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Lántun: Difference between revisions
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Nouns are simpler in their structure, than verbs, as most information is included as part of the verb. Lántun also does not distinguish between genders, considering that Dragons also lack biological sex/gender. Sentence structure is quite fluid, with words being organised according to importance or novelty. Often the main verb is placed initially. | Nouns are simpler in their structure, than verbs, as most information is included as part of the verb. Lántun also does not distinguish between genders, considering that Dragons also lack biological sex/gender. Sentence structure is quite fluid, with words being organised according to importance or novelty. Often the main verb is placed initially. | ||
The surface morphology of Lántun is typically agglutinative in structure, as can be seen from the example above. Not only are the morphemes | |||
strung together, but the grammatical morphemes are usually at least a syllable in length, although morphemes of a single consonant exist. Those that do exist are often archaic and take part in various alternations, such as [[w:Elision|elision]] or syncope. Normally, its morphology falls into the general pattern of '''initial+stem+medial+ending''' where the stem itself consists of '''root+augments'''. The root itself is fairly simple, being divided into three simple and six augmented types; the endings tend to be quite transparent in use as well. The '''augments''' and '''medials''' (or simply the stem suffixes) tend to be complex and often ambiguous and it is also where zero and portmanteaux morphemes become common. As a result, old morphology tends to pile up immediately after the root, often being erroded by a more recent morphology. Some morphological augments became empty morphemes, and these are often elided completely being replaced by new morphemes with the same meaning. This indicates, that Lántun is an ancient language with a long history and thus can not be the original first language, even though it is very likely the closest to Proto-Aiwanic as one can possibly get. | |||
===Augments=== | ===Augments=== | ||
The '''augment formative''' is a prefix or (more typically) a suffix, added to the base root in order to derive new roots from the existing ones. There are several types of formatives, most of which have a broad semantic function. Often their initial meaning becomes obsolete and they become fully fused to the base root through the process of syncopation. This is why many words with seemingly different meaning have a common base root. | The '''augment formative''' is a prefix or (more typically) a suffix, added to the base root in order to derive new roots from the existing ones. There are several types of formatives, most of which have a broad semantic function. Often their initial meaning becomes obsolete and they become fully fused to the base root through the process of syncopation. This is why many words with seemingly different meaning have a common base root. | ||
{| class="wikitable" frame=void style="vertical-align:top; text-align:center; white-space:nowrap;" | |||
|- | |||
! Formative | |||
! Variation | |||
! Meaning | |||
! Initial | |||
! Meaning | |||
|- | |||
| ''-ar'' | |||
| ''-r'' | |||
| active participant | |||
| ''i-'' | |||
| plural of objects | |||
|- | |||
| colspan=2| ''-t'' | |||
| abstract, collective | |||
| á- | |||
| dual, pair of objects, places | |||
|- | |||
| colspan=2| ''-il'' | |||
| sensation, feeling | |||
|- | |||
| colspan=2| ''-am'' | |||
| neuter formative (object) | |||
|- | |||
| ''-ìj'' | |||
| ''-ì'' | |||
| [[w:Locative case|locative]] | |||
|- | |||
| ''-ǎ'' | |||
| ''-ìja'' | |||
| [[w:Associated motion|direction]] (towards, through or away) | |||
|- | |||
| ''-n'' | |||
| ''-an, -elam'' | |||
| location (temporal or spatial) | |||
|- | |||
| ''-i'' | |||
| ''-ai'' | |||
| [[w:Relational noun|relational]] | |||
|- | |||
| ''-un'' | |||
| ''-u'' | |||
| process, event, phenomenon | |||
|- | |||
| ''-il'' | |||
| ''-ivl'' | |||
| part of the whole | |||
|- | |||
| ''-u-mai'' | |||
| ''-u-mi'' | |||
| quality, the state of being | |||
|- | |||
| ''-iu'' | |||
| ''-ju'' | |||
| adverbial, abstract | |||
|- | |||
| ''-it'' | |||
| ''-ita'' | |||
| [[w:Singulative number|singulative]], instance | |||
|- | |||
| ''-āt'' | |||
| ''-āl'' | |||
| concrete noun, item | |||
|- | |||
| colspan=2| ''-ad'' | |||
| above, towards | |||
|- | |||
| colspan=2| ''-ed'' | |||
| away, below | |||
|- | |||
| colspan=2| ''-um'' | |||
| under | |||
|- | |||
| ''-as'' | |||
| ''-is, -us'' | |||
| group, process, kind | |||
|- | |||
|} | |||
===Nouns=== | ===Nouns=== | ||