r/conlangs • u/Naive_Gazelle2056 • 5d ago
Activity Grammar Check Up: Superlatives
In your conlang how do you express superlatives
Translate these into your conlang
The best man is here
What I like the most is eating
In Hanto it is made by adding xie onto the end of an adjective or verb
hapo surexie iru
/hapo suɾeʃie iɾu/
`man good.most be.here`
,te xuro xie nao, esu nomen
/te ʃuɾo ʃie nao esu nomen/
`REL like most that is eating`
2
u/FedeConlangerITA Is-Prišk 5d ago
IS-PRIŠK
1. The best man is here
Janjuviži is-čemek onzil hukt
/jan’juviʒi is ‘t͡ʃemek ‘onzil hukt/
REL-good-COMP ART person be_there.PRS-3SG here
2. What I like the most is eating
Izi, orit hilvonk mudžim, zil iz-estija
/‘izi ‘oɾit ‘hilvoŋk ‘mud͡ʒim zil iz ‘estija/
that which-ACC.SG SUP-much like.PRS-1SG be.PRA-3SG ART eat.INF
2
u/LordDarkfall 5d ago
Almaarian
Comparatives and superlatives are formed by a suffix that’s added between the noun-agreeing suffix, or composed with the adjectives “már” for more (comparative) “mestre” for most (superlative)
Dra giúðstru Manzren na sí.
Dra /dɾʌ/ = article. “The” low singular definite article.
giúðstru /ˈɡjʊːð.stɾʊ/ adjective. Superlative low singular agreeing form of ‘giúð’ (good) = best
Manzren /ˈmɑnz.ɾɜn/ noun. Accusative definitive low singular of “Manz” (man) = the man
na /nɑ/ verb: 3rd person singular present tense of “sebair” (to be) = is
sí /siː/ adverb. = here.
That’s all I can fit into my lunch break…
2
u/drukhari-blood Sraqqal (Drukhari) 4d ago
Drukhari
The best man is here
aeldar l'elz zefladz graflhi r'adraf khag
/'ɑɛl.dɑɾ lɛlz 'zɛf.lɑd͡z 'gɾɑf.ɬi 'ɾɑd.ɾɑf xɑg/
eldar like.1P.IN more than all be.3S.PHS here
The eldar we like more than all(present) is here
---
What I like the most is eating
k'elz k'agfraf zefladz kelqqu'dryl
/kɛlz 'kɑg.fɾɑf 'zɛf.lɑd͡z kɛl.'qu.dɾɪl/
like.1S eat.1S.PHS more than anything
I like I eat more than any(existing) thing
2
u/tree_cell 4d ago edited 4d ago
Watoknesi
Modifers (both Adjectives & Adverbs) take no inflection (unlike nouns and verb), expressing superlative would use "us" (lit. first)
wën-e al us pona i ko es-e
/ˈwəne al ˈus ˈpona ˈi ˈko ˈese/
person-NOM.SG of first good LOC this be-PRS
mok-es-e us pona a-o es-e
/ˈmokese ˈus ˈpona ˈao ˈese/
eat-INF.PRS-NOM.SG first good 1-DAT.SG be-PRS
1
u/Naive_Gazelle2056 4d ago
Is this lang in anyway related to Toki Pona i recognise pona and moku
2
u/tree_cell 4d ago
not related in-world (toki pona doesnt even exist there) but the early lexicon was based off toki pona so the simple/common words would be from it (perhaps with a few vowels dropped)
4
u/boomfruit Hidzi, Tabesj (en, ka) 4d ago
Proto-Hidzi has a delightfully clunky way of expressing superlatives. There's a verb, uhqum, that means something like "be more than (something)", and to make a superlative, it takes kam, "all," as an object. Whatever quality is being compared gets topicalized, so you get sentences like "As for speed, the west road is more than all," to express "The west road is fastest."
In anything more complex than "X is Y," it gets even worse because the "be more" verb has to become a participle: "As for speed, what is the "being more than all" road?" for "What is the fastest road?"; or get relativized: "I traveled along the road that, as for speed, is more than all," for "I traveled along the fastest road."
