Danæam

Not Non-Rules

1 · Orthography & script

  • Letters in use: á â ä ë ê é ï î í ü ú û ł æ œ ô ö ó ý ŷ ÿ; rare þ; V also writes the down-trill.
  • Nouns are capitalised. A noun losing nounhood loses its capital (Mêdhe → mêdhië); nested capitals normally drop inside a word. af-/fel- compounds may retain one (afŁamis).
  • i meeting i across a morpheme boundary writes ï: niïl ‹ ni + il; nirïë ‹ niri + -ië.
  • Quotation marks: >– –< at the top layer, »– –« below it. English quotation marks occur inside the imperative self-quote. •, spaced on both sides, combines exclamation mark and colon in imperatives, optatives, and topic markers.
  • ∆ is the up-trill; V the down-trill. They may carry vocative energy, affect, spatial direction, or prose emphasis; ∆ may replace the closing • in the first-person topic form. They run beside the spoken segments until sentence-end or the next •. Humans cannot join them. af-/fel- are their dictionary up/down prefixes.
  • A hyphen joins compounds without mutation. An apostrophe marks a tmesis seam and its toll (Ro'math-oo'seoir'b'il). Whole-clause clitics may hang from a dash: or'raif'il—'t.

2 · Mutations

  • Lenition follows scér, e “of”, niïl, and other environments: Cain→Chain, Bailc→Bailch, Gusci→Ghusci. Eclipsis follows scén.
  • Pronouns and possessives resist mutation (e mao Fía). Names after e and bare numerals stand unmutated.
  • thúil “no longer” is its own citation form, not a lenited *túil.

3 · Articles, determiners, definiteness

  • niïl = a/an; lus = the. Article, demonstrative, and possessive compete for one slot. In existentials a possessive may fill the article office: Mis Scale mith gæn “there is a car”.
  • Definiteness appears as a proper name, lus, or enclitic 'ya; indefiniteness need not be marked.
  • Definite series: Atruens'ya “the incident” · ios Atruens “that incident” · sís Atruens “this incident” · sícías Atruensê “these incidents” · iocías Atruensê “those incidents” · Atruensê'ya “the incidents”. Demonstratives precede the noun; neutral 'ya follows it.
  • Proper names take no article. du may absorb an article, but nothing beyond it.

4 · Pronouns & reflexives

  • ten I · mæ you · fæ she/he/they · í it · mith we (existential donor; “it”) · miths us · teo me · tes my · mao your · fær his/her · mis our · cías their/them · ír its. All stand bare and uncapitalised.
  • Ceremonial force-pronouns sit outside the fæ system: Ton/Tonu, “he—the creative force”; þin/þis, “she—the anticreative force”.
  • sê is reflexive and logophoric. Naked sê is first-person “myself” or generic “the-self”; third person uses a compound: sê-fær, sê-cías, miths-sê, í-sê. It may also supply emphasis.
  • cías-sê means “alone” with a singular antecedent and “each other” with a plural one. The all-alone construction uses mé; wil'ya reassures.
  • Text-deixis has near/far × back/along/plain forms. The along forms are cataphoric: sísaoya “nearer along”, iosaoya “farther along; the yet-to-be-said”.
  • Nonspecific forms include uain't-aoa “someone” and uaothë “some”. Subjects may be omitted where be agrees; a dropped copula reads first person. Referential and generic readings are otherwise unmarked.

