Aethêllan

Ancient Galern Aethêllan
Progress: 83%
Type
Fusional-Agglutinative
Alignment
Ergative-Absolutive
Head direction
Initial	Mixed		Final
Primary word order
Subject-verb-object
Tonal
No
Declensions
Yes
Conjugations
Yes
Genders
5
Nouns decline according to...
Case		Number
Definiteness		Gender
Verbs conjugate according to...
Voice		Mood
Person		Number
Tense		Aspect

Aethêllan is one of my main conlangs and was created out of joy, as linguistic experiment, and also to be the main classical language for my series of Fantasy novels. Aethêllan is spoken by the dominant species of Anmarla who are known as the Galern. The language has approximately 15 million speakers. At the time of my main novel series, the language and its native speakers are extinct, however Aethêllan is used as the language of academics, state and religious ceremonies, and record/document keeping. However only the upper class can read and speak it and even then only a minority of the upper classes. The seven languages of the nine different Kingdoms during this time are all descended from Aethêllan. Aethêllan is in turn descended from Vamynouynem.

This is a work of love and I ask any readers that, outside of any accidental grammatical mistakes, that they do not make any edits, however minor, without my permission and that this work is protected by copyright. Your understanding is greatly appreciated.

Background

Aethêllan is an SVO fusional-agglutinative language. The majority of information is placed on the nouns and verbs, and though it is an SVO language technically speaking it does allow for free word order.

Phonology

		Bilabial		Dental		Alveol.		Postalve.		Retrofl.		Palatal		Velar		Glottal
Plosives		p (p) pʷ (pw)	b (b) bʷ (bw)	t (t) tʷ (tw)			d (d) dʷ (dw)							k (k) kʷ (kw)		g (g) gʷ (gw)
Fricatives		f (f) fʷ (fw)	v (v) vʷ (vw)	θ (th)	ð (dh)	s (s) sʷ (sw)								x (h)		h (h)
Nasals		m (m)		n (n) nʷ (nw)
Trill				r (r)
Glides	Approxim.	ʍ (hw)	w (w)	ɹ (r)								j (y)
	Lateral Appr.			l (l)						ɭ (l)

Mutations

1. Both Approximants and Lateral Approximants are de-voiced before nasals.
2. /l/ becomes /ɭ/ after vowels.
3. /ɹ/ becomes /r/ before plosives.
4. /h/ becomes /x/ at the end of a word.

Diphthongs

Diphthong	IPA
ao	ɐʊ
ey	eɪ
ôe	ɔː
ŷe	ɪəː
ae	aɪ
eo	əj

Vowels

Vowels	IPA	Vowel	IPA
a	ɑ	o	ɒ
â	aː	ô	ɵː
á	æ	ó	əʊː
e	e	i	ɪ
ê	eːə	î	iː
u	u	ÿ	ɔɪː

Grammar and syntax

Syntax

Independent Clauses are SVO, whilst Dependent and Relative Clauses are SOV.

Stress

Aethêllan differs from languages such as English in that every vowel is pronounced fully and with clear distinction. The language does however place stress on the last syllable of a word, however this is not as important as stress is considered to be in English and other such similar languages. Any long vowels; those with diacritics or diphthongs, are stressed as well as the last syllable.

• E.g donsênanwê where the stress is on both sên and wê.

Structure

All derivational affixes are prefixes, and all other affixes are suffixes excluding the adverbial marker which is an infix for historical linguistic reasons. In regards to the order of the attaching of suffixes, case takes highest priority, followed by voice, aspect, then agreement, finally followed by any remaining suffixes.

• NB: Adjectives cannot be inflected with comparative and the Gradable suffix at the same time.

Verbs

In Aethêllan there are two classes of verbs and these two classes each have two forms of verbs both have three principle parts coming to a total of four different forms of verbs. There are some irregular verbs however they will not be included in this section. There are Strong Verbs and Weak Verbs. Unlike nouns however, the two verbs are not differentiated by their phonology nor by their meaning, rather one must learn the three principle parts in order to know to which class the verb belongs. Most verbs do have a rather obvious phonological pattern however reliance on phonological similarities will not be enough to properly learn all verbs and their corresponding forms correctly. As stated above, all irregular verbs will be, for the ease of formatting, displayed in another more convenient section. The three principal parts are the present active infinitive, the present imperfective, and the supine displayed in that order.

NB Which class and form each verb takes is dependent on the verb stem, which is not seen in writing or heard in everyday speech, thus the three principal parts make it clear to speakers whether the verb is a strong one or not and which paradigm the verb follows.

