lesson one - terse hatto Pronunciation. The pronunciation and writing system of Vaior are both fairly straightforward for a speaker of one of the Indo-European languages: p b f v m t d th n l c g ch h s rh r P, b, f, v, m have a standard continental European pronunciation: so, p is not aspirated, unlike English. T, d, n, l are as expected, and th is pronounced as in the English or Arabic voiceless th, as in thin. C, g, h are as expected, again without aspiration on c, and ch is pronounced as in the German or Scottish ach. S is as expected, though never voiced (i.e., never sounds like a z) and r is a flap, but may be trilled in emphasized words, when two occur together or at the beginning of a word for people prone to that sort of thing. Rh can be pronounced as a voiceless, rolled r but is most commonly pronounced as a very retroflex (tongue pointed way back) English sh. i a u e o ai au Again, these take standard continental pronunciation: a as in father, e as in bed, i as in machine, o as in know (pure as in Spanish: no glide to an "oo" sound as in English) and u as in rude. The only official diphthongs are ai pronounced like fire and au as in house. Sometimes you will see ei but this is technically pronounced as two distinct syllables, though in rapid speech this may not be apparent. The biggest confusion will come when it falls at the end of a word, in which case it results in what looks at first glance like a break of the accent rules. See a bit below for more on the accent issue. When found before another vowel i and u are pronounced as /j/ and /w/ respectively (for English speakers, /j/ is a "y"). So, lian is pronounced as a single syllable. If, however, the vowel is to retain its full vocalic quality, it is marked with an accute accent. So lían is pronounced basically like /`li-an/ or, more likely, /`li-jan/ (or, for English speakers: LEE-ahn). Remember that the accent marks a change in how the vowel is treated, and does not mark an actual change in where the stress accent of the word goes. Vaior has stress accent. So, in each word there will be one syllable pronounced more loudly than the rest. Normally, this falls on the penultimate syllable, that is, the next from last. So, airenen accents the syllable ren: aiRENen. The only apparent exception to the penult accent rule is when a word ends in ei. Since this is not an "official" diphthong, the accent falls on the e. So, a word like tuarei will sound /twa-'rej/, with the accent seeming to be final. Technically, it is tua-RE-i, but the e and i glide together very easily. Finally, if a word ends in -nn, -mm, -ll, -rr, -ss or -rrh the accent will be on the last syllable of the word. introductory conversation For the most part, Vaior is not a wildly formal language. Though there are of course register differences (informal talk with friends vs. a speech to a committee), which are represented primarily by changes in syntax and a few changes in vocabulary. Also, certain set phrases in common use that have to do with greeting, introducing and meeting people often sound quite formal when translated, but shouldn't be taken so. They're set phrases, fossilized into a formal mode. First, two friends meet: Nico: Arau, e Sein! Hi, Jane Sein: Arau, e Nico! Han ciaro sa? Hi, Dick. How are you? N: Ciaro va. Han sa? I'm well. You? S: Ciar andu. Very well. (Neither of the names "Dick" or "Jane" work very well in Vaior, so I have adjusted them to fit the phonology of the language). Arau is the standard, informal greeting between people who already know each other, or in deliberately informal contexts. The more formal greeting is saremon. When speaking to someone, you cannot just say, "Hi, Jane." You must put the little vocative particle e before the person's name. If you're using a title only, then it goes before that. Any statement in Vaior can be turned into a question by putting the word han at the head of it. So, han sa ciaro is really asking "are you well/in good health?" where sa means "you" and ciaro means "be in good health/spirits" and is from the root stem CIAR which may also be used on its own as an adjective. If you know va means "I," then it's clear that ciaro va means "I am well." In many I-E languages you can turn a word into a question by a simple change in pitch inflection on the word. Vaior doesn't allow this, so to say "you?" requires the question marker: han sa? Finally, andu means "very." In Vaior in general adverbs follow the thing they modify. There are a few exceptions, of course, and those will be noted as they appear. As mentioned above, the root stem CIAR (verbal/adjective stems will always appear in all-caps) may be used on its own as an adjective, which it does in the phrase ciar andu, "very well." introductions Next, we'll add another person to the mix known to Jane but not Dick, Sue. Since Dick and Sue don't know each other they will add politeness modifiers after each other's names when speaking. The most commonly used one is nath, which may either follow someone's name or which may be used alone in place of the second person pronoun in abbreviated phrases. The dialog below will be explained largely in terms of set phrases. The grammar of these will be taken up in later lessons. Sein: Airenen, e Nico nath! Han ciaro sa? Hello, Dick. How are you? Nico: Airenen, e Sein nath! Ciar andu. Han nath? Hello, Jane. (I'm) very well. And you? Sein: Ciaro va. I'm well. Nico: E Su nath, feldaninimm va Seinan saste úai. (Sue,) I'd like to introduce Jane (to you) Su: Ardo va feldol san, e nath. I'm honored to meet you(, Sue). Sein: Ilo ardia an felden nualan. There is honor in a new meeting. Since this conversation is a bit more formal, the fuller form of "hello", airenen is used. Also, most of the sentences end or begin with some form of the honorific nath, usually in direct address with e. Note also, that quick questions, especially when elided, may use use nath as something approaching a pronoun, as in han nath and you? The standard formula for introducing person X to person Y is e Y nath, feldaninimm va X-an saste úai, Y, I wish to make-known to you X. When introduced to someone you always use some basic variation on ardo va feldol san honored to meet you. Finally, the person being introduced has a single set phrase to use at this point, which as noted above translates literally to there is honor in a new meeting, though the entire statement may be construed as "nice to meet you, too" since there is little variation in what can be said at this point.

lesson two - terse rhattinn Grammar Introduction While certainly more complex than many modern Indo-european languages, Vaior grammar shouldn't be too daunting. There are eight cases, but they are formed the same for all nouns and adjectives. The verb forms, while there are several of them, are similiarly completely regular. The only complexities for the average learner will be some of the language's syntax. Please let me know if an explanation is unclear. The derivational system is where Vaior becomes most complex, and each lesson after this one will introduce several derivations. You will need to consult the grammar for the full list. In some cases there will be sets of derivational affixes which look redundant. The most striking feature of Vaior's system in this regard is that many shades of attitude and mood are marked in these affixes. Thus, the apparent redundancy. The simple sentence. Indentification. The most useful question for any new language learner: So ie the? what is this: s-o ie the? is-PRES this what? Unlike English and many other Germanic and Romance languages, Vaior does not alter the word order of a sentence for a question. (One may say the so ie, but this strongly emphasizes the what part: what is this?!) The simple, indicative present tense is marked simply by suffixing -o to the verb stem. In sentence analyses I will show this as -PRES. S to be so is, are, am LER to go lero go, goes PENTH to sleep pentho sleep, sleeps To form the past (-PAST), simply replace -o with -ai and to form the future (-FUT), replace -o with -u. So, pentho va, penthai va, penthu va I sleep, I slept, I will sleep. The dictionary form of verb stems will always be written in all capital letters. I will define these in the English infinitive (to go, etc.) though there are in fact separate infinitive forms in Vaior. Now that we can ask what something is, it would be nice to know the answer: So ie carme. This is a book. So ase las. That is a tree. So ie tuhath. This is a (work)table. So ase rauath.That is a (dining)table. Note that the words for this and that can be used two ways: so ie viare this is here and so ie carme viare this book is here. Given the normal Vaior word order, this could be a little ambiguous sometimes: so ie carme could be taken to mean this is a book or this book is.. The last translation doesn't make sense on it's own, so the first meaning will be taken. If ambiguity could really arise, you can move the pronoun to the head of the sentence, which emphasizes it a bit: ie so mave this is a door. What if there are several things in question? The plural of nouns, adjectives and determiners are all formed the same. If the word ends in a vowel, add a -r to the end; if it ends in a consonant, add -ir. So: So ier ther What are these? So ier carmer These are books. So aser lasir Those are trees. Notice that the verb, so, isn't changed at all for plural subjects. Gender and Pronouns. We've already seen a few Vaior pronouns (va - I, sa - you). There are the usual complement, which are given the the table below. There are some others, but we'll get to those later. va - I mir - we (excl) vachir - we (incl) sa - you sir - you na - s/he nir - they en - it ir - they First, notice that there are two words for we. The exclusive form is used when the person you're speaking to isn't included in the group specified by we, and the inclusive form is used when the person you're speaking to is. Notice that there are two third person pronouns in each number. The na/nir forms are used when speaking of animate, sexed creatures, including humans. The en/ir forms are used everywhere else, including for things like trees and amoeba which are technically alive but grammatically inanimate. The. In general, Vaior nouns are not marked for definiteness. So, when you see So rhon thare? it can mean either where is a man or where is the man as context requires. There are ways to say something like the, but it's both emphatic and somewhat rare, and so will be deferred to a later lesson. Sentences. As mentioned in the first lesson, any statement can be made a question by putting the question word han at the front of it. If you have a question word, like thare where, then you don't need han. You can answer yes/no questions with seri yes or lo/lúo no: Han so rhon viare? I the man here? Seri, so viare Yes, he is here. So rhon thare Where is the man? (lit., "is the man where?") So na nare. He is there. Finally, to negate a sentence, use the negative particle lu not. While lu can pop up all over a sentence, for now just put it at the front: Han so rhon viare? I the man here? Lo, lu so viare No, he is not here. So rhon thare Where is the man? Lu so viare. He is not here. Han lu so ase carme? Is that not a book? Seri, lu so carme. Yes, it is not a book. Han lu so rhon nare? Is the man not there? Lúo, so na nare. No, he is there. Please note carefully that in Vaior you answer han questions at the statement level. This is different from English, which should be clear from the last four examples above. This is no problem with positive questions, but answering negated questions requires a little care. It may help to translate han as is it true that... before answering negated questions. Lesson Vocabulary. Nouns carme - book las - tree maith - human, person mave - door rauath - (dining) table rhon - man tath - woman tuhath - (work) table vin - child; offspring (human) vinach - son; boy vinne - daughter; girl Verbs LER - go PAI - know (things, not people), understand PENTH - sleep S - be Demonstratives, Pronouns a, au - this (anim.) ase - that (inan.) asu - that (anim.) ie - this (inan.) the - what (inan.) tha - who (anim.) Silhothir airu - now ais - still, yet lo, lúo - no (lúo is most used in careful speech, lo is by far more common) lu - not nare - there seri - yes thare - where úeru - soon viare - here Notes: For the animate "this", a, au you use a only when the next word starts with a consonant. Before vowels, you use au. Also, when you're using "this" as an independent word, "this is a man," instead of as a modifier, "this man," you'll also use au. For example: So a rhon viare. The man is here. So au rhon. This is a man. Penthu au astia úeru. This friend will sleep soon. Exercises. Tersia Pentho vin. Lu pentho a vinne airu. Lu paio va. Han lu paio tath? Penthu va úeru. Sai rhon ais viare. Su vinir thare? Han so vinne nare? Seri, so na nare. Han lu so tathir ais viare? Lo, so nir ais viare. Han lu paiai sir? Seri, lu paiai mir. Han leru na ais? Mave so thare? (note emphasis in translation) Han sai carme nare? Lo, sai en viare. Lero a rhon airu. Han so aser carmer viare? Penthu a tath úeru nare. Where is the (dining) table? Is the girl here? No, she isn't. The person will sleep soon. This woman went. That man still doesn't know. She will go soon. Where is that book? The (work) table is still here. The boy didn't sleep here. Did that girl not go? Yes, she went. (Warning: this is a trick question. Get "yes" and "no" right.) Are you not here? No, I'm not here. (another trick) Tíoria 2

lesson three - terse senio Grammar Cases. Vaior has eight cases: nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, locative, ablative, benefactive and instrumental. These cases function as you'd expect in most situations, with the nominative the subject of sentences, the accusative the patient of focus of transitive verbs, etc. Of course, the cases have other uses which I'll bring up as needed. The instrumental in paricular gets quite a workout in Vaior. I give the full list below, but I will save the explanation of some of the cases for the next chapter. Vaior has a single declension pattern. There are no irregularities in the endings, and they're even used for both singular and plural nouns. Keeping in mind that illegal consonant clusters are broken with a, the declension for all nouns and adjectives is quite reqular: Case Ending Nominatve - Accusative -n Genitive -i Dative -ste Locative -ss(e) Ablative -ll(e) Benefactive -nte Instrumental -ul, but -vul for V stems All nouns, pronouns and adjectives are declined this way. The only tricky part comes in when you deal with plurals. As noted in the last lesson, a noun is made plural simply by suffixing -r to a word ending in a vowel and -ir to one ending in a consonant: nal stone nalir; mave door maver. When you add any case suffix, however, the helping vowel -i- goes away in the consonant ending nouns. So, the genitive plural of nal is nalri not *naliri. Here are two fully declined nouns: mave maver nal nalir maven maveran nalan nalran mavei maveri nali nalri maveste maveraste nalaste nalraste mavesse maverasse nalasse nalrasse mavelle maveralle nalalle nalralle mavente maverante nalante nalrante mavevul maverul nalul nalrul Note two things. First, keep in mind for words ending in -e that ei is not a proper diphthong in Vaior, so it is pronounced sort of like eh-ee. That means the accent for the genitive singular of door is accented on the syllable in upper case: maVEi. Since the e and i glide together easily, this sounds like (in English pseudo-phonetics): mah VAY Finally, the locative and ablative may drop the final -e. This is the main application of the rule that when a word ends in a double consonant, it is accented on the last syllable: mavelle mah-VEHL-leh and mavell mah-VEL. Pronouns take the case endings, too, so the dative of va is simply vaste. There are a few irregularities with a/au and ie we'll save for a later lesson. Use of the cases. While the base meanings and uses of the cases are quite straightforward, some of the cases have multiple uses. For example, the accusative indicates not only the direct object of a verb but indicates destination after prepositions and verbs of motion (lerai va naren I went there). We'll start with the basic meanings of the cases below, then the meanings related to motion. The exotica I'll save for later. Subjects of sentences use the nominative case. Nouns of direct address are also in the nominative following the vocative particle e: Paio va. I know. Arau, e Líam! Hi, William! The accusative is used for the direct object of most verbs. If some other case is required it will be noted in the vocabularies. (This usually happens with verbs which have been compounded with prepositions - these take the case required by the preposition. More on this later.) Tuaro va san. I see you. Han paiai sa asen? Did you understand that? Faunai vin asen maven. A child shut that door. Notice that pronouns like ase, even when it is being used with another word, must also take the case endings. Since "that door" is the direct object of the last sentence of the example above, both parts must be in the accusative, asen maven. This principle holds for all cases and the pronouns. It also holds for the singular/plural difference: Faunai vin aseran maveran A child shut those doors The dative is used for the indirect object of verbs. In English, "to someone" when giving, offering or speaking. So: Cathu va carmen naste I will give the book to him. Evarai na asen miraste. She said that to us. Evarai na miraste asen. She said that to us. Notice that if you have both an object and a direct object they may go in either order, though having the direct object first is by far the most common. Vocabulary 3a. Nouns carme - book madathinte - pen, pencil; any writing implement which uses ink Verbs AIST - open CATH - give EVAR - say; tell FAUN - close, shut LAIRH - know (a person, not facts and information). madath - write (derived, not root stem) TUAR - see Silhothir ach - "and" only connects nouns Exercises 3a. Tersia 3a. Aisto na maven. Cathai sa asen carmen vaste. Han tuaro sa asun tathan? Faunu va maven. Cathai na carmen ach madathinten vaste. Evaru mir siraste úeru. Evarai va asen niraste. Han lairho nir san? Madathu sa then vaste? Han lu lairho asu rhon san? Lo, lairho na van. She will tell you soon. The woman opened the door. What did they write? They do not see that pen. Did he know that person? Tíoria More cases. When something is done on someone's behalf, or for their benefit, the benefactive case is used: Aisto va maven nante. I open (the) door for him. Cathai asu rhon carmen vaste mirante That man gave a book to me for us. Both the locative and the ablative are used primarily to indicate spatial (or temporal) location: the locative indicates resting location (hence the name) and the ablative indicates motion away from. As mentioned above, the accusative is used to indicate motion to or toward something. Note that adverbs of location, such as nare and thare, may take case endings, though there is no need to use the locative with those. Some examples (aldove - home, house): Lero sa tharen? (To) where are you going. Lero va aldoven. I'm going home Lerai na tath narelle. The woman went from there. Lerai na tath naren. The woman went (to) there. Notice that whenever motion is involved you must use the correct case marking. A sentence like *lerai va nare would mean something like I went (while I was) there. The default significance of the location adverbs in -re is location without motion, so you don't really need the locative with nare, viare and friends, but you can use it in situations when you really want to emphasize the location: Silhai va viaresse I stood here. Prepositions of location and motion, such as an in, into and auvi before, in front of, will govern nouns in the appropriate motion case, too. So, an milan means into (the) room, an milasse means inside (the) room and auvi mevelle means from in front of (the) door. Take care to use the correct case forms with prepositions. an milan into the room an milasse in(side) the room an milalle from in the room auvi milan to the front of the room auvi milasse in front of the room, before the room auvi milalle from in front of the room Notice an milalle, which might be surprising at first. The preposition conveys the idea of "in, inside" but in this case it has gone with the ablative, motion away from. Thus, it means "from inside the room." Of course, there is another way to say that, using ol which has the idea of "out of," but using an with the ablative really emphasizes the the motion is coming out from inside of something. So, always keep in mind the fundamental motion meaning of the cases when you see them with prepositions of location. If you only notice the preposition, then ignore the case, you might assume an milalle means something like "into the room" or "inside the room" which is incorrect. Vocabulary 3b. Nouns aldove - house; home hol - chair, seat (generic, anything for sitting in or on) mil - room penthimile - bedroom Verbs apei- - sit down, seat oneself SILH - stand, stay; remain TAL - come Silhothir an prep. - in, inside of, into apinu - today auvi prep. - in front of, before ei, eia - or lervinu - yesterday tavinu - tomorrow One final note before the exercises: when you have phrases describing both time and place, in Vaior the phrase describing time will come first. So leru va tavinu naren I will go there tomorrow, or, more literally I will go tomorrow there. Exercises 3b. Tersia 3b. Silho ie hol viare. Talai nir tharelle? Silho na auvi aldovesse. Han silhu sa viare ei nare? Han lu talu na tavinu viaren? Lerai nir an milan. Pentho na asesse milasse. (ase-sse = in this) Leru vin penthimilen. Silho tha auvi aldovesse? Han talu sa viarelle? Han lerai vinne auvi holan ei tuhathan? Lu silhai va lervinu naresse. Talai mir tharen? Apeiai vin an penthimilesse. (From) where did you (pl) go? The man remained there. The girl went (to the) front of the house. The woman will go to that home tomorrow. He stands in front of the door. She came from the room. Is he here or there? We are sitting in a room. The boy went from there yesterday. Where are you going? That man stands before the door. Tíoria We'll discuss the uses of the instrumental the next lesson. Derivational affixes. Vaior is quite rich in derivational suffixes available to it. Most derivation takes place by suffixes, which may pile up substantially, but there is a very productive core set of prefixes. When defining these I will use 'X' to stand for the base meaning of the word. For example, if -sallac- is defined as "to suddenly stop X-ing", then tuarsallacai va means I suddenly stopped seeing. As you can see, Vaior derivational suffixes often have quite complex meanings, at least compared to other languages you might be familiar with, although the standard complement, causatives, diminutives and the like, are also present. From now on each lesson will include several derivational sufixes. This one will start with the various ways of switching between nouns, adjectives, etc, as well as a few more interesting lexical derivations. First, I have to discuss some of the rules for when the suffixes need a helping vowel and when they do not. You'll note in the example of -sallac- above that this suffix was attached directly to the stem. In the case of AIST, aistasallacai na she suddenly stopped opening, a helping -a- is needed. The rules for when you must use a euphonic -a- below all apply when the stem ends in a consonant. In the future, we'll see some vowel-ending stems, and I'll mention the rules for them at that