Wexalian

General Information
The English name for this language is Boyait which is taken from French (which itself is a loan from the Gaulish word Boii). The native name, Cīvlsh [ˈkiːvl̩ʃ], comes from the Latin loan word cīvīlis with which the native speakers of Boyait named their language as they prided themselves on being a "civilized" group who were educated (though, this was mainly through the fact that they were a very small group of people in a relatively small, noncrucial location where they could live peacefully). The language is taken from Old High German with many French and Czech loan words as well as those from German later on.

Sound Changes at the bottom of the page.

Phonemes
​All vowels are allophonically nasal in the cluster /Vnt/ which is pronounced [Ṽʔ] (V = vowel) Allophony ~[ʒ] is an allophone of [ʃ] after a long vowel finally ~[ŋ/ʟ] is an allophone of [n/l] before [k] or [g] ~[ð] is an allophone of [θ] after a final long vowel or intervocalically ~Voiceless plosives are allophonically aspired intervocalically and initially

Stress
Stress always falls on the  vocalic  syllable closest to the end. If that vowel is [ə] or [ɪ], the nearest vocalic syllable will take the stress with preference to the preceeding syllable.

Alphabet
(1) Used in loans (C - Latin, French, English; Q - English, French; X - Latin, French, English; Y - Greek, Latin; Ç - French; W - English, German). (2) With the spread of typing and modern computers, this is being taken over by W w. (3) Used in Old French loans to denote [t͡s]. (4) Voiced plosives are devoiced finally. (5) Before [k] or [g]

Digraphs and Diacritics

 * Uu uu - [w] (as stated before, W w is taking over this multigraph due to the spread of computers)
 * Sh sh - [ʃ]
 * Pf pf - [p͡f]
 * Ei ei - [i]
 * Ou ou - [u]
 * Oa oa - [o̯ə]
 * Ai ai - [ɛ] in native words
 * Au au - [ɔ] in native words
 * Hv hv - [v] from Old High German hw
 * Þþ - [θ] intervocallically
 * Tj tj - [tʃ]
 * Dj dj - [dʒ]
 * É é, È è - used in loans and some native words ([ɪ] and [ɛ]; from French influence)
 * Ó ó - used in loans and some native words ([ʊ]; from French influence)
 * Ü ü - [ʏ]; from German influence (most common in native words)
 * Ǖ ǖ - [yː] ^
 * Ö ö - [œ]; from German influence (most common in native words)
 * Ȫ ȫ - [øː] ^
 * Eü eü - [ø]
 * Oü oü - [y]
 * Ä ä - [ɛː]
 * Äu äu - [ɔː]
 * Œu œu, Eu eu - [œ]; from French influence (mainly in loans)
 * Qu qu - [k] from French ([kw] would be Quu quu or Qw qw)
 * Sch sch - [ʃ] from German
 * Ch ch - [x] from German
 * Nn nn - this is where there are two N's: one in the preceding syllable and the syllabic N in it's own ([nˈn])
 * Ph ph, Th th, Ch ch - [f], [θ], [x] from Greek or Latin from Greek
 * Ā ā, Ī ī, Ē ē, Ū ū, Ō ō - [aː], [iː], [eː], [uː], [oː]

Punctuation

 * / . / - tètshke – period. Used to end a sentence.
 * /, / - tshārke – comma. Seperates prepositional phrases and subordinating conjunctions (except in lists) from the main sentence (that is: the independent and/or relative clause). It is always placed between the accusative and the dative. It is also used to seperate items in a list.
 * / ; / - stzjèdnjik – semi-colon. Seperates conjunctional clauses.
 * / : / - tshuste-szjève - colon. Leads into a sentence explaining and/or explanding on the previous.
 * / ? / - etaznjeik - question mark. Marks an interrogative statement.
 * / ! / - vikzjitshnjeik - exclimation mark. Marks a statement (usually a single word) that is meant to be spoken passionately.

General Information
Counter to most germanic languages, all declensions were lost in Boyait. Instead, a more complex article based system was formed to represent case, gender, definitiveness, and plurality.

Cases
Note that these definitions are not the technical definitions, but the grammatical terms used in Boyait to describe them. Also note that the prepositional cases can be expanded with additional prepositional clitics.

