Ëanglluk is a future version of English meant to be spoken by space colonists who have been isolated from Earth for long enough to develop their own language. The phonology has changed drastically, for example tone developed when consanants began to alter the pitch of nearby vowels. After consonant mergers tone became phonemic e.g. byets pronounced with a low tone means "bread", and with a rising tone means "breath". Other notable features are the development of ejectives, implosives and glottalised resonants, with the voicing distinction being lost everywhere except affricates. Uvular, retroflex and pharyngeal consonants have also emerged. The range of possible syllable structures has shrunk to (C) (j) V (j/w) (ñ) (C).The grammar has also changed, with noun incorporation becoming much more productive. Word order has become Topic - Verb - Subject - Object although sometimes arguments after the verb can be dropped.
Phonology[]
Vowels[]
There are seven vowels.
Front | Back | |
Close | i /i/ | u /u/ |
Mid-Close | e /e/ | o /o/ |
Mid-Open | ea /ε/ | oa /ɔ/ |
Open | a /a/ |
Before a nasal consonant all vowels are nasalised. There are two diphthongs ae /ae/ and eo /eɔ/.
Consonants[]
Bilabial | Labio-dental | Dental | Alveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Pharyngeal | Glottal | |
Tenuis Stop | p /p/ | t /t/ | rt /ʈ/ | k /k/ | rk /q/ | (c) /ʡ/ | q /ʔ/ | |||
Ejective | qt /t’/ | qk /k’/ | rqk /q’/ | |||||||
Aspirated Stop | ph /ph/ | th /th/ | kh /kh/ | rkh /qh/ | ||||||
Implosive | (b) /ɓ/ | (d) /ɗ/ | (j) /ʄ/ | |||||||
Nasal | m /m/ | n /n/ | ñ | ny /ɲ/ | ng /ŋ/ | |||||
Affricate / Fricative | pf /pf/ (bv) /bv/ | ts /ts/ (dz) /dz/ |
rts /ʈʂ/ (rdz) / |
x /kx/ | ||||||
Ejective Affricate | hts /t’s/ | qx /k’x/ | ||||||||
Aspirated Affricate | phf /phf/ | ths /ths/ | xh /khx/ | |||||||
Tap | r /ɾ/ | |||||||||
Approximant | v /v/ | z /ð/ | rz /ɻ/ | y /j/ | g /ʁ/ | (ch) /ʢ/ | (h) /ɦ/ | |||
Lateral | ll /l/ | l /ɫ/ |
(Phonemes in brackets are marginally phonemic)
After a front vowel the velarised lateral l /ɫ/ is pronounced as a palatal lateral. Velar ng /ŋ/ can only occur after a vowel, and ll /l/ can only occur before a vowel. Retroflex consonants other than the nasal, ejectives, aspirated consonants, r /ɾ/, y /j/, rk /q/, q /ʔ/ and w /v/ can also only occur before a vowel.,
As noted above the range of possible syllables is restricted to (C) (j) V (j/w) (C). However /j/ can only occur after velar and bilabial stops or vowels, and /w/ can only occur after a vowel. Also after an open syllable, the next syllable in the word must begin with a consonant. The combinations /aej/, /aew/ /uw/, /ɔw/, /ij/, /εj/, and /ɔj/ also never occur.
The retroflex nasal ñ // has a variety of pronunciations. It can only occur after a vowel. Before another vowel, it is usually lenited to a nasal approximant, written ñrz. Before a non-retroflex consonant, it is not pronounced, except for nasalisation of the preceding vowel. Elsewhere it is pronounced as a retroflex nasal.
Affricates are lenited to fricatives if they are not before a vowel. I have written this in the romanization in the case of ts.
