Kotava is a proposed
international auxiliary language
An international auxiliary language (sometimes acronymized as IAL or contracted as auxlang) is a language meant for communication between people from all different nations, who do not share a common first language. An auxiliary language is primaril ...
(IAL) that focuses especially on the principle of cultural neutrality. The name means "the language of one and all", and the Kotava community has adopted the slogan "a project humanistic and universal, utopian and realistic". The language is mainly known in French-speaking countries and most learning materials for it are in French.
History
Kotava was invented by Staren Fetcey, a Canadian who began the project in 1975, on the basis of her study of previous IAL projects. The language was first made available to the public in 1978, and two major revisions were made in 1988 and 1993. Since then, the language has stabilized, with a lexicon of more than 17,000 basic roots. In 2005, a committee of seven members was established with the responsibility of guiding the future evolution of the language.
The overall goal was to create a potential IAL that was not based on a particular cultural substrate. To do this, a number of subgoals were established:
* A simple and limited
phonetic
Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds, or in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign. Linguists who specialize in studying the physical properties of speech are phoneticians. ...
system that can be pronounced easily by the majority of people.
* A simple and totally regular grammar that reflects the grammars of the majority of languages in the world.
* A clear
morphology
Morphology, from the Greek and meaning "study of shape", may refer to:
Disciplines
*Morphology (archaeology), study of the shapes or forms of artifacts
*Morphology (astronomy), study of the shape of astronomical objects such as nebulae, galaxies, ...
, with each
morpheme
A morpheme is the smallest meaningful constituent of a linguistic expression. The field of linguistic study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology.
In English, morphemes are often but not necessarily words. Morphemes that stand alone ...
having a well-defined and exclusive function.
* An ''
a priori
("from the earlier") and ("from the later") are Latin phrases used in philosophy to distinguish types of knowledge, justification, or argument by their reliance on empirical evidence or experience. knowledge is independent from current ex ...
'' lexicon that does not favor any language. (This appears to be of supreme importance to its creator.)
* A collection of basic
root
In vascular plants, the roots are the organs of a plant that are modified to provide anchorage for the plant and take in water and nutrients into the plant body, which allows plants to grow taller and faster. They are most often below the sur ...
s that are clearly defined and
homonym
In linguistics, homonyms are words which are homographs (words that share the same spelling, regardless of pronunciation), or homophones ( equivocal words, that share the same pronunciation, regardless of spelling), or both. Using this definiti ...
-free.
* Mechanisms for productive derivation and composition to allow for maximum expressiveness, from the most general to the most subtle and precise.
Properties
Classification
As an ''a priori''
constructed language
A constructed language (sometimes called a conlang) is a language whose phonology, grammar, and vocabulary, instead of having developed naturally, are consciously devised for some purpose, which may include being devised for a work of fiction. ...
, Kotava is not related to any other language, natural or constructed. The
word order
In linguistics, word order (also known as linear order) is the order of the syntactic constituents of a language. Word order typology studies it from a cross-linguistic perspective, and examines how different languages employ different orders. C ...
is very free, but current practice leans toward
object–subject–verb. All objects and other complements must be introduced by prepositions. There are also innovations involving conjunctions and prepositions (its system of locative prepositions).
Alphabet
Kotava is written with the
Latin alphabet
The Latin alphabet or Roman alphabet is the collection of letters originally used by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered with the exception of extensions (such as diacritics), it used to write English and the ...
but does not use the letters H or Q. The letter H, which was used only to palatalize an L, M, or N, before it, was eliminated and replaced by the letter Y in all cases. It uses no
diacritics except for an
acute accent
The acute accent (), , is a diacritic used in many modern written languages with alphabets based on the Latin, Cyrillic, and Greek scripts. For the most commonly encountered uses of the accent in the Latin and Greek alphabets, precomposed cha ...
, to indicate stress on the final vowel in the first person of verbs. Like in French, a space is added between text and exclamation or question marks.
Phonology
In Kotava, there are no irregular pronunciations; the sound is always predictable from the spelling and vice versa.
Most
consonants
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are and pronounced with the lips; and pronounced with the front of the tongue; and pronounced wi ...
are pronounced as in the
IPA, except for ⟨c⟩, pronounced []; ⟨j⟩, pronounced []; and ⟨y⟩, pronounced [].
The consonants (in
IPA form) are:
The
vowels
A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (le ...
are pronounced as in Spanish, Swahili, or Tahitian, with no differences of length and no nasalization.
There are five
diphthongs
A diphthong ( ; , ), also known as a gliding vowel, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of the speech ...
: ay, ey, iy (very rare), oy, and uy (very rare).
The stress rule in Kotava is regular for all polysyllabic words: on the last syllable (
ultima) if the word has a final consonant; on the second-last syllable (
penult
Penult is a linguistics term for the second to last syllable of a word. It is an abbreviation of ''penultimate'', which describes the next-to-last item in a series. The penult follows the antepenult and precedes the ultima. For example, the main ...
) if the word has a final vowel except for the first person of conjugated verbs, which is stressed on the last syllable and marked with an
acute accent
The acute accent (), , is a diacritic used in many modern written languages with alphabets based on the Latin, Cyrillic, and Greek scripts. For the most commonly encountered uses of the accent in the Latin and Greek alphabets, precomposed cha ...
.
Morphology
Kotava has strict morphological rules, which are outlined in a table that prescribes order and interaction. All parts of speech are marked and so there is no ambiguity.
Nouns
A noun () is a word that generally functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas.Example nouns for:
* Living creatures (including people, alive, ...
and
pronouns
In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun ( abbreviated ) is a word or a group of words that one may substitute for a noun or noun phrase.
Pronouns have traditionally been regarded as one of the parts of speech, but some modern theorists would not ...
are invariable, and there is no system of declensions. There are no affixes of gender or plurality, both of which can be indicated with particles or other words if necessary. One unusual feature of Kotava is the "euphonic" principle, which matches endings of adjectives and other modifiers with their nouns.
Grammar
Pronouns
The main
personal pronouns
Personal pronouns are pronouns that are associated primarily with a particular grammatical person – first person (as ''I''), second person (as ''you''), or third person (as ''he'', ''she'', ''it'', ''they''). Personal pronouns may also take di ...
are the following:
The reflexive pronoun is ''int'', and the reciprocal pronoun is ''sint''. Possessives are created by adding ''-af'' to the personal pronoun.
Other pronouns include ''coba'' (thing), ''tan'' (unknown person), ''tel'' (known person), and ''tol'' (one of two).
Verbs
Verbs
A verb () is a word (part of speech) that in syntax generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual descrip ...
are conjugated into three
tenses (present, past, and future) and four
moods (realis,
imperative,
conditional, and relative). In addition, there are mechanisms for voices, aspects,
modalities and other nuances, which permit a great deal of subtlety in expression. There are seven persons for verbs, including an inclusive and exclusive first-person plural.
The first person singular is used as the verb's lemma. Suffixes to the root indicate person and tense. The following table exemplifies that with the verbs ''tí'' (to be) and ''estú'' (to eat):
The following modifiers can be used before the verb:
The past tense is indicated by a -y-
interfix
In phonology, an interfix or (more commonly) linking element is a part of a word that is placed between two morphemes (such as two roots or a root and a suffix) and lacks a semantic meaning.
Examples
Formation of compound words
In German, t ...
before the verb's final vowel:
* ''danká'' ("I sing") → ''dankayá'' ("I sang")
Similarly, the future tense is indicated by a -t- interfix:
* ''estul'' ("you eat") → ''estutul'' ("you will eat")
Nouns
There is no
grammatical gender
In linguistics, grammatical gender system is a specific form of noun class system, where nouns are assigned with gender categories that are often not related to their real-world qualities. In languages with grammatical gender, most or all noun ...
. To indicate the sex or gender of a person or animal, ''-ya'' is used for females and ''-ye'' for males.
Voice
Kotava has five grammatical voices:
# active - doalié (I fight)
# passive - zo doalié (I am fought)
# reflexive - va int tcaté (I wash myself)
# reciprocal - va sint disuked (they look at each other)
# complementary - va mbi zilí (I am given a cake)
Numbers
Numbers take the form of radical prefixes, which can be suffixed with certain attributes:
*0 ned-
*1 tan-
*2 tol-
*3 bar-
*4 balem-
*5 alub-
*6 tev-
*7 per-
*8 anyust-
*9 lerd-
*10 san-
*100 decem-
*1000 decit-
*10 000 kun-
*100 000 vunt-
*1 000 000 celem-
*1 000 000 000 felem-
*10
12 tung-
*10
15 pung-
*10
18 eung-
*10
21 zung-
*10
24 yung-
Suffixes:
*-oy (cardinal numbers)
*-eaf (ordinal numbers)
*-da (years)
*-ka (days)
*jon- … -af (multiplied by)
*fuxe- … -af (divided by)
*vol- (negative numbers)
Mathematical signs:
* = dum (equals)
* + do (plus)
* - bas (minus)
* × jon (times)
* / fuxe (divided by)
Literature
Literature has an important place in the Kotava-speaking community. There are hundreds of translations of novels (
Leo Tolstoy
Count Lev Nikolayevich TolstoyTolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; russian: link=no, Лев Николаевич Толстой,In Tolstoy's day, his name was written as in pre-refor ...
,
Émile Zola
Émile Édouard Charles Antoine Zola (, also , ; 2 April 184029 September 1902) was a French novelist, journalist, playwright, the best-known practitioner of the literary school of naturalism, and an important contributor to the development of ...
,
Guy de Maupassant
Henri René Albert Guy de Maupassant (, ; ; 5 August 1850 – 6 July 1893) was a 19th-century French author, remembered as a master of the short story form, as well as a representative of the Naturalist school, who depicted human lives, destin ...
,
Octave Mirbeau
Octave Mirbeau (16 February 1848 – 16 February 1917) was a French novelist, art critic, travel writer, pamphleteer, journalist and playwright, who achieved celebrity in Europe and great success among the public, whilst still appealing to the l ...
