Middle Anaureth
Pronunciation
Anaureth has a large vowel system. Long vowels are indicated by the accute accent whereas the umlaut diacritic indicates the fronting of the back vowels /a/ and /u/. In addition to the basic pronunciation of vowels Anaureth also has a rather large selection of dipthong vowels, which play an important role in both noun and verbal declensions. Luckily the pronunciation for both vowels and consonants is always regular, which means that the pronunciation always remains the same. The consonants are pronounced the same as in English although Anaureth has three new consonants /ĉ/, /š/ and /ẑ/, which indicate the consonant clusters /ch/, /sh/, and /zh/ that appear throughout High Anaureth. Anaureth has 12 vowels and 24 consonants, with a total of 36 letters in the alphabet.
Vowels: Pronunication:
a (short) as in marry
á (long) as in father
ä as in ran
e (short) as in merry
é (long) as in bear
i (short) as in pit
í (long) as in happy
o (short) as in moral
ó (long) as in for
u (short) as in good
ú (long) as in food
ü as in perfume
Dipthong: Pronunciation:
ai as in the “ay” sound in pay
ae as in ai
au as in restaurant
ei as in the “y” sound in shy
eu as in the "eau" sound in beautiful
ie as in ei
oi as in coin
| Vowels | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Front | Near-front | Central | Near-back | Back | ||||||
| High | i, í, ü | u, ú | ||||||||
| High-mid | e, é | o, ó | ||||||||
| mid | ||||||||||
| Low-mid | ||||||||||
| Low | ä | a, á | ||||||||
Consonant: Pronunciation:
b as in be
c as in cat
ĉ as in cheap
d as in den
f as in four
g as in get
h as in hat
j as in jam
k as in Kite
l as in lemon
m as in man
n as in man
p as in pen
q as in quater
r as in ran
s as in sun
š as in she
t as in toast
v as in van
w as in water
y as in why
z as in zoo
ẑ as in pleasure
| Consonants | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bilabial | Labio-dental | Labio-velar | Dental | Alveolar | Post- alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvelar | Glottal | |||||||||||
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | |||||||||||||||||
| Plosive | p, b | t, d | c | k, g | q | |||||||||||||||
| Fricative | f, v | θð | z, s | tʃ, Ʒ | x | h | ||||||||||||||
| Affricate | ʤ | |||||||||||||||||||
| Approximants | w | ɹ | j | |||||||||||||||||
| Lateral Approximant | l | |||||||||||||||||||
Word Order
Anaureth has a Verb Subject Object (VSO) word order.
Example:
- Mice eat cheese.
- translates as:
- Eat mice cheese.
Nouns
A Noun is a person, place, or thing. In total, Anaureth has eight noun cases. The noun cases include the nominative case which indicates the subject of a finite verb, the accusative case which indicates the direct object of a verb, the dative case which indicates the indirect object of a verb, the ablative case which indicates the object of most common prepositions, the genitive case which indicates the possessor of another noun, the vocative case which indicates an adressee, the locative case which indicates a location, and the instrumental case which indicates an object used in performing an action. The infliction for noun case always occures directly after the first consonant in a word, and not at the end of the word as in most grammatical cases in Anaureth.
Nouns decline for both number (singular, dual, and plural) and gender (masculine, feminine). The declensions for number and gender are merged together. The number is detirmined through the length of the vowel. The vowel is always left unmarked in the singular number, whereas in both the dual and plural number the vowel is marked with an accute diacritic which is followed with the consonant /s/ in the plural number. The gender is always marked with one of two vowels. The masculine gender is marked with either of the vowels /e/ or /é/ and the femine gender is marked with either of the vowels /a/ or /á/. The infliction for number and gender always occures at the end of a word.
However Anaureth also has a large selection of irregular nouns. Irregular nouns are any nouns that ignore the normal rules of vowel harmony. Vowel harmony refers to the constraints on where vowels may occure in a particular word. In Anaureth vowel harmony requires that only front vowels /i/, /ä/ and /ü/, and nuetral vowels /a/ and /e/, or back vowels /o/ and /u/ and nutral vowels /a/ and /e/ may appear throughout the same word.
This is not the only way to classify a irregular noun though. Irregular nouns may also be any noun that ends with a vowel or a vowel dipthong. In this case the consonant /d/ is placed after the vowel or vowel dipthong, which is then followed by a variety of other inflictions.
Regular Nouns:
| Singular | Dual | Plural | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | ae | aes | aev |
| Accusative | ai | ais | aiv |
| Dative | ea | eas | eav |
| Ablative | ei | eis | eiv |
| Genitive | eu | eus | euv |
| Vocative | ea | eas | eav |
| Locative | ei | eis | eiv |
| Instrumental | ou | ous | ouv |
Articles
An article helps to link one word to another. Anaureth has six articles. The articles include a definate article which is used before singular, dual and plural word forms that refer to a particular member of a group, such as the word "the" in the sentence, "the cat is on the mat." The indefinate article which is used before singular, dual and plural word forms that refer to any member of a group, such as the word "a" in the sentence, "a cat is a mammal." A partitive article that is used before singular and dual word forms but not before plural word word forms. English only has three particles the, a, and an, although particular words such as the word "some" in the sentence "would you like some coffee?" are equivalent to the partitive article.
| Masculine | Feminine | |
|---|---|---|
| Definate | ne (the) | na (the) |
| Indefinate | el (a) | al (a) |
| Partitive | je | ja |
Pre & Postpositions
A preposition is a word that introduces a prepositional phrase. For example in the sentence, "the cat sleeps on the sofa," the word "on" is a preposition, introducing the phrase, "on the sofa." In both English and Anaureth the most common prepositions are "of", "to", "in", "for", and "on." A postposition, however, uses the same words except that the word order is reversed.
