Galrantior

General information
Modern Galrantior (MG; galrantior ëg rekli) is the lingua franca of the Klimsan region on the Uxtratana Landmass in Rahtouri. It is essentially an officialized creole of Latter-Hegemony Drulaktior (LHD) and Republic Nirasoi that formed gradually over time as the Drulaktor Galrants continued to make contact with the Niras Galrants. Both of the languages that make up Modern Galrantior are distinctly different, yet both can trace their roots back to the oldest known Galrant language, Ancient Klimsan. This means that Modern Galrantior is a rejoining of two very different tongues that were once one in the same.

Modern Galrantior is the language used for administration and education in the Klimsan region. Many residents of Klimsan either state MG as their native tongue or state it as their second language. Notably, this excludes the Shaneik Diaspora of Alrorei; the residents of which continue to speak Galreic, itself a creole of LHD and Standard Shaneic.

MG is an agglutinative language, combining words to form many single words expressing an idea. MG is also a tonal language, with words and phrases being altered by using a specific tone.

Alphabet
The Modern Galrantior alphabet (known amongst Galrants as klimçäʒe) is actually an abugida, containing over 300 basic glyphs to represent various fusions of consonants and vowels as well as the consonants and vowels themselves, and dozens more to represent the various tones and other mutations. The standard procedure for writing in Modern Galrantior is to use glyphs representing the appropriate fusion when a consonant-vowel cluster comes up, otherwise it is customary to just use the "simple" glyphs (essentially the glyphs that represent one speech sound). Calligraphically, the klimçäʒe is rather simple, being largely comprised of various simple strokes; this is because Galrants generally write with their fingers as holding a writing utensil is difficult for them (since they only have three fingers to a hand).

When transcribed to Latin letters, Galrantior makes use of the following:

a å c* ç d e ø f g h i æ j k l m n o p r s ʃ t ð þ u v x y z ʒ


 * /c/ is used to represent /tʃ/ (signified in English with "ch").
 * /ç/ is used to represent what is best described as a sharp /s/ sound, sounding more like a hiss than a normal /s/ would.

Plus diaereses, acutes, graves, carons, macrons, circumflexes, and underlines for the vowels depending on tone.

Word Order
The subject and verb along with any conjugations and verb tenses and/or declensions are combined and placed at the beginning of the sentence or clause (arranged like [verb][pronoun conjugation or noun][declension][tense]), while the object is usually placed elsewhere in the sentence depending on the form being spoken, with any applicable prepositions being applied immediately before the object. Galrantior thus doesn't really abide by the standard orders of subject, verb, and object.

Pronoun Conjugations
Pronouns are notable in that most are whittled down to a single phoneme when indicating them in the aforementioned subject-verb combination. For example, to say "I walk." you'd say "Norstå.", with /å/ being the self-referential pronoun. The word for "I/me/myself" in Galrantior is traditionally /ce/ ("tʃe") but due to the usage of combining the verb to the pronoun conjugation it, along with other pronouns, is rarely spoken as the subject. /ce/ is also used as a word part for the Galrantior word for "please" (/íce/, roughly "for me").

The following lists the various pronoun conjugations in Galrantior, combining the pronoun with the verb "fly" ("guþel") and assuming a present tense:
 * I fly. --> Guþelå. (/å/ is pronounced like a heavy /a/; think of the "oa" in "coal" for a good equivalent)
 * You fly. --> Guþelø. (/ø/ is pronounced just like in the IPA, hence why it was chosen to represent that sound; think of the "oo" in "good" or "foot" for a nice example)
 * You (plural) fly. --> Guþeløren. (essentially pluralizing /guþelø/ using the organic gender)
 * You and I fly. --> Guþelei. (/ei/ is pronounced like how you'd pronounce /a/ when reciting the English alphabet: "-ay")
 * We fly. --> Guþelæ. (/æ/ is not pronounced like in the IPA, hence why it was never said that the Latinized transcriptions of Galrantior strictly abide by IPA; in essence, it is pronounced as a sharp /i/, best represented in the IPA as /ai/ or otherwise the /i/ in "otherwise")
 * He/she flies. --> Guþelül.
 * Although the majority of verbs in Galrantior end with /l/ or some other consonant, some do not. In such a case, one would add /-kúl/, with a rising tone on the /u/ instead of the usual focal vowel tone. He/she sleeps. --> Gyatakúl.
 * "It" is treated a bit differently than "he" or "she" when it comes to conjugation. Instead of adding /-ül/, one adds /-na/. It flies. --> Guþelna.
 * They fly. --> Guþelren. (basically, pluralize the verb according to the gender of "they"; see gender below)

It should be noted that normal nouns are never changed when combined with a verb, so to say "The animal walks" you'd say "Norstgerülsu".

