Introduction

Hi all, today I wanna present you my creation Ylmunusian. I’ve been working on it since 2013, when my previous large conlang died in the fires of a fried external harddrive. That said, back when I started with Ylmunusian my knowledge of conlanging and of where to find resources was… limited, let’s say. So looking back now I’m fully aware that Ylmunusian is sorely lacking in some regards. At the same time, I wouldn’t call it “bad” either. So yeah, if you wanna comment that certain things are not realistic or anything… knock yourself out but I’m well aware. Still, I’m proud of Ylmunusian, especially because of the scale as well as associated worldbuilding, and still work on it, mostly the vocabulary and translations. The grammar, from my point of view, is mostly “finished”. That said, any feedback is still welcome and I will answer any questions below in the comments as quickly as I can get to it. If there’s sufficient interest I can also share links to my online dictionary and a grammar doc (though be warned, that is unfinished!)

Some info: Ylmunusian is the native language of about 12 million people living on a fictional archipelago in the North Atlantic, south of Greenland and west of Ireland, which forms the nation of Ylmunus. The original natives spoke a language isolate that very little is known about and left no written records. This is my justification for some a priori vocabulary and the large amount of a priori grammar. Next, Finno-Ugric settlers arrived, took over the islands and absorbed the natives. This explains that the majority of vocabulary and some grammar is from Estonian, which I started learning in 2013. During the Viking age, some Viking settlement happened in Ylmunus, from whence come some words into the language but mostly place names. Since the Vikings were a massive problem for the Hansa at a time when the rest of Scandinavia had christianised, the Teutonic order launched a crusade against the islands around the year 1200, conquering and christianising the islands. This brought a ton of German and some Low German vocabulary to the language, as well as some Germanic grammar elements. A revolution and successive independence war starting in 1666 brought Ylmunus independence and a large-scale return to its native religion. That said, the ties to German-speaking areas were still strong and more modern German words came to the language. At the same time, the language has since then adopted many more modern and scientific words from the usual pan-European plethora of languages, including Latin, Ancient Greek, Italian, French and English.

Due to the history, the writing system is mostly based on German and although there have been some reforms, it still clings to some historic spellings.

Phonology & Orthography

Bilabial Labiodental Dental Alveolar Postalveolar Palatal Velar Uvular Glottal
Nasal m [m] n [n] nh [ɲ] (n [ŋ])
Plosive p [p] b [b] t [t] d [d] k [k] g [g] [ʔ]
Affricate c [ts] tş [tʃ]
Fricative f [f] v [v] ð [θ] ţ [ð] s [s] z, (s) [z] ş [ʃ] q [ʒ] hh, h [ç] h [h]
Approximant j [j]
Trill rr, ( r ) [r] r [ʀ]
Lat. approx. l [l]

Furthermore, there’s <x>, which is pronounced as [ks].

Front Central Back
Close í [i:] ý [y:] ú [u:]
Near-close i [ɪ] y [ʏ] u [ʊ]
Close-mid e [e] ō [ø:] ó [o:]
Mid e [ə]
Open-mid õ [œ] o [ɔ]
Open a [a] á [a:]

The diphthongs are: <aí> [aɪ], <ă> [aʊ], <eí> [aɪ], <ej> [eɪ], <éo> [ɔɪ], <oí> [ɔɪ], <óu> [œɪ], <ŏ> [ɔʊ], <uí> [ʊɪ], <yí> [ʏɪ].

Sentence Structure

Sentence structure in Ylmunusian is very important, since it is necessary to determine the subject and object of a sentence (see more in nouns I guess). A noun phrase has the order preposition-article (which can be ommitted)-adjective-noun.

The general sentence structure is S-V-O, though it gets a bit more funky once more objects are introduced. The secondary object(s) (O2) can either be added behind the primary object (O1) to get S-V-O1-O2, however the secondary object(s) can also be added between the subject and the verb, so S-O2-V-O1.

