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===Morphosyntactic Alignment===
The [[wikipedia:Morphosyntactic_alignment|morphosyntactic alignment]] of Lortho is [[wikipedia:Nominative-accusative_language|Nominative - Accusative]].
===Word Order===
The basic word order is [[wikipedia:Verb-subject-object|Verb-Subject-Object]] (VSO). Lortho contains a lot of information in the verb and the noun or noun phrase. The verb is conjugated by person and gender and thus pronouns are largely unnecessary except for emphasis or clarification. The nouns are altered to denote case, greatly diminishing the need for prepositions. In addition, below are the basic syntax rules for word order:
#The word order changes to Subject-Verb-Object only in the vocative case.
#Adjectives are placed '''''before''''' the noun.
#*Ordinal numbers are treated as adjectives (see below regarding [[#Word_Agreement|word agreement]])
#Adverbs are placed '''''after''''' the verb.
#Interrogatives (who, what, et al) are placed '''''before''''' the verb.
#The question marker (represented in the Leipzig Glossing Rules as '''Q''') is placed at the '''''beginning''''' of the sentence to denote a question.
===Constituent order===
===Noun phrase===
===Verb phrase===
===Sentence phrase===
===Dependent clauses===
<!-- etc. etc. -->
===Word Agreement===
<!-- Template area -->
<!--===Word Order===
In Lortho, the word order is verb, (subject), object. Lortho contains a lot of information in the verb and the noun or noun phrase. The verb is conjugated by person and gender and thus pronouns are unnecessary except for emphasis. The nouns are altered to denote case, removing almost entirely the need for prepositions.-->
There are four basic rules which govern agreement between words:
#Verbs must agree in gender and number with the subject (explicit or implied)
# Cardinal numbers do not take case nor gender
#Nouns are not pluralized when counted
#* <code>'''kilikh-in &nbsp;&nbsp;kansaphu-ne-me'''</code><br /><code>see &nbsp;&nbsp;-1MSG tree.F &nbsp;-PL-ACC</code><br />''I see trees''
#* <code>'''kilikh-in &nbsp;&nbsp;bon kansaphu-me'''</code><br /><code>see &nbsp;&nbsp;-1MSG two tree.F &nbsp;-ACC</code><br />''I see two trees (lit: I see two tree)''
#[[Main_Page#Adjectives|Adjectives]] must agree with the noun which they modify in gender, but not in grammatical case nor number
==Example texts==
==Example texts==

Revision as of 09:20, 13 April 2018

Spoken in: Lamona Continent
Conworld: Dhamashi, a circumbinary planet
Total Speakers: ~ 60,000,000
Genealogical classification: Proto-Lamona
   - Old Lortho
      - Lortho
         - ?
Basic word order: Verb-Subject-Object
Morphological Type: Agglutinating
Morphosyntactic Alignment: Nominative-Accusative
Created by:
Brian Bourque Conceived in 2003
Manifested in March 2016


Lortho (IPA:[ˈloɾ·tʰo]) is an a priori constructed language I conceived in the beginning of 2003. It originally started as a prop for a strategy board game where only the script was created for aesthetics. It is an agglutinating language with some minor fusional aspects.

The people (Kalanune) who speak Lortho live on Dhamashi, a circumbinary planet which has two natural satellites. The planet's surface has many similarities to Earth where it has oceans, mountains, deserts, and forests. The planet has three major continents: Mashonu, Kashti, and Lamona. The Kalanune live on Lamona.


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A friend was creating a board game similar to Risk; however, instead of taking place on Earth, this new game was to take place on an inter-planetary scale. The game creator wanted to develop an extraterrestrial theme and requested a fictional script. The name of the race on this game is "Lortho" and thus the seed was planted. I was unable to work on this piece for quite sometime until I joined the CONLANG mailing list and observed both seasoned and novice conlangers discussing all aspects of linguistics. Since then I decided to move forward and bring Lortho into fruition. The language itself was not invented until the spring of 2016.

Much of the language stems from the languages that I know, namely Persian, French, and Korean. Although the language is a priori, much of its construction resembles that of an Indo-European flavor; albeit unintentionally. The phonology is largely inspired by Persian (Farsi) in that each letter is strictly pronounced regardless of their position in the the syllable/word. The agglutinating aspect of the language was largely influenced by Korean; however, the cases were inspired by both Hungarian and Finnish. The orthography was inspired by Central/East Asian orthographies which is further expounded below.

