Moten
Facts
- Language: Moten
- Created: 1993
- Alternate names:
- Language code:
- Language family: fictional language
- Script:
A constructed language by Christophe Grandsire.
Moten is unique not in its features but in the way it combines them. It has number, case and definition marked on nouns, but those are basically marked by a combination of infixes and suffixes. Each case is intrinsically trisemic, having an abstract, a spatial or a temporal meaning, depending on context (two prefixes can be used to disambiguate). It also inflects only the last part of a noun phrase. Verb conjugations rely heavily on analytical forms (in fact, only the verbs |agem|: to have and |atom|: to be have actually conjugated forms - and only five - and all other verbs are conjugated by added nominal forms of them to the conjugated forms of those auxiliaries). It also uses overdeclination (the declination of an already declined form) quite often, both with nouns and verbs (it's the main way to create subclauses).
Language sources: The use of overdeclination, declination marked only on the last part of the noun phrase, principally analytical verbal conjugations and SOV order make it clear that Basque was a strong inspiration. But the inspiration is confined to those features only, and the rest is not (at least consciously) inspired by any other language.
None as far as I recall, except to appeal to my sense of aesthetics of that time when I designed the language.
Nope. I'm sole inventor.