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phonology + orthography

consonants: /p b t d k g m n ɲ ŋ f v s z ʃ ʒ x ɣ h~ɦ w l j r/

< p b t d k g m n ñ ń f v s z š ž x y h w l j r >

vowels: /a e i o u æ y ʊ ø/

< a e i o u ä ü ö ø >

all roots are nonconcatenative, meaning they are made of only consonants, and different vowels are infixed for grammatical reasons. when writing roots, < . > stands for a place where a vowel could be infixed; for example, ".r."

any consonant cluster of up to 2 consonants is allowed, except for repeated consonants.

grammar

ara's grammar is closely related to jobík's.

for starters, there are a few terms you need to know: (note that # here is a place for a number to go)

the number of consonants in a root is equal to the number of x#s in the root. each consonant has 1 infix on either side of it. the first infix of the word, the vowel starting the word, is always the verb number. although you're technically allowed to assign any number to the verb (as long as no other verb in the sentence has that number), it's typical to go in order; so, the first verb of the sentence is marked as 1, the second as 2, etc. every infix after the 1st is either an x# or an a#.

every x# and a# must be filled with the number of a c# or v#, or with the null vowel, ø. to do this, use the counting system below:

and so on, until you reach öö and need a triphthong/overlong vowel.

to change an x# to an a# or vise versa, simply add n#n- to the beginning of the word, with # matching the number of the infix being changed. for example, in "x1 tries to do a1," if you affixed "en-," it would become "x1 tries to do x1".

n#s work a little differently. you infix the highest digit (i.e. for "24" you infix 2, or "e") and then add additional words for multiplication, addition, and division. for example, .v.l. means n1 of a1 is multiplied by 10.

for an example of how these c#s work, here's a sentence:

"amše ega ifade nanowivi užyi"

let's break it down.

"amše" is the root .mš., meaning "x1 is a mouse." this verb is marked as v1 (amše) and x1 is marked as c2 (amše). this means that c2 is a mouse.

"ega" is the root .g., meaning "x1 is me." this verb is marked as v2 (ega), and x1 is marked as c1 (ega). this means that c1 is me.

"ifade" is the root .f.d., meaning "x1 sees x2." this verb is marked as v3 (ifade), x1 is marked as c1 (ifade), and x2 is marked as c2 (ifade). this means that c1 sees c2. as we've established, c1 is me and c2 is a mouse, meaning i see a mouse.

"nanowivi" is the root .w.v., meaning "x1 is on/in/at x2." this verb starts with "nan," meaning the first infix switches type, in this case from x1 to a1. now, the definition has changed to "a1 is on/in/at x1." it's marked as v4 (nanowivi), a1 is marked as v3 (nanowivi), and x1 is marked as c3 (nanowivi). so, this means that the seeing happened at whatever c3 is.

"užyi" is the root .žy., meaning "x1 is a basement." this verb is marked as v5 (užye), and x1 is marked as c3 (užye). this means that the seeing happened in the basement.

all in all, this translates to "i saw a mouse in the basement."