Ødiláïffe

Ødiláïffe (/ø.di.ɺaːi̯.fːɛ/, anglicized Oedilaiffe) is the language of the Áïffi people, who live in the central coastal plains of the continent Kaslωta, planet Aïssliń (Aysling). It is the official and national language of {a nation yet to be named}, where it is spoken by {a number of people yet to be determined}.

Classification and Dialects
Current consensus believes Ødiláïffe to be a language isolate, but recent hypotheses have suggested it may be related to the language Eleþtøve.

Consonants

 * the realization of the phoneme /r/ is dependent on the dialect and in some cases speaker preference; in eastern dialects, the alveolar trill and lateral approximant are in complimentary distribution, with [r] appearing in syllable onset, and [l] in syllable coda and intervocalically; in western dialects, [ɺ] is used in most positions; in many central dialects the realization is left as a choice to the speaker.
 * velar consonants become labialised before rounded vowels
 * approximants become voiceless word-initially
 * geminated nasals make, in some dialects, be pronounced allophonically as prenasalized stops word-initially
 * voiced plosives and affricates become devoiced word-finally, unless geminated
 * aspirated plosives have no audible release word-finally, unless geminated
 * all consonants except approximants can be geminated

Vowels

 * the central vowels vary in roundedness to agree with the preceding vowel; when they occur in the first syllable of a word, they are unrounded
 * back vowels become rounded after labial consonants
 * word-finally, high vowels centralize to [ɪ ʏ ɯ̽ ʊ]
 * all vowels can be geminated; vowels can take on three phonemic lengths: short, long and extra-long

Diphthongs
The possible dipthongs in Ødiláïffe are /ai̯/, /aɯ̯/, /ay̯/, and /au̯/, written «aï, aẅ, aÿ, aü» respectively. Diphthongs can be geminated. Ungeminated diphthongs are long, and geminated diphthongs are extra-long. In geminated diphthongs, the first component is the one that becomes lengthened.

Phonotactics
Possible syllables in Ødiláïffe are (C)(C)V(V)(V)(C)(C)(C). Syllable initials may be a single consonant, a geminant, or a consonant cluster. Medials can be a short vowel, a long vowel, and extra-long vowel, or a diphthong or extra-long diphthong. Codas can be a single consonant, a geminate consonant, a consonant cluster (which may include a geminate sonorant or fricative as its first component), but they may not be approximants or consonant clusters with geminate second components.

Writing System

 * geminate consonants are written as double letters; long vowels are written with an acute, and extra-long vowels are written with a double acute

Nouns
Ødiláïffe has two grammatical genders, into which all nouns are sorted. There are five declension patterns, which are numbered first through fifth, and in order consist of nouns ending in: rounded vowels, plosives and affricates, fricatives, unrounded vowels, and sonorants. Generally, first, second, and third declension nouns are masculine, and fourth and fifth declension nouns are feminine, but this is not a solid rule and there are a number of exceptions which must be memorized. Nouns in Ødiláïffe decline for definiteness and number, but do not decline for case. Declension can be performed through vowel ablaut or lengthening, epenthesis of a final vowel, or lengthening or mutation of a consonant, depending on the declension pattern.

First Declension
First declension nouns end in rounded vowels, i.e. «ø, o» and sometimes «a». The plural is marked in this declension pattern by geminating the penultimate vowel. Definiteness is marked by raising the ultimate vowel to «y, u, ă» respectively. The following chart is an example of the first declension noun taüńko "tree."

Second Declension
Second declension nouns end in plosives and affricates, i.e. «p, b, t, d, c, j, ć, ĵ, k, g». The plural is marked in this pattern by appending the vowel -ă to the end of the noun. Definiteness is marked by lengthening the final consonant. The following chart is an example of the second declension noun ĵudok "tool."

Third Declension
Third declension nouns end in voiceless fricatives, i.e. «f, þ, s, ś, x». The plural is marked in this pattern by changing the voicing of the final fricative to voiced, i.e. «v, ð, z, ź, q» respectively. Definiteness is marked by lengthening the final consonant. The following chart is an example of the third declension noun zwüeś "school."

Fourth Declension
Fourth declension nouns end in unrounded vowels, i.e. «e, ω» and sometimes «a». The plural is marked in this pattern by raising the penultimate vowel. Definiteness is marked by raising the ultimate vowel to «i, w, ă» respectively. The following chart is an example of the fourth declension noun øde "language."

Fifth Declension
Fifth declension nouns end in sonorants, i.e. «m, n, h, r, l». The plural is marked in this pattern by raising the ultimate vowel. Definiteness is marked by lengthening the final consonant. The following chart is an example of the third declension noun vωcon "flower."

Determiners
Ødiláïffe does not utilize articles to specify the definiteness of nouns, however it does make use of other determiners for purposes such as deixis and partition. These determiners agree with their head noun in gender and sometimes number, but most of them are irregular and therefore must be applied to memory.

