New language Noygwexaal

As usual, all comments & suggestions welcome.

Partly in the interests of sheer perversity, I'm trying to create an orc-
language with a mostly "elvish" phonology.  Noygwexaal is what I have come
up with, spoken by the Noygooras, or goblin peoples.

Phonology
---------

Character   CXS value
p           /p/
b           /b/
t           /t/
d           /d/
c           /k/
g           /g/
cw          /kw/
gw          /gw/
m           /m/
n           /n/
y           /N/
yw          /Nw/
f           /f/
v           /v/
x           /T/
q           /D/
s           /s/
z           /z/
š           /S/
r           /r/
l           /l/
w           /w/
j           /j/

a           /a/
aa          /a:/
e           /e, E/
ee          /e:, E:/
i           /i, I/
ii          /i:, I:/
o           /o, O/
oo          /o:, O:/
u           /u, U/
uu          /u:, U:/

Doubled vowels can be written as vowel-macron, but this font won't handle
macrons :P.  I was thinking of transcribing /S/ as k, but that's just a
little too perverse.


Grammar
-------

OSV syntax, just to continue the perversity.  Plurals and collectives[1]
are formed by ablaut of the final vowel in a regular pattern for each
vowel.  There are 6 noun classes: warm/bright, hard, soft, liquid/wet,
abstract/immaterial, and magical.  Most living things are in the
warm/bright category, but so are fire, hot rocks, the sun, the moon and so
on.  Some animals are in the hard or soft categories, and most magical or
completely eldritch creatures fall into the magical category, as does any
complex machinery.
There are only 2 tenses: Present and Oblique.  (When you spend almost all
of your existence underground, time is less of an issue.)  However, there
are 4 levels of evidentiality: direct knowledge, direct report, tradition
and hearsay.

Some example sentences
----------------------

ga-reqan ec vuur-carwaanduu vuur-i-xanoor deriil.
/ga 'rED.an Ek vu:r` kar'wa:n.du: vu:r i Tan'O:r dEr'i:l/
ga-reqan ec vuur-carwa.anduu vuur-i-xanoor der.iil
the(h)-pickaxe to the(w)-work_party.leader the-SUBJ-thanor give.3sgl(w)_obl
Thanor gave the pickaxe to the overseer.

ga-reqen ec vuur-carwaanduu vuur-i-xanoor deriil.
/ga 'rED.En Ek vu:r` kar'wa:n.du: vu:r i Tan'O:r dEr'i:l/
ga-reqen ec vuur-carwa.anduu vuur-i-xanoor der.iil
the(h)-pickaxes(pl) to the(w)-work_party.leader the-SUBJ-thanor give.3sgl(w)
_obl
Thanor gave the pickaxes to the overseer.

tarl ga-nen i-gwiin biijeruqiin.
/tarl ga nEn I gwi:n bi:'jEr.UD.i:n/
tarl ga-nen i-gwiin biijer.uqiin
in the(h)-cave SUBJ-bats fly.3pl(w)_prs_2ev
(I have been told that) Bats fly (around) in the cave.

ga-nen i-lumaara telejwestuu.
/ga nEn i lu'ma:r.a tE'lej.wEs.tu:/
ga-nen i-lumaara telej.westuu
the(h)-cave SUBJ-waters(c) tunnel.3c(l)_obl_3ev
(It is the tradition that) Water carved this cave.

puu-heerulindwaara nejr iloornuu.
/pu: 'hE:.ru.lIn"dwa:.ra nejr I'lo:r.nu:/
puu-heeru.lindwaara nejr iloor.nuu
the(m)-black.dragon[2] you(formal) slay.2sgl(f)_obl_2ev[3]
You will slay the black dragon.


[1] collective forms.  eg the singular of "person" is "person", and the
plural is "people", which in Noywexaal has the sense of "some people"
or "these people" (of a limited number).  The collective form has the sense
of "all the people", "the tribe", "the crowd" and so on.
[2] modifiers, especially adjectives, are usually conjoined to the front of
their head to create long compound words.  The exception is in sentences
like "the dragon is black".
[3] future events are usually couched in less certain evidentiality, as
(prophecy notwithstanding) the future is uncertain.


What do you think?  I'm currently vocabulary-generating as a prelude to
working on a Babel translation.

Geoff

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