Cniglic

Cniglic (pronounced shneeg-leesh) takes a certain subsection of Lojban, the indicators (including the vocatives, the evidentials, the discursives, and the attitudinals), and bolts them on to some other language, such as English.

The most basic form of Cniglic consists of the 39 emotional scales, and the five words that create the 9-point positions for each scale, and perhaps the half-dozen emotional categories. With just 50 words, a total of 2,457 distinct emotional states can be described - and that's without even counting combinations thereof, let alone the possibilities added by Cniglic's more advanced terms. Entire conversations can be carried on in Cniglic, and can be understood even if the speakers share no full language in common, though the content of such discussions will be somewhat limited.

Except for the Vocatives, the grammar the remaining words is simple. At the beginning of a sentence, they refer to the whole sentence; otherwise, they refer to the previous word. So "[.ui] I got a blue car!" means the speaker is happy about the entire idea, while "I got a blue [.ui] car!" means they're happy about the blueness.

Emotional modifiers:

These suffices modify the attitudinal they're attached to, creating nine levels for each emotional scale.

Modifier	Modification	Pronunciation
cai	very strong	shy
sai	strong	sigh
(nothing)	felt
ru'e	weak	ROO-heh
cu'i	not felt	SHOO-hee
nairu'e	weak negative	nigh-ROO-heh
nai	negative felt	nigh
naisai	strong negative	nigh-sigh
naicai	very strong negative	nigh-shy

Attitudinal indicators and suffixes with examples of modifier use:

Attitudinals

Simple pure emotions:

Attitudinal	sounds	(nothing)	-cu'i	-nai
.ua	wa, wah	discovery Eureka!		confusion I don't get it
.u'a	OO-ha	gain		loss
.ue	weh	surprise Wow!	no surprise	expectation
.u'e	OO-heh	wonder Surprise! Wow!	Ho hum.	commonplace Expected!
.ui	we, wee	happiness Whee! Yay!		unhappiness
.u'i	OO-hee	amusement		weariness
.uo	wo, woe	completion At last!		incompleteness
.u'o	OO-hoe	courage	timidity	cowardice
.uu	woo	pity sympathy Alas! I'm sorry		cruelty
.u'u	OO-hoo	repentance I'm sorry	lack of regret	innocence lack of guilt

Complex pure emotions:

Attitudinal	sounds	(nothing)	-cu'i	-nai
.o'a	OH-ha	pride	modesty	shame
.o'e	OH-heh	closeness	detachment	distance
.oi	oy	complaint pain	no complaints doing OK	pleasure
.o'i	OH-hee	caution Beware!	boldness	rashness
.o'o	OH-hoe	patience	mere tolerance	anger Grrr!
.o'u	OH-hoo	relaxation Phew! comfort	composure	stress

Miscellaneous pure emotions:

Attitudinal	sounds	(nothing)	-cu'i	-nai
.ii	yee	fear Eek!	nervousness	security
.i'i	EE-hee	togetherness conviviality		privacy
.io	yo	respect	lack of respect	disrespect
.i'o	EE-hoe	appreciation	lack of appreciation	envy
.iu	you, yoo	love	lack of love no love lost	hatred
.i'u	EE-hoo	familiarity		mystery

Simple propositional emotions:

Attitudinal	sounds	attitude	-cu'i	-nai
.a'a	AH-ha	attentive	inattentive	avoiding
.a'e	AH-heh	alertness		exhaustion
.ai	I, eye	intent	indecision	rejection refusal
.a'i	AH-hee	effort	lack of effort no real effort	repose
.a'o	AH-hoe	hope Hopefully		despair
.au	ow	desire	indifference	reluctance
.a'u	AH-hoo	interest	no interest disinterest	repulsion

Complex propositional emotions:

Attitudinal	sounds	attitude	-cu'i	-nai
.e'a	EH-ha	permission		prohibition
.e'e	EH-heh	competence		incompetence
.ei	Aay, ey	obligation ought to should	No matter	freedom non-obligation
.e'i	EH-hee	constraint	independence	resistance to constraint
.e'o	EH-hoe	request		negative request
.e'u	EH-hoo	suggestion	no suggestion	warning
.ia	ya	belief	skepticism	disbelief Nonsense!
.i'a	EE-ha	acceptance		blame
.ie	yeh	agreement		disagreement
.i'e	EE-heh	approval	non-approval	disapproval

Emotional categories:

Category	sounds	(nothing)	-cu'i	-nai
(nothing)		general/overall emotion
ro'a	RO-ha	social	asocial	antisocial
ro'e	RO-heh	mental	absentminded	mindless
ro'i	RO-hee	emotional	emotionless	denying emotion
ro'o	RO-hoe	physical	intangible	denying physical
ro'u	RO-hoo	sexual	asexual	sexual abstinence
re'e	REH-heh	spiritual	secular	sacrilegious

Attitudinal modifiers:

Modifier	sounds	(nothing)	-cu'i	-nai
ga'i	GA-hee	hauteur rank	equal rank	meekness lack of rank
le'o	LEH-hoe	aggressive	passive	defensive
vu'e	VOO-heh	virtue		sin
se'i	SEH-hee	self-orientation		other-orientation
ri'e	REE-heh	release emotional outburst	restraint	control
fu'i	FOO-hee	easily with help	without help	with difficulty with opposition
be'u	BEH-hoo	lack need	presence satisfaction	satiation Enough!
se'a	SEH-ha	self-sufficiency		dependency

Notes:

[ga'i] is used when the speaker feels of high-rank compared to what's being referred to, [ga'inai] when the speaker feels of low rank.
[se'i] expresses the difference between selfish and generous, for example [ause'i] (desire) (self) "I want it!" vs [ause'inai] (desire) (other) "I want you to have it!"; [uuse'i] is self-pity, [uuse'inai] is pity for someone else.
[ri'e] indicates emotional release versus emotional control. "I will not let him know how angry I am" could be [.o'onai ri'enai] (anger) (control). [ri'e] can be used by itself to signal an emotional outburst.
[fu'i] may express a reason for feeling the way we do, as opposed to a feeling in itself; but it is a reason that is more emotionally determined than most. When someone gives you a back massage, you could use ``.o'ufu'i'' to show appreciation for the assistance in your comfort.
[be'u] expresses, roughly speaking, whether the emotion it modifies is in response to something you don't have enough of, something you have enough of, or something you have too much of. [.uiro'obe'unai] (Yay!) (physical) (Enough!) might be something you say after a large meal which you enjoyed. Like all modifiers, ``be'u'' can be used alone.
[se'a] shows whether the feeling is associated with self-sufficiency or with dependence on others. [.e'ese'a] (I can!) (self-sufficient!) "I can do it all by myself!", vs [.e'ese'anai] (I can!) (dependent) "I can do it if you help me.", vs [.e'enaise'a] (I can't) (self-sufficient) "I can't do it by myself!", vs [.e'enaise'anai] (I can't) (dependent) "I can't do it if you insist on 'helping' me!".

Special:

cmavo	sounds	(nothing)	-cu'i	-nai
pei	pay	attitude question
dai	die, dye	empathy
bu'o	BOO-hoe	start emotion I'm getting...	continue emotion I still feel...	end emotion I'm ceasing to feel...

Notes:

[pei] asked by itself captures all of the denotation of English "How are you?" coupled with "How do you feel?". Placed where an intensity marker usually goes, it asks where on the scale the listener feels. Eg, [.iepei] (agreement) (question) "Do you agree?", [.iare'epei] (belief) (spiritual) (question) "Are you a Believer?", [.aipei] (intention) (question) "Are you going to do it?", [.e'apei] (permission) (question) "May I?". If placed before an indicator construct, it asks if the whole thing is how the listener feels. Eg, [pei.o'u] (question) (comfort) "Are you comfortable?".
[dai] attributes the preceding indicator construct to someone else, and is also used when the speaker empathizes with someone else: [.oiro'odai] (pain!) (physical) (empath) "Ouch, that must have hurt!".
[bu'o] and its variants report that the speaker is beginning to feel, continuing to feel, or ceasing to feel an emotion.

