Culliwācatlīnitōtl

The Culliwācatlīnitōtl (literally "language of the Green Land", sometimes just īn Tōtl meaning "the language") is a polysynthetic agglutinative language created by Neonlights. The language is influenced by Nāhuatl (language of the Aztecs).

=History=

The following history is fictitious.

Proto-Cepētl
Before the Tōtl there were people called the Proto-Cepētlians. They lived in clay houses, ate fish, bread and various vegetables and spoke Proto-Cepētl.

Proto-Totlo-Mawatean phonology
=Phonology=

The phonology is mainly based on Nāhuatl.

Alphabet
The alphabet has 29 symbols (21 monographs and 8 digraphs).

 p s a tl qu t u ū ng tz ā i ī c fh h ē hw w m ch e ō o l y n x ky 

Consonants
Culliwācatlīnitōtl has 19 consonants.

The transliteration is similar to Nāhuatl. /c/ is written as  or , /k/ is written as  (or  when preceding /e/ or /i/), /kʷ/ is witten as , /t͡s/ is written as , /t͡ʃ/ is written as , /ɸ/ is written as  (or  in some texts), /ʃ/ is written as , /ŋ/ is written as , /j/ is written as , /ʍ/ is written as  and /t͡ɬ/ is written as .

Double consonants are not ignored: mellētl [mɛllɛːt͡ɬ].

Vowels
Culliwācatlīnitōtl has ten vowels.

The lenght is expressed with a macron in writing (ā, ē, ī, ō, ū). The stress falls on the final syllable if the word ends in a consonant and on the penult if it ends in a vowel. If the vowel has an acute accent (á, é, í, ó, ú) over it, the syllable is stressed and the vowel is long.

=Morphology=

Gender
The Culliwācatlīnitōtl nouns differ in two genders: animate and inanimate. Animate nouns are living being, spirits and gods and inanimate nouns are the rest.

Number
Culliwācatlīnitōtl nouns have four numbers: singular, dual, paucal and plural. Dual expresses two objects and paucal expresses a few of them.

Case
Culliwācatlīnitōtl nouns have only one case: absolutive. It's expressed by a suffix -tli for animate nouns and -tl for inanimate nouns. The nouns always end in a vowel. The absolutive case suffix is removed when the noun is altered and differs from the noun as seen in the dictionary. For example:


 * culliwātl = green
 * catlīnitl = land
 * tōtl = language

To make a compound word, it's necessary to remove the absolutive suffixes. So:


 * culliwā―catlīni―tōtl = the Green-Land language

Declension
The absolutive suffix must be removed in order to add suffixes.


 * *the alternative suffixes are for nouns ending in -u and -ū

Possesive suffixes are added to the word when it's combined with a possesive adjective or pronoun. For example:


 * catlīnitl "land", but rācatlīnic "my land"

Possessive pronouns
Possessive pronouns serve as prefixes when describing a word.


 * *used for supernatural beings and gods

Personal pronouns
Personal pronouns are rarely used since they serve as a suffix in verbs. If they are really necessary, they are formed by adding the -quetl suffix to the possessive equivalents.

Reflexive and reflexive-possessive pronouns
They aren't used as a separate type of pronouns; their equivalents are personal and possessive pronouns.

Pronoun derivation
Interrogative, relative, demonstrative and indefinite pronouns (also called derivation pronouns) follow the same pattern:

Possessive derivation pronouns (somebody's, anybody's etc.) are declined like adjectives.

The derivation pronouns can be derived from the suffixes by these prefixes:


 * interrogative and relative pronouns - -c-
 * 1st class demonstrative pronouns (for nearby objects) - tl-
 * 2nd class demonstrative pronouns (for a bit distant objects) - x-
 * 3rd class demonstrative pronouns (for remote objects) - l-
 * collective indefinite pronouns (everybody) - y-
 * general indefinite pronouns (somebody) - p-
 * indifferent indefinite pronouns (anybody) - m-
 * negative indefinite pronouns (nobody) - qu-

Tense, mood and voice
Culliwācatlīnitōtl verbs have four tenses: the pluperfect, the perfect, the present and the future; six moods: indicative, generic, presumptive, conditional, optative and imperative; and two voices: active and passive.

Verb category agglutination
Infinitive ends in -ām, -ēm or -īm. The verb form can be made by agglutinating various suffixes to the verb stem (without the infinitive suffix). Scheme of agglutinating: stem―tense―mood (and voice)―number―person.

