Ganesh Katrapati Reading time ~3 minutes

I call them adjectivals because they are not strictly adjectives. They are nouns.That is they are morphologically and to an extent, syntactically nouns. They show no special morphological behavior vis-a-vis nouns and they can be used as stand-alone nouns.

To explain this, take an example. “small” in english is an adjective, but the equivalent in crang you can find is “smallness”. Similarly you will find “cheapness” and “speediness”.

So, remember that adjectivals are not a separate syntactic category.

Some adjectivals with their meaning.

Sno Word Meaning
1 hOn speed/speediness
2 tOn slowness
3 rir cheapness
4 kIm smallness
5 pIm bigness
6 nul line, straightness, propreity

Morphology of the Adjectivals

So how does an adjectival combine with the noun ?. Infixing ! Infixing in crang is anything but straightforward. But, for now assume that the infix occurs after the first vowel of the word under consideration.

Some Examples

Sno Word Adjectival Final Form Meaning
1 iE hOn i-hOn-E fast boat
2 iE tOn i-tOn-E slow boat
3 iE kim i-kim-E small boat
4 EA pim E-pim-A big fish
5 dAgu hOn dA-hOn-gu fast bird
7 sAr nul sA-nul(a)-r straight spear; proper spear
8 klEvi pim klE-pim-vi big eyes
9 ti kim t(a)-kim-i small man/boy
10 ti hOn t-hOn-i fast man

The point where the word splits is at this moment not very clear and not very important. Look out for an article on infixing rules later on this blog.

Although I have listed some of the adjectivals here, Many of the nouns also can act as adjectivals. For example, Let us observe some of the nouns which have been dealt with here

Sno Word Meaning Adjectival Meaning Final Form Meaning
1 rIs flower bud Oz circle r-Oz-Is round flower bud
2 kre mouth Oz circle k-Oz-re round mouth/ somebody who gossips
3 ti man Oz circle t-Oz-i round man/fat man
4 nul line Oz circle n-Oz-ul round line/something nonexistent
5 EA fish fU air E-f[U]-A air fish/~bird
7 ti man ti man t(a)-ti-[i manly man
8 ark net sAr spear a-sAr-rk spear net/very precise net, a skilled hand at fishing

Notes : (s) : s is added in pronounciation, [s] s is removed in pronounciation

Ganesh Katrapati Reading time ~2 minutes

The plural morpheme.

The plural morpheme is one of the few morphemes which are prefixing. The morpheme is ‘t’

Some words and their plurals

Sno Word Plural Meaning
1 iE tiE boats
2 EA tEA fishes
3 ark tark nets
4 Oz tOz circles, whirlpools

The above are examples where a vowel follows the plural morpheme. But there are cases where the following sound is not a vowel but a consonant in such case, the plural morpheme has an allomorph, ‘ta’ the ‘a’ sound is addedfor phonological convinence.

Cases with consonants

Sno Word Plural Meaning
1 ti tati men
2 tin tatin women
3 gAz tagAz waves
4 sAr tasAr spears
5 dAgu tadAgu birds
6 rIs tarIs flower buds
7 kai takai clear water fishes
8 mut tamut winds
9 fU tafU airs
10 kre takre mouths

With words starting with ‘l’ the plural changes its form, it is ‘k’.

‘t’ to ‘k’ change

The ‘k’ change is not an allomorph. It is a phonological change of ‘t’ to ‘k’ where ever ‘l’ follows not just in plurals.

Sno Word Plural Meaning
1 lEvi klEvi eyes
Ganesh Katrapati Reading time ~1 minute

Alright then !. Lets get started.

Some words before we start.

I am not just looking to create a new language but as it goes for any language, I have to build a culture too. So, the people who speak crang have a different culture of their own. This will be reflected in their vocabulary. Keep in mind that the community is primarily a fishing community.

P.S : There will be a post about the people of crang, but for now lets begin with some words.

Words

Sno Word Meaning
1 iE boat
2 EA fish
3 ark net
4 dAgu bird
5 ti man
6 tin woman
7 gAz wave
8 sAr spear
9 rIs flower bud
10 Oz circle, whirlpool
11 kai a peaceful clear water fish
12 mut wind
13 fU air
14 lEvi eye
15 kre mouth
Ganesh Katrapati Reading time ~1 minute

What is Crang ?

Crang is a conlang created by me which explores many awkward linguistic phenomena. Primarily it looks at infixing.

Why ?

For fun of course.

Features of Crang.

  • Primarily infixing
  • Morphologically near-agglutinative (Whatever Agglutination means in the terms of infixing)
  • Syntactically, a case based, free word order language although, it has SOV as it main order.
  • Devoid of any pronouns.
  • And many more. # Etymology

Okay, I call the language crang but, it is a short form of ‘krEvAngu’

krE  + Angu => kreEvAngu 
mouth  work => Mouth-Work => Speech/Language

The ‘v’ in the middle is the result of fusion/(c.f liason, sandhi) at the morphophonemic border.

Script

I am also developing two scripts, one abiguida and another which is not.