Atiriníl is a highly analytic and mostly isolating language devoid of inflectional affixes, with a front heavy stress-accent. It is isolating except for its pronouns which are developing a rudimentary case system, and a possessive clitic. It is SOV and consistently head final. It utilizes a symmetric clause framing structure. Chronological timeline markers anchor the absolute left boundary of a clause, physical actions and aspects develop in the center and speaker modality, negation or interrogative signals cap off the absolute right boundary. It features extensive use of serial verb constructions, and lacks infinitives.
Its sound is defined by its front heavy syllable structure and complex codas in combinations of fricatives, liquids and nasals. It was designed to sound like the wind blowing through an ancient forest, as the speaker constantly exhales air when words finish.
The etymology of the word Atiriníl is from atiri meaning “the gods” and níl meaning “speech or spoken word”. Together, it is “the speech of the gods”.
Oesilith is the official script and alphabet of Atiriníl. It was introduced to increase literacy among the population and went a separate direction than Aítanagarí, which evolved from logographic symbols. There are 28 letters in the alphabet, and it is phonemic, but not narrowly phonetic. The script is compact and angular with strong horizontal structure. Each character was designed to inform the reader on how the sound is created, and so it has featural logic.
A Table of Contents
Part I: Phonology and Orthography
Part IV: Noun Phrase Structure
Last Modified:
Phonology and Orthography
Consonants
| Consonant | Type | Pronunciation |
| p | Stop | /p/ – “pack” |
| b | Stop | /b/ – “boy” |
| t | Stop | /t̪/ – “at the” Note1 |
| d | Stop | /d̪/ – “width” Note2 |
| k | Stop | /k/ – “kite” |
| g | Stop | /g/ – “goal” |
| f | Fricative | /f/ – “fire” |
| s | Fricative | /s/ – “sea” |
| th | Fricative | /θ/ – “think” |
| dh | Fricative | /ð/ – “father” Note3 |
| sh | Fricative | /ʃ/ – “ship” |
| h | Fricative | /h/ – “halt” |
| v | Fricative | /v/ “vine” |
| n | Nasal | /n/ – “nice” /n̪/ – “tenth” Note4 |
| m | Nasal | /m/ – “map” /ɱ/ – “comfort” Note 5 |
| l | Liquid | /l/ – “lift” |
| r | Liquid | /r̥/ (onset), /r/ (coda) –“perro” Note6 |
| y | Glide | /j/ – “young” |
| w | Approximant | /w/ – “wait” /w̥/ – “twin” Note7 |
| č | Affricate | /tʃ/ – “church” |
| j | Affricate | /dʒ/ – “jump” |
- /t̪/ is a ‘t’ sound that is made at the dental, that is, the tip of the tongue touches the back of the front teeth, like when saying “at the” in standard English.
- /d̪/ is a ‘d’ sound that is also made at the dental, with the tip of the tongue touching the back of the front teeth, like when saying “width” in standard English.
- /ð/ is similar to the ‘th’ sound except it is voiced, meaning that the vocal cords vibrate when saying it like in the word “the” in standard English, as opposed to the unvoiced ‘th’ /θ/ in “breath”.
- /n̪/ is a ‘n’ sound that is made at the dental, with the tip of the tongue touching the front teeth interdentally, like when saying “tenth” in standard English.
- /ɱ/ is a ‘m’ sound that is made at the dental. Instead of /m/ where the lips touch each other, the lower lip touches the upper teeth, like when saying the ‘m’ in “comfort” in standard English.
- Both /r̥/ and /r/ do not exist in the English language, however /r/ is the standard trilled ‘r’in Spanish. /r̥/ is the voiceless variant, which is pronounced as “rh” in Welsh.
/r̥/ is only spoken at the onset of a syllable. /r/ is only spoken in codas. - /w̥/ is the voiceless variant of /w/ and is said without vibrating the vocal cords, like in the words “twin” and “queen” in standard English.
Vowels
| Vowel | Pronunciation |
| a, à | /ä/ – “spa” /ə/ – “arena” Note1 |
| e | /ɛ/ – “bet” |
| i | /ɪ/ – “bit” |
| o | /o/ – “boat” |
| u | /ʊ/ – “book” /u/ – “boot” Note2 |
| í | /i/ – “bean“ |
| é | /e/ – “café“ |
- ‘a’ is normally spoken as /ä/, but in certain diphthongs it is spoken as /ə/, making the lazy “uh” sound. à is the attributive particle, but the accent does not change it’s pronunciation. It is spoken as either /ä/ or /ə/, depending on how fast the speaker is speaking or what other sounds come before or after it.
- ‘u’ is normally spoken as /ʊ/, except for the digraph ‘ou’, where it is said /uː/ like in “blue”.
Diphthongs & Digraphs
| Vowel | Pronunciation |
| ae, ai | /aɪ/- “eye” |
| ao | /ao/ – “cacao” |
| ía | /iä/ – “media” |
| ie | /ɪɛ/ (/jɛ/)- “yes” |
| ío | /ioʊ/ – “video” |
| au | /aʊ/ – “town” |
| ei | /eɪ/ – “face” |
| ea | /eə/ – “bear” |
| éo | /eoʊ/ – “mayo” |
| oe, oi | /oɪ/ – “toy” |
| ou | /uː/ – “soup” |
| ua | /ʊə/ – “cure” |
| ui | /ʊɪ/ – “gooey” |
Syllable Structure
Syllables are front heavy, with high density clusters at the onset, with restricted codas.
(C1)(C2)V(C3)(C4)
Onsets
(C1) onsets are open to any consonant. (C1C2) onset clusters are limited to the following combinations:
Fricative + Liquid
- fl, fr, sl, sr, hl, hr, shl, shr, thl, thr, dhl, dhr, vl, vr
Stop + Liquid
- pl, bl, tr, dr, kl, gl, dl
Glide + Liquid
- wl, wr
Stop + Glide
- ky
Geminate Consonants
- pp, mm, nn, tt, kk, ss
Codas and Coda Clusters
Codas follow the onset and mandatory vowel in a syllable and can either be a single consonant or a consonant cluster, using the following guidelines.
Single Codas
- (C3) Single codas can be any fricative, affricate, liquid or nasal.
- Voiceless stops -p, -k, -t are permitted as crisp unreleased closures.
- Voiced stops -d and -g are permitted.
- All others are not permitted.
Complex Coda Clusters
(C3C4) codas are permitted as nasal and fricative or liquid and nasal or fricative clusters. The following are allowed clusters:
Nasal + Fricative (n or m + f, s, th, sh, h, dh)
- nf, ns, nth, nsh, nh, ndh
- mf, ms, mth, msh, mh, mdh
Fricative + Nasal (f, s, th, sh, h, dh + n or m)
- fn, fm
- sn, sm
- thn, thm
- shn, shm
- dhn, dhm
- hn, hm
Liquid + Nasal (l or r + n or m)
- ln, lm
- rn, rm
Liquid + Fricative (l or r + f, s, th, sh, h, dh)
- lf, ls, lth, lsh, lh, ldh
- rf, rs, rth, rsh, rh, rdh
Diaresis
Some vowels may be romanized with a diaresis. This indicates that the vowel is not part of a diphthong pair with the vowel preceding it or part of the syllable before it and is spoken separately in a secondary syllable.
kiríël [ki-rí-ël] “to be graceful”
- This is not the diphthong ie /ɪɛ/, but two separate sounds, /kɪˈr̥i.ɛl /.
noön [no-ön] “iron”
- This is not pronounced /nun/, but /ˈno.on/
raeäl [rae-äl] “daughter”
- Here a vowel ‘a’ immediately proceeds a diphthong. The ‘ä’ is not part of an ea /eə/ diphthong, and so it is spoken separately: /ˈr̥aɪ.äl/.
- (Said like rye-al, not ra-ale, which would be romanized: raëal)
korädo [kor-ä-do] “shrine”
- Here a vowel ä indicates that the ‘r’ preceding it is not part of the same syllable. Similarly, because the ‘o’ is not marked with a diaresis, this implies that ‘d’ is its onset consonant. As an example, here is how each syllable would break down if the diaresis was on a different vowel.
- körado [k-o-ra-do]: Impossible, because the ‘k’ would have to stand alone as its own syllable. A syllable must have at least one vowel.
- koradö [ko-rad-ö]: Here the ‘o’ is alone, and the syllables change in structure.
