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| Elinga Spokaska Eli'nga | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Type | |||
| Agglutinative | |||
| Alignment | |||
| Nom-Acc | |||
| Head direction | |||
| Initial | |||
| Tonal | |||
| No | |||
| Declensions | |||
| Yes | |||
| Conjugations | |||
| Yes | |||
| Genders | |||
| No | |||
| Nouns decline according to... | |||
| Case | Number | ||
| Definiteness | Gender | ||
| Verbs conjugate according to... | |||
| Voice | Mood | ||
| Person | Number | ||
| Tense | Aspect | ||
General information[]
Elinga (Elinga: Spoikaska Eli'nga) is a constructed language started by Mathso in November 2014. Eli'nga has 27 letters, including 5 vowels and 22 consonants.
Phonology[]
Consonants[]
| Bilabial | Labio-dental | Dental | Alveolar | Post-alveolar | Palatal | Velar | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | ||||
| Plosive | p b | t d | k g | ||||
| Fricative | f v | θ ð | s z | ʃ tʃ dʒ | |||
| Approximant | j | ||||||
| Flap or tap | ɾ~ɺ | ||||||
| Lateral app. | l |
Vowels[]
| Front | Near-front | Near-back | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Near-close | ɪ | ʊ | ||
| Close-mid | o | |||
| Open-mid | ɛ | |||
| Open | ɑ |
Alphabet[]
Elinga has an alphabet that has not yet been computerised. However, there is a romanisation system for Elinga. This is a list of all letters used in Elinga:
| Romanisation | IPA | Letter Type |
|---|---|---|
| a | ɑ | Vowel |
| b | b | Consonant |
| c | tʃ | Consonant |
| d | d | Consonant |
| 'dh | ð | Finisher |
| e | ɛ | Vowel |
| f | f | Finisher |
| g | g | Consonant |
| i | ɪ | Vowel |
| j | dʒ | Consonant |
| k | k | Consonant |
| l | l | Finisher |
| m | m | Finisher |
| n | n | Finisher |
| 'ng | ŋ | Finisher |
| o | o | Vowel |
| p | p | Consonant |
| r | ɾ~ɺ | Consonant |
| s | s | Finisher |
| t | t | Consonant |
| 'th | θ | Finisher |
| u | ʊ | Vowel |
| v | v | Consonant |
| x | ʃ | Finisher |
| y | j | Consonant |
| z | z | Consonant |
Forming Syllables[]
There are three types of letters in Eli'nga, vowels, consonants and finishers. Every syllable in Eli'nga must contain a vowel. Consonants are optional, but if included they must be at the beginning of a syllable. Finishers are also optional, but they must be at the end of a syllable, unless it is the first syllable in a word.
These are all possible syllable constructions:
V - may appear anywhere in any word.
CV - may appear anywhere in a word.
CVF - most common syllable structure. May appear anywhere in a word.
FVF - may only appear at the beginning of a word.
VF - may appear anywhere in a word.
Grammar[]
Nouns[]
Nouns in Elinga can take any form as long as the syllables comply with the pattern outlined above. They are pluralised like in Spanish - "s" for nouns ending in a vowel and "es" for nouns ending in a consonant. Nouns in Elinga do not have genders.
Verbs[]
All verbs (apart from modal verbs which can be constructed however like nouns and do not conjugate) end in "en". Verbs are conjugated by taking away the "n" on the end and adding the following suffixes:
| Past | Present | Future | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st Person Singular | -neo | -ja | -jaia |
| 1st Person Plural | -neos | -ba | -baia |
| 2nd Person Singular | -nes | -la | -laia |
| 2nd Person Plural | -nesos | -jas | -jasai |
| 3rd Person Singular | -nem | -bas | -basai |
| 3rd Person Plural | -nemos | -las | -lasai |
| Infinitive | no suffix | -n | -nai |
| Command | ------------ | -kin | -kinai |
Example text[]
At time of writing, Elinga has a vocabulary of around 400 words, and is therefore not big enough to have an adequate translation for most standard texts (e.g. Tower of Babel, Human Rights Declaration etc.), however, a few simple sentences are given below as examples of the general feel of the language.
| English | Elinga | English Literal |
|---|---|---|
| Hello, my name is Mathso. | Sala, emeja ma'thaso. | Hello, (to be called - 1st person singular) Mathso. |
| I speak Elinga. | Abiri oskipeja eli'nga. | Can (to speak - 1st person singular) Elinga. |
| He is happy. | Elyo eskela glia. | He (to be - 3rd person singular) happy. |
| They love eating in the café, | Saikela si erimemba nomen. | (to love - 3rd person plural) in café (to eat - infinitive) |
Copyright Note[]
All parts of Eli'nga, including but not limited to grammar, phonology, writing system and lexicon are the intellectual property of Mathso.
