Tēlvo

Introduction

Tēlvo languages use a consonantal root system for vocabulary and word building. Throughout this document, these are referred to by the letters A, B, C, D, and E for the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth letters in these roots.

Phonology

Tēlvo

Vowels

Tēlvo has four primary vowel sounds—each with long and short variants—and one exclusively short vowel, for a total of nine vowels:

• a [ɑ], ā [ɑː]
• o [ɔ], ō [ɔː]
• e [ɛ], ē [ɛː]
• i [i], ī [iː]
• y [ɯ]

Rules

• ∅ → j / V __ V
• ∅ → y / C __ C (where CC cluster is ungrammatical (more to come))

Stress

Without going into metrical theory, it can be summarised that the stressed syllable in a Tēlvo word is the last uneven-numbered syllable.

Historical Phonology

Čelwu

• Vowel changes:

1	2	3
y	y	y
ā	a	a
a	ä	æ
ō	u	u
o	o
i	ɪ	y
ī	i	je
ē	ie,e
e	e,ɛ	e

• Cj → C_[+pal]
• (v → w)
• Palatal remapping (certain palatalised consonants were remapped as new phonemes):
  • (wj → v)
  • tj → č
  • sj → š
  • dj → ǰ
  • zj → ž
• Velar Fricativisation (velar stops spirantised between a vowel and the end of a syllable):
  • k → x / V __]_σ
  • g → ɣ / V __]_σ
• y → ∅ / __ r]_σ

Tæĺf

• o → u / __ X_[+labial]
• Short vowels reduce:

1	2
a	ɐ
o	ʊ
u
e	ɪ
i
y

• Reduced-vowel fun
  • ɐ → ∅ / __ #
  • ɪ → ə
  • ə → əu / __ ]_σ
• In stressed syllables, long vowels shifted down; long low vowels diphthongised:

1	2
ī	ē
ē	ǣ
ā	au
ō	ā
ū	ō

• Long vowels shorten in a closed syllable ( Vː → [-long] / __ C_∅]_σ ):

1	2
ī	i
ē	e
ā	a
ō	o
ū	u

• Consonants devoice at the end of a word ( C → [-voice] / __ # )
• Consonants devoice before a devoiced consonant ( C → [-voice] / __ C_[-voice] )

Tielvo

• n → m / __ C_[+labial]
• V_{α[+long,-high,-low]} → V_α[+high]V_α
  • ō → uo
  • ē → ie
• Labial-influenced vowel changes
  • o → u / __X_[+labial]
  • i → ü / __X_[+labial] (ii → üü / __X_[+labial])
  • e → ö / __X_[+labial]
• Other vowel shifts
  • a → ä
  • ā → a
  • y → ö
• Consonant shifts
  • d → C_α / C_α __ C
  • C_{[dental,-stop]} → [alveolar] / V __
    • þ → s / V __
    • ð → z / V __
  • C_{[dental,-stop]} → [+stop]
    • þ → t
    • ð → d
  • C_{[+voiced,-sonorant]} → [-voiced,+long] (this is a weird/unrealistic rule; maybe I'll figure out something else)
    • g → kk
    • z → ss
• Clean-up (also weird)
  • CC → C / # __
  • CC → C / __ #
• Stress to first syllable
• Orthographical Conventions
  • ŋ → ng
  • ü → y

Grammar & Morphology

Pronouns

Final-bound

(Note that j- is inserted between non-diphthongising combinations of vowels, so these forms may frequently appear with an initial j)

	Singular	Plural
1st	-o	-āŋ
2nd	-as	-āþ
3rd	-að	-ān

Medial- & Initial-bound

	Singular	Plural
1st	o-	āŋgi-
2nd	asi-	āþi-
3rd	aði-	āni-

Verbs

Word Forms

Verbal

• pre-bound form

-ABiCā(Dō(D))

• post-bound form

AīBC(ēD(E))-

• citation/infinitival form

AāBaCa(Dī(E))

Participial

Followed by a medial-bound pronoun (/initial-) and then the pre-bound verb. I think I might want to have the pronoun come before the participial form.

• present: (liri-)
• past: laj-
• future āre-
• passive ke-

Imperative

• post-bound verb + saŋa | final-bound pronoun

Tenses

Present

• post-bound verb + final-bound pronoun, e.g.:
  • sīrn + ān = sīrnān, "they listen", "they are listening"

Past

• post-bound verb + (y)tja + final-bound pronoun, e.g.:
  • sīrn + tja + ān = sīrnytjajān, "they listened"

Nouns

Word Forms

Singular

• pre-bound form

-ABo(Ce(D))

• post-bound form

AiB(Cō(D))-

• citation form

AēB(Co(D))

Plural

First vowel becomes ela

Cases and Postpositions

Systematic Chart

Tēlvo postposition system

location	"located at"	"moving away from"	"moving towards"
in	in - vir	out of - sjir	into - iðir
on	on - vuj	off of - sjuj	onto - iðuj
at	at - veā	from - sjeā	to - iðeā
now	during - vrer	after, since - sjrer	before, until - iðrer
near	near - vojv	away from - sjojv	up to - iðojv
cause	? - vōŋ	because - sjōŋ	in order to - iðōŋ
benefit	? - vīhī	because of - sjīhī	for the benefit of - iðīhī

Other postpositions

• þa - ACC
• zmōv - with
• zmōvnit - without
• ðīhī - for, on behalf of
• snaðē, mij - INST
• zmōv - COM
• ljāstir - about
• ljā - GEN
• ðek - like, as