varpo language
varpo is the most common name of a language that is also called varuppo, barup, barpo, etc. ethimologically it means "of the varu", varu being the name of the race who speaks this tongue. different dialects have their influence on 'general' varpo, and many different versions of a word or of a grammatical structure exists and are accepted. a brief and still incomplete description of common varpo follows.
note: in transillerating varpo in roman characters i used only simple letters with no accents, and special characters ['] and [º]. the latter is not included in simple html set of symbols. you may use the html entity & ordm; (remove the space) to make the character visible in most browsers. the variant [-] may be also used for simplicity.
phonology
vowels
seven vowels are defined.
| grapheme | nearest sound |
| a | "cut" |
| i | "meet" |
| u | "boot" |
| e | french "les" |
| o | "call" |
| y | french "u" |
| ë | "bird" |
the International Phonetic Alphabet characters for these sounds are exactly the same i used, with the exception of ë, that in IPA is translitterated with a 180 degree rotated "e". in varpo, the letter ë appears mainly at the end of the word (giving a tolkenian look to the words... but note that tolkien intended that letter to be never mute, while i use it as a schwa). In some dialects it ain't written (nor pronounced) at all. In some other it's written and pronounced like a normal e.
consonants
consonants are defined by four criteria: place of articulation, manner of articulation, airstream mechanism, and voicing. those sounds can be arranged in the following grid:
| labial | alveolar | velar | uvular | stop | p b | t d | k g |
| fricative | f v | s q | q w | |
| nasal | m | n | h | |
| trills | l | r | ||
| ejective | p' | t' | k' | |
| implosive | vº | dº | gº | qº |
almost all these sounds are pronounced more or less like in english or in any other european language. the main differences are described as follows:
g is always velar, h is a nasal velar (rarely used), r is uvular, like a french "r". q is pronounced like an english "sh" before a labial or alveolar plosive, and like a german "ch" before a velar, uvular or vowel. ejectives are made with simultaneous closure of the glottis: the audible effect is a remarkable burst of air. implosives are made with an ingressive airstream mechanism, that is, the air is not pulled out by the lungs, and the sound is made by moving the glottis downward. If you don't know how to pronounce those sounds, try here. f, v, and vº are actually labiodental rather than bilabial. finally, note that double-vowels are followed by an aspiration "aa" sounds like "ah".
syllabic structure and stress
genarally, syllables follows the pattern (C) + V + (V) + (X). [C=consonant, V=vowel, X=(s,r,l,n,q), a symbol in brackets is optional]
at the beginning of the word, another pattern is possible: (X) + (C) + V + (V) + (X)
among consonant clusters, 'st' 'qt' 'mr' 'rn' 'rt' 'str' are the most common ones. in some dialects, an ë is added at the end of many consonant-ending words, in order to make them more euphonic. in doing so, voiceless consonants become voiced.: eppauf -> eppauvë (green). if the word ends with double consonant, the ë can be added in second-t-last position: senmitr -> senmitër (but also senmitrë).
there's not an universal rule for stress intonation. generally, bisillabic words are stressed on the first syllable in northern regions and on the second one in southern areas.
verb morphology
verbs ("eemast") are the most important units in varuppo. three main cases exists: agentive, pazientive, objective (or "focus"). each verb can support one or more of those three cases. agentive is the case used for the animal or thing that makes something happen. Patientive is the case of the animal or thing upon whom the action is carried out. for example, the verb "to eat" supports an agent (the one who eats) and a patient (the one who is eaten). the verb "to watch" supports a patient (the one who watches) and a focus (the thing who is watched). (from now on, a=agent, p=patient, f=focus)
most verbs support two of the cases defined above: the most common categories are a-p, p-f, a-f. some other verbs have only one argument, some other support all three cases.
in the following tables you'll not a "modal form". this is used when translating sentences with modal verbs as "i can speak" or "i want to leave". in varpo, "speak" and "leave" would be translated using the modal form, and a special modal word is added before it. see the next paragraph for a table of all modal words.
