Evonish

Evonish is a Germanic language of the Evonen language branch. It is based on General American phonology and uses grammar that descends directly, but far from Common Germanic. The wordstock has many influences of Celtic languages and a priori conlangs. Despite this, the alphabet is a modified Latin one. The elder form is the runic Middle Evonish, which was less organized but had featured greater morphology. The two languages split on 25 May 2012 and will differentiate more over time. The objective of Evonish is to preserve old features of Germanic, preserve Celtic vocabulary, as well as eliminate any need for interpretation by context.

Evonish '
Progress: 80%
Type
Fusional
Alignment
Nominative-Accusative
Head direction
Initial	Mixed		Final
Primary word order
Subject-verb-object
Tonal
No
Declensions
Yes
Conjugations
Yes
Genders
Common, Neuter
Nouns decline according to...
Case		Number
Definiteness		Gender
Verbs conjugate according to...
Voice		Mood
Person		Number
Tense		Aspect

Phonology

Consonants

Evonish consonants
	Bilabial	Labio-dental	Dental	Alveolar	Post-alveolar	Palatal	Labio-velar	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m			n				(ŋ)
Plosive	p b			t d				k g	ʔ
Fricative		f v	θ ð	s z	ʃ ʒ	ç		x	h
Approximant			ɹ			j	ʍ w
Flap/Tap			ɾ
Lateral				l

Vowels

	Front	Near-front	Central	Near-back	Back
Close	i				u
Near-close		ɪ		ʊ
Close-mid	e				o
Mid			ə
Open-mid	ɛ				ʌ ɔ
Near-open	æ
Open					ɑ

Rhotic

R vowels	IPA	General American Examples
ar	/ɑ˞/	mark, dark
er	/ɛ˞ː/	air, bear
ir	/e˞ː/	deer and fear
or	/ɔ˞ː/	or and cord
ur	/ɝː/	fur and her

Palatalization

This sound change creates related pairs of words with c, k, and x. Occurrences:

• lorem
• ipsum

Writing

Allophones & Alphabet

See IPA for Evonish for the pronunciations of the letters. It is a 28 letter alphabet as follows: a, p, b, c, j, t, d, þ, ð, e, f, v, k, g, h, i, y, l, m, n, o, r, s, z, u, ƕ, w, x.
N is pronounced /ŋ/ before k or g. "Hr" which appears in the initial position of some words is pronounced /ɾ/, although it is oft mistakenly pronounced /hɹ/.

Diacritics & Digraphs

Certain letters with the diaeresis will be used to express umlaut. The umlauts can be rewritten as the standard vowel with an e after. These can be entered with an international keyboard, or copied. aa - /a/, ee - /e/, ii - /i/, oo - /o/, uu - /u/, yy - /ai/

Pronouns

Personal pronouns feature a combination of the Germanic, h-stem, i-stem, and s-stem in third person. The sole relative pronoun is [TBD].

Person	# / Gender	Nominative	Accusative	Genitive	Dative
First	Singular
	Plural
Second	Singular
	Plural
Third	Common
	Neuter
	Plural
Indefinite	Reflexive
Interrogative	Common
	Neuter

Determiners

The negative article is understood as indefinite; there is no negative definite article so the verb of the sentence is negated instead.

Determiners		Article			Demonstrative
		Definite	Indefinite	Negative	Proximal	Distal
Singular	Common
	Neuter
Plural	Common
	Neuter

Morphology

Adjective

Certain adjectives decline only in an attributive position; they do not in a predicative position. Cf. German die schwarze Magd vs die Magd ist schwarz. Some adjectives undergo umlaut, such as old, ölder, and öldest. Furthermore, there are many common affixes which form adjectives, whose list will be available in time.

• Comparative: -err
• Superlative: -est

Mutation

Ablaut

coming soon...

Umlaut

Occurrences:

• Certain plurals of strong nouns
• Genitive and dative singular of some nouns
• Second and third person singular indicative of some verbs
• Comparatives and superlatives
• Derivative verbs (of nouns)
• Abstract nouns with the -þ suffix
• Nouns with the -enn feminine suffix

Noun

Nouns in Evonish are declined to indicate their grammatical role in the sentence. Their declension depends upon case, gender, and number. Gender is a special factor in Evonish; a word does not determine a gender, rather a selected gender determines a different word. For example, a stone in common gender may be an igneous rock while a stone in neuter may be a sedimentary rock. The plural genitive ending is used in compound words much like kennings.

Class I		Vocative	Nominative	Accusative	Genitive	Dative	Instrumental
Singular	Common
	Neuter
Plural	Common
	Neuter
Class I		Vocative	Nominative	Accusative	Genitive	Dative	Instrumental
Singular	Common
	Neuter
Plural	Common
	Neuter

Verb

Verbs or verb forms in quotes are either an English equivalent or a work in progress. The infinitives of the frequentative aspects are -eln and -ern. The primary aspects are simple(with gnomic), perfect, progressive, habitual, and frequentative. Further aspects are formed by nonstandard ways or purely by context.

Aspects	Auxiliary/Suffix	Main Verb
Simple	-en	conjugation
Perfect	"to have"	past participle
Progressive	"to be"	present participle
Habitual	"to do/brook/note"(TBD)	infinitive
Frequentative	-eln, -ern	conjugation
Inchoative	"to begin"	supine

Future is generally expressed by giving a time, or is implied in context with the simple present tense. There are auxiliary verbs that are standard as well.

Auxiliary verbs	Singular	Plural
First Person	"I shall"	"we shall"
Second Person	"thou wilt"	"ye will"
Third Person	"he goes"	"we go"

The use of the prefix ne- on any verb's form implies negation. Alternatively add the particle "nict" after the main verb, this is especially useful when a different prefix is already attached to the verb.

Weak I
Infinitive	"-en"
Gerund	"-ung/-ing"
Supine	"to-"
Number	Singular	Plural
Imperative	-	-eþ
Tense	Present	Past
Participle	-end	ge- -ed
1st singular	-e
2nd singular	-est
3rd singular	-eþ	"-ed"
Plural
Subjunctive Singular	-e	"-de"
Subjunctive Plural	-en	"-den"

Syntax

Comparisons

Comparative forms use the particle "ðann" followed by the noun(s) being compared to. Depending on that noun's case will determine which noun is first making the comparison. For example:

• "He jumped quicker than I" would yield "than I jumped" (in this example the compared noun is in the nominative).
• "He jumped quicker than me" would yield "than he jumped me" (in this example the compared noun is in the accusative).

Word Order

The standard word order is V2. Questions without interrogative pronouns(yes or no) have verb first and subject second. Dependent clauses have this special word order: Subject - Indirect Object - Direct Object - Instrument - Verb. Relative clauses have their own, to come soon.

Dictionary

Kinship
																					Grandmother		Grandfather				Grandmother		Grandfather
Uncles Wife		Uncle		Uncles Wife		Uncle		Uncles Wife		Uncle		Aunts husband		Aunt		Aunts husband		Aunt		Aunts husband		Aunt		Father		Mother		Uncles Wife		Uncle		Uncles Wife		Uncle		Uncles Wife		Uncle		Aunts husband		Aunt		Aunts husband		Aunt		Aunts husband		Aunt
Male Cousin		Female Cousin		Male Cousin		Female Cousin		Male Cousin		Female Cousin		Male Cousin		Female Cousin		Male Cousin		Female Cousin		Male Cousin		Female Cousin						Male Cousin		Female Cousin		Male Cousin		Female Cousin		Male Cousin		Female Cousin		Male Cousin		Female Cousin		Male Cousin		Female Cousin		Male Cousin		Female Cousin
										Twin Sisters Husband		Twin Sister		Little Sisters Husband		Little Sister		Big Sisters Huband		Big Sister		Wife		Self				Husband		Big Brother		Big Brothers Wife		Little Brother		Little Brothers Wife		Twin Brother		Twin Brothers Wife
										Niece		Nephew		Niece		Nephew		Niece		Nephew		Son		Daughter		Son		Daughter		Niece		Nephew		Niece		Nephew		Niece		Nephew