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Contents

Info

a transliteration
a romanization
a translation
/a/ phonemic transcription
[a] phonetic transcription
T plosive (p b t d c g)
P voiceless plosive (p t c)
B voiced plosive (b d g)
N nasal (m n)
L liquid (r l)
W liquid or nasal (m n r l)
Ü umlaut

1 Introduction

This is a personal constructed language. Its name is läl'üta lalűta, which comes directly from the word meaning language. It does not attempt to be naturalistic, it is not set in any fictional world, nor does it have a fictional group of speakers. It is free of loan words and makes no reference to names of countries, people, brands, culture-specific ideas, etc. existing in the real world. Its purpose is self-expression, not creating or translating specialized or technical texts.

As this is a personal language, its "flavor," that is idiomatic expressions, register, and anything that in a natural language would be culture-guided, is based on my own thoughts, experiences, and worldviews. The language is not inspired by any particular language, natural or fictional, though it draws bits and pieces from many.

Although the language is not naturalistic, it features elements such as non-concatenation, proto-forms, grammaticalization, suppletion, and the occasional semantic shift, in order to make it more interesting. The language is exclusively head-initial, VSO and low-context, though it encourages the use of figurative and metaphoric expressions.

Due to the complexity of the language and the length of this document, mistakes in spelling, grammar and syntax in the presented examples are bound to be present. This is why I provide thorough explanations of the discussed grammatical, morphological, syntactical, etc. constructions and strategies. With the use of these descriptions, potential mistakes can be corrected.

2 Phonology


2.1 Vowels

Vowels are divided into front and back vowels. This influences the realization of preceding consonants and the forms of some adjacent morphological units. Non-low vowels can be realized as glides when found next to other vowels (see 2.5 Vowel hiatus). Note that ä and a have the same pronunciation, but the former is front while the latter is back.

Front ä e i ü a e i ü /a ɛ i y/
Back a o u a o u /a ʌ ɯ/
Glides i/e u/o ü y~i w~u ẅ~ü /j ɰ ɥ/

Glides /j ɰ ɥ/are transcribed as y w ẅ:

They are transcribed as i u ü otherwise, e.g. bäd viad, lein lein, müi müi.

2.2 Consonants

Consonants have a "hard" (non-palatalized) pronunciation before back vowels and glides, and a "soft" (palatalized) pronunciation before front vowels and glides. In coda position, obstruents are realized the same way as hard consonants, with sonorants exhibiting more variety.

Hard Soft Coda
p p /p/ pi /pʲ/* p /p/
b v /v/ vi /vʲ/ v /v/
t t /t/ ch /c/ t /t/
d d /d/ j /ɟ/ d /d/
c c /k/** ch /c/ c /k/
g g /ɡ/ j /ɟ/ g /ɡ/
s s /s/ hi /ç/ s /s/
m m /m/ mi /mʲ/ m /m/ or n /ɰ̃/***
n n /n/ ni /ɲ/ n /n/ or n /ɰ̃/***
r n /n/ y /j/ r /ɹ/
l w /ɰ/ l /l/ w /ɰ/

*In romanization, i in soft consonants is unwritten when preceding i, ü, or a consonant, cf. nä nes ni nü nüi bisnä nia nies ni nü nüi visnia /ɲa ɲɛs ɲi ɲy ɲɥi vʲiçɲa/.
**Romanized as q before /ɰ/.
***Realized as /ɰ̃/ only when directly preceded by a vowel and not followed by a vowel or geminate nasal, cf. an an /aɰ̃/, irm irm /iɹm/, coünt coünt /kʌɥnt/, pomi pomi /pʌmʲi/, immina immina /imʲːina/. /ɰ̃/ is romanized as m before p.

2.3 Phonetic notes

◆ Obstruents

Onset voiceless stops are aspirated, especially when stressed, e.g. pop pop [pʰʌp]. Aspiration before glides results in their devoicing, e.g. cüä qua [kɰ̊a].

/ɡ/ is realized as [ŋ] between vowels and glides, e.g. agaem agaim [äŋäjm], cagoeli cagueli [kʰäŋɰɛli].

/c/ and /ɟ/ are realized as [t͡ɕ] and [d͡ʑ], e.g. iti ichi [it͡ɕi], sodia soja [sʌd͡ʑa]. /c/ is realized as [c] only after the non-sibilant [ç], e.g. äsgir aschir [äçciɹ].

Word-final /t/ can be flapped [ɾ] if followed by a vowel, e.g. rot olo not owo [nʌɾ ʌɰʌ].

/s/ is slightly palatalized. Alternatively, it can be a hypersibilant or a lisped s.

◆ Sonorants

/ɰ̃/ is not technically a separate phoneme, but a neutralization of /m/ and /n/ in coda position when directly preceded by a vowel. However, I have decided to treat it as a phoneme, because leaving it as /m/ and /n/ would suggest different realizations, and picking one over the other begs the question why should one be chosen over the other. /ɰ̃/ lowers preceding high vowels to mid vowels, meaning only the following three combinations are possible.

/ɰ̃/ has three allophones.

Coda /m/ and /n/ assimilate to following obstruents. They are romanized as m before p, and n otherwise.

Coda /ɹ/ changes the pronunciation of some preceding vowels.

When the rhotic follows a glide, it is realized as /ɚ/, e.g. soir soir /sʌjɚ/. The additional rhotic vowel is purely epenthetic and does not count as a separate syllable nucleus for the purposes of counting word stress, cf. carer cayur /kaˈjɚ/ and cair cair /ˈkajɚ/.

Non-epenthetic /jɚ ɥɚ ɰɚ/ are romanized as yur yür wur, e.g. alur awur, nütarür nütayür.

◆ Geminates

Geminates are always realized as geminates, never as doubled consonants, e.g. äbba appa [apːa], not [*ap.pa].

Geminates are romanized by doubling the consonant letter, with a few exceptions:

For the purposes of word stress counting, syllables preceding a geminate are closed.

◆ Vowels

/a/ has three allophones.

Other vowels have the following realizations.

High vowels /i y ɯ/ can occur directly after other vowels. To prevent hiatus, epenthetic semivowels /j ɥ ɰ/ are inserted between the two. These sequences are romanized yi yü wu, e.g. marriga mayiga /majiɡa/, uloo uwu /ɯɰɯ/, tarü tayü /taɥy/.

◆ Glides

Two glides cannot cooccur adjacently within the same syllable. The latter is elided, e.g. doils /*dʌjɰs/ → /dʌjs/ dois.

Outside of epenthesis, /j/ is not pronounced when adjacent to /i y/, and /ɰ ɥ/ are not pronounced when adjacent to /ɯ y/, e.g. rütnü /*jyjɲy/ → /yɲy/ ünü, l'ugu /*ɰɯɡɯ/ → /ɯɡɯ/ ugu. This means onset r before /i j y ɥ/ and l before /ɯ ɰ/ are effectively silent, e.g. rüd /*jyd/ → /yd/ üd, rio /*jjʌ/ → /jʌ/ yo.

The only other environment in which /j/ can occur next to /i y/, and /ɰ ɥ/ can occur next to /ɯ y/, is when the vowel is first and in a separate syllable, e.g. biio viyo /vi.jʌ/, muloä muwa /mɯ.ɰa/.

When a syllable ending in a glide is followed by hiatus, the following realizations apply.

y- w- ẅ-
-i yi wi ẅi
-u yu wu wu
-ü yü yü yü

Examples include:

◆ Miscellaneous

Word boundaries typically block palatalization, excluding certain set phrases or collocations; this also affects romanization, e.g. läl üta lal üta.

In fast speech, palatalization can spread between word boundaries, e.g. coünst mins mibis nä coünst miens mivis nia [kʰʌɥçc mʲɛj̃ç mʲivʲiç ɲa].

2.4 Stress and phonotactics

Word stress is final if the syllable is closed, otherwise penultimate if the syllable is closed, otherwise antepenultimate. Every other preceding syllable receives secondary stress. In case of exceptions, stress may be marked with an acute in the romanization. The exceptions to the stress rule include:

The maximum syllable shape is CVC, but:

Word-initially, clusters soften in their entirety before front vowels, meaning the initial s changes to /ç/, although no change is made to the romanization, e.g. spee spi, stic schic, scä scha. Word-medially, clusters can also be hard or soft (see 2.6 Consonant clusters). Word-finally, clusters are always hard.

Any instances of word-initial or word-final sb sd sg are respelled as sp st sc, e.g. s- + -darc → starc, pag + -s- → pasc.

2.5 Vowel hiatus

Orthographically, no more than three vowels can occur consecutively. When two vowels are adjacent, the following realizations apply.

1→
2↓ ä a e o i u ü
ä e - ya wa ya wa ẅa
a - o ya wa ya wa ẅa
e 'ay* ay i we ye we ẅe
o 'aw aw yo u yo wo ẅo
i 'ay ay ey oy ay wi ẅi
u 'aw aw ew ow yu aw -
ü 'aẅ aẅ eẅ oẅ iẅ - aẅ

*The apostrophe in the table above marks palatalization of the preceding consonant, e.g. täo chau.

These can be summarized as follows:

There are three types of permissible trigraphs:

2.6 Consonant clusters

Although orthographically any two consonants can form a word-internal cluster, its realization often involves gemination, metathesis or other sound changes. This only affects the pronunciation, not spelling, e.g. äbso aspo does not have to be respelled as äspo. Clusters must agree in softness, which is determined by the following vowel.

When the latter consonant is hard:

1→
2↓ p b t d c g s m n r l
p pp pp pp pp pp pp sp mp mp rp wp
b pp pp pp pp pp pp sp nv nv rv wv
t tt tt tt tt tt tt st nt nt rt wt
d tt tt tt tt tt tt st nd nd rd wd
c cc cc cc cc cc cc sc nc nc rc wc
g cc cc cc cc cc cc sc ng ng rg wg
s sp sp st st sc sc ss ns ns rs ws
m ẅm ẅm ym ym wm wm sm mm mm rm wm
n ẅn ẅn yn yn wn wn sn nn nn rn wn
r ẅn ẅn yn yn wn wn sn nn nn rn wn
l wp wv wt wd wc wg ws wm wn wn ww
sp nsp nsp rsp wsp
st nst nst rst wst
sc nsc nsc rsc wsc

In many cases, the pronunciation is derived from the coda pronunciation of the former consonant and the onset pronunciation of the latter. Cases in which this is not the case can be summarized as follows:

When the latter consonant is soft:

1→
2↓ p b t d c g s m n r l
p ppi ppi ppi ppi ppi ppi spi mpi mpi ypi wpi
b ppi ppi ppi ppi ppi ppi spi nvi nvi yvi wvi
t tch tch tch tch tch tch sch nch nch ych wch
d tch tch tch tch tch tch sch nj nj yj wj
c tch tch tch tch tch tch sch nch nch ych wch
g tch tch tch tch tch tch sch nj nj yj wj
s spi spi sch sch sch sch hhi nhi nhi yhi whi
m ẅmi ẅmi ymi ymi wmi wmi smi mmi mmi ymi wmi
n ẅni ẅni yni yni wni wni sni nni nni yni wni
r pi vi ch j ch j hi mi ni yy l
l wpi wvi wch wj wch wj whi wmi wni l ll
sp nspi nspi yspi wspi
st nsch nsch ysch wsch
sc nsch nsch ysch wsch

Similar changes occur as when the cluster is hard. The differences include:

2.7 Umlaut

Umlaut involves the mutation of a vowel or a vowel sequence when it is followed by an appended front high vowel. This can occur when an inflectional or derivational affix is attached to a word, and in SDOAUX (see 4.4 Clause-final auxiliaries). It does not apply between morphemes in compounds or across word boundaries, so articles, demonstratives and adjectives do not trigger umlaut.

An affixed i changes the preceding vowel or combination thereof.

i ← u
↑
e ← o
↑
ä ← a

Examples of i-umlaut include:

An affixed ü changes the preceding vowel or combination thereof.

ü ← u
↑ ↖
e o
↑
ä ← a

Examples of ü-umlaut include:

Umlaut does not apply when there is no intervening consonant, e.g. rättä teach + i GER → rättäi teaching (teach-GER).

This is a simple introduction to umlaut. For more details, see 17.9 Umlaut.

2.8 Reduplication

Some forms in the language are formed through reduplication, which adheres to the following patterns. These patterns guarantee that the word's NSWEO class remains the same after reduplication.

Structure Original form Redup form Examples
Ends in T3 trigraph (C)V1V2V3 -V2V3 eia → eiaia, caio → caioio
Contains only V(s) V* -[l/r]V** i → iri, oo → ooloo
Ends in V(s) CV -GV*** ena → enana, baspuo → baspuobuo
Starts with V(s), ends in 1 C VC VGVC an → anan, oüt → oüdoüt
Starts with V(s), ends in 2 Cs VC1C2 VC1VC1C2 esp → esesp, irm → irirm
Starts with C(s), ends in 1/2 C(s) CVC1(C2) CVGVC1(C2) scet → sceget, bilemt → bilelemt
Ends in 3 Cs (C)VWsP (C)VWPVWs cunidansc → cunidancans, polst → poltols

*V refers to the entire vowel sequence, be it a monograph, digraph, or trigraph.
**Epenthetic r appended after front vowels, l appended after back vowels.
***G refers to voicing - p t c → b d g.

Some words are reduplicated irregularly. For insntance, the reduplicated form of the pronoun mion is mionon rather than *miomion, and reduplicating ü ten results in üü twenty, not *ürü. For the pronoun arä, the marked form makes use of vowel mutation instead of reduplication, resulting in ari rather than arärä. For some words, reduplicated forms are replaced with unrelated words via suppletion, for example the perfect tense of pag go is not *pabag, but üit, stemming from an otherwise obsolete verb meaning travel.

3 Orthography


3.1 Overview

The script is a semi-syllabary written vertically, with columns read from left to right. The principal feature of the script is a vertical line going through the middle of each column. To the left of the line, the onset and nucleus are encoded. To the right, the coda and/or the voicing of the onset are encoded. In addition, several characters exist for encoding non-CVC syllables.

The script also features four logographs encoding certain grammatical morphology, and a simple system of punctuation.

3.2 Syllabic characters

(Note that the word syllable used across the following sections refers to orthographic syllables, rather than phonological ones.)

◆ CVC characters

The size of a standard character is 20x20u (units). In each word, a vertical line runs through the middle. To the left of the line, syllabic glyphs representing the onset and nucleus of each syllable are placed; this includes CV and V glyphs. To the right of the line, glyphs encoding codas are placed if necessary. All syllabic glyphs can be found in Appendix 2: Syllabary.

a cü no
at cün nod

Each glyph occupies a space of 10x17.5u, leaving 2.5u at the bottom to prevent an overlap with the glyph below. The only exceptions are glyphs which transition into the line smoothly at the bottom, such as the following.

ü ci su

The right side of the line can also encode voicing of the onset. There are no separate glyphs for pairs such as ca and ga. Instead, voicing is encoded with a glyph placed to the right of the line, following the voiceless initial glyph. Compare the following:

ca ga te de

Because the coda glyphs and the voicing glyph occupy the same space, each coda has two versions - one which encodes the coda alone, and one which encodes both the coda and the voicing of the onset. Compare the following:

co go cos gos

When a syllable with an empty right side is followed by a V syllable (but not VC), the latter is mirrored and placed to the right of the former, rather than underneath it. Compare the following:

seon seo dau tau

All examples presented thus far have described characters as used word-internally. However, word-initially and word-finally, the vertical line does not extend throughout the entire height of the character, but the excess is cut off. The points at which the characters connect to the line are hereinafter referred to as vertices. The line begins at the highest vertex of the initial character, and ends at the lowest vertex of the final character.

micoso adabois eusat

The only exceptions to this rule are the syllabic glyph pa and the voicing glyph. The vertical line does not connect the two vertices of either glyph. When either of the glyphs is combined with one on the other side of the line, the latter connects to the vertical line, which then merges with the higher vertex of the former, unless it is a B glyph which transitions into the line smoothly at the bottom.

panpapas dagiba
◆ Non-CVC characters

The characters described in the previous sections are sufficient when encoding CVC syllables. For more complex syllables, additional characters are used. Interconsonantal s is encoded with a separate 20x20u character. Word-initial clustering s and word-final clustering consonants are encoded using 30x10u characters, though these characters do not need to occupy the entire available space.

stag dansca mirn inst

Non-CVC characters are also used to encode consonants which are the codas of syllables encompassed in a preceding logograph.

äscet äb'n elit
◆ Monogrammic words

Words contained within the height of a single character (20u) are problematic in that the same character simultaneously begins and ends the word. To resolve this, several strategies are employed. Each glyph is categorized based on the manner in which it connects to the vertical line. It can either connect at the top (T), at the bottom (B), in the middle (M), or throughout the length of the line (W). The glyph pa and the voicing glyph are exceptions and will be described separately. These categories can be found in Appendix 2: Syllabary. Depending on this categorization, different strategies are employed when encoding monogrammic words.

If the word contains a glyph on both sides of the line, and one constituent is T while the other is B, the two are connected by the vertical line between their respective vertices.

rot cän cus

When a glyph transitioning smoothly into the bottom of the line is one of the constituents of a monogrammic word, its form is identical to the one used word-initially. This includes the voicing glyph and the pa glyph.

gir gä bam pam pac bas

In other cases of combining two glyphs, the line starts at the highest vertex of the pair, and extends below the character, ending in a 5x5u left-facing loop.

pic mis ar

When only a left-side glyph is used, in most cases right-facing loops are used. For B glyphs, the line extends up from the vertex and ends in a loop at the top of the character box. For T and M glyphs, the line extends down from the vertex and ends in a loop at the bottom of the character box. For W glyphs, the line connects its highest and lowest vertices. For the pa glyph, the form is identical to the one used word-initially.

ci nü ä mi ti su pa
◆ Syllabification

Syllable breaks avoid coda glyphs followed by vowel glyphs regardless of etymology. For instance, while peom is syllabified as pe-om, peomu is syllabified as pe-o-mu, not pe-om-u. Several compounds break this rule, which is marked in the transliteration with an apostrophe, e.g. läl'üta (syllabified as läl-ü-ta rather than lä-lü-ta). See the examples below.

peom peomu läl'üta
3.3 Logographic characters

The language features four logographic characters, two used to encode cases (genitive and dative) and two to encode verbal prefixes (negative and interrogative). Each logograph has three forms depending on its position in the word, except for the interrogative character which only occurs word-initially.

Init Med Fin
Gen
Dat
Neg
Int

The genitive and dative logographs are only used when marking case/tense on nouns, pronouns, adjectives and verbs, as well as when marking case in the form of a suffix preceded by a hyphen.

sonleüt äb'ecci diipüi elit nipa r'eli äbeecuns-eli

In addition to personal pronouns, the case logographs are also used with interrogatives (sonlä and lilä), demonstratives (scä, eligä, s'eligä and l'eligä) and indefinite pronouns (sünür, linür, sonbis and libis).

sonlä eligä s'eligä l'eligä sünür libis

Since there is only one logograph per case, the same character is used for a given case regardless of its phonological form determined by the animacy and phonology of the following word. This leads to ambiguities which must be disambiguated through context, e.g. äbpeomu going to do (gerund of future form) (AN.DAT-do-GER) and lipeomu at doing (dative of gerund) (INAN.DAT-do-GER) have the same spelling.

äbpao lipao erliu diiliu

The negative and interrogative logographs are only used when marking negation/interrogation on verbs, and in the tag (däpii). The negative logograph is used word-finally only in the tag.

piet d'orba däpiipeom däpii

Logographs are not used in the following cases:

In addition to the four logographs, the second person verb ending -ciu has a special form in which the right-side u glyph is altered.

eliciu itciu
3.4 Punctuation and spacing

There are three basic punctuation marks, each 5x5u. They attach directly to the nearest character. If said character does not connect to the line, punctuation marks are instead placed directly before it (for word-final characters) or after it (for word-initial characters). All non-word-final punctuation marks have a 2.5u vertical line buffer separating them from the following character.

The period () is used at the end of each sentence. If the final character in the sentence contains a B or W glyph, the period is turned upside-down ().

pal. cis. mirn. momc.

The comma () is used at the end of each non-sentence-final clause, after each item used with ä(b)/e(l) and, before dar or, and at the end of adverbial clauses which precede the predicate.

la, mis, darc,

The break () is used for all other purposes. It can be used as a hyphen (transliterated/romanized as -), to separate gerunds from suffixing case marking/prepositions, in which case it is used word-internally. If the final character before the word-internal break does not connect to the line, the break instead connects to the following character and is written without its bottom-right side. There is a single space (5u) separating it from the preceding character, though this space is purely visual and does not count as a word separator.

näl-son coünt-äbee

The break can be used as a colon (transliterated/romanized as :), marking the start of a list or explanation.

micaga: bamt:

Finally, the break can be used as brackets (transliterated/romanized as ( )) in order to isolate a segment of text.

(stag) (mirn)

The apostrophe marking elision in the transliteration of äb'n and räb'n, as well as marking irregular syllable breaks (e.g. in läl'üta) is not reflected in the orthography or the romanization.

äb'n räb'n läl'üta
aün yaün lalűta

The apostrophe is also used to indicate character breaks when an inflectional prefix ends with a consonant and is followed by a vowel. This includes the genitive r-, d- and s-, the dative äb-/eb-, l- and m-, the negative p-, and the interrogative d-. This is a relatively new change and older documents will not include it (such as my showcase video on Youtube).

s'et d'orba eb'ion

Words are separated by spaces whose placement is consistent with the transliteration. The space between two words is always 5u. Each column of text is 30u wide. The horizontal space between each column is 2.5u wide.

3.5 Abbreviations

A word may be shortened to a single character shortened form, creating an abbreviated, symbolic form. These ligatures contain a maximum of one full-height character, but may contain 30x10u initial or final glyphs. An abbreviation may elide a vowel or incorporate a syllable-initial consonant as the coda of the preceding syllable. There are no specific patterns according to which abbreviations are formed.

is ol läl
(iis) (olo) (läl'üta)
3.6 Notes on transliteartion and romanization

Although question marks and exclamation marks are not used in the original orthography, they may be used in questions and exclamations in the transliteration and romanization for clarity.

There is no capitalization in the original orthography, but in the transliteration and romanization, sentences conventionally begin with capital letters. Proper nouns are not capitalized since the language makes no use of proper nouns.

Accent marks are auxiliary in nature, and are used throughout this document and the dictionary for clarity. They can be disregarded, especially in case some characters are unavailable, e.g. läl'üta lalűta → lalüta.

In stylized romanizations, for esthetic or artistic purposes, several other changes can be freely made.

The transliteration and romanization used throughout this document is an updated version created two years after the initial completion of the project. Older texts such as my Youtube showcase video will feature old conventions, which have now been deprecated. However, because the process of converting the old transliteration and romanization to the new one was done semi-automatically using scripts, there is a possibility that some errors occurred in the process and were unnoticed. For clarity, I will include all differences between the old and new conventions:

A longer example text is presented below to showcase features of the transliteration and romanization.

Transliteration Romanization v2
Lä dousasue niusab bans adaü riüta sorot s'irm bans si, bans cugus, sorättäi s'el encoünt, nobosa äbcugusda läb. Limis speomu seniusasab spis, agaem, cupüid, lein, dont gä encoünt, coüntolä, bimonat r'usa doils gataba, eligä bae gä limicarn napant äbee lilioülioü ornon licura panon. Eligä, piicuso gä äbcusan parc. Lä currio ci niusab limis säbsun bans cors lilioü orläb, eligä l'üs sonobosa gä scago äbarc äbsa läb: piorräb äbcugus düüs semican sebdüüs bans paba misan rotda läpa, coünst mins mibis nä. Piicagasp misan dansca gä näpa, eligä oba äb'n rot panti matosa papa. Ar siondu panti saor s'elii rot uso suin äb'n mibis mion. Lä endanscou niusab läb, seon licoütun mins mibis bans läl rot a irm säbsun bans nä l'elii nicugusda rot uso bans läb. Rot semirn, ar enaliu nüän gatäniusab äb'n mion: ebnüä libü cagoeli ligaemu cagoeli limicuu cagoeli lisacuns. Ägä, äbseon lipeomu sonläl'üta. Dalä rot peodagdoe sorättäi sonobosa gä? Ägä piäb'ar mins pa, lälä mican äbee lire stosue limican säbsun bans nä sair scoüntao-rot lisami sesciti r'än. Rot misc, pobop üitolä gi usa arä. La dousasue niusav vans adaü iẅta sonot hirm vans hi, vans cugus, soyatchai hieu encoünt, novosa accugustá lav. Limis spiomu hieniusasav spis, agaim, cupüid, lein, dont ja encoünt, coüntola, vimonat nusa dois gatava, elija vai ja limicarn napant avi liloüloü urnon licuna panon. Elija, paicuso ja accusan parc. La cuyyo chi niusav limis hiaspon vans curs liloü olav, elija lüs sonovosa ja scago avarc assa lav: pioiyav accugus daüs hiemican hiettaüs vans pava misan notta lapá, coünst miens mivis nia. Paicagasp misan dansca ja nipá, elija ova aün not panchi matosa papá. Ar hiondu panchi saur hiewai not uso suen aün mivis mion. La endanscou niusav lav, hion licoüton miens mivis vans lau not a irm hiaspon vans nia lewai nicugustá not uso vans lav. Not hiemirn, ar enalu nüan gachaniusav aün mion: eünüa livü cagueli ligaimu cagueli limicau cagueli lisacons. Aja, aspion lipiomu sounialűta. Dala not piodattue soyatchai sonovosa ja? Aja piavar miens pa, lala mican avi liye stosue limican hiaspon vans nia sair scoüntau-not lisami hieschichi yan. Not misc, povop ẅitola ji usa aya.

4 Overarching structures


4.1 Class

Verbs, adjectives and nouns are divided into one of five classes named after cardinal directions; a system referred to as NSWEO. This is similar to grammatical gender, though gender is typically associated with agreement and intrinsic categorization, while this system involves harmony and semantic associations. Combinations of words within the same class are considered semantically stronger and may be used in idioms and collocations. Adjective endings are changed to rhyme with that of the noun if they have the same class. The only form of class agreement is seen in demonstratives and articles.

There are third person pronouns for each of the five classes, though animate referents are not bound to a single class. The classes rather suggest certain features or traits, so the same referent may switch class depending on the context determined by the judgment of the speaker, e.g. a person seen as good by the speaker may be S, while someone perceived as an introvert may be N. Inanimate referents typically stay within one class, though the class may be changed for metaphoric reasons. Each class has a number of possible endings (* in the table means it includes clusters, e.g. L* = L LP Ls LsP LN).

Class Name Examples of associations Endings
North (N) pil piw cold, dark, bad, calm, quiet, still, weak L*
South (S) rio yo hot, bright, good, lively, loud, move, strong B e o
West (W) abi avi end, old, death, short, hear P ä i
East (E) mon mon start, new, young, life, long, say N* u
Neutral (O) püta püta human, nature s* ü a

There are several grammatical words belonging to the O class despite their endings, including gä this, lä what and pronouns ending in either of the two, as well as all other interrogatives and demonstratives. A number of indefinite pronouns which use the negative article as an enclitic retain their class, ignoring the ending of the article, e.g. cusan no one, someone is O, not E.

Several clipped compounds retain their class despite clipping, for example cusca same person (S because it is a clipped form of cus cago).

◆ North and south

The north class (gata ci spil gata chi spiw) is found on the value axis (rotoüt a spipa notoüt a spipa) along with the south class. North words are low in value and associated with concepts such as badness, darkness, cold and weakness. As such, north is found at the bottom of the compass. Apart from negative concepts, north is also related to silence, serenity, stillness, cleanliness, and intelligence. A person described as north could be perceived as cold or indifferent, but the class can also be ascribed to someone quiet, introverted, logical, or calm and collected.

The south class (gata ci serio gata chi hieyo) is found on the opposite side of the value axis. South is related to concepts opposite of those classified as north - goodness, light, heat, and strength. It is found at the top of the compass. Other south concepts include movement, passion and lust. A south person is typically extroverted, open, passionate, brave, curious, but may be stupid, turbulent, and easily swayed by emotions.

◆ West and east

The west class (gata ci s'abi gata chi savi) is found on the existence axis (rotoüt a s'adabois notoüt a sadavois) along with the east class. West signifies finality, death, shortness and destruction. It is also associated with features such as stoicism and independence. West also conveys concreteness and action. The class is found on the right side of the compass. A west person is perceived as a realist, or someone who prefers acting based on observing the world around them. Those who enjoy conflict or competition can also be described as west.

The east class (gata ci somon gata chi somon) is found on the opposite side of the existence axis and on the left side of the compass. It is associated with genesis, life, longevity and creation. Traits such as kindness, nurturing and care are also east. Since the class is associated with creation, it encompasses abstract concepts and focuses on thought rather than action. East is the class of all artists and those sensitive to beauty, as well as people seen as kind, agreeable and caring.

◆ Neutral

The neutral class (gata ci spüta gata chi spüta) is placed in the middle of the compass and is the balance to the remaining four classes. All neutral concepts are covered by this class. This includes generic words such as nature, type, shape, image, place and sound. Among neutral words are also those which balance out a north/south or west/east pair, such as temperature (heat + cold). The neutral class can be ascribed to any person and is used to remove any emotional association with the referent. As such, it can be used when addressing a group of people, since those are highly unlikely to be homogeneous, or an unknown person, for example in questionnaires. The neutral pronoun is also the pronominal equivalent of indefinite pronouns such as cusan no one, someone and mican nothing, something.

4.2 Number

Nouns, as well as first and second person pronouns inflect for number using an animacy-based system. Nouns are divided into one of five classes, each having a default, "expected" number which is unmarked, and an "unexpected" number which is marked identically across all animacy classes (via reduplication). These classes are independent of NSWEO.

Class Unmarked Marked
1 unique nouns nid (the) sun ninid suns, (a) sun
2 nouns coming in sets püi (a pair of) eyes püibüi (an) eye, (many) eyes
3 other animate nouns cus person cugus people
4 mass nouns nal water nanal (a glass of) water, (a) water
5 inanimate nouns bamt flower(s) babamt (a) flower

Class 1 nouns comprises unique referents, such as nid the sun, bis the world, as well as numeric nouns like saba two, bota thousand. Class 1 nouns are marked when the instance does not refer to a unique referent, e.g. ninid suns, bibis r'än my world.

Class 2 nouns are those which typically occur in a specific number, e.g. days of the week (7), seasons (4), eyes (2), parents (2). Class 2 nouns are unmarked when referred to as a whole set or a general concept, and marked when referring to only one member of the set, or when occurring in any other unexpected number, cf. püi (a pair of) eyes, eyes (in general), püibüi an eye, more than two eyes. Because they are expected to occur in a specific number, class 1 and 2 nouns are collectively referred to as set nouns.

Class 3 nouns are any other animate nouns - people or animals. They are unmarked when singular and marked when plural, e.g. cus person, cugus people.

Class 4 nouns are mass nouns, and are unmarked by default and marked when specifying a unit or a specific instance, e.g. nal water → nanal a glass/bottle/unit of water, stag fire → stadag a fire (a campfire/fire on a match, etc.).

Class 5 nouns are other inanimate nouns. They are ambiguous to number and the marked form is applied only to explicitly specify one of something. For abastract nouns, this means that the base form refers to general concepts and the marked one to specific instances, e.g. saecuic murder → Neo saecuguic ari. There's been a murder., caio love → Äb'et caioio diibi misan usa läläb. Our love will never die. For most other nouns, the marked form is generally only used in a contrastive sense to resolve potential ambiguities, or when a plurality is expected, e.g. paiman cookie(s) → Peobeoms paimaman nänon. I baked a cookie (normally people make more).

4.3 Case

There are three cases - direct, genitive, and dative.

The direct case:

The genitive case:

The dative case:

The cases may be applied to nouns, pronouns and adjectives, the latter agreeing in case with the noun they describe. However, case prefixes are also applied to verbs to form a number of tenses - the genitive conveys the meaning of past, while the dative conveys the meaning of future/irrealis (see 15 Verb tenses).

The direct case is unmarked, while genitive and dative marking depends on the animacy of the noun. Animate nouns (class 3), non-set personal pronouns, as well as all verbs are marked with one set of prefixes, inanimate nouns (class 4 and 5) are marked with another, and set nouns (class 1 and 2) and pronouns are marked with yet another set. Attributive adjectives take the same set of prefixes as the nouns they describe, cf. semica s'olo of good thing (GEN-thing GEN-good) and nicus r'olo of good person (GEN-person GEN-good). Gerunds take the inanimate prefixes when marked for case, since the animate prefixes are used to indicate tense, e.g. peomu doing (do-GER) → äbpeomu going to do (gerund of future form) (AN.DAT-do-GER), lipeomu at doing (dative of gerund) (INAN.DAT-do-GER).

The inanimate forms are the default ones used whenever applying case prefixes to items other than nouns, adjectives or verbs.

Genitive Dative
Animate/Verbs/Pronouns or-/r-/ni- äb-/ä-
from nors *take from räbee *give
Inanimate son-/so-/s- li-/l-
from son carry from eli see
Set dii-/di-/d- em-/m-
from dii choose from lemt gather

Prefixes have different forms for vowel-initial and consonant-initial words:

Genitive Dative Genitive Dative Genitive Dative
Animate Animate Inanimate Inanimate Set Set
V-initial r'- äb'- s'- l'- di-*** m'-
C-initial or- äb-* so-** li- dii- em-

*ä- for words starting with sP.
**s- for words starting with T (devoice voiced plosives, e.g. s- + do → sto). son- for words starting with l.
***d- in case of an illegal vowel sequence.

Examples include:

Direct Genitive Dative
Animate V- an child r'an äb'an
Animate C- does feel ordoes äbdoes
Animate sP- scart loser orscart äscart
Inanimate V- olä effort s'olä l'olä
Inanimate C- mica thing semica limica
Inanimate T- gata type scata ligata
Inanimate l- leüt tree sonleüt lileüt
Set V- ansab twins diansab m'ansab
Set C- goupe ankle diigoupe emgoupe

There are several exceptions to the above-described rules.

Case prefixes are subject to umlaut, e.g. äb- + ion → eb'ion.

4.4 Clause-final auxiliaries

Each clause ends with an auxiliary word which encodes the clause's subject and direct object (if there is one), in that order. This is referred to as SDOAUX (Subject Direct Object AUXiliary) and is done using personal pronouns in specific forms. Each pronoun has a default form, which is used in isolation or in SDOAUX in clauses without a direct object. Each pronoun also has a prefixing subject form and a suffixing direct object form. If the subject or direct object in the clause is a pronoun, it only appears in SDOAUX, but if it is a noun, it appears inside the clause in the direct case and is reinforced in SDOAUX using a corresponding pronoun. See 7 Personal pronouns and Appendix 1: SDOAUX.

For first and second person pronouns, two identical pronouns cannot be combined (e.g. 1SG-1SG). In such cases, reflexive constructions are used (see 16.4 Impersonal and reflexive expressions). However, this is not true for third person pronouns, because both can have two different referents (e.g. tararc 3NUM-3NUM).

Although compound SDOAUX are created by simply combining a prefixing and suffixing form of two pronouns, there are several things to be wary of.

Because both subjects and direct objects take the direct case, some ambiguities may arise and must be resolved through context, e.g. Saesaec cus papa. (kill-REDUP-3P person 3OUM-3OUM.) can mean He killed the person., or The person killed him. Some syncretism within compound SDOAUX occurs, which must be disambiguated through context or spelling, e.g. 3OM-3OUM pab- + -pa → pabpa pappá, 3OM-3OM pab- + -ba → pabba pappá.

SDOAUX are omitted when the verb in the clause is a copula or a locative copula and the subject is a first or second person pronoun, since these verbs conjugate for number as well as for person. The same is true for SDOAUX which repeat in subsequent clauses - only the final one must be used, provided that the pronouns apply to the same referents. Intransitive sentences with the demonstrative gä as a subject also do not require an auxiliary.

There are cases of multiple subjects or direct objects in a clause (x and y, x or y). If pronouns are included therein, they are not omitted in favor of SDOAUX. The SDOAUX in such cases always takes the plural (1P and 2P) or marked (3P) form, with the NSWEO determined by the first noun mentioned.

5 Articles


5.1 Definite article

The language has a definite article, but no indefinite article. It stems from the demonstrative gä this which is devoiced to cä and further modified based on noun class:

The resultant forms are as follows:

Post-front Post-back Post-C
NSWO co co ci chi a a
E co co cän chan a a

If the preceding word has no class (definite articles may appear directly after negative articles), the NSWO form is used.

The vowel-initial article is treated as an enclitic, which is reflected in the pronunciation, e.g. sir a hin a. Articles are never stressed.

The definite article is placed directly after the head noun, before descriptors such as adjectives. It does not inflect for number or case.

The article is primarily used:

5.2 Negative article

The negative article is indefinite and is the equivalent of the English no ~. It stems from the abbreviated gerund of the negative locative copula nü(r) → nü, essentially meaning lacking. For the most part, its forms mirror the patterns of the definite article, but after /ɰ̃/, an is used.

Post-front Post-back Post-C
NSWO no no nüi nüi an an
E no no nüän nüan an an

The negative article is used:

The negative article is used with unmarked nouns, with two exceptions:

6 Nouns


6.1 Animacy

Each noun belongs to one of five animacy classes, which determines the case prefixes it takes, what first and second pronouns can be used to refer to it, and most importantly, how it inflects for number.

◆ Class 1

Class 1 consists of unique nouns which only have one possible referent in their most general sense. This includes almost exclusively entities found in nature, such as celestial objects. In their base meanings, they are typically followed by a definite article. They are reduplicated when not referring to them as unique referents, typically in metaphorical, imaginary, or fictional settings.

Unmarked Marked
bis a the world bibis a world, worlds, (my) world, etc.
nid a the sun ninid a sun, suns, (you are my) sun, etc.
sir a the moon sisir a moon, moons, moon (as a crescent shape) etc.

There are also several special nouns which belong to class 1, in particular all numerical nouns, including fractions, as well as certain words like püta used in the sense being like, or iis used in the sense occurence. Some of these nouns only appear unmarked and are not followed by the definite article.

Unmarked Marked
püta being like
iis a time iisiis times
pica three
tudua eighteen
saban a half sababan halves
selan a seventh selalan sevenths
◆ Class 2

Class 2 nouns are those nouns which typically come in a specific number. Unmarked when used as general concepts or when used in their set number, they are only marked when used in a singulative sense, or when referring to any number other than their set number. When unmarked, they are typically followed by the definite article when viewed as a set rather than a concept. The vast majority of these nouns come in pairs, many of them being body parts.

Unmarked Marked
püi eyes püibüi an eye, many eyes
rotseom wings rotseoseom a wing, many wings
sop hands sosop a hand, many hands
äbsos nipples äbsosos a nipple, many nipples
pit ears pibit an ear, many ears
podasop shoulders podasosop a shoulder, many shoulders

Sets of other numbers are much rarer, but can be found in some words.

Unmarked Marked
doespaü (the four) seasons doespaübaü a season
iisbae (the seven) days of the week iisbaebae a day of the week
noba sas (the three) primary colors nobaba sasas a primary color

There are a few class 2 words which permit more than one set number. For example, nopingaoä grandparents can be unmarked when referring to a pair of grandparents (2), or both pairs of grandparents a person can have (4). The word conoe finger, toe is left unmarked when referring to all fingers/toes on one hand/foot (5), all fingers/toes on both hands/feet (10), or all fingers and all toes a person can have (20).

◆ Class 3

Class 3 nouns are other animate nouns. This includes animals and humans, including names of family members, professions, and social roles. Class 3 nouns are unmarked when singular and marked when plural.

Unmarked Marked
cus person cugus people
müe sibling müemüe siblings
cors recipient cogors a hand, many hands
micaliu animal micaliuliu animals
lob dog lolob dogs
siutnalmu mammal siutnalmumu mammals

Set nouns take priority over animate nouns. This means that, for example, while the word nop parent is semantically animate, it is more important that parents typically come in pairs, meaning the word belongs to class 2. On the other hand, müe sibling belongs to class 3, becuse there is no "typical" number of sibling a person has.

Except for the words ecci man, male and momc woman, female, animate nouns are not sex-specific. To specify the sex of a noun the aforemenetioned two words can be used as an adjective, e.g. an child, boy, girl → an ecci boy, an momcan girl. However, this is uncommon and can be compared to using the phrases male cousin and female cousin in English.

One unobvious member of class 3 is usa meaning heart, soul, self, identity, which also doubles as a reflexive pronoun.

◆ Class 4

Class 4 nouns are mass nouns. This includes mostly substances, liquids, gases, and intangible objects. Class 4 nouns are marked for number when used as a countable unit rather than a mass.

Unmarked Marked
panleüt wood panleüleüt (a piece, block, log of) wood
pelt ice pebelt (a block, cube of) ice
nal water nanal (a glass, bottle, container of) water
em blood emem (a vial, drop of) blood
gilc fog gigilc (a cloud of) fog
carer smoke carerer (a cloud of) smoke
bee light beebee a light, lantern
stag fire stadag a fire, campfire, flame

Some mass nouns refer to masses with discrete small elements like powders, as well as certain generic or collective words.

Unmarked Marked
mars snow mamars snowflake
pannaldo salt pannaldodo (a grain of) salt
soin grass soisoin (a blade of) grass
solem hair solelem a hair
asoir food asoisoir a kind of food, a meal
deis clothing deideis a piece of clothing
◆ Class 5

Class 5 is the largest of the animacy classes. It comprises all inanimate nouns that are neither set nouns nor mass nouns. There is a kind of intuitive divide between concrete and abstract class 5 nouns. Concrete nouns are ambiguous to number by default and are almost never marked. The only time they would be is when specifying singularity where plurality is expected, or when one wants to specifically put emphasis on there being only one of something.

Unmarked Marked
bamt flower, flowers babamt one flower
rotponca street, streets rotponcaga one street
ot bone, bones odot one bone
lein book, books leilein one book
cuopadaet grave, graves cuopadaedaet one grave
biscir army, armies biscigir one army

Abstract nouns work a little differently. They are unmarked when referred to as concepts, but marked when referring to a specific instance.

Unmarked Marked
caio love caioio (a) love, (our) love, etc.
saecuic murder saecuguic (a) murder, (the) murder (of the president), etc.
boroo cheating borooroo (a) ruse, (the election) fraud, etc.
liu life liuliu (a) life, (the) life (of my mother), etc.
aelstue evasion aelstuedue (an) evasion, (my) evasion (of taxes in 2005), etc.
ustag anger ustadag (an) anger, (my) anger (with you), etc.

For many class 5 nouns, it is not always obvious whether they are abstract or not. For instance, the word motia meaning sign can refer to a metaphorical sign or indication, or a physical sign. Many words have both a metaphorical and concrete meaning, such as roru, which can mean source, as in a literal water source, or reason. This is why speakers must use context clues or their own judgement to decide whether the word they are using should be marked or not in a given instance. It is usually better to default to unmarked forms, unless it would compromise the comprehensibility of the message.

All gerunds are treated like class 5 nouns. Gerunds cannot be reduplicated, but you can form gerunds of reduplicated (perfect) verbs, that is, reduplication is applied to the base verb and the gerund suffix is attached to it. Gerunds of reduplicated verbs are treated as marked nouns, and can be referred back to with marked pronouns.

Present gerund Perfect gerund
peomu doing peobeomu having done
bae changing baebae having changed
iti ending etiti having ended
gir fighting gigir having fought
cagoo agreeing cagogoo having agreed
micuu singing micuguu having sung
◆ Additional notes

Polysemous nouns may have different animacy for each meaning, This must be taken into account when inflecting nouns.

Meaning 1 Genitive Meaning 2 Genitive
püta nature (5) spüta (GEN-nature) püta being like (1) diüta (GEN-being.like)
paiman cookie (5) spaiman (GEN-cookie) paiman sweetheart (3) orpaiman (GEN-sweetheart)
sop hand, arm (2) diisop (GEN-hand) sop executor (3) orsop (GEN-executor)

There are nouns whose animacy class may change when appended modifiers. For example, although the word nop parents belongs to class 2, as parents typically come in pairs, in the phrase nop momc mother, the word belongs to class 3, since mothers do not typically come in a specific number.

6.2 Inflection

Nouns inflect for one of three cases, with th prefixes chosen based on the noun's animacy (see 4.3 Case). They inflect for number via reduplication, which is also determined by the noun's animacy (see 4.2 Number).

There is a group of genitive nouns used adjectivally, which are invariable to number and case since they are already inflected, for example spee bright (GEN-light), soreo funny (GEN-give-laugh).

There are compound nouns which include a genitive infix between two constituents. When such nouns are reduplicated, only the first noun is reduplicated.

Unmarked Marked
enascasab hipocrisy (power-GEN-both) enanascasab (power-REDUP-GEN-both)
gatasteis outfit (type-GEN-clothing) gatadasteis (type-REDUP-GEN-clothing)
ciimscair knowledge (curse-GEN-smart) ciigiimscair (curse-REDUP-GEN-smart)
ulooran custody (hug-GEN-child) uloolooran (hug-REDUP-GEN-child)
bitoormomc hips (thick-GEN-woman) bitodoormomc (thick-REDUP-GEN-woman)
pälscormomc waist (thin-GER-woman) pälcalsormomc (thin-REDUP-GER-woman)

Split compound nouns which undergo coda vocalization of the dependednt reduplicate irregularly. The reduplication ignores the vocalization. For example, ecuit murder has an underlying form *ecu(s)t, which reduplicates to *ecugu(s)t, ending up as ecuguit, rather than *ecuiguit. For more information, see 17.3 Compounds.

Unmarked Underlying form Marked
ebaüt winter eba(mt)t ebabaüt
esout spring eso(lt)t esosolt
nisoüb nail niso(p)b nisosoüb
nosabaip aunt, uncle nosaba(n)p nosababaip
raniic sunset rani(d)c raniniic
saedoeic antidepressant saedoe(s)c saedoedoeic

When hyphenated compound nouns inflect, all consituents inflect for case and number.

7 Personal pronouns


7.1 First and second person pronouns

Since first and second person pronouns practically never have inanimate referents, there is only a distinction between singular, plural and set forms. Set pronouns are used when referring to a specific, countable group of entities, e.g. a couple, a team, a herd, a council, or a unique entity, for instance the sun. If an inanimate object is referred to in first or second person, it is assumed to be personified and is treated as animate.

Singular pronouns are unmarked, while the others are derived from the singular prefixing forms with the word bis all marking set pronouns and boa many marking plural pronouns. The first person plural pronoun stems from a separate root.

Each pronoun has a base form used in isolation, a prefixing subject form and a suffixing direct object form, the latter two used in compound SDOAUX. The oblique genitive and dative forms are created by attaching case prefixes to the suffixing forms of the pronouns. Set pronouns take the set prefixes, while other personal pronouns take the animate prefixes.

Isolate Subject Direct object Genitive Dative Notes
1sg nä nia nä- nia- -(ä)n -(a)n* r'än yan äb'n aün äb'n elides the second ä
1set nebi nievi ne- nie- -bi -vi** diibi daivi imbi envi nebi composed of nä- and -bi (bis)
1pl si hi si- hi- -(i)s -(i)s** r'is is eb'is evis
2sg ciulu chuwu ci- chi- -lu -u orlu owu äblu awu orlu and äblu pronounced irregularly
2set li li li- li- -il -iw** diil dai m'il miw li composed of l- (ciulu) and -i (bis)
2pl la wa la- wa- -al -au r'al nau äb'al avau la composed of l- (ciulu) and -a (boa)

*The vowels in parentheses are only appended in case of an illegal cluster.
**This form triggers umlaut.

7.2 Third person pronouns

Third person pronouns act more similarly to nouns, having an unmarked form and a reduplicated marked form, agreeing in marking with their referents. If the referent is unmarked, so is the pronoun; if the referent is marked, so is the pronoun. There are third person pronouns for each NSWEO.