- vºeiqne - to inform (a-p-f)
- fueqma - to say (a-p)
- k'uvini - to want (p-f)
- ter - to shout (a-f)
- poia - to go (a)
- reini - to be born (p)
"-a" verbs
most verbs end with "a" in their basic form. their conjugations follows the rules in this grid:
| present | past | future | participle | past participle | imperative | modal form | |
| 1st / 2nd singular | -a | -anaut | -adër | -oi | -eu | - | -uruta |
| 3rd singular | -e | -enaut | -edër | -ei | -eu | - | -uruta |
| plural persons | -e | -enaut | -edër | -ei | -euze | - | -uruta |
"-e-" verbs
these verbs are pretty unusual compared to europeans ones: the stressed vowel is always an "e" in basic form, and it changes with tense and persons. suffix also can be added (note for reading the table: "-ossa-eu" means that the stressed "e" becomes "ossa" and a "eu" suffix is added). imperative is made using k'a word (explained below).
| present | past | future | participle | past participle | imperative | modal form | |
| 1st / 2nd singular | -e- | -a- | -e-edër | -ossa- | -ossa-eu | (k'a) | -orta-i |
| 3rd singular | -ibe- | -iba- | -e-edër | -ossa- | -ossa-eu | (k'a) | -orta-i |
| plural persons | -ibe- | -iba- | -e-edër | -ossa- | -ossa-euze | (k'a) | -orta-i |
"-ini" verbs
-ini verbs come from a particular dialect spoken in northern island, in which all verbs are considered in passive form. general varpo uses this conjugation mainly for patient-based verbs.
| present | past | future | |
| 1st / 2nd singular | -ini | -idur | -inaut |
| 3rd singular | -ibni | -ibur | -ibnaut |
| 1at / 2nd plural | -ini | -igofa | -ivassi |
| 3nd plural | -ibeni | -igefa | -ivassioa |
modal words
| present | past | future | |
| BE ABLE TO | luttose | luttosau | luttosadre |
| WANT TO | kuviqt | kuviqtau | kuviqtadre |
| HAVE TO | enqt | enqtau | enqtadre |
| BE NATURALLY LED TO | ogreqt | ogreqt | ogreqt |
irregular verbs
very few verbs are irregular. most of them are immutable and thus never conjugate (qtu "to be there", tamar "to be able, to be strong". the verb nreti "to tell" is immutable but it is sometime used as a normal -e- verb). other verbs have more tha one radix, and many derived verbs are created adding prefixes to them:
- "to be used to" is a normal -ini verb (k'eini) when the tense is present or present participle, and an -a verb when the tense is past or past participle (k'uifa). future and imperative don't exist. (derived verbs: qdºek'uvini "be prepared", vºuinek'uvini "be annoyed".)
- "to do not want" present: ret (immutable), past forra (-a). (lyegºenret "to be unable")
adjectival verbs
in varuppo adjectives don't exist. "to be" verb is absent as well. "the cat is big" is translated sort as "the cat bigs", where "to big" is a verb. "the big cat eats" becomes "the bigging cat eats", where 'bigging' is a present participe. when describing color, age and some other features, another construction can be done, using "nreske" (to give). "the cat is black" becomes "the cat gives blackness". but note that "the black cat runs" is not very often translated as "the cat giving black runs", but normally, as "the blacking cat runs". see the syntax paragraph for some example.
verb specifiers
in order to extend verbs meaning, some specifier exist. they are prefixes attached to verbs, defining aspect (if the action is atemporal, starting, or ending), and evidentiality (whether the speaker knows about the action from perception, deduction, or hypotesis). The most used specifier are:
- wulu/urus/mono - atemporal and perceived
- qºose - atemporal and deducted
- qºeas - atemporal and hypotized
- kstoil - starting and perceived
- q'sile or kstase - ending and perceived
e.g. t'ibego=he falls, qºoset'ibego=(i deduct that he) falls, q'silet'ibego=he stopped falling. etc.
noun morphology
nouns ("hels") are the second main unit of varpo. many nouns end with -a and -e, but no rule exists. gender is not defined.
plural form
nouns change when referring to more than one element, depending on their final letter(s). a general scheme follows ("X" means "the last vowel of the word")
| singular | plural |
| -a | -ans |
| -e | -ens; |
| -o | -oi |
| -i | -iwë |
| -u | -odul |
| -y | -ylë |
| -ë | -ë |
| -l; | -lXd; |
| -n; | -nXv; |
| -sm; | -lXv; |
nouns with different endings are quite often immutables.
declension
a strong declension structure is used. the basic cases are:
- -aven (agentive)*
- -ast (patientive)
- -dºe (focus)
- -o (focus)
- -aibor ("with...")
- -aitrog ("without...")
- -appo ("of the...")
- -arpa ("towards...")
- -aventune ("made by...")
- -assit ("like...")
- -assu ("of the...", "...'s")
- -asla ("dealing with...")
- -at'o ("dealing with..."")
- -erul ("by..." instrumental)
- -esdu ("being the origin of...")
- -eina ("in...")
- -ei ("oh ...!" vocative)
- -ossurº ("like a...")
- -osºn ("instead of...", "like a...")
- -uikne ("near to...")
* very often the basic form is used for agentive case, but "-aven" exists as well. you'll also note that many cases are translated by the same english words. subtle differences exists between them, although they're kinda "swappable" one into another. the word "varuppo" itself derives from varuappo (of the varu), but varuassu could be accepted as well, theorically. the first vowel of those suffixes often "decays" due to euphonic reason
pronouns
articles
only two articles exist: singular "uil" (often abbreviated in "y") and plural "ë"
sintax
nominal syntagms can be constructed in two ways.
in a reitave sentence, something like "the red fish" goes as follows:
- y neru reiteu
- the - fish - red
in a larua sentence, the article drops, "i" or "u" is added at the end of the noun, and the whole sintagm is written as a compound:
- neruireite
when declining this sentence, the usual case suffix is added at the end of it:
- neruireitessu
- "of the red fish"
word order usually follows the scheme Focus Agent Patient Verb. in relative sentences the verb goes at the beginning. an analysis of some sample sentences follows:
- the cat eats the dog
- inota lequtist p'ibeteg
inota is "cat" in agentive case, lequtiast is "dog" (lequti) in patientive. p'ibeteg means "eats" (an -e- verb, 3rd singular person).
questions
word order is not altered when making a question. the "qºu" particle is added at the beginning of the sentence.
- does the cat eat the dog?
- qºu inota lequtist p'ibeteg.
if more precision about whom the question is referred to is needed, another particle may be added: "qie" (or "-hë") is put before the main object of the question:
- does the cat eat the dog?
- qºu qie inota lequtist p'ibeteg.
- does the cat eat the dog?
- qºu inota qie lequtist p'ibeteg.
if you want to stress the verb, use k'a instead. k'a can be used in affirmative sentences in order to stress both noun and verbs. we may tranlate it as "indeed".
relative sentences
a relative phrase always begins with "y" or "dor". (note that "y" is also used as an abbreviated form of the article "uil"). "dor" is used only when the agent of the main sentence is also the agent of the relative, that is, when syntactic roles do not change when 'entering' the relative:
- the cat that runs eats the dog
- inota dor p'ibeleni lequtist p'ibeteg
- cat - that - runs - dog - eats
when the syntactic roles changes, "y" is used, and declinated ("y" often became "yl" when declinated due to euphonic reasons):
- the cat i give the dog to eats it.
- inota ylarp nreske naven lequtist soost p'ibeteg.
- cat - that(arp) - give - i(agentive) - dog(patientive) - this(patientive) - eats.
- the cat that i love eats the dog
- inota ydºe saivo nast lequtist p'ibeteg.
- cat - that(focus) - love i(patientive) - dog(patientive) - eats
note that using this system one can make many phrases that are impossible to construct in english and would require two distinct sentences:
- the cat (wind is rapid as this cat) eats the dog.
- inota ylossurë blyk iraa lequtist p'ibeteg.
- cat that(ossurë) rapid(immutable verb) wind dog(patientive) eats.