Hello! Since I've lost recent data about my previous conlang: Ethonese, I've tried to create some other language. This is my latest invention - it may still be somehaw awkward or how should I say, "non-evolved" due to my lack of knowledge and experiences. But I hope you will post some comments, because, you can't get tired of constructive critics (or at least you shouldn't).

Now, the beginning.

Ombabi tzala IPA: [o'ᵐbabi ǀʰala] literally: "language for people".

It is, somehow agglutinative and synthetic language, but not as languages like turkish.
First thing first, it has got relatively easy phonology, though it has two tipes of clicks (alveolar and dental):

the consonants are:

IPA: /b, ts, dz, ᵐb, ⁿd, n, m, l, ɬ, ŋ, q, k, p, t, θ, d, j, s, g, h, ʔ, w, ɸ, z/ written as /b, ts, dz, mb, nd, n, m, l, ľ, ng, q, p, t, tx, d, y, s, g, h, ', w, v, z/

*note that p, k, q and t can be aspirated, written as /kh, ph, qh and th/ or pre-aspirated, written as /jk, jp, jq and jt/.

There are known the two forms of clicks: dental and alveolar.
Dental clicks are:

/ǀ, ǀʰ, ᵑǀ, ᵑǀʰ/ all written as /tz /

Alveolar clicks are:

/!, ǃʰ, ᵑǃ/ written as /tq and tqh for aspirated click/

Vowels are simple:

/a, ɛ, e, i, o, ɔ, u/ written as /a, e, ê, i, o, ô, u/ They can all be long, which is marked by double letter: for example:

'oo meaning "and" [ʔo:]

Though e and ɔ are not very common.

I didn't already work on alphabet itself, but I believe I will construct it soon.

2 GRAMMAR

I will not include all the grammar in here, just some basics. First, about infinitive verbs - they exist, but are not commonly used in language. Verbs can be modified due to their number and person, starting with few basics forms of verb to be:

ba - I am mba - we are

bo - you are mbo - you[pl]are

be - he/she/it is mbe - they are

Other verbs are modified simply by adding these forms of verb "to be" as a suffix:

kawa - "to work"

kawaba - "I work"

kawamba - "we work"

or

qubu - "to leave"

Ule qubumba.

They are leaving him.

or
tqha "to clean"

Ngawa tqhamba.

We are cleaning the house.

Oh, I forgot to mention - the primary word order is OVS. So the sentence "Tom eats a fruit" would look like that

Kako ube Tom.

I will finish my description tomorrow with past and future tense etc. But only if time will show mercy on me. For now I can just give you one example of sentence:

Tqanga iwe! Ingi opizza umbesa sibi! 'Oo ngawa tqhambesa imi!

[unbeliveable that! all PL-pizza eat-3pl-past really! and hause clean-3pl-past NEGATIVE]

That is unbeliveable! They really ate all the pizzas! And they didn't clean the house!

LackOfFuel

I'm assuming that the forms of "to be" [what's the citation form?] are attaching here to some sort of non-finite verbal form. If it's not an "infinitive", then what would you call it? Possibly a gerund or verbal noun?

Hello!

Yes, you can call these forms infinitives, but like I said, infinitives appear seldom in language itself. As for the verb be and some other irregular verbs, they don't have actual infinitive form. But I've decided to use 1sg form of verb as infinitive verb, so there wouldn't be a mess if it will be necessary for an infinitive to appear.
But like I said - infinitives are not common. Instead of them, other structures are oftenly used.
I hope I got your question.

Thank you!

LackOfFuel

So how would you say something like "Cleaning the house is dull but necessary" or "We bought the pizzas in order to eat them"?

Sorry, I cannot directly translate these sentences. But I'm planning on adding gerunds. As for the other sentence, I can't translate it either (lack of vocabulary and I need more backup on grammar, for I have only tenses and cases for nouns and pronouns), but I can make a sketch of it in english. It would sound something like "We brought the pizzas, so we could eat them".

L.

