Dundulanyä

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Dundulanyä
dundulanyä ḫamfafa
Pronunciation[dundulɐnjɛ ħɐmɸɐɸɐ]
Created byLili21
DateDec 2021
SettingEventoa
EthnicityDundulanyä; Neo-Dundulanyä
Native speakers1,946,000,000 (4140)
East Mandabudi (areal)
  • Dundulanyä
Early form
Pre-Dundulanyä
Standard form
Modern Standard Dundulanyä
Official status
Official language in
Confederation of the United Dundulanyä Republics
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Dundulanyä [dundulɐnjɛ], natively known as dundulanyä ḫamfafa[1] [dundulɐnjɛ ħɐmɸɐɸɐ], is the most spoken language on the planet Eventoa (Dun.: Lelḫajāṃrya). It is the official language of the Confederation of the United Dundulanyä Republics, which makes it the main lingua franca across the two southern hemisphere continents, Lusaṃrīte - where it originated - and Jūhma.

Dundulanyä itself has a long history, being first attested about 2400 years before the present in the areas of Central Lusaṃrīte, where the Dundulanyä civilization first developed; through successive empires and religious proselytism, people and language spread across many areas of the continent - most notably Dundulanyä-ifying the north shore of the Inland Seas by the end of Classical Lusaṃrītene Antiquity. As the dominant civilization of Lusaṃrīte, the Dundulanyä spread their language to become the main lingua franca of trade and culture in most of the continent and in eastern Jūhma; the massive demographical changes brought by the epidemics that were the result of increased contact with the civilizations of the northern hemisphere effectively enabled the Dundulanyä culture to spread in areas where formerly other civilizations were dominant. By the modern and contemporary eras, a more standardized version of classical Dundulanyä remained the lingua franca among multiple peoples across Lusaṃrīte and Jūhma, and the situation remained more or less the same after the collapse of the Fifth Dundulanyä Empire and through the Three Leagues Period.

Today, Dundulanyä is the official language of the Confederation of the United Dundulanyä Republics (laḫlurayäh dundulanyäɂi lileṣkorukṣarte śūsmurdibeṣarān), the multicultural political entity that is dominant throughout Lusaṃrīte and Jūhma; the standard language is a heavily standardized version of the classical language, with many of the less regular forms having fallen out of use after one millennium of being essentially a L2 for the totality of its speakers; high style language and creative usage, however, still uses forms that have fallen out of use in the everyday language. Dundulanyä, along with any of the regional languages of the Confederation, is the main language for its 1,9 billion inhabitants, a number to which should be added a substantial amount of foreign users in virtually all other countries in Lusaṃrīte and Jūhma.

Both the language and the setting are still under construction: see the External history section on this page for more.

Internal history

The relationship of Dundulanyä to other languages is poorly understood, given the limited attestations of neighboring languages contemporary to archaic Dundulanyä. It is classified as an East Mandabudi language, an areal grouping that includes Dundulanyä and some ancient - and scarcely attested - languages of that area based on some criteria that have been found, such as Austronesian-type alignment, a possessive system like the one of Dundulanyä itself, a duodecimal number system, and heavily inflected nouns, that are not found in the most thoroughly attested languages of that era, the neighboring West Mandabudi and Dailishi languages.

Phonology

Dundulanyä has a moderately large, but asymmetrical, vowel inventory with six short and four long vowels, along with two diphthongs and two consonants (short and long versions of the same one) that can fill the syllable nucleus.

Front Central Back
Close i iː u uː
Close-mid e eː o~ɔ
Open-mid ɛ
Open ɐ äː
Diphthongs aɪ̯ aʊ̯
Syllabic consonants ʀ̩ ʀ̩ː

The consonant inventory is more complex, with a pattern of “soft” and “hard” consonants traditionally recognized by classical Dundulanyä grammarians, not on a phonetic basis but starting from their relationship inside Dundulanyä morphology. In most cases, the difference is based on aspiration.

Dundulanyä has, among many points of articulations, a series of linguolabial consonants, which are common in its geographical area (in most of northern and central Lūsaṃrīte) but are otherwise extremely rare on Eventoa.

→ PoA
↓ Manner
Labials Linguolabials Dentals Retroflexes Palatals Velars Laryngeals
Soft Hard Soft Hard Soft Hard Soft Hard Soft Hard Soft Hard Soft Hard
Nasals m n ɳ ɲ ŋ1
Stops Unvoiced p 2 t̼ʰ t̪ʰ ʈ ʈʰ c͡ɕ c͡ɕʰ k ʔ
Voiced b d̼ʱ d̪ʱ ɖ3 ɖʱ3 ɟ͡ʑ ɟ͡ʑʱ ɡ~ɣ ɡʱ
Fricatives ɸ~f s ʂ ɕ ɦ ħ
Approximants ʋ ɹ̼ l j ʀ

Table notes:

  1. /ŋ/ is phonemic only in the name of the corresponding letter and, diachronically, through saṃdhi in simplifications of /N/ + velar stop clusters; such instances are, however, to be considered phonemic as the original form is only apparent either throughout the declension or in different styles, see e.g. ṣṭhīṭaṅ "yesterday", tataṅ "today" (← ṣṭhīṭaṅga, tataṅga, used in the declension of the nominal forms except for the direct singular) or māṅar "we (plural)" (← mānagar, still found in extremely formal styles or in some set phrases).
  2. The /pʰ/ phoneme is marginal; it has a separate letter in the script, but as a phoneme it is only found in the name of the letter itself, in a few words of onomatopoeic origin, and as the result of saṃdhi (from the clusters -p h- or -p ḫ-); the vast majority of contemporary speakers merge it with /ɸ~f/.
  3. /ɖ/ and /ɖʱ/ are generally represented by the stop realizations, however, in the contemporary spoken language, except when adjacent to another consonant they are most commonly realized as any of [ɽ(ʱ) ɭ(ʱ) ɻ(ʱ)] depending on the geographical origin of the speaker, realizations which are influenced by the historical development of Classical Dundulanyä /ɖ ɖʱ/ in the modern vernaculars.

With the partial exception of /ħ/, words may only end in soft consonants and/or clusters of an approximant followed by a single soft stop or fricative. In the romanization, some apparent exceptions may be seen due to saṃdhi in words followed by clitics, such as in logh va "I don't go" [lɔɡʱʋɐ].

