Zaelfaglea is conlang created by Sonwe Ruolmi. It's used in the fictional world of Alisteria to summon magical powers, such as controling matter and energy, or affecting the psychological state of the beings. All this is possible through special songs called Lied.
The language is still in development and it might suffer several changes.
Basic Structure
Seven Notes Loves
Zaelfaglea uses the Seven Notes of Love to create and control the powers of the Lieds. The Seven Notes of Love are seven loves that are True Emotions, in other words, emotions that together creates new emotions, or Derivative Emotions. In theory, every word in Zaelfaglea has a Note, including conjunctions, particles, prepositions, etc. But due to those words never be connected with another Note to form emotions, these Notes are ignored by the Serophiam and may not be listed on the Lexicon.
ta - Neutral
gle - Selfless
lo - Selfish
tres - Unconditional
yo - Destructive
ja - Friendly
rel - Sexual
But the union of Loves gives birth to a Derivative Emotion, and these are the emotions we are used to. Here is the chart for which Love creates which Emotion:
| Neutral | Neutral | nothing |
| Neutral | Selfless | concentration |
| Neutral | Selfish | impatience |
| Neutral | Unconditional | relaxed |
| Neutral | Destructive | fear |
| Neutral | Friendly | sympathy |
| Neutral | Sexual | excitement |
| Selfless | Selfless | trusting |
| Selfless | Selfish | irritated |
| Selfless | Unconditional | pleasure |
| Selfless | Destructive | envy |
| Selfless | Friendly | hopeful |
| Selfless | Sexual | frustrated |
| Selfish | Selfish | pride |
| Selfish | Unconditional | guilty |
| Selfish | Destructive | wishful |
| Selfish | Friendly | sadness |
| Selfish | Sexual | disgust |
| Unconditional | Unconditional | affection |
| Unconditional | Destructive | disappointment |
| Unconditional | Friendly | surprise |
| Unconditional | Sexual | distress |
| Destructive | Destructive | anger |
| Destructive | Friendly | With strength / courage |
| Destructive | Sexual | suffering |
| Friendly | Friendly | happiness |
| Friendly | Sexual | relief |
| Sexual | Sexual | lust |
Each word has its own Love too, and this love is what you’ll use to create the wanted emotion by adding a suffix. For example, the verb Sing is an Unconditional Love verb, so if you want to say “sing with pleasure” you need to match it to another Love. Ex:
- Fogyor
To sing (with unconditional love)
- Fogyor~gle
To sing with (unconditional + friendly love) pleasure
But you may think: “Oh no! It’s impossible to say “happily sing” because Unconditional Love cannot match to become such emotion!!”. But you can. You see, once you add a new Love to the word, this Love attaches to it and creates a new emotion. If you add the Love you need to create the emotion “happy” you can create “happily sing”. Ex:
- Fogyor~ja <- At this point, the singer “sings surprised”.
Sing surprised.
- Fogyor~jaja <- The singer's surprise is overlapped by her happiness, becoming unnoticeable to the singer.
Sing happily.
This is also valid to nouns.
- Fagiem*
Song
- Fagiem~jaja
Happy song
The previously created emotion, which would be "surprise" in this case would still exist within the noun, but it'll lose it's value to the latest create emotion. In theory, you can add a string of emotions to the word, but with each new emotion added the other emotions will lose they importancy to the singer. Giving many emotions of similar value to a single word is difficult and can be a burden to the singer, with only the strongest Serophy being able to do such.
*Fagiem is a Unconditional Love noun.
When using with adjectives, the emotion created does not denote and adjective of the adjective, but the way the singer feels about that characteristic. Example:
- Tei yuklia~ta
Beautiful she (and I feel sympathetic about her beauty).
When used with adverbs, the emotion can give a characteristic of the adverb, such as "sad tomorrow" or "surprisingly fast".
Nouns
Noun Cases & Declensions
Zaelfaglea is a nominative-accusative language with 13 noun cases, each with a unique declensions. But declension is regular and the same for every noun, through the use of prefixes. The declension rules is the same for every Alignment.
Nominative case
The nominative case indicates the subject of a verb, be it transitive or intransitive. It's the form found on the lexicon. No prefix is needed for this case.
Example: Nint manalt. "The person sings."
Accusative case
The accusative case is used to indicate the direct object of a transitive verb. It's marked by the prefix "no-"
Example: No-lanyow nint manalt. "The person sings a song."
