pintekɑˈmosu

pintekɑˈmosu (whose name means absolutely nothing) is a conlang that I made for the Cursed Conlang Circus 3 (hopefully I'll get it done in time), which is inspired by the theme "protolang", although I'm not sure if it actually meets the requirements for that theme.

Here's the video I submitted. It didn't appear on the playlist, and I'm not sure why??? He said most of the submissions that weren't accepted were due to poor audio quality, and I know it's not great (it's just a built-in laptop microphone), but I didn't think it was that bad, and I think I followed all the rules. Did it not get seen because it was unlisted? Did I somehow make something that was horrible or offensive in a way that I'm not aware of?

Contents

• Phonology
• Sound changes
• Grammar stuff
• Vocabulary
• Translation
• Audio
• Gloss
• Thoughts after making the language

Phonology

The phonology is as follows:

Consonants:

Vowels:

Romanization is just the IPA. There isn't a native writing system.

Sound changes

Every clause in pintekɑˈmosu starts with the word "pintekɑˈmosu". The speaker then repeats the previous word with some sound changes applied, and those sound changes encode meaning. For instance, the first-person pronoun is "Init-Front", i.e., initial stress and front all vowels, so a phrase starting with the first-person pronoun would start "pintekɑˈmosu ˈpintekemøsy" . The next word in the phrase would apply sound changes to "ˈpintekemøsy".

The exception to this is proper nouns and foreign borrowings, in which case you just say a completely different word, and then the sound changes for the next word applies to that word.

With that in mind, the actual "phonology" is as follows:

Consonants:

• Fric: all nasals, stops, and affricates that are between two vowels become fricatives at the same place of articulation and voicing
• Voi: all consonants that are between two vowels become voiced
• Devoi: all stops, fricatives, and affricates become voiceless
• Pal: all alveolar and velar consonants that precede front vowels become palatal/postalveolar (and stops become affricates)
• Forward: all consonants move farther forward in the mouth (k > tʃ > t > p); labial consonants stay the same
• Backward: all consonants move farther back in the mouth (p > t > tʃ > k); velar consonants stay the same

Vowels:

• Rai: all low vowels become high; all high vowels become low-to-high diphthongs (e.g. e > i > ei); ə becomes i
• Low: all high vowels become low; e becomes ɑ; ɑ and ø become o
• CCW: i > e > ɑ > ɯ > i; y > ø > o > u > y
• CW: i > ɯ > ɑ > e > i; y > u > o > ø > y
• Front: all vowels become front vowels, and ə becomes i
• Back: all vowels become back vowels, and ə becomes ɑ
• Red: all unstressed vowels become ə
• Round: all back vowels become rounded, all front vowels become unrounded

Insertion and deletion:

• DelFin: last sound (vowel or consonant) gets dropped
• DelVow: delete the vowels in the syllables preceding and following the stressed syllable, possibly creating consonant clusters (only deletes one vowel if the stress is initial or final)
• DelSyls: delete all syllables except the stressed one and the one before and after it
• Epenth: ə inserted between two adjacent consonants or after a final consonant
• DupFin: reduplicate the final syllable
• DupInit: reduplicate the initial syllable

Stress:

• Init: initial stress
• Ante: antepenultimate stress
• Pen: penultimate stress
• Final: final stress

Every word is a series of sound changes, separated by spaces or hyphens. The word with sound changes applied is said after each sound change that doesn't have a hyphen after it.

Grammar stuff

Sentences are SVO

Adjectives come after the nouns they modify

Prepositions are used (as opposed to postpositions)

Negation is done by placing the word for "not" (Init-CCW-CCW) before the word it modifies, or before the verb to negate the whole sentence.

Nouns are marked for number by putting Final-Epenth after the noun.

Verbs are not marked for tense, aspect, mood.

Numbers are in base four.

