Djado

As an isolating language, Djado uses an intuitive word order and stress patterns to repurpose words in a way that reduces grammar-only words to a minimum. Common content words are plugged into defining slots and give novel uses. This leads to a vast array of grammatical options, but, do note, they are only options, not requirements.

Caveat: This is an experiment in just how minimalist a language can be. Finding common words in defined but novel slots may be too difficult for some to sort out those from their expected uses. Also, they may find there is not enough corroborating material around the them.

Still, look down the list of categories. There is a logic to the word ordering that can become intuitive to the speaker because it is based on a “best” theory on how most natlangs are grammatically ordered. One over-arching function flows into another. (Though not my theory, the following is my interpretation. To keep it as simple in its presentation, I will not go into too much detail.)

Consonants
It's frustrating being restricted to the English keyboard. I would rather type the IPA velar nasal than the inappropriate [q], but I refuse use the [ng] digraph. [zj, sj, dj, tj] are more appropriate than using [zh, sh, ch] as the [h] should be used to mark aspiration. my [h] isn't because the glottal fricative-approximate does special duty in Djado, along with [?] and [L]. Other may be added later.

Phonotactics
Syllables are self-segmenting.

Grammar
Functional shift - is a key part of Djado. Any word has the potential to fill any grammatical slot. Rather than a morpheme, it is the word order and stress pattern that differentiates its use in the slots.

Predication and Predicate - are the most fundamental examples, as they are what constitutes the main clause, the sentence at its most basic. - Predication - the most relevant of the noun phrase of the main clause. The default one is the subject. It is to some degree the agent, effecting the predicate. - Predicate - the sentence as a microcosm that links directly to the verb. The macrocosm of greater detail of its type of information can be placed outside of the main clause.

Phrases - Both the predication and predicate have smaller units and they have the same word order. XMHR → Noncontent word(s) Modifier(s) Head(s) Rating particle(s)

Stress - is used to differentiated these sub-units. [;] before the written word marks the head; [‘] before the one marks a modifier; [ ] means noncontent word are unmarked for stress. This, of course, is how English normally distinguishes them. (Why not simply use capital letters to mark the head? Not only is it quicker to type a semicolon than a capital, the [;] is on the home row of the keyboard. Admittedly, though, less relevant with cell phones. The ones less likely to be given emphasis were chosen.)

Note - stress particle - can be used to ‘change’ or emphasize the stress of a word without actually changing the stress. It can also be used have an stress particle place to put intonation, allowing for less ambiguity and more nuance.

Schwa words - are some of the most frequently used words in Djado. - d - stress particle - - p - parser - - zj - scope - (/-w/, /-j/ - as suffixes are also “special” derivators, used to help prevent the phonemes pronouns from being incoming weakened and converted into suffixes) - j, i - I,me - 1p - w, u - you - 2p - h, a - she,he,it, ... - 3p, relevent - o - '''she, he, it, ... ''' - 4p, less relevant - e - this, that, yon - - æ - topic - most relevent - s - direct object - case, pronoun - v - and - - k - wh-word, some/any - - r - true - - tj - false - - l - Yes - - n - No - - x - use - - b - away, from - - t - at, to - - sj - 2d, on - - dj - 3d, in - - f - path, length - - g - gap - - z - ordinal -

(Admittedly, some of the most frequent words have been left off the list because of the limited number of phonemes. Those are given a single syllable.)

Pronouns - are more anaphoric, back referencing, than in other languages. When a new person, place or thing is introduced, it is recommended that it be given all of its relevant details - like number, distance or relation to 1p ans 2p. But after that, the pronoun only has to have its one identifying syllable. It is, in effect, a pronoun of a pronoun. Adding back those details would be emphasizing them. (For these details, see )

Inclusive and Exclusive - The default is that without the addition of the 2p word, it is not included in the referring. - 1p - I, me, we, us - the creator of the sentence. - 2p - you - the target of the sentence, who it is meant for. - 3p - he, she, him, her, it - is not part of 1p and 2p’s the current relationship. - 4p - he, she, him, her, it - like 3p except 4p is more incidental, of lower relevancy. ↓ - 1i - This, that, yon - this indicator does not have to be further specified in these three wys or o]in other ways. - [ ' ] - on 1p, 2p, 3p or 4p modifies it into "this", "that", "yon", etc. - [ ] - Article -

Pro-dropping - Pronouns can be dropped if there is low risk of being misunderstood.