Some marked forms are irregular. The west ari is derived from the unmarked arä via vowel mutation rather than reduplication. The east mionon would be miomion if it were a regular reduplicated form of mion, but the i is elided. tadarc, pa and paba take the irregular genitive prefix ni-.

Isolate Subject Direct object Genitive Dative
3num tarc tarc tar- tar- -(a)rc -(a)rc* r'arc narc äb'arc avarc
3nm tadarc tadarc tad- tad- -darc -darc nidarc nidarc äbdarc attarc
3sum läb lav lä- la- -läb -lav orläb olav äbläb auviav
3sm läläb lalav lälä- lala- -äläb -alav r'äläb yalav äb'äläb avialav
3wum arä aya arä- aya- -rä -ya orrä oiya äbrä avia
3wm ari ayi ari- ayi- -ri -i** erri eyi ebri evi
3eum mion mion mi- mi- -ion -yon** r'ion yon eb'ion evion
3em mionon mionon mion- mion- -non -non ornon urnon äbnon aünon
3oum pa pa pa- pa- -pa -pa nipa nipa äbpa appa
3om paba pava pab- pav- -ba -va niba niva äbba appa

*The vowels in parentheses are only appended in case of an illegal cluster.
**This form triggers umlaut.

The default third person pronoun for humans is the neutral pa. arä and mion are not typically used as he and she are in English, with any third person pronoun applicable to humans based on personal perception or situational context.

Although both animate and inanimate nouns typically stay within their NSWEO class, they may be referred to using the pronouns of a different class if the context warrants it. If a situation in which a referent exhibits traits typical to another class it may be referred to using the pronoun of that class, as long as it is done consciously and overtly. Naturally, the more animate the referent, the more likely it is to undergo such change, since it has a higher chance of exhibiting a wide range of behaviors prompting the speaker to perceive it differently than usual, e.g. Re caioio go äb'n mirn tadarc. This love has hurt me. (give-REDUP-3P love-REDUP DEM DAT-1SG pain 3NM-3NUM.) - in this case caioio, which is an S word is referenced using the N pronoun; this only affects pronouns, as can be noted from the demonstrative which remains in agreement with the word.

7.3 Possessives

The genitive pronouns double as possessive determiners. Similarly to articles and demonstratives, possessive determiners are placed directly after the head noun, before other descriptors, e.g. scaian r'än olo my good friend (friend GEN-1SG good).

When the possessor is the subject of the sentence, personal possessive pronouns are usually replaced with either the definite article, especially when referring to body parts, or the reflexive pronoun. In third person, genitive pronouns can be used to distinguish between one's own and someone else's possession.

Genitive pronouns can only function as possessive determiners. To use possessive pronouns, the impersonal demonstrative gä is appended before a genitive pronoun, as in gä r'än mine. This construction works with nouns too.

7.4 Reflexive pronouns

The reflexive pronoun usa usa stems from the word usa self, heart, identity and has no SDOAUX forms. When it is used as the direct object, the SDOAUX only features the subject form (see 14.8 Impersonal and reflexive expressions).

The genitive form of the reflexive pronoun is r'usa nusa, while the dative form is äbsa assa (note the irregular pronunciation).

8 Interrogatives


8.1 lä, cuä - what, who

The basic interrogative lä la means what and other interrogatives are derived from it. Despite its ending, lä and compounds ending in the word belong to the neutral class. It is classed as inanimate. It does not inflect for number and always uses unmarked pronouns. Unlike in English, the word cannot be used attributively; for this purpose, the word sonlä is used (see 8.2 sonlä, lilä - which, whence, where, whither).

The word cuä qua means who and is derived from cus lä what person. Like lä, it is classed as neutral and does not inflect for number, taking only unmarked pronouns. Unlike lä, it is animate. The genitive is nicuä niqua whose, of whom, from whom, and the dative is äbcuä acqua to whom.

8.2 sonlä, lilä - which, whence, where, whither

The words sonlä sounia and lilä lila have various meanings. Firstly, they can be used as the genitive and dative forms of lä what. Secondly, they can refer to location, meaning whence (from where) and where (at what place), whither (to what place), respectively. Both words are inanimate.

The other usage of sonlä is after nouns, in which case it means which ~, what ~, what kind of ~. Similarly to possessives, it can only be used attributively, and to use it nominally, the demonstrative gä must precede it. In this sense, it could be used as the English how.

8.3 imi, baläns, boalä - when, why, how, how many, how much

The word imi imi means when and is derived from limis lä at what time. It is inanimate and belongs to the neutral class.

The word baläns valans means both why and how, and is derived from bans lä for what. It is inanimate and belongs to the neutral class. In case of ambiguity, why can be expressed as bans coüntinst sonlä for what reason and how can be expressed as rot sorot sonlä by what way.

The word boalä vuala means how many, how much and is derived from boa lä what many. It is inanimate and belongs to the neutral class. It can be used attributively, nominally and adverbially. It can also be used to quantify adjectives and adverbs when placed after them.

9 Demonstratives


9.1 Basic demonstrative

The basic demonstrative stems from the word gä ja, which, like lä, belongs to the neutral class despite its ending. This demonstrative can be used attributively in which case it acts much like the definite article, agreeing with the NSWEO of the head noun and being placed directly after it, before any descriptors, e.g. ecci gi bog this tall man. It does not inflect for number or case.

The base form gä is used for the neutral class; for other NSWEO, class-specific endings are appended.

North gäl jau
South go go
West gi ji
East gän jan
Neutral gä ja

The neutral gä can also be used as a demonstrative pronoun, being the equivalent of English this. It can be used in impersonal constructions, acting similarly to the English it and one (see 14.8 Impersonal and reflexive expressions). Intransitive sentences with gä as the subject do not require SDOAUX. In some cases, gä is practically interchangeable with the neutral pronoun pa.

The demonstrative is also used to nominalize various constructions.

9.2 Proximal and distal demonstratives

Except for the words mi here and mimi there (see 9.3 Other forms - scä, eligä, boagä, mins, mi, mimi), there is no distinction between proximal and distal demonstratives. However, the adjectives müi müi near and dans dans far may be placed directly before the head to convey proximity (in this context müi and dans do not participate in adjective agreement).

9.3 Other forms - scä, eligä, boagä, mins, mi, mimi

Since gä is the demonstrative equivalent of lä, several demonstratives can be derived from interrogatives by replacing the latter with the former. However, the meanings of the resultant forms are not necessarily predictable from the interrogatives.

The form scä scha is the genitive form of the demonstrative gä, and is also used to mean such, this kind of. Like its interrogative equivalent sonlä, it can only be used attributively, and gä must precede it when used nominally. The form eligä elija is the dative form of gä (note the irregular case marking), and is also used to mean then, at that time, and. This word can be further inflected into the genitive s'eligä hielija from then and the dative l'eligä lelija till then. Finally, boagä vuaja is the demonstrative equivalent of boalä, and means this much, this many.

The word mins miens means thus, like this, so and is derived from bans mi for here. Apart from its demonstrative use, it is also the word meaning yes.

The word mi mi means here and is derived from müi close. Its reduplicated form mimi mimi means there. Both words act only as nouns, and to use them adverbially, case marking must be used. The genitive forms semi hiemi and semimi hiemimi mean hence (from here) and thence (from there), respectively. The dative forms emi emi and emimi emimi are irregular and mean here (at this place), hither (to this place) and there (at that place), thither (to that place), respectively.

10 Indefinite pronouns and adjectives


10.1 Negative article - none/some

Negative pronouns are formed with the negative article. The article by itself translates to English no ~ and can be used to negate indefinite sentences (see 5.2 Negative article). Verbs are not negated when used with negative articles in their original meaning. Negating the verb reverses the meaning of the article to some ~, since a phrase like Piipeoms mican näpa. lit. I don't do nothing. is interpreted as It is not true that I do nothing. = I do something.

Other indefinite pronouns formed with the negative article are presented below.

Word Meaning Etymology
mican mican nothing/something no thing (mica thing + nüi NEG.ART)
cusan cusan no one/someone no person (cus person + an NEG.ART)
linür linür (to) nowhere/somewhere at/to not-being (li DAT + nür NEG.LOC.COP-GER)
sünür hünür from nowhere/somewhere from not-being (so GEN + nür NEG.LOC.COP-GER)
misan misan never/sometime at no time (li DAT + mis time + an NEG.ART)
rotan notan nohow, not at all/somehow (by) no way (rot way + an NEG.ART)

The negative article is an enclitic in these words and is disregarded with respect to NSWEO, so mican, cusan, misan are O, and rotan is W. Case marking for these pronouns is the same as for the original nouns, so for instance the genitive form nicusan mirrors the irregularity of the genitive form of cus - nicus.

The meaning of some ~ can also be expressed with generic nouns, for instance mica thing (something), cus person (someone), dü place (somewhere), mis time (sometime), rot way (somehow). Another alternative is using the adjective da some, certain.

To use indefinite pronouns in negative sentences, the phrasing is changed from, e.g. sometimes ~ not to not always, using the word piireli not and the word bis every.

10.2 bis - every

The word bis vis has various uses and meanings. It can be used as a class 1 noun to mean the world or to convey spatial relations, with the meaning of within, among, inside. It can be used as an adjective to mean all, every, each, or as a pronoun to mean everything, everyone. For disambiguation, the adjectival phrases mica bisica mica vihíca every thing and cus bisus cus visus every person can be used.

Other than that, bis is used as an enclitic with two pronouns and two nouns.

Word Meaning Etymology
sonbis sonvis from everywhere from every where (sonlä whence + bis every)
libis livis (to) everywhere to every where (lilä where, whither + bis every)
mibis mivis always, at all times at all times (li DAT + mis time + bis every)
retbis yeppis in all ways, completely (by) all ways (rot way + bis every)

Note that used as an enclitic, bis causes umlaut in retbis but not in sonbis, because of the intervening lä which is then elided. The words sonbis and libis appear to be genitive and dative forms of bis, but they are actually clipped forms of sonlä bis and lilä bis, respectively. The word bis itself uses set case prefixes - the genitive diibis daivis and the dative imbis envis. The word mibis is used to mean always in the sense of at all times. For the meaning forever, the word elit elit (DAT-end) is more appropriate.

Similarly to the negative article, bis is used with unmarked nouns, with two exceptions:

10.3 Potential form - any

In most cases in which English would use pronouns such as anything or whatever, the pronoun is synonymous with some or every, e.g. Is anyone (someone) interested?, I can do anything (everything). Therefore, there is no need for such pronouns in this language. However, in subjunctive clauses, a plain interrogative is used and the predicate is conjugated into the potential form (see 15.7 Potential).

10.4 cago and darn and their contractions

The adjectives cago same and darn other change their meaning depending on the definiteness of the noun they modify. cago means the same when definite and an identical when indefinite, and darn can mean the other when definite and another when indefinite.

This dichotomy is also observed in negative sentences, where the verb is negated when definite phrases are involved, and the adjective is negated when indefinite phrases are involved. Note that when the meaning is no identical and no other, it is the noun that is followed by a negative article.

The two adjectives simplify when combined with certain pronouns and nouns. Because the two words are merged, definiteness is expressed by placing an article after the whole phrase.

Word Indefinite meaning Definite meaning Etymology
cusca cusca an identical person the same person same person (cus person + cago same)
micago micago an identical thing the same thing same thing (mica thing + cago same)
lilägo lilago to/at an identical place to/at the same place to same where (lilä where/whither + cago same)
sonlägo souniago from an identical place from the same place from same where (sonlä whence + cago same)
misca misca at an identical time, at the same time the same time same time (mis time + cago same)
rotca nocca an identical way, in the same way the same way (by) same way (rot way + cago same)
caca caca an identical side, on the same side the same side same side (ca side + cago same)
cusda custá another person the other person other person (cus person + darn other)
micarn micarn another thing the other thing other thing (mica thing + darn other)
lilärn lilarn to/at elsewhere to/at the other place to other where (lilä where/whither + darn other)
sonlärn souniarn from elsewhere from the other place from other where (sonlä whence + darn other)
misda mistá (at) another time, again, still (at) the other time other time (mis time + darn other)
rotda nottá another way, otherwise the other way (by) other way (rot way + darn other)
cada cadá another side, on the other side the other side other side (ca side + darn other)

Nouns merged with cago and darn are reduplicated based on the form of the noun, with the adjective part ignored in inflection.

Word with cago Redulicated form Word with darn Redulicated form
cusca cusca same person cugusca cugusca same people cusda custá other person cugusda cugustá other people
micago micago same thing micagago micagago (one) same thing (rare) micarn micarn other thing micagarn micagarn (one) other thing (rare)
misca misca same time mimisca mimisca same moment misda mistá other time mimisda mimistá other moment
rotca nocca same way rorotca nonocca (one) same way (rare) rotda nottá other way rorotda nonottá (one) other way (rare)
caca caca same side cagaca cagaca (one) same side (rare) cada cadá other side cagada cagadá (one) other side (rare)

The words cusca, misca, rotca are S, and cusda, misda, rotda are N despite their endings, because they are clipped forms. Also note that the clipping shifts the regular stress of some forms with darn.

misca, rotca, caca, misda, rotda, cada can be use adverbially, in which case they are never followed by the definite article.

The words lilägo and lilärn are dative by default and refer to being in a location or going to a location. The words meaning same place and other place are compositional (dü cago same place, dü darn other place).

11 Adjectives and adverbs


11.1 Placement and characteristics of adjectives

Since the language is exclusively head-initial, adjectives always follow nouns they modify. If an article, demonstrative, or possessive pronoun is used, the adjective follows it. This does not apply to nouns used in the genitive case to express possession.

Adjectives cannot be used attributively with pronouns, as in *nä dane stupid me.

Adjectives are noun-like and have no predicative forms. They are used with the copula, similarly to nouns. Adjectives used predicatively do not participate in ending agreement (see 11.2 Agreement of adjectives with nouns) or number agreement.

Except for certain constructions, adjectives cannot be used nominally. Nominalizing them can be done either by using a generic noun like cus person or mica thing, or by using the demonstrative gä.

Adjectives have a negative form used in certain constructions described in further sections (see 11.6 Comparison of adjectives and adverbs). The form is created by attaching the negative article directly after the adjective. This is possible because the negative article otherwise directly follows the head noun.

There are certain adjectives which are much more commonly used with a definite article than without one. These are similar to those found in English, including sas main and misc current. Some adjectives may change meaning whether they are definite or indefinite, such as irm the only, lone, cago the same, identical, and darn the other, another. The difference collapses, however, when the adjective is used predicatively, since they do not take the definite article. In that case, the demonstrative can be used to convey the definite meaning of the adjective.

11.2 Agreement of adjectives with nouns

Adjectives agree with the nouns they modify in case and number. Case prefixes are applied in agreement with the animacy of the noun.

Contrary to number and case, adjectives do not necessarily have to agree with the noun's class, since each adjective belongs to one of NSWEO. If an adjective does have the same class as the noun it modifies, its ending changes to rhyme with the noun, unless they already do, as in sägo cago same pride. The appended ending starts from the stressed vowel of the noun, except for nouns with antepenultimate stress, whose ending starts with the penultimate vowel, e.g. eus-at, n-oba, mic-oso. Preceding semivowels are included provided they stem from orthographic vowels, e.g. m-üe, ca-ian, but matal-ag.

For consonant-final adjectives, the ending is appended to the end of the adjective. For vowel-final adjectives it replaces the final vowel(s), unless the adjective is monosyllabic in which case an intervening epenthetic r (before front vowels) or l (before back vowels) is placed between the adjective and the ending. Finally, the adjective must be stressed on the same syllable as the noun.

When nouns are reduplicated, the agreeing adjectives are first reduplicated and then have their endings changed, e.g. ecci + müi → eccigi müimüi → eccigi müimigi etchiji müimiji close men. Potential case prefixes are appended using these forms as the base.

When a noun agreeing with an adjective is inflected, the adjective inflects regularly, using its rhyming direct form as the base, e.g. ca da ca da some side → lica lida licá lidá to some side, not *lica lidarica lica lidayíca. Moreover, pairs of agreeing nouns and adjectives have fixed stress when case prefixes are applied, e.g. moco spuoloco moco spuowóco dry tongue → somoco sospuoloco somóco sospuowóco of dry tongue.

11.3 Placement and characteristics of adverbs

Adverbs do not have NSWEO and exhibit no agreement. Similarly to adjectives, adverbs follow the word they modify. Adverbs can modify adjectives, verbs, or other adverbs. When an adverb modifies a verb, it generally does not directly follow it, unless it is emphasized, because usually the verb is directly followed by the subject.

Adverbials are typically placed between the subject and the direct object. Although sentences are usually verb-initial, adverbial phrases are sometimes placed at the beginning of a sentence, especially if they are long and introducing them first is desired by the speaker. This fronting can also be done as a form of disambiguation, emphasizing that the adverbial refers to the entire clause, not the verb itself.

11.4 Conversion of adjectives into adverbs

The preposition rot by, through can be placed in front of adjectives to turn them into adverbs, e.g. sono quick → rot sono quickly. While this preposition typically requires the following word to be in the genitive case, there is no case marking if rot is used as an adverbializer.

There are four adjectives which form adverbs irregularly.

Adjective Adverb Etymology
olo owo good popba poppa well pop finish + ba do
ognol ounou bad bitba vippa badly räbit stop + ba do
boa vua many roba nova much, very rot way + boa many
tiü chiẅ few rotü nochü little, not very rot way + tiü few

Adverbs derived from adjectives do not inflect for number or case. However, they can be negated with the negative article, similarly to their adjectival equivalents, e.g. rot sono nüi not quickly.

11.5 Adverbs of degree

To convey excessiveness, the word badans vadans overdo, excessive(ly) can be used as an adverb. To express insufficiency, the word bamüi vamüi underdo, insufficient(ly) is used. These stem from the combination of the verb ba *do and the adjectives dans far and müi near.

Another strategy is to use augmentatives or diminutives. Augmentatives used with adjectives or adverbs with positive meaning can express excessiveness, while diminutives used with adjectives or adverbs with negative meaning can express slight insufficiency. When an adjective or adverb with a positive meaning is diminutivized, it can convey the meaning of slight excessiveness. The diminutive suffix -an should not be misinterpreted as the negative article an, since the former is stressed and the latter is not.

To express sufficiency, the word müidansa müidansa enough, just right is used. It stems from the adjectives müi near and dans far, and the nominalizer -a (from mica thing).

Other adverbs of degree include the following.

Word Meaning Etymology
rotan notan not at all, in no way rot way + an NEG.ART
müin müen barely müi close + -n DIM
rotü nochü not very, little rot way + tiü few
tede cheje a little, somewhat ter dust reduplicated and clipped
enae enai quite ena power + bae change
curado cunado mostly cura part + do big
roba nova very, much rot way + boa many
müicago müicago almost müi close + cago same
retbis yeppis completely, in all ways rot way + bis all

Examples of how these adverbs are used are presented below.

11.6 Comparison of adjectives and adverbs

For most adjectives and adverbs, there is no inflection involved with comparison. To express the comparative degree, the noun that is being compared to is used in the dative case and placed after the adjective/adverb. When there is no compared noun, the demonstrative gä is used. The adjective/adverb can be affirmative to express more or negative to express less.

This construction means that the beneficiary of an adjective cannot be expressed with the dative case. Instead, the preposition bans is used.

The superlative is formed by placing the definite article directly after the adjective/adverb, whereas normally it would be placed directly after the head noun.

There are seven adjectives which have irregular comparative/superlative forms.

Positive Comparative/Superlative Etymology
bog vog high currio cuyyo higher, highest cura part + rio top
do do big currio cuyyo bigger, biggest cura part + rio top
milc miwc low/small curpil cuypiw lower/smaller, lowest/smallest cura part + pil bottom
olo owo good poib poiv better, best poinp tits + nib beauty
ognol ounou bad saürp saürp worse, worst sami ass + mürp ugliness
boa vua many/much rea ya more, most räbee give + mica thing
tiü chiẅ few/little nora nona fewer/less, fewest/least nors take + mica thing

For irregular adjectives, the comparative form still precedes a noun in the dative case, and the superlative form uses the irregular comparative form as a base and is followed by the definite article. When applying negative comparison, all adjectives are regular and use regular base forms.

Adverbs of irregularly compared adjectives are formed with rot plus the irregular adjective form. For the four irregularly formed adverbs, the comparative, superlative, and negative forms are based on the irregular forms.

The adjectives boa vua many and tiü chiẅ few can be used to mean more, the most and fewer/less, the fewest/the least when compared. They can only refer to quantities and cannot be used to compare other adjectives as in English.

These adjectives can also be used to augment or compare genitive nouns used adjectivally, such as spee bright (GEN-light), or sosolt spipa meaningless (GEN-emptiness GEN-meaning).

To compare two nouns of equal quality, a similar construction is used as with the comparative degree, but the adjectival/adverbial phrase contains the negative form followed by the affirmative form. In this construction, adjectives always use regular forms.

12 Numbers and numerical expressions


12.1 Cardinal numbers

Each number has a base adjectival form (form 1) and a nominal form (form 2) which is always O and is formed by attaching the suffix -a (from mica thing) to the adjectival form, unless the adjectival form already has an O ending. For 9, final ä is replaced with a. Numbers 1-10 have reduplicated forms, which are used for numbers 11-20. The nominal forms all belong to animacy class 1.

Form 1 Form 2 Redup form 1 Redup form 2
1 iis ais iis ais iisiis aisais iisiis aisais
2 sab sav saba sava sasab sasav sasaba sasava
3 pic pic pica pica pibic pivic pibica pivica
4 min mien mina mina mimin mimien mimina mimina
5 gür jür güra jüna gügür jüjür gügüra jüjüna
6 poi poi poia poya poiboi poivoi poiboia poivoya
7 sel hieu sela hiewa sesel hiehieu sesela hiehiewa
8 tu tu tua tua tudu tudu tudua tudua
9 asä ahia asa asa asäsä ahiahia asäsa ahiasa
10 (l)ü (l)ü* (l)ü (l)ü üü aü üü aü
100 sodi soji sodia soja
1000 bot vot bota vota

*l- is appended only in compounds after vowels and semivowels.

When nouns are quantified, either form can be used. When form 1 is used, it acts like an attributive adjective and is placed after the quantified noun (no number or class agreement, but case agreement applies). When form 2 is used, it acts like a noun and the quantified noun is in the genitive case. With form 1, the quantified noun inflects for number, but with form 2 it is always unmarked.

When attaching case prefixes, if form 1 is used, prefixes attached to numbers agree in animacy with those of the head noun, but with form 2 the prefixes for numbers are always set and are only applied to the numbers, since the quantified noun is always in the genitive case. Case prefixes only attach to the first word of the number, even if it is e(l)/ä(b) and.

Though the language employs the decimal system, double-digit numbers are formed de facto in base 20. Thus, for instance, 72 is ä pica diüü, sasab lit. three twenties and twelve. The word and has different forms between inanimate (e(l)) and animate/set words (ä(b)). Form 2 numbers are set and are preceded by the latter, while form 1 numbers are adjectival and preceded by the former. When forming numbers, the inanimate e(l) is only used before üü twenty, sodi hundred and bot thousand used in form 1.

For numbers representing the powers of 10, iis one is used attributively after the number, but is omitted in other numbers which include powers of 10. For instance, 100 is sodi iis (F1); sodia iis (F2) lit. one hundred, but 101 is e sodi, iis (F1); ä sodia, iis (F2) lit. hundred and one. In the former case, iis does not take case marking when the number is inflected, for example the genitive of cus ü iis ten people is nicus r'ü iis, not *nicus r'ü r'iis.

Nominal forms of numbers larger than 20 are formed by nominalizing all constituent numbers, e.g. e sodi, pibic → ä sodia, pibica 113. The only exceptions are powers of 10, in which the first word is nominalized, e.g. sodi iis → sodia iis 100.

Numbers are formed according to the following patterns.

