Middle Anaureth
Contents
Pronunciation
Anaureth has a large vowel system. Long vowels are indicated by the accute accent whereas the umlaut diacritic indicates the fronting of the back vowels /a/ and /u/. In addition to the basic pronunciation of vowels Anaureth also has a rather large selection of dipthong vowels, which play an important role in both noun and verbal declensions. Luckily the pronunciation for both vowels and consonants is always regular, which means that the pronunciation always remains the same. Anaureth has 12 vowels and 21 consonants, with a total of 35 letters in the alphabet.
Vowels: Pronunication:
a (short) as in marry
á (long) as in father
ä as in ran
e (short) as in merry
é (long) as in bear
i (short) as in pit
í (long) as in happy
o (short) as in moral
ó (long) as in for
u (short) as in good
ú (long) as in food
ü as in perfume
| Vowels | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Front | Near-front | Central | Near-back | Back | ||||||
| High | i, í, ü | u, ú | ||||||||
| High-mid | e, é | o, ó | ||||||||
| mid | ||||||||||
| Low-mid | ||||||||||
| Low | ä | a, á | ||||||||
Dipthong: Pronunciation:
ae as in the "ay" sound in pay
ai as in ae
au as in restaurant
ei as in the “y” sound in shy
eu as in the "eau" sound in beautiful
ie as in ei
oi as in coin
ou as in the "oo" sound in food
ue as in ou
ui as in ou
uo as in ou
Consonant: Pronunciation:
b as in be
c as in cat
č as in the "ch" sound in church
d as in den
f as in four
g as in got
h as in hat
j as in jam
k as in Kite
l as in lemon
m as in man
n as in man
p as in pen
q as in quater
r as in ran
s as in sun
š as in the "sh" sound in she
t as in toast
w as in water
y as in why
z as in zoo
ž as in the "s" sound in pleasure
Consonant clusters and trigraphs:
Consonant clusters occures when two consonants are placed together. Consonant clusters tend to occure at the end of Anaureth words, although they may sometimes occure at the beginning or in the middle of various words. In Anaureth the consonant clusters include: ds, dy, jh, lh, ly, nh, ny, ph, rh, rr, rs, th, tr, ts, ty, and wh. There are no triconsonants in Anaureth.
| Consonants | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bilabial | Labio-dental | Labio-velar | Dental | Alveolar | Post- alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvelar | Glottal | |||||||||||
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | |||||||||||||||||
| Plosive | p, b | t, d | c | k, g | q | |||||||||||||||
| Fricative | f, v | θð | z, s | tʃ, Ʒ | x | h | ||||||||||||||
| Affricate | ʤ | |||||||||||||||||||
| Approximants | w | ɹ | j | |||||||||||||||||
| Lateral Approximant | l | |||||||||||||||||||
Vowel change
Vowel mutation commonly occures among the last or second-before-last letter of a Singular word when it becomes a Plural.
For example, in English the word "man" becomes "men" in the plural form. This also occures in Anaureth, although it occures more frequently than in English. For example, although some words like "man" might undergo a limitted degree of vowel change to form the plural word "men" other words such as "mat" and "mats" don't. Instead the plural form often relies on the infliction /s/. In Anaureth all plurals undergo some sort of vowel mutation. For example the final vowel in the word "verinef" (plant) "e" becomes "i" in the plural form "verinif" (plants).
| Description | Mutation | Examples | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Group 1 | Singular words that end with /e/ | becomes /i/ | - |
| Group 2 | Singular words with /a/, /o/, and /u/ as the second-before-last letter | add /i/ | - |
| Group 3 | Singular words that have a dipthong as the second-before-last letter | drop the final vowel | - |
Consonant mutation
Consonant Mutation is the phenomenon in which a consonant in a word is changed according to it's morphological and/or stynatic environment. In Anaureth consonant mutation occures among the following consonants: /b/, /c/, /d/, /g/, /p/, and /t/. Anaureth has two forms of consonant mutation: soft mutation and an aspirate mutation. Soft mutation turns the plosives /c/, /p/ and /t/, into the voiced consonants /g/, /b/ and /t/, whereas the voiced consonants /b/ and /d/ become soft, changing into the consonants /f/ and /dd/. Various rules apply when it comes to consonant mutation.
Like vowel mutation, consonant mutation occures among final consonants in the un-inflicted word upon recieving the infliction whilst ignoring any consonat among the infliction itself. Consonants tend to stay in the radical form when the consonant that would normally undergo mutation is part of a consonant cluster or when the consonant follows a short vowel. Soft mutation occures when the plosives /c/, /p/ and /t/, directly follow a long vowel, whereas the aspirate mutation tends to occure among consonants that follow a vowel dipthong. The table below demonstrates the various forms of consonant mutation.
| Radical | Soft | Aspirate |
|---|---|---|
| b | f | - |
| c | g | ch |
| d | dd | - |
| p | b | ph |
| t | d | th |
Nouns
A Noun is a person, place, or thing. In total, Anaureth has eight noun cases. The noun cases include the nominative case which indicates the subject of a finite verb, the accusative case which indicates the direct object of a verb, the dative case which indicates the indirect object of a verb, the ablative case which indicates the object of most common prepositions, the genitive case which indicates the possessor of another noun, the vocative case which indicates an adressee, the locative case which indicates a location, and the instrumental case which indicates an object used in performing an action. The infliction for noun case always occures directly after the first consonant in a word, and not at the end of the word as in most grammatical cases in Anaureth.
Nouns decline for both number (singular, dual, and plural) and gender (masculine, feminine). The declensions for number and gender are merged together. The number is detirmined through the length of the vowel. The vowel is always left unmarked in the singular number, whereas in both the dual and plural number the vowel is marked with an accute diacritic which is then followed by a consonant and the vowel /a/ in the plural number. The gender is always marked with one of two vowels. The masculine gender is marked with either of the vowels /e/ or /é/ and the femine gender is marked with either of the vowels /a/ or /á/.
Articles
An article helps to link one word to another. Anaureth has five articles. The articles include a definate article which is used before singular, and plural word forms that refer to a particular member of a group, such as the word "the" in the sentence, "the cat is on the mat," and a indefinate article which is used only before singular word forms that refer to any member of a group, such as the word "a" in the sentence, "a cat is a mammal." Both the definate and indifinate article are placed before the noun or verb.
| Masculine | Feminine | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | |
| Definate | ne (the) | né (the) | na (the) | ná (the) |
| Indifinate | el (a) | - | - | - |
Prepositions
A preposition is a word that introduces a prepositional phrase. For example in the sentence, "the cat sleeps on the sofa," the word "on" is a preposition, introducing the phrase, "on the sofa." In both English and Anaureth the most common prepositions are "of", "to", "in", "for", and "on." However, Anaureth has a greater number of prepositions, this is because prepositions often inflict before personal pronouns. For example:
- Ne ter ales jete den.
- The book belongs to me.
- Ne ter ales jeten viran.
- The book belongs to him.
- Na ter jetan dei.
- The book belongs to her.
- Ne ter jetes adan.
- The book belongs to them.
Correlatives
A correlative is a word that is often used to form a question. For example, in English the correlatives include: Who, what, when, where, why and how. Anaureth uses a similar set of correlatives, although the rules are more like the rules in Esperanto than in Enlgish. In English the correlatives all begin with the consonant cluster "wh" except for "how." Like Esperanto, the correlatives in Anaureth all begin with the the consonant /t/ including the word "how." Anaureth also has a select group of particles which correspond to each of the above correlatives.
- "ta" (who, which) & "da" (that, that one)
- Who does that book belong to?
- That book belongs to her.
- Which house do you live in?
- I live in that one.
- "te" (what) & "de" (that, that thing)
- What is that site?
- That site is Frathwiki.
- What is that?
- That thing is a bottle opener.
- "tei" (what kind of) & "dei" (that kind of, such)
- What kind of breed is that dog?
- That kind of dog is a labrador.
- What kind of books does she like to read?
- She like to read books such as Lord of the Rings.
- "ti" (when)
- When will you arrive?
- "to" (where) & "do" (there, in that place)
- Where is he?
- He is there.
- Where did he go?
- He went in that place.
- "tu" (how) & "du" (in that way, so)
- How does this work?
- It works like this, in that way.
- How did it go?
- So what did they think of it?
Pronouns
A pronoun is a word that replaces another noun or pronoun. Pronouns, like nouns and verbs, distinguish between two numbers singular (one person), and plural (two persons). The pronouns also destinguish between inlclusive and exclusive. For example there is a inclusive "de" (we) and a exclusive "des" (we). Anaureth speakers are also particularly concerned with familiarity and politeness in speech. For example there is a familiar "ara" which is used when the speaker is speaking to family and friends, and a "aran" (you) which is used when the speaker is speaking to various people outside of their group of family and friends.
