Äliaturse

Äliaturse, literally meaning 'Many words', or 'language', was the first language of Marir, and is understood by all peoples of that world, although it can be written and spoken only by a few.

=Setting= Äliaturse was the official language of Kal'mara, and an unofficial language in the other Human Realms of Marir. It became the official language of The Alliance when the force was created to explore the boundaries of the new-found space outside the planet known as Marir. It is the most ancient language known to the peoples of Marir, and although it can be understood by any of the sentient races in the Mari Universe, it can be mastered only by those who learn it as children, or study it hard as an adult. It is the language in which all mind-to-mind conversations must be made, and when exploited in this way relies on the images and concepts discussed as much as the words themselves.

Äliaturse is the language of essence - rather than describing an object, it names it, because Äliaturse was conveyed by thought before it was spoken or transcribed. It is said that Äliaturse is the tongue in which the Creator spoke to Its subjects at the beginning of time, and that all living things in the Universe will understand its words, even if they cannot speak or write them. Although the similarities are not very obvious now, all the spoken languages of the Mari Universe are descended from Äliaturse.

Amongst humans, dwarves and goblins, Äliaturse is studied only by mages or great scholars, as the alternative languages are simpler, and far more widespread. Using Äliaturse, mages may cast magic, as the ancient language channels their power. Many Gods and Goddesses in the Mari Universe address their subjects in Äliaturse; the subjects understand the message but detect an alien quality to it - they do not recognise that it is a different language. However, since the creation of The Alliance, non-mages have also begun instruction in the tongue, in schools and in villages, to improve global communication.

=Phonology = Vowels

Consonants

The pronunciation and stress of individual words is dictated by a long-short rhythm. Monosyllabic accented words are stressed, unaccented words are unstressed. For all other words, the penultimate syllable is stressed. Where there are many syllables, the stress follows a stressed-unstressed-stressed-unstressed pattern, where the penultimate syllable is always stressed. Syllables containing accents may also be stressed somewhat.

=Basic Grammar=

Verbs
There are four types of verb, of which the stems are made in the following ways:

-er verbs - remove the 'er'

-are verbs - replace 'are' with 'al'

-ire verbs replace 'ire' with 'il'

-ere verbs replace 'ere' with 'el'

Now only one ending must be learned for the four verb types:

Reflexive verbs may be recognised by the suffix -le following the infinitive. This is replaced with the correct reflexive pronoun, which you shall find below.

Pronouns
You will notice that there are many more endings than for most languages. This is because of the multitude of Pronouns that exist in Äliaturse.

Declining Nouns
There are two types of noun - those that end in a consonant, and those that end in a vowel. They are declined as follows:

Word Order
In a noun phrase, the number/quatifier precedes the noun, whilst adjectives follow it.

The first idea of a clause or sentence must be either a time phrase or the subject. The direct object stays just before the verb, and the verb is always at the end of the clause.

Subject-(adjective)Object-(adjective)Verb.

The indirect object is positioned between the subject and the object.

Subject-(adjective)Indirect Object-(adjective)Object-(adjective)Verb.

With the genetive case:

Posession-(adjective)-Owner-(adjective)Object-(adjective)Verb.

OR

Subject-(adjective)Posession-(adjective)-Owner-(adjective)Verb.

The reflexive pronoun of a verb goes before the Object:

Subject-(adjective)ReflexiveObject-(adjective)Verb.

Numbers
Ordinal numbers are created by adding me-or mel- to the cardinal numbers displayed below.

Äliaturse does not recognise 0 as a number, therefore it is only referred to as na, meaning nothing, and is not listed in any numerical workings.

Adjectival endings
Comparatives are created with the prefix ga(l)-.

Superlatives are created with the suffix -ya.

Adjectives are negated with the suffix -na.

Adjectival endings follow to pattern of nouns:

=Dictionary = ...

=Example text= ...