# Avesha — A Grammar

*11 phonemes (8 consonants / 3 vowels) · 10 lexicon entries*

## Study Guide

## Avesha Grammar Study Guide

Welcome to this guide to Avesha, a compact language with a clear and logical structure. We'll explore each part of its grammar step by step, defining every technical term along the way so you can understand how the language works—no previous linguistics knowledge required.

### Phonemes

A **phoneme** is the smallest unit of sound in a language that can change the meaning of a word. Think of it as a mental "sound symbol." Avesha has a small inventory: only **8 consonant phonemes** and **3 vowel phonemes**. This means the language uses very few basic sounds to build all its words.

### Consonants & Vowels

**Consonants** are sounds made by partly or completely blocking the airflow from your mouth (e.g., /t/, /n/). **Vowels** are sounds made with an open vocal tract (e.g., /a/, /i/). Avesha's 8 consonants and 3 vowels form its entire sound system.

### Syllable

A **syllable** is a unit of speech that typically contains a vowel sound, often with consonants around it. It's the beat you can clap to in a word. For example, in English, "water" has two syllables: wa-ter. In Avesha, the arrangement of its phonemes into syllables follows natural patterns based on its consonant and vowel inventory.

### Stress & Penultimate Stress

**Stress** is the relative emphasis or loudness given to a particular syllable in a word. Avesha uses **penultimate stress**, meaning the stress always falls on the second-to-last syllable. For example, in a three-syllable word like *ti-nu-ka*, the stress would be on *nu* (the second syllable). In a two-syllable word like *ti-po*, the stress would be on the first syllable *ti*.

### Allophony & Conditioned Sound Change

**Allophony** (or **conditioned sound change**) describes when a phoneme is pronounced differently depending on the sounds around it. These different pronunciations are called **allophones**. The phoneme itself doesn't change meaning, just its sound in specific environments. Avesha has two such rules:

- **Rule 1:** The sound /t/ becomes /s/ when it appears immediately before the vowel /i/. So if you see a /t/ followed by /i/, pronounce it like an "s" (as in English "see"). For example, the phonemes /t/ + /i/ would be spoken as [si].
- **Rule 2:** The sound /n/ becomes /m/ when it appears immediately before the consonant /p/. So if you see an /n/ followed by /p/, pronounce it like an "m" (as in English "map"). For example, the phonemes /n/ + /p/ would be spoken as [mp].

### Affix

An **affix** is a meaningful part added to a root word to change its grammatical role or meaning. Affixes can be added to the beginning (prefix), end (suffix), or in the middle (infix) of a word. In Avesha, all affixes are **suffixes**, meaning they are added to the **end** of the word.

### Inflection vs. Derivation

**Inflection** is a type of affix that marks grammatical categories like tense, number, or case without changing the word's core meaning or part of speech. **Derivation** creates a new word, often changing the part of speech (e.g., turning a verb into a noun). Avesha uses both:
- Inflectional suffixes add grammatical information (like plural or case) to a word.
- Derivational rules create new words from existing ones (like turning verbs into nouns).

### Grammatical Case

A **grammatical case** is a system of marking nouns (or pronouns) to show their function in a sentence (e.g., who is doing the action, who is receiving it). In Avesha, case is marked by **suffixes** added to nouns.

### Dative Case

The **dative case** marks the indirect object of a verb—the recipient or beneficiary of an action. In English, it's often expressed with "to" or "for." In Avesha, it is formed by adding the suffix **-ti** to a noun. Example: If *nupa* means "child," then *nupa-ti* means "to the child" or "for the child."

### Plural Number

**Number** indicates whether a noun is singular (one) or plural (more than one). In Avesha, the plural is marked by adding the suffix **-u** to a noun. There is no special suffix for singular (it is the bare noun). Example: If *nupa* means "child," then *nupa-u* means "children."

### Word Order & SOV

**Word order** describes the typical sequence of subject, object, and verb in a sentence. Avesha follows **SOV word order**, which means the subject comes first, then the object, and finally the verb at the end. This is common in languages like Japanese and Korean. For example: *Nupa-u (subject) tio (object) apa (verb)* would mean "The children see the bird" (where "see" is the verb at the end).

### Nominative–Accusative Alignment

**Morphosyntactic alignment** describes how a language treats the subject of an intransitive verb (a verb with no object, e.g., "sleeps") versus the subject and object of a transitive verb (a verb with an object, e.g., "eats the apple"). In a **nominative–accusative** system, like English and Latin:
- The subject of an intransitive verb and the subject of a transitive verb are both in the **nominative case** (the unmarked, default form).
- The object of a transitive verb is in the **accusative case** (which may be marked or unmarked).
Avesha uses this alignment, meaning the default, unmarked form of a noun is used for the subject, and the object (if marked) would follow a similar pattern. Since the brief does not provide an accusative suffix, we can assume the nominative and accusative may share the same form (except where plural or dative suffixes are added).

### Adposition & Postposition

An **adposition** is a word (or affix) that shows the relationship between a noun and other parts of the sentence, such as location or direction. **Postpositions** come **after** the noun they relate to (like "the house **inside**" instead of "**inside** the house"). Avesha uses postpositions, so the adposition follows its noun. For example, if the word for "house" is *tema* and the postposition for "in" is *pu*, you would say *tema pu* to mean "in the house."

### Agent Noun

An **agent noun** is a noun that names a person or thing that performs an action. In English, "-er" or "-or" turns verbs into agent nouns (e.g., "teach" → "teacher"). In Avesha, a derivational rule creates an **agent noun** from a **verb**. The rule is: from verb to noun. So if you have a verb meaning "to build," you can apply this rule to get a noun meaning "builder." The brief does not specify the exact form of the agent suffix, only that the rule exists.

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## Phonology

**Consonants** (8): p · t · k · s · m · n · l · r

**Vowels** (3): a · i · u

**Phonotactics:**

- no geminate (doubled) consonants

**Allophony:**

- `t > s / _ i`
- `n > m / _ p`

**Stress:** penultimate — the second-to-last syllable

## Morphology

**Affixes:**

- **DAT** `ti` — DAT (Suffix)
- **PL** `u` — PL (Suffix)

**Derivation:**

- **agent**: verb → noun via `ar`

## Grammar

- **adposition:** postposition — after the noun (the house to)
- **alignment:** nominative_accusative — subject vs object (most European languages)
- **case:** yes
- **word order:** sov — subject–object–verb (Japanese, Turkish, Latin)

## Sample texts

### 02

kira suna nami. tani palu.