- korädö [kor-äd-ö]: The diaresis changes the syllable structure again.
Front-Heavy Stress
The default stress of any Atiriníl word naturally falls on the first syllable. If a word contains a tense vowel (í or é), that syllable becomes heavy instead.
- KO-ral “mountain”
- nasa-RÍA “theory”
- vash-LÍR “to flow”
If a word contains multiple tense vowels, then the final syllable containing the vowel is stressed:
- níl-ÍTH “language”
Sentence Rhythm
Content words (nouns and verbs) take strong stress, while grammatical particles (like the tense anchor athm, the plural clitic il, or the question particle ké) are completely unstressed.
- Athm ketheam koral itharí ké?
- (unstressed) STRESS STRESS STRESS (unstressed)
- “In the past, did the warrior see the mountain?”
Word Formation
Atiriníl has several ways to derive words, from derivational affixes to entire families of words like aegaëlth, aegaölm aegathrin, aegavair, aegaísé that are derived from noun-verb incorporation.
Geminate Intensives
The geminate intensive is observed in pairs of historically related words that exist where an ancient Lael-ra intensive infix collapsed into a modern geminate consonant (pp, mm, nn, tt, kk, ss).
- misa “to sing” → missa “to perform a sacred chant / to sing lore”
- ketheam “warrior / guard” → kettheam “champion / legendary defender”
- duma “darkness” → dumma “the void / absolute spiritual darkness”
Derivational Affixes
These particles affix directly to words. They may or may not change the syllable structure. This is a case-by-case basis, and words will indicate with a diaresis if the structure has changed or not.
The syllable structure changes in the word esilar “to be pale”, for example. Esil loses its coda, which becomes part of the onset of the next syllable.
- esil [es-il] → esilar [es-i-lar]
The syllable structure does not change in the word aviël “to be joyful”. -el is simply appended to the end as its own syllable.
- avi [a-vi] → aviël [a-vi-ël]
-el [-FULL.STAT]
Creates a stative verb meaning to be surfeit, “ful” of a quality.
- kirí “grace” → kiríël “to be graceful”
-ta [-DIM]
Creates a diminutive, imparting a smallness or littleness out of a root.
- raeäl “daughter” → raeälta “youngest daughter”
al- [AUG-]
Augmentative, denoting a sacred, immense or foundation status. Commonly used with nouns to name things.
- ra “river” → alra “great river”
-sil [-LAND]
Appending the suffix land imparts the meaning “land of x”. Typically used in naming places or things.
- míré “valley” → Mírésil “land of valleys”
-ar [-EPH.STAT]
Creates a stative verb of an “ephemeral quality” of the root. Adds a fleeting temporal aspect to the verb. Commonly used with stative verbs.
- esil “to be silver, white, pale” → esilar “to be ephemeral silver, of a pale quality”
-or [-PERM.STAT]
Creates a stative verb imparting an “everlasting, concrete quality” on the root. Commonly used with stative verbs.
- tirín “beauty” → tirínor “to be an everlasting beauty”
– las, -os [-STATE.NMLZ]
Changes a stative verb into an abstract noun meaning “the state of being x” or “capacity of being x”. Vowel final roots take “-las”, consonant final roots take “-os”.
- kya “to be free” → kyalas “freedom, state of being free”
- serí “to be calm” → serílas “tranquility, state of being calm, at peace”
- tarog “to be holy” → tarogos “holiness”
- shara “to be sweet” → sharalas “sweetness”
- čam “to be kind” → čamos “kindness”
-dath [-MASTER]
A word meaning “master”, it attaches to nouns to indicate a master of an art or trade.
- karna “sword” → karnadath “sword-master”
- ithilta “hinarikoto- little crystals” → ithiltadath “hinarikoto master”
en- [CAUS-]
Creates a causative verb, with the meaning “to cause/enact x”. Causes the state or action of the root.
- kya “to be free” → enkya “to liberate, to set free”
- ilerth “to rest” → enilerth “to put to rest”
- fírta “to gleam” → enfírta “to illuminate”
- esil “to be pale” → enesil “to bleach”
-ado[-PLACE]
Creates a new noun meaning “a place of x”.
- korädo “a shrine, a place of memory”
- taridhädo “a school, a place of written word”
- oinado “a brothel, a place of the night”
-eam [-AGT]
Creates an agentic noun from the root meaning “one who is or one who does x.”
- keth “to guard” → ketheam “warrior”
- nas “to know” → naseam “sage”
-thía [-INHAB]
A demonymic suffix that creates a noun meaning “an inhabitant of”.
- míré “valley” → míréthía “inhabitant of the valley”
- anath “city” → anathía “inhabitant of the city”
- dala “village” → dalathía “villager”
-eis [-DOMAIN]
A word meaning “realm”, it attaches to nouns to indicate a ruler’s fief or domain.
- senth “Duke” → sentheis “Duchy”
- kalath “King” → kalatheis “Kingdom”
- kyora “Baron” → kyoraëis “Barony”
Derivational Ordering
Some affixes can stack. Affixes are limited to one suffix and one prefix. Prefixes do not stack with prefixes just as suffixes do not stack with other suffixes.
Zero-Derivation
Zero-derivation conversion is the act of changing a noun into a verb without changing its spelling or pronunciation (hence zero-derivation). This is achieved by simply slotting a noun into the verb’s place, and the action is understood as doing the noun.
Other nouns require the use of a helper verb. There are no agreed-on categories of nouns, and they are essentially a cryptotype.
Nominal Use
- Rís il’dríël kor damthe nís?
2SG PL=secret ANT say Q.GEN?- “What secrets have you told?”
Zero-Derivation
- Nar dala bel dríël-umír.
3SG-ANIM city ABL secret.STAT-flee.- “She escaped the city in secret.”
In the first example, secrets (il’dríël) is used as a noun. The clitic plural is attached, and the word remains a noun.
In the second example secret is slotted into the verb stack. It becomes “to do in secret”, or “clandestine”. The literal translation is: “she/he city from clandestine-flees”.
Dríël is taking the form of a verb, and nothing about its form has changed.
Reduplication
In some verbs, repeating the final syllable of a verb root denotes an iterative, continuous, or obsessive habit.
- talra “to practice” → talrara “to practice continuously, obsessively”
Clause Structure
Basic Clause Construction
A basic clause in Atiriníl is constructed in the following chain:
[Temporal frame] → [Topic] → [Actor] → [Spatial and oblique frames] → [Target] → [Aspect] → [Verb stack] → [Negation] →[Modality/Mood] → [Evidential] → [Interrogative]
Example 1:
“During the Lantern Festival, people release lanterns into the sky for the dead.”
Temporal Frame
- We are talking about something occurring during a specific time (the lantern festival).
- Fírthein Tabí éonon “During the Lantern festival”
Actor
- People
- il’ashn “people”
Spatial Frame
- They are releasing lanterns into the sky.
- kael rua “into the sky”
Beneficiary
- They are doing this for the dead.
- saitheam tal “for the dead (ones who are sleeping)”
Target
- They are releasing lanterns.
- il’fírthein “lanterns”
Aspect
- They do this every lantern festival, so this is habitual.
- ash (habitual marker)
Action
- They take the lanterns and release them.
- thaia-čear “take-release”
Assembled sentence:
- Fírthein Tabí éonon, il’ashn kael rua saitheam tal il’fírthein ash thaia-čear.
Lantern Festival DUR.CVB, PL=person sky LAT.CVB sleeping.ones BEN PL=lantern HAB take-release- “During the lantern festival, people release lanterns into the sky for the dead.”
Temporal Frame
Atiriníl treats all temporal framing the same, and it all appears at the front of the clause. This includes tenses, but also descriptive clauses on when an action occurs: “every day”, “once a month”.
Topic Marking
un [TOP]
Designates the preceding noun or nominal clause as the topic of the sentence, regardless of the clause that immediately follows it.
- Rís un il’ma lis erían-saral ítar enkor-sultír ké?
2SG TOP PL=1SG PERF first.STAT-meet COMP nostalgia-come Q.NEUT?- “Do you remember where we first met?”
Voice
Atiriníl distinguishes between the passive and active voice in a clause by word order, an agentic particle and a helper verb that is appended to the end of the verb stack.
Active Voice
The active voice is in the standard subject-object-verb order and the agent (the entity performing the action) is in the expected position at the front of the clause.
- Nar teorí lis luin-gol.
3SG.ANIM tree PERF strike-cut.- “He chopped the tree.”
Passive Voice
The passive voice changes the construction by demoting the agent and promoting the object. The receiver of the action becomes the subject, and the entity performing the action is relegated to an agentic phrase with the coverb kíl. An appropriate helper verb is appended to the verb stack.
kíl [AGENT]
The agentic coverb marks the demoted agent of a passive construction. It attaches to the entity performing the action if they are not the subject of the sentence. It imparts the meaning “to bear by the actions of”.
- Teorí nar kíl lis luin-gol-elth.
tree 3SG.ANIM AGENT PERF strike-cut-get.- “The tree was chopped by him.”
This sentence literally translates to: “The tree, by his actions, got struck and cut.”
The helper verb elth was used in this example, but there are other verbs that can also be used depending on the intended result.
- olm “to hold”, retained state passive
The patient remains in the state of undergoing the action.
- elth “to get”, undergo passive
The patient receives or undergoes the result.
- sultír “to come”, emergent passive
Indicates that the resulting condition has come to be affected by the result.
- čal “to endure”, adversative passive
Presents the event as something suffered by the patient.
- íse “to become”, resultative passive
Emphasizes the patient’s change of state.
Patient Topicalization
Atiriníl also has patient topicalization, which can resemble the passive voice when the topic particle is used. In this example, the receiver of the action is moved to the front of the clause, anchored by the topic particle. The grammatical roles remain unchanged.
- Teorí un nar lis luin-gol.
tree TOP 3SG.ANIM PERF strike-cut.- “As for the tree, he chopped it.”
The following example relies on context. The actor may be omitted when it is known from context.
- Teorí un lis luin-gol.
tree TOP PERF strike-cut.- “As for the tree, [He] chopped it.”
Pro-drop Conventions
Atiriníl is a pro-drop language, in that the topic and other pronouns are often dropped from being spoken when it is inferable by context who the speaker is talking about.
- Tirínel.
beauty-FULL.STAT.- “[You] are beautiful.” (Speaker to listener)
- Rís un tirínel à mana avair.
2SG TOP beauty-FULL.STAT ATTR woman COP.- “You are a beautiful woman.” (Speaker to a stranger)
Pronouns and the topic marker are used when the context is not clear, or when talking about someone for the first time.
The Post-Verbal Complement
Verbs of perception, speech, and cognition (itharí “see”, marír “hear”, damthe “say”, nas “know”,aríl “percieve”) can implement a postverbal complement construction where their object complement clause leaks past the terminal verb stack out to the absolute right side of the sentence, triggered by the ítar particle. It can be interpreted in English as thus.
[Tense Anchor] + Subject + Verb + ítar + [Object Complement Clause]
- Ma nas ítar mana il’gímh lis olm-thaia.
1SG know COMP woman PL=peach PERF hold-take.- “I know that the woman took the peaches.”
- “I know thus: the woman took the peaches”
- Enkor-sultír ítar Il’ma erían-saral ké?
nostalgia-come COMP PL=1SG first.STAT-meet Q.NEUT?- “Do [you] remember when we first met?”
- “Do you know thus: When we first met?
Usage of the Complement
“I heard her say that she wants to go to the river.”
Nominal Construction
- Ma nar ra rua ahra-oth mela dho damthe dho lís marír meil.
1SG 3SG.ANIM river LAT.CVB walk-go DESID NMLZ say NMLZ PERF hear DIR- “I, about the action of her saying that she wanted to walk to the river, heard it directly from her.”
The head noun is marír “hear”, which means that the listener gets front loaded with information before they know what the main action is. There are three verbs before the main verb: ahra “walk”, oth “go” and damthe “say”, along with two nominalizers dho, where in English there is only one: “that”.
Complement Contruction
- Ma lís marír meil ítar nar damthe ítar ra rua ahra-oth mela.
1SG PERF hear DIR COMP 3SG.ANIM say COMP river LAT.CVB walk-go DESID- “I directly heard this, she said: to the river [she] wants to walk.”
The head noun is now stated upfront, and the listener knows right away the speaker heard this directly. This construction has two complement particles, as there are two perception verbs.
Both sentences are grammatically correct, but the complement construction will almost always be spoken over the nominal with perception verbs. If the speaker instead saw her write that she wanted to walk to the river, then “saw” would take the complement, and “write” would be nominal.
Interrogative Proforms
Instead of leaving the question word in-situ, Atiriníl keeps its core syntax completely uninterrupted and appends the question target to the absolute end. Question words (where, who, what) may form interrogative phrases in the final question-target slot (from where, at where, inside where) as a complement to a postposition. They indicate the type of information that the speaker is requesting.
nís [Q.GEN]
A general interrogative proform requesting the identity or nature of an unspecified participant, referent, or event. It does not distinguish between human and nonhuman referents; the intended interpretation is determined by context and the structure of the clause.
- Mana lis thaia nís?
woman PERF take Q.GEN?- “What did the woman take?”
- Rís ithas-nirth nís?
2SG look find Q.GEN?- “Who/What are you looking for?”
nír [WHEN]
Indicates that the speaker is requesting information about the temporal frame of the action.
- Hla kalath rintha-oth nír?
FUT king travel-go WHEN?- “When will the king be traveling?”
nithn [WHERE]
Indicates that the speaker is requesting information about the location of the action.
- Rís ahra-oth mela nithn?
2SG walk-go DESID WHERE?- “Where do you want to walk?”
nís tal [Q.GEN BEN]
Indicates that the speaker is requestion information about the reason or the purpose for the action.
- Nar torna nís tal?
3SG.ANIM angry.STAT Q.GEN BEN?- “Why is she angry?”
noé [HOW]
Indicates that the speaker is requestion information about the manner of the action.
- Rís nas-aríl noé?
2SG know perceive HOW?- “How do you know that?”
Adverbial Scope
Due to Atiriníl’s lack of true adjectives and highly analytical nature, adverbs and adverbial placement are essential for expressing nuance. Typically, adverbs can modify dynamic verbs, stative verbs and other adverbs, but Atiriníl can also use adverbs in place of tense as a temporal anchor.
Temporal Anchor
Certain adverbs like athen “before / ago”, erod “daily” and čabe “often” sit within the temporal frame at the front of the clause and establish the event’s setting.
Atiriníl separates tense and aspect, but the temporal anchors are unique in that they can imply both. However, the aspect is still preferred and must be present in the clause.
- Čabe ma morai nor ash ahra-oth.
often 1SG forest LOC.CVB HAB walk-go.- “I often walk through the forest.”
Though čabe details how the action is done, it is moved to the temporal frame and not attached to the verb stack.
The habitual aspect marker ash is attached to the front of the verb stack.
Manner and Degree
Adverbs that describe how an action is executed sit to the immediate left of the verb stack. This includes adverbs like lathnel “extremely”, war “independently”, blaith “slowly”.
- Arun nar lis lathnel entorna.
3SG.INAN 3SG.ANIM PERF extremely CAUS-angry.STAT.- “That caused her to be extremely angry.”
Lathnel is located directly to the left of entorna “to cause to be angry”, increasing the intensity and the ferocity of how the verb is being executed.
Limitation and Modals
Adverbs that limit the scope of the event (not including temporally) are slotted pre-verbally like other adverbs. This sentence is using the adverbial nod, and it is slotted pre-verbally.
- Il’ma anath nod dol-íren.
PL=1SG city all dwell-exist.- “We all live in the city.”
Noun Phrase Structure
Noun phrases in Atiriníl follow a structured format that is dependent on word order for meaning. It is roughly head final, the head noun is usually last, followed only by a posposition.
[Demonstrative] → [Possessor] → [Ordinal/Numeral–Classifier] →[Attributive or Relative Clause] → [Head Noun] → [Postposition]
An example noun phrase:
- “like that third little wooden house”
Demonstrative
- that, the medial demonstrative → ent
Ordinal
- The third one → ne sam
Attributive Clause
- A little wooden thing → ta lunareil à
Head Noun
- house → dhrod
Postposition
- like “simile” → idí
Assembled noun phrase:
- ent-alf ne sam ta-lunareil à dhrod idí
DEM.MED-CLF.PLAC ORD three little-STAT-wood-consist-STAT ATTR house SIM- “from that third little wooden house”
Pronouns
Third-person forms feature a strict split based on animacy, while plurals are formed uniformly by fusing the invariant plural clitic in front of the singular base with an apostrophe. There are no gender distinctions.
| Person | Singular Base | Plural Construction |
|---|---|---|
1st Person[1SG] | Ma “I/Me” | Il’ma “We/Us” |
2nd Person[2SG] | Rís “You” | Il’rís “You all” |
3rd Person (Animate)[3SG-ANIM] | Nar “He/She/It” | Il’nar “They” |
3rd Person (Inanimate)[3SG-INAN] | Arun “It” | Il’arun “They” |
Direct use of the 2nd person rís is considered familiar and is a social slight if used with someone in higher status, or older than the speaker.
