Aethêllan

Ancient Galern Aethêllan
Progress: 83%
Type
Fusional-Agglutinative
Alignment
Ergative-Absolutive
Head direction
Initial	Mixed		Final
Primary word order
Subject-verb-object
Tonal
No
Declensions
Yes
Conjugations
Yes
Genders
5
Nouns decline according to...
Case		Number
Definiteness		Gender
Verbs conjugate according to...
Voice		Mood
Person		Number
Tense		Aspect

History

Aethêllan is one of my main conlangs and was created out of joy, as a linguistic experiment, and also to be the main classical language for my series of Fantasy novels. Aethêllan is spoken by the dominant species of Anmarla who are known as the Galern. The language has approximately 15 million speakers. At the time of my main novel series, the language and its native speakers are extinct, however Aethêllan is used as the language of academics, state and religious ceremonies, and record/document keeping. Only the upper class can read and speak it and even then only a minority. The seven languages of the nine different Kingdoms during this time are all descended from Aethêllan. Aethêllan is in turn descended from Vamynouynem.

This is a work of love and I ask any readers that, outside of any accidental grammatical mistakes, they do not make any edits, however minor, without my permission and that this work is protected by copyright. Your understanding is greatly appreciated.

Background

Aethêllan is an SVO fusional-agglutinative language. The majority of information is placed on the nouns and verbs, and though it is an SVO language technically speaking it does allow for free word order.

Phonology

		Bilabial		Dental		Alveol.		Postalve.		Retrofl.		Palatal		Velar		Glottal
Plosives		p (p) pʷ (pw)	b (b) bʷ (bw)	t (t) tʷ (tw)			d (d) dʷ (dw)							k (k) kʷ (kw)		g (g) gʷ (gw)
Fricatives		f (f) fʷ (fw)	v (v) vʷ (vw)	θ (th)	ð (dh)	s (s) sʷ (sw)								x (h)		h (h)
Nasals		m (m)		n (n) nʷ (nw)
Trill				r (r)
Glides	Approxim.	ʍ (hw)	w (w)	ɹ (r)								j (y)
	Lateral Appr.			l (l)						ɭ (l)

Mutations

1. Both Approximants and Lateral Approximants are de-voiced before nasals.
2. /l/ becomes /ɭ/ after vowels.
3. /ɹ/ becomes /r/ before plosives.
4. /h/ becomes /x/ at the end of a word.

Diphthongs

Diphthong	IPA
ao	ɐʊ
ey	eɪ
ôe	əʊ:
ÿ	aɪ:
ŷe	iə:
ae	aɪ
ai	aɪ
eo	əj

Vowels

	Front		Near-front	Central		Back
	short	long	short	short	long	short	long
Close	i (i)	i: (î)				u (u)
Mid		e̞ (ê)					o̞ (ô)
Open-mid	ɛ (e)					ɔ (ó)
Near-open			æ (á)
Open	a: (â)					ɑ (a)	ɒ (o)

Grammar and Syntax

Syntax

Independent Clauses are SVO, whilst Dependent and Relative Clauses are SOV.

Stress

Aethêllan differs from languages such as English in that every vowel is pronounced fully and with clear distinction. The language does however place stress on the last syllable of a word, however this is not as important as stress is considered to be in English and other similar languages. Any long vowels; those with diacritics or diphthongs, are stressed as well as the last syllable.

• E.g donsênanwê where the stress is on both sên and wê.

Grammatical Structure

All derivational affixes are prefixes, and all other affixes are suffixes excluding the adverbial marker which is an infix for historical linguistic reasons. In regards to the order of the attaching of suffixes, case takes highest priority, followed by voice, aspect, then agreement, finally followed by any remaining suffixes.

• NB: Adjectives cannot be inflected with comparative and the Gradable suffix at the same time.

Verbs

In Aethêllan there are two classes of verbs and these two classes each have two forms. Each verb also has five principle parts. There are some irregular verbs, however, they will not be included in this section. There are Strong Verbs and Weak Verbs. Unlike nouns, the two verbs are not differentiated by their phonology nor by their meaning; rather one must learn the principle parts in order to know to which class the verb belongs. Most verbs do have a rather obvious phonological pattern however reliance on phonological similarities will not be enough to properly learn all verbs and their corresponding forms correctly. As stated above, all irregular verbs will be, for the ease of formatting, displayed in more convenient section.

The five principal parts are the present active infinitive, the present imperfective, the past aorist (i.e. simple past), the present perfect and the supine displayed in that order.

NB Which class and form each verb takes is dependent on the verb stem, which is not heard in speech, thus the principal parts make it clear to speakers whether the verb is a strong one or not and to which paradigm the verb belongs.

Aspect & Tense

Strong Verbs

These include verbs whose stems end in a plosive or a vowel. See the two examples below.

Strong Verb Class I

Aed - Aedar - Aedáth - Aedlen - Aedarh - To Rule

Aspect Tense	Aorist	Imperfective	Conative	Habitual	Perfect	Inceptive	Continuative	Terminative
Past	Aedáth	Aedâl	Aedarâl	Aedó	Aednen	Aedey	Aedion	Aedmen
Present	Aedán	Aedar	Aedarâl	Aedaró	Aedlen	Aeden	Aedarion	Aedemene
Future	Aedarin	Aedarv	Aedâla	Aedaró	Aedarlen	Aederen	Aedarân	Aedaremene

Strong Verb Class II

Edhe - Edhel - Edhey- Edhlar - Edheh - To Wield

Aspect Tense	Aorist	Imperfective	Conative	Habitual	Perfect	Inceptive	Continuative	Terminative
Past	Edhey	Edheoem	Edhâl	Edhó	Edhar	Edhaen	Edhîm	Edhem
Present	Edht	Edhel	Edhwet	Edhôe	Edhlar	Edheyn	Edhenaf	Edhrat
Future	Edhas	Edhmen	Edhwen	Edhôel	Edhÿr	Edhnen	Edheth	Edher

Weak Verbs

These include verbs whose stem ends in a fricative and any other possible consonant.

Weak Verbs 1st Class

Vall - Vallak - Vallakir - Vallaken - Vallakum - To Betray

Aspect Tense	Aorist	Imperfective	Conative	Habitual	Perfect	Inceptive	Continuative	Terminative
Past	Vallakir	Vallakon	Vallakâl	Vallakó	Vallaket	Vallakey	Vallakerân	Vallakemen
Present	Vallakân	Vallak	Vallakae	Vallakó	Vallaken	Vallakek	Vallakarion	Vallakamir
Future	Vallakum	Vallakár	Vallakimâl	Vallakîv	Vallakelen	Vallaketh	Vallakasan	Vallakimen

Weak Verbs 2nd Class

Hluf - Hlufan - Hlufte - Hlufrem - Hluftelen - To Jump

Aspect Tense	Aorist	Imperfective	Conative	Habitual	Perfect	Inceptive	Continuative	Terminative
Past	Hlufte	Hlufe	Hluftir	Hlufó	Hlufÿh	Hlufunir	Hlufŷeke	Hlufegánir
Present	Hlufar	Hlufan	Hlufá	Hlufôe	Hlufrem	Hlufen	Hlufeorn	Hlufôether
Future	Hlufum	Hlufna	Hlufit	Hlufelt	Hlufelen	Hlufris	Hlufwân	Hlufutámir

Verb Number Marking

Transitive Verbs

		Object
		Singular	Plural
Agent	Singular
	Plural

Intransitive Verbs

	Subject
Plural
Singular

Nouns

Cases

Cases
ERG	Ergative Agent
ABS	Absolutive Patient & Experiencer
DAT	Dative Indirect Object, Direction to
GEN	Genitive Description/Relation/Alienable Poss. e.g. Men of Rome
PART	Partitive Pertaining to a Group/Thing
POSS	Possessive Static Possessive
VOC	Vocative
ABES	Abessive Lack of Noun
INS	Instrumental
EQU	Equative Comparison

Case and Class Paradigms

In Aethêllan over time Case and Class/Gender have merged into one suffix. When Nouns take their Case and Class marker they now have a far more fusional method unlike its ancestor language Vamynouynem.

Strong Nouns are those which end in either a vowel, an approximant, or lateral approximant. Weak nouns are the remainder.

Class I The Human Class
Absolutive		Ergative	Dative	Genitive	Possessive	Partitive	Abessive	Instrumental	Equitive	Vocative
Strong	Gâl	Gâlam	Gâlal	Gâlÿ	Gâlâ	Gâláth	Gâlthârum	Gâlfen	Gâlanwen	Gâlô
Weak	Theyn	Thênam	Thênas	Thênîs	Thênâ	Thêneh	Thênârum	Thênen	Thênetwem	Theynô
Class II The Non-Human Class
Absolutive		Ergative	Dative	Genitive	Possessive	Partitive	Abessive	Instrumental	Equitive	Vocative
Strong	Kallâr	Kallâl	Kallâs	Kallâsî	Kallârem	Kallâmen	Kallâvenîm	Kallâkal	Kallâkthîl	Kallô
Weak	Mârith	Mâre	Mâros	Mârîm	Mârâ	Mârmen	Mârsârem	Mârthir	Mârvith	Mârô
Class III The Flora Class
Absolutive		Ergative	Dative	Genitive	Possessive	Partitive	Abessive	Instrumental	Equitive	Vocative
Strong	Tiwâr	Tiwârn	Tiwâras	Tiwârîs	Tiwârâ	Tiwâráth	Tiwârthârum	Tiwârfen	Tiwâranwen	Tiwârô
Weak	Fwin	Fwinelth	Fwines	Fwinîs	Fwinân	Fwinenne	Fwinârum	Fwinestes	Fwinemwen	Fwinô
Class IV The Abstract Class
Absolutive		Ergative	Dative	Genitive	Possessive	Partitive	Abessive	Instrumental	Equitive	Vocative
Strong	Ennedîn	Ennedîne	Ennedînas	Ennedînir	Ennedînem	Ennedînáth	Ennedînârum	Ennedînal	Ennedînwen	Ennedînô
Weak	Nethwÿn	Nethwÿne	Nethwÿnos	Nethwÿnî	Nethwÿnide	Nethwÿnenne	Nethwÿnaltum	Nethwÿnestes	Nethwÿnnith	Nethwÿnô
Class V The Mass & Inanimate Class
Absolutive		Ergative	Dative	Genitive	Possessive	Partitive	Abessive	Instrumental	Equitive	Vocative
Strong	Eyelgar	Eyelgare	Eyelgarl	Eyelgarîs	Eyelgarîte	Eyelgarvala	Eyelgaránna	Eyelgarfen	Eyelgarwen	Eyelgarô
Weak	Dollgan	Dollganeth	Dollganas	Dollganî	Dollganâ	Dollgannule	Dollganârum	Dollganen	Dollganetwem	Dollganô

Notes on Cases

• Theyn is an irregular verb, hence the short diphthong becoming a long vowel. This happens for all weak nouns with short diphthongs in Class I.

• Gâl translates roughly to Man though can also be used for both sexes.
• Theyn is often used for Woman though its literal meaning is One who gives birth.

• Kallâr translates to Sea-Bird. This is an irregular verb.
• Mârith translates to Snake. This is also an irregular verb.

• Tiwâr is a very tall, hard tree similar in appearance to that of our Oak.
• Fwin is a little vine that lives on larger trees and has tiny white flowers.

• Ennedîn translates to Elegance
• Nethwÿn translates to Intelligence.

• Eyelgar translates to Fire
• Dollgan translates to Mountain

• In Class V the Strong class are the Mass nouns and the Weak are the Inanimate Nouns. (Almost)Any noun can take Mass Noun (Strong) CLass V inflections and be used as a Collective Noun, however, the original Mass Nouns cannot take any other inflections or be used in any other paradigms.

Definite vs. Indefinite

The Definite marker for nouns is the allomorphic prefix (v)(i)-.

Definite	Indefinite
Igâla	Gâla
The Man	A Man
Vennedîn Gâlîs	Ennedîn
The Elegance of Man	Elegance

• NB Galîs is the collective noun for man, meaning something akin to Mankind/Humankind.

Personal Pronouns

First Person
		Exclusive		Inclusive
Erg.	Va (I)	Be (We)		Me (We)
Abs.	Nen (Me)	Gen (Us)		Dae (Us)
Poss.	Neth (My/Mine)	Geth (Ours)		Yel (Ours)
Dat.	Hel (to Me)	ân (to Us)		Hwer (to Us)
Inst	Var (by Me)	Dôr (by Us)		Sâl (by Us)
Second Person
	Living			Non-Living
	Singular (Exclusive)	Plural (Inclusive)		Singular
Erg.	Lâ (Thou)	Eoâ (Thou)		Ete (It)
Abs.	Lîn (Thee)	Eoŷe (Thee)		Ete (It)
Poss.	Flan (Thy)	Eoin (Thine)		Ets (Its)
Dat.	Olf (to Thee)	Eois (to Thee)		Ses (to It)
Inst.	Fen (by Thou)	Eoân (by Thou)		Etsan (by It)
Third Person Singular
	Living & Non-Gendered		Non-Living & Neutral
Erg.	De (He/She)		Agan (It)
Abs.	Ene (Him/Her)		Ani (It)
Poss.	Ures (His/Hers)		Gâna (Its)
Dat.	Del (to Him/Her)		Dor (to It)
Inst.	Ten (by Him/Her)		Than (by It)
Third Person Plural
	Living & Non-Gendered		Non-Living & Neutral
Erg.	Mer (They)		Oro (Its)
Abs.	Nir (Them)		Non (Its)
Poss.	Hal (Theirs)		Moh (Its)
Dat.	Emlen (to Them)		Thân (To Its)
Inst.	Morth (by Them)		Orum (by Its)

Derivation

All the following are Prefixes.

Derivation Pattern	Affix & Example
Adjective --> Adverb	an Quick > Quickly
Adjective --> Noun	agar Happy > Happiness
Noun --> Verb	bel Glory > Glorify
Noun --> Adjective	faltar Recreation > Recreational
Adjectives --> Transitive Verbs	lis Rich > Enrich
Nouns --> Transitive Verbs	fal Rapture > Enrapture
Transitive Verbs --> Intransitive Verbs (Antipassive Voice) Agent/Experience and Patient/Focus swap places	Ablaut E.g.to hit > to be hit by to like > to be pleasing to
Intransitive Verbs --> Transitive Verbs Increase transitivity, turn impersonal verb into agent-intransitive, Intransitive verb into transitive, transitive into ditransitive	Ablaut to rain > to water (plants, etc.) to have > to give
Inchoative/Inceptive Verb	See Inceptive Aspect
Catenative Verb	-
Opposite (Quality)	rao Happy > sad, clear > vague
opposite (reverse action) Agent and patient remain the same, action of the verb changes	forn Earn <==> spend, borrow <==> repay
Motion Purpose Go somewhere in order to do VERB	maela to buy > to go shopping
Nominal Participle Person who is doing VERB at the current moment (Also inflects for tense)	dwe Run > runner
Person who does verb habitually	moth Write > writer
Place where VERB is typically done	gen to cook > kitchen, to sleep > bedroom
Place with lots of NOUN	othin Book > library, tree > forest
Tool or substance used for doing VERB	arta to write > writing implement, to wash > soap
ADJ = made of NOUN	val Gold > golden, wood > wooden
ADJ = having lot of/ some of NOUN	var Money > rich, trash > messy
ADJ = lacking/sparsity of NOUN	ave Tooth > toothless, money > poor
Augmentation	îthil House > mansion, cat > lion
Pejoration	ithse Man > scoundrel, child > brat
ADJ = tending to often do VERB/be ADJ	gir think > thoughtful, forget > forgetful
VERB = to use NOUN in a typical way	kâl Lips > kiss, Hammer > to hammer