Eldiad
Eldiad is an unfinished conlang based on a few Western- and Northern-European languages.
It should be noted that this conlang was created before I started my linguistics course in university. This conlang was purely created based on knowledge I found online, in about 1.5 weeks of research.
While the project is unfinished, I am able to share the documentation. I should mention, though, that it’s more of a work-in-progress file rather than formal documentation.
Features
Sound inventory
Eldiad has a somewhat worked out sound inventory, based on the International Phonetic Alphabet, including a chart with the simplified and written form in Eldiad.
Click on the sounds
That way you’ll be able to open a link to wikipedia to hear them!
Consonants
| (Bi)labial | Dental | Alveolar-Central | Alveolar-Lateral | Retroflex | Post-alveolar | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stop | p, b | t | d | k | |||||
| Fricative | f, v | s, z | ɣ | h | |||||
| Affricative | ʑ | ||||||||
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | ||||||
| Liquid* | l | j | w | ʀ |
- Note: Liquid isn’t fully correct, however, Im using it to simplify things
- ɕ - Voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative was also added, although I am not sure where to place it.
Vowels
| Front-Unrounded | Front-Rounded | Central-Unrounded | Central-Rounded | Back-Unrounded | Back-Rounded | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i, i: | y | u, u: | |||
| Mid | e, ɛ(:) | ø, œ | o, o: | |||
| Open | a, a: | ɑ |
- ɛj - Diphtong can also be added in certain words, once again, I was unsure where to place it in the chart.
Syntax
Eldiad has a few simple root words with their according translations, and a verb-subject-object word order ([V(A)S(A)O]), used by roughly 9% of all natural languages (e.g. Classical-Arabic, Biblical Hebrew, Celtic languages, …)
| Verb | (Adjective) | Subject | (Adjective) | Object |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| sees | big | (the) person | big | (the) animal |
| seheura-e’j | bra’ach | (ju) peuri | bra’ach | (ju) dacha |
- “ju” is the only article that exists in Eldiad.
Grammar
Tenses
Eldiad makes use of 5 tenses.
| Type of tense | Formation (IPA) | Formation (written) | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Infinitive | Base | Base | lo’f |
| Present | Base + êj (suffix) | Base + e’j (suffix) | lo’f-e’j |
| Close Past | Base + sôa (suffix) | Base + so’a (suffix) | lo’f-so’a |
| Far away Past | Base + jø (suffix) | Base + jeu (suffix) | lo’f-jeu |
| Future | Base + ɣô (suffix) | Base + cho’ (suffix) | lo’f-cho’ |
Plurality
Eldiad has a very simple plurality system, compared to English.
Simply add the -ra suffix in order to communicate plurality.
| Word | Suffix | Example |
|---|---|---|
| dacha | -ra | dacha-ra |
| animal | -s | animals |
Work in Progress (?)
Currently discontinued..
This was the very first constructed language I created as an experiment, but I’ve since moved on from that project. Since then, I’ve been taking a linguistics course at university. Who knows, perhaps I’ll dive back into creating a conlang in the future! :)
The following few sections will contain possible future changes and additions.
Lore
Incorporating a narrative into a constructed language truly brings it to life and gives it a unique character. I’m eager to establish a rationale for the presence of long vowels. One concept I’ve considered is that they originated from an earlier language, known as a Proto-Language (Andetísian), which gradually evolved into what we now recognize as Eldiad.
Vocabulary
The current vocabulary is very limited, consisting out of roughly 18 words. Expanding this vocabulary would make it possible to actually form sentences!
Grammar
While I like the simplicity of not having too many tenses, there could be some more grammatical constructions I could add in the future.