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. The small amount of derivational morphology in the language is derived from reduplication. Relational nouns are used much more often than adpositions, and both adjectives and verbs are closed classes. There are no verbal person markings or numeral classifier systems.

Quick & Dirty Language Overview

A quick and dirty overview of the Vouard language includes these ten basic characteristics. To help visually clarify word separation, verbs in example sentences are in bold.

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 Used in this Article

• V: verb
• S: subject (nominative)
• O: object (accusative and/or dative)
• 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
• RED: reduplication
• INTRANS: intransitive particle
• NEG: negation particle
• QUE: question particle

Grammar Overview

Vouard is an analytic language, meaning grammatical connections between individual words are shown by way of additional other words such as particles. Though Vouard has no inflectional morphology, it has some derivational morphology created from reduplication (prefixed on nouns and suffixed on verbs). Nouns are classified under a three-way animacy/inanimacy system: humanoid, animate, and inanimate. A word is a noun if it can take a case marker, and its animacy/inanimacy class determines what case markers it takes. Marked cases in Vouard are nominative, accusative, and dative. A noun without a case marker is in its "bare" form and can be combined with a simple verb to make a complex verb.

Word Order

The Vouard noun phrase always consists 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 of these very clear boundaries, Vouard is able to use phrase order to convey a sentence's aspect, i.e. how its verb describes an event, action, or state over time. When it comes to word order, Vouard indicates whether an action is perfective (a complete event), continuous/progressive (an unfolding process), or habitual (a usual, ordinary, or customary event). Aspect may also imply a sentence's tense, though tense is more commonly expressed with optional simple verb marking (past and non-past tense only) or through context and adverbs. See Verbal Aspect for a more detailed explanation of aspect.

Aspect	Word Order	Example	Translation
Perfective	VSO	Tizuor dafa mad ber chevu.	He daydreamed. [The action is done once]
Continuous/Progressive	SVO	Mad ber tizuor dafa chevu.	He was daydreaming. [The action may or may not be completed]
Habitual	OVS	Chevu tizuor dafa mad ber.	He daydreams. [He daydreams habitually; he was/is a daydreamer]

Verbs

Vouard has 84 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.

Simple Verb	+ Noun	Complex Verb
Dafa	+ ar.tem	artem dafa
To heat, to cook	+ a rock	to bake
Dafa	+ ti.zu.or	tizuor dafa
To heat, to cook	+ a wish	to daydream
Fer	+ bo.du	bodu fer
to ascend, to begin	+ a chin	to admire
Fer	+ ir.oi.ne	iroine fer
to ascend, to begin	+ a job, labor	to commence the workday

Tense

Past and non-past tense can be marked on simple verbs, but this is done only for initial clarification and isn't required. Typically, when a topic of discussion is introduced, the tense of the topic is given and then never restated until a change in the discussion's tense occurs. Further detail beyond past and non-past is virtually always conveyed by adverbs.

• Fuzi joined me at the food stall for breakfast yesterday. We ate fish eggs, rice, and watercress. Then we walked together to the museum. We'll meet at the food stall again tomorrow. I'll order more of that delicious rice.

Aspect

As discussed above, a Vouard noun phrase begins with a noun and ends with a marker indicating the noun's case: nominative (subject/agent), accusative (direct object), or dative (indirect object), with dative objects come before accusative objects. This required placement of the noun and the case marker allows phrase order to be very flexible within a clause, and Vouard uses this phase order flexibility to indicates the perfective, the continuous/progressive, and the habitual aspects.

The perfective aspect sees an event as a complete action. In English, it is similar to the simple past tense indicated by the suffix "-ed." Perfective sentences in Vouard are written in verb-subject-object phrase order.

• "Fuzi went to the museum."
• "I will sleep tonight."

The continuous/progressive aspect sees an event or state as an unfolding process. Continuous/progressive sentences are written in subject-verb-object phrase order.

• "Fuzi was going to the museum."
• "The rain was beating down."

The habitual aspect indicates that an action is usually, ordinarily, or customarily performed. Habitual sentences are written in object-verb-subject phrase order.

• "Fuzi goes to the museum every Thursday."
• "Fuzi usually eats oatmeal for breakfast."

When a sentence contains verbs with different aspects.

• "Fuzi was reading when I entered."

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. Note that while a locative sentence is intransitive in English, in Vouard it is always transitive.

• We were located at the park.
• Locative copula + 1st + numeral + HUM+Nom + park + IN+Acc [Perfective]
• Doi di athe 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 maio?

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.)
• Ghosts are real. (Ghosts exist.)

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?
• I was on the kabaddi field. [emphasis on the location]
• Equative copula usage: Who was 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 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. Example auxiliary verbs include cease (prohibitive), may/permission to (benedictive??), order (imperative), should (hortative), and intend (volitive).

