Rachovian

Last update: 19 February 2008

Introduction

External (real) history

Internal (pretend) history

Like any language spoken over a large area, Rachovian was spoken in many different dialects and registers. The form presented here is a slightly artificial ancestor of them all, from which the pronunciation of any specific variety may be derived by the appropriate rules; two contemporary dialects are described here. The Alexa script was used to write Rachovian.

The number six had a special place in Rachovian culture: there were six principal gods, six main advisors to the Emperor, six gates in the wall around the capital city, six official seasons, and so on; and the number system was based on twelves. Much of the grammar of the standard language was consequently based around groups of six.

Phonology

Classical Rachovian was conventionally regarded as having twenty-eight consonant phonemes and six vowel phonemes.

Consonants

The alveolar, palatal-alveolar and palatal consonants were grouped together as soft and the rest as hard; the distinction was important in morphology. With the exception of /G/, which is transcribed <gh>, the hard consonants are all transcribed in the same way as their X-SAMPA representations.

For ease of typing in HTML, digraphs are preferred to diacritics in the representations of the soft consonants; following <h j> respectively indicate palato-alveolars and palatals, where hacheks and acutes would otherwise be used, as shown below.

/t d n l r/ became the corresponding palatals before /i/, and so <ti>, for example, represents /ci/.

Consonantal assimilations

/s z/ became /S Z/ before soft consonants, a change not recognised in transcription to conserve <h>'s; thus pèsch "tooth" was actually pronounced /pèStS/, with <sch> being equivalent to Polish <szcz> or the Russian letter usually transcribed <shch>.

Voiceless consonants became voiced before voiced consonants, and vice versa; thus <zt> in käztä "to freeze" was really /st/, but is spelt with <z> to preserve the etymology. Similarly, consonants at the ends of words were often devoiced, especially when not subject to analogical pressure; thus the verbal inflections -t and -s derived from voiced /d/ and /z/.

Consonantal alternations

In the more common alternation, /k g x G/ before back vowels became /tS dZ S Z/ before front vowels; /sk zg ts dz were also affected, becoming /StS ZdZ tS dZ/. For example, /k/ in dâko "soldier" and /G/ in in tâgho "fish" respectively became /tS/ and /Z/ in the accusative plurals dâcherë tâzherë; note also pèsch pesku (the nominative and genitive singulars of "tooth") and jëdzi "I go" (older jedzy) with jëdzhe "you go".

In some environments, rarely in inflection but more commonly in derivation, this alternation also affected the dentals, which became the corresponding palatals (but /s z/ became /S Z/), while the labials suffixed /L/: /p b f v m/ thus became /pL bL fL vL mL/.

The less common alternation was between /k g X G sk zg/ and /ts dz s z sts zdz/. One example is the allative singular of the first declension: dâca "to a soldier".

Vowels

• Short oral, with no accent. These are transcribed <i e o u>.
• Long acute: <í é á ý>.
• Long circumflex: < î ê â û ŷ>. If you don't have a Unicode font, the funny character is <y> with a circumflex accent.
• Long neoacute, transcribed with a grave accent: <ì è ò ù>.
• Short nasal: front and back variants /e~ a~/, transcribed <ë ä>.
• Long nasal: front and back variants again, transcribed <ï ü>. Despite the spellings, which use a single diacritic, these were lengthened versions of the short nasal vowels /e:~ a:~/.

The acute and circumflex tones were only distinguished in initial syllables; unaccented <a i u y> in internal syllables thus represent long vowels, and similarly unaccented <o> represents a short vowel. This leaves <e>, which represents an older long vowel when transcribed <é è> and a short vowel otherwise. Final vowels were always short, regardless of quality. /i/ and /y/ were in complementary distribution, occurring only after soft and hard consonants respectively; this ultimately led to their merger in several dialects. /o/ similarly was only found after soft consonants.

This classification is better understood with reference to history. At an earlier stage the vowel system consisted of short /i e a u/ and the acute, circumflex, and nasal vowels listed above; /y/, which was always long, was a mid or back high unrounded vowel [M] or [1] like Japanese /u/ or Polish /y/. The short vowels were laxer and pronounced more centrally; thus, while long /i e a u/ were typically [i: a: A: u:], their short counterparts became closer to [I E O U].

