Veyrathi - Morphology

Morphological profile

• Strongly regular, with few exceptional forms.
• Mainly suffixing (endings instead of stem changes).
• No case inflection; Relations are marked via word order and particles.
• Verbs conjugate by time/mode, not by person.

Personal pronouns

Subject forms

• now (Enu) -nel (Enel)
• nor (Enor)
• tha (Enath)
• is (Enis)
• se (neutral/foreignly polite)
• ve (impersonal: man)

Object shapes

Rule: subject form + -r

Possessive forms

Rule: subject form + 'ren

Reflexive

• ser = yourself
• Can be used for everyone: Nor seyra ser.

Plural forms (pronominal)

• now (Enu plural)
• nelir
• norir
• Thai
• isir
• sen (neutral plural)

Note: The pronominal sen is functionally separate from the number word sen (= 1,000) and from the root sen (= receptor).

Nominal morphology

Number

• Singular: basic form
• Plural: usually -ir (animated/socially marked) or -n (neutral/collective)

Examples:

• thalor -> thalorir
• naar -> naarn

Definiteness

• ar = definite article
• en = indefinite article
• No formal case on the article

Possession

• Possession is marked using possessive pronouns before the noun:
• nu'ren naar = my homeworld (Enu speaker)
• se'ren thalor = his/her advice (neutral)

Demonstratives

• ar = this/these/this (near)
• or = that/those/those (far away)

Note: ar can appear as a definite article and a close demonstrative; Context resolves the reading.

Adjective morphology

• Adjectives are i. d. R. uninflected.
• Position: after the noun (ar nor draz).
• Intensification: particle is before the adjective.
• ar nor is draz = the very strong Enor
• Attenuation: particle len before the adjective.
• ar nor len draz = the rather strong Enor
• As an intensifier, is comes directly before the adjective; as a pronoun, is remains in the subject slot.

Verb morphology

Basic shape

• The citation form ends in -a.
• The unmarked finite basic form is identical to the citation form: veyra, seyra, tala.
• For derivatives, a strain without final -a is used (veyra -> veyr-).

Tense

• Tense suffixes are attached directly to the citation form: tala -> talan / talara, kira -> kiran / kirara.

Aspect (periphrastic)

• Gradient aspect: particle sa before the unmarked finite verb form (Gloss: PROG)
• Nu sa veyra. = I am speaking.
• Resultative/final: particle han before usually past-marked finite verb form (Gloss: RES)
• Nu han veyran. = I have spoken (completed).
• sa, han and kei occupy the same preverbal particle slot and are usually not freely stacked.

mode

• Imperative: basic form without pronouns in direct address
• Veyra! = Speak!
• Prohibitive: no + imperative
• No veyra! = Don't speak!
• Irrealis/Conditional: Particle kei in the preverbal particle slot, directly after the subject (Gloss: COND)
• Nu kei veyra, ... = If I spoke,...

Negation

• Standard negation with predicate particle no on the left edge of the verbal complex (Gloss: NEG):
• Nu no veyra. = I don't speak.
• With additional particles: Subjekt + no + (sa/han/kei) + Verb
• Nu no sa veyra. = I'm not speaking right now.
• With tense forms unchanged:
• Nu no veyran. / Nu no veyrara.

Grammatical particles

• In the unmarked present declarative sentence, nominal and adjectival predication remain copulaless.
• As soon as negation, explicit tense, aspect or irrealis are marked, fera takes over the finite marking as a supporting verb.
• Schema: Subject + (NEG) + (PROG/RES/COND) + fera + Predicative
• Ar toren no fera torim. = The door is not open.
• Ar toren feran torim. = The door was open.
• Ar thalor ferara zeya. = The meeting will be new.
• Ar toren kei fera torim. = The door would be open.
• As a main verb, fera still retains its independent meaning "to do, to make".

Verb valence (basic classes)

• The base valence of a verb is lexically stable; Prefixation usually changes the direction, scope or register, not automatically the number of arguments.

• With transfer verbs, receiver pronouns appear directly after the verb: Nu nava nel pethan.
• If the recipient and the subject are both full NPs, the recipient is preferably placed before the subject or is pronominalized so that the reading remains stable.

Derivation (word formation)

Nominalization

• Verb -> event/abstract noun with nominal marker -th
• Surface rule:
• By vowel stem: usually -th
• After consonantal stem: epenthetic -ath (phonetically lighter)
• veyra -> Trunk veyr- -> veyrath
• seyra -> Trunk seyr- -> seyrath
• nava -> Trunk nav- -> navath

Agent formation

• Verb -> perpetrator/performing role with -or
• veyra -> veyror (speaker)
• tal (go/come, tribe) -> talor (wanderer/messenger; historized subform: thalor)

Adjective formation

• Noun -> Property with -i
• is -> isi (enisian, high-ranking connotation)
• kevar -> kevari (contractual)
• vethan -> vethani (legal/statutory)

Prefix system (prefixation)

Veyrathi uses an independent prefix system based on directional, aspect and valence markers.

Class A: bound core prefixes (inseparable)

• ba- (make targeted/affected)
• eth- (withdraw/remove)
• ar- (Achieve/Result)
• vae- (change/reshape)
• kir- (separate/disassemble)
• nis- (miss/incorrect)
• ul- (opposite direction/reversal for verbs)
• or- (original/first-; lexical, weakly productive)

Examples:

• vae + kova -> vaekova (rebuild, reshape)
• kir + jora -> kirjora (untie, untie)
• nis + zora -> niszora (wrong answer)

Class B: directed verb particles (separable in discourse, bound in lemma)

Productive for movement and changing positions:

• sha- (down/away down), na- (on/towards something), sor- (up), uth- (out)
• il- (in), thur- (through), mur- (down), ovar- (over/over)
• ra- (towards the speaker), vi- (towards the speaker), pra- (ahead), vek- (away)
• mel- (with-), ret- (back), syn- (together), tiv- (between), sai- (over)

Lemmas are written together (e.g. vitala); the particles can be recreated in a focused manner in informal speech.Examples:

• vi + tala -> vitala (go there)
• il + tala -> iltala (go in)
• uth + tala -> uthtala (go out)
• ret + tala -> rettala (go back)
• thur + seyra -> thurseyra (look through)

Class C: adverbial-lexical antecedents

Adverb/adjective/noun + verb is only firmly connected if the combination is lexicalized.

Productive lexicalized patterns:

• mora-, sela-, vel-, jor-, nul-, ret-, sai-, zeya-, draz-, vara-, thur-, nar-

Limitations (as requested):

• lena- only in a few lexicalized condensations; otherwise the adjective remains free.
• kelir-, lurim-, sarim- and nari- are only verbalized in narrow subject or image fields.
• Degree particles such as is and len do not form verbs.

Orthographic rules

• Prefix + verb are written together in the dictionary.
• Double vowels at joints are not deleted (e.g. vae + kova -> vaekova).
• r/n contact is retained (vi + nava -> vinava possible, regionally also vinnava).

Lexicalization vs. system form

• Some older simplex verbs remain as lexicalized base words (rora, sula, dera, kila, java, mava, dena).
• In parallel, systematic prefix forms are permitted and preferred in specialist registers:
• keva -> vaekeva (trade -> negotiate)
• pora -> ulpora (remember -> forget)
• zora -> synzora / kirzora / bazora (agree / disagree / explain)

Composition

• Right-headed compounds: the last link is the core.
• Pattern: [Determiner] + [Core]
• naar-thalor = Home Council
• zeya-veyrath = new speech / new language form

Morphophonological clues

• No vocal harmony.
• No productive umlaut processes.
• At word boundaries, r can be slightly weakened before dentals (pronunciation variant, not orthographic).

Glossing conventions

• Person labels: 1EN, 3ENOR, NEUT
• Roll labels: POSS, REFL
• Tense/Aspect/Mode: PRS, PST, FUT, PROG, RES, COND
• Typesetting functions: NEG, Q, DEF, INTS, DIM, COP, WH