Dundulanyä

Dundulanyä
dundulanyä ḫamfafa
Pronunciation	[dundulɐnjɛ ħɐmɸɐɸɐ]
Created by	Lili21
Date	Dec 2021
Setting	Eventoa
Ethnicity	Dundulanyä; Neo-Dundulanyä
Native speakers	1,946,000,000 (4140)
Language family	East Mandabudi (areal) Dundulanyä
Early form	Pre-Dundulanyä
Standard form	Modern Standard Dundulanyä
Official status
Official language in	Confederation of the United Dundulanyä Republics

Dundulanyä [dundulɐnjɛ], natively known as dundulanyä ḫamfafa [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		n̼		n		ɳ		ɲ		ŋ1
Stops	Unvoiced	p	pʰ2	t̼	t̼ʰ	t̪	t̪ʰ	ʈ	ʈʰ	c͡ɕ	c͡ɕʰ	k	kʰ	ʔ
	Voiced	b	bʱ	d̼	d̼ʱ	d̪	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. ṅ /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 + ḫ → geminated and aspirated plosive, e.g. śud-ḫana → śuddhana "rule"; nisakh-ḫamfa → nisakkhamfa "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	ṛ	ar	ār
V	i	ä	ē
VI	ya	i	ī
VII	va	u	ū
VIII	ra	ṛ	ṝ

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".

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/ṛ 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)

	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)
	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 -ä 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", 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" — mā or māmu
• atabū or batū "father" — bā 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 ṝ, 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 ṛ or ṝ, 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 + -ī.

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
ᘔ	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
1Ɛ	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 Calémere – Eventoa – 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).