Halfling language
"Halfling language" is the term for the largely-mutually-intelligible dialects of the Forest Halflings of The Green Maw. It is an agglutinative language family, meaning words are made up of potentially many roots and affixes. The detailed attention that Halfling culture gives to both social gender and to time is built directly into its language.
Quick & Dirty Language Overview
Before delving into a detailed study of the Halfling language, allow me to summarize ten basic language characteristics. To help visually clarify word separation, verbs in example sentences are in bold.
1. Halfling has seventeen consonants and ten vowels. All consonants are pronounced exactly as they are spelled. Three Halfling vowels are written as two letters instead of one when anglicized: /ʊ/ is "eo," /e/ is "ey," and /ə/ is "eu." Halfling doesn't have the sounds /p/ or /ŋ/ (ng). When Halflings speak languages with these sounds, their accent tends to pronounce /p/ as /b/ and /ŋ/ as /n/.
2. Halfling nouns are conceptualized as agents and patients rather than subjects and objects. Languages like English think of nouns by the analytic roles they play within a sentence. A subject, for instance, is what a sentence is about. This is called nominative-accusative alignment. Halfling, on the other hand, thinks of nouns by the semantic relationships they have with a sentence's event(s). This is called active-stative alignment. An agent is one who is the cause or initiator of an event, and a patient is the undergoer of an event. Agents and patients can coincidentally be the same as a sentence's subjects and objects, but there's no reason they need to be.
Take the sentence "Indra casts a spell." Indra is both initiating the casting and who the sentence is about, so Indra is both the agent and the subject of the sentence. Now take the sentence "The spell is cast by Indra." "The spell" is now the subject of the sentence, but the spell isn't the initiator of the verb. The initiator of the verb is still Indra, and therefore, although Indra is an object in the second sentence, Indra is also still the agent.
- English: Indra casts a spell. (subject + verb + direct object)
- Halfling literal translation: Indra casts a spell. (agent + verb + patient)
- English: The spell is cast by Indra. (subject + verb + indirect object)
- Hafling literal translation: Indra casts the spell. (agent + verb + patient)
3. Halfling's basic word order is agent-verb-patient (AVP). In a nominative-accusative language, this would be subject-verb-object (SVO).
- English: I feed the baby. (subject + verb + direct object)
- Halfling literal translation: I feed the baby. (agent + verb + patient)
- English: I slip on ice. (subject + verb + preposition + indirect object)
- Halfling literal translation: Ice-surface slip me. (agent + verb + patient)
When an auxiliary verb is used, basic word order is agent-auxiliary-patient-verb (AXPV). In a nominative-accusative language, this would be subject-auxiliary-object-verb (SXOV).
4. If a statement's goal is to describe a state or a condition, a Halfling will use a noun rather than an adjective (more precisely, a subject complement). If one wanted to say they were sleepy, that sleepy feeling would be phrased as a noun ("sleepiness") rather than as an adjective ("sleepy"). The verbs used in these phrases are "to encounter" (if the state is involuntary) or "to have" (if the state is voluntary). For instance, if a Halfling were to describe themselves as hungry or scared, they would say "I encountered hunger" or "I encountered fear." "Hunger" and "fear" in these cases are agents and "I" is the patient.
- English: I am hungry. (Subject + Verb + Adjective)
- Halfling literal translation: Hunger encounter me. (Agent + Verb + Patient)
- English: I am scared. (Subject + Verb + Adjective)
- Halfling literal translation: Fear encounter me. (Agent + Verb + Patient)
If a Halfling were to describe themselves as tattooed or married (descriptions which presumably they took upon themselves by choice), they would say "I have tattoos" or "I have a marriage." "Tattoos" and "marriage" here are patients and "I" is the agent.
- English: I am tattooed. (Subject + Verb + Adjective)
- Halfling literal translation: I have a tattoo. (Agent + Verb + Patient)
- English: I am married. (Subject + Verb + Adjective)
- Hafling literal translation: I have a marriage. (Agent + Verb + Patient)
These nouns may be modified with traditional adjectives, such as in "I encountered distracting hunger" or "I have a loving marriage."
- English: I am hungry to distraction. (Subject + Verb + Adjectival Phrase)
- Halfling literal translation: Hunger distracting encounter me. (Agent + Adjective + Verb + Patient)
- English: I am in a loving marriage. (Subject + Verb + Preposition + Adjective + Indirect Object)
- Hafling literal translation: I have a marriage loving. (Agent + Verb + Patient + Adjective)
Despite sounding somewhat awkward in literal English, the agents in these examples may also take on adjectives.
- English: I, feeling weak, am hungry to distraction. (Subject + Adjectival Phrase + Verb + Adjectival Phrase)
- Halfling literal translation: Hunger distracting encounter me weak. (Agent + Adjective + Verb + Patient + Adjective)
- English: Lucky me is in a loving marriage. (Adjective + Subject + Verb + Preposition + Adjective + Indirect Object)
- Hafling literal translation: I lucky have a marriage loving. (Agent + Adjective + Verb + Patient + Adjective)
5. Halfling has eight grammatical genders and five word classes. These grammatical genders are:
- Four adult social genders
- One child and pet gender; this gender is also used when social gender is unknown or with outsiders whose cultures don't have Halfling social genders
- One wild or non-intelligent animal gender
- One abstract inanimate gender
- One concrete inanimate gender
These grammatical genders each have an agent and patient form.
The word classes are:
- I Adult halflings, professions, time (chaosgrown, ranger, tree time)
- II Wild Animals (abyssal render, death lantern, owlbear)
- III Inanimate, Abstract (bravery, hunger, solitude)
- IV Inanimate, Concrete (choke vine, rattlejag die, sword)
- V Miscellanous (baby, Dreamer, ghoul)
A given word's word class restricts the consonant and vowel combinations that may be found within its syllable(s).
6. Verbs in factual statements declare whether their information was obtained first- or second-hand. In order for a word to be a verb, it must have one of 14 modality suffixes that express the verb's "mood." Four of these modality suffixes (two reflecting the perfective aspect and two the imperfective aspect) are used for expressing modality realis moods, i.e. statements of fact. When one makes a factual statement, the specific realis suffix one uses indicates whether the factual information was learned through personal experience (indicative mood) or through hearsay (inferential modality).
- English: The river is flooded. (subject + verb + adjective)
- Literal Halfling translation, realis: Floods the river+which I know through personal experience. (verb + patient)
- Literal Halfling translation, inferential: Floods the river+which I know from a second-hand source. (verb + patient)
7. When spells or ritual speech are performed, their verbs take on the imperfective volitive mood. Note that these verbs cannot be supported by auxiliary verbs, but their direct translations will contain auxiliary verbs to show they're imperfective.
- English: I now pronounce you husband and wife. (subject + adverb + verb + subject + subject complement)
- Halfling literal translation: I am announcing+imperfective volitive mood now that you have spouses. (agent + verb + adverb + conjunction + agent + verb + patient)
- English: We therefore commit this body to the ground. (subject + adverb + verb + direct object + preposition + indirect object)
- Halfling literal translation: We are burying+imperfective volitive mood consequently this body. (agent + verb + adverb + patient)
8. Possession is expressed using the construction "_____of _____" as with the Spanish "de" or Japanese "no." However, possessives come before their nouns.
- English: I enter the home of Gwedra. (subject + verb + direct object + prepositional phrase + indirect object)
- Literal Halfling translation: I enter Gwedra of home. (agent + verb + possessor + possessor classifier + agent)
Note that copulas (in English, the verbs is and are in descriptive sentences) are dropped in Halfling:
- English: This is the sword of Gwedra.
- Literal Halfling translation: This Gwedra of sword.
9. Halfling pronouns are incorporated as a suffix of their names, usually as a coda. (Is this used as an article?? as a classifier?? as a case marker?? as a gender marker?? What is its grammatical purpose?)
10. Halfling has a base eight counting system. When counting on their fingers, halflings touch the knuckle closest to their nail on each finger with their thumb.
Phonology & Phonotactics
With ten vowels and seventeen consonants, Halfling has an unusually high vowel-to-consonant ratio, reflecting its now-extinct tonal history. Halfling phonology is also notable for its lack of of the voiceless bilabial plosive /p/. With the exception of a few rare dialects, affricates (consonants that begin as a plosive and release as a fricative) are also absent, but plosives and fricatives themselves are present.
