Echlander

General Information
Echlander (natively ꇠꇮꏂ‹ꅁ ‘Ētskęle /ʔe:tskẽle/) is a language isolate spoken in the remnants of the Ech Empire (‘Ēts) on the planet Patrona (‘Arquǭnę): The Kingdom of Ech, Kalatuun, and the Tsōersā canton of the Confederacy of Belsha (Whersā). Patrona orbits the star Deru (Tsīr) and is inhabited by the alien Patronans (‘Arquǭnęteō).

Consonants

 * Stops, affricates, and fricatives are voiced between voiced phonemes.
 * [m] is an allophone of /w/ before a nasal vowel.
 * [ɹ] is an allophone of /l/ preceding another consonant.

Phonotactics
(C)V(/s/, /ts/, /l/)


 * /e/ and /u/ are shifted to mid nasalized vowels following a nasal consonant. ex. /n/ + /e/ > /nẽ/
 * /ŋ/ and /k/ are rounded before preceding vowels. ex. /k/ + /u/ > /kʷo/
 * /j/ is elided preceding /i/. ex. /j/ + /i/ > /i/
 * /ɸ/ becomes /w/ preceding mid nasalized vowels. /ɸ/ + /ẽ/ > /wẽ/

Native script
The native script of the Echlanders and all of the languages of their previously-conquered territory is a syllabary called ‘Ētskęlewhosani.

The syllabary
The syllabary's design is heavily based on the Yi script, though the writing direction and medium cause the Ech syllabary to differ in written appearance. The Ech syllabary has a more italic and fluid design, as it is commonly written with ink and quill, and it is considered improper to write a character with more than three strokes.


 * 1) This is the length mark.
 * 2) The inverted breve on these symbols is supposed to be above them like the other glottal stop syllables.
 * 3) This letter functions ambiguously as either a coda s or ts. It is also commonly written as a barred ꉔ.
 * 4) Despite yi 's pronunciation matching i, it retains a separate symbol.

Writing direction
In imitation of Manjingan writing, the Ech syllabary is written in right-to-left horizontal lines starting at the bottom of a page.

Collation and character names
Dictionaries are ordered starting with the bare vowels in the order from the table above, each immediately followed by their glottalized form. Next are the syllables starting in n, followed by the syllables starting in g, etc. as in the table above. The bare consonants s/ts, r, and the length symbol never begin words, but are considered for collation purposes to end the list.

Characters are normally named by lengthening the syllable and following it with the word for symbol, ‘ikas, e.g. ꉔ is ī‘ikas, ꃀ is nā‘ikas, and ꇤ is mǭ‘ikas. The glottal stop syllables are written as their vowel syllables preceded by the word ‘ata, e.g. ꅁ is ‘ataē‘ikas. The bare consonant characters and the length symbol have unique names: ꏂ is tsor, ꌦ is laya, and ‹ is hāę. Two characters have irregular names: ꇠ is not *lē‘ikas, it is quitsolaya and ꀆ, which is pronounced the same as ꉔ ī‘ikas, is whātaī‘ikas.

Pronouns
Pronouns are never obligatory, as the verb expresses both subject and object.

Verbs
Verbs are insanely expressive in the Echlander.

Person
The personal prefix taking up the first slot is obligatory and may be broken down as a compound prefix into most animate argument and least animate argument.

In the table, the more animate arguments are the rows and the less animate arguments are the columns. ex. ilāga "I carry", ǫlāga "he/she/it carries", keolāga "we carry you/him/her/it", tilāga "he/she/it carries him/her/it", nalāga "he/she/it carry them", mǫislātęrqui "it's said he carried you"

Voice
There are three "voices" in Echlander. A sentence can be direct, inverse, or reflexive.

The direct voice is used when the more animate argument is the subject of the sentence. It is marked with a null morpheme in slot 2. ex. Yǫsōrkitsqui. "I knocked him out."

The inverse voice is used when the less animate argument is the subject of the sentence. It is marked with an infixed -is- in slot 2, which sometimes affects the personal prefix. ex. Yǫissōrkitsqui. "He knocked me out."

The inverse morpheme also functions as a reflexive morpheme when applied to the intransitive prefixes (the 0 column in the above table). ex. Ǫissōrkitsqui. "He knocked himself out."

Personal prefix mutations with the inverse/reflexive morpheme:

Slot 4
Slot 4 can contain any of several pieces of information, including an incorporated object, a time of day, a direction, the causative morpheme, or indications of formality.

Incorporation
When an object is incorporated, the verb becomes intransitive. Some nouns change form when incorporated.


 * Taimę keotīlios‘ęga. vs. Ketīliostaimę‘ęga. "We can steal the gold."
 * Męlosa kenalęgahōta.vs Kelęgamęrhōta. "I assume we will watch the children."

Time of day
Example:


 * Keguǫtsilǫgata. "We will go at dawn."

Directions
Words indicating the direction that an action is happening in can be incorporated.


 * Guǫkais. "Let's go down."
 * Yǫislāsirqui. "He carried me back."

Ability
There is an affix meaning "able to do", ‘ę, which takes up slot 5. ex. Ātsor iguǫ‘ęgaga. "I think I can go today."

Evidentiality
Evidentiality is a marking of the type of evidence the speaker has for what they are saying. The evidence infixes are placed in slot 5. Evidentiality is not marked in the imperative or interrogative moods.

The null morpheme describes an event directly witnessed or experienced by the speaker. ex. nitīliostaimęqui "I saw them steal the gold"

There are 3 more evidential infixes: reportative -tęr- (I was told, I hear, It's said), assumptive -hō- (I can only assume), and deductive -ga- (I suppose, I guess, I can then infer)

Tense and mood

 * Personal prefixes are dropped in the imperative. ex. Guǫslar! "Don't go!" or "Let's not go!"

Formal particles
quǭr

Anatomy

 * Body:
 * Front:
 * Back:
 * Tail:
 * Head:
 * Eyes:
 * Nose:
 * Mouth:
 * Tongue:
 * Gnathal plates:
 * Head ridges:
 * Ears:
 * Hair:
 * Arm:
 * Hand:
 * Finger:
 * Leg:
 * Foot:
 * Toe:

Colors
Patronans can't see blue, so they have no need of words to distinguish it, greatly shrinking their color vocabulary. Differing hues/shades of the basic colors can be made by combining words for things that have the specific color in mind with the word for color (seyǫ), e.g. sītarseyǫ. New color words can also be formed with prefixes meaning light and dark.


 * Red
 * Green
 * White
 * Gray
 * Black