Fyelli

Fyelli (/ˈfiel.li/) is the language originally spoken by the inhabitants of the Fyel mountain range and later the city of the same name. It has a history of sporadic contact with English and its writing system, resulting in several lonewords and possible phonological and morphosyntactic changes. Since the Accord of Noncombat, the language had declined in use; however, since the start of renewed conflict, it has been experiencing an incomplete resurgence. It is notable for the conservative dialect's lack of labial consonants and vowels, owing to the physiology of its original speakers, large vowel system including a number of falling diphthongs, and complex articles in an otherwise grammatically isolating system.

=General information=

=Phonology=

Consonants

 * 1) /x/ is realized as uvular [χ] immediately after back vowels, and palatal [ç] immediately after /i/ and /ɪ/ (including diphthongs).
 * 2) /r/ and /l/ are realized as uvular [ʀ] and [ʟ] immediately after back vowels and dorsal consonants.

Plosives are often aspirated word-initially and intervocalically.

Monophthongs

 * 1) / ʊ̜ / word-finally is usually devoiced or unpronounced following a plosive.
 * 2) /ʌ/ may be realized as [ə] in unstressed positions.
 * Marked graphemes represent a stressed syllable where they first appear in a word. If a word only contains unmarked vowels (and no diphthongs), the first vowel may take some stress. Stress may be replaced by a higher or lower tone, or pure length by different speakers and registers.

Diphthongs
=Grammar=

Morphology
Open-class Fyelli words are almost entirely uninflected, with the exception of a single verb morpheme for the passive voice. Its articles, however, are inflected for possession or definitiveness and case, likely a remnant of a much earlier form of the language that may have been more synthetic.

Derivation
Derivation is relatively common in Fyelli, though words can also be of multiple classes without the need for derivation (ie hyongon "human" can be a noun or an adjective).

The negative particle ikh can also be treated as a prefix.

Syntax
Fyelli is a VSO language, returning to SVO in interrogatives (which are otherwise unmarked). Beyond this reversal, it is a staunchly head-final language, with determiners considered the parent of a noun phrase.

The following depicts the typical word order of the language. Complementary noun phrases, indirect objects, etc. may come anywhere after the subject phrase, separately from the object phrase. The negative auxiliary ikh and intensifiers are relatively free, but generally come first in an adjective or adverb phrase (with the intensifier usually preceding the negative). Within noun phrases, word order is freer than implied here, and adjectives, numbers, and plurality markers may be moved to follow the noun. The determiner is, however, always phrase-final.

Adjectives must complement a noun (ie cannot be the object of a verb "to be"). An equivalent noun, such as one formed by a derivation -sa is generally used instead.

=Lexicon=

Verb Auxiliaries
There is also an optional prefix on the verb denoting passive voice: u- (or v- if the verb begins with a vowel, but not a glide).

Numbers
Fyelli traditionally uses an octal (base-8) counting system. Number words, in a sentence, replace the plural article mang.

Pronouns
The pronouns listed here are for nominative and accusative cases only. Other cases are homonymous with their inflected possessive (see Determiners).

Determiners

 * The accusative case merged with the nominative case around the same time the language changed to a VSO word order.
 * Word-final monophthong /ɪ/ is often devoiced in polysyllabic determiners in casual speech.
 * For the amount of information included in the article, they are more obligatory in Fyelli than in English, even on proper nouns, although may be omitted in casual speech.
 * Determiners inflected for possessive person are homonymous with the grammatical person itself inflected for the appropriate case. It can therefore be considered that Fyelli inflects pronouns for case, apart from the nominative/accusative which are accounted for by words apart from this system.
 * The particle a is sometimes used in place of the determiner in a noun phrase headed by a pronoun, especially in transitive sentences and in formal speech.

Open Class
=Examples= "the human cities" mang hyongon fyel tei

"They will speak Fyelli in the human city." Shkil myerrna ngyo Fyelli tei hyongon fyel fi.

"When I am king you will be first against the wall with your opinion which is of no consequence at all." Om cye'fi an ni cyorek ti, sso shkil on shol ki mang khwe shoalti, som ykhrarn ikh yen yekhtaskem yu, yols tei flworren qi. (When I am the king, so will be you and your thoughts [which are really not of consequence] the first into the wall.)

"I want to smash your heads together." Shkil kshækorn ni mang hwovod yoalti.

The Tower of Babel (Genesis 11: 1-9)
Har cye'ci yen yol myerrnalli ki mang llikh nauk ætu æssen hoak fi. (Now there was one language and alike words in the whole world.) ''Har cye'fi kul wrne li mang khyelli ætu, har wkhi ngyo hyernekhoakh ætu Shynar vei khoakh fi. Har alwovit ngyo khwfi.'' (When people went from the east, found they a flatland in the land of Shinar. Settled they there.) ''Har awu ngyo a ngyo: "Sæ'ei! Shkil yor kik æssen yorwosh yoal a mang mort ætu." Kik har aq yoal mort ætu rroak æku, kik fytumen ætu alsikyt æku.'' (They said to themselves: "Lo! We shall make and wholly burn bricks." And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar.) Har cye'ci awu ngyo: "Sæ'ei! Shkil yor yoal a fyel ætu kik mwntor ætu, kik shkil yen hwovud ywkhol hykha fi. Shkil vahwe yoal er uciqeil yoal hit qi hoak vei. (Then they said: "Lo! We shall make a city and a tower, and its head will be in the sky. We will be known or we will be scattered through the face of the world.") Har kul Tywis ti kik har tyot kho a fyel kik mwntor ti, som hærta yor mang hyongon yu khing ti. (God came and saw he the city and tower, which the children of humans had made.) ''Har awu Tywis ti: "Sæ'ei tyot! Om an ngyo a yol ssyof ætu, kik om cye'ci farra an frwov ti. Shkil cye'ci ikh yen ikhmang ætu som shkil yor ngyo teshta kyngo.'' (God said: "See! They are one race, and now is only the start. Now will nothing that they will do not be possible to them.) Sæ'ei! Shkil feat kul yol kik shkil rnwe'khe yol a myerrnalli veingo khwfi, sso shkil ikh ahwe ngyo a ngyo. (Lo! I will go down and I will there confuse their language, so they will not understand themselves.") Har ciqeal Tywis ti ngyo khwfi li hit qi hoak vei, kik har ikh yor ngyo a fyel ti. (God scattered them from there through the face of the earth, and they did not build the city.) Sso har ushean is Fæfol, lykhol har rnwe'khe Tywis ti myerrnalli ti æssen hoak vei, kik har ciqeal Tywis ti ngyo a hit qi hoak vei khwfi li. (So was it called Babel, because God confused the languages of the world, and God scattered the people through the face of the earth.)
 * 1) Now the whole earth had one language and the same words.
 * 1) And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.
 * 1) And they said to one another, "Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly." And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar.
 * 1) Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth."
 * 1) And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built.
 * 1) And the Lord said, "Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.
 * 1) Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another's speech."
 * 1) So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city.
 * 1) Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth.