Ālen

Phonology

Consonants
Stops: /p b t d k g/ <p b t d k g>
Fricatives: /f s x/ <f s h>
Liquids: /l 4/ <l r>

Vowels
Short oral: /a e i o u/ <a e i o u>
Long oral: /a: e: i: o: u:/ <ā ē ī ō ū>
Short nasal: /a~ e~ i~ o~ u~/ <an en in on un>
Long nasal: /a:~ e:~ i:~ o:~ u:~/ <ān ēn īn ōn ūn>

Syllables are (C)V(C).

After a nasal vowel, /b d l g/ are realized as [m n n N] and written <m n n ng>. /la:~la/ is pronounced [la:~na] and spelled lāna.

Nouns
There are two genders — animate and inanimate. They keep fairly close to natural gender, but there are exceptions: "house" is animate, "nephew" is inanimate, and so on.

A noun that is modified (by another noun, an adjective, a relative clause, etc) is said to be in construct state. An unmodified noun is in absolute state.

The construct state forms of common gender nouns are formed by suffixing -en, -in or -on, or by nasalizing an internal vowel (usually the second-to-last).

dasū "boy" → dasūon "boy of"

eli "house" → eni "house of"

karri "aunt" → karrīn "aunt of"

The construct state forms of neuter nouns are formed by suffixing -el, -il or -ul, or by geminating an internal consonant (usually the initial of the last syllable).

bis "mouse" → bisel "mouse of"

hēlu "hair" → hēluil "hair of"

kurifa "branch" → kuriffa "branch of"

There are a fair number of irregular nouns in which other changes to the stem go along with these endings.

gauru "dog" → guron "dog of"

sēsu "wheat" → suessu "wheat of"

When an unmarked noun follows a noun in the construct state, the relationship between them is one of alienable posession.

guron Iona "John's dog"

eni ame "my house"

For inalienable posession the posessor is put in the partitive case, marked with the preposition ō.

karrīn ō Iona "John's aunt"

eni ō ame "my family, my household"

The partitive is also used to describe the material something is made of or the group it is drawn from.

piuhta ō sēsu "wheat bread"

enim ō dasū "one of the boys"

The benefactive and malefactive cases, marked with ni and den respectively, can be used to describe the purpose of a noun.

fakal ni sēgē "seed corn" [i.e. "corn for the field"]

ōanillē den kuotta "rat poison" [i.e. "poison against rats"]

They can also be used for indirect objects, as we'll see later.

The locative, allative and ablative cases — marked with the prepositions a, ēn and ko — are used to describe locations, sources and destinations of movement.

a eli "at the house"

ēn eli "to the house"

ko eli "from the house"

Construct state nouns in these cases are used to form more complex descriptions of position or motion.

sogu "top" → a sogūl "on top of"

tieka "teeth" → ēn tiekka "into the middle of"

Some commonly used combinations have contracted into one word.

omā "deep" → ko omāl → kōmāl "up out of"

lase "eye" → ēn lasse → ēnasse "straight at"

eli "house" → a eni → anni "at the house of, chez"