Varidoc (High Elvish)

LANGUAGE FAMILY: TOL YLIDOC   # SPEAKERS / WORLD RANKING:   SPOKEN IN: Bluepool, Dokeen   High Elvish, spoken by the noble and Druidic caste. The most elaborate and challenging for non-Elves to learn, or other Elves to speak.   PERIOD OF USE:   SCRIPT USED:   PARENT LANGUAGE: Mynedoc (Old Elvish)  

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  "...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind..."   Translation: far rnei teia caya rnei sw far faa rnei cihyai gan chy   Pronunciation: var rnei ˈteia ˈkaɨa rnei suː var ˈvaa rnei ˈkiːhyˌai gaːn chə     Varidoc word order: and he stood holding hat his and turned his face wet the wind to  

Spelling & Phonology

  Consonant inventory: /b c d g h j k l m n n̥ p r r̥ s t v w z ð ŋ ɬ ʃ θ χ/  

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Dental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal	m			n n̥			ŋ
Stop	p b			t d		c	k g
Fricative		v	θ ð	s z	ʃ			χ	h
Approximant						j
Trill				r̥ r
Lateral fricative				ɬ
Lateral approximant				l

  Co-articulated phonemes  

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

  Vowel inventory: /a ai au aɨ aː ei eɨ eː i iː oː u uː y ɔ ɔi ɔɨ ə əu ɛ ɛu ɨ ɨu ɨː ɪ ɪu ʊ ʊɨ/   Diphthongs: ai, au, aɨ, ei, eɨ, ɔi, ɔɨ, əu, ɛu, ɨu, ɪu, ʊɨ  

	Front	Central	Back
High	i iː y	ɨ ɨː	u uː
Near-high	ɪ		ʊ
High-mid	eː		oː
Mid		ə
Low-mid	ɛ		ɔ
Low	a aː

  Syllable structure: Custom defined
Stress pattern: Initial — stress is on the first syllable
Word initial consonants: b, bl, ch, d, dr, dw, g, gh, h, j, k, kl, l, m, n, nt, n̥, p, pl, pr, r, rn, r̥, s, sd, sn, t, th, tr, v, vh, w, ð, ɬ, ʃ, θ, θj, χ
Mid-word consonants: b, d, dl, dr, dth, dz, g, gl, gth, h, l, m, ml, mr, ms, n, nr̥, nt, r, rb, rd, rv, rw, rɬ, sg, tbl, v, vj, vl, vn, ð, ðj, ŋ, ɬ, θ, χ, χr
Word final consonants: b, ch, d, g, h, k, l, lds, m, n, nd, nh, nn, r, rs, rθ, s, sg, t, v, vn, vr, z, ð, ŋ, ɬ, θ, χ   Phonological changes (in order of application):  

• u → v / #_
• l → n / #_V[+nasal]
• p → bh / V_V
• k → g / _{w,j}

  Spelling rules:  

Pronunciation	Spelling
f	ph
v	f
k	c
ŋ	ng
χ	ch
θ	th
r̥	rh
ɬ	ll
ð	dd
ɪu	iw
ɨu	uw
ʊɨ	wy
ɛu	ew
ɔi	oi
əu	yw
eɨ	ey
aː	a
ɔ	o
oː	o
iː	i
ɪ	i
eː	e
ɛ	e
uː	w
j	i
ɨː	y
ɨ	y
ə	y
ʃ	si
n̥	n

 

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 after the noun.
Adposition: postpositions  

Nouns

 

	Singular	Plural
Masculine	If ends with vowel: Suffix -χ Else: Suffix -ɔɨχ	Suffix -uː
Feminine	Suffix -ɔ ddiaio /ˈðɪaˌiɔ/ woman	Suffix -aɨ ddiaiay /ˈðɪaˌiaɨ/ women
Neuter	Suffix -ə geiy /ˈgeiə/ dog	If ends with vowel: Suffix -vr Else: Suffix -ʊɨvr geifr /ˈgeivr/ dogs

 

Articles

 

Definite	rhiwd /r̥ɪud/ the
Indefinite	len /leːn/ a, some

  Uses of definite article that differ from English:

