Valian

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Revision as of 16:15, 17 August 2013 by Chrysophylax (talk | contribs) (→‎Nouns)
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Background

Phonology

Vowels

Vowel phonemes of 17aug
Front Back
Unrounded Rounded Unrounded Rounded
Close i iː y yː u uː
Mid e eː ø øː ɤ ɤː o oː
Open æ æː ɑ ɑː

Word and sentence final short vowels are often pronounced slightly longer than their non-final counterparts (e.g. salma 'faith' [ˈsɑlmɑˑ]).

Consonants

Consonant of 17aug
Labial Alveolar Post-
alveolar
Palatal Velar Glottal
plain palatalized
Nasal m n (nʲ) (ŋ)1
Plosive p t (tʲ) k
Fricative v s (sʲ) (x)2 h
Approximant l (lʲ)3 j
Trill r

Notes:

  1. [ŋ] only occurs as an allophone of [n] before [k].
  2. [x] is a word-final allophone of [h] (e.g. rakah 'wound' [ˈrɑg̥ɑx]).
  3. [lʲ] is encountered in free variation with [ʎ] in certain varieties of speech (e.g. Sanahta dialect leia 'while' [ʎeiɑˑ~lʲeiɑˑ]).

Consonants may be palatalised; this occurs for p, t, n, l, s before i, e.

Phonotactics

Orthography

17aug writes its 18 vowels with 9 different characters, a e i o u ä ë ö ü, doubled to indicate the long version.

Grammar

Morphology

Nouns

Nouns in 17aug can be inflected for number, gender, and possession. Unlike the pronouns, they are not inflected for case ever. Instead, 17aug requires noun-heavy sentences to obey a quite fix word order to mark objects and subjects.

Pronouns

Pronouns are quite distinct from nouns in morphological analysis. For one, they decline for three cases: nominative (nom), genitive-dative (gen-dat), and oblique(obl). They are also inflected for number, but unlike true nouns they never receive marking for possession. This means that pronouns are one of the freer elements in 17aug and sentences composed primarily of pronouns need not follow the otherwise so rigid subject-verb-object word order.

Morphology

Syntax