Accent[]
Up to one syllable in a word can be accented, marked by a h before the syllable. The most common way that accent manifests itself is by consonant mutation. p /p/ and t /t/ become implosive b /ɓ/ and d /ɗ/ respectively. The cluster ky /kj/ becomes implosive j /ʄ/, and in other cases k /k/ becomes pharyngeal c /ʡ/. The velar affricate x /kx/ becomes pharyngeal ch /ʢ/ and the glottal stop q /ʔ/ becomes h /ɦ/. The affricates pf /pf/ and ts /ts/ are voiced to bv /bv/ and dz /dz/ respectively. Nasals and approximants become creaky voiced. The accent cannot fall on syllables beginning with consonants that are aspirated or ejective, nor the uvular stop rk /q/ or the retroflexes rt /ʈ/ and rts /ʈʂ/ although it can fall on the retroflex approximant rz /ɻ/. A substantial minority of speakers downstep the tones for the rest of the word after an accent, with or without the consonant changes described above. The tone in a syllable immediately before an accent must be either Low or Falling, and in accented syllable it must be Low or Rising.
Tone[]
There are 6 tones in Ëangluk. There are many rules about how tones in a word can combine with each other and with consonants such as aspirates, ejectives and implosives.
Low Tone: a /a˨/ pronounced at the bottom of the speaker's vocal range and either level or slightly falling
Rising Tone: á /a˨˦/ starting at the bottom of the speaker's vocal range and rising.
High Tone: a (unmarked) /a˦/ starting at the top of the speaker's vocal range and either level or rising slightly.
Falling Tone: à /a˦˨/ starting at the top of the speaker's vocal range and falling.
Dipping Tone: ä /a˦˨˦/ starting at the top of the speakers vocal range, falling and then rising again.
Glottallised Falling Tone: â /aʔa ˦˨ / pronounced like the falling tone but with creaky voice. It can only occur in unaccented words, and only a maximum of one time per word and some consider this to be an accent on a syllable with Falling Tone. However Falling Tone only occurs in syllables that cannot bear accent.
One important tone rule in words with two or more syllables is that if a the tone of a syllable begins high (High, Falling, Dipping and Glottalised Tones), then the tone on the preceding syllable in the word (if any) must have ended high (Rising, High, or Dipping Tones). Likewise if the tone of a syllable begins low (Low and Rising Tones), then the tone on the preceding syllable must have ended low (Low, Falling and Glottalise Tones).
Another important rule is that the tone in syllables beginning with aspirated consonants can only be High or Falling. No other tones are possible in these syllables. Also if a word ends with an open syllable (without a consonant at the end) then it can only have Low or Falling Tone.
Mutation[]
Ëangluk has an extremely large number of bisyllablic words that are compounds of two monosyllabic words. Also a large number of words that were bisyllabic in English were broken down into two monosyllabic words, which were then recombined to make new bisyllabic words e.g. from the verbs ëxphoñl - export.GEN and imvôm - to inform came exvôm - leak information (literally exform). From ëatheak - attack.GEN came ïntheak - to besiege and ëxtheak - to sortie. In isolation, the "ex" in export and the "in / im" in inform are pronounced êx and ìhn respectively. However, as can be seen with these examples, sandhi rules change the tone of syllables when they are compounded. These rules concerning this are complex
One syllable in a word is designated as a Strong syllable, and the others as Weak. In most verbs this is the last syllable, except in verbal nouns when it is the second last syllable of the root (it cannot fall on an infix). In nouns it is the second last syllable of the root, except in the possessive form when it shifts to the last syllable of the root. The most important factor in tone sandhi in noun compounding or incorporation is whether or not the word originally began with a vowel or a consonant
Tone Sandhi in syllables beginning with consonants[]
If the last syllable of the compound word is Strong, then the tone does not change.
If the last syllable of the compound is Weak then the following changes occur in that syllable:
Original Tone | New Tone |
Accent + Low Tone | Low (with no accent) |
Accent (before the syllable) + Rising Tone | Rising (with no accent) |
Glottalised Tone | Falling (with no glottalisation) |
Dipping Tone | High Tone |
Aspirated Consonant + Falling Tone | Falling Tone (with no aspiration on the consonant) |
Aspirated Consonant + High Tone | High Tone (with no aspiration of the consonant) |
If a syllable is designated as Strong and it is not the last syllable of the word, then it may or may not change tone depending on the following syllable.
