Ancient Qâêr

=Brief Overview= Qâêr is a VSO structured language with most of the focus and inflections around the verb as well as a few particles.

Qâêr is the native language of the people of the same name. It was spoken on the planet Sâfaolehracópah. Presently however it is only spoken in the Râlôrin Province, albeit a watered down and slighty evolved version of the language, and this province is located on the continent Hehrânniâ. Traditional Qâêr was also spoken on the continents Âtínrelmá, Fáriâ, Fâern, Fêlabôrin and Falerân however afterwards through magical tampering the Qâêr were rendered extinct and their language was carried on only by the Râlôrin who migrated to Hehrânniâ. The other races, namely the Hwâfin, Êlfârin, Cîben, Âldârin, Skafânok, Ôbâdem, Erdâl, and Harâm now speak, though heavily evolved, their own advanced dialects all descended from the original langauge of Qâêr.

=Phonology=

Dipthongs

 * {| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"

! Dipthong ! English Pronunciation o
 * eo
 * oɪ
 * ae
 * eɪ
 * ao
 * aʊ
 * ei
 * aɪ
 * oe
 * ei
 * aɪ
 * oe
 * oe
 * oe
 * }

Vowels
=Phonotactics=

Consonants
Consonant Rules

Q & Hw are stand alone consonants, which means that only vowels can be placed on either side of them.

The consonants rules are as follows; Nasals, Approximants and Stops can be first but not Fricatives. Fricatives can only come before Stops, however before and after Approximants but never with Nasals. Nasals on the other hand can come before Stops and after Approximants. Aprroximants can also come before stops but this is rare.

Consonant Groupings Allowed

Before Vowels; fr-, st-, dh-, nj-, nr- (i.e syllables consisting of these consonant groups followed by a vowel, possibly with consonnts after the vowel and this is all pronounced as one syllable)

After Vowels; -nt, -nd, -mb, -rm, -rn, -rs, -rl, -ld, -lt, -lf, -dh, -lm, -ln (i.e syllables with these consist of a vowel followed by these consonant groups which is pronounced all as one syllable)

Other Groupings that are Spoken Seperately and Only come After a Vowel; -ft, -lf, -lm, -ln, -ml, -nl, -mp, -mr, -nr, -nm, -sp (i.e the syllable ends with the first consonant in these groupings even though they are placed together and they are not spoken as one syllable, except for the those which also appear in the above groups in which case it depends on the word)

All other consonant groupings do not, and are not allowed therefore cannot, appear in Qâêr.

Syllable and Stress
Syllable Structure - (C)(C) V C (C)

The rule for stress placement in Qâêr is that the accentuated vowel in the word is always stressed however there are strict rules regarding stress placement which are as follows. In words two syllables long the last syllable is always stressed regardless of which syllable has the accentuated vowel.

In regards to words with three or more syllables; in a three syllable word the second last syllable is always stressed, however when the word is lengthened wither by affixes or other words this sress pattern changes to stay on the second last syllable unless the third last or the last syllable is accentuated in which case the stress is placed there.

In relation to words with five or six syllables then second and fifth syllable is stressed. However when the fifth syllable is unaccentuated that the stress swaps to the sixth. In any other words longer than five and six syllables this five and six syllable rule apply.

=Grammar=

Sentence Structure
The sentence structure in Qâêr follows a simple pattern. To start off the basic structure is - VERB - SUBJECT - OBJECT, which can then be broken down into;


 * Interrogative Particle - Verb - Adverb - Determiner* - Agent or Subject - Agent or Subject's Adjective - Object - Object's Adjective. This can be further broken down into;


 * Interrogative Particle - Negater* - Verb - Adverb - Agent or Subject - Agent or Subject's Adjective -Preposition* - Object - Object's Adjective - Conjunction* or Preposition* - Adverb* - Verb - Noun*

* = If Applicable

Note - A Determiner – this, that, two five, my, his, their, some, many

Distinctions
Nouns


 * - Difference between plural and singular


 * - Un/Defined


 * - Possessiveness

Personal Pronouns


 * - Number ( I vs. We)


 * - ‘We’ has two forms, inclusive and exclusive of you


 * - Animacy (one for living and non-living)


 * - No distinction between he and she or in the third person Possessive

Verbs


 * - Voice


 * - Aspect/Tense


 * - Agreement

Adjectives


 * - Comparitive


 * - 'More' Prefix

Noun, Verb and Adjective Structure
Nouns Structure

Verbs Structure

Adjective Structure


 * Adjectives cannot be inflected with comparitive and the "More" prefix at the same time.

Aspect and Tempus
The Imperfective 2 Aspect here seen in the table is the Conative Imperfect Aspect and is further explained in the Aspect Section.

Imperfective and Perfective Aspect
Ongoing States are always inflected in Imperfective Aspect as well as Habitual actions, not in Perfective which is how English works.

Example; He raised his sword and struck the enemy.

Here both verbs are in Perfective which would be correct in English.

Example in Qâêr; He was raising his sword and striking the enemy.

Imperfective is used also in situations where the action is Habitual and also used to describe a background situation,

''Example; I used to walk to school every day.(Habitual Imperfective) vs. I walked to school every day. (Perfective)''

''Example; The rain was beating down. (Imperfective) vs. The rain beat down. (Perfective)''


 * Imperfective is always used in this cases as this is the proper grammatical way in Qâêr and to use Perfective in this context is wrong.

Perfective is used to refer to an action viewed as a whole, and it is equivalent to the aspectual component of past-perfective tenses variously called "aorist", "preterite", and "simple past".

Example of Perfective; He raised his sword and struck the enemy.

Using The Conative Imperfect
The Imperfective aspect also adds the idea of To-Try-To-Do-Something which is known as Conative Imperfect. This means that the same verb, either in the Conative Imperfect or Perfective aspect is used to convey verbs such as Look and See, Search and Find and etc. where the Perfective one is See or Find and the verb inflecfted in Conative Imperfect becomes Look or Search and so on. The difference between these two actions, the verb and the same verb when it is inflected, is that one (Perfective) conveys the success of the action (Find) and the other verb is trying to succcessfully complete the action however success is not always clear, attained or come to 100% completion.

Example in Greek; `ekouomen - "We Listened" vs. `ekousamen - "We Heard"

In this case there will be for example one verb for 'to hear' and then when inflected with the Imperfective 2 affix the verb becomes 'to listen'.

General Usage of Aspects
In general conversation the Perfect aspect is used unlike English which uses Perfective.

The perfect aspect such as; I had/have/will have Gone.

The Imperfective aspect is used in ongoing actions and habitual actions (see above).

The Conative Imperfect apect is used in respective to Perfective Aspect to convey "Trying Verbs".

The Perfective aspect is used written and historical documents.

The Inceptive aspect is used for the start or beginning of actions or for actions that are going to begin or had begun in a certain time reference.


 * Example; I am beginning to go, I was beginning to go, I will be beginning to go.

The Continuative aspect is used when the action is still going on or being carried through, also for actiosn thet were still in action and actions that will still be going on in the future.


 * Example; I am still eating, I was still eating, I will be still eating

The Terminative aspect is used when the action is being completed or finished, or in actions that were being cpompleted or will be completed at a certain time.


 * Example; I am finishing going, I was finishing going, I will be finishing going

Personal Pronouns
In relation to the above, just take note of the Affixes.

Cases
Qâêr is an Ergative/Absolutive Language. In an Ergative/Absolutive Language the Agent of transitive verbs is alone whereas the Subject of intransitive verbs and the Object of transitive verbs is the same case. Transitive Verbs require both a direct object and one or more objects while Intransitive Verbs do not take an object and has only one argument (The Subject) and also has a Valency of One.

In general this means that in Qâêr the Agent is seperate from the Subject and Object and the Subject and Object are the combined.

Example of Qâêr Translation into English; I killed her (I = Agent) She killed me (Me = Object) Me Slept (Me = Subject)

As seen above the subject and object are combined into Me not like in English where the Agent and Subject are combined (Both being I).


 * Note - Please see the declension table below for non-personal and pronoun declensions.

Declension Table for Nouns
Note* Example of Vocative Case - Normal Name Uninflected - Brutus Inflected in Vocative - Brutó

Verb Agreement
Verb conjugation works as a suffix in Qâêr and is dependant on the Agent, Subject, and Object in the sentence. There are six inflectional suffixes for verb agreement that all attach onto the verb depending on these things;

Intransitive Verbs

These suffixes are always accentuated and depending on the location of the other accentuated vowels may or may not chnage the placement of stress.

Transitive Verbs These suffixes are always accentuated and depending on the location of the other accentuated vowels may or may not chnage the placement of stress.

Affixes and Their Meanings
There are many affixes in Qâêr however here is a basic list of the ones that won't be mentioned anywhere else on this page.

Negation
Verb negation is done by adding the prefix nao- to any particular verb one wishes to negate. Double negation is done by adding the prefix nelnao- to any verbs.

The negation of adjectives is done also in a similiar fashion by adding the negation prefix nao- to the adjective thus obtaining results such as Happy - Unhappy

Derivation
All the following are Prefixes.

Adjective > Adverb - er(ê) Example; Quick > Quickly

Adjective > Noun en(o) Example; Happy > Happiness (This is an abstract noun)

Adjective > Adverb ce(n) Example; Happy > Happily

Noun > Verb co(l) Exmple; Glory > Glorify

Noun > Adjective ar(o) Exmple; Recreation > Recreational

Adjective > Noun or(o) Example; Slow > Slowness

Transitive Verbs > Intransitive Verbs -- Ablaut o/ô/ó

Intransitive Verbs > Transitive Verbs -- Ablaut i/î/í

Adjectives > Transitive Verbs -- h(a) Example; Rich > Enrich

Nouns > Transitive Verbs -- h(ê) Example; Rapture > Enrapture

Verb Affixes
In this section the different affixes that relate solely to verbs will be discussed.

The Inchoative Verb (Inceptive Verb)
This verb conveys the process of beginning or becoming. This verb type is created simply but inflecting a verb in the Inceptive Aspect and this represents the start or beginning of that particular action and therefore negates verbs such as 'to start' or 'to begin'.

The Catenative Verb
A Catenative Verb is a verb which takes other verbs as objects, Exmple; We promised to try practicing tennis more often.

Here in the aboce example the verb 'promised' is catenative and takes the verbs "to try" (Infintive Form) and "practicing" (Gerund Form) as its objects. In English catenative verbs are not marked however in Qâêr a verb has to be inflected with the Catenative suffix to become a Catenative Verb.

The suffix to change verbs to Catenative form is - âr

Control Verbs
In linguistics, a control construction (also called equi-NP deletion) is a clause that contains a main clause (or matrix clause), the predicate of which has two complements — an embedded clause (or subordinate clause) complement and a nominal complement that acts as the semantic argument of the main clause and of the embedded clause. This nominal argument is the controller (or antecedent). Verbs that occur in control structures are control verbs (or equi verbs).

Exmple in English - George tried to escape

Of course in the above sentence there are two verbs, so how does one distinguish between which verb is a control verb and which isnt? Well in English one simply doesn't know without foreknowledge however in Qâêr a distinction is made between normal and control verbs.

Control Verbs in Qâêr are created and shown with a variated form of middle voice which inflects in the verb that will be or is taking the place of a Control Verb. There are too variants of the variated particle, one which refers to the Subject and one which refers to the Object.


 * Example in English - Georgina expected to win the race


 * Here the control verb is Expected and the Subject is Georgina with the Race as the Object.


 * In this sentence both verbs refer to the subject, that being Georgina.


 * The gerund form can also be used - Georgina remebered winning the race.


 * Here the control verb is remembered but still both verbs refer to the subject.


 * This is because it doesnt make sense in English to write - Georgina expected Georgina/Herself to win the race.

In Qâêr with reference to Control Verbs that relate to the Subject a slgihtyl variated form of the middle voice, Insert Here is used which attaches onto the control verb (not the secondary verb) which shows that the control verb is actually a control verb and that it and the following paired verb act refer to the Subject.


 * Thus the Qâêr translation looks like this in English - Georgina expected[(Subject)herself] to win the race.
 * This setout above along with the suffix that attaches to control verbs makes it obvious that both verbs take Georgina as the subject.


 * The layout of this sentence, because it uses control vebrs, differs from normal sentence structure. As follows;


 * Expected[CV Suffix] - Subject(Georgina) - win - [the]Race(Object)


 * *Both verbs that relate to the subject (or Object as below) would be in the finite perfective aspect and only the control verb takes case.

In relation to control verbs with secondary verbs that all refer to the Object instead of the Subject Qâêr has a similiar pattern to above.

Example in English - She convinced him to do it.


 * Here the control verb is convinced. Syntactically Him is only the direct object of convinced however semantically Him is the patient of convinced and the agent of to do so therefore both verbs are acting on Him which therefore becomes the Object of both verbs.

In Qâêr this is done by using variated form of the the original control verb suffix Insert Here, however this one symbolises that the control verb and following secondary verb act on the object and not the subject like the suffix above.

Therefore applying this siffix the Qâêr translation into english looks like this;


 * Convinced[CV Suffix] - Subject(She) - Object(Him) - Do
 * The sentence structure changes a little bit as both verbs refer to the Object therefore the secondary verb comes after the Object.
 * * Remember that Both verbs would be finite perfective and only the control verb takes tense.

Phrasal Verbs
Phrasal verbs are usually used informally in everyday speech as opposed to the more formal Latinate verbs, such as “to get together” rather than “to congregate”, “to put off” rather than “to postpone”, or “to get out” rather than “to exit”.


 * Literal Usage

Many verbs in English can be combined with an adverb or a preposition, and readers or listeners will easily understand a phrasal verb used in a literal sense with a preposition: Verb and adverb constructions can also easily be understood when used literally: An adverb in a literal phrasal verb modifies the verb it is attached to, and a preposition links the subject to the verb.
 * "He walked across the square."
 * "She opened the shutters and looked outside."
 * "When he heard the crash, he looked up."


 * Idiomatic Usage

I will not be discussing Idiomatic Usage in reference to Phrasal Verbs (At least not Here) because the English language has different Idioms to Qâêr as they are completely different languages. If the reader is interested in finding out more about the Idiomatic Usage of Phrasal verbs then I encourage you to visit this internet site;


 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phrasal_verb

Phrasal Verb Patterns

 * Particle Verbs

Phrasal verbs that contain adverbs are sometimes called "particle verbs", and are related to separable verbs in other Germanic languages. There are two main patterns: intransitive and transitive. An intransitive particle verb does not have an object:


 * Intransitive - When I entered the room he looked up.

A transitive particle verb has a nominal object in addition to the adverb. If the object is an ordinary noun, it can usually appear on either side of the adverb, although very long noun phrases tend to come after the adverb:


 * Transitive - Switch off the light.

With some transitive particle verbs, however, the noun object must come after the adverb. Such examples are said to involve "inseparable" phrasal verbs:


 * The gas gave off fumes. (not *The gas gave fumes off.)

Still other transitive particle verbs require the object to precede the adverb:


 * They let the man through. (not *They let through the man.)

With all transitive particle verbs, if the object is a pronoun, it must normally precede the adverb:


 * Switch it off. (not *Switch off it.)


 * The smell put them off. (not *put off them)


 * They let him through. (not *they let through him)

Prepositional Verbs
Prepositional Verbs are phrasal verbs that contain a preposition which is always followed by its nominal object even if the direct object is a pronoun.

Example in English - On Fridays we look after our grandchildren.


 * We look after them.

In Qâêr the verb can have its own object however because the verb and the preposition are joined the verb must follow its preposition which is then followed by its object.

Example in English - She helped the boy to an extra portion.


 * Qâêr - She [the]boy to Helped an extra portion


 * In the case of two preps with verbs it follos so in English


 * We talked to the minister about the crisis.


 * Qâêr - We [the]minister to talked about [the]crisis

Phrasal-Prepositional Verbs
A phrasal verb can contain an adverb and a preposition at the same time. Again, the verb itself can have a direct object:

- No direct object: The driver got off 'to a flying start.

- direct object: Onlookers put the accident down to the driver’s loss of concentration.

Summary of Phrasal, Prepositionl, and Phrasal-Prepositional Verbs and their Usage in Qâêr
Phrasal and Prepositional and Phrasal-Prep verbs - verb + prep + normal structure and also the prep takes either absolutive or dative case depending on iff the prep acts on the object or the indirect object. WIll explain further......

Phrasal Verbs
Phrasal verbs in Qâêr have a very simple pattern. Phrasal verbs are usually used informally in everyday speech as opposed to the more formal Latinate verbs, such as “to get together” rather than “to congregate”, “to put off” rather than “to postpone”, or “to get out” rather than “to exit”.


 * Literal Usage

Many verbs in English can be combined with an adverb or a preposition, and readers or listeners will easily understand a phrasal verb used in a literal sense with a preposition: Verb and adverb constructions can also easily be understood when used literally: An adverb in a literal phrasal verb modifies the verb it is attached to, and a preposition links the subject to the verb.
 * "He walked across the square."
 * "She opened the shutters and looked outside."
 * "When he heard the crash, he looked up."

Phrasal Verb Patterns

 * Particle Verbs

Intransitive - When I entered the room he looked up.

Transitive - Switch off the light.

In Qâêr a Transitive particle verb has a nominal object in addition to the adverb and the object always comes after the adverb and the adverb comes after the verb when there is also an agent/subject as in the English sentence;


 * The gas gave off fumes. - The verb particle, here seen as gave off always comes first making it - gave off [the]gas fumes


 * Also with Transitive Particle verbs, when the object is a pronoun is comes after the verb/adverb as in - Switch off it, NOT like English where - Switch it off.

Prepositional Verbs
Prepositional Verbs are phrasal verbs that contain a preposition which is always followed by its nominal object even if the direct object is a pronoun.

Example in English - On Fridays we look after our grandchildren.


 * We look after them.

In Qâêr the verb can have its own object however because the verb and the preposition are joined the verb must follow its preposition which is then followed by its object.

Example in English - She helped the boy to an extra portion.


 * Qâêr - She [the]boy to Helped an extra portion


 * In the case of two preps with verbs it follos so in English


 * We talked to the minister about the crisis.


 * Qâêr - We [the]minister to talked about [the]crisis

Phrasal-Prepositional Verbs
A phrasal verb can contain an adverb and a preposition at the same time. Again, the verb itself can have a direct object:

- No direct object: The driver got off to a flying start.

- direct object: Onlookers put the accident down to the driver’s loss of concentration.

The Present Active Participle
To derive the Present Active Participle form of a Verb the suffix -pon is added which transforms verbs as walk or write into walking and writing and e.c.t.

The present active participle is used to descirbe the name or noun version of a verb and takes the place of either the direct object (I like Swimming) or the subject (Swimming is Fun). When a verb is inflected with the present active participle it cannot be inflected with aspect or tense or any other affix. The position of the present active participle in a sentence depends on if it is taking the place of the subject or object in which case it takes the normal position of any normal subject or object in a Qâêr sentence.

The Present Passive Participle
To derive the Present Passive Participle form of a verb the suffix -pones which transforms verbs such as speak and write into spoken and written and e.c.t.

The Present Passive Participle is used as noun and is inlfected with case and number however not gender. In reference to gender the present passive participle is always in the non-living defined when inflected with case. An example of the Present Passive Participle is;

The written word, or It is a spoken law, the burnt log, and e.c.t

The present passive participle takes the same position of an adjective in Qâêr sentence structure, as in it follows the noun for example in the above senetnces it would follow the main noun like log, or law.

Derivation using the Present Active Participle and the Present Passive Participle
The present active participle and the present passive participle also have other derived lexical uses, mainly deriving concrete nouns. The suffix â is added onto the present active and passive particples (the complete suffixes becoming -ponâ and -ponesâ respectively) which in turn transform these two participles from writing and written into writer/author and letter respectively and so on for other participles.


 * Example; Speaking > Speaker and Spoken > Speech e.c.t

The Adjectival Participle
To derive the Adjectival Participle form of a verb the circumfix of [â-] word [-pon ]is added which transfomrs verbs to adjective participles. An example of an adjectival participle is;


 * very overrated books, or a very frightening experience, or fallen leaves.

However in Qâêr Adjectival Participles can be inflected with the Comparitive or 'More' prefix because they are being used as adjectives.

Gerunds
Qâêr has no gerunds and does not use or incorporate them in any way, instead the Present Active Participle takes the place and function of Gerunds in Qâêr.

Voice
Active

Middle

Passive

Voices are prefixes that are attached in front of the verb to indicate the voice affecting the noun in the ergative case, or when lacking one then in the absolutive case. Examples are in English and Qâêr.

English – He gave Mary Ten Dollars

Qâêr – (Simple Past)Give (Erg)He (Abs)Mary Ten (Dat)Dollars

English – He has given Ten Dollars to Mary

Qâêr – (Active)Give (Erg)He Ten (Abs)Dollars (Dat)Mary

English – Mary was given Ten Dollars by Him

Qâêr – (Passive)Give (Abs)Mary Ten (Dat)Dollars (Loc)Him

English – He washes himself with the soap.

Qâêr – (Middle)Washes He (Ins)(The)Soap

Manner Time Place
Setout used – SOV example in Qâêr – ‘(fut.)ride (Erg)I mine (Abs)horse today (Dat)(the)shop’ English – ‘I will ride my horse to the shop today.’

Mood and Modality
Moods Chosen:

Indicative (Realis)

Optative

Subjunctive

Speculative

Potential

Jussive (Cohortative in 1st Person)

Dubative

Conditional

Hypothetical

Imperative

Interrogative (Particle)

Deliberative (Relate to Interrogative)

Precative (Relate to Interrogative)

Mood attaches to verbs as a prefix. For the Interrogative mood, the structure will follow closely to that of the Japanese. This means that a particle will be used and placed at the beginning of the sentence and will be used to transform sentences into questions. The Precative and Deliberative mood will relate here by inflecting on this particle, and only on this particle, thus making the question into a request or ‘Ought to be done question’. This particle will be ‘lê’ and be placed before all other words in the sentence.

Interrogative Words
The interrogative particle lê will be inflected with prefixes and these will phrase interrogative words such as what, where e.c.t. The interrogative particle without one of these prefixes will just be turned into a normal question.

What = qâlo + lê – qâlolê

Where = qin + lê – qinlê

When = qeose + lê – qeoselê

Who = qeno + lê – qenolê

Why = qî + lê – qîlê

How = qâna + lê – qânalê

How Much = sjonâ + lê – sjonâlê

Sjonâ is derived from the Fáriân word Sjinolâme which means ‘to barter’. Note – when using any of these interrogative words for linking words however, just the prefix is used, not the prefix with the particle. In the example sentence – ‘John knows where the shop is.’ would be ‘Know John qin shop.’

=Dictionary=

=Examples=

Basic Numbers
The Qâêr number system is similiar to the English or German one, in that the system is based of the nuumber ten. The basic numbers from 0-10 are as follows;

0 - âs

1 - onno

2 - sont

3 - qes

4 - loto

5 - ros

6 - mello

7 - seles

8 - opo

9 - nesso

10 - kâros

Teen Numbers
With the numbers 11-19 however there is a different pattern involved;

11 - kârosonno

12 - kârosont

13 - kâroqes

14 - kârosloto

15 - kârosros

16 - kârosmello

17 - kâroseles

18 - kârosopo

19 - kârosnesso

In relation the two numbers 13, the basic sonsonant rules apply, they state that no other consonant can come before or after the consonants Q or Hw (the number three being Qes) which is the reason why the -s from kâros drops off in the number thirteen. Regarding the numbers 12 and 17 (kârosont and kâroseles repsectively) there is only one s, (the numbers being: kâros + sont = kârosont / kâros + seles = kâroseles respectively) because in the number system the doubling of consonants when joining numbers is forbidden and over time with degredation the sound is reduced to one s instead of two s's anyway (two s's having a different pronounciation than a single s).

Sentences
fênos lân qâlârellâ lostêr seonaresímá

norâ nîtêr lân rejaresímá

qânorâ nîtêr lân rejaresímá

assó eon sontólá jodâcofîn jofâjenêm