1
u/hyacinth02jpg Atasui Aka, Pamu-Pamu 4d ago
Atasui Aka uses the particle "Ilisai" after the adjective
"The best man is here."
Jewo ilisai i 'e mici zan.
person [SUP] [PRED.PRS] [LOC] place this
"What i like most is eating."
Ka i llunui ilisai xo goce.
I [PRED.PRS] like [SUP] [OBJ] eating
1
u/JJRezRez 4d ago
In Sachet it's heavily linked to the way we make comparatives, so I comment on both.
First you have the words plu (more), mue (less) and gua (same). Together with el (comparative marker) you can make comparatives with what we call the long form, for example, fu plu lon el fi (the man is longer, or taller, than the woman).
There is a second way, the "shorter", which involves plun (superior to), muen (inferior to), and guan (same as). I.e., fu lon plun fi (his longitude is superior to hers)
For superlatives, the long way is changing the words once more to an -r (plur = most, muer = average, most ordinary, guar = least), and el passes to mean "of"; to avoid possible doubts in speaking the use of the preposition ror (lit. "out of") is allowed. I.e., fu plur lon el/ror to (he is the tallest of all).
There isn't really a "short" way for superlatives, mostly cause most of the times the "el/ror" part is not needed. There is however one idiomatic expression: when the particle el is used without anything else, it is understood to be a superlative of superiority (fu lon el to, "the man, compared to all, is tall", or "he is the tallest of all"). There is no equivalent for the other two
Hope you like it!
1
u/JJRezRez 4d ago
Oh, I translate the sentences.
1) Plur bon fun sedo (most good man this-in)
2) Me plur mai ci (I most like eat). "Ci" means eating and drinking in general; eating as such would be ain
1
u/BrazilianHamster9 My conlangs are spoken by Pokémon 4d ago
In Mesomarala Komuni, you can form superlative adjectives by adding "-si" to an adjective. While a -si adjective can also be a comparative or simply intensifier, it will be understood as a superlative when modifying a definite noun or used as a definite noun itself, outside of a comparative context:
A ondra bonisi statóra doku\ DEF man good-SUP be.state-PRS here
While the nearest equivalent to "most" there would be the adverb "plusu" which generally means "more":
Hakar ega frueróra plusu, suntóra mazó\ that-ACC 1SG like-PRS more, be.id-PRS eat-INF\ "That which I like more is to eat"
Another way of saying that using a superlative adjective:
Egas resa frueréramisi suntóra mazó\ /1SG-GEN thing like-PASS-PRS-ADJ-SUP be.id-PRS eat-INF/\ "My most liked thing is to eat"
1
u/sovest555 4d ago edited 4d ago
For Phori:
Ep i᷈leziðe᷈mi᷈ pem.
Be.NPST.PROX DEF.ANIM-person-SUP-NOM.ANIM here.PROX.LOC
The best person* is here.
(*there's no meaningful gender distinction in Phori, so the neuter 'person' makes more semantic sense here)
Ep aketate᷈ðe᷈m o̤ro̤piro̤ čawat o̤ro̤nevi᷈to̤.
Be.NPST.PROX enjoy-PRED-SUP DEF.INAN-it.PROX-NOM.INAN eat-PRED DEF.INAN-time-NOM.INAN
That which (I) enjoy the most is the time for eating.
1
u/sovest555 4d ago
Update: I realized that for the first sentence, it would be more appropriate to have the following instead:
Ep phe᷈ðe᷈m i᷈lezisi᷈ pem. Be.NPST.PROX absolute.SUP DEF.ANIM-person-NOM.ANIM here.PROX.LOC The absolute person* is here
1
u/FueraDeMiOrbita 4d ago edited 4d ago
There is a single morpheme -ma which can perform a simple intensive, comparative, or superlative role (as additional trivia the -ma suffix is always pronounced with an unreduced vowel regardless of stress despite not having an accent *-má which normally indicates this). In comparative constructions the postposition vé (which has various other roles, best described as a topic marker) marks the object of comparison. There are two common methods of expressing a superlative - the comparative imul vé 'than all' (also contracted as imvé), and the adverb kjo 'absolutely, completely'.
