Varokeřim (/va'ro.ke.rim/, /va.ro.'ke.rim/)

Varokeřim is an Elhigyeth Manipulation Language (EML) created by Sarna Apheita and Woturih in its early days. Varokeřim in the narrow sense refers to the form within the history of the Varokeřim language from the Arge Voka to the Arge Rhava period. Compared to the complex Old Varokeřim language, the grammar is much simplified, but it is impossible to manipulate Elhigyeth if there is evil inside the heart of the one using the language.

Phonology

Sound Inventory

Vowels

Varokeřim has a five-vowel system of /a/ /e/ /i/ /o/ /u/. When preceded by h, long vowels can occur; in certain variants, there are even diphthongs as well.

Consonants

Varokeřim consonants have the distinction between voiced and voiceless sounds, and there are labial, palatal, velar, and glottal sounds. Consonantal phonemes are as follows:

• plosives: p, t, k, b, d, g
• fricatives: f, v, s, z, j [ʒ], h
• nasals: m, n
• liquid: r [r ~ ɾ ~ ɹ], l

Phonological Processes

Although Varokeřim does not emphasize pronunciation as much as Old Varokeřim, and it is believed that many variants occurred in different regions, there is a "canonical pronunciation" that was established and controlled by the Woturih Rektenets. Unless otherwise noted, the following is a description of the canonical pronunciation of the late Arge Azoenna era.

Rules regarding /h/

When /h/ precedes a vowel, /h/ is not pronounced and the vowel becomes a long vowel.

thasak /taː.sak/
jiveterzanhe /ʒi.ve.ter.za.neː/

When /h/ is at the beginning of a word, the above rule does not apply.

he /he/

There was a time when /h/ was inserted frequently in some words to avoid hiatus. Later, the /h/ in such cases was dropped and the vowel on either side of the /h/ was pronounced as a diphthong.

eha /eha/ > /ea/
lohe /lohe/ > /loe/

Other processes in variants of Varokeřim

In Southern Valokeřim, vowels that have become long vowels as a result of the application of the /h/ pronunciation rule may become diphthongs due to vowel breaking, and furthermore, the first vowel may become a glide. In addition, the immediately preceding consonant may be palatalised.

vhetum OP /veː.tum/ > SP /vie.tum, vjeː.tum, vʲeː.tum/

Morphology

Nouns

Most Varokeřim nouns are derived from Old Varokeřim nouns by applying regular phoneme alternations. Therefore, Varokeřim nouns can be considered as derived from Old Varokeřim roots, and are also listed with their roots in dictionaries published in Woturih from the Arge Azoenna era onwards.
On the other hand, there are also nouns derived by affixation within the Varokeřim language.

Common noun

Nouns have five cases:

• -e case (nominative)
• -jy case (accusative)
• -ert case (genitive)
• -ter case (ablative)
• -a case (genitive)

The genitive forms are used in the same way as adjectives.

iseram(e) 'hope'
iseramjy 'hope'
iseramert 'from hope'
iseramter 'to hope'
iserama 'of hope'

When forming the -a case, word-final consonants were sometimes reduplicated, and initially no special notation was made for this, but from the end of the Arge Azoenna era onwards, doubling the word-final consonant became more common.

azoen, azoenna > azoenn, azoenna

Historically, Varokeřim had three noun classes inherited from Old Varokeřim, which were still used in the Orthodox Grammar until the beginning of Arge Azoenna. Originally, there were three types of nouns: front vowel stem nouns, non-front vowel stem nouns and consonant stem nouns, each with its own set of case suffixes.
In case suffixes of front vowel stem nouns, the vowel in the suffix is also a front vowel /e/, in a phenomenon similar to vowel harmony with the immediately preceding front vowel. On the other hand, the non-front vowel stem, the phoneme /a/, which appears to be the default, remains unchanged, while /j/ is inserted to avoid hiatus. Note that this /j/ was sometimes rendered with an /h/ due to fluctuations in orthography during this period. In consonant stems, /a/ is inserted when the case suffix defaults to beginning with [-cont], or, when the case suffix begins with a vowel, the preceding consonant is reduplicated.

Nouns Derived from Affixation

Abstract nouns

The suffix -an can be used to create abstract nouns. In this case, the genitive suffix -e is not required after -an, and if it is, it is preceded by an additional -h- and the long vowel -he. zarab 'to imagine, to create' > zarab-an > zarman(he) 'dream' Nouns derived from verbs
Nouns can be derived from verbs, by simply removing the -ak at the end of the verb, and adding one of the five case suffixes listed above. In this case, whether the verb from which it is derived is an intransitive or transitive verb, it basically becomes a noun referring to the action denoted by the original verb itself; but as for some verbs it may also refer to the object or situation resulting from said action.

fegdarmak 'fight' > fegdarme 'battle'

It is also possible to create the meaning 'what is ~ed' by inserting -en before the case suffix.

markak 'write' > mark-en-e 'book (something written)'

Pronoun

Personal pronoun

Varokeřim language has 1st, 2nd, and 3rd personal pronouns and a distinction between singular and plural.

1st		2nd		3rd
sg.	pl.	sg.	pl.	sg.	pl.
dum	da	arde	arda	vo (person), bar (thing)	vadum (person), bara (thing)

Recursive pronoun

Besides the common personal pronouns, there is a recursive pronoun fege 'oneself'. This pronoun appears as the prefix feg- in verbs such as 'to make oneself ~' and nouns containing the connotation of 'one's own ~'. However, there are several variants of this morpheme, which comes from Old Varokeřim feġ-, with fer- appearing before the nasal /m, n/ and the liquids /r, l/, and fhe- before fricatives.

feg-darmak 'to defend oneself' > 'to fight'
feg-we 'possession (of oneself)'
feg-markanak > fermarkanak 'write oneself' > '(knowledge, information, etc.) appears (of its own accord)'
fhesanak 'to make or do oneself' > 'to be born'

In other cases, /g/ may also cause assimilation to the first sound of a subsequent morpheme, further phoneme deletions, etc.

fegtherak 'to heal spontaneously (to heal oneself)' > fektherak > fessherak

Impersonal im

The impersonal im is used to express general concepts, ways of things, etc. without reference to anyone in particular.

Im vojy thasak Karadmhar. 'People called him Karadmhar = he was called Karadmhar'.
Im imjy adkhamnak. 'People love people = people love each other'.

Possessive pronoun

Possessive pronouns are as follows:

1st		2nd		3rd
sg.	pl.	sg.	pl.	sg.	pl.
dumwe, dumme	dawe	ardewe	ardawe	vowe	vadumwe, vadumme

Possessive pronouns only exist for persons, and when expressing 'of it (the thing)', the -a case forms of the ordinary personal pronouns bara, baraa are used. This results in the same word form for the second person plural bara and the first person singular -a case bar-a, so forms barwa and barawa were later proposed, but few examples of their actual use have been recorded.

Relative pronoun

The interrogative ter is used as relative pronouns, which can be used for both objects and persons, matching its the case with the antecedent.

nara terum yurgaklan Eg'gored-jy 'the person(s) who would confront Eg'gored'.
jiveterzanhe dak gra terjy merenenza 'the prophecy has one enigmatic thing = the prophecy has certain enigmatic parts'

Spoken by

• Rektenet

Common Phrases

Warnajy argert.

'Peace be in the world.' (or, more accurately, 'let us bring peace into the world'.)