Our Thoughts - Other

Language Idea

This is an idea for a language that anyone in the world could learn in a couple hours, and could describe anything.

The basic idea is to take any concept and break it down into it's atomic ideas. Then, the idea is that we'd end up with a small group of atomic words that could construct any word you could think of, and more. Theoretically, any concept would be fair game.

Word construction

The idea is to start a word with the most basic concept, and describe it from there. So for any noun, it would start with "thing", and for any verb, it would start with "action".

Then, any adjective for it would use the other atomic nouns/verbs, and each of those would be specified by the atomic adjectives.

Taking this theoretical system, you might manage to fit all atomic nouns and verbs into the available consonants, and all atomic adjectives into the available vowels. That way, any noun/adjective or verb/adjective pair could be conveyed in a single syllable.

For example, say we wanted the word "lifeform". That would be constructed as such:

kata: thing-liveliness-some

Let's break that down. We start with thing (ka), because we are describing a noun, and all nouns are things. Then we want to specify that this thing is alive, so we use the atomic noun for liveliness (t). Finally, we use the atomic noun some (a) to indicate that this thing has some liveliness, or is alive. Therefore, we have thing that is alive, aka, lifeform.

For clarity's sake, here's the grammer rules for constructing words in BNF form: 

con_noun        ::= <thing> <con_a_list>    ; Full word noun
con_verb        ::= <action> <con_a_list>   ; Full word verb

; Uses recursion to achieve variable-length list
con_a_list      ::= <con_a> | <con_a> <con_a_list>
; A constructed adjective can be a noun and an adjective, a noun
; and two adjectives, or a constructed verb adjective
con_a           ::= <noun> <adj_list> | <con_a_verb>
; A constructed verb adjective is a noun/adjective, verb,
; noun/adjective, depending on the verb being used
con_a_verb      ::= <con_a> <verb_aa> <con_a>
                    | <con_a> <verb_an> <con_noun>
                    | <con_noun> <verb_na> <con_a>
                    | <con_noun> <verb_nn> <con_nn>

; Atomic nouns (aside from thing)
noun            ::= <noun> <adj_list> <renoun>
                    | <liveliness> | <size> | <motion> | <amount>
                    | <boundedness> | <direction>
; Atomic vowels (aside from action, and grouped by their signature
; in a constructed adjective)
verb_aa         ::= <transition>
verb_an         ::= <relate>
verb_na         ::= ; None thought of yet
verb_nn         ::= ; None thought of yet
; Atomic adjectives
adj_list        ::= <adj_group> | <adj_group> <renoun> <adj_list>
; Paired adjectives means transition from one to the other and are
; said as a slide
adj_group       ::= <adj> | <adj> <adj>
                    | <adj_group> <not> <adj_group>
adj             ::= <none> | <some>
                    | <lowest> | <low> | <mid> | <high> | <highest>

; Atomic noun voicings
thing           ::= "ka"
liveliness      ::= "t"
size            ::= "p"
motion          ::= "d"
amount          ::= "g"
boundedness     ::= "y"
direction       ::= "b"

; Atomic adjective voicings
none            ::= "o"
some            ::= "a"
lowest          ::= "u"
low             ::= "uh"
mid             ::= "i"
high            ::= "eh"
highest         ::= "ee"
not             ::= "n" ; inverts the following atomic adjective
renoun          ::= "r" ; considers the previous atomic noun and in
                        ; between atomic adjectives to be a
                        ; constructed noun

; Atomic verb voicings
action          ::= "sa"
transition      ::= "f"
relate          ::= "v"

Here's some examples of some constructed words: 

Constructed Adjective Examples:

least           gu      amount lowest
few             guh     amount low
medium amount   gi      amount mid
many            geh     amount high
most            gee     amount highest
increasing      guheh   amount low high
decreasing      gehuh   amount high low
bottoming out   gehu    amount high lowest
maxxing out     guhee   amount low highest

smallest        pu      size lowest
small           puh     size low
mid size        pi      size mid
big             peh     size high
biggest         pee     size highest
growing         puheh   size low high
shrinking       pehuh   size high low

moving          da      motion some
stationary      do      motion none
slow            duh     motion low
fast            deh     motion high

alive           ta      liveliness some
not alive       to      liveliness none

inside          ya      boundedness some
outside         yo      boundedness none
resting on      yoru    boundedness none renoun lowest

directional     ba      direction some
directionless   bo      direction none
horizontal      buhra   direction low renoun some
far left        buhru   direction low renoun lowest
left            buhruh  direction low renoun low
right           buhreh  direction low renoun high
far right       buhree  direction low renoun highest
zdirectional    bira    direction mid renoun some
far back        biru    direction mid renoun lowest
backward        biruh   direction mid renoun low
forward         bireh   direction mid renoun high
far front       biree   direction mid renoun highest
vertical        behra   direction high renoun some
bottom          behru   direction high renoun lowest
below           behruh  direction high renoun low
above           behreh  direction high renoun high
top             behree  direction high renoun highest


Constructed Noun Examples:

lifeform:               kata
    thing-liveliness-some
multicellular lifeform: kataganu
    thing-liveliness-some-amount-some-not-lowest
cellular lifeform:      katagaru
    thing-liveliness-some-amount-some-renoun-lowest
animal:                 kataganuda
    thing-liveliness-some-amount-some-not-lowest-motion-some
plant:                  kataganudo
    thing-liveliness-some-amount-some-not-lowest-motion-none
tree:                   kataganudokeh
    thing-liveliness-some-amount-some-not-lowest-motion-none
         -size-high
food:                   kayovakatafayavakata
    thing-boundedness-none-relate-thing-liveliness-some
         -transition
         -boundedness-some-relate-thing-liveliness-some
excrement:              kayavakatafayovakata
    thing-boundedness-some-relate-thing-liveliness-some
         -transition
         -boundedness-none-relate-thing-liveliness-some
clothes:                kayoruvakata
    thing-boundedness-none-renoun-lowest
         -relate
         -thing-liveliness-some
hat:                    kayoruvakatabehree
    thing-boundedness-none-renoun-lowest
         -relate
         -thing-liveliness-some-direction-high-renoun-highest


Constructed Verb Examples:

to move:    sada
    action-motion-some

Libraries

Now you might've noticed that the single syllable word "food" has just become a massive 10 syllable word. This is obviously a problem, considering we probably need to use this word frequently.

That's why the other core feature of this language is "libraries". A library, in this case, is a set of words that can be added to the library at will. There will be many different libraries, each with their own unique word bank, allowing you to represent long words in just a few syllables.

Let's take "food" for example. Say there's a standard library that holds words for basic concepts used in day-to-day life that has a word for food. Well, at the beginning of a conversation, both parties will agree on which library to use (in this case the standard library), and then when someone wants to say food they will prepend with a sound that indicates a library word is being used (just so that we don't conflict with the base language). We'll say the sound is "ko". Then you say the word which we'll say is "pa". That means, to say "food", we say "kopa".

Much better than a 10 syllable word!

This language is still a work in progress, so if anyone has any ideas, shoot me an email.