Ýýlheema'ék
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: | Agglutinating |
| 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 |
- Copula: a circumfix, qu- -kaa, around the predicate nominative.
| qu-vyyd-kaa |
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.’
