Vattic

Phonology

Vowels

Vattic distinguishes between long and short vowels, and as such has a symmetrical system of 6 short vowels and 6 long. The phonetic quality of these vowel pairs does not differ, just the duration.

Phoneme	Example
/a/	vak [vak] 'hole'
/aː/	tágö [taːgø] 'mirror'
/ɛ/	ezk [ɛsk] 'a/an'
/ɛː/	éz [ɛːz] 'he/she/it'
/i/	kiśńa [kiʃɲə] 'cat'
/iː/	kíbő [kiːbøː] 'bird'
/ɔ/	onyć [ɔnitʃ] 'to steal'
/ɔː/	péró [pɛːrɔː] 'ruler'
/u/	muććet [mutʃːɛt] 'to pout'
/uː/	lú [luː] 'rain'
/ø/	öneśyl [ønɛʃiɫ] 'wine'
/øː/	mettő [mɛtøː]

There are no diphthongs in Vattic, and vowels do not come into contact with each other. If a situation arises where two vowels would need to be placed next to each other (such as in compound words or the addition of a suffix), an auxilliary 'n' is placed in between them. This is highlighted in the following: "dégge" ('heel') + "órogő" ('high') = "déggenórogőt" ('high heels (shoes)').

Consonants

	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Postalveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m		n		ɲ
Plosive	p b		t d			k g
Fricative		f v	s z	ʃ ʒ		x	h
Affricate			ts dz	tʃ dʒ
Approximant					j
Tap			ɾ
Lateral Approximant			l

• /m/ and /n/ become [ɱ] before /f/ and /v/ as in kunfel [kuɱfɛl] "horse".
• /n/ becomes [ŋ] before /k/, /g/ and /x/, as in sanqábok [saŋxaːbɔk] "to sit"

Gemination

All fricatives and affricates can be geminated (i.e. pronounced longer than ususal). This is indicated by the doubling of the consonant letter: ssém [sːɛːm]. Gemination can occur at the beginning, middle and end of a word. In words where a stop consonant is doubled, it does not have any effect on pronunciation.

Orthography

The Vattic Orthography follows a predominantly phonemic principle, with each letter representing one phoneme. However, some phonemes may be represented by more than one letter and can sometimes cause confusion.

Alphabet

The alphabet consists of 38 letters. These are all the letters of the standard latin alphabet except 'w' and 'x', plus numerous letters modified with a diacritic mark.

Uppercase

A

Á

Ä

B

C

Ć

D

E

É

F

G

H

I

Í

J

K

L

M

N

Ń

O

Ó

Ö

Ő

P

Q

R

S

Ś

T

U

Ú

Ū

V

Y

Ý

Z

Ź

IPA

a

aː

æ

b

ts

tʃ

d

ɛ

ɛː

f

g

h

i

iː

j

k

l

m

n

ɲ

ɔ

ɔː

ø

øː

p

x

ɾ

s

ʃ

t

u

uː

uː

v

i

iː

z

ʒ

Collation

In Vattic, the letters with diacritics like 'á' and 'ö' are treated as letters in their own right, representing distinct sounds from their non-diacritic counterparts. Therefore, in alphabetical ordering they are placed after their parent letter. So for example ozzýn comes before óban.

The Letters I and Y

The letters 'i' and 'y' both represent the phoneme /i/ (with their long counterparts 'í' and 'ý' both representing /iː/). There is no specific rule which governs when 'i' should be used over 'y' and vice versa, so it a simple matter of memory, but 'y' sees a much more marginal use than 'i' so a guess at 'i' would be sufficient. The reason for having both letter representing the same phoneme derives from Early Vattic, where 'y' represented the phoneme /y/. After /y/ lost its roundedness and became /i/, the orthography was not changed.

The Letter Ū

Ū represents the long vowel /uː/, the same sound as 'ú' and the long counterpart of 'u'. It derives from the collapse of the sequence /uhu/ in Early Vattic, which later voiced to become [uɦu], and then the [ɦ] was lost altogether, resulting in [uː], which was notified by this letter.

Capitalisation

As in most languages, the first letter of a sentence is capitalised. However, in proper nouns the capitalisation is much more sporadic.

• In names of people, the fist letter is always capitalised, as in almost every other language.
• In names of places, the first letter is always capitalised, for example tanatum Londynpéj "I went to London". This is also the case in road names.
• In the names of months and days which are always capitalised in English, the first letter is never capitalised. For example Londynpéj tanatum ūnavességgón "I went to London on Tuesday".
• Language names and demonyms are never capitalised, for example anlasta vessaluz "she speaks English".

Basic Grammar

Nouns

Vattic nouns follow a rich system of inflection, with numerous noun cases, and different endings indicating things like number and possession.

Case

There are numerous noun cases in Vattic. The following table shows a detailed list of the cases found in Vattic, using the noun boźojóvon "the egg".

