Circular Gallifreyan

Introduction

Gallifreyan is the language spoken by the Time Lords of Gallifrey from the British TV show Doctor Who.

The Time Lords are a time-aware species capable of traveling through time and space who have taken upon themselves to protect the Web of Time from other time traveling species.

This is a fan created language made for the fans without any intention to be legally bound or profiting from it.

Phonology

Consonants

	Bilabial	Labio-Dental	Dental	Alveolar	Post-Alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Labio-Velar	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal	m			n		[ɳ]1	ɲ		ŋ
Plosive	pʰ / b			t / tʰ / d					k / kʰ / kʲ / g		ʔ 2
Fricative		v	θ	s / z	ʃ / ʒ		ç		x / ɣ	[χ]3	h
Affricate				t͡s	t͡ʃ / d͡ʒ				k͡x
Lateral approximant				l			[ʎ]4
Approximant				[ɹ]5			j	w
Thrill	[ʙ]6			r							h͡r 9
Implosive	[ɓ]7								[ɠ]8

1. a) Only between or before vowels. b) For cases markers.
2. Only between or before consonants
3. Used when b is before any vowel at the beginning of a word, allophone of /b/

Vowels

	Front	Near-front	Central	Near-back	Back
Close	i / y				u
Near-close		ɪ / [ʏ]1		[ʊ]2
Close-mid	e / [ø]3				ɤ / o
Mid			[ə]4
Open-mid	ɛ				[ɔ]5
Near-open	[æ]6
Open	a				ɑ7

Epenthesis

Epenthetic vowels are a common occurrence in Gallifreyan. Each vowel has its own rule for epenthesis:

• [e]

     - between consonants + θ, ç, ʃ, ʒ
     - after final d͡ʒ or t͡ʃ 
     - after orthographic i between v, θ, s, z, ʃ, x

• [a]

     - after [t] if next vowel syllable has [e] if not then [e]

• [ɑ]

     - before kr + consonant - 
     - after final j

• [o]

     - If word begins with tr + consonant add o after tr

• [ə]

     - after words ending with ts, b, θ, v, k͡x, g preceded by consonants
     - before l preceded by consonant (if not in final position)

Some words might experience irregular occurrences of epenthetic vowels.

Elision

[ə] at the end of a word is dropped when followed by a word beginning with a vowel. [n] and [ɲ] are also elided when they begin intervocalic consonant clusters.

Consonant Mutation

Gallifreyan takes a lot from the Welsh and Gaelic consonant mutation ruleset, and, as the Celtic languages, the mutation is mostly initial in Modern Gallifreyan except in some archaic words that still play by the Old High Gallifreyan agglutinative system. This exceptions are mostly rare and are commonly dropped in casual speech. Gallifreyan has three mutations which are only phonetical and not represented on writing.

Standard	1st Degree	2nd Degree	3rd Degree	English
porʏm	borʏm	vorʏm		cable
tod͡ʒeθiesk	dod͡ʒeθiesk	θod͡ʒeθiesk		mouth
kɒmor	gamor	xamor		child
t͡siria		ziria		aunt
t͡ʃoupri	d͡ʒoupri			elbow
xejuvχan	ɣejuvχan			ask
ɲad͡ʒe	ɳad͡ʒe			fish
brialenk			ɓrialenk	cage
goneθ			ɠoneθ	sun

1st Degree Mutation

The general rule is that voiceless consonants become voiced or disappear entirely. The only exception is the nasal phoneme [ɲ] that becomes [ɳ]. This devoicing mutation is common when any word is next to any of the following situations:

• Nature or People class singular nouns with the article "due" or the word for one.
• Quality nouns accompanied by a quantifier.
• Momentary quality nouns used with nature or people class singular nouns.
• Words following spatial prepositions.
• Nouns following the number two
• Nouns after the 2nd and 3rd singular possessives.
• The second or third element of compound words.
• Verbs with aspect markers.
• Verbs in the negative form.

2nd Degree Mutation

Voiceless stops and the affricate [t͡s] become fricatives. This mutation happens in any of the following scenarios:

• After the conjunction "and".
• After any of the "with" prepositions.
• Singular nouns of the Space class after the number three.

3rd Degree Mutation

• after consonant ending prepositions.
• after consonant ending pronouns or possessives.

Prosthesis

Modern Gallifreyan has two forms of prosthesis:

r-

[r] is added if a word begins with a vowel after the 3rd singular and all plural possessives. Also for concepts about time after the preposition "in".

u-

The vowel [u] is added before words beginning with voiced fricatives [s] and [ʃ] when followed by another consonant.

skegletorah (language) — [uskegletorah]

Orthography

Circular Gallifreyan is mostly written in a series of interlocking circles. Each word is composed of other circles and a sentence is encapsulated by a yet bigger circle. A word is written inside a word denoter and each word goes inside a sentence paradigm, which will be explained later on.

Consonants

They are classified by consonant bases and then sub-divided by consonant add-ons.

On the following table we have to the right the bases and on the top the add-ons. The straight line under the base symbols represents the word denoter and its relation with the bases:

	m	b		t	d	p
	n		ŋ			ɲ
	k			w	g	pʰ	tʰ	kʰ
	r	x	ɣ	ç	h͡r
	ʃ			l	ʒ
	s	z	t͡ʃ	d͡ʒ	t͡s
	v			θ
	h	kʲ		k͡x	j
		ʔ

Vowels

They are as well classified by a base called dot bases and these divided by directional lines. Each vowel is written along the consonant that comes before. If the word starts with a vowel or there are no consonants before the vowel is placed on the word denoter instead. On the table, the right column represents the dot bases and the top arrows the directional lines. The semi-circles on the right symbolize the consonant bases.

Romanization

Latin Alphabet

m

n

ñ

ń

p

ph

b

t

th

d

k

kh

kj

g

'

v

f

s

z

ś

ź

ç

x

y

h

ts

tś

dź

kx

l

j

w

r

hr

IPA

m

n

ɲ

ŋ

p

pʰ

b

t

tʰ

d

k

kʰ

kʲ

g

ʔ/χ

v

θ

s

z

ʃ

ʒ

ç

x

ɣ

h

t͡s

t͡ʃ

d͡ʒ

k͡x

l

j

w

r

h͡r

Morphology

Nouns

Noun Classes

Nouns are classified into 5 different classes:

• Time: all nouns referring to telling time and time travel, even compound words like “time machine”. Examples: day, hour, spans, season, TARDIS, time travel, time vortex, Time Lord.

• Space: all nouns referring to space and planet names except for Gallifrey. Examples: planet, orbit, universe, stars, sun, Sol III, chaos.

• Gallifrey: everything that's related to the planet Gallifrey or its culture, time lord's titles, names of Gallifreyan cities or natural wonders; plants, animals and minerals native to Gallifrey. Examples: Gallifrey, language, Gallifreyan, The Doctor, Lord President, The Master, white point star diamond, The Capitol, Prydonian Academy, Mount Cadon.

• People: parts of the body, objects only created by humanoid hands, meals, proper names, clothes, emotions. Example: speech, word, war, peace, love, heart, foot, chair, Romana, soup.

• Nature: plants, animals, earth formations. Examples: water, woprat, balance, mountain, sand, rose.

Natural Gender

All nouns are gender neutral (no masculine or feminine) in their original form but in the case one wants to mark the specific gender of a being or object there are two different pairs of particles that could be used.

kz – kl could be added after a noun to identify if something is feminine or masculine respectively.

'hu (feminine) – 'ha (masculine) on the other hand, are only used with family and relationships related nouns. For example: The word “bandfro” [band.θro] means parent but if we add the feminine particle 'hu it becomes mother = bandfro'hu [band.θrou]

Plurals

Plurality in nouns is expressed in different manners. One thing is certain though, there are 5 suffixes that always be added to the end of the noun when pluralizing, one for each noun class: f (time), r (space), g (gallifrey), l (people) and ń (nature).

To indicate the exact quantity is necessary to use “Numerical Particles”, otherwise, the pluralized noun's meaning is ambiguous. Note that not adding a numerical particle is totally acceptable (but mostly frowned upon among the upper class).

Numerical Particles

Below is the list of the numerical particles with their respective pronunciation and meaning.

• wersmontn [wers.mon.tn̩] – a pair of the same thing
• çortéf [çor.tɛθ] – a pair of different things
• yatn [ɣɑ.tn̩] – three of the same thing
• sumntri [su.mn̩.tri] – three of different things
• diprathon [di.pra.tʰon] – a group of/a set of/several
• kalñū [kal.ɲjʊ] – a group of different/a set of differing
• ikporr [ik.porː] – a chain of/a line of
• trnźo [tron.ʒo] – a chain of different/a line of differing
• xertíhrns [xer.ty.hrɑ.ns̩] – a web of/a mass of
• volśbitś [volʃ.biʧ] – a web of different/a mass of different
• tśiskales [ʧi.skæ.les] – a chaotic/incoherent group or mass of (used when something is all wibley wobley)
• subźarm [sub.ʒarm] – absolutely no quantity of
• ñuikjrr [ɲui.kʲrː] – zero quantity of
• patoluhko [pa.to.luh.ko] – very few of
• çetyri [çet.ɣri] – few of
• al'ledîrh [alχ.led.ɪrh] – some/average quantity of
• soljyarzçi [sol.ʎarz.çi] – many of
• śarhothū [ʃar.ho.tʰjʊ] – very many of
• rhasisî'ta [re.ha.si.sɪʔ.ta] – all of
• tenforxa [ten.θor.xa] – absolutely/extremely all of
• tondiok [ton.diok] – almost impossible to determine amount of
• kjepk [kʲepk] – unknowable amount of
• ñunmrag [ɲu.nm̩.rag] – nowhere near the desired amount of
• zoalg [zoalg] – hard to pinpoint / hard to determine amount of
• dwefwenuin [dweθ.we.nuin.] – fluctuating / ever-changing amount of
• grotjo [grot.jo] – a single one *
• on [on] – a/an *

• These last two numerical particles are exceptions. They refer to a single quantity and therefore they don't need any of the 5 plural suffixes at the end of the noun.

Honorifics

Honorifics encode the relative social status of the participants of the conversation. In this case, they don't specifically express a higher status or politeness, but they mark animacy of the noun through the Universe's timeline, the one that never changes. There are 11 different honorifics in Skegletorahh'gallã.

• sgproid [usg.proid] – now living (optional)
• vlyproid [vleɣ.proid] – once living (optional)
• tźudproid [ʤud.proid] – never living (optional)
• gçkdproid [geθ.kad.proid] – will be living (optional)
• barfw [ʙa.reθ.wə] – parallel universe
• lélaefr [lɛ.lɔ.fr̩] – time lord
• gala [ga.lɑ] – gallifreyan
• trkja [tro.kʲa] – TARDIS
• brakp [brakp] – non-native
• tsrh [t͡sarh] – 4th person (disambiguation of the third person referents)
• rhsj' [rehs.ʎɑ] – universal reference (every single one of [...] in the universe)

Articles

In English there are two articles: the definite (the) and indefinite (a, an).

The definite article is rarely used in Skegletorahh'gallã. Only when referring to someone's title like “The Doctor” or “The Lord President”. The gallifreyan word for “the” is due [dʊ].

Indefinite articles, on the other hand, don't exist at all. But we already saw that there is in fact a word for a/an in Gallifreyan so, how does this work? Well, despite on having the same meaning as the indefinite article it is only used when answering a question about quantity or as emphasis in the case of grotjo. So, instead of saying on labeljyou (a house) you'll say simply labeljyou ([a] house).

Possession

Possession comes in 3 different flavours in Gallifreyan: Basic Possession, Indicative Possession and Complex Possession. The easiest way to understand them is with examples.

Basic Possession is pretty much what its name says, basic. It's composed of the preposition fagts [θagt͡s] (of) and a personal pronoun on its Indirect Object form.

• My book → fagts pawah vuranovi

Indicative Possession is exactly like Basic Possession except this one is used with demostrative pronouns and the suffixes 'heç [eç] for nouns ending in a vowel and 'ehç [ʔehçə] for nouns ending in consonants.

• This is my book → niat fagts pawah vuranovi'heç

Complex Possession is used when talking about an object owned by a third party generally not present. It's formed with the particle abo [abo] after the owned object.

• The mother's book → abo vuranovi bandfro'hu

It is also possible to mix all 3 in a sentence like the following example:

• This is my mother's book → niat abo vuranovi'heç fagts pawah bandfro'hu

Emotional Words

In the early days of the Skegletorahh'gallã language, Time Lords only expressed their feelings telepathically. With the invention of a writing system for, the until then, spoken language, they started coming up with words to describe the way they felt themselves and towards others. For a Time Lord, a feeling isn't just an emotion, it's a state of being. For example, instead of saying “I'm in love” they say “I'm love”. A more literal translation would be: “I am as the state of love”.

As a result, Time Lords don't use adjectives to say if they are sad or happy, they utilize these especial words called “emotional words”. These words used as adjectives of emotion are different than their noun counterparts. For example the word “anger” in its noun form is tsaptbri [ʦap.te.bri] but if you would like to say “I'm angry” then you should use the emotional word ńaafrík [ɳɑ.fryk], which also means “anger” in Gallifreyan. The difference is that the latest could only be used to say that one is angry and not to talk about anger itself. There's even a unique to be verb used for expressing emotions but that's a whole other story that will be discussed on the Verbs sections.

Adjectives & Adverbs

For most languages, adjectives and adverbs are two different grammatical classifications. In Gallifreyan, however, they are both a sub-category of nouns and are called Quality Nouns. A normal noun becomes a quality noun when it is used to express, as its name suggests, a particular quality of another noun. They are classified by Inherited and Momentary.

• Inherited Quality Nouns refer to a quality that's timeless and is not prone to change at any time. They are the equivalent of what we know as adjectives. Inherited QN are always the subject in a sentence and come right before the noun they modify. The later needs to change its class to agree with the QN. They also need the verb am (to exist) to make sense. Example:

dodagçaś eiminr am → Amy is beautiful (Lit. beauty exists [in] Amy)

“Beauty” is a nature noun so the name “Amy”, a people noun, changes its gender with the suffix nr. This also helps to identify the QN and head noun in more complex sentences.

• Momentary Quality Nouns refer to qualities that are just currently being exhibited. They could be interpreted as adverbs. Momentary QN come right before the noun they modify and are accompanied by the postposition nivh (with). Opposed to Inherited QN, Momentary ones change their own gender to agree with their head noun. Example:

vogh gulth frek nivh irgyu → he runs with quickness [right now/for now] – he runs quickly [right now/for now]

In this case, “quickness” and “he” share the same grammatical gender so there's no need to add a suffix.

Suffixes for gender agreement:

• Time: pr [pr̩]
• Space: tr [tr̩]
• Gallifrey: sr [sr̩]
• People: lr [lr̩]
• Nature: nr [nr̩]

Pronouns

Personal Pronouns

There are 4 distinctions in the Gallifreyan pronouns: inclusive/exclusive (we with/without you), formality, animacy, real or hypothetical reference.

This is the chart of all the Gallifreyan personal pronouns with their approximate English equivalents:

	1st Person Sing	1st Person Pl	2nd Person Sing	2nd Person Pl	3rd Person Sing	3rd Person Pl
Inclusive		jablu sail [jablu sail] (we)
Exclusive		haloewano kou [haloewano kʊ] (we)
Time Lord (formal)	pira jyei [pira ʎei] (I)		zag ostraig [zag ostraig] (you)	kutśl [kuʧl̩](you)	vogh gulth [voɠ gulth̩] (he/she)	garbe śf [garbe ʃθ̩] (they)
Time Lord (informal)			kutś [kuʧ] (you)
Other races			phouni [pʰʊni] (you)	phounil [pʰʊnil] (you)	dara bvi [dara ɓi] (he/she)	budes delati [ʙudes delati] (they)
Objects					borhear [ʙorhear] (it)	borhearl [ʙorhearl̩] (they)
Living things (animals, plants & TARDIS)			pratńçu [pratɳ̩çu] (you)	pratńçul [pratɳ̩çul] (you)	thairg [tʰairg] (it)	thogr [tʰogr̩] (they)
Hypothetical	whdūhb [wəhduihbə] (sing.) | whdan [wəhdan] (pl.)

Possessive Personal

To form possessive pronouns is necessary to add fagts (of) before the pronoun. This is basically the same we've seen on Basic Possession.

• Mine → fagts pawah
• Your (Time Lord informal singular) → fagts kphi
• Their (other races) → fagts bośka

Indirect Personal

Skegletorahh'gallã has a very special set of pronouns reserved only to the indirect object. Instead of saying “to me” you use the indirect personal pronoun for I.

• pira jyei → pawah [pa.wah]
• jablu sayll → juvo [ju.vo]
• haloewano kou → hexorf [he.xorf]
• zag ostraig → zekjask [ze.kʲask]
• kutś → kphi [kap.hi]
• kutśl → kphil [kap.hil]
• vogh gulth → vrosun [vro.sun]
• garbe śf → ghaekro [ɠɔ.kro]
• phouni → pūstu [pjʊs.tu]
• phounil → pūstul [pjʊs.tul]
• dara bvi → drikud [dri.kud]
• budes delati → bośka [ʙoʃ.ka]
• borhear → buseeta [ʙu.sə.ta]
• borhearl → buseetal [ʙu.sə.tal]
• pratńçu → prateb [pra.teb]
• pratńçul → pratebl [pra.te.bl̩]
• thairg → tribug [tri.bug]
• thogr → trulois [tru.lʏs]

This vs That

Demonstrative pronouns are split into 4 categories. There are pronouns for people and things on the same timeline as the speaker's and pronouns for people and objects on a different timeline than the one of the speaker.

• When talking about people on the same timeline as the speaker we use vist [vist] for this/these and nu [nu] for that/those. For objects on the speaker's timeline we use niat [niat] for this/these and zu [zu] for that/those
• If we're mentioning objects on a different timeline than ours it'd be correct to add fe'le [θeʔ.le] before niat or zu. In the case of people we add fe'la [θeʔ.la].

Empathic Pronouns

These are used generally alongside the imperative form (which we'll learn on the next chapter). The emphatic pronouns give some sort of emphasis on personal pronouns. They are formed by adding the suffix keh [keh] to the pronoun. A possible literal translation of the emphatic pronoun would be “x and no one but x”.

kutś → you

kutś-keh → You and no one else but you (should, may, must)

Verbs

Verbs in Skegletorahh'gallã aren't as complicated as nouns. They don't need to be conjugated or to match gender nor number (at least most of them anyway). Instead, they use particles to indicate the time of the action and whether it is complete or ongoing. Others verbal distinctions in Skegletorahh'gallã are: transitivity (it happens), reflexivity (it happens to the subject) and polite or rude imperativeness (I order you to.../ Please,...).

Infinitive

The infinitive form of the verb is represented with the prefix zai-.

Tenses

Tenses indicate the time in which an action is taking place. All over the years tenses in Skegletorahh'gallã have been evolving. By the times of Old High Gallifreyan there were around 200 tenses but with the constant modernization of the language those tenses that were rarely used became obsolete. The actual Modern Gallifreyan has only 32 'practical' tenses plus other 10 for discussing Alternate Universes. The following is a chart with all the verbal tenses in Skegletorahh'gallã. I'll be adding approximate English tense names for an easy future reference. The verb we'll be using as an example is zai'rherjy [zaiʢr.χer.ɟi] (to go).

Imperative Mood

In the present or future tense. Rude or informal form: baehilt after the verb Polite form: baeh before the verb Negative form: bareh before the verb

Alternate Universes

The tenses for Alternate Universes are conformed of the auxiliary, the verb and the suffix 'kalra. Example:

rherjy'kalra iera (will go in an Alternate Universe)

Although, only 10 of the verb tenses can be used in the AU mode: 1. Present 2. Past Perfect 3. Past Imperfect 4. Past Anterior 5. Future 6. Future Perfect 7. Future Continuous 8. Pluperfect 9. Saudade 10. Conditional Perfect

Timelines

It's not necessary to specify in which or whose timeline the actions are being performed, nevertheless, if you're engaging conversation with someone not in sync with your time-stream it'd be a big help to add a Timeline Specifier when conjugating a verb. There are 4 timelines in which one can talk so things don't get all wibly-wobley: 1. Personal Timeline: The Timeline of the speaker not the subject who commits the action. Used generally when the subject is not present. It's represented with the word žan [t͡ʂan] after the verb.

2. Individual Timeline: The Timeline of the subject who commits the action. Used generally when the subject is also the speaker. It's represented with the word žana [t͡ʂɒ.na] before the verb.

3. Main Timeline: The Timeline of the subject who commits the action. Used when the subject isn't the same as the speaker. It's represented with the word žani [t͡ʂa.ni] after the verb.

4. Universal Timeline: The Timeline of the Universe, the one that never changes. It's represented with the word žante [t͡ʂan.te] at the beginning of the sentence.

5. Gallifreyan Timeline: Gallifrey is located in a Micro-Universe outside of Time, thus when you are on Gallifrey you are in Inner Time, “outside” of the Universe. This keeps Gallifreyan history and continuity separated from the rest of the Universe. This Timeline Specifier is used with the Personal, Individual and Main Timelines. It's represented with the word žaNGe [t͡ʂa.ɳe] at the other side of the verb in relation of the second timeline specifier.

Fixed Points in Time

Time Lords can see what is, what could be, what used to be, what must never happen and what must never change (fixed points in time). To talk about the former three we use the Possible Future, Forgettable Past and the Inconceivable tenses respectively. But when it comes to fixed points in time, simply add the word baghk [ʙaɠk] after the conjugated verb. Some count this as the 33rd verb tense of the Gallifreyan language.

Aspect

Habitual It is used to indicate actions the speaker does or did frequently Past Tenses: Pira jeyi dodagçaś Earth ndi-rikhutsń vlaystgkem rherjy. - "I used to go to planet Earth" Present Tenses: Pira jyei dodagçaś Earth ndi-rikhutsń rherjy. - "I go to planet Earth frequently" Future Tenses: Pira jyei dodagçaś Earth ndi-rikhutsń rherjy iera. - "I would like to get into the habit of frequently go to planet Earth"

Telicity Indicates if an action has been completed as intended. Pira jyei çagts-qutć vuranovi rhassisyy sźotsẽ sryyniash soz. – I read your book every month (and finish it every time)

Inceptive Used for referring to the beginning of an action or state. Pira jyei bãsklo pośsi irgyu. – I started running because of a change in the past

Durative It's used for marking the duration of an action or if it stopped for a while. Delimitative: qutć tarźemk rherjy, pira jyei rherjy-ha iera – as soon as you go, I will go for a while Pausative: qutć ha-tarźemk rherjy, pira jyei rherjy iera – as soon as you stop going, I will go

Causative It's used to indicate that someone or something played a role assisting or causing another action. The Causative is divided into 4 cases: - Forced Action: Thlihante zai-baehilt – Someone/something is making someone/something do something. - Assisted Action: Ñetroplg zai-baehilt – Someone/something is helping someone/something do something. - Permitted Action: Xērtten zai-baehilt – Someone/something is letting someone/something do something. - An Action Caused Indirectly or As a Result of Something Else: Raigh-llakhib zai'baehilt – Something else happened that let/caused someone/something to do something.

Momentane It's used to indicate that an action happened involuntarily in a sudden and quick manner. Yo śek meelćzup – suddenly and quickly died but it was erased from time

Defective Indicates that an action almost happened. Some scholars place this aspect as a subform of the Telicity aspect. Ćrestasebe rherjy mara – I almost never went in the past but could not possibly go at all in the future

Intensity Used to denote the specific intensity of (or put on) an action. Intensive: jeksdamn thaskovo – yelled loudly (with a strong force) Attenuative: jeksdamn irgyuso – barely ran (didn't put much energy into it)

Intentionality Indicates if an action was done deliberately or accidentally. Intentional: kyy treźpau estrupa – had harmed on purpose Accidental: k treźpau ustigraã – had laughed accidentally

Verb Cases

Ten cases with one or several adpositions each. Desiderative - Expressing optional desire: Pira jyei gonk zai-aźñortem – I wish to travel. - Used to express not optional desire: Pira jyei mirha zai-aźñortem – I want to travel.

Obligational - Expressing preferential obligation but it's not optional: Pira jyei denja zai-aźñortem – I must travel. - Expressing optional but preferential obligation: Pira jyei denśa zai-aźñortem – I should travel.

Necessity - Optional necessity: Pira jyei prnte zai-aźñortem – I need to travel. - Obligatory necessity: Pira jyei denta-prnte zai-aźñortem – I have to travel.

Alethic - Having the potential or possibility to do something: Pira jyei delgart zai-aźñortem – I can travel. - Having the opportunity to do something: Pira jyei usogz-delgart zai-aźñortem – I could travel.

Potential - To express probability: Pira jyei dahel zai-aźñortem – I will probably travel.

Irrealis - Expressing regret over a past event now long gone: Pira jyei xarthlov zai-aźñortem pira jyei ayiretuj gusźarrr jekkçamp – If I had travelled, I wouldn't be here. Instrumentative - Indicates the means, cause and instrument of causation of the action: Vogh gulth gusloghe nivh merthito – He drowns with water.

To Be

The Gallifreyan verb To Be promises to be a headache for English speakers. For starters, there are 2 forms of To Be, pretty much like in Spanish, and secondly, both of them are optional verbs.

The first verb be is zai'olvs'hekgonn [zai.ʢol.ves.ħek.ɡonː] which is used for sentences like “to be someone” or “to be something” The second be is zai'jekkçamp [zaiʢ.ʤekː.θamp]. This one is used in sentences like “to be somewhere” or “to be with someone”

Olvs'hekgonn and jekkçamp aren't common verbs in Skegletorahh'gallã. Sometimes even, it's not necessary to add them to the sentence at all. e.g. The table is outside → Unsobriyi'epreog. In this example whether you add jekkçamp or not is irrelevant because the listener will understand that the table is outside. Same thing happens with the Indicative Possession, where the suffixes 'heç and 'ehç replace olvs'hekgonn altogether. One could even dare to say both To Be are just used to indicate emphasis.

Participle

Participle verbs are replaced by nouns in Gallifreyan. Instead of saying “Made in Mars” you will say “Fabrication in Mars”

Reflexive Verbs

All reflexive verbs are irregular.

Irregular Verbs

When transitive verbs are only conjugated according to tenses, irregular verbs also need concord in number. That means they need especial suffixes to match the number of the pronoun. In the case of singular pronouns there's no need to add a suffix, it's just when we're talking about plurals that things get complicated. For the plurals in the 1st person it's necessary to add hhe [ɦe] at the end of the verb. For the 2nd person we use the suffix an [an]. If the verb ends in one or more vowels they should be eliminated and replaced with the suffix alone: e.g. NGalʦẽ [ɳal.ʦẽ] (be lost) → NGalʦan [ɳal.ʦan] Finally, for the 3rd person we add the suffix iz [iz]. If the verb ends in one or more vowels we proceed like in the case of the 2nd person suffix. Some verbs become irregular with context. At the end of this guide you'll find a list of the irregular verbs, all of them with their correct spelling once the suffixes are added. In the list you'll learn in which context some regular verbs become irregular as well.

To Be in the State of...

We already learned when we studied the emotional words that there's an especial To Be verb used exclusively to describe emotions: zai'zaphod [zaiʢ.zap.xod]. "I'm in love" in Skegletorahh'gallã would read as follows: Pira jyei lomã zaphod, which literally translates as “I am in the state of love”

Now, if you want to tell someone that you love them, you'll have to use the rule of the Emotional Response Verb, which consists of the verb x'ly (make) with the particle u after both pronouns. I love you – Qutč pira jyei-vol x'lyu lomã zai'zaphod (you make me be in the state of love)

This rule is used with all the emotions.

Syntax