This is a very old IAL project of mine. You can find the original here. I’ll write down the information as I originally presented it.
One of my current projects, Aljazik, is actually a reformation of the interesting grammatical concept I came up with for this language in order to make it more easily learnable to a variety of people (though that language is not an IAL)
The Goals
Language is one of the biggest barriers that divides us all.
The only solution today if a businessman wants to create a partnership in another country is to hire a translator or spend lots of valuable time learning only ONE specific language. Even if he learned seven languages, he’d still be out of luck for many places. There are literally thousands of languages here on Earth, and many are very different from each other.
I PROPOSE A SOLUTION!!
ZANA ZIKA is a constructed language designed to be as easy to learn as possible to many different language learners. Instead of structured grammar there are concepts, strung together in any order. Instead of massive dictionaries there are less than 150 words. There aren’t any confusing sounds, I’ve combined them and taken them out. For instance, some languages have no different sound for ‘p’, ‘b’, and ‘v’. ZANA ZIKA has just one ‘p’, that can be mispronounced, but still understood!
It’s super simple to learn and create concepts in ZANA ZIKA, so give it a try!!
Alphabet
Alphabet – NE NOZA INAKE
A few notes: NE INAKE IDEXA
- all letters are aproximates
- if you say a ‘b’ sound instead of ‘p’ it’s okay
- or if you say an ‘s’ sound instead of ‘z’ it’s okay
- made for speakers of different origins to be able to be understood
- all letters are capital. Simple is better.
- it’s easier to learn only a few letters than capital and lower case forms
| Labial | Alveolar | Velar | |
| Nasal | n “N” | ||
| Stops | p “P” | d “D” | k “K” |
| Fricatives | z “Z” | ||
| Approx. | w “W” |
Vowels: /a/ “A,” /ɛ/ “E,” /iː/ “I,” /oʊ/ “O”
That’s it!! just 11 letters!! English has more than 26 you know, because there are many sounds. What’s that you say? ZANA ZIKA has more too because they also can be different sounds? NOPE!! Although it can be understood in many forms, a letter does only have one CORRECT form! Also there are no diphthongs like in English! Each letter just makes its own sound. If the word was ZENDA, it’s not “ZEND’ + ‘A’, it’s ‘ZEN’ + ‘DA’; basically, there’s no slur between consonants. The word PIAE is ‘PI’ + ‘A’ + ‘E’, so no vowel diphthongs either.
If you can learn the correct way to say the NE NOZA INAKE (many sound images), that’s the better way of speaking any ZIKA (language)!!
Grammar
Grammar in ZANA ZIKA is really easy!! All you do is use the word as a concept!
For instance, to say “You are loud!”, you would say:
- ODEDI – you
- NOZA – (noise)
- ODEDI NOZA! -> noisey you
To express action, you would say either DODI, DEDI, or WEDI (to mean past, present, or future tense, respectively) along with the word that is to become the verb! In fact all words can be nouns, adjectives, adverbs, or verbs! The first word is a noun, and adding one of the words above makes the next word a verb. Words in between the noun and verb are adjectives, and words after are adverbs.
- ODEDI DODI NOZA
- You do noise – “You Speak”
- EDI NEN DEDI NOZA NOZA
- ‘male it’ ‘did speak’ ‘noisey’
- “He spoke loudly”
You can also say that an action happened to something by adding the word ‘EZ”
- EDI – it
- NEN – male
- DE – death
- EDI NEN EN DE – death happened to him (He was killed)
Get it?
It’s simple see!!
And there are no object forms or anything else weird in the sentence structure; you simply note things happening. The only thing is that between phrases, you add the word ‘LI’
For instance, you wouldn’t say
- The car hit that person!
Rather object is simply implied.
It works sort of like:
- The car moves! “LI” A person was hit!
- “Placement machine moved, that person did have collision happen to them!”
- DO PEZ DEDI NOVA LI PESON DA DEDI EN KOA!
Here, it is implied that when the car moved, the person was hit.
You could also add the word PEZ DIDAA LI to the beginning which basically means ‘At the time’ or ‘when’.
NOTE: it is perfectly acceptable to switch the phrases around. After all, saying a person was hit, and a car moved is basically the same thing.
The key idea is that the CONCEPTS are understood, not the specific syntax and grammar.
It takes a little getting used to, but in the end it allows really anyone to learn and understand from any linguistic background and be able to communicate easily through concepts instead of a rigid grammar.
To mean that something causes something else, use KAZA instead of LI
- KAWAWA DAKA WADA DODI NOZA KAZA DO DE PADA DEDI PI EDI NEN’ DEDI PI.
- A dark cloud thundered which caused a man to fire a gun.
For foreign words, take the best approximation of sound, for instance, the month May sounds like a ‘N’ plus a ‘E’ of the sounds that are in ZANA ZIKA. To use, indicate it as a proper noun/foreign word by using lower case, so use ‘ne’ for May. If you just couldn’t describe a gun, you could import it in the right context as ‘k’ for ‘g’ + ‘o’ for ‘u’ + ‘n’ -> kon. To name where Texas is, you could say it’s in ‘anewika’ or ‘America’ or even ‘koneded dedz OPDE anewika’.
However, you could approximate United and States instead of importing those words.
A little bit of help: the idiomatic language will always be different based on your native language, so when using the language spoken try and use gestures to help with understanding. Try to pick idioms that would bring meaning despite culture when writing and try to be as specific as the small vocabulary allows!