Number(s) Strategy Form 1 Form 2
1-9 separate number[-NOM] iis 1
sab 2		 iis 1
saba 2
10 10[-NOM] 1 ü iis 10 ü iis 10
11-20 (x-10)-REDUP[-NOM] poiboi 16
üü 20		 poiboia 16
üü 20
40/60/80 (2/3/4)-NOM GEN-20-NOM saba diüü 40
pica diüü 60		 saba diüü 40
pica diüü 60
21-99 and (20/40/60/80)[-NOM], (1-19)[-NOM] el üü, lü 30
ä saba diüü, tudu 58		 äb üü, lü 30
ä saba diüü, tudua 58
100 100[-NOM] 1 sodi iis 100 sodia iis 100
101-199 and 100[-NOM], (1-99)[-NOM] e sodi, ä saba diüü, pic 143 ä sodia, ä saba diüü, pica 143
200/300... (2/3...)-NOM GEN-100-NOM poia diisodia 600 poia diisodia 600
201-999 and (200/300...)[-NOM], (1-99)[-NOM] ä poia diisodia, ä pica diüü, gügür 675 ä poia diisodia, ä pica diüü, gügüra 675
1000+ same as 100+ bot iis 1000
saba diibota 2000
ä poia diibota, ä saba diisodia, sel 6207		 bota iis 1000
saba diibota 2000
ä poia diibota, ä saba diisodia, sela 6207

Numbers larger than 9999 are not used.

To express zero, the word nür (NEG.LOC.COP) or solt emptiness can be used. When applying that to nouns, one could either use a negative article, as in ugu nüän (house NEG.ART) no house(s), zero houses, or the word solt followed by the noun in the genitive case, as in solt s'ugu a lack of houses, zero houses.

Numbers are always written as words; there are no characters for digits.

12.2 Ordinal numbers

Ordinals are formed with the word iria iya state, condition, which surfaces as ir- before vowels, i-r- before consonants followed by a front vowel, and i-ri- before consonants followed by a back vowel. The only exceptions are s'inst first (GEN-start) and s'oüt second, next (GEN-leading). These exceptions only apply to the numbers one and two, and the ordinal versions of one and two still appear in ordinals for twenty-first - irüü iriis (ORD-20 ORD-1), twenty-second - irüü isriab (ORD-20 ORD-2), etc. Similarly, while ordinals make use of adjectival forms of numbers, the nominal forms are in use for numbers making use of these forms, as in forty-fifth - ä isriaba diüü, igrür (ORD-20 ORD-1).

Form 1 Form 2 Redup form 1
1 iriis inais iriis inais iriisiis inaisais
2 isriab ihiav isriaba ihiava isriasab ihiasav
3 ipric ipic iprica ipica ipribic ipivic
4 imrin imien imrina imina imrimin imimien
5 igrür ijür igrüra ijüna igrügür ijüjür
6 iprioi ipioi iprioia ipioya iprioiboi ipioivoi
7 isrel ihieu isrela ihiewa isresel ihiehieu
8 itriu ichu itriua ichua itriudu ichudu
9 iasrä yahia iasria yahia iasräsä yahiahia
10 ilrü iyü ilrü iyü irüü inaü
100 isriodi ihioji isriodia ihioja
1000 ibriot iviot ibriota iviota

Using these forms, any ordinal can be created. For compound words, every constituent number except for those in the genitive case changes its form to its corresponding ordinal.

With the exception of s'inst and s'oüt, ordinals act like adjectival numerals, taking case prefixes which agree in animacy with the head noun and being invariable with respect to number. Because s'inst and s'oüt are genitive by default, they take no additional case marking. Ordinals do not require the use of the definite article to make the entire phrase definite.

The interrogative scä scha which can be turned into an ordinal as well, resulting in s'igrä hija which (in order). The ordinals can be used adverbially as well, for instance rot s'inst firstly, rot ipric thirdly, rot s'et lastly.

12.3 Occurrences, multiples, fractions

The number of occurrences can be expressed with the class 1 noun iis time, occurrence. Since the noun belongs to class 1, it is reduplicated whenever the number of occurrences is more than one. A single occurrence can be expressed as iis iis/iis diiis one time or just iis a time.

Adverbial phrases are formed with the preposition rot.

Multiples are expressed with the noun püt(a) nature, manner used as a prefix. Like any prefix, it is subject to umlaut. The resultant words are adjectives, invariant to number or NSWEO, but taking case prefixes which agree in animacy with the noun. Once again, adverbial forms are formed with rot.

X/Y fractions are formed with the nominal form of Y in the dative case, while X can be in form 1 or form 2. 1/Y is expressed as the diminutive of Y, the resultant forms being class 1 nouns.

12.4 Dates, clock time

Names of days of the week are presented below. The week starts on Monday.

Word Meaning Etymology
ibaenst ivainst Monday inst start + bae week
nidresin nijehien Tuesday nid sun + resin early
iismadic aismajic Wednesday iis unit + madic work
nidingoä nijengua Thursday nid sun + ingoä late
poinpiugu poimpiugu Friday poinp before + miugu Saturday
miugu miugu Saturday mis time + ugu house
ebaet evait Sunday et end + bae week

Names of months make use of generic nominalizing prefixes:

Word Meaning Etymology
encoünstiondu encoünschondu January en- NOM + coünstiondu hope
entäl enchau February en- NOM + täl lie
iecuit yequit March i- NOM + ecuit murder
iliu ilu April i- NOM + liu life
ibamt ivant May i- NOM + bamt flower
ibee ivi June i- NOM + bee light
ieusat yeusat July i- NOM + eusat death
sionscet hionschet August sion- NOM + scet death, rotting
imirn imirn September i- NOM + mirn pain
encaio encayo October en- NOM + caio love
irac inac November i- NOM + rac fall
sionsolt hionsout December sion- NOM + solt darkness

The date format is DD/MM/YYYY. The word for day is sirnida hinida and the word for year is paü paü. sirnida can be replaced with the demonstrative gä when stating dates. Dates make use of ordinal numbers and the genitive case.

The words for hours and minutes are is is and muao muau, respectively. When expressing clock time, they are always unmarked for number. Clock time is either expressed using the 24 hour format, or the 12 hour format. In the latter case, words denoting times of the day, such as beesin vihien morning or soresiilt soyesait evening are used. For 12AM and 12PM, the words lioüsolt loüsout midnight and lioübee loüvi noon are preferred.

Any time phrase can be preceded by a dative marker to signify that an event occurs at that time.

13 Conjunctions and prepositions


13.1 Usage of noun cases

Genitive and dative marking is used in certain cases in which English would use prepositions. The genitive case, apart from encoding possession, can be used to mean from, or about.

The dative case marks indirect objects, but also location, destination and time.

The genitive case is also used when a noun is followed by an attributive phrase with the dative case or a preposition, with the exception of äbee and rütnü (see 13.3 Prepositions). In such phrases, the inanimate forms of genitive prefixes are used. If, however, such phrase involves the use of the genitive case, there is no double marking.

13.2 Conjunctions

Conjunctions and prepositions function in a very similar fashion, requiring the following noun to take on specific case marking. The difference between the two categories is that conjunctions cannot be used as suffixes attached to gerunds.

◆ ä(b)/e(l) - and

This conjunction has the meaning of and and is used with the direct case. It stems from dative markers äb- and eli-. The form ä/äb a/av is used before animate and set nouns and pronouns, while e/el e/eu is used elsewhere. The coda consonant in either of the forms is appended if the following word is vowel-initial.

This conjunction is used to link nouns and adjectives. Unlike the English and, this conjunction is used before the first word in a list, meaning literally (in addition) to x, y for x and y. It requires the use of a comma between each of the listed elements. The conjunction can be repeated before every listed element but the last, or just the first one. Its usage before every non-final element is only required when forming numbers.

This conjunction is unique in that any case marking applied to the nouns and adjectives following it is taken on by the conjunction itself, with the following nouns and adjectives left unmarked. The choice of the form of said case marking depends on the animacy of the first element listed after the conjunction.

This conjunction can only link nouns, pronouns, and adjectives, not verbs or clauses. For that purpose, one must either use words like eligä and, then, or simply concatenate two clauses without any additional marking.

Although not applied to finite verbs, it can be used with gerunds, since they function as nouns.

◆ dar - or

The conjunction dar dar is used to mean (either), or and is used with the direct case. It originates from the word darn meaning other. It is placed between words or clauses, and is preceded by a comma. It can be used before the first of the listed items, in which case it does not require any punctuation to precede it. Placed sentence-initially before a comma, this conjunction has the meaning of otherwise, else, if not.

Unlike with ä(b)/e(l), case marking is applied to nouns, pronouns and adjectives following dar, never the conjunction itself.

The preposition can also be used to express the meaning of quite, rather by placing it after an adjective or adverb. This can be done attributively and predicatively. In the latter case the auxiliary verb ba *do is used and the adjective is used nominally as a quasi-direct object, thus it does not participate in NSWEO agreement with the subject noun. The meaning not very can be achieved by negating the verb, but this form cannot be used attributively.

The same construction with the auxiliary ba can be formed using gerunds and nouns as well. This conveys the meaning of do things such as, do or something.

◆ ägä - but

The conjunction ägä aja is used with the direct case and stems from the proto-form läläl gä, which meant it may be. When placed before nouns, it has the meaning of despite.

Placed at the beginning of a clause before the verb, ägä means although, but, even though, even if. In this case it is placed in the subordinate clause, since it literally translates to it may be that x, y, which is used to mean any of the following: x, but y, although x, y, even though x, y, even if x, y. For the latter meaning, the main clause is in the future tense.

The word ägä can also be used to mean only, just, simply. Note that in this case the following noun does not necessarily have to be in the direct case.

When used in this sense, the conjunction may be preceded by a negative pronoun. Note that adding the negative pronoun may change the verb conjugation, as well as the class of the subject or direct object, resulting in a different SDOAUX. If a pronoun which represents the subject or direct object follows this conjunction, it is used in its direct form and later reinforced in SDOAUX.

When using ägä with verbs and adjectives, the auxiliary verb ba do is employed, and the direct object is the verb (in the gerund) or the adjective.

◆ cagoeli - also

The conjunction cagoeli cagueli is used with the dative case and stems from the combination of cago agree and the dative marker eli. Its usage is similar to that of ägä when used to mean only. Placed before nouns, cagoeli has the meaning of also, even. Used multiple times, it carries the meaning of both x and y in affirmative sentences and neither x nor y in negative sentences. If a subject or direct object pronoun follows this conjunction, it is used in its dative form and reinforced in SDOAUX. The person marking of the verb agrees with the subject even though in such constructions it is not used in the direct case.

If cagoeli is followed by a phrase in the genitive case or a preposition, a dative prefix precedes said preposition or genitive marker. In such phrases, the inanimate forms of dative prefixes are used. If, however, cagoeli is followed by a phrase in the dative case, there is no double marking, and the meaning must be understood from context.

As with ägä, the use of this conjunction with verbs and adjectives requires the use of the auxiliary verb ba do.

◆ piireli - not

The conjunction piireli paiyeli is used with the dative case and stems from the combination of piir differ and the dative marker eli. It is used to negate nouns or entire phrases, and its syntactic properties are identical to that of cagoeli.

13.3 Prepositions

Prepositions are able to attach to verbs in attributive clauses, and in those cases, they are preceded by a hyphen.

◆ pagson - from

The preposition pagson pascon is used with the genitive case and stems from pag go and the genitive marker son. It is used to mean from, since, both in temporal and spatial expressions. It can substitute the genitive case, but only when denoting origin, not possession.

This preposition can also be used to disambiguate phrases which use the genitive case both as an ablative and a possessive.

◆ nelli - to

The preposition nelli nielli is used with the dative case and stems from näl come and the dative marker li. It is used to mean to, until, both in temporal and spatial expressions. It can substitute the dative case, but not when applied to a beneficiary of an action or the location of something.

This preposition can also be used to disambiguate phrases which use the dative case both as a grammatical requirement for the preceding word and in a lexical sense.

◆ rot - by

The preposition rot not stems directly from the word rot path and functions as the instrumental preposition. It is used with the genitive case, unless it is used to turn an adjective into an adverb (see 11.4 Conversion of adjectives into adverbs). rot is used to convey the instrumental meaning of with and by, as well as to mean through and per. It is not, however, used to mark the agent of a passive verb.

The same preposition can be followed by a gerund to mean by doing if the subject is not specified, or if one does if the subject is specified. In such expressions, subordinate alignment rules apply: if the verb is intransitive, the subject is in the genitive case, and if it is transitive, the subject is preceded by the preposition bans and placed directly after the gerund, before a potential direct object, which is in the genitive form. See 18.1 Word order for details.

Finally, rot can be used clause-initially before the main verb and with no additional marking to mean one should do.

◆ bans - for

The preposition bans vans is used with the direct case and originates from the verbal form bans I do. It marks the beneficiary of an action, its use sometimes overlapping with dative marking. Moreover, it is used to mark the agent of subordinate clauses (unless the verb is intransitive, excluding the copula, in which case genitive marking is used; see 18.1 Word order). Finally, it is used to mark the subject in in attributive clauses if the subject is different from the head noun (see 18.3 Attributive clauses). When marking subjects/agents in subordinate clauses, the preposition directly follows the gerund, before other arguments.

The preposition bans can be followed by a gerund to mean in order to if the subject is not specified. The verb can be negated to express the meaning of in order not to.

If bans is followed by a gerund and the subject is specified, it is used to mean because. Like with rot, the subject in such clauses is preceded by bans, or a genitive marker if the verb is intransitive, excluding the copula.

◆ äbee - with

The preposition äbee avi stems from the word räbee *give and is used with the dative case. It marks accompaniment and cannot be used instrumentally as in eat with a fork. It can also be used as a general preposition connecting phrases, with the approximate meaning of with respect to.

Unlike other prepositions, äbee cannot be used attributively with nouns. Instead, the word suon suon lit. of existing (GEN-LOC.COP-GER) is used, with the following noun in the genitive case.

This preposition can also be used with gerunds to mean while doing, or having done if the gerund is perfect (reduplicated). The form is impersonal by default, but the subject can be specified using bans or the genitive case.

◆ rütnü - without

The opposite of äbee is the preposition rütnü ünü. It is used with the direct case and stems from the preposition rot by and the gerund of the negative locative copula nür. Like äbee, it cannot be used instrumentally.

In nominal attributive phrases, the meaning of without is conveyed with the use of the word sünür hünür lit. of lacking (GEN-NEG.LOC.COP-GER), with the following noun in the genitive case. Note that double negation can be used to mean with some.

When used before gerund, rütnü has the meaning of without doing. This form is impersonal by default, but a subject can be specified with the preposition bans or the genitive case.

◆ insteta - during

While the dative case is used to convey the time at which something happens, the preposition insteta enscheta is used to specify a period of time over which something happens, or an event during which something happens. The word stems from a dvandva inst start + et end + the nominalizer -a (from mica thing). It is used with the direct case.

13.4 Usage of püta, coc, dataa

The word püta püta means nature, style, -ness and functions as an inanimate noun or a nominalizing affix, but it can also be used to mean like/as. In this case it is treated as a class 1 noun and the initial p is elided unless the preceding word is vowel-final. This includes inflected forms: genitive diüta jiẅta, dative m'üta müta.

This word can be used with the copula in the form of läl üta GEN-x to mean to be like x.

It can be used with the preposition rot, with the two words contracting into riüta iẅta, as in (peom) riüta GEN-x to mean (to do) like/as x.

It can be used with gerunds, as in riüta GEN-(peomu) bans x to mean as if x (does).

Finally, it can be used as part of an attributive clause, as in y diüta GEN-x y like an x. In such constructions, adjectives can be used too.

The word coc coc means limit and can be used in the dative case to mean as long as. The word is followed by a gerund in the genitive case, which can be inflected for tense, or negated. In the phrase following the gerund, all rules of subordinate alignment apply, though the subject can be omitted if it is the same as that of the main clause.

The word dataa dato means extent and can be used in the dative case to mean so much that. Grammatically, it functions the same way as coc, but always requires the subject to be specified in the subordinate clause.

The same word can also be followed by a noun, including gerunds with no specified subject, to mean as much as. It can be used as an alternative to the negative-affirmative construction when comparing the qualities of two nouns.

13.5 Spatial and temporal expressions

Instead of prepositions of place, the language makes use of verbal and nominal phrases to convey the relative positions of objects. The following table presents most of the common spatial expressions in their adverbial forms, with the word ugu house as an example.

Meaning Form Etymology
in front of lipoinp s'ugu lipoimp sugu li DAT + poinp tits + GEN
äbee l'eüti s'ugu avi leüchi sugu äbee while + l DAT + eüti lead-GER + GEN
behind lisami s'ugu lisami sugu li DAT + sami butt + GEN
äbee l'odnuu s'ugu avi woinau sugu äbee while + l DAT + odnuu follow-GER + GEN
over/above äbee lilago s'ugu avi lilago sugu äbee while + li DAT + lago dominate-GER + GEN
over/to the south of cario l'ugu cayo ugu cario up + DAT
under/below äbee limotil l'ugu avi limochiw ugu äbee while + li DAT + motil submit to-GER + DAT
under/to the north of capil l'ugu capiw ugu capil down + DAT
on top of/on äbee lisigeo s'ugu avi lihijo sugu äbee while + li DAT + sigeo ride-GER + GEN
at the bottom of äbee linoir l'ugu avi linoir ugu äbee while + li DAT + noir sink-GER + DAT
inside/within l'ugu ugu DAT
l'usa s'ugu usa sugu l DAT + usa heart + GEN
äbee libädo s'ugu avi liviado sugu äbee while + li DAT + bädo fill-GER + GEN
inside/among imbis s'ugu envis sugu im DAT + bis world + GEN
outside liponca s'ugu liponca sugu li DAT + ponca outside + GEN
around äbee l'uloo s'ugu avi uwu sugu äbee while + l DAT + uloo hug-GER + GEN
next to/by äbee limuao s'ugu avi limuau sugu äbee while + li DAT + muao kiss-GER + GEN
between* emtoobee s'ugu entuvi sugu em DAT + toobee thighs + GEN
camon caabi l'ugu camon covi ugu camon on the left + caabi on the right + DAT
to the left/east of camon l'ugu camon ugu camon on the left + DAT
to the right/west of caabi l'ugu covi ugu caabi on the right + DAT
opposite to cada l'ugu cadá ugu cada on the other side + DAT

*The conjunction ä(b)/e(l) can be used when multiple complements are involved, e.g. emtoobee s'el ugu, leüt / camon caabi l'el ugu, leüt / camon l'ugu caabi lileüt between a house and a tree.

These forms are used as adverbial phrases. In verbal phrases, äbee is interchangeable with rot.

To use positional phrases attributively with nouns, the genitive case is used for the word following the head noun. For verbal phrases, the word äbee used in adverbial phrases is dropped, and the genitive case is applied to the gerund, e.g. äbee l'eüti s'ugu → milm s'eüti s'ugu lit. a cat leading a house = a cat in front of a house. For nominal phrases used with the dative case, a genitive affix is applied in front of the dative affix, e.g. l'usa s'ugu → milm sonl'usa s'ugu a cat inside a house. For adverbial phrases involving the word ca side, because these words are both adverbs and nouns, the genitive case can be applied to them as well, e.g. camon l'ugu → milm scamon l'ugu a cat on the left of a house.

Finally, to use positional phrases predicatively, the locative copula is used in constructions involving nouns and adverbs, e.g. lisami s'ugu → Ar milm lisami s'ugu tarc. A cat is behind a house. In verbal phrases the verb itself is used as the predicate, e.g. äbee l'eüti s'ugu → Oüt milm ugu tärion. lit. A cat leads a house. = A cat is in front of a house.

The words sami and poinp can also be used in temporal expressions. Thus, lisami means not only behind, but also before, while lipoinp means not only in front of, but also after. If a time is specified, lisami can mean before/ago/earlier and lipoinp can mean after/in/later, depending on what follows the phrase. The first meaning applies when a genitive noun follows, the second when nothing follows, and the third when the genitive form of the demonstrative (scä) follows.

Positional phrases using nouns or adverbs can take the genitive case instead of the dative case to express the place/time of origin.

13.6 Other similar expressions

The list of true prepositions and conjunctions is rather short. As with spatial and temporal relations, words which in many languages are conjunctions and prepositions are represented with other expressions, particularly adverbs and adverbial phrases. Most commonly they come from verbs or nouns. Some of these are presented in this section. Note that in verbal phrases, both the preposition äbee and rot are valid.

◆ äbee l'adasar - depending on, according to

The verb noadars nuadars means depend and can be used with the dative case to represent both the phrase depending on and according to.

◆ äbee linäs - against

The verb nas nas means oppose, face and can be used with the dative case to represent the word against.

◆ äbee l'esago - except

The verb esag esag means exclude and can be used with the direct case to represent the word except.

◆ äbee ligoäi - beyond

The verb goä gua means cross, go beyond and can be used with the direct case to represent the word beyond both in a spatial and metaphorical sense.

◆ äbee l'esbae - instead of

The verb esbae espai means swap and can be used with the direct case to represent the phrase instead of.

◆ äbee lipupum - regarding

The verb pump pomp means touch, be concerned with and can be used with the direct case to represent the meaning regarding, about.

◆ rot sponcason - except

The word poncason poncason means exception and can be used with the genitive case to represent the word except.

◆ rot spopet - as soon as

The word popet popiet means completion and can be used with a genitive gerund to represent the phrase as soon as.

◆ rot spam - based on

The word pam pan means base and can be used with the dative case to represent the phrase based on. To turn it into a predicate (be based on), the phrase nors pam DAT-x (lit. take base on x) is used.

14 Verb conjugations


14.1 Regular verbs

Regular verbs have five forms:

Regular verbs do not conjugate for number. Gerunds can be derived not just from the base infinitive, but also from forms conjugated for tense, or negated forms. Base gerunds use unmarked pronouns, and reduplicated gerunds use marked ones.

First person conjugations are the most complex:

Second person forms are as follows:

Verbs ending in -(a)ciu are always stressed on the penult. The ending -ciu triggers umlaut.

The gerund is formed in most cases by appending a theme vowel to the end of the infinitive, unless the resultant form would result in an illegal vowel cluster, in which case the gerund is the same as the infinitive. The gerund is the same as the infinitive also for verbs ending in liquids. Gerunds of verbs ending in s drop the theme vowel ü, but the ü-umlaut on the last vowel of the verb remains. To form gerunds of verbs ending in clusters, the final consonant is placed first, then the theme vowel, and finally the remaining consonant(s). These maneuvers are to ensure that the ending of the gerund is consistent with the ending of the infinitive with respect to NSWEO, since gerunds are used as nouns.

Note that theme vowels i and ü trigger umlaut.

The following table summarizes the conjugation rules of regular verbs. A stands for the theme vowel.

Ending 1p 2p Gerund Example
Non-high V -s -ciu -A* cuso cuso offer → cusos cusos, cuseciu cuhiéchu, cusoo cusu
High V -n -ciu -A* gaci gachi ask → gacin gachen, gaciciu gachíchu, gacii gacai
T -s-P -ciu -A et et end → est est, itciu itchu, iti ichi
s -n-s -c Ü- nas nas face → nans nans, nasc nasc, näs nias
N -s -c -A son son carry → sons sons, sonc sonc, sonu sonu
L -n -c - piir pair differ → piirn pairn, piirc pairc, piir pair
(W)CC1 -än** -aciu*** C1-A-(W)C inst enst begin → instän enschan, instaciu enstáchu, ituns itons

*- in case of an illegal cluster, e.g. bae vai change → bae vai
**-W-s-P for WP, e.g. cart cart lose → carst carst
***-c for Ws, e.g. badans vadans overdo → badansc vadansc

Personal endings are always found at the end of the verb form, so when reduplication is applied, personal endings are appended to the reduplicated form, not the other way around, cf. inst → intins → intinsän (start-REDUP-1P), inst → instän → *instädän (start-1P-REDUP).

14.2 Irregular verbs

Apart from the copulae, there are seven basic fully irregular verbs. Two of them are verbs of movement (pag go and näl come), another is the verb es put. The other four are generally no longer used in their original meaning, and are primarily used as auxiliary verbs in certain grammatical constructions, or preserved in compounds or idiomatic expressions. These include the verbs ba do, nors take, räbee give, dansc say.