Saṃdhi

Saṃdhi in Dundulanyä is usually internal saṃdhi only.

(to be expanded, only an unordered list for now)

  • plosive + → geminated and aspirated plosive, e.g. śud-ḫanaśuddhana "rule"; nisakh-ḫamfanisakkhamfa "conlang"; cf. the change happening with the corresponding soft consonant h, where the preceding plosive gains aspiration, but is not geminated.

Morphology

Dundulanyä is a highly inflected language with a synthetic morphology. Five parts of speech are traditionally distinguished: nouns, verbs, pronouns and correlatives, numerals, and particles.

Dundulanyä inflectional morphology is almost entirely suffixing, save for a system of apophony (ablaut) and a marginal number of inflectional prefixes, mostly in verbs. Derivational morphology, on the other hand, employs up to four different strategies: suffixes, prefixes, and to a lesser extent circumfixes and infixes, or the combination of more or them, as well as eventually ablaut on top of that.

Ablaut

Dundulanyä is characterized by a complex system of vowel alternations that was inherited from its proto-language. There are, depending on definition, either nine or twelve ablaut patterns, which Dundulanyä verbal roots may belong to, in addition to those that do not undergo ablaut. The overwhelming majority of Dundulanyä verbal roots are monosyllabic, and the few bi- or polysyllabic ones are all non-ablauting.

Nominal examples:

  • a/zero root: bhaṭuṣa (bhaṭ-uṣ-) "expansion": ABS bhaṭuṣa, ERG bhaṭuṣis, DAT abḍhoṣak, LOC abḍhoṣāb, LOC.PL abḍhauṣän
  • e/i root: dehuṣa (deh-uṣ-) "usage": ABS dehuṣa, ERG dehuṣis, DAT dihoṣak, LOC dihoṣāb, LOC.PL dihauṣän
  • a/zero root, synchronically irregular: hāṅka (haf-n-ka- < *śǝ́f-ṇ-ko-) "socket": ABS hāṅka, ERG hāṅkis, DAT iṣfaṅkak, LOC iṣfaṅkāb, LOC.PL iṣfāṅkän

A substantial part of nouns in Dundulanyä is derived from verbal roots, and these may have ablaut patterns throughout their declension as in the examples above, or the derivational suffix may require the root to be in a certain ablaut grade (which is then a fixed stem throughout the declension). However, as a general rule, the majority of nouns relating to flora, fauna, and many elements of the natural world are not formed from verbal roots and do not show ablaut.

Dundulanyä roots belong to one out of nine classes (eight ablaut classes or non-ablauting):

Class Zero grade Middle grade Higher grade
0 no ablaut
I a ā
II i
ī (CV- roots)
e ai
III u
ū (CV- roots)
o au
IV ar ār
V i ä ē
VI ya i ī
VII va u ū
VIII ra

The majority of roots belongs to either the 0 class, or to classes II to IV. Other classes are much rarer, with VI and especially IX being the least common overall. Many class I roots have a sonorant such as l, m or n (rarely other nasals), continuing formations parallel to class IV in reconstructed Pre-Dundulanyä. Class I roots may, due to their shape, be further simplified in the zero-grade; see haf-, zero-grade iṣf- "to insert, fill" or rañj-, zero-grade ṛj- "to name, identify"; some others have a short vowel in the zero-grade and a long vowel in the (identical) middle- and higher-grade forms, as with sākh- (zero-grade sakh-, higher-grade sākh-) "to prepare"[2].

Some class VI and VII roots may have consonant changes caused by saṃdhi; furthermore, there are a few irregular class II and III roots which have a long vowel in the zero grade form even if they are not of CV shape; see e.g. lobh- "to write" with the long zero grade lūbh-. Class III roots with the -vo- sequence in the middle grade (citation form) reduce it to -ū- in any case in the zero grade, as in tvorg- "to fear" with the zero grade tūrg-.

Nouns (rāñjiḫi)

The Dundulanyä noun (rañjiḫe, pl. rāñjiḫi) is highly inflected - it declines for:

  • Three numbers (smuḍai):
Singular (emibundīra smuḍa)
Dual (rirändīra smuḍa)
Plural (tailindīra smuḍa)
  • Nine cases (dirūṃrūkṣāri):
Direct (... dirūṃrūkṣah)
Vocative (ṛjadīra dirūṃrūkṣah)
Ergative
Accusative
Dative
Ablative
Locative
Essive
Instrumental

There are a few nouns which lack number; a few are singularia tantum and lack a plural (e.g. tambīya "lips"), other ones are plural only - most notably including all ethnicities, whose singular form is analytical, made by using the bound form (see below) to the word lila (person), e.g. dundulanyä lila (a Dundulanyä).

The consensus among linguists is that Dundulanyä does not have grammatical gender or noun classes; however, it should be noted that natural gender is shown on some nouns referring to humans, and furthermore there are some verbs that have a complementary distribution - most notably the existential "to be" - where one verb can only be used for inanimate subjects and another only for animate ones; in a few cases, the animate "class" is also split between humans and non-humans. None of this, however, is reflected in morphology.

Dundulanyä nouns are complex, due to the existence of multiple declension patterns. They are primarily categorized by whether they refer to nouns that undergo ablaut or not; secondarily, they are categorized by their stem type.

Ablauting declensions are all unproductive (although some of the derivational suffixes that form ablauting nouns are still productive) and include the following ones:

  • Root nouns
  • -e declension
  • -a declension
  • Zero-ending nouns with vowel suffixes (-u, -i, -ṛ).

Except for root nouns, ablauting nouns are formed by a root and a suffix, and ablaut alternates between them. Many such suffixes are derivational and productive, but some are no longer productive and limited to a small number of terms (such as -in- forming certain male kinship terms). In a few cases, the suffix may actually be an infix, such as the (non-productive) one in the word lorbhe "stele", ultimately from the root lobh- "to write" (cf. direct singular lorbhe but locative singular lūrabhob, dative plural lūrābhumi).

