Van

Van (havan [ʔavãn]) is a small language designed for rapid private use. It is very sparse in its phonology and inflections.

Phonetics and phonology

Consonants

Consonantal phonemes

		Labial	Dental	Palatal	Velar
Nasal		m	n		ɳ
Stop		p	t		k
Fricative		v	s
Trill			r
Approximant			l	j

Vowels

Vowel phonemes

	Front	Central	Back
Closed	i
Mid			o
Open		a

Phonotactics

Syllable

The typical syllable in Van is composed of a consonantal onset, a vocalic nucleus, and a consonantal coda. Occasionally, a syllable may be phonemically onset- or codaless; traditionally in Van terminology these are termed faulty. Syllables of this form are typically found as affixes. Phonetically, they have as their onset either a glottal stop [ʔ] or a copy of the preceding syllable's final consonant, e.g. vana [vãn.na] 'speak' (< van). Note: A coda is not required at the end of sentences.

Word

The word is composed out of syllables but has additional properties that set it apart. A word may only end with a nasal, sibilant or a rhotic consonant.

Morphophonology

There are a few monovocalic affixes in Van that violate the normal syllable structure. For the onsetless syllables, they can be said to copy the preceding syllables final consonant, or in the case of there being none, using a glottal stop.

Some examples:

1. The verbal markers -a, -e always copy the nearest preceding consonant, e.g., /vana/ -> [vãnna] ‘speak’, /tore/ -> [dor.re] ‘to be excited’. Note: No ʔ is appended as the vowel is word final.
2. The definite and possessum marker a- conjures up a glottal stop, e.g. /avan/ -> [ʔavãn] ‘the speech’.

Morphology

Verbal morphology

Verbs are simple. Any noun or root can be turned into a verb by adding -a for dynamic verbs or -e for stative verbs. While there is a morphological opposition between dynamic and stative verbs, there only other verbal inflection is the one for voice -s (active, mediopassive).

	dynamic	stative
	vana (speak)	kore (love)

Nominal morphology

Nouns are unmarked for number but are marked for definiteness and possession (syncretic: a-).

Syntax

Constituent order

The unmarked word order in Van is predominantly (87%) verb-subject-object or VSO.

Phrase order

Possessors follow their possessum, e.g. havan tan ‘my language’ (lit. ‘speech I’);

Sample wordlist

• sa- ‘not’, prefix
• ta- ‘good’, prefix
• no- general intensifier, prefix
• vańa, -e, dummy verb, a pro-verb.
• jin ‘here’
• laja ‘sing’
• los ‘end’
• love ‘alive’
• jan ‘like’
• jas ‘sight’
• kon ‘build’
• kor ‘love’
• tir ‘see’
• tor ‘excite’
• van ‘speech’
• nar ‘death’