Wistanian

Wistanian [əˈniɡəˌlilɑn]
Spoken in:	Wistania
Conworld:	Vale
Total Speakers:	~ 50,000,000
Genealogical classification:	Taliv    - Taliv-Nati Pidgin       - Wistanian
Basic word order:	Verb-Subject-Object
Morphological Type:	Analytical
Morphosyntactic Alignment:	Nominative-Accusative
Created by:
Paul A. Daly	Began: January 2017 Published: January 2018
Further Resources
Wistanian Lexicon (WIP)	r/wistanian on Reddit

Wistanian (IPA: /wɪsˈteɪni.ən/), natively known as anigalilaun (IPA: /əˈniɡəˌlilɑn/), is the first constructed language (conlang) by world-builder, writer, and professional amateur Paul A. Daly, written in 2017 and 2018. The language was created for a novel series. The first novel is near completion, but will likely remain unpublished until the author finishes his education.

The language is spoken on the fictional planet Vale, on a large yet isolated island called Wistania. The language belongs to the Talivian sub-family, which evolved steadily throughout the Taliv's existence. After having been settled on by the Taliv for several hundred years, the island became the new home for the Bwolotil people, who had fled to the island to hide a large collection of magical and extremely dangerous ajmastones. The Bwolitil were originally apathetic toward the Taliv until they discovered that the Taliv held one such ajmastone as a central symbol of their culture. The Bwolotil, therefore, engaged in war with the Taliv to apprehend their ajmastone. Three separate people groups also inhabited the island during this war, one of which was the Nati people who allied with the Taliv to win the war. This alliance led to the formation of the Taliv-Nati pidgin, which was later named anigalilaun, meaning "the language of peace". During the events of the novel series (about 300 years after the end of the war) Wistanian is the majority language of the island. The language also has a number of influences from the Katapu (sister peoples to the Nati and known for their religious traditionalism), the Uzin (a people distantly related to the Bwolotil who settled the island shortly after the beginning of the war), and the Bwolotil.

Wistanian is typologically an analytic language with very small elements of agglutination. Its grammar is initially simple to grasp, lacking noun gender and case, and possessing few verbal conjugations, although most of its difficulty is syntactic and lexical. Despite having a rather regular morphology due to pidginization, there are several groups of words within the same lexical category which operate differently from each other. Wistanian is primarily written using the Talivian Alphabet, but some alternate scripts do exist, namely the Diwa Alphabet and Nati Abugida.

Introduction

The island of Wistania

Setting

Wistanian is spoken on the fictional island nation of Wistania. The language stems from a pidgin created between the Nati and Taliv languages during The Wistanian War. After the peace treaty was signed, the Katapu, who were allied with Nati and Taliv but inactive in the war, documented and refined the Nati-Taliv Pidgin for use in the newly established government. Wistanian features mostly Taliv grammar, Nati vocabulary, Katapu influences, many Bwolotil loan words, and scientific terms, mathematics, and the lunar calendar derived from the work of the Uzin. Wistanian's native name, anigalilaun, is a compound of ani (language) and galilaun (peace). It is translated literally as "Peace Language."

The five different people groups of Wistania remained isolated from each other for part of the post-war era. However, trade and intermarriage became more commonplace, requiring a competent lingua franca. This is followed by religious evangelism by the Katapu, engineering from the Uzin, and entertainment from the Nati, all of which Wistanian was the primary language for distribution and promotion. Eventually, the language became taught as a mandatory subject in school. After only a couple centuries, Wistanian advanced from a government-only auxiliary language into the national language of the island, natively and fluently spoken by most of its citizens.

As a result, Wistanian is mostly regular, with a moderately small phonological inventory and vast dialectal variation. It is the most spoken and embraced by the Taliv and Nati people groups, and the least spoken by the Bwolotil people group, who often protest the language's difficulty. The other five languages are still spoken, especially the Bwolotil language which still has a number of monolingual non-Wistanian speakers. Both the Uzin and Katapu have important texts written in their languages, while Taliv and Nati have shifted into archaism, although they are still taught in school.

Goals

Wistanian was created with three goals in mind:

1. To be naturalistic, yet unique. It should have its own unique phonology, grammar, and lexicon, not identical to any natural language on earth, but still naturalistic and sensible.
2. To represent the Wistanian culture. This language was designed for songs and speeches, bedtime stories and battle cries, gentle wisdom and fierce ambition, hope and struggle. This language is designed for the Wistanians: their personality, their history, and their heart.
3. To be novel-friendly. Crazy letters and long words will confuse and alienate most readers, which is why Wistanian was designed to have short, easily readable words that readers can enjoy, one small sentence at a time.

Inspiration

Like most first conlangs, Wistanian started as an English relex (but without tense and articles). However, after nearly six mass revisions over two years, Wistanian has become its own unique language. It's influenced by several languages, especially Spanish and Tamil, but their influence is mostly found in the lexicon while contributing only minimally to the grammar.

Phonology

Inventory

Consonants

The Wistanian symbol of peace, modelled after the zoraddin flower.

The consonants are as follows (allophones are in [brackets]):

		Labial	Alveolar1	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m	n		[ŋ]2
Stop	voiced	b	d		ɡ
	unvoiced	p	t		k
Fricative		v	z	ʒ	[ɣ]3	ɦ
Liquid		w ~ βʷ4	ɾ ~ r5	j
Lateral			l

1. Alveolars (except /ɾ ~ r/) are pronounced laminally.
2. n > ŋ / _[velar]
3. ɦ > ɣ / #_, [stress]_
4. /w/ is spoken in emphasized or slow speech, while /βʷ/ is spoken in quick speech. Whenever immediately following a consonant, this is always pronounced as /w/. In the Western Dialect, it is always pronounced as /w/.
5. /r/ is spoken in emphasized or slow speech, while /ɾ/ is spoken in quick speech. In some words, the trilled is preferred even in quick speech; for example, ggarauni (large) is almost always pronounced [kəˈrɑni].

Vowels

The vowels are as follows (allophones in [brackets]):

	Front	Central	Back
High	i [ɪ]1		ɯ [u]2
Mid	e	[ə]1
Low		a	ɑ [ɒ]2
Diphthong: ai̯

• All vowels lengthen when stressed.
• All vowels become breathy after /ɦ/.

1. /i/ and /a/ shift to [ɪ] and [ə] whenever unstressed. The only exception is when /i/ follows /j/, /w/, or /l/ or is at the end of a word.
2. /ɯ/ and /ɑ/ shift to [u] and [ɒ] after /w~βʷ/.

Phonotactics

Syllable Structure

Wistanian has a (C/FA)V(N) syllable structure where C represents any consonant, F represents any fricative, A represents /j/ or /w/, V represents any vowel, and N represents any consonant that is not /j/, /w/, or /ɦ/.

Syllable onsets may be any consonant or any fricative followed by /j/ or /w/:

• m, n, p, b, t, d, k, ɡ, v, vj, vw, z, zj, zw, ʒ, ʒj, ʒw, ɦ, ɦj, ɦw, w, r, j, l.

Syllable nuclei may be any vowel:

• i, e, a, ɑ, ɯ, ai̯

Syllable coda may be any consonant that is not /j/, /w/, or /ɦ/.

• m, n, p, t, k, b, d, ɡ, v, z, ʒ, ɾ, l

Stress

Stress usually falls on the first non-lax vowel (/ai̯/, /i/, /e/, /a/, /ɯ/, or /ɑ/). But there are many exceptions, especially where the vowels /i/ and /a/ come into place since you must know whether or not those sounds are the stressed /i/ or /a/ or the lax [ɪ] or [ə]. A prime example is between the words viman and viman, which are spelled identically. When stress is on the /i/ as in [ˈvimən], the word means “sugar”, but when stress is on the /a/ as in [vɪˈman], the word means “sky.” /ai̯/ and /e/ are always stressed. /ɯ/ is always stressed unless it's word-initial (in which case it will usually shift to [ʊ]). /ɑ/ is usually stressed unless non-lax /a/ or /i/ are present. Secondary stress is also lexical, but rare. Many particles and common monosyllabic words are not stressed unless the feature the /e/ or /ai̯/ vowels. (E.g.,va is normally [və], and zi is normally [zɪ]; but aa is normally [ˈe].)

Stress is realized through vowel lengthening and sometimes a higher intonation.

Prosody

In Wistanian culture, speaking loudly is considered rude. Therefore, Wistanian language is typically spoken softly and clearly. It is arguably a stress-timed language that realizes stressed syllables and stressed words by lengthening vowel duration.

Orthography

Romanization

Wistanian employs its own script, but it is romanized with a system that reflects the script and its spellings. The romanization rules are as follows:

• /m/, /n/, /b/, /d/, /ɡ/, /v/, /z/, and /l/ are represented with the corresponding IPA symbol.
• /p/, /t/, and /k/ are represented by ⟨bb⟩, ⟨dd⟩, and ⟨gg⟩, respectively.
• /ʒ/, /ɦ/, /ɾ~r/, /w~βʷ/ and /j/ are represented by ⟨j⟩, ⟨h⟩, ⟨r⟩, ⟨w⟩, and ⟨y⟩, respectively.
• /ɯ/ and [u] are represented by ⟨u⟩.
• /a/ and [ə] are represented by ⟨a⟩.
• /i/ and [ɪ] are represented by ⟨i⟩.
• /ai̯/ is represented by ⟨ai⟩.
• /e/ is represented by ⟨aa⟩.
• /ɑ/ and [ɒ] is represetned by ⟨au⟩.

Wistanian employs a number of peculiar digraphs: ⟨bb⟩ = /p/, ⟨dd⟩ = /t/, ⟨gg⟩ = /k/, ⟨aa⟩ = /e/, and ⟨au⟩ = /ɑ/, .

When Wistanian writing was developed, /p t k/ only existed allophonically, and /e, ɑ/ did not exist at all. Therefore, glyphs were not made for those sounds. As the language changed and came into contact with other languages, /p t k/ became distinct sounds. Rather than making new glyphs, spellers decided to double up ⟨b⟩, ⟨d⟩, and ⟨g⟩. /e/ is only present in loan words, and the emergence of /ɑ/ is not yet decided, although it's likely due to some conditional /a/ shifting and substrate influence. Since there are only three vowel glyphs, they combined ⟨a⟩ with ⟨u⟩ to represent /ɑ/ as ⟨au⟩, doubled up ⟨a⟩ to represent /e/ as ⟨aa⟩, and kept ⟨ai⟩ as the digraph for the language's only diphthong, /ai/. ⟨ii, ia, iu, ui, ua, uu⟩ are respelled as ⟨yi, ya, yu, wi, wa, wu⟩.

The Wistanian script.

Script

Wistanian has an alphabet which represents the different sounds in Wistanian. The alphabet was inspired by Latin, IPA, and Greek, but is often described as Armenian-looking. The font, based on Cambria, was created using Autodesk Sketchbook for the iPad and converted into a font using Calligraphr and TypeLight.

The script, often referred to as araman taliv auzanigza (lit. "dishes of the Taliv") began its evolution during the Diwa oppression when the Taliv people were secretly plotting escape by setting their dishes outside their homes in certain orders to convey messages. After their escape and resettlement on the Wistanian island, the dishes gave form to the written language.

Another interesting feature of the script is "compound glyphs." They are /k/, /t/, /p/, /e/, and /ɑ/, and they are made by doubling or combining two different glyphs together. This is why the romanization of Wistanian uses ⟨gg⟩ for /k/, ⟨au⟩ for /ɑ/, as well as the other digraphs.

Like the lexicon and grammar, Daly redesigned the Wistanian script multiple times - three, to be exact. The original script was an alphabet, but it did not capture the "spirit" of Wistanian, so it was scrapped for an abugida. The abugida, which was beautiful, was also difficult to learn and write, prompting yet another redesign. The original design is now considered as the old Diwa alphabet, while the abugida is an alternative script used by the Nati.

Dialectal Variation

Wistanian has three main dialects: Standard (Central), Western, and Northern.

The Standard dialect is explained as above and is required to be spoken by all government officials, messengers, and professional educators. This dialect is influenced heavily by the Taliv and Nati languages, and as a result is spoken predominately and naturally by those two people groups in addition to the Uzin in the northwest. However, some variation is still present, primarily in regards to word-final plosive dropping (e.g. alaudd (tall, high) [əˈlɑt] > [əˈlɑ]), a habit present in most children and domestic laborers. Uzin speakers have a similar shift, {p t k} > [ʔ] / _#, including a > æ and j > ʎ / V_V. Regardless, this is only considered a "variation" of the Standard Dialect that government officials and messengers ought to train against.

The Western Dialect, spoken predominately by the Bwolotil, has several distinguishing factors, specifically the complete rounding of /ɯ ɑ/ to /u ɒ/ and the rounding of /i e/ to /y ø/ after /w/. Schwas are commonly dropped in between consonants, and /n/ is dropped before /ɡ k/. This dialect also has several lexical differences, such as different kinship terms, specialized vocabulary, unique figures of speech, and the lack of honorifics. This dialect also features a formal register, spoken among Bwolotil strangers, where VSO word order is replaced with SOV word order.

The Northern Dialect, spoken by many Katapu, is primarily distinguished through extensive devoicing in both fricatives and plosives so that words such as vigaz /viɡaz/ are pronounced [fikas]. Standard /p t k/ are ejectivized as /p' t' k'/. This dialect also tends to put nasals and voiced plosives as interchangeable so that ani could be pronounced as [ani] or [adi]. Vowels also undergo a number of shifts, such as ɯ, ɑ > ʊ, o. Like the Western Dialect, the Northern dialect features different kinship terms, specialized vocabulary, unique figures of speech, and a formal register. In contrast, the Katapu has a large collection of honorifics which are based on age, sex, and occupation.

Syntax

needs expansion

Wistanian follows a fairly rigid syntax and tight grammar for a number of historical reasons. Firstly, due to its pidginization with the Nati language, Taliv lost most of its irregularities and exceptions. Secondly, as the Katapu began to teach Wistanian, they had spread false information to "make more sense" of the language, which resulted in further simplification that was later adopted as standard. In Wistanian's infancy, it was almost engineered to be as efficient as possible. However, learners were still able to incorporate features from their native language into Wistanian, providing it with several of its current syntactical quirks (e.g., imperative word order was introduced by the Taliv learners).

Lexical Categories

Wistanian has five traditional lexical categories (parts of speech): the noun (davagg), the verb (anai), the modifier (yigbizaun), the particle (mauvaldul), and the honorofics (jili).

Nouns	davagg	Any word that takes on nominal morphology and can act as a subject or object the verb.
Verbs	anai	Any word that takes on verbal morphology.
Modifiers	yigbizaun	Any word that describes or specifies another word.
Particles	mauvaldul	Any word that has a grammatical role and cannot take on any additional morphemes.
Honorifics	jili	A polite title used with many proper nouns.

Some scholars argue that there are more parts of speech. For example,wi and igza are arguably more semantically fit to be postpositions. However, they are treated like modifiers morphologically, and therefore labeled as such. Relativizers va, na, ggaun, and ddal could possibly constitute their own part of speech since they do act slightly differently than most particles and carry both a semantic and grammatical meaning.

Nouns include colors, numbers, and possessive pronouns, therefore they are never treated as modifiers. In order to use them to modify a noun, one must use the relativizer particle va.

alalyi dari va din.
alali-i   dari va din.
run  -TEL boy  COP.REL three.
"The three boys ran (to something)."

Word Order

Wistanian has predominant Verb-Subject-Object word order, modifiers that follow their head, post-positional suffixes, and particles that come before their head. Modifier phrases will usually come at the beginning or end of the sentence.

azavyi ravu miram wi daz ilam aa naulam ggarauni va din ggaun maumu va zi.
azavi-i   ravu miram wi  daz ilam  aa  naulam ggarauni va  din   ggaun maumu  va  zi.
carry-TEL fast store ADE man young ACC melon  large    COP three BEN   mother COP 3Sa.POSS.
"The young man quickly carried large melons that are three to the store for his mother."
*carried fast store to man young melons which.is three large for mother who.is his.

Questions

Questions will typically follow the same syntactic pattern as declarative sentences, except with rising intonation. All questions should end with the question particle a (Q). This is especially important in writing since the Talivian Alphabet does not have an equivalent to the question mark. However, some dialects and informal registers do not include it in speech. In speech, the question particle is typically stressed.

Polar

Typically, Yes/No questions will consist of a statement followed by zau/baun (Yes/No).

magin va raul, zau a?
magin va  raul, zau a?
table COP red,  yes Q?
"Is the table red?” (Lit. "The table is red, yes?")

Non-Polar

Non-polar or content questions are formed using a "dangling particle" and rising intonation, inviting the listener to respond by completing the thought.

lu va a?
lu     va  a?
2S.NOM COP Q?
“Who are you?” (Lit. "You are...?")

yigai auzi aa a?
yiga -i   auzi    aa  a?
speak-TEL 3Sa.NOM ACC Q.
"What did he say?" (Lit. "He said...?")

ddaij yaun auv a?
dda-i  -j   yaun   auv  a?
go -TEL-IRR 1P.NOM when Q?
"When will we go?" (Lit. "We will go when/during...?)

yi luj ddal a?
yi      luj  ddal a?
1S.POSS boat LOC  Q?
"Where is my boat?" (Lit. "My boat is located in...?)

magin va raul, diri a?
magin va  raul, diri a?
table COP red,  why Q?
“Why is the table red?” (Lit. "The table is red because...?")

Imperatives

In imperatives, word order changes to VOS. In polite requests, a speaker uses the irrealis mood conjugation on the main verb and includes a subject noun (usually an honorific). In rude demands, the speaker does not use the irrealis mood conjugation nor includes a subject noun.

vigaj aa garauda baul.
viga-a    -j   aa  garauda baul.
eat -ATEL -IRR ACC food    HON.
"Please, eat the food, sir."

viga aa garauda.
viga-a    -∅ aa  garauda ∅
eat -ATEL    ACC food 
"Eat the food (as a rude demand)."

Location

Wistanian does not have a consistent way to express the location of an object or action; it instead uses a variety of methods and means to declare where something is taking place, including relativizers, modifiers, verbs, and compound nouns.

The most basic of the locative strategies is the locative relativizer itself, ddal. By using this relativizer to connect two ideas, a Wistanian speaker is saying that A is located in/on B.

garauda ddal magin.
garauda ddal magin.
food    LOC  table.
"The food is on the table."

ujadi ggarauni ddal maliyan.
ujadi ggarauni ddal maliya  -n.
house large    LOC  mountain-PL.
"The large house is in the mountains."

To express nearness to an object (A is located near B), B is given the modifier wi (glosses as ADE for adessive), which follows its head. To express distance from an object (A is located far from B), B is given the modifier igza (glossed as DSTV for distantive), which also follows its head.

luj ddal garauvi wi.
luj  ddal garauvi wi.
boat LOC  water   ADE.
"The boat is near the water."

luj ddal garauvi igza.
luj  ddal garauvi igza.
boat LOC  water   DSTV.
"The boat is far away from the water."

To express that something is located above or below another object (A is located above/below B), B compounds with auzdda (head) to express above, and compounds with zanju (foot) to express below.

luj ddal garauvizanju.
luj ddal garauvi-zanju.
boat LOC water  -foot.
"The boat is underwater."

luj ddal garauvjauzdda.
luj  ddal garauvi-auzdda.
boat LOC  water  -head..
"The boat is above the water."

These compounds can also be combined with wi or igza to emphasize how close or how far A is below/above B.

luj ddal garauvizanju igza.
luj  ddal garauvi-zanju igza.
boat LOC  water  -foot  DSTV.
"The boat is far under the water" (implies that it's sunk to the bottom.)

Another method, which does not use the locative ddal, is the use of stative verbs, mainly vizaniya (come.STA meaning "to be within") and zwiliya (leave.STA, meaning "to be outside").

mala yaun gaun vizaniya aa ujadi.
mala -a    yaun   gaun vizana-iya aa  ujadi.
fight-ATEL 1P.NOM ACT  come  -STA ACC house.
"We fight inside the house." 
* "fight we who have come into the house"

yaun vizaniya aa ujadi.
yaun   vizana-iya aa  ujadi.
1P.NOM come -STA  ACC house.
"We are in the house."
* "We have come into the house."

Locative clauses do not modify verbs directly, but rather modify the subject. This includes sentences that use verbs like "go."

ddai yau ujadi wi.
dda-i   yau    ujadi wi.
go -TEL 1S.NOM house ADE.
"I go to the house."
* "go I house near."

nada lu luj igza.
nada-a lu luj igza.
walk-ATEL 2S.NOM boat DSTV.
"You walk away from the boat."
* "walk you boat away."

Morphology

Wistanian has a low morpheme-to-root ratio, most words being inflectionless and rather interacting with nearby words and word order to express grammatical (and sometimes lexical) distinctions.

Nouns

Wistanian nouns come in three classes: proper, improper, and pronouns. Proper nouns refer to names of people or places ("Wistania", "Alija"), while improper nouns refer to generic terms (e.g., "country", "man"), and pronouns refer to substitute words for other nouns and noun phrases. Proper nouns are never inflected, however, improper nouns can be inflected for the plural number, be compounded, or undergo derivational morphology to become a verb or modifier. Pronouns can take on more inflections than improper nouns.

Number

Wistanian has three grammatical numbers: singular, paucal, and plural. Proper nouns do not inflect for number at all, improper nouns only distinguish between paucal and plural, while pronouns only distinguish singular and plural. This unique distinction arose as a result of Middle Taliv, which had a singular/paucal/plural distinction, then merged the paucal and singular before it transitioned to New Taliv. The pronouns, however, maintained the singular/paucal/plural distinction, then later lost the paucal, resulting in a singular/plural distinction in pronouns.

All count nouns can be declined into the plural number with the suffix -(a)n. For improper nouns, they are not conjugated as plural if a) there is only one or a few of a thing, or b) it is modified with a number phrase.

Pronouns

Pronouns come in five persons: first, second, third animate, third inanimate, and third person spiritual.

• 1st person singular (1S) pronouns are used to refer to the speaker. First person plural (1P) is used to refer to the speaker and an indeterminate number of others.
• 2nd person singular (2S) pronouns are used to refer to the listener/reader. 2nd person plural (2P) is used to refer to two or more listeners/readers.
• 3rd person animate pronouns are used to refer to people and some animals, especially pets and birds. They come as both singular (3Sa) and plural (3Pa).
• 3rd person inanimate pronouns are used to refer to wild animals, objects, events, noun clauses, and even entire sentences. They come as both singular (3Si) and plural (3Pi).
• 3rd person spiritual pronouns are used to refer to spirits, sacred objects and places, and the dead. They come as both singular (3Ss) and plural (3Ps).

These five persons are split into three grammatical categories:

• Nominative (NOM) Used as the subject of the sentence.
• Accusative (ACC) Used as the object of the sentence.
• Possessive (POSS) Used for possession. Often omitted if context is clear.

		Possessive	Nominative	Accusative
1st Person	SG	yi	yau	dau
	PL	yin	yaun	daun
2nd Person	SG	luhi	lu	lun
	PL	luhin	liv	livan
3rd Person Animate	SG	zi	auzi
	PL	zin	auzin
3rd Person Inanimate	SG	vi		vai
	PL	vin		vain
3rd Person Spiritual	SG	ji	ja
	PL	jin	jan

Compounding

auvinauj, the name a nocturnal and bioluminescent bird native to Wistania, is a product of productive noun compounding. The head root for "bird" (auvi) is followed by the subordinate root for "night" (nauj).

Both improper nouns and pronouns can undergo compounding. Improper nouns undergo subordinative compounding, while pronouns undergo coordinating compounding. Proper nouns are never compounded.

Subordinative compounds consist of two improper nouns, one is the subject noun, and the other is the modifying noun. Consider the compound “toothbrush.” “Brush” is what the noun is actually referring to, and “tooth” specifies what type of brush it is. Wistanian compounds are head-initial so that the main noun comes first as if one were to say “brushtooth.”

vindi  -gin
partner-road
"Road partner" (One who travels with another)

Coordinating compounds are formed of two pronouns and can expand the semantic reach of a pronoun.

yaulu
1S.NOM-2S.NOM
"Me and you / You and I"

In this instance, the pronouns have dropped the "and" conjunctions and joined together. This would be similar to saying "Meyou are eating dinner together." rather than "Me and you are eating dinner together." This joining cannot be random, however. The terms must be ordered as such: 1st > 2nd > 3rd An. > 3rd Inan. > 3rd Sp.

GOOD                 BAD

luhauzi              auzilu
lu    -(h)auzi       auzi   -lu
2S.NOM-3Sa.NOM       3Sa.NOM-2S.NOM
"You and he."        "He and you."

Verbs

THIS SECTION IS INCOMPLETE

Verbs, which tend to be expressed at the beginning of a sentence, are defined as any state or action applied to or applied by the subject. Wistanian verbs conjugate between the stative aspect, durative aspect, durative/perfective aspect, and irrealis mood. There are also a number of verbal particles (featured at the beginning of a VP) that denote conditional, telic, gnomic, permissive, obligative, and potential moods. There are a number of suffixes that can derive nouns from verbs. Tense is not marked but rather implied through context.

All verbs possess either an ⟨-a⟩, ⟨-i⟩, or ⟨-u⟩ stem. Nouns or loan words that are added to the Wistanian lexicon are typically given the ⟨-a⟩ stem. Therefore ⟨-i⟩ and ⟨-u⟩ stems are usually attributed to verbs from Taliv unless a non-Talivian verb already ended with ⟨-i⟩ or ⟨-u⟩ (or a similar sound). These stems influence the conjugation paradigms of a verb, mainly by shifting to ⟨y⟩ if the stem is ⟨-i⟩ or ⟨w⟩ if the stem is ⟨-u⟩. Unconjugated, the verb acts as a gerund.

All Wistanian verbs are ambitransitive, meaning that they can be either intransitive or transitive. This is accomplished by assuming a directional semantic role upon a verb. For example, buda means "walk" as an intransitive durative verb and means "walk to" as a transitive durative verb. aadi can mean "sit" as an intransitive stative verb or "sit on" as a transitive stative verb. This can also be achieved by allowing phrases such as "I sleep a nap," and "It rained a storm."

Aspect

Aspect is chiefly lexical in Wistanian, conjugating verbs as either stative, which indicated a state of the subject noun, or durative, which indicates the action of a subject. For example, the verb hadu means "know" in the stative and "learn" in the durative. The verb dula means "wear" in the stative and "put on" in the durative. The verb vaiza means "need" in the stative and "run out of" in the durative.

The durative verb can also take on an additional suffix, the perfective ⟨-i⟩, which reacts to the durative ⟨-a⟩, becoming ⟨-ai⟩.

	Stative	Durative	Perfective
dula	duliya (to be wearing)	dula (to be putting on)	dulai (to have put on)
aadi	aadiya (to be sitting)	aadya (to be sitting down)	aadyai (to have sat down)
hadu	hadiya (to be knowing)	hadwa (to be learning)	hadwai (to have learned)

Stative

Stative verbs (STA) describe a situation or action that is unchanging over a long period of time. Stative verbs do not describe temporary actions, but rather the result of a temporary action or a series of temporary actions that identify the subject. They are marked on a verb by dropping the stem and adding ⟨-iya⟩.

