language structure

Verbs form the backbone of language and of reality itself.

An event is an instance of a verb in the same way that "John" is an instance of "human".

Reality is made up of

Objects (nouns)
- The attributes of an object are adjectives
Actions (verbs) which alter the attributes of objects
- The attributes of an action are adverbs
Rules
- Events cause other events according to precise rules.

Objects and actions with similar attributes belong to the same type. Sometimes a type is just a single property (solid, liqid, gas). Common attributes are:

Location
Velocity
Type of motion
Size
Shape
Composition
Color
What is it a part of
What objects are part of it
Who owns it

Objects are named for:

What action happened to it that caused it to exist
- Sedimentary rocks: rocks created by an act of sedimentation
What action it does, or makes other things do, that makes it useful (and which is usually what caused it to exist)
- screwdriver: tool created by someone that needed to drive screws

Even adjectives are verbs in disguise:

hungry: to hunger

Adjectives are modified by adverbs:

he is exceedingly quick (he runs quickly)

Attributes are the subject of pure science

length, shape, velocity are the subject of geometry.

Real world objects are the subject of applied science.

Many words can be broken down into simpler words:

Who	= What person
Where	= What place
Here	= This place
There	= That place
Yesterday	= Previous day
Today	= This day
Tomorrow	= Next day
My	= Of me
His	= Of him

The obvious question, of course, is what is the simplest set of words that can form a language. What are the atoms of the language universe.

Most of the words below are from Wikipedia:Appendix:Basic English word list

Structure words[]

Determiner[]

Articles[]

a, an, the

Demonstratives[]

this, that, these, other, same
such,
next, previous

Possessive determiner[]

Possessive is not just used for buying and selling. For example: He possesses great courage. His great courage is an attribute that "belongs" to him.

of

Quantifiers[]

1, 2, 3,
4, 8, 12,
16, 256,
all, every, most, some, no, (time, place, one, thing, occasion)
many, few, several,
much, little,
enough

Distributive determiners[]

each, any,
either, neither

Interrogative determiners[]

which, what, whose

Pronouns[]

Personal pronouns

First person
- I, me
Second person
- you (you)
Third person
- he, him, she, her, it (they, them)
First + Second person
- we, us
First + third person
- we, us
First + Second + Third person
- we, us

Possessive pronouns

First person
- my
Second person
- your
Third person
- his, her, its

Reciprocal pronouns

each other, one another

Misc

same
other

Prepositions[]

Motion[]

from through, throughout to, toward, towards	since during, while till, until

Directions[]

up, down
forward, back
right, left, sideways
north, south, east, west,
parallel

Top[]

above, over
atop, ontop
upon

Bottom[]

below
beneath
under, underneath

Front[]

before
opposite

Back[]

after,
behind
beyond
past

Side[]

beside

Middle[]

amid

Inside[]

among
between
in, inside, into
within

Outside[]

around
out, outside
without

Near[]

about
at
by
near

Touching[]

across
against
along
on, onto
off

Misc[]

for
as, like
of
than
with

Conjunctions[]

Auxiliary verbs[]

start, begin,
continue, persist
stop, finish, end, cease

intend,
dare,
tend,
try,
seem,
choose,
help

have (has, had, having),
did
be (am, are, is, was, were, being, been),
will
will have

let
do (does, did),
make

strong force causing	must, need
slight force causing	ought, should

	Able	Certain	Allowed
Unconditional	can	will, shall	may
Conditional	could	would	might

Sentence words[]

ouch,
wow,
damn,
hey, hi
bye,
okay,
oh,
m-hm,
huh,
uh, *er, *um
yes, no
okay,
please,

Particles[]

approximately
undoubtedly
surprisingly

Verbs[]

Change: behave, act

Information (true/false): assert,
- Set theory (set of all objects for which something is true):
Graph theory (see also: Line graph): arrange, connect, sort
- Number theory: extend, add, count, increase, number,
  - Geometry:
    - Vector fields:

Time: wait,
Space: cover (over), come, go, send, put,
- Move: distribute, drop, fall, flow, fly, gather, move, roll, scatter, transport, turn, meet,

Substance: boil, exist, freeze, melt, burn, heat, cook,
Interact: affect, cause, compare, depend, experience, react, relate,
Phenomena: wave
Physics: blow, expand, hang, lift, measure, rub, shake, shock, slip, support, touch, twist,
- Force: attract, pull, push,

Structure: contain (within), fold, join, stretch, wash,
- Destruct: break, crush, cut, divide, smash,
Life: bear, die, grow, live, reproduce,
Body:
- bite, cough, drink, kiss, smile, talk, voice, whistle,
- breathe, sneeze,
- cry, laugh,
- digest,
- grasp, grip,
- jump, kick, run, step, walk,
- rest, sleep,
- swim,
Sense:
- feel,
- hear,
- look, observe, see, view,
- smell, taste,

