The two tables below give the phonemes in use in the Old Southern tongue, given in a romanized form, along with their representation in IPA/ASCII, plus examples from English.
| Romanization | IPA/ASCII | English example |
| a | /A/ | as "a" in "father" |
| ae | /&/ | as "a" in "sad" |
| ai | /aI/ | as "i" in "high" |
| ei | /eI/ | as "a" in "day" |
| i | /I/ | as "i" in "bit" |
| ii | /i/ | as "ee" in "feel" |
| ou | /oU/ | as "o" in "go" |
| u | /U/ | as "oo" in "boot" |
| Romanization | IPA/ASCII | English example |
| k | /k/ | as "k" in "keen" |
| g | /g/ | as "g" in "give" |
| s | /s/ | as "s" in "see" |
| z | /z/ | as "z" in "zoo" |
| f | /f/ | as "f" in "far" |
| v | /v/ | as "v" in "vote" |
| p | /p/ | as "p" in "p" |
| b | /b/ | as "b" in "boy" |
| t | /t/ | as "t" in "tall" |
| d | /d/ | as "d" in "dog" |
| th | /T/ | as "th" in "think" |
| dh | /D/ | as "th" in "the" |
| l | /l/ | as "l" in "lad" |
| r | /r/ | as "r" in "rat" |
| n | /n/ | as "n" in "not" |
| nq | /N/ | as "ng" in "ring" |
| m | /m/ | as "m" in "more" |
| w | /w/ | as "w" in "was" |
| wh | /hw/ | as "wh" in "why" |
When spelling words in a romanized manner, if sequences of characters would become ambiguous, an apostraphe is inserted to resolve the ambiguity. For example, in the word fei'in, "rose", the apostraphe is given. Although there is no phoneme in Old Southern which is romanized as a lone "e", there is an "ii". The transcriber felt that this would improve readability where there is no access to the original script.
Conjugated verbs are composed of four elements:
verb stem + speaker's tense + event tense + event scope
If the speaker's tense is the present tense, then that marker may be omitted. The same markers are used for the speaker's tense and the event's tense, and so it is not uncommon to see a duplicated marker within inflected verbs.
Both speaker's tense and event tense are subject to agreement. The speaker's tense marker must be one of the first person markers, although it may be under any tense and may be singular or plural. For purposes of tense agreement, no distinction is drawn between first person inclusive and first person exclusive.
The event tense will carry agreement with the subject of the sentence. For purposes of verb tense agreement, third person masculine, third person feminine and third person indeterminate are grouped together as "third person, animate".
| Present Tense | Singular | Plural |
| 1st person | -ad- | -al- |
| 2nd person | -id- | -il- |
| 3rd person, animate | -ud- | -ul- |
| 3rd person, inanimate | -ur- | -ur- |
| Recent Past Tense | Singular | Plural |
| 1st person | -am- | -ap- |
| 2nd person | -im- | -ip- |
| 3rd person, animate | -um- | -up- |
| 3rd person, inanimate | -us- | -us- |
| Distant Past Tense | Singular | Plural |
| 1st person | -an- | -as- |
| 2nd person | -in- | -is- |
| 3rd person, animate | -un- | -us- |
| 3rd person, inanimate | -ut- | -ut- |
| Future Tense | Singular | Plural |
| 1st person | -ath- | -ak- |
| 2nd person | -ith- | -ik- |
| 3rd person, animate | -uth- | -uk- |
| 3rd person, inanimate | -urb- | -urb- |
| -ait | Point in time. |
| -ain | Time interval. When used with present tense, implies that "now" is inside the interval. |
| -iim | Time interval start, indicates event beginning. |
| -iik | Time interval end, indicates event ending. |
| -ounq | Eternal. |
| -oul | Eternal start, implies forever more from tense point. |
| -ous | Eternal end, implies event had always been up to that point. |
| -ouz | Cyclical. Event repeats, but tense marks a particular cycle spoken of. |
| -ouk | Intermittant. Event repeats, but with no particular cycle. |
These examples use variations on the sentence "she runs". As stated in the Pronouns section, the third person feminine pronoun is "ata". The verb root for "to run" is iikael.
ata iikaeladudouk = "She runs", lit. "I assert that she does run".
| iikael | -ad- | -ud- | -ok |
| v. int. "to run" | 1st pers. sing. pres. | 3rd pers. sing. anim. pres. | intermittant |
ata iikaeludouk = "She runs". A proper alternative form of the above, as present tense speaker markers may be dropped.
ata iikaeladudain = "She is running", lit. "I assert that she is running now".
| iikael | -ad- | -ud- | -ain |
| v. int. "to run" | 1st pers. sing. pres. | 3rd pers. sing. anim. pres. | time interval |
ata iikaelasunouk = "We knew her to run", lit. "We did assert that, at that time, she did run at times".
