Falayya

Falayya (in English also known as Falayan) is an Elven language, ancestral to the Feather Elves, who live on Flindir Island and in settlements on nearby islands and arpichelagos. It is the native language of all Feather Elves (approximately 20 million people) and is also spoken as a (secondary) native or second language of many other Elven tribes; hence it is the most widely spoken Elven language (sometimes called the lingua franca of the Elves). Falayya is decenced from Old Falayya, Flindic and ultimately Proto-Elven. Speakers of Falayya usually use the Flind alphabet (also known as Flindayyan alphabet). The language is known for being very vocalic and for having a complex noun system.

Numbers
Numbers (linguistically speaking, the term 'numeral' is more appropriate) are formed in a rather complicated way in Falayya. Fortunately, however, the numeral system seems more complex than it actually is. the first basic rule is that the numbers are not declined.

Secondly, the numbers zero to five are the most constant. These are to be learnt by heart: larqa, wa, ni'ir, eyya, sua, fu. The numbers six to nine are formed as follows: six equals five plus one, so fu + wa > fuwa; seven equals five plus two, so fu + ni'ir > funi'ir > funir; etc.

Ten is abda in Falayya. From this numeral onwards, the decimal system is used. Whereas many languages, including English, have exceptions for 11 and 12 (not *ten-one and *ten-two but 'eleven' and 'twelve'), Falayya does not. In Falayya, you do not simply add up as in English (31 is thirty-one), French (31 is 'thirty-and-one') or German (31 is 'oneandthirty'), but you use fixed suffixes derived from the numbers one to nine. These suffixes have two forms, one used after words ending in a vowel (usually a), and one used after words ending in a consonant. The suffixes can be found in the table below. Note that [ ] is used to indicate a space. The following table includes numbers zero to twenty-five in Falayya.