The vocabulary extension

For a list of words in the Vocabulary Extension, check the dictionary.

The Trilangle Vocabulary Extension is an optional vocabulary created specifically for Trilangle that can be used in lieu of borrowing another language's vocabulary.

It is an extension, meaning a Trilangle sentence that does not use the Trilangle extended vocabulary is still a Trilangle sentence.

Goals

Look good with Trilangle

The aesthetics of the orthography should fit in well the geometric nature of Trilangle.

Have simple rules

Phonological and morphological rules should be small in number and simple to describe and execute.

Phonology and Orthography

Lexical items in the vocabulary have a (C)V(C) syllable structure and are written using the following symbols from a few different Canadian Aboriginal syllabaries.

These symbols work the same way in the Trilangle vocabulary as they do in their original usage: for each syllable in the word, a symbol representing the onset is chosen from the table below, and its orientation depends on the vowel. If the syllable has a coda, the coda symbol is added to the end. (For example, the syllable /ka/ is written <ᑲ>, while /kan/ is written <ᑲᐣ>)

-/e/ -/i/ -/o/ -/a/ coda
(no onset) ᐁ ᐃ ᐅ ᐊ
/k/- ᑫ ᑭ ᑯ ᑲ ᐠ
/ts/- ᒉ ᒋ ᒍ ᒐ ᐨ
/m/-1 ᒣ ᒥ ᒧ ᒪ ᒾ
/n/- ᓀ ᓂ ᓄ ᓇ ᐣ
/s/- ᓭ ᓯ ᓱ ᓴ ᐢ
/j/- ᔦ ᔨ ᔪ ᔭ ᐧ
/tʼ~t/-2, 3 ᗢ ᗣ ᗤ ᗧ ᐟ
/w/-2 ᗐ ᗑ ᗒ ᗕ ᐤ
/r/- ᕑ
  1. The symbol for the coda /-m/ has been replaced by Canadian Syllabics Athabascan M for reasons described in the Morphology section.
  2. The non-coda symbols are from the Carrier syllabary. The vowels represented by orientation are different in Carrier; they have been changed for Trilangle to be more similar to the original Canadian syllabics.
  3. The non-coda symbols originally represented the Carrier syllabary /tʼ/ series. The /t/ series from the original Canadian syllabics were not included due to similarities to logical and set theory symbols. In Trilangle, /tʼ/ and /t/ are in free variation.

There are a small number of syllables used for logical symbols and functional morphemes that cannot exist in the lexicon:

Morphology

Variables

Any word consisting of a monosyllable that would be allowed in a lexical item is a variable name.

Negation

Lexical items may be prefixed with ᓓ /le/ to form its negation.

For example, when the prefix is added to the word ᑯᐃ /koi/ love it becomes ᓓᑯᐃ /lekoi/ not love.

This symbol was chosen due to a resemblance to the logical not symbol (¬).

Unknowns

Lexical items may be prefixed with ᕈ /ro/ to form its uncertain version.

For example, when the prefix is added to the word ᑯᐃ /koi/ love it becomes ᕈᑯᐃ /rokoi/ maybe love.

This symbol was chosen due to a resemblance to the question mark (?).

n-place predicates

In the Trilangle vocabulary, the 1-place predicates never end with a consonant, while 2-place predicates always end with ᒾ /m/ and 3-place predicates with ᕑ /r/.

Each predicate may have other semantically related predicates with different numbers of arguments (arity). For example, the 1-place predicate "love(x)"" asserting the concept of love and the 3-place predicate "love(e, x, y)" asserting that there is an event of something loving something else.

For example, ᑯᐃ /koi/ love is 1-place and therefore does not end with a consonant, but the 3-place predicate ᑯᐃᕑ /koir/ to love ends with the consonant ᕑ /r/.

These symbols were chosen due to a resemblance to the arabic numerals 2 and 3.

Not every n-place predicate has counterparts with different arity.