Ancient Qâêr

=Brief Overview= Qâêr is an SVO structured language with most of the focus and inflections around the verb as well as a few particles. Qâêr is the native language of the Yþwyn people. It was spoken on the planet Sâfâolêracópâ. In the current time period this language is extinct however the 7 major languages on this planet all descend from Ancient Qâêr which in turn descends from Proto-Fárîân. This language is suffix heavy and strictly SVO structured with very few irregularities.

For a list on the dialects and different variations of Qâêr, please see the Qâêr Language Family

=Phonology=

Mutations

 * 1) Both Approximants and Lateral Approximants are de-voiced before nasals.
 * 2) All plosives are de-voiced at the end of a word.
 * 3) /l/ becomes /ɭ/ after vowels.
 * 4) /ɹ/ becomes /r/ before plosives at the syllable onset.
 * NB /l/ & /ɭ/, and /ɹ/ & /r/ are not distinguishing phonemes.

Diphthongs

 * {| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"

! Diphthong ! IPA
 * ao
 * ɐʊ
 * ey
 * eɪ
 * ôe
 * ɔː
 * ŷe
 * ɪəː
 * }
 * ŷe
 * ɪəː
 * }
 * }

Writing System
The writing system for Ancient Qâêr is a Syllabic system. This means that each symbol (or letter) represents a consonant or consonant cluster plus a vowel. I am currently working on scanning individual images of each symbol and uploading them into a table with their correpsonding IPA equivalent to provide a better, more visual example. There is a group of basic symbols which are a consonant/consonant cluster plus the vowel [a], these basic symboles are then extended (i.e. added to) to changed the vowel combination. Vowels do not exist alone in the Orthography of Ancient Qâêr, rather to write a vowel as one syllable, the symbole for voiceless glottal fricative (i.e. [h]) plus a corresponding vowel is used. Further examples can be seen in the (still yet uncompleted) table below.

=Phonotactics=


 * The (A) means all consonants apart from stops.

Consonant Rules

 * 1) Kw and Hw
 * 2) No consonants may be next to either of these unless they are dissylabic to Kw or Hw.
 * 3) May only be word inital and medial.
 * 4) Nasals
 * 5) Can never be after Fricatives.
 * 6) Can be before Plosives and (when dissyllabic (except ñ)) may be before Liquids but only after Approximants.
 * 7) Approximants
 * 8) Cannot be after Nasals.
 * 9) Can be word initial, before and/or after vowels.
 * 10) Can be before and/or after Fricatives.
 * 11) Can never be after Liquids and can only be before them when dissyllabic.
 * 12) Approximants can be before Plosives.
 * 13) Fricatives
 * 14) Can never be before or after Plosives or (except when dissyllabic) Liquids.
 * 15) Can be before and/or after Approximants.
 * 16) Can be after Nasals
 * 17) Liquids (J & W)
 * 18) Can never be before or after Fricatives or Approximants.
 * 19) Can never be before Plosives or Nasals.
 * 20) Plosives
 * 21) Can be after Nasals and Approximants.
 * 22) Can never be before or after Fricatives.
 * 23) Can be before Liquids


 * Certain consonants cannot word-initial unless preceded by a vowel in a word and these are;
 * b
 * d
 * p
 * NB There are, albeit a very few, exceptions.

* Dissyllabic Example - Elwyn = El/wyn
 * The l and w are considered Dissyllabic to each other because they are not pronunced in the same syllable.

Stress
The stress is always placed on the second last accentuated vowel, and in the case where this is not accentuated then the stress swaps to the nearest accentuated vowel. In the case of two syllable words then the stress is always placed on the accentuated vowel and in the rare case where both vowels are accentuated the first one is favoured.


 * In words with are more than four syllables long the first accentuated and second last accentuated voewl are stressed.
 * E.g dhonsênansêwe where the stress is on BOTH sên and sê.

=Grammar=

Sentence Structure & Word Order
The main clause structure is SVO, with subclauses being SOV.