Aspect & Tense

Strong Verbs

These include verbs whose stems end in a plosive or a vowel. See the two examples below.

Strong Verb 1st Class

Aed - Aedar - Aedarh - To Rule

Aspect Tense	Aorist	Imperfective	Conative	Habitual	Perfect	Inceptive	Continuative	Terminative
Past	Aedáth	Aedâl	Aedarâl	Aedó	Aednen	Aedey	Aedion	Aedmen
Present	Aedán	Aedar	Aedarâl	Aedaró	Aedlen	Aeden	Aedarion	Aedemene
Future	Aedarin	Aedarv	Aedâla	Aedaró	Aedarlen	Aederen	Aedarân	Aedaremene

Edhe - Edhel - Edheh

Aspect Tense	Aorist	Imperfective	Conative	Habitual	Perfect	Inceptive	Continuative	Terminative
Past	Edhao	Edheoem	Edhâl	Edhó	Edhlar	Edhaen	Edhîm	Edhmen
Present	Aedán	Aedar	Aedarâl	Aedaró	Aedlen	Aeden	Aedarion	Aedemene
Future	Aedarin	Aedarv	Aedâla	Aedaró	Aedarlen	Aederen	Aedarân	Aedaremene

Weak Verbs

These include verbs whose stem ends in a fricative and any other possible consonant.

'Weak Verbs 1st Class

Vall - Vallak - Vallakam - To Betray

Aspect Tense	Aorist	Imperfective	Conative	Habitual	Perfect	Inceptive	Continuative	Terminative
Past	Vallakir	Vallakond	Vallakâl	Vallakó	Vallaken	Vallakey	Vallakerân	Vallakemen
Present	Vallak	Vallakân	Vallakae	Vallakó	Vallaket	Vallakek	Vallakarion	Vallakamir
Future	Vallakum	Vallakár	Vallakimâl	Vallakîv	Vallakelen	Vallaketh	Vallakasan	Vallakimen

Nouns

Cases

Cases
ERG	Ergative Agent
ABS	Absolutive Patient & Experiencer
DAT	Dative Indirect Object, Direction to
GEN	Genitive Description/Relation/Alienable Poss. e.g. Men of Rome
PART	Partitive Pertaining to a Group/Thing
POSS	Possessive Static Possessive
VOC	Vocative
ABES	Abessive Lack of Noun
INS	Instrumental
EQU	Equative Comparison

Case and Class Patradigms

In Aethêllan over time Case and Class/Gender have merged into one suffix. When Nouns take their Case and Class marker they now have a far more fusional method unlike its ancestor language Vamynouynem.

Strong Nouns are those which end in either a vowel, an approximant, or lateral approximant. Weak nouns are the remainder.

I The Human Noun Class

	Strong	Weak
Erg.	Gâla	Theyn
Abs.	Gâlam	Thêam
Dat.	Gâlal	Thêas
Gen.	Gâlÿ	Thênîs
Poss.	Gâlâ	Thênâ
Part.	Gâláth	Thênas
Abes.	Gâlthârum	Thênârum
Ins.	Gâlfen	Thênen
Equ.	Gâlanwen	Thênetwem
Voc.	Gâlô	Theyô

• NB Theyn is a weak verb due it to have a short diphthong, thus the first vowel of the diphthong is lengthened. This happens for all nouns with short diphthongs.
• NB The very slight difference here between the Dat. and Part. forms of Theyn are due to Theyn itself. I.E Theyn dropping its n in the Dat. form - this is irregular and only occurs only with Feminine Noun Stems ending in n
• NB The difference between the strong nouns of Class I and those of Class III is that in I the suffixes attaches to the root, rather than the lexical stem.
• Gâla translates roughly to Man though can also be used for both sexes.
• Theyn is often used for Woman though its literal meaning is One who gives birth.

II Non-Human Noun Class

	Strong	Weak
Erg.	Kallâr	Mârith
Abs.	Kallâl	Mârth
Dat.	Kallâs	Mâros
Gen.	Kallâsî	Mârîm
Poss.	Kallârem	Mârâ
Part.	Kallâmen	Mârismen
Abes.	Kallâvenîm	Mârisârem
Ins.	Kallâkal	Mârigir
Equ.	Kallâkthîl	Mârinvith
Voc.	Kallô	Mârô

• Kallâr translates to Sea-Bird.
• Mârith translates to Snake.