Min sóut kólissema sõbraka. I go-1S school-ILL friend-COM

or

Min sõbraka sóut kólissema. I friend-COM go-1S school-ILL both: “I go to school with a friend”

Questions have their own sentence structure yet again. Importantly, questions are required to start with a question marker (Q) or particle, which can also require a certain answer marker/particle and/or case to be used in the answer. I won’t list all question markers here as there are 31 of them. The sentence structure of the question is then Q-V-S-O1-O2.

Kellema sóut min sõbraka? Where-to go-1S I friend-COM “Where am I going with a friend?”

Nouns

Ylmunusian nouns inflect for number and case. There is no grammatical gender distinction, though some nouns come in pairs of male and female, such as sõbra “male friend” vs. sõbru “female friend” or korr “male dog” vs. koerraja “she-dog”.

-> Number

Nouns generally have a singular and plural form. The plural is formed by adding the suffix -(a)rt to the noun’s nominative. A limited number of nouns that is likely to occur in pairs (hands, eyes, animals, etc.) can also form a dual by adding -(a)ja to the noun’s nominative.

vowel ending consonant ending
Singular maja “house” kess “hand”
Dual ∅ kessaja “two hands/a pair of hands”
Plural majart “houses” kessart “hands”

-> Cases

Nouns inflect for one of 12 cases. The nominative is unmodified. Ten cases form regularly and one case, the partitive, forms irregularly.

The regular cases form by suffixation to a noun’s grammatical form, a highly irregular form of the noun that has no use on its own. It will always end in a vowel to ease the use of the case suffixes. Ylmunusian dictionaries will list the grammatical form after the nominative, usually as “kess, kessi” (nominative, grammatical) and as "maja, - " for grammatical forms that are identical to the nominative.

Case Meaning Suffix Examples
Nominative both unmod. subject or object -∅ maja “house”, kess “hand”
Genitive possession or relation -st majast, kessist
Inessive inside or nearby -m majam, kessim
Exteriossive (yes I made that up) outside or nearby -n majan, kessin
Illative into or towards -ma majama, kessima
Elative out of or away from -ne majane, kessine
Comitative with -ka majaka, kessika
Instrumental using, utilising -ð majað, kessið
Abessive without -t majat, kessit
Terminative until (temporal and local) -ny majany, kessiny
Motivative because of, due to, in order to -sso majasso, kessisso

Since dual forms already end on vowels, their grammatical form is identical to the nominative form. The grammatical form of the plural is formed by adding the suffix -u to the plural suffix -(a)rt, e.g. majartust and kessartust.

–> Partitive Case

The partitive case is formed differently and thus traditionally not regarded as a case in its own right in Ylmunusian. It is used on nouns that would be in the nominative but are the object of a negated verb or a quantity (number, measurement). The partitive is formed by adding a suffix to the nominative based on the nominative’s ending:

Nominative ending on Partitive Suffix Example
-e, -i, -õ -de sárede “island”
-ă, -ŏ -t sdăt “traffic jam”
long vowels [-á, -é, -í, -ó, -ō, -ú, -ý] & -ð, -h, -hh -d agód “pencil, quill”
any other vowel -te majate “house”
-c, -f, -nh, -q, -ş, -z -ete talfete “winter”
-d, -t -∅ fysst “river”
-j -i lillji “flower”
-r -ite jarite “lake”
any other consonant -ute uxute “door”

-> Articles

The use of articles in Ylmunusian is strictly optional. If they are used, it is usually to emphasise the accompanying noun or in order to strictly distinguish between the direct and the indirect noun. Articles precede the noun they belong to and potentially an accompanying adjective. There is no distinction made for number in the articles. The direct article is mu, while the indirect article is kvá. Kvá can additionally mean any as well as a.

-> Pronouns

Unlike for regular nouns, pronouns have a different form when they are used as an object. This form is identical to the grammatical form, which means that other cases can be formed in a regular manner. The exception to that is the genitive, which has its entirely unique form, that is also used as the possessive pronoun. As in verb conjugation, the dual and plural forms of the pronouns have completely merged.