Verb Tenses
Galrantior has nine verb tenses and three irregular verb tenses. On top of past/present/future, there is also past reminiscent (should have/would have), present concurrent ("-ing"), future potential (should/would), request, permission, and command. One of the irregular tenses is "not"--it is treated as irregular because it can be applied to any argument logically. The other is a rough equivalent to "shall" but is treated as irregular because plain old future tense can cover that message--the "shall" tense was common a long time ago to show that you really meant what you were saying. The last irregular tense is more or less a method to change verbs into a transitive tense ("I was killed" instead of "I killed").

Verb tense indicators come at the very end of the subject-verb conjoined word, after the noun or pronoun declension, making it the last part of said word. When an object is a direct object (when the action of the conjoined word is directed at the object) there will be no usage of "the". ("The" is still used when the action is being done with the object, i.e. "I went with the person")

When an abstract noun serves as the object, an action cannot be directed at it. Instead of deleting "the" like you would with an organic or inorganic noun and adding /á/ to the beginning of the object, you include "the" (/kon/, in this case) and add the word "si" (a preposition meaning "not directed at anything") before the object, separating "si" and the object with a space unlike you would do with an organic or inorganic noun. (For more information on Galrantior's noun genders, see the Genders section below)
 * Past - append "-te" to the end of the combined word.
 * I killed the animal. --> [I killed] [ the animal]. --> [Kill•I•(past)] [(directed at)•animal]. --> [Giuel•å•te] [(á)•gerülsu]. --> Giuelåte ágerülsu.
 * Past reminiscent - append "-tâj" (should have) or "-tûj" (would have) to the end of the combined word.
 * I should have left my brood. --> [I should have left] [my brood]. --> [Leave•I•(should have)] [brood•my]. --> [Gèl•å•tâj] [higrëʃ•gå]. --> Gèlåtâj higrëʃgå.
 * Present - no change is needed.
 * Present concurrent - append "-se" to the end of the combined word.
 * They are fighting the government. --> [They are fighting] [(with) the government]. --> [Fight•they•(pres. con.)] [the(abstract) (with)•government]. --> [Iktael•ren•se] [kon ral•kïvne]. --> Iktaelrense kon ralkïvne.
 * Because the action is being directed with the object instead of at the object, the abstract-gendered /kon/ ("the") is placed between the conjoined word and the object.
 * It should be noted that present concurrent is only used when responding to a question. For example: "What is he doing?" "Going to the store." Otherwise, plain present is used.
 * Future - append "-ni" to the end of the combined word.
 * You and I are going to visit the doctor. --> [You and I are going to will visit] [ the doctor]. --> [Visit•you and I•(future)] [(directed at)•doctor]. --> [Yäsuil•ei•ni] [á•kolipra]. --> Yäsuileini ákolipra.
 * Future potential - append "-tâv" (should) or "-tûv" (would) to the end of the combined word. Used primarily for suggestion or, as the term states, potentiality.
 * You should sign up for the military. --> [You should sign up for join] [the military]. --> [Join•you•(should)] [the(abstract) (no direction) military]. --> [Srénkuäl•ø•tâv] [kon si lokástuë]. --> Srénkuäløtâv kon si lokástuë.
 * Request - append "-klä" to the end of the combined word.
 * Can you all fly from Kalisakr to Alrorei for me? --> [Can you all fly] [from Kalisakr] [to Alrorei] [for me]? --> [Fly•you(plural)•can] [(directed away)•Kalisakr] [(directed at)•Alrorei] [(done to the benefit of)•me]? --> [Guþel•øren•klä] [à•kalisakr] [á• a lrorei] [í•ce]? --> Guþelørenklä àkalisakr álrorei íce?
 * The /a/ in Alrorei is deleted and replaced with /á/ (with rising tone) to indicate "to Alrorei" because they are the same sound and most speakers who speak quickly will not pronounce the unaccented /a/ immediately after the upper-toned /á/.
 * Permission - append "-kyö" to the end of the combined word.
 * You may get some water. --> [You may get (obtain)] [some water]. --> [Obtain•you•may] [water•some]. --> [Uneâl•ø•kyö] [kguä•he]. --> Uneâløkyö kguähe.
 * Command - place the word "jun" before the verb and "-ya" at the end of the combined word.
 * Go clean your room. --> [(You) Go Clean] [your room]. --> [(Command) Clean•you•(command)] [room•your]. --> [(Jun) fristüvel•ø•ya] [eraʃimkö•gø]. --> Jun fristüveløya eraʃimkögø.
 * Not - append "-kim" to the end of the combined word including after any applicable tense.
 * He did not steal the food. --> [He did not steal] [ the food]. --| [He stole no] [food]. --> [Steal•he•(past)•not] [(directed at)•food]. --> [Vuëskual•ül•te•kim] [á•xeal]. --> Vuëskualültekim áxeal.
 * Shall - append "-fi" to the end of the combined word.
 * We shall rise above your government. --> [We shall rise] [above your government]. --> [Rise•we•shall] [above government•your]. --> [Jeþ•æ•fi] [ast kiv•gø]. --> Jeþæfi ast kivgø.
 * Transitive - append "-cä" to the end of the combined word. Like the "not" conjugation, this is combined with other tenses. In the cases wherein "not" is also applicable, this comes first whilst "not" comes last.