Vocabulary

Init-Front

I/me

Final-Back

you

Ante-Red

he/she/singular they

Pen-Red

it

Init

one

Init Ante

two

Init Ante Pen

three

Init Ante Pen Final

four

Final-Epenth

sixteen

Ante-DupFin

two hundred fifty six

Final-Epenth

plural suffix

Init-Fric-Epenth

of (genitive prefix), ordinal prefix

Pen-Red-DelFin

about

Init-Epenth (also agentive prefix, like -er)

thing

Final-CCW

be, exist

Init-CCW-CCW (precedes the verb)

not (negation)

Final-Devoi-Low

how (quantity)

Init-Rai-Forward

sure

Pen-DelFin-CCW

want

Init-DelVow

drink

Init-Front Ante-Back

blood

Init-Epenth DelVow Front

vampire

Init-Epenth-Rai

part

Init-Rai

know

Init-DelSyls-Round

strong

Pen-DupFin-Back

conditional

Init-DupInit

in love

Translation

For the circus, I had to translate the following passage: "About three things I was absolutely positive: First, Edward was a vampire. Second, there was a part of him—and I didn't know how potent that part might be—that thirsted for my blood. And third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him."

pintekɑˈmosu ˈpintekemøsy pentɑkɑmoˈsø ˈpimpɯtʃɯmufy pəmpətʃəˈmu ˈpəməpətʃəmu pəməpətʃəˈmu ˈpəməpətʃəmu pəməˈpətʃəmu pəməpəˈtʃəmu: pintekɑˈmosu ˈpinətexɑvosu ˈpinətexɑvosu ˈedvɑd ɑdˈvɯd ˈɑdəvɯd ˈɑdvɯd ˈedvid. pintekɑˈmosu ˈpinətexɑvosu ˈpinətexɑvosu pinəteˈxɑvosu ˈpeinitixɯvusou ˈpeizisixɯvusou pəzəsəˈxɯvəsə pəzəsəˈxivəsə—pintekɑˈmosu ˈpintekemøsy ˈpɑntɯkɯmuso ˈpɯntɑɯkɑɯmousu pɑntɑkɑmoˈso ˈponto ˈpunitu— pintekɑˈmosu pəntəkəˈmosə pəntəkəˈmus ˈpintikimys pɯnˈtɯkɯmus ˈpɯnətɯxɯvus ˈpinitixivys. pintekɑˈmosu ˈpinətexɑvosu ˈpinətexɑvosu pinəteˈxɑvosu pinətexɑˈvosu ˈpinitexevøsy penetɑxɑvoˈsø ˈpepenetɑxɑvosø ˈpɯpɯnɯtixivysu pɯpɯnɯtɯxɯˈvysusu ˈpɯfɯzɯsɯxɯvysusu pəfəzəsəxəˈvysəsə.

Gloss

About three things I was absolutely positive:

pintekɑˈmosu IInit-Frontˈpintekemøsy beFinal-CCWpentɑkɑmoˈsø sureInit-Rai-Forwardˈpimpɯtʃɯmufy aboutPen-Red-DelFinpəmpətʃəˈmu thing-plInit-Epenth Final-Epenthˈpəməpətʃəmu pəməpətʃəˈmu threeInit Ante Penˈpəməpətʃəmu pəməˈpətʃəmu pəməpəˈtʃəmu

First, Edward was a vampire.

pintekɑˈmosu ordInit-Fric-Epenthˈpinətexɑvosu oneInitˈpinətexɑvosu Edward"Edward"ˈedvɑd beFinal-CCWɑdˈvɯd vampireInit-Epenth DelVow Frontˈɑdəvɯd ˈɑdvɯd ˈedvid

Second, there was a part of him—

pintekɑˈmosu ordInit-Fric-Epenthˈpinətexɑvosu twoInit Anteˈpinətexɑvosu pinəteˈxɑvosu partInit-Epenth-Raiˈpeinitixɯvusou ofInit-Fric-Epenthˈpeizisixɯvusou 3sAnte-Redpəzəsəˈxɯvəsə beFinal-CCWpəzəsəˈxivəsə

