The Language of Ellendrí

Ellendrí is an extant form of Old Ellendorí. Ellendrí has been used as the trade language of the Ll’Ellendrÿn for over 8000 Terran years, and as a result, has been introduced to a number of the colonized worlds in the Ll’Ellendrÿn. The last contact between colonists on Terra and people who spoke Ellendrí was approximately 3000 Terran years ago, or roughly 1000 BC in Terran chronology. It shares commonalities with many of Terran’s ancient Indo-European languages, particularly proto-celtic, with some word similarities to proto-germanic.

Ellendrí was created with the assistance of the Vulgar Language Generator (www.vulgarlang.com), based on an assortment of words already in existence from my writings. The Ellendrí script is a modified form of Tolkien’s Tengwar.

Phonology

Phoneme inventory

Consonants

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Dental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Velar	Labio-velar	Glottal
Nasal	m			n		ŋ
Stop	p b			t d		k g
Fricative		f v	θ ð	s		x		h
Approximant							ʍ w
Trill				r	r̥
Lateral fricative				ɬ
Lateral approximant				l

Consonant inventory: b k x d ð f v g h dʒ l ɬ ll m mm n ŋk ŋ nn p q ff r r̥ rr s ss t θ v w ʍ

Vowels

	Front	Near-front	Central	Back
High	iː y			u uː
Near-high		ɪ
High-mid		e eː		o oː
Low-mid		ɛː
Low			a aː

Vowel inventory: a aˑ aː e eː ɛː ɪ iˑ iː o oˑ oː u uˑ uː Y y aɪ eɪ uɪ au ae oe

Diphthongs: ae, au, aɪ, eɪ, oe, uɪ

Phonotactics

Stress pattern: Initial — stress is on the first syllable

Word initial consonants: b, d, dr, dʒ, f, fl, ff, g, gl, gr, h, k, kw, l, ll, m, mb, mm, n, nw, nn, p, r, r̥, rr, s, sb, sf, sh, sn, st, ss, t, v, w, x, ð, ŋ, ŋr, ŋw, ŋk, ɬ, ʍ, θ, θr

Mid-word consonants: b, bl, d, dr, dʒ, f, ff, fl, ff, g, gg, gm, h, k, kn, kp, ks, kt, l, lk, ll, m, mp, mm, n, nd, nf, nh, nn, ns, nv, nn, p, pl, pp, pt, pw, r, rk, rm, rw, rx, r̥, rr, s, ss, t, tg, tk, ts, tw, v, w, x, ð, ŋ, ŋg, ŋh, ŋk, θ

Word final consonants: b, d, dʒ, f, ff, g, k, kn, kt, l, lb, lf, lk, ll, m, mp, mm, n, nd, nt, nn, p, pt, r, rb, rk, rs, rt, rv, rx, r̥, rr, s, st, ss, t, tl, v, vd, vl, w, wp, wt, wŋ, x, ð, ŋ, ŋg, ŋk, ŋn, ŋk, ɬ, θ

Orthography

Spelling of IPA symbols

IPA symbol	Roman symbol	Ellendrí symbol
ŋk	nc	ͷ
ŋ_	n_	ŋ_
_ŋ	_n	_ŋ
ŋ	ng	ŋ
f_	v_	v_
fn	vn	vn
ɪa	ja	ja
ɪe	je	je
ɪɛ	jë	jê
ɪo	jo	jo
ɪu	ju	ju
ae	ae	ae
aɪ	ai	ai
au	au	au
eɪ	ei	ei
ll	ll	ƚ
_mm	_m	_ɱ
mm	mm	ɱ
_nn	_n	_ɲ
nn	nn	ɲ
oe	oe	œ
ff	ph	φ
_rr	_r	_ɍ
rr	rr	ɍ
_ss	_s	_ş
ss	ss	ş
uɪ	ui	υ
a	a	a
aˑ	á	á
aː	ä	ä
b	b	b
k	c	c
x	ch	x
d	d	d
ð	dh	ð
e	e	e
eː	é	é
ɛː	ë	ë
f	f	f
g	g	g
h	h	h
ɪ	i	i
iˑ	í	í
iː	ï	ï
dʒ	j	j
l	l	l
ɬ	lh	ɬ
m	m	m
n	n	n
o	o	o
oˑ	ó	ó
oː	ö	ö
p	p	p
q	q	q
r	r	r
r̥	rh	ṛ
s	s	s
t	t	t
θ	th	θ
u	u	u
uˑ	ú	ú
uː	ü	ü
v	v	v
w	w	w
ʍ	wh	ʍ
Y	y	y
y	ÿ	ÿ
ʔ	'	'

Ellendri capitalization

Lower case	Upper case
æ	Æ
ɐ	Ɐ
ʉ	Ʉ
x	X
ð	Ð
ə	Ə
ɬ	Ɬ
ƚ	Ƚ
ɱ	Ɱ
ŋ	Ŋ
ɲ	Ɲ
ͷ	Ͷ
œ	Œ
φ	Φ
ṛ	Ṛ
ɍ	Ɍ
ş	Ş
υ	Υ
θ	Θ
ʍ	ʌ
a	A
á	Á
ä	Ä
b	B
c	C
d	D
e	E
é	É
ë	Ë
f	F
g	G
h	H
i	I
í	Í
ï	Ï
j	J
l	L
m	M
n	N
o	O
ó	Ó
ö	Ö
p	P
q	Q
r	R
s	S
t	T
u	U
ú	Ú
ü	Ü
v	V
w	W
y	Y
ÿ	Ÿ

Grammar

Word order

Main word order for Ellendrí: Verb-Subject-Object-Oblique.

Note: An oblique phrase is a noun phrase or adpositional phrase (prepositional or postpositional) that functions as an adverbial modifier (or “adjunct”) of the verb

Example:

Opened Mary the door with a key.

(Mary opened the door with a key.)

… and stood he holding hat his and turned face his wet to the wind …

(… and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind …)

Adjective order: Adjectives are positioned after the noun.

Adpositions: prepositions.

Explanation: Adpositions express spatial or temporal relations (in, under, towards, before) or mark various semantic roles (of, for). Adpositions consist of three types - prepositions, postpositions, and circumpositions:

· Prepositions are placed before the element they govern: e.g., “on the ground”, “without any help".

· Postpositions are placed after the element they govern: e.g., “his claims notwithstanding”, “the whole night through”.

· Circumpositions consist of two parts: one placed before the element they govern, and one placed after it: e.g., “from now on”.

Noun morphology

Nouns are classified based on their position in a sentence. In Ellendrí, the four noun morphological classifications are nominative, accusative, dative, and genitive.

Examples of noun morphological positions:

The boy loves the book

The boy loves the girl’s book

The boy gave the book to the girl

Noun morphology is indicated by prefixes to the noun. Letters in parentheses are present before consonants and replaced by an apostrophe (‘) before vowels.

	Singular	Plural
Nominative (subject)	none	r(e)-
Accusative (direct object)	d(e)-	d(ä)-
Dative (indirect object)	ÿ-	ÿ-
Genitive (possessive)	sn(a)-	ö-

Note: Plurals are optional for non-human nouns.

Articles

Ellendrí has no indefinite article (e.g., “a” in English).

Uses of the definite article (e.g., “the” in English) differ from English:

• Used to talk about countable nouns in general

• The definite article is used before all nouns, including pluralalized nouns and personal names in the third person.

Example: “I like cats” in English would translate to “I like the cats”.

Example: One would say “The Maria has left for school”.

	Definite article (“the”)
	Nominative (subject)	Accusative (direct object)	Dative (indirect object)	Genitive (possessive)
Singular	re	ed	ad	ed
Plural	y	á	y	a

Possessive Pronouns and Determiners

	Pronouns and Determiners
	Nominative (subject)	Accusative (direct object)	Dative (indirect object)	Genitive (possessive)
1st person singular	a	av	a a	ïr a	I/me/to me/mine, my
2nd person singular	ö	ö	a ö	ïr ö	you/you/to you/your, yours
3rd person singular	ra	ra	a ra	ïr ra	he, she, it, ey/him, her, it, em/to him, to her, to it, to em/hers, his, its, eirs
1st person plural	e	erv	a e	ïr e	we/us/to us/ours, our
2nd person plural	aɪ	aɪ	a aɪ	ïr aɪ	you/you/to you/your, yours
3rd person plural	ŋos	ŋïs	a ŋos	ïr ŋos	they/them/to them/theirs, their

As Ellendrïans are hermaphroditic, there are no specific masculine or feminine pronouns and determiners in Ellendrí.

Verb Conjugation

Perfect tenses for verbs are indicated by suffixes to the verb. Letters in parentheses are present after consonants and absent after vowels.