VERBS (continue)

Language has OVS (object verb subject) structure, so the sentence "Tom eats fruit" would look like this:

Kako ube Tom.

[fruit.ACC eat-3sg Tom]

1.1 TENSES

umba

u-mba

[eat-1pl]

Now, I must continue with past, right? Past tense is quite simpl, as well as future tense. They are both created by adding suffixes to the verb. The suffixes for past tense look like this:

-la for 1st person and -sa for other persons.

So the sentence "You[pl] ate" would look like this:

Umbosa

as the sentence "We ate fruits" would look like this:

Okako umbala.

[PL-fruit.ACC eat-1pl-PAST]

The future tense is created by adding suffix -ta (that includes the 1st person this time):

Kawambata

We will work

1.2 NEGATIVE and INTERROGATIVE MOOD

For negation of the sentence, simply the particle imi is added (we could translate imi as "not", though it is used differently than in English) . It can stand before or after the verb, but it is mostly used after the verb.

Kawambata imi.

[work-1pl-FUT NEGATIVE]

We will not work.

Kawabosa imi


[work-2sg-PAST NEGATIVE]

You[sg] didn't work.

Ongawo tqhambe imi.


[PL-house.ACC clean-3pl NEGATIVE]

They didn't clean the houses.

Interrogative sentences are made usually by using -le/-se instead of -la/-sa in past tense and -te instead of -ta for future tense. In present tense, interrogative structure of the sentence is recognized by a particle le which stands before the verb:

Le umbo?

[INT eat-2pl]

Do you[pl] eat?

Umbale?

Did we eat?

Umbete?

Will they eat?

Ubose?

Wil you[sg] eat?

There is also one, not so commonly used structure:

Imi umbese?

Which would mean "Didn't they eat?"

Now, every verb has got another form, I believe it is formally called "desiderative". It is mostly created (there are still some exceptions, though) by adding suffix -wa to the verb. So the whole sentence "I want to clean the houses" can be told using only two words:

Ongawo tqhabawa.

O-ngaw(o) tqha-ba-wa

[PL-house.ACC clean-1sg-DES]

The morpheme -wa stands afther the suffix for the tense:

Kawambowasa.

You[pl] wanted to work.

Everything else remains the way it suppose to be:

Kawambewasa imi.

[work-3pl-DES-PAST NEGATIVE]

They didn't want to work.

Kawambawale?

Did we wan't to work?

[work-1pl-DES-PAST.INT]

That would be all for now concidering the verbs, I'm currently developing some other kinds of verbs, but none of them is actually fully developed, so I wouldn't go too fast on posting them here.


2 PERSONAL PRONOUNS

Personal pronouns have got one basic form, but the plural form is quite easy to remember, since the only thing modified concidering the plural forms of personal pronouns is "duplication" of last syllable.

Uli - I Ulili - we

Ulo - you Ulolo you[pl]

Ule - he, she, it Ulele - they

Personal pronouns are used in short answers (eg. Who ate the fruit? S/he did (Kako umbasa haya? Ule the answer is given using only the personal pronoun) or if we want to say something specifically (like: Did they eat the fruit? No, HE ate the fruit. (Kako umbese? Tz, kako ube ULE)) or in strictly formal speech. Otherwise, they are not in common.

Some day later, I will continue with cases and maybe other structures.

Oh, and the information, I wanted to write down even before about the stress. Stress is unpredictable, but it usually falls on the second syllable.
____________________________

* DES -desiderative
* INT - interrogative
* PL (pl) - plural
* SG (sg) - singular


L.

[continue VERBS]

IMPERATIVE

As a denote for imperative, the suffix -ya is used when giving the command to one man.
For example:

"Ngawo tqhaya!" nuneke tzalabesa obo.

Mother said to father: "clean up the house!"

[house.ACC say-IMPsg father-DAT say-3sg-PAST mother]

When you give a command to a group of people (at least two men), you'ld use suffix -yana

"Ongawo tqhayana" uleleke tzalabala.

