Lunielu

Sample Text

Hedo zw inreba ki onja ca f'a&f'esie, isj f'& srobibu. Hedo zwo ibagoa ca xyif'esiw, isj zwagoa ibo f'& kaomibu. Izegou ki t'oa ca f'yvee,

A man travelling across a field encountered a bear. He fled, the bear chasing him. Coming to a precipice,

hedo zw inreba ki onja ca f'a&f'esie, isj f'& srobibu.

hedo

inreba

onja

f'a&

-f'esi

-e

isj

f'&

srob(e)

-ibu

man

AGT

field

GEN

across

OBL

walk

-IMPF.PART

-SS

bear

PAT

meet

-PAST

A man walking across a field met a bear.

hedo zwo ibagoa ca xyif'esiw, isj zwagoa ibo f'& kaomibu.

hedo

-o

ib-agoa

xyi

-f'esi

-w

isj

-agoa

ib-o

f'&

kao

-ibu

man

AGT

-HUMAN

SG-WILD.ANIM

OBL

run

-IMPF.PART

-DS

bear

AGT

-WILD.ANIM

SG-HUMAN

PAT

chase

-PAST

The man running from it, the bear chased him .

izegou ki t'oa ca f'yvee,

izegou

t'oa

f'y

-ve

-e

precipice

GEN

up.to

OBL

-PERF.PART

-SS

Having come up to a precipice,

I. Phonology

I.1 Vowels

Practical Orthography

X-Sampa

	Front	Central	Back
High	i	w	u
Mid	e	y	o
Low	&		a

	Front	Central	Back
High	i	}	u
Mid	e	8	o
Low	{		A

I.2 Consonants

Practical Orthography

X-Sampa

	Labiodental	Dental	Apico-alv.	Lamino-alv.	Palatal	Retroflex	Velar
Vcd Plosive	b			d			g
Vcless Plosive			t'		c	tr	k
Vcd Fricative	v			z			h
Vcless Fricative	f	f'	s'	s	sj	sr	x
(Vcd) Nasal	(m)			n	nj	nr	ng

	Labiodental	Dental	Apico-alv.	Lamino-alv.	Palatal	Retroflex	Velar
Vcd Plosive	b_d			d			g
Vcless Plosive			t_m		tS or c	t`	k
Vcd Fricative	v			z_a			G
Vcless Fricative	f	T	s_m	s_a	C or S	s`	x
(Vcd) Nasal	F			n	J	n`	N

I.3 Remarks

The segment "m" is non-phonemic; that is, it never occurs underlyingly, it is only inserted to break up long sequences of vowels.
Syllable canon is (C)V. If three vowels come together, "m" is inserted after the initial pair. Symbolically: VVV -> VVmV. If necessary this will occur cyclically, (applying left-to-right.) Hence, underlying "&iw&e" would become "&imw&me".
There is a pitch accent, phrase-initially.

II. Nominal Morphology

There is no morphology, per se, on nouns. Rather, role is indicated by a role particle and number is indicated by an optional classifier occuring after the role particle.

Role Particles

Role	Particle
Agent	zw
Patient	f'&
Theme	do
Beneficiary	nje
Comitative	ve
Oblique	ca
Genitive	ki
	srava

Other Markers

Meaning	Marker
honorific	=hea

Pronouns


First-person	neutral	ice
	humilitive	trexi
	honorific	baguzea

Second-person	neutral	ano
	humilitive	nrosi
	honorific	f'evisjea

Plurality is (optionally) marked on pronouns with the enclitic "=nga". There are no third-person pronouns as such in Lunielu. The number classifiers are used for this purpose.

Nominal Classifiers

Number Markers

Classifiers

Sing	=ib-
Dual	=njew
Pauc	=oba-
Plur	=odang-

human	-o
human, honorific	-osjea
domestic. animals	-oa
wild animals/natural phenomena	-agoa
white (spirit) animals	-ui
plants	-alia
unit of measure	-exona
time/distance/measure	-eci
round	-agoe
long	-agilo
flat	-iebo
liquid	-ynry
powder	-yf'&

These nominal classifiers are of the form "number-classifier". They are placed immediately after the role particle. In general, they are optional.

III. Verbal Morphology

Verbs are marked by: Verb - (Verbal#) - TAM - (Person)

Verbal Number Markers


Repetitive	-ais'o
Continuative	-iede
En Masse	-o&bu

Verb Person

Participle Person


First	-u
Second	-anri


Same	-e
Different	-w

Tense/Aspect/Mood (TAM) Markers

Positive

Negative

Past	-ibu
Nonpast	-anra
Imperative	-o
Infinitive	-by
Perfective Participle	-ve
Imperfective Participle	-f'esi

Past	-ibusjo
Nonpast	-anrasjo
Imperative	-ofo
Infinitive	-sjoby
Perfective Participle	-sjove
Imperfective Participle	-sjyf'i

IV. Syntax

Basic SOV word order, with a Modifier-Head order.
A typical declarative sentence would have the form: "SUBJECT_NP OBJECT_NP VERB."
A sample NP is: "MODIF N (#) ROLE_PART". The modifier might be a genitive NP, in which case we'd get "GEN_NP ki N (#) ROLE_PART".

V. Examples

ice (=nga) ki odysjo zw (njeumoa) nige f'& iefu ca kaomibu. My (our) (two) dog(s) chased a cat into a tree.
ice ki odysjo zw nigef'& iefuca kaomais'oibu. My dog kept chasing a cat into a tree.
ibo=nga ki odysjo zw nigef'& iefuca kaomais'oibusjo. Their dog never chased cats into trees.

VI. Sample Lexicon

Nouns

hedo: man
xelo: woman
inreba: field
izegou: cliff/precipice
odysjo: dog
nige: cat
isj: bear
tr&le: squirrel
dozo: rat
f'e: mouse
uimelo: spirit/milk
iexani: spirit/white cat
iedy: spirit/white dog
ielesj: spirit/white bear
iexal&: spirit/white squirrel
iexado: spirit/white rat
ilexaf'e: spirit/white mouse
iefu: tree
sjaeco: coffee

"Prepositional" Nominals

onja: across, over/atop
t'oa: up to/at the edge of
cea: into/inside

Verbs are given in infinitival form (remove -by to get verb stem.) Evenescent vowels are underlined

Verbs

kaoby: chase
srobeby: meet/encounter
xyiby: run
f'a&by: walk
f'yby: go/do/be

Main Conlang Page

Apollo Hogan, Berkeley, California, USA