Evidentials:

These show how the speaker came to say the utterance - the source of the information or idea. A sentence with an evidential becomes a statement about 'how it is with the speaker'.

Evidential	sounds	(nothing)	-cu'i	-nai
ja'o	ZHA-hoe	I conclude thus therefore I reason I deduce
ca'e	SHA-heh	I define I now pronounce
ba'a	BA-ha	I expect I anticipate	I experience	I remember
su'a	SOO-ha	I generalize I induce		I particularize
ti'e	TEE-heh	I hear (hearsay) not necessarily literally "hear"
ka'u	KA-hoo	I know by cultural means
se'o	SEH-hoe	I know by internal experience
za'a	ZA-ha	I observe
pe'i	PEH-hee	I opine It is my opinion that...
ru'a	ROO-ha	I postulate I presume I assume
ju'a	ZHOO-ha	I state (elliptical discursive)

Discursives

These provide structure to a discourse, and show how a given word or utterance relates to the whole discourse. They are most often used at the beginning of sentences, and are abbreviations for metalinguistic claims that reference the sentence or text they are found in.

Consecutive discourse:

cmavo	sounds	(nothing)
ku'i	KOO-hee	however but in contrast
ji'a	ZHEE-ha	additionally too
si'a	SEE-ha	similarly
mi'u	MEE-hoo	ditto
po'o	PO-hoh	the only relevant case only

These five discursives are mutually exclusive, and therefore they are not usually considered as scales. The first four are used in consecutive discourse. [ku'i] makes an exception to the previous argument. [ji'a] adds weight to the previous argument. [si'a] adds quantity to the previous argument, enumerating an additional example. [mi'u] adds a parallel case to the previous argument, and can also be used in tables or the like to show that something is being repeated from the previous column. [po'o] is used when there is no other comparable case, and thus corresponds to some of the uses of "only".

Commentary on words:

cmavo	sounds		(nothing)	-nai
va'i	VA-hee		in other words rephrasing	in the same words repeating
ta'u	TA-hoo		expanding a tanru	making a tanru

[ta'u] is a discursive unique to Lojban and its derivatives; it expresses the particularly Lojbanic device of tanru. Since tanru are semantically ambiguous, they are subject to misunderstanding. This ambiguity can be removed by expanding the tanru into some semantically unambiguous structure, often involving relative clauses or the introduction of additional brivla. The discursive [ta'u] marks the transition from the use of a brief but possibly confusing tanru to its fuller, clearer expansion; the discursive [ta'unai] marks a transition in the reverse direction.

Commentary on discourse:

cmavo	sounds	(nothing)	-cu'i	-nai
li'a	LEE-ha	clearly obviously		obscurely
ba'u	BA-hoo	exaggeration	accuracy	understatement
zo'o	ZO-hoe	humorously	dully	seriously
sa'e	SA-heh	precisely speaking		loosely speaking roughly speaking
to'u	TO-hoo	in brief in short skipping details		in detail
do'a	DO-ha	generously broadly construed		parsimoniously narrowly construed
sa'u	SA-hoo	simply		elaborating furthermore
pa'e	PA-heh	justice		prejudice bias
je'u	ZHEH-hoo	truly It is true that...		falsely
su'a	SOO-ha	abstractly in general		concretely in particular

Knowledge:

cmavo	sounds		(nothing)	-cu'i	-nai
ju'o	ZHOO-hoe		certainly	uncertain	certainly not
la'a	LA-ha		probably		improbably

