Let’s make a language – Part 7b: Adjectives (Isian)

Adjectives in Isian, like in English, aren’t that much of a problem. They don’t have a specific form that marks them out as what they truly are. They don’t change for number like nouns do. They’re really just…there. A few examples of Isian adjectives include wa “big”, hul “cold”, yali “happy”, and almerat “wise”.

As we saw in the last Isian post, the normal word order puts adjectives before nouns, and articles before adjectives. So we can make fuller noun phrases like ta wa talar “a big house” or e yali eshe “the happy girl”. In each case, the order is mostly the same as in English: article, then adjective, then noun.

We can even string adjectives together: es almerat afed sami “the wise old men”. (If you prefer adding commas between adjectives, that’s fine, too. It’s okay to write es almerat, afed sami, but it’s not required.)

Like in English, we can’t use an adjective like this without a noun. It’s not grammatical in Isian to say es almerat. Instead, we have to add an extra word, a: es almerat at “the wise ones”. (At least it has a regular plural form.) After a vowel, it becomes na: ta wa na “a big one”.

We can also use an adjective as a predicate. Here, it follows the copula (tet or one of its conjugations). An example might be en yali “I am happy”.

Isian adjectives also have equivalents to the English comparative and superlative (“-er” and “-est”) forms. As with many suffixes in the language, these vary based on the stem’s ending. For consonant-stems, the comparative is -in and the superlative is -ay. Vowel-stems simply insert a d at the beginning of the suffix to make -din and -dai, respectively. So yali “happy” becomes yalidin “happier* and yaliday “happiest”, while hul “cold” turns into hulin “colder” and hulai “coldest”.

There are a couple of differences, though. First, these suffixes can be used on any adjective; Isian has no counterparts to those English adjectives that require “more” and “most” instead of “-er” and “-est”. (On the plus side, we don’t have to worry about three forms for bil “good”. It’s fully regular: bil, bilin “better”, bilai “best”.)

Second, adjectives that are derived from nouns, like “manly” from “man”, usually can’t take the superlative. We haven’t yet seen any of those (or even how to make them). For these, the comparative serves both purposes.

That’s pretty much all there is to adjectives in Isian, as far as the basics are concerned. Now we can make quite a few more complex phrases and even some nice sentences. There’s still a lot more to come, though.

Isian word list

Not every word that we’ve seen is in this list, but it covers almost all of the “content” words in their base forms, along with a whole bunch of new ones you can try out. Also, words with irregular plurals have their plural suffixes shown in parenthesis, e.g., the plural of tay is tays.

English Isian
air rey
all sota
angry hayka
animal embin
any ese
arm ton
back bes
bad num
beautiful ichi
bed dom
big wa
bird firin
bitter guron
black ocom
blood miroc
blue sush
boat sholas
body har
bone colos
book peran
bottom dolis
boy jed
bread pinda(r)
bright lukha
brother doyan
car choran
cat her
chest sinal
child tay(s)
city eblon
closed noche
cloth waf
cloud albon
cold hul
color echil
correct ochedan
cup deta(s)
daughter sali(r)
day ja
daytime jamet
dim rum
dog hu
door opar
dress lash
drink adwar
dry khen
ear po(s)
earth tirat
egg gi(r)
every alich
eye bis
face fayan
false nanay
father pado(s)
few uni
field bander
finger ilca(s)
fire cay
flower atul
food tema
foot pusca
forest tawetar
friend chaley
front hamat
fruit chil
girl eshe(r)
glass arcol
gold shayad
good bil
grass tisen
green tich
hair pardel
hand fesh
happy yali
hard dosem
hat hop
head gol
heart sir
hill modas
hot hes
house talar
ice yet
island omis
king lakh
knife hasha
lake fow
leaf eta
left kintes
leg dul
light say
long lum
loud otar
man sam
many mime
meat shek
milk mel
moon nosul
mother mati(r)
mountain abrad
mouth ula
name ni
narrow ilcot
net rec
new ekho
nice nim
night chok
nose nun
not an
old afed
open bered
paper palil
peace histil
pen etes
person has
plant dires
poor umar
pot fan
queen lasha(r)
rain cabil
red ray
rich irdes
right estes
river ficha(s)
rock tag
rough okhor
sad nulsa
scent inos
sea jadal
sharp checor
shirt jeda(s)
shoe taf
short (tall) wis
short (long) wis
silent anchen
sister malin
skin kirot
sky halac
small ish
smooth fu
snow saf
soft ashel
son sor
sound polon
sour garit
star key
sun sida
sweet lishe
sword seca
table mico
tail hame
tall wad
thick gus
thin tin
to allow likha
to ask oca
to be tet
to begin nawe
to blow furu
to build oste
to burn becre
to buy tochi
to catch sokhe
to come cosa
to cook piri
to cry acho
to cut sipe
to dance danteri
to die nayda
to do te
to drink jesa
to eat hama
to end tarki
to enter yoweni
to feel ilsi
to give jimba
to go wasa
to guard holte
to have fana
to hear mawa
to hit icra
to hold otasi
to hunt ostani
to kiss fusa
to know altema
to laugh eya
to learn nate
to like mire
to live liga
to live in dalega
to look at dachere
to look for ediche
to love hame
to make tinte
to plant destera
to play bela
to pray barda
to read lenira
to receive rano
to run hota
to say ki
to see chere
to sell dule
to sing seri
to sit uba
to sleep inama
to smell nore
to speak go
to stand ayba
to taste cheche
to teach reshone
to think tico
to throw bosa
to touch shira
to walk coto
to want doche
to wash hishi
to wear disine
to write roco
tongue dogan
tooth ten
top poy
tree taw
true ferin
ugly agosh
war acros
warm him
water shos
wet shured
white bid
wide pusan
wind naf
wise almerat
woman shes
wood totac
word ur
world sata(r)
wrong noni
year egal
yellow majil
young manir

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