Lhueslue

Lhueslue Lhueslue
Spoken in:
Conworld:
Total speakers:
Genealogical classification:	Lhueslue
Basic word order:	VOS
Morphological type:	agglutinative
Morphosyntactic alignment:	nominative-accusative
Writing system:
Created by:
Qwynegold

Phonology

Phoneme inventory

Consonants

Consonants
	Bilabial		Labiod.		Dental		Alveolar		Post-alv.		Retroflex		Palatal		Velar		Uvular		Glottal
Nasals		m						n								ŋ
Plosives	p	b					t	d							k	g	q
Affricates							tʃ
Fricatives			f	v	θ		s	z	ʃ	ʒ			ɕ		x		χ		h
Trills							r
Approximants												ɻ		j		w
Lateral Approximant					ɬ̪͆			l

Vowels

Vowels
	Front		Central		Back
High	i	y				u
High-mid	e	ø	ɘ			o
Low-mid	ɛ
Near-low	æ
Low					ɑ

Lhueslue features vowel harmony. Each vowel belongs to one of two groups: tense (marked in red in the table above) or lax (marked with blue).

Tones

Lhueslue has three tones: low, mid and high. The mid tone is the most common one. The low tone may be realized as falling, and high can be realized as rising.

Allophony

Length

The high tone turns its vowel long, and the low tone turns it half-long. If a word has only mid tones, the final syllable will have a long vowel on two conditions.

1. It must be a monophthong.
2. The syllable must be open or end with one of the following consonants: /b, d, ɡ, ʒ, l, ɻ, s, v, w, x/.

Vowel harmony

The lax vowels are paired together with the tense vowels in the following way:

Tense	Lax
i	ɘ
u	y
e	ɛ
o	ø
ɑ	æ

Some words, or combinations of words and affixes have so called broken vowel harmony. It means that the word contains both tense and lax vowels, but that the allophony treat the boundary between tense and lax as a word boundary (this boundary is marked with a dash in the romanization). One example of a word with broken vowel harmony is oe-i (old). This word is pronunced [øː.iː]. Note how the two vowels do not form a diphthong, and both are long as if both appeared at the end of a word.

Vowel quality

The front high-mid vowels /e, ø/ become mid [e̞, ø̞] when followed by a uvular consonant that is in the same syllable. In that same environment the front high vowels /i, y/ become near-high [ɪ, ʏ].

Consonant quality

The alveolar lateral approximant /l/ becomes velarized [ɫ] in the environment /ɻ(V(V))_/.

Writing

Romanization

Letter	Pronunciation	Semantic association
A a	ɑ	Beginning
Ae ae	æ	End
B b	b	Soft
C c	ɕ	Feminine
Ch ch	tʃ	Part, divide
D d	d	Left
E e	e	Active, fast, moving
Ee ee	ɛ	Passive, slow, still
F f	f	Fire
G g	g	Machine
H h	h	Air
I i	i	Life
Ie ie	ɘ	Death
J j	ʒ	Middle, present
K k	k	Metal
L l	l	Humanoid
Lh lh	ɬ̪͆	Magic, religion
M m	m	Earth
N n	n	Nose, mouth, smell, taste
Ng ng	ŋ	Place
O o	o	Big
Oe oe	ø	Small
P p	p	Hard
Q q	q	Back, past
R r	r	Masculine
Rh rh	ɻ	Animal
S s	s	Ear, sound
Sh sh	ʃ	Water
T t	t	Right
Th th	θ	Wood, plant
U u	u	Material
Ue ue	y	Abstract
V v	v	Give
W w	w	Eye, vision
X x	χ	Hand, touch
Xh xh	x	Front, future
Y y	j	Upper
Z z	z	Lower

High tone is marked with an acute accent, and low tone with a grave. In digraphs, the accent mark is placed on the first letter. Mid tone is unmarked. Diaeresis is used on e to mark that it is not part of a digraph.

Grammar

Morphology

Nouns

Lhueslue has no noun case affixes; instead, postpositions are used. Lhueslue also lacks grammatical number. If there is some dire need to mark singularity or plurality however, the words oeue (one) and o (many) may be used.

Noun class

There are eleven different noun classes in Lhueslue. Nouns are assigned into classes semantically, according to the following table.

Noun class	Association
Masculine	Male humans, kinship terms and animals.
Feminine	Female humans, kinship terms and animals.
Earth	Minerals (except for metals), animals that don't belong to the other classes.
Water	Things related to water, snow and ice, water-living creatures.
Fire	Items related to fire-making.
Air	Things that appear in the sky, flying animals.
Metal	Things made out of metal.
Wood	Plants and things made out of plant material.
Aether	Things related to magic and religion.
Light	Light-emitting objects and good (benevolent) things.
Dark	Things related to darkness, death, non-existance and evil.

Pronouns

Lhueslue has several pronouns, each agreeing in noun class with the person or thing it refers to.

Personal pronouns

	1st person		2nd person		3rd person/inanimate
	Sg.	Pl.	Sg.	Pl.
Neuter	laj	lajlaj	lixh	lixhlixh	long
Masculine	raj	rajraj	rixh	rixhrixh	rong
Feminine	caj	cajcaj	cixh	cixhcixh	cong
Earth					mong
Water					shong
Fire					fong
Air					hong
Metal					kong
Wood					thong
Aether	uej		uexh		lhueng
Light					ding
Dark					tieng

The aether first person pronoun is used by gods, or by god roles in written dialogue or in plays. Likewise the aether second person pronoun is only used when addressing gods. The neuter singular first and second person pronouns are seldomly used. When they are used, it is usually in formal situations. The neuter singular second person pronoun is best avoided in all situations except for the very formal, because otherwise it may be taken as an insult. The neuter third person pronoun is likewise used in formal situations, but also when referring to a hypothetical or unknown person. When referring to a mixed group of people, the plural third person pronouns are always used.

Demonstratives

The demonstratives in Lhueslue can be used as both pronouns and determiners.

	1st person	2nd person	3rd person
Neuter		xhaeeel	luong
Masculine	aur	xhaeeer	ruong
Feminine	auc	xhaeeec	cuong
Earth	aum	xhaeeem	muong
Water	aush	xhaeeesh	shuong
Fire	auf	xhaeeef	fuong
Metal	auk	xhaeeek	kuong
Wood	auth	xhaeeeth	thuong
Aether	uelh	xhaeue	lhue
Light	aid	xhaeeed	iong
Dark	iet	xhaeie	tie

Verbs

Transitivity

Some verbs are by default intransitive, while others are transitive. But intransitive verbs can be derived from transitive ones by adding a suffix that agrees with the subject's noun class.

Noun class	Suffix with tense vowel harmony, following a consonant	Suffix with tense vowel harmony, following a vowel	Suffix with lax vowel harmony, following a consonant	Suffix with lax vowel harmony, following a vowel
Masculine	-ar	-ra	-eer	-ree
Feminine	-ac	-ca	-eec	-cee
Earth	-am	-ma	-eem	-mee
Water	-ash	-sha	-eesh	-shee
Fire	-af	-fa	-eef	-fee
Air	-ah	-ha	-eeh	-hee
Metal	-ak	-ka	-eek	-kee
Wood	-ath	-tha	-eeth	-thee
Aether	-alh	-lha	-ue	-lhue
Light	-ai	-ti	-eet	-tee
Dark	-ad	-da	-ie	-die

Tense

The verbs have three tenses: past, present and future. The present tense is unmarked while past and future are marked with suffixes.

Verb class	Suffix	Example
Tense or lax, ends with -e or -ee	-q	eze (move) > ezeq (moved); chyuelee (think) > chyueleeq (thought)
Tense, ends with anything else than -e	-eq	buzeyted (roll) > buzeytedeq (rolled)
Lax, ends with anything else than -ee	-eeq	eelùe (sleep) > eelùeeeq (sleeped)

The future tense is formed similarly, except with -xh instead of -q as the final consonant.

Verb class	Suffix	Example
Tense or lax, ends with -e or -ee	-xh	eze (move) > ezexh (will move); chyuelee (think) > chyueleexh (will think)
Tense, ends with anything else than -e	-exh	buzeyted (roll) > buzeytedexh (will roll)
Lax, ends with anything else than -ee	-eexh	eelùe (sleep) > eelùeeexh (will sleep)

Aspect

Aspect in Lhueslue is not marked by affixes but with different adverbs. The progressive aspect is expressed with the adverb je (still), which is placed after the verb. The perfect aspect is marked witt xha (then) in the past and future tenses, and qae (already) in the present tense. Xha is placed at the beginning of the sentence while qae is placed after the verb. Habitual aspect is expressed by placing óvulh (usually) after the verb. There are also three kinds of frequentative adverbs. Óche (frequentative 1) is used about actions where it is possible to count the number of times is happens. Oche (frequentative 2) is similar to frequentative 1, except that it describes a random or aimless action. Olhe (frequentative 3) is used about actions that are uncountable, either because they are so many or quick, or because it is hard to say where one instance of an action ends and another begins. All frequentatives are placed after the verb. The following table displays examples of all aspects and all possible combinations of aspects.

	Past	Present	Future
Progressive	Nezeq je níthippub laj I was eating apples	Nez je níthippub laj I am eating apples	Nezexh je níthippub laj I will be eating apples
Perfect	Xha nezeq níthippub laj I had eaten an apple	Nez qae níthippub laj I have eaten an apple	Xha nezexh níthippub laj I will have eaten an apple
Habitual	Nezeq óvulh níthippub laj I used to eat apples	Nez óvulh níthippub laj I usually eat apples	Nezexh óvulh níthippub laj I intend to usually eat apples
Frequentative 1	Yae-eq óche laj I jumped up and down	Yae-e óche laj I jump up and down	Yae-exh óche laj I will jump up and down
Frequentative 2	Yae-eq oche laj I jumped around	Yae-e oche laj I jump around	Yae-exh oche laj I will jump around
Frequentative 3	Xengameq olhe mu The ground was shaking	Xengam olhe mu The ground is shaking	Xengamexh olhe mu The ground will be shaking
Perfect-Habitual	Xha nezeq óvulh níthippub laj I used to have eaten an apple	Nez óvulh qae níthippub laj I usually have eaten an apple	Xha nezexh óvulh níthippub laj I will usually have eaten an apple
Perfect-Frequentative 1	Xha yae-eq óche laj I had jumped up and down	Yae-e óche qae laj I have jumped up and down	Xha yae-exh óche laj I will have jumped up and down
Perfect-Frequentative 2	Xha yae-eq oche laj I had jumped around	Yae-e oche qae laj I have jumped around	Xha yae-exh oche laj I will have jumped around
Perfect-Frequentative 3	Xha xengameq olhe mu The ground had been shaking	Xengam olhe qae mu The ground have been shaking	Xha xengamexh olhe mu The ground will have been shaking
Habitual-Frequentative 1	Yae-eq óche óvulh laj I used to jump up and down	Yae-e óche óvulh laj I usually jump up and down	Yae-exh óche óvulh laj I intend to usually jump up and down
Habitual-Frequentative 2	Yae-eq oche óvulh laj I used to jump around	Yae-e oche óvulh laj I usually jump around	Yae-exh oche óvulh laj I intend to usually jump around
Habitual-Frequentative 3	Xengameq olhe óvulh mu The ground used to be shaking	Xengam olhe óvulh mu The ground is usually shaking	Xengamexh olhe óvulh mu The ground will be usually shaking

Voice

Lhueslue has passive and active voice. Active voice is unmarked while passive voice is marked by a circumfix on the verb. The first part (prefix) of the circumfix agrees with the object's noun class, and the last part (suffix) agrees with the subject. But if the verb is intransitive, the prefix is dropped.

Noun class	Prefix preceding a consonant	Prefix preceding a vowel
Masculine	ree-	r-
Feminine	cee-	c-
Earth	mee-	m-
Water	shee-	sh-
Fire	fee-	f-
Air	hee-	h-
Metal	kee-	k-
Wood	thee-	th-
Aether	ue-	uelh-
Light	i-	t-
Dark	ie-	d-

Noun class	Suffix following a consonant	Suffix following a vowel
Masculine	-eer	-r
Feminine	-eec	-c
Earth	-eem	-m
Water	-eesh	-sh
Fire	-eef	-f
Air	-eeh	-h
Metal	-eek	-k
Wood	-eeth	-th
Aether	-ue	-lhue
Light	-i	-t(i)
Dark	-ie	-d(ie)

If the affix has a tense vowel while the verb is lax, or vice versa, it results in broken vowel harmony. But in the case of the light and dark suffixes following a vowel, the vowel in the suffix is skipped if it's not in the same vowel harmony group as the verb. For example eze (move) becomes tezed if the object is light and subject dark, but eelùe (sleep) becomes teelùedie.

Order of affixes

The order of affixes on the verb is PASS-VERB-INTR-PASS-TENSE. An example of a fully inflected verb is:

Aëmameq
aë	ma	m	eq
begin	INTR.EARTH	PASS.EARTH	PAST
(Something) was made to begin.

Adpositions and particles

Word	Type	Meaning	Example
al	postp.	with (comitative, human)	Nezeq neez-qaxhzif tcue al raj. eat-PAST dinner wife COM 1SG.M I ate dinner with my wife.
arh	postp.	with (comitative, animal)
av	postp.	from (a person)
aed	postp.	as opposed to smth else	Nyeq aq rhiu-beeptoed Bil aed. smell-PAST first bacon Bill as.opposed.to.someone.else It was Bill who smelled the bacon first.
aelh	prep.	into (translative)	Lhaeq uey aelh yùesh Maerie. become-PAST mood TRANSL sad Mary Mary became sad.
aeng	postp.	to (a place)	Sheq gthesh aeng Djon. swim-PAST raft to John John swam to the raft.
eeg	postp.	with (instrumental)	Peq núco-btheef kup eeg neezael. cut-PAST cake knife INS cook The cook cut the cake with a knife.
ív	postp.	for (benefactive)	Kvaeeeq gbuzuyheth lí ív Djon. sell-PAST wagon friend BEN John John sold the wagon for a friend.
ie	prep?	not
juelh		as
nga	postp.	from (a place)
sùej	part.	interrogative
vae	postp.	to (a person)	Véq xhongéj au Maerie vae Djon. give-PAST book new Mary to John John gave Mary a new book.

Al is used together with human nouns and arh together with animals. In case of groups, al is used. Aed functions as a topicalizing postposition, or like the word "however" in English. Ív is used for expressing who's or what sake something is done for. Lhueslue doesn't have distinction between illative and allative or elative and ablative, but there is a distinction between if something is going to our from a place (aeng and nga) or person (av and vae). Av and vae are used for expressing that something is delivered to or from someone, or that someone is visiting that person. To express that something enters or exits someone's body, aeng and nga are used however.

Syntax

The normal word order in Lhueslue is VOS.

Genitive

The genitive is expressed with the particle eev. The order is possessed noun - eev - possessor.

Su eev rong.
su	eev	rong
ear	GEN	3.SG.M
His ear.

Imperative

Imperative sentences have always a subject, which is the person who is requested to do something. The subject is moved to the beginning of the sentence while everything else follows the normal word order.

Rixh zexh chuloung aeng!
rixh	zexh	chuloung	aeng
2.SG.M	walk	room	toward
Go to your room!

The verb can be in either present or future tense. Using future tense is more polite, because it implies that the speaker understands that the action can't be carried out immediately.

Hortative

The hortative mood is formed exactly the same way as the imperative, but the pronoun that is used must be a first person plural.

Lajlaj sluesoexeexh thtoedsvue
lajlaj	sluesoex-eexh	thtoedsvue
1.PL.N	write-FUT	note
Let's write a note, shall we?

Time

For indicating duration, a temporal adverb is placed after the verb. A temporal adverb anywhere else indicates when something happened.

Zexhéheq raj qae-yif.
zexhéh-eq	raj	qae.yif
run-PAST	1.SG.M	yesterday
I ran yesterday. Zexhéheq qae-yif raj. zexhéh-eq qae.yif raj run-PAST yesterday 1.SG.M I ran the whole day yesterday. When indicating when something happened, the temporal adverb can be placed after any object or subject. It is preferrably placed after whichever core argument that has the smallest amount of other words referring to it (adjectives, spatial particles, etc.) after it. If there are several word that qualify as "the core argument with least amount of referents following it", the temporal adverb is placed as close to the beginning of the sentence as possible if the time reference is seen as something important, and as close to the end as possible if it's seen as something unimportant. The temporal adverb can also be placed at the beginning of a sentence, in which case it indicates topicality. Interrogative The particle sùej is placed at the beginning of a sentence, no matter what type of question it is. See also Body Parts in Your Conlangs/Lhueslue