Gynzua Roderuara: the Roderan Language

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Evynova
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Gynzua Roderuara: the Roderan Language

Post by Evynova »

Roderan is the language of the Roderan Empire. This thread will introduce the standard variety, as spoken by the educated masses and the nobility. Countless local dialects exist, but their use is usually prohibited and perceived as "uneducated" and even offensive in certain contexts. For this reason, I will not describe them in thorough detail, even though I will mention them every now and then, for example when they keep an archaic feature that the standard variety does not, or when they have innovated when SR (Standard Roderan) has not. The Hafnjan language, spoken on Rajnlokem, is related to Roderan, but the diachronic evolution, coupled with the geographical isolation have made the two languages entirely unintelligible.

I went for a "Europeanesque" feel for Roderan, though it is, as always, entirely a priori. I dare say it is my most elaborate conlang so far, and hope you will enjoy the result of multiple hours of work. Once again, I aim for naturalism, but I don't mind having poorly attested or entirely unattested features. That said, I tried to justify them and make them work, at least better than in my previous conlangs that exhibited unnecessarily over-the-top quirks, in my opinion.

This first post will describe the phonology in detail, as well as some basic grammatical features that I will develop more thoroughly in future posts.

Phonology
Consonants

Image
  • In order to have a more aesthetic-looking table, I intentionally placed some phonemes in the wrong categories: the affricates /tʃ dʒ/ and fricatives /ʃ ʒ/ are alveolo-palatal.
  • Similarly, the rhotics and the approximants are in a single line. /r/ is an alveolar trill. /ɹʷ/ and /w/ alternate in free variation, and the choice depends mainly on the speaker. /ɹʷ/ is perceived to be more agressive and is generally used to intimidate, or to assert social dominance (as in a speech by the King, or in a conversation between a noble and a peasant). It is also deemed to be an "unwomanly" sound by Roderan society.
  • The labio-dental fricatives are indeed labio-dental (unlike the German <pf>), with the upper teeth pressing against the bottom lip.
  • /cɕ ɟʑ/ are sometimes realised as /cç/ and /ɟʝ/ to differentiate them from their alveolo-palatal counterparts. The same applies to /ɕ/ and /ʑ/, respectively pronounced /ç/ and /ʝ/.
  • /j/ is extremely rare and is usually found is some loanwords.
  • All the nasals, except /m/, have a lateral approximant allophone, with which they are interchangeable in the context of consonant harmony.
  • You may notice the nearly perfect consonant alternative: voiced and unvoiced. Roderan has consonant harmony: a word can only have either voiced, or unvoiced consonants. Affixes change accordingly, as well as compound words (the second word of the compound changes). As for the aforementioned nasals, they interchange with the lateral approximants in "voiceless" words. A more colloquial trend is to simply devoice the nasals (as well as /r/ and /w/), but this is not proper for "educated" speech.
Vowels

Roderan has 6 basic vowel qualities /a e i y o u/, which respectively reduce to /ɑ ɛ e ʉ ɔ o/ in unstressed positions, and to /ə/ when word-final. /i/ reduces to /ɨ/ when word-final.

Thus, the basic vowels of Roderan are as such:

Image

With the exception of the schwa, all of the above vowels can be either long or short. Old Roderan had a set of pre-aspirated consonants; while the aspiration disappeared, it triggered a lengthening of the preceding vowel.

That said, Old Roderan also had phonemic vowel length, which was lost before the pre-aspiration. There were three contrasts: short, semi-long, and long. Over time, the (semi-)long vowels broke down into diphthongs and triphthongs, which then simplified and merged.

a aˑ aː → a ə̯a e̯ai̯
e eˑ eː → e ei̯ ɛ̯ei̯
i iˑ iː → i ə̯i ə̯ɨ̯i
y yˑ yː → y ʉ̯y ə̯ʉ̯y
o oˑ oː → o ɔ̯o ɔ̯ou̯
u uˑ uː → u ə̯u ə̯uə̯

This unstable clump of vowels quickly simplified and merged. Modern Standard Roderan has the following diphthongs and triphthongs:

/u̯a ei̯ œ̯ʏ u̯o o̯u/
/e̯ai̯ u̯œ̯ʏ/

Any other combination of vowels is forbidden and the vowels must be separated by an epenthetic <n>. This happens mostly through compounding and affixing.

Phonotactics

The typical vowel structure is: (C1)V(C2).

C1 is any consonant. All consonants are allowed word-initially.
V is any vowel, diphthong or triphthong that the phonology allows. Due to the diachronics of Roderan vowels, long vowels only occur if they are followed by a consonant.
C2 can be:
  • a single consonant (stop, affricate, nasal, fricative, ...)
  • a CC cluster consisting of a fricative and a plosive/affricate
  • a CC cluster consisting of a nasal and a plosive/affricate
Compounding and affixing sometimes creates awkward consonant clusters. They are typically simplified, though that is not always the case. Generally, clusters from old compounds have been simplified, while new formations may or may not be. Nasal+plosive and nasal+affricate clusters have the nasal change to the point of articulation of the plosive or the affricate. For example:
/nb/ → /mb/
/mc/ → /ɲ̊c/ or /ʎc/
/ŋdʒ/ → /ndʒ/
Some fricative+plosive clusters also follow that rule, though not always. Clusters considered easy to pronounce will not be changed, but those deemed awkward by the speakers will be assimilated into affricates. The fricative thus changes to accomodate for the plosive. Compounding can also, in some cases, make two affricates meet. Because such a cluster would be extremely difficult, if not impossible to pronounce, they simplify into a single affricate. There is no absolute rule, but it is common for the affricate with a more fronted place of articulation to prevail. The same rule applies for fricatives clusters. For example:
Tynitsćaku /ˈtyneˌtsakə/, lit. "horse-rider": a knight.
Geröydžbvunei /ˈgerœ̯ʏˌb̪vunei̯/: the feeling one gets when coming home to the smell of food cooking
Clusters of plosives abide by different rules. They are for the most part not simplified and pronunciation will not be altered. The only exception will be a cluster involving a palatal and an alveolar or velar plosive: the palatal plosive prevails and is geminated. For example:
Pactytšo /ˈpaˌcːytʃə/, literally "sleep-plant": a plant that produces opium; a poppy.
Basic grammar facts
As said in the beginning of this post, I will develop the grammar in more detail in upcoming posts. Nevertheless, here are some "appetisers":
  • Basic word order is SOV, with postpositions and adjectives that may be placed before or after the noun depending on several rules.
  • The negation is constructed with a suffix on the verb. There are no words for yes and no, instead, the copula is conjugated.
  • Verb alignment is active-stative. There are 3 categories of verbs, with Cat1 & 2 requiring respectively an agentive and a patientive subject. Cat3 may have either depending on what the speaker implies. Turning a Cat2 verb into a Cat3 verb forms a causative: "I sleep" vs "I sleep him" which translates to "I caused him to sleep".
  • There are three genders: human male, human female and non-human. There is no default gender (unlike French that uses masculine by default); instead, each noun will individually require a masculine, or a feminine, when gender is unknown or unspecified.
  • Verbs inflect in tense and mood, and have polypersonal agreement. Ditransitive verbs agree with the three arguments.
  • There are 6 cases in total: active, passive, dative, combined comitative/instrumental, combined locative/genitive, and benefactive.
  • There are two numbers: singular and plural.
Last edited by Evynova on 03 Jan 2018 11:52, edited 1 time in total.
Solarius
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Re: Gynzua Roderuara: the Roderan Language

Post by Solarius »

I don't totally understand your alignment--is it split intransitivity?

I quite like your inventory--especially the voicing harmony. Is there a natlang that does that? Either way it's very cool, especially the social variation in the voiceless nasals.
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Re: Gynzua Roderuara: the Roderan Language

Post by Evynova »

Solarius wrote: 03 Jan 2018 02:13 I don't totally understand your alignment--is it split intransitivity?
I'm sometimes not very good with nomenclature, and I will edit my post. But yes, it's some sort of split intransitivity. My idea is that instead of having the arguments of the verb be marked according to grammar and grammar alone, they are marked according to semantics and what verbs mean. The arguments can be active (agentive) or stative (not passive; patientive), where the active argument does the action and the stative argument will undergo the action. I wanted to go further with this idea and have some "actions" be culturally considered passive (falling in love, disliking a thing) and thus having a grammatical subject that is marked with a patientive case; similarly, some verbs, depending on the cases used, will change meaning. Furthermore, some verbs if becoming transitive, take a causative connotation in the proccess. The example I used was this:

Mur guduri.
Mur gud-ur-i.
1SG.PAT live-1SG.PAT-PRS
I am alive.

Dižig mur gudiginuz.
Dižig mur gud-igi=u-z.
3SG.F.AGT 1SG.PAT live-3SG.F.AGT.-1SG-PRT
She gave birth to me (lit. “she caused me to live”).

Depending on how a verb is used, the meaning will change entirely. Another example is the verb "to die": intransitive & passive subject means to die; intransitive & active subject means to commit suicide; transitive & active means to murder someone (and transitive & passive is ungrammatical).

It also means that some verbs will have two "passive" arguments, but syntax is rigid enough that the arguments will not be confused.

I know this agentive-patientive is rare but attested, but I don't know if any language works the exact same way my conlang does.
Solarius wrote:I quite like your inventory--especially the voicing harmony. Is there a natlang that does that? Either way it's very cool, especially the social variation in the voiceless nasals.
Thanks! I spent over two days tweaking and changing stuff; I've never spent so much time on a phonology before.

I looked up if consonant harmony was a thing before I implemented it, but I was unable to find anything related to voicing. I don't think it is actually attested (typically, it's the place of articulation or the manner of articulation that changes) but I think that's due to the fact voicing isn't contrastive in most languages anyway. Regardless, even if it is not attested, I don't think it is too far-fetched or unrealistic.
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Re: Gynzua Roderuara: the Roderan Language

Post by Evynova »

Verbs
Roderan verbs are better described as using a sort of split intransitivity system, with some unique peculiarities. In a regular active-stative language, it is only the sole argument of an intransitive verb that may use either the agentive or patientive case according to semantics; in Roderan, a number of transitive verbs may also use either case for the subject, and the choice will carry a different meaning.

Verbs are separated into 3 categories based on which case they require for their subject:
  • Group 1 consists of all the verbs that require an agentive subject. Usually, they are verbs that describe an action that can only be performed willingly, and thus a passive subject would not make sense. Such verbs include: to build, to walk, to climb, ...
  • Group 2 comprises all the verbs that require a patientive subject. They typically describe states, or actions that one endures regardless of intent. They can be intransitive (to be alive, to sleep, to be ill) or transitive (to love smb, to enjoy smth, to hate smb) in which case both the subject and the object will be patientive.
  • Group 3 is different in that it regroups all the verbs that do not require either. Choosing either an agentive or a patientive for the subject will carry a different connotation, or a different meaning altogether. For example, to wake up using an agentive subject means that the person willingly woke up; using a patientive subject implies that the person was woken up against their will.
It is furthermore possible to transitivise an otherwise intransitive verb. The use of an agentive subject results in a causative construction.
Dižir puanunirs.
/ˈdiʒer ˈpu̯alolers/
Dižir puanu-ir-s
3S.F.PAT die-3S.F.PAT-PRET
She died.

Dižig nyr puanunikinyrs.
/ˈdiʒeg nyr ˈpu̯alolekelʉrs/
Dižig nyr puanu-iki-yr-s.
3S.F.AGT 3P.H.PAT die-3S.F.AGT-3P.H.PAT-PRET
Lit. "she died them": she killed them.
As you can see in the gloss, Roderan verbs agree with all of its arguments. Each grammatical person has a set of free morphemes -- pronouns -- with a form for each case, as well as bound morphemes that are found in verb inflection. It is mandatory to use pronouns even though verb morphology is theoretically enough to make it possible to drop them. Dropping pronouns does occur in colloquial speech in small, simple sentences, but never in formal speech and even less in written texts. Hafnjan, related to Roderan, has dropped pronouns altogether, however.

A peculiarity of the polypersonal agreement is that if a verb has two patientive arguments (group 2 verbs), only the subject will be marked as patientive. The object will trigger an agreement but the morpheme will be the base form, and not the patientive form. The pronoun itself, however, keeps its patientive form and syntax (SOV) helps distinguish which is the subject and which is the object. For example:
Mur var kuöytanuranyt.
/mur var ˈku̯œ̯ʏtɑnorɑnʉt/
Mur var kuöyta-ur-a-yt.
1S.PAT 2S.PAT love-1S.PAT-2S-GNO
I am in love with you.
Another peculiarity of polypersonal agreement is that verbs agree with all of its arguments. Di-transitive verbs are no exception to this rule. Typically, the donor is agentive, the theme is patientive, and the recipient is dative. If the donor and the theme are both passive (group 2), then only the donor will be marked as passive in the verb. Note that benefactive constructions also count as di-transitive.
Muk śor dizon fuöykunorki.
Muk śor dizon fuöy-ku-or-k-i
/muk ɕor ˈdizɔn fu̯œ̯ʏkolɔrkɨ/
1SG.AGT 3N.PAS 3F.DAT give-1.AGT-3N.PAT-3F.DAT-PRS
I am giving it to her.
Here is a table with all the pronouns and their corresponding verbal morphemes:

Image

The first person plural distinguishes between inclusive and exclusive.

Notice the presence of three genders in the third person singular, but only two in the plural. Most Roderan dialects have merged masculine and feminine in the plural. A significant number of them also merged them in the singular, but Standard Roderan has not. Old Roderan had four genders: human masculine, human feminine, non-human animate, and non-human inanimate. The non-human forms merged into a neuter gender. Consequently, the masculine only ever refers to human males, and the feminine only ever refers to human females. Everything else, from animals, to ideas and inanimate objects, are non-human. Using non-human pronouns and inflection when referring to someone is deemed highly offensive and insulting.

Roderan verbs also inflect with tense and mood. There are three moods: indicative, subjunctive and "deontic". Each mood has different tenses. Here is an example with the verb gud, to be alive, in the first person singular. Gud is a group 2 verb and requires a patientive subject.

Image

Indicative mood
The indicative is used for affirmations and describe reality. The indicative mood has four tenses:
  • Present: used to refer to actions and states taking place in the present, in a broad sense. It is always constructed the same, with the suffix -i at the end of the verb. The indicative present is not used to talk about general or universal truths, which is the role of the gnomic.
  • Past: refers to actions and states that took place in the past, before they are described by the speaker. There are really two past tenses. One of them is the preterite, used to describe actions and states that took place in a single, punctual event; it is constructed with the suffix -z/s. The other tense is imperfect, which refers to repeated, continuous or habitual actions and states in the past. The imperfect tense is formed by means of the suffix -ur.
    Examples:
    Deg mout beredegenuz.
    Deg mout bered-ege=u-z.
    3S.M.AGT 1S.COMIT walk-3S.M.AGT=1S.COMIT-PRET
    He walked with me (once).

    Deg mout beredegenur
    Deg mout bered-ege=u=ur.
    2S.M.AGT AS.COMIT walk-3S.M.AGT=1S.COMIT=IMPFT
    He used to walk with me.
  • Future: used to refer to actions and states that will take place at some point in the future, such as plans or forecasts for which the probability is high. The subjunctive is used for hypotheses and speculation. To conjugate a verb to the future tense, one uses the suffix -kei/gei.
    Muk deid beredgudigei.
    Muk deid bered-gu-di-gei.
    1S.AGT 3S.F.COMIT walk-1S.AGT-3S.F.COMIT-IND.FUT
    I will walk with her (it is planned).
  • Gnomic: the gnomic tense is used to refer to general truths and facts. It is constructed with the suffix -yd/yt. It is important to note that the gnomic contrasts with the present tense, and some constructions require a gnomic.
    Duöyd mag keŋuanoki.
    Duöyd mag keŋua=ok-i.
    sun DEF.S.N.AGT rise-3S.N.AGT-IND.PRS
    The sun is rising (now).

    Duöyd mag keŋuanokyt.
    sun DEF.S.N.AGT rise-3S.N.AGT-GNO
    The sun rises (it always does).
    The gnomic can also be used to describe fixed, unalterable states, whereas the present tense will imply a state that will not last, or can be changed.
    Der tšyroteni.
    Der tšyro-te=i.
    3S.M.PAT die-3S.M.PAT=IND.PRS
    He is dying (he is really ill but he can still be saved).

    Der tšyrotenyt.
    Der tšyro-te=yt
    3S.M.PAT die.3S.M.PAT=GNO
    He is dead (he has already died or he cannot possibly be saved, and will die soon).
Subjunctive mood
The subjunctive plays the role of a conditional, but also serves to speculate, hypothesise, or express wishes. There are three tenses in the subjunctive mood:
  • Present: -ri. Typically used to express wishes, as in “I want him to do this” or “I wish she came over”. As such, it is also used to give polite requests.
    Mur keaitsinuri, vag beredegari cocuor.
    Mur keaitsi=ur-i, vag berede-ga-ri cocuor.
    1S.PAT want=1S.PAT-IND.PRS, 2S.AGT walk.2S.AGT-SUBJ.PRS more
    I wish you walked more or I want you to walk more (request but polite).
  • Past: used as an equivalent to a hypothetical mood with a more subjective tone. That is to say, it is used to refer to an action that happened but the speaker wish it had not. It is fairly rare and only ever used in very formal speech. It is constructed with -res/rez.
    Uo! Dižir mur keaitsitinuresere!
    Uo! Dižir mur keaitsi-ti=u-res-ere!
    Alas! 3S.F.PAT 1S.PAT want-3S.F.PAT=1S-SUBJ.PST-NEG!
    Alas! She did not want me!
  • Future: usually to refer to future actions that are potentially going to happen, but the speaker is not certain of it. It can also be used to express a wish, though the present tense is preferred for this purpose. The suffix for the subjunctive future is -röy.
    Muk deid beredegudiröy.
    Muk deid berede-gu-di-röy.
    1S.AGT 3S.F.COMIT walk-1S.AGT-3S.F.COMIT-SUBJ.FUT
    I will maybe walk with her or I might walk with her.
"Deontic" mood
The deontic mood serves various purposes. It is used to express obligation, requests, commands, duty, etc. Depending on context, the deontic mood may be translated into English with should, must, or an imperative. There is a single present tense, formed with -tuo/duo. There is no imperative in Roderan; the deontic is the only way to give orders. Formal speech warns against the use of the deontic, as it is considered too direct and impolite. The subjunctive is less direct and preferred to avoid confrontation.

For clarity, adverbs can be used in conjunction with the verb. V + “probably” will mean “should”; V + “absolutely” will mean “must”, etc. Time adverbials are the only possibility if a speaker wishes to refer to a future obligation.
Vag puańukatuo.
Vag puańu-ka-tuo.
2S.AGT go-2S.AGT-DEO
Leave! or You must leave.

Vag puańukatuo berguagaduo.
Vag puańu-ka-tuo bergua-ga-duo.
2S.AGT go-2S.AGT-DEO perhaps-2S.AGT-DEO.
Maybe you should leave.

The negation is marked on the verb with the suffix -ere.
Beh, nyk mur dzyhdonynurezere.
Beh, nuk mur dzyhdo=y=ur=rez-ere.
Well, 3P.H.AGT 1S.PAT hire-3P.H.AGT-1S.PAT-SUBJ.PST-NEG
Well, they did not hire me.
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Re: Gynzua Roderuara: the Roderan Language

Post by Evynova »

Adjectives

Inflection
Adjectives agree in gender and number with their nouns. Furthermore, it is common for some accents to also harmonise the consonants with those of the noun, though this is not frequent in formal speech, and hardly ever documented in the written form of the language. Some adjectives, however, are very commonly harmonised, and include words such as koro~goro "good", guada~kuata "tall", watsam~wadzam "broken", ...

There are two groups of adjectives, each having a different way to inflect: -o stems and -a stems, based on the last vowel of the singular non-human form. Some adjectives end in a consonant, but it is the vowel of the last syllable that is taken into account. For example, of the three adjectives cited above, koro is an -o stem, while guada and watsam are -a stem.

Here is a table with the inflection of o-stem adjectives, with the adjective gyrdo, meaning "brutal, violent, agressive".

Image

In summary:
  • -e for the masculine
  • -i for the feminine
  • -o for non-human
  • For the plural, these vowels become long (and thus diphthongued) and a plural -r is added.
As for -a stem adjectives, the inflection is slightly simpler. Here is an example with weaigaz, "impressive, breathtaking"

Image

In summary:
  • -e again for the masculine
  • -y for the feminine
  • -a for non-human
  • For the plural, -r is added without lengthening the vowels.
Note that for both -o and -a stems, if the adjective ends in a consonant, the plural -r replaces it entirely as shown in the last example.

Placement
Where adjectives are placed is variable depending on several factors. They can be found either before or after the noun. As a general rule of thumb, factual adjectives that describe reality neutrally are placed before, whereas those that express personal interpretation and subjectivity tend to be placed after the noun (as if less important).

In summary:
  • Physical description: before, except colours: after
  • Subjective interpretation; judgment: after
    Others: either. Before if shorter than the noun; after if longer than the noun
This treatment is only important if the noun is a single word. If the nominal consists of several words (such as with a quantifier), the adjective will systematically be placed after the phrase. For example:

Gyrdeir durguar = violent men
Ćiwos durgara gyrdo = a group of violent men

The adjective always agrees with the quantifier, which can create some ambiguity that can only be clarified with context. For example, "a big group of men" and "a group of big men" will both be translated as ćiwos durgara vyros.
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Re: Gynzua Roderuara: the Roderan Language

Post by Vlürch »

I really like the way the verbs work in general and in particular the deontic, and how you incorporated some cultural stuff into it that's pretty much the opposite of what would seem intuitive (at least to me). The consonant harmony is also cool, not enough conlangs make use of it; it being based on voicing is a really interesting idea, although I feel like it would probably be lost with time if there aren't any distinctly separate or "divergent" sounds that could only occur with one harmonic group and/or it didn't affect the vowels in some way. Then again, if it was considered culturally important and the speakers took pride in it like the speakers of Turkic and certain Uralic langauges take in vowel harmony, it would probably be conserved at least in the formal language, so don't take that as criticism.

Which letters represent which phonemes, though, and is the alphabet entirely phonemic?
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Re: Gynzua Roderuara: the Roderan Language

Post by Evynova »

Vlürch wrote: 06 Feb 2018 00:03 I really like the way the verbs work in general and in particular the deontic, and how you incorporated some cultural stuff into it that's pretty much the opposite of what would seem intuitive (at least to me). The consonant harmony is also cool, not enough conlangs make use of it; it being based on voicing is a really interesting idea, although I feel like it would probably be lost with time if there aren't any distinctly separate or "divergent" sounds that could only occur with one harmonic group and/or it didn't affect the vowels in some way. Then again, if it was considered culturally important and the speakers took pride in it like the speakers of Turkic and certain Uralic langauges take in vowel harmony, it would probably be conserved at least in the formal language, so don't take that as criticism.
Thank you! That's an interesting point, I'll keep that in mind when I work on Hafnjan, a sisterlang.
Vlürch wrote: 06 Feb 2018 00:03Which letters represent which phonemes, though, and is the alphabet entirely phonemic?
I forgot the romanisation; I'll do it here. I tried to make the alphabet as phonemic as possible but because of some consonant harmony stuff as well as how the vowels reduce when unstressed, there are some rules you just have to know to read properly. Those are in the first post though.
  • The consonants are:
    /p c t k/ <p c t k>
    /b ɟ d g/ <b ǵ d g>

    /p̪f ts tʃ cɕ/ <pf ts tš cś>
    /b̪v dz dʒ ɟʑ/ <bv dz dž ǵź>

    /f s ʃ ɕ/ <f s š ś>
    /v z ʒ ʑ/ <v z ž ź>

    /m n~l ɲ~ʎ ŋ~ʟ/ <m n ń ŋ>

    /r w~ɹʷ/ <r w>
  • As for the vowels:
    /a~ɑ~ə/ <a>
    /e~ɛ~ə/ <e>
    /i~e~ɨ/ <i>
    /y~ʉ~ə/ <y>
    /o~ɔ~ə/ <o>
    /u~o~ə/ <u>

    /u̯a ei̯ œ̯ʏ u̯o o̯u/ <ua ei öy uo ou>
    /e̯ai̯ u̯œ̯ʏ/ <eai uöy>
EDIT: I forgot to mention, long vowels are followed by an h. Gives it a German-ish feel and reminds of the origin of long vowels: pre-aspirated consonants.
E.G. tahta /ˈtaːtə/
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Re: Gynzua Roderuara: the Roderan Language

Post by Evynova »

Adverbs

Adverbs in Roderan are a class of inflectable words. That is to say, they will in most cases agree with the words that they refer to. They are always placed after the word that they qualify.

In the case of a verb, the adverb will agree in tense and mood with the verb, taking the same morphemes that the verb does. Essentially, the adverb conjugates alongside the verb, minus the polypersonal agreement.
Vag beredegani kefetsi.
Vag berede-ga-i kefe-ts-i
2S.AGT walk-2S.AGT-IND.PRS rare-ADV-IND.PRS

You rarely walk.

That last example also illustrates the morpheme -ts(V)-, which serves to adverbialise an adjective. The vowel indicated between parentheses is changeable and depends on the environment. If -ts- is the last morpheme of a word, or if it is followed by another morpheme that begins with a consonant, the vowel that precedes -ts- is echoed. If it is followed by another morpheme that begins with a vowel, then (V) is dropped, as in that last example. If berede had been conjugated, say, to the subjunctive past, the adverb would have inflected as such:
Vag beredegaröy kefetseröy.
2S.AGT walk-2S.AGT-SUBJ.PST rare-ADV-SUBJ.PST
If only you had rarely walked.
If the adverb qualifies an adjective, the adverb will only inflect in number, by adding the plural -r and lengthening the last vowel. As per the last example, the vowel preceding the adverbialiser -ts- is echoed.
Nyr weaigyr sunour.
Nyr weaig-yr sun-our
3P.PAT incredible-3P.F very.P

They (f) are really incredible.
In any other case, adverbs and adverbials are not inflected.
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