ʐ̂ɔt̆ym

NOTE: This is a conlang I starting making back in June 2025 and has mostly finished before proceeding to neglect it and forget about it for many months. The following documentation is still slightly incomplete.

ʐ̂ɔt̆ym (bDL1X), or Zotym, is a conlang that I can only describe as "diet Ithkuil". It is intended to be information-dense and syntactically unambiguous, while maintaining a simple enough grammar to be thoroughly described on a relatively short and concise webpage (the one you're reading right now!). It is also deliberately intended to look absolutely and utterly insane.

A sentence in Zotym is a sequence of "sextets" (yes, I can hear you giggling in the back of the class...), which are groups of 6 bits. Each of the 64 possible sextets has both a consonant form and a vowel form, and the sextets of a sentence alternate between the two forms. Of course however, sextets can also be represented in a variety of other ways, such as Base64 symbols (or using a much more sensible set of CV syllables... but where's the fun in that?).

Due to the deliberate impracticality and absurdity of Zotym's phonology, I think of Zotym as being not so much a language intended for spoken communication, but more of a primarily written language which just happens to have a phonology and therefore be theoretically verbally speakable, so as to give the appearance and feeling of a spoken language. I could have just as easily made Zotym a written-only conlang with no phonology whatsoever, but this wouldn't have satisfied the particular aesthetic that I had in mind.

Zotym features a (mostly) complete and finalized vocabulary of 1222 official words, which should hopefully be enough to comfortably describe many common everyday concepts. But in case that's not enough for you, the vocabulary also includes a special "private use area": a set of 256 words which can be freely assigned to any meaning, as long as the intended meaning of the word has been made clear in the given context.

The name ʐ̂ɔt̆ym is pronounced /ɖʐɔtʷym/, and means "this insane language" in Zotym. Figuring out the pronunciation of "Zotym" is left as an exercise for the reader.

Links

• Dictionary
• Babel Text

Things I want to make eventually:

• Example sentences page
• Zotym script conversion utility
• Utility for automatically converting to/from Zotym names
• Parser (maybe??)

Phonology

Consonants:

Vowels:

All vowels are capable of being nasalized (/ã/), breathy-voiced (/a̤/), or both simultaneously (/ã̤/).

Orthography

Zotym orthography is written entirely with lowercase letters. The orthography completely avoids using digraphs, in order to maximize the density of the written language.

Spaces are exclusively used to separate sentences from each other (and never indiviual words within a sentence). Zotym is typically written without any punctuation whatsoever, however you are still free to use punctuation if you really want to.

For consonants, the following base letters are used:

A dot above indicates a voiceless nasal or aspirated plosive:

A breve indicates a labialized consonant:

A circumflex turns a plosive into an ejective, or a fricative into an affricate:

The base letters for vowels happen to all be identical to their IPA symbols:

Nasalized vowels are indicated with a tilde above, and breathy vowels are indicated with a dot below.

Unfortunately many fonts seem to display ⟨ị̃⟩ incorrectly; the tilde should be replacing the dot of the ⟨i⟩, just like with ⟨ĩ⟩.

Morphology

Sextets

A sextet is a group of 6 binary digits. All sentences in Zotym are a series of sextets. Each sextet has both a consonant and a vowel associated with it. Within a sentence, each sextet alternates between its consonant form and its vowel form. A sentence always starts with a consonant, unless the sentence conists of only one sextet, in which case that sextet's vowel form is used.

This essentially means that every word and sentence fragment (but not sentences themselves) has two different forms—one starting with a consonant, one starting with a vowel—and which one is used depends on the parity of its position within the sentence. In this document, words will be represented by writing both of their forms separated by a slash, ex. 'ṭõ/ɔt̆' "language".

The tables below show how sextets are mapped to consonants and vowels. In each table, the rows represent the three leftmost (most significant) bits, and the columns represent the three rightmost (least significant) bits.

Consonant mapping:

Vowel mapping:

Of course though, this standard mapping is just one possible way to represent Zotym. Sextets can theoretically be mapped onto any possible set of 64 spoken and/or written symbols: for instance, Base64 characters, or a much more easily-pronouncable set of consonant-vowel syllables (of course at the cost of density, as well as Zotym's distinctively hideous aesthetic).

Word Forms

Every word in Zotym follows one of these two forms:

That is, the first bit of a word indicates how long it's going to be: a 1 indicates a single-sextet word (a particle), whereas a 0 indicates a double-sextet word (a content word).

