I want to learn this language, but the document is not able to open...

Like what happened? This subreddit feels so empty suddenly.

Hi!

I re-found Fluidlang via Conlang Critic (and I know that review is of the old A-lang; what I otherwise write is about the B-lang).

I have some thoughts, criticisms and questions, as always when I read about a language.

First impression was: "wow, that's a lot of vowel clusters that make my head spin" — i.e., without training I find them hard to read. For me (I'm just a poor, guillable Swede), and possibly many other linguistic backgrounds it would be more intuitively — esasier to read and comprehend — with a w instead of an u (either in all positions, or some; I could live with weird words like "nw", I think) (and possibly j in some positions? But I'm not sure about that). This is on the premise, which I personally have, that you want a language that is fairly easy and intuitive — my interest is auxlangs; but that all depends on your goals, naturally.

On the same token (?), I wonder: is the letter-combo "oa" ever used? If I understand it right, at least following an i or a u, it is just pronounced like a-variant-of an "a". Which would mean a vowel combo for something that is not a diphtong. Therefore, I hope it's not actually in use.

And the same thing with the combination eo — it seems to be two letters representing one sound, /ə/, in practice. I see the logic in a combination of e and o (the Nordic letters ø and ö, representing similar sounds, have œ and an o with an e above as origins, respectively), but I would find using one letter for that sound much easier.

Being from the Nordic countries, the aforementioned ø or ö would be completely logical to me, but those are hard for many people to type. Kiamuili uses w for that, but better perhaps with a free vowel letter, so maybe y if so. (If it's not changed, using œ is an elegant compromise-manner to write that combination ;))

On page 10 in the 1.0.2 grammar, it says that .ilini.e means "we where". I think that should be .ulini.e (or alternatively maybe it's so that the translation is wrong — pick one of those viewpoints :))

If .o is to be mainly used about inanimate things, how do you say "they", referring to a mixed gender group?

I'm being rather blunt and direct here — all of the above is of course just my viewpoint or perspective. It's fine if you don't agree, naturally.

All in all, the B-lang seems to have many features I'm looking for, that I find good. A very good and wellmade oligo-whatever-we-shall-call it.

I would appreciate hearing your feedback!

regards, /u/neounish

Once there was a king. He was childless. The king wanted a son. He asked his priest: "May a son be born to me!" The priest said to the king: "Pray to the god Werunos". The king approached the god Werunos to pray now to the god. "Hear me, father Werunos!" The god Werunos came down from heaven. "What do you want?" "I want a son." "Let this be so," said the bright god Werunos. The king's lady bore a son.

.ani.e tiapueotiu nui .anilia tialiu tiapueotiu .anima tialiu .anilueoniu .aho tiatuivomo: ".uma tialiu huaemui hi .u!" tiatuivomo .anilueo hi tiapueotiu: ".alueomovia hi tiamo Werunos" tiapueotiu .anivieohi tiamo nu .alueomo .uatuaoti hi tiamo. ".utuivia tiami Werunos!" tiamo Werunos .anivieo tuae viaemo. ".ima mieniu?" ".uma tialiu" ".ova.e," .anilueo hiuluae tiamo Werunos mua ha tiapueotiu .ianihioeno tialiu

3s-PST-be man-force-cultural not 3s-PST-have man-young king 3s-PST-want son 3s-PST-speak-Q 3s-POS man-know-information-divine 1s-want son give-PASS to 1s priest 3s-PST-speak to king 3s-speak-divine-IMP to man-divine Werunos king 3s-PST-come-to god SUB 3s-speak-divine in-this-time to god 1s-know-IMP man-parent Werunos god Werunos 3s-PST-come out place-divine 2s-want thing-Q 1s-want son 3s-FUT-be 3s-PST-spoke having-color-day god Werunos woman of king 3s-PST-be.able-create son

If you're new to /r/FluidLang, welcome! If you're new to the art of constructing languages, welcome! I hope this subreddit can be a source of advice and inspiration for you. The purpose of /r/FluidLang is to explore meaning through restraint in expressiveness found in oligosynthesis (see the sidebar). In a way, it's a sort of game - a challenge to see what is possible with the rules given.

At the moment, there are two FluidLanguages: the first is called, simply, FluidLang or A-Lang, and the second is called either Mueolueoto ('language' in Mueolueoto) or B-Lang. They both differ in that their phonetic inventories are based on different natural languages and their morphologies are varyingly agglutinative or isolating, but they form words via an identical system of synthesis. In a way, these are programming languages that are speakable. The system, like Python syntax, is well-defined, but the programs (words, sentences) that one can make with the syntax are immense and infinite. This subreddit is meant to see what kind of programs those can be, how complex they can return but how simple the syntax can appear.

Any thoughts, opinions, and questions are appreciated.

I'm introducing this challenge to kindle some activity here. This will include a short sentence, haiku, or some other sort of text, and the goal at the end of a month is to produce a translation either (1) using as few radicals and remaining as close to the original text as possible or (2) using any number of radicals and being as specific as possible. The translation can be in either A- or B-Lang, and similar-language submissions will be judged against each other - in this way, there is a possibility of two winners. At the end of the designated amount of time, the winner(s) will be awarded a golden flair (the same color as the link flair on this post, specifying the language used if there is more than one). The text:

My life -
How much more of it remains?
The night is brief.

by Masaoka Shiki

Since January is nearly over, and since this is the first try at such a challenge, the deadline will be February 28th.

With developement lagging, there's been less time to dedicate to B-Lang. What I have been playing around with, though, is the range of tense and aspect that can be expressed. Some are cumbersome and impractical, but I still feel it's interesting to see them all side-by-side, realized as slightly different but ultimately similar. Below are ten different tenses of 'shine' used in example sentences.

It should be noted that for every occurence of a participle in English (i.e., 'shining), I used the participle construction in B-Lang (using lia and tuo to express 'to have the state of...'). In this way, along with the help of some new temporal adwords I didn't know were possible (again, tomorrow, now, etc.), this level of exhaustiveness in choosing a specific tense is feasible. More can be read in the doc.

In determining the radical definitions for B-Lang, I, while aware of this, did not add any numerals. This did not cross my mind until after I thought I finished the second grammar doc, and will certainly be one of the next things I add to it. This missing element didn't show itself to be a problem until I began translating some syntax-testing sentences, some of which included numerals.
My solution is very Pirahã-esque: 1 is not marked anywhere - it's replaced by the noun that it modifies or the 3s pronoun; i.e., not 'There is one left,' but 'There is a [specific object] left.' 2 is marked with the reduplication of the first radical of the word as a prefix (optionally followed by a hyphen if the compound is more than two radicals long); i.e., ti, 'time,' is titi, 'two times, twice,' but tiao.iaopiae, 'wood,' is tiao-tiao.iaopiae, 'two (amounts of) wood.' One can see that there is no way to say something as simple as 'I had two,' as an object is required for the reduplication to take place. For numbers above 2, since more reduplication that once is really cumbersome, the default will be li, 'many,' exactly how Pirahã uses 'many' to count higher than two; i.e., 'I had three+ methods,' can only be .unilia huao li. A work around that is effective (albeit cumbersome as well) could be to repeat something along the lines of '...and another...' everytime another 'something' is introduced; there is just no way of referring to all the 'somethings' at once.

I am also planning on writing little mini-lessons concerning some of the more technical minutia that B-Lang allows, and some of the more unexpected semantic ranges that some very specific compounds can encompass. Those will hopefully be as straightforward and simple as possible (I hope my writing tone is casual enough to not bore anyone!).

Hey, all! I've been playing around with the CSS, and you can now choose between several colored flairs that match those of link flairs. I was thinking of doing some big challenges and rewarding the winners with a gold flair, kind of like the seasonal snowflake/skull flairs that /r/conlangs used to do. Putting on something big like that would require a lot more thought, though! Maybe a longer translation challenge... Not sure how many responses that might render, given that there isn't much traffic here anyway (I hope to change that!). Maybe an x-post to /r/conlangs... Not sure how much flack I might get for cross-adversiting.

Regardless, Happy New Year!

I glance to the trees, and to the sky, and I find no solace.

.U tievitioemiae.ume.uhotio hi, Niavuhiu.uapuahia.uoemiaepuahihiae.uapuahia, hi liae, .U Hioehitieletioemiae.ume.uhotio niu Puoepiouapimiaopiotuamiaotua

A little too tired to give a proper gloss, try and find out what you will, Andrew. I know I made some mistakes somewhere.

Edit: Sorry it took so long, Andrew, it took me just a little too long to get used to the workings of B-Lang; but I came around, as now it has a similar feel to A-Lang (FluidLang). I can't say I'm a fan of all of the vowels, as I feel the consonants of A-Lang bring about a definite distinction, whereas the vowels of B-Lang have great opportunity to morph and degrade into something alien. But! I don't speak it out loud, only in mind, so take my criticisms with a good grain of salt before any thought upon changes. As I mentioned previously, I do know, wholly, that I made some mistakes, and I've identified them, but am not willing to change them, as I wish to see if you have any useful feedback. It's a pleasure to work with this newer language of yours, and I'll keep translating some more short bits of text to test the language, at your permitting, of course. Cheers, Andrew.

Please use this thread to post you recently created FluidLang words and definitions, any questions you might have about FluidLang (which will be answered as soon as possible), or something to start a discussion - any topic is alright, but topics pertaining to language are preferred. As a note, if you're submitting a single word, put the word in boldface, various definitions in italics, and a simple gloss. Thanks!

Please use this thread to post you recently created FluidLang words and definitions, any questions you might have about FluidLang (which will be answered as soon as possible), or something to start a discussion - any topic is alright, but topics pertaining to language are preferred. As a note, if you're submitting a single word, put the word in boldface, various definitions in italics, and a simple gloss. Thanks!

Please use this thread to post you recently created FluidLang words and definitions, any questions you might have about FluidLang (which will be answered as soon as possible), or something to start a discussion - any topic is alright, but topics pertaining to language are preferred. As a note, if you're submitting a single word, put the word in boldface, various definitions in italics, and a simple gloss. Thanks!