Irregular verbs are characterized by shortened third person forms and an additional second person marker -l stemming from second person plural pronouns li and la. The gerunds are shortened as well, particularly in those verbs which have complex codas, in which the first syllable is discarded, e.g. nors → nosar → sar.

Although for almost all verbs, their infinitives are used when forming compounds, the gerund of the verb räbee (re) can be used for that purpose as an alternative to the infinitive. The verb nors has an alternative form nirs, which only surfaces in several contexts - in the irregular genitive prefix ni-, in the third person form nir, and at the beginning of reduplicated forms of the verb (see below).

Infinitive 1p 2p 3p Gerund
Go pag pag pasc pasc pal pau pa pa pao pau
Come näl niau näln niaun nälc niauc nä nia näl niau
Put es es ens ens el eu e e üs üs
Do ba va bans vans bal vau ba va bü vü
Take nors nurs norn nurn norsc nursc nir nir sar sar
Give räbee yavi räb'n yaün rebciu yetchu räb yav re ye
Say dansc dansc dan dan dal dau da da cuns cons

The gerund sar has irregular forms inflected for case - genitive saor and dative sair. In the script, they are written phonetically and preceded by a silent genitive logograph.

Reduplicated forms used for the perfect tense are irregular in some cases as well. The reduplicated forms of the verb pag are suppleted with the verb forms of the otherwise defunct verb *üit travel, wander, search. The forms of the verbs es and ba originate from a proto-method of forming the perfect tense with a genitive prefix (or- + es → ores → eors; or- + ba → orba); however, r is dropped in all forms of ba, as well as the infinitive and gerund forms of es to retain an O class ending. The reduplicated forms of nors make use of the form ni- from the alternative form of the verb (nirs); unlike the base form, the reduplicated gerund inflects for case regularly. The verb räbee uses its gerund re as the base for its reduplicated forms.

Infinitive 1p 2p 3p Gerund
Go üit ẅit üint ẅent üic ẅic üi ẅi i i
Come nänäl nianiau nänäln nianiaun nänälc nianiauc nänä niania nänäl nianiau
Put eos yos eorn yurn eorc yurc eor yur üüs aüs
Do oba ova obans ovans obal ovau oba ova übü üvü
Take ninors ninurs ninorn ninurn ninorsc ninursc ninir ninir nosar nosar
Give re ye ren yen rel yeu re ye ree i
Say dancans dancans dancan dancan dancal dancau danca danca casun cason

Derived verbs and compound verbs which make use of irregular verbs are usually conjugated irregularly as well, as shown in the table below. Note that any verbs containing nors have regularly inflected gerunds.

Verb Etymology 1p/2p/3p/Gerund Redup: 1p/2p/3p/Gerund
doespag duespag listen does feel + pag go doespasc, doespal, doespa, doespao doesüit: doesüint, doesüic, doesüi, doesi
noadars nuadars depend nors take + ada exist noadarn, noadarsc, niadar, adasar ninoadars: ninoadarn, ninoadarsc, niniadar, noadasar
no no find, meet nors take non, nosc, ni, sao nino: ninon, ninosc, nini, nosao
noes nues live nors take + es spot noen, noesc, nie, esa ninoes: ninoen, ninoesc, ninie, noesa
nämisdal niamistau return näl come + misda again nämisdaln, nämisdalc, nämisda, nämisdal nänämisdal: nänämisdaln, nänämisdalc, nänämisda, nänämisdal
dobeensc doviensc talk dansc say + räbee give dobeen, dobeel, dobee, äbeecuns dobeencans: dobeencan, dobeencal, dobeenca, äbeecasun
rudansc nudansc praise ru pat + dansc say rudan, rudal, ruda, rucuns rudancans: rudancan, rudancal, rudanca, rucasun

There are, however, verbs which contain irregular verbs, which have fully regular conjugations. This is most common when elision occurs, making conjugation patterns harder to establish, so they default to regular conjugations.

Verb Etymology
pagpe pappie walk pag go + pe foot
esbanil espaniw treat es put + banil clean
essiondu ehhiondu promise es put + siondu wish
räbtüee yatchüi pay räbee give + tarü money
nare naye release re give + ena power
norea noya behave nors take + re give + -a NOM
norscunt nurscont participate nors take + gunt pull

The resultant semantic voids from irregular verbs are filled with other verbs. The verb ba is used in auxiliary constructions, predominantly to derive verbs from nouns or adjectives, as in ba dast look, appear (lit. do a shape). It can be also used in compounds, for example in micobbaba task (lit. thing one must do). The verb is also used as a generic, semantically weak verb used in expressions such as bans bü because of that and orba if so, as well as a substitute for when a verb is repeated, e.g. Orräcciu ciulu, äbbans nä. If you don't fall, I will (do so). (GEN-fall-2P 2SG, DAT-do-1P 1SG.). Its original meaning is covered by the word peom do, make, create.

The verbs räbee and nors are used in constructions such as the passive and causative voice. The two verbs gave rise to the animate case prefixes as well. Apart from that, räbee and nors are used in compounds, e.g. räbusca gift (räbee give + -usca DIM), cors recipient (cus person + nors take). They also function as verbalizers, particularly for transitive-intransitive (active-passive) pairs, e.g. räbee caio love (lit. give love) and nors caio be loved (lit. take love). The original meaning of räbee is covered by the verb cuso give, offer, prepare, while nors is typically substituted for padal receive, accept, dont hold, take, get, have, or dii choose, take.

The verb dansc is most commonly used idiomatically and in compound phrases, e.g. dansc täl lie (lit. say a lie), danscae translation (dansc + bae change). The verb can be used to mean say, but only if the phrase involves a direct object, e.g. dansc mican say nothing. In reported speech, the phrase läl üta (läl be + üta like) is used instead. For details on reported speech, see 18.5 Reported speech.

14.3 Semi-irregular verbs

Similarly to es and ba, some verbs have irregular reduplicated forms which make use of the proto-strategy of forming the perfect tense by adding the genitive prefix or-. In these irregular forms, this generally surfaces as an infix -o- placed before the final consonant of the verb, though umlaut may cause a vowel shift. The difference between these verbs and the previously described irregulars is that they only have an irregular reduplicated form, and all person marking is fully regular. Although in the proto-system the genitive strategy would only apply to the perfect tense, in the modern language these irregular conjugations are used as the reduplicated forms of their verbs in all cases. Verbs derived from these irregular verbs mirror the irregular reduplication patterns, though some exceptions can be found.

Verb Reduplicated form Irregular derivatives Regular derivatives
eli eli see eoli yoli doeseli be able to see → doeseoli
elipüi watch → eolipüi		 lioüli analyze → lioülili
poüeliuc concentrate → poüeliuliuc
cos cos use coos cus cosgon be available → coosgon
cospaü adapt → coospaü
elli elli understand eolli yolli
data data take up, continue daota dauta
dii dai choose edii edai
rac nac fall raoc nauc
mar mar buy maor maur
rig ig sell rieg yeg

There are also several verbs whose reduplicated forms are formed via suppletion, usually by incorporating defunct verbs, just as in pag → üit. Similarly to the verbs above, derived verbs will generally mirror the irregular reduplicated forms. Note that reduplicating these verbs may cause a change in NSWEO. In the case of dosuepil, this also causes a change in the NSWEO-dependent negative suffix -pil to change accordingly.

Verb Reduplicated form Irregular derivatives Regular derivatives
dosue dosue move, leave caült caüt ← *escape domatasue dance → caümatalt
dosuepil stay → caültio		 elstue avoid → elstuedue
suebog heighten → suebobog (same for all verbs with the sue- prefix)
bae vai change, become gou gou ← *rotate esbae switch → esgou
usabae convince → usagou
bacurae join → gocurau
dont dont hold estat estat ← *catch dontiu rescue → estatiu
does dues feel pant pant ← *touch

Semi-irregular verbs formed via the genitive infix or suppletion also include verbs with verbal suffixes, e.g. dontac put down → estatac, elindu appreciate → eolindu. This also applies when suffixes are added to fully irregular verbs, though these only have irregular reduplicated forms, and inflect for person regularly, e.g. bag derive → obag, pagaip run → üitaip. For more information, see 16.6 Verbal suffixes.

The irregularities described above only apply to verbs. Some words which function both as verbs and nouns may have different reduplicated forms based on which part of speech is used. For instance, domatasue dance reduplicates as caümatalt as a verb, but domatasuesue as a noun.

14.4 Copulae

There is a copula and a locative copula. The copula is followed directly by its complement - a noun or an adjective. The locative copula expresses existence or location and is the equivalent of the English to be (somewhere) and there be. It is also used to indicate possession. Rather than using a transitive verb with the meaning of have, the locative copula is used, with the subject being the possessee and the possessor indicated with the dative case, e.g. Ar mis äb'n pa. lit. There is time to me. = I have time. (LOC.COP-3P time DAT-1SG 3OUM.). It is possible, however, to use the transitive verb dont hold to indicate possession.

The copulae are the only verbs to conjugate for number, at least in the first and second person. This is why SDOAUX are omitted with copulae, unless the copula is in the third person. The additional set and plural endings stem from personal pronouns. The first person set and plural endings are -bi and -(i)s, respectively, while the second person endings are -il and -al.

The forms of copulae originate from defunct verbs which are no longer in use, at least in their original meanings. The copula stems from läl *stay and the locative copula stems from seons *live. The verb ar *stand is used suppletively for both copulae. The verb nür *lack is used as the negative form of the locative copula.

Infinitive 1p sg/set/pl 2p sg/set/pl 3p Gerund
Copula läl lau lälä lala
lebi levi
lis lis		 liu lu
lil liw
lal wau		 lä la läl lau
Loc.cop seons hions seon hion
äbi avi
sis his		 seosc hiosc
sil hiw
sal sau		 ar ar sun son
Neg.loc.cop nür nür nüä nüa
nübi nüvi
nüis nüis		 nürc nürc
nüil nüiw
nüal nüau		 nü nü nür nür

The gerund läl has irregular forms inflected for case - genitive läoln and dative läil. The same is true for the gerund sun - genitive suon and dative suin. In the script, they are written phonetically and preceded by a silent genitive logograph.

Reduplicated perfect forms of the copulae are irregular, with läl using the suppletive ar across the entire paradigm, and seons dropping the first syllable seo-; unlike the base form, the reduplicated gerunds inflect for case regularly. The negative nür reduplicates regularly.

Infinitive 1p sg/set/pl 2p sg/set/pl 3p Gerund
Copula ar ar arn arn
äbi avi
äris ayis		 arc arc
äril ayiw
aral anau		 ar ar ar ar
Loc.cop neons nions neon nion
niebi nievi
nis nis		 neosc niosc
nil niw
nal nau		 neo nio sun son
Neg.loc.cop nünür nünür nünüä nünüa
nünübi nünüvi
nünüis nünüis		 nünürc nünürc
nünüil nünüiw
nünüal nünüau		 nünü nünü nünür nünür

As with other irregular verbs, the defunct verbs from which the copulae originate are predominantly used in compounds and idiomatic expressions, e.g. guläl living room (gu- NOM + *läl stay), enar stability (ena power + *ar stand), nütarür poor (*nür lack + tarü money).

Any compound verbs including the defunct *läl, *seons, *ar, *nür, such as lemsteons belong (lemt gather + *seons live), or arac sit (*ar stand + -ac from above), use them in their original meaning, and are thus fully regular.

The resultant semantic voids are filled by other verbs. The original meaning of *läl is covered by the verb dosuepil remain, stay still, be silent (dosue move + pil not), while *seons is replaced with noes live (nors take + es spot). In the case of *ar, the meaning of stand is expressed with the verb gimisdar (gir fight + misda again). Finally, the verb nür can be replaced with phrases such as läl gä sosolt semica be empty of something.

15 Verb tenses


15.1 Overview of the tense system

The language makes use of nine tenses, although some of these would be considered aspects or moods in most languages. The tenses are formed using two strategies - applying case prefixes (genitive and dative) and applying other strategies (locative copula + gerund, and reduplication). Case marking indicates tense, with the direct case representing the present, the genitive case the past, and the dative case the future. The other strategies which interact with case marking indicate aspect/mood, the plain form representing realis, the locative copula + gerund form indicating imperfective, and reduplication suggesting irrealis.

These strategies form a 3x3 proto-matrix of tenses, which is modified in the current system due to a cyclical shift of three tenses - conditional → perfect → potential. The proto-system may be used in certain solidified expressions or constructions. For instance, the proto-system would have formed the perfect tense with a genitive prefix, and this strategy is still used to form reduplicated (modern perfect) forms of some verbs, like ba do → oba did, eli see → eoli saw. Examples can also be found is some compounds, such as irada yesterday (i- NOM + *r'ada existed), res already (*r'es put), ägä but (*läläl could be + gä DEM).

The current system is as follows:

Direct Genitive Dative
Plain present conditional future
Loc.cop dat-ger imperfect past habitual potential
Redup perfect past potential necessitative

The tenses are summarized below. Each tense will be described in greater detail in the following sections.

Present present progressive or habitual actions - I do, I am doing
Conditional conditions - if I do, if I had done
Future future perfective or progressive actions, or hypothetical actions - I will do, I am going to do, I will be doing, I will have done, I would do
Imperfect past progressive actions that have either finished in the past or have lasted until the present - I was doing, I have been doing
Past habitual habitual actions which occurred in the past - I used to do, I would do
Potential capability, possibility, or permission - I can do, I could do, I may do, maybe I will do
Perfect past perfective actions - I did, I have done
Past potential past actions which may have happened - I may have done, I could have done, maybe I have done
Necessitative necessity or obligation - I must do, I have to do

The tenses are illustrated in the following table using the regular verb peom pion do.

1p sg/set/pl 2p sg/set/pl 3p Gerund
Present peoms pions peomc pionc peom pion peomu piomu
Conditional orpeoms oipions orpeomc oipionc orpeom oipion orpeomu oipiomu
Future äbpeoms appions äbpeomc appionc äbpeom appion äbpeomu appiomu
Imperfect seon lipeomu hion lipiomu
äbi lipeomu avi lipiomu
sis lipeomu his lipiomu		 seosc lipeomu hiosc lipiomu
sil lipeomu hiw lipiomu
sal lipeomu sau lipiomu		 ar lipeomu ar lipiomu sun lipeomu son lipiomu
Past habitual orseon lipeomu oihion lipiomu
r'äbi lipeomu yavi lipiomu
ersis lipeomu eihis lipiomu		 orseosc lipeomu oihiosc lipiomu
ersil lipeomu eihiw lipiomu
orsal lipeomu ursau lipiomu		 r'ar lipeomu nar lipiomu orsun lipeomu urson lipiomu
Potential äbseon lipeomu aspion lipiomu
äb'äbi lipeomu aviavi lipiomu
ebsis lipeomu espis lipiomu		 äbseosc lipeomu aspiosc lipiomu
ebsil lipeomu espiw lipiomu
äbsal lipeomu aspau lipiomu		 äb'ar lipeomu avar lipiomu äbsun lipeomu aspon lipiomu
Perfect peobeoms piovions peobeomc piovionc peobeom piovion peobeomu pioviomu
Past potential orpeobeoms oipiovions orpeobeomc oipiovionc orpeobeom oipiovion orpeobeomu oipioviomu
Necassitative äbpeobeoms appiovions äbpeobeomc appiovionc äbpeobeom appiovion äbpeobeomu appioviomu

When using constructions with the locative copula, subordinate alignment is used. The subject (if it is a noun) is placed between the locative copula and the gerund of the lexical verb. The direct object is in the genitive case and follows the gerund of the lexical verb directly. Other arguments remain unchanged. Note that in these expressions the locative copula is a predicate and takes animate case prefixes as well as person marking, while the following gerund is impersonal and treated as an inanimate noun, taking the inanimate dative prefix.

15.2 Present

The present tense is used to describe all present actions, including progressive actions taking place at the time of speaking, habitual actions, and general truths. It is equivalent to both the present simple and present continuous tenses in English. There is no general strategy to indicate a present progressive actions, other than using adverbs such as misc now.

The present tense features no marking.

15.3 Conditional

The conditional tense is used to introduce conditions. The exact meaning is determined by the tense of the clause that follows the conditional. Present marking corresponds to English's zero conditional and the past/present mixed conditional, indicating unavoidable outcomes or present states resulting from unrealized conditions. Perfect marking corresponds to the third conditional and the present/past mixed conditional, being used for past actions/states resulting from unrealized conditions. The first and second conditionals are indicated with future marking, corresponding to hypothetical present or future actions.

The conditional tense can also be used to form imperatives, if the conditional clause is not accompanied by other clauses in the sentence (see 16.2 Imperatives).

The conditional tense was marked in the old system with a dative locative copula followed by a gerund, but is now marked with a genitive prefix. Note that while it may seem more intuitive to negate conditional verbs by placing the negative affix after the genitive tense prefix, this tense, as all others, places the negative prefix before the tense marker.

15.4 Future

The future tense encompasses both future perfective and imperfective actions and states. A common strategy in many languages is to use the present tense to indicate planned future events, but this is not a strategy employed in this language.

The future tense is marked with a dative prefix.

The future tense is also used for hypotheticals, like the word would in English. This usage is often applied in conjunction with conditional structures.

15.5 Imperfect

The imperfect tense is used to indicate progressive actions which either finished in the past or have lasted until the present. English past continuous tenses, as well as present perfect continuous correspond to this tense. When used with copulae, the imperfect tense is generally only used for states which started in the past and are still ongoing.

The imperfect tense makes use of the locative copula followed by the gerund of the lexical verb in the dative case. It directly translates to to be at doing.

15.6 Past habitual

The past habitual tense refers to habitual actions or states taking place in the past. The habitual-progressive distinction is made only in the past, as the present tense is used for both habitual and progressive actions in the present.

This tense is marked with the locative copula preceded by a genitive prefix and followed by the gerund of the lexical verb in the dative case.

15.7 Potential

The potential tense encompasses a variety of meanings, and can be used to indicate the ability, possibility, or permission to do something. In case a more precise meaning is desired, phrases such as ar enantee speomu have the ability to do, elli rot a speomu know how to do, or ar enacago speomu have the permission to do can be used. These are also used when the sense of potentiality is combined with one of the other tenses (see 15.11 Additional combinations). The potential tense was marked in the old system using reduplication, but is now formed using the dative form of the locative copula followed by the gerund of the lexical verb in the dative case.

This tense can also be used in subjunctive clauses in conjunction with interrogatives (see 10.3 Potential form - any).

Negating this tense produces the meaning cannot/may not/must not, the latter meaning being the most noteworthy, since prohibition is expressed by negating the potential tense, not the necessitative tense. The use of negative articles in indefinite potential sentences produces phrases synonymous with or complementary to necessitative phrases (see also 15.10 Necessitative).

15.8 Perfect

The perfect tense corresponds to the simple past and present perfect tenses in English and marks any perfective past actions. Used with copulae, it indicates states that started in the past and ended in the past.

This tense is marked by reduplicating the verb. Note that personal endings are appended to the reduplicated forms, rather than reduplicated forms being derived from person-marked forms. Some irregular verbs have irregular perfect forms as indicated in 14.2 Irregular verbs, 14.3 Semi-irregular verbs, and 14.4 Copulae.

15.9 Past potential

The past potential tense is used to indicate possibility in the past. Unlike its gnomic counterpart, it is not used to mark permission or ability, but rather events that may have happened. This tense is formed by attaching a genitive prefix to the reduplicated form of the verb.

15.10 Necessitative

The necessitative tense describe actions that must be taken. As an alternative, or when the sense of necessity is combined with one of the other tenses, the phrases ar nier speomu have the obligation to do or ar tols speomu have the need to do are used instead (see 15.11 Additional combinations). This tense is formed by attaching a dative prefix to the reduplicated form of the verb.

Care must be taken when negating this tense, as applying the negative prefix results in the meaning not have to, not must not. The latter meaning is achieved by negating the potential tense. The use of negative articles in indefinite potential sentences produces phrases synonymous with or complementary to potential phrases, though only in the sense of a lack of permission rather than a lack of ability (see also 15.7 Potential).

15.11 Additional combinations

Each clause allows for a maximum of one finite verb, which creates problems, particularly when it comes to the potential and necessitative tense. These tenses do not specify the time at which the action occurs, and they cannot be used in conditional clauses. To remedy this, certain nouns are used in conjunction with the locative copula and gerunds to express ability (enantee enanchi), permission (enacago enacago), obligation (nier niur) and need (tols tous). This strategy is most commonly used with the conditional tense and the perfect tense, though it can be used in the unmarked present tense as an alternative for the potential and necessitative tenses as well.

There is also an alternative strategy for creating a perfect potential tense, and that is to use the potential tense with the perfect form of the locative copula.

16 Verb usage


16.1 Negation and interrogation

There are several ways to negate a sentence, based on the verb used, and the definiteness of the arguments within the sentence. One method is to use a negative pronoun, or to negate the subject/object of the sentence with a negative article. The latter strategy is applicable provided that the negated word or phrase is indefinite.

Non-indefinite arguments most commonly include:

If a sentence contains only non-indefinite arguments, or, simply put, the sentence cannot be rephrased to be negated with a negative article applied to one of its arguments, verbs are negated with the negative prefix stemming from the verb piir differ. It takes the form pii- before consonants, and pi- before vowels (p- in case of an illegal vowel sequence). This prefix precedes case prefixes used as tense markers. However, gerunds of negated verbs function as nouns, and case prefixes are therefore placed before the negative prefix, e.g. cus spielii lit. a person of not-seeing = a person who doesn't see (person GEN-NEG-see-GER).

When negated verbs are used in conjunction with negative pronouns or nouns, the latter element changes meaning from no ~ to some ~ (see 10.1 Negative article - none/some).

The locative copula is negated with the verb nür.

The copula is negated by inflecting its complement into the genitive case regardless of its definiteness. This is because the copula stems from the verb originally meaning stay, and the genitive marking conveys the meaning of staying (away) from. When the complement is an adjective, it can be negated either with inanimate genitive marking or by using a negative article after the adjective. If the negated complement is a noun followed by an adjective, the adjective must be genitive as well.

Because genitive marking following a copula negates it, any phrases following the copula which start with genitive marking, such as possessives or genitive-initial adjectival nouns, must be preceded by the impersonal pronoun gä.

A nominal complement of a copula can only be negated with a negative article when double negation is applied to convey the meaning of some ~. Moreover, although adjectives can be negated either with genitive marking or with a negative article with no change in meaning, the meaning does differ between these two strategies when negative pronouns are involved.

Questions are marked with the interrogative prefix stemming from the verb darn other. It takes on the form da- before consonants and d- before vowels. The interrogative prefix always precedes tense markers, as well as the negative prefix, if one is used. This prefix is subject to umlaut. The combination of the two in the form däpii can be used as a tag.

16.2 Imperatives

Imperatives are formed by using the conditional tense. The negative form is used for affirmative imperatives and the affirmative form is used for negative imperatives. The subject of the clause is the recipient of the imperative. If the SDOAUX is ciulu, it is omitted.

An alternative is to use the preposition rot at the beginning of a sentence, which roughly translates to should, but can also be used as a soft imperative.

16.3 Passive and causative voice

Passive voice is formed with the auxiliary verb nors take followed by a gerund of the lexical verb, which acts as the direct object of the clause. Passive clauses act like other subordinate expressions, with the agent being marked with the preposition bans, and never with the genitive, since intransitive verbs cannot be passivized. Because direct objects are generally pushed to the end of the clause, the agent is typically placed between the auxiliary nors and the gerund of the lexical verb.

Causative voice is formed with the auxiliary verb räbee give followed by a gerund of the lexical verb, which acts as the direct object of the clause. The causee is marked with the dative case, as the recipient of the action expressed by the lexical verb. Causative expressions are used to mean either let someone do or make someone do. Since direct objects are typically found at the ends of clauses, the causee normally follows the subject or the auxiliary räbee if the subject is a pronoun, and precedes the gerund of the lexical verb.

