Alemarese

General Information
Alemarese (natively Alemarrix /alemaˈʀiʃ/) is one of the most spoken languages of Patrona. It is the majority language in several nations (most notable Westos and Alemar) and taught as a lingua franca the world over.

Classification
Alemarese is an Aidelið language, of the Chevin branch and the Serazi subbranch.

Consonants

 * The interdental nasal /n/ and partially the alveolar flap /r/ assimilate to the place of articulation of the following consonant.
 * The interdental nasal /n/ is pronounced as a nasalized interdental flap [ɾ̟̃] in non-stressed and non-word-initial locations.
 * The uvular stop /q/ is pronounced as a glottal stop [ʔ] in the coda.
 * Whether or not /z/ is a separate consonant and its degree of separation from /s/ both differ from dialect to dialect.
 * The velar fricative is pronounced as a palatal [ç] after /i/ or /e/.
 * The labialized velar approximant /w/ has many origins and thus alternates with several other phonemes. It is the pronunciation of /l/ in the coda, and of /u/ in many diphthongs.

Vowels

 * The close vowels /i/ and /u/ lower in response to a following /ŋ/, /k/, /g/, and /q/.
 * The mid vowels /e/ and /o/ lower when followed by a coda consonant and raise before another vowel or word-finally.
 * Conservative dialects have separate close-mid and open-mid vowels.
 * In some dialects, [e] and [ɛ] (and [o] and [ɔ]) contrast word-finally.
 * The front open vowel /a/ raises to [æ] before alveolar consonants in some dialects.
 * /a/ backs to [ɑ] when adjacent to a uvular stop [q].
 * Vowels gain a following semivocalic schwa before nasals in some dialects.
 * Any two adjacent vowels diphthongize.

Stress
Stress is typically on the penultimate vowel, unless the word ends with a consonant other than  or  ; however, stress is contrastive, and is thus marked in non-obvious locations by a grave accent.

The Alphabet
Alemarese is written in the Standard Chevin Alphabet (natively Ceaja Cevi).

The letter ta dun is only used in loanwords.

Transliteration

 *  is pronounced /tʃ/ before front vowels.
 *  is pronounced /dʒ/ before front vowels.
 *  is pronounced /w/ in the coda.
 *  is pronounced /w/ before back vowels.

Digraphs

 * au /o/, ai /e/
 * cuF /k/F, c(i/e)B /tʃ/B, cm /m/ word-initially
 * guF /g/F, g(i/e)B /dʒ/B
 * jr /ʀ/ word-initially, jC /C/
 * ndgB /ŋg/B, ng /ŋ/, /ndʒ/ before front vowels
 * rr /ʀ/
 * sp /ʃp/, st /ʃt/
 * tt /tː/
 * veB /β/B, vuF /w/F

Native Collation
c, a, j, d, g, u, q, p, b, o, h, v, e, s, z, t, l, f, i, y, ð, r, n, m, þ, x

First declension
The first declension houses the vast majority of animate nouns, all morphological diminutives, and all instruments. There's very little irregularity in the first declension. Nouns ending in -ea or -aya in the singular become -eye and -ae in the plural nominative, plural instrumental, and singular genitive/vocative.

ex. otta "tongue, language, speech"

Second declension
Second declension nouns are mostly inanimate, though there are a few groups of animates. They are the most regular declension, with no irregularities at all.

ex. duji "gold"

Third declension
The third declension is almost entirely inanimate, save for some names and some dialects versions of the diminutives of the core family such as bab and nun in place of the more typical baba and nùnia.

ex. cur "flame, fire"

Third declension nouns typically end in a stressed syllable in the nominative singular. The addition of the endings bring about predictable alternations of certain final consonants. These do not occur in recent loanwords.
 * 1) Only in the instrumental singular.
 * 2) unstressed

Fourth and Fifth declension
The fourth and fifth declensions are the same in the nominative and instrumental. They also lack a number distinction in those cases. In the other cases they completely match the first and second declension, respectively, except for the fifth declension's vocative singular. They can be animate or inanimate, though the fourth tends to be animate. The fourth undergoes i->e ablaut in the plural genitive and plural vocative. The fifth undergoes a->e ablaut in the singular genitive and plural vocative.

ex. xile "scratch, scrape"

ex. rame "rope"

Irregular nouns
Few nouns are irregular, and if a noun is irregular, it is very predictable. An example of a truly irregular noun is oai "cloud".

Vocative pronouns
There are only two vocative pronouns: 2s toye and 2p miumà.

