EXCUSES AND APOLOGIES

These pages have been modified from their original form. They have been formatted to fit a tolerant and diverse society.

I have decided, despite many qualms, to copy over Andrew Nowicki's pages about the logical language ygyde to my own website. Contained in those pages were some comments, "mnemonics", and vocabulary derivations I object to, and for that reason these pages are modified from their original form. I assure you that nothing of value was lost in expunging them.

I decided, since it wasn't really worth it, not to include any of the dictionary, aside from the root words in this main page.

Comments by me are in this colour for clarity. -- Oren Watson

YGYDE LANGUAGE INTRODUCTION
updated May 7, 2020

English language is not the best international auxiliary language because it is too ambiguous and too difficult to learn. For example, there are 56 meanings of the verb set, 11 meanings of the adjective set, and 47 meanings of the noun set, not counting subtle variations of these meanings. Best examples of English language flaws: There is no egg in the eggplant, no ham in the hamburger, no pine or apple in the pineapple. English muffins were not invented in England. French fries were not invented in France. Boxing rings are square. Guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig. Trolling and trawling are different methods of fishing, but they are indistinguishable in spoken English. If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?

The English language is divided into many dialects. For example, a filling station that sells fuel for motor vehicles is called gas station in the United States and most of Canada. In some regions of Canada it is called gas bar. In the Commonwealth it is called petrol station. In the United Kingdom, Ireland, and South Africa it is called garage. In Australia it is called service station. In India it is called petrol bunk.

Ygyde is an oligosynthetic language that crams record number of different meanings into two letters long morphemes. These morphemes are the building blocks of Ygyde. The key concept that defines Ygyde is its prefix table. Ygyde is a constructed language (conlang) and a superb international auxiliary language because it is easy to pronounce (no consonant clusters and easy to pronounce version called Long Ygyde ), easy to understand (two consecutive vowels = the end of one word and the beginning of the next word), and very easy to learn (lots of compound words and lots of morphemes derived from 90 adjectives).

Names of letters and scientific constants are 2 letters long. Names of variables are 4 letters long compound words. Proper nouns are 6 letters long compound words except for names of people and some geographic names, which are 8 letters long. Names of common plants and animals are ordinary compound words. Precise biological names of multicellular plants and animals are 10 letters long. Precise biological names of monocellular plants and animals are 12 letters long.

All other words have odd number of letters. They begin with a vowel which is followed by a consonant, which is followed by a vowel, and so on. Functional vowels are prepositions made of one letter. Numbers, colors, pronouns, common adjectives, common nouns, conjunctions, and the rest of prepositions are 3 letters long. All other words are either 5 or 7 letters long. They are compound words coined by combining a vowel prefix with two or three morphemes. Examples of Ygyde compound words:
aniga (corrupt) = a (adjective) + ni (secret) + ga (money)
ofyby (leavened bread) = o (noun) + fy (foam) + by (food)
igugo (to vaporize) = i (verb) + gu (liquid) + go (gas).

Ygyde compound words are very easy to memorize. To verify this fact, randomly select a dozen compound words from Basic English-Ygyde Dictionary. Spend five minutes memorizing their English roots; for example: memorize "bread" as "foam food," "abacus" as "old number tool," and so on. Spend five minutes memorizing the same words from a language you do not know, for example, Polish language. (In Polish language "bread" is "chleb" and "abacus" is "liczydlo.") Next day find out how many Ygyde words and Polish words you have memorized.

Foreign words follow one of the following Ygyde words: hupi, ugi, huki, uwo, uwi, hufo, uzo, uzu. These words are necessary to make sure that the foreign words are not interpreted as new Ygyde words. For example, the word bikini means "proper noun optical massive path" in Ygyde.

Ygyde is the Linux of conlangs. It is not protected by copyright laws, so you are free to modify this web page and post it on your web site. That is what I have done. --Oren The only dictionary of the compound words is the Basic English-Ygyde Dictionary. Ygyde is fun to play with. You can either pick up an English word and try to figure out its Ygyde equivalent, or you can coin a new Ygyde word and try to guess its meaning. If you are serious about learning Ygyde, start with an (unfinished) primer. Neither the dictionary nor the primer are available here, as the primer is essentially empty, and the dictionary contained the bulk of racist, sexist, and otherwise objectionable material and I felt no desire to try to fix it. --Oren

Andrew Nowicki invented all the tables of the Ygyde language except preposition table. Patrick Hassel-Zein invented most of the grammar and half of the preposition table.

The ygyde alphabet images are not shown here, but here is an image of them

If the last letter (phoneme) of Ygyde word is a or i, the last syllable is stressed. If the last letter of Ygyde word is neither a nor i, the syllable preceding the last syllable is stressed (stressed antepenultima). Stressed syllables are underlined: ooo, oooo, ooooo, oooooo, ooooooo. The stressed syllable in Short Ygyde words is the same as in the equivalent Standard Ygyde words. The stress helps distinguish similar words, for example, iby (right) and ibi (along).

Phoneme h is pronounced like voiced h (end of very long g, voiced glottal fricative, International Phonetic Association number 147), or like voiceless h in the word hello. Voiced h is preferable because voiceless h is very similar to f. Phoneme h is used to improve word parsing. For example: ogo owyle (8 square meters) sounds like ogowyle, so it should be pronounced as ogo howyle. Phoneme h is also used to distinguish three letter long words in a spoken language. It is placed before the three letter long word only if its second phoneme is unvoiced consonant or n: p, t, k, f, s, c, n. For example: color upa (pink) is pronounced as hupa to distinguish it from color uba (white). Phoneme h may be omitted in written Ygyde.

Glyphs not included in the Ygyde's alphabet are coded as two consecutive vowels, two consecutive consonants, octal point followed by a letter, or octal digit followed by a letter. A pair of identical glyphs (e.g., +, -, =) can be coded with one glyph only if the context makes it clear that it means the pair of identical glyphs.

DOUBLE GLYPHS
Ygyde glyphs	English glyph	name of the pair		Ygyde glyphs	English glyph	name of the pair		Ygyde glyphs	English glyph	name of the pair
ee	(	otete		yy	)	odydy		mm	[	omimi
nn	]	onunu		me	{	omeme		yn	}	onyny
zs	~	ozaza		on	>	otiti		no	<	obubu
nm	\	omama		bb	+	obebe		pp	-	opopo
gg	* (multiplication)	ogege		kk	/ (division)	okuku		jl	^ (power)	ojyjy
ww	^2 (second power)	owywy		ff	square root	ofefe		uu	=	ojuju
jj	equals approximately	ojaja		db	natural exponent	odada		tp	natural logarithm	osisi
dd	integral	ododo		tt	differential	otata		zz	? (question mark)	ozozo
ii	! (exclamation mark)	ofifi		ll	left quotation mark	olyly		cc	right quotation mark	ocece
pd	%	opapa		gk	&	ogogo		ss	monetary unit	osusu
aa	@	osasa		mn	#	omymy		wf	* (asterisk)	owiwi
;p	' (apostrophe)	opupu		;;	, (comma)	olili		;o	: (colon)	ololo
;a	; (semicolon)	okaka		t0	q	otyty		l0	r	olele
f0	h	ofufu		k0	x	okyky		w0	v	owewe
a;	8 (single digit)	ogo		t;	9 (single digit)	ogy		oo	first letters of a phone number, fax number, URL, email address, file name, etc.	ococo

Adjectives and verbs are derived from these nouns the same way as from the compound words. For example: ogege = multiplication, egege = multiplicative, igege = to multiply.

EXAMPLES OF FOREIGN GLYPHS
Ygyde glyphs	Foreign glyphs		Ygyde glyphs	Foreign glyphs		Ygyde glyphs	Foreign glyphs
a0	å, Å		a1	á, Á		a2	ä, Ä
a3	æ, Æ		o0	ö, Ö		u0	ü, Ü
e0	é, É		p1	þ, Þ		d0	ð, Ð

Ygyde font and large GIF images of Ygyde glyphs are in this zip file: ygydefonts.zip You can make your own Ygyde font with the help of the large GIF images of Ygyde glyphs.

Note that this file is hosted on andrew nowicki's site, not mine -- Oren.

Sample of Ygyde text

If the last morpheme of the compound word is li, and other morphemes are two adjectives, or one adjective, or one noun, li is ignored in the definition of the compound word. Otherwise it means "no meaning" or "absurd."

CONSTANT TABLE
name		meaning		name		meaning
lu		double Π, double Ludolphian number = 6.28319		ci		e, natural logarithm base = 2.7182
fa		γ, Euler-Mascheroni constant = 0.5772		wu		Avogadro's number = 6.022X10^23 molecules/mol
go		gas constant = 8.314 J/molK		le		Boltzmann's constant = 1.381X10-23 j/K
bi		Planck's constant = 6.626X10^-34 Js		ku		Stefan-Boltzmann constant = 5.6699X10-8 W/m^2K^-4
mu		speed of light = 2.9979X10^8 m/s		si		charge of electron = 1.602X10^-19 C
du		permittivity of free space = 8.854X10-12 C^2/Nm^2		pa		permeability of free space = 4ΠX10^-7 Wb/Am
ki		gravitational constant = 6.673X10^-11 Nm^2/kg^2		gi		g, acceleration due to gravity = 9.81 m/s^2
lo		mass of electron = 9.110X10^-31 kg		so		mass of proton = 1.673X10^-27 kg
ze		mass of neutron = 1.675X10^-27 kg

If decimal numbers are written with the Ygyde glyphs, the last glyph is oli (decimal or octal point). If octal numbers are written with the Ygyde glyphs, the last glyph is not oli. Scientific notation of octal numbers is written as oli followed by octal fraction, oli and exponent: .octal.fraction.exponent . Scientific notation of decimal numbers is written as oli followed by decimal fraction, oli, exponent and oli: .decimal.fraction.exponent. . If Ygyde glyphs describe decimal numbers, letter a (sa) represents digit 8 and letter t (ty) represents digit 9. Glyph p is used as the minus sign. Decimal numbers have the advantage of being about 10% shorter than octal numbers, but they have two flaws: decimal multiplication table is about 65% bigger than octal multiplication table, and decimal numbers are not compatible with computers. Decimal system is best when Ygyde is used as international auxiliary language. When Ygyde is used as a native language, octal system is better. The octal system does not have digit eight and digit nine. Our Sumerian units of time and medieval calendar go well with the decimal system. The octal system is better suited for a more rational system that includes octal units of time: each day is divided into 64 hours (64=8*8), which are divided into 64 minutes, which are divided into 64 seconds. One octal second equals 0.33 decimal (normal) second. (These octal units of time are similar to the French Revolutionary Time.) If only one system (decimal or octal) is used, the other system can be used as names of LISP functions. (LISP is a computer programming language. Its grammar is similar to the grammar of Ygyde.) The average length of the year is 365.2425 days. If the year is divided into 6 months (rather than 12 months), all months except one will have the same number of days (61). Octal temperature scale is thermodynamic temperature set to 512 degrees (512=8^3) at the melting point of water.

