A setting-nonspecific conlang originally created on 27th March 2012 that has been in very slow development ever since.
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Grammar
Phonology and orthography
Stress is always word-initial, and therefore is not contrastive. Secondary stress may occur in compounds at morphological boundaries.
Consonants
| Consonants | Labial | Coronal Non-sibilant |
Coronal Sibilant |
Palatal | Velar |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | |||
| Voiceless stop | p | t | k | ||
| Voiced stop | b | d | g | ||
| Voiceless fricative | f | ł /ɬ/ | s | h /x/ | |
| Voiced fricative | z | ||||
| Approximant | v /ʋ/ | l r /ɾ/ |
j |
- Some speakers have /θ/ instead of /ɬ/.
- /x/ may be only weakly fricated, sounding more like /h/. Additionally, it is advanced to /ç/ before /i/.
- /ʋ/ may instead be pronounced /w/, or more rarely /v/.
- /ɾ/ may instead be pronounced /r/.
Vowels
| i ii /iː/ ie |
u uu /uː/ uo |
|
| e ei /eː/ |
o ou /oː/ |
|
| a aa /aː/ ai, au |
- Some speakers merge /ie uo/ with /iː uː/.
- Other rare diphthongs exist such as /ui/, but they are analysed as a monopthong followed by a semivowel.
Nominals
Plurals
On ordinary nouns, the only inflection is the plural ending -ar. It takes the form -ar after a consonant, the long monophthongs -ei, -ou (which become -ej-, -ov-), or a diphthong ending in -i, -u (which become -j-, -v-).
- fid "person" : fidar "people"
- satei "body" : satejar "bodies"
- alui "tree" : alujar "trees"
If a noun ends in a vowel in any other way, the plural ending assimilates to the final vowel. In the case of final -i, -u, the result of the assimilation is -ier, -uor.
- ołita "head" : ołitaar "heads"
- noufi "ghost" : noufier "ghosts"
- odejo "city" : odejour "cities"
- kuo "eye" : kuor "eyes"
Personal pronouns
The simple personal pronouns are va "I", ni "you" and sa "they". Regular plurals can be formed from each of them with the usual noun plural suffix -ar, ie. vaar, nier, saar.
There is also the pronoun osin, which is a 1st person collective pronoun. It might be translated as something like "our group"; it deemphasises the individuals and emphasises the group as a whole. It is also sometimes used impersonally.
Finally, there are the pronouns dei and dou. Originally, dei was a polite 2nd person singular pronoun and dou was its plural, but they are often treated as interchangeable, occasionally leading to the creation of dejar and/or dovar as new plural forms. For most speakers, they are archaic and only occur in stylised language.
Some of the personal pronouns are capable of contracting with certain vowel-initial postpositions. In the case of in "of", some pronouns have special forms ending in -i.
| Personal pronouns | Basic | + a (direct object) |
+ in (relative) |
+ on (topical) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st person singular | va | vaa | vai | vaan |
| 2nd person singular | ni | nie | nii | nien |
| 3rd person singular | sa | saa | sai | saan |
| 1st person plural | vaar | (vaar a) | (vaar in) | (vaar on) |
| 2nd person plural | nier | (nier a) | (nier in) | (nier on) |
| 3rd person plural | saar | (saar a) | (saar in) | (saar on) |
| 1st person collective | osin | (osin a) | (osin in) | (osin on) |
| 2nd person polite | dei dou |
deja dova |
dein (!) dovi |
dejon dovon |
Adjectives and demonstratives
Adjectives are unmarked, meaning that they look exactly like nouns. Nevertheless, adjectives are not typically used as nouns by themselves, instead being followed by a qualifier such as az "thing"; likewise, nouns are not typically used as adjectives without the use of in "of".
Most (but not all) demonstratives are marked with the ending -u, eg. łu "this". They can become pronouns, nouns and adverbs using various morphemes that attach to the stem, with the ending sometimes being dropped before a vowel (depending on the specific attaching morpheme).