Passive and causative voice can be combined to create passive causative constructions. Since the head of such phrases is the passive auxiliary nors, the agent is marked with the preposition bans and follows the gerund of the causative auxiliary räbee, which acts as the direct object.

The verbs nors and räbee can also be used in conjunction with nouns to create transitive-intransitive (active-passive) pairs of verbs, e.g. räbee mico make happy, heal (lit. give joy) and nors mico be healthy, happy (lit. take joy). Such verbs cannot be further passivized, but can be used in causative constructions, e.g. räbee re scaio make/let love (lit. give giving of love) and in passive causative constructions, e.g. nors re scaio be let/made to love (lit. take giving of love).

16.4 Impersonal and reflexive expressions

In every clause, the subject must be overtly stated. For impersonal sentences, the demonstrative gä can be used as a generic subject. Unlike in English, the word meaning you is not typically used in impersonal contexts. Note that intransitive sentences with gä as the subject do not require SDOAUX.

The reflexive pronoun usa can be used as a direct or indirect object. It has no SDOAUX form, so reflexive sentences only feature the subject form in the SDOAUX. In the genitive case, it can be helpful in distinguishing possession in third person.

It can also be used after a noun to mean itself, as in something itself.

To reinforce a personal pronoun, if the pronoun is the subject or direct object, it is repeated in the clause in the isolate form, thus existing both in the SDOAUX and the main part of the clause. However, if the personal pronoun is not the subject or direct object, the reflexive usa is used after it as a modifier.

The reflexive pronoun in the dative case is often used adverbially in sentences in which the subject does something to oneself or for one's own benefit, rather than for someone else. It is typically placed directly after the verb.

16.5 Common auxiliaries

There are several words which can be suffixed on to the end of a verb to alter its meaning. Most of these are verbs, but some come from adjectives or nouns. The resulting verbs have regular conjugations, and are treated as compounds, so no umlaut is involved when they are created. The suffixed forms may differ based on whether the head verb ends with a vowel, a consonant, or a consonant cluster.

The following adjective pairs can be appended to verbs.

Adjective Meaning -V (ba do) -C (does feel) -CC(C) (dont hold)
dans far overdo badans doesdans dontans
müi near underdo bamüi doesmüi dontüi
pamco easy easy to do bamco doesamco dontamco
doils difficult difficult to do badoils doesdoils dontoils
nantee strong good at doing bantee doesantee dontantee
bilp weak bad at doing babilp doesilp dontilp

When using pamco/doils, the patient is the subject if the verb is transitive, otherwise, the impersonal gä is used; the agent is marked with the dative case. When nantee/bilp is used, the agent is the subject, while the patient is the direct object, just as in a regular sentence.

Certain verbs, adjectives and nouns can be appended to verbs to specify the timing of the action.

Word Meaning -V (ba do) -C (does feel) -CC(C) (dont hold)
inst start start doing bainst* doesinst dontinst
et end finish doing baet* doeset dontet
data take up continue doing badata doesata dontata
räbit cut stop doing barbit doesäbit dontäbit
resin new resume doing baresin doesresin dontesin
iis a time redo bais* doesiis dontiis

*-nst/-ret/-liis in case of an illegal vowel sequence, e.g. muao kiss → muaonst, muaoret, muaoliis.

All these verbs act morphologically and syntactically the same way as if they were unmodified.

Other auxiliaries are summarized below.

Word Meaning -V (ba do) -C (does feel) -CC(C) (dont hold)
gou *turn undo, do back bagou doesou dontou
boa many do to each other baboa doesoa dontoa
läpan connect do together baläpan doesläpan dontäpan
olä effort try doing baolä* doesolä dontolä
ondi decide decide/intend to do bandi doesondi dontondi
dore win manage to do badore doesore dontore
cart lose fail at doing/do wrong bacart doesart dontart

*-lä in case of an illegal vowel sequence, e.g. muao kiss → muaolä.

Most of these auxiliaries function the same way as those described above.

The auxiliary *gou can be used to form new verbs as well, such as coüntaogou forget (remember-undo), cusogou reward (offer-do.back), gaemou reflect (paint-do.back). Most of these are regular, however, there are several which reduplicate irregularly, treating *gou as a suffix, including danscou reply (say-do.back) → dancansou and räbeegou give back (give-do.back) → regou.

When boa is used with transitive verbs, the resultant verb is intransitive, and so SDOAUX only includes the subject form. When it is used with intransitive verbs, the patients are indicated with a pronoun preceded by case marking or an appropriate preposition.

Multiple suffixes can be applied to one verb, e.g. miculäpaninst start to sing together.

In other cases where one verb complements another, gerunds are used as objects, for example coüntaogou peomu forget to do (forget do-GER), mu peomu learn to do (learn do-GER), piemoü peomu pretend to do (pretend do-GER).

16.6 Verbal suffixes

Many verbs are created by attaching a suffix to another verb. This is typically done with common verbs and functions similarly to phrasal verbs in English. Unlike the auxiliaries described in the previous section, this strategy is not productive, and the meaning of the resultant forms is not compositional. The suffixes take on different forms following vowel-final and consonant-final verbs. The examples shown in the table below use the verbs ba do and es put, to which all available suffixes happen to be applicable.

Etymology Meaning -V (ba do) -C (es put)
motil dominate inward bal force* esol insert
lag submit to outward bag derive* esag take out
seom fly through baseom transform eseom swap
tui catch completely batui get exhausted esui defeat
lioü split partially bälioü procrastinate isoü help**
daip push forcefully baip do intensely*** esaip shove into/onto
pandu rise from under bandu look up to esandu entrap
rac fall from above barac judge esac shock
pag go from bapao be related to esao remove
näl come to baln catch up esäln add

*-mol/-lag for verbs ending in glides.
**This suffix triggers umlaut, even in the post-consonantal form -oü where i is elided.
***-daip in case of an illegal vowel sequence.

The resultant verbs are semi-irregular, with the reduplicated form created by attaching the suffix to the reduplicated form of the base verb, e.g. esao → eosao, not *esaosao.

16.7 Valency

Depending on the number of arguments a verb takes, it can be classed as intransitive or transitive. Intransitive verbs have no direct object, e.g. col cou rest, sleep, pag pag go, dobeensc doviensc talk. Transitive verbs have a direct object, e.g. dii dai choose, gir jir fight, dont dont hold.

Verbs which can function both as transitive and intransitive are referred to as ergative, e.g. inst enst start, bae vai change, et et end. Compare Et madic parä. He finishes work., and Et madic arä. Work finishes. Syntactically, these verbs are treated as either transitive or intransitive, based on their usage in the given clause. Some polysemous verbs can be transitive in some meanings and intransitive in others, e.g. bälioü vialoü procrastinate (intr), half-ass (tr).

There are verbs which are formed with a combination of an auxiliary verb and a noun or adjective. The verb ba do is most commonly used to turn nouns into verbs, e.g. ba mata va mata sound (lit. do a sound). Such verbs are transitive - with an inherent direct object - even if they have intransitive meanings. Similarly, the auxiliaries räbee give and nors take create transitive compound verbs, despite those using nors typically having a passive meaning, e.g. räbee mirn yavi mirn hurt, harm (lit. give pain) and nors mirn nurs mirn be hurt (lit. take pain).

The valency of verbs is predominantly relevant in SDOAUX, as intransitive verbs only require subject SDOAUX (or no SDOAUX if the subject is gä or the verb is a non-third-person copula), while transitive verbs require a subject-direct object form. Apart from this, transitivity is relevant in subordinate constructions, in which the subject is specified with the genitive case for intransitive verbs and the preposition bans for transitive verbs and the copula (see 18.1 Word order).

16.8 Other expressions

There is no verb meaning want. Instead, the phrase läl mican rütnü mica lau mican ünü mica, lit. be nothing without something is used. It is negated with the phrase läl mican äbee limica lau mican avi limica, lit. be nothing with something, regardless of the definiteness of the patient. These phrases can be used with both nouns and gerunds (läl mican rütnü peomu semica, lit. be nothing without doing of something). In the latter case, the agent can be specified with the genitive case or the preposition bans, as in other subordinate constructions, to convey the meaning of want someone to do something (läl mican rütnü peomu bans cus semica, lit. be nothing without doing of something by someone).

An alternative is to use the verb siondu hiondu, meaning wish, with either a noun or a gerund as its direct object. Once again, the subject can be specified with bans or the genitive case. siondu has a rather softer, less assertive meaning than läl mican rütnü mica.

The meaning of the verb like can be conveyed by the phrase lä bis mica äbcus la vis mica accus, lit. something is everything to someone. In this construction, the subject is the thing/person/action liked, and the one who likes is in the dative case. This construction is negated with the phrase lä mican mica äbcus la mican mica accus, lit. something is nothing to someone. The alternative is to use the phrase ar caian limica äbcus ar cayan limica accus, lit. there is fondness for something to someone. In this construction, both the likee and the liker are in the dative case, in that order. The phrase is negated by attaching the negative article to the subject (caian fondness). As with want, these phrases can be used both with nouns and gerunds.

The phrase dont peomu semica äbcus pipa dont piomu hiemica accus pipa, lit. doing something holds value to someone, is used to mean something is worth doing. It is negated by attaching the negative article to the object (pipa value).

Verbs such as seem, feel, look are encoded with the auxiliary verb ba followed by a noun, e.g. ba doesois va duesois, lit. make a feeling = seem, feel, ba dast va dast, lit. make a shape = look, appear. These verbal phrases can be followed by adjectives or the word püta (to be) like/as.

The ergative verb bae vai change is also used to mean become. It can be followed by a noun or an adjective, in the dative case. The verb does not reduplicate regularly, instead the suppletive form gou is used.

The noun rot way followed by the definite article, a possessive pronoun or a demonstrative and a gerund is used to mean way of doing something, how something is done (rot a speomu semica).

To encode the meaning of the more ..., the more ..., the emphasized word is repeated in its entirety, including inflection, and separated with a hyphen. If the repeated word is a verb, repeating its affirmative form resuts in the meaning the more ..., while repeating the negative form results in the less .... No additional adverbs like roba much, more, or rotü little, less are used.

If the emphasized word is an adjective, case marking is not repeated, but reduplication is. If it is an adverb, rot is not repeated for adjectival adverbs, only the adjective itself. The adjectives and adverbs are used in their base forms, not comparative ones.

17 Word formation


17.1 General remarks

There are various strategies involved in the creation of vocabulary. In general, only simple terms are coined, with more complex ideas, as well as all derivational and inflectional morphology being derived from other words. These strategies include zero derivation (inst start (v), start (n)), multi-word phrases (ba dast look, lit. do a shape), affixation (cagon similar (cago same + -n DIM)), and most commonly, compouding (doespaü season (does feel + paü year)).

The language does not permit using base-form nouns attributively, such as in the English phrases tennis shoes, rice field and paper bag. A noun used to describe another noun must be either in the genitive case (e.g. asoir ermilm cat food, lit. cat's food), adjectivized (mienarn isriolt night rain, lit. nightly rain), or part of a compound (nalmirn tear, lit. sadness-water).

The primary concern regarding the formation of compounds is NSWEO preservation. Because each of the five classes has specific endings, if the head noun determines the class of the compound and its class differs from that of the dependent, its ending must be shifted to the end of the word, e.g. nib beauty + usa mind → niusab art. This is further elaborated on in 17.3 Compounds.

Derived vocabulary has a preference for using older, original meanings of words. This means that a word like *üit travel, wander which is obsolete and only used as a suppletive reduplicated form of the verb pag, although not used in its original meaning, is preserved in compounds such as süit traveler and üitolä adventure.

In general, base forms of words are used in compounds, but conjugated forms can occur as well. Here, too, there is a preference for older conjugations. For instance, the conjunction ägä but originates from the phrase *läläl gä it may be, which makes use of the old potential tense formed via reduplication. The word micobbaba task is derived from mica thing and äbbaba must do, making use of the necessitative form of the older ba *do, rather than the modern peom do. When non-conjugated verbs are used in compounds, the infinitive is preferred, but the gerund is sometimes used as well, particularly with the verb räbee (re), e.g. soreo funny (so- GEN + re give + oo laugh).

For certain classes of words, such as animals, sound symbolism is applied. The names of most animals are onomatopoeic, typically mimicking their cries, e.g. lob dog, milm cat, gägäe cicada. Onomatopoeiae are also used for words describing sounds made with your mouth, e.g. asi sigh, eti sneeze, siut suck.

As this is a personal language, many words are formed as references to my experiences or interests, inside jokes, or puns, examples of which are listed in the table below.

Word Meaning Etymology
micu micu sing Vocaloid Hatsune Miku
mico mico happiness VTuber Sakura Miko
toobee tuvi thighs NieR Automata protagonist 2B
ognol ounou bad "oh no"
caio cayo love my ex's name
milcisoreo miwchisoyo pussy "cute and funny"
nidresin nijehien Tuesday early sun (I used to wake up early on Tuesdays)
17.2 Zero derivation

Because there are no endings specific to different parts of speech, the same word can function as several parts of speech. This is most prevalent between nouns and verbs, with examples listed below.

Word Verb Noun
et et end end
bae vai change change
liu lu give birth life
sainbee sainvi prove proof
läpan lapan connect connection
ondi onji decide decision

In some cases, gerunds are used to nominalize verbs instead, e.g. micu sing → micuu song, music. If these nouns are further used to derive vocabulary, the infinitive is preferred when forming compounds, even if the compositional meaning is closer to that of the noun, e.g. micu sing + gägäe cicada → micugägäe summer, lit. song of cicadas.

Zero derivation is also common between nouns and adjectives.

Word Noun Adjective
gabcü gatchü opposite opposite
cousal cousau boredom boring
madicusa majicusa automation automatic
micupicä micupicha fame famous
mirmicoa mirmiqua randomness random
pipacago pipacago equality equal

It also occurs between nouns and adverbs.

Word Noun Adverb
ena ena ability maybe
iäbada yavada tomorrow tomorrow
cada cadá other side on the other side
misc misc present now
ponca ponca outside outside

Other combinations are also possible, for instance the word bis can be a pronoun meaning all, everything, everyone, an adjective meaning every, or a noun meaning world.

17.3 Compounds

When forming compounds, the primary concern is class preservation. Each NSWEO class has specific endings and compounds must ensure that the ending of the constituent determining the class of the compound is found at its end. This is only a concern for compounds containing constituents of different classes, in which the final constituent does not determine the class. It is not relevant in compounds whose constituents agree in class, e.g. liu bear (E) + bamt flower (E) → liubamt blossom (E), or in compounds whose class is determined by the final constituent, e.g. mata sound (O) + lag dominate (S) → matalag order (S).

There are several strategies applicable to all compounds, most often applied when regular concatenation creates illegal clusters or vowel sequences. The first is elision, which is quite common, especially to shorten otherwise long words.

Word Etymology
danscäpan danschapan conversation dansc say + läpan connect
gaemoünt gaimoünt plan gaem draw + coünt think
dasseom dahhion cosplay dast shape + seom be free
cartig caichig sale cart lose + rig sell
ciimscair caimscair knowledge ciilm curse + -s- GEN + cair smart
müons müons lie down müi close + pons ground

Another is epenthesis. Consonant clusters can be broken up with the neutral vowel a.

Word Etymology
mirnamadic mirnamajic exhaustion mirn pain + madic work
sanscaleia sanscaleya literature sansc write + lei read + -a NOM
mirnatirt mirnachirt problem mirn fear + tirt worry
piscanib piscaniv pale, elegant pisc skin + nib beauty

When s is followed by a voiced stop word-initially, or in a triple-consonant cluster, devoicing occurs. In triple-consonant clusters, metathesis occurs if a sonorant + stop cluster is followed by s.

Word Etymology
spilp spiwp coward (cu)s person + bilp weak
scir schir fighter (cu)s person + gir fight
norscunt nurscont participate nors take + gunt pull
momspog monspog tower moms build + bog tall
lemsteons lenschons belong lemt gather + *seons live
elstue elstue avoid elt hide + (do)sue move

A regular process occurring in compounds is the monophthongization of cross-morphemic digraphs au and äi to o and e, respectively. Similarly, because digraphs aä and äa are not allowed, the sequences turn into o and e, respectively.

Word Etymology
micoso micoso truth mica thing + uso true
matosa matosa voice mata sound + usa soul
rättes yatches retell rättä tell + -iis re-
micottä micotcha information mica thing + (r)ättä tell
dobeensc doviensc talk dansc say + (r)äbee give
nel nieu 1SG-2PL nä- 1SG- + -al -2PL

In compounds which disagree in class and the class is not determined by the final constituent, the ending of the class-defining constituent is moved to the end of the word, e.g. et end (W) + usa self (O) → eusat death (W). This process is rarely straightforward and often produces issues. Because of this, there is a procedure which can be followed when creating such compounds.

Compounds with vocalized consonants reduplicate as if the vocalization were not there, e.g. saecuic is reduplicated as saecuguic, not *saecuiguic, because it takes the underlying *saecusc as a base for reduplication, and applies the vocalization (s → i) later. For more information, see 6.2 Inflection.

There are several types of compounds with respect to structure and semantics, as summarized in the table below.

Pattern Examples
Word + synonym (reinforcing) milc small + citi short → milci cute
nors take + dont get → nodont acquisition
Word + antonym (complementary) citi short + bems long + -a NOM → citibemsa length
sansc write + lei read + -a NOM → sanscaleia literature
Noun + adjective (attributive) bee light + ingoä late → beengoä afternoon
mica thing + uso true → micoso truth
Noun + noun (attributive) bota thousand + -s- GEN paü year → botaspaü millennium
nal water + mirn sadness → nalmirn tear
Noun + verb (attributive) rot path + oüt lead → rotoüt line, axis
ena power + coünt think → enacoünt cognition
Verb + noun (agentive/instrumental) pandu rise + nid sun → panniddu sunrise
eli see + püi eyes → elipüi watch
Verb + noun (objective) liu bear + bamt flower → liubamt blossom
saec kill + cus person → saecuic murder
Verb + verb (compositional) dansc say + räbee give → dobeensc talk
does feel + pag go → doespag listen to

The order of constituents in compounds is consistent with the head-initial alignment prevalent throughout the entire language, although this is usually not relevant in non-nominal compounds combining words of the same lexical category. Because dvandvas (word + antonym) combine two words of the opposite meaning, they typically require a neutralizing morhpheme such as the suffix -a stemming from mica thing.

Noun + noun compounds may feature a genitive prefix on the latter constituent, e.g. üspaü decade (ü ten + -s- GEN + paü year). Only the first word in such compounds is involved in reduplication - üspaü → üüspaü. For more information, see 6.2 Inflection.

Compounds may be hyphenated. This most commonly occurs when the word is not an established compound but rather a phrase where the individual elements are kept discrete, e.g. bamals-baspuo washer-dryer, düdo-bipons city-state. It can also be used when a word is followed by a compound modifier like an entire phrase, for example agaem orpump-gä-ebnir-speti a painting that if you touch it it'll break. The hyphen may also occur in certain adverbial phrases, such as mins-rotda anyway.

17.4 Augmentatives and diminutives

Augmentatives and diminutives are implemented in the form of suffixes. They can be attached to nouns and adjectives, and sometimes to other parts of speech, albeit rarely. As they are derivational suffixes, they can trigger umlaut.

The following table lists augmentative suffixes.

Etymology Form -V (mica thing) -C (bamt flower)
do big -(d)o micado bamto
säg dick -(ä)g micag bamtäg
nantee strong -(t)ee micatee bamtee

The following table lists diminutive suffixes. There are suffixes for every NSWEO class, and the speaker may pick any one to create a form belonging to a desired class. The first suffix in the table (-(a)n) is the default and the most commonly used one.

Etymology Form V-final (mica thing) C-final (bamt flower)
an child -(a)n mican bamtan
iusca hole -(u)sca micusca bamtusca
citi short -(i)ti micäti bämtiti
milc small -(m)il micämil bämtil
resin young -(s)in micäsin bämtin
muao kiss -(m)ao micamao bamtao

Certain augmentatives (-do-, -tee-) and diminutives (-mi-, -ti-, -si-) can be infixed as well, preserving the class of the base word, e.g. badomt (flower-AUG), bämimt (flower-DIM).

Augmentatives and diminutives can be stacked, e.g. micanusca (thing-DIM-DIM).

Apart from their usual function, augmentatives and diminutives can be used to form new vocabulary. In some cases, this can change the part of speech of the word.

Word Etymology
düdo jüdo city dü place + -do AUG
matag matag scream mata sound + -g AUG
midorn midurn torture mirn pain + -do- AUG
lein lein book lei read + -n DIM
düsca jüsca room dü place + -sca DIM
cudao cudau game, toy cud play + -ao DIM
liübin liẅvien warm leüb hot + -in DIM

Augmentatives and diminutives can be used with adjectives to convey excessiveness or insufficiency, e.g. dotee too big (do big + -tee AUG), pälscao a little too narrow (pälsc narrow + -ao DIM). For more information, see 11.5 Adverbs of degree.

Diminutives are also used with numerals to produce fractions, e.g. minan a fourth (min four + -an DIM). For more information, see 12.3 Occurrences, multiples, fractions.

17.5 Nominalizing

Nominalizers are most commonly used to turn verbs and adjectives into nouns. Most nominalizers take the form of prefixes, though suffixes are used as well, particularly when the meaning of the resultant form is meant to be neutralized to the O class. Nominalizing affixes are subject to umlaut. The following is a list of the most common nominalizers.

Etymology Form Examples Notes
mica thing -a, a- dansca language (say-NOM), asoir food (NOM-eat) general affix, used for both concrete and abstract words, commonly used in neutralizing
püta nature püt(a)- pütaräbee charity (NOM-give), pütingoä antiquity (NOM-old) used for abstract concepts
bois image -(b)oi-s adabois existence (exist-NOM), liübioins warmth (warm-NOM) used for abstract concepts
ena air en- ingir fight (NOM-fight), encaio October (NOM-love) typical for words starting with plosives or s
siondu wish sion- sionsolt December (NOM-darkness), sionuloo intimacy (NOM-hug) typical for words starting with s
mis time (m)i- miugu Saturday (NOM-house), iresin youth (NOM-young) used for time-related words
sou trigger -sou cusoud match (play-NOM), läpasoun wedding (connect-NOM) used for events
dü place ü- ümar store (NOM-buy), üseons dwelling (NOM-live) used for place-related words
ugu house gu- gucol bedroom (NOM-sleep), gusoir kitchen (NOM-eat) used for place-related words
es spot es- esmadic workplace (NOM-work), espuio entrance (NOM-enter) used for place-related words
bis all bi(s)- biscir army (NOM-fighter), bisugu neighborhood (NOM-house) used for collective nouns
pandu rise pan- pannalmu cheese (NOM-milk), panleüt wood (NOM-tree) used for results, derivatives
cus person (u)s- scaian friend (NOM-friendship), ussaec killer (NOM-kill) used for agents, usually people
sop hand op- opulooran caretaker (NOM-care), oppeom creator (NOM-create) used for agents, usually people
ba do ba- bamicu singer (NOM-sing), bators fridge (NOM-cold) used for agents, not necessarily people, often machines
rot way rot- rütüitpons shovel (NOM-dig), rotgaem paintbrush (NOM-paint) used for tools
dont hold don(t)- donciio mailbox (NOM-send), donmals bathtub (NOM-wash) used for containers

Verbs can be also nominalized with gerunds. This is especially common with verbs containing suffixes, e.g. pumpeom recognize → pumpeomu recognition. Gerunds generally convey the meaning of action, but not always, e.g. micuu (sing-GER) can mean both singing and song, music.

Verb Noun
micu micu sing micuu micau song, music
gon gon help gonu gonu help
cusag cusag confirm cusago cusago confirmation
motioüt mochoüt assume motieüti mocheüchi assumption
no no meet noo nu meeting
esäln ehiaun add esänal ehianau addition

Another strategy is to reverse the order of the constituents in a verb. This is typically only possible when the constituents are synonymous or complementary. The same process is possible with compound adjectives.

