Eremoran Language

Eremoran written in native script.

Eremoran (Eremoran: Eremorôm IPA: [ə.ʀəˈmɔ.ħom]) is the language spoken in Eremor (Eremoran: Eremor IPA: [əˈʀɛ.məʀ]), an early iron age society in the rapidly changing continent of Pankair, on the planet Oneia. The world itself is fairly earthlike, with only minor differences. For ease of use in our world, I have also added an extracanonical dictionary supplement. There is also a webcomic in development.


History

Proto-Eremo-Numoran

The following table is constructed for Proto-Eremo-Numoran:

Labiovelar Alveolar Palatal Velar
*m *n
*b *t *d *tʃ *k *g
*ɸ *β *s *x
*l *r

PEN had 15 consonants and 7 vowels. There was likely no /p/ in Proto-Eremo-Numoran: it is totally absent in Numoran and many of the Eremoran words containing /p/ are known loans. In numoran, two of these vowels are lost, and /ʃ/ merged with /tʃ/.

Note that PEN had no pharyngeal consonants. Eremoran developed them under Pre-Eremoran influence, and under influence of the neighboring Takuan language family where they are common.

The syntax of Eremoran is probably the most divergent feature from other Muran languages. Proto-Muran was a strongly case-driven, genderless, strongly prepositional accusative language. Even as early as the PEN period, the language already lost many of these features.

PEN's parent proto-language, Proto-Muran, however, was a Nominative-Accusative language with eight cases, each of which is still extant in some Muran language. The word dir evolved from a PEN polite adjective *dir (originally, it could only refer to Humans) which was supplanted by the loan ou, from Pre-Eremoran *po. This adjective then marked human verb arguments, but the meaning broadened being an optional absolutive marker, but by Old Eremoran it then became mandatory.

PEN lost almost all traces of its case system, with the only inflection being in personal pronouns, for the nominative and accusative cases. By PEN the first traces of Eremoran's current prepositions can be found: *si (Dative; lost by Old Eremoran), *su (Genitive), and *xêd (Locative). In Numoran these became suffixes, but in Eremoran these became postpositions.

But not all changes were reductions in complexity. PEN began to decline adjectives, unlike other Muran languages, declining them to gender and possibly case (but this is disputed). By PEN, there were three genders: Masculine (*-r), Feminine (*-rre), and Non-human (*-Ø). The human suffixes seem to be related to the agentive suffix (*-êr), but the exact relation, and whether this is a coincidence, is difficult to ascertain, especially since all three morphemes seem to be a PEN innovation.

PEN also had a rather intricate system of counter words, many of which became new genders in its daughter languages, particularly Numoran. In Numoran, many of these counters replaced the singular-plural distinction which was lost in PEN. Proto-Muran distinguished number in personal pronouns, humans, most animate nouns, and a handful of inanimate nouns. In PEN, like in Proto-Muran, adjectives and verbs were not inflected for number.

PEN also significantly reduced Proto-Muran's complex system of verbal conjugation and verbal clitics. By PEN, the clitics totally vanished, and verbs only conjugated for three forms - nonpast, past, and conjunctive. While Numoran continues to use these forms, Eremoran merged the other two into the conjunctive form. This contrasts sharply with other Muran languages, which all retain the active/mediopassive voice distinction, two past tenses, and deontic and potential moods.

Proto-Muran contained ten vowels: a e i o u, plus their long counterparts, all of which are still distinguished by contemporary Muran: â (Muran šagâb / Eremoran heka "downpour") ê î (Muran / Eremoran hi "tooth") ô û (Muran / Eremoran mu "water"). PEN merged the short and long vowels aside from ê and ô.

Pre-Eremoran Influence

Many of the features of contemporary Eremoran, in contrast with other Muran languages, can be traced to the effect of the Pre-Eremoran substrate: politeness distinction, the negative prefix, the reorganization of the numeral system into groups of five, the numerals six to nine, the wholesale borrowing of the Pre-Eremoran writing and numeral system, penultimate stress as the default (other Muran languages have antepenultimate or lexical stress instead), the presence of /p/, and about 5% of the basic lexicon. The development of uvular R is thought to have also been influenced by the presence of /q/ in Pre-Eremoran. In addition, the loss of negative concord and the use of the particles stôd and nost as comparatives instead of the PEN particle *narm were also influenced by Pre-Eremoran.

Feature PM PEN Numoran Eremoran Pre-Eremoran
Labials /m b ɸ β/ /m b~β f/ /m b p f/ /m p w/
Uvulars none /ʀ/ /q/
Stress Initial Antepenultimate* Unpredictable Penultimate
Politeness no distinction Four Tiers Three Tiers
Numeral System Base-10 Hybrid Base-5/100 Base-20
Six, Seven, Eight, Nine *xagu, *say, *kau, *gaβâ *xagu, *saiu, *kau, *gaβu xáyo, sáyo, kwe, gábo elmnu, klimu, triksu, talsu ēlmenus, akalīnus, chiknus, talnus
Negative Concord Yes No
Comparative Particle (*narm) Particle (nan) Locative (stôd) Locative (ta)
Writing System (none) West Važcudic South Važcudic

Sound Changes

The following are known sound changes, arranged roughly from oldest to newest.
From Proto-Eremo-Numoran to Old Eremoran:

From Old Eremoran to Eremoran (ie. these sound changes were recorded):

Comparison between Proto-Eremo-Numoran, Eremoran, and Numoran:

