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Contents

Info

a transliteration
a romanization
a translation
/a/ phonemic transcription
[a] phonetic transcription
T plosive (p b t d k g)
P voiceless plosive (p t k)
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.

Some of the presented examples make use of made-up forms, not actual words.

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

The 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 w ü /j ɰ ɥ/
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, whereas more variability can be observed in sonorants.

Hard Soft Coda
p p /p/ py /pʲ/* p /p/
b v /v/ vy /vʲ/ v /v/
t t /t/ ch /c/ t /t/
d d /d/ j /ɟ/ d /d/
k k /k/ ch /c/ k /k/
g g /ɡ/ j /ɟ/ g /ɡ/
s s /s/ hy /ç/ s /s/
m m /m/ my /mʲ/ m /m/ or n /ɰ̃/**
n n /n/ ny /ɲ/ n /n/ or n /ɰ̃/**
r n /n/ y /j/ r /ɹ/
l w /ɰ/ l /l/ w /ɰ/

*In romanization, y in soft consonants is unwritten when preceding i, ü, or a consonant, e.g. mä me mi mü müi asmi mya mye mi mü müi ahmi /mʲa mʲɛ mʲi mʲy mʲɥi açmʲi/.
**Realized as /ɰ̃/ only when directly preceded by a vowel and not followed by a vowel or geminate nasal, cf. am an /aɰ̃/, arm arm /aɹm/, aüm aüm /aɥm/, ama ama /ama/, amma amma /amːa/. /ɰ̃/ is romanized as m before p(y).

2.3 Realization and allophony

Onset voiceless stops are aspirated, especially when stressed. Aspiration before glides results in their devoicing, e.g. poa pwa [pɰ̊a].
/ɡ/ is realized as [ŋ] between vowels and glides.
/c/ and /ɟ/ are realized as [t͡ɕ] and [d͡ʑ], /c/ is realized as [c] only after the non-sibilant [ç].
/s/ is slightly palatalized. Alternatively, it can be a hypersibilant or a lisped s.
/s/ softens to /ç/ before soft consonants and is romanized as h.

Coda /ɰ̃/ lowers high vowels - iN üN en /ɛɰ̃/, uN on /ʌɰ̃/.
/ɰ̃/ is realized as [ɥ̃] before /pʲ vʲ/ and [j̃] before /c ɟ ç/.
Coda /m/ and /n/ assimilate to following obstruents: [m(ʲ)] before /p(ʲ)/, [ɱ(ʲ)] before /v(ʲ)/, [n] before /t d s/, [ɲ] before /c ɟ ç/, [ŋ] before /k ɡ/. They are romanized as m before p, and n otherwise, e.g. iinba aynva [ajɱva], eümske eünhche [ɛɥɲçcɛ], oumk ownk [ʌɰŋk].
Coda /ɹ/ influences the realization of some preceding vowels and glides - er or ur ur /ɚ/, ür ür /ɥɚ/, yr ür wr /jɚ ɥɚ ɰɚ/. In the latter case, the additional rhotic vowel is purely epenthetic and does not count as a separate syllable nucleus for the purposes of counting word stress, cf. parer payur /paˈjɚ/ and pair payr /ˈpajɚ/. Non-epenthetic /jɚ ɥɚ ɰɚ/ are romanized as yur yür wur.

Geminates are always realized as geminates, never as doubled consonants, e.g. appa appa [apːa], not [*ap.pa]. For the purposes of word stress counting, syllables preceding a geminate are closed.

/ɯ/ is realized as [ɯ̟~ɨ]. It is slightly rhotacized before a pause.
/a/ is realized as [ä] following hard consonants, as [a] following soft consonants, and as [æ] before /ɹ/.

Two glides cannot cooccur adjacently within the same syllable. The latter is elided, e.g. lail /*ɰajɰ/ → /ɰaj/ way.
/j/ is never pronounced when adjacent to /i y/, and /ɰ ɥ/ are never pronounced when adjacent to /ɯ y/, unless the vowel is first and in a separate syllable, e.g. itma /*ijma/ → /ima/ ima, kupna /*kɯɰna/ → /kɯna/ kuna, but kire /ci.jɛ/ chiye. This means ri rü lu are pronounced as /i y ɯ/ i ü u.
After vowels, i ü u are romanized yi yü wu and pronounced /ji ɥy ɰɯ/, e.g. iiri ayi /aji/, ellu ewu /ɛɰɯ/.
When a syllable ending in a glide is followed by hiatus, the following realizations apply.

y- w- ü-
-yi yi wi üi
-wu yu wu wu
-yü yü yü yü

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

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, the stress may be marked with an acute in the romanization. The exceptions to the stress rule include:

The maximum syllable shape is CVC, but:

Any instances of word-initial or word-final sb sd sg are respelled as sp st sk, e.g. s- + -dark → stark, pag + -s- → pask.

2.5 Vowel hiatus

Orthographically, no more than three vowels can occur consecutively. Vowel digraphs are rendered as diphthongs, but double vowels rise, with double high vowels breaking into diphthongs.

1→
2↓ ä a e o i u ü
ä e o ya wa ya wa üa
a e o ya wa ya wa üa
e 'ay ay i we ye we üe
o 'aw aw yo u yo wo üo
i 'ay ay ey oy ay wi üi
u 'aw aw ew ow yu aw ü
ü 'aü aü eü oü iü ü aü

Note that:

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. aksa aska does not have to be respelled as aska. The most conspicuous changes include metathesis, which always places s and h (from s) before stops, and w (from l) before all consonants; stop clusters always being realized as the geminate of the latter consonant; stops changing to glides before nasals; r softening to y before soft consonants.

When the latter consonant in the cluster is hard:

1→
2↓ p b t d k 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
k kk kk kk kk kk kk sk nk nk rk wk
g kk kk kk kk kk kk sk ng ng rg wg
s sp sp st st sk sk ss ns ns rs ws
m üm üm ym ym wm wm sm mm mm rm wm
n ün ün yn yn wn wn sn nn nn rn wn
r ün ün yn yn wn wn sn nn nn rn wn
l wp wv wt wd wk wg ws wm wn wn ww
sp nsp nsp rsp wsp
st nst nst rst wst
sk nsk nsk rsk wsk

When the latter consonant in the cluster is soft:

1→
2↓ p b t d k g s m n r l
p ppy ppy ppy ppy ppy ppy hpy mpy mpy ypy wpy
b ppy ppy ppy ppy ppy ppy hpy nvy nvy yvy wvy
t cch cch cch cch cch cch hch nch nch ych wch
d cch cch cch cch cch cch hch nj nj yj wj
k cch cch cch cch cch cch hch nch nch ych wch
g cch cch cch cch cch cch hch nj nj yj wj
s hpy hpy hch hch hch hch hhy nhy nhy yhy why
m ümy ümy ymy ymy wmy wmy hmy mmy mmy ymy wmy
n üny üny yny yny wny wny hny nny nny yny wny
r py vy ch j ch j hy my ny yy l
l wpy wvy wch wj wch wj why wmy wny l ll
sp nhpy nhpy yhpy whpy
st nhch nhch yhch whch
sk nhch nhch yhch whch
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 - ä a e o u → e ä i e i, e.g. so- GEN + mika thing → semika of thing (GEN-thing).
An affixed ü changes the preceding vowel or combination thereof - ä a e o u → e ä ü ü ü, e.g. does feel + -ü GER → düüsü feeling (feel-GER).
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:

