minlang

minlang concept

Definition of a language

I used Britanica’s “language” page to try and define what characteristics make a language a language, and try to minimize the complexity of my language.

Phonetics of minlang

According to Henry Sweet, a language is

the expression of ideas by means of speech-sounds combined into words. Words are combined into sentences, this combination answering to that of ideas into thoughts.

Of course, we’re going to need a few sounds to make words first. I decided to use /a/, /m/ and /n/, since /a/ is generally considered to be THE basic vowel, and the vast majority of languages have it, /m/ is /a/ with the lips closed and /n/ is /a/ with your tongue pressed against the upper palate.
The reason I picked out three sounds instead of two is that it can be difficult to pronounce multiple consonants one right after another, and it’s unclear when one vowel ends and the other starts if we’re using the same vowel. Therefore, I thought it would be best to use something similar to Japanese phonetics – a CV model, which means a vowel always comes after a consonant (with the exception of separators that will be described below). So, we’d form syllables, like this: /ma na na na/, and with a few syllables, we can form words!
Finally, we need to combine these words into sentences. Languages usually use a combination of an object, a subject and a verb to describe an action. I’m going to use the OVS model (so, object-verb-subject) with an optional subject (replaced by /na/ if not needed) since it’s the model used in English and my native language, Russian, though it can be arbitrary with the condition that all participants of the conversation agree to use the same word order.
But we’re gonna need a way to separate words. I was going to use intonation for that, but that is going to complicate things too much, therefore I decided to use the following scheme. Consider two words, both are /ma na na na/. To separate the syllables /na/ (last of the first word) and /ma/ (first of the second), we can use the consonant opposite to the first one in the first syllable of the second word, therefore making something like /ma na na na n ma na na na/. The last word in a message does not need a separator (obviously), therefore it can be omitted.
Sentences can also be connected with separators, since they are of fixed length.

Words, categories and properties

According to Bernard Bloch and George L. Trager, a language is

a system of arbitrary vocal symbols by means of which a social group cooperates.

To make the cooperation possible, we have to define a few words. The system I’m suggesting for nouns (objects and subjects) allocates four syllables per word for the category of the word, and as many additional syllables for describing the properties of a word as needed. (The system for verbs will be described later below.)
The category part is quite simple: it describes the category of the word. For example, /ma na na na/ means languages or nationalities (as derived from the English name of the language, “minlang”), and /ma na ma na/ is for manmade objects (as derived from the English word “manmade”). Both of these are derived from English, as are most other names for categories.
To choose the appropriate categories and properties, I was using the Swadesh list, keeping in mind that it would be great to cover most of these words.
I am suggesting these names for categories:

/ma ma ma ma/ /ma ma ma na/ /ma ma na ma/ /ma ma na na/ /ma na ma ma/ /ma na ma na/ /ma na na ma/ /ma na na na/
food drinks names animate beings nature-created inanimate things manmade inanimate things pronouns languages and nationalities
/na ma ma ma/ /na ma ma na/ /na ma na ma/ /na ma na na/ /na na ma ma/ /na na ma na/ /na na na ma/ /na na na na/
unused unused numbers materials relations organs and body parts gods and religious things colors

(Categories marked as “unused” are unused.)

Now it would be great to define properties for each category. A property is something that narrows down the meaning of a word, so if we have a singular personal pronoun, it would mean “I”, or be represented as /ma na na ma ma na na/.
I’m going to define /ma/ as “yes” and /na/ as “no” for properties that are either related to the word or not. All the trailing /na/’s can be omitted (for example, /ma na na ma ma/ for the example above). And here are the properties for each category:

Food and drinks

1 2 3 4
is sweet kills you /ma/ if gathered, /na/ if hunted (meat) is cooked (only for food)

Example: /ma ma ma na/ for poisonous berries.

Names

This category does not have any properties. Instead, the fifth syllable and onwards are the name itself. The end of the name is signified by a separator; there is no limit to how long a name can be.

Animate beings

1 2 3
location1, 2 syl.2 is tameable is long
  1. Location is /na na/ for flying beings such as birds, /na ma/ for swimming beings such as fish, /ma na/ for creatures living under the ground such as moles, and /ma ma/ for creatures living on top of the ground such as humans and wolves.
  2. Here and onwards – the number of syllables for a property.

Example: /na na ma na/ would best describe a pigeon, and /ma ma ma ma/ would be a cat.

