Ahāmatya

Vasa Ahāmatya Manān Etjelletyandaljān [ˈva.sa a.haːˈmat.ja ˈma.na:n ɛˌtjɛl.lɛt.janˈda.lja:n]
Creator:	Daniel Quigley
Spoken in:	Mana Etjelletyandalja
World:	Leaves Stories
Total Speakers:	~ 10,000,000
Basic word order:	Subject-Object-Verb
Morphological Type:	Synthetic
Morphosyntactic Alignment:	Nominative-Accusative
Inspirations:	Sanskrit, Finnish, Russian, Latin, English, Quenya, Ancient Greek, Classical Persian
Status:	In Progress
Link to full documentation:	*forthcoming*

Vasa Ahāmatya Manān Etjelletyandaljān is an a priori artistic constructed language in development by Daniel Quigley, providing the framework for which the author’s creative works and worldbuilding are guided. Vasa Ahāmatya Manān Etjelletyandaljān or just Ahāmatya is the standardized, formal, and literary register of language of Mana Etjelletyandalja, in contrast to the variable dialects collectively referred to as Vasa Vrjāmatya Manān Etjelletyandaljān or just Vrjāmatya.

Ahāmatya is a relatively conservative language. Loan words have found their way into Vrjāmatya, but are mostly deliberately avoided in Ahāmatya. If one were to use a non-native word, then one would do so either indirectly via some periphrastic construction, or by simply employing the nearest approximation available in the language.

Ahāmatya is typologically a synthetic, fusional language. Nouns and modifiers are inflected for number and case. Other modifiers, such as adverbs, are not inflected in the same way, though similarities may be found in certain contexts. Nouns exhibit a class distinction, of which may be determined either by the phonology or the morphology. Verbs are inflected for aspect, time, valency, and mood. Some particles are inflected for number and case. Ahāmatya is a Nominative-Accusative aligned language, and has relatively free word order because of its case-marking, though word order tends towards S-O-V.

Introduction

Setting

The people of Mana Etjelletyandalja are rather homogeneous in language, culture, and identity, though there exists a gradient of such things in a north-south direction, running along the length of the land. The central region of Mana Etjelletyandalja, called Mana Essa, or just Essa, is, historically, one of the more prominent regions of the island. Ahāmatya is the formal language, used in official capacities and as the literary language. The spoken languages of Mana Etjelletyandalja are collectively referred to as Vrjāmatya.

Ahāmatya and Vrjāmatya are related, both having descended from a parent language, often referred to as Vasa Ururya Manān Etjelletyandaljān. This is a little misleading, however, in that Vasa Ururya Manān Etjelletyandaljān was actually a loose collection of highly related dialects, which over time enveloped Mana Etjelletyandalja, displacing the various native languages and dialects. There is little differentiation between Ahāmatya and Vasa Ururya Manān Etjelletyandaljān. Most speakers of Vrjāmatya do not readily distinguish the one from the other, and consider them to be a continuous entity.

Etymology

The perfective participle ahāmatya is a compound consisting of aha- “together deliberately, bring together with intent, an indication of a union of things thought as one” and amatya “made, built”. The former is a prefix that may be appended to verbs or nouns, and the latter is the perfective participle of the verb mat- “do, make, form”. Therefore, the meaning may be interpreted as “well prepared, refined, put together”. Since participle forms may act either as nominals or as modifiers, it is common to see ahāmatya stand alone, in which case it is thought of as a nominal, with the implication of “(that which is) well prepared, refined, put together”, where the items in parentheses are understood.

The full form, Vasa Ahāmatya Manān Etjelletyandaljān is built from vasa “language, speech”, manān is the genitive form of mana "land". Etjelletyandaljān is a more difficult word to analyze. It is composed of etjellet- which is the perfective form of the transitive verb tjellet-, itself derived from the noun tjelle “sky, heaven”. tjellet-, then, has the meaning “to sky someone, to adore someone or something, to put someone or something on high”. etjelletya, then, is the participle form “(that which is) adored, put on high”. The -nda- element is the augmentive, and the -lja- is a morpheme used to convert nouns into adjectives. Mana Etjelletyandalja is the full, poetic name for the land, meaning “the most adored or most favored land”. The final -n, with the lengthened vowel, is the genitive case marker. Besides being a poetic form, the notion of putting something or someone up on high, with connotations of putting them to the sky, works in a literal sense and refers to the magnificent mountains that dominate the skies and run the length of the land. These mountains are an important cultural and historical agent. Taken altogether, Vasa Ahāmatya Manān Etjelletyandaljān translates to “the refined language of the most revered land”.

Goals

The driving goal of Ahāmatya is to provide a framework for the author’s creative works and worldbuilding. To that end, Ahāmatya ought to be a naturalistic constructed language, and ough to be pleasant to look at and to hear (admittedly, this is wholly subjective, and others may disagree with to extent to which this was fulfilled.

Development, Inspiration, Forthcoming

The history of Ahāmatya as a constructed language is traceable to its earliest incarnations some ten or so years, the oldest, unchanged words being ive "bird" and tura "strong". Since the development of the language has been a continuous evolution, with starts and stops, it is difficult to put an exact timeline of evolution. It is an on-going process, and will likely remain so.

Because much of the creative works and worldbuilding for which Ahāmatya guides concern themselves with cultural contact, exchange, and conflict, the two dominant languages of the world, Ahāmatya and Eḥeiθymme, are deliberately designed to be dissimilar, with regards to the make-up and feel of the language. The inspirations of the language include, but are not limited to, Sanskrit, Finnish, Russian, Latin, English, Quenya, Ancient Greek, and Classical Persian. While some overlap exists in the inspirations for Ahāmatya and Eḥeiθymme, any overt similarities are deliberately avoided.

More in-depth, detailed documentation is forthcoming, which includes in-universe terminology for grammatical categories and descriptions. The author hopes to someday have the creative works published.

Phonology

Consonants

Ahāmatya has five major places of articulation and six manners of articulation. Furthermore, there exists a distinction between palatalized consonants and non-palatalized consonants, and in the context of labial nasals and stops, aspirated consonants and non-aspirated consonants. Ahāmatya, then, has thirty-three consonants in total, seven of which exist as allophones. Consonants in parentheses are allophones of their unvoiced counterparts.

Consonant Inventory of Ahāmatya

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m = [m] mh = [mh]	n = [n] nj = [nj]		ŋ = [ŋ] ŋj = [ŋj]
Stop	unvoiced	p = [p] ph = [ph]	t = [t] tj = [tj]		k = [k] kj = [kj]
	voiced	(b) = [b] (bh) = [bh]	(d) = [d] (dj) = [dj]		(g) = [g] (gj) = [gj]
Fricative	unvoiced	f = [f]	s = [s] sj = [sj]		x = [x]	h = [h] hj = [hj]
	voiced	v = [v] vj = [vj]			(ɣ) = [ɣ]
Trill			r = [r] rj = [rj]
Semi-Vowel		w = [w]		y = [j]
Liquid			l = [l] lj = [lj]

Vowels and Diphthongs

Ahāmatya has four short vowels and four long vowels, a distinction manifested as the long vowels' sound being held twice as long as short vowels' sound.

The short vowels are following: i, e, a, u. The long vowels are following: ī, ē, ā, ū. Note that, when spoken, there is some variation in the actual pronunciation of /ɛ:/, and may be more accurately pronounced as [e:].

Ahāmatya has six diphthongs, all of which have length equivalent to long vowels. The diphthongs are the following: ei, ai, ui, iu, eu, au.

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Vowel and Diphthong Inventory of Ahāmatya

	Short		Long
	Front	Back	Front	Back
High	i = [i]	u = [u]	ī = [i:]	ū = [u:]
Mid	e = [ɛ] ~ [e]		ē = [ɛ:] ~ [e:]
Low	a = [a]		ā = [a:]
Diphthongs	ei = [ej], ai = [aj], ui = [uj], iu = [ju] , eu = [ew], au = [aw]

There are some contexts in which a vowel sequence is not a diphthong. This usually occurs when a long vowel is then appended to by a short vowel. This is represented by an acute diacritic replacing the macron over the long vowel. This has an effect of reducing the length of the long vowel to a short vowel, and both vowels in the sequence carry their own distinct syllabification. This may be seen in the following:

• āi → ái = a-i

• āu → áu = a-u

Prosody and Stress

There are as many syllables in an Ahāmatya word as there are separate vowels and diphthongs. Additionally, a cliticized [m, n, v, l, s] may carry its own syllable weight.

