X Part 1 (old)

Edit: ignore the gray on high common, it is a fluke selection in freemind

To begin with, here are some handy words in Classical Yäwurenyi so you can get a feel for it. I do not have a set phonology yet.

speak -- madob

tree -- nigi

mountain -- pesh

man -- kewanta

woman -- temeshi

And here is the one word I have run through all the different languages, "yes." Please tell me if this is plausible. I don't know the time scale. Extinct languages with no decendents are marked with a * and written ones are marked with a +

Classical /hEta/

- Early Alpine /heta/

-- Middle Alpine /heda/

--- Forest Alpine /hje:da/

---- Late Forest /h_je:d/

--- Lost Alpine * /ed{/

--- Late Alpine + /he?a/

---- Modern Alpine + /e?a:/

- Early Common /hEtsa/

-- East Mountain /ets@/

---- Late Eastern * /ets/

-- Middle Common /hE:tsa:/

--- High Common /e:tsa:/

---- North Slope * /idza:/

---- West Forest * /{:sa:/

--- Low Common /We:tSa/

---- Early Mountain /we:tsa/

----- Late Mountain /wE:sa/

------ Modern Mountain + /wESa/

---- Early Valley /hesa:/

----- Middle Valley + /EIsa:/

------ Late Valley + /Isa:/

------- Modern Valley + /sa:/

Oh, and pictures of the Yäwu

http://quanafi.googlepages.com/yawurenyi

Fun with noun classes and a couple cases!

life 0-

(examples kewanta man, temeshi woman, includes all living things)

water ni-, n- before vowels

fire du-, d- before vowels

earth la-, l- before vowels

air pe-, p- before vowels

note that living things can have an ascribed element, but no lexical one, but you never combine a gendered adjective with an elemented noun.

cases

nominative -0-

accusative -od-

genitive -met-

so if we have the root -pesh (mountain) which is naturally in the earth class, it's lapesh. if you sell the mountain you sell lodpesh, a mountain('s) man is lametpesh kewanta.

-ashed is a fall, so lashed is a landslide or rockfall, and nashed is a waterfall. nashed, nodashed, nimetashed. lashed, lodashed, lametashed.

I don't have verbs yet but you have the option of dropping to be where it's clear...

kewanta lametpesh nodashed. The man is at the mountain waterfall.

Adjectives take one of 4 natural genders based on the noun they modify

masculine ke-/k-

fem te-/t-

mixed (such as plants which have masculine and feminine reproductive organs) hu-/h-

neuter/unknown (quanafi, objects, and anything you can't remember the gender of except adult yawu or human men and women) 0-

new adj yugat brave

Here is a good example of how to use assigned noun classes, ceremonial lang names, and not mixing natural gendered adjectives and elemented nouns

Ranranfouwushaa (nuntar) lakewanta nuntar is an earth-man (see my naming and fortunes thread)

Ranranfouwushaa keyugat nuntar is brave-male

Ranranfouwushaa yugat lakewanta nuntar is a brave earth-man

Ranranfouwushaa keyugat lahimet (earth's) Nuntar is earth's brave-male.

Hüwryaasûr (me!) petemeshi Dazi is an air-woman

Hüwryaasûr teyugat Dazi is brave-fem

Hüwryaasûr yugat petemeshi Dazi is a brave air-woman

Hüwryaasûr teyugat petmet Dazi is air's brave-fem.

note that lahi, dua, pet, and ni are irregular in that they are element names, have no prefix and take cases as suffixes. they are the only four

On verbs:

I was thinking of a 4-way sorta "transtivity" based system

fu-/f- intransitive

ge-/g- stative (state of being)

ba-/b- transitive tangible

zi-/z- transitive intangible

-yer- 1p

-yov- 2p

-yash- 3p

-tu- plural

And verbs take gender in all persons, based on the subject, as with adjectives

Yovtu becomes /joftu/ because otherwise it's hard to say, so there is a little consonantal harmony

Examples!

"to be" = -d, gyovked = stative you male be = you_m are

to speak = -madob, fyashtutemadob = intrans 3p pl fem speak = they (female) speak

to speak = -madob, zyertemadob "hi" = trans_intang I_fem say "hi"... I say hi.

to throw = -deshal, byertuhudeshal lapesh = trans_tangi I_pl mixed throw earth-mountain = we throw mountains.

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Translation Challenge #1 (because it was a good length and sounded cool)

Note that this is a bit rough because I don't know who I am speaking to so it is genderless and elementless mostly.

The hegemons are water, fire, earth, air, the 4 traditional elements which are seen to be both the components and the agents of change in the world of the Yawu. A loan from the human languages would be anachronistic with classical yawu, but a good back form of "God" would be Senyor Chos or just Chos. Then take out "tu" (the plural marker) in ordain and manifest.

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Another translation, this time of normal speech:

Tsiasuk-pron says: very-top_good fire-song stat-it-be, very-heart-pull stat-it-be. And-more language(earth-share-speak) trans_intang-you-be very-sound_gen-beautiful. Tran_intang_they_say Itlani-as "intr-It_flows water-as earth-above-stone.

(note that shen'l is a contraction of shen-shel "and more," it is pronounced /SEn.l=/...lalagumat is often shortened to lal'gumat, as here)

 Sound file please download if possible! (note that for some reason the speaker of this one pronounces <q> as /q/ [k] not as /k_w/ as is common in the cities)