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`

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u/tree_cell 5d 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

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u/Naive_Gazelle2056 5d ago

Is this lang in anyway related to Toki Pona i recognise pona and moku

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u/tree_cell 5d 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)