Proto-Œkhen language

Proto-Œkhen
Region	Originalia
Language family	Proto-Œkhen
Proto-Œkhen

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

Phonology

Vowels

	Front	Back
High	i iː y y:	u uː
Mid-High	e e: ø ø:	o oː
Low	a aː

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

Consonants

	Bilabial	Labiodental	Dental	Post-Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	p b		t tʷ d dʷ			k kʷ g gʷ
Fricative		f v	s z	ʃ ʒ	ç		h
Nasal	m		n			(ŋ)
Tap or flap			r
Approximant	β		l		j

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.

Grammar

Nouns

Noun Cases

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

Nominative	Agent of stative verbs, and transitive and intransitive verbs where the patient is something other than the agent (eg the boy hit the girl), lexical form	isabel	a daughter
Accusative	Patient of verbs where the agent is something other than the patient	isabelis	a daughter
Inducive	Indicates alienable possessor, agent of verbs where the patient and agent are the same being (eg the boy jumped)	isabeli	a daughter's (eg apple)
Genitive	Indicates an inalienable possessor, also used to indicate the means or instrument used, indirect object	isabelen	a daughter's (eg arm), (eg city) of a daughter, via a daughter
Locative	Indicates position on or inside of (depending on surrounding modifiers)	isabeleny	on/in a daughter
Vocative	Indicates the person or object being addressed	isabelo	daughter!

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).

	Animal	Spiritual	Mineral	Vegetal
NOMINATIVE	--	-u	-e	--
ACCUSATIVE	-(i)s	-(o)si	-(e)m
INDUCIVE	-(i)	-u	-am	-(a)v
GENITIVE	-(e)n		-en
LOCATIVE	-(e)ny		-eni	-ene
VOCATIVE	-o			-u

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.

Singular	isabel - daughter	eeli - horse
Dual	isabele - two daughters	eeliki - two horses
Plural	isabele - daughters	eelili - horses

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.

Standard Gefall	eeli ditru	a/the horse walks
Uberfall	eeli diitru	a/the horse walks across (object in locative)
Eintrefall	eeli diβotru	a/the horse walks in(to) (object in locative)
Ausfall	eeli noditru	a/the horse walks out (of) (object in locative)
Obenfall	eeli ditruus	a/the horse walks over/above (object in genitive)
Unterfall	eeli ditroos	a/the horse walks below/under (object in genitive)

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

When the final vowel is...	The affixed vowel is...
y	i
u	o
œ	e
o	a

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.

Nominative	çy-	that which Xs (when agent and patient are different)	çykro	a/the person that kills
Accusative	an-	That which is Xed	anhevmy	what is spoken (ie a speech)
Inducive	bidi-	that which Xs (when agent and patient are the same)	bididitru	a/the thing that walks
Genitive	ma-	instrument used to perform a specific action, or the indirect object	mamejœ	to whom/what something is given OR by what means something is given
Locative	kazi-	where something occurs	kaziheritsu	place of eating

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.

Pronouns

Personal and Demonstrative Pronouns

Person	First	Second	Third Animate		Third Inanimate
			Proximal	Distal	Proximal	Distal
Nominative	fee	ma	lika	dwaaj	istee	harma
Accusative	fekwa	meβe	reegsa	dvas	isese	haalma
Inducive	fin	ma	ele	tu	ysta	ataz
Genitive	vœz	baan	arii	tuu	iizden	hetsam
Locative	fyky	mahœ	el	dwany	istœœ	aham
Vocative	we	oma	yka	dwaaj	isteste	halalam

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]?