Minecraftian

Minecraftian is a language developed by Minecraft Forum user redstone1337 (FrathWiki user:Lurker) starting in September of 2011. The language was originally conceived as being spoken by the recently introduced villager mobs, who at the time lacked audio. Redstone1337 eventually scrapped the language, but not before it was adopted by other users.

The grammar below is expanded from the original as conceived by redstone1337, with some tweaks to the phonetactics and grammar.

Phonology

The phonology and phonetactics were carried over from an even earlier sketchlang designed to be written as a syllabary in braille.

Consonants

Only 10 consonants

/p t k f s x m n l r/

Vowels

And four vowels

/i e a o/

Phonetactics

Syllable structure is (C)V(C).

The original iteration changed stops to fricatives at the end of a syllable. This is no longer the case. I never fully respected this rule even in the original thread, so it makes sense to abandon it.

Non-geminated stops become voiced between vowels or between a vowel and a liquid or nasal.

There are no diphthongs. An epenthetic /k/ is placed between two morphemes if it would result in two adjacent vowels.

/i/ is also used as an epenthetic vowel.

Orthography

Phonemes are written as in the IPA, except for /x/, which is written <h>. Voiced allophones of stops are reflected in the orthography as <b d g>.

Grammer

The grammar overall follows my tendency to eschew noun cases in favor of word order and to minimize the amount of inflection that is present. Agreement and grammatical gender are also absent.

Syntax

Word order in transitive sentences is SVO.

Hasti kek tokko
ghast eat wolf
The ghast eats the wolf.

sefe   hak   sah
player build shelter
The player builds the shelter.

In intransitive sentences, the word order is VS.

of   sefe
fall player
the player falls

Many verbs have both a transitive and an intransitive meaning, which is indicated through word order.

pom     sessan
explode creeper
The creeper explodes

sessan  pom     sah
creeper explode house
The creeper blows up the house.

Single adjectives can act like enclitics on the nouns they modify, following their heads.

mekap
small

tokko
wolf

tokko-mekap
the small wolf

tokko-mekap kek no~nor
wolf-small  eat PL~pig
the small wolf eats the pigs.

sah-nih
house-big
The big house

Adjectives can be inflected like verbs by appending an -i in the present tense and an -a in the past tense.

mekap-i  nor
small-is pig
the pig is small.

mekap-a  tokko
small-was wolf
the wolf was small

nih-i  sah
big-is house
The house is big.

nih-a  sah
big-is house
The house is big.

Unqualified, past-tense adjectives usually indicate that the statement is no longer valid, i.e. the wolf was small but is now big. The house was big, but a creeper blew it up and it no longer exists.

Plurals are indicated by reduplicating the first CV or VC of a root, making any necessary sound changes. In the original forum thread, I had two plurals, a normal plural formed by reduplicating the entire word, and another vaguely defined plural formed by reduplicating the first syllable minus the coda. I’m going to keep the form of the second plural but give it the meaning of the first.

tokko
wolf

to~dokko
PL-wolf
wolves

nor
pig

no~nor
PL~pig
pigs

Verbs do not agree with their arguments.

tokko kek nor
wolf  eat pig
the wolf eats the pig.

to~dokko kek no~nor
PL~wolf  eat PL~pig
The wolves eat the pigs.

Normal (non-adjectival) verbs are made past tense by adding the suffix -am.

tokko kek-am no~nor
wolf  eat-P  PL~pig
The wolf ate the pigs

Verbs also differentiate between simple and progressive aspects in both the present and past tenses. You form the progressive by reduplicating the first CV or VC of the verb, as you would to form plural nouns.

sefe   ha~hak     sah
player PROG~build house
The player is building the house

Adjectival verbs can also be inflected in the continuous aspect. The simple/continuous distinction in adjectives is similar to the ser/estar distinction in Spanish.

nih-i  sefe
big-is player
The player is big.
(the player is by nature physically large)

ni~nih-i    sefe
PROG~big-is player.
The player is being big.
(The player is acting big/strong/dangerous/generous at this time)

Pronouns

I’m lazy now, so here’s a paradigm:

Pronoun	Meaning
o	I/me
oko	We (exclusive)
i	you (singular)
iki	you (plural)
iko	we (inclusive)

There are no third person pronouns, just use a broadly defined noun like sefe (player), mop (monster/animal) or tesifikat (villager).

Postpositions

Postpositions are used, and postpositional phrases precede the noun or verb phrase they modify.

sah   at e  to~dokko
house in is PL~wolf
The wolf is in the house.

okit at of-am  sefe
hole in fall-P player
The player fell into a hole.