Pronouns
A pronoun is a word that replaces another noun or pronoun. Pronouns, like nouns and verbs, distinguish between three numbers singular (one person), dual (two persons) and plural (two or more persons). For example there is a 3rd person dual "ada" (they) and a 3rd person plural "áda" (they). The pronouns also destinguish between inlclusive and exclusive. For example there is a 1st inclusive "de" (we) 1st person exclusive "des" (we) a 2nd person inclusive "dé" (we) and a 2nd person exclusive "dés" (we).
In High Anaureth pronouns were far more complicated. This was mainly because of the extra collective number which marked groups of objects. The pronouns also had different endings depending on the function that they served in the sentence. For example there was a 2nd person pronoun "ar" (you) which indicated the "you" subject pronoun, and the 2nd person pronoun "ari" (you) which marked the "you" object pronoun. This feature was later dropped in Low Anaureth so the 2nd person pronoun "ar" (you) was used for both the subject and the oject "you."
The placement of pronouns has also changed. Traditionally pronouns served as word endings that were directly added onto the noun or verb. However pronouns in Low Anaureth are placed dirrectly before the noun or verb and therefore they are cosidered as independent words. A complete list of pronouns are shown in the three tables below.
Singular Pronouns:
| Subject | Object | Reflexive | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st person | es (I) | den (me) | delath (myself) |
| 2nd person | ar (you) | ar (you) | aranath (yourself) |
| 3rd person | vir (he) | viran (him) | viranath (himself) |
| dei (she) | deir (her) | deirath (herself) | |
| ven (it) | ven (it) | venath (itself) |
Dual Pronouns:
| Subject | Object | Reflexive | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st person | Inclusive | de (we) | nos (us) | enareth (ourselves) |
| Exclusive | des (we) | noss (us) | n/a | |
| 2nd person | Inclusive | ara (you) | ara (you) | araleth (yourselves) |
| Exclusive | aras (you) | aras (you) | n/a | |
| 3rd person | ada (they) | adan (them) | adaneth (themselves) |
Plural Pronouns:
| Subject | Object | Reflexive | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st person | Inclusive | dé (we) | nós (us) | énareth (ourselves) |
| Exclusive | dés (we) | nóss (us) | n/a | |
| 2nd person | Inclusive | ára (you) | ára (you) | áraleth (yourselves) |
| Exclusive | áras (you) | áras (you) | n/a | |
| 3rd person | áda (they) | ádan (them) | ádaneth (themselves) |
Verbs
Verbs are words that descibe actions. For instance in the sentence, "the dog ran across the road," the word "ran" is a example of a verb. Anaureth verbs are a complex area in Anaureth grammar with a conjugation scheme that allows for X tenses, X moods, X aspect and X voice. Verbs are conjugated by isolating the stem of the verb and adding the ending. The ending depends on the tense, aspect, mood and the voice of the verb.
Tense:
The tense is used to express the time when an action occured. Anaureth has three tenses. The tenses include the past, present, and future.
Aspect:
The aspect is similar to tense in that it helps to describe the time when the action occured. The Aspect is divided into past and present active. The past active includes subjects such as the past simple, which indicates an action that took place in the past (I ate); the past progressive, which indicates an action took place in the past (I was eating); the past perfict, which indicates an action that was completed in the past with respect to the past (I had eaten); and the past perfict progressive, which indicates an action that was completed recently with resepct to the past (I had been eating).
The present active includes subjects such as the present simple, which indicates an action that occured in the past and continues to the present (I eat); the present progressive, which indicates an incomplete action that is currently occuring (I was eating); the present perfict, which indicates a completed action with resepect to the present (I had eaten); and the present perfict progressive, which indicates an action that was completed recently in resepect to the present (I had been eating).
Mood:
The Mood includes subjects such as the indicative, which indicates statements (Australia is divided into six states) and questions (Why is Australia considered to be an isolated country?); the conditional, which indicates that the action expressed by the verb may not actually happen (Australia may experiance a second great depression); the imperitive, which indicates commands (Don't go wondering around Melbourne by yourself); the operative, which indicates hopes or wishes (The Prime Minister hopes to improve the Australian economy); the potential, which indicates that the action expressed by the verb is likely to happen although it's not certain (The drought seasons in Australia might become longer because of the increasing global warming); and the eventive, which is a combination of the potential and the conditional (Australia may be next country to have a female Prime Minister).
Voice:
The voice indicates the relationship between the action (or state) that the verb expresses and the participants identified by it's arguments (subject, object etc.) In Anauran their are two types of voice. The active voice, indicates the agent of the verb; and the passive voice, indicates the subject is the target of the verb.
Adverbs
Adverbs describe how, when, and where an action took place. For example in the sentence, "Jane drives slowly," the word "slowly" is an adverb. Adverbs are formed from basic verbal roots which are then given the infliction /ra/.
Adjectives
An adjectove is a word that modifies another noun or pronoun. For example in the sentence, "that is a tall building," the word "tall" is an adjective.
