“Oh Oge, how do you just swim in ambiguity like that?”
“A well-bonsai’d kitchen sink.” - The Carrot
“Topic-irrealis.”
"ungaming" in Oge
Oge ['ɔɣɛ] (sometimes anglicized as Ogish or Ogese) is a language isolate which migrated into the ŋorld from the far weast in April of 2025. Little is known about its origins, and the recent rapid migration of its speaking population unfortunately left little in terms of in-world written documentation regarding Oge from prior to April of 2025. It is spoken as the primary official language in Wánade.
Proto-Oge's creation predates that of the original Nguhcraft server by several months, the first recorded instance being a non-IPA vocabulary list and a sticky note reading: "agglutinative?" dated May 17, 2020. It was originally created to be used as a (mostly relexed English) secret-lang with fancy grammar to provide extra security in journaling in a mono-linguistic substrate culture. Since 2020, it has shifted into a *slightly* more naturalistic artlang for personal use.
Today Oge is spoken as the dominant language in mainland Wánade. The most commonly uttered phrase in in-game-chat is gémyń wa, which translates into English as "gaming."
Phonology & Orthography
Consonants
Bilabial
Dental
Alveolar
Postalveolar
Velar
Uvular
Glottal
unv
v
unv
v
unv
v
unv
v
unv
v
unv
v
unv
v
Plosive
/p/
/b/
/t̪/ ⟨t⟩
/d̪/ ⟨d⟩
/t/
/d/
/k/
/g/
Nasal
/m/
/n̪/ ⟨n⟩
/ɴ/ ⟨ń⟩
Fricative
/β/ ⟨b⟩
/θ/ ⟨t⟩
/ð/ ⟨d⟩
/s/
/z/
/ʃ/ ⟨c/j⟩
/ʒ/ ⟨j⟩
/x/ ⟨h⟩
/ɣ/ ⟨h/g⟩
/hʷ~ɸ̚/ ⟨f⟩
Affricate
/bβʰ/ ⟨bw⟩
/tʃ/ ⟨c⟩
/dʒ/ ⟨c⟩
Approximant
/ɹ/ ⟨w⟩
Lateral Fricative
/ɬ/ ⟨ł⟩
Liquid
/l/
/j/ ⟨y⟩
/w/ ⟨u⟩
Labialized and Palatalized Consonants
Labialized and palatalized consonants primarily appear in onset position, though they see use as codas and even standalone syllables in many of Oge's borrowed terms and phrases. Both labialized and palatalized consonants are marked with an apostrophe in text, tho historically the digraphs gu, ku, and ty saw wide use.
Labialized
Palatalized
/k/
/kʷ/ ⟨k'⟩
/g/
/ɡʷ/ ⟨g'⟩
/t/
/tʲ/ ⟨t'⟩
Vowels
All 5 vowels can be lengthened (realized in text as an acute accent above vowels). Lengthening can but doesn't necessarily stress the syllable containing the lengthened vowel.
Unrounded
Rounded
Close
/i/ ⟨y⟩
/u/ ⟨u⟩
Open-mid
/ɛ/ ⟨e⟩
/ɔ/ ⟨o⟩
Open
/a/ ⟨a⟩
Stress
Stress tends to fall on syllables in this order: the penultimate syllable, syllables containing lengthened vowels and/or coda consonants, syllables containing ɔ, syllables containing a, ɛ and i, and lastly syllables containing 'ɛ which used to be ɘ' and vocalic consonants.
Morphology
Unfortunately, due to it being my first ever real conlang, very little actually exists in terms of documentation detailing the grammar and morphology of the Oge language. Word order can usually be interpreted as [Topic/Focus > Topic/Focus-marker > SVO], tho can be mistaken for [*OSV] due to it being heavily pro-drop.
Topic Marking
There are two primary topic marking particles used in Oge.
Bo [βɔ] is the realis topic marker, and it denotes that the clause preceding it is the topic, and that the topic is something that is already a known entity in context.
Nańmo bo tez
I want my nań
nań is possessed, so we can infer that it's the nań we already know about and use bo
Wa [ɹa] is the irrealis topic marker, and it denotes that the clause preceding it is the topic, but also that the topic doesn’t necessarily exist in context.
Nań wa tez
I want nań
nań is unmarked and and new to context, it could exist or it might not, wa marks it so
He bo meká ða?
He wa meká ða?
Can I have that?
May I have that?
Tense Marking
Tense is marked with a free-floating tense morpheme which is either positioned at the start or reduplicated at the end of a phrase depending explicitly on how relevant the time is to the clause. If tense has not been detailed in speech yet it tends to show up at the start of the phrase, whereas when tense has already been stated it shows up at the end. Sometimes (particularly in spoken Oge) the tense morpheme will be dropped entirely once tense has been established in conversation.