Plural and Mass Nouns
To denote plurality (either mass or plural) in Boyait, there is a clitic. This clitic changes according to the type of noun the proceeds it. This is determined by the declension class in Old High German. For example: tak's plural is tak'e. Since there is no way to know this other than the Old High German plural (to which there are still irregularities), the plural form will be written with the word. The lexical standard form is «-'n» for use in this article meaning the raw clitic form (this is because «-'n» is the most common form of this clitic and used in articles). Note that mass nouns don't use the plural clitic. Mass nouns refer to the nouns that represent an uncountable amount of a noun (represented by the zero, or lack of an, article in English).

Articles
Please note that the sound changes among articles are not exact in any way. They've been heavily simplified from their original forms for simplicity.

General Information
The prepositional cases

Usually, the inessive, ablative, locative, and comitative cases come from a simplified, grammaticized contraction of the Old High German DAT + in, DAT + ūz, GEN + inna, and DAT + mit respectively.

Plural and Mass Nouns

The plural of an article is the singular form with the plural clitic, -'n, after it.

Definite
Definitie articles are used for noun relating to specific and proper nouns (such as countries or people). Near refers to nouns that are close to you, and Away refers to nouns that are away from you, but these definitions can mixed sometimes so the Near is the default (as in that it refers to proper nouns, and it's what is resorted to if one were confused).

Near

Comes from der, the. Away

Comes from jenēr, that.

Indefinite
Comes from ein, one. This is used to refer to groups of nouns (not mass nouns) and a noun in general but not specifically the one used as an example.

Partative
Comes from dehein, some/any. This refers to nouns that are a part of another (such as "a piece of pie," "some coffee," "a slice of cake," etc).

Personal
Note that the lack of the locative case here is intended: locative personal pronouns don't exist in Boyait.

Interrogative
These are all 3rd person pronouns representing any unknown person (English would be who or which) (the verb always conjuates to 3rd person but changes in plurality). These like the personal pronouns are assumed often times with context, intonation, or both (see Independent Clauses and Formality for more under Syntax).

5th Person
The 5th person (you in English, on in French, and Sie in German: represents people in general, anyone, or someone) is represented by placing the verb in the passive; you would use the 5th person pronoun ſä (from OHG sih) if there's no patient to take the place of the previous nominative (ſä has the verb conjugate to the 3rd person). Ssä is a pejorative pronoun meaning it, [that] asshole, [that] douche, etc when it's in the nominative active (this can be expanded by using various articles for other cases) so one must be careful when using it.

Adjectives
Positive

The standard form of an adjective.

Negative

Place nōt after the adjective. This is colloquially subtracted to net or -(e)t as a suffix where the (e) only appears after a consonant.

Comparative

Add the suffix -ir to the end of the adjective.

Superlative

Add the suffix -is to the end of the adjective.

Verbs
Note: an explination of the subjunctive will be explained in the Dependent Clause section. Note that various ideas such as reflexive and causitive are explained under Verb Phrase in Syntax.

General Information
Negation

Place nōt after the verb. The same subtractions rules as adjectives apply (under Adjectives).

Umlauts

In a given conjugation, the stem may change to something similar (such as plägm becoming plaigem in the subjunctive). Paraphrastic Constructions
 * 1) /ä > ai/ and /äu > au/ with more than one vowel
 * 2) /z > s/ finally
 * 3) /j > i/ finally
 * 4) /uu > u/ finally
 * 5) /uu > v/ before I and E
 * 6) /h > ∅/ finally

The preterite had been merged with the present form resorting in the required use of to have as an auxillary verb leading to various additional paraphrastic combinations. Note: the subjunctive can be applied to phrases by putting an astrix on the verb that would be put in the subjunctive (if there's no astrix, the phrase can't be subjunctive)..
 * to have* present + past participle = preterite
 * to have past + past participle = historical preterite (also used as an exaggeration)
 * to be* present + to have past participle + present participle = habitual past/imperfect
 * will present + present participle = future
 * will present + to have present participle + past participle = future past
 * will past + present participle = conditional (as in I'd do that, I'd like that, I'd rather…)
 * to be* present + past participle = present passive
 * to be* past + past participle = past passive
 * to be* past + to have past participle + present participle = habitual past/imperfect passive
 * will present + to be present participle + past participle = future passive
 * will present + to be past participle + to have present participle + past participle = future past passive
 * will past + to be past participle + present participle = conditional passive