English Eremoran Numoran Proto-Eremo-Numoran
beer bornat
/ˈbɔħ.nət/
/ˈbweɾ.nax/ /ˈβɔr.naxt/
hammer bolent
/ˈbɔ.lənt/
/ˈbwe.ʎen/ /ˈβɔ.lɛnt/
health henlôm
/ˈɛn.lom/
/ˈsjen.lo/ /ˈsɛn.lom/
knowledge afêkam
/əˈfe.kəm/
/aˈfe.kwe/ /ˈa.ɸe.kɔm/
person mor
/mɔħ/
/mweɾ/ /mɔr/
red ereu
/əˈʀɛu̯/
/ˈe.ɾjew/ /ˈɛ.rɛ.u/
sight saurom
/sau̯.ʀəm/
/ˈsjaw.ɾɔ/ /siˈa.u.rɔm/
that ho
/ɔ/
/swe/ /sɔ/

Future

Phonological Future

The phonology is simultaneously simplifying and complexifying. In terms of simplification, there is the total loss of [h], And merger of e/o into a or ê/ô depending on stress. In addition, /r/ is merging with /l/ or combining with other consonants. Eg. onset /k(l)/ → [g]. Onset and coda sC → C, and coda C(s/z) → C.

In terms of complexification, various combinations of plosive + R are turning into velarized/uvularized plosives, depending on speaker and region. Coda VN is turning into vowel nasalization. Coda /l/ drops. CiV, CeV → CjV (palatalization).

The language is also undergoing a shift from a stress accent to a pitch accent, and transitioning towards moraic timing instead of syllablic timing. Codaless syllables are one mora, those with codas are two.

This reduces the maximal syllable structure down to (C)V(C), eliminates two vowels, and introduces several new consonant phonemes. Perhaps, then, in the future, the inventory will look like this (excl. palatalization):

Labial Alveolar Dorsal
Nasal m n
Plosive b4 t d k2 ~ g1
"Approximant" w1 1 ʁ1
Fricative f3 s z
  1. Only Syllable-initially
  2. Only Syllable-finally
  3. Word-medially
  4. Not word-finally

Morphologic and Syntactic Future

OSV word order, once rare, is becoming increasingly common. In colloquial speech, agents of transitive clauses are mandatorily topicalized, leading the topic marker i to turn instead into an ergativity marker. As adjectives are shifting to after nouns, so too is the absolutive marker dir. And as i is increasingly used as an ergative marker, it is increasingly common to cliticize them to nouns, yielding mori and mordir. With the impending sound changes, these result in moi and modi. The use of udou as a mandatory plural marker is also increasing. This leads to actual, real noun inflection:

Singular Plural Origin
ABS modi modozikti + dir + udoz i ko dir
ERG moi modoziki + i + udoz i ko i
GEN mosu modoziksu + -(i)su + udoz i ko -(i)su
LAT modazik modazikto + ad-az i ko + ad-az ko-udo

Due to the loss of /r/, The first noun class collapses into the fourth. With additional confusion brought on by the new adjective construction, this will (in the future, of course) cause the loss of the noun class system.

Phonology

Letter frequencies of Eremoran words.

There are 11 consonants, and 7 vowels in Eremoran. Vowels change quality based on stress. Stress is invariably penultimate. /i u/ do not reduce word-finally.

Labial Alveolar Dorsal Glottal
m n
(p) b t d k
f s z ʀ (h)
l

Writing Stressed Unstressed
a a a ə
e e ɛ ə
ê ê e e
i i i ɪ
o o ɔ ə
ô ô o o
u u u ʊ

Dialects

Map of Eremoran Dialects
The primary pronounciation of the rhotic in contemporary Eremoran.
The usage of /ħ/.

The following remarks apply to all dialects: The following remarks apply to the capital dialect, the focus of this writing, but not necessarily others: The following remark applies to dialects north of low rural southern: The following remarks apply to northern dialects: The following remark applies to the Abbakarm/Lake dialects: The following remarks apply to the Zestim-Embemmu (Bend-Highbrook) dialect:

Phylogenetic tree:

Phonotactics

Acceptable consonant clusters:

This results in 4,928 possible syllables.

Almost every sequence of two vowels is possible and attested, although double vowels are not permitted, including combinations of eê and oô. Sequences of more than two vowels are also impossible, and combinations of (a, e, o) + (e, o) are also impossible: when these would occur, a contraction of the weakest vowel happens instead. In addition, the combinations oe and eo are also forbidden. (e, o) followed by a is only allowed within a morpheme when the a is the final vowel. When formed by chance as a compound, there is no such restriction.

Curiously, /s z/ followed by /o ô/ is exceedingly rare, much rarer than by chance alone, despite them being a perfectly valid combination of phonemes. Perhaps to Eremorans this sound combination is dysphonic.

Here is a table showing permissible places for a consonant within a word. Green = common, Yellow = rare (<2.5%), Red = impossible.

Word
Phoneme Initial Medial Final
/m/
/b/
/p/
/f~h/
/n/
/t/
/d/
/s/
/z/
/l/
/k/
/r/

Acceptable onsets: (Green = attested, Red = impossible; rare onsets have examples on hover)

↓C1C2 m b p f~h n t d s z l k r
Ø m b p f~h n t d s z l k r
b br
p pr
t tr
d dr
s sp st sk
k kl kr

Acceptable codas: (Green = attested, Yellow = theoretical, Red = impossible; rare codas have examples on hover)

↓C1C2 m b p f n t d s z k r l
Ø m b p f n t d s z k r l
m mz
b bz
p ps
n nt nz nk
t ts
d dz
s st sk
l lm lt lz lk
k ks
r rm rt rz rk

Acceptable vowel sequences: (Green = attested, Yellow = theoretical, Red = impossible)

↓C1C2 i ê e a o ô u
i ii ie ia io iu
ê êi êê êe êa êo êô êu
e ei ee ea eo eu
a ai ae aa ao au
o oi oe oa oo ou
ô ôi ôê ôe ôa ôo ôô ôu
u ui ue ua uo uu

Orthography

There are nineteen symbols in the Eremoran orthography. The orthography is very regular, but there are some irregular spellings. A common instance is when /z/ derived from /ts/ like in hans, pronounced hanz, and balis, pronounced baliz. Occasionally, a word changed sound but the old spelling was preserved to eliminate confusion, such as nub, pronounced nu.

In addition, it is standard to spell the verb ending z, even if it's actually /s/, like in afêkz, and kopz.

Although the orthography is more often written top-to-bottom, left-to-right, it is still common to write it left-to-right, top-to-bottom, like English.

History

The Eremoran writing system is derived from the logosyllabary of the Pre-Eremorans. Initially it used it as a syllabary and had complex rules for isolated consonants, but over time scribes stuck to the /a/-set, creating an abjad. This was then supplemented with vowels, creating a true alphabet.

Letters

The order of the alphabet generally moves from back to front in place of articulation, and from fricatives to plosives to nasals, with unvoiced consonants coming first. However, liquids were left at the end, then vowels were added, and the loan-letter for /p/ was re-borrowed (compare the symbol for /h/).

Phoneme Carving Ink
k /k/ letters of the eremoran alphabet
s /s/
z /z/
t /t/
d /d/
n /n/
h /h/
b /b/
m /m/
r /ʀ/
l /l/
a /a/
e /e/
o /o/
ê /ê/
ô /ô/
i /i/
u /u/
p /p/

Abbreviations

Common calligraphic abbreviations of endings.

It is common in writing or in other places where space is a valued commodity to abbreviate words by taking the first letter and putting a dot or small stroke in its upper-right corner (similar to an acute accent), or by taking the first and last letters and putting a small stroke between the letters (similar to an apostrophe). Common abbreviations include:

Word Abbreviations
ad A,
bo B,
din D,N
dir D,R
D,
hod H,
id I,
ku K,
mok M,
ne N,
su S,
tômz T,Z
uid U,

Morphology

Affixes

Syntax

Adpositions

Clarification:

Verbs

Eremoran verbs do not inflect to person, number, or tense. However, they do inflect to aspect and mood, among other things.

Experiential Verbs

Experiential verbs are a special verb class in Eremoran, generally correspoding to verbs having to do with thoughts and sensations. These have quirks in their function somewhat analogous to English's ergative verbs. In intransitive use, the subject, inflected as an absolutive is the sensation experienced. In transitive use, this is also the subject, but inflected as an ergative, and the being experiencing the sensation is the direct object inflected as an absolutive. Although it is more natural to gloss the transitive form into English as an active verb, it perhaps more closely aligns with a passive English verb in meaning.

Horses need water.
Mu dir ek kalz
Water is needed.
Dir mu kalz

The experiential verbs of Eremoran are as follows: afêkz, bakaz, banz, etoz, kalz, manaz, naz, saurz, and sazaz, and some their derivatives, including banbanz, kaldoz, and subanbanz. Experiential verbs have been a closed class for a long time; therefore, recent loans like kopz and pankuz, and their derivatives like kopdoz and pankudoz, function normally.

A good rule of thumb in determining whether a verb is experiential is to ask whether the relation expressed by the verb is self-evident to an observer, or if it requires omniscience.

Subordination

There are many verbs that, unlike their English translations, do not permit subordination. These include the verbs for know (afêkz) and say/tell (rôz). Instead, the appropriate evidential is used.

I know that Eremor is in Pankair.
Eremor i Pankair ad ômôrz
Ker said that the wolves are eating.
Lusik i Ker hal namz morôz

There is no subordination for wish/hope either. The optative suffix -kaldoz is used instead. There is also no subordination for think/believe - the opinion evidential eto is used instead.

I hope that the ghost will leave.
tukilk i berbakikaldoz
I think that the painter is gay*.
raêr i êksor eto

In fact, Eremoran does not permit any sort of content clauses whatsoever. However, it does permit relative clauses.

Relative clauses are double-headed. The relative clause itself is construed as the sentence topic, and the main clause follows naturally. Adverbial clauses use almost identical structuring.

The pet dog is biting the cat that ate the mouse.
Rurauk dir kôbenk namz i dir rurauk busk trikz.

Aspects

Eremoran Meaning
~ ad Prospective
~ dô Continuous
-fkaz Inchoative
-kudz Terminative
~ mok Perfect
~ momtantan Habitual
-tônz Defective
~ urarz Gnomic

Moods

Eremoran Meaning
-kaldoz Optative

Evidentials

Eremoran Meaning
eto Opinion
morôz Hearsay
omôrz Visual non-alone
tan Deductive
umôrz Visual alone

Other Verb Inflection

Eremoran Meaning
-kiz (indicates intent)
-(o)boz Intensive
-kunz Venitive (non-productive)
-sudôz Causative
-ubz (indicates non-intent)

Derivation

Blends

Blends are a somewhat common manner of derivation in Eremoran. Most commonly, the beginning of one word is attached to the end of another. This type of word formation is especially common if there is overlap in phonetic segments. Rarely, the stressed nucleus in one word places that of the other:

Type Examples
Beginning + End abbakarm aberet abubit batlim belaêr betlek dômosôm ekar habeka habu husêdzak idkaz kamurz kika kunk kusan lel libabin lutbak marabin marama nasudôz sazam sirez sud tasku
Interior hulbe

Nominals

Topicalization

In Eremoran, one can choose between a few types of sentence structures, with this approximate distinction:

lusik dir arêôk saurz A wolf sees a/the cow
lusik i dir arêôk saurz The wolf sees a/the cow
arêôk i lusik saurz The cow is seen by a/the wolf
dir arêôk lusik saurz A cow is seen by a/the wolf

That is, topics that are old information tend to be marked with i, and topics that are new information tend to use their alignment marking.

However, there are several structures that require the use of i regardless, most notably complex relative clauses, described later.

Personal Pronouns

Personal pronouns are generally avoided, but when used, they refer to the relative social status of the speaker and listener. In increasing order of politeness:

Relative Social Rank Gender Word Etymology
disrespectful A utôzmêr utôzmu + -êr
to an inferior A melar mor + ela
to an equal A omor o- + mor
A mar mat + -r; influenced by mara
F ôkar o- + okar
X okek o- + kek
to a superior A kair -kair
A omôr o- + mo- + o- + -r
A oker o- + ker
X môk mo- + o- + -k

Intimate equals tend to use neutral pronouns with each other. Upper-class folk unfamiliar with each other often instead stick to formal pronouns. Between classes, the higher class individual is referred to with the formal pronouns, and lower class with informal pronouns. Employer-employee and customer-host relations are treated similarly to class divides.

Because of their neutrality, the neutral pronouns are often used, like English "you", as indefinite pronouns meaning "one".

As stated above, pronouns are generally avoided. It is common to use names or job titles as a circumlocution, especially among children.

Third Person Personal Pronouns

Third person personal pronouns, if they can be called that, are generally formed with hor + okar, êkar, mor, etc. depending on necessity.

Formal Personal Pronouns

-kair is often used as a polite address, comparable to "mister" and "miss", or "sir" and "madam". While it is occasionally used as a pronoun itself, this has become uncommon.

omôr is the most common and neutral polite pronoun.

oker would only be used to refer to a superior, like an employer, master, or a liege. It is not, unlike omôr, used to refer to the customer in customer-host relations, or between unfamiliar aristocrats. The choice between oker and omôr is usually dictated by the superior, to their whim.

môk is used to refer to deities, but only by the clergy. Layfolk use the neutral okek instead.

Possession

Attributive Possession

Attributive possession is quite simple. The possessor is given a suffix that declines identically to regular adjectives:

mormosuk busk The person's dog
bôkbôsu krifan The chicken's wing

They can even be catenated:

tanasbêsuk bôsu krifan The elder's chicken's wing

A small caveat: properties are not considered possession in Eremoran. So the following phrase is ungrammatical:

len* lenisum tukum The rock's name

For properties and relations, you must use su instead:

lenlen su tukum The rock's name

Predicative Possession

There are four constructions for possession depending on the animacy of the possessor, and the topic of the clause.

X has Y
Animate Possessor Topic X i dir Y
Animate Possessor Comment Y i (X kul) mid
Inanimate Possessor Topic X ad i dir Y
Inanimate Possessor Comment Y i X ad

Adjectives

For the most part, adjectives in Eremoran are very simple to understand. Like English, they precede the nouns they modify. The uninflected forms of regular adjectives (class 4) end in -u (or, for some determiners, another vowel):

ereu, talsu, kôbensu

Adjectives modifying class 1, 2, 3, and 5 nouns agree with their noun, and use the same marker as that noun:

ereut afêst, talsum bêm, kôbensur mor

There are two important irregularities to watch out for. The first is undeclinable adjectives, which end in a consonant:

id afêst, hans bêm

There second, rarer type is the s-triggering adjectives. These include all adjectives of age (eg. muk), shape (eg. zesti), and size (eg. ela), except dou and udou since those evolved from a quantity word, and endu and undu, since those evolved from an altitude word. Examples include:

tar saskaskru muk saskaskru nub sormor kusan sormor

In the category also existed opinion adjectives, but those have long since regularized.

Care must be taken with numerals and plural quantifiers. When the numeral precedes the quantifier, it indicates the total. For example, "one all" = "each", and "two all" = "each pair". When it follows the quantifier, it indicates the set is being considered in groups of that size. For example, "all one" = "all one", and "all two" = "all two". For other determiners, however, the numeral always follows the determiner.

Adjective Tool

*

Numbers

Integers in Eremoran are a hybrid Base 5/Base 100 system. For numbers under 100 it follows a strict Base 5 system, albeit with special names for the numbers 6-9. Numbers from 75 to 99 are constructed predictably but the pattern abruptly ends at 100, which instead of being *babzananu is instead sesu. The system then goes by powers of 100; 10,000 is sesesu, 1,000,000 is sesesesu, and so on.

The numbers 11-14 are also traditionally irregular, although it is increasingly common to instead regularize them.

The fractional parts of numbers, however, are strictly decimal. It is common to say hanu edzam to mean five parts of something, ie. half of something. Equally common would be to say nasisam. Likewise, one can say id edzam or nasanisam to mean one tenth.

Higher powers of ten are expressed with ordinal suffixes to edzam. edznasisam, or second part, would mean one hundredth. Pi to two digits would thus be kumku id edzam babzu edznasisam, but it might be faster to simply say kumku klimisam. Alterntively, one could also say kumku tambabzu edznasisam.