Discourse management:

cmavo	sounds	(nothing)	-cu'i	-nai
ta'o	TA-hoe	by the way	(sometimes: speaking of which,...)	returning to point/subject anyway in any case as I was saying
ra'u	RA-hoo	chiefly above all primarily	equally	incidentally
mu'a	MOO-ha	for example	omitting ex.	end examples
zu'u	ZOO-hoo	on the one hand		on the other hand
ke'u	KEH-hoo	repeating		continuing new content furthermore
da'i	DA-hee	supposing hypothetically		in fact in truth According to the facts

Miscellaneous indicators:

Attitudinal	sounds	(nothing)	-nai
ki'a	KEE-ha	metalinguistic confusion
na'i	NA-hee	metalinguistic negator Huh?
jo'a	ZHO-ha	metalinguistic affirmer
li'o	LEE-hoe	omitted text (quoted material)
sa'a	SA-ha	material inserted by editor/narrator
xu	khoo	true-false question Is it true that...?
pau	pow	question premarker	rhetorical question
pe'a	PEH-ha	figurative language	literal language
bi'u	BEE-hoo	new information	old information
ge'e	GEH-heh	non-specific indicator
kau	cow	indirect question

Notes:

[ki'a] is one of the most common of the miscellaneous indicators. It expresses metalinguistic confusion; i.e. confusion about what has been said, as opposed to confusion not tied to the discourse (which is [.uanai]). The confusion may be about the meaning of a word or of a grammatical construct, or about the referent of a word.
[na'i] indicates that there is something wrong with a piece of discourse: either an error, or a false underlying assumption, or something else of the sort. The discourse is invalid or inappropriate due to the marked word or construct.
[jo'a] marks something which looks wrong but is in fact correct.
[li'o] indicates that words were omitted from a quotation.
[sa'a] indicates in a quotation that the marked word or construct was not actually expressed, but is inserted for editorial, narrative, or grammatical purposes.
[xu] marks truth questions. In general, [xu] may be translated "Is it true that ... ?" and questions whether the attached clause is true. When [xu] is attached to a specific word or construct, it directs the focus of the question to that word or construct.
Question words do not always stand at the beginning of the question. Placing [pau] at the beginning of a sentence helps the listener realize that the sentence is a question, like the symbol at the beginning of written Spanish questions that looks like an upside-down question mark. The listener is then warned to watch for the actual question word. Its scalar opposite, [paunai], signals that a bridi is not really a question despite its form. This is what we call in English a rhetorical question
[pe'a] is the indicator of figurative speech, indicating that the previous word should be taken figuratively rather than literally. The negated form, [pe'anai], indicates that what has been said is to be interpreted literally; natural-language intuition is to be ignored.
[bi'u] and [bi'unai] are useful when phrases such as 'a man' or 'the man' are repeated, to indicate whether the 'man' is the same one that was referred to before, or a new one.
[ge'e] is used to express an attitude which is not covered by the existing set, or to avoid expressing any attitude. Another use for [ge'e] is to explicitly avoid expressing one's feeling on a given scale; [.iige'e] means roughly "I'm not telling whether I'm afraid or not."
[kau] marks the word it is attached to as the focus of an indirect question.

Vocatives

Grammar and usage is simple. Each vocative can be used by itself; or it can be followed by a name or some other indicator of who's being addressed; or it can be followed by [do'u], to make clear that what follows isn't the name of who's being addressed. [mi'e] is the exception, as it's followed by the speaker's name (or, in the case of [mi'enai], something that's not the speaker's name) instead of who's being addressed.

