Vortigese Proposed Update (Again!)

NOTICE: Please read through the entire article. It may not make sense if you don't, and it is all relevant. You'll find yourself making lots of common mistakes if you don't read the why's and how's on all the different points. There are also some notations in my list of words that make more sense with the syntax proposed in the body of the article.

I was thinking of trying to help contribute to your language by focusing on the grammar rules.
I see that you have a decent amount of words, but little to no syntax.

BASIC SYNTAX

For instance: English has a certain sentence structure. The best way to explain it is to link to this picture.

A good way to structure the Vortigaunt language could be drawn from two other languages we use in our society.

Instead of

Article

Noun

Verb

Preposition

Article

Noun

which reads 'The cat sat on the mat', we could have sentences like the following:

Cat on mat also sat.

Noun Phrase

Non-Noun Phrase

Noun Phrase

which is a messy explanation, so I'll attempt to give another.

When creating an English sentence, we need a subject and an 'action', more or less, and often in that order.
So when I say 'The cat sat on the mat', we have a subject (the cat) and what it is doing.
Sentence fragments happen when there is only a subject, only an action, or neither (such as 'My favorite color', 'Singing', and 'On the mat', respectively).

What I propose for the Vortigaunt language syntax is a wording that relies more heavily on the subjects than the actions.

So for instance 'Katy and Jody also live,' instead of 'Katy and Jody are alive', with a sentence structure that has a breakdown that looks more like:

[th]Noun Phrase[/th][th]Non-Noun Phrase[/th][th]Noun Phrase[/th]

Katy and Jody	also live
Cat on mat	also sat
I	also enjoy	Vortessence
Zoey	also enjoys	online gaming

So it would be like a grammatical sandwich. You have the first piece of bread, the initial noun phrase, then your sandwich fillings, the adverbs, adjectives, etc, describing the action that the noun is making, and then you have a non-essential second piece of bread, the second noun phrase, that goes with it.

However, that isn't quite that far from English, so while it's easy to remember, it isn't quite as original. So, to mix it up a little, we do this:

[th]Noun Phrase[/th][th]Noun Phrase[/th][th]Non-Noun Phrase[/th]

Katy and Jody		also live
Cat on mat		also sat
I	Vortessence	also enjoy
Zoey	online gaming	also enjoys

This will make their language sound somewhat stunted compared to English; however, it will give it the added benefit of being an original language syntax which will flow with the given words.

Muna Tak'helm, zurr. 'Humans, follow me, hello.' It is formed in reverse, to all appearance, but it works.

Let's break that one down too.

[th]Noun Phrase[/th][th]Noun Phrase[/th][th]Non-Noun Phrase[/th]

Muna		Tak'helm zurr

In cases where you have to decide which words go before others if there are more than one in a certain phrase section, the following formula is to be used.

Muna - The initial word for this sentence. It is 'humans', and is the only noun for this sentence.

Tak'helm and Zurr are our two non-noun phrase components. In this situation, we use the action word first (tak'helm), and then the non-action word (hello).  When there is another word, such as tak'helm ment zurr, as in 'follow me quickly hello', the first 'string' (tak'helm ment) will be separated from zurr with a comma.

So: Muna; tak'helm ment, zurr.

In a sentence with more than one noun phrase, we organize it as such:

Nathan and Zoey  also visited McDonald's.

We know that 'also visited' will go in the non-noun phrase pile. So we have this so far:

[th]Noun Phrase[/th][th]Noun Phrase[/th][th]Non-Noun Phrase[/th]

		also visited

The second part of this process is a simple labeling of nouns. Proper names will go into the first category, while places and things go into the second category.

So it looks like this

[th]Noun Phrase[/th][th]Noun Phrase[/th][th]Non-Noun Phrase[/th]

Nathan and Zoey	McDonald's	also visited
Jennifer	house	also returned to

PUNCTUATION AND CAPITALIZATION

We must also think about punctuation and capitalization.

Muna Tak'helm Zurr would be, if in an actual sentence, produced in this fashion:

Muna; tak'helm zurr~ This is because the noun phrases are a legitimate sentence on their own, provided that they do not require the non-noun phrase to be a concept.

For instance, Nathan and Zoey McDonald's would not be a sentence because you need the non-noun phrase to clarify if they went there, are already there, or left there.

However, Zoey house would be a sentence, because it states that the house {belongs to} Zoey.

So the noun phrases are always separated from the non-noun phrase by a semi-colon (noun; non-noun) and instead of a period, they use ~ to mark the end of their sentences, as that's where the majority of the inaudible components of their language take place (it is used in all cases, whether it is a question or statement, and if it is not true, then another Vortigaunt will simply say the opposite)

So in cases where it is a question it will take the form of:

Zoey house~ (in Vortigese, 'Zoey nugyr~')

and if it is not Zoey's house, the response will be

Zoey not house~

where the pre-existing word for no (kell) is automatically perceived to be 'not' due to the inaudible components of Vortigese.

Thus, it would be said:

Zoey kell nugyr~

In cases where we are attempting to say that a person IS something, we will explicitly say, Zoey is (uurg) ___, and have no other components to the sentence.

However, let's say that we're trying to communicate that Zoey should watch out for a necrotic/zombie.

Zoey kroznak; watch out~

would not be acceptable. This is because, if the noun phrases are not separated by a comma, it indicates that the people own the place/thing spoken of in the second noun phrase; it is a sign of ownership.

So the correct form of this sentence would be Zoey, kroznak; watch out~
(Or, in Vortigese: Zoey, kroznak; arrtek~)

In terms of capitalization, the only words that will be capitalized are proper names. So, for instance:

Nathan and Zoey, mcdonald's; also went to.

ADDITIVES, MODIFIERS, AND VORTIGAUNTS

Also:

This is a big word for the Vortigaunts. The 'also' word is the transition word between nouns and non-nouns. It is an additive adverb that tells us that this action also happened.

For instance,

Zoey house; also visited~

This means that Zoey visited her house.

However, there is another version of this sentence structure we haven't spoken of yet.

In order to indicate that a person visited another person's house, for example, the person that owns the place or thing comes second.

So

Zoey, Bart house; also visited~

This means that Zoey visited Bart's house.

When trying to say that 'Zoey gave Crag a dark look', we use the same structure, and separate Zoey from Crag as though indicating that Crag owns the dark look, because Zoey 'gave it to him'.

Zoey, Crag; gave dark look~

In this grammar system, all words are capable of being in either past or present tense; there is no 'future' tense unless the word 'will' is involved. IE Zoey, Crag; will give dark look. If 'Zoey, Crag; gave/give dark look', then if it is not happening, it is automatically past. If you cannot see it happening, but it /is/ happening, you would use 'is' to show it;

Zoey, Crag; is giving dark look~

With the words I add below, this is written:

Zoey, Crag; uurg ymma raagul zaah'miin~

As listed below, 'reh is a suffix to make a word plural.

So Muna would become 'human', and Muna'reh would be humans. You /must/ use 'reh, or the word is singular. If you don't know, then either is acceptable.

ENGLISH, PLEASE?

When using human words in a sentence, the human words take the place of the one normally used;

so for example

The Zoey; tak'helm ment, zurr~

However, if there are more than four English words in a sentence, the vortigaunt in question would instead say the sentence in their archaic, formal English, especially if it's aimed at a human. In fact, if there are more than four Vortigese words in a sentence aimed at a human, it would be required to be translated to English out of necessity, as most humans do not understand even a single word of Vortigese unless a higher ranked Vortigaunt has taught them. On top of that, humans cannot access the inaudible components of Vortigese, and so they would only be able to understand basic concepts in the language, and would be able to speak even less. If humans did manage to somehow learn some, I'd suggest that perhaps making a 'puzzled' face would be sufficient to pose something as a question, and that the rest would be more or less understandable as base words even without the inaudible components.

So "This one gives the Zoey its warmest greetings. If the Zoey would please follow this one with all due haste."

I won't give you a complete guide on speaking Vortigaunt English, but here are a few short tips in case you weren't aware of how to do it:

- Refer to yourself in third person as 'this one'
- Refer to others as 'the ___'
- Do not use words like 'don't', 'can't', etc. Use 'do not', 'can not', etc.
- Take few to no shortcuts with your speech. Speak formally.

PROPOSED WORDS & UPDATED GRAMMAR FOR CURRENT ONES

I also have a few words that I would like to propose in addition to the ones you already have.

I would also like to propose that, as it is common, the ending 'osune' or 'sune' (osune for words with a consonant at the end, sune for those with a vowel) becomes a suffix to turn a word into a verb instead of an adjective etc for words that can do such in English. The word without the suffix would revert to its root word in the Vortigaunt language.

So for example, 'Hammasune' would mean 'attack' and hamma would mean 'hostile'. Fakkasune would become 'slave' or 'slave maker', and fakka would mean slavery. Mentosune would become hurry, and ment would be 'quickly'. Famasune would become 'free' and Fama would be 'freedom'.

In the case of words like Beyurosune (which I've listed below, is a word of my own creation) where both cases can be used together (bright light), removing 'ne' from the suffix will make it 'beyurosu' which means 'bright light', whereas 'beyur' means light and 'beyurosune' means bright. Mentosu, the mix of hurry and quickly, would be the equivalent of saying 'breakneck speed'.

Senzik - Perhaps / undecided / unknown

Turrm(osune) - Slow (Slowly)

Tii - Also

Yull(osune) - Silence (silently)

Beyur(osune) - Light (bright)

Raagul - dark

Ymma - gave / give / giving

Uurg - is

Maah - will

Erh - they (the only pronoun in this language is Erh, allowing for non-gendered identification. It can be either plural or singular).

'reh - Suffix to make a word plural. Without this plural additive, it is always singular.

Gan - More

Nurr - Less

Hii - Many

Jo - Fewer

(In the case of many and fewer, Vortigaunts count by a collective. They wouldn't have numbers per se unless using english, so english numbers are the ones they use when speaking to humans, as humans need troublesome exact amounts; but when speaking to eachother they use only 'many' and 'fewer'. Many usually indicates anything over six, and fewer is, well, fewer than six. The same thing works for innumerable things: if there is a full glass of water, that is 'more' than half a glass, which is 'less'. So if there is more than half of something, it is 'more', and vice versa.)

Arrtek - Watch out

Liin - Be (this is used as a prefix, denoted with an apostrophe; so Liin'ment would mean 'be quick', and Liin'yull would mean 'be silent').

Tyg - Me/My/I (is versatile and automatically means whichever version of the word would be correct. So for instance Tyg house~ means 'my house', and Tyg also care~ means I also care.)

Nugyr - dwelling/abode/house

Vuurs - go to

Pluux - want (I want a chocolate bar)

Plors - desire (I desire you/your body/your friendship)

Ygg - good

Ygg'mah -  well done

Zaah('miin) - Look ('miin gives the secondary meaning of a 'look' as in facial expression)

Griinay - tomorrow

Briinay - today

Priinay - yesterday

Naay - day  (Naay'reh - days)

Suun(osune) - Bond (When Vortigaunts mate, they mate for life, and the term for this sacred bond is Suun) (Suunosune means to bond; Suun alone is simply the name for a bond in general, whether it exists, or the concept, and Suunosune means that the bond is to be made)

Morkoth - Caution

Arbeth - Elder

Shakshi - Master

Ornoc - Teacher

Uppyl - Student

Lorro - Loner / free roaming / newly freed Vortigaunt

Fakkuin - Enslaved Vortigaunt

Ammatyl - Dislike (I ammatyl this person because they hit me or I ammatyl this food because it is too spicy)

Matial - Enjoy / Like (I enjoy/like this food)



That's all I've got so far: I hope it's a useful expansion that may actually be put into place, I spent quite a while working on it.

As a conclusion, take this properly formatted sentence and see if you can understand what it means given the legend.

Muna'reh nugyr; Tyg maah vuurs~

Also,

Muna'reh; ygg'mah~

For an added bonus, see if you can translate it into proper English.

KEEP IN MIND: This is proposed, not official. However, it would be an honor to have it thought of as canon until such a time as it is approved or denied.

Thank you for taking the time to read my long and likely convoluted article on a proposed update to the server's Vortigese. I am more than open to suggestions :3