- az "thing": łaz "this, this one" (pronoun)
- -i: łui "like this, in this way" (adverb)
- -ran: łuran "here, this place" (noun)
- ne "in/on/at": łune "here, in/on/at this place" (adverb)
- gi "from": ługi "from here, from this place" (adverb)
Verbs
Verbal endings
The unmarked form of a verb, eg. sanzo "to build/create", is used as a kind of simple action noun, ie. sanzo "building/creating". This is also the citation form of verbs.
The ending -o marks the terminal form, the basic finite form of a verb that goes at the end of a sentence (or just before a sentence-final particle). The ending assimilates to a stem-final vowel.
- bat "to stand" : va bato "I stand"
- vali "to see" : ni valie łi? "do you see?"
The ending -ga marks the perfect form, indicating a simple past. An extra -i- may be added before the ending if the stem ends in a consonant, in order to avoid difficult consonant clusters.
- vad "to go" : ni vadiga "you went"
- jogru "to need" : va jogruga "I needed"
Either the unmarked form of a verb (not the terminal form!) or the perfect form can be followed by a suffix -i (or alternatively by the postposition in "of") to obtain an attributive form, sort of like a participle. Note that the role of the noun is left implied.
- fid zido "a person walks" : zidi fid "a person who walks, a walking person"
- va sietis a sigiga "I wrote a message" : va sigigai sietis "a message that I wrote"
- vaar on anu raaz ne ieguko "we could eat at that place" : vaar ieguki anu raaz "that place where we could eat"
The ending -e marks the imperative form. It can be combined with the potential mood suffix -uk- to form a sort of jussive/hortative. Similar to the terminal form, the ending assimilates to a stem-final vowel, which can potentially make it identical to the terminal form.
- uramo "listens" : urame! "listen!"
- uramuko "could listen" : uramuke! "let's listen!"
Serialisation
The unmarked form of a verb, optionally with a final -i if the stem ends in a consonant, can also be used to serialise the verb to another verb, indicating sequential actions or causation. The resulting construction is usually spelt as two separate words, but may be spelt as one word if no other elements come between them. Note that that the serialised verb's tense/aspect is left implied.
- va dorniga "I came" : va dorni zanar a hamiga "I came and took the sword"
- va andoi a targiga "I followed the road" : va andoi a targi dorniga (targidorniga) "I came following the road"
Mood suffixes
The suffix -uk- forms the potential mood. It expresses capability, possibility, or something encouraged or requested.
- ni pruto "you rest" : ni prutuko "you can rest"
- ni prutiga "you rested" : ni prutukiga "you could have rested"
- vade! "go!" : vaduke! "let's go!"
The suffix -ez- forms the conditional mood. It expresses something hypothetical, counterfactual, or wished for. The vowel of the suffix assimilates to a stem-final vowel.
- va apało "I love" : va apałezo "I would love"
- va apało łi? "do I love?" : va apałezo łi? "would I love?"
- ni kutor suo zum zidei "if you are tough, you fight" : ni kutor suozo zum zidezo "if you were tough, you would fight"
Voice suffixes
The suffix -ri- forms passives, while the suffix -ti- forms causatives. Similar to -ga, they can take an extra -i- to avoid difficult consonant clusters. They can be stacked.
- va valie "I see" : valirie "I am seen"
- ni lunei "you end" : lunetie "you finish" : lunetitie "you make finish"
Syntax
Lutani syntax is strongly head-final: nouns follow their modifiers, verbs follow their arguments, postpositions instead of prepositions, &c.
Negation
Simple declarations are negated by the negative adverb ik "not". Negative potentials, conditionals and imperatives instead use rit.
- ni bozo "you hit" : ni ik bozo "you don't hit"
- boze! "hit!" : rit boze! "don't hit!"
Questions
The sentence-final particle łi is used to form yes-no questions, both direct and indirect.
- bien sato "it's raining" : bien sato łi "is it raining?" : bien sato łi ik kanou "[I] don't know if it's raining"