Imperativity and interrogativity are also marked with tense marking, but the interrogative tense marker can only appear at the end of the phrase, and is only reduplicated to emphasize confusion or a strong desire to understand.
future
past
imperative
extra-imperative
interrogative
start of phrase
udu
nu
mu
bú
/ˈudu/
/nu/
/mu/
/bu:/
end of phrase
udedu
nun
mumu
búbú
ða
/u'dɛðu/
/'nun/
/'mumu/
/'bu:bu:/
/ða/
Nouns
Nouns in Oge have a long and storied history (which we mustn't indulge ourselves of yet) of trying desperately not to be boring. As far back as May of 2020, documentation of Pre-Proto-Oge detailed my literal first attempts at making a clong. RIP. From 2021-2023, about half of Proto-Oge's nouns were just bouba-ed and kiki-ed into existence while the other half were loaned from whatever language google said any given concept was first talked about in. Eventually, borrowing words for new things and concepts slowed and kind of petered out in favor of stringing noun phrases into long compound words. This would become especially popular in poetry and songwriting.
Class Marking
"And then there were TCRs, and the next day, there were BCRs. Just *pop* there they are. But I'm not complaining cause these nouns are SO much shorter :)))"
~ Nahia, circa April 2025
Tri-consonantal Roots
Noun class →
fractal
instantaneous
animate
slow-animate
hollow
extensive
fluid
TCR ↓
1a2ó3
1ý2a3a
1e2ú3
e1e2ú3
u1u2ó3
1y2ý3
1y2y3á
befal (night sky) > BFL
bafól (universe)
býfala (meteor)
befúl (clock)
ebefúl (rotation)
ubufól (state of vacuum)
byfýl (outer space)
byfylá (spacetime)
kafüa* (coffee bean) > KFW
kafówa (coffee tree)
kýfawa (instant coffee)
kefúwe (smell of coffee)
ekefúwe (coffee bean)
ukufówu (decaffeinated / caffeine free)
kyfýwy (caffeine high)
kyfywá (coffee beverage)
atańora* (road) > TŃR
tańól (intersection)
týńala (electricity)
teńúl (road)
eteńúl (lifestyle)
utuńól (tunnel)
tyńýl (direction)
tyńyðá (choice)
Associated Pronoun:
ahó
ýhala
uh
ehel
uhuló
yhý
yhál
Bi-consonantal Roots
Noun class →
construct
material
extensive
BCR ↓
a1á2
1e2é
1ó2o
dÿn* (bowl) > DN
adán (bowl)
dené (indent/concave thing)
dóno (crater/caldera)
eskä* (wood) > *SK
azák (lumber)
zeké (wood)
sóko (deforestation/clearcut area/lumberyard)
g'ajo (plant) > GJ
agáj (plant ingredients)
gójo (greenery/vegetation)
áruh (scale) > RH
aráh (hammer/mace)
rehé (a weight)
róho (mass)
nul (rest) > NL
anál (induced unconsciousness)
nelé (sleep)
nólo (coma)
Associated Pronouns
ál
elé
yhý
{-*} marks root nouns which were replaced with their TCR or BCR counterparts.
Number
Oge nouns do not specify plurality, but can be marked for singularity using the -ý suffix.
Ø
lumber
azák
Plural
logs
azák
Singular
a log
azáký
Demonstratives
Demonstratives can either be their own independent morphemes or suffixed onto the nouns they refer to. When independent they act as pronouns.
General Demonstrative/Pronouns:
proximal
distal
extra-distal
special
ha / -ga
he / -ge
sek
ta
Pronoun
this is a bowl, that is a pot
ha adän, he uburök
Demonstrative
that cat way over there
haz sek
Class Demonstrative/Pronouns
construct
material
extensive
fractal
instantaneous
animate
slow-animate
hollow
fluid
äl
elé
yhý
ahó
ýhala
uh
ehel
uhuló
yhál
Demontrative
the hammer
aráhál
Pronoun
that is lightning
ýhala jýzaja
Pronouns
SG
PL
persistent
persistent
1st
uaye
+ ua
yo (exclusive) / am (inclusive)
+ ua
2nd
fú
+ ua
fá
+ ua
3rd
fú
+ yany
faz
+ ua
Note that *fú represents either 2nd or 3rd person in context.
I am well
Uaye lo
I continue to be well
Uaye ua lo
The dog is nice
Ebú yany yel
Adverbs
Because of the intrinsic copula in pronouns, adverbs describe characteristics of their pronouns; following the things they describe. Like demonstratives, they can be used as pronouns.
The sky is light blue
Batuya omo
The light green one is over there
Omo sek
You are being funny (You are joking)
Fü mÿz
Note that you are funny is more like "You are, funnily."