Examples
Preamble to the Constitution
NE NI OPDE DA NE PEZON DE NE PEZ OPDE NE KONONI OPDE anewika DODI MAKA KAZA NE PEPE WAWA EN MAKA. EDI DODI KAZA KONONI KED PIKA EN MAKA LI EDI DODI KAZA KED EN MAKA LI EDI DODI KAZA ZEPEDI EN MAKA LI EDI DODI KAZA NE NI DODI ANI DI KAZA ZEPEDI EN MAKA LI EDI DODI KAZA PIDONOMA EN MAKA.
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
Genesis 1:1
DEDAZKI KAZA ZAPIWED PIKA DEDI MAKA LI PEZ ZAPIWED PIKA EN MAKA LI EWADA EN MAKA.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth.
Darth Plagueis the Wise
ODEDI DEDI ANI KAZA NOZA OPDE dad pekez di waz EN ANI? NI DEDI IDEA DI. kedai DEDI NOZA KAZA ZODOWI EN NOZA DI. ZODOWI zid…
Did you ever hear the story of Dark Plagueis the wise? I thought not. It’s not a story the Jedi would tell you. It’s a Sith legend…
Would you like…:
ODEDI WEDI ZOPA KAZA DEPEA EN ZOPA? PEP POWA ADNEN I ZEKZA ZEPEN OPDE WAN ZEWEO ZEWEO OPDE dowaz!
Would you buy a table? It is five-hundred forty nine and 67 hundredths dollars ($549.67)!
Vocabulary
Here now is a list of every word in ZANA ZIKA, an ANI IDEA
NOTE: The stress falls on the first syllable of every word.
General Vocab
APIID – ability
AWE – absense
ABZA – abstract/imaginary
AKIDEN – accident
I – addition/and
EA – air
ANINA – animal
PAKI – back/rear
OPDE – belonging/of
PIKA – big
PEIDI – bird
AZO – blue
ZEDO – body/state
PEO – bottom
PODE – brother
PEDIN – building
PONPA – bump
KANDI – candy
ZENDA – center
ZEKO – circle
KAD – cloth
KAWAWA – cloud
KOD – cold
ANI – collection
KOA – collision
KODA – color
KANI – come
O – comparison/or
KONPI – confict
AP – container
KONADI – country
IZA – creeping animal
DAKA – dark
DE – death
DEPENZA – difference
NIDI – drink
EWADA – earth
ENIDA – end
ENEKI – energy
EPI – everything
IPE – evil
E’E – eye
PEKDOWI – factory
PILIN – feelings
PINE – female
PI – fire
PIZ – fish
DINA – food
PO – fool
EKO – foot/leg
PIKAZA – for
PIDONOMA – freedom
PONDI – front/chest
PODA – fruit
PONA – fun/game
WASKI – future
KAPAI – garbage
KED – good
KENA – grain
KIN – green
KONONI – group
ENDA – hand
EDA – head
KO – hole
NI – I/myself
IDEA – idea
INAKE – image
INZE – insect
EDI – it
NOWEK – knoweledge
ZIKA – language
WAWA – law
ID – light
OP – love
NAKA – make
NEN – male
WE – manner
DOPA – money
NONA – moon
NADI – mouth
NOVA – movement
NE – multitude
NENA – name
NODA – new – something
NOZE – noise
NO – nothing
NONPA – number
OPIEKA – object
WAN – one
ONI – only
OPEN – open
DI – opposite
ODZIDA – outside
OPEPA – over
DOO – pair/duo
PEPA – paper
NANA – parent
PAWADO – part
DEDAZKI – past
PEZON – person
PEZ – place
PANDA – plant
PIZONO – reason
PED – red
PADA – rod
ZEPEDI – safety
ZENDA – send
ZADA – side
ZEDA – sight
ZINI – similar
PIAE – sky
IWE – sleep
ZANA – small
ZAPIWED – spirit
ZOPA – store/shop as in a market/super market
ZODOWI – story
KOZI – squishy substance
ZON – stone
ZAP’ – stuff
DEPEA – table
DAZKI – task
DA – that
DENA – thin
DIDAA – time
DO – tool/machine
OZI – use
WEDIPA – wait
WANDA – want
WADA – water
WA – what/question
WED – white
WOK – work
IEWO – yellow
ODEDI – you
Grammar Words
DEDI -> makes whatever follow it until a ‘ ‘, LI, or KAZA a past tense verb phrase
DODI -> makes whatever follows it until ‘.’, LI, or KAZA a present tense verb
WEDI -> makes whatever foolows it until ‘.’, LI, or KAZA a future tense verb
EN -> means that something happened to the noun phrase before; works like above
KAZA -> implies noun/verb clause before caused noun/verb clause after
LI -> implies 2 actions happening in sync: ‘car moves LI person hit’ is like ‘A car hit a person’
‘.’ -> by ‘.’ in the above explanations I mean the end of a sentence
Number Words
(these are shown in their pronunciation, but like in English they can be written with Arabic numerals aswell)
ZEWEO – zero
WAN – one
DOO – two
TAWI- three
POWA – four
PEP – five
ZEKZA – six
ZEPEN – seven
ADED – eight
ADNEN – nine
and ten is WAN ZEWEO or 1, 0 -> 10
and one-thousand two-hundred forty seven is WAN DOO POWA ZEPEN or 1, 2, 4, 7 -> 1247
Factions are like 1 over 2, or WAN OPEPA DOO – 1/2
Decimals are like 1 and 2 of 100, or WAN I DOO OP’DE WAN ZEWEO ZEWEO – 1.02
It’s a mouthful to say, but it’s said as it’s written, so it’s easy to read. Not to mention it keeps the standard writing system for our numbers.
NOTE: All numbers also work as ordinal numbers, so the first of May (which imports as a foreign word) becomes ‘WAN OPDE ne’. 1st of May.