Mind:
- believe, deceive, discover, doubt, dream, expect, know, opine, pretend, reason, surprise, think, trick,
  - investigate, test,
- decide, select,
- amuse, care, desire, enjoy, hope, love, respect,
- fear, hate, regret,
Signs: represent, signal, sign language
Words: agree, answer, argue, discuss, point, question, request, say, sing, state, suggest,
- Educate: learning, teaching,
Drawing: draw, mark, print,
- Write: read, record,
Organize: approve, control, direct, govern, guide, judge, lead, manage(r), protest, rule, serve,
- Punish: attack, fight, wound,
Play:
Commerce: get, give, have, keep, lose, offer, take,
- Money: exchange, own, pay, reward, trade, value,
- Business: compete, contract, demand, insure, marry, supply, waste,
Make: develop, invent, produce, work, fix, replicate
- Clothing: stitch,
Transportation: journey,
Tools: adjust, drive, operate, use,

Nouns[]

Thing

Set theory: group
Quantification: Number, amount

Time:
Space:

Substance:
Phenomena:

Structure:
Life:
Plant:
Animal: body, food, clothing, shelter, senses, locomotion (slide, crawl, wiggle)

Human:
Words: education, knowledge, writing, math, science
Civilization: authority, law, judge, police, punishment, religion, society
Money: occupation, buy, sell, business, profit, value
Transportation: vehicle
Tools:

Information[]

fact, order

Physics[]

Time[]

time

hour, minute, second
day, night, morning, evening
week, month, year, decade, century
spring, summer, autumn, winter

Space[]

distance, position, place, size, space, velocity,
slope, angle, direction
ball, circle, curve, form, line, square, ring, round, shape,
front, middle, back, edge,

Phenomena[]

color, event, light, process, wave,

Substance[]

substance: elements, mass, material, weight,

gas: air, steam
liquid: water, oil, ink, paint
jelly:
solid: ice, glass, stone, chalk, salt, coal
powder: dust, sand
metal: brass, copper, gold, iron, silver, steel, tin,
life: cotton, wood, wool, leather, linen, paper, silk, wax, sugar, cork,

Nature[]

sky: sun, moon, star, planet
- weather: cloud, thunder, rain, snow, wind
earth: country, field, land, mountain
- life: forest, garden
water: sea, harbour, island, river

Structure[]

container: bag, basin, basket, bottle, box, bucket, cup, kettle, pot, part
fasten: screw, nail, hook, knot
break:
parts: board, brick, frame

Reproduction[]

family

parent: father, mother
child: son, daughter
sibling: brother, sister

Plants[]

plant: grass, herb, tree, vine

Plant parts[]

branch, stem, stick
root: potato
leaf:
flower:
grain: rice, seed, nut

Animals[]

animals:

fish:
bird: fowl
pet: cat, dog
insect: ant, bee
farm: cow, goat, horse, pig, sheep
reptile: snake
other: monkey, rat, worm
egg

Animal parts[]

body:

upper part: head, eyes, mouth, ear, chin, face, nose, neck, throat, tongue, lip
front part: chest
back part: back, tail
extremities: arm, finger, hand, thumb, wing
lower part: leg, foot, knee, toe
exterior: skin, hair, feather, horn, tooth,
interior: muscle, blood, bone, nerve, heart, stomach, brain

Health[]

disease

Food[]

food: meal

bread, cake
dairy: butter, cheese, milk,
fruit: apple, berry, orange,
meat:
soup:
wine:

Clothing[]

cloth:

head: hat
torso: shirt, coat,
waist: trousers, dress, skirt
hand: glove
foot: sock, shoe, boot, stocking
part: collar, pocket, thread

Shelter[]

structure

building: door, floor, room, roof, window, wall, arch

Locomotion[]

Move: Walk, run, fly, swim

Humans[]

person

baby
child: boy, girl
adult: man, woman

acquaintance: friend, enemy

Mind[]

mind: attention, comfort, disgust, humour, idea, interest, memory, mind, music, pain, pleasure, purpose, shame, surprise,

Words[]

name, word,

Writing[]

book, pen, pencil, letter, page, note, prose, story, verse, language, news

Science[]

science: theory

Authority[]

authority, crime, law, nation, peace, society, war,

Religion[]

religion:

Money[]

money: business, company, credit, debt, industry, market, money, price, profit, property, receipt, secretary, tax,

Places[]

church: place of worship
farm: place of agriculture
hospital: place of healing
house: place of residing
library: place of reading
school: place of learning
store: place of buying
town: place of living
prison: place of imprisonment
office: place of officiating

Tools[]

apparatus, instrument, machine,

Time:

watch, clock

Space:

brake, spring

Structure:

sewing, needle

Animal:

spoon, fork, plate, tray

hammer: hammer
cut:knife, blade, scissors
dig:spade
farm: plough
brush: brush
comb: comb
pump: pump
catch: net
threaten: whip, gun, army
rain: umbrella
lock: lock, key
sound: band, bell,
ornament: jewel

Furniture[]

bath, bed, clock, curtain, drawer, oven, shelf, table, chair

Transportation[]

Vehicle:

water: boat, ship
air: plane
rail: train
road: carriage, cart,

Vehicle parts[]

engine, sail, wheel

Infrastructure[]

structure

path: road, bridge, rail

Uncategorized[]

bulb, button,
camera, card, chain, cord, cushion,
drain,
flag,
hole
map, match,
parcel, picture, pin, pipe,
rod,
sponge, stamp, station,
ticket,
wire,

account, advertisement, art,
balance, base, bit, burst,
canvas, chance, colour, committee, condition, crack, current,
damage, danger, degree, design, detail,
error, example, expert,
fiction,
harmony, history,
impulse,
level, limit, list,
mine, mist,
noise,
ornament,
paste, poison, porter, power,
quality,
range, rate, ray, rhythm,
scale, seat, self, sense, sex, shade, sign, smoke, soap, sound, stage, system,
trouble,
unit,
way, weight,

Adjectives[]

able, acid, alike, angry, automatic
beautiful
cheap, chemical, chief, clear, common, conscious
elastic, electric, equal
fat, fertile, flat, free, frequent
general, great
healthy, hollow
important
medical, military
natural, necessary, normal
physical, political, possible, present, probable
quick
ready, regular, responsible
separate, serious, sticky, stiff, sudden
thick, tired
violent
young

Opposites[]

awake, asleep
bent, straight
(better, worse)
bitter, sweet
certain,
cold, hot
complete,
cruel, kind
dark, bright
dead, alive
dear,
deep, shallow
delicate,

different, same
dirty, clean
dry, wet
false, true
feeble, strong
foolish, wise
full, empty
future, past
good, bad
ill, well
last, first
late, early
left, right
loose, tight

loud, quiet
low, high
male, female
mixed,
narrow, wide
old, new
opposite,
public, private
right, wrong
rich, poor
rough, smooth
sad, happy
safe,
sharp, dull

secret,
short, long
shut, open
simple, complex
slow, fast
small, large
soft, hard
solid,
special,
strange,
thin, wide
warm, cool

Numbers[]

number:

first, second, third, fourth (item number one, item number two...)

Colors[]

blue, green, yellow, orange, red
white, grey, black
brown

Adverbs[]

Adverbs are considered a part of speech in traditional English grammar, and are still included as a part of speech in grammar taught in schools and used in dictionaries. However, modern grammarians recognize that words traditionally grouped together as adverbs serve a number of different functions. Some describe adverbs a "catch-all" category that includes all words that do not belong to one of the other parts of speech

near, far
upward, downward
forward, backward
northward, southward, eastward, westward
then
there
so
very
quite
well
almost
even
only
again
ever
still
together
approximately
undoubtedly

Negation[]

no
not
un-
anti-
in-, im-, il-, ir-
dis-

Noun types[]

Proper nouns vs common nouns[]

John vs human

Countable and uncountable nouns[]

Chair vs furniture (many vs much)

Collective nouns[]

committee

Concrete nouns and abstract nouns[]

Rock vs justice

Noun Declension[]

The word "sheep" is its own plural. To indicate more than one sheep we would say "multiple sheep". In some languages all the words are their own plurals.

From Wikipedia:Declension: number

singular
dual
plural

case

nominative case
accusative case
genitive case
dative case

gender

masculine
neuter
feminine

Verb types[]

From Wikipedia:Verb:

Intransitive verbs[]

Does not have a direct object

The boy wept.

Transitive verbs[]

Has a direct object

My friend read the newspaper

Ditransitive verbs[]

Has a direct object and an indirect object

The players gave their teammates high fives

Double transitive verbs[]

Has a direct object and a complement

The young couple considers the neighbors wealthy people

Linking verbs[]

Can't be followed by an adverb or end a sentence, but instead must be followed by a noun or adjective

Josh remained a reliable friend

Verb conjugation[]

From Wikipedia:Grammatical conjugation:

voice

active, passive, self

tense

past, present, future, infinitive
(earlier, now, later)
(just earlier, right now, just about)

aspect

in progress, completed,

	in progress	complete
earlier	he was building a house	he had built a house
now	he is building a house	he built a house
later	he will be building a house	he will have built a house

mood

indicative,
subjunctive, Conditional, optative, imperative, Jussive, potential, hypothetical, Inferential,
interrogative, injunctive,

case

nominative, accusative, dative and genitive

person

I, you, he

number

single, plural

gender

male, female

possession

possessor, possessed

definiteness

a, the

politeness

tu, vos

causativity

causation (rise → raise)

clusivity

inclusive "we", exclusive "we"

interrogativity

question

transitivity

direct objects

valency

impersonal, intransitive, transitive, ditransitive, tritransitive

polarity

affirmation, negation

telicity

complete, incomplete (John built a house in a month vs John built houses for a month)

volition

intentional, unintentional

mirativity

surprise

evidentiality

hearsay, personal observation

animacy

how sentient or alive the referent is.

associativity

group associated with X

pluractionality

Plural

reciprocity

each other

Frequentative

routine habit

Language types[]

Analytic language[]

From Wikipedia:Analytic language
An analytic language is a language that primarily conveys relationships between words in sentences by way of helper words (particles, prepositions, etc.) and word order, as opposed to utilizing inflections. An analytic language can lack inflectional morphemes yet still have derivational morphemes.

Isolating language[]

From Wikipedia:Isolating language
An isolating language is a type of language with a very low morpheme per word ratio and no inflectional morphology whatsoever. In the extreme case, each word contains a single morpheme.

Synthetic language[]

From Wikipedia:Synthetic language
A synthetic language uses inflection or agglutination to express syntactic relationships within a sentence

Agglutinative language[]

From Wikipedia:Agglutinative language
An agglutinative language is a type of synthetic language with morphology that primarily uses agglutination. Words may contain different morphemes to determine their meanings, but all of these morphemes (including stems and affixes) remain, in every aspect, unchanged after their unions.

Fusional language[]

From Wikipedia:Fusional language
Fusional languages or inflected languages (or inflectional or flectional in older terminology) are a type of synthetic language, distinguished from agglutinative languages by their tendency to use a single inflectional morpheme to denote multiple grammatical, syntactic, or semantic features.

Polysynthetic language[]

From Wikipedia:Polysynthetic language
Polysynthetic languages are highly synthetic languages, i.e. languages in which words are composed of many morphemes (word parts that have independent meaning but may or may not be able to stand alone). They are very highly inflected languages. Polysynthetic languages typically have long "sentence-words"

Oligosynthetic language[]

From Wikipedia:Oligosynthetic language
An oligosynthetic language (from the Greek ὀλίγος, meaning "few" or "little") is any language using very few morphemes, perhaps only a hundred, which combine synthetically to form statements. Oligosynthesis is almost entirely theoretical and would depend heavily on the creation of lengthy compound words, to an extent far exceeding that of natural polysynthetic languages

Word frequency[]

From Wikipedia:Brown Corpus:

One interesting result is that even for quite large samples, graphing words in order of decreasing frequency of occurrence shows a hyperbola: the frequency of the n-th most frequent word is roughly proportional to 1/n. Thus "the" constitutes nearly 7% of the Brown Corpus, "to" and "of" more than another 3% each; while about half the total vocabulary of about 50,000 words are hapax legomena: words that occur only once in the corpus.

This simple rank-vs.-frequency relationship was noted for an extraordinary variety of phenomena by George Kingsley Zipf, and is known as Zipf's law.

The word "the" forms 0.07 of the words in an average text. 1/0.07 = 14.2857142857

Most common words in English[]

A list of 25 words that occur most frequently in written English is given below, based on an analysis of the Oxford English Corpus.

Word	Parts of speech	OEC rank	COCA rank	Dolch level
the	Article	1	1	Pre-primer
be	Verb	2	2	primer
to	Preposition	3	7, 9	Pre-primer
of	Preposition	4	4	Grade 1
and	Conjunction	5	3	Pre-primer
a	Article	6	5	Pre-primer
in	Preposition	7	6, 128, 3038	Pre-primer
that	Conjunction et al.	8	12, 27, 903	primer
have	Verb	9	8	primer
I	Pronoun	10	11	Pre-primer
it	Pronoun	11	10	Pre-primer
for	Preposition	12	13, 2339	Pre-primer
not	Adverb et al.	13	28, 2929	Pre-primer
on	Preposition	14	17, 155	primer
with	Preposition	15	16	primer
he	Pronoun	16	15	primer
as	Adverb, conjunction, et al.	17	33, 49, 129	Grade 1
you	Pronoun	18	14	Pre-primer
do	Verb, noun	19	18	primer
at	Preposition	20	22	primer
this	Determiner, adverb, noun	21	20, 4665	primer
but	Preposition, adverb, conjunction	22	23, 1715	primer
his	Possessive pronoun	23	25, 1887	Grade 1
by	Preposition	24	30, 1190	Grade 1
from	Preposition	25	26	Grade 1