5 · The verb “to be”

  • The grid splits by number and by the presence of cleft-ios. With ios, and in y-marked subordinates, use atá / atáea (plural atás / atáes). Thus thé takes bhie, while ythénÿ, yiosnÿ, and yScéan take atá.
  • Elsewhere: bhie(s) present · eibh(s) past · más(as) first person · iëao(s) future. is is also attested beside bhies; aobh occurs in the optative.
  • bhies serves ordinary plural, polite plural, and courtesy-singular.
  • Base order is OSV; first person is SOV. Ten ærmuch más “I am tired”; colloquial Más-ten ærmuch “I'm tired”. Tmetic fragment-sentences may omit the copula: Stá'fæ'tach.
  • Complements precede the subject outside first person: Oob lus Math lus Seoir bhie “under the mat the key is”. In first person: Subject + Complement + be.
  • Or…il and Ro…il turn an adjective into a degree-complement: Or'lain'il “not beautiful enough”; Ro'lain'il “too beautiful”; or'raif'il—'t gives the litotic extreme.
  • Formal progressive: Ten dús Fith-Fith más “I am eating”. The lowered Fith-fith: ten fith is colloquial and first-person. Participles precede be in first person and follow it elsewhere in the attested forms.

6 · Existential gæn

  • Existence is phrased as donation: í [NP] gæn, “it gives NP”, means “there is NP”. í is the dummy donor.
  • Possessive existentials use mis/mao as article-like possessives and mith as giver: Mis Seoir oob mis Math mith gæn.
  • When something is genuinely ours in a we-give sentence, one first-person mark defers to second person: either giver mith becomes mæ or article mis becomes mao. Bleached existential mis does not trigger this.
  • Chained clauses assert identity: …gæn aich sin …gæn, “is also a”.
  • plain gæn is unbounded; gænyin marks temporary tenure; gilæn eternal regiving. mith gæn is inalienable, í gæn alienated. The family takes ordinary tense: gænea, ïegæn't.
  • Named possession may tag from behind (Kettlina-mine); unnamed possession stands before the noun.
  • Other attested frames: æœá Frælithi'ya í gænyin “there are no children”; Raíwíl-heatth mith gæn “it is 2997”; gæn mé X Craimh “X is hungry”.

7 · Negation, polarity & comparison

  • Answer words: aobha “no” · bháya “yes” · Syá “maybe”. More commonly the verb echoes with a polarity clitic.
  • Clitics: 'ya positive/emphatic · 't negative after a consonant · 'thte negative after a vowel · 'ma contrary. Leading scé'ya expects yes; scé'thte expects no. A clitic may survive an elided host: Œr 'thte?
  • Clitics dock on the focused constituent: duíra'ya, Eg'ya, Eg't. aoa negates a constituent; 't stamps the clause. Double negation attenuates rather than cancels.
  • Negation crosses the tense system: atáea'thte “wasn't”; gilæn't “never gave”; ïegæn't “will not give”. át “did” answers for any verb: Ten ios át / Ios mæ át.
  • æœá negates an NP; æœá-e means “without”: Ten æœá-e Fía más. Negative quantities include niuain · aoa uain · æouain · ssíns.
  • Comparative -mÿa takes iy “than”: Holdhmÿa iy tens “taller than me”. Attributively, the head noun may enter the standard by tmesis: Niïl holdhmÿa Fæ'hín-iy'ær. Comparative clauses may retain only the standard NP.
  • mÿel / niyel form superlatives. sin…sy forms equatives and extends to noun function: Ten sy Cthug sin lus Acusthia lynœa “I used the stick as a club”.
  • Polarity also marks emphasis: bháya'ya; fith'ya bha; fith't o 't o 't. A conjunct may glow alone (X'ya o Y); negative emphatic stamps are 'tya / 'thteya.

8 · Questions

  • Questions are segmentally marked; intonation alone never makes one. scér marks past questions and lenites; scén marks non-past and eclipses.
  • The retro-repeater (r.r.) repeats the final verb earlier in the sentence. Greater displacement gives greater urgency; at the extreme the copy enters another word. It is question-only.
  • Cleft-ios may appear in questions but is not their marker. It is obligatory with thas and disappears in echoes. Demonstrative ios is separate and uses ordinary bhie.
  • All questioned elements front; none remain in situ. th-words follow the particle, except that a first-person subject may precede them.
  • thurn is inherently interrogative: sís thurn “here”, ios thurn “there”. them frames “how many”; thénu is oblique “whom” and thénu mé “whose”; ythemnÿ is reported “how”.
  • Echo questions use gla-…-as; glés- introduces a one-word echo: Glascér … laías? / Glésthas? Informally, the repeated verb may enter the wh-word. Echoes omit ios.
  • Answers echo the verb plus 'ya, 't/'thte, or 'ma; bháya, aobha, Syá, and pro-verb át also answer.
  • In subordinates, y-…nÿ marks the th-element in the first clause containing one (yiosnÿ, yésnÿ); bare y- marks later th-containing clauses (yüs, yés). • and scér/scén belong to roots.