Ending Original form Redup form Example
V Monograph V -V a → aa
(s)CV (s)-GV* spa → spaba
V Digraph VV1 -[l/r]VV1** ee → eeree
(s)CVV1 -GVV1 kia → kiagia
V Trigraph T1 VV1V2 -[l/r]VV1V2** uae → uaeluae
(s)CVV1V2 -GVV1V2 skiii → skiiigiii
V Trigraph T2/3 (s)(C)VV1V2 -V1V2 kaio → kaioio, luai → luaiai
C(s)*** VC VGVC ak → agak, aios → aiosaios
VCC1 VCVCC1 ask → asask, aurn → auraurn
(s)(C)VWsP (s)(C)VWPVWs ansk → ankans, skaiersp → skaierpaiers
(s)CVC1(C2) (s)CVGVC1(C2) kat → kagat, stiaolk → stiaodiaolk

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

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 kü no
at kün 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 ki su

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

ka 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:

ko go kos 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.

mikoso 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 danska mirn inst

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

äsket 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 kän kus

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 pak 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.

pik 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.

ki 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'ekki diipüi elit nipa r'eli äbeekuns-eli

In addition to personal pronouns, the case logographs are also used with interrogatives (sonlä and lilä), demonstratives (skä, 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 -kiu has a special form in which the right-side u glyph is altered.

elikiu itkiu
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. kis. mirn. momk.

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, dark,

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 koünt-äbee

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

mikaga: 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 romanization

Although question marks and exclamation marks are not used in the original orthography, they may be used in questions and exclamations in the 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 case ü is unavailable, it can be replaced with the digraph iu, e.g. püta → piuta, tayü → tayiu, müe → miue, leüt → leiut.

The romanization can be stylized in various ways to look cooler, although this is non-standard, and would be best suited for the transcription of discrete terms. Using these conventions in running text is discouraged due to their inconsistent nature. The possible modifications are summarized below.

Standard Stylized Examples
post-C ya ye yo yu ia ie/e io iu vyad myenarn pyon myugu → viad mienarn/menarn pion miugu
post-C wa we wo wi oa/ua oe/ue uo ui twa doswe kwop eswi → toa/tua dosoe/dosue kuop esui
ay ey oy ai ei oi day leyn doys → dai lein dois
aw ew ow ao/au eo/eu ou mikaw ewsat sowt → mikao/mikau eosat/eusat sout
an en on aõ/aũ eõ/eũ oũ yan lent son → yaõ/yaũ leõt/leũt soũ
consonantal ü ẅ/ÿ müi leüt → mẅi/mÿi leẅt/leÿt
k kw c qu mika majik kwop → mica majic quop
h(y) x hinida hyewa hpi → xinida xewa xpi

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.

Class Name Examples of associations Endings
North (N) pil piw cold, dark, bad, calm, quiet, still, weak L LP Ls LN LsP
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 NP Ns NsP u
Neutral (O) püta püta human, nature s sP ü a

There are a few 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. Several indefinite pronouns which use the negative article as an enclitic retain their class, ignoring the ending of the article, e.g. kusan is O, not E.

There are several clipped compounds which retain their class despite clipping, for example kuska same person (S because it is a clipped form of kus kago).

◆ North and south

The north class (gata ki spil gata chi hpiw) is found on the value axis (rotoüt a spipa notoüt a hpipa) along with the south class. North words are low in value and associated with concepts such as bad, 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 and stillness. 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 ki serio gata chi hyeyo) is found on the opposite side of the value axis. South is related to concepts opposite of those classified as north - good, 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, and may be turbulent and easily swayed by emotions.

◆ West and east

The west class (gata ki s'abi gata chi savi) is found on the existence axis (rotoüt a s'adabois notoüt a sadavoys) 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 ki 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 ki spüta gata chi hpüta) 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 (e.g. in questionnaires). The neutral pronoun is also the pronominal equivalent of indefinite pronouns such as kusan no one/someone and mikan 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 six 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 kus person kugus people
4 abstract nouns saekuik murder saekuguik (a) murder
5 mass nouns nal water nanal (a glass of) water, (a) water
6 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. For the former group, the nouns are typically accompanied by the definite article, e.g. nid a the sun. 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). They are unmarked when referred to as a whole set, 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, 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. kus person, kugus people.

The remaining three classes are collectively referred to as inanimate nouns. Class 4 nouns comprise abstract concepts. They are unmarked when referring to them as general concepts and marked when referring to specific instances of them, e.g. saekuik murder → Neo saekuguik ari. There's been a murder., kaio love → Äb'et kaioio diibi misan usa läläb. Our love will never die.

Class 5 nouns are concrete 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 6 nouns are other inanimate nouns. They are ambiguous to number and the marked form is applied only to explicitly specify one of something. The 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 (nominative + accusative: marks subjects and direct objects), genitive (marks possessors, doubles as ablative) and dative (marks indirect objects, doubles as locative). The genitive and dative cases are also used in conjunction with certain prepositions. 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.

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 4-6) 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. semika s'olo of good thing (GEN-thing GEN-good) and nikus 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.

There are several exceptions to the above-described rules. Some animate words take the genitive prefix ni- (nidark GEN-3NM, nipa GEN-3OUM, niba GEN-3OM, nikus GEN-person). Some inanimate words take the dative prefix eli- (eligä DAT-DEM, then, elit DAT-end, forever). The words mi here and mimi there take the dative prefix e-.

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.

Because both subjects and direct objects take the direct case, some ambiguities may arise and must be resolved through context, e.g. Saesaek kus papa. (kill-REDUP-3P person 3OUM-3OUM.) can mean He killed the person., or The person killed him.

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.

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.

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.

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 kä and further modified based on noun class:

The resultant forms are as follows:

Post-front Post-back Post-C
NSWO ko ko ki chi a a
E ko ko kän 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. 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:

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 Case and number

Nouns inflect for case, with the prefixes chosen based on the noun's animacy (see 4.3 Case). They inflect for number, which is also based on the noun's animacy (see 4.2 Number). Polysemous nouns may have different animacy for each meaning, e.g. püta nature - class 6, manner, being like - class 1. This must be taken into account when inflecting nouns, cf. spüta (GEN-nature) and diüta (GEN-being.like).

There is a group of genitive nouns used adjectivally, which are invariable to number and case since they are already inflected, e.g. spee bright (GEN-light).

Certain groups of compounds have semi-irregular reduplicated forms. The first group includes nouns with a genitive infix, which reduplicate the final syllable of the first noun (e.g. sodiaspaü century (hundred-NOM-GEN-year) → sodiadiaspaü (hundred-NOM-REDUP-GEN-year). The second includes split compounds which undergo coda vocalization of the dependent - the reduplication ignores the vocalization, e.g. ekuit (from eku(s)t) murder → ekuguit (not *ekuiguit). For more information, see 17.3 Compounds.

There are nouns whose animacy may not be obvious. Set nouns may be animate or inanimate, but they will always belong to the either of the set classes. It can be said that the set classes take priority over the remaining classes. There are several nouns which do not refer to humans or animals, but are animate nonetheless, e.g. usa heart, soul, self, identity.

