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User:Anypodetos

2022-06-03T20:55:28Z

Anypodetos: Finished – for now

Welcome! I am the author of the Lemizh language, which has '''[[Lemizh|an article]]''' here on Linguifex as well as a homepage on https://lemizh.conlang.org with comprehensive coverage of the grammar, a dictionary with etymologies, information on the language's pragmatics, and more background information.

Lemizh

2022-06-03T20:36:20Z

Anypodetos: Copyedit

{{Infobox language
|image =
|imagesize =
|name = Lemizh
|nativename = lemỳzh.
|pronunciation = lɛmˈɯ̀ʒ
|state = Lemaria
|setting = Alternate history Europe
|created = 1985
|familycolor = Indo-European
|fam2 = Lemizh branch
|ancestor = Proto-Lemizh
|posteriori =
* [[w:Proto-Indo-European language|PIE]]
* [[w:Occam's razor|Occam's razor]]
|creator = [[User:Anypodetos|Anypodetos]]
|scripts = Lemizh alphabet
|nation = Lemaria
|map = Map of Lemaria.png
|mapalt = The country of Lemaria lies to the north and west of the Black Sea. The capital, Shabar, is located at the Dniester Liman or Estuary.
|notice = IPA
}}
'''Lemizh''' ([[Help:IPA|[lεmˈiʒ]]], native pronunciation: [[Help:IPA|[lɛmˈɯ̀ʒ]]]) is a language I invented with the aim of creating a grammar as regular and simple as possible. It was originally intended as an [[w:International auxiliary language|international auxiliary language]]. However, it turned out that a simple grammar is not necessarily a grammar that is easy to learn: the more ways of simplification I found, the further away it moved from [[w:Indo-European languages|Indo-European]] and probably all other familiar language structures. Expecting anyone to learn Lemizh, at this point, would be unrealistic.

So I needed a new justification for the language: enter the Lemizh, a people living to the west and north of the [[w:Black Sea|Black Sea]] in an alternate history that slowly drifted away from ours between two and eight millennia ago. Of course, it is extremely unlikely that they would speak a language that was completely without exceptions. To be precise, the chances for this to have happened are two to the power of two hundred and seventy-six thousand seven hundred and nine to one against. But they say that everything has to happen somewhere in the Multiverse; and everything happens only once.

{{TOC limit}}

==History==
===Early stages===
Lemizh is an Indo-European language and, together with Volgan, constitutes one of the ten recognised branches of the Indo-European language family. This branch is also called Lemizh, to the disgruntlement of Volgan linguists.

Proto-Lemizh, the ancestor of Lemizh and Volgan, is very poorly attested in form of some papyri found near the northwestern shore of the Black Sea, to the north of the [[w:Dniester Liman|Dniester Liman]], dated about 2700 BCE. Old Lemizh, by contrast, is fairly well attested. It had predominantly [[w:Subject–verb–object|subject–verb–object]] (SVO) word order and was a quite typical old Indo-European language, but with a couple of interesting quirks:
* Adjectives were lost as a separate part of speech, being replaced with participles ("white" > "being white").
* Finite subordinate clauses had their subject in the case of the clause: the subject of a local clause was in the locative case without having a local meaning in itself.
The earliest known documents from this stage of Lemizh were probably written around 2100 BCE along the northern and western shores of the Back Sea.

===Ghean and Middle Lemizh===
Ghean ([[Help:IPA|[ˈɣɛən]]]) is a language with no known genetic relationships. It was spoken by a people of unknown origin, who subdued the Lemizh tribes in around 1000 BCE and ruled for infamous three generations. Ghean was an inflected [[w:Tonal language|register tonal]] language with strict [[w:Verb–subject–object|verb–subject–object]] (VSO) word order and head-first phrases. It had verbs, [[w:Nominal (linguistics)|nominals]] (a combined noun/adjective/participle part of speech), pronouns and particles.

The Gheans discouraged the use of the natives' language, but obviously tolerated Lemizh words (or rather word stems) to stand in for unfamiliar Ghean ones. The grammar of simple sentences was easy enough to learn for the Lemizh, as they were used to inflection and head-first phrases, and likely still knew VSO sentences from poetry. After two or three generations, the natives must have spoken a [[w:Creole language|creole]] with a more or less Ghean grammar but an abundance of Lemizh words, especially outside the core vocabulary. This is a rather unusual development as most creoles draw their lexicon mainly from the dominant group, and tend to be grammatically more innovative. (The Tanzanian language [[w:Mbugu language|Mbugu]] might have had a somewhat similar development with more or less analogous outcomes.) After the disappearance of the Gheans, Lemizh patriots tried to revive their old language, which failed spectacularly for the grammar but reintroduced many Lemizh words of the core vocabulary.

===The last three millennia===
While Middle Lemizh as spoken after the Ghean occupation already had a non-Indo-European and unusually regular grammar, this trend was to continue over the following millennia. The factive case was innovated to express verbal nouns, which eventually supplanted verbs altogether. (At least part of the blame goes to the Tlöngö̀l, an epic novel published in 1351 CE, which popularised the use of verbal nouns.) The tonal system was simplified to the present two-way [[w:Pitch-accent language|pitch-accent]] system. Pronouns lost their status as a separate part of speech. The last particles died out a few hundred years ago, leaving the language with a single part of speech which is often called a "verb" but, historically speaking, is really a nominal. This means that the concept of ''parts of speech'' does not make sense in Modern Lemizh.

This article describes the dialect spoken to the north of the [[w:Danube Delta|Danube Delta]], which prevailed against other variants and is considered the standard language today.

==Orthography and phonology==
The alphabet is [[w:Phonetic orthography|phonetic]]: each letter corresponds to a certain sound, and each sound is represented by a single letter. The direction of writing is left to right. This article uses the standard transcription of the native Lemizh alphabet:
{| class="wikitable" style="width: 800px; table-layout: fixed; text-align: center"
! colspan="29" | Letters of the Lemizh alphabet
|-
| colspan="29" style="padding: 0" | [[File:Lemizh alphabet.png|796px]]
|-
| a || e || y || i || o || ö || u || ü || l || rh || r || ng || m || g || d || b || k || t || p || gh || zh || z || dh || w || x || sh || s || th || f
|}

===Consonants===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="2" | !! bilabial !! dental !! alveolar !! postalveolar !! velar
|-
! colspan="2" | nasals
| m <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial nasal|m]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || || || ng <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar nasal|ŋ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! colspan="2" | plosives (voiceless • voiced)
| p <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless bilabial plosive|p]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • b <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial plosive|b]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || t <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless alveolar plosive|t]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • d <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar plosive|d]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || k <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless velar plosive|k]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • g <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar plosive|ɡ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! colspan="2" | fricatives (voiceless • voiced)
| f <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless bilabial fricative|ɸ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • w <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial fricative|β]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || th <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless dental fricative|θ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • dh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced dental fricative|ð]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || s <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless alveolar sibilant|s]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • z <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar sibilant|z]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || sh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless palato-alveolar fricative|ʃ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • zh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced palato-alveolar fricative|ʒ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || x <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless velar fricative|x]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • gh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar fricative|ɣ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! rowspan="3" | liquids || lateral approximant
| || || l <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar lateral approximant|l]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|-
! approximant
| || || rh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar approximant|ɹ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|-
! trill
| || || r <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar trill|r]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|}
The plosive-fricative combinations ''pf, ts, tsh, kx'' and their voiced couterparts only occur at word boundaries and in compound words. They are not pronounced as affricates but as separate sounds. The same applies for other combinations of a plosive plus another consonant (''pm, tl'' etc.), as well as for two identical plosives (''kk'' etc.): the release of the first plosive is always audible.

===Vowels===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! rowspan="2" | !! colspan="2" | front !! colspan="2" | back
|-
! unrounded !! rounded !! unrounded !! rounded
|-
! close
| i <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close front unrounded vowel|i]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ü <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close front rounded vowel|y]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || y <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close back unrounded vowel|ɯ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || u <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close back rounded vowel|u]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! open-mid
| e <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid front unrounded vowel|ɛ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ö <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid front rounded vowel|œ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || a <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid back unrounded vowel|ʌ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || o <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid back rounded vowel|ɔ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|}
Two consecutive different vowels are pronounced as a diphthong; two consecutive identical vowels as a long one. Single vowels are always short.

Lemizh uses [[w:Mora (linguistics)|moræ]] for structuring words: a short syllable equals one mora, and a long syllable equals two. In Lemizh, every vowel is the centre of a mora; consequently, two consecutive vowels result in two moræ or one long syllable.

===Accent===
Lemizh has got a two-way pitch-accent system, in that accented moræ are not only spoken louder, but also have either a lower or a higher pitch than the surrounding unaccented ones. The accented mora is always the ultimate or penultimate of a word. The vowel at the centre of a low-pitch accented mora is transcribed with a grave accent, the vowel at the centre of a high-pitch accented mora with an acute accent.
{| class="wikitable" style="width: 220px; table-layout: fixed; text-align: center"
! colspan="8" | Accented vowel letters
|-
| colspan="8" style="padding: 0" | [[File:Lemizh accented vowels.png|216px]]
|-
| à || è || ỳ || ì || ò || ö̀ || ù || ǜ
|-
| á || é || ý || í || ó || ö́ || ú || ǘ
|}

===Phonotactics===
[[w:Phonotactics|Phonotactics]] is rather permissive in Lemizh. A mora has the following structure, where the bracketed parts are optional:
* (O)(N)(L)V(L)(N)(O)
V is the mora's vowel, L a liquid, N a nasal, and O an obstruent that can be either a P(losive), a F(ricative), FP, PF, FF, FFP, FPF, or PFF. Word-initial consonant clusters cannot contain more than three sounds. No geminate consonants (<abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''ff'' etc.) occur within a mora. Consecutive plosive-fricative or fricative-plosive combinations within the same mora must have the same sonority – either both are voiced, or both are voiceless. A plosive cannot have the same place of articulation as a following consonant with the exception of ''rh'' and ''r''. <abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''tsh'', <abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''tth'' and their voiced counterparts are also prohibited within a mora.

Word boundaries, including those within compound words, are always mora boundaries. Where mora boundaries would still be ambiguous, liquids and nasals are assigned to the earliest possible mora (as the ''m'' in ''lem·ỳzh.''), and obstruents to the latest possible mora.

==Morphology==
All words are composed of the following parts:
* Prestem + inner case + poststem + outer case
Prestem and poststem form the stem, or the lexical part, of the word. The division of the stem into two portions is similar to English verbs such as ''sing/sang/sung'', where the lexical part is ''s–ng'' while the vowels ''i/a/u'' convey grammatical information. The stem always denotes an action (but never a state, a person, a thing, a property, etc.) and thus resembles our verbs. The prestem can contain any sounds, or it can be zero (i.e. consisting of zero sounds). The poststem can only contain fricatives and plosives, or it can be zero as well.

The inner case is represented by one of the eight vowels, optionally followed by a liquid (the primary case suffix) and/or a nasal (the secondary case suffix). The outer case has the same structure. For the first word in each sentence, the main predicate, the outer case is zero.

Each case is defined by its ''descriptor'': for example, the factive case denotes an ''action'', the nominative a ''sender'', the locative a ''place''. The stem and the inner case's descriptor determine a word's meaning.

'''Examples'''
* ''wàx. w–x'' is the stem for "speak", ''-a-'' denotes the inner factive, so this word means "an action of speaking", translated as the verb "to speak" or the [[w:Verbal noun|verbal noun]] "speaking".
* ''wèx. -e-'' denotes the inner nominative, so this word means "a sender of speaking" or "a speaker".
* ''àrdh. ∅–dh'' (having a zero prestem) is the stem for "eat", ''-ar-'' denotes the inner locative: "a place of eating".
The customary [[w:Lemma (morphology)|citation form]] of a word is the one with inner factive.

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Primary cases and their descriptors
|-
! rowspan="3" | № !! rowspan="3" | Case vowel !! colspan="4" | Primary case suffix
|-
| none || l || rh || r
|-
! Plot cases !! Causal cases !! Temporal cases !! Spatial cases
|-
| 1 || a || factive ({{sc|fact}}): ''action'' || affirmative ({{sc|aff}}): ''fact (point in causal chain)'' || temporal ({{sc|temp}}): ''time'' || locative ({{sc|loc}}): ''place/region''
|-
| 2 || e || nominative ({{sc|nom}}): ''source, sender'' || causative ({{sc|caus}}): ''direct cause'' || ingressive ({{sc|ing}}): ''starting time'' || elative ({{sc|ela}}): ''starting point/region''
|-
| 3 || y || accusative ({{sc|acc}}): ''content'' || contextual ({{sc|ctx}}): ''causal context'' || durative ({{sc|dur}}): ''duration'' || extensive ({{sc|ext}}): ''spatial extent''
|-
| 4 || i || dative ({{sc|dat}}): ''sink, recipient'' || consecutive ({{sc|cons}}): ''direct consequence, effect'' || egressive ({{sc|egr}}): ''closing time'' || illative ({{sc|ill}}): ''end point / ending region''
|-
| 5 || o || tentive ({{sc|ten}}): ''intention'' || intentive ({{sc|int}}): ''intention (intended point in causal chain)'' || episodic ({{sc|eps}}): ''episode, "act"'' || scenic ({{sc|sce}}): ''scene, "stage"''
|-
| 6 || ö || comitative ({{sc|com}}): ''company'' || persuasive ({{sc|psu}}): ''reason'' || digressive ({{sc|dig}}): ''time away from which'' || ablative ({{sc|abl}}): ''place/region away from which''
|-
| 7 || u || instrumental ({{sc|ins}}): ''means, tool'' || motivational ({{sc|mot}}): ''motivational context'' || progressive ({{sc|prog}}): ''time that is passed'' || prolative ({{sc|prol}}): ''crossing point/region''
|-
| 8 || ü || benefactive ({{sc|ben}}): ''beneficiary'' || final ({{sc|fin}}): ''purpose, aim'' || aggressive ({{sc|agg}}): ''time towards which, temporal aim'' || allative ({{sc|all}}): ''place/region towards which, spatial aim''
|}
Each primary case has two corresponding secondary cases:
* a partitive case formed by adding ''ng'' (such as ''-ing-'' for the partitive dative or ''-erng-'' for the partitive elative) with the descriptor ''the set from which the source (sink, place, etc.) is thought to be taken'': ''wèngx.'' is "the set from which the speaker is thought to be taken", i.e. "the speaker, among others".
* a qualitative case formed by adding ''m'', with the descriptor ''the basis of comparison for the source (sink, place, etc.)'': ''wèmx.'' informally translates as "someone like a speaker".

===The plot===
Every action denoted by a stem is considered a flow of information that comes from a source (sender), transports a content, and reaches a sink (a recipient). The terms "sender" and "recipient" may be more familiar, but "source" and "sink" are more accurate in not necessarily meaning living beings.

Consequently, a Lemizh action looks somewhat like this: '''nominative  accusative[[File:DreieckGreenMIDDLE.png|26px|link=]] dative'''

This is called the action's plot. Here are some examples:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative
|-
| ''wàx.'' "to speak, to talk, to tell; (an action of) speaking" || ''wèx.'' "one telling something" || ''wỳx.'' "a tale" || ''wìx.'' "one who is told something"
|-
| ''dà.'' "to give; (an action of) giving" || ''dè.'' "one giving something" || ''dỳ.'' "a gift" || ''dì.'' "one who is given something; one who gets something"
|-
| ''làzhw.'' "to help" || ''lèzhw.'' "one helping" || ''lỳzhw.'' "help (given)" || ''lìzhw.'' "one whom is helped"
|-
| ''mlàtx.'' "to melt" || ''mlètx.'' "one melting something" || [''mlỳtx.''] || ''mlìtx.'' "a melted thing"
|-
| ''xöàgh.'' "to produce a sound; to hear" || ''xöègh.'' "one producing a sound" || ''xöỳgh.'' "a sound" || ''xöìgh.'' "one hearing something"
|-
| ''àdh.'' "to feed; to eat" || ''èdh.'' "one feeding someone" || ''ỳdh.'' "food" || ''ìdh.'' "one being fed; one eating"
|-
| ''ià.'' "to love" || ''iè.'' "one loving someone, a lover" || ''iỳ.'' "a beloved" || ''iì.'' "a beloved"
|}
Importantly, there are no rules for which cases to use with which words. Both ''iỳ.'' ({{sc|acc}}) and ''iì.'' ({{sc|dat}}) mean "a beloved". The former describes the beloved as the content of love, the one being lovingly thought of, while the latter implies that the love reaches them, like words or gifts reach their recipient. Likewise, the reason why ''mlỳtx.'' is not translated in the table above isn't that "''melt'' does not take the accusative", as grammars of other languages would say, but that "a content of melting" does not seem to have any obvious meaning. If someone wanted to describe, say, sun rays as content transported from the sun to the snow to melt it, they could well use ''mlỳtx.'' to express the concept.

Case usage is governed solely by the cases' descriptors; it is up to the speaker how to use them given some word's meaning and some context. If the wind opens a door, is it the source of the action of opening (''ngèt.''), the means of opening (''ngùt.''), or the cause (''ngèlt.'')? All are grammatically correct; the speaker decides which possibility best expresses their intention.

===Nouns===
:''Nouns, adjectives and verbs do not correspond to any concepts in Lemizh grammar. Using these terms is just an attempt to describe the grammar from an Indo-European viewpoint.''
A large number of nouns are not derived from verbs in most languages: ''froth, ship, lion'' and many others. In Lemizh, however, we have verbs such as ''psràxk.'' "to froth", ''àksh.'' "to build a ship or ships", and ''làw.'' "to make a lion or lions". We will call these ''nominal verbs'', keeping in mind that this is a semantic and not a grammatical category.

Looking at the verb ''àksh.'', the shipwright ({{sc|nom}}) gives the building materials ({{sc|dat}}) the properties or the function of a ship ({{sc|acc}}). He confers, well, shipness on the materials. The shipness is sent by the shipwright, not because he is acting, but because he is the source: the image of the ship, so to say, comes from his head and materialises in wood, iron, ropes, and linen. In short, these words mostly appear with inner accusative.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative
|-
| ''psràxk.'' "to froth" || ''psrèxk.'' "one frothing something" || ''psrỳxk.'' "a thing having the properties of froth = '''froth'''" || ''psrìxk.'' "a frothed thing, a frothed liquid"
|-
| ''àksh.'' "to build a ship" || ''èksh.'' "one building a ship, a shipwright" || ''ỳksh.'' "a thing having the properties of a ship = '''a ship'''" || ''ìksh.'' "building materials for a ship, materials made into a ship"
|-
| ''làw.'' "to make a lion" || [''lèw.'' "one making a lion"] || ''lỳw.'' "a thing having the properties of a lion = '''a lion'''" || [''lìw.'' "building materials for a lion, materials made into a lion"]
|}

Nouns expressing job titles and the like mostly have inner nominatives because professions are often about producing or selling something, or about providing a kind of service:
* ''ghexè.'' "baker" from ''ghexà.'' "to bake",
* ''saxèf.'' "trumpeter" from ''saxàf.'' "to play the trumpet",
* ''bèst.'' "hero" from ''bàst.'' "to do heroic deeds, to act as a hero".

Another very common kind of nouns are tool nouns, formed with an inner instrumental case:
* ''ghstù.'' "a sail" is derived from ''ghstà.'' "to sail", literally "a means of sailing",
* ''pslù.'' "scissors" from ''pslà.'' "to cut with scissors",
* ''saxùf.'' "a trumpet", also from ''saxàf.'',
* ''skrùzh.'' "a finger" from ''skràzh.'' "to work with one's fingers".

====Inflection====
As mentioned above, all words inflect for (outer) case. Thus, we have the nominative forms ''wàx'''e''''' "(an action of) speaking, talking, telling", ''dè'''e''''' "a giver", ''lỳw'''e''''' "a lion", the causative ''lỳw'''el''''' "because of a lion", the elative ''lỳw'''er''''' "(starting) from a lion", etc.

Lemizh words do not inflect for number or gender. If desired, we can express this information by forming compounds. (Note the duplication of the inner case vowel; the first occurrence in each word is called the epenthetic case of the compound. The underlying grammar is described [[#Compounds|further down]].)
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Singular !! Dual !! Plural !! Feminine !! Masculine !! Feminine singular !! etc.
|-
! giver
| ''dè.'' || ''de'''rè'''.'' || ''de'''dwè'''.'' || ''de'''mlè'''.'' || ''de'''bè'''.'' || ''de'''èx'''.'' || ''de'''berè'''.''
|-
! lion
| ''lỳw.'' || ''lyw'''rỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''dwỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''mlỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''bỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''ỳx'''.'' || ''lyw'''byrỳ'''.''
|-
! compound with
| — || ''rỳ.'' "one" || ''dwỳ.'' "two" || ''mlỳ.'' "several" || ''bỳ.'' "female; woman" || ''ỳx.'' "male; man" || "female" and "one"
|}

===Adjectives and the like===
There is no difference between adjectival and nominal verbs: they mostly appear with inner accusative. This is the same situation as in, say, Latin, where ''albus'' can mean "a white one" as well as "white". Negators and numerals are sub-categories of adjectives.

The inner consecutive case translates certain abstract nouns.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative !! Inner consecutive
|-
| ''làbdh.'' "to whiten something, to make something white" || ''lèbdh.'' "one whitening something" || ''lỳbdh.'' "a white thing; '''white'''" || ''lìbdh.'' "a thing made white; whitened" || ''lìlbdh.'' "the consequence of whitening = whiteness"
|-
| ''gmrà.'' "to warm, to make something warm" || ''gmrè.'' "one warming something" || ''gmrỳ.'' "a warm thing; '''warm'''" || ''gmrì.'' "a warmed thing; warmed" || ''gmrìl.'' "the consequence of warming = warmth"
|-
| ''ngà.'' "to make something nonexistent" || ''ngè.'' "one making something nonexistent" || ''ngỳ.'' "(something) '''nonexistent'''" || ''ngì.'' "something made nonexistent, something destroyed" || ''ngìl.'' "the consequence of making nonexistent = nothingness"
|-
| ''dwà.'' "to make two individuals/things" || ''dwè.'' "one making two individuals" || ''dwỳ.'' "'''two''' (individuals)" || ''dwì.'' "something made into two (individuals)" || ''dwìl.'' "the consequence of making two individuals = twoness"
|}

However, emotions aren't viewed as properties in Lemizh: a happy or angry person is one sending happiness or anger, just as a loving person is one sending love. The inner causative plays a notable role with verbs of emotion.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative !! Inner causative
|-
| ''pthàb.'' "to be angry" || ''pthèb.'' "an angry one; '''angry'''" || ''pthỳb.'' "the content/object of one's anger; one ''about'' whom someone is angry" || ''pthìb.'' "one that one's anger reaches; one ''with'' whom someone is angry" || ''pthèlb.'' "one causing someone anger; one annoying someone"
|}

====Inflection====
Evidently, adjectives can be compounded to express number and/or gender in the same way as nouns. Furthermore, we can form compounds expressing various degrees. (The epenthetic consecutive ''-il-'' in these compounds will also be explained later; it is actually the main application of the abstract nouns just mentioned.)
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Diminutive !! Augmentative !! Absolute !! Comparative !! Superlative
|-
! white
| ''lỳbdh.'' || ''lilbdh'''zhrỳ'''.'' "whitish" || ''lilbdh'''dmỳ'''.'' "very white" || ''lilbdh'''ghngỳ'''.'' "purely white" || ''lilbdh'''tỳzhd'''.'' "whiter" || ''lilbdh'''ỳst'''.'' "whitest"
|-
! warm
| ''gmrỳ.'' || ''gmril'''zhrỳ'''.'' "cold" || ''gmril'''dmỳ'''.'' "hot" || ''gmril'''ghngỳ'''.'' "absolutely hot" || ''gmril'''tỳzhd'''.'' "warmer, hotter" || ''gmril'''ỳst'''.'' "hottest"
|-
! compound with
| — || ''zhrỳ.'' "few, little, a bit" || ''dmỳ.'' "much, many" || ''ghngỳ.'' "every, all, the whole" || ''tỳzhd.'' "more" || ''ỳst.'' "most"
|}
Further examples are ''gmril'''bdhỳ'''.'' "lukewarm" and ''lilbdh'''ngỳ'''.'' "black", the latter being a compound with the negator ''ngỳ''.

===Verbs===
Most verbs correspond to Lemizh words with an inner factive. However, as Lemizh stems always denote an action, the notable exception are stative verbs such as:
* ''zdìls.'' "to sit", literally "the consequence of sitting down (''zdàs.'')"
* ''gwìlt.'' "to know", literally "the consequence of learning (''gwàt.'')"

====Inflection====
* Person is not expressed with inflection but with [[#Relative pronouns|pronouns]].
* Number agreement does not exist in Lemizh. While verbs (i.e. words with an inner factive) can be compounded with numerals, ''ftrask'''mlà'''.'' does not mean "we/they sneeze" but "(there are) several acts of sneezing" (i.e. someone sneezes several times and/or several people sneeze).
* Voice (active/passive) is absent; word order serves a similar function.
* Tense is expressed by compounds with an epenthetic temporal case (''-arh-''), or with certain inner cases. The latter option is preferred if possible, as it is more concise.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Present !! Past !! Perfect !! Future !! Intentional
|-
! to sit down
| ''zdàs.'' || ''zdarhs'''wà'''.'' || ''zdarhs'''prilkà'''.'' || ''zd'''ìl'''s.'' ({{sc|cons}}) || ''zdarhs'''prà'''.'' || ''zd'''ò'''s.'' ({{sc|ten}})
|-
! compound with
| — || pronoun || ''prilkỳ.'' "back" || — || ''prỳ.'' "front" || —
|}
Note that the translation of the [[w:Perfect (grammar)|perfect]] with inner consecutive coincides with the translation of stative verbs: "having sat down" in the strict perfect sense of "the consequence/effect of this action exists" means the same as "to sit". Likewise, "whiteness" can be expressed as the abstract concept of "having whitened something".

* Mood corresponds to compounds with certain verbs. There is no equivalent to the subjunctive mood, as subordinate clauses are irreal (i.e. not necessarily real) by default per Rule Seven of sentence grammar (on which more [[#Seven|below]]). Here are some common formations:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Indicative !! Imperative !! Commanding imperative !! Interrogative Polite imperative !! Optative !! Negative
|-
! to feed, to eat
| ''àdh.'' || ''adh'''pràk'''.'' || ''adh'''dàxt'''.'' || ''adh'''pà'''.'' || ''adh'''làxt'''.'' || ''adh'''ngà'''.'' "don't eat"
|-
! compound with
| — || ''pràk.'' "to request" || ''dàxt.'' "to command" || ''pà.'' "to ask" || ''làxt.'' "to want" || ''ngà.'' "to make nonexistent"
|}
* Aspect is a diverse category, expressed by a variety of compounds and syntactic structures.

===Pronouns===
The two demonstrative pronouns are technically nominal verbs:
* ''tà.'' "to make this/that one", typically used with inner accusative: ''tỳ.'' "this/that (one)"
* ''gwà.'' "to make someone/anyone, something/anything", with inner accusative ''gwỳ.'' "someone/anyone, something/anything"

The eleven relative pronouns play a far more prominent role in Lemizh grammar. Their scope is much wider than the one usually associated with the term. As they are closely tied to Lemizh syntax, they are described [[#Relative pronouns|further down]].

==Syntax==
===Level of words===
There is only one more grammatical category: the level of words, which is the main building block of Lemizh syntax. A word can be of first level (the highest), of second level (the next highest), of third level (still one level lower) and so on; there is no limit for the number of levels, but non-positive word levels (zero, −1, etc.) are forbidden.

The first word in a sentence (the main predicate) is of first level by definition. The level of the next word is determined by the main predicate's accent and by the type of pause between the two words, the level of the third word is determined by the accent of the second and the pause between these two, and so on.

Here is the complete list of pause/accent combinations:

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="2" | Following pause !! rowspan="2" | Accented vowel !! rowspan="2" | Type of accent !! rowspan="2" | The level of the next word is …
|-
! in speech !! in writing
|-
| rowspan="4" | barely audible || rowspan="4" | space || rowspan="2" | inner case || low || lower by 1
|-
| high || lower by 1, and [[w:Agent (grammar)|agentive]]* ({{sc|a}})
|-
| rowspan="2" | outer case || low || equal
|-
| high || higher by 1
|-
| rowspan="4" | a bit longer || rowspan="4" | comma ('''·''') || rowspan="2" | inner case || low || higher by 2
|-
| high || higher by 3
|-
| rowspan="2" | outer case || low || higher by 4
|-
| high || higher by 5
|-
| the longest || full stop ('''∶''') || inner case || low || none; end of sentence
|}
<nowiki>*</nowiki> The agent is the initiator of the action (more informally, the one who ''does'' the action).

===The Rules===
[[File:Lemizh parse tree.png|thumb|upright=1.5|A schematic sentence with the words represented by their level numbers]]
The word levels determine the structure of a sentence.

'''Rule One of sentence grammar. A word of level n is subordinate to the nearest word of level n−1 in front of it; the parole acts as a word of level zero.'''

All words of second level are subordinate to the main predicate (which has first level). A word of third level is subordinate to the next second-level word in front of it, and so on. In other words, Lemizh sentences are strictly [[w:Head directionality|head-first]]. The main predicate itself is subordinate to the [[w:Parole (linguistics)|parole]], the action of speaking (or writing) the sentence in question, which consequently has level zero.

'''Rule Two. An object of a word in a sentence is a word subordinate to the former, its predicate, plus all of its own objects.'''

In the diagram, the main predicate's three objects are enclosed in ellipses. Objects of the same word are called ''sibling objects'' or just ''siblings'', and the word they are subordinate to is their ''predicate''. Note that ''predicate'' and ''object'' are relative terms like ''parent'' and ''child''.

The table of level markers implies that only the first object of a predicate can be marked as agent. So Lemizh can be said to have VSO word order, or more correctly VAO (verb–agent–object).

'''Rule Three. The outer case of the first word of an object defines its relation to its predicate's stem via its descriptor; the outer case of a level 1 word is zero.'''

This is what we would expect from a language that inflects for case: the nominative object defines the source (sender) of the action named by the stem of its predicate, the accusative object its content, the temporal object its time, etc.

'''Examples'''
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dá föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|give-FACT-1 {Father Christmas}-ACC-'''NOM'''-2A bottle-ACC-'''ACC'''-2 Lucy-ACC-'''DAT'''-2.
|''Father Christmas gives Lucy a bottle.''}}

The stems of the three objects are nominal verbs ("to make a bottle" etc.), hence the inner accusatives. The outer cases indicate the sender, content and recipient of the action of giving, respectively. The agent is specified independently of the plot arrow; note the difference:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dá lusyì dwywỳ föpysrỳfe.
|give-FACT-1 Lucy-ACC-'''DAT'''-2A bottle-ACC-'''ACC'''-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-'''NOM'''-2.
|''Lucy takes a bottle from Father Christmas.''}}

We need not mark an object as agentive if we do not consider this information important. The English translations are only rough approximations:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dà lusyì dwywỳ föpysrỳfe.
|give-FACT-1 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2 bottle-ACC-ACC-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2.
|''Lucy gets a bottle from Father Christmas. Lucy is given a bottle by Father Christmas.''}}

Rule Three defines outer case in a way that mirrors the definition of inner case. This allows for an operation called '''inversion''' (symbolized "⇔"):
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|làzhw wèxi. ⇔ wáx lìzhwe.
|help-FACT-1 speak-'''NOM'''-'''DAT'''-2. ⇔ speak-FACT-1 help-'''DAT'''-'''NOM'''-2A.
|''[Someone] helps the speaker. ⇔ The one being helped speaks.''}}

Both sentences assert that the sender of speaking is the recipient of helping. The equation is ''wèx.'' = ''lìzhw.'', the speaker = the one being helped.

'''Rule Four. An instance of a word stem designates a specific action.'''

''dà'' in the above sentence does not just mean "to give", it refers to one specific action of giving. Such an action may involve several givers (as in "They give something") and need not even be temporally or spatially contiguous (as in "They are giving something every Christmas"). In other words, each spoken or written instance of the stem ''d–'' refers to a certain subset of all the giving there is.

This rule ensures that all the objects refer to the same action of giving as the predicate itself.

'''Rule Five. A case characterises the action it refers to completely with regard to its case descriptor.'''

For example, the nominative object "Father Christmas" has to name the complete sender of the above instance of giving. This excludes from this instance all giving not done by Father Christmas. So each object places a restriction on the action of giving the main predicate refers to. Thus, the subset of giving meant by this instance of ''dà.'' – what the sentence is ultimately talking about – is defined more and more precisely with each additional object. (This is true not only of the main predicate but of all words in a sentence. Also, as inner and outer cases can be interconverted via inversion, this rule applies to inner cases as well.)

'''Rule Six. A missing object is equivalent to the absence of information about its descriptor.'''