[PL-house.ACC clean-IMPpl 3pl-DAT say-1sg-PAST]

I said to them: "Clean up the houses!"

________________________________________________

NOUNS

PLURAL MAKING

Plural is marked by adding prefix o-. For example:

Kaka "a fruit/the fruit"

Okaka "fruits"

Some words, like ava(tree) begin with vowel. Here is plural marked by adding prefix om-.

Omava - trees

GRAMMATICAL CASE in Tzaba language

Nouns can have many cases. Most widely used case is accusative, marked with suffix -o. For example:

Omo akabala.

[road-ACC see-1sg-PAST]

I saw the road.

[om is the word for "road"]

Some nouns end with vowel; these vowels are removed by adding -o:

Kako ubewa Tom.

[fruit.ACC eat-3sg-DES Tom]

Tom wants to eat the fruit.

[kaka - fruit]

If nouns are pluralized, there is no change to take place:

Okako umbete sibi?

[PL-fruit.ACC eat-3pl-INT.FUT really]

Will they really eat fruits?

DATIVE CASE

Dative case is marked with suffix -ke:

Oboke okako bebala.

I gave fruits to mother.

Some nouns end up with -k. To these nouns, only suffix -e is added:

awak (bow) awake - to the bow

Some consonants, on the other hand, end up with consonant other than -k. To these, the suffix --eke is added:

Ningan - soil Ninganeke - to the soil

I'll finish this later.

L.

LOCATIVE CASE /-ni, -ani

Ngawa - house Ngawani - at the house.

Ngawani ba (uli).

I am at/in the house. (commonly used as "I am at home" since there is no proper word for "home")

Wahat - moon Wahatani on the moon

Tu wahatani besa, tzalambesa.

[CONJ moon-LOC be.3sg-PAST say-3pl-PAST]

They said, that s/he was on the moon.

GENITIVE CASE /-mu, -umu

Awak mbabamu [bow man-GEN] [man's bow]

Awako mbabamu go akambewasa.

[bow-ACC man-GEN one look-3pl-DES-PAST]

They wanted to look at one man's bow.

BENEFACTIVE /-i, -li

thanda - beast ponggo - bone

thandali oponggo

[tʰa'ⁿdali o'poŋgo]

bones for the beast

Thandali go oponggo mbe iwe.

[beast-BEN one PL-bone be.3pl that]

These are the bones for one beast.

Ombabi tzaba [PL-people-BEN language]

"language (made) for the people" (if you imagine one speaker of this language, that's the way he would call it )

PERSONAL PRONOUNS and the cases

Pronouns can be put in any of these cases, except accusative, which is used only for plural personal pronouns:

So the sentence "They ate them" would look kinda like this:

Ulelo umbesa (ulele).

But the sentence "They ate him/her" would look like this:

Ule umbesa (ulele).

There are some exceptions within pronouns in order to distinghuish between them when used in sentence and case. So I prepared a table with these forms:



So the sentence "The fruit is at their home" would simply look like this:

Uleleni be kaka.

[3pl-LOC be.3sg fruit]

Sample of text:

Ungembe ophamba. Ulelo akabala. Tu ophambo tzalambe wasaba na.

Birds do fly. I saw them. But I want birds to talk too.


That is just about all for now. Later, I'll probably come up with more things. If you stop by, please comment

L.

So, I've prepared a couple of sentences.

akabala ophamba, tu ungembesa.

[see-1sg-PAST PL-bird CONJ fly-3pl-PAST]

I saw birds flying.

buduli ulele.

[be.red-PAST 3pl]

They were red. ('budu' is descriptive verb and it's conjugated somehow different than regular verb)

ulelo simembesa osiwamba.

[3pl.ACC hunt-3pl-PAST PL-hunter]

Hunters hunted them.

munu, nise-imi ungembesa.

[then here-not fly-3pl-past]

So they flew away.

Eh, ungembeka ophamba sibi.

[yes fly-3pl-ABL* PL-bird really] *ABILITIVE

Yes, birds can really fly

So, what do you think?