The animacy of certain nouns can change if they are modified, for instance with an adjective. For example, although the word nop parents belongs to class 2, as parents typically come in pairs, in the phrase nop momk mother, the word belongs to class 3, since mothers do not typically come in a specific number.

6.2 Class and derivation

Nouns belong to one of five NSWEO classes, which is reflected in the noun's ending. This means that compounds whose head noun determines the NSWEO are often split to preserve the ending, e.g. et end + usa self → eusat death. For more information, see 17.3 Compounds.

Except for the words ekki man, male and momk woman, female, nouns are not sex-specific. To specify the sex of a noun the aforemenetioned two words can be used attributively, e.g. an child, boy, girl → an ekki boy, an momk girl.

Nouns may be derived from other parts of speech through affixation, e.g. danska speech (from dansk *say + -a NOM), but the language features zero-derivation as well, so certain words may be both nouns and adjectives, e.g. ekki man, masculine, or both nouns and verbs, e.g. liu life, live. For more information, see 17.2 Zero derivation.

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. 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 nya nä- nya- -(ä)n -(a)n* r'än yan äb'n aün äb'n elides the second ä
1set nebi nyevi ne- nye- -bi -vi** diibi dayvi 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 kiulu chuwu ki- chi- -lu -u orlu owu äblu awvu orlu realized irregularly as owu instead of ownu
2set li li li- li- -il -iw** diil day m'il miw li composed of l- (kiulu) and -i (bis)
2pl la wa la- wa- -al -aw ral naw äb'al avaw la composed of l- (kiulu) 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. tadark, pa and paba take the irregular genitive prefix ni-.

Isolate Subject Direct object Genitive Dative
3num tark tark tar- tar- -(a)rk -(a)rk* r'ark nark äb'ark avark
3nm tadark tadark tad- tad- -dark -dark nidark nidark äbdark attark
3sum läb lav lä- la- -läb -lav orläb olav äbläb awvyav
3sm läläb lalav lälä- lala- -äläb -alav r'äläb yalav äb'äläb avyalav
3wum arä aya arä- aya- -rä -ya orrä oyya äbrä avya
3wm ari ayi ari- ayi- -ri -i** erri eyi ebri evi
3eum mion myon mi- mi- -ion -yon** r'ion yon eb'ion evyon
3em mionon myonon mion- myon- -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. Direct object () take priority over subject ().
**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 kaioio go äb'n mirn tadark. This love has hurt me. (give-REDUP-3P love-REDUP DEM DAT-1SG pain 3NM-3NUM.) - in this case kaioio, 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 pronouns. Similarly to articles and demonstratives, possessive pronouns are placed directly after the head noun, before other descriptors, e.g. skaian 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 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 the genitive pronoun, e.g. Lä gä orlu an gän mion. This child is yours. (COP-3P DEM GEN-2SG child DEM 3EUM.).

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, kuä - 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 kuä kwa means who and is derived from kus 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 nikuä nikwa whose, of whom, from whom, and the dative is äbkuä akkwa to whom.

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

The words sonlä sownya 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 koüntinst sonlä for what reason and how can be expressed as rot sorot sonlä by what way.

The word boalä vwala 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. ekki 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 jaw
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.

9.2 Proximal and distal demonstratives

Except for the words mi here and mimi there (see 9.3 Other forms - skä, 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 - skä, 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 skä hcha 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 hyelija from then and the dative l'eligä lelija till then. Finally, boagä vwaja is the demonstrative equivalent of boalä, and means this much, this many.

The word mins myens 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 hyemi and semimi hyemimi 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 mikan 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
mikan mikan nothing/something no thing (mika thing + nüi NEG.ART)
kusan kusan no one/someone no person (kus 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 mikan, kusan, 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 nikusan mirrors the irregularity of the genitive form of kus - nikus.

The meaning of some ~ can also be expressed with generic nouns, for instance mika thing (something), kus person (someone), dü place (somewhere), mis time (sometime), rot way (somehow).

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 mika bisika mika vihíka every thing and kus bisus kus 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 dayvis 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 kago and darn and their contractions

The adjectives kago same and darn other simplify when combined with certain pronouns and nouns.

Word Meaning Etymology
kuska kuska same person same person (kus person + kago same)
mikago mikago same thing same thing (mika thing + kago same)
lilägo lilago to/at the same place to same where (lilä where/whither + kago same)
sonlägo sownyago from the same place from same where (sonlä whence + kago same)
miska miska (at) the same time same time (mis time + kago same)
rotka nokka (in) the same way (by) same way (rot way + kago same)
kaka kaka (on) the same side same side (ka side + kago same)
kusda kustá other person other person (kus person + darn other)
mikarn mikarn other thing other thing (mika thing + darn other)
lilärn lilarn to/at elsewhere to other where (lilä where/whither + darn other)
sonlärn sownyarn from elsewhere from other where (sonlä whence + darn other)
misda mistá (at) another time, again, still other time (mis time + darn other)
rotda nottá another way, otherwise (by) other way (rot way + darn other)
kada kadá (on) the other side other side (ka side + darn other)

The words kuska, miska, rotka are S, and kusda, 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.

The words meaning same place and other place are compositional (dü kago 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, cf. ugu olo r'ekki the man's good house (house good GEN-man) and ugu r'ekki r'olo the good man's house (house GEN-man GEN-good). Adjectives cannot be used attributively with pronouns.

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 kus person or mika thing, or by using the demonstrative, e.g. gä bilp the weak, one who is weak, those who are weak.

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.

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. 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, mik-oso. Preceding semivowels are included provided they stem from orthographic vowels, e.g. l-iu, ka-ian, but nal-ul.

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 reduplicated and then have their endings changed, e.g. ekki + müi → ekkigi müimüi → ekkigi müimigi ecchiji müimiji distant 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. ka boa ka vwa many sides → lika liboa liká livwá, not *lika liboarika lika livwayíka. Moreover, pairs of agreeing nouns and adjectives have fixed stress when case prefixes are applied, e.g. ka bisa ka visá every side → lika libisa liká livisá.

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. olo good → rot olo well. 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.

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 olo nüi not well.

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 mika thing).

The adverb roba nova very (from rot way + boa many), and the indefinite pronouns retbis yeppis in all ways, completely and rotan notan not at all can be used both attributively and predicatively.

11.6 Comparison of 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, cf. olo äb'n better than me and olo bans nä good to me.

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.

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.

The adjectives boa vwa many and tiü chiü 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.

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 mika thing) to the adjectival form, unless the adjectival form already has an O ending. 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 ays iis ays iisiis aysays iisiis aysays
2 sab sav saba sava sasab sasav sasaba sasava
3 pik pik pika pika pibik pivik pibika pivika
4 min myen mina mina mimin mimyen mimina mimina
5 gür jür güra jüna gügür jüjür gügüra jüjüna
6 poi poy poia poya poiboi poyvoy poiboia poyvoya
7 sel hyew sela hyewa sesel hyehyew sesela hyehyewa
8 tu tu tua twa tudu tudu tudua tudwa
9 asä ahya asäa ahye asäsä ahyahya asäsäa ahyahye
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 the word üü twenty.

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.

Though the language employs the decimal system, double-digit numbers are formed de facto in base 20. Thus, for instance, 72 is e pika diüü, sasab lit. three twenties and twelve.

