Nyaěmu

I was inspired by the Sumerian language (in some categories, at least) and - to some extent - Tolkien's Quenya.

This language had once been spoken by a civilization of the same name, that formed a seafaring empire in the region of the Five Seas. They founded multiple colonies and gained wide knowledge about the world, stored in the so-called 'Houses of Wisdom'; unfortunately, economical crisis and accompanying political strife weakened them so much, that they fell victim to a coalition of peoples (apparently led by several Aqͣqarͤrhat colonies, intending to gain more influence in the region) that nearly wiped them out. Only a remnant lives today. They started to use the languages of the other tribes inhabiting the island, although Nyaěmu remained a language of lore (like Latin in the Reality or Quenya in Tolkien's Ea).

The Mynnayan Nyaěmu population occupies the islands's lowlands (in the north-eastern part). They live in several villages. Men are usually farmers or shepherds, and women are mostly weavers. They speak a dialect of Gauloinde, who inhabit the city of Nukka that lies near their settlements.

Although spoken Nyaěmu is now extinct, there are nevertheless large quantities of ancient Nyaěmu texts that are still preserved in a House of Knowledge in the mountainous region of the island. The local Khrit people are now guarding it and taking care of its resources; that even led to a division in their society, producing several specialized castes, with the highest one being able to converse freely in the language and to have the full access to the knowledge stored in the House.

Classification and Dialects
The Nyaěmu language is an isolate; it seems that it used to have a few relatives, but, after, becoming a koine language of its region, its dominating position eventually put them out of use. Nowadays, it's not spoken anymore; it was forgotten after the Fall (of their civilization). However, in several spots, including Munnaya, it stayed as the language of lore, which enabled some to keep a large part of their former knowledge and achievements. As such, it's rather monolithic, with few recorded variations (just some small ones; think of Noldorin and Vanyarin Quenya).

Consonants
Approximants [w] and [j] are generaly considered shorter versions of full vowels [u] and [i], respectively; if directly following a consonant, they fuse together, causing labialization or palatalization (again, respectively) of that consonant; palatalization usually causes the consonant to turn into a full palatal (thence come the palatals in the table above), though one should bear in mind that they could as well be pronounced as usual palatalized sounds. The changing patterns are as follows:

t>tɕ d>dʑ s>ɕ l>ʎ n>ɲ k>c g>ɟ

The velar nasal appears only in clusters, when folowed by a /k/ or /g/; it's not used otherwise.

Diphthongs and triphthongs
Nyaěmu had several diphthongs, these being:

/ai/ /ei/ /oi/ /ui/ /au/ /eu/ /ou/ /iu/ /ae/ /oa/

...and five triphthongs, basically being simply two diphthongs 'merged' together:

/aei/ /aeu/ /oai/ /oau/ /oae/

Vowel length and nasality
Vowels have contrastive length (short or long). Close vowels [i] and [u] are considered to be long at all times (contrasting with [j] and [w]). Also, there are three nasal vowels, that are also considered to be always long ([ãː], [ẽː] and [õː]). If a nasal vowel is followed by a stop and a vowel, then it usually causes an assimilated nasal to appear between them (for example, õː + d = õːnd).

Consonant clusters
Consonant clusters cannot be formed with any two consonants, as only some are permissible. The simplest ones are, of course, geminates; also any two stops (of the same voicing) can be joined together in such a way. Semi-vowels [w] and [j] and their interactions have been decribed earlier; [s], [l] and nasals always precede any stop consonant. Nasals tend to assimilate with the following stop in nasal-stop pairs (mb, nd, ŋg, ɲɟ). Practically any consonant cluster fullfilling the above conditions can appear inside a word; only single consonants are tolerated word-initially or word-finally. Thus, Nyaěmu syllable structure can be defined as CVC.

Stress and syllable length
In Nyaěmu every stressed syllable has a pitch of its own, which is contrastive; these pitches are:


 * high (á)
 * low (à)
 * rising (long syllables only) (ǎ)
 * falling (long syllables only) (â)

The location of stress in a word is often unpredictable. There might be some rules drawn, however:


 * if a two-sylable word has both syllables short, then accent the first one
 * if a more-than-two syllable word has only short syllables, then accent the third-to-the-last
 * if a word has only one long syllable (long vowel, diphthong or triphthong), then accent it
 * if a word has more than one long syllable, among which is a single triphthong, accent the triphthong
 * if a word has several long syllables and/or more than one triphthong, accent the one which is closest to the second-to-the-last position (and if the three final syllables are long-short-long, then accent the first of the two long ones).

