Vurásandi
Vurásandi (IPA: [vu.'rɑː.sən.dɪ]) is the primary liturgical language of Kalifiya; a philosophical language of many different religious cults living in the West of Turtle Island (mainly in Kalifiya); and a literary language and lingua franca of the western world. As a result of transmission of Kalifi cultures from Kalifiya to the Riverlands and parts of Central Tepia in the east, as well as Karbadi and Pangala to the south, it is also a language of high culture in some of these regions.
Vurásandi is a standardized language of the Wasmáthi dialects, having originated in the beginning of the Age of Fish (roughly 2,000 years ago) when Z'e Ji Vuqadzi wrote Vurásandi Essámahta. As one of the oldest living languages in Yarad, Vurásandi holds a prominent position in the modern world. The body of Vurásandi literature encompasses a rich tradition of poetry and drama as well as scientific, technical, philosophical and religious texts. The early compositions of Vurásandi were written by the 12 Shepards of Is'a.
Vurásandi is today one of the 4 main languages of Yarad. It continues to be widely used as a ceremonial language in Kalifi religious rituals and Binduli practice in the form of hymns and chants.
Vurásandi may also refer to any of the number of tribal dialects spoken in Kalifiya.
Name
The name Vurásandi comes from two roots (VRÁ: holy, divine; SND: language, speech, tongue). This language was given its name by the holy priestess Z'e Ji Vuqádzi in her work Vurásandi Esasmátha. This language became used as the primary language for religious rituals and learned discourse throughout Kalifiya, in contrast to the language spoken daily by the common folk, which was known as quyuksandi (common speech).
History
Vurásandi developed from a number of different dialects spoken throughout Kalifiya during the Age of Ram. Originally laid out in Vurásandi Essámatha by Z'e Ji Vuqádzi (one of Is'a's 12 Shepherds) in the 72nd year of the Age of Fish. It's position in the cultures of Greater Kalifiya is akin to that of Sanskrit in India and Latin and Ancient Greek in Europe, and it has significantly influenced most modern languages of the Kalifiyan Subcontinent, particularly in Kalifiya, the Riverlands, West Tepia, Karbadi, Siryorunda, and Pangala.
Origin of Standard Vurásandi
The language as described by Z'e Ji Vuqádzi evolved out of the earlier dialects spoken in Kalifiya. Before Is'a and his 12 Shepherds united the country, many different dialects were spoken throughout the region. This led to much confusion and war during the Age of Ram. Z'e Ji Vuqádzi spent the greater part of her life compiling the Vurásandi Essámahta in order to unify the country's many dialects. Her work became the accepted standard in the 1066th year in the current age.
Modern Vurásandi
For nearly 2000 years, Vurásandi was the language of a cultural order that exerted influence from Kalifiya into the Riverlands and onto a significant area of the Middlelands, and to some extent into the Tepian and Jaboni Empires. The Vurásandi of the Vurásandi Essámahta is traditionally considered to be the purest form of Vurásandi, and therefore has become the standard used in teaching schools.
While much of Kalifiya has become modernized, there still exists a large number of people still living in their traditional tribal ways. These people speak a number of local dialects of Vurásandi, which due to considerable variation could be considered languages in their own rite. It is common for people in Kalifiya to be fluent in at least two forms of Vurásandi.
Phonology
see also Vurásandi Phonology for more detail
Standard Vurásandi distinguishes 40 different phonemes. 15 vowels, 25 consonants. We have used a variation on the traditional alignment of sounds and also a standardized transcription system for writing Vurásandi sounds in the Latin alphabet. More about the writing system and transcription system is listed in the section below called Writing.
a e i o u
á é í ó ú
ă ĕ ǐ ǒ ǔ
wp b m f v
t d n t' d'
l r s z
y q j s' z'
kg c x h
Vowels
There are 15 different vowel phonemes, which are considered to be between 6 and 21 distinct sounds depending on tradition and dialect. Standard Vurásandi recognizes the normal 15, as to represent each vowel distinctly. There are 5 short vowels, 5 long vowels, and 5 nasal vowels. Below we have listed our standard transcription next to the IPA sound in brackets.