Short /i u/, originally [I U], were gradually reduced to schwa-like sounds referred to here as jers, following Slavic tradition. Except when before another jer, they were further weakened and ultimately disappeared; a lost jer lengthened preceding short /e o e~ a~/, giving the oral vowels the neoacute tone. Two consequences of this loss were the reintroduction of closed syllables, most notably when a jer was lost at the end of a word; for example /vrutu/ "region" became vrùt /vru:t/; and the introduction of syllabic liquids after consonants, as with /ku.re/ "eight" and /skru.vo/ "fire" which became became /kr=.e/ (two syllables) and /skr=.vo/.

Lost jers are not shown in the orthography unless the pronunciation might otherwise be in doubt, and are transcribed with a breve accent; thus kŭre, skrŭvo, dzhĭljuxy "I discover". Surviving jers are transcribed <ì ù> with the grave accent by analogy with the neoacute vowels, although they were always short.

Vocalic alternations

Other alternations between short /e o/ and long neoacute /è ò/ were triggered by lost jers, for example pèsch "tooth", genitive peschi.

Stress and syllable structure

Prior to the loss of the jers, all syllables in Rachovian consisted of between one and three consonants followed by a vowel; all words thus began with a consonant. Consonant clusters could be one of SN ST SR STR TR, where S T N R represent "fricative, stop or affricate, nasal, liquid" respectively.

Grammar

Nouns

Classical Rachovian nouns were divided into the following three genders, which typically contained nouns as follows:

• Common, which were nouns which were viewed as capable of moving by themselves: mainly animals and plants, but also including natural phenomena such as wind and water.
• Neuter, which were most other concrete nouns.
• Abstract, which described everything else.

Nouns describing qualities were split between neuter and abstract; thus goresä "sharpness" and sâzhesä "sweetness" were neuter, whereas djûrès "size" and dzhĭlès "age" were abstract. These nouns very rarely appeared in the plural.

Nouns inflected for two numbers (singular and plural) and six cases. There were three grammatical cases - nominative, accusative and genitive - and three directional cases - partitive, allative and locative. Characteristic of nominal declension was the existence of parallel sets of endings depending on whether the final consonant of the stem was soft or hard; thus, although teaching grammars traditionally recognised six declensions, the actual number could be argued to be either five or nine. Because the soft endings were rare in three of the four declensions in which they were found, the traditional analysis is followed here.

First and second declensions

Third declension

Note that in this declension, as well as in the fourth and fifth, short stem vowels have the neoacute tone in the nominative singular.

Fourth declension

Fifth declension

The nominative singular of many nouns in this declension was the same as the accusative singular, for example vospy "salt". The abstract nouns of this declension all ended in -ès, such as djûrès "size".

Sixth declension

Among the other types of noun in this declension were:

• With /k/: väto "leaf", genitive singular vätoku, locative singular vätochë. The first alternation took place in the allative and locative singular and in the nominative and accusative plural.
• With /k/ again: väpùk "brick", genitive singular väpku, locative singular väpchë. Note the loss of the jer before the /k/.
• With /m/: example selë "day", genitive singular selmu. Again, note the loss of the vowel.

Dropped consonants were often restored analogically in the nominative singular, thus dzhîles, bênet, vätok, selm, although this was regarded as vulgar.

Nominal oddities

• tâxùl "dry land" (4th), genitive singular tâxly and nominative plural tâxlyve.
• flokùr "tar", genitive flòkry with lengthening.
• dìl "bird", genitive dly, nominative plural dlyvë.
• vrùt "region", genitive vrŭty.
• kùst "head", genitive ksty.

Adjectives

Adjectives further inflected for degrees of superiority and inferiority. The superior degree added -yno -ino (derived from an old root meaning "large") to the stem, thus fosyno "brighter, very bright" and djûrino "larger, very large". The inferior degree added -oklo -eclo: fesaklo "not very bright", djûreclo "not very large". Both of these could be used for comparisons, with the comparand in the partitive: vostaje fesyno "brighter than sun".

The superlative was formed by prepending the particle vä to the comparitive: vä djûrjino "largest", vä fosaklo "least bright".

The abstract allative singular (originally an instrumental) was used in a manner corresponding to English adverbs: djûreja "brightly", comparitives djûrineja "more brightly" and djûrecleja "less brightly".

Demonstratives

In a similar way were declined the interrogative dzhíso "which?" and the relative jíso "which".

Pronouns

Personal pronouns distinguished three persons in singular and plural. As in Liotan, the first person distinguished between inclusive and exclusive, the second person between deferential and familiar, and the third person between the three genders. Added to these were the reflexive, impersonal and switch reference, whose uses are described under syntax.

The full declensions are shown below, together with the common nominative singular of the possessive pronouns ("mine", "yours", etc., listed as "pron"). These possessive pronouns were compounds formed with the genitive and the third person pronouns, as with desto desty deste "yours (singular)" from dec-to/-ty/-te.

The genitive cases of all the above pronouns took the adjectival endings, and dec- taj- zhec- all took the soft endings; thus the nominative singulars of "my" were somo somy sòm, and of "your (def sing) dece deci dèc.

All the other pronouns were compounds of the third person pronouns. These included the following:

The adverbial and neuter forms of dzhto, dzhte and dzhìt, were used for "how?" and "what?". The initial dzht- of most of these was properly /tSt/, but usually /St/ in speech. The relatives were jíte jít jítj.

jíto and jíso had the same meaning. The first was typical of western and central dialects, the second of eastern.

Other adverbs

• jemé jemë jemlju "hither, here, hence"
• voché vochë vochu "thither, there, thence"
• dzhê dzhë dzhu "whither?, where?, whence?"
• jé jë ju "whither, where, whence"

Prepositions

Prepositions which governed the other three cases were typically spatial or directional. Generally speaking, the locative implied rest, the partitive motion away from, and the allative motion towards. Compare the different meanings of ne "below":

• Allative: ne dzêloché, "to under bridge".
• Partitive: ne dzêloko, "from under bridge".
• Locative: ne dzêlochë, "under bridge".

Similarly, the use of the allative in bêz lîtode folir "I run between trees" implies starting outside them, something not present with the locative in bêz lîtòn folir.

Some prepositions originally consisted of a single consonant followed by a weak jer, such as tĭ "on". After the loss of weak jers, these prepositions were reduced to just the consonant: t vätochë "on leaf". A supporting -o was appended before two consonants, and sometimes before homorganic consonants: to telë "on mouth", to nlŭxä "on fingernail".

Unlike some other Sunovian languages, prepositions which denoted opposites did not take all three directive cases. Thus t was never followed by the partitive, and "off leaf" could only be expressed with me and the ablative, i.e. me vätoko.

Verbs

• Two tenses: present (better "non-past") and past. The past was used for actions completed before the time of speaking, the present otherwise, including future events.
• Three aspects: punctual, habitual, perfective.
• Two voices: active and passive.
• Three moods: independent, dependent and unknown.
• Twelve inflectional endings for person.
• Two infinitives and four participles.

Personal endings

The endings came in two sets, one characterised by /s z/ which was used in the simple past tense, and one for the remainder in which the singular endings had vocalic alternatives; three vocalic endings had two forms depending on the quality of the preceding consonant. The endings were as follows:

The first person singular is used as the citation form hereafter.

Conjugations

In the simple present and simple past, the personal endings were added directly to the verb stem. Most of the resulting forms were straightforward, aside from the nasalisation of the thematic vowel in the second person familiar plural. This form, and the first person singular, of one verb from the first five conjugations are shown below.

In the fourth conjugation, the 2def and switch reference endings triggered the second consonant alternation, and the relative, 2fam singular and 1inc plural endings the first: bljûg-a-r "I hit", bljûdz-a-t "you hit", bljûdzh-é-ste "you (pl) hit".

In the sixth conjugation, the verbal endings which started with a consonant were separated from the stem by a vowel. This vowel was usually /e/, except in the 1 exc pl and 2 fam pl of the simple present when it was /o/ and /e~/ respectively. The simple present of "to freeze" is shown below as an example.

A feature of the sixth conjugation generally was stem allomorphy; examples will appear below.

