Angos is an a posteriori international auxiliary language. It started out as an auxiliary for English, Chinese, and Spanish; it had a balance between each language's complexity and expressive features. Now, the language draws its influence from a number of different languages, including Arabic, Hindi, Japanese, and even Basque. This language was co-developed by users Detectivekenny, Panglossa, and Razlem, with some others.
"Angos" ['aŋ.gos] simply means "Artificial Language". For a basic introduction, including learning resources, visit the official site @ http://angoslanguage.wikispaces.com/
| Translation: Beginos ve Ipos |
|---|
| Angos me begina te kane kolevat-angos de Engul-ango, Dyong-ango, ye Espan-ango. Lo me ba balanso ve osole hadayo ye le amas-meko. Fule angos ba makto ve le andi ango, ve Alab-ango, Hindi-ango, Napon-ango, y olose Ewskal-ango. Angos me te kasa ve Detectivekenny, Panglossa, ye Razlem, mwe move le ando. |
By all means, please contribute to the language's culture and/or history.
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Phonology
Vowels: [a], [e], [i], [o], [u]
Consonants: [p], [t], [k], [b], [d], [g], [m], [n], [w], [j] (y), [h], [f], [v], [s], [l, r] (l), [ts] (c)
The digraphs ng and nk may be pronounced [ŋɡ] and [ŋk] respectively.
Diphthongs: aw, ew, iw, ow, ay, ey, oy, uy
Stress: Penultimate
Syllable Structure (C = consonant; V = vowel; S = semivowel)
- V
- VC
- CV
- SV
- CVS
- SVC
- CVC
- SVS
- CCV
- CSV
- CSVS
- CSVC
A liquid (unless at the beginning or end of a root) must be preceded and succeeded by a vowel or semivowel. The combinations sk, st, and sp are preceded by a vowel.
Language Characteristics
Angos is a language which is lightly inflected and has a tendency to isolate. A few unique innovations are also present in the language:
Medial Vowel System
Drawing from similar IALs, this language features a classification system where the last vowel indicates the part of speech.
Nouns: 'o'
Verbs: 'a'
Adjectives: 'i'
Adverbs: 'u'
Other (conjunctions, prepositions, particles): e
Natural and Artificial Noun Distinction
In this language, parts of speech are distinguished as either naturi (natural) or omsanati (artificial, i.e man-made). Natural words take a vowel, and to denote an artificial quality, an "s" can be added.
Word Derivation and Morphology
Angos is a noun-based language, meaning every non-particle has a noun root.
For example, the full inflection of the word ot meaning "fire":
| ot- | Ending | Word | Translation |
| Natural Noun | o | oto | natural fire |
| Natural Verb | a | ota | to start a fire (natural causes), go to a fire, play with fire |
| Natural Adjective | i | oti | hot, flame-like, like a natural fire |
| Natural Adverb | u | otu | in the manner of a natural fire |
| Artificial Noun | os | otos | artificial fire (campfire, arson) |
| Artificial Verb | as | otas | to start a fire (artificial causes), go to a fire, play with fire |
| Artificial Adjective | is | otis | hot, flame-like, like an artificial fire |
| Artificial Adverb | us | otus | in the manner of an artificial fire |
Now for a usual verb, "to have". The noun for this is a "grip" or "hold", b-
- ba - to get, have, know, understand, take
A word of caution: words in this language are meant to be ambiguous as to facilitate conversation. The reasoning behind this system is (noun [action]), where the action is whatever the context allows. The first example ota "to fire", can be taken as "go to a fire" or "to start a fire". The second example verb is "to have a grip of something" or "to get a grip of something", as in to make something in your grip or hold, to have it in your grip or on your person.
The verb "to be" is omitted completely.
- I am a [noun] = Wo [noun]
- I am [adjective] = Wo [adjective]
Other Derivatives
Person who is doing VERB = endocentric compound (gi-omo = runner)
Person who does VERB habitually = semu (semu gi-omo = runner)
Place with lots of NOUN, Place where VERB is done = -oy- (va-oyo = forest) (al-oyos = kitchen)
Determining Gender
All nouns are inherently a neutral gender.
Person - omo
Male - na-
Female - ni-
The gender is placed at the beginning of the compound (for more info on compounding, see the Compounding section below):
Man = na-omo
- Example: male runner = na-gi-omo (the gender precedes all other parts of the compound)
Woman = ni-omo
- Example: female runner = ni-gi-omo
No Plural Inflections
This language does not include inflections for plurals normally found in other IALs, nor does it include traditional articles. The particle "re" functions as a plural marker. Demonstrative correlatives are used in place of definite articles.
