Mother-Tongue

Also known as 'Words of Creation' and 'Geo-Speak' this language, but for the barest functionality used to handle and manipulate the mixing of manna in the arts of Geomancy, is no longer truly understood by most in the world. The places where we find relics of such language are ruins long buried, stumbled upon by the bold, the brave, or the stupid, wandering dark dank tunnels deep below. buildings of bright light and metals, monuments of glass, some with moving images behind them, as if a flickering vision. Words and phrases great and powerful tucked away, some even claim entire volumes and libraries lie buried deep, written in this long dead tongue. The bits that survive seem to have great power in the hands of those with a sensitivity to handling magic, those whom seem naturally inclined to handle various streams of manna at once. Able to mix and match elements and not immediately lose control. 'Witches' to hear most religious groups tell it.

A select few scholars believe this is not a true mother tongue at all, however. They are under the impression, with some fair evidence, if at best it is mostly circumstantial, that it was not the Mother-Tongue or 'God-Tongue' at all. It is merely the ancestor to Valarian and Draconic, inferring that these strange relics are from the time before the first Sundering and the Draconic Wars, when we lived under, and amongst, draconic kind, we were one society. Again the theory has merit, for the stories do suggest that this could be true, and it would make sense given even now there are some structural similarities between Draconic and Valarian common tongue, though Draconic is used strictly by licensed mages (well is supposed to be) and is seen as the language of the mage.

Phonology

Natively known as: ekh͡kúú /ex͡kˈɯː/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind... t͡shʰúú kii g̊a kii tawːa shaté t͡shʰúú kii sh̊͡kawmi g̊ee mia juucho ia[alt] Pronunciation: /t͡ʃʰɯː kʲiː ɣa kʲiː tɔːˈa ʃaˈtɛ t͡ʃʰɯː kʲiː ç͡kʲɔˈmi ɣeː mia̯ ʤuːˈʧo ia̯/ Ekh͡kúúian word order: and he stood his hat holding and his wet face turned the wind to[/alt]

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: b d̪ f g h htʃ h͡p h͡t j k kʰ kʰʲ kʲ m n n͡ɰ p pʰ r s t tʰ t̪ t͡ʃʰ v x x͡k ç ç͡kʲ ɣ ɫ ɲ ɾʲ ʃ ʎ ʤ ʧ

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Dental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m			n		ɲ
Stop	p pʰ b		t̪ d̪	t tʰ			k kʰ kʰʲ kʲ g
Affricate					ʧ ʤ
Fricative		f v		s	ʃ	ç	x ɣ	h
Approximant						j
Tap				ɾʲ
Trill				r
Lateral approximant						ʎ

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Velarized alveolar
Lateral approximant	ɫ

Vowel inventory: a ai̯ aː e eː i ia̯ iə̯ iː o oː u ua̯ ui̯ uə̯ uː ũ ɔ ɔː ə ɛ ɛː ɤ ɯ ɯː ᵚi̯
Diphthongs: ai̯ ia̯ iə̯ ua̯ ui̯ uə̯ ᵚi̯

	Front	Central	Back
High	i iː		ɯː ɯ u uː ũ
High-mid	e eː		ɤ o oː
Mid		ə
Low-mid	ɛ ɛː		ɔ ɔː
Low	a aː

Syllable structure: (C)V Stress pattern: Ultimate — stress is on the last syllable Word initial consonants: b d̪ f g h htʃ h͡p h͡t k kʰʲ kʲ m n n͡ɰ p r s t tʰ t̪ t͡ʃʰ x͡k ç͡kʲ ɣ ɫ ɾʲ ʃ ʎ ʤ ʧ Mid-word consonants: b d̪ f g h htʃ h͡p h͡t j k kʰ kʰʲ kʲ m n n͡ɰ p pʰ r s t tʰ t̪ t͡ʃʰ v x x͡k ç ç͡kʲ ɣ ɫ ɲ ɾʲ ʃ ʎ ʤ ʧ Word final consonants:
Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
ʲ
ɔ	aw
ɛ	é
ə	á
ɤ	e̊
ɯ	ú
j	y
x	kh
pʰ	ph
tʰ	th
ʃ	sh
ɫ	l
ɲ	ny
ʤ	j
ʧ	ch
ɣ	g̊
ʎ	ẙ
kʰ	k̊
ç	sh̊
Vː	VV
◌̯

---

Grammar

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

Nouns

Nouns have two cases:

• Nominative is the doer of a verb: dog bites man.
• Accusative is the done-to of a verb: man bites dog.