Further verbal formations

The first verbal group contained the simple (uncompounded) formations, which were the most commonly used. The six forms were:

• Present independent: as shown above, viz. sob-i-r.
• Present dependent. This mood was indicated with the suffix -di- and the consonantal endings, thus sob-i-di-r "that I flourish".
• Present unknown: a vowel, depending on the conjugation, plus /-v-/ and the vocalic endings: sob-ev-y "I may flourish".
• Past independent: as shown above, as in sob-i-sa "I flourished".
• Past dependent: the various suffixes combined to give -zdi-, as in sob-i-zdi-r "that I flourished".
• Past unknown: here the suffixes gave -sa-, as in sob-i-sa-r "I might flourish".

All six forms in the simple class for all six conjugations are shown below.

The dependent suffix -di- caused some changes in the sixth conjugation: preceding labial consonants became /v/ (säpy "I hunt", dependent säv-di-r); dentals became /z/ (vety "I obstruct", dependent vez-di-r); and velars gave /Zd/ (doky "I push", dependent dozh-di-r). Alternative past formations were found in the even-numbered conjugations, especially the sixth: lep-ú-sa, dîl-o-sa, kä-sa.

As mentioned above, the sixth verbal group contained the infinitives and participles, all of which are shown below.

The remaining verbal groups were combinations of the participles and an auxiliary verb; often, the participle and the auxiliary contracted to form a single word. The auxiliary was in origin a reduced form of "to do", and conjugated as follows:

• Present independent: zvy zve zvä zvë, etc, as per the sixth conjugation.
• Present dependent: zûdir zûdit, etc.
• Present unknown: zovy
• Past independent: chlesa
• Past dependent: chledir
• Past unknown: chlesar

The second verbal group combined the auxiliary with the present active participle to form the habitual aspect, which described actions taking place over extended periods of time as contrasted with the punctual aspect of the first verbal group. The independent formations of dêlar were thus as shown below.

The fourth verbal group contained the passive forms of the second, and used the present passive participle:

The compound present independent forms were more habitual in meaning than their simple counterparts; note especially dêl-o-tle-sa "I used to fly" compared with dêl-o-sa "I was flying".

The third and fifth verbal groups were the perfective (more correctly, perhaps, "stative") forms of the second and fourth, and were formed with the appropriate past participles. Thus lopeny zvy [lopeny] "I have hidden" was the perfective of lopet zvy, and lopese zvy [lopezvy] "I have been hidden" the perfective of lopeche zvy. The unknown moods of these were the only other perfective forms with contracted alternatives: lopeny zovy [lopäzvy] and lopese zovy [lopesovy].

The complete set of first person forms for loper is shown below, with contractions where possible.

Irregular verbs

"To be" also had a negative, which prepended lé- to the short form shown above: lésy "I am not", lésë "is not".

The first person singular forms of the first verbal group are shown below for some of the commoner irregular verbs. Note that the past independent of "I am" and "I go" took the endings of the present.

And here are the active forms for the sixth verbal group; none of these particular verbs had passive participles:

Numbers

"Fourteen", "twenty-five" and so on were formed on the pattern of pîda vë mele; "a hundred" was thus kŭrevda vë rëdzä. Among the higher numbers may be noted läghy "144" and desky "1728".

melo was an adjective, and thus declined for gender and case.

Derivation

Nominal suffixes

-ome(s)- -eme(s)- created nouns of quality from other nouns. These nouns were of the abstract gender:

• gloxo "man" -> glox-ome "manliness" (genitive gloxomesu)
• tjûch "glass" -> tjûch-eme "glassiness"

Further abstract nouns were derived from adjectives with -esä(m) (neuter gender) and -ès (abstract):

• sâgho "sweet" -> sâzh-esä "sweetness"
• goro "sharp" -> gor-esä "sharpness"
• djûrje "large" -> djûrjès "size"
• dzêle "old" -> dzêlès "age"

Nouns denoting collections were of the common gender and commonly took -të(d):

• loshe "star" -> loshetë "constellation" (genitive loshetëdu)
• tâgho "fish" -> tâghotëd "school of fish"

Nominae agentis took -je(s), closely related to which were neuter nouns in -e(t) denoting results of actions:

• tâgho "fish" -> tâzhe(s) "fisherman", tazhe(t) "catch"
• sapy "I hunt" -> saple(s) "hunter", sape(t) "catch, game"
• râty "I drink" -> râtje "drunkard", rate(t) "drink, draught"

General neuter nouns denoting things, sometimes tools, were derived with -o(k) -e(k) and -ŭ -ĭ:

• gávar "I give" -> gávo(k) "gift" (also gáve(t) in a more abstract sense)
• bljûgar "I strike" -> bljûgo(k) "club"
• skorir "I burn" -> skorŭk "torch"
• väpùk "brick" (from an obsolete root meaning "fit together")

-jele- formed diminutives of the second declension, which retained the gender of their ancestors.

