Angos

Angos started out as an auxiliary language for English, Chinese, and Spanish; it had 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 some 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.

Please note: Though the banner says that the language has been completed, various aesthetic changes may still be made. Do not accept anything on this page as set in stone.

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

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

The digraph ng may be pronounced [ŋɡ]

Diphthongs: aw, iw, ow, 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'

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 naturi (natural) or omsanati (artificial, i.e man-made). Natural words take a vowel, and to denote an artificial quality, an "s" can be added.

Word Derivation
Angos 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 ot 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 (noun [action]), where the action is whatever the context allows. The first example ota "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]

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- (pohonojo = forest) (arojos = kitchen)

Determining Gender
All nouns are inherently a neutral gender.

Person - omo

Male - na-

Female - ni-

Man = naomo

Male runner = nagiomo (the gender precedes all other parts of the compound)

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 "ru" functions as a plural marker. Demonstrative correlatives are used in place of definite articles.


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

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

Tense:


 * {| border="1" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" style="width: 500px; "


 * style="text-align: center; "|Tense
 * style="text-align: center; "|Angos
 * style="text-align: center; "|English Translation
 * style="text-align: center; "|Present Tense
 * style="text-align: center; "|ara
 * style="text-align: center; "|cook
 * style="text-align: center; "|Past Tense
 * style="text-align: center; "|mu ara
 * style="text-align: center; "|cooked
 * style="text-align: center; "|Future Tense
 * style="text-align: center; "|ku ara
 * style="text-align: center; "|will cook
 * }
 * style="text-align: center; "|ku ara
 * style="text-align: center; "|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)
 * {| border="1" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" style="width: 500px; "


 * style="text-align: center; "|Modal Particles
 * style="text-align: center; "|Positive
 * style="text-align: center; "|Translation
 * style="text-align: center; "|Negative
 * style="text-align: center; "|Translation
 * style="text-align: center; "|Ability
 * style="text-align: center; "|suaru
 * style="text-align: center; "|can
 * style="text-align: center; "|nuaru
 * style="text-align: center; "|can not
 * style="text-align: center; "|Permission
 * style="text-align: center; "|sustu
 * style="text-align: center; "|may
 * style="text-align: center; "|nustu
 * style="text-align: center; "|may not
 * style="text-align: center; "|Necessity
 * style="text-align: center; "|sumju
 * style="text-align: center; "|must, have to
 * style="text-align: center; "|numju
 * style="text-align: center; "|must not
 * style="text-align: center; "|Desire
 * style="text-align: center; "|suvu
 * style="text-align: center; "|want, would like
 * style="text-align: center; "|nuvu
 * style="text-align: center; "|do not want, would not like
 * }
 * style="text-align: center; "|want, would like
 * style="text-align: center; "|nuvu
 * style="text-align: center; "|do not want, would not like
 * }


 * The negative necessity modal numu means explicitly "must not" as in "You must not cook": To numu ara. 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 ara (You no must cook)
 * Directive commands can be expressed with just the verb:

Ara! (Eat) Nu ara! (Don't eat)


 * Volitive commands are expressed with -vamu:

Suvamu gia! (Let's go!) Nuvamu gia (let's not go)

Evidentiality and Epistemic Modality:

Comparison:

Polarity:

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
Basic sentence structure (unmodified) is SVO: Wo kerea goro (I throw the ball)

Passive voice is formed with the particle tu preceding the verb: Goro tu kerea seu wo (The ball is thrown by me)

Modifiers
Some particles and adverbs are relatively free, so long as whatever they modify is understood. Generally, if you want to be clear, place the modifier before whatever it modifies.

[Mire] [wo] [nu ba mao] (Thankfully, I don't have a cat)

[Wo] [mire] [nu ba mao] <-- The most clear, as it is placed as close as possible in front of the verb.

[Wo] [nu ba mao] [mire]

In the case above, the negative polar particle nu can only go before ba (it will only negate the succeeding word). Mao is an object and must directly succeed the verb unless it is being modified (e.g: ...ba bari mao)

Prepositional Phrases
A prepositional phrase is constructed:


 * ([prepositional particle] + [object modifiers] + [object])

Prepositional phrases succeed the verb. If there is an object, the PP succeeds the object.

[Djon] [ara] [hiu ru ajntsios]. (John eats on Sundays)

[Djon] [ara] [pitso] [hiu ru ajntsios]. (John eats pizza on Sundays)

Determiners
see Table of Correlatives

Verb Transitivity
Transitive and intransitive verbs are unmarked.

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

Intransitive: Wo raksa = I dance

Compounding
Angos 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. Stress is placed on the penultimate syllable of each root in the compound.

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

Windmill

mag = grain
 * oj = place
 * mag + oj + POS marker = magojos = granary/mill [lit. seed place]
 * baver = wind
 * baver + magojos = bavermagojos = windmill [lit. wind seed place]

Television


 * vi = eye


 * mek = machine, mechanism


 * vimekos = TV [lit. eye machine]

Telephone


 * ans = conversation


 * mek = machine, mechanism


 * ansmekos = telephone [lit. conversation machine]

Computer


 * n = brain


 * mek = machine, mechanism


 * nomekos = computer [lit. brain machine] (In this case, an 'o' can prevent a clumsy cluster)

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 :)

Nouns
The noun inventory in Angos is relatively low, only a little more than 360 roots (as of May 2011). But when inflected, there are more than 3000 distinct meanings.



The pie chart above shows the percentage of the language groups whose vocabulary was used in creating Angos.

Pronouns
The pronouns follow the same inflection rules as other nouns. However, when used as adjectives, they become possessive pronouns (my, your, their, our)

Particles
(prepositions, conjunctions, other) *Seu is a possessive marker, not a genitive. The only exceptions to its usage are the pronouns, which use the adjective ending to denote possession.

**Inu and daju are strictly spatial particles (e.g. I am in the house - Wo inu reisos). The particle hiu is strictly temporal and would be used for phrases like "on Sunday" (hiu ajntsios) or "in three hours" (hiu tin tjaso).

Using the Table of Correlatives
Questions are always in the format: Particle-Subject-Verb-Object

The interrogative correlatives (as well as the particle 'tsu') act as clause enhancers; they will always begin the question.


 * Koju to gia? - Where are you going?


 * Tsu to kafeoja? - Are you going to the coffee shop?


 * Tsu ro paniiko? - Is it blue?

Relative interrogatives are formed with the addition of the particle "tu":


 * Wo ba tu komu mu fejwa - I know who did it

Usage
In this section, I'll compare some sentence structures in Angos to those of English. I don't really have much linguistic experience in this area, so any help/advice would be awesome.

Countries of the World
Each country has its own root, and can be combined with krajo, ango, or omo to refer to the country, language/dialect, or person respectively.

Lu 2010-2011 Kati'es'kui ju Has'ku'afriki Hadajos
......

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