Yeuric

Yeuric
ẉēirahlauwa
Pronunciation	[ʝiːr.ɬœu̯]
Created by	Melinoë
Date	(original) Aug 27, 2025 (redo) Feb 16, 2026
Setting	Alt history Earth
Ethnicity	Yeuric peoples
Native speakers	L1: 5,000,000 (2020) L2: 1,000,000 (2020)
Language family	Proto-Yeuran Proto-Yeuric Yeuric
Official status
Recognised minority language in	Egypt, Libya, Sudan, Chad

Yeuric (/jɛɹɪk/ or /jəɹɪk/; less often "Neo-Yeuric" by some linguists) is a language spoken across the Sahara by the Yeuric peoples, they're notable for preserving ancient spellings despite having some of the most divergent pronunciations of all the Yeuran languages.

Phonology

This following table is set up in a way that is slightly odd, but it reflects historical patterns and orthographic tradition, such as many of the sounds being under "ejective" despite plainly not being ejective.

		Labial		Alveolar		Velar
		Plain	Ejective	Plain	Ejective	Plain	Ejective
Nasal		m	ᵐb	n	ⁿd	ŋ	ᵑɡ
Stop	Unvoiced	p	pʼ	t	tʼ	k	kʼ
	Voiced	b		d		g
Fricative	Unvoiced	f	pɸ	s	ts	x
	Voiced	v	bβ	d	dz	ɣ
Liquid	Unvoiced	ʍ		r̥	rʼ	j̊¹
	Voiced	w		r		j¹
Lateral	Unvoiced			ɬ	tɬ
	Voiced			l	dɮ

1. Placed under "velar" for space purposes, still a true palatal.

In Yeuric, any consonant can have a variety of coarticulations, those being /Cʲ, Cʷ, Cᶣ/, some of these are realized differently though:

/t, d, n, s, z, k, g, ŋ, x, ɣ/ are realized as /tʃ(ʷ), dʒ(ʷ), ɲ(ʷ), ʃ(ʷ), ʒ(ʷ), c(ʷ), ɟ(ʷ), ɲ(ʷ), ç(ʷ), ʝ(ʷ)/ when (labio-)palatalized.

/wʷ, wʲ, wᶣ/ are realized as /wː, ɥ, ɥː/, and /jʷ, jʲ, jᶣ/ are realized as /ɥ, jː, ɥː/

	Front		Central	Back
	Unround	Round
High	i	y		u
Mid-High	e	ø	ə	o
Mid-Low	ɛ	œ		ɔ
Low				ɑ

Orthography

Yeuric's orthography is notoriously difficult, as it is substantially historic, to the point it seems to have never been updated even once, this results in spellings that are anything but phonemic, take [t͡ʃʷym] which has the spelling "tíuma".

Yeuric orthography (consonants)

Letter	Pronunciation
	Plain	Palatal	Lab-Pal	Labial
m	m	mʲ	mᶣ	mʷ
ṃ	ᵐb	ᵐbʲ	ᵐbᶣ	ᵐbʷ
n	n	ɲ	ɲʷ	m
ṇ	ⁿd	ⁿdʒ	ⁿdʒʷ	ᵐb
ŋ	ŋ	ɲ	ɲʷ	ŋʷ
ŋ̇	ᵑɡ	ᶮɟ	ᶮɟʷ	ᵑɡʷ
p	p	pʲ	pᶣ	pʷ
ṗ	pʼ	pʼʲ	pʼᶣ	pʼʷ
b	b	bʲ	bᶣ	bʷ
ḅ	pʼ	pʼʲ	pʼᶣ	pʼʷ

(will be finished later)

Grammar

The basics of Yeuric morphology are rather easy to follow, being an agglutinative language.

Different parts of speech are formed through different infixes:

-u- forms nouns

-i- forms adjectives

-e- forms agent nouns

-o- forms copulative verbs

-a- forms adverbs (may be changed later)

Basic verbs form the language's roots, notice how "hlawa" ("to speak") has none of these infixes.

Another major aspect of Yeuric grammar is noun incorporation that borders polysyntheticism. Take, for example, the sentence "páruḥazawyapáeruv‧ẉel‧káviḥazawyateulivṛé?", which means "Won't you take my hand and follow my lead?" (From the song "Whistling Tree", by Haunted Like Human), this breaks down roughly as:

páru⸗ḥa⸗za⸗wya páeru⸗v ‧ẉel‧ kávi⸗ḥa⸗za⸗wya teuli⸗v⸗ṛé?

take-fut-2.if¹-1.gen hand-acc and follow-fut-2.if-1.gen guidance-acc-ṛé²

1: "inf" = "informal"

2: "‧ṛé " is roughly for "won't?" questions

Morphology

Nouns

inflection of hlauwa - "language"
	Singular	Paucal	Plural
Nominative	hlauwa	hlauway	hlauwan
Accusative	hlauwaġa	hlauwaġay	hlauwaġan
Genitive	hlauwaṛó	hlauwaṛóy	hlauwaṛón
Dative	hlauwaṭú	hlauwaṭúy	hlauwaṭún
Instrumental	hlauwaṃe	hlauwaṃey	hlauwaṃen
Agentive	hlauwal	hlauwaly	hlauwaln
Patientive	hlauwas	hlauwasy	hlauwasn
Comitative	hlauwakis	hlauwakisy	hlauwakisn
Abessive	hlauwa	hlauway	hlauwan
Allative	hlauwahā	hlauwahāy	hlauwahān
Ablative	hlauwakse	hlauwaksey	hlauwaksen
Inessive	hlauwaja	hlauwajay	hlauwajan

(Adessive, abessive, and subessive not made yet)

Noun compounding is common, in modern Yeuric, it functions by cleaving the gender affix off the end of the first component then adding the second component, though the affix is still often written, as in "ẉēirahlauwa".

Nominals have 3 genders, these being neuter, feminine, and masculine. The neuter is often considered the default, though verbs appear with the endings for all of them (verbs making up the roots nouns are derived from). These genders are determined through the final vowel of the root.

Neuter: -a

Feminine: -i, -e

Masculine: -u, -o

Nouns have a pseudo-animacy hierarchy that functions derivationally, these are shown through affixes:

Things of native origin: -n

Inanimate/dead: -d

Animate: -ṣ

Gods: -ḳ

Nouns also take a definite article, though this functions slightly differently to English. The definite article is "ḳo-", and it covers all the English uses, as well as being used in some places it isn't in English. A general overview of how it's used is: specific referent, proper names (of anything)¹, and certain mythological beings (especially gods).

1. This includes people, places, animals, plants, etc.

It should be noted there are a few exceptions, examples being:

• "Saujaḳ" is a god whose name never takes the article, as the form "ḳoSaujaḳ" refers to a different being.
• "Ṣáuṛdi" is the name of the great desert on the Yeuran peoples' home planet, but also refers to the Sahara, it's unclear why, but it never takes the definite article.
• Some language names take the definite article, such as "ḳoẎarabija", the name for Arabic.

Verbs

Verbs are probably the most complex aspect of all of Yeuric morphology, being responsible for a large majority of the language's notorious difficulty among L2 learners.

Verbs conjugate for an incredible amount of information, including:

Aspect

Mood

Tense

Voice

Volition

As you may notice, Yeuric notably does not conjugate its verbs for person nor number, leaving these to the pronouns.

Plain inflection of hlawa - "to speak"
		Active		Passive		Causative
		Perfective	Imperfective	Perfective	Imperfective	Perfective	Imperfective
Far Past	Indicative	hlawaká	hlawakáme	hllawaká	hllawakáme	hlawwaká	hlawwakáme
	Imperative	hlawakáyo	hlawakáyome	hllawakáyo	hllawakáyome	hlawwakáyo	hlawwakáyome
	Optative	hlawakávī	hlawakávīme	hllawakávī	hllawakávīme	hlawwakávī	hlawwakávīme
	Hypothetical	hlawakáro	hlawakárome	hllawakáro	hllawakárome	hlawwakáro	hlawwakárome
	Inferential	hlawakáẉen	hlawakáẉenme	hllawakáẉen	hllawakáẉenme	hlawwakáẉen	hlawwakáẉenme
Past	Indicative	hlawaú	hlawaúme	hllawaú	hllawaúme	hlawwaú	hlawwaúme
	Imperative	hlawaúyo	hlawaúyome	hllawaúyo	hllawaúyome	hlawwaúyo	hlawwaúyome
	Optative	hlawaúvī	hlawaúvīme	hllawaúvī	hllawaúvīme	hlawwaúvī	hlawwaúvīme
	Hypothetical	hlawaúro	hlawaúrome	hllawaúro	hllawaúrome	hlawwaúro	hlawwaúrome
	Inferential	hlawaúẉen	hlawaúẉenme	hllawaúẉen	hllawaúẉenme	hlawwaúẉen	hlawwaúẉenme
Present	Indicative	hlawa	hlawame	hllawa	hllawame	hlawwa	hlawwame
	Imperative	hlawayo	hlawayome	hllawayo	hllawayome	hlawwayo	hlawwayome
	Optative	hlawavī	hlawavīme	hllawavī	hllawavīme	hlawwavī	hlawwavīme
	Hypothetical	hlawaro	hlawarome	hllawaro	hllawarome	hlawwaro	hlawwarome
	Inferential	hlawaẉen	hlawaẉenme	hllawaẉen	hllawaẉenme	hlawwaẉen	hlawwaẉenme
Future	Indicative	hlawaḥa	hlawaḥame	hllawaḥa	hllawaḥame	hlawwaḥa	hlawwaḥame
	Imperative	hlawaḥayo	hlawaḥayome	hllawaḥayo	hllawaḥayome	hlawwaḥayo	hlawwaḥayome
	Optative	hlawaḥavī	hlawaḥavīme	hllawaḥavī	hllawaḥavīme	hlawwaḥavī	hlawwaḥavīme
	Hypothetical	hlawaḥaro	hlawaḥarome	hllawaḥaro	hllawaḥarome	hlawwaḥaro	hlawwaḥarome
	Inferential	hlawaḥaẉen	hlawaḥaẉenme	hllawaḥaẉen	hllawaḥaẉenme	hlawwaḥaẉen	hlawwaḥaẉenme

Volition affixes
Volitional	-mo
Involitional	-pe

Because this table can be rather difficult to pierce, the individual components shall be given below.

Using "hlawa" as an example, the categories will be put in the order they're attached to the verb.

Voice:

Active: Default ("hlawa")

Passive: Double the first consonant ("hllawa")

Causative: Double the second consonant ("hlawwa")

Tense:

Present: No affix ("hlawa")

Future: "-ḥa" ("hlawaḥa")

Far: "-ḥaṛ" ("hlawaḥaṛ")

Near: "-nḥa" ("hlawanḥa")

Past: "-ú" ("hlawaú")

Far: "-úṛ" ("hlawaúṛ")

Near: "-nú" ("hlawanú")

Mood:

Indicative: No affix ("hlawa")

Imperative: "-yo" ("hlawayo")

Optative: "-vī" ("hlawavī")

Hypothetical: "-ro" ("hlawaro")

Inferential: "-ẉen" ("hlawaẉen")

Aspect:

Perfective: No affix ("hlawa")

Imperfective: "-me" ("hlawame")

Volition:

Plain: No affix ("hlawa")

Volitional: "-mo" ("hlawamo")

Involitional: "-pe" ("hlawape")

Adjectives

Adjectives are far simpler than nouns, only declining for gender.

inflection of hlaiwa - "spoken"
Neuter	hlaiwa
Fem 1	hlaiwe
Fem 2	hlaiwi
Masc 1	hlaiwo
Masc 2	hlaiwu

Pronouns

Yeuric Pronouns
		Nominative	Genitive
Singular	1st	-wa	-ḷa
	2nd informal	-za	-ṇa
	2nd formal	-ṣa	-pa
	3rd animate	-ha	-ẉa
	3rd inanimate	-na	-va
Paucal	1st	-way	-ḷay
	2nd informal	-zay	-ṇay
	2nd formal	-ṣay	-pay
	3rd animate	-hay	-ẉay
	3rd inanimate	-nay	-vay
Plural	1st	-wan	-ḷan
	2nd informal	-zan	-ṇan
	2nd formal	-ṣan	-pan
	3rd animate	-han	-ẉan
	3rd inanimate	-nan	-van

As can be seen, all Yeuric pronouns are clitic, with most attaching to the verb, while the genitive attaches to the noun, as in "hlauwahwya" ("my message").