- Rís ma ō enníl vel ké?
2SG 1SG DAT speak ABIL Q.NEUT?- “Can you talk to me?”
Instead, speakers refer to someone by their name, or by their title. This is considered respectful and polite.
- Ashla ma ō enníl vel ké?
Ashla 1SG DAT speak ABIL Q.NEUT?- “Can Ashla speak to me?”
Literal pronouns are used freely in casual, everyday vernacular among equals.
Possessive Pronouns
The possessive pronouns have developed within the past few hundred years and are signs of case marking. Specifically, the pronouns are in the genitive case, where the pronoun and plural have fused into one.
mal [1SG.POSS]
Shows a possessive relationship or attributive relationship between the speaker and a noun.
- Mal il’čirí
1SG.POSS PL=child- “My children”
- Il’mal čirí
PL=1SG.POSS child- “Our child”
ríal [2SG.POSS]
Shows a possessive relationship or attributive relationship between someone the speaker is talking to and a noun.
- Ríal il’arka
2SG.POSS PL=book- “Your books”
- Il’ríal arka
PL=2SG.POSS book- “you all’s book”
Plural Clitic
‘il [PL=]
An animacy-neutral clitic that is fused at the front of a noun phrase to designate a collective set, bypassing any noun suffixing. Bare nouns default to a definite or generic reading based on context.
- il’tirínel à lina
PL=beauty-FULL.STAT ATTR flower- “Beautiful flowers”
- un-feth lina
one-CLF.living flower- “One flower”
Numeral Classifiers
Nouns cannot be directly counted by a bare number. Counting requires a dedicated classifier particle mapping out the physical or conceptual shape of the target noun, preceding the head. They do not take the plural clitic, as the number explicitly denotes plurality.
[Number] -[Classifier] [Noun]
sa [-CLF.SENT]
Classifier for people, professions, and deities.
- mor-sa misaëam
ten-CLF.SENT sing-AGT- “ten singers”
feth [-CLF.LIVING]
Animals, non-human living entities, plants and nature spirits.
- pik-feth kyan
nine-CLF.LIVING cat- “nine cats”
rin [-CLF.LONG]
Rigid, long, or linear items (rivers, swords, towers, paths).
- sam-rin karna
three-CLF.LONG sword- “three swords”
pel [-CLF.FLAT]
Thin, leaf-like, or clothing items.
- mor-thol-pel fae
ten-five-CLF.FLAT leaf- “fifteen leaves”
ef [-CLF.ABSTR]
Intangible concepts, theories, dreams, or temporal units.
- kír-ef tiníth als tin
four-CLF.ABSTR magicka POSS element- “the four elements of magicka”
asn [-CLF.SACR]
Celestial bodies, holy artifacts, and pure gemstones.
- ni-asn tarog à ríardh
two-CLF.SACR holy-STAT ATTR remains- “two holy artifacts”
ik [-CLF.LIT]
Books, poems, documents.
- dal-ik arka
eight-CLF.LIT book- “eight books”
alf [-CLF.PLAC]
Buildings, structures, physical places.
- ni-alf dhrod
two-CLF.PLAC house- “two houses”
Some highly sacred cultural items break physical logic. Items sanctified by the Rínadaésé are counted with asn, regardless of what they are. Some mountains and rivers have taken on a life of their own and are counted with feth.
Ordinals
ne [ORD]
The particle ne is used to denote ordinals and attaches at the front of the number. In ordinal noun phrases, classifiers are generally omitted before semantically specific nouns. The ordinal itself is not counting but rather pointing to a specific item. In the case where the ordinal is occurring with a generic or unspecified noun, or when the head noun is omitted, counters are used for clarity to avoid ambiguity.
- ne sam karna
ORD three sword- “the third sword”
- ne sam-rin eth
ORD three-CLF.long thing- “the third long thing”
- Il’karna nor ma ō ne sam thaia-vair ya.
PL=sword LOC.CVB 1SG DAT ORD three take-give IMP.- “Among the swords, give me the third one.”
Coverbs
Atiriníl features words called coverbs that share features of both verbs and postpositions. They can stand alone as verbs or be used postpositionally to modify nouns.
| Word | Verb Meaning | Postpositional Meaning | Postpositional Glossing |
|---|---|---|---|
| čaidh | “to compare to” | “A is more x than B” | [THAN.CVB] |
| oedhag | “to be equal to” | “A is as x as B” | [EQ.CVB] |
| ríuä | “to turn” | “to face a direction” | [FACE.CVB] |
| é | “to follow” | “and / with / alongside” | [WITH.CVB] |
| arílor | “to examine” | “according to” | [ACCORDING.CVB] |
| kíl | “to bear” | “to bear by the actions of” | [BEAR.CVB] |
Common Coverbs
čil [INESS.CVB]
Inessive coverb “inside of a thing”. As a verb it means “to contain”.
- Pan dhrod čil garae-thrin.
mother house INESS.CVB food-do.- “Mother is cooking food in the house.”
nor [LOC.CVB]
Locative coverb meaning “the location (at, amidst)”. It may also be interpreted as “among” or “amidst” when the complement denotes a plural group or selection. As a verb, it means “to occupy”.
- Gliníal rís ma korädo nor ithas-nirth.
call.to.prayer 2SG 1SG shrine LOC.CVB search-find.- “You’ll find me at the shrine during the Gliníal (call to prayer).”
waer [SUB.CVB]
Coverb meaning “below, under”. As a verb it means “to underlie”.
- Gida nas nael à ku oría als ralear waer ilerth-íren.
many know NEG ATTR treasure ocean POSS surface SUB.CVB rest-exist.- “Many unknown treasures lie below the surface of the ocean.”
oldh [APUD.CVB]
Apudessive postposition “beside”
- Ta à teorí čelé oldh ilerth-íren.
small.STAT ATTR tree lake APUD.CVB rest-exist.- “There is a small tree beside the lake.”
éonon [DUR.CVB]
Temporal coverb meaning “during”. As a verb it means “to weather a period of time”.
- Afíría éonon rís kael čil rathidí à hanth ithas-itharí vel.
eclipse DUR.CVB 2SG sky INESS.CVB fire-SIM.STAT ATTR ring look-see ABIL.- “During the eclipse, you can see a fiery ring in the sky.”
rua [LAT.CVB]
Lative coverb “into a place, into the inside of a place”. This implies motion/direction to a location and not a static direction / location like the inessive coverb or the standard locative.
- Fírthein Tabí éonon, kael rua saitheam tal il’fírthein ash thaia-čear.
Lantern Festival DUR.CVB, sky LAT.CVB sleeping.ones BEN PL=lantern HAB take-release.- “During the Lantern Festival, [people] release lanterns into the sky for the dead.”
othedel [TERM.CVB]
A temporal coverb that indicates that an action continues up to a specific point, then stops. As a verb it means “to culminate at”.
- Ra rua del dho othedel rís ona ahra-oth ya.
river ALL arrive NMLZ TERM.CVB 2SG PROG walk-go IMP.- “Continue walking until you get to the river.”
vía [ACROSS.CVB]
Locative coverb meaning “across”. As a verb it means “to pass”.
- Kar sía vía il’ashn Kalathel na lis nas-ísé nael.
PLUP land ACROSS.CVB PL=person Kalathel yet PERF know-become NEG.- “Kalathel wasn’t yet known to the people across the land.”
Degree and Comparison
Comparison is expressed by different forms, one of which breaks the traditional noun phrasing construction.
Superlatives
Atiriníl features exactly one superlative word that all its superlatives are built around: oné.
oné [SUP]
This word is functionally an adverb meaning “most” and is paired with stative verbs. It is placed immediately before the stative verb.
- Nar oné og à maiä avair.
3SG.ANIM SUP pure-STAT ATTR priestess COP.- “She is the purest priestess.”