Frequentative Reduplication

Vouard verbs do not typically have reduplicative forms. However, frequentative reduplication is used to signal that an action or process is literally done repeatedly or continuously. This is different than habitual or progressive aspect, which indicates an action is common or in the process of being done. It is formed by suffixing A + the last consonant sound of the verb to the end of a verb. Note that consonants written as two letters (ch, th, etc.) are considered one consonant sound.

• Stop jumping up and down on the roof!
• Deer + walk [jump] + RED + cease + 2nd HUM-Nom + surface + of + roof 3rd IN+Dat!
• Doroi nothoath jei jho ber izaipa fou suroi yiznu!

Note that in the above example, the jumping must take place in one spot rather than from one location to another. We know this because asthadet (noun for location) isn't attached to the complex verb doroi notho (deer + walk = jump).

• She always comes over after school to pet the cats.

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 simple verb to make a complex verb. Note that Vouard uses the dative case marker alone when most analytic languages would use a preposition. A small number of prepositions exist in Vouard, but they are optional and rarely used unless absolutely needed for clarity.

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.

It may seem strange that 1st person animate and inanimate case markers exist; they are primarily used in stories and poetry. The 1st person inanimate case marker "beisha" also means "dough."

Case Markers	1st Person	2nd Person	3rd Person
Unknown Animacy	-	Vei.ja	Un.ei.mu
Humanoid Nominative	Ber	Ber	Ber
Humanoid Accusative	Thei	Thei	Thei
Humanoid Dative	Sha	Sha	Sha
Animate Nominative	Vuor	Asfa	Asfa
Animate Accusative	Vuor	Jai	Jai
Animate Dative	Vuor	Douten	Douten
Inanimate Nominative	Beisha	Pu	Pu
Inanimate Accusative	Beisha	Neir	Neir
Inanimate Dative	Beisha	Yiznu	Yiznu

A single word in Vouard may have multiple meanings, and a polysemous noun will require different case markers depending on its specific meaning in a given situation.

• Fish + humanoid case marker = a professional fisherman
• Fish + animate case marker = a living fish
• Fish + inanimate case marker = a dead fish, fish as food

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?
• Cat AN+Acc number+possess [possess some number] You HUM+Nom QUE? [Habitual aspect]
• Poait jai tei thucha jho ber maio?

• I have two cats.
• Cat two AN+Acc possess I HUM+Nom. [Habitual aspect]
• Poait boujha jai thucha di ber.

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.

Pronoun
1st HUM	Di	I
2nd HUM	Jho	You (humanoid)
2nd AN	Net	You (animate)
2nd IN	Yol	You (inanimate)
3rd HUM	Mad	She/He/Singular They
3rd AN	Yadu	She/He/Singular They (animate)
3rd IN	Dot	It (inanimate)
Reflexive	Formid	Self, Own
Reciprocal	??	Each other, one another
Indefinite	??	Somebody, something

Instrumental Reduplication

When a subject acts, achieves, or accomplishes something with the help of a physical or abstract noun, that noun is acting as an instrument. A noun is shown to be instrumental by prefixing the final consonant of a word plus "a+l" to the beginning of the word. Note that in this example, a preposition isn't needed to indicate that the sand is being written on; using the dative case marker is enough.

• She is using a stick to write in the sand.
• 3rd ber + use Instru+stick IN+Acc + word + prepare + up of sand IN+Dat [progressive]
• Mad ber use?? malonarm neir ezene us izaipa fou albur yiznu.

Benefactive Reduplication

When an action is taken for the benefit of someone or something other than the actor, the recipient of the action takes on the semantic role of the beneficiary. In English, this change is marked by using the preposition "for," as in "I am baking a cake for the kids." In Vouard, the name of the recipient is partially reduplicated by prefixing the last syllable of the beneficiary's name to the beneficiary's name.

• kid: ulei
• for the kid: eiulei
• justice: diart
• for justice: artdiart

This reduplication is the same whether the recipient is a common or a proper noun. Benefactive nouns take dative case markers.

• I am baking a cake for the kids.
• 1st HUM+Nom rock+heat Ben+kid numeral HUM+Dat cake 3rd IN+Acc [Progressive]
• Di ber arjtem dafa eiulei meipo sha virtut neir.

Adjectives & Other Descriptive Words

The adjective class in Vouard is closed. While it contains only twenty words, some of these words have multiple meanings. Other than numerals (which are grammatically treated the same), the adjectives of Vouard are:

Giant, beloved
Big
Small
Celestial
Long
Short
Old
Good, healthy
Bad, ill
White, light colored
Black, dark colored
Red, injured
Green, new, young
Yellow, bright
Unripe, unready
Narrow
Wide
Different, other, of another type
Difficult
Unknown, foreign, unfamiliar

The majority of descriptive words in Vouard, instead of being adjectives, are nouns that are either paired with copulas or in relative clauses inside noun phrases. These relative clauses are marked by duplicating the equative copula va, which is usually translated as "which-be."

