Last modified: Sun 3/9/97 0100 PST
The sounds of Waldzell Conlang are
Syllables can be V (only word-initial), CV or CVC (only word-final). There are no monosyllabic words consisting only of a vowel. The onset consonant in CV and CVC syllables can be any one of the 18 consonant phonemes, but the coda of CVC syllables can only be t, k, s, x, m and l.
Words may have any number of syllables, but those with two or more will contain one stressed syllable, the rest being unstressed. Stress is manifested phonetically as a high-falling pitch contour and marked lengthening of the vowel. The stressed vowel is represented phonologically (and orthographically, when using the Latin alphabet) by use of an acute accent: í é á ó ú.
When writing Waldzell Conlang using the Latin alphabet, the same letters are used as in the phonological description above. If the acute accent on stressed vowels is not available or not convenient, a double vowel (i.e. aa instead of á) may be used.
Anybody wishing to write Waldzell Conlang in a pre-existing, non-Latin-based system, is welcome to devise a mapping from their writing system to the WC phoneme inventory. Such mappings can be submitted (email to <waldzell@pair.com>) for publication on the Waldzell website so that they can be used by others.
In recognition of Hesse's talk of "glyphs" in the novel, a more pictographic writing system for the Waldzell Conlang is under development. Similar to both Mayan and Egyptian hieroglyphics, the Waldzell glyph language will consist of a logographic (word-writing) and a phonemic component. Any expression can be written with the phonemic glyphs alone; logographic symbols will be added for writing conlang words where such conventional usage is warranted (for relations, grammatical particles and certain high-frequency terms, for instance).
| unstressed | |||||
| i | e | a | o | u | |
| stressed | |||||
| í | é | á | ó | ú |
| labial | apical | dorsal | ||
| stops | voiceless | |||
| p | t | k | ||
| voiced | ||||
| b | d | g | ||
| fricatives | voiceless | |||
| f | s | x | ||
| voiced | ||||
| v | z | j | ||
| labial | lingual | |
| nasals | ||
| m | n | |
| lateral | ||
| l | ||
| flap | ||
| r | ||
| glides | ||
| w | y |
| Egémi bo vásax esamél be. | |
| Piwálas be vájox yidólu ne. |
A Term consists of a TermStem followed by a two-part marker (TopTT) indicating the Topic and Type of the Term. The Topic part of the TopTT can be one of
The Topic part of the TopTT marker is followed by the TermType part, which can be one of
| egémi bo | HumanBeing ARNEW-OC |
| piwálas ne | Self-Improvement GMOLD-EC |
Relations are represented by RelationStems to which Scope and Mode prefixes (in that order) and a Negation suffix have been attached. The Scope prefixes are
The Mode prefixes are
The Negation suffixes are
| vásax | CONV-CERT-OBJEVT-AFF (sa = "OBJEVT") |
| xúluk | SELF-PROB-AGGELEM-NEG (lu = "AGGELEM") |
The syntax of assertions are quite straightforward: all assertions consist of two Terms separated by a Relation. Both kinds of constituents were described above. Orthographically, an assertion is normally terminated with a period. Since most RelationStems are semantically asymmetrical (i.e. Term1 Rel Term2 does not have the same entailments as Term2 Rel Term1), the only other important syntactic distinction involves the formulation of the assertion with the Terms in their intended order. Obviously, if the RelationStem represents "CAUSEFF", then the Term preceding the Relation will represent the Cause and the other Term, following the Relation, will represent the Effect.
In the current version of the Canon Ontology, only "IDENT" is symmetrical. Assertions using IDENT can be formulated either way around with no difference in entailment. It may be useful, however, to put the older Term before the Relation and the newer Term after. This is only a suggested convention; it may be raised to a more prescriptive status if it finds common use among players.
| Egémi bo vásax esamél be. | HumanBeing ARNEW-OC CONV-CERT-OBJEVT-AFF "Intelligent"Behavior ARNEW-EC . |
| Piwálas be vájox yidólu ne. | Self-Improvement ARNEW-EC CONV-CERT-CAUSEFF-AFF Develop.And.Maintain.An.Athletic.Physique GMOLD-EC . |
All TermStems are trisyllabic. Given the aforementioned constraints on word structure, this means that TermStems all have the form (O)VOVOV(C), where O is one of the 18 onset consonants, V is one of the five vowels and C is one of the 6 coda consonants.
The RelationStems do not constitute an open lexical class, strictly speaking, due to the strong link between the Waldzell Conlang and the Canon Ontology. Nevertheless, it must be assumed that the Ontology will continue to evolve, and that the inventory of RelationStems will have to evolve to correspond to the relation types posited by the Ontology. All RelationStems have a CV form. The following items are defined in accordance with the current version of the Canon Ontology:
970214 2215 PST: a change in the Waldzell Canon Ontology, redefining ENVST as AGGELEM, was followed up here