Eruvite

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Eruvite is one of the primary spoken languages of Eluvatar.

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 ɯ
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

Adjectives

Adverbs

Orthography

Eruvite is written with the Eruwar, a featural abugida.