Elodian

Elodian
ɂelodīru, gulkā ɂelodīrā
Pronunciation	[ˈguɬkɑː ʔelɔˈdiːraː]
Created by	Lili21
Date	Jul 2022
Setting	Alt-Earth
Ethnicity	Elodians (ɂelodī)
Native speakers	12,000,000 (2021)
Language family	Indo-European Elodian
Official status
Official language in	ʔelodīhūto
Regulated by	National Language Academy of ʔelodīhūto Kalēmīa Mellī twā Gulkā twā ʔelodīhūto

Important note: Elodian is, fundamentally, a rethinking of Lifashian intended as a kind of drop-in replacement in its setting.

Elodian, natively referred to as ɂelodīru or gulkā ɂelodīrā, is an Indo-European language, an isolate inside the family, spoken in an alternate timeline of Earth in the northeastern corner of Asia Minor, i.e. the historical region of Pontus and neighboring areas across the Pontic Alps into the Armenian highlands. It is the official language of the republic of ʔelodīhūto, spoken by the majority of its population. Elodian is the native language of about twelve million people in the world, the majority of which in ʔelodīhūto, with smaller communities in Eastern Turkey, Syria, Iran and Iraq.

Elodian developed on its own, distinctly from other Indo-European languages, although it is definitely closer to the Anatolian languages, particularly the Luwian subgroup, than to other languages in the family, despite sharing some traits with Armenian and Greek. It is particularly noteworthy due to its system of split ergativity, which makes it virtually an ergative-absolutive language (although not syntactically ergative) except with first- and second-person referents, which require a nominative-accusative alignment.

Its vocabulary has a substantial number of inherited roots, but through millennia the language absorbed many loanwords, especially from Persian and Arabic (through the former), and to smaller extents from its neighbours Armenian, the Kartvelian languages and Turkish, as well as from Greek and Russian. Long-term Genoese colonization and reciprocal contacts also introduced many Ligurian loans, as well as forming one of the main ethnic minorities in the country, Elodian Ligurians, which had a marked influence on the culture of coastal urban areas.

It is written in the Elodian alphabet, a bicameral script ultimately related to other ancient scripts of Asia Minor like the Lydian alphabet.

Miscellanea

(This section exists mostly as a placeholder for "interesting things" about the language to justify the existence of this page, until I write the full phonology, morphology, syntax sections.)

Proto-Elodian underwent a change similar to Grimm's Law in Proto-Germanic or even closer to the one in Proto-Armenian; however, it did not affect labiovelars. The most strikingly Elodian correspondence is PIE *t > Elodian l, through an intermediate *ð stage.

The endonym ɂelodi is from PIE *h₁léwdʰis.

Most letters have their IPA values, except c /tʃ/ j /dʒ/ ng /ŋ/, ǝ /ɛ/, ṛ /ɽ~ɻ/, š /ʃ/, o /ɔ/. Long vowels are marked with a macron.

Morphology

Nouns

Elodian nouns decline for six cases: nominative-absolutive, ergative, accusative, dative, equative and locative, with a seventh one, the genitive, still found in some relic uses. Nouns are categorized according to the ending of their citation form (nominative-absolutive singular) and the corresponding oblique form, i.e. the stem to which the case endings are added. The PIE inflection system, overall, has been simplified, although the stem/ending combinations maintain a certain degree of complexity.

Pattern	Nominative/Absolutive	Oblique	Notes
Masculine
I	-∅	-∅-
II	-a	-o-	No longer productive
III	-ē	-or-	Same as feminine pattern II
IV	-i	-i-	Moderately productive (borrowings ending in voiced obstruents)
V	-o	-u-	Not productive per se, limited to a few nouns (e.g. hūlo "son", šargo "lion") and the derivational suffix -aždo.
Feminine
I	-ā, -īa	-eh-V, -ā-C (-īeh-V, -īa-C)	-īa nouns are borrowings
I-b	-ā	-ǝt- or -at-	Arabic nouns in tāʾ marbūṭah. In contemporary Elodian these nouns generally follow pattern I, except in compounding.
II	-ē	-or-	Same as masculine pattern III
III	-ī	-ih-V, -ī-C
IV	-ū	-uh-V, -ū-C	No longer productive
Neuter
I	-e	-i-
II	-u	-o-
III	-o
IV	-mā	-mon-
V	-mo	-mot-	Greek nouns in -μα(τ-)
VI	-nē	-ni-	Mostly collectives

The following table shows the case endings. The ergative and accusative singular forms vary depending on whether the stem ends in a consonant or a vowel (feminine patterns I, III and IV use the prevocalic form here); the locative singular is generally -hu, with -šu depending on the preceding sound (historical RUKI law). In the nominative-absolutive plural -i is for masculine and feminine nouns, while -ā for neuters; -ī is exclusively used for masculine pattern IV. The equative, a distinctive trait of Elodian, is likely an influence from Hurrian or a lost Hurro-Urartian language.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative-absolutive	--	-i (-ī) / -ā
Ergative	-š, -eš	-ex
Accusative	-w, -o	-ā
Dative	-ē	-(o)bo
Equative	-(e)ɂār	-(o)bīṛ
Locative	-hu / -šu	-ēšu
Genitive (relic)	-ay (masculine) -ē (feminine) -i (neuter)	-ow

The predominant use of the genitive today is not syntactical, but merely as a derivational element forming nominal compounds. Its use in marking possession has been completely taken by the particle twe, which declines according to the gender of the possessed noun: twe is the masculine singular form; twā the feminine singular; tō the neuter singular; twī masculine and feminine plural and tā neuter plural.

Articles

The articles in Elodian are lu, la, ot for the singular (m/f/n) and li, lē, lā for the plural. Despite the similarities, the Elodian articles are false cognates of the common Romance ones; on the other hand, they are cognates with the accusative forms of the Ancient Greek article. All inflected forms (except for nominative-absolutive and accusative) are new formations in Elodian, not inherited from PIE.

Elodian definite articles

Case	Singular			Plural
	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
Nominative-absolutive	lu, l'	la, leh'	ot, t'	li	lē	lā
Ergative	luš	lāš	loš	lūx	layx	lōx
Accusative	lu, l'	la, leh'	ot, t'	li	lē	lā
Dative	luē	lehē	loē	lubo	lābo	lobo
Equative	luɂār	lehār	loɂār	lubīṛ	lābīṛ	lobīṛ
Locative	lušu	lāhu	lohu	lūšu	layšu	lōšu
Genitive (relic)	lūy	lehē	lōy	lūw	lāw	lōw

Demonstratives

The two demonstratives used in contemporary Elodian are proximal sī, sīa, sīt and distal nū, nūa, nūt. Except for the nominative-absolutive and accusative forms in both the singular and plural, the others are synchronically formed from the articles and a prefix:

Elodian proximal demonstratives

Case	Singular			Plural
	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
Nominative-absolutive	sī	sīa	sīt	sēli	sīhe	sīa
Ergative	seluš	selāš	seloš	selūx	selayx	selōx
Accusative	sī	sīa	sīt	sēli	sīhe	sīa
Dative	seluē	selehē	seloē	selubo	selābo	selobo
Equative	seluɂār	selehār	seloɂār	selubīṛ	selābīṛ	selobīṛ
Locative	selušu	selāhu	selohu	selūšu	selayšu	selōšu
Genitive (relic)	selūy	selehē	selōy	selūw	selāw	selōw

Elodian distal demonstratives

Case	Singular			Plural
	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
Nominative-absolutive	nū	nūa	nūt	nōli	nūhe	nūa
Ergative	noluš	nolāš	nološ	nolūx	nolayx	nolōx
Accusative	nū	nūa	nūt	nōli	nūhe	nūa
Dative	noluē	nolehē	noloē	nolubo	nolābo	nolobo
Equative	noluɂār	nolehār	noloɂār	nolubīṛ	nolābīṛ	nolobīṛ
Locative	nolušu	nolāhu	nolohu	nolūšu	nolayšu	nolōšu
Genitive (relic)	nolūy	nolehē	nolōy	nolūw	nolāw	nolōw

See also

• Lifashian