- I see a cow - Wo via sapio [lit. I see cow]
- I see cows - Wo via le sapio [lit. I see (more than one) cow]
- I see the cow - Wo via fove sapio [lit. I see this cow]
- I see the cows - Wo via fove le sapio [lit. I see this (more than one) cow}
Particles
Angos employs heavy use of particles to determine aspect, tense, mood, etc. The polar particles se and ne can be attached to other particles to emphasize or negate respectively.
Tense:
Tense Angos English Translation Present Tense ala eat Past Tense me ala ate Future Tense ke ala will eat
Moods:
- Interrogative - ce (must always begin the question): Ce to ala? - Do you eat? (this is only used if there is no interrogative correlative)
Modal Particles Positive Translation Negative Translation Ability seale can neale can not Permission seste may neste may not Necessity semye must, have to nemye must not Desire seve want, would like neve do not want, would not like
- The negative necessity modal nemye means explicitly "must not" as in "You must not eat": To nemye ala. To say something like "You do not have to eat", you would place a negative marker in front of the positive modal: To ne semye ala (You 'no' must eat)
- Directive commands can be expressed with just the verb:
Ala! (Eat) Ne ala! (Don't eat)
- Volitive commands are expressed with -vame:
Sevame gia! (Let's go!) Nevame gia (let's not go)
Evidentiality and Epistemic Modality:
| Epistemic Particle | Angos Example | English Translation |
| setine | Ro setine gia | Evidently, he walked. |
| netine | Ro netine gia | It is doubtful that he walked. |
Comparison:
| Comparative Particle | Angos Example | English Translation |
| sele | Wo sele bali de to. | I am taller than you. |
| nele | Wo nele bali de to. | I am less tall than you. |
| sefe | Wo sefe bari. | I am the tallest. |
| nefe | Wo nefe bari. | I am the least tall. |
Polarity:
| Polar Particle | Agnos Example | English Translation |
| se | Wo se gia. | Yes, I am going. |
| ne | Wo ne gia. | No, I am not going. |
Particle Placement
Particles go before whatever they modify.
Syntax
Basic sentence structure (unmodified) is SVO: Wo kelea golo (I throw the ball).
Passive voice is formed with the particle te preceding the verb: Golo te kelea ve wo (The ball is thrown by me).
Modifiers
Place the modifier before whatever it modifies.
[Wo] [milu] [ne ba mao]
In the case above, the negative polar particle ne can only go before ba (it will only negate the succeeding word). Mao is an object and must directly succeed the verb unless it is being modified (e.g: ...ba bali mao)
Prepositional Phrases
A prepositional phrase is constructed:
- ([prepositional particle] + [object modifiers] + [object])
Verb Transitivity
Transitive and intransitive verbs are unmarked.
Transitive: Wo mabada [object] = I change [an object]
Intransitive: Wo laksa = I dance
Compounding
Angos uses endocentric compounding, in which A+B denotes a special kind of B. In Angos, compounding is generally used for artificial words with no natural counterparts. Stress is placed on the penultimate syllable of each root in the compound.
Store
- toval = merchandise
- oy = place
- toval + oy + Part of Speech Marker = toval-oyos = store [lit. merchandise place]
Windmill
mag = grain
- oy = place
- mag + oy + POS marker = mag-oyos = granary/mill [lit. seed place]
- bavel = wind
- bavel + magoyos = bavel-mag-oyos = windmill [lit. wind seed place]
Television
- vi = eye
- mek = machine, mechanism
- vi-mekos = TV [lit. eye machine]
Telephone
- ans = conversation
- mek = machine, mechanism
- ans-mekos = telephone [lit. conversation machine]
Computer
- no = brain
- mek = machine, mechanism
- no-mekos = computer [lit. brain machine]
Vocabulary
Nouns
The noun inventory in Angos is relatively low, only a little more than 500 lexical roots (as of June 2011). But when inflected, there are more than 4000 distinct words.
The pie chart above shows the percentage of the language groups whose vocabulary was used in creating Angos.
| Language Group | Percentage |
| Latin (Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Latin) | 14 |
| Germanic (English, German, Nordic) | 13 |
| Macro-Altaic (Turkic, Japanese, Korean) | 11 |
| Slavic (Russian, Polish, Czech, Bos/Serb/Croatian) | 9 |
| Semitic (Arabic, Hebrew) | 9 |
| Greek | 6 |
| Finno-Ugric (Finnish, Estonian, Hungarian) | 6 |
| Austronesian (Tagalog, Indonesian, Malay) | 5 |
| Hindi/Urdu | 4 |
| American (Hopi, Cherokee, Navajo, Nahuatl) | 4 |
| A priori | 3 |
| Mix | 3 |
| Chinese | 3 |
| Swahili | 3 |
| Armenian | 2 |
| Basque | 2 |
| Hieroglyph | 1 |
| Gaelic | 1 |
| Sanskrit | <1 |
| Bantu | <1 |
| Telugu | <1 |
Dictionary
For a full, up-to-date dictionary, please visit the wikispaces site.
