Lâmian

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Lâmian(lâm.:Leithet)
Pronounced: léy-thet
Timeline and Universe: Alternate Earth, ~500 BC- ~200 AD
Species: Human
Spoken: South Germany
Total speakers: at least 500.000
Writing system: an modified Etruscian
Genealogy: Lâmian Language Family
Lâmian
Typology
Morphological type: agglutinative
Morphosyntactic alignment: Nominative-Accusative
Basic word order: SOV
Credits
Creator: Ell Crasses
Created: June 2007

Lâmian is the oldest documented language of the Lâmian Language Family and was spoken by the ancient tribes of the Lâmians, before the Roman Empire made them to leave northwards.

Phonology

Consonants

Labial Dental Alveolar Postalveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Stops, voiceless p t c
Stops, voiced b d g
Fricatives, voiceless f th s sh ch h
Fricatives, voiced v dh z
Nasals m n ŋ
Lateral l
Flap r
Semivowels w i/j/


Double consonants are spoken a bit longer.

Vowels


front central back
high i î u û
mid e ê o ô
low a/ɑ/ â/ɑ:/


The diphtongs are the follow: ei, ai, au

Phontactics

The following syllable structures are allowed: CV, CVV, CVC, CVVC, CCV, CCVV, CCVC, CCVVC, CVCC, CCVCC.
A syllable must not begin and end with two plosives:
tept, pte, tkatp
But two fricatives can do this:
fthei air

Accent

The Lâmian accent is usually on the first syllable. But if there is a long vowel or a diphtong in a syllable, this syllable is stressed:
e'ôrane swords
son'naiwesh at the snake
If there are more long vowels or diphtongs in a word, the syllable with the first is stressed:
'leithîm of a language

Sandhi

a â e ê i î o ô u û
a â â e ê ai ê au ô au û
â â â â ê â ê â ô â ô
e ê â ê ê ei î o ô ô û
ê ê ê ê ê ê î ê â ê ô
i ai â ei ê î î e ô î û
î î ê î î î î î ê î ê
o au â o ê e î ô ô ô û
ô ô â ô ê ô ê ô ô ô û
u au â ô ê î î ô ô û û
û û ô û ô û ê û û û û


Examples:
ri you + -uk and -> rîk and you
kerî shield + -et our + îm GEN + -ane PL -> kerîtîmane of our shields
If a diphtong collides with a vowel, the vowel disappears:
lothei hut + -ûta AKK/ALL -> lotheita (to) a hut
If a diphtong collides with another diphtong, a w seperates the two diphtongs:
methau moon + -ai the -> methauwai the moon

Morphology

Nouns

Lâmian nouns are inflected by case and number.This is shown by pre- and suffixes, what are added in the following order:

Case prefix - root - definite article/possesive suffix/demonstrative suffix - case suffix - plural suffix - other suffixes

Case

Lâmian nouns are declined by 9 cases:

pre-/suffix case
0/-î1 nominative
-îm genitive
-er dative
-ûta accusative, allative
-esh locative
-rim ablative
-îru partitive
ha-...-û the focus or the theme of a sentence (name?, jap. -wa)

1: A few nouns have this nominative suffix(which disappears, if other suffixes are added), but they are exeptions.
Examples:
lâmî (with nominative suffix)

lâmî a human
lâmîm of a human
lâmer to a human
lâmûta (to) a human
lâmesh at a human
lâmrin from a human
lâmîru of a human
halâmû about a human

Plural

The plural is marked with the suffix -ane:

hauri -> hauraine bulls
lôr -> lôrane signs

Definite Article

The definite article is -ai:
ftheiwai the air
sigûrai the clan/tribe

Demonstrative Suffixes

There are two suffixes in this category:
-êla this here and
-urim that over there

Possesive Suffixes

Sg. Pl.
1. -gam -et
2. -ram -met
4. -em -ît

Examples:

lewirai apetîmane
ownership-def.art. father-our-GEN-PL
Our fathers' ownership
airêlesh
world-this-LOC
in this world

Verbs

In Lâmian, there is only one conjugated verb (dôni to do),what conjugates the other verbs by person, number and aspect. But unlike English, there are more infinitives, which indicate the mood, voice and negation.

Regular Verbs

Verbs are only conjugated in special infinitives (which also are gerunds and participles) showing the mood, voice and negation.

-âni Indicative active
-ûn Indicative active negative
-âdi Indicative passive
-ûd Indicative passice negative
-meli Optative active
-shor Optative active negative
-edh Optativ passive
-âm Optative passive negative
-tei Intensive active
-gar Intensive active negative
-efô Intensive passive
-podh Intensive passive negative

Roots can either end in a consonant...
tanta- speak
tantâni to speak
tantshor wouldn't speak
...or in a vowel:
pâ- come
pâni to come
pôn (<*pâ-ûn) not to come

dôni to do

1.sg 2.sg 3.sg 1.pl 2.pl 3.pl
Imperfective dôg dôr dât dôt dôm dôn
Perfective dosg dôsir dôseit dost dôsim dôsin

Examples:

Paikôta athreimâni dôg.
meat-AKK eat-Ind.act do-1.sg
I eat/am eating meat.
Lâmêlâne leithetûta tantshor dôn.
human-this-PL language-our-AKK speak-Opt.act.neg. do-3.pl
This men wouldn't speak our language.

Modal Verbs

There also modal verbs like in English, but they are used in a different way:

modal verb - main verb in the partitive - dôni

lamahôni (root lamahû-) to be able

lamahôni sagânîru dôg.
be_able-ind.act. sing-ind.act.-PART do-1sg
I am able to sing.