Adwan

Adwan, or Aðwana, is a personal conlang, and the official language Adwanic people. It is unknown as to whether it is related to any languages, though relation to Indo-European has been stated.

Features:
 * Adwan is a fusionally synthetic language, meaning words change forms depending on their function in a sentence (in the phrase I like apples, apples is afcrun, yet in the phrase Apples are delicious, apples is afcran.
 * Nouns, numbers, adjectives and pronouns in Adwan decline according to number, gender, and case.
 * Verbs in Adwan conjugate according to person, tense, aspect, mood and voice.
 * Verb participles in Adwan decline according to gender and number.
 * Adwan possesses seven cases: the nominative, the accusative, the genitive, the dative, the ablative, the locative, and the vocative.
 * Adwan possesses three genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter.
 * Adwan possesses two numbers: singular and plural. Note, however, number distinction in nouns has started to disappear in many declensions.
 * Adwan possesses three persons (first, second, third, along with three genders for each third person), three tenses (present, past and future), and three moods (indicative, subjunctive, imperative).
 * While Adwan's word order, SVO and SOV is common, other word orders are allowed for epenthetic uses.
 * Adwan is a syllable timed language, meaning every syllable gets the same amount of length. However, single syllabled words may get an irregular amount of length, and stressed syllables are commonly longer than unstressed syllables.
 * Stress is phonemic in Adwan. Stress always falls on the penultimate syllable unless marked otherwise by accute accents.
 * While lacking articles in general, Adwan contains a nominalizing article, which converts other parts of speech into nouns and converts verbs into gerunds.
 * Adwan is typically right branching, placing adjectives after the noun, though experiences some left branching traits, such as an accusative nearly always coming before a verb and numbers preceding nouns.

Lexicon
The Adwanic Lexicon can be found here.

Phrases
Adwanic Phrases can be found here.

Irregular Verbs
Irregular Verbs can be found here.

Phonology
Adwan employs 32 (excluding 5 allophones) consonants, 7 vowels and 8 diphthongs.

Consonants
Adwan's phonology varies, for there are a certain number of allophones for each consonant.

Adwan makes a distinction between aspirated and unaspirated plosives, rather than a voiced and unvoiced distinction (Adwan only has one voiced plosive, [d], and its dental counterpart [d̪]). The plosive /ɡ/ is an allophone of [ɣ]. Adwan also makes a distinction between alveolar nasals [n], and velar nasals [ŋ], and, unlike many languages, [n] and [ŋ] are not allophones. Alveolar nasals are never velarized before velar consonants. Palatal nasals only ocurr before vowels, ususally intervocalic, and are always syllable-first.

All voiceless plosives are unaspirated, though a tendency to aspirate plosives that precede stressed vowels is common; they are always aspirated when final, too. The dental phonemes (t̪) (d̪) are allophones to [θ] and [ð]; however, allophony generally only occurs when [θ] and [ð] precede consonants, precede stressed vowels, or are initial.

Alveolar trills are allophones to alveolar flaps and taps. Adwan also possesses the alveolar lateral fricative, a some-what rare consonant, only seen in few languages (only one European language has it -- Welsh), though alveolar lateral fricatives are commonly pronounced as voiceless alveolar lateral (voiceless l's, [l̥]).

Adwan has two semivowels, [j] and [w] in which [j] is written either dh in the beginning, i before vowels and after consonants, and gh between vowels,

Vowels

 * [e], [o], and [œ] are allophones of [ɛ], [ɔ], and [ø], respectively.
 * [ə] is an allophone of [ɛ], [ɪ], [u], and [ø] before nasal consonants (usually [n]) and is a general allophone for [ø]. Notably, loanwords with [ə] are usually written using ‹ö›.
 * Rounded vowels are often called "round vowels" or "soft vowels", while unrounded vowels are often called "boxy vowels" or "hard vowels."

Diphthongs
In diphthongs, the phoneme [ɛ] changes to [e]; also, [ɔ] is subjected to change to [o].

Semi-Vowels
Adwan has two semi-vowels, [j] and [w], which, in vowel form, are [i] and [w], respectively. These two vowels, [i j] written as i and [u w] written as w are independant vowels when they precede consonants, and are consonants when they precede vowels. However, diaeresis may be added to stress that vowel and stop it from becoming a consonant. Note the usages below:

Migw --> [mi.ɣu]

The word migw uses both vowels i and w as singular vowels. Note below how, when preceding other vowels, they become consonants.

Cwýðwenech - ['kwɪð.wɛ.nex]

Vieða - [vjɛ.ða]

Note, however, that these two vowels can precede other vowels. This is marked by a diaeresis diacritic:

Mïwðan - [mi.'u.ðan]

Sgẅoða - [ʃu.'o.ða]

However, the diaeresis is only usually used when the vowel is either not accented, or, if accented, in the penultimate position. Words that irregularly stress these vowels simply receive an accute accent diacritic.

Łẃeta - ['ɬu.e.ta]

Rovíoðan - [ro.'vi.o.ðan]

Note, when unstressed, [u] becomes [uw] when preceding separate vowels, therefore sgẅoða is usually pronounced [ʃu.'wo.ða]

Phonotactics
Syllables in Adwan follow a relatively simple set of rules in formation. Usually, they follow a CV pattern, though it is not uncommon to see CCV, CCCV, and CCVCC. Typically, the generalized rule for syllables in Adwan is (C)(C)(C)V(C)(C)(C).

Note, diphthongs count as single vowels, as do digraphs representing one consonant (consonants with ties, such as the consonant for cg do not count).

Alphabet & Orthography
The Adwanic alphabet consists of 27 letters:

A C Ċ D Ð E F G H I L Ł M N O P R S Þ T U V W Y Z Ż Note: Þþ is collated right after Ss.

The letters Bb, Kk, Qq, and Xx do not exist in Adwan, neither in the alphabet or in loanwords. Instead, [b] tends to become [v] or [p], [kw] is written as cw, and [ks] is written as cs. The phoneme pair [gz] is transcribed gz.

Diacritic and etc. notes:


 * Dots were used to affricate alveolar fricatives.
 * Accented vowels do not count as separate characters, for they do not represent new phonemes, therefore vowels with accents are not in the alphabet.
 * Diaeresis represent a separately pronounced vowel. They are only seen as Ïï and as Ẅẅ to represent a separately pronounced vowel that does not represent its consonantal form (þïa is /θi.a./ while þia is /θja/)
 * Digraphs are not represented in the alphabet.
 * In the thorn's name (þ, þor), the ‹n› was dropped due to nasals never coming after r, unless they belong to another syllable.

Stress
Stress in Adwan is grammatically phonemic, as Adwan utilizes stress as a grammatical tool, rather than a lexical one. Unlike many languages, however, Adwan's stress is hardly consistent. There are two typical rules to Adwan's default stress. Stress is marked by an acute accent (or a double acute for the umlaut-o) when irregular. Many nouns are moderately irregular when it comes to declension, for some may change stress and some may not -- this occurs in rare synonyms. For example, miwa, or "cat", becomes míwan in the nominative plural, while afcra becomes afcran in the nominative plural. Since velar nasals automatically take up stress if ending a word, many nouns have final-syllable stress in plural declensions, though many nouns, such as miwa don't. Nouns are not typically marked, though for people learning Adwan and for younger people, vowels are marked.
 * Stress falls on the last syllable if the word ends in a velar nasal consonant (n[ŋ]), therefore, many declensions which end in /n/ may change a noun's stress.
 * Stress falls on the penultimate syllable if a word ends in a vowel or any other consonant.

While the acute accent is used for stress indication in most words, many single-syllable words from closed-class word classes utilize them for vowel length. Vowel length is not phonemic in Adwan, though it is typical for stressed vowels to also be long. Monosyllabic words such as ví, "in", use the acute accent to mark a longer vowel than it normally would be. Most words of single syllables are stress-less, though longer prepositions such as dgencwí use a regular stress-marking acute accent because it's not monosyllabic.

As stated before, stress is phonemic in Adwan. An example, common in declensions, is the use of stress to differentiate between number. The sixth declension's genitive ending for the singular is -ist, while the plural is -íst, thus, stress in a word may simply change number. Apart from the many stress changes in declensions, stress also affects orthography, for certain letters are used before stressed vowels, such as f, which before an unstressed vowel represents [f], but before stressed vowels represents [v]. The same occurs for ss. Certain things in Adwan also follow certain stress patterns, such as the future and past tense in verbs, which always has stress on the last syllable of the conjugated verb.

Syntax & Morphology
Adwan is an inflecting language, where many words change their form depending on their function in a sentence. This may pose a problem for many English speakers, Chinese speakers, or other speakers of analytical languages, for analytical languages depend on word order to convey their meaning, as opposed to morphology.

Adwan, as an inflecting language, inflects verbs, nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and numbers depending on their function in a sentence, or their case (or person, mood, voice, tense and aspect, for verbs).

Parts of Speech
There are seven parts of speech in Adwan. Note, however, many things are considered one part of speech that, in English, and other languages, are other parts of speech. Adjectives, for example, carry adjectives, numbers, and determiners, while particles include interjections, nominalizing articles, and conjunctions. All but one part of speech is declined. Nouns, pronouns, and adjectives decline according to gender, and decline up to seven cases, while adverbs, along with adjectives, decline only in comparison. Verbs conjugate to many criteria, such as tense, mood, person, etc. Nominalizing articles, which are the only particles that decline, are declined according to gender only.
 * Noun (Novna)*
 * Pronoun (Sgevrovna)*
 * Adjective (Preguntissa)*
 * Adverb (Prozcentiussa)*
 * Verb (Mowevinsgta)*
 * Preposition (Monóvona)
 * Particle (Metiýlevo)*

Word Order
Because of the inflections that go on in Adwan, word order is generally a lot freer than it would be if it didn't have all those inflections. Adwan generally follows an SVO word order, hough many word orders are feasible due to Adwan's extensive inflectional system. However, unlike many inflecting languages, word order does not establish mood in Adwan, but is merely used as a tool of avoiding epenthesis. Word order in Adwan is, for lack of a better word, shallow and moderately unimportant, though the use of SVO, SOV and VOS is all too commonly used and recommended.

Below are some general rules the tend to confuse learners, as they don't follow typical SOV word orders.
 * Accusatives and genitives tend to go before the verb, while accusative 3rd person pronouns always precede the verb.
 * Dative personal pronouns always precede conjugated verbs.
 * Dative, Ablative and Locative nouns tend to go after the verb.
 * If the subject is a personal pronoun, the personal pronoun is usually omitted, unless the personal pronoun is in the 3rd person.
 * Personal pronouns always precede accusatives and genitives. She sees the dog --> Ena pözgé vle.
 * In a sentence without accusatives, the verb is second-to-last, with a personal pronoun following it. I'm sorry in Adwan, I'm with you, is written With you am I, or Zuð tenu það iag.
 * When a relative pronoun is in the accusative, the whole relative clause precedes the conjugated verb. She likes that everyone eats her food --> Saż að twði isg migw mozcim ena þawre. --> That all her food (they) eat she likes.

WH Fronting
Due to influence, Adwan, like other Indo-European languages, experiences WH Fronting, or the positioning of interrogative pronouns, interrogative adverbs and interrogative conjunctions to the beggining of the sentence. However, as common as it is to see what, or scað/sað in the beginning of a sentence as it is to see it in the middle of a sentence, or even at the end. For example, note the two ways to say what is that?:

With WH Fronting: Sga þyð sitt?

Without WH Fronting: Sitt þyð sga?

Place Manner Time
Place manner and time order is not strict at all in Adwan, except for one rule: time must always go after the verb. The usual order in Adwan is time place manner, although quite literally, there is no restriction to order, as long as the time goes after the verb. When dealing with Place manner time, the verb always precedes the temporal phrase, therefore word order depends on the position of the temporal phrase.

Time Place Manner Time Manner Place Place Manner Time Place Time Manner Manner Time Place Manner Place Time Taréy (first person future indicative of tan) = I will go; macg = tomorrow; ag = to, at; sgusco (dative of sgusca) = school; ziw = with; swacgé (ablative of swacg) = car.
 * I will go tomorrow to school by car.
 * Taréy macg ag sgusco ziw swacgé.
 * I will go tomorrow by car to school.
 * Taréy macg ziw swacgé ag sgusco.
 * To school by car I will go tomorrow.
 * Ag sgusco ziw swacgé taréy macg.
 * To school I will go tomorrow by car.
 * Ag sgusco taréy macg ziw swacgé.
 * By car I will go tomorrow to school.
 * Ziw swacgé taréy macg ag sgusco.
 * By car to school I will go tomorrow.
 * Ziw swacgé ag sgusco taréy macg.

Cases
Adwan has seven cases to which decline its nouns, adjectives, pronouns, and numbers. They are the nominative, the genitive, the accusative, the dative, the ablative, the locative and the vocative, and are always given in that specific order. While Adwan shares the same cases as many European languages, some uses are quite different. Like other languages, however, a noun's case is determined by two factors: a verb and a preposition, though certain cases aren't governed by anything (nominative, vocative) and some are mainly governed by prepositions (dative, ablative, locative).

Nominative
The nominative case isn't ever governed by anything, for it is the subject of a sentence. All verbs agree with the nominative, and participles change their form according to the noun in the nominative's gender and number. However, nominatives, if personal pronouns, are not so commonly used due to Adwan's extensive conjugation system. Unlike other languages, the use of the nominative is not used for emphasis, but rather, it is used in the same way word order is used: as an epenthetic tool to ease a sentence. This mainly happens in relative clauses that require the relative pronoun sað, where a nominative pronoun is placed after the verb so as to not cause ellision. Note: Łoraċ iag saż mozguð is an example, where the lack of iag would have caused the ċ in łoraċ to elide with the s in saż.

All nouns, pronouns and adjectives are given in the Nominative in dictionaries. Note, however, that adjectives have 6 nominatives (two numbers times three genders) while other nons and pronouns simply have two (singular and plural). In a declension, the nominative tends to share the same ending as the vocative.

An example of a noun, pronoun or adjective in the nominative is shown below.

''Jack sees [that] his dog run[s] around the fence. Petyr and Katyrina are siblings. My parents are at work. The quick, brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.''

Unlike other languages, predicates are NOT in the nominative.

Accusative
The accusative is the case governed the most by verbs, with the dative not far behind. The accusative is also governed by the verb to be, therefore leaving all predicates to be in the accusative, which is quite different from many languages, which govern the nominative. A noun in the accusative is also a direct object to a verb's action, and thus, no preposition can govern the accusative. The accusative is only governed by verbs, and is even dubbed "the verbal case" by some enthusiasts. In declensions, the accusative never shares the same ending as a nominative that's in the same declension except for in adjectives.

One phenomenon that occurs in Adwan is the breaking of its usual right branching system, where objects in the accusative precede whatever they are governed by. While grammatically correct, it sounds rather inconvenient to place the accusative after a verb. This stands for relative clauses too, and, since most relative clauses are caused by a relative clause in the accusative, full relative clauses tend to proceed a verb. Shown below are examples, in English, of accusatives placed before the verbs.

''Jack that his dog runs around the fence sees. Petyr and Katyrina siblings are. I a movie watched today with my friends. I that you eat want.''

Note, that only in relative clauses do other cases follow the accusative other than the verb. In a regular phrase, such as I watched a movie today with my friends, the prepositional phrase with my friends does not follow a movie. An exception is the use of genitives, which always follow whatever they possess, though if the possessor is not a pronoun, a possessive adjective form of a noun is used instead, though it doesn't follow the accusative. Typically, the ordering for a sentence with an accusative and a preposional phrase is order as so:


 * [subject/nominative] [direct object/accusative] [verb] [prepositional phrase: preposition, noun:dative/ablative/locative].

Apart from general direct objects, the accusative marks direct objects governed by verbs in the perfective.

