| Kelun Kệlungìz | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Type | Agglutinative | ||||||||||||
| Alignment | Ergative-absolutive | ||||||||||||
| 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 | ||||||||||||
| Meta-information | |||||||||||||
| Progress | 0% | ||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
| Creator | Domolas | ||||||||||||
Kelun or Kelunese (Kelun: se Kệlungìz) is a language spoken somewhere in the world of Maleka.
Classification[]
History[]
Phonology[]
Consonants[]
Kelun has the following consonants:
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | Tenuis | p | t | c | k |
| Voiced | b | d | đ | g | |
| Aspirated | ṗ | ṭ | c̣ | ḳ | |
| Fricative | Tenuis | f | s | ś | x |
| Voiced | v | z | ź | ṟ | |
| Aspirated | f̣ | ṣ | ṣ́ | x̣ | |
| Nasal | Unvoiced | ṃ | ṇ | ṇ̃ | ṉ̇ |
| Voiced | m | n | ñ | ṉ | |
| Approximant | Unvoiced | (ẉ) | ḷ | ẏ | ẉ |
| Voiced | (w) | l | y | w | |
| Rhotic | Unvoiced | ṛ | |||
| Voiced | r | ||||
Vowels[]
Kelun has 8 basic vowels:
/a e i o u â ê ô/
The vowels a, e, i, o, and u can have 3 forms:
/a e i o u/
/á é í ó ú/
/à è ì ò ù/
The vowels â and ê can have 2 forms:
/â ê/
/â̛ ê̛/
The vowel ô can only have one form: /ô/.
Pronunciation of the different vowels and vowel forms differ between dialects. Most varieties of Kelun feature a type of vowel harmony in which all vowels in a root word and its affixes must have the same form. The vowel forms â̛ and ê̛ correspond with á é í ó ú, while â and ê correspond with a e i o u or à è ì ò ù.
All vowels can also be nasalized (ạ), long (ā), or both (ạ̄).
Syllable structure[]
The basic syllable structure is (C)CV(C), with an obligatory nucleus, an obligatory onset with one or two consonants, and an optional coda with only one consonant. It is presumed that all consonant clusters are allowed, however, this is debated.
"Ś"[]
The word ś, meaning "or", is the only known Kelun word without a vowel, and it is normally said as if it is part of the first syllable of the following word (but written as a separate word), but if there it begins with two consonants and/or ś-, ś may be pronounced with a vowel following it, like śa.
Grammar[]
Nouns[]
In Kelun, nouns always end in a consonant. They can be singular or plural, and they have 21 cases.
| Singular
declension |
Plural
declension |
Meaning | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grammatical cases | |||
| Absolutive | - | -aḷ | Direct object of transitive verb or subject of intransitive verb |
| Ergative | -ām | -aḷām | Subject of transitive verb |
| Genitive | -ụ̄ | -aḷụ̄ | Possession |
| Dative | -ê | -aḷê | Indirect object |
| Ablative | -ī | -aḷī | "From" |
| Instrumental | -ậ | -aḷậ | "With" |
| Vocative | -a | -aḷa | Calling someone |
| Comitative | -eg | -aḷeg | "With" |
| Locative cases | |||
| Inessive | -ē | -aḷē | "In" |
| Abessive | -ộb | -aḷộb | "Without" |
| Prolative | -is | -aḷis | "Along" |
| Approximative | -ā̂ñ | -aḷā̂ñ | "Near" |
| Terminative | -uc̣ | -aḷuc̣ | "As far as" |
| Elative | -īw | -aḷīw | "Out of" |
| Illative | -ệx | -aḷệx | "Into" |
| Addessive | -ạ̄̂ | -aḷạ̄̂ | "At" |
| Allative | -ụd | -aḷụd | "Onto" |
| Essive | -ạ̄ẏ | -aḷạ̄ẏ | "Into" |
| Translative | -eđ | -aḷeđ | "Becoming" |
| Egressive | -iźī | -aḷiźī | "Starting from" |
| Delative | -ạf | -aḷạf | "About" |
A notable feature Kelun is that some body parts coming in pairs (i.e. hands, feet, arms, legs, eyes, ears) use the singular. This is because in earlier stages, there existed a dual number to specify two of any noun, which merged with the singular in modern Kelun.
In Kelun there is a definite article se, which agrees with nouns in case and number, but no indefinite article. Instead, absence of an article indicates that the noun is indefinite.
There are many derivational affixes for nouns, mostly infixes that go between the final vowel and consonant of a noun, but also some prefixes. There are no derivational suffixes, since suffixes are reserved for inflection.
Verbs[]
Verbs show aspect (imperfective, perfective, and habitual). The imperfective forms generally end in -a, perfective forms in -ê, and habitual forms in -ụ̄. These forms, without further marking, are infinitives.
Non-past tense conjugations for regular verbs (present if imperfective or habitual, future if perfective):
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st person | -t | -taḷ |
| 2nd person | -ṣe | -ṣeḷ |
| 3rd person | -wī | -wīḷ |
| Impersonal | -m | |
Past tense conjugations are the same, but with -mị- added between the infinitive and the conjugational suffixes:
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st person | -mịt | -mịtaḷ |
| 2nd person | -mịṣe | -mịṣeḷ |
| 3rd person | -mịwī | -mịwīḷ |
| Impersonal | -mịm | |
Imperfective and habitual verbs also have a future form, which is identical to the past tense conjugations except with -đō̂- instead of -mị-:
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st person | -đō̂t | -đō̂taḷ |
| 2nd person | -đō̂ṣe | -đō̂ṣeḷ |
| 3rd person | -đō̂wī | -đō̂wīḷ |
| Impersonal | -đō̂m | |
The subjunctive mood of a verb is shown with the prefix lā-. The imperative mood is shown by omitting the final vowel of the infinitive and adding the following suffixes:
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st person | -ze | zeḷ |
| 2nd person | - | -aḷ |
| 3rd person | -wī | -wīḷ |
| Impersonal | -ām | |
Kelun has an active, passive, and antipassive voice. The passive voice is expressed with -im- appended to the verb root, and the antipassive is expressed with -ix-.
A quirk of Kelun is that it does not have a verb for "to be", instead, nouns and adjectives have a verbal form expressing a similar meaning, which is shown with the suffix -ēx- for the stem. So, in Kelun, the sentence "I am a tree" can be expressed as "(ẉe) kárḗxát", literally "(I) tree". ("kár" is the word for tree).
Adjectives[]
With little exception, most adjectives end in -ṛ. There are only 32 known adjective roots, instead, most adjectives derive from nouns or verbs using the suffix -aṛ or -ịṛ. Adjectives generally come after nouns.
Syntax[]
In Kelun, the basic word order is SVO, however, word order can be different some of the time. Kelun is a pro-drop language, which means pronouns can be dropped if it can be inferred.
Vocabulary[]
Pronouns[]
The basic pronouns are ẉe (first person), ñe (second person), and be (third person), but they inflect for number and case, with the -e taken off when suffixes are added. There is also a reflexive form of the pronouns, which has -ô instead of -e (ẉô, ñô, and bô), and does not inflect for number or case.
There is also a demonstrative pronoun (ṟè) and an impersonal pronoun (śe), both of which also inflect for number and case.
Relative pronouns are ṇe (who), ce (what), and ṛé (which), and interrogative pronouns are the same, but beginning with voiced consonants instead of voiceless ones (ne, đe, and ré). Indefinite pronouns are derived from the relative pronouns ṇe and ce, with prefixes lâ- (corresponding to some-), f- (any-), ṗu- (every-), and vi- (no-).
Conjunctions[]
Known Kelun conjunctions include là ("and"), ś ("or", the only known Kelun word that does not contain a vowel), gū́ ("but"), etc.
Numbers[]
Kelun uses a vigesimal (base-20) counting system. The numerals below are the root nouns, and the adjective form of all numerals uses the suffix -aṛ. Unlike other adjectives, they do not decline for number.
| 0 | ṗáñâ̛s | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | śek | ||
| 2 | ṃôṟ | ||
| 3 | ṭīl | ||
| 4 | wị̀ṉ | ||
| 5 | dạz | ||
| 6 | ḷât | ||
| 7 | ṭèṇḕp | ||
| 8 | sóc̣ | ||
| 9 | đâzaṇ̃ | ||
| 10 | vê̛r | ||
| 11 | vê̛rśek | ||
| 12 | vê̛rṃôṟ | ||
| 13 | vê̛rṭīl | ||
| 14 | vê̛rwị̀ṉ | ||
| 15 | vê̛rdạz | ||
| 16 | vê̛rḷât | ||
| 17 | vê̛rṭèṇḕp | ||
| 18 | vê̛rsóc̣ | ||
| 19 | vê̛rđâzaṇ̃ | ||
| 20 | ṭúdáṉ | ||
| 21 | ṭúdáṉśek | ||
| 30 | ṭúdáṉvê̛r | ||
| 40 | ṃôṟṭúdáṉ | ||
| 60 | ṭīlṭúdáṉ | ||
| 80 | wị̀ṉṭúdáṉ | ||
| 100 | dạzṭúdáṉ |
Colors[]
There are 5 primary colors in Kelun. Most languages with 5 primary colors have words for black, white, red, yellow, and green, but Kelun has words for black, white, red, green, and blue, and uses the additive method of color mixing to create compound words for the secondary colors cyan, magenta, and yellow, and tertiary colors.
| Primary colors | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Black | ḳụ̀m | ||
| White | mīd | ||
| Red | ṭā́m | ||
| Green | gạ̄r | ||
| Blue | źệb | ||
| Secondary colors | |||
| Cyan | gạ̄rźệb | ||
| Magenta | ṭā́mźệb | ||
| Yellow | ṭā́mgạ̄r | ||
| Gray | ḳụ̀mmīd | ||
| Tertiary colors | |||
| Orange | |||
| Lime | |||
| ? | |||
| ? | |||
| Purple | |||
| ? | |||
| Light gray | |||
| Dark gray | |||
It is important to note that some tertiary colors have no commonly used English equivalent. Even the Kelun tertiary colors themselves are not commonly used, and are known to appear in only 2 manuscripts.