Latest revision as of 11:18, 19 May 2013

Eruvite ([ˈɛɾʊvɪˌtɛ]) is one of the primary spoken languages of Eluvatar.

Eruvite
Eruvite in written script
Pronunciation	[ˈɛɾʊˌvitə]
Spoken in	Eluvatar, Pelargir
Total speakers	162 million
Language family	Cefnonde
Writing system	Eruwar
Official status
Official in	Eluvatar
Regulated by	Church of Eru
Language codes
ISO 639-1	er
ISO 639-2	erv
ISO 639-3	erv

Phonology

Eruvite distinguishes 21 distinct phonemes: 16 consonants and 5 vowels. Both the consonants and the vowels of Eruvite are subject to different degrees of allophony.

Consonants

Eruvite possesses a fairly average inventory of distinctive consonants, though it lacks the common palatal consonant /j/, which is occurs only as an allophone of /i/. Eruvite also completely lacks affricates. Velar consonants occur with less frequency than alveolar and labial consonants.

[θ] is in fact a syllable final allophone of the phoneme /t/. However, because of pervasive bilingualism and because it is represented by its own letter in the language's orthography, many speakers are unaware of the distinction.

Consonant length is distinctive for /m/, /n/, /t/, /s/, /r/ and /l/.

Vowels

Eruvite possesses five distinctive vowels, all of which are subject to a significant degree of allophony, much of which is determined by stress. The place of articulation of the consonant that a vowel precedes or whether or not it appears before a vowel also affects how some vowels is realized.

When unstressed /i/ is realized instead as [ɪ] and before velar consonants it is instead realized as [ɨ]. Prior to another vowel /i/ may also be realized as the glide [j]. The allophone [ə] of /ɛ/ appears in unstressed syllables. Likewise, /u/ in unstressed syllables is realized as [ʊ]. Preceding alveolar consonants it may also be realized as [ʉ] and before another vowel as the glide [w]. Before both alveolar consonants and in unstressed syllables /ɑ/ may be realized as [a] while /o/ is realized as [ɔ]in unstressed syllables.

Phonotactics

Eruvite lacks any consonant clusters within the same syllable except for /nd/, which may appear as a syllable coda word finally. Syllables may begin with any of the language's consonant sounds (with the exception of [θ]). Syllable codas in addition to /nd/ are limited to /m/, /n/, /s/, /l/, /r/, and /t/, which is realized as [θ].

Initial Consonant Lenition

The lenition, or "weakening", of the intitial consonants of roots that have been suffixed to another root is a common phonological phenomenon in Eruvite. Lenition in Eruvite takes the form of spirantization, with plosives and nasals mutating to fricates, approximants and trills. Consonants retain their voicing, and voiceless fricatives may be lost completely if the root to which they are being suffixed ends in a consonant.

Grammar

Eruvite is a heavily inflected synthetic language. Like most synthetic languages Eruvite grammar is fairly regular, if complex, despite several exceptions in the form of irregular nouns and verbs.

Roots and Stems

The language is, like any language, based on root morphemes, which are subsequently modified with to create nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs. Root morphemes fall into two distinct classes: noun-verb roots and adjective roots. This distinction determines how a particular root may be modified to serve as certain parts of speech and grammatical roles.

This synthetic system of inflection often results in a great deal of information being placed into a single word, and subsequently sentences formed with a small number of words (though these words will not necessarily always be short).

Nouns

Number

There are three grammatical numbers in Eruvite:

• The singular is used for single ojects and is unmarked.
• The paucal is used for two or three objects and is marked by the suffix -ae.
• The plural is used for any number of objects greater than three and is marked by the suffix -i.

The number 0 is considered plural.

When a numeral gives a precise quantity, the noun is inflected according to the last digit of the number, not its actual value. The exception are the numbers 11 to 13 in base ten, which inflect as plural.

Gender

There are four grammatical genders in Eruvite. For nouns which can have genders, such as people and animals, gender in most cases will correspond to the actual gender of the noun, and can be altered to reflect this. For other nouns the gender is instead lexically and arbitrarily fixed. The four genders are male, female, animate and inanimate.

Cases

There are a number of cases in Eruvite which are used to convey information that would in English be presented using prepositions. Some of these cases can be subsequently modified with suffixes to provide a greater level of detail.