Nominative Subject Nominative Object & Grammatical Form Genitive & Possessive Pronoun
1SG min minu myja
2SG sin sinu syja
3SG tin tinu tyja
1DU/PL ej eja yja
2DU/PL en enna nyja
3DU/PL evad ea vajad

Adjectives & Adverbs

Adjectives and adverbs are arguably the easiert part of Ylmunusian. They do not in any way adapt to the noun/verb they modify. Adjectives precede the noun, while adverbs follow after the verb (though in some lyrical context they may precede it). Any adjective can be used as an adverb without requiring further modification.

While most common adjectives exist as their own word, any noun can, if necessary, be turned into an adjective through addition of the suffix -ile or -le. If the noun ends on a vowel, this will commonly swallow that final vowel in favour of the suffix’s i.

Verbs too can be turned into adjectives, roughly serving the function of English’s past participle. To do so, one simply removes the infinitive ending from the infinitive, leaving the verb stem. Example: lõppamar “to finish” -> lõppam “finished” -> lõppam koho “finished task”.

Comparatives are formed by adding the suffix -(a)n to the adjective, the superlative by adding the suffix -(u)v. E.g. starki “strong” -> starkin “stronger” -> starkiv “strongest” and ilus “beautiful” -> ilusan “more beautiful” -> ilusuv “most beautiful”.

Verbs

Verbs are terribly complex, so I will be glossing over a lot of things for the sake of keeping this post concise.

Regular verbs fall into one of 19 conjugational categories that are easily distinguishable by their infinitive endings, though there are two groups ending on -ar/-ár and four groups ending on -on/-ón (though there are no verbs where this conjugation would distinguish meaning). Importantly, dual and plural conjugation has entirely merged. Two examples:

Infinitive kúli “to listen” armastún “to love, to like, to enjoy”
Category i-conjugation un-conjugation
1SG kúlik armasta
2SG kúligi armastað
3SG kúlu armaste
1DU/PL kúlijo armastú
2DU/PL kúligo armastuð
3DU/PL kúlo armasti

Furthermore, there are three irregular verbs: sinha “to be”, ynda “to have”, and sóutam “to go, to move towards”. Sóutam is used for any sort of purposeful movement and uses adverbs like “by foot”, “by car”, or “quickly” to get more precise English verbs like “to walk”, “to drive” or “to run”.

Infinitive Sinha “to be” Ynda “to have” Sóutam “to go, to move towards”
1SG sinhu ynna sóut
2SG erja ytta sóud
3SG erjatta ykka sóuð
1DU/PL sinhă ygla sóutma
2DU/PL sinhéo ygma sóudma
3DU/PL sŏs ygva sóuðma

-> Past Tenses

There are four past tenses that very much mimick the Germanic way of mingling tense and perfective aspect. There are the preterite, simple perfect, formal perfect and pluperfect tenses. The simple perfect and formal perfect are functionally identical but the simple perfect is preferred in colloquial and spoken language while the formal perfect is preferred in formal language and near mandatory in written language.

The preterite is a non-perfective past tense, denoting an action that has commenced in the past tense but is unfinished or unfinishable. It is formed by adding the suffix -(i)ssar to the verb’s infinitive, e.g. sinha “to be” -> sinhassar “was”.

The simple perfect and formal perfect are a perfective past tense, denoting an action that has been finished in the past. The simple perfect is formed by adding the suffix -(i)mnoan to the verb’s infinitive, e.g. sinha “to be” -> sinhamnoan “has been”. To form the formal perfect, it is necessary to remove the infinitive ending of the verb, leaving the stem, and then adding a new conjugational suffix.

Suffix Example
Infinitive / kúli “to listen”
Stem / kúl
1SG -ah kúlah
2SG -eh kúleh
3SG -ag kúlag
1DU/PL -ahk kúlahk
2DU/PL -ehk kúlehk
3DU/PL -egyk kúlegyk

The irregular verbs have both an irregular infinitive as well as an irregular conjugation for the formal past tense. The irregular formal past tense infinitive is important since it is necessary to use it in a formal past tense sentence where the irregular verb is the secondary verb, e.g. “had wanted to be”.

