Deep

Syllables in Deep take the form (C₁)V(C₂). C₁ can be absent only at the beginning of a word, but C₂ is always optional. Words are seldom longer than three syllables long, with the shortest constructions being reserved for words like articles, pronouns, and common adpositions. A given word can generally only have one long vowel in it. Emphasis falls on the last syllable of a word unless a long vowel appears, in which case the long vowel takes the emphasis regardless of location within the word.

Sentences in Deep are typically constructed subject-object-verb ("I food ate") and feature nominative-accusative alignment. If the verb is transitive, then the patient of the transitive verb, along with any articles and adpositions, comes after the verb and the agent comes before it, rendering the structure subject-agent- verb-patient ("I the food shared with the animal"). Adjectives and adverbs precede the words they modify ("We prepared explorers the supplies freely share with our hungry benefactors").   Nouns in in the formal register (see Structural Markers) in Deep inflect for plurality (zero, one, plural) and verbs decline for number only. In the informal register, nouns gain an additional inflection for gender of the majority (male, female, neuter animate, or neuter inanimate) and degrees of clusivity (present with the speakers, present in the community but not the speakers, not present with the speakers or in the community).

Consonants: /p/, /t/, /k/, /k^ɣ/ (ky), /b/, /d/, /g/, /g^ɣ/ (gy), /χ/ (x), /f/ /ɹ/ (r), /l/, /ɮ/ (lh), /m/, /n/ /s/, /ʒ/ (zh), /w/

Vowels: /a/, /a:/ (aa), /e/, /i/, /i:/ (ii), /o/, /u/, /u:/ (uu)

Deep features past, present, speculative, and future tenses in the formal register (see Structural Markers), but gains past imperfect and present imperfect tenses in the informal register. The speculative tense is used for speculation about actions to be undertaken and is typically used in conjunction with questions to formulate plans. For example, a speaker of Deep might use the present speculative tense to articulate something like: "You go (spec.) to the store. They don't have (spec.) the part you're looking for to repair this radio. What do you do now?" The place of an action on the timeline in the speculative sense is indicated by the order of phrases rather than changes in verb conjugation away from the speculative. The imperfective aspect could be used to discuss ongoing plans and, as such, is withheld in conversations with those outside the speakers' confidence.
  Verbs in Deep can also take infinitive and gerund forms with separate declensions. Verbs in these forms can be used in the place of nouns relating to these actions in and of themselves (i.e. "Swimming (ger.) would be (spec.) fun right now"). Plurality when applied to such gerund terms depends on whether the action has taken place a singular time or multiple times in the context of the sentence. For example, in the sentence "I partook in running yesterday," the declension for "running" would be singular, but in a sentence like "Running is my passion" or "I've gone to run several times in the last week already," "running" and "to run" would take the plural form. As usual, speakers are encouraged to obfuscate this construction somehow when speaking to outsiders to help confound attempts to analyze the behavior of the community as a whole, but this attitude is cultural rather than inherent to Deep's formality-based construction rules like clusivity might be.

Deep features separate registers for formal and informal contexts. Speakers use the informal register exclusively amongst themselves when everyone in the area is known personally to the speaker, the formal register in all other contexts when only Groundlings are present, and other official languages in all other contexts. The Groundlings are counterculture that most of the Manifold Conservation Society considers an undesirable underclass; out of an abundance of caution against both persecution by the authorities and infiltration by less wholesome groups looking to weaponize their sense of injustice, speakers of Deep thus linguistically separate the world into outsiders, those who are members of the culture but not fully vetted as such, and known insiders. Deep is unusual among Manifold languages in that its informal form is more verbose and nuanced than its formal form, as the informal constructions serve to provide more information to friends and family than it would offer to passers-by.