By parts of speech[]

The following is the list of most common written words subdivided by part of speech.

time
person
year
way
day
thing
man
world
life
hand
part
child
eye
woman
place
work
week
case
point
government
company
number
group
problem
fact

be
have
do
say
get
make
go
know
take
see
come
think
look
want
give
use
find
tell
ask
work
seem
feel
try
leave
call

good
new
first
last
long
great
little
own
other
old
right
big
high
different
small
large
next
early
young
important
few
public
bad
same
able

to
of
in
for
on
with
at
by
from
up
about
into
over
after

the
and
a
that
I
it
not
he
as
you
this
but
his
they
her
she
or
an
will
my
one
all
would
there
their

Prefixes[]

Anti-	against
De-	opposite
Dis-	opposite
Em- En-	cause to
Fore-	before
In- Im-	in
In-, im-, il-, ir-	not
Inter-	between
Mid-	middle
Mis-	wrongly
Non-	not
Over-	over
Pre-	before
Re-	again
Semi-	half
Sub-	under
Super-	over
Trans-	across
Un-	not
Under-	under

Esperanto[]

bo-	relation by marriage, -in-law	bopatro (a father-in-law); boparenciĝi (to marry into a family, from parenco 'a relative' and -iĝi); boedziĝi (to marry one's dead brother's wife, from edziĝi 'to marry'); boedzino (a sister-wife); boamiko ([jocular] a friend of one's spouse)
dis-	separation, scattering	disĵeti (to throw about, from 'throw'); dissendi (to distribute, from 'send'); disatomi (to split by atomic fission, from 'atom'); disliberiĝi (to escape in all directions, like pages dropping from a book with a disintegrated binding, from 'free' and -iĝi); dis! (scram!)
ek-	beginning, sudden, or momentary action (often perfective)	ekbrilo (a flash [of lightning], from 'shine'); ekami (to fall in love); ekkrii (to cry out); ekvidi (to catch sight of); eki (to start); ekde (inclusive 'from'); ek al la batalo! (off to war!); ek! (hop to!)
eks-	former, ex-	eksedzo (an ex-husband); eksbovo (a steer [jocular, from 'bull']); eksa (former); ekskutima (previously customary); Eks la estro! (Down with our leader!)
fi-	shameful, nasty, disgusting, filthy	fihomo (a wicked person); fimensa (foul-minded); fivorto (a profane word); fibuŝo (a dirty mouth); fibesto (vermin, from 'animal, beast'); fia (vile); fie! (For shame!); Fi al vi! (Shame on you!)
ge-	both sexes together	gepatroj (parents); gepatrano (a parent); gesinjoroj (ladies and gentlemen); la geZamenhofoj (the Zamenhofs); gelernejo (a coeducational school); gedormi (to sleep together); geulo (a hermaphrodite); geiĝi (to pair up, to mate); gea (heterosexual)
mal-	antonym	malgranda (small, from 'large'); malriĉa (poor, from 'rich'); malplena (empty, from 'full'); malino (a male [jocular], from -ino); maldekstrume (counter-clockwise [see -um]); nemalobeebla leĝo (a law that cannot be disobeyed, from obe- 'to obey'), mala (opposite)
mis-	incorrectly, awry	misloki (to misplace); misakuzi (to wrongly accuse); misfamiga (disparaging, from fama 'well-known' and the causative suffix -ig); mise (incorrectly)
pra-	great-(grand-), primordial, primitive, proto-	praavo (a great-grandfather); prapatro (a forefather); prabesto (a prehistoric beast); prahejmo (ancestral home); prahindeŭropa (Proto-Indo-European)
re-	over again, back again	resendi (to send back); rekonstrui (to rebuild); resalti (to rebound, from 'jump'); rediri (to repeat); reaboni (to renew a subscription, from 'subscribe'); rebrilo (reflection, glare, from 'shine'); reira bileto (a return ticket, from iri 'to go'); refoje (once again, from '[x] times'); ĝis (la) revido ("au revoir", from ĝis 'until' and vido 'sight')

Suffixes[]

–age
–ance
-ant
-ee
-ence
-er/or
–ery
–ess
-ful
–ing
–ion
-ism
–ist
–ment
-able
-en
-ful
-ible
-ish
-less
-like
-ous
-some
-ly
-ward
-ways

Esperanto[]

