Plukhan

I. Introduction

Plukhan is toy language that I and my sister Alexandra invented for fun. Name of the language comes from movie "Kin Dza Dza". There was a planet named "Plukh", where people had language that consisted of one word, "ku". There were few exceptions, i.e. "k'u", which meant swear word, and few others, but we decided to drop those for now. Original Plukhan from Kin Za Dza was actually rudiment language, because people on Plukh could read thoughts. We are not that lucky here, so we have to make full-blown language, that encompasses all our words somehow. We achieve this by making different forms of basic word "ku". There isn't strict logic in which particular sounds we use for word-forming. Just keep in mind that our native languages are Ukrainian and Russian, and we spent significant parts of our lives in Ukraine.

At this particular moment Plukhan is under development, and all sudgestions are very welcome. For example I am not sure yet how to move from abstract meanings to more specific ones. I think we are approaching it from wrong end now. To do it right way, we should first define logic, which should be followed in this language, and then defined all other aspects according to that logic. So, if you have any ideas, send them to me at ilya@theIlya.com.

II. Basic syntactic rules

Plukhan is language that consists of only one word - "ku". Everything else is form of this word. Whenever prefix is added, it applies to anything to the right of it, sufix applies to anything to the left. There can be only one ending per word, and it always applies to whole word. The meaning of "ku" is similar to English indefinite article "a" - it means "something", or "anything". Any word can be turned into specific instance of general concept by adding suffix "l". i.e. "kul" means something similar to English "the" - "something specific", "this, particular thing". Next suffix is "y", which forms plural from any word, including verbs. Verbs themselves are formed with prefix "y". Thus "yku" means "to do" - the most generic and abstract action. "ykul" means "doing something at particular moment". Plural forms of verbs mean multiple objects performin action (not action being performed on multiple objects). In other words "ykuly" 'means we/they "are doing something"', not 'I "am doing something to/with them"'. You can negate any word by adding prefix ne to it. "neku" - "something else", "nekul" - "not this", "neyku" - "not doing", "yneku" - "doing something else". Adjectives are formed by adding suffix "ij" or, in case previous sound is vowel, "j". "kuj" - "having some property", "kulij" - "having this property", "nekulij" - "not having this property", "ykuj" - "capable of doing something".

Summary

Due to nature of the language, there are many suffixes, preffixes, and other word-forming parts in every word. Placing of them is important to meaning.

  1. Basic word is ku, it means "something"
  2. To go from concept to specific instance, add first suffix l.
  3. To form a verb add prefix y.
  4. To form plural add suffix y.
  5. To negate a word add prefix ne.
  6. To form an adjective add suffix ij or j.

III. Dictionary