Vethari

Vethari
Vethari
Pronunciation	[ⱱe̞'θä.ɾi]
Created by	–
Setting	Vetharin
Native to	All of Vetharin, and exceeding the border into India. It is less prevalent in the West and South.
Native speakers	63.5 million (2021)
Language family	Vethari North Vethari Classical Vethari Vethari

Vethari is the official language of Vetharin, a kingdom located north in the Vetharin Peninsula, that goes off the northeast coast of India into the Bay of Bengal. It’s the mother tongue from 63.5 million people, that is 96% of the country’s population of 66.1 million, although it is not spoken so much on the west and south regions. On the other hand, it is spoken at a certain level on the other side of the border with India, with around 2 million speakers there. During World War II, a massive immigration from Vethari occurred, scattering speaker all across the world, but specially on England, Brazil, United States and Spain.

Vethari has only 2 dialects, although there is a standard form, that is the one taught in the schools and also the one that it is studied in this article. Vethari uses the Vethari script, that evolved from the Brahmi script. It is an abugida, like its ancestor. A standard romanization was made in 1898 and it used on guides, grammar books and transcriptions. The romanization is used on this article for being easier to understand. On certain places of Vetharin, people write with the Latin alphabet. Vethari is an agglutinative, Verb-Framing, Subject-Prominent, Fluid-S Active-Stative morphosyntactically aligned language.

Phonology

Consonants

	Bilabial	Dental	Alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Uvular
Nasal	m /m/		n /n/	rn /ɳ/	ny /ɲ/
Plosive	p /p/		t /t/	rt /ʈ/	c /c/	k /k/	q /q/
Voiced Plosive	b /b/		d /d/	rd /ɖ/	rj /ɟ/	g /g/
Velarized	pp /pˠ/	tth /θˠ/	tt /tˠ/	rtt /ʈˠ/, rss /ʂˠ/		kk /kˠ/
Affricate			ty /ʧ/		dy /ʤ/
Fricative	f /f/	th /θ/	s /s/	rs /ʂ/	cy /ç/, sy /ʃ/	kh /x/, gy /ʝ/
Voiced Fricative	v /v/	dh /ð/	z /z/		j /ʒ/
Approximant	w /w/			ry /ɻ/	y /j/	jy /ɰ/
Lateral			l /l/	rl /ɭ/	ly /ʎ/
Flap/Tap			r /ɾ/, rr /ɺ/

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	i /i/	ì /ʏ/	u /u/, ù /ɯ/
Mid	e /e/	è /ə/	o /o/, ò /ɔ/
Low		a /a/	à /ɒ/

Phonotactics

The phonotactic system of this language is defined by a carefully controlled set of phonemes with rich distinctions, especially among nasal, retroflex, palatal, and velarized sounds. Syllables generally follow a (C)V(C) or (C)(C)V(C) structure, with CV and CVC being the most common. The language makes extensive use of consonant contrasts, and many phonemes—such as retroflexes (/ʈ/, /ɖ/, /ɳ/, /ɭ/), palatals (/ɲ/, /ʎ/, /ɟ/, /ç/, /ʃ/), and velarized consonants (/pˠ/, /tˠ/, /kˠ/, /ʈˠ/, /ʂˠ/)—have restricted environments within syllables.

Consonant clusters are permitted in onset position, but are subject to strict rules. Common onset clusters include stop + glide (e.g., /pj/, /kj/, /gj/) and stop + lateral (e.g., /pl/, /kl/, /bl/), though not all combinations are allowed. Retroflex and velarized consonants almost never appear in clusters, and instead tend to occur in singleton positions. Clusters in coda position are extremely limited and generally dispreferred; most codas contain a single nasal (/n/, /ɲ/, /ɳ/) or a stop (/p/, /t/, /k/).

Vowels appear as syllable nuclei and never as codas. Diphthongs are not phonemic in this language; sequences like /ai/, /ei/, or /au/ are analyzed as separate syllables, often broken by a glide or a consonantal transition. The vowel system distinguishes between front (/i/, /e/), central (/ə/, /a/), and back vowels (/u/, /o/, /ɔ/, /ɒ/, /ʏ/, /ɯ/), each with clear distributional tendencies. Rounded front vowels like /ʏ/ occur primarily in closed syllables or as part of morphological alternations. The high back unrounded vowel /ɯ/ is restricted to unstressed syllables or function words.

Velarized consonants such as /pˠ/, /tˠ/, /kˠ/, /ʈˠ/, and /ʂˠ/ never occur next to front vowels like /i/ or /e/. They prefer low and back vowels, such as /ɒ/, /ɔ/, or /ɯ/, reflecting articulatory harmony. Their distribution is also limited by stress and syllable weight; for instance, velarized consonants often appear in stressed root syllables or as markers of emphasis. Retroflex segments—particularly /ʈ/, /ɖ/, /ɳ/, and /ɭ/—tend to be root-internal and are rarely found in affixes, which are more likely to contain plain coronal or palatal consonants.

Affricates /ʧ/ and /ʤ/ only occur syllable-initially, never in codas or clusters. They are often used in expressive or ideophonic vocabulary. Fricatives are more flexible: /f/, /s/, /ʂ/, /θ/, and /x/ can occur in both onset and coda positions, while their voiced counterparts /v/, /z/, /ð/, and /ʒ/ are mostly restricted to onsets. Palatal fricatives /ç/ and /ʃ/—written as cy and sy—appear only before front vowels and cannot occur after back vowels. The voiced palatal fricative /ʝ/ (gy) and the approximants /ɻ/, /j/, and /ɰ/ appear frequently in medial position, helping to transition between vowels.

Nasals play a central role in phonotactics. The contrast between /n/, /ɲ/, and /ɳ/ is fully phonemic and occurs in all positions. The retroflex nasal /ɳ/ usually appears in environments where other retroflex consonants are also present, often due to regressive assimilation. The palatal nasal /ɲ/ commonly appears before front vowels, and is usually represented as ny. Approximants such as /w/, /j/, and /ɰ/ cannot appear in syllable-final position, and /ɻ/ usually appears on stressed onsets.

Lateral consonants /l/, /ʎ/, and /ɭ/ have strict distribution. The plain /l/ is the most common and occurs freely in onsets and codas. The palatal lateral /ʎ/ (ly) only occurs before /i/ or /e/, and never after back vowels. The retroflex lateral /ɭ/ (rl) occurs almost exclusively in medial position, often within roots or compounds, and avoids front vowels entirely. These laterals never appear geminated or in complex clusters. Morphophonemic processes involving these sounds tend to preserve their quality rather than undergo assimilation.

Stress interacts with phonotactics by allowing heavier or more marked consonants in stressed syllables. For example, velarized and retroflex consonants are favored in stressed roots, while palatals and glides dominate in unstressed affixes. Final syllables are stressed when closed by a consonant or contain a lower vowel like /ɒ/ or /ɔ/, while otherwise, penultimate stress is the norm. Vowel reduction does not occur dramatically, but centralization of high vowels to /ə/ is attested in fast speech, particularly in grammatical endings. Words cannot end in consonants, and also, there aren’t geminated consonants.

Prosody

Rhythm, Intonation and Stress

One of the characteristic prosodies of Vethari is that it is syllable-timed. In English, an stress-timed language, the gap between stressed syllables is fairly consistent, whereas in Vethari all syllables are assigned equal temporal value. This consistency gives spoken Vethari a metronomic, steadycadence, reminiscent of some East Asian languages. The rhythmic evenness influences not just pronunciation but also specifies syntactic forms to the point that sentences have to fit the inherent temporal forms of the language. There is no specific rhythm like 'trochaic' or 'iambic' for example.

Intonation is crucial on questions, following a rising intonation at the end of the word, whereas irony, falling is used instead. In some places, verbs are pronounced with a peaking intonation at the end.

Stress unpredictable and it changes by the number of syllables, however, usually the penultimate syllable is the stressed one. It has lots of exceptions and rules that people only learn with experience. For example, sometimes it can be on the low vowel syllable and sometimes on a high vowel syllable. Because of that, it is impossible to know the weight-sensitiveness, making it unpredictable or unbounded.

Vocabulary

The Vethari script written on a notebook.

From a 2022 study from the Royal Vethari Language Academy, it is shown that Vethari has around 412,000 words, however, if also counting the obsolete and archaic terms, Vethari has approximately 563,000 lemmas(This without even counting toponyms, hydronyms, …, Proper Nouns, affixes and Compound words). Although having a great lexicon, only about 15,280 words are used on daily conversations, based on colloquial speech from a young person. That number just gets bigger and bigger when on special occasions, jobs and technical and scientific terms.

From the same study, with help from the Official Vethari etymological Dictionary, written, printed and sold by the Royal Vethari Language Academy, 11,574 words were chosen by criteria of frequency and will be displayed in order by their etymology:

(No compound words, proper nouns or affixes)

• 9,901 native words inherited from Proto-Vethari and related languages
• 401 words inherited from Proto-Indo-European languages
• 316 words inherited from Proto-Dravidian and related languages
• 276 words inherited from Sino-Tibetan languages
• 214 words inherited from Proto-Kra-Dai and related languages
• 169 words inherited from Proto-Turkic and related languages
• 109 words inherited from Proto-Austroasiatic and related languages
• 94 words inherited from Proto-Austronesian and related languages
• 66 words inherited from Proto-Great-Andamanese and related languages
• 28 words inherited from Proto-Hmong-Mien and related languages

Because of being an advanced civilization, lots of techniques and scientific terms are native words. For example, from the 118 periodic elements, 37 have native words for it, since they were discovered before other words being borrowed for them. Basically, the other remaining elements are adapted borrowings from French and English, to fit into the phonotactics. Other recent technologies are usually borrowed from Telugu, Bengali, Burmese or Thai. The calendary is the Gregorian calendary and each month has its name based on things that happen on that time, for example the time to harvest, the month that is cold and more.

Names for flora and fauna are sometimes native, but the majority of times not. Flora and Fauna native to the Vetharin Peninsula have native words, however, anything outside it, is an adapted borrowing from close languages or Latin. There are exceptions for animals like turkey: Wuropa, because they were brought by Europeans to there and cat: Myau, because of the noise made by cats.

The language uses the short scale for numbers, like English: Million(1.000.000), Billion(1.000.000.000), Trillion(1.000.000.000.000), instead of the long scale: Million(1.000.000), Milliard(1.000.000.000), Billion (1.000.000.000.000), and more. Numbers are simple and after 10, they are only compounds.

Vethari is known for having lots of words for different colors, not shades, but referring to them as a different color, the same way as pink and red, and some languages dark blue vs. light blue. They are mainly variations of lighter versions and darker versions, as well as a 'normal' one to be the default, like Green(Vilo), Light Green(Visyil) and Dark Green(Vamu). There are also words for the transparent variation of them, but only 2 colors, Blue(Noki/Noku) and Red(Esami/Esamu).

Kinship terms on Vethari are pretty complex. Terms change completely when the person is biologically female/masculine, since there are no genders in the language. Exclusive names go for at maximum every person related to you in 3 generations, including your spouse/husband, so those names changes if they are from your partner’s family. After that, people related but distant are called 'prakhninau'. There are names for lots of people, for example: My mother’s-in-law mom is Gurunisyinumi. For people starting with 'step-', the suffix 'egu(l)-' is put. People starting with 'grand-', after the grand-grand-grand-???, is 'fyu(l)-'.

Idiomatic Phrases

Vethari is a largely idiomatic language. For foreign speakers, even though they understand every single word, it might be difficult to understand its meaning. for example, instead of saying “Cheese!” when taking a photo, people say Reutthisimagemonutai/Foutthisimagemonutai, literally “Show me half”, from the smile being like a half-circle. Other example is Vimomasumu?: literally “Can’t you roar?”(ironically). Equivalent to “It’s all Greek to me”.

Measure Words

In Vethari, some nouns require measure words to refer to them, the same way English uses, for instance, 'a carton of milk' and not just simply 'a milk'.

Measure words don’t decline and sometimes don’t have a translation to English.

Not every noun require a measure words, however, there’s a set of 81 nouns that need those, for example:

Bomolukritil dyemi finigoporditri.

two-DEF-PL-AGT Ø bird-DEF-PL-AGT

Two birds.

In this case, dyemi is the measure word for bird, which means this noun always need to be accompanied by this word.

Swadesh List

The Swadesh list (/ˈswɑːdɛʃ/) is a compilation of tentatively universal concepts for the purposes of lexicostatistics. Translations of the Swadesh list into a set of languages allow researchers to quantify the interrelatedness of those languages. The Swadesh list is named after linguist Morris Swadesh. It is used in lexicostatistics (the quantitative assessment of the genealogical relatedness of languages) and glottochronology (the dating of language divergence). Because there are several different lists, some authors also refer to "Swadesh lists".

The most used list nowadays is the Swadesh 207-word list, adapted from Swadesh 1952.

Dialects

The language has two major dialects spoken in distinct regions, each with its own lexical preferences, stylistic tendencies, and unique word formations. While mutually intelligible, the dialects are immediately recognizable by their choice of expressions, use of certain affixes, and subtle differences in how compounds are constructed. One dialect, often called the Highland variety, is spoken in inland, mountainous regions and tends to preserve older forms and more conservative structures. The other, known as the Coastal dialect, is found along the seaboard and exhibits more innovation and lexical fluidity due to trade, mobility, and cultural exchange.

In the Highland dialect, words are often more compact and traditional. Speakers tend to favor archaic compound structures and maintain distinctions that have faded elsewhere. For instance, they retain older vocabulary for natural elements and kinship that have been replaced by broader or simpler forms in the Coastal dialect. The Highland variety also avoids certain abstract coinages, preferring to express concepts through metaphor or storytelling. A speaker might describe “forgiveness” not as a single abstract noun but as “the softening of stone,” invoking imagery to carry meaning.

The Coastal dialect, on the other hand, thrives on creative compounding and the reimagining of roots. It regularly generates new terms by combining common stems in playful or efficient ways, often shortening or streamlining them for ease of use. This dialect also borrows more readily from trade partners or neighbors, though such borrowings are adapted to the native morphological style. For example, instead of using an external word for “compass,” the Coastal dialect might coin a new term from “sea” and “circle.” These neologisms reflect the region’s outward-facing culture and openness to adaptation.

Grammatically, the Highland dialect is more conservative, retaining older plural and case markers that the Coastal dialect has leveled or generalized. This leads to a slightly more complex structure but offers speakers greater nuance and stylistic range. Coastal speakers, conversely, tend to rely on fixed word order and contextual cues, streamlining communication in fast-paced or trade-heavy environments. These grammatical tendencies shape the rhythm and pacing of speech: Highland speech is deliberate and rhythmic; Coastal speech is quick and clipped.

In terms of vocabulary related to social interaction, the dialects reflect differing cultural priorities. The Highland dialect includes a wide range of terms for honor, tradition, and kin responsibility, with precise verbs and nouns for obligations between relatives, neighbors, and leaders. The Coastal dialect, meanwhile, favors terms of negotiation, cooperation, and group dynamics, with a lexicon rich in words for alliances, agreements, and shared ventures. While both dialects are grounded in the same cultural worldview, their vocabularies emphasize different aspects of daily life and community identity.

Despite their differences, both dialects are seen as prestigious within their own contexts. Literature, song, and oral tradition exist in both forms, and speakers often shift between dialects depending on setting, formality, or region. This duality adds richness to the language as a whole, fostering internal variation while maintaining a unified linguistic identity.

Morphology

Because of not being exclusively concatenative, it is considered that it has something called Conflicting Evidence, also found in Lakhota, Thai, Beja, Chamorro and Gooniyandi. It is Monoexponential, which means that there’s an affix for every category, and not just an affix that covers more than one category at a time, that, differently from Vethari, lots of other closely related languages are Polyexponential. It is Monoexponential for both TAM markers and Cases. On Case Exponence, it takes different affixes for each, for example Case + Number or Case + TAM. Other languages languages like Vethari, where there are different affixes for case and TAM Markers are Spanish and Portuguese.

Going into the TAM Exponence, Vethari can be considered to be put into the TAM+polarity category, since it has the Vetitive mood, that covers negation in the imperative mood, being the only time where this happens in the language. Other languages in this category are Kayardild, Hunzib, Maasai, Mangarrayi and Koyra Chiini.

Vethari has a Dependent-Marking morphology, as well as not being syncretic on both nouns and verbs. It also has a Five-way contrast demonstrative system.

Verbs

Vethari verbs are constructed by a series of affixes put together with the verb root to form the form. When auxiliary verbs are used, they are put before the verb. The infinitive is the verb root + -ku. The participle is made by putting “fnu” before the verb. When doing the past perfect, “fnu” is put after the conjugation of Gusu(to have). When with (*), it means that it must have the affix.

Verb Slot	Allowable Inputs
*Agentive Subject Person/Number	ta- (I) vi- (you) li- (he/she/it) jo- (we) fu- (you all) rlo- (they)
*Patientive Subject Person/Number	tu- (I) ru- (you) le- (he/she/it) ju- (we) fo- (you all) rlu- (they)
*Mood	-cyi- (indicative) -cye- (subjunctive) -tthi- (imperative) -gyu- (conditional) -mo- (jussive) -sorlì- (optative) -ppu- (vetitive) -wes- (Desiderative)
Voice	-ple- (active) -kle- (passive) (suri conjugation before) (middle) -gle- (antipassive)
Aspect	-Ø- (simple) (gusu conjugation before) (perfect) -sye- (imperfect) -rsù- (progressive) -se- (prospective) -sau- (iterative) -slu- (conative) -nyu- (gnomic)
*Tense	-Ø-(present) -ga- (past) -lye- (future) -rja- (aorist)
*Verb Root + Question Infix + Negation Infix	any verb
Incorporated Noun (for transitive verbs)	any noun root, without adjectives, determiners, possessive affixes, etc.
Incorporated Pronoun	insert pronoun here
Evidentiality	-no- (firsthand) -ra-(indirect, hearsay, presumptive)
Mirativity	-g (expected) -r (unexpected) -y (surprising)

• Nouns lose their declension when incorporated into a verb, with only the root remaining, however, sometimes, only the case remains, when there is no affix following the noun.
• Because of Vethari being an Agentive-Default language, Agentive arguments are marked on transitive clauses, while the object is in the Patientive. When on intransitive clauses, the subject may be on either cases basing on volition. If it is Intentional/Not emotionally affected, it is marked with the Agentive case, otherwise, if unintentional or/and emotionally affected, it is marked with the Patientive case. For example: "She died" would be marked with the Agentive case, while "died her" would mean that it was unintentional and it is marked with the Patientive Case. Instead of having specific volitional affixes or infixes to mark emotions/affection or even polypersonal agreement, it has two types for each clause argument.
• Situational and Epistemic modality markers overlap for both possibility and necessity, as English, where the same modals can express the urgency or just the possibility of doing and action.
• No zero realization on S markers.
• Relativization occurs on both Subjects and Obliques(Relative Pronouns)
• It is considered balanced on “when” and purpose clauses, although Old Vethari being classified as Balanced/Deranked.
• On Action Nominal Constructions, Vethari is classified with this structure, as Double-Possessive, with other similar languages being Maltese, Latvian and Japanese.
• Because of a little bit of suppletion according to tense, like Pipil and Hixkaryana, it is difficult for learners, however the Highlands dialect has other irregular verbs with changes also in aspect, having suppletion on both Tense and Aspect, like Nahuatl and Burushaski. Old Vethari had suppletion only on aspects, and when evolving, they became tense suppletion forms, like Ika, Wichita and Numggubuyu.
• Modal verbs appear before the main verb. Some other are not needed, like “must” that in stead, uses or the Imperative or the Vetitive for it. The subjunctive may sometimes full the work of a modal verb in a sentence. Vethari modal verbs are etymologically related to Gimiiratopi’s coverbs. Modal verbs are defective verbs, as in English, which such verbs only have one form. In Vethari, the verbs can not be conjugated, thus being used alone before the verb, just like English.

Volitional Verbs

There are some verb pairs that distinguish volition, some only used with Agentive subjects and others only with Patientive subjects. For example: Nimoku 'to see' (only Agentive) and Pasoku 'to look' (only patientive). The same way with English on the examples, with 'to see' being only intentional and 'to look' being unintentional. Other notable example is Dyirauku 'to hear' (only Agentive) and Misubuku 'to listen' (only Patientive). Although if the argument, in theory, has to be in the other case, it’s not possible to change, as they function as defective verbs, because they can’t change their cases.

This might create confusion with volitional intransitive verbs, for example sometimes saying something was on purpose, when it’s only because there is not the option to change the subject form. Instead of this, usually people try changing the verb for one that can change the subject.

These verbs evolved from Proto-Vethari, where it had quirky subjects. Because it was Nominative-Accusative, those subjects started dominating all the verbs, dividing them in two, for different cases; Agentive and Patientive. Because of being all affixes and the subject being altogether with the verb root, it started changing along the centuries, resulting in an Active-Stative language. The subjects then started turning into affixes to put with the verb root. Because back then, the verb could only represent the Nominative, the quirky subjects started to appear to change them into other cases. Then, the verbs stopped demonstrating the case, leaving lots of verbs with the same meaning, forming the pairs. Instead of verbs, who started changing for the cases were the subjects, dividing them into the two known classes: Agentive and Patientive.

In Proto-Vethari, verbs declined to volition, so, anyways, even being transitive, verbs could be marked as intentional or unintentional, knowing that currently only intransitive verbs can do that. However, those verbs that marked volition including on the infinitive, evolved into the current verb pairs that only have one subject case.

Besides those verbs that evolved from quirky subjects, there are other verbs specially for people that make vs. who receive the action. For example: 'to kill' Monaku (used only in the Agentive) vs. 'to die' Midonaku (used only in the Patientive).

Irregular Verbs

Vethari has some irregular verbs. They have special forms for the present, aorist and future. Two of them are very important verbs; Suri (to be) and Gusu (to have), also, they are the only one that don’t end in the normal -ku ending. When they are used as auxiliary verbs, they ignore the different affixes and uses the normal ones.

Ta-cyi-ple-rno-gusu

1SG.AGT-IND-ACT-AOR-have

I had.

Ta-cyi-rja-gusu fnu ta-cyi-rja-sifunari-kkepomidayu-Ø.

1SG.AGT-IND-AOR-have 1SG.AGT-IND-AOR-reject-money-PAT

I had rejected money. (It is in the Perfect Aspect(formed by another verb), however the gloss is written for both)

The following irregular verbs exist:

Verb (Aorist)	Verb (Infinitive form)	Verb (Future)	English translation
sui	suri	riu	to be
rno	gusu	quti	to have
so	maku	simi	to do
ilu	oroku	mese	to assemble
khu	kaku	kha	to be able to/ can
kita	asuteraku	firu	to comprise
mau	maku	mei	to split
pume	iku	mado	to regard
tasu	onyoku	duru	to address
masa	amyuku	myu	to attend
eri	fuku	fedu	to whisper
syuo	amaygomaku	syiu	to fasten

Questions and Negation

For binary questions(Yes/No Questions), Vethari uses a four-form system for answering a question. This means, there are 4 ways you can answer someone, not just simply “yes” and “no”. For Positive Questions (e.g. Is he here?), you answer “yes” or “no”, right? Now for Negative Questions (e.g. Is he not here?), if you answer “yes”, you mean that he is not there or that he is there? and vice-versa with no, so there is a four-form system. To affirm a Positive or Negative question, you use “Jyodhowu” and “Jyodhowa” respectively and to negate a Positive or Negative question, you use “Uwu” and “Uwa” respectively.

For non-binary questions, the question appears right after the verb root.

Vicyisomanuru!?

2SG.AGT-IND-AOR-do-what

What have you done!?

Licyirjasurrusenu?

3SG.AGT-IND-AOR-happen-when

When did it happen?

For negation, insert the affix -mu- after the verb.

Vicyimamuinauzolini.

2SG.AGT-do-NEG-thing-3SG.AGT.GEN

You can’t do anything about it.

Vicyituymu!

2SG.AGT-IND-cry-NEG

Don’t cry!

The Vetitive mood is used only when warning someone that there’ll be consequences for something like prohibiting from doing something, or constructions like: “Beware …”. It’s also used to show impossible things like imagining something that will never happen or a dream. It’s also functions like a “mustn’t”. Negation like “-mu-“ is used for more brief and superficial cases, when nothing big happens.

Adjectives

For adjectives, there are no articles and they are the same for singular and plural. For the comparative, the structure “i rre ?” is used, with ‘?’ Being the adjective. For the superlative, the structure “sopa ?” is used.

Lyacyisurileirar i rre rsi.

He is taller than him.

Licyisurinor sopa girai thipiko tacyigusu piu tacyifurainoy gonu!

He is the smartest student I’ve ever met!

There is also the Elative/Absolute Superlative, which means (very …) in English. They are irregular, that means, they are different from the normal superlative, positive and comparative.

Licyisuri rsi.

He is tall.