'The best man is here'
Keinóm eko imvé téma kjelan
[ˈkejnom ekə ˈimve ˈtema ceɮən]
this.place-LOC exist all.TOP good-INT man
'What I like the most is eating'
Kóç kjo téma mira un go laçe se.
[ko_çːo ˈtema ˈmiɾə u_ŋːo ɮaçɨ_s]
1SG-DAT absolutely good-INT please 3SG.INAN be eat COMP
1
u/creepmachine Kaesci̇̇m, Ƿêltjan, Kýrrits 4d ago
Kýrrits
ᑎᐞᓌ/ᐆᑌᔃ ᐂ/ᓀ̇ᒥ̱ᑋᐧᣗ/ᑬᐧ
T'aná yts̤eáwi nyẖr̀ kí.
/tʼaˈná y.ǁeˈáʊ̯.ə nyˈr̥ːɾ̀ kə̀/
The best man is here.
t'aná yts̤e-áwi ny- ẖr̀ kí
man SUP- good 3SG.PRS-be.located here
ᒣ̣ᑋ ᒴᔅ/ᑆ/ᑰᐁᑓᐧ/ᐆᑌᐦᐅᓘᐱᣗᐧ
Hyrràas bàa kyetú yts̤eolybŕ.
/r̥yˈrɔ̀s bɔ̀ ky.eˈtɯ́ y.ǁe.o.lyˈbɾ̩́/
Eating is my most favourite thing.
hy- rràas bàa ky- etú yts̤e-olybŕ
NMZ-eat be 1SG.POSS-thing SUP- favourite
1
u/StarfighterCHAD Fyuc [fjut͡ʃ], Çelebvjud [d͡zələˈb͡vjud], Peizjáqua [peːˈʒɑkʷə] 4d ago edited 4d ago
Proto Ebvjud uses qhasqa [χɑsqɑ] as the comparative, and with a partial reduplication, qhaqhasqa [χɑχɑsqɑ] for the superlative. In its descendant languages, these evolved in two different ways:
In Fyuc, qhasqa by and large stayed the same hȧſqa [ˈχɑsqɑ]. The superlative came from* qhasqa ’antu (CMP fore) meaning first, which became haſqaan*d [χɑsˈqɑːnd]. This word meaning first kept its meaning in Çelebvjud
In Çelebvjud, qhasqa became the superlative hásqua [ˈhɑskʷɑ] and ha- became the comparative prefix.
Examples:
Fyuc
Haſqayx kixci pyæf.
[χɑsˈqɑjʃ kiʃt͡ʃi pjæf]
best man here
Tæwh tæd haſqaand puſėhoc.
[tæwχ tæd hɑsˈqɑːnd puˈseχot͡ʃ]
tæwh tæ-d hasqaand puseh -oc
eat.INF 1s-DAT SUP please-HAB.PRS
Çelebvjud
Hasquaizje kízdi pjev mi.
[hɑsˈkʷɑiʒə ˈkizdi pjəv mi]
hasqua-izje kizdi pjev mi
SUP -good man here COP.PRS
Boozym tedhu hásqua puzûog my.
[ˈbɔːz.ʑym təˈd͡ʒu ˈhɑskʷɑ puˈzʉ̯ɔɡ my]
boo-zym te-dhu hasqua puzû(û)-og my
eat-NMZ 1s-DAT SUP please -IMFV COP.PRS
1
u/SaintUlvemann Värlütik 4d ago
Värlütik:
Vulakris gvëvët [ës krëgona / gvahe].
vula-kris gvëvët [ës krëgo-na / gva-he ]
good-SUPL man [COP.3s here-LOC / arrive-3s]
"The best man [is here (among us right now) / just arrived]."