9 · Imperatives & optatives

  • The full imperative presents compliance as already underway: Air • “S'aige'in” dúirá film, “Turn left.” Air opens the form; • presents it; S'aige'in is the self-quotation.
  • Fragments drop the quotation and reduce Air to Ai'. Persons may enter the command and lose their onset: Ai'æ'lith. Bare Ai'[verb] is normally second-person plural.
  • Urgency increases with compression; gravity or anger with ceremonious expansion. The more formally complete the imperative, the more trouble the listener is in.
  • 'ya urges; 't/'thte prohibits: Ai'lith't. Ai'ith'rubh'ya is 1pl hortative “let's touch”; Air'ith'rubh't is 1pl prohibitive.
  • O • frames an optative. Mee turns it imperative and monitory: O • Mee aoa mhís e Wíc linchs. Its person-forms include Me'æ'e and Me'en'e.

10 · Tmesis

  • When one word enters another, every seam takes an apostrophe and the guest may pay an onset toll.
  • Hard onsets b c d g j k p q t w x drop. Soft onsets remain; in clusters, hard members drop and soft ones survive. Pronouns pay regardless: mæ→'æ, mith→'ith.
  • Identical sibilants merge across a seam: S'aige'in ‹ Sin + saige. Sin wraps verbs into “as-X-ed” forms; attested shells include S'—'in, S'—'n, si'—'n, s'aige'n.
  • Attested uses include r.r.s inside wh-words or ordinary words, nouns inside adjectives, verbs inside Sin, and pronouns inside imperatives. Adjectives may nest repeatedly; adverbs do not.
  • True fusion writes solid (Syá, ythús, iostá); tmesis writes its seams. Solid complex prepositions include wythil, duílín, drúræao, and dúiri.
  • In a concentric stack, the leftmost modifier is the outermost shell. Tmesis itself is optional. The wrapper bears the grammar while the core bears meaning.
  • Attested large forms include ro'gænstílgæn'il · Dé'ahor'cruí'sáillaí'ch'ía'er · aufGao'samsca'laíê · Gi'regéar'gýa · stil'ten'át. Names, clade-names, years, reduplicated cores, and cries may all enter: Oob'aufGaolaí'sígænea; Or'ghínhe-îæth'ai; Dú'greibach-greibach-e's; Ai'æ'titlop -luai-.

11 · Coordination & ellipsis

  • o and · œr or · ax but/but-especially · æxó and/or · aoæx either-or-neither · aoœr neither-nor. O opens a list as a menu and combines only with o, œr, or ax.
  • Coordination is category-blind. A conjunct may reach back to whichever layer of the preceding phrase coheres; a repeated be may be omitted.
  • Inside phrases, identity permits a gap or stand-in uain. Fragments and orphaned clitics are allowed (Œr 'thte), but iy cannot govern an absent standard.

12 · Emphasis

  • Loudness and melody carry no grammatical meaning. Emphasis uses clefts, polarity clitics, and repetition—not movement alone.
  • Constituents cleft; polarity takes the clitic kit; verbs repeat: Fær mæ łathn! Łathn! “You're killing them! Killing!”
  • The atá family preserves a cleft; iostá explicitly closes one.
  • NP-internal emphasis uses a resumptive í: NP first, í reflecting it, ordinary be last. Persons resume with fæ. The whole NP travels.
  • Dislocation itself is not emphatic: movement leaves no stranded theme; true dislocation requires a resumptive.