Moods and voices

 * Indicative: normal mood (The boy is in the park.)
 * Generic: to express a general fact (Cheetahs are fast.)
 * Presumptive: to express a probable fact (They are probably in Spain.)
 * Conditional: mostly in dependent clauses (If I were you, I'd write it.)
 * Optative: to express wishes, wills, desires or fears (I want to travel the world.)
 * Imperative: to express commands (Do it!)

Example
The most common verb form is active indicative present, that is -o-c-. To make an active indicative present just add -oc- and number and person suffixes.


 * ochocatlīm = to eat
 * ochocatlocar = I'm eating.
 * ochocatlocetz = Few of you are eating
 * ochocatlēchitlotl = They two wish they were eaten etc.

Imperfective vs. perfective
Most of the verbs are imperfective. To make a perfective verb, just add the prefix ō- to the stem. Example:
 * meselēcitlutl = They moved (constantly, from time to time)
 * ōmeselēcitlutl = They moved (at once, instantly, no duration)

Negative form
The negative form is created by adding the tōl- prefix to the verb.
 * ochocatlocar = I'm eating.; tōlochocatlocar = I'm not eating etc.

Interrogative form
The archaic interrogative form is created by switching the tense-mood-voice suffixes with the number-person ones.
 * ochocatlocar = I'm eating.; ochocatlaroc = Am I eating?
 * ochocatlēchitlotl = They two wish they were eaten.; ochocatlotlēchitl = Do they wish they were eaten? etc.

The contemporary form is created by adding various prefixes and suffixes to the verb, such as cēl-, wōn-, whōn-, lōwen-, tlōm-, -achō, -alōtl etc.
 * ochocatlocar = I'm eating.; cēlchocatlocar = Am I eating?
 * ochocatlēchitlotl = They two wish they were eaten.; ochocatlēchitlotlachō = Do they wish they were eaten? etc.

Adjective declension
Adjectives are placed after the word they describe. They can also merge (agglutinate) with the noun and make a compound word. For example:


 * culliwā(tl) + kyēlō(tl) = kyēlōtl culliwātl, or
 * culliwā(tl) + kyēlō(tl) = culliwākyēlōtl (lit. green + stone = emerald)

Adverbs
Adverbs are simply formed by adding the -tlec suffix to the adjective. Most of them end in -ec, like tewārec "tomorrow" or tlīyec "here"

Cardinal numbers

 * 0 mīlicītl
 * 1 ētl
 * 2 ēlētl
 * 3 amōtl
 * 4 amētl
 * 5 alātl
 * 6 alētl
 * 7 angātl
 * 8 angētl
 * 9 angōtl
 * 10 cātzītl
 * 100 cētzētl
 * 1000 cāxītl
 * 1000000 cēxētl
 * 1000000000 angōmītl
 * infinity (∞) tōltlecenōtl (tōl "no", tlecenōtl "end")

Other cardinal numbers are made by agglutinating. If the vowel is next to a vowel, insert -t-. For example:


 * 17 (seventeen) - cātzītangātl
 * 69 (sixty-nine) - alēcātzītangōtl
 * 341 (three hundred and forty-one) - amōcētzētamēcātzītētl

Numbers are placed before the noun and after adjectives. They decline like adjectives.

Ordinal numbers
Ordinal numbers are formed by adding the -mōtl/-mōtlā suffix. They decline like adjectives.

Adverbial numbers
Just like in Latin, Culliwācatlīnitōtl has adverbial numbers (once, twice, thrice, four times etc.). They're formed by adding -wūtlec to the stem. (Wū means "times" and -tlec is the suffix for adverbs.)

=Example texts= Here are some example texts.

Babel Text of Bible (Pāpeletl ā Pipliyātl)
Book of Genesis, 11:1-9

Culliwācatlīnitōtl

1 Xōlomistzētl pitlēratl ētōtl iy ēlelemātl.

2 Lē catolōmi meselēcitlutl ā wesatl, wengēyēcutl ēcatlīnitl nēmec Xinārātl; ōmeselēcitlutl līyec.

(to be continued)

English

1 And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.

2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.

3 And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar.

4 And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.

5 And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children built.

6 And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do; and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.

7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.

8 So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.

9 Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

=See also=
 * Culliwācatlīnitōtl writing or Culliwācatlīnitōmotleteni
 * mawatētōethl, predecessor of today's Culliwācatlīnitōtl