Pata

A fun Art/Auxlang.

Motivation

Toki Pona is a very good example of what a "simple" auxlang should look like. However, I feel like several core structural features could've been better, and, additionally, a larger vocabulary was totally necessary. After all, while Toki Pona may only have 125-ish words, it has far more lemmata, since you have to remember all of the word combinations for more complex items. I attempt to eliminate that need here. My biggest gripe with Toki Pona, overall, is that it's easy to learn, but hard to use.

I also used small elements of Lojban as an inspiration, particularly with the grammar philosophy.

The rarest phoneme included in Pata is /s/, appearing in 43.46% of world languages. In comparison, Toki Pona's rarest phoneme is /l/, in 38.58% of languages, and Lojban's is /ʒ/, occurring in only 13.53% of languages.

In terms of differences from most auxlangs, I've decided to use VOS word order. This way, the head is always on the leftmost part of a phrase. Additionally, I call the different word classes "nouns", and "(in)transitive verbs", but logically, they more act all like verbs, with valencies of zero, one, and two, respectively. In the dictionary, only the noun forms are listed; the verb forms are simply derived from the nouns via replacing the final vowel. Furthermore, verbs can take verb phrases as arguments! So you can have a sentence which is structured vaguely like so:

"The man who is walking has a dog named Brian."
has(as(Brian name(dog)) walk(man))

And each of the constituents can act as their own sentences themselves:

walk(man) → The man is walking.
as(Brian name(dog)) → The dog is named Brian.
name(dog) → The dog is named.

This way, even if you know none of the words in the sentence, you can always draw a syntax tree. Always. No exceptions.

Phonology

There are 10 consonants, and 5 vowels. Vowel qualities match that of the IPA. The voiced plosives should, ideally, be pronounced nasally in the coda, and plosively in the onset. However, since this is an auxlang... I mean, whatever works for you, man. The syllable structure is, of course... (C)V(N)!

Orthography

Pata uses an abugida. The default vowel is /a/, other vowels are marked with diacritics. For simple vowels, a doubled diacritic symbol is used. For simple /a/, since there is no /a/ diacritic, a vertical line is used. Nasal finals are indicated by a miniature version of the normal symbol.

The above is the recommended placement of diacritics. Red lines represent /i/, blue dots represent /o u/, yellow dots /e/, and green dots represent all of /e o u/. In calligraphy, the symbols may be placed anywhere in the character's box. This can lead to some neat art like so:

		The name Mocha (boka) in calligraphy.

Additionally, nasals can only precede the same place of articulation (or /h/). There are also four forbidden sequences:

ow uw ij ej

Morphology

• There are "two" types of words: nouns (-a), and verbs (-i, -u, -e, -o; for 1-4 argument verbs respectively).
• The adpositions of other languages correspond, typically, to transitive verbs here, and adjectives as intransitive.

Affixes

Grammar

• VOS

Vocabulary

Special Stems

These stems do not act grammatically different from others, but serve very important roles and are kept here fore safekeeping. Often times, these do not have a "simple" gloss.

adi-

Etymology: la. -arium

1. functions like eo. -ar-
2. x₁-aro

ads-

Etymology: tpi. mi

1. forms ordinals from numerals
2. x₁-th x₂

b-

Etymology: tpi. mi

1. I, we
2. my/our x₁

d-

Etymology: en. this, that, the

null pronoun, used to ignore verb slots

hed-

Etymology: haw. he nui

1. many, much, [optional plural marker]
2. many/much x₁

j-

Etymology: en. ya, ye, yo, and you

1. you
2. your x₁

k-

Etymology: haw. kēia, jp. これ

1. this
2. this x₁

n-

Etymology: cmn. 那

1. that (away from speaker and listener), he, she, it, they
2. that x₁

p-

Etymology: Proto-Malayo-Polynesian apa

1. who, what, which
2. which x₁

s-

Etymology: jp. それ

1. that (close to listener)
2. that x₁

sah-

Etymology: nav. łaʼ

1. some, any, few
2. some x₁

sit-

Etymology: en. shit

1. not, nothing, no, none, noone, nobody
2. no/not/none of x₁

Adpositional

a-

Etymology: haw. a

1. and, with, every, all
2. every/all x₁
3. x₁ and x₂

ad-

Etymology: en. (and numerous other European languages) at and in, fr. dans, jp. de, ni, and naka

1. in, inside
2. in x₁ is x₂

as-

Etymology: en. as

1. like, likeness
2. x₁ is like x₂
3. x₂ as x₁

dak-

Etymology: nv. nakki

1. two
2. two x₁

dis-

Etymology: sux. 𒁹

1. one, unity
2. one x₁

es-

Etymology: sux. 𒁹𒁹𒁹

1. three
2. three x₁

po-

Etymology: en. four

1. four
2. four x₁

ed-

Etymology: eo. -el

1. 'correlative suffix of manner or degree', (how)

Colors

hugg-

Etymology: cmn., yue. 紅

1. red
2. x₁ is red because of x₂

kapu-

Etymology: hy. կապույտ

1. blue, green
2. x₁ is blue because of x₂

kudo-

Etymology: jp. 黒い

1. black
2. x₁ is black because of x₂

te-

Etymology: Proto-Polynesian tea

1. white
2. x₁ is white because of x₂

wagk-

Etymology: akk. 𒅊

1. yellow
2. x₁ is yellow because of x₂

People

adabb-

Etymology: he. אָדָם

1. person, human, guy

bad-

Etymology: mr. बाळ

1. baby

bus-

Etymology: ru. муж

1. man, husband, male
2. x₁ is male

kodd-

Etymology: mnw. ကွေန်

1. child

pabb-

Etymology: fr. femme

1. woman, wife, female
2. x₁ is female

wadid-

Etymology: ar. والد

1. parent
2. x₁'s parent is x₂

Body

bu-

Etymology: th. มือ

1. five, hand
2. five x₁

dad-

Etymology: en. nose, nostril, schnoz and snot

1. nose, smell, nasal
2. x₁ is smelled by x₂

pat-

Etymology: nl. praat, fr. patois

1. tongue, speech, language, say, tell, speak
2. x₁ is spoken about by x₂ in x₃

tit-

Etymology: From the position of the tongue, influenced by en. teeth

1. teeth, dental, bite
2. x₁ is bitten by x₂

Animals

bused-

Etymology: sux. mušen

1. bird

du-

Etymology: txb. luwo

1. animal

id-

Etymology: jp. 犬

1. dog

ih-

Etymology: haw. iʻa

1. fish

kabad-

Etymology: ar. قملة

1. louse

katad-

Etymology: qu. katari

1. snake

wadab-

Etymology: PIE wr̥mis

1. worm

Nature

aput-

Etymology: iu. aput

1. snow

bato-

Etymology: fr. bâton

1. stick

boad-

Etymology: haw. moana

1. ocean, sea

dabid-

Etymology: ar. رمل

1. sandy
2. x₁ is sandy

di-

Etymology: otb. རི

1. mountain

hap-

Etymology: egy. hapi

1. river

kis-

Etymology: yur. kiːɬ

1. tree

ku-

Etymology: cmn. 果

1. fruit
2. x₁ fruits

sadap-

Etymology: kha. slap

1. rain

tab-

Etymology: com. taabe

1. sun
2. x₁ is solar

Other

beg-

Etymology: PIE méǵh₂s

1. big, large, huge, great
2. big x₁

did-

Etymology: nav. nidaaz

1. heavy
2. heavy x₁

gib-

Etymology: en. gib and give

1. gift, give
2. x₁ is given by x₂ to x₃

kas-

Etymology: en. cash

1. money, cash
2. x₁ is monetary

kub-

Etymology: fi. kylmä

1. cold, cool
2. x₁ is cold
3. x₁ is cooled by x₂

jo-

Etymology: jp. 良い

1. good
2. x₁ is good
3. x₁ is improved by x₂

sabo-

Etymology: en. smol

1. small
2. small x₁

tebp-

Etymology: la. tempus

1. time, (in compounds) when, then

ti-

Etymology: en. (among others) tea

1. tea

top-

Etymology: el. τόπος

1. place, (in compounds) where, here, there

wad-

Etymology: en. what

1. loves
2. x₁ is loved by x₂

Proper Nouns

abedik-

Etymology: intl. America

1. Americas
2. x₁ is of the Americas

atadadtik-

Etymology: fr. Atlantique

1. Americas
2. x₁ is of the Americas

baik-

Etymology: en. 'murica

1. USA
2. x₁ is American

eudop-

Etymology: la. Europa

1. Europe
2. x₁ is European

Samples

        S
      /    \
     VP     \
   /    \    \
  V     VP    N
 /    /    \   \
wadu gibi giba ba
I love giving gifts
(alt.) I love that the gift is given
(alt.) I love gift-giving

        S
     /     \
    /      VP
   /      /  \
  VP     VP   N
 /  \   /  \   \
au joa kubu ba kisa
The tree cools and improves me
(alt.) The tree cools me, and that is good

Misc. Statistics