Above sentences do not have, for example, locative objects, so Rule Five cannot place a restriction on the place of giving. Because of Rule Six, this does not mean there are no restrictions on the location, but only that this kind of information has not been included in the sentence (for example, because the speaker does not know about it, considers it irrelevant, assumes that the listener already knows or – perhaps most importantly – that the listener can infer it). In fact, everything not useful for understanding a sentence should be omitted to save the listener processing effort. (See the inversion example above, which omits the nominative "someone".)

Rules Five and Six imply that every instance of a word has exactly one action (which, however, need not be contiguous), one sender (which may consist of several people), and so on: Five excludes additional senders if one nominative object is already present, and Six gives meaning to missing objects, establishing them as an integral part of Lemizh sentence grammar.

{{anchor|Seven}}'''Rule Seven. Given an object and its predicate, the predicate is considered more real and the object more hypothetical.'''
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive; 3:third level
|láxt föpysryfè dày dwywỳ lusỳi.
|want-FACT-1 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2A give-FACT-ACC-2 bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3.
|''Father Christmas wants to give Lucy a bottle.'' (The action of giving is the content of the wish. The nominative object of "give", which is also Father Christmas, is omitted per Rule Six.)}}

This sentence contains the information that Father Christmas wants something (i.e. to give Lucy a bottle), but not that he actually gives something (i.e. Lucy a bottle). The main predicate "want", so to speak, lives in the world the sentence is talking about (more formally, the world of the parole), which is the more real, while its object "give Lucy a bottle" lives in the world of his wish, which is the more hypothetical. The parole, having level zero, acts as the predicate to the sentence as a whole and is therefore still more real. This reflects the fact that the parole is part of the real world; it is as real as anything linguistic can be. Turning this around, we see that the sentence is more hypothetical than reality: it can be a metaphor or some other figure of speech, a statement about a fictional or otherwise imagined world, an error, a lie, a linguistic example sentence, etc. We call the main predicate's kind of reality, the one that is just one level more hypothetical than the parole and the real world, ''grammatical reality''.

The bottle and Lucy, having third level, are still more hypothetical than the action of giving; their existence does not follow from grammar but from logic and context: someone nonexistent cannot be given something. A better example would be "I see white mice", where the existence of the mice may or may not be inferred from context such as the amount of alcohol I have drunk.

In the sentence "I think that Father Christmas wants to give Lucy a bottle", "to think" is grammatically real, while the other two verbs, so to say, are pushed down one degree of reality.

Inversion changes degrees of reality; only the second of the following sentences contains the information that he actually gives something:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|làxt dày. ⇔ dà lỳxta.
|want-FACT-1 give-'''FACT'''-'''ACC'''-2. ⇔ give-FACT-1 want-'''ACC'''-'''FACT'''-2.
|''[He] wants to give. ⇔ [He] gives "wantingly", i.e. gladly.''}}

There is no real difference between phrases and complete sentences in Lemizh:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! as an object (hypothetical) !! as a main predicate / complete sentence (grammatically real)
|-
| ''dà.'' || to give; giving || An action of giving exists = Someone gives something.
|-
| ''zdìls.'' || the consequence of sitting down = to sit; sitting || The consequence of sitting down exists = Someone sits.
|-
| ''dwìlw.'' || the consequence of making a bottle || The consequence of making a bottle exists = A bottle exists; there is a bottle.
|-
| ''sklè.'' || one building a bridge || One building a bridge exists = There is someone building a bridge.
|}

===Noun phrases===
Forming noun phrases does not require any new grammatical rules. Changing the inner case of "give" in the first example sentence above to the nominative yields "one giving something, a giver". The objects are still sender, content and recipient of the ''action'' of giving, as outer cases define relations to the predicate's ''stem'' per Rule Three:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dé föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|give-'''NOM'''-1 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2A bottle-ACC-ACC-2 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2.
|''[There is] one giving Lucy a bottle, Father Christmas.''}}

Rules Four and Five guarantee that the giver is identical to Father Christmas: both are the sender of the same instance of the stem ''d–'' "give" (the giver via its inner nominative, Father Christmas via its outer nominative), and both are the ''complete'' sender of this action. This type of construction, where an object's outer case matches its predicate's inner case, is called a '''bracket'''. The identity of predicate and object means that the object is as real as its predicate in the sense of Rule Seven. We say that a bracket confers reality on its object.

Brackets are used extensively:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Apposition !! Attributive adjective !! Attributive pronoun/determiner !! Attributive numeral !! Attributive participle
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|iakopỳk saxèfy.
|Jacopo-'''ACC'''-1 trumpet-NOM-'''ACC'''-2.
|''Jacopo, a trumpeter''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=INS:instrumental case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|ghstù lỳbdhu.
|sail-'''INS'''-1 white-ACC-'''INS'''-2.
|''a sail, a white thing = a white sail''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|ỳksh gwỳy.
|ship-'''ACC'''-1 some-ACC-'''ACC'''-2.
|''a ship, something = some ship''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|mỳs trỳy.
|mouse-'''ACC'''-1 three-ACC-'''ACC'''-2.
|''mice, three individuals = three mice''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|nỳzd gangèy.
|bird-'''ACC'''-1 sing-NOM-'''ACC'''-2.
|''a bird, a singer = a singing bird''}}
|}
Such phrases can be easily extended. This example contains two accusative brackets ("a singing bird" and "a sad child"):
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 4:fourth level
|ngỳzd gangèy zhngỳi speghý ytfỳarh.
|bird-ACC-1 sing-NOM-ACC-2 child-ACC-DAT-3 sad-NOM-ACC-4 night-ACC-TEMP-3.
|''a bird singing to a sad child at night''}}

Adverbially used adjectives are phrased with factive brackets:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|gangà txỳska.
|sing-'''FACT'''-1 loud-ACC-'''FACT'''-2.
|''(an action of) singing, a loud thing = loud singing = singing loudly, to sing loudly'' (Compare "to give gladly" above, under Rule Seven.)}}

However, changing the predicate's inner case leaves the object's outer factive intact, losing the bracket:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|gangè txỳska.
|sing-'''NOM'''-1 loud-ACC-FACT-2.
|''a loud singer = someone singing loudly'' (The action of singing is a loud thing.)}}

As '''[[w:Genitive construction|genitive constructions]]''' have a wide variety of meanings, there is no single Lemizh equivalent. The typical translation for constructions indicating possession is with the benefactive case, but other cases frequently occur. Everything depends on the object's relation to the predicate's stem per Rule Three:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|dwỳw lusỳü.
|bottle-ACC-1 Lucy-ACC-'''BEN'''-2.
|''Lucy's bottle'' (Lucy is the beneficiary of making the bottle.)}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dý ỳxe.
|give-ACC-1 male-ACC-'''NOM'''-2A.
|''the man's gift'' (The man is the sender of giving.)}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|rhỳst ytfỳarh filpskỳy.
|dream-ACC-1 night-ACC-'''TEMP'''-2 midsummer-ACC-ACC-3.
|''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' (The midsummer night is the time of dreaming.)}}

Phrases with the conjunction '''"and"''' translate to several objects in the same outer case with inner partitives. Thanks to Rule Five, the recipient of "to give" in this sentence literally is "the set from which Peter is thought to be taken, which is equal to the set from which Susan is thought to be taken, which is equal to the set from which Lucy is thought to be taken":
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=PARTACC:partitive accusative case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dá föpysryfè petyngsì susngyngì lusỳngi.
|give-FACT-1 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2A Peter-PARTACC-DAT-2 Susan-PARTACC-DAT-2 Lucy-PARTACC-DAT-2.
|''Father Christmas gives [something] to Peter, Susan and Lucy.''}}

===Dependent clauses===
We have already discussed the infinitive clause in "Father Christmas wants '''to give Lucy a bottle'''" under Rule Seven.

The difference between English gerund clauses and that-clauses roughly translates into a difference between an inner factive (''action'') and an inner affirmative (''fact''):
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 3A:third level, agentive
|dmàt tryxkì dáe föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|see-FACT-1 beaver-ACC-DAT-2 give-'''FACT'''-NOM-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-3A bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3.
|''The beaver sees [the action of] Father Christmas giving Lucy a bottle.'' (The beaver is at the receiving end of the optical stimulus or information, hence the dative. The dependent clause could also be in the accusative to focus on the optical information transmitted to the beaver.)}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; AFF:affirmative case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 3A:third level, agentive
|dmàt tryxkì dále föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|see-FACT-1 beaver-ACC-DAT-2 give-'''AFF'''-NOM-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-3A bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3.
|''The beaver sees [the fact of] Father Christmas giving Lucy a bottle. The beaver sees '''that''' Father Christmas gives Lucy a bottle.''}}

Some examples of dependent clauses translating into objects in various cases:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|fngà kshngày.
|try-FACT-1 shout-FACT-'''ACC'''-2.
|''[She] tried to shout [but this was difficult because of her sore throat].''}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|fngà kshngàu.
|try-FACT-1 shout-FACT-'''INS'''-2.
|''[She] tried shouting [as he hadn't heard her when she had spoken quietly].'' (Shouting is the means of trying.)}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PSU:persuasive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 4:fourth level
|pàf làxtöl dmàty föpysrỳfe.
|stand-FACT-1 want-FACT-'''PSU'''-2 see-FACT-ACC-3 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-4.
|''[He] stood up because [he] wanted to see Father Christmas.''}}

'''[[w:Relative clause|Relative clauses]]''' are structurally identical to attributive participles as described above; they are brackets: ''a bird which sings to a sad child at night = a bird singing to a sad child at night''. This is also true of clauses with relative adverbs:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level; 3A:third level, agentive
|ngỳw gangáry lỳbe.
|valley-'''ACC'''-1 sing-LOC-'''ACC'''-2 flower-ACC-NOM-3A.
|''a valley, a place of the singing of flowers = a valley where flowers sing''}}

Adverbially used relative clauses, unsurprisingly, are factive brackets:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive; 3:third level
|shrá wygwè rashkỳa bỳe.
|yelp-'''FACT'''-1 dog-ACC-NOM-2A dislike-ACC-'''FACT'''-2 female-ACC-NOM-3.
|''The dog is yelping, which the girl doesn't like.''}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PSU:persuasive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive; 3A:third level, agentive
|shrá wygwè ö́ldha bỳe.
|yelp-'''FACT'''-1 dog-ACC-NOM-2A eat-PSU-'''FACT'''-2 female-ACC-NOM-3A.
|''The dog is yelping, wherefore the girl feeds it.''}}

===Predicative===
[[w:Predicative expression|Predicatives]], like all sentences, follow the plot arrow:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|ghát zhngyè bestỳ lusỳi.
|name-FACT-1 child-ACC-'''NOM'''-2A hero-NOM-'''ACC'''-2 Lucy-ACC-'''DAT'''-2.
|''The children called Lucy a hero.'' (The children gave the designation of hero to Lucy.)}}

Predicatives with the verb "to make" typically correspond to Lemizh sentences with a nominal or adjectival verb as the main predicate. This can be interpreted as the accusative object – here "ill" – being absorbed ("swallowed") by the main predicate:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|mà ydhè gwilbkyỳ wỳgwi. → gwilbkà ydhè wỳgwi.
|make-FACT-1 eat-ACC-'''NOM'''-2 ill-ACC-'''ACC'''-2 dog-ACC-'''DAT'''-2. → ill-FACT-1 eat-ACC-NOM-2 dog-ACC-DAT-2.
|''The food made the dog ill.'' (The food gave the property of being ill to the dog. – The food could also be seen as the cause for making the dog ill, calling for the causative case.)}}

The verb "to be" translates as the corresponding perfect form, i.e. with inner consecutive of the main predicate:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=CONS:consecutive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|lìlbdh lỳghi.
|white-'''CONS'''-1 house-ACC-DAT-2.
|''The house is [painted] white.'' (The house has been given the property of being white. The house has been whitened.)}}

The above are called resultative predicatives, describing the result of some property being conferred on someone or something. A depictive predicative describes an inherent property; this is achieved with an accusative object:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=CONS:consecutive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|drulìl werhèy.
|shrub-CONS-1 hazel-NOM-'''ACC'''-2.
|''The hazel is a shrub.'' (The hazel has the properties of a shrub.)}}
(Side note: The stem of ''werhè.'' "hazel" means "to make hazelnuts", hence the inner nominative. The nuts are called ''werhỳ.'', with inner accusative. Other plants bearing edible fruits follow the same pattern.)

===Relative pronouns===
Stems of relative pronouns (not to be confused with the pronouns of the same name in other languages) refer to actions by pointing to another stem or to a parole: they are [[w:Anaphora (linguistics)|anaphoric]]. Here is the full list:
{| class="wikitable"
! rowspan="2" | Level !! colspan="2" | Type I !! colspan="2" | Type II
|-
! Verb !! The target is the stem of !! Verb !! The target is the stem of
|-
| n || colspan="2" | (does not occur because it would refer to itself) || à. || its preceding same-level word
|-
| n−1 || wà. || its predicate || fà. || its predicate's preceding same-level word or parole
|-
| n−2 || dhà. || its predicate's predicate || thà. || its predicate's predicate's preceding same-level word or parole
|-
| n−3 || zà. || its predicate's predicate's predicate || sà. || …
|-
| n−4 || zhà. || … || shà. || …
|-
| n−5 || ghà. || … || xà. || …
|}
Relative pronouns are highly versatile. Recall that a sentence's parole has level zero:
{| class="wikitable"
! Reflexive !! First person (singular) !! Second person
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|wáx wìe.
|speak-FACT-1 PIn−1-'''DAT'''-'''NOM'''-2A.
|''to talk to oneself. [He] is talking to himself.'' (The recipient of speaking is its sender.)}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dráw dhèe.
|dance-FACT-1 PIn−2-'''NOM'''-NOM-2A.
|''I am dancing.'' (The sender of the parole is the sender of dancing.)}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dráw dhìe.
|dance-FACT-1 PIn−2-'''DAT'''-NOM-2A.
|''You are dancing.'' (The recipient of the parole is the sender of dancing.)}}
|}
Rule Four of sentence grammar ensures that the reflexive example means "He is talking to himself" as opposed to, say, "He is talking to one being talked to" (which would be ''wáx wìxe.'' speak-{{sc|fact}}-1 speak-{{sc|dat-nom}}-2{{sc|a}}, with two different instances of the stem "speak").

{| class="wikitable"
! Possessive (≙ genitive) determiner !! Vocative
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=CONS:consecutive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|zdìls ngỳzdy zeú tỳar.
|seat-CONS-1 bird-ACC-ACC-2 PIn−3-'''NOM'''-BEN-3 this-ACC-LOC-2.
|''My bird is sitting there.'' (The sender of the parole is the beneficiary of making a bird.)}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=PI:pronoun type I; FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive; 3:third level
|wáx dheè zdhèzhi zìe.
|speak-FACT-1 PIn−2-NOM-NOM-2A friend-NOM-DAT-2 PIn−3-'''DAT'''-NOM-3.
|''Friend, I am talking to you.'' (The recipient of the parole is the friend: nominative bracket.)}}
|}

The type II pronoun in the following example points to the stem of eating. With the inner accusative, the pronoun refers to the content of eating, which is the sweet. (As with brackets, Rules Four and Five guarantee that the pronoun refers to the same content of the same action of eating as mentioned in the first sentence.)
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; PII:pronoun type II; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|ádh dheì mlỳdhy. ràsh fỳy.
|eat-FACT-1 PIn−2-NOM-DAT-2A sweet-ACC-ACC-2. like-FACT-1 PIIn−1-'''ACC'''-ACC-2.
|''I am eating a sweet. [I] like it.''}}

==Derivational morphology==
From a Lemizh point of view, ''dè.'' "giver" and ''dỳ.'' "gift" aren't derivatives of ''dà.'' "to give" but grammatical forms of the same word. The only piece of true derivational morphology is compounding.

===Compounds===
[[File:Lemizh compounding diagram.png|thumb|Forming a compound from a two-word sentence]]
'''Rule One of compounding. A compound word is constructed from a two-word sentence – predicate and object of which become modifier and head of the compound, respectively – in the following way:'''
# '''Prestem''':
## the object's prestem
## the object's inner case
## the object's poststem
## an optional separator
## the predicate's prestem
# '''Inner case'''
# '''Poststem''': the predicate's poststem
# '''Outer case'''
Note that the object's stem comes before the predicate's; and also that the object's outer case (and, less importantly, the predicate's inner case) is lost. The object's inner case becomes part of the compound's prestem and is then called its ''epenthetic case''. The separator can be used, for example, if the word boundary would be unclear otherwise, or for placing the second part of the word on a new line.

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|làxt àdhy. ⇒ adhlàxt.
|want-FACT-1 eat-FACT-ACC-2. ⇒ eat-FACT-want-FACT-1.
|''[She] wants to eat.'' (See the inflection of [[#Verbs|verbs]]; the other moods follow the same pattern.)}}
Here the accusative ending is lost and has to be deduced from context.

'''Rule Two. In the relationship between the original predicate and object, the rules of sentence grammar are retained as far as applicable.'''

The consequences of this rule are somewhat technical; but the last one, pertaining to degree of reality, is important for correctly interpreting compounds.
* Rules One to Three of sentence grammar are not applicable to compounds, as can easily be seen.
* Four: Both modifier and head are instantiations of specific actions in the original sentence (which however do not necessarily match the instantiation of the compound).
* Five: The epenthetic case characterises the head completely with regard to its descriptor.
* Six: The only overt object of the modifier is the head. All other objects are missing and thus indicate the absence of information about their descriptors.
* Seven: The modifier has a higher degree of reality than the head. Therefore, the above compound does not claim that she actually eats.

'''Rule Three. Regarding all outward relations, cases''' (i.e. the compound's inner case [not to be confused with its epenthetic case], the outer cases of its objects, and cases of pronouns referring to it) '''refer to the head.'''
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|adhkmàr mlỳdhy.
|eat-FACT-allow-LOC-1 sweet-ACC-ACC-2.
|''a place where one may eat sweets; a place for eating sweets''}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|ngengadàxt fỳta.
|run-FACT-must-FACT-1 fast-ACC-FACT-1
|''[He] has to run fast.''}}

These examples are about the location of eating, as opposed to the location of allowing; about eating sweets, as opposed to allowing sweets; about fast running, as opposed to a fast necessity; etc.

Number and gender of [[#Nouns|nouns]] are compounds from brackets which are first inverted to turn the more salient word into the compound's head: ''dè mlỳe. ⇔ mlỳ dèy.'' "several givers" ⇒ ''demlè.'' "givers". The inner nominative (''-e-'') becomes the epenthetic case, and the new inner case also has to be a nominative per Rule Three of compounding. ''demlỳ.'' (inner {{sc|acc}}), by contrast, is "something given by several people", and ''dymlè.'' (epenthetic {{sc|acc}}) is "a giver of several things".

Compounds expressing degrees of [[#Adjectives and the like|adjectives]] are also formed from brackets. They have an epenthetic consecutive (''-il-''), which stems from the corresponding abstract noun: ''gmrìl dmỳil. ⇔ dmỳ gmrìly.'' "much warmth" ⇒ ''gmrildmìl.'' "heat" (abstract noun formed with inner {{sc|cons}}), ''gmrildmỳ.'' "hot" (adjective with inner {{sc|acc}}). Degrees of comparison are often combined with qualitative or partitive outer cases and with [[#Predicative|predicatives]]:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=CONS:consecutive case; QUALACC:qualitative accusative case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|prilghtìlzhd lyghỳ bỳghym.
|beautiful-CONS-more-CONS-1 house-ACC-ACC-2 garden-ACC-QUALACC-2.
|''The house is more beautiful than the garden.'' (The garden is the basis of comparison for the house.)}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=CONS:consecutive case; PARTACC:partitive accusative case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|prilghìlst lỳghy ziǘ ghngỳyng.
|beautiful-CONS-most-CONS-1 house-ACC-ACC-2 PIn−3-DAT-BEN-3 all-ACC-PARTACC-2.
|''Your house is the most beautiful of all [houses].'' (''All houses'' form the set from which your house is thought to be taken.)}}

The analogues of the present and future tenses are formed like so – note that inversion changes the pronoun's stem along with its level:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2:second level
|zdàs dhàarh. ⇔ wà zdàrhsa. ⇒ zdarhswà.
|seat-FACT-1 PIn−2-FACT-TEMP-2. ⇔ PIn−1-FACT-1 seat-TEMP-FACT-2. ⇒ seat-TEMP-PIn−1-FACT-1.
|''The time of sitting down is the parole. ⇒ [She] sits down now.''}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|zdàs prỳarh. ⇔ prỳ zdàrhsy. ⇒ zdarhsprà.
|seat-FACT-1 front-ACC-TEMP-2. ⇔ front-ACC-1 seat-TEMP-ACC-2. ⇒ seat-TEMP-front-FACT-1.
|''The time of sitting down is in front [of the parole]. ⇒ [She] will sit down.''}}
The past is formed analogously to the future.

==Example text==
[[File:Lemizh text sample.png|600px]]

===stedrỳzh thìrhfi xtrỳghy.===
krỳgh dghngireì prilxpilghkỳarh. mangỳ srungbỳng lyngghỳng yngshwỳng fỳü. zhöazhghngìl tmỳil. ghngàgzh smìa prỳal ghngyé dhàbdhy lunguỳ ùyl mỳu fplyxár tỳarh. dmát feì sxngengzè ishkènge. ghìlt krighmyngthxì xtrỳngghi swyshỳ ghỳxy fplyxòr zhöyzhỳm xngàrorm. dmìlt öngkrỳngty zhryỳ rèshy esfàsy sxngyzdmýi, usrỳngy xazhgèsty ghngỳeng, frekrỳngfy rilghdzhỳwby pthèby, dgheipysrỳngdy psrèby rhèzhem, dghistngỳngty ghỳxy zangỳa dghildhfmlýyrh, ngiftngyghtmỳngy krültlìy zùe gỳghda. xtrỳgh swyshý stedrỳzh thìrfi. dngilszhrìl bdhyrgzhyngỳng xüxtrỳngyng prilkỳarh ötìlil skmyngìlng ghỳngsilng. dngilszhìlwb ráxpy thìlfi. fö̀l gwiltngìlöl dmàty föpysryfỳ ngỳu.

rỳ zhryỳrh thìzgy gwiltngìly rhàghgy dmatngìe thìrfy. là xángska matngiè ytfỳyrh dmyý fplyxór dyxtngyngà mànga prilzhryngỳr iltỳngzhdyr. dmàt ytfỳarh ryý mìlngorh xngyì prilkyár mìlngorh xtrỳngghi kshrextý mengthxì prỳar zìe, fplỳngxe fywýr déngske xtryghè sxngezì xngỳnge.

===The Legend of the Seventh Planet===
A long time ago there was a tribe of nomads. They possessed neither writing nor houses nor horses. But they were truly human. They were curious; this means, above all, that they took interest in the useless, for the celestial objects were of no use to them yet. They looked at the Sun and the Moon. They had named the constellations and the six planets moving across the sky like the humans across the earth. They knew dim Mercury, who liked to hide in the glare of the Sun; Venus, the brightest of all; reddish and angry Mars; majestic father Jupiter; Saturn, who seemed to stand still for weeks; and even Uranus had been caught by their keen eyes. Six planets, and the legend of a seventh. Maybe it had been the minor planet Vesta, or a comet centuries or millennia earlier. Maybe it was the attraction of the number seven. For Neptune is invisible to the naked eye.

One youngster thought to himself that he could not live without seeing the seventh planet. He lay awake searching the sky for many nights, neglected his duties, and became thinner and thinner. And one night, lying with the Earth behind his back, and with the looping planets and the stars above him, he saw the depth of the sky and the planets circling the Sun, and among them the Earth.

==See also==
* [[Literature:The Tower of Babel#Lemizh|The Tower of Babel § Lemizh]] (with interlinear glossing)

==External links==
* [https://lemizh.conlang.org Lemizh homepage] with comprehensive coverage of the language, including a dictionary with etymologies, information on the language's pragmatics, and more background information
[[File:Copyleft1.png|20px]] ''This article is available under a [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License]. It includes material from the Lemizh homepage, which has the same license.''


[[Category:Languages]]
[[Category:Conlangs]]
[[Category:Indo-European languages]]
[[Category:Agglutinative languages]]

Lemizh

2022-06-03T11:51:42Z

Anypodetos: Brackets confer reality; copyedit

{{Infobox language
|image =
|imagesize =
|name = Lemizh
|nativename = lemỳzh.
|pronunciation = lɛmˈɯ̀ʒ
|state = Lemaria
|setting = Alternate history Europe
|created = 1985
|familycolor = Indo-European
|fam2 = Lemizh branch
|ancestor = Proto-Lemizh
|posteriori =
* [[w:Proto-Indo-European language|PIE]]
* [[w:Occam's razor|Occam's razor]]
|creator = [[User:Anypodetos|Anypodetos]]
|scripts = Lemizh alphabet
|nation = Lemaria
|map = Map of Lemaria.png
|mapalt = The country of Lemaria lies to the north and west of the Black Sea. The capital, Shabar, is located at the Dniester Liman or Estuary.
|notice = IPA
}}
'''Lemizh''' ([[Help:IPA|[lεmˈiʒ]]], native pronunciation: [[Help:IPA|[lɛmˈɯ̀ʒ]]]) is a language I invented with the aim of creating a grammar as regular and simple as possible. It was originally intended as an [[w:International auxiliary language|international auxiliary language]]. However, it turned out that a simple grammar is not necessarily a grammar that is easy to learn: the more ways of simplification I found, the further away it moved from [[w:Indo-European languages|Indo-European]] and probably all other familiar language structures. Expecting anyone to learn Lemizh, at this point, would be unrealistic.

So I needed a new justification for the language: enter the Lemizh, a people living to the west and north of the [[w:Black Sea|Black Sea]] in an alternate history that slowly drifted away from ours between two and eight millennia ago. Of course, it is extremely unlikely that they would speak a language that was completely without exceptions. To be precise, the chances for this to have happened are two to the power of two hundred and seventy-six thousand seven hundred and nine to one against. But they say that everything has to happen somewhere in the Multiverse; and everything happens only once.

{{TOC limit}}

==History==
===Early stages===
Lemizh is an Indo-European language and, together with Volgan, constitutes one of the ten recognised branches of the Indo-European language family. This branch is also called Lemizh, to the disgruntlement of Volgan linguists.

Proto-Lemizh, the ancestor of Lemizh and Volgan, is very poorly attested in form of some papyri found near the northwestern shore of the Black Sea, to the north of the [[w:Dniester Liman|Dniester Liman]], dated about 2700 BCE. Old Lemizh, by contrast, is fairly well attested. It had predominantly [[w:Subject–verb–object|subject–verb–object]] (SVO) word order and was a quite typical old Indo-European language, but with a couple of interesting quirks:
* Adjectives were lost as a separate part of speech, being replaced with participles ("white" > "being white").
* Finite subordinate clauses had their subject in the case of the clause: the subject of a local clause was in the locative case without having a local meaning in itself.
The earliest known documents from this stage of Lemizh were probably written around 2100 BCE along the northern and western shores of the Back Sea.

===Ghean and Middle Lemizh===
Ghean ([[Help:IPA|[ˈɣɛən]]]) is a language with no known genetic relationships. It was spoken by a people of unknown origin, who subdued the Lemizh tribes in around 1000 BCE and ruled for infamous three generations. Ghean was an inflected [[w:Tonal language|register tonal]] language with strict [[w:Verb–subject–object|verb–subject–object]] (VSO) word order and head-first phrases. It had verbs, [[w:Nominal (linguistics)|nominals]] (a combined noun/adjective/participle part of speech), pronouns and particles.

The Gheans discouraged the use of the natives' language, but obviously tolerated Lemizh words (or rather word stems) to stand in for unfamiliar Ghean ones. The grammar of simple sentences was easy enough to learn for the Lemizh, as they were used to inflection and head-first phrases, and likely still knew VSO sentences from poetry. After two or three generations, the natives must have spoken a [[w:Creole language|creole]] with a more or less Ghean grammar but an abundance of Lemizh words, especially outside the core vocabulary. This is a rather unusual development as most creoles draw their lexicon mainly from the dominant group, and tend to be grammatically more innovative. (The Tanzanian language [[w:Mbugu language|Mbugu]] might have had a somewhat similar development with more or less analogous outcomes.) After the disappearance of the Gheans, Lemizh patriots tried to revive their old language, which failed spectacularly for the grammar but reintroduced many Lemizh words of the core vocabulary.

===The last three millennia===
While Middle Lemizh as spoken after the Ghean occupation already had a non-Indo-European and unusually regular grammar, this trend was to continue over the following millennia. The factive case was innovated to express verbal nouns, which eventually supplanted verbs altogether. (At least part of the blame goes to the Tlöngö̀l, an epic novel published in 1351 CE, which popularised the use of verbal nouns.) The tonal system was simplified to the present two-way [[w:Pitch-accent language|pitch-accent]] system. Pronouns lost their status as a separate part of speech. The last particles died out a few hundred years ago, leaving the language with a single part of speech which is often called a "verb" but, historically speaking, is really a nominal. This means that the concept of ''parts of speech'' does not make sense in Modern Lemizh.

This article describes the dialect spoken to the north of the [[w:Danube Delta|Danube Delta]], which prevailed against other variants and is considered the standard language today.

==Orthography and phonology==
The alphabet is [[w:Phonetic orthography|phonetic]]: each letter corresponds to a certain sound, and each sound is represented by a single letter. The direction of writing is left to right. This article uses the standard transcription of the native Lemizh alphabet:
{| class="wikitable" style="width: 800px; table-layout: fixed; text-align: center"
! colspan="29" | Letters of the Lemizh alphabet
|-
| colspan="29" style="padding: 0" | [[File:Lemizh alphabet.png|796px]]
|-
| a || e || y || i || o || ö || u || ü || l || rh || r || ng || m || g || d || b || k || t || p || gh || zh || z || dh || w || x || sh || s || th || f
|}

===Consonants===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="2" | !! bilabial !! dental !! alveolar !! postalveolar !! velar
|-
! colspan="2" | nasals
| m <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial nasal|m]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || || || ng <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar nasal|ŋ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! colspan="2" | plosives (voiceless • voiced)
| p <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless bilabial plosive|p]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • b <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial plosive|b]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || t <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless alveolar plosive|t]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • d <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar plosive|d]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || k <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless velar plosive|k]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • g <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar plosive|ɡ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! colspan="2" | fricatives (voiceless • voiced)
| f <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless bilabial fricative|ɸ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • w <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial fricative|β]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || th <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless dental fricative|θ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • dh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced dental fricative|ð]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || s <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless alveolar sibilant|s]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • z <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar sibilant|z]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || sh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless palato-alveolar fricative|ʃ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • zh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced palato-alveolar fricative|ʒ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || x <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless velar fricative|x]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • gh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar fricative|ɣ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! rowspan="3" | liquids || lateral approximant
| || || l <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar lateral approximant|l]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|-
! approximant
| || || rh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar approximant|ɹ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|-
! trill
| || || r <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar trill|r]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|}
The plosive-fricative combinations ''pf, ts, tsh, kx'' and their voiced couterparts only occur at word boundaries and in compound words. They are not pronounced as affricates but as separate sounds. The same applies for other combinations of a plosive plus another consonant (''pm, tl'' etc.), as well as for two identical plosives (''kk'' etc.): the release of the first plosive is always audible.

===Vowels===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! rowspan="2" | !! colspan="2" | front !! colspan="2" | back
|-
! unrounded !! rounded !! unrounded !! rounded
|-
! close
| i <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close front unrounded vowel|i]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ü <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close front rounded vowel|y]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || y <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close back unrounded vowel|ɯ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || u <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close back rounded vowel|u]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! open-mid
| e <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid front unrounded vowel|ɛ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ö <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid front rounded vowel|œ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || a <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid back unrounded vowel|ʌ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || o <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid back rounded vowel|ɔ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|}
Two consecutive different vowels are pronounced as a diphthong; two consecutive identical vowels as a long one. Single vowels are always short.

Lemizh uses [[w:Mora (linguistics)|moræ]] for structuring words: a short syllable equals one mora, and a long syllable equals two. In Lemizh, every vowel is the centre of a mora; consequently, two consecutive vowels result in two moræ or one long syllable.

