Ludiréo Лудирео

or Eklektu 2000

What is it?

Ludiréo, or Eklektu 2000, is the latest incarnation of Eklektu, a language which borrows its vocabulary from a growing number of both natural and constructed languages. Compared to the previous version, Eklektu 96, Ludiréo has an expanded phonology and a grammar derived more from natural languages. One of the original goals of Eklektu was to be able to distinguish between different meanings of a word by borrowing the "same" word from many different languages. As often happens when words are borrowed from one language into another, the original meaning of a word is not necessarily a good guide to the meaning of the borrowed word. This is especially true when borrowing from unfamiliar languages. As Eklektu has grown, and the new goal of representing a wider diversity of languages has taken precedence over the older goals, this distortion will become more of an issue. For these reasons, the Ludiréo dictionary will need to have more precise definitions.

The name Ludiréo, meaning "world language", is derived from Basque "ludi" and Maori "reo". These two languages were chosen because they are spoken on opposite sides of the world, and also because they are commonly neglected in conlangs.

Pronunciation

Ludiréo has two standard spellings: Roman and Cyrillic. Other alphabets may also be used, as illustrated here by the Ljoerr and Shaw alphabets.

Roman Cyrillic Ljoerr Shaw sound English (or other language) equivalents
' ъ ? G ʔ (glottal stop)
a а A y a аs in "aardvark"
ä я a A æ аs in "cat"
b б b b b аs in "bat"
c ш S S ʃ аs in "shark"
d д d d d аs in "dog"
e е e e ɛ аs in "elephant"
ë э 8 u ə аs in "muskrat"
f ф f f f аs in "finch"
g г g g ɡ аs in "gorilla"
h h h h h аs in "horse"
i и i I ɪ аs in "deer"
ï ы W i ɨ similar to Russian ы or Korean 으.
j ж Z Z ʒ аs in "azure-winged magpie"
k к k k k аs in "skunk"
l л l l l аs in "leopard"
m м m m m аs in "mouse"
n н n n n аs in "nighthawk"
ñ њ N N ŋ аs in "skunk"
o о o O ɔ аs in "boar"
ö ё 0 D œ German ö
p п p p p аs in "spider"
q ѓ G H ɣ voiced equivalent of "x"
r р r r r аs in "rabbit"
s с s s s аs in "snake"
t т t t t аs in "stingray"
u у u M u аs in "rook"
ü ю y V y German ü
v в v v v аs in "vulture"
w ў w w w аs in "wallaby"
x х x T x аs in "Gila monster" (Spanish "j" or German "ch")
y й j j j аs in "yak"
z з z z z аs in "zebra"
Note that in the Cyrillic script, "ѓ" should really be "ғ", but "ѓ" is the closest equivalent in the commonly available fonts. Since the Cyrillic equivalent of "h" (which is "һ") is not available in most fonts, the Latin "h" may be substituted (only in lower case!). Also, the Cyrillic characters џ, ѕ, ч, and ц may be used as abbreviations of дж, дз, тш, and тс (respectively).

Syntax

Unlike older versions of Eklektu, Ludiréo syntax is based on word order, without explicit marking of noun cases. The basic syntax was originally patterned after Mandarin Chinese, although constructions from other languages are also used as appropriate.

Ludiréo has four main classes of words: nouns (including pronouns), verbs (transitive, intransitive, and auxiliary), modifiers (articles and adverbs), and conjunctions. Auxiliary verbs are similar to transitive verbs except that they take another verb (which may have a subject and an object along with it) as the object. Intransitive verbs double as adjectives, and transitive verbs double as prepositions. The basic word order in a transitive sentence is SVO, even in questions, although other word orders are possible with the use of conjunctions.

Modifiers (including adjectives and prepositional phrases) either precede the word they modify, or come at the end of a phrase (in which case they modify the entire phrase). A noun may directly modify another noun to form a compound (such as "desert mouse" for "gerbil"). Verbs can modify nouns or other verbs, but nouns can only modify nouns directly. A phrase of indefinite length (optionally beginning with an article or preposition) can be made into a modifier by following it with the particle dë.

The overall structure of a phrase is built by using articles and conjunctions in different combinations. Conjunctions come in pairs, such as "both ... and ..." or "if ... then ...", although the first conjunction of a pair may be omitted if no ambiguity would result from its omission.

Vocabulary

Ludiréo words are generally borrowed from a phonemic or phonetic spelling of words from other languages, rather than a morphophonemic or orthographic spelling. For instance, the Finnish word lapsi ("child") is borrowed phonemically as lapsi, rather than the morphological stem form lapse-. Chinese words are borrowed phonetically, since Chinese phonemes are controversial; for example, the word that was wen in Eklektu (from Chinese 问 wèn, "ask", pronounced [wə̂n] is wën in Ludiréo. For simplicity, Ludiréo "voiceless" and "voiced" stops may correspond to aspirated and unaspirated stops, as in Chinese and many other languages. Other minor differences between actual pronunciation and Ludiréo spelling may occur in borrowings from other languages, but the corresponding sounds in each language are intended to be as regular as possible (unlike Eklektu, which was more haphazard).

Differences from Eklektu 96

Besides the grammar, which is entirely new in Ludiréo, the vocabulary has also undergone some changes since Eklektu 96. Differences in vocabulary fall into one of these categories:

New words. Many new words from various languages have been added in the last few years. Examples include alag "apart", from Hindi अलग alag; cüe "to learn", from Chinese 學 xué; gmiri "hero", from Georgian გმირი gmiri; and haku "hot", from Guaraní haku.

Reassigned words. Many Eklektu 96 words from over-represented Indo-European languages have been replaced with words from less common languages. Examples include djina "foot", from Jirrbal jina (formerly pod from the stem of Greek πους pus); elma "apple", from Turkish elma (formerly pom from French pomme) inti "sun", from Quechua inti (formerly sol from Spanish sol); and tcim "bird", from Vietnamese chim (formerly orn from Greek ορνις ornis). Also, from time to time a word from a different language may be substituted to avoid conflicts with other words, or for reasons that are essentially arbitrary.

Changes in spelling. Ludireo is more systematic in representing the spelling of borrowed words, and includes sounds that didn't exist in Eklektu 96. Examples of such changes include jëncën "ginseng" (formerly jencen), from Chinese 人参 rénshēn; kïz "girl" (formerly kiz), from Turkish kız; maahï "cicada" (formerly mahu), from Hopi maahu; and viitta "cape" (formerly vita), from Finnish viitta.