Nouns
Nouns decline according to class (Human/ Non-human), definitness (Definite vs. Indefinite), case (Agent, Patient, Sociative, Locative, Vocative), number (Singular, Dual and Plural) and size/degree (5 level scale). As Nyaěmu is agglutinative, all these qualities are marked by special affixes (except definitness, which is marked with articles, and class, which is inherent). The order of affixes is SIZE-root-CASE-NUMBER. Nouns can also have possessive endings, inserted between the root and the case suffix.

Articles
There are 8 articles: proximal, medial, distal and indefinite, each agreeing with their noun object in class, as follows:

Articles in Nyaěmu
All articles (when directly preceding their object) are proclitics, so they acquire stress if and only if the object word consists of one to two short syllables.

Size
The size prefixes can strengthen or weaken words they modify. There are 5 levels of size a noun can acquire: Neutral (0), Amplifying (+1), Intensive (+2), Weakening (-1) and Residual (-2). Neutral has no prefix.

Size prefixes in Nyaěmu
And so, the difference between, let's say, a tower, miùn, and a fortress (gwamiùn) is simply the size prefix.

Grammarians are still unsure whether to qualify these prefixes as inflectional or derivational; it is thought that they might have served a similar purpose to that of number once.

Case
There are 5 cases in Nyaěmu; two alignment cases (Agent and Patient), two indirect object cases (Sociative and Locative), as well as a Vocative case. Each of them is expressed with an ending.


 * Agent: usually ends in -a or -an in Human class; doesn't have a distinct ending in Non-H. Marks the agent of a transitive verb, as well as the subject of an intransitive one (in some circumstances).


 * Patient: ends in -at (final n, if present, drops out) in Human and in -(e)s in N-H.; marks the patient of a transitive verb, and the intransitive subject in some circumstances.


 * Sociative: ends in -o (final a, if present, drops out) in H. and in -(e)m in N-H.; marks the indirect object in sense more metaphorical than just spatial or temporal.


 * Locative: ends in -k in H. (final n, if present, drops out) or in -(o)to in N-H.; marks the indirect object in spatial relationships.


 *  Vocative: ends in -ae (in H. fully replaces the Agent ending) in both classes.

Number
Number in Nyaěmu is expressed with endings; to be exact, two Dual (-se for Human and -ul for Non-Human) and one Plural ending (-(i)n). Singular is unmarked.

Example inflection of a Human-class noun
goân (a man)

Note how the Dual and Plural endings in Patient and Locative cases switch places with the final consonants, respecting the Fricative/Sonorant-Before-Stop-Only rule. Also notice the moving accent in the Vocative, and how its pitch (in this case, the rising one) stays the same as in the stem.

Example inflection of a Non-Human class noun
mwálya (a boat)

Note how the Dual ending -ul merges with the final vowels in most cases, and the moving accent in the Vocative (as in Human class, its pitch - in this case, the high one - remains the same as in the stem).

Adjectives and adverbs
Adjectives agree with nouns they modify in all qualities, except size.

Adverbs don't decline.

Syntax
Adjectives in attributive position can be placed either before, or after the word they modify, but they agree with it in the definitness, so they always have the same article as their object preceding it, no matter the position (like in Koine Greek).

When predicative, they don't have an article, and are usually followed (or preceded) by the copula.

Comparatives and superlatives are formed with help of size prefixes and some special adpositions.

Formation
Adjectives have several types of derivational endings (or, in the case of so-caled 'primary' adjectives, no special ending at all), and are declined just like nouns.


 * -(e)na for Human class, -(e)nu for Non-human: possessive ending (of ...)


 * -ila (H), -il (N-H): semblative ending (similar to ...)


 * -(e)man (H), -(e)min (N-H): possessed ending (...-ful)

These endings are changed when an adjective is put directly before its object. Some special rules apply:

1 Object starts with a stop consonant:
 * when ends in a vowel, nothing happens;
 * when ends in y+vowel, or w+vowel, then the vowel drops out, and the y or w gets strengthened to i or u, respectively;
 * if ends in a nasal, it assimilates;
 * if any other consonant, it drops out

2 Object starts with a non-stop consonant:
 * if vowel-ending, nothing happens;
 * when ends in y+vowel, or w+vowel, then the vowel drops out, and the y or w gets strengthened to i or u, respectively;
 * if stop-ending, it srops out;
 * if fricative/liquid-ending, nothing happens

3 Object starts with a vowel:
 * if ends with a single short open vowel, it drops out;
 * if ends with a short i or u, it's simplified to -y or -w, respectively (only if the preceding consonant is neither palatalized or labialized; oherwise, it drops out);
 * if ends with a diphthong or a triphthong, it's simplified to a single vowel (ae- -> e-, oa- -> o-; others turn the second element - i or u - into y or w, respectively);
 * if ends with a long vowel, it's shortened;
 * if ends with a nasal vowel, it's shortened into a short vowel, and a nasal appears after it (n for a or e, m for o);
 * when ends in y+vowel or w+vowel, then the vowel simply drops out;
 * when ends with a consonant, nothing happens

Comparison
If two concepts are to be compared, then:


 * firstly, you add the right size prefix to the adjective
 * secondly, you put the preposition mo ('from') before the object of comparison, if the prefix you used is to- or gwa-; and if you used swi- or kyu- instead, then you use with it the postposition si ('towards') instead.

