Favesik:Wikimistusik/en.wikipedia kotava

Name	Kotava
SIL Code	AVK
Region	Mainly used in Africa, France, Spain, Canada and Polynesia
Population	estimated 40 fluent users

Kotava is a language built on principles of cultural neutrality. Kotava in kotava means “language of each one and all”. The slogan of Kotava is: “a project humanistic and universal, utopian and realistic”.

History

The creation of Kotava proceeds of a major reflection carried out since 1975 by Staren Fetcey. Strongly implied in the idea of an international subsidiary language of communication between the various people and individuals of planet, she studied a long time the various attempts and projects carried out in this direction and concluded that that offered by languages such as Esperanto or Ido was a dead end. Rejecting their occidental character, in particular at the lexical level, she conceived a complete language, completely new and original. Kotava was born officially in 1978 and underwent two major reforms in 1988 and 1993. Since this date the language is stabilized, pressed on a lexicon of more than 17.000 basic radicals.

Characteristics

Kotava was conceived in the optics of being able to become international subsidiary language, an auxlang but without being based on a given and connoted cultural substrate. The founding principles on which it was creates, its basic postulates, are according to her creator:

• Neutrality: with respect to current or last natural languages; not to be a submarine of the Western languages (or others).
• Originality: counterpoint of neutrality; an original system drawing its qualities from its own and basically self-sufficing genius.
• Universality: its logic, its mechanisms and its possibilities are based on principles existing or which meet universally (or almost).
• Simplicity: only a system of easy training is likely to function.
• Regularity: complement of simplicity. An “own” language banishing the various exceptions, ambiguities and complications.
• Richness: a rich language of potentialities and variety. Each one must be able to be expressed with its logic and to develop its expression without restriction.
• Evolutionarity: that it can evolve/move in the future in order to adapt to the evolutions of the world and the thought. That it is equipped with “genetic” mechanisms and resources.

That is translated in particular, in a way applied, through the following elements:

• A sound system simple and reduced to the fundamental sounds present and pronounceable immediately by the whole of the human beings. From where only 5 fundamental vowels and a simplified consonant system.
• A grammatical system simple, rigorous, deprived of exceptions. A unit built around mechanisms and of modes of expression which are found in the greatest part of the languages of planet. In particular with regard to the verbal system, pivot of the language.
• A particularly limpid and powerful morphological system. While simplifying, the form makes the bottom. With each element a function or a well defined and exclusive role. That allowing a very broad freedom as for the site of the words in the sentence for example.
• An innovative lexicological base, completely invented and absolutely independent of any existing language or having existed. It is an absolute postulate.
• Clearly identified and significant basic radicals. No homonym. A word = an object or an idea.
• Mechanisms of broad and productive derivation and composition, allowing the language to develop in an quasi-infinite way and authorizing a varied expression and a expressivity, being able to go from most general to most precise and the most extreme nuances.

Many other characteristics are based on these structuring principles. Kotava comprises moreover considerable clean mechanisms which make of it a system linguistically deeply original and which attach it to no one other.

Phonetics and writing

For reasons of simplicity and realism, Kotava currently uses, in a simplified and absolutely regular way, a written form based on the Latin alphabet. It comprises the 5 fundamental vowels: has, E, I, O, U (oo); 17 consonants: B, C (sh), D, F, G (hard), J (idem French, like in pleasure), K, L, M, N, P, R, S, T, V, X (ch like in scottish loch), Z; 3 semivowels (allowing the diphthongs): H, W, Y. In Kotava, a word decides exactly like it is written. There are no exceptions. Broadly it is rather about a vocalic language, though the whole of combinative phonetics are very broad. Any word comprises a vowel at least. Let us note that Kotava strictly restores the orthography of the proper names written in a Latin alphabet, including the letters which it does not use (Q for example) and various potential diacritics.

Morphology

Kotava adopts very rigorous morphological rules. There is besides a very coherent morphological table which governs the whole of the interrelationships and the rules of derivation of the words between them. A verb, a substantive, a determinative qualifier, numeral, an adverb, etc are recognized without any ambiguity and cannot merge. Dankat is a combined verbal form, dank a substantive, dankas an active participle, rotaf an adjective, roton an adverb, tevoy a numeral, etc The substantives and pronouns are invariable in Kotava and there is not any system of variation. There is no either concept of kind. If one wishes to insist on the sex of a person or an animal it is possible to use specific suffixes of kind. Plural is expressed through an independent invariable particle. Kotava has an original rule in addition, that of the “euphonic reference” according to which determinative receives an ending euphonic similar to that of the substantive or pronoun that it qualifies. Kotava has a very great number of affixes, which play a great part and are strongly used to express many ideas or derived nuances. There are affixes says total, which can relate to any word, and of the affixes more specialized starting from the radicals verbs, nominal or determinative.

Grammar

The verbal system is the pivot of Kotava. It is a system at the same time simple and rigorous, but also very rich and moderate if need be. There are only three times in Kotava (present, preterit, future) and four modes (code, requirement, conditional, take part). Concurrently to that, exist original mechanisms of voice, aspects, states and direction making it possible to return the smallest nuances. A Kotava verb can be combined on seven people, distinguishing two types of “us”: one inclusive and the other exclusive one. On the other hand it rejects any principle of use of the you. In Kotava, all the complements are obligatorily introduced by a preposition. That is also worth for the complements of objects which use the preposition known as transitive va. As for the word order, there is no imperative rule. The most widespread form is however of type CSV (complement - subject - verb). Kotava has several very innovative original mechanisms. Thus, for example, a rich person and astute system of conjunctions of connection.

Example of text

1-eaf teliz ke Tamef Dakteks va Ayikrokeem Kot ayik se koblid nuyaf is miltaf koe bagaliuca is rokeem. Va ova is jiluca digid ise tan tove artan beron gotegid.

Article first of the Universal Declaration of the Humans right All the human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and must act the ones towards the others in a spirit of fraternity.

External links

• Kotava.org – Official site
• Lexical and grammatical thesaurus
• Universal enciclopedia in Kotava
• Kotava forum
• Kotava in Langmaker.com
• Europalingua – Texts in Kotava

Sources

• Fetcey, Staren (1979). Kotava, langue internationale neutre. Québec, Canada : Ed. Univers des langues T.B. INC. 148 p.
• Kotava Avaneda (Kotava linguistic committee). Official grammar of Kotava {PDF}. Kotava Organisation, march 2006 (version III.6, 44 p.)