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 lit. one hundred, but 101 is e sodi, iis lit. hundred and one. In the former case, iis does not take case marking when the number is inflected, for example the genitive of kus ü iis ten people is nikus r'ü iis, not nikus r'ü r'iis.

Number(s) Strategy Example(s)
0 NEG.LOC.COP/emptiness nür nür (NEG.LOC.COP) / solt sowt (emptiness) 0
1-9 separate number iis ays 1, sab sav 2
10 1 10 ü iis ü ays 10 (10 1)
11-20 REDUP of x-10 iisiis aysays 11 (1-REDUP), üü aü 20 (10-REDUP)
40/60/80 2/3/4 of 20 saba diüü sava jaü 40 (2-NOM GEN-20), pika diüü pika jaü 60 (3-NOM GEN-20)
21-99 20/40/60/80 and (1-19) el üü, lü ew aü, lü 30 (and 20, 10), e saba diüü, tudu e sava jaü, tudu 58 (and 2-NOM GEN-20, 8-REDUP)
100 1 100 sodi iis soji ays 100 (100 1)
101-199 100 and (1-99) e sodi, e saba diüü, iis e soji, e sava jaü, ays 141 (and 100, and 2-NOM GEN-20, 1)
200/300... 2/3... of 100 poia diisodia poya daysoja 600 (6-NOM GEN-100-NOM)
201-999 200/300... and (1-99) e poia diisodia, e pika diüü, gügür e poya daysoja, e pika jaü, jüjür 675 (and 6-NOM GEN-100-NOM, and 3-NOM GEN-20, 5-REDUP)
1000 1 1000 bot iis vot ays 1000 (1000 1)
2000/3000... 2/3... of 1000 saba diibota sava dayvota 2000 (2-NOM GEN-100-NOM)
1001-9999 1000/2000... and (1-999) e poia diibota, saba diisodia e poya dayvota, sava daysoja 6200 (and 6-NOM GEN-1000-NOM, 2-NOM GEN-100-NOM)

Numbers larger than 9999 are not used.

Nominal forms of numbers larger than 20 are formed by nominalizing the one's digit if it is used, e.g. e saba diüü, sab → e saba diüü, saba 42. The only exceptions are powers of 10, in which the first word is nominalized, e.g. sodi iis → sodia iis 100.

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

12.2 Ordinal numbers

Ordinals are formed by attaching the definite article directly after the adjectival form of the number, for instance pik a third (3 DEF.ART), e saba diüü, sab a forty-second (and 2-NOM GEN-20, 2 DEF.ART). 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 for instance twenty-first is el üü, iis a, not *el üü, s'inst.

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.

The interrogative skä which can be used with the definite article to form skä ko which (in order). The ordinals can be used adverbially as well, for instance rot s'inst firstly, rot pik a 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 rot.

Multiples are expressed with the noun püt(a) nature, manner used as a prefix. 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 ivaynst Monday inst start + bae week
nidresin nijehyen Tuesday nid sun + resin early
iismadik aysmajik Wednesday iis unit + madik work
nidingaä nijengo Thursday nid sun + ingaä late
poinpiugu poympyugu Friday poinp before + miugu Friday
miugu myugu Saturday mis time + ugu house
ebaet evayt Sunday et end + bae week

Names of months make use of generic nominalizing prefixes:

Word Meaning Etymology
askoütsiondu askoühchondu January as- NOM + koütsiondu hope
astäl ahchaw February as- NOM + täl lie
iekuit yekwit March i- NOM + ekuit murder
iliu ilu April i- NOM + liu life
ibamt ivant May i- NOM + bamt flower
ibee ivi June i- NOM + bee light
ieusat yewsat July i- NOM + eusat death
koünsket koünhchet August koün- NOM + sket death, rotting
imirn imirn September i- NOM + mirn pain
askaio askayo October as- NOM + kaio love
irak inak November i- NOM + rak fall
koünsolt koünsowt December koün- 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. Dates make use of ordinal numbers and the genitive case.

The words for hours and minutes are is is and muao mwaw, 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 beeresin viyehyen morning or soresiilt soyesayt evening are used. For 12AM and 12PM, the words lioüsolt loüsowt 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/ew is used elsewhere. The coda consonant in either of the forms is appended if the following word is vowel-initial.

This conjunction is only used to link nouns and adjectives, not verbs, as in I came home and ate dinner.; this must be expressed using words like eligä then. 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.

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.

Although this conjunction is 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.

The word ägä can also be used to mean only, just, simply.

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.

◆ kagoeli - also

The conjunction kagoeli kagweli is used with the dative case and stems from the combination of kago agree and the dative marker eli. Its usage is similar to that of ägä when used to mean only. Placed before nouns, kagoeli 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 kagoeli 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, kagoeli 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 payyeli 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 kagoeli.

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 paskon 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.

◆ nelli - to

The preposition nelli nyelli 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.

◆ 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 subordinate expressions, 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. Any other arguments of a verb are treated the same way as in regular clauses.

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 sosun soson 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 - over

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

13.4 Usage of püta

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 (to be) like/as. In this case it is treated as a class 1 noun (GEN diüta jiüta DAT m'üta müta) and the initial p is elided unless the preceding word is vowel-final.

It can be used with the copula (läl üta GEN-x to be like something), with the particle rot ((peom) rot diüta GEN-x (to do) like/as x), or as part of an attributive clause (y diüta GEN-x y like an x). The following noun is in the genitive case, since the construction literally means (having) the nature of x.

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 lipoymp 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 woynaw 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 kario l'ugu kayo ugu kario 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 kapil l'ugu kapiw ugu kapil 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 linoyr 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 livyado sugu äbee while + li DAT + bädo fill-GER + GEN
inside/among imbis s'ugu envis sugu im DAT + bis world + GEN
outside liponka s'ugu liponka sugu li DAT + ponka 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 limwaw sugu äbee while + li DAT + muao kiss-GER + GEN
between* immiko s'ugu immiko sugu im DAT + miko thighs + GEN
kamon kaabi l'ugu kamon kovi ugu kamon on the left + kaabi on the right + DAT
to the left/east of kamon l'ugu kamon ugu kamon on the left + DAT
to the right/west of kaabi l'ugu kovi ugu kaabi on the right + DAT
opposite to kada l'ugu kadá ugu kada on the other side + DAT

*The conjunction ä(b)/e(l) can be used when multiple complements are involved, e.g. immiko s'el ugu, leüt / kamon kaabi l'el ugu, leüt / kamon l'ugu kaabi 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 ka side, because these words are both adverbs and nouns, the genitive case can be applied to them as well, e.g. kamon l'ugu → milm skamon 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 tark. 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 (skä) follows.

