Avrekel

Avrekel language (Avärikel Aenä or Avärikelaenä in Avrekel, also called language of the West-elves by humans, Sänäranilavathaenä or simply Sänäraenä by some kinds of elves, which can be translated as "language of the west-ancestors") is mainly spoken in Anhmor and Mifmor, where it is recognized as national language, but some speakers can be found in other countries because of the migration to other lands or because they were colonies in ancient times.

Classification and Dialects
This language is an elfic language (kel) which comes from the Ancient Gordhur (once a sort of common elfic language) and Aniskel (spoken in the west of Kahaymah). They were both Gordhurish languages contrasting with the languages of Anthuraal, but as Avrekel started beign spoken only in the West this language is considered a Western Gordhurish language.

Officially, only the "traditional" form of Avrekel is accepted, although there are quite a lot dialects. For a West-elf it is very important to speak this language with a correct grammar and pronunciation, because it is considered sacred. Grammar rules and pronunciation are strictly fixed and it is offensive to speak a different type of Avrekel in public; even foreigners have to use a different language if they don't speak Avrekel very well.

Writing Systems
There are three different writing systems in Avrekel.

The eldest one is called Malähanena or Malävhanena, "Malähan's one", which consists in a complicated connection between basic consonant sounds and diacritical marks which explicate the vowel sounds, read from left to right. With this alphasyllabary the terminations of declensions are specific symbols which are put after the word in a clear order.

Almost at the time another writing system was born: it is called Näranä, "ideogram". In fact, it consists of ideographs which represent a concept. But this alphabet was just invented for military and political using, so it is possible to write only some of the whole words in Avrekel. It is read from left to right, but terminations are put upon and below the ideograph.

In the middle of the Second Era, a member of the Dheran Anol (the council of the Elves), Nwmäl, invented a new, simplified writing system called Nwmälena, "Nwmäl's one". It is an alphasyllabary like the Malähanena, but has less consonants and simpler diacritical marks and rules. It has been a success and soon became the most used writing system among Avrekel's speakers. Like the others, it is read from left to right.

Alphasyllabary Nwmäl (Nwmälena)
Here are the basic vowel symbols used in Avrekel language. They are written only at the beginning of a word (if there are no consonants before) and at the beginning of a termination.

Here are the consonants in Avrekel language. It is also showed the sound of the letter when it is mollified (by putting a specific diacritical mark), although these alterations of some consonants aren't used very often.


 * There are also three diacritic marks which are put before the other marks, if used. These consist in a mollification mark (used only with some consonants), a vowel-stop mark which remove the vocalic sound after a consonant one, and an aspirate mark only for vowels, used to aspirate the vocalic sound (what is transliterated with a "H" at the beginning of the word).

Gender and Number
In Avrekel there are three genders which are masculine, feminine and neuter. The identification of the gender is useless because declensions don't care of it, but it is helpful for native speakers in rhetoric and literature.

There are also three numbers: singular, paucal and plural. The terminations are put according to the last letter of the word. In fact, if the word ends in a vocalic sound terminations are different from a word which finishes with a consonant sound.


 * If a word ends with sound "A" the termination -na is the only one which is allowed.

Cases
In Avrekel languages there are eighteen cases which consist in one termination for each case, neglecting the number. They are divided in two categories: vowel-ending words and consonant-ending words.

When a termination begins with a vowel, this one is never written as a diacritic mark, but as a basic symbol.


 * The respective, confective and reputative cases are invented. Respective states an affinity or a mode (Note: Nwmälena, the alphabet related to Nwmäl), confective is the case of the agent in a passive sentence and reputative expresses a evaluation or a quality.
 * Cases which express a position in space can be also related to a position in time: for example, if we consider the elative and the illative cases, the "inner" is the present and the "external" is the future and/or the past.
 * Adjectives (also numerals) have the same terminations used for nouns but don't change in number.

Demonstrative and possessive suffixes
Demonstrative and possessive adjectives are suffixes which are put after the terminations of number and case in a word.

Demonstrative suffixes depend on the ending of the word (if the last sound is vocalic or consonant) and they are divided in demonstrative adjectives for near and far objects and both these categories consist of fixed objects and unfixed ones.

Possessive suffixes work like demonstrative ones. There are five suffixes (ten, if we consider the differences between vowel-ending and consonant-ending, although the last is just made of the vowel-ending suffix plus "i" at the beginning).

Morphology of nouns
Every noun can be made of five sections put in a specific order. The first one is of course always present because it is the root of the noun (the noun itself) and the other four correspond in order to the terminations of number, case, demonstration and possession.

