Cvsoyseng

Cvsoyseng, (CVSOY - Cvsoy +SENG - language), pronounced [ʧʊ.sɔĭ.sǝ̀:ŋ] is an International Auxiliary Language. It is aimed at having a simple, straightforward grammar that will not give any one group of people an unfair advantage when learning. It was devised in 2010 by Robert Xun, former Esperantist and then Gurcajist.

The vocabulary is mainly based on Indo-European, Austronesian, and Sino-Tibetan languages, but there are many words from other languages and autochthonous words. The grammar is similar to that of Tagalog, but in reality they are not related. The phonology is essentially Manchu with slightly more flexibility.

The language can be written in three different ways: with the Latin orthography, with the Manchu orthography, and with the Cvsoyseng orthography, the latter two only used in artistic and formal context. Furthermore, it is possible to adapt Cyrillic to fit the language.

Phonology
/s/ can have several different pronunciations at the end of a word if used to mark the indirect case. After a vowel or consonant from the first row of the table below, it is pronounced normally, syllabically in the latter case. After a fourth-row, fifth-row, or sixth-row consonant, it is pronounced the same as the corresponding first-row consonant. When it occurs after y or nj, s is pronounced as [c].

Phonotactics
Consonants can be arranged as such:


 * All consonants can appear at the beginning of a syllable.


 * Consonants in the first, third, and fifth columns can appear at the end of a syllable, except c. S may appear at the end of a word if used to mark the accusative case.


 * Consonants in the fifth row can appear between consonants in the first or second row and a vowel in a single syllable, but sixth-row consonants can only be after first-row consonants in a single syllable.


 * Affricates are allowed for labial, alveolar, and velar consonants, aspirated and non-aspirated.


 * When a first-row consonant and h appear together, they are written as p-h, t-h, c-h, and k-h. Second row consonants and fricatives are written as phh, thh, chh, and khh.


 * Allowed diphthongs are in the form vowel+fifth-row consonant, not including uw and iy.

Sentence Structure
Normally, a Cvsoy root is in the form VSO, Verb Subject Object, emphasizing the subject. One can remember because it is in the name of the language (Cvsoy). Since the subject and object are marked seperately, a VOS subject is equally fine, but it still emphasizes the subject.

The noun system is as follows:

There are three types of nouns: ergative, absolutive, and oblique.

Ergative: Similar to a subject of a sentence in English, the ergative is basically something that acts on another object.

Absolutive: Basically the direct object of a sentence, acted upon by a subject. Bear in mind that in Cvsoyseng, adjectives and nouns that do not involve both a subject and object. For example, in the sentence "I jump," I is an absolutive. This comes with practice, but eventually it can be accomplished.

Oblique: This covers anything that could be followed by a preposition in English and many western European languages, as well as serving as the indirect object. Without a preposition before it, a noun marked as oblique is translated as "for (noun)" if the noun is a proper name or other depiction of a person (e.g. mailman, woman). If the noun is not a person, then it can be translated as "inside (noun)."

While there are three types of nouns, a clause (in the VSO structure) technically can only hold two types of nouns of the three, without adding extra nouns before the verb.

Kharan yow injaws.

Look-pres I bird-indefsing-accus.

I am looking at a bird.

This is a standard sentence in the form Verb, Ergative, Absolutive. The emphasis is placed on "yow," the ergative. Note the infix "-ar-" placed inside the root khan, "look," indicating this is a standard sentence.

Kharan injaws yow.

Look-pres    bird-indefsing-accus      I. I am looking at a bird. This sentence means the exact same thing. It is perfectly fine to switch around a subject and object as long as they are marked the same way. Emphasis is still on "yow"

Khinan injaw yows.

Look-pres bird-indefsing I-accus.

A bird is being looked at by me.

This sentence is passivized per se with the infix "-in-." Yow becomes the accusative and injaw becomes the nominative. The sentence conveys the same information as the first two sentences, but the emphasis is now on the fact that it is a bird that is being looked at.

Fipel yow vs.

Happy-pres I him/her.

I am being happy on behalf of him/her.

In this case, yow is the nominative, and v is the accusative. The nominative acts as the absolutive, and accusative as oblique. Note how the absolutive is in this case described by the verb, due to the absolutive-ergative alignment. The infix in this case is -ip-.

On a side note it is possible to shorten this sentence:

Fipel yow vs.

Fipel y ow vs.

Fipel yvs.

This only works when there are two pronouns next to each other. Cut off everything from the vowel of the first pronoun to the consonant (if any) of the second pronoun.

Inflections
Below are inflections of a root seng.

SENG: to speak, say

* S stands for ergative case, O for absolutive, and I for dative. OO signifies an intransitive verb or reciprocal action.

ACT or STATE: sengaw ADJECTIVE: senghay Approximate English translations:

Example text
(c) Robert Xun 2010