Non-ablauting declensions are the following ones:

  • -e declension (first consonant stem declension)
  • Zero-ending nouns with stems ending in liquids (-l or -r), nasals (-m or -n) or the glottal stop (-h) (second consonant stem declension). Nouns belonging to this declension have a prop vowel -a- in their citation form; nouns with other vowels belong to the first consonant stem declension (and end in -e in their citation form), cf. second declension glūḫam (glūḫ-(a)m-) vs. first declension kämbune "berry" (kämbun-). This is because liquids and nasals could be syllabic in Dundulanyä's ancestor language, but among them only r/ remains as a consonant/vowel pair in Dundulanyä itself.
  • Nouns with vowel-final stems.
    • The extremely common -a declension is a particular case, as it behaves in some forms like a consonant stem declension, and like a vowel stem in others. Both for ablauting and non-ablauting declensions, -a and -e declensions most likely marked some kind of noun class distinction in the proto-language, which has been lost in the evolution of what became Dundulanyä.

Bound forms

Dundulanyä nouns have a further, non-case form, which is called the bound form (avraḍūrūkṣah, pl. avraḍūrūkṣāri) by native grammarians. For nouns whose stems end in vowels, it is usually identical to the direct case; for other nouns, it is usually the endingless stem (with some exceptions). It is used when the noun is the predicate of a copular verb; when the noun is the possessor (a form syntactically reminescent of the Afroasiatic construct state); to mark the argument governed by a positional verb; and when governed by many adpositions.

In the name of the language, dundulanyä ḫamfafa, for example, dundulanyä is a bound form that however has the same form as the direct, due to the noun having a stem ending in a vowel. Some more examples of bound forms:

  • imut naviṣyaɂe "the teacher's book", imut being the bound form of imute "teacher", and naviṣya "book" being marked with the 3SG possessive ɂe.
  • nūrī dvārmaɂe "the child's room", nūrī being the bound form of nūrya "child".
  • tätebu ū līv "my home is a flat", where līv, bound form of līve "apartment", is part of a copular structure.
  • līv yudaya "3SG stands in the flat", where the positional verb yu-de- "to stand inside" requires its argument līve to be in the bound form līv.
  • tūrgib sure "without fear", where the postposition sure "without" forces the noun tūrgibe to assume its bound form tūrgib.

Declension tables

The first and second ablauting declensions have the same ablaut patterns, but slightly different endings; the first ablauting declension has the same endings as the (non-ablauting) first consonant stem declension, while the second the same endings as non-ablauting -a nouns (with the exception of locative singular and the singular and plural bound forms).

Root ablaut nouns have the same ablaut pattern as -i, -u, -ṛ nouns, but the endings are directly added to the root, triggering the appropriate saṃdhi changes.

Root nouns
śuṭ- (VIII)
"wind"
Singular Dual Plural
Direct śūṭ śuṭve śūṭi
Vocative
Ergative śūc śuṭyat śvaṭām
Accusative śūṭ śuṭṭha śvaṭaih
Dative śuk śuṭma śvaṭmi
Ablative śuṭū śucu śvaṭṇī
Locative śuṭob śuṭhe śvaṭän
Essive śuṭī śvaṭyäh
Instrumental śuṭiś śvaṭṇīka
Bound form śūṭ śuṭu śūṭī

1st ablauting declension (-e)
helk-iḫ-
"hue, shade"
Singular Dual Plural
Direct helkiḫe helkiḫive hailkiḫi
Vocative hailkiḫ
Ergative helkiḫis helkiḫīyat hilkeḫām
Accusative helkiḫat helkiḫītha hilkeḫaih
Dative hilkeḫak helkiḫīma hilkaiḫumi
Ablative hilkeḫū helkiḫeṣu hilkaiḫenī
Locative hilkeḫob helkiḫehe hilkaiḫän
Essive hilkeḫī hilkaiḫeyäh
Instrumental hilkeḫīś hilkaiḫenīka
Bound form helkiḫ helkiḫiv hailkiḫ

2nd ablauting declension (-a)
kor-uṣ-
"vote"
Singular Dual Plural
Direct koruṣa koruṣeve kauruṣai
Vocative kauruṣ
Ergative koruṣis koruṣīyat kuroṣām
Accusative koruṣat koruṣītha kuroṣaih
Dative kuroṣak koruṣāma kurauṣumi
Ablative kuroṣū koruṣeṣu kurauṣenī
Locative kuroṣāb koruṣehe kurauṣän
Essive kuroṣī kurauṣayäh
Instrumental kuroṣaiś kurauṣenīka
Bound form koruṣ koruṣev kauruṣa

Ablauting nouns ending in -i, -u, -ṛ are mainly distinguished by having different ablaut patterns from other ablauting nouns. -ṛ nouns are extremely rare, and only three such nouns figure among the general usage vocabulary: khaikṛ (II) "goose", gāṃsṛ "passage, ford" (I, with the synchronically irregular zero grade gas-), and mētṛ (V) "vessel, pot, cooking pot".

Ablauting nouns in -i
mārj-i
"needle"
Singular Dual Plural
Direct mārji marjeve mārjī
Vocative
Ergative mārjis marjeyat mṛjāyam
Accusative mārjit marjetha mṛjāyaih
Dative marjek marjema mṛjaimi
Ablative marjayū marjeṣu mṛjainī
Locative marjayob marjehe mṛjāyän
Essive marjayī mṛjājñäh1
Instrumental marjayiś mṛjainīka
Bound form mārji marjev mārjī

Ablauting nouns in -u
p̃aiṣ-u
"son"
Singular Dual Plural
Direct p̃aiṣu p̃eṣove p̃aiṣū
Vocative
Ergative p̃aiṣus p̃eṣoyat p̃iṣāvam
Accusative p̃aiṣut p̃eṣotha p̃iṣāvaih
Dative p̃eṣok p̃eṣoma p̃iṣaumi
Ablative p̃eṣavū p̃eṣoṣu p̃iṣaunī
Locative p̃eṣavob p̃eṣohe p̃iṣāvän
Essive p̃eṣavī p̃iṣauyäh
Instrumental p̃eṣaviś p̃iṣaunīka
Bound form p̃aiṣu p̃eṣov p̃aiṣū

Ablauting nouns in -ṛ
khaik-ṛ
"goose"
Singular Dual Plural
Direct khaikṛ khekarve khaikāri
Vocative
Ergative khaikṛs khekaryat khikāram
Accusative khaikṛt
khaikaṭ2
khekartha khikāraih
Dative khekark khekarma khikārmi
Ablative khekarū khekarṣu khikārṇī
Locative khekarob khekarhe khikārän
Essive khekarī khikāryäh
Instrumental khekariś khikārṇīka
Bound form khaikṛ khekaru khaikār

  1. Morphemically mṛj-ai-yäh, with regular saṃdhi.
  2. The form in -ṛt is from Classical Dundulanyä and is preferred in formal usage, especially in writing; the form in -aṭ, taken from the corresponding non-ablauting paradigm, is however more commonly used.

