Shalvì

The Shalvì skearté, or just Shalvì, a dialect of the Skearté language, is spoken by around five million people scattered around the vast forests of the central plain (Félibat) of the Dhälkfé, the Empire. It enjoys official status in its region and because of the cultural influence of the Shalvì people it is the one dialect of the Skearté language that is learned by foreigners. It is used as the literary language in the other provinces of the empire and especially in the capital, in spite of it having its own dialect.

Classification and Dialects
The language is the literarily most prominent dialect of the Skearté language, which is one of the two main branches (the other being the Khizardir language family) into which the ancient Jhikan split. While Jhikanian was complex and heavily inflected, most dialects of the Skearté are losing or already have lost great part of their nominal cases and some verbal morphology. In this context, also as a consequence of its unofficial status of literary language, Shalvì remains the most conservative of dialects, maintaining six cases and a fairly complex system of participles, while it completely lost any case distinction in adjectives. The other dailects of the Skearté are mutually intelligible and mainly differ in their phonology and the degree of complexity of their grammar, and so cannot be considered as separate languages.

Classification:

(Unknown)


 * Glazlotevian


 * Jhikanian 


 * Khizardir


 * Skearté


 * Shalvì Skearté


 * Fyldiskì Skearté


 * Palàskur Skearté


 * Skearté Thavisk



Consonants
Consonants do not geminate, but some of them may be "lenghthened" as explained below.

Clusters of up to three consonants are allowed, but of only two word-initially and one word-finally.

Sound /z/ is written s when it does not separate two vowels. Sound /s/ between two vowels is written ss.

Vowels
Vowels æ, ø and y can only follow, and not precede, vowels a, o, u, in the same word. If a suffix containing a, o, u is added to a word containing æ, ø or y, these are reduced to ə, and are written, respectively, ì, é, à. For instance, paskyk /pa'sky:k/ + -ur = paskàskur /paskə'sku:r/.

Allowed diphthongs are: /ai/, /au/, /ei/, /eu/, /oi/, /ui/, / æi/, / øi/, /yi/.

Vowels e/ε, and o/ɔ are used interchangeably, but there may be regional variations in their distribution. Whenever é is used, and it is not used as a reduction of y, it always indicates vowel /e/.

Though usually stressed vowels are long(er), e, i, and u can be long elsewhere within a word. Thus, /e:/, /i:/, and /u:/ are written as ay, ey, éy.



Phonotactics
The main stress in every word falls on the last syllable if the word ends with consonant, ö, or with accented a, e, i (à, é, ì), or on the penultimate syllable if the word ends with unstressed a, i or u. Letter e can also be accented when there is no need to do so (see comitative case, for instance) for historical reasons. Hiatus in a stressed word is signalled with an accent, but only to distinguish it from a diphthong: for example in eyfléan /i:fle'a:n/ the a is not accented because ea is not a diphthong, while in eyfléìn /i:fle'i:n/ the i has an accent.

Shalvì syllable structure is (C)(C)V(C):

Words and syllables can start with up to two consonants, the possibilities being b/d/dh/f/g/k/p/t/th/v + r, b/f/g/k/p/s + l, s + b/f/k/p/t/v, th + t, th/dh/jh + v. They can end with a vowel or one consonant (with the exception of pronouns and some archaisms), the consonants being d, f, k, l, n, r, s, t. When a suffix (beginning with vowel) is attached to them these become, respectively, dr, ft, sk, lt, nd, rd, sk, tk (leghthening), but there are some exceptions to this rule.

Inside a word, clusters of up to three consonants are allowed, as is clear from the syllable structure, and they can be formed by one of the ending consonants followed by one of the allowed beginning clusters. If in writing a word seems not to respect this rule, it is because one of the consonants is actually not pronounced, while it was in the past: for instance dh älkfé is pronounced / ð æl'fe:/ and not / ð ælk'fe:/.

Sound /h/ only appears at the beginning of a word, and never internally.