Main Clause
 * {|class=wikitable style="text-align:center;"

! Subject (NP) ! Verb (VP) ! Direct Object (NP) ! Indirect Object (NP/PP)
 * }

Subclauses
 * {|class=wikitable style="text-align:center;"

! Subject (NP) ! Direct Object (NP) ! Indirect Object (NP/PP) ! Verb (VP)
 * }

Noun Phrase
 * {|class=wikitable style="text-align:center;"

! Subject ! Secondary Nouns ! Determinatives ! Adjectives
 * }

Verb Phrase
 * {|class=wikitable style="text-align:center;"

! Mood Particle ! Verb ! Abverb
 * }

Prepositional Phrase
 * {|class=wikitable style="text-align:center;"

! Verb ! Preposition ! Noun ! Determinatives ! Adjectives
 * }

Noun, Verb, and Adjective Structure
Noun Structure

Verb Structure

Adjective Structure
 * Adjectives cannot be inflected with comparative and the "Gradable" sufffix at the same time.

Noun Class/Gender Declension Table
Noun classes are inflected onto nouns, a noun must be in a noun class at all times. These classes are open to variation though only minor, and can also be used for derivation. Example a Man could be moved from the Human class to the Small Inanimate class syggesting the man is now dead, or is a corpse. These noun classes can also be used for comedy, example putting the same man into the Large Inanimate class suggesting obesity. However there are strict rules and guidlines and not all nouns can fit, or are allowed to be put into any class. Inanimate objects cannot move to the Human class, and the Non-Human class is, obviously, applied to all living things that are not Human. The second last class would be used to derive such forms as Pizzaria, and the last being used for Planets and Stars and such.

-* When the last consonant of the root (or preceding suffix) is a vowel then the vowel of the suffix is not added.

Noun Plural
The Undefined Plural form of a noun is created by placing the sufffix '-lyn-, e.g

Noun Definitiveness
Singluar Defined Nouns are followed by the suffix-(n)yth and plural defined nouns by the suffix (n)êth.

Example of a Fully Inflected Noun
jymânêthenn is a fully inflected noun.

The noun, and accompanying determiner translates, roughly, to The Men who can be learned from/The Men who are teachers/can be teachers

It can be broken down into;
 * jymân-êth-e-nn
 * Man-Plural-Def.-ABS.-N.Class

Summary of Nouns and Their Structure
Nouns must be in a class at all times, no noun is to be used (spoken or written) without being out into a class. This is grammatically wrong in Ancient Qâêr. Nouns may (though rarely) change classes however a noun must always be inflected with its relevant class at all times. Derivational affixes always precede the noun and where applicable, remove the first vowel of the noun.

Adjectives
All Adjective agree with their correpsonding nouns in class. All adjectives are neutral and are therefore inflected with whateverclass their parent noun is inflected with.

Copulas
There is one Copula in Qâêr and that is Mellon.

Mellon is similar to the English verb to be however it is used only in two contexts, in reference to nouns and adjectives. Mellon is used when one is saying or describing one noun as another, or when using adjectives with pronouns. It conjugates thus;


 * {| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"

! ! Mellon ! ! Mellon
 * I
 * Mel
 * style="background-color: #999999"|
 * style="background-color: #999999"|
 * He/She
 * Mên
 * They
 * Len
 * You
 * Lon
 * You (Plural)
 * Ellon
 * It
 * Mon
 * It (Plural)
 * Men
 * We (Exclusive)
 * Lae
 * We (Plural)
 * Laenon
 * }
 * We (Exclusive)
 * Lae
 * We (Plural)
 * Laenon
 * }


 * NB The pronouns used with Mellon take the Ergative case.
 * NB This copula can be inflected with aspect however not with any of the other verb affixes.
 * NB Any Noun (defined or not) that is not a Pronoun or Special Noun (eg. Names e.c.t) takes the form for they.

