Delang

Delang is an artistic language with its main word base from English, Russian, Latin and French, while other words are from other languages or created. Delang has its own Facebook-group, where you can join to chat i Delang. Delang has currently more than 500 word stems, or a total of more than 4000 words.

=Setting= Language use by the Illomi, descendant from the ancient Latin-people driven out from the main continent by the Negans. The Latin refugees settled on a small island continent they called Illte. Latinill later evolved into Delang, and was later influenced by Ruzi and Angli refugees fleeing from the conquering Danga-people, descendants of the Negans. Lately the Danga-people has become aware of the legend of an island continent to the south-east, and built ships to sail to Illte. Being far from the main continent, the Danga-people have left Illte, the Illomi and the refugees alone, but blocks any contact between the continets, except that between The Second Empire and Illomi officials.

To the east, unknown to the Danga-people and protected from them by the Illomis, lies the continent of Zjaunjo, the second largest continent in the world.

=Phonology=

Consonants
N is soft before g, s, t and z, while m is hard after a, e and o. Foreign word may end on soft l. I.e. qamel, mul and nemul.
 * Words ending on a consonant has to end on a hard consonant
 * Words starting with s- has to be followed by eu or another consonant
 * Words starting with ce- becomes ze- when the word is paired after another word
 * Words starting with c- can only be followed by e
 * Words starting with z- cannot be followed by e
 * In the combination dh and wh, the h is silent (i.e. a heart - anqardh /anqard/, the water - daqwh /daqw/)
 * q cannot be followed by u

Vowels

 * a cannot be followed by a, e, i or y
 * e cannot be followed by a, i, or y, except for au
 * j cannot follow or be followed by i
 * y can only follow a soft consonant or a vowel

=Syntax and Grammar=

Syntax
The basic syntax of Delang is Subject-Verb-Object, but as long as the meaning of the sentence is clear, other word orders are acceptable. Some words take precedence and are always placed in the same position in any sentence while other words always changes the word order.

Fre and gro
The verb tense indicator fre (in-past) and gro (in-future) are universal words used to indicate a natural action or that the following words are to happen or has happened. While indicating a natural action the verb is usually omitted. The indicators are often used in polite questions. In polite questions and natural action, the indicator always starts the sentence, while when indicating that a part of the sentence is to happen or has happened, the indicator is placed before the words to be modified in tense.

Examples:

(in-future if I definite-high, I in-future-better the athlete) If I became higher, I would become a better athlete. (Difficult saying if he-or-her equal in-past he-or-she) Difficult to say if he or she equals the one from before. (in-future the king/kingdom belonging-to-you in-future-come) May your kingdom come. (in-future you to me the tea) Would you please get/send me the tea? (in-past sending you to me that-tea) Would you send me the tea? (in-past you dies as the-doe belonging-to-Snape or lives as rat-tail) Would you die like Snape's doe or live like Wormtail? (in-future-send you to me that-tea) You, send me the tea!
 * Gro ip az delef, az groomeli despaurtin. (natural action)
 * Nefazill langi ip hami eqwall fre hami. (indicating former person)
 * Gro dexauj aunvy groaunjeni. (polite)
 * Gro vy aunj az detee? (polite natural action)
 * Fre miteri vy aunj az cetee? (familiar natural action)
 * Fre vy mori aj dezervidin aunSnape ili wivi aj Xattzwanz?
 * Gromiteri vy aunj az cetee! (rude)

Genitive
Two forms of genitive exist in Delang aun-gentive and ill-genetive. Neither can be used i place of the other. Both genitive forms can coexist on the same stem.

Aun-genitive
Aun-genitive are formed by adding the prefix aun- (belonging-to-) to any noun, pronoun or name. Any declination of the stem is kept after the genitive prefix. The capitalization of the first letter in the name is also kept. The word belonging to the genitive word are always placed in front of the genitive word.

Examples: (the-color belonging-to-Heaven) Heaven's color. The color of Heaven. (the-color belonging-to-the-sky) The sky's color. The color of the sky.
 * Deqrom aunLeviqardh
 * Deqrom aundezile

Ill-genitive
Ill-genitive are formed by adding the suffix -ell, -ill or -ll to any number, noun or name. The stem can be declined. Ill-genitives are never paired with another word, unless it is also a aun-genitive. Ill-genitives are used to make ordinal numbers, imply someone working with the noun used as stem or to denote a language belonging to a country.

Examples: (the-color belonging-to-a-pot) A pot's color. The color of a pot (the-color beloning-to-the-pot-worker) The potter's color, The color of the potter.
 * anqruqj (a pot) - anqruqjell (a potter)
 * Angli (England) - Anglill (English)
 * anze (11) - anzell (11th)
 * dvezetri (33) - dvezetrill (33rd)
 * jezzjez (66) - jezzjezill (66th)
 * Deqrom aunanqruqj (aun-genitive)
 * Deqrom aundeqruqjell (aun- and ill-genitive)

Adjectives
In Delang adjectives can be placed fairly free. However the easiest usage is usually to place the adjective after the noun. That way any declination of the noun are done before declining the adjective.

All the following examples are grammatically correct:


 * A good book: an naz anlibexin, anlibexin naz, an naz Liberxin
 * There are better books: nizi denaz celibexin, nizi celibexin denaz
 * That is the best book: kazenaz celibexin, celibexin kazenaz
 * These four books are the best: kazenaz katirelibexin, katirelibexin kazenaz

Punctuation
Note: The word nau (but) are always preceded by a comma. Note: When initializing names, no space is to follow the period sign. (Examples H.C.Andersen, J.K.Rowlings, J.R.R.Tolkien)
 * are used to insert supplementary information into a text.
 * , (comma) are used to seperate clauses and to indicate that the following word are not directly connected to the preciding word.
 * : (colon) are used to start lists
 * ; (semicolon) are used to separate items inside a list.
 * & (inclusion mark) are used to include items inside a list.
 * (exclution mark) are used to exclude an item inside a list.
 * . (period or full stop) are used to end sentences and to initialize names.
 * ? are used to end a question.
 * ! are used to to end an exclamation.
 * «» are used to enclose a quotation.
 * "" are used to enclose a word, or series of words, used in a different meaning than ordinary, or to use a word jokingly.

Noun

 * Names are never declined
 * Nouns always have a prefix, although nouns in the dictionary are only written using the base stem.
 * Adjectives are declined as nouns, but in the lesser version no prefix is used. Only definite-zero are used in numeric definite plural.

Pronoun
Masculine, feminine and common personal pronouns are only used for living beings. Masculine for males, feminine for female and common for hermaphrodites or when the gender of non-hermaphrodites are unknown or cannot be determined.

Verbs
Verbs can be created from most nouns by adding the suffix -i to the noun stem. For nouns ending in -j, the j is usually replaced by i.

Note that not all words ending in -i are verbs. This includes the personal pronouns, zodiac signs, names, medical terms, fomi (hermaphrodite child or offspring), foni (male child or offspring), grolevi (up), i (and), ili (or), izi (here), komi (tree), pliqomi (forest), tri (three) and other words.

=Dictionary=

Years are numbered in centuries, so the year 1945 would be anzjadstatirespat and 2010 dvezestanze.

Ordinal numbers are created by the suffixes -ill, after consonant, and -ll, after vowels.

My personal dictionary is available on request.

See also Delang Swadesh List and astronomical list.

=Example text=

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