My conlang so far: Halvian

[Mentilliath]

Sorry it took a while to respond, been on vacation

I like the sound of "Nikueu"...if I'm pronouncing that right in my head, it's very nice :p

Halvian names are usually read as Family name, Given name, Extra name(s). Some famous Halvians are only referred to by their given name.

Family names often come from places, given names can have a wide variety of origins, and the extra names are typically adjectives that describe positive qualities or accomplishments. The extra names are similar to Latin cognomina--they often are "earned" later in life, though sometimes they can be given at birth, similar to a middle name, except they appear at the end.

An example of a male name:

Totúviath Nénos Alários

"Totúviath" is a family name derived from the town of "Totúvos". "Nénos" is a common male name derived from the word nénia meaning "garden". "Alários" is an adjective meaning "strong-willed" or "determined".

An example of a female name with two extra names:

Totuviáha Mémne Gítaia Lánda

"Mémne" is a common female name derived from a word meaning "cherish". "Gítaia" is an adjective meaning "fair" or "just". "Lánda" just means "yellow" and is sometimes used with blond-haired children, as blond hair is uncommon in Halvia and seen as something exotic and interesting.

[Koko]

Don't worry about the time

I like the sound of "Nikueu"...if I'm pronouncing that right in my head, it's very nice :p

If you're saying /niˈkweːu/, then you're doing it right. And thanks, it was one of the first words I created, most of which are not the best sounding . So i'm glad you like it ^^

Family names often come from places, given names can have a wide variety of origins, and the extra names are typically adjectives that describe positive qualities or accomplishments. The extra names are similar to Latin cognomina--they often are "earned" later in life, though sometimes they can be given at birth, similar to a middle name, except they appear at the end.

*sigh* I completely forgot about middle names! I guess the city/month of birth could be an option. In that case, I'm Asfora Nikuie Koko (erm, "Koko Asfora Nikuia" in English order), as my birthday is placed in the month Asfora on the Isyan calendar

"Totúviath" is a family name derived from the town of "Totúvos". "Nénos" is a common male name derived from the word nénia meaning "garden". "Alários" is an adjective meaning "strong-willed" or "determined".

Alários seems very similar to the Isyan given name Allos. But Allos comes from "ale" (another wolf species, but originally an old Isyan word for wolf) and "lostar" (brave), so it means "Brave Wolf."

"Mémne" is a common female name derived from a word meaning "cherish".

I thought blood, because of "mena" (whose accusative is mene)

"Fair yellow blood from Totúvos"

Those names sound so beautiful ^^ Very Indo-Europeany too, thanks to the inspiration of the morphology.

[Mentilliath]

^Heh, well I certainly liked that word. Interesting that it's one of the first you created. I wonder if there is any significant difference between some of the first Halvian words I created and later ones.

And thanks, I'm glad you liked the names! There is definitely some IE-influence showing. Most male given names end in -os, a few in -as and -es, and the vast majority in -s of some sort. -s was originally an animacy marker and then came to be associated mainly with the masculine. Feminine names tend to end in -a or -e. Family names often end in -th or -n (the respective feminine forms in -ha or -nne).

[Koko]

-s was originally an animacy marker and then came to be associated mainly with the masculine.

That's funny, 'cause I made the evolution of masculine -s come from PHI -h, which is the inanimacy marker

I guess that at some point it becomes associated with animacy?

[Mentilliath]

Alright, time to finally introduce the conscript

It's called gelōtra lēra, which means "hook writing" (sometimes just called "gelōtra" for short). It's the native script of Halvia.

Long vowels are marked by a diacritic above the vowel. Accent is marked by a diacritic below the vowel.

Each sign only takes one stroke to make (minus the diacritics). There are special diphthong signs (vowel signs with extra "hooks") and a couple special geminate signs. The script is traditionally written with the slant that I have written it with below.

The letters (the symbol in the lower left corner is "h". It didn't scan well):



Example words and sentence (yes, I made a few errors. alóreth is "he wrote", not "he read". And únnoi should have the diphthong sign for "oi". That was a recent development; so I'm still getting used to it. I also wrote the "t" in "bréntas" with the wrong sign; that's because that used to be the sign for /t/ and I recently changed the stop signs around):



*I have not created signs for the /u/ diphthongs: ou, au, and eu. I probably will at some point.
*I have not created any punctuation other than the stop.