===Accent===
Lemizh has got a two-way pitch-accent system, in that accented moræ are not only spoken louder, but also have either a lower or a higher pitch than the surrounding unaccented ones. The accented mora is always the ultimate or penultimate of a word. The vowel at the centre of a low-pitch accented mora is transcribed with a grave accent, the vowel at the centre of a high-pitch accented mora with an acute accent.
{| class="wikitable" style="width: 220px; table-layout: fixed; text-align: center"
! colspan="8" | Accented vowel letters
|-
| colspan="8" style="padding: 0" | [[File:Lemizh accented vowels.png|216px]]
|-
| à || è || ỳ || ì || ò || ö̀ || ù || ǜ
|-
| á || é || ý || í || ó || ö́ || ú || ǘ
|}

===Phonotactics===
[[w:Phonotactics|Phonotactics]] is rather permissive in Lemizh. A mora has the following structure, where the bracketed parts are optional:
* (O)(N)(L)V(L)(N)(O)
V is the mora's vowel, L a liquid, N a nasal, and O an obstruent that can be either a P(losive), a F(ricative), FP, PF, FF, FFP, FPF, or PFF. Word-initial consonant clusters cannot contain more than three sounds. No geminate consonants (<abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''ff'' etc.) occur within a mora. Consecutive plosive-fricative or fricative-plosive combinations within the same mora must have the same sonority – either both are voiced, or both are voiceless. A plosive cannot have the same place of articulation as a following consonant with the exception of ''rh'' and ''r''. <abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''tsh'', <abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''tth'' and their voiced counterparts are also prohibited within a mora.

Word boundaries, including those within compound words, are always mora boundaries. Where mora boundaries would still be ambiguous, liquids and nasals are assigned to the earliest possible mora (as the ''m'' in ''lem·ỳzh.''), and obstruents to the latest possible mora.

==Morphology==
All words are composed of the following parts:
* Prestem + inner case + poststem + outer case
Prestem and poststem form the stem, or the lexical part, of the word. The division of the stem into two portions is similar to English verbs such as ''sing/sang/sung'', where the lexical part is ''s–ng'' while the vowels ''i/a/u'' convey grammatical information. The stem always denotes an action (but never a state, a person, a thing, a property, etc.) and thus resembles our verbs. The prestem can contain any sounds, or it can be zero (i.e. consisting of zero sounds). The poststem can only contain fricatives and plosives, or it can be zero as well.

The inner case is represented by one of the eight vowels, optionally followed by a liquid (the primary case suffix) and/or a nasal (the secondary case suffix). The outer case has the same structure. For the first word in each sentence, the main predicate, the outer case is zero.

Each case is defined by its ''descriptor'': for example, the factive case denotes an ''action'', the nominative a ''sender'', the locative a ''place''. The stem and the inner case's descriptor determine a word's meaning.

'''Examples'''
* ''wàx. w–x'' is the stem for "speak", ''-a-'' denotes the inner factive, so this word means "an action of speaking", translated as the verb "to speak" or the [[w:Verbal noun|verbal noun]] "speaking".
* ''wèx. -e-'' denotes the inner nominative, so this word means "a sender of speaking" or "a speaker".
* ''àrdh. ∅–dh'' (having a zero prestem) is the stem for "eat", ''-ar-'' denotes the inner locative: "a place of eating".
The customary [[w:Lemma (morphology)|citation form]] of a word is the one with inner factive.

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Primary cases and their descriptors
|-
! rowspan="3" | № !! rowspan="3" | Case vowel !! colspan="4" | Primary case suffix
|-
| none || l || rh || r
|-
! Plot cases !! Causal cases !! Temporal cases !! Spatial cases
|-
| 1 || a || factive ({{sc|fact}}): ''action'' || affirmative ({{sc|aff}}): ''fact (point in causal chain)'' || temporal ({{sc|temp}}): ''time'' || locative ({{sc|loc}}): ''place/region''
|-
| 2 || e || nominative ({{sc|nom}}): ''source, sender'' || causative ({{sc|caus}}): ''direct cause'' || ingressive ({{sc|ing}}): ''starting time'' || elative ({{sc|ela}}): ''starting point/region''
|-
| 3 || y || accusative ({{sc|acc}}): ''content'' || contextual ({{sc|ctx}}): ''causal context'' || durative ({{sc|dur}}): ''duration'' || extensive ({{sc|ext}}): ''spatial extent''
|-
| 4 || i || dative ({{sc|dat}}): ''sink, recipient'' || consecutive ({{sc|cons}}): ''direct consequence, effect'' || egressive ({{sc|egr}}): ''closing time'' || illative ({{sc|ill}}): ''end point / ending region''
|-
| 5 || o || tentive ({{sc|ten}}): ''intention'' || intentive ({{sc|int}}): ''intention (intended point in causal chain)'' || episodic ({{sc|eps}}): ''episode, "act"'' || scenic ({{sc|sce}}): ''scene, "stage"''
|-
| 6 || ö || comitative ({{sc|com}}): ''company'' || persuasive ({{sc|psu}}): ''reason'' || digressive ({{sc|dig}}): ''time away from which'' || ablative ({{sc|abl}}): ''place/region away from which''
|-
| 7 || u || instrumental ({{sc|ins}}): ''means, tool'' || motivational ({{sc|mot}}): ''motivational context'' || progressive ({{sc|prog}}): ''time that is passed'' || prolative ({{sc|prol}}): ''crossing point/region''
|-
| 8 || ü || benefactive ({{sc|ben}}): ''beneficiary'' || final ({{sc|fin}}): ''purpose, aim'' || aggressive ({{sc|agg}}): ''time towards which, temporal aim'' || allative ({{sc|all}}): ''place/region towards which, spatial aim''
|}
Each primary case has two corresponding secondary cases:
* a partitive case formed by adding ''ng'' (such as ''-ing-'' for the partitive dative or ''-erng-'' for the partitive elative) with the descriptor ''the set from which the source (sink, place, etc.) is thought to be taken'': ''wèngx.'' is "the set from which the speaker is thought to be taken", i.e. "the speaker, among others".
* a qualitative case formed by adding ''m'', with the descriptor ''the basis of comparison for the source (sink, place, etc.)'': ''wèmx.'' informally translates as "someone like a speaker".

===The plot===
Every action denoted by a stem is considered a flow of information that comes from a source (sender), transports a content, and reaches a sink (a recipient). The terms "sender" and "recipient" may be more familiar, but "source" and "sink" are more accurate in not necessarily meaning living beings.

Consequently, a Lemizh action looks somewhat like this: '''nominative  accusative[[File:DreieckGreenMIDDLE.png|26px|link=]] dative'''

This is called the action's plot. Here are some examples:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative
|-
| ''wàx.'' "to speak, to talk, to tell; (an action of) speaking" || ''wèx.'' "one telling something" || ''wỳx.'' "a tale" || ''wìx.'' "one who is told something"
|-
| ''dà.'' "to give; (an action of) giving" || ''dè.'' "one giving something" || ''dỳ.'' "a gift" || ''dì.'' "one who is given something; one who gets something"
|-
| ''làzhw.'' "to help" || ''lèzhw.'' "one helping" || ''lỳzhw.'' "help (given)" || ''lìzhw.'' "one whom is helped"
|-
| ''mlàtx.'' "to melt" || ''mlètx.'' "one melting something" || [''mlỳtx.''] || ''mlìtx.'' "a melted thing"
|-
| ''xöàgh.'' "to produce a sound; to hear" || ''xöègh.'' "one producing a sound" || ''xöỳgh.'' "a sound" || ''xöìgh.'' "one hearing something"
|-
| ''àdh.'' "to feed; to eat" || ''èdh.'' "one feeding someone" || ''ỳdh.'' "food" || ''ìdh.'' "one being fed; one eating"
|-
| ''ià.'' "to love" || ''iè.'' "one loving someone, a lover" || ''iỳ.'' "a beloved" || ''iì.'' "a beloved"
|}
Importantly, there are no rules for which cases to use with which words. Both ''iỳ.'' ({{sc|acc}}) and ''iì.'' ({{sc|dat}}) mean "a beloved". The former describes the beloved as the content of love, the one being lovingly thought of, while the latter implies that the love reaches them, like words or gifts reach their recipient. Likewise, the reason why ''mlỳtx.'' is not translated in the table above isn't that "''melt'' does not take the accusative", as grammars of other languages would say, but that "a content of melting" does not seem to have any obvious meaning. If someone wanted to describe, say, sun rays as content transported from the sun to the snow to melt it, they could well use ''mlỳtx.'' to express the concept.

Case usage is governed solely by the cases' descriptors; it is up to the speaker how to use them given some word's meaning and some context. If the wind opens a door, is it the source of the action of opening (''ngèt.''), the means of opening (''ngùt.''), or the cause (''ngèlt.'')? All are grammatically correct; the speaker decides which possibility best expresses their intention.

===Nouns===
:''Nouns, adjectives and verbs do not correspond to any concepts in Lemizh grammar. Using these terms is just an attempt to describe the grammar from an Indo-European viewpoint.''
A large number of nouns are not derived from verbs in most languages: ''froth, ship, lion'' and many others. In Lemizh, however, we have verbs such as ''psràxk.'' "to froth", ''àksh.'' "to build a ship or ships", and ''làw.'' "to make a lion or lions". We will call these ''nominal verbs'', keeping in mind that this is a semantic and not a grammatical category.

Looking at the verb ''àksh.'', the shipwright ({{sc|nom}}) gives the building materials ({{sc|dat}}) the properties or the function of a ship ({{sc|acc}}). He confers, well, shipness on the materials. The shipness is sent by the shipwright, not because he is acting, but because he is the source: the image of the ship, so to say, comes from his head and materialises in wood, iron, ropes, and linen. In short, these words mostly appear with inner accusative.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative
|-
| ''psràxk.'' "to froth" || ''psrèxk.'' "one frothing something" || ''psrỳxk.'' "a thing having the properties of froth = '''froth'''" || ''psrìxk.'' "a frothed thing, a frothed liquid"
|-
| ''àksh.'' "to build a ship" || ''èksh.'' "one building a ship, a shipwright" || ''ỳksh.'' "a thing having the properties of a ship = '''a ship'''" || ''ìksh.'' "building materials for a ship, materials made into a ship"
|-
| ''làw.'' "to make a lion" || [''lèw.'' "one making a lion"] || ''lỳw.'' "a thing having the properties of a lion = '''a lion'''" || [''lìw.'' "building materials for a lion, materials made into a lion"]
|}

Nouns expressing job titles and the like mostly have inner nominatives because professions are often about producing or selling something, or about providing a kind of service:
* ''ghexè.'' "baker" from ''ghexà.'' "to bake",
* ''saxèf.'' "trumpeter" from ''saxàf.'' "to play the trumpet",
* ''bèst.'' "hero" from ''bàst.'' "to do heroic deeds, to act as a hero".

Another very common kind of nouns are tool nouns, formed with an inner instrumental case:
* ''ghstù.'' "a sail" is derived from ''ghstà.'' "to sail", literally "a means of sailing",
* ''pslù.'' "scissors" from ''pslà.'' "to cut with scissors",
* ''saxùf.'' "a trumpet", also from ''saxàf.'',
* ''skrùzh.'' "a finger" from ''skràzh.'' "to work with one's fingers".

====Inflection====
As mentioned above, all words inflect for (outer) case. Thus, we have the nominative forms ''wàx'''e''''' "(an action of) speaking, talking, telling", ''dè'''e''''' "a giver", ''lỳw'''e''''' "a lion", the causative ''lỳw'''el''''' "because of a lion", the elative ''lỳw'''er''''' "(starting) from a lion", etc.

Lemizh words do not inflect for number or gender. If desired, we can express this information by forming compounds. (Note the duplication of the inner case vowel; the first occurrence in each word is called the epenthetic case of the compound. The underlying grammar is described [[#Compounds|further down]].)
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Singular !! Dual !! Plural !! Feminine !! Masculine !! Feminine singular !! etc.
|-
! giver
| ''dè.'' || ''de'''rè'''.'' || ''de'''dwè'''.'' || ''de'''mlè'''.'' || ''de'''bè'''.'' || ''de'''èx'''.'' || ''de'''berè'''.''
|-
! lion
| ''lỳw.'' || ''lyw'''rỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''dwỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''mlỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''bỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''ỳx'''.'' || ''lyw'''byrỳ'''.''
|-
! compound with
| — || ''rỳ.'' "one" || ''dwỳ.'' "two" || ''mlỳ.'' "several" || ''bỳ.'' "female; woman" || ''ỳx.'' "male; man" || "female" and "one"
|}

===Adjectives and the like===
There is no difference between adjectival and nominal verbs: they mostly appear with inner accusative. This is the same situation as in, say, Latin, where ''albus'' can mean "a white one" as well as "white". Negators and numerals are sub-categories of adjectives.

The inner consecutive case translates certain abstract nouns.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative !! Inner consecutive
|-
| ''làbdh.'' "to whiten something, to make something white" || ''lèbdh.'' "one whitening something" || ''lỳbdh.'' "a white thing; '''white'''" || ''lìbdh.'' "a thing made white; whitened" || ''lìlbdh.'' "the consequence of whitening = whiteness"
|-
| ''gmrà.'' "to warm, to make something warm" || ''gmrè.'' "one warming something" || ''gmrỳ.'' "a warm thing; '''warm'''" || ''gmrì.'' "a warmed thing; warmed" || ''gmrìl.'' "the consequence of warming = warmth"
|-
| ''ngà.'' "to make something nonexistent" || ''ngè.'' "one making something nonexistent" || ''ngỳ.'' "(something) '''nonexistent'''" || ''ngì.'' "something made nonexistent, something destroyed" || ''ngìl.'' "the consequence of making nonexistent = nothingness"
|-
| ''dwà.'' "to make two individuals/things" || ''dwè.'' "one making two individuals" || ''dwỳ.'' "'''two''' (individuals)" || ''dwì.'' "something made into two (individuals)" || ''dwìl.'' "the consequence of making two individuals = twoness"
|}

However, emotions aren't viewed as properties in Lemizh: a happy or angry person is one sending happiness or anger, just as a loving person is one sending love. The inner causative plays a notable role with verbs of emotion.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative !! Inner causative
|-
| ''pthàb.'' "to be angry" || ''pthèb.'' "an angry one; '''angry'''" || ''pthỳb.'' "the content/object of one's anger; one ''about'' whom someone is angry" || ''pthìb.'' "one that one's anger reaches; one ''with'' whom someone is angry" || ''pthèlb.'' "one causing someone anger; one annoying someone"
|}

====Inflection====
Evidently, adjectives can be compounded to express number and/or gender in the same way as nouns. Furthermore, we can form compounds expressing various degrees. (The epenthetic consecutive ''-il-'' in these compounds will also be explained later; it is actually the main application of the abstract nouns just mentioned.)
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Diminutive !! Augmentative !! Absolute !! Comparative !! Superlative
|-
! white
| ''lỳbdh.'' || ''lilbdh'''zhrỳ'''.'' "whitish" || ''lilbdh'''dmỳ'''.'' "very white" || ''lilbdh'''ghngỳ'''.'' "purely white" || ''lilbdh'''tỳzhd'''.'' "whiter" || ''lilbdh'''ỳst'''.'' "whitest"
|-
! warm
| ''gmrỳ.'' || ''gmril'''zhrỳ'''.'' "cold" || ''gmril'''dmỳ'''.'' "hot" || ''gmril'''ghngỳ'''.'' "absolutely hot" || ''gmril'''tỳzhd'''.'' "warmer, hotter" || ''gmril'''ỳst'''.'' "hottest"
|-
! compound with
| — || ''zhrỳ.'' "few, little, a bit" || ''dmỳ.'' "much, many" || ''ghngỳ.'' "every, all, the whole" || ''tỳzhd.'' "more" || ''ỳst.'' "most"
|}
Further examples are ''gmril'''bdhỳ'''.'' "lukewarm" and ''lilbdh'''ngỳ'''.'' "black", the latter being a compound with the negator ''ngỳ''.

===Verbs===
Most verbs correspond to Lemizh words with an inner factive. However, as Lemizh stems always denote an action, the notable exception are stative verbs such as:
* ''zdìls.'' "to sit", literally "the consequence of sitting down (''zdàs.'')"
* ''gwìlt.'' "to know", literally "the consequence of learning (''gwàt.'')"

====Inflection====
* Person is not expressed with inflection but with [[#Relative pronouns|pronouns]].
* Number agreement does not exist in Lemizh. While verbs (i.e. words with an inner factive) can be compounded with numerals, ''ftrask'''mlà'''.'' does not mean "we/they sneeze" but "(there are) several acts of sneezing" (i.e. someone sneezes several times and/or several people sneeze).
* Voice (active/passive) is absent; word order serves a similar function.
* Tense is expressed by compounds with an epenthetic temporal case (''-arh-''), or with certain inner cases. The latter option is preferred if possible, as it is more concise.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Present !! Past !! Perfect !! Future !! Intentional
|-
! to sit down
| ''zdàs.'' || ''zdarhs'''wà'''.'' || ''zdarhs'''prilkà'''.'' || ''zd'''ìl'''s.'' ({{sc|cons}}) || ''zdarhs'''prà'''.'' || ''zd'''ò'''s.'' ({{sc|ten}})
|-
! compound with
| — || pronoun || ''prilkỳ.'' "back" || — || ''prỳ.'' "front" || —
|}
Note that the translation of the [[w:Perfect (grammar)|perfect]] with inner consecutive coincides with the translation of stative verbs: "having sat down" in the strict perfect sense of "the consequence/effect of this action exists" means the same as "to sit". Likewise, "whiteness" can be expressed as the abstract concept of "having whitened something".

* Mood corresponds to compounds with certain verbs. There is no equivalent to the subjunctive mood, as subordinate clauses are irreal (i.e. not necessarily real) by default per Rule Seven of sentence grammar (on which more [[#Seven|below]]). Here are some common formations:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Indicative !! Imperative !! Commanding imperative !! Interrogative Polite imperative !! Optative !! Negative
|-
! to feed, to eat
| ''àdh.'' || ''adh'''pràk'''.'' || ''adh'''dàxt'''.'' || ''adh'''pà'''.'' || ''adh'''làxt'''.'' || ''adh'''ngà'''.'' "don't eat"
|-
! compound with
| — || ''pràk.'' "to request" || ''dàxt.'' "to command" || ''pà.'' "to ask" || ''làxt.'' "to want" || ''ngà.'' "to make nonexistent"
|}
* Aspect is a diverse category, expressed by a variety of compounds and syntactic structures.

===Pronouns===
The two demonstrative pronouns are technically nominal verbs:
* ''tà.'' "to make this/that one", typically used with inner accusative: ''tỳ.'' "this/that (one)"
* ''gwà.'' "to make someone/anyone, something/anything", with inner accusative ''gwỳ.'' "someone/anyone, something/anything"

The eleven relative pronouns play a far more prominent role in Lemizh grammar. Their scope is much wider than the one usually associated with the term. As they are closely tied to Lemizh syntax, they are described [[#Relative pronouns|further down]].

==Syntax==
===Level of words===
There is only one more grammatical category: the level of words, which is the main building block of Lemizh syntax. A word can be of first level (the highest), of second level (the next highest), of third level (still one level lower) and so on; there is no limit for the number of levels, but non-positive word levels (zero, −1, etc.) are forbidden.

The first word in a sentence (the main predicate) is of first level by definition. The level of the next word is determined by the main predicate's accent and by the type of pause between the two words, the level of the third word is determined by the accent of the second and the pause between these two, and so on.

Here is the complete list of pause/accent combinations:

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="2" | Following pause !! rowspan="2" | Accented vowel !! rowspan="2" | Type of accent !! rowspan="2" | The level of the next word is …
|-
! in speech !! in writing
|-
| rowspan="4" | barely audible || rowspan="4" | space || rowspan="2" | inner case || low || lower by 1
|-
| high || lower by 1, and [[w:Agent (grammar)|agentive]]* ({{sc|a}})
|-
| rowspan="2" | outer case || low || equal
|-
| high || higher by 1
|-
| rowspan="4" | a bit longer || rowspan="4" | comma ('''·''') || rowspan="2" | inner case || low || higher by 2
|-
| high || higher by 3
|-
| rowspan="2" | outer case || low || higher by 4
|-
| high || higher by 5
|-
| the longest || full stop ('''∶''') || inner case || low || none; end of sentence
|}
<nowiki>*</nowiki> The agent is the initiator of the action (more informally, the one who ''does'' the action).

===The Rules===
[[File:Lemizh parse tree.png|thumb|upright=1.5|A schematic sentence with the words represented by their level numbers]]
The word levels determine the structure of a sentence.

'''Rule One of sentence grammar. A word of level n is subordinate to the nearest word of level n−1 in front of it; the parole acts as a word of level zero.'''

All words of second level are subordinate to the main predicate (which has first level). A word of third level is subordinate to the next second-level word in front of it, and so on. In other words, Lemizh sentences are strictly [[w:Head directionality|head-first]]. The main predicate itself is subordinate to the [[w:Parole (linguistics)|parole]], the action of speaking (or writing) the sentence in question, which consequently has level zero.

'''Rule Two. An object of a word in a sentence is a word subordinate to the former, its predicate, plus all of its own objects.'''

In the diagram, the main predicate's three objects are enclosed in ellipses. Objects of the same word are called ''sibling objects'' or just ''siblings'', and the word they are subordinate to is their ''predicate''. Note that ''predicate'' and ''object'' are relative terms like ''parent'' and ''child''.

The table of level markers implies that only the first object of a predicate can be marked as agent. So Lemizh can be said to have VSO word order, or more correctly VAO (verb–agent–object).

'''Rule Three. The outer case of the first word of an object defines its relation to its predicate's stem via its descriptor; the outer case of a level 1 word is zero.'''

This is what we would expect from a language that inflects for case: the nominative object defines the source (sender) of the action named by the stem of its predicate, the accusative object its content, the temporal object its time, etc.

'''Examples'''
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dá föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|give-FACT-1 {Father Christmas}-ACC-'''NOM'''-2A bottle-ACC-'''ACC'''-2 Lucy-ACC-'''DAT'''-2.
|''Father Christmas gives Lucy a bottle.''}}

The stems of the three objects are nominal verbs ("to make a bottle" etc.), hence the inner accusatives. The outer cases indicate the sender, content and recipient of the action of giving, respectively. The agent is specified independently of the plot arrow; note the difference:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dá lusyì dwywỳ föpysrỳfe.
|give-FACT-1 Lucy-ACC-'''DAT'''-2A bottle-ACC-'''ACC'''-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-'''NOM'''-2.
|''Lucy takes a bottle from Father Christmas.''}}

We need not mark an object as agentive if we do not consider this information important. The English translations are only rough approximations:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dà lusyì dwywỳ föpysrỳfe.
|give-FACT-1 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2 bottle-ACC-ACC-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2.
|''Lucy gets a bottle from Father Christmas. Lucy is given a bottle by Father Christmas.''}}

Rule Three defines outer case in a way that mirrors the definition of inner case. This allows for an operation called '''inversion''' (symbolized "⇔"):
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|làzhw wèxi. ⇔ wáx lìzhwe.
|help-FACT-1 speak-'''NOM'''-'''DAT'''-2. ⇔ speak-FACT-1 help-'''DAT'''-'''NOM'''-2A.
|''[Someone] helps the speaker. ⇔ The one being helped speaks.''}}

Both sentences claim that the sender of speaking is the recipient of helping. The equation is ''wèx.'' = ''lìzhw.'', the speaker = the one being helped.

'''Rule Four. An instance of a word stem designates a specific action.'''

''dà'' in the above sentence does not just mean "to give", it refers to one specific action of giving. Such an action may involve several givers (as in "They give something") and need not even be temporally or spatially contiguous (as in "They are giving something every Christmas"). In other words, each spoken or written instance of the stem ''d–'' refers to a certain subset of all the giving there is.

This rule ensures that all the objects refer to the same action of giving as the predicate itself.

'''Rule Five. A case characterises the action it refers to completely with regard to its case descriptor.'''

For example, the nominative object "Father Christmas" has to name the complete sender of the above instance of giving. This excludes from this instance all giving not done by Father Christmas. So each object places a restriction on the action of giving the main predicate refers to. Thus, the subset of giving meant by this instance of ''dà.'' – what the sentence is ultimately talking about – is defined more and more precisely with each additional object. (This is true not only of the main predicate but of all words in a sentence. Also, as inner and outer cases can be interconverted via inversion, this rule applies to inner cases as well.)

'''Rule Six. A missing object is equivalent to the absence of information about its descriptor.'''

Above sentences do not have, for example, locative objects, so Rule Five cannot place a restriction on the place of giving. Because of Rule Six, this does not mean there are no restrictions on the location, but only that this kind of information has not been included in the sentence (for example, because the speaker does not know about it, considers it irrelevant, assumes that the listener already knows or – perhaps most importantly – that the listener can infer it). In fact, everything not useful for understanding a sentence should be omitted to save the listener processing effort. (See the inversion example above, which omits the nominative "someone".)

Rules Five and Six imply that every instance of a word has exactly one action (which, however, need not be contiguous), one sender (which may consist of several people), and so on: Five excludes additional senders if one nominative object is already present, and Six gives meaning to missing objects, establishing them as an integral part of Lemizh sentence grammar.

{{anchor|Seven}}'''Rule Seven. Given an object and its predicate, the predicate is considered more real and the object more hypothetical.'''
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive; 3:third level
|láxt föpysryfè dày dwywỳ lusỳi.
|want-FACT-1 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2A give-FACT-ACC-2 bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3.
|''Father Christmas wants to give Lucy a bottle.'' (The action of giving is the content of the wish. The nominative object of "give", which is also Father Christmas, is omitted per Rule Six.)}}

This sentence contains the information that Father Christmas wants something (i.e. to give Lucy a bottle), but not that he actually gives something (i.e. Lucy a bottle). The main predicate "want", so to speak, lives in the world the sentence is talking about (more formally, the world of the parole), which is the more real, while its object "give Lucy a bottle" lives in the world of his wish, which is the more hypothetical. The parole, having level zero, acts as the predicate to the sentence as a whole and is therefore still more real. This reflects the fact that the parole is part of the real world; it is as real as anything linguistic can be. Turning this around, we see that the sentence is more hypothetical than reality: it can be a metaphor or some other figure of speech, a statement about a fictional or otherwise imagined world, an error, a lie, a linguistic example sentence, etc. We call the main predicate's kind of reality, the one that is just one level more hypothetical than the parole and the real world, ''grammatical reality''.

The bottle and Lucy, having third level, are still more hypothetical than the action of giving; their existence does not follow from grammar but from logic and context: someone nonexistent cannot be given something. A better example would be "I see white mice", where the existence of the mice may or may not be inferred from context such as the amount of alcohol I have drunk.

In the sentence "I think that Father Christmas wants to give Lucy a bottle", "to think" is grammatically real, while the other two verbs, so to say, are pushed down one degree of reality.

Inversion changes degrees of reality; only the second of the following sentences contains the information that he actually gives something:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|làxt dày. ⇔ dà lỳxta.
|want-FACT-1 give-'''FACT'''-'''ACC'''-2. ⇔ give-FACT-1 want-'''ACC'''-'''FACT'''-2.
|''[He] wants to give. ⇔ [He] gives "wantingly", i.e. gladly.''}}

There is no real difference between phrases and complete sentences in Lemizh:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! as an object (hypothetical) !! as a main predicate / complete sentence (grammatically real)
|-
| ''dà.'' || to give; giving || An action of giving exists = Someone gives something.
|-
| ''zdìls.'' || the consequence of sitting down = to sit; sitting || The consequence of sitting down exists = Someone sits.
|-
| ''dwìlw.'' || the consequence of making a bottle || The consequence of making a bottle exists = A bottle exists; there is a bottle.
|-
| ''sklè.'' || one building a bridge || One building a bridge exists = There is someone building a bridge.
|}

===Noun phrases===
Forming noun phrases does not require any new grammatical rules. Taking the first example sentence from above and changing the inner case of "give" to the nominative yields "one giving something, a giver". The objects are still sender, content and recipient of the ''action'' of giving, as outer cases define relations to the predicate's ''stem'' per Rule Three:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dé föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|give-'''NOM'''-1 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2A bottle-ACC-ACC-2 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2.
|''[There is] one giving Lucy a bottle, Father Christmas.''}}

Rules Four and Five guarantee that the giver is identical to Father Christmas: both are the sender of the same instance of the stem ''d–'' "give" (the giver via its inner nominative, Father Christmas via its outer nominative), and both are the ''complete'' sender of this action. This type of construction, where an object's outer case matches its predicate's inner case, is called a '''bracket'''. The identity of predicate and object means that the object is as real as its predicate in the sense of Rule Seven. We say that a bracket confers reality on its object.

Brackets are used extensively:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Apposition !! Attributive adjective !! Attributive pronoun/determiner !! Attributive numeral !! Attributive participle
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|iakopỳk saxèfy.
|Jacopo-'''ACC'''-1 trumpet-NOM-'''ACC'''-2.
|''Jacopo, a trumpeter''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=INS:instrumental case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|ghstù lỳbdhu.
|sail-'''INS'''-1 white-ACC-'''INS'''-2.
|''a sail, a white thing = a white sail''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|ỳksh gwỳy.
|ship-'''ACC'''-1 some-ACC-'''ACC'''-2.
|''a ship, something = some ship''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|mỳs trỳy.
|mouse-'''ACC'''-1 three-ACC-'''ACC'''-2.
|''mice, three individuals = three mice''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|nỳzd gangèy.
|bird-'''ACC'''-1 sing-NOM-'''ACC'''-2.
|''a bird, a singer = a singing bird''}}
|}
Such phrases can be easily extended. This example contains two accusative brackets ("a singing bird" and "a sad child"):
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 4:fourth level
|ngỳzd gangèy zhngỳi speghý ytfỳarh.
|bird-ACC-1 sing-NOM-ACC-2 child-ACC-DAT-3 sad-NOM-ACC-4 night-ACC-TEMP-3.
|''a bird singing to a sad child at night''}}

Adverbially used adjectives are phrased with factive brackets:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|gangà txỳska.
|sing-'''FACT'''-1 loud-ACC-'''FACT'''-2.
|''(an action of) singing, a loud thing = loud singing = singing loudly, to sing loudly'' (Compare "to give gladly" above, under Rule Seven.)}}

However, changing the predicate's inner case leaves the object's outer factive intact, losing the bracket:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|gangè txỳska.
|sing-'''NOM'''-1 loud-ACC-FACT-2.
|''a loud singer = someone singing loudly'' (The action of singing is a loud thing.)}}

As '''[[w:Genitive construction|genitive constructions]]''' have a wide variety of meanings, there is no single Lemizh equivalent. The typical translation for constructions indicating possession is with the benefactive case, but other cases frequently occur. Everything depends on the object's relation to the predicate's stem per Rule Three:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|dwỳw lusỳü.
|bottle-ACC-1 Lucy-ACC-'''BEN'''-2.
|''Lucy's bottle'' (Lucy is the beneficiary of making the bottle.)}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dý ỳxe.
|give-ACC-1 male-ACC-'''NOM'''-2A.
|''the man's gift'' (The man is the sender of giving.)}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|rhỳst ytfỳarh filpskỳy.
|dream-ACC-1 night-ACC-'''TEMP'''-2 midsummer-ACC-ACC-3.
|''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' (The midsummer night is the time of dreaming.)}}

Phrases with the conjunction '''"and"''' translate to several objects in the same outer case with inner partitives. Thanks to Rule Five, the recipient of "to give" in this sentence literally is "the set from which Peter is thought to be taken, which is equal to the set from which Susan is thought to be taken, which is equal to the set from which Lucy is thought to be taken":
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=PARTACC:partitive accusative case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dá föpysryfè petyngsì susngyngì lusỳngi.
|give-FACT-1 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2A Peter-PARTACC-DAT-2 Susan-PARTACC-DAT-2 Lucy-PARTACC-DAT-2.
|''Father Christmas gives [something] to Peter, Susan and Lucy.''}}

===Dependent clauses===
We have already discussed the infinitive clause in "Father Christmas wants '''to give Lucy a bottle'''" under Rule Seven.

The difference between English gerund clauses and that-clauses roughly translates into a difference between an inner factive (''action'') and an inner affirmative (''fact''):
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 3A:third level, agentive
|dmàt tryxkì dáe föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|see-FACT-1 beaver-ACC-DAT-2 give-'''FACT'''-NOM-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-3A bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3.
|''The beaver sees [the action of] Father Christmas giving Lucy a bottle.'' (The beaver is at the receiving end of the optical stimulus or information, hence the dative. The dependent clause could also be in the accusative to focus on the optical information transmitted to the beaver.)}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; AFF:affirmative case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 3A:third level, agentive
|dmàt tryxkì dále föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|see-FACT-1 beaver-ACC-DAT-2 give-'''AFF'''-NOM-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-3A bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3.
|''The beaver sees [the fact of] Father Christmas giving Lucy a bottle. The beaver sees '''that''' Father Christmas gives Lucy a bottle.''}}

Some examples of dependent clauses translating into objects in various cases:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|fngà kshngày.
|try-FACT-1 shout-FACT-'''ACC'''-2.
|''[She] tried to shout [but this was difficult because of her sore throat].''}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|fngà kshngàu.
|try-FACT-1 shout-FACT-'''INS'''-2.
|''[She] tried shouting [as he hadn't heard her when she had spoken quietly].'' (Shouting is the means of trying.)}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PSU:persuasive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 4:fourth level
|pàf làxtöl dmàty föpysrỳfe.
|stand-FACT-1 want-FACT-'''PSU'''-2 see-FACT-ACC-3 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-4.
|''[He] stood up because [he] wanted to see Father Christmas.''}}

'''[[w:Relative clause|Relative clauses]]''' are structurally identical to attributive participles as described above; they are brackets: ''a bird which sings to a sad child at night = a bird singing to a sad child at night''. This is also true of clauses with relative adverbs:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level; 3A:third level, agentive
|ngỳw gangáry lỳbe.
|valley-'''ACC'''-1 sing-LOC-'''ACC'''-2 flower-ACC-NOM-3A.
|''a valley, a place of the singing of flowers = a valley where flowers sing''}}

Adverbially used relative clauses, unsurprisingly, are factive brackets:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive; 3:third level
|shrá wygwè rashkỳa bỳe.
|yelp-'''FACT'''-1 dog-ACC-NOM-2A dislike-ACC-'''FACT'''-2 female-ACC-NOM-3.
|''The dog is yelping, which the girl doesn't like.''}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PSU:persuasive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive; 3A:third level, agentive
|shrá wygwè ö́ldha bỳe.
|yelp-'''FACT'''-1 dog-ACC-NOM-2A eat-PSU-'''FACT'''-2 female-ACC-NOM-3A.
|''The dog is yelping, wherefore the girl feeds it.''}}

===Predicative===
[[w:Predicative expression|Predicatives]], like all sentences, follow the plot arrow:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|ghát zhngyè bestỳ lusỳi.
|name-FACT-1 child-ACC-'''NOM'''-2A hero-NOM-'''ACC'''-2 Lucy-ACC-'''DAT'''-2.
|''The children called Lucy a hero.'' (The children gave the designation of hero to Lucy.)}}

Predicatives with the verb "to make" typically correspond to Lemizh sentences with a nominal or adjectival verb as the main predicate. This can be interpreted as the accusative object – here "ill" – being absorbed ("swallowed") by the main predicate:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|mà ydhè gwilbkyỳ wỳgwi. → gwilbkà ydhè wỳgwi.
|make-FACT-1 eat-ACC-'''NOM'''-2 ill-ACC-'''ACC'''-2 dog-ACC-'''DAT'''-2. → ill-FACT-1 eat-ACC-NOM-2 dog-ACC-DAT-2.
|''The food made the dog ill.'' (The food gave the property of being ill to the dog.)}}

The verb "to be" translates as the corresponding perfect form, i.e. with inner consecutive of the main predicate:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=CONS:consecutive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|lìlbdh lỳghi.
|white-'''CONS'''-1 house-ACC-DAT-2.
|''The house is [painted] white.'' (The house has been given the property of being white. The house has been whitened.)}}

The above are called resultative predicatives, describing the result of some property being conferred on someone or something. A depictive predicative describes an inherent property; this is achieved with an accusative object:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=CONS:consecutive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|drulìl werhèy.
|shrub-CONS-1 hazel-NOM-'''ACC'''-2.
|''The hazel is a shrub.'' (The hazel has the properties of a shrub.)}}
(Side note: The stem of ''werhè.'' "hazel" means "to make hazelnuts", hence the inner nominative. The nuts are called ''werhỳ.'', with inner accusative. Other plants bearing edible fruits follow the same pattern.)

===Relative pronouns===
Stems of relative pronouns (not to be confused with the pronouns of the same name in English or Latin) refer to actions by pointing to another stem or to a parole: they are [[w:Anaphora (linguistics)|anaphoric]]. Here is the full list:
{| class="wikitable"
! rowspan="2" | Level !! colspan="2" | Type I !! colspan="2" | Type II
|-
! Verb !! The target is the stem of !! Verb !! The target is the stem of
|-
| n || colspan="2" | (does not occur because it would refer to itself) || à. || its preceding same-level word
|-
| n−1 || wà. || its predicate || fà. || its predicate's preceding same-level word or parole
|-
| n−2 || dhà. || its predicate's predicate || thà. || its predicate's predicate's preceding same-level word or parole
|-
| n−3 || zà. || its predicate's predicate's predicate || sà. || …
|-
| n−4 || zhà. || … || shà. || …
|-
| n−5 || ghà. || … || xà. || …
|}
They are highly versatile, corresponding to various structures in other languages. Recall that a sentence's parole has level zero:
{| class="wikitable"
! Reflexive !! First person (singular) !! Second person
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|wáx wìe.
|speak-FACT-1 PIn−1-'''DAT'''-'''NOM'''-2A.
|''to talk to oneself. [He] is talking to himself.'' (The recipient of speaking is its sender.)}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dráw dhèe.
|dance-FACT-1 PIn−2-'''NOM'''-NOM-2A.
|''I am dancing.'' (The sender of the parole is the sender of dancing.)}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dráw dhìe.
|dance-FACT-1 PIn−2-'''DAT'''-NOM-2A.
|''You are dancing.'' (The recipient of the parole is the sender of dancing.)}}
|}
Rule Four of sentence grammar ensures that the reflexive example means "He is talking to himself" as opposed to, say, "He is talking to one being talked to" (which would be ''wáx wìxe.'' speak-{{sc|fact}}-1 speak-{{sc|dat-nom}}-2{{sc|a}}, with two different instances of the stem "speak").

{| class="wikitable"
! Possessive (≙ genitive) determiner !! Vocative
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=CONS:consecutive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|zdìls ngỳzdy zeú tỳar.
|seat-CONS-1 bird-ACC-ACC-2 PIn−3-'''NOM'''-BEN-3 this-ACC-LOC-2.
|''My bird is sitting there.'' (The sender of the parole is the beneficiary of making a bird.)}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=PI:pronoun type I; FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive; 3:third level
|wáx dheè zdhèzhi zìe.
|speak-FACT-1 PIn−2-NOM-NOM-2A friend-NOM-DAT-2 PIn−3-'''DAT'''-NOM-3.
|''Friend, I am talking to you.'' (The recipient of the parole is the friend: nominative bracket.)}}
|}

The type II pronoun in the following example points to the stem of eating. With the inner accusative, the pronoun refers to the content of eating, which is the sweet. (As with brackets, Rules Four and Five guarantee that the pronoun refers to the same content of the same action of eating as mentioned in the first sentence.)
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; PII:pronoun type II; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|ádh dheì mlỳdhy. ràsh fỳy.
|eat-FACT-1 PIn−2-NOM-DAT-2A sweet-ACC-ACC-2. like-FACT-1 PIIn−1-'''ACC'''-ACC-2.
|''I am eating a sweet. [I] like it.''}}

==Derivational morphology==
From a Lemizh point of view, ''dè.'' "giver" and ''dỳ.'' "gift" aren't derivatives of ''dà.'' "to give" but grammatical forms of the same word. The only piece of true derivational morphology is compounding.

===Compounds===
[[File:Lemizh compounding diagram.png|thumb|Forming a compound from a two-word sentence]]
'''Rule One of compounding. A compound word is constructed from a two-word sentence – predicate and object of which become modifier and head of the compound, respectively – in the following way:'''
# '''Prestem''':
## the object's prestem
## the object's inner case
## the object's poststem
## an optional separator
## the predicate's prestem
# '''Inner case'''
# '''Poststem''': the predicate's poststem
# '''Outer case'''
Note that the object's stem comes before the predicate's; and also that the object's outer case (and, less importantly, the predicate's inner case) is lost. The object's inner case becomes part of the compound's prestem and is then called its ''epenthetic case''. The separator can be used, for example, if the word boundary would be unclear otherwise, or for placing the second part of the word on a new line.

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|làxt àdhy. ⇒ adhlàxt.
|want-FACT-1 eat-FACT-ACC-2. ⇒ eat-FACT-want-FACT-1.
|''[She] wants to eat.'' (See the inflection of [[#Verbs|verbs]]; the other moods follow the same pattern.)}}
Here the accusative ending is lost and has to be deduced from context.

'''Rule Two. In the relationship between the original predicate and object, the rules of sentence grammar are retained as far as applicable.'''

The consequences of this rule are somewhat technical; but the last one, pertaining to degree of reality, is important for correctly interpreting compounds.
* Rules One to Three of sentence grammar are not applicable to compounds, as can be easily seen.
* Four: Both modifier and head are instantiations of specific actions in the original sentence (which however do not necessarily match the instantiation of the compound).
* Five: The epenthetic case characterises the head completely with regard to its descriptor.
* Six: The only overt object of the modifier is the head. All other objects are missing and thus indicate the absence of information about their descriptors.
* Seven: The modifier has a higher degree of reality than the head. Therefore, the above compound does not claim that she actually eats.

'''Rule Three. Regarding all outward relations, cases''' (i.e. the compound's inner case [not to be confused with its epenthetic case], the outer cases of its objects, and cases of pronouns referring to it) '''refer to the head.'''
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|adhkmàr mlỳdhy.
|eat-FACT-allow-LOC-1 sweet-ACC-ACC-2.
|''a place where one may eat sweets; a place for eating sweets''}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|ngengadàxt fỳta.
|run-FACT-must-FACT-1 fast-ACC-FACT-1
|''[He] has to run fast.''}}

These examples talk about the location of eating, as opposed to the location of allowing; about eating sweets, as opposed to allowing sweets; the running is fast, as opposed to the necessity; etc.

Number and gender of [[#Nouns|nouns]] are compounds from brackets which are first inverted to turn the more salient word into the compound's head: ''dè mlỳe. ⇔ mlỳ dèy.'' "several givers" ⇒ ''demlè.'' "givers". The inner nominative (''-e-'') becomes the epenthetic case, and the new inner case also has to be a nominative per Rule Three. ''demlỳ.'' (inner {{sc|acc}}), by contrast, is "something given by several people".

Compounds expressing degrees of [[#Adjectives and the like|adjectives]] are also formed from brackets. They have an epenthetic consecutive (''-il-''), which stems from the corresponding abstract noun: ''gmrìl dmỳil. ⇔ dmỳ gmrìly.'' "much warmth" ⇒ ''gmrildmìl.'' "heat" (abstract noun formed with inner {{sc|cons}}), ''gmrildmỳ.'' "hot" (adjective with inner {{sc|acc}}). Degrees of comparison are often combined with qualitative or partitive outer cases and with [[#Predicative|predicatives]]:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=CONS:consecutive case; QUALACC:qualitative accusative case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|prilghtìlzhd lyghỳ bỳghym.
|beautiful-CONS-more-CONS-1 house-ACC-ACC-2 garden-ACC-QUALACC-2.
|''The house is more beautiful than the garden.'' (The garden is the basis of comparison for the house.)}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=CONS:consecutive case; PARTACC:partitive accusative case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|prilghìlst lỳghy ziǘ ghngỳyng.
|beautiful-CONS-most-CONS-1 house-ACC-ACC-2 PIn−3-DAT-BEN-3 all-ACC-PARTACC-2.
|''Your house is the most beautiful of all [houses].'' (''All houses'' form the set from which your house is thought to be taken.)}}

The analogues of the present and future tenses are formed like so – note that inversion changes the pronoun's stem along with its level:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2:second level
|zdàs dhàarh. ⇔ wà zdàrhsa. ⇒ zdarhswà.
|seat-FACT-1 PIn−2-FACT-TEMP-2. ⇔ PIn−1-FACT-1 seat-TEMP-FACT-2. ⇒ seat-TEMP-PIn−1-FACT-1.
|''[She] sits down at the time of the parole. ⇒ [She] sits down now.''}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|zdàs prỳarh. ⇔ prỳ zdàrhsy. ⇒ zdarhsprà.
|seat-FACT-1 front-ACC-TEMP-2. ⇔ front-ACC-1 seat-TEMP-ACC-2. ⇒ seat-TEMP-front-FACT-1.
|''[She] sits down at a time in front [of the parole]. ⇒ [She] will sit down.''}}

==Example text==
[[File:Lemizh text sample.png|600px]]

===stedrỳzh thìrhfi xtrỳghy.===
krỳgh dghngireì prilxpilghkỳarh. mangỳ srungbỳng lyngghỳng yngshwỳng fỳü. zhöazhghngìl tmỳil. ghngàgzh smìa prỳal ghngyé dhàbdhy lunguỳ ùyl mỳu fplyxár tỳarh. dmát feì sxngengzè ishkènge. ghìlt krighmyngthxì xtrỳngghi swyshỳ ghỳxy fplyxòr zhöyzhỳm xngàrorm. dmìlt öngkrỳngty zhryỳ rèshy esfàsy sxngyzdmýi, usrỳngy xazhgèsty ghngỳeng, frekrỳngfy rilghdzhỳwby pthèby, dgheipysrỳngdy psrèby rhèzhem, dghistngỳngty ghỳxy zangỳa dghildhfmlýyrh, ngiftngyghtmỳngy krültlìy zùe gỳghda. xtrỳgh swyshý stedrỳzh thìrfi. dngilszhrìl bdhyrgzhyngỳng xüxtrỳngyng prilkỳarh ötìlil skmyngìlng ghỳngsilng. dngilszhìlwb ráxpy thìlfi. fö̀l gwiltngìlöl dmàty föpysryfỳ ngỳu.

rỳ zhryỳrh thìzgy gwiltngìly rhàghgy dmatngìe thìrfy. là xángska matngiè ytfỳyrh dmyý fplyxór dyxtngyngà mànga prilzhryngỳr iltỳngzhdyr. dmàt ytfỳarh ryý mìlngorh xngyì prilkyár mìlngorh xtrỳngghi kshrextý mengthxì prỳar zìe, fplỳngxe fywýr déngske xtryghè sxngezì xngỳnge.

===The Legend of the Seventh Planet===
A long time ago there was a tribe of nomads. They possessed neither writing nor houses nor horses. But they were truly human. They were curious; this means, above all, that they took interest in the useless, for the celestial objects were of no use to them yet. They looked at the Sun and the Moon. They had named the constellations and the six planets moving across the sky like the humans across the earth. They knew dim Mercury, who liked to hide in the glare of the Sun; Venus, the brightest of all; reddish and angry Mars; majestic father Jupiter; Saturn, who seemed to stand still for weeks; and even Uranus had been caught by their keen eyes. Six planets, and the legend of a seventh. Maybe it had been the minor planet Vesta, or a comet centuries or millennia earlier. Maybe it was the attraction of the number seven. For Neptune is invisible to the naked eye.

One youngster thought to himself that he could not live without seeing the seventh planet. He lay awake searching the sky for many nights, neglected his duties, and became thinner and thinner. And one night, lying with the Earth behind his back, and with the looping planets and the stars above him, he saw the depth of the sky and the planets circling the Sun, and among them the Earth.

==See also==
* [[Literature:The Tower of Babel#Lemizh|The Tower of Babel § Lemizh]] (with interlinear glossing)

==External links==
* [https://lemizh.conlang.org Lemizh homepage] with comprehensive coverage of the language, including a dictionary with etymologies, information on the language's pragmatics, and more background information
[[File:Copyleft1.png|20px]] ''This article is available under a [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License]. It includes material from the Lemizh homepage, which has the same license.''


[[Category:Languages]]
[[Category:Conlangs]]
[[Category:Indo-European languages]]
[[Category:Agglutinative languages]]

Lemizh

2022-05-30T13:01:23Z

Anypodetos: Negation; copyedit

{{Infobox language
|image =
|imagesize =
|name = Lemizh
|nativename = lemỳzh.
|pronunciation = lɛmˈɯ̀ʒ
|state = Lemaria
|setting = Alternate history Europe
|created = 1985
|familycolor = Indo-European
|fam2 = Lemizh branch
|ancestor = Proto-Lemizh
|posteriori =
* [[w:Proto-Indo-European language|PIE]]
* [[w:Occam's razor|Occam's razor]]
|creator = [[User:Anypodetos|Anypodetos]]
|scripts = Lemizh alphabet
|nation = Lemaria
|map = Map of Lemaria.png
|mapalt = The country of Lemaria lies to the north and west of the Black Sea. The capital, Shabar, is located at the Dniester Liman or Estuary.
|notice = IPA
}}
'''Lemizh''' ([[Help:IPA|[lεmˈiʒ]]], native pronunciation: [[Help:IPA|[lɛmˈɯ̀ʒ]]]) is a language I invented with the aim of creating a grammar as regular and simple as possible. It was originally intended as an [[w:International auxiliary language|international auxiliary language]]. However, it turned out that a simple grammar is not necessarily a grammar that is easy to learn: the more ways of simplification I found, the further away it moved from [[w:Indo-European languages|Indo-European]] and probably all other familiar language structures. Expecting anyone to learn Lemizh, at this point, would be unrealistic.

So I needed a new justification for the language: enter the Lemizh, a people living to the west and north of the [[w:Black Sea|Black Sea]] in an alternate history that slowly drifted away from ours between two and eight millennia ago. Of course, it is extremely unlikely that they would speak a language that was completely without exceptions. To be precise, the chances for this to have happened are two to the power of two hundred and seventy-six thousand seven hundred and nine to one against. But they say that everything has to happen somewhere in the Multiverse; and everything happens only once.

{{TOC limit}}

==History==
===Early stages===
Lemizh is an Indo-European language and, together with Volgan, constitutes one of the ten recognised branches of the Indo-European language family. This branch is also called Lemizh, to the disgruntlement of Volgan linguists.

Proto-Lemizh, the ancestor of Lemizh and Volgan, is very poorly attested in form of some papyri found near the northwestern shore of the Black Sea, to the north of the [[w:Dniester Liman|Dniester Liman]], dated about 2700 BCE. Old Lemizh, by contrast, is fairly well attested. It had predominantly [[w:Subject–verb–object|subject–verb–object]] (SVO) word order and was a quite typical old Indo-European language, but with a couple of interesting quirks:
* Adjectives were lost as a separate part of speech, being replaced with participles ("white" > "being white").
* Finite subordinate clauses had their subject in the case of the clause: the subject of a local clause was in the locative case without having a local meaning in itself.
The earliest known documents from this stage of Lemizh were probably written around 2100 BCE along the northern and western shores of the Back Sea.

===Ghean and Middle Lemizh===
Ghean ([[Help:IPA|[ˈɣɛən]]]) is a language with no known genetic relationships. It was spoken by a people of unknown origin, who subdued the Lemizh tribes in around 1000 BCE and ruled for infamous three generations. Ghean was an inflected [[w:Tonal language|register tonal]] language with strict [[w:Verb–subject–object|verb–subject–object]] (VSO) word order and head-first phrases. It had verbs, [[w:Nominal (linguistics)|nominals]] (a combined noun/adjective/participle part of speech), pronouns and particles.

The Gheans discouraged the use of the natives' language, but obviously tolerated Lemizh words (or rather word stems) to stand in for unfamiliar Ghean ones. The grammar of simple sentences was easy enough to learn for the Lemizh, as they were used to inflection and head-first phrases, and likely still knew VSO sentences from poetry. After two or three generations, the natives must have spoken a [[w:Creole language|creole]] with a more or less Ghean grammar but an abundance of Lemizh words, especially outside the core vocabulary. This is a rather unusual development as most creoles draw their lexicon mainly from the dominant group, and tend to be grammatically more innovative. (The Tanzanian language [[w:Mbugu language|Mbugu]] might have had a somewhat similar development with more or less analogous outcomes.) After the disappearance of the Gheans, Lemizh patriots tried to revive their old language, which failed spectacularly for the grammar but reintroduced many Lemizh words of the core vocabulary.

===The last three millennia===
While Middle Lemizh as spoken after the Ghean occupation already had a non-Indo-European and unusually regular grammar, this trend was to continue over the following millennia. The factive case was innovated to express verbal nouns, which eventually supplanted verbs altogether. (At least part of the blame goes to the Tlöngö̀l, an epic novel published in 1351 CE, which popularised the use of verbal nouns.) The tonal system was simplified to the present two-way [[w:Pitch-accent language|pitch-accent]] system. Pronouns lost their status as a separate part of speech. The last particles died out a few hundred years ago, leaving the language with a single part of speech which is often called a "verb" but, historically speaking, is really a nominal. This means that the concept of ''parts of speech'' does not make sense in Modern Lemizh.

This article describes the dialect spoken to the north of the [[w:Danube Delta|Danube Delta]], which prevailed against other variants and is considered the standard language today.

==Orthography and phonology==
The alphabet is [[w:Phonetic orthography|phonetic]]: each letter corresponds to a certain sound, and each sound is represented by a single letter. The direction of writing is left to right. This article uses the standard transcription of the native Lemizh alphabet:
{| class="wikitable" style="width: 800px; table-layout: fixed; text-align: center"
! colspan="29" | Letters of the Lemizh alphabet
|-
| colspan="29" style="padding: 0" | [[File:Lemizh alphabet.png|796px]]
|-
| a || e || y || i || o || ö || u || ü || l || rh || r || ng || m || g || d || b || k || t || p || gh || zh || z || dh || w || x || sh || s || th || f
|}

===Consonants===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="2" | !! bilabial !! dental !! alveolar !! postalveolar !! velar
|-
! colspan="2" | nasals
| m <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial nasal|m]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || || || ng <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar nasal|ŋ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! colspan="2" | plosives (voiceless • voiced)
| p <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless bilabial plosive|p]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • b <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial plosive|b]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || t <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless alveolar plosive|t]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • d <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar plosive|d]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || k <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless velar plosive|k]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • g <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar plosive|ɡ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! colspan="2" | fricatives (voiceless • voiced)
| f <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless bilabial fricative|ɸ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • w <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial fricative|β]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || th <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless dental fricative|θ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • dh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced dental fricative|ð]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || s <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless alveolar sibilant|s]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • z <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar sibilant|z]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || sh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless palato-alveolar fricative|ʃ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • zh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced palato-alveolar fricative|ʒ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || x <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless velar fricative|x]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • gh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar fricative|ɣ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! rowspan="3" | liquids || lateral approximant
| || || l <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar lateral approximant|l]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|-
! approximant
| || || rh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar approximant|ɹ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|-
! trill
| || || r <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar trill|r]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|}
The plosive-fricative combinations ''pf, ts, tsh, kx'' and their voiced couterparts only occur at word boundaries and in compound words. They are not pronounced as affricates but as separate sounds. The same applies for other combinations of a plosive plus another consonant (''pm, tl'' etc.), as well as for two identical plosives (''kk'' etc.): the release of the first plosive is always audible.

===Vowels===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! rowspan="2" | !! colspan="2" | front !! colspan="2" | back
|-
! unrounded !! rounded !! unrounded !! rounded
|-
! close
| i <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close front unrounded vowel|i]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ü <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close front rounded vowel|y]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || y <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close back unrounded vowel|ɯ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || u <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close back rounded vowel|u]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! open-mid
| e <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid front unrounded vowel|ɛ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ö <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid front rounded vowel|œ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || a <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid back unrounded vowel|ʌ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || o <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid back rounded vowel|ɔ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|}
Two consecutive different vowels are pronounced as a diphthong; two consecutive identical vowels as a long one. Single vowels are always short.

Lemizh uses [[w:Mora (linguistics)|moræ]] for structuring words: a short syllable equals one mora, and a long syllable equals two. In Lemizh, every vowel is the centre of a mora; consequently, two consecutive vowels result in two moræ or one long syllable.

===Accent===
Lemizh has got a two-way pitch-accent system, in that accented moræ are not only spoken louder, but also have either a lower or a higher pitch than the surrounding unaccented ones. The accented mora is always the ultimate or penultimate of a word. The vowel at the centre of a low-pitch accented mora is transcribed with a grave accent, the vowel at the centre of a high-pitch accented mora with an acute accent.
{| class="wikitable" style="width: 220px; table-layout: fixed; text-align: center"
! colspan="8" | Accented vowel letters
|-
| colspan="8" style="padding: 0" | [[File:Lemizh accented vowels.png|216px]]
|-
| à || è || ỳ || ì || ò || ö̀ || ù || ǜ
|-
| á || é || ý || í || ó || ö́ || ú || ǘ
|}

===Phonotactics===
[[w:Phonotactics|Phonotactics]] is rather permissive in Lemizh. A mora has the following structure, where the bracketed parts are optional:
* (O)(N)(L)V(L)(N)(O)
V is the mora's vowel, L a liquid, N a nasal, and O an obstruent that can be either a P(losive), a F(ricative), FP, PF, FF, FFP, FPF, or PFF. Word-initial consonant clusters cannot contain more than three sounds. No geminate consonants (<abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''ff'' etc.) occur within a mora. Consecutive plosive-fricative or fricative-plosive combinations within the same mora must have the same sonority – either both are voiced, or both are voiceless. A plosive cannot have the same place of articulation as a following consonant with the exception of ''rh'' and ''r''. <abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''tsh'', <abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''tth'' and their voiced counterparts are also prohibited within a mora.

Word boundaries, including those within compound words, are always mora boundaries. Where mora boundaries would still be ambiguous, liquids and nasals are assigned to the earliest possible mora (as the ''m'' in ''lem·ỳzh.''), and obstruents to the latest possible mora.

==Morphology==
All words are composed of the following parts:
* Prestem + inner case + poststem + outer case
Prestem and poststem form the stem, or the lexical part, of the word. The division of the stem into two portions is similar to English verbs such as ''sing/sang/sung'', where the lexical part is ''s–ng'' while the vowels ''i/a/u'' convey grammatical information. The stem always denotes an action (but never a state, a person, a thing, a property, etc.) and thus resembles our verbs. The prestem can contain any sounds, or it can be zero (i.e. consisting of zero sounds). The poststem can only contain fricatives and plosives, or it can be zero as well.

The inner case is represented by one of the eight vowels, optionally followed by a liquid (the primary case suffix) and/or a nasal (the secondary case suffix). The outer case has the same structure. For the first word in each sentence, the main predicate, the outer case is zero.

Each case is defined by its ''descriptor'': for example, the factive case denotes an ''action'', the nominative a ''sender'', the locative a ''place''. The stem and the inner case's descriptor determine a word's meaning.

'''Examples'''
* ''wàx. w–x'' is the stem for "speak", ''-a-'' denotes the inner factive, so this word means "an action of speaking", translated as the verb "to speak" or the [[w:Verbal noun|verbal noun]] "speaking".
* ''wèx. -e-'' denotes the inner nominative, so this word means "a sender of speaking" or "a speaker".
* ''àrdh. ∅–dh'' (having a zero prestem) is the stem for "eat", ''-ar-'' denotes the inner locative: "a place of eating".
The customary [[w:Lemma (morphology)|citation form]] of a word is the one with inner factive.

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Primary cases and their descriptors
|-
! rowspan="3" | № !! rowspan="3" | Case vowel !! colspan="4" | Primary case suffix
|-
| none || l || rh || r
|-
! Plot cases !! Causal cases !! Temporal cases !! Spatial cases
|-
| 1 || a || factive ({{sc|fact}}): ''action'' || affirmative ({{sc|aff}}): ''fact (point in causal chain)'' || temporal ({{sc|temp}}): ''time'' || locative ({{sc|loc}}): ''place/region''
|-
| 2 || e || nominative ({{sc|nom}}): ''source, sender'' || causative ({{sc|caus}}): ''direct cause'' || ingressive ({{sc|ing}}): ''starting time'' || elative ({{sc|ela}}): ''starting point/region''
|-
| 3 || y || accusative ({{sc|acc}}): ''content'' || contextual ({{sc|ctx}}): ''causal context'' || durative ({{sc|dur}}): ''duration'' || extensive ({{sc|ext}}): ''spatial extent''
|-
| 4 || i || dative ({{sc|dat}}): ''sink, recipient'' || consecutive ({{sc|cons}}): ''direct consequence, effect'' || egressive ({{sc|egr}}): ''closing time'' || illative ({{sc|ill}}): ''end point / ending region''
|-
| 5 || o || tentive ({{sc|ten}}): ''intention'' || intentive ({{sc|int}}): ''intention (intended point in causal chain)'' || episodic ({{sc|eps}}): ''episode, "act"'' || scenic ({{sc|sce}}): ''scene, "stage"''
|-
| 6 || ö || comitative ({{sc|com}}): ''company'' || persuasive ({{sc|psu}}): ''reason'' || digressive ({{sc|dig}}): ''time away from which'' || ablative ({{sc|abl}}): ''place/region away from which''
|-
| 7 || u || instrumental ({{sc|ins}}): ''means, tool'' || motivational ({{sc|mot}}): ''motivational context'' || progressive ({{sc|prog}}): ''time that is passed'' || prolative ({{sc|prol}}): ''crossing point/region''
|-
| 8 || ü || benefactive ({{sc|ben}}): ''beneficiary'' || final ({{sc|fin}}): ''purpose, aim'' || aggressive ({{sc|agg}}): ''time towards which, temporal aim'' || allative ({{sc|all}}): ''place/region towards which, spatial aim''
|}
Each primary case has two corresponding secondary cases:
* a partitive case formed by adding ''ng'' (such as ''-ing-'' for the partitive dative or ''-erng-'' for the partitive elative) with the descriptor ''the set from which the source (sink, place, etc.) is thought to be taken'': ''wèngx.'' is "the set from which the speaker is thought to be taken", i.e. "the speaker, among others".
* a qualitative case formed by adding ''m'', with the descriptor ''the basis of comparison for the source (sink, place, etc.)'': ''wèmx.'' informally translates as "someone like a speaker".

===The plot===
Every action denoted by a stem is considered a flow of information that comes from a source (sender), transports a content, and reaches a sink (a recipient). The terms "sender" and "recipient" may be more familiar, but "source" and "sink" are more accurate in not necessarily meaning living beings.

Consequently, a Lemizh action looks somewhat like this: '''nominative  accusative[[File:DreieckGreenMIDDLE.png|26px|link=]] dative'''

This is called the action's plot. Here are some examples:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative
|-
| ''wàx.'' "to speak, to talk, to tell; (an action of) speaking" || ''wèx.'' "one telling something" || ''wỳx.'' "a tale" || ''wìx.'' "one who is told something"
|-
| ''dà.'' "to give; (an action of) giving" || ''dè.'' "one giving something" || ''dỳ.'' "a gift" || ''dì.'' "one who is given something; one who gets something"
|-
| ''làzhw.'' "to help" || ''lèzhw.'' "one helping" || ''lỳzhw.'' "help (given)" || ''lìzhw.'' "one whom is helped"
|-
| ''mlàtx.'' "to melt" || ''mlètx.'' "one melting something" || [''mlỳtx.''] || ''mlìtx.'' "a melted thing"
|-
| ''xöàgh.'' "to produce a sound; to hear" || ''xöègh.'' "one producing a sound" || ''xöỳgh.'' "a sound" || ''xöìgh.'' "one hearing something"
|-
| ''àdh.'' "to feed; to eat" || ''èdh.'' "one feeding someone" || ''ỳdh.'' "food" || ''ìdh.'' "one being fed; one eating"
|-
| ''ià.'' "to love" || ''iè.'' "one loving someone, a lover" || ''iỳ.'' "a beloved" || ''iì.'' "a beloved"
|}
Importantly, there are no rules for which cases to use with which words. Both ''iỳ.'' ({{sc|acc}}) and ''iì.'' ({{sc|dat}}) mean "a beloved". The former describes the beloved as the content of love, the one being lovingly thought of, while the latter implies that the love reaches them, like words or gifts reach their recipient. Likewise, the reason why ''mlỳtx.'' is not translated in the table above isn't that "''melt'' does not take the accusative", as grammars of other languages would say, but that "a content of melting" does not seem to have any obvious meaning. If someone wanted to describe, say, sun rays as content transported from the sun to the snow to melt it, they could well use ''mlỳtx.'' to express the concept.

Case usage is governed solely by the cases' descriptors; it is up to the speaker how to use them given some word's meaning and some context. If the wind opens a door, is it the source of the action of opening (''ngèt.''), the means of opening (''ngùt.''), or the cause (''ngèlt.'')? All are grammatically correct; the speaker decides which possibility best expresses their intention.

===Nouns===
:''Nouns, adjectives and verbs do not correspond to any concepts in Lemizh grammar. Using these terms is just an attempt to describe the grammar from an Indo-European viewpoint.''
A large number of nouns are not derived from verbs in most languages: ''froth, ship, lion'' and many others. In Lemizh, however, we have verbs such as ''psràxk.'' "to froth", ''àksh.'' "to build a ship or ships", and ''làw.'' "to make a lion or lions". We will call these ''nominal verbs'', keeping in mind that this is a semantic and not a grammatical category.

Looking at the verb ''àksh.'', the shipwright ({{sc|nom}}) gives the building materials ({{sc|dat}}) the properties or the function of a ship ({{sc|acc}}). He confers, well, shipness on the materials. The shipness is sent by the shipwright, not because he is acting, but because he is the source: the image of the ship, so to say, comes from his head and materialises in wood, iron, ropes, and linen. In short, these words mostly appear with inner accusative.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative
|-
| ''psràxk.'' "to froth" || ''psrèxk.'' "one frothing something" || ''psrỳxk.'' "a thing having the properties of froth = '''froth'''" || ''psrìxk.'' "a frothed thing, a frothed liquid"
|-
| ''àksh.'' "to build a ship" || ''èksh.'' "one building a ship, a shipwright" || ''ỳksh.'' "a thing having the properties of a ship = '''a ship'''" || ''ìksh.'' "building materials for a ship, materials made into a ship"
|-
| ''làw.'' "to make a lion" || [''lèw.'' "one making a lion"] || ''lỳw.'' "a thing having the properties of a lion = '''a lion'''" || [''lìw.'' "building materials for a lion, materials made into a lion"]
|}

Nouns expressing job titles and the like mostly have inner nominatives because professions are often about producing or selling something, or about providing a kind of service:
* ''ghexè.'' "baker" from ''ghexà.'' "to bake",
* ''saxèf.'' "trumpeter" from ''saxàf.'' "to play the trumpet",
* ''bèst.'' "hero" from ''bàst.'' "to do heroic deeds, to act as a hero".

Another very common kind of nouns are tool nouns, formed with an inner instrumental case:
* ''ghstù.'' "a sail" is derived from ''ghstà.'' "to sail", literally "a means of sailing",
* ''pslù.'' "scissors" from ''pslà.'' "to cut with scissors",
* ''saxùf.'' "a trumpet", also from ''saxàf.'',
* ''skrùzh.'' "a finger" from ''skràzh.'' "to work with one's fingers".

====Inflection====
As mentioned above, all words inflect for (outer) case. Thus, we have the nominative forms ''wàx'''e''''' "(an action of) speaking, talking, telling", ''dè'''e''''' "a giver", ''lỳw'''e''''' "a lion", the causative ''lỳw'''el''''' "because of a lion", the elative ''lỳw'''er''''' "(starting) from a lion", etc.

Lemizh words do not inflect for number or gender. If desired, we can express this information by forming compounds. (Note the duplication of the inner case vowel; the first occurrence in each word is called the epenthetic case of the compound. The underlying grammar is described [[#Compounds|further down]].)
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Singular !! Dual !! Plural !! Feminine !! Masculine !! Feminine singular !! etc.
|-
! giver
| ''dè.'' || ''de'''rè'''.'' || ''de'''dwè'''.'' || ''de'''mlè'''.'' || ''de'''bè'''.'' || ''de'''èx'''.'' || ''de'''berè'''.''
|-
! lion
| ''lỳw.'' || ''lyw'''rỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''dwỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''mlỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''bỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''ỳx'''.'' || ''lyw'''byrỳ'''.''
|-
! compound with
| — || ''rỳ.'' "one" || ''dwỳ.'' "two" || ''mlỳ.'' "several" || ''bỳ.'' "female; woman" || ''ỳx.'' "male; man" || "female" and "one"
|}

===Adjectives and the like===
There is no difference between adjectival and nominal verbs: they mostly appear with inner accusative. This is the same situation as in, say, Latin, where ''albus'' can mean "a white one" as well as "white". Negators and numerals are sub-categories of adjectives.

The inner consecutive case translates certain abstract nouns.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative !! Inner consecutive
|-
| ''làbdh.'' "to whiten something, to make something white" || ''lèbdh.'' "one whitening something" || ''lỳbdh.'' "a white thing; '''white'''" || ''lìbdh.'' "a thing made white; whitened" || ''lìlbdh.'' "the consequence of whitening = whiteness"
|-
| ''gmrà.'' "to warm, to make something warm" || ''gmrè.'' "one warming something" || ''gmrỳ.'' "a warm thing; '''warm'''" || ''gmrì.'' "a warmed thing; warmed" || ''gmrìl.'' "the consequence of warming = warmth"
|-
| ''ngà.'' "to make something nonexistent" || ''ngè.'' "one making something nonexistent" || ''ngỳ.'' "(something) '''nonexistent'''" || ''ngì.'' "something made nonexistent, something destroyed" || ''ngìl.'' "the consequence of making nonexistent = nothingness"
|-
| ''dwà.'' "to make two things/individuals" || ''dwè.'' "one making two things" || ''dwỳ.'' "'''two''' (things)" || ''dwì.'' "something made into two (things)" || ''dwìl.'' "the consequence of making two things = twoness"
|}

However, emotions aren't viewed as properties in Lemizh: a happy or angry person is one sending happiness or anger, just as a loving person is one sending love. The inner causative plays a notable role with verbs of emotion.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative !! Inner causative
|-
| ''pthàb.'' "to be angry" || ''pthèb.'' "an angry one; '''angry'''" || ''pthỳb.'' "the content/object of one's anger" || ''pthìb.'' "one that one's anger reaches" || ''pthèlb.'' "one causing someone anger; one annoying someone"
|}

====Inflection====
Evidently, adjectives can be compounded to express number and/or gender in the same way as nouns. Furthermore, we can form compounds expressing various degrees. (The epenthetic consecutive ''-il-'' in these compounds will also be explained later; it is actually the main application of the abstract nouns just mentioned.)
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Diminutive !! Augmentative !! Absolute !! Comparative !! Superlative
|-
! white
| ''lỳbdh.'' || ''lilbdh'''zhrỳ'''.'' "whitish" || ''lilbdh'''dmỳ'''.'' "very white" || ''lilbdh'''ghngỳ'''.'' "purely white" || ''lilbdh'''tỳzhd'''.'' "whiter" || ''lilbdh'''ỳst'''.'' "whitest"
|-
! warm
| ''gmrỳ.'' || ''gmril'''zhrỳ'''.'' "cold" || ''gmril'''dmỳ'''.'' "hot" || ''gmril'''ghngỳ'''.'' "absolutely hot" || ''gmril'''tỳzhd'''.'' "warmer, hotter" || ''gmril'''ỳst'''.'' "hottest"
|-
! compound with
| — || ''zhrỳ.'' "few, little, a bit" || ''dmỳ.'' "much, many" || ''ghngỳ.'' "every, all, the whole" || ''tỳzhd.'' "more" || ''ỳst.'' "most"
|}
Further examples are ''gmril'''bdhỳ'''.'' "lukewarm" and ''lilbdh'''ngỳ'''.'' "black", the latter being a compound with the negator ''ngỳ''.

===Verbs===
Most verbs correspond to Lemizh words with an inner factive. However, as Lemizh stems always denote an action, the notable exception are stative verbs such as:
* ''zdìls.'' "to sit", literally "the consequence of sitting down (''zdàs.'')"
* ''gwìlt.'' "to know", literally "the consequence of learning (''gwàt.'')"

====Inflection====
* Person is not expressed with inflection but with [[#Relative pronouns|pronouns]].
* Number agreement does not exist in Lemizh. While verbs (i.e. words with an inner factive) can be compounded with numerals, ''ftrask'''mlà'''.'' does not mean "we/they sneeze" but "(there are) several acts of sneezing" (i.e. someone sneezes several times and/or several people sneeze).
* Voice (active/passive) is absent; word order serves a similar function.
* Tense is expressed by compounds with an epenthetic temporal case (''-arh-''), or with certain inner cases. The latter option is preferred if possible, as it is more concise.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Present !! Past !! Perfect !! Future !! Intentional
|-
! to sit down
| ''zdàs.'' || ''zdarhs'''wà'''.'' || ''zdarhs'''prilkà'''.'' || ''zd'''ìl'''s.'' ({{sc|cons}}) || ''zdarhs'''prà'''.'' || ''zd'''ò'''s.'' ({{sc|ten}})
|-
! compound with
| — || pronoun || ''prilkỳ.'' "back" || — || ''prỳ.'' "front" || —
|}
Note that the translation of the [[w:Perfect (grammar)|perfect]] with inner consecutive coincides with the translation of stative verbs: "having sat down" in the strict perfect sense of "the consequence/effect of this action exists" means the same as "to sit". Likewise, "whiteness" can be expressed as the abstract concept of "having whitened something".

* Mood corresponds to compounds with certain verbs. There is no equivalent to the subjunctive mood, as subordinate clauses are irreal (i.e. not necessarily real) by default per Rule Seven of sentence grammar (on which more [[#Seven|below]]). Here are some common formations:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Indicative !! Imperative !! Commanding imperative !! Interrogative Polite imperative !! Optative !! Negative
|-
! to feed, to eat
| ''àdh.'' || ''adh'''pràk'''.'' || ''adh'''dàxt'''.'' || ''adh'''pà'''.'' || ''adh'''làxt'''.'' || ''adh'''ngà'''.'' "don't eat"
|-
! compound with
| — || ''pràk.'' "to request" || ''dàxt.'' "to command" || ''pà.'' "to ask" || ''làxt.'' "to want" || ''ngà.'' "to make nonexistent"
|}
* Aspect is a diverse category, expressed by a variety of compounds and syntactic structures.

===Pronouns===
The two demonstrative pronouns are technically nominal verbs:
* ''tà.'' "to make this/that one", typically used with inner accusative: ''tỳ.'' "this/that (one)"
* ''gwà.'' "to make someone/anyone, something/anything", with inner accusative ''gwỳ.'' "someone/anyone, something/anything"

The eleven relative pronouns play a far more prominent role in Lemizh grammar. Their scope is much wider than the one usually associated with the term. As they are closely tied to Lemizh syntax, they are described [[#Relative pronouns|further down]].

==Syntax==
===Level of words===
There is only one more grammatical category: the level of words, which is the main building block of Lemizh syntax. A word can be of first level (the highest), of second level (the next highest), of third level (still one level lower) and so on; there is no limit for the number of levels, but non-positive word levels (zero, −1, etc.) are forbidden.

The first word in a sentence (the main predicate) is of first level by definition. The level of the next word is determined by the main predicate's accent and by the type of pause between the two words, the level of the third word is determined by the accent of the second and the pause between these two, and so on.

Here is the complete list of pause/accent combinations.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="2" | Following pause !! rowspan="2" | Accented vowel !! rowspan="2" | Type of accent !! rowspan="2" | The level of the next word is …
|-
! in speech !! in writing
|-
| rowspan="4" | barely audible || rowspan="4" | space || rowspan="2" | inner case || low || lower by 1
|-
| high || lower by 1, and [[w:Agent (grammar)|agentive]]* ({{sc|a}})
|-
| rowspan="2" | outer case || low || equal
|-
| high || higher by 1
|-
| rowspan="4" | a bit longer || rowspan="4" | comma ('''·''') || rowspan="2" | inner case || low || higher by 2
|-
| high || higher by 3
|-
| rowspan="2" | outer case || low || higher by 4
|-
| high || higher by 5
|-
| the longest || full stop ('''∶''') || inner case || low || none; end of sentence
|}
<nowiki>*</nowiki> The agent is the initiator of the action (more informally, the one who ''does'' the action).

===The Rules===
[[File:Lemizh parse tree.png|thumb|upright=1.5|A schematic sentence with the words represented by their level numbers]]
The word levels determine the structure of a sentence.

'''Rule One of sentence grammar. A word of level n is subordinate to the nearest word of level n−1 in front of it; the parole acts as a word of level zero.'''

All words of second level are subordinate to the main predicate (which has first level). A word of third level is subordinate to the next second-level word in front of it, and so on. In other words, Lemizh sentences are strictly [[w:Head directionality|head-first]]. The main predicate itself is subordinate to the [[w:Parole (linguistics)|parole]], the action of speaking (or writing) the sentence in question, which consequently has level zero.

'''Rule Two. An object of a word in a sentence is a word subordinate to the former, its predicate, plus all of its own objects.'''

In the diagram, the main predicate's three objects are enclosed in ellipses. Objects of the same word are called ''sibling objects'' or just ''siblings'', and the word they are subordinate to is their ''predicate''. Note that ''predicate'' and ''object'' are relative terms like ''parent'' and ''child''.

The table of level markers implies that only the first object of a predicate can be marked as agent. (Therefore, Lemizh is often said to have VSO word order, although verb–agent–object or VAO is more correct.)

'''Rule Three. The outer case of the first word of an object defines its relation to its predicate's stem via its descriptor; the outer case of a level 1 word is zero.'''

This is what we would expect from a language that inflects for case: the nominative object defines the source (sender) of the action named by the stem of its predicate, the accusative object its content, the temporal object its time, etc.

'''Examples'''
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dá föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|give-FACT-1 {Father Christmas}-ACC-'''NOM'''-2A bottle-ACC-'''ACC'''-2 Lucy-ACC-'''DAT'''-2.
|''Father Christmas gives Lucy a bottle.''}}

The stems of the three objects are nominal verbs ("to make a bottle" etc.), hence the inner accusatives. The outer cases indicate the sender, content and recipient of the action of giving, respectively. The agent is specified independently of the plot arrow; note the difference:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dá lusyì dwywỳ föpysrỳfe.
|give-FACT-1 Lucy-ACC-'''DAT'''-2A bottle-ACC-'''ACC'''-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-'''NOM'''-2.
|''Lucy takes a bottle from Father Christmas.''}}

We need not mark an object as agentive if we consider this information unimportant. The English translations are only rough approximations:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dà lusyì dwywỳ föpysrỳfe.
|give-FACT-1 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2 bottle-ACC-ACC-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2.
|''Lucy gets a bottle from Father Christmas. Lucy is given a bottle by Father Christmas.''}}

Rule Three defines outer case in a way that mirrors the definition of inner case. This allows for an operation called '''inversion''' (symbolized "⇔"):
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|làzhw wèxi. ⇔ wáx lìzhwe.
|help-FACT-1 speak-'''NOM'''-'''DAT'''-2. ⇔ speak-FACT-1 help-'''DAT'''-'''NOM'''-2A.
|''[Someone] helps the speaker. ⇔ The one being helped speaks.''}}

Both sentences claim that the sender of speaking is the recipient of helping. The equation is ''wèx.'' = ''lìzhw.'', the speaker = the one being helped.

'''Rule Four. An instance of a word stem designates a specific action.'''

''dà'' in the above sentence does not just mean "to give", it refers to one specific action of giving. Such an action may involve several givers (as in "They give something") and need not even be temporally or spatially contiguous (as in "They are giving something every Christmas"). In other words, each spoken or written instance of the stem ''d–'' refers to a certain subset of all the giving there is.

This rule ensures that all the objects refer to the same action of giving as the predicate itself.

'''Rule Five. A case characterises the action it refers to completely with regard to its case descriptor.'''

For example, the nominative object "Father Christmas" has to name the complete sender of the above instance of giving. This excludes from this instance all giving not done by Father Christmas. So each object places a restriction on the action of giving the main predicate refers to. Thus, the subset of giving meant by this instance of ''dà.'' – what the sentence is ultimately talking about – is defined more and more precisely with each additional object. (This is true not only of the main predicate but of all words in a sentence. Also, as inner and outer cases can be interconverted via inversion, this rule applies to inner cases as well.)

'''Rule Six. A missing object is equivalent to the absence of information about its descriptor.'''

Above sentences do not have, for example, locative objects, so Rule Five cannot place a restriction on the place of giving. Because of Rule Six, this does not mean there are no restrictions on the location, but only that this kind of information has not been included in the sentence (for example, because the speaker does not know about it, considers it irrelevant, assumes that the listener already knows or – perhaps most importantly – that the listener can infer it). In fact, everything not useful for understanding a sentence should be omitted to save the listener processing effort. (See the inversion example above, which omits the nominative "someone".)

Rules Five and Six imply that every instance of a word has exactly one action (which, however, need not be contiguous), one sender (which may consist of several people), and so on: Five excludes additional senders if one nominative object is already present, and Six gives meaning to missing objects, establishing them as an integral part of Lemizh sentence grammar.

{{anchor|Seven}}'''Rule Seven. Given an object and its predicate, the predicate is considered more real and the object more hypothetical.'''
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive; 3:third level
|láxt föpysryfè dày dwywỳ lusỳi.
|want-FACT-1 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2A give-FACT-ACC-2 bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3.
|''Father Christmas wants to give Lucy a bottle.'' (The action of giving is the content of the wish. The nominative object of "give", which is also Father Christmas, is omitted per Rule Six.)}}

This sentence contains the information that Father Christmas wants something (i.e. to give Lucy a bottle), but not that he actually gives something (i.e. Lucy a bottle). The main predicate "want", so to speak, lives in the world the sentence is talking about (more formally, the world of the parole), which is the more real, while its object "give Lucy a bottle" lives in the world of his wish, which is the more hypothetical. The parole, having level zero, acts as the predicate to the sentence as a whole and is therefore still more real. This reflects the fact that the parole is part of the real world; it is as real as anything linguistic can be. Turning this around, we see that the sentence is more hypothetical than reality: it can be a metaphor or some other figure of speech, a statement about a fictional or otherwise imagined world, an error, a lie, a linguistic example sentence, etc. We call the main predicate's kind of reality, the one that is just one level more hypothetical than the parole and the real world, ''grammatical reality''.

The bottle and Lucy, having third level, are still more hypothetical than the action of giving; their existence does not follow from grammar but from logic and context: someone nonexistent cannot be given something. A better example would be "I see white mice", where the existence of the mice may or may not be inferred from context such as the amount of alcohol I have drunk.

In the sentence "I think that Father Christmas wants to give Lucy a bottle", "to think" is grammatically real, while the other two verbs, so to say, are pushed down one degree of reality. Furthermore, inversion changes degrees of reality:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|làxt dày. ⇔ dà lỳxta.
|want-FACT-1 give-'''FACT'''-'''ACC'''-2. ⇔ give-FACT-1 want-'''ACC'''-'''FACT'''-2.
|''[He] wants to give. ⇔ [He] gives "wantingly", i.e. gladly.''}}

There is no real difference between phrases and complete sentences in Lemizh:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! as an object (hypothetical) !! as a main predicate / complete sentence (grammatically real)
|-
| ''dà.'' || to give; giving || An action of giving exists = Someone gives something.
|-
| ''zdìls.'' || the consequence of sitting down = to sit; sitting || The consequence of sitting down exists = Someone sits.
|-
| ''dwìlw.'' || the consequence of making a bottle || The consequence of making a bottle exists = A bottle exists; there is a bottle.
|-
| ''sklè.'' || one building a bridge || One building a bridge exists = There is someone building a bridge.
|}

===Noun phrases===
Forming noun phrases does not require any new grammatical rules. Taking the first example sentence from above and changing the inner case of "give" to the nominative yields "one giving something, a giver". The objects are still sender, content and recipient of the ''action'' of giving, as outer cases define relations to the predicate's ''stem'' per Rule Three:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dé föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|give-'''NOM'''-1 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2A bottle-ACC-ACC-2 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2.
|''[There is] one giving Lucy a bottle, Father Christmas.''}}

Rules Four and Five guarantee that the giver is identical to Father Christmas: both are the sender of the same instance of the stem ''d–'' "give" (the giver via its inner nominative, Father Christmas via its outer nominative), and both are the ''complete'' sender of this action. This type of construction, where an object's outer case matches its predicate's inner case, is called a '''bracket'''. Brackets are very widely used:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Apposition !! Attributive adjective !! Attributive pronoun/determiner !! Attributive numeral !! Attributive participle
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|iakopỳk saxèfy.
|Jacopo-'''ACC'''-1 trumpet-NOM-'''ACC'''-2.
|''Jacopo, a trumpeter''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=INS:instrumental case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|ghstù lỳbdhu.
|sail-'''INS'''-1 white-ACC-'''INS'''-2.
|''a sail, a white thing = a white sail''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|ỳksh gwỳy.
|ship-'''ACC'''-1 some-ACC-'''ACC'''-2.
|''a ship, something = some ship''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|mỳs trỳy.
|mouse-'''ACC'''-1 three-ACC-'''ACC'''-2.
|''mice, three individuals = three mice''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|nỳzd gangèy.
|bird-'''ACC'''-1 sing-NOM-'''ACC'''-2.
|''a bird, a singer = a singing bird''}}
|}
Such phrases can be easily extended. This example contains two accusative brackets ("a singing bird" and "a sad child"):
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 4:fourth level
|ngỳzd gangèy zhngỳi speghý ytfỳarh.
|bird-ACC-1 sing-NOM-ACC-2 child-ACC-DAT-3 sad-NOM-ACC-4 night-ACC-TEMP-3.
|''a bird singing to a sad child at night''}}

Adverbially used adjectives are phrased with factive brackets:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|gangà txỳska.
|sing-'''FACT'''-1 loud-ACC-'''FACT'''-2.
|''(an action of) singing, a loud thing = loud singing = singing loudly, to sing loudly'' (Compare "to give gladly" above, under Rule Seven.)}}

However, changing the predicate's inner case leaves the object's outer factive intact, losing the bracket:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|gangè txỳska.
|sing-'''NOM'''-1 loud-ACC-FACT-2.
|''a loud singer = someone singing loudly'' (The action of singing is a loud thing.)}}

As '''[[w:Genitive construction|genitive constructions]]''' have a wide variety of meanings, there is no single Lemizh equivalent. The typical translation for constructions indicating possession is with the benefactive case, but other cases frequently occur. Everything depends on the object's relation to the predicate's stem per Rule Three:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|dwỳw lusỳü.
|bottle-ACC-1 Lucy-ACC-'''BEN'''-2.
|''Lucy's bottle'' (Lucy is the beneficiary of making the bottle. The bottle is made for Lucy.)}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dý ỳxe.
|give-ACC-1 male-ACC-'''NOM'''-2A.
|''the man's gift'' (The man is the sender of giving.)}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|rhỳst ytfỳarh filpskỳy.
|dream-ACC-1 night-ACC-'''TEMP'''-2 midsummer-ACC-ACC-3.
|''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' (The midsummer night is the time of dreaming.)}}

Phrases with the conjunction '''"and"''' translate to several objects in the same outer case with inner partitives. Thanks to Rule Five, the recipient of "to give" in this sentence literally is "the set from which Peter is thought to be taken, which is equal to the set from which Susan is thought to be taken, which is equal to the set from which Lucy is thought to be taken":
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=PARTACC:partitive accusative case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dá föpysryfè petyngsì susngyngì lusỳngi.
|give-FACT-1 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2A Peter-PARTACC-DAT-2 Susan-PARTACC-DAT-2 Lucy-PARTACC-DAT-2.
|''Father Christmas gives [something] to Peter, Susan and Lucy.''}}

===Dependent clauses===
Dependent clauses employ the same principles as above, as we have seen with the sentence "Father Christmas wants '''to give Lucy a bottle'''" under Rule Seven.

The difference between English gerund clauses and that-clauses roughly translates into a difference between an inner factive (''action'') and an inner affirmative (''fact''):
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 3A:third level, agentive
|dmàt tryxkì dáe föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|see-FACT-1 beaver-ACC-DAT-2 give-'''FACT'''-NOM-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-3A bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3.
|''The beaver sees [the action of] Father Christmas giving Lucy a bottle.'' (The beaver is at the receiving end of the optical stimulus or information, hence the dative. The dependent clause could also be in the accusative to focus on the optical information transmitted to the beaver.)}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; AFF:affirmative case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 3A:third level, agentive
|dmàt tryxkì dále föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|see-FACT-1 beaver-ACC-DAT-2 give-'''AFF'''-NOM-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-3A bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3.
|''The beaver sees [the fact of] Father Christmas giving Lucy a bottle. The beaver sees '''that''' Father Christmas gives Lucy a bottle.''}}

Some examples of dependent clauses translating into objects in various cases:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|fngà kshngày.
|try-FACT-1 shout-FACT-'''ACC'''-2.
|''[She] tried to shout [but this was difficult because of her sore throat].''}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|fngà kshngàu.
|try-FACT-1 shout-FACT-'''INS'''-2.
|''[She] tried shouting [as he hadn't heard her when she had spoken quietly].'' (Shouting is the means of trying.)}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PSU:persuasive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 4:fourth level
|pàf làxtöl dmàty föpysrỳfe.
|stand-FACT-1 want-FACT-'''PSU'''-2 see-FACT-ACC-3 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-4.
|''[He] stood up because [he] wanted to see Father Christmas.''}}

'''[[w:Relative clause|Relative clauses]]''' are structurally identical to attributive participles as described above; they are brackets: ''a bird which sings to a sad child at night = a bird singing to a sad child at night''. This is also true of clauses with relative adverbs:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level; 3A:third level, agentive
|ngỳw gangáry lỳbe.
|valley-'''ACC'''-1 sing-LOC-'''ACC'''-2 flower-ACC-NOM-3A.
|''a valley, a place of the singing of flowers = a valley where flowers sing''}}

Adverbially used relative clauses, unsurprisingly, are factive brackets:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive; 3:third level
|shrá wygwè rashkỳa bỳe.
|yelp-'''FACT'''-1 dog-ACC-NOM-2A dislike-ACC-'''FACT'''-2 female-ACC-NOM-3.
|''The dog is yelping, which the girl doesn't like.''}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PSU:persuasive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive; 3A:third level, agentive
|shrá wygwè ö́ldha bỳe.
|yelp-'''FACT'''-1 dog-ACC-NOM-2A eat-PSU-'''FACT'''-2 female-ACC-NOM-3A.
|''The dog is yelping, wherefore the girl feeds it.''}}

===Predicative===
[[w:Predicative expression|Predicatives]], like all sentences, follow the plot arrow:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|ghát zhngyè bestỳ lusỳi.
|name-FACT-1 child-ACC-'''NOM'''-2A hero-NOM-'''ACC'''-2 Lucy-ACC-'''DAT'''-2.
|''The children called Lucy a hero.'' (The children gave the designation of hero to Lucy.)}}

Predicatives with the verb "to make" typically correspond to Lemizh sentences with a nominal or adjectival verb as the main predicate. This can be interpreted as the accusative object – here "ill" – being absorbed ("swallowed up") by the main predicate:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|mà ydhè gwilbkyỳ wỳgwi. → gwilbkà ydhè wỳgwi.
|make-FACT-1 eat-ACC-'''NOM'''-2 ill-ACC-'''ACC'''-2 dog-ACC-'''DAT'''-2. → ill-FACT-1 eat-ACC-NOM-2 dog-ACC-DAT-2.
|''The food made the dog ill.'' (The food gave the property of being ill to the dog.)}}

The verb "to be" translates as the corresponding perfect form, i.e. with inner consecutive of the main predicate:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=CONS:consecutive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|lìlbdh lỳghi.
|white-'''CONS'''-1 house-ACC-DAT-2.
|''The house is [painted] white.'' (The house has been given the property of being white. The house has been whitened.)}}

The above are called resultative predicatives, describing the result of some property being conferred on someone or something. A depictive predicative describes an inherent property; this is achieved with an accusative object:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=CONS:consecutive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|drulìl werhèy.
|shrub-CONS-1 hazel-NOM-'''ACC'''-2.
|''The hazel is a shrub.'' (The hazel has the properties of a shrub.)}}
(Side note: The stem of ''werhè.'' "hazel" means "to make hazelnuts", hence the inner nominative. The nuts are called ''werhỳ.'', with inner accusative. Other plants bearing edible fruits follow the same pattern.)

===Relative pronouns===
Stems of relative pronouns (not to be confused with the pronouns of the same name in English or Latin) refer to actions by pointing to another stem or to a parole: they are [[w:Anaphora (linguistics)|anaphoric]]. Here is the full list:
{| class="wikitable"
! rowspan="2" | Level !! colspan="2" | Type I !! colspan="2" | Type II
|-
! Verb !! The target is the stem of !! Verb !! The target is the stem of
|-
| n || colspan="2" | (does not occur because it would refer to itself) || à. || its preceding same-level word
|-
| n−1 || wà. || its predicate || fà. || its predicate's preceding same-level word or parole
|-
| n−2 || dhà. || its predicate's predicate || thà. || its predicate's predicate's preceding same-level word or parole
|-
| n−3 || zà. || its predicate's predicate's predicate || sà. || …
|-
| n−4 || zhà. || … || shà. || …
|-
| n−5 || ghà. || … || xà. || …
|}
They are highly versatile, corresponding to various structures in other languages. Recall that a sentence's parole has level zero:
{| class="wikitable"
! Reflexive !! First person (singular) !! Second person
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|wáx wìe.
|speak-FACT-1 PIn−1-'''DAT'''-'''NOM'''-2A.
|''to talk to oneself. He is talking to himself.'' (The recipient of speaking is its sender.)}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dráw dhèe.
|dance-FACT-1 PIn−2-'''NOM'''-NOM-2A.
|''I am dancing.'' (The sender of the parole is the sender of dancing.)}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dráw dhìe.
|dance-FACT-1 PIn−2-'''DAT'''-NOM-2A.
|''You are dancing.'' (The recipient of the parole is the sender of dancing.)}}
|}
Rule Four of sentence grammar ensures that the reflexive example means "He is talking to himself" as opposed to, say, "He is talking to one being talked to" (which would be ''wáx wìxe.'' speak-{{sc|fact}}-1 speak-{{sc|dat-nom}}-2{{sc|a}}, with two different instances of the stem "speak").

{| class="wikitable"
! Possessive determiner !! Vocative
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=CONS:consecutive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|zdìls ngỳzdy zeú tỳar.
|seat-CONS-1 bird-ACC-ACC-2 PIn−3-'''NOM'''-BEN-3 this-ACC-LOC-2.
|''My bird is sitting there.'' (The sender of the parole is the beneficiary of making a bird.)}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=PI:pronoun type I; FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive; 3:third level
|wáx dheè zdhèzhi zìe.
|speak-FACT-1 PIn−2-NOM-NOM-2A friend-NOM-DAT-2 PIn−3-'''DAT'''-NOM-3.
|''Friend, I am talking to you.'' (The recipient of the parole is the friend: nominative bracket.)}}
|}

The type II pronoun in the following example points to the stem of eating. With the inner accusative, the pronoun refers to the content of eating, which is the sweet. (As with brackets, Rules Four and Five guarantee that the pronoun refers to the same content of the same action of eating as mentioned in the first sentence.)
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; PII:pronoun type II; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|ádh dheì mlỳdhy. ràsh fỳy.
|eat-FACT-1 PIn−2-NOM-DAT-2A sweet-ACC-ACC-2. like-FACT-1 PIIn−1-'''ACC'''-ACC-2.
|''I am eating a sweet. [I] like it.''}}

==Derivational morphology==
From a Lemizh point of view, ''dè.'' "giver" and ''dỳ.'' "gift" aren't derivatives of ''dà.'' "to give" but grammatical forms of the same word. The only piece of true derivational morphology is compounding.

===Compounds===
[[File:Lemizh compounding diagram.png|thumb|Forming a compound from a two-word sentence]]
'''Rule One of compounding. A compound word is constructed from a two-word sentence – predicate and object of which become modifier and head of the compound, respectively – in the following way:'''
# '''Prestem''':
## the object's prestem
## the object's inner case
## the object's poststem
## an optional separator
## the predicate's prestem
# '''Inner case'''
# '''Poststem''': the predicate's poststem
# '''Outer case'''
Note that the object's stem comes before the predicate's; and also that the object's outer case (and, less importantly, the predicate's inner case) is lost. The object's inner case becomes part of the compound's prestem and is then called its ''epenthetic case''. The separator can be used, for example, if the word boundary would be unclear otherwise, or for placing the second part of the word on a new line.

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|làxt àdhy. ⇒ adhlàxt.
|want-FACT-1 eat-FACT-ACC-2. ⇒ eat-FACT-want-FACT-1.
|''[She] wants to eat.'' (See the inflection of [[#Verbs|verbs]]; the other moods follow the same pattern.)}}
In this example, the lost accusative ending has to be deduced from context.

'''Rule Two. In the relationship between the original predicate and object, the rules of sentence grammar are retained as far as applicable.'''

The consequences of this rule are somewhat technical; but the last one, pertaining to degree of reality, is important for correctly interpreting compounds.
* Rules One to Three of sentence grammar are not applicable to compounds, as can be easily seen.
* Four: Both modifier and head are instantiations of specific actions in the original sentence (which however do not necessarily match the instantiation of the compound).
* Five: The epenthetic case characterises the head completely with regard to its descriptor.
* Six: The only overt object of the modifier is the head. All other objects are missing and thus indicate the absence of information about their descriptors.
* Seven: The modifier has a higher degree of reality than the head. Therefore, the above compound does not claim that she actually eats.

'''Rule Three. Regarding all outward relations, cases''' (i.e. the compound's inner case [not to be confused with its epenthetic case], the outer cases of its objects, and cases of pronouns referring to it) '''refer to the head.'''
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|adhkmàr mlỳdhy.
|eat-FACT-allow-LOC-1 sweet-ACC-ACC-2.
|''a place where one may eat sweets; a place for eating sweets''}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|ngengadàxt fỳta.
|run-FACT-must-FACT-1 fast-ACC-FACT-1
|''[He] has to run fast.''}}

These examples talk about the location of eating, as opposed to the location of allowing; about eating sweets, as opposed to allowing sweets; the running is fast, as opposed to the necessity; etc.

Number and gender of [[#Nouns|nouns]] are compounds from brackets which are first inverted to turn the more salient word into the compound's head: ''dè mlỳe. ⇔ mlỳ dèy.'' "several givers" ⇒ ''demlè.'' "givers". The inner nominative (''-e-'') becomes the epenthetic case, and the new inner case also has to be a nominative per Rule Three. ''demlỳ.'' (inner {{sc|acc}}), by contrast, is "something given by several people".

Compounds expressing degrees of [[#Adjectives and the like|adjectives]] are also formed from brackets. They have an epenthetic consecutive (''-il-''), which stems from the corresponding abstract noun: ''gmrìl dmỳil. ⇔ dmỳ gmrìly.'' "much warmth" ⇒ ''gmrildmìl.'' "heat" (abstract noun formed with inner {{sc|cons}}), ''gmrildmỳ.'' "hot" (adjective with inner {{sc|acc}}). Degrees of comparison are often combined with qualitative or partitive outer cases and with [[#Predicative|predicatives]]:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=CONS:consecutive case; QUALACC:qualitative accusative case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|prilghtìlzhd lyghỳ bỳghym.
|beautiful-CONS-more-CONS-1 house-ACC-ACC-2 garden-ACC-QUALACC-2.
|''The house is more beautiful than the garden.'' (The garden is the basis of comparison for the house.)}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=CONS:consecutive case; PARTACC:partitive accusative case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|prilghìlst lỳghy ziǘ ghngỳyng.
|beautiful-CONS-most-CONS-1 house-ACC-ACC-2 PIn−3-DAT-BEN-3 all-ACC-PARTACC-2.
|''Your house is the most beautiful of all [houses].'' (''All houses'' form the set from which your house is thought to be taken.)}}

The analogues of the present and future tenses are formed like so – note that inversion changes the pronoun's stem along with its level:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2:second level
|zdàs dhàarh. ⇔ wà zdàrhsa. ⇒ zdarhswà.
|seat-FACT-1 PIn−2-FACT-TEMP-2. ⇔ PIn−1-FACT-1 seat-TEMP-FACT-2. ⇒ seat-TEMP-PIn−1-FACT-1.
|''[She] sits down at the time of the parole. ⇒ [She] sits down now.''}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|zdàs prỳarh. ⇔ prỳ zdàrhsy. ⇒ zdarhsprà.
|seat-FACT-1 front-ACC-TEMP-2. ⇔ front-ACC-1 seat-TEMP-ACC-2. ⇒ seat-TEMP-front-FACT-1.
|''[She] sits down at a time in front [of the parole]. ⇒ [She] will sit down.''}}

==Example text==
[[File:Lemizh text sample.png|600px]]

===stedrỳzh thìrhfi xtrỳghy.===
krỳgh dghngireì prilxpilghkỳarh. mangỳ srungbỳng lyngghỳng yngshwỳng fỳü. zhöazhghngìl tmỳil. ghngàgzh smìa prỳal ghngyé dhàbdhy lunguỳ ùyl mỳu fplyxár tỳarh. dmát feì sxngengzè ishkènge. ghìlt krighmyngthxì xtrỳngghi swyshỳ ghỳxy fplyxòr zhöyzhỳm xngàrorm. dmìlt öngkrỳngty zhryỳ rèshy esfàsy sxngyzdmýi, usrỳngy xazhgèsty ghngỳeng, frekrỳngfy rilghdzhỳwby pthèby, dgheipysrỳngdy psrèby rhèzhem, dghistngỳngty ghỳxy zangỳa dghildhfmlýyrh, ngiftngyghtmỳngy krültlìy zùe gỳghda. xtrỳgh swyshý stedrỳzh thìrfi. dngilszhrìl bdhyrgzhyngỳng xüxtrỳngyng prilkỳarh ötìlil skmyngìlng ghỳngsilng. dngilszhìlwb ráxpy thìlfi. fö̀l gwiltngìlöl dmàty föpysryfỳ ngỳu.

rỳ zhryỳrh thìzgy gwiltngìly rhàghgy dmatngìe thìrfy. là xángska matngiè ytfỳyrh dmyý fplyxór dyxtngyngà mànga prilzhryngỳr iltỳngzhdyr. dmàt ytfỳarh ryý mìlngorh xngyì prilkyár mìlngorh xtrỳngghi kshrextý mengthxì prỳar zìe, fplỳngxe fywýr déngske xtryghè sxngezì xngỳnge.

===The Legend of the Seventh Planet===
A long time ago there was a tribe of nomads. They possessed neither writing nor houses nor horses. But they were truly human. They were curious; this means, above all, that they took interest in the useless, for the celestial objects were of no use to them yet. They looked at the Sun and the Moon. They had named the constellations and the six planets moving across the sky like the humans across the earth. They knew dim Mercury, who liked to hide in the glare of the Sun; Venus, the brightest of all; reddish and angry Mars; majestic father Jupiter; Saturn, who seemed to stand still for weeks; and even Uranus had been caught by their keen eyes. Six planets, and the legend of a seventh. Maybe it had been the minor planet Vesta, or a comet centuries or millennia earlier. Maybe it was the attraction of the number seven. For Neptune is invisible to the naked eye.

One youngster thought to himself that he could not live without seeing the seventh planet. He lay awake searching the sky for many nights, neglected his duties, and became thinner and thinner. And one night, lying with the Earth behind his back, and with the looping planets and the stars above him, he saw the depth of the sky and the planets circling the Sun, and among them the Earth.

==See also==
* [[Literature:The Tower of Babel#Lemizh|The Tower of Babel § Lemizh]] (with interlinear glossing)

==External links==
* [https://lemizh.conlang.org Lemizh homepage] with comprehensive coverage of the language, including a dictionary with etymologies, information on the language's pragmatics, and more background information
[[File:Copyleft1.png|20px]] ''This article is available under a [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License]. It includes material from the Lemizh homepage, which has the same license.''


[[Category:Languages]]
[[Category:Conlangs]]
[[Category:Indo-European languages]]
[[Category:Agglutinative languages]]

Lemizh

2022-05-29T20:44:25Z

Anypodetos: "and"; copyedit and fixes

{{Infobox language
|image =
|imagesize =
|name = Lemizh
|nativename = lemỳzh.
|pronunciation = lɛmˈɯ̀ʒ
|state = Lemaria
|setting = Alternate history Europe
|created = 1985
|familycolor = Indo-European
|fam2 = Lemizh
|ancestor = Proto-Lemizh
|posteriori =
* [[w:Proto-Indo-European|PIE]]
* [[w:Occam's razor|Occam's razor]]
|creator = [[User:Anypodetos|Anypodetos]]
|scripts = Lemizh alphabet
|nation = Lemaria
|map = Map of Lemaria.png
|mapalt = The country of Lemaria lies to the north and west of the Black Sea. The capital, Shabar, is at the Dniester Liman or Estuary.
|notice = IPA
}}
'''Lemizh''' ([[Help:IPA|[lεmˈiʒ]]], native pronunciation: [[Help:IPA|[lɛmˈɯ̀ʒ]]]) is a language I invented with the aim of creating a grammar as regular and simple as possible. It was originally intended as an [[w:International auxiliary language|international auxiliary language]]. However, it turned out that a simple grammar is not necessarily a grammar that is easy to learn: the more ways of simplification I found, the further away it moved from [[w:Indo-European languages|Indo-European]] and probably all other familiar language structures. Expecting anyone to learn Lemizh, at this point, would be unrealistic.

So I needed a new justification for the language: enter the Lemizh, a people living to the west and north of the [[w:Black Sea|Black Sea]] in an alternate history that slowly drifted away from ours between two and eight millennia ago. Of course, it is extremely unlikely that they would speak a language that was completely without exceptions. To be precise, the chances are two to the power of two hundred and seventy-six thousand seven hundred and nine to one against. But they say that everything has to happen somewhere in the Multiverse; and everything happens only once.

{{TOC limit}}

==History==
===Early stages===
Lemizh is an Indo-European language and, together with Volgan, constitutes one of the ten recognised branches of the Indo-European language family. This branch is also called Lemizh, to the disgruntlement of Volgan linguists.

Proto-Lemizh, the ancestor of Lemizh and Volgan, is very poorly attested in form of some papyri found near the northwestern shore of the Black Sea, to the north of the [[w:Dniester Liman|Dniester Liman]], dated about 2700 BC. Old Lemizh, by contrast, is fairly well attested. It had predominantly [[w:Subject–verb–object|subject–verb–object]] (SVO) word order and was a quite typical old Indo-European language, but with a couple of interesting quirks:
* Adjectives were lost as a separate part of speech, being replaced with participles ("white" > "being white").
* Finite subordinate clauses had their subject in the case of the clause: the subject of a local clause was in the locative case without having a local meaning in itself.
The earliest known documents from this stage of Lemizh were probably written around 2100 BC along the northern and western shores of the Back Sea.

===Ghean and Middle Lemizh===
Ghean ([[Help:IPA|[ˈɣɛən]]]) is a language with no known genetic relationships. It was spoken by a people of unknown origin, who subdued the Lemizh tribes in around 1000 BC and ruled for infamous three generations. Ghean was an inflected [[w:Tonal language|register tonal]] language with strict [[w:Verb–subject–object|verb–subject–object]] (VSO) word order and head-first phrases. It had verbs, [[w:Nominal (linguistics)|nominals]] (a combined noun/adjective/participle part of speech), pronouns and particles.

The Gheans discouraged the use of the natives' language, but obviously tolerated Lemizh words (or rather word stems) to stand in for unfamiliar Ghean ones. The grammar of simple sentences was easy enough to learn for the Lemizh, as they were used to inflection and head-first phrases, and likely still knew VSO sentences from poetry. After two or three generations, the natives must have spoken a [[w:Creole language|creole]] with a more or less Ghean grammar but an abundance of Lemizh words, especially outside the core vocabulary. This is a rather unusual development as most creoles draw their lexicon mainly from the dominant group, and tend to be grammatically more innovative. (The Tanzanian language [[w:Mbugu language|Mbugu]] might have had a somewhat similar development with more or less analogous outcomes.) After the disappearance of the Gheans, Lemizh patriots tried to revive their old language, which failed spectacularly for the grammar but reintroduced many Lemizh words of the core vocabulary.

===The last three millennia===
While Middle Lemizh as spoken after the Ghean occupation already had a non-Indo-European and unusually regular grammar, this trend was to continue over the following millennia. The factive case was innovated to express verbal nouns, which eventually supplanted verbs altogether. (At least part of the blame goes to the Tlöngö̀l, an epic novel published in 1351, which popularised the use of verbal nouns.) The tonal system was simplified to the present two-way [[w:Pitch-accent language|pitch-accent]] system. Pronouns lost their status as a separate part of speech. The last particles died out a few hundred years ago, leaving the language with a single part of speech which is often called a "verb" but, historically speaking, is really a nominal. This means that the concept of ''parts of speech'' does not make sense in Modern Lemizh.

This article describes the dialect spoken to the north of the [[w:Danube Delta|Danube delta]], which prevailed against other variants and is considered the standard language today.

==Orthography and phonology==
The alphabet is [[w:Phonetic orthography|phonetic]]: each letter corresponds to a certain sound, and each sound is represented by a single letter. The direction of writing is left to right. This article uses the standard transcription of the native Lemizh alphabet:
{| class="wikitable" style="width: 800px; table-layout: fixed; text-align: center"
! colspan="29" | Letters of the Lemizh alphabet
|-
| colspan="29" style="padding: 0" | [[File:Lemizh alphabet.png|796px]]
|-
| a || e || y || i || o || ö || u || ü || l || rh || r || ng || m || g || d || b || k || t || p || gh || zh || z || dh || w || x || sh || s || th || f
|}

===Consonants===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="2" | !! bilabial !! dental !! alveolar !! postalveolar !! velar
|-
! colspan="2" | nasals
| m <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial nasal|m]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || || || ng <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar nasal|ŋ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! colspan="2" | plosives (voiceless • voiced)
| p <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless bilabial plosive|p]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • b <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial plosive|b]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || t <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless alveolar plosive|t]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • d <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar plosive|d]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || k <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless velar plosive|k]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • g <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar plosive|ɡ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! colspan="2" | fricatives (voiceless • voiced)
| f <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless bilabial fricative|ɸ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • w <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial fricative|β]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || th <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless dental fricative|θ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • dh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced dental fricative|ð]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || s <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless alveolar sibilant|s]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • z <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar sibilant|z]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || sh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless palato-alveolar fricative|ʃ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • zh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced palato-alveolar fricative|ʒ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || x <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless velar fricative|x]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • gh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar fricative|ɣ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! rowspan="3" | liquids || lateral approximant
| || || l <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar lateral approximant|l]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|-
! approximant
| || || rh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar approximant|ɹ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|-
! trill
| || || r <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar trill|r]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|}
The plosive-fricative combinations ''pf, ts, tsh, kx'' and their voiced couterparts only occur at word boundaries and in compound words. They are not pronounced as affricates but as separate sounds. The same applies for other combinations of a plosive plus another consonant (''pm, tl'' etc.), as well as for two identical plosives (''kk'' etc.): the release of the first plosive is always audible.

===Vowels===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! rowspan="2" | !! colspan="2" | front !! colspan="2" | back
|-
! unrounded !! rounded !! unrounded !! rounded
|-
! close
| i <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close front unrounded vowel|i]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ü <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close front rounded vowel|y]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || y <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close back unrounded vowel|ɯ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || u <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close back rounded vowel|u]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! open-mid
| e <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid front unrounded vowel|ɛ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ö <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid front rounded vowel|œ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || a <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid back unrounded vowel|ʌ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || o <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid back rounded vowel|ɔ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|}
Two consecutive different vowels are pronounced as a diphthong; two consecutive identical vowels as a long one. Single vowels are always short.

Lemizh uses [[w:Mora (linguistics)|moræ]] for structuring words: a short syllable equals one mora, and a long syllable equals two. In Lemizh, every vowel is the centre of a mora; consequently, two consecutive vowels result in two moræ or one long syllable.

===Accent===
Lemizh has got a two-way pitch-accent system, in that accented moræ are not only spoken louder (as in English), but also have either a lower or a higher pitch than the surrounding unaccented ones. The accented mora is always the ultimate or penultimate of a word. The vowel at the centre of a low-pitch accented mora is transcribed with a grave accent, the vowel at the centre of a high-pitch accented mora with an acute accent.
{| class="wikitable" style="width: 220px; table-layout: fixed; text-align: center"
! colspan="8" | Accented vowel letters
|-
| colspan="8" style="padding: 0" | [[File:Lemizh accented vowels.png|216px]]
|-
| à || è || ỳ || ì || ò || ö̀ || ù || ǜ
|-
| á || é || ý || í || ó || ö́ || ú || ǘ
|}

===Phonotactics===
[[w:Phonotactics|Phonotactics]] is rather permissive in Lemizh. A mora has the following structure, where the bracketed parts are optional:
* (O)(N)(L)V(L)(N)(O)
V is the mora's vowel, L a liquid, N a nasal, and O an obstruent that can be either a P(losive), a F(ricative), FP, PF, FF, FFP, FPF, or PFF. Word-initial consonant clusters cannot contain more than three sounds. No geminate consonants (<abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''ff'' etc.) occur within a mora. Consecutive plosive-fricative or fricative-plosive combinations within the same mora must have the same sonority – either both are voiced, or both are voiceless. A plosive cannot have the same place of articulation as a following consonant with the exception of ''rh'' and ''r''. <abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''dzh'', <abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''ddh'' and their voiceless counterparts are also prohibited within a mora.

Word boundaries, including those within compound words, are always mora boundaries. Where mora boundaries would still be ambiguous, liquids and nasals are assigned to the earliest possible mora (as the ''m'' in ''lem·ỳzh.''), and obstruents to the latest possible mora.

==Morphology==
All words are composed of the following parts:
* Prestem + inner case + poststem + outer case
Prestem and poststem form the stem, or the lexical part, of the word. The division of the stem into two portions is similar to English verbs such as ''sing/sang/sung'', where the lexical part is ''s–ng'' while the vowels ''i/a/u'' convey grammatical information. The stem always denotes an action (but never a state, a person, a thing, a property, etc.) and thus resembles our verbs. The prestem can contain any sounds, or it can be zero (i.e. consisting of zero sounds). The poststem can only contain fricatives and plosives, or it can be zero as well.

The inner case is represented by one of the eight vowels, optionally followed by a liquid (the primary case suffix) and/or a nasal (the secondary case suffix). The outer case has the same structure. For the first word in each sentence, the main predicate, the outer case is zero.

Each case is defined by its ''descriptor'': for example, the factive case denotes an ''action'', the nominative a ''sender'', the locative a ''place''. The stem and the inner case's descriptor determine a word's meaning.

'''Examples'''
* ''wàx. w–x'' is the stem for "speak", ''-a-'' denotes the inner factive, so this word means "an action of speaking", translated as the verb "to speak" or the [[w:Verbal noun|verbal noun]] "speaking".
* ''wèx. -e-'' denotes the inner nominative, so this word means "a sender of speaking" or "a speaker".
* ''àrdh. ∅–dh'' (having a zero prestem) is the stem for "eat", ''-ar-'' denotes the inner locative: "a place of eating".
The customary [[w:Lemma (morphology)|citation form]] of a word is the one with inner factive.

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Primary cases and their descriptors
|-
! rowspan="3" | № !! rowspan="3" | Case vowel !! colspan="4" | Primary case suffix
|-
| none || l || rh || r
|-
! Plot cases !! Causal cases !! Temporal cases !! Spatial cases
|-
| 1 || a || factive ({{sc|fact}}): ''action'' || affirmative ({{sc|aff}}): ''fact (point in causal chain)'' || temporal ({{sc|temp}}): ''time'' || locative ({{sc|loc}}): ''place/region''
|-
| 2 || e || nominative ({{sc|nom}}): ''source, sender'' || causative ({{sc|caus}}): ''direct cause'' || ingressive ({{sc|ing}}): ''starting time'' || elative ({{sc|ela}}): ''starting point/region''
|-
| 3 || y || accusative ({{sc|acc}}): ''content'' || contextual ({{sc|ctx}}): ''causal context'' || durative ({{sc|dur}}): ''duration'' || extensive ({{sc|ext}}): ''spatial extent''
|-
| 4 || i || dative ({{sc|dat}}): ''sink, recipient'' || consecutive ({{sc|cons}}): ''direct consequence, effect'' || egressive ({{sc|egr}}): ''closing time'' || illative ({{sc|ill}}): ''end point / ending region''
|-
| 5 || o || tentive ({{sc|ten}}): ''intention'' || intentive ({{sc|int}}): ''intention (intended point in causal chain)'' || episodic ({{sc|eps}}): ''episode, "act"'' || scenic ({{sc|sce}}): ''scene, "stage"''
|-
| 6 || ö || comitative ({{sc|com}}): ''company'' || persuasive ({{sc|psu}}): ''reason'' || digressive ({{sc|dig}}): ''time away from which'' || ablative ({{sc|abl}}): ''place/region away from which''
|-
| 7 || u || instrumental ({{sc|ins}}): ''means, tool'' || motivational ({{sc|mot}}): ''motivational context'' || progressive ({{sc|prog}}): ''time that is passed'' || prolative ({{sc|prol}}): ''crossing point/region''
|-
| 8 || ü || benefactive ({{sc|ben}}): ''beneficiary'' || final ({{sc|fin}}): ''purpose, aim'' || aggressive ({{sc|agg}}): ''time towards which, temporal aim'' || allative ({{sc|all}}): ''place/region towards which, spatial aim''
|}
Each primary case has two corresponding secondary cases:
* a partitive case formed by adding ''ng'' (such as ''-ing-'' for the partitive dative or ''-erng-'' for the partitive elative) with the descriptor ''the set from which the source (sink, place, etc.) is thought to be taken'': ''wèngx.'' is "the set from which the speaker is thought to be taken", i.e. "the speaker, among others".
* a qualitative case formed by adding ''m'', with the descriptor ''the basis of comparison for the source (sink, place, etc.)'': ''wèmx.'' informally translates as "someone like a speaker".

===The plot===
Every action denoted by a stem is considered a flow of information that comes from a source (sender), transports a content, and reaches a sink (a recipient). The terms "sender" and "recipient" may be more familiar, but "source" and "sink" are more accurate in not necessarily meaning living beings.

Consequently, a Lemizh action looks somewhat like this: '''nominative  accusative[[File:DreieckGreenMIDDLE.png|26px|link=]] dative'''

This is called the action's plot. Here are some examples:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative
|-
| ''wàx.'' "to speak, to talk, to tell; (an action of) speaking" || ''wèx.'' "one telling something" || ''wỳx.'' "a tale" || ''wìx.'' "one who is told something"
|-
| ''dà.'' "to give; (an action of) giving" || ''dè.'' "one giving something" || ''dỳ.'' "a gift" || ''dì.'' "one who is given something; one who gets something"
|-
| ''làzhw.'' "to help" || ''lèzhw.'' "one helping" || ''lỳzhw.'' "help (given)" || ''lìzhw.'' "one whom is helped"
|-
| ''mlàtx.'' "to melt" || ''mlètx.'' "one melting something" || [''mlỳtx.''] || ''mlìtx.'' "a melted thing"
|-
| ''xöàgh.'' "to produce a sound; to hear" || ''xöègh.'' "one producing a sound" || ''xöỳgh.'' "a sound" || ''xöìgh.'' "one hearing something"
|-
| ''àdh.'' "to feed; to eat" || ''èdh.'' "one feeding someone" || ''ỳdh.'' "food" || ''ìdh.'' "one being fed; one eating"
|-
| ''ià.'' "to love" || ''iè.'' "one loving someone, a lover" || ''iỳ.'' "a beloved" || ''iì.'' "a beloved"
|}
Importantly, there are no rules for which cases to use with which words. Both ''iỳ.'' ({{sc|acc}}) and ''iì.'' ({{sc|dat}}) mean "a beloved". The former describes the beloved as the content of love, the one being lovingly thought of, while the latter implies that the love reaches them, like words or gifts reach their recipient. Likewise, the reason why ''mlỳtx.'' is not translated in the table above isn't that "''melt'' does not take the accusative", as grammars of other languages would say, but that "a content of melting" does not seem to have any obvious meaning. If someone wanted to describe, say, sun rays as content transported from the sun to the snow to melt it, they could well use ''mlỳtx.'' to express the concept.

Case usage is governed solely by the cases' descriptors; it is up to the speaker how to use them given some word's meaning and some context. If the wind opens a door, is it the source of the action of opening (''ngèt.''), the means of opening (''ngùt.''), or the cause (''ngèlt.'')? All are grammatically correct; the speaker decides which possibility best expresses their intention.

===Nouns===
:''Nouns, adjectives and verbs do not correspond to any concepts in Lemizh grammar. Using these terms is just an attempt to describe the grammar from an Indo-European viewpoint.''
A large number of nouns are not derived from verbs in most languages: ''froth, ship, lion'' and many others. In Lemizh, however, we have verbs such as ''psràxk.'' "to froth", ''àksh.'' "to build a ship or ships", and ''làw.'' "to make a lion or lions". We will call these ''nominal verbs''.

Looking at the verb ''àksh.'', the shipwright ({{sc|nom}}) gives the building materials ({{sc|dat}}) the properties or the function of a ship ({{sc|acc}}). He confers, well, shipness on the materials. The shipness is sent by the shipwright, not because he is acting, but because he is the source: the image of the ship, so to say, comes from his head and materialises in wood, iron, ropes, and linen. In short, these words mostly appear with inner accusative.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative
|-
| ''psràxk.'' "to froth" || ''psrèxk.'' "one frothing something" || ''psrỳxk.'' "a thing having the properties of froth = '''froth'''" || ''psrìxk.'' "a frothed thing, a frothed liquid"
|-
| ''àksh.'' "to build a ship" || ''èksh.'' "one building a ship, a shipwright" || ''ỳksh.'' "a thing having the properties of a ship = '''a ship'''" || ''ìksh.'' "building materials for a ship, materials made into a ship"
|-
| ''làw.'' "to make a lion" || [''lèw.'' "one making a lion"] || ''lỳw.'' "a thing having the properties of a lion = '''a lion'''" || [''lìw.'' "building materials for a lion, materials made into a lion"]
|}

Nouns expressing job titles and the like mostly have inner nominatives because professions are often about producing or selling something, or about providing a kind of service:
* ''ghexè.'' "baker" from ''ghexà.'' "to bake",
* ''saxèf.'' "trumpeter" from ''saxàf.'' "to play the trumpet",
* ''bèst.'' "hero" from ''bàst.'' "to do heroic deeds, to act as a hero".

Another very common kind of nouns are tool nouns, formed with an inner instrumental case:
* ''ghstù.'' "a sail" is derived from ''ghstà.'' "to sail", literally "a means of sailing",
* ''pslù.'' "scissors" from ''pslà.'' "to cut with scissors",
* ''saxùf.'' "a trumpet", also from ''saxàf.'',
* ''skrùzh.'' "a finger" from ''skràzh.'' "to work with one's fingers".

====Inflection====
As mentioned above, all words can inflect for (outer) case. Thus, we have the nominative forms ''wàx'''e''''' "(an action of) speaking, talking, telling", ''dè'''e''''' "a giver", ''lỳw'''e''''' "a lion", the causative ''lỳw'''el''''' "because of a lion", the elative ''lỳw'''er''''' "(starting) from a lion", etc.

Lemizh words do not inflect for number or gender. If desired, we can express this information by forming compounds. (Note the duplication of the inner case vowel; the first occurrence in each word is called the epenthetic case of the compound. The underlying grammar is described [[#Compounds|further down]].)
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Singular !! Dual !! Plural !! Feminine !! Masculine !! Feminine singular !! etc.
|-
! giver
| ''dè.'' || ''de'''rè'''.'' || ''de'''dwè'''.'' || ''de'''mlè'''.'' || ''de'''bè'''.'' || ''de'''èx'''.'' || ''de'''berè'''.''
|-
! lion
| ''lỳw.'' || ''lyw'''rỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''dwỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''mlỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''bỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''ỳx'''.'' || ''lyw'''byrỳ'''.''
|-
! compound with
| — || ''rỳ.'' "one" || ''dwỳ.'' "two" || ''mlỳ.'' "several" || ''bỳ.'' "female; woman" || ''ỳx.'' "male; man" || "female" and "one"
|}

===Adjectives and the like===
There is no difference between adjectival and nominal verbs: they mostly appear with inner accusative. This is the same situation as in, say, Latin, where ''albus'' can mean "a white one" as well as "white". Negators and numerals are sub-categories of adjectives.

The inner consecutive case translates certain abstract nouns.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative !! Inner consecutive
|-
| ''làbdh.'' "to whiten something, to make something white" || ''lèbdh.'' "one whitening something" || ''lỳbdh.'' "a white thing; '''white'''" || ''lìbdh.'' "a thing made white; whitened" || ''lìlbdh.'' "the consequence of whitening = whiteness"
|-
| ''gmrà.'' "to warm, to make something warm" || ''gmrè.'' "one warming something" || ''gmrỳ.'' "a warm thing; '''warm'''" || ''gmrì.'' "a warmed thing; warmed" || ''gmrìl.'' "the consequence of warming = warmth"
|-
| ''ngà.'' "to make something nonexistent" || ''ngè.'' "one making something nonexistent" || ''ngỳ.'' "(something) '''nonexistent'''" || ''ngì.'' "something made nonexistent, something destroyed" || ''ngìl.'' "the consequence of making nonexistent = nothingness"
|-
| ''dwà.'' "to make two things/individuals" || ''dwè.'' "one making two things" || ''dwỳ.'' "'''two''' (things)" || ''dwì.'' "something made into two (things)" || ''dwìl.'' "the consequence of making two things = twoness"
|}

However, emotions aren't viewed as properties in Lemizh: a happy or angry person is one sending happiness or anger, just as a loving person is one sending love. The inner causative plays a notable role with verbs of emotion.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative !! Inner causative
|-
| ''pthàb.'' "to be angry" || ''pthèb.'' "an angry one; '''angry'''" || ''pthỳb.'' "the content/object of one's anger" || ''pthìb.'' "one that one's anger reaches" || ''pthèlb.'' "one causing someone anger; one annoying someone"
|}

====Inflection====
Evidently, adjectives can be compounded to express number and/or gender in the same way as nouns. Furthermore, we can form compounds expressing various degrees. (The epenthetic consecutive ''-il-'' in these compounds will also be explained later; it is actually the main application of the abstract nouns just mentioned.)
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Diminutive !! Augmentative !! Absolute !! Comparative !! Superlative
|-
! warm
| ''gmrỳ.'' || ''gmril'''zhrỳ'''.'' "cold" || ''gmril'''dmỳ'''.'' "hot" || ''gmril'''ghngỳ'''.'' "absolutely hot" || ''gmril'''tỳzhd'''.'' "warmer, hotter" || ''gmril'''ỳst'''.'' "hottest"
|-
! white
| ''lỳbdh.'' || ''lilbdh'''zhrỳ'''.'' "whitish" || ''lilbdh'''dmỳ'''.'' "very white" || ''lilbdh'''ghngỳ'''.'' "purely white" || ''lilbdh'''tỳzhd'''.'' "whiter" || ''lilbdh'''ỳst'''.'' "whitest"
|-
! compound with
| — || ''zhrỳ.'' "few, little, a bit" || ''dmỳ.'' "much, many" || ''ghngỳ.'' "every, all, the whole" || ''tỳzhd.'' "more" || ''ỳst.'' "most"
|}
Further examples are ''gmril'''bdhỳ'''.'' "lukewarm" and ''lilbdh'''ngỳ'''.'' "black", the latter being a compound with the negator ''ngỳ''.

===Verbs===
Most verbs correspond to Lemizh words with an inner factive. However, as Lemizh stems always denote an action, the notable exception are stative verbs such as:
* ''zdìls.'' "to sit", literally "the consequence of sitting down (''zdàs.'')"
* ''gwìlt.'' "to know", literally "the consequence of learning (''gwàt.'')"

====Inflection====
* Person is not expressed with inflection but with [[#Relative pronouns|pronouns]].
* Number is conveyed by compounding pronouns with numerals. While verbs (i.e. words with an inner factive) can be compounded with numerals, ''ftrask'''mlà'''.'' does not mean "we/they sneeze" but "(there are) several acts of sneezing" (i.e. someone sneezes several times and/or several people sneeze).
* Voice (active/passive) is absent in Lemizh; word order serves a similar function.
* Tense is expressed by compounds with an epenthetic temporal case (''-arh-''), or with certain inner cases. The latter option is preferred if possible, as it is more concise.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Present !! Past !! Perfect !! Future !! Intentional
|-
! to sit down
| ''zdàs.'' || ''zdarhs'''wà'''.'' || ''zdarhs'''prilkà'''.'' || ''zd'''ìl'''s.'' ({{sc|cons}}) || ''zdarhs'''prà'''.'' || ''zd'''ò'''s.'' ({{sc|ten}})
|-
! compound with
| — || pronoun || ''prilkỳ.'' "back" || — || ''prỳ.'' "front" || —
|}
Note that the translation of the perfect with inner consecutive coincides with the translation of stative verbs: "having sat down" in the strict perfect sense of "the consequence/effect of this action exists" means the same as "to sit". Likewise, "whiteness" can be expressed as the abstract concept of "having whitened something".

* Mood corresponds to compounds with certain verbs for the most part. There is no equivalent to the subjunctive mood, as subordinate clauses are irreal (i.e. not necessarily real) by default. Here are some common formations:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Indicative !! Imperative !! Commanding imperative !! Interrogative Polite imperative !! Optative
|-
! to feed, to eat
| ''àdh.'' || ''adh'''pràk'''.'' || ''adh'''dàxt'''.'' || ''adh'''pà'''.'' || ''adh'''làxt'''.''
|-
! compound with
| — || ''pràk.'' "to request" || ''dàxt.'' "to command" || ''pà.'' "to ask" || ''làxt.'' "to want"
|}
* Aspect is a very diverse category, expressed by a variety of compounds and syntactic structures in Lemizh.

===Pronouns===
The two demonstrative pronouns are technically nominal verbs:
* ''tà.'' "to make this/that one", typically used with inner accusative: ''tỳ.'' "this/that (one)"
* ''gwà.'' "to make someone/anyone, something/anything", with inner accusative ''gwỳ.'' "someone/anyone, something/anything"

The eleven relative pronouns play a far more prominent role in Lemizh grammar. Their scope is much wider than the one usually associated with the term. As they are closely tied to Lemizh syntax, they are described [[#Relative pronouns|further down]].

==Syntax==
===Level of words===
There is only one more grammatical category: the level of words, which is the main building block of Lemizh syntax. A word can be of first level (the highest), of second level (the next highest), of third level (still one level lower) and so on; there is no limit for the number of levels, but non-positive word levels (zero, −1, etc.) are forbidden.

The first word in a sentence (the main predicate) is of first level by definition. The level of the next word is determined by the main predicate's accent and by the type of pause between the two words, the level of the third word is determined by the accent of the second and the pause between these two, and so on.