NUMBER TABLE
DECIMAL TABLE						OCTAL TABLE
word	meaning		word	meaning		word	meaning		word	meaning
oba	10^14		obe	10^13		hopa	first		hope	ordinal numbers (1st, 2nd, 98th)
oby	10^12		obo	10^11		hopy	8^-14		hopo	8^-13
obu	10^10		hopi	10^9		hopu	8^-12		obi	8^-11
oda	10^8		ode	10^7		hota	8^-10		hote	8^-9
ody	10^6		odo	10^5		hoty	8^-8		hoto	8^-7
odu	10^4		hoti	10^3 (mnemonic hint: hot temperature)		hotu	8^-6		odi	8^-5
oga	10^2		oge	10		hoka	8^-4		hoke	8^-3
ogy	9		ogo	8		hoky	8^-2		hoko	8^-1
ogu	7		hoki	6 (mnemonic hint: team of 6 hockey players)		hoku	1/4		ogi	1/3
owa	5		owe	4		hofa	1/2		hofe	0
owy	3		owo	2		hofy	1		hofo	2
owu	1		hofi	0		hofu	3		owi	4
oza	1/2		oze	1/4		hosa	5		hose	6
ozy	10^-1		ozo	10^-2		hosy	7		hoso	8
ozu	10^-3		hosi	10^-4		hosu	16		ozi	8^2
oja	10^-5		oje	10^-6		hoca	8^3		hoce	8^4
ojy	10^-7		ojo	10^-8		hocy	8^5		hoco	8^6
oju	10^-9		hoci	10^-10		hocu	8^7		oji	8^8
oma	10^-11		ome	10^-12		hona	8^9		hone	8^10
omy	10^-13		omo	10^-14		hony	8^11		hono	8^12
omu	computer program code follows		omi	infinity		honu	8^13		honi	8^14
ola	several, a few		ole	spelling begins		olo	last		olu	per, fractions (1/2, 2/3, 1/47)
oly	spelling ends					oli	decimal or octal point

Examples: 20 = owo oge. 2 and 10 = owo iwa oge. 120 angle degrees = 1/3 double Π radian = ogi lu olale.

Pairs of numbers are used to improve comprehension of spoken language in a noisy environment. If the pair represents decimal number, the first element of the pair is decimal and the second element is its octal equivalent. If the pair represents octal number, the first element of the pair is octal and the second element is its decimal equivalent. Examples:
10^4 = odu = odu hoce
8 = ogo = ogo hoso = hoso ogo = hoso
8^8 = oji = oji oda
8^-14 = hopy = hopy omo
Decimal 9 is associated with octal 16 (hosu). Decimal 10 is associated with octal 64 (ozi).

If the second letter (ignore h) is not b, the last letter describes dominant color(s) and the second letter describes the remaining color components. If you cannot memorize the entire red green blue table, try to memorize vowels associated with the dominant colors and the fact that light colors are associated with consonants listed in the beginning of the alphabet table.

RED GREEN BLUE TABLE
second letter	last letter	dominant color(s)	dominant color intensity	second color intensity	third color intensity	names of colors
b	a	none	100% (white)			uba
	o		67% (gray)			ubo
	u		33% (dark gray)			ubu
	i		0% (black)			ubi
p	a / e / y	a for red e for green y for blue	100%	67%	67%	hupa  hupe  hupy
d			100%	67%	33%	uda  ude  udy
t			100%	33%	67%	huta  hute  huty
g			100%	67%	0%	uga  uge  ugy
k			100%	0%	67%	huka  huke  huky
w			100%	33%	33%	uwa  uwe  uwy
f			100%	33%	0%	hufa  hufe  hufy
z			100%	0%	33%	uza  uze  uzy
s			100%	0%	0%	husa  huse  husy
j			67%	33%	33%	uja  uje  ujy
c			67%	33%	0%	huca  huce  hucy
m			67%	0%	33%	uma  ume  umy
n			67%	0%	0%	huna  hune  huny
l			33%	0%	0%	ula  ule  uly
s	o / u / i	o for yellow u for cyan i for magenta	100%	none	67%	huso  husu  husi
j			100%		33%	ujo  uju  uji
c			100%		0%	huco  hucu  huci
m			67%		33%	umo  umu  umi
n			67%		0%	huno  hunu  huni
l			33%		0%	ulo  ulu  uli

NON-COLOR WORDS OF THE COLOR TABLE
Ygyde word	meaning	Ygyde word	meaning
ube	west (the Ygyde character for "e" points left, ibe = left)	uby	east (the Ygyde character for "y" points right, iby = right)
hupu	south (mnemonic hints: (the Ygyde character for "u" points down)	huti	north (mnemonic hints: the Ygyde character for "i" is somewhat similar to a compass needle)
hupi	indicates that a non-ygyde name follows this word	ugi	indicates that a non-ygyde geographical name follows this word (mnemonic hint: agi = geological)
huki	indicates that a non-ygyde name of a material or chemical follows this word	uwo	indicates that a non-ygyde verb follows this word
uwu	indicates that the following word is a new word, or a word used locally, or a common word that has non-standard meaning because it is used in a narrow technical field	uwi	indicates that a non-ygyde name of a species follows this word (mnemonic hint: awi = genetic)
hufo	indicates that a non-ygyde adjective or adverb follows this word	uzo	indicates that a non-ygyde religious name follows this word
uzu	indicates that other or unknown non-ygyde word follows this word	hutu	luminous, lustrous (mnemonic hint: atu = rich)
hupo	opaque	ugo	translucent (mnemonic hint: agu = wet)
udo	colorful (mnemonic hint: ado = pretty)	udu	light in color
huto	matte	ugi	transparent (mnemonic hint: ago = atmospheric)
huko	metallic color (mnemonic hint: ako = artistic) what? --Oren	huku	iridescent (mnemonic hint: aku = burning)
hufu	vivid (mnemonic hint: afu = dry) huh? --Oren	hufi	color (mnemonic hint: afi = feminine) bruh --Oren
uzi	glossy, specular (mnemonic hint: azi = narrow)

There are three versions of Ygyde: Short, Standard, and Long. Standard Ygyde has short, two letter syllables described above. This version of Ygyde is used as a written and spoken language. Some 6 and 7 letters long words of the Standard Ygyde sound like a staccato. Short Ygyde makes them sound better by removing either second identical vowel or second identical consonant. The removed letter cannot be the last letter of the word. The letter can be removed only if letters adjacent to the removed letter are different and the shorter word is easy to pronounce. For example, osotate == osotae and apupipe == apuipe == apupie are correct, but okekebo == okekbo is too difficult to pronounce. The Short Ygyde words follow == mark in the Basic English-Ygyde Dictionary.

Long Ygyde syllables are made of three letters. They are called long syllables. Different speakers of Long Ygyde can use different phonemes in the same place of the same word. For example, vowel a and vowel e are interchangeable. Those who cannot pronounce a can pronounce e and vice versa. Long Ygyde's phonemes are divided into 11 groups; 3 vowels: first vowel is a or e, second vowel is u or o, third vowel is i or y, and 8 consonants: first consonant is b or p, second consonant is d or t, third consonant is g or k, fourth consonant is w or f, fifth consonant is z or s, sixth consonant is j or c, seventh consonant is m or n, and eighth consonant is l or r. Letter r may be pronounced like r in the word car and in many other ways. The remaining letters are pronounced like the Standard Ygyde letters. The total number of the long syllables is the same as the total number of the standard syllables. The Long Ygyde is a spoken only language of those who cannot pronounce some phonemes of the Standard Ygyde. Every standard syllable has a long syllable equivalent. It is possible but inconvenient to make the entire word from Long Ygyde syllables. The best way to use Long Ygyde is to use both Standard Ygyde syllables and Long Ygyde syllables in the same word. For example, if you cannot pronounce phoneme y, you can pronounce the word y-gy-de as ai-zai-de, ei-zei-de, ai-sai-de, and in many other ways. Long Ygyde is also used to change the pronunciation of words that sound so similar that they are difficult to distinguish in a noisy environment. These words sound most distinct when one of them is pronounced as Standard Ygyde and the other is pronounced as Long Ygyde. The Long Ygyde words follow === mark in the Basic English-Ygyde Dictionary.

The following table explains how to translate vowels and syllables from Standard Ygyde to Long Ygyde. If the compound word has any Long Ygyde syllables, its last syllable is stressed to distinguish the word from Short Ygyde words.

TRANSLATION TABLE
Stan- dard Ygyde	Long Ygyde		Stan- dard Ygyde	Long Ygyde		Stan- dard Ygyde	Long Ygyde		Stan- dard Ygyde	Long Ygyde
a	au		e	ua		y	ai		o	ia
u	ui		i	iu
ba	bau		be	bua		by	bai		bo	bia
bu	bui		bi	biu		pa	dau		pe	dua
py	dai		po	dia		pu	dui		pi	diu
da	gau		de	gua		dy	gai		do	gia
du	gui		di	giu		ta	wau		te	wua
ty	wai		to	wia		tu	wui		ti	wiu
ga	zau		ge	zua		gy	zai		go	zia
gu	zui		gi	ziu		ka	jau		ke	jua
ky	jai		ko	jia		ku	jui		ki	jiu
wa	mau		we	mua		wy	mai		wo	mia
wu	mui		wi	miu		fa	lau		fe	lua
fy	lai		fo	lia		fu	lui		fi	liu
za	bla		ze	blu		zy	bli		zo	bal
zu	bul		zi	bil		sa	dla		se	dlu
sy	dli		so	dal		su	dul		si	dil
ja	gla		je	glu		jy	gli		jo	gal
ju	gul		ji	gil		ca	wla		ce	wlu
cy	wli		co	wal		cu	wul		ci	wil
ma	zla		me	zlu		my	zli		mo	zal
mu	zul		mi	zil		na	lal		ne	lul
ny	lil		no	jal		nu	jul		ni	jil
la	mla		le	mlu		ly	mli		lo	mal
lu	mul		li	mil

In a noisy environment the letters of the words may be misunderstood unless they are spelled out. For example, word oje (million) may be spelled out as: ole (spelling begins), to (letter o), jo (letter j), je (letter e), oly (spelling ends).

HALLMARKS OF A GOOD AUXLANG

1. Are the words easy to pronounce? Are there any consonant clusters?
2. Is it easy to understand fast speech? Are the boundaries between the words obvious even if you do not know the words?
3. Is it easy to make compound words? How long are these compound words?
4. If you do not know a word and do not know its morphemes, can you tell if it is an adjective, a noun, or a verb? Can you tell if it is a compound word?
5. Are there any mnemonic links between the morphemes that make it easier to memorize the morphemes? Are there any rules that minimize the burden of memorizing the morphemes?
6. Is it possible to make arbitrarily long and arbitrarily complex sentences that have clear, unambiguous meaning?
7. Is the auxlang culturally neutral, or does it sound like a relic of colonialism?
8. Is it terse?
9. If the vocabulary is borrowed from natural languages, at least 99% of the vocabulary must be borrowed from Mandarin language because Mandarin vocabulary is known to the largest number of people. The rest of the vocabulary must be made of technical terms that are common to many languages, for example, the word computer.

COMPARISON OF PHILOSOPHICAL LANGUAGES

Philosophical languages are conlangs devoid of unnecessary randomness. There are two kinds of philosophical languages: taxonomic and oligosynthetic. Taxonomic languages resemble the Dewey Decimal Classification System used in libraries. The undesirable consequence of this taxonomy is that all words for different vegetables sound similar and may be misunderstood in a noisy environment. Almost all the words of the oligosynthetic languages are compound words defined in such a way that their meanings can often be guessed from the meanings of their morphemes. For example, if you know the meaning of the morphemes "mail" and "man," you can guess the meaning of the compound word "mailman." If the language has more than about 1000 morphemes, it is difficult to memorize the morphemes, so the language is not oligosynthetic.

Ygyde is an oligosynthetic language. It has only one flaw. Some of its compound words are not defined well, which means that it is difficult to guess their meaning. Additional morphemes would eliminate this flaw, but very few of the additional morphemes would be used as often as the existing morphemes. Standard Ygyde has unique ability to cram very large number (180) of different meanings into very short (two letters, consonant-vowel) morphemes made of 21 phonemes.