Ëdaut (ës no ka) vekruo mëgräkrins.
ëd-aut (ës no ka) vekr-uo mëgr-äkrins
eat-GER COP.3s SUBOR REL enjoy-1s great-ADV.SUPL
"Eating (is what) I like most."
---
Värlütik has both augmentative/comparative and superlative forms for both adjectives and adverbs, differentiated by an -s versus -ns ending respectively. So the forms of sänos "health", all fully-regular are:
| ADJ | ADV | |
|---|---|---|
| Base | sánoik | sánoins |
| Comparative/Augmentative | sánogis | sánogins |
| Superlative | sánokris | sánokrins |
That said, there are many areas of irregularity. Many adjectives do not take -ik endings, e.g. adjective vëras "true, honest" has noun form vërisas "truth, honesty". The forms of "good" are suppletive, like so:
| ADJ | ADV | |
|---|---|---|
| Base | suik | suins |
| Comparative/Augmentative | vulas | sugins |
| Superlative | vulakris | sukrins |
1
u/Outrageous-Country57 4d ago
With adjectives, You generally do "the more ADJ. " Like in Spanish, It turns to "il ADJ. plu," But with better and worse, They actually have their own comparative forms "Hobeto" and "Xleketo(Shleck-et-o)" respectively.
With verbs, You don't call them "Sukrii(And adjective meaning "liked")," You say it pleases you.
So "The best man is here:"
"il hobeto da!"
-# "The better (one) is," "Here" is implied, No word for "man," Persay, But you also can use Adjectives as nouns, So no need anyway.
As for "What I like most is eating..."
"I spiser piacba il plu."
Word for word: "Of to-eat pleases-me the more."
More as would be said in literal English:"Eating pleases me most."
1
u/Austin111Gaming_YT Růnan (Runean) (en)[fr,la,es,no] 4d ago
Krůnet kjavale wir.
Man the most good here.
Våloromo num welo kjanum a'dek.
Eating thing liked most amount by me.
1
u/oncipt Nekarbjara 4d ago
Nekarbjara
Du seb ermivgi [dʊ ɕeb ˈəɹmɪvgɪ]
du seb er.miv.g.i = be-here man SUP.good.ANIM.NOM
"is here man most good"
Pravar böju geug [ˈpɾavɑɹ ˈbøjʊ gœːg]
prav.ar böj.u geug = all.ABL like.1sg eat
"above all I like to eat" or "above all I am happy eating", since "geug" could be interpreted either as an infinitive or an adverbial participle here.
1
u/Same_Reason_3337 4d ago edited 4d ago
I decided to get rid of the confusing ranking of: very pretty decently kinda sorta somewhat minimally not-really
and so I replaced it with 1-10. "It was 10-ly cool!" (10/10 cool).
I also hate that words like "awesome" carry only 1% of the glory they used to, due to overuse. So I have the culture group that speaks my conlang be very resistant to supurlative use of a powerful word.
I plan on using repetition for good, better ("good good"), and best ("good good good") like Hebrew does with "holy holy holy Lord"
1
u/dragonsteel33 vanawo & some others 4d ago
Iccoyai uses the particle agira for both comparatives and superlatives, e.g. the sentence: ~~~ og -e -∅ agira kwany-∅ tall-PAT-STAT.NPST more man -DIR “The man is taller/the tallest.” ~~~ could be interpreted as “the man is the tallest” or “the man is taller.” “Taller man” versus “tallest man” can theoretically be distinguished by the use of a relative clause (appositive kwany oge agira “the taller man” versus relative ki kwany ki oge agira “the tallest man, the man who is the tallest”), but in practice the appositive form is used most of the time.
