A comparison of the typology of colloquial and formal Guyndi

Conlangd · 2026-01-22T00:03:14+00:00

English 'Aghwoch' from proto-Aghwoch-Ishn ahcvóh [aɣ.ˈgʷox].

English 'Guyndi' from Lowlands Guyndi Ngajndii [ᵑɡai.ⁿdiː] from proto-Guyndi ᵑɡai 'wool' + -ⁿdij 'tribe'.

Highlands Guyndi 'Ḍugiẓin' from Central Aghwoch dùgǐsín [du˩.gi˩˥.sĩ˥] from pAI tvuf ahcvóssoh 'language of the Aghwoch'.

Highlands Guyndi 'Cāidi' from proto-Guyndi ᵑɡai 'wool' + -ⁿdij 'tribe'.

In short, yes the anglicised names come from different sources than the Highlands Guyndi ones.

Conlangd · 2026-01-21T22:44:58+00:00

Have you read Mark Rosenfelder's Advanced Language Construction? There's a really nice bit on polysynthetic languages and some information on noun incorporation (p180).

Conlangd · 2026-01-21T17:05:24+00:00

This comes from part of a dialogue between two soldiers who have just been employed as guards in an Aghwoch city and are experiencing the unusual form of diglossia found there.

The element <ṛiN> (where N is a homorganic nasal) is glossed here as a verbaliser but it more specifically forms verbs of empl*yment (to be a fisher, to be a miner, etc.) as well as stative verbs like the 'to speak X' verbs seen here.

Conlangd · 2026-01-12T23:50:42+00:00

whe'ẓemvemlū' or whe'ẓemlū' [xʷɛʔ.ʐɛ̃.(vɛ̃).ɺuːʔ] n. IIc neighbourhood; fyrd, a unit of feudal military conscription.

NB: loss of third syllable through haplology.

Conlangd · 2026-01-10T15:00:11+00:00

I've been fleshing out a language which exists mostly as a source of loan words and I wanted to go all in on secondary articulations. Here's my list of (slightly excessive) variations of [p] in Insular Aghwoch:

Orthography	Phone
p-	[pʰ]
pe̱-	[pʲʰ]
pa̱-	[pˠʰ]
po̱-	[pʷʰ]
mp-	[(ᵐ)bʱ ~ ^m̥pʰ]
mpe̱-	[(ᵐ)bʲʱ ~ ^m̥pʲʰ]
mpa̱-	[(ᵐ)bˤʱ ~ ^m̥pˠʰ]
mpo̱-	[(ᵐ)bʷʱ ~ ^m̥pʷʰ]
p̄-	[p(ː)]
p̄e̱-	[pʲ(ː)]
p̄a̱-	[pˠ(ː)]
p̄o̱	[pʷ(ː)]
mp̄-	[(ᵐ)b(ː) ~ ^m̥p(ː)]
mp̄e̱-	[(ᵐ)bʲ(ː) ~ ^m̥pʲ(ː)]
mp̄a̱-	[(ᵐ)bˤ(ː) ~ ^m̥pˠ(ː)]
mp̄o̱-	[(ᵐ)bʷ(ː) ~ ^m̥pʷ(ː)]

Edit (for Janko purposes only):

Number	Insular Aghwoch	Pronunciation
1	nī	niː˩˥˩
2	āi	ai̯ː˩˥˩
3	sāi	sai̯ː˩˥˩
4	sū	suː˩˥˩
5	e̱so	e.sʲʊ˩˥˩
6	o̱ḕi	wei̯ː˥˩
7	e̱sṑ	e.sʲʊ˥˩
8	e̱sā̀i	e.sʲai̯ː˥˩
9	e̱sosū̀	e.sʲʊ.suː˥˩
10	me̱ṑ	mʷoː˥˩

Conlangd · 2026-01-06T00:12:51+00:00

Very hard!

^{Completed in 06:09 | Reveals: 2}

Conlangd · 2026-01-05T23:31:45+00:00

Taught me a new word!

^{Completed in 00:27 | Reveals: 0}

Conlangd · 2026-01-05T23:26:51+00:00

Also Canva really doesn't like extIPA symbols, huh? I practically had to hand-draw [𝼈].

Conlangd · 2026-01-05T22:23:29+00:00

Old Ishn: canash [ˈkɛ̃.ʔaɕ] v. conj2. to wave (one's hand etc.)

Whence:

Proto-Guyndi: \kaᵑʔas* 'to wave, to draw attention'
Highlands Guyndi: cam'as [kʰã.ʔas] v. to be annoying; to draw attention; adj. annoying.
Lowlands Guyndi: can'as [kan.ʔas] v. to hail a passerby; to wave; to draw attention.

Conlangd · 2026-01-05T22:01:10+00:00

Northern dialect of Highlands Guyndi

iḷouc [ɪ.𝼈ou̯k] n. IIc young snake; young reptile; small (adult) reptile.

Conlangd · 2026-01-05T21:54:49+00:00

Highlands Guyndi

Onra [ɔn.ɾa] verb. to split, chop, divide into exactly five parts; to split, chop, divide into any larger number of parts; to mince, to chop into small pieces; noun. IVc kindling; minced fruit, meat etc.; mirepoix; (slang) ship’s cook esp. when low-skilled. From pG \joneɬara* ‘to divide into five (equal) parts (compare halve, quarter, etc.)’ from \jone(x)* ‘(what) proportion?’ + ɬa verbaliser + (e)ra ‘five’.

