u/CollectionSea6818

The Eurocentric bias we don't usually talk about

Now, eurocentrism in auxlangs like Esperanto has been debated a lot. This is not what I am going to talk about today. I haven't found writings about the specific point I will talk about so that's why I wanted to bring it up.

 

Nearly all auxlangs have romance-germanic logic and structure almost word by word. Replacing vocabulary and some grammatical features is not enough to avoid Eurocentric bias.

 

Grammar is how you structure thoughts, how you reference the language's logic, and how you build and re-build meanings. One must contend with a languages' backbone in order to examine bias. And when you step outside of the romance-germanic-auxlang sphere, you see that a lot of what we take for granted in auxlang logic, coupled with our deep intuitions of what is "simple" or "easy", is deeply Eurocentric. When you look at languages like Japanese, Arabic, Yucatec Maya, and Turkish, you can see this much more clearly. And then you realize that actually, a vast number of languages worldwide are deeply distinct from romance-germanic. They operate in totally different and fascinating logic and structures.

 

For example, take the features of what I would call "Standard Auxlang". SVO order, which in reality is not even just SVO order (which is common) but rather almost everything in romance-germanic order. Then you have explicit pronouns; European-style subordination; topic and focus as an afterthought; large verb systems primarily tense and secondary aspect; lots of "be" and "it"; gerund everywhere; the standard list of correlatives; romance-germanic suffixes, prefixes and word derivation; almost no information structure like comment or evidentiality. Notice that there is nothing inherently European about any of these in isolation. The point is, when you use these in aggregate, you end up with romance-germanic logic and sentence structure almost word by word.

 

There are so many unexamined assumptions about what makes a language easy, simple, or universal that we may not even be able to picture how these little things could be different. And yet they are, in a rich linguistic landscape that we have in natural languages worldwide.  The community barely has space for languages outside of this Euro sphere to contribute much more than just vocabulary, they are not allowed into the very own foundations of auxlangs. 

 

I am not talking here about auxlangs that are based on European languages and explicitly so. They tend to be clear about what their tendencies are. It's almost worse to still have a largely romance-germanic auxlang landscape while saying otherwise because biases are left unexamined. Whether the community is willing to examine its assumptions of what is easy, familiar, intuitive and non-eurocentric is worth asking.

 

Now, there are a few auxlangs that are significantly different from romance-germanic-auxlang structure and logic. They may be organized with topic-comment structures, aspect-first verb systems, role markers, zero pronouns, and other things that feel unfamiliar to Euro speakers. But these auxlangs are not numerous, and they may not benefit from the same perceived easiness and familiarity as Standard Auxlang. 

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u/CollectionSea6818 — 3 days ago
▲ 11 r/auxlangs+1 crossposts

Presenting: Oravia's Core Grammar

(same page on the website: https://learnoravia.com/about/core-grammar/. more details about Oravia: https://learnoravia.com)

# Oravia — 10-Minute Grammar

Learn the basics in 10 simple points and start making sentences right away.

---

## Pronunciation

**B C D F G H J L M N P R S T V W Y**

All pronounced as you would expect in English or IPA, with the details of:

- **C** /k/ as in *cake*

- **H** /h/ as in *house* or soft rasp

- **J** /dʒ/ as in *jello*

- **R** /ɾ/ flap, like the tt in American English *butter*

**Vowels: A E I O U**

- **A** /ɑ/ as in *father*

- **E** /ɛ/ as in *cellar*

- **I** /i/ as in *creek*

- **O** /ɔ/ as in *door*

- **U** /u/ as in *flu*

If you pronounce E and O closed like in Spanish (IPA e and o), that's fine too!

**Stress:** On the penultimate syllable, like i**LI**ru.

---

## 1. Pronouns and Possession

| Singular | Plural |

|----------|--------|

| nim (I) | nima (we) |

| run (you) | runa (you, pl) |

| hay (he/she/they) | haya (they, pl) |

**Possessive:** Use the pronoun before the word

```

nim bo

[I house] = my house

```

For nouns or to disambiguate, use **de**:

```

bo de miwo

[house of dog] = dog's house

```

---

## 2. The Four Core Markers

Markers go before the word or phrase they mark:

> **a** = subject (doer/experiencer)

>

> **i** = verb (main action)

>

> **e** = direct object (what the verb acts on)

>

> **u** = indirect object (recipient, often English "to/for")

```

a [subject] i [verb] e [direct complement] u [indirect complement]

a nim i anona e mocen u run

I give chocolate to you

```

Because roles are marked (a/e/u), word order is flexible and you can copy the natural order of your own language.

We also use **a** to say something is something. For example, *a nim a yalen* = I am tall · *a bo a yamirli* = the house is old.

---

## 3. Describing Words

A modifier goes right before the word it describes.

```

mocen mouje → "chocolate drink"

pohem mocen mouje → "hot chocolate drink"

```

Because of the markers, any word can go in any role. For example, if you say *a angi* this means "[subject] brave", if you say *i angi* this means "[verb] to dare". If you say *angi falen*, this means "bold child".

