Elvish

Natively known as: Enhûnha /enˈhynha/

  ...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
yan yuhe yuy hil lel nolin yan leyey lel ema yonunley no leyey>
Pronunciation: /jan ˈjuhe juj hil lel ˈnolin jan ˈlejej lel ˈema joˈnunlej no ˈlejej/
Enhûnha word order: and stood he holding hat his and turned his face wet to the wind  

Spelling & Phonology

  Consonant inventory: /f h j l m n/

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palatal	Glottal
Nasal	m		n
Fricative		f			h
Approximant				j
Lateral approximant			l

 

Vowel inventory: /a e i o u y/

	Front	Back
High	i y	u
High-mid	e	o
Low	a

 

  Syllable structure: (C)V(C)
Stress pattern: Penultimate — stress is on the second last syllable
Word initial consonants: f, h, j, l, m, n
Mid-word consonants[pg]: f, h, j, l, m, n, nh, nl
Word final consonants: j, l, n

Show frequency stats  

Word initial: l*12 h*9 j*8 n*7 n*7 m*6 j*6 l*6 f*5
Mid-word: m*12 j*9 j*8 n*7 n*7 l*6 l*6 h*6 f*5 nh*12 nl*7
Word final: j*9 j*8 n*7 n*7 l*6 l*6

  Phonological changes (in order of application):  

• h → Ø / #_
• j → Ø / V_V
• j → ʤ / V_V
• m → w / #_
• m → w / _#
• e → i / _#

  Spelling rules:  

Pronunciation	Spelling
j	y>
y	û>

 

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Grammar

  Main word order: Verb-Subject-Object-Oblique. "Mary opened the door with a key" turns into Opened Mary the door with a key.
Adjective order: Adjectives are positioned after the noun.
Adposition: prepositions
 

Noun

       

Singular	No affix hanha> /ˈhanha/
Plural	Prefix lu- luhanha> /luˈhanha/

Nouns have five cases:
Ergative is the doer of a verb: dog bites man
The ergative affix only appears if there is an absolutive in the sentence
Absolutive is the done-to of a verb: man bites dog
Absolutives are always no affix
Genitive is the possessor of something: dog’s tail hits man
Dative is the recipeint of something: man gives ball to dog
Locative is the location of something: man goes to town

         

Ergative	Prefix e- ehanha> /eˈhanha/
Absolutive	No affix hanha> /ˈhanha/
Genitive	If starts with vowel: Prefix j- Else: Prefix ju- yuhanha> /juˈhanha/
Dative	Prefix a- ahanha> /aˈhanha/
Locative	Prefix he- hehanha> /heˈhanha/

 

Articles

           

	Definite	Indefinite
Singular	ey> /ej/ the	niy> /nij/ a
Plural	on> /on/ the	le> /le/ some

 

Pronouns

                                                                                     

	Ergative	Absolutive	Genitive	Dative	Locative
1st singular	nûn> /nyn/ I	yûn> /jyn/ me	al> /al/ my, mine	noy> /noj/ to me	len> /len/
2nd singular	nen> /nen/ you	ya> /ja/ you	fûn> /fyn/ your, yours	i> /i/ to you	ha> /ha/
3rd singular masc	yuy> /juj/ he, it	a> /a/ him, it	lel> /lel/ his, its	yûy> /jyj/ to him	nûy> /nyj/
3rd singular fem	lal> /lal/ she, it	lu> /lu/ her, it	liy> /lij/ her, hers, its	hon> /hon/ to her	lin> /lin/
1st plural inclusive	yû> /jy/ we (including you)	li> /li/ us (including you)	hûn> /hyn/ our, ours (including you)	nu> /nu/ to us (including you)	en> /en/
1st plural exclusive	no> /no/ we (excluding you)	fûy> /fyj/ us (excluding you)	lil> /lil/ our, ours (excluding you)	men> /men/ to us (excluding you)	luy> /luj/
2nd plural	ol> /ol/ you (all)	yan> /jan/ you (all)	ni> /ni/ your, yours (all)	ley> /lej/ to you (all)	mol> /mol/
3rd plural	nal> /nal/ they	he> /he/ them	e> /e/ their, theirs	yûl> /jyl/ to them	ey> /ej/

 

Verbs

           

Present	No affix nenhu> /ˈnenhu/
Past	Prefix e- enenhu> /eˈnenhu/
Future	Prefix ja- yanenhu> /jaˈnenhu/

 

Perfect aspect

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.

In Enhûnha, the perfect is constructed with the word for ‘finish’ enhe + present tense of the verb.  

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = If starts with vowel: Prefix j-
Else: Prefix jy-
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Prefix a-
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix an-
Else: Prefix ane-
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Prefix hi-
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Prefix ju-
Noun → verb (to create [noun]) = Prefix na-
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Prefix le-
Verb → adjective (likely to do [verb]) = Prefix ne-
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Prefix a-
Verb → noun that verb physically produces (e.g. build → building) = If starts with vowel: Prefix yh-
Else: Prefix yhi-
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Prefix e-
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If starts with vowel: Prefix oj-
Else: Prefix ojy-
Diminutive = Prefix fo-
Augmentative = Prefix a-