Stress is predictable, and manifests as primary and secondary stress. Secondary stress is placed upon the first syllable of a word, provided that that syllable is not a prefix, clitic, a reduplicated element, or augment. In that case, the secondary stress finds where the first syllable of the word is that is not one of those items, i.e., the root, and then provides the stress at that location. Primary stress falls upon the penultimate syllable.

Syllable structure generally follows two explicit rules, which themselves are detailed on various levels.

1. A consonant before a vowel, or a consonant cluster at the beginning of a word, forms the syllable onset.

• A singular consonant forms the onset of the syllable.

   tjelle [ˈtjɛl.lɛ] CVC.CV "sky"
   tala [ˈta.la] CV.CV "high"
   ive [ˈi.vɛ] V.CV "bird"

• A consonant cluster of arbitrary length (maximum four) at the beginning of a word forms the onset of the syllable.

   vrjāmatya [vrja:ˈmat.ja] CCVV.CVC.CV "original, natural"
   mrja [ˈmrja] CCV "spirit"

• A word affixed with an arbitrary number of prefixes retains its syllabic structure independent of those syllables appended to it, and the affix retains its own syllabic structure.

   atamrjamma [a.taˈmrjam.ma] V.CV.CCVC.CV "in the company of a (dear) spirit"
   epprja [ɛpˈprja] VC.CCV "in front of a cat"
   phelarya [phɛlˈar.ja] CVC.VC.CV "beside the friend"

• Word initial clusters formed via the cliticization of [m, n, v, l, s] may either meld into that consonant cluster, forming the coda of the word initial syllable, or may carry syllabic weight themselves.

   v-mrja [ˈvmrja] CCCV "in the spirit"
   v-mrja [vˈmrja] C.CCV "in the spirit"
   s-vlja [ˈsvlja] CCCV "as the wolf"
   s-vlja [sˈvlja] C.CCV "as the wolf"

2. Consonant clusters tend to be broken word internally.

• Lengthened consonants are always separated, with the first consonant joined with the preceding vowel forming the coda of that syllable, and the second consonant joined to the following vowel, forming the onset of that syllable.

   tjelle [ˈtjɛl.lɛ] CVC.CV "sky"
   anna [ˈan.na] VC.CV "beneficial"
   Essatta [ˌɛsˈsat.ta] VC.CVC.CV "from Essa"

• Word internal clusters are regularly separated, and the first consonant of the combination is joined with the preceding vowel, forming the coda of that syllable.

   mandrya [ˈman.drja] CVC.CCV "power"

• Cluster onsets in syllables of the form CrV, CrjV, ClV, CljV are considered a single unit, and are not separated, and are thus exempt from the above rule.

   atamrjamma [a.taˈmrjam.ma] V.CV.CCVC.CV "in the company of a (dear) spirit"
   epprja [ɛpˈprja] VC.CCV "in front of a cat"
   yavendra [ˌjaˈvɛn.dra] VC.CCV "and of vowels"

Finally, of note, is that there exist two diphthongs that, if they were to exist in a non-stressed syllable, they will then collapse into a long vowel (or short vowel, in the context of plurality, see below). Which diphthong collapses into which vowel is shown here:

• ei → ī

• ai → ē

Nouns

Ahāmatya nouns can be declined into six cases, three numbers, and four classes.

Class

Ahāmatya nouns exhibit a kind of noun class system. Nouns have four classes: Class I nouns, called "a-theme" nouns; Class II nouns, called "e-theme" nouns; Class III nouns, called "u-theme" nouns; Class IV nouns, called "other" nouns. "a-theme", "e-theme", and "u-theme" are so-named because the vowels "a", "e", and "u" that appear as the final sound in their respective nouns in the singular root. "other" is so-named as a catch-all for words that are not "a-theme", "e-theme", or "u-theme". The phonological environment determines whether a noun is Class I or Class II, and is readily predictable. Class III nouns tend to be derived. Class IV nouns are almost always derived, and feature variable endings.

The thematic vowel in the ultimate syllable is determined by the vowel in the penultimate syllable and the consonants in the coda of that syllable and/or the onset of the ultimate syllable. Barring a few exceptions, this is a predictable machination. The consonants at the boundary of the penultimate and the ultimate vowel can be divided into four categories: continuative short, continuative long, terminative short, and terminative long.

• Continuative short consonants are: m, f, n, s, ŋ, x, l, h
• Continuative long consonants are: mm, v, nn, ss, ɤ, ll
• Terminative short consonants are: p, t, k, y, w, r
• Terminative long consonants are: pp, b, t, tt, d, k, kk, g, rr, palatalized consonants, aspirated consonants, non-geminate consonant clusters.

The penultimate vowel, followed by one of the above mentioned boundary consonants, will determine the ultimate vowel, and thus, its class. This is illustrated in the table below. Vowels listed along the leftmost column are penultimate vowels. If one of these is followed by one of the four consonant boundary types, then the ultimate vowel, i.e., the theme vowel, is given.

Determination of Noun Class I and Noun Class II

Penultimate Vowel		Continuative Short	Continuative Long	Terminative Short	Terminative Long
i		a	e	a	e
e		a	a	a	a
a		a	a	a	a
u		a	a	a	a
ī		e	e	e	e
ē		a	a	a	a
ā		a	a	a	a
ū		a	a	a	a
ei		e	e	e	a
ai		e	e	e	a
ui		e	e	e	a
iu		e	a	a	a
eu		e	a	a	a
au		e	a	a	a

Number

Number in Ahāmatya nouns is represented by the noun root existing as a singular stem, a comprehensive plural stem, or a partitive plural stem. These are appended to by the case marker.

The singular is the unmarked form of the noun.

• ive- "bird"

• mana- "land"

• vrunnu- "robin"

The comprehensive plural is marked by -i. If the stem ends in a diphthong which would collapse into a long vowel in non-stressed syllables, then it does so, but into a short vowel. The comprehensive plural has an intrinsic meaning of "all of that about which I am speaking in this context".

• ivei- → ivi- "birds"

• manai- → mane- "lands"

• vrunnui- "robins"

The partitive plural is marked by -u. The partitive plural has an intrinsic meaning of "some or a few of that about which I am speaking in this context".

• iveu- "some birds"

• manau- "some lands"

• vrunnuu- → vrunnū- "some robins"

Case

There are six cases in Ahāmatya. Many cases are also used as objects of the preposition, most of which are predictable.

Nominative Case

The nominative case indicates the subject of a transitive and intransitive verb, the predicate (this is variably marked also by an additional morpheme), and the object of some prepositions The nominative case is marked by -n, and has an allomorph in -r, which manifests in the usual way.

• Iven nenna. "The bird is sleeping."
• Iven henelān vuhra. "The bird is eating the pig."

In the instance of a predicate-like construction of the form X is Y, the X and Y are marked by the nominative, but X has an additional affix -avjas after the nominative marking. This may be understood as an additional nominative case in full as -navjas or -ravjas.

• Ivenavjas ururyandan. "The bird is old."
• Iudēravjas ettan ururyanden. Those birds are old ducks.

The nominative case indicates a number of objects of the preposition, usually in some relationship independent of motion or physical location.

• aphra-ljān "against the water"
• aha-lavraiden "with, together with the rings"
• an-atalaiyen "as the king"
• hai-vamelan "via the shore"
• san-mwān "like the butterfly"
• v-eimen "in (a state of) love"
• vrja-mettan "together with of the trees"

Accusative₁ Case

The accusative₁ case is one of two accusative cases in Ahāmatya, and indicates the object of an imperfective aspect verb, and the object of some prepositions. The accusative₁ case is marked by -i. This may cause additional vowel sound change in the usual way where applicable.

• Iven henele vuhra. "The bird is eating the pig."
• Ljumruran vrunnui eta. "The cormorant was speaking to the robin."

The accusative₁ case indicates objects of the preposition involving motion with respect to some region.

• i-mette "into the forest"
• ehda-sridde "toward, prior to the summer"
• phel-kjele "after, beside the mountain"
• le-ljái "out of, from the water"

Accusative₂ Case

The accusative₂ case is one of two accusative cases in Ahāmatya, and indicates the object of a perfect aspect verb, and the object of some prepositions. The accusative₂ case is marked by -ir. This may cause additional vowel sound change in the usual way where applicable.

• Iven heneler uvuxa. "The bird had eaten the pig."
• Ljumruran vrunnuir ēta. "The cormorant had eaten the robin."

The accusative₂ case indicates objects of the preposition involving motion or location with respect to some boundary of a region.

• -luimir "until first spring"
• ar-ember "upon the face"
• -ljáir "under the water"
• -maner "around, surrounding the land"
• anu-maner "over the land"

Dative Case

The dative case indicates the indirect object of a verb, and the object of some prepositions. The dative case is marked by -a.

• Vrunnur ljumrurā eveya. "The robin had mourned for the cormorant."
• Atalairdan lavraidi ivea avra. "The emperor is giving the ring to the bird."

The dative case indicates objects of the preposition involving motion or location with respect to the surrounding of some boundary of a region.

• nur-sriddā "through/during the summer"
• al-Elyā "on behalf of Elya"

Genitive Case

The genitive case indicates ownership irrespective of time, origin of/from a location, partitive, topic of/about, some predicativity, composition or substance, and the object of some prepositions. The genitive case is marked similarly to the nominative case, with the exception of lengthening the final vowel before the -n or -r.

The genitive case indicates objects of the preposition involving relationships between nouns.

• ehba-idūr "without light"
• amha-aryēn "with/having friends"

Vocative Case

The vocative case indicates that which is directly addressed. A noun in the vocative case is the citation form of the word in a reference. The vocative case is unmarked, or, to be more precise, is marked with -∅.

Summary Table

Class I, Class II, and Class III nouns have a fairly regular and predictable declination.

Class I, Class II, and Class III Nouns in Ahāmatya

	ive- "bird"			mana- "land"			vrunnu- "robin"
	Singular	Comprehensive Plural	Partitive Plural	Singular	Comprehensive Plural	Partitive Plural	Singular	Comprehensive Plural	Partitive Plural
Nominative	iven	ivir	iveur	manan	manen	manaur	vrunnur	vrunnuir	vrunnūr
Accusative1	ivi	ivī	ivevi	mane	mani	manavi	vrunnui	vrunnuí	vrunnúi
Accusative2	ivir	ivīr	ivevir	maner	manīr	manavir	vrunnuir	vrunnuír	vrunnúir
Dative	ivea	ivia	iveva	manā	manea	manava	vrunnua	vrunnuya	vrunnúa
Genitive	ivēn	ivīr	iveúr	manān	manēn	manaúr	vrunnūr	vrunnuír	vrunnūr
Vocative	ive	ivi	iveu	mana	mane	manau	vrunnu	vrunnui	vrunnū

Class IV nouns are variable in their form, but nouns ending in -ā or in -i are the most represented of this class.

Class IV Nouns in Ahāmatya

	ljā- "water"			aili- "jay"
	Singular	Comprehensive Plural	Partitive Plural	Singular	Comprehensive Plural	Partitive Plural
Nominative	ljān	ljáir	ljáur	ailir	ailīr	ailiur
Accusative1	ljái	ljái	ljavi	ailī	ailī	ailivi
Accusative2	ljáir	ljēr	ljavir	ailīr	ailīr	ailivir
Dative	ljā	ljáiya	ljava	ailia	ailía	ailiva
Genitive	ljān	ljēr	ljaúr	ailīr	ailīr	ailíur
Vocative	ljā	ljái	ljáu	aili	ailī	ailiu

Prepositions

Prepositions in Ahāmatya are enclitics with respect to nouns, of which are their objects of the preposition. Such enclitics are syntactic words, but are dependent entirely on their host word and the host word's case.

Prepositions with Respect to Noun Cases in Ahāmatya

Case	Nominative		Accusative1		Accusative2		Dative		Genitive
Preposition	aphra-	against	i-	into	-	until	nur-	through, during	ehba-	without
	aha-	with, together with	ehda-	toward, prior to	ar-	upon	al-	on behalf of	amha-	with, having
	an-	as	phel-	beside, by	-	under
	hai-	via, by way of	le-	out of, after	-	around
	san-	like, as			anu-	over
	v-	in (a state of)
	vrja-	with, together with