13 · Topic

  • Topic devices: S'air'n · O • o e X • · Efui • · postposed s'efui-e'in. Bare Sin X is the simplest form. The shifter reads approximately “May what follows concern X”.
  • Markers may stack. No bare movement makes a topic.
  • First-person form: O X ∆, with the trill replacing the closing •: O Scóhn ∆ ten mac.
  • Marked topics may sit at clause seams, initially or parenthetically, but not inside a phrase or after final be. A tail becomes a new pointing clause.
  • Contrastive topics may fold by tmesis and take 'ya. Adjectives and adverbials do not topicalise directly; verbs enter through a gerund.
  • Topics may recur and multiply. In subordinates, the first topic is plain; deeper topics take bare y-. Coordinate islands block topic movement.

14 · Noun phrases & relations

  • e marks genitive and quality in either order: Hín e Gree “a man of humour”; lus Gree e lus Hín “the man's humour”. Quality also derives with -ach: Stát→Státach.
  • Quantity uses Q e N: Niïl Scál e thíthíl Tonnaê “a boat of a thousand tons”; Niïl Lund e Shar “a pound of sugar”.
  • Material takes by, not e: Tïc by Úrsapê “a house of bricks”. by also marks means and process.
  • Manner has three attested forms: by Elin ghuethnea · El'huethnea'in · elinië ghuethnea.
  • Cause appears as origin e, donation gæn, receipt dræao + ghiæan, or destination duín + tug: Ærmuchaí e Síulnê; fær Síulnê fær Ærmuchaí gænea; fæ Ærmuchaí fær Síulnê dræao ghiæanea; Yth fær Síulnê fæ duín Ærmuchaí tugea eibh.
  • Function stretches sin…sy to nouns: Ten sy Cthug sin lus Acusthia lynœa. Reference/about uses e: Ten fær e Atruens'ya saíea.
  • Essive “as” uses possessed mé and an -r state noun: tes-mé Maghr. Translative “made/appointed as” uses postposed fær-dúe plus an -r state noun: Mith fær-dúe Xæxr ghiæanea.
  • Partitives use Q e N with 'ya inside: ssai e Frælithi'ya. lus does not appear there.
  • Benefactive and purpose take dúe; recipient takes duîm: Ten dúe Piell í átea / Ten duîm Piell í gæn. dúe also marks infinitive subjects and “for/out of”: Byræao Stár dúe Ruth.
  • Price takes dúe; value takes e; distance and duration are bare measure NPs; extent is N e measure; “ago” is duáo + measure.
  • Circumstance “with X” uses a relative with postposed mé-e and atá. Its negative may use aoa atá, atá'thte, or thé + æœá-e + bhie.
  • Core relational words: mé with · e of · by through/via · dræao from/agent · yth past/over · Oob under · In at (time) · duín in/into · dús toward-the · dúïl toward-a · u-/du- toward · duáf upward · ufel downward · dúy through · uÿth over · aoíth before · aoyth like · wythil despite · duílín within · drúræao since/after · dúiri until/unto · duáo ago.
  • Attributive adjectives may precede the noun or fold around it; pronoun compounds place the adjective last (sê-fær).
  • Vocatives take ∆/V. Familiar kin possessives include rhié-færs and sídia-teos; epithets may imitate the form (státachaí-færs “His Idiocy”).
  • The infinitive uses u- on the verb (usót “to go”); its subject takes dúe. Nonrestrictive relatives use ythés / ythésnÿ. Heavy material moves into a fresh Aich-clause or a relative rather than rightward shift.