Dative case
The dative case is used to indicate the indirect object of a transitive verb. It's marked by the prefix "la-
Example: No-lanyow nint la-rei manalt. "Person sings a song to me."
Genitive Case
The accusative case is used to indicate possession. The owner must always come after the owned. It's marked by the prefix "rya-
Example: lanyow rya-nint. "Song of the person"
Vocative Case
The vocative case is used to call out to or address someone. There are two types of vocative, Fond Vocative and Ill Vocative. The former is used when the person has good or no intentions towards the called one. The latter is used when the person carries ill intention towards the called one, often used in insults. The former is indicated by the prefix "shas-" and the latter is indicated by the prefix "xu-".
Examples: Rei malnas no-tei shas-Finderil. "I love you, World."
Rei xaruz no-tei, xu-fouseasa. "I (will) destroy you, human."
Illative Case
The illative case is used to indicate movement into something. It's marked by the prefix "lyu-".
Example: lyu-schual "into the water"
Elative Case
The elative case is used to indicate movement out of something. It's marked by the prefix "fil-".
Example: fil-schual "out of the water"
Allative Case
The allative case is used to indicate movement toward something. It's marked by the prefix "bei-".
'Example: bei-schual "to the water"
Inessive Case
The inessive case is used to indicate movement inside something. It's marked by the prefix "kar-".
Example: kar-schual "inside/within the water."
Adessive Case
The adessive case is used to indicate general or relative location. It's marked by the prefix "jun-".
Example: jun-schual "on/at the water."
Ablative Case
The ablative case is used to indicate movement away from something. It's marked by the prefix "zin-.
Example: zin-schual "from the water."
Instrumental Case
The instrumental case is used to indicate the instrument or method used to execute the verb. It's marked by the prefix "du-".
Example: Rei carzan du-mengaol. "I love with/using the heart"
Benefactive Case
The benefactive case is used to indicate the purpose or intention of an action. It's marked by the prefix "jye-".
Example: jye-finderil. "for the sake of the world.
Pronouns
| Englush | Zaelfaglea |
|---|---|
|
|
The pronouns follows the same rules of noun declension.
Plural
Plural nouns are indicated through reduplication. When writing, short words (up to two syllables) do not need to be separate while long words need to be separate by space or, preferentially, an apostrophe ('). Ex:
Falilfalil
Lives
fesafuz'fesafuz / fesafuz fesafuz
Worlds
If the singer desires, she may change the first letter of the second word for one with similar value. These are:
f <-> v
b <-> p
k <-> g
s <-> z
t <-> d
Example: falilvalil
Exceptions are Serophy, which becomes Serophiam and Lied, which becomes Lieder.
Adjectives
If the adjective is an emotion, check above. If it’s not, then it can be expressed by putting and adjective after the noun:
Zael haes
Red star
Adjectives have no declension.
"To be" Copula
Zaelfaglea does not use a verb like "to be" to express copula, instead relying on the copula particle lu. "Lu" is a Neutral Love word and it's the only particle that can be combined to other notes to create emotions. "Lu" is also a multidirectional copula, so if A = B then B = A and translation is subject of comprehensions. Bellow are examples on how to use it with and without emotions:
- Lof lu Serophy.
He is (a) Serophy. (or: A Serophy is him)
- Zael lu haes
The star is red
- Rei lu~tres.
I am relaxed.
It cannot be used with an emotion and words simultaneously so "Rei lu~tres belzee" would be incorrect. "Lu" is usually accompanied by temporal adverbs to indicate time.
Verbs
Verbs have tense, aspects and mood.
Conjugation
In Zaelfaglea, all this is expressed through the use of conjugation. Conjugation is expressed through ablaut, which is the substitution of the first vowel for another vowel or vowels.
Tenses and Aspects
The tenses are: "non-past", used to indicate actions taken in the present or future and "past", used to indicate actions taken in the past. The aspects are: "simple", used to describe actions that take place regularly, an obvious fact, or when an action's completeness is unimportant; "continuous", is used to describe an action that is already in process during the mentioned time; and "perfect", used to describe an action that has already been completed by the mentioned time.
Bellow is the guide of conjugation for indicative:
| Tense, Aspect | Vowel | Example | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| Non-past simple | a | Fagyor | Sing |
| Non-past continuous | e | Fegyor | Is singing |
| Non-past perfect | u | Fugyor | Have sung |
| Past simple | oe | Foegyor | Sang |
| Past continuous | ai | Faigyor | Was singing |
| Past perfect | ei | Feigyor | Had sung |
Moods
The moods are: "indicative", used to describe factual statements and positive belief, as seen above; "subjunctive", is used to describe various states of irreality such as wish, emotion, possibility, judgment, opinion, necessity, or action that has not yet occurred; and "imperative", used to make requests or issue orders. There is also the "infinitive form of a verb, that doesn't express tense or mood, and is the lexicon's form.
Imperative
The imperative usually comes together with a vocative and, if politely used, with the word meaning "please". The vocative used in politeness is the the Fond Vocative Case, while the one used to issue words is the Ill Vocative Case. Imperative has no need for subject, since the subject is usually "You", but pronouns can be used to indicate if it's singular or plural you. The only exception of this is when "Reio" is used as a subject, then the it's a first-person plural imperative. Imperative conjugation is the with the ablaut of the "uo".
Example: Fuogyem! (You) Sing!
Zispax, fuogyem shas-nintnint! "Please, sing, people.
Fuogyem kuk-nintnint! "Sing people!
Reio fuogyem! "Let's sing!"
Subjunctive
Subjunvtive mood is often used in sentences with the auxiliary verbs kare ("want to do something") and imopy ("should do something"), and in subordinate clauses of certain main verbs like nworna ("to wish"), and in conditional sentences. The main verb of a subordinate clause always agree in tense with the subjunctive.
Its conjugation is expressed through the ablaut of "io" for non-past and "iu" for past. Subjunctive has only simple aspect.
Example: Rei nwarna vadi fesafuz rya-rei driobia no-tei. I wish that my song reaches you
Rei fimopy fiogyem I should sing.
Gerund
Gerund is when a verb is used in the form of a noun. This form of the verb is expressed through the ablaut of "ii". For example, the gerund of bolsas (to dance) is biilsas (dancing). Since a verb in gerund takes the role of noun, it follows the same rules of noun declension.
Auxiliary Verbs
Some verbs are auxiliary verbs. They never appear alone, but together with another verb that is the main verb of the sentence. Auxiliary verbs always appear directly before the main verb, they are never conjugated therefore are the only verbs whose first vowel is not "o" and cannot have Notes attached to them. The auxiliary verbs are:
tuiam - can do something
imopy - should do something
wara - have to do something
kare - want to do something
- For the auxiliary verbs tuiam and wara: The main verb is conjugated according to the desired tense and on simple aspect. However, in conditional sentences, the main verb is conjugated into subjunctive mood.
- For the auxiliary verbs imopy and kare: The main verb is conjugated into subjunctive mood.
Passive voice.
In passive voice, the subject express the theme or patient of the main verb. The verb becomes intransitive and the object of the verb (accusative case) becomes the subject (nominative case). To indicate the agent, a noun in instrumental case is used. To indicate the verb is in passive, the particle "sua" is added before the verb. Example:
No-fagiem rei fagyor . I sing a song
Fagiem sua fagyor. A song is sung
Fagiem du-rei sua fagyor. A song is sung be me.
Negative form.
A verb is in negative form if it has the prefix “de'”. Ex:
De'fagyor
Don’t sing.
Word Order
Zaelfaglea is a Object-Subject-Verb language, but allows flexible word order according to the singer's desires because of its inflectional syntax. It's common on Lied, when the singer speaks, to use the OSV order, but when singing, he may arrange the order as he wishes following 3 simple rules:
1)The main focus of the sentence.
Usually, the focus is the first part of the sentence. The singer may place it at the beginning of the sentence, and them go from the most to least focus. If the main fragment of the sentence is the Verb and the Subject is the one with least emphasis, the sentence may structure as VOS.
2)Do not disrupt the understanding
While the order is flexible, one must always keep in mind the understanding. Misplacing Genitive Case, Locative Case, Adjectives and Adverbs may disrupt the sentence's meaning.
3)Musicality
Musicality is the most important rule, considering Zaelfaglea is a language that is sung. It's common among Serophiam to add the verb as the last word of the sentence, so that the emotions attached to it my rhyme with those on the other sentences. In cases of nouns that have emotions, the practice is also valid.
Alignment.
The most words and all Lieds in Zaelfaglea have alignments with the Universe. The Alignment shows which words a Lied can use. But it's not strict. Lied of one alignment can borrow words from another alignment but this word will have no power and cannot have Loves attached to it. So a Lied of Heart that uses a lot of Land words would be really weak. The only exception are Star Lieder. They can use all words and those will have full power.
Land: the songs aligned to Land are the Material Control Lieder, and these Lieder can create physical things out of nothing and modify matter. In other words, they manipulate Static D-Wave. The Lied names start with “Lied del Zardam”.
Sky: Songs aligned to sky are Energy Manipulation Lieder, and these Lieder can produce energy and physical forces like electricity or gravity. In other words, they manipulate the Dynaimc D-Waves. “Lied fior Sufyal”
Heart: the songs with this alignment are called Emotional Modifier Lieder and are capable of affecting the feelings of the living beings. They are H-Wave manipulators. The Lied name presents “Lied jye Mengaol” in the beginning.
Star: the most powerful Lied is aligned to Stars. A Star Lied can manipulate directly the fabric of the Universe. It’s said that it draws power directly from the Star God and that’s why they are called God’s Tool Lied. They can use words with any alignment but are stronger when using Star words. The only known Lied that has this alignment is the Cyclical Lied. The Lied names must start with “Lied lolne Zael” .
Lexicon
Land
A
- abista, [Selfish] n. - animal
C
- coltia, [Destructive] v. - to destroy, to obliterate, to bring to an end
- Used when refering to the complete destruction of physical matter, such as the effect of a massive explosion or desintegration.
D
- debarca, [Selfish] n. - earth
- dlorit, [Destructive] adj. - strong
- driba, [Destructive] n. - end
- droba, [Destructive] v. - to end
- drobia, [Neutral] v. - to reach
- dwac, [Selfish] v. - to exist
F
- flim, [Selfish] n. - light
- flomp, [Selfish] v. - to shine
- frokaio, [Friendly] v. - to resonate
- fyscy, [Selfless] n. - wind
G
- gastrea, [Unconditional] n. - Universe
- Although it means Universe, it has a meaning closer to "percieved reality" than "space".
- gtika, [Friendly] n. - start, begining
- gtoka, [Friendly] v. - to start, to begin
H
- hastrea, [Selfish] n. - song
- hostrea, [Unconditional] v. - to sing
I
- iltrava, [Friendly] adj. - complete, whole
K
- kadror, [Friendly] n. - world
- keada, [Friendly] n, - life
- kloja, [Unconditional] v. - to build
- krotak, [Sexual] v. - to hit
L
- libia, [Sexual] n. - sculpture
- lobia, [Sexual] v. - to sculpture
N
- namonia, [Neutral] n. - moon
O
- oltrava, [Friendly] v. - to complete
- orglas, [Selfless] n. - plant
P
- pomtida, [Selfless] n. - surface
- ptoga, [Neutral] v. - to shake, to tremble
A
- rodila, [Destructive] v. - to echo
S
- schual, [Friendly] n. - water
T
- tearma, [Friendly] n.- heat, warmth
- toraku, [Selfish] v. - to make, to produce
U
- upola, [Sexual] n. - chair, throne
V
- vrate, [Selfless] adj. - hard, stubborn
X
- xizar, [Unconditional] adj. - supreme, majestic, worth of respect
- xostra, [Unconditional] v. - to craft
Y
- yuklia, [Friendly] adj. - beautiful
Z
- zardam, [Neutral] n. - land
- zorza, [Selfish] v. - to control
Sky
A
- aglios, [Unconditional] adj. - supreme, majestic, worthy of respect
- angar, [Sexual] n. - thing
B
- belzee, [Friendly] adj. - beautiful
- bolsas, [Friendly] v. - to dance
C
- csara, [Selfish] n. - chair, throne
D
- dilez, [Sexual] n. - heat, warmth
E
- eneas, [Friendly] adj. - gentle, calm
F
- fesafuz, [Neutral] n. - song
- filisa, [Neutral] n. - light
- fofe, [Selfless] v. - to give
- fol, [Sexual] v. - to close, to hide
- fosaf, [Neutral] v. - to sing
- fouseasa, [Selfless] n. - person
G
- glos, [Neutral] v. - to shine, to glow
- glosa, [Neutral] n. - shine, glow
- gresau, [Neutral] n. - world
H
- hearel, [Sexual] n. - fire
- homesek, [Neutral] v. - to complete
- homesekar, [Neutral] adj. - complete
J
- jiclal, [Friendly] n. - meaning
- jizar, [Selfless] adj. - blind
- jozar, [Selfless] v. - to blind
L
- lasvizar, [Unconditional] n. - emotion
- licsic, [Sexual] adj. - fast, swift
N
- nousa, [Neutral] v. - to look, to see, to observe
- nyiila, [Neutral] n. - light
O
- odeis, [Sexual] v. - to allow, to permit
- onfwr, [Destructive] v. - to terminate, to bring to an end
- Refers to the act of stopping a phenomena, which , keeping the theme of the Sky Lieds, refers things like putting out a fire, cutting of a light source, stop eletrical currents, etc.