Class I
These came from OHG -en. plägn [plɛ:gn̩] - to assist [medically], to nurse, to help

Class II
These came from OHG -ōn and -ēn (they merged). duuaren [dwarən] - to play (puerilely), to horseplay

Strong Verbs
Strong verbs decline by changing the principle vowel in an ablaut (English has somthing similar. For example, run vs. ran, write vs. wrote, and understand vs. understood). In addition to this, there are some consonant changes to match the vowels. The parts that are effected by the ablaut are the Indicative Present, the Indicative Preterite (which is affixal here rather than paraphrastic such as the preterite of the weak verb) Singular and Plural, and the Past Participle. Note that the personal suffixes are still placed for the present and preterite forms. All other forms (such as the subjunctive) are just as the Class II weak verbs (except the infintive). Note that the infinitive's original vowel stays the same in the present even if it's different (ex: kumen > kumem in present but camem in the singular preterite). The roman numerals indicate the Class of strong verb.

Auxillary Verbs
Note that these forms are different from their lexical forms (forms where they fuction as real verbs rather than auxillaries) due to heavy simplification.

To Have
Used for various past and perfect conjugations. It comes from habēn, to have.

To Be
Used for the habitual tense and passive voice. Comes from wesan, to be.

Will
Used for the future tense (like to go in English). Comes from wellen, will.

Noun Phrase
Noun phrases consist of a single noun (or noun-like word such as a gerund, nominalized adjective, etc), its adjectives, and its article. Articles always preceed the noun as in English and Romance languages while adjectives always follow the noun (Boyait is head-initial). They follow the equal adjectives principle in English where adjectives that describe the noun are adjecent to the noun (usually being one adjective) and adjectives that describe the noun-describing adjectives follow thereafter. In cases where adjectives all describe the noun, the order is irrelevant. Some nouns are fusions of two nouns together (such as redwood or bedspread): these are treated as one word together rather than two seperate nouns.

Prepositions go before/are the article and are slightly more complex in Boyait. The article can be a general preposition and article when speaking in general terms (such as in, at, etc). Though, there are prepositions for more complex prepositional ideas which are mostly compound prepositions with the article. If a separate preposition is used without the following pronoun, the pronoun will take the accusative.

Genitive/Possessive constructs are simple: they have the owned noun followed by the owning noun with the genitive article. This works like the English construction The father of the boy (Boyait: Dair fader dais gārçn). Possessive pronouns work the same way but with pronouns.

Nominative adjectives (or gerundives in Boyait grammar) are formed by just using the article that's most fit for the situation and a suffix on the end on the adjective (search gerundive in the lexicon for such suffixes).

Verb Phrase
Verbs come directly after the subject phrase (though, this may be assumed and therefore just the verb will appear with the subject in context). A verb phrase consists of the main verb (which can be preceeded by its auxillaries in a paraphrastic phrase) followed by its adverb: adverbs are placed after the verb (in paraphrastic phrases, it still goes at the end of the entire phrase) except in the case of temporal adverbs (example: yesterday, today, usually, habitually, etc) which are placed before the verb phrase.

There is no copula (this will be explained in the Independent Clause part).

Reflexive verbs have the verb and the same pronoun in the accusative with the definite article (3rd and 2nd persons use the Away article) following the verb. Associative verbs work the same but using the comitative case. Causitive verbs work in the construction: to have + accusative pronoun + infinitive.

Nominalized verbs (or gerunds in Boyait grammar) are formed with the past participle and the given article. Most gerunds are masculine, but some have another gender (ex: wäulen is feminine when used as will). Supines are formed by using the article in the instrurmental.

Interrogative
Questions are very liberal in Boyait. General questions (such as Are you going to the movies?) which require a yes/no answer are assumed by a rise in intonation similar to that in French. Other question words such as where, how, etc are usually assumed (ex: Where are you going tonight? would be [where are you] going [tonight]?) where the question word and person are assumed in the context and the intonation. Keep in note that this can be often overlooked when there is ambiguty or there is a formal situation.

