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		ʋ	s
Trill			r
Approximant			l	j

Vowels

Vowel phonemes

	Front	Central	Back
Closed	i
Mid			o
Open		a

Vowels are nasalised before nasal consonants (/a/ → [ã], /i/ → [ɛ̃], /o/ → [ɔ̃]), backed and lowered before velar (/a/ → [ɑ̞], /o/ → [ɔ]), raised before j (/a/ → [æ], /o/ → [u]).

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)

The distinction between dynamic and stative is most readily gleaned in the example opposition kore tan mir, pa-kon ‘I am in love with you, bacon’ (state) vs. kora tan mir, pa-kon ‘I am loving you, bacon’ (action).

Nominal morphology

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

Syntax

Constituent order

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

Phrase order

Modifiers

Numerals and determiners precede their head nouns.

[ʔɛ̃ŋa tʰaʋ ʔadɔk̚ tʰãn]

hińa	tav	ha-tok	tan
prox.det	five	poss-chicken	1sg

‘those five chicken (are) mine’

Genitive constructions

Possessors follow their possessum.

[ʔaʋãn mir]

ha-van	mir
poss-language	2sg

‘your language’

Verb phrase

Chain construction

When two verbs follow each other in a modifying-action relationship, the main verb (modifying verb) precedes the secondary verb (action).

[mãɳɳa læjja mir tʰãn]

mań-a	laj-a	mir	tan
try-dyn	sing-dyn	2sg	1sg

‘you are trying to sing to me’

Causative constructions

This relationship also holds true for causative constructions where the causative precedes the other verb.

[ʋãŋŋa norre tʰãn mir]

vań-a	nor-e	tan	mir
cause-dyn	joy-stat	1sg	2sg

‘I make you happy’

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’
• tore ‘excite’
• van ‘speech’
• nar ‘death’