• kolo "dog" -> koljele "little dog, doggie"
• slèsh "hole" -> slèshele "little hole"
• lîto "tree" -> lîtjele "bush, shrub"

Adjectival suffixes

• gloxo "man" -> gloshemo "manly, virile"
• pèsch "tooth" -> peschemo "tooth-like"
• toko "acid" -> tochemo "acidic, bitter"

-meno denoted "having much of, rich in" a noun; it became -më in the abstract singular. -uno, its opposite, was also used as a negative of other adjectives.

• loshe "star" -> loshemeno "starry", loshuno "starless"
• meskùr "snow" -> mèskrùmeno "snowy", mèskruno "snowless"
• boro "pure" -> boruno "impure"

Adjectives denoting passive tendency and ability were derived from verbs with -zvo and -teso:

• vnor "I break" -> vnozvo "fragile, delicate, easily broken", vnoteso "breakable"
• vŷly "I see" -> vlŷzvo "prominent", vlŷteso "visible"

Verbal suffixes

• boro "pure" -> boryr "I purify, I clean"
• fâmo "flat" -> fâmyr "I flatten"
• zûshe "long" -> zûshir "I lengthen, I stretch"
• djûrje "large" -> djûrir "I increase, I make larger"
• feso "bright" -> fesyr "I brighten, I cheer up"

-zy- was a more productive causative suffix, which usually had the more literal meaning; thus djûrezyr and fesozyr were more usual for "I make larger" and "I brighten".

Third conjugation denominatives were similary direct:

• mloshe "name" -> mloshér "I name"
• tâgho "fish" -> tâzhér "I fish"

• skorir "I burn" -> skorjuxy "I set on fire"
• moler "I sleep" -> moljuxy "I fall asleep"

Syntax

Word-order

An attributive adjective followed its noun if it mentioned something new about it, otherwise it preceded. Thus "cold winter" could be translated both skloj fýr and fýr skloj; the first implies that the winter was somehow notable for being cold, whereas the second implies that coldness is inherent in winter.

"To be"

The long forms were used in two principal situations. The first was when the verb itself was emphasised: kole jesë "it is a dog", nâlo sâgho jesë "honey is sweet"; both of these might be used in response to a statement asserting opposite. The second was when, due to other words being emphasised by being moved to the end of the clause, the verb found itself at the beginning: jesë kole "it is a dog (and not a cat, wolf, or aubergine)", jesä nâlo sâgho "honey is sweet". The short forms of "to be" could thus not appear at the beginning of a clause.

Note that if "to be" really meant "to be situated", the verb lestä was used instead: voretë lety "I am in front of the house". A sentence like *voretë sy would be nonsense.

Uses of the cases

The genitive was used when one noun depended on another: pîde somlesu "child's hand", where somlesu is the genitive of somle. Unlike in some other Sunovian languages, the partitive was never used in this situation unless the governing noun was a quantifier such as moso "all".

The partitive corresponded to many different English meanings. Its original ablative meaning of "from, away from" is visible in voréje jëdzi "I am going away from house". It could also be used in place of the nominative or accusative, with connotations of indefiniteness; for example nâlaje bâtar "I eat some honey" and somlosùm sanona "some children are coming". Compare the alternative constructions: nâla bâtar "I eat honey", with the accusative, suggests finality; while somlesë sanena corresponds more closely to the English "the children are coming".

The partitive was also used as the object of a negative verb: nâlaje le bâtar "I am not eating honey", and after the numbers "eleven", twelve", and above: jûno peschìm "eleven teeth".

The allative signalled motion towards: voreté jëdzi "I am going to house" (idiomatically "I am going home"), and dative meanings as with somlesé above. It was also used as an instrumental: [somòm] pîdede bâtar "I am eating with [my] hands".

