Aꝡaereusso is a conlang inspired by Vietnamese, Korean, and little sprinkles of my very very little knowledge of Japanese (…not that my knowledge of the other two is that great).
Grammar Overview
Aꝡaereusso is an SOV language. Adjectives are put before the nouns. Adpositions can go either at the beginning of a clause, or before a verb.
Instead of adjectives, it has stative verbs, which behave exactly like adjectives (except for the fact that they can be used as verbs). It has a “ser/estar” type of distinction, as in Spanish, where adding the copula suffix to one will turn it into a ser.
It has no pronouns, so it’s perfectly okay to refer to people by their name or rank, even in first person. It has a simple formality system, presented as an affix in the verb of a main clause.
Writing System Overview
The writing system is a logography. Every word acts as a unique symbol, with a few radicals that can be used to guess the pronounciation. Some symbols are used as part of a syllabary for some names and foreign words. It has no punctuation, and instead, physical spacing is used to mark prosody.
Example Sentences
kassae reun ꝡe mine aranhlanh ssiraesa anhmane
warrior TOPIC RELCL neck long-REL some cat look_at.PERF
The warrior looks at a long-necked cat
manlái reun ꝡe sàni munhlanh rai ttuane
bard TOPIC RELCL some-SUBJ* say-REL thing know
The bard knows what was said
Naranhmi reun kúae Nakkami ruꝡo munhatterae ttuane
Naranh knows why Nakka bought flowers
Worldbuilding
This language was made for a slow-burn fantasy lesbian romance story I was writing, about two girls in a post-apocalyptic setting who don’t speak each other’s language. One of them performs field linguistics on the other, and they slowly get close in this way. I could begin posting it in Off-topic if that is something people want.
The language is from a very militaristic, kind-of-matriarchal, magically advanced culture. The relevant part of the worldbuilding for the language is this:
There is a government entity that documents how the language is commonly used. However, due to the Aꝡaereusso culture, they end up having a prescriptivistic effect on how the language is used, such that, for example, once they describe a new symbol as being part of the logography, everyone begins using it even if they previously did not. Similarly, if they deem a symbol as archaic, people will begin using more modern-feeling alternatives. These changes in the language can happen very rapidly.
It is common for people to have different names when they’re talking to people of different ranks. There is a methodical way to generate them, but some are forbidden for some people to know, however, after the war that halved the world, they are no longer as strict about this. For example, it is not allowed for a common person to know any government official’s underling-name. In the modern era, however, this is mostly considered a misdemeanor and not a punishable offense. On the other hand, knowing your boss’ underling name could get you fired from a job, and having a history of using it could ruin your life.
