Vouard language
The Vouard language is a group of largely mutually-intelligible dialects spoken by the native inhabitants of the Vouard exoplane. A large number of Vouard-speaking refugees have resettled within Andorith. This is a brief overview of the standardized version of their language.
Vouard is highly analytic and nominative-accusative. It is a stress accent language with fixed stress on the final syllable. Roots are written and pronounced as separate words, and word order is determined by the grammatical aspect of a sentence. A small amount of derivational morphology in the language is derived from reduplication. Both adjectives and verbs are closed classes. There are no verbal person markings or numeral classifier systems.
Phonology
Consonants
| Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Post-alveolar / Palatal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ||
| Plosive | p b | t d | t͡ʃ d͡ʒ | |
| Fricative | f v | θ ð | s z | ʃ ʒ |
| Tap | ɾ | |||
| Approximant | l | j |
The consonants are written as b, ch (t͡ʃ), d, dh (ð), f, j (d͡ʒ), jh (ʒ), l, m, n, p, r, s, sh (ʃ), t, th (θ), v, y (j), and z. The least commonly used consonant, Y, has largely been absorbed by diphthongs.
Vowels
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u | |
| Mid | e | o | |
| Open | a |
Diphthongs: /ei/ /oi/ /ai/ /au/ /ua/
/au/ is written as "ou."
Abbreviations
- 1st: first person, "I"
- 2st: second person, "you"
- 3rd: third person, "he/she/singular they/it"
- HUM: humanoid noun class
- AN: non-humanoid animate noun class
- IN: inanimate noun class
- Nom: nominative
- Acc: accusative
- Dat: dative
- INTRANS: intransitive particle
- NEG: negation particle
- QUE: question particle
Word Order & Aspect
A Vouard sentence's word order is dependent on its aspect: perfective, continuous/progressive, or habitual. Vouard noun phrases' clear boundaries -- beginning with the noun itself and ending with the noun's case marker -- allow phrase order to be very flexible. The perfective aspect sees an event as a complete action. The continuous/progressive aspect sees an event or state as an unfolding process. The habitual aspect indicates an action is usual, ordinary, or customary. Tense may be suggested by a sentence's aspect, but tense is more commonly implied through context and adverbs.
| Aspect | Word Order | Example | Translation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Perfective | VSO | Tizuor dhu mad ber chevu. | He daydreamed. [The action is done once] |
| Continuous/Progressive | SVO | Mad ber tizuor dhu chevu. | He was daydreaming. [The action may or may not be completed] |
| Habitual | OVS | Chevu tizuor dhu mad ber. | He daydreams. [He daydreams habitually; he was/is a daydreamer] |
Verbs
Vouard has 94 simple verbs; all other verbs are a combination of one of these simple verbs paired with a noun without a case marker. When negating a sentence, the negation must come before the simple verb, not the noun.
Copulas
Copulas ("to be" verbs) are required in predications. Predications are statements that declare something about a noun, such as "It is red" or "She is a doctor." Vouard's three copulas are locative, equative, and existential.
The locative copula doi indicates where something is located. It is always transitive.
- We were located at the park.
- Locative copula + 1st + numeral + HUM+Nom + park + IN+Acc [Perfective]
- Doi di muoibi ber dazo neir
- Where is my cup?
- Locative copula + cup + of + 1st + IN+Nom + where + IN+Acc + QUE [Perfective]
- Doi tirsunam fou di pu dovi neir maia?
The equative copula va equates the subject with something else. It is always transitive. Note that a sentence using the verb va (is/equals) requires only nominative case markers, because the subject and object are the same.
- This is my mother. (This person equates to my mother.)
- My favorite school subject is rhetoric. (My favorite school subject equates to rhetoric)
The intransitive existential copula, azi, denotes that something is present or exists, and that existence is habitual, common, or expected.
- There are multiple peoples on our planet. (Multiple peoples exist on our planet.)
- I believe ghosts are real.
The English sentence "We are on the kabaddi field" could be translated with any of the three Vouard copulas and technically be correct. However, which copula is used emphasizes or implies something different in the sentence.
- Locative copula usage: Where were you guys?
