Eremoran Language

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:

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 fî / Eremoran hi "tooth") ô û (Muran mû / 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.

Sound Changes

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

• /x[eɛ]/ and /[eɛ]x/ > /a/
• /x/ > /k/
• /i/ > /j/ before a vowel.
• /ɸ s/ > /h/ word-initially before a vowel
• inter-voiced (with EOW counting as voiced) /s/ > /z/ and /ss/ > /s/.
• /ɸ/ > /f/ usually; deleted before /u/ if and only if there are no other consonants in the onset.
• /β/ > /b/.
• /sj zj tj dj/ > /ʃ ʒ tʃ dʒ/.
• /ʃ ʒ tʃ dʒ/ > /s z ts dz/.
• Unstressed short /e o/ reduced to schwa.
• /g/ > /k/.
• word-initial /sl/ > /z/.

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

• /j/ > /Ø/.
• /ar[aeo]/ > /ar/.
• word-initial /a/ followed by two non-A vowels anywhere in the word was deleted unless directly followed by two consonants or EOW.
• /ts/ > /s/.
• /h/ > /Ø/.
• /r/ > /ʀ/.

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

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):

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:

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

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.

Dialects

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

• Syllable structure is (C)(C)V(C)(C).
• Stress is on the penult.
• [ə] + non-schwa vowel = non-schwa vowel.
• Adjacent vowels tend to diphthongize, with the more stressed vowel becoming the primary vowel and the less stressed vowel becoming a semivowel.
• /l ʀ/ are [ʕʷ ʀʷ] in the coda.
• /n/ is [ŋ] before /k/.
• /k/ is [g] word-initially. In addition, the consonant is uvularized before /r/, becoming [q] or [ɢ] depending.
• The voiced plosives /b d/ often have the intervocalic allophones [β~w ɾ], although this depends on the speaker and region.
• Words spelt with <p> are Pre-Eremoran loans. In educated speech, it is pronounced [p], but elsewhere it is [f].
• In younger speech, VN combinations tend to simply nasalize the vowel instead.
• /h/ is silent for most uneducated speakers, although there are some still pronouncing it [h ~ ʔ], primarily in rural areas west of Deftei (ZE Dialect) and those in the upper lake.
• There is a sporadic sound change among younger speakers what changes word-final [p t k] to [ʔ]

• /ʀ/ is [ħ] after /a ɔ/ except before front vowels.

• /di/ → /zi/

• Coda /l/ is dropped before back vowels or otherwise vocalized to [w].
• /t d s z/ are palatalized to /tʃ dʒ ʃ ʒ/ before front vowels.
• The e and o (rarely also u) vowels merge with a unstressed, and ê, ô, and u (ie. remains unchanged) stressed.
• A new sound merger is developing where /f b m/ all merge into /m/. Some speakers have a partial merger, while some may merge all three, such that the words barz, marz, and parz are homophones. Younger speakers are more likely to possess this merger.
• Note that this means Upper Eremoran can have as few as nine consonants and five vowels

• /du/ → /zu/

• The ZE dialect is the sole dialect to retain the archaic masculine-feminine distinction. Other dialects use the old masculine as the human noun class. The feminine was formed like the masculine -r, and was -rre. By the time of the ending loss, the only audible difference was stress shift and the length of the rhotic, so it is unsurprising it fell into disuse. Some modern scribes still observe the distinction in writing, but is widely viewed as an archaicism and the practice is quickly vaporizing.
• In addition, ZE does not use the agreement markers central dialects use for the 3rd and 5th classes. Thus, ZE has a four-way class distinction that looks like this:
  • (1a) Masculine Human: r ending
  • (1b) Feminine Human: rre ending
  • (2) Nonhuman Animate: k ending
  • (3-5) Inanimate: no ending
• Some of the older residents remember a time when the eldest residents still used alveolar /r/, so the transition to uvular /ʁ/ there was relatively recent.
• /f/ is instead typically /ɸ/.
• Coda /l/ is uvular instead: [ʟ̠ʷ]. This also occurs sporadically elsewhere among older speakers.
• dir is fully inflected like any other adjective - eg. before Class 2 nouns, it becomes dik. The form before Class 3-5 nouns varies by speaker - it may be di or diu. In addition, because this is the ZE dialect, it of course has the feminine form dirre.
• In ZE, adpositions din and dô possess translative senses when used prepositionally. In other dialects, they are solely postpositional, and only possess locational senses.
• There are no negative pro-forms; the interrogative forms are used with uid instead:
  • Monar i rôz uid
  • No one spoke.
• S-triggering adjectives do not cause reduplication, and work rather differently: muk saabat "old table" in central becomes muks abat.