Noun Declensions
Nouns decline according to number (in the form of "some", "many", etc as well as pluralization), case (including possessive), and gender (as noted below). In the usual Galrantior way of combining the subject and verb into a single word, the noun's declension comes after the noun in the combination and before the tense, making it the third part to the combined word.

Pronouns do not decline, however, with the sole exception of the Galrantior equivalent to "they" (and even then, the only accepted declensions is via gender and number e.g. pluralization).

Noun Classification
Galrants traditionally see things in two ways: in wholes, and in parts. Galrantior separates the two by using a noun classification system. Strictly speaking, Galrantior has a considerably low number of total nouns, as they only give nouns to whole things or entities. For example, there is a Galrantior word for tree, but no such word for root, bark, branch or leaf. Instead, the parts of a tree are simply referred to in several ways as "part(s) of a tree". Here are the different descriptors for "parts" (the word for "tree" is /fas/): One of the exceptions to the whole/part divide concerns the parts of an animal; Galrantior has a separate word for person, body, arm, leg, wing, tail, belly, breast, head, neck, hand, etc rather than a word for "person" and various er ikülep. It is believed that Galrantior has these nouns for the various parts because early doctors in the days of the Drulaktor Hegemony would otherwise have trouble figuring out exactly which limb was in pain in cases where patients couldn't point to said limb (e.g. if their arms were gone).
 * er - the most general "part" noun, it literally means "part". When combined with tree, er fas, it could mean root, bark, or branch; context will decide which in particular.
 * uo - roughly translates to "spawn of". This is something that comes from the modified noun and is technically a part of the modified noun, but is distinct in that it specifically applies to things that grow on and usually can be easily removed from the modified noun. When combined with tree, uo fas, it most likely means leaf. Although it could also apply to a tree's branch (going strictly by definition), the only trees that Galrants are accustomed to have large, thick branches that are not easy to remove.
 * /uo/ is also used to classify a river, as it is spawned from a lake and pours into a sea.
 * du and ra - these roughly mean "the seed of", pretty much meaning "this will eventually grow to become (the modified noun)". The distinction between the two is that du is (usually) inorganic and ra is organic. In the case of most plants, du is used even though plants are usually otherwise gendered as organic. When combined with tree, du fas, it means the seed of a tree. This is also used for children: ra ikülep or ius ra.

An important thing to note is that only whole nouns can be considered organic; part nouns are strictly inorganic.

Tones
As noted, Galrantior is a tonal language. It uses rising tone, falling tone, top tone, bottom tone, dipping tone, arching tone, and focal vowel. Although the Galrantior script form has its own ways to indicate each tone, the tones will be indicated through the Latinized transcriptions via the use of diacritics.

Although the tones generally do carry meaning with them, some verbs seem to use them with little to no tonal correlation whatsoever. This, like many of MG's many quirks, is likely a result of the merging of LHD and RN, the latter of which had an extremely diverse and complex tonal system whilst the former of which only used rising and falling tone. This oddity is especially notable in many MG verbs, where you will find many seemingly-randomly placed tones; it is not quite so prevalent with nouns (to which the tonal system primarily applies) but there are a few exceptions.

Rising and Falling
Rising tone and falling tone are usually directly linked together in that switching the two in a word when both could be applicable reverses the word's meaning, effectively giving the opposite meaning; however, this only applies when the difference between the opposites are measurable (i.e. the difference between big and small). The pronunciations are, as the name implies, rising and falling. Rising is indicated with an acute (á é í ó ú) while falling is indicated with a grave (à è ì ò ù).