Particles are small words used for grammatical functions. Each particle has a specially defined syntactic behaviour and semantic meaning (although, many particles have similar function to each other, and are thus grouped into categories such as "pronoun" and "determiner"). Some particles are followed by special sequences of sextets which are used for things such as numbers and names; therefore, Zotym sentences are not strictly sequences of words.

Content words are words which carry the bulk of a sentence's meaning, and are divided into two classes: nouns, and verbs. Verbs are words which accept nouns as arguments, and establish some sort of state, attribute, action, or relationship of/between those nouns. Nouns are words representing people and things, and usually serve as arguments to verbs. Verbs can be converted into nouns and vice versa using specific particles, which are described later.

Verbs are further subdivided into "transitive verbs" and "intransitive verbs". A transitive verb can accept both a subject argument and an object argument, whereas an intransitive verb can only accept a subject argument. The subject and object arguments are labeled as S and O respectively in verb definitions, for example:

• kɑ/ʊĉ "S is red"
• qũ/ek "S sings O"
• x̂ʏ/at "S is far away from O"
• ṗʏ̃/œŧ "S teaches information/subject O"
• ʂ̂ʊ/ok "S drops/lets go of O; O falls"

Semantic Categories

All content words are organized into semantic categories based on their first sextet. (For a complete list of these categories, see the dictionary page.) Furthermore, words within each category are organized into a list, with the intention being that words which have similar or related meanings appear next to each other; and from there, the second sextet of each word is determined by the word's position within that list. However, whenever a new word is added to the language, it will be appended at the end of the corresponding category rather than at a more semantically appropriate position, to avoid shifting around a bunch of other existing words.

Words beginning with 'ʂ/ɛ̃-' are reserved for potential future expansion (although I see it as unlikely that this will ever actually get used).

Private Use Area

The final four categories, whose words begin with 'x/œ̃-','c/ɔ̃-', 'h/æ̃-' and 'ł/ʌ̃-', are reserved for private use. This private use area is analogous to the private use areas in standards such as Unicode and ISO 639-3. The 256 words in this area are free to be assigned to any meaning that a particular user or group of users desires. Private use words are not guaranteed to be understood by other users of the language unless the word's intended meaning has been made clear or was agreed upon beforehand in the given context.

The private use area might be used to inductively define custom "jargon terms" within a particular document, allowing the creation of one-time shorthand for referring to complex technical concepts without having to use lexicalized compound phrases. It could also be used by a certain community, friendgroup, or individual user, in order to develop an agreed-upon set of convenient words for referring to particular things, people, or concepts which are important to them. (Yes, I am pretending as if anyone is actually going to use this ridiculous language. Feel free to steal the "private use vocabulary" idea for a conlang that's slightly more practical than this one, if you want.)

There is one important caveat regarding the creation of private use vocabulary: all nouns must have their rightmost bit set to 0, and all verbs must have their rightmost bit set to 1. This is so that a parser (computer or human) is always able to correctly parse a sentence, even when it contains private use vocabulary that they don't understand.

Grammar

Due to the language's focus on compactness, Zotym grammar prioritizes rigid sentence structure over flexible word order and freedom of information flow, preferring to convey information through strict word order rather than case-marking or adverb/preposition-marking particles. The latter may be more useful for rapid, realtime communication, however Zotym is more of a language intended for meticulously constructing compact written sentences, rather than for rapid speech. It is very much a language that expects you to have an entire sentence planned out in your head before you start writing it.

Sentence Structure

An utterance in Zotym is a series of sentences. Sentences are separated from each other by spaces in writing, and by a mandatory pause in speech. Alternatively, 'l/ị' can also be used as a sentence separator; I don't recommend using it for the regular spoken/written language (except in quotations), however it becomes a necessity in situations where Zotym is being encoded as a raw stream of sextets, without the luxury of space characters.

A sentence consists of a top-level clause. A clause follows one of the two following structures:

• [noun]
• [verb] (arguments...)

A sentence consisting of solely a noun can be used to state the presence of the noun, or to simply throw a noun into the air without communicating anything about it. They can also be used as the answer to a question.

(TODO: example of answering a question with a noun-only clause; I haven't developed question stuff yet.)

In a clause starting with a verb, the verb may be followed by a minimum of 0 arguments up to a maximum of 2 arguments if it's a transitive verb, or 1 if it's an intransitive verb. The first argument after a verb fills its S slot, and the second argument after a verb fills its O slot.

Using the verb 'ṫæ/ɔk̇' (S reads O):

Role Reversal

The particle 'ɣ/æ̣̃' precedes a transitive verb in order to reverse the roles of its arguments: the verb's first argument now fills the O slot, and the second argument now fills the S slot. (Using this particle with an intransitive verb is ungrammatical.)

'ɣ/æ̣̃' is usually not used for verbs which have both arguments filled, however, since it adds an extra character to the sentence without really adding any meaning to it, which goes against the goal of compactness. Instead, a more useful function of 'ɣ/æ̣̃' is that it allows a verb to have a filled O argument, but not a filled S argument.

...although, even this function can just as easily (and using the same amount of space) be accomplished with the "null pronoun" particle (described later). There is one context in which 'ɣ/æ̣̃' becomes actually useful though, and that's modifiers.

Modifiers

Modifiers are a highly ubiquitous construct in Zotym, which encompass adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, and relative clauses.

A verb may follow a noun or another verb to act as a modifier. A modifier verb states that the word preceding it satisfies the verb's first argument (normally the S argument, unless 'ɣ/æ̣̃' is applied to it).

For example, the verb 'kɑ/ʊĉ' (S is red) can be used as a modifier for the noun 'fe/ɪ̃ŋ̇' (book), which indicates that the book satisfies the S argument of "S is red", ie. that the book is red.

In this sentence, the verb 'tɪ/ʏp' (S is slow) is used as a modifier for the verb 'ṫæ/ɔk̇' (S reads O), which indicates that the reading satisfies the S argument of "S is slow", ie. that the reading occurs slowly.

The role reversal particle 'ɣ/æ̣̃' can be applied to modifiers, which causes the modifier to state that the preceding word satisfies the verb's O argument instead of its S argument.

It is also possible to attach a noun to a modifier in order to fill its remaining argument, essentially forming relative clauses. A modifier can be followed by the particle 'g/ʊ̣', then followed by a noun which fills the modifier's O slot.

The particle 'ɠ/ɛ̣' works similarly, except the noun following it fills the modifier's S slot instead. But of course, since the modifier already has a filled S slot (that being the word the modifier is modifying), this particle also has the additional effect of causing the modified word to fill the modifier's O slot instead of its S slot, as if 'ɣ/æ̣̃' were attached to it. That is to say, "Xɛ̣Y/XɠY" is really just a shorter version of "ɣXgY/æ̣̃Xʊ̣Y".

Modifiers with attached nouns are also used as prepositions: either ones which describe an entire clause (formed by modifying the clause's verb), or ones which describe a noun. Below is an example of the verb 'x̂u/aṅ' (S is at/in/on O) modifying a clause:

...and modifying a noun:

Modifiers are capable of modifying other modifiers recursively:

Note that the above sentence does not mean "a beautiful blue ocean". Modifiers always describe the word immediately preceding them, so two modifiers following a noun do not both describe the noun independently, but rather, the second modifier describes the first modifier. In order for multiple modifiers to stack onto the same noun, conjunctions must be used, which are described later.

Pronouns

Pronouns are particles which can take the place of nouns, and function exactly like nouns syntactically. The pronoun particles in Zotym are:

• đ/ʏ̣̃: null pronoun (something; someone; thing)
• m/ỵ: 1st person pronoun (I/me, we/us)
• d/ʏ̣: 2nd person pronoun (you)
• ẑ/ø̣: 3rd person pronoun (he/him, she/her, it, they/them)

The null pronoun, or alternatively "0th person pronoun", is a word which can be used in place of any noun without carrying any meaning whatsoever. It is useful in a variety of situtations where a noun is syntactically required, but where no noun in particular is desired to be specified. For example, it can be used with modifiers:

It also creates an alternative way to fill a verb's O argument without filling it's S argument, in addition to the role reversal particle 'ɣ/æ̣̃'.

Negation

The negation particle 'z/ʊ̣̃' precedes a noun or verb to negate it. When applied to the main verb of a sentence, it negates the entire sentence:

However, when applied to a specific word within the sentence, it negates only that part of the sentence:

Determiners

Determiners are particles which may precede a noun in order to provide information about which instance(s) of that noun the word is meant to refer to. The determiner particles are:

• ʐ̂/ọ: demonstrative determiner (this, that, the)
• ɟ/ɔ̣̃: universal determiner (all, every)

The demonstrative determiner 'ʐ̂/ọ' indicates that the noun refers to an instance that was previously mentioned or is otherwise expected to be known in the current context.

The universal determiner 'ɟ/ɔ̣̃' means "every" or "all".

There is no dedicated determiner for "none" or "no"; instead, this is normally expressed either by using the number zero (numbers are described later), or by negating the verb in combination with 'ɟ/ɔ̣̃'.

Questions

The interrogative truth particle 'ğ/æ̣' is used to form questions asking whether something is true. It can precede the main verb:

... or precede a noun/verb within that sentence to ask about that part of the sentence specifically:

The interrogative identity particle 'd̆/ɔ̣' precedes a noun in order to form "which/what" questions.

Imperative

The imperative particle 'ĵ/ạ' precedes a verb to form a sentence expressing a command/request. It is also used to express determination, obligation, or desire that something will occur in the future, similar to "shall" or "will" or the optative mood.

Copula

The copula particle 's̆/ị̃' precedes a noun to converts it into a verb meaning "S is [noun]".

Genitive

The genitive particle 'ʂ̆/ỵ̃' precedes a noun to convert it into a verb meaning "S is of/pertaining to [noun]". It is essentially a condensed version of the verb 'ŋ̇æ/ek̇' ("S pertains to O").

Any modifiers applied to a genitive verb describe the underlying noun rather than the verb itself. So "q̇ɔʂ̆ãĉỹʂ̂" means "a glass of cold milk" rather than "a glass which pertains to milk in a cold way".

Causative

The causative particle 'j/œ̣̃' precedes a noun to convert it into a verb meaning "S causes O to become [noun]", or precedes a verb to convert it into a new verb meaning "S causes O to satisfy the first argument of [verb]".

Embedded Clauses

Embedded clauses are clauses which are converted into nouns. They are initiated with 'n/ụ', and terminated with 'ŋ/ẹ'. The terminator particle may be elided at the end of a sentence.

The particle 'v/ɪ̣̃' may initiate an embedded clause consiting of a single noun or verb, and does not use a terminator particle.

An embedded clause containing a question particle ('ğ/æ̣' or 'd̆/ɔ̣') acts as an indirect question:

Quotations

A quotation is a portion of speech which has been converted into a noun representing the speech itself. Quotations are initiated with 'z̆/ø̣̃' and terminated with 'ɣ̆/ɑ̣̃'. The content of a quotation must be a valid Zotym utterance.

To quote multiple sentences at once, the sentence separator particle 'l/ị' must be used within the quotation.

Conjunctions

Conjunctions are particles which conjoin noun phrases or verb phrases together. (The terms "noun phrase" and "verb phrase" refer to a noun/verb plus any particles and modifiers attached to it.) The conjunction words are:

• b/ɪ̣: and
• ʐ/ɛ̣̃: or (inclusive); and/or
• ʐ̆/ọ̃: or (exclusive); xor

A conjunction phrase is a sequence of noun phrases or verb phrases separated by conjunctions. Each phrase within a conjunction phrase must be of the same type, and each conjunction must be the same. A conjunction phrase behaves as the same part of speech as its component phrases.

The default behavior of a conjunction is to capture the largest noun/verb phrases possible immediately to it's left and right. (In the glosses of the example sentences below, curly braces are used to show the scope of a conjunction phrase.)

Otherwise, a conjunction phrase is enclosed with the particles 'h̆/ẹ̃' and 'ŋ/ẹ' to explicitly mark its scope.

Numbers

Numbers in Zotym are suitably represented in base 64, with digits ordered from most significant to least significant. They behave as verbs meaning "S is [number] in quantity".

A single digit number is initiated with the particle 'x̆/ụ̃', followed by a single sextet representing the value of the number. ('x̆i' would mean 0, 'x̆y' would mean 1, 'x̆u' would mean 2, etc.)

A multi-digit number is initiated with the particle 'ɠ̆/ʌ̣', followed by a single sextet representing the amount of digits in the number, followed by that many sextets representing each digit of the number.

This means that, yes, it's technically possible to have a zero-digit number ('ɠ̆i/ʌ̣r'). Perhaps this could be used as a humorous way of expressing an unknown quantity:

Names