Alemarese

General Information
Alemarese (natively Alemarrix /alemaˈʀiʃ/) is one of the most spoken languages of Patrona. It is the majority language in several nations (most notable Westos and Alemar) and taught as a lingua franca the world over.

Classification
Alemarese is an Aidelið language, of the Chevin branch and the Serazi subbranch.

Consonants

 * The interdental nasal /n/ and partially the alveolar flap /r/ assimilate to the place of articulation of the following consonant.
 * The interdental nasal /n/ is pronounced as a nasalized interdental flap [ɾ̟̃] in non-stressed and non-word-initial locations.
 * The uvular stop /q/ is pronounced as a glottal stop [ʔ] in the coda.
 * Whether or not /z/ is a separate consonant and its degree of separation from /s/ both differ from dialect to dialect.
 * The velar fricative is pronounced as a palatal [ç] after /i/ or /e/.
 * The labialized velar approximant /w/ has many origins and thus alternates with several other phonemes. It is the pronunciation of /l/ in the coda, and of /u/ in many diphthongs.

Vowels

 * The close vowels /i/ and /u/ lower in response to a following /ŋ/, /k/, /g/, and /q/.
 * The mid vowels /e/ and /o/ lower when followed by a coda consonant and raise before another vowel or word-finally.
 * Conservative dialects have separate close-mid and open-mid vowels.
 * In some dialects, [e] and [ɛ] (and [o] and [ɔ]) contrast word-finally.
 * The front open vowel /a/ raises to [æ] before alveolar consonants in some dialects.
 * /a/ backs to [ɑ] when adjacent to a uvular stop [q].
 * Vowels gain a following semivocalic schwa before nasals in some dialects.
 * Any two adjacent vowels diphthongize.

Stress
Stress is typically on the penultimate vowel, unless the word ends with a consonant other than  or ; however, stress is contrastive, and is thus marked in non-obvious locations by a grave accent.

The Alphabet
Alemarese is written in the Standard Chevin Alphabet (natively Keaja Txevì).

The letter ta dun is only used in loanwords.

Transliteration

 *  is pronounced /w/ in the coda.
 *  is pronounced /w/ before back vowels and /ɸ/ word-finally.

Digraphs

 * au /o/, ai /e/
 * cm /m/ word-initially
 * dj /dʒ/
 * jr /ʀ/ word-initially, jC /C/
 * ndgB /ŋg/B, ng /ŋ/
 * rr /ʀ/
 * sp /ʃp/, st /ʃt/
 * tt /tː/, tx /tʃ/
 * veB /β/B, voF /w/F

Native Collation
k, a, j, d, g, u, q, p, b, o, h, v, e, s, z, t, l, f, i, y, ð, r, n, m, þ, x

Parts of Speech
Nouns, Adjectives, Pronouns, Determiners, Verbs, Prepositions, Adverbials, Conjunctions, Particles, Interjections

First declension
The first declension houses the vast majority of animate nouns, all morphological diminutives, and all instruments. The animate nouns have a vocative case, but no intrumental. There's very little irregularity in the first declension. Nouns ending in -ea or -aya in the singular become -eye(n) and -ae(n) in the plural nominative, genitive, and singular vocative.

ex. otta "tongue, language, speech" Note that the sg.gen and sg.voc are the same, as are pl.nom and pl.gen. So there is only four forms. Some declension I nouns have a unified -e sg form, reducing the number of forms to three.

ex. xile "scratch, scrape"

Second declension
Second declension nouns are mostly inanimate, though there are a few groups of animates. They are the most regular declension, with no irregularities at all. Nouns in this declension class have no morphological instrumental or vocative, and use the nominative forms if one is needed.

ex. duji "gold" Note that the genitive form does not distinguish singular v. plural. There is a subset of declension II nouns which have an -e instead of -i in the nominative forms.

ex. rame "rope"

Third declension
The third declension is almost entirely inanimate, save for some names and some dialects versions of the diminutives of the core family such as bab and nun in place of the more typical baba and nunya. This class's inanimate nouns are the only ones with an instrumental case, but they lack a vocative. For declension III names, the vocative is the sg.gen form. Declension III nouns typically have five forms, the most of any class.

ex. kur "flame, fire"

Third declension nouns typically end in a stressed syllable in the nominative singular. The addition of the endings bring about predictable alternations of certain final consonants. For a given word, there is a maximum of three stems. These alterations do not occur in loanwords. There are ten alternation classes:
 * 1) The first class are the regular nouns: loanwords and those ending in any consonant not mentioned in the other classes.
 * 2) The next are those ending in and , which have three stems: a sg.nom stem (p/t), a sg.instr stem (f/ð), and a obl stem (b/d). ex. haup "cord" (haufun, haubo)
 * 3) Next are those ending in <ð>, which are the same as those in  except in the sg.nom.
 * 4) Nouns in  do not have a separate sg.instr stem. ex. lant "grass" (landun, lando)
 * 5) Next are the vowel-final nouns. In the sg.nom they are accented, in the sg.instr they are accented and receive a -n ending (instead of a -un), the other endings are regular. ex. jaurà "hour" (jauràn, jaurao)
 * 6) Nouns ending in <ò> lack number distinctions in the nom and instr cases.
 * 7) Nouns ending in  and  decline as nouns ending in <è> except in the sg.nom.
 * 8) Next are nouns in  and , which replace the  with  before non-sg.nom endings.
 * 9) Next are nouns ending in a stop, followed by an unstressed , followed by an  . They always drop the unstressed  in the non-sg.nom forms. Some nouns in or then change the  to <t/p>, whereas all nouns in change the to <k> . ex. hèder "house" (hetrun, hetro)
 * 10) Lastly are nouns which change pronunciation, but not spelling, of a final consonant in the sg.nom. <b> to /p/, <v> to /φ/, and <l> to /w/.

Irregular nouns
Few nouns are irregular, and if a noun is irregular, it is very predictable. An example of a truly irregular noun is oai "cloud".

Vocative pronouns
There are only two vocative pronouns: 2s toye and 2p miumà.

Adjectives
The citation form is the inanimate nominative singular. The adjectives have no vocative case forms, current standard is to use the genitive forms to agree with vocative nouns, but it is colloquially more common to use the nominative forms instead. Where endings are separated by slashes in the table, the first is singular and the second is plural. ex. kremi 'holy' (Soa dine ginora hosa em kreme! 'Even the trickster god is holy!') ex. baborev 'motherly, nuturing' (Jore emò krenten hef baboreven. 'They are very nuturing people.') ex. kade 'new' (Em bendgaizì kade! 'It's from New Bendguise!')

Intensity
An intensive adjective is shown with the adverb/particle hef placed before the adjective in question.

ex. Seo kari raið hef kade ð hef saig "I have a very new and very serious anger."

Quantifiers
Quantifiers include: ispe (all), be (many/a lot), tlone (some), and five (few)

Distributives
Distributive determiners include: saude (any)

Nominative
The nominative case (abbreviated nom) is the dictionary form of a noun. It is primarily used for the subject and primary object of a sentence. As a secundative language, Alemarese treats the indirect object of a ditransitive verb and the direct object of a transitive verb the same. This is called the primary object.

The nominative is also used for the objects of a few prepositions: locatives, temporals, set '(along) with', and id 'about'.

Instrumental
The instrumental case (abbreviated instr) has three uses. It is used to signify an instrument that is used to complete an action, for the secondary object of a sentence, and to signify movement towards. The secondary object corresponds to the direct object of a ditransitive verb.

When used with locative prepositions, it gives them a 'towards' component.
 * ex. ij in --> into, ro on --> onto, vent at --> to

Genitive
The genitive case (abbreviated gen) has a few uses. It primarily signifies possession (so freziv kurù 'the flames' heat') and composition (emaje lotto 'a state of panic').

The genitive also shows the origin of something and, in the same capacity, to make demonyms. It's also used to show groups to which one is a member. And to make matronymics. When used with locative prepositions, it gives them an 'away from' component.
 * ex. Seo mi alemaro 'I'm Alemarese.'
 * ex. hèder ridore 'House Kicker'
 * ex. rajàn rajàno 'Rajàn, child of Rajàn'
 * ex. ij in --> out of, ro on --> off of, vent at --> from

Vocative
The vocative is used for direct address.
 * ex. Aðe krèntau! 'Hello people!'
 * ex. Farm vilxe. 'Bye, Viusche.'

Verbs
There are four conjugation classes based on four thematic vowels: a, e, u, and o.

Present tense
-a verbs -e verbs -u verbs -o verbs The present tense is used for ongoing current events, states, and unambiguous references to the future.

ex. seo odi "I give"

Recent tense
The recent tense is formed with the present tense + sentence final particle là.

The recent tense is used for event which happened typically within the past ten minutes.

ex. seo odi là "I just gave"

Direct remote tense
active participle + the following suffixes (stressed on the participle ending except in the 3p).

-a and -e verbs

-u and -o verbs The direct remote tense is used for past events which the speaker personally experienced.

ex. seo odera "I gave"

Indirect remote tense
The indirect remote tense is used for past events which the speaker didn't personally experience.

Eventive tense
Thematic vowel + the following suffixes

-a, -e, and -o verbs -u verbs

ex. seo odaje "I'd probably give"

Future tense
The future tense is indicated by an auxiliary "er", which is placed before a verb in the active participle.


 * ex. Rai oder li "I will give it"

Regular verbs
moiza "to know" (Moizi toe! "I know you!") kara "to have in one's possession" (Kari so uzìn. "I have the cup.") sterre "to hunt" (Sterrer enxala ze. "I like to hunt.") raqne "to stand" (Raqnek rajane. "Stand up, Rajàn.") pilðu "to shoot, fire, take a shot" (Pilðuk so xaulora! "Shoot at the knife!") ginu "to trick, fool" (Alò, hef ginoruk ze. "Wow, you really fooled me.") furo "to lie" (No gai betxìn toya furoruk vent seon? "But why did you lie to me?") alto "to notice" (Alti li là. "I just noticed it.")

Irregular verbs
er "will"

em, emor, mut "be" fo, fer, foot "do" tyu, tivor, tyut "be born"

Predictably irregular verbs
Some other irregular patterns appear, for example: ex. legu "to talk, speak, say" ex. menga "turn"
 * verbs ending in tyu/ku/tyo/ko or dyu/gu/dyo/go become (t)xi and dji in the 1s.pres.
 * verbs ending in ka/ga change the <k/g> to <(t)x/dj> is the 1s.pres, 1p.pres, and 3p.pres.

Numbers
Though Patronans have ten fingers in total, the most common base for numerals (talento) is 8 (octal) which was spread by Alemarese and Barejine-speakers across most of Patrona. Typically, fingercounting starts with the thumbs out, the first finger being the index, etc.
 * Ordinals are formed with <-me>. First and second are formed suppletively (veit and drezip). They are adjectives.
 * Fractions are formed with <-aj>. Half is suppletive and quarter is irregular (foli and meraj). They are nouns.
 * In both, only the last word of the number receives the ending. If the last word in a fraction is "one" (e. g. 21) then it is rendered as veit.
 * Numbers thirteen and above are nouns declined according to form. The item they tell the quantity of is rendered in the genitive after them.
 * Jen, diz, and hor are undeclined and appear before the noun.
 * Mir to eqa and pidejn are regular adjectives.

Colors
Patronans can't see blue, so they have no need of words to distinguish it, greatly shrinking their color (fulko) vocabulary.
 * txindi: dark red, purple, brown
 * god: light red, pink, orange
 * plauve: white, yellow
 * xab: light green, chartreuse, cyan
 * varze: dark green, teal
 * eriti: black, blue
 * hoitxi: gray

Days of the Week
The Patronan week is only six days long.
 * 1) deruax- Sunday
 * 2) lameax- Loveday
 * 3) kavekax- Thoughtday
 * 4) veverax- Fastday
 * 5) mindax- big Moonday
 * 6) jiliax- little Moonday

Conjunctions
ð (and), iy...iy... (either or), tai (and/or), no (but/yet), gai (because/for), uve (if)

Seasons
Seasons (vostin) do not begin on solstices/equinoxes, those are their middles instead. The first day of the year is the closest possible day to the Summer solstice.
 * estè: Summer (esteo)
 * dimbri: fall/autumn (dimbrin)
 * veyet: winter (veyeðo)
 * àdler: spring (ardro)