Vlo

Vlo is the language of the Vloibare people and spoken almost exclusively by them alone. It is a slightly dying language as more and more younger Vloibare assimilate into either Eoin or Yzelian culture.

Phonology

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind... mi̊ mi̊b me̊ zå kawkh shi̊npo mi̊ nyake̊ kawkh wågi mâd zhøgozhiw shůp[alt] Pronunciation: /mɪ mɪb mɛ zɑ kɔx ˈʃɪnpo mɪ ˈɲakɛ kɔx ˈʋɑgi məd ʒøˈgoʒiʋ ʃyp/ Jimijian word order: and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face the wind to[/alt]

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: b d g j k l m n p r s t v x z ɣ ɦ ɲ ʃ ʄ ʋ ʒ

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m		n		ɲ
Stop	p b		t d			k g
Implosive					ʄ
Fricative		v	s z	ʃ ʒ		x ɣ	ɦ
Approximant		ʋ			j
Trill			r
Lateral approximant			l

Vowel inventory: a e i o u y ø ɑ ɔ ə ɛ ɪ

	Front	Central	Back
High	i y		u
Near-high	ɪ
High-mid	e ø		o
Mid		ə
Low-mid	ɛ		ɔ
Low	a		ɑ

Syllable structure: (C)V(C) Stress pattern: Penultimate — stress is on the second last syllable Word initial consonants: b g j k l m n r s t v x z ɦ ɲ ʃ ʄ ʋ ʒ Mid-word consonants: b bb bj bl bm bn bs bv bʒ d dd dg dj dr ds dv dx dʃ g gd gn gx gz j jb jd jg jj jn jz jɲ jʒ k kd kj kk kl km kn kv kz kɦ kɲ kʃ l lb lj lk ll lp lr lɣ lɦ lʃ lʒ m mk mn mr ms mt mv mɦ mɲ mʃ n nb ng np nr ns nt nɣ p pk pl pm pp pr pt pv pz pʃ r rd rl rm rp rr rt rʋ s sb sd sj sm sn ss sz sɲ sʋ t tb tj tk tm tn tt tv tx tɲ tʃ v vb vj vm x xd xg xj xs xt xɲ z zb zg zj zr zɦ ɣ ɣj ɣm ɣn ɣr ɦ ɲ ɲj ɲl ɲz ʃ ʃj ʃn ʃs ʃt ʃɲ ʄ ʋ ʋj ʒ ʒl Word final consonants: b d j k l p r t v w x z ɣ ɦ ɲ ʃ ʄ ʋ 
Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
ɔ	aw
ɑ	å
ɛ	e̊
ə	â
ɪ	i̊
y	ů
j	y
x	kh
ɲ	ny
ʃ	sh
ʄ	j
ʋ	w
ʒ	zh
ɣ	g̊

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Grammar

Main word order: Subject Verb Object (Prepositional phrase). “Mary opened the door with a key” turns into Mary opened the door with a key. Adjective order: Adjectives are positioned before the noun. Adposition: postpositions

Nouns

	Singular	Plural
Masculine	No affix zhaj /ʒaʄ/ man	Suffix -i zhaji /ˈʒaʄi/ men
Feminine	No affix nů /ny/ woman	If ends with vowel: Suffix -z Else: Suffix -ɛz nůz /nyz/ women
Neuter	No affix naɦø /ˈnaɦø/ dog	If ends with vowel: Suffix -x Else: Suffix -ɛx naɦøkh /ˈnaɦøx/ dogs

Articles

	Definite	Indefinite
Singular	nâ /nə/ the	køɦ /køɦ/ a
Plural	mâ /mə/ the	me /me/ some

Uses of definite article that differ from English:

• Definite article can be omitted: ‘I am going to supermarket’
• Used to talk about countable nouns in general: English’s ‘I like cats’ would translate to ‘I like the cats’
• Not used for mass (uncountable) nouns: ‘Walking in the mud’ would always translate to ‘Walking in mud’.
• Used with place names: ‘The London’

Pronouns

1st singular	ri̊p /rɪp/ I, me, mine
2nd singular	le /le/ you, yours
3rd singular masc	mi̊b /mɪb/ he, him, his
3rd singular fem	bu /bu/ she, her, hers
3rd singular neut	mib /mib/ it, its
1st plural	mi̊ /mɪ/ we, us, ours
2nd plural	bâny /bəɲ/ you all, yours (pl)
3rd plural masc	zhi̊ /ʒɪ/ they (masc), them (masc), theirs (masc)
3rd plural fem	li̊ /lɪ/ they (fem), them (fem), theirs (fem)
3rd plural neut	ze̊v /zɛv/ they (neut), them (neut), theirs (neut)

