Athelon

Athelonian
Athelonian is a language spoken by the people of Athelon. An island nation located northwest in a world called Matterrae.

The people of Athelon, Athelin, are knowledge driven and try to find a meaning behind everything. If they can't find a meaning or reason something happens, they try to link it to their religion.

Their religion is based on 12 deities. For the language spoken in Athelon is their religion one of the two main cores. A lot of their words are derived from the names of the deities. (ex. Ethda, goddess of life => To live = Ethedor, Sarafeo, god of love => Saraf = Love (Sarafor = To love)

The second main core is knowledge. Knowledge is a very important aspect to their society. They attend school for about 40 years. Here they learn everything about life, both life in Athelon as in the rest of the world. (They can live up to an average of 150 years.) Because of this core, they have words for things that are almost sentences in English. (ex. Going to the library = Njelonor, Finding something you have been searching for a long time (and the feeling it brings) = Bunjor, ..)

Note to self
As i'm not a linguist, I don't know the correct terminologie for certain things. So this page is explained through the eyes of an Athelonian citizen, trying to explain their language.

Athelonem
Athelonem has a few things that are unique to their language.

Conjugation
In Athelonem, they like to use suffixes and prefixes. (ex. I give my beer to you = babàth mjölàth uthinen; we come from Athelon = maslàteb athelonem; I speak softly = Zys thalàth)

Equality
Athelin are all equal, if you a woman or a man, gay or straight, upper class or lower class, coming from a town or a city, ... every citizen in Athelon has the same rights. This is visible in their language, for instance, their is no word for man or woman. They are all persons (ejthornim). No words for gay or straight, it is all love (saraf).

Because all are equal, their is no courtesy form.

Conjugations of Yes and No
In Athelon they conjugate Yes and No to the person they are referring to. The base words in Athelonian are "àjt" = Yes & "ban" = No. I will go into detail in the verb section.

Numbers
As I said before, they have 12 gods and knowledge is very important. This you can see in their numbers. They have 3 extra numbers. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 µ $ § 10 ... (one number for each deity)

For representation in English I chose for 3 random symbols I know I wouldn't use anywhere else. Below I will look at the numbers in detail.

Writing System
Athelonian system consists of 2 major letter groups, and a third smaller group for the vowels. Strong and Fluid letters (and Soft for the vowels). A detailed explanation below per group.
 * Strong : firm sounds
 * Soft (Vowels) : elongation af the Strong vowel (as if there are two of the same following each other)
 * Fluid : a strong sound with a 'j' sound behind it. (ñ is a perfect example. In Athelon this is possible with every letter, except the J)

Pronunciation
I tried to put per letter the IPA symbol.

Others
In Athelonian there are no punctuation marks except the Point (Nok). "?" and "!" are suffixes added to the sentence ("-i'n" and "-à'k").

There are no capitals and no artikels in Athelonem ( A, B, C ; The, a ).

Rules

 * Personal Pronoun Subject: This one is rarely used. Only if it would be an answer to a question, and then only if it would be the only word in your answer (ex. Who speaks? You (do). = moth Thalilu'r. uth.), or if you want to emphase the subject. (ex. You, have to. = cythà'k (uth))
 * Personal Pronoun Object: The word depends on the suffix/prefix that will be used. (ex. behind me = àthomjen, for them = iltebinen)
 * Possessive Pronoun with Noun: Always put behind the noun. (ex. our house = elonateb, your book = mihututh)
 * Possessive Pronoun Without Noun: This form is actually the same as Personal Pronoun Object. Your can turn "mine" into "from me" which translates to àthem. This form is rarely used, usually when using personal pronouns, a noun is always present. When referring to a person (if using the noun, it wil be conjugated in the 3rd person singular) the name will have the suffix -em. (ex. Who's is this? (1) It is mine. (with it referring to a book) / (2) it is Sven's. => Mothemi'n. (1) Mihutàth. / (2) (Mihutil) Svenem.)

Verbs
Verbs are quite easy. All infinitive forms of the verbs end in -or and there are no irregular verbs.

