Mer-Elvish

Natively known as: yiila /ˈjiːla/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind... nah ên den mêlê bê anun nah vuu bê dêl iinve nuu isa[alt] Pronunciation: /nah ɛn den ˈmɛlɛ bɛ ˈanun nah vuː bɛ dɛl ˈiːnve nuː ˈisa/ Yiilan word order: and he stood holding hat his and turned his face wet to the wind[/alt]

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: b d dː g h j l m n r s v w

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m		n
Stop	b		d dː		g
Fricative		v	s			h
Approximant				j
Trill			r
Lateral approximant			l

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

Vowel inventory: a aː e i iː o u uː y ɛ ɛː ɪ ʏ

	Front	Back
High	i iː y	uː u
Near-high	ɪ ʏ
High-mid	e	o
Low-mid	ɛ ɛː
Low	a aː

Syllable structure: Custom defined Stress pattern: Penultimate — stress is on the second last syllable Word initial consonants: b d dː h j l m n v vj Mid-word consonants: b g h l lj lm n nv r s w Word final consonants: h l m n
Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
ɛ	ê
ɪ	î
y	û
ʏ	ú
j	y
Vː	VV
Cː	CC

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Grammar

Main word order: Subject Verb Object (Prepositional phrase). “Mary opened the door with a key” turns into Mary opened the door with a key. Adjective order: Adjectives are positioned after the noun. Adposition: prepositions

Nouns

Singular	No affix lû /ly/ dog
Plural	Prefix ɛ- êlû /ˈɛly/ dogs

Articles

Yiilan has no definite article ‘the’, or indefinite article ‘a’.

Pronouns

1st singular	ma /ma/ I, me, mine
2nd singular	vya /vja/ you, yours
3rd singular masc	ên /ɛn/ he, him, his, it, its
3rd singular fem	no /no/ she, her, hers, it, its
1st plural	be /be/ we, us, ours
2nd plural	haam /haːm/ you all, yours (pl)
3rd plural	nêl /nɛl/ they, them, theirs

Possessive determiners

1st singular	ya /ja/ my
2nd singular	vam /vam/ your
3rd singular masc	bê /bɛ/ his
3rd singular fem	ê /ɛ/ her
1st plural	niim /niːm/ our
2nd plural	non /non/ your (pl)
3rd plural	haa /haː/ their

Verbs

Present	No affix vabuu /ˈvabuː/ learn
Past	Prefix niː- niivabuu /niːˈvabuː/ learned
Remote past	Prefix aː- aavabuu /aːˈvabuː/ learned (long ago)

Yiilan uses a standalone particle word for future tense:

Future

Particle before the verb: niː - nii vabuu /niː ˈvabuː/ will learn

Perfect aspect

The perfect aspect in English is exemplified in ‘I have read this book’, which expresses an event that took place before the time spoken but which has an effect on or is in some way still relevant to the present.
Yiilan uses an affix for the perfect aspect:

Perfect

Prefix a- avabuu /aˈvabuː/ have learned

Numbers

Yiilan has a base-10 number system:
1 - vii 2 - nê 3 - nal 4 - la 5 - alal 6 - nam 7 - haluu 8 - ddil 9 - yon 10 - dewi 11 - vii nah dewi “one and ten” 100 - vii dala “one hundred” 101 - vii dala vii “one hundred one” 200 - nê dala 1000 - vii dû “one thousand”

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = Prefix ɪ- Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix v- Else: Prefix vɛː- Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix v- Else: Prefix ve- Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Prefix i- Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = If starts with vowel: Prefix l- Else: Prefix liː- Noun to verb = If starts with vowel: Prefix d- Else: Prefix dɛː- Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Prefix e- Tending to = If starts with vowel: Prefix l- Else: Prefix la- Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix l- Else: Prefix la- Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Prefix dːuː- One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Prefix jɛ- Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If starts with vowel: Prefix h- Else: Prefix ha- Diminutive = Prefix ɪ- Augmentative = If starts with vowel: Prefix d- Else: Prefix dɛ-

Geographical Distribution

Mer-Elvish is the language of Valmea and it's one of the oldest, if not the oldest language still in use. Drifeyan partly developed from Mer-Elvish and Kaatim has some influences from it, but isn't directly related. Mer-Elvish is only spoken by the about 250 northern Sea Elves living in Valmea nowadays, it's an endangered language.

Dictionary

4543 Words.

Spoken by

• Valmean