

Zi sy yult eysas te lexin Unitican, can zi sy ifoxey dexoussos padovo un Inglish; vi sy, zeye arn foryaz un Inglish.

(Zee sigh yoult eysahs teh laxsin Youneeteeken, cahn zee sigh eefohzey dexses pahdohvoh uhn English, vyee sigh, zeeyeh ahrn foryaaz uhn English)

The sun is extremely hot today! Can I have some water?

''Thai syfax sy en'has terolx! Kayya hiv myne raho?''

I do not find going to school particularly interesting.

Ya zy'nnx hose lenso te lexinhyalyn hyatebinsos seas.

Playing computer games online is one of the best ways to be happy.

Piyenso x'lintox piyaxes unlyvy sy dian zat thai en'foryaz handes te zay forlynsif.

The North Wind and the Sun

THE NORTH WIND and the Sun disputed as to which was the most powerful, and agreed that he should be declared the victor who could first strip a wayfaring man of his clothes. The North Wind first tried his power and blew with all his might, but the keener his blasts, the closer the Traveler wrapped his cloak around him, until at last, resigning all hope of victory, the Wind called upon the Sun to see what he could do. The Sun suddenly shone out with all his warmth. The Traveler no sooner felt his genial rays than he took off one garment after another, and at last, fairly overcome with heat, undressed and bathed in a stream that lay in his path.

Persuasion is better than Force.

They Nyrth Whyser e they Syfax

THAI NYRTH WHYSER e thai Syfax cororo't can te sen syx thai en'gershensif, e yen vihey wid zay azerielan thai tymren ney xay diantsif tras n handeose ren zat hysen fians. Thai Nyrth Whyser diantsif yiyez't hysen gerhenlyn, e whysvo wal hall hysen grost, xan thai so'zono hysen chauses, thai anuy thai Hhloren nyest hysen gonup drowin yan, cois tor raixyx, anzyhallso hall dref zat tymlyn, the Whyser nallan aneuny thai Syfax te coas ifohey xay zy. Thai Syfax oudusos fanvo't wal hall hysen haslyn. Thai Hhloren nen ing croyz hysen cru'hassif zefanlyns trus hey vhysh not dian fian rol anda, e tor raixyx, weasos unvas wal haslyn, anfianvo't e ashnyx un n cru'swyraho vi un ohs hysen byhande.

Lyuue sy so'foryaz trus Ea.