Ienn

''' [This is my first conlang, which I haven't used for a long time. I try to remake this language now by using manuscriptes and earlier documents. Because of discovering newer things and making its grammar more professional there can be temporary notes on this page, sorry.] '''

History
Ienn is a language of a fictional world.

Ienn is a language of the planet Oart. Imagine our Earth with the same age, same attributes, same continents, same flora and fauna. But a big group of the first human beings did not speak an indo-european language. They spoke the Old Ienn language.

This language family is younger than our indo-european one. Here you can see the languages, which exist now.

Old Ienn was just a bit different from this new one. But today that language does not more exist (the red colour shows it). After the first changes in Old Ienn, another language started being alive: the Europine. In the middle time of Europine a new language variant appeared; this was the Panorka (today it's died). But there are two languages evolved: Panora, which is really similar to Panorka, and Norka, which is less.

Wait for the whole history later. It'll be interesting...

Phonology
a, b, c [t͡s], d, e, f, g [d͡ʒ], h, i, j [d͡z], k, l, m, n, o, p, q, r, s, t, u, v, w [v], x [ks], y [i] or [j], z [ʒ]

Letters not followed by bracket are pronounced as the corresponding IPA symbols. Letter combinations: ii - [i:]; oa - [ø]; zh [z]?. Oa and zh are called in Ienn double letters, because they act grammatically like one letter, while ii is called letter combination, and act like two letters.

q is not used except for in loan word and place names

x is always pronounced as [ks]

v and w are pronounced identically, i.e. as [v]. The occurence of v or w in writing is not predictable, instead it must simply be learnt. Both letters are used because in the past there was a distinction between the letters, i.e. [v] and [w].

In the beginning of a word y is pronounced as [j] before a vowel, [i] before a consonant, in other cases after cononants [i], after vowels [j].

The two tables below show IPA symbols with the corresponding letter(s) of the alphabet in parentheses beside them.

Stress
The one-syllabe words have no stress in general.

In other cases the stress is always on the last syllabe of the root.

Any forms of the copula ('oa) take the stress from the root or generate it if it's added to a word with one syllabe root.

Let me remember in brackets that oa is one letter (it is calculated like one syllabe); soa [sø:], while ii is two; sii ['si:].

Length
One syllabe words are basicly short. o and oa are long if they are in the end of the word.

The vowel in a stressed syllabe is always long and the others in the same word are short.

i and y are always short, while ii is always long.

Definite
The definite article is la. It does not change according to number or case. Use it when something is supposed to be known or a concrete thing by the person who you speak with. Do not use before personal names.

Indefinite
The indefinite article is ...

Nouns
Nouns have no genders. Basicly nouns are in singlar, nominative case. They can have also plural, dual, both and some cases as well.

You use plural when you speak about more then one thing (and they are not one pair). You use it even if something other shows the plurality (for example a number before). The plural ending is -(e)sse. This ending is regular (see: General rules of endings).

mouse - mice: maus - mausesse

city - cities: seloave - seloavesse

You use dual when you speak about pair of things. Do not use dual if it's about two things which are not a pair. The ending of dual is: - (e)nne. You can use also plural of a dual noun. It means more than one pair of things. Then the ending is logically: -''(e)nnesse. ''These endings are regular (see: Grammatical endings )

Adjectives
Adjectives do not decline.

Verbs
The verbs have just infinitive forms. We cannot conjugate them. To express the person, mood and aspect the personal pronouns and the copula is used. Actually maybe we can say that there is a real verb, which is the copula itself.

Copula
There is one copula, which is really important in Ienn. in fact we could say that this is the only verb in this language. A word with copula grammatically acts like one word. There are two functions:

In the role of to be: its infinitive form is '''oa. ''It changes according to tenses, mood and person (in the third persons in realis mood, in present tense we have to omit it (its called zero copula)). You have to add it to the subject of the phrase. If the subject is a noun or a pronoun then the copula will be added to that (in case of meaning to be). If the subject is not a noun or a pronoun then we have to add it to the predicate [?]

''Te'e mathus. - You are nice.''

''Oa mathus. - S/he is nice.''

in the role of verb conjugator: it does not have infinitive form (because the verb roots are in infinitive basicly) [?]. We have to add it to the end of the verbs. It shows the tense and the mood of the verb. In this role it does not show the person, it does not dissapear in the third person.

Ay fut'e. - I run./ I'm running.

Day fut'e. - They run./ They're running.

Here are the forms of the copula:

Grammatical endings
We can speak about regular grammatical endings (of plural, dual, accusative etc.), which always have two forms: C(C)(V) and VC(C)(V). If the last letter of the root is a consonant, then the ending will start with vowel and vice versa (exept for double i and in some cases, when the last vowel of the root is e). Some more rules: if the last letters of the world are double i, then the second one will change to e (as a part of the root) and the ending will connect withoout its vowel. If the last letter or letters are consonant(s) and the last vowel is e, then the root will change; the e will go to end (still as part of the root) and the ending will be added without its vowel in case if you are able* to spell it;

Possible letter changes on the way mentioned above (root without ending - root with ending):

V+e+C+(C)+(C) -V+C(C)(C)e,

V+Cvoiced+e+Cvoiced- V+Cvoiced+Cvoiced+e

V+Cunvoiced+e+(Cunvoiced, l, m, n, r) - V+Cunvoiced+(Cunvoiced, l, m, n, r)+e

V+Cvoiced+Cvoiced+e+(r, l) - V+Cvoiced+Cvoiced+(r, l)+e

V+Cunvoiced+Cunvoiced+e+(r, l) - V+Cunvoiced+Cunvoiced+(r, l)+e

Example: noun + plural -(e)sse

maus - mausesse

sii - siesse

men'' - mnesse

(More examples will come soon...)