North Tongue

Pashmanu is an extinct language. Primarily agglutinative, it relies upon particles to indicate case, location and other such factors.

While the actual name of the language is Solukashei, initial contact between humans and the inhabitants of Paisha Manu led the humans to believe the language was actually called Pashmanu. This is an error which has never been corrected since.

Phonology
This section dictates the rules and theory controlling spelling and pronunciation within Pashmanu. Different aspects of the phonology can be explained by need for cohesion between vowels, due to the fact that Pashmanu is highly concentrated with vowel phonemes.

Phonemes
Vowel phonemes are limited to five monophthongs. Below is the table demonstrating pronunciation of the monophthongs.

Allophonic Diphthongs
While the vowels ought to be pronounced separately, and a more educated speaker may do so, it is common for allophonic diphthongs to appear in colloquial speech. When reading words with long chains of vowels, the method of deciphering them is to separate them up into adjacent pairs first before using the correct sounds:
 * aieoueoauo --> ai | eo | ue | oa | uo

Syllables
As the role of the consonant is limited in comparison to its vowel counterpart, syllables are constructed in certain ways.

The nucleus of each syllable is the initial vowel in a sequence, and it may be followed by the sequential vowel or a single, sequential consonant. These consonants may be either of the nasal phonemes.

Preceding the nucleus is the anterior consonant cluster. This can be composed of a single consonant or a consonant cluster followed by the palatal approximant. In a peculiar cases, the voiceless bilabial stop may also be followed by the alveolar non-sibilant fricative, but not then by the palatal approximant.

If another syllable follows one ending with the bilabial nasal then the initial consonant must be either of the bilabial stops. Moreover, a nasal may not follow a nasal.

Thus the phonological constraints of Pashmanu can be written as such:

( C ) ( [p]s / y ) V ( V )+ ( m[p/b] / n ) - ( C x[m/n] ) ( [p]s / y ) V ( V )+ ( m / n ) (The reason 'Pashmanu' breaks these phonological constraints is because the word was not originally part of the language. Indeed, Paisha Manu is actually a culture reference within the language to the origin of their society: the "purple clay" from which the society was born.)
 * indicates a separate grapheme that may not be needed to form a syllable
 * - indicates distinct syllables
 * + indicates the previous part may have greater numbers following it
 * x[] indicates impossible letters
 * [] represents the needed consonant for those chains to occur.
 * Here is a theoretical word that could be written, fulfilling as many of the rules as possible:
 * Psaienkyoain

Orthography
When written out in the Latin script, most letters keep the sounds that are concurrent with their English counterparts (i.e. 'k' sounds are written with 'k'). In this manner, most sounds are dealt with.

However, the remaining noises, such as consonants which often require two graphemes for English, must be given their own written form. Therefore, the Latin script for Pashmanu transcription is as follows:
 * Aa Ee Ff Hh Ii Kk Chch Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Rr Ss Shsh Tt Uu Ww Yy

Nouns
Nouns are not inflected in any form. To understand whether or not the noun referred to is definite or indefinite, plural or singular, or any other such form, attention to context is needed.

As a rule, all nouns have their first letter capitalised to greater indicate the fact that it is a noun. The only exception to this is the fourth person pronoun which remains un-capitalised.

Certain verb forms may be capitalised to form a noun, such as the gerund or the infinitive. Analogous within English are the two constructions below, first the gerund and then the infinitive.
 * Margrit spent her bingo winnings.
 * "And it's a win for the blue team!"

Pronouns
Pronouns are a set of words that can replace other nouns; they act as reference points to previously known items, objects or people. Unlike with other languages, such as Japanese or Spanish, the pronouns may not be dropped if the context is known. Pronouns are inflected minimally to become plural, as the understanding of location and possession comes from particles. The communal pronoun acts in a similar manner to the first person plural, indicating a collective group, but has a greater sense of size. Common usage of this pronoun is within speeches and talking to indicate a collective opinion, or a supposed collective opinion:
 * We think the government is wrong.
 * It is our right to free speech that is under attack.

The Fourth Person
Within Pashmanu there is also a fourth person. It is the only noun to become inflected, primarily to help understanding of different points of reference; however, its inflection is based upon the quality its origin possesses.

The basis of this grammatical person within Pashmanu is highly philosophical and is an intrinsic part of the culture. Its usage is very strict, to the extent that the Pashmanu Language Academy would take misconductors to court for bastardising the language and corrupting the intentions this person sets forth.

There are two forms of this person: the terral form and the astral form. Both forms has specific usages.

Particles
One of the most apparent aspects of Pashmanu grammar is the usage of particles to identify the action or role of a word within the sentence, e.g. whether the word is a direct object or a location. However, the role of the particle is not always clear or dependent upon a direct grammatical need.

ka = particle of location, e.g. "besides" or "by"

Verbs
Due to the particle system, verbs have a highly flexible position within the sentence. Common practice within educated speech, however, tends to place the primary verb at the start of the sentence, usually followed by other verbs before moving onto other constructions.

While the subjects and objects of the verb are indicated by the use of noun particles, verbal conjugations account for the grammatical role a verb may play -- indicating voice, mood, tense and so forth.

One aspect that is particular to Pashmanu is the lack of conjugation for a person, yet the changing of the verb under ... different circumstances: The original form of the verb, indicated by a "vowel + ru" ending, is the infinitive form of the verb; it is from this form that all other conjugations are derived.
 * 1) Tense
 * 2) Mood
 * 3) Voice

Tense
Verbs display tense by taking the radicle of the verb and adding onto it a new ending. Endings only change for a tense and not for a grammatical person, i.e. one would distinguish between a person eating now and in the past, but not if the person was being addressed or not.

A continuous form of the verb is formed by adding the suffix '-ha' onto the end of the verb.

Present
This is the most basic form of the verb. As a tense it indicates both an action which is being completed at the moment of speech and action which is repeated habitually.
 * radicle + 'u' --> present form

Pashmanu tenses are more strict in their usage. Unlike in English, the present tense can never be used to refer to a future action or event. In the continuous form the meaning changes to slightly to an English analogue of "is doing" and such. The usage is fairly similar to in English with the exception as above. Also, the continuous form is used in assuming the current actions of an individual: In this form, the question particle is placed at the end of the sentence to indicate uncertainty.
 * He is working this evening. --> He will work this evening.
 * The train leaves at 0900. --> The train will leave at 0900.
 * "Well, he could be asleep."
 * "Well, he is sleeping."

Mood
Subjunctive, judissive

Voice
Potential, permissive, dutiful, causative, passive

Adjectives
Adjectives end in 'ai' 'n' or 'a'

Colours

 * colour =
 * red =
 * orange =
 * yellow =
 * green =
 * blue =
 * purple = paisha
 * pink =
 * brown =
 * white = non
 * black =

Characteristics

 * young =
 * annoying =

General

 * to be = sheiru
 * being = Sheiru
 * man =
 * woman =
 * boy =
 * girl =

Rural

 * shore = Solu
 * water =
 * plant =
 * earth =
 * clay = Manu

Law

 * law = Fwo

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