PHASE 6: TEACHING
(Draft, How to speak Rubberleg)
(Important note for those found this draft early, the pronunciations are based off of the Set 3 transliteration alphabet. If you do not know what that is, then go to this
link here and open the spoiler titled "Rubberleg Transliteration System". It's completely necessary to understand that in order to understand what I mean by Pronounced "pronunciation in quotes here")
Well, I didn't think this would happen but I guess it has. We have uncovered so much of Rubberleg to the point where one can now respeak it! If you want to speak Rubberleg yourself, then look no further!
Rubberleg For Dummies is perfect for those who don't want to go through too much technical detail and is designed to teach pretty much anymore who wants to pick up this amazing, stylish and ancient language! Check the Table of Contents and then use ctrl+f or command+f to search around.
Lesson 1: How to Write And Pronounce Things in Rubberleg
Lesson 2:
Lesson #: How to Pluralize Words in Rubberleg
Lesson #: Verb Tenses, Aspects, And Moods in Rubberleg
Lesson #: How to Do Comparatives And Superlatives In Rubberleg
Lesson 1: How to Write and Pronounce Things in Rubberleg **So, how do you write in Rubberleg? Rubberleg has three different writing systems as two are native. The first kind are the ones that, (and will regret saying this), look very similar to what you would call Chinese characters. But do not be fooled! Rubberleg is NOT Chinese. This is only a coincidence. This writing system is the hardest to learn as it is not an alphabet where you have a limited set of letters that are constantly reused. No, in Rubberleg, many words have their own characters and you have to learn all of them. At the very least, once you learn the character's pronunciation, it will always be the same no matter where you find it with the exception of any characters with "ee" sounds but don't worry about that now.
Lesson #: How to Pluralize Words in Rubberleg *Pluralizing in Rubberleg is very simple, for nearly every single case, you simply add 們(men) or its alternative character 们(men) at the end of the word. It's like adding -s at the end of words basically.
If it is obvious from context that the word is meant to be in plural, then you don't have to write or say it. An example would be like saying "2 dog". Rubberleggians are smart so they realize they don't need to write another character (believe me, you want to skip the 7+ strokes) or waste their breath on another syllable for something so obvious. Another example of context if said something like, "I like dogs, dog are a man's best friend." You've already made it known that the dogs are in plural so why do it again?
Don't get me wrong, no one would bully you if you kept using the plural marker but see it as an option you can choose to do. However, it is more recommended in more formal writing to avoid ambiguity more often. However you choose to mark the word or not is up to you, reader.
For mass nouns (nouns like water, sand, milk), you would not use the plural marker.
Lastly, like many languages, including English, Rubberleg does have some irregular plurals. Rather than use a different ending (ex. ox -> oxen, cactus -> cacti) Rubberleg simply uses an entirely new character. So far, there are only two words that do this. Those words are 木 (Pronounced "Hon", means "tree") which has 林 (Pronounced "Lam") as its irregular plural form and 火 (Pronounced "Chal", means "fire") which has 炎(Pronounced "Yum") as its irregular plural form. Notably, the plural characters themselves are doubled which makes them quite easy to remember don't cha think?
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Lesson #: Verb Tenses, Aspects, And Moods in Rubberleg **An important feature of a language to learn, is to learn how to speak in or about the present, past, and the future. This lesson will teach teach you this, and much more to all the things you'll need to learn to use verbs to the fullest extent in Rubberleg.
Let's start with the Present tense, In Rubberleg, the present tense of the verb needs no marking, almost completely similar to English. 想要(Pronounced "Syuuyau") by itself means want (as in I/you/we/they want) or wants (as in He/she/it wants). Rubberleg does not have any irregular present tense forms to remember so a word like 都(Pronounced "Duu") means am, are, is. It does not do any form changing like English. You only have to memorize one form for each verb.
And now for Past tense, In Rubberleg, to do this, you simply add a 了(Pronounced "le") at the end of the verb. It's similar to adding -ed, or -t (ex. dreamt) at the end of a word. Once again, there are no irregular past tense forms as 都了 would translate as was or were even though it's irregular in English. Another note to put here is that past tense is optional to put if it can be inferred from context.
As for the last tense, it's Future. For this, you add a 会(Pronounced "voi") before the verb. It's similar to adding will but instead 会 sticks onto the verb, it doesn't float by. Now, there is one verb that has one irregular future form to specifically learn and that is 将(Pronounced "zung") which means "will be". Basically this one word means will be combined in one word. This means you would not write/say 会都 but instead 将 as 会都 would be deemed ungrammatical. Otherwise, that's the only you have to remember. Weird, I know but languages are like that. Not like English did any better.
Sweet, now to introduce you to infinitives, gerunds, and participles. Don't worry if those terms sound weird or complicated. I'll guide you through them.