Verbs
Verbs in Ødiláïffe conjugate for four tenses: present, future, recent past, and remote past; two aspects: perfective and imperfective; three moods: indicative, subjunctive, and conditional; two voices: active and antipassive; and also agree with the person, gender and, number of the absolutive argument. The infinitive form of most verbs ends in a voiceless plosive or affricate, i.e. «p, t, c, ć, k». Most verbs are regular, though there are a handful of irregular verbs.

Absolutive Agreement
For regular verbs, agreement with the absolutive argument is performed simply through appending a vowel to the end of the infinitive. The following table will demonstrate using the verb cyrk "to work."

Tenses
Present tense for regular verbs is simply the infinitive plus the absolutive agreement vowel. The other tenses however are conjugated by mutating the last consonant of the infinitive. The recent past tense is conjugated by voicing the final consonant; the remote past by turning the final consonant into a voiced fricative; and the future by turning the final consonant into a voiceless fricative. This conjugation will also be demonstrated using the verb cyrk, conjugated for the genderless plural. Present tense is used for actions or states that take place at the current time. Future tense is used for those that the speaker predicts will occur after the current time. The distinction between remote past and recent past is often hazy, but is generally placed at about a month in the past. Therefore recent past tense is used for actions or states that occurred in the last month, and remote past tense for those that occurred before that time.

Aspects
Aspects are very simple to conjugate. The imperfective aspect is merely the unmarked form, much like the present tense is unmarked. The perfective aspect is marked by gemination of the final consonant. Once again, demonstration using the verb cyrk in the present tense, genderless plural. The usage of the aspects is similarly simple. Imperfective is used for actions that have not been distinctly completely. They may be of a continuous or progressive nature, or they may be habitual. The perfective aspect is used for actions that have been completed.

Moods
While Ødiláïffe technically has five moods, only three are marked morphologically (the other two through syntax changes). The indicative mood is unmarked, for it is the common mood. The subjunctive mood is marked by nasalizing the final consonant. The conditional mood, however, can be marked in a few different ways: if the verb begins in a plosive, the plosive becomes a fricative; if it begins with a fricative, the fricative becomes geminated; if it begins in a sonorant, an s- is appended; and if it begins in a vowel, that vowel becomes raised. Conjugation of the moods will be demonstrated using cyrk again. (Other demonstrating verbs will be added later to demonstrate the other forms of the conditional mood.) The indicative mood is used for stating basic facts known to be true. The subjunctive mood is used in Ødiláïffe for actions which are not necessarily true but which the speaker wishes to be so. It is also used in "if" clauses. The conditional mood is used for actions which are dependent on another condition, such as those in "if" clauses.

Voice
Active voice is the default voice, as in most languages, and therefore uses the basic form of the verb. Antipassive constructions in Ødiláïffe are formed using a conjugated form of the verb sap "to go," followed by the antipassive participle, which is formed by lengthening the last vowel of the verb stem and appending the normal object agreement suffix. The antipassive form of cyrk is demonstrated below. As is typical of ergative languages, the antipassive voice translates to the equivalent of English's intransitive sentences. The antipassive voice lowers the valency of a transitive verb to an intransitive by promoting the ergative argument to an absolutive argument, and removing the original absolutive argument, optionally demoting it to a postpositional phrase. Also typical of ergative languages, normal intransitive clauses in Ødiláïffe translate to English's passive voice.

Pronouns
Pronouns in Ødiláïffe are distinct from other parts of speech because they still bare forms in the dual number, which were lost in all other parts of speech. Additionally, there are two forms of the second person, for formal and informal situations. There are two sets of pronouns in Ødiláïffe. The first set is the oblique pronouns, used for most instances of the word, including transitive patient, intransitive subject, postpositional complement, and copular arguments. The oblique pronouns are: The second set, the ergative pronouns, are used only as the agent of transitive verbs. These are:

Adjectives
Adjectives in Ødiláïffe decline to agree with their head noun in gender; however unlike determiners they are regular in their formation. Adjectives generally end in high vowels, either front or back. The gender is determined by the roundedness of the final vowel, so that adjectives agreeing for masculine nouns end in rounded vowels and those agreeing for feminine nouns end in unrounded vowels. The lemma form is given as the feminine form; the feminine form is also used for groups of people containing both men and women. An example is given with the adjective tembi "beautiful." Some irregular adjectives such as þane "all" and fai "any" also decline for number.

Adverbs
Adverbs are formed from adjective roots by changing the final vowel into a diphthong. Adverbs modifying verbs are in the feminine form (they end in -ai or -aw) and those modifying adjectives or adverbs are in the masculine form (they end in -ay or -au).

Syntax
The default word order for transitive clauses is SVO, and for intransitive clauses the default is VO. Adjectives precede nouns, but adverbs follow verbs and other adjectives. Instead of prepositions, Ødiláïffe uses postpositions, so that the postpositional complement precedes the postposition, which itself precedes the head noun or verb.