| iikael | -as- | -un- | -ouk |
| v. int. "to run" | 1st pers. pl. dist. past | 3rd pers. sing. anim. dist. past | intermittant |
ata iikaelasudain = "We knew she would run" (context: speakers observe that she is running).
| iikael | -as- | -ud- | -ain |
| v. int. "to run" | 1st pers. pl. dist. past | 3rd pers. sing. anim. pres. | time interval |
| Mood Morpheme | Meaning |
| koul | Negation, used with verbs and adverbs |
| kout | Negation, used with nominals |
| ri | Uncertainty |
| bou | Possibility |
| lu | Unknown |
| mei | Query, used to form questions |
| pour | Absolute certainty |
| talmarir | (n, pl.) "cats" (sing. talmar = "cat") |
| savit | (v. tr.) "to see" |
| -im | accusative case marking |
| liina | (dem.) cardinal numeral two + indefinite demonstrative |
| vou | (pro.) first person singular |
vou savitadait liina'im bou talmarir = "Those two things I see may be cats". Notice that the mood marker bou has been placed between the noun talmarir and its demonstrative article. This indicates that the speaker is certain that there were two entities, and is speculating only on what their identity might be.
vou savitadadait liina'im ri talmarir = "I'm not sure those two things (animals) I see are cats". Here the speaker is more making a statement on the uncertainty of his/her own perception.
vou koul savitadadait liina'im talmarir = "I don't see two cats". This might mean that either 1) the speaker doesn't see anything at all in response to a query about two cats, or 2) the speaker doesn't see them but is allowing for other evidence of the cats' presence.
vou savitadadait kout liina'im talmarir = "I don't see two cats". Here the speaker indicates that he/she sees cats, but there are fewer or more than two of them.
vou savitadadait liina'im kout talmarir = "I see two (not) cats". The speaker sees two entities, but they definitely are not cats.
dar mei savitadimait liina'im talmarir = "Did you see two cats?". The speaker is inquiring about what was seen.
dar savitadimait mei liina'im talmarir = "Did you see two cats?". The speaker assumes the listener did see cats, but is inquiring about how many.
| Person | Singular | Plural |
| First | vou | vouir (inclusive[1]) |
| voulir (exclusive[1]) | ||
| Second | dar | darir |
| Third, masculine | ila | |
| Third, feminine | ata | |
| Third, indeterminate[2] | soula | soulir |
| Third, inanimate[3] | tan | tanir |
[1] The first person plural inclusive covers the speaker, the listener, and optionally, others. The first person plural exclusive covers the speaker and others, but not the listener.
[2] The third person indeterminate gender is used when the gender of the entity spoken of is not known, or not relevant to the topic. It is appropriate to use for people as well as for animals, although it would be unusual to use it if a known person is being referred to. For some sentient races, such as the Dragons, it is considered rude to not use this pronoun. For a group of entities, the third person indeterminate plural is used, even if the group is known to be composed entirely of males or entirely of females.
[3] The third person inanimate is used for things which are not recognized as having individual volition. This includes minerals, natural forces, most artifacts, and plants.
Old Southern does not use an unspecified "it" as a subject. For example, instead of the English "It is raining", it would be said "The sky is raining" or "The cloud(s) is/are raining". For a passing thundershower it would be "The cloud is raining", but for rain from an overcast sky the subject would be "the clouds". Of course, if "the sky" or "the clouds" had been previously mentioned in the discourse, the inanimate pronouns could be used as referents.
| tafir | (n, pl.) "clouds" (sing. taf = "cloud") |
| tanq | (v. tr.) "to rain, to sprinkle some liquid" |
| seisir | (dem.) definite plural |
Demonstratives are never used by themselves, as may be done in English with the words "this" or "that".
Demonstratives shown below are given in the nominative case.
| Dem. sing. | Dem. pl. | Function | Usage |
| sei | seisir | Definite | Used to indicate an entity which has previously been mentioned in the discourse. |
| na | nasir | Indefinite | Used to introduce an entity into the discourse. When used with the "possible" mood bo it refers to an abstract, unidentified entity. Also for logical "there exists". When used with the "certainty" mood pour, it denotes that the speaker believes that such an entity exists, but cannot further identify it. |
| tir | tirir | Speaker proximate | Used to indicate an entity which is close to the speaker. |
| vaen | vaenir | Listener proximate | Used to indicate an entity which is close to the listener. |
| airoul | airoulir | Non-proximate | Used to indicate an entity which neither close to the speaker or to the listener. |
Quantifiers are used as prefix modifiers on demonstratives. The quantifier roots are shown here:
| maenq | "a few", generally three to five. |
| dhim | "some", generally five or more. |
| whiith | "many", generally 20 or more, occasionally used for 10 or more. |
| iilwha | "countless". |
| maenq | dhim | whiith | iilwha | |
| sei | maenqsei | dhimsei | whiithsei | illwhasei |
| na | maenqna | dhimna | whiithna | illwhana |
| tir | maenqtir | dhimtir | whiithtir | illwhatir |
| vaen | maenqvaen | dhimvaen | whiithvaen | illwhavaen |
| airoul | maenqairoul | dhimairoul | whiithairoul | illwha'airoul |
| talmarir | (n, pl.) "cats" (sing. talmar = "cat") |
| dheimour | (v. tr.) "to look at, to view" |
| savit | (v. tr.) "to see" |
| -im | accusative case marking |
| vou | (pro.) first person singular |
vou savitadadait dhimvaenim talmarir = "I see some cats there (near you)".
vou savitadamait whiithna'im talmarir = "I saw many cats". Use of na in whiithna'im indicates this is the first the cats have been mentioned in the discourse.
whiithsei talmarir dheimouradupait vouim = "The many cats looked at me". Use of sei in whiithsei indicates that the cats have been mentioned already.
iilwha'airoul talmarir dheimouralupait voulirim = "Countless cats looked at us".
| Number | Cardinal Form | Ordinal Form |
| 1 | ka | kara |
| 2 | li | lil |
| 3 | sou | soun |
| 4 | rei | rein |
| 5 | mour | mourd |
| 6 | grou | groum |
| 7 | nqi | nqin |
| 8 | bae | baes |
| 9 | trai | traik |
| 10 | tha | thand |
Ordinal numerals indicate an items place in a sequence, and may be used to answer
questions of the form "which one?". Ordinal numerals may also be
used as modifiers on demonstratives. The numeral will again be combined as a
prefix onto the demonstrative. Ordinals may be used in combination with quantifiers,
in which case the components would take the order
(Examples to be provided TBD)
3.3.5 Case Markings
Nominative Accusative Dative
Possessive Instrumental vou vouim vouat vouaf vouout vouir vouirim vouirat vouiraf
vouirout voulir voulirim voulirat vouliraf
voulirout dar darim darat daraf
darout darir daririm darirat dariraf
darirout ila ila'im ilat ilaf
ilaout ata ata'im atat ataf
ataout soula soula'im soulat soulaf
soulaout soulir soulirim soulirat souliraf
soulirout tan tanim tanat tanaf
tanout tanir tanirim tanirat taniraf
tanirout sei sei'im seiat seiaf
seiout na na'im nat naf
naout tir tirim tirat tiraf
tirout vaen vaenim vaenat vaenaf
vaenout airoul airoulim airoulat airoulaf
airoulout va va'im vat vaf
vaout
Basic sentence structure is SVO, although a fair flexibility is allowed due to the case markings on nominal phrases. Adjectival modifiers precede their head, and relational modifiers (similar to English prepositions) follow the head of the phrase.
Old Arvandran does not have a separate passive voice. But the effect can be achieved by not stating a subject.
| dis | (v. tr.) "to bring" |
| mart | (n.) "horse" |
vou disamamait na'im mart = "I brought a horse."
disamumait na'im mart = "A horse was brought." When the actor is unstated, the 3rd person, singular, animate tense marker is used.
ila disamumait na'im mart = "He brought a horse."
soulir disamupait na'im mart = "They brought a horse."
The simplest relative clauses derive from the combination of two sentences where a common nominal referent is used to link them.
| dheimour | (v. tr.) "to look at" |
| talmar | (n.) "cat" |
| mart | (n.) "horse" |
sei talmar dheimouradunait ata'im = "The cat looked at her."
ata savitadumait ilam = "She saw him."
In this first example, "she" from the second sentence will be linked to, or embedded into, the "her" of the first sentence. The linked phrase from the outer sentence will be replaced by the relative particle va, which does take the appropriate case marking for the phrase (see table of cases). In the embedded clause, the particle gu is prefixed to the linked phrase.
sei talmar dheimouradumait va'im gu'ata savitadumait ilam = "The cat looked at she who saw him."
In this version, the object of the second sentence instead becomes the object of the first sentence. The uncombined sentences would be "The cat saw him", "She saw him", and the objects of both form the link. Notice that the word order does not need to change, due to the use of case markings, but it would still be proper.
sei talmar dheimouradumait va'im ata savitadumait gu'ilam = "The cat looked at him who she saw."
sei talmar dheimouradumait va'im gu'ilam savitadumait ata = basically the same meaning, but another translation might be "The cat looked at him who was seen by her."
Of course, any nominal phrase in either statement can particpate in the link. Here is "The cat looked at her", with embedded "The horse saw the cat", with "the cat" as the link.
va dheimouradumait ata'im sei mart savitadumait gusei talmar" = "The cat who the horse saw, looked at her." More literally: "The one looked at her, that was the cat the horse saw."
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Last updated 99/10/08 -- L. Gerholz