Paatherye - The language of the Elves

[Iyionaku]

The indefinite article

There is not only a definite article in Elfish, but also an indefinite article, used to denote non-specific occurences of a thing. It exists in singular and plural, but not in collective (which would not make sense) and not for the vocative case.

In nominative and accusative, the forms of both masculine and feminine articles is just a simple clitizized सः s'. If a noun starts on a consonant that can form a valid consonant cluster with s (see phonology section), it will be done. If this is not possible, the fully-qualified indefinite articles सं sam INDEF.FEM.NOM, सें sem INDEF.MASC.NOM, सा sā INDEF.FEM.ACC and सो sē INDEF.MASC.ACC are used.

Spoiler:

म शोवै ma ēway (the axe.NOM) --> सःशोवै s'ēway (an axe.NOM)
मा शोवै़ mā ēwayn (the axe.ACC) --> सःशोवै़ s'ēwayn (an axe.ACC)

मे पेरषु me perșu (the tree.NOM) --> सःपेरषु s'perșu (a tree.NOM)
मो पेरषे mē perșe (the tree.ACC) --> सःपेरषे s'perșe (a tree.ACC)

but:

म त्रिच​ ma trica (the picture.NOM) --> सं त्रिच sam trica (a picture.NOM)
मा त्रिच़ mā trican (the picture.ACC) --> सा त्रिच़ sā trican (a picture.ACC)

मे फोये me phēye (the bee.NOM) --> सें फोये sem phēye (a bee.NOM)
मो फोये mē phēye (the bee.ACC) --> सो फोये sē phēye (a bee.ACC)

The other indefinite articles are as follows:

Feminine, demonstrated at the noun त्रिच trica - picture

sam trica - a picture [subject]
samu trici - of a picture
samur tricar - for a picture
sā trican - a picture [object]
samas trices - to a picture
sami tricari - away from a picture
samu tricayu - at a picture

Masculine, demonstrated at the noun फोये phēye - bee

sem phēye - a bee [subject]
semu phēyu - of a bee
sum phēyu - for a bee
sē phēye - a bee [object]
sama phēyarfīn - to a bee
sama phēyarūn - away from a bee
sama phēyar - at a bee

Plural, demonstrated at the noun क्रज़ kras - meadow, plural क्रव्वि kravi

sī kravi - meadows [subject]
sīme kravay - of meadows
sīte kravar - for meadows
sīn kraven - meadows [object]
sīyes kravim - to meadows
sīya kravil - away from meadows
sīyu kravir - on meadows

[Nachtuil]

I love the sound of your language. I guess that was the point eh? :) I like that you have some syncretism going on.

[Iyionaku]

I love the sound of your language. I guess that was the point eh? :) I like that you have some syncretism going on.

Thanks! I appreciate it a lot.

Adjectives

Declension

Adjectives always precede the noun they modify and agree to it in case, gender and number. Similar to Germanic languages, there are three different declension patterns:

1) Weak declension: occurs together with the definite article. There, no gender distinction is made.
2) Strong declension: occurs with the indefinite article, numerals or no marking at all. In this pattern, there are different endings for masculine and feminine nouns.
3) Independent declension: This one is pretty easy and occurs when an adjective occurs on its own, i.e. without a specified noun. They are declined like regular feminine nouns (although ablaut occurs if it exists).

Some adjectives also have ablaut, but it doesn't matter in the regular declension; it only occurs for comparative, superlative and excessive.

I am a little lazy and don't want to exemplify every single declension pattern (and I doubt anyone would ever read it anyway) so I'll provide another nice table with the endings.



Comparation

The comparative is formed with the suffix -ra.
The superlative is formed with the prefix stā- (related to English stand
There is also an excessive (too much of it). This one is formed with the suffix -du.

In all those cases, if an adjective features ablaut it will be in the II. step for all those forms. For declension, the flexion endings are just put after the comparative and excessive endings. A few examples:

Without ablaut

thin (difficult) -> thinra (more difficult) -> stāthin (most difficult) -> thindu (too difficult)
ūca (loud) -> ūcara (louder) -> stāwūca (loudest) -> ūcadu (too loud)
dhār (slow) -> dhārra (slower) -> stādhār (slowest) -> dhārdu (too slow)

With ablaut

prā (young) -> prayra (younger) -> stāray (youngest) -> praydu (too young)
twan (big) -> twenra (bigger) -> stāwen (biggest) -> twendu (too big)
pays (small) -> pīra (smaller) -> stāpīr (smallest) -> pīrdu (too small)

pays may appear totally irregular, but it totally follows the rules: V. ablaut row (ay -> ī); in comparative coda -s is elided; in superlative and excessiv the inherent -s is changed to -r because it is preceded by -ī.

However, there are nine completely irregular adjectives with suppletive forms:.

Irregular adjectives

much, many: play -> mēhi -> mēthi -> șubu
little, few: phey -> mīhu -> mīthu -> fīyu
good: phal -> ēsur -> ēthur -> ēsu
bad: das -> elkhu -> stelkhu -> dadu
beautiful: wēm -> jaynu -> jānu -> jādu
new: cay -> phīla -> phīta -> phīdu
old: gēlu -> șēni -> șēnti -> gēldu
early: jer -> krēvi -> krēti -> jerdu
late: kyan -> tāti -> tayti -> kyandu

I might have already left the path of naturalism with this.

[Nachtuil]

I am not sure you can claim to have laziness and also at the same time produce a language with a full dose of declension paradigms and different word classes on top of gender :p What I do to claim laziness is consider having declension for case and gender on articles and adjectives and then decline to do so from the thought of keeping it all straight.

I find the continued syncretism, interesting. I notice that where your adjective endings overlap your regular noun cases clarify the relationships.

What is it that you have done that has marked your departure from naturalism?

[Iyionaku]

I am not sure you can claim to have laziness and also at the same time produce a language with a full dose of declension paradigms and different word classes on top of gender :p What I do to claim laziness is consider having declension for case and gender on articles and adjectives and then decline to do so from the thought of keeping it all straight.

Ya well, the language is about one and a half years old. Back then I was really motivated and had a very painful tour through adjectives (I don't like them that much). When I was writing that post yesterday I felt that going through them all again would be just too much.

What is it that you have done that has marked your departure from naturalism?

I feel like those are maybe a little too many suppletive adjectives, especially as those are all opposites from each other.

[Davush]

I really like the look and sound of Paatherye. I somehow feel like Qutrussan and Paatherye could be (very) distantly related...

I admire the complex adjectival inflection paradigms - I have always hated making such systems, so I usually don't bother. I suppose this adds to your IE-inspired theme though! I think the irregular adjectives and suppletion seems fine to me, it only occurs with 9 after all and some of the forms look like variations on the same root.

[Iyionaku]

I really like the look and sound of Paatherye. I somehow feel like Qutrussan and Paatherye could be (very) distantly related...

I admire the complex adjectival inflection paradigms - I have always hated making such systems, so I usually don't bother. I suppose this adds to your IE-inspired theme though! I think the irregular adjectives and suppletion seems fine to me, it only occurs with 9 after all and some of the forms look like variations on the same root.

Thank you! What I meant is that the suppletive forms don't resemble the phonetic structure of the regular terms (in a way that "better", albeit suppletive, still bears the -er found in regular verbs as well).
Well, your Qutrussan doesn't appear to be IE, so I guess they are not however the seem to be structurally similar.

Pronouns

Personal pronouns

Elfish distinguishes the following sets for personal pronouns:

*Person: 1st person (speaker), 2nd person (spoken at), 3rd person (spoken about)
*Number: Singular, Plural, Collective
*Gender in 2SG, 2PL and 3SG: Feminine, Masculine
*Case: All cases, but only 2PS pronouns feature a vocative case (suppletive)
Additionally, there is a special 2SG pronoun that is used for other races (humans and orks) as well as for Elves from a lower social class.

The following table shows all the personal pronouns of Paatherye:



To the pronouns of the 2nd person: thū and yuwā are only used when speaking at or about an Elfish woman of the same or a higher social class. For other women, day is used, both for 2SG and 3SG. The same way, yē and yuē are only used for Elfish man of the same or a higher social class.

The vocative case is the speech form and is used as some kind of T-V distinction in Elfish. However, normally you stop using them as soon as you know the name of someone. Exception: If you talk to an Elf who you don't know their social status of, you better stick with the vocative pronoun: It's way less an issue to say yān instead of yānam than saying thū instead of day.

If a group consists of men exclusively, you speak to them using heyn. But if there is only one single woman among them, you will use șay. Hence, the system is exactly the other way round than it is in French or Spanish, for example.

Possessive pronouns

The genitive pronouns of a personal pronoun are the base (nominative) forms of the possessive pronouns. They are inflected very similarly to regular adjectives in the strong declension.

Other pronouns (demonstrative, indefinite, negative, relative...) coming soon.

[Nachtuil]

I see that you practice what you preach about somewhat irregular Pronoun variation :)

[Iyionaku]

Again, thank you, especially for your loyalty!

I will come back to Paatherye soon, atm I'm heavily under pressure on finishing my thesis.

[Iyionaku]

It's been a long time that this language has been dormant, but maybe some of you have seen that I was very active with it in the translation thread. I would like to post a little more if I find the time. For now, a small update:

Numerals

Paatherye cardinal numerals are very easily identifiable as Indo-European. One special feature about Paatherye is that it's partly vingesimal: All numerals up to 20 have their own root, and while 40, 60 and 80 have a unique derived word, 30, 50 and 70 are built with the principle "10-20", "10-40" and "10-60", respectively.
Behind the spoiler tags you can see the Elfish cardinal numerals from 0-20, all multiples of 10 up to 100 and 1,000.

Spoiler:

0 pāva
1 sul
2 dūthi
3 tin
4 cāra
5 pamca
6 jaya
7 sāta
8 ātha
9 naya
10 dāșa
11 ēga
12 phāra
13 tēra
14 heykha
15 khāna
16 sēla
17 dēga
18 dudūthi
19 vārmani
20 vārda
21 vārdasul
22 vārdadūthi
30 vārdadāșa
31 vārdayēga
40 cērda
50 cērdadāșa
60 jāyda
70 jāydadāșa
80 ēka
90 ēkadāșa
100 șatham
200 dūșatham
300 tinșatham
1,000 hājar

Paatherye ordinal numbers are usually built with the principle "cardinal number + suffix rīm (plural rēmi). Example:

8 ātha - The 8th me ātharīm
20 vārda - The 20th me vārdarīm

However, all numbers up to 7 as well as 100 have suppletive ordinal numbers. See behind the spoiler tag:

Spoiler:

1 sul - 1st me frīm
2 dūthi - 2nd me thūwa
3 tin - 3rd me treya
4 cāra - 4th me kwēta
5 pamca - 5th me penka
6 jaya - 6th me wēka
7 sāta - 7th me seska
100 șatham - 100th me khenta

Habitual numbers (once, twice etc.) are formed with the suffix -themu. However, the numerals 2-5 have a reduced form, while the numeral 1 ("once") is identical to the cardinal number.

Spoiler:

once - sul
twice - dūthemu
three times - tinthemu
four times - cārthemu
five times - pamthemu
six times - jayathemu
seven times - sātathemu

And so on.