-aĉ-	pejorative (expresses negative affect or a poor opinion of the object or action)	skribaĉi (to scrawl, from 'write'); veteraĉo (foul weather); domaĉo (a hovel, from 'house'); rigardaĉi (to gape at, from 'look at'); belaĉa (tawdry, from 'beautiful'); aĵaĉo (junk, from -aĵo); aĉigi (to screw up, with -igi); aĉ ! (yuck!)
-adi, -ado	frequent, repeated, or continual action (often imperfective); as a noun, an action or process	kuradi (to keep on running); parolado (a speech, from 'talk, speak'); adi (to carry on); ada (continual)
-aĵo	a concrete manifestation; (with a noun root) a product	manĝaĵo (food, from 'eat'); novaĵo (news, a novelty, from 'new'); glaciaĵo (an ice[cream], from 'ice'); bovaĵo (beef, from 'bovine'); aĉigaĵo (a snafu, from -aĉ and -igi); aĵo (a thing);
-ano	a member, follower, participant, inhabitant	kristano (a Christian); marksano (a Marxist); usonano (a US American) [cf. amerikano (a continental American)]; ŝipano (a crew member); samkursano (a classmate, from 'same' and 'course'); samideano (a kindred spirit, from 'same' and 'idea'); ano (a member)
-aro	a collective group without specific number	arbaro (a forest, from 'tree'); vortaro (a dictionary, from 'word' [a set expression]); homaro (humanity, from 'human' [a set expression; 'crowd, mob' is homamaso]); ŝafaro (a flock of sheep); kataro (a clowder of cats); ŝiparo (a fleet of ships); anaro (a society [group of members], from -ano); aro (a herd, group, set)
-ĉjo	masculine affectionate form; the root is truncated	Joĉjo (Jack); paĉjo (daddy); fraĉjo (bro); amiĉjo (dear friend); la iĉjoj (the 'boys')
-ebla	possible	kredebla (believable); videbla (visible); eble (possibly)
-eco	an abstract quality	amikeco (friendship); bono or boneco (goodness); italeca (Italianesque); ecaro (character [sum of qualities], with -aro)
-eg-	augmentative; sometimes pejorative connotations when used with people	domego (a mansion, from 'house'); virego (a giant, from 'man'); librego (a tome, from 'book'); varmega (boiling hot); ridegi (to guffaw, from 'laugh'); ega (great, humongous)
-ejo	a place characterized by the root (not used for toponyms)	lernejo (a school, from 'to learn'), vendejo (a store, from 'to sell'), juĝejo (a court, from 'to judge'), kuirejo (a kitchen, from 'to cook'), hundejo (a kennel, from 'dog'), senakvejo (a desert, from 'without water'); devenejo (provenance, from 'to come from'); ejo (the appropriate place)
-ema	having a propensity, tendency	ludema (playful), parolema (talkative), kredema (credulous, from 'believe'); brulema (flammable, from 'burn'); emo (inclination); malema (unwilling, with mal-)
-enda^[1]	mandatory	pagenda (payable), legendaĵo (required reading)
-ero	the smallest part	ĉenero (a link, from 'chain'); fajrero (a spark, from 'fire'); neĝero (a snowflake, from 'snow'), kudrero (a stitch, from 'sew'), lignero (a splinter, from 'wood'); okulero (an ommatidium, from 'eye'); usonero (a U.S. state, from 'USA'); vortero (a morpheme, from 'word'); ero (a crumb etc.); eriĝema (friable)
-estro	a leader, boss	lernejestro (a school principal [see -ejo]); urbestro (a mayor, from 'city'); centestro (a centurion, from 'hundred'); usonestro (a president of the United States, from 'USA'); estraro (board of directors, with -aro)
-et-	diminutive; sometimes affectionate connotations when used with people	dometo (a hut, from 'house'); libreto (a booklet); varmeta (lukewarm); rideti (to smile, from 'laugh'); rompeti (to crack, fracture, from 'break'); boleti (to simmer, from 'boil'); ete (slightly)
-io	a country named after a geographic feature, and now after an ethnicity	Meksikio (Mexico, from 'Mexico City'); Niĝerio (Nigeria, from 'the river Niger'); Anglio (England, from 'English person'); patrio (fatherland, from 'father') [cannot be used as a root io, because that means 'something']
