Salvian Thread: Hieroglyphs

Pedant · Post by **Pedant** » Fri Jan 25, 2019 11:39 am

So this is basically where I'm putting any information about one of the con-cultures I'm working on, the Salvians, and in particular their language. Salvian is probably the best term for it in English, as it covers all eras of the language and its various 'dialects'. The major language, spoken between roughly 1,400 and 1,100 years before the present day, and still in use as a major language of government and magic, is called Nurnusuh "truth-tongue" by the Salvians.

NOTE: THIS PAGE IS CURRENTLY UNDERGOING A REWRITE. I'm doing what I can to update each section nicely, but it'll take a bit of time. Bear with me, guys!

Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Geography: the Six Regions of Salvi
3. Magic; Gifts
4. The Salvian Family; Classical Salvian Phonology
5. Calendar; Prehistory
6. The Omiri River Delta; Morphology: The Noun
7. Derivational Morphology: The Verb
8. Morphology: The Verb
9. Hieroglyphs

INTRODUCTION
Some notes on Salvi and the Salvian Peninsula:

The Salvian Peninsula is a little over 2 million kilometres squared, slightly smaller than Saudi Arabia (but much, much greener).

It lies on the eastern side of the continent of Pelia, in the equatorial zone (with, appropriately, an equatorial ocean climate catching the winds); the plateau is a little chilly (think Nepal), the highlands have a monsoon climate reminiscent of Northern India, and the lowlands are thick, steamy jungle (think Yucatán or Sri Lanka). The southernmost lowlands, closest to the Zakujama Archipelago, are choc-a-bloc full of cenotes and cave systems.

The Salvian Peninsula, for around 10,000 years, has been inhabited by the Sorcerers-but there have been what the Salvians call "guests," temporary inhabitants from other lands. These include the Finders, the Reincarnators, the Telepaths, the Fliers, and the Jungle-Dwellers. None of these became the primary ethnicity anywhere on the peninsula, however, and tend to live in smaller enclaves to this day. The Sorcerers are closely related to the Telepaths, Finders, and Keepers.

Each race in the world of Ajjamah has a Gift inherent to their people, some magic they can do instinctively. The Salvians have the Gift of enchantment (derived from the Primary Branch magic Nascence), which grants them the ability to program various objects with spells. Spells in turn are largely drawn from the Gifts of other animals (including other human races), from the powers associated with various deities, and/or with more abstract constructions derived from the other two. This is absolutely important in understanding their culture, religion, and (most definitely) technology.

Temples are massive power suppliers, channeling magic to various homes from the environment around them (particularly the forests) and allowing people to use government-approved spells. Laws of the land are implanted directly into people's heads using the government-only spell Social Contract, and they follow them instinctively-but not without question, as they are allowed to discuss and even remove laws that no longer serve any purpose. As a note: Salvians can no longer maintain their level of civilization without building a temple, which largely involves a combination of geomancy, knowledge of the local biomes, sculpting skills, a knowledge of religious hand-signs (for the statues to use), and finding a deity willing to be donate part of their soul in order to act as a power outlet for the region. For these reasons, as well as the fact that the government of Salvi doesn't necessarily want a) to use up magic too quickly and b) people to be able to just go off and make their own cities elsewhere, Salvian colonies tend to be few and rather dense.

There are two exceptions to the above rule. One is the Archipelago of Zakujama, the Hundred Isles, settled during the Second Dark Age with the few Sorcerers able to escape establishing their own small kingdoms around the temples they established on the islands. The other is Visauru, Sunland, established on the northwest coast of Anosha as a trading colony (and source of new spells).

Federal government is tripartite: the boulē (made up of various civil servants) makes the law, the ekklēsia (with dedicated representatives from each province, but as many people who want to vote are allowed) votes "yea" or "nay" on the law, and the synod (comprising the avatars of the most important deities) cross-checks the law to make sure that people can fit it into their Social Contracts with the minimum of discomfort.

The World of the Central Sea

Some basic features of Classical Salvian:

The language does not have a triliteral root system as much as the beginnings of one; various prefixes and suffixes may be added to words, and syncope has made the distinctions a little less tidy, but all of the features are, in the Classical language, easily understood.

The language also has both consonant and vowel sandhi; these are either lost or elaborated on in the daughter languages, depending on which part of the Peninsula they're from.

There are underlying elements of a previous ergative/absolutive system in verbal derivations and elements of various noun classes.

Nouns have three genders (masculine, feminine, and neuter), four declensions (animate, inanimate, abstract, and miscellaneous; note that the fourth can contain examples of the first three), and seven cases (nominative, accusative, genitive, instrumental, ablative, illative, and allative).

Verbs have two tenses (future and non-future) four aspects (future is its own aspect, non-future has aorist, imperfect, and perfect), and three moods (realis, epistemic, and deontic).

Sentences are SVO; noun phrases are head-first. Questions and negatives are marked by proclitics; topicalization is done by moving the topic to the start of the sentence.

The writing system is basically logographic, with roots forming the basic symbol and additional prefixes, infixes, and suffixes marked using ligatures. The older style of writing resembles cuneiform; the later, a South Asian script (perhaps Sinhalese).

Do let me know if there's anything you'd be interested in seeing more of!

gestaltist · Post by **gestaltist** » Fri Jan 25, 2019 3:02 pm

Pedant wrote: ↑Fri Jan 25, 2019 11:39 am
Each race in the world of Ajjamah has a Gift inherent to their people, some magic they can do instinctively.

I'd be interested to hear about the other Gifts. I'm also interested to know about the "Zombies" on your map.

Laws of the land are implanted directly into people's heads using the government-only spell Social Contract, and they follow them instinctively-but not without question, as they are allowed to discuss and even remove laws that no longer serve any purpose.

Does that mean breaking the Social Contract is physically impossible? No such thing as a crime?

Nouns have three genders (masculine, feminine, and neuter), four classes (animate, inanimate, abstract, and miscellaneous; note that the fourth can contain examples of the first three)

Could you elaborate on this? Grammatical gender and noun classes are usually synonyms. Treating them as separate would suggest that they can be combined somehow. Does that mean you really have 12 noun classes?

and seven declensions (nominative, accusative, genitive, instrumental, ablative, illative, and allative).

I think you mean seven cases. "Seven declensions" would usually mean that there are seven distinct noun groups with somewhat different inflectional forms.

Verbs have two tenses (future and non-future) four aspects (future is its own aspect, non-future has aorist, imperfect, and perfect), and three moods (realis, epistemic, and deontic).

Which mood is used for counterfactuals? I'm not sure I see any irrealis mood here.

mèþru · Post by **mèþru** » Fri Jan 25, 2019 3:10 pm

What species are the speakers?
Describe what they are like.

Pedant · Post by **Pedant** » Fri Jan 25, 2019 3:44 pm

gestaltist wrote: ↑Fri Jan 25, 2019 3:02 pm I'd be interested to hear about the other Gifts. I'm also interested to know about the "Zombies" on your map.

Many thanks for your swift reply! I'll do a general outline of Gifts next then, shall I?

Does that mean breaking the Social Contract is physically impossible? No such thing as a crime?

Not exactly...basically there are three variants of law to follow, with varying degrees of leniency. There are first-degree laws, where obedience is absolutely mandatory and cannot actually be broken. It can, however, be questioned, and brought before the boulē to be changed or removed. There are second-degree laws, religious rulings that, although one can break, limit the amount of magic that comes to your system; you'll need to spend a bit of time in meditation to cleanse yourself of the problematic influences (fortunately rehab sites are state-sponsored). Finally there are third-degree laws, in effect contracts where parties opt out of certain legal rights for a duration in exchange for a profit; this is a little different from Anglo-American contract law, however, in that behaviour is dependent on payment (so if there's no payment then there's no behavioural change), and in that the contract can be deemed null and void by a visit to a local magistrate. I'll go into this later.

Could you elaborate on this? Grammatical gender and noun classes are usually synonyms. Treating them as separate would suggest that they can be combined somehow. Does that mean you really have 12 noun classes?

I think you mean seven cases. "Seven declensions" would usually mean that there are seven distinct noun groups with somewhat different inflectional forms.

No worries! In this case the classes more like declensions, I suppose; actual declensions, mind (I'll correct that in just a bit). So there're first-declension animate nouns, second-declension inanimate nouns, third-declension abstract or spiritual nouns, and fourth-declension miscellaneous. Each of these has its own masculine, feminine, and neuter subdivisions. It would not be unreasonable to compare them to Sanskrit vowel-stem nouns, as the animates tend to end in -a, inanimates in -u, and abstracts in -i, with additional suffixes suggesting gender. Again, I'll go into this later.

Which mood is used for counterfactuals? I'm not sure I see any irrealis mood here.

Both epistemic and deontic are technically irrealis forms; epistemic covers actions or events that may be, while deontic covers those that ought to be. In order to form a counter factual, use mu X (deontic participle construction) Y (epistemic).

Hope this helps!

* * *

On a side note, that gives me three new features to cover, alongside a few things that I wanted to cover anyway. I'll try to interspace them:
1. Geography: the Six Regions of Salvi
2. Classical Salvian: The Telepath-Keeper Family
3. Gifts: the Eight-Point Star, the Sorcerers, and the Zombies
4. Classical Salvian: Phonology, Phonotactics, and Sandhi
5. History: the Calendar and Prehistory
6. Classical Salvian: Derivational (Concatenative and Nonconcatenative) Morphology
7. Society: Law
8. Classical Salvian: Nominal Declension
9. History: the Archaic Period and the Shamans

Coming soon to a board near you!

Pedant · Post by **Pedant** » Fri Jan 25, 2019 4:31 pm

mèþru wrote: ↑Fri Jan 25, 2019 3:10 pm What species are the speakers?
Describe what they are like.

