Evonish
Evonish (subject to constant renaming) is a constructed language (for a possible constructed world) mostly limited to my day dreaming and notebooks. It is a-posetriori and influenced primarily by (West) Germanic, (Insular) Celtic, and Russian. Its phoneme inventory is based on General American phonology. The wordstock has many influences of Germanic languages, Celtic languages, Slavic languages, and some a priori vocabulary. Imagine Germanic tribes such as the Anglo-Saxons with eastern tribes gathering together with Celts and sailing the Baltic Sea. They landed near modern day Saint Petersburg where they established their own nation, absorbing some northern Russian groups. Essentially, it is the Romania of the Northwest in a sense. Sweet maps of this will be made.
The objectives are:
- to create a poetic, flowing language
- to preserve old Germanic grammar
- to preserve Celtic vocabulary
- to create a left-hand friendly writing system
It is open to editing by all interested in a conlang of its influences.
Previous Task: Define Goals --> Current Task: Determine Consonants --> Next Task: Determine Vowels
| Evonish 'undecided' | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Alignment | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nominative-Accusative | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Head direction | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Initial | Mixed | Final | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 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 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Grammatischer Wechsel
The language is descended from Proto-Germanic. Thus it includes Grimm's Law and Verner's Law; however, it retains a unique variant, as does all modern Germanic descendants. It's variant of these two laws creates different sound changes within verb paradigms known as the Grammatischer Wechsel. Commas indicate the second phoneme occurs in the case of Verner's Law. Phonemes in parenthesis were allophones and innovations in their respective languages.
| Proto-Indo-European | Proto-Germanic | Old Norse | Old English | Old High German | Evonish |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| *p | *ɸ, β | f | f (v) | f, b | ??? |
Phonology
Æ-Tensing, a process by which the vowel /æ/ is raised and lengthened to produce /æ̝ˑ/ before a nasal consonant, is in free variation and is merely an allophone.
Consonants
Parenthesis indicate allophones.
| Bilabial | Labio-dental | Dental | Alveolar | Post-alveolar | Palatal | Labio-velar | Velar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| /m/ | /n/ | /ŋ/ | Nasal | ||||||
| /p/ /b/ | /t/ /d/ | /k/ /g/ | Plosive | ||||||
| /f/ /v/ | /θ/ /ð/ | /s/ /z/ | /ʃ/ | /x/ | /h/ | Fricative | |||
| /ɹ/ | /j/ | /ʍ/ /w/ | Approximant | ||||||
| /l/ | Lateral | ||||||||
Vowels
Parenthesis indicate allophones. The following table includes the rhotic vowels as well.
| Front | Near-front | Central | Near-back | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| /i/ | /u/ | Close | |||
| /ɪ/ | /ʊ/ | Near-close | |||
| /e/, /e˞ː/ | /o/ | Close-mid | |||
| /ə/ | Mid | ||||
| /ɛ/, /ɛ˞ː/ | /ɝː/ | /ʌ/ · /ɔ/, /ɔ˞ː/ | Open-mid | ||
| /æ/ (æ̝ˑ) | Near-open | ||||
| /ɑ/, /ɑ˞/ | Open |
Writing
The writing system may be from right to left. The thirty letter alphabet is a modified Latin alphabet that contains the following characters, in no real order:
- a, e, i, o, u, y
- p /p/, b /b/
- t /t/, d /d/
- þ /θ/, ð /ð/
- f /f/, v /v/
- k /k/, g /g/
- x /x/, h /h/
- l /l/, r /ɹ/
- m /m/, n /n/
- ŋ /ŋ/, j /j/
- s /s/, z /z/
- ṡ /ʃ/, ż /ʒ/
- ƕ(q) /ʍ/, ƿ(w) /w/
The IPA for Varevon is sorely out of date, and is subject to change soon. A dot is placed over s and z which changes them to distinct, but related sounds; these are regarded as separate letters. Umlauts are written with a diaeresis/umlaut, and doubled vowels indicate long vowels or gemination.
Pronouns
Personal pronouns are the most complex. The sole relative pronoun is [TBD].
| Person | Number | Nominative | Accusative | Genitive | Dative |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | First | Ik | Mek | Meyn | Mě |
| Second | Ðǔ | Ðek | Ðeyn | Ðě | |
| Common | Sey | ||||
| Neuter | Hit | Hin | His | Him | |
| Plural | First | Wě | Uns | ||
| Second | Jě | ||||
| Third | Hě | Hen | Her | Hem | |
| Indefinite | Reflexive | Sek | Seyn | Sě | |
| 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. Determines are key to distinguish to distinguishing gender. the E at the end of some determiner plurals is an ancient pluralizing form.
| Determiners | Article | Demonstrative | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Definite | Indefinite | Negative | Proximal | Distal | ||
| Common | Singular | Ðee | Een | Neen | Ðis | Jeen |
| Plural | - | Ðise | Jeene | |||
| Neuter | Singular | Ðat | Een | Ðit | Jeen | |
| Plural | Ðoo | Sum | Ðite | Jeene | ||
Table of Correlatives
Lorem Ipsum.
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 mutation. Furthermore, there are many common affixes which form adjectives, whose list will be available in time.
Noun
Their declension depends upon case and number. The plural genitive ending is used in compound words much like kennings. The umlaut occurs in some plurals, in some cases, and sometimes in whole words. The vocative, instrumental, and locative forms disappeared since Proto-Germanic. A pseudo-vocative form is made with the clitic O' (from Celtic) and uses the zero conjugation.
Strong
The vowel a became associated with plural and e with singular. Vowel dropping may be apparent spoken, but it is not written, such as Engel not declining to Eng'la.
| Strong - Engel (Angel) | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative/Accusative | Engel | Engelas |
| Genitive | Engeles | Engela |
| Dative | Engele | Engelam |
Weak
| Weak - Name (name) | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative/Accusative | Name | Namen |
| Genitive | Name(n)s | Nam(en)a |
| Dative | Namen | Namen |
Augmentative & Diminutive
Lots of Stuff here
Verb
Verbs or verb forms in quotes are either an English equivalent or a work in progress. The infinitives of the frequentative form are -eln and -ern; these can be made of many verbs. The infinitive form in Evonish is the lemma form of the verb, meaning it is the one used in dictionaries. The primary aspects are simple, perfect, progressive, habitual, and inchoative. Simple aspect is used for:
- Stative verbs
- Gnomic aspect
Further aspects are formed by nonstandard ways or purely by context.
| Form | Suffix | |
|---|---|---|
| Lemma | ||
| Frequentative | ||
| Aspect | Main | Auxiliary |
| Habitual | infinitive | "to do" |
| Inchoative | supine | "to begin" |
| Perfect | past participle | "to have" |
| Progressive | present participle | "to be" |
| Tense | Person | Auxiliary |
| Future | First | "shall" |
| Second | "will" | |
| Third | "go" | |
The particle [TBD] after the main verb negates the verb. The following table shows the conjugation of the verb fällen, a weak 1 class verb. The auxiliary verbs in the table are the verbs used with the participles to form two different aspects.
| zdfbzdcb | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Nonfinite | Infinitive | ||
| Gerund | |||
| Supine | |||
| Participle | Tense | Positive | Negative |
| Present | |||
| Past | |||
| Mood | Tense | Singular | Plural |
| Indicative | Present | [TBD] | |
| [TBD] | |||
| [TBD] | |||
| Past | [TBD] | ||
| [TBD] | [TBD] | ||
| [TBD] | [TBD] | ||
| Subjunctive | Nonpast | ||
| Past | |||
| Imperative | Present | ||
Syntax
Comparisons
Comparative forms use a particle followed by the noun(s) being compared to. Depending on that noun's case will determine which noun is first making the comparison. These can imply drastically different meanings, for example:
- "He ate pie quicker than I" would yield "than I ate pie" (in this example the compared noun is in the nominative).
- "He ate pie quicker than me" would yield "than he ate me" (in this example the compared noun is in the accusative).
Word Order
The standard word order is V2; when a phrase, clause, adverb, or adjective precedes the subject for emphasis, the second argument is always the verb. This can be demonstrated in the somewhat archaic or fanciful use "From the ground grew the tree." Word order is flexible due to conjugations however the primary form for independent clauses is Subject-Verb-Object. Questions without interrogative pronouns(yes or no) have verb first and subject second. Dependent clauses have a special word order:
- Subject
- Indirect Object
- Direct Object
- Instrument
- Verb.
Relative clauses follow the same pattern as independent clauses when appended to independent clauses and follow the dependent pattern when appended to a dependent clause.
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 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Example texts
Lorem Ipsum.