Lingua

A lost language of the old goddesses and ancient people. Sometimes, words will still linger, or a mysterious tomb with illegible engravings will appear in a graveyard.

Geographical Distribution

While there are no longer any native speakers of Lingua, the language was once spoken by all goddesses and humans.

At the dawn of humanity, all humans lived together, comingling with eternal beings on the northern continent of Terra. As time went on, the language spread with the people across the land. The language morphed as groups spread apart and formed their own unique dialects, and cultural differences became more apparent.

Dialects eventually became distinct languages of their own, and Lingua became the Proto-Mother language and the language of the goddesses, with few native speakers still living on the northern continent.

Syntax

Lingua follows a basic SVO (Subject > Verb > Object) order. Most sentences can be divided into the subject and the predicate.

Below are definitions of the basic syntax and examples. For each example, there will be a Lingua sentence and a translation in human English.

Subject: The subject tells who or what the sentence is about.

Example: To eqol edo to mish. (Translation: The horse ate the food.)

Predicate: A predicate is the verb and everything that comes after it in a sentence.

Example: To gwena ped en to gradas. (Translation: The girl ran in the yard.)

Simple predicate: A simple subject is one word that tells who or what the sentence is about.

Example: To kyo somn. (Translation: The dog slept.)

Predicate adjective: A predicate adjective comes after a verb of being.

Example: To borv estedo mal. (Translation: The bread tasted bad.)

Direct object: A direct object comes after a verb and is part of the predicate.

Example: To gwen whit gwennem whitavis. (Translation: The woman looked for her book.)

Vocabulary

People

• cridegwen - ruler or leader
• foedon - enemy
• gam - man
• gama - boy
• gwen - woman
• gwena - girl
• gwennis - family
• sorin -friend

Actions

• dand - to give or trade
• dem - to work
• edo - to eat, drink, or taste
• est - to be, is, was
• grewen - to farm or grow
• kamp -to take or steal
• libet - to love
• memon - to think, or remember; a memory
• mrort - to die
• ped - to run
• ra - to make
• somn - to sleep
• whit - to look or see
• whitaen - to know or learn
• wursin - to praise; to make a vow
• wyf - to travel

Nature

• astel - star
• daur - tree
• eqol - horse
• gradas - garden or enclosed yard
• kuo - dog
• maryi - ocean
• meddin - forest
• meli - honey
• mize - moon
• nebhan - cloud
• piyur - fire
• soll - sun
• sruten - river
• terme - earth
• undor - water
• vanta - wind

Feelings

• ahr - ugly or cruel
• avhu - happiness or pride
• bell - beauty
• bruis - strength or might
• cride - courage
• ferv - hate or anger
• krais - fear or shame
• wains - weakness

Human-Made Objects

• borv - bread
• dandvis - market
• demvis - workshop
• dom - home
• mish - food
• vaste - cloth or clothing
• whitdom - school
• wyfvis - road

Time

• atim - year
• augem - autumn
• hiem - winter
• nu - day
• sam - summer
• vesm - spring

Modifier Morphemes

Morphemes are the smallest unit of language with some independent meaning. Lingua has dozens of morphemes that are used either on their own or can be added to other root morphemes as prefixes or suffixes to make a new word.

Independent Modifiers

Independent Modifiers can stand on their own or can be combined with other root morphemes to create new words.

• en - in, inside, or between
• eupha - good
• mal - bad
• naq - and, a combination, both
• to - the, this, that
• un - a, one
• vis - place or container
• Example: wyf > wyfvis (Translation: travel > road

Dependent Modifiers

Dependent Modifiers do not stand on their own and are only used in combination with other root morphemes to create new words.

Prefixes

• her - before or earlier
• Example: nu > hernu (Translation: Day > yesterday)
• kasp - after or later
• na - no or not
• quo - questioning

Suffixes

• -a - smaller or less than
• Example: gwen > gwena (Translation: woman > girl)
• -on - larger or more than

Dictionary

82 Words.