  1. id
  2. nasu
  3. kumku
  4. babzu
  5. hanu
  6. elmnu
  7. klimu
  8. triksu
  9. talsu
  10. nasanu
  11. nasanu id (or tanid, from tan "after" + id "one"; ie. "one after (ten)")
  12. nasanu nasu (or tanasu, from tan "after" + nasu "two"; ie. "two after (ten)")
  13. nasanu kumku (or tankumku, from tan "after" + kumku "three"; ie. "three after (ten)")
  14. nasanu babzu (or tambabzu, from tan "after" + babzu "four"; ie. "four after (ten)")
  15. kumkanu
  16. babzanu
  17. hananu
  18. nasananu
  19. kumkananu
  20. kumkananu babzanu babzu
  21. sesu

In writing, Eremoran uses a base-20 system. The numbers 0-19 are as follows:

0123456789abcdefghij

The digits are written left-to-right. Fractions of the form 1/n are represented as a line under n. Fractions that cannot be represented this way, eg. 2/5, are written as a sum of fractions, eg. 55.

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Yes-No

Formality Yes No Etymology
Casual ok dadal Eye dialect spelling of holk
from dadal 'ash; dust'
Neutral holk uid ho + -lk
u- + id
Formal hona PEN *ɸona

Reactives

Eremoran typically distinguishes adjectives from adverbs very well, unlike colloquial English. Most uninflected adjectives end in -u, and most adverbs end in -lk, with very little exception. But there is a small class that lies in an awkward space in between. These are the reactives - defôz, haia, nen, and obo. Like adverbs, they come after what they modify. Unlike adverbs, however, they can modify nouns in addition to verbs. Like adjectives, these do not split adpositions from the nouns they modify. In the dictionary, most of these are listed as particles except defôz, which is traditionally classified as a verb despite its contemporary usage.

When modifying a clause, reactives tell the listener that the speaker experienced the reaction from that situation. Likewise, when modifying a noun phrase, reactives tell the listener that the existence of the noun phrase elicited that reaction.

Because of this use with noun phrases, the reactive obo is commonly used where other languages would use words like lo and behold.

While the structure of defôz clearly indicates it derives from a verb, and nen appears to be an old reduplicated form of ne, the ultimate origin of the remaining reactives is elusive. They appear even in the oldest texts, alongside adjectives and adverbs, and even then do not bear obvious structural similarities to any other word class or inflected form.

Vocab

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Full List

There are currently about 2,000 words in the dictionary. Note: the syllabification in the IPA is not always accurate, because of bugs. Do not take it on face value.

Locations

While toponyms can be of any noun class, reflecting their roots, in practice, 2nd class toponyms do not exist, and 4th class toponyms make up the majority. Many locations are simply formed dithematically:

First component:

Either component:

Second component:

* Generate a toponym ( possible)

Names

Dithematic names are pervasive in Eremoran culture, and they form the vast majority of names. Nonetheless, single-component names like Ker and loans like Iur are somewhat common as well. Family names come before given names, but are generally only used by the nobility. Common components are as follows:

First component:

Either component:

Second component:

* Generate a name ( possible; family name first)

Key Categories

Adpositions

Eremoran English Latin
ad at, by, during, for, into, onto, plus, to, towards, until, up to, while ad, adusque, apud, dum, gratia, in, ob, pro, super, usque, vorsum
bo using, with per
din because of, beyond, minus, out of clam, clanculum, ex, extra, praeter, trans, uls, ultra
dir [Absolutive Case Marker]
divided by, in cis, in, intro
hal according to, in accordance with cata, iuxta, penes, secundum, specie, vice
i [Topic Marker]
it as opposed to, instead of, in contrast to, rather than contra, erga, exadversum, secus
ke - -
ku times, with cum
kul about, around, concerning, near, next to circa, circiter, circum, iuxta, prope, re
mo before, behind ante, pone, post, prae
nad as qua
nost below, under infra, sub, subter
stôd on, atop, upon, on top of super, supra
su of de
sud chez apud
tan after, in front of ante, coram, palam, post, prae
uku without absque, sine

Correlatives

what this that1 that2 none some3
what / who nau ko hoki ho una nana
where kinam kikom kiokim kiom kiunam kinanam
how hoz hofoz hônaz honanaz
why bainam ur -
what kind of temêmonam tôu
how much kusanam -
whose4 nasu

Notes:

  1. medial
  2. distal
  3. number-indifferent; use id to refer to one certain thing
  4. also: whereof, but primarily what-th (ie. first, second, nth)