Short vowels: a [ə] e [e] i [ɪ] o [ɔ] u [ʌ]
Long vowels: á [ɑː] é [ɛː] í [iː] ó [oː] ú [uː]
Nasal vowels: ǎ [ɑ̃] ě [ɛ̃] ǐ [ĩ] ǒ [õ] ǔ [ũ]
Long vowels are pronounced for approximately twice as long as short vowels. Nasal vowels are considered to be held for one and a half times as long as short vowel.
The nasal vowels are the exact same sound qualities as long vowels, the only difference being they are nasalized.
Only one long vowel may come in a word, and it will determine that word's primary stress.
A syllable with a long vowel may not take a consonant other than n, m, w, or y at the coda.
Diphthongs
The consonants w and y are considered consonantal variations or the vowel u and i respectively, and function to shape diphthongs. In some dialects the letter l functions in the same way as the letter w.
aw [ɑ͡u] / ay [ɑ͡i]
ow [o͡u] / oy [o͡i]
ew [e͡u] / ey [e͡i]
Please note how w and y are never used to form diphthongs with their vocalic counterparts u and i.
Consonants
Standard Vurásandi recognizes 25 distinct consonant sounds. These 25 different consonant phonemes are made up of 6 plosives (stops), 2 nasals, 11 fricatives, 2 affricates, 2 semivowels, 1 lateral, and 1 tap. We have organized a table to better represent the traditional alignment of consonant sounds in Vurásandi. We have used the traditional transcription method next to the sounds in IPA in brackets as before.
| p [p] | b [b] | m [m] | f [f] | v [v] | |||
| t [t] | d [d] | n [n] | t' [θ] | d' [ð] | |||
| k [k] | g [g] | s [s] | z [z] | ||||
| q [t͡ʃ] | j [d͡ʒ] | s' [ʃ] | z' [ʒ] | ||||
| y [j] | w [w] | ||||||
| r [r] | l [l] | c [ç] | x [x] | h [h] |
- the letter v might be pronounced as [β] before a vowel, especially the letter u, and is often confused for the letter w in colloquial speech.
- the letters t and d are more specifically dental consonants [t̪] and [d̪].
- the letter l is not realized in many dialects of Vurásandi.
Accent
Somewhat of a pitch accent system is in place in Vurásandi, where the change of a stressed syllable can affect the semantic meaning of a word or phrase. This will always be marked by the system of short vowels and long vowels.
The stress normally falls on the second to last syllable for most words. However it is possible that stress may fall on other syllables, in cases when stress is elsewhere it will always be marked with an accent mark. In words with 4 syllables or more whose stress is not on the second to last syllable, there is still a secondary stress on the second to last syllable.
Grammar
Modern Standard Vurásandi is described in detail by Z'e Ji Vuqádzi in Vurásandi Esasmátha at the beginning of the present Dark Age. The language described in Z'e Ji Vuqádzi's work which became the standardized version is the same version we describe here.
Z'e Ji Vuqádzi describes all words as falling into three different grammatical categories. These categories are simply nouns (syamháwmah), verbs (syamháynar), and particles (syamhákik). All words will naturally fall into one of these three categories.
Vurásandi works off a triconsonantal root system that builds different shades of semantic meaning through inflections. Typologically it is something in between a fusional and agglutinative language.
Nouns
Nouns are known in Vurásandi as syamháwmah (words of form). Nouns are inflected for 5 different numbers and 10 different cases. The inflections depend on the 4 different genders of the noun.
Gender
There are 4 different genders.
- Masculine Strong (ms.)- used for things which have natural gender like people and animals.
- Masculine Weak (mw.)- used for things which have no natural gender, but are ideologically masculine.
- Feminine Strong (fs.)- used for things which have natural gender like people and animals.
- Feminine Weak (fw.)- used for things which have no natural gender, but are ideologically feminine.
Number
There are 5 possible numbers in Vurásandi. They are singular, dual, paucal, collective, and plural. Each number is used to describe a slightly different meaning.
- Singular is used when talking about only one of something.
- Dual is used when talking about natural pairs of something.
- Paucal is used when talking about a few of something.
