Luluvo

Luluvo (also spelled Luluwo) is an ergative-absolutive language.

Consonants
Affricates: /tʃ/ (ch), /dʒ/ (j)

Vowels
Monopthongs: /a/ /ɛ/ /i/ /ɔ/ /u/

Diphthongs: ai, ei, oi, au, ou

Phonotactics
Consonantal onsets and codas are optional. Consonant clusters may not exist, although cross-syllable adjacent consonants. As a rule, diphthongs and codas generally do not co-occur in a syllable.

An otherwise voiced coda generally devoices before a voiceless consonant. Consonant length is phonemic in Luluwo; two adjacent identical consonants double its length. Stress usually falls on the first syllable of a word root.

Verbs
Luluvo verbs conjugate according to a variety of factors:

There are three persons (first, second, and third) and two numbers (singular and plural). The two voices are active and antipassive (as an ergative language, Luluvo has no passive voice).

The three moods are: The six fused tense-aspects are: The person and number of the verb depends on the absolutive. In transitive phrases, this corresponds to the patient; in intransitive phrases, it is the subject.
 * indicative - indicates that something is a statement of reality or a fact
 * subjunctive - used in dependent clauses to discuss hypothetical or unlikely events, as well as to express emotion, opinion, wishes, polite requests, and necessity; also used in conditional sentences for both the conditions and consequences
 * imperative - used for orders and requests
 * present - actions according at the time of speech
 * imperfect - actions continuing in the past
 * future - events occurring in the future
 * perfect - actions completed by the present
 * pluperfect - actions completed by a point in the past
 * future perfect - actions completed by a point in the future

Luluvo verbs are categorized into two conjugations: the First Conjugation, of which verbs end in -au, and the Second Conjugation, which end in -ei.

First Conjugation
Verbs of the first conjugation are typically transitive.

Imperative mood
The imperative forms are used regardless of tense. The second-person singular imperative has two forms, the standalone verb root or with the ending -ego. Thus, vashau ("I kill") can be either vash or vashego ("kill!").

Other forms
Whereas nominative-accusative languages have a passive voice, Luluvo's primary method of valency reduction is the antipassive, which is done by removing the patient and promoting the ergative agent to the absolutive case. The verb is attached with the circumfix ip) (te. The antipassive verb approximately meaning "he kills" is thus ipvashite, from vashi ("he kills sth.").

Verbs also have an infinitive, used for forming non-finite clauses. For the active infinitive, the ending -fu is attached to the third-person present active indicative; vashau ("I kill") thus becomes vashifu ("to kill"). The antipassive infinitive is ipvashitefu.

Adjectival participles are formed by attaching the suffix -su for present tense and -ku for future tense to the active present indicative third-person form, after any antipassive circumfix. The active present and future participles for vashau are thus vashisu and vashiku, while the antipassive equivalents are ipvashitesu and ipvashiteku. They decline identically to regular adjectives.

Adverbial participles also serve as gerunds, or verbal nouns. The suffix -li is used; vashau becomes vashili ("killing"). The antipassive counterpart is ipvashiteli. When used as a verbal noun, the gerund is declined for case like a noun.

Second Conjugation
Verbs of the second conjugation are typically intransitive, but there are exceptions.

Other forms
Like the first conjugation, verbs of the second conjugation have infinitives formed by the suffix -fu; present and future adjectival participles formed by the suffixes -su and -ku respectively; and gerunds formed by the suffix -li. For example, the verb nenei ("I arrive") would have the forms nenifu ("to arrive"), nenisu ("coming"), neniku ("soon-to-come"), and nenili ("arrival").

Ergative Prefixes
To express the ergative person, optional prefixes may be attached to the beginning of verbs. The prefixes are:

Negation
Sentences are negated by placing the adverb zhak before the verb. For example, "they do not arrive" would choi zhak nenim.

Reflexive
Many intransitive verbs in English are expressed via reflexive transitive verbs in Luluvo. The reflexive pronouns are listed in the below section.

Nouns
Luluvo nouns (as well as adjectives and articles) decline to two genders (masculine and feminine), two numbers (singular and plural), and eight cases. The eight cases are:
 * absolutive - indicates patient of a transitive verb and subject of an intransitive verb; serves as the lemma, or citation form, of the noun
 * ergative - marks the agent of a transitive verb
 * dative - marks an indirect object or the recipient of an action
 * ablative - indicates movement away from something or the cause of the action
 * genitive - marks a noun as possessing another noun, or being the origin of something
 * locative - indicates location; often used alongside relational nouns
 * instrumental - indicates that the noun is the instrument or means by which an action is achieved or accomplished
 * allative - indicates motion towards the noun; also used with relational nouns

Declensions
Five declensions exist for all Luluo nouns, with the first and second declensions being the most common and the last (fifth) being the least. Singular and plural endings are indicated on either sides of a slash. Only the fifth declension does not possess a plural form.

Personal Pronouns
Pronouns decline to number and case. The first- and second-person pronouns do not decline for gender. However, the third-person pronouns are declined for gender. There is no neuter third-person pronoun, so the pronoun of any inanimate, non-human noun depends on its grammatical gender, i.e. a feminine noun would be referred to by cha in the absolutive case. Thus cho and cha can mean "he" and "she" respectively, as well as "it," depending on context.

The third-person pronouns:

Reflexive pronouns
Reflexive pronouns are used alongside reflexive verbs to express that the subject and object of a transitive verb are the same. A distinction is made between introverted reflexives (verbs that are inherently reflexive, e.g. "to wash (oneself), to perjure") and extroverted reflexives (verbs that are not usually reflexive but are used as such, e.g. "to kill oneself, to love oneself"). The pronoun ka is used for the introverted, whereas kale is used for the extroverted as well as to put emphasis on an inherent reflexive. Placed right after the subject in the same case, the pronoun kale is also used as an intensive pronoun.

Adjectives
Adjectives must agree with the nouns they modify in number, gender, and case. The masculine and feminine forms of an adjective decline identically to the first and second declensions respectively. Adjectives generally follow the nouns they modify, as well as any definite articles.

Comparison
In addition to the positive form, adjectives also exist in the comparative and superlative, which are similarly declined for number, gender, and case. In sentences, the standard to which a comparison is being made has the same declension as the word it is being compared with. These sentences make use of the conjuction som ("than"), used in the format "X is comparative som Y," where Y is the standard. When comparing a part to a whole, the partitive genitive case is used.

Adverbs
Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs. They are indeclinable but may have comparative and superlative forms like adjectives.

Most adverbs are formed from adjectives by attaching the ending -i to the adjectival root. For example, adaju ("quick, fast"; feminine form: adaje) becomes adaji ("quickly"). The comparative and superlative forms of these adverbs are made by attaching -if (adajif, "more quickly") and -iji (adajiji, "most quickly") respectively to the original adjectival root.

Definite Article
Definite articles indicate that its noun is a particularly identifiable to the speaker because it is either uniquely specified or previously mentioned. A definite article comes after the noun it modifies and before any adjectives or other determiners, but may, on occasion, precede the noun in poetic language. It is declined according to the noun. Essentially, the singular masculine and feminine forms are declined according to the first and second declensions respectively, while the plural forms are declined according to the third and fourth declensions. All of the plural and some singular forms underwent a phonological process of epenthesis, due to the rule that consonant clusters may not exist. Thus, an i- was added to the front (*shlu -> ishlu).

Indefinite Article
The singular indefinite article is identical to the numeral thau ("one"). Its irregular declension can be seen in the Numerals section.

The plural indefinite article, thayo ("some"), also serves as the existential adjective and partitive article. Its irregular declension is given below; it is similar to the third and fourth noun declensions.

