Clorlimoan language
Clorlimoan (local name: Vuum Paabi, "the mouth of the people") is the national language of Clorlimoa. Due to the nation's remote geographic location, Clorlimoan is not related to any other known language in the world.
| Clorlimoan Vuum Paabi | |
|---|---|
| Pronunciation: | IPA: [ˈʋuːmˌpaːbi] or [ˈʋoʊ̭mˌpaɪ̭bi] |
| Spoken in: | Clorlimoa |
| Genetic classification: | Isolate |
Contents
Pronunciation
Consonants
| bilabial | labiod. | alveolar | retro./post. | palatal | velar | glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plosive | b (B) p (P) |
d (D) t (T) |
g (G) K (k) |
||||
| nasal | m (M) | n (N) | ŋ (N) | ||||
| trill | r (R) | ||||||
| fricative | f (F) | s (S) | ʃ/ʂ (LS/RS) | x (H) | h (H) | ||
| approximant | ʋ (V) | j (J) | |||||
| lat. approx. | l (L) |
N is pronounced [ŋ] before G or K.
H is pronounced [h] before a vowel, otherwise [x].
Both LS and RS are pronounced [ʃ] or [ʂ], depending on the dialect.
Vowels
Short vowels
| front | back | |
|---|---|---|
| close | i (I) | u (U) |
| open-mid | ɛ (E) | ɔ (O) |
| open | æ (A) |
Long vowels
| front | back | |
|---|---|---|
| close | i: (II) eɪ (EI) |
u: (UU) oʊ (OU) |
| close-mid | e: (EE) eɪ (EI) |
o: (OO) oʊ (OU) |
| open | a: (AA) aɪ (AI) |
The "long" vowels are pronounced long in some dialects, but diphthongal in others.
Spelling
Clorlimoan does not use the Latin alphabet. It is used here to make the language easier to learn for people who know the Latin alphabet.
Hyphens indicate morphological boundaries. They help you understand the grammar, but they do not represent pauses.
Grammar
Verbs
The Clorlimoan verb does not agree with the subject. That means it is not conjugated by the 6 persons. It does, however, indicate tense and mood.
Another difference between the Clorlimoan and the English verb is the fact that a Clorlimoan verb is always finite. There are no infinitives, participles or gerunds; every verb has a mood suffix.
Copula
There are two copulas in Clorlimoan: miv indicates an equality, od indicates a (temporary) attribute or a location. Both can be omitted when you use declarative mood and non-past tense. Examples:
(Miv-fi) Klor Limoo ur-klor.
(equal-DECL) island fire EQU-island
"Clorlimoa is an island."
(Od-fi) hluu-piiharv luugrih.
(be-DECL) ATTRIB-student I-me
"I am a student."
(Od-fi) hluu-minkrooh gir.
(be-DECL) ATTRIB-beautiful you(sg)-you(sg)
"You are beautiful."
(Od-fi) arde-poglig Mari.
(be-DECL) LOC-house Mari
"Mary is in the house."
Tense
Clorlimoan distinguishes three tenses: past, recent past and non-past. The recent past is used to describe events and states that have an influence on the present. The non-past is used for both present and future. Examples:
El-k-fi Suu tri-Mari.
kill-PAST-DECL Suu ACC-Mari
"Sue killed Mary."
El-fel-fi Suu tri-Mari.
kill-RECPAST-DECL Suu ACC-Mari
"Sue has killed Mary."
El-fi Suu tri-Mari.
kill-DECL Suu ACC-Mari
"Sue is killing Mary."
El-eelf Suu tri-Mari.
kill-POT Suu ACC-Mari
"Sue is going to kill Mary."
The future is usually not expressed with the declarative mood. That takes us to our next section: moods.
Mood
Clorlimoans always indicate how strongly they believe in what they are saying. They do so by adding mood suffixes to the verbs:
- Dubative: The speaker has strong doubts.
- Potential: The speaker is not sure, but s/he thinks it is possible.
- Declarative: The speaker thinks what s/he says is true.