- Collective is used when talking about things in general, with no specific number, and uncountable nouns.
- Plural is used to talk about multiple things.
Case
There are 10 different cases in Vurásandi. They are as follows: nominative, accusative, dative, genitive, commitative, instrumentative, locative, vocative, allative, and ablative.
- Nominative (NOM)- used to refer to the subject of the sentence, the main agent of the verb, or who is doing the verb.
- Accusative (ACC)- used to refer to the direct object of the sentence.
- Dative (DAT)- used to refer to the indirect object, who the verb is being done to or for.
- Genitive (GEN)- used for possession.
- Commitative (COM)- used to show accompaniment, with
- Instrumentative (INS)- used to show something being used, the means by which something is done
- Locative (LOC)- used to show position of something, also used with prepositions.
- Vocative (VOC)- used to address someone or something directly
- Allative (ALL)- used to express motion towards something
- Ablative (ABL)- used to express motion away from something
Noun Conjugations
Masculine Strong
| case | singular | dual | paucal | collective | plural |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NOM | — | -(a)d | -(a)g | -(a)j | -(a)r |
| ACC | -ǎ | -(a)dǎ | -(a)gǎ | -(a)jǎ | -(a)rǎ |
| DAT | -e | -(a)de | -(a)ge | -(a)je | -(a)re |
| GEN | -(a)s | -(a)das | -(a)gas | -(a)jas | -(a)ras |
| COM | -(a)m | -(a)dam | -(a)gam | -(a)jam | -(a)ram |
| INS | -í | -(a)dí | -(a)gí | -(a)jí | -(a)rí |
| LOC | -ya | -(a)dya | -(a)gya | -(a)jya | -(a)rya |
| VOC | -o | -(a)do | -(a)go | -(a)jo | -(a)ro |
| ALL | -ál | -(a)dál | -(a)gál | -(a)jál | -(a)rál |
| ABL | -ún | -(a)dún | -(a)gún | -(a)jún | -(a)rún |
Masculine Weak
| case | singular | dual | paucal | collective | plural |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NOM | — | -(i)t | -(i)k | -(i)q | -(i)r |
| ACC | -ǐ | -(i)tǐ | -(i)kǐ | -(i)qǐ | -(i)rǐ |
| DAT | -i | -(i)ti | -(i)ki | -(i)qi | -(i)ri |
| GEN | -(i)s | -(i)tis | -(i)gis | -(i)jis | -(i)ris |
| COM | -(i)m | -(i)tim | -(i)kim | -(i)qim | -(i)rim |
| INS | -í | -(i)tí | -(i)kí | -(i)qí | -(i)rí |
| LOC | -ya | -(i)tya | -(i)kya | -(i)qya | -(i)rya |
| VOC | -u | -(i)tu | -(i)ku | -(i)qu | -(i)ru |
| ALL | -íl | -(i)tíl | -(i)kíl | -(i)qíl | -(i)ríl |
| ABL | -ún | -(i)tún | -(i)kún | -(i)qún | -(i)rún |
Feminine Strong
| case | singular | dual | paucal | collective | plural |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NOM | — | -(u)d' | -(u)x | -(u)z' | -(u)l |
| ACC | -ǎ | -(u)d'ǎ | -(u)xǎ | -(u)z'ǎ | -(u)lǎ |
| DAT | -e | -(u)d'e | -(u)xe | -(u)z'e | -(u)le |
| GEN | -(u)s | -(u)d'as | -(u)xas | -(u)z'as | -(u)las |
| COM | -(u)m | -(u)d'am | -(u)xam | -(u)z'am | -(u)lam |
| INS | -í | -(u)d'í | -(u)xí | -(u)z'í | -(u)lí |
| LOC | -ya | -(u)d'ya | -(u)xya | -(u)z'ya | -(u)lya |
| VOC | -o | -(u)d'o | -(u)xo | -(u)z'o | -(u)lo |
| ALL | -ál | -(u)d'ál | -(u)xál | -(u)z'ál | -(u)lál |
| ABL | -ún | -(u)d'ún | -(u)xún | -(u)z'ún | -(u)lún |
Feminine Weak
| case | singular | dual | paucal | collective | plural |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NOM | — | -(i)t' | -(i)c | -(i)s' | -(i)l |
| ACC | -ǔ | -(i)t'ǔ | -(i)cǔ | -(i)s'ǔ | -(i)lǔ |
| DAT | -i | -(i)t'i | -(i)ci | -(i)s'i | -(i)li |
| GEN | -(i)s | -(i)t'is | -(i)cis | -(i)s'is | -(i)lis |
| COM | -(i)m | -(i)t'im | -(i)cim | -(i)s'im | -(i)lim |
| INS | -í | -(i)t'í | -(i)cí | -(i)s'í | -(i)lí |
| LOC | -ya | -(i)t'ya | -(i)cya | -(i)s'ya | -(i)lya |
| VOC | -u | -(i)t'u | -(i)cu | -(i)s'u | -(i)lu |
| ALL | -íl | -(i)t'íl | -(i)cíl | -(i)s'íl | -(i)líl |
| ABL | -ún | -(i)t'ún | -(i)cún | -(i)s'ún | -(i)lún |
Pronouns
Pronouns are also inflected for person, case, and number.
Nominative
| singular | plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st person | y(a)- | we(n)-/ wey- |
| 2nd person | tv(u)- | be(n)- |
| 3rd person | o(n)- /d(a)- | o(n)- /d(a)- |
- first pronoun in the box for first person plural is inclusive, and the second one is exclusive.
- first pronoun in the box for third person is animate (or strong nouns) and the second one is for inanimate (or weak nouns).
- the third person animate pronoun o(n)- maybe be used to address people with more respect (something like Usted in Spanish).
- the nominative pronouns are attached to the verb in the form of a prefix.
Accusative
| singular | plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st person | ma | va/ vay |
| 2nd person | tó | bey |
| 3rd person | yu /don | yu /don |
Dative
| singular | plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st person | me | ve/ vey |
| 2nd person | te | bey |
| 3rd person | ye /de | ye /de |
Genitive
| singular | plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st person | mas | uns |
| 2nd person | tús | bis |
| 3rd person | os /das | os /das |
Commitative
| singular | plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st person | mun | vǔ/ vem- |
| 2nd person | tvam | bim |
| 3rd person | yom /dam | yom /dam |
Instrumentative
| singular | plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st person | mí | wení |
| 2nd person | tí | bení |
| 3rd person | oní /damí | oní /damí |
Locative
| singular | plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st person | mya | vya |
| 2nd person | tya | bya |
| 3rd person | ya /dya | ya /dya |
Vocative
| singular | plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st person | mo | wo |
| 2nd person | to | bwo |
| 3rd person | o /du | o /du |
Allative
| singular | plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st person | má | wahál |
| 2nd person | tá | benál |
| 3rd person | onál /dál- | onál /dál |
Ablative
| singular | plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st person | yún | wahún |
| 2nd person | tún | benún |
| 3rd person | ún /dún | ún /dún |
Correlatives and Demonstratives
Correlatives are two semantic word pairs, that form together to create one meaning. These words are treated the same way as nouns, that is they inflect for number and case. They will always use the feminine weak conjugations regardless of the gender of what the word is referring to. The qualities along the top match up with the qualities along the bottom. The top row is prefixes and the side column is suffixes.
| question (k-) | no, none (n-) | any (j-) | some (—) | all (q-) | this,these (t'-) | that, these (b-) | only (án-) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| person (-ó) | who kó | nobody nó | anybody jó | somebody ó | everybody qó | this person t'ó | that person bó | only person anó |
| place (-i) | where ki | nowhere ni | anywhere ji | somewhere i | everywhere qi | here t'i | there bi | only place áni |
| thing (-a) | what ka | nothing na | anything ja | something a | everything qa | this thing t'a | that thing ba | only thing ána |
| time (-am) | when kam | never nam | whenever jam | sometime am | always qam | now t'am | then bam | only time ánam |
| reason (-ar) | why kar | no reason nar | any reason jar | some reason ar | every reason qar | this reason t'ar | that reason bar | only reason ánar |
| choice (-es) | which kes | neither nes | either jes | some es | all of them qes | this one t'es | that one bes | only one of them ánes |
| amount (-um) | how much kum | none num | any amount jum | some amount um | the whole thing qum | this much t'um | bum | only one ánum |
| manner (-e) | how ke | no way ne | any way je | some way e | all ways qe | this way t'e | that way be | only way áne |
Verbs
Verbs in Vurásandi can be known as syamháynar (words of action). Verbs are inflected for person and number, tense, voice, mood, and aspect. There are 6 person and number prefixes. There are 5 tenses, 8 voices, 14 moods, and 9 aspects.
