Difference between revisions of "Eruvite"
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Revision as of 18:42, 22 June 2007
Eruvite is one of the primary spoken languages of Eluvatar.
Contents
Phonology
Consonants
| bilabial | labio- dental |
dental | alveolar | velar | labio- velar | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| nasal | m | n | ||||
| plosive | p b | t d | k g | |||
| fricative | f v | θ | s | x | ||
| trill | r | |||||
| approximant | w | |||||
| lateral approximant | l |
Eruvite lacks any consonant clusters within the same syllable except for /nd/, which appears as a syllable coda. Syllables may begin with any of the language's consonant sounds with the exception of /θ/, which may only appear as a syllable coda. Syllable codas in addition to /θ/ are limited to /s/, /m/, /n/, /l/, /r/ and /nd/.
Vowels
| front | back | |
|---|---|---|
| close | i | u |
| mid | ɛ | |
| open | ɑ ɒ |
Grammar
Eruvite is a heavily inflected language.
Roots and Stems
The language is based on root morphemes which are subsequently modified with stems to create nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs. Root morphemes fall into two distinct classes: noun-verb roots and adjective roots.
| root | type | noun | verb | adjective | adverb |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| min city |
noun-verb | minas city |
minasuvo, minasivo be urban, urbanize |
minaende urban | |
| mend go |
noun-verb | mendum departure |
menduvo, mendivo go, send |
mendende departing | |
| annu new |
adjective | annum originality |
annuvo, annivo be new, restore |
annu new |
annende newly |
This system often results in single words which translate poorly into English and other languages, where they are instead expressed with multiple words. For example, where an English speaker would say "I am tall" a speaker of Eruvite would add to the root for tall (bano) the stem necessary to create a verb and properly inflect it, resulting in simply "banuvo". Native speakers will often choose the combination of roots and stems when speaking which will result in the fewest words in everyday conversation (though these words will not necessarily always be short).
Nouns
Verbs
Eruvite verbs are a complex construction of [?] different components:
root-transitivity/voice/subjunctive-affirmative/negative/dubiative-primary mood-aspect-tense/person-secondary mood
| indicative | subjunctive | |
|---|---|---|
| intransitive | -u-: annuvo I am new |
-ui-: annuivo if I am new |
| transitive | -i-: annivo I renew |
-e-: annevo if I renew |
| passive | -o-: annovo I am renewed |
-oe-: annoevo if I am renewed |
| reflexive | -a-: annavo I renew myself |
-ae-: annaevo if I renew myself |
