Evonish

Varevon (literally angels' language) is an a priori language influenced somewhat by the real languages of Old English, Irish, Russian, and Japanese. Its phoneme inventory is based on General American phonology, however it bears certain phonetic constraints similar to Japanese. Furthermore, it uses grammar that bears resemblance to European languages.The wordstock has many influences of Germanic language, Celtic languages, Slavic languages, Japanese, and a priori vocabulary. time. The objectives of Varevon are:

• to create a poetic, flowing language
• to preserve Celtic vocabulary
• to eliminate any and all need for interpretation by context
• to create a left-hand friendly writing system

Tables are horizontally flipped intentionally.

Varevon Varavon
Progress: 22%
Type
Fusional
Alignment
Nominative-Accusative
Head direction
Initial	Mixed		Final
Primary word order
Subject-verb-object
Tonal
No
Declensions
Yes
Conjugations
Yes
Genders
Red, Blue, Brown, Gray
Nouns decline according to...
Case		Number
Definiteness		Gender
Verbs conjugate according to...
Voice		Mood
Person		Number
Tense		Aspect

Phonology

Aspiration is in free variation; it does not determine another phoneme. Æ-Tensing is a process by which the vowel /æ/ is raised and lengthened to produce /æ̝ˑ/ before a nasal consonant, yet this is merely an allophone and may be ignored.

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/	/ʔ/	Plosive
	/f/ /v/	/θ/ /ð/	/s/ /z/	/ʃ/ /ʒ/	(ç)		/x/	/h/	Fricative
		/ɹ/			/j/	/ʍ/ /w/			Approximant
		/ɾ/							Flap/Tap
			/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 is from right to left.

Alphabet

The twenty-eight letter alphabet is a modified Latin alphabet that contains the following characters.

• a, p, b, c, j, t, d, þ, ð, e, f, v, k, g, h, i, y, l, m, n, o, r, s, z, u, ƕ, w, x.

The IPA for Varevon is sorely out of date, and is subject to change soon.

Diacritics

A caron is placed over certain letters which changes them to distinct, but related sounds. These are the following letters with carons: č, ǰ, ň, š, ž. Umlauts from Germanic languages are written as the standard vowel with an e after.

Pronouns

Personal pronouns are the most complex. The sole relative pronoun is [TBD].

Person	Number	Nominative	Accusative	Genitive	Dative
First	Singular
	Plural
Second	Singular
	Plural
Third	Common
	Neuter
	Plural
Indefinite	Reflexive
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.

Determiners		Article			Demonstrative
		Definite	Indefinite	Negative	Proximal	Distal
Singular	Common
	Neuter
Plural	Common
	Neuter

Table of Correlatives

Lorem Ipsum.

Quantifiers

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, gender, and number. A word does not determine a gender, rather a selected gender determines a different word. The plural genitive ending is used in compound words much like kennings.

Class I		Nominative	Accusative	Genitive	Dative
Red	Singular		-en	-es	-em
	Plural	-as	-an	-a	-am
Blue	Singular
	Plural
Brown	Singular
	Plural
Gray	Singular
	Plural

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.

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.