Nouns that co-occur with the equative copula va are descriptors, and these descriptors can be adjective-like.

• The dry streambed.
• Is/equals streambed IN+Nom dryness IN+Nom [perfective]
• Va narfeiton pu thuatad pu.
• Literal lexical meaning: The streambed is dryness.

Descriptive nouns can also occur in relative clauses.

• The dry streambed is full of rocks.
• Contain + streambed which-be dryness IN+Nom + rocks many IN-Acc. [perfective]
• Porei narfeiton va va thuatad pu artem izou neir.
• Literal lexical meaning: The streambed, which be dryness, contains many rocks.

Questions

Yes-no questions

Statements are made into yes-no questions by placing mai.o, the yes/no question particle, after the final case maker in a statement. It usually goes at the end of a sentence, but can be followed by politeness particles.

• Are you waiting for me?
• Jho

Interrogative words

Interrogatives		Case Marker
Who (HUM)		Ber, thei
Which one, which of them (HUM)		Ber, thei
What, which (AN)		Asfa, jai
Which one, which of them (AN)		Asfa, jai
What, which (IN)	Chedan	Pu, neir
Which one, which of them (IN)		Pu, neir
Where		Pu, neir
Where to, whither		Pu, neir
Where from, whence		Pu, neir
Whose (HUM, AN, IN)		Ber, thei, asfa, jai, pu, neir
When		n/a
How		n/a
How much, how many, what number		n/a
How often		n/a
Why	Foufedat, dherdud (Explanation below)	n/a

"Who," "what", "which," "whose," and all forms of "where" are treated grammatically as nouns and take case markers.

• What does she like to eat?
• Mad ber izalm tum chedan neir maio?
• 3rd per. + BER + to enjoy + to eat + what + THEI + question particle

• Who gave her the keys? [“her” is the indirect object, “the keys” is the direct object]

Two Forms of Why

The concept of "why" is covered by two interrogative words in Vouard, foufedat ("Why did you respond like that?") and dherdud ("For what purpose did you do that?").

Foufedat is asking for the reason, not the purpose, of an action. The one being asked has responded to an event which most likely occurred or at least began in the past, or they found out about it in the past.

• Why did you call the midwife?
• Because I'm in labor.

Dherdud is asking for the purpose of an action. The one being asked is trying to make something happen now or in the future.

• Why did you call the midwife?
• So the midwife can assist me with my child's birth.

Sample Vocabulary

Body Parts	ear	eye	hair	head	mouth	nose	skin	tongue	tooth
	un.i	pe.jha	a.vi	ait.or	mi.arp ("rim")	dho.ze	fa.dha ("crust," "surface that covers more than one dimension")	bai.tod	bur.ou (same as "tusk")
	arm	back	blood	bone	breast	intestines	leg	navel	neck
	un.oi.shu (includes shoulder and wrist)	dou.non ("flatness")	thai.nom	bua.net	arb.o	tho.ze.u	il.mon	pe.alp (same as "hole dug for a seed")	os.cha
Nature	canyon	fire	lake	river	rock	salt	sun	water (brackish)	water (fresh)
	or.ei.mi	vo.zou.i	uz.ir	is.tha.cho	ar.tem	ter.dit (same as "semen")	jhi.vou.tad	chi.fei.mo	al.bir
Kinship	father	father's parent	father's sibling	mother	mother's parent	mother's sibling	sibling (older)	sibling (younger)	unrelated spouse of biological parent
	bi.a	bai.nud ("fore father")	ne.sha.nat	thu.ze.dod	mua.nud ("fore mother")	jhur.ai	oz.ou	thu.or	uz.alm
Food	drink made with soaked, ground melon seeds	fish egg	golf-ball-sized hot rocks dropped in bowls of raw ingredients to make stir-fry	hot rock oven	metallic taste	native buckwheat-like pseudocereal	native multicolored rice	rock-boiled soups	rock-fried flatbread medallions
	chi.an.e	a.vu.ned	fua.nit	aid.un.ar	dhou.tom	joi.zi.ti	aib.ei	tar.jou.ti	arb.si.o
Other Nouns	child	home	law	language	music	number	school	table	woven fabric
	ul.ei	alp.ai	di.art	dod (also "mommy")	shur.oi	tei	ol.ai.fu	shir.tan	jou.tut

Sample Text

• The wind blew the smoke of the fire onto our village.
• Just what do you think you're doing?

Numerals

Numerals
One	Dho.un
Two	Boujha
Three	Mei.po
Four	A.the
Five	Mou.tit
Six	Beysu
Seven	Ul.ai.to
Eight	Doi.min
Nine	Tar.tit
Ten	Sha.dem.shi