Phrasebook

English Eremoran
Hello! Hey! Hi! Henlôm
Uzurkum rilm
Goodbye! Henlôm
Gesundheit! Bless you! Henlôm
Zikrômbor berbakaldoz
Cheers! Henlôm
Ukumut mumat
Please, ~! ~ hod tômz
Thank you! Uzurkelau
Sorry! liba berbakaldoz as
Excuse me! berbakaldoz
Nice to meet you! Uzurkum salim
Good morning! Uzurkum dam
Goodnight! Uzurkum urilm
Darn! Dang! Utôzdmu
I'm lost. Salitamaz
Please, help! Hakz hod tômz
I'm very sick/hurt. dir zurkum defôz
My ~ hurts. dir zurkum ~ ad
Call the police! dir afêssaur tukukaldoz
You are very beautiful. omor i hai uzurkelaur
I love you. dir omor kopz
What is your name? Tukum ne
Tukum i dir naum ne
My name is ~. Tukum i ~
Where are you from? Ad kinam din dôkaz ne
I am from ~. Ad ~ din dôkaz
How are you? Hoz afkaz ne
I am well. Uzurkulk afkaz
I am unwell. Zurkulk afkaz
How old are you? hoz udoum skum ne
I am ~ years old ~ skum
How do you say ~ in Eremoran? ~ i eremorôm bo dir nau ne
Do you speak Eremoran? Eremorôm i afêkz ne
Eremorôm i rôtômz ne
Where is ~? ~ i kinam ad ne
~ is here. ~ i kikom ad
Where is the nearest hotel? kuludoid dodemat i kinam ad ne
How do I get to ~? ~ i kinam bo ne
You can get to ~ through ~~. ~ i ~~ bo tômz
Is anyone here a doctor? kikom ad i dir henlôsudôêr ne
Where does it hurt? zurkum i kinam ad ne
How much does it cost? purrum i naum ne
Would you like to play chess? dir bat nomkaldoz ne
Do you want to go to a ~? ad ~ afkakaldoz ne
... bar? bibimat
... brothel? bimat
... forest? lilire
... hotel? dodemat
... smithy? aramaêmat

Samples

EN ER
They say a cat went onto the table. Rurauk i ad abat afkaz morôz.
Did a cat go onto the table? Rurauk i ad abat afkaz ne.
Wouldn't it be interesting if a cat got onto the table? Rurauk i ad abat afkaz nen.
Maybe a cat went onto the table. Rurauk i ad abat afkaz kasraz.
A cat went onto the table. Rurauk i ad abat afkaz.
A cat did not go onto the table. Rurauk i ad abat afkaz uid.
A cat is on the table. Rurauk i abat ad.
A cat is not on the table. Rurauk i abat ad uid.

Farming advice from Eremorans:

EN ER
Consult astrologers for the best sowing dates. Uzurkudoid stum su rilm i dir sisikruêr dinkalz.
If you are cold, your plants are, too; if you are hot, your plants are, too. Raur hod, bima batu. Sour hod, bima batu.

Translation Challenges

Note: Upper IPA is educated speech, analogous to RP or the Transatlantic dialects of English, and the lower IPA is the hip, trendy youthspeak.

From an unknown challenge. Audio recording from Tariq-bey

Henlôm i   anom        su  ad  kalom baim   didulk dan.
truth  TOP imagination GEN DAT lack  excuse just   usually
/ˈ(h)ɛn.lom i ˈa.nom su ad ˈga.ləm bai̯m ˈdi.ðʊʕʷk dan/
/ˈen.lõ i ˈa.nõ su at ˈka.ləm paĩ̯ ˈti.zukʰ tã/
The truth is usually just an excuse for a lack of imagination.

Python.

Udouk addzalk omor su  skôkiêt  ad  defôz!
PL    eel     1    GEN fly:tool LOC INT
/ˈu.ðʊk ˈad.dzəʕʷk ˈɔ.məʀʷ su  ˈskok.jet  ad  ˈdɛ.foz/
/ˈu.zukʰ ˈat.tsukʰ ˈo.mo su  ˈskʰokʰ.jetʰ  at  ˈte.foz/
My hovercraft is full of eels!

The one ring's inscription.

Id abu i dir hans baz, id abu i saliz,
Id abu i dir hans saliz, urilm dô barz ku.
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.

From an Ithkuil sample.

Dir puhafêkur bukêr maiusêr su nuhisêm kul tar sirinam dir saliz
	tan libofkaz.
dir puhafêkur        bukêr          maiusêr     su  nuhisêm
kul   tar sirinam        dir saliz tan   libofkaz

ABS NEG:know:ADJ:AGR clothing:'-er' silly:'-er' GEN nude:NMLZ
about new AGR~order:NMLZ ABS find  after cry<INCH>

The incompetent tailor began to cry after finding out about
the clowns’ new directive on nakedness.

Pangrams:

Perfect pangrams:

Ho nubêr it spem dô kalz.
"In change, that, instead of the infant, seeks."

Numêr hal bi kot dô spez.
"According to a courier, leaves change things in shields."

Holk, ô, id bêm tan spez.
"Yeah, anyways, change after one period."

Ur, holk, andôt i bêm spez.
"So, yeah, age changes the oven."

Hisk mo bêtu len dô parz.
"It chops behind a crow, in a loyal stone."

Ô, krum hal tobê din spez.
"Anyways, according to science, things change from sticks."

Mus din betlaêr kopz hô.
"Longswordsmen from flotsam love rather much."

Pi, holk, temêr sudôz ban.
"Ooh, shiny^1 !, Yeah, father doesn't do anything at all."
^1 I have no idea how to translate this, but it's an onomatopoeia.

Ô, bêm sparz hod, tukil ne?
"Anyways, if the era supports it, what about wind?"

Spart môlz hod ube, kinê.
"Nor if the fountation wakes you, reeds."