Another source of inspiration is my daughter. Through her development of learning how to make speech sounds leading to coherent speech and communication, she "created" words to communicate her wants and needs. Some of these words found their way into the Lortho lexicon.

Want to learn more? Then let's get down to business!

Etymology of Lortho

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Lortho is a combination of Lor, the god from which their story of life stems, and -tho, the inalienable form for the genitive case. It has since become a noun and can take other case endings (e.g. konpharin lorthome - I speak Lortho-ACC).

The mountain whence Lor is said to originate is called Malhi Dharakhi, "Great Mountain," and is located in the coastal mountain range on the west coast of Lamona.


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The goal is to create the gradual progression of Lortho which will lead to the development of daughter languages and, eventually, create sister languages which have developed on different parts of the planet.





Example texts

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Grammar Samples

Examples of grammatical case, verb conjugation, and word order.

Nominative Case

  • thomid-a kansaptha
    live-3NSG forest.N
    The forest lives

Accusative Case

  • kilikh-in hin kansaptha-me
    see-1MSG PN.1MSG forest.N-ACC
    I see the forest

Dative Case

  • madhid-ikh-in hin ikhi dhammu-me i-mela
    give-PST-1MSG PN.1MSG chair-ACC PN.3MSG-DAT
    I gave a chair to him

Genitive Case

  • madhid-ikh-in hin ikhi dhalannu-me ni-dhammu-nalo u-mela
    give-PST-1MSG PN.1MSG one leg.F-ACC POSS.1MSG-chair-GEN PN.3FSG-DAT
    I gave a leg of my chair to her.

Sublative Case

  • kaura lharid-ikh-annu kansaptha-dan?
    Q run-PST-2FPL forest.F-SUBL
    Did you run into the forest?

Ablative Case

  • lharid-ikh-un-i-an kansaptha-nat
    run-PST-1MPL-PROG forest.F-ABL
    We were running out of the forest

Allative Case

  • kaura malar lharid-in-unan numa-dharati-dan?
    Q why run-PFV-1FPL POSS.1FPL-house.M-ALL
    Why have we run towards our house?

Prolative Case

  • lharid-in-i toshani kansaptha-danar
    run-PFV-3MSG dragon.M forest-PROL
    The dragon has run through the forest


  • bilar-ikh-amin nani-dharati-me noima-len
    build-PST-2MPL POSS.2MPL-house-ACC wood.N-INST
    You built your house with (using) wood


  • fa-toshani, dha-tumed-anni nukhimo hin-eme!
    VOC-dragon, NEG-able-2MSG destroy.INF PN.1MSG-ACC
    O dragon, you cannot destroy me!

Writing Samples

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Sample Text
Text Translation
konpharin lorthome I speak Lortho
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Lortho Sample
Text Translation
kalanune denimanimu kalanune khonaminalo
hana tomidikhimu ma kansapthaina
The people are known as people of the
lanterns and they lived in that forest.
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Longer Sample
Text Translation
lharidikhin kansapthanat hana tharnidikhin
dharakhime. konpharinin toshanimela hana
semanikhin, "hankhanin malhiro
danadanar1." remedikhi toshani,
"dhamalhirianni danadanar."
I ran out of the forest and climbed the mountain.
I was speaking to the dragon and said, "I want
to walk through here." The dragon replied,
"You will not walk through here."
Source: Brian's Instagram post

1This has been recently changed to -dar to reduce multi-syllabic affixes.