Verbs also use the triconsonantal root system. There are certain root patterns that can help determine the type of verb a word is.
- CáCC— transitive verb
- aCCaC— intransitive verb
- aCCatC— ditransitive verb
- uCCáC— purposefully doing something
- aCCúC— adjectival verb
To form a verb, you must first build a verb root out of three consonants using one of the verb pattern formulas above, then you may add the appropriate subject pronoun as a prefix. If it is already clear to the listener you may drop the pronouns. Then you have the option of adding a vowel for tense, a consonant for voice, the same vowel again,another consonant for mood, and another consonant for aspect. It may be ended with an -a if it produces and undesirable consonant cluster at the coda.
(PN)-ROOT-(V [tense])-(C [voice])-(V [tense])-(C [mood])-(C [aspect])-(a)
Tense
Tense is used to refer to when an action occurred. There are 6 tenses in Vurásandi:
- (Distant) Past is used to talk about things that already happened.
- Recent Past is used to talk about things that just happened.
- Present is used to talk about things that are happening.
- Near Future is used to talk about things that about to happen.
- (Distant) Future is used to talk about things that will happen.
The vowels used to represent these tenses are i, e, a, o, and u respectively.
Voice
Voice is used to change the relationship between the verb and the main agent of the verb. There are 8 voices in Vurásandi; 4 affirmative and their 4 negative counterparts.
- Active voice (ACT)- used to talk about things doing something or not.
- Passive voice (PAS)- used to talk about things being done or not.
- Causative voice (CAU)- used to talk about making things do something or not.
- Potential voice (POT)- used to talk about things being able to do something or not.
| voice | affirmative | negative |
|---|---|---|
| ACT | -(l)- | -n- |
| PAS | -t- | -nt- |
| CAU | -k- | -nk- |
| POT | -y- | -ny- |
The active voice is usually not marked in the affirmative, but if necessary there might be an l to represent it.
Mood
Mood is used to roughly express how the speaker feels about the action. There are 14 moods in Vurásandi:
- Indicative mood (IND)- used to express a speaker's general belief.
- Alethic mood (ALT)- used to express things that are common sense, general truths, things everyone is assumed to know
- Tentative mood (TEN)- used to express things that are likely to happen, probably will happen
- Dubitive mood (DUB)- used to express things that are possible to happen
- Debitive mood (DEB)- used to express things that need to happen
- Permissive mood (PER)- used to grant permission to someone
- Imperative mood (IMP)- used to give a command
- Requestive mood (REQ)- used to soften a command, more polite way to request
- Hortative mood (HOR)- used to politely encourage someone
- Adhortative mood (ADH)- used to advise someone who is less knowledgeable than you
- Commissive mood (CMM)- used to promise or threaten
- Desiderative mood (DES)- used to express wants or desires
- Esperative mood (ESP)- used to express hopes and dreams
- Amative mood (AMA)- used to express likes
Indicative mood is not marked. The other endings in the same order as listed are as follows: -z-, -s-, -f-, -z'-, -s'-, -j-, -t'-, -d'-, -q-, -c-, -v-, -x-, and -h-.
Aspect
Aspect is another feature used to distinguish how things happen relative to the flow of time. There are 9 different aspects in Vurásandi.
- Neutral aspect (NEU)- the default aspect, with no relation to the flow of time.
- Progressive aspect (PRO)- used to talk about things that are happening in the specific moment one is referring to.
- Habitual aspect (HAB)- used to talk about things that happen regularly.
- Continuous aspect (CON)- used to talk about things happening without stopping.