Adjectives
The citation form is the inanimate nominative singular. The adjectives have no vocative case forms, current standard is to use the genitive forms to agree with vocative nouns, but it is colloquially common to use the nominative forms instead. Where endings are separated by slashes in the table, the first is singular and the second is plural. ex. cremi 'holy' (Soa dine ginora husa mo creme! 'Even the trickster god is holy!') ex. baboref 'motherly, nuturing' (Jore emò crente ðes baboreve. 'They are very nuturing people.') ex. cade 'new' (Mo bendgaizì cade! 'It's from New Bendguise!')

Quantifiers
Quantifiers include: ispe (all), be (many/a lot), tlone (some), and five (few)

Nominative
The nominative case (abbreviated nom) is the dictionary form of a noun. It is primarily used for the subject and primary object of a sentence. As a secundative language, Alemarese treats the indirect object of a ditransitive verb and the direct object of a transitive verb the same. This is called the primary object.

The nominative is also used for the objects of a few prepositions: locatives, temporals, set '(along) with', and id 'about'.

Instrumental
The instrumental case (abbreviated instr) has three uses. It is used to signify an instrument that is used to complete an action, for the secondary object of a sentence, and to signify movement towards. The secondary object corresponds to the direct object of a ditransitive verb.

When used with locative prepositions, it gives them a 'towards' component.
 * ex. in --> into, on --> onto, at --> to

Genitive
The genitive case (abbreviated gen) has a few uses. It primarily signifies possession (so frezif cùrau 'the flames' heat') and composition (emaje lotto 'a state of panic').

The genitive also shows the origin of something and, in the same capacity, to make demonyms. It's also used to show groups to which one is a member. And to make matronymics. When used with locative prepositions, it gives them an 'away from' component.
 * ex. Seo mi alemaro 'I'm Alemarese.'
 * ex. hèder ridore 'House Kicker'
 * ex. rajàn rajàno 'Rajàn, child of Rajàn'
 * ex. in --> out of, on --> off of, at --> from

Vocative
The vocative is used for direct address.
 * ex. Aðe crèntau! 'Hello people!'
 * ex. Farm vilxe. 'Bye, Viusche.'

Verbs
There are four conjugation classes based on four thematic vowels: a, e, u, and o.

Nonpast tense
-a verbs -e verbs -u verbs -o verbs emoc -to be ex. seo odi "I give"

Recent tense
ex. seo odais "I just gave"

Direct remote tense
active participle + the following suffixes (stressed on the participle ending except in the 3p). ex. seo odera "I gave" -a and -e verbs

-u and -o verbs

Indirect remote tense
active participle + the recent tense suffixes ex. seo oderais "I was told I gave"

Eventive tense
Thematic vowel + the following suffixes ex. seo odanì "I'd probably give"

Future
The future is indicated by an auxiliary "jre", which is placed before a verb in the active participle.


 * ex. Jri oder li "I will give it",
 * Seo jrais oder li "I was going to give it".

Prepositions
vent (at/to/from), set (with), id (about), ro (on), ij (in)

Numbers
Though Patronans have ten fingers in total, the most common base is 8 (octal) which was spread by Alemarese and Barejine-speakers across most of Patrona. Typically, fingercounting starts with the thumbs out, the first finger being the index, etc.
 * Ordinals are formed with <-me>. First and second are formed suppletively (veit and drezip). They are adjectives.
 * Fractions are formed with <-aj>. Half is suppletive and quarter is irregular (foli and meraj). They are nouns.
 * In both, only the last word of the number receives the ending. If the last word in a fraction is "one" (e. g. 21) then it is rendered as veit.
 * Numbers (except for jen, diz, and hor) are nouns declined according to form. The item they tell the quantity of is rendered in the genitive.
 * Jen, diz, and hor are undeclined and appear before the noun.

Colors
Patronans can't see blue, so they have no need of words to distinguish it, greatly shrinking their color vocabulary.
 * cindi: dark red, purple, brown
 * god: light red, pink, orange
 * plauve: white, yellow
 * xab: light green, chartreuse, cyan
 * varze: dark green, teal
 * eriti: black, blue
 * hoici: gray

Days of the Week
The Patronan week is only six days long.
 * 1) deruax- Sunday
 * 2) lameax- Loveday
 * 3) cavecax- Thoughtday
 * 4) veverax- Fastday
 * 5) mindax- big Moonday
 * 6) jiliax- little Moonday

Conjunctions
and (ð), either or (iy...iy...), and/or (ài), but (no)