Vocative	pronounced	English
doi	doy	(vocative director) Sir/Madam ... You there ...
coi	shoy	greetings Hello
co'o	SHOW-hoe	partings See you later Good-bye
coi co'o	shoy-show-hoe	Greetings in passing Hi-bye
ju'i	ZHOO-hee	attention Hey!
ju'icu'i	ZHOO-hee-SHoo-hee	at ease
ju'inai	ZHOO-hee-nigh	ignore me/us
nu'e	NOO-heh	promise I promise
nu'ecu'i	NOO-heh-SHOO-hee	release promise
nu'enai	NOO-heh-nigh	non-promise
ta'a	TAH-hah	interruption Excuse me, but...
pe'u	PEH-hoo	request Please
ki'e	KEE-heh	appreciation gratitude Thank you
ki'enai	DEE-heh-nigh	disappreciation ingratitude
fi'i	FEE-hee	welcome How may I help you? offering French: bienvenue At your service
fi'inai	FEE-hee-nigh	unwelcome inhospitality
be'e	BEH-heh	request to send "Hello, are you there?"
re'i	REH-hee	ready to receive (telephone) "Hello?"
re'inai	REH-hee-nigh	not ready Hold on Just a minute
mu'o	MOO-hoe	completion of utterance Over Temporary, closer
mu'onai	MOO-hoe-nigh	more to follow I'm not done
je'e	ZHEH-heh	successful receipt Roger Uh-huh I understand
je'enai	ZHEH-heh-nigh	unsuccessful receipt Please repeat "Beg your pardon?" What?
vi'o	VEE-hoe	will comply OK
vi'onai	VEE-hoe-nigh	will not comply No way!
ke'o	KEH-hoe	please repeat What did you say?
ke'onai	KEH-hoe-nigh	no repeat needed Okay, I get the point
fe'o	FEH-hoe	end of communication Over and out! (use at the end of an e-mail iff not expecting a response)
fe'onai	FEH-hoe-nai	not done
mi'e	MEE-heh	self-identification I am...
mi'enai	MEE-heh-nigh	non-identification My name isn't...
do'u	DOE-hoo	(terminates vocative)

Experimental cmavo: bei'e

This family of words is built in the pattern of Lojban's MAI words, with a number preceding the cmavo "bei'e". It is used grammatically like an evidential (ie, before the sentence or after the specific word being referred to), and indicates the decibels of logarithmic Bayesian probability the speaker assigns to the word or phrase that the "bei'e" refers to.

Cmavo	Pronounced	Decibels	Percentage belief	Odds	notes
ni'uci'ibei'e	nee-hoo-shee-hee-bay-heh	-∞	0%	1:∞	complete disbelief paradox
ni'uvobei'e	nee-hoo-voh-bay-heh	-4	28.5%	2:5	a reasonable doubt
ni'ucibei'e	nee-hoo-shee-bay-heh	-3	33.3%	1:2
ni'urebei'e	nee-hoo-reh-bay-heh	-2	38.7%	2:3	probable cause
ni'upabei'e	nee-hoo-bay-heh	-1	44.3%	4:5
ni'ubei'e	nee-hoo-bay-heh	<0	<50%	<1:1	less than even odds more unlikely than likely
nobei'e	noh-bay-heh	0	50%	1:1	neither belief nor disbelief agnosticism
ma'ubei'e	mah-hoo-bay-heh	>0	>50%	>1:1	greater than even odds more likely than not
pabei'e	pah-bay-heh	1	55.7%	5:4	preponderance of the evidence
rebei'e	reh-bay-heh	2	61.3%	3:2
cibei'e	shee-bay-heh	3	66.6%	2:1	clear and convincing evidence
vobei'e	voh-bay-heh	4	71.5%	5:2
mubei'e	moo-bay-heh	5	76.0%	3:1	beyond a reasonable doubt
xabei'e	khah-bay-heh	6	80.0%	4:1
zebei'e	zeh-bay-heh	7	83.3%	5:1
bibei'e	bee-bay-heh	8	86.3%	6:1
sobei'e	soh-bay-heh	9	88.8%	8:1
panobei'e	pah-noh-bay-heh	10	90.9%	10:1	one nine
xarebei'e	khah-reh-bay-heh	62	99.99994%	1,500,000:1	5 standard deviations
ci'ibei'e	shee-hee-bay-heh	∞	100%	∞:1	complete belief tautology
xobei'e	khoh-bay-heh	?	?%	?:?	question asking listener their level of belief