ZulapaThe review

Zulapa

Zulapa is a constructed language by Anna Ishq. Its name means the heart speaks.

This site is the review of the language: its sounds, its morphemes, how they join, and how words take their place in a phrase. Each page lists the rules of one part of the language. The rules that stand at the end of the review are what the new compiler will follow.

How to read a rule

A rule is a name, a sentence or two, and cases. A case has one of three shapes.

Shape It shows
a join the word before, the part that joins it, and the word after
a sound a word, and how it is said
a phrase its translation, and for each word its morphemes, its sounds, its script and its gloss

In a join, each state is a word, its class and its gloss. The part shows what it can mean as a noun, a verb, an adjective or an adverb.

A gloss follows the Leipzig Glossing Rules. The word after is cut into its segments, and the gloss stands under it, one part for each segment.

A class is one of noun, verb, adj, adv and def. A word may also set the class of what follows it: o is noun, then verb, so the agu that joins it is to listen and not ear.

Every case is built with the first compiler, which is kept frozen in packages/legacy. The states before and of the part are read from it. The state after is the one the rule expects. Where that compiler builds another word, class or gloss, the case has a heavy bar, and shows what the compiler builds under it. In a settled rule, this means the first compiler is wrong, and the new one must differ.

A rule with a red number is a conflict: the cards of the old site, its phrases and its compiler do not agree. The rule shows one case for each side, and the question that is open. A conflict that is settled becomes a rule, and leaves no trace.

The pages

Page It settles
Glossing how a gloss is written, and the labels it may use
Sounds the sounds, and how the spelling writes them
Joining what stands between two morphemes of a word
Roles the class of a word, and what gives it
Subjects who acts, and how a subject makes a word an action
Moods the five suffixes of one vowel, and the intent they give
Time when an action happens: the tenses, and the words of time
Phrases the cases, and the order of the words

The pages to come are gender, the cases, and the numbers.

Where the rules live

The rules are files of packages/zulapa/design, one per page. A page draws the file that its rules fence names. To change a rule, change its file: the page is rebuilt, and each case is checked again.