- We were on the kabaddi field. [emphasis on the location]
- Equative copula usage: Who was the person on the kabaddi field last night?
- I was the one on the kabaddi field last night. [emphasis on describing the subject]
- Existential copula usage: Do you guys ever visit the kabaddi field?
- We are regularly present on the kabaddi field. [emphasis on the subject(s) expected existence or presence]
Auxiliaries
Auxiliary verbs are placed directly after the simple verb they support. This placement doesn't change in serial verb constructions, i.e. when two or more verbs or verb phrases are stacked together in a single clause.
Grammatical moods are expressed through auxiliary verbs.
Causatives
A few verbs can be made causative with the addition of specific nouns. However, there are no causative simple verbs, and a causative state is usually conveyed through a phrase, i.e. periphrasis.
Nouns
A word is a noun if it can take a case marker, and its animacy/inanimacy class determines which case markers it takes. Marked cases in Vouard are nominative (subject), accusative (direct object), and dative (indirect object). A noun without a case marker is in its "bare" form and can be combined with a verb to make a new verb.
Vouard nouns are classified as humanoid, animate, or inanimate. A noun's sound doesn't predict its animacy class, but class can often be determined logically. A being whose self-awareness, communication, and rough intelligence resembles those of a human are classified as humanoid nouns. Such beings often have a human-like physical shape, but, within the diverse interdimensional universe that the Vouard reside, that is not always the case.
Living animals, cosmic bodies, growing plants, and divine/mythological beings belong to the animate noun class. Objects, land forms, abstract things, picked fruits and vegetables, body parts, and dead things are all classified as inanimate.
A Vouard noun phrase will always consist of a minimum of two words, the head (a noun, pronoun, or determiner) and the case marker. The head will always begin the noun phrase, and the case marker will always end it. Adjectives, demonstratives, numerals, and relative clauses all follow the noun but proceed the case marker. Because nouns always require case markers (see Pronouns for an exception), there are ambiguous markers when animacy/inanimacy is unknown, veija and uneimu.
Beisha as a 1st and 2nd person inanimate case marker is primarily used in stories and poetry. It also means "dough."
| Case Markers | 1st Person | 2nd Person | 3rd Person |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unknown Animacy | - | Vei.ja | Un.ei.mu |
| Humanoid Nominative | Ber | Yol | Ya.du |
| Humanoid Accusative | Thei | Pu | A.tha |
| Humanoid Dative | Sha | As.fa | Do.vi |
| Animate Nominative | Vu.or | Da.zo | Neir |
| Animate Accusative | Vu.or | Jai | Net |
| Animate Dative | Vu.or | A.ze | Dou.ten |
| Inanimate Nominative | Bei.sha | Bei.sha | Bei.sha |
| Inanimate Accusative | Bei.sha | Bei.sha | Doi |
| Inanimate Dative | Bei.sha | Bei.sha | Yi.zu |
Plurality
Vouard nouns don't change for number. If a noun is plural, that plurality is inferred through context or indicated by the addition of a number. Counting numbers are used to specify noun quantities.
- How many cats do you have?
- Poait jai doi thucha jho ber maia?
- Cat AN+Acc number+possess [possess some number] You HUM+Nom QUE? [Habitual aspect]
- I have two cats.
- Poait boujha jai thucha di ber.
- Cat two AN+Acc possess I HUM+Nom. [Habitual aspect]
- How many people can your boat hold?
- The thieves will soon be judged by way of a moot.
- Thief four HUM+Nom justice+
- Friends, welcome to my party.
| Numerals | |
|---|---|
| One | Dho.un |
| Two | Boujha |
| Three | Mu.oi.bi |
| Four | Doij |
| Five | Mou.tit |
| Six | Beysu |
| Seven | Ul.ai.to |
| Eight | Doimin |
| Nine | Tar.tit |
| Ten | Sha.dem.shi |
Pronouns
Like other nouns, pronouns take case markers that change based on the pronoun's animacy/inanimacy class. Like all nouns, pronouns have no plural form. When a noun is plural, plurality is inferred through context or indicated by the addition of a number.
