The Pencil Language

The Pencil Language (natively Wakabewafow /ɣakaβɛɣaɸɒɣ/ and sometimes abbreviated as TPL) is a very widespread language used by countless civilizations within the Pencilcosmos, the world that it exists in. In setting, the language was created by the civilization of Awef.

Classification and Dialects
The Pencil Language has extremely strong agglutinative traits (with traces of polysynthesis), and uses the nominative-accusative alignment. The Pencil Language is strictly head-final, although it handles adjectives derived from verbs very differently.

The Pencil Language, in its setting, has 2 major dialects: the Awefian dialects and the Central dialects. The Awefian dialects have had significantly less sound changes than the Central dialects due to most of the civilizations speaking the dialect heavily regulating the language and almost all aspects of it, including the grammar.

Phonology
TPL has a relatively small consonant inventory, at just 13 consonants and 5 additional allophones.

Consonants
/w/ is only used in loanwords in some parts of the TPL speaking regions.

Phonotactics
The syllable structure is (C)(C)V(C)(C)(C). The only vowel that can come word-finally is /a/.

Writing System
The Pencil Language, over its extremely long history, has had many writing systems, a fair amount of them adopted from other languages and modified. The current and most widely used one is shown below: The glottal stop is usually not shown, although if it is, it is shown with a dash (or, in older texts, a vertical divider).

Nouns
Nouns decline according to two numbers: singular and plural, and seven cases: nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, locative, instrumental, and benefactive. Nouns have no gender. Only the definite article yeb is marked.

Noun Inflectors
Here are the noun inflec behave when a word ends with a consonant, with bayak ("computer") as an example:

Here are how cases behave when a word ends with a vowel, with dca ("planet") as an example: * The genitive and locative cases are distinguished by the inflected noun's position relative to the head. If the noun comes before the head, the case is genitive, and if the noun comes after the head, the case is locative.

The accusative case -(a)fef has two special contracted forms: -pfef and -pfē-. The former occurs after Vp/b, and the latter occurs as -Vp/b-afef-e, where V is any vowel.

Pronouns
Pronouns take the same case marking as other nouns.

These are the set of the main pronouns: There is no distinction in gender in the language.

These are the set of the main interrogative pronouns: Interrogative pronouns, if present in a sentence, are always placed at the end (with the exception of kleb and baf, which follow the words they are describing). With the interrogative pronouns, it is considered incorrect to use them with joiners. For example, pag lod (lit. work who), meaning "who works", would be considered correct, while *lodopag would not.

These are the set of the main indefinite pronouns. Generally, they are formed by appending -(a)n to the end of the corresponding interrogative pronoun (with the exception of abk). There is a special 3rd person pronoun, abk, which roughly corresponds to English "someone" or "something".

Verbs
Verbs conjugate according to two tenses: past and future (present tense is default unmarked); four moods: indicative, imperative, conditional, and potential; and two voices: active and passive.

Here is a table of inflected verb forms, with the default present tense verb kan ("see") as an example:

The imperative, conditional, and potential moods can be compounded onto each other. For example, wa-kan-an-uw, conjugated for the imperative and potential mood, would mean "[noun] should be able to see", or, going with a slightly cumbersome more literal translation, "be able to see!".
 * The indicative mood is unmarked; it used to refer to statements of fact.
 * The imperative mood is used to signal commands and requests.
 * The conditional mood establishes a causal relationship between one event which is not certain to (have) happen(ed) and its effect.
 * The potential mood is used to express the capability of performing an action.

Joiners
TPL has two special "joiners", -e- and -o-, which join together a noun and a verb. Both of them can take on a variety of meanings depending on the context and their role in the sentence.

-e- joiner
The joiner -e- generally refers to a habitual action carried out many times, and is often used to express relative clauses. For example, prowekanuw (thing-e-see-uw) would mean "a thing that sees".

In formal TPL, adjectives are almost never placed before nouns, and are instead glued to the noun via the -e- joiner. This applies even to numerals. For example, kefnawebaduluw would mean "the four creatures" (without case marking). Occasionally, the form -ewo-, combining both joiners, can be used (giving kefnawewobaduluw). However, the meaning remains the same.

This appending of adjectives can create theoretically infinitely long words, although at a certain point the conjunction siy ("and") will be used to separate the word.

-o- joiner
The -o- joiner refers more to causality. -o- is very often used to denote an action that was completed or done a single time (similar to a perfective aspect). However, the -o- joiner can be used to express an action carried out at the present moment, but not necessarily implying habituality as the -e- joiner would.

When using the -o- joiner, the noun usually does not take case marking. For example, "I do not understand" would be adowapgon (1sg-o-NEG-understand), and not *adekowapgon (1sg-NOM-o-NEG-understand).

Passive Voice
The passive voice is expressed via the suffix -ow. The agent of the clause (the noun after the -ow) can take the accusative case or take no case marking at all.

-uw Suffix
This suffix has multiple meanings depending on context. Usually, it is used to denote the absence of an argument in a clause (with a few caveats). It is not used with verbs that are intransitive, because the absence of such an argument is implied. For example, adek pag / adopag ("I work", 1sg-NOM work / 1sg-o-work) does not use the -uw suffix, despite the absence of any other argument. However, adek kanuw / adokanuw ("I see", 1sg-NOM see-uw / 1sg-o-see-uw) does, because there is an implied argument that is missing.

The -uw suffix is not used if there is a subordinate clause that follows the verb. For example, adodowapgil feabnawek ... ("I did not know that they ..." 1sg-o-PST-NEG-know 3pl-NOM). If a subordinate clause or word is implied through context and not stated, the -uw suffix still does not appear. Thus, adowapgil would roughly translate as "I do not know (that/this/that...)". Adding the -uw suffix would imply a more general idea, so adowapgiluw would roughly mean "I don't know (anything)".

Verb Nominalization
Verbs or entire verb phrases can be turned into nouns via the use of the nominalizers -ak/-af (although -ak is often preferred). The construction "when (...)", using the word desiy, combines the entire following noun and verb phrase with the -o- joiner), with one of the nominalizers suffixed onto the resulting word. For example, desiy spacodofenuluwak (when day-o-PST-COP-REFL-uw-NMLZ) would mean "when it was [still] day", with the word spacodofenuluw meaning "it was day".

Reciprocity
Although the suffix -na is generally reserved for nouns and is used to mark plural number, it can be appended to the verb along with -uw to form the suffix -uwna, which adds a reciprocal meaning to the verb. There needs to be at least 2 arguments or at least one plural argument. For example, feabnawodobuwna (3pl-o-fight-RECP) would mean "they fight (each other)".

-uco- Verb Construction
Regarding the conditional mood, there is a specific construction used to express it. The cause ("if...") is expressed with a noun and verb with a joiner inbetween, and the effect ("then...") is appended to the verb via -uco-. For example, adodawapayuw-uco-cefuluw ab would mean "if I don't do anything, you will die" (1sg-o-FUT-NEG-do-uw-COND-o-kill-REFL-uw 2sg).

Copula
The Pencil Language utilizes a copula in certain constructions. To express equivalence of two nouns [noun] is [noun], nouns take person marking and there is no copula. For example "it is a creature" would be kefafef feabek (creature-ACC 3sg-NOM). However, the copula may be optionally used to express "there is...". For example, "there is a computer" may be expressed as simply coc/cac bayak (here/there computer) or bayako/efenuluw (computer-o/e-COP-REFL-uw).

Adjectives
Adjectives take very little marking, and agree with nouns on person ("adjectives" here also include descriptive nouns). For example, with the word "yec" (good): As The Pencil Language is very head-final, adjectives come before the thing they're describing, except for adjectives derived using the e/o-[verb]-uluw construction, which are glued to nouns via the relativizer. For example, to get an adjective like "countless", you take the word for "count" (paholk), negate the word using a(p)-, (producing "apaholk"; "not count"), switch it to passive voice using -owuw (producing "apaholkowuw"; "not counted"), glue it to the head via -e(w)- (producing "ewapaholkowuw"; "which is not counted"), and finally add -(a)n to it to signify that the action cannot be done (producing "ewapaholknowuw"; "which cannot be counted"). Although the process is relatively complex, the system is extremely flexible. Due to this, this is also a useful derivational tool.

Comparative Affixes
There are two prefixes that show comparativity:

Yi(w)- = comparative marker

Yo(y)- = superlative marker

If you were to say something like "i am better than you", you say "yiyecosga ab ad" (COMP-good-LAT 2sg 1sg), literally meaning "I am better to you".

[COMP/SUP]-[adjective]-osga [2] [1]

For superlatives, the same construction is used, except -uw is suffixed to yo[word]osga, and only one noun is used.

None of the words that are compared with each other get any person marking.

Interrogatives
The tag-question particle, fep, comes at the end of the clause to signify that the clause is a question. Interrogative pronouns generally come at the end of the clause, and fep is not used.

Syntax
The default sentence structure is VOS, although originally it was SVO. The Pencil Language is always head-final for words that only serve as adjectives but is head-initial for adjectives derived from verbs.

Example text
Water. Earth. Fire. Air.

''Cug. Sug. Cag. Ceg.''

Long ago, the four nations lived together in harmony.

Yeb kefēfeknawekebaduluw dopanōpf'ekuwna siy docakehsalewadofnekuluwop bōsiwkecubuluwop.

LIT. The four civilizations existed together and existed in a condition of peace in a time long ago.

Then, everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked.

Siy cap yowkakek dohōnow Kefēfekecagopodocolguwafef.

LIT. However, everything was changed by the Civilization of Fire invading.

Only the Avatar, master of all four elements, could stop them, but when the world needed him most, he vanished.

Bagop kefehōn'ek wabnawebaduluw yign feabnafef siy cap feabodowapkananowuwakuluw desiy yeb dcawodopoyefeyowkak feab.

LIT. Only the creature that manipulates the four elements can stop them, but they turned invisible when the world needed them most.