15 · Voice, aspect & mood

  • Passive: participle + eibh, with patient as subject. An agent is a dræao-source: Dræao lus Ufín Ooraithr fæ ghiæanea. Indirect objects do not passivise.
  • ghiæan is both causative and become-copula. Becoming and appointment use fær-dúe + an -r state noun with ghiæan or oothíth.
  • Aspect: bare perfective · dús X-X progressive · gnomic habitual · ghiæan ingressive · tenure iterative · stíl- perfect · thuíl terminative. stil “still” contrasts with thúil “no longer”.
  • Syá marks potential/contingent mood; Mee is monitory; aich sin consecutive.
  • The ceremonial eternal past/future uses Gil, force-pronouns Ton and þin, and a linking =-chain. Hth'—'om is “Wo…[that which exists]…rld”.

16 · Derivation & morphology

  • -ea marks done participle/past: Brísea, scéalerea, pliguea, gænea, farmea. ië- marks future. 't/'thte attach across tenses.
  • Reduplication X-X names the act: Fith-Fith, Farm-farm, Brís-brís, Glaoh-Glaoh, Crith-crith, Sclíeclu-Sclíeclu. Articles and genitives treat the result as a noun. Reflexives survive nominalisation: Eë'shrai-shrai's sê-fær.
  • -ach quality · -aí abstraction · -ië adverb · -r state/unit “being” · -æn verb · -iya one-who/that-which · -os possessive · -eith ordinal · -ê plural · -as echo. Frælithi is an irregular plural.
  • af-/fel- mark up/down orientation and affect. Degree circumfixes Or…il / Ro…il and comparative -mÿa derive adjectives from adjectives.
  • Adverbs may modify adverbs through degree syntax: Ten í or'mordachië'il—'t craithië fithea.

17 · Numerals & dating

  • Year names are base 60 (230) with two hyphenated places: A-B = A×60 + B. The first element capitalises, the second stands bare. Each place uses one of thirty stems; an odd form is bare and its even partner normally takes gh-.
  • Examples of pairs: Slár 9 / Ghslár 10 · Ül 17 / Ghül 18 · Sfeith 21 / Ghsfeith 20 · Îæth 27 / Ghîæth 28 · Ínhe 43 / Ghínhe 44 · Raíwil 49 / Ghraíwil 50 · Heatth 57 / Gheatth 58.
  • Canon dates: Ghínhe-îæth 2667 I.T. · Raíwíl-sfeith 2961 · Raíwíl-ínhe 2983 · Raíwíl-heatth 2997 · Ghslár-ghül 618. One Sgiesaetthum is 120 years.
  • -eith makes ordinals. Possessive years use Or'…'ai: Mis Or'ghínhe-îæth'ai. AD years use digit pairs rather than base 60: Uain-éx o slár-cliffýa = 1695. Dates exist through gæn.

18 · Phonology & pronunciation

  • No fixed stress, length, tone, or grammatical intonation. ∆/V run alongside the segments. -as shows local vowel harmony; no consonant harmony or general phonotactic restrictions are recorded beyond tmesis seams and tolls.
  • Letter values: t=d · th=t · d=soft th · þ=hard th · é/á=ay · ú=ooh · e/ê=eh · u=ah · a=uh · gh=hissed sth · sc=sh · tsc=sk · sch=ch · ch=h (finally or after á: k) · h=glottal stop · sh=hiss · æ=ee-eh · œ=euh · î=eye · â=a in bat · ó=owe · o=o in dot · f/bh/mh=v · ff=f · rh=hr · nh/gn=n · z=soft s · s=hard s · w=u or w · ui=wih · ao=ow · œw=aw · ý/í=ee · ÿ/ï=ee-eh.
  • Pronunciation keys: Rhié “Hrjaiy” · Férás “Fay-raiss” · ufsae “Oofschye” · færs “fierce” · aoyth “ow-eeɦ” · dræao “Dree-ow” · lus “loose” · Ufín “Oofeenn” · Ooraithr “Oo*raiɦ-rr” · fæ “fee” · ghiæanea “sthɦih-ee-ah-neh-eh”.

19 · ios

  • ios is obligatory wherever thas stands: “ios is the eternal companion of thas, not thas of ios”. Elsewhere it follows use. Echoes remove it even from thas.