Present Infinitive sinha “to be” ynda “to have” sóutam “to go, to move towards”
Formal Past Infinitive sinna yxka sóusse
1SG sinnah yxkah sóusseah
2SG sinneh yxkeh sóusseh
3SG sinnag yxkag sóusseag
1DU/PL sinnahk yxkahk sóusseahk
2DU/PL sinnehk yxkehk sóussehk
3DU/PL sinnagyk yxkagyk sóussegyk

The pluperfect tense functions much as in English (where it’s usually called past perfect), it denotes an event further in the past from a perspective already in the past. It used the irregular verb ynda as an auxilliary followed by the present tense conjugation of the actual verb. And yes, that means that when the actual verb is already ynda, there is a repetition. Examples: min ynna kúlik “I had heard” or min ynna ynna “I have had”.

-> Future Tenses

There are three future tense: the near future tense, the far future tense, and the plufuture tense (yes, my own name creation once again).

The near future tense is used to express events that will happen soon and are thus very probable. It uses the irregular verb sinha as an auxilliary, followed by the infinitive of the relevant verb.

The far future tense is used to express events that will happen not so soon and are thus to an extent uncertain. It uses the regularly conjugated auxilliary verrom [om-conjugation], which has no further meaning and does not exist on its own. It is followed by the relevant verb’s infinitive.

Infinitive kúli “to listen”
1SG verra kúli
2SG verroro kúli
3SG verroni kúli
1DU/PL verram kúli
2DU/PL verrom kúli
3DU/PL verron kúli

The plufuture tense mimicks the pluperfect tense. It is used to denote an event further in the future from a perspective already in the future, e.g. Min sinhu sóutam markama, sóut ynda klínikkuma. “I will go to the supermarket, (afterwards I) will go to the hospital.” The plufuture is formed by regularly conjugating the relevant verb and adding the infinitive form of ynda behind it.

-> Negation

Negation uses a negation particle in front of or surrounding the verb. A negated verb is not conjugated but uses only the verb stem. The irregular verbs ynda and sóutam use the verb stems from the formal perfect tense while sinha uses the entirely irregular stem ole. There are a number of negation particles that can be used. Those that come in two parts surround the negated verb.

Negation Particle Meaning Example
ej not Maja ej ole ilus. “The house is not beautiful.”
ejjam nowhere, not in this place Maja ejjam ole. “The house is not here.”
ej mitte not anymore Maja ej ole mitte ilus. “The house is not beautiful anymore.”
ej mitteeía never again Maja ej ole mitteeía ilus. “The house will never again be beautiful.”
ej arrón nobody, not this person Ej yxka arrón majate. “Nobody has a house.”
ej sykki not yet Maja ej ole sykki ilus. “The house is not beautiful yet.”
ejaja never Maja ejaja ole ilus. “The house never was beautiful.”

-> Passive & Mood

There are multiple strategies to form the passive voice as well as various moods but often an infix is used. In those cases, the infix is inserted between the verb’s stem and its conjugational suffix.

For the sake of making this post not even longer, I’ll go through them even more rapid fire.

Passive voice: infixes using -is, -si or -isi. Can be used on the present, preterite, formal past and near future tense.

Inferential mood: used to talk about an event that is currently taking place elsewhere according to second-hand information but where the speaker currently has no possibility to verify said information, e.g. “(she said that) there’s an accident.” Infixes using -in, -ni or -ini. Can be used on the present, preterite and formal perfect tenses.

Optative mood: used to express a wish that is not necessarily impossible or unrealistic to achieve, e.g. “To win the lottery just once!” or even “Long live the king!” Forms using sinna, the formal past infinitive of sinha + the conjugated present tense form of the verb. Can only be used with the present tense.

Conditional mood: used to describe an action that is currently unlikely due to outside factors, e.g. “we could listen to music if we had a radio” or “we could go swimming if it stopped raining”. When using it in the formal past tense, that slightly changes the meaning to something that would have been possible but did not come to pass, so “we could have listened to music if we would have had a radio” or “we could have gone swimming if it had stopped raining”. The conditional forms using the infinitive form of sóusse + the conjugated form of the relevant verb + the infinitive of the relevant verb.

Subjunctive mood: used to describe an impossible factor, e.g. “we could make it if I could fly”. Infixes using -xi or -ix. Can only be used on the present tense.

Dubitative mood: used to express disbelief over something stated beforehand, e.g. “He said he’s already on his way?” Forms using the auxilliary verb allas [as-conjugation], which has no meaning outside the dubitative + the infinitive of the relevant verb. Can be applied to the present and near future tense.

Imperative mood: used to give orders or commands or state requests. Formed by removing the infinitive suffix of the verb, leaving the stem. May be applied to the second person singular, first person dual/plural and second person dual/plural of the present tense.

Prepositions

Despite the extensive case system there are still numerous prepositions, in part to further specify the broad meaning of the cases. A preposition will trigger the use of a specific case. Some common prepositions are:

Preposition Meaning Case used Example
lébi away from, apart from exteriossive Maja erjatta lébi linnan. “The house is (a bit) away from the town.”
upp on top of exteriossive Maja erjatta upp maggin. “The house is on top of the mountain.”
õndrõ opposite of, across from (figuratively: in front of an institution) exteriossive Maja erjatta õndrõ maggin. “The house is across from the mountain.”
naðd behind exteriossive Maja erjatta naðd linnan. “The house is behind the town.”
õndér next to exteriossive Maja erjatta õndér kólissen. “The house is next to the school.”
syppla above exteriossive Byró erjatta syppla markan. “The office is above the store.”
unna under, below exteriossive Mart erjatta unna byrón. “The store is below the office.”
kó in front of exteriossive Maja erjatta kó kólissen. “The house is in front of the school.”
anh on (attached to) inessive Bild erjatta anh sejnam. “The picture is on the wall.”
seas in between (local) inessive Kól erjatta seas majartum. “The school is in between the houses.”
săsoz (formal), săz (colloquial) in between (temporal) inessive Kól erjatta săsoz/săz ahta ja sesstej kellastajam. “School is between 8am and 4pm.”
õndrið through illative Min sóut õndrið kólissema. “I walk through the school.”
mōda along illative Min sóut mōda sejnama. “I walk along the wall.”
kó before (temporal) illative Min vjáma tinu kó ahta kellastajama. “I require it before 8am.”
kunni after (temporal) elative Tin erjatta kunni kólissene. “It’s after school.”
rundá around sth. elative Linn erjatta rundá maggine. “The town is around the mountain.”
alta against, into terminative Tin sóuð alta sejnany. “He walks into the wall.”
yle for (temporal) terminative Kól erjatta yle ahta tallemininy. “School is for eight hours.”
ţo like (comparison) terminative …ţo majany. “…like a house.”
nýn for lack of, for want of (sth. tangible) instrumental Nýn céogið “for lack of a tool”
fõr for nominative Fõr sinu “for you”
ném for lack of, for want of (sth. intangible) motivative Ném móutesso “for want of an idea”

Vocabulary

Like I already said, the majority of Ylmunusian’s vocabulary comes from Estonian, with a large chunk also from German and Low German and smaller bits that are a priori, Nordic, and from the influential languages of the modern era (English, French, Latin, Greek).

Numbers in Ylmunusian are base 10, and currently go up to 999,999,999.

My new dictionary on lexiconga.com, which I started compiling things from various old Word documents into a while ago, currently has a total of 2395 entries. 1529 nouns, 411 adjectives, 330 verbs, 48 particles, 9 exclamations, and 10 unclassified. That said, I know I still have some old documents to go through that have vocabulary that needs adding to the dictionary.#