phonology

phonetic inventory

phonotactics

sentence structure

word order

word order in varae is SOV (subject-object-verb).

adjectives are placed before their respective noun, and that extends to adjectival clauses and phrases. adpositions, however, are placed after the noun.

adverbs are placed after the verb, and that extends to adverbial clauses and phrases as well.

    "deii kuraesa meris fa vaesii"

    deii kuraesa   meris fa vae-sii
    3SG  beautiful moon  at look-PRS
    SUBJECT OBJECT    VERB
    "She looks at the beautiful moon"
    

    "vaii siibte asu sokaso mosa"

    vaii siibte asu soka-so  mosa
    1SG  ground to  fall-PAS down
    SUBJECT OBJECT     VERB
    "I fell down to the ground"
    

questions

question sentences are marked with the sem particle placed at the end of the sentence.

    "koii vaiivaii haeyase suran sem"

    koii vaiivaii haeyase  suran sem
    2SG  1PL      join-FUT later Q
    "Will you join us later?"
    

clauses

dependent clause

o is added as a prefix before certain pronouns and adverbs to turn them into relative pronouns and adverbs to be used in dependent clauses.

    "ota deii meris fa vaeso, deii eheso"

    o-ta      deii meris fa vae-so,    deii ehe-so.
    REL-when  3SG  moon  at look-PST,  3SG  smile-PST.
    "When she looked at the moon, she smiled."
    

words? vocab? idk lol

nouns

pronouns

all pronouns are gender neutral. plural pronouns are made by reduplication.

case system

this language only has one true case, that being the genitive case. the suffix fel is added to the end of the noun possessing the object.

    "selafel nuye"

    sela-fel    nuye
    flower-GEN  petal
    "The flower's petals"
    

    "niisafel saeka"

    niisa-fel saeka
    fire-GEN  color
    "The color of the fire"    
    

a pseudo-case that varae also utilizes is in regards to the Inna - the god-like species that created the universe. when using pronouns in regards to them, the prefix iina is added. it acts as a sort of honorific, but is only utilized for the inna. generally, a person using this on themselves or another person would be thought of extremely negatively.

plurality

varae generally does not express plurality. if the noun is countable, and the speaker wishes to specify how many of something there are, the speaker will generally just use numbers. in some cases, the noun can also be doubled to show there are many of something, but this is not always done.

adjectives

adjectives are always placed before the noun they are describing. for example, kumeiya leiv, "good dream". a noun can also be used as an adjective by adding the affix ka to the end of the noun, for example, leiv, “dream”, becomes leivka, “dreamy”.

a note on adjectives in compound words (names only)

adjectives will always end in /a/, and when compound words are created (i.e. for names such as yudora meaning “little star”), the /a/ at the end is dropped. in the event of a /ya/ ending, such as in uya - “young”, the /y/ is dropped as well, resulting in, for example, kumeileiv, a compound noun/name with the same meaning as kumeiya leiv, meaning “good dream”. dosa (red) + sela (flower) becomes dosela, as stated in the phonotactics, double consonants are not allowed in the same word. the double /s/ is reduced to a single /s/. however, please note that these compound words are mainly only used for names, and in normal speech and prose “red flower” would still be dosa sela.

verbs

verbs in dictionary/plain form end in sii. these verbs are in present tense, for example vaesii - ”to see/look”. verbs are not conjugated depending on gender or plurality, only tense and aspect.

there are three tenses - present, past, and future. to conjugate tense, the sii ending is replaced with a new ending depending on the tense - so for past, and se for future.

there are three aspects as well - plain, perfect, and continuous. for aspect, a suffix is added to the end of the verb- me for perfect, ra for continuous.

to make a verb negative, the prefix mo is added to the beginning.

nouns can also be turned into verbs by adding this sii suffix, for example leiv, meaning “dream” turns into leivsii "to dream”. this also works inversely, removing the sii suffix will turn a verb into a noun.

regular verbs

copula

the copula ae is the only irregular verb in varae, in the sense that it does not end in sii. present plain form is simply ae , and all affixes remain the same.

