Laytal

Létal is the official language of Star City. Originally it was a pidgin of Germanic and Romance languages, but as the population became more diversified Slavic, Japanese, and most recently, Korean have had considerable effect on its vocabulary. As such, the language resembles a PIE/Japanese mix. It is now effectively a creole.

The meaning of the name "Létal" is unkown, though it has been known as "LabisoGrekam" (SAMPA - /labIsogr\ekaV - "Grecian Mouth") in the past - It's associated vocabulary and grammar known as ArxeLétal -- Old Létal.

The Alphabet - Te ÉlbaVotjé

• A
  • élba - date, as in French
  • alba - father
  • ãlba - não, nasal "a" as in Portuguese
• V
  • votjé - void
  • fotjé - fat
• B
  • béte - ball
  • péte - play
• K
  • kamao - kick
    • kcamão - explode
  • gamao - gate
    • gcamão - eggs
• J
  • jamu - join
• D
  • daoletq - dig
    • dcaoletq - dads
  • taoletq - total
    • tceta - as in the Japanese tsunami
• E
  • ema - eh or uh, schwa
• X
  • xok - as in the Spanish "j"
• I
  • ima - tea, as in the Japanese "i"
• Y
  • yi - yellow
• L
  • lamda - log
• M
  • mwé - move
• N
  • nnonn - noon
  • nonn - sing
• O
  • omikra - orange
  • ómikra - old
  • umikra - baloon
• R
  • ró - road
  • xró - as in the German lebensraum
• S
  • samal - slip
  • zamal - zoo
• Sq
  • sqomol - shop
  • zqomol - casual
• Tq
  • tqita - thing
  • dqita - these
  • tjeta - choose
• Tl
  • tleta - as in the Nahuatl "tl"
  • pleta - explode
• W
  • walatq - water
  • whilatq - as in the English whisper but voiced

• The only dipthong is "ao".
• /e/, /I/, /V/, /h/, /F/ and the Czech /rZ/ were originally part of a more complex alphabet but are now defunct phonemes in Létal.

The "h" Modifier - Te "h" Méta

The following can be platalized by adding "h" after the initial letter: a (ai), b (bj), k (kj), j (dZj), d (dj), e (@i), x (xj), l (lj), n (nj), o (oi), s (sj) and t (tj).

Scripts - Dcinnenn

The alphabet may be written in either the Grecko-Cyrillic (ElennaTsrilek Dcinn) or Grecko-Arabic (wa Alexanndros-ket Dcinn) scripts. Diactritics allow the glot "d" to become "t" or "é" to become "a" and inform of platalization. Both scripts can function as impure abjads through other marks above each consonant, following the trend towards a syllabic notation.

Furthermore, advanced texts when capable make use of CJK Ideographs. Te Létal-Kotj (The Létal House), regulatory body, is pushing for the reduction of syllables in words without creating a tonal language.

In the past, Létal has been written in a heavily modified Arabic script but this was abandoned due to having to represent so many phonemes in the ÉlbaVotjé order.

Grammar - DomSinntak

As Létal is essentially just a mature pidgin, the grammar is very basic.

Pronouns - IzemEkcMéta

• I = Yó, Yutq = I am
• We = Nnami, Nnatq = We are
• You = Dqao (singular), Dqatq = You are
• You = Ti (plural), Titq = You are
• He = Nhes, Nhetqz = He is
• She = Nhev, Nhetqf = She is
• It = Nhu, Nhutq = It is
• They = Tqes, Tqetq = They are
• One = Unn, Unntq = One is

Conjugation - ZqlaobPrigwa

• Nouns and infinitives have no forms.
• Pronouns, however, are preceeding by "wa".
• To preserve the spelling of a foreign word, "ser-" (from sermó-language) is prefixed to it.
• Conjunctions can be suffixed with "-vek".

The vowels of pe- and se- are omitted when the succeeding phoneme is a vowel

• Present Tense: tqenntcé-ó-rat Learning
• Past Tense: pe-tqenntcé-ó Learned
• Future Tense: se-tqenntcé-ó Will Learn
• Command Form: tqenntcé-ó-dhu Go Learn

The bracketed part of the suffix is used when the preceeding phoneme is a vowel (unless it is "é")

• "-(w)ó" indicates a verb, valencies are not indicated
• "-(a)tj" indicates an adjective
• "-(a)tf" indicates an adverb
  • "-(a)tfi" and "-(a)tfu" show increasing positives (eg - happier, happiest)

• "enn" designates plurals.
• "-nnó" signifies possession.
• "-emó" shows possession by a plural (eg: "jinnemó"-"people's")
• "é-" negates (eg: the English "atheist"-'not theist')

Word Order - Zqlaobnnó Dadcu

Létal word order is variable but tends to be written in English Wikipedia:Subject Verb Object:SVO and is interpreted as such by the lack of the following prefixes which may be used to change the order:

• "squ-" marks the subject
• "we-" may be used to indicate topic should it not be the subject
• "mu-" marks the direct object
• "mo-" marks the indirect object

Sample text in Létal - EkcPolhad Wem Vr Létal

Mó jinnenn etq batq-ó prijos-atf tó satcwiann-atf vr vordq tó loke. Tqes denne whéke tó setrum-st tó zu xradóva-ó vr yóba-st.

Literally: All people are born free and equal in worth and rights. They have reason and conscience and should act in brotherhood.

Translation: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)