Elw language

Background

Blah, blah, language of Elwynn

Phonology

Consonants

	Bilabial	Bilabial	Alveolar	Alveolar	Retroflex	Retroflex	Palatal	Palatal	Velar	Velar	Uvular	Uvular	Glottal	Glottal
	Unvoiced	Voiced	Unvoiced	Voiced	Unvoiced	Voiced	Unvoiced	Voiced	Unvoiced	Voiced	Unvoiced	Voiced	Unvoiced	Voiced
Nasal		m		n					ŋ̊	ŋ		ɴ
Stop	p	b	t	d							q	ɢ
Sibilant fricative			s	z	ʂ	ʐ			k
Non-sibilant fricative	ɸ	β					ɕ	ʑ			χ	ʁ	h	ɦ
Trill			r̥	r
Lateral approximant			l̥	l

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Close-mid			o
Mid	e	ə
Open	a

Diphtongs

	a	ə	e	i	o	u
a	aː			ai		au
e		eə
i		iə	ie
o					oː	ou
u						uː

Orthography

UNDER REVISION

While Elw has a calligraphic script, Elw is generally written with the Latin or Cyrillic script. The calligraphic script is used in art and for decoration, but in every-day language, either Latin or Cyrillic is employed.

The modern alphabet in Latin and Cyrillic is:

Latin Upper Case	A	AA	B	D	E	F	G	H	I	J	K	L	LL	M	N	O	OO	P	Q	R	S	T	U	UU	V	X	Y	Z
Latin lower case	a	aa	b	d	e	f	g	h	i	j	k	l	ll	m	n	o	oo	p	q	r	s	t	u	uu	v	x	y	z
Cyrillic upper case	А	АА	Б	Д	Э	Ф	Г	Х	И	Й	К	Л	Љ	М	Н	О	ОО	П	Ћ	Р	С	Т	У	УУ	В	Ш	Ө	З
Cyrillic lower case	а	аа	б	д	э	ф	г	х	и	й	к	л	љ	м	н	о	оо	р	ћ	р	с	т	у	уу	в	ш	ө	з
General pronunciation (IPA)	[a]~[ɐ]	[aː]~[ɑː]	[b]	[d]	[e]~[eː]	[f]	[g]	[h]	[i(ː)]~[ɪ]	[j]	[k]	[l]	[lʷ]~[w]	[m]	[n]	[ɔ] [o]	[ɔː]~[oː]	[p]	[c]~[ɕ]~[χ]	[r]~[r]~[ʀ]	[s]	[t]	[ʊ]~[u]	[ʊː]~[uː]	[v]~[β]~[w]	[ʂ]~[ʃ]	[ɜ]~[ə]	[z]

Elw orthography has been reformed a few times since becoming a literary language when sounds change over time.

The most common obsolete letters are these (which can still sometimes be seen in names and signs):

Obsolete Latin	Ā ā, Â â	Ē ē, Ê ê	Ī ī, Î î, Í í	Ō ō, Ô ô	Ū ū, Û û	Ŷ ŷ, Ý ý	C c	NG ng	PH ph	TH th
Equivalent Cyrillic	АА аа	Е е	І і	ОО оо	Уу Уу	Ү ү	Ч ч	Ң ң	Ф ф	Ѳ ѳ
Historical pronunciation	[aː]~[ɑː]	[eː]	[iː]	[ɔː]~[oː]	[uː]	[ɜː]	[tʃ]	[ŋ]	[ɸ]	[θ]
Replaced by letters:	AA aa	E e	I i	OO oo	UU uu	Y y	X x Q q	N n M m	F f B b	T t

Grammar

Pronouns

Personal pronouns

	I	We	You (sg)	You (pl)	Zie	They
absolutive	an	arus	ili	ilis	un	urus
ergative	anyh	aruhys	ilih	ilihys	unyh	uruhys
instrumental	anmeq	aruneq	ilimeq	ilineq	unmeq	uruneq
allative	anmus	arunus	ilimus	ilinus	unmus	urunus
locative	anyn	aruni	ilin	ilini	unyn	uruni
ablative	anmys	arunys	ilimys	ilinys	unmys	urunys
prosecutive	anios	aruzios	ilios	ilizios	unios	uruzios
equative	andus	arudus	ilidus	ilidus	undus	urudos

Nominals

Simple nominals

	Singular	Plural		English approx.
absolutive	-Ø, -q, -r	(y)s	kizoq	kizos
ergative	-(y)h	-hys	kizoh	kizohys
instrumental	-meq	-neq	kizomeq	kizoneq	"using the cat"
allative	-mus	-nus	kizomus	kizonus	"toward the cat"
locative	-(y)n	-ni	kizon	kizoni	"in the cat"
ablative	-mys	-nys	kizomys	kizonys	"from the cat"
prosecutive	-jos, -ios, -os	zios	kizojos	kizozios	"with the cat", "along the cat"
equative	-dus	-dus	kizodus	kizodus	"like a cat"

Possessives

Possessor	Singular	Plural	Example	Example
1st person sg	ra	ja, ia	kizora "my cat"	kizoja "my cats"
2nd person sg	(i)s	sis	kizos "your cat"	kizosis "your cats"
3rd person sg	a	e	kizoa "his cat"	kizoe "his cats"
1st person pl	bus	hus	kizobus "our cat"	kizohus "our cats"
2nd person pl	ze	se	kizoze "your cat"	kizose "your cats"
3rd person pl	as	es	kizoas "their cat"	kizoes "their cats"

Complex nominals/possessives

When the nominal is inflected in another case than absolutive, the possessive comes afterwards. If this means that two consonants will follow each other in the stem, the schwa (-y-) is added inbetween:

• Kizohyra qimnea neriaa:
• Cat (ergative, possessive first person singular) dog (absolutive, possessive third person singuar) eats (intransitive; indicative):
• My cat eats his dog.