Nevesh language

Neviran
Modern Neviran
Native speakers	200 million?  (no date)
Language family	Ekuo-Lahiri Adzo-Neviric Neviric Neviran
Official status
Official language in	Nevira
CWS code	nva

Background

Modern Neviran, also known as Standard Neviran and frequently simply called Neviran, is a prominent language in Ekuosia with at least 90 million native speakers and an additional approx. 100 million second-language speakers, mostly within the country of Nevira, where it is the official language. It is an Ekuo-Lahiri language, therefore related to the Adzamic languages and, more distantly, to the Lahiri languages. Like other Ekuo-Lahiri languages, it is a direct-inverse animacy hierarchy language. As with its closer Adzamic cousins, it has a robust consonant inventory including ejectives.

Phonology

Consonants

		Bilabial	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular
Nasal		m m:		n n:
Plosive	Plain	p b		t d	c	k g	q ɢ
	Geminate	b:		t: d:	c: ɟ:	k:	q:
	Ejective	p'		t'	c'	k'	q'
Fricative		ɸ β	θ ð	s s: z	ç ʝ	ɣ
Approximant				ɹ	j	ɰ
Trill				r
Lateral app.				l l:

Vowels

	Front		Central		Back
Close	i		ʉ		u
Mid	ɛ		ə		o
Open			a		ɒ

Orthography

Neviran uses [Neviric, probably] script.

The romanization is IPA-based, except for:

• /C:/ CC
• /C'/ Ċ
• /ɢ/ gg
• /ɸ β/ f v
• /θ ð/ ŧ đ
• /ç ʝ/ ś ź
• /ɣ/ x
• /ɹ r/ r rr
• /j ɰ/ y w
• /ʉ ə/ ü ö
• /ɛ/ e
• /ɒ/ a

Grammar

Morphology

The morphology of nouns is fairly simply, as they encode only animacy, number, and state (possessed/ non-possessed). This occurs in a fused suffix.

Verbs are much more complicated, encoding tense, aspect, mood, negation, and may indicate subject and/or object, and may incorporate a 'manner' (typically an adverb, but sometimes another verb or an object), making the language technically polysynthetic.

Syntax

Nominal order follows the animacy hierarchy, which is: 1st person, 2nd person, Sentient, Sacred, Animate, Impactful, Immaterial, Inanimate, and Degenerate. The verb typically appears after its final argument but before any complements, so in effect, the typical word order is SOVI; but the verb can appear later or earlier to emphasize itself or certain nominal elements.

As a direct-inverse language, thematic role of the nouns is indicated by the presence or absence of an inverse marker. If absent, the sentence is SO. If present, it is OS.