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

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)kiu are always stressed on the penult. The ending -kiu 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. 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 -kiu -A* kuso kuso offer → kusos kusos, kusekiu kuhyéchu, kusoo kusu
High V -n -kiu -A* eli eli see → elin elen, elikiu elíchu, elii eway
T -s-P -kiu -A et et end → est est, itkiu icchu, iti ichi
s -n-s -k -A does dwes feel → doens dwens, doesk dwesk, düüsü daühü
N -s -k -A son son carry → sons sons, sonk sonk, sonu sonu
L -n -k - piir payr differ → piirn payrn, piirk payrk, piir payr
(W)CC1 -än** -akiu*** C1-A-(W)C inst enst begin → instän enhchan, instakiu enstáchu, ituns itons

*- in case of an illegal cluster, e.g. bae vay change → bae vay
**-W-s-P for WP, e.g. kart kart lose → karst karst
***-k for Ws, e.g. badans vadans overdo → badansk vadansk

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 irregular verbs. Two of them are verbs of movement (pag go and näl come), another is the verb es put. The other four are 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, dansk *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. In case of es, the gerund ending -ü triggers umlaut in the preceding vowel, but the ending itself is elided (es + -ü → üsü → üs).

Although in the case of other 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 pask pask pal paw pa pa pao paw
Come näl nyaw näln nyawn nälk nyawk nä nya näl nyaw
Put es es ens ens el ew e e üs üs
*Do ba va bans vans bal vaw ba va bü vü
*Take nors nurs norn nurn norsk nursk nir nir sar sar
*Give räbee yavi räb'n yaün rebkiu yecchu räb yav re ye
*Say dansk dansk dan dan dal daw da da kuns kons

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 verb es originate from a proto-method of forming the perfect tense with a genitive prefix (or- + es → ores → eors); however, the infinitive and gerund forms drop the r 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). The verb räbee uses its gerund re as the base for its reduplicated forms.

Infinitive 1p 2p 3p Gerund
Go üit üit üint üent üik üik üi üi i i
Come nänäl nyanyaw nänäln nyanyawn nänälk nyanyawk nänä nyanya nänäl nyanyaw
Put eos yos eorn yurn eork yurk eor yur üüs aüs
*Do baba vava babans vavans babal vavaw baba vava bäbü vyavü
*Take ninors ninurs ninorn ninurn ninorsk ninursk ninir ninir nosar nosar
*Give re ye ren yen rel yew re ye ree i
*Say dankans dankans dankan dankan dankal dankaw danka danka kasun kason

Compound verbs which make use of irregular verbs generally follow irregular conjugations as well, e.g. daäbeensk talk (dansk + räbee) conjugates as follows: 1P daäbeen, 2P daäbeel, 3P daäbee, GER äbeekuns, REDUP daäbeenkans, REDUP-1P daäbeenkan, REDUP-2P daäbeenkal, REDUP-3P daäbeenka, REDUP-GER äbeekasun. The verb no find, whose origin is the irregular nors is also irregular: 1P non, 2P nosk, 3P ni, GER sao, REDUP nino, REDUP-1P ninon, REDUP-2P ninosk, REDUP-3P nini, REDUP-GER nosao. There are compounds using irregular verbs which conjugate regularly, e.g. pagpe walk (pag + pe foot), or räbtüee pay (räbee + tarü money).

Some otherwise regular verbs use suppletion to create reduplicated forms, typically by incorporating defunct verbs, e.g. bae change, become → gou *turn, rotate → changed, became.

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 mikaäbbaba task (lit. thing one must do). Its original meaning is covered by the word peom do, make, create. The verb ba 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. Orräkkiu kiulu, äbbans nä. If you don't fall, I will. (GEN-fall-2P 2SG, DAT-do-1P 1SG.).

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 or as verbalizers, particularly for transitive-intransitive (active-passive) pairs, e.g. räbee kaio love (lit. give love) and nors kaio be loved (lit. take love). The original meaning of räbee is covered by the verb kuso give, offer, prepare, while nors is typically substituted for padal receive, accept, dont hold, take, get, have, or dii choose, take.

The verb dansk is generally only used idiomatically and in compounds, e.g. dansk täl lie (lit. say a lie), danska word, speech, language (dansk + -a NOM). The verb can also be used to mean say, but only if the phrase involves a direct object. In reported speech, the phrase läl üta (läl be + üta like) is used. For details on reported speech, see 18.5 Reported speech.

14.3 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.).

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 law lälä lala
lebi levi
lis lis		 liu lu
lil liw
lal waw		 lä la läl law
Loc.cop seons hyons seon hyon
äbi avi
sis his		 seosk hyosk
sil hiw
sal saw		 ar ar sun son
Neg.loc.cop nür nür nüä nüa
nübi nüvi
nüis nüis		 nürk nürk
nüil nüiw
nüal nüaw		 nü nü nür nür

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-. 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		 ark ark
äril ayiw
aral anaw		 ar ar ar ar
Loc.cop neons nyons neon nyon
niebi nyevi
nis nis		 neosk nyosk
nil niw
nal naw		 neo nyo sun son
Neg.loc.cop nünür nünür nünüä nünüa
nünübi nünüvi
nünüis nünüis		 nünürk nünürk
nünüil nünüiw
nünüal nünüaw		 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. rütnü without (lit. by lacking).

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 lälugu live (läl *stay + ugu house). 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 GEN-x 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. 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

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 misk 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 enakago 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 tense 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 and 14.3 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 (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 (enakago enakago), obligation (nier nyur) and need (tols tows). 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.

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 include:

If a sentence contains only non-indefinite 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. kus 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 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.

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 kiulu, it is omitted.

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 auxiliary räbee and preceded 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 niko make happy, heal (lit. give joy) and nors niko be healthy, happy (lit. take joy). Such verbs cannot be further passivized, but can be used in causative constructions, e.g. räbee re skaio make/let love (lit. give giving of love) and in passive causative constructions, e.g. nors re skaio 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. 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) -C (does) -CC(C) (dont)
dans far overdo badans doesdans dontans
müi near underdo bamüi doesmüi dontüi
pamko easy easy to do bamko doesamko dontamko
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 pamko/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) -C (does) -CC(C) (dont)
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) -C (does) -CC(C) (dont)
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
kart lose fail at doing/do wrong bakart 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.

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

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

16.6 Verbal suffixes

Verbs can be 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) -C (es)
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
rak fall from above barak judge esak 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 have regular conjugations. However, the reduplicated form is 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. kol kow rest, sleep, pag pag go, daäbeensk dovyensk talk. Transitive verbs have a direct object, e.g. dii day 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 vay change, et et end. Compare Et madik parä. He finishes work., and Et madik 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. bäloü vyaloü 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 mikan rütnü mika law mikan ünü mika, lit. be nothing without something is used. It is negated with the phrase läl mikan äbee limika law mikan avi limika, lit. be nothing with something, regardless of the definiteness of the patient. These phrases can be used with both nouns and gerunds (läl mikan rütnü peomu semika, 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 mikan rütnü peomu bans kus semika, lit. be nothing without doing of something by someone).

The meaning of the verb like can be conveyed by the phrase lä bis mika äbkus la vis mika akkus, 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 mikan mika äbkus la mikan mika akkus, lit. something is nothing to someone. The alternative is to use the phrase ar kaian limika äbkus ar kayan limika akkus, 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 (kaian fondness). As with want, these phrases can be used both with nouns and gerunds.

The phrase dont peomu semika äbkus pipa dont pyomu hyemika akkus 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 dwesoys, 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 vay 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 semika).

17 Word formation


17.1 General remarks

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.

Although in general, base forms of words are used in compounds, conjugated forms can occur as well. Here, too, there is a preference for older conjugations. For instance, the conjunction ägä originates from the phrase *läläl gä it may be, which makes use of the old potential tense formed via reduplication. The word mikaäbbaba task is derived from mika 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 verbs räbee (re) and pag (pao), 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.