III Flora Noun Class

	Strong	Weak
Erg.	Tiwâr	Fwin
Abs.	Tiwârn	Fwinelth
Dat.	Tiwâras	Fwines
Gen.	Tiwârîs	Fwinîs
Poss.	Tiwârâ	Fwinân
Part.	Tiwâráth	Fwinenne
Abes.	Tiwârthârum	Fwinârum
Ins.	Tiwârfen	Fwinestes
Equ.	Tiwâranwen	Fwinemwen
Voc.	Tiwârô	Fwinô

• Tiwâr is a very tall hard tree similar in appearance to that of our Oak.
• Fwin is a little vine that lives on larger trees and has tiny white flowers.

Personal Pronouns

First Person
		Exclusive		Inclusive
Erg.	Ne (I)	Be (We)		Ma (We)
Abs.	Nwa (Me)	Bá (Us)		Mwa (Us)
Poss.	Nedh (My/Mine)	Bedh (Ours)		Medh (Ours)
Dat.	Nin (to Me)	Bân (to Us)		Mân (to Us)
Inst	Nâ (by Me)	Bâ (by Us)		Mâ (by Us)
Second Person
	Living			Non-Living
	Singular (Exclusive)	Plural (Inclusive)		Singular
Erg.	Lâ (Thou)	Eoâ (Thou)		Se (It)
Abs.	Lîn (Thee)	Eoŷe (Thee)		So (It)
Poss.	Lan (Thy)	Eoin (Thine)		Só (Its)
Dat.	Of (to Thee)	Eois (to Thee)		Sem (to It)
Inst.	Fen (by Thou)	Eoân (by Thou)		Sân (by It)
Third Person Singular
	Living & Non-Gendered		Non-Living & Neutral
Erg.	De (He/She)		Dha (It)
Abs.	Den (Him/Her)		Dhan (It)
Poss.	Des (His/Hers)		Dhas (Its)
Dat.	Del (to Him/Her)		Dhal (to It)
Inst.	Ten (by Him/Her)		Than (by It)
Third Person Plural
	Living & Non-Gendered		Non-Living & Neutral
Erg.	Mer (They)		Thâ (Its)
Abs.	Mon (Them)		The (Its)
Poss.	Mir (Theirs)		Theth (Its)
Dat.	Men (to Them)		Than (To Its)
Inst.	Meth (by Them)		Thâ (by Its)

Derivation

All the following are Prefixes which remove the first vowel (if applicable, i.e is simply added if the word begins with a consonant).

Derivation Pattern	Affix & Example
Adjective --> Adverb	- Quick > Quickly
Adjective --> Noun	- Happy > Happiness
Noun --> Verb	- Glory > Glorify
Noun --> Adjective	- Recreation > Recreational
Adjectives --> Transitive Verbs	- Rich > Enrich
Nouns --> Transitive Verbs	- Rapture > Enrapture
Transitive Verbs --> Intransitive Verbs (Antipassive Voice) Agent/Experience and Patient/Focus swap places	Ablaut E.g.to hit > to be hit by to like > to be pleasing to
Intransitive Verbs --> Transitive Verbs Increase transitivity, turn impersonal verb into agent-intransitive, Intransitive verb into transitive, transitive into ditransitive	Ablaut to rain > to water (plants, etc.) to have > to give
Inchoative/Inceptive Verb	See Inceptive Aspect
Catenative Verb	-
Opposite (Quality)	- Happy > sad, clear > vague
opposite (reverse action) Agent and patient remain the same, action of the verb changes	- Earn <==> spend, borrow <==> repay
Motion Purpose Go somewhere in order to do VERB	- to buy > to go shopping
Nominal Participle Person who is doing VERB at the current moment (Also inflects for tense)	- Run > runner
Person who does verb habitually	- Write > writer
Place where VERB is typically done	- to cook > kitchen, to sleep > bedroom
Place with lots of NOUN	- Book > library, tree > forest
Tool or substance used for doing VERB	- to write > writing implement, to wash > soap
ADJ = made of NOUN	- Gold > golden, wood > wooden
ADJ = having lot of/ some of NOUN	- Money > rich, trash > messy
ADJ = lacking/sparsity of NOUN	- Tooth > toothless, money > poor
Augmentation	- House > mansion, cat > lion
Pejoration	- Man > scoundrel, child > brat
ADJ = tending to often do VERB/be ADJ	- think > thoughtful, forget > forgetful
VERB = to use NOUN in a typical way	- Lips > kiss, Hammer > to hammer