Tenwälamï

Tenwälamï was the language of the Eltiri of Tenwä until the First Age began and their people began to divide and migrate. It remains the oldest known ancestor of all of the northern languages.

The Eltiri of old practiced magic by weaving words into spells and calling power either from the nature around them, or from Below (often referred to in spells as the "chasm" or "crack" which lies beneath the waking world).

Phonology

Consonants

	Bilabial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Nasal	m ⟨m⟩	n ⟨n⟩	(nʲ ⟨n⟩) (ŋʲ ⟨ŋ⟩)	ŋ ⟨ŋ⟩
Plosive	p ⟨p⟩ b ⟨b⟩	t ⟨t⟩ d ⟨d⟩	(tʲ ⟨t⟩) (dʲ ⟨d⟩) (kʲ ⟨k⟩) (gʲ ⟨g⟩)	k ⟨k⟩ g ⟨g⟩
Fricative		s ⟨s⟩	(sʲ ⟨s⟩)
Approximant	w ⟨w⟩	l ⟨l⟩	(lʲ ⟨l⟩) j ⟨j⟩
Trill		r ⟨r⟩	(rʲ ⟨r⟩)

(allophones in parentheses, graphemes in angle brackets)

Tenwälamï had 13 individual phonemes (bolded above) in addition to featuring palatalization of alveolar and velar consonants in certain environments.

Voiced plosives only appeared in the context of consonant gradation, where they replaced short, voiceless stops.

Palatalization

Palatalization of alveolars and velars occurred before i, e and j, and remained unmarked due to its predictability and consistency.

Gradation

Consonant gradation, which mainly affected the voiceless consonants (p, t, k, s), occurred in the onsets of closed syllables. Consonants were shortened if geminate, and plosives (p, t, k) lenited into their voiced counterparts (b, d, g) when short.

Gradation occurred most commonly when inflecting nouns and verbs, and occasionally during the derivation of new words.

Strong	Weak
pp	p
tt	t
kk	k
ss	s
p	b
t	d
k	g

Vowels

	Front	Back
High	i ⟨i⟩ y ⟨ü⟩	ɯ ⟨ï⟩ u ⟨u⟩
Mid	e ⟨e⟩ ø ⟨ö⟩	ɤ ⟨ë⟩ o ⟨o⟩
Low	æ ⟨ä⟩	ɑ ⟨a⟩

Tenwälamï featured 10 vowels with a front-back vowel harmony and no neutral vowels. No long vowels or diphthongs as such existed, however vowels and semivowels j and w could form pairs akin to diphthongs.

Morphology

Nouns

Tenwälamï nouns declined in eigth cases and three numbers. Roots were commonly two syllables and always ended with a vowel. Number suffixes were followed by case and finally a possible possessive suffix, used mostly in the construction of possession with the genitive case.

	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	-	-tä/ta	-ji/jï
Accusative	-ŋ	-däŋ/daŋ	-jeŋ/jëŋ
Genitive	-mi/mï	-tämi/tamï	-jimi/jïmï
Locative	-sä/sa	-täsä/tasa	-jisä/jïsa
Ablative	-li/lï	-täli/talï	-jili/jïlï
Lative	-len/lën	-tälen/talën	-jilen/jïlën
Prolative	-gäl/gal	-tägäl/tagal	-jigäl/jïgal
Comitative	-nön/non	-tänön/tanon	-jinön/jïnon

Number

The three numbers nouns declined in were the singular, dual and plural. Of these, the singular was unmarked, whereas the dual and plural numbers were marked with suffixes -tä/ta and -ji/jï, respectively.

Singular

The unmarked singular number denoted a singular instance of a noun.

Dual

The dual number was used when there were exactly two of a noun. It was often used when talking about things which naturally came in pairs.

Plural

Plural number could be used when there were many of a noun, but also when the number remained uncertain or irrelevant.

nirä "a fox"
lowtï "a lake"
sana "a name"

lemnätä, "two groves"
anjata "(one) pair of wings"
ümetä "(one) pair of eyes"

alajï "waters"
lowtëjï "lakes"
küreji "smokes"

Case

There were overall eight cases in Tenwälamï, with all but the unmarked nominative case marked with suffixes.

Nominative

The nominative case, unmarked in the singular number, denoted the main subject or agent of a noun or verb phrase.

Accusative

The accusative case, marked with the suffix -ŋ, denoted the direct object of a transitive verb phrase.

Genitive

The genitive case, marked with the suffix
-mi/mï, denoted the possessor or origin of a noun and was often used with possessive suffixes.

Locative

The locative case, marked with the suffix
-sa/sä, roughly corresponded to prepositions in, on, at and by.

Ablative

The ablative case, marked with the suffix -li/lï, roughly corresponded to prepositions
(away) from or out of, and generally marked movement out of or away from the noun.

Lative

The lative case, marked with the suffix
-len/lën, was the opposite of the ablative and denoted movement toward or into the noun instead.

Prolative

The prolative case, marked with the suffix
-gal/gäl, denoted movement through something.

Comitative

The comitative case, marked with the suffix
-non/nön, roughly corresponded to with or in company of.

Pronouns

Tenwälamï had pronouns corresponding to first, second and third person, all of which inflected akin to any other noun.

	Singular	Dual	Plural	Possessive Suffix
First Person	nïna	nïta	najï	-ni/nï
Second Person	sïna	sïta	sajï	-si/sï
Third Person	pïna	pïta	pajï	-pi/pï

The possessive suffixes were used to mark something as the belonging of another noun and were often paired with the genitive case, which marked the possessor in question.

The use of the third person possessive suffix -pi/pï seemed optional and was sometimes omitted, instead relying completely on the genitive.

First and second person pronouns could leave out the possessor completely and rely instead purely on the possessive suffixes -ni/nï and -si/sï.

(nïnamï) tarïnï "my tree"

(sïnamï) tarïsi "your tree"

nirämi tarï(pï) "fox's tree"

Adjectives

Tenwälamï adjectives differentiated between attributive and independent adjectives. When used as an attribute or modifier of a noun, it would take the suffix -t (likely a vestige of an old genitive or other possession-related marker). When used independently, however, no such suffix was required.

jëksat nirä "black fox" (attributive)
nirä jëksa anpï "the fox is black" (independent)

ejrilti elni "icy hill" (attributive)
elni ejril anpï "the hill is icy" (independent)

Verbs

Verbs inflected in tense, aspect and person through strong agglutination. Person marking was identical to the possessive suffixes described above. When negating, the person suffix was attached to a negative auxiliary verb instead of the head verb.

	Stem	Tense	(Aspect)	Person	(Negation)
alsanï, "I say"	als-	-a-		-nï
malëntëpï, "he/she had died"	mal-	-ë-	-ntë	-pï
olmëbën lüsi "you are not sleeping"	olm-	-ë-	-bën		lü-si

Tense and Aspect

	Simple	Perfect	Imperfect
Nonpast	simple present	present perfect	present imperfect
Past	simple past	past perfect	past imperfect

A-stems (stems ending in -ä/a) rose to -e/ë in the past tense, while E-stems (stems ending in -e/ë) rose to -i/ï in the same.

The perfect aspect was marked with the suffix -nte/ntë-, and the imperfect with -ben/bën-. Tense and aspect, for the most part, could be freely mixed.

A-stems

	First Person	Second Person	Third Person
Simple Nonpast	-äni/anï	-äsi/asï	-äpi/apï
Nonpast Perfect	-änteni/antënï	-äntesi/antësï	-äntepi/antëpï
Nonpast Imperfect	-äbenni/abënnï	-äbensi/abënsï	-äbenpi/abënpï
Simple Past	-eni/ënï	-esi/ësï	-epi/ëpï
Past Perfect	-enteni/ëntënï	-entesi/ëntësï	-entepi/ëntëpï
Past Imperfect	-ebenni/ëbënnï	-ebensi/ëbënsi	-ebenpi/ëbënpï