Durative

The durative aspect (DUR) is a dynamic aspect which indicates that an action is in progress from one state to another.

Perfective

The Perfective Aspect (PFV) is applied to a dynamic verb that has been completed, strongly implying the past tense. Although the perfective is formed by adding ⟨-i⟩ to the durative ⟨-a⟩, becoming ⟨-ai⟩, it is glossed only as PFV rather than DUR-PFV for the sake of saving space.

Mood

Irrealis

Irrealis verbs describe an action that has not occurred. This mood is applied to verbs in the future "tense", interrogative and polite imperative sentences, and conditional, obligative, and potential moods. Irrealis verbs are conjugated with the suffix ⟨-j⟩. It is not applied to negated verbs.

Conditional

The conditional mood (COND) is used to form "if" clauses, such as "if she sings" and "if we go", etc. This is homonymous with the question particle, and they are often considered the same word. The verb head of the conditional particle is always conjugated for the irrealis mood.

 a murwij ya, junaij lu ddal dim dau.
 a    muru-i   -j   yau,    juna-i  -j   lu     ddal dim  dau.
 COND die -PFV -IRR 1S.NOM, bury-PFV-IRR 2S.NOM LOC  hill 1S.ACC. 
 "If I die, you will bury me on the hill."

Permissive

The permissive mood (PRM) denotes the permission or ability to do an action, corresponding with English "can" and "may". To denote prohibition or incapability, the speaker will attach the negation prefix to the verb. The irrealis conjugation is not applied to the head verb.

Obligative

The obligative mood (OBL) denotes an action that should happen, whether by obligation or logical progression. The verb head of an obligative particle is always conjugated for the irrealis mood.

 auv zij, daaya bimaj daridd. diri va luvi va au.
 auv  zij,         daaya bima-a  -j   daridd. diri va  luvi      va  au.
 TEMP near.future, OBL   fall-DUR-IRR rain.   CAU  COP cloud(PL) COP gray.
 "Soon, the rain should fall because the clouds are gray."

Potential

The potential mood (POT) denotes an action that could occur but doesn't, such as "I could go" or even "I could have gone". The verb head of a potential particle is always conjugated for the irrealis mood.

 zaggu umaadaij yi luj, a hiyaj yaadd vaddal.
 zaggu umaada-i  -j   yi      luj,   a    hi   -iya-j   yaadd ddal.
 HYP   sink  -PFV-IRR 1S.POSS boat,  COND exist-STA-IRR hole  LOC.
 "My boat could sink if there is a hole in it." 

Telic

Although technically a lexical aspect, telicity refers to a verb with an intended endpoint.

Derivational Suffixes

Root + ⟨-zaun⟩ = Agentive (one who does X)

viga > vigazaun
eat  > eater

Root + ⟨-huz⟩ or ⟨-hani⟩ = Place of X

viga > vigahuz
eat  > dining room

Root - stem + ⟨-aun⟩ = Act/Idea of X

viga > vigaun
eat  > the act of eating

Modifiers

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Modifiers immediately follow their head. Morphologically, there is no difference between an adjective and an adverb, since they rely on word order. Modifier phrases can be expressed either at the beginning or end of a sentence or after the verb, if it modifies it. Temporal phrases prefer the beginning of the sentence.

Negation

Nouns, verbs, and modifiers can be negated using the prefix bau(n)-.

baudaiziya yau.
bau-daizi-iya yau.
NEG-sing -STA 1S.NOM.
"I do not sing."

haaggiya bauzaun aa audi va zi.
haaggi-iya bau-zaun   aa  audi        va  zi.
insult-STA NEG-person ACC grandfather COP 3Sa.POSS.
"No one insults their grandfather."

luj id na baubi.
luj  id   na   bau-bi.
boat PROX POSS NEG-good.
"This boat is not good."

Particles

Particles in Wistanian are words which have a grammatical meaning rather than a semantic meaning. They also do not inflect. Particles always come before their head.

Object Particles

In Wistanian grammar, any noun that does not act as a subject is considered an object and are not exclusive to the patient of the verb. As an object, the noun comes after the subject and inherits an object particle (unless it is an accusative pronoun.)

The object particles are:

Accusative	ACC	aa	Marks the patient of the sentence.
Instrumental	INS	il	Marks the means by which an action is done.
Benefactive	BEN	ggaun	Marks the reason for which something is done volitionally.
Causative	CAU	diri	Marks the reason for which something is done involitionally.

It is possible to have a sentence that uses several objects, although none of them are required in a sentence. When multiple objects are present in a sentence, they are usually ordered in a sentence as ACC > INSTR > BEN/CAU.

ila yau aa ujadi il divu ggaun jyaman va yi.
ila  -a   yau    aa  ujadi il  divu ggaun jyam -an va  yi.
build-DUR 1S.NOM ACC house INS wood BEN   child-PL COP 1S.POSS.
"I am building a house with wood for my children."

Accusative

The accusative particle marks the patient of a transitive verb.

 maniyai ami aa umbu va zi.
 mayiya-i   ami    aa  umbu va  zi.
 break -TEL friend ACC bone COP 3S.POSS
 "The friend broke their bone."

When the patient is a pronoun, the accusative particle is normally dropped, since some pronouns have their own accusative forms. The accusative can also double as a reflexive.

 vigai dari vai.
 viga-i   dari vai.
 eat -TEL boy  3Si.ACC.
 "The boy ate it."

 yiga yau dau.
 yiga    -a    yau    dau.
 speak.to-ATEL 1S.NOM 1S.ACC.
 "I speak to myself."

The accusative form of the third person animate and spiritual pronouns are identical to their nominative counterparts. The accusative particle is added if the patient is different than the agent, but is omitted if used as a reflexive.

 dduwi auzi auzi
 ddu-(w)i auzi    auzi.
 hit-TEL  3Sa.NOM 3Sa.ACC
 "He hit himself."

 dduwi auzi aa auzi.
 ddu-(w)i auzi    aa auzi.
 hit-TEL  3Sa.NOM ACC 3Sa.ACC.
 "He hit him."

After instrumental, benefactive, or causative particles, pronouns are still conjugated as accusatives.

 gaun zariya dari vai.
 gaun zariya dari il vai.
 gaun zariya dari ggaun vai.
 gaun zariya dari diri vai.
 The boy plays it.
 The boy plays with it.
 The boy plays for it.
 The boy plays because of it.

Instrumental

The instrumental particle (INSTR) marks the instrument by which something has been done. For example, shooting with a bow, eating with a fork, and singing with a sore throat. In Wistanian, instrumental nouns are marked with the particle il.

gariya yau il guddi.
gari-iya yau    il    guddi.
work-STA 1S.NOM INSTR hammer.
"I work with a hammer."

The instrumental particle is also used to mark the theme of a ditransitive verb, doubling as a sort of dative marker.

dazjyi yau liv il jauni.
dazji-i  yau    liv    il    jauni.
give-TEL 1S.NOM 2S.ACC INSTR flower.
"I gave you a flower." (Lit. "I give you with a flower.")

The instrumental particle is used for emphatic reflexives by complimenting the accusative form of the subject pronoun.

rainaij yau aa duvij il dau.
raina-i  -j   yau    aa  duvij il    dau.
dig  -TEL-IRR 1S.NOM ACC hole  INSTR 1S.ACC
"I will dig the hole myself."

Benefactive and Causative

The benefactive and causative object particles perform similar functions, yet carry different connotations. Benefactives rely primarily on the reason for which something was done volitionally (i.e., on purpose), while causatives marked the reason something is done involitionally (i.e., not on purpose). These two particles are not exchangeable and they cannot both be present to compliment the same verb.

 murwi auzi ggaun liv.
 muru-i   auzi   ggaun liv.
 die -TEL 3S.NOM BEN   2S.ACC.
 "He died for you." / "He died for your benefit."

 murwi auzi diri liv.
 muru-i   auzi   diri liv.
 die -TEL 3S.NOM CAU  2S.ACC.
 "He died because of you." / "It was your fault he died."

In the above sentences, the benefactive particle tells us that the subject "he" willingly died or sacrificed his life for the object "you". The causative particle suggests that the subject "he" was killed, rather by accident or by premeditated murder, because of the existence or actions of the object "you".

The particle diri is the same word in the clause-initial construction diri va, which translates as "because" or "the reason is".

Modal Particles

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These particles are featured before the verb and indicate verbal modality.

Conditional	COND	a	Denotes "if" the verb will occur.
Capable	CAP	yaj	Denotes that the subject "can" do something.
Hypothetical	HYP	zaggu	Denotes something that might happen, but does not.
Deontic	DEO	daaya	Denotes something that ought to happen.
Epistemic	EPIS	ibiz	Denotes something that might have happened.

The conditional mood (COND) is used to form "if" clauses, such as "if she sings" and "if we go", etc. This is homonymous with the question particle, and they are often considered the same word. The verb head of the conditional particle is always conjugated for the irrealis mood.

a murwij ya, junaij lu ddal dim dau.
a    muru-i  -j   yau,    juna-i  -j   lu     ddal dim  dau.
COND die -TEL-IRR 1S.NOM, bury-TEL-IRR 2S.NOM LOC  hill 1S.ACC. 
"If I die, you will bury me on the hill."

The capable mood (CAP) is used to form "can" verbs, such as "she can sing" and "we can go". It is often used as not only an indicator of ability, but also permissiveness. To denote incapability, the speaker will attach the negation prefix to the verb.

yaj iliya yau aa maliya.
yaj ilu-iya  yau    aa  maliya.
CAP see-STA  1S.NOM ACC mountain.
"I can see the mountains."

The hypothetical mood (HYP) denotes an action that could occur but doesn't, such as "I could go" or even "I could have gone". The verb head of a hypothetical particle is always conjugated for the irrealis mood.

zaggu umaadaij yi luj, a hiyaj yaadd vaddal.
zaggu umaada-i  -j   yi      luj,   a    hi   -iya-j   yaadd ddal.
HYP   sink  -TEL-IRR 1S.POSS boat,  COND exist-STA-IRR hole  LOC.
"My boat could sink if there is a hole in it." 

The deontic mood (DEO) denotes an action that should happen, whether by obligation or logical progression. It's like a stronger hypothetical particle. The verb head of a deontic particle is always conjugated for the irrealis mood.

auv zij, daaya bimaj daridd. diri va luvi va au.
auv  zij,         daaya bima-a   -j   daridd. diri va  luvi      va  au.
TEMP near.future, DEO   fall-ATEL-IRR rain.   CAU  COP cloud(PL) COP gray.
"Soon, the rain should fall because the clouds are gray."

The epistemic mood (EPIS) denotes an action or state that might have happened, however, the speaker is unsure due to lack of evidence. It can also be used as a weaker hypothetical marker. Verb heads of the epistemic particle must be in the irrealis mood. This mood marker also accompanies "I think" sentences which are typically constructed as "I think this. I may have a hammer."

garya yau vai. ibiz auwiniyaj yanuz guddi.
gari -a    yau    vai.     ibiz auwina -iya-j   guddi.
think-ATEL 1S.NOM 3Si.ACC. EPIS possess-STA-IRR hammer.
"I think I have a hammer."

Relativizer Particles

There are four relativizer particles that are normally expressed initially in a relative clause and after the noun that relative clause modifies. These can also be used as copula.

Copulative	COP	va	Indicated that the head is equal to something.
Possessive	POSS	na	Indicates that the head possesses something.
Active	ACT	gaun	Indicates that the head does something.
Locative	LOC	ddal	Indicates where the head is located.

As relativizers, they can be translated as such: COP = which is, POSS = which has, ACT = which does, and LOC = which is located.

As copula, COP equates a subject noun with another noun, possessive pronoun, color, or number; POSS equates a subject noun with an adjective that's not a possessive pronoun, color, or number; ACT doubles as a gnomic aspect particle; and LOC indicates the location of the subject. Since these are particles, the word order for these particular types of sentences appears to change to SVO and the accusative particle is omitted (this does not apply to objects of a gnomic verb).

wizddaaniya va ggarimalun.
wizddaaniya va  ggarimalun.
Wistania    COP large.island
"Wistania is a large island."
"Wistania, which is a large island,..."

wizddaaniya na lazai.
wisddaaniya na   lazai.
Wistania    POSS great.
"Wistania is great." (Lit. "Wistania has great.")
"Wistania, which is great,..."

wizddaniya gaun liya.
wizddaniya gaun liya.
Wistania   ACT  fly.
"Wistania fares well" (Lit. "Wistania flies.")
"Wistania, which fares well,..."

wizddaniya ddal vimanbbaggu
wizddaniya ddal viman-bbaggu.
Wistania   LOC  sky  -SUBE.
"Wistania is under the sky."
"Wistania, which is located under the sky,..."

Technically, these are incomplete sentences, indicating only a noun and a relative clause without a compliment. However, they are considered perfectly viable sentences.

Coordinating Particles

Wistanian coordinating particles come in four types: normal coordination, weak coordination, contrastive coordination, and alternative coordination.

Normal coordination (CO) is similar to the English "and". However, each item in the list is proceeded by the word ya.

dajyi ya dari ya lari.
daji-i   ya dari ya lari.
hide-TEL CO boy  CO girl.
"The boy and the girl hid."

Weak coordination (WCO) refers to a co-actor in the sentence while keeping the focus on a specific item of the list, which is usually featured at the beginning of the list and without a particle. It is denoted with the word vil.

dajyi dari nuz lari.
daji-i   dari vil lari.
hide-TEL boy  WCO girl.
"The boy hid with the girl."

Contrastive coordination (CCO) is equivalent to the English "but" and is expressed through the particle bbal.

auvin vaun liyiya, bbal gaunun vaun bauliyiya.
auvi-n  vaun liya-iya, bbal gaunu-n vaun bau-liya-iya.
bird-PL GNO  fly-STA,  CCO  fish-PL GNO  NEG-fly -STA
"Birds fly, but fish do not fly."

Alternative coordination (ALTCO) denotes a choice or alternative among a group of items in a list, equivalent to the English "or", and denoted with the word i. Like the normal coordinating particle ya, this particle is featured before each item in a list.

ja lu aa i garauvi i diyan a.
ja  -a    lu     aa  i     garauvi i     diyan a.
want-ATEL 2S.NOM ACC ALTCO water   ALTCO juice Q.
"Do you want water or juice?"

This alternative coordinating particle is also used to answer a multiple choice question.

(ja yau) i diyan.
ja  -a    yau    i     diyan.
want-ATEL 1S.NOM ALTCO juice.
"I want the juice."

Honorifics

Wistanian has an honorific system with several unique features. Honorifics are used for almost everyone: familial relationships and close friendships, authorities and superiors, and people who are younger than you. They are often said after a proper noun and can take nominal morphology and replace 2nd person pronouns.

The formal honorifics that one uses depends on the age and respective rank of the second person:

	Inferior	Peer	Superior
Adult	iz	-	baada
Child	yi / yin	yi / yin	auzi / auzin

Familial honorifics are used among close family members. These honorifics will change depending on culture and sometimes family. Children, in particular, have unique honorifics given by their parents, like a nickname. For example, a boy named Maudu could be given the honorific ravu (fast), and only his parents, aunts/uncles by blood, and grandparents can call him "Maudu Ravu". While his sister Zamara could be Zamara Viyaz (kind) to her parents.

The most common Familial Honorifics are included under Kinship Terms below.

Semantics

The Wistanian Lexicon currently stands at 600 words as of October 2018, with a goal of accomplishing 2,500 words by the end of the year. A minimum of 10 words are actively added to the lexicon almost every day.

A typical Wistanian family

Kinship

Wistanian kinship is a modified version of the Hawaiian system common in most Malayo-Polynesian languages. In this system, siblings and first cousins share terms with only a gender and age distinction. Mothers are usually given a term of endearment by their children (usually mu), but a child's aunts will also be called "mother" and the father and uncles will share terms as well. Most of Wistanian culture is ambilineal and matrifocal, so that children live and associate closest to their mother and her side of the family. For this reason, a child's mother's brother will often be just as much of a father figure as the child's biological father, who may or may not be involved in the family.

English	Kinship Term	Honorific
male older brother or cousin	daran	bai
male younger brother or cousin	yida
female older sister or cousin	madya
female younger sister or cousin	yima
uncle/aunt by marriage	imaun	baada
mother/aunt by blood	maumu	iv
father/uncle by blood	vauhi	anda
grandmother	aumi	ivi
grandfather	audi	andi
husband	yi daz	-
wife	yi laz
child, offspring, son/daughter	jyam	Variable
grandchild	aujyam

The Bwolotil people are more nuclear, consisting of only a mother, father, and one or two children. They have their own kinship terms from their language. Some Katapu people share the typical family structure and kinship terms. However, most family structures are extended so that families live amongst the mother's extended family, and fathers are usually present in the home. Most of their kinship terms also come from the Katapu language, but some Wistanian terms are borrowed as well.

Colors

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Colors are particularly significant to the Wistanian culture. As much of their economy revolves around fruits, vegetables, and flowers, and their great responsibility to protect the colorful ajmastones, it is imperative to be able to accurately describe color on a near-daily basis. As a result, Wistanian has a massive vocabulary list dedicated to colors, including unique color terms for "red-orange" and "dark yellow" and three distinct terms for "red".

Colors in Wistanian are considered nouns, never as adjectives. Therefore, to express the color of an object, one would say, "S va C".

jiya yau jazari va raul.
ja  -iya yau    jazari va  raul.
like-STA 1S.NOM bean   COP red.
"I like red beans." (Lit. "I like beans that are red.")

Likewise, to say "These beans are red", the same structure would be used.

jazari id va raul.
jazari id   va  raul.
beans  PROX COP red.
"These beans are red."

Or alternatively, and more commonly, one could express the color as the subject and use the locative copula, creating a form that means, literally "C is on S":

raul ddal jazari id.
raul ddal jazari id.
red  LOC  beans  PROX.
"These beans are red." (Lit. "Red is on these beans")

As for the color terms themselves, Wistanian has nearly thirty-two color terms, although some people groups may use more or less than those.

auzna	iraa	zuvil jaaru	bayaari	zuwi		aunya	gazida	ayud		aana
au garaji	raul nidda hagg	aurin	auwu	luz aubra	luamiz	jan bazu	ddi	zaz iyad	ivau	liwa
balan	uma					minan		ainau	maura

Numbers

Classically, the Taliv only counted up to five, including a single word that meant "more than five" (this term is now obsolete, however, it has fossilized as the plural marker -(a)n) They also had names for sets of five: five was a hand (5), five hands were an arm (25), five arms were a body (125), five bodies were a family (625), five families were a village (3,125), three villages were a city (15,625), and five cities were a nation (78,125). So, for example, the number 20,708 would be explained as "one city, one village, three families, three arms, one hand, and three." Counting that high, however, was not very common in Talivian culture, since resources were normally plentiful and the economy was a basic bartering system of trading goods. The highest a regular person would need to count would be "two hands and four" when reporting to their friends how many fish they caught that day.

When the Taliv allied with the Nati during the Wistanian war, the Nati's much more efficient base-10 number system was preferred, especially when counting troops and food rations. Their counting system was that numbers like 20,708 would be described as "two zero seven zero eight."