Nouns
Nouns are declined according to number (singular, plural), and case (there are six of them: nominative, genitive, dative, locative, accusative and comitative).

(1) Nouns ending with consonant

(Rassik, fire)

Suffixes are added after lenghthening the consonant: d, f, k, l, n, r, s, t, become, respectively, dr, ft, sk, lt, nd, rd, sk, tk. Nouns in -s and -k may maintain the old suffix -sk (Rassisk) in the genitive and accusative singular.

(2) Nouns ending with -é

(Eyflé, water)

(3) Nouns ending with -ì

(Raftì, sea)

(4) Nouns with stress on the penultimate syllable

(Dhiva, heart)

Prepositions
The principal prepositions are the following. They are used followed by the noun declined in the case indicated. (nominative = 1, genitive = 2 and so on). Some, like ai (of), when they have the same function as a case (here, genitive), can be omitted or used for more emphasis or clarity.

ai (of) + 2

dés (with) + 6

ivés (without) + 6

tad (in/at/to) + 3/4 (dative if going to or locative if in/at some place)

léyk (out of, from) + 3

fayr (by, in passives) + 3

oak/lak/doné (inside) + 4 (3 if going inside)

okat (below); akas (above) + 3/4 (it depends, as in tad above, and the same is for the prepositions below)

nomià (in front of); fulià (behind) + 3/4

ikon (next to); plas (far from) + 3/4

erì (for) + 5

erì/dukén (during) + 4

gazéyd (against) + 3/5



Articles

The determinate article.

It is declined like nouns and it precedes them. Any of the alternative forms can be used at any time, but there are regional variations.

The other dialects of the language put the article in front of every noun. They then only decline the article, which therefore conveys by its own the meaning that in Shalvì is given by the cases, and leave the noun in the nominative case. This is one of the main differences between Shalvì and the other dialects of the Skearté.

Ex.: Shalvì: Falblak nomadu, Fyldiskì: Falblak kur noma (I go home)



The indeterminate article.



The personal pronouns

Personal pronouns distinguish case, three persons and two numbers. Third-person personal pronuons distinguish three genders: male, female, inanimate.

As can be seen, the genitive and the accusative are almost identical. Anyway, the accusative pronoun is always used before the verb (Ka aysk tafthak, I love her) or preceded by the article in the accusative (jos/jas) (Ka tafthak jos aysk) while the pronoun in the genitive is always used right after the nouns it refers to, having the same function as a possessive adjective (Jok noma kansk, Our house).

Where it does not generate confusion, personal pronouns can be omitted before the verb, since the information regarding person and number is conveyed by the verb.

Eyn is used for groups of males and groups of males and females, ayn for groups of only females. Eyt is only used when all the elements of a group are inanimate. The Shalvì treat plants as animate beings, using eyn, but this is not true in the other regions of the Empire.

Being formal:

To express detachment/formality people are addressed with the use of pronouns Shä and Ra. They can be used both when speaking to someone (as second person formal personal pronouns) and about someone (as third person pronouns), both in the singular and in the plural. They are not declined (there's the need for prepositions) and are followed by the third person (singular or plural, depending on the case) of the verb: Jak réyikandan ai Shä odan eriviaskidän, Your (formal) words are very wise; Ra oda fukur, You (formal) are right. Shä is used when speaking to (or about) a very important and influencial person, while Ra is more common but still gives the idea of respect and/or detachment.

Verbs


The infinitive

There are three forms: -aì, -eì, -öì, corresponding to three different conjugations (and declensions).

(Falblaì, Jhaveì, Faröì) (go, eat, live)

The infinitive can also be used as a noun and declined. The use of the article is in this case compulsory.

Verb oivaì (to be, which is irregular but also the only auxiliary verb) will be presented in brackets before all tables, or aside, as here: (oivaì, jéyk oivaì, kur oivus, kas oivas, kor oivaì, dés oivés) Eys poked skur jhavlad léyk kur jhaveyus, lit. He gets much pleasure from eating

The personal infinitive.