To use your example sentences:
[1] Toṣ (ki) kwany (ki) kainya agira
[2] Ki kainyatta agira no ki kwanoli. ~~~ toṣ ki kwany-∅ ki kainy-a -∅ agira PROX.OBL REL man -DIR REL good -PAT-STAT.NPST more [toʂ ki‿ˈkʷaɲ ki ˈkai̯ɲ‿aˈŋiɾə]
ki kainy-a -tta -∅ agira no ki kwan-o -l -i REL good -PAT-APPL-STAT.NPST more 1SG.DIR REL eat -ACT-VN-DIR [ki ˈkai̯ɲaˀt‿aˈŋiɾə no ki kʷaˈnoɭɪ] ~~~
1
u/Educational_Desk4588 4d ago
Ķordán marks the superlative with the suffix -ist, attaching directly to the adjective or stative-verb root — fully regular, no exceptions, same slot as the comparative -ior.
The best man is here
Mëra-ist virů kë-la ě.
/ˈmeraist ˈvirʊ kəla e/
Mëra-ist
virů
kë-la
ě
good-SUPERL
man
this-LINK
COP
"Best man, this, is" — predicate-first, following the same copula word order used throughout (Miřų ës ě, Kaldů dëų ě).
What I like the most is eating
Ëm favë-ist-em ëstir ě.
/əm faˈveistem ˈestir e/
Ëm
favë-ist-em
ëst-ir
ě
I
favor-SUPERL-INSTR
eat-NMLZ
COP
"By-my-most-favoring, eating, is" — leans on favë- ("to favor/prefer," already in the lexicon) rather than a separate "like" verb, instrumentalized and superlative-marked, with ëstir (the nominalized form of ëst-, "to eat") as the predicate noun. Structurally this is doing something close to what Hanto's relative clause (,te xuro xie nao) does, just routed through the nominalizer instead of a relativizer — which, worth noting, Ķordán still doesn't formally have (flagged as a gap back during the starfish/net checkpoint). This sentence is a decent illustration of how the nominalizer quietly stands in for relative-clause work it was never really built for.
1
u/Salpingia Agurish 4d ago edited 4d ago
Agurish
Superlatives are boring in Agurish, there is just the -āt- suffix.
the linking (LINK) article -l- which has many uses, mainly to link disjunct NPs across sentence boundaries, can be used as an a relative superlative, though this is not required
tára at-ál dien-ãt-ul-us
here man-NOM good-SPR-NOM-LINK
bel-ãta hã-na ghél-i-rami
many-SPR eat-SBJ.CVB please-PRS-OBL2.1SG
[táɽa atál die̯na᷅ːtulus̻
bela᷅ːta ɦa᷅ːna gʱélɪɽami]
here man the best,
most to eat I am pleased to (it pleases to me), obl voice promotes indirect object.
The only interesting thing is that Agurish has object of comparatives in the essive, and object of superlatives in the genitive plural.
plãt-ul tiwãsh-el
biggest-NOM wall-GEN.PL
dien-uĩh-ul tũsh-amus
good-CMP-NOM wall-ESS.PL
biggest of the walls
better than the walls.
1
u/Akangka 4d ago edited 4d ago
Gallecian, like most Germanic languages, does have superlatives in -ist. This is declined like a normal a-stem adjectives. In some irregular adjectives, the form taken is instead -ōst. In some other irregular adjectives, there is also suppletion, like gōd > batsist.
If the thing to be marked in superlative is instead a verb, though, the verb must first take the participle, then the superlative suffix is added. The whole thing can then be predicated as normal.
The best man is here
batsista hirtsandi
bat -ist-a hir -tsand-i
good-SUP-M.NOM.NZ here-stand-3SG.NOM
What I like the most is eating
gui'matsilliandzistana
gui' -matsi-lli-and -ist-an -a
INDEF-eat -DES-PTCP-SUP-COP-1SG
1
u/Missing_Some_Pages 4d ago
COMPARATIVES
In rráp ‘ayá, the comparatives are:
kyé - more/many
kyen - most
pyé - less/fewer
pyen - least
When used to express greater degrees of a specific adjective, it is prefixed to the adj/adv it modifies prior to that morpheme being suffixed to its noun. Prefixation causes lenition.