The superlative can also pair with certain statives (good / bad) to indicate the best and the worst.
oné tanír “best”
- Nar oné tanír à vísheam avair.
3SG.ANIM SUP good-STAT ATTR physician COP.- “She is the best physician.”
oné čéor “worst”
- Nar ithilta als oné čéor à ítheam avair.
3SG.ANIM crystal.DIM POSS SUP bad-STAT ATTR method-AGT COP.- “He’s the worst Little-Crystals (hinarikoto) player.”
Comparatives
The syntax for all comparatives is as follows:
[A] [B] [COVERB] [NEG] [STAT]
This construction violates the typical noun phrase construction, in that phrase A and phrase B are not subject and object.
čaidh [THAN.CVB], “to compare to”
Atiriníl expresses more/less than comparatives with the coverb čaidh, meaning “than, to compare to”. A and B are compared with each other, using the stative verb as the criterion. The construction literally translates to “Compared to B, A is [stative verb]”, or “A is more [stative verb] than B”.
- Kiríël Tethía čaidh tirínel.
Kiríël Tethía THAN.CVB beauty-FULL.STAT.- “Kiríël is more beautiful than Tethía.”
- Ma ríal il’duin mal il’duin čaidh faidh danolm.
1SG 2SG.POSS PL=problem 1SG.POSS PL=problem THAN.CVB important-STAT believe.- “I believe that your problems are more important than my problems.”
Negation carries the meaning of “less than” by negating the comparative.
- Mal korädo ríal čaidh nael tarog.
1SG.POSS shrine 2SG.POSS THAN.CVB NEG holy-STAT.- “My shrine is less holy than yours.”
oedhag [EQ.CVB], “to be equal to”
To express an equality between the two, the coverb oedhag, meaning “to be equal” is used. A and B are compared with each other using the stative verb as the criterion. The construction literally translates to “A is as [stative verb] as B”.
- Nar rís oedhag auf.
3SG 2SG EQ.CVB large-STAT.- “She is as big as you.”
Negation carries the meaning of “A is not equal B in [stative verb]”. Note that this says nothing about which is larger or smaller, only that A is not equal to B. This distinction is important, because the construction does not specify which participant has more of the quality.
- Nar rís oedhag nael tirín.
3SG 2SG EQ.CVB beauty-STAT.- “She and you are not equally beautiful.”
Intensifier Syntax
Atiriníl lacks a single adverb like “very” in English to express an intensifier. Instead, it uses a myriad of other adverbs to achieve the same result.
- lathnel “extremely, exceptionally”
- dana “truly”
- niran “particularly”
- anna “increasingly”
- Ma dana aegaölm.
1SG truly honor-hold.- “I am truly honored.”
Demonstratives
Demonstratives that are used in the place of nouns act as pronouns and appear as the bare root. Demonstratives that are used as determiners for other nouns must use a classifier attached to the demonstrative.
tría [DEM.PROX]
Proximal demonstrative “this”.
- Rís tría elth mela ké?
2SG DEM.PROX get DESID Q.NEUT?- “Do you want this?”
ent [DEM.MED]
Medial demonstrative “that”.
- Ma ō ent vair vel ké?
1SG DAT DEM.MED give ABIL Q.NEUT?- “Can (you) give that to me?”
rins [DEM.DIST]
Distal demonstrative “that”.
- Ma rins-sa mana nas.
1SG DEM.DIST-CLF.SENT woman know.- “I know that woman.”
Possessive Particle
als [POSS]
Shows a relationship possessive or attributive relationship between two nouns.
[Owner] als [Possession], or [Modifier] als [Head]. It is not typically used with pronouns, as there are genitive case pronouns that are used instead.
- Ma als čirí
1SG POSS child- “Child of mine”
Note: In this example, the pronoun ‘ma’ is used. While this is grammatically correct, it is considered formal or too sterile and analytical for regular speech. In English, it is the difference between saying “Item of mine” and “my item”.
The Attributive Particle
In Atiriníl, there are no adjectives. All descriptive words are instead stative verbs.
Descriptive words are not just bare descriptions like “red”, “shiny”, “tasty”. They are instead verbs meaning “to be red”, “to be shiny”, “to be tasty”.
Using them to describe nouns thus usually requires a bit of ‘glue’ to turn: ‘to be red’ (verb) + ‘apple’ (noun) into: ‘the apple that is red’.
This is the job of the attributive particle à.
The attributive particle à is used when linking a preceding stative verb, predicate or reduced verbal phrase to the noun it modifies.
- Íshla il’tibur à aula rensha éos mal gaidh sular-hroda evain-vía.
winter PL=cold-STAT ATTR wind knife ESS 1SG.POSS coat blow-push pierce-pass- “The cold winds of winter blow like knives through my coat.”
The key phrase is ‘il’tibur à aula’ meaning “the winds that are cold”. Tibur is a stative verb meaning “to be cold”, and it is pronounced /ˈt̪ɪ.bʊr/. It is modifying the noun ‘aula’ which means “wind”.
The attributive particle links the verbal phrase nas nael “not known” to artifact as an attribute, becoming “the unknown artifact” or more accurately “the artifact that is not known”.
- nas nael à ríardh
know NEG ATTR artifact- “the unknown artifact”
When one noun is being modified by multiple stative verbs, the verbs may form a descriptive stative chain. This construction does not require the event-integration relationships that govern SVCs.
- tirínel-nodunel à mai
beauty-FULL.STAT-alone-FULL.STAT ATTR girl- “the beautiful, lonely girl”
Semantic Relativizers
Relative clauses consistently precede the modified head noun. Atiriníl employs specialized semantic relativizers based on the specific nature of the noun being described.
The relativizers are essential for joining related clauses and forming complex sentences.
[Let’s go to the lake.] + [The lake is beside the forest.]
These two sentences are related by the lake. The second sentence can become a relative clause describing the lake in the first sentence.
- [Morai oldh omo] čelé [rua ahra-oth eal.]
forest APUD.CVB REL.LOC lake LAT.CVB walk-go HORT.- “Let’s go to the lake that is beside the forest.”
The first clause is the relative clause morai oldh omo “the located beside the forest”. It’s describing čelé “lake”, becoming “the located beside the forest lake”. The next clause rua ahra-oth eal “Let’s go into”.
Literally, the sentence becomes “The “located beside the forest” lake, let’s walk to it!”.
lin [REL.SENT]
Used exclusively when the head noun is a human, deity, or sentient being (like a warrior or king).
- Misa lin ashn avair nís.
sing REL.SENT person COP Q.GEN.- “[Who] is the person who sings?”
ina [REL.INAN]
Used when modifying concrete objects, tools, plants, or animals (like a flower or a sword).
- Lína ō lis ral vair ina lína eiya-gíl ina lína avair.
flower DAT PERF water give REL.INAN flower open-grow REL.INAN flower COP.- “The watered flower is the flower that blooms.”
omo [REL.LOC]
Completely eliminates the need for prepositional relative clauses (like “in which,” “where,” or “at which”). The particle itself inherently flashes a map coordinate to the listener.
- Ma il’lith vashlír omo míré rua thaia-lathfíl.
1SG PL=stream flow REL.LOC valley LAT take-journey.- “Take me to the valley where the streams flow.”
arie [REL.TMP]
Used to anchor an event to a specific time, day, or age.
- Aen-saithe arie éonor feya tar bel tol-ratha.
forever-sleep REL.TMP moment, soul body ABL emerge-depart.- “At the moment of death, the soul leaves the body.”
thal [REL.CON]
It is used when the head noun is an intangible concept, a thought, a dream, or a theory.
- Théoïn ma ō sultír-itharí thal lora.
last.night 1SG DAT come-see REL.CON vision.- “The vision that came to me last night.”
Attributive vs Semantic
Atiriníl’s two systems of relativizers seem to do a similar job, but there is a distinct difference.
à is an attributive particle that links a stative predicate to a noun. Semantic relativizers terminate a full relative clause.
It is not grammatical to link a full relative clause to a noun with à. However, you could link a stative predicate to a noun with a semantic relativizer, though this is rather verbose.
The attributive particle links the predicate “to know not” with “artifact”, with the meaning “an unknown artifact”.
- [nas nael] à [ríardh]
know NEG ATTR artifact- “an unknown artifact”
The inanimate relativizer can do this too, but the listener is expecting more after hearing it. It is not the right linguistic tool for the job.
