Eald-vacha

Eald-vacha is a constructed language created by Brant von Goble (Eald-vacha-abba) in 2025. It is designed to be simple, fun, and easy to expand, blending elements from ancient and modern languages around the world. The language draws major influences from Arabic, Chinese, Greek, Japanese, Latin, Old Norse, Pali, Persian, Proto-Indo-European, and Sanskrit, with additional contributions from other languages. Eald-vacha is expansive, incorporating technical terms while its core vocabulary reflects a distinct, possibly violent heritage (e.g., ve'nədras "friend" literally means "one I will not kill"). It has roots in Buddhism and Daoism, emphasizing concepts like sunya (void) and wu-wei (effortless action). The language includes its own 42-note microtonal musical scale and is intended for scientists, writers, creators, linguists, and the curious. The official primer, Abba-kudur eald-vacha skapkwet-boc, provides a comprehensive guide, including grammar, dictionaries, and bilingual texts. The language's motto is: Na ba-da ex sunya. Na krag-da sunya. Ad sunya na-kun ve’ba. Na sunkwet-nətimor. ("We came from the void. We fought the void. To the void we all shall return. We stare into the void without fear.")

Phonology

Eald-vacha uses a Latin-based alphabet with phonetic pronunciation. Vowels and consonants have fixed values:

Vowels

a /ɑ/ (as in "father") e /e/ (as in "bed") i /i/ (as in "machine") o /o/ (as in "core") u /u/ (as in "rule") y /j/ (glide, as in "yantra" /ˈjɑn.trɑ/)

Consonants

kh /x/ (as in Scottish "loch") sh /ʃ/ (as in "ship") ch /ʧ/ (as in "church") g /g/ (always hard, never /ʤ/) r /ɾ ~ r/ (tapped or rolled)

Stress

Stress falls on the first syllable of the main root. Compound elements retain secondary stress.

Special Rule for nə

The negator nə is pronounced /nē/ (as in "knee"), always as a distinct syllable, never reduced. Examples:

ve’nə-vacha → /veˈnē vɑ.tʃɑ/ nə-esi → /nēˈe.si/ nədras → /ˈnē.drɑs/

Orthography

Eald-vacha uses capital letters only for the first word of a sentence or, in poetry/song, the first word of each line. Proper names, titles, the pronoun zho, and all other words are lowercase. Examples:

Ad sunya, zho ve’ba. ("To the void, I will go.") Na desir nəom mer deva-kudur-ava an peras sward-en. ("We desire nothing but God’s blessing and sharp swords.")

Grammar

Eald-vacha has simple grammar: flexible SVO structure, optional copula esi ("to be"), straightforward compounding, and modifier placement.

Sentence Structure

Follows SVO but flexible for emphasis. Example:

The cat eats the fish: Mara-pashu hul-mo iqaluk.

Active voice preferred; no morphological passive. Use impersonal nul-om-manava-en ("unknown people") for unspecified agents. Relative clauses follow the noun, introduced by ke ("that/which"). Example:

Manava ke kwet sunya esi su. ("The person who sees the void is good.")

Focus/emphasis via word order, particles like -yak (contrastive), -kun (reflexive), mer (but/contrast).

Nouns

Plural: add -en (manava → manava-en "people"). Possession: use ka after possessor (zho ka boc "my book"). Flexible order for emphasis. No gender, cases marked by prepositions.

Pronouns

Personal:

I: zho You (sg.): lek He/She: vo It: ava We: na You (pl.): lek-en They: ta

Possessive: add ka (zho ka "my"). Reflexive: add -kun (zho-kun "myself"). Demonstrative: kerebava ("this/these"), rukava ("that/those"). Interrogative: kah ("who"), kim ("what"), ki ("where"), itu ("when"), as ("why"), kima ("how").

Verbs

Tenses:

Present: no marker (zho vacha "I speak") Past: -da (zho vacha-da "I spoke") Future: ve’ (zho ve’vacha "I will speak")

Negation: nə- (zho nə-vacha "I do not speak"). Future negative: ve’nə- (zho ve’nə-vacha "I will not speak"). Copula esi optional (zho warblud-nədesir-dras "I [am] happy"). Purpose/infinitive: use ve’ (zho bixu karm ve’warpagr "I must work to live"). Imperatives: prefix Ba-i! (Ba-i! Aud! "Listen!"). Valency: causatives with skap- (skap-hul-mo "feed/make eat"). Conditionals: yadi ("if") + tense.

Adjectives and Adverbs

Adjectives before/after noun, no agreement. Comparatives: giga- ("more"), superlatives: fortun- ("most"). Adverbs: add -li (spidli "quickly").

Numbers

Hybrid base-10/base-42 system. Base-10 for everyday; base-42 (sacred) for spiritual/mathematical contexts. Cardinals (base-10): un (1), du (2), tri (3), qua (4), quin (5), shash (6), imin (7), okt (8), non (9), dek (10), fortua (42). Ordinals: add -kram (un-kram "first"). Base-42 uses cuneiform-inspired symbols and subtractive notation for numbers below 42.

Prepositions

Common: ad ("to"), ex ("from"), med ("with"), in ("in"), sup ("on"), upari ("above"), hypo ("under"), kring ("around").

Conjunctions

Common: an ("and"), mer ("but"), u ("also"), o ("or"), karanam ("because"), yadi ("if").

Vocabulary

Eald-vacha's lexicon is derived from global roots, emphasizing expansiveness. It includes technical terms (e.g., astaryatrayantra "spaceship") and philosophical concepts (e.g., halak-brahmand-dao-nəkarm "wu-wei"). Bilingual dictionaries (English-Eald-vacha and vice versa) are in the primer. Compounding is productive (e.g., kwetkap "mind" from kwet "see/understand" + kap "head").

Sample Texts

From the primer: Na ba-da ex sunya. Na krag-da sunya. Ad sunya na-kun ve’ba. Na sunkwet-nətimor. (We came from the void. We fought the void. To the void we all shall return. We stare into the void without fear.) Bilingual examples include translations of "The Heart of Perfect Wisdom," Matthew 6, Dao De Jing Chapter 5, "Subtle Lessons," "The Tell-Tale Heart," and "We Friends Endure."

Primer (Free)

Official Primer (CC BY-NC 4.0)