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   The Unlucky Fox

Click to see the translation and gloss  
shadar lharane dasat dharakhinat harlikhi nuphi.
khabalikhi nuphi dalhotamekhon dhaharlikha halhadar a.
kilikhikhi ikhi molha kansapume.
harlikha dirdhalama lidalhota mokansapoina.
khar khesikhi nuphi kansapume denalikhu kansapu lukhothume hana tushadikhu khashume nuphinalo.
tharikhu bonhan monu saurammu thasame nuphinalo.
ˈʃɑ.dɑɾ lhɑ.ˈɾɑ.nɛ ˈdɑ.sɑt dʰɑ.ˈɾɑ.kʰi.nɑt ˈhɑɾ.li.kʰi ˈnu.pʰi
kʰɑ.ˈbɑl.ikʰ.i ˈnu.pʰi dɑl.ˈho.tɑ.mɛ.kʰon dʰɑ.ˈhɑɾ.li.kʰɑ ˈhɑl.hɑ.dɑɾ ɑ
ki.ˈli.kʰi.kʰi ˈi.kʰi ˈmol.hɑ kɑn.ˈsɑ.pu.mɛ
ˈhɑɾ.li.kʰɑ diɾ.dʰɑ.ˈlɑ.mɑ li.dɑl.ˈho.tɑ mo.kɑn.ˈsɑ.pɔɪ.nɑ. kʰɑɾ ˈkʰɛ.si.kʰi ˈnu.pʰi kɑn.ˈsɑ.pu.mɛ dɛ
ˈnɑ.li.kʰu kɑn.ˈsɑ.pu lu.ˈkʰo.tʰu.mɛ ˈhɑ.nɑ tu.ˈʃɑ.di.kʰu ˈkʰɑ.ʃu.mɛ ˈnu.pʰi.nɑlo
ˈtʰɑ.ɾi.kʰu ˈbon.hɑn ˈmo.nu saʊ.ˈɾɑm.mu ˈtʰɑ.sɑ.mɛ ˈnu.pʰi.nɑ.lo
Leipzig Gloss:
shadar  lhara-ne dasat      dharakhi  -nat harl-ikh-i    nuphi
ago.ADV year -PL beyond.ADV mountain.M-ABL be  -PST-3MSG fox.M
Once upon a time, there was the fox
khabal-ikh-i    nuphi dalhota-me -khon dha-harl-ikh-a    halhadar a
search-PST-3MSG fox.M food.N -ACC-but  NEG-be  -PST-3NSG much.ADJ PN.3NSG
The fox searched for food, but there was not much of it
kilikh-ikh-i    ikhi molha  kansapu-me
see   -PST-3MSG one  huge-N tree.N -ACC
It saw a huge tree
harl-ikh-a    dir     -dhalam-a li          -dalhota mo   -kansapo-ina
be  -PST-3NSG SUPERL  -good  -N PN.POSS.3MSG-food.N  that -tree.F -SUBL
Its favorite food was in that tree
khar khes   -ikh-i    nuphi kansapu-me  denal-ikh-u    kansapu lu          -khothu-me  hana tushad-ikh-u    khashu-me  nuphi-nalo
when scratch-PST-3MSG fox.M tree.F -ACC close-PST-3FSG tree.F  PN.POSS.3FSG-wall.F-ACC and  bury  -PST-3FSG head.F-ACC fox.M-GEN
When the fox scratched the tree, the tree closed its wall (here it means bark) and buried (trapped) the fox's head
thar-ikh-u    bonhan mon  -u saurammu thasa -me  nuphi-nalo
eat -PST-3FSG twenty other-F animal.F head.N-ACC fox.M-GEN
Twenty other animals ate the fox's body

I know this story is a little morbid; however, I was compelled to write a backstory as to why in Lorthoan culture calling someone a "fox" is considered derogatory, as in someone who is utterly unlucky or who has amassed misfortune.
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Endangered Alphabets - YouTube channel about 14 of the world's writing systems threatened with extinction
International Phonetic Alphabet
Glossika Phonics - YouTube channel for IPA pronunciation
NativLang - YouTube channel about the history of written and spoken language
Online Etymology Dictionary (English)
Reddit: Linguistics
Wikitongues - A not for profit YouTube project to help preserve the world's living languages
World Atlas of Language Structures (WALS)

Constructed Languages

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Conlang Atlas of Language Structures (CALS)
Conlang Bulletin Board (CBB)
Conlang Critic - A YouTube vlogger who offers insight on conlangs
Conlang Mailing List
Conlang Relay Museum on CALS
Conlanging on Wikibooks
ConWorkShop - an online one-stop-shop for cataloging your conlang
Fiat Lingua - an online archive of conlang articles
How to design your own script (on CBB)
Language Creation Society (LCS)
LCS on YouTube
Reddit: Conlangs
Reddit: Neography (Constructed Scripts)
Speculative Grammarian - A satirical periodical on linguistics and conlangery
Zompist Bulletin Board (ZBB)


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Lortho on CALS
Lortho in the 24th Conlang Relay (8th Position)
Lortho on ConWorkShop
Lortho on FrathWiki
Lortho Lexicon
Lortho's writing progress - Lextreme2018 Challenge on Instagram
Lortho on Instagram
The World of Dhamashi (CBB)
The World of Dhamashi (Conworlds.fun)
Lortho website (teaser)


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Sajem Tan (Common Honey) Collaborative Conlang Discord Server
Brian on Instagram


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