Verb Agreement
Verbs agree and conjugate with only two genders even though Qâêr has twelve. Verbs agree with the two genders Animate vs. Non-Animate because, in a sense, all eleven genders of Qâêr fit into these two distinctions. All living life including humans, plants, animals as well as emotions and magical entities come under the Animate distinction, everything not included in the above comes under the Inanimate. Verb conjugation is a suffix and is dependant on the Agent, Subject, and Object in the sentence.

Intransitive Verbs

Transitive Verbs

Prefixes and Their Meanings
There are many affixes in Qâêr however here is a basic list of the ones that won't be mentioned anywhere else on this page.

Negation
Verb negation is done by adding the prefix sao- to any particular verb one wishes to negate. Double negation is done by adding the prefix sêsao- to any verbs. Double negation implies at not at all sense of meaning.
 * The single negative would convey a meaning as - He did not see Which conveys he did not see [an event/something].
 * The double negative would convey a meaning as - He cannot see Which conveys that the man can't see at all, i.e He is blind, or He sees nothing Which conveys that he is seeing or saw nothing at all, i.e He completely missed seeing the entire event/thing.

The negation of adjectives is done also in a similiar fashion by adding the negation prefix sao- to the adjective thus obtaining results such as Happy - Unhappy

Derivation
All the following are Prefixes which remove the first vowel (if applicable, i.e is simply added if the word begins with a consonant) when being attached to the host.

=Verbs=

Below re the different types of verbs found in Qâêr, unless previously stated above.

Supines
Supines are formed very simply in Qâêr. A Supine is a verb used to represent that the another previous verb means  to be able to or for the purpose of. Example.
 * I shovelled the snow to clear the path.

To create/form supines in Qâêr, the verb intended to be the supine is placed after the main verb, and the supine takes no inflections or tenses, a root verb one could say.

Example, using english.
 * I shovelled clear the snow the path
 * Where the main verb Shovelled takes tense (led) and the supine, here seen as clear is left blank, so to say. This is how it would be structured in Qâêr.

The Present Active Participle
To derive the Present Active Participle form of a Verb the suffix -pon is added which transforms verbs as walk or write into walking and writing and e.c.t. The present active participle is used to describe the name or noun version of a verb and takes the place of either the direct object (I like Swimming) or the subject (Swimming is Fun). When a verb is inflected with the present active participle it cannot be inflected with aspect or tense or any other affix. The position of the present active participle in a sentence depends on if it is taking the place of the subject or object in which case it takes the normal position of any normal subject or object in a Qâêr sentence, also these Present Active Participle nouns are commonly used as secondary nouns, eg. The Swimming Pool where swimming is a secondary noun of Pool, same as in The swimming race.

The Present Passive Participle
To derive the Present Passive Participle form of a verb the suffix -pones which transforms verbs such as speak and write into spoken and written and e.c.t. The present passive participle is most commonly used as an adjective in Qâêr and it follows the noun like normal adjectives. An example of the Present Passive Participle is; The written word, or It is a spoken law, the burnt log, and e.c.t Example, in the above sentences it would follow the main noun like log, or law.

Derivation using the Present Active Participle and the Present Passive Participle
The present active participle and the present passive participle also have other derived lexical uses, mainly deriving concrete nouns. The suffix â is added onto the present active and passive participles (the complete suffixes becoming -ponâ and -ponesâ respectively) which in turn transform these two participles from writing and written into writer/author and letter respectively and so on for other participles.
 * Example; Speaking > Speaker and Spoken > Speech e.c.t

The Adjectival Participle
To derive the Adjectival Participle form of a verb the prefix of þyl is added which transforms verbs to adjective participles. An example of an adjectival participle is;
 * very overrated books, or a very frightening experience, or fallen leaves.

However in Qâêr Adjectival Participles can be inflected with the Comparative or 'Gradable' prefix because they are being used as adjectives.

Gerunds
Qâêr has no gerunds and does not use or incorporate them in any way, instead the Present Active Participle takes the place and function of Gerunds in Qâêr.