---

## 4. Two Core Prepositions

Use these instead of a large set of prepositions:

> **en** = location/time ("in, on, at")

>

> **de** = source/possession ("of, from")

**Examples:**

```

a nim en bo

I at home

```

a nim i anifi de bo

I come from the house

```

---

## 5. Coordination and Contrast

> **su** = and/with

>

> **mai** = but

>

> **dou** = or

>

> **eta** = so, therefore

```

run i mo e moaria su mocen

you eat apple and chocolate

```

---

## 6. Negation

Add **-um** to the word you want to negate. For example, used with the word *dami*, meaning to exist or there is/are:

```

i dami a moaria

there is an apple

```

i damium a moaria

there is no apple

```

---

## 7. Questions and "What/That" Clauses

Raise intonation for yes/no questions, no structural change needed:

```

run i mo? → are you eating?

```

**ce** = what (question) · **ca** = that / which (connector)

```

ce en bo?

what in the house?

```

a nim i anye ca a run i dairan

I do what you like

```

Build more question words with **ce** + a domain word:

| Word | Meaning |

|------|---------|

| cei | who (what + person) |

| cedom | where (what + place) |

| celi | when (what + time) |

| ceora | why (what + reason) |

| cenon | how (what + way) |

In statements, swap **ce** → **ca**: ceora → caora (because), cedom → cadom (where), etc.

```

run i ilianum cadom bo

you know-not where the house

```

---

## 8. Verb Stacking

To chain two verbs, repeat **i** before each one:

```

run i dairan i anelem en bo → you like to stay home

nim i do i mo → I can eat

haya i dai i anvu → they want to go

hay i fou i mo → she needs to eat

```

No "to" needed between verbs.

---

## 9. Compounds

Oravia has a small vocabulary, and as such, there is full creativity and flexibility to create new expressions.

**-a suffix** bonds modifiers and noun into a single concept:

```

waa jasru = ocean-bend = bay

lufua yahlul = air-soft = fluffy

lia selyino = time-plan = schedule

waa dom = water-land = island

lufua bei = air-vehicle = airplane

```

Notice you can be as specific as you'd like by adding more descriptions to your compound. If you think lufua bei (air-vehicle) is not enough specificity for what you want to express as airplane, you can for example say jeluina lufua bei (winged-air-vehicle).

**Hyphenated forms** fuse two words into one expression:

```

falen-li = child-time = childhood

tohpu-vanvu = sad-walk = to trudge, move with sadness

bo-bortal = house-enter = to enter a house

ilofun-vardei = hesitant-look = to peek with doubt

```

If you are unsure whether you want a compound or hyphenated expression, just use whatever feels right to you. Chances are, either works!

---

## 10. Vocabulary

Most Oravia words are formed as (sub)cluster + root.

A cluster is the first sound of the word, which signals its semantic domain. For example, MO for food and eating, FA for family, AN for actions, YA for qualities, and so on across 48 clusters.

Clusters are further divided into 0-4 subclusters, indicated by the third letter.

A root is a sound shared across multiple clusters that adds a second layer of meaning.

For example, *moalen*, banana, is formed by MO (food cluster) + A (fruit subcluster) + LEN (root for long).

Together, the ~260 (sub)clusters and roots form the sound-meaning associations of Oravia. These classifications were not created by me; rather they were discovered by using word embeddings of how people associate concepts together. (Sub)clusters and roots also have associations with natural languages. For example, *vi* means internal body, similar to Latin's viscera. For more information, take a look at What is Oravia (https://learnoravia.com/about/what-is-oravia/)?

Because the sounds aren't arbitrary, once you know the associations, you can make educated guesses about words you haven't learned yet, remember words more easily, play around with word components, and learn words faster and faster.

Now that you know a little of how the vocabulary works, you can explore the Full Vocabulary, Building Blocks, and Blocks Cheat Sheet pages on the site.

---

## You've Got the Essentials of Grammar!

**You now know:**

- The 4 core markers (a/i/e/u)

- How to negate with -um

- How to ask questions (ce)

- Prepositions (en/de)

- Core connectors (ca) and coordinators (su/mai/dou/eta)

- Verb stacking and creating new expressions

You can start building sentences right away!

---

## Start Here — Starter Vocabulary

Pronouns and function words we've seen:

nim = I · run = you · hay = he/she/they · nima = we · runa = you plural · haya = they

de = of/from · en = at/in · su = and · mai = but · dou = or · eta = so

Other words:

mo = eat / food · mouje = drink · anye = make, do · anvu = go · anidai = want · ilaluan = speak / say · vardei = see / look · dami = exist / there is · dairan = like · ilian = know · elemi = live, life · boemo = kitchen, cook · ando = can · bonfene = lie down / bed · bo = house · fano = child · fare = parent · faejor = woman · faejal = man · mogali = coffee · moaria = apple · mouje = drink · mocen = chocolate · anifou = need · anona = give · leirih = tree · noi = here / this · ho noi = there / that (opposite + here) · faibor = spouse · miau = cat · beivu = car · none = have · litam = day · nolili = always · eofa = friend · elihei = person · noli = now · yuba = good · ti = bad · one = tam · two = tor · three = par · four = balem · five = alui · elireva = true / really · yalen = long / tall · yaltan = big · yamirli = old · yunro = smart · yasoi = fast · tohpu = sad · gerina = money · roedom = school · liyar = morning · limel = night · bevio = store · oipoh = exciting

Try combining them now. *nim i dairan e mogali* · *i dami a yuba mo* · *a bo a yamirli* · *hay i anvu, mai nim i doum*

u/CollectionSea6818 — 4 days ago