Phylogenetic tree:

• Zestim-Embemmu
• (Central)
  • (Northern)
    • (Upper Northern - Deftei)
      • Deftei
      • Upper Northern
    • (Lower Northern - Abbakarm)
      • Abbakarm
      • Lower Northern
  • (Southern)
    • Capital [standard]
    • Kurramut (Westport)
    • Low Rural Southern
    • High Rural Southern

Phonotactics

Acceptable consonant clusters:

• Onset:
  • plosive + /r/
  • /s/ + /p t k/
  • /kl/
• Coda:
  • plosive/nasal + s/z (matching voicing)
  • /s n/ + /t k/
  • liquid + /m t z k/

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.

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

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

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

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/
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

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:

Morphology

• Adjectives end in -u- + noun ending, except ho, id(a) and ko, which just has the ending.
• Verbs end in -z.
• Five noun classes:
  • Human - (also includes many toponyms) (-r)
  • Animate - (also includes most diseases, and minibak "egg" and hirak "milk") (-k)
  • Neuter 1 (Things that are harvested/broken from their source, used as tools...) - (-t)
  • Neuter 2 (Other tangibles, the 'default' class) - (-Ø)
  • Intangible - (-m)
  Note that there are occasional exceptions to this rule, especially in proper nouns.
• /l/ -> /Ø/ is a "cutesy" sound change.
• Eremoran has productive partial and full reduplication:
  • adv. → adv.: (Irr., usually Partial; No longer productive) more specific meaning of an adverb, eg. nen
  • adj. → adj.: (Partial) adjective intensifier, eg. erereu 'very red'
  • adj. → adj.: (Full) disparaging form of certain adjectives, eg. hoso, idid, koko
  • adj. → n.: (Partial) noun possessing a quality, eg. dadal, elelak, kikir
  • n. → n.: (Partial) This transformation has two uses:
    • Deriving artificial equivalents of natural features, eg. bebekat, lanlant, mimit, mumust, tutut
    • Deriving meats from animals, eg. bôbôt, didirat
    • s-Reduplication
      • Used with certain adjectives of age, shape, and size (marked s-triggering in this dictionary)
      • The rhyme of the first syllable is reduplicated and the first syllable's onset becomes s:
      • ardo 'wildfire' → tar sarardo 'new wildfire'
      • abat 'table' → muk saabat 'old table'