[Koko]

Was wondering when you were finally going to make an update I was just about to pester you

Great script!* Simple but elegant ^^ My favorite of the letters is definitely gu. But probly because I've had a sign similar to that in a past script of mine

* Well, I've seen it before on the conscript thread, but it's great to see the updated version ^^

[Mentilliath]

Honestly, the main reason I don't update this thread much is because I hate dealing with tables. I really hate them. But I'm going to force myself so that I may introduce some new stuff:

Athematic (4th) Declension

So, let's get started on the 4th declension, a.k.a. the athematic declension a.k.a. the consonant stems. This is where things get really confusing. Halvian preserves the original Sorso-Karenian declension system almost intact (unlike Galsaic, which has greatly simplified it), while innovating a few new things of its own (some stems that aren't original to S-K). This means that there is root ablaut in some athematic nouns.

Gender and the Nominative Singular

4th declension nouns can be any of the three genders: masculine, feminine, or neuter. The way to tell the difference is in the genitive singular: for masculines, the genitive singular is -és, for feminine, it is -ís, and for neuter, it is -ós. There are no exceptions to this rule.

The nominative singular of the athematic nouns is typically the bare stem. The nominative alone won't tell you the gender, but there are some tendencies. Masculine nouns often have a nominative singular in -s, attached to the bare stem. Neuters often have a bare stem in -n or -l. Other than this, there are few ways to tell.

Bare stems mainly end in -r (most common), -n, or -l. Less commonly -s and -th. Even less commonly -t. No other consonants appear.

Case Endings

Since this is the athematic declension, the case endings are typically attached directly to the stem. Where this cannot occur (due to violating Halvian phonological rules), either an <a> or the schwa <ë> will appear.

Here is a table of the basic case endings of the 4th declension:

Case	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	— (-s)	-e	-ēs
Genitive	-és, -ís, -ós	-ein	-ōm
Dative	-ei	-ein	-bos
Allative	-na	-de	-nes
Accusative	-n, -ën	-in	-ns, -ëns
Ablative	-ad	-ins	-īs
Vocative	—	-e	-es
Locative	-i	-isu	-su
Instrumental	-e	-bi	-bis
Essive	-se	-sein	-sinen

The nominative singular is typically bare stem, but -s does occur in some masculine forms.
The genitive and dative dual have collapsed into a single form.
The accusatives appear without the schwa only when the stem ends in -l or -r (in certain situations).
The vocative is no different from the nominative, expect in the plural, where the long ē becomes a short e.

Non-Ablauting Masculine Noun

Here is the declension of a simple, non-ablauting masculine noun with an -s nominative: sax, sagés - "opening"

Case	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	sax (sag-s)	ságe	ságēs
Genitive	sagés	ságein	ságōm
Dative	ságei	ságein	ságbos
Allative	ságna	ságde	ságnes
Accusative	ságën	ságin	ságëns
Ablative	ságad	ságins	ságīs
Vocative	sax	ságe	ságes
Locative	sági	ságisu	sáxu*
Instrumental	ságe	ságbi	ságbis
Essive	sáxe*	sáxein*	sáxinen*

*Think of these forms as: sag-su, sag-se, sag-sein, sag-sinen. Halvian turns <gs> and <ks> into <x> automatically.

Ablauting Stems

In the athematic declension, some nouns have roots that ablaut in the oblique cases. The oblique cases are those that are not nominative, accusative, vocative, or dative. The other cases are all considered oblique, from a Halvian perspective.

The rule is: if a noun has a single <o> in the stem, it will change to <e> in the obliques. If it has a long ē, it will shorten in the obliques.

For stems that end in -r, if the consonant before the vowel (in the form CVr) is a stop consonant, then it will have zero-grade in all instances except for when the ending begins with a consonant:

The feminine noun "dos, desís" meaning "flower", is an example of such a noun (with an "o"). Here is how it declines:

Case	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	dos	dóse	dósēs
Genitive	desís	désein	désōm
Dative	dósei	dósein	dóspos*
Allative	désna	désde	désnes
Accusative	dósën	dósin	dósëns
Ablative	désad	désins	désīs
Vocative	dos	dóse	dóses
Locative	dési	désisu	déssu
Instrumental	dése	déspi*	déspis*
Essive	désse	déssein	déssinen

*Halvian does not allow the combination <sb>. The /b/ is devoiced to /p/. <sd> is however, acceptable, in the allative dual.

Nouns in -r

For stems in -r, where the consonant before the final vowel is a stop, the declension looks like this:

gébor, gebrés - "speaker"

Case	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	gébor	gébre	gébrēs
Genitive	gebrés	gébrein	gébrōm
Dative	gébrei	gébrein	géborbos
Allative	géborna	géborde	gébornes
Accusative	gébrën	gébrin	gébrëns
Ablative	gébrad	gébrins	gébrīs
Vocative	gébor	gébre	gébres
Locative	gébri	gébrisu	géborsu
Instrumental	gébre	géborbi	géborbis
Essive	géborse	géborsein	gebórsinen

When the consonant before the final vowel of an -r stem is not a consonant, then there is no ablaut, and all the forms attach directly to the stem.

