Fith: Difference between revisions
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{| | {{se inspekte/en}} | ||
|colspan="2" bgcolor="#ffeeee" align="center" |'''Fith''' | {| class=wikitable style="margin: 0 0 1em 1em; float: right;" | ||
| colspan="2" bgcolor="#ffeeee" align="center" |'''Fith''' | |||
|- | |- | ||
|valign="top"|Spoken in: | | valign="top" |Spoken in: | ||
||Planet Fithia | ||Planet Fithia | ||
|- | |- | ||
|valign="top"| | | valign="top" |Basic word order: | ||
|| stack-based | || stack-based | ||
|- | |- | ||
|valign="top"| | | valign="top" |Morphological type: | ||
|| isolating | || isolating | ||
|- | |- | ||
| colspan="2" bgcolor="#ffeeee" align="center" |'''Created by:''' | |||
|colspan="2" bgcolor="#ffeeee" align="center" |'''Created by:''' | |||
|- | |- | ||
||Jeffrey Henning ||1997-2005 | ||Jeffrey Henning ||1997-2005 | ||
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Consider the sentence '''zhong hong lin lo rumn shkrung e''' 'The loyal man of the nation deactivates the robot'. The first word, the noun '''zhong''', is pushed onto the stack: | Consider the sentence '''zhong hong lin lo rumn shkrung e''' 'The loyal man of the nation deactivates the robot'. The first word, the noun '''zhong''', is pushed onto the stack: | ||
{|class="wikitable" | {| class="wikitable" | ||
|- | |- | ||
| '''zhong''' | | '''zhong''' | ||
| 'nation' | | ''nation'' | ||
|- | |- | ||
|} | |} | ||
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The second is also a noun which is likewise pushed onto the stack: | The second is also a noun which is likewise pushed onto the stack: | ||
{|class="wikitable" | {| class="wikitable" | ||
|- | |- | ||
| '''hong''' | | '''hong''' | ||
| 'man' | | ''man'' | ||
|- | |- | ||
| '''zhong''' | | '''zhong''' | ||
| 'nation' | | ''nation'' | ||
|- | |- | ||
|} | |} | ||
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The next word, '''lin''', is an adjective. This results in the top item being modified: | The next word, '''lin''', is an adjective. This results in the top item being modified: | ||
{|class="wikitable" | {| class="wikitable" | ||
|- | |- | ||
| '''hong lin''' | | '''hong lin''' | ||
| 'loyal man' | | ''loyal man'' | ||
|- | |- | ||
| '''zhong''' | | '''zhong''' | ||
| 'nation' | | ''nation'' | ||
|- | |- | ||
|} | |} | ||
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The fourth word, '''lo''' 'of', is a postposition which pops the two top elements from the stack and pushes a modified noun phrase onto it: | The fourth word, '''lo''' 'of', is a postposition which pops the two top elements from the stack and pushes a modified noun phrase onto it: | ||
{|class="wikitable" | {| class="wikitable" | ||
|- | |- | ||
| '''zhong hong lin lo''' | | '''zhong hong lin lo''' | ||
| 'loyal man of the nation' | | ''loyal man of the nation'' | ||
|- | |- | ||
|} | |} | ||
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The next word is a noun which is pushed onto the stack: | The next word is a noun which is pushed onto the stack: | ||
{|class="wikitable" | {| class="wikitable" | ||
|- | |- | ||
| '''rumn''' | | '''rumn''' | ||
| 'robot' | | ''robot'' | ||
|- | |- | ||
| '''zhong hong lin lo''' | | '''zhong hong lin lo''' | ||
| 'loyal man of the nation' | | ''loyal man of the nation'' | ||
|- | |- | ||
|} | |} | ||
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This is followed by a verb, in this case a transitive one, which takes two arguments and combines them into a clause that is placed on the stack: | This is followed by a verb, in this case a transitive one, which takes two arguments and combines them into a clause that is placed on the stack: | ||
{|class="wikitable" | {| class="wikitable" | ||
|- | |- | ||
| '''zhong hong lin lo rumn shkrung''' | | '''zhong hong lin lo rumn shkrung''' | ||
| 'The loyal man of the nation deactivates the robot' | | ''The loyal man of the nation deactivates the robot'' | ||
|- | |- | ||
|} | |} | ||
Latest revision as of 08:59, 27 February 2015
 | The formatting of this page has been checked for following the guidelines of le uitki. |
| Fith | |
| Spoken in: | Planet Fithia |
| Basic word order: | stack-based |
| Morphological type: | isolating |
| Created by: | |
| Jeffrey Henning | 1997-2005 |
Fith is a stack-based alien language invented by Jeffrey Henning. It is spoken by centauroid sapient marsupials on the planet Fithia.
LIFO Grammar
The grammar of Fith is based on a stack, which operates by the LIFO principle: last in, first out. Like, for instance, a stack of cards on which you can put a card on the top, or remove a card from the top.
Consider the sentence zhong hong lin lo rumn shkrung e 'The loyal man of the nation deactivates the robot'. The first word, the noun zhong, is pushed onto the stack:
| zhong | nation |
The second is also a noun which is likewise pushed onto the stack:
| hong | man |
| zhong | nation |
The next word, lin, is an adjective. This results in the top item being modified:
| hong lin | loyal man |
| zhong | nation |
The fourth word, lo 'of', is a postposition which pops the two top elements from the stack and pushes a modified noun phrase onto it:
| zhong hong lin lo | loyal man of the nation |
The next word is a noun which is pushed onto the stack:
| rumn | robot |
| zhong hong lin lo | loyal man of the nation |
This is followed by a verb, in this case a transitive one, which takes two arguments and combines them into a clause that is placed on the stack:
| zhong hong lin lo rumn shkrung | The loyal man of the nation deactivates the robot |
Finally, the stack conjunction e finishes the sentence and pops it from the stack. As long as the e is not uttered, the sentence is still "under construction".
Stack conjunctions
But that is not all. There are numerous stack conjunctions by which a Fith speaker can manipulate the stack.
| Form | Meaning |
|---|---|
| nyun | Placeholder, used with several stack conjunctions. |
| drumh | Combines everything above the last nyun into an 'and' series ('X, Y, and Z'). |
| tuumnh | Combines everything above the last nyun into an 'either-or' series ('one of X, Y, and Z'). |
| dwoumnh | Combines everything above the last nyun into an 'neither-nor' series ('none of X, Y, and Z'). |
| du | Duplicates the top stack item. |
| kuu | Duplicates the top two stack items. |
| voi | Copies the second-from-top stack item to the top. |
| dzhi | Copies the stack item above nyun to the top of the stack. |
| shen | Swaps the top two stack items. |
| ronh | Rotates the top three stack items, with the third-from-top item moving to the top. |
| lonh | Rotates the top three stack items in the opposite direction. |
| frong | Drops the top stack item. |
| bom | Removes the second-from-top stack item. |
| skuunh | Clears the whole stack. |
| e | Removes the top item as a sentence. |
| i | Removes the top item as a sentence introducing detail (':'). |
| o | Removes the top item as a question. |
| u | Removes the top item as an exclamation. |
| strunh | Reminds the listener of how deep his stack should be. (The top item must be a numeral.) |
Lingering
A common rhetoric device in Fith is lingering. Items are placed on the stack and not used until much later. It is, for instance, possible to utter sentences in reverse order, or to duplicate a noun phrase and return to it after uttering many sentences in which it is not used.
Shallow Fith
Shallow Fith is a human-usable proper subset of Fith which eliminates most stack conjunctions and disallows lingering. It was created by Jörg Rhiemeier.