Topic - is what can and is most readily dropped, as it has the greatest relevance. When it is not the noun phrase in the predication, it comes immediately before the predication: before the noncontent or content words, [ ] - noncontent word that marks the topic. [‘] - modifier that fills an entire slot. It cand be doubled to keep it from being misunderstood. [;] - a pseudo-pronoun. It is used to track it through the paragraph(s). It is recommended that the speaker learn to use it instead of 3p when it is the topic.  Parser - breaks any link that can be perceived between to words, phrases, etc. It can be used here to separate the predication and predicate.

Subject Commentary - is not part of the predication per se; it is the predication’s modification of the predicate. It is for the subject’s evaluation of the coming predicate, not the speaker’s. Any word may theoretically fill this slot, but here are some of the basic ones: - scientifically - ontological, - across cultures - ontological - inside my culture - epistemic - outside my culture - epistemic - typically - typical - generally - generic - traditionally - - etiquette says - - etc. - Note! They can be made more nuanced by using a system that marks °degrees. They can be combined with one enough, too.

Predicate proper - are the microcosm of the sentence.

Note - Sentence Adverbs - are the macrocosm of the verb phrase modifiers. It allow for more information in greater detail. Placement relative to the rest of the sentence determines whether it is background (default), foreground, or highlighted for (de)emphasis.

Side note - Less careful, less relevant - These three words divide up the following modals three way between themselves. - can - - may - - might -

True, Unknown and False - - true - real - unknown - - false - not real (NOTE! Though it seems to be 2/3rds of a truth table, Djado’s expression is based on the intuition that informs those tables in all languages. Once the learner becomes familiar with the use of T/U/F it will become intuitive.)

Epistemic - is at the border between the subject particle and modality. Here, the speaker takes that evaluatiive word of the subject (it may be themself) and adds their Y/M/N evaluation. It can be interpreted as whether they see it as trustworthy information.

Evaluation - doesn’t relate to the subject particle. It is just the speaker’s Y/M/N evaluation. - parser - is placed between the subject particle and the evaluation to separate them, ending the influence of the subject.

Presupposition and Statement - - Mood - is the joining of two clauses into one sentence. The one modifying the other is the presupposition. It can be dropped because it is assumed to be understood and, so, need not be mentioned; or it may be withheld for various reason, letting the 2p make the assumptions.

In Djado, the T, U or F of the preposition is added to the T, U or F of the statement at the juncture where they meet. When the presupposition is dropped, the combination is still kept and is shown at the beginning of the statement sentence.

Modality is the microcosm of mood. The presupposition is implied. Judgment. Mood  			              | Modality - Factual    	       _ T 	  | - (default) - Subjunctive 	      T U 	  | - Declarative - Assumptive 	      U T 	  | - Inferential - Speculative         U U 	  | - Doubt/Dubitive - Counterfactive     F T     | - Optative;	Energetic  T! %response% - Hypothetical         F U   | - Hypothetical - Implicative 	      →T *TF | - Renarrative/Oblique: T/U/F - Ascriptive 	      →F *TT | - (Implicative: true unless the statement is false.) (Ascriptive: false unless the statement is true.)

Evidential - can lead to: Proposal → Refutative → Rebuttal T/U/F, but another T/U/F is not added, instead it is the answer to “Do you agree?” - Yes - Yes, I agree with it. - Maybe - I’m uncertain of whether it is or not. - No - No, I disagree with it. Besides T/U/F (which may be dropped), Y/M/N can be combined with another Y, M or N to give more nuanced meanings.