time. If the suffix starts with a single consonant: if the stem ends in two consonants, use -a- (aist- + -tuv- > aistatuv-) if the stem ends in p, t, c, b, d, g, h or v, use -a- (ap- + -tuv- > apatuv-) If a stem ends in a liquid (l, r), a nasal (n, m) no helping vowel is necessary (tuar- + -sallac- > tuarsallac-), If the stem ends in a fricative consonant (s, rh, th, f, ch), you don't need the helping vowel unless the affix starts with b, g, d, h or v, (madath- + -dim- > madathadim-, but madath- + -tuv- > madathtuv-). For the linguisticky types, this means fricatives may not join with stops or fricatives of different voicing. If the suffix starts with two consonants you always need the helping -a- (tuar- + -mbov- > tuarambov-) For a much more detailed look at the rules of euphony, see this. While nouns can end in various ways, derived and compound nouns will almost always end in -e. Also, you can tack -e to the end of a verb stem to get an action noun: tuare (the act of) seeing. We'll discuss adjectives later. Some nouns end in -e by default, for example, mave. This is only because words are not allowed to end in v, generally. When adding suffixes to these nouns, drop the -e first. Derivational Affixes. Here is our first set: -ati- - diminutive, "small." So, mil becomes mil-ati-e small room. Notice how you have to add the -e since this is a noun. You can suffix this to verbs, in which case it means something like "a little bit:" tuaratio va asen I saw that a little bit. -om- - augmentive, "large." So, aldovome large house, mansion. Again, you can use this with verbs, meaning something like "a lot, greatly, very much:" pionomai na carmen he read book greatly. er- - intentional. This is a prefix. It is attached to verbs and indicates that the action was performed with intent. Thus tuaro va means I see but ertuaro va means I look. -tuv- - desiderative, "want/wish to X." This will be strange for most people. Rather than using a separate word to say "I want to go" Vaior uses a suffix in this case (when you say "I want him to go" there is another construction): lertuvo va. You can pile affixes up, so long as they make sense: ertuaratituvai va enan I wanted to look (at) it a little bit: er - tuar - ati -tuv -ai va enan. INTENT- see - DIMIN-WANT-PAST I it. The suffixes will apply their meaning to the meaning of everything "to the left." So, ertuartuvatiai va enan means I wanted a little bit to look (at) it. Here are some examples of the affixes in use: Han lertuvo sa aldoven? Do you wish to go home? Piono na carmatien. She reads a booklet. Piontuvo va asen carmomen saste. I want to give this tome (big book) to you. Vocabulary 3c. Nouns dive - bed tollatie - village tolle - town tollin - city Verbs CORH - hear Exercises 3c. Tersia 3c. Silhatuvo va viare. Ercorhu na vachiran. Madathatituvai va naste. Silhatuvo asu rhon an aldovomesse. Talai nir auvi milalle. Lertuvai va lervinu an tollinan. Penthatiu na vinatie úeru. Ertuarai asu tath then? Han lertuvo na ais naren? Han lairho sa asun rhonan? Seri, lairhatio va nan. Silhatuvo va apinu an divesse. Lu fauntuvai vinner maven. Cathtuvo va saste asen carmen ach aseran madathinteran. Lu ertuartuvo va asen. I wanted to listen to you(pl) yesterday. Did he go into the cottage (small house)? They wish to come to the town tomorrow. Do you wish to remain here now? The woman gave that man a booklet. Where did that person wish to go? I do not wish to sleep here now. The girl wishes to write to the boy. He didn't want to know me. She will want to read the tome tomorrow. The boys didn't want to sleep in that bed. Tíoria

You may wish to print out the summary of words and grammatical markers learned in these first lessons.

vocabulary Here is the vocabulary used in the first four lessons in the examples or dialogs but which don't occur in the lesson vocabularies. airenen excl Hello, Good bye (used in both formal and informal contexts) alles n. "forest," typically the mountain, evergreen variety andu adv. "very" arau excl "Hi!" (informal greeting; etym. uncertain) ARD (arda) v.st. to be honored/honorable; this is a little more complex than the expected meaning in English. It refers not only to respect or high estimation and reverence but to the reasons for it, specifically skill, intelligence, flexibility and good humor in the face of disaster and idiocy; the notion of ardu implies a high respect for potentials as well. ardu honor ardia honorable action CATH v.tr. give CIAR v.st. "be well, in good health/spirits" han part question marker, prefixed to a statement LAT v.tr "thank" latia n. "thanks, gratitude" latiaren excl "Thank you." sa pron "you" terse n. lesson (etym. uncertain) tersia n. practice, exercise of knowledge TUV v.tr "want" va pron "I"