Rising and falling tone are also used when superlatives are involved, via the addition of either /é/ or /è/, for example, "vigla", meaning "good", becomes "great" when you add /é/ (viglaé), and becomes "less than good" (also an alternative for "bad" but "bad" also has its own word) when you add /è/ (viglaè).

Examples of rising and falling:
 * Rising and falling are the difference between "to" and "from" in the directive sense. To indicate an action being directed at something, or an object traveling to or from another object or place, you add either /á/ (to) or /à/ (from) as a prefix to the noun being directed to or from. This is notably an exception to the "measurable difference" rule, remaining only because it is a relic from Middle Drulaktior. (The use of /á/ and /à/ only apply when the object is of either the organic or inorganic gender; objects of the abstract gender use a separate method to indicate direction, as noted above under verb tenses)
 * I gave [to] him some food. --> Ikilåte xealhe [á]ikül.
 * The difference between "big" and "small" is kráne (big) and kràne (small).

Top and Bottom
Top tone and bottom tone are also linked together, and like rising and falling, they indicate opposites when used side-by-side. What separates these tones from rising and falling is that the difference between the two opposites is not quite measurable (i.e. the difference between water and ice, which are treated as opposites in Galrantior). Top tone is pronounced at the highest volume the individual can utter, while bottom tone is at the lowest pitch the individual can manage. Top is indicated with macrons (ā ē ī ō ū) whereas bottom is indicated by underlining the vowels ( a e  i  o  u ). Which opposite is given which tone is more or less arbitrary, but the perceived "worse" of the two or the "not in agreement with X" (when concerning philosophies) usually gets the bottom tone.

Top and bottom are also used when describing the difference between two abstract nouns that are opposites, since technically the difference between two abstract nouns would be immeasurable.

Also like rising and falling, top and bottom are used for superlatives as well, notably the "best" and "worst" forms of a superlative. The same letter is modified as either /ē/ or / e /. Using the same example of "vigla" (good), you can change it to mean "positively fantastic" by adding /ē/ (viglaē) or "not very good at all" by adding / e / (vigla e ).

Examples of top and bottom:
 * As noted, water and ice are treated as opposites. The diacritic-free word "kgua" refers to water as the chemical, while kguā refers to water in its liquid form; kgu a refers to ice.
 * Another usage of the two tones is when referring to a philosophy. For example, the philosophy of abiding by Scaladius's tenets is given the word "skalātur". Those philosophies that directly go against Scaladius's tenets are given the word "skal a tur".
 * It should be noted to anyone who studies Galrantior: do not conflate / a / and /å/, for they indicate completely different meanings (one is bottom tone, the other is the verb conjugation referring to oneself i.e. "I [action]"). The difference between the two is that /å/ is pronounced like a very thick /a/, sounding roughly like the "oa" in the word "coal"; bottom tone / a / is just a very low-pitch long-/a/ sound.

Arching and Dipping
Arching tone and dipping tone are notably the only pair of the seven tones that are not exclusively linked, unlike rising/falling or top/bottom. There are a few cases when they are linked, but more often than not, their use side-by-side can produce two words with unrelated meanings.

The few instances in which they are linked together is when speaking in "quick" form, when one wishes to indicate when something went from "bad to good to bad", or when something went "good to bad to good", although this is a system in the language that is rarely if ever used. It is a relic of Old Drulaktior in which soldiers would describe a battle they'd fought or an action they'd carried out, along with the use of the other tones listed here for similar reasons; and even then, it was rarely used. It's safe to say that arching and dipping usually don't have any direct connection whatsoever (most Galrantior teachers teach children to "always assume it isn't quick-form").

As could be expected, arching tone is indicated with circumflexes (â ê î ô û) while dipping tone is indicated with carons (ǎ ě ǐ ǒ ǔ).

Focal Vowel
Focal vowel is the one "orphaned" tone of the seven tones in Galrantior, indicated with a diaeresis (ä ë ï ö ü). Since it has no tonal counterpart, it is instead used to indicate mood or form. It is pronounced by putting emphasis on the vowel that is outed as the focal vowel. Galrantior only allows one focal vowel for each word. Although this sounds like the speaker/writer is then free to apply focal vowels wherever they'd like, focal vowels are actually set-in-stone and only added on with certain declensions or conjugations. For example, the word "sänʃea" (store) can only have the first /a/ be a focal vowel. Many words with focal vowels do not have any alternative word, such as "sänʃea"; sanʃea or sanʃëa or sanʃeä are not accepted, although this mostly affects writing since any native speaker can realize you mean "store" since the word has no alternative.

