Yimmu

General information
Yimmu is the most widespread language throughout eastern Calaveigjia and is indigenous to the Mansadr region. Its most populous dialect is called "Udu" and is spoken in the upstream portion of the Amanapura and Tanchi alluvial plains. Another dialect, Maglaiyam, is spoken in Pidjupti and the western foothills. Tala, the third dialect, is spoken in Kina. Yimmu is one of the two languages in the east Calaveigjian language group, the other being Cuoralam which is spoken in Panjur. The east Calaveigjian language groups is one of the three language groups of Calaveigjia and, although no origins have been confirmed, connections to Bantu, Dravidian, and Austronesian languages have been made. The other two groups are the Balsurati and Chodan language groups. The Balsurati language group is almost definitely African in origin with many connections to Bantu languages while the origins of the Chodan are unknown.

The following is a description that mainly focuses on the Udu dialect of Yimmu.

Phonology
Yimmu has very little consonant clusters and words can thus be said with efficiency. When consonant clusters do exist, they usually consist of an two approximate or nasal consonant paired together. Sometimes one approximate or nasal consonant is paired with a plosive, fricative, or affricate consonant. Consonant clusters almost never consist of plosive, fricative, or affricate consonants paired together. The most common vowel in Yimmu is "a" "are". "a" makes up approximately 50% of all vowels. After that, "eh","ee", and "oo" are the second most common consonants. "o" as in "home" is a bit less common than "eh", "ee", and "oo". "ih" as in "him" and "ae" as in "as" are very uncommon and only occur in a few words.

Verbs
Verbs conjugate for tense, person, number, and aspect in a string of three morphemes that come after the head of the verb.

"Ne kamalenu" means "I run"

Kamalenu consists of "kamal", which means "run", "e", a morpheme signifying present tense, "n", a morpheme signifying a first person singular subject, and "u", a morpheme signifying simple aspect. If you separate the verb into its individual morphemes, it would be kamal-e-n-u or (base)(tense)(person/number)(aspect)

There are 3 tenses:

past = kamal-A-nu

present = kamal-E-nu

future = kamal-I-nu

There are 6 combinations of person and number:

1st singular = kamale-N-u

2nd singular = kamale-M-u

3rd singular = kamale-L-u

1st plural = kamale-D-u

2nd plural = kamale-J-u

3rd plural = kamale-V-u

There are four aspects:

simple = kamalel-U

progressive = kamalel-A

perfect = kamalel-I

perfect progressive = kamalel-ATU

There are 5 moods in Yimmu:

Subjunctive = tekamalenu

Conditional = pakamalenu

Imperative = chakamalenu

Interrogative = rikamalenu

Inferential = mekamalenu

'''For example: "Ma rikamaledatu?" would mean "Will you all have been running?"'''

Nouns
Nouns decline for specificity, case, and number. The morpheme for specificity comes before the base.

"jamu" means "the cat"

"ejamu" means "a cat" or "any cat"

"ajamu" means "all cats"

There are 8 combinations of case and number

singular nominative = jamu

singular accusative = jama

singular prepositional = jami

singular dative = jame

plural nominative = jamalu

plural accusative = jamala

plural prepositional = jamilu

plural dative = jamelu

For example: "ajamalu" would be the accusative form of "all cats"

Syntax
General Layout: SOV

Noun phrase: ((noun)preposition)(determiner(noun))((adjective)adverb)

Verb phrase: (((noun)preposition)((verb)adverb))

Note: Phrase transitioners

Between the subject phrase and object phrase, there is the phrase transitioner, "ya" (e.g. "I scratched it" would be "I ya it scratched" or "Ne ya yelu charanu") If there is only a pronoun in the subject, it can be informally eliminated from the sentence. (e.g. you could say "ya yelu charenu"). This phrase transitioner is only present when the verb has an object. (e.g. a sentence like "I ran" would not have "ya"). There is also the phrase transitioner, "ga", in front of the indirect object (e.g. I gave it a cookie" would be "I ya a cookie ga it gave" or Ne ya epuba ga yelu daiwenu). There is also a phrase transitioner, "sa" that acts as a relative pronoun. (e.g. "The dog that bites" would be "Dog sa bites" or "Pangu sa bahevu"). The last phrase transitioner, "ja" turns a sentence into a noun. (e.g. If you wanted to say that you hated the fact that bob ran away, you would say "I yajabob away ran hate" or "Ne ya ja bob ene aram kamalevu kagenu")



This link will bring you to a syntactic tree of a completely blown out Yimmu sentence. Refer to the list below for help with abbreviations

NN = noun

PP = postposition

PPP = postpositional phrase

NNP = noun phrase

DT = determiner

DTP = determiner phrase

AJ = adjective

AV = adverb

AJP = adjective phrase

VT = verb transitioner

VB = verb

SVP = subverb phrase

PT = subposition transitioner

SPP = subposition phrase

SBS = subject section

SBC = subject

ET = entity transitioner

ETP = entity transitioner phrase

OBS = object section

IT = indirect object transitioner

IOP = indirect object phrase

VBP = verb phrase

VS = verb section

PDC = predicate

S = sentence

Example text
Regular English:

"When will the cats be running to the store and scratching the little girls? Oh my! They have been giving me my candy!"

English words in Yimmu Grammar:

"Cats store to will be running and girls little scratching during what? Oh my! They my candy me have been giving!"

Yimmu:

Jamalu duki ai kamaliva chada ya balala nina chariva ul awta? Kari! Relu na ene ud chachi ga one daiwevatu!