Lindjerblau

Lindjerblau is a dead language and the mother of all but one of the remaining languages of the Almsaundean language family. It is a tripartite language that is morphologically synthetic-fusional. Its word order is mostly free, with the head of the phrase holding the bulk of the semantical stress, though a standard order may be considered SOV or OSV in dependent clauses and (-)V(-) in interrogative statements where the verb must remain the second grammatical entity of the sentence. The head direction is said to be head-final but this is shown only when compounding nouns or infinitive verbs.

Lindjerblau, an artlang, is designed to be faux-Germanic with slight Slavic influences.

Setting
The next two sections are under construction. --TheWrittenWord (talk) 01:33, August 20, 2014 (UTC)

History
At its peak, Lindjerblau was the main world language or Lingua Franca spoken throughout [|Vereva]. Lindjerblau initially had official status in the Kingdom of Eidriel, country of the Giants, so it is usually attributed as the language of the now-extinct race.

Phonology
There are 55 phones used in Lindjerblau.

Orthography
The Lindjerblau alphabet consists of 34 letters used in combinations to make 55 distinctinve sounds, shown in the table at the right. Five letters are basic vowels Five letters are called fluid vowels. These letters when singular or dipthong receive an unwritten /ɹ/ sound immediately after them. The /ɹ/ sound exists only after fluid consonants. Five letters are called liquid vowels. These letters when singular or diphthong receive an unwritten /j/ sound before the enunciation of their sound. The nineteen other letters are consonants. There are also two consonants (Ł ł and X x) that are not considered part of the standard alphabet. The Ł letter, representing the /w/ sound is found solely in borrowed words while X, representing /s/ is found only in proper nouns such as common names or place names.
 * Aa Ää Ąą Bb Cc Dd Ee Ëë Ęę Ff Gg Hh Ii Ïï Iı Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Öö Øø Pp Rr Ss Şß Tt Uu Üü Ůů Vv Ww Zz
 * Aa Ee Ii Oo Uu
 * Ää Ëë Ïï Öö Üü
 * Ąą Ęę İı Øø Ůů

J and h, when found at the end of a word, lengthen the vowel: [ej] = /e:j/, [ij] = /i:j/, [uh]=/ə:h/. When between the verbal root and declination, they are silent. [Sieje] = /'siə/, [flahesse] = /'flaəs:ə/

Vowels
In Lindjerblau, there are 15 single vowels and 10 diphthongs that make 25 different posssible vowels. Because Almsaundean verbs, adverbs and nouns use a strong declension system based on the stressed syllable in the root of a word, vowels play a vital role in the language. Mispronunciation of a vowel can potentially lead to a change in number, mood, or meaning of a root word. Lindjerblau vowels are put into a chart called the Strength Chart, which shows the pattern in which vowels decline strongly.

Strength Chart
The Strength Chart shows the pattern in which vowels decline strongly. The chart consists of a column of single vowels on the left and a column of diphthongs on the right. Vowels move toward the center column, or down, in the chart to distinguish meaning. Common meanings distinguished by a change in the stressed vowel include verbal mood, tense and noun number.
 * Examples:
 * sıje (I must see, Jussive) « sïeje (I see, Subjunctive) « sieje (I see, Indicative)
 * tuschsse (She chooses, Indicative Present) » taschsse (She chose, Indicative Past)
 * Gerle (girl, Ergative Singular) » Gęrle (girls, Ergative Plural)

External Sandhi
Single consonants in Lindjerblau follow patterns of sandhi, altering sounds at the boundary of a root word based on neighboring sounds and grammatical function. There are four possible changes that can happen. The first change is an alteration at the beginning of a word if that word is attaching to a compound that ends with a vowel. The second possible change happens at the end of a word before an ending of grammatical function starting with a hard vowel (a, o, u and all accented and diphthongal forms beginning with these vowels) Third, a change may happen at the end of a word before an ending of a grammatical function starting with a soft vowel (e, i and all their accented and diphthongal forms beginning with these vowels) The final change occurs at the end of a word when the grammatical function of the word is a verb. Note that diagraphs disobey sandhi rules.
 * wë + ho = wëdszcho
 * Stal + -o = Staljo
 * Pies + -ers = Pieschers
 * tem + -äne = temptäne

The chart below shows the Sandhi declinations for all letters. Some letters have multiple declinations and which declension they take must be memorized for each root while the letter Şß has no Sandhi declination.

Gemination
When a consonant is written after the same consonant, gemination occurs. Gemination, in Lindjerblau, is the extension of the enunciation of a sound so that all letters are pronounced. Almsaundean languages allow for long geminate patterns such as 3 to 5 consonants creating a long sound. The most common triple, quadruple and quintuple geminates were made of the letters p, t or s and occured when grammatical suffixes were added to each other. (Soi + tett + t = soitettt). Modernly, geminants of more than two consonants are replaced by ß, called the geminate consanant. (Soi + tett + t = soiteß). The geminate consonant changes the pronunciation of the geminate cluster to /pts/.

The geminate cluster of w is spelled with a v, though the v then takes the prnounciation of w (/v/) and does not take its own pronunciation (/θ/).

Grammar
Because the Almsaundean language is a greatly inflected language, grammar in its dialects can be very complex, most parts of speech declining to fit what their function in a sentence. Due to this high level of inflection, word order is, to a certain extent, free though the common order remains SOV or SVO.

Agreement
Lindjerblau requires agreement of most parts of speech with one another. It is made simpler by the language being moreso a "logical" language than a "grammatical" one.

Word order
Word order, or syntax, generally have no bearing on the meaning of a sentence in Lindjerblau. There are some cases where order has specific limits in regards to semantical meaning or stylistic purpose.


 * Semantics:
 * Word drop does not occur.
 * When adjectives are used to describe several nouns in the same case, the adjectives are placed before or after the noun they modify to avoid ambiguity.
 * All parts of a dependant clause (all clauses introduced by a conjunction ending in -vit) must remain after their introductory conjunction. Likewise, all parts of an independent clause must remain before a conjunction which introduces a dependent clause.
 * The prepositions or postpositions of phrasal verbs do not receive objects; nouns do not decline with them.
 * The prepositions or postpositions of phrasal verbs are place in specific places in the sentence.
 * Stylistic:
 * Any prepositions, postpositions, or nouns or their modifiers in the prepositional, postpositional, dative or genitive cases should not complete a dependant clause. In this case, the verb is almost always thrown to the end of the clause. Other options, although rare, include throwing the adverbial phrase, or parts of the ergative or accusative phrases to the end of the sentence.
 * Likewise, particles should never end a sentence.

Relative Clauses
Relative clauses may be dealt with two ways. First, as dependent clauses:


 * Ą kernne pfo Mano, rju pfo selgotscht.
 * [I-erg KNOW[someone]-ind.1p.sing.pres. THE-acc.masc. MAN-acc.gend.1.sing. WHO THEM-acc.masc. BUY-ind.3p.masc.sing.past.]
 * I know the man who bought them.


 * Ą kernne pfo Mano, rju pfinu Schui schën selgotscht.
 * [I-erg KNOW[someone]-ind.1p.sing.pres. THE-acc.masc. MAN-acc.gend.1.sing. WHO THE-acc.masc.plur.NEW-erg.sing. SHOE-acc.gend.2.plur. HER-dat.fem.sing. SOLD-ind.3p.masc.sing.past.]
 * I know the man who bought the new shoes for her.

Alternatively, the clause can drop everything but the relative pronoun, the accusative noun, the dative noun and the verb and attach themselves respectively at the head of the noun they relate back to.


 * Ą kernne pfo Rjuszelgotshtmano.
 * [I-erg KNOW[someone]-ind.1p.sing.pres. THE-acc.masc. WHO-BOUGHT-MAN-acc.gend.1.sing.]
 * I know the man who bought (them).


 * Ą kernne pfo Rjuschuiselgotshtmano.
 * [I-erg KNOW[someone]-ind.1p.sing.pres. THE-acc.masc. WHO-BOUGHT-SHOES-MAN-acc.gend.1.sing.]
 * I know the man who bought (the new) shoes (for her).

Phrases and Comments
Sentences in Lindjerblau can be broken down into two smaller phrases. The Noun Phrase contains a noun and all of its modifiers. "His brother's blue car," is an example of a complete Noun Phrase. The Verbal Phrase contains the verb, its modifiers and all pronouns. "She ran quickly to him," would include only words in the Verbal Phrase. The Lindjerblau uses a Comment, which divides Noun and Verbal Phrases into smaller forms. The grammatical comment combines words into two basic groups; nouns and verbs, and words that modify them. While nouns and verbs stand alone, their modifiers attach themselves to each other creating arbitrarily long compounds. These compounds may not be broken down into smaller words in speech nor in writing.

Noun Phrase

 * Noun Phrase
 * Prepositional Comment
 * Contains the Preposition
 * Modifier Comment
 * Contains the Article or Possessive Pronoun + Demonstrative + Adjectives
 * Noun Comment
 * Contains the Noun
 * Genitive Modifier Comment
 * Contains the Genitive Article or Genitive Case Possessive Pronoun + Demonstrative + Adjectives
 * Genitive Noun Comment
 * Contains the Genitive Noun
 * Postpositional Comment
 * Contains the Postposition

Nouns
Nouns are inflected for 2 numbers, (singular and plural), 8 cases (ergative, accusative, dative, prepositional, postpositional, genitive, nominative and vocative) and 5 genders (man, women, boy, girl and neuter). Many nouns are also prone to amelioration, changing their meanings and often their gender.