Case	Case Suffix	Example	Meaning
Nominative	-	boźojóvon	the egg (as a subject)
Accusative	-(e)kk	boźojóvonekk	the egg (as an object)
Dative	-péj	boźojóvonpéj	to the egg
Genitive	-vál	boźojóvonvál	of the egg, the egg's
Ablative	-luce	boźojóvonluce	because of the egg
Adessive	-śul	boźojóvonśul	near the egg
Apudessive	-sydd	boźojóvonsydd	next to the egg
Inessive	-ben	boźojóvonben	inside the egg
Intrative	-nić	boźojóvonettnić	between the eggs
Subessive	-bon	boźojóvonbon	under the egg
Superessive	-pám	boźojóvonpám	ontop of the egg
Comitative	-vyć	boźojóvonvyć	with the egg
Instrumental	-keżżő	boźojóvonkedző	using the egg
Vialis	-hetrú	boźojóvonhetrú	via/through/by way of the egg

Articles

Unlike in English and most other Western languages, noun articles are placed after the noun as a clitic. For indefinate nouns, the suffix -jezk is used, for definate nouns, the suffix -von is used.

See the following:

• Oneggárvon makkonan nosodjezk. - "The man built a house."
• Anan velicjezkett fa nasadant. - "There were some limes over there."

Article suffixes are placed directly after the noun, before any other suffix (possessive, number, case etc) has been added.

Number

There are two numbers in Vattic - the singular and plural. The plural is marked by the ending -(e)tt. For example: nosod "house" becomes nosodett "houses".

Possession

The possessor of a noun is indicated in the noun in itself by the way of a suffix.

Suffix	Example	Meaning
-um	nosodum	my house
-ud	nosodud	your (sing.) house
-uz	nosoduz	his/her/it's house
-ém	nosodém	our house
-éd	nosodéd	your (pl.) house
-éz	nosodéz	their house

Demonstratives

• ves - this
• vost - that
• vesett - these
• vostett - those
• zévér - other
• pemitt - many

Vesett nosodett lensí san. - "These houses are nice."

Verbs

Tenses

Vattic verbs are quite restricted in regards to tenses. There are five tenses, as seen in the table below, using the verb fagand "to do" as an example.

Tense	Tense Suffix	Example	Meaning
Past	-an	fagandan	did
Past Participle	-anak	fagandanak	have done
Present	-en	faganden	do
Present Participle	-enek	fagandenek	am doing
Future	-ún	fagandún	will do

Participants

The participant of a verb is notified in the noun. They take the same forms as the possessive suffixes of nouns. So for example in the sentence: tanatum nosodumpéj "I went to my house", "I went" (tanatum) and "My house" (nosodum) both take the same suffix.

Mood

There are several different moods used in Vattic which indicate various intensities of different verbs. Each mood is added to the verb in the form of a prefix, which is placed directly before the main verb root.

Mood	Suffix	Example	Meaning
Indicative	-	'kastóránanuz uzekk sedség	She married him yesterday
Subjunctive	kessok-	kessokkastóránuz uzekk pórség	(It was suggested) she marry him tomorrow
Hypothetical	öröm-	örömkastóránuz uzekk pórség	(If) she marries him tomorrow
Dubious	unuhh-	unuhhkastóránanuz uzekk sedség	I guess she must have married him yesterday
Presumptive	merré-	merrékastóránuz uzekkk pórség	Even if she marries him tomorrow
Conditional	effe-	effekastóránuz uzekk pórség ge vrökastóránuz uzekk	She would marry him tomorrow if she wants to (marry him).
Desiderative	vrö-	vrökastóránuz uzekk pórség	she wants to marry him tomorrow
Imperative	ba-	bakastóránud uzekk pórség!	marry him tomorrow!
Cohortative	lesse-	lessekastóránuz uzekk pórség	allow her to marry him tomorrow

Voice

Vattic distinguishes between the active and passive voice in its verbs. The active voice goes unmarked, whereas the passive voice is marked by the addition of an "e" followed by a hypen before the verb. For example the sentence "The man built the houses" is written Oneggárvon makkonan nosodvonettekk, however the sentence "The houses were built by the man" is written Nosodvonett e-makkonan i-oneggárvon. The 'i' with hypen before oneggárvon represents the English word "by".

Word Order

Vattic follows an SVO word order, the same as in English. However some flexibility is permitted, provided the accusative and nominative nouns are marked.

Adjectives

There are three forms of each adjective: the basic, comparative and superlative.

Basic	Comparitive	Superlative
lensí nice	lensíf nicer	lennlensíf nicest
suggun ugly	suggunef uglier	lennsuggunef ugliest
bujjan big	bujjanef bigger	lennbujjanef biggest

Interrogatives

Interrogative words go to the beginning of the word, as in English.