Kali-sise is also an oligosynthetic language, and the only one that is almost as easy to learn and pronounce as Ygyde. These two languages provide alternative solutions to the same linguistic problems. Compound Kali-sise words are longer than compound Ygyde words because Kali-sise has fewer phonemes (10) and more morphemes (411). Most of these morphemes are borrowed from natural languages to make them easy to remember. The most serious flaw of Kali-sise is poor word parsing. (Those who do not speak fluent Kali-sise cannot easily determine the end of one word and the beginning of the next word of a spoken language.) This flaw can be fixed by placing a vowel prefix in front of every word. For example: prefix i = noun, prefix u = verb, prefix a = adjective, prefix e = proper noun.

Tunu is similar to Kali-sise because it has 4 letter long morphemes. It is a borderline oligosynthetic language because it has more morphemes (1137) than Ygyde and Kali-sise.

Every word of the taxonomic Ro language has a prefix which defines general category of the word. The last vowel of the word defines part of speech. The remaining letters are arbitrary, so it is impossible to guess the meaning of the word. Some words are difficult to pronounce because they have consonant clusters.

Richard K. Harrison knows Ro language well. Here is his opinion:
The vocabulary is outdated, and we do not know how to add modern terms like "computer" and
"microwave oven." The creators died before they reached a definite conclusion about the
meanings of gerunds, the naming of nations, and other matters. Also there is the problem of
words with similar meanings sounding and looking similar, so that the smallest error of
typing or speech changes the meaning of a sentence. Finally, Ro as it was used by its creators
was a crude encoding of English, with idioms that make no sense to non-English-speakers
being translated word by word into Ro, with every grammatical function of English included
when many could have been simplified. Ro's claims to being a priori are false, if you look
deeply. Grammatically, syntactically, semantically, even down to capitalization and
punctuation it is a crude cipher for encoding English.

"Sympathizers have been few. Poverty distressed me. More than once I became discouraged,
and tried to lay down the undertaking for something that would afford at least the necessaries
of life. But the work had hold of me, and would not let go. Often in my dreams or in the waking
hours of the night, columns of words chased each other tumultuously through my brain, and
banished the possibility of sleep, until for relief I was compelled to get up, turn on the
light, and commit to paper the rampant vocables." - Edward P. Foster, creator of Ro, 1913
(posted on 29 October 2002 on alt.language.artificial by Richard K. Harrison)

Alphabet of the oligosynthetic aUI language is made of 31 letters. Every letter has a meaning, so it is a kind of morpheme letter. There is not enough morphemes to define compound words precisely. Pronunciation is difficult because there are consonant clusters and because it takes lots of practice to distinguish short vowels from long vowels. More info about the aUI language.

Lojban is one of the most difficult languages to learn. Some words are difficult to pronounce because they have consonant clusters. There are 1350 Lojban morphemes. The morphemes have at least two forms which are 5 letters long and 4 letters long. Some morphemes also have a 3 letter long form. Compound words, which are called lujvo are unpopular because they are very long.

Loglan is similar to Lojban. Its on-line manuals are superior to on-line Lojban manuals.

There are other, rather obscure philosophical languages. George Dalgarno's Art of Signs (Ars Signorum, 1661) was the first book describing a philosophical language. The latest edition of the book was published in 2001 by Oxford University Press. Athanasius Kircher's book about cryptography and a philosophical language, "Polygraphia Nova," was published in 1663. Bishop John Wilkins described another philosophical language in "An Essay Towards a Real Character and a Philosophical Language" in 1688. Dalgarno and Wilkins collaborated for a while, but could not agree on the best way to implement the philosophical language. Dalgarno favored an oligosynthetic language having about 1000 morphemes, while Wilkins choose a taxonomic language having over 4000 morphemes. Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz studied Dalgarno's and Wilkins's work and invented foundations of his own philosophical language. Charles Milton Elam described a language named Oz in a small book, "The Case for an A Priori Language." The book was published in 1932 by the Open Sesame Press in Cincinnati, Ohio. Ilomi, Sona, Dunia, and Ododu are immature oligosynthetic languages. Ilomi has better word parsing than other languages. It is nearly impossible to guess what morphemes make up Sona compound words. Fuishiki Okamoto created a taxonomic language called Babm. it is described in a 140 page book published in April of 1962. John Yench invented a language named Idirl. Any word ending in "v" means a part of the body; "k" means it's an extremity. The "th" means it is very low, and the "ah" refers to a part. Idirl is described in a 144 page book, "A Universal Language for Mankind." The book was published in January 2003 by Writers Club Press.

More info about philosophical languages:
- In the land of invented languages, by Arika Okrent (list of auxlangs)
- Opentopia article about constructed languages
- Wikipedia article about international auxiliary languages
- Richard K. Harrison's Bibliography of Planned Languages
- http://www.glossopoiesis.net/Articles/Glossopoiesis/loglangs.html
- http://www.fuchu.or.jp/~d-logic/en/uni.html
-Umberto Eco's "The search for the perfect language" was reprinted by Blackwell Publishers in 1997.

YGYDE GRAMMAR
updated March 7, 2020

Patrick Hassel-Zein made this file. Andrew Nowicki updated it.

There are currently no actual grammatical rules in Ygyde. Most of the grammar is simply defined by the meanings and use of the words. The general idea is that the order of the words in any phrase is very free, except when dealing with logical prepositions and combinations of the same - more about that later. This means that people with different linguistic backgrounds may construct sentences indifferent ways. The only suggested restrictions are:

• Prepositions and all functional vowels except y are always placed directly before the word or phrase they are referring to.
• Postpositions and the functional vowel y are always placed directly after the phrase or sentence they are referring to.
• Adjectives are placed directly before or after the nouns that these are referring to.
• Adverbs do not exist. Adjectives are used instead of the adverbs.
• If more than one preposition, adjective, or other functional words are referring to one and the same object, verb or similar, there are usually no explicit regulations for the order among the prepositions, adjectives, and so on. Just use common sense!
• If there is a risk for misinterpretation, most situations should be possible to solve with the use of functional vowels.