Consonants
| Labial | Labio-Dental | Dental | Retroflex | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ||||||
| Plosive | b | t d | k g | ʔ | ||||
| Affricate | ||||||||
| Tap | r | |||||||
| Fricative | f v | θ | s z | h | ||||
| Approximant | l | w |
The anglicized written consonants are:
| B b | D d | F f | G g | H h | K k | L l | M m | N n | R r | S s | T t | Th th /θ/ | V v | W w | Z z | ' /ʔ/ |
Vowels
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u | |
| Near Close | ɪ | ʊ | |
| Close-Mid | e | o | |
| Mid | ə | ||
| Open-Mid | ɛ | ||
| Open | æ | ɑ |
Halfling vowels are anglicized as follows:
| A a /ɑ/ | Æ æ /æ/ | E e /ɛ/ | Eh eh /ə/ | Eo eo /ʊ/ | Ey ey /e/ | I i /i/ | O o /o/ | U u /u/ | Y y /ɪ/ |
- /ɑ/ or A is pronounced like the "a" in "bra"
- /æ/ or Æ is pronounced like the "a" in "cat"
- /ɛ/ or E is pronounced like the "e" in "wet"
- /ə/ or Eh is prounced like "u" in "cut"
- /ʊ/ or Eo is pronounced like the "oo" in "hook"
- /e/ or Ey is pronounced like "a" in "mage" but cut off
- /i/ or I is pronounced like "ee" in "street"
- /o/ or O is pronounced like "o" in "smote" but cut off
- /u/ or U is pronounced like "u" in "chute"
- /ɪ/ or Y is pronounced like "i" in "bit"
Pronunciation Notes & Dialectal Differences
- Halfling does not have phonological vowel length, but speakers can lengthen a vowel in the first syllable to emphasize a word.
- /r/ is often pronounced partially devoiced between vowels.
- /ʔ/ is inserted before vowel-initial syllables within words.
- "A" becomes "æ" when it directly precedes final syllable "r," so /ær/.
- /ŋ/ or "ng" does not exist in Halfling. When words with this sound enter the Halfling language, they are pronounced /n/ and the "g" is dropped.
- Some regional varieties glottalize /t/ when followed by /r/.
- Some regional varieties articulate /n/ before /i/ as a palatal nasal [ɲ] at syllable boundaries.
- Some regional varieties pronounce /s/ and /z/ as /ʃ/ and /ʒ/ before consonants.
Syllables
Syllable types in order of frequency with canon examples. C means consonant and V means vowel. CC means two consonants following each other, i.e. a "consonant cluster."
- CV (ro, re, ma, ha, ku, ta, ka, be, no, ni)
- CVC (ther, zun, cal, len, bor)
- CCV (gwe, dra, fli, sla, sve)
- CVCC (verd, zant, gorm) Rule: In CVCC syllables, the second C must be a nasal or a rhotic.
- VC (in, ar, if)
- CCVC (tris, bryn)
- V (a, i)
Abbreviations
- 1st: first person, "I"
- 2st: second person, "you"
- 3rd: third person, "halfling specific/singular they/it"
- AGE: Agentive/Active case
- PAT: Patientive/Inactive case
- IO: Indirect object
- DO: Direct object
- COP: Copula
- NP: Noun phrase
- REAL: Realis mood
- IRR: Irrealis mood
- DEF: Definite article
- QUE: question particle
- POSS_In: Possession of an inanimate object
- POSS_An: Possession of an animate being
- POSS_Kin: Possession of kin
Morphosyntactic Alignment
Halfling has active-stative morphosyntactic alignment, and intransitive sentences follow an agent-verb/verb-patient word order. The active-stative subtype is fluid-S, meaning that intransitive verbs are not tied to just one case and can instead be associated with either an agent or a patient.
While saying that Halfling has SVO and SXOV word order is conceptually helpful to the newest Halfling language learner, it must then be understand that Halfling doesn't precisely have the categories of "subject" and "object." English -- and all other languages with "nominative-accusative" morphosyntactic alignment -- classify nouns as either subjects or objects of verbs. "Subjects" and "objects" are syntactic roles; for example, a subject is what a sentence is about. Halfing perceives nouns as agents or patients of verbs. "Agents" and "patients" describe a semantic relationship. For instance, an agent is something that causes or initiates a verb. An agent is often the same as a sentence's subject, but not always. Take the sentence "Indra casts a spell." Indra is initiating the casting, so Indra is both the agent and the subject of the sentence. However, now take the sentence "The spell is cast by Indra." "The spell" is now the subject of the sentence, but the spell isn't the initiator of the verb. The initiator of the verb is still Indra, and therefore, although Indra is the indirect object in the second sentence, Indra is also still the agent.
Because Halfling classifies nouns by their semantic relationship with verbs, intransitive Halfling sentences may have agent or patient nouns as their "subjects." An agent precedes its verb, and a patient follows it.
The intransitive verb "sing" takes an agent noun.
- Indra was singing.
- IPA: Indra vu.nə.hɛr.væ.
- Indra (DEF-AGE) sing+REAL+DIST-IMP
- Literally: Indra singing + declarative + distal imperfective
- Anglicized: Indra vunehhervæ.
The intransitive verb "sleep" takes a patient noun.
- Indra was sleeping.
- IPA: Dʊg.bə.hɛr.væ Indram.
- sleep + declarative + distal imperfective Indra + DEF-PAT
- Literally: Singing + declarative + distal imperfective Indra + patientive case
- Anglicized: Deogbehhervæ Indram.
Agent-verb
- The dog is biting [voluntary]
- Knæf.θi wɑs.fərs.hɛr
- Agent [dog+DEF] Verb [bite+proximal-progressive-aspect+REAL]
- Lit: The dog biting (I see with my own eyes that the dog is deliberately biting)
Verb-patient
- The dog is slipping [involuntary]
- Dɑlo.fərs.hɛr knæf.θir
- Verb [slip+proximal-progressive-aspect+REAL] Patient [dog+DEF]
- Lit: The dog slipping (I see with my own eyes that the dog is accidentally slipping)
Word Order
Summary
- SVO, SXOV
- Suffixing
- Gen N
- OV word order in compounds
- Sentence final question particles
- N Adj Dem Num
- VO
- Aux V
- V Adverb
Indirect objects precede direct objects and occur closest to the verb.
- A farmer is bringing water to a goat.
- Farmer brings to goat water.
- S V IO DO
- We thank Mom.
- We give Mom thanks.
- S V IO DO
Copulas come between noun phrases.
- The merchant is a stranger.
- Merchant be stranger.
- NP COP NP
Auxiliaries precede the verb's main clause.
- He will leave.
- He FUT go
- S AUX V
- He has cooked meat.
- He PERF meat cook.
- S AUX O V
Adverbs follow verbs.
- He doesn't do it frequently.
- He NEG-it do frequently.
- S X-O V Adverb
Yes-no questions are marked by sentence-final suffixes.
- Is he there?
- He is there Q
- S V DEM Q
- Did he go to the market?
- He go market-Q?
- S V O-Q
Modifiers (demonstratives, definite markers, numbers, adjectives, relative clauses) follow their heads.
- I have those two large cookies.
- I possess cookies large those two.
- S V O Adj Dem Num
Relative clause example:
- The ranger I saw.
- Yr.mut kla gen.vla.hɛr
- Noun [ranger] Relative clause [I see.distal-continuous-progressive.REAL]
- Lit: Ranger I saw.
Verbs
Verbs in Halfling are an open class. The pure verb base is a verbal noun. To become a functioning verb, the verb base is treated as a bound stem and must be suffixed for modality. If the verb is imperfective, it is also suffixed for aspect. If the verb is perfective, it is supported by an auxiliary verb that conveys aspect and tense.
In the imperfective aspect, Halfling has six realis and irrealis modality suffixes. The imperfective volitive mood is used only in magical or ritual speech.
| Modality | Situation | Suffix | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Realis | A declarative statement (past and present tense) | hɛr | I'm eating dinner. |
| Irrealis | A statement not known to have happened (future tense) | hat | They'll be eating dinner eventually. |
| Inferential (REAL) | A statement that was inferred or wasn't directly witnessed (past and present tense) | bɪd | My mom said he was eating dinner. |
| Benedictive (IRR) | A statement requested in an honorific or polite fashion | æm | Would you mind kindly eating dinner please? |
| Hortative (IRR) | A statement encouraging or discouraging an action | me | Let's get to eating dinner. |
| Volitive (IRR) | Appealing to one's own will [Used in magical or ritual speech only] | By my will I am eating dinner! |
In the perfective aspect, Halfling has ?? modality suffixes. These verbs must be supported by one of ?? auxiliary verbs.
| Modality | Situation | Suffix | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Realis | A statement of fact; declarative (past and present tense) | hoi | I shut the door. |
| Irrealis | A statement not known to have happened (future tense) | kə | They'll shut the door eventually. |
| Inferential (REAL) | A statement that was inferred or wasn't directly witnessed (past and present tense) | do | It is said that he shut the door. |
| Benedictive (IRR) | A statement requested in an honorific or polite fashion | æm | Would you kindly please shut the door? |
| Imperative (IRR) | The statement is an order | lʊ | Shut the door! |
| Prohibitive (IRR) | The statement is a prohibition | sɛdz | Don't shut the door! |
| Hortative (IRR) | A statement encouraging or discouraging an action | Let's shut the door. | |
| Volitive (IRR) | The statement signals personal intention | You intend to shut the door. |
Negation
Verbs are negated by a preceding negation particle. In sentences with auxiliary verbs, the negation particle must go before both the auxiliary verb and the verb it supports. If a negation particle is left out of such a sentence, the entire sentence will be understood as negative but will sound ungrammatical.