The locative indicated location ("in, on, at, by"): voretë koty "I am standing by house".

Uses of the moods

In complex sentences, the verb in the main clause could be in the independent or unknown moods, and the verbs in the other clauses could be either the dependent or unknown moods; or, put another way, the independent mood was never used in dependent clauses and the dependent never in main clauses. There were thus four possible combinations of moods:

• Indep + dep: voreté jëdzi moledir "I am going home to sleep". This was a straightforward and colourless statement.
• Indep + unk: voreté jëdzi molevy "I am going home so that I may sleep". Here the use of the unknown mood in the dependent clause adds uncertainly to the consequence.
• Unk + dep: voreté jëdzevy moledir "I might go home to sleep". This time round the uncertainty is in the main clause.
• Unk + unk: voreté jëdzevy molevy. This was rather rare.

In all of these, the dependent clause appeared at the end of the sentence. Parallelling the situation with individual clauses, this construction emphasised the dependent clause, and the independent clause could be emphasised by placing it finally, as in moledir voreté jëdzi.

The differences in the uses of the moods are clearer in sentences where the subjects of the clauses were different. Compare jëdin djûghotár "I tell him/her that he/she is going" and jëdzevë djûghotár "I tell him/her to go": the dependent mood in the first indicates the certainty of the action, whereas the unknown mood in the second is necessary because the outcome is not certain.

After verbs such as dzhĭletä dzhĭlestë "to know", vŷnotä "to want", and tëdzýtä "to hope", either the dependent or unknown moods could be used with no significant change in meaning; the English "he knew he would say that" and "he knew he might say that" could be translated indifferently as dzhĭlesë ty djûzhezdin or dzhĭlesë ty djûghosan. Similarly, if the head clause contained the impersonal of "to be" with an adjective: líre chëto ty djûzhezdin/djûghosan "it was obvious that he would/might say that".

Conditional sentences took two forms, depending on whether the condition was fulfillable or not. Fulfillable conditions were expressed with the unknown mood and the result, preceded by mèc, in the dependent mood: voreté jëdzevy, mèc moledir "if I go home, I will sleep", i.e. "home-to go-I-UNK and-then sleep-I-DEP". Or, with reversed clause order, mèc moledir voreté jëdzevy, which was the more usual order in speech.

Unfulfillable conditions were formed similarly, except that the condition was preceded with san and took the dependent mood: san voreté jëdir, mèc moledir "if I could go home, I would sleep"; san voreté rjûzdir, mèc moledir "if I had gone home, I would have slept".

Switch reference, impersonal, and reflexive

The impersonal pronoun referred to an indefinite or otherwise unexpressed referent, comparable to English "one, people". Its forms were always listed in traditional grammars, but because it most usually appeared as the subject of a verb, it was actually very rarely found as an independent pronoun.

Verbs taking impersonal subjects were typically weather verbs such as cêsi "it is raining" and fêdzhi "it is windy", and indeed these particular verbs could take no other subjects. The grammatical subject of a passive verbal construction was also impersonal, with the notional subject in the accusative case: lope sémy "I am hidden".

The switch reference pronoun was a kind of fourth person pronoun, and was used to refer to a referent which was different from that of the main clause when the subject of the main clause was in neither the first nor second person. In a sentence like dore somlesé zyko gäble gávan, "man gives his goose to child" (literally "man child-to switch-genitive goose-accusative gives"), the switch reference possessive zyko identifies the owner of the goose as the child. Replacing zyko with the normal third person possessive tono would identify the goose as belonging to the man.

In a similar manner, the switch reference indicated a change of subject in successive main clauses. In dorosy kose bljûgasë vë voreto rjûsë, "woman hit man and left house", the normal third-person inflection of rjûsë indicated the same subject as bljûgasë, i.e. the woman. But in dorosy kose bljûgasë vë voreto rjûzdo, the switch reference inflection on rjûzdo signalled a change in subject. However, in a sentence like "she hit him", the normal third person pronoun was used instead: ta bljûgasë.

The reflexive pronoun was used to refer to the subject of the verb. Thus, with the accusative, zheci bljûgasë "he hit himself"; with the genitive zheci chljòdry bâtan "he eats his own (not someone else's) bread"; and with the allative zhecé ty gávan "he gives it to himself".