Independent
Independent clause are very simple and it works somewhat like Japanese. There only needs to the word most relevent to the context of the situation as in that if the noun is known due to the context of the situation, it isn't necessary to say and the verb alone is said (examples: "[are you] good?" – "yeah"; "[where do] [you] live?" – "[I live in] America"; "[do you want] cake?" – "nah, [I'm] full"; "[is he] nice?" – "of course"; etc). This is the same with nouns vs. verbs. Though, patients should always be stated even if assumed or just pronouns. As stated before, Boyait is SVO.

The copula in Boyait would be always vaihn, but the copula isn't necessary in Boyait. In the context of the situation, the copula is understood (usually the subject is as well).

Subjunctive

The subjunctive cannot be in an independent clauses: therefore to make a subjunctive phrase that works as an independent clause, you would write an introductory phrase such as I want that…, It's necessary that…, etc. You can use the passive voice if the subject isn't done by a particular person.

Dependent
Various types of dependent clauses can be introduced multiple different ways:

Conjunctional

This is the most common dependent clauses which is introduced with a subordinating conjunction. A conjunctional dependent clause must have an object. If-clauses are a different type of dependent clause.

Basic/Subjunctive

This is another common dependent clause type which involves that (dat). Unlike English, this is a required particle. This particle doesn't make a difference between human (who) vs. non-human (that, which). In Boyait, this and Conditional Clauses are the only ones which can use the subjunctive. The subjunctive is used when expressing a want (ex: I want that you be good), a requirement (ex: It's necessary that you act well).

Conditional

Conditional clauses are introduced with the conjunction if (if) followed by the condition and the result of that condition following that. This makes great use of the subjunctive. The placing of the condition statement (starting with if) is free based on emphasis although speakers have a tendency to place the condition at the end of the sentence. Here are the conditions (where the symbol ~̣̇ represents the mood of both main verbs): Relative
 * If X is true, Y is true (indicative present ~̣̇ indicative present)
 * If X is true, Y will be true (indicative present ~̣̇ indicative future)
 * If X was true, Y will be true (indicative preterite/imperfect ~̣̇ indicative future)
 * If X is true, Y could be true (indicative present ~̣̇ subjunctive past)
 * If X was true, Y would be true (indicative past ~̣̇ subjunctive present)
 * If X were true, Y would be true (subjunctive past ~̣̇ subjunctive present)
 * (If X were possible, could happen, etc), Y would be true (Y = conditional)

Relative clauses are introduced with the interrogative pronouns hvär/hvas where hvär is the human form and hvas is the non-human form. In general, these work the same way as Base/Subjunctive Clauses but the interrogative pronouns aren't mandatory and the verb must conjugate to the 3rd person singular/plural (look at Interrogative Pronouns under Pronouns). Subjunctives aren't permissible here (the idea of a subjunctive must be introduced with a verb + that + Base/Subjunctive Clause).

Formality
There is a small T-V distinction that works the same way as French with the notable exception of using the formal pronoun in reference to religion. Otherwise, formal situations are much different than familiar in that the otherwise common use of leaving words out that are assumed in the context is disregarded and a full SVO sentence is used in the same manner as English. Interrogatives here work by inverting the subject and the verb (where the pronoun is used). Additionally, when speaking to someone of higher social class/rank, their honorific (ma'am/madam/madamoiselle, sir/monsieur, your highness, etc) is used. God in Christianity uses the 2nd person singular.

Lexicon

 * Vocabulary Spreadsheet

Sound Changes
C - consonant; V - vowel; grave accent - unstressed; acute accent - stressed; L - [l, w, j, r]; J - [i, iː, e, eː]; F - fricative; Ɵ - closed syllable; S - syllable; MB - mono-/bisyllable words i > j/_V (except below diphthongs)  *morganlioxt > morganljoxt –  – n. morning light eɪ̯ > i:                       *klein > kli:n –  –  –  –  –  – n. small io̯ > ø:                       *niosan > nø:san –  –  –  –  –  v. sneeze iu̯ > y:                       *liudōn > lydōn –  –  –  –  –   v. hum ou̯ > u:                       *ubarloufan > ubarlu:fan –  –   v. run across, traverse sk > ʃk!_# > ʃ                *skūfala > ʃkūfala  –  –  –  –  n. shovel sp > ʃp!_# > ʃ                *sprex:an > ʃprexːan –  –  –  – v. to speak sx > ʃ                        *daxsxūt > daxʃūt –  –  –  –  – n. beaver skin xj > ʃ                        *hiutu > ʃutu –  –  –  –  –  –  n. today x > θ/V_J                     *xōxspāxi > xōxʃpāθi –  –  –  – n. to be a master Geminates were simplified and their preceeding vowel became elongated *gimitten > gimi:ten  v. halve w > v/_J                      *grāwī > grāvī –  –  –  –  –  – n. gray V > V:/_xC                    *rixt > rīt –  –  –  –  –  –  – n. right V:x > V:/_C                   *xōxspāθi > xōʃpāθi –  –  –  –  n. to be a master Vrl > V:d                     *wuntarlīx > wuntādīx –  –  –   adj. admirable xw > v                        *xwer > ver –  –  –  –  –  –  – n. who s > x/V_V                     *bilōsen > bilōxen –  –  –  –   v. behead, take away French Loans Begin CV̀L > CL                      *ʃkūfala > ʃkūfla –  –  –  –  – n. shovel CVn > Cn̩; CV:n > Cən          *bilōxen > bilōxn̩ –  –  –  –  – v. behead, take away CV̀l > Cl                      *wexsal  > vēsl̩  –  –  –  –  –  n. change, exchange, bill V:(θ, f)V > V:(ð, v)V         *xōspāθi > xōʃpāði –  –  –  –   n. to be a master V̀ > ∅/_#                      *ʃkūfla > ʃkūfl̩ –  –  –  –  –   n. shovel V̀: > V/_#                     *grāvī > grāvi –  –  –  –  –  – n. gray V:F > V:F̬/_#                  *pfīfa > pfīv –  –  –  –  –  –  n. flute final obstruent devoicing     *lodo > lot –  –  –  –  –  –  – n. coarse woolen cloth t͡s, st > s/_#                 *dit͡s > dis –  –  –  –  –  –  – n. this p > f/_#!C_                   *griobo > grjof –  –  –  –  –   n. firewood Czech Loans Begin bf, bw, bv > p͡f               *unselbwaltīg > unselp͡fl̩tīk – – adj. dependent t > θ/(C, V:, i)_#            *ebanalt > ebanl̩θ –  –  –  –  – n. of the same age t > d/V_V                     *fater > fader –  –  –  –  –  – n. father V̀ > ə/Ɵ &/or primary syllable *bilōxn̩ > bəlōxn̩ –  –  –  –  –  v. behead, take away V: > V/if the preceding syllable already has a long vowel (except ū and ī), but if the long vowel is ultimate preceding a voiced fricative, the long vowel preceding that one is simplified to a diphthong*               *xōʃpāð > xu̯oʃpāð –  –  –  –  – n. to be a master o > ɔ                         *lot > lɔt –  –  –  –  –  –  –  n. coarse woolen cloth e > ɛ                         *bero > bɛr –  –  –  –  –  –  – n. bear ì > ɪ                         *sinwelbī > senvɛlbɪ –  –  –  – n. bale ø:, y: > œ, ʏ/Ɵ; S̀ ù > oə̯/Ɵ, mono-/bisyllablic   *daxʃut > dāʃoə̯t –  –  –  –  –  n. beaver skin ù > ə                         *wa:rum > wa:rəm –  –  –  –  –  n. were ɛ´ > ɛ´:/ MB                   *bɛr > bɛːr –  – n. bear ɔ́ > ɔ́:/ MB                     *lɔʔ > lɔːt –  – n. coarse woolen cloth è > ə/_#                      *senvɛlbe > senvɛlbə –  –  –  – n. bale tj, dj > tʃ, dʒ/_V            *skaltjar > ʃkaltʃar –  –  –  – n. leap year FVr > Fr/_V̀_ (once per word)  *ʃkaltʃar > ʃkaltʃr̩ –  –  –  –  n. leap year Loan words ɲ > nj c > tʃ; ɟ > dʒ r̝ > t͡sj z > t͡s y > ʏ ø > œ e > ɛ ĩ, ỹ, ẽ, õ, ã > i, u:, ɛ, ɔ, ɛ (*) ō, ē, ā, ī, ū > u̯o, i̯e, i̯ə, i̯ɛ, u̯ɔ

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