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 loanwords 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) /f/ is often treated more as a plosive, not appearing near nasals and never geminated. By some speakers, especially in a formal context, it may be pronounced as a labiodental plosive rather than a fricative.
 * 2) /χ/ is realized as palatal [ç] immediately after /i/ and /ɪ/ (including diphthongs).
 * 3) /r/ and /l/ are realized as uvular [ʀ] and [ʟ] immediately after back vowels and dorsal consonants.

Plosives are aspirated in a simple onset.

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 quantity by different speakers and registers.

Mid vowels do not tend to be in stressed positions except in diphthongs or debatably in word-initial positions within words without a syllable that would otherwise take stress, where retracted tongue root is less common. Their quality (particularly RTR) varies between speakers and utterances, so /ε/ may be realized as [e] and /ʌ/ may be realized as [ɤ].

Diphthongs
All diphthongs are falling: the initial vowel sound is stronger, with the second as an off-glide.

Phonotactics
The glottal stop can only between vowels or between a nucleus and syllable boundary. The uvular fricative cannot appear in a cluster with /t/. /f/ cannot appear in a cluster with any plosive. Null onsets and codas are both possible.

Onset
An onset may contain at most one plosive, one fricative, and one liquid, with the obstruents in any order and the liquid closest to the nucleus. Fricatives (except /f/) and liquids have phonemic length. Nasals also have phonemic length but can only exist either as a simple onset or else following a single fricative with no other consonants present in the onset.

Nucleus
Vowels are not affected by their environments, and the wide variety of monophthongs and diphthongs may appear regardless of the surrounding consonants or other nuclei. Vowels without retracted tongue root can only occur in stressed syllables.

Coda
A coda may contain at most one plosive, one fricative, and one liquid, with the obstruents in any order and the liquid closest to the nucleus. In coda position, there is no phonemic length. As in onsets, nasals can only exist in simple codas or else immediately between the nucleus and a fricative with no other consonants in the cluster.

=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 more synthetic historical form of the language.

There does exist a single prefix on verbs denoting passive voice: -u (or -w if the stem begins with a vowel).

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).

Syntax
Fyelli is a VSO language. Beyond this reversal, it is prespecifying.

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=

Numbers
Fyelli traditionally uses an octal (base-8) counting system. Number words, in a sentence, replace the plural particle 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 the subject position of transitive sentences and in formal speech.

Open Class
=Examples= "They will speak Fyelli in the human city."

Shkil myerrna ngyo Fyelli ti 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 kik mang khwe shoalti, som ykhrarn ikh yen yekhtaskem yu, yols ti 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 hwowod yoalti.

Poetry
Songs in Fyelli is traditionally based on stress patterns (typically trochaic) and alliteration of stressed syllables within or between lines.

Qllau'si Flworren Li (Song From The Wall)
Qllaut qwamai ti qllau’si sauci?

Yen mang khyelli wowe waurkor!

Roar is rroak mang flworren wofi!

Lain mang feil fi fyel ti sauci?

Haul mang hykha aurt li sauci?

Mang willyt ætu flworren wel li!

Ikh ahwe two hic ætu tu yu!

Hil kho mang famæ kin woli!

''Sæ’ei mmor kho! Sæ’ei yoarnyef!''

Tuk two cye’fi, som shkil tuk two:

Twemkof wokik-tywis qyngo.

What song does this voice sing?

Our people are furious!

It grows in our stone walls!

In what mountains does the city lie?

What falls from the clear skies?

Arrows from those heroic walls!

We know not a fear of death!

They hear from our red mouths!

Bind them! Pillage!

We finish, as when we finish:

By their foolish flesh-god.

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 wei khoakh fi. Har alwowit ngyo khwfi.'' (When people went from the east, found they a flatland in the land of Shinar. Settled they there.) ''Har au ngyo a ngyo: "Sæ'ei! Shkil yor kik æssenkli yorwosh two 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 au ngyo: "Sæ'ei! Shkil yor yoal a fyel ætu kik mwntor ætu, kik shkil yen hwowud ywkhol hykha fi. Shkil wahwe two er uciqeil two hit qi hoak wei. (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 khyelli yu khing ti. (God came and saw he the city and tower, which the children of people had made.) ''Har au Tywis ti: "Sæ'ei tyot! Om an ngyo a yol ssyof ætu, kik om cye'ci farra an frwo 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 weingo 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 wei, 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 wei, kik har ciqeal Tywis ti ngyo a hit qi hoak wei 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.