- [nas nael] ina [ríardh]
know NEG REL.INAN artifact- “an unknown artifact”
The inanimate relativizer can link an entire clause, whereas the attributive particle cannot.
- [ketheam lis nirth] ina [ríardh]
warrior PERF find REL.INAN artifact- “the artifact that the warrior found”
Used together, the differences are obvious. The attributive particle is like a surgical blade, best for local and specific uses. Semantic relativizers are more powerful and can link clauses, include ones where the attributive particle has been used.
- [ketheam lis nirth] ina [[nas nael] à ríardh]
warrior PERF find REL.INAN know NEG ATTR artifact- “the unknown artifact that the warrior found”
Nominalization
When a single verb acts as the object of a sentence, it is slotted into the object’s place before the verb stack. Often, the topic particle un will be used, but it is not strictly necessary.
- Eik un thel!
read TOP fun.STAT!- “As for reading, it is fun!”
dho [NMLZ]
When a complex phrase is referred to as a noun concept (a nominal phrase), the nominal particle dho is appended to the right, marking the preceding clause as a nominal one.
- Il’rensha mal gaidh evain-vía dho éos íshla als il’tibur à aula sular-hroda.
PL=knife 1SG.POSS coat pierce-pass NMLZ ESS winter POSS PL=cold-STAT ATTR wind blow-push.- “The cold winds of winter blow like knives through my coat.”
The nominal particle dho splits the sentence into essentially two separate clauses. The first is [Il’rensha mal gaidh evain-vía dho éos], translating to “in the manner of knives piercing my coat”. The second clause is [íshla als il’tibur à aula sular-hroda] translating to “winter’s cold winds blow”.
This construction first creates an abstract vision of the scene with the metaphor of knives through a coat, before applying it to the reality of the winter’s winds blowing. It’s more poetic and narrative as opposed to the same example later in the text.
Verb System
In Atiriníl, a verb does exactly one highly specific job. It cannot stretch its meaning to include direction, intent, or instruments unless you explicitly stack another verb next to it. Additionally, there are no adjectives. All ‘adjectives’ are instead stative verbs.
Serial Verb Constructions (SVCs)
Verbs are completely uninflected blocks. To convey complex events, multiple verbs serialize into a stack at the end of the clause. Most single action serialization blocks are two verbs. A serialized verb stack can have many such blocks, depending on the sequence of actions. Single actions serialize, and their block can serialize too.
Verbs may only serialize when they jointly describe one integrated event. The relationship must be one of manner, direction, instrument, purpose, cause, result or transition.
Chronological succession or actor sharing does not license serialization. Chronological succession requires the sequential conjunction or a separate clause.
Additionally, hyphens ‘-‘ join verbs within a tightly integrated action block. Spaces separate action blocks within a larger predicate chain.
Manner + Direction / Action + Result
Movement verbs describe manner only. To show displacement through space, a vector verb must be stacked.
- ahra-oth
walk-go- “to go somewhere on foot”
Instrument + Action
This construction is a “using x do y” action chain. It opens with a manipulation verb.
- rensha thaia–gol
knife take-cut- “take the knife and cut something”
Preliminary Action + Goal
Replaces purposive clauses “in order to”. Do the first verb with the final goal of the second. Based on context, a serial verb construction may have multiple meanings.
- thaia-fel
take-return- “Take the item I have and return it where it came from, to recover”
- thaia-fel
take-return- “Take the item that isn’t mine, to return it later, to borrow”
All serialized verbs must progress in a strict left-to-right chronological linear sequence of execution, culminating in the primary structural vector/head verb at the rightmost slot, with a few exceptions, noted elsewhere.
Transitivity And Argument Sharing
Every verb in a serial verb construction retains its valency. Verbs may be intransitive, transitive or ditransitive. The SVC functions as a single predicate and arguments shared by multiple verbs are expressed only once. The transitivity of the stack is determined by the number of participants required after the shared arguments have been merged. The final verb determines the structural head, but not the transitivity of the construction by itself. Generally, verbs of perception are inherently transitive. You hear, see and touch something. Action verbs that are done with another are inherently transitive. You help and marry someone. Some verbs are transitive, where in English they are not. It can be understood that these verbs have prepositional phrasing built into the meaning.
dol “to dwell at”
This verb is transitive. In Atiriníl, you can “dwell” a place, but English requires a preposition “dwell at”.
kair “to fight with”
This verb is transitive. In Atiriníl, you always fight with someone or something. It cannot be used intransitively.
- Ma mal konta kair.
1SG 1SG.POSS brother-DIM fight.- “I fight against my little brother.”
Shared Subjects
Verbs within an SVC share the same actor or argument unless another argument relationship is established by the construction.
- Lae ahra-oth.
man walk-go.- “The man walks away.”
Both verbs “walk” and “go” share “man” as their sole argument. This SVC is intransitive. The man doesn’t “walk away” something or “walk away” to something. He just does the action.
Shared Patients
Two or more transitive verbs may share the same actor and patient.
- Lae teorí luin-gol.
man tree strike-cut.- “The man struck and cut the tree.”
This SVC is transitive because the man acts on the tree throughout the stack.
Patient-Pivot Resultatives
When a transitive action is followed by an intransitive result, the patient of the preceding action becomes the sole argument of the result verb.
- Lae teorí lis luin-gol tear.
man tree PERF strike-cut fall.- “The man chopped the tree, causing it to fall.”
“Tree” is the patient of the transitive action “strike-cut” and the sole argument of the intransitive “fall”.
Object Pivoting
When separate verbs select distinct objects, the noun phrases appear in the same order as the verbs that introduce them. The patient of the final verb appears closest to the verb stack. In the example, “knife” is the object of “take” and subsequently functions as the instrument of “cut”. “Bread” is the patient of the final verb “cut”.
- Lae rensha pona thaia-gol.
man knife bread take-cut.- “The man took a knife and cut the bread.”
No more than two unmarked object-like noun phrases normally occur in a simple SVC. Additional participants are marked by postpositions or expressed in a separate clause. Object pivoting predicates must keep the same rules as all other SVCs.
Obliques
Recipients, beneficiaries, locations and others marked by postpositions and covered, and including passive agents do not count as unmarked core objects, and do not count toward the limit stated previously.
- Lae nar als raeäl ō arka lis thaia-vair.
man 3SG POSS daughter DAT book PERF take-give.- “The man took the book and gave it to his daughter.”
Valency Changing Constructions
Causative morphology adds a causer to the argument structure of the SVC. Passive voice suppresses the actor as a core argument and expresses it through an agentic phrase marked with the coverb kíl.
- Teorí lae kíl lis luin-gol-elth.
tree man AGENT PERF strike-cut-get.- “The tree was struck and cut by the man.”
Anaphoric Pro-Predicates
A pro-predicate is a word that replaces a verb phrase, similar to how a pronoun replaces a noun phrase.
atheníl [PRO.PRED]
A pro-predicate that refers back to a previous predicate or event and allows the speaker to avoid repeating the predicate stack. It is derived from athen, the adverb meaning “before” and níl meaning “word”.
- Nar korädo nor lis misa.
3SG.ANIM shrine LOC.CVB PERF sing.- “She sang at the shrine.”
- Ma četar atheníl mela.
1SG ALSO PRO.PRED DESID.- “I want to do so too. / I want to [sing at the shrine] too.”
The pro-predicate can refer back to a whole verb stack, a verb stack plus manner and location, and a whole previous event. In the case of the second example, atheníl is taking the place of the first sentence’s atelic predicate: korädo nor misa “sing at the shrine”. Tense, aspects, negation, evidentiality and modality are supplied by the new clause.
Verbs as Adverbs
In a serial verb construction without a transitional vector, and exception is triggered where the preceding verb may act as an adverbial modifier to the final head verb. This changes from becoming a chronological stack to an adverbial one.
- afír esil-fírta
light pale.STAT-gleam- “The light palely gleams.”
Fírta is the final head action. esil modifies how it is fading/gleaming.
Aspects
Aspect particles mark the state of the action, whether it is complete, incomplete, continuous or habitual. Atiriníl prioritizes aspect (whether an action is complete, ongoing, or a habit) over absolute timeline tense. The aspect is glued immediately before the verb stack, while the tense sits at the absolute beginning of the clause.
lis [PERF]
Marks an action as a finished whole.
- Ma arun lis thaia arie oin.
