Lunde grammar | Alex Bahia

Phonology

Sounds

Seven vowel qualities, length marked with a macron, no diphthongs, no lexical tone, and stress you can predict.

Vowels

Letter	Sound	Long
a	/a/	ā /aː/
e	/ɛ/	ē /ɛː/
i	/i/	ī /iː/
o	/ɔ/	ō /ɔː/
u	/u/	ū /uː/
ä	/æ/	ǟ /æː/
à	/ɑ/

Length is distinctive and often marks the plural: gu- and gū-, -un and -ūn.
ä comes from a + e (xäğ, käi) and sits in some old roots (vär-, käm-, käb-). There is no ë.
Unstressed vowels keep their full quality; nothing reduces to /ə/.
No diphthongs: in a run of vowels, every vowel is pronounced, linked smoothly.

Consonants

Letter	Sound	Example
p b t d k m n f s z l h	as in IPA
c	/t͡s/	asoc
x	/x/	xasa
ł	/ɬ/	ała; one sound, the Welsh ll (once written xl)
xl	/x.l/	ixli (ix- + -li): two sounds, only where a root in x meets a suffix in l
hy	/xʲ/	kahyasa
g	/g/ /ɣ/ /k/	see below
ğ	/ɟ/	labeğ (once written gy)
j	/ʒ/	luj
y	/j/	kayà
ñ	/ɲ/	xayēñ
ng	/ŋ/	hekanga
v	/β/, /v/ after g	luvōs, gval
r, rr	/r/, /rː/	lir, irrasa

Spelling (Oct 18): ł = Welsh ll; xl across a word boundary is x + l (ixli); ğ replaces gy.

g is /g/ only at the start of a word before a vowel (ga); elsewhere /ɣ/, including gv-.
At the end of a word, g is /k/ (xog /xɔk/), d is /ð/ and b is /β/.
Doubled consonants are long. There is no /ʃ/.

Phonology

Stress

Every vowel is its own syllable. Then the first of these that applies places the main stress.

Case endings never count: stress is set on the word before they are added (īs-si-ū-ne).
The īmon ī- always takes the main stress (ī-la-bi).
Otherwise the last long vowel that is not in the final syllable (tēl-la-ve, fas-tū-os). A long vowel in the final syllable does not attract it (la-būn).
Otherwise the second-to-last syllable in words of up to three syllables, and the third-to-last in longer words.
Any other long vowel gets a secondary stress.

Morphophonology

Sound rules

When a stem and an ending meet, these rules decide the result. They run in a fixed order.

Vowel contact

What happens when the stem ends in a vowel and the ending starts with one. The grid is built from the engine, from the endings that really occur.

Glides

An i between two vowels becomes a glide: y after a or e, j after u (kayà, leyà, kamujà, lujor).
After y, i becomes e, in every ending (kahye, kahyer, kahyeà, kahyex, kahyeor).
An inserted y before -ēyn turns the ending's yn into ñ (xayēñ, leyēñ, kahyēñ).

Length rule

Two long vowels may not stand in neighboring syllables. The repairs:

u-stems and short stems use the v form: xa + uvōs → xavunōs.
e-stems insert h and shorten the second vowel: le + eān → lēhan.
The īmon ī- is exempt: īkō, īlūs, īxā stand as they are.
The pronoun forms daūne and daūłe stand as they are.

Dissimilation

The same consonant on both sides of one vowel: the second one changes.

A two-vowel sequence blocks it (veuves, xaix). s never dissimilates. ł is its own sound, so it never counts as an x; the x of a written xl (ixli) does. Dissimilation never changes a case ending (veve, keavave), but it does work inside verb forms and word-building suffixes (venuos).

Consonant rules

x → g between o or u and a following u: labugun, labogu. After a, x stays (laxu).
b → v before the exmon imperative g: lāvga.
Stems ending in two consonants (rr and hy count as two) put the person vowel before a suffix consonant in imperatives: īrraya, adruddu, ādruga.
Pronoun contraction: īssi + se → īsse, in case endings only.

Morphology

Verbs

A verb (vuos, plural vuosi) is built as root, then form, then tense, then person. Each verb has three forms, each with its own base.

Form	Base	Meaning	Example
samon	-asa	the event itself: direct, plain statement	kasa look, kamuasa be burning
namon	-ana	experienced from inside, not directed	kana see, kamuana burn with passion
exmon	-axa	directed outward, onto a target	kaxa show, fastuaxa make blind

Stem classes

Class	How the stem is found	Verbs
Consonant stem	base minus -asa	lab-, irr-, vär-, adr-, gist-, keav-, kahy-, en-
Short stem	one consonant sound becomes consonant + a	xa-, ka-, sa-, ta-, ła-
u-stem	the stem ends in u	lu-, eru-, fastu-, ju-, kamu-
e-stem	the stem ends in e	le-, ve-, ke-, ede-, tesse-, nile-

No o-stems or i-stems exist. Stems ending in r or l keep the person vowel in the namon past plural; stems ending in two consonants (rr and hy count as two) behave specially in imperatives.

Person and number

Person vowels run through the whole system: i = 1st, u = 2nd, a = 3rd.
Number markers: -s for 1p, -n for inanimate and the other plurals. A long vowel often marks the plural.
Persons: ki 1s, gū 2s, da 3s animate, ne 3s inanimate, īssi 1p, gūn 2p, dan 3p.

Endings

As they attach to a consonant stem. With vowel stems, the sound rules decide the result.

Imperatives

samon the stem with its last vowel made long, + -a, -un, -as, -ya. Two-consonant stems put a before -ya (īrraya). The last vowel is the last vowel letter: maīla.
namon the stem + a doubled consonant + -u, -un, -us, -e: dd after a vowel (xaddu), the final consonant doubled after a single consonant (labbu), the person vowel then dd after two consonants (adruddu).
exmon the stem with its last vowel made long, + g + -a, -un, -as, -e. b becomes v before g (lāvga); two-consonant stems put the person vowel before g (ādruga).
The four persons are 2s, 2p, 1p (let us) and 3 (let him, her, it). The īmon never combines with the imperative.

Īmon

The īmon (conditional, subjunctive) is a prefix on any finite form: ī- before a consonant, y- before a vowel. With the past it reads as would have. It is exempt from the length rule, and the i → e rule after y does not touch it.

Gerunds and the dictionary form

Each form has its own gerund ending: -ior (samon), -inve (namon), -anga (exmon). The dictionary form is the root + -evuos after a consonant, or the stem + -vuos after a vowel; dissimilation applies (keavenuos).

Every form of every verb is in the conjugator.

Nouns, pronouns, adjectives

Cases

Case marking is tripartite: the transitive subject (A), the intransitive subject (S) and the object (O) each have their own form. Unusually, A is the bare form, and S is marked with -m.

Ki labi guse. I love you: ki is bare (A), guse takes -se (O).
Kim eruj. I die: kim takes -m (S).

Endings

Each case is a case consonant + -e (singular), -i (plural animate) or -en (plural inanimate). After a consonant, a goes in first.

After a consonant, a is inserted before the ending: osilami, fasturam.
Plural transitive subject: -i and -en after a consonant (osili, zenen); after a vowel, y or n goes in first (neyi, nenen).
Comitative and abessive: the ū drops after u or ū (fastune, gūne, heneułe); a long last vowel adds v before the suffix. The engine reads "last" as word-final.
The exmon participle drops its o before any ending (fastuox → fastuxam); consonant stems keep it (laboxam). ney uses ne- before every ending.
Dissimilation never changes a case ending, and the word in front of it stays as it is: veve, keavave, fastuxūłe.
Stress never moves: case endings don't count (īs-si-ū-ne).