You can also use the comparative adverbs.

Adverbs
Adverbs have no inflexion, and they can either follow, or precde the word they modify.

They can be either 'primary' or 'derived' from adjectives by the means of the ending -ya.

Like adjectives, their endings are often changed when placed before an object; and so, the derivational ending -ya changes to -y before vowels, and to -i before consonants.

Primary adverb's endings change according to rules set out in the section 'Adjectives'.

Adpositions
As the name suggests, Nyaěmu has both prepositions and postpositions, so one simply has to remember which one is which (especially that some of them can change their meaning depending on position). Adpositions agree with their objects in class and number, and that can sometimes influence their exact meaning, too.

Verbs
Verbs conjugate according to tense (Past, Pluperfect, Present, Future), aspect (perfective vs. imperfective), mood (Indicative, Subjunctive), volition (Voilitonal vs. Non-volitional), and voice (Active, Inversive). They can be suffixed with shortened forms of pronouns.

Tense
In Nyaěmu, tense is (morphologically) the most basic category; a verb has different stem forms in different tenses. There are 3 conjugations and some irregular verbs.

1st conjugation
The 1st conjugation, or the a-conjugation, applies to the verbs that end in simple -a. Although quite simple, it nevertheless has several (namely, 3) variations in the past tense formation, dependent on a verb's structure.

Present tense- the most basic one; denotes actions/states that are currently occuring. All of this conjugation's verbs end in a simple -a.

Past tense- denotes action/state that occured in the past; there are 3 variations:
 * if a verb end in a non-stop consonant+a, then -mo- is infixed between the consonant and -a, -o- and -a merging into a diphthong: swâla (to sail), p. t. swâlmoa
 * if a verb ends in a stop and -a, the -m- and stop switch places, and the nasal assimilates to the stop; thus, tága (to lift), p. t. tangoá
 * if a verb ends in a consonant cluster + a, then the -m- disappears altogether, and the -o- changes to -õ- to compensate; and so, kánda (to build), p. t. kandṍa.
 * if a verb ends in a labialized/palatalized consonant + -a, the labialization/palatalization simply disappears.

Pluperfect tense- denotes a past-in-the-past (like English Past Perfect). It's formed just like the Past tense, with only one difference: there's an augment prefixed to the verb. The augment is made of the onset and nucleus of the first syllable (or the nucleus and coda, if there's no onset); thus, the Pluperfect of tága is tatangoá. There is only one exception: if the onset is a labialized/palatalized consonant, the vowel of the augment will be u or i respectively, no matter what the nucleus of the originally first syllable really is; so, swâla, plp. t. suswalmoâ.

Future tense- denotes a (usually distant) future; is formed completely regularly, by the use of an ending -yen (the final -a disappears, together with any labialization/palatalization): kánda. f. t. kándyen.

Notice how the accent moves to the longest sylable (always respecting the rules, of course)!

2nd conjugation
...Or, the nasal conjugation; the verbs that fit in here end in -e- + nasal. Again, while the Present and Future tense formation is easy to forsee, the Past and Pluperfect is harder to predict.

Present: as said above, ends in -e- + nasal; for example, lyěn (to carry)

Past: the -e- in the final syllable changes to -a; there are four things that can happen to the nasal, though:
 * it can stay unchanged: twèm (to write), p. t. twàm
 * it can become prolonged (geminated), with final -e appended: sîlen (to see), p. t. sîlanne
 * it can turn into a nasal-stop pair (n can change both into /n/ and /ŋ/): lyěn, p. t. lyǎnge
 * it can disappear altogether (it's quite rare; the final -a becomes nasalized in compensation): kúen (to kill). p. t. kuã́

Pluperfect: is formed in the same way as in the 1st conjugation: lyěn, plp. t. lilyǎnge

Future tense: also formed with the edning -yen: sîlen, f. t. sîlenyen.

3rd conjugation
Verbs of this conjugation end in a vowel different than -a.

Syntax
The basic word order alternates between SVO and SOV. In either case, the subject always comes first. Adjectives may stand before or after nouns they modify, as do adverbs; this language uses both prepositions and postpositions, although the former are the more common.

The language is split ergative, as it behaves like a Erg-Abs in some verb contexts, and like a Nom-Acc in the others.

Lexicon
miùn - tower

mwálya - boat

kyitá - sail (noun)