E-stems

	First Person	Second Person	Third Person
Simple Nonpast	-eni/ënï	-esi/ësï	-epi/ëpï
Nonpast Perfect	-enteni/ëntënï	-entesi/ëntësï	-entepi/ëntëpï
Nonpast Imperfect	-ebenni/ëbënnï	-ebensi/ëbënsï	-ebenpi/ëbënpï
Simple Past	-ini/ïnï	-isi/ïsï	-ipi/ïpï
Past Perfect	-inteni/ïntënï	-intesi/ïntësï	-intepi/ïntëpï
Past Imperfect	-ibenni/ïbënnï	-ibensi/ïbënsi	-ibenpi/ïbënpï

Conditional

The conditional mood was one attested to have existed in Tenwälamï, marked with the suffix -las to the head verb. Conditional mood could not appear with an aspect marking, and did in effect take the same position.

	First Person	Second Person	Third Person	Translation
Nonpast	olmëlasnï	olmëlassï	olmelaspï	"would sleep"
Past	olmïlasnï	olmïlassï	olmïlaspï	"would have slept"

Nonfinites

The most common and basic infinitive form was marked with the suffix -li/li. A shorter version of the suffix (-l) could be used in conjunction with locative cases to create other nonfinite forms.

	Case Suffix	Nonfinite Form	Meaning
Locative	-sä/sa	olmëlsa	"while sleeping"
Ablative	-li/lï	olmëllï	"from sleep(ing)"
Lative	-len/lën	olmëllën	"(in)to sleep(ing)"
Prolative	-gäl/gal	olmëlgal	"through sleep(ing)"
Comitative	-nön/non	olmëlnon	"with sleep(ing)"

Tenwälamï also had four participles, divided by state of completion (perfect and imperfect) as well as voice (active and passive). Tense was only marked when constructing passive sentences.

	Active	Passive
Perfect	-nti/ntï	-lünti/luntï
Imperfect	-ben/bën	-lüben/lubën

atrëbën tarï "a falling tree"
atrëntï tarï "a fallen tree"
atrëlubën tarï "a tree that is (being) felled"
atrëluntï tarï "a felled tree"

Syntax

Though in practice Tenwälamï's word order was quite free, SOV was the expected word order for most situations. When first or second person pronoun was the subject, including a separate pronoun was optional and often left out in regular speech.

To construct passive sentences, passive participles were used in an otherwise normal noun phrase with the an- copula.

Nonverbal Clauses

Most noun phrases were constructed with a liberate use of the an- copula.

nirä jëksa anpï "the fox is black"
jëksat nirä majïmï anpï "the black fox is ours"
najïmï jëksat nirä lemnäsä anpï "our black fox is in the forest"

Verbal Clauses

Indirect object preceded the direct object in sentences with multiple objects.

lenwä mowrëpï "bird flies"
sïna öjmesi joksaŋ "you carry a bow"
sïnalën elwiŋ lawrënï "to you I give a leaf"

tarï atrëbën "tree is falling"
tarï atrïbën "tree was falling"

Future Constructions

Tenwälamï had, in general, two ways to imply future tense using various nonfinite forms. First way to imply future tense was by way of imperfect participle (lu)bën in a nonverbal clause.

ëŋkabën anënï "I am going", "I am to go"

The second way to create a sentence to specify a future event was with the aid of the verb kaja "to come", placed after the head verb which itself was in the nonfinite lative form by using the suffix -llën.

ëŋkallën kajanï "I come to go", "I will be going"

"natë nümi salwëlsanï, oŋkamïlï onralsanï,
tuwalën kaja temrälën, ajmalën kaja sëralën"
— an old Eltiri spell to summon
fire for a hearth

Pronunciation
/ˈten.wæˌlɑ.mɯ/
Language Family
Northern languages

Alignment
Nominative-accusative
Morphology
Agglutinative (mainly suffixing)

Maximum Syllable
(C)V(C)
Word Order
SOV (with exceptions)

Successor Languages

Spoken by

Eltiri

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