Nature-created inanimate things

1 2 3
is plant size1, 2 syl. cannot be counted2
  1. /na na/ for small, /na ma/ for medium, /ma na/ for large and /ma ma/ for immeasurably big.
  2. In pieces (e. g. “one rock”, “two trees” can be counted, but “one water” can’t). Please note that this option is inverted, so rocks would use /na/ and water would use /ma/.

Example: /na na na na/ for “rock”, /ma na ma na/ for “bush” and /na ma ma ma/ for “sea”.

Manmade inanimate things

1 2
type1, 2 syl. is big
  1. /na na/ for containers, /na ma/ for tools, /ma na/ for weapons and /ma ma/ for other things

Example: /ma na ma/ for “spear”, /na na ma/ for “house” and /na na na/ for “box”.

Pronouns1

1 2 3
is personal2 is plural3 refers to someone not participating in the conversation
  1. /ma na na/ is reserved for “who”/”what”, and /ma na ma/ is reserved for “why”. These signify that this sentence is a question.
  2. refers to the speaker or the group that the speaker is a part of
  3. refers to multiple people

Example: /ma ma na/ for “we”.

Languages and nationalities1

1 2 3 4
is foreign is southern2 is western3 is African4
  1. Empty property is reserved for minlang.
  2. If foreign, comes from Europe, North America or northern Asia. If not, comes from the southern part of the region we’re in.
  3. If foreign, comes from North or South America. If not, comes from the western part of the region the speaker is in.
  4. Omitted if not foreign, western or not southern.

Example: empty for “minlang”, /na ma ma/ for southwest of the region the speaker is in, /ma ma ma/ for South America.

Numbers

1 2
is number is many

Example: /na ma/ for “many”, /ma ma/ for “two”.

Materials

1 2 3
is hard is liquid comes from a live being

Example: /na ma ma/ for “blood”, /ma na ma/ for “bark” or “wood”, /ma na na/ for “stone”.

Relations

1 2 3
is a successor (isn’t a predecessor) is neighboring1 is family
  1. Friends of similar age and siblings, for example

Example: /ma na ma/ for “son”/”daughter”, /na ma ma/ for “sibling”, /na ma na/ for “friend”.

Organs and body parts

1 2 3 4
found in a human1 is bone-like found on the surface required for living
  1. Not necessarily a human body part, just one that a human would have.

Example: /na ma ma na/ for “claw”, /ma na na ma/ for “heart”.

Gods and religious things

1 2
is a god/gods region1, syl. ≤ 4
  1. Same as in Languages and nationalities

Example: /na ma ma na na/ would best describe buddhism, /ma ma ma na na/ would best describe Buddha.

Colors

1 2 3
is dark has red has green

Example: /na na na/ for “black”, /ma na na/ for “white”, /na ma na/ for “red”, /na na ma/ for “green”, /na ma ma/ for “yellow”.

Great, we’ve figured out the basic properties for different categories of nouns! Not only do they cover most of the Swadesh list, they are also extensible, which means the language can evolve by having people add properties to categories as needed.
But what about verbs? Well, since the 207-version of the Swadesh list only has 55 verbs, I suggest that, at least initially, 6-syllable words are always used for verbs (fun fact, that makes the smallest sentence 10 syllables long if we omit the subject). That makes it possible to define all verbs with an 8x8 table (see the dictionary). Still, it’s best to organize these verbs; and if you look at the dictionary, you’ll notice that columns of verbs are, at least partially, of the same category.

Writing system

Every physiologically and mentally typical person acquires in childhood the ability to make use, as both sender and receiver, of a system of communication that comprises a circumscribed set of symbols (e.g., sounds, gestures, or written or typed characters).

Great! Now we need a writing system. I suppose we can make things simple and only use strokes – diagonal stroke that looks like a backslash for “na” – \, and a diagonal stroke that looks like a forward slash for “ma” – /. Either dashes – or spaces ` ` for separators.

Therefore, the sentence “I throw rock” (e. g. “I threw a rock”, depends on the context) would be translated as /\\// /\\/\\ /\/\, or /ma na na ma ma n ma na na ma na na n ma na ma na/.

But is this enough?

Not as enough as more universally spoken languages like English – there are way less words. But typically information can be derived from context! Therefore, I think it should be fine. :D

This site is open source. Improve this page.