-iĉo	male [unofficial]	(see gender below)
-ido	an offspring, descendent	katido (a kitten); reĝido (a prince, from 'king'); arbido (a sapling, from 'tree'); izraelido (an Israelite); ido (a kit, pup, kid, etc.); idaro (a clan, tribe, with -aro)
-igi	to make, to cause (transitivizer/causative)	mortigi (to kill, from 'die'); purigi (to clean); konstruigi (to have built); igi (to cause)
-iĝi	to become (intransitivizer/inchoative/middle voice)	amuziĝi (to enjoy oneself); naskiĝi (to be born); ruĝiĝi (to blush, from 'red'); aniĝi (to join, from -ano); iĝi (to become)
-ilo	an instrument	ludilo (a toy, from 'play'); tranĉilo (a knife, from 'cut'); helpilo (a remedy, from 'help'); solvilo (a solution, from 'solve'); ilo (a tool); ilaro (equipment, set of tools, with -aro)
-ino	female	bovino (a cow); patrino (a mother); studentino (a female student); ino (a female)
-inda	worthy of	memorinda (memorable); kredinda (credible, from 'believe'); fidinda (dependable, trustworthy, from 'trust'); plorindaĵo (something to cry about, from 'weep, cry' and -aĵo); inda (worthy)
-ingo	a holder, sheath	glavingo (a scabbard, from 'sword'); kandelingo (a candle-holder); dentingo (a tooth socket); ŝraŭbingo (a nut, from 'bolt'), piedingo (stirrup, from 'foot'); kuglingo (a cartridge, from 'bullet'); ingo (a socket, etc.)
-ismo	a doctrine, system (as in English)	komunismo (Communism); kristanismo (Christianity); ismo (an ism)
-isto	person professionally or avocationally occupied with an idea or activity (a narrower use than in English)	instruisto (teacher); dentisto (dentist); abelisto (a beekeeper); komunisto (a communist); registaro (a government, from 'rule, govern' and -aro)
-njo	feminine affectionate form; the root is truncated	Jonjo (Joanie); panjo (mommy); anjo (granny); onjo (aunty); vanjo (nanny, from 'nurse'); aminjo (dear friend); la injoj (the 'girls', from -ino or -ido)
-obla	multiple	duobla (double); trioble (triply); oble (more than once)
-ono	fraction	duona (half [of]); centono (one hundredth); dekonaĵo (a tithe, from 'ten' and -aĵo); ono (a fraction); onigi (to divide into equal parts, with -igi)
-ope	in a collective group of specific number	duope (two together; by twos = po du); triopo (a trilogy); kiomope (how many together?); arope (together in a group, from -aro); gutope (drop by drop, from 'drop'; = pogute); unuopa (isolated, individual); opo (a group, unit, team); opa (collective)
-ujo	a (loose) container, country (archaic when referring to a political entity), a tree of a certain fruit (archaic)	monujo (a purse, from 'money'); salujo (a saltshaker, from 'salt'); lavujo (a washbasin, from 'wash'); abelujo (a beehive, from 'bee'); Anglujo (England [Anglio in current usage]); Kurdujo (Kurdistan, the Kurdish lands); pomujo (appletree [now pomarbo]); ujo (a container)
-ulo	one characterized by the root	junulo (a youth); sanktulo (a saint, from 'holy'); abocoulo (a beginning reader, from aboco "ABC's"); mamulo (a mammal, from 'breast'); proksimulo (a neighbor, from 'near'); multinfanulino (a woman with many children, from multa 'many' and infano 'child'); senindulo (someone without merit, from 'without' and the suffix -ind); aĉulo ~ ulaĉo (a wretch, from the suffix aĉ); tiamulo (a contemporary, from 'then'); etulino (a wisp of a girl); ulo (a fellow)
-um-	undefined ad hoc suffix (used sparingly: see list)	kolumo (a collar, from 'neck'); krucumi (to crucify, from 'cross'); malvarmumo (a cold, from 'cold'); plenumi (to fulfill, from 'full'); brakumi (to hug, from 'arm'); amindumi (to woo, from 'lovable' [see -ind]); dekstrume (clockwise, from 'right'); kortumo (appellate court, from 'court(yard)'); mondumo (high society, from 'world'); komunumo (a community, from 'common'); proksimume (approximately, from 'near'); deksesuma (hexadecimal, from '16'); umo (a thingamajig)

