[conlang_learners] Summary of Laefèvæšii

[Larry Sulky]

Here is a quick summary of Laefèvæšii, by Ashucky.

This is a highly naturalistic a priori artlang with a (mostly unpublished)
conworld background. I consider it highly complex.

73 latin letters, each with a lowercase and uppercase form (a native writing
system is apparently contemplated but not published on the site). Much use
of diacritics and combined diacritics. Very highly phonetic.

33 consonants; 39 vowels representing 22 vowel sounds at different stress
levels; 1 semivowel. One vowel carries a specific tonal pattern.

3 stress levels: primary, secondary, unstressed.

The grammar documentation is incomplete, with placeholders for coming
sections. Nouns and adjectives are presented at length; verbs are partially
documented (although, most significantly, not conjugations); articles,
pronouns, numerals, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections are listed
but not documented.

Highly agglutinative.

Nouns:
3 numbers: singular, dual, plural.
2 genders: masculine, feminine.
17 noun cases, 6 of which are considered "basic".

Adjectives:
Agree with nouns in gender and basic case.
3 degrees of comparative, with the ability to create more productively.
Compared nouns are reduced to basic cases.

Verbs:
2 present, 3 past, 3 future, and 1 non-past tenses.
12 moods; it's not clear whether these are all orthogonal to the tenses.

A number of exceptions occur to various of these rules.

A snippet of a sample text (an epic poem available on the site) (the macron
¯ should be placed above the preceding vowel):

Gúšenilïi¯~ö,
žanèilöo¯ l-aipiénolöo¯,
latílï væmí latílïla
Mayelléssüli wémmaläa¯.

"They were weaving,
writhing and shading,
one through another
they were hurrying in the light."

A translation of an Abba song has been recorded and is available on the
site. The sung language is attractive, in my opinion -- like a cross between
Finnish and Russian, perhaps. No spoken recordings are presented.

There is not enough of the language documented at this time to enable
learners to construct their own texts, though where the documentation exists
it is quite thorough. There are no lessons presented.

--larry
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