P
- prefez, [Selfish] adj. - perfect
Q
- qalaz, [Destructive] n. - darkness
R
- ryoja, [Unconditional] v. - to create
S
- semfeil, [Neutral] n. - world
- socsic, [Friendly] v. - to blink, to twinkle
- Never used as "blinking an eye" meaning.
- sufyal, [Neutral] n. - sky
T
- tsoli, [Selfless] v. - to fly, to soar, to ascend
V
- vea, [Selfish] adj. - only, unique
- ves, [Selfish] adv. - only
- vozic, [Selfish] v. - to own, to possess
W
- wolst, [Neutral] v. - to exist
X
- xoruz, [Selfish] v. - to destroy
Z
- zasxar, [Destructive] n. - thunder
- zofoe, [Selfless] v. - to create, to realize
- zosuam, [Sexual] v. - to spin
Heart
A
- almyan, [Selfless] n. - soul
- amenor, [Selfish] n. - request
- amono, [Selfish] v. - to request
B
- chsaal, [Selfish] n. - echo
- chsol, [Selfish] v. - to echo
- corz, [Selfless] n. – love
- Used to talk about the love between couples.
- corzala, [Unconditional] v. - to fall in love
- corzan, [Selfless] v. - to love
- Used to talk about the love between couples.
- croshyem, [Friendly] v. - to craft, to create, to realise.
- Most comonly used to the act of givin birth to new emotions, the speaker's or someone else's.
C
- dolea, [Destructive] v. - to yeal
- dompol, [Neutral] v. - to fill
F
- folecent, [Destructive] v. - to die.
G
- gaala, [Selfish] adj. - complete
- gamia, [Sexual] adj. - new
- gholk, [Unconditional] n. - emotion
- gola, [Selfish] v. - to complete
H
- holuma, [Unconditional] v. - to fall, to descend
J
- jomn, [Destructive] adv. - final, last
- jomna, [Destructive] adj. - final, last
- jyarn, [Selfish] adj. - alone, by oneself
L
- lamda, [Sexual] adj. - majestic, supreme, worth of respect
- lanyow, [Neutral] n. - song
- lobla, [Friendly] v. - to come, to arrive
- lorda, [Destructive] v. - to leave, to go, to depart.
M
- mengaol, [Neutral] v. – heart
- Used more comonly to describe the core and source of emotions, rather than the organ.
- mofal, [Friendly] v. - To heal
- Refers to psychological healing, rather than physical
- monalt, [Friendly] v. - to sing
N
- nint, [Friendly] n. - person
- nolia, [Neutral] n. - world
- nolru, [Selfless] v. - to put in motion
- nworna, [Selfless] v. - to wish
O
- ompy, [Selfless] v. - to miss, to lack
- Used to talk about the feeling of longing for someone or something, or the feeling of emotional lacking/incompleteness.
- oplomb, [Destructive] v. - to need, to require
Q
- quoma, [Sexual] v. - to overflow
- Usually used to talk about a uncontrollable surge of emotions.
R
- ronio, [Sexual v. - to start, to begin.
S
- sapol, [Selfish] n. - rebirth
- saposal, [Selfish] adj. - reborn
- shortwal, [Unconditional] v. - to stop, to finish
- sopogil, [Selfish] v. - to be reborn
U
- unison, [Unconditional] n. – note
- Also means miracle when used to talk about the power of a Lied
V
- vimpa, [Destructive] n. - destruction
W
- walst, [Neutral] n. - chair, throne.
- winhel, [Neutral] n. - mind
Z
- zomfal, [Selfish] v, - to change
- zomfar, [Selfish] n. - change