Possessive determiners

1st singular	khø /xø/ my
2nd singular	ri̊p /rɪp/ your
3rd singular masc	kawkh /kɔx/ his
3rd singular fem	ge̊ /gɛ/ her
3rd singular neut	ve /ve/ its
1st plural	lů /ly/ our
2nd plural	khuj /xuʄ/ your (pl)
3rd plural masc	jø /ʄø/ their (masc)
3rd plural fem	zi /zi/ their (fem)
3rd plural neut	kø /kø/ their (neut)

Verbs

Present	If ends with vowel: Suffix -ʋ Else: Suffix -iʋ koriw /ˈkoriʋ/ learn
Past	No affix kor /kor/ learned
Future	Suffix -ɪ kori̊ /ˈkorɪ/ will learn

Progressive aspect

The ‘progressive’ aspect refers to actions that are happening at the time of speaking, such as I am learning.
Vlo uses an affix for progressive:

Progressive

If ends with vowel: Suffix -l Else: Suffix -il koril /ˈkoril/ is learning

Habitual aspect

The ‘habitual’ aspect refers to actions that happen habitually, such as I learn (something new every day), as opposed to actions that happen once (I learned something).
Vlo uses a standalone particle word for habitual:

Habitual

Particle before the verb: jy - yů kor /jy kor/ learns

Numbers

Vlo has a base-10 number system:
1 - si̊w 2 - yi̊ 3 - lo 4 - kiygå 5 - nyi̊ 6 - khuv 7 - mi̊w 8 - me̊zhi̊ 9 - yůd 10 - li̊d 11 - li̊dsi̊w “ten-one” 100 - nit “hundred” 101 - nit si̊w “hundred one” 200 - yi̊ nit 1000 - khůj “thousand”

Derivational morphology

• Adjective → adverb = If ends with vowel: Suffix -z Else: Suffix -yz
• Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -z Else: Suffix -oz
• Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ʄ Else: Suffix -əʄ
• Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -d Else: Suffix -əd
• Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -k Else: Suffix -ɔk
• Noun to verb = If ends with vowel: Suffix -p Else: Suffix -yp
• Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Suffix -yl
• Tending to = Suffix -ør
• Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Suffix -y
• Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -p Else: Suffix -yp
• One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Suffix -o
• Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -l Else: Suffix -ul
• Diminutive = If ends with vowel: Suffix -t Else: Suffix -øt
• Augmentative = If ends with vowel: Suffix -p Else: Suffix -ɪp
• Possessive = prefix da-
• Love of or love like (I love you like a dog, I love you like a sister) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -maw Else: Suffix -aw

Dictionary

261 Words.

Spoken by

• Vloibare

Common Phrases

Greetings

johj zenduv (pronunciation joh'jz zeh'n'duuv) = good morning, lit. good morning
zi̊j atkhi (pronunciation zij ah'tik'hee) = good afternoon, lit. safe day
jai gondonye (pronunciation gohnd'ohn'yeh)= good evening, lit. well evening
johj mabna (pronunciation joh'jz mahb'nah) = good night, lit. good night
zi̊jyz moetev (pronunciation zij'yz moh'et'ev) = hello, lit. safely met
redəyovu (pronunciation reh'duuh'yohvoo) = goodbye, lit. a contraction of the phrase leave peacefully (redejədyz yøvůʋ)

Useful Phrases

bedaneyo (pronunciation beh'dan'eh'yoh) = please
rihaok (pronunciation ree'hah'ock) = thank you, lit. a contraction of the phrase I am grateful (ri̊p vekil rihakeedok)
shewyo (pronunciation shew'yoh) = help
jahdav aar ______ (pronunciation jah'dahv ahr) = welcome to ______

Insults

nyokoz shiz le zhaw (pronunciation neeoh'koz shizz leh jawh) = a curse, lit. 'slavers take your baby', but generally used as 'fuck off' or a general curse on another person and their family. Eoin slavers used to often take children from Vloibare people's families
da-jaemavjev ehbuj (pronunciation dah-jay'mahv'jehv aey'booj) = horse's whore
kirsi̊w du'un (pronunciation keer'sihw doo'oon) = half dead, the discrimination of the Vloibare people has led the nomadic of them to be very insular. Those who are the product of a Vlo and another race are considered traitors from birth.

Types of Love

zinruew (pronunciation zin'roo'ew) = clan 
bijkerel (pronunciation bijzkeh'rehl) = general world  
shikmil (pronunciation sheek'mihl) = specific people (familiar) 
shikmaal (pronunciation sheek'mahl) = specific people (distant) 
nared (pronunciation nar'ehd) = lovers
rakrpad (pronunciation rahk'rep'rad) = a crush, initial infatuation 
idejew (pronunciation ee'dej'ew) = all encompassing