Voice
Voice is represented by suffixes that attaches to the verb to indicate the voice of the noun in the ergative case, or when lacking one then in the Absolutive case.

Qâêr has three voices, Active, Passive, and Middle, however only two of these are marked, the Passive and Middle voice. This is because the active voice is used the majority of the time therefore not needing an affix of its own.

Examples are in English and Qâêr.

Sentence in Past Perfective Tense
 * English – He gave Mary Money
 * Qâêr - bess semnel-el-nÿ swâren-e Mêrŷ-vey
 * Qâêr – [Erg]He Gave-[Aspect]-[Agreement] Money-[Abs] Mary-[Dat]

Sentence in Active Voice
 * English – bess semnel-wyn-nÿ swâren-e Mêrŷ-vey
 * Qâêr – [Erg]He Give-[Aspect]-[Agreement] Money-[Abs] Mary-[Dat]

Sentence in Passive Voice
 * English – Mary was Given Money
 * Qâêr – sômnel-wyn-nÿ swâren-e Mêrŷ-vey
 * Qâêr – Give-[Aspect]-[Agreement] Money-[Abs] Mary-[Dat]
 * NB Passive voice (if you didn't notice) is done through ablaut of the verb.(See Derivations for more)

Sentence in Middle Voice
 * English – He washes himself with soap.
 * Qâêr - bess donsyl-âr-wyn-eth hwesym-ele
 * Qâêr – [Erg]He Washes-[Middle*]-[Aspect]-[Agreement] Soap-[Instrumental]


 * Actual Suffix is dâr, however the d is lost when attaching to a root that ends in a consonant.

Manner Time Place
Example in Qâêr – I[Erg] Ride[Tense/Aspect] Today Horse[Abs] My[Pos] shop[Dat]
 * English Translation – ‘I will ride my horse to the shop today.’

Mood and Modality
In Qâêr mood is represented by a particle that is placed at the head of the sentence.

'''Qâêr has thirteen moods. These are as follows;'''


 * Indicative (Realis)
 * The indicative mood or evidential mood (abbreviated ind) is used for factual statements and positive beliefs.


 * Optative
 * The optative mood (abbreviated opt) is a grammatical mood that indicates a wish or hope that will not come true.


 * Subjunctive
 * In grammar, the subjunctive mood (abbreviated sjv or sbjv) is a verb mood typically used to express a wish, emotion, or possibility that has not yet occurred.


 * Speculative
 * Speculative mood (abbreviated spec) is an epistemic grammatical mood found in some languages, which indicates that the utterance is based on speculation of the speaker, and not actually known to be the case. For example, "The butler could have been the killer."


 * Potential
 * The potential mood (abbreviated pot) is a mood of probability indicating that, in the opinion of the speaker, the action or occurrence is considered likely.


 * Jussive (Cohortative in 1st Person)
 * The jussive (abbreviated jus) is a grammatical mood of verbs for issuing orders, commanding, or exhorting. Whereas the cohortative applies to the first person and the Imperative to the second person, thus the Jussive us used for 1st and 3rd person and Imperative for second.


 * Dubitative
 * Dubitative mood (abbreviated dub) is an epistemic grammatical mood found in some languages, that indicates that the statement is dubious, doubtful, or uncertain.


 * Conditional
 * The conditional mood (abbreviated cond) is the form of the verb used in conditional sentences to refer to a hypothetical state of affairs, or an uncertain event that is contingent on another set of circumstances. E.g. When/If I feel well, I will sing.


 * Hypothetical
 * Hypothetical mood (abbreviated hyp) is an epistemic grammatical mood found in some languages, which indicates that while a statement is not actually true, it could easily have been. For instance, in English, "You know you shouldn't play with knives! You could have hurt someone!"


 * Imperative
 * The imperative mood (abbreviated imp) expresses direct commands.