Original Tone | Tone when the next syllable is pronounced with Low or Rising Tone | Tone when the next syllable is pronounced with High or Falling Tone |
Accent + Low Tone | Accent + Low Tone | Accent + Rising Tone |
Accent + Rising Tone | Accent + Low Tone | Accent+ Rising Tone |
Glottalised Tone | Glottalised Tone | Dipping Tone |
Dipping Tone | Glottalised Tone | Dipping Tone |
Aspirated Consonant + Falling Tone | Aspirated Consonant + Falling Tone | Aspirated Consonant + High Tone |
Aspirated Consonant + High Tone | Aspirated Consonant + Falling Tone | Aspirated Consonant + High Tone |
If the syllable is designated as Weak and it is not the first or the last syllable of the word, then the following changes occur:
Original Tone | Tone when the next syllable contains an aspirated consonant, regardless of tone. | Tone when the next syllable is pronounced with Low or Rising Tone | Tone when the next syllable is pronounced with High, Glottalised, Dipping or Falling Tone (with no aspirated consonant) |
Accent + Low Tone | Accent + Rising Tone | Low Tone (with no accent) | Rising Tone (with no accent) |
Accent + Rising Tone | Accent + Rising Tone | Low Tone (with no accent) | Rising Tone (with no accent) |
Glottalised Tone | Dipping Tone | Falling Tone | High Tone |
Dipping Tone | Dipping Tone | Falling Tone | High Tone |
Aspirated Consonant + Falling Tone | Dipping Tone (with no aspiration of the consonant) | Falling Tone (with no aspiration of the consonant) | High Tone (with no aspiration of the consonant) |
Aspirated Consonant + High Tone | Dipping Tone (with no aspiration of the consonant) | Falling Tone (with no aspiration of the consonant) | High Tone (with no aspiration of the consonant) |
If the syllable is designated as Weak and it is the first syllable of the word, then the following changes occur:
Original Tone | Tone when the next syllable contains an aspirated consonant, regardless of tone. | Tone when the next syllable is pronounced with Low or Rising Tone | Tone when the next syllable is pronounced with High, Glottalised, Dipping or Falling Tone (with no aspirated consonant) |
Accent + Low Tone | Accent + Rising Tone | Low Tone (with no accent) | Rising Tone (with no accent) |
Accent + Rising Tone | Accent + Rising Tone | Low Tone (with no accent) | Rising Tone (with no accent) |
Glottalised Tone | Dipping Tone | Falling Tone | High Tone |
Dipping Tone | Dipping Tone | Falling Tone | High Tone |
Aspirated Consonant + Falling Tone | Ejective Consonant + Dipping Tone | Ejective Consonant + Falling Tone | Ejective Consonant + High Tone |
Aspirated Consonant + High Tone | Ejective Consonant + Dipping Tone | Ejective Consonant + Falling Tone | Ejective Consonant + High Tone |
Note that the last two cases are identical except for syllables beginning with an aspirated consonant. Note that phy /phj/ and ph /ph/ do not go through the above sandhi process and become y /j/ and a glottal stop q /ʔ/ instead (this is because Ëangluk does not like ejective p).
Tone Sandhi in syllables beginning with vowels[]
When these syllables are combined into compound words, then their tone depends on both the preceding and following syllables. However in isolation, syllables beginning with a vowel can only be of two types, Glottalised Tone or Dipping Tone. Here is how they change:
Glottalised Tone | The next syllable begins with an aspirated consonant, regardless of tone. | Word Finally | The next syllable is pronounced with Low or Rising Tone | The next syllable is pronounced with High, Glottalised, Dipping or Falling Tone | |||
There are no preceding syllables, or the tone on the preceding syllable ended high (High Tone, Rising Tone, or Dipping Tone). | Dipping Tone | Strong | Weak | Strong | Weak | Strong | Weak |
Glottalised Tone | Falling Tone (with no glottalisation) | Glottalised Tone | Falling Tone (with no glottalisation) | Dipping Tone | High Tone | ||
The tone on the preceding syllable ended low (Low Tone, Falling Tone, or Glottalised Tone) | Accent + Rising Tone | Strong | Weak | Strong | Weak | Strong | Weak |
Accent (before the syllable) + Low Tone | Low Tone | Accent + Low Tone | Low Tone (with no accent) | Accent + Rising Tone | Rising Tone (with no accent) |
Dipping Tone | The next syllable begins with an aspirated consonant | Word Finally | The next syllable is pronounced with Low or Rising Tone | The next syllable is pronounced with High, Glottalised, Dipping or Falling Tone | |||
There are no preceding syllables, or the tone on the preceding syllable ended high (High Tone, Rising Tone, or Dipping Tone). | Dipping Tone | Strong | Weak | Strong | Weak | Strong | Weak |
Dipping Tone | High Tone | Glottalised Tone | Falling Tone (with no glottalisation) | Dipping Tone | High Tone | ||
The tone on the preceding syllable ended low (Low Tone, Falling Tone, or Glottalised Tone) | Accent + Rising Tone | Strong | Weak | Strong | Weak | Strong | Weak |
Accent (before the syllable) + Rising Tone | Rising Tone | Accent + Low Tone | Low Tone (with no accent) | Accent + Rising Tone | Rising Tone (with no accent) |
As can be seen, in syllables that do not begin with a vowel, the original tone only matters at the end of words.
