Kair Lymèh (/kair ljmɛh/)

Natively known as: Kair Lymèh /kair ljmɛh/ (River Tongue)

  ...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
ta lo duur bèè röt bugèng ta iln röt kiing kur kên geem
Pronunciation: /ta lo dʊːr bɛː rœt buˈgɛŋ ta iln rœt kiːŋ kur kɜn geːm/
Voryrish word order: and he stood holding hat his and turned his face wet to the wind  

Spelling & Phonology

  Consonant inventory: b d f g h j k l m n r s t v w ŋ ʒ  

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m		n			ŋ
Stop	b		t d			k g
Fricative		f v	s	ʒ			h
Approximant					j
Trill			r
Lateral approximant			l

  Co-articulated phonemes  

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

  Vowel inventory: a aː e eː i iː i̯a o u uː y œ ɐ ɛ ɛː ɜ ʊ ʊː ʊˑ   Diphthongs: i̯a  

	Front	Central	Back
High	i iː y		u uː
Near-high			ʊ ʊː ʊˑ
High-mid	e eː		o
Low-mid	ɛ ɛː œ	ɜ
Near-low		ɐ
Low	a aː

  Syllable structure: Custom defined
Stress pattern: No fixed stress   Spelling rules:  

Pronunciation	Spelling
y	ü
j	y
ʒ	z
ŋ	ng
iː	ii
aː	aa
ɜ	ê
eː	ee
uː	uu
ɛː	èè
ɛ	è
i̯a	ia
œ	ö
ɐ	à
ʊː	uu
ʊˑ	uh
ʊ	u

 

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Grammar

  Main word order: Subject Verb Object (Prepositional phrase). “Mary opened the door with a key” turns into Mary opened the door with a key.
Adjective order: Adjectives are positioned undefined the noun.
Adposition: prepositions  

Nouns

 

Singular

No affix nia /ni̯a/ dog

If ends with vowel: Suffix -ri Else: Suffix -i niari /ni̯ari/ dogs

   

Articles

 

Definite	tèln /tɛln/ the
Indefinite	nà /nɐ/ a, some

  Uses of definite article that differ from English:

• Definite article can be omitted: ‘I am going to supermarket’
• Not used for mass (uncountable) nouns: ‘Walking in the mud’ would always translate to ‘Walking in mud’.
• Used for personal names in third person: ‘The Maria has left for school’
• Used for languages: ‘The English’
• Used with place names: ‘The London’

  Uses of indefinite article that differ from English:

• Not used for non-specific countable nouns: non-specific means ‘I am looking for a (any) girl in a red dress’, whereas specific means ‘I am looking for a (particular) girl in a red dress’

 

Pronouns

 

1st singular	lymè /ljmɛ/ I, me, mine
2nd singular	kin /kin/ you, yours
3rd singular	lo /lo/ he, she, him, her, his, hers, it, its
1st plural	lis /lis/ we, us, ours
2nd plural	vyia /vji̯a/ you all, yours (pl)
3rd plural	füh /fyh/ they, them, theirs

 

Possessive determiners

 

1st singular	nymas /njmas/ my
2nd singular	nê /nɜ/ your
3rd singular	röt /rœt/ his, her, its
1st plural	nymu /njmu/ our
2nd plural	lè /lɛ/ your (pl)
3rd plural	nos /nos/ their

 

Verbs

 

	1st person	2nd person	3rd person
Present	If starts with vowel: Prefix ɛv- Else: Prefix ɛvaː- èvaavasia /ɛˈvaːvaˌsi̯a/ (I/we) learn	If starts with vowel: Prefix vj- Else: Prefix vju- vyuvasia /vjuˈvasi̯a/ (you/you all) learn	Prefix ba- bavasia /bavaˈsi̯a/ (he/she/it/they) learn
Past	Prefix maː- maavasia /maːvaˈsi̯a/ (I/we) learned	If starts with vowel: Prefix fl- Else: Prefix flɛ- flèvasia /flɛvaˈsi̯a/ (you/you all) learned	Prefix ka- kavasia /kavaˈsi̯a/ (he/she/it/they) learned
Remote past	Prefix nʊˑ- nuhvasia /nʊˑˈvasi̯a/ (I/we) learned (long ago)	Prefix ɛː- èèvasia /ɛːˈvasi̯a/ (you/you all) learned (long ago)	If starts with vowel: Prefix vj- Else: Prefix vjeː- vyeevasia /vjeːˈvasi̯a/ (he/she/it/they) learned (long ago)
Future	If starts with vowel: Prefix t- Else: Prefix ti- tivasia /tiˈvasi̯a/ (I/we) will learn	If starts with vowel: Prefix ʒ- Else: Prefix ʒi- zivasia /ʒivaˈsi̯a/ (you/you all) will learn	Prefix e- evasia /evaˈsi̯a/ (he/she/it/they) will learn

 

Progressive aspect

  The ‘progressive’ aspect refers to actions that are happening at the time of speaking, such as I am learning.
Kair Lymèh uses a standalone particle for progressive:  

Progressive

Particle before the verb: vja- vya vasia /vja ˈvasi̯a/ is learning

 

Perfect aspect

  The perfect aspect in English is exemplified in ‘I have read this book’, which expresses an event that took place before the time spoken but which has an effect on or is in some way still relevant to the present.   Kair Lymèh uses the word for ‘finish’ tee (/teː/) for the perfect aspect.  

Habitual aspect

  The ‘habitual’ aspect refers to actions that happen habitually, such as I learn (something new every day), as opposed to actions that happen once (I learned something).
Kair Lymèh uses a standalone particle word for habitual:

Habitual

Particle before the verb: tys - tüs vasia /tys ˈvasi̯a/ learns

 

Numbers

  Kair Lymèh has a base-10 number system:   1 - lymii
2 - nuhn
3 - ê
4 - it
5 - yuun
6 - bü
7 - not
8 - taa
9 - kafee
10 - rüh
Hundred - maaln
Thousand - naal  

Derivational morphology

  Adjective → adverb = Prefix aː-
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Prefix feː-
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix d-
Else: Prefix dœ-
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Prefix ji-
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = If starts with vowel: Prefix njm-
Else: Prefix njmʊˑ-
Noun to verb = Prefix bœ-
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Prefix eː-
Tending to = Prefix da-
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Prefix njmʊ-
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = If starts with vowel: Prefix g-
Else: Prefix gʊ-
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = If starts with vowel: Prefix vjs-
Else: Prefix vjsaː-
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Prefix e-
Diminutive = If starts with vowel: Prefix g-
Else: Prefix gu-
Augmentative = If starts with vowel: Prefix iːg-
Else: Prefix iːgʊ-