Non-ablauting consonant stem 1st declension
imut-
"teacher"
Singular Dual Plural
Direct imute imutive imuti
Vocative imut
Ergative imutis imutīyat imutām
Accusative imutat imutītha imutaih
Dative imutak imutīma imutumi
Ablative imutū imuteṣu imutenī
Locative imutob imutehe imutän
Essive imutī imuteyäh
Instrumental imutīś imutenīka
Bound form imut imutiv imutī

Non-ablauting consonant stem 2nd decl. (glottal)[3]
nād-(a)ɂ-
"leg"
Singular Dual Plural
Direct nādah nādēve nādai
Vocative
Ergative nādēs nādeɂat nādaɂām
Accusative nādāt nādētha nādaih
Dative nādā nādaima nādūmi
Ablative nādū nādēṣu nādēnī
Locative nādob nādēhe nādän
Essive nādī nādaɂäh
Instrumental nādīś nādānīka
Bound form nādah nādēv nādē

Non-ablauting -a stems
buney-a
"(female's) older sister"
Singular Dual Plural
Direct buneya buneyeve buneyai
Vocative bunī1
Ergative buneyes buneyīyat buneyām
Accusative buneyat buneyītha buneyaih
Dative buneyak buneyāma buneyumi
Ablative buneyū buneyeṣu buneyenī
Locative buneyob buneyehe buneyän
Essive buneyī buneyayäh
Instrumental buneyaiś buneyanīka
Bound form buneya buneyev buneye

  1. Morphemically buney-, as the vocative of -a nouns is the stem without the final -a; as per regular saṃdhi, syllable-final ey becomes ī.

The following declensions - -i, -u, -o, -e, -ä have their final vowel as part of the stem, and it is regularly kept throughout the declension. -e stems are therefore different from the consonant stems (which end in -e in their citation form), but are a very small number of nouns, mainly proper nouns (as are, furthermore, nearly all -o stems).

Non-ablauting -i stems
ilūvi-
"girl"
Singular Dual Plural
Direct ilūvi ilūvīve ilūvī
Vocative
Ergative ilūvis ilūvīyat ilūvyām
Accusative ilūvit ilūvītha ilūvyaih
Dative ilūvik ilūvīma ilūvyumi
Ablative ilūvyū ilūviṣu ilūvinī
Locative ilūvyob ilūvihe ilūvyän
Essive ilūvī ilūviyäh
Instrumental ilūvyīś ilūvinīka
Bound form ilūvi ilūvīv ilūvī

Non-ablauting -u stems
kulāru-
"frog"
Singular Dual Plural
Direct kulāru kulārūve kulārū
Vocative
Ergative kulārus kulārūyat kulārvām
Accusative kulārut kulārūtha kulārvaih
Dative kulāruk kulārūma kulārūmi
Ablative kulārū kulāruṣu kulārunī
Locative kulārvob kulāruhe kulārvän
Essive kulāruvī kulāruväh
Instrumental kulārvīś kulārunīka
Bound form kulāru kulārūv kulārū

Non-ablauting -e stems
Kālomīye-
(given name)[4]
Singular Dual Plural
Direct Kālomīye Kālomīyeve Kālomīyayi
Vocative
Ergative Kālomīyes Kālomīyeyat Kālomīyayām
Accusative Kālomīyet Kālomīyetha Kālomīyayaih
Dative Kālomīyek Kālomīyema Kālomīyayumi
Ablative Kālomīyayū Kālomīyeṣu Kālomīyenī
Locative Kālomīyayob Kālomīyehe Kālomīyayän
Essive Kālomīyayī Kālomīyayäh
Instrumental Kālomīyayīś Kālomīyenīka
Bound form Kālomīye Kālomīyev Kālomīyayi

Non-ablauting stems
śośä-
(hare- or rabbit-like animal)
Singular Dual Plural
Direct śośä śośäve śośä
Vocative
Ergative śośäs śośäyat śośām
Accusative śośät śośätha śośaih
Dative śośäk śośäma śośumi
Ablative śośä śośäṣu śośänī
Locative śośäb śośähe śośän
Essive śośä śośäyäh
Instrumental śośäś śośänīka
Bound form śośäv śośä1


Dundulanyä nouns generally do not end in long vowels; the few exceptions that do (generally of onomatopoeic or baby talk origin) are treated as irregular nouns. The most common nouns ending in long vowels are certainly amamū "mother" and atabū (or batū) "father", which (due to regular saṃdhi) have ūv before vocalic endings (e.g. ergative plural amamūvām), but an irregular direct plural in -ūv-i, i.e. amamūvi, atabūvi, batūvi.

The -ṛ declension diverges from those ending in other vowels in various forms, such as the direct singular, where nouns end in -ah (-ar, reduced to the corresponding soft consonant) instead of the simple vowel -ṛ; their lemma form is in fact identical in shape to -ah nouns, although adding particles reveals the true nature of the final consonant (cf. ñältah, ñältahbu "sister, my sister"; śuthah, śutharbu "husband, my husband"; ñältahin śutharin "either [the] sister or [the] husband"):

Non-ablauting -ṛ stems
śuthṛ-
"husband"
Singular Dual Plural
Direct śuthah śuthṛve śuthāri
Vocative śuthāh
Ergative śuthṛs śuthrīyat śuthrām
Accusative śuthaṭ śuthṝtha śuthraih
Dative śuthṛk śuthṝma śuthrūmi
Ablative śuthrū śuthṝṣu śuthṝnī
Locative śuthrob śuthṝhe śuthrän
Essive śuthrī śuthräh
Instrumental śuthrīś śuthṝnīka
Bound form śuthah śuthru śuthāh


