Language of the North

Alphabet
TLOTN has originally used its own alphabet. However, centuries of exposure with languages using the Latin alphabet made it necessary to develop a romanization. Nowadays, only the Latin alphabet is used to write TLOTN.

Vowels Diphthongs are formed by putting together the single letters according to the individual sounds of the diphthong.

Consonants All vowels and all consonants marked with an * can be either short or long - the length is important as it can alter meaning. If a sound is represented by a single letter, the letter is doubled for the long sound. If a sound is represented by a digraph or trigraph ending with "h", the h is doubled for the long sound. The long form of the digraph "ng" is "nng".

If two sounds follow each other and their letters together form a digraph or trigraph, an apostrophe (') is added between the letters. If no apostrophe is used, you always have to form diphthongs or digraphs or trigraphs.

Phonotactics
Diphthongs

All diphthongs can be used in word stems - the only exception are diphthongs ending with "i". These are solemnly used in declensions or cunjugations and do not appear in word stems. Consonant clusters

All types of word stems can only have consonant clusters in the onset (beginning of a syllable). Consonant clusters in the coda (end of a syllable) are solemnly used in declensions or conjugations and do not appear in word stems.

Because there are only very few coda clusters, only onset clusters are listed below (probably subject to change!).

Stress
In TLOTN, stress follows a regular pattern.


 * 1. The stress is always on the word stem.


 * 2. If the stem ends in a vowel, the penultimate is stressed.


 * 3. If the stem ends in a consonant, the ultimate is stressed.

Verbs
In TLOTN, verbs are conjugated for ...


 * 1. their person - 1. person, 2. person or 3. person


 * 2. their number - singular, plural or collective


 * 3. their tense - present, past or future


 * 4. their mood - indicative, subjunctive, causative or imperative


 * 5. their voice - active or passive

in TLOTN, there are 3 conjugations based on the "infinitive present indicative active" which acts as the "basic" form of a verb and is also found in dictionaries.


 * 1. The first conjugation contains all "infinitives present indicative active" ending in -l or -r


 * 2. The second conjugation contains all "infinitives present indicative active" ending in -p, -t, -k, -f, -th, -s or -sh


 * 3. The third conjugation contains all "infinitives present indicative active" ending in a short vowel

All of these conjugations use the same endings but their stems undergo different changes to form the 24 infinitives of TLOTN. Note that all "infinitives present indicative active" have a short vowel in their ultima.

Infinitives of the 1. conjugation (-l or -r)
All suffixes in the chart above form active infinitives. To form the passive infinitives, you have to add the following suffix:

Infinitives of the 2. conjugation (-p, -t, -k, -f, -th, -s or -sh)
All suffixes in the chart above form active infinitives. To form the passive infinitives, you have to add the following suffix:

Infinitives of the 3. conjugation (all short vowels)
All suffixes in the chart above form active infinitives. To form the passive infinitives, you have to add the following suffix:

Suffixes for person and number (for all conjugations)
If the active infinitive ends in a vowel, an "v" is added between infinitive and person/number suffix.

Overview
To conjugate verbs, you only have to put together the suffixes in the charts above in the right order: