[Language] Pavi

[Hope Dawnwhisper]

Hope

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Article: [Language] Pavi
Author(s): Hope Dawnwhisper
Other development:
Additional Info: Discussion pending.
Old discussion specifically on Grassland Sign found here

Peer Review Thread: N/A
Founder Review Thread: N/A

Synopsis: An in-depth guide to the structure of the Pavi Langauge, both verbal and sign. Endemic to the moving city of Endrykas in Cyphrus, it is not a language that can be reliably found in the other regions of Mizahar. However, given the nature of the Drykas peoples, the language is arguably the most dispersed, second only to the Common Tongue. Thus those travelling through Cyphrus, even if they do not travel to Endrykas, will be exposed to the language.

Outline:
1. Overview
2. History

Range

3. Verbal Pavi

Phonetics
Syntax
Lexicon

4. Grassland Sign

Usage
Common Signs

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[Sedge]

Proposal Accepted

Glad to see a language lore in the works! Looks straightforward enough. Go forth and develop!

[Hope Dawnwhisper]

Hope

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Writer's Comments :

Too complicated? My head started hurting as I was trying to work out the tables... but it's how I pictured the language working, like many indigenous languages around the world >.> Might need to move things about more too..

As the only living ergative-absolutive language in Mizahar, the subject of an intransitive sentence behaves like the object of a transitive sentence, rather than the agent, which makes the language particularly hard for non-native speakers to learn fluently. However the standard word order of a declarative sentence is Subject - Object - Verb.

Pavi is an agglutinative language, which means that words use affix complexes (both suffix and prefixes) for a variety of purposes with several morphemes strung together. It is common that a word might have both suffix and prefixes attached to it to give details of tense, person, or number, for a verb. For a noun the two affixes would be number and case. For a verb, the order in which morphemes are added to the stem are: person - number - stem - tense. For a noun: number - stem - case. Not all are necessarily required in a sentence, especially if explained elsewhere.

Example:	*
te-fetur-Ø	*
1SG-run-PRES	*
I run	*

Example:	*
mu-fetur-Ø	le-gerat-id
3SG-boy-ABS	3SG-run-PAST
the boy	ran

Example:	*	*
da-fetur-is	mu-togo-Ø	la-pig(a)-id
3PL-boy-ERG	3SG-rabbit-ABS	3PL-chase-PAST
the boys	chased	the rabbit

Because of the high level of inflection in this language, it is important to note that, whilst the standard word order is SOV, the word order does not carry any meaning within the language itself, and users have the option to speak the words in any order they feel, for example if they want to add emphasis by uttering a particular word first or last.

Also common in Pavi is reduplication, in which words are repeated in order to indicate the frequency or intensity of the action. For example, if someone wanted to say that they struck hard or many times, then they would say regarega.
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[Gossamer]

I've always described (as its creator) pavi as a light airy language that comes off a great deal like old irish even borderline gaelic - the two are closely related. Pavi accent wise has a lilt that is always very pronounced and easy to spot. I would not think, however, its widespread second only to common since the population that speaks it - the Drykas - are not themselves widespread nor do they have any significant numbers like say the Syliran people have who speak Syliras in Sylira.

I'm also really really not liking the way this is going. Why? The Drykas are into brevity. They get a lot said in a short amount of time and the way you are building this language (albeit complex) is that they have a lot of redundancy in how they speak to emphasize importance etc. They have in many many cases de-emphaized words and emphasized sign. You well know this from the discussion you have listed... and yet this language is far more complex the way you've laid it out than it actually should be according to the said linked discussion.

This feels like it would be more Syliran in nature and not indeed anything like I've actually decribed Pavi being either in the way its built and how its spoken.