Relative clauses

Negatives, interrogatives, and responses

Note that in a negative sentence, all function words capable of doing so (e.g. "something", "someone") were converted into their negative forms. The result was what in standard English would be regarded as a multiple negative, which in Rachovian retained the negative meaning regardless of the number of negative words: léty lé bâtan was usual for "he is eating nothing". léty bâtan, while theoretically valid, was very rare and unusual.

Interrogative pronouns and adjectives typically went to the end of the clause: bâtat goji "what are you eating?"

Conjunctions

më "or" and pa "but" behaved similarly: chlèdry nâlamë bâtar "I am eating bread or honey".

Most other conjunctions required specific moods and in some instances aspects of the verb they governed. An example of this is in the second line of the Babel text: Bâzto[vë] ... sïchelona, where bâzto "while" is followed by the dependent habitual. Similarly, in the ninth line jechu "because" is also followed by the dependent.

Dialects and further evolution

Consonants

Initial affricates before liquids and nasals often lost their stop element and became fricatives; thus chljèdur and dzhĭlese "ancestor" had initial /SL/ and /ZL/.

Vowels

• Because of the development of the neoacute, the acute or circumflex vowels (or sometimes both) shortened.
• /e/ and /e:/ became /o/ and /a:/ in various environments, typically before hard consonants, a characteristic of the classical standard; thus - to give just two examples - lopotä and rjoto for lopetä and reto.
• /e:/, the least stable vowel, became variously /a:/ or /i:/, and sometimes fell together with neoacute /è/.
• /y/ and /i/ merged in /i/, transferring the distinction to the quality of the preceding consonant.
• Some dialects barred word-final stress, which led to different stress patterns; for example, in these dialects the entire pronoun system was characterised by consistent initial stress.
• The nasal vowels often denasalised; /e~/ typically became /a/ or /e/, and /a~/ variously became /a/, /o/, or /u/. The long nasals usually followed the short ones.
• Remaining jers merged with other vowels; /ì/ usually with /e/ or /a/, and /ù/ with /e/, /a/, or /o/.

Grammar

The system of noun declensions was frequently simplified, with endings from some declensions influencing those of others, and some declensions (typically two or all of the third, fourth, and fifth) merging altogether. FIXME: some examples

Some endings of the nominal declension were taken over from the indefinite pronominal declension...

The final vowel was often dropped in speech from the accusative, genitive and allative plural.

The verbal system was prone to much simplification. In particular, the conjugations were often reduced to five or four; the merger of /y/ and /i/ caused the first and fifth conjugations to become indistinguishable for all practical purposes, and the third conjugation often fell in with the second or fourth. Verbs of the sixth conjugation were also liable to join others, most commonly the second.

Outside of the formal registers of the written language, it is doubtful that all of the 366 verbal forms were actually used. Those most frequently lost were usually the passives, with constructions using the impersonal on the model of lope sémy being preferred instead; thus lopeny (habitual passive of "I hide") was often replaced by sémy lopeno.

Syntax

Babel text

1. Vë mosy mostovo mely dâzhety zêterëvë sëverë tâstlesë.
2. Baztôvë doresë lofeso sêtledina, fâmety Shinarä fádésna vochëvë dechashena.
3. Mledzhenévë djûghosna, "dýnode väpkerë, dzhenodevë tyv mècreja". Väpkerëvë kodvä sëbru flokryvë kodvä lîkru tîsna.
4. Djûghosna, "kodode cheté kostévë jitevé mlelry tosona, gávodevë mloshé zhecé, drùt têdzhë mostu lé fêtédi."
5. God-vë tŭrjûstë cheté kostévë jísav doresë kodosna vlŷdzûdin.
6. God-vë djûgosë, "vŷle! mel jesche sena, melyvë dâzhety tîdena, väshevë zono séleto vrŭshe jíse dýnona, letevë jítevë vŷnona klotesuno jesë."
7. Tŭrëdzede brŭchushedevë tany dâzhety, mledzheny lé dosydina."
8. Vë God tav têdzha mostu fêlésë, kosté kodotledin fosnésna.
9. Vochuvë Babel mleshésna tûréje vochë God tav têdzha mostu fêlésë.

