Earth minimal Rules 3/24/2000

Pronunciation

Vowels are pronounced (ah eye aye ee oh oo = aa, i, a, e, o, u). Verbifiers & suffixes (em,el,en,ev,er ) are given a short 'e' as in "pen, sell". The letters 'ch' are pronounced as in "church". Hard 'g' only as in "get". There is no stand-alone 'c' and no 'q' or 'x'. Some viable 2-consonant combinations are omitted and no 3-consonant combinationsare used.

Syntax/Grammar

Words' in the table are considered nouns or adjectives as the default state. For instance, the word for 'quantity' is ro. By itself ro would mean 1,2,3...etc.

When preceeded or followed by a 'verbifier' (em, en, el) the word is verbified. Emro means "was quantified". Enro="is quantified" ; Elro="will be quantified". A noun meaning 'collision' , when verbified, would mean 'collide'. Verbifiers change the meaning of all syllables in a 'word' collectively ('all noun+adjective' to 'all verb+adverb').

Transitive verbs add em,en, el to the end of a word. Roem=Quantified ; Roen=Quantifies ; Roel=Will Quantify.

Multisyllable words generally imply that the first syllable is the main thing while the following syllables 'modify' the first (adjective, adverb or 'narrows down possibilities' as in a game of Twenty Questions) . Exp: animal-he may mean a male animal while he-animal could mean he's animallike.

Earth-minimal is an SVO (subject-verb-object) language.

Translate "He was killed by a truck." as "Ti emglopo proku plizaa." Or, "Plizaa glopoem ti. . . not "Ti glopoem...(He killed...)" nor "Ti plizaa emglopo."(He truck killed.).

DI- = Conjunction prefix

This word is a prefix which designates the following syllable as "conjunctified", i.e. the next syllable is to be understood as the appropriate conjunction.

Examples: dier=if (i.e. the 'question' conjunction) diple=then(result)

PRO- = This 'word' is a prefix which designates the following syllable as "prepified", i.e. the next syllable is to be understood as the appropriate preposition.

Examples: prokaa='at'(place) ; proko='with'(companion) ; projo='around' (circle);

provo='in'(inside) ; prova='on'(top); proku='by-means-of'(method) ; prokwe='like a ...'(similarity)

The -PO or TE- changes the meaning of the preceeding or following syllable and PI- the whole word.

SMU = The "Smurf" word (means anything ; same as cartoon show)

-EV(possessive),-N(that which acts), -L(That acted upon), -M(adjective), -J(adverb), and -Z (plural)

are the only suffixes ;

EX = [ ] = E-minimal [ to English ] back to E-minimal

See: http://ebtx.com/lang/eminfrm.htm for any updates.