Speedwords word-building presents problems

Introduction

These problems are due largely, in my opinion, to Dutton's determination to have a very limited number of root words and to develop the remainder of the vocabulary from them. In the 1951 revision, the total number of radicals is set at 491, which together with 20 formative suffixes, Dutton considers adequate for the generation of "millions of words". I quote from the preface of the 1951 Dictionary:
"It is readily deducible that the total obtainable by combining every radical and derivatives with every other would be 491 X 20 X 490 X 20: that is millions of words, and without additional memory effort once the few fundamentals have been learnt."

96 236 000 words in fact. But, as Rick Harrison showed in his language profile: Speedwords, and I have shown in 'Speedwords morphemes are not self-segregating' and 'So what do itollis and evue actually mean?', "without additional memory effort once the few fundamentals have been learnt" is just wishful thinking. In practice, the truth is very different. As Rick rightly says in his language profile:
"Unfortunately, the definitions of most of these affixes are vague, and their uses are very unpredictable and idiomatic. Even if you memorize all the root-words and affixes, it is unlikely you would be able to guess the meanings which Dutton assigned to various combinations of radicals and affixes."

Furthemore, Dutton's insistence on a very limited basic vocabulary means combinations have to be used which are not infrequently longer than their equivalent in many natural languages. This, it seemed to me in my teens in the 1950s, was somewhat unsatisfactory in a briefscript. It still seems unsatisfactory to me today.

Unpredictable use of ambiguous suffixes:

One of the main problems I found when I was learning Speedwords is that most of the suffixes are too vaguely defined. Two, in paricular, are simply too subjective and, in my opinion, have no place in an IAL which, surely, should strive to be internationally objective; they are:

• -a, the 'unfavorable' suffix;   (UNF)
• -u, the favorable suffix.   (FAV)

Those who annually jet off to ski resorts may not agree that 'winter' is pea (period-UNF). Why is 'gingham' kota (cotton-UNF)? Why is such a useful building as a hut or shed, ryat (building-UNF-DIM), deemed unfavorable? I assume Dutton was not a gardener. If I were in real danger of putting my life at risk, I would count it a great favor to be warned. Yet according to Speedwords a warning, vya, is unfavorable advice!

As a teenager, I was a little surprised and slightly amused to discover that a 'school' is not, as one might expect *stup (learning-PLACE) or *rystu (learning establishment) but, quite idiomatically and unpredictably, ryu (establishment+FAV). A 'college', by the way, is the exact opposite of a hut or shed: ryue (building+FAV+AUG)! But I guess in a modern democracy we would not argue that education is not "a good thing".

However, I am sure neither the medical profession nor those suffering smoke-related disease nor those who have lost loved ones through such diseases would agree with Dutton that 'tobacco' is folu (leaf+FAV). What makes me think Dutton was a smoker who enjoyed wine, alku (alcohol+FAV)? Such personal prejudices, which many will find offensive, should surely have no place in an IAL.

In his profile of the language, Rick gives several other instances of idiomatic and unpredictable uses of nearly all the suffixes. I will not repeat them here but concentrate below on two sets of suffixes that I found troublesome when I learnt the language in the 1950s.

1. 'Relationship' suffixes

The first set are three suffixes in particular caused me problems when I learnt the language. They are:

• -g which is the "general" suffix and indicates a general relationship with the root word;  (GEN)
• -l which is the "special" suffix and indicates a special relationship with the root word;  (SPE)
• -i or -v which is the "associative" suffix and indicates a relationship associated with the root word.  (SOC)

The table below shows some examples from the 1951 dictionary:
 

Root word	General derivative	Special derivative	Associative derivative
cir = circle	(none)	cirl = circular	ciri = arc
da = give	dag = distribute	dal = render	dav = delivery
do = dwell, live	dog = hotel	dol = home	(none)
ri = write	rig = pen	ril = secretary	riv = print
ui = musical instrument	uig = piano	uil = stringed instrument	uiv = wind instrument

 

Am I missing something? Or is there a clear pattern here than has eluded me for the past half century? Can you, using the above table, fill in the gaps in the table below?
 

