Elvish

Natively known as: léfmul /ˈlɛfmul/

  ...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
zhøŕ mé vawr̂ tøgl mé zhawyûk zhøŕ shûsliim mé lak ûŕ moŕ nii
Pronunciation: /ɮør mɛ vɔʁ tøʟ mɛ ˈɮɔjyk ɮør ˈʃysliːm mɛ lak yr mor niː/
Léfmulish word order: and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face the wind to  

Spelling & Phonology

  Consonant inventory: b d f g j k l m n p r s t v w ɠ ɮ ɲ ɹ ʀ ʁ ʃ ʟ ʤ

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular
Nasal	m		n		ɲ
Stop	p b		t d			k g
Implosive						ɠ
Affricate				ʤ
Fricative		f v	s	ʃ			ʁ
Approximant			ɹ		j
Trill			r				ʀ
Lateral fricative			ɮ
Lateral approximant			l			ʟ

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

Vowel inventory: a e i iː o u y ø œ ɔ ɛ ɜ

	Front	Central	Back
High	iː i y		u
High-mid	e ø		o
Low-mid	ɛ œ	ɜ	ɔ
Low	a

Syllable structure: (C)V(C) ?
Stress pattern: Penultimate — stress is on the second last syllable ?   Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
ɛ	é
ɜ	ú
ɔ	aw
y	û
r	ŕ
ɹ	r
ɮ	zh
j	y
ʃ	sh
ʁ	r̂
ʀ	r̊
ʤ	j
ɠ	g’
ʟ	gl
ɲ	ny
Vː	VV

 

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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 before the noun.
Adposition: postpositions   

Nouns

	Singular	Plural
Definite	No affix lawga /ˈlawga/ the dog	Prefix ɲiː- nyiilawga /ɲiːˈlawga/ the dogs
Indefinite	If starts with vowel: Prefix iːʤr- Else: Prefix iːʤriː- iijŕiilawga /ˌiːʤriːˈlawga/ a dog	If starts with vowel: Prefix t- Else: Prefix tœ- tœlawga /tœˈlawga/ some dogs

 

Articles

  Léfmulish encodes definite article ‘the’, and indefinite article ‘a’ in noun affixes. See Noun section.
 

Pronouns

1st singular	jar̂ /ʤaʁ/ I, me, mine
2nd singular	lawm /lɔm/ you, yours
3rd singular masc	mé /mɛ/ he, him, his, it (masc), its (masc)
3rd singular fem	mu /mu/ she, her, hers, it (fem), its (fem)
1st plural	ta /ta/ we, us, ours
2nd plural	gé /gɛ/ you all, yours (pl)
3rd plural	vû /vy/ they, them, theirs

 

Possessive determiners

	Possessive
1st singular	jar̂ /ʤaʁ/ my
2nd singular	lawm /lɔm/ your
3rd singular masc	mé /mɛ/ his
3rd singular fem	mu /mu/ her
1st plural	ta /ta/ our
2nd plural	gé /gɛ/ your (pl)
3rd plural	vû /vy/ their

 

Verbs

	Future
1st singular	Prefix o- og’el /ˈoɠel/ (I) will learn
2nd singular	If starts with vowel: Prefix t- Else: Prefix ti- tig’el /ˈtiɠel/ (you) will learn
3rd singular	Prefix i- ig’el /ˈiɠel/ (he/she/it) will learn
1st plural	If starts with vowel: Prefix b- Else: Prefix biː- biig’el /ˈbiːɠel/ (we) will learn
2nd plural	If starts with vowel: Prefix ɲ- Else: Prefix ɲɜ- nyúg’el /ˈɲɜɠel/ (you all) will learn
3rd plural	Prefix ɜ- úg’el /ˈɜɠel/ (they) will learn

Léfmulish uses a standalone particle word for past tense:

Past	Particle before the verb: ɲiː - nyii g’el /ɲiː ɠel/ learned

 

Progressive aspect

  The ‘progressive’ aspect refers to actions that are happening at the time of speaking, such as I am learning.
Léfmulish uses an affix for progressive:

Progressive

If starts with vowel: Prefix p- Else: Prefix piː- piig’el /ˈpiːɠel/ is learning

 

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).
Léfmulish uses a standalone particle word for habitual:

Habitual

Particle before the verb: ro - ŕo g’el /ro ɠel/ learns

 

Numbers

  Léfmulish has a base-10 number system:   1 - ŕœ
2 - juv
3 - bii
4 - zhú
5 - ŕom
6 - mûŕ
7 - pœzh
8 - jii
9 - ûpûm
10 - biigl
100 - ŕû
1000 - g’œ
 

Derivational morphology

  Adjective → adverb = Suffix -aʁ
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -bra
Else: Suffix -iːbra
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -k
Else: Suffix -œk
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Prefix u-
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = If starts with vowel: Prefix ʟ-
Else: Prefix ʟu-
Noun to verb = Prefix ɠiː-
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -nn:
Else: Suffix -inn
Tending to = Suffix -i
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Prefix a-
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Prefix nɛ-
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Suffix -a
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Suffix -ɔ
Diminutive = If ends with vowel: Suffix -tiː
Else: Suffix -œtiː
Augmentative = Prefix pɛ-
Noun → Verb = Suffix -un, if ends with vowel -jun   Each tribe has their own dialect, but all are based on the same initial language