- expected - - witnessed - first-hand experience, experienced or experiencing, etc. - inferred - * UT mood - reported - hearsay, etc. - etc.

Sensed how? - seen, heard, etc.

Interrogative - - Type 1: True? Yes, No, (Maybe) - Type 2: Agree? Yes, No, (Maybe) - ‘Type 3’: Listening? Yes, No, (Maybe) this is really a pragmatic, though (Ambiguities - The logic gets very complicated if you place them in a noun phrase the wrong way. They should be primarily used as modality indicators.)

Side note - Scope - can define how wide of an influence a word used functionally has. - [ ] - greater than two words. - [‘] - phrase. - [;] - clause. Intonation gives it greater flexibility.

Conjunctive - - and)or - choice, alternatives Note: other conjunctions and disjunctions also be use at the end of sentence, as a question or as another type of tag. Intonation identifies which.

Question word - with stress notation, it can be used flexibly. - some/any -

Epistemic question - - Socratic - Epistemic (above) is an example when made into the form of a question.

Phatic question - - echoic - the repetition of the previous speaker in the form of a question.

Irrealis and Realis - T/U/F now mixes with a different part of the verb phrase. .   	Deontic :

Regulative - assessment of the - obligation - - permission - - necessity - of an action +DEGREE

Commissive - I, me - The speaker verbally treats themself as a “you” is treated in the other deonic modals - I, me - I will, shall, promise, agree or offer to…

Interjunctive - The inclusive directive (below) - Deliberative - You-Me - We should, ought, can, may…: judgment about the appropriateness of an action. - Cohortative - I-you - stronger than the simple deliberative.

Directive - You - are expected to respond (by doing what the speaker wants) (Hortative/Jussive (& subtypes)  - Imperative - is the you without a degree of politeness.  - - Polite…°DEGREES°…°Exhortative - “please”, etc. - - Order…°DEGREES°…°Demand - “order”, etc.

Volitive - speaker wants something, but not overtly from you. They, too, can carry °DEGREES. - Desiderative - want, etc. - something positive - Imprecative - curse, etc. - something negative - Prohibitative - don’t, etc. - something not to happen

Ability - These modals can be combined with one another. - know-how - - can-do - - will-do -

Voice

Passive voice - ho - Another noun phrase is made more relevan by demoting the subject and even having it dropped from consideration. The noun is usually the direct object. - ho - can be put between the noun phrase and the subject. - ho - can be used as a preposition, letting the subject be moved to a different part of the sentence. - ho - can be put inside the verb phrase to mark that the subject has been dropped but still has some relevance. Antipassive - he - The object is demoted even further in relevancy and importance. And this is one by replacing the /ho/ above with this /he/.

Side note - Null - empties a slot completely. - Impersonal - is for sentences like “It’s raining” or the abstract, “To be or not to be”. Null takes the slot of the subject. - Middle Voice - completely eliminates the subject. Null is placed here, inside the verb phrase. - Intransitive - explicitly marks the verb as having no objects. Null is placed outside of the verb phrase in the direct object slot. - Binding - In the “flag was green-black”, the colors are treated as a unit, losing their meaning if they’re not together. Null fills the conjunction slot. - etc. -

Causative - we - Someone or thing causes a change. Anticausative - wa - Someone or thing changes without a cause (made explicit). How is the change made? - [¬willingly ¬directly] - when it is placed between nouns, in the conjunction slot. - [+willingly +directly] - when as a noncontent particle on the noun giving or receiving the change. - [+controled ¬natural] - when is placed here, inside the verb phrase. - [¬controled +natural] - unmarked default. This is the standard assumption. - [¬willingly ¬directly] + [¬willingly ¬directly] =  [¬willingly +directly]. - [+controled ¬natural] + [+controled ¬natural] = [+controled +natural].

Effectiveness - - weakly effective - - partially effective - - almost fully - These may be combined to make them more nuanced. °degree - may or may or not use with the combination.

Intentionality - is particularly reated to (anti)causality. - accidentally - - unintentionally - - intentionally - These may be combined to make them more nuanced. °degree - may or may or not use with the combination.

Pure Adverbs - how the (anti)causative was done. Manner - way -

Valence - jek, jan, jol, je - takes the subjects of two sentences and collapses the sentences. When it is placed between nouns, in the conjunction slot: - jek - Nonrelative - the default assumption. - jan - Participant - the subjects do the same thing, but separately. - jol - Corollary - the subjects do variations of the same thing. - je - Parallel - the subjects do the same thing, together.

When as a noncontent particle on the noun giving or receiving the change: - jek - Indicative - the subject merely indicates someone could do something. - jan - Demonstrative - the subject demonstrates what someone could do. - jol - Imitative - the subject does something like the first subject did. - je - Duplicative - the subject does do what the first subject did.

When is placed here, inside the verb phrase: - jek - Reciprocal - the subjects do the “samething” to one another. - jan - Mutual - the subjects alternate between doing the same thing. - jol - Contingent - the second subject can’t do something until the first does something (else). - je - Complementary - first one subject does something, then the other subject does the same thing. Complement - - Object Particles - supposedly a point of view the speaker picked up from others - Prototypical - characteristically. This is related to the generic by °DEGREES, which is one of the Subject Particles

Verb Commentary - repurposed prepositions to modify the relation of the nouns to the utterance. It is the literal now. - closer / further from - the center of interest. - rise / fall - newly arrived on / departed from the scene. - - remaining, unchanged, on the scene | situation changed. - - action continuing | action viewed as a unit. - - removed / put aside from the scene. - - without necessary future significance / not continuing into the future. - - but with / no definite relevance / reference 	[in mind] - - removed / put aside permanently 	- stronger than the one above. - toward / away from - this speaker (as he is speaking?) - this / that / yon - goal : definite ; relative / indefinite ; irrelevant. - -

T he verb phrase officially ends here.

Direct Object - s - The one true case in Djadu. - [ ] - separates it from the Predicate but also _ allows the DObj to be moved out of its typical word order. _ such before the subject to give it more importance. This gives it a pseudo-passive voice when used with the passive voice marker. - [;] - it is a pronoun, referring to the last established DObj. and remains an object, never a subject. _ allows for easier tracking of it through extended sentences and even paragraphs. - [‘] - as a modifier, it can do some of what the accusative can do in other languages.

Indirect Object - give - and other verbs where the subject and direct object interact with another person, thing, etc. NOTE - They are serial verbs.

Prepositions - the non-moving prepositions are the default onder. The moving interpretations require a moving verb. A moving one can be inserted for just that reason. There is also at least one verb the means to move-in-place or in a restricted space. - b - away, from - - t - at, to - - sj - 2d, on - - tj - 3d, in -

- f - path, length - - g - gap - - z - ordinal -

Side note - Genitive - is like a serial verb as they both envolve one head modifying another. - [ ‘ ] - as a modifier, it relies on the speaker’s target assumed to be able to identify the genitive as a proper head. - stress particle - can be used to add [ ; ] to identify it as a proper head. - have - can also be placed inside the noun phrase as the genitive marker.

Serial Verbs - For English speakers it can be as simple as dropping the infinitive to between verbs. Djadu has no infinitive. But the language uses serial verbs much more extensively than English and other European languages. - x - use - is one of the most useful of them, being as it is like with as the instrumental case. Two sister words mean - used

- vi - compared to - is used in place of “less, more, -er, least, most, -est“ as well as “than”. It can, of course, add words like equal-to, similar-to into a mix that could include big, wide, narrow, etc.

Coordinate Verbs - two or more verbs are considered separate events but can share items across what would otherwise be another sentence. - v - and - +stress particle - (with or without intonation) can add different nuances, like accompaniment at the same or different time. +parse - can act as a barrier between the coordinate’s members. “The large man and woman” means the woman wasn’t large. “The large man and woman” has the parser also acts as a comma.