These two methods combined by using the Talivian 1-5, the Nati 6-9, and loaning the words for ten ("one zero"), twenty ("two zero"), and so forth. The Talivian concepts of hands, arms, and like metaphor also persisted. Now, the typical Wistanian will say a number such as 44 as "four-zero with four", however the "four" in "four-zero" will be a Nati word, while the last four is from the Taliv. One through 99 are as thus:

0	uj	0	20	guyaa	2*, 0*	40	bbunaa	4*, 0*	60	jaayaa	6, 0*	80	miyaunaa	8, 0*
1	li	1	21	guyaa vil li	2*, 0* with 1	41	bbunaa vil li	4*, 0* with 1	61	jaayaa vil li	6, 0* with 1	81	miyaunaa vil li	8, 0* with 1
2	vai	2	22	guyaa vil vai	2*, 0* with 2	42	bbunaa vil vai	4*, 0* with 2	62	jaayaa vil vai	6, 0* with 2	82	miyaunaa vil vai	8, 0* with 2
3	din	3	23	guyaa vil din	2*, 0* with 3	43	bbunaa vil din	4*, 0* with 3	63	jaayaa vil din	6, 0* with 3	83	miyaunaa vil din	8, 0* with 3
4	jiz	4	24	guyaa vil jiz	2*, 0* with 4	44	bbunaa vil jiz	4*, 0* with 4	64	jaayaa vil jiz	6, 0* with 4	84	miyaunaa vil jiz	8, 0* with 4
5	ma	5	25	guyaa vil ma	2*, 0* with 5	45	bbunaa vil ma	4*, 0* with 5	65	jaayaa vil ma	6, 0* with 5	85	miyaunaa vil ma	8, 0* with 5
6	jaa	6	26	guyaa vil jaa	2*, 0* with 6	46	bbunaa vil jaa	4*, 0* with 6	66	jaayaa vil jaa	6, 0* with 6	86	miyaunaa vil jaa	8, 0* with 6
7	hau	7	27	guyaa vil hau	2*, 0* with 7	47	bbunaa vil hau	4*, 0* with 7	67	jaayaa vil hau	6, 0* with 7	87	miyaunaa vil hau	8, 0* with 7
8	miyaun	8	28	guyaa vil miyaun	2*, 0* with 8	48	bbunaa vil miyaun	4*, 0* with 8	68	jaayaa vil miyaun	6, 0* with 8	88	miyaunaa vil miyaun	8, 0* with 8
9	nuvaa	9	29	guyaa vil nuvaa	2*, 0* with 9	49	bbunaa vil nuvaa	4*, 0* with 9	69	jaayaa vil nuvaa	6, 0* with 9	89	miyaunaa vil nuvaa	8, 0* with 9
10	niyaa	1*, 0*	30	amaa	3*, 0*	50	yauzaa	5*, 0*	70	hauyaa	7, 0*	90	nuvaayaa	9, 0*
11	niyaa vil li	1*, 0* with 1	31	amaa vil li	3*, 0* with 1	51	yauzaa vil li	5*, 0* with 1	71	hauyaa vil li	7, 0* with 1	91	nuvaaya vil li	9, 0* with 1
12	niyaa vil vai	1*, 0* with 2	32	amaa vil vai	3*, 0* with 2	52	yauzaa vil vai	5*, 0* with 2	72	hauyaa vil vai	7, 0* with 2	92	nuvaayaa vil vai	9, 0* with two
13	niyaa vil din	1*, 0* with 3	33	amaa vil din	3*, 0* with 3	53	yauzaa vil din	5*, 0* with 3	73	hauyaa vil din	7, 0* with 3	93	nuvaayaa vil din	9, 0* with 3
14	niyaa vil jiz	1*, 0* with 4	34	amaa vil jiz	3*, 0* with 4	53	yauzaa vil jiz	5*, 0* with 4	74	hauyaa vil jiz	7, 0* with 4	94	nuvaayaa vil jiz	9, 0* with 4
15	niyaa vil ma	1*, 0* with 5	35	amaa vil ma	3*, 0* with 5	55	yauzaa vil ma	5*, 0* with 5	75	hauyaa vil ma	7, 0* with 5	95	nuvaayaa vil ma	9, 0* with 5
16	niyaa vil jaa	1*, 0* with 6	36	amaa vil jaa	3*, 0* with 6	56	yauzaa vil jaa	5*, 0* with 6	76	hauyaa vil jaa	7, 0* with 6	96	nuvaayaa vil jaa	9, 0* with 6
17	niyaa vil hau	1*, 0* with 7	37	amaa vil hau	3*, 0* with 7	57	yauzaa vil hau	5*, 0* with 7	77	hauyaa vil hau	7, 0* with 7	97	nuvaayaa vil hau	9, 0* with 7
18	niyaa vil miyaun	1*, 0* with 8	38	amaa vil miyaun	3*, 0* with 8	58	yauzaa vil miyaun	5*, 0* with 8	78	hauyaa vil miyaun	7, 0* with 8	98	nuvaayaa vil miyaun	9, 0* with 8
19	niyaa vil nuvaa	1*, 0* with 9	39	amaa vil nuvaa	3*, 0* with 9	59	yauzaa vil nuvaa	5*, 0* with 9	79	hauyaa vil nuvaa	7, 0* with 9	99	nuvaayaa vil nuvaa	9, 0* with 9

to be continued...

Seat of Emotion

In Taliv, Nati, and Katapu culture, the seat of emotion is in the liver, meaning that it is believed emotion comes from the liver (as opposed to the English belief that emotion is from the heart). For this reason, a man with "a cold liver" is said to be nervous and a woman with "a light liver" is said to be in love. In Bwolotil culture, the seat of emotion is in the bowels instead, so that a man with "full bowels" is said to be stressed. The Uzin, however, use the brain as the seat for emotion and thought, saying things such as "the brain is on fire" when someone becomes excited. These phrases travel around the Wistanian and borrowed by most people.

Contrarily, there is a separate seat for the soul of a person, commonly claimed to be near the liver although the exact place is secret. This "seat of the soul" is known as gauya. Katapu people are so dedicated to this ideology that if a person is stabbed in the belly, they must be left to die or put to death, believing that their soul has been injured or killed and they no longer "human".

Direction and Time

Direction and Time are closely interrelated in the Wistanian language. They correspond with the terms mija (rising) and hina (setting), which describe the rising and setting of the sun. Wistanian has two cardinal directions, the rising east and setting west. Time is likewise measured by the rising past and the setting future. This leads to phrases such as "think east" and "go towards the setting" as opposed to English "think back" and "go west". Wistanian has an intrinsic and relative frame of reference, in that when giving directions, they will use the destination's location as described in relation to another object ("towards the lake", in front of my house") as well as using terms for "front", "back", "left" and "right". There is a limited absolute frame of reference with terms for "east" and "west", but no terms for "north" or "south."

Vulagarity and Taboos

Every culture possesses a strong taboo against slurs, which is partly due to the rocky history of racism during the post-war era of the country. Some slurs include baubau, a diminutive of the word Bwolotil, often used to describe things that are dark and ugly. Holding the u sound can also get a young Wistanian in trouble for its history as a chant against the Uzin. Terms referring to religion are also taboo when used out of context, especially in the Katapu tribes; for example, calling something ggauduvahi ("great" or "grand") is considered offensive since that term should only be applied to a place of worship. Terms referring to sex or bodily functions are only taboo in the Katapu and, to a smaller extent, the Bwolotil cultures. In fact, public nudity in many Taliv villages is acceptable (although informal, and usually not practiced in larger cities).

It is considered vulgar over the entire nation to use the name of a family member in vain, especially if that family member is deceased.

Metaphors

under construction

Example Texts

coming soon...ish

Other Resources

Wistanian/Lexicon