Main Konya site
Konya-2b lexicon
In conversation on the konyalanguage Yahoo group in July and August 2005, Larry Sulky and I talked about possible restructuring of the language to indicate semantic categories and default parts of speech for root words (so as to make more obvious the way to apply derivation rules, and avoid confusions like Esperanto's broso > brosi, kombi > kombilo). This is a sketch of my proposed changes. Eventually he decided to go with a different phonotactic reform to accomplish the same ends. (You can see part of the reason why below; my Konya-2b is more verbose than the original Konya.) I might eventually use this basic structure for another language, but it will need to have a larger phoneme inventory to avoid the verbosity caused by combining this morphophonotactic scheme with Konya's small phoneme inventory. Such a project will also diverge from Konya lexically; here, I tried to just relex Konya as far as possible with the new phonotactic scheme to get a good basis for comparison with the original Konya and the alternate reform Larry was trying simultaneously.
The semantic categories are marked in the stem as follows:
Stems consist of (CV)*CS, the final Consonant before the Semivowel indicating the semantic category as above, and the semivowel showing where a root ends. Actual part of speech is indicated by a final vowel after the semivowel:
Compound words have [ai] following the semivowel of the first root. Morpheme order in compounds is head-final.
Words beginning with a stand-alone semivowel are functionals (mostly conjunctions) as in Konya Classic.
Update: In 2006-2008 I reused the grammatical innovations from Konya 2b in my engelang säb zjed'a. As of 2010 it's dormant, but I intend to get back to it eventually.
Konya Classic |
Konya-2b |
Quasi-literal translation |
Modern English | |
| Bebalya kisa | sotwo telwe Bebaiya | Babel story | The Story of Babel | |
| 1. | wosa, po muxa yo, telaxa tota tenyu sila we tokanlai mu. | wosya, polyo mya yo, motyo tonya lwi lemwa toxyaitekwo menya. | well, past much [comma], world entire have merely [acc.] language one. | Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. |
| 2. | wola, su xoxa kenxoyu faisa ye tufyu we xemapanxo luwi Xinarya ye kepyu we lunlo. | wolya, kyo mya myaikesyu fulwa ye tufyi myaixepwo felye Xinataiya ye kefwi mwaifelyo. | next, person many travel eastward and find plain at Shinar and inhabit [acc.] there. | As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. |
| 3. | wola, lo tokyu kewi sefanfaila we yoka "mi tota fetyu ne we petanketata ye kusansexyu fina we losa" punyoka. wola, lo lilyu lona we pitanketata wo pita ye we taula wo taulanpita. | wolya, pwo toxyi taxwe famwaisekyo yokwa "kwo tonya fesyi nanya ketatyaipitwo ye senyaikausi finwa pwo" pulwaiyoka. wolya, pwo liswi lonya ketatyaipitwo wo pitwo ye taupwo wo pitwaitaupwo. | next, they say to each-other [acc.] [quote] "we all make let-us [acc.] brick and bake completely [acc.] them" [end-quote]. next, they use only [acc.] brick rather-than stone and [acc.] tar rather-than mortar. | They said to each other, "Come, let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly." They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. |
| 4. | wola, lo tokyu nexa yoka "fetyu ne we xita tenwi kaipasa yo, lelantoxyu we saila punyo, yema mi tota kenyusa ne we su tota ye pefyusa ne no we tota lewi telaxa" punyoka. | (unfinished)
wolya, pwo toxyi xelwa yokwa "fesyi nanya xitwo lwe tanwaipaukyo yo, lelaxi sakyo pulwaiyo, yemwa .............................. |
next, they say then [quote] "make let-us [acc.] city with tower [which], reach [acc.] sky [end-which], so-that we all known-by let-us-be [acc.] person all and scattered-by let-us-be not [acc.] all of world" [end-quote]. | Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth." |
My home page
My conlang page
Last updated September 2010