Originally posted on Wordpress on 10 May 2021
Introduction
The first time I tried to create a personal conlang was in 2016. It went through a few changes and was, at one point, named läin höuror. Sänirtäm is the (hopefully) final version of this personal conlang.
When I first started working on Sänirtäm, I was fairly interested in creating a language with the aesthetics of Sanskrit. I was also interested in Finnish, and toyed with the idea of having vowel harmony. This idea was scrapped when I decided that I also wanted to be able to pronounce this language.
Sänirtäm is nominative-accusative and agglutinative, because I really like agglutination. It also has a lot of "paired" verbs, where changing the final vowel from /a/ to /u/ changes the meaning from passive to active.
Consonants
Sänirtäm's consonants are fairly "normal" by European standards:
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | (ɲ) | (ŋ) | |
| Stop | p b | t d | (c) (ɟ) | k g | |
| Affricate | (tɕ) (dʑ) | ||||
| Fricative | s | (ɕ) (ç) | (x) | h | |
| Approximant | (ʋ) | r l | j | w |
- Syllable-final /h/ → [x]
- [ŋ] is a rare sound that only occurs before /g/ and /k/
Certain consonants are palatalized before (and sometimes after) front vowels:
- /n/ → [ɲ] (non /ˈnon/ vs. nisvah /ˈɲiɕ.wəx/)
- /t/ → [tɕ] (tovnas /ˈtou.nəs/ vs. täm /ˈtɕæm/)
- /d/ → [dʑ] (dawa /ˈdɑ.wə/ vs. däras /ˈdʑæ.rəs/)
- /k/ → [c] (kavara /ˈkɑ.wə.ˌrɑ/ vs. kera /ˈce.rə/)
- /g/ → [ɟ] (gunan /ˈgu.nən/ vs. geskerrada /ˈɟeɕ.cer.ˌrɑ.də/)
- /s/ → [ɕ] (sohres /ˈsox.reɕ/ vs. sän /ˈɕæɲ/)
- /h/ → [ç] (hanem /ˈhɑ.ɲem/ vs. hinnas /ˈçiɲ.ɲəs/)
- /w/ → [ʋ] (varjas /ˈwɑr.jəs/ vs. vihki /ˈʋiç.ci/)
The /w/ shifting to [ʋ] was a result of me wanting both sounds in the language, but not wanting them to be represented by separate letters. I don't actually know if this happens in any natlang.
Vowels
Vowels are not particularly unusual. The only allophone is [ə], which is what /ɑ/ becomes in unstressed syllables.
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u | |
| Mid | e | (ə) | o |
| Open | æ | ɑ |
/ɑ/ and /o/ followed by syllable-final /w/ become diphthongs:
- /ɑw/ → /ɑu/
- /ow/ → /ou/
Diphthongs do not exist otherwise.
Syllable Structure & Stress
Syllable structure is (C)V(F):
- C = any consonant
- V = any vowel
- F = nasals, fricatives, & /w/ (never word-finally)
Primary stress falls on the initial syllable, and secondary stress falls on every other syllable.
Orthography
| Consonants | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Letter | b | d | g | h | k | l | m |
| Sound | /b/ | /d/ | /g/ | /h/ | /k/ | /l/ | /m/ |
| Letter | n | p | r | s | t | v | y |
| Sound | /n/ | /p/ | /r/ | /s/ | /t/ | /w/ | /j/ |
| Vowels | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Letter | a | ä | e | i | o | u |
| Sound | /ɑ/ | /æ/ | /e/ | /i/ | /o/ | /u/ |
With the exception of <ä>, zero letters use diacritics. This was a deliberate decision, as the US-International keyboard doesn't allow you to type every diacritic on every letter. I did not want to continually have to copy/paste letters.
/w/ is represented by
Demonstrative Articles
Sänirtäm has four demonstrative articles: proximal, distal, medial, and one that means "on/at":
- tokairo - "here, on/at me"
- kairo - "this, close to me"
- muru - "that, close to you"
- vere - "that, far from us both"
Pronouns
Sänirtäm doesn't have any pronouns, because I wanted to see if I could make a language without them.
In place of first-person pronouns (I, me, we, us), Sänirtäm uses the demonstrative tokairo "this, at/on me" + tären "person". Names are used instead of second-person pronouns.
Proximal/media/distal demonstratives are used in place of third-person pronouns:
- kairo tären - "this person" - the person close to me
- muru tären - "that person" - the person close to you
- vere tären - "yonder person" - the person far away from the both of us
Nouns & Adjectives
Nouns are either animate or inanimate, and inflected for case, number, and gender.
- Cases: nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, ablative, allative
- Number: singular, dual, plural
- Gender: animate, inanimate
Animate nouns end in consonants in the nominative singular and are declined as such:
| Singular | Dual | Plural | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | - | -aye | -a |
| Accusative | -os | -osaye | -osa |
| Genitive | -un | -unaye | -una |
| Dative | -am | -amaye | -ama |
| Ablative | -ir | -iraye | -ira |
| Allative | -es | -esaye | -esa |
Inanimate nouns end in vowels in the nominative singular and follow this declension:
| Singular | Dual | Plural | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | - | -mun | -m |
| Accusative | -su | -sumun | -sum |
| Genitive | -nu | -numun | -num |
| Dative | -ya | -yamun | -yam |
| Ablative | -tu | -tumun | -tum |
| Allative | -va | -vamun | -vam |
Adjectives come in front of nouns and agree in case, number, and gender:
- Animate: han hinnas "red star"
- Inanimate: hana kerra "red paper" - since kerra is an inanimate noun, han gains a final "a" to match the noun's gender
Verbs
Verbs are conjugated for tense and mood, and are grouped into two categories: active and passive.
- Tenses: present, recent past, far past, near future, far future
- Moods: indicative, subjunctive, conditional, optative, imperative
Passive verbs are primarily verbs that the agent has little or no control over:
| Indicative | Subjunctive | Conditional | Optative | Imperative | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Present | -a | -n | -vä | -te | -yu |
| Recent past | -dem | -denne | -devvä | -dette | -deyyu |
| Far past | -ni | -nin | -nivä | -nite | -niyu |
| Near future | -tur | -turne | -turvä | -turte | -turyu |
| Far future | -sos | -sosen | -sosvä | -soste | -sosyu |
Examples of passive verbs:
- dänna - to be moved, to be acted upon by a force
- illa - to exist
- kässora - to unknowingly tell a lie
Active verbs are verbs that the agent has full control over:
| Indicative | Subjunctive | Conditional | Optative | Imperative | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Present | -u | -iru | -esu | -emu | -ara |
| Recent past | -dem | -deru | -desu | -demu | -dara |
| Far past | -ni | -niru | -nesu | -nemu | -nara |
| Near future | -tur | -turu | -tussu | -turmu | -tura |
| Far future | -sos | -sorru | -sosu | -somu | -sora |
Examples of active verbs:
- dänni - to move (physically), to act
- illu - to live
- kässoru - to deliberately tell a lie
Example Sentences
Baruh tevna maunos.
- The dog sees the cat.
- dog.NOM.SG see.PRS.IND cat.ACC.SG
Sur maun tevnudem kelos baruhos.
- The black cat recently looked at the yellow dog.
- black.NOM.SG cat.NOM.SG look.RPST.IND dog.ACC.SG
Tokairo tären litaradem es Sänirtamos savniyunesu.
- I was recently inspired, so I'm currently working on Sänirtam.
- here person.NOM.SG inspire.RPST.IND thus Sanirtäm.ACC.SG build.PRS.COND