	Perfective tense of verb (e.g., to run)
	Past	Present	Future
	(e.g., ran)	(e.g., run)	(e.g., will run)
1^st person singular (e.g., I)	-(e)r	-(a)r	-(a)w
2^nd person singular (e.g., you)	-(a)ss	-(a)ra	-(a)d
3^rd person singular (e.g., he, she, it, ey)	-(u)fï	-(e)cae	-(ï)re
1^st person plural (e.g., we)	-(a)	-(á)r	-ai^1
2^nd person plural (e.g., you)	-(á)buɪ	-(ü)d	-ÿ
3^rd person plural (e.g., they)	-(o)w	-(e)nn	-(e)

¹In the 1^st person plural tense, if a vowel precedes the suffix, the vowel is replaced by the suffix.

The perfect aspect of the verb (e.g., have studied) uses the particle rÿ before main verb.

Note: A particle is a function word that must be associated with another word or phrase to impart meaning. In English, this term includes the "adverbial particles" like up or out in verbal idioms (phrasal verbs) such as "look up" or "knock out"; it is also used to include the "infinitival particle" to, the "negative particle" not, the "imperative particles" do and let, and sometimes "pragmatic particles" like oh and well. Another example is the word "so" in the adverb "so far".

The progressive aspect of the verb (e.g., am studying) uses the word for “be” (u) before main verb.

The imperative of the verb (e.g., study! as a command) uses the same conjugation as 2^nd person present-tense.

Imperative	Singular	Plural
(e.g., Study! used as a command)	-(a)ra	-(ü)d

For verb negation, the prefix o- is added to the verb. Tense suffixes are added to the end of the root verb. Letters in parentheses are present after consonants and absent after vowels.

Note: A negative verb or negation verb is a type of auxiliary that is used to form the negative of a main verb. The main verb itself has no personal endings, while the negative verb takes the inflection.

Negation	Perfective tense of verb (e.g., to run as the root or main verb)
	Past	Present	Future
	(e.g., did not run)	(e.g., do not run)	(e.g., will not run)
1st person singular (e.g., I)	o- ... -(e)r	o- ... -(a)r	o- ... -(a)w
2nd person singular (e.g., you)	o- ... -(a)ss	o- ... -(a)ra	o- ... -(a)d
3rd person singular (e.g., he, she, it, ey)	o- ... -(u)fï	o- ... -(e)cae	o- ... -(ï)re
1st person plural (e.g., we)	o- ... -(a)	o- ... -(á)r	o- ... -ai^1
2nd person plural (e.g., you)	o- ... -(á)buɪ	o- ... -(ü)d	o- ... -ÿ
3rd person plural (e.g., they)	o- ... -(o)w	o- ... -(e)nn	o- ... -(e)

¹In the 1^st person plural tense, if a vowel precedes the suffix, the vowel is replaced by the suffix.

Derivational morphology

Various affixes (prefixes, suffixes) are used to derive different parts of speech from a known root word. Letters in parentheses are present after consonants and absent after vowels.

Noun → adjective (prefix)	alü- (before a consonant) áp- (before a vowel)
Noun → verb (prefix)	aï- (before a consonant) eix- (before a vowel)
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) (prefix)	í-
Diminutive (prefix)	e-
Augmentative (prefix)	nwÿ-
Male (suffix)	-(a)d
Female (suffix)	-(a)n
Male (prefix)	ui-
Female (suffix)	ó-
Verb → noun (prefix)	fö- (before a consonant) n- (before a vowel)
Verb → adjective (prefix)	ra- (before a consonant) r- (before a consonant)
One who Xs (e.g., paint → painter) (prefix)	e-
Adjective → noun (prefix)	whï- (before a consonant) wh- (before a consonant)
Adjective → adverb (prefix)	rÿ- (before a consonant) st- (before a vowel)

Other specific derivational prefixes are given below:

Adjective - extreme	rí-
Comparative adjective - most	ang-
Comparative adjective - more	aváng-
Adjective - quality of	rai-
Noun - belief in	nan-
Adjective - relating to	darö-
Adjective - relating to direction	dengo-
Adverb - relating to location	derma-
Noun - of or derived from	ö-
Adjective/noun - of or relating to	dara-
Adjective/noun - style of	sae-
Adjective - made of	aido-
Noun - place for	nÿr-
Noun - act or process of	mbá-
Adjective - able to be	aupa-
Noun - younger	sfo-
Noun - older	rafá-

Compound word formation is also possible by simple concatenation of root words.