Licyisuri orsau.

He is very tall.

Licyisuri ogo.

He is evil.

Licyisuri vigo.

He is wicked/very evil.

There is also the “equal comparative”, that means “as … as”. It uses the structure “olu ?”

Luicyisuriliy olu rsi.

He is as tall as him.

For the negative, special constructions are used. For the comparative, “rura ?” is used to mean “less ? than”. For the superlative, “ata ?” it means “the least ?” and for the Absolute Superlative, “ror ?”, that stands for “the least ?” again, but it works the same way as “very ?”, but in the negative.

Noun Incorporation

Nouns, when they are incorporated into transitive verbs, lose their declension affixes, with only the root left. When nouns need to appear on an intransitive clause, they appear after the verb, with all the affixes. When on noun phrases, there is nothing special, with the nouns declining normally. There is no “class agreement”, instead of gender agreement, so adjectives don’t have any agreement with the object they are giving characteristics. All adjectives are singulare tantum. They also don’t decline. Adjectives appear after the noun. There are no articles for adjectives.

Pronouns

Pronouns are quite difficult in Vethari. The basic forms, are the Agentive and Patientive affixes on verbs. They usually appear as affixes, but sometimes alone, like answering questions like: Who was it?

The Basic ones are also those who appear in the middle of the verb. For example: I sent him/her/it a letter. Him is considered a basic/first level pronoun, or, oblique pronoun. It is the indirect object of a verb. I sent him a letter, would be: Tyacyirjaposònabunolei. In this case, lei is the dative indirect object pronoun form of 'le', Patientive he/she/it. In this example, 'Tya' is the Pegative form of the Agentive ‘I’.

Sometimes, contractions can happen, for example in 'Give it to me': Instead of 'Rutthinapotail-e', where tai is the dative indirect object pronoun form of 'ta', Agentive ‘I’ , on older texts, it may be written as 'Rutthinapotil '. Other common (and correct) contraction involves contracting the two pronouns and putting them on both pronoun spots; Subject and Incorporated pronoun. For example: (You) Say sorry to him -> The pronouns are Vyi(You(Agentive), Pegative) and Lei(He/She/It, Dative, Indirect Object) -> Vyi + Lei = vlii -> Instead of ‘Vitthireilei’ -> Vliitthireivlii.

Other basic pronouns include the ones that follow adpositions. For example: It’s not for you: Lecyisurimu'ris', where 'ris' is the dative direct object pronoun form of 'ru', Patientive you.

Reflexive and Reciprocal pronouns also exist, for example: Write the text yourself!: Vitthittuugipu'vou', where 'vou' is the reflexive form of 'vi', Agentive you. If in case of the object already being mentioned before, when replaced by 'it' then, it would appear in the default form after the first pronoun, being literally: Write yourself it. In this case, the phrase would be: Vitthittuvoul-e. Yes, when pronouns are clitics or just appear after, the first phoneme is transferred into the final of that group of affixes, so 'le', would be 'l-e', as seen in the example, however, this does not affect the pronunciation.

Clitics are pronouns that don’t have specific slots inside the complex of affixes, so it is put at the end, maybe with even 2 other more pronouns, or maybe contracted with all others. So, if there are three pronouns referring to one verb like: May you cook for us, her and them! (Literally: May you cook for us, her, them), would be: Vyisorlìjujoul-eirl-ou instead of Vyisorlìjujoul-ei-rlou, …-lei-rlou or …-l-ei-rl-ou or whatever, is wrong. In this case, it can also be contracted: vyi + jou + lei + rlou = vyourlei, so -> Vyourleisorlìjuvyourlei, however, this is unpractical and inconvenient(this example), although correct.

Sometimes, when a clitic ends up somewhere where can’t be that specific cluster, an 'a' is put in the middle, if a consonant cluster, however if a big vowel cluster, a 'l' is put in between.

It is pretty easy to form possession pronouns, just add the particle 'nilo' before. For example: Nilo vi -> Your.

Nouns

Like verbs, complete noun forms are based on affixes, that change by classes. There are specific affixes for each category; Case, Class, Number and Definiteness. There are no genders, instead, there are classes. Although there are different affixes for each class, there is no Patientive and Singular affix on every class.

Classes of Nouns and their affixes

• Pillaric - solid and unmoving: immovable rocks, mountains, places - the concept of death is seen as this.

Category	Allowable Inputs
Noun	Insert noun here
Definiteness	-(a)no- (Undefinite) -(a)pu- (Definite)
Number	-Ø- (Singular) -ki- (plural) -ke- (distributive) -ka- (collective) -ko- (similative-associative)
Case	-ti (Agentive) -Ø (Patientive) -te (Dative) -ta (Genitive) -to (Locative) -tiy (Pegative) -tey (Caritative) -tay (Ornative-Comitative-Instrumental)

• Congealic - solid, but moveable: flora, fauna, smaller rocks, ice, snow, fallen leaves - any solid matter that gathers in a mass.

Category	Allowable Inputs
Noun	Insert noun here
Definiteness	-(a)nu- (Undefinite) -(a)po- (Definite)
Number	-Ø- (Singular) -rdi- (plural) -rde- (distributive) -rda- (collective) -rdo- (similative-associative)
Case	-tri (Agentive) -Ø (Patientive) -tre (Dative) -tra (Genitive) -tro (Locative) -triy (Pegative) -trey (Caritative) -tray (Ornative-Comitative-Instrumental)

• Liquidic - substantial + visible, but able to be moved through: water, mist, light, numbers and fractions, units of time (seconds, minutes, days, months, etc.)

Category	Allowable Inputs
Noun	Insert noun here
Definiteness	-(a)lo- (Undefinite) -(a)lu- (Definite)
Number	-Ø- (Singular) -kri- (plural) -kre- (distributive) -kra- (collective) -kro- (similative-associative)
Case	-til (Agentive) -Ø (Patientive) -tel (Dative) -tal (Genitive) -tol (Locative) -tiyl (Pegative) -teyl (Caritative) -tayl (Ornative-Comitative-Instrumental)

• Echoic - invisible, but felt: wind, heat, cold, thoughts, emotions, vibrations.

Category	Allowable Inputs
Noun	Insert noun here
Definiteness	-(a)mo- (Undefinite) -(a)mu- (Definite)
Number	-Ø- (Singular) -gri- (plural) -gre- (distributive) -gra- (collective) -gro- (similative-associative)
Case	-gil (Agentive) -Ø (Patientive) -gel (Dative) -gal (Genitive) -gol (Locative) -giyl (Pegative) -geyl (Caritative) -gayl (Ornative-Comitative-Instrumental)

• Confundic - transcendental, intangible: the gods, the void, libraries in general, writing (though this may be reduced in less formal speech or writing to save time)

Category	Allowable Inputs
Noun	Insert noun here
Definiteness	-(a)zo- (Undefinite) -(a)zu- (Definite)
Number	-Ø- (Singular) -qi- (plural) -qe- (distributive) -qa- (collective) -qo- (similative-associative)
Case	-qil (Agentive) -Ø (Patientive) -qel (Dative) -qal (Genitive) -qol (Locative) -qul (Ablative) -qiyl (Pegative) -qeyl (Caritative) -qayl (Ornative-Comitative-Instrumental)

Derivation

Words can be derived into other parts of speech with the following suffixes:

		From...
		Noun	Verb	Adjective or Determiner	Adverb
To...	Noun	-	-gi	-gas	-gko
	Verb	-oku (to be X, temporarily) -iku (to do an X-like thing)	-	-aitiku -fitiku (to become X)	-rruku
	Adjective or Determiner	-was	-iku	-	-ryekhli
	Adverb	-prura	-wakku	-uri	-

For the verbs specified endings, remember that not always the verbs that end that way mean that they have derived from another grammatical category.

Syntax

Word Order

The standard word order is SVO, when using the verb complex as a full phrase, however, when more than this, other categories are usually arranged the same way as in English so:

Tawesrjawomalit-u imaudauri kima tuppulyefimo…

1SG.AGT-DES-AOR-love-3SG.AGT-1SG.PAT unfortunately this 1SG.PAT-VET-FUT-happen

I wish he loved me, but unfortunately this won’t happen…

On full noun phrases, the nouns may be on the Patientive case. The adjectives usually come after the noun, so: Noun + Adjective + Relative Clause. The word order changes to OVS when doing the reported speech, with no vocabulary change, just the order.

See Also

• Proto-Vethari
• Naythiri
• Oralathi