Adwan

Phonology

Consonants

	Bilabial	Labio-dental	Dental	Alveolar	Post- alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar
Nasal	m			n			ɲ
Plosive	p			t d				k ɡ
Fricative		f v	θ ð	s	ʃ	ʐ		x ɣ
Affricate					t͡ʃ d͡ʒ
Approximant							j	w ɰ̃
Flap / Tap				ɾ
Lateral				l

Vowels

Monophthongs	Front	Central	Back
Close	i • y	ɨ	u
Near-close	ɪ
Close-mid	e • ø		o
Mid
Open-mid	ɛ • œ
Near-open		ɐ
Open	a

A vowel's quality is subject to change depending on its relative position to the main stressed vowel. For example, /e/ becomes /ɨ/ when immediately before or after a stressed vowel, as does /a/ when it becomes /ɐ/. The chart below shows each written vowel's quality with its relative position, the positions being initially stressed, preceding a stressed vowel, stressed within the word (stressed but not initial nor final), after a stressed vowel, and being stressed finally.

Vowel	Initial	Preceding	Central	Succeeding	Final
a	[a]	[ɐ]	[a]	[ɐ]	[a]
e	[ɛ]	[ɨ]	[e]	[ɛ]	[e]
i	[i]	[i]	[i]	[i]	[i]
o	[o]	[o]	[o]	[o]	[o]
u	[ø]	[œ]	[ø]	[œ]	[y]
w	[u]	[u]	[u]	[u]	[u]
y	[ɪ]	[ɪ]	[ɪ]	[ɪ]	[ɪ]

Alphabet

The Adwanic Alphabet consists of 20 letters. It does not include various letters used in other languages, those being B J K Q X Z.

A C D E F G H I L M N O P R S T U V W Y

Orthography

Adwanic orthography is quite phonemic, marking stress and following a relatively logical set of spelling rules. Adwan makes heavy use of digraphs, and many letters produce different sounds depending on what they precede or succeed. Though not straightforward like many languages, the following rules are consistent in the governing of Adwanic orthography.

It is to be noted, however, that vowels have their own set of pronunciation rules, and the table regarding stress and vowel reduction should be referred to instead.

Letter	Context	IPA
a		[a]
c		[k]
d		[d]
dg		[dʒ]
dh		[ð]
e		[e]
f		[f]
g	initial, before vowels	[g]
	before consonants	[j]
	intervocalic, final	[ɣ]
gh		[j]
h		[Ø]
hi		[j]
i		[i]
	before vowels	[j]
l		[l]
m	initial, before vowels	[m]
	before consonants	[w]
mh		[w]
mg		[ɰ̃]
n		[n]
ni	before vowels	[ɲ]
o		[o]
p		[p]
r		[ɾ]
rh		[ʐ]
rg		[ʐ]
s		[s]
sg		[ʃ]
t		[t]
th	t	[θ]
u		[ø]
v		[v]
w		[u]
	before vowels	[w]
y		[ɪ]

• in the sequence dd and tt, dental fricatives become silibants, thus dd, originally /ðd/ becomes /zd/ and tt, originally /θt/ becomes /st/.

W vs. Mh vs. M, I vs. Gh vs. G

There is a typically simple rule to follow when writing /i/, /u/, /j/ and /w/. Typically, both /i/ and /j/ are represented by ‹i›, as are /u/ and /w/ by ‹w›. However, this is not always true.

/i/ and /u/ are ALWAYS represented by ‹i› and ‹w›, though /j/ and /w/ are NOT always represented by ‹i› and ‹w›. ‹i› and ‹w› only represent /j/ and /w/ when preceding other vowels. This is typically seen either in the beginning of a word, or after a consonant but before a vowel. Intervocalic /j/ and /w/ are written completely different, using the digraphs ‹gh› and ‹mh›, respectively, and are written ‹g› and ‹m› before consonants. Note the following uses in which ‹i› and ‹w› are used consonantally.

• hiyth, /jɪθ/
• wédda, /'weð.da/, /'wez.da/ in some dialects.
• niéty, /ɲe.tɪ/
• gwýda, /'gwɪ.da/

Note the consonantal uses when used intervocalically.

