Arangothian

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Arangothian
Arangothek
Timeline and Universe: Arangoth
Spoken: Arangoth
Total speakers: In-game, approx. 2 million.
Real-world, unknown.
Genealogy: Family:
Typology
Morphosyntactic alignment: Nominative-Accusative
Basic word order: SVO
Credits
Creator: Patrick "Pfeaster" Feaster
Created: <2003
This article is a stub. If you can contribute to its content, feel free to do so.

Arangothian ( also Arangothek, "(speech) of the land" ) is an a priori fictional language which was created by Patrick Feaster prior to 2003. It is nominative-accusative in alignment.

The language is used for the fictional concountry of Arangoth, and in particular the port city of Drache, which is also the de-facto capital of that land. This language is also occasionally used in the related roleplay chatroom #blkdragon*inn on irc.darkmyst.org. The status of any actual speakers is unknown, though there has recently been some interest in continuing development and propagation of the language.

The website offers a "teach yourself"-styled introduction to the language with 8 lessons, a list of common Arangothian names, and an Arangothian-English dictionary. There are currently approximately 1300 words in the language, with room to form many more with provided suffixes.

Grammar

Nouns

Nouns have no separate ending which distinguishes them from verbs (or vice-versa), which can make telling the two apart a skill which must be acquired through much practice (or learning the language natively).

Nouns decline only by number.

Definite article

There are is only one article, '-(o)th', which marks both singular and plural nouns. It functions as a suffix:

  • tespe (meaning 'woman')

becomes

  • tespeth (meaning 'the woman')
  • pej ('dog')

becomes

  • pejoth ('dogs')


Declining by number:

  • tespe (meaning 'woman')

becomes

  • tespel (meaning 'women')


Note that to create a plural one simply adds +(e)l to the noun. To give a further example of creating a plural noun, we'll use 'pej', which means dog.

  • pej ('dog')

becomes

  • pejel ('dogs')

To form plurals with the definite article, one stacks the suffixes as PLURAL+ARTICLE, thus:

  • tespel (meaning 'women')

becomes

  • tespeloth (meaning 'the women')


  • pejel ('dog')

becomes

  • pejeloth ('the dogs')

Declining by case:

  • tespe (meaning 'woman')

becomes

  • ai tespe (meaning 'woman (acc.)')


  • pej ('dog')

becomes

  • ai pej ('dog' (acc.))

Pronouns

Subject pronouns decline like any other noun in Arangothek. One simply adds an "ai" before the noun:

Subject Object
I (1ps) min ai min
You (2ps) ken ai ken
He (3ps.m) da ai da
She (3ps.f) da ai da
It (3ps.n) da ai da
We (1pl) melin ai melin
You (2pl) kalin ai kalin
They (3pl) delin ai delin

Possessive pronouns

Arangothek doesn't have possessive pronouns per se, but instead forms the possessive with suffixes.

Base pronoun Possessive suffix
I (1ps) min (n)im
You (2ps) ken (n)ek
He (3ps.m) da (n)ond
She (3ps.f) da (n)ond
It (3ps.n) da (n)ond
We (1pl) melin (n)imil
You (2pl) kalin (n)etil
They (3pl) delin (n)ondil

Adjectives

Adjectives decline neither by number or case. They are not marked to distinguish them from other words in a sentence, but they generally precede their intended noun:

  • sarla tespe "pretty woman"

Arangothek has a freeish word order, though, so "tespe sarla" is also accurate, if less commonly seen.

Adverbs

WIP

Verbs

Infinitive verbs end with -ua.

Infinitive form Meaning
sartua to drink
korkua to thank
pipua to drink

Present tense

Present tense adds a particle, "ve", and drops the infinitive verb ending, switching for the activated form "-ix".

Infinitive form Present-tense form
sartua ve sartix
korkua ve korkix
pipua ve pipix

Past tense

Present tense adds a particle, "in", and drops the infinitive verb ending. It also uses the activated form "-ix".

Infinitive form Past-tense form
sartua in sartix
korkua in korkix
pipua in pipix

Future tense

Future tense mirrors the construction of the present and past, but uses the particle "di".

Past tense

Command formation mirrors that of all the above, with the substitution of the particle "an".

Conditional

Formation of the conditional is unknown.

Auxiliary "tenses"

Arangothek has two "auxiliary tenses", one of which isn't really a verb tense at all, but both are included here on account of how they are formed.

Infinitive "kor" form rough translation "er" form rough translation
sartua kor sartix "before drinking" er sartix *
korkua kor korkix "before thanking" er korkix *
pipua kor pipix "before seeing" er pipix *
Working with "er"

"er" is an especially hard form to translate. When used in sentences like

  • "Koi min er pipix ai ken, in serpix bedelta ai ken."
  • "but" I * see(actv) acc. you, past love only acc. you.
  • But after I had seen you, I loved only you.

It shows something which happened previous to the action in the main clause, and thus functions as kind of a specialised past tense.

