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.

=Phonology=

Consonants
N is soft before g, s, t and z, while m is hard after a, e and o.


 * 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-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)
 * Gromiteri vy aunj az cetee! (rude)

Genitive
Genitive can be formed by adding the prefix aun- (belonging-to-) to any noun, pronoun or name. Any declination of the genitive word 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.

Example: (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

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

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.
 * Any noun can be capitalized to indicate a special item. Capitalized noun, like names, are always considered to definite singular items, and cannot be declined.

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 2009 dvezestajat.

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

See also Delang Swadesh List, temperature list and astronomical list.

=Example text=

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