************************************************************************* The Uthish Language ************************************************************************* In magic universes, there tends to be a sort of overlying system in the natural laws of the universe. - Kind of like the operating system of a computer, and programmable if you know the right tricks. - I mean, in a way, that's kinda how all universes are. In any universe, you can do more tricks with matter and energy if you know how the rules work. - But magic universes are... more versatile that way. You can make more changes to how the rules work. - Of course, if you think of a universe's laws of logic and physics as being written in a language, it's not a language made of sounds or visual symbols. Nothing that humans can speak or write. But in lots of magic universes: - People can create languages that interact with it, translating the universe's inherent system into something people can manipulate more easily. - Like how it's easier to write a program in Python than in binary. That's the sorta language that Uthish is. - The Uthevegers' home universe, and most of the ones they travel to, can interact pretty well with the Uthish language. - And the qualities that make a language ideal for communicating with the universe... aren't always the same qualities that make it ideal for communicating with people. - There are are everyday languages that work better than Uthish for human conversations. Their disadvantage is they aren't so good for spellcasting. - And there are magical languages that work better than Uthish for magic. Their disadvantage is that they don't make as much intuitive sense to a person's brain. So it's very hard to be fluent enough in them to do magic effectively. The advantage of Uthish... is that it's a middle ground, passably useful for both. - Most people can become fluent in Uthish if they try. And a person fluent in Uthish is automatically pretty good at minor, everyday magic spells. - Within their home universe and many adjacent ones, Uthevegers are colonizers. They have a tense relationship with the native species on most planets they've spread to. - But the way they've gotten a foothold on new worlds is usually by sharing their technology. And that consists mostly of the Uthish language. - They still keep the best spells for themselves. Teaching their language isn't automatically sharing the secrets of their power. - They keep a lot of secrets, including aspects of how the language works as well as specific ways to use it. - And others don't always find the language easy to use as intended. - Or even to pronounce. ************************************************************************* Adaptations of words ************************************************************************* Outsiders, when borrowing Uthish words, end up mutating them a lot. - After passing through a few other languages, they tend to gain a standard pronunciation that's used by most non-Uthish speakers. - It can be very different from the original form of the word. - Depending on the language that's borrowing the words, they can gain, lose or rearrange letters when they enter general usage outside of Uthish language. The word Utheveger, pronounced "ooth-vay-gur" by most outsiders, is a foreign distortion of the Uthish word. - The original word is more properly transliterated as "U-the-ve-ge-re." - It was probably adapted from its original form by English speakers, who made the ending sound more like an English ending for professions, like "traveler" or "teacher." Avery's line of Uthevegers, the Poala, were originally called the "Prere." That name got distorted through the Keyea dragon language. - The Keyea dragons have a lot of "oh" and "ah" sounds, and often put different vowels together but almost never do the same with consonants. - Also, L and R are more-or-less interchangeable for Keyea dragons (with the R sound appearing more often at the beginnings of words, and being changed to L if the same syllable occurs later in a word). - So, when Keyea dragons tried to pronounce "Prere," it was so far from their usual pronunciation rules that it ended up as "Poala." The Utheveger that Avery inherited her power from is widely known as "Omataad." - His real name was "Thmetede." The "th" was dropped from the beginning because of confusion about a prefix. - Thmetede was well-known among Uthevegers during his life, but only became famous outside of Utheveger society after his death and the mix-up with his inheritance. - When juicy gossip about Avery started to circulate among Keyea dragons, mentions of the heir's family name found their way from Uthish into the dragon language. - Traditionally, the family name of an Utheveger is the name of the parent they inherited the power from, with "U" added before it. - So, the heir of Thmetede would have the surname U-thmetede. - Gossip sometimes revolved around the controversy of whether Avery was worthy of that name, or whether it more properly belonged to the daughter that Thmetede meant to pass his power on to. - But when saying the name, Keyea dragons couldn't pronounce the "thme" part, and, in their phonetic system, O's and A's fit into the word better than its native E's. - When the Keyea dragons were done with it, that family name had become "Uth-Omataad." At that point it was easy for them to assume that Uth, not just U, was the family prefix, and so the dead patriarch became known as Omataad. The name for the Uthevegers' home universe, "Melmel-melmel," is pretty silly-sounding already. - But it's also not the original Uthish word. It's a word that most of the other languages borrowed from Uthish and then altered. - The change probably started as an English speaker's attempt to make it sound more like something an English speaker would say. - The original word was "Mlemle-mlemle." Maybe the universe likes the sound of that. But no one else does. ************************************************************************* Consonant sounds ************************************************************************* Uthish is a language with plenty of consonants and a dismal lack of variety in vowels. - It's got pretty much the same assortment of consonant sounds as English. - But when it lists them, it doesn't include X or Q... because those aren't even consonant sounds, they're combinations of consonant sounds, so any sensible person just spells them "Ks" and "Kw." - Except they don't have W either, because it's also not really a consonant, it's a sneaky vowel pretending to be a consonant. - In English we use it as a consonant, but come on, it makes the same sound as saying "oo" really fast. - Same with Y. Sounds just like a fast "ee." The top and bottom of the mouth don't touch, so it doesn't get to be a consonant as far as those picky Uthevegers are concerned. - In linguistics those are called "glides," and Uthish doesn't have them. (Unless you count R. They do have R. But no H.) Uthish also doesn't put "C" on its list of consonant sounds, because it's not one single consonant. - It's a symbol that represents two different sounds, which can just be listed separately as K and S. - The only use of C that can't be taken over by K or S is when it gets together with H to make the "ch" sound. - But "ch" is its own sound, so it gets its own consonant on the list. So do "sh," "zh," "th" and "ng," bringing the total list up to 20. ************************************************************************* The 20 consonant sounds: (I've written them here in a transliteration, as close as I can get with English letters.) ************************************************************************* K G (hard G as in "good") Ng (as in "sing") Ch (as in "chair") J Sh Zh (like the g in "mirage") L R (pronounced like a boring all-American R, not rolled or trilled) T D N Th (can be pronounced as in "that" or as in "think," interchangeably) S Z F V P B M ************************************************************************* Instead of English alphabetical order, I've arranged them the way Uthevegers do: from back-of-the-mouth to front-of-the-mouth, and from nonvoiced to voiced. - So, K, G and Ng are the first, since you make those sounds the farthest back in your mouth. And within that group, K is first, then G, then Ng, because K is the hardest, most voiceless of those three sounds and Ng is the softest and most voiced. - The actual Uthish alphabet, the whole 90 syllables, is arranged the same way and even more complicated. - An Utheveger singing the alphabet is a terrifying thing. I hope you never have to hear it. - (It's technically a syllabary, not an alphabet. Doesn't make it any better as a song.) ************************************************************************* U family Ke vision, sight Kre time Kle large Kne heat, energy Kse location Kme bad Ge ability, to be able Gre person Gle space Gne change Gze one Gme two Nge (definite article singular) Che light Chre contact Chle (definite article plural) Chne three Chme similarity Je part Jre true, real Jle destroy She create Shre result Shle you plural Shte connection Shne us Shme good Shpe them Zhe action Zhre word Zhle quantity Zhne thought Zhme substance Le you, singular Re (add to verb to make a noun) Te small Tre conflict Tle carry, support Tse if Tsre four Tsme high The possession, ownership Thre thing Thle hard, difficult Thne give Thme way, method Thpe hear Se opposite, not De life Ne me Sre tool, use Sle contain, inside Ske low Skle happen, event Skre (indefinite article plural) Sne take, receive Ste begin Stre cause Spe fluid (liquid or gas) Spre (add to verb to make an adjective)  Sple front Sme question (open ended) Ze future Zre end Zle exist Zne feel, sensation Zme speech Fe command Fre image Fle (indefinite article singular) Fne from Fme different Ve travel, move Vre universe Vle back Vne to Pe him/her/it Pre social status  Ple question (yes/no) Pse all Pne type, kind Be emotion Bre near Ble dislike Bne zero Bze like, enjoy Me past Mre feature, characteristic Mle home ************************************************************************* Writing ************************************************************************* - Uthish words put a lot of consonant sounds together that don't tend to go together in English, making weird syllables like "Jre" or "Thle." Most English speakers can learn to pronounce the combinations with a little practice. - The building blocks of words in Uthish are syllables. There are 90 syllables in the Uthish language, and each one has its own Uthish symbol.  - The symbols are all made with combinations of circles, short lines, and dots. - They're written with a tool that includes circular, linear and pointed parts, each of which can be dipped in ink and used as a stamp, or sometimes pressed into clay or another malleable medium. - The symbols themselves don't have any inherent magic, but they're good for expressing magic, and tools used for inscribing them are often enchanted with spells that give each inscribed symbol a special power. - When written using Uthish symbols, each word gets its own line. The traditional scroll is more of a spool of ribbon, just wide enough for the longest words. - When written on something wider than that, the words are arranged in columns. - Like English, they go from top to bottom and from left to right. ************************************************************************* Numbers ************************************************************************* Math is base 5. - The numbers 0 through 4 have their own symbols and syllables. - All other numbers are formed from them, in the same way we make numbers from the ten digits 0 through 9. - Long multi-digit numbers can end up being longer when written in the Uthish number system. - If a number is big enough that this becomes a problem, exponents and other forms of abbreviation can be used. When speaking aloud, multi-digit numbers are stated by listing the digits. - Like saying "three four one" instead of "three hundred and forty-one." - Spoken abbreviations exist for numbers like "one billion" where listing all the zeroes individually would be a waste of time. - These abbreviations are available whenever a number has more than four of the same digit in a row. ************************************************************************* Vowel Sounds ************************************************************************* Now we get to the Uthish scarcity of vowels. - In spoken Uthish, each syllable starts with a consonant sound, or a bunch of consonant sounds, and then ends with one single vowel sound. - In nouns, adjectives, and unconjugated verbs, it's almost always the SAME vowel sound. - English transliterations write it as E. It's usually pronounced like the short E in words like "pet" and "bed."  - Eh. That's the ever-repeating note in Uthish conversation. ----- Each syllable has a general sort of meaning, and the more of them you combine, the more specific a word can be: Jre (true) + se (not) Jrese (verb) to tell a lie Be (emotion) + shme (good) + ke (vision) Beshmeke (transitive verb) to appreciate the sight of (someone or something), to find beautiful Spre (quality) + pre (social status) + be (emotion) + kme (bad) Spreprebekme (adjective) embarrassing ---- In transliterations, you always know where a syllable ends and the next syllable starts. It always ends with the vowel, and the next one begins with the next consonant. The one exception is the great and holy U sound. - Left over from a far more ancient language, it's believed to have the greatest magical power of all syllables. - Who knows if that's true. But in the language it sure gets special treatment. - In modern Uthish, U is the only vowel used in nouns and adjectives that isn't "Eh." And it's the only syllable without a consonant. It's pronounced like the "oo" in "too." It gets used in some of the most important words, and it has its own meaning, which is "family." - To Uthevegers, family means a lot. Probably too much. Uthevegers will include or exclude you from all sorts of stuff based on what family you belong to. - The name Utheveger is more correctly written as "U-the-ve-ge-re," which means something like "family-possession-travel-ability-person." - It's a reference to that special universe-jumping magic that they pass down from generation to generation. ************************************************************************* Verbs ************************************************************************* The universe likes verbs. - At least, it likes verbs if you want it to do things. Which I suppose makes sense. - And magic is all about doing things. So, a magic-expressing language like Uthish will focus a lot on verbs. Words that have noun, adjective and verb forms are always treated like verbs by default. - They need a syllable added to make them anything else. - "Uthevege" without the "re" on the end is a verb for the act of being an Utheveger. - Literally, "to have an inherited ability to travel." The added "re" makes it the noun for a person who has that ability. But, of course, usage determines a word's meaning in daily speech, a lot more than the individual syllable meanings do. - Although the syllables in "Uthevege" and "Uthevegere" just mean "having an inherited ability to travel," speakers use these words ONLY for the actual group known as Uthevegers. - Other people who have different kinds of hereditary travel ability don't get to be called those words. - (There's controversy over whether Avery can be called an Utheveger. She does have that specific power, but she isn't a member of the family and didn't properly inherit it. Some people use "Thevegere" for her instead, because they consider it blasphemy to use the sacred U sound for her.) - (If she knew that, she'd howl "oooooo" at them all day long just to piss them off.) Since verbs are the default, there's no need for the verb "to be" before an adjective. - The default is just to use the verb that means "to fit that description," instead of the adjective itself. Adjectives are used with nouns, not with verbs like "be."  - However, the verb for fitting a description can go with another verb sometimes. - The default form of the word for "old" is "klezlede," a verb that means "to be old."  So the phrase for "become old" is "ste klezlede," which translates more closely as "start to be old."  Modal verbs like "start" are conjugated and placed before an unconjugated verb to modify it. ************************************************************************* Making Adjectives and Nouns ************************************************************************* There is no adjective meaning "beautiful" in the Uthish language. - There's also not a noun for beauty, or even a verb for being beautiful. - It's not that Uthevegers don't appreciate beauty. It's just because their language needs to be accurately descriptive of how things happen, or else the universe won't listen to it. - So, Uthish recognizes that beauty isn't really a description of someone's appearance. It's a reaction that someone else has to that appearance. The verb "beshmeke" is the act of having that response, the act of aesthetically appreciating what one sees. - The best way to translate it to English is "to find (someone or something) beautiful." - The adjective "sprebeshmeke" describes a person who is having that response. It's a bit stronger than "appreciative," and similar to "smitten" or "starstruck" but not an exact translation of either. - "Beshmekespre," with the "spre" on the other end, describes a person or thing that's receiving that response from someone. But you're expected to specify from whom. It's like "admired" or "beloved," but requires the admirer to be identified. - So these adjectives are rarely used, because it's easier just to say the verb. ************************************************************************* Adverbs ************************************************************************* There are no separate adverb forms of words. The adjective form is used instead. (Unless you can use a verb, in which case of course you do!) ************************************************************************* Prefixes, Suffixes and Infixes ************************************************************************* As a general rule, adding "spre" to a verb makes it an adjective. - As a prefix at the beginning, it makes an adjective that describes the one who does the verb. - As a suffix on the end, it describes the object of a transitive verb, the one who's having the verb done TO them. - And as an infix within the word, it can make any other adjective form that's needed. The same goes for adding "re" to verbs to make them nouns. - Prefix "re" indicates the subject. - Suffix "re" is for the object. - And if there's a second object, like maybe an actual inanimate object being given by the subject to the object-- that one can get an infix, a "re" somewhere inside the word. "Beshemeke" is seldom used as a noun, so it isn't the greatest example for this. - But if you were gonna use it as a noun, "rebeshmeke" would be the person appreciating the beauty, and "beshmekere" would be the one whose beauty is being appreciated. - And then you could even add "re" in the middle of the word, as an infix, to make the word for "beauty." - And maybe put it somewhere else in the word if you wanted to make another abstract noun for the act itself, like the noun "admiration." You may already be seeing the problem with this. Sometimes a word is used with infixes, but doesn't have enough syllables to add the infixes. Another example: - The word "gnethe," meaning "trade" or "exchange," has two syllables: - "gne," meaning "change" - "the," meaning "possession" - But there are multiple noun forms you can make with an infix. - See, "gnethe" is a transitive verb similar to "purchase." - The subject, "regnethe" ("trader") is trading something for the object, "gnethere" ("thing received in trade"). - The thing they're exchanging for it is "gnerethe" ("traded thing") with "re" in the middle as an infix. - But you need another noun for "the exchange," the action of doing all this in the first place. - And you've just run out of places to put the "re" in that word. So, in cases like these, the first syllable of the word gets repeated on the end, lengthening the word prior to adding the infix. - This makes the root word longer: "gnethe + gne = gnethegne" - This creates enough space, so the infix can then be added. - The noun meaning "a trade" or "an exchange" puts that "re" infix just before the final "gne," to make the word "gnetheregne." The more noun forms you have to make, the more repetitions of the first syllable you can add. - This can help make room for infixes, and also help differentiate prefixed or suffixed words from each other. - The word "ve," meaning "travel," has only one syllable. - With prefixes and suffixes you can make "reve" ("traveler") and "vere" ("destination.") But those aren't the only travel-related nouns you need, so repeating syllables will be necessary. - The noun for "origin," the starting point of travel, is "reveve." - The noun for "travel," the abstract concept of traveling, is "vereve." - "A journey," a specific act of travel, is "vereveve." But, even though there are lots and lots of potential noun forms in Uthish, many of them just aren't used very much. - It varies with the word, but usually speakers will just arrange the sentence in such a way that they can use a verb instead. - A lot of noun and adjective forms exist only theoretically. - Just like in English, there are plenty of words that you COULD form with prefixes and suffixes but hardly anyone ever does. - (Think of "surfable," "lionish," or "needer.") - In Uthish, words like those have to have the possibility of existing, just because there are contexts where they're useful in magic. - But in ordinary speech they might as well not be there. Also, certain types of words require extra information. - In the case of the verb "beshmeke," you could make it into the aforementioned set of nouns. - But you'd still have to use the passive voice to specify who was doing the admiring, or it wouldn't be grammatically correct. - You'd have to say "the (admired person) by (name of admiring person)," or "the (admired beauty) by (name of admiring person)." - Again, it's not done much, because it would take more words than just a plain old subject-verb-object sentence. Not every concept that's a matter of opinion is treated this way, but value judgements generally are. - If you are saying that something is good or desirable, the language usually requires you to specify who finds it desirable. - The universe is kinda morally relativistic that way. It doesn't really care what happens. You have to let it know WHO cares. **************************************************************************** The Word "Utheveger" **************************************************************************** "Uthevegere" is... a weird exception, in having the "re" on the end. - I mean, you'd really think the Utheveger is the subject of the verb, the one who does the utheveging, and not the object that it's done TO. - So, you'd think the "re" should be a prefix, and the noun should be "reuthevege." - Some Uthish linguists will tell you the exception happened because the verb used to mean "PASS ON an inherited ability to travel"-- it was an action performed by parents who made their heirs into Uthevegers by giving them the power. So those heirs were the recipients of the verb, not the actors. - (An understandable source of confusion, since the ones who received the power would also be givers of the same power to their own heirs.) - Other linguists say it's just because it's sacrilegious to tack anything onto the beginning of a word that starts with U. - (This is also plausible. All words containing a U put it right at the beginning. If "Uthevegere" broke that rule, it would be the only exception.) ************************************************************************* Conjugation ************************************************************************* And now we come to the one place where we can see-- gasp!-- DIFFERENT VOWELS. - Sentence order is usually subject-verb-object, like English. - But, because of the way conjugation happens, a lot of the time you don't need a separate subject word at all. - And the position of any objects becomes a bit flexible, since it's quite clear that they're objects and not subjects, so they don't really need to stay after the verb to make that clear. See, the subject is often encoded into the verb, like in Spanish. - And, just like in Spanish, this happens in the settings where the subject would ordinarily be a pronoun. - Verbs get conjugated by changing the e-vowel to a different one. To indicate the subject, the verb takes on different vowel sounds. - This is the only time that words can have vowels other than E or U. - If the subject has to be identified, the name of it goes before the conjugated verb. - If it's just a pronoun, it gets left off. - In writing, a mark is added to each syllable to indicate the vowel sound changes. Conjugation sounds, with the verb "beshmeke" as an example: First person singular (I) : "a," pronounced as in "mama" "I find beautiful" = "bashmaka" First person plural (We): "ai," pronounced like the "i" in "nice" "We find beautiful" = "baishmaikai" Second person singular (You): "o," as in "go" "You find beautiful" = "boshmoko" Second person plural (You all): "ao," like the "ow" in "how" "You all find beautiful" = "baoshmaokao" Third person singular (He/she/it): "i," like the "ee" in "see" "He finds beautiful" = "bishmiki" Third person plural (They): "oi," as in "coin" "They find beautiful" = "boishmoikoi" ---- If a verb contains a U, the U remains unchanged. Example: the verb "Uthevege" ("to be an Utheveger") is conjugated like this: I am an Utheveger: "Uthavaga" We are Uthevegers: "Uthaivaigai" You are an Utheveger: "Uthovogo" You all are Uthevegers: "Uthaovaogao" He/she is an Utheveger: "Uthivigi" They are Uthevegers: "Uthoivoigoi" ************************************************************************* Pronouns ************************************************************************* Pronouns are used, but mainly as object pronouns, after conjugated transitive verbs and after prepositions.  The pronouns are as follows: First person singular (me): Ne First person plural (us): Shne Second person singular (you): Le Second person plural (you all): Shle Third person singular (him/her/it): Pe Third person plural (them): Shpe "I find him/her/it beautiful": "Bashmaka pe" "They find you beautiful": "Boishmoikoi le" "You find us beautiful" = "Boshmoko shne" There are also possessive pronouns, which are made by adding "the" ("possession") after any pronoun. Nethe = my Shnethe = our Lethe = your Shlethe = your (plural) Pethe = his/her/its Shpethe = their These do not change depending on wording, as in the English difference between "your food" and "the food is yours." In Uthish the same word for "your" would be used in both cases. Pronouns aren't affected by gender (like "he" and "she") or animacy (like "it"). The only factors that matter are number (singular or plural) and who's directing the pronouns at whom. Gender is pretty much ignored in Utheveger society and language, overall. - Of course there are words for specific traits that other cultures associate with gender-- anything from body parts to behaviors. - But... the universe likes specificity. And it's more specific to point out exactly WHICH traits a person has, instead of just assigning a noun or pronoun to a whole person based on one or two characteristics. - Also, this is a universe where people can change a lot. Including the shape of their bodies, all the way down to the sex organs. Transformation spells are effective, safe and common. - In an environment like that, having a particular set of body parts can really start to feel more like a verb than a noun. This might all make it seem as if Uthish is a super accepting language for transgender people. - But... not exactly. The same aspects of the language that stop it from being cis-normative can cause it to exclude trans identities as well. - For instance, a trans woman who finds it important to call herself a woman can't do so in this language. - There is no word for what "woman" means in English. Only "person with uterus" or "person who wears dresses" or whatever specific detail you want to give at the moment. - If you find personal validation in a gendered noun or pronoun, you won't find it in Uthish. It's an oversimplification to describe the Uthevegers, or their language, as tolerant and accepting, or the opposite. - Really, any value judgement is an oversimplification. - Are Uthevegers good or evil? They're complicated. - They're a varied bunch, composed of different family lines and political subgroups, most of whom have pretty awful things in their history. - Some groups and some individuals are trying harder than others to make things right. - Basically, they're people. And that can mean a lot of things. ************************************************************************* Tense, Commands, Negatives and Conditionals ************************************************************************* Statements are assumed to be in present tense and indicative by default. - But there are syllables that can be added to put what you're saying in past or future tense, or make it negative, command, question, or conditional. - They come at both the beginning and the end of the clause, neatly sectioning off which thoughts are in which tense. - A sentence can have multiple clauses in different tenses or forms, each identified with these syllables. - If a whole clause is both past and question, or both command and negative, or some such combination, the syllables can nest like HTML tags. Perfect and past perfect ("has done" and "had done") are formed with repetition (doubling and tripling) of the syllable for past. - Theoretically you could make infinite levels of past tense with more repetitions, but that would be super pedantic and useless. - You could also make infinite future tenses for different points in the future, but that would be even more useless. Past: Me Future: Ze Negative: Se Command: Fe Conditional ("if" clause): Tse Conditional ("would" clause): Shre Question (yes/no): Ple Conjugation remains unchanged when these syllables are added. To play around with a simple one-word sentence: "Uthovogo" (You are an Utheveger.) "Me Uthovogo me" (You were an Utheveger.) "Ze Uthovogo ze" (You will be an Utheveger.) "Se Uthovogo se" (You are not an Utheveger.) "Fe Uthovogo fe" (Be an Utheveger!) "Shre Uthovogo shre" (You would be an Utheveger.) "Tse Uthavaga tse shre Uthovogo shre" (If I were an Utheveger, you would be an Utheveger.) "Ple Uthovogo ple" (Are you an Utheveger?) Nesting tags: "Ple ze Uthovogo ze ple" (Will you be an Utheveger?) "Shre me Uthovoigo me shre" (You would have been an Utheveger) "Fe se Uthovogo se fe" (Do not be an Utheveger!) Tags can nest in any order, although it is more common to put time-related tags (past and future) inside other ones, and command tags at the outermost position. ************************************************************************* Articles and Plurals ************************************************************************* In English, articles are the words "a," "an" and "the." - They're useful for showing how specific your reference is. - An indefinite article, like "a" or "an," makes it more general. "Don't eat a sandwich" means "don't eat ANY sandwich." - But "Don't eat the sandwich" makes it sound like there's a particular sandwich you're talking about. - A definite article, like "the" in English, indicates you're referring to something specific. In Uthish, it's more common to use verbs than nouns. - So there are times when articles or plurals are not needed at all. - Verbs are used when number and definiteness will be clear from conjugation and context. - For example, "Uthavaga" ("I am an Utheveger") is clearly singular because it's conjugated in the first person singular. - And there are very few contexts when you'd have to specify a distinction between "I am an Utheveger" and "I am THE Utheveger." But, although verb form is usually the default in Uthish, words do sometimes need to be used as nouns. - When used as nouns, they always have an article before them. - There are four articles, which also tell whether the noun is plural or not. (Nouns don't have pluralization of their own, like the "s" on the end in English. They need a plural article to show that they're plural.) Uthish articles indicate both definiteness and number. Indefinite article, singular: Fle Indefinite article, plural: Skre Definite article, singular: Nge Definite article, plural: Chle - Nouns ALWAYS have articles before them. There may be an adjective between them, but the article is still there. - A possessive pronoun can't replace an article, either. If you say "my sandwich," you still have to put an article in between "my" and "sandwich." - That's how you make it clear that 1. it's a singular sandwich, not plural, and 2. it's a specific sandwich of yours, not just any hypothetical sandwich belonging to you. In English, words like "this," "that," "these" and "those" can act like slightly more specific definite articles. - But those don't exist in Uthish, because Uthish has no use for "slightly more specific." - If there's any doubt which specific thing you mean, you have to go all the way in specifying it. - Don't say "this sandwich." Say "the sandwich on the table," "the sandwich I made," or whatever it takes to make it clear. ************************************************************************* Words for "Be" ************************************************************************* - "To be" is a very common word... even more common than it looks in English, because it gets conjugated so many different ways. When we say "am," "are," "is," "was," "been," or "were," those are all forms of "be." - The verb "to be" has a lot of different meanings, too. It's pretty weird that English has the same word for them all. Uthish handles them differently. - Here are some meanings we use in English: existence (to be or not to be) identity (to be a person) description (to be tall) location (to be in a house) actions (to be running) passive voice (to be fed) In Uthish, "to exist" is "zle." This is how you'd translate the "be" in "to be or not to be" (or the "am" in "I think, therefore I am"). - This translation is also used for "be" when talking about locations... - Unless the word for the location already has a verb form that means what you're saying. - For example, the default form of the word "mle" ("home") is a verb meaning "to be at home." So there's no need for "be" in that context. - However, not all locations have this option. - The default verb form of "chair" means "to sit on a chair," so it can't be used to indicate that something is, for example, UNDER a chair. - In that case you would add "zle" before the location, to say that the thing "exists under a chair." With actions, there's no use for the word "be." - No reason to say "I am running" when you could just say "I run." - (To clarify that you're talking about your current activity, instead of just a general tendency to jog every morning, you can specify "I run now.") When discussing identity, the word for "to be" is "chme." - It's a syllable that usually means "same" or "similar" when used as a part of a word. - But, as its own verb, it indicates that the subject is the same (or in the same category) as the object. - This, too, is not always needed, because many nouns have a verb form that means "to be (noun)." - But not all of them do. The verb for "a piece of fruit", "Slekneshe," means "to eat a piece of fruit" because it's the most likely thing a person would do with fruit. - "Be a piece of fruit" isn't much of a useful verb. So, if you wanted to say "A lemon is a piece of fruit," you'd use the following words: Slekneshere = piece of fruit (noun form) Znespeshere = lemon (noun form) chmi = be (identity) (conjugated to third person singular) fle = a (indefinite article singular) "Fle znespeshere chmi fle slekneshere." Likewise, most adjectives also have a verb form that means "to be (adjective)." - If they don't, they have a noun form that means "someone or something that is (adjective)." - Passive voice is also not used the same way as in English, because every transitive verb has a noun form meaning "the object of the verb." - With these noun forms, the identity verb "chme" can also be used: knethne = to feed knethnere = one who is fed detlevere = horse chmi = be (identity) (conjugated to third person singular) fle = a (indefinite article singular) nge = the (definite article singular) fne = from, by (as in passive voice) "The horse is fed." "Nge detlevere chmi fle knethnere." - The noun "knethere," meaning "one who is fed," takes an article like any noun. - More literally, it says "the horse is a [fed one]." You can also add the identity of the feeder: "The horse is fed by an Utheveger." "Nge detlevere chmi fle knethnere fne fle Uthevegere." (Literally, "the horse is a [fed one] by an Utheveger." - Again, this sort of wording is uncommon, because active voice is a lot quicker than passive voice. - Also because Uthevegers rarely, if ever, have any reason to feed horses. ************************************************************************* Question Words ************************************************************************* "Ple" makes yes-or-no questions, but "Sme" is the syllable for open-ended questions. "Sme" can be translated to English as "what," although it is used a bit differently. Who = what person = (sme + person) = smegre What = what thing = (sme + thing) = smethre When = what time = (sme + time) = smekre Where = what location = (sme + location) = smekse Why = what cause = (sme + cause) = smestre How = what way = (sme + way) = smethre To change a statement into a question, leave the statement arranged the same way, but put one of these words in the place of the word you are asking about. To form the question "Who did you visit": Start with the statement meaning "You visited (someone)" Replace (someone) with (smegre) You visited (smegre) = You visited who? To form the question "What did he eat": Start with the statement meaning "He ate (something)" Replace (something) with (smethre) He ate (smethre) = He ate what? To form the question "When did I wake up": Start with the statement meaning "I woke up (sometime)" Replace (sometime) with (smekre) I woke up (smekre) = I woke up when? To form the question "Where were we born": Start with the statement meaning "We were born (someplace)" Replace (someplace) with (smekse) We were born (smekse) = We were born where? To form the question "Why are they here": Start with the statement meaning "They are here (for some reason)" Replace (for some reason) with (smestre) They are here (smestre) = They are here why? To form the question "How will I die": Start with the statement meaning "I will die (somehow)" Replace (somehow) with (smethre) I will die (smethre) = I will die how? If the question is more specific, like "What relative did you visit," or "What dessert did he eat," the syllable "sme" can go before those words too, like a prefix, in the place of "what": "What relative did you visit?" = "You visited (sme)-relative" "What dessert did he eat?" = "He ate (sme)-dessert" ************************************************************************* Conjunctions ************************************************************************* Conjunctions can join two clauses or sentences, the same way they do in English. shte and fme or tse if (see Conditional) shtefme but (as in English, indicates a contrast between clauses) sepse unless zrekre after stekre until krechme while strevle because glegne instead of vlesestre although (With "instead," don't change conjugation as you do in English. Keep the sentences complete. In English you say "We stayed home instead of going out," but in Uthish you say "We stayed home instead of we went out.") ************************************************************************* Prepositions ************************************************************************* Prepositions are used pretty much the same as in English. - They come after a clause that tells what happens, and before a noun or phrase that indicates where (or when) it happens. - As in English, sometimes the thing that happens is just that a person or object is sitting there. For instance, "The book will be on top of the table." - In this context, use the word "zle" ("exist") for "be." chretsme on top of (touching) tsmegle over, above (not touching) chmechre on (horizontal, like a picture hanging on a wall) chreske under (touching) skegle below (not touching) shte with shtese without vle behind bre beside sle inside sesle outside sple in front of gmebre between chrebne among thnevle for fne from, or by (as in passive voice) vle to sleve into slevegle through trechre against vesesle around sesleve out of Some time-related and causality-related prepositions are the same words as time-related and causality-related conjunctions. sepse except (unless) fnekre since zrekre after stekre until krechme during (while) strevle because (because of) glegne instead of vlesestre in spite of (although) - When used as conjunctions, they go between two clauses: [I don't want any food] [sepse (unless)] [there is meat] [I have been tired] [fnekre (since)] [I went to the party] [They will clean the kitchen] [zrekre (after)] [we have dinner] [He won't come out] [stekre (until)] [it is nighttime] [I walked] [krechme (while)] [the sun went down] [She is angry] [strevle (because)] [you said that] [We went to the store] [glegne (instead of)] [we went to the festival] [I will go out] [vlesestre (although)] [I am tired] - When used as prepositions, they go after a clause and before a noun or noun phrase: [I don't want any food] [sepse (except)] [meat] [I have been tired] [fnekre (since)] [the party] [They will clean the kitchen] [zrekre (after)] [dinner] [He won't come out] [stekre (until)] [nighttime] [I walked] [krechme (during)] [the evening] [She is angry] [strevle (because of)] [the thing you said] [We went to the store] [glegne (instead of)] [the festival] [I will go out] [vlesestre (in spite of)] [my tiredness] *************************************************************************