1SG thing PERF take REL night.- “The night when I took the thing.”
kor [ANT]
Places a situation before the present or another reference time, while marking it as relevant to that time. Kor also means “memory”.
- Kalatheis kor ras-tear-fírta.
kingdom ANT fracture-fall-fade.- “The kingdom has fallen into ruin.”
Unmarked Continuous
Marks an ongoing or unfinished action that is actively happening now.
- Ma garae thaia-míl.
1SG meal take-ingest.- “I am eating a meal.”
ona [PROG]
The action is actively happening over time, but not necessarily at this moment.
- Ma ent-ik arka ona itharí-eik.
1SG DEM.MED-CLF.LIT book PROG see-read.- “I am reading that book.”
onna [PROSP]
An action that has not yet started but is going to occur.
- Hla thana onna ras-tear.
FUT tower PROSP fracture-fall.- “The tower is going to fall.”
ash [HAB]
Marks an action that happens regularly, repeatedly, or customarily over a period of time.
- Ma ash thaia-mír talra.
1SG HAB take-mark practice.- “I practice writing (often).”
shal-waeth
Marks an action or noun that is going to occur soon or is on the verge of happening. This is not a particle, but a serial verb construction that takes on two different forms.
Normal Derivation
- Shal ashla tear waeth.
quick.STAT snow fall occur.- “It will snow soon.”
Zero Derivation
- Kimdh shal-waeth.
summer quick.STAT-occur.- “Summer is coming.”
Tense Anchors
These anchor the action to a specific point in time if context hasn’t already established it.
Unmarked
Unmarked sentences are assumed to be taking place in the present time.
- Nethal oth-fel eal.
home go-return HORT.- “Let’s go home.”
athm [PST]
Explicitly shifts the clause into the past.
- Athm ma Mírésíl nor tol-aeth.
PST 1SG Mírésíl LOC.CVB emerge-live.- “I was born in Mírésíl.”
hla [FUT]
Projects the action forward in time.
- Hla rís shal nethal-oth waeth ka?
FUT 2SG quick.STAT home-go occur Q.EXPECT.YES.- “You will be going home soon, won’t you?”
kar [PLUP]
The clause describes an action that occurred before another action in the past.
- Kar nar Aríthana Arkanath nor tiníth nathe-nas.
PLUP 3SG.ANIM Arithana Library LOC.CVB magicka gather-know.- “She had learned magicka at the Arithana Library.”
Mood and Modality
These particles express the speaker’s relationship to the action, sitting at the end of the verb complex.
mela [DESID]
Expresses desire for the action.
- Rís oldh jurs dol-íren mela.
2SG APUD.CVB LIM dwell-exist DESID.- “I only want you beside me.”
vel [ABIL]
Expresses physical capability or permission for the action.
- Ma enníl vel ké?
1SG speak ABIL Q.NEUT?- “Can I speak?”
sal [POT]
Expresses potential or likelihood for the action to occur.
- Ríal kyuarn faídh-mur sal.
2SG.POSS aid essential.STAT-require POT.- “I might need your help.”
ya [IMP]
Turns the verb stack into a imperative direct command.
- Mal karna nirth-fel ya!
1SG.POSS sword find-return IMP!- “Bring me my sword!”
shí [COND]
Turns the clause into a conditional.
- Ma thrin vel nael shí, lis thrin-ísé vel nael.
1SG do ABIL NEG COND, PERF do-become ABIL NEG.- “If I can’t do it, it can’t be done.”
pauth [NEC]
Used by the speaker to express that an action is necessary.
- Rís war lathfíl-oth nael pauth.
2SG independently journey-go NEG NEC.- “You must not travel alone.”
eal [HORT]
Used by the speaker to encourage the action. Similar to “let’s x’.
- Lathfíl eal!
journey HORT!- “Let’s set out!”
sar [ADVIS]
Used to express a suggestion, a good idea or thing a person should do.
- Rís ent-ik arka itharí-eik sar.
2SG DEM.MED-CLF.LIT book see-read ADVIS.- “You should read that book.”
fí [OPT]
Used to express a wish, hope or prayer for the action.
- Ríal aeth lou-waeth oeda fí.
2SG.POSS life shock-occur abundant.STAT OPT.- “May your life be full of surprises.”
Clause Negation
nael [NEG]
Placed at the end of a verb stack, it negates the entire serialized event immediately to its left.
- Ma ruk thaia-míl reir-olm nael.
1SG fish take-ingest like-hold NEG.- “I do not like to eat fish.”
Resultative Negation
In resultative serial verb compounds, the negator may be inserted between the action verb and the result verb to negate the achievement of the result. This leaves the attempted action intact.
- lís glin-aríl nael
PERF listen-perceive NEG- “[He] did not listen or understand at all.”
- lís glin nael aríl
PERF listen NEG perceive- “[He] listened but did not understand.”
Existential Predicates
Instead of using a lone abstract particle to mean “to exist,” Atiriníl pairs an invariant existential anchor, íren, with a specific helper verb that describes how it occupies space, creating a terminal serial verb stack.
ilerth “to rest”
A verb meaning “to rest” or “to sit, it is paired with the existential helper verb to denote the inanimate existence of structures, terrain or objects.
- Koral bedh ilerth-íren.
mountain MED.DIST rest-exist.- “The mountain rests there.”
dol “to dwell”
A transitive verb meaning “to stay at,” “to dwell at,” or “to stand”, it is paired with the existential helper verb to denote the animate existence of people, creatures and spirits. The locative postposition is not required.
- Il’ashn tría-feth morai dol-íren.
PL=person DEM.PROX-CLF.LIVING forest dwell-exist- “People live here in this forest.”
Experiential Predicates
Culturally, it is understood by Atiriníl speakers that internal and emotional states are as of result of something external. These states are temporary and fleeting and are not from within but arrive and accumulate there and are held there until they are eventually released.
olm “to hold”
A verb meaning “to hold,” “to grip,” or “to inhabit”, it is paired with a state to denote the spiritual and emotional states that are temporarily inhabiting the soul.
- Tría ma avilas olm-thrin.
DEM.PROX 1SG happy-STATE.NMLZ hold-do.- “This makes me happy.”
sultír “to come”
Meaning “to come”, it is paired with a state to denote when an internal condition actively shifts to or approaches a person.
- Ma rís ō haralas nathe-sultír.
1SG 2SG DAT love-STATE.NMLZ gather-come.- “From me, love comes to you.” “I love you.”
External Proof of Internal States
If an internal spiritual or physical state manifests as a visible, external action to the world, it must be explicitly validated by an active verb.
thrin “to do”
Meaning “to do” or “to enact”, pairing a state with this turns the state into an active direct object.
- Ashn hara-thrin.
person love.STAT-do.- “The person enacts/does love.”
The Identity Copula
avair [COP]
For identity, classification, or equivalence (“noun is noun”), this single, completely invariant particle is appended at the absolute end of the clause.
- Ma ketheam avair.
1SG warrior COP.- “I am a warrior.”
- Karna thagon avair.
sword steel COP.- “The sword is steel.”
Due to the lack of adjectives, stative verbs are used as descriptors. Each stative verb has “to be” baked in, and so the copula is not required, and redundant.
- Karna sha.
sword sharp.STAT.- “The sword is sharp.”
The Transitional Vector
ísé “to become”
To express an inchoative action, the start of an action or the noun becoming the action, the transition vector verb is used. This shifts the meaning to be a change of state. The final head is now the becoming of the action.
[State] + [Transition]
- Afír esil-ísé.
light pale-become.- “The light becomes pale.”
To express a complex, shifting action where the noun turns into the verb stack, adding ísé to the end shifts the action to one of a state change.
- Afír esil-fírta-ísé.
light pale-fade-become.- “The light turns into a pale silver gleam.”
Impersonal Predicates
Atiriníl features a process of noun incorporation, where a core noun subject fuses with the verb into a single complex verb. This is context dependent on if the speaker is talking about the subject and verb as a singular event, or if the speaker is talking about the action itself.
Incorporation
- Shal yukotear waeth.
quick.STAT rain-fall occur.- “It is going to rain soon.”
The noun yuko “rain” is fused with tear “fall”, forming one immutable predicate block yukotear“rain fall”. In this construction, the whole action of rain-falling is the focus of the context: soon → rain-fall → occur
Non-Incorporation
- Yuko shal tear waeth.
rain quick.STAT fall occur.- “The rain will fall soon.”
