Lorim Elvim
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Lorim Elvim (words of the Elves) is a fictional language and conlang developed for the fictional world Amitar.
Contents |
History
Internal (Fictional) History
An ancient language which, as far as can be discerned, was spoken by the Elves since their creation. It was often used as a lingua franca during the ancient days of Amitar, and was common in poems and songs. In modern times it is a kind of Latin-like language (such as Tolkien's Quenya), in that, while not widely spoken, it holds ceremonial use in religion, art, government and magic.
External (Actual) History
Lorim Elvim underwent several different versions, and in fact still changes based on the creator's vagaries. Originally, nearly any interesting idea (for example, eight different genders) was thrown into the language, but over time it went for a more "normal" tone. Designed (not necessarily successfully) to be naturalistic, Lorim Elvim is an artistic language. It has some relations to English, French, Hebrew and Latin, as well as Tolkien's languages.
Grammar
(Note: All information below is tentative and subject to change based on the conlanger's insane and unstable whims.)
Nouns
Noun Classes
Nouns in Lorim Elvim take up three grammatical genders: masculine, feminine and neuter. It also has three grammatical numbers, singular, dual and plural.
Masculine nouns commonly contain the endings -i, -ion or -ar. The feminine usually ends in -a, -ë or -l (which occasionally aren't feminine, as the masculine word vongal, "sword"). The neuter usually ends in -n, -d or -o, but can occasionally take other endings. Many nouns can change their gender by changing these letters (for example, lomion, lomia or lomo, all of which translate to "teacher.")
Grammatical Number
Lorim Elvim has three grammatical numbers---singular, dual and plural.
Each gender has a different ending. Masculine words usually take the ending -i, unless they end in -i in the singular, in which case they add -m:
- Almar (boy, son)---Almari (boys, sons)
- Lómion (teacher)---Lómioni (teachers)
- Dalari (king)---Dalarim (kings)
Feminine words take the ending -at.
- Alma (girl, daughter)---Almat (girls, daughters)
- Uiwë (doe)---Uiwat (does)
- Uival (tree)---Uivalat (trees)
Neuter words take the ending -im.
- Vadon (god)---Vadonim (gods)
- Sirth (death)---Sirthim (deaths, the dead)
The dual endings for masculine, feminine and neuter are -nt, -nte and -nto, respectively.
Exceptions
As with many languages, there are exceptions to the above rules. These include words that end in -om, which take the form -dés in the plural:
- gaurom (war)---gauromdés (wars)
- besom (bastard)---besomdés (bastards)
A few other words have unusual pluralizations, for examplethe neuter-word nóma (leg) which becomes nómi in the plural.
Noun Cases
Lorim Elvim has nomitive, accusative, dative and genitive cases. In the nomitive and it does not alter itself. In the accusative, it adds -(i)s to the singular, plus the plural ending. (Examples: Almarisi, uivalisat, uiwesat, vadonisim.)
In the dative, masculine nouns, such as almar, add -n to the end, or -ni in the plural. Words with -n at the end already (such as lómion) add -in (plural -ini). Feminine neuter nouns add -na, plural -nat. Therefore uival becomes uivalna or uivalnat. Neuter nouns add -(i)n, as in the masculine, or -nim in the plural. Example: lómó becomes lómón or lómónim, vadon becomes vadonin or vadoninim.
There is also a genitive form, which adds -o to the end; there is no special ending for nouns that already end in -o. It should be noted, however, that the genitive form is rare; usually, a genitive connection between nouns is shown by putting them together. For example, putting almar (son/boy) next to lomo (teacher), as almar lómó would translate to either "the son of the teacher" or "the teacher's boy" (the latter could mean "the teacher's charge" or "student," incidentally). The genitive case is used primarily if there is no second noun, and is translated best as "about;" for example, calling this page "Lorim-Elvimo" would translate as "About Lorim Elvim."
See Lorim Elvim wordlist.
Article
Lorim Elvim has no indirect article; a bare noun is either assumed to be indirect, or, if it is direct, there is enough information that the article is not needed (for example, you would not need to say "I am taking the red book," if there is only one red book to choose from). The direct object is i. It is affected by number, changing to il in the plural and in in the dual.
Verb
Lorim Elvim verbs are modified for tense and mood, and sometimes for gender; however it rarely changes for number or person.
Verbs in the infinitive are made up of a root and an ending. The four infinitive endings are -en, -aes, -ai and -ir.
Tenses
Six basic tenses exist: continuative, present, simple past, imperfect past, future and distant future. There is also a near-past and a near-future.
The continuative, in translation to English, would be in the present tense; however, it implies not just that something is going on now, but that is something like eternal; it is used for general statements, for example, "She is blonde;" she is not just blonde this moment, but has been and will continue for a while. (Literal eternity is not required; for example, if "she" was dark-haired as a baby, the continuative can still be used.)
The present is fairly simple, in that it usually adds no change to the stem of the root in the masculine and neuter; however, in the feminine it often adds -a. (In -en verbs it adds -i to the masculine and -o to the neuter.)
(unfinished)
Pronouns
Subject pronouns function as separate words from their verbs, and come before the verb in a sentence. The pronouns are Ín(ë), tindë/tinda, en/el/vír, nír, yinal and mén. For example Ín lómi "I (masculine) teach," Tinda lómë "You (singular, feminine) teach," etc.
Object pronouns, however, are added to the verb, after the ending for tense/mood; the object pronouns are -ni/në, -t, -vi/vë/vo, -cor (inclusive)/bilm (exclusive), -yi/yë and -men. For example El lomevi, "She teaches him," etc.
Pronouns are also used for the possessive forms of nouns, tacked onto the end. The endings are -nú/na, -tú/ta, rú/ra/ro, -cú/-ba, -yi/yë and -men. For example, for lómia, "teacher," one could say lómianú, "my teacher," if the "me" in the sentence is male. (Note that the possessive pronoun agrees with the owner, not the owned---thus -nú and not -na is used for lomia, thus telling you both the teacher's gender and the person who is claiming the teacher.)