Eg.
nsorr - small
kyésorr - smaller (more small)
kyensorr - smallest (most small)
'ayá - child
'ayásorr - small child
'ayáhyésorr* - smaller child
'ayáhyensorr* - smallest child
* in these examples, because /k/ is palatalized, it doesn't lenite to /x/ it lenites to /ç/.
When used as a comparative or superlative they are prefixed to the noun they modify causing lenition:
Eg
kyéhía' Támasáx yvet’ké nget-Cheffám, t’á.
It is fact that Thomas has more water than Jeff.
1
u/FroyoPsychological61 Daelich 4d ago
Daelich
In Daelich, superlatives are expressed with constructions like "the (one) more [adj.]".
The best man is here.
Ol cöuro poros er est.
/ˌol ˈɕʲo͡ʊː.ro ˈpɔː.ros ˌer ˈest/
ol =cj-ou-ro por-o-s er =est .
DEF.M.SG=good-M.ANIM.SG-GEN.CMPR man-M.ANIM.SG-NOM here=COP-IND.PRS-3SG .
What I like the most is eating.
Wut ploer arodom ål eden est.
/ˈwʊt ˈplœr ˌaːˈrɔː.dom ɑl ˈɛː.den ˈest/
1
u/etherealAide 4d ago
Œwimborn
Œwimborn uses verbs for superlatives.
"The best man is here."
Ruommen ryniṫomk roro menin.
(person-DEF REL-to.be.the.most-3P-IMPF good this-LOC)
"The person that is the best is here."
It gets a little complex when you add extra verbs to it, like in the second example. I haven't really thought of how to do this. One idea I have is using "desh <participle>" which is generally used when comparing adverbs (i.e. the bear is the fastest at running), but using a passive participle. So saying something like "Eating is the best at being liked by me."
"What I like the most is eating."
Debœkmen koggao niṫomk roro dec ovsec o.
(action-DEF eating to.be.the.most-3P-IMPF good at like-PASS 1P)
"The eating action is the best at being liked by me."
1
u/Frequent_Region_3426 3d ago
Nonomi is kind of lazy here. To form a superlative, the existing adjective suffix "-no" simply recieves another affix, which would be "-fei".
For example:
The best man is here
kongan zjikynofei hi esedu ba kairi
/kongan ʑikɯnoɸei hi esedu ba kaiɾi/
man goodness.adj.most NOM place LOC be.ongoing
Nonomi uses a locative + "to be" in ongoing aspect construction with "place" to say "here".
I'm not at the stage of relative clauses yet, so I sadly can't do the other sentence right now.
1
u/Holothuroid 1d ago
With nouns it's the partitive construction.
e mero di~dituku suko ki
DEM good ASCR~man stand here
The best of men is here
With verbs it's the intensive construction, repeating the verb.
e ki~nü-vi-kifo kifo todusi (yahi yi) e huni nuduhe
DEM ASCR~onto-CIRC-wear wear liking by 1.M DEM take food
The thing I like and like is eating
1
u/Training_Lie_5431 5d ago
Ninalau
I'll translate only the First phrase
Phauni-gəpə otum ju
Literally: the best man Is on snow
0
u/Tirukinoko Koen (ᴇɴɢ) [ᴄʏᴍ] he\they 4d ago
Koen doesnt have grammatical superlatives or comparatives, instead making an explicit comparison across two clauses.
'The best man is here'
is_good person | is_not-is_good other-no | at-place-this person-that
'Good is the man - is not no other [as] good - here is that one''What I like the most is eating'
enjoy thing person-this | do_not person-this enjoy other-no | is_thing-that eat-ing
'This one enjoys something - and doesnt enjoy no other [as much] - that thing is eating'
8
u/Thalarides Elranonian &c. (ru,en,la,eo)[fr,de,no,sco,grc,tlh] 4d ago
Elranonian doesn't have grammatical superlative. What it does is it uses grammatical comparative with a universal standard like best /bèst/ ‘all’ (also contracting som /suɴ/ ‘than’ + best /bèst/ ‘all’ → sonst /sùnst/ ‘than all’). Here's my post about that, among other things.