Fevornian - a non-Romance Italic language on the shores of the Danube

[þeprussianfrog]

Some basic verbs

шꙓгу [ʃegu] - cut, 1st conj.
дꙓшю [dʲeʃu] - learn, 3rd conj. with OSP
пꙓпу [pʲepu] - cook, 3rd conj.
биву [bʲivu] - live, 3rd conj.
инаву [inavu] - put clothes on, dress up, 3rd conj.
ѣхаву [exavu] - take clothes off, undress, 3rd conj.
сарби [sarbʲi] - drink, 2nd conj.
ѣѕу [eðu] - eat, 3rd conj.
карду [kardu] - love (romantically), 1st conj.
довю [dovʲu] - give, 3rd conj. with OSP
прину [prʲinu] - take, 3rd conj.
клꙓбу [kʎebu] - steal, 3rd conj.
шꙓѕи [ʃeðʲi] - sit, 2nd conj.
шꙓсту [ʃestu] - stand, 3rd conj.
ымꙓру [ɨmʲeru] - walk, go, 1st conj.
фоѕу [foðu] - move, 3rd conj.
карзу [karzu] - run, 3rd conj.

[Glenn]

One minor question: does Fevornian have any stress rules for words and/or phrases? I reviewed the thread to date, and did not see any information about stress or prosody.

[þeprussianfrog]

One minor question: does Fevornian have any stress rules for words and/or phrases? I reviewed the thread to date, and did not see any information about stress or prosody.

Oh yeah, stress! Gonna write a quick description.

[þeprussianfrog]

Stress

Stress in Fevornian is generally fixed on the antepenultimate syllable: пꙓ-ло-рэгс, дꙓ-гы-мес, шꙓ-шюс, etc.
In compounds, typically, primary stress falls on the antepenultimate of the final component, and secondary stress falls on the antepenultimate of the other word(s): лыжчꙓвꙓх.
Some loanwords, typically recent, have stress retained from the original language: ба-нанс.
Small words such as most pronouns and adpositions typically don't have distinct stress and are produced as "parts" of the larger words.
Also, Fevornian is syllable-timed.

As for phrasal stress, as mentioned in the first post, stress in the phrase usually indicates emphasis on this word

Ѣх фать. - I (am a) bear (I and not someone else).
vs
Ѣх фать. - I (am a) bear (and not a wolf).

(Also, the pronoun "I", as most personal pronouns, can lose distinct stress in some phrases, usually long ones where pronoun isn't the emphasis; but in this short one, it is distinctly stressed).

Edit: forgot to add that schwa cannot be stressed.

[þeprussianfrog]

Declension paradigms

For nouns, adjectives, numerals, Fevornian has similar declension paradigms, originating from Proto-Italic.

5 cases are distinct: nominative, vocative, accusative, genitive-dative (usually called genitive), ablative.
(In pronouns, genitive and dative are distinct, but there's expectedly no vocative).

While Proto-Italic had a large proportion of consonant-stem nouns, Fevornian has most of them reanalysed as more regular vowel-stems.

!OSP (Obligatory Stem Palatalization)
Palatalization of the final consonant of the stem in Fevornian is usually determined by the inflectional morpheme: пегс (nom.sg.), пеꙉи (gen.sg.). However, in some words (most originating from Proto-Italic *-ios, *-iā, *-iom), the final consonant is always palatalized, and the inflectional morpheme is determined according to this. Distinction in OSP is present in ā- and o-stems; i-stems and consonant stems always have it, and u-stems never have it.
In the tables of ā/o-stems provided below, distinct OSP forms are italicised. For the cases where there's no italicised form, both OSP and non-OSP subtypes have the same inflectional morpheme.