Singularia and pluralia tantum

Pluralia tantum in Dundulanyä include the following nouns or categories of words:

  1. many collective nouns:
    sūmi "hair", kāraṇḍhai "guts", rälsi "limbs", padagṇyauṣi "sons and daughters", gauṃsiḫi "cutlery", lampai "dishes, dishware"
  2. things that are heterogeneous in form but considered as a single entity:
    katanai "clutter", dūḍhvi "banquet, buffet"; frāṇagi (a type of sandals made from straw rope), kuntilatiri "streaming"[5], läjñyai "magic", ucururai "savings", rudhmai "resin", ḍotvi "fat", prāvṛḍḍi "controller"
  3. certain actions and processes that involve multiple people:
    vāb̃nīyai "elections", viṣlāviḫi "protest, riot", lipmūyai "traffic jam", kardātatalavibi "hide-and-seek" (sometimes also found as dual)
  4. nouns denoting certain time spans, festivals, or holidays:
    saṃlallai "afternoon", Bhaitrāvāṣri (the most important Yunyalīlti festivity); Kūlḫanari (a winter festival of Kenengyry origin)
  5. some locations, including large delimited areas, as well as many toponyms:
    ābābi "square", cadātāyi "tropics"
    Mūnnakṣalti, Anābāndirai
  6. all ethnonyms:
    dundulanyä "Dundulanyä", ṣurṭāgi "Skyrdegan(s)", tayubeśī "Toyubeshians", laḫābī "Laḫobs"

A few nouns do not have a singular, but can have a dual and a plural form. Their citation form is usually the dual:

maihādhūve "parents", kardātatalavibive "hide-and-seek" (most commonly a plurale tantum)

Counted among pluralia tantum are certain words which are not defective in number, but whose plural forms have an additional meaning alongside the one of the singular form, like in the following examples:

hamvilti "nursery" (hamvilte "cradle"), īskāvidai "playground" (īskāvida "swing"), utofi "clothes" (utofe "cloth"), garaṇai "clock, watch" (garaṇa "hour"), anutū "universe" (anutu "space, invisible sky")

Irregular vocatives

A few very common words (mostly kinship terms) have irregular vocative forms:

  • ñältah "(male's) sister" — ñäli or ñäl
  • glūḫam "(female's) brother" — galū or glū
  • kālike "(female's) younger sister" — kāl or kālli or kalli
  • praśke "(male's) older brother" — pāśi
  • amamū "mother" — or māmu
  • atabū or batū "father" — or bābu

Use of the plural

Dundulanyä sometimes uses the singular in contexts where English uses the plural:

  • Nouns are always singular after numerals (except, optionally, rirä (two), which they can also be dual after), sora (some), grāṇa (any), idu (no), idūṣam (no other), taili (many, much), didya (more), kaili (most), and ṣubha (few, little).
    • After yaiva, the difference in the noun's number expresses a distinction much like the one between English "every" and "all": yaiva täte "every house", yaiva täti "all houses".
  • When referring to existence or availability of something, that something is always singular, e.g. the dative sg. of nikoṅka "chair" in dvārma nikūvaṅkī taisa "there are chairs in the room". It may be plural if topicalized, but the overall meaning of the sentence changes - e.g. nikauṅkai mä dvārma taisa "the chairs are in the room".
  • When referring to a single person, häɂli (hand), meśiḫe (eye), and p̃agu (ear), and often also junai (foot) (more rarely for nādah (leg) and m̃ukar̃e (arm)) are typically singular and not dual - e.g. nanāt miśeḫi meśūh "I see it with my eyes" (lit. "with my eye"). In fact, they might be translated as "a person's hands/eyes/ears", given that dual forms are often used to mean e.g. "both hands of two people" and the plural ones for e.g. "many people's hands".
  • junēlte (indoor slippers), rapūda ((thick) shoes), mähṣa (boots), and all types of shoes are also used in the singular to refer to a pair of them. The main exception is frāṇagi (straw rope sandals), which is a plurale tantum.

Duals and plurals of given names have the meaning of an associative plural, i.e. Kālomīyayi "Kālomīye and people in/of her group".

Verbs (darūmmai)

Dundulanyä verbs are quite complex and generally formed in an agglutinative manner - even if there are fusional elements for what concerns tense, aspect, and subject agreement. The language has an Austronesian-type morphosyntactic alignment, and the argument the verb agrees with is controlled by a particular morpheme inside the verb complex. Due to the complex structure, a single verb form can often correspond to a more complex English sentence, as e.g. kujadumbhyaimyūsaded (I've been told that the two of you are bringing [it] again (on foot) from outside at my/our place for him/her), a form of the root dombh- (to bring on foot, with the hands), morphemically kuḍ-sa-dumbh-ya-emi-ū-sa-de=d.

The morpheme order of Dundulanyä verbs is the following; elements in bold are required, even if some of them may be zero morphemes:

(still unfinished)

Dundulanyä verb structure
Positional prefix -sa-
inverse deixis prefix
Incorporated verbal root Stem Tense markers Ablative motion marker Evidential marker Causative or applicative marker Trigger/voice Personal agreement Dative agreement Verb-final conjunctions
Incorporated nominal root

Verbs have four stems: present, past, perfect and frequentative; the latter two are always distinct, while non-ablauting roots have the same stems for the present and the past. These stems are used with different sets of personal agreement endings; different combinations of stems and endings are used to form a variety of tense-aspect combinations.
A few irregular verbs have suppletive stems, and a smaller number of verbs is defective, lacking one or more stems.

Root incorporation

Some verb roots may be used with either a verbal or a nominal incorporated root which comes right before the stem in the verb complex. Incorporated verb roots are always in zero-grade ablaut, while incorporated nominal roots are actually a closed class of prefixes etymologically related to certain nouns that broadly identify the object (usually the patient) of the verb.