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.

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 gatasolt night rain, lit. nightly rain), or part of a compound (nalmirn tear, lit. sadness-water).

17.2 Zero derivation

Because there are no endings specific to different parts of speech, words can be freely zero derived. This is not a very common strategy, but is most prevalent between nouns and verbs, e.g. et end (v) → et end (n), liu give birth → liu life. In some cases, gerunds are used to nominalize verbs, e.g. miku sing → mikuu song, music. In such cases, the infinitive is preferred when forming compounds, even if the compositional meaning is closer to that of the noun, e.g. miku sing + gägäe cicada → mikugägäe summer, lit. song of cicadas.

Zero derivation can also occur between nouns and adjectives, e.g. ekki man → ekki male, masculine, as well as nouns and adverbs, e.g. kada other side → kada on the other side. 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. liubamt blossom (E) (liu bear (E) + bamt flower (E)), or in compounds whose class is determined by the final constituent. The latter case is common in adjective-final compounds, e.g. enakago permission (S) (ena power (O) + kago agree (S)), as well as in class-neutralized compounds, e.g. kitibemsa length (O) (kiti short (W) + bems long (E) + -a NOM (O)).

There are several strategies applicable to all compounds, when regular concatenation creates illegal clusters or vowel sequences. The first is elision, e.g. koütsiondu hope (koünt think + siondu wish). The other is epenthesis. Consonant clusters can be broken up with the neutral vowel a, e.g. sanskaleia literature (sansk write + -a- + lei read + -a NOM). Illegal vowel sequences can be broken up with l before back vowels and r before front vowels, e.g. baeret finish changing (bae change + -r- + et end).

A regular process occurring in compounds is the monophthongization of dipgraphs au and äi to o and e, respectively, whenever they occur at morpheme boundaries, e.g. mika thing + uso true → mikauso → mikoso truth, rättä learn + -is a time → rättäis → rättes relearn.

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. eusat death (W) (et end (W) + usa self (O)). This process is rarely straightforward and often produces issues. Because of this, there is a specific procedure to follow when creating such compounds.

Compounds can be formed with derivational affixes, which will be introduced in the following sections. The other method is to combine root words. There are several types of such compounds, summarized in the table below.

Pattern Examples
Word + synonym (reinforcing) milk small + kiti short → milki cute
nors take + dont get → nodont acquisition
Word + antonym (complementary) kiti short + bems long + -a NOM → kitibemsa length
sansk write + lei read + -a NOM → sanskaleia literature
Noun + adjective (attributive) bee light + ingaä late → beengaä afternoon
mika thing + uso true → mikoso 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 + koünt think → enakoünt 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
saek kill + kus person → saekuik murder
Verb + verb (compositional) dansk say + räbee give → daäbeensk 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 mika 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.

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 are the most common augmentative suffixes:

Etymology Form V-final (mika thing) C-final (bamt flower)
do big -(d)o mikado bamto
säg dick -(ä)g mikag bamtäg
nantee strong -(t)ee mikatee bamtee

The following are the most common 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 (mika thing) C-final (bamt flower)
an child -(a)n mikan bamtan
iuska hole -(u)ska mikuska bamtuska
kiti short -(i)ti mikäti bämtiti
milk small -(m)il mikämil bämtil
resin young -(s)in mikäsin bämtin
muao kiss -(m)ao mikamao 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. mikanuska (thing-DIM-DIM).

Apart from their usual function, augmentatives and diminutives can be used to form new vocabulary, e.g. düdo city (place-AUG), kagon similar (same-DIM). In some cases, this can change the part of speech of the word, e.g. lei read → lein book.

Augmentatives and diminutives can be used with adjectives to convey excessiveness or insufficiency (see 11.5 Adverbs of degree). Diminutives are also used with numerals to produce fractions (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 affixes 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
mika thing -a, a- danska language (say-NOM), asoir food (NOM-eat) general affix, commonly used in neutralizing
bois image -(b)ois, boi(s)- adabois existence (exist-NOM), beiliübin warmth (NOM-warm) used for abstract concepts
dast shape as- äsgir fight (NOM-fight), askaio October (NOM-love) typical for words starting with plosives
koünt think koün- koünsolt December (NOM-darkness), koünuloo 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
dü place ü- ümar store (NOM-buy), üseons dwelling (NOM-live) used for place-related words
ugu house gu- gukol bedroom (NOM-sleep), gusoir kitchen (NOM-eat) used for place-related words
es spot es- esmadik workplace (NOM-work), espiir difference (NOM-differ) used for place-related words
bis all bi(s)- biskir army (NOM-fight), bisugu neighborhood (NOM-house) collective prefix
pandu rise pan- pannalmu cheese (NOM-milk), panleüt wood (NOM-tree) resultative, derivative prefix
kus person (u)s- skaian friend (NOM-friendship), ussaek killer (NOM-kill) used for agents, usually people
ba do ba- bamiku singer (NOM-sing), bators fridge (NOM-cold) used for agents, not necessarily people
rot way rot- rotüitpons shovel (NOM-dig), rotgaem paintbrush (NOM-paint) used for tools
dont hold don(t)- donkiio mailbox (NOM-send), donmals bathtub (NOM-wash) used for containers
püta nature püt(a)- pütaräbee charity (NOM-give), pütingaä antiquity (NOM-old) generic nominalizer (-ness)

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. mikuu (sing-GER) can mean both singing and song, music.

17.6 Adjectivizing and adverbializing

Many nominalizing prefixes can act as adjectivizers as well, since nouns and adjectives function very similarly. Apart from that, the prefix gat(a)- (from gata type) is commonly used to form adjectives, e.g. gatasolt nightly (ADJ-night).

Another quasi-adjectivizing strategy is to use 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).

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, cf. nalei legible and peolei literate. These are alternatives to the longer attributive clauses s'äbsun lisar sonlei able to be read (legible) (GEN-DAT-LOC.COP-GER DAT-take-GER GEN-read-GER) and s'äbsun lilei able to read (literate) (GEN-DAT-LOC.COP-GER DAT-read-GER).

Using the forms spee full and sosolt empty followed by the genitive case, the meaning of -ful and -less can be conveyed, e.g. spee spipa valuable, meaningful (GEN-light GEN-meaning), sosolt spipa worthless, meaningless (GEN-darkness GEN-meaning).

Adverbs can be derived from adjectives by using the preposition rot with no case agreement, e.g. olo good → rot olo well. 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 limikabamt 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

The three most common auxiliary verbs used to form verbs from other parts of speech are ba do, nors take, and räbee give. The verb ba is the generic verbalizer and can be used to create verbs from nouns and adjectives, e.g. ba mata sound (do sound), ba paim act nice (do nice).

The verbs nors take and räbee give are typically used to form transitive-intransitive (active-passive) pairs, e.g. räbee kaio love (give love) and nors kaio be loved (take love).

The verb so give out, emit can be used as a verbalizing prefix, e.g. sobee shine, gleam (emit light). 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, e.g. suebems lengthen (something), get longer (move-long).

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, e.g. dosue move → dosuepil remain, paim sweet, nice → paimabi bitter, rude.