The noun yuko “rain” is now on its own, as the subject of the sentence. Tear “fall”, is in the verb stack. In this construction, the rain is the focus of the context, and the action itself is action on it: rain → soon-fall-occur
reil “to consist of”
Commonly incorporated is the stative verb reil, which when incorporated with a noun forms a new stative verb that means to “be composed of x” or “to be made of x”.
- lunareil à dhrod
wood-consist ATTR house- “the wooden house”
Example incorporations with the root aega “honor”:
| Atiriníl Word | Integration | SVC Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| aegaëlth | honor-get | “To receive honor” |
| aegaölm | honor-hold | “To be held in honor” |
| aegathrin | honor-do | “To act honorably” |
| aegavair | honor-give | “To bestow honor” |
| aegaísé | honor-become | “To become honored” |
Noun and verb integrations produce a myriad of Atiriníl’s words.
Danenníl is one such word, meaning “to preach”, in religious contexts and “to speak truth” in others, made from the noun dan “truth” and verb enníl “to speak”.
Postverbal Scope
Atiriníl is rich in post-verbal information. The order and scope each block of information varies based on the intended meaning. Generally, the following order is observed:
Verb [NEG] [MODALS] [NEG] [EVID] [Q] [NEG]
The negator’s scope is always to the immediate left. Generally, the negator can sit in two places: immediately after the verb, or immediately after a modal word.
Placing the negator after a verb negates the action.
- itharí “to see” → itharí nael “do not see”, lit: “see not”
- nas “to know” → nas nael “do not know”, lit: “know not”
Placing the negator after a modal negates the modal to its immediate left, even when stacking modals. As Atiriníl is head final, the meaning of the modals apply from right to left.
- nas mela “want to know” → nas mela nael “do not want to know”, lit: “know want not”
- obsil mela sal “might want to choose” → obsil mela nael sal “might not want to choose” lit: “choose want not might”
- obsil nael mela sal “might want to not choose”
[EVID]
The evidential particle’s scope is to the entire sentence. As it denotes the source of information, it is outside of the scope of negation.
[Q]
The question particle’s scope is also to the entire sentence. It reframes the entire sentence into a question and is outside of the scope of negation. It sits at the absolute end of the clause.
Function Words
Postpositions
Atiriníl postpositions are grammatical words that combine with noun phrases that express relationships: spatial or logical.
ō [DAT]
Dative postposition “To the recipient, focusing on the transfer of an item.”
- Ríal aeth nel othedel rís ō il’mí jurs éran-del fí.
2SG.POSS life end TERM.CVB 2SG DAT PL=blessing LIM descend-arrive OPT.- “May only blessings come to you until the end of your life.”
tal [BEN]
Benefactive postposition “for/to (for the sake of)”
- Tría ríal il’čirí tal.
DEM.PROX 2SG.POSS PL=child BEN.- “This is for your children.”
bel [ABL]
Ablative postposition “from”
- Rís tol-del nithn bel?
2SG emerge-arrive WHERE ABL?- “Where did you come from?”
éos [ESS]
Essive, focuses on action or role “doing something in the manner of x, serving as x”.
- Argath als il’fae aula nor sular-vía dho éos, hla ríal il’duin četar atheníl.
autumn POSS PL=leaf wind LOC.CVB blow-pass NMLZ ESS, FUT 2SG.POSS PL=issue ALSO PRO.PRED.- “Like the leaves in autumn blow on the wind, so too will your troubles.”
idí [SIM]
Similative postposition it forms similative phrases meaning “to be like” or “to possess a quality of”.
- rath idí à karna
fire SIM ATTR sword- “a fiery sword”
Question Particles
The question particles are placed at the absolute right of the clause that turns any declaration into a straight yes-or-no question.
ké [Q.NEUT]
A neutral question particle that turns a statement into a yes or no question.
- Ríal beid ent avair ké?
2SG.POSS spouse DEM.MED COP Q.NEUT?- “Is that your wife?”
ka [Q.EXPECT.YES]
A question particle that expects an affirmative answer (positive biased).
- Hla rís shal nethal-oth waeth ka?
FUT 2SG quick.STAT home-go occur Q.EXPECT.YES?- “You’ll be going home soon, won’t you?”
le [Q.EXPECT.NO]
A question particle that expects a negative answer (negative biased).
- Rís ma ō enníl vel le?
2SG 1SG DAT speak ABIL Q.EXPECT.NO?- “You can’t speak to me, can you?”
Locative Deictics
Locative deictics are words whose meanings are tied to the physical location of the speaker or the addressee in a conversation. Their frame of reference is relative, so the location is only known to the ones who have knowledge of the situational context.
For example here is a location only understood by the speaker and the listener and has no other meaning to anyone else without knowledge of where the speaker is.
uarh [PROX.LOC]
The proximal locative deictic describes a place near, or containing the speaker.
- Ma uarh rua kor sultir-del noé?
1SG PROX.LOC LAT.CVB ANT come-arrive HOW?- “How did I get here?”
bedh [MED.LOC]
The medial locative deictic describes a place some distance from the speaker.
- Rís bedh ne sam duinadir lis ithas-nirth ké?
2SG MED.LOC ORD three witch PERF search-find Q.NEUT?- “Did you find the third Witch there?”
lača [DIST.LOC]
The distal locative deictic describes a place a far distance from the speaker.
- Il’koral nor lača orno ilerth-íren.
PL=mountain LOC.CVB DIST.LOC gold rest-exist.- “There’s gold in the mountains over there.”
Evidentials
Evidentials are optional clause final particles that follow the verb stack and modality. They describe how the speaker knows the information.
meil [DIR]
Direct evidence, “I saw/heard/felt it myself.”
- Nar dala bel lis ratha meil.
3SG.ANIM village ABL PERF depart DIR.- “I saw her leave the village.”
sif [INFR]
Inferential evidence, “It seems / apparently, based on signs.”
- Rís aor-enníl mela nael sif.
2SG together-speak DESID NEG INFR.- “It seems like you don’t want to talk.”
jan [REP]
Reported evidence, “I heard / they say.”
- Ent-ef ero nar als rílda ni-ef čeadhain lis gíl jan.
DEM.MED-CLF.ABSTR day 3SG.ANIM POSS heart two-CLF.degree size PERF grow REP.- “They say his heart grew two sizes that day.”
narsa [LORE]
Legendary, myth, “According to legend, myth”
- Mírésíl nor erían-aen à kalatheis lis fíad-irdh-ísé narsa.
Mírésíl LOC.CVB first.STAT-eternal.STAT ATTR kingdom PERF make-set-become LORE.- “According to legend, the first eternal kingdom was founded in Mírésíl.”
gaeä [ASSUM]
Assumptive evidence, “It must be / I assume.”
- Sam-ef ero athen il’nar lis ratha-oth, vael uarh shal del waeth gaeä.
three-CLF.time day before PL=3SG.ANIM PERF depart-go, SEQ PROX.LOC quick.STAT arrive occur ASSUM.- “They departed three days ago, so I assume that they will arrive here soon.”
uth [MIR]
Mirative, “It turns out / unexpectedly.”
- Palpatine lis fel-sultír uth.
Palpatine PERF return-come MIR.- “Somehow, Palpatine returned.”
Conjunctions
Conjunctions link two or more nouns or noun phrases.
fíos [OR]
Used to present an alternative between two nouns “A or B”.
- Hla ris serí fíos keara obsil-thrin?
FUT 2SG peace OR war choose-do?- “Will you choose peace or war?”
é [WITH.CVB]
An comitative coverb used to join two or more nouns together “with / alongside / and”
- Sonalas éon é nathe-sultír.
wise-STATE.NMLZ time WITH.CVB gather-come.- “Wisdom comes with time.”
vael [SEQ]
Used to link two sequential or related clauses. It sits at the absolute beginning of the second clause “and then / furthermore”.
- Lae dhrod rua lis ahra-oth, vael il’čirí sairth nor enilerth.
man house LAT.CVB PERF walk-go, SEQ PL=child bed LOC.CVB CAUS-rest.- “The man walked home, then put the children to bed.”
Limiter
jurs [LIM]
An adverb that limits and restricts an action or quantity. It means “only” or “just”.
- Ma oedhag à kalath éos jurs nas-ísé mela.
1SG fair.STAT ATTR king ESS LIM know-become DESID.- “I just want to be known as a fair king.”
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