Table of Correlatives
The demonstratives izu and lohu, like adjectives and definite articles, follow the noun. Other determiners, like numerals, precede the noun.
 * These pro-forms are identical for both genders and decline for case according to their ending vowel, i.e. similar to nouns with the same ending vowel.


 * pro-adverbs

All interrogative pronouns as well as interrogative adjective baki are considered to be both masculine and feminine. Pro-adverbs do not decline at all.

Unless otherwise specified, determiners are declined like adjectives. Pronouns for humans, nonhuman objects, and things out of many are declined like nouns and have both masculine and feminine forms. The forms given in the above table are absolutive and decline appropriately whenever used in a sentence.

Numerals
The basic numerals are: Numerals usually precede the noun, but may follow it dialectally or in poetry. All numerals are indeclinable with the exception of thau ("one") and mas ("two"), which have irregular declensions. They are given below: By definition, thau is singular whereas mas is plural.
 * jana - zero
 * thau - one
 * mas - two
 * utu - three
 * lab - four
 * volo -  five
 * xam - six
 * mina - seven
 * teth - eight
 * aiku - nine
 * gos - ten

After 1 and 2, only compounds containing these two numerals decline. Numerals after 10 are formed by stacking numerals into compounds. The 'tens' numerals after 10 are: Larger numerals include: For example, 1,230,879 would be thau amanto, mas pela utugo konan, teth pela minago aiku.
 * mazgo - two
 * utugo - three
 * labgo - four
 * vologo -  five
 * xamgo - six
 * minago - seven
 * tetgo - eight
 * aikugo - nine
 * pela - hundred
 * konan - thousand
 * amanto - million

Ordinal Numbers
Ordinal numbers indicate position in a sequential order and act as adjectives. Ordinal numbers are formed by the suffix -su. The only exception is thau, which has two ordinal counterparts, thausu and kenu ("first, primary").

Postpositions
The majority of Luluvo postpositions are relational nouns. Such relational nouns include: These relational nouns function by being possessed, governing the genitive case. For example, chanim chenki means "behind the girl," or literally "at the girl's back." Chanim gaijki means "above the girl."
 * gaiji - above, top of
 * nita - below, under
 * echa - inside
 * vesu - outside
 * zhane - near
 * gupa - between, at the center of
 * cheni - behind, after
 * hona - before, in front of
 * tivo - beside
 * lamu - for, because of

Other postpositions are indeclinable, but similarly govern other cases. The postposition kas is used with a dative case to mean "for, directed at."

Conjunctions
Conjunctions connect words, phrases, clauses, or sentences. Conjunctions are indeclinable.
 * mau - and
 * zhut - or
 * roza - but
 * yin - so
 * zhai - for, because
 * yoi - if

Syntax
Luluvo has a basic verb-final word order; the word order is usually SOV. The order of the subject and object may be reversed, however, as Luluvo utilizes a topic-comment structure which places the topic (be it subject or object) before the other noun, the comment. It is thus more useful to describe Luluvo as having a topic-comment-verb order. In poetry and colloquial speech, however, the grammatical cases allow Luluvo to have a highly flexible word order.

Questions
Questions are formed in situ; the word order of a sentence is not reversed when changed into a question. For yes-no questions, the sentence-final particle tu is used, while interrogative determiners are used for other questions.

Relative Clauses
The relativizer that connects the relative (adjectival) clause with the noun phrase is identical to the distal demonstrative lohu; it declines according to the gender, case, and number of the antecedent (noun of the main clause). The relativizer is placed before the main clause.

Vocabulary

 * zhau - to be
 * suna -- each other
 * fichu -- for
 * zhunu -- human
 * toch -- should
 * batahei -- act
 * senira -- conscience

Sample sentences

 * Chani she vashiyi - The girl was killed.
 * Chani she adaji neni - The girl arrives quickly.

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
''Fila zhunu paji mau taki sasek mau dihek beli. Ako tori- mau senira-fichu hakim, mau sunfa dajihicham gulos-fichu toch batahim''. 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.

Article 2 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.

Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.

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