Atlalpi

This is Atlalpi (Age of TLA Language Parallel Instance), an a-priori developed conlang which is intended to provide the grammar structure used in Thrilettrabbrian. For practical purposes the words of Atlalpi are chosen at random, without any respect to the international vocabulary.

Setting

Thrilettrabbrian/setting

Phonology

a	e	i	o	u	―	y	w
a	ɛ	i	ɔ	u	―	j	w

p

b

m

f

v

―

t

d

n

th

dh

―

ts

dz

-

s

z

―

k

g

nh

kh

gh

p

b

m

f

v

―

t

d

n

þ

ð

―

ts

dz

-

s

z

―

k

g

ŋ

x

ɣ

Combined tonal-pressure accent, always on the last syllable "ultima".

Grammar

Agglutinative, just in order to get the language work, without trouble. So the language will become blablative.

Formal grammar

Nouns

Form: stem + aggregateform + case + number + determination

Stem

A stem is any number of syllables, ending in a consonant. The most usual case is stems from one syllable only.

Aggregation

Aggregation counterparts Ithkuil's basic morphology, which handles different kind of object formations, such as pairs-of-X (somewhat like dual number), masses-of-X, the-entire-mass-of-X (collectives), materials-of-X, arrays-of-X, etc.. Having such forms may make certain scientific concepts very concise, such as astronomy Kuiper-belt-object (belt being an aggregation), compsci flexible array of integer (flexible array being an extraordinarily common aggregation in compsci). Ithkuil exhibit 9 times 4 times 4 (144) of those basic forms counterparting Atlalpi's aggregations. Such a number might become topical also for Atlalpi, but for now, only a few of the most necessary are sketched:

specimen form	+e	siter	a human
dual form	+a	sitar	human pair
total form	+i	sitir	humanity
collective form	+o	sitor	the folk	also used for materials
class form	+u	situr	humans in general

In this context I here speculate that the Arabic broken plurals might initially have been various kind of aggregation forms, maybe with specific meaning, but these aggregations were by "babelism" sadly extensively confused from speaker to speaker, and also confused with an originally regular plural.

Cases

Following a case grammar model more than five cases are seldomly needed. The language could be ergative-absolutive, or nominative-accusative, I here provisionally assert nominative-accusative because they're most frequent. (Ithkuil has cases according to semantic role - this important concept is simply ignored in Atlalpi's grammar, since the main interest is the word derivation efficiency in Atlalpi)

I also provisionally assert SOV language because they're most frequent.

So I assert the following cases:

case	use	suffix
nominative	for actor/performer	+r
accusative	for patient/experiencer/object of change	+m
dative	for receiver/benefactive/malefactive	+l
ablative	for source of act; also for passive instigators of the act	+d
instructive	for the tool used	+k

Sociative is not used, instead "and" is used to express duplicate subjects/objects etc..

The genitive fulfills certain adjectival functions, that I leave aside for now.

Numbers

Since it seems most common to have two grammatical numbers singular and plural, I assert those numbers for now^[FIXME!!]. Numbers are not confused with aggregate derivations as used in Ithkuil.

Singular	-
Plural	+s/z

The plural 's' is either voiceless or voiced, after a 'd' voiced, after a 'k' voiceless, and after the others voiced or voiceless at speakers' option.

Determined forms

Words are considered determined by default, i.e. the determined form is uninflected relative undetermined and demonstrative forms, and in general words aren't introduced in a speach context without an initial indetermined or extensively specified occurrence. The one exception is where the culture defines a default individual, f.ex. a king over a certain country, may in that country initially be mentioned in the determined form, the ("default") sun may in the relevant solar system initially be mentioned in the determined form.

form	suffix
Introductional	+e	kalere a man
Determined	-	kaler the man
Demonstrative	+a	kalera this/that man
General	+o	kalero any man in general
Abessive	+i	kaleri no man

Pronouns

Personal Pronouns

1-4p, for plural inclusive and exclusive forms are needed, which instead implies that collective derivations as per Ithkuil should be combined with duplicate inclusive/exclusive plural ^[FIXME!!]...

Relatives

Instead of the primitive apparatus of which/who/whome at one hand, and conjunction markers on the other hand, Atlalpi combines those two systems in an ortogonal system for inter-clause references.

who/that		to-case
		NOM	ACC	DAT	ABL	INS
from-case	NOM	rar	ram	ral	rad	rak
	ACC	mar	mam	mal	mad	mak
	DAT	lar	lam	lal	lad	lak
	ABL	dar	dam	dal	dad	dak
	INS	kar	kam	kal	kad	kak

Verbs

Verb classes

transitive I	normal acts, various N-A plus possible objects/instruments D, Ab and I	N A [D Ab I] V
transitive II	state verbs such as is, become, etc. N for instance, Ab for quality/class	N Ab V
intransitive I	experiencing, using A for "subject" (absolutive tendency)	A V
intransitive II	acting performing, using N for "subject", (normal accusative mode)	N V

Verb conjugation

Mode + Aspect + Tempus

This person/number stuff of IE languages is extraneous: many languages have enclitic affixes for diverse pronouns. How and to what the affix connect, seems very random to me just now...

Mode

Indicative	I experienced that X	+u+
Conjunctive	I believe that X	+e+
Optative	I have heard that X	+i+
Imperative	Do X!	+a+
Interrogative	Does X?	+o+

Aspect

Temporary	I'm X:ing	+w+
Continuously	I X	+n+
Repetitive	I X, I use to X	+r+
Perfect	I have finished X	+b+
Inchoative	I'm starting X	+d+

Tempus

Far preterite	I once did X	+u
Preterite	I did X	+o
Presens	I do X	+a
Future	I will X	+e
Far future	One day, I will X	+i

Example text

/R Coronae Borealis variables

See also

The natural language partner, see that page for rationales etc.:

• Thrilettrabbrian