,
[The Diary of a Chambermaid, Octave Mirbea]
Pone ke mawakwikya, Cahiers Octave Mirbeau n°20, march 2013
/ref> Albert Camus
Albert Camus ( , ; ; 7 November 1913 – 4 January 1960) was a French philosopher, author, dramatist, and journalist. He was awarded the 1957 Nobel Prize in Literature at the age of 44, the second-youngest recipient in history. His works ...
, Molière
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (, ; 15 January 1622 (baptised) – 17 February 1673), known by his stage name Molière (, , ), was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the greatest writers in the French language and world ...
, Mikhail Sholokhov
Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov ( rus, Михаил Александрович Шолохов, p=ˈʂoləxəf; – 21 February 1984) was a Russian novelist and winner of the 1965 Nobel Prize in Literature. He is known for writing about life ...
, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger, comte de Saint-Exupéry, simply known as Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (, , ; 29 June 1900 – 31 July 1944), was a French writer, poet, aristocrat, journalist and pioneering aviator. He became a laureate of s ...
, Victor Hugo, etc.), tales ( La Fontaine, Charles Perrault
Charles Perrault ( , also , ; 12 January 1628 – 16 May 1703) was an iconic French author and member of the Académie Française. He laid the foundations for a new literary genre, the fairy tale, with his works derived from earlier folk tales ...
, Brothers Grimm
The Brothers Grimm ( or ), Jacob (1785–1863) and Wilhelm (1786–1859), were a brother duo of German academics, philologists, cultural researchers, lexicographers, and authors who together collected and published folklore. They are among t ...
, Hans Christian Andersen
Hans Christian Andersen ( , ; 2 April 1805 – 4 August 1875) was a Danish author. Although a prolific writer of plays, travelogues, novels, and poems, he is best remembered for his literary fairy tales.
Andersen's fairy tales, consist ...
, legends of the world) and other literary texts ( Machiavelli, etc.).
In popular culture
In ''Les Tétraèdres'' ("The Tetrahedra", a novel in French by Yurani Andergan, Verintuva, , 1274 p.), a wide historical and fantastic fresco, Kotava is the spoken language that Neanderthals
Neanderthals (, also ''Homo neanderthalensis'' and erroneously ''Homo sapiens neanderthalensis''), also written as Neandertals, are an extinct species or subspecies of archaic humans who lived in Eurasia until about 40,000 years ago. While ...
transmitted in secret to their descendants for many generations and is recited by some heroines as long oracles. There are additional translations at the end.[Le Canard Gascon, n°35, p.28-29, nov. 2010]
Criticism
/ref>
Sample texts
From "The Princess and the Pea
"The Princess and the Pea" ( da, "Prinsessen paa Ærten"; direct translation: "The Princess on the Pea") is a literary fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen about a young woman whose royal ancestry is established by a test of her sensitivity. Th ...
" by Hans Christian Andersen
Hans Christian Andersen ( , ; 2 April 1805 – 4 August 1875) was a Danish author. Although a prolific writer of plays, travelogues, novels, and poems, he is best remembered for his literary fairy tales.
Andersen's fairy tales, consist ...
:
:''Once upon a time there was a prince who wanted to marry a princess; but she would have to be a real princess. He travelled all over the world to find one, but nowhere could he get what he wanted. There were princesses enough, but it was difficult to find out whether they were real ones. There was always something about them that was not as it should be. So he came home again and was sad, for he would have liked very much to have a real princess.''
The Lord's Prayer
The Lord's Prayer, also called the Our Father or Pater Noster, is a central Christian prayer which Jesus taught as the way to pray. Two versions of this prayer are recorded in the gospels: a longer form within the Sermon on the Mount in the Gosp ...
:
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is an international document adopted by the United Nations General Assembly that enshrines the rights and freedoms of all human beings. Drafted by a UN committee chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt, ...
:
:All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
References
Sources
*Fetcey, Staren (1979). Kotava, langue internationale neutre. Québec, Canada : Ed. Univers des langues T.B. INC. 148 p.
*Kotava Avaneda (Kotava linguistic committee)
Official grammar of Kotava
Official grammar of Kotava (French)
Kotava Organisation (March 2007, version III.8, 49 p. ; March 2013, v.III–14, 59 p.)
*Christo Moskovsky & Alan Reed Libert (2011). Aspects of the Grammar and Lexica of Artificial Languages. Peter Lang GmbH.
External links
Official site
(in French; autotranslated to other languages)
*Linguistic and encyclopaedic websites
Bilingual Kotava dictionaries
(22 double dictionaries)
Online searchable bilingual dictionaries
Scribd Kotava Group
- Novels, translations, miscellanies and other texts in Kotava (AVK)
Kotapedia
(dictionary in Kotava with translations)
*Discussion
Kotava forum
{{Constructed languages
International auxiliary languages
Constructed languages
Constructed languages introduced in the 1970s
1978 introductions