In High Anaureth pronouns were far more complicated. This was mainly because there was three number singular (one person), dual (two persons), and plural (three or more persons). The pronouns also had different endings depending on the function that they served in the sentence. For example there was "ar" (you) which indicated the "you" subject pronoun, and "ari" (you) which marked the "you" object pronoun. This feature was later dropped in both Middle and Low Anaureth so "ar" (you) was used for both the subject and the oject "you."
Singular Pronouns:
| Subject | Object | Reflective | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st person | es (I) | den (me) | denath (myself) | |
| 2nd person | Familiar | ar (you) | ar (you) | aranath (yourself) |
| Polite | ár (you) | ár (you) | - | |
| 3rd person | vir (he) | viran (him) | viranath (himself) | |
| dei (she) | dei (her) | deilath (herself) | ||
| ven (it) | ven (it) | venath (itself) |
Plural Pronouns:
| Subject | Object | Reflexive | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st person | Inclusive | de (we) | nos (us) | noseth (ourselves) |
| Exclusive | des (we) | - | - | |
| 2nd person | Familiar | ára (you) | ára (you) | áraleth (yourselves) |
| Polite | áran (you) | áran (you) | - | |
| 3rd person | ada (they) | adan (them) | adaneth (themselves) |
Verbs
Verbs are words that descibe actions. For instance in the sentence, "the dog ran across the road," the word "ran" is a example of a verb. Anaureth verbs are a complex area in Anaureth grammar with a conjugation scheme that allows for X tenses, X moods, X aspect and X voice. Verbs are conjugated by isolating the stem of the verb and adding the ending. The ending depends on the tense, aspect, mood and the voice of the verb.
Tense:
The tense is used to express the time when an action occured. Anaureth has five tenses. The tenses include the past tense, which indicate actions that occured in the past; the present-tense, which indicates actions that occured in the present; the aorist tense, which is used as an alternative present tense; the near-future tense, which indicates actions that will occure within the next few weeks, months, and years; and the future-tense, which indicates actions that will occure in some years time. The following inflictions are added at the end of a verb, as a suffix.
| Regular | Irregular | |
|---|---|---|
| Past | el | l |
| Present | en | n |
| Future | es | s |
Aspect:
The aspect is similar to tense in that it helps to describe the time when the action occured. The Aspect is divided into past and present active. The past active includes subjects such as the past simple, which indicates an action that took place in the past (I ate); the past progressive, which indicates an action took place in the past (I was eating); the past perfict, which indicates an action that was completed in the past with respect to the past (I had eaten); and the past perfict progressive, which indicates an action that was completed recently with resepct to the past (I had been eating).
The present active includes subjects such as the present simple, which indicates an action that occured in the past and continues to the present (I eat); the present progressive, which indicates an incomplete action that is currently occuring (I was eating); the present perfict, which indicates a completed action with resepect to the present (I had eaten); and the present perfict progressive, which indicates an action that was completed recently in resepect to the present (I had been eating).
The Aspect does not have a verb ending. Instead the Aspect is indicated by prepositions which are inflicted to show past, present, and future.
Mood:
The Mood includes subjects such as the indicative, which indicates statements and questions; the conditional, which indicates that the action expressed by the verb may not actually happen; the imperitive, which indicates commands; the operative, which indicates hopes or wishes; the potential, which indicates that the action expressed by the verb is likely to happen although it's not certain; and the eventive, which is a combination of the potential and the conditional.
| Infliction | |
|---|---|
| Indicative | ae |
| Conditional | ai |
| Imperitive | ea |
| Imperitive | ei |
| Operative | eu |
| Potential | oi |
| Eventive | ou |
Voice:
The voice indicates the relationship between the action (or state) that the verb expresses and the participants identified by it's arguments (subject, object etc.) In Anauran there are two types of voice: the active, and passive voice. The active voice, indicates the agent of the verb; and the passive voice, indicates the subject is the target of the verb. This has been demonstrated in the sentences below:
For example, in the sentence:
- The cat ate the mouse.
the verb "ate" is in the active voice, whilst in the sentence:
- The mouse was eaten by the cat.
the phrase "was eaten" is in the passive voice.
| Infliction | Example | |
|---|---|---|
| Active | a | sarena (ate) |
| Passive | o | sarelo (eaten) |
Adverbs
Adverbs describe how, when, and where an action took place. For example in the sentence, "Jane drives slowly," the word "slowly" is an adverb. Adverbs are formed from basic verbal roots which are then given the infliction /ra/.