Apart from the case, a peculiarity of the Shalvì is that the infinitive can also indicate person and number. A speaker can decide each time whether to provide the information about person and number in an infinitive phrase by using the personal infinitive or leave it indefinite as above. The personal infinitive may be useful to specify the person, or to omit using personal pronouns, and is declined like the normal infinitive. Some examples of its possible uses in Shalvì:

When the infinitive is simple and it is the "object" or complement of another verb, the person expressed is implicitly the same of this verb: Kl ök (I want) kor jhaveì (to eat, accusative), I want to eat. In this case to specify the person is not necessary and doesn't add any information, but the personal infinitive is nevertheless used often: Kl ök (I want) kor jhavekeì (to eat, accusative, 1st singular), I want to eat.

When instead the subject of the infinitive is different, the personal infinitive is very useful and compact: Kl ök kor jhaveneì (to eat, accusative, 2nd singular), I want you to eat. This could also be expressed as: Vas (you, accusative) kl ök kor jhaveì (to eat, accusative), but it would be ambiguous as this phrase can also mean I want to eat you. I want to eat you would less ambiguously be expressed as: Vas kl ök kor jhavekeì (to eat, accusative, 1st singular), again using the personal infinitive.

Not only the accusative is used: Falblak (I go) kur jhaveykus (to eat, dative, 1st singular), I go to eat.

Kl ök kor falblandaì (to go, acc., 2nd plural) kur zalfreyndus (to sleep, dative, 2nd plural), I want you to go to sleep.

Paidek (I think) jéyk aysk (her) tafthaikaì (to love, genitive, 1st singular), I think I love her (verb paideì wants the genitive). Paidek jéyk aysk tafthainaì (to love, genitive, 2nd singular), I think you love her.

Ays odà (she is) arketid än (good, superlative) kés elf äteydés (to sing, comitative, 3rd singular), She is very good at singing (literally with her singing).

<p class="Standard"> <h4 class="Standard">Participles

Shalvì has a quite developed system of participles that are used very often. Some of them express very compactly some complex concepts in just a couple of words. Often, for this reason, participial phrases may be quite indefinite and open to interpretation, which is one of the reasons why the Shalvì, who like to remain mysterious and unfathomable, use them so much in their daily speech.

The majority of the following participles may also be used as adjectives, further altering their possible meaning and thus adding to their indefiniteness and interpretability (see later). As adjectives, they also have comparative and superlative grades.

All participles, like adjectives, distinguish number (singular or plural). .

<p class="Standard">(1) Present participle/gerundive. (Verb-ing)

<p class="Standard">Together with verb Oivaì, conjugated to express tense, person and number, it can be used for actions in progress (the continuous tenses in English).

<p class="Standard">Oiskì (we were) jhavegar (eat, present participle, plural), We were eating.

<p class="Standard">(2) Past participle. (Verb-ed)

<p class="Standard">It is used to create all perfect tenses.

<p class="Standard">

(3) Past gerundive. It is formed with the present gerundive of oivaì (orok, orak) plus the past participle of the verb. (Having Verb-ed)

<p class="Standard">Ogar jhaveräé, eyn falblaräéd (go, simple past, 3rd plural) kur zalfreyus (sleep, infinitive, dative case), Having eaten, they went to sleep.

<p class="Standard">

<p class="Standard">

(4) Passive participle.

<p class="Standard">If the verb is transitive, the passive participle is used to indicate that the subject is (was, etc.) being Verb-ed. In both transitive and intransitive verbs, it may express the fact that the subject is (was, etc.) made/obliged to Verb or has (had) to Verb. Verb oivaì expresses tense, person and number.

<p class="Standard">The agent is expressed by preposition fayr (by), followed by the agent in the dative case.

<p class="Standard">Eys éyd (be, past simple, 3rd singular) jhaveton, He was eaten OR He was made to eat; Eys éyd jhaveton kor lur (all) jos eyr, He was made to eat it all.

Éyskan (be, simple past, 1st plural) falblatan aidéun (to there) fayr kur zabaiur (king, dative) eynsk, We were made to go there by their king.

Éyk eysk potéyréton, (lit. I was him save-passive-participle), I had to save him; while, Éyk potéyréton fayr eyskus, I was saved by him; but still, Éyk potéyréton jos idhaf (the boy, accusative) fayr eyskus, I was obliged by him to save the boy.

(5) Reflexive participle. (Self-Verb-ing)

It corresponds to a passive participle, where the agent and the subject are the same. Therefore, a person can do a thing to themselves, or make themselves do a thing, but more interpretations are possible depending on the context and the transitivity or not of the verb. As for the other participles, verb Oivaì is used to provide information on person and tense.

<p class="Standard">Ovaìk (be, future, 1st sing.) zalfretyn, "I will sleep myself", I will have a good sleep.

<p class="Standard">Éyk zalfretyn syn (because) ravetik (have, imperfect, 1st sing.) sk än (a lot) kor javakaì (to do, accusative, 1st sing.) jar dalirada (in the morning), I made myself to sleep because I had a lot to do in the morning.

<p class="Standard"> Iduké (now) eys odà (is) far ötyn, halspatas (certainly), Now he is certainly "living himself", Now he is certainly having fun.

<p class="Standard"> Van ovar äén (be, imperative, 2nd plural) fluthtestéyn (wash), Wash yourselves!

<p class="Standard">Okà (I am) tafthatyn (love, reflexive part., sing.), I love myself; BUT Okà kor aysk (her) tafthatyn, I'm in love with her.

<p class="Standard">Okà falblatyn (or simply Falblak, I go) aidéun (to there) kan léydré kan dalirada (in all the mornings), I go there every morning.

<p class="Standard">

(6) Future participle. (Going to Verb)

<p class="Standard">Verb Oivaì, followed by the future participle, corresponds to the English "to be going to". Okà (I am) jhavevos, I'm going to eat.

Okì (I was) eyrsk (it, accusative) javavos (to do, future participle), jus (but)..., I was going to do it, but...

The indicative mood
<p class="Standard"> (1) The present simple.

It expresses an usual action in the present or any action going on in the present.

(2) The imperfect.

It expresses an usual action in the past.

(3) The simple past.

It expresses actions occurred in the past and completed. In many occasions here the second to last syllable can be (and is) reduced or dropped:

If the r in ar/er/ ör can follow the preceding consonants according to syllable structure, then the vowel may be dropped: ex. jhaver ök becomes jhavr ök, but obviously falblr ök cannot be produced.

If this is not possible, the whole ar/er/ ör may be dropped: falblar ök becomes falbl ök and far ör ök becomes far ök. This however is dangerous because the singular persons may be seen as a present indicative of a verb in - öì.

(4) The simple future.

(5) Indicative perfect tenses

The perfect form of all of these tenses can be formed by conjugating verb Oivaì in the desired tense, person and number, followed by the past participle, according in number. The perfect form of the simple past is not used: the pluperfect is expressed by Oivaì + imperfect.

Ok farörö skéydré (a lot, plural) sugadras (year, plural, locative), I've lived many years.

Oiskì fan (too much) jhaveräé, We had eaten too much.

Holbän (tomorrow) ovaindé voltharäé (die, past participle, plural), You'll have died tomorrow, tomorrow you'll be dead.

The imperative mood
(Ov(ar)äé, Ov(ar)äén)

Falbl äé jhéun (to away), ratipas (immediately), Go away, immediately.

When the subject is not the second person singular or plural, it has to be indicated.

Kan jhavyén, Let's eat

Ovar äé tafthatyn, Love yourself

The conditional/subjunctive mood
The conditional mood has three simple tenses: present, past and future. It is used in conditional phrases, in both sides of if-clauses, and to express possibility.

The present Iné (if) va falblayn jhéun, faréyk arketiki, If you went away, I would live better. Notice that the present is used for both verbs, because both actions would actually happen in the present.

The past Iné jok zabak (the king) iva jhaveryd jos dask (that, accusative), eys faréyn astké (still), If the king had not eaten that, he would still be alive.

Adjectives
Adjectives only agree in number with the noun, and do not distinguish cases, but they have comparative and superlative grades. There is a limited number of stems for adjectives: -ed, -ak, -ur, -ì. Plus, all participles except from the future participle can also be considered as adjectives and have comparative and superlative grades, but often their meaning changes when they are used in this way. Adjectives usually precede the noun.

The weak form of the adjective can be considered as the corresponding adverb, and is also used whenever the adjective is not referring to any noun, directly or indirectly: Eys falblaröd (go, past, 3rd singular), mavires (angry, weak form), He went, angry/angrily. Jok idhaf (boy) od arked (good), the boy is (a) good (boy), WHILE Jok idhaf od arkes (good, weak form), The boy is OK/is doing fine. This is because the normal form implies that the adjective is referred to a noun, namely the boy (idhaf), while the weak form only indicates a state. The comparatives and superlatives for the adjectives in the weak and normal forms are the same.

(1) Adjectives in -ed

Arked, good Comparatives:

Better than: Arketikì ayf + dative

Worse (less good) than: Faun arketikì ayf + dative

As good as: Arked ayf + locative

(2) Adjectives in -ak

Lupiak, beautiful

(3) Adjectives in -ur

Kalur, bad

(4) Adjectives in -ì

Thedhì, soft

(5) Adjectives from present participles

<p style="font-weight:normal;">Elfìtegor (from elf äteì, to sing), singing These adjectives are similar to ones like 'fascinating' in English. In Shalvì, anyway, an adjective of this kind can be created from potentially any verb. Clearly in this case, and as is common for all participles/adjectives, an expression such as 'jok elfätegrykì' cannot mean literally 'the most singing' (even if that may in some occasion refer, for instance, to the loudest singer in a group, maybe), but it may be used to express something like 'the person who is best at singing', so 'the best singer'. (It must be noted that, if the superlative may mean 'the best singer', then in the normal form 'that is good at singing' must be a possible additional translation of 'elfìtegor'). For these reasons, these adjectives, particularly in the comparative and superlative grades, are often of difficult interpretation, because their meaning may change substantially depending on the context. Nevertheless, the Shalvì use them very frequently exactly for their indefiniteness, and also their compactness: 'On elfìtegoridän' is certainly a faster and more elegant way of saying 'you are a very good singer' than 'On ati skur arked (or arketid än)  elfäterin', yet in another context it may also mean 'you are singing very much=too loud'.

Okì zalfregoridän (zalfreì, to sleep), vi (and) iva (not) eynsk (them) dolm ör ök (hear, past, 1st sing.), I was very fast asleep and I didn't hear them.

Jok pristragor (pristraì, to run) sugad, The current year.

Ays odà volthagrykì (volthaì, to die) ayf kadu, aysk potéyr öé (save, imperative sing.) arvì (before), lit. She is more dying (more in danger of death) than me, save her first.

(6) Adjectives from past participles

Falblar ö, that has gone Again, the meaning of these adjectives is always interpretable and never perfectly definable.

Odan falblar äid än may for instance mean They are far away (literally very much gone)

Okà far  ör  ötikì ayf kadu (lit. I am more lived than you), I am more experienced than you.

(7) Adjectives from passive participles and reflexive participles

These adjectives are the same in the weak form, the comparative and the relative superlative.

Jhaveton, eaten Ays gauv r öd (gauv öì, to return)  nomadu skathvastys (skathvaì, to destroy), jus eys odì skathvastynkì fayr ayskus, She returned home destroyed, but he was 'more destroyed' than her

Jhavetyn, self-eaten

Syntax ä ö

Example text
Hädver and Irvin, who would later become the heroes and saviours of the Dh älkfé, meet for the first time: the following is the episode as narrated by Alifian Jhavisk<ärin in his Jak atundan jéyk dhuan kansk, The sounds of our land.

Jak thtaskà vi mavirì oladran ai Irvin olaziretidrì jos Hädver kés spaidhatondìrkrak thragindés dak eyt oidrì palköräé dhalsì. Hädver  tretid kor avethreì jos alkalak jéyk obak, fanfrustak vi marturaton, jus  trevalur, eylfarégor akas kur eyskus, mavires vi atkés dukluridän broskés.

The red and flaming eyes of Irving looked at Hädver with the uncontainable fury that they had just shown. Hädver could feel the breath of the other, hasty and fatigued, but powerful, run over him with anger and with the deepest hatred.

[jakθta'ska:vi mavi'ri: ola'dra:nai ir'vi:n olazireti'dri:jos hæd'vε:rkes 'spaiðatond ər'kra:k θragin'de:s dak'i:t oi'dri: palk ør æ'e:  ðal'si:. h æd'vε:r tre'ti:dkor aveθre'i:jos alka'la:kju:k o'ba:k fanfru'sta:kvi martura't ɔ:n justreva'lu:r 'i:lfar ə'g ɔ:r a'ka:skur i:'sku:s mavi're:svi at'kes dukluri'd æ:n bro'ske:s]

Ati félibat ai potkaskaton vi skapsegor dhuan odì okat kan halétkas eynsk. Atin aftus jok shikanì féltriad, fövillì kén thtaskà präkliskén ai eys dak adukì éyd jok glodhärin eytsk, odì jok atì daita plaskagor eyskun.

“Va, viskräé aidak.” Irvin arköröd, dés egleyés luktomagor léyk jun potkaskagar dukluskus jéyk dhuan. Iduké dak patirì stiflatkan oidrì elthoraräé, jhakì iduké dak Irving odì elthoratyn jos spaidhatondìrkrak thraskrin dask eys odì avethrerö, sayd kur eysk potéyréydus léyk atkun hulked volthadu, kor thvartaì jos gìntaded idhaf jos eysk, dak iduké odì nomià eyskas vi dask eys odì orö haldhraton kor eysk potéyröì iva klégor; rapé, iduké dak jok shiverégor vrök eylfarégor jakan svitriada eysk odì spaidharö jos kléftus eysk erì kor mazarat, Irvin eklasthötid jos lithés.

Hädver odì farégor astké, daitas dask odì favlàskégor kur falastéydus. Odì orö volgréton fayr atkius dask tad eyskun odì falarö jur lur kur alìmieyur eysk, daitas dask odì falastörö fan lyshät. Eys donlatid jos farös eysk tad eyskus dak dundetid éydoas ati idhaf opi eys odì, daita dak tupatus odì jok lithé. Hudän, odì dhalsì topiörö jos eysk drumovagor, drumovagor atkés grypändés ai rassik, dak astké, mavires, thtaktatid kan oladras eysk.

Nomiarö, blaumléton vi fravlalàskak opi zadkì eys dak odà avethreton fayr fan fravladu tred kor ovaì. Gran halétkan, garerdé vi uthtalétan, dundetidrì kur eyskus modalkedré. Jok krapan dak astké odì altharetyn léyk Irvindur odì milbratyn rojhildatondìrkrak ìrkrak, vi jok kälfé dak eys shamandatid opi jad jok ikilur zadör, jatid jos eysk topéslàskur.

“I va avethren kor dask jos plygés?” Volkratvröd. “I eyrsk avethren? I povan adhvaik jos farös vai jok potéyrököì dubaröd kadu?” Jak réyikandan eysk luriaskà shakördés alatindé kan plàfkeyar dak odì jhvägletyn tad kan reylleyar. “Jhan jok vrök kai ovaìd sfrilesfavötyn, däldeìk sullaìn erì kor ovakaì leskilvatyn. Sullaìn! Vas broskek syn jos dask! I eydan okà vas potéyrörö?”