Going back to the examples above - to export was broken down to ëx and phoñl. Likewise imvòhm - to inform was broken down to ìhn / ìhm and vòhm. Then using the rules above they were combined to make verbs like ëxvòhm. By changing the 1st syllable from Weak to Strong and the 2nd syllable from Strong to Weak, nouns can be derived from these verbs e.g. exphoñl - (to export) -> ëxpoñl (an export.GEN), imvòhm (to inform) -> ïmvòm (information.GEN), exvôm - (to leak information) -> ëxvòm (a leak of information.GEN). This is analagous to (and indeed descended from) English words like "impact" which are nouns when the stress is on the first syllable e.g. IM-pact and verbs when the stress is on the second syllable e.g. im-PACT. This process is extremely productive in Êangluk as in the following examples:
phaeleys - security guard.GEN (from English police)
qaelëys - to employ security for a venue
phartsàw - protected / secure area.GEN (from English patrol)
qartsâw - to patrol
ëapfòy - application.GEN
ëaphfòy - to apply
hrzékòñt - record.GEN (noun)
hrzékhòñt - to record (verb)
Epenthetic Consonants[]
If affixing or compounding would mean result in two vowels or diphthongs being adjacent to each other without an intervening consonant, an epenthetic consonant is inserted, which depends on the preceding vowel and whether the next syllable is classified as Strong or Weak:
Preceding Vowel or Diphthong | Epenthetic Consonant |
a , e | rz |
i | l (with the i vowel changed to oa) |
u | ny |
ae, eo, o |
ng (before a Strong syllable) / l (before a Weak syllable) (with diphthongs delete the second element of them, reducing them to monophthongs) |
(Ëangluk words cannot end with ea or oa.) Here are some examples illustrating this:
ëangkà - anchor.GEN
ëangkàrzus - anchor-ERG.SG
be - bear.GEN
berzus - bear-ERG.SG
kyì - stew.GEN
kyòalus - stew-ERG.SG
âmu - army.GEN
âmunyus - army-ERG.SG
dae - dough.GEN
dalus - dough-ERG.SG
kheo - cow.GEN
khelùs - cow-ERG.SG
hlo - wool.GEN
hlolus - wool-ERG.SG
Mutation of Final Consonants[]
Sometimes the final consonant in a word or morpheme can be changed if it becomes vowel medial as a result of affixation or compounding, as shown in the table below:
Original Consonant | Consonant with Suffix |
g | v |
v (with Falling, Glottalised or Low Tone), | p |
ñ (after any vowel except u) | ñrz |
ñ (after u) | ng (before a Strong syllable) / l (before a Weak syllable) |
w | ng (before a Strong syllable) / l (before a Weak syllable) |
y | ny |
l (with High, Dipping or Rising Tone) | rt (before a Strong syllable) / r (before Weak syllable) |
t (with Falling, Glottalised or Low Tone) | t (before a Strong syllable) / r (before a Weak syllable) |
Here are some more examples of final consonant mutation after suffixing:
rkhug - cliff.GEN
rkhuvuny - cliff.ACC
khòav - curb.GEN
khòapúny - curb.ACC
kâñ - scar.GEN
kâñrzúny - scar.ACC
kûñ - school.GEN
kûngúny - school.ACC
khaw - coal.GEN
khaluny - coal.ACC
vêy - fee.GEN
vênyúny - fee.ACC
dél - debt.GEN
déruny - debt.ACC
byet - bread.GEN
byerúny - bread.ACC
The tone of a word is usually unaffected, except that if the word ends with -p and the tone on the last syllable is Falling, Glottalised or Low, it changes to High, Dipping and Rising respectively e.g.
hmoap - mop.GEN
hmóapuny - mop-ACC
Basic Grammar[]
Nouns[]
Plurals are marked by a -s suffix in words ending in a vowel, ñ, y or w. e.g. be - bear -> bes - bears. Note that this is pronounced voiceless like in English hiss, not as a voiced /z/ like in English his. In words ending with a -k the plural form has -x in instead e.g. bók - book, bóx - books. Likewise words that end in -g or -t change this to -s e.g. lâyg - slave.GEN, lâys - slaves.GEN. In other cases plurals are unmarked e.g. byain - brain / brains.
Word order in phrases is head-initial. Numbers and adjectives follow the nouns they modify e.g. bók hlan - one book, bóx thì - two books, bóx thì kyêyp - two cheap books. Note that tone sandhi does not operate across word boundaries.
There could be said to be 4 cases, genitive, ergative (subject of transitive verbs), intransitive and accusative (object of transitive verbs). The genitive case is always unmarked, and the intransitive form is always the same as either the ergative or the accusative form. Therefore Ëangluk could be said to be a split ergative language.
Ëangluk morphology is highly fusional, with a single noun affix being able to mark case, possession and topicality. There are different series of affixes for animate and inanimate nouns, being further divided by whether or not the noun root consists of a single syllable. Below is a table with the complete series of noun affixes. An initial hypen indicates a suffix e.g. -ùts, while a hyphen at the end indicates a prefix e.g. hmoy-. Note that the affixes here are shown in their base forms, and undergo tone sandhi when combined with a word.
Normal 1 syllable | Possessed 1 syllable | Normal >1 syllable | Possessed >1 syllable(there are also tone changes described above) | |
Nontopic Animate Ergative | - | hmoy- (1PS. Exclusive Possessor) | -êam (1PS. Exclusive) | hmoy- (1PS. Exclusive Possessor) |
nyoñ- (2PS. Possessor) | -ûts (Sing.) | nyoñ- (2PS. Possessor) | ||
ëo- (1PS. Inclusive Possessor) | -âñ (Plural) | ëo- (1PS. Inclusive Possessor) | ||
hus- (Masc. Singular Possessor) | -êag (Collective) | hus- (Masc. Singular Possessor) | ||
hoa- (Fem. Singular Possessor) | -ôt (Hypothetical) | hoa- (Fem. Singular Possessor) | ||
üs- (Inanimate Singular / Collective Possessor) | -ô (Future) | üts- (Inanimate Singular / Collective Possessor) | ||
lëñ- (Plural Possessor) | -ôats (Past Sing.) | lëñ- (Plural Possessor) | ||
-îny (Past. Plural) | ||||
Nontopic Animate Intransitive | -üny | â- (Sing.) | - | - |
tsâm- (Plural) | ||||
Nontopic Animate Accusative | -üny | â- (Sing.) | - | - |
tsâm- (Plural) | ||||
Nontopic Inanimate Ergative | -êam (1PS. Exclusive) | dza- | -êam (1PS. Exclusive) | - |
-ûts (Sing.) | -ûts (Sing.) | |||
-âñ (Plural) | -âñ (Plural) | |||
-êag (Collective) | -êag (Collective) | |||
-ôt (Hypothetical) | -ôt (Hypothetical) | |||
-ô (Future) | -ô (Future) | |||
-ôas (Past Sing.) | -ôas (Past Sing.) | |||
-îny (Past. Plural) | -îny (Past. Plural) | |||
Nontopic Inanimate Intransitive | -üny | â- (Sing.) | - | - |
tsâm- (Plural) | ||||
Nontopic Inanimate Accusative | -üny | â- (Sing.) | - | - |
tsâm- (Plural) | ||||
Topic Animate Ergative | - | hmoy- (1PS. Exclusive Possessor) | - | - |
nyoñ- (2PS. Possessor) | ||||
ëo- (1PS. Inclusive Possessor) | ||||
hus- (Masc. Singular Possessor) | ||||
hoa- (Fem. Singular Possessor) | ||||
üs- (Inanimate Singular / Collective Possessor) | ||||
lëñ- (Plural Possessor) | ||||
Topic Animate Intransitive | - | hmoy- (1PS. Exclusive Possessor) | - | - |
nyoñ- (2PS. Possessor) | ||||
ëo- (1PS. Inclusive Possessor) | ||||
huts- (Masc. Singular Possessor) | ||||
hoa- (Fem. Singular Possessor) | ||||
üts- (Inanimate Singular / Collective Possessor) | ||||
lëñ- (Plural Possessor) | ||||
Topic Animate Accusative | hla- | hla- | - | hla- |
Topic Inanimate Ergative | -êam (1PS. Exclusive) | -ôag | -êam (1PS. Exclusive) | - |
-ûs (Sing.) | -ûs (Sing.) | |||
-âñ (Plural) | -âñ (Plural) | |||
-êag (Collective) | -êag (Collective) | |||
-ôt (Hypothetical) | -ôt (Hypothetical) | |||
-ô (Future) | -ô (Future) | |||
-ôas (Past Sing.) | -ôas (Past Sing.) | |||
-îny (Past. Plural) | -îny (Past. Plural) | |||
Topic Inanimate Intransitive | - | -ôag | - | - |
Topic Inanimate Accusative | - | hla- | - | hla- |
Collective number is used for nouns such as cagmén - government, which is one entity but consists of many individuals, politicians, bureaucrats etc. The future suffix -ò is only used for nouns which do not exist yet e.g. an unborn child. Likewise the past suffixes -òats and - are only used for nouns which do not exist anymore e.g. a deceased person. The 1st person suffix -èam can be used for objects the speaker owns or is associated with e.g. héotsèam - my house.ERG.
Possessors take the genitive case and come after the noun they possess e.g.
utslâyg khukyèn
ERG.POSS3PSINAM-slave.SG kitchen.GEN
The kitchen's slave
If a noun in the genitive case is in turn possessed by another noun, then it takes the intransitive case e.g.
utslâyg äkhukyèn khañsò
ERG.POSS3PSINAM-slave.SG INT.SG.POSS-kitchen castle.GEN
The castle's kitchen's slave
However if the possessor only has one syllable (including any affixes) then the possessed noun is not marked for possession e.g.
lâygus khùng
slave-ERG.SG king.GEN
The king's slave.
But if affixes make the possessor have more than one syllable, the normal construction is used instead e.g.
qútslâyg äkhùng phealeas
ERG.POSS3PSMASC-slave.SG INT.SG.POSS-king palace.GEN
The king of the palace's slave
Onee other thing that is important is that uncountable nouns usually take plural affixes e.g. jútsàñ - juice.ERG, ïmvòmañ- information.ERG. If the singular affix is used, then this implies a very small quantity e.g. jútsùts - a drop of juice.ERG, ïmvòmus - a small piece of information.
Adjectives[]
Ëangluk has no grammatical class of adjectives that are separate from nouns in the genitive case. Most of the nouns that are used where English would use an adjective are monosyllabic, and therefore do not inflect the noun they modify for posssession e.g. kyêyp - cheap (item), bókuny - book.ACC, bókuny kyêyp - cheap book.ACC. Comparatives and superlatives are formed by putting hmoñ and hmaeny respectively after the adjective e.g. bókuny kyêyp hmoñ- cheaper book.ACC, bókuny kyêyp hmaeny- cheapest book.ACC or kheluny hnyang hmoñ - younger cow.ACC, kheluny hnyang hmaeny - youngest cow.ACC. "Adjectives" can be inflected like nouns as in the sentences below:
hnyenytay lokvôñ hnyang phaeleys
yesterday.TPC search young security guard.ACC
Yesterday, some young people are looking for security guards.
hnyenytay lokvôñ hnyang hmoñ phaeleys
yesterday.TPC search young COMP security guard.ACC
Yesterday, some younger people are looking for security guards.
hnyenytay lokvôn hnyang kyëypuny
yesterday.TPC search young.ERG.SG cheap.ACC
Yesterday, some young people were looking for cheap things.
hnyenytay lokvôn lokvôn hnyang hmoñ kyëypuny hmaeny
yesterday.TPC search young.ERG.SG COMP cheap.ACC SPLTV
Yesterday, some younger people are looking for the cheapest things
Verbs[]
Ëangluk verbs do not inflect for tense or aspect, but take a variety of prefixes (which are shown in their base forms, but undergo the tone sandhi rules). Here are a few common ones (attached to meanydeon - to crumble):
khèan - like English "can" e.g. qkèanmeanydeon - can crumble
hnóal - negation e.g. noalmeanydeon - not crumble
di - Yes / No interrogative e.g. timeanydeon - Is it / them etc. crumbling?
There are also some infixes, which come immediately before the last syllable of the root (if the inserting the infix would result in a sequence of 3 consonants in a row, -òa is inserted before the infix):
-t- basic passive e.g. méanyòatdeon - crumble.PASS The tone change can be explained by the fact that meanydeon can be broken down into two root syllables hméany and deon.
-m- basic antipassive. Also this assimilates to the place of articulation of any following consoant. e.g. méanyòazdeon - crumble.ANTPASS.
-hmu- an antipassive that implies that the action was done to the 1st person (exclusive, singular or plural)
-hmey- emphatic version of the above (singular only)
-hmeys- emphatic version of the above (plural only)
-as- like -hmu-, but used for the inclusive 1st person (including the listener)
-nya- an antipassive that implies that the action was done to the 1st person (singular or plural)
-nyi- emphatic version of the above (singular only)
-nyis- emphatic version of the above (plural only)
-l- an antipassive that implies that the action was done to an inanimate object (singular or collective number only), and only performed once.
-ul- emphatic version of the above
Ëangluk also has a construction called a verbal noun, that does not take any nouns as arguments after it. It is formed from an antipassive by changing the Strong syllable to the second last syllable of the root (as opposed to the last syllable) e.g.
méanyòandeon - to crumble.ANTPASS
hméanyòanteon - to crumble.VBLNOUN
hmeanymureon - to crumble me.VBLNOUN
It is possible for verbal nouns to take the prefixes discussed above e.g.
noalhméanyòanteon - to not crumble.VBLNOUN
qkèanhméanyòanteon - to be able to crumble.VBLNOUN
nóalkèanhméanyòanteon - to not be able to crumble.VBLNOUN
tihméanyòanteon - the question of whether it is crumbling.VBLNOUN
tinoalhméanyòanteon - the question of whether it is not crumbling.VBLNOUN
tíkèanhméanyòanteon - the question of whether or not it can crumble.VBLNOUN
tinóallkèanhméanyòanteon - the question of whether or not it cannot crumble.VBLNOUN
Syntax[]
Ëangluk has a range of possible word orders, the basic ones are Topic - Verb - (Agent)- Object in transitive sentences and Topic - Verb - Subject in intranstive sentences. If an antipassive verb is used, then the word order is Topic - Verb - Agent in transitive sentences. If the speaker cannot be bothered placing any nouns after the verb (e.g. if the subject or object is obvious from context or has been moved in front of the verb to be a topic) then verbal nouns are used. The word order here is simple: Topic - Verbal Noun.
Yesterday.TPC hand over government-ERG.SG palace.ACC
Yesterday, a / the government handed over a palace.
phaeleys meanydeon khokù
security guard.TPC crumble cookie.ACC
The security guard is crumbling a cookie
hnenytay meanydeon phaeleytsùs khokù
yesterday.TPC crumble security guard-ERG.SG cookie.
Yesterday, a security guard crumbled a cookie.
hnenytay meanydeon khokù
yesterday.TPC crumble cookie.ACC
Yesterday, a cookie crumbled.
hnenytay méanyòandeon phaeleys
yesterday.TPC crumble security guard.ACC
Yesterday, a security guard crumbled it / them.
khokù hméanyòanteon
cookie.TPC crumble.VBLNOUN
The cookie is / was crumbling.
Relative and subordinate clauses do not have a topic e.g.
hnenytay imvôm meanydeon phaeleytsùs khokù
yesterday.TPC inform crumble security guard.ERG.SG cookie.ACC
Yesterday, (I / you / he / she / they) informed (me / you / him / her / them) that a / the security guard had crumbled / was going to crumble a / the cookie.
This is similar to German except that instead of the verb going to the end of the sentence, it goes to the front.
Ditransitive sentences are constructed using serial verbs, usually káertî - to go and kélrtî - to get e.g.
hnenytay qeahneag cagménèag káertî phealeatsùs âmu
yesterday.TPC hand over government-ERG.COLL go palace-ERG.SG army.ACC
Yesterday, a / the government handed over a palace to the army.
Literally:, Yesterday a / the government handed over the palace going to the army
hnenytay qeahneag cagménèag kélrtî âmunyeag phealeas
yesterday.TPC hand over government-ERG.COLL get army-ERG.COLL palace.ACC
Yesterday, a / the government handed over the palace to the army.
Literally: Yesterday a / the government handed over the army getting a palace.
Nouns in the ergative case (except topics) can be freely deleted, so the following sentences are all grammatical:
hnenytay qeahneag káertî phealeatsùs âmu
yesterday.TPC hand over go palace-ERG.SG army.ACC
Yesterday, I / you / he / she / we / they handed over a palace to the army.
hnenytay qeahneag kélrtî âmunyeag phealeas
yesterday.TPC hand over get army-ERG.COLL palace.ACC
Yesterday, I / you / he / she / we / they handed over a palace to the army.
hnenytay qeahneag cagménèag káertî âmu
yesterday.TPC hand over government-ERG.COLL go army.ACC
Yesterday, the government handed me / you / him / her / us / them over to the army.
hnenytay qeahneag cagménèag kélrtî phealeas
yesterday.TPC hand over government-ERG.COLL get palace.ACC
Yesterday, the government handed over a palace (to me / you / him / her / us / them).
Yesterday.TPC hand over go army.ACC
Yesterday, I / you / he / she / we / they handed over me / you / him / her / it / us / them to the army
hnenytay qeahneag kélrtî phealeas
Yesterday.TPC hand over get palace.ACC
Yesterday, I / you / he / she / we / they handed over a palace (to me / you / him / her / us / them).
The passive form inverts subject and object. Pro-dropping is not allowed when the passive form is used e.g.
hnenytay qeahneag phaeleatsùs cagmén
Yesterday.TPC hand over.TPASS palace-ERG.SG government.ACC
Yesterday, a palace was handed over by the government.
The passive form can also be used in ditransitive sentences. Here it shifts the subject to the end of the sentences, but does not change the order of object and indirect object e.g.
hnenytay qeandeag káertî phealeatsùs âmu cagmén
yesterday.TPC hand over go palace-ERG.SG army.ACC government.ACC
Yesterday, a / the palace was handed over to the army by the government.
hnenytay qeandeag kélrtî âmunyeag phealeas cagmén
yesterday.TPC hand over get army-ERG.COLL palace.ACC government.ACC
Yesterday, a palace was handed over to the army by the government.
Dictionary[]
Numbers[]
1 - hlan
2 - thì
3 - hrey
4 - vôñ
5 - vôyg
6 - tsüx
7 - tsêañv
8 - äyl
9 - hnoyn
10 - thèn
11 - thèn hlan
12 - thèn thì
20 - thì thèn
21 - thì thèn hlan
30 - hrey thèn
100 - han
200 - thì han
1,000 - khày (from English "K" e.g. 10K)
1,000,000 - hmiw
1,000,000,000 - biw
1,000,000,000,000 - khyìw
9,876,543,210,987 - hnoyn khyìw äyl han tsêañv thèn tsüx biw vôyg han vôñ hrey hmiw thì han thèn khày hnoyn han äyl thèn tsêañv
Example text[]
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