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Vötgil is a language made by Jack Eisenmann in 2012. The syntax and word list were derived from Pegakibo. Vötgil has a simple, an oligoanalytic grammar and just 600 words.

Alphabet and Phonology[]

Letters

The Vötgil alphabet.

Every word in Vötgil has exactly three letters. The first letter's always a consonant. The second or third letter must be a vowel. The letters W, Y, and R may act as both vowels and consonants.

The alphabet and pronunciation are shown in the tables below.

Front Mid Back
Close Yy [i] Ww [u]
Close-mid Ii [ɪ] Oo [oʊ̯]
Open-mid Ee [ɛ] (Rr [ɚ]) Uu [ʌ]
Open Aa [æ] Öö [ɑ]
  (Labial) Dental Alveolar Post-alveolar (Dorsal)
Nasal Mm [m]   Nn [n]   Qq [ŋ]
Plosive Pp Bb [p b]   Tt Dd [t d]   Kk Gg [k ɡ]
Fricative Ff Vv [f v] Xx Ðð [θ ð] Ss Zz [s z] Cc Jj [ʃ ʒ] Hh [h]
Approximant   (Ww [w])   Rr [ɹ]      (Yy [j])
Lateral-approximant     Ll [l]    

Note that the alphabet has two representations: roman, and non-roman. The non-roman alphabet consists of cells with different tones of gray.

Because each word has the same length, words aren't separated by spaces in a sentence.

Grammar[]

Vötgil has 4 parts of speech:

  • Noun
  • Verb
  • Descriptor
  • Preposition

Word order is SVO. Verbs are always transitive.

Descriptors behave as both adjectives and adverbs. A descriptor is placed before the word which it modifies.

Prepositions encompass both conjunctions and traditional English prepositions.

Two nouns may be placed adjacent to each other as in English. Under these circumstances, the construction is interpreted as "(second noun) of or pertaining to (first noun)".

There are several suffixes which may be added to words.

  • -sis/-zis: noun becomes plural.
  • -did/-tid: verb becomes a passive descriptor.
  • -niq: verb becomes a gerund noun.
  • -rer: verb or descriptor becomes a noun which frequently performs an action or has a property.
  • -rey: verb becomes a noun which frequently receives an action.
  • -nis: descriptor or functional becomes a noun representing a quality.

There is also the prefix 'vöt-', which is the inversion prefix, which, well, means that the name of the language literally means 'non-English', which isn't quite what Vötgil is.

A clause may be surrounded by quotation marks and embedded in another clause. The embedded construction behaves as a noun representing the action of the subclause. For this reason, such a grouping is called a "situation noun".

Counting is in base ten with the most significant digit on the left side.

Examples[]

A fish is eating the bread.

SumFicYotÐytBre.

This land has large rocks. 

ÐisLanHavLörRökSis.

I know that the pasta is warm.

NuyNon"ÐytPösVizWom".

External Links[]

Guide to the Vötgil Language

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