Celestial
Celestial was the language of Celestials and other Celestial Creatures.
It was brought to Dierde through contact with good folk from other planes. It was described as beautiful, yet alien in nature, since it developed among beings with thought patterns very unlike those of humanity. Clerics often took the time to learn it, and the Celestial alphabet was used to transcribe the Mulhorandi language, except in Othay, where they wrote their own dialect of Mulhorandi using the Infernal alphabet instead.
Believed to be from a "PROTO-DIVINE" lost language that would also split off to a "PROTO-FIENDISH" tongue, according to some.
It does come from Supernal
Writing System
Celestial Script
Phonetics
Natively known as: cethe /ˈcethe/
...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...trull tlach pty eth blem pty trull pty wunm ynː brid scly shetcum
Pronunciation: /trull tlach pty eth blem pty trull pty wunm ynː brid scly ˈshetcum /
Cethen word order: and stood his hat holding he and his wet face turned to the wind
Spelling & Phonology
Consonant inventory: b c d f g h k l lʼ m n nʼ nː p r s sʼ sː t tʼ tː v w| ↓Manner/Place→ | Bilabial | Labiodental | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n nʼ nː | ||||
| Stop | p b | t tʼ tː d | c | k g | ||
| Fricative | f v | s sʼ sː | h | |||
| Trill | r | |||||
| Lateral approximant | l lʼ |
| ↓Manner/Place→ | Labial-velar |
|---|---|
| Approximant | w |
| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| High | i y | u |
| High-mid | e | o |
| Low | a |
Stress pattern: Initial — stress is on the first syllable ? Spelling rules:
| Pronunciation | Spelling |
|---|---|
| ɛ | e |
| ɔ | o |
| ɲ | ny |
| ɓ | b |
| j | y |
| ʄ | j |
| ɗ | d |
| ð | dh |
| θ | th |
| ŋg | ng |
| ŋ | ng' |
| ɠ | g |
| ʃ | sh |
| ɣ | gh |
| x | kh |
| ʧ | ch |
| nʤ | nj |
Grammar
Main word order: Object Verb (Prepositional phrase) Subject. “Mary opened the door with a key” turns into The door opened with a key Mary.Adjective order: Adjectives are positioned before the noun.
Adposition: prepositions ?
Nouns
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| Definite | No affix mer /mer/ the dog | Prefix o- omer /ˈomer/ the dogs |
| Indefinite | If starts with vowel: Prefix s- Else: Prefix so- somer /ˈsomer/ a dog | If starts with vowel: Prefix d- Else: Prefix dy- dymer /ˈdymer/ some dogs |
Articles
Cethen encodes definite article ‘the’, and indefinite article ‘a’ in noun affixes. See Noun section.Pronouns
| 1st singular | po /po/ I, me, mine |
| 2nd singular | sonn /sonn/ you, yours |
| 3rd singular masc | pty /pty/ he, him, his, it, its |
| 3rd singular fem | dol /dol/ she, her, hers, it, its |
| 1st plural | es /es/ we, us, ours |
| 2nd plural | e /e/ you all, yours (pl) |
| 3rd plural | bo /bo/ they, them, theirs |
Possessive determiners
| 1st singular | po /po/ my |
| 2nd singular | sonn /sonn/ your |
| 3rd singular masc | pty /pty/ his |
| 3rd singular fem | dol /dol/ her |
| 1st plural | es /es/ our |
| 2nd plural | e /e/ your (pl) |
| 3rd plural | bo /bo/ their |
Verbs
| Present | No affix flu /flu/ learn |
| Past | If starts with vowel: Prefix ytc- Else: Prefix ytci- ytciflu /ˈytciflu/ learned |
| Remote past | If starts with vowel: Prefix w- Else: Prefix we- weflu /ˈweflu/ learned (long ago) |
| Future | If starts with vowel: Prefix b- Else: Prefix bi- biflu /ˈbiflu/ will learn |
Imperfective aspect
The ‘imperfective’ aspect refers to ongoing actions, such as I am learning and habitual actions, such as I learn (something new every day).Cethen uses a standalone particle word for imperfective:
| Imperfective | Particle before the verb: lotː - lotː flu /lotː flu/ learns/is learning |
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.Cethen uses an affix for the perfect aspect:
| Perfect | Change all X* to __ fluflu /ˈfluflu/ have learned |
Numbers
Cethen has a base-10 number system: 1 - pta2 - scla
3 - hwi
4 - tloth
5 - ta
6 - sici
7 - sold
8 - tlann
9 - lym
10 - tu
100 - nu
1000 - po
Derivational morphology
Adjective → adverb = Suffix -onmAdjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix h-
Else: Prefix hu-
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Suffix -ond
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Suffix -am
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Suffix -up
Noun to verb = Suffix -e
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Suffix -a
Tending to = Suffix -o
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -se
Else: Suffix -ase
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Suffix -uck
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Suffix -angs
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If starts with vowel: Prefix onn-
Else: Prefix onno-
Diminutive = Prefix u-
Augmentative = Suffix -u