Lihmelinyan
Posted: 08 May 2017 21:33
Hi everybody I figured it was about time to finally post my conlang as I've reached over 200 posts on this board without ever posting a conlang. Part of the reason is I have OCD and I'm super picky and constantly changing things and my conlang has undergone major changes and revisions just in the past couple months even though I started it years ago. I'm also a bit wary of sharing something I see as being very personal, like artwork or fan-fiction. That said, I did put a lot of work into this so I am pretty proud of it. I must mention a few disclaimers: I'm a high school student, not a linguist, so I might not always have all the technical stuff right. Feel free to correct me, but go easy I also know very little about phonology and it's my weakest area. I also can't guarantee that I won't change something I introduce later.
So let's begin.
Lihmelinyan /lɪx.mɛ.'lɪn.jən/ is a language of Manter, a region in a con-world that I co-created with an online friend. Manter is home to many closely related Mantian languages, and Lihmelinyan is the register of the capital, Lihmelī́nyā /lix.me.'liːn.jaː/, and the literary and religious language of Manter.
Classification
Lihmelinyan is an a priori/a posteriori combo lang. Its grammar and phonology derives mainly from PIE, in particular Sanskrit and Anatolian. Its vocabulary is a priori. In my conworld's classification, it's part of the Manto-Kuruan family, whose lineage looks something like this:
MANTO-KURUAN --> Mantic --> Greater Mantian --> Red Mantian --> Lihmelinyan
Greater Mantian is variously regarded as a family or a dialect cluster, with Lihmelinyan being a prestige variety of Eastern (or Red*) Mantian. It's sort of a Chinese/Mandarin situation.
*Manter is divided roughly into four regions corresponding to the four cardinal directions and their associated colors. Black (North), White (South), Yellow (West), and Red (East). The capital is located in the East.
Lihmelinyan is verb-final. The order of the other constituents can vary, but adverbs tend to be placed near the verb unless they function as sentence-connectives, adjectives often follow the noun, but there are postpositions rather than prepositions.
Nouns are grouped by stem and whether they're thematic or athematic. There aren't really nice neat "declensions" like in Latin. Nouns are declined in 9 cases, with a 10th showing up in neuter nouns (the ergative). Nouns have three numbers: singular, dual, and plural. All three numbers are fully functional, though plural has more syncretism than singular, and dual more than plural. There are three genders: masculine, neuter, and feminine.
Verbs are also grouped by stem type and athematic vs. thematic. Verbs tend to have three stems: present, aorist, perfect. The various TAM-combinations are formed from these. Three tenses: Present, Past Future. Three aspects: Perfective, Imperfective, Perfect. Seven moods: Indicative, Imperative, Subjunctive, Optative, Jussive, Necessitative, Injunctive. Not all possible combinations occur!
Sample Sentence
I figured I'd put a sentence here before I dive into phonology. Here's a dopey beginner's sentence just to illustrate what Lihmelinyan sounds like:
Fā́ngus ilḗtas ḷti kamínya alàr, úfike yéntans rúdans zásans ūšéti.
/'faːŋ.gus i.'leː.tas 'l̩.ti ka.'min.ja a.'lar 'u.fi.ke 'jɛn.tans 'ru.dans 'za.sans uː.'ʃɛ.ti/
"The old farmer goes into the barn, and there he sees four brown cows."
fāngus - nominative u-stem masc. "farmer"
ilētas - nominative sing. masc. "old [of a living thing]"
ḷti - 3rd sing. present of ḷmi "I go"
kaminya - allative of kamínyas "barn, shed"
alar - postposition "into"
ufi - there (locative)
-ke - and (clitic)
yentans - accusative pl. masc. "four"
rudans - accusative pl. masc. "brown"
zasans - accusative pl. of zās "cow"
ūšeti - 3rd. sing. present of ūšémi "I see"
Okay then. So now I'm super nervous. Well, this is just to get started. I'll post more later. Any comments appreciated
So let's begin.
Lihmelinyan /lɪx.mɛ.'lɪn.jən/ is a language of Manter, a region in a con-world that I co-created with an online friend. Manter is home to many closely related Mantian languages, and Lihmelinyan is the register of the capital, Lihmelī́nyā /lix.me.'liːn.jaː/, and the literary and religious language of Manter.
Classification
Lihmelinyan is an a priori/a posteriori combo lang. Its grammar and phonology derives mainly from PIE, in particular Sanskrit and Anatolian. Its vocabulary is a priori. In my conworld's classification, it's part of the Manto-Kuruan family, whose lineage looks something like this:
MANTO-KURUAN --> Mantic --> Greater Mantian --> Red Mantian --> Lihmelinyan
Greater Mantian is variously regarded as a family or a dialect cluster, with Lihmelinyan being a prestige variety of Eastern (or Red*) Mantian. It's sort of a Chinese/Mandarin situation.
*Manter is divided roughly into four regions corresponding to the four cardinal directions and their associated colors. Black (North), White (South), Yellow (West), and Red (East). The capital is located in the East.
Lihmelinyan is verb-final. The order of the other constituents can vary, but adverbs tend to be placed near the verb unless they function as sentence-connectives, adjectives often follow the noun, but there are postpositions rather than prepositions.
Nouns are grouped by stem and whether they're thematic or athematic. There aren't really nice neat "declensions" like in Latin. Nouns are declined in 9 cases, with a 10th showing up in neuter nouns (the ergative). Nouns have three numbers: singular, dual, and plural. All three numbers are fully functional, though plural has more syncretism than singular, and dual more than plural. There are three genders: masculine, neuter, and feminine.
Verbs are also grouped by stem type and athematic vs. thematic. Verbs tend to have three stems: present, aorist, perfect. The various TAM-combinations are formed from these. Three tenses: Present, Past Future. Three aspects: Perfective, Imperfective, Perfect. Seven moods: Indicative, Imperative, Subjunctive, Optative, Jussive, Necessitative, Injunctive. Not all possible combinations occur!
Sample Sentence
I figured I'd put a sentence here before I dive into phonology. Here's a dopey beginner's sentence just to illustrate what Lihmelinyan sounds like:
Fā́ngus ilḗtas ḷti kamínya alàr, úfike yéntans rúdans zásans ūšéti.
/'faːŋ.gus i.'leː.tas 'l̩.ti ka.'min.ja a.'lar 'u.fi.ke 'jɛn.tans 'ru.dans 'za.sans uː.'ʃɛ.ti/
"The old farmer goes into the barn, and there he sees four brown cows."
fāngus - nominative u-stem masc. "farmer"
ilētas - nominative sing. masc. "old [of a living thing]"
ḷti - 3rd sing. present of ḷmi "I go"
kaminya - allative of kamínyas "barn, shed"
alar - postposition "into"
ufi - there (locative)
-ke - and (clitic)
yentans - accusative pl. masc. "four"
rudans - accusative pl. masc. "brown"
zasans - accusative pl. of zās "cow"
ūšeti - 3rd. sing. present of ūšémi "I see"
Okay then. So now I'm super nervous. Well, this is just to get started. I'll post more later. Any comments appreciated