Fyai Thǔvn

Fyai Thǔvn
Fyai Thǔvn
Pronunciation	[ɸʲai tʰɯβ̞n]
Created by	Shemtov
Setting	Tau-Ceti 2
Native speakers	(undated figure of 4000)
Language family	Shwain Fyai Thǔvn
Early form	Proto-Shwain

Background

Fyai Thǔvn is spoken on the fictional planet Tau-Ceti 2, by around 4000 people living on the shores of a large bay in the northwestern part of that planet's main continent. The people of Tau-Ceti 2 were transported there from Earth by aliens around the year 2000 BCE. The original location on Earth of the population whose descendants are the Fyai Thǔvn speakers is unknown, but some scholars claim they are from southern Volgograd Oblast, Russia. Their reconstructed proto-language (Proto-Shwain) morphologically resembled English, but now most of the family is strongly analytic and isolating. The original settlement of the Shwain people was across the north of the planet's main continent, but migrating waves of invading Pamian people from the south forced them into many enclaves, including Thǔvn Bay, in the northwest.

Phonology

Vowels

Phonemes
	Front	Central	Back
Closed	/i/	/ɨ/ <ï>	/u/ /ɯ/ <ǔ>
Mid-closed	/e/ <é>	/ɘ/ <e̋>	/o/ <ó>
Mid-open	/ɛ/ <e>	/ɜ/ <ë>	/ʌ ɔ/ <ǒ o>
Open	/a/ <a>		/ɑ/ <ǎ>

Diphthongs

/ai ae aɛ au aɯ ao aɔ aʌ/ <ai aé ae au aǔ aó ao aǒ> /oi oe oɛ/ <ói óé óe> /ɔi/ <oi>

Consonants

Phonemes	Bilabial	'Labio-Palatal	Labiodental	Alveolar	Retroflex'	Velar	Glottal
Stop	/p/	/pʲ/ <py>		/t/ <t>	/ʈ/
/k/ <k>
Aspirated Plosive	/pʰ/ <ph>			/tʰ/		/ʈʰ/ <trh>	kʰ <kh>
Nasal	/m/ <m>	/mʲ/<my		/n/ <n>	/ɳ/ <nr>	/ŋ/<g>
Fricative	/ɸ/ <fh>	/ɸʲ/ <fy>	/f/ <f>	/s/	/ʂ/ <sr>	/x/ <c>	/h/ <h>
Approximant	/β̞/ <v>	/ɥ/<y>		/ɹ~ɻ/  <r>		/ɰ/<w>
Lateral approximant				/l/ <l>	/ɭ/<lr>	ʟ <l'>

Phonotactics

(C)V(V)(A)(C) Where A is any approximant, whether central or lateral.

Permitted codas are any approximant, and /m n ɳ ŋ p t ʈ k/

Morphosyntax

The basic word order is SOV.

The language is strongly analytic and isolating, so there is hardly any morphology.

The Copula

The copula is "witr" and occurs where verbs would occur:

Fyolrt pyǔ witr

sun star COP.

"The sun is a star"

Pronouns and demonstratives

Pronouns:

1p sing: srir

1p plural: sérk

2p.: im

3p. sing: ye̋nr

3p. plural: nrum

Demonstratives:

That: nrunr

This: sunr

Adjectives, Numerals and Adverbs

Adjectives come before the noun:

Pew cók

wide man

"A fat man"

Adjectives can be stringed together without the need for a word like "and"

Pew ǒl' cók

wide angry man

"An angry fat man"

If reduplicated, the adjective is intensified:

Pew ǒl' ǒl' cók

wide angry angry man

"A very angry fat man"

The particle "Trok" can be put before a adjective to lessen it:

Trok pew trok ǒl' cók

few wide few angry man

"A somewhat angry chubby man"

The language has a base-5 numeral system Numbers 1-25:

én-1

mën-2

pyǔl-3

oyk-4

trhavp-5

trhavp én-6

trhavp mën-7

trhavp pyǔl-8

trhavp oyk-9

mën trhavp-10

mën trhavp én-11

mën trhavp mën-12

mën trhavp pyǔl- 13

mën trhavp oyk-14

pyǔl trhavp- 15

pyǔl trhavp én-16

pyǔl trhavp mën-17

pyǔl trhavp pyǔl-18

pyǔl trhavp oyk - 19

oyk trhavp -20

oyk trhavp én-21

oyk trhavp mën-22

oyk trhavp pyǔl-23

oyk trhavp oyk-24

tow-25

For unspecified numbers, the following are substituted for the numbers:

Trok- a few; used if the speaker knows that are more then one but less then five.

Sǒl'm- some; used if the speaker knows that are more then five but less then 25.

Vǎlrp- many; used if the speaker knows that are more then 25

Phe̋n- a number used for unspecified plural.

For things that come in pairs reduplication is used:

Móél- Eye

Móél móél- pair of eyes

Numbers come between the Adjectives and the noun:

Pew pyǔl cók

wide three man

"3 fat men"

Adverbs are words that are otherwise adjectives that come before the verb:

Cók pyïrp mat vae

man bread fast eat

"(The/A) Man eats the bread quickly"

General Noun Syntax

If there are more then one subject, the particle "Trï" is inserted between the subjects. It has the rough meaning of "And" This can go on for a many subjects the sentence has. Once there are 2 nouns not separated by "trï", the second noun is the object.

Cók trï lre̋lt pyïrp vae

man and woman bread eat

(The/A) Man and (the/a) woman eat bread"

With multiple objects, no particle is necessary; they are just stringed together.

Cók trï lre̋lt pyïrp ya vae

man and woman bread meat eat

(The/A) Man and (the/a) woman eat bread and meat"

When an utterance has both a direct and indirect object, the indirect object comes first, and they are separated by the particle "ma":

Sérk im ma thǔvn góeltr.

we you IND.OB bay welcome

"We welcome you to the bay".

Tense and Mood

Tense and Mood are marked by particles at the beginning of an utterance. There are 2 tenses, past and non-past. The Past marking is <L'oi> and non-past utterances are unmarked.

Cók pyïrp vae

man bread eat

"(The/A) Man eats/ is eating bread"

L'oi cók pyïrp vae

PST man bread eat

"(The/A) Man ate bread"

Mood particles:

Conditional: Nóin

Potential: Ne

Imperative: Vǎv

Dubtative: Lǎwn

Mood particles come after the past tense particle.

The Conditional particle is used before a clause when to indicate that a following clause will happen if the first clause would be fulfilled:

Nóin soe phuwk, vak ilr.

"CON. child sleep people act.evilly

"If the child sleeps, people will do bad things"

The potential mood is used to indicate that the speaker believes the action in the clause happened or will happen:

L'oi ne soe phuwk

PST. POT. child sleep

"The child probably slept."

The imperative is used to give commands or suggestions:

Vǎv phuwk

IMP. sleep

"Go to sleep"

The dubtative mood is used to indicate that the speaker believes the action in the clause probably didn't happen or will not happen:

L'oi lǎwn cók pyïrp vae

PST DUB man bread eat

"I doubt(The/A) Man ate bread"

Locative and Temporal Particles

The Locative particle "lrai" is used after place nous to indicate that the action of the verb that follows takes place there:

L'oi nrum nrunr sǔyn lrai phaórt

PST. they that area LOC setttle

"They settled there".

It can also be placed after the object to mean that the action will take place with the subject inside the object:

Nrum fhe̋k lrai trhinr

they fire LOC. burn

"They burn in fire"

It can also be used after 2 nouns to indicate the second noun is located in or at the first noun:

nrum ïk sri nar sǔyn lrai srir

valley Sri Nar area LOC. discover

"They found a valley in the land of Shinar"

Note that the name of places can be composed of many words, but such a name will count as one noun.

The temporal particle "fhaó" can be placed between clauses to mean that the second clause occurred at the same time as the first one:

L’oi vak l'ev we fhaó, nrum ïk srir

PST people east. Move.from TMP they valley discover

"And when they migrated from the east, they found a valley"

Verbs of motion

The following verbs can be used to denote certain motions toward the object:

We- Ablative Ro - Lative Fa- Prolative (Move through)

cók lre̋lt ro

man woman LAT.

"(The) man moved towards (the) woman"

They can also be used with other verbs of motion, as such:

cók lre̋lt we malrt

man woman ABL. walk

"(The) man walked away from (the) woman"

"Ro" can also be placed after a verb in the non-past tense to simulate the future tense:

Cók pyïrp vae ro

man bread eat LAT.

"(The/A) Man will eat bread"