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 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 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. saek + -i → säiki) or a trigraph (e.g. muao + -ti → miäeti). In the case of type 3 trigraphs, only the final vowel is affected, e.g. kaio + -sin → kaiesin. 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.

Some type 1/2 trigraphs may result in illegal vowel sequences. In such cases, semivocalic o shifts to i instead of e, e.g. seäo + -mil → sieimil, not *sieemil.

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 put-GER.

Umlaut applies in the following cases:

Umlaut does not apply in the following cases:

17.10 Irregularities in compounds

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

Word Genitive
kuska same person nikuska
kuä who nikuä
kors recepient nikors
skaian friend niskaian
ussaek murderer niussaek

Although compounds are reduplicated regularly regardless of their composition, the words kusda other person and kuska same person are reduplicated as kugusda and kuguska, respectively. This is due to the fact that these are abbreviated adjectival phrases which are conventionally spelled as single words.

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 kus. 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 pask go-1P
s- GEN + gata type skata GEN-type
s- person + dore win store winner

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.

In various constructions, subordinate alignment is applied. This strategy is used whenever a phrase begins with a gerund instead of a finite verb. Role marking in such constructions is as follows:

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

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. Examples of differences between regular and subordinate alignment are presented below. 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).

There are, however, certain constructions which facilitate the usage of multiple clauses per sentence. One of them is the conditional tense, which, unless accompanied by another clause, is used to convey imperatives. 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. A generic connecting word between phrases, with the meaning of and, then is the word eligä.

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 (kus skol). 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 normally. Head nouns of attributive clauses are typically 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.

Because such clauses require a preposition or case marking when an intransitive verb is used, 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.

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.

Attributive clauses whose subjects are possessed by the head noun are not marked specifically for possession, as that can be generally understood from context. Thus, a phrase like a man whose wife died is expressed as a man that a wife died.

Attributive clauses are also used where English would use subordinate clauses with interrogatives. Instead, generic nouns like mika thing, kus person, dü place and mis time are used as heads of attributive clauses. In this context, applying the definite article to the noun is less common, but possible.

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 such a construction is used with yes/no questions, instead of an interrogative, the word minspiira myenspayna 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 myens yes and piir payr 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 conveyed with 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 the following direct object of the verb, if one exists. The word dansk used to be used to mean say in the proto-system, but is now defunct and only preserved in fossilized phrases like dansk täl lie (lit. say lies).

The phrase läl üta can also be followed by an entire sentence to mean to say that. In this case, genitive marking is not applied. 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 pronoun "I" is used for the subject. Reported speech does not affect tenses, unlike in English.

The alternative solution is to first state the quote, follow it by a comma, and use the phrase läl üta skä to be like that. This strategy is also applied when using other verbs in this context, such as koünt mins lit. to think thus = to think that, elli mins to know that, does mins to feel that.

19 Pragmatics


19.1 Uses of the language

Because this is a personal language that I do not expect anyone else to learn in any capacity, its primary use would be monologues. 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 worldview. 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 can be used for forms such as monologues, diary notes, poems, songs. Using it for fictional stories could pose issues due to its limitations, as it would be difficult to name characters since the language does not use proper nouns, but it is not impossible.

Because the language is supposed to have a pleasant sound, spoken form is encouraged, particularly in artistic contexts.

19.2 Politeness, register, greetings

There is no distinction made between formal, informal, polite or casual language. Everyone is addressed the same way. Third person pronoun use to refer to people is dictated by the speaker's judgment, not the referent's identity. This stems from my belief that a person is only worth as much as others value them. I do not believe that identity comes from within, but is a reflection of other people's perspectives on a given person. Because I fully depend on others to find meaning in anything I do, any meaning I find with regard to my own sense of self must be validated by those people.

There are no common greetings, everyday expressions used to show gratitude, apologize or show politeness. Such language use is seen as unnecessary and a mere formality void of meaning. One should not, however, shy away from complimenting others' appearance, so a greeting such as sami milkami nice ass would be perfectly acceptable. The nature of the language encourages flirtatious behavior and viewing interlocutors as objects of sexual desire. It is a language for hot people.

19.3 Personal influences on the lexicon

◆ Religion

I am not religious. I do not believe in any deities, the afterlife, or any form of the supernatural. As such, the language features no vocabulary for concepts such as god, heaven, or spirit.

◆ Death

The language distinguishes between two types of death. One is the physical, visceral, expressed by words such as saek sayk kill, destroy, sket hchet die, rot, death, and saekuik saykwik murder. The other is a form of death which can occur while the person is physically alive. Due to severe mental damage, usually because of a traumatic, lifechanging event, a person can change and never be the same. Their old self dies and only their physical form remains, powered by mere instincts rather than a living human being. This kind of death is related to words such as et et end, kill, et usa et usa die, kill oneself, eusat ewsat death, and ekuit ekwit murder.

◆ Love

There are three types of love in the language. The word dango dango represents familial love, as well as trust. I believe family members are the only people who can truly be trusted. The word kaio kayo represents romantic love, as well as bisexuality. There is a term encompassing both homosexuality and heterosexuality - kaiosaban kayosavan - literally half-love, because either sexuality reduces the number of potential romanitc partners by half. The third type of love is platonic, also expressing friendship. It is represented with the word kaian kayan - a diminutive of kaio.

◆ Morality

Morality is a cultural psy-op designed to control people and prevent them from doing what they truly want. Any concepts related to moral value or judgment are absent. The words olo good and ognol bad convey the sense of high/low in value or pleasure, not virtuous and evil. Concepts such as virtue, integrity, and perversion have no place in the language.

◆ Health and happiness

Because of my history of psychosomatic symptoms, I have learned that the body and the mind are intertwined and the well-being of one hinges upon the well-being of the other, particularly in individuals such as myself. Oftentimes, I struggle to differentiate between ailments of the body and those of the mind. As such, the positive side of this spectrum is expressed using a single word niko niko which encompasses concepts such as good health, happiness, inner peace, and pleasure, while the negative is expressed with mirn mirn, encompassing illness, sadness, anxiety, and pain.

◆ Kinship terms

In many languages, kinship terms are very complex. Here, they are greatly simplified. All kinship terms are gender-neutral, but the adjectives ekki ecchi male and momk monk female can be used to specify gender, e.g. müe müe sibling → müe ekki müe ecchi brother, müe momk müe monk sister.

Only closest family members have their unique terms, including müe müe sibling, nop nop parents, an an child, nopingaä nopyengo grandparents, anresin anyehyen grandchild. Any other family members are derived from the word for the close family member of the same generation and the word saban half, thus sabanmüe savammüe is used for any family members of the same generation as the speaker other than their immediate siblings, such as cousins, step-siblings, siblings-in-law, etc. The word nosabaip nosavayp is used for family members one generation older than the speaker, and so on.

Some words for family members are class two nouns. For instance, nop by default refers to both parents, and is reduplicated when referring to only one of them. The term nopingaä refers to grandparents, and is unmarked when either referring to one pair of grandparents, or all four.

◆ Directions

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. Relative directions (right, left, up, down) are not differentiated from cardinal ones. The word rio yo means both south and up, and the same is true for the other three.

◆ Colors

There are no specific adjectives for colors. Instead, the word noba nova color is used, followed by a genitive noun, e.g. noba sonal blue (color of water), noba spüta green (color of nautre). These nouns are not set, and the speaker is free to use any object as a color reference.

