Sallia

Phonology
Sallia uses an alphabet of 16 letters: A [ɑ, a] B [b] K [k] D [d] E [e, ɛ] H [h] I [i, ɪ] L [l] M [m] N [n] O [ɔ, o] P [p] R [r] S [s] T [t] U [u, ʊ].

Overall, the letters sound the way you would expect them to be, regardless of their placement. When it is not stressed, the letter "i" tends to form diphthongs [aɪ], [eɪ], [oɪ] and [uɪ], as well as [ɪa], [ɪe], [ɪo] and [ɪu] when it comes in contact with another vowel. Other vowels are pronounced separately from each other.

Phonotactics
The Sallia syllables have one of the following structures: V, VC, CV, CVC and, more rarely, VCC and CVCC. Out of all consonants, only L, M, N, R, S and T can be syllable-final.

Stress
The stress usually falls on the last syllable of the root. For example

suobó river

deahúodéni (deahu + o + de + ni) on the top of the tower

tía (ti + a) arrives

méniot (men + i + ot) about people

e tíasi (ti + a + si) if he comes

Basic Grammar
Sallia is an agglutinating language. It has a lot of cases and compound words.

Verbs
Sallia verbs and adjectives always have the final -a (sometimes substituted by -l, see below):

Nunamen duna - The boy plays.

Punase deattia - The tree grows.

Nunaei dunsdana - The children laugh.

The verbs do not change according to tense, but can be put in three different aspects: prospective, imperfective and perfective. The perfective aspect is marked by the sufix -s-, which is introduced before the -a ending. Similarly, the prospective aspect is marked by -t-. Thus,

Miadasobo tia - The train comes/The train arrives

Miadasobo tilsa - The train has arrived

Miadasobo tilta - The train is going to arrive

(The rules for inserting the letter -l- before the suffix are discussed in the next dection)

Verbs can be put inot passive voice by adding the suffix -er. E.g.

Me sia miadasobou - I see the train

Miadasobo siera mede - The train is seen by me.

To negate a verb, the prefix s- (se- before vowels and "s") is used:

Me smilta -- I am not going

Me du skia siat -- I can't see you.

Rules for adding suffixes and endings
When a suffix or and ending is added to a Sallia root that ends with a vowel, special rules may apply. The reason for it is that such roots used to end with the letter -l- that is dropped in modern speech but makes a reappearance in certian situations. Namely,

- when the root ends with a vowel, and the suffix starts with a consonant, -l- is added before the suffix

- when the root ends with a vowel, and the suffix/ending starts with the same vowel, the second vowel is dropped and replaced by -l.

For example:

ti + a --> tia (no change)

pa + a --> pal (final -a is dropped and replaced by -l)

pa + s + a --> palsa (-l- is introduced after the root)

Nouns
Sallia nouns can be put in many different cases by adding different endings to the root word.

Nominative/Absolutive (with passive verbs) - (zero ending)

Accusative -u

Ergative ("by", with passive) -de

Genitive/Posessive ("of") -o

Instrumental/Instructive ("with"/"using", "by") -ul

Dative ("to") -ti

Benefactive ("for", also indicates purpose) -t

Causal ("because of") -s

Conditional ("if") -si

Comitative ("with") -ule

Abessive ("without") -ume

Semblative ("like") -se

Equative/Essive ("same as") -le

Partitive ("of" with amounts) -lo

Topical/Oblique ("about"/"with respect to") -ot

Allative ("to") -nit

Locative ("in") -ni

Ablative ("from") -nis

Perlative ("through") -nist

The four cases that deal with location can also be used to indicate time.

To further specify location, nouns can be augmented with the following suffixes:

inside -one

top -ode

front -oso

bottom -oder

back -osor

neighborhood, place near -oke

away - oker

surface -oten

place outside, around -oner

These suffixes are placed before the case marker, and are stressed.

The following suffixes transform other words into location or time indicators

place of -ona, -ana (with verbs)

time of -oto, -ato (with verbs)

To form the plural, the suffix -i- is added after the root and before the case markers:

kolhon - a bird

kolhoni - birds

kolhonti - to the bird

kolhoniti - to the birds

and so on.

Adverbs
Adverbs usually end in -i or have no ending. Typically they follow the verb they modify, but may precede it as well.

Adjectives
Adjectives in Sallia are verbs in disguise. They do not agree with the nouns they modify, and they can take all verb forms. Adjectives always have the -a ending.

Copula
The copula ia (root i-) is usually followed by an object in Essive case.

Ka ia mo hulle - This is my house.

Since Sallia adjectives are morphologically very close to verbs, no copula is required before an adjective.

Do hu loisia - Your house is beautiful.

Gerund
A verb, with its -a ending, can be treated as a gerund. In this capacity, it can have a subject, objects and adverbs modifying it, and, at the same time, it can accept case markers and be treated as if it was a noun (nomen actionis). An adjective can be treated in the same way.

Here are some examples:

Sia ia kensiale - Seeing is believing

Me ria de miat mule - I want you to go with me.

Me kia tiat de siatliasi misu meti - I can come if you show me the way (note two gerunds here: tiat "to come" = ti + a + t, and siatliasi "if show" = siatli + a + si)

Compound Words
The Sallia dictionary is rich with compound words. Sometimes even the most basic words' origins can be traced to a compound, e.g.

sulma - to drink (sul - ma, "eat water")

sunoto - day (suno - to, "time of light")

deahu - tower (dea - hu, "tall house")

Sallia compound words are formed by taking a well-formed phrase and fusing it together into one word. In a compound, the main word always have to be last, so when one takes a compound word apart, he would find objects placed before verbs (sul - ma), and adjectives before nouns (dea - hu).

Some of the compound words can be pretty complex, but in their formation they still follow the same pattern:

miadasobo - train (mia - daso - bo, "length of moving cars")

sunotenodeopin - east (sunoteno - deo - pin, "side of rising run")