Root word	General derivative	Special derivative	Associative derivative
fe = cheerfulness, glad, happy	(none)	fel = _____	fev = _____
ry = building, establishment	ryg = _____	ryl = _____	(none)
zo = animal	zog = _____	(none)	zov = _____

Answers at the bottom of the page

2. Suffixes denoting 'oppositeness'

The second set consists also of three suffixes; these all convey the ideas of 'oppositeness'. They are:

• -o or -x which is what Dutton called the "opposite" suffix;  (ANT)
• -s (with one exceptional use of -u) which is the "complement" suffix ;  (COM)
• -n which is the "negation" suffix   (NEG)

Many creators of auxiliary languages seem to favor an "opposite of" affix. In Esperanto it's the prefix mal-, in Speedwords the suffix -o (after a consonant) or -x (after a vowel). In what follows below, I shall call it the 'antonym' suffix since "oppositeness" is not as simple a concept as people often imagine; it is rather a collective term referring to more than one different type of semantic oppositeness.

Linguists commonly distinguish between two basic types of 'oppositeness':

• antonyms or graded opposites such as big ~ small, wide ~ narrow etc. where there are degrees of difference (a mouse is big in comparison to an ant but small in comparison to an elephant);
• complementaries or ungraded opposites such as dead ~ alive, male ~ female (where the contrast is either X or Y).

Indeed, as we see, Speedwords has also a 'complement' suffix, namely: -s. So Speedwords distinguishes between antonyms and complementariess? Not exactly...

bi = alive	~	bix = dead	(antonym suffix)
oni = male	~	femi = female	(associative derivates of different words)

In fact oni is 'man-SOC' ← on 'man' and femi is 'woman-SOC' ← fem 'woman'. However, the 1951 dictionary does list M = Mr with its complement Ms = Mrs, but there is no indication how they are to be pronounced.

So what does Speedwords use its so-called 'complement' suffix for? The following examples suggest that it is for what some linguists call 'conversives', e.g.

fy = cause, reason, render	~	fys = consequence, effect, result
of = offer	~	ofs = accept
ze = dispatch, send	~	zes = bring, fetch

But for the common conversive 'buy' ~ 'sell', Speedwords uses the antonym suffix.

ac = buy

~

aco = sell

It is, thus, quite unpredictable whether Dutton will choose the antonym or the complement suffix. The demonstratives show this unpredictability and, incidently, include yet another "exception to the rule" in this language which seems all too prone to exceptions.

Adverb of time	nu = now	nux (now-ANT) = then
Adverb of place	ir = here	iro (here-ANT) = there
Pronoun/ adjective	c = this	cu (this-COM) = that

The 1951 dictionary clearly lists cu as a derivative of c but without any further explanation, so that one might rightly think it is 'this-FAV' (-u is the 'favorable' suffix) and wonder why on earth it should mean "that"? The answer is given in 'Dutton World Speedwords' :

"The demonstrative adjective or pronoun 'that', as in 'That boy works hard' or 'What is that in your hand?' is the natural complement of the demonstrative adjective or pronoun 'this', as in 'This boy works hard' or 'What is this in your hand?', but for phonetic reasons it is represented by a special derivative of 'c', namely cu (pronounced 'choo')."
[Paragraph 208 - Dutton's odd scattering of Speedwords among the English being rendered as ordinary English]

This begs three questions:

1. If 'that' is "the natural complement;" of 'this', why are 'there' and 'then' not the natural complements of 'here' and 'now'?
2. What are the phonetic reasons that do not allow cs (pronounced 'chiss')?
3. If there are phonetic reasons, why choose to give the 'complement' suffix an allomrph which is identical with a quite different suffix?

I guess the answers to these three questions died with Dutton in 1970. Indeed, it is quite unpredictable whether Speedwords will use separate root words, the complement suffix or the antonym suffix, e.g.

go = go	~	ko (different root word) = come *
li = liquid	~	lis (liquid-COM) = solid
ter = land	~	tero (land-ANT)= sea
* So also: 'depart' = gov (go-SOC) ~ 'arrive' = kov (come-SOC).

To add to the confusion, some of Dutton's uses of the complement suffix are quite idiomatic, e.g.

bi = life, live	~	bis = sex
fo = before (place), fore, front	~	fos = confront, face, opposite

 
What are the 'complements' of the words below? Can you fill the gaps?

fe = cheerfulness, glad, happy	~	fes = ________________
sed = sit	~	seds = ________________
tes = experiment, test	~	tess = ________________
vo = will, willing	~	vos = ________________

Answers at end of page
 

For good measure, Speedwords also has a fourth way of expressing oppositeness: the negation suffix -n (equivalent to English un-, non-, -less). It is often unpredictable whether Dutton will choose to use the -n (NEG) or the -o/-x (ANT) suffix, e.g.

Root word	Negation	Antonym
def = define, distinguish	defn = indefinite, vague	defo = confuse
gar = keep, retain	garn = dispose	garo = expend, spend
hab = common, habit, normal	habn = odd, strange, unusual	habo = rare
jus = fair, just, right	jusn = injustice, unfair, unjust	juso = wrong
ok = accurate, correct, right	okn = error, incorrect, mistake	oko = wrong

 

One word in the 1951 Dictionary has both the antonym and the negation suffixes, namely: mexn (more-ANT-NEG). One might expect the antonym of 'more' to be 'less' and, indeed, mex is listed with that meaning. So shouldn't mexn be expected to mean 'not less (than)' , 'no less (than)', i.e. "equally" (like the Latin phrase 'non minus' or 'haud minus')?

According to the Speedwords Dictionary, mexn = 'nevertheless', 'notwithstanding', 'still', 'yet'!

And that complementary pair so fundamental to computer science, i.e. true ~ false, do not form a complementary pair in Speedwords:

• true = oku (correct-FAV)
• false = okoa (correct+ANT+UNF)

Using the above table, can you fill in the gaps in the table below?

Root word	Negation	Antonym
fa = act, deed, do, make	fan = ________________	fax = ________________
fe = cheerfulness, glad, happy	fen = ________________	fex = ________________
ku = contain, hold, include	kun = ________________	kux = ________________
no = look (at), notice, observer	non = ________________	nox = ________________
pa = pay	pan =________________	pax = ________________
vo = will, willing	von = ________________	vox = ________________

Answers at end of page

Although Speedwords has what Dutton termed an "opposite" suffix, in practice we find examples of semantic oppositeness being expressed in four different ways: different root words, the "opposite" (i,e. 'antonym') suffix, the "complement" suffix and the "negative" suffix. One might expect the the "complement" suffix to denote semantic complements; occasionally this is so, e.g. li (liquid ) ~ lis (solid). But more often than not it is expressed either by different words or by the "opposite" suffix. Some conversives are expressed by the "complement" suffix, but there are notable exceptions. One finds that the use of the "complement" suffix is unpredictable and quite idiomatic.

The use of the "negation" suffix is not predictable either and the supposed difference between the "negation" suffix and the "opposite" suffix is far from clear.

In fact "oppositeness" is not the simple concept that some designers of planned languages seem to imply. To quote David Crystal:
"It is a matter of controversy how many types of opposites one should usefully recognize in semantic analysis, and the use of the term 'antonym' must always be viewed with caution."
[A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics]

Indeed so - and the use of an antonym affix must always be treated with caution. The human race has been using language for millennia upon millennia; if natural languages have not found it useful to evolve a widely and more or less regularly used antonym affix to denote all the many types of oppositeness, it behoves us to consider why.

 

Unsatisfactory compounding of root words

I learnt the language while still a schoolboy, learning ancient Greek (and much else). The idea of compounding seemed pretty natural to me since it is common enough in English and I had been coming across some interesting examples in Greek; I was, however, surprised at some of Dutton's compounds and it seemed to me there lacked a consistent pattern. In his language profile: Speedwords Rick Harrison wrote "Many of Dutton's compounds are not exactly obvious in their meanings", and gave as examples:

• kyluf ← ky (eat) + luf (air), i.e. an "air meal" (Speedwords compounds are head-mofifier sequences). To most people today that would probably mean a meal served on an aeroplane. in Speedwords it is a 'picnic'.
• soninum ← soni (sound-SOC = "letter, (to) spell") + num (number), i.e. letter number. To me that would suggest a letter used with numeric value as, for example, in the Roman, ancient Greek and traditional Hebrew number systems. In Speedwords it means 'algebra'.
• regnob ← reg (control, direct, govern, handle, rule) + nob (celebrated, honor, note, repute). The meanings are those given in the 1951 Dictionary. When we have two root words where both have a wide range of overlapping meanings, the resultant compound suffers a certain ambiguity. If we try compounding the meanings given in the dictionary we have sixteen possibilities (4 x 4) and they do not all mean the same, e.g. celebrated control, celebrated rule, honor control, honor handle, note govern, note direct inter alia. According to Speedwords it means 'senate'.

To test if Rick and I are being over-critical or not, try this little quizz. Can you work out the meanings of the following six compound words?

	Compound word	Constituent morphemes	Meaning of compound
# 1	dumau	du (continue, keep, last) mau (mouth)	___________
# 2	figro	fi (filament, thread) gro (grow)	___________
# 3	navpesex	nav (ship) pes (weight) e (AUGMENT) x (OPPOSITE-OF)	___________
# 4	ryvikrege	ry (building, establishment) vik (instead, substitute) reg (control, direct, govern, handle, rule) e (AUGMENT)	___________
# 5	steegasm	ste (compass, extend, range, scope) e (AUGMENT) gas(gas) m (THING)	___________
# 6	vesfixo	ves (dress, garment) fix (fix, secure) o (OPPOSITE-OF)	___________

 

Thus when it comes to compound words, we find:

1. the compounds are often idiomatic; and
2. they are are not brief and, indeed, are not infrequently longer than the English words they are intended to translate.

Feature (a) is not desirable in an IAL, and (b) not desirable in a briefscript.

 

Answers

 
1. Answers to table of general, special and associative derivatives:

Root word	General derivative	Special derivative	Associative derivative
fe = cheerfulness, glad, happy	(none)	fel = laugh	fev = bless
ry = building, establishment	ryg = house	ryl = bank	(none)
zo = animal	zog =pig	(none)	zov = rodent

 
2. Answers to the missing 'complements' :

fe = cheerfulness, glad, happy	~	fes = enjoy
sed = sit	~	seds = lap
tes = experiment, test	~	tess = experience
vo = will, willing	~	vos = shall

 
3. Answers to table of negations and antonyms:

Root word	Negation	Antonym
fa = act, deed, do, make	fan = refrain	fax = cancel
fe = cheerfulness, glad, happy	fen = unhappy	fex = sad, sorry
ku = contain, hold, include	kun = except, omit	kux = eliminate, exclude
no = look (at), notice, observer	non = overlook, oversight	nox = disregard, ignore
pa = pay	pan = unpaid	pax = free, gratis
vo = will, willing	von = unwillingness	vox = decline, refuse

 
4. Answers to table of compound words:

	Compound word	Constituent morphemes	Meaning of compound
# 1	dumau	du (continue, keep, last) mau (mouth)	throat
# 2	figro	fi (filament, thread) gro (grow)	straw
# 3	navpesex	nav (ship) pes (weight) e (AUGMENT) x (OPPOSITE-OF)	canoe
# 4	ryvikrege	ry (building, establishment) vik (instead, substitute) reg (control, direct, govern, handle, rule) e (AUGMENT)	embassy
# 5	steegasm	ste (compass, extend, range, scope) e (AUGMENT) gas(gas) m (THING)	carburettor
# 6	vesfixo	ves (dress, garment) fix (fix, secure) o (OPPOSITE-OF)	blouse

 
How many did you get right?