So what's an infinitive? Just read this thing
www.chompchomp.com/terms/infinitive.htm , it'll quickly get you acquainted with the concept. For our purposes, you just need to recognize that it's a distinctly different form from the present tense. In Rubberleg the infinitive doesn't have a "to" that goes before as it uses nothing to indicate that it's in infinitive. Yes, this means the present and the infinitive form look the exact same. Sounds ridiculous? Not really, even English does this sometimes. You already can tell inherently where an infinitive is because of how it's used.
The infinitive in Rubberleg however is specifically used after conjugated verbs. For example, 想要 都 (want/wants to be), 想要了 都 (wanted to be), 会想要 都 (will want to be). Notice how when the 都 is after the first verb regardless of tense, it turns into its infinitive form, all without a "to" before it. It should also be noted that as a result of this lack of marking 想要 都 can mean either "want/wants to be" or "to want to be". Although, using chain infinitives in general are less common as you probably won't see them in isolation. This is especially true since infinitives in Rubberleg go after the verb. And then you won't really see them at the front of the sentence either since it's more normal to use the gerund. I'll explain the uses in a bit.
As much as I would love to go into gerunds and how they work, coincidentally, the prefix 希(Pronounced "Hei") it perfectly corresponds to the -ing ending in English. The only difference is that instead of attaching -ing on the end of the verb, you instead attach 希 on the front of the verb.
Now, while the infinitive and gerund can be used identically, like a subject (ex.
to learn is important.
learning is important.), like a complement (ex. The most important thing is
to learn. The most important thing is
learning.) or like an object (ex. I like
to learn. I like
learning.) in Rubberleg, The infinitive has a stronger tendency to be used after verbs, as a complement(see complement example) or as an object (see the object example) while the gerund is used more like a subject and is used in some other ways.
You can use infinitives in Rubberleg as a subject but then you run the risk of the "want/wants to be" vs "to want to be" ambiguity that was mentioned earlier. Pro-dropping is more or less common in Rubberleg meaning that you could run into this more easily than you think. There may be a way to specify present tense (by using now as a way to aid the use of the context to help discern that the verb is in present tense.) but there's no way to specific infinitive. In cases where ambiguity is unwanted, Rubberleggians will use the gerund instead. But of course, that has its own tradeoffs. Although, don't worry about those tradeoffs, trust me, you'll understand an -ing form when you see one.
Phew, that got pretty crazy right? Well, we aint done yet. Next are participles which should be slightly less head scratching.
In order to do Present Participles, you just use the 希 on verbs. To make past participles, you simply put a 资(Pronounced "slii") at the end of the verb.
www.chompchomp.com/terms/participle.htmNegation
不
Active vs Passive
站
Discussing the various irregularities of active and passive forms
Conditional
要是
Lesson #: How to Do Comparatives And Superlatives In Rubberleg
In other words, how do you say things like bigg
er, strong
er, fast
er and things like bigg
est, strong
est, fast
est and more?
First, let's start with Comparisons of Equality. Basically, when you say as...as. (ex. He's
as big
as him. He works
as well
as him/he does.) To say that, you simply say 样(pronounced "yang") twice. You'll do this for nearly every case you need an equal comparison of something but be aware, Rubberleg sometimes likes to cut down the wordiness of something and make the entire as...as phrase into one word. One example of this is the word 尽快(pronounced "Zunkwai") which means "as soon as possible". If you find one of these, then that word will normally override how you would have normally said it. Now, we're not forcing you to fully adhere to this rule but sometimes the Rubberleggians just prefer to make and use the shorter forms of things.
Alright, now for Comparisons of Inequality. To say things like -er/more, you simply put the word 更(Pronounced "geing", means "more") before the the adjective or adverb. This actually fairly corresponds with one usage of the English word "more" (ex. more important, more adventurous, more intensely, more precisely). Remember to always put this word before the adjective or adverb. Even though 更鲁日 may not literally mean redd
er and means something more like
more red, 更鲁日 would translate as either redder or more red.
To say less, you simply use 減(pronounced "kruum", means "less"). Use it in the exact same way that I told you for 更.
And now for Superlatives. To say things like -est/most, you simply use 最(Pronounced "Twii", means "most"). Use the same logic as before from 更. And to say least, you use 最小(Pronounced "Twiismyuu", means "least"). Same idea as before.
Finally, I'd like to state that there are no irregular comparative and superlative forms in this language, so better (更良, pronounced "geingyoi") literally means "more good" and best (最良 pronounced "Twiiyoi") literally means "most good"
* = not completely finished but close to a finished draft
** = needs significantly more info/subject to change
(Lol, I'll work on this more later...)
(Pluralization section needs more info, fix mass noun section,)