!Fleeting schwa
Due to dropping of the vowel from some inflectional morphemes in Fevornian (nom.sg. masc o-stem ending in -с vs Proto-Italic *-os, for example), clusters of 3+ consonants formed in some cases. To split them, a schwa is inserted between the consonants, specifically after the first, before the second. In other cases, though, it is dropped. As an example, compare огэрс (nom.sg) and огри (gen.sg.).
Fleeting schwa can be found in acc.pl. of ā-stems, as well as in nom.sg. and acc.pl. of masculine o-stems. As mentioned before, not all of those words have it; only those that would end up in a consonant cluster if not for the schwa insertion.

ā-stems (declension I)
Includes mostly feminine nouns. Generally a simple declension type, with only two subparadigms: non-OSP and OSP.

NOM.SG. -ꙓ PL. -ес
VOC.SG. -а -я PL. -ес
ACC.SG. -и PL. -с -∅
GEN.SG. -ес PL. -озу -ꙩзу
ABL.SG. -ꙓд PL. -ис

o-stems (declension II)
Includes mostly masculine and neuter nouns. Has many subparadigms, including OSP and non-OSP.

Masculine nouns that retain the nom.sg. ending -с typically have a plosive, nasal, approximant or rhotic final consonant of the stem (or some of the fricatives, such as ф, в). They're always non-OSP.

NOM.SG. -с PL. -ус
VOC.SG. -ꙓ PL. -ус
ACC.SG. -у PL. -с
GEN.SG. -и PL. -узу
ABL.SG. -уд PL. -ис

Masculine nouns with zero nom.sg. ending typically have a fricative or affricate final consonant of the stem, or originate from specific old paradigms such as *-ios. They can be OSP!

NOM.SG. -∅ PL. -ус -юс
VOC.SG. -ꙓ PL. -ус -юс
ACC.SG. -у -ю PL. -∅
GEN.SG. -и PL. -узу -юзу
ABL.SG. -уд -юд PL. -ис

A special category is the nouns where nom.sg. ends in a dental fricative (ѳ, ѕ). The reason is, some of these words do have the dental fricative in the stem, and so are typical zero nom.sg. words; but others have plosives т д in the stems and come from the sound change that turned [ts dz] into [θ ð], merging the inflectional morpheme with the stem. These cannot be told apart in nom.sg. and must be distinguished by the oblique cases.

An example of the plosive-stem dental fricative-ending noun is финѳ "wind". The oblique cases (except acc.pl., which is identical to nom.sg.) will all have т in their stems: финтус, финтузу, финти, etc. These words don't have OSP.

The zero-ending example is срыѳ "magpie". The oblique cases will all have ѳ in their stems: срыѳус, срыѳузу, срыѳи, etc. Such words may have OSP, similarly to the other zero-ending nouns.

Neuter o-stem nouns only have an OSP subparadigm. Note that vocative and accusative in neuter words are identical to nominative.

NOM.SG. -у -ю PL. -ꙓ
VOC.SG. -у -ю PL. -ꙓ
ACC.SG. -у -ю PL. -ꙓ
GEN.SG. -и PL. -узу -юзу
ABL.SG. -уд -юд PL. -ис

i-stems and consonant stems (declension III)

All of these nouns have OSP. Most of them are i-stems nowadays; only 3 productive consonant-stem paradigms are retained.

i-stem masculines and feminines

NOM.SG. -ес PL. -ꙓс
VOC.SG. -ꙓ PL. -ꙓс
ACC.SG. -и PL. -ес
GEN.SG. -ис PL. -ю
ABL.SG. -ид PL. -ꙓв

i-stem neuters

NOM.SG. -∅ PL. -ꙓ
VOC.SG. -∅ PL. -ꙓ
ACC.SG. -∅ PL. -ꙓ
GEN.SG. -ис PL. -ю
ABL.SG. -ид PL. -ꙓв

Consonant-stems in -дир/-тр usually indicate family members and are nearly always masculine or feminine. An example is the declension of модир "mother".

NOM.SG. модир PL. мотрꙓс
VOC.SG. мотря PL. мотрꙓс
ACC.SG. мотри PL. мотрес
GEN.SG. мотрис PL. мотрю
ABL.SG. мотрꙓ PL. мотрꙓв

Consonant-stems in -∅/-ꙓж are practically always neuter. An example is the declension of карф "corpse".

