Word Formation & Proper Names

Introduction

Some of the information on this is extrapolated from examples in Dr Outis' book, rather than being specifically spelled out by him. I hope, however, I have not misrepresented him

1. Formation of Basic Words

1.1 Nouns & Adjectives (Adverbs)

We have seen that nouns and adjectives normally begin a single consonant or permitted combination of consonants, followed by a vowel or diphthong and terminating with a consonant. The only exceptions we have encountered are three correlative adjectives:
aut = self; ou, ouk = no, not^*; tou = this, these.
^*ou is used before words beginning with a consonant; ouk is used before words beginning with a vowel.

1.2. Verbs

We have have seen that verbs stems, which are used as the perfective subjunctive and imperative, also take this same form, with the sole exception of: in = be.

1.3 Pronouns

The personal pronouns are all composed of a vowel followed by a consonant, namely: em = I, me; um = you: ut = he, him. she, her, it. They have the same plural ending as nouns.

The full form of the relative is also a vowel followed by a consonant, namely: on; this is shortened to o before consonants. Also it is probably more accurate to count it as a particle, though Dr Outis himself probably considered it a pronoun,

The correlative pronouns are all compounds, see below.

1.4 Numerals

There is only one basic word which is a numeral: kil = a thousand (million, trillion etc are formed by infixing numeric morphemes, see Compounds below). All other numerals are compounds of bound morphemes and are considered in the Section below.

zeur = zero is not treated in the same way as other numerals by Dr Outis. The word is used to denote the symbol 0, and the mathematical concept of "zero." It is not used as part of the Outidic number system.

1.5 Prepositions, Particles, Conjunctions & Interjections

Prepositions, particles and conjunctions begin with a single consonant or permitted combination of consonants and are followed by a vowel or diphthong only, there being no consonant coda (oute is a compound, being composed of ou and te).

There appear to no exceptions, unless one counts the relative o (on before vowels) as a particle.

Interjections are mostly formed the same way; two interjections, however, have no consonant onset, namely:

• a showing surprise, pity or contempt; may also be used as an optional vocative marker;
• ai showing grief or astonishment.

 

2. Formation of Compound Words

2.1 Two (or more) bound morphemes

The words for all numerals from 1 to 900 are composed of two bound morphemes: the first morpheme denotes the basic number 1..9, namely: mo- 1; deu- 2; tri- 3; tra- 4; pe- 5; kse- 6; psa- 7; kso- 8; ne- 9.

The second morpheme denotes whether this is multiplied by 1 (-n), 10 (-kon) or 100 (-kat).

The two bound morphemes may have another bound 'numerical suffix' added, e.g. monais (mo.n.ais) = once; deukonos (deu.kon.os) = twentieth; mokatap (mo.kat.ap) = a hundredfold; psanad (psa.n.ad) = group of seven, septet; tranom (tra.n.om) = a quarter. See the 'Number and Time' page for more details.

The resultant words may be strung together with intervening hyphens to form other numbers, placing the higher number before the lower one; no word for 'and' is ever used in these expressions, e.g. mokat-dukon-pen = 125; psakat-trikon-kson = 738.

See table on the 'Number and Time' page.

2.2. Two (or more) free morphemes

2.2.1 With personal pronouns
The personal pronouns may be used as enclitics to express possession, e.g. pap-em = my father; dom-utas = their house; paid kun-ut = the boy's dog: dlepei-em lour-ut = my sister's cat.

The personal pronouns may be compounded with aut = self, to form emphatic pronouns which may also function, when necessary, as reflexive pronouns: e.g. emaut = myself; umaut = yourself, etc. These may be appended to nouns or adjective in possessive construction, e.g. mam-emaut = my own mother; mik-utaut dom = his own little house.

2.2.1 With prepositions
Prepositions may be suffixed to adjectives to modify their meaning, e.g. za-sop = very wise ← za = through + sop = wise; pru-meg = too big ← pru = over + meg = big. See the ' Nouns, Adjectives & Personal Pronouns' page.

There is, however, no evidence that Dr Outis used prepositions to form compound verbs as in Latin and Greek i.e. we do not find such forms as *sebanai = to go into, enter or *zabanai = to go through ← banai = to go. Indeed, if the temporal augment were added between the preposition and the verb stem, as it was in ancient greek, it would have produced some awkward vowel combinations. I think we have to assume that such verbs did not occur in Outidic but that prepositions were used separately as they are in English, e.g. em eban se dom = I went into the house/ I entered the house.

2.2.3 Correlative pronouns & adverbs
Two free morphemes may be juxtaposed to form correlative pronouns and adverbs, e.g. tindrop = who? ← tin = what + drop = person; keintop = there ← kein = that + top = place. See 'Pronouns' page.

2.2.4 Other compounds
Adjective, nouns and verbs may be juxtaposed with the link -u- to form compounds, e.g. mesumar = midday, noon ← mes = middle + mar = day; mamupsol = metropolis, mother city ← mam = mother + psol = city.
NOTE: In compounding, basic numerals are reckoned a single words, e.g. Tranumar =Wednesday ← tran = four + mar = day.

2.3 Bound and free morphemes

Apart from the special case in the last note above, compounds are made when a bound morpheme is prefixed or when suffixed to a free morpheme.

2.3.1 Prefixes
The only prefixes which appear in Outidic are the three temporal augments prefixed to indicative forms of verbs, e.g.

• em atrekan = I am running; um etrekan = you were running; ut otrekan = she will be running
• ut ain = he is; um ein = you were; em oin = I shall be.

2.3.2 Suffixes
We have found the following grammatical suffixes:

• -as to form plural of nouns and pronouns
• -an to form imperfective aspect of verbs
• -es to form medio-passive voice of verbs
• -ai to form the infinitive of verbs

Note: if a verb has more than one suffix, the order is {aspect}{voice}{infinitive}, e.g. labanesai is the imperfective medio-passive infinitive of the verb "to take."