Genitive
The genitive is the case of posession, both active and static. The use of the genitive is somewhat not as common as other cases, as it only works for possession, though verbs do govern the genitive if the quantity of the object is partitive; this always replaces the need for the determiner some, etc. The genitive always comes after whatever noun is in possession, as a noun in the genitive is like saying of ___. Some prepositions govern the genitive, though most prepositions govern the dative, ablative or locative. Genitives are more commonly used with possession than possessive adjectives are, where genitives are generally used, possessive adjectives are only used if the item of posession is in the accusative and therefore the possessor needed to be in the accusative, too. Shown below are sentences in English that use possessive adjectives and their rewordings to fit genitives.

''That's Amelia's dog --> That is dog of Amelia. Where is Carpenter's street? ---> Where is street of Carpenter? She is a creature of the night.''

And below is the partitive use of the Genitive:

''We drank some water. ''

Apart from possession, the genitive also marks direct objects governed by verbs in the imperfective.

Dative
The dative is one of three cases that deal with prepositions. Generally, the dative case denotes movement towards other objects in preposition, and is, by default, paired up with the preposition to. However, the dative is also governed by many verbs. Many verbs actually govern several different cases, such as to be. In the locative, it expresses that one is at a place or a location. In the dative it expresses the same usage as to go, therefore I am [to] park essentially has the same use as I'm going to the park. The dative case in English is bolded below:

''I gave [to] Petyr his presents. I threw the ball at Katyrina. I brought this gift for you. I'm going to school. ''

Ablative
The ablative is the second of three cases that deal with prepositions. Generally, the ablative case expresses use of instrument and marks motion away from something. The ablative, essentially, has the same usage as the instrumental case with many Slavic languages, and shares a certain distinction with Latin's ablative case. Not as many verbs govern the ablative as they do the dative, though it is still not uncommon. Verbs in the passive voice govern the ablative case, completely getting rid of the preposition by in static passives. Therefore I was eaten by a dog would be I was eaten dog ([Iag] Þera mozcago pözcem), when translated into Adwan. The ablative takes on the preposition from by default, such as ''This present is from your sister. ''

''I'm driving to school with a car. Because of my homework, I didn't sleep last night. I explained to my parents in a nice manner, but they didn't listen. ''

Locative
The locative is the third and final of the three cases in Adwan that deal with prepositions. The locative is not as commonly governed by verbs, but takes up literal meanins with prepositions, thus making the locative quite common with prepositional uses. The locative in Adwan denotes location, therefore prepositions dealing with location, address, or direction are all in the locative. Such distinction is made between the preposition for in, or ví, where going in somewhere requires the locative, while being in a manner of a speaking or with a manner of speaking uses the ablative.

''I walked around the forest. Let's drive to somewhere [that is] far [from] here. One's front yard is in fronf of their house. ''

Vocative
The vocative is not as used as much as other cases, though its use is still widely seen, mainly in narratives and literature. The vocative expresses dialogue or direct calling, therefore a person calling out another person's name would be in the vocative. The vocative is seen in many greetings, as much as in dialogues. The vocative, in some declensions, may share the same endings with either the nominative or the accusative. Below are examples of nouns in the vocative in English:

'O! Father! '''Where are you? Hello Petyr! Oh, my dear cat, what have you done?''

Prepositions
Prepositions in Adwan are polygoverning, meaning they all govern more than one case. In the case of Adwanic prepositions, a preposition will span over three main meanings over the span of three different cases. The dative case is governed by prepositions denoting motion towards; incidently, beneficial prepositions also govern the dative. The ablative is governed by prepositions denoting motion from. The difference between the dative and the ablative is that, while both may indicate motion, the ablative denotes motion from the perspective opposite of the one in motion, therefore technically, not all prepositions governing the ablative denote motion; also, the ablative denotes instrument, motion within, and most temporal phrases. The locative, unlike the dative and ablative, never denotes motion but denotes location, so while the dative and ablative typically denote motion, the locative is always still. Below is a list of each Adwanic preposition with their English usages under the respective cases. Note, there are few prepositions that form prepositional phrases to express certain meanings rather than use one preposition alone.

Ví

 * In (indicating year); ablative
 * Ví nino 2011 graðwanás. -- I graduate in the year of 2011.


 * In (indicating time in amounts); ablative
 * Dwaentas mí stravosg ví cyvum sgcyvufi! -- I need to start on my work in ten minutes!


 * Into; dative
 * Tełẃ ví herno. -- He went into the forest.


 * Divided by; Ablative
 * Cyf ví cyve þyð uny. -- Ten divided by ten is one.


 * In (indicating means, emotion, enrolled in, etc); ablative


 * Scẃvreta cgescana vieðw ví ánlaney vievréc. -- The czech student read a book (in English).
 * Chagiáfc ví faie sgmátersgi. -- They behaved in a respectful manner.
 * Ví dýtlevem neifyzgney. -- In sickness and in health.


 * In (locational); locative
 * Ví hérnena það. -- I'm in a forest.


 * Inside; locative
 * Ví ċesga viósgcena þws? -- Are you in your house?


 * Among: genitive


 * Scunvráy þyst ví révena herni Nori. -- I found this among the trees of the Black forest.


 * In between: ví + ag + mediżeg + genitive


 * Scwnvrát þyst ví ag miédiżeg mia dwvias vieði. -- I found this in between my two books. 

Ag

 * To; dative


 * Masga cgivóy ag cíno. -- I gave (to) the girl some gum.


 * Toward, Towards; dative
 * Teldéc ag þresgco. -- She walked towards the door.


 * At (indicating location); locative
 * Ag seia viósgcena það. -- I'm at my house.


 * At (indicating time in selective periods); ablative


 * Owrí myna stravy ag iosgté yð unié zgole. -- I will do (and finish) my work at ten o'clock.

Y

 * Times; dative
 * Cyf y cyvum þyð vera. -- Ten times ten is one hundred.


 * For; dative
 * Morscáy sgcgazgw (y) fum. -- I bought a bird for you.


 * By (before given time); ablative
 * Dwaiówr mí stravosg y cyve wesċi. -- I need to start on my work by ten AM.


 * For (supporting); vïy (ví + y); dative
 * Twði łavan þyla vïy łávacgno. -- All women are for feminism.


 * According to; y + að cwýðwenech + genitive
 * Y að cwýðwenech mia fevni. -- According to my mom.


 * For (price); ablative


 * Twe sgvestenáċ vieða y cyvum sgróvioho. -- I will send you [this] book for ten ounces. 


 * For, In role of, As; ablative


 * Þa sachviż þyð dgagtaga dgiþyð y sachvyżiża dgagtagey. -- This language has been elected (to be as) a featured language.

Zwð/Ziw
Zwð and Ziw can be used interchangeably, though ziw is usually used before consonants while zwð before vowels.
 * With; ablative
 * Ziw łowa ciney ena þïa. -- She was with her cat.

Used post-positionally.
 * Including; ablative
 * Entẃss, łema ziw. -- We all started, including her.


 * Via, Using; ablative
 * Tasié ag sgwsco ziw seia swacgé. -- I went to school using my car.


 * Near; locative
 * Ċeła sgwsca þyð ziw ċesga viósgcena? -- Is your school near your house?

Sað/Sia

 * Without; ablative


 * Owrí iosgtinn sað ezgmay að ryteneg sgwzivieði. -- I did my work without having to read the textbook.


 * Except for; ablative
 * Entẃss, łema sia. -- We all started, except for her.

Like zwð/ziw, sað/sia is used post-positionally.
 * Far from; locative
 * An, ma sgwsca þyð sia seia viósgcena. -- No, my school is far from my house.

Evo

 * About; genitive
 * In front of; locative
 * Iag, ma viosgca þyð evo seia sgẃscena. -- Me, my school is in front of my house.


 * Before (sequence, time); ablative
 * Tws ag sgwsco evo meno. -- You go to school before me.

Olsa

 * From (locational); locative
 * Tiago (ag) Lóndonnam olsa Prágena. -- I am going to London from Prague.


 * From (origin); genitive
 * Ma gova þyð olsa Lóndonnis. -- My friend is from London.


 * From over/on top of; olsa + smeðam + genitive
 * Łováy olsa smeðam eleffanntu. -- I fell from the top of an elefant.


 * From under; olsa + cewórðena + genitive
 * Out of; ablative
 * Sgcgazga fyvi olsa seia viosgcey! -- A bird came out of my house!

Dgencwí

 * After; ablative


 * Ví wevéstnena dgimozgim, þera dgencwí seia perley. -- I was after my sister in the lunch line.


 * Around (direction); dative
 * Y grevurðiłwfté, dwagyrim dgencwí tarthco mia sgwsci. -- For physical education, we have to run around my school's track.


 * Behind; locative


 * Þawras tan (ag) zgewrko sað þyð dgencwí seia viosgcena. -- I like to go to the river [that is] behind my house.


 * Under (price); ablative


 * Vieða þyð dgencwí cyfe sgrovieyn? -- Is this book under ten ounces?


 * Until; dative
 * Zaðáy ta dgencwí wesċo. -- I didn't sleep until this morning.

Stea
Note, stea is more commonly used postpositionally than prepositionally.
 * Across; locative
 * Stentas tovy stea. -- I'm standing across from you.


 * Despite; ablative
 * Di owrí stéfnamey stea. -- I did it despite the instructions.


 * Versus; ablative
 * Chyðawm chyðawmem stea. -- People versus people.

Odgi

 * Because of; ablative
 * Odgi teniw, tuðý tiosawlyr dwapeias. -- 'Because of you, I have to clean the whole bathroom.


 * For the sake of; ablative
 * Odgi ċesca sgwscastrave, wrðúy! -- For the sake of your academics, study!


 * On behalf of, genitive
 * Mezgmydgosgcgi þyð odgi sgnaw. -- This announcement is on behalf of us.


 * Ago, ablative


 * Scẃvretw þera ví iwnyférsytey odgi cyfe eyn cylem ninech. -- I was a student in university fourteen years ago.


 * Outside of; locative
 * Odgi ċesca viósgcena það. -- I'm right outside of your house.

Ċa

 * Compared to, than; ablative


 * Mynn puzg þyð tairoro ċa eð ċynech. -- My dog is bigger than your dog.
 * Ċa ċesca perla, ma miwa þyð teiycna. -- According to your sister, my cat is the smallest.

Ży

 * Like, According to; ablative
 * Mynn puzc þyð roro ży eð ċynech. -- My dog is big, like yours.
 * Þyð saż ena þwthay ży sgtem cgisgmey. -- That's what she said according to our teacher.

Oun

 * On (temporal); ablative
 * On, On the surface of; locative
 * During; ablative

Nouns
Nouns in Adwan are categorized into one of three genders which are commonly found in other European languages. Masculine, Feminine, and Neuter. However, unlike many languages, genders do not necessarily hold special endings, therefore, the gender of a noun must be memorized. It is, possible, however, to determine the gender of a noun by its declension paradigm. Nouns in Adwan are declined according to grammatical case, number, and gender. However, it must be noted that, in Adwanic nouns, numbers are on a steady collapse, leaving number to be highly dependant on adjectives and determiners for many classes.

Apart from genders, nouns are divided into other subclasses. These classes depend on their ending, i.e. Migo would be declined differently than Puzg, even if they are both masculine.

The different classes of nouns are shown below, each class retaining its own declensional pattern. However, one thing must be noticed. Nouns in Adwan are distributed in a less arbitrary fashion, with nouns actually having some sort of connection to their gender. This does no prove true to all nouns, but it holds steady for the majority. Along with that, all living things are either masculine or feminine. Note, when verbs change into nouns, their class of verb determines the gender.
 * Masculine
 * 1) First Declension (voiceless consonants)
 * 2) Second Declension (voiced consonants)
 * 3) Third Declension (e)
 * 4) Fourth Declension (o)
 * Feminine
 * 1) Fifth Declension (voiceless consonants)
 * 2) Sixth Declension (voiceled consonants)
 * 3) Seventh Declension (a)
 * 4) Eighth Declension (w)
 * Neuter
 * 1) Ninth Declension (all consonants)
 * 2) Tenth Declension (i)
 * 3) Eleventh Declension (y)

Special Gendered Nouns
Adwan has a set of nouns that essentially mean the same thing, but have different forms according to their declension. Nouns such as man and woman, boy and girl, to nouns that don't seem so distinct like writer and teacher. Gender specific nouns have three different forms for each gender. A masculine, when regarding masculine subjects, a feminine, for feminine subjects, and a neuter, for mixed subjects. Typically, the singular of a neuter is hardly ever used, unless the subject is unknown. Plurals of these nouns tend to take the neuter version since most plurals mix genders; for example, the poets typically uses the noun piesgi in the plural form, rather than a plural form of powet or powetissa, unless it is specifically implied that the poets are girls, which in that case would use powetissa, and the same for masculine. Note, however, this is not always the case, as is with puzg, which uses the masculine for masculine and mixed genders. This is always the case with animals.
 * Evlo (man, m.), Łova (woman, f.), Vre (adult, n.)
 * Mevo (boy, m.), Cina (girl, f.), Łeth (child, n)
 * Evolino (husband), Maraffina (wife), yð mrevagy ([the] married [ones], n.)
 * Sgeðno (judge, m), Carða (judge, f), Grïieðy (judge, n.)
 * Minevo (son, m), Cevina (daughter, f), Łeð (child, n)
 * Puzg (dog, m), Cezga (dog, f),
 * Fecgo (horse, m), Sgavia (mare, f)
 * Irtém (writer, m), Irðma (writer, f)
 * Powet (poet, m), Powetissa (poet, f)
 * Sgpiwmo (teacher, m), Sgpi'ẅ'wam (teacher, f), Stétavy (teacher, n.)
 * Łwzgvam (actor, m), Vałwzga (actress, f), Łwvazg (actor, n)
 * Diavie (tourist, m), Dgavenia (tourist, f*)
 * Fórpitom (rabbit, m), Tómpifor (hare, f)*
 * Mwertof (doctor, m), Cvétrova (doctor, f), Miófcervy (doctor, n)

Gender Agreement in Nouns
Typically, as in other indo-european languages, everything must agree in gender. Adwan even takes it far enough to where, though many adjectives have a set gender, they change to agree with what ever noun they're describing. The same cannot be said for nouns.

Typically, there will be a feminine version of a noun. Most of the time it's through some form of feminization, a phenomenon where either affixes are added to nouns, though this is rare, or general stem changing (affixing would include the example powet and powetissa, while stem changing can range from puzc and cezca to łwzgvam to vałwzca) occurs. It is common for feminine versions of originally masculine nouns to resemble their masculine counterparts, such as irtém and irðma, while some are not so obvious, such as puzc and cezca.

The most common form of stem changing includes consonant alterations and vowel changes. This is seen in the devoicing of p in puzc and the opening of u to e to form cezca. Similarly, the typical feminine ending -a was added, though this is not always the case.

Another common form is reordering. This particular form is becoming much more common with nouns, though the exact method is not consistent. Typically, the last syllable is placed before the one it goes after. A great example of this is in the nouns fórpitom and tómpifor. The masculine's breakdown of the syllables consists of tom-pi-for. The last syllable, for is placed before the syllable it comes after, where in this case is pi, therefore leaving fórpitom to be tómpifor.

A much more irregular version of this is shown in the nouns for actor and actress. The masculine form, Łwzgvam, becomes Vałwzca. The syllable łwzc is kept in the word, but vam goes through nasal ellision, which removes the m. Apart from that, a feminine ending, -a, has been added.

Typically, animal nouns will be more regular than nouns regarding humans, though a great number of irregular nouns do indeed exist.

However, one problem may arise. Not all nouns have various genders. The noun for student, for example, is always feminine (scúvreta). Even in constructions where the subject is masculine, the noun remains if no other alternatives exist. Compare the following sentences: Note how even though the subject of the first sentence was masculine, the accusative was a feminine. This is because of fixed gender. The second sentence, however, has cvetrovw for the girl, yet should the subject have been masculine, mwertof would have been used rather than cvetrova.
 * Evlo þïa scẃvretw sachvyżist cgescany. The boy was a czech language student.
 * Cina łoréy þwðan cvetrovw. The girl wanted to be a doctor.

First Declension
Nouns ending in a voiceless consonant.

Second Declension
Nouns ending in a voiced consonant.

Third Declension
Nouns ending in a boxy vowel (e)

Fourth Declension
Nouns ending in a round vowel (o)

In the locative case, the first syllable is stressed.

Fifth Declension
Nouns ending in a voiceless consonant.

Sixth Declension
Nouns ending voiced consonant.

Seventh Declension
Nouns ending in a boxy vowel (a)

Note, in the locative case, and in the plural of the dative case, the first syllable is stressed.

Eighth Declension
Nouns ending in a round vowel (u)

Ninth Declension
Nouns ending in any consonant.

Tenth Declension
Nouns ending with a boxy vowel (i)

Eleventh Declension
Nouns ending in a boxy vowel (y)

Syncope
If the last syllable of an undeclined, polysyllabic noun (in consonant declensions) contains [ɛ], and the declension ending adds on a syllable with [ɛ], the first [ɛ] is ellided.
 * Cvarem = Cvarem/Cvaremi, Cvareminn/Cvaremwnn, Cvarmé/Cvarmeva, Cvarmes/Cvarmevi, Cvarmem/Cvaremim, Cvaremaċ/Cvaremwċ, Cvaremo/Cvaremova
 * Stičmel = Sticgmel/Sticgmela, Sticgmelw/Sticgmelu, Sticgmely/Sticgmelys, Sticgmelwvy/Sticgmelwvi, Sticgmlé/Sticgmléy, Sticgmelá/Sticgmelẃ, Sticgmelý/Sticgmelí
 * Veder = Veder/Vederi, Vederinn/Vederwnn, Vedré/Vedreva, Vedres/Vedrevi, Vedrem/Vederim, Vederaċ/Vederwċ, Vedero/Vederova

Ablaut
If the last syllable of an undeclined noun contains [i], and the declension ending adds on a syllable with [i], the first [i] becomes [ɪ].
 * Miwa = Miwa/Míwan, Miww/Miwy, Mywi/Mýwin, Miwo/Míwoho, Miwey/Míweyn, Míwena/Míwena, Miwa/Miwea
 * Misg = Misg/Mysgi, Misge/Misgenn, Misgyr/Misgyr, Misgo/Misgos, Misgech/Misgoch, Mysgim/Misgum, Misga/Misge

Devoicing
In neuter consonant declensions, where an f represents [v] because it stands before a stressed vowel, the endings -ovy and -ovi become -ofy and -ofi.
 * Delaf = Delaf/Delafa, Delafw/Delafu, Delafy/Delafys, Delafufy/Delafufi, Delafé/Delaféy, Delafá/Delafẃ, Delafý/Delafí

Diphthongisation
The vowels a, e and o are changed to the diphthongs aw, ew and ow if stressed and preceded by an -r. Note, this diphthongisation does not occur in non stressed vowels preceded by -r, or in the nominative if not already marked.
 * Motor = Motor/Motowri, Motowrinn/Motowrwnn, Motoré/Motoreva, Motowres/Motorevi, Motowrem/Motowrim, Motowraċ/Motowrwċ, Motowro/Motorova
 * Tenór = Tenór/Tenowret, Tenówruva/Tenówruvi, Tenowrist/Tenoríst, Tenóurwvo/Tenorwfó, Tenówriża/Tenówriże, Tenowriċ/Tenówriċa, Tenówroy/Tenówrois
 * Wer = Wer/Wewra, Wewrw/Wewru, Wewry/Wewrys, Weruvy/Weruvi, Weré/Weréy, Werá/Werẃ, Werý/Werí
 * Łogar = Łogar/Łogawri, Łogawrinn/Łogawrwnn, Łogaré/Łogareva, Łogawres/Łogarevi, Łogawrem/Łogawrim, Łogawraċ/Łogawrwċ, Łogawro/Łogarova

Adjectives
Adjectives come in two different declensions; soft declensions and hard declensions. The most common declensions for adjectives are the soft declensions. Adjectives in hard declensions either end in -o, -a, or -y, and can change depending on the gender of whatever they are describing, therefore while the adjective big, rora, is feminine, if it is describing a neuter noun, it is declined as rory. Below is a table with the declensions for hard adjectives. Adjectives in soft declensions end in consonants. Declensions for adjectives in the soft declensions vary less than their hard counterparts, thus the name hard and soft declensions. Note the lack of variation between mynnċ, or smart.
 * Pyzg roro
 * Miwa rora
 * Cryt rory


 * Puzg mynnċ
 * Miwa mynnċ
 * Cryt mynnċ

Adjective Compounding
Adjective compounding exists in Adwan for two reasons -- to create new adjectives, and to avoid having to use more than one adjective. Typically, all adjectives can have more than one meaning, therefore adjective compounds will have a multiple set of meanings; take the adjective for fat, which can either use rory, or big, or migorory, or foodbig. Typically, like noun compounds, the head comes last. It is common for adjective compounds to consist of a noun that describes an adjective, rather than vice versa. Adjective compounds typically exist of noun+adjective combinations, or adjective+adjective combinations. Note the below examples: Note, all adjective compounds end in adjectives.
 * Migórory, big-food, fat.
 * Łóprysgwy, different-scare, xenophobic (Xenophobia would be Að łopryscwy)
 * Serpentasgwy, snake-scare, Ophidiophobic/Snakephobic
 * Łáchrory, music-big, loud
 * Twðyłery, all-soft, peaceful, (Peace would be Að twðyłery)

Nominalizing Articles
Adwan's nouns do not carry articles, and neither do adjectives... for the most part. Nominalizing articles exist in Adwan for the purpose of treating an adjective and a verb like a noun, therefore, when a noun is needed, the nominalizing article comes in before any adjective or verb and modifies it into a noun, whilst letting it keep its adjective declension should it be an adjective. Nominalizing Articles only come in one form, though it is not definite or indefinite, merely an oblique form.

Nominalizing articles replace the use for the noun "ones" or "things" in most cases, so to say She ate the blue thing, one would simply say She ate the blue (Ena mozgé yð ieðy.). The neuter gender is generally used when the gender of the item is unspecified.

Nominalizing articles also replace the usage of the nouns "person", "man", "woman", "boy", "girl", or "child". For example, to say An old man eats, one could simply omit man and decline old to the masculine, therefore leaving the sentence to be An old eats (Eð sguno mozge.).

Along with the other usages provided, nominalizing articles could allow speakers to omit objects if they were already specified before, and if each object had an adjective (if two objects have the same adjectives but different genders, then the same process could be applied, however, if they are of the same gender and have the same adjectives, this cannot work). If someone was to ask Did the big cat eat the little mouse? Cat and mouse, since they were already stated, and they have their own adjectives, big and little, then the objects could be omitted and the reply would be Yes, the big ate the little (U, að rora mozcé að ina.) instead of Yes, the big cat ate the little mouse.

Nominalizing articles are not declined for case or number, but are declined for gender. Unlike adjectives, nominalizing articles precede the things they nominalize. Along with modifying adjectives, nominalizing articles are also used for gerunds, as shown later on in the article.

Word Formation
Word formation in Adwan takes one of two ways, ususally following a derivational agglutination. Adwan has a relatively small number of affixes, and makes up most compound words by way of compounding. However, unlike other compounding, which simply merges two words, many Adwanic words go under ellision and other means of phonetic changes, though these are ususally limited to commonly used words and words with odd consonant clusters.

Consider the regular formation for the word "airport", éropleynnviosgca, or airplane-house to the irregular formation of a study, such as biology, or viðaurði.

In éropleynnviosgca, the words éroplein and viosgca are simply merged, with the head always in the beggining.

Affixes
Nouns and Adjectives in Adwan carry a number of derivational morpheme markers that add or change meaning. Like many affixes in other languages, they slightly add on to the meaning of a noun. For example, the affix -cgna means in essence of, very much like the affix -ness in English. However, many affixes in English all go back to this same affix in Adwan. In the English word Brotherhood, the affix -hood has the same meaning as -ness; in Adwan, to say brotherhood, one would say brother, or povlo (note, brother is an irregular noun that does not follow the same gender pattern as most nouns) and add on the affix, leaving it to be povlocgna, or brotherness. Affixes are added on to the undeclined noun, for the noun is declined after the affix has been added on.

Below is a list of affixes -- mostly suffixes -- used to alter meaning in Adwan. Note: do not confuse derivational affixes with diminutives and augmentives.

Note, gemination does NOT occur with affixes. Double consonants are both pronounced. Adjective comparisons function by use of prefixes, which are also shown below.

Compounds
Nouns in Adwan form most commonly by way of compounding. Where in languages such as English or Spanish, where many things are provided by affixes, Adwan compounds nouns in the same format.

Forming compounds in Adwan is relatively easy, though irregularities do occur. Compounds in Adwan are formed head initially. The head goes last while modifiers go first; along with that, compounds in Adwan only consist of noun to noun compounds, whereas compounds that require prepositions and/or adjectives would be phrasal nouns, rather than compound nouns.

Below are a few general phonetic rules that head nouns go through in changes.


 * Diphthongs do not form in compounds, therefore dh must be placed between adjacent vowels.


 * tð becomes ċ if an unstressed vowel follows, ż if a stressed vowel follows, ty if the next word starts with an ċ, s, z or ż and is in an unstressed position, and ti if the next word starts with an ċ, s, z or ż and is in a stressed position.


 * If two identical consonants are adjacent to eachother, or they will cause ellision or gemination, a e is inserted if the preceding consonant is rough, and a a if the proceeding consonant is soft. (This does not always apply)


 * s and z before ċ and ż are completely ellided.


 * If the last letter of one word is g and the first letter of another is a consonant, then g becomes gh, unless the first consonant in the next word is a plosive, where it then becomes ch.


 * If the last letter of the first word is a vowel, and the first letter of the next is [j], [j] is then written as ‹gh› unless dhi.


 * If the last letter of the first word is t and the first letter of the next is l, tl becomes łt.

Personal Pronouns
Personal pronouns in Adwan are the most irregular parts of speech in Adwan.

Possession
Possession in Adwan is expressed by three forms in Adwan: by the genitive case, by the dative case, or by an adjective denoting possession rather than by possessive pronouns.

The genitive case is the most common usage for possession when denoting possession to general nouns. Typically, the possessor follows the item of possession, as if the genitive case meant to say of the/a ___. Typically, genitives stack upon eachother under multiple possessions. Note, typically genitives function in the opposite direction of possessive -'s in English. Also, mynn is commonly more used than sta when denoting possession for the first person.
 * The girl's cat, miwa cini (cat of-girl)
 * This dog's house, viosgca þos puzgé (house of-this of-dog)
 * The house's door, forða viosgci (door of-house)
 * My sister's car, swacg perli sta (car of-sister of-me)
 * My mother's daughter's car's door, forða swacgy cynini misci sta (door of-car of-daughter of-mother of-me)

Datives are more formal but are equally as common. While genitives function like saying of x, datives function by saying to x, which, in English, is comparable to that of saying ... that belongs to x. Possessives in the dative are uncommon in transitive verbs as they might cause confusion. The third format in which possessives are expresses is through possessive adjectives. Most ossessive adjectives are declined weakly in Adwan and follow a regular declension pattern for the most part, excluding the occasional irregular stem changes. Possessive adjectives in Adwan are not like my or your, but rather the predicate version which can be used for both predicates and non predicates. Like regular adjectives, possessive adjectives go after nouns. Note, the third format only consists of possession of personal pronouns. Typically, the adjectives are always in the genitive or dative, depending on the context. The relative sentence ... sað þyð ___ is typically used, with þyð often being omitted.
 * The girl's cat, miwa cino (cat to-girl)
 * This dog's house, viosgca þoll puzgem (house to-this to-dog)
 * Mine -- Mynn, becomes myn- in declensions.
 * Yours -- Ċynn, becomes ċyn- in declensions.
 * His -- Hgið, becomes hiv- in declensions.
 * Hers -- Hioð, becomes hof- in declensions.
 * Its -- Hiyð, becomes hyth- in declensions.
 * Ours -- Mwecg, becomes mw- in declensions.
 * Yours (plural) -- Sgvecg, becomes sgv- in declensions.
 * Theirs (m.) -- Fihgo
 * Theirs (f.) -- Fihga
 * Theirs (n.) -- Fihgy
 * My cat, miwa mynas
 * My houses, viosgcan mynias
 * My cat's house, vioscga mywi mynas
 * My cats' houses, viosgcan mywin mynias

Relative Pronouns
Relative pronouns in Adwan, like pronouns, are irregularly declined.

Adwan has one relative pronoun, and its declination works something like the French relative pronouns of qui and que, and Latin's declension, where it declines according to its part of speech function rather than the noun its connecting or relating to. The relative pronoun in Adwan is Sað, and it has all the functions of English's relative pronouns that, which, who, whom, etc.

Sað
Sað covers "that", "which", "whom", and "who" when declined for gender. The nominative of sað works as all of the previously stated pronouns, and are usually declined for gender. Take the phrase, That is the man that likes to eat, Þo þyð evlu saðo łori mozgan . Note, the relative pronoun sað has some relation to the nominalizing article, að, and the both are usually used together, therefore the aforementioned phrase could completely omit that and man, and phrase it as Þyð eð saðo łori mozgan, which literally says is (the) one that likes to eat.

The different usage of cases of sað takes up many relative pronouns that other languages have separate ones for. For example, while the nominative inflects for precision, so can the accusative (though a neuter accusative is more common than a gendered accusative for convenient reasons) and other cases. Note:


 * Þo þyð evlu saðo łori mozgan = That is the man that likes to work. (Nominative)


 * Þo þyð evlu saż vláy = That is the man that I saw. (Accusative)


 * Þo þyð evlu savio puzginn vláy. = That is the man whose dog I saw. (Genitive)


 * Þo þyð evlu ag os myna puzginn cgiváw = That is the man to whom I gave my dog to. (Dative)


 * Þo þyð evlu ziw sig dgosgcgáy = That is the man with whom I spoke. (Ablative)


 * Þo þyð evlu say odgi viósgcena þera = That is the man whose house I was outside of. (Locative)


 * 1) That is man whose outside of house I was. Note, prepositions that coincide with relative pronouns simply precede nouns, but come after relative pronouns.

Interrogative Pronouns and Adverbs
Interrogative pronouns pose questions while taking form of what would be nouns. However, most words that do pose questions are actually reversed adverbs, where rather than going after the verb, the precede the verb. Adwan's structure does not depend wholly on this, however, as simply using intonation is enough to pose a question.

Adwan has rather odd interrogative pronouns, that, although not found in English typically, can be found in other languages. However, like other Indo-European languages, what is identical to the relative that in Adwan.

All Adwanic interrogative pronouns end in að and follow the same declension pattern as sað. Note, adverbial forms of each interrogative pronoun are listed next to each pronoun. (Pronouns have an asterisk next to them)

How: Łuvi

How many: Gwacgi

What: Sað*

What kind: Flöð

Where: Chað*

When: Feðyr

Who: Stað*

Why: Scyr

Demonstratives
Demonstratives, words such as this, that, those, these, etc. Adwan differentiates between two distances, near me (zuð meno) and far from me (sað meno), or more properly known as proximal and distal.
 * 1) Proximal demonstratives mark objects that are near to the speaker. The equivalent to this in English is the demonstrative this and these.
 * 2) Distal demonstratives mark objects that are far from both the speaker and the addressee. English has the demonstratives that and those, and archaically had yon and yonder, but those aren't used as much anymore.

Demonstratives in Adwan are declined for number, gender and case, although the declensions they go through are, typically, irregular and don't follow the rules of typical declensions.

Proximal: Þa/Þo/Þid - This
Þa, the proximal demonstrative in Adwan, marks objects that are close to the speaker. It is the equivalent to this and these in English. The ‹d› in the neuter nominative singular, þid, is pronounced as [d] rather than [ð].

Distal: Sa/So/Sy - That
Sa, the distal demonstrative in Adwan, marks objects that are far from both speaker and addressee. It is the equivalent to that and those in English.

Numbers
Numbers in Adwan are quite different from other parts of speeches, simply because only certain numbers decline in Adwan. Adwan's numeric system is quite simple, The numbers 0-9 are declined in the plural, and the number 1 is declined in the singular. Numbers 0-9 are also declined for case and gender, and follow the same declensions as adjectives. The numbers 10, 100, 1000, 1000000000, etc.etc are usually declined in the dative if preceded by a number between 2-9. Numbers in Adwan form quite differently from other languages. Numbers in the one's place use the conjunction eyn, which arose historically from a combination of aun and nei-/ney-.
 * 10 = cyf (becomes cyv in declensions)
 * 100 = ver
 * 1,000 = þawst
 * 10,000 = cyfthawst
 * 100,000 = verthawst
 * 1,000,000 = chihg
 * 1,000,000,000 = sgyst
 * 1,000,000,000,000 = sveċ
 * Ten = cyf, ten
 * Fifteen = cyf eyn łuncy, ten and five
 * Twenty = dwvy cyvi, two tens
 * Twenty seven = dwvy cyvi eyn þogty, two tens and seven
 * One hundred = (uny) þawst, (one) hundred
 * Three hundred and twenty thousand = turty veri eyn dwvy cyfthawsti, three hundreds and two ten-thousands

Verbs
Verbs in Adwan have gone through the most drastic changes in Adwan, going from relatively agglutinative to relatively synthetic, although traces of agglutinative conjugating can still be found. Adwan is a heavily inflected language, in nouns and in verbs, and ironically, while Adwan does not agglutinate its verbs like it used to, its conjugation system is pretty hefty. Note, however, the simplification and reduction of agglutination in Adwan, compared to Old Adwan:

Old Adwan

Haétuìklyígnanþaùlyíðaù zeávjoškað.'' Ha-é-tuì-klyígnan-þaù-ly-íðaù zeá-vjoška-ð''.

ha.jɛtu̯i.klɪ.jiɡ.nan.'θa̯u.lɪ.ji.ða̯u zɛ.ja.'vjɔʃ.kað

1.sg.-past-imperfective-clean-inceptive-opinionative-conditional.sg 1st.posessive-house-accusative.sg

I would (have) wanted to start cleaning my house.

Modern Adwan

(Iag) Łoráy peian að sapanyr mia viosgci.'' '' (Iag) Łor-áy pei-an að sapan-yr mia viosgc-i.   (ja:ɣ) ɬɔ.'ɾai 'pɛ.jan aθ sa.'pa.nɪɾ mja 'vjɔʃ.ki

(1.sg) want-1.sg.past-conditional clean-infinitive nominalizing.article-accusative.sg clean.gerund-genitive house-genitive me-genitive.

I would (have) wanted to start the cleaning of the house of me.

Conjugation
Verbs in Adwan conjugate to number (sungular and plural), person(first, second and third), tense(past, present and future), aspect(perfective, and imperective), mood(indicative, subjunctive, conditional and imperative), and voice(active, passive and middle). However, unlike its old counterpart, many Adwan does not agglutinate anymore. Everything is conjugated into a verb except for aspect and mood, which utilize auxilliary verbs and participles.

Adwan has two declension paradigms. A verb's declension paradigm depends on its infinitive ending. Verbs in Adwan have two infinitive endings; -an and -en. Along with its declension paradigm, a verb's noun form can be figured out with a given gender and its verb form.

Aspect
Adwan only has one distinctive aspect, and that's the progressive aspect. Due to influence from Romance languages, the imperfect and the perfect have collapsed into tenses (since the imperfect and most perfects only exist in the indicative).

The progressive aspect in Adwan denotes an action of continuity and of habituality, very much like the continuous in English, the continuous in Icelandic (ég er að fara til Íslands is the equivalent to the English I am going to Iceland), and the imperfect in French and Spanish (the imperfect is only denoted over the past, therefore iba a Islandia or j'allais à Islande is the equivalent to I was going to Iceland or Ég var að fara til Íslands). Note, however, that very much like Germanic languages, the progressive is explicitly common in the present, as in all tenses, while the imperfect in Romance languages is prominent only in the past.

Telicity
Telicity is a feature in Adwanic verbs, for they describe what perfective and imperfective aspects do.Typically, they describe whether the goal of the verb was achieved or not. Telic verbs govern the accusative, while atelic verbs govern the genitive. Telicity is not shown in all verbs.

An example of telicity:

I read a book:
 * Rytáy vieðw -- governing the accusative, therefore you finished the book.
 * Rytáy vieði -- governing the genitive, therefore you read some of the book, but not all of it.

Mood
Verbs in Adwan conjugate to mood, apart from aspect, tense and person. The conjugation of moods themselves is not hard, but rather knowing when to use them. Adwan has three moods: the indicative, the subjunctive, and the imperative.

Unlike its past form, where mood was simply indicated by a select number of affixes, Adwan conjugates its verbs in a synthetic manner, changing up the whole endings rather than simply adding on to them.

A verb's conjugation and its mood change depends on the mood. The indicative, for example, does not change up a verb at all, for the default conjugations given are in the indicative. The subjunctive works something like the indicative, only working more with vowel changes, and the imperative simplifies the ending.

Subjunctive Mood
The subjunctive mood expresses, like in many other languages, wishes, hypothetical statements, and uncertainty. The subjunctive is formed in Adwan by ablaut, save for diphthongs, which are moderately irregular. Note, the subjunctive for some persons -- the third, to be specific -- looks similar either to its noun counterpart, or the verb's participle (which coincidentally, is identical to the verb's adjective form). Context is used here to differentiate. Also, third person pronouns are generally used, thus avoiding any confusion between a verb and its noun counterpart.

Conjugation Paradigms
Typically, only simple verb paradigms are considered in Adwan. Note, the negative adverb ta changes form for negative imperatives and becomes tia.

-AN verbs
The conditional has merged with the subjunctive, leaving the distinction slightly vague. Note, -an verbs experience v-insertion, where a ‹v› is inserted after the stem and before the imperative ending. In verbs that end their stems with a ‹v›, the final ‹v› of the stem becomes a u, example: Morovan (to concentrate) = morouvus (concentrate!)

Voice
Voice is an important part to Adwan's verbs, for each voice carries a great amount of information depending on its usage. Adwanic verbs are able to be conjugated to three different voices; the Active, the Passive, and the Middle. Unlike other verb constructions, voice is made distinct by constructions, rather than affixing to a root.

The Active voice is the most common of them all; like the indicative, it is unmarked. The active voice expresses that the subject of the verb is the one doing the verb. Sentences like I eat food, I watch television, I travel around the world, are in the active.

The Passive voice reverses the subject and the object to where the action is being performed by the object upon the subject. Like English, Adwan makes this construction using the conjugated verb to be and the participle, i.e. I was eaten by a monster. Typically, the object that does the verb is left in the ablative while the subject remains in the nominative.

The Middle voice expresses reflexitivity to the subject, by the subject. The middle voice is constructed by the use of a reflexive pronoun, cgym.

Negation
Negation is typically formed by adding the negative adverb not, ta, right after the verb. However, negation in Adwan comes in two forms: a regular negation, ta, and a negative verb, tycnann. The negative verb is also coupled with an affirmative verb, möðann. Negative and affirmative verbs are used in reponses to questions, comparable to the English "yes" and "no", or the "I do" and "I don't", while regular negations are used everywhere else. Take the below examples:
 * Mozgwð, ie? --> Möðas. Do you eat? --> I do (eat).
 * Þawrwð mia łachyr? --> Tycnas. Do you like my music? --> I don't (like your music).

Participle
The participle form of a verb is formed in two constructions; in the progressive, and in the passive. Participles, incidentally, are also used in the causative form of verbs, which convert them into adjectives (example, I am bored, það nievlego; nievlego comes from nievlen, or to bore).

In Adwan, participles have to agree in gender and number with the subject, so examples are not always concrete. Participles are formed quite simply on verbs. Infinitive endings are dropped, and replaced by their respective endings. therefore, if a group of girls were to say we're bored, they would say þulað nievlegha, while a single boy would say það nievlego, etc. Note, however, that while dropping infinitive endings and adding the participle endings work on most verbs, irregular verbs typically have their own rules. Note the inifitives and the participles for the verbs, assuming a singular masculine subject is doing them.
 * þwðan --> þiego (singular), þiugo (plural)
 * goran --> goreigo
 * tan --> cgego
 * þwran --> þrago
 * łoren --> vyðeigo
 * vlen --> veigo
 * þawran --> þawgo
 * fiedan --> viego
 * morwfcen --> moreigo
 * livan --> lïego, liviego

Infinitive
The infinitive marks an uninflected verb. Infinitives are always given in dictionaries, and in Adwan, they end in -ann, and -enn. Note, however, the second "n" in is dropped in gerunds and inflections if a vowel succeeds the n's.

For example: We should eat, "eat" is in the inifnitive in English, Spanish, and even French. However, in Adwan, the verb is conjugated with the modality and person, leaving we should eat to be dwamozcesk. Another form of the infinitive seen in many language is the Supine, which is discussed below.
 * Debemos comer.
 * Nous devrons manger.

Supine
The supine in Adwan is distinct from the Supine in many languages, just in the fact that it doesn't utilize the infinitive. In Adwan, the supine is formed by adding the prefix Dgi if the verb starts with a consonant, and and dgidh- if it starts with a vowel.

The supine is the verbal form used in a noun phrase. In English, it is formed by using the particle "to" which forms the inifnitive.

In the phrase I want to go home to sleep, sleep is in the supine. The supine forms a verb that acts as the cause for the previous verb.

Below, the supine is bolded, to help get a stronger understanding of the supine. Spanish puts the preposition a or para, while French puts pour before the infinitive verbs.
 * I walk outside to run.
 * I go to school to learn.
 * I sleep to rest.

Essentially, the supine is like saying So i can..., though it is not limited to person. Verbs in the supine are still conjugated for person, which indicates the person in the so i can... translation.

Gerund
A gerund in Adwan is a noun form of a verb's action. Unlike a verb's noun form, a gerund nominalizes, essentially, the process of the verb, rather than its original counterpart. For example, the gerund for the noun "a walk" is "walking", in the sense that "walking" is an object, rather than an action, i.e. I like walking, etc. A gerund in Adwan is used as often as an infinitive is, as they have similar uses in many aspects. A verb however, does not have a gerund form, but rather, uses a nominalizing article. For example, since "to walk" is a neuter verb, it takes up the neuter nominalizing article, so to say I like walking, one would say Þauras að teldaninn.

When forming a gerund, a nominalizing article must precede the infintive form of the verb and the infinitive form must be declined according to noun declension rules.

Irregular Verbs
To see the irregular verbs in Adwan, along with conjugations, view the Irregular Verbs article.

Adverbs
Adverbs in Adwan are not declined. They have no specific ending, although many of them may share suffixes which are used to use adjectives as adverbs.

However, one thing that does restrict adverbs is their placement. While nouns and adjectives don't have specific placement rules, adverbs must ALWAYS follow the part of speech they describe, which is, in most cases, the verb.

For example:
 * She ate a very big meal --> She ate a big very meal.
 * She gracefully fell from her bicycle --> She fell gracefully from her bicycle.

Formation
Adverbs in Adwan are generally formed by adding an adverbial affix to a noun or adjective, though the contruction of adverbs is very much radical. The second most common way is to use the preposition zuð with the noun or an adjective and a nominalizing article. Other forms include using conjunctions and relative clauses. Below is a few ways to say quickly (assuming the neuter gender for other constructions). Another much more complicated way is through the use of a relative clause. This, however, requires much more inflecting. Below is an example, assuming the subject is in the third person neuter. The next formation is like the one above, only put into the subjunctive. Note, as adverbs always come after what they describe, such clauses above would follow the same rule. Also, adjectives generally take up the neuter, though in adverbial constructions, they take up the gender that the subject is in, even if they're not explicitly describing them. However, relative constructions are different. Typically, constructions in the indicative come before the phrase or after the phrase they're describing, while the subjunctive, the most commonly used, follows the same rules as adverbs and comes after whatever it descrives. Note the placement of the indicative clause. Indicative phrases tend to come before rather than after the clause. Note next how the subjunctive is able to be placed in the middle of the whole clause.
 * Mólydgvi; quickly
 * Zwð að molysg; with quick
 * Zwð mólycgney; with quickness
 * Efúr sað eni þyð moly; while that it is quick
 * Efúr sað eni þyð zwð yð molysg; while that it is with quick
 * Efúr sað eni þyð zwð yð mólycgney; while that it is with quickness.
 * Efúr sað eni þiða moly; while that is is quick
 * Efúr sað eni þiða zwð yð molysg; while that it is with quick
 * Efúr sað eni þiða zwð yð mólycgney; while that it is witch quickness.
 * Ena telde móladgvi ag łowa sgusco. --> She walks quickly to her school.
 * Ena telde zwð að molasg ag łowa sgusco. --> She walks with quick to her school.
 * Ena telde ziw mólacgney ag łowa sgusco. --> She walks with quickness to her school.
 * Efúr sað ena þyð mola, ena telda ag łowa sgusco --> While that she is quick, she goes to her school.
 * Efúr sað ena þyð zwð að molasc, ena telda ag łowa sgusco --> While that she is with quick, she goes to her school.
 * Efúr sað ena þyð ziw mólacgney, ena telda ag łowa sgusco --> While that she is with quickness, she goes to her school.
 * Ena telde efúr sað ena þiða mola ag łowa sgusco --> She walks while that she is quick to her school.
 * Ena telde efúr sað ena þiða zwð að mola ag łowa sgusco --> She walks while that she is with quick to her school.
 * Ena telde efúr sað ena þiða ziw mólacgney ag łowa sgusco --> She walks while that she is with quickness to her school.

Tag Question Particle
A trait shared by many languages, Adwan also features the use of an interrogative particle. Not exactly asking where, when, or why, the interrogative particle acts much like the French particle est-ce, the Polish czy, and the English particle do; it poses a yes or no question.

The particle, Gcie, is usually introduced at the beggining or at the end of the question. However, the particle indeed can be negated. Rather than negating the verb, Adwan negates the particle to pose a question with a predisposed doubt.
 * Łorwð pyċi, gcie? = Do you want pizza?
 * Ie þawrwð mia łachyr? = Do you like my music?

Note the use of posessive adjectives rather than genitive personal pronouns. Usually, if a tag question particle is used, a sense of informality is established, which means that posessive adjectives are more accepted than the slightly formal genitive pronouns.
 * Ieta þawrwð mia afkrin neiċynin? = Do you not like my apples and oranges?

Conjunctions
Conjunctions in Adwan are famous for being odd, especially the Coordinating Conjunctions.

Coordinating Conjunctions
Most coordinating conjunctions function like other European conjunctions, however, the conjunction for and is noticable, as it has three not-so-distinct forms. The first form is actually two forms in itself. The prefix ney/nei is added to words that begin with consonants, and eynn to words beginning with vowels (though nei/ney is commonly used informally on the former) for conjunctions on nouns. The second conjunction is separate, aun, which is used before separate clauses (usually before verbal constructions). The third form consists of ney and aun separately. It is quite common for the usage of these to completely merge, leaving Adwan with a number of ways to say and. Typically, in standard Adwan, ney/nei is used before nouns and aun before verbal constructions, though it is common for some to have a preference and completely omit not only the prefixing of ney/nei, but completely get rid of aun or of ney/nei. Note: the Clause form of the coordinating conjunction "so" is identical to the subordinating conjunction for "so that". Second note, the construction eiň is common in colloquial speech, and is common in numbers.
 * And
 * 1) Aun
 * 2) Ney-/nei-
 * 3) Eynn
 * But
 * 1) Zgle
 * Or
 * 1) Wo
 * So
 * 1) Ley
 * Yet
 * 1) Eðazg

Subordinating Conjunctions
Note, all subordinating conjunctions are followed by a relative pronoun (sað).