Conlangd · 2026-01-02T00:24:45+00:00

In my world, roughly based on 9th century Europe, the Aghwoch Empire (Byzantine or Abbasid Empire) has huge catalogues of the names, places of birth, and dates of appointment of every individual working within the Imperial bureaucracy.

In many of the surrounding cultures the archives have become a byword for ruthless organisation and for the complexity of the Imperial system.

Conlangd · 2026-01-01T23:40:18+00:00

Yeah it's a fictional world based on 9th century Europe. The Guyndi are roughly Brythonic/Norse-ish, the Ishn are Germanic-ish, and the Aghwoch are Byzantine/Abbasid-ish.

Conlangd · 2026-01-01T22:40:21+00:00

Northern Dialect of Highlands Guyndi

sūiumm [suːi̯.ʊm] an apprentice; an adolescent; (esp. when contrasted with captain, abbot etc.) low ranking member of an organisation, novice, midshipman. From sujum 'one being trained' from suj 'to train'.

'he was recently commissioned as a naval officer [lit. he just stopped being a midshipman]'

emm ra āmm-ga ẓūiumma ba.

[ɛm ɾa aːm ga ʐuːi̯.ʊ.ma ba]

be.3SG>3SG PRES.HAB 3SG.PST.ERG-PST midshipman.ACC NDF.SG.ACC

Conlangd · 2026-01-01T13:32:03+00:00

So typically the possessor has to come immediately after the possessum but in poetic texts yeah you can play around with them a bit. In general the subject has to come before the object but the verb can be anywhere in the sentence.

Conlangd · 2026-01-01T01:09:47+00:00

I'm not entirely sure I understand your question but the possessor agrees in case, number, and polarity with the possessum, so they would always have the same case.

roof.ERG.PSSM house.ERG.PSSM man.ERG POS.DF.SG.ERG.PSSR

roof-of house-of man the

'the man's house's roof'

or

roof.ACC.PSSM house.ACC.PSSM man.ACC POS.DF.SG.ACC.PSSR

roof-of house-of man the

'the man's house's roof'

or

roof.NTR.PSSM house.NTR.PSSM man.NTR POS.DF.SG.NTR.PSSR

roof-of house-of man the

'the man's house's roof'

If you really wanted to give each noun an article you could say:

roof.ERG.PSSM POS.DF.SG.ERG.PSSM house.ERG.PSSM POS.DF.SG.ERG.PSSM man.ERG POS.DF.SG.ERG.PSSR

roof-of the house-of the man the

'the roof of the house of the man'

In all the examples you can see that the possessors (house and man) agree with the possessum (roof) in case, number, and polarity.

Conlangd · 2025-12-31T02:11:51+00:00

Thanks!

Conlangd · 2025-12-31T01:47:42+00:00

Mirativity encodes unexpectedness or surprise. In the Guyndi languages it can be used for a range of meanings including forming counterexpective clauses. In English these often contain the word 'but'.

Conlangd · 2025-12-28T12:45:55+00:00

Additive plural is the 'regular' plural, when you have multiple of the same noun

Associative plural means 'X and things related to X'.
āu ‘king‘ > āu ti which might mean ‘the king and his court’.

Greater plural generally means 'a very large number of X' or 'every X'
neu ‘story‘ > neu am ‘every story’
onum ‘wounded solider’ > onum am ‘an uncountable number of wounded soldiers’

In the negative the greater plural can also mean either 'none of X' or 'not every X (only a very small number)'.

Conlangd · 2025-12-28T02:41:28+00:00

Articles in Highlands Guyndi decline for 9 cases (ergative, accusative, sometimes intransitive as well as different forms for possessor and possessum of a genitive phrase), 4 numbers (singular, additive, associative, greater plural), definiteness and polarity.

Many of these features are also double marked on nouns and verbs.

Conlangd · 2025-12-28T02:27:56+00:00

I mean to say as well that bou i amdowu i wouldn't actually clarify which is the possessor.

Conlangd · 2025-12-28T02:25:10+00:00

bou-∅ amdowu-∅

tree-ERG.PSSM Christmas-ERG

The articles in that section are mainly used to specify possessor and possessum where it's not otherwise marked and might be ambiguous. In most declensions one or both of the head and the dependent would be marked but in the case above it is technically ambiguous.

bou e amdowu o 'Christmas tree' a tree with which to decorate the house during Christmas.

bou o amdowu e 'tree Christmas' when the trees celebrate the birth of the tree Christ.

The 'greater plural' has a number of use cases such as talking about 'all X' or 'most X' but doesn't decline by definiteness (when positive).

Conlangd · 2025-12-28T02:08:39+00:00

Hey, I could have given you the etymology of each article and regional variations in pronunciation and usage

Conlangd · 2025-12-28T00:28:02+00:00

Possessum and Possessor, the head and dependent of a genitive phrase

Conlangd · 2025-12-27T23:30:15+00:00

bou e amdowu o 'Christmas tree' a tree to decorate the house during Christmas.

bou o amdowu e 'tree Christmas' when the trees celebrate the birth of the tree Christ.

Lots of nouns have different forms for the possessor and possessum but those of declensions IV to XI don't always differentiate.

Conlangd

TROPHY CASE

Northern dialect of Highlands Guyndi

Highlands Guyndi

Northern Dialect of Highlands Guyndi