Middle Pelhaforan

Middle Pelhaforan was a stage of the Pelhaforan language after Old Pelhaforan (OP).

Affricates
/ts/ (z), /tʃ/ (ch)

Vowels
Long vowels are expressed by double vowels (i.e. a: -> 'aa').

Unstressed /e/ is realized as [ə]; unstressed /i/ can be realized as [ɪ].

Diphthongs
/ai/ /au/ /ei/ /oi/

Phonotactics
(C₁(C₂))V₁(V₂)(C₃)

is the Pelhaforan syllable structure, where:


 * C₁ is an optional consonant onset;


 * C₂ is a optional medial consonant which is either /j/ or /w/;


 * V₁(V₂) is either the monopthong or diphthong nuclei, or lengthened vowel;


 * and C₃ is the optional consonant coda, which can be /n/, /t/, /k/, and /ɾ/.

Sound Changes From Old Pelhaforan
The symbols used follow the convention of Index Diachronica.
 * Vs -> V:∅ / _%
 * h -> ∅ / V_V
 * C0h -> C0C0
 * u -> w / _V ! uu
 * i -> j / _V ! ii
 * e -> j / _B
 * e -> e: / _E
 * B -> u / a_
 * a{e, i] -> ai
 * oB -> o:
 * o -> w / _E ! _i
 * d z -> z r / V_V
 * z -> ts
 * o -> ɔ
 * sj si -> ʃ ʃi
 * tj ti -> tʃ tʃi
 * m -> ∅ / _w
 * b -> ʋ / _B
 * nj -> ɲ
 * g -> ∅ / _w
 * e -> i / #_

Nouns
Pelhaforan nouns are not marked for grammatical gender, number, or articles. Pelhaforan has a possession marker, “ki” (also the conjunction for comparisons), which is placed after the possessor and before the possessed object. Unlike in Old Pelhaforan, ki is almost never omitted in formal writing, although dialectally it may be dropped in cases of inalienable possession.

Personal pronouns
Personal pronouns are marked by person and number. An intensive pronoun can be expressed with the suffix “-sur” placed after the personal pronoun. Placed alone after the verb, sur may also express the reflexive.

1zoo derives from OP pronoun zos meaning "this person." It is more colloquial and less formal than het.

2 tee (from OP tes meaning "that person"), kor (from OP goza, "woman"), and kaa (from OP kas, third-person singular pronoun) are masculine, feminine, and neuter respectively.

Classifiers
Noun classifiers are necessary when counting nouns. They classify the noun according to its type. As in OP, the format is numeral-classifier-noun. The noun may be omitted when it is clear from context, as the classifier will give a vague notion of what the noun is. A standalone classifier without the numeral is used before a noun to express indefiniteness.

Common classifiers:
 * "ii" - for humans
 * "ne" - for inanimate objects
 * "shu" - for animals
 * "ben" - 'piece of', 'lump of'
 * "bar" - 'cup of'
 * "tar" - 'line of', 'row of'

Table of Correlatives
Pelhaforan makes a two-way distinction for demonstratives. The proximal demonstrative (‘this’) is “zo”; the distal demonstrative (‘that’) is “te.” The demonstrative adjective is placed before the noun as a regular adjective. No distinction is made between interrogative and indefinite (“any”) pro-forms.

1Shortened from OP yora.

2These pronouns would have been zoo (OP: zos) and tee (OP: tes), but those became personal pronouns. This caused new demonstrative pronouns to be created with the help of ii, the noun classifier for humans.

3 /h/ -> /w/ resolved the conflicting sound changes Vs -> V:∅ / _% and h -> ∅ / V_V.

Another notable determiner is "yo", derived from OP yora, meaning "an unspecified amount or quantity of; some." In this way, the determiner acts similar to a plural marker. It may be used with other determiners, as in "nya yo" ('which ones?') or "zo yo" ('these").

Verbs
Verbs in Pelhaforan are not conjugated for person, tense, or voice, but they are marked for aspect. Standalone verbs often serve as complete sentences, as Pelhaforan is pro-drop. Pronouns can be dropped when the context is clear.

Aspect
Aspectual particles follow the verb. Aspect marking is not strictly required and can be omitted when the aspect can be inferred.
 * "na" - progressive aspect
 * "yu" - perfect aspect
 * "hii" - inchoative aspect

Negation
To negate a verb, a double negative is used. The particle "ko" (formerly used for negative imperatives in OP) is placed before the verb and the particle "ba" is placed after. For example, Sau ko sota ba  means "We do not drink."

For negating imperatives, the OP ko has been replaced by "muba" (grammaticalized form of ' omu ba ', lit. "(it is) not good ") placed before the verb. For example, Muba teni tee means "Don't strike him!"

Adjectives
Adjectives in Pelhaforan differ in predicative and attributive usages. When used as a predicate, the adjective takes the form of a stative verb. As a stative verb, the adjective takes on aspectual particles.When used attributively on a noun, the adjective takes a form ending, in most cases, in -ya. There are some exceptions, due to palatalization from Old Pelhaforan: In the first case, the OP final -s has been dropped from the predicative adjective, lengthening the prior vowel. Meanwhile, the OP -sya palatalizes to -sha. In the second case, the OP attributive ending -tya becomes a -cha.

An example: te dayo sotator (lit. "that man drunk") means "That man is drunk," while sotatorya dayo means "drunk man."

In negating an attributive adjective, the particle "ba" follows the word.

Adverbs
The suffix "-not" (from postposition not, meaning "to, at, toward") creates an adverb out of an adjective. An adverb that modifies an attributive-form adjective precedes it. An adverb that modifies a verb can be placed in two locations: either between the subject and the verb, or after the verb and the pronouns.

Comparison
Pelhaforan comparatives and superlatives are syntactically formed with the comparison adverbs “waa” (OP: was) and “zwa” (OP: zoha) respectively. When modifying adjectival verbs and other adverbs, the comparison adverb follows the word. However, when modifying an attributive adjective, the adverb precedes.

In a comparison, the conjunction used is "ke" (related to ki, the possessive particle). For example, "She is drunker than I" is rendered as Kor sotator waa ke zoo.

Syntax
The basic word order is subject-verb-object.

Topic-Comment
Pelhaforan is a topic-prominent language. Oftentimes, the topic-comment structure is used in lieu of the normal SVO structure. This is done using "da" as the topic marker, placed after the noun. For example, te dayo, tee sotator means "The man is drunk," or literally "That man, he is drunk."

Copula
The main copula of Pelhaforan is "za" ('to be'). Because of the stative verb nature of Pelhaforan adjectives, za is used only for noun complements. Most standard za sentences utilize an SOV, topic-comment sentence structure. For example, zoo da ii dayo za means "I am a man." This sentence uses da as the topic marker for zoo ('I, me') and places the copula za at the end of the sentence.

Another verb, "rut" ('to be in, to be at'), is used to indicate location. This verb is used alongside adpositional phrases. The verb rut is another verb that uses an SOV sentence form. For example, gare da chiro-zok rut, meaning "they are on the water." However, unlike za, the verb rut may also be used with a normal SVO form, as in gare rut chiro-zok.