Affixes

• -(a)m = verb -> noun suffix
• -ba(r) = patientive suffix - eg. dindôbat 'translation'.
• -ê(r) = agentive suffix, like en. -er, eo. -ant-, la. -ator; with 3rd class can act like eo. -il-
• -(i)sêm = -ity, -ness, -hood, noun -> noun, from -(i)su + -êr + -m
• -kair = like jp -san, a polite suffix for human referents
• -krum = -ology, from krum
• -ma = rougly analogous to eo. -ejo, -ujo, -ingo, from PEN *ma, equivalent to modern mam
  • Denotes plants whence their fruit/nuts came.
• -ô- = feminizing inffix, akin to esperanto -in-, from PEN *ô 'girl'
• -(o)boz = intensive. From obo
• -dôkaz = like la. -esco or eo. -igxi. From dôkaz
• -fkaz = inchoative, like eo. ek-. From afkaz
• -kaldoz = optative mood. From kaldoz
• -kiz = specifies the verb was performed intentionally.
• -kudz = terminative. Used to be a verb by itself, now replaced by balitz and the loanword parz. Related to kudam.
• -kum = rougly analogous to eo. -aro, from kum
  • Denotes collections and groups of things, eg. bikut.
• -kunz = (non-productive) venitive. Used to be a verb by itself, now replaced by dôkaz. From PEN *xiuns 'come'.
• -(i)sêz = noun -> verb; do something relating to the root. From -(i)su + -êr + -z
• -sudôz = like -ify, -ize, ie. causative. From sudôz
• -tônz = defective aspect ("almost"). From the PEN adverb *tôn + -z, whence modern Eremoran tônu.
• -ubz = specifies the verb was performed accidentally.
• -(o)faz = equative form, as ... as ..., from hofoz
• -id = -est, the superlative, from id, eg. ereu → ereid
• -(i)su = -like, or -ish, noun -> adj., related to the adposition su
• -uku = in ZE dialects, -er, the comparative, from ku
• -(u)lk = adjective -> adverb suffix
• abe- is a non-productive prefix meaning "over-" or "double-", from Proto-Eremo-Numoran *aβe-.
• -do = diminutive suffix, from dou, nowadays non-productive and supplanted by -ela
• -ela = diminutive suffix, from ela
• ha- is a non-productive prefix meaning "semi-" or "half-", from Proto-Eremo-Numoran *ɸa-.
• -ku = augmentative suffix, from ku, used like eo. -eg- or -ad-
• pu- is a productive negative prefix coming from Pre-Eremoran.
• u- is a non-productive negative prefix, eg. uid "not" from *u- "not" + id "one".

Syntax

• Verbs do not conjugate at all; TAM is formed with special auxillary verbs.
• SOV order is the default, but the presence of the preposition dir effectively allows any order.
• Adjectives (incl. demonstratives and numerals) and genitives precede nouns.
• Adpositions come immediately after the noun they modify.
  • Except dir, and sometimes ad, which immediately precede the noun, regardless of any adjectives.
  • dir is optional and can be omitted in simple statements with no other nouns, verbs, or topicalization.
• Eremoran uses double-headed relative clauses with transitive verbs: For example:
  • Ad abat rurauk numz i abat balitz
  • onto table cat ran TOP table broke
  • The table the cat ran onto broke.
  The topic of the relative clause is always moved to the beginning of the relative clause, and the clause itself is topicalized.
  However, simple one or two word intransitive clauses can instead directly modify the noun as adjectives:
  • Numz rurauk i uluk
  • run cat TOP black
  • The cat that is running is black.
• The absolutive marker dir may be omitted in the following circumstances:
  • The sentence contains no nouns other than those in the absolutive, no verbs, and no topicalization.
  • The sentence is a simple copulative structure (ie., X = Y) containing nothing else except perhaps a sentence-final adverb or particle.
  • The absolutive noun is the topic.
  The following are examples of the first two:
  • abat obo
  • omor i abat
  Translations:
  • (roughly) What a table!
  • I am the table!
• Adjective use:
  • siu mor - "white person"
  • simor - "whiteperson"
  • mosir - "something which looks like a whiteperson, but is contextually distinct"

Adpositions

Clarification:

