LangMaker's Journal

Doing the Pidgin
Thanks to everyone who gave me feedback on what they thought 'xs' will stand for. Based on your comments, I won't use 'xs' but will use 'x' /ks/ instead. It can occur at the beginning of a syllable (as in Hungarian).

I've been working up a syntax for Pidanjinu. Something very basic.

Sentence = Interjection + "!"
Sentence = Name + "!"
Sentence = (Noun Phrase Series) + Verb Phrase + (Complex Noun Phrase) + Punctuation
Noun Phrase Series = {Extended Noun Phrase + Conjunction} + Extended Noun Phrase
Complex Noun Phrase = Noun Phrase Series + (Verb Phrase + Extended Noun Phrase)
Verb Phrase = (Negation) + (Aspect) + (Mood) + (Tense) + {Adverb} + (Augdiminutive Adv.) + (Evidential) + Verb
Extended Noun Phrase = Simple Noun Phrase + {Prepositional Phrase}
Prepositional Phrase = Preposition + Simple Noun Phrase
Simple Noun Phrase = (Determiner) + (Number) + {Color} + {Adjective} + (Augdiminutive Adj.) + (Gender) + Noun

This does allow relative clauses. Any verb after the sentence's predicate indicates the start of a regular clause. "I kicked the man who touched my wife" would be literally "I kick man touch my wife." If you want to say, "The man who touched my wife kicked me", you would have to say "Man touch my wife. That man kick me."

It's a pidgin, so it is not going to have very involved sentences.

If someone can think of a better word than "augdiminutive" for "augmentative and diminutive", let me know!

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