- Durative aspect (DUR)- used to talk about things that only last a short time.
- Inchoative aspect (INC)- used to talk about things just beginning to happen.
- Pausative aspect (PAU)- used to talk about things stopping in the middle of happening.
- Resumptative aspect (RSM)- used to talk about continuing where you left off.
- Resultative aspect (RES)- used to talk about finishing things.
As you might have guessed, neutral aspect is not marked. The remaining endings in the same order as listed above are as follows: -k/g-, -t/d-, -p/b-, -w-, -y-, -l-, -r-, and -n/m.
For some aspects there are two possibilities. Look at the letter that comes before the aspect indicator. If it is an unvoiced consonant, use the the choice that comes in front of the slash (unvoiced consonant). If the letter before is a vowel or a voiced consonant, then use the voiced option.
Verb Conjugations
| V- tense | C- voice | V | C- mood | C- aspect |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| past -i- | ACT -(l/n)- | IND — | NEU — | |
| recent past -e- | PAS -(n)t- | ALT -z- | PRO -k/g- | |
| present -a- | CAU -(n)k- | TEN -s- | HAB -t/d- | |
| near future -o- | POT -(n)y- | DUB -f- | CON -p/b- | |
| future -u- | DEB -z'- | DUR -w- | ||
| PER -s'- | INC -y- | |||
| IMP -j- | PAU -l- | |||
| REQ -t'- | RSM -r- | |||
| HOR -d'- | RES -n/m- | |||
| ADH -q- | ||||
| CMM -c- | ||||
| DES -v- | ||||
| ESP -x- | ||||
| AMA -h- |
Numbers
Vurásandi uses two different number systems. One is a more modern system that uses a base of 10, and the other is the more ancient system based with 12. Since the 10 base system is still fairly recent, it is common to hear speakers using both systems interchangeably. However, it is considered correct to count things that come in integers of 12 with the 12 base system, and things that come in integers of 10 with the 10 base system.
The numbers 1 through 12 are the same in both systems.
| 1 | án |
| 2 | ánat |
| 3 | tey |
| 4 | qatt |
| 5 | kín |
| 6 | s'a |
| 7 | het |
| 8 | yot |
| 9 | nif |
| 10 | des |
| 11 | yel |
| 12 | táwid' |
The numbers after 12 become different between the systems.
| 10 Base | 12 Base | |
|---|---|---|
| 13 | des teyn | táwid' án |
| 14 | des qatt | táwid' ánat |
| 15 | des kín | táwid' teyn |
| 16 | des s'a | táwid' qatt |
| 17 | des het | táwid' kín |
| 18 | des yot | táwid' s'a |
| 19 | des nif | towed' het |
| 20 | dyesat | táwid' yot |
| 21 | dyesat án | táwid' nif |
| 22 | dyesat ánat | táwid' des |
| 23 | dyesat tey | táwid' yel |
| 24 | dyesat qatt | tawíd'at |
So as you can see from this table, there are main base naming numbers for multiplies of 10 and 12. To make compound integers, you simply take the number and add the smaller number after it. The only other thing to memorize is the names of the different multiples. It's almost similar to the English number system.
| 10 Base | 12 Base | |
|---|---|---|
| 30 | teysat | tawíd'at s'a |
| 36 | teysat s'a | teywid' |
| 40 | qatsat | teywid' qatt |
| 48 | qatsat yot | qatwid' |
| 50 | kínsat | qatwid' ánat |
| 60 | s'asat | kínwid' |
| 70 | heqat | kínwid' des |
| 72 | heqat ánat | s'aswid' |
| 80 | yóqat | s'aswid' yot |
| 84 | yóqat qatt | hetwid' |
| 90 | niqat | hetwid' s'a |
| 96 | niqat s'a | yówid' |
| 100 | dorén | yówid' qatt |
| 108 | dorén yot | niwid' |
| 110 | dorén des | niwid' ánat |
| 120 | dorén dyesat | deswid' |
| 130 | dorén teysat | deswid' des |
| 132 | dorén teysat ánat | yelwid' |
| 140 | dorén qatsat | yelwid' yot |
| 144 | dorén qatsat qatt | dajǎ |