The speakers are, well, human. Or at the very least humanoid. They're not technically classified as homo sapiens, mind; try anthropus praeditus, Gifted Human. They're warm-blooded, they have two eyes and two ears and four limbs with five digits a limb, they have opposable thumbs but not opposable toes, they provide milk to their young, they have minor sexual dimorphism, they have hair (and there's a difference between head-hair and body-hair), they even speak using vocal chords, tongue and teeth.
There are, admittedly, some slight changes, even aside from the magic. For one, eye colour is a lot more variable; instead of only eumalanin deposits, pheomelanin is a lot more common as well (possibly because the light from Ajjamah's sun is slightly yellower than our own), meaning amber eyes abound in certain racial groups (particularly the Sane People, for another post). Skin colour, too, is slightly more reddish or golden in places, particularly among the Sizechangers, Hypnotists, Performers, Sane People, and Normal People (especially the Sane People, but again, more on them later). Finally, hair colour has evolved blondness three times: first among the Fliers (who are otherwise jet-black of skin), second among the Trancers, and third among the Shifters (although because of their varied animal-transformation abilities some say this really shouldn't count, and pass that along to the Crusaders who took over much of their land, or the Eternals who live on the High Plateau to the east).
The Salvians themselves have eyes that range from amber to mahogany to dark brown, curly brown or black hair, olive and/or dark brown skin, and facial features that wouldn't look out of place in Sri Lanka or the Yucatán Peninsula (the former to the west and the latter to the east, although there is a significant population in the Northern Mountains that would not look out of place in Peru, and the Salvians who settled in the Zakujama Archipelago bear a closer resemblance to Sinhalese). The Salvians do not have epicanthic folds.

Xwtek · Post by **Xwtek** » Fri Jan 25, 2019 5:39 pm

gestaltist wrote: ↑Fri Jan 25, 2019 3:02 pm
Nouns have three genders (masculine, feminine, and neuter), four classes (animate, inanimate, abstract, and miscellaneous; note that the fourth can contain examples of the first three)
Could you elaborate on this? Grammatical gender and noun classes are usually synonyms. Treating them as separate would suggest that they can be combined somehow. Does that mean you really have 12 noun classes?

Actually, some language in real life is known to have grammatical gender and noun classes together. Michif comes in my mind. However, it isn't combined because they operate at different place of grammar.

Pedant · Post by **Pedant** » Sat Jan 26, 2019 12:19 pm

Next up:

Geography: The Six Regions of Salvi

The Six Regions and the Central Sea

Tectonic History and Early Migrations
The Salvian Peninsula was originally part of the eastern continent, known at the time as Somaea (and today as Hemeraea, as the landscapes are subtly different). Around sixty million years ago the continent started to break up, creating the remnants of a rift valley on the western coast of Hercua (now largely subsumed into the High Plateau) as the Salvian Peninsula drifted nortwest. Around fifteen million years ago it joined onto the easternmost portion of Pelia, the western continent. This led to the Great Pelian Interchange, where a number of native Pelian animals were displaced by those native to Salvi. There has, of course, been ample time to recover from this, and both groups have largely integrated into one another's food chains (although the flora and fauna on the other side of the Flyover Mountains is largely untouched). A number of plants spread over as well; bamboo, for instance, is first found in the Pelian fossil record a mere ten million years ago. The collision to the north created the Boomerang Mountains, which will be discussed later.
(By a sheer coincidence, the subcontinent of Hemeraea known as Akwa joined on not too far to the east of where Salvi had detached, creating the High Plateau and playing merry havoc with the wildlife.)
Anthropus praeditus, having its origins in the Akwan Highlands (a climate similar to Northern India or Ethiopia) some eight million years previously, passed through Salvi in order to get to Pelia around eighty thousand years ago. Other hominids had done so before; the earliest fossil record of humans living in Salvi is two million years ago, with anthropus orthus moving into the jungles and trying like anything not to tick off the giant chupacabras.

Arrinih (The Highlands)
The highest geographical area in Eastern Pelia (although considerably dwarfed by the Flyover Mountains to the west), Arrinih has a climate that largely resembles the tropical Andes, with a patchwork of different microclimates and plenty of rain from the Northern Ocean. This is the area where the civilization of the Empaths (a group from which the Sorcerers, Telepaths, Finders, and Keepers are all said to be descended) was found, and where the earliest Sorcerer records are kept, hidden in cave temples millennia old. There are occasional volcanic eruptions, of course, but it's nothing altogether too serious.
The Salvians here tend to rely most on the sutras as opposed to amulets for their magic, harnessing the energy present in the ancient sites for their own purposes. There's also a fair number of meditation/rehabilitation sites here, as it's said to be good for one's tapas (isālir "invocation to obtain magic" in Classical Salvian).

Yuddirih (The Colonnade)
Yuddirih is the birthplace of modern Salvian civilization: a stretch of land about 500m above sea level (on average) stretching for around 2,000 km (the distance between Jordan and Yemen), with a climate largely resembling Northern India (particularly areas like Jharkand; the dry season lasts for a fair while, but is more than made up for by the monsoon). Tropical grasslands are interspersed with thick clumps of forest, and dozens of rivers dot the landscape-each ancient kingdom determined by their banks. The states here in the Archaic Period tended to rely more on various astras (laillilyas in Classical Salvian) for combat than others; this led to the collapse of Northern civilization for a bit, and led to a great diaspora to the south, where the Classical Salvian civilization could take off. A thousand or so years ago, Yuddirih is where the Five were united and combined their magic to formalize spells and the law in all their dominions. It's also where Viṣṛudi-Kaukṭuh, the great "university" of Salvi, is located.
The local Sorcerers from this area rely most on hieroglyphs drawn or painted onto objects, which gives them a link to prepared amulets either carried around on their person or accessed through temple complexes.

Aggalah (The Western Lowlands)
Somewhat isolated from the rest of the Peninsula, Aggalah largely comprises a thick, steaming mangrove jungle on the coasts, veering to more conventional rainforest and grassland as one moves further northeast. Unlike Ḍalhah, Aggalah benefitted from the thick lava plains that flow periodically down from Arrinih (when they're not busy destroying the jungle, of course). They also trade the most with the people of the Gaṭadah or Great Jungle, normally Finders or Jungle-Dwellers.
The Sorcerers here (who call themselves the Ugaṭalas or True Jungle People) haven't historically used created or used very many amulets. The exceptions to this rule are the okalvides or Objects of Power, each one belonging to a different clan and each one accessible by members of that clan for their services. This has led to something of a caste system developing, albeit one far less structured that that of modern India; one is trained in the usage of the Object of Power, and fulfills one's place in society by using it as one sees fit. (Aggalah is something of a protected area for this reason; the rest of the country may use and discard amulets willy-nilly, but such a practice would be a death sentence for the culture of the states of Aggalah.)

Viḍḍurun (The Eastern Highlands)
Famous for its stone working, Viḍḍurun is the trailing end of the Boomerang Mountains and associated environs. Tectonic activity is somewhat less here, as Salvi is still rotating into the eastern edge of Pelia; there are, however, a number of earthquakes to deal with. The eastern side of Viḍḍurun is bombarded with cyclones from the equatorial Northern Sea, and the highlands are thick and muggy. Needless to say, the locals have had to adapt to quite a lot of weather.
The Sorcerers in Viḍḍurun have a long history of weaving spells into the fabric of their cloaks and saris, which can be tailored uniquely to each person. Spells tend to be more protection-based than anything, invoking specific deities through the patterns and dyes in the cloth. Viḍḍuruni textiles are thus highly praised across the nation--and for this reason are in short supply, as the Viḍḍurvilas have thus far been loathe to let in outsiders on their secrets.

Ḍalhah (The Cenotes)
Ḍalhah is an odd place. One of the last parts of the peninsula where volcanic eruptions have not covered the landscape with lava plains, Ḍalhah is the southernmost portion of mainland Salvi, and comprises a giant karst landscape. There are three interlocking cave systems, each linked to one of the major river basins coming down from Yuddirih and Viḍḍurun; these in turn open up to the surface through the cenotes for which the region is named. (There are also "independent" cenotes, which are linked through fracture flows.) There are occasional cave-ins, but for the most part the landscape is stable, and the local wildlife has come to adapt to their major sources of freshwater being found in caves.
The Ḍalhalas create most of their amulets through connecting with fresh animal spirits and sharing in their latent Gifts, as opposed to distilling their souls for the long run. Each person has their own spirit animal that grants them certain favours, and with which they share a close bond. This is normally achieved through a spirit quest through the jungle, which is customary for each and every member of society. Thanks to this system, the Ḍalhalas are more insistent than most Salvians that the ecosystem be preserved as much as possible--in order that their main sources of magic not run out. (They're still perfectly happy to use amulets prepared in Yuddirih, though.)

Ujasmah (The Archipelago)
Curiously enough, the region that would become the second most important part of the Federation of Salvi is not attached to the mainland at all. Nor does it have a majority population of Salvians. Instead, Ujasmah (known in the modern day as Zakujama or "Hundred Lands" in Archipelagic Creole; the Classical Salvian form would be Jhagjama) is a collection of small islands that are largely derived from the coast of Pelia, which as Salvi drifted closer underwent subduction from another plate (this time oceanic) and the islands were pulled southeast in much the same manner as Japan. The islands are thus part of the Pelian coastal shelf, although this is no longer immediately obvious. Largely tropical, Ujasmah's landmasses are often volcanic and rather small, with much having been eroded away over the course of several million years. The fauna, too, has had enough time to develop by itself.
The Ujasmalas (or, as they prefer to call themselves, the Jamara) were refugees from the ecological crisis that caused the collapse of the Classical Salvian civilization, settling around the temples that missionaries had established in the archipelagos and building on them. Unlike on the mainland, worship of the Salvian gods remained strong, although there was a push towards henotheism on each of the islands; each settler population would decide on one or two gods who would be responsible for every type of spell, taking on various incarnations to do so. They were likely influenced by the local Finders' ability to create Sweat-Men, beings who could hold the collective knowledge and wisdom of all those who contributed...some manner of bodily fluids to their person. (It wasn't exactly easy to create them, mind, as such an ability is Secondary to the Finders; their Primary ability is to be able to determine what something is, and the distance to it, just by looking at it. Needless to say, they try very hard not to look at the stars or the sun.)
The persistence of the Ujasmalas in developing new complexes beyond the reach of Salvi (something up to that point considered risky if not blasphemous) is part of what led to its war with the burgeoning Kingdom of Anosha, which objected very strongly to the establishment of trade with the "witches of the west". This in turn led to its alliance with Salvi proper (for the first time in several centuries) and the Treasure Wars of a ninety-eight years previously, leading to the establishment of Visauru as a joint trading colony of Salvi and Zakujama, with a new dialect--Visauruan Salvian--developing from sustained contact with the natives.

Pedant · Post by **Pedant** » Tue Jan 29, 2019 10:08 pm

Long post, guys, just to warn you...

Worldwide: Magic and Gifts

Introduction
Magic, to the people of Ajjamah, is just a little bit complicated. It resides in two separate worlds, the Dream and the Deep--one that reflects the world that humans understand, and the other holding memories of the world as it used to be, every moment in history up until sixty-seven thousand years ago--and yet the Dream leaks into the real world, while the Deep holds it back. There are hundreds of potential programs--spells--floating around in the Dream, like a colony of anti-gravity sentient slime moulds, waiting to latch on to organisms and channel themselves through them. (Salvian scholars have suggested that spells are in fact the spores of some ancient creature, which can only reproduce by passage through the physical world. So yes, technically all those who use magic are intoxicated with mushroom spores.) It pervades all, and yet somehow only humans can use it. There are creatures which manipulate it, of course; the best example of this would be the Dragon Hives all along the Malehi Archipelago, the remnants of ancient creatures forcing their forms on helpless animals. And there are also creatures affected by it, like the various chimeras of the world, or the Talking Beasts descended from Shifters who mated with animals so long ago. But only humanity, among all of animal-kind, has active Gifts, intrinsic powers that grant certain individuals the ability to reach out and create structures in the Dream.
(All terms in this article are given in English for a better understanding of the meaning behind them.)

The Eight-Point Star
There are eight Gifts that one may have, drawn out on an eight-point star. One will be the primary branch, the instinctive magic that comes as easily to humans as flexing a muscle. Then there are two secondary branches, other Gifts in lesser forms which combine to create varying types of scholar's magic, linked to the primary branch. There are also Gifts in opposition to one another, forms that are directly opposite one another on the Eight-Point Star (in which case neither side can use magic as effectively); Gifts in alliance with one another (which strengthens the powers of both types of users); and Gifts perpendicular to one another, which have no real effect at all.
Why a star? In part, the scholars of Salvi realized, it was because of the alliances different Gifts might have with one another. In another part, it was because of how Gifts change into one another. If a Primary Branch changes, it will always change into one of the two Secondary Branches. This led, for example, to the Empaths (whose Primary Branch was Persuasion) becoming the Telepaths (with the same Primary Branch), the Keepers (Summoning--moving along the Right-Hand Path), the Sorcerers (Nascence--along the Left-Hand Path), and Finders (Perception--along the Left-Hand Path again).

Courses of Power, Types, and Subtypes
Moving from one Gift to another is directly dependent on how much power there is in an area, and of what kind. The four power sources are the suns (there are three of them, although one is far enough away to be of no consequence and the other is in a 500-year cycle around the primary sun), tectonic plates (there's energy within the Earth itself), the wildlife, and the Runrods, places where the Dream and the Deep are closer to the real world (Shining Runrods are closer to the Dream, Empty Runrods to the Deep; there are twelve of them, and they all rotate in four-dimensional space, disappearing and reappearing through the eras). The side of the Star facing "northeast" is for situations where there is greater power from the sources; the "southwest" points are generally associated with less power from the sources. The four Courses of Power (which also make up the Dividing Lines) are:

Fabrication (north-south): either creating magical objects not under one's control (nascence) or altering the amount of magic in an area (permanence); dependent on the movement of tectonic plates.

Circulation (northeast-southwest): extending one's spiritual reach beyond one's own body either to create constructs under one's own control (conjuring) or to study patterns in the Dream and Deep (perception); dependent on the amount of sunlight in an area.

Invocation (east-west): either creating a pathway for magic to flow (binding) or moving an object directly through the Dream (summoning); dependent on the Runrods.

Manipulation (southeast-northwest): either controlling spirits (persuasion) or changing them (redirection); dependent on the amount of wildlife in an area.

Note that these do not correspond to an actual compass rose; they are simply the best visual representation one has for one's situation.
When a person switches from one Primary to the other, they do not do so by moving along the Dividing Lines to the opposite counterpart. Instead, they switch to the Secondary Branch that best suits their needs. It's better to have more than one feature involved for maximum change.
So, what happens when one of the above factors changes? Normally it takes five hundred years, or twenty-five generations--whichever is longer--for a Primary Branch to shift completely into a Secondary Branch at minimum, meaning that the effect has to stay around for that long. (The Runrods themselves work on 1,863-year cycles for the most part, switching from vacant to Shining to Empty to vacant again, each stage taking about 621 years). But this is not to say that this is a given. Certain groups have maintained their Gifts for thousands of years, while others have been known to switch every few generations. Often, groups which should by all rights and purposes have switched to a different Gift have clung to it like a lifeline, as it remains an important feature of their culture--and thus remains in use. (The Botanists, for example; those living in the Flyover Mountains have adapted their traditional Gift of plant control to work on grasses, despite the comparative lack of wildlife suggesting they should have switched over to a different Gift centuries earlier.)
Nor is it a given that the nature of the Gift does not change. Within the Gift of Redirection, there are at least three different varieties common across the world. Endurers use Redirection to replenish their physical form, whether by protecting it from harm (through a skin-shell) or through extended lifespans. Zombies use their Redirection to keep their consciousness alive even after death, in order to better give aid to their descendants.And Fliers, in the Qutosbegeg Mountains to the far west of Salvi, use their abilities to create an anti-gravity cocoon around themselves, keeping their bodies warm and permitting them to becoming effectively weightless.
Finally, each combination of Secondary Branches of magic--scholar's magic--is unique to the people, time, and place. The Crusaders, best known for their ability to warp reality through worship (their Primary Branch is Binding), have as a secondary ability the transmutation of elements so long as one's life force is used--in other words, alchemy. Compare this to the abilities of the Sane People, who (beyond having a hive mind) use their skills to power homunculi containing the souls of the dead (the dead themselves are usually consumed. The Sane People have a bad reputation with foreigners).
Within each Primary Branch, there is a specific subtype corresponding to how close one is to other kinds of magic:

The hubwards subtype of any style (inward) is the most extroverted, so to speak; it allows the practitioner the best control over other people, or wildlife in general, or spirits.

The rimwards subtype (outward) is the most introverted; it allows the practitioner to alter their physical form directly

The turnwise subtype (clockwise) is best for changes made to the landscape at large.

The widdershins subtype (counter-clockwise) is most useful when dealing with lifeless objects, pouring one's being into one's craft.

A powerful Dividing Line is enough to move a rimwards power hubwards, turnwise, or widdershins.

A Note on Descent
Different populations have different percentages of people with Gifts, and it largely depends on the nature of the Gift and the availability of resources.

Almost all Salvians have their Gift of nascence, with the Secondary Branches largely unheeded (or, in some cases, used to augment their primary abilities). Usage levels tend to be about the same, too, making it a great equalizing factor in their world.

Every Normal Person, living on the island continent of Meniscia, has the Gift of Permanence--in this case, the ability to squeeze magic into or out of physical objects or organisms. Less common is their Secondary power, which is to enchant objects so that they resemble things they're imagined to be. (This world's Don Quixote was a real terror about the countryside for a while...)

The Telepaths, a cousin race to the Salvians living on the grasslands (and desert) to the north, have a fifty-fifty split, literally. Half of the population can sense the emotions (and, occasionally, the verbalized thoughts) of other humans. The other half is "normal," without the Gift. Curiously enough, this has led to the telepaths and non-telepaths being considered different genders, with telepaths only allowed to marry non-telepaths. And telepaths, male or female, are considered the weaker gender.

The Performers, from the Far East past the Vortex Plains, have the Primary Gift of summoning--creating clones of themselves to perform various tasks in extreme-stress situations. Their Secondary Gift is the creation of illusions, similar to those of the Normal People. Originally both were limited to a very small percentage of the population, but over the centuries, and in large part thanks to a violent revolution, they've been almost entirely eliminated.

The Keepers of the Spice Islands have the Primary Gift of summoning--they can trap objects around them in tunnels in the Dream, and bring them out again when they need them. Their Secondary Gift--the ability to summon multiple clones of oneself to act as an army of doppelgängers--is exceptionally rare, occurring perhaps once a generation. These individuals almost always become new monarchs in their own right.

Some Examples

The Sorcerers of Salvi have the Primary Branch nascence, meaning they can create amulets that catch, trap, and control spells or spirits floating in the Dream. They live on an active tectonic plate with plenty of volcanoes and earthquakes to the north (giving them their Primary).
- The people of Aggalah, Yuddirih, and Viḍḍurun are surrounded by deep jungle (giving way to forest and grassland to the east), their Runrod is vacant, and they have much sunlight (but this is negligible)--giving them their widdershins subtype of creating amulets and objects of power.
- The people of Arrinih have less jungle around them than they do tundra and grassland, their Runrod is set to the Deep, and the sun is bright but cold--giving them their hubwards subtype of relying on the sutras.
- The people of Ḍalhah have much in the way of sunlight, and a Runrod that links to the Dream--but their jungle, although thick, underwent a recent collapse only a thousand years ago, and thus is not as prominent as that of the West, meaning that the Ḍalhalas' turnwise ability to affect the physical landscape through bonding with spirit animals makes much sense.
- The Ujasmalas, such that they are, have to live with sun, coastal jungles filled with life, and a vacant Runrod--but the volcanism of their islands is overwhelming, leading to their rimwards subtype, sharing their abilities with the gods and only taking what they can for themselves.

The Zombies, along the Omiri Delta, have a different set of problems. Their Primary Branch is redirection, perhaps brought on by their long, long years in the desert; their specific evolution of that subtype is such that they can control the dead. Their Secondary Branch, based on Permanence and Oaths, is such as to bind the dead to their command.
NOTE: As is normal on Ajjamah, the soul is divided into an Acting Soul (which handles physical movements), a Speaking Soul (which controls one's interactions with the spirit world--and also one's cognitive abilities), and a Thinking Soul (which stores all one's memories).
- The people of the Northern Delta have much sunlight (but not as much as can be found further upstream), tropical wildlife, and a patch of Runrod that points very much into the Dream. Their widdershins subtype is used to command and control zombies, who cannot speak and are bound to the service of their masters--they maintain only their Acting and Thinking Souls. Failing that, the dead become astral forms, who maintain their Acting and Speaking Souls--and are hunted down and ingested by local witch doctors for power.
- The people who live along the Omiri River and have a long, long history of making ends meet through the flooding of the Omiri. Their Runrod is currently set to the Deep, they get more sunlight than the people of the Delta (because there's no forest cover for miles, and they have limited wildlife--although aanis (dog-headed apes) are occasionally rather bothersome. Following a rimwards variant, most of the people around here become zombies, but failing that they also (with a touch of work done) become ancestral spirits--sticking around to advise their descendants, as their Thinking and Speaking Souls are still present, and also being worshipped by the population.
- The people of the flash-flood desert lands, surrounded by the sun and with much the same climate and Runrod but not as much wildlife as those on the Omiri River proper, use a hubwards variant of their powers. The dead become either ancestral spirits (who hang around their descendants but are less encouraging, more like a phantom soap opera audience who judges life experiences in much the same way we judge plot-lines), or demons--the latter hold on to their Acting and Speaking Souls, and possess the bodies of various living beings to try and right some wrong committed in life.
- Finally, the people of the Southern Highlands, with more sunlight and about the same amount of wildlife but a fair bit more tectonic activity, use a turnwise subtype. Their dead only have one soul apiece they can use, and each can be called on by the people they leave behind. Astral forms provide power for incantations to summon the gods, and are associated with necropolises (which are sacred lands). Possessors, divided into the good, the mad, and the ugly, guide people's reflexive actions; a good craftsperson is said to be visited by any number of Possessors as opposed to working on their own merit, but at the same time it's considered reasonable to assume that murderers were being guided by a bad Possessor or two when they committed their crime. Finally there are Memories, the remaining Thinking Soul; these are gateways into the Deep, through memories shared by those who have passed by them, and allow people to view events in the past first-hand.

Pedant · Post by **Pedant** » Wed Feb 06, 2019 3:14 pm

A shorter one:

Classical Salvian: Family and Phonology

The Salvian Family: Illustrious Ancestry
There is some debate among Salvian phonohistorians whether or not Classical Salvian, as the language is known today, was ever a true language, rather than a construction. Certainly, there were different dialects spoken among the Sorcerers after the First Collapse sometime around the year Seven Free Deer, just over 2,000 years before the present day. Just as certain is that there was a previous language--Old Salvian--spoken across the subcontinent for some time before that; it is found in records of the oldest sutras, as well as the Bat's Tale (the first recorded mythological story in Salvian history, and a key insight into the mindset of the Shaman Kings). We even know what it sounded like, in all its glory; aside from various treatises over the years intended to explain the work to others (and the rote memorization practiced by shamans even to this day in certain parts of the Federation), the phonohistorians have encountered many a Conch with voice recordings that can be identified as Classical Salvian. And of course, who can argue with the fact that the writing system itself--the Salvian hieroglyphic script, used in magic always and in everyday life when you want an elaborate font--has been written in that language for the better part of two millennia, and only in that language?
The catch is that we aren't actually certain how this particular dialect rose to prominence. Classical Salvian is one of six recorded descendants of Old Salvian, the others being Aggalan Salvian (spoken in the Western Lowlands), the three dialects of Colonnade Salvian, and Mountain Salvian, the last used by the rebellious Golem Lords in the Wachtik Empire and rarely (if ever) spoken in Salvi proper. Classical Salvian is most closely related to Colonnade Salvian--but though speakers of all three dialects appear to have appropriated certain grammatical aspects for their own, the actual origin of the language is unclear. Our first written records go back 1,600 years; our first spoken, 1,365, to a Conch containing a trade agreement between the kings of Paikar and Ibhanta in the year 10 Stone Deer of the Long Count. We also don't know how often it was used. Was it specific to the diplomats and merchants moving between the pyramid-and-tower complexes of the classical fortress-cities? An accepted lingua franca for spells, so that sorcerers from each kingdom could understand common sutras and incantations? Did it ever reach the common folk, in all the years where it was spoken and written? Of none of these we can be sure. By the time of the Second Collapse and the rise of the Five, inscriptions were bilingual--in both the hieroglyphs of Classical Salvian, and the shorthand forms used for any of the local dialects.
It is fitting that the rise of the Five, perhaps the most illustrious and important Sorcerers in history, also led to a revival of Classical Salvian. This language, above all, is used to tie together its nieces and cousins--the modern vernacular languages of Salvi. As part of the Salvyakālah, the ancient Oath upon which the foundation of modern statecraft lies, there were two special spells added. The first, the Tarkvinausun, linked all the logographic hieroglyphs to their Classical pronunciation and meaning (as best as could be worked out), so that when discussing statecraft (or magic) the terms would be set for as long as the state lasted. The second, the Hapālausun, linked the languages of the Five--representing what would become the prestige dialects of the five regions of the Salvian Peninsula--together and made it so that all parties who spoke those languages and understood the contract would understand the other--and their descendants, and all those who took the Salvyakālah, would have the same ability, regardless of how far they deviated from their ancestral tongue. Naturally, with wars, rebellions, dialect changes, and the enormous mess that came with the incorporation of Zakujama into the Federation, this had to be tweaked a bit over a thousand years.
Today, there are dozens of "dialects" of Salvian from one end of the Peninsula to the other, and on their own they would be incomprehensible. Thanks to the two spells embedded in the Great Oath, however, all can understand one another--even if they don't understand why they understand.

A Note on Reconstruction
There are five hundred and thirty-seven ancient Conches available for study in Salvi, a far cry from the thousands that were created over the years to transmit information to the common folk. Of these, the vast majority are in Classical Salvian. Using these (as well as rote memorization) the Salvians have been able to reconstruct, as best as possible, the phonetics and phonotactics of Classical Salvian.

Phoneme Inventory
Consonants:
Unaspirated Stops and Affricates: /p b t d ʈ ɖ t͡ʃ d͡ʒ k g/ p b t d ṭ ḍ ç j k g
Aspirated Stops and Affricates: /ph bh th dh ʈh ɖh t͡ʃh d͡ʒh kh gh/ ph bh th dh ṭh ḍh çh jh kh gh
Fricatives: /s ʂ ʃ ç-ʝ h-ɦ/ s ṣ ś y h
Nasals: /m n ɳ ɲ ŋ/ m n ṇ ñ ng
Liquids: /l r ɽ/ l r ṛ
Glides: /ʋ j/ v y

A note: y is /j/ in every situation except when preceded or followed by a front vowel (i, ī, e, ai), in which case it becomes /ç/, or /ʝ/ if it occupies an intervocalic position.
A further note: the phonohistorians have done their best to come up with a phonetic transcription of various words; the hieroglyphs themselves give no aid in this task. The nusyātrakvai “spoken symbols,” first recorded in the year Eleven Copper Turtle, are the culmination of this process, given patronage and popularity by the Vishrudi Temple-City. More on this later.

Vowels:
Vowels are first represented phonetically, and then as they are normally transcribed
ə (a) a (‘a,ā) ɪ (i) i (‘i, ī) ʊ (u) u (‘u, ū) ɛ (e) e (‘e, ai) ɔ (o) o (‘o, au)

In the earliest stages of the language, the distinction was one of length: a and ā represented short and long versions of the same vowel. The vowel shift above seems to have occurred around 1,200 years ago; aside from the recordings, we also have remarks made by various scribes about the “dulling” of the language, and the differences between colloquial speech and poetic form. This appears to have been a change in style that grew more popular over time.

Phonotactics

Minimal syllable structure is V; maximum syllable structure is CCVVCC. The most common type of syllable is CV.

Words are allowed to end in a vowel, a nasal, a liquid, some fricatives (the s-line in particular), and unvoiced unaspirated stops.

Clusters are limited to two consonants, the exception being a consonant folllowed by a liquid and a glide, or by two glides.

Stress

A syllable is “long” if it contains a long vowel (ā, e, ī, o, ū) or a diphthong (ai, au), or if it is followed by two consonants.

In two-syllable words, stress is always on the penult, regardless of syllable length.

In three-syllable words, stress is on the penult if long, antipenult if the penult is short.

In words with four syllables or more, stress is on the penult, antipenult, or third syllable from the last if the preceding syllables are short.

Sandhi
There will be a separate post on sandhi, but for now let it be said that the modes in which Classical Salvian may be written give some merit to the recording of various vernaculars——including the Classical tongue, which otherwise would not be indecipherable but would be incomprehensible. Let us suggest that there are three main types of sandhi found in Classical Salvian:

Consonant Sandhi. This is applied to all word-final consonants in the language, and occurs in combination with another consonant, a vowel, or the end of a sentence.

Internal Consonant Sandhi. This is purely derivational in nature; the infixes and suffixes inherited from Proto-Salvian are modified to fit the consonants that surround them——and on occasion, they alter the consonants as well.

Vowel Sandhi. The same matter applied to the consonants, but in this case to vowels. The vowels altered are word- or morpheme-final, and are altered by connection to vowels at the beginning of a word. This applies to portmanteaus as well, although the results are slightly different.

evmdbm · Post by **evmdbm** » Mon Feb 11, 2019 5:51 am

The second, the Hapālausun, linked the languages of the Five--representing what would become the prestige dialects of the five regions of the Salvian Peninsula--together and made it so that all parties who spoke those languages and understood the contract would understand the other--and their descendants, and all those who took the Salvyakālah, would have the same ability, regardless of how far they deviated from their ancestral tongue. Naturally, with wars, rebellions, dialect changes, and the enormous mess that came with the incorporation of Zakujama into the Federation, this had to be tweaked a bit over a thousand years.
Today, there are dozens of "dialects" of Salvian from one end of the Peninsula to the other, and on their own they would be incomprehensible. Thanks to the two spells embedded in the Great Oath, however, all can understand one another--even if they don't understand why they understand.

This has me thinking - if magic means all these mutually unintelligible languages are, well, actually mutually intelligible does this have an effect of how language develops? I suppose if I came in from outside Salvi I might have to learn dozens of languages but as far as the Salvians are concerned this is effectively one language; presumably what they hear is the other guy talking in their dialect (as opposed to his) and they could be entirely unconscious of there being different variants.

mèþru · Post by **mèþru** » Mon Feb 11, 2019 7:08 am

I think if a spell makes the different varieties mutually intelligible, then there is no reason for why each individual can't speak their own personal language tailored to what each individual finds easiest to pronounce; there is no reason to succumb to peer pressure regarding pronunciation from a young age because everything is understandable anyway.

Pedant · Post by **Pedant** » Mon Feb 11, 2019 8:48 pm

mèþru wrote: ↑Mon Feb 11, 2019 7:08 am I think if a spell makes the different varieties mutually intelligible, then there is no reason for why each individual can't speak their own personal language tailored to what each individual finds easiest to pronounce; there is no reason to succumb to peer pressure regarding pronunciation from a young age because everything is understandable anyway.

On the contrary, there’s more reason than you’d think. The words can be understood, but it’s not a direct translation. There’s that added bit of inflection when the way you say something to someone——in a rustic dialect, or an urban drawl, or a Classical rendition with flawless grammar——conveys as much meaning as the words themselves. And because of the way the spell is structured, this works all the way across Salvi. And better yet, it only works for phrases which are themselves standardized——generally directly from Classical Salvian. Local aphorisms, neighbourhood slang, the lot of it? Not translated directly. Try to converse in rural Québec when you’ve learned French from UN resolutions...

evmdbm wrote: ↑Mon Feb 11, 2019 5:51 am This has me thinking - if magic means all these mutually unintelligible languages are, well, actually mutually intelligible does this have an effect of how language develops? I suppose if I came in from outside Salvi I might have to learn dozens of languages but as far as the Salvians are concerned this is effectively one language; presumably what they hear is the other guy talking in their dialect (as opposed to his) and they could be entirely unconscious of there being different variants.

Oh, no worries there. As said above, they’re perfectly aware of what the others sound like. Visaurans, for instance, sound very strange to someone from Kankaar. Even without the changes in phonology (and there have been a few), the roundabout phrasing of things borrowed from the local Kwehnu languages means that, while someone can understand what they mean, they also get the backlash of having to translate things in their heads. And of course, children still try to mimic the language of their peers, and there are elocution classes to try and teach proper sandhi, so that’s all fun.
The dialects largely develop as, well, they would develop without a translation aid. If anything, they can go further, because the only thing that’s stopping them from doing so is peer pressure to speak in a higher register.
And yes, that could be a problem for foreigners. Which is largely why it’s rare to find someone travelling across Salvi proper from another culture, and why people rarely learn any language but the Classical, which someone is bound to speak if only for formality reasons...

evmdbm · Post by **evmdbm** » Tue Feb 12, 2019 6:04 am

The persistence of the Ujasmalas in developing new complexes beyond the reach of Salvi (something up to that point considered risky if not blasphemous) is part of what led to its war with the burgeoning Kingdom of Anosha, which objected very strongly to the establishment of trade with the "witches of the west". This in turn led to its alliance with Salvi proper (for the first time in several centuries) and the Treasure Wars of a ninety-eight years previously, leading to the establishment of Visauru as a joint trading colony of Salvi and Zakujama, with a new dialect--Visauruan Salvian--developing from sustained contact with the natives.

The other thing I wondered - Anosha is the zombies (yes?). They get to control the dead, but the Ujasmalas get to change their physical form - possibly I've misunderstood what you were saying about rimwards subtypes there, but it doesn't really matter. What is interesting given these wars is the use that magic such as that ability to control the dead has. Zombies should always win because everyone who dies can be brought back to life and flung into battle against the living?

Pedant · Post by **Pedant** » Tue Feb 12, 2019 11:39 am

evmdbm wrote: ↑Tue Feb 12, 2019 6:04 am
The persistence of the Ujasmalas in developing new complexes beyond the reach of Salvi (something up to that point considered risky if not blasphemous) is part of what led to its war with the burgeoning Kingdom of Anosha, which objected very strongly to the establishment of trade with the "witches of the west". This in turn led to its alliance with Salvi proper (for the first time in several centuries) and the Treasure Wars of a ninety-eight years previously, leading to the establishment of Visauru as a joint trading colony of Salvi and Zakujama, with a new dialect--Visauruan Salvian--developing from sustained contact with the natives.
The other thing I wondered - Anosha is the zombies (yes?). They get to control the dead, but the Ujasmalas get to change their physical form - possibly I've misunderstood what you were saying about rimwards subtypes there, but it doesn't really matter. What is interesting given these wars is the use that magic such as that ability to control the dead has. Zombies should always win because everyone who dies can be brought back to life and flung into battle against the living?

It’s a little trickier than that...the Ujasmalas don’t really shapeshift at all. Whatever collective spells there were in the past, they gave over to specific priests of different gods, who incorporated their use into the worship of different gods. Worship a certain god, you get certain spells for your convenience——and because it’s run by the sort of priests who don’t really fancy getting too involved in the world (why would you, when there are pleasure spells to be summoned by sufficient prayer?), they tend to have more limited secular use. But holy warriors are still a thing...and there are some combinations which can be quite deadly.
The war against Anosha was largely one of priest against priest——or more accurately priest against witch doctor. Not all Zombies can, well, train zombies; most of the populace is content with limited abilities in that area, either becoming zombies themselves or sustaining their family members who’ve been brought back. The actual “resurrection” process, on the other hand, tends to be somewhat long and convoluted. One can bring back the dead short-term, of course, and that’s through extending your personality through corpses. But the process is tricky to learn, and rather draining, and your zombies won’t retain the Gifts they had in life.
Perhaps the best example of why these two don’t mix was the Battle of the Omiri Delta, the eventual site of the colony of Visauru. The Salvians in their caleuches had the better start to the battle, but the Anoshans quickly gained the upper hand (all those dead bodies in the water...). After several hours and the loss of dozens of ships, the Salvians were able to finally win the day——something of a Pyrrhic victory——by means of the Burning Thread, a spell that destroyed the magic along the connection from the zombies and their masters. The shock did them in (it’s not called the Burning Thread for nothing), and the plague of undead was left to rot in the water (something of a contentious issue between the Peninsulars and their Native underlings to this day).

Pedant · Post by **Pedant** » Sun Mar 31, 2019 5:20 pm

A little late, but...

The Attikih (Long Count)
The world of Ajjamah is not Earth, by any means. Its day is 26 Earth hours long. It orbits one star, known locally as Suran, which is locked in a binary orbit with another star, Kasar. Its year is 210 local days (about 227 Terran days), with a leap year every three years--actually it's a little more complicated than that, but that's for later. (This also means a corresponding increase in necessary age for things; a human isn't considered an adult until the age of twenty-five, which would be sixteen in Earth years, and they don't stop growing until they're forty. The Eternals have been known to live for over 500 years, which sounds a lot more impressive than 312.) It has a single moon, Tanā, but said moon is much larger than Luna--with correspondingly higher tides, sometimes over 2 metres, an important part of a number of ecosystems. Kasar completes its binary orbit around Suran roughly every thirty-six and a half local years; there are times in the cycle where during the day people have two shadows, and other times where the night sky is bright enough to read by.
The Salvian Attikih or "Essence of Counting" has been around for 3,764 years at this point, and unlike most calendars of Ajjamah is only based around the movement of one star, Suran. Every 220 years (137 Terran years), it was assumed that there would be a complete renewal of the population--that nobody who had been around for the first cycle (ovāpah) would live to see the second. (This was with even the best of healing spells.) So for every year for 220 years, there would be a different name--and if people were referring to something relatively recent, then it would be obvious when it was. It also served as a handy bit divination tool, as the animals and qualities all had spiritual significance.
The cycle is divided into eleven "animals" and twenty "qualities."

Animals: Deer, Chupacabra, Weldibeast (a relative of the elephant), Salamander, Monkey, Jaguar, Serpent, Rabbit, Turtle, Bat, Phoenix
Qualities: Bright, Intelligent, Obsidian, White, Swift, Wise, Golden, Green, Deadly, Harmonious, Silver, Black, Musical, Serious, Copper, Red, Free, Honourable, Stone, Blue

As of the time my work is based in, there have been 17 cycles since the beginning of the Long Count. The current year is Gimbikodāsā or 16 White Chupacabra, 24 years into the new cycle.

Prehistory
The civilization from which the Salvians were derived, the Akkemās or "Empaths," lived from around 15,000 to 5,000 years ago in what is now the northern portion of Arrinih, on the high veldt close to the coast. The Empaths are held to be the founders of all four of the major civilizations of eastern Pelia: the Salvian Sorcerers, the Quiramic Telepaths, the Finders, and the Keepers. They are also presumed to share with these four groups some basic racial characteristics, namely brown hair (presumed to have been straight, as only Salvian hair is curly), green eyes, and olive skin.
It was during this time period that most of the major technological advances the Salvians would have for the next few millennia came to fruition: obsidian weapons, the domestication of the chupacabra (a creature resembling a hound-like cat with a long muzzle and a whiplike tail) and deer, and the cultivation of maize, squash, and beans. Weaving and knitting were also practiced; the remains of tools, including ancient needles and spindles, can be found in the Canyon Caves. Finally, it is almost certain that the majority of the most ancient pantheons of the four peoples--deities like Saurir the sun god, Ākāri the hunting god, Khudaullī the goddess of the harvest, and so on--date back to this time; at the very least, the modern deities seem to have absorbed prayers and powers from the spirits of those times. Those memories extracted suggest that the Empaths may have been ruled by "big men," the most important hunters and warriors, while the shamans who contacted the gods were of a separate proto-class.
The Empaths, it is said in the Ohupī or Song of Travels, underwent a schism some 6,000 years ago, perhaps due to a change in the magical climate around them, or to a change in the physical climate. According to the Ohupī, the split occurred because of a natural distortion in the magical abilities of the shamans from the four groups, equivalent to the Gifts of today (spirit-world observation, human telepathy, instantaneous location determination, and spirit-world storage of various objects). Whatever the reason may have been, the four tribes had been separate from one another for some time, much like the Endurers on the other side of the Central Sea. The Keepers took to the south the earliest, heading along the mountain range and maintaining reasonable distance from one another until they reached the Spice Islands around 3,000 years ago. The Telepaths left Arrinih fairly soon afterwards; the first records of any Quiramic civilization on the plains is 5,000 years ago, and their own histories start around this time as well. As for the Finders and Sorcerers, there seems to have been a massive migration to the south (and to warmer pastures) a mere 5,000 years ago; for a time the Finders and Sorcerers were one and the same.

Pedant · Post by **Pedant** » Tue May 21, 2019 8:32 pm

This was annoying to write, not because there's anything particularly frustrating in it, but because halfway through I clicked on another page and deleted everything. Ah, well...anyway, an overview of the Omiri River Delta, the location where my story actually takes place, and a note or two on Salvian nominal declension.

The Omiri River Delta

The Omiri River Delta, with major settlements noted

Geography and History
The Omiri or Ohmeeri River (from Coastal Kwehnu Ómirị "water poured forth") is among the top five longest rivers in the world. It starts in the highlands of the High Plateau, the largest mountain range in the world (larger and higher than the Himalayas of today), and travels slowly but surely down the west side of the continent of Akwa, bringing life-giving water and nutritious silt to the Ochu Desert (Coastal Kwehnu ọ́chu "dry place"), which is the third-largest desert on the planet (behind the Swooper and Shadow Deserts--and possibly behind the remains of the Quiramic Empire as well, if they don't get those demons sorted out). Finally reaches the sea around the equator--and the tropical saltwater mixing with silt-heavy freshwater creates an environment more alive than anything to the south for hundreds if not thousands of kilometres. Truly a melting pot of an ecosystem, plants from Salvi, from the Acúraçõ Jungle just over the mountains, from the Spice Islands and Jhagjama, and even a few unusual native ones (like the exploding cactus) all share the rich mangrove forests and swampy islands of the delta.
Naturally, a fair few humans have come this way as well. The first inhabitants of the river delta are unknown; they're mentioned briefly in the records of the Wild Men (possibly the first human civilization on Ajjamah) and the Changers (originally from up in the highlands, but they conquered downriver around 4,000 years ago just for the heck of it) as having some minor ability to camouflage themselves in the undergrowth, but apparently never developed much in the way of technology. Around 2,500 years before the present day, the area was firmly taken by a group called the Vinunõshã; also known as the Reincarnators, their Gift was for their Speaking Soul to be retained after death and move from person to person, granting powers along the way. Perhaps because their Gift was rather similar to that of the Sorcerers of Salvi, or perhaps because of the distance between the Salvian Peninsula and the Omiri Delta (not very far, but far enough to make communication difficult without modern spells), there was much trade during the Classical Period. Indeed, the Salvians are believed to have been the inspiration for the Anukombana, elf-like creatures who come from the sea and play tricks on mere mortals, and are still referred to by this title today.
Around 800 years ago, however, a zombie apocalypse happened. Well, okay, it was very localized--a new race called the Kwehnu, aided by armies of the dead, came forth from the desert and conquered the Changer and Reincarnator states, and established their own empire, which they called Anosha (Coastal Kwehnu Aanọ́sa) after the Reincarnator name for the river. The local chiefs sent out for help from whoever they were in contact with--in this case the Salvians, as well the Crusaders from Hercua down south--but to no avail. Salvi was trying to fend off invaders from the Quiramic Empire, and Hercua was collapsing into a civil war that would eventually lead to the rise of Guandunianism and the Sects-in-Union. Indeed, it took six hundred and fifty years before anyone made a move--the Salvians because they were being frustrated by ghost pirates, and the Hercuans because they were trying to conquer the world so that everyone would have a chance on the day of Resurrection, and undead armies tend to be kind of a bad sign when you're not quite finished the job yet. They were joined by Berserkers from far-off Wenglau, who wanted a convenient point to trade with the west and preferred not to have to deal with the chewed-up remains of one-time clients. It took several decades and a combined army, but in the end the three managed to claim the Delta from the witch-lord who'd set up shop there. Each empire claimed a portion of the territory as their own, although they haven't gotten around to fully settling the whole scoop yet, and vowed to save the Kwehnu--now known as the Survivors instead of the Zombies, in the vain, somewhat PC hope that distancing the people from their deceased relatives would erase centuries of slavery--from themselves.
The colonies themselves are ruled by three different governors, and in theory are independent. In practice, there's free passage from one colony to the other if you hail from Salvi, Hercua, or Wenglau, it's as easy to claim to follow one legal tradition as any of them. (The Kwehnu and Vinunosha are responsible for keeping their own law.) There are certain no-nos, of course--don't argue religion with a Hercuan, don't expect the Salvians to understand your problems with breaking the laws of physics, don't ever mention the words "income tax" to a Wenglanese--but for the most part everyone seems to get along just fine. This despite the fact that the cities are claimed by three different countries, all of whom want the whole thing to themselves. And then there's the zombie army building itself again upstream...

Quarters of the Colony
The colonies are present for two purposes, one humanitarian (rebuilding a country after the reign of the undead) and one somewhat more pragmatic. The latter changes depending on the motherland, and is intimately tied in with their method of "saving" the Survivors.
Visauru, the Salvian colony, is a place of new beginnings for people from the overcrowded lands of Salvi proper--and also a place for those whose magic is less than stellar, most notably refugees from the Telepath Empire. In exchange for land to settle on, and food to eat, the Sorcerers provide the Kwehnu and Vinunosha with amulets to enhance their quality of life--water purification spells, for example, or nazars to ward off (evil) spirits. (Astras? Not a chance, no non-Salvian is getting their hands on the magical equivalent of atomic bombs.) Their efforts are thus mainly focused on nearby communities, with whom they establish contracts (of the Salvian type, which leaks into your brain and compels you to be honest).
Guarino, run by the Dorian Church from Hercua, is as always dedicated to spreading the gospel and increasing God's power and influence--as well as that of their own church. The priests in the city make long treks into the wilderness at times, building churches where people can take refuge from the undead. (Any discrepancies about how Kwehnu society is purported to work and how it actually works are mostly ignored; how the heck could people live safely with zombies anyway?) They, too, receive food--and also conscripts, who are sent south to fight in other parts of the Dorian Church's mini-empire, in Hercua or on the High Plateau or across the sea near Malehi or even in other Crusader Colonies in Akwa. In return, converts are made citizens of the empire--second-class, sure, but with the system the way it is at the moment they should be fully accepted by the second generation to be born Guandunians, right?
Won Zan, settled by the Wenglanese country Changui, has no interest in settlement, and could care less what the natives believe. Their primary focus is on maintaining a trading colony that reaches the Central Ocean, and thus the nations of Salvi and Hercua (among others). They keep their depot on the eastern bank, not on islands that can be closed down during a zombie attack. Not that it matters; a Berserker in full battle-mode is more than capable of disposing of a zombie, no matter the strength of the undead. Traders travel upstream to the villages to seek out gold, diamonds, and exotic animals. Mercenaries, too--the Wenglanese have a long tradition of fighting for pay, and it doesn't stop just because your customer has skin as black as midnight and might come back to eat your brains some day. The Wenglanese trade--and in exchange, they provide luxury goods for the Kwehnu and Vinunosha, such as psychedelic drugs from their tropical rainforests, or clock-punk contraptions that are easily repaired but require trademarked parts.
The fourth settlement, Ibongedu or Eebongedoo (from Coastal Kwehnu íbọ ngọ ẹdú, appropriately enough also meaning "sun-land"), is where most of the remaining Kwehnu and Vinunosha dwell on the delta. There is little rhyme or reason to this poorest of quarters; like the favelas in Brazil, the poorer folks live up on the hills, while the wealthy live closer to the shore--and to protection by the Three Cities of the Delta. Most modern Survivors and Reincarnators live in constant fear of attacks by the undead; they bury their own dead out at sea, where the newly awakened will be less than accustomed to the new environment and probably will be swept along in the current. (They cannot bring themselves to burn the bodies, even after a hundred years.) Also note that, while more susceptible to becoming zombies, the natives are for some reason less likely to be attacked by zombies. The colonists can't take a hint, it seems.

Salvian Noun Classes and Nominal Declension
Classical Salvian nouns are inflected for case, number, and class. There are seven cases--nominative, accusative, genitive, instrumental, ablative, illative, and allative. Nouns can be singular, partitive, or plural. The twelve classes of nouns--divided into animate/inanimate/ethereal/miscellaneous and masculine/feminine/neuter--provide, with a few exceptions, a fairly standardized method of derivation (unfortunately lost in a lot of the daughter languages).

The nominative case is used for the subject of sentences and for the predicates of certain copulas, and is derived from the Proto-Empath absolutive (it is still used this way in the Quiramic languages, but not in Ankoseiwas).
The accusative, derived from the indirect object case in Proto-Empath, is used for the direct object of a sentence and occurs after some prepositions.
The genitive is largely used as a possessive marker, but occasionally serves double-time in its original position as the ergative case.
The locatives are specialized cases derived from the older instrumental case in Proto-Empath, and all can be used with prepositions.
The instrumental is used to indicate the means by which the subject acts, and is used in temporal constructions to indicate passing time.
The ablative denotes motion away, be that phsyical, temporal, or emotional (in poetry the ablative is used occasionally as a negative, and this function is preserved in the languages of Ḍalsah).
The illative, similar to a locative, indicates where something is at this very instant. It is used temporally as well, for specific moments (in contrast with the broader time suggested by the instrumental), and for emotional states (in the same way that English speakers might talk of being "in denial" but extended to other emotions as well).
The illative rounds off the trio of locative cases, referring to motion towards something.

There are also two varieties of compound form. The first is used in concatenation of words, for purposes of poetry or derivation, and is immediately followed by a noun or a verb. The second is used solely in derivation, and extends the root of the word (again from the original Proto-Empath compound form) for a further suffix to be added. The latter is rare but still present; for example, the Classical Salvian word for the Sorcerers as a collective, Salvī, is derived from salun 'magical symbol'--for which the compound form is salvi--and adds an feminine suffix to it, shifting its case from feminine inanimate to feminine miscellaneous and applying the class 'specific location'.

Masculine Nouns

More: show

Feminine Nouns

More: show

Neuter Nouns

More: show

* * *

You made it to the bottom! Hooray! So, what do you think?

Pedant · Post by **Pedant** » Tue Jul 02, 2019 11:16 pm

DERIVATIONAL MORPHOLOGY: THE VERB

Classical Salvian isn't quite a triconsonantal language, but shares a number of features. For one, it has a large number of affixes which may be attached to the word, causing radically different formations to occur and usually leading to the construction of one or more types of noun. (Note that in its daughter languages most of these changes have been lost.)

Using the basic root GMuR "to read" as an example, we have eleven standard examples of mixing and matching:

The true basic, gumur(u)-, used for simple verbs (for example gumuruntār "I'm reading").
The pretensive basic, gumgur(u)-, used for pretending to perform certain actions (for example gungursāu "You just pretend to read").
The intensive basic, umgur(u)-, used for times where the action is definitely occurring (for example ungurunitrāu "She will definitely read it").
The augmentative basic, ōmgur(u)-, used for magnifying the end result rather than focusing on the performance (onguruṇḍār "We may read an awful lot").
The vocational basic, vimgur(u)-, used for demonstrating that this action happens habitually enough to be considered part of the noun it's describing (vinguruttāi "she's reading, naturally [and almost certainly a scholar]").
The diminutive basic, vumgur(u)-, used for minimizing the end result (vungurunkār "I've only read a little bit up to now").¹
The basic essive, gumōr(u)-, rarely used except with alternative forms but in theory topicalizing the verb (gumōri "it's being read, that's what's happening to it").
The basic causative, gumāur(u)-, switching the absolutive to an ergative and the ergative to a causative (gumāurtatāi "He's making me read").
The basic effective, gumvir(u)-, switches the focus somewhat; where in true basic verbs the person or thing is the object of an action, in basic effective verbs the action comes into focus (gumvirtāi "[the book] has people reading it").
The basic applied, gumūr(u)-, focuses on the cause and the patient without actually having an agent per se (gumūrivār "We (and not you) decree that this [book] is to be read").

¹An alternative form is ūngur(u)-.

This...is perhaps a little opaque for the first-time user. To ease things up, let's look at a comparative chart of Old Salvian, again using the root GMuR:

GMuR "to read"	Basic	Essive	Causative	Effective	Applied
Basic	C(C)V(C)C *gmur- "to read, be read"	C(C)aV(C)C *gmōr- "to be being read"	C(C)āV(C)C *gmāur- "to be made to read"	C(C)Vi(C)C *gumvir- "to have someone reading oneself"	C(C)Vu(C)C *gumūr- "to cause something to be read"
Pretensive	C₁V-C(C)V(C)C gumgur- "to pretend to read"	C₁V-C(C)aV(C)C gumgōr- "to pretend to be being read"	C₁V-C(C)āV(C)C gumgāur- "to pretend to make someone read"	C₁V-C(C)Vi(C)C gungvir- "to pretend to have people reading oneself"	C₁V-C(C)Vu(C)C gumgūr- "to pretend to cause something to be read"
Intensive	V-C(C)V(C)C umgur- "to definitely read, to read intensively"	V-C(C)aV(C)C umgōr- "to be read intensively"	V-C(C)āV(C)C umgāur- "to work painstakingly to cause someone to read"	V-C(C)Vi(C)C ungvir- "to make an intensive effort to be read"	V-C(C)Vu(C)C umgūr- "to work painstakingly to make something be read"
Augmentative	aV-C(C)V(C)C ōmgur- "to read a lot"	aV-C(C)aV(C)C ōmgōr- "to be a lot to read"	aV-C(C)āV(C)C ōmgāur- "to frequently make someone read, make someone read a lot"	aV-C(C)Vi(C)C ōngvir- "to be read an awful lot"	aV-C(C)Vu(C)C ōmgūr- "to frequently make something be read"
Vocational	Vi-C(C)V(C)C vimgur- "to read as a natural course of action, read for a living"	Vi-C(C)aV(C)C vimgōr- "to be read as a natural course of action (for someone else)"	Vi-C(C)āV(C)C vimgāur- "to make people read for one's own living"	Vi-C(C)Vi(C)C vingvir- "to be read as a natural course of action (for oneself)"	Vi-C(C)Vu(C)C vimgūr- "to make things be read for one's own living"
Diminutive	Vu-C(C)V(C)C vumgur-/ūmgur-² "to read only a little"	Vi-C(C)aV(C)C vumgōr-/ūmgōr- "to be not very much to read"	Vi-C(C)āV(C)C vumgāur-/ūmgāur- "to infrequently make someone read, make someone read not very much"	Vi-C(C)Vi(C)C vungvir-/ūngvir- "to not be read very much"	Vi-C(C)Vu(C)C vumgūr-/ūmgūr- "to occasionally cause something to be read"

²It seems both variants are permitted in the various dialects of Classical Salvian, although the daughter dialects take one or the other as their base form.

There are a few interesting variants of note for noun construction:

The vocational essive and vocational causative are most often used in place names, for example Visāuruh "place where the sun is made to shine" or Eggāntan "it's always on fire, that place".
The augmentative applied and diminutive applied are used for machines and tools or instruments respectively, for example ōghōṭū or õgḍhū "column" and āghōṭū "crane".
Words derived from the pretensive effective often have something to do with seeking out or attempts, for example huhvirkih "the Sought Breath (a cult secret of the hunting-god Akaari)".

Vocabulary
GhaṬ "to hold up"
GDan "to burn"
GMuR "to read"
HuRK "to breathe"
MaR "caiman"
MDaR "enormous caiman, caiman spirit"
SuR "Suran (the largest sun), to shine"

Pedant · Post by **Pedant** » Sat Sep 21, 2019 4:20 pm

Moving on from verbal derivational morphology, we might try looking at VERBAL MORPHOLOGY instead:

Classical Salvian is the descendant of a a strictly ergative-absolutize language, Proto-Empath, which by this point has probably disowned it for all the damage Classical Salvian did to a perfectly good nominal system. Nouns, adjectives, and pronouns in Classical Salvian stride the gap between nominative-accusative and ergative-absolutive forms. Verbs in Classical Salvian, however, are considerably more regular, if as bound to internal sandhi as the rest of the language, and all follow an ergative-absolutive pattern (with polypersonal agreement).

Tense-Mood Suffixes
Like its ancestor, Classical Salvian is fusional, combining tense and aspect into a single suffixed consonant after the verb. Going back to our old standby, GMuR, and specifically its true basic form, we can see the forms laid out below (the -al and -lar/-alara suffix represents the third person abstract, marked as 3x on the lower chart; it serves as a kind of infinitive):

GMuR- "to read"	Realis	Irrealis	Volitive
Aorist	-Ø- Gumural/Gumurlar "something is read/someone reads"	-ḍ- Gumurḍal/Gumurḍalar(a) "something may be read/someone may read"	-h- Gumughal/Gumughalar(a) "let something be read/let someone read"
Imperfective	-t- Gumurṭal/Gumurṭalar(a) "something is being read/someone is reading"	-b- Gumurbal/Gumurbalar(a) "something may be being read/someone may be reading"	-s- Gumursal/Gumursalar(a) "let something be being read/let someone be reading"
Perfective	-k- Gumurkal/Gumurkalar(a) "something has been read/someone has read"	-j- Gumurjal/Gumurjalar(a) "something may have been read/someone may have read"	-r- Gumurral/Gumurralar(a) "let something have been read/let someone have read"
Future	-n- Gumurṇal/Gumurṇalar(a) "something will be read/someone will read"

A note or two on the tense-mood combinations:

The aorist represents the simple form of the verb, an action which may take place in the past or present depending on context.
The imperfective is used for continuing actions, sometimes cyclical or habitual as well as progressive.
The perfective is used for completed actions, often those which have a bearing on the present.
The future is, well, a bit of an odd-one-out, a later addition to the cases sometime after Proto-Empath. The Salvian grammarians don't mind; they like the symbolism of an all-encompassing present beneath an all-powerful future, with different actions worming their way through into the past. It puts them, in short, very much in mind of the Mazes that Salvians carve to access spells.
Classical Salvian, as a general rule, uses factual epistemic modality. The realis is used for events that absolutely occurred, no matter what--as well as for assumptive and abilitive statements. The irrealis covers speculative and deductive sentences, as well as presuppositions. The volitive serves for, well, volitives, but also has jussive, obligative, conditional, commissive, permissive, uses, as well as serving as a polite imperative.
The imperative itself is very simply the verb root, on its own, for example Gumur! "Read!"--note the lack of 3x suffix.

Person-Mood-Number Suffixes
For this let us take the perfective irrealis true base form of GMuR, which is gumurj-.

GMuR- "to read"	Absolutive	Ergative
1s	-a(n) Gumurjan "I may have been read"	-(n)ar, -anara Gumurjanar(a) "I may have read"
2s	-u(s) Gumurjuh "Thou may'st have been read"	-sāu, -asaya Gumurjas(a)y(a) "Thou may'st have read"
3s	-i(t) Gumurjit "He/she/it may have been read"	-(t)āi, -ataya Gumurjat(a)y(a) "He/she/it may have read"
4s	-ur Gumurjur "The other person/thing may have been read"	-rāu, -arava- Gumurjar(a)v(a) "The other person/thing may have read"
3x	-al Gumurjal "Someone/something may have been read"	-(l)ar, -alara Gumurjalar(a) "Someone/something may have read"
1pe	-ō(h) Gumurjōh "We (but not you) may have been read"	-var, -avara Gumurjav(a)r(a) "We (but not you) may have read"
1pi	-am Gumurjam "We (including you) may have been read"	-mar, -amara Gumurjamar(a) "We (including you) may have read"
2p	-ul Gumurjul "You all may have been read"	-lāu, -alava Gumurjal(a)v(a) "You all may have read"
3p	-ir Gumurjir "They may have been read"	-rāi, -araya Gumurjar(a)y(a) "They may have read"

The deletable vowels are mainly used for purposes of sandhi, in poetry and prose alike. One may remove either one (if there is more than one), but not both.
A quick note or two:

Verbs can also take the reflexive prefix su-, plus the appropriate absolutive or ergative suffix (depending on the verb in question).
There is no gender associated with the bare pronouns in Classical Salvian; this is not the case with some of her sister languages, whose descendants maintain pronouns with masculine, feminine, and neuter genders applied to all. (Remarkably, this includes first person pronouns--and groups of roughly equal male and female percentages are given the neuter pronouns to use for their collective.)
The 3s and 4s refer to the proximate and obviative third person respectively; the former might, for example, refer to a noun in the absolutive or nominative case, while the latter might refer to a noun in the ergative or accusative case.
The 3x pronoun is the indefinite pronoun, used when the referent is not present or recognizable at this time.
The 1px and 1pi stand for the first person plural exclusive (a group including the speaker but not the listener) and inclusive (a group including the speaker and the listener) respectively.
Syntactically, then, how does one determine when to use the obviative instead of the proximate? This may be a matter of context, continuing on from the previous sentence. Just as important, however, is ranking within the table of nouns--and within context. Animates outrank inanimates, inanimates outrank ethereals, ethereals outrank animates, and everyone outranks the miscellaneous. Neuter outranks masculine, masculine outranks feminine, feminine outranks neuter. Reversals, of course, may come about, due to a) prominence in the sentence, b) prominence in general (in the sentence "the old woman hugged the young man" the old woman would take the proximate and the young man the obviative due to the woman's age and thus superior standing--and this remains the same in later sentences, so for example in "and he hugged her back" the young man would take an ergative role but still maintains the obviative role), or c) context ("She hugged him!" and "Yes, he was hugged by her!" are both perfectly reasonable translations of the same event, after all).

Below is a table with all possible combinations, with ergative running along the rows and absolutive running down the columns:

	1sA	2s	3s	4s	3x	1pe	1pi	2p	3p
1sE		-unar	-inar	-urnar	-alnar	-ōnar	-amnar	-ulnar	-irnar
2s	-asāu		-isāu	-ursāu	-alsāu	-ōsāu	-ansāu	-ulsāu	-irsāu
3s	-atāi	-ustāi		-urtāi	-altāi	-ōtāi	-antāi	-ultāi	-irtāi
4s	-arāu	-urāu	-itrāu		-aldrāu	-ōrāu	-abrāu	-uldrāu	-irrāu
3x	-alar	-ular	-itlar	-ullar		-ōlar	-ablar	-ullar	-irlar
1px	-avār	-usvar	-itvar	-urvar	-alvar		-amvar	-ulvar	-irvar
1pi	-amar	-usmar	-itmar	-urmar	-almar	-ōmar		-ulmar	-irmar
2p	-alāu	-ulāu	-itlāu	-urlāu	-allāu	-ōlāu	-ablāu		-irlāu
3p	-arāi	-urāi	-itrāi	-urrāi	-aldrāi	-ōrāi	-abrāi	-uldrāi

evmdbm · Post by **evmdbm** » Tue Sep 24, 2019 5:04 pm

Two questions. First is there a reason why in the first table you have labelled the moods realis and irrealis and aspect imperfective/perfective etc, but in the second we are using the perfect subjunctive base? Is it not perfective irrealis?

And you're going to have to explain the comparison table, because I can't see what we're comparing. Is agreement polypersonal or am I just being a bit thick?

Pedant · Post by **Pedant** » Wed Sep 25, 2019 7:12 am

evmdbm wrote: ↑Tue Sep 24, 2019 5:04 pm Two questions. First is there a reason why in the first table you have labelled the moods realis and irrealis and aspect imperfective/perfective etc, but in the second we are using the perfect subjunctive base? Is it not perfective irrealis?

And you're going to have to explain the comparison table, because I can't see what we're comparing. Is agreement polypersonal or am I just being a bit thick?

Actually the answer to these is perfectly simple: my brain's not working at full capacity at the moment and I'm making more mistakes than I'd like to on just about everything. Thanks for pointing these out, though; now I can go back and correct them properly.
(And you're quite right; agreement is polypersonal.)

Noun Class	Cases	Singular	Partitive	Plural
Masculine Animate Compound Forms: -ō/a-,-ō- Male sapients, birds, fish, fire/light, small reptiles	Nominative Accusative Genitive Instrumental Ablative Illative Allative	-a(r) -am -āu -ōk -ōt -ōn -ōr	-as -amu -asi -ak -ati -ana -aru	-os -āum -āul -āuk -āut -āun -āur
Masculine Inanimate Compound Forms: -u-,-ū- Long/tall/thin objects, flat objects, roots, chordophones, some grains, grasses, vines, animal-based materials	Nominative Accusative Genitive Instrumental Ablative Illative Allative	-ū -ūm -ūl -ūk -vus -vu -vur	-ū -ūm -ūli -vuk -vut -vun -vur	-uva -uvam -uvas -vōk -vōs -vāu -vōr
Masculine Ethereal Compound Forms: -i-,-iyu- Male deities, plans, coming-of-age festivals, patron gods, invocations, features	Nominative Accusative Genitive Instrumental Ablative Illative Allative	-ir -im -āi -yuk -yut -yu -yur	-yus -yum -yul -yuk -yut -yu -yur	-yō -yōm -yōs -yōk -yōt -yō -yōru
Masculine Miscellaneous Compound Forms: -u-,-u- Temples/shrines, spells, verb results, periods of time, shapes, male names, specific objects, male animals	Nominative Accusative Genitive Instrumental Ablative Illative Allative	-Vr -um -āu -uk -ut -un -ur	-va -vi -vu -uk -ut -un -ur	-vas -vis -vus -vuk -ōs -ō -ōr

Noun Class	Cases	Singular	Partitive	Plural
Feminine Animate Compound Suffix: -ē-/i-,-ē- Females sapients/animals, fluids, insects, snakes, shelled vertebrates	Nominative Accusative Genitive Instrumental Ablative Illative Allative	-an -am -āi -ēk -ēt -ēn -ēr	-as -amu -asi -ak -ati -ana -aru	-ēs -āim -āil -āik -āit -āin -āir
Feminine Inanimate Compound Suffix: -ō/u-,-vi- Short/squat items, round items, fruits, aerophones, bushes, symbols, condiments, plant-based materials	Nominative Accusative Genitive Instrumental Ablative Illative Allative	-u(n) -um -āu -vik -vit -vi -vir	-vis -vim -vil -vik -vit -vi -vir	-vāi -vēm -vēs -vēk -vēt -vē -vēr
Feminine Ethereal Compound Forms: -i-,-ī- Female deities, conversations, life festivals, patron goddesses, prayers, constructions	Nominative Accusative Genitive Instrumental Ablative Illative Allative	-ī -īm -īl -īk -yis -yi -yir	-ī -īm -īli -yik -yit -yin -yir	-iya -iyam -iyas -yēk -yēs -yāi -yēr
Feminine Miscellaneous Compound Forms: -e/i-,-i- Locations (specific), verbal nouns, gardens, water sources, charms, female names, concepts	Nominative Accusative Genitive Instrumental Ablative Illative Allative	-Vn -im -āi -ik -it -in -ir	-ya -yi -yu -ik -it -in -ir	-yas -yis -yus -yik -ēs -ē -ēr

Noun Class	Cases	Singular	Partitive	Plural
Neuter Animate Compound Forms: -a-,-ā- Children, saints, neutrals, winds, beasts, family names	Nominative Accusative Genitive Instrumental Ablative Illative Allative	-ā -ām -āl -āk -āt -ā -ār	-ā -ām -āli -āk -āt -ā -ār	-ās -āis -āus -āk -āt -ā -ār
Neuter Inanimate Compound Forms: -u-,-va- Soil, meat, collected items, idiophones, membranophones, trees, drawings, mineral- based materials	Nominative Accusative Genitive Instrumental Ablative Illative Allative	-us -um -vā -vak -vat -va -var	-vas -vam -val -vak -vat -va -var	-vā -vām -vas -vāk -vāt -vā -vār
Neuter Ethereal Compound Forms: -ya/i-,-iya- Spirits, boundary deities, death festivals, personal deities, sacrifices, speech acts, family names	Nominative Accusative Genitive Instrumental Ablative Illative Allative	-is -im -yā -yak -yat -ya -yar	-yas -yam -yal -yak -yat -ya -yar	-yā -yām -yās -yāk -yāt -yā -yār
Neuter Miscellaneous Compound: -a-,-a- Locations (general), buildings, marks/markings, rituals/events, types of magic, collective nouns, family names	Nominative Accusative Genitive Instrumental Ablative Illative Allative	-Vs -am -ā -ak -at -an -ar	-ā -āi -āu -ak -at -an -ar	-ās -āis -āus -āk -āt -ā -ār

Zompist Bboard Again

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Salvian Thread: Hieroglyphs

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Re: Salvian Thread: Family and Phonology

Re: Salvian Thread: Family and Phonology

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Re: Salvian Thread: Derivational Morphology (The Verb)

Re: Salvian Thread: Morphology (The Verb)

Re: Salvian Thread: Morphology (The Verb)

Re: Salvian Thread: Morphology (The Verb)