 * Interrogative (Particle)
 * In linguistics and grammar, the interrogative mood (abbreviated int) is an epistemic grammatical mood used for asking questions by inflecting the main verb


 * Deliberative (Inflects on Interrogative)
 * Deliberative mood (abbreviated del) is a grammatical mood that asks whether the speaker should do something, e. g. "Shall I go to the market?


 * Precative (Inflects on Interrogative)
 * Precative (abbreviated prec) mood is a grammatical mood which signifies requests, e.g. "Will you pass me the salt?"

Interrogative Words
The interrogative particle lê will be inflected with prefixes and these will phrase interrogative words such as what, where e.c.t. The interrogative particle without one of these prefixes will just be turned into a normal question.


 * What = qâ + lê – qâlê
 * Where = qysyn + lê – qysynlê
 * When = qôe + lê – qôelê
 * Who = qem + lê – qemlê
 * Why = qŷ + lê – qŷlê
 * How = qyfao + lê – qyfaolê
 * How Much = sonâ + lê – sonâlê
 * Sonâ is derived from the Fáriân word Sjinolâme which means ‘to barter’.
 * Note – when using any of these interrogative words in Subordinate or Relative clauses, just the prefix is used, not the prefix with the particle.

=Examples=

Basic Numbers
The Qâêr number system is duodecimal, similar to that of the Chepang and Mahl languages.

0 - Lyn

1 - Onno

2 - Sont

3 - Kes

4 - Loto

5 - Yros

6 - Mello

7 - Seles

8 - Opo

9 - Nesso

A (10) - Kyros

B (11) - Penlyn

10 (12) - Syryl

11 (13) - Onros

12 (14) - Sonros

13 (15) - Keros

14 (16) - Loros

15 (17) - Yrylos

16 (18) - Melros

17 (19) - Selros

18 (20)- Opos

19 (21) - Neros

1A (22) - Kyrylos

1B (23) - Penros

Other Numbers before 100
With the numbers 24 - 100 there is a structured system however.

20 (24) - Sonân

30 (36) - Kenân

40 (48) - Lonân

50 (60) - Yrân

60 (72) - Melân

70 (84) - Selân

80 (96) - Opân

90 (108) - Nesân

A0 (120) - Kyrân

B0 (132) - Penlân

100 (144) - Syryley

Combining Numbers
To derive numbers such as 21 (twenty-one) or 36 (thirty-six) for example, the structure is thus;

21 = Lyn-ey-Sonân


 * The smallest number precedes the larger number.

145 = Yros-ey-Lonân-ey-Syryley

The Featured Banner
English Example -
 * This language was once featured.


 * Thanks to its high level of quality and uniqueness, it has been voted as featured.

Qâêr Translation -
 * Synjômenwenâ Leñâmythend.


 * Kwâêrond âmnewynnÿeth Dysênel kwâtwân hir Sôemsymonólel, sonlâ yponônwenâ Kwâêrend Lythênythveyl Arasânyththond.


 * Synjômen-wen-â Leñâm-yth-e-nd


 * Made Known--PAST PASSIVE IMPEFECTIVE--AGREEMENT Language--DEFINED--ABSOLUTIVE--GENDER


 * Kwâêr-o-nd âmne-wyn-nÿeth Dysên-e-l kwâ-twân hir Sôem-symonól-e-l, sonlâ yponôn-wen-â Kwâêr-e-nd Lythên-yth-vey-l Arasâ-nyth-tho-nd


 * Qâêr--ERGATIVE Possess--IMPERFECTIVE--AGREEMENT Quality--ABSOLUTIVE--GENDER COMPARITIVE--Great and DERIVATION--Unique--ABSOLUTIVE--GENDER, therefore Vote--PAST IMPERFECTIVE--AGREEMENT Qâêr--ABSOLUTIVE--GENDER Position--DEFINED--DATIVE--GENDER Honour--DEFINED--GENITIVE--GENDER

Re-translated version of Qâêr translation -
 * This Language has been made known to the public.


 * The cherished language of Qâêr possesses a very high level of quality and uniqeness and therefore has been voted was voted to this sacred position of Honour.