When speaking Ygyde, you do not need to specify plural or singular forms, temporal forms of verbs or any types of articles unless it is important to clarify details. The interpretation of basic sentences will be depending on the context. Ways to express details such as plural or time of verbs are presented in other sections of this primer.

Ygyde does not have indefinite articles (a, an), but it has two words similar to definite articles: hito (this, that, it), and hisu (they, these, them). English phrase "elephants are big" means that all elephants are big. The same Ygyde phrase (o ysozybo aso) means that most elephants are big. Ygyde phrase ysozybo aso (elephant is big) means that average elephant is big.

Some interpretations of very simple sentences:

• imu ubima hipe = "I see you." (imu = I, me, ubima = to see, hipe = singular you)
• hipe ubima imu = "You see me."
• eju ije hety ubima hifi = "Yesterday he saw her." (literal translation: "Yesterday he saw she.") (eju = yesterday, ije = he, him, hety = past tense, hifi = she)
• hepa ije haca ubima hifi = "Now he does not see her." (hepa = now, haca = false, no, not)
• hito huse ysobe = "That is a green tree." (hito = this, that, it, huse = green, ysobe = tree)
• hito ysobe huse = "That tree is green."
• ije ubima huse ysobe = "He sees a green tree."
• eju heka ije haca hety ubima huse ysobe = "Yesterday evening he did not see a green tree." (heka = evening)
• haca imu eju hety ujyde ygyde = "It is not true that I spoke Ygyde yesterday." (ujyde = to speak, say, talk)
• edy imu ujyde ygyde = "Today I speak Ygyde." (edy = today)
• imu ujyde hasy ygyde = "I talk bad Ygyde." or "I talk bad Ygyde badly." (hasy = bad)

Any sentence may be changed with the phrasal suffixes:
Affirmative sentence: ije uduti o yfodyby hifu = "He is buying bananas." (uduti = to buy, o = plural, yfodyby = banana, hifu = optional last word of an affirmative sentence)
Question: ije uduti o yfodyby hipu = "Is he buying bananas?" (hipu = last word in a general question, to which the answer is expected to be an agreement or disagreement)
Order: uduti o yfodyby hino = "Buy bananas!" (hino = last word of a suggestion or order)

Numbers: Fractions other than those readily defined among the numbers may be expressed with number + olu + number. Expressions including both an integer and a fraction are expressed with the word iwa (meaning "and"). Use the expression "<Integer> iwa <numerator> olu <denominator>".
Example 1: 1/4 is expressed as (hofy) olu owi or hoku if we are talking in octal numbers.
Example 2: 3/4 is becomes hofu olu owi in octal numbers.
Example 3: 3/4 is becomes owy olu owe in decimal numbers.
Example 4: hofo iwa hofu olu owi means "2 and 3/4" in octal numbers.
Ordinal numbers: hope hofu ysobe means "third tree" in octal numbers.

Although there need not be any distinction between singular and plural nouns or pronouns, plural may be specified by adding either a number, iza (more), hika (fewer) or similar prepositions before a noun. It is also possible to specify general and unspecific plural with the letter o.

The functional vowel a (genitive) may often be left out. a may also be referring to an entire phrase situated between e and y.
Example 1: ije uwopy iwa o yboebo = "he dances with wolves". (uwopy = to dance, iwa = with, plus, including, yboebo, ybobebo = wolf)
Example 2: ije (upalu) (a) e uwopy iwa o yboebo y = "he is one who dances with wolves". (upalu = to be, a = genitive, e = left parenthesis, y = right parenthesis)

A phrase of the type (a) e...y may be used as a noun or a name.
Example 1: (a) e uwopy iwa o yboebo y uba = "the one that dances with wolves is white." (uba = white)
This actually says, literally white as in #FFFFFF. Presumably referring to a ghost or skeleton... --Oren
Example 2: huko e uwopy iwa o yboebo y = name of a person who dances with wolves (the word uko indicates foreign name of a person).

The functional vowel i (accusative) is used before objects that take no preposition, but are not the active person in a phrase. This will clarify that the object is not a subject - especially if a phrase is written in straight order (noun followed by verb followed by object). However, this vowel may be left out if the word order is straight.
Example 1: both imu uduti i hito yfodyby and imu uduti hito yfodyby mean "I buy this banana." (hito = this, that, it)
Example 2: i yfodyby imu uduti or even i yfodyby uduti imu means "a banana I buy", i.e. "I buy a banana".
Example 3: hipy yfodyby imu uduti should be interpreted as hipy yfodyby uduti (i) imu, i.e. "the banana buys me"! (hipy = the)

The functional vowel i (accusative) also indicates passive voice: hipy i ylacopy hety icojaci = "the criminal was arrested" (hipy = the, ylacopy = criminal, hety = past tense, icojaci = to arrest)

Use functional vowels whenever the interpretation of a phrase is unclear!
Example 1: hipy haso ycujepy owoajo means nothing more and nothing less than "the big boy helicopter", and must actually be interpreted as "the big boy is a helicopter." (haso = big, ycujepy = boy, owoajo = helicopter)
Example 2: a e haso ycujepy y owoajo, owoajo a e haso ycujepy y both mean "a helicopter of big boy."
Example 3: a ycujepy haso owoajo and haso owoajo a ycujepy both mean "big helicopter of a boy."
Example 4: a haso ycujepy owoajo and ycujepy a haso owoajo both mean "a boy of a big is a helicopter"
Example 5: haso e ycujepy owoajo y and haso ycujepy u owoajo both mean "a big <boy helicopter>", and it is not very clear how this is supposed to be interpreted - possibly as "big boy-helicopter", but then the question is what a "boy-helicopter" might be. This phrase should probably better be changed to haso (e) acujepy owoajo (y) = "big boyish helicopter"- that is still a strange phrase, but the possible interpretation is much more obvious.