As you can see, this declension is somewhat idiosyncratic. But there is a method this madness.

Other Stems

Stems in -l are easy, since all the endings attach directly to the stem. A noun like tóriel, toríelos "ridge", will have forms like: toríelei (dat. sg.), toríele (ins. sg.), toríelad (abl. sg.), etc.

Stems in -n are also easy. All forms attach directly to the stem as well. A noun like sórgen, sorgenós, "dale, vale" will have forms like: sórgenei (dat. sg.), sórgena (voc. pl), sórgensu (loc. pl.), etc.

Stems in -th follow the same pattern as "dos" above (with or without ablaut). A noun like óriath, oríathes "world", will have forms like: oríathad (abl. sg.), oríathpos (dat. pl. - the b will devoice), oriáthën (acc. sg.)

Stems in -t are very rare. The only word I've created so far is kélupot, kelúpotos "marjoram". The main thing to look out for with this noun is with the endings that begin with -b, like the dative plural and instrumental dual and plural. <tb>, <td> and <tp> are all unacceptable, so Halvian just deletes the t altogether. The dative plural is thus kelúpobos (instead of *kelúpotbos, which is not a valid Halvian word). The allative dual would be kelúpode, etc.

[Koko]

Are there general patterns with stress change? Also, are there any minimal pairs in the nominative (by difference of stress) that become homophones in other cases?

I think the fourth declension is my favourite I like the athematicism (if that's a word ) of it and how the stem may change for some words.

[Mentilliath]

Are there general patterns with stress change? Also, are there any minimal pairs in the nominative (by difference of stress) that become homophones in other cases?

I think the fourth declension is my favourite I like the athematicism (if that's a word ) of it and how the stem may change for some words.

Thank you I like it for that reason as well. Latin and the other IE languages mostly got rid of this "athematicism" by things like making the consonant stems more like the i-stems or borrowing forms from thematic declensions, but I wanted it to be as athematic as possible.

As for the stress changes, the general rule is that the antepenultimate is stressed. However, the genitive singular ending is stressed by default, so you have sorgenós, instead of the more typical Halvian stress pattern: sórgenos. But in a word like "oríathes", even though the genitive ending is supposed to have the accent, it can't in this word because there cannot be three unaccented syllables prior to the accented one. Instead the second syllable gets the accent (primary stress) and the genitive ending has secondary stress (so it's more like "oríathès").

I haven't created any minimal pairs in the nominative that differ by stress, but I suppose something like that's possible. In general I try to avoid homophony as much as I can, though.

[Mentilliath]

A note on orthography: At this point, I'm no longer using <j> or <w> to write the semivowels. For now, they will simply be written as <i> and <u>.

Today I thought I'd mention the 3rd person personal pronouns. These are fun because they're so incredibly irregular

The forms are: so (he), sa (she), tod (it).

While Halvian is "pro-drop" in general, it's not quite as pro-drop as other languages that get that label, especially in the non-nominative cases of these pronouns. Therefore, they are used quite frequently and due to their irregular nature, they must be memorized. Here are the forms. I'm only covering singular and plural for now:

3rd Person Personal Pronoun

These pronouns are only declined in 8 cases. They have no vocative or essive forms. Halvian also has a separate gender-neutral pronoun, but I haven't quite completed its paradigms yet.

Masculine ("he", "they")

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	so	soi
Genitive	sósio	soísōm
Dative	sósmei	sóimos
Allative	sósna	sóze
Accusative	son	sons
Ablative	sósmead	soīs
Locative	sósmi	soísu
Instrumental	sónō	soíbi

Feminine ("she", "they")

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	sa	sās
Genitive	sósias	sásōm
Dative	sósiāi	sámos
Allative	sásna	sáze
Accusative	san	sans
Ablative	sásmead	saīs
Locative	sásmi	sásu
Instrumental	sē	sábi

Neuter ("it", "they")

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	tod	tā
Genitive	tósio	toísōm
Dative	tósmei	toímos
Allative	tósna	tóze
Accusative	tod	tā
Ablative	tósmead	toīs
Locative	tósmi	tósu
Instrumental	tónō	tōbi

While these pronouns can be omitted in the nominative if they are understood, they are typically not omitted in the other cases except in the most casual speech. These pronouns are also unique in that "so" and "sa" refer only to humans and highly animate nouns. "tod" refers to everything else. Even if the noun is masculine or feminine, if it's inanimate, you use "tod" to refer to it.

Example sentence that uses them all:

His sword--she was slain by it!