• vóghyth, /vo.jɪθ/
• gýmha, /gɪ.wa/

And note the use when creating diphthongs and preceding consonants.

• slágdha, /slaj.ðɐ/
• fómsvyr, /fous.vɪr/

Stress

Stress in Adwan, although quite regular at times, is marked by an acute accent (áéíóúẃý). Typically, stress can be found on the penultimate syllable in disyllabic words, however many nouns change their stress levels in declensions, as do verbs in conjugations. In fact, the past tense for -en verbs is formed by using the same present tense forms, and rearranging stress. Note fenéo means I think, while feneó means I thought.

Grammar

Adwan is a heavily inflected language, with a great deal of its grammar consisting of the morphology of nouns, adjectives, determiners, and verbs. Apart from that, the importance of declensions in Adwan MUST be stressed, as most prepositions decline all three of the prepositional cases, with each meaning being defined by a case. Notice, for example, the uses for "vi";

• Werdhan vi révasgyr, to come from the inside of a forest

• Ten vi révasgo, to go into a forest

• Thẃdhan vi révasgyth, to be in a forest

Adwan's nouns, adjectives and determiners decline to 5 grammatical cases:

• Nominative, Lirádonif, marks the subject of a verb. Also marks the predicate of the copulative construction "thẃdhan", technically translated to mean "to be".

• Accusative, Mésiudonif, marks the direct object of a verb. Considered to be the "verbal" case, though this is incorrect as verbs can govern other cases, usually to govern separate meanings. Prepositions never precede a noun in the accusative, and it is more common for accusatives to take the second grammatical placement in a sentence.

• Genitive, Oviédonif, marks possession and movement from. Originally only marked possession and relation, while an ablative case marked movement from, but these two cases eventually merged; relative to the English prepositions "from".

• Dative, Hioviédonif, marks movement for and movement toward, relative to the English prepositions "for" and "to."

• Locative, Sgwsídonif, marks location and directional purposes and movement. Relative to the English prepositions "at" and "in".

Nouns are divided into three genders: Masuline, Feminine and Neuter. Unlike older versions of Adwan, modern Adwan distinguishes gender via a noun's ending. Apart from that, there are hard and soft declensions: hard being declensions for nouns ending in a vowel, in which the vowel changes to show case, and soft being declensions for nouns ending in consonants, in which affixes are suffixed on to show case. Apart from gender, nouns are then separately split up into groups, such as voiced and unvoiced, or generally different vowel settings. For example, a masculine noun ending in -c will decline differently from a masculine noun ending in -d. Note, while the bottom states many rules for gender categorization, many nouns are quite irregular, such as the noun puzg, which becomes pysg in the plural.

Masculine

• -b, -c, -f, -hg, -p, -t

• -d, -dh, -dd, -g, -l, -r, -rr, -v, -zg

• -o

• -e

Feminine

• -a

• -ss, -sg, -th, -s, -tt

• -mg, -wn

• -gh, -mh

Neuter

• -i

• -n, -m

• -z, -cg, -dg, -izg, -sgh, -zgh, -cgh, -dgh

Gender Differences

Many nouns in Adwan have separate counterparts depending on the specific gender of the noun. This is common when animate nouns are involved, usually animals and people. Typically, in animate nouns, the original noun is masculine and a feminine ending is added, it usually being -ela for nouns ending in consonants, and -ldga for nouns ending in consonants. It is typical to find originally feminine nouns, which then change their gender to masculine by use of masculine endings such as -ono and -col.

Below is a short list of irregular nouns in their respective genders.

• Poet: Poet (m.), Poetissa (f.)
• Writer: Éscrovio (m.), Éucrova (f.)
• Doctor: Tomprol, (m.), Tóbrola (f.)

• Teacher: Fodur (m.), Braca (f.)

• Dog: Puzg (m.), Pesca (f.)

• Bear: Medhiev (m.), Méova (f.)

• Cat: Mivewn* (m.), Mimha (f.); note, mivewn belongs to the first declension and it's stem becomes mívewnn- in declensions.

• Student: Wrdho (m.), Sgtwnia (f.)

• Cook: Fusger (m.), Frasva (f.)