Please use this thread to post you recently created FluidLang words and definitions, any questions you might have about FluidLang (which will be answered as soon as possible), or something to start a discussion - any topic is alright, but topics pertaining to language are preferred. As a note, if you're submitting a single word, put the word in boldface, various definitions in italics, and a simple gloss. Thanks!

Please use this thread to post you recently created FluidLang words and definitions, any questions you might have about FluidLang (which will be answered as soon as possible), or something to start a discussion - any topic is alright, but topics pertaining to language are preferred. As a note, if you're submitting a single word, put the word in boldface, various definitions in italics, and a simple gloss. Thanks!

Please use this thread to post you recently created FluidLang words and definitions, any questions you might have about FluidLang (which will be answered as soon as possible), or something to start a discussion - any topic is alright, but topics pertaining to language are preferred. As a note, if you're submitting a single word, put the word in boldface, various definitions in italics, and a simple gloss. Thanks!

Hello! I know it's been a while, but I'm still not done with B-Lang! I can, however, tell all about it. As I've previously said, its phonetic inventory is based on Hawai'ian:

Note: the glottal stop is written as <.> in the Latin script.

Because syllables can only be CV, CjV, CjVV, CwV, and CwVV, there are a possible 200 syllables, and I do intend to use all of them to the greatest extent that I am able. Now that I've had experience with FluidLang, I have a good idea of the corresponding English words that need to be defined, and, since the compounding system will be rather similar, I can plan ahead and create words that I know will be used often. I'll refer to syllables with meaning assigned to them as radicals, like I've done in the past.

Because phonetic restraints are as straightforward as they are, B-Lang can be written with any alphabet. Featural systems like Hangul cannot be used, since the syllable structure can't fit. I mentioned Greek in a previous post, but anything from Cyrillic to Armenian will work!

Verb conjugation is very simple. There are past and future radicals that determine tense (present isn't marked). A radical meaning 'many' marks number.

Nouns do not decline, but the word order of B-Lang is much less lax than that of FluidLang: it is SVO (shameless!) and relative clauses and subordinate clauses are in the same order. Questions are distinguished with a question mark only.

For the next couple weeks, I'll put some work in on B-Lang. Life keeps getting in the way, but I'll hopefully have a workable grammar document that I can publish soon! Questions and comments are welcome. I have to thank all you wonderfuls subscribers who might be reading this for sticking around!

Please use this thread to post you recently created FluidLang words and definitions, any questions you might have about FluidLang (which will be answered as soon as possible), or something to start a discussion - any topic is alright, but topics pertaining to language are preferred. As a note, if you're submitting a single word, put the word in boldface, various definitions in italics, and a simple gloss. Thanks!

Please use this thread to post you recently created FluidLang words and definitions, any questions you might have about FluidLang (which will be answered as soon as possible), or something to start a discussion - any topic is alright, but topics pertaining to language are preferred. As a note, if you're submitting a single word, put the word in boldface, various definitions in italics, and a simple gloss. Thanks!

Traffic is lagging - I expect because of the new school year - but I've been putting more time into a Hawaiian-and-Greek-influenced oligosynthetic language similar to FluidLang in that some of the compounding rules are identical. It has the potential for 200 syllable types and should be much easier to pronounce than FluidLang.

I'm hoping to expand the reach of this subreddit to a group of fun little minlangs that all fall under the blanket name of 'FluidLanguages,' and what is presently referred to as FluidLang will become A-Lang. Though, I don't expect 26 different ones! Perhaps some users might volunteer to create their own, other-lettered (C, D, E, etc. -Langs) minlangs. That might be a distant dream, however. Regardless, do not worry about the activity here! It may be sluggish, but /r/FluidLang is far from dead!

Please use this thread to post you recently created FluidLang words and definitions, any questions you might have about FluidLang (which will be answered as soon as possible), or something to start a discussion - any topic is alright, but topics pertaining to language are preferred. As a note, if you're submitting a single word, put the word in boldface, various definitions in italics, and a simple gloss. Thanks!

Please use this thread to post you recently created FluidLang words and definitions, any questions you might have about FluidLang (which will be answered as soon as possible), or something to start a discussion - any topic is alright, but topics pertaining to language are preferred. As a note, if you're submitting a single word, put the word in boldface, various definitions in italics, and a simple gloss. Thanks!

Please use this thread to post you recently created FluidLang words and definitions, any questions you might have about FluidLang (which will be answered as soon as possible), or something to start a discussion - any topic is alright, but topics pertaining to language are preferred. As a note, if you're submitting a single word, put the word in boldface, various definitions in italics, and a simple gloss. Thanks!

Please use this thread to post you recently created FluidLang words and definitions, any questions you might have about FluidLang (which will be answered as soon as possible), or something to start a discussion - any topic is alright, but topics pertaining to language are preferred. As a note, if you're submitting a single word, put the word in boldface, various definitions in italics, and a simple gloss. Thanks!