NOM.SG. карф PL. карфꙓжꙓ
VOC.SG. карф PL. карфꙓжꙓ
ACC.SG. карф PL. карфꙓжꙓ
GEN.SG. карфꙓжис PL. карфꙓжю
ABL.SG. карфꙓжꙓ PL. карфꙓжꙓв

Consonant stems in -мо/-ним are neuter. An example is the declension of шимо "seed".

NOM.SG. шимо PL. шинимꙓ
VOC.SG. шимо PL. шинимꙓ
ACC.SG. шимо PL. шинимꙓ
GEN.SG. шинимис PL. шинимю
ABL.SG. шинимꙓ PL. шинимꙓв

Technically, there's also the declension of comparative adjectives which belongs to this category, but it will be described separately.

u-stems are a relatively uncommon category in the modern language, mostly including masculine and neuter nouns.

u-stem masculines

NOM.SG. -ос PL. -ус
VOC.SG. -ос PL. -ус
ACC.SG. -ы PL. -ос
GEN.SG. -ус PL. -у
ABL.SG. -ыд PL. -ов

u-stem neuters

NOM.SG. -о PL. -ꙓ
VOC.SG. -о PL. -ꙓ
ACC.SG. -о PL. -ꙓ
GEN.SG. -ус PL. -у
ABL.SG. -ыд PL. -ов

[þeprussianfrog]

A brief note on the Danube

The river Danube, obviously, is of grand cultural and mythological significance to the Fevornians. It is called by many names, the most common of which are the official, geographical Дунорес [dunorʲəs] and the poetic and cultural Ѣстэрс [estərs],́ or just Дуно [duno] (дуно means river in general, and capitalised would have an equivalent meaning to The River).
Both Дунорес and Ѣстэрс are of common gender; they may agree as masculine, feminine or neuter. Notably, Danube's personification, the deity, also called Ѣстэрс, is seen as androgynous. (The word дуно, and it's capitalised form meaning Danube, is neuter.)

[þeprussianfrog]

(Fixed a small mistake unnoticed at first in one previous post.)

[þeprussianfrog]

Basic kinship terms

модир “mother”
падир “father”
одир “daughter”
повꙓрс “son”
фꙓзрꙓ “sister”
родир “brother”
фꙓрꙓрс “husband”
морꙓрꙓ “wife”
фоѕꙓрс “child”
карындаш “sibling”
парынѳ “parent”
овꙓ “aunt”
овс “uncle”
нынꙓ “grandmother”
шинавс “grandfather”
фнукс “grandchild”

[þeprussianfrog]

A little piece of poetry in Fevornian!

Кындорс олэбс, шидꙓфарс,
Карзꙓс ты трос строди.
Кындорс олэбс, мыжꙓгабс,
Фрꙓгаржꙓ дымуj ты.

parsing

cat-NOM.SG white-NOM.MASC.SG., whiskerbearer-NOM.SG
run-IND.PRES.2SG thou-NOM.SG across street-ACC.SG
cat-NOM.SG white-NOM.MASC.SG, mousecatcher-NOM.SG
run back-IMPER.PRES.SG home-ACC.SG+into thou-NOM.SG

literal translation

White cat, whisker-bearer,
You run across the street.
White cat, mouse-catcher,
Return back to home.

poetic translation (well, more like, an attempt of one)

My little kitty, my white cat,
You ran away again.
Return back home, catcher of rats,
Don't scurry down the lane.

[þeprussianfrog]

Adjective declension

Adjectives in Fevornian decline in the same way as nouns, but with no inherent gender (taking gender from the associated noun instead and thus having either 3 (masculine, feminine, neuter) or 2 (masculine+feminine, neuter) forms).