Here is the complete list of pause/accent combinations.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="2" | Following pause !! rowspan="2" | Accented vowel !! rowspan="2" | Type of accent !! rowspan="2" | The level of the next word is …
|-
! in speech !! in writing
|-
| rowspan="4" | barely audible || rowspan="4" | space || rowspan="2" | inner case || low || lower by 1
|-
| high || lower by 1, and [[w:Agent (grammar)|agentive]]* ({{sc|a}})
|-
| rowspan="2" | outer case || low || equal
|-
| high || higher by 1
|-
| rowspan="4" | a bit longer || rowspan="4" | comma ('''·''') || rowspan="2" | inner case || low || higher by 2
|-
| high || higher by 3
|-
| rowspan="2" | outer case || low || higher by 4
|-
| high || higher by 5
|-
| the longest || full stop ('''∶''') || inner case || low || none; end of sentence
|}
<nowiki>*</nowiki> The agent is the initiator of the action (more informally, the one who ''does'' the action).

===The Rules===
[[File:Lemizh parse tree.png|thumb|upright=1.5|A schematic sentence with the words represented by their level numbers]]
The word levels determine the structure of a sentence.

'''Rule One of sentence grammar. A word of level n is subordinate to the nearest word of level n−1 in front of it; the parole acts as a word of level zero.'''

All words of second level are subordinate to the main predicate (which has first level). A word of third level is subordinate to the next second-level word in front of it, and so on. In other words, Lemizh sentences are strictly [[w:Head directionality|head-first]]. The main predicate itself is subordinate to the [[w:Parole (linguistics)|parole]], the action of speaking (or writing) the sentence in question, which consequently has level zero.

'''Rule Two. An object of a word in a sentence is a word subordinate to the former, its predicate, plus all of its own objects.'''

In the diagram, the main predicate's three objects are enclosed in ellipses. Objects of the same word are called ''sibling objects'' or just ''siblings'', and the word they are subordinate to is their ''predicate''. Note that ''predicate'' and ''object'' are relative terms like ''parent'' and ''child''.

The table of level markers implies that only the first object of a predicate can be marked as agent. (This has been interpreted as Lemizh having VSO word order, although a subject is not quite the same as an agent, and Lemizh grammar strictly speaking does not have the concept of a subject.)

'''Rule Three. The outer case of the first word of an object defines its relation to its predicate's stem via its descriptor; the outer case of a level 1 word is zero.'''

This is what we would expect from a language that inflects for case: the nominative object defines the source (sender) of the action named by the stem of its predicate, the accusative object its content, the temporal object its time, etc.

'''Examples'''
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dá föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|give-FACT-1 {Father Christmas}-ACC-'''NOM'''-2A bottle-ACC-'''ACC'''-2 Lucy-ACC-'''DAT'''-2.
|''Father Christmas gives Lucy a bottle.''}}

The stems of the three objects are nominal verbs ("to make a bottle" etc.), hence the inner accusatives. The outer cases indicate the sender, content and recipient of the action of giving, respectively. The agent is specified independently of the plot arrow; note the difference:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dá lusyì dwywỳ föpysrỳfe.
|give-FACT-1 Lucy-ACC-'''DAT'''-2A bottle-ACC-'''ACC'''-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-'''NOM'''-2.
|''Lucy takes a bottle from Father Christmas.''}}

We need not mark an object as agentive if we consider this information unimportant. The English translations are only rough approximations:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dà lusyì dwywỳ föpysrỳfe.
|give-FACT-1 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2 bottle-ACC-ACC-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2.
|''Lucy gets a bottle from Father Christmas. Lucy is given a bottle by Father Christmas.''}}

Rule Three defines outer case in a way that mirrors the definition of inner case. This allows for an operation called '''inversion''' (symbolized "⇔"):
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|làzhw wèxi. ⇔ wáx lìzhwe.
|help-FACT-1 speak-'''NOM'''-'''DAT'''-2. ⇔ speak-FACT-1 help-'''DAT'''-'''NOM'''-2A.
|''[Someone] helps the speaker. ⇔ The one being helped speaks.''}}

Both sentences claim that the sender of speaking is the recipient of helping. The equation is ''wèx.'' = ''lìzhw.'', the speaker = the one being helped.

'''Rule Four. An instance of a word stem designates a specific action.'''

''dà'' in the above sentence does not just mean "to give", it refers to one specific action of giving. Such an action may involve several givers (as in "They give something") and need not even be temporally or spatially contiguous (as in "They are giving something every Christmas"). In other words, each spoken or written instance of the stem ''d–'' refers to a certain subset of all the giving there is.

This rule ensures that all the objects refer to the same action of giving as the predicate itself.

'''Rule Five. A case characterises the action it refers to completely with regard to its case descriptor.'''

For example, the nominative object "Father Christmas" has to name the complete sender of the above instance of giving. This excludes from this instance all giving not done by Father Christmas. So each object places a restriction on the action of giving the main predicate refers to. Thus, the subset of giving meant by this instance of ''dà.'' – what the sentence is ultimately talking about – is defined more and more precisely with each additional object. (This is true not only of the main predicate but of all words in a sentence. Also, as inner and outer cases can be interconverted via inversion, this rule applies to inner cases as well.)

'''Rule Six. A missing object is equivalent to the absence of information about its descriptor.'''

Above sentences do not have, for example, locative objects, so Rule Five cannot place a restriction on the place of giving. Because of Rule Six, this does not mean there are no restrictions on the location, but only that this kind of information has not been included in the sentence (for example, because the speaker does not know about it, considers it irrelevant, assumes that the listener already knows or – perhaps most importantly – that the listener can infer it). In fact, everything not useful for understanding a sentence should be omitted to save the listener processing effort. (See the inversion example above, which omits the nominative "someone".)

Rules Five and Six imply that every instance of a word has exactly one action (which, however, need not be contiguous), one sender (which may consist of several people), and so on: Five excludes additional senders if one nominative object is already present, and Six gives meaning to missing objects, establishing them as an integral part of Lemizh sentence grammar.

'''Rule Seven. Given an object and its predicate, the predicate is considered more real and the object more hypothetical.'''
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive; 3:third level
|láxt föpysryfè dày dwywỳ lusỳi.
|want-FACT-1 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2A give-FACT-ACC-2 bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3.
|''Father Christmas wants to give Lucy a bottle.'' (The action of giving is the content of the wish. The nominative object of "give", which is also Father Christmas, is omitted per Rule Six.)}}

This sentence contains the information that Father Christmas wants something (i.e. to give Lucy a bottle), but not that he actually gives something (i.e. Lucy a bottle). The main predicate "want", so to speak, lives in the world the sentence is talking about (more formally, the world of the parole), which is the more real, while its object "give Lucy a bottle" lives in the world of his wish, which is the more hypothetical. The parole, having level zero, acts as the predicate to the sentence as a whole and is therefore still more real. This reflects the fact that the parole is part of the real world; it is as real as anything linguistic can be. Turning this around, we see that the sentence is more hypothetical than reality: it can be a metaphor or some other figure of speech, a statement about a fictional or otherwise imagined world, an error, a lie, a linguistic example sentence, etc. We call the main predicate's kind of reality, the one that is just one level more hypothetical than the parole and the real world, ''grammatical reality''.

The bottle and Lucy, having third level, are still more hypothetical than the action of giving; their existence does not follow from grammar but from logic and context: someone nonexistent cannot be given something. A better example would be "I see white mice", where the existence of the mice may or may not be inferred from context such as the amount of alcohol I have drunk.

In the sentence "I think that Father Christmas wants to give Lucy a bottle", "to think" is grammatically real, while the other two verbs, so to say, are pushed down one degree of reality. Furthermore, inversion changes degrees of reality:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|làxt dày. ⇔ dà lỳxta.
|want-FACT-1 give-'''FACT'''-'''ACC'''-2. ⇔ give-FACT-1 want-'''ACC'''-'''FACT'''-2.
|''[He] wants to give. ⇔ [He] gives "wantingly", i.e. gladly.''}}

There is no real difference between phrases and complete sentences in Lemizh:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! as an object (hypothetical) !! as a main predicate / complete sentence (grammatically real)
|-
| ''dà.'' || to give; giving || An action of giving exists = Someone gives something.
|-
| ''zdìls.'' || the consequence of sitting down = to sit; sitting || The consequence of sitting down exists = Someone sits.
|-
| ''dwìlw.'' || the consequence of making a bottle || The consequence of making a bottle exists = A bottle exists; there is a bottle.
|-
| ''sklè.'' || one building a bridge || One building a bridge exists = There is someone building a bridge.
|}

===Noun phrases===
Forming noun phrases does not require any new grammatical rules. Taking the first example sentence from above and changing the inner case of "give" to the nominative yields "one giving something, a giver". The objects are still sender, content and recipient of the ''action'' of giving, as outer cases define relations to the predicate's ''stem'' per Rule Three:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dé föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|give-'''NOM'''-1 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2A bottle-ACC-ACC-2 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2.
|''[There is] one giving Lucy a bottle, Father Christmas.''}}

Rules Four and Five guarantee that the giver is identical to Father Christmas: both are the sender of the same instance of the stem ''d–'' "give" (the giver via its inner nominative, Father Christmas via its outer nominative), and both are the ''complete'' sender of this action. This type of construction, where an object's outer case matches its predicate's inner case, is called a '''bracket'''. Brackets are very widely used:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Apposition !! Attributive adjective !! Attributive pronoun/determiner !! Attributive numeral !! Attributive participle
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|iakopỳk saxèfy.
|Jacopo-'''ACC'''-1 trumpet-NOM-'''ACC'''-2.
|''Jacopo, a trumpeter''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=INS:instrumental case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|ghstù lỳbdhu.
|sail-'''INS'''-1 white-ACC-'''INS'''-2.
|''a sail, a white thing = a white sail''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|ỳksh gwỳy.
|ship-'''ACC'''-1 some-ACC-'''ACC'''-2.
|''a ship, something = some ship''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|mỳs trỳy.
|mouse-'''ACC'''-1 three-ACC-'''ACC'''-2.
|''mice, three individuals = three mice''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|nỳzd gangèy.
|bird-'''ACC'''-1 sing-NOM-'''ACC'''-2.
|''a bird, a singer = a singing bird''}}
|}
Such phrases can be easily extended. This example contains two accusative brackets ("a singing bird" and "a sad child"):
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 4:fourth level
|ngỳzd gangèy zhngỳi speghý ytfỳarh.
|bird-ACC-1 sing-NOM-ACC-2 child-ACC-DAT-3 sad-NOM-ACC-4 night-ACC-TEMP-3.
|''a bird singing to a sad child at night''}}

Adverbially used adjectives are phrased with factive brackets:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|gangà txỳska.
|sing-'''FACT'''-1 loud-ACC-'''FACT'''-2.
|''(an action of) singing, a loud thing = loud singing = singing loudly, to sing loudly'' (Compare "to give gladly" above, under Rule Seven.)}}

However, changing the predicate's inner case leaves the object's outer factive intact, losing the bracket:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|gangè txỳska.
|sing-'''NOM'''-1 loud-ACC-FACT-2.
|''a loud singer = someone singing loudly'' (The action of singing is a loud thing.)}}

As '''[[w:Genitive construction|genitive constructions]]''' have a wide variety of meanings, there is no single Lemizh equivalent. The typical translation for constructions indicating possession is with the benefactive case, but other cases frequently occur. Everything depends on the object's relation to the predicate's stem per Rule Three:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|dwỳw lusỳü.
|bottle-ACC-1 Lucy-ACC-'''BEN'''-2.
|''Lucy's bottle'' (Lucy is the beneficiary of making the bottle. The bottle is made for Lucy.)}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dý ỳxe.
|give-ACC-1 male-ACC-'''NOM'''-2A.
|''the man's gift'' (The man is the sender of giving.)}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|rhỳst ytfỳarh filpskỳy.
|dream-ACC-1 night-ACC-'''TEMP'''-2 midsummer-ACC-ACC-3.
|''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' (The midsummer night is the time of dreaming.)}}

Phrases with the conjunction '''"and"''' translate to several objects in the same outer case with inner partitives. Thanks to Rule Five, the recipient of "to give" in this sentence literally is "the set from which Peter is thought to be taken, which is equal to the set from which Susan is thought to be taken, which is equal to the set from which Lucy is thought to be taken":
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=PARTACC:partitive accusative case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dá föpysryfè petyngsì susngyngì lusỳngi.
|give-FACT-1 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2A Peter-PARTACC-DAT-2 Susan-PARTACC-DAT-2 Lucy-PARTACC-DAT-2.
|''Father Christmas gives [something] to Peter, Susan and Lucy.''}}

===Dependent clauses===
Dependent clauses employ the same principles as above, as we have seen with the sentence "Father Christmas wants '''to give Lucy a bottle'''" under Rule Seven.

The difference between English gerund clauses and that-clauses roughly translates into a difference between an inner factive (''action'') and an inner affirmative (''fact''):
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 3A:third level, agentive
|dmàt tryxkì dáe föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|see-FACT-1 beaver-ACC-DAT-2 give-'''FACT'''-NOM-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-3A bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3.
|''The beaver sees [the action of] Father Christmas giving Lucy a bottle.'' (The beaver is at the receiving end of the optical stimulus or information, hence the dative. The dependent clause could also be in the accusative to focus on the optical information transmitted to the beaver.)}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; AFF:affirmative case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 3A:third level, agentive
|dmàt tryxkì dále föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|see-FACT-1 beaver-ACC-DAT-2 give-'''AFF'''-NOM-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-3A bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3.
|''The beaver sees [the fact of] Father Christmas giving Lucy a bottle. The beaver sees '''that''' Father Christmas gives Lucy a bottle.''}}

Some examples of dependent clauses translating into objects in various cases:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|fngà kshngày.
|try-FACT-1 shout-FACT-'''ACC'''-2.
|''[She] tried to shout [but this was difficult because of her sore throat].''}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|fngà kshngàu.
|try-FACT-1 shout-FACT-'''INS'''-2.
|''[She] tried shouting [as he hadn't heard her when she had spoken quietly].'' (Shouting is the means of trying.)}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PSU:persuasive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 4:fourth level
|pàf làxtöl dmàty föpysrỳfe.
|stand-FACT-1 want-FACT-'''PSU'''-2 see-FACT-ACC-3 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-4.
|''[He] stood up because [he] wanted to see Father Christmas.''}}

'''[[w:Relative clause|Relative clauses]]''' are structurally identical to attributive participles as described above; they are brackets: ''a bird which sings to a sad child at night = a bird singing to a sad child at night''. This is also true of clauses with relative adverbs:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level; 3A:third level, agentive
|ngỳw gangáry lỳbe.
|valley-'''ACC'''-1 sing-LOC-'''ACC'''-2 flower-ACC-NOM-3A.
|''a valley, a place of the singing of flowers = a valley where flowers sing''}}

Adverbially used relative clauses, unsurprisingly, are factive brackets:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive; 3:third level
|shrá wygwè rashkỳa bỳe.
|yelp-'''FACT'''-1 dog-ACC-NOM-2A dislike-ACC-'''FACT'''-2 female-ACC-NOM-3.
|''The dog is yelping, which the girl doesn't like.''}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PSU:persuasive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive; 3A:third level, agentive
|shrá wygwè ö́ldha bỳe.
|yelp-'''FACT'''-1 dog-ACC-NOM-2A eat-PSU-'''FACT'''-2 female-ACC-NOM-3A.
|''The dog is yelping, wherefore the girl feeds it.''}}

===Predicative===
[[w:Predicative expression|Predicatives]], like all sentences, follow the plot arrow:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|ghát zhngyè bestỳ lusỳi.
|name-FACT-1 child-ACC-'''NOM'''-2A hero-NOM-'''ACC'''-2 Lucy-ACC-'''DAT'''-2.
|''The children called Lucy a hero.'' (The children gave the designation of hero to Lucy.)}}

Predicatives with the verb "to make" typically correspond to Lemizh sentences with a nominal or adjectival verb as the main predicate. This can be interpreted as the accusative object – here "ill" – being absorbed ("swallowed up") by the main predicate:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|mà ydhè gwilbkyỳ wỳgwi. → gwilbkà ydhè wỳgwi.
|make-FACT-1 eat-ACC-'''NOM'''-2 ill-ACC-'''ACC'''-2 dog-ACC-'''DAT'''-2. → ill-FACT-1 eat-ACC-NOM-2 dog-ACC-DAT-2.
|''The food made the dog ill.'' (The food gave the property of being ill to the dog.)}}

The verb "to be" translates as the corresponding perfect form, i.e. with inner consecutive of the main predicate:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=CONS:consecutive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|lìlbdh lỳghi.
|white-'''CONS'''-1 house-ACC-DAT-2.
|''The house is [painted] white.'' (The house has been given the property of being white. The house has been whitened.)}}

The above are called resultative predicatives, describing the result of some property being conferred on someone or something. A depictive predicative describes an inherent property; this is achieved with an accusative object:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=CONS:consecutive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|drulìl werhèy.
|shrub-CONS-1 hazel-NOM-'''ACC'''-2.
|''The hazel is a shrub.'' (The hazel has the properties of a shrub.)}}
(Side note: The stem of ''werhè.'' "hazel" means "to make hazelnuts", hence the inner nominative. The nuts are called ''werhỳ.'', with inner accusative. Other plants bearing edible fruits follow the same pattern.)

===Relative pronouns===
Stems of relative pronouns (not to be confused with the pronouns of the same name in English or Latin) refer to actions by pointing to another stem or to a parole: they are [[w:Anaphora (linguistics)|anaphoric]]. Here is the full list:
{| class="wikitable"
! rowspan="2" | Level !! colspan="2" | Type I !! colspan="2" | Type II
|-
! Verb !! The target is the stem of !! Verb !! The target is the stem of
|-
| n || colspan="2" | (does not occur because it would refer to itself) || à. || its preceding same-level word
|-
| n−1 || wà. || its predicate || fà. || its predicate's preceding same-level word or parole
|-
| n−2 || dhà. || its predicate's predicate || thà. || its predicate's predicate's preceding same-level word or parole
|-
| n−3 || zà. || its predicate's predicate's predicate || sà. || …
|-
| n−4 || zhà. || … || shà. || …
|-
| n−5 || ghà. || … || xà. || …
|}
They are highly versatile, corresponding to various structures in other languages. Recall that a sentence's parole has level zero:
{| class="wikitable"
! Reflexive !! First person (singular) !! Second person
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|wáx wìe.
|speak-FACT-1 PIn−1-'''DAT'''-'''NOM'''-2A.
|''to talk to oneself. He is talking to himself.'' (The recipient of speaking is its sender.)}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dráw dhèe.
|dance-FACT-1 PIn−2-'''NOM'''-NOM-2A.
|''I am dancing.'' (The sender of the parole is the sender of dancing.)}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dráw dhìe.
|dance-FACT-1 PIn−2-'''DAT'''-NOM-2A.
|''You are dancing.'' (The recipient of the parole is the sender of dancing.)}}
|}
Rule Four of sentence grammar ensures that the reflexive example means "He is talking to himself" as opposed to, say, "He is talking to one being talked to" (which would be ''wáx wìxe.'' speak-{{sc|fact}}-1 speak-{{sc|dat-nom}}-2{{sc|a}}, with two different instances of the stem "speak").

{| class="wikitable"
! Possessive determiner !! Vocative
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=CONS:consecutive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|zdìls ngỳzdy zeú tỳar.
|seat-CONS-1 bird-ACC-ACC-2 PIn−3-'''NOM'''-BEN-3 this-ACC-LOC-2.
|''My bird is sitting there.'' (The sender of the parole is the beneficiary of making a bird.)}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=PI:pronoun type I; FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive; 3:third level
|wáx dheè zdhèzhi zìe.
|speak-FACT-1 PIn−2-NOM-NOM-2A friend-NOM-DAT-2 PIn−3-'''DAT'''-NOM-3.
|''Friend, I am talking to you.'' (The recipient of the parole is the friend: nominative bracket.)}}
|}

The type II pronoun in the following example points to the stem of eating. With the inner accusative, the pronoun refers to the content of eating, which is the sweet. (As with brackets, Rules Four and Five guarantee that the pronoun refers to the same content of the same action of eating as mentioned in the first sentence.)
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; PII:pronoun type II; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|ádh dheì mlỳdhy. ràsh fỳy.
|eat-FACT-1 PIn−2-NOM-DAT-2A sweet-ACC-ACC-2. like-FACT-1 PIIn−1-'''ACC'''-ACC-2.
|''I am eating a sweet. [I] like it.''}}

==Derivational morphology==
From a Lemizh point of view, ''dè.'' "giver" and ''dỳ.'' "gift" aren't derivatives of ''dà.'' "to give" but grammatical forms of the same word. The only piece of true derivational morphology is compounding.

===Compounds===
[[File:Lemizh compounding diagram.png|thumb|Forming a compound from a two-word sentence]]
'''Rule One of compounding. A compound word is constructed from a two-word sentence – predicate and object of which become modifier and head of the compound, respectively – in the following way:'''
# '''Prestem''':
## the object's prestem
## the object's inner case
## the object's poststem
## an optional separator
## the predicate's prestem
# '''Inner case'''
# '''Poststem''': the predicate's poststem
# '''Outer case'''
Note that the object's stem comes before the predicate's; and also that the object's outer case (and, less importantly, the predicate's inner case) is lost. The object's inner case becomes part of the compound's prestem and is then called its ''epenthetic case''. The separator can be used, for example, if the word boundary would be unclear otherwise, or for placing the second part of the word on a new line.

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|làxt àdhy. ⇒ adhlàxt.
|want-FACT-1 eat-FACT-ACC-2. ⇒ eat-FACT-want-FACT-1.
|''[She] wants to eat.'' (See the inflection of [[#Verbs|verbs]].)}}
In this example, the lost accusative ending has to be deduced from context.

'''Rule Two. In the relationship between the original predicate and object, the rules of sentence grammar are retained as far as applicable.'''

The consequences of this rule are somewhat technical; but the last one, pertaining to degree of reality, is important for correctly interpreting compounds.
* Rules One to Three of sentence grammar are not applicable to compounds, as can be easily seen.
* Four: Both modifier and head are instantiations of specific actions in the original sentence (which however do not necessarily match the instantiation of the compound).
* Five: The epenthetic case characterises the head completely with regard to its descriptor.
* Six: The only overt object of the modifier is the head. All other objects are missing and thus indicate the absence of information about their descriptors.
* Seven: The modifier has a higher degree of reality than the head. Therefore, the above compound does not claim that she actually eats.

'''Rule Three. Regarding all outward relations, cases''' (i.e. the compound's inner case [not to be confused with its epenthetic case], the outer cases of its objects, and cases of pronouns referring to it) '''refer to the head.'''
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|adhkmàr mlỳdhy.
|eat-FACT-allow-LOC-1 sweet-ACC-ACC-2.
|''a place where one may eat sweets; a place for eating sweets''}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|ngengadàxt fỳta.
|run-FACT-must-FACT-1 fast-ACC-FACT-1
|''[He] has to run fast.''}}

These examples talk about the location of eating, as opposed to the location of allowing; about eating sweets, as opposed to allowing sweets; the running is fast, as opposed to the necessity; etc.

Number and gender of [[#Nouns|nouns]] are compounds from brackets which are first inverted to turn the more salient word into the compound's head: ''dè mlỳe. ⇔ mlỳ dèy.'' "several givers" ⇒ ''demlè.'' "givers". The inner nominative (''-e-'') becomes the epenthetic case, and the new inner case also has to be a nominative per Rule Three. ''demlỳ.'' (inner {{sc|acc}}), by contrast, is "something given by several people".

Compounds expressing degrees of [[#Adjectives and the like|adjectives]] are also formed from brackets. They have an epenthetic consecutive (''-il-''), which stems from the corresponding abstract noun: ''gmrìl dmỳil. ⇔ dmỳ gmrìly.'' "much warmth" ⇒ ''gmrildmìl.'' "heat" (abstract noun formed with inner {{sc|cons}}), ''gmrildmỳ.'' "hot" (adjective with inner {{sc|acc}}). Degrees of comparison are often combined with qualitative or partitive outer cases and with [[#Predicative|predicatives]]:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=CONS:consecutive case; QUALACC:qualitative accusative case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|prilghtìlzhd lyghỳ bỳghym.
|beautiful-CONS-more-CONS-1 house-ACC-ACC-2 garden-ACC-QUALACC-2.
|''The house is more beautiful than the garden.'' (The garden is the basis of comparison for the house.)}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=CONS:consecutive case; PARTACC:partitive accusative case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|prilghìlst lỳghy ziǘ ghngỳyng.
|beautiful-CONS-most-CONS-1 house-ACC-ACC-2 PIn−3-DAT-BEN-3 all-ACC-PARTACC-2.
|''Your house is the most beautiful of all [houses].'' (''All houses'' form the set from which your house is thought to be taken.)}}

The analogues of the present and future tenses are formed like so – note that inversion changes the pronoun's stem along with its level:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2:second level
|zdàs dhàarh. ⇔ wà zdàrhsa. ⇒ zdarhswà.
|seat-FACT-1 PIn−2-FACT-TEMP-2. ⇔ PIn−1-FACT-1 seat-TEMP-FACT-2. ⇒ seat-TEMP-PIn−1-FACT-1.
|''[She] sits down at the time of the parole. ⇒ [She] sits down now.''}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|zdàs prỳarh. ⇔ prỳ zdàrhsy. ⇒ zdarhsprà.
|seat-FACT-1 front-ACC-TEMP-2. ⇔ front-ACC-1 seat-TEMP-ACC-2. ⇒ seat-TEMP-front-FACT-1.
|''[She] sits down at a time in front [of the parole]. ⇒ [She] will sit down.''}}

==Example text==
[[File:Lemizh text sample.png|600px]]

===stedrỳzh thìrhfi xtrỳghy.===
krỳgh dghngireì prilxpilghkỳarh. mangỳ srungbỳng lyngghỳng yngshwỳng fỳü. zhöazhghngìl tmỳil. ghngàgzh smìa prỳal ghngyé dhàbdhy lunguỳ ùyl mỳu fplyxár tỳarh. dmát feì sxngengzè ishkènge. ghìlt krighmyngthxì xtrỳngghi swyshỳ ghỳxy fplyxòr zhöyzhỳm xngàrorm. dmìlt öngkrỳngty zhryỳ rèshy esfàsy sxngyzdmýi, usrỳngy xazhgèsty ghngỳeng, frekrỳngfy rilghdzhỳwby pthèby, dgheipysrỳngdy psrèby rhèzhem, dghistngỳngty ghỳxy zangỳa dghildhfmlýyrh, ngiftngyghtmỳngy krültlìy zùe gỳghda. xtrỳgh swyshý stedrỳzh thìrfi. dngilszhrìl bdhyrgzhyngỳng xüxtrỳngyng prilkỳarh ötìlil skmyngìlng ghỳngsilng. dngilszhìlwb ráxpy thìlfi. fö̀l gwiltngìlöl dmàty föpysryfỳ ngỳu.

rỳ zhryỳrh thìzgy gwiltngìly rhàghgy dmatngìe thìrfy. là xángska matngiè ytfỳyrh dmyý fplyxór dyxtngyngà mànga prilzhryngỳr iltỳngzhdyr. dmàt ytfỳarh ryý mìlngorh xngyì prilkyár mìlngorh xtrỳngghi kshrextý mengthxì prỳar zìe, fplỳngxe fywýr déngske xtryghè sxngezì xngỳnge.

===The Legend of the Seventh Planet===
A long time ago there was a tribe of nomads. They possessed neither writing nor houses nor horses. But they were truly human. They were curious; this means, above all, that they took interest in the useless, for the celestial objects were of no use to them yet. They looked at the Sun and the Moon. They had named the constellations and the six planets moving across the sky like the humans across the earth. They knew dim Mercury, who liked to hide in the glare of the Sun; Venus, the brightest of all; reddish and angry Mars; majestic father Jupiter; Saturn, who seemed to stand still for weeks; and even Uranus had been caught by their keen eyes. Six planets, and the legend of a seventh. Maybe it had been the minor planet Vesta, or a comet centuries or millennia earlier. Maybe it was the attraction of the number seven. For Neptune is invisible to the naked eye.

One youngster thought to himself that he could not live without seeing the seventh planet. He lay awake searching the sky for many nights, neglected his duties, and became thinner and thinner. And one night, lying with the Earth behind his back, and with the looping planets and the stars above him, he saw the depth of the sky and the planets circling the Sun, and among them the Earth.

==See also==
* [[Literature:The Tower of Babel#Lemizh|The Tower of Babel § Lemizh]]

==External links==
* [https://lemizh.conlang.org Lemizh homepage] with comprehensive coverage of the language, including a dictionary with etymologies, information on the language's pragmatics, and more background information
[[File:Copyleft1.png|20px]] ''This article is available under a [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License]. It includes material from the Lemizh homepage, which has the same license.''


[[Category:Languages]]
[[Category:Conlangs]]
[[Category:Indo-European languages]]
[[Category:Agglutinative languages]]

Lemizh

2022-05-28T09:02:55Z

Anypodetos: Rule Seven etc.

{{Infobox language
|image =
|imagesize =
|name = Lemizh
|nativename = lemỳzh.
|pronunciation = lɛmˈɯ̀ʒ
|state = Lemaria
|setting = Alternate history Europe
|created = 1985
|familycolor = Indo-European
|fam2 = Lemizh
|ancestor = Proto-Lemizh
|posteriori =
* [[w:Proto-Indo-European|PIE]]
* [[w:Occam's razor|Occam's razor]]
|creator = [[User:Anypodetos|Anypodetos]]
|scripts = Lemizh alphabet
|nation = Lemaria
|map = Map of Lemaria.png
|mapalt = The country of Lemaria lies to the north and west of the Black Sea. The capital, Shabar, is at the Dniester Liman or Estuary.
|notice = IPA
}}
'''Lemizh''' ([[Help:IPA|[lεmˈiʒ]]], native pronunciation: [[Help:IPA|[lɛmˈɯ̀ʒ]]]) is a language I invented with the aim of creating a grammar as regular and simple as possible. It was originally intended as an [[w:International auxiliary language|international auxiliary language]]. However, it turned out that a simple grammar is not necessarily a grammar that is easy to learn: the more ways of simplification I found, the further away it moved from [[w:Indo-European languages|Indo-European]] and probably all other familiar language structures. Expecting anyone to learn Lemizh, at this point, would be unrealistic.

So I needed a new justification for the language: enter the Lemizh, a people living to the west and north of the [[w:Black Sea|Black Sea]] in an alternate history that slowly drifted away from ours between two and eight millennia ago. Of course, it is extremely unlikely that they would speak a language that was completely without exceptions. To be precise, the chances are two to the power of two hundred and seventy-six thousand seven hundred and nine to one against. But they say that everything has to happen somewhere in the Multiverse; and everything happens only once.

{{TOC limit}}

==History==
===Early stages===
Lemizh is an Indo-European language and, together with Volgan, constitutes one of the ten recognised branches of the Indo-European language family. This branch is also called Lemizh, to the disgruntlement of Volgan linguists.

Proto-Lemizh, the ancestor of Lemizh and Volgan, is very poorly attested in form of some papyri found near the northwestern shore of the Black Sea, to the north of the [[w:Dniester Liman|Dniester Liman]], dated about 2700 BC. Old Lemizh, by contrast, is fairly well attested. It had predominantly [[w:Subject–verb–object|subject–verb–object]] (SVO) word order and was a quite typical old Indo-European language, but with a couple of interesting quirks:
* Adjectives were lost as a separate part of speech, being replaced with participles ("white" > "being white").
* Finite subordinate clauses had their subject in the case of the clause: the subject of a local clause was in the locative case without having a local meaning in itself.
The earliest known documents from this stage of Lemizh were probably written around 2100 BC along the northern and western shores of the Back Sea.

===Ghean and Middle Lemizh===
Ghean ([[Help:IPA|[ˈɣɛən]]]) is a language with no known genetic relationships. It was spoken by a people of unknown origin, who subdued the Lemizh tribes in around 1000 BC and ruled for infamous three generations. Ghean was an inflected [[w:Tonal language|register tonal]] language with strict [[w:Verb–subject–object|verb–subject–object]] (VSO) word order and head-first phrases. It had verbs, [[w:Nominal (linguistics)|nominals]] (a combined noun/adjective/participle part of speech), pronouns and particles.

The Gheans discouraged the use of the natives' language, but obviously tolerated Lemizh words (or rather word stems) to stand in for unfamiliar Ghean ones. The grammar of simple sentences was easy enough to learn for the Lemizh, as they were used to inflection and head-first phrases, and likely still knew VSO sentences from poetry. After two or three generations, the natives must have spoken a [[w:Creole language|creole]] with a more or less Ghean grammar but an abundance of Lemizh words, especially outside the core vocabulary. This is a rather unusual development as most creoles draw their lexicon mainly from the dominant group, and tend to be grammatically more innovative. (The Tanzanian language [[w:Mbugu language|Mbugu]] might have had a somewhat similar development with more or less analogous outcomes.) After the disappearance of the Gheans, Lemizh patriots tried to revive their old language, which failed spectacularly for the grammar but reintroduced many Lemizh words of the core vocabulary.