• Postpositional ad versus dô wrt. English "in/on":
  • In literal spatial meanings of "in/on", dô is used.
  • Generally, for most metaphorical uses, postpositional ad is used.
    • Mat i balitam su arm ad
    • house TOP destruction GEN state LOC
    • "The house is in a state of destruction."
  • If motion is involved, ie. into/onto, prepositional ad is used.
  • dô is also used for the sense of above/over.
• Genitive structures: su versus din (and others):
  • Possession - see possession.
  • Properties and relationships use su - eg. "my height", or "my sister". Note that you do not own your height or your sister in any sense, they are just your "properties"/"relations". Colloquially, for familial relations, dropping the su is rather common, albeit nonstandard.
  • Composition generally uses the suffix -idzu (archaic form -idinu) - eg. "box of wood" / "wooden box". The only exception is with quantity nouns, like bokusam "many", and numeric nouns, like kumkum "trio", where su is used instead.
  • With actions (English example: the man's love of cheese), su is not used. In the case of the absolutive, prepositional ad is used, and in the case of the ergative, din is used. In dialects that support it, this din is prepositional; in the standard dialect, it is still postpositional.
  • For origin, din is used - eg. "Product of France".
  • When "of" used descriptively in English - such as in "man of honor" or "man of his word" - more descriptive adpositions are preferred. In these two cases, for example, ku and hal, respectively, would be the most idiomatic.
• ku versus mid:
  • While they can both be translated as comitative with, ku is more like "alongside", and is a postposition, while mid denotes a strictly subordinate relationship, or possession, and is an adverb:
    • Busk ku afkaz
    • dog COM go
    • "I go along with the dog."
    • Dir busk afkaz mid
    • ABS dog go "on me"
    • "The dog, carried, goes."
    More rarely, mid can be treated as an ambiposition.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Aspects

Moods

Evidentials

Other Verb Inflection

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:

Nominals

Topicalization

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

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:

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:

They can even be catenated:

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

For properties and relations, you must use su instead:

Predicative Possession

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

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):

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

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

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:

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
20. babzanu
25. hananu
50. nasananu
75. kumkananu
99. kumkananu babzanu babzu
100. sesu

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

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.

Number Tool

Yes-No

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

Eremoran Writing Utility

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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:

• end- 'high; noble'
• ere- 'red'
• hai- 'wide'
• huk- 'south'
• kan- 'yellow'
• ke- 'east'
• ku- 'great'
• kure- 'west'
• lak- 'good'
• lib- 'central'
• muk- 'old'
• n- 'low'
• nas- 'north'
• si- 'bright; white'
• tar- 'new'
• tas- 'green'

Either component:

• -akranu- 'stream'
• -bemmu- 'river'
• -iklu- 'valley'
• -kokin(t)- 'bridge'
• -len- 'stone'
• -muna- 'source'
• -mura- 'lake'
• -nô- 'mountain'
• -nul- 'hill'
• -sed(at)- 'field; farm'

Second component:

• -alika 'beach'
• -ammut 'harbor; port'
• -da 'land'
• -damu 'ford'
• -labafi 'island'
• -lira 'forest'
• -mam 'home'
• -mamat 'village; town'
• -mor 'folk'
• -saurom 'watch; view'

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:

• bêt- 'loyal'
• dare- 'gold'
• end- 'high; noble'
• ere- 'red'
• ku- 'great'
• lak- 'good'
• maram- 'iron'
• saz- 'fear(some)'
• si- 'bright; white'
• tranz- 'secret; hidden'

Either component:

• afês- 'shortsword'
• ardo- 'fire'
• badm- 'fox'
• betl- 'longsword'
• bi- 'battle'
• epe- 'spear'
• hem- 'rose' (becomes -fem- internally)
• his- 'crow; raven' (becomes -fisk internally)
• kafl- 'victory'
• ko- 'shield'
• lib- 'heart'
• lusi- 'wolf'
• mar- 'blood'
• mas- 'bull'
• tem- 'protection'
• uris- 'dagger'

Second component:

• bazê- 'king; leader'
• ke- 'master'
• kiki- 'friend'
• labni- 'brick'
• len- 'stone'
• kop- 'love(r)'
• mo- 'person; folk'
• subi- 'warrior'

Key Categories

Adpositions

Correlatives

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

Samples

Farming advice from Eremorans:

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.'

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

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

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Memes

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

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

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