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

Spelling

The alphabet consists of the letters: a e h i j k l m n ń o p r s t v .

• ⟨ń⟩ is a velar nasal [ŋ]
• ⟨h⟩ is a glottal stop [ʔ]
• ⟨v⟩ is a labiodental approximant [ʋ]

Consonants

Consonantal phonemes

		Labial	Dental	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m	n		ŋ
Stop		p	t		k	ʔ
Fricative		ʋ	s
Trill			r
Approximant			l	j

Vowels

Vowel phonemes

	Front	Central	Back
Closed	i
Mid	e		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 (CVC). 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 either a vowel or 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/ -> [ʔaʋãn] ‘the speech’.

Morphology

Verbal morphology

Verbs are morphologically simple in Van and the few inflections which exist compound in an agglutinative fashion according to the following principle: stem + mode + voice.

Mode

Verbs in Van distinguish two modes: dynamic (dyn) and stative (stat)

All verbs expressing a dynamic meaning have a suffix -a while stative verbs have an -e.

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).

Voice

Two voices are recognised in Van, the active (act) and the nonactive (nonact). Of these, the default voice is the active one which is unmarked. The nonactive is indicated by an -s suffix.

Derivational morphology

Nouns

There are several semantically-restricted options for creating a new noun from a verb.

• Nomen agentis: prefix li- to the stem of the verb. Thus, love ‘alive, living’ whose stem is lov- becomes lilov ‘being’.
• Nomen actionis: add the definite marker to the stem of the verb. laja ‘sing’ → halaj ‘the act of singing’
• Nomen instrumentis: instruments or tools that go with a verb; marked with the suffix -ka; jasa ‘to watch’ → jasaka ‘glasses’
• Nomen obiecti: suffix -las; added to transitive verbs denote the object of an action. laja ‘sing’ → lajalas ‘song’

There is one operation available to derive nouns from nouns: the collective (COLL) reduplication, which usually a full initial L→R reduplication. However, for polysyllabic words, only the first CV pair is copied.

• ha-tav ‘a feeling’ → ha-tatav ‘sentiments, emotional state’
• ha-tok ‘a chicken’ → ha-toktok [ʔa̰d̪ɔg̚d̪ɔ̰k̞͡x̞] ‘poultry’
• ha-lilov ‘a being’ → ha-lililov ‘humanity’ ( and not **ha-lilovlilov)

Verbs

It is quite easy to create new verbs: any noun or stem can be turned into a verb by adding the appropriate mode suffix (-a for dynamic verbs or -e for stative verbs).

Nominal morphology

Nominal morphology is sparse in Van. Number is not marked, but definiteness and state of possession is (both with syncretic: ha-).

Syntax

Constituent order

The unmarked word order in Van is predominantly (87%) verb-subject-object or VSO. The remaining occurrences (13%) are subject-verb-object or SVO. There appears to be no particular identifiable reason for what makes a sentence SVO or not.

Phrase order

The noun phrase

Numerals and determiners precede their head nouns.

(1.)

[ʔɛ̃ŋa tʰãm ʔadɔk̚ tʰãn]

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

‘Those five chicken (are) mine’

Possessive constructions

Possessors follow their possessum.

(2.)

ha-van	mir
poss-language	2sg

‘Your language’

Intrinsically possessed nouns or obligatorily possessed nouns like vas ‘head’ do not get prefixed with the possessive marker.

vas	tan
head	1sg

‘My head’

Verb phrase

Non-active constructions

In non-active constructions (autostative, passive, mediopassive; all formed with [-s]) the word order remains the same as in the default word order.

(3.) autostative

nor-e-s	tan
joy-stat-nonact	1sg

‘I am happy with myself’

(4.) passive

not-a-s	ras
eat-dyn-nonact	3sg.m

‘He is being eaten’

(5.) reciprocal

pok-a-s	sor	ha
strike-dyn-nonact	3sg.f	pl

‘They (f.) strike each other’

Chain construction

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

(6.)

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.

(7.)

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

‘I make you happy’

(8.)

vel-a-vaj	mer-e-si	mir	tan
strike-dyn-suddenly	sorrowful-stat-little	2sg	1sg

‘You hit me suddenly and (it makes me) a bit sad’

Comparative constructions

Comparative constructions are created with the conjunction mar in the pattern VP mar VP. The second VP can be replaced with the common pro-verb vań- as in the second example.

(8.)

par-e	johana	mar	par-e	nansi
red-stat	Johanna	than	red-stat	Nancy

‘Johanna is redder than Nancy’

(9.)

tanir-e	tavi	mar	vań-e	mak
rise-stat	David	than	proverb-stat	Mark

‘David is taller than Mark’

Sample wordlist

• sa- ‘not’, prefix
• ta- ‘good’, prefix
• ni- ‘perhaps’, prefix
• -si ‘a little bit’, suffix
• -ke ‘fast, quickly’, suffix
• -vaj ‘suddenly’, suffix
• no- general intensifier, prefix
• vańa, -e, dummy verb, a pro-verb. Also the causative dummy verb.
• ta ‘from’, adverb
• jin ‘here’
• laja ‘sing’
• los ‘end’
• love ‘alive’
• jan ‘like’
• jas ‘sight’
• kon ‘build’
• kor ‘love’
• tir ‘see’
• tore ‘excite’
• van ‘speech’
• nar ‘death’
• sak ‘field’
• mare ‘upright’
• lana ‘whisper’, -e ‘be quiet’