Incorporated verb roots form root+root complexes where the incorporated root adds a dimension of meaning to the main one, such as with the root jūpūn- "to work in a hurry" from pūn- "to work" with the incorporated root jo- "to hurry", or nililobh- "to write down through brainstorming" from lobh- "to write" with nily- "to think".
Incorporated nominal roots include for example morphemes such as tan- for a long object (cf. taṇḍa "stick, cane") resulting in forms such as taṃlobh- "to affix; carve (on a stick, a post)", or ghar- for "wood" with forms such as ghahräś- "to debark" (räś- "to peel") or gharṇevy- "to carve wood" (nevy- "to shape").

The prefix yau- fills the incorporated nominal root slot, however it denotes repetition and patient plurality and is always used together with the agentive trigger, as shown in forms such as yaukṛsēne "I waited for all of them".
Similarly, the prefixes sya- (exhaustive), tra- (iterative) and cū- (excessive) fill the slot of the incorporated root. sya- is uncommon in the modern language, as it is often used as a synonym of yau-; the original difference being that it does not apply to transitive verbs only, and it does not imply a repeated or prolonged action. Cf. forms such as syanīyēne "I said it all", tranīyēne "I said it again", cūnīyēne "I said too much".

Inverse deixis and ablative motion

While apparently similar, the inverse deixis marker or cislocative (the -s(a)- prefix) and the ablative motion marker (the -y(a)- suffix) are distinct and, in fact, not mutually exclusive. While the ablative motion marker cannot be used without the positional prefix, the cislocative can.

The cislocative prefix marks an action towards the deictic center (generally the speaker), marked as divergent from the default state which is action from the deictic center: see e.g. lonei (lon-ei) "you go (walk)" vs. cislocative salonei (sa-lon-ei) "you come (on foot)" for an example without a positional prefix; however it can also be used together with such prefix as in e.g. gālonei (gā-lon-ei) "you walk in" vs. gāslonei (gā-s(a)-lon-ei) "you come in (on foot)".

The ablative motion marker (which forces zero-grade ablaut on the present stem), on the other hand, inverts the direction marked by the positional/directional prefix, which is allative by default (i.e. to a place), making it ablative (i.e. from a place): gāmeśūh (gā-meś-ū-h) "I look inside" vs. gāmiśyūh (gā-miś-y-ū-h) "I look from the inside". The ablative marker is, due to how positional and motion verbs work in Dundulanyä, most commonly used and useful with transitive verbs, e.g. kuṇḍombhūsa (kuḍ-dombh-ū-sa) "you two bring outside" vs. kuṇḍumbhyūsa (kuḍ-dumbh-y-ū-sa) "you two bring from outside".

The cislocative and the ablative marker can, in fact, be used together, in forms such as kujadumbhyūsa (kuḍ-sa-dumbh-y-ū-sa) "you two bring [us] from outside", gāslunyei "you come (on foot) from the inside". See also the following sentences, using the ablative motion marker, and the distinctions implied by the presence or absence of the cislocative prefix:

  • bunūgoba kujamiśyū "The thief is looking [at me/us] from the outside";
  • bunūgoba jṛṣṇat kujamiśyū "The thief is looking at my backpack [which is near me/in the same room as me] from the outside";
  • bunūgoba jṛṣṇat kuḍmiśyū "The thief is looking at my backpack from the outside [and I am not in the same room as my backpack]".

Stem and TAM formation

The four basic stems are formed as follows:

  • The present stem is the root with the middle grade vowel;
  • The past stem is the root with the zero grade vowel;
    • For non-ablauting roots, the present and past stems are therefore identical.
  • The perfect stem is the root with the zero grade vowel and an augment which is identical to the vowel of the root itself (shortened, if it is long) if the vowel is any of a, e, i, u; otherwise:
    • if the stem vowel is o, ä, ṛ or , the augment is a;
    • if the stem vowel is a diphthong, only the first element is taken as the augment.
  • The frequentative stem is the root with the zero grade vowel plus the middle grade vowel as the augment, and adding -sā (with the appropriate saṃdhi changes). Again, there are some exceptions to the general augment rule:
    • if the stem vowel is or , the augment is ā;
    • otherwise, the same rules as the perfect augment apply.

Some affixes may force the stem vowel to be in a certain ablaut grade, such as the ablative motion marker shown in the previous section, which forces a present stem to have a zero grade vowel regardless.

As an example, the stems of meś- (II) "to see" are: present meś-, past miś-, perfect imiś-, frequentative emikṣā- (← e-miś-sā-). The non-ablauting root pūn- (to work) has present/past pūn-, perfect upūn-, frequentative upūṃsā-; mäly- (0) "to give" has present/past mäly-, perfect amäly-, frequentative amälisā-.

There are also tense markers which are added to the above stems to form the base for other TAM:

  • the future formant is -iṣy- (or -ṣy- after vowels), added to the past stem (i.e. to the zero grade root);
  • ...

The various tenses (more appropriately tense-aspect combinations) and moods are formed by the combination of the above stems and different terminations (which are listed in the dedicated section below):

  • Present: present stem + present terminations
  • Past: past stem + past terminations
  • Perfect: perfect stem + perfect terminations
  • Frequentative: frequentative stem + frequentative terminations
  • Future: future "stem" + perfect terminations
  • ...

Junyai

The forms called, in traditional Dundulanyä grammar, junyai (sg. junya, literally "shade, hue") are special stems (hence filling only the "stem" portion of the verb complex) which denote particular meanings, often corresponding to moods. There are five junyai: desiderative, necessitative, potential, permissive and intensive, formed as follows, through reduplication (with different ablaut grades in the stem and in the reduplication) and suffixes:

  • Desiderative: zero-grade reduplication + middle-grade root + -s;
  • Necessitative: middle-grade reduplication + zero-grade root + -sū;
  • Potential: zero-grade reduplication + middle-grade root + -nā;
  • Permissive: reduplication with the vowel ī (ū after non-nasal labials) + zero-grade root + -ūd;
  • Intensive: reduplication with lengthened vowel + zero-grade root + .

Examples with various roots:

  • meś- (II) "to see": DES mi-meś-s- → mimekṣ-; NEC me-miś-sū- → memikṣū; POT mi-meś-nā- → mimeśñā-; PERM mī-miś-ūd → mīmiśūd-; INT mī-miś-ī- → mīmiśī-.
  • śan- (I) "to breathe": DES ś-śan-s- → kṣaṃs- (rarely śaśaṃs-); NEC śa-śn-sū- → śaśñāsū-; POT ś-śan-nā- → kṣannā- (rarely śaśannā-); PERM śī-śn-ūd- → śīśñūd-; INT śā-śn-ī- → śāśñī-.

