Demlang

**Demlang** (Demlang: **Snehék Blad**, Esperante: **Demlingvo**, also known as the **Democratic Conlang**)is the constructed language that is being created by the Democratic Conlang Facebook group.

## Type of language

The demlang defies most categorizations given to a conlang, despite its type being a frequently asked question. The best way to categorize the language is as an experimental collablang whose creation process is based on the principles of democracy. The language features of the demlang are determined by a voting process as enforced by the group's Constitution. There is no singular aim for the demlang.

## Creators

While every organizer and participating voter can be seen as a contributor to the demlang's creation, the recognized creators are those people whose language features successfully entered the language.

## Proposals Passed

*see Voting History*

The following proposals have won in ordinary ballots and therefore have entered the language:

* Vowel System: 3 Short & 3 Long
* Syllable Structure: Long/Short
* Consonant Inventory: 4\*3+h=13
* Intonation System: anytime, anyhow, anywhere
* Romanization: Dýmlanh
* Writing Systems: Qaniujaaqpait and Teletubbies
* Typesetting Rules:  Germañol and Relatively European
* Word Classes: FLEXIBLE
* Homophony/Synonymy: Who cares?!
* Word Rules: I got rhythm
* Word Order: Leave it for later
* Transliteration: Original Transliteration guide!
* Classifier (subsequently Nouns) Declension: Classifiers as articles
* Auxiliary (subsequently Verbs) Conjugation: Default Present, imperfect, active
* Pronouns: Systematic
* Auxiliaries (subsequently Verbs): Yin/Yan
* Postpositions: Dimensions
* Conjunctions: Stories and Logic
* Commands: prospective+! = command
* Interrogations: Simple & Logical

The lexicon of the demlang is built using the Base Vocabulary Voting System. Please see the Jús Demlang Dictionary at http://tinyurl.com/demlangdict.

For a most up-to-date list of proposals won, please see the Winning Proposals Repository at https://goo.gl/9yPAHU.

## Phonology and Phonotactics

### Phonology

#### Vowels

Based on the 3 Short & 3 Long proposal, The Phonemic vowels and their respective allophonic variations are as follows:

a, a:, u, u:, i, i:

#### Consonants

Based on the 4\*3+h=13 proposal, The Phonemic consonants and their respective allophonic variations are as follows:

f,∅,j,k,p,m,n,s,t,ʃ,ŋ,w,l

### Phonotactic and Word Structure Constraints

Developed from the Long/Short proposal, The following Phonotactic and word structure constraints apply:

(C)(C)V(C\*)

Word Structure Constraints:

* No Consonant cluster directly before a hiatus

* Only final syllable of a word can take a coda consonant (\*)
* Maximum of one Hiatus/Double Hiatus OR long vowel per word
* Vowels are always preceded by a consonant except when they form hiatus with a following vowel, where it becomes optional.

Cluster Rules:

* Nasals can be followed by Approximants, Fricatives, and Stops.
* Stops can be followed by Approximants, Fricatives, and other Stops
* Fricatives can be followed by Nasals, Stops and Approximants
* Approximants cannot be followed by anything.
* Other consonants cannot cluster
* Double Consonants are geminate consonants

### Stress Rules

Based on the Anyhow, anytime, anywhere proposal.

Stress is marked, with the stress falling on any syllable decided on a word by word basis.

### Summarising chart

In summary, the vowels, consonants, and consonant clusters in the following chart are allowed in Dýmlanh:

## Orthography and Romanization

#### Typesetting

Based off a Glass conclave between relatively european and germañol proposals.

Nouns and the first word of each sentence receive capitalization to the first letter. Quotation use double quotes ("), Question marks and Exclamation marks can be singular at the end, or optionally be combined with their respective inverted marks at the start of the sentence as well. an apostrophe ' can be used when writing acute accents is unavailable. periods, commas, hyphens, parenthesis and colons are all acceptable punctuation. with the oxford comma being preferred.

### Kénjo/Inuktitut Orthography

Based on the Qaniujaaqpait Proposal

A period ( . ) is used to mark stress so a colon ( : ) is used to mark a period. An apostrophe ( ' ) is used to break hiati.

### Dylydébis/Original Orthography

Based on the Teletubbies (Dylydébis) Proposal

Dylydébis is a syllabary constructed specially for Demlang according to its syllable structure. The name comes from its appearance as circle-like vowels with antenna-like consonants connected on top. In Dylydébis, each syllable corresponds to a circle or hook, and words are separated by spaces.

#### **Vowels**

A circle represents a stressed syllable while a hook represents an unstressed syllable. The vowels /a/, /i/, /u/ are represented by a vertical stroke, a horizontal stroke, and a dot, respectively, according to the shape of the lips. Long vowels are written by doubling the short vowels.

 Stressed syllable

## Morphological Typology

based on the FLEXIBLE proposal

A majority Isolating language, with possible Fusional (i.e combined) inflection on classifiers and adpositions.

## Parts of Speech (Word Classes)

based on the FLEXIBLE proposal, and the I got rhythm word rules proposal.

**Poly-morphs** - Combination of Adjectives and Adverbs. A single Poly-morph can be paired with a verb or noun classifier to express more complex nouns and verbs than the nouns and verbs can express alone. do not inflect. 2-5 syllables in length.

**Noun classifiers** - a closed class of 'basic nouns' which must be paired with polymorphs. 1-2 syllables, must end in a vowel. Noun classifiers inflect for number, and definiteness, see suffixes below:

 **Non-Singular:** | -dy

**verb classifiers (auxiliary verbs)** - Basic verbs to which can be paired with polymorphs to express more complex verbs. can inflect. 1-2 syllables, must end in a vowel.

(**Noun/verb classifier inflections)** - In form of suffixes which must start with a consonant and contain no long vowel, hiatus or stress

**ad-positions** - words which convey grammatical relationships between words like case etc. do not inflect. 1 syllable with a short vowel.

**Pronouns** - words that can function in place of a noun or for a participants of the discourse. do not inflect. 1 syllable with a long vowel.

**Conjunctions** - words that join phrases together. do not inflect. 1 syllable with a short vowel.