    "maerut ~ vaii somela aeme"

    maerut   ~  vaii somela ae-me.
    recently , 1SG  happy  be-PRS-PRF.
    "Recently, I have been happy."
    

    "honthe vaii ralaniin asu moaese garusera"

    honthe  vaii ralaniin asu mo-ae-se   garu-se-ra.
    tonight 1SG  festival to  NEG-be-FUT go-FUT-CONT.
    "I will not be going to the festival tonight."
    

moods

varae has three moods: the indicative, imperative, and the abilitative. they can be used by adding a mood-specific prefix before a verb. this prefix precedes any other prefix on the verb, such as the negation prefix mo.

    "vaii somoleivsii gobu sem"

    vaii so-mo-leivsii   gobu sem
    1SG  ABL-NEG-dream   even Q
    "Can't I even dream?"
    

adverbs

adverbs do not always follow a strict pattern. they are always placed after the verb they modify. adjectives can be turned into adverbs by changing the last syllable, containing the /a/ ending, to kel. for example, hata, an adjective meaning “eager”, turns into hakel, an adverb meaning “eagerly”.

numbers and counting

numbers after ten below 20 are ran+(digit), for example ranuru. tens from 20 to 90 are (digit)+ran, as in teiran to kuoran. hundreds from 200 to 900 are (digit)+siin. thousands from 2000 to 9000 are (digit)+miin.

siin, miin, and wiin can be thaesiin, thaemiin, and thaewiin, but it is not common.

when written out, each digit place is considered a separate word.

    "uiiroran iia"

    uiio-ran iia
    six-ten  three
    "63" / "sixty three"
    

    "iiasiin iiaran kuo"

    iia-siin       iia-ran    kuo
    three-hundred  three-ten  nine
    "339" / "three hundred thirty nine"
    

    "biimiin siin adiran uru"

    bii-miin        siin    adi-ran   uru
    eight-thousand  hundred four-ten  five
    "8145" / "eight thousand one hundred forty five"
    

writing

prose forms

when written, periods are not used to mark the end of a sentence. instead, each new sentence is written on a new line.

instead of commas, written varae uses a tilde ~ to divide sentences into phrases/clauses. these are not always used depending on context, but are often added for clarity and when sentences become too long.

lines can be broken off after a ~ or a { to prevent it from running off the page or simply becoming unreadably long. this is not necessary on all sentences, even if it has multiple clauses. when this is done, the continuation on the next line is indented so as not to be confused with a new sentence.

in informal writing, or where it is not possible to break lines or indent, lines may be broken at any point and may not be indented. however, if this is done, any following lines must be separated with enough visual space to be able to tell where one line ends and another begins.

    deii ~ otu vala dorafel anwaefa osu renaksii ~
	    dorafel korliia dae weise nerasii veha
    telasiira ~ deii yovela pahorii dala beirusii ~ 
	    na iinyaniilfel hiimana fa vahes meikasii
    ota deii lukasii nako karawesii ~ 
	    na vala dae tayaso ne geralo sakakesii muhaelii
    yiim deiifel kin ne teraniil asu keso    
    

    deii otu vala dorafel
    anwaefa osu renaksii
    dorafel korliia dae
    weise nerasii veha

    telasiira ~ deii yovela
    pahorii dala beirusii
    na iinyaniilfel hiimana
    fa vahes meikasii    
    

capitalization

romanized varae is written entirely in lower case, with no upper case letters.

capitalization

quotes/quotations, in written varae, use curly brackets { } as quotation markers.

    "ota vaii beiso ~ deii vaii haraeso {koii aese mae vaiimosa}"

    o-ta     vaii beiso ~    deii vaii harae-so koii koaese     mae  vaiimosa.
    REL-when 1SG  leave-PAS, 3SG  1SG  tell-PAS you  IMP-be-FUT safe please
    "When I left, she told me, 'Please be safe.'"