Throughout this document, the functional vowels are usually written between parentheses when the vowels may be left out.

Remember that e and y are always used in pairs! Several pairs and even nested pairs may be used in one and the same phrase.

All the prepositional verb modifiers are defined in other tables describing Ygyde. This section describes how the four listed words may be used as verb modifiers. It is quite possible to find further modifiers for other or similar functions... hety followed by verb indicates past tense of that verb. hecu followed by verb indicates future tense of that verb. hepa may be used to explicitly specify present tense of that verb.
Example 1: imu uduti (i) hipy (o) yfodyby = "I buy the bananas."
Example 2: imu hety uduti (i) o yfodyby = "I have bought bananas."
Example 3: imu hecu uduti (i) o yfodyby = "I will buy bananas."
Example 4: imu hepa uduti (i) o yfodyby = "I am buying bananas."
Example 5: o yfodyby ize uduti hiko imu = "Bananas are bought by me." (ize = passive voice, hiko = by)

It is possible to use the construction (a) e...y for passive constructions.

The word ize may be used together with any of the other verb modifiers.
Example: o yfodyby ize hety uduti hiko imu = "Bananas were bought by me."

If neither hety, hecu nor hepa is specified, present tense is likely but it is not taken for granted!
Example: o yfodyby ize uduti hiko imu may be interpreted as "Bananas are bought by me", "Bananas will be bought by me" as well as "Bananas were bought by me!"

upalu = "verb alive abstraction" = "to be, to exist". This verb is not necessary in simple or common phrases where the verb "to be" is required in English. Adjectives and other descriptions of objects may be regarded as "pseudo-verbs". However, this verb is absolutely necessary in some occasions.
Example 1: A phrase such as "that is a giraffe", is simply translated as hito yzyobo ("that giraffe") or hito upalu yzyobo ("That is giraffe"). The more specific phrase hito hepa upalu hofy yzyobo ("That presently is one giraffe") is less suitable, since it implies that we are dealing with some mutating lifeform that currently is a giraffe, but may have been something else before and may turn into something else in a little while.
Example 2: "The giraffe is yellow" is best expressed as yzyobo huco. The phrase yzyobo epa huco means "giraffe now yellow", which may imply that the giraffe wasn't yellow before, and may not remain yellow.
Example 3: "I am a dentist" is expressed as imu yseneco or imu upalu yseneco. The phrase "I am happy to be a dentist" must however be expressed with use of upalu: imu hape upalu yseneco ("I am happy being dentist"), (hape = happy), since imu hape yseneco should be interpreted as "I (am) a happy dentist!"

The English verb "to have" can be used to express many very different actions. Be careful to use the correct translation to Ygyde depending on the context! (upylu = "to have, to own" = "verb owned abstraction", usumo = "to hold" = "verb prolonged fusion") Consider the deeper meaning of the definitions of these verbs in Ygyde when selecting which is most suitable in a given context. In many cases, such as when the verb "to have" is followed by abstract items, it is often best expressed with other verbs.
Example 1: "I have a house" is probably best translated as imu upylu ycyzo ("I own home").
Example 2: "I have a banana" can be expressed as imu upylu yfodyby ("I own banana"), imu usumo yfodyby ("I hold banana"), or yfodyby igi imu ("banana in the same place as me", igi = in the same place).
Example 3: "I have to go" should be phrased as "I must go" or "I am forced to go".
Example 4: "I have a headache" can be expressed as imu usumo obapabu (more or less implying that "I have a prolonged fusion with a headache") or a imu ybapa ibuma ("my head is aching") (usumo = to hold = verb prolonged fusion, obapabu = headache, ybapa = head, ibuma = to ache).
Example 5: "I have an idea" is best expressed with the verb umini = "to have an idea"(corresponding to the noun ymini = "mental path" = "idea")

Prepositions are often used in ways similar to how the corresponding prepositions are used in, for example, English, but you must be careful with the exceptions and restrictions in the definitions of prepositions such as "then", "by", "about" and "and"!

The words ojuju (equal) and ade (different) may be used in expressions such as "at the same time" (ojuju ejo) and "someone else" (ade hypy).

"Too many" is expressed as iba hiki ("above many"),"too few" as hisa ily ("below any").

The words hupu (south), huti (north), ube (west), and uby (east) may be combined with each other to specify diagonal directions such as huti ube = "northwest". Geographic coordinates may be specified by use of yle (unit):owo oge owa yle huti owy oge yle uby = "25 units north, 30 units east. By the way, yle is a very useful word for degrees of anything!
Example 1: hofi yle yzyle = "zero degrees Celsius" -- but it may also be acceptably clear to say hofi yzyle.
Example 2: owy yle oneguby = "three units tea" (to be interpreted as "three cups of tea")
Example 3: owa yle yfodyby = "five units bananas" (this may sound funny in English, but not in Chinese, Swedish or some other languages)
For those that speak Chinese: compare with the generic classifier "ge"!

The words hiky (to) and hite (from) may be used together with preposition that state positions. If the preposition izu (in, inside, into, within) is used alone, it means "to be located in". hiky izu = "into". hite izu = "from the inside". Note, for example, the difference between phrases such as "he is walking in the garden" and "he is walking into the garden"!

The word iwa (and) can only be used to join objects together. The word igy (also) may join phrases. igy may also be used for expressions like "Me too!" igy imu! In most other cases the word "and" is translated as iwa (with).
Example 1: it is OK to say "I and you are buying a house".
Example 2: it is OK to say "We are buying a house and a car".
Example 3: it is not OK to say "We move to Mars and buy a house". The correct way of phrasing the meaning of such a sentence might be "We move to Mars. We also buy a house" (that would call for the word igy (also)!) "We move to Mars. At that time we buy a house" or "We move to Mars. There we will buy a house." The rephrasing will generally cause more logical expressions. The word iwy (or) can only be used to join objects together. The word hina (or) joins phrases only. A phrase such as "apples, bananas and pears" should in Ygyde be expressed with the word iwa (and) between all the nouns.