Analysis

1. Vë mosy mostovo mely dâzhety zêterëvë sëverë tâstlesë.

mosy is in the neuter to agree with mostovo.

2. Bâztovë doresë lofeso sêtledina, fâmety Shinarä fádésna vochëvë dechashena.

bâzto, "while", took the dependent and the habitual. dechashena, the inceptive of "they lived", is used here for "settle".

3. Mledzhenévë djûghosna, "dýnode väpkerë, dzhenodevë tyv mècreja". Väpkerëvë kodvä sëbru flokryvë kodvä lîkru tîsna.

Note the genitive case with kodvä "in place of".

4. Djûghosna, "kodode cheté kostévë jitevé mlelry tosona, gávodevë mloshé zhecé, drùt têdzhë mostu lé fêtédi."

gávode ... drùt ... lé fêtédi: "let us give... so that we are not scattered".

5. God-vë tŭrjûstë cheté kostévë jísav doresë kodosna vlŷdzûdin.

tŭrjûstë ... vlŷdzûdin: "went down ... to see".

6. God-vë djûgosë, "vŷle! mel jesche sena, melyvë dâzhety tîdena, väshevë zono séleto vrŭshe jíse dýnona, letevë jítevë vŷnona klotesuno jesë."

"that which", equivalent to English "what" as a relative pronoun.

7. Tŭrëdzede brŭchushedevë tany dâzhety, mledzheny lé dosydina."

brŭchushedevë ... mledzheny lé dosydina: "let us confuse ... each-other not understand(dep)", i.e. "so that they will not understand each other".

8. Vë God tav têdzha mostu fêlésë, kosté kodotledin fosnésna.

kosté kodotledin fosnésna: "the tower build-they(dep) forsook-they", i.e. "so that they will not understand each other".

9. Vochuvë Babel mleshésna tûréje vochë God tav têdzha mostu fêlésë.

mleshétä "to name" had the thing named in the allative case and the name itself in the accusative. tûréje: genitive of "cause", thus "because".

Vocabulary

bâtor [v4] I eat
brŭchûxy [v6] I confuse
cêsin [v1] it rains
chete [nc2] town, city
chledùr chljòdryve [nn4] bread
dâzhe dâzhetë [nn6] speech
dechuxy [v6] I settle (inceptive of "I live")
djûgher [v2] I say, tell
djûre [adj] large
dore doresë [nc6] man
dosyr [v5] I understand
dýnor [v4] I make, do
dzêlo dzêlecë [nn6] bridge
dzhenor [v4] I cook, bake
fáder [v2] I find
fâme fâmetë [n6] plain, flat land
fêdzhín [v1] it is windy
fêlér [v3] I scatter
flokùr flokryve [nn6] tar
folir [v1] I run
fosnér [v3] I forsake, leave behind
gäble [nc2] goose
gávor [v4] I give
kloteso [adj] possible
kodor [v4] I build
kolo [nc1] dog
kose kosesë [nc6] woman
koste [nc2] tower
lîcùr lîcryve [nn6] mortar
lêro [adj] clear, plain
lety [v6] I am situated (past vlŭsa)
lofès [na6] east
loper [v2] I hide, conceal
mècro [adj] complete
mledzhë mledzhenë [nc6] each other
mlelùr [na4] sky
mleshér [v3] I name
mloshe [nc2] name
moler [v2] I sleep
moso [adj] all, every; also a noun
nâlo [nc1] honey
nòst [nn5] land; also "world, earth"
sëbùr sëbryve [nn6] stone (material)
séle séletë [nn6] start, beginning
sëvo [nc1] word
skloje [adj] cold
slèsh [nn4] hole
slŭy [v6] I carry
somle somlesë [nc6] child
tâxùl tâxlyve [nn4] dry land
têdze [nc1] surface
tëdzir [v5] I hope
tŭrëdzy [v6] I descend
tjûch [nn3] glass (substance)
tosor [v4] I touch, reach
tûre [nc2] cause
väpùk [nn6] brick, building stone
vety [v6] I obstruct
vore voretë [nn6] house
voner [v2] I break
vŷly [v6] I see
vŷnor [v4] I want
zête [adj] few
zodo [nc1] only (+part)