Articles
There are three types of articles in Lindjerblau, the definite, negative and demonstrative articles. Indefinite articles do not exist. To make a noun indefinite, no article is used. Articles follow a regular pattern. Definite articles are created by adding the noun's case ending to pf-. Likewise, negative articles add the noun's case endings to k-, while demonstrative articles add them to c- or d-. Articles representing nouns in the ergative, nominitive or vocative cases take -uh endings for the man, boy and neuter genders for singular nouns, and -ij endings for woman and girl genders for singular nouns. Articles also place an e to ease pronunciation when the ending it takes begins with a consonant.
 * Examples:
 * pfuh Man - the man, ergative singular
 * kes Woms - (not ks Woms) no woman's, genitive singular
 * cïns Boins - to these boys, dative plural
 * den Gerlen - those girls, accusative plural
 * Hausje - a home, vocative singular

When an article acts with an adjective to form Modifier Comment, the article drops all the consonants at the end until it ends with a vowel. Pfers + gegild would thus combine into pfeggegild and not pfersgegild.

Adjectives
Adjectives are highly irregular. There is no rule to inflect another part of speech to make it into an adjective. A noun's adjective form must be memorized. Adjectives inflect like articles, taking the nouns case ending. However, they are different in that they don't always receive these endings; they only receive the ending when they are not preceeded by an article. These both are demonstrated by the phrase "Friji Donezoni art hippii Donezoni co pfi Donezoni frij n art cues pfë hippii. Pfuh Saljente isst hippi," (A free people is a content people but the people aren't free so they're not content. The king alone is content.)

Adjectives are inflected also for comparison. The prefixes ge- (most), be- (more), se- (as), ne- (less) and we- (least) are attached to an adjective to show this. When an adjective begins with a vowel, the prefixes add a -g at the end. Scheingegild Brepfer j kemt. (Her eldest brother is coming.)

Pre- and Postpositions
Prepositions and postpositions govern their own seperate cases. Prepositions can be used as either adposition where they will change the animacy of the noun in question. While postpositions always stand alone, prepositions always contract with articles.

Verbal Phrase

 * Verbal Phrase
 * Adverbial Comment
 * Contains Ergative or Nominitive Pronouns + Accusative Pronouns + Dative Pronouns + Prepositional Pronouns + Postpositional Pronouns + Adverbs of Manner + Adverbs of Time
 * Particle Comment
 * Contains the Particle
 * Auxiliary Comment
 * Contains the Auxiliary Verb
 * Verb Comment
 * Contains the Main Verb
 * Gerundive Comment
 * Contains the Gerundive
 * Adpositional Comment
 * Contains the Verb's Adposition

Verbs
Verbs conjugate according to 7 moods, 5 persons, 2 numbers and 5 tenses. Verbal aspects are shown by using particles. The 7 moods include the indicative, subjunctive, imperative, jussive, passive, inferential and conditional. The five persons that Lindjerblau verbs decline to include two "genderless" persons and three "gendered" persons. The five tenses are the Present, Past, Pluperfect, Future and Future Perfect. While the present tense is a simple single word tense for all moods (except the conditional), all other tenses are compoud dual word tenses combining conjugations of the verb "bijne," to be, and the supine for Past and Pluperfect, and the verb "hivväne," to have, and the participle for the Future and Future Perfect.

Particles
Particles mark aspect on verbs. These aspects include negativity, perfectivity, and evidentiality, the last aspect of which is only used alongside verbs in the inferential mood. Unlike other parts of speech, the particle does not inflect, and can not be compounded to form new words. Particles do contract to shorter, single phoneme forms considered informal forms.

Pronouns
Pronouns change to reflect all cases. The first and second persons, inflect for both cases and gender, while the third person pronouns have their own forms for gender while still inflecting for case.


 * (*) These are shown in their ergative, masculine forms

Pronouns are intrinsically inclusive, but exclusivity can be shown by attaching the prefix "ke-" to the pronoun to be excluded.


 * Rjikewë - (we, but not you )
 * Pfëkeschij - (they, but not she )
 * Kedszchonschan - (to neither him nor her)

Relative and interrogative pronouns share the same suffixes but differ in prefixes. The interrogative prefix is "hj-" and the relative prefix is "rj-". The table below shows interrogative pronouns only. Simple replacing the initial h with r will change the pronoun into a relative pronoun.

When a relative pronoun adds the suffix "-vit," it becomes a conjunction. Relative pronouns have a habit of adding the suffx "vit" when preceeding a phrase where the subject is in the ergative case.


 * Hje j talkst wë? - Who are you talking to? / To whom are you talking?
 * Schij sisse pfo Manno, rje j telkteß. - She sees the man who is being spoken to.
 * Schij sisse, rjevit wë j talkst. - She sees who you're talking to.

Adverbs
Most adverbs are formed by adding "-lij" to the verb root. They agree with the verbs they modify, changing the stressed syllables to match the verbs mood.

Example Texts
Some example texts in Lindjerblau.