Words such as "sometime", "anytime", "never", "always", "somewhere", "nowhere", "everywhere", "somebody", "anybody" and so on are translated with the prepositions ily (any), ige (some), iga (nothing, no), ola (a few), hiki (many), hiso (most), or idu (all) followed by a suitable word, such as ejo (time of day), ypy (person), yji (place).

The functional vowels e ... y are very useful to group causes and actions of logical prepositions clearly. This becomes especially useful in long and/or complex statements. However, the e ... y may be excluded from simple statements where the logic is clear - particularly the word "then" may be excluded.
Example 1: ilu (e) hipe uduti (i) o yfodyby (y) iwi (e) imu udugali (i) hisu (y) = "If <you buy bananas>, then <I will borrow them>".
Example 2: ilu haca (e) hipe uduti (i) o yfodyby (y) imu ulati ige = "Unless <you buy bananas>, I will steal some."

Verb forms such as "would", "might" and "definitely" are usually used in logical statements such as "if you give me money then I will/would/might buy a house". The degree of probability in the resulting action may be specified with hica (impossible), hife (unlikely, 25% certain), izy (50% certain), hiku (75% certain), ime (certain), hini (unknown probability)
Example 1: ilu (e) hipe uduti (i) o yfodyby (y) hife (e) imu ulati (i) hisu (y) = "If <you buy bananas>, it is slightly probable that <I steal them>".
Example 2: ilu (e) hipe uduti (i) o yfodyby (y) hiku (e) imu udugali (i) hisu (y) = "If <you buy bananas>, it is most probable that <I borrow them>".

If the answer to a question is expected to be "yes" or "no," the last word of the question is hipu. For example, "are you busy?" can be translated into hipe hano hipu (you busy question), or just hano hipu (busy question).

If the answer to a question is expected to be more elaborate than "yes" or "no," the last word of the question is imi. These detailed questions use the word iwe (what, who, which, whose) to specify what we are asking about. iwe is always placed before the word we are asking about. "When?" becomes iwe ejo (what time of day), "who?" becomes iwe hypy ("what person?") "Why?" becomes iwe opope ("what cause?"), "how many?" becomes iwe olely ("what quantity?"). If the context makes it clear what we are asking about, the entire sentence may have only two words, for example, ejo imi means "what time of day is it now?".

iwe is also used in relative clauses, for example: "I do not know what/which person is missing." It does not transform affirmative sentence into a question, so iwe ejo is not a question, but a phrase meaning "pertaining to a time of day".

The words "when" and "then" in the meaning of "at that time" can be translated into hito ejo (that time, hito = this, that, it, ejo = time of day) in Ygyde.

The words "neither" and "nor" may be expressed as "also not", i.e., igy haca.

Words such as "may", "might", "could" and "should" often mean assumptions, guesses or uncertainty. Such expressions may be expressed with the preposition ili possibly combined with probability words such as hife, izy, hiku hini. The word ili can also be used to express doubt.
Example 1a: ije uduti o yfodyby = "he buys bananas".
Example 1b: ije ili uduti o yfodyby = "he is assumed to be buying bananas".
Example 2a: ilu ije hety uduti o yfodyby iwi imu hife uzuby hisu = "If he has bought bananas, then I may eat them" (chances are around 25%).
Example 2b: ilu ije ili hety uduti o yfodyby iwi imu hife hepa uzuby hisu = "Assuming that he bought bananas, then I might have eaten them."
Example 3a: ije uduti o yfodyby hipu = "Is he buying bananas?"
Example 3b: ili ije uduti o yfodyby hipu = "Could he be buying bananas?"
Example 3c: imu umino ije ili uduti o yfodyby = "I think he may be buying bananas"

Most simple sentences in Ygyde will have structures that do not deviate much from English. More complex phrases may seem complicated for beginners, but phrases written in Ygyde will generally be clearer and cause less risk for misinterpretation. Here is one example of a more complex sentence in Ygyde (with some words marked in bold characters or with underlining to simplify the reading, as well as possible extra use of e ... y marked as < ... >) to illustrate the strengths of the language:

"ilu <hipe hety uduti o yfodyby> hiku <imu hecu udugali hisu>idi igy e igo <izu a imu ofygaza iga yga>hife <imu ulati olu owy a hipe o yfodyby> y hifu"

Literal, word for word translation: "If <you have bought bananas>, it is very probable that <I will borrow them>but also because< I have no money in my purse>, it is slightly probable that <I steal a third of your bananas>> (end of statement)."

Plain English translation: "If you've bought bananas, I will most probably borrow them, but since I have no money in my purse, I might even steal a third of your bananas."

There are two possible ways to write foreign names in Ygyde.

• Use the most suitable word among hupi, ugi, huki, uwo, uwu, uwi, hufo, uzo, uzu, followed by a transcription letter by letter. Use double letters when letters are not available in the Ygyde alphabet.
  Examples: "Patrick" --> "hupi patl|ick", "Shanghai" --> "ugi sf|angf|ai", "whiskey" --> "huki wf|iskey."
  
• Use the most suitable word among hupi, ugi, huki, uwo, uwu, uwi, hufo, uzo, uzu, followed by a phonetical estimation of how you pronounce the name.
  Examples: "Andrew" --> "hupi andlu", "Beijing" --> "ugi beijin", "pizza" --> "uzu pitsa."

  There are two ways to make superlatives in Ygyde; either the adjective follows the word hiki (many, very), or a special adjective is made of two identical syllables from the adjective table. Example of the latter way: very bad = asysyli == asysli = "adjective bad bad."