Let's consider the locution: Nowsäal allä vhadänalineamneisowla, I eat (better "I'm eating") these your apples. This is what we find if we analyze the noun vhadänalineamneisowla.

In spoken language, finding all five terminations together is rare, but it is quite common in written language and among nobles (who are supposed to speak properly).

Verbs
All verbs in Avrekel language follow the same conjugation, according to a paradigm which can change from a verb to the other. Every model shows four tenses in a specific order: infinitive, present indicative, imperfect indicative and present imperative.

If we consider the verb seen above, nowsäal (to eat), we have a paradigm which can be considered "regular": nowsä, nowsäal, nowsänäwl, nowsäliasäl. Most of the verbs in Avrekel language have a similar model.
 * Same root for infinitive and present indicative.
 * Imperfect indicative signified by -nä-.
 * Present imperative signified by -li-.

Other verbs can have different roots, like lowsi, lwsäal, lenäsiwl, lwnäsiasäl (to sail), or can even change more, for example näni, denwal, onäwl, deniasäl (to exist materially, sometimes to be).

When we have a paradigm we know that the first root is used for non-finite moods (infinitive and participle), the second for present and future indicative, the third for imperfect and perfect indicative and the fourth for present and future imperative.

Verbs are conjugated according to the person and number and has two voices (active and passive).

Participle mood

 * Participles have the same terminations of names when need to be declined.

Syntax
The basic structure in Avrekel language is VSO. When you have to make a question you use a SVO structure, but what actually changes from a declarative phrase and a question is the accent. For example, if we consider: "laenäen allä nämelne" (I visited the city), we have a verb (laenäen), a subject (allä) and an object (nämelne). If we want to ask someone "Did you visit the city?", we have to change the words' order and we obtain: "edh laenäedh nämelne?", a subject, a verb and an object.

But if we consider the phrase: "hisälläadh", "you read", we can't change the structure because we have just one word. In this case (and others) changing a declarative sentence into an interrogative one consists in emphasizing the last syllable a lot more than the others. There is a second way to change the phrase into a question: it is possible to add the subject, which will be put before the verb, of course, according to the SVO structure. So we have "edh hisälläadh?" which means "do you read?".

Lexicon
Here are some words and phrases which may be useful for speaking in Avrekel.
 * Vhinäshalen / Vhinäshal / Vhinä; friendly and respectful greeting when meeting.
 * Näla vhinäshalae; answer to the previous greeting (lit.: "the same as hello").
 * Hällren'an / Henäqae; disrespectful greeting.
 * Edh galäte/galäena?; "What's your name?" (lit.: "You as name?". Both essive and respective cases are allowed).
 * Näal (NAME) galäte/galäena; "My name's (NAME)" (lit.: "I am (NAME) as name". Both essive and respective cases are allowed).
 * Syläna enäin edhäa?; "How are you?" (lit.: "How does it progress according to you?".)
 * Sälenäin / Hemädhenäin / Narälenäin; lit.: "It's great/fine/bad".
 * Dhällenashin; similar to "farewell".
 * Näqaeläashin; disrespectful greeting when leaving.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights, article 1
Denaeanlinin hal'en nowlenäana himäthanaliae ganäd'ianate saemänylano laneshänano sä nällräsaliashanlin anlan hynäelown nasämär'äneö kalaenäteö anlanwd' fänäshalenena.
 * Translation: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
 * Interlinear gloss: be_born(IND-PRES-3PL-PASS) all human-PL free_person-PL-ESS equal_person-PL-ESS dignity-PAUC-REP right-PAUC-REP and behave(IMP-FUT-3PL-ACT) they_undefined get(PART-PERFCT-ACT) reason-INSTR coscience-INSTR they_undefined-COMT brotherhood-RESPCT.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights, article 2
''Nesät'aliashanlin laneshäna himäthirana nänieshan lanedhälaniamne hanlaline aevhänieshamnän aemrälieshamnän thanäna lömnena thavhälena nysaena aenäena hir'ashälanena nwsaläena anoläen ydhänaen siçänashänena sänäralen myllänen thänwlaena näleövhinänena nwsalinen ydhänaen sowr'ä nila


 * Interlinear gloss: concern(IMP-FUT-3PL-ACT) right-PAUC freedom-PAUC be(PART-PRES-ACT) document-LOC-DEMN(fixnear) everyone-PL-DAT ignore(PART-PRES-PASS) distinction-PAUC race-RESPCT skin_colour-RESPCT sex-RESPCT language-RESPCT religion-RESPCT opinion-RESPCT politics-POSS other-POSS origin-RESPCT ancestry-POSS social_class-POSS property-RESPCT condition-RESPCT birth-POSS other-POSS furthermore