Appendix 1: SDOAUX

Columns - S
Rows - DO		 1sg 1set 1pl 2sg 2set 2pl 3num 3nm 3sum 3sm 3wum 3wm 3eum 3em 3oum 3om
NÄ-
NYA-		 NE-
NYE-		 SI-
HI-		 KI-
CHI-		 LI-
LI-		 LA-
WA-		 TAR-
TAR-		 TAD-
TAD-		 LÄ-
LA-		 LÄLÄ-
LALA-		 ARÄ-
AYA-		 ARI-
AYI-		 MI-
MI-		 MION-
MYON-		 PA-
PA-		 PAB-
PAV-
1sg -(Ä)N
-(A)N		 --------
--------		 nen
nyen		 sin
hyen		 kin
chen		 lin
len		 lan
wan		 tarn
tarn		 tadän
tajan		 län
lan		 lälän
lalan		 arän
ayan		 arin
ayen		 min
myen		 mionän
myonyan		 pan
pan		 pabän
pavyan
1set ü-BI
ü-VI		 nebi
nyeví		 --------
--------		 spi
hpi**		 kibi
chiví		 libi
liví		 läbi
laví		 tärbi
chayví		 tädbi
chappí		 lebi
leví		 lälebi
laleví		 arebi
ayeví		 aribi
ayiví		 mibi
miví		 mienbi
myenví		 päbi
pyaví		 päbbi
pyappí
1pl ü-(I)S
ü-(I)S		 näs
nyas		 nes
nyes		 --------
--------		 kis
chis		 lis
lis		 las
was		 tars
tars		 tädis
chajis		 läs
las		 läläs
lalas		 aräs
ayas		 aris
ayis		 mis
mis		 mions
myons		 pas
pas		 päbis
pyavis
2sg -LU
-U		 nälu
nyawú		 nelu
nyewú		 silu
hiwú		 --------
--------		 lilu
liwú		 lalu
wawú		 tarlu
tawnú		 tadlu
tawdú		 lälu
lawú		 lälälu
lalawú		 arälu
ayawú		 arilu
ayiwú		 milu
miwú		 mionlu
myownú		 palu
pawú		 pablu
pawvú
2set ü-IL
ü-IW		 näil
nyay		 neil
nyey		 siil
say		 kiil
kay		 --------
--------		 lail
way		 täril
chayiw		 tädil
chajiw		 läil
lay		 läläil
lalay		 aräil
ayay		 ariil
anay		 miil
may		 mienil
myeniw		 pail
pay		 päbil
pyaviw
2pl -AL
-AW		 näal
nyew		 neal
nyaw		 sial
hyaw		 kial
chaw		 lial
law		 --------
--------		 taral
tanaw		 tadal
tadaw		 läal
lew		 läläal
lalew		 aräal
ayew		 arial
ayaw		 mial
myaw		 mional
myonaw		 paal
pow		 pabal
pavaw
3num -(A)RK
-(A)RK		 närk
nyark		 nerk
nyurk		 sirk
hirk		 kirk
chirk		 lirk
lirk		 lark
wark		 tarark
tanark		 tadark
tadark		 lärk
lark		 lälärk
lalark		 arärk
ayark		 arirk
ayirk		 mirk
mirk		 mionark
myonark		 park
park		 pabark
pavark
3nm -DARK
-DARK		 nädark
nidark*		 nedark
nyedark		 stark
stark**		 kidark
chidark		 lidark
lidark		 ladark
wadark		 tardark
tardark		 taddark
tattark		 lädark
ladark		 lälädark
laladark		 arädark
ayadark		 aridark
ayidark		 midark
midark		 miondark
myondark		 padark
padark		 pabdark
pattark
3sum -LÄB
-LAV		 näläb
nilav*		 neläb
nyelav		 siläb
hilav		 kiläb
chilav		 liläb
lilav		 laläb
walav		 tarläb
talav		 tadläb
tawjav		 läläb
lalav		 läläläb
lalalav		 aräläb
ayalav		 ariläb
ayilav		 miläb
milav		 mionläb
myownyav		 paläb
palav		 pabläb
pawvyav
3sm -ÄLÄB
-ALAV		 nääläb
nyelav		 neäläb
nyalav		 siäläb
hyalav		 kiäläb
chalav		 liäläb
lalav		 laäläb
wolav		 taräläb
tayalav		 tadäläb
tajalav		 lääläb
lelav		 lälääläb
lalelav		 arääläb
ayelav		 ariäläb
ayalav		 miäläb
myalav		 mionäläb
myonyalav		 paäläb
polav		 pabäläb
pavyalav
3wum -RÄ
-YA		 närä
niyá*		 nerä
nyeyá		 sirä
hiyá		 kirä
chiyá		 lirä
liyá		 larä
wayá		 tarrä
tayyá		 tadrä
tajá		 lärä
layá		 lälärä
lalayá		 arärä
ayayá		 arirä
ayiyá		 mirä
miyá		 mionrä
myonyá		 parä
payá		 pabrä
pavyá
3wm ü-RI
ü-I		 neri
nyeyí		 niri
niyí		 siri
hiyí		 kiri
chiyí		 liri
liyí		 läri
layí		 tärri
chayí		 tädri
chají		 leri
leyí		 läleri
laleyí		 areri
ayeyí		 ariri
ayiyí		 miri
miyí		 mienri
myení		 päri
pyayí		 päbri
pyaví
3eum ü-ION
ü-YON		 näion
niyon*		 neion
nyeyon		 siion
hiyon		 kiion
chiyon		 liion
liyon		 laion
wayon		 tärion
chayon		 tädion
chajon		 läion
layon		 läläion
lalayon		 aräion
ayayon		 ariion
ayiyon		 miion
miyon		 mienion
myenyon		 paion
payon		 päbion
pyavyon
3em -NON
-NON		 nänon
ninon*		 nenon
nyenon		 sinon
hinon		 kinon
chinon		 linon
linon		 lanon
wanon		 tarnon
tarnon		 tadnon
taynon		 länon
lanon		 lälänon
lalanon		 aränon
ayanon		 arinon
ayinon		 minon
minon		 mionnon
myonnon		 panon
panon		 pabnon
paünon
3oum -PA
-PA		 näpa
nipá*		 nepa
nyepá		 spa
spa**		 kipa
chipá		 lipa
lipá		 lapa
wapá		 tarpa
tarpá		 tadpa
tappá		 läpa
lapá		 läläpa
lalapá		 aräpa
ayapá		 aripa
ayipá		 mipa
mipá		 mionpa
myompá		 papa
papá		 pabpa
pappá
3om -BA
-VA		 näba
nivá*		 neba
nyevá		 spa
spa**		 kiba
chivá		 liba
livá		 laba
wavá		 tarba
tarvá		 tadba
tappá		 läba
lavá		 läläba
lalavá		 aräba
ayavá		 ariba
ayivá		 miba
mivá		 mionba
myonvá		 paba
pavá		 pabba
pappá

*1SG nä is pronounced as ni before consonants, except for the epenthetic glide in nälu.
**2PL si is shortened to s before stops, devoicing following voiced plosives.

Appendix 2: Syllabary

- p- t- k- 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 -k -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: