Vag^wvil

Sample Text

I. Phonology

I.1 Vowels

Practical Orthography

X-Sampa

	Front	Back
High	i (io)	(ue) u
Mid	e (eo)	(oe) o
Low	a

	Front	Back
High	i (y)	(M) u
Mid	e (9)	(7) o
Low	6

I.2 Consonants

Practical Orthography

X-Sampa

	Labiodental	Alveolar	Velar	Velar (Labialized)
Vcd Plosive		d	g	g^w
Vcless Plosive		t	k	k^w
Vcd Fric.	v	z
Vcless Fric.	f	s	x	x^w
Nasal	m	n	n^g	n^w
Liquid		l	r
Glide	w		j

	Labiodental	Alveolar	Velar	Velar (Labialized)
Vcd Plosive		d	g	g_w
Vcless Plosive		t	k	k_w
Vcd Fric.	v	z
Vcless Fric.	f	s	x	x_w
Nasal	m	n	N	N_w
Liquid		l	r
Glide	w		j

I.3 Remarks

The segment "io eo ue oe" never occur underlyingly; they arise only through phonetic rules in certain dialects.
Vowels may be short or long (indicated with a colon ":").
Syllable canon is Onset-Nucleus-Coda; Onset is C, FK, FL, KL or empty; Nucleus is V, V:, VJ, or JV; Coda is C, LK, FK, KF, LKF, or empty.
V=/i e a o u io eo oe ue/, C=//, K=/t k k^w d g g^w/, F=/f s x x^w v z/, L=/m n n^g n^w l r/, J=/w j/,

II. Root Shapes, Misc.

Nouns: "XVX.XV." for animate nouns, and "XVX.XVC." for inanimates. The root final vowel must be one of "i e u o".
Verbs: "V.XVX."
Adjectives: anything ending with "a"
Prepositions: "(V)X"

Basic Prepositions


With	om
To	ind
From	ek
At	ast
In	il
On	af
Across	ev

III. Nominal Morphology

Nouns are marked by: Noun - (#) - Case - Rootvowel

Case Markers

Nom	-
Acc	-ax
Dat	-iv
Gen	-ug^w
Voc	-go

Number Markers

Sing	-l-
Dual	-k^wel-
Plur	-n^g-
Major Plur	-n^gud-

Articles

Def	sni
Indef	umu

Noun-noun compounding is common.
Number is only indicated on animate nouns: there is no grammatical number distinguished for inanimate nouns.
Definite/Indefinite articles are placed before the head noun in noun-phrases.
Adjectives are marked for case and for singular/plural (dual and major plural are marked as simple plural on adjectives.)
Adjectives can be formed from verb or noun roots by appending "-(V)da". (For inanimate nouns, the root vowel is used for V.) For example, from "rewox(a)" (field), we can form "rewoxada" (like a field/as a field/fieldly/for a field/etc.).

IV. Verbal Morphology

Verbs are marked by: (Preverbal) - Verb - Tense - Person

Preverbals

Negative	g^w - r -
Narrative	fl - l -
(prepositions)	-

The preverbal markers are more like combined prefix/infixes: they surround the verb-initial vowel.

Tense Markers

Present	-s-
Habitual	-n^wa-
Past	-l-
Future	-x^wi-
Subjunctive	-vu-
Gerundive	-iza-

Continuous: "go V-gerundive"
Passive: "be V-gerundive"

Person Markers

	Singular	Dual	Plural
First	-lu	-la	-li
Second	-fu	-fa	-fi
Third	-mu	-ma	-mi
Fourth	-k^we

IV. Syntax

Basic SVO word order.

V. Examples

umu k^walgolo ikmlu evikiza sni rewoxaxa. A man was crossing the field. (/INDEF man-SING-(NOM)-RV go-PAST-3S across-go-GERUND DEF field-ACC-RV/, notice the metathesis on "ikmlu" and the occurrences of the root vowels (RV).)
g^wirkx^wilu. I will not go.
g^wirlindikflu. You didn't enter.
. .

VI. Dialects

Low

This is the most common dialect, described above.

Rider

Rider dialect has the following differences in pronunciation:

{u,o}{g^w, k^w, x^w, n^w} > {ue,oe}{g, k, x, n^g}
{g^w, k^w, x^w, n^w}{i, e} > {g, k, x, n^g}{io, eo}
{g^w, k^w, x^w, n^w}{u, o} > {g, k, x, n^g}{u, o}
{g^w, k^w, x^w, n^w}a > {b, p, f, m}{a}
{l, r} > {j, _} syllable finally

Examples:

g^wirkxilu is pronounced /giokxiolu/ (I won't go.)
ogvuk^we is pronounced /ogvuekeo/ ((S)he'd see.)
k^walgolo is pronounced /pajgolo/ (a man)

VII. Sample Lexicon

Nouns

The "root vowel" is indicated in parentheses.

k^walgo(o): man
rewox(a): field

Verbs

og: see
ik: go
astik: arrive
ilindik: enter
ul: be
abom: drink/eat
ozag: place
ekozag: open
indozag: close

Main Conlang Page

Apollo Hogan, Berkeley, California, USA

Vagwvil