Halku tobê dinrôz: spem!
"An important stick announces: change!"

~~~~

Honorable Mentions:

Tobê i rilm spez dan hô ku.
"And days are changed by sticks rather often."
(only one letter is duplicated: i)

~~~~

Pemik i betlaêr sudôz hona.
"Snakes are indeed made by the longswordsman."
All letters of the Eremoran alphabet appear at least once; only a, e, and i appear twice.

~~~~

Many pangrams rely on the root spe- (change) because it contains the uncommon letter p, only found in loanwords.

Bible quotes:

Kek i dir Mosear "môk i môk" bo rôz.
Umor i dir Israela din elaêr "Dir id habiz i id dinbamz mok."
	bo rôtamaz ur.
Exod. 3:14
And God said unto Moses: 'I AM THAT I AM'; and He said:
'Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel:
	I AM hath sent me unto you.'
Recording of the following
Liba su dir bueba parz hod, arz uid dimok ur.
Deut. 10:16
Circumcize therefore the foreskin of your heart,
	and be no more stiffnecked.

Oompa Loompa songs

Augustus Gloop:
Original
My Rendition
Umpar, Lumpar, dumpar-di-êm
Oompa  Loompa  doompa-dee-doo

Ad elaêr lada uku hakiêm
for children flaw without puzzle

Umpar, Lumpar, dumpar-di-diz
Oompa  Loompa  doompa-dee-dee

Skusaur hod, dir Lumpar nakiz 
wise    if   ABS Loompa listen
----------
Dir amelat bolz i dir naum addôkaz ne?
ABS sweets devour TOP ABS what happen Q

Udouk mananuk namz hal namz i
big elephant eat like eat TOP

Ad bainam hitufkaz sazabôz ne?
for why   "get fat" extremely Q  

Hokim dir naum bôz erôz ne?
that ABS what cause "you think" Q
----------
Kom su sarsêm i zurkum
this GEN look TOP "don't like"
----------
Umpar, Lumpar, dumpar-di-daz
Oompa, Loompa, doom-pa-dee-da

Arzênmonz uid hod, tanafkaz
greedy    not if   advance

Pankum ad habiz batu
happiness in live too

Kor hal, Umpar, Lumpar, dumpar-di-du
us  like Oompa  Loompa  doompa-dee-do

Dumpar-di-du
Doompa-dee-do
Oompa, Loompa, doompa-dee-do
I've got a perfect puzzle for you
Oompa, Loompa, doompa-dee-dee
If you are wise, you'll listen to me

What do you get when you guzzle down sweets?
Eating as much as an elephant eats
What are you at getting terribly fat?
What do you think will come of that?

I don't like the look of it

Oompa, Loompa, doom-pa-dee-da
If you're not greedy, you will go far
You will live in happiness too
Like the Oompa, Loompa, doompa-dee-do
Doompa-dee-do

Fiziwig

EN ER Gloss
The sun shines. Dir ril siz. ABS sun shine
The sun is shining.
The sun shone.
The sun will shine.
The sun has been shining.
The sun is shining again. Dir ril siz nasisulk. ABS sun shine again
The sun will shine tomorrow. Dir ril siz addam. ABS sun shine tomorrow
The sun shines brightly. Dir ril siz siulk. ABS sun shine bright-ADV
The bright sun shines. Siu dir ril siz. bright ABS sun shine
The sun is rising now. Dir ril rankenz mok. ABS sun rise now
All the people shouted. Hans mor i tukuz. all person TOP shout
Many of the people shouted twice. Udour mor i tukuz nasulk. many-AGR person TOP shout two-ADV
Happy people often shout. Pankur mor tukuz momtantan. happy-AGR person shout HAB
The kitten jumped up. Ruraudok i kumz. cat<DIM> TOP jump
The kitten jumped onto the table. Ruraudok i ad abat kumz. cat<DIM> TOP DAT table jump
My little kitten walked away. Omosuk ruraudok i kraz ôdulk. 1:POSS:AGR cat<DIM> TOP walk away
It's raining. Hafaz. rain
The rain came down. Dir hafa tritaiz. ABS rain fall
The kitten is playing in the rain. Ruraudok i hafa dô nomz. kitten TOP rain LOC play
Many little girls with wreaths of flowers on their heads danced around the bonfire. Udour dir iktêdor ho su tô dô seba su - ku ardoudot kul kumkuz. many-AGR ABS girl<DIM> DET head INE flower GEN wreath COM fire<AUG> CIRC dance
The crow dropped some pebbles into the pitcher and raised the water to the brim. Hisk i nanau dir lendo ad mumat tritaisudôz ku dir mu ad imô rankensudôz. crow TOP some ABS rock-DIM DAT water-container-[class 3] fall<CAUS> and ABS water DAT edge rise<CAUS>

Learn Eremoran

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Memes

Kok i bak.
Mok i nasuk.
Ô hek, sudôz as.
Dir monanar tukuz dasulk.

A Learner's Rant

Welcome to the Eremoran language, where the antonym of duck is brick, where before means after and after means before, despite the words being antonymous in both English and Eremoran, where yesterday and tomorrow are the same word, but ereyesterday and overmorrow are different words, and the absolutive is inexplicably an adjective. Where the direct object is in the absolutive, unless hands performed the action, in which case it can also be in the genitive. Which am I supposed to use? What do you mean "whichever makes sense"? How am I supposed to know that?!

Where two topic markers is "confusing" but two absolutives can be "easily resolved by context". Where when an action is performed is irrelevant, but the duration, repetition, and other temporal aspects are apparently vital. Where double negatives are ungrammatical unless an adverb is involved. Where you could swear the only postpotition used is "ad", a-

Wait, did you just use it as a preposition? You mean it can be both? What do you mean, "it totally changes the meaning"?

Why does the word for one usually refer to multiple things?