Pronouns
The pronouns follow the same inflection rules as other nouns. However, when used as adjectives, they become possessive pronouns (my, your, their, our)
| Pronouns | Singular | Plural |
| 1st Person | wo | re wo |
| 2nd Person | to | re to |
| 3rd Person | ro |
re ro |
Particles
(prepositions, conjunctions, other)
| Particle | English |
|---|---|
| de | at, for, to, than |
| ve* | of (possessive), from, since, by (authorship) |
| mwe | with, by way of, using, via |
| bese | without |
| ye | and |
| oe | or |
| mitse | but, rather, although, however |
| nive | near, about, by |
| ine | in, into, inside |
| twe | out, out of, outside |
| dave | on, on top of, over, up |
| dore |
under, below, down |
| be | if |
| sarie | unless |
| fiwane | (just) in case |
| mate | in order to, so that |
| pahe | instead of, rather than |
| orose | already, yet |
| gante | concerning, about, on, in terms of |
| wese | off, away |
| erikange | nevertheless, despite, notwithstanding |
| tave | there is, there are |
| ante | before, until |
| poste | after, behind |
| hie** | in, on (temporal) |
| rotane | please (politeness marker) |
| te | relative marker, passive marker |
| re | plural marker |
| setine | evidently, certainly |
| netine | uncertainly, maybe |
| he | only, just, no more than |
*ve is a possessive marker, not a genitive. The only exceptions to its usage are the pronouns, which use the adjective ending to denote possession.
**Ine and dave are strictly spatial particles (e.g. I am in the house - Wo ine reisos). The particle hie is strictly temporal and would be used for phrases like "on Sunday" (hie ayntsios) or "in three hours" (hie tin tyaso).
Table of Correlatives
| :D | What | This | That |
Some |
Any |
Few | Many | Every | No |
| X |
kove which [x] |
fove this [x] |
dove that [x] |
move some [x] |
yove any [x] |
fetove few [x] |
varove many [x] |
osove each [x] |
nove no [x] |
| Time |
kue when |
fue now |
due later |
mue sometime |
yue anytime |
fetue seldom |
value many times |
osue always |
nue never |
| Verb |
kewe do what |
fewe do this |
dewe do that |
mewe do something |
yewe do anything |
fetewe do a few things |
valewe do many things |
osewe do everything |
newe do nothing |
| Association |
koce whose |
foce this one's |
doce that one's |
moce someone's |
yoce anyone's |
fetoce few people's |
valoce many people's |
osoce everyone's |
noce no one's |
Using the Table of Correlatives
Questions are always in the format: Particle-Subject-Verb-Object
The interrogative correlatives (as well as the particle 'ce') act as clause enhancers; they will always begin the question.
- Ce to kafe-oya? - Are you going to the coffee shop?
- Ce lo pani-amo? - Is it blue?
Relative interrogatives are formed with the addition of the particle "tu":
- Wo ba te kove omo me fewe - I know who did it
Word Tables
| Numeral | Numbers - re rakamo |
| 0 | nun |
| 1 | ayn |
| 2 | don |
| 3 | tin |
| 4 | kan |
| 5 | keyn |
| 6 | sin |
| 7 | sun |
| 8 | okon |
| 9 | novan |
| 10 | den |
| 11 | den-ayn |
| 12 | den-don |
| 13 | den-tin |
| 20 | don-den |
| 21 | don-den-ayn |
| 30 | tin-den |
| 40 | kan-den |
| 100 | syen |
| 125 | syen-don-den-keyn |
| 1000 | den-syen |
| 1125 | den-syen-don-den-keyn |
| 10,000 | syon |
| 11,125 | syon-den-syen-don-den-keyn |
| 100,000 | den-syon |
| 1,000,000 | eseon |
| 10,000,000 | den-eseon |
| 100,000,000 | ospen |
Example Text
Introductions
| Anya | Hello/Goodbye |
| Kove ti namos? |
What is your name? |
| Wi namos... | My name is... |
| Kove oyo to ve? |
Where are you from? |
| Wo ve... | I am from... |
| Ce to kali? | How are you? |
| Osove kali | It's going well (lit. Everything good) |
| ...boli | ...bad |
| ...hemi | ...so-so/usual |
| Mila | Thanks |
| Ce to? | And you? |
| Ye to | You too |
Estukos Ayn ve Om-Pilav-Ipos
Article One of the Declaration of Human Rights
| Angos | English (direct) |
| Estukos Ayn | Part 1 |
| Osome kotayu ye beselu te bebea mwe pativo ye pilavo. Le lo ba logiko ye no-senso ye sevame sisalu osewe de osove ando. | All people from birth are free and equal in honor and rights. They have logic and conscience, and should like siblings act towards each other. |
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Fove angos me aynu te bokaa.
Isue efa te kinoa ye li kal-meno, me te awkela te bokaa.