Nouns
Noun Classes (Grammatical Gender)
Halfling has five noun classes. Class 1 -- adult halflings -- can be subdivided into four semantic/social genders.
| Noun Class | Example Members | Agentive/Active | Patientive/Inactive | IPA Spelling |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| I Adult halflings, professions, time | Chaosgrown, ranger, tree time | |||
| II Wild Animals | Abyssal renders, death lanterns, owlbears | wus | wum | wus / wum * |
| III Inanimate, Abstract | Bravery, hunger, solitude | |||
| IV Inanimate, Concrete | Choke vine, rattlejag die, sword | væ | væm | væ / væm * |
| V Miscellanous (Unknown, child, outsider, pet) | Baby, Dreamer, ghoul | thee | theeir | θi / θir |
Pronouns
There are eight 3rd person pronouns for the two cases.
| 3rd Person Pronoun | Agentive/Active | Patientive/Inactive | IPA Spelling |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chaosgrown | nee | neer | ni / nir |
| Dragongrown | dra | dram | dra / dram |
| Dreamgrown | tris | trim | trɪs / trɪm |
| Heartgrown | flee | fleer | fli / flir |
| Animals, Non-Intelligent or Wild | wus | wum | wus / wum * |
| Child/Unknown/Outsider/Pet | thee | theeir | θi / θir |
| Inanimate, Abstract | |||
| Inanimate, Concrete | væ | væm | væ / væm * |
Fourth person is expressed using the numeral one declined for the agentive/active case or patientive/inactive case. (Is 1st person just definite 4th person? Could it be logically treated that way??)
- 4th person: θut / θut.a / θut.ɪm
Compound Words
OV word order in compounds.
Plurality & Singularity
Animate nouns are assumed to be singular unless specifically stated otherwise. Plurality is indicated by a specific number or a quantifier.
Inanimate objects are treated as collective nouns by default. A number or quantifier must be added to indicate that the inanimate noun is a singular item, or one part of a theoretical group, a diminutive of a group, elements of a group to be distributed, part of a dual pairing, etc. A diminutive of many indefinite nouns would be translated as, for example, a grain [of sand, of rice, etc.], a drop [of water, of blood, etc.], or a crumb [of food, of lint, etc.]. Quantifiers can be combined to mean, for example, many drops of water rather than a mass of water.
| Quantifiers | Closest English Equivalent | |
|---|---|---|
| A number between 2 and 4 | a few, several | |
| A number between 5 and 10 | several, some | |
| An indeterminate number above 10 | a number of | |
| Almost many (in the context of overall group size) | numerous | |
| Many (in the context of overall group size) | many | |
| At least one but maybe all | some | |
| Every (note: not each) | every, all |
Modifiers
Noun modifiers, such as adjectives and articles, come after their nouns. Directions come after nouns. However, possessives and genitives precede nouns.
Adjectives
Most adjectives end in "ær." They come after the nouns they modify.
Miscellaneous Canon
It is taboo to refer to a halfling doing something out of their gender proscribed time. If you want to refer to a halfling doing something out of their gender defined time, you must leave them unnamed while connecting them to a different halfling of the appropriate gender associated time. For example, if you want to talk about a Chaosgrown named Charleynee doing something in the past you would have to reference their Dragongrown friend Zenithdra, saying, "The friend of Zenithdra who likes to eat grubs did that yesterday."
Possession is expressed using the construction "_____of _____" as with the Spanish "de" or Japanese "no." There is a single plural pronoun for a group of halflings, they/them. the pronoun thee/theeir is used when the gender of the subject is unknown (be it because they are a child and their gender has not been assigned yet, because they are an outsider who's gender doesn't map easily onto halfling gender conceptions, or some other reason).
Halfling pronouns are incorporated as a syllable of their names, frequently suffixes at the end of their name.