Perfect tense
Instead of adding another word in the sentence, Athelonian adds a conjunction to the main verb ( "-es" ) to expres you have done, you had done or you will have done something. Few examples:
 * I have thought => Njàthes
 * He had dreamt => Anjejles
 * they will have tasted => Pòzilenes

Continuous tense
This tense works the same as the perfect tense. But, because your action has not been completed yet, they add "ohil" behind the verb. This is "to be" in 3rd Pers. Si. and will never change time. Examples:
 * You are fishing => Linuthes òhil
 * It was snowing => Athànejles òhil
 * We will be traveling => Thimàtenes òhil

Supporting Verbs
When a supporting verb is used, examples: In English we use the infinitive form. In Athelonian, you use the the 3rd pers. Si. form (verb + il) examples:
 * I want to eat.
 * He likes to swim.
 * We have to work.
 * i want to eat. => vathàth fèhil.
 * he likes to swim. => fil thenil.
 * We have to work. => Cythàteb hestapil.

Imperative/Obligation Tense
Remember Athelonians don't have an exclamation mark? In the imperative tense, this will be used. Instead of adding the pronoun to the verb, you add "-à'k". When you really want to emphase the subject, you can add the subject behind the verb. examples:
 * Eat! => fèhà'k
 * You must work! => hestapà'k (uth)
 * Sit! => ölà'k
 * We have to talk! => thalà'k (àteb)

Suggestive tense
Within this tense, Athelonian have a suggestive tense. In English this is the form of "Let's" do something. In this case, -à'k becomes -i'k. Also the forms "Should" or "Could" can be translated to this if the meaning is suggestive.
 * you should eat => fèhi'k
 * let's work => hestapi'k
 * we could sit => öli'k
 * let's talk => Thali'k

Politeness Tense
In Athelonian, there is a politeness tense. In English you would use the verbs/forms Could, Would, May, Might.

In Athelonian this translates in the verb +öjs. few examples:
 * Could you go there? => ysluteböjs lachoneni'n.
 * I would like that => fàthöjs.
 * Might I have this? => bàthöjs lathi'n.

Hello/Goodbye
For greetings and farewells, Athelonian have a verb. òjor (hello) and èjor (farewell). Though these verbs conjugate the same way as normal verbs. The conjugation used, differs from normal verbs.

Athelonians conjugate these verbs towards the people they greet or say goodbye to. For example, if you see your friend, who is alone, you would say òjuth (literally, you greet) and not òjàth (literally, I greet). If you would see a group of friends, òjuteb will be used. When a crowd is spoken to, it depends how. In written text the future form of 3rd p. pl. is used, òjilen (the writer doesn't know who and when exactly he speaks to). If a speech is held, most commonly used is present form of the 3rd p. pl. (òjilteb) (sometimes, in smaller crowds, 3rd p. Si. (òjil) can be used, but this is completely informal). Same rules apply for saying goodbye (èjor).

In news papers and formal books, or speeches from high positioned men to the crowd, two other verbs are used òthajor and èjnajor (also used to specifically say good day and good night). Same rules apply as above.

Numbers
As i said before, Athelonian counting has 12 number (and 0). 12 deities, 12 numbers.

Every 10th you add "nok" behind the normal number. Counting on after every 10th (11, 12, 13, 22, 43, 57, µ8, $§, ...) the word changes as below.

§§<...
As you reach 100, a kind of systems starts. All large numbers consist of groups of 2 (ex. 12309 => 01.23.09) every group has its own ending, except for the most right group, this is you base number as explained above.) for every pair, following endings will be added Every pair counts the same as the base, but you just add the ending that belongs to the specific pair. Maybe below makes it more clear: There is one irregular number. "epa", when this number is alone (or alone with 1 suffix, it is written as epa (epa, epanok, ejokepa, epachem,...) but when a second number is introduced, "epa" changes into "ej" (ejchem epa, ejdem mjychem, ...) this is already visible after 10 (epanok, 11 = ejokepa)

Ordinal Numbers
Easy, just add "-en" behind the number ("-nen" if the number ends in a vowel). Examples: When ordinal numbers are used in sentences, the (pro-)noun where the ordinal number is referring to, gets the plural suffix attached. examples:
 * I am the first! => ohà'k athim epanen
 * the forth house on the left. => polònen elonim gamekjon

Counting
As you know, we don't have 12 fingers. The people of Athelon, like us, have 10 fingers. So they have a different way of counting on their hands. They use their writing hand as the counter and they count on the other hand. The thumb is always the tenth counted. (or zero when you start.) Number 1 is the finger fold of the pointing finger starting closest to your hand palm. then you count the folds upwards and always start the next finger closest to your hand palm.

Left you can see what I more or less mean.