Eḥeiθymmen Amran

Eḥeiθymmen Amran [ɛçˈejθ.ym:.ɛn ˈam.ran]
Creator:	Daniel Quigley
Spoken in:	Amran
World:	Leaves Stories
Total Speakers:	~ 18,000,000
Basic word order:	Strict V2
Morphological Type:	Fusional
Morphosyntactic Alignment:	Ergative-Absolutive
Inspirations:	Arabic, German, Finnish, Welsh, Basque, English
Status:	In Progress
Link to full documentation:	*forthcoming*

Eḥeiθymmen Amran is an a priori artistic constructed language in development by Daniel Quigley, providing the framework for which the author’s creative works and worldbuilding are guided. Eḥeiθymmen Amran or just Eḥeiθymme or Amranuwwa is the dominant language of the people of Amran.

Eḥeiθymme is characterized by significant word-internal sound-change, a "root-and-pattern" morphology, and strict word order. Eḥeiθymme readily accepts words of non-native origin, but tends to force said loans into its morphological paradigm.

Eḥeiθymme is typologically a fusional language. Nouns, modifiers, and verbs are typically formed via a root-and-pattern triconsonantal root system, and movement between the three is highly fluid. Nouns are not inflected for number and case; these details are encoded in the definiteness marked by an article. Other modifiers, such as adverbs, are not inflected in the same way, though similarities may be found in certain contexts. Verbs entirely depend upon their construction with a positive or a negative copula, and most tenses are formed via periphrasis. Some particles are inflected for person. Eḥeiθymme is an Ergative-Absolutive aligned language, and has strict V2 word order despite the presence of extensive case marking.

Phonology

Consonants

Eḥeiθymme has five major places of articulation and seven manners of articulation, and yields twenty-five consonants in total.

Consonant Inventory of Eḥeiθymme

			Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal			m = [m]	n = [n]
Stop		unvoiced	p = [p]	t = [t]		k = [k]
		voiced	b = [b]	d = [d]		g = [g]
Affricate		unvoiced			c = [t͡ʃ]
		voiced			j = [d͡ʒ]
Fricative	sibilant	unvoiced		s = [s]	ʃ = [ʃ]
		voiced			ʒ = [ʒ]
	non-sibilant	unvoiced	f = [f]	θ = [θ]	ḥ = [ç]	x = [x]	h = [h]
		voiced	v = [v]	ð = [ð]		ɣ = [ɣ]
Semi-vowel			w = [w]		y = [j]
Lateral				l = [l]
Rhotic				r = [r]

Vowels and Diphthongs

Eḥeiθymme has five short vowels and five long vowels, a distinction manifested as the long vowels' sound being held twice as long as short vowels' sound.

The short vowels are the following: i, e, a, ü, u. These have the following values:

• i = [i]
  

• e = [ɛ]
  

• a = [a]
  

• ü = [y]
  

• u = [u]

The long vowels are the following: ī, ē, ā, ǖ, ū. These have the following values:

• ī = [i:]
  

• ē = [ɛ:] ~ [e]
  

• ā = [a:]
  

• ǖ = [y:]
  

• ū = [u:]

Note that, when spoken, there is some variation in the actual pronunciation of /ɛ:/, and may be more accurately pronounced as [e:].

Eḥeiθymme has three diphthongs, all of which have length equivalent to long vowels. The diphthongs are the following: ei, ey, au. These have the following values:

• ei = [ej]
  

• eü = [eɥ]
  

• au = [aw]

Vowel and Diphthong Inventory of Eḥeiθymme

	Front		Back
	unrounded	rounded
Close	i = [i] ī = [i:]	ü = [y] ǖ = [y:]	u = [u] ū = [u:]
Mid	e = [ɛ] ~ [e] ē = [ɛ:] ~ [e:]
Open			a = [a] ā = [a:]
Diphthongs	ei = [ej], eü = [eɥ], au = [aw]

Prosody and Stress

Syllables are determined by vowel-sounds and diphthong-sounds. There is one vowel or diphthong per syllable. A syllable will tend to be closed, and tend not to contain a consonant in the onset if it can be avoided.

The determination of stress is understood within the bounds of the ultimate to antepenultimate syllable.

1. If the word at most contains:

• three syllables, then the first syllable is stressed.
• two syllables, then the first syllable is stressed.
• one syllable, then that syllable is stressed.

2. If the word contains:

• more than three syllables, then the antepenultimate syllable is stressed.
• a diphthong or a long vowel in the ultimate, penultimate, or antepenultimate syllable, then that syllable is stressed.

Sound Change

There exists four general rules of sound change in Eḥeiθymme, two of which involve the mutation of consonants, one of which involves a harmonization of the vowels in a word, and one that turns consonants into vowels.

1. The consonant moves to its fricative counterpart in the environment that it follows a front vowel.

• t → θ
• d → ð
• p → f
• b → v
• k → x
• g → ɣ
• h → ḥ = ç
• c → ʃ
• j → ʒ

2. The consonant moves to its voiced counterpart in the environment that it follows an appropriate nasal.

• t → d / n_
• p → b / m_
• k → g / n_
• c → j / n_

3. If a close, front, unrounded vowel exists anywhere in the word, then the close, back vowel becomes the close, front, rounded vowel, and the open, back vowel becomes the mid, front, unrounded vowel.

• u → ü / ...i...
• a → e / ...i...

4. A semi-vowel becomes its vowel counterpart in the environment that it preceeds immediately a non-semi-vowel consonant.

• y → i / _C
• w → u / _C

Morphology

Eḥeiθymme is characterized by a nonconcatenative morphology, or "root-and-pattern" morphology. Words are constructed from an abstract consonantal root structure according to any of several templates. The roots of words tend to be made of two or three consonants, though roots of one or four are not unheard of. Words not of an Eḥeiθymme origin are made to follow Eḥeiθymme's morphollogy, and so can exhibit an atypical number of consonant roots. Additionally, Eḥeiθymme is not without discrete morphemes in the form of affixes in addition to the characteristic nonconcatenative morphology.

Verbs

Verbs in Eḥeiθymme are predominantly aspectual, and show no overt morphological distinction to reflect time. Tenses are constructed typically by periphrasis. Mood is constructed via periphrasis for moods that are not indicative, subjunctive, or imperative, with one of several modal verbs. Voice is distinguished morphologically in unison with periphrasis. Person is marked directly on the verb by distinct morphemes.

Critical to the construction of the verb and verb phrase is the copula, of which there exists both a positive and a negative copula. Additionally, there exists an infinitive form of the verb that is used when constructing moods.

Tense

Tense is constructed combinatorially with the copula, with an explicitly defined aspectual distinction.

Eḥeiθymme distinguishes between three aspects: the Perfective aspect indicates an action completed, or an action as a whole; the Imperfective aspect indicates a continuous action; the Perfect aspect indicates a completed action prior to some event in context. Only the Perfective and the Imperfective have unique morphological templates; the Perfective aspect is formed via periphrasis.

• The structure of the Perfective is: 1v23-
• The structure of the Imperfective is: -12v3

Eḥeiθymme distinguishes two times: the Past time indicates actions in the past; the Non-Past time indicates actions not in the past, and in some contexts covers both the present and the future. Aspect and time combine to yield tense.

1. Perfective Past Tense

The Perfective Past Tense indicates a simple completed action in the past. It is the composition of perfective aspect and past time. Additionally, this is the default literary tense in Eḥeiθymme.

2. Imperfective Past Tense

The Imperfective Past Tense indicates an ongoing or incomplete action in the past time. It is the composition of imperfective aspect and past time.

3. Imperfective Non-Past Tense

The Imperfective Non-Past Tense indicates an ongoing action in the non-past time. It is the composition of imperfective aspect and non-past time. Additionally, this tense may also be used to refer to the equivalent of a future time, depending on the context.

4. Perfect Past Tense

The Perfect Past Tense indicates an action which was completed prior to another completed action. It is the composition of perfect aspect and past time.

5. Perfect Non-Past Tense

The Perfect Non-Past Tense indicates an action which was completed prior to another action. It is the composition of perfect aspect and non-past time.

Positive and Negative Verb Construction, With and Without Modals, in Eḥeiθymme

Without Modal	Positive		Non-Past Time	Past Time	Negative		Non-Past Time	Past Time
	Perfective Aspect		–	α	Perfective Aspect		–	am-α
	Imperfective Aspect		β β+copula + β	α+copula + β	Imperfective Aspect		β-copula + β	α-copula + β
	Perfect Aspect		β+copula + α	α+copula + α	Perfect Aspect		β-copula + α	α-copula + α

Mood

Eḥeiθymmen has three distinctly marked moods: the Indicative mood indicates factual statements, inquiry of simple questions, and the statement of beliefs; the Subjunctive mood indicates imaginary or hypothetical actions, conveys opinions or emotions, or conveys requests; the Imperative mood indicates a directed command.

Eḥeiθymmen may also form verb constructions via periphrasis with modal verbs. There are numerous such modal verbs expressing variable meanings, shades of meanings, and overlapping of meanings. These may also be in the indicative, subjunctive, or imperative.

• M-W-T
• M-Y-N
• R-T-R
• D-N-G
• ∅-ʃ-L
• C-Y-L
• R-W-D
• K-T-R

Positive and Negative Verb Construction, With and Without Modals, in Eḥeiθymme

With Modal	Positive		Non-Past Time	Past Time	Negative		Non-Past Time	Past Time
	Perfective Aspect		–	αmodal + Vinfinitive	Perfective Aspect		–	am-αmodal + Vinfinitive
	Imperfective Aspect		βmodal + Vinfinitive β+copula + βmodal + Vinfinitive	α+copula + βmodal + Vinfinitive	Imperfective Aspect		β-copula + βmodal + Vinfinitive	α-copula + βmodal + Vinfinitive
	Perfect Aspect		β+copula + αmodal + Vinfinitive	α+copula + αmodal + Vinfinitive	Perfect Aspect		β-copula + αmodal + Vinfinitive	α-copula + αmodal + Vinfinitive

Voice

Voice in Eḥeiθymme is constructed entirely morphosyntactically, depending on the relationship between nouns in the ergative case and nouns in the absolutive case. Eḥeiθymme has three distinct voice constructions: the Active voice indicates that the subject of the sentence performs the action of a transitive or an intransitive verb, or causes the happening denoted by the verb; the Anti-passive voice takes the transitive verb and make it "less transitive" (read, more intransitive) by retaining that verb but putting the ergative noun into an absolutive or oblique construct, and thus conveys prominence of the agent and what they did, while the patient is left not as important (and thus demoted to oblique); the Anti-active voice takes the intransitive verb and make it "less intransitive" (read, more transitive) by taking a null space object (the oblique or absolutive) and realizing it with an actual argument, and thus conveys prominence to an object. Admittedly, there are very few instances of the anti-active voice.

When constructing these voices, the copula always remains in the second position. Any modal, other inflected verb, or infinitive remains at the end. For sentences not in need of a copula construction, such as the Perfective Past tense or the Imperfective Non-past tense, then the position otherwise held by the copula is instead held by the inflected verb, and is no longer at the end of the sentence. Similarly, in those tenses are being constructed with the modal plus the infinitive, then the modal is placed in the second position, and the infinitive is at the end.

In the active voice, the verb may be either transitive or intransitive. In the anti-passive voice, the verb must be transitive. In the anti-active voice, the verb must be intransitive. Finally, note that transitivity is entirely semantic; there is no overt marking to indicate if a verb is transitive or intransitive.

1. Active voice construction

• N_ergative + V_transitive + N_absolutive
• N_ergative + V_copula + N_absolutive + V_transitive
• N_ergative + V_copula + N_absolutive + V_modal + V_infinitive
• N_ergative + V_modal + N_absolutive + V_infinitive

• ∅ + V_intransitive + N_absolutive
• ∅ + V_copula + N_absolutive + V_intransitive
• ∅ + V_copula + N_absolutive + V_modal + V_infinitive
• ∅ + V_modal + N_absolutive + V_infinitive

2. Anti-passive voice construction

• N_absolutive + V_transitive + N_oblique
• N_absolutive + V_copula + N_oblique + V_transitive
• N_absolutive + V_copula + N_oblique + V_modal + V_infinitive
• N_absolutive + V_modal + N_oblique + V_infinitive

3. Anti-active voice construction

• ∅ + V_intransitive + N_ergative
• ∅ + V_copula + N_ergative + V_intransitive
• ∅ + V_copula + N_ergative + V_modal+ V_infinitive
• ∅ + V_modal + N_ergative + V_infinitive

Conjugation

Since verbs are constructed regularly via predictable combinatorics, it is useful to make a generalized template with which to consult.

• α is a verb in the perfective aspect construction
• β is a verb in the imperfective aspect construction
• V is the primary verb
• subscript "copula" means that that verb is the copula
• subscript "modal" means that that verb is a modal verb
• subscript "infinitive" means that that verb is in the infinitive form of the verb
• superscript "+" or "-" means that that verb is either the positive or the negative form (of the copula)

Additionally, to see an example of an inflected word, included in the paradigms is the 1st person singular inflection for the root N-Y-L, which refers to writing.

Paradigm of an Eḥeiθymmen Verb, N-Y-L "writing"

Mood	Person		α-form	β-form	Person		α-form	β-form
Indicative	Singular				Plural
	1st		test	test	1st	Inclusive	test	test
						Exclusive	test	test
	2nd	Formal	test	test	2nd	Formal	test	test
		Informal	test	test		Infomal	test	test
	3rd	Masculine	test	test	3rd	Masculine	test	test
		Feminine	test	test		Feminine	test	test
		Neuter	test	test		Neuter	test	test
	4th		test	test	4th		test	test
Subjunctive	Singular				Plural
	1st		test	test	1st	Inclusive	test	test
						Exclusive	test	test
	2nd	Formal	test	test	2nd	Formal	test	test
		Informal	test	test		Infomal	test	test
	3rd	Masculine	test	test	3rd	Masculine	test	test
		Feminine	test	test		Feminine	test	test
		Neuter	test	test		Neuter	test	test
	4th		test	test	4th		test	test
Imperative	Singular				Plural
	1st		–	–	1st	Inclusive	–	test
						Exclusive	–	test
	2nd	Formal	–	test	2nd	Formal	–	test
		Informal	–	test		Infomal	–	test
	3rd	Masculine	–	–	3rd	Masculine	–	–
		Feminine	–	–		Feminine	–	–
		Neuter	–	–		Neuter	–	–
	4th		test	test	4th		test	test