The Adamic Language 1
Imagine if a bunch of babies were raised by robots that don’t talk to them. Children raised without language input generally fail to learn to speak (and develop crippling psychological problems, if they survive at all), but if many babies are raised around each other, might their babbling be enough to create a language? Creoles and Nicaraguan Sign Language suggest the answer is “yes.”
Let’s call this language “Adamic.”
Phonemes:
Infant babbling gives us a clue as to what sounds these Adamics would have to work with:
p/b, t/d, k/g, m, n, s, h, w, y(as in Yellow), a, u (I added the vowels based on crying and cooing)
That matches up pretty well with the 10 most common phonemes across languages:
p/b, k/g, m, N(as in siNG), h, w, j, a, u, i
So conservatively, the Adamics start out with a sound repertoire of
p, k, m, n, h, w, y, a, u, i
That’s a very small number of phonemes, but remember that’s just what the Adamics are starting with. They’ll generate more soon. Now on to…
Semantics
Again mimicking infants, these phonemes are uttered in a strict Consonant-Vowel pattern, often reduplicated.
ex. mamama, baba, kiki
Noun-like words refer to classes of objects (or “essence”) that can then be reduplicated to create a type (“ideal”) or narrowed down to create a more traditional noun. (with some help from awkwords)
ma=edible things
mama=a liquid food, mamama=baby formula
mapi=a solid food, mapiyi=meat, mamapi=porraige, mamapiyi=meat stew, mamayi=blood
pa=interactive things
papa=a person, papapa=a parent
payu=a robot, panu=a control, papapanu=a ruler, papayu=a child, payuyi=an animal
ka=other things
kaka=an object, kakaka=a turd
kawa=a substance, kawama=an inedible liquid, kakapi=a chunk, kakakawama=urine
Words can also be strung together in adjunct noun series as in English
Mapiyi payu=a slave (literally meat robot)
Adjective-like words refer to dimensions
wu=big/many, pi=small/few
nu=tall, yi=not tall
ha=long, mu=not long
wa=thick, pu=thin
ya=wide, mi=narrow
Adjectives can be redublicated: wawa=very big or bigger than, wawawa=extremely big or the most
Verb-like words refer to actions, they are gestural, but can be made more specific with simultaneous speech
grasping=to do
grasping ma=to eat/drink, grasping pa=to interact, grasping ka=to give
pointing=to be
pointing ma=to dwell, pointing pa=to be functional, pointing ka=to have
waving=to occur
waving ma=to be born, waving pa=to turn on, waving ka=to die
Other gestures alter the emotion of a statement
begging=submission
begging grasping ka=please, begging pointing pa=yes, sir!
clapping=authority
clapping grasping pa=do it!
patting=friendship
patting waving ma=we are brothers
Sentence Structure
Sentences are SOV with analytic morphology. They build from basic concepts to more explicit
/grasping ka/=give! (/ and / denote where the motion begins and ends)
/grasping mapi ka/=give (me) food!
/grasping wa mapi ka/= give (me) a lot of food!
papapa /grasping wa mapi ka/=mother (or father), give (me) a lot of food!
papapa papayu /pointing mapi ka/ /grasping wa mapi ka/=mother (or father), (so that) (that) child (can) have food, give (them) a lot of food!
Clearly, there’s a lot missing. Where are pronouns? Indirect objects? Tenses and moods? Not to mention all that missing vocabulary. And what do Adamics do for gestures when they can’t see each other and gestures are useless?
Remember that this earliest form of Adamic is only a sort of pigeon. It won’t become a creole until the Next Generation. I hope you’ll tune in.