Nominative	No affix h͡táchú /h͡təˈʧɯ/ dog (doing the verb)
Accusative	Prefix bua̯- buah͡táchú /bua̯h͡təˈʧɯ/ (verb done to) dog

	Singular	Plural
Definite	No affix h͡táchú /h͡təˈʧɯ/ the dog	Prefix h͡ta- h͡tah͡táchú /h͡tah͡təˈʧɯ/ the dogs
Indefinite	Prefix t͡ʃʰɯː- t͡shʰúúh͡táchú /t͡ʃʰɯːh͡təˈʧɯ/ a dog	Prefix ɣeː- g̊eeh͡táchú /ɣeːh͡təˈʧɯ/ some dogs

Articles

Ekh͡kúúian encodes definite article ‘the’, and indefinite article ‘a’ in noun affixes. See Noun section.

Pronouns

	Nominative	Accusative
1st singular	n͡ɰo /n͡ɰo/ I	lui /ɫui̯/ me
2nd singular	ju /ʤu/ you	paa /paː/ you
3rd singular masc	kii /kʲiː/ he, it	téé /tɛː/ him, it
3rd singular fem	pui /pui̯/ she, it	me /me/ her, it
1st plural inclusive	ẙa /ʎa/ we (including you)	sh̊͡ka /ç͡kʲa/ us (including you)
1st plural exclusive	péé /pɛː/ we (excluding you)	ú /ɯ/ us (excluding you)
2nd plural	maw /mɔ/ you all	lii /ɫiː/ you all
3rd plural	kh͡kawː /x͡kɔː/ they	ii /iː/ them

Possessive determiners

1st singular	n͡ɰo /n͡ɰo/ my
2nd singular	ju /ʤu/ your
3rd singular masc	kii /kʲiː/ his
3rd singular fem	pui /pui̯/ her
1st plural inclusive	ẙa /ʎa/ our (including you)
1st plural exclusive	péé /pɛː/ our (excluding you)
2nd plural	maw /mɔ/ your (pl)
3rd plural	kh͡kawː /x͡kɔː/ their

Verbs

	Present	Past
Singular	No affix ẙia /ʎia̯/ (I/you/he/she/it) learn	Prefix bɔː- bawːẙia /bɔːˈʎia̯/ (I/you/he/she/it) learned
Plural	Prefix ç͡kʲiː- sh̊͡kiiẙia /ç͡kʲiːˈʎia̯/ (we/they) learn	Prefix toː- tooẙia /toːˈʎia̯/ (we/they) learned

Ekh͡kúúian uses a standalone particle word for future tense:

Future

Particle before the verb: kɔː - kawː ẙia /kɔː ʎia̯/ will learn

Numbers

Ekh͡kúúian has a base-20 number system:
1 - kh͡kii 2 - h͡taa 3 - sh̊͡kuu 4 - jee 5 - ke̊ 6 - bu 7 - bathoo 8 - t͡shʰuu 9 - g̊oo 10 - ɾai 11 - fotee 12 - rikh͡ké 13 - h͡ták̊ee 14 - juupá 15 - kasú 16 - bura 17 - ɾúh͡tii 18 - kakh͡kú 19 - orú 20 - ẙakh͡kaw 21 - ẙakh͡kaw t͡shʰúú kh͡kii “twenty and one” 400 - kh͡kii ɾo “one fourhundred” 401 - kh͡kii ɾo t͡shʰúú kh͡kii “one fourhundred and one” 800 - h͡taa ɾo “two fourhundred” 8000 - kh͡kii g̊ueyú “one eightthousand”

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = Prefix boː- Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Prefix baː- Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Prefix sa- Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Prefix ki- Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Prefix x͡ku- Noun to verb = Prefix ɫua̯- Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Prefix fa- Tending to = Prefix rɛː- Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Prefix pui̯- Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Prefix fɛː- One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Prefix ɫaː- Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Prefix nɛ- Diminutive = Prefix d̪a- Augmentative = Prefix ʤo-

Dictionary

4533 Words.