Ýýlheema'ék

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Introduction

The language is called ýýlheema’ék, which translates to ('I travel'.) The language is part of a story idea I'm working on. It is only known in the following incantation, which must be spoken before traveling to another world. (That's why it's only known as 'I travel').

Language
Spoken in:	variable
Timeline/Universe:	An ancient language created on earth, but known on at least 2 planets.
Total speakers:	5 known
Genealogical classification:	Isolate
Basic word order:	SOV
Morphological type:	Synthetic
Morphosyntactic alignment:	??
Created by:
James W.	March 31, 2006

Phonology

Consonants
	Bilabial		Labiod.		Dental		Alveolar		Post-alv.		Palatal		Velar		Uvular		Glottal
Nasal		m						n						ŋ
Plosive	p	b					t	d					k	g	q	ɢ	ʔ
Fricative				v	θ	ð	s								χ
Lateral Fricative							ɬ
Tap or Flap								ɾ
Lateral Approximant								l

Vowels
	Front		Near-front		Central		Near-back		Back
High	i									u
Near-high			ɪ
High-mid			e							o
Low					a

The following vowels also have phonemic length: a, e, i, o
There are two tones: high--marked with acute accent in the orthography; low--unmarked.

Orthography

The native orthography is not known. At some point, the incantation was written down (not on Earth) and analyzed giving us the basis of the known grammar. The orthography I use is mainly for my own convenience. It is fairly straightforward for those who speak a language that uses the Latin alphabet. The following are the exceptions:

IPA	Orthography
ɬ	lh
i	y
ŋ	ng
χ	x
θ	þ
ð	ð
ɢ	ğ
ʔ	'

Sentence Structure

• verb is always last in the clause
• focus comes first
• adjectives follow nouns
• adverbs follow what they modify
• adpositions follow their noun/phrase
• relative clauses follow head clauses
• relationals come before the noun/phrase they refer to

Nouns

• There are no cases. Syntactic function is determined by position in the clause (see Sentence Structure).
• Plurals are formed by the prefix yl-.
• Possessives are suffixed to the noun they relate refer to:
  

-es	1S.POSS
-'aang	2S.POSS

Verbs

• Verbs must contain at least a subject-referent pronoun affix.
• Morphology: subject-refernt pronoun comes first, patient second, oblique third. Normally, if there is an object noun in the clause, the patient pronoun affix is absent. In this case, any second pronoun affix on the verb is understood to be oblique.
  

alhu-'ék-aan

give-1SG-2SG

'I give [to] you'

• Copula: a circumfix, qu- -kaa, around the predicate nominative.

qu-vyyd-kaa

'[is/are] noble'

Only Known Text

elhee lhyréé kíru vó sóóru’aang rékaa ýýlheema’ék.
qáá elhee páá yllaaqes quvyydkaa ngee’es xu.
qáá elhee páá ylþáángu yliğá’es eng qu’éélhkaa.
ngyylý alhu’ékaan lhamaa’es uðo yğ xóóka’aan yno qáá elhee eng.
qáá elhee vó sóóru’aang rékaa ýýlheema’ék.

INTERLINEAR

elhee	lhyréé	kíru	vó	sóóru-'aang	rékaa	ýýlheema-'ék
land	distant	far	to	grace-2POSS	by.means.of	travel-1SG

qáá	elhee	páá	yl-laaq-es	qu-vyyd-kaa	ngee-'es	xu
this	land	in	PL-purpose-1POSS	COP-noble-COP	life-1POSS	on

qáá	elhee	páá	yl-þáángu	yl-iğá-'es	eng	qu-'éélh-kaa
this	land	in	PL-consequence	PL-action-1POSS	of	COP-mine-COP

ngyylý	alhu-'ék-aan	lhamaa-'es	uðo	yğ	xóóka-'aan	yno	qáá	elhee	eng
permission	give-1SG-2SG	body-1POSS	soil	from	create-2SG	again	this	land	of

qáá	elhee	vó	sóóru-'aang	rékaa	ýýlheema-'ék
this	land	to	grace-2POSS	by.means.of	travel-1SG

‘By your grace I travel to a far distant land.’
‘On my life my purposes are noble in this land.’
‘The consequences of my actions are mine in this land.’
‘I give you permission to recreate my body from the soil of this land.’
‘By your grace I travel to this land.’