Lin di Thaer

Lin di Thaer ([?] lin·di·thaer), lit. Tongue of the Sky, is a prominent language throughout Elae Meltaea.
Lin di Thaer is the language of the Skyborn (Thaerelrin in Lin di Thaer), who present themselves as the premier and origin of civilization. As such, it is used by other races mostly in formal or holy text, very similarly to Latin in human terms. Unlike the Earth language, however, Lin di Thaer remains a living language among the Seven Skies, and as such is more familiar to the public and maintains certain flaws, inconsistencies, and other quirks courtesy of fool input.
Please note that for ease of reading, all prefixes and suffixes below are formatted in all-capitals.

Grammar

Lin di Thaer is odd among languages in that the vast majority of its nouns, verbs, and adjectives can serve as any of these three parts of speech.
While the form of words is relatively consistent in regards to which part of speech it serves, the relative meaning of each of these forms varies depending on the part of speech in which each word was coined or popularized.

Nouns et al

While I have yet to invent the Lin di Thaer word for this grammatical quirk, it includes nouns, verbs, and adjectives together as, per the above explanation, they are largely indistinct in this language.

Root

Every noun et al. in Lin di Thaer bears a "root" that is largely or entirely retained throughout all inflections. Thaer itself is such a root.
The root is determined largely by the circumstances of coining the term.

• A word coined as a noun is likely to avoid ending in -R or any vowel. -L endings are common.
• A word originally coined as a verb is likely to end in -R, most likely being coined as an infinitive. These words are likely to see an identical infinitive to the root.
• A word originally coined as an adjective will probably end in -este and will trim that part off to make the root.

Singular

• masculine: -O, -RO
• feminine: -A, -RA
• neuter: basically anything else

While many words in Lin di Thaer may be subjectively perceived as "manly" or "girly", nouns are by default technically neuter, and may be explicitly rendered masculine or feminine by affixing a relevant vowel to the end. This is usually done with nouns referring to living things, or as a term of endearment for sentimental or familiar items like weapons or boats.
If the noun ends in -L, such as in the actor form (see below), then the -o / -a becomes -ro / -ra instead.

• aran (spider) becomes arano (male spider) or arana (female spider)
• pirel (person) becomes pirelro (man, boy, etc.) or pirelra (woman, girl, etc.)

In the event that someone does not quite identify as strictly male or female, such as a hermaphrodite or genderless, it is likely for others to refer to them as their closest perceived gender of the two, and they may follow suit. Some of these individuals refer to themselves using the non-standard -I and -RI suffixes derived from the neuter plural (see below).

Lax & greedy plural

• lax: -IN, -ON, -AN, -RIN, -RON, -RAN
• greedy: -ILA, -RILA
• super: lax + greedy

Nouns may be pluralized as lax or as greedy.
A lax plural selects a partial group of indeterminate size, relying on an article to specify further, but never all of that group. In contrast, a greedy plural specifies any and all of the noun in question.

• aran: a spider
• aranin: those spiders, some spiders, spiders in general
• aranila: all spiders

As with the singular, -IN / -ON / -AN becomes -RIN / -RON / -RAN if the noun ends in -L, such as in the actor form.

• pirel ("person") -> pirelrin ("people")

Complexity arises with mass nouns such as fir "fire". In this case, the singular refers to a single body of any size, while the lax plural refers to multiple separate bodies. In addition, the super plural - usually the lax suffix followed by the greedy suffix - refers to all separate bodies.

• Singular fir; fire, a fire
• Lax pl. firin: Fires, bodies of fire
• Greedy pl. firila: All fire
• Super pl. firinila: All fires, all bodies of fire

Actor

• root + -EL

Certain words used chiefly as verbs or adjectives may have noun forms that primarily serve as actors of the verb or members of an adjective. For instance, in English, a "teacher" is one who teaches, a "runner" is one who runs, etc.
In Lin di Thaer, almost any word can become an actor. Actors are generally formed by placing -EL on the end of the root.

• thaer (to fly) becomes thaerel (one who flies, flyer)
• fer (savagery) becomes ferel (a savage)

When numbers are used as nouns, as in the English phrase "That's the one!", the number must inflect as actor.

• sel pirel (one person) becomes el selel (the one)

Any number higher than sel (one) must also be pluralized, unless referring specifically to one item of a set.

• or pirelrin (eight people) becomes el orelrin (the eight)
• el orel would mean roughly "the one of eight" and is rarely used; as such, it is not always implicitly understood

Articles

Lin di Thaer duck-types articles; if they look like articles, act like articles, and go where articles go, then they are articles. This is in contrast to English which pretends most of its articles are adjectives.
When preceding a noun et al, numbers are considered articles.
[list of articles later]

Prepositions[/h3[ Prepositions are words that clarify the relationship between two or more nouns et al in space or time.
[list of prepositions later]

Question words

In English, these are who/what/when/where/why. Lin di Thaer further includes which, and while English's question words all start with WH-, Lin di Thaer's all start with QU-.
[question words later]