Causative, applicative and trigger (voice) markers

There are six possible trigger (voice) markers:

  • -∅- patient trigger;
  • -ū- (-e- in the past tense only) agent trigger;
  • -ik- reflexive trigger;
    • -ik-ū- (or -ik-e-), combination of agent and reflexive triggers, for the reciprocal voice;
  • -mi- circumstantial (benefactive or instrumental) trigger;
  • -īs- locative trigger;
  • -bai- reason trigger.

The causative (-on- or -n-) and applicative (-im- or -m-) markers fill the slot preceding the trigger marker, but unlike the latter those markers are not mandatory.

Evidential markers

There are six evidential markers:

  • -∅- direct knowledge;
  • -ɂä- "first" inferential (trusted);
  • -eb(i)- "second" inferential (doubtful);
  • -ukiɂ(a)- assumptive;
  • -emi- "first" reportative/hearsay (trusted);
  • -enab(u)- "second" reportative/hearsay (doubtful).

Personal agreement

The following ones are the personal agreement endings for Dundulanyä verbs.

Personal markers
1SG 2SG 3SG 1DU 2DU 3DU 1PL 2PL 3PL
Present -(a)h -i -a/-∅ -(a)ba -(a)sa -(a)ḍa -em -(a)ḫo -āhai
Frequentative -u -i
Perfect -am -es -a -ra -ri -a -ima -iśa -a
Past -(a)ne -(a)he -(a)de -ren -res -rak -ife -ithe -aki
Subjunctive

The forms with vowel in the present are used after a consonant; the 3SG form is therefore a zero-marker in many common forms such as after the agent trigger (cf. meśa "3SG is seen" and meśū "3SG sees").

Numerals (dhujāvāmi)

Dundulanyä is one of the few human Eventoan languages - together with the other ancient languages grouped as East Mandabudi languages, a few other languages scattered in southern Lusaṃrīte, and a handful of others around the world, as well as those which have had considerable influence by Dundulanyä itself - with a pure duodecimal numeral system.

Numbers (sg. dhujāvam, pl. dhujāvāmi) have six different forms: cardinal, ordinal, collective, distributive, adverbial/multiplicative, and fractionary. The numbers from 1 to 4 have separate adverbial multiplicative forms, while all other ones have an invariable form used both as adverbial and "adjectival" multiplicatives. Cardinals from 1 to Ɛ and their compounds decline for case (see below); collectives, multiplicatives, and fractionaries always decline, while ordinals are only declined if used as substantives, i.e. without an accompanying noun. Distributives do not decline.

All numeral roots in general usage are native, with the exception of zero, which is a learned borrowing from Kumãwawỹ ryrõ "nothing".

Digit12 Base 10 Cardinal Ordinal Collective Distributive Adv./Multiplicative Fractionary
0 0 raron
1 1 emibe
emi
rählälu emibukoma b̃āɂemibe (adv.)
emibūśila
rählälyāṭ
2 2 rirä hälinaike rirätām riräkoma b̃ārirä (adv.)
riräśila
hälinaikyāṭ
3 3 kiṅka kiṅkesi kiṅkatām kiṅkakoma b̃akiṅka (adv.)
kiṅkośila
kiṅkesyāṭ
4 4 nälte nältaisi nältitām nältakoma b̃anälte (adv.)
nältauśila
nältaisyāṭ
5 5 śulka śulkesi śulkatām śulkakoma śulkośila śulkesyāṭ
6 6 ūṃse ūṃsaisi ūṃstām ūṃskoma ūṃsauśila ūṃsaisyāṭ
7 7 chīka chīcesi chīcätām chīkkoma chīkośila chīcesyāṭ
8 8 mbula mbulesi mbultām mbulkoma mbulośila mbulesyāṭ
9 9 ḍor̃a ḍor̃esi ḍor̃atām ḍor̃akoma ḍor̃ośila ḍor̃esyāṭ
10 tālda tāldesi tāldatām tāldakoma tāldośila tāldesyāṭ
Ɛ 11 ṣūḍan ṣūṇḍisi ṣūṇḍām ṣūṇḍakoma ṣūṇḍuśila ṣūṇḍisyāṭ
10 12 mūmai mūmaisi mūmetām mūmekoma mūmāyuśila mūmaisyāṭ
11 13 emibumūmä emibumūmäsi emibumūmätām emibumūmäkoma emibumūmäśila emibumūmäsyāṭ
12 14 rirämūmä rirämūmäsi rirämūmätām rirämūmäkoma rirämūmäśila rirämūmäsyāṭ
13 15 kiṅkhälī kiṅkhälīsi kiṅkhälītām kiṅkhälīkoma kiṅkhälīvśila kiṅkhälīsyāṭ
14 16 mūmainälte mūmainältaisi mūmainältitām mūmainältakoma mūmainältauśila mūmainältaisyāṭ
15 17 mūmaiśulka mūmaiśulkesi mūmaiśulkatām mūmaiśulkakoma mūmaiśulkośila mūmaiśulkesyāṭ
16 18 mūmāyūṃse mūmāyūṃsaisi mūmāyūṃstām mūmāyūṃskoma mūmāyūṃsauśila mūmāyūṃsaisyāṭ
17 19 mūmaichīka mūmaichīcesi mūmaichīcätām mūmaichīkkoma mūmaichīkośila mūmaichīcesyāṭ
18 20 mūmaimbula mūmaimbulesi mūmaimbultām mūmaimbulkoma mūmaimbulośila mūmaimbulesyāṭ
19 21 mūmaiḍor̃a mūmaiḍor̃esi mūmaiḍor̃atām mūmaiḍor̃akoma mūmaiḍor̃ośila mūmaiḍor̃esyāṭ
1ᘔ 22 mūmaitālda mūmaitāldesi mūmaitāldatām mūmaitāldakoma mūmaitāldośila mūmaitāldesyāṭ
23 mūmaiṣūḍan mūmaiṣūṇḍisi mūmaiṣūṇḍām mūmaiṣūṇḍakoma mūmaiṣūṇḍuśila mūmaiṣūṇḍisyāṭ
20 24 hälimūmai hälimūmaisi hälimūmetām hälimūmekoma hälimūmāyuśila hälimūmaisyāṭ

As for the two forms for the numeral "one", emi is used in disjunctive counting (count-ins or countdowns), while emibe is used elsewhere. Compounds always have the full form, i.e. forms such as *hälimūmāyemi do not exist, only hälimūmāyemibe.