The suffix -ot to form the equivalent of a perfect passive participle, e.g. labot = taken, is not strictly a grammatical suffix, as it does not form part of the verbal system, but is rather a formative suffix, in that it forms an adjective derived from a verb.

Other formative suffixes which have appeared in other pages are:

• -ad forms nouns denoting a collective unit, e.g. monad = unit, monad; psanad = septet, group of seven; mokon-deunad = a dozen; kilad = a group of a thousand, a chiliad
• -ais forms adverbs denoting number of times, e.g. deunais = twice; trikonais = thirty times; poulais = many times, often.
• -ap forms adjectives denoting tuples, e.g. monap = single; trinap = triple, threefold; mokatap = hundredfold.
• -ei forms feminine nouns, e.g. bailei = queen; paidei = girl.
• -eu forms masculine nouns, e.g. baileu = king; paideu = boy.
• -iz forms verbs, e.g. brekizai (brek.iz.ai) = to rain, abrekizan (a.brek.iz.an) = it is raining etc.
• -ik forms adjectives, e.g. kunik = canine; bailik = royal; paidik = childish.
• -om forms nouns denoting a fraction, e.g. deunom = half; tranom = quarter; trikon-deunom = 1/32.
• -os forms ordinal adjectives, e.g. monos = first; deukonos = twentieth; ksokat-trikon-tranos = 834th.

Other formative suffixes given by Dr Outis are:

• -am forms nouns denoting result of an action:
  whether concrete, e.g. grapam = text, [piece of] writing, scripture ← grapai = to write,
  or conceptual, e.g. boulam = wish, will ← boulai = to wish.
• -ar forms diminutive nouns, e.g. kunar = little dog ← kun = dog; domar = little house, cottage ← dom = house.
• -ez forms nouns denoting condition, status, rank, group of people (with some specific characteristic); corresponds to English suffixes -dom, -ship e.g. bailez = kingdom, kingship, reign; zerez = priesthood.
• -er
  - added to a verbal stem it forms nouns denoting agent, e.g. graper = writer, scribe; treker = runner ← trekai = to run.
  - added to an adjectival stem it denotes a person characterized by that adjective, e.g. soper = a wise man, a wise person; paidiker = a childish person.
• -et forms nouns denoting quality, e.g. sopet = wisdom ← sop = wise.
  
• -id forms noun denoting the young of, e.g. kunid = puppy; lourid = kitten ← lour = cat:
  with proper names, denotes son or daughter of, e.g. Paulid = son/daughter of Paul (Paulidei = Paul's daughter; Paulideu = Paul's son).
• -in forms adjectives denoting material formed by, e.g. krusin = golden, made of gold ← krus = gold.
• -is forms nouns denoting action, e.g. grapis = [act of] writing; trekis = [act of] running
• -on forms nouns denoting place, e.g. koimon = dormitory ← koimai = to sleep;
  neron = mens' quarters ← ner = man, adult male [human]
• -or forms nouns denoting means or instrument, e.g. grapor = pen, pencil; nipor = wash basin ← nipai = to wash.

 

3. Proper names

Dr Outis merely says that proper names of people and places are taken from individual languages with a minimum of change; one assumes this means changes necessary to conform to his rules for syllables. He gives no further details, but gives these example of personal names:
Marei (Mary), Elisabet (Elizabeth), Zokan (John)^*, Zesou (Jesus), Istepan (Stephan), Pilip (Philip).

^* For use of Z to represent [j] see Section 3.3.2 of the 'Orthography & Phonology' page; Dr Outis' rendering of "John" seems to be based on the Hebrew Yôḥanan rather than Greek.

From this we may see that he made the names end in either a consonant or a diphthong, though he appears to have avoided having them end in -ai like an infinitive. Also, we may assume, only female names, like Mary, would have ended in -ei, and only male names in -eu. Indeed, he added those two latter endings to personal names to avoid ending in a consonant cluster, e.g. Martei (Martha), Markeu (Mark).

As for names of peoples who inhabit lands or regions, he uses names based on names used by the peoples themselves as far as Outidic phonology will allow. He cannot, of course, use the masculine and feminine suffixes to support consonant clusters, as these will themselves denote a male or female person of those peoples He seems simply to have dropped the second consonant or inserted an anaptyctic vowel. Compare the names he did give:

• Angel (English person) - with anaptyctic -e-
• Iskot (Scot) - no consonant cluster to resolve
• Iber (Irish person) - presumably from *Ibern, with final -n dropped
• Fran (French person) - with final (-c -or -k) dropped
• Ispan (Spaniard) - no consonant cluster to resolve
• Ital (Italy) - no consonant cluster to resolve
• Elen (Greek [person]) ← Greek (H)ellēn- - no consonant cluster to resolve.

From these are formed masculine and feminise, where necessary, and the ethnic adjective and its associated abstract noun; other derivatives are ordinary compounds, e.g.

• Elen = Greek [person]
• Elenei = Greek woman
• Eleneu = Greek man
• Elenik = Greek [adj.], Hellenic
• Eleniket = 'Greekness', Hellenism
• Elenuglot = Greek [language]
• Elenuten = Greece*

* ten = country, nation, state

The only town or city names that appear in his booklet are: London, Paris, Rom, Aten (Athens). Dr Outis used the agent suffix -er to denote an inhabitant of a city or town, e.g.

• Atener = Athenian [person]
• Atenik = Athenian [adj.]

 

Appendix: Vocabulary

Basic vocabulary new to this page: glot = language; grapai = to write; krus = gold
For proper names, see Section 3 above.