Personal pronouns

The pronouns take the noun endings on an oblique stem. The engine builds the whole table from the stems; four forms are exceptions the doc lists, marked with *.

The g of the 2s oblique forms is optional: (g)use. Plural pronouns lengthen the stem vowel: (g)u- and gū-, da- and dā-.
Negation puts the subject pronoun in the abessive, with no verb affix: Kiūłe labi guse (I don't love you).

Demonstratives and place words

Demonstratives are bare roots used as adjectives, set by distance and by what can be known: ney this, nal that, gval yonder, maū something unseen whose existence can't be verified.

maū declines the same way (maūm, maūse) and takes maūne, maūłe, like gū.

Articles

	Definite (the)	Indefinite (a, some)
Animate singular	i	iā
Inanimate singular	ci	ān
Plural (both)	ni	na

Articles and demonstratives join the next word with a dash: i-Rāmam (the sun), ni-Rāmami (the suns), na-zenen (some times).

Morphology

Adjectives

Adjectives are participles: each comes from a verb root, one per form, and declines exactly like a noun. The form decides whom the adjective describes.

Consonant stems add e, like e-stems: dabe, iluse; daber, iluser. This keeps u-stems distinct (fastu, fastur).
The active adjective uses the bare root: every u-stem drops its u (fastanga, janga, langa, eranga, kamanga); other stems keep their vowel. It may match the exmon gerund (labanga); that is accepted.
Not every verb needs all three participles.

Declension

Adjectives take the noun endings exactly, plurals included.

Quality roots

Some roots name a quality directly. In their bare form they work as adjectives and decline like nouns: ilus (beautiful) → ilusam, ilusase. That bare form is also the samon participle, since consonant stems take no e. Their -os noun is the essence of the quality.

	ilus- (beauty)	dab- (right)	ł- (bad)	deres- (sad)
Adjective	ilus	dab	ała	deres
Essence (-os)	ilusos	dabos	łos
Samon participle	ilus	dab	ła	deres
Other	ilusox adorned, iluson a beautiful person		łanga harmful, łon a bad person; łōs, łōn are different words	dere sorry

Adjectives from nouns, and adverbs

A noun becomes an adjective through a case: the genitive (red by nature), the comitative (marked with red) and the abessive (without red). These then decline like any e-final word: albadem, albadese.

ili- before a consonant, ilis- before a vowel, + an adjective or a noun makes a manner adverb. Adverbs don't decline and go after the verb. A noun + hekanga (giving) makes an X-giving adjective: ixahekanga (bright), erūoshekanga (deadly).

Derivation

Word formation

Six suffixes turn verbs into nouns, plus -on for people. Vowel-initial suffixes follow the vowel-contact rules; consonant-initial ones attach directly.

-os marks essences: things that carry meaning or life beyond their substance. It takes the stem, and a stem-final u lengthens (jūos, fastūos).
-ver or -on for intransitive verbs: miadever is going mad, miadeon is mad.
Short stems overlap with verb forms (xōn, xōs, sōs); context is enough.

Prefixes: ende- and łe-

ende- intensifies: a verb gets stronger or deeper (endeservaxa, to indoctrinate).
łe- reverses or undoes: the abessive (without) turned into a prefix.
ende- loses its e after a vowel-final prefix: ī + ende → īnde-, łe + ende → łende-. The īmon goes in front of everything.

Numbers

Lunde counts in base twelve, which divides evenly by 2, 3, 4 and 6 and can be counted on one hand: the thumb touches the three segments of each finger.

Zero is hūł. An empty place inside a bigger number is simply left out: iğiōn-na (145).
ē- is used only when counting; before a noun it drops: ra zenen (twice).
Multiply: the multiplier goes first, joined (rasiōn, 24). Add: the smaller number follows after a dash (siōn-na, 13). Biggest power first.
After any number above one, the noun goes plural: ra osili (two eyes).
Ordinals are the number + the genitive, joined with dashes: na-de (first), siōn-ade (twelfth).