I didn't know how potent that part might be—

pintekɑˈmosu IInit-Frontˈpintekemøsy notInit-CCW-CCWˈpɑntɯkɯmuso knowInit-Raiˈpɯntɑɯkɑɯmousu howFinal-Devoi-Lowpɑntɑkɑmoˈso strongInit-DelSyls-Roundˈponto partInit-Epenth-Raiˈpunitu

that thirsted for my blood.

pintekɑˈmosu itPen-Redpəntəkəˈmosə wantPen-DelFin-CCWpəntəkəˈmus bloodInit-Front Ante-Backˈpintikimys pɯnˈtɯkɯmus ofInit-Fric-Epenthˈpɯnətɯxɯvus IInit-Frontˈpinitixivys

And third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him.

pintekɑˈmosu ordInit-Fric-Epenthˈpinətexɑvosu threeInit Ante Penˈpinətexɑvosu pinəteˈxɑvosu pinətexɑˈvosu IInit-Frontˈpinitexevøsy beFinal-CCWpenetɑxɑvoˈsø in.loveInit-DupInitˈpepenetɑxɑvosø notInit-CCW-CCWˈpɯpɯnɯtixivysu conditionalPen-DupFin-Backpɯpɯnɯtɯxɯˈvysusu ofInit-Fric-Epenthˈpɯfɯzɯsɯxɯvysusu 3sAnte-Redpəfəzəsəxəˈvysəsə

Thoughts after making the language

Unlike last time, this was an idea that I came up with sometime after hearing the theme.

The language ended up being basically just a cypher of a kind of boring (and not very complete) conlang. Part of that is just that I started later than I should have (I didn't get started right away, then forgot, then got distracted by other stuff), but I think also part of that is that the idea that I came up with just affects a couple aspects of the language. That was also an issue last time, with Leckna; that time, I tried to think of other weird stuff that felt thematically appropriate (with a theme of ambiguity and not caring about things being reversed), and ended up feeling like that stuff distracted from what I wanted to be the main idea; this time I did the opposite, and made everything else pretty standard. I think what I really need is to get better at either coming up with ideas that affect more aspects of the language, or to have multiple central ideas working together.

On the other hand, I've made both non-cursed conlangs and esoteric programming languages in the past, and I didn't really have that problem as much. Maybe part of the issue is that I was trying to treat this more like an esoteric programming language (thinking of cursed conlangs as being to regular conlangs what esolangs are to regular programming languages) and that didn't work? Specifically, esolangs tend to be more minimal than regular programming languages, but the closest thing to "minimal" that I have for a conlang is to either make a sketch (something that's incomplete) or just copy Toki Pona, whereas I have a pretty good idea of what a minimal-but-complete esolang should look like; and also I think I tend to design my esolangs around one main idea and maybe that doesn't work as well for conlangs. It also might just be the case that I have had way more time in the past to think of esolang and normalish-conlang ideas, since I think I only just encountered the concept of a cursed conlang about a year ago (and I was applying way lower standards to myself when I made my first conlang and first esolang).

I'm also a bit worried about people having higher expectations when I'm doing a conlang about sound changes given that the Index Diachronica is hosted on my site, so I'm just going to remind everyone again, I didn't write that! My contribution is purely technical, knowledge of how to make a program to convert it to a different format, rather than knowledge of how sound changes work.

Also I'm not really used to making video, and I don't really have any good video editing software on this computer. I remember thinking, as I edited the audio for this, that maybe next year I should make a written-only conlang, although when I was making the revised version for my website (I found multiple mistakes with my original translation), I think I might have found a better editing process. There's still the issue of needing time when I can record stuff, and having to redo stuff if I mess up (and I think the idea I chose is more prone than others to accidentally messing things up).

(Also given that we're supposed to make videos, maybe having weaker parts of the language is more okay? I'm used to making full grammars that say everything I know about the language, but I think videos often don't show, like, the full vocabulary list, so maybe I could have just not shown those aspects.)

Also the language was originally called kintepɑˈmosu, but the first syllable ended up being one sound change away from sounding similar to a bad word, so I changed it.