Possession uses the postposition es.

sefe   es  sah
player POS house
The player's house

There are special elided forms with pronouns:

os, is, ikos, ikis.

sessan  pom-am    is   todokko
creeper explode-P your dogs
A creeper blew up your dogs.

Relative Clauses

Relative clauses use the pronoun ka and immediately precede their antecedent.

o rogam okit at of ka sefe.
o   rog-am okit at of   ka  sefe 
1sg kill-P hole in fall REL player
I killed the player that fell in a whole.

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Word List

word	meaning
sah	house
pak	all
ramam	and
mok	animal
nihis	ash
ta	at
elaf	back
esato	bad
kis	bark
hohho	because
reto	belly
keh	big
ake	bird
kase	bite
nemes	black
kon	blood
leho	blow
tok	bone
afom	breast
fape	breathe
tar	child
ikeho	cloud
faheh	cold
neto	come
silho	count
irin	cut
kasop	day
amak	die
apso	dig
sesef	dirty
ser	dog
emef	drink
hosoh	dry
ahoko	dull
aptel	dust
ekik	ear
nekem	earth
ipaf	eat
rah	egg
ipor	eye
ipok	fall
finro	far
kil	fat
paf	father
riro	fear
ikin	feather
afe	few
nemo	fight
tiso	fingernail
akine	fire
lik	fish
fes	five
hatlo	float
piheh	flow
rel	flower
atip	fly
fanol	fog
ikek	foot
far	forest
eto	four
fopop	freeze
rim	fruit
ifnon	full
imih	give
omhis	good
tef	grass
firok	green
mele	guts
tore	hair
arom	hand
felo	head
ares	hear
site	heart
omo	heavy
til	here
rike	hit
onem	hold
tim	horn
rep	how
kire	hunt
her	husband
pamal	ice
fi	if
ni	in
rok	kill
lore	knee
liko	know
tanel	lake
omro	laugh
mon	leaf
holne	left
osek	leg
poke	lie
nome	live
refo	liver
peh	long
oko	louse
oke	man
nat	man
mak	many
fen	meat
tekaf	moon
tos	mother
irtih	mountain
oros	mouth
timan	name
pet	narrow
tekit	near
kike	neck
rapho	new
salet	night
heke	nose
him	not
tislo	old
nit	one
lis	other
nahat	play
kile	pull
omos	push
takok	red
hikir	right
fakoh	right
misat	river
fipes	road
sik	root
ris	rope
linof	rotten
nehil	round
toke	rub
emmas	salt
mofno	sand
sikak	say
afat	scratch
affaf	sea
ofos	see
hik	seed
netp	sew
papol	sharp
pen	short
altoh	sing
sofo	sit
pel	skin
fenat	sky
lamo	sleep
fon	small
omep	smell
talat	smoke
simek	smooth
mih	snake
asfit	snow
hit	some
leko	spit
ekak	split
kiso	squeeze
oppe	stab
ahme	stand
kifef	star
hif	stick
osike	stone
kosan	straight
irih	suck
fenot	sun
nirol	swell
ekok	swim
oroh	tail
om	that
ape	there
ike	thick
rif	thin
osip	think
ih	this
mek	three
etpo	throw
mike	tie
sekik	to burn
sake	tongue
koto	tooth
hikof	to rain
mos	tree
ekon	turn
pis	two
kono	vomit
keko	walk
tetin	warm
oker	wash
osafe	water
rekan	wet
tas	what
mit	when
lak	where
okako	white
reh	who
mar	wide
sif	wife
lokik	wind
riko	wing
ikef	wipe
amelo	with
eko	woman
mor	worm
ofsal	year
irkan	yellow
mekapi	small, little
sesan	creeper (think “sssssss BOOM!”)
tokko	wolf (normally a tamed wolf. The resemblance to “doggo” is a coincidence, as this was made before the word came into vogue.)
nor	pig
mop	animal/monster
nelan	the nether
mohe	cow
kek	to eat
fahi	fun, entertaining
posak	wood
tete	this (it acts like and adjective so it is attached to the end of a noun)
sarra	meat or flesh
sefe	player
tip	pick up
of	to fall
pipik	chicken
e (past tense em)	be, can be transitive, having the sense “noun IS noun”, or intransitive, having the sense “there is a noun” or “noun is in/at/on/around other noun”
hak	build
nih	big
tesifikat	villager (This lang is so old, villagers were still called “testificates”)
pom	blow up
okit	hole, cave, unlit area