The "no alternative" for many words was likely caused by the merging of LHD and Republic Nirasoi; the latter which had a fluid focal vowel system whilst the former lacked any such system, and many nouns were taken from LHD ("sänʃea" included).

It should be noted that the "only one focal vowel per word" rule does not apply when conjugating "he/she" or when applying the "request" or "permission" tense to a conjoined word.

Gender
The language gives gender to its nouns, but not based on sexual dimorphism; instead, the divide is based on the metaphysical state of the noun. Nouns are either organic (any organism, including people; objects made of organic materials are categorized as inorganic), inorganic (any object that is tangible but not organic, such as a metal bar; parts of organisms, such as an arm or a leg, are also treated as inorganic), or abstract (any object that is not tangible by any means). The genders are applied in the form of determiners (equivalents to "the") and pluralization of the noun in question, with a small number of verbs also being slightly changed based on the noun's gender.

The advantage of this gender system is that nouns are not set-in-stone as one gender; any gender can be freely applied to any noun. This allows for the speaker or writer to impart extra information with the mere change of gender. For example, the word for species, gerilg, can refer to an actual species or the concept of species in general. To refer to an actual species, one would say "haa gerilg" and pluralize as "gerilgren", since the actual species is organic; to refer to the concept of species, one would say "kon gerilg" and pluralize as "gerilgdel" since the concept of species and taxonomy in general is abstract. The pitfall to be avoided here is to not use the wrong gender lest you confuse others.

The gender that one applies to a noun affects the following: The following lists the specifics of each gender and what each can and cannot accomplish:
 * Which "the" is to be used (haa/lir/kon)
 * How a noun is pluralized, and in irregular cases, how a noun declines in other ways
 * Notably, the gender of a noun can change how one would decline the noun to indicate "some [noun]" in the numerical sense: being abstract means you must use "-le" instead of "-he" to indicate this, since you can't normally have multiples of an abstract but you can have more of an abstract. (Similarly to how, in English, you can have "some news" but not "a few news")
 * Whether or not you can use /á/ (to) or /à/ (from) as prepositions; you can only do this with organic or inorganic nouns, whereas with abstract nouns you are required to use "si" (meaning "not directed anywhere") instead and you are expected to also use the abstract "the" (unlike organic or inorganic, for which you do not use the corresponding "the" when the object is being directed at or away from)
 * How certain verbs and tenses are pronounced when used in a conjoined word referring to the subject; for example, abstract nouns cannot physically request or permit, and so they utilize a slightly different pronunciation ("-kuë" and "-kyù" instead of the normal "-klä" and "-kyö", respectively) to indicate the difference.
 * In another example, inorganic nouns are not even allowed to request or permit, forcing Galrant writers to get creative with some descriptions
 * Certain verbs can only apply to a specific gender, as they would be logically incompatible with any other gender. For example, "think" can only be applied to organic nouns, "break" in the physical sense can only be applied to inorganic nouns, and "erase" in the philosophical sense (i.e. the concept was erased from history) can only apply to abstract nouns.
 * Certain verbs change based on gender, and although the number of such verbs are few, most are very commonly used. The most obvious example would be "be", be/is/are/am. If the modified noun is organic, the word for "be" is /po/. If inorganic, the word is /pel/. If abstract, the word is /pua/.


 * Organic: the = haa; pluralization [noun]ren
 * Organic does not have any restrictions apart from being reserved for living organisms. Using organic where it normally would not be used is a common source of confusion between Galrants.
 * Exclusive verbs: think, know, hope, interpret and more


 * Inorganic: the = lir; pluralization [noun]id
 * Inorganic cannot use the request or permission verb tenses, and no pronoun other than "it" ("na") can be treated as inorganic.
 * Parts of otherwise organic nouns, such as limbs or organs, are treated as inorganic.
 * Exclusive verbs: break, materialize, lie (to lie idly) and more


 * Abstract: the = kon; pluralization [noun]del
 * Abstract is forced to utilize different methods for the request and permission verb tenses and also is logically incompatible with a sizable number of adpositions. Although any pronoun except "you and I" can be treated as abstract, doing so will often prematurely give others an impression of yourself.
 * Exclusive verbs: erase, enter (into public conscience), stagnate and more

Example text
Gêløklä ásänʃea asxeal íce? --> Can you [please] go to the food market for me?

Kealå io norstren àkalisakr áfralagast. --> I saw them walking from Kalisakr to Fralagast.

Etualül køloʃæ gêl! --> This person needs to go to a hospital!