Ataši

Marèngil is a constructed language inspired by both Elvish and Dwarvish, languages spoken by the elves and dwarves respectively in the fictional world of Middle Earth, invented by J. R. R. Tolkien. Thus, the language is spoken by an elf-like people, but of a more hardy stock, akin to the dwarves. The language is highly agglutinative in most modern forms and branches, though there are certain dialects which do not follow such rules. These are heavily influenced by other languages, however, and some state that they are not directly associated with Marêngil. Older root languages have little to no agglutination, with its two main root languages having no agglutination whatsoever.

Phonology

The phonetic inventory of Marêngil has grown dramatically since the evolution of the proto-language, resulting in a wide range of consonants and vowels.

Consonants
		Labial	Alveolar		Post-Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
			central	lateral
Plosive	Unaspirated	p /p/ b /b/	t /t/ d /d/				k /k/ g /g/	q /q/
	Aspirated	ph /pʰ/ bh /bʰ/	th /tʰ/ dh /dʰ/				kh /kʰ/ gh /gʰ/	qh /qʰ/
Fricative		f /f/ v /v/	s /s/ z /z/	lh /ɬ/	sh /ʃ/ zh /ʒ/	yh /ɕ/	x /x/	rh /ʁ/	h /h/
Affricate			c /t͡s/	tl /t͡ɬ/	ch /t͡ʃ/ jh /d͡ʒ/	ty /t͡ɕ/
Nasal		m /m/	n /n/		nn /ɲ/		ng /ŋ/
Tap/Flap			r /r/
Approximant				l /l/		j /j/

Vowels
	Front	Middle	Back
Close	i /i/ ï /i:/		u /u/ ü /u:/
Near-close	ì /ɪ/		ù /ʊ/
Close-mid	à /e/ ë /e:/	è /ə/	o /o/ ö /o:/
Open-mid	e /ɛ/		ò /ʌ/
Open		a /a/ ä /a:/

There are three vowel diphthongs

• "aj" - same sound as the i in "high"
• "oj" - same sound as the oi in "oil"
• "uj" - same sound as the Russian "ы"

Orthography

Alphabet

(In Progress)

Stress and Vowel Length

Stress in Marêngil is indicated by diacritics above the vowel of the stressed syllable. The stress is most often on the penultimate syllable, but can also occur elsewhere. Likewise, length is also denoted by diacritics. The letter "a" will be used as the placeholder letter for any of the vowels.

• a (no stress, short)
• ä (no stress, long)
• á (stressed, short)
• â (stressed, long)
• à (secondary vowel)

This last diacritic shows that the modified vowel takes on a different sound. It is never long, nor is it stressed, and appears infrequently.

Phonotactics

(In Progress)

There are many syllable structures in Marêngil, but with that comes a number of rules.

• V
• VC
• CV
• CVC
• CCV
• CCVC

Rules

• No more than two vowels can occur next to each other in a single world. (e.g.: CV+V+VCC)
• If two vowels occur next to each other, then a y sound will separate them.
• Under no circumstances should two sounds of the same manner of articulation appear adjacent to each other.
• No consonants of the same place of articulation should appear adjacent to each other, excepting central alveolar consonants.
• A fricative cannot be in the same consonant cluster an affricate or vise versa.

Morphology

Nouns

Note that there is no grammatical gender preassigned to a given noun. Certain things will take on a gender based on certain implications and information given, such as a dog known to be biologically female. But simply a dog in general will have no gender. Gender neutrality is denoted by noun ending in a consonant, most commonly a plosive, where a male noun will end in the vowel "-o" and a female noun will end in "-ì." Nouns with an inherently genderless nature, such as a rock, simply end in any voiced fricative. It is important to note that only Class I can be assigned a gender, and all others are gender neutral. Of course, gender is irrelevant with case markings, since they appear on opposite ends of a noun.

Class

Nouns are considered to fall under the seven classes below, which give additional information about what kind of noun it is.

• Class I Animate (Mammals, birds, reptiles, etc.)
• Class II Semianimate (Plants, microorganisms, body parts, etc.)
• Class III Inanimate Natural (Rocks, wood, stuff of nature, etc.)
• Class IV Inanimate Unnatural (Tools, human-made things, etc.)
• Class V Products of the Psyche (Emotions, morals, etc.)
• Class VI Undeniable Concepts (Happiness, ideas, plans, etc.)
• Class VII Unknowns (Meaning of life, what's inside a black hole, etc.)

Case

There are five main noun cases in Marêngil; Nominative, Accusative, Dative, Genitive and Possessed. All the cases come from pronouns; I, you, it, mine and yours respectively. At one point there were separate prepositions, but since then they have lost their individuality. All cases are based around these prepositions. Note that the shown prefixes are not meant to be added on, but are meant to always be the beginning of a word.

Noun Class
Case	Class I			Class II			Class III			Class IV			Class V			Class VI			Class VII
	Singular	Paucal	Plural	Singular	Paucal	Plural	Singular	Paucal	Plural	Singular	Paucal	Plural	Singular	Paucal	Plural	Singular	Paucal	Plural	Singular	Paucal	Plural
Nominative	d-	böd-	ad-	t-	böt-	at-	am-	väm-	aam-	x-	vìx-	ïx-	kh-	bakh-	akh-	qh-	baqh-	aqh-	n-	bön-	an-
Accusative	yh-	böyh-	ayh-	ty-	bötyh-	atyh-	ac-	vac-	aac-	lh-	vl-	alh-	k-	ük-	ak-	q-	üq-	aq-	nn-	vön-	ön-
Dative	ül-	böül-	äl-	tl-	bötl-	atl-	al-	väl-	aal-	ux-	bux-	ax-	jèk-	bojèk-	ajek-	jeq-	bjeq-	ajeq-	nn-	vönn-	önn-
Genitive	sh-	bösh-	ash-	sht-	bösht-	asht-	tam-	vlem-	tham-	ch-	vöch-	ach-	ekh-	bëkh-	aëkh-	eqh-	bëqh-	aëqh-	an-	rän-	ün-
Possessed	iv-	böiv-	av-	tiv-	bötiv-	tav-	ivm-	vïlèm-	avèm-	f-	öf-	af-	g-	vg-	ag-	gh-	veg-	agh-	rin-	born-	arn-

Possession of Nouns

Possession of a thing is viewed in three ways. I thing can be entirely possessable, semi-possessable or unpossessable. An entirely possessable noun is something like a rock, or body part, anything non-sentient and with no potential of self-possession. A semi-possessable noun would be a person or other sentient being which has relation to the subject, like a family member or partner. An unpossessable noun would be something beyond possession, like a planet or force of nature. One would never say "our planet", but would instead say "the planet we live on".

Adjectives, Adverbs and Postpositions

• No distinction is made between adjectives and adverbs as they both are modifiers.
• Adjectives almost always end in a sonorant, but are not required to.
• Postpositions are always suffixed to the noun they modify via a hyphen (-).

Postpositions
Position	Suffix
	N.	M.	F.
Just inside	-qep	-qup	-qib
Far inside	-qëp	-qüp	-qïb
Just outside	-elet	-elut	-elid
Far outside	-älet	-älut	-älid
Just above	-orje	-oruj	-ori
Far above	-borä	-borü	-borï
Just below	-lhek	-lhuk	-lhig
Far below	-tlek	-tluk	-lhïg
Just in front of	-pùrje	-porju	-parï
Far ahead of	-prië	-proü	-priï
Just behind	-lhe	-lhu	-lhi
Far behind	-lhë	-lhü	-lhï
Just before	-zhlex	-zhlux	-zhlix
Far before	-zhlë	-zhlü	-zhlï
Soon after	-për	-pür	-pïr
Long after	-pere	-puru	-piri
Near	-je	-ju	-ji
Far	-jee	-juu	-jï
Facing away	-lhenn	-lhunn	-lhinn
Facing towards	-pe	-pu	-pi
Near adjacent	-taber	-tabur	-tabir
Far adjacent	-bër	-bür	-bïr

Verbs

Tense

• An infinitive verb will always end with vowel followed by a voiceless velar stop (k).
• Infinitive verbs generally do not have any long vowels in them because of the following reason.
• The past tense is shown by a lengthening the vowel of the final syllable.
• The future tense is shown by a suffixation of -lèsh, which comes directly from the word lesh, meaning "up (and out)" since the concept of time is an movement upwards.
• The hypothetical is shown by a suffixation of -ivrät, which is a contraction of iv and ukirät, meaning "of" and "possibility" respectively. Ivrät translates roughly to "maybe" in English and is commonly used in conversation.
• The necessitive is a altered form of the verb buâl, "to need".
• The Imperfective and perfective use a auxiliary which became suffixed and altered form. They use the verbs cáak, "to go" and yhalik, "to complete" respectively.

Tense
Aspect	INF	IMPF	PRFV
Present	-k	-cak	-yhak
Past	-k	-cäk	-yhäk
Future	-lèsh	-cal	-yhal
Hypothetical	-ivrät	-cavrä	-yhavrà
Necessitive	-bälu	-cabul	-yhabul

Conjugation

Conjugation appears on the beginning of a word, like Case, and is more or less simply pronouns, sometimes in an altered form, which have been suffixed on. Standalone pronouns no longer exist in Marêngil. Note that there is a "Fourth person" conjugation, which is essentially a vague set of pronouns which can refer to anyone without any presuppositions being made as to conditional information. A similar thing in English occurs, though somewhat infrequently, in saying, "one does not usually...".

Conjugation System
		1st	2nd	3rd	4th
Infinitive		b-
Singular	Pers.	j-	v-	l-	t-
	Poss.	mj-	vm-	ml-	tl-
Paucal	Pers.	bj-	bv-	bl-	ft-
	Poss.	mij-	miv-	mil-	til-
Plural	Pers.	aj-	av-	al-	at-
	Poss.	maj-	mav-	mal-	mat-

Copulas

There are several copulas in Marêngil. The first two are similar to the verbs "ser" and "estar" in Spanish, one being a permanent state and one being impermanent. The third is a copula which can mean both "to feel" and to "have". Note that you wouldn't say "I am happy", only "I feel happy". You cannot be something unless you are literally that thing. Sometimes "to be" is used with adjectives jokingly, such as "being happy", but in that way it would imply that one is the physical embodiment of happiness, if the person saying it is implying that the subject is bursting with said emotion.

Copula		Example (English)	Example (Marêngil)
to be, impermanent	vek	"I am here"	jék da
to be, permanent	távek	"I am short"	jávek krad
to feel	bílìk	"I feel happy"	jílìk bláshnad
to have, total poss.	bâvnèk	"I have two arms"	jâvnèk bötivliyhât
to have, semi-poss.	banák	"I have a girlfriend"	janák banâriti
to have, non-poss.	benek	"I have a boss"	jenek anxâlìke