• Definite article can be omitted: ‘I am going to supermarket’
• Used to talk about countable nouns in general: English’s ‘I like cats’ would translate to ‘I like the cats’
• Not used for mass (uncountable) nouns: ‘Walking in the mud’ would always translate to ‘Walking in mud’.
• Used for languages: ‘The English’

 

Pronouns

 

	Nominative	Accusative
1st singular	dryrs /drɨrs/ I	fhyz /vhɨːz/ me
2nd singular	rnaudd /rnauð/ you (masc)	gheh /ghɛh/ you
3rd singular masc	rnei /rnei/ he	troyh /trɔɨh/ him
3rd singular fem	eyg /eɨg/ she	mu /mu/ her
3rd singular neut	nti /ntiː/ it	gw /guː/ it
1st plural	chyr /chɨːr/ we	ploth /ploːθ/ us
2nd plural	tra /tra/ you all	y /ə/ you all
3rd plural masc	da /da/ they (masc)	by /bɨ/ them (masc)
3rd plural fem	i /ɪ/ they (fem)	oi /ɔi/ them (fem)
3rd plural neut	pi /piː/ they (neut)	ghe /ghɛ/ them (neut)

 

Possessive determiners

 

1st singular	dryrs /drɨrs/ my
2nd singular	gheh /ghɛh/ your
3rd singular masc	rnei /rnei/ his
3rd singular fem	eyg /eɨg/ her
3rd singular neut	nti /ntiː/ its
1st plural	chyr /chɨːr/ our
2nd plural	tra /tra/ your (pl)
3rd plural masc	da /da/ their (masc)
3rd plural fem	i /ɪ/ their (fem)
3rd plural neut	pi /piː/ their (neut)

 

Verbs

 

	Present	Past	Future
1st person	No affix geicha /ˈgeiχa/ (I/we) learn	If ends with vowel: Suffix -d Else: Suffix -ud geichad /ˈgeiχad/ (I/we) learned	Suffix -ɔlds geichaolds /ˈgeiˌχaɔlds/ (I/we) will learn
2nd person	No affix geicha /ˈgeiχa/ (you/you all) learn	Suffix -ɨv geichayf /ˈgeiˌχaɨv/ (you/you all) learned	If ends with vowel: Suffix -nd Else: Suffix -ɨnd geichand /ˈgeiχand/ (you/you all) will learn
3rd person	No affix geicha /ˈgeiχa/ (he/she/it/they) learn	Suffix -unh geichaunh /ˈgeiˌχaunh/ (he/she/it/they) learned	Suffix -airθ geichaairth /ˈgeiˌχaairθ/ (he/she/it/they) will learn

  Imperfective aspect   The ‘imperfective’ aspect refers to ongoing actions, such as I am learning and habitual actions, such as I learn (something new every day).   Varidoc uses a standalone particle word for imperfective:  

Imperfective

Particle before the verb: blaː - bla geicha /blaː ˈgeiχa/ learns/is learning

 

Numbers

  Varidoc has a base-20 number system:   1 - omba
2 - binarah
3 - hoys
4 - ti
5 - samloo
6 - nau
7 - nwnn
8 - sattoo
9 - ru
10 - ntin
11 - conrhodd
12 - nuth
13 - thioint
14 - ddiry
15 - hywr
16 - ys
17 - cʊhu
18 - paild
19 - sdydru
20 - efr
21 - efr far omba “twenty and one”
400 - omba ble “one fourhundred”
401 - omba ble omba “one fourhundred one”
800 - binarah ble “two fourhundred”
8000 - omba gythir “one eightthousand”  

Derivational morphology

  Adjective → adverb = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ld Else: Suffix -ɔld
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Suffix -ha
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Suffix -tun
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Prefix u-
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -t Else: Suffix -aɨt
Noun to verb = Suffix -a
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Suffix -si
Tending to = Suffix -a
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Suffix -dva
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Suffix -əu
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Suffix -ais
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -n Else: Suffix -ɛn
Diminutive = Suffix -ɨr
Augmentative = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ð Else: Suffix -aið
Opposite = Prefix us-