As of declension types, there are 3 main ones:
ā/o-stem adjectives, which decline like o-stem masculine nouns when masculine, ā-stem nouns when feminine or o-stem neuter nouns when neuter and thus have 3 gender forms.
i-stem adjectives, which decline like i-stem masculines/feminines when masculine or feminine, or like i-stem neuters when neuter, and thus have 2 gender forms.
u-stem adjectives, which Fevornian retains, unlike, for example, Latin. Identically to i-stems, they have identical masculine/feminine forms and distinct neuter, and these forms are identical to masculine (and rare feminine) and neuter u-stem nouns.
There are practically none consonant-stem adjectives in the positive degree, but the comparative degree is consonant-stem.

Degrees of comparison
Fevornian has 3 degrees of comparison - positive, comparative and superlative, similarly to English, but it also has 2 intensive forms: positive intensive and superlative intensive, which are formed by stem reduplication.

Positive degree is used when not comparing entities.

Positive intensive is used when being emphatic on the quality of something. Not just "fast" but "very fast", not "big" but "very big". It is formed via stem reduplication; in case of the stem ending in a consonant (most usually), the interfix vowel would be the same as one in compound nouns, typically -ꙓ-. For example, олэбс "white" - олбꙓолэбс "very white, saturated white".

Comparative degree is used when comparing entities: "X is faster/bigger/stronger/redder/whatever adjective than Y". It is formed by suffixation and is a consonant-stem, retained from Proto-Italic, and has a unique declension (with 2 gender form: masculine+feminine and neuter being distinct).

Masculine/feminine

NOM.SG -юс PL -ꙓжꙓс
VOC.SG -юс PL -ꙓжꙓс
ACC.SG -ꙓжи PL -ꙓжес
GEN.SG -ꙓжис PL -ꙓжю
ABL.SG -ꙓжꙓ PL -ꙓжꙓв

Neuter

NOM.SG -ес PL -ꙓжꙓ
VOC.SG -ес PL -ꙓжꙓ
ACC.SG -ес PL -ꙓжꙓ
GEN.SG -ꙓжис PL -ꙓжю
ABL.SG -ꙓжꙓ PL -ꙓжꙓв

Superlative degree is used when the entity is compared with multiple entities and exceeds all of them in a certain quality: "the fastest", "the biggest", "the best". It is formed by adding suffixes -ꙓсымс (m), -ꙓсымꙓ (f), -ꙓсыму (n) to the adjective stem; it will, then, decline like an ā-/o-stem.

Superlative intensive is a particularly interesting feature that puts absolute emphasis onto the superlative, most often used in constructions with emotional or expressive connotations, and generally meaning "the superlative of superlatives", expressing something that cannot be exceeded in its quantity: "the very best", "the very most important". It is formed by adding the superlative suffix to the positive intensive: олбꙓолбꙓсымс "the very whitest, as white as something can possibly be".

Examples of usage of all the adjective degrees of comparison:

Positive
Луз соѕ. - The flower is yellow.

Positive intensive
Илунꙓ шинꙓшинес! - The turtle is very slow!

Comparative
Фатьпꙓ сыспꙓ артꙓжꙓс уруд. - Both the bear and the boar are stronger than the wolf.

Superlative
Олꙓсындэрс - нꙓрс блꙓсымс риспаплꙓꙉꙓди. - Alexander is the fattest man in the republic.

Superlative intensive
Ѣх сталѳꙓсталѳꙓсымс! - I am the very stupidest!
(Aka, what I'm saying to myself when I make a mistake.)

[hwhatting]

One adjective-like class that had consonant stems in PIE were the present active participles. Are they retained in Fevornian? And if yes, did they keep some consonant stem forms (like in Latin) or did they fully move to i-stem declension?

[þeprussianfrog]

One adjective-like class that had consonant stems in PIE were the present active participles. Are they retained in Fevornian? And if yes, did they keep some consonant stem forms (like in Latin) or did they fully move to i-stem declension?

The *-nts participles are retained, and they turned thematic in declension, as did most consonant-stems.
They become i-stems indeed.