Creating nouns from verbs[]

-man	person who ?'s	postman
-worker	worker who ?'s	postal worker
-er	thing that ?'s
-ee	thing that gets ?'s
-ee	? dweller	tree dweller
-ance		appearance
-tion	act of ?'s	description
-ment	instance of ?	agreement
-??	tool used to ?'s
-??	animal that ?'s	bird=flyer
-??	body part used to ?	wing=flyer
-??	item used to cover ?	hat=head covering

Phonology[]

External link: MRI's of speech and IPA

Typical speech is about 10 phonemes per second. English averages about 4 syllables per second.

Consonants[]

From Wikipedia:Template:IPA pulmonic consonants:

IPA pulmonic consonants
	Bilabial		Labio- dental		Dental		Alveolar		Post- alveolar		Retro- flex		Palatal		Velar		Uvular		Pharyn- geal/epi- glottal		Glottal
	Labial				Coronal								Dorsal						Laryngeal
Nasal		m		ɱ				n				ɳ		ny		ng		ɴ
Stop	p	b	p̪	b̪			t	d			ʈ	ɖ			k	ɡ	q	ɢ	ʡ		ʔ
Affricate	pɸ	bβ	p̪f	b̪v	t̪θ	d̪ð	ts	dz	c	j	ʈʂ	ɖʐ	ky	gy	kx	ɡɣ	qχ			ʡʢ	ʔh
Fricative	ɸ	β	f	v	th	dh	s	z	ch	jh	ʂ	ʐ	hy	ʝ	kh	gh	χ	rh	ħ	ʕ	h	ɦ
Approximant		w		ʋ				l				ɻ		y		ɰ		ɹ				ʔ̞

Vowels[]

		Front		Back		Front		Back
		Non-Mid				Mid
Tense	Close	beat	• ü	ɤ̞	• boy	bait	• ø	ɤ	• boat
Tense	Open	bite	• ɶ	bot	• bought	e̞	• ø̞	ɯ	• boot

Lax	Close	bit	• ʏ	ɨ	• ʉ	bet	• œ	but	• ɔ
Lax	Open	ä	• ɒ̈	bat	• bout	ɜ	• burt	ɯ̞	• put

Front		Back		Front		Back
Non-Mid				Mid
mere	• y	ɤ̞	• foyer	mayor	• ø	ɤ	• lower
fire	• ɶ	are	• bought	e̞	• ø̞	ɯ	• coors

mirror	• ʏ	ɨ	• ʉ	air	• œ	butt	• ore
ä	• ɒ̈	bat	• our	ɜ	• er	ɯ̞	• put

	Front		Central		Back
Close	i • y	ɪ • ʏ		ɨ • ʉ	ɤ̞ • o̞
Near-close				ɨ̞ • ʉ̞
Close-mid	e • ø	ɛ • œ	ɘ • ɵ	ʌ • ɔ	ɤ • o
Mid			ə
Open-mid	e̞ • ø̞	ɜ • ɞ		ɯ̞ • ʊ	ɯ • u
Near-open
Open	a • ɶ	ä • ɒ̈		æ • ɐ	ɑ • ɒ

	Front		Central		Back
Close	beat • y	bit • ʏ		ɨ • ʉ	ɤ̞• boy
Near-close				ɨ̞ • ʉ̞
Close-mid	bait • ø	bet • œ	ɘ • ɵ	but • ɔ	ɤ • boat
Mid			ə
Open-mid	e̞ • ø̞	ɜ • burt		ɯ̞ • put	ɯ • boot
Near-open
Open	bite • ɶ	ä • ɒ̈		bat • bout	bot • bought

From Wikipedia:English_phonology#Vowels:

Full monophthongs
LS	RP	GA
TRAP	æ
BATH	ɑ:	æ
PALM	ɑ:	ɑ
LOT	ɒ	ɑ
CLOTH	ɒ	ɔ, ɑ
THOUGHT	ɔː	ɔ, ɑ
KIT	ɪ
DRESS	e	ɛ
STRUT	ʌ
FOOT	ʊ

Potential
diphthongs
LS	RP	GA
FACE	eɪ
GOAT	əʊ	oʊ
FLEECE	iː	i
GOOSE	uː	u

Full diphthongs
LS	RP	GA
PRICE	aɪ
CHOICE	ɔɪ
MOUTH	aʊ

Pre-R
vowels
LS	RP	GA
NURSE	ɜː(r)	ɜr
START	ɑː(r)	ɑr
NORTH	ɔː(r)	ɔr
FORCE	ɔː(r)	ɔr, oʊr
NEAR	ɪə(r)	ɪr
SQUARE	eə(r)	ɛr
CURE	ʊə(r)	ʊr

Reduced vowels
LS	RP	GA
COMMA	ə
LETTER	ə(r)	ər
HAPPY	i

Tones[]

Tones can be used to express:

High	Female	Good	Weak
Middle	Neutral	Neutral	Neutral
Low	Male	Bad	Intense

References[]

↑ -enda is a borrowing from Ido. It is often equivalent to the nonce passive conditional participle: pagenda 'payable', paguta 'that which would/should be paid'.

External links[]

Evolution of Human Language Project

[1] -enda is a borrowing from Ido. It is often equivalent to the nonce passive conditional participle: pagenda 'payable', paguta 'that which would/should be paid'.

[1]