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

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:

1. 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:

1. Nasals:
   1. Nasal + voiceless plosive changes to geminate nasal, e.g. mp -> mm, nt -> nn
2. Liquids:
   1. lt -> ll
   2. lp -> lv
   3. lkU -> lvU
   4. rkU -> rvU
   5. lkI -> lji
   6. rkI -> rji
3. Consonant clusters beginning with s:
   1. sp -> sv
   2. st -> *sr -> rs
   3. sk -> ss
4. Consonant clusters ending with s:
   1. ps -> *vs -> sv
   2. ts -> rs
   3. ks -> s
5. Simplex consonants
   1. t -> r
   2. p -> v
   3. k -> Ø
   4. iki -> iji
   5. -UkU -> UvU
   6. 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:

1. 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 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		-tAri
III		Female Human		-O
IV		Masculine Human		-A
V		Male Professional		-ri
VI		Female Professional		-jA
VII		Animate (Non-Human)		-e
VIII		Inanimate I		-i
IX		Inanimate II		-i
X		Abstract		-U
XI		Small Place		-lA
XII		Large Place		-mA
XIII		Instrument		-in

Number

The singular is unmarked, as in English: kótti cat. The plural is formed in three ways:

• When not followed by another suffix, it is marked by the addition of -t to the oblique stem: kóttit cats;
• When followed by another suffix beginning with a consonant, it is marked by the addition of -i- to the oblique stem:
• When followed by another suffix beginning with a vowel, it is marked by the addition of -j- to the oblique stem:

Possession

Nouns take suffixes to show possession. The suffixes are:

Possessive Suffixes
		Singular	Dual	Plural
Female 1st Person (Inclusive)			-mAt	-mAtti
Female 1st Person (Exclusive)		-nA	-rmA	-mmA
Male 1st Person (Inclusive)			-mit	-mitti
Male 1st Person (Exclusive)		-ni	-rme	-mme
Female 2nd Person (Familiar)		-sA	-rtA	-ttA
Male 2nd Person (Familiar)		-si	-rte	-tte
Female 2nd Person (Polite)		-vA	-tpa	-ppA
Male 2nd Person (Polite)		-vi	-tpe	-ppe Pronouns Personal Pronouns Personal pronouns in English show distinctive forms for 1st, 2nd and 3rd person, singular and plural, with separate forms in the 3rd person singular for male, female, and inanimate referents (with some exceptions - animals, particularly pets, can be referred to either as "it" or with reference to their gender - "he" or "she" - whilst ships are conventionally referred to as "she", celestial bodies can be referred to as "he" or "she", and humans can be [contemptuously] referred to as "it"). There are also separate forms for nominative ("I, they", etc.) and accusative or objective ("me, them"). In Vielan, on the other hand, there are no forms for 3rd person pronouns (the demonstratives taking their place, instead), whilst in addition to gender-specific and polite forms of the 1st and 2nd person pronouns ("I, a male", "you, my superior", etc.), there are also inclusive ("we, with you") and exclusive ("we, without you") forms of the first person pronoun in the dual (which is another category which is not used in English) and plural. The forms of the personal pronouns are: Personal Pronouns (Plural) Nom. Acc. Female 1st Person (Inclusive) matti matut Female 1st Person (Exclusive) matna matnut Male 1st Person (Inclusive) mitti mitut Male 1st Person (Exclusive mitna mitnut Female 2nd Person (Familiar) tapta taptuut Male 2nd Person (Familiar) tipta tiptuut Female 2nd Person (Polite) väntä väntyyt Male 2nd Person (Polite) vintä vintyyt Personal Pronouns (Dual) Nom. Acc. Female 1st Person (Inclusive) anta annut Female 1st Person (Exclusive) mavra mavrut Male 1st Person (Inclusive) inta innut Male 1st Person (Exclusive mivra mivrut Female 2nd Person (Familiar) tavra tavrut Male 2nd Person (Familiar) tivra tivrut Female 2nd Person (Polite) vänrä vänryt Male 2nd Person (Polite) vinrä vinryt Personal Pronouns (Singular) Nom. Acc. Female 1st Person mava mavut Male 1st Person miva mivut Female 2nd Person (Familiar) tava tavut Male 2nd Person (Familiar) tiva tivut Female 2nd Person (Polite) vänä vänyt Male 2nd Person (Polite) vinä vinyt