Word Etymology Noun Etymology
rättirtä yatchicha warn rättä tell + tirt worry tirtättä chichatcha warning tirt worry + rättä tell
piscanib piscaniv pale, royal pisc skin + nib beauty nipiib nipaiv paleness, royalty nib beauty + pisc skin
polstop poustop conclude polst close + pop finish popoup popoup conclusion pop finish + polst close
doresin doyehien discover dore win + resin new residoren yehidoyen discovery resin new + dore win
noadars nuadars depend nors take + ada exist adanors adanurs dependence ada exist + nors take
rudansc nudansc praise ru pat + dansc say darunsc danonsc praise dansc say + ru pat

Yet another strategy is to combine two words with the same or similar meanings, though this is not exclusive to nominalization, as verbs, adjectives, or adverbs can be created using the same process.

Word Etymology
enantee enanchi strength ena power + nantee strong
poücondi poüconji setting poüc set + ondi decide
tiübarst chiẅvarst rarity tiü few + barst rare
spotsaec spostaic destruction spot break + saec destroy
mirnatirt mirnachirt problem mirn fear + tirt worry
nodont nodont acquisition nors take + dont hold
17.6 Adjectivizing and adverbializing

Some nominalizing prefixes (a-, en-, sion-) can act as adjectivizers as well, since nouns and adjectives function very similarly.

Word Etymology
adosue adosue active a- ADJ + dosue move
anal anau damp a- ADJ + nal water
enbuo envuo slippery en- ADJ + buo slip
innibsaiu innispayu elegant en- ADJ + nibsaiu elegance
ensäg enhiag hard, stiff en- ADJ + säg cock
sionspot hionspot destructive sion- ADJ + spot destroy

The prefix gat(a)- (from gata type) is specific to forming adjectives, being similar to English suffixes like -ive, -ic, -al, -ish.

Word Etymology
gatäbipons gachavipons national gata- ADJ + bipons nation
gatagaacuni gatagocuni scientific gata- ADJ + gaacuni science
gatanorsanduu gatanursandau comparative gata- ADJ + norsanduu comparison
gatäniusab gachaniusav artistic gata- ADJ + niusab art
gatiis gatais unique gat- ADJ + iis one
gatäbilemt gachavilent social gata- ADJ + bilemt society

Because the langauge does not allow the use of attributive noun, there is a strategy to create relational adjectives using the same prefix as that used to form ordinal numbers. It stems from the word iria iya state, condition, which surfaces as ir- before vowels, i-r- before consonants followed by a front vowel, and i-ri- before consonants followed by a back vowel. It can be applied to most nouns, unless a different adjectival equivalent is already established.

Word Etymology
isriolt ihiout night ~, nightly i-ri- ADJ + solt night
ibree ivi day ~, daily i-r- ADJ + bee day
ilreüt ileüt tree ~, arboreal i-r- ADJ + leüt tree
ilriob ilov dog ~, canine i-ri- ADJ + lob dog
irena iyena sky ~, celestial ir- ADJ + ena sky
irot inot bone ~, osseous ir- ADJ + ot bone

Another quasi-adjectivizing strategy is to use certain nouns in the genitive case. Although their function is akin to that of adjectives, they still are functionally nouns and act as such. Examples include s'et last (GEN-end), spee bright, full (GEN-light), soreo funny (GEN-give-laugh).

Word Etymology
s'et hiet last s- GEN + et end
spee spi bright, full s- GEN + bee light
soreo soyo funny so- GEN + re give + oo laugh
sosolt sosout dark, empty so- GEN + solt darkness
s'oüt soüt next s- GEN + oüt lead

Using the forms spee full and sosolt empty followed by the genitive case, the meaning of -ful and -less can be conveyed.

Word Etymology
spee soraid spi sonaid safe spee full + so- GEN + raid safety
sosolt soraid sosout sonaid dangerous sosolt empty + so- GEN + raid safety
spee sosao spi sosau possible spee full + so- GEN + sao possibility
sosolt sosao sosout sosau impossible sosolt empty + so- GEN + sao possibility
spee spipa spi spipa valuable spee full + s- GEN + pipa value
sosolt spipa sosout spipa worthless sosolt empty + s- GEN + pipa value

There are two other adjectivizing prefixes: na(n)- (from nantee strong) and peo(m)- (from peom create) - both carry the meaning of from -able, but the former is used for patients and the latter for agents. These are alternatives to the longer attributive clauses s'äbsun sair speomu able to be done (doable) (GEN-DAT-LOC.COP-GER DAT-take-GER GEN-do-GER) and s'äbsun lipeomu able to do (capable) (GEN-DAT-LOC.COP-GER DAT-do-GER).

Word Etymology
nalei nalei legible na- able + lei read
peolei piolei literate peo- able + lei read
naneliln nanieliwn perceptible nan- able + eliln perceive
peomeliln piomieliwn perceptive peom- able + eliln perceive
naspot naspot breakable na- able + spot break
peospot piospot able to break peo- able + spot break

Adverbs can be derived from adjectives by using the preposition rot with no case agreement, e.g. sono quick → rot sono quickly.

When forming adverbial constructions from other parts of speech, the prepositions rot and äbee are commonly used. With nouns, they are generally interchangeable, though the former generally has an instrumental meaning, so its use is restricted, e.g. rot semirn unfortunately (by GEN-sadness). The preposition äbee is more general, e.g. äbee limicabamt romantically, when it comes to romance (with DAT-romance). When used with verbs, rot has the meaning of by doing, and äbee conveys the meaning of while doing (see 13.3 Prepositions).

17.7 Verbalizing

There are no generic verbalizing prefixes. Instead, the most common strategy is to use auxiliary verbs in combination with other parts of speech. These are usually nouns, but occasionally adjectives. The verb ba do is a generic verbalizer and can be used to create verbs from nouns and adjectives.

Word Etymology
ba dast va dast look ba do + dast shape
ba doesois va duesois seem, feel ba do + doesois feeling
ba conoe va conue mark, indicate ba do + conoe finger
ba mata va mata sound ba do + mata sound
ba paim va paim act nice ba do + paim nice
ba pipa va pipa mean ba do + pipa meaning

The verbs räbee give and nors take are typically used to form transitive-intransitive (active-passive) pairs.

Word Etymology
räbee caio yavi cayo love räbee give + caio love
nors caio nurs cayo be loved nors take + caio love
räbee mico yavi mico make happy, heal räbee give + mico happiness, health
nors mico nurs mico be happy, be healthy nors take + mico happiness, health
räbee mirn yavi mirn hurt, frighten räbee give + mirn pain, fear
nors mirn nurs mirn suffer, fear nors take + mirn pain, fear

The verb so give out, emit can be used as a verbalizing prefix.

Word Etymology
sobee sovi shine so emit + bee light
soena suena enforce so emit + ena power
sodast sodast visit so emit + dast shape
somata somata make a sound so emit + mata sound
sopeom sopion be creative so emit + peom make
sopoda sopoda smell so emit + poda smell

Another common verbalizer is su(e)- (from dosue move), which is most commonly used with adjectives, similarly to the English suffix -ize. The resultant compounds are ergative.

Word Etymology
suebanil suevaniw clean, get clean sue- -ize + banil clean
suebog suevog raise, rise sue- -ize + bog tall
suespuo suespuo dry sue- -ize + spuo dry
suetäo suechau correct, improve sue- -ize + täo correct
suenib sueniv beautify, become beautiful sue- -ize + nib beauty
suognol suounou worsen, get worse su- -ize + ognol bad
17.8 Negation

Apart from making use of inflectional negation strategies, the meaning of words can be reversed with negative derivational suffixes. These suffixes are identical to the words for the four cardinal directions and four non-neutral word classes: -pil north, -rio south, -abi west, -mon east. A suffix representing the class found on the opposite side of the axis from that of the original word can negate it. For neutral words, the prefix nü- (from *nür lack) is used. In case of illegal sequences, the suffixes can be modified to -il, -io, -bi, -on, nür.

Word Etymology
saopil saupiw impossibility sao possibility + -pil NEG
raidpil naippiw danger raid safety + -pil NEG
totarülsio totayühio cheap totarüls expensive + -io NEG
caültio caücho stayed caült moved + -io NEG
paimabi paimavi bitter, mean paim sweet + -abi NEG
poinpabi poimpavi flat poinp tits + -abi NEG
monatmon monaimon chaos monat rule + -mon NEG
olämon olamon laziness olä effort + -mon NEG
nüesp nüesp strange nü- NEG + esp normal
nümata nümata silence nü- NEG + mata sound
17.9 Umlaut

Umlaut refers to vowel mutation which occurs when an affix is attached to a word, causing a vowel (or vowels) to become closer in pronunciation to the following vowel. In the case of prefixes, the final vowel in the prefix is affected by the initial vowel of the word to which it is attached, and in the case of suffixes, the first vowel of the suffix affects the final vowel of the word to which it is attached. There are two vowels which trigger umlaut - i and ü. The former causes the preceding vowel to front and rise, while the latter additionally causes the preceding vowel to round (with the exception of low vowels).

The vowels i and ü cause the following changes. Because the language is missing a front mid rounded vowel, o rises to ü following ü. Note that i and ü do not affect each other.

I-umlaut Ü-umlaut
i ← u ü ← u
↑ ↑ ↖
e ← o e o
↑ ↑
ä ← a ä ← a

The affected vowel may be a monograph (e.g. et + -i → iti), a digraph (e.g. saec + -i → säici) or a trigraph (e.g. muao + -ti → miäeti). In the case of type 3 trigraphs, only the final two vowels are affected, e.g. caio + -sin → caiesin. For umlaut to occur, there must be an intervening consonant, so a vowel directly affixed to another vowel causes no changes, e.g. rättä + -i → rättäi.

Applying umlaut to some trigraphs may result in illegal vowel sequences. Such trigraphs are modified to be valid as follows.

Illegal trigraph Modification
iee eee iäe
eei iei
äee äie
aee aie
äii eii eai
aii oii oai
äiü eiü äüü eüü eaü
aiü oiü aüü oüü oaü
uiü uaü
üiü üaü

There are cases in which the vowel triggering umlaut is elided, but the effect on the preceding vowel remains, e.g. dont hold + -lioü partially → dentoü retain, es put + -ü GER → üs putting.

Umlaut applies in the following cases:

Umlaut does not apply in the following cases:

17.10 Irregularities in compounds

The word cus person has an irregular genitive form nicus. The genitive prefix ni- is applied to all nouns starting with cus, regardless of the form used in that word.

Word Genitive
cusca same person nicusca
cuä who nicuä
cors recepient nicors
scaian friend niscaian
ussaec murderer niussaec

The word et end has an irregular dative form elit. This form applies to both the noun and the verb, but only in inanimate contexts, so for the verb form it is only applicable to the gerund. The dative eli- replacing the initial vowel applies to all inanimate nouns starting with et.

Word Dative
iti ending eliti
eusat death eliusat
ebaet Sunday elibaet

An affixing s is found in several contexts across the language, including the first person plural subject SDOAUX, and the first person verbal affix, both stemming from si, the prevocalic inanimate genitive prefix originating from son, and the agentive derivational prefix, which comes from cus. Although most of these affixes are predominately found before vowels, they are also applied when followed by stops. If the affix is followed by a voiced plosive, the plosive undergoes devoicing.

Word Derivation
si- 1PL + -ba 3OM spa 1PL-3OM
pag go + -s- 1P pasc go-1P
s- GEN + gata type scata GEN-type
s- person + dore win store winner

There are several cases in which compounds reduplicate irregularly. This includes compounds with a medial genitive affix (see 6.2 Inflection), compounds with coda vocalization (see 6.2 Inflection), as well as nouns fused with the adjectives cago and darn (see 10.4 cago and darn and their contractions).

18 Syntax


18.1 Word order

The word order is fairly strict. Each sentence starts with a finite verb, usually directly followed by the subject. The direct object is typically found clause-finally, immediately before the SDOAUX. The direct object can be found closer to the verb, particularly in verb phrases in which the direct object is strongly linked to the verb, like et usa die.

Other elements of the sentence, like indirect objects and adverbial phrases are normally found mid-sentence, between the subject and direct object. However, these elements may be relocated, as long as the subject is found before the direct object. Adverbial phrases can be also found at the very beginning of the sentence, before the verb. In this case, they are followed by a comma.

One of the most important structures characteristic of this language is what is referred to as subordinate alignment. This strategy is used in various subordinate phrases, whose head is a gerund rather than a finite verb. Role marking in subordinate alignment differs from that of finite clauses.

Role Regular Subordinate
Predicate Finite verb Gerund
Subject Direct case bans (transitive verbs + copula) / genitive case (intransitive verbs)
Direct object Direct case Genitive case
Other adjuncts Case marking or prepositions

Subordinate alignment is typically found in the following types of structures:

In subordinate alignment, the subject is placed directly after the verb. Unlike in regular alignment, direct objects in subordinate alignment are placed close to the verb, immediately after the subject, before other adjuncts. The exception to this is when a locative copula + gerund tense is used, in which the direct object follows the dative gerund of the lexical verb. Examples of differences between regular and subordinate alignment are presented below, using the word bans because which requires no additional marking on the following word. Because a complement of a copula can be quite long, for clarity, bans is used in subordinate alignment with the copula as well.

18.2 Compound sentences

Sentences with multiple clauses are not extremely common. The preferred method is to use constructions with prepositions like rot by (doing), bans because (of doing), in order (to do), äbee while (doing), having (done), or rütnü without (doing) (see 13.3 Prepositions). In English these introduce new clauses to a sentence, but here, the subordinate constructions are formed with gerunds and thus kept within one clause.

However, there are certain constructions which facilitate the usage of multiple clauses per sentence. One of them is the conditional tense (see 15.3 Conditional). Another is the the potential tense used with interrogatives, used to form phrases such as whatever you do, wherever you go (see 10.3 Potential form - any).

The conjunctions ägä although, but and dar or can be used to separate clauses (see 13.2 Conjunctions). The same cannot be said about ä(b)/e(l) and, which only separates nouns or adjectives. To connect coordinating phrases, the most common strategy is to simply separate them with a comma, with no additional marking. Another is to use the word eligä meaning and, then.

18.3 Attributive clauses

Attributive clauses are not formed with any relative pronouns, but rather with gerunds in the genitive form, so a person who sleeps is a person of sleeping: cus scol (person GEN-sleep-GER). In such clauses, most rules of subordinate alignment are followed, such as the direct object being in the genitive case and being close to the verb rather than delegated to the end of the clause, and the other adjuncts being treated as they would be normally. Head nouns of attributive clauses are often followed by the definite article.

The major difference between attributive clauses and other constructions with subordinate alignment is the use of the preposition bans. In attributive clauses, the preposition is used when the subject of the clause differs from the head noun, regardless of the valency of the verb.

In attributive clauses whose head would be preceded by a case marker or preposition in its finite clause equivalent, the preposition or case marker is attached to the gerund as a suffix and is preceded by a hyphen. If case marking is used in this context, the genitive form is always -son and the dative form is always -eli, regardless of the phonology or animacy of any arguments. If the suffix attaches to a copula, the suffix goes at the end of its complement.

Not all such clauses require such a suffix. In attributive clauses with passive voice, the agent, which is the head of the clause, does not require the following gerund to be followed by -bans. For instance, the person that a cat is chosen by is not *cus a saor-bans bans milm stiii, but cus a saor bans milm stiii. The former sentence is still grammatically correct, but has the meaning the person that a cat is chosen for. Other clauses which do not require a suffixed gerund are those where the relation between the head noun and the phrase that defines it is general or vague, only indicating that there is a connection between the noun and the phrase, but not specifying what kind of connection it is with prepositions or case markers. Examples are presented below.

If an attributive clause is particularly long, it is advisable to use a comma at the end of it, to separate it from the rest of the sentence.

In attributive clauses whose subjects are possessed by the head noun, the subject is followed by the reflective possessive pronoun r'usa. Thus, a phrase like a man whose wife died is expressed as a man that one's wife died.

Attributive clauses are also used where English would use subordinate clauses with interrogatives. Instead, generic nouns like mica thing, cus person, dü place and mis time are used as heads of attributive clauses.

Finally, attributive clauses are used when a question is embedded in a sentence. In this case, an interrogative followed by the definite article is used as the head of the clause, typically functioning as the direct object of the sentence as well. All other rules of subordinate alignment apply, but if the subject of the question clause is the same as that of the main clause, it can be omitted from the question clause.

If a question clause requires a preposition or case marking, the case marking goes on the interrogative, while the preposition is attached to the gerund. If the preposition is governed by the genitive or dative case, the interrogative is marked for case.

When this construction is used with yes/no questions, instead of an interrogative, the word minspiira mienspaina whether or not is used.

18.4 Questions

All questions feature the interrogative prefix attached to the predicate. Questions are not marked in any way in the punctuation, although in the transliteration and romanization, a question mark is customarily used instead of a period. Questions end with a rising intonation.

Questions do not involve any other change in the word order or the structure of the senetence. With the exception of the addition of the interrogative prefix, yes/no questions are formed identically to the corresponding statements. In questions using interrogatives, the interrogative is placed in the same position that the phrase answering the same question would be placed. Compare the following statements and questions.

Any question can be followed by the invariable tag däpii.

The words mins miens yes and piir pair no always agree and disagree with the proposition of the question, respectively, unlike in English, where no disagrees with affirmative questions but agrees with negative ones. This is because mins also means thus (it is the way you are saying), and piir means differ (the truth differs from your statement).

18.5 Reported speech

The word say is usually conveyed in one of two ways. If a sentence features a direct object, one can either use the irregular verb dansc say, or the phrase läl üta, which is akin in meaning and structure to the English phrase to be like. The copula in the phrase inflects for person, and when the form ends in a vowel, an epenthetic p- is added to the beginning of üta. The word is followed by a genitive prefix which marks what would normally be the direct object. Note that in certain fossilized phrases, only dansc is applicable, for example in dansc täl lie (lit. say lies).

In reported speech, when quoting an entire sentence, only the phrase läl üta is applicable. In this case, genitive marking is not applied; the entire quoted sentence simply follows läl üta directly, with no additional marking. This means that in reported speech, two SDOAUX are found at the end of the sentence, one for the main clause, and one for the quoted sentence, unless either sentence does not require an auxiliary, which is often the case, because läl üta makes use of the copula, which only requires SDOAUX in third person. When quoting someone using this phrase, the quote is told from that person's perspective, that is, if a person says they did something, the subject is first person singular. Reported speech does not affect tenses, unlike in English. There is no punctuation akin to quotation marks.

An alternative solution is to first state the quote, follow it by a comma, and use the phrase läl üta scä lit. to be like that = to say that .... This strategy is also applied when using other verbs or phrases in this context, such as coünt mins lit. to think thus = to think that ..., or seons coünstiondudu scä lit. to have such hope = to hope that ....

19 Pragmatics


19.1 Uses of the language

Because this is a personal language, and a quite complex one at that, I never expected anyone else to learn it in any capacity. However, since its original creation I have been contacted by a handful of people who expressed the desire to learn it or use it in their own projects. This is where I encountered several issues, since these individuals wanted to use the language against its purpose, for instance transliterating people's names into it, which the language does not use, or introducing concepts which are purposely absent in the language. This created situations in which I was asked for help with producing phrases or sentences in the language, and had to fight against it, so to speak, to achieve the desired results.

The language is not well suited for translation, lacking proper nouns and vocabulary in various areas, which I do not consider useful to myself. Even with regard to personal use, the language would be difficult to use for other people, as its vocabulary is influenced by my own beliefs and worldviews. As such, it may include concepts foreign to other people, and lack other concepts which exist in the minds of others, but not in my own. Therefore, in order to use the language, the speaker must, in a way, enter my headspace and learn to look at the world from my perspective.

The language was created as a form of self-expression, an artistic outlet for my desire to create and inspire. It was meant to represent my mind, my identity, in a way words are not sufficient to describe. Because of this, its primary purpose is to be used in various art forms. This may include monologues, diary notes, poems, and especially songs. One of the end goals for this language is to create at least one song written fully in it, though to realize that goal I would need to find someone who can produce music, and a vocalist.

Using the language for novels or other forms of fiction could pose issues due to its limitations, for instance it would be impossible to give characters names, but it is not impossible. It would be difficult to focus on internal emotions and personal struggles of its characters, because the language is, by design, only suited to explore those of my own.

One of my goals was for the language to have a soft, pleasant, somewhat lazy and cutesy sound. At the onset of its creation, I had no exact plan for achieving this goal, and no precise idea of how I wanted it to sound. My general strategy was to include as many of my favorite sounds and sound sequences from other languages as possible, establish basic phonotactic rules, and see what the result would be. Because of this, the final phonaesthetics of the language were just as much of a surprise to me as they were to people hearing it for the first time. The end result was satisfactory in some ways and lacking in others. Although I am not one hundred percent happy with some phonaesthetic features of the language and would likely revise them if I were to recreate the language from scratch, I have learned to embrace these idiosyncrasies and appreciate the uniqueness they provide to the language. I believe that the greatest strength of the language's sound is its uniqueness and the fact that, to me, and to most people, as a whole it does not sound reminiscent of any one language in particular. I fear that, had I meticulously designed the phonaesthetics with euphony in mind, I would have fallen into the trap of trying to make it resemble the sound of existing languages whose sound I enjoy, so I am glad I was able to avoid this.

Because the language is meant to have a pleasant sound and be enjoyable to listen to, spoken form is encouraged. This is particularly true for artistic contexts, where the use of words which sound pleasant or interesting when found next to each other, due to rhyming, repetition, or similar syllable structures, is particularly desired. An example of this would be the sentence Lä cago müicago müi mica gä panti paba. These deep things are almost the same., which features several similar syllables arranged in various orders, creating a mix of rhymes and alliterations: La cago müicago müi mica ja panchi pavá.

19.2 Politeness, register, greetings

The language does not feature any form of distinction between formal and informal register, polite and casual register, or honorifics. Everyone is adressed the same way. The attitude of the speaker towards the listener can only be determined by other factors, such as the choice of vocabulary, tone, facial expressions, or body language. Although no honorific markers exist per se, other emotions like affinity or disgust toward the listener can be conveyed through the use of emotionally charged words, such as diminutives and terms of endearment (e.g. paiman sweetheart), or insults (e.g. domürp gross).

Beauty and physical attraction play a big role in the language. Those seen as beautiful (sonib) are seen more favorably than those seen as ugly (somürp), and their personality or character are treated as secondary. Nevertheless, individuals who are kind, caring, innocent, simple-minded, and joyful are generally preferred over those who are not. The nature of the language encourages flirtatious behavior and viewing interlocutors as objects of romantic and sexual desire. It is, after all, a language for hot people.

Identity within the scope of the language is built exclusively on how a person is viewed by others. It does not come from within and cannot be self-ascribed. This is why no distinction is made between the NSWEO classes in first or second person pronouns, since even in second person, person A may attempt to humor person B by addressing them how they wish to be viewed, not as person B is actually viewed in the mind of person A. This is why only third person pronouns have different forms for each class, since those are used when talking about someone in situations when that person is absent.

This view stems from a personality trait of mine, where I can only find meaning in something I do if I am able to share that with another person or people. Because of this dependence on others in practically every aspect of my life I care about, my sense of identity and self-worth hinges upon other people's judgment and validation. In other words, if I am to enjoy an activity and find it fulfilling, I need to share that experience with someone I like, but if that person does not wish to share that experience with me, I cannot find the activity meaningful, and I develop an inferiority complex and think of myself as undesirable.

There are no common greetings, everyday expressions used to show gratitude, apologize or ask for something. Such language use is seen as unnecessary and a mere formality void of meaning or sincere intention. One should not, however, shy away from complimenting others' appearance, provided that they deserve it, so a greeting such as sami milcami nice ass would be perfectly acceptable.

19.3 Personal influences on the lexicon

◆ Religion and spirituality

Religion as a concept does not exist in the language. There are no words for deities, the afterlife, holiness, or sin. The only exceptions are the words girolnib jinouniv, roughly meaning angel and coticud cochicud, roughly meaning demon, succubus, incubus. However, rather than used in a religious sense, girolnib refers to a person who is caring, motherly, mature, and comforting (a "mommy"), and coticud refers to a person who is sassy, naughty, lewd, and mischievous (a "brat").

