Ouroboros’ Clongs (probably)

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It's been a bit since we've updated on the progress of Semecétthab. It's now got imperatives, the specific formation of which depends on dialect.

In the Western dialects, there's multiple ways to do imperatives: 1. Lenition of initial consonants (/h/ added if vowel-initial) without the subject pronoun. e.g., tanga [ˈtaŋa] 'to come' -> ṫanga [ˈθaŋa] 'Come!', sungo [ˈsuŋo] 'to breathe' -> ṡungo [ˈhuŋo] 'Breathe!', íṫe [ˈiːθe] 'to fly' -> híṫe [ˈhiːθe] 'Fly!'. 2. The pre-verbal particle é plus the same changes to the stem. This often has a more forceful tone than without the particle. e.g., é ṫanga, é ṡungo, e híṫe Negative imperatives use the same strategies, but use the negative auxiliary munoċ plus the main verb as an infinitve: e.g., (é) ṁunoċ tangámh/sungómh/íṫemh 'Don't come/breathe/fly!'

Additionally, 1st person and 3rd person imperatives can be formed with the same verb forms, but with the appropriate pronouns used. e.g., góru [ˈɡoːru] 'to go' -> (é) ġóruil [(ˌeː) ˈɣoːrujil] 'Let's go!'

In the Eastern Dialects, forming imperatives is done by using the particle é (mandatorily) plus the future forms of the verb with 2nd person pronouns still typically omitted. There is no mutation. e.g., tanga -> é thangápi 'Come!', sungo -> é sungópi 'Breathe!', íṫe -> e híṫepí 'Fly!'. Negative imperatives replace é with prohibitive particle lun. e.g., tanga -> lun thangápi 'Don't come!', sungo -> lun sungópi 'Don't breathe!', óra -> lun híṫepí 'Don't fly!'.

Semecétthab has 5 cases: Nominative, Accusative, Dative, Genitive, and Locative.

Nominative

The nominative case is the typical subject case in the language. Most verbs’ subjects take the nominative case, as in the example below.

The nominative is also used for direct address, for which I have no current example.

Accusative

The accusative is used for the direct object of a verb, as below:

Additionally, it is also used for the time an event happens:

Dative

The dative is used for indirect objects:

Also the beneficiary or purpose of an action:

Experiencer subjects also often take the dative case (no current example sentences).

Genitive

The genitive marks the possessor of another noun (phrase):

The genitive also is used partitively:

It is also used to show the material an object is made of, or some other attribute:

Locative

The locative shows the location at/by/in where an action occurs:

It also shows the duration of an action:

so, personal pronouns in the language are split into two types: strong and weak. Weak pronouns are enclitics which can attach to verbs, nouns, and prepositions, which will be described below:

Verbs

Weak pronouns on verbs are enclitics which can encode the subject or object(s) of a verb. A verb's arguments, if enclitics, even if a verb would intervene between subject and object normally (context: the language is typically VSO word order, with XSVO used when there's an auxiliary [X = auxiliary; V = lexical verb]). Verbal enclitics nearly always show up in the order of subject, direct object, indirect object (with any being able to be omitted).

Nouns

A genitive weak pronoun can become an enclitic on a noun to show its possessor.

Prepositions

Pronominal objects of prepositions can cliticize to the preposition.

Use of Strong Pronouns

The conlang finally has a name: Semecéṫṫab (or Semecétthab).

so far, numbers are very fun in this language (still unnamed, dw)

Every number has 2 words for it, which we've termed "count" and "quantifier" words.

The count words are generally used only when referring to the number itself, as in counting or in math (think like "one plus one is two" type contexts), whereas quantifier words are used when quantifying a nominal.

The only exception for this is the number "one". Unlike other numbers, its count word is transparently an adjective, and is used as such when quantifying nouns when it's the only number being used. (The quantifier word is used in more complex numbers [e.g. 11], as well as for contrast with other numbers)

The quantifier words are also just nouns which mean "group of [#] size", so like "singleton", "pair", "trio", "quartet", etc. And as such, nouns they quantify are put in the genitive plural.

Example. Angen | Ámpa cocuġ seven | septuplet tree-GEN.PL "Seven." | "Seven trees."

but unfortunately finals start tomorrow

[Conlang year clong still has no name yet, sadly]

So, as I think we've mentioned previously, this conlang has consonant mutation. And originally, in the proto-language, verbs were uninflected for person.

Now, originally the language was also SVO, so at some point subject pronouns and noun phrases caused initial consonant mutation on a verb. So a verb like girhe [ˈɡir̥e] "to speak", would become (if we ignore later developments like the invention of the dual and word order changes):

Éḋi ngirhe "I speak" Isol ngirhe "We speak"

Ú cirhe "You (sg.) speak" Ulha ngirhe "Y'all speak"

Turher ġirhe "He/she speaks; they (sg.) speak." Turhen ġirhe "They (anim.) speak."

Turhe girhe "It speaks" Turheṅ girhe "They (inan.) speak"

Now, we can see that, except the 2nd person, the mutation is identical in the singular and plural for each person (and also gender for 3rd person). So analogy kicks in, making the 2nd plural identical to the 2nd singular, essentially meaning that verbs now inflect for person and gender, but not number. This makes it so the mutation is triggered by grammatical context now instead of the specific words used.

Later, the word order changed to VSO, and the dual number evolved, but that inherited the marking depending on person. So now, we have this in the modern language: