Lu
Lu is a member of the League of Lost Languages, spoken by a group often misidentified as Gypsies, who have run around in circles for about the past thousand years, first leaving Central Asia, then getting kicked out of the Papal States, then Galicia, then Oujd in modern Morocco, then Sicily, and most recently Naples (during the late 1700s).
Lu is an Indo-European language, with a linguistic history independent of any other. It bears a passing resemblance to both Tocharian and the various Indo-Iranian languages. It has seen extreme influence from Turkic languages and Moroccan Arabic, in addition to more recent French influence. Much of the religious idiolect is a mixture of Sanskrit and early Italian loans.
As Lu wasn't written down until the 1960s, its orthography is wonderfully regular.
Nominal Morphology
The three original nominal classes have broken down considerably. At most, four cases are distinguished at a time: nominative, accusative, dative, and genitive, but few nouns make all four distinctions.
The previous first and third declensions took their nominative and genitive forms from their previous nominative and genitive forms, but their accusative form the oblique, and their dative from the causitive. As a result, none of them distinguish nominative and accusative forms, outside of through syntax. These comprise the, new first declension.
First Declension, ex: bu (entrance)
NOM - bu ACC - bu (/bu/) DAT - bunz (/bunz/) = bu +n(e)z GEN - bupi (/bupi/) = bu + (e)pi/(e)p/(e)pu
Meanwhile, the second declension takes its accusative from the original accusative, in addition to the nominative and genitive. Its dative, still, comes from the causitive. As a result, however, it distinguishes all four of the cases, fully. This is now the new second declension.
Second Declension, ex: erc (man)
NOM - érc (/erk/) ACC - ércem (/erk@m/) = érc + (e)m DAT - ércnez (/erkn@z/) = érc + n(e)z GEN - érpc (/erpk/) = érc + (e)pi/(e)p/(e)pu (which torsions when there's a final stop and it selects the second choice)
A third declension consists primarily of loans early in the major migration, who added -(@)p and -(@)nz in an attempt to regularize in the genitive and dative (respectively).
Third Declension, ex: salmãz (salvation)
NOM - salmãz (/salma~z/) ACC - salmãz DAT - salmãznez (/salma~zn@z/) = salmãz + n(e)z GEN - salmãzep (/salma~z@p/)= salmãz + (e)p
A fourth declension consists of more recent loans (usually from Arabic or modern French), which only regularize with the genitive (by the same means as above), distinguishing all other forms by context.
Fourth Declension, ex: muslim (Muslim)
NOM - muslim (/muslim/) ACC - muslim DAT - muslim GEN - muslimp (/mulimp/) = muslim + (e)p
A very small number of irregular nouns decline with internal vowel changes as well. For example, du (god):
NOM - du (/du/) ACC - dum (/dum/) DAT - dunz (/dunz/) GEN - dôp (/do:p/)
Pronomial Morphology
Pronouns distinguish between six cases instead of four: emphatic, accusative, dative, genitive, reflexive, and instrumental. The emphatic derives from earlier accusative, the modern accusative derives from earlier oblique, and modern dative derives from earlier causitive.
The emphatic is used to specify the subject when it would otherwise be unclear. Its use is entirely optional.
1S - mê 1P - nû 2S - tê 2P - û 3S - tu 3P - tut
The accusative is used with all prepositions and to denote direct objects.
1S - m(e) 1P - nû 2S - t(e) 2P - û 3S - siû 3P - têsu
The dative is used to denote indirect objects.
1S - ménz 1P - nûnz 2S - ténz 2P - ûnz 3S - siûnz 3P - têsunz
The genitive adjectives:
1S - mep 1P - nûpi 2S - tep 2P - ûpi 3S - siûpi 3P - têsupi
The reflexive:
1S - m(e) 1P - nû 2S - t(e) 2P - û 3S - siûi 3P - têsui
The instrumental:
1S - met 1P - nû 2S - tet 2P - û 3S - siût 3P - têsut
Verbal Morphology
Once more, there's three sets of verbs: regular, irregular, and auxiliary. The boundaries between the first two and the last one are relatively fluid still, since, for instance, bi (entrance/to enter) can easily be used as either. For example both of these sentences are valid:
Ibu bie Frãs. i-bu bie Frãs. 1.S-come from France. I come from France.
Ibu hãz crép bie Frãs. i-bu hã-z crép bie Frãs. 1.S-come eat-PART crêpe from France. I ate a French crêpe.
In fact it can even be used on itself:
Ibu bũz bie Frãs. i-bu bũ-z bie Frãs. 1.S-come come-PART from France. I came from France.
So, all "active" verbs take a series of prefixes denoting the subject. These are as follows:
1S - i/u/0- 1P - e/o/0- 2S - ti/tu/t(e)- 2P - 0 3S - 0 3P - 0
A verb will only select the first of all options, the second of all options, or the third. Typically, verbs that select the first or second options have a central vowel of u, û, o, or ô. Otherwise, they take the third, which all borrowings do as well.
When forming a participle, however, you add a suffix, -(ĩ)z. Final vowels will nasalize and frequently change wildly. On occasion, the -ĩz variant will be used although the root ends with a vowel.
Syntax
The article proceeds all other parts of the noun phrase, within which all modifiers except numbers follow the noun. Adverbs follow verbs.
There are a variety of word orders capable on the S,O, and V level, however. Sentences that don't use an auxiliary are reliably SVO however.
T'hê crép. 2.S-eat crêpe. You're eating a crêpe // You eat crêpes.
Auxiliaries complicate things somewhat, on the other hand. Unless you're using a pronoun, they fall into the SVO pattern still:
Tibu hĩz crép. 2.S-come eat crêpe. You ate a crêpe.
Objects begin acting differently when they're pronouns. Indirect objects go in between the auxiliary and the participle:
Tibu ménz dãz crép. 2.S-come 1.S.DAT give-PART crêpe. You gave me a crêpe.
Direct objects that are pronouns go right in front of the indirect objects, if they aren't being emphasized:
Tibu siû ménz dãz. 2.S-come 3.S.ACC 1.SDAT give-PART You gave me it.
Ibu siû hãz. 1.S-come 3.S.ACC eat-PART I ate it.
When stressing the role or identity of the direct object, however, it can be fronted to before the auxiliary, at the front of the sentence, making the word order more or less O(S)V. Emphatic pronouns would go in front of the object, however, making it arguably SO(S)V.
Siû ibu hãz. 3.S.ACC 1.S-come eat-PART I ate it.
Mê siû ibu hãz. 1.S.EMPH 3.S.ACC 1.S-come eat-PART I ate it.
