Latest revision as of 17:25, 14 July 2026

Outlander

This article is about the language. For a resident of the Outer Belt
or Moonlitter, see [The Outlands](The Outlands)

Phonology

Like all yinrih languages, Outlander possesses a very small phoneme
inventory when analyzed from a human perspective. The language relies
instead on subtle changes in pitch and volume to carry most of the
meaning.

It's mostly a CTRL+C, CTRL+V of Commonthroat with the following changes:

Gemination is allowed within morphemes, not just at morpheme boundaries. Yips may not be geminated.
In addition to short, long, early, and late, there is an overlong timing. Overlong syllables occur in a few restricted environments.
Two new tone contours: peaking (low high low) and dipping (high low high)
Two new strength contours: cresting (weak strong weak) and troughing (strong weak strong)
Overlong syllables may only occur alongside one of these new contours.

Vowels

Phonation	Tone	Weak		Strong
		Short	Long	Short	Long
Whine	High	d	D	f	F
	Low	b	B	c	C
Growl	High	j	J	k	K
	Low	g	G	h	H
Grunt	High	n	N	p	P
	Low	l	L	m	M

Contour Midpoints

Sound Symbol

low a
high e
weak o
strong u

Consonants

Sound	Symbol
huff	q
chuff	r
yip	s

Grammar

Outlander uses a symmetric voice system. Focus is marked by syntax, with
the focus coming first in the sentence. Verbs are marked for the role of
the focus, with actor, object, benefactor, reason, being indicated.
Other possible forms include locative and instrumental.

Word order is FVA (focus verb arguments).

Order is Actor, Object, Benefactor...?

Pronouns

Much like Spanish or French, Outlander uses a politeness distinction in
its pronouns. This distinction is used in the third person as well as
the second person as is seen in Spanish or French.

The Outlander term for this is qghrh /huff, short low strengthening
growl; chuff, short low strong growl/, which means obligation or duty.
It conveys the social relationship between the speaker and the referent
of the pronoun.

The lowest form of obligation is transactional. This is the default form
you use when you're not sure what else to use.

The next form is the amicable. It's used between friends. In some more
pious corners of Moonlitter, and especially in the indipendent spacer
city-state Wayfarers' Haven, humans are always addressed with amicable
pronouns even in situations where the transactional form would be
appropriate. The transactional/amicable distinction is quickly evolving
into a species distinction.

The highest form is the familial, which is used between parents and
their pups and between litter mates. Some groups of very good friends
may use familial pronouns among themselves, but this is not universal.
It usually occurs when friends meet as pups and stay close into
adulthood.

It's very important to note that obligation is seen as a reciprocal
relationship. Addressing someone with familial pronouns doesn't jsut
mean "I think of you as family" but also "I expect you to treat me
like family". Using more familiar pronouns when a less familiar form
is expected is often seen as rude or even vulgar in some contexts,
especially when a customer addresses an employee, or when employees of a
business address one another. It's seen as burdening the listener with
unwelcome obligations or implying a level of closeness that hasn't yet
been earned.

Personal Pronouns

1st person

Singular Plural Inclusive Plural Exclusive

lum pan lumq

2nd and 3rd person

Obligation Person Singular Plural

Transactional 2nd rb rB

3rd rc rC

Amicable 2nd sg sG

3rd sj sJ

Familial 2nd qm qM

3rd qp qP

Reverential 2nd rgr rgr

3rd rkr rkr

Demonstrative Pronouns

Deixis Singular Plural

Proximal Lr Lrl
Distal Mr Mrm

Nouns

Attributive and possessive postpositions

Ooutlander distinguishes possession and attribution. possession is
marked with the postposition n /short high weak grunt/, and attribution
is marked with the attributive postposition g /short low weak growl/. g
covers situations such as composition and association, while n refers
specifically to possession. As a rough rule, you use n whenever English
would use -'s.

  sPL    g   mrrBqqb
  animal ATT healer
  veterinarian

  Jh    g   sFb
  grass ATT sea
  steppe 

  Mr   khqkh n   gqqgh
  that guy   POS tail
  That guy's tail

Verbs

Verbs inflect for the semantic role of the main noun in the clause,
called the focus or the subject. This is different from its syntactic
role. In the English sentence The dog bit the man, the dog is the
syntactic subject and the semantic agent, while the man is the syntactic
object and the semantic patient. In English, we flip this relationship
by using the passive voice. The man was bitten by the dog. Here, The man
is the syntactic subject but the semantic patient. The dog is now an
optional oblique argument syntacticlaly, but it's still the semantic
agent.

verb paradigm

Focus non past past

Actor - -qJ
Object -sd -sD
Benefactor -rn -rN
Reason -qln -qLN
Locative -sfb -sFB
Instrumental -rjk -rJK

Nonpast Tense Actor Focus

  bfb gkg lpl
  bfb gkg-0     lpl
  pup climb-ACT tree
  The pup climbs the tree

Past Tense Actor Focus

  bfb gkgqJ  lpl
  bfb gkg-qJ lpl
  pup climb-ACT.P tree
  The pup climbed the tree.
  The pup was climbing the tree.

Nonpast Tense Object Focus

  lpl gkgsd bfb
  lpl  gkg-sd       bfb
  tree climb-OBJ    pup
  the tree is climbed by the pup.

Past Tense Object Focus

  lpl gkgsD bfb
  lpl  gkgsD       bfb
  tree climb-OBJ.P pup
  The tree was climbed by the pup.

Nonpast Tense Benefactor Focus

  lpl gkgrn bfb
  lpl  gkg-rn bfb
  tree climb-BEN.NP pup
  For the tree, the pup climbs [something].

Past Tense Benefactor Focus

  lpl gkgrN bfb
  lpl  gkg-rN bfb
  tree climb-BEN.P pup
  For the tree, the pup climbed [something]

The order of arguments

I don't think I've mentioned this before, but here's how the different
verb endings change syntax.

agent verb-ACT patient benefactor/indirect object patient verb-OBJ agent
benefactor benefactor verb-BEN agent patient cause verb-CAU agent(?)
patient benefactor

Marking Uncertainty

Outlander marks uncertainty, which covers both interrogatives and a mood
similar to Commonthroat's nonauthoritative.

Uncertainty is marked with a particle placed at the beginning of the
sentence, it is a reduplicated and reduced form of the following
syllable, phonologically separate from the following word.

The particle consists of the onset consonant, if any, of the following
syllable, followed by a single short plain vowel nearest to the start of
the vowel of the following syllable. Rising strengthening vowels will
become low weak, dipping weakening vowels will become high strong, and
so on. When the following word is already a single short plain syllable,
the particle is a reduplication of the whole word.

Etymologically, this particle may have evolved out of a characteristic
stutter when the speaker is unsure of what they're saying.

  rb sPsPqJ lum
  rb     sPsP-qJ    lum
  2sg.TR seek-ACT.P 1sg
  You were looking for me.

  rb rb sPsPqJ lum
  rb   rb     sPsP-qJ    lum
  UNC  2sg.TR seek-ACT.P 1sg
  Were you looking for me?
  You were looking for me?

  l lum sPsPsD rb?
  l   lum sPsP-sD    rb
  UNC 1sg seek-OBJ.P 2sg.TR
  You were looking for ME?

Reflexive phrases

A reflexive meaning can be given to a noun phrase by using the word beb
/overlong peaking weak whine/ which means self or soul along with the
possessive postposition n.

  rb     n   beb
  2sg.TR POS self
  yourself

Yip Stems

Yips cannot end a syllable, but some words and affixes end in an implied
yip that manifests in different ways when an affix is added.

For example the word rgug(s) (mud volcano, geyser) is pronounced and
written rgug when in the singular (which is unfortunately identical to
the word for cloaca, which many pups and pups at heart find amusing.) In
the plural, we would expect *rgugq, but because of the implied yip, the
word takes the form of the plural suffix used for words ending in a
consonant, -ql, yielding rgugqql.

So for yip stems, if a following suffix ends in a vowel, the yip is
pronounced. If the suffix begins with a huff or chuff, the huff or chuff
is geminated.

Imperatives

The imperative is formed with a special imperative pronoun kr /short
high strong growl, chuff/. It is in the 2nd person and does not reflect
obligation or number in either the standard Moonlitter or Partisan
dialects, but the dialect spoken at Pilgrims' Rest, and subsequently at
Wayfarers' Haven, has innovated a plural form krql.

  kr qjK sg n rKGq
  kr    qjK-0    sg      n   rKG-q
  2.IMP wash-ACT 2sg.AMI POS paw-PL
  Wash your paws.

Verbs in imperative sentences can be in the past tense. In this case
they carry the notion that something should have been done but wasn't.

  kr qjKqJ sg n rKGq
  kr    qjK-qJ     sg      n   rKG-q
  2.IMP wash-ACT.P 2sg.AMI POS paw-PL
  You should have washed your paws.

Verbs can also be inflected for other focuses besides the actor focus.

  sg n rKGq qjKsd kr
  sg      n   rKG-q  qjK-sd   kr
  2sg.AMI POS paw-PL wash-OBJ 2.IMP
  Your paws must be washed.
  Your paws, wash them.

  sg n rKGq qjKsD kr
  sg      n   rKG-q  qjK-sD kr
  2sg.AMI POS paw-PL wash-OBJ 2.IMP
  Your paws should have been washed.
  Your paws, you should have washed them.

Expressing similes

mlem /short low strong grunt; overlong peaking strengthening grunt/
means likeness or image or "something similar to something else". To
express similes, you follow a noun phrase with g mlem eg mrBqqb g mlem
literally "healer likeness" means "like a healer".

To say "X is like Y" you use the copula sb, which per an earlier
post is actually transitive. It means that the actor is among the set of
entities denoted by the object.

  mqgrrgsdq sb rgugq g mlem
  mqgrrgsd-q sb-0    rgug-q    g   mlem
  opinion-PL COP-ACT cloaca-PL ATT likeness
  Opinions are like Cloacas.

g mlem may have fossilized into a postpositive that can be appended to
whole sentences and not just noun phrases to simply mean "like"

More uses for the attributive postposition

The locative focus may be used with time phrases

verb-verb compounds

expressing inclination or desire

You can use the verb qlem to smell like, to feel an emotion in front of
a subordinate verb to mean to be inclined to. Unlike Commonthroat's
serial verb constructions, the second verb is inflected in the
subordinate state.

  lum qlem bqrMr sjGq
  lum qlem-0         SUB-rMr-0  sjGq
  1sg smell_like-ACT bq-eat-ACT fruit
  I smell like eating fruit.

The verb endings must match (for now).

  sjGq qlemsd bqrMrsd lum
  sjGq  qlem-sd        bq-eat-OBJ 1sg  
  fruit smell_like-OBJ SUB-rMr-sd lum
  It's fruit a smell like eating.