Reduplication - - of a verb, the action occurred at different times or places. - of an object, makes it distributive, referring to the same thing happening to many. - of a subject, has many subjects do/being the same. - of a times or frequentive aspect, though,... Etc.

Reduplication and Degrees - of a modifier increases the feel of the modifier. So [ ]near-[‘]near - increase in nearness. [‘]near [‘]near - really very near. [‘]near-[ ]near - decrease in nearness.

Compounds - the words are more tightly bound together than they are when one is a modifier. They suggest something more precise and can then one or both words can lose their original meaning while inside the compound. Butterfly, dandelion, etc. - Stress patterns -

Paralanguage

Stress, Intonation and Pitch - Though a modifier cannot be stressed more greatly than its head, paralingual techniques can be applied to it and the other parts of speech. They are not required to be depicted. They are options that allow for great nuance.

Stress - is not more about fortis rather than loudness. - [ '], [ ;; ] - repetition of the stress marks are used for loudness'''. [ : ] and [ ; ] are for increasing and decreasing loudness. Another possibility for depicting loudness are numbers. [ ¹ ], [ ² ], [ ³ ], etc.

- [ | ] - is the comma. Away from the pitch markers, also uses fortis as the onset of a syllable is pronounced more distinctly than before it. - [ / ] - is about pause. [ // ] can be equivalent to ellipsis. - [ \ ] - is tempo.

Pitch and Tone - Pitch is changing the ‘octave’ of your voice, making it higher or lower. The tones don't change, though. This is because their height is determined by each other, not the larynx, etc. - { } - is the higher than normal voice. Emphasizes what is said. - [ ] - is the speaker's normal voice. -  - is the speaker's lower than normal voice. Deemphasizes what is said. Their combinations, of course, depict the rising or falling of pitch.

Tone - are used to work with the other parts of grammar, especially repetition and the stress unit, to add the nuance of °degree. - [ ` ] - high - - [ - ] - neutral - - [ , ] - low - When combined, they produce rising, falling varieties. Another possibility for depiction is - [ > ] - onset of a tone, - [ < ] - offset of a tome.

Length - is depicted by the repetition of the symbol or letter.

! Mirror Domain - is like Sentence Adverb in that its relevance can be shown by being backgrounded, foregrounded or highlighted to (de)emphasize it. The go ahead of the Sentence Adverb in a sentence if it is backgrounded.

What makes it different is that all the members of its sub-categories must have the same sequence relative to one another - but in the reverse order. Deictic and Vocative must come first or lst in a sentence, if present.

Since it usually comes at the beginning of a sentence in a SVO language, that is the order being presented here

Vocative - Lu - The target of the speaker, the 2p, you, or the 1p, themself. It is similar to the deonic of the verb phrase. - you - I, me - - name, nickname, title - - honorific, politeness, neutral, impoliteness, rude - Social Register. Note, what may be impolite or rude to someone, might be friendly or intimate to another. - (not) this, that, yon - Deictic - pointing to who, which is meant.

Traffic Control - Læ - - hello; (when) can we talk; can you hear me; the message continues/ends; good-bye; etc -

Question and Response - Lan - The members of the Question and Response found in the verb phrase can be used here. - yes, maybe, no; true, uncertain, false; or; wh-word; etc - at the end of a sentence they are called tags.

Meta - Læk - is about the language itself- - I'm inserting something out of context; I could say more, but I'm not; yes, that was what was really said, I'm not adding anything; etc.

Style of Language - Lo - - functionally (default); representively; metaphorically; narrowly; literally; etc. -

Commentary on the Discourse - Len - - excitingly; dully; humorously; seriously; etc. -

Relevance to This Utterance - Lil - is similar to Verb Commentary. - unspoken so far; reminder of what was said before; moving on to something more relevant; forget this; etc. -

Commentary on Sentence Parts- -L - Sentence, clause, phrase, word, etc.