• qa - what?
• qér - who?
• qopa - why?
• qubśí - when?
• medod - how?
• qancin - how much? (cost)

Pronouns

Personal Pronouns

Person	Nominative	Accusative	Possessive Suffix
1st Person Sing.	la	lakk	-um
1st Person Plur.	latt	lattekk	-em
2nd Person Sing.	lé	lékk	-ud
2nd Person Plur.	létt	léttekk	-éd
3rd Person Sing.	éz	ézekk	-uz
3rd Person Plur.	ézett	ézettekk	-éz

Interrogative Pronouns

Interrogative pronouns follow the same route as the interrogative questioning words. The only difference is that the dummy word "dá" is added to the beginning.

So for example, one may ask Qopa fagandanakud veś? "Why have you done this?", and an answer may be Nal veś dá qopa... "This is why...".

English	Question	Pronoun
what	qa?	dá qa
why	qopa?	dá qopa
when	qubśí	dá qubśí
how much	qancin?	dá qancin
how	medod?	dá medod
who	qér?	dá qér

Dummy Pronouns

Several dummy pronouns exist in Vattic. A dummy pronoun is like in English "It is raining again", where the "it" does not replace any particular noun, but is need in order to make grammatical sense.

Zke

The word "zke" is used as in the above example "It is raining again", where Zke represents "it is". It is declined according to the regular verb tense endings to become zkan "it was", zkún "it will be" etc. So someone could say Zke errenssútárenek "It is raining again" or Zkún errenssútárún "It will rain again".

A

The lexical word "a" is similar to the "there" in "there will be". It can be declined as a verb to become a (there is/are), anan (there was/were), anún (there will be) etc. So for example someone could say "There is no point in doing that" as A név radanc fagandum vostór.

Numbers

	Cardinal	Ordinal
0	telce	telceq
1	öl	öleq
2	zegg	zeggeq
3	ven	veneq
4	zár	záreq
5	bän	bäneq
6	úś	úśeq
7	vennér	vennéreq
8	pír	píreq
9	kénced	kéncedeq
10	ńez	ńezeq
11	ńezöl	ńezöleq
12	ńezzegg	ńezzeggeq
13	ńezven	ńezveneq
20	zeggńez	zeggńezeq
30	veńńez	veńńez
100	völcyn	völcyneq
101	völcynöl	völcynöleq
1000	unov	unoveq

When the number is used to indicate a quantity of a noun, it is written after the noun itself. So for example: An rúgárett zeggńez means "There were twenty cars".

Dictionary

See: Vattic Dictionary

Example Text

Random Wikipedia Article

Vattic

Kavdátavon nal dolatebennylabíddajezkekk dá qá ký rikkakjezkekk e-vehhenan stókavonbon dőrvaśstohhe abécévonben latinasta e-lýnan ńekelvettben őröpasta śqo amerikasta suksen. Kavdátavon ko lýnan śtospek onselasekk tranzkripasvonben ńekelvfonettvál suksen Amerikanvonettvál. Ves lýnas évanan órfografíttvonben dá qá e-makkonan i-mizzonárárett Kristínasta tranzkrib vesett ńekelvettekk. Ék pennasvon e-daśśestenan i-anfropologgistettekk amerikasta śqo ńekelvajjattekk dá qér essyddak nepústa ves örömvőrtekk tranzkribasben fonetik veddoséggon. Kavdátavon e-lýnan nettő tranzlitasben akademyś slavonastavál vőnzig dźúvodnihha. polenastaben, slavonastaben vőnzig dźuvodnihha, navajastaben, apaććastaben ösincim, ćirikahvastaben śqo dalekárlístaben śtospekuz ranenonvon nal onselaqqan. Én dzessū ‘e’ nal ‘e’-jezk onselaqqan polenastaben, ‘a’ nal ‘o’-jezk onselaqqan śqo ném ‘a’ (ves nal lanc ńepa ranenonsselemasvonvál – ‘ą’ nalan ‘a’-jezk lámónd onel ‘a’, dá zūst gavfáran ‘o’-jezk śtumvje onel, dá qubśí lesseććasvon ranenonjezkvál meddoddas seffaśan.

English

The ogonek is a diacritic hook placed under the lower right corner of a vowel in the Latin alphabet used in several European and Native American languages. The use of the ogonek to indicate nasality is common in the transcription of the indigenous languages of the Americas. This usage originated in the orthographies created by Christian missionaries to transcribe these languages. Later, the practice was continued by Americanist anthropologists and linguists who still follow this convention in phonetic transcription to the present day (see Americanist phonetic notation). The ogonek is also used in academic transliteration of Old Church Slavonic. In Polish, Old Church Slavonic, Navajo, Western Apache, Chiricahua, and Dalecarlian it indicates that the vowel is nasalized. Even if ę is nasalized e in Polish, ą is nasalized o not a (this is so because of the vowel change — "ą" was a long nasal "a", which turned into short nasal "o", when the vowel quantity distinction disappeared).