Another example of "er":

  • "Gossath er flarix menxa, an branorgix ai orgod."
  • the-king * say(actv.)thus, cmd dispatch acc. messenger.
  • After/when the king says so, send a messenger.

Word-forming affixes

This may not be a complete list. bornfor is adding them as he finds them.

Suffixes

-(a)dossa

Forms a noun from an adjective.

  • blax dull (not sharp)
  • blaxadossa dullness

-(a)lua

Verbs nouns.

  • gorrathair foundation of a building (*gol- + *rath-air, understonage)
  • gorrathairalua to build (a building)

-altua

Unattested

-(a)nth

Forms a noun which is used for something. (Esperanto -ilo)

  • prakanth an anvil
  • prak-ua to strike, hi

-at

Forms a tangible noun from a verb.

  • lebdat a kiss
  • lebd-ua to kiss

-axua

unattested; possible:

  • ank wood
  • ankaxod a carpenter
  • ankax-ua to work with wood, to make something out of wood

-(e/a)dossa

with e:

  • gord bright
  • gordedossa brightness
  • kelt-ua to be able to
  • keltedossa ability
  • mu no, not
  • mudossa nothing

with a:

  • malgadossa start, beginning (n)
  • malg-ua to start, begin
  • bralk high
  • bralkadossa height

-ethrua

Unattested; "to make something some way",

  • hurn red
  • hurnethrua to make red

-eti

  • ank wood
  • anketi wooden, made of wood

-etto/ist

Forms a (not necessarily *closely*) related noun.

  • ap "over" (preposition); before an adjective, "too much," in excess
  • appettod master (of a craft or skill)
  • brog inn
  • brogetto bar
  • enxe hand
  • enxetto a mitten, glove


-(i)re/-(l)od*-

Forms a doer of something, a person who earns their living in a certain way. -od is a fossilised suffix and no longer used to create new words.

  • pantr-ua to play
  • pantrire a musician
  • alfrinair a forest
  • alfrinairod a forester

-ia

Forms an abstract noun from a noun or an adjective:

  • grax merciful, compassionate
  • graxia mercy, compassion
  • gossa king
  • gossia kingship
  • lathra pure, unadulterated
  • lathria purity


-k

Forms an adjective from a noun:

  • gossa king
  • gossak royal


-(n)air

Forms collective nouns.

  • alfri tree
  • alfrinair forest
  • gossa king
  • gossanair the royal family
  • drelth the world
  • drelthair the universe, the cosmos.

-igi

Diminuitive of nouns.

  • sarnu bear
  • sarnunigi little bear


-nimmo

unknown.

  • enxenimmo wrist

-(o)lta

Diminutive of adjectives- makes things "-ey", "-ish". Also works for nouns and verbs:

  • sil the ocean, sea
  • silolta vast, oceanic
  • sarpolta useful
  • sarp-ua to use
  • sarmapir summer
  • sarmapirolta summery

-(o)nth

Variant form of "(a)nth"; in current use designates a tool used for something OR a place (highly localised, often actually an object) at which something occurs.

  • pantr-ua to play
  • pantronth a musical instrument
  • kanonth a sawmill
  • kan-uato saw

-ovath

Makes a noun from an infinitive.

  • arrovath an attempt
  • arr-ua to try, to attempt
  • sarpovath a use for something
  • sarp-ua to use

Sometimes forms words which mean an event or happening of some kind, too:

  • bobalovath guarding, guard duty
  • bobal-ua to guard
  • bortovath a burial, a funeral
  • bort-ua to bury

-pir

Creates a season. Likely a fossilised suffix.

  • opte dark
  • optepir fall (season)

-st

"forms a noun from an adjective"

  • thratessast knowledge

Table of Correlatives for Arangothek

Question Singular Question Plural Near Far Plural Near Plural Far Indefinite/Universal Singular Indefinite/Universal Plural No-
Individual sintha selintha dan " delin " lintha lelintha mulintha
Object simni selinmi mek ket melek kalit linmi lelinmi mudossa
Place sinumpi mekumpi ketumpi linumpi
Time sinpir mekpir ketpir linpir
Manner sinxa minxa ketsa linxa
Reason sindra mindra ketra
Precise* sin mete kete lin

The "precise" correlatives correspond to questions and answers relating to the English word "which". sin = which (one), "meke" = "this (particular) one", etc. These are distinguished from the "Individual" and "Object" categories only by their specificness. "dan" = this, he/she/it ; mek = "this thing". "Precise" category correlatives can be used for either people OR objects, and are not limited in use like the "Individual" and "Object" category correlatives.

Numbers

WIP


External links



This article is one of a few about Arangoth.

Languages: Arangothian * Igmerind
Countries: Arangoth



This article is part of the Conlang Rescue Project.

This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.5 ( Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 Unported License ).
Some information in this article was taken from LangMaker. (For the specific article, please see the 'External Links' section.)