Proto-Œkhen language

nose - honœkhar, person - duujuj, stone - gwoof, elephant - gledus, language/tongue - œkhen, head - œkhee

Vowels
Note: long vowels are indicated by doubling the vowel. Note 2: /ø/ is written œ

Consonants
Note: labialised plosives are written with a w following (ie tw, dw, kw, gw)

Phonotactics
(C)(C)V(ː)(C)

C = any consonant V = any short vowel Vː = any long vowel

Plosives, /ç/, and /h/ may not appear in a syllabic coda. No coda is allowed if the following syllable begins with a /r/. Two different vowels may not appear adjacent to each other.

Stress normally falls on the first syllable, or the first syllable of the root word in case of added prefixes.

Noun Cases
Proto-Œkhen makes use of six cases, demonstrated below.

Noun Declension
There are four noun classes in Proto-Œkhen, Animal (including humans), Spiritual (including ideas and natural forces) Vegetal (including foods), and Mineral (including most inanimate objects).

The vowels in brackets are only added if the root ends in a consonant.

Number
In the Animal and Spiritual classes, the plural is marked by reduplicating the final vowel and placing an l between the new vowel and the original, if the root's final vowel is its final letter. The dual is marked similarly, but with a k in stead of an l. Number is not marked in the Vegetal and Mineral classes.

Verbs
The vast majority of verbs end in a short rounded vowel (ie y, œ, o, or u). Proto-Œkhen verbs are primarily modified by particles, which are ultimately totally optional. The only required verbal inflection in Proto-Œkhen is for verbs of motion.

The vowels added in eintrefall, ausfall, and unterfall are determined with the table below.

Verb Particles
There are several bound and unbound particles that modify various features of a verb phrase. ("Bound" and "unbound" in this article refer to the freedom of position the particle has with respect to the verb it modifies, ie bound particles must appear either before or after the verb, as dictated by the category of particle, but unbound particles may appear before or after.) The generally assumed version of each category is marked with †.

Tense
Tense particles are unbounded, meaning that they need only appear immediately adjacent to the verb they modify. "eeli ditru baj" and "eeli baj ditru" are equally valid constructions for the phrase "a/the horse will walk".
 * Distant Past - spola
 * Today Past - ehes
 * Present/Habitual† - βii
 * Future - baj

Aspect
Aspect particles are bounded to the front of the verb. Stress still falls on the first syllable of the verb proper.
 * Habitual (the action described occurs frequently, but no particular instance is under consideration) - ku-
 * Imperfective† (only a portion of the action is being considered, the action extends beyond the tense boundaries) - ynde-
 * Perfective (the action of the verb exists in its entirety within the tense boundary) - ten-

Evidentiality
Evidential particles are unbounded.
 * Direct Evidence† - faa
 * Inferential (the speaker saw circumstantial evidence) - dʷidet
 * Hearsay - ʒœr
 * Imagined/Dreamed - hined

Mood
Mood particles are bounded to the end of the verb.
 * Conditional - -fiinge
 * Imperative - -sa
 * Subjunctive (used in dependent clauses and negatives, and with the perfective aspect to form the future tense) - -der

Substantive Prefixes
Six prefixes may be added to verbs to form substantives based on factors involved in the verb, as follows.

These can be combined with any of the above verb particles, as well as nouns and pronouns, to substantivise more complex verb phrases. For example:

Relative Clauses
These are also used in relative clauses, with the relative particle afees. For example:


 * Duujuj afees spola ankro ʒaa - person RELATIVE DIST.PAST ACC-kill 1s - the person who I killed.

Personal and Demonstrative Pronouns
NOTE: "Inanimate" refers to the grouping of Vegetal and Mineral classes, while "animate" refers to the grouping of Animal and Spiritual.

Substantive prefix ma- and kazi- may be added to the inanimate pronouns to form "in this/that manner", and "here/there".

Interrogative Pronouns
Interrogative clauses are formed using verbs affixed by the substantive prefixes described above, along with the interrogative particle avi. For example:


 * Ankro ehes avi? - ACC-kill PAST IRGV - Who was killed?


 * Fini kazidiβotru baj avi? - 1pl.IDC LOC-walk.EIN FUTR IRGV - Whither will we walk?


 * Dwaaj mahevmy avi? - 3sn.DIST.NOM GEN-speak IRGV - How did he speak? (ie using which language did he speak?)

When there is no verb to assign a substantive prefix to, and also when the verb can be inferred, the verb can be elided and the prefix can be bound directly to the interrogative particle. For example, the second line in this short conversation:


 * A: Tu noβojsœ kaziistee - He ran out of here.
 * B: Bidavi? - Who [ran out of here]?