Adjectives

There are two main declensions for adjectives. Hard declensions consist of declining adjectives that end in a thematic vowel. Typically, gender declinations are obvious in the nominative, for example, big, or rory, can be rory if it describes a neuter noun, or rora if it describes a feminine noun. Soft adjectives typically decline with less variety and don't end in a thematic vowel. Adjectives in Adwan always go after the noun, even when piling.

Note, adjectives can also go through separate declensions, though these work by prefixing. Comparative adjectives have the suffix tai- added, while superlative adjectives have miey- added. Note, if miey- precedes an adjective or adverb that begins with a vocal i, the prefix is then written miegh- and the following i becomes ae. If the i is consonantal, the i becomes gh, i.e ierdha, meaning loud, would be miegherdha in the superlative.

• Big: rory
• Bigger: tairory (comparative)
• Biggest: mieyrory (superlative)

Hard Declensions

	Masculine		Feminine		Neuter
	Sg.	Pl.	Sg.	Pl.	Sg.	Pl.
Nominative	-o	-omh	-a	-i	-y	-ighy
Accusative	-o	-e	-a	-ia	-y	-ighy
Genitive	-omhy	-og	-amhy	-wa	-iý	-iymg
Dative	-ech	-iech	-um	-wm	-iẃ	-ymh
Locative	-io	-ighú	-ia	-ighá	-iy	-ighý

Soft Declensions

	Masculine		Feminine		Neuter
	Sg.	Pl.	Sg.	Pl.	Sg.	Pl.
Nominative	-Ø	-yn	-Ø	-a	-Ø	-i
Accusative	-y	-i	-e	-a	-u	-w
Genitive	-i	-ig	-i	-iag	-i	-íg
Dative	-y	-um	-y	-wm	-ý	-úm
Locative	-eg	-eghum	-igha	-igha	-y	-ygh

Determiners

Determiners in Adwan act some-what differently than other parts of speech. Determiners are always declined as soft adjectives, and always govern the genitive case. For example:

All = Twdh, therefore All the boys would be twdha evlosg, or all (of) (the) boys.

Typically, determiners take up the slot of the subject of the sentence while the original subject becomes partitive. Determiners come before the item they describe.

Pronouns

Personal pronouns are shown below.

Singular
	I	You	It
Nominative	--	--	--
Genitive	mygh	tygh	niy
Accusative	--	--	--
Dative	mie	twe	deniý
Locative	men	tom	lygh
	Plural
	We	You	Them (N)
Nominative	--	--	--
Genitive	nugh	sfugh	viy
Accusative	--	--	--
Dative	niam	swem	déviy
Locative	mány	stomg	dyg

Possession

While typical possession includes the use of the genitive case for nouns, the use of possession for personal pronouns occurs, typically, by using the possessive of an adjective denoting general possession. Unlike possessives in English my, your, our, the adjective is predicate, thus being closer to mine, yours, ours, etc. As stated, a typical possessive construction would literally mean of mine. Unlike general adjectives, possessive adjectives don't agree with gender, as they refer to the pronoun rather than the noun itself. Note, only a genitive form exists for said adjectives.

Singular
	I	You	It	He	She
Genitive	myn	syn	ynt	lent	ans
	Plural
	We	You	Them (N)	They (M)	They (F)
Genitive	nugn	sfyin	vyt	vie	vad

Relative Pronouns

Wth

Adwanic relative pronouns do not make a distinction between animacy and inanimacy like many European languages do, such as English (compare that, which, and who). The relative pronoun mostly used in Adwan is the relative pronoun wth, which covers who, which, that, whom, and whose. Wth typically does not decline for gender, for a gender declined wth produces a completely different relative pronoun, neither does wth decline for number.

	Sg
Nominative	wth
Accusative	w
Genitive	i
Dative	wm
Locative	wen

Wdháth

Wdháth declines for gender and for number. Wdháth has a connotation of "the one that" or "the thing that", which comes from the derivational morphology of the pronoun, w (which changes to wdh- when adding nominalizing articles when -dh- inserts between vowels), that, and ath, the nominalizing article. Essentially, the formation of this relative pronoun is simply using the correct form of wdh plus the respective nominalizing article affixed on, only with declensions for case being a newly added feature to the nominalizing article.