===The last three millennia===
While Middle Lemizh as spoken after the Ghean occupation already had a non-Indo-European and unusually regular grammar, this trend was to continue over the following millennia. The factive case was innovated to express verbal nouns, which eventually supplanted verbs altogether. (At least part of the blame goes to the Tlöngö̀l, an epic novel published in 1351, which popularised the use of verbal nouns.) The tonal system was simplified to the present two-way [[w:Pitch-accent language|pitch-accent]] system. Pronouns lost their status as a separate part of speech. The last particles died out a few hundred years ago, leaving the language with a single part of speech which is often called a "verb" but, historically speaking, is really a nominal. This means that the concept of ''parts of speech'' does not make sense in Modern Lemizh.

This article describes the dialect spoken to the north of the [[w:Danube Delta|Danube delta]], which prevailed against other variants and is considered the standard language today.

==Orthography and phonology==
The alphabet is [[w:Phonetic orthography|phonetic]]: each letter corresponds to a certain sound, and each sound is represented by a single letter. The direction of writing is left to right. This article uses the standard transcription of the native Lemizh alphabet:
{| class="wikitable" style="width: 800px; table-layout: fixed; text-align: center"
! colspan="29" | Letters of the Lemizh alphabet
|-
| colspan="29" style="padding: 0" | [[File:Lemizh alphabet.png|796px]]
|-
| a || e || y || i || o || ö || u || ü || l || rh || r || ng || m || g || d || b || k || t || p || gh || zh || z || dh || w || x || sh || s || th || f
|}

===Consonants===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="2" | !! bilabial !! dental !! alveolar !! postalveolar !! velar
|-
! colspan="2" | nasals
| m <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial nasal|m]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || || || ng <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar nasal|ŋ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! colspan="2" | plosives (voiceless • voiced)
| p <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless bilabial plosive|p]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • b <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial plosive|b]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || t <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless alveolar plosive|t]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • d <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar plosive|d]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || k <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless velar plosive|k]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • g <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar plosive|g]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! colspan="2" | fricatives (voiceless • voiced)
| f <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless bilabial fricative|ɸ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • w <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial fricative|β]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || th <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless dental fricative|θ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • dh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced dental fricative|ð]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || s <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless alveolar sibilant|s]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • z <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar sibilant|z]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || sh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless palato-alveolar fricative|ʃ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • zh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced palato-alveolar fricative|ʒ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || x <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless velar fricative|x]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • gh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar fricative|ɣ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! rowspan="3" | liquids || lateral approximant
| || || l <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar lateral approximant|l]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|-
! approximant
| || || rh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar approximant|ɹ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|-
! trill
| || || r <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar trill|r]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|}
The plosive-fricative combinations ''pf, ts, tsh, kx'' and their voiced couterparts only occur at word boundaries and in compound words. They are not pronounced as affricates but as separate sounds. The same applies for other combinations of a plosive plus another consonant (''pm, tl'' etc.), as well as for two identical plosives (''kk'' etc.): the release of the first plosive is always audible.

===Vowels===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! rowspan="2" | !! colspan="2" | front !! colspan="2" | back
|-
! unrounded !! rounded !! unrounded !! rounded
|-
! close
| i <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close front unrounded vowel|i]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ü <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close front rounded vowel|y]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || y <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close back unrounded vowel|ɯ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || u <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close back rounded vowel|u]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! open-mid
| e <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid front unrounded vowel|ɛ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ö <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid front rounded vowel|œ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || a <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid back unrounded vowel|ʌ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || o <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid back rounded vowel|ɔ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|}
Two consecutive different vowels are pronounced as a diphthong; two consecutive identical vowels as a long one. Single vowels are always short.

Lemizh uses [[w:Mora (linguistics)|moræ]] for structuring words: a short syllable equals one mora, and a long syllable equals two. In Lemizh, every vowel is the centre of a mora; consequently, two consecutive vowels result in two moræ or one long syllable.

===Accent===
Lemizh has got a two-way pitch-accent system, in that accented moræ are not only spoken louder (as in English), but also have either a lower or a higher pitch than the surrounding unaccented ones. The accented mora is always the ultimate or penultimate of a word. The vowel at the centre of a low-pitch accented mora is transcribed with a grave accent, the vowel at the centre of a high-pitch accented mora with an acute accent.
{| class="wikitable" style="width: 220px; table-layout: fixed; text-align: center"
! colspan="8" | Accented vowel letters
|-
| colspan="8" style="padding: 0" | [[File:Lemizh accented vowels.png|216px]]
|-
| à || è || ỳ || ì || ò || ö̀ || ù || ǜ
|-
| á || é || ý || í || ó || ö́ || ú || ǘ
|}

===Phonotactics===
[[w:Phonotactics|Phonotactics]] is rather permissive in Lemizh. A mora has the following structure, where the bracketed parts are optional:
* (O)(N)(L)V(L)(N)(O)
V is the mora's vowel, L a liquid, N a nasal, and O an obstruent that can be either a P(losive), a F(ricative), FP, PF, FF, FFP, FPF, or PFF. Word-initial consonant clusters cannot contain more than three sounds. No geminate consonants (<abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''ff'' etc.) occur within a mora. Consecutive plosive-fricative or fricative-plosive combinations within the same mora must have the same sonority – either both are voiced, or both are voiceless. A plosive cannot have the same place of articulation as a following consonant with the exception of ''rh'' and ''r''. <abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''dzh'', <abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''ddh'' and their voiceless counterparts are also prohibited within a mora.

Word boundaries, including those within compound words, are always mora boundaries. Where mora boundaries would still be ambiguous, liquids and nasals are assigned to the earliest possible mora (as the ''m'' in ''lem·ỳzh.''), and obstruents to the latest possible mora.

==Morphology==
All words are composed of the following parts:
* Prestem + inner case + poststem + outer case
Prestem and poststem form the stem, or the lexical part, of the word. The division of the stem into two portions is similar to English verbs such as ''sing/sang/sung'', where the lexical part is ''s–ng'' while the vowels ''i/a/u'' convey grammatical information. The stem always denotes an action (but never a state, a person, a thing, a property, etc.) and thus resembles our verbs. The prestem can contain any sounds, or it can be zero (i.e. consisting of zero sounds). The poststem can only contain fricatives and plosives, or it can be zero as well.

The inner case is represented by one of the eight vowels, optionally followed by a liquid (the primary case suffix) and/or a nasal (the secondary case suffix). The outer case has the same structure. For the first word in each sentence, the main predicate, the outer case is zero.

Each case is defined by its ''descriptor'': for example, the factive case denotes an ''action'', the nominative a ''sender'', the locative a ''place''. The stem and the inner case's descriptor determine a word's meaning.

'''Examples'''
* ''wàx. w–x'' is the stem for "speak", ''-a-'' denotes the inner factive, so this word means "an action of speaking", translated as the verb "to speak" or the [[w:Verbal noun|verbal noun]] "speaking".
* ''wèx. -e-'' denotes the inner nominative, so this word means "a sender of speaking" or "a speaker".
* ''àrdh. ∅–dh'' (having a zero prestem) is the stem for "eat", ''-ar-'' denotes the inner locative: "a place of eating".
The customary [[w:Lemma (morphology)|citation form]] of a word is the one with inner factive.

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Primary cases and their descriptors
|-
! rowspan="3" | № !! rowspan="3" | Case vowel !! colspan="4" | Primary case suffix
|-
| none || l || rh || r
|-
! Plot cases !! Causal cases !! Temporal cases !! Spatial cases
|-
| 1 || a || factive ({{sc|fact}}): ''action'' || affirmative ({{sc|aff}}): ''fact (point in causal chain)'' || temporal ({{sc|temp}}): ''time'' || locative ({{sc|loc}}): ''place/region''
|-
| 2 || e || nominative ({{sc|nom}}): ''source, sender'' || causative ({{sc|caus}}): ''direct cause'' || ingressive ({{sc|ing}}): ''starting time'' || elative ({{sc|ela}}): ''starting point/region''
|-
| 3 || y || accusative ({{sc|acc}}): ''content'' || contextual ({{sc|ctx}}): ''causal context'' || durative ({{sc|dur}}): ''duration'' || extensive ({{sc|ext}}): ''spatial extent''
|-
| 4 || i || dative ({{sc|dat}}): ''sink, recipient'' || consecutive ({{sc|cons}}): ''direct consequence, effect'' || egressive ({{sc|egr}}): ''closing time'' || illative ({{sc|ill}}): ''end point / ending region''
|-
| 5 || o || tentive ({{sc|ten}}): ''intention'' || intentive ({{sc|int}}): ''intention (intended point in causal chain)'' || episodic ({{sc|eps}}): ''episode, "act"'' || scenic ({{sc|sce}}): ''scene, "stage"''
|-
| 6 || ö || comitative ({{sc|com}}): ''company'' || persuasive ({{sc|psu}}): ''reason'' || digressive ({{sc|dig}}): ''time away from which'' || ablative ({{sc|abl}}): ''place/region away from which''
|-
| 7 || u || instrumental ({{sc|ins}}): ''means, tool'' || motivational ({{sc|mot}}): ''motivational context'' || progressive ({{sc|prog}}): ''time that is passed'' || prolative ({{sc|prol}}): ''crossing point/region''
|-
| 8 || ü || benefactive ({{sc|ben}}): ''beneficiary'' || final ({{sc|fin}}): ''purpose, aim'' || aggressive ({{sc|agg}}): ''time towards which, temporal aim'' || allative ({{sc|all}}): ''place/region towards which, spatial aim''
|}
Each primary case has two corresponding secondary cases:
* a partitive case formed by adding ''ng'' (such as ''-ing-'' for the partitive dative or ''-erng-'' for the partitive elative) with the descriptor ''the set from which the source (sink, place, etc.) is thought to be taken'': ''wèngx.'' is "the set from which the speaker is thought to be taken", i.e. "the speaker, among others".
* a qualitative case formed by adding ''m'', with the descriptor ''the basis of comparison for the source (sink, place, etc.)'': ''wèmx.'' informally translates as "someone like a speaker".

===The plot===
Every action denoted by a stem is considered a flow of information that comes from a source (sender), transports a content, and reaches a sink (a recipient). The terms "sender" and "recipient" may be more familiar, but "source" and "sink" are more accurate in not necessarily meaning living beings.

Consequently, a Lemizh action looks somewhat like this: '''nominative  accusative[[File:DreieckGreenMIDDLE.png|26px|link=]] dative'''

This is called the action's plot. Here are some examples:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative
|-
| ''wàx.'' "to speak, to talk, to tell; (an action of) speaking" || ''wèx.'' "one telling something" || ''wỳx.'' "a tale" || ''wìx.'' "one who is told something"
|-
| ''dà.'' "to give; (an action of) giving" || ''dè.'' "one giving something" || ''dỳ.'' "a gift" || ''dì.'' "one who is given something; one who gets something"
|-
| ''làzhw.'' "to help" || ''lèzhw.'' "one helping" || ''lỳzhw.'' "help (given)" || ''lìzhw.'' "one whom is helped"
|-
| ''mlàtx.'' "to melt" || ''mlètx.'' "one melting something" || [''mlỳtx.''] || ''mlìtx.'' "a melted thing"
|-
| ''xöàgh.'' "to produce a sound; to hear" || ''xöègh.'' "one producing a sound" || ''xöỳgh.'' "a sound" || ''xöìgh.'' "one hearing something"
|-
| ''àdh.'' "to feed; to eat" || ''èdh.'' "one feeding someone" || ''ỳdh.'' "food" || ''ìdh.'' "one being fed; one eating"
|-
| ''ià.'' "to love" || ''iè.'' "one loving someone, a lover" || ''iỳ.'' "a beloved" || ''iì.'' "a beloved"
|}
Importantly, there are no rules for which cases to use with which words. Both ''iỳ.'' ({{sc|acc}}) and ''iì.'' ({{sc|dat}}) mean "a beloved". The former describes the beloved as the content of love, the one being lovingly thought of, while the latter implies that the love reaches them, like words or gifts reach their recipient. Likewise, the reason why ''mlỳtx.'' is not translated in the table above isn't that "''melt'' does not take the accusative", as grammars of other languages would say, but that "a content of melting" does not seem to have any obvious meaning. If someone wanted to describe, say, sun rays as content transported from the sun to the snow to melt it, they could well use ''mlỳtx.'' to express the concept.

Case usage is governed solely by the cases' descriptors; it is up to the speaker how to use them given some word's meaning and some context. If the wind opens a door, is it the source of the action of opening (''ngèt.''), the means of opening (''ngùt.''), or the cause (''ngèlt.'')? All are grammatically correct; the speaker decides which possibility best expresses their intention.

===Nouns===
:''Nouns, adjectives and verbs do not correspond to any concepts in Lemizh grammar. Using these terms is just an attempt to describe the grammar from an Indo-European viewpoint.''
A large number of nouns are not derived from verbs in most languages: ''froth, ship, lion'' and many others. In Lemizh, however, we have verbs such as ''psràxk.'' "to froth", ''àksh.'' "to build a ship or ships", and ''làw.'' "to make a lion or lions". We will call these ''nominal verbs''.

Looking at the verb ''àksh.'', the shipwright ({{sc|nom}}) gives the building materials ({{sc|dat}}) the properties or the function of a ship ({{sc|acc}}). He confers, well, shipness on the materials. The shipness is sent by the shipwright, not because he is acting, but because he is the source: the image of the ship, so to say, comes from his head and materialises in wood, iron, ropes, and linen. In short, these words mostly appear with inner accusative.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative
|-
| ''psràxk.'' "to froth" || ''psrèxk.'' "one frothing something" || ''psrỳxk.'' "a thing having the properties of froth = '''froth'''" || ''psrìxk.'' "a frothed thing, a frothed liquid"
|-
| ''àksh.'' "to build a ship" || ''èksh.'' "one building a ship, a shipwright" || ''ỳksh.'' "a thing having the properties of a ship = '''a ship'''" || ''ìksh.'' "building materials for a ship, materials made into a ship"
|-
| ''làw.'' "to make a lion" || [''lèw.'' "one making a lion"] || ''lỳw.'' "a thing having the properties of a lion = '''a lion'''" || [''lìw.'' "building materials for a lion, materials made into a lion"]
|}

Nouns expressing job titles and the like mostly have inner nominatives because professions are often about producing or selling something, or about providing a kind of service:
* ''ghexè.'' "baker" from ''ghexà.'' "to bake",
* ''saxèf.'' "trumpeter" from ''saxàf.'' "to play the trumpet",
* ''bèst.'' "hero" from ''bàst.'' "to do heroic deeds, to act as a hero".

Another very common kind of nouns are tool nouns, formed with an inner instrumental case:
* ''ghstù.'' "a sail" is derived from ''ghstà.'' "to sail", literally "a means of sailing",
* ''pslù.'' "scissors" from ''pslà.'' "to cut with scissors",
* ''saxùf.'' "a trumpet", also from ''saxàf.'',
* ''skrùzh.'' "a finger" from ''skràzh.'' "to work with one's fingers".

====Inflection====
As mentioned above, all words can inflect for (outer) case. Thus, we have the nominative forms ''wàx'''e''''' "(an action of) speaking, talking, telling", ''dè'''e''''' "a giver", ''lỳw'''e''''' "a lion", the causative ''lỳw'''el''''' "because of a lion", the elative ''lỳw'''er''''' "(starting) from a lion", etc.

Lemizh words do not inflect for number or gender. If desired, we can express this information by forming compounds. (Note the duplication of the inner case vowel; the first occurrence in each word is called the epenthetic case of the compound. The underlying grammar will be described later.)
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Singular !! Dual !! Plural !! Feminine !! Masculine !! Feminine singular !! etc.
|-
! giver
| ''dè.'' || ''de'''rè'''.'' || ''de'''dwè'''.'' || ''de'''mlè'''.'' || ''de'''bè'''.'' || ''de'''èx'''.'' || ''de'''berè'''.''
|-
! lion
| ''lỳw.'' || ''lyw'''rỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''dwỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''mlỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''bỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''ỳx'''.'' || ''lyw'''byrỳ'''.''
|-
! compound with
| — || ''rỳ.'' "one" || ''dwỳ.'' "two" || ''mlỳ.'' "several" || ''bỳ.'' "female; woman" || ''ỳx.'' "male; man" || "female" and "one"
|}

===Adjectives and the like===
There is no difference between adjectival and nominal verbs: they mostly appear with inner accusative. This is the same situation as in, say, Latin, where ''albus'' can mean "a white one" as well as "white". Negators and numerals are sub-categories of adjectives.

The inner consecutive case translates certain abstract nouns.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative !! Inner consecutive
|-
| ''làbdh.'' "to whiten something, to make something white" || ''lèbdh.'' "one whitening something" || ''lỳbdh.'' "a white thing; '''white'''" || ''lìbdh.'' "a thing made white; whitened" || ''lìlbdh.'' "the consequence of whitening = whiteness"
|-
| ''gmrà.'' "to warm, to make something warm" || ''gmrè.'' "one warming something" || ''gmrỳ.'' "a warm thing; '''warm'''" || ''gmrì.'' "a warmed thing; warmed" || ''gmrìl.'' "the consequence of warming = warmth"
|-
| ''ngà.'' "to make something nonexistent" || ''ngè.'' "one making something nonexistent" || ''ngỳ.'' "(something) '''nonexistent'''" || ''ngì.'' "something made nonexistent, something destroyed" || ''ngìl.'' "the consequence of making nonexistent = nothingness"
|-
| ''dwà.'' "to make two things/individuals" || ''dwè.'' "one making two things" || ''dwỳ.'' "'''two''' (things)" || ''dwì.'' "something made into two (things)" || ''dwìl.'' "the consequence of making two things = twoness"
|}

However, emotions aren't viewed as properties in Lemizh: a happy or angry person is one sending happiness or anger, just as a loving person is one sending love. The inner causative plays a notable role with verbs of emotion.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative !! Inner causative
|-
| ''pthàb.'' "to be angry" || ''pthèb.'' "an angry one; '''angry'''" || ''pthỳb.'' "the content/object of one's anger" || ''pthìb.'' "one that one's anger reaches" || ''pthèlb.'' "one causing someone anger; one annoying someone"
|}

====Inflection====
Of course, adjectives can be compounded to express number and/or gender in the same way as nouns. Furthermore, we can form compounds expressing various degrees. (The epenthetic consecutive ''-il-'' in these compounds will also be explained later; it is actually the main application of the abstract nouns just mentioned.)
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Diminutive !! Augmentative !! Absolute !! Comparative !! Superlative
|-
! warm
| ''gmrỳ.'' || ''gmril'''zhrỳ'''.'' "lukewarm" || ''gmril'''dmỳ'''.'' "hot" || ''gmril'''ghngỳ'''.'' "absolutely hot" || ''gmril'''tỳzhd'''.'' "warmer, hotter" || ''gmril'''ỳst'''.'' "hottest"
|-
! white
| ''lỳbdh.'' || ''lilbdh'''zhrỳ'''.'' "whitish" || ''lilbdh'''dmỳ'''.'' "very white" || ''lilbdh'''ghngỳ'''.'' "absolutely/completely white" || ''lilbdh'''tỳzhd'''.'' "whiter" || ''lilbdh'''ỳst'''.'' "whitest"
|-
! compound with
| — || ''zhrỳ.'' "few, little, a bit" || ''dmỳ.'' "much, many" || ''ghngỳ.'' "every, all, the whole" || ''tỳzhd.'' "more" || ''ỳst.'' "most"
|}

===Verbs===
Most verbs correspond to Lemizh words with an inner factive. However, as Lemizh stems always denote an action, the notable exception are stative verbs such as:
* ''zdìls.'' "to sit", literally "the consequence of sitting down (''zdàs.'')"
* ''gwìlt.'' "to know", literally "the consequence of learning (''gwàt.'')"

====Inflection====
* Person is not expressed with inflection but with [[#Relative pronouns|pronouns]].
* Number is conveyed by compounding pronouns with numerals. While verbs (i.e. words with an inner factive) can be compounded with numerals, ''ftrask'''mlà'''.'' does not mean "we/they sneeze" but "(there are) several acts of sneezing" (i.e. someone sneezes several times and/or several people sneeze).
* Voice (active/passive) is absent in Lemizh; word order serves a similar function.
* Tense is expressed by compounds with an epenthetic temporal case (''-arh-''), or with certain inner cases. The latter option is preferred if possible, as it is more concise.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Present !! Past !! Perfect !! Future !! Intentional
|-
! to sit down
| ''zdàs.'' || ''zdarhs'''wà'''.'' || ''zdarhs'''prilkà'''.'' || ''zd'''ìl'''s.'' ({{sc|cons}}) || ''zdarhs'''prà'''.'' || ''zd'''ò'''s.'' ({{sc|ten}})
|-
! compound with
| — || pronoun || ''prilkỳ.'' "back" || — || ''prỳ.'' "front" || —
|}
Note that the translation of the perfect with inner consecutive coincides with the translation of stative verbs: "having sat down" in the strict perfect sense of "the consequence/effect of this action exists" means the same as "to sit". Likewise, "whiteness" can be expressed as the abstract concept of "having whitened something".

* Mood corresponds to compounds with certain verbs for the most part. There is no equivalent to the subjunctive mood, as subordinate clauses are irreal (i.e. not necessarily real) by default. Here are some common formations:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Indicative !! Imperative !! Commanding imperative !! Interrogative Polite imperative !! Optative
|-
! to feed, to eat
| ''àdh.'' || ''adh'''pràk'''.'' || ''adh'''dàxt'''.'' || ''adh'''pà'''.'' || ''adh'''làxt'''.''
|-
! compound with
| — || ''pràk.'' "to request" || ''dàxt.'' "to command" || ''pà.'' "to ask" || ''làxt.'' "to want"
|}
* Aspect is a very diverse category, expressed by a variety of compounds and syntactic structures in Lemizh.

===Pronouns===
The two demonstrative pronouns are technically nominal verbs:
* ''tà.'' "to make this/that one", typically used with inner accusative: ''tỳ.'' "this/that (one)"
* ''gwà.'' "to make someone/anyone, something/anything", with inner accusative ''gwỳ.'' "someone/anyone, something/anything"

The eleven relative pronouns play a far more prominent role in Lemizh grammar. Their scope is much wider than the one usually associated with the term. As they are closely tied to Lemizh syntax, they are described [[#Relative pronouns|further down]].

==Syntax==
===Level of words===
There is only one more grammatical category: the level of words, which is the main building block of Lemizh syntax. A word can be of first level (the highest), of second level (the next highest), of third level (still one level lower) and so on; there is no limit for the number of levels, but non-positive word levels (zero, −1, etc.) are forbidden.

The first word in a sentence (the main predicate) is of first level by definition. The level of the next word is determined by the main predicate's accent and by the type of pause between the two words, the level of the third word is determined by the accent of the second and the pause between these two, and so on.

Here is the complete list of pause/accent combinations.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="2" | Following pause !! rowspan="2" | Accented vowel !! rowspan="2" | Type of accent !! rowspan="2" | The level of the next word is …
|-
! in speech !! in writing
|-
| rowspan="4" | barely audible || rowspan="4" | space || rowspan="2" | inner case || low || lower by 1
|-
| high || lower by 1, and [[w:Agent (grammar)|agentive]]* ({{sc|a}})
|-
| rowspan="2" | outer case || low || equal
|-
| high || higher by 1
|-
| rowspan="4" | a bit longer || rowspan="4" | comma ('''·''') || rowspan="2" | inner case || low || higher by 2
|-
| high || higher by 3
|-
| rowspan="2" | outer case || low || higher by 4
|-
| high || higher by 5
|-
| the longest || full stop ('''∶''') || inner case || low || none; end of sentence
|}
<nowiki>*</nowiki> The agent is the initiator of the action (more informally, the one who ''does'' the action).

===The Rules===
[[File:Lemizh parse tree.png|thumb|upright=1.5|A schematic sentence with the words represented by their level numbers]]
The word levels determine the structure of a sentence.

'''Rule One of sentence grammar. A word of level n is subordinate to the nearest word of level n−1 in front of it; the parole acts as a word of level zero.'''

All words of second level are subordinate to the main predicate (which has first level). A word of third level is subordinate to the next second-level word in front of it, and so on. In other words, Lemizh sentences are strictly [[w:Head directionality|head-first]]. The main predicate itself is subordinate to the [[w:Parole (linguistics)|parole]], the action of speaking (or writing) the sentence in question, which consequently has level zero.

'''Rule Two. An object of a word in a sentence is a word subordinate to the former, its predicate, plus all of its own objects.'''

In the diagram, the main predicate's three objects are enclosed in ellipses. Objects of the same word are called ''sibling objects'' or just ''siblings'', and the word they are subordinate to is their ''predicate''. Note that ''predicate'' and ''object'' are relative terms like ''parent'' and ''child''.

The table of level markers implies that only the first object of a predicate can be marked as agent. (This has been interpreted as Lemizh having VSO word order, although a subject is not quite the same as an agent, and Lemizh grammar strictly speaking does not have the concept of a subject.)

'''Rule Three. The outer case of the first word of an object defines its relation to its predicate's stem via its descriptor; the outer case of a level 1 word is zero.'''

This is what we would expect from a language that inflects for case: the nominative object defines the source (sender) of the action named by the stem of its predicate, the accusative object its content, the temporal object its time, etc.

'''Examples'''
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dá föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|give-FACT-1 {Father Christmas}-ACC-'''NOM'''-2A bottle-ACC-'''ACC'''-2 Lucy-ACC-'''DAT'''-2.
|''Father Christmas gives Lucy a bottle.''}}

The stems of the three objects are nominal verbs ("to make a bottle" etc.), hence the inner accusatives. The outer cases indicate the sender, content and recipient of the action of giving, respectively. The agent is specified independently of the plot arrow; note the difference:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dá lusyì dwywỳ föpysrỳfe.
|give-FACT-1 Lucy-ACC-'''DAT'''-2A bottle-ACC-'''ACC'''-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-'''NOM'''-2.
|''Lucy takes a bottle from Father Christmas.''}}

We need not mark an object as agentive if we consider this information unimportant. The English translations are only rough approximations:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dà lusyì dwywỳ föpysrỳfe.
|give-FACT-1 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2 bottle-ACC-ACC-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2.
|''Lucy gets a bottle from Father Christmas. Lucy is given a bottle by Father Christmas.''}}

Rule Three defines outer case in a way that mirrors the definition of inner case. This allows for an operation called '''inversion''' (symbolized "⇔"):
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|làzhw wèxi. ⇔ wáx lìzhwe.
|help-FACT-1 speak-'''NOM'''-'''DAT'''-2. ⇔ speak-FACT-1 help-'''DAT'''-'''NOM'''-2A.
|''[Someone] helps the speaker. ⇔ The one being helped speaks.''}}

Both sentences claim that the sender of speaking is the recipient of helping. The equation is ''wèx.'' = ''lìzhw.'', the speaker = the one being helped.

'''Rule Four. An instance of a word stem designates a specific action.'''

''dà'' in the above sentence does not just mean "to give", it refers to one specific action of giving. Such an action may involve several givers (as in "They give something") and need not even be temporally or spatially contiguous (as in "They are giving something every Christmas"). In other words, each spoken or written instance of the stem ''d–'' refers to a certain subset of all the giving there is.

This rule ensures that all the objects refer to the same action of giving as the predicate itself.

'''Rule Five. A case characterises the action it refers to completely with regard to its case descriptor.'''

For example, the nominative object "Father Christmas" has to name the complete sender of the above instance of giving. This excludes from this instance all giving not done by Father Christmas. So each object places a restriction on the action of giving the main predicate refers to. Thus, the subset of giving meant by this instance of ''dà.'' – what the sentence is ultimately talking about – is defined more and more precisely with each additional object. (This is true not only of the main predicate but of all words in a sentence. Also, as inner and outer cases can be interconverted via inversion, this rule applies to inner cases as well.)

'''Rule Six. A missing object is equivalent to the absence of information about its descriptor.'''

Above sentences do not have, for example, locative objects, so Rule Five cannot place a restriction on the place of giving. Because of Rule Six, this does not mean there are no restrictions on the location, but only that this kind of information has not been included in the sentence (for example, because the speaker does not know about it, considers it irrelevant, assumes that the listener already knows or – perhaps most importantly – that the listener can infer it). In fact, everything not useful for understanding a sentence should be omitted to save the listener processing effort. (See the inversion example above, which omits the nominative "someone".)

Rules Five and Six imply that every instance of a word has exactly one action (which, however, need not be contiguous), one sender (which may consist of several people), and so on: Five excludes additional senders if one nominative object is already present, and Six gives meaning to missing objects, establishing them as an integral part of Lemizh sentence grammar.

'''Rule Seven. Given an object and its predicate, the predicate is considered more real and the object more hypothetical.'''
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive; 3:third level
|láxt föpysryfè dày dwywỳ lusỳi.
|want-FACT-1 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2A give-FACT-ACC-2 bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3.
|''Father Christmas wants to give Lucy a bottle.'' (The action of giving is the content of the wish. The nominative object of "give", which is also Father Christmas, is omitted per Rule Six.)}}

This sentence contains the information that Father Christmas wants something (i.e. to give Lucy a bottle), but not that he actually gives something (i.e. Lucy a bottle). The main predicate "want", so to speak, lives in the world the sentence is talking about (more formally, the world of the parole), which is the more real, while its object "give Lucy a bottle" lives in the world of his wish, which is the more hypothetical. The parole, having level zero, acts as the predicate to the sentence as a whole and is therefore still more real. This reflects the fact that the parole is part of the real world; it is as real as anything linguistic can be. Turning this around, we see that the sentence is more hypothetical than reality: it can be a metaphor or some other figure of speech, a statement about a fictional or otherwise imagined world, an error, a lie, a linguistic example sentence, etc. We call the main predicate's kind of reality, the one that is just one level more hypothetical than the parole and the real world, ''grammatical reality''.

The bottle and Lucy, having third level, are still more hypothetical than the action of giving; their existence does not follow from grammar but from logic and context: someone nonexistent cannot be given something. A better example would be "I see white mice", where the existence of the mice may or may not be inferred from context such as the amount of alcohol I have drunk.

In the sentence "I think that Father Christmas wants to give Lucy a bottle", "to think" is grammatically real, while the other two verbs, so to say, are pushed down one degree of reality. Furthermore, inversion changes degrees of reality:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|làxt dày. ⇔ dà lỳxta.
|want-FACT-1 give-'''FACT'''-'''ACC'''-2. ⇔ give-FACT-1 want-'''ACC'''-'''FACT'''-2.
|''[He] wants to give. ⇔ [He] gives "wantingly", i.e. gladly.''}}

There is no real difference between phrases and complete sentences in Lemizh:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! as an object (hypothetical) !! as a main predicate / complete sentence (grammatically real)
|-
| ''dà.'' || to give; giving || An action of giving exists = Someone gives something.
|-
| ''zdìls.'' || the consequence of sitting down = to sit; sitting || The consequence of sitting down exists = Someone sits.
|-
| ''dwìlw.'' || the consequence of making a bottle || The consequence of making a bottle exists = A bottle exists; there is a bottle.
|-
| ''sklè.'' || one building a bridge || One building a bridge exists = There is someone building a bridge.
|}

===Noun phrases===
Forming noun phrases does not require any new grammatical rules. Taking the first example sentence from above and changing the inner case of "give" to the nominative yields "one giving something, a giver". The objects are still sender, content and recipient of the ''action'' of giving, as outer cases define relations to the predicate's ''stem'' per Rule Three.
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dé föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|give-'''NOM'''-1 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2A bottle-ACC-ACC-2 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2.
|''[There is] one giving Lucy a bottle, Father Christmas''}}

Rules Four and Five guarantee that the giver is identical to Father Christmas: both are the sender of the same instance of the stem ''d–'' "give" (the giver via its inner nominative, Father Christmas via its outer nominative), and both are the ''complete'' sender of this action. This type of construction, where an object's outer case matches its predicate's inner case, is called a '''bracket'''. Brackets are very widely used:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Apposition !! Attributive adjective !! Attributive pronoun/determiner !! Attributive numeral !! Attributive participle
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|iakopỳk saxèfy.
|Jacopo-'''ACC'''-1 trumpet-NOM-'''ACC'''-2.
|''Jacopo, a trumpeter''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=INS:instrumental case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|ghstù lỳbdhu.
|sail-'''INS'''-1 white-ACC-'''INS'''-2.
|''a sail, a white thing = a white sail''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|ỳksh gwỳy.
|ship-'''ACC'''-1 some-ACC-'''ACC'''-2.
|''a ship, something = some ship''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|mỳs trỳy.
|mouse-'''ACC'''-1 three-ACC-'''ACC'''-2.
|''mice, three individuals = three mice''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|nỳzd gangèy.
|bird-'''ACC'''-1 sing-NOM-'''ACC'''-2.
|''a bird, a singer = a singing bird''}}
|}
Such phrases can be easily extended. This example contains two accusative brackets ("a singing bird" and "a sad child"):
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 4:fourth level
|ngỳzd gangèy zhngỳi speghