Velyan
Vielan is one of the two main classical languages of the continent Pellargos, on the planet Máa. Máa is an alternate Earth planet.
Phonology
Vowels
There are 12 vowels, each of which can be short or long.
Vowels | ||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Front | Near-front | Central | Near-back | Back | ||||||
High | i | y | u | |||||||
Near-high | ||||||||||
High-mid | e | ø | o | |||||||
Mid | ||||||||||
Low-mid | ||||||||||
Near-low | æ | |||||||||
Low | a |
Consonants
Consonants | ||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Bilabial | Labiod. | Dental | Alveolar | Post-alv. | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | ||||||||||
Nasal | m | n | ŋ | |||||||||||||||
Plosive | p | t | k | q | ||||||||||||||
Fricative | s | ʃ | (x) | h | χ | |||||||||||||
Approximant | ʋ | j | ||||||||||||||||
Trill | rː | |||||||||||||||||
Flap | ɾ | |||||||||||||||||
Lateral Approximant | l |
Vowel harmony
Vielan phonotactics restrict the vowels that can appear in any one word to a subset of the entire inventory. Vowels are divided into three groups: front vowels (ä, ö, ü), back vowels (a, o, u) and neutral vowels (e, i). All vowels in a word must be either front vowels, or back vowels, but not both (though neutral vowels can appear in words with either front or back vowels.)
Initial Consonant Mutation
In Vielan, consonants at the beginning of words undergo a process of initial consonant mutation', whereby an initial p, t, or k is mutated to its equivalent nasal consonant (respectively m, n or ŋ under certain conditions. Conversely, under the same conditions the consonants m, n or ŋ mutate to the consonants p, t or k. The conditions under which this happens are explained more fully in the section on Syntax.
Consonant Gradation
The phenomenon of consonant gradation arises due to a restriction in Vielan words, that prohibits a "strong" syllable from ending in a consonant. A strong syllable is a syllable that begins with a consonant and is preceded by another ending in (at least) one consonant. When this happens, the consonant or cluster at the beginning of the final syllable undergoes lenition or softening (although it can be historically explained as a process of fortition or hardening).
The following changes occur as a result of consonant gradation:
- Geminate phonemes change to simplex ones, e.g. tt -> t, rr -> r, ss -> s.
The remaining changes only affect plosives and clusters containing plosives: Clusters change as follows:
- Nasals:
- Nasal + voiceless plosive changes to geminate nasal, e.g. mp -> mm, nt -> nn
- Liquids:
- lt -> ll
- lp -> lv
- lkU -> lvU
- rkU -> rvU
- lkI -> lji
- rkI -> rji
- Consonant clusters beginning with s:
- sp -> sv
- st -> *sr -> rs
- sk -> ss
- Consonant clusters ending with s:
- ps -> *vs -> sv
- ts -> rs
- ks -> s
- Simplex consonants
- t -> r
- p -> v
- k -> Ø
- iki -> iji
- -UkU -> UvU
- v -> w
Transcription
Below is a table of the IPA sounds of Vielan, with transcription.
IPA | Letter |
---|---|
a | a |
æ | ä |
e | e |
h | h |
i | i |
j | j |
k | k |
l | l |
m | m |
n | n |
ŋ | ŋ |
o | o |
ö | ö |
p | p |
q | q |
ɾː | r |
r | rr |
s | s |
ʃ | š |
t | t |
u | u |
y | y |
ʋ | v |
Notes:
- Long vowels and geminate consonants are written double, e.g. aa, kk. Note that /ɾː/ is the geminate counterpart of /r/.
Morphology
Nouns
Nouns in Vielan are divided into noun classes and inflect for quality, dimension, age, tense/aspect, number, case, possessor, destination and deixis. Suffixes (there are no prefixes or infixes in Vielan) are added to the noun, or (more often) to the oblique stem.
Noun Classes
There are several noun classes in Vielan, reflecting the division of nouns into several semantic categories. The noun classes are added to a notional form of the noun known as the base. In some cases, the base of a noun ends in one of the letters l, n, r, s, or t, and the noun is in Class IX, which has no suffix; in these cases the base form does surface.
The class suffixes are as follows:
Class | Meaning | Suffix | ||
I | Divine Female | -tAri | ||
II | Divine Male | -tAr | ||
III | Female Human | -O | ||
IV | Masculine Human | -A | ||
VI | Female Professional | -jA | ||
V | Male Professional | -ri | ||
VII | Animate (Non-Human) | -e | ||
VIII | Inanimate I | ∅ | ||
IX | Inanimate II | -i | ||
X | Abstract | -U | ||
XI | Small Place | -lA | ||
XII | Large Place | -mA | ||
XIII | Instrument | -in |
Stems
Number
Number in Vielan distinguishes the following categories: general, singular ("one"), dual ("two"), paucal ("more than two, upto about 10 or a dozen"), plural ("more than ten or a dozen") and collective ("all"). The general form of the noun is the form used when citing the noun in general contexts. as in the English equivalents The lion is a member of the cat family. The number suffixes differ depending on whether the suffix is the last suffix on the noun, or is followed by a suffix beginning with a consonant or a vowel.
Deixis
In English, the demonstratives "this", "these", "that" and "those" are used to point out objects located in space or time. In Vielan, the demonstratives occur as prefixes on the noun, and, in addition, there is a three-way distinction as opposed to the two-way distinction of English (similar to Spanish esto, eso, aquel or the archaic "this, there, yon".
The suffixes are as follows:
Demonstrative Suffixes | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Near | Medial | Far | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
-ŋi | -ði | -mi |
These forms are clearly related to the possessive suffixes (below).
Possession
Nouns take suffixes to show possession.
Verbs
Verbs in Vielan inflect for person, gender or noun class and number of the agent, patient, and indirect object; gender and number of the addressee; tense; aspect; voice; mood and verbal number.
Tense
There are three tenses: present, past and future.
Aspect
There are seven aspects: aorist, imperfect, perfective, continuative, inchoative, habitative, and conclusive.
Voice
There are four voices: active, passive, antipassive and medial.
Numbers
The numbers from 1 to 20 are:
hanki 1 rotpi 2 työtki 3 papsi 4 vuusi 5 kauvi 6 kirpi 7 lyylli 8 saunni 9 muupi 10 hankimuupi 11 rotpimuupi 12 työtkimyypi 13 papsimuupi 14 vuusimuupi 15 kauvimuupi 16 kirpimuupi 17 lyyllimyypi 18 vappi 20