Nevesh language

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Nevesh
Modern Neviran
Neveśim
Native speakers200 million?  (no date)
Language family
Official status
Official language inNevira
CWS codenva

Background

Nevesh, also known as Neviran, Modern Neviran, or Standard Neviran, is a prominent language in Ekuosia with at least 90 million native speakers and an additional surplus of 100 million second-language speakers, mostly within the country of Nevira, where it is the official language. It is also retained as a minority language in some of its former colonies. Like other Ekuo-Lahiri languages, it is a direct-inverse language featuring an animacy hierarchy. 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

Phonotactics

Orthography

Nevesh uses its own script, a derivative of the Adzamic script in the Ekuosian script family.

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.