- Energetic: The speaker emphasizes that it's definitely true.
Examples:
El-k-evuu Suu tri-Mari.
kill-PAST-DUB Suu ACC-Mari
"I doubt Sue killed Mary."
El-k-eelf Suu tri-Mari.
kill-PAST-POT Suu ACC-Mari
"Maybe Sue killed Mary."
El-k-fi Suu tri-Mari.
kill-PAST-DECL Suu ACC-Mari
"Sue killed Mary."
El-k-atoo Suu tri-Mari.
kill-PAST-ENERG Suu ACC-Mari
"Sue definitely killed Mary."
There is also an interrogative mood to express yes/no questions:
El-k-aal Suu tri-Mari?
kill-PAST-INTERR Suu ACC-Mari
"Did Sue kill Mary?"
Beside these, Clorlimoan has an imperative mood, just like English:
Gloov-aa arde-poglig!
go-IMP LOC-house
"Go into the house!"
Conditions are expressed a little differently from English, using the hypothetical mood for the if-phrase, and the potential for the main phrase:
Gloov-o arde-poglig Mari, el-eelf Suu erselk.
go-HYP LOC-house Mari, kill-POT Suu s/he-other
"If Mary went into the house, Sue would kill her."
Nouns
In Clorlimoan, nouns show neither gender nor number. Cases are marked with prefixes:
- Nominative case (subject of the sentence): unmarked
- Accusative case (direct object of the sentence): tr- or tri-
- Genitive case (possession): ilg- or il-
- Locative case (location): ard- or arde-
- Attributive case (attribute, description, adjective): hl- or hluu-
- Egalitative case (equality): urb- or ur-
An indirect object is marked with a preposition, similar to English. Examples for the cases:
Gliilgaa-fi Suu ti Mari tr-oorn.
give-DECL Suu to Mari ACC-flower
"Sue gives Mary some money."
(Od-fi) arde-poglig bonruf il-Mari.
(be-DECL) LOC-house mother GEN-Mari
"Mary's mother is in the house."
For examples of attributive and egalitative case, see the "Copula" section in the Verbs chapter.
Pronouns
Stressed pronouns indicate person, number and case, unstressed pronouns only case. There are no accusative (direct object) pronouns. More about that in the "Transitivity" section.
| nominative | genitive | locative | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st sg. | uuflii | guufliio | arduuflii |
| 2nd sg. | dloo | idloo | ardedloo |
| 3rd sg. | mral | imral | ardemral |
| 1st pl. | kriilgo | kliilgo | ardekriilgo |
| 2nd pl. | eklo | geklo | ardeklo |
| 3rd pl. | aam | ilgaam | ardaam |
| unstressed | os | ilgos | ardos |
Transitivity
For transitive verbs, you use pronouns that show both subject and object. A transitive pronoun is either direct or inverse. This works through a hierarchy: 2nd person > 1st person > proximate 3rd person > other 3rd person. Direct pronouns go down in the hierarchy, inverse pronouns go up. For example, in the sentence "I love you," the direction is from 1st to 2nd person, thus inverse.
Transitive pronouns are ambiguous. If things are not clear from the context, use additional nouns or names.
Direct pronouns
- you (sg.) to me/us/her/him/it/them: dli
- I to her/him/it/them: reelsii
- she/he/it to other person(s): elsalk
- you (pl.) to me/us/her/him/it/them: loslerb
- we to her/him/it/them: klosuk
- they to other person(s): oom
- indefinite to lower: aas
Inverse pronouns
- I to you: ploflii
- she/he/it to me/us/you: enslag
- other person(s) to her/him/it/them: enslag
- we to you: sledlook
- they to me/us/you: oodri
- other persons to her/him/it/them: oodri
- indefinite to higher: ard
Reflexive pronouns
- you (sg.) to yourself: gri
- I to myself: luugrih
- she/he/it to her/him/itself: erselk
- you (pl.) to yourselves: hlaarp
- we to ourselves: rookra
- they to themselves: ook
- indefinite to equal: a
