esikosa language

esikosa grammar

classes

in order to create a noun from a verb, a set of suffixes exists. in the following, we will use the verb 'siko' (to speak) for all the exemples, unless differently specified.

-ka tool
-ti creature
-pu natural phenomenon
-no person
-le thing, part, way
-sa astraction
-lu light, aster, spirit
-ta time, place
-ni grammatical class

so, if 'siko' means "to speak", 'sikosa' means "astraction related to speak". this can seems quite strange, but things will become clearer as we'll examine the status prefixes. the last "grammatical" class is used to create special words dealing with secondary sentences construction.

status

a- doing the action
e- allowing the action
i- being the object of the action
o- being an obstacle for the action
u- being the action

now, we know that 'sikosa' is an astraction who deals with the speaking action. adding the 'e-' prefix we define an "astraction allowing one to speak", that is, a language. this is the name of this language, too. We said before what is the use of the -ni ending. For exemple, in order to say "if", you actually have to say "the syntactical words acting as an assumption": so, "unopeni". The "u-" affix is used when no othe ore really fits.

exemples

you'll probably be confused, so here's a littel list of exemples using status and class affixes. you'll note that the resulting words are anything but clearly defined. esikosa has been invented in order to allow a 'vague poetical message' rather than a regular and indefinitely precise subdivision of the semantical continuum.

  • elaluka - e lalu ka - a tool permitting to fight - 'weapon'
  • epolaka - e pola ka - a tool permitting to scream - 'megaphone'?
  • otutipu - o tuti pu - a natural phenomenon opposing the action to remember - 'alzheimer'?

prepositions

la nominative (subject)
nu accusative (dirct object)
ko ablative (from...)
te dative (to, towards...)
pa genitive ('s, of...)
po instrumental (by, with...))
pe space/time 1 (before)
so space/time 1 (after)
ki space/time 1 (over)
ta space/time 1 (under)
pi space/time 1 (near)

prepositions work as in english: they help determine how exactly the noun they refer to is working with the verb. The "ablative" is not multi-potent as the correspondent latin case, and its use is similar to the use finnish people make of it.


As a little final game, here is a brief sentence in esikosa: if you have serious social problems, you may find it amusing to try translate it. It is a moral teaching by a french mystic, Francois de Sales.

unopeni la anisole nilo, ulikuni nu isikole saka, asitota nu isikole pule, upokoni pu apeseno.