Farspeech - Grammar Overview
Remember that I am not perfect at this and that I don't know all linguistic terms.
Phonetic Summary
Onset Consonants: m n p t k b d g sh f s y R Clusters: rs rsh rf rt Vowels: a i u o e A Cluseters: ai (y) ao aa I Clusters: ia io ii O Clusters: oa U Clusters: ui uu
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Word Order and Stuff
Primary Order: SOV - The cat on the log jumps (the cat jumps on the log)
Secondary Order: SVO -
Adjectives - Nouns: Black Cat
Numbers - Nouns: Four Cats
Adverbs - Verbs: Quickly Run
Example: The two big black cats on the log, they quickly jump
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Part 2: Noun Classes - Animacy in Farspeak
There are five classes in Farspeak on a sliding scale of intelligent animacy to mindless animacy. Agreement is demanded from adjectives, articles and occasionally verbs and numbers depending on how formally you’re speaking. In general;
Casual - Agreement with only adjectives and articles
Proper - Agreement with adjectives, articles and numbers
Formal - Agreement with adjectives, articles, numbers and verbs
It’s common for younger cats to sometimes create agreement with verbs and numbers but not adjectives or adjectives and verbs but not numbers as a way of conveying what’s important to them. Most older cats frown upon this but it’s ultimately harmless - do note however that these forms of register also affect the strength of the runes you’re working with.
Casual runes are for everyday magics that you can afford to keep replacing. They’re extremely temporary with the longest lasting charms being only a day long and the most extreme needing replacing every sun-tick.
Proper runes are the most common ones to be seen on structures and wards. They’re stronger than casual runes but need much less maintenance and continuous upkeep. Whale they do still need replenishing, a skilled speller can get them to last for about half a moon.
Formal runes are the strongest and most complex charms, usually seen on long-term structures that exist out on the stretches of the Farlands and can’t be cared for regularly such as Sun-Tellers and beacons. Formal runes are incredibly rare as they require a lot of magic and therefore, a lot of sacrifice to make work. They’re most commonly found in the Old Temples from the Upwalkers - some of these runes seem fresh leading to some interesting conspiracies and cults.
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Class 1 - F. Charm Animate - Makes up a vast majority of role nouns with the inherent implication of being a woman. When naming kits with Farspeak, molly names are often altered to follow this pattern. As The Mother is a prominent figure in most Farwalker myths, this class is also sometimes used to refer to divines. Most nouns in this class end in -oh or -or.
Examples: Moh (dame), Baroh (daughter)
Agreements: -o or -os for singular and -no or -nos in plurals.
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Class 2 - M. Charm Animate - Makes up the vast majority of role and ranking nouns with the inherent implication of being masculine. Most native nouns end in -ur or sur.
Example: Mur (sire), Barur (son)
Agreements: -u or -su for singular or -us or -sus.
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Class 3 - N. Charm Animate - Makes up the bulk of all role and ranking nouns with no inherent gender. It’s most common to use these terms for anyone you don’t know as it’s considered rude to gender someone without their permission - it’s like saying you’re close and familiar enough to know them. Most gendered nouns exist here as a base and are modified to fit Classes 1 and 2. Most nouns in this class end in -au.
Example: Mau (parent), Baru (kit, child)
Agreements: -i or -si for singular or -is or -sis for plurals.
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Class 4- Animate Nouns - Any creature that isn’t intelligent and is mostly used to refer to prey animals and predator animals. In practice this often comes out as anything that isn’t a cat, a corvid or a hound. Depending on the kinband you belong to, other things such as fire (searbond) or wind (haebond) are considered animate nouns and will be grouped here.
Example: Fimi (mouse), Puma (fish)
Agreements: -a or -fa for singular or -as or -fas for plurals.
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Class 5 - Inanimate Nouns - Anything that doesn’t fit into the first three classes. While this is mostly filled with things like trees, rocks and places, this class is also subdivided into two. Kinetic Inanimate and Truly Inanimate. The Kinetic Inanimate subclass consists near entirely of Tainted Ones and Farcreatures - beings of evil or despair and can’t ever be reasoned with. Truly Inanimate being are rocks, trees, leaves and dirty.
Agreements: -ah or -gah for singular or -ahs or -ghas for plurals.
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Part 3: Noun Cases - Voided
Farspeak has no noun cases. Why is this being brought up you may ask? That’s because there are no case distinctions in the pronouns as well. He and him are the same word as are she and her.
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Part 4: Grammatical Number
Though there are only four noun classes, there are five grammatical numbers aligning with the various noun classes. It’s a very simple addition of -s to make most of these noun classes plural. The Animate class is suffixed with -in for plurals.
Class 1 - F. Charm Animate - Moh (dame) to Mohs (dames)
Class 2 - M. Charm Animate - Mur (sire) to Murs (sires)
Class 3 - N. Charm Animate - Mau (parent) to Maus (parents)
Class 4 - Animate - Fimi (mouse) to Fimiin (mice)
Class 5 - Inanimate - Gada (tree) to Gadas (trees)
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Part 5: Articles and Demonstratives
There are separate articles for each noun class divided along the singular/plural line for both the definite and indefinite articles.
Class 1 F. Charm Animate - Alo (sing.), Alos (pl) - Nuo (sing.), Nuos (pl.)
Class 2 M. Charm Animate - Alu (sing.), Alus (pl.) - Nuu (sing.), Nuus (pl.)
Class 3 N. Charm Animate - Ali (sing.), Alis (pl.) - Nui (sing.), Nuis (pl.)
Class 4 - Animate - Ala (sing.), Alas (pl.) - Nua (sing.), Nuas (pl.)
Class 5 - Inanimate - Alah (sing.), Alahs (pl.) - Nuah (sing.), Nuahs (pl.)
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Part 6: Tense and Aspect
Past Perfective - Lu mirsana (I jumped in the past)
Present Perfective -
Future Perfective - Lu mirsanna (I will have jump)
Past Imperfective - Lu mirsalu (I jump in the past)
Present Imperfect - Lu mirsal (I jump)
Future Imperfective - Lu mirsallu (I will jump)
Past Inchoative - Lu mirsama (I started to jump in the past)
Present Inchoative - Lu mirsam (I started to jump just now)
Future Inchoative - Lu mirsamma (I will start to jump)
Past Cessive - Lu mirsaki (I stopped jump in the past)
Present Cessive - Lu mirsak (I stop jumping)
Future Cessive - Lu mirsakki (I will stop jumping)
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Part 7: Pronouns
Farspeak only has independent pronouns and you must include them. Again, there are no case distinctions in the pronouns and, ergo, I-Me are the same word. The third-person pronouns are all have individuals for each of the noun classes.
You can use reduplication to create the reflexive - there isn’t a set reduplicated sound to prevent some aggressive homophony.
Example: Lu tusar khe (I built it) vs. Lulu tusar khe (I built it myself)
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Part 8: Derivational Affixes
Nominative (a-): akarra (hunter)
Nominative 2 (u-): urraku (warrior)
Diminutive (i(n)-): inkarra (little hunter/hunter in training)
Diminutive (bi-): bikarra (baby hunter, a nickname)
Augmentative (Sh(i)-): shakarra (predator)
Augmentative (r(e)-): rakarra (killer)
Locative (p(a)-): pakarra (hunt place, plot)
Comparative (-u(u)): Biluu (smaller)
Superlative (-(l)akk): Bilakk (smallest)