Note: typically, if the gender of an item is unspecified or unknown, the neuter is used.

What you said = Wdhýth theythẃsg.

Typically, when the gender is unknown or unspecified, or there is nothing to relate the gender to, the feminine is used.

The one that ate my food = Wdháth mozgóu migw mynn.

	Masculine		Feminine		Neuter
	Sg	Pl	Sg	Pl	Sg	Pl
Nominative	wdhéth	wdhiéth	wdháth	wadháth	wdhýth	wghdhýth
Accusative	wmhéth	wghéth	wmháth	wadhá	wmhýth	wghýth
Genative	ighéth	ighéth	igháth	hiádha	ighýth	iwmhýth
Dative	wméth	wmiéth	wmáth	wmadda	wghmýth	wghmýtt
Locative	wenéth	vunéth	wenáth	vuniáth	wghnýth	vuniý

Cen

The relative pronoun cen roughly translates to the English relative pronoun of where. Cenn only declines for case. Note, cen is used both relatively and interrogatively, though the interogative adverb for where? in Adwan is taken over by iomhe. Cen is also the conjunction.

Nominative	cen
Accusative	cewns
Genitive	centh
Dative	cwnth
Locative	cewm

Sgomh

The relative pronoun sgomh roughly translates to the English relative pronoun when. Like cen, sgomh only declines for case.

Interrogative when is expressed by "sio". Note, sgou can also be a conjunction.

Nominative	sgomh
Accusative	sgpo
Genitive	siomg
Dative	siemg
Locative	siemg

Nominalizing Article

The nominalizing article in Adwan functions to convert every non-noun in the whole Adwanic language into a part of speech that, if not a noun, at least functions like a noun. Typically, it's like saying the... one, though its usage is much more complicated than that.

Nominalizing articles are typically used on adjectives to nominalize adjectives. For example, an unspecified big object could be referred to ath rora rather than lossla rora. It is also used in omission, especially when the item beforehand is distinct. For example, if there was a red cat and a blue mouse, one could literally ask ath sgwzga mozgé ath hrowa? which, inexplicitely asks if the red cat ate the blue mouse, but, lazily, literally says the red one ate the blue one? Typically, the feminine article is used when gender is unknown, which proves to be unique due to the neuter generally being the default gender.

When inflected for gender, one could even specify things to people. For example, one could say mevo sguno for old man, but easily enough, one could replace mevo with eth and already assume that the old thing being specified is masculine. The nominalizing article does not inflect for case nor number, merely gender. Note, apart from the three given genders, a separate gender exists—a non-gendered nominalizing article, which in effect, is used for all parts of speech not divided into gender, such as verbs and adverbs. This gender is not specifically taken into consideration, as it only appears in verbs and adverbs. Typically, for verbs, ath is used unless a negative particle precedes að, in which yth is used.

Masculine	eth
Feminine	ath
Neuter	yth

The nominalizing article is used with most parts of speech, usually to convey different sets of information. Note the usages below:

• Iag mycgágh yth mozganu, I stopped eating for now, lit. I do now not the eating.
• Ena ẃdgi ziw yth moliý, She runs quickly, lit. She runs with the quickness.
• Eth rẃssco amg ath plóssca mozgalýhg ví mozgasgẃze Vondóuli ziw ath cgéssca, The Russian man and the Polish woman ate with the Czech woman at Vondola's restauraunt, lit. Russian and polish ate at eatplace Vondola with Czech.

Verbs

Verbs in Adwan conjugate according to person, tense and aspect, and mood, with certain constructions for voice. Interesting to its conjugation, it is quite common for a verb's conjugation to completely rely on stress (note, fenen is to think, feneo = i think, feneó = i thought, etc.).

Adwan's verbs have merged tense and aspect, thus leaving different meanings and endings for a simple past, a past perfective, and a past imperfective. The Adwanic perfective refers to completed actions, whilst imperfective verbs refer to ongoing, incomplete actions. Separately, the simple aspect does not specify the completion of an action and is used when the status of said action is unknown.

A verb's class is identified via its infinitive form, which may end in either AN or EN. Note the following paradigms.