Numbers from 2012 above are simply made by compounding teens and units with the appropriate saṃdhi changes, like 2112 (2510) hälimūmāyemibe, and then hälimūmairirä, hälimūmaikiṅka, and so on.
The other dozens are:

30 (3610) kiṅkamūmai
40 (4810) nältamūmai
50 (6010) śulkmūmai
60 (7210) ūṃsamūmai
70 (8410) chīcämūmai
80 (9610) mbulmūmai
90 (10810) ḍor̃mūmai
ᘔ0 (12010) tāldamūmai
Ɛ0 (13210) ṣūṇḍmūmai
and 100 (14410) trāṣoḍa.

1312 originally meant "one finger/three in the second [dozen]", where the -hälī part is a worn form of hälinaike.

Numbers from 10012 to ƐƐƐ12 are still compounds, e.g. trāṣoḍaimibe, trāṣoḍarirä, and so on.
The other dozenal hundreds are:

200 (28810) rirätrāṣoḍa
300 (43210) kiṅkatrāṣoḍa
400 (57610) nältitrāṣoḍa
500 (72010) śulkatrāṣoḍa
600 (86410) ūṃsitrāṣoḍa
700 (100810) chīcätrāṣoḍa
800 (115210) mbultrāṣoḍa
900 (129610) ḍor̃atrāṣoḍa
ᘔ00 (144010) tāldatrāṣoḍa
Ɛ00 (158410) ṣūḍantrāṣoḍa.

1.000 (172810) is śāyāja and numbers above are separate words, without saṃdhi, e.g. 1.001 śāyāja emibe, 6.2ᘔ9 (1078510) ūṃse śāyāja rirätrāṣoḍatāldamūmaiḍor̃a.
Note that 2.00012 may be either one of śāyājeve, rirä śāyāja - the most common one -, or (only emphatically) rirä śāyājeve.

The other divisions - numbers over ƐƐ.ƐƐƐ12 are based on groups of two digits: the two most commonly used ones in common speech are 1.00.000 (248.83210) - a raice - and 1.00.00.000 (35.831.80810) - a lallaraice.

The next two groups have their separate words, but are quantities rarely used in common speech: 1.00.00.00.000 (129) (5.159.780.35210) is a tūśvāna and 1.00.00.00.00.000 (1211) (743.008.370.68810) a lallatūśvāna.

Vocabulary

Colours

Dundulanyä people traditionally distinguish 13 basic colours (hīmba), with the notable presence of two heavily culturally significant ones: golden yellow and lilac:

Colour Noun Verb
to be …
Prototypical example
Black śyūda śyūdah
Blue, also dark green kāmila kāmilah
Brown tūnya tūnyah
Golden yellow chlīm̃a chlīm̃ah
Gray nijam nijmah
Green bhāca bhācah
Light yellow khañja khañjah
Lilac kalya kalyah
Orange cände cändah
Pink kīlana kīlanah
Red ūnika ūnikah
Violet, dark lilac somye somih
White pāṇḍa pāṇḍah

External history

Dundulanyä is a conlang project that I “officially” started in early December 2021 (coincidentally around the fifth anniversary since I started Chlouvānem), although it and its goals are, to a large extent, the conflation of multiple projects that I sporadically worked on for most of 2021:

  • A long process of “refinement” of Chlouvānem – that happened offline, so it was never reflected in any edit on the wiki pages here – by eliminating or changing some quirks that had formed over time and that had brought me to a standstill in working on that conlang by late 2020. Ideas for the refinement started from nominal morphology but then they eventually snowballed to the point it was impossible to implement them without basically starting the conlang anew;
  • A radical reboot of Tameï that was meant to give it an a priori language family in a slightly changed conworld setting (although still on an alternative Earth); this was the language I originally created the glottonym Dundulanyä for;
  • Various unnamed sketchlangs, mostly attempts at Hurro-Urartian diachronic conlanging, that were the results of a general interest in Ancient Near Eastern languages as a side-effect of my work on Lifashian (my “conlang of choice” for most of 2021).

Dundulanyä is meant to be the first conlang for a sort of reboot of CalémereEventoa – as, much like in Chlouvānem itself, there had come to be quite a few things in and about Calémere that I wasn’t that sure of keeping, but changing them would have meant to change so many things about the conworld that depended on them. Eventoa, as of now (March 28, 2022) is a WIP conworld about which I'm still adding and discarding ideas nearly every time I work on it, so there’s little to be written about it – but it eventually will incorporate a few elements of Calémere. Dundulanyä will play a role in Eventoa vaguely similar to the one Chlouvānem had in Calémere, although unlike earlier conworld reboots I have decided not to trash everything away (hence why I chose a different name for Eventoa), keeping eight years’ worth of documentation about Calémere and five years’ worth about Chlouvānem intact.

Compared to Chlouvānem, Dundulanyä is going to tone down somewhat the Sanskrit and particularly the Lithuanian and Japanese influences, while being more influenced by PIE itself, Hurrian, Urartian, Elamite, Anatolian languages, Akkadian, and the languages of the Caucasus (particularly Adyghe).

Notes

  1. ^ Literally "Dundulanyä our-language", with a 1PL possessive; the stylistic variant dundulanyä ḫamfarān (lit. "Dundulanyä their-language") is sometimes found in neutral contexts.
  2. ^ More commonly used in the prefixed form ni-sākh- "to build, create, make".
  3. ^ In colloquial Dundulanyä, such nouns are often declined like -a nouns, given that their declensions are similar, the main difference being vowel lengthening in most forms.
  4. ^ The dual and plural of given names are used to mark a group of two (dual) or more (plural) people contextually identified by some kind of relationship to the person the name refers to; e.g. "X and friends; X and family; X and partner...".
  5. ^ The word latiri is the plural of latire (wave, ray), but the compound itself does not have a singular form.