• The nominative case denotes the subject of a sentence.
  • Dinar chunubu.
    The man sleeps.
• The accusative case denotes the direct object of a sentence.
  • Dinam esibu.
    He sees the man.
• The genetive case indicates possession.
• The locative case indicates a location at which an object is located or moving towards.
  • Minui lawiurobu.
    It's raining in the city.
• The ablative case indicates motion away from a location.
• The comitative case indicates the object in whose company an action is carried out.
• The instrumental case denotes the means by which an action is performed.
  • Corlel senibu.
    He writes with a pen.
• The benefactive case indicates the object for which an action is performed.
  • Dines rusui agorubu.
    He opens the door for the man.
• The equative case indicates a comparison or likening. The equative case can be modified with one of two suffixes if desired to indicate that another object is greater or less than in some respect to the modified object. Unmodified it most often represents a likening to the object.
  • Adete.
    Like a bird.
  • Enalema.
    Greater than one.
  • Enalelae.
    Less than one.
• The vocative case indicates a person or object being addressed. This case is defective and only distinct for the masculine and feminine genders.

Inflection

Verbs

Eruvite verbs are a complex construction of up to six different components. Three of these components, the first, second and fifth components, must always be present in any verb.

Root

The very first component of any verb is the root, which carries the basic meaning.

Transitivity and Voice

The second component of a verb marks the transitivity' and voice of the verb. The two are closely tied together in terms of morphology and can be treated as a single combined entity for convenience. There are four possible "voices":

• The intransitive voice.
• The transitive voice.
• The passive voice.
• The middle voice.

Intransitive and transitive constructions are active in meaning, with the subject acting as the notional agent of the verb. They may both therefore be considered subsets of a broader active voice. The only difference between the two is, as their names suggest, that the intransitive may not take an object argument while the transitive may (and must).

Senuvo. "I write." Lifron senivo. "I write the book."

The passive voice indicates that the subject is acted upon as the notional patient of the verb. In such passive constructions the agent may be optionally reintroduced using the instrumental case.

Lifros senasu [dinus]. "The book was written [by the man]."

The middle voice is the most complex and can convey several distinct meanings. The most basic of these is a reflexive one; the subject acts upon itself.

Dolurode. "I hurt myself."

In a similar semantic vein, the middle voice can also indicate reciprocity when more than one agent is involved.

Aelar a Erendas coloba. "Aelar and Erendis hug each other." (As opposed to Aelar a Erendas coluba. "Aelar and Erendis hug [someone else].")

Finally, the middle voice is used instead of the intransitive for those verbs whose semantics imply the existence of some unstated external agent.

Dinar marlosu. "The man died." (never Dinar marlusu.)

The Affirmative and Negative

The second component expresses the affirmative or negative. The same stems used to form these moods when added by themselves to a root are also used to answer questions affirmatively or negatively, as Eruvite does not have words for "yes" or "no".

• The affirmative, expressed by the lack of a stem, mood indicates that an action does occur.
  • Darluvo.
    I read.
  • Darlu.
    Yes, I read.
• The negative, expressed with the stem ni, mood indicates that an action does not occur.
  • Darlunivo.
    I do not read.
  • Darluni.
    No, I do not read.

Primary Mood and Incorporation

The third component denotes the primary mood of the verb. There is no grammatically predetermined set of constructions for the primary mood. Instead, any transitive verb which can be applied to another verb may be incorporated here. The product of such incorporation can be translated roughly as "[root] to [verb]" or "[root] [verb]ing". A limited subset of former verbs however have been fully grammaticalized in this function, and now may only appear as an inflection in this position to indicate some mood

Multiple incorporated verbs or inflections may be joined together in this part of the verb, with later constituents acting on earlier constituents.

Aspect

The fourth component denotes the grammatical aspect of the verb. Eruvite displays a number of uncommon aspects.

• The perfective aspect denotes an action which has been completed. There are two types of perfective aspects in Eruvite:
  • The basic perfective aspect denotes that an action has been completed and that the results of that action still hold.
    • Mendude.
      I went.
  • The experiential perfective denotes that an action has been completed, but the results of the action no longer or will no longer hold.
    • Mendumade.
      I went and returned.
• The perfect aspect denotes an action that has been completed with relevance to a certain temporal context.
  • Mendupavo.
    I have gone.
• The imperfective aspect denotes that an action is incomplete. There are three different imperfective aspects in Eruvite:
  • The basic imperfective aspect denotes that an action is incomplete, and will not or may not be completed.
    • Mendufevo.
      I am going.
  • The perfective imperfective denotes that an action is incomplete but will be completed and that the results of the action will hold.
    • Mendurovo.
      I am going and will not return.
  • The experiential perfective imperfective denotes that an action is incomplete but will be completed and that the results of the action will not hold.
    • Mendurivo.
      I am going and will return.
• The habitual aspect denotes that an action is completed repeatedly. There are two different habitual aspects:
  • The basic habitual aspect denotes an action which is completed continuously for an indefinite period.
    • Menduvo.
      I go.
    • Mendugode.
      I used to go.
  • The terminative habitual denotes an action which is completed continuously for only a certain period.
    • Menduwovo.
      I go for a while.
• The inceptive aspect denotes an action which is being initiated.
  • Mendudavo.
    I am beginning to go.
• The terminative aspect denotes an action which is being ended.
  • Menducevo.
    I am ceasing to go.
• The pausative aspect denotes that an action is temporarily suspended.
  • Mendutuvo.
    I am ceasing to go for a while.
• The resumptive aspect denotes an action which is initiated again after a pause.
  • Mendulivo.
    I am starting to go again.

Tense, Person and Number

The fifth component indicates the tense of the verb and the grammatical person and number of the verb's subject,. There are three possible tenses:

• The present tense denotes an action which is occurring currently.
• The past tense denotes an action which occurred at a previous time.
• The future tense denotes an action that will occur at a later time.

There are also three possible persons:

• The first person indicates that the subject is the speaker or includes the speaker. For the paucal and plural numbers, there are two different first persons:
  • The inclusive first person indicates that the one being addressed as well as the speaker is included in the subject. For the paucal number, this is taken to mean "you and I" and for the plural "you, others and I".
  • The exclusive first person indicates that the one being addressed is not included in the subject.
• The second person indicates that the subject is the one or ones being addressed.
• The third person indicates that the subject is neither the speaker or the one being addressed.

Final Mood

The sixth component of any verb construction is the final mood. Unlike the primary mood, there is a set number of final moods with which a verb can be modified.

• The inquisitive mood indicates that the statement is a question.
  • Senivom?
    Do I write?
• The causal mood indicates that the statement is the cause of something.
  • Senivon.
    Because I write.
• The conditional mood indicates that the statement is the condition for something.
  • Senuvos.
    If I write.
• The energetic mood indicates that the statement is strongly felt.
  • Senivor!
    I really write!
• The relative mood indicates that the statement is a relative clause.
  • Senubugo dinar.
    The man who writes.
• The royal mood is used when addressing or referring to royalty of nobility.
  • Senivol.
    I write, your majesty.

Serial Verb Constructions

While two verbs may grammatically be joined together using the basic conjunction a this typically sounds awkward and stilted if both verbs share the same subject, much like the sentence "I live here and I commute to work" in English. It is instead preferable to join the two (or more) verbs using a serial verb construction.

In such a construction the suffix -th is affixed to the verb, replacing the person, tense, and final mood. This verb then assumes the same person, tense, and final mood as the final verb in the clause. The verb may still adopt a separate primary mood or affirmative or negative nature.

There is a potential for ambiguity in serial verb constructions. If the final verb is marked for any particular primary moods, then the verbs that precede it may be left unmarked and be assumed to share the same moods. However, such a structure may also indicate that the preceding verbs, unlike the final one, have no primary mood and as such have been left unmarked. The situation is somewhat comparable to the English sentence "I can sing here and play piano," which may be parsed either as [[I][can [sing and play [piano]]] or [[I][can [sing]] and [play [piano]]].

Adjectives

Adjectives fall into two distinct groups in Eruvite: those constructed from noun-verb roots and those constructed from adjective roots. The way in which the two are constructed and their placement relative to the verb that they modify depends on their derivation.

Noun-verb Root Adjectives

Adjectives are generally formed from noun-verb roots by adding the suffix -ende.

Adjective Root Adjectives

Adjectives formed from adjective roots are simply the roots themselves, and are placed before the word which they modify.

Adverbs

Adverbs are generally formed from adjective roots by adding the suffix -ende and from noun-verb roots by adding the suffix -endeth, and are placed before the verb which they modify.

Orthography

Eruvite is written in Eruwar, a featural abugida, and traditionally the Sindarin Cirth alphabet for Sindarin loanwords.

The Royal Confederacy of Eluvatar
Major Cities:	Romenna, Meneltarma, Annuminas, Eldalondei, Anor, Ilium, Carth, Besseki, Finnseki	Provinces:	Romenna, Meneltarma, Eldalondei, Anor, Ilium, Minos, Bennland, Finnland	Political Parties:	Lafurwaethdinund, Gastatirdinund, Ulterdinund
Characters:	Pelendur ArFinn, Minalcar Elendili, Silmarien Cuwaroveth, Aerin Ilium, Anorien Tar-Ilium	Historical Figures:	Falastur Ruisigusugoriar Eluvatumi, Eiarvedui Ruisigusugoriar Eluvatumi, Beregond ArFinn, Aelar Elendili	Ethnicities:	Dunedain, Edain, Minosian, Benn, Finn, Belaedinosi