Classical Blafu

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Classical Blafu was the language of the Blafu Union during the Era of West-East Contact. It is a largely isolating language, and was historically the main language of scholarship throughout Odirá. Scientific terminology is still largely drawn from Classical Blafu.

Phonology

Consonants

Bilabial Dental Retroflex Palatal Velar Glottal
Stops Aspirated Ph Th Trh Ch Kh
Unaspirated P T Tr C K
Voiced B D Dr J G
Prenasalized Mb Nd Ndr Nj Ng
Nasals M N Nr Ñ Ng'
Fricatives Voiceless F S Sr Ç H
Voiced V Z Zr Jh
Liquids Lateral L Lr Ly
Non-lateral R Rr
Glides W Y

Vowels

Classical Blafu had four phonemic vowels, /i e a u/. The vowels can occur with one of three tones, level (unmarked), rising (marked with an acute) or falling (marked with a grave).

Syllables

Classical Blafu had a simple syllable structure. No closed syllables were permitted, no vowel sequences were permitted, and the only consonant clusters permitted were stop-liquid or stop-glide clusters. Clusters of dental stops plus r are distinguished from retroflex by the insertion of an apostrophe between the two consonants (e.g., t'r is /tr/, tr is /ʈ/)

Grammar

Classical Blafu is largely isolating, with little compounding or inflection, relying instead of syntax.

Inflections

The only inflections that existed in Classical Blafu were

  • Repetition (verbs): -nu

Syntax

Basic word order in Classical Blafu is subject verb object. Adjectives may precede or follow their heads, and prepositions are used. Alternately, subject object verb order can be used, with the direct object marked with the preposition makhe