How does subordination work again? What do you mean "it depends on the verb", I simply want to use subordination with "know" or "want" or something. What do you mean those don't subordinate???

Why is there no relative pronoun in this relative clause? What do you mean there aren't relative pronouns? I have to say the topic TWICE?!?!

Misc. Statistics

WALS

ID State Reason Dialect Info/Etc. Notes
1A Small 11 < 15 as few as 9 and as many as 13
2A Large 7 > 6 as few as 5
3A Low 1.57 < 2 as low as 1.29 and as high as 2.4
4A In both plosives and fricatives t-d and s-z
5A Both missing /p g/ for some dialects, other
6A Uvular continuants only /ʀ/ for some dialects, none
7A No glottalized consonants
8A /l/, no obstruent laterals /l/
9A No velar nasal
10A Contrast absent n/a for some dialects, contrast present
11A None
12A Complex eg. abask
13A No tones
14A Penultimate
15A Fixed stress (no weight-sensitivity)
16A No weight
17A No rhythmic stress
18A All present
19A None
20A Isolating/concatenative
21A Monoexponential case
21B Monoexponential TAM
22A 4-5 categories per word Aspect (+8), Mood (+1), Evidential, (+5), Intent (+2), Intensive (+1)
23A Dependent marking
24A Dependent marking
25A Dependent marking
25B Non-zero marking
26A Strongly suffixing
27A Productive full and partial reduplication See Morphology
28A No case marking
29A No subject person/number marking
30A Five or more 5
31A Non-sex-based
32A Semantic
33A Plural word udou
34A All nouns, always optional
35A Number-indifferent pronouns
36A Unique affixal associative plural -(i)sur
37A No definite or indefinite article
38A No definite or indefinite article
39A 'We' the same as 'I'
40A No person marking
41A Three-way contrast ko, hoki, ho
42A Identical
43A Related for non-human reference
44A In 3rd person + 1st and/or 2nd person
45A Pronouns avoided for politeness
46A Generic-noun-based eg. kinam
47A Identical see mi
48A No person marking
49A No morphological case-marking
50A No case-marking
51A Postpositional clitics
52A Differentiation bo - ku
53A One-th, two-th, three-th id > idisu
54A No distributive numerals
55A Absent
56A Formally similar, not involving interrogative expression uid - uidu
57A No possessive affixes
58A Absent
58B None reported
59A No possessive classification
60A Genitives and adjectives collapsed
61A Without marking
62A Sentential
63A 'And' different from 'with' hans vs. ku
64A Differentiation hans vs. ku
65A Grammatical marking
66A No past tense
67A No inflectional future
68A From 'finish', 'already' mok
69A Tense-aspect suffixes
70A No second-person imperatives
71A Normal imperative + normal negative
72A Maximal system
73A Inflectional optative present
74A Verbal constructions
75A Verbal constructions
76A No overlap
77A Direct and indirect
78A Separate particle
79A None
79B None (= no suppletive imperatives reported in the reference material)
80A None
81A SOV
83A OV
84A XOV
85A Postpositions
86A Genitive-Noun
87A Adjective-Noun
88A Demonstrative-Noun
89A Numeral-Noun
90A Relative clause-Noun
90B Relative clause-Noun (RelN) dominant
90G Double-headed dominant
91A Degree word-Adjective
92A Final
93A Not initial interrogative phrase
94A Final subordinator word
95A OV and Postpositions
96A OV and RelN
97A OV and AdjN
98A Ergative - absolutive
99A Ergative - absolutive
100A Neutral
101A Optional pronouns in subject position
102A No person marking
103A No person marking
104A A and P do not or do not both occur on the verb
105A Indirect-object construction
106A Distinct from reflexive mi - as
107A Absent
108A No antipassive
108B no antipassive
109A No applicative construction
109B No applicative construction
110A Sequential but no purposive
111A Morphological but no compound
112A Negative particle
113A Symmetric
115A Predicate negation also present
116A Question particle
117A Both Locational and Topic
118A Nonverbal encoding
119A Identical
120A Possible
121A Locational
122A Non-reduction
123A Non-reduction
124A Subject is left implicit
125A Balanced
126A Balanced
127A Balanced
128A Balanced
129A Different
130A Different
131A Decimal
132A 5
133A 9-10 9
134A Black/blue vs. green tasu vs. ulu (but see also linku)
135A Red vs. yellow ereu - kanu
136A No M-T pronouns
136B m in first person singular
137A No N-M pronouns
137B m in second person singular
138A Others
141A Alphabetic
142A Logical meanings /ǀ/ - no; /ǁ/ - yes
143A VNeg
143F VNeg
144A SOVNeg
144B Immed postverbal
144L SOVNeg
144S Word&NoDoubleNeg

Universals Archive

The Universals Archive

Universals not Violated:

1-6; 8-110; 113-123; 125-195; 197-207; 209-239;
241-257; 259-261; 264-295; 297-321; 323-347; 349-371;
373-378; 380-387; 389-438; 440-443; 445-458; 460-490;
492-512; 514; 516-521; 523-585; 588-668; 670-680;
682; 684-707 (todo)

Universals Violated:

7; 111-112; 124*; 196; 208; 240; 258; 262-263; 296;
322; 348; 372; 379; 388; 439; 444; 459; 491; 513; 515;
522; 586-587; 669; 681; 683; 708

Charts

Initial frequencies of Eremoran words.
Medial frequencies of Eremoran words.
Final frequencies of Eremoran words.
Most common character sequences (top 25).
Histogram of Eremoran word length.
cf. these histograms of other languages
Frequencies of number of meanings per word in Eremoran.
Frequencies of noun classes in Eremoran.
Word frequency chart (top 20).
Etymology type
Word origins
Adpositions as prefixes