Hóntis sósio--sa tónō anétel!

sword-NOM he-GEN--she-NOM it-INS slay-AORIST.PASSIVE-3rd-sing.

This is sort of an atypical sentence--the genitive forms are usually not used as possessive adjectives, though in casual speech it happens. Typically they are reserved for objective and subjective uses of the genitive. There are separate possessive adjectives, though sometimes the genitive is used when two third person subjects are in play (to differentiate them--something English can't seem to do well).

Final note: each of these pronouns can be made emphatic (in the nominative only) by adding -pte to them:

sópte, sápte, tópte

These pronouns also form indefinite pronouns with the indefinite ending -per. They mean "any man/one", "any woman", "anything".

sóper, sáper, tópper

Anything goes.

Tópper ot.

anything-NOM go-3rd.sing.PRES.INJUNC.

[Koko]

A note on orthography: At this point, I'm no longer using <j> or <w> to write the semivowels. For now, they will simply be written as <i> and <u>.

How will you distinguish the semivowels from the vowels now though? Or were there silply too few minimal pairs that you decided it unnecessary to keep the orthographic difference?

Today I thought I'd mention the 3rd person personal pronouns. These are fun because they're so incredibly irregular

The nominative forms remind me of OE demonstratives (se, seo, <forget neuter>) And interesting… "sa" in Isyan is the first person singular pronoun!

These pronouns also form indefinite pronouns with the indefinite ending -per. They mean "any man/one", "any woman", "anything".

Tópper ot.

anything-NOM go-3rd.sing.PRES.INJUNC.

Ooh, nice use of the injunctive I've been trying to use it a lot more in Isyan.

[Mentilliath]

How will you distinguish the semivowels from the vowels now though? Or were there silply too few minimal pairs that you decided it unnecessary to keep the orthographic difference?

I realized there were too few minimal pairs. Words that begin with them, like iéntes ("four") and uórnos (axe) will be fine. In a word like ōwei (aorist of "go"), writing it ōuei is fine because if there are three vowels in a row like that, the middle one will always be pronounced as a semivowel.

My main reason for doing this is I was using them so infrequently that they really seemed more like variations of /i/ and /u/ rather than real separate phonemes (and I was using them almost exclusively in initial position and nowhere else). When I go over the 3rd and 5th declensions, it’ll be more obvious why I wanted to emphasize how closely associated with /i/ and /u/ they are. I also wanted to make it clear that /v/ and /w/ are unrelated in Halvian. /v/ is an original proto-sound that developed similarly to /θ/*, whereas /w/ is just the consonant form of /u/.

*/v/ never occurs word-finally like /θ/ does because Halvian has a rule that non-sonorant labials and velars cannot be word-final. Thus Halvian words can end in -t, -θ, or -d, but never -p, -b, -k-, -g, or -v.

The nominative forms remind me of OE demonstratives (se, seo, <forget neuter>) And interesting… "sa" in Isyan is the first person singular pronoun!

Yeah, the reconstructed IE demonstrative was the direct inspiration for these forms

Ooh, nice use of the injunctive I've been trying to use it a lot more in Isyan.

Thanks I'm finding the injunctive a very useful mood. Originally I thought it would be a seldom-used "fringe" mood, but it has a number of useful functions in Halvian.

[Koko]

That makes sense then that you would get rid of <j> and <w> Also, nice derivation of /v/ from */θ/. It's an interesting sound-change

And I think we are the only two who fanboy over the injunctive It is a seriously underrated mood

[Mentilliath]

It is. It should be in more languages than just Sanskrit. I first found out about it when I was going through my Sanskrit phase at the end of college. And reading that it might've been an original PIE mood fascinated me. In Halvian it really is a "miscellaneous" mood.

[Mentilliath]

Halvian color wheel (primary, secondary, and tertiary colors):



Halvian has unique names for the primary, secondary, and tertiary colors. There are also words for grey, brown, and pink, which are not shown here.

gānia = brown, chestnut, mahogany
zóhos = grey
tándar = pink, derived from tánda, "rose"

Note that the rose on the Halvian flag is magenta-colored rather than pink ('pink' here refers to a very pale pink). The Halvians refer to the rose on the flag as the "tánda ránax" or "magenta rose". ("Pink rose" in Halvian would be "tánda tandária".) Likewise, the flag itself is referred to as "posénna thássia" ("green flag") to distinguish it from other flags used.

The words are all unique lexemes, aside from three of the tertiary colors: "núrvanos" is derived from "nur", meaning "gold". "Vesíllos" is also the name of the indigo dye, and "pásmar" is also the name of vermilion dye. Other than that, the names are all unique lexemes for colors.