Spirituality and the supernatural exist in the language partially. Although there are no references to magic, ghosts, or other mythical beings, the world of emotions, which are not physical entities, is vastly explored. The generic word for a "soul" is usa usa, which, apart from meaning heart and functioning as a reflexive pronoun, refers to the non-physical part of a human being. Call it a mind, a soul, an essence, or a psyche, usa embodies the identity of a person, and governs our emotions, ambitions, and sense of self.

◆ Emotions

The language has no shortage of typical words for emotions which are cross-culturally similar and easy to define, such as joy (pütacud pütacud), anger (ustag ustag), or pride (sägo hiago). However, it also features some emotions or states of mind which are harder to define in most languages, and which are specific to my personal experience. I have felt certain emotions which I found difficult to describe to other people, and when I tried to they would often struggle to understand what I had meant. In this language they have their bespoke words.

One example is cudtiol cutchou, which can be generally understood as a form of anhedonia. It refers to the inability to participate in activities one enjoys, though this inability does not stem from external factors preventing the person from doing these things, but rather from within. The person has enjoyed these activities in the past and logiaclly knows that they should bring them joy, but there is some form of mental block, which is hard to explain logically to others, preventing the person from taking part in them. Perhaps the person feels that they have lost the ability to feel enjoyment and fears that participating in the activity will be disappointing and a disheartening reminder of a better past. The full nature of this emotion is not fully understood.

Another example is bisiondulp vihiondup, which refers to a sense of longing for something that is well within the person's grasp, but one does not have it in them to take it. For instance, a person may long for companionship and wish to find friends with a shared interest. The person has a deep desire for this and genuinely feels that it would make them a much happier person. The person knows that achieving this goal is, from a logical standpoint, definitely within their ability. They can find likeminded people on online forums or groups on social media, and all they have to do is to seek out such places and start conversations with people they find interesting. At the same time, the person avoids doing this, perhaps because of a mental block, a fear of rejection, or a belief that they would not find what they are looking for and end up disappointed. Whatever the reason may be, it is always internal, and also paradoxical, because the person knows that they can fulfill their deep-seated longing, but in a mysterious form of self-sabotage, refuses to do it.

◆ Death

The language distinguishes between two types of death. One is the physical and visceral, and the other is a form of death which can occur while the person is physically alive. Due to severe mental damage, usually as a result of lifechanging trauma, a person can no longer be who they used to be. Their old self dies and only their physical form remains, but their essence (usa) is lost and morphs into something different, something lesser. This can happen several times throughout a person's physical life, each time taking chunks off their psyche and reducing their identity, filling it with void powered by mere instincts rather than passion and ambition. Words related to these two spheres are summarized below.

Physical Mental
Die scet schet et usa et usa
Death scet schet eusat eusat
Corpse eiascet eyaschet eaet yait
Kill saec saic et et
Murder saecuic saiquic ecuit equit
Killer ussaec ussaic opet opiet

Many of these words are polysemous. The word scet functions both as a verb and a noun, and apart from meaning die, death, it also means rot, rotting. The phrase et usa means die (psychologically), but literally it translates to end oneself, regardless of whether the death was self-inflicted or not. Although suicide is generally associated with physical death, the language treats it as a psychological event, and does not differentiate it from psychological death resulting from external circumstances. This also applies to the noun eusat, which literally means end of oneself. The agent nouns eiascet and eaet, which refer to dead people, are inanimate, which is also indicated by the inclusion of the word eia eya body therein. This means that eaet, a person who has mentally died, is not seen as a person anymore. This word can also be translated as a shadow of one's former self.

The words saec, saecuic, and ussaec are associated with the physical killing of another person, but also with physical destruction in general. This is in contrast to the verb spot spot, which can refer to physical or metaphorical destruction. Thus, saec also means destroy, saecuic also means destruction, and ussaec also means destroyer. The word et, apart from meaning kill (psychologically), also simply means end. In the latter meaning, the verb is ergative and also doubles as a noun. However, when used to refer to the act of physical murder, it is only transitive, and its nominal form is the word ecuit.

◆ Love

There are three types of love in the language. The word dango dango represents familial love, which may be extended to very close friends. The word simultaneously conveys the meaning of trust. This stems from my believe that only family members, or people one views as family despite no blood relation, can truly be trusted. The word can be diminutivized to dangan, which adjectivizes it, creating a word with the meaning of dear, beloved, trusted. When used as a verb, this love is "felt" towards someone, as in does dango äbcus love someone (as family), trust someone (feel love DAT-person).

The second type of love is caio cayo, representing romantic love and sexual desire. It also means bisexuality, which I find a good idea conceptually, as it theoretically allows for anyone to fall in love with anyone, without the fear of absolute rejection on the basis of the other person's sexuality. As such, both heterosexuality and homosexuality are treated as the same concept in the language, since they both reduce the pool of potential partners by half. Both concepts are expressed with the word caiosaban cayosavan, literally half-love. When used as a verb, caio is "given" or "taken", as in räbee caio äbcus love someone (romantically) (give love DAT-person), and nors caio nicus be loved by someone (romantically) (take love GEN-person).

The final type of love is caian cayan, which is generally platonic and reserved for one's friends. The word itself also means friendship and fondness. However, as it is the diminutive of caio, this type of love may contain hints or moments of romance or sexual desire, and can potentially blossom into romantic love. When used as a verb, this love "exists" for someone, as in seons caian äbcus eligä love someone (as a friend), like someone (LOC.COP fondness DAT-person DAT-DEM). This construction also means simply to like, and is not exclusive to people, but also things or activities.

The latter two types of love, caio and caian, can be viewed as a spectrum between full romantic and sexual desire for another person, and simple affinity. Familial love, dango, is outside of that spectrum, but may coexist with caio, for instance when talking about one's partner, a person may (and probably should) feel both dango and caio towards that person.

◆ Morality

The concept of morality is absent from the language. People are not condemned on the basis of the perceived unethicality of their actions, but on other factors, such as being annoying, creepy, or ugly. This is because the concept of morality is hazy at best, and seems inextricably linked with religion, which is another concept absent from the language. Even if one perceives their internal moral compass as being unrelated to any form of religion, the question remains as to where exactly it comes from. Either way, a sense of morality is something I seem to lack, so I decided to exclude it from the language.

The words olo owo and ognol ounou, which mean good and bad, respectively, convey the sense of high or low in value or pleasure, not virtue. This is why the north-south axis is called the value axis: rotoüt a spipa. Concepts such as virtue, integrity, perversion, honor, conscience, or guilt have no place in the language.

This does not mean that "evil" people or actions cannot be condemned, and "good" ones cannot be praised, but it is never on the basis of them being "evil" or "good" alone. For instance, if someone murdered my child, I would feel hatred towards them, but not because I perceive child murder as "evil," but because they have hurt me and taken something important away from me. But if that person were to murder a child I have no connection with, I would not hate that person purely because they are a child murderer. I would, however, perceive that person to be dangerous and stay away from them, because they might do something similar to me or someone close to me. Conversely, I would not see a charitable person as "good" just because they help others, but it would be an indicator that that person would be likely to help me as well, rendering them in a more positive light in my eyes. It would also suggest that this person is likely easy-going and agreeable, making them more pleasant to be around.

It is all a matter of wording one's emotions in a way that is free of moral judgment. Consider how the following sentences can be rephrased.

Morality-coded Morality-free Translation
Murder is evil. Murder is dangerous and invites revenge. Lä gä sosolt soraid saecuic arä, souodnu mirnou aräion. (COP-3P DEM GEN-empty GEN-safety murder 3WUM, invite-3P revenge 3WUM-3EUM.)
Helping others is good. Helping others strengthens relationships. Suenantee gonu nicugusda läpan miion. (strengthen-3P help-GER GEN-others relationship 3EUM-3EUM.)
Lying is wrong. Lying makes people distrust you. Räb täl äbcugusda düüs stangopil eligä tarpa. (give-3P lie DAT-others feel-GER GEN-distrust DAT-DEM 3NUM-3OUM.)
Envy is a vice. Envy pushes friends away. Daipag sionsciun scaiagaian minon. (push.away-3P envy friend-REDUP 3EUM-3EM.)
◆ Health and happiness

There is an overlap in the language with respct to psychological and somatic sensations. Due to my history of psychosomatic symptoms, I have learned that the body and the mind are intertwined, and oftentimes the well-being of one hinges upon the well-being of the other, particularly in individuals such as myself. I often struggle to differentiate between ailments of the body and those of the mind, and am unsure whether the underlying cause of the symptoms I am experiencing is somatic, to what extent they are exacerbated by my anxiety and excessive focus on them, or whether they are a figment of my imagination.

Because of this, either side of this spectrum is expressed with a single basic word each. The word mico mico represents the positive side of the spectrum, encompassing good physical and mental health, pleasure, inner peace, and calmness. The word mirn mirn represents the negative side of the spectrum, standing for physical and mental illness, pain, fear, and anxiety. At the same time, because the state of my health is directly responsible for my mood at any given time, mico is also synonymous with happiness, and mirn with sadness. When used as verbs, these two emotions can be "given," as in räbee mico make happy, heal and räbee mirn hurt, frighten, be scary, or "taken," as in nors mico be happy, be healthy, be free of pain, be at peace and nors mirn be sad, be ill, be in pain, suffer.

This does not mean that more specific words do not exist. The words mico and mirn are simply the basic terms encompassing a wide spectrum of positive and negative psychosomatic sensations. If one wishes to be more explicit, there are more specific words which can be used, as summarized in the table below.

Positive Negative
eiamico eyamico (good) physical health eiamirn eyamirn physical illness
usamico usamico (good) mental health usamirn usamirn mental illness
bädcud viaccud physical pleasure dutmirn duymirn physical pain
ruraid nunaid inner peace tieirt cheirt anxiety
üitmico ẅimico happiness miport mipurt sadness
◆ Kinship terms

In many languages, kinship terms are very complex and specific. In this language, they are greatly simplified. Only two generations older and younger in relation to the speaker are covered, and there is only one word for an immediate family member belonging to each of these five generations. Terms relating to relatives two generations older/younger than the speaker combine words representing relatives one generation away from the speaker and the adjectives ingoä engua old and resin yehien young, respectively. Any other family member belonging to a given generation is referred to by a word derived from the term for an immediate family member of that generation combined with the word saban savan half. One additional kinship term is cosaio cosayo meaning spouse, partner, which refers to one's significant other regardless of whether married, engaged, or just dating.

Generation Immediate family Non-immediate family Examples of non-immediate members
2 older than speaker nopingoä nopiengua grandparents nopinsabangoä nopiensavangua great-uncle, great-aunt
1 older than speaker nop nop parents nosabaip nosavaip uncle, aunt, parents-in-law
Same as speaker müe müe sibling sabanmüe savammüe cousin, sibling-in-law
1 younger than speaker an an child ansaban ansavan nephew, niece, child-in-law
2 younger than speaker anresin aniehien grandchild anresinsaban aniehiensavan grandnephew, grandniece

Most kinship terms are class 3 animate nouns. However, some are set nouns. The word nop refers to both parents as a unit, with the reduplicated nonop referring to only one of the pair. Likewise, nosabaip refers to both parents-in-law, with nosabaibaip specifying only one. The term nopingoä is unmarked when either referring to one pair of grandparents, or all four, with nopingoägoä used in all other cases.

Just like all other nouns describing humans, words describing family members are gender-neutral, but the adjectives ecci etchi male and momc monc female can be used to specify gender. For instance, müe refers to a sibling of any gender, but müe ecci müe etchi is a brother and müe momc müe monc is a sister. This kind of specification is rare and can be compared to using phrases like male cousin and female cousin in English.

◆ Directions

The four cardinal directions are pil piw north, rio yo south, abi avi west, and mon mon east. They are the basis for the NSWEO system, one of the core elements of the language. Some of the basic associations for NSWEO are directly related to cardinal directions. North is associated with darkness, nighttime, and cold, because the sun never shines from the northern sky, and conversely, south is associated with light, daytime, and heat, because the sun is in the southern sky during noon. Of course, this is only true in the Northern Hemisphere, but that is where I happen to live. Meanwhile, east is associated with genesis because the sun rises from the east, while west is associated with terminus because the sun sets in the west.

Because I often mistake east with west, I put west on the right side of the compass, and east on the left. This means that south is at the top, and north at the bottom, which runs counter to my intuition, but at least it makes the system fun and quirky. For simplicity, relative directions (right, left, up, down) are not differentiated from cardinal ones. This could theoretically cause confusion, but the usage of cardinal directions to express directions is discouraged anyway. The compass is illustrated below.

rio yo
south, up
mon mon
east, left		 abi avi
west, right
pil piw
north, down
◆ Colors

There are no specific adjectives or nouns denoting colors. Each color is associated with a number of physical things and metaphorical concepts, both positive and negative. A speaker is free to choose any of these associations depending on the word they are describing or their attitude toward it. Physical associations are generally less emotionally-charged and more neutral in expressing color, though this is not always the case. For instance, purple is associated with both feathers and wounds, with the former obviously having more positive connotations than the latter.

Metaphorical associations may be counterintuitive to speakers of other languages, as colors have various meanings in various cultures, and those presented here are not consistent with some common associations. For instance, yellow is the color most commonly associated with envy, but in this language, that color is red. The origin of other metaphorical associations is more clearly inspired, for instance white being associated with purity, green with calmness, and pink with love. Just as with physical associations, metaphorical ones encompass a vast diversity of concepts which may be viewed as positive and negative. No color is strictly associated with one concept or viewed as "good" or "bad," with each association being highly dependent on context.

The four cardinal directions are associated with four basic colors: red, yellow, green, blue. North is associated with green, south with red, west with blue, and east with yellow.

The table below presents a general overview of colors and their associations. While mostly comprehensive, it is by no means exhaustive, and other associations may apply to certain colors. This depends on the judgment of the speaker, although without prior knowledge it would be difficult to guess what color a speaker associates with a given concept. In practice, because this is my personal language, chromatic associations are based on my own judgment. Colors are most often associated with basic, monomorphemic terms.

Color Physical associations Metaphorical associations
White bee vi light, mars mars snow, ot ot bone nib niv beauty, enbanil envaniw purity, nier niur duty
Gray cuop quop stone, ter chur dust, ash, gilc jiwc mist cousal cousau boredom, mürp mürp ugliness
Silver sir hir moon, tic chic metal pipa pipa value, deols jous breath, gaa go craft
Black solt sout darkness, tocpä toppia coal lirsc lirsc mystery, enpamco enpanco simplicity, enalag enawag domination
Red stag stag fire, em en blood olä ola endeavor, marscir maischir animosity, sionsciun hionschon envy, rio yo south
Brown pons pons soil, leüt leüt tree resioins yehioins freshness, encaru encanu order
Orange rälc yauc fox, bamt vant flower mico mico happiness, dosue dosue movement
Gold nid nid sun picä picha twinkle, bioilsp vioisp weakness
Yellow sib hiv sand, ape apie leaf enpaim empaim kindness, endane endanie naïveté, mon mon east
Green püta püta nature, soin soin grass mirn mirn pain, bairt vairt calmness, pil piw north
Cyan nal nau water micuu micau music, sägo hiago pride
Blue ena ena sky, bibi vivi comet nils niws regret, sioncair hioncair wit, abi avi west
Navy eniondu eniondu night sky, deis jeis clothing raid naid safety, mis mis time, mata mata sound
Purple salm saum feather, dol dou wound güst jüst fate, moso moso chaos, coti cochi lewdness
Pink popo popo lips, poimaianp poimayamp cheeks sao sau possibility, caio cayo love

These associations are most commonly used in conjunction with the word noba nova color. For instance, white color can be referred to as noba spee (color GEN-light), red as noba s'olä (color GEN-endeavor), and silver as noba diisir (color GEN-moon). When applying this to nouns, genitive case is used, as in ugu sonoba s'enpaim yellow house (house GEN-color GEN-kindness), or bamt sonoba spibi blue flower (flower GEN-color GEN-comet). When used predicatively, the auxiliary verb ba is used with noba as a direct object, for example Ba milm gäl noba orrälc tarpa. This cat is orange. (do-3P cat DEM color GEN-fox 3NUM-3OUM.).

If it is obvious from context, the word noba can be dropped and the color can be indicated with the association alone.

Appendix 1: SDOAUX

Columns - S
Rows - DO		 1sg 1set 1pl 2sg 2set 2pl 3num 3nm 3sum 3sm 3wum 3wm 3eum 3em 3oum 3om
NÄ-
NIA-		 NE-
NIE-		 SI-
HI-		 CI-
CHI-		 LI-
LI-		 LA-
WA-		 TAR-
TAR-		 TAD-
TAD-		 LÄ-
LA-		 LÄLÄ-
LALA-		 ARÄ-
AYA-		 ARI-
AYI-		 MI-
MI-		 MION-
MION-		 PA-
PA-		 PAB-
PAV-
1sg -(Ä)N
-(A)N		 --------
--------		 nen
nien		 sin
hien		 cin
chen		 lin
len		 lan
wan		 tarn
tarn		 tadän
tajan		 län
lan		 lälän
lalan		 arän
ayan		 arin
ayen		 min
mien		 mionän
mionian		 pan
pan		 pabän
pavian
1set ü-BI
ü-VI		 nebi
nieví		 --------
--------		 spi
spi**		 cibi
chiví		 libi
liví		 läbi
laví		 tärbi
chaiví		 tädbi
chappí		 lebi
leví		 lälebi
laleví		 arebi
ayeví		 aribi
ayiví		 mibi
miví		 mienbi
mienví		 päbi
piaví		 päbbi
piappí
1pl ü-(I)S
ü-(I)S		 näs
nias		 nes
nies		 --------
--------		 cis
chis		 lis
lis		 las
was		 tars
tars		 tädis
chajis		 läs
las		 läläs
lalas		 aräs
ayas		 aris
ayis		 mis
mis		 mions
mions		 pas
pas		 päbis
piavis
2sg -LU
-U		 nälu
niawú		 nelu
niewú		 silu
hiwú		 --------
--------		 lilu
liwú		 lalu
wawú		 tarlu
taunú		 tadlu
taudú		 lälu
lawú		 lälälu
lalawú		 arälu
ayawú		 arilu
ayiwú		 milu
miwú		 mionlu
miounú		 palu
pawú		 pablu
pauvú
2set ü-IL
ü-IW		 näil
niai		 neil
niei		 siil
sai		 ciil
cai		 --------
--------		 lail
wai		 täril
chayiw		 tädil
chajiw		 läil
lai		 läläil
lalai		 aräil
ayai		 ariil
anai		 miil
mai		 mienil
mieniw		 pail
pai		 päbil
piaviw
2pl -AL
-AU		 nel
nieu***		 neal
niau		 sial
hiau		 cial
chau		 lial
lau		 --------
--------		 taral
tanau		 tadal
tadau		 lel
leu***		 lälel
laleu***		 arel
ayeu***		 arial
ayau		 mial
miau		 mional
mionau		 paal
pou		 pabal
pavau
3num -(A)RC
-(A)RC		 närc
niarc		 nerc
niurc		 sirc
hirc		 circ
chirc		 lirc
lirc		 larc
warc		 tararc
tanarc		 tadarc
tadarc		 lärc
larc		 lälärc
lalarc		 arärc
ayarc		 arirc
ayirc		 mirc
mirc		 mionarc
mionarc		 parc
parc		 pabarc
pavarc
3nm -DARC
-DARC		 nädarc
nidarc*		 nedarc
niedarc		 starc
starc**		 cidarc
chidarc		 lidarc
lidarc		 ladarc
wadarc		 tardarc
tardarc		 taddarc
tattarc		 lädarc
ladarc		 lälädarc
laladarc		 arädarc
ayadarc		 aridarc
ayidarc		 midarc
midarc		 miondarc
miondarc		 padarc
padarc		 pabdarc
pattarc
3sum -LÄB
-LAV		 näläb
nilav*		 neläb
nielav		 siläb
hilav		 ciläb
chilav		 liläb
lilav		 laläb
walav		 tarläb
talav		 tadläb
taujav		 läläb
lalav		 läläläb
lalalav		 aräläb
ayalav		 ariläb
ayilav		 miläb
milav		 mionläb
miouniav		 paläb
palav		 pabläb
pauviav
3sm -ÄLÄB
-ALAV		 nääläb
nielav		 neäläb
nialav		 siäläb
hialav		 ciäläb
chalav		 liäläb
lalav		 loläb
wolav***		 taräläb
tayalav		 tadäläb
tajalav		 lääläb
lelav		 lälääläb
lalelav		 arääläb
ayelav		 ariäläb
ayalav		 miäläb
mialav		 mionäläb
mionialav		 poläb
polav***		 pabäläb
pavialav
3wum -RÄ
-YA		 närä
niyá*		 nerä
nieyá		 sirä
hiyá		 cirä
chiyá		 lirä
liyá		 larä
wayá		 tarrä
taiyá		 tadrä
tajá		 lärä
layá		 lälärä
lalayá		 arärä
ayayá		 arirä
ayiyá		 mirä
miyá		 mionrä
mioniá		 parä
payá		 pabrä
paviá
3wm ü-RI
ü-I		 neri
nieyí		 niri
niyí		 siri
hiyí		 ciri
chiyí		 liri
liyí		 läri
layí		 tärri
chayí		 tädri
chají		 leri
leyí		 läleri
laleyí		 areri
ayeyí		 ariri
ayiyí		 miri
miyí		 mienri
miení		 päri
piayí		 päbri
piaví
3eum ü-ION
ü-YON		 näion
niyon*		 neion
nieyon		 siion
hiyon		 ciion
chiyon		 liion
liyon		 laion
wayon		 tärion
chayon		 tädion
chajon		 läion
layon		 läläion
lalayon		 aräion
ayayon		 ariion
ayiyon		 miion
miyon		 mienion
mienion		 paion
payon		 päbion
piavion
3em -NON
-NON		 nänon
ninon*		 nenon
nienon		 sinon
hinon		 cinon
chinon		 linon
linon		 lanon
wanon		 tarnon
tarnon		 tadnon
tainon		 länon
lanon		 lälänon
lalanon		 aränon
ayanon		 arinon
ayinon		 minon
minon		 mionnon
mionnon		 panon
panon		 pabnon
paünon
3oum -PA
-PA		 näpa
nipá*		 nepa
niepá		 spa
spa**		 cipa
chipá		 lipa
lipá		 lapa
wapá		 tarpa
tarpá		 tadpa
tappá		 läpa
lapá		 läläpa
lalapá		 aräpa
ayapá		 aripa
ayipá		 mipa
mipá		 mionpa
miompá		 papa
papá		 pabpa
pappá
3om -BA
-VA		 näba
nivá*		 neba
nievá		 spa
spa**		 ciba
chivá		 liba
livá		 laba
wavá		 tarba
tarvá		 tadba
tappá		 läba
lavá		 läläba
lalavá		 aräba
ayavá		 ariba
ayivá		 miba
mivá		 mionba
mionvá		 paba
pavá		 pabba
pappá

*1SG nä is pronounced as ni before consonants, except for the epenthetic glide in nälu.
**1PL si is shortened to s before stops, devoicing following voiced plosives.
***Combinations of äa aä are respelled as e o.

Appendix 2: Syllabary

- p- t- c- s- m- n- r- l- b- d- g- -V
-ä T T B T T T T B M T
-a T * B T M M B B B T
-e B T B B T B B B B B
-o T W T T B W B B B T
-i B M W B T M T W T B
-u B T M B W W T W B B
-ü B T T T M T B T M B
-p -t -c -s -m -n -r -l
-C T T W T M B T T
(G)-C * T W B B T B B M
-(C)C#
-b -d -g
-C T T B
(G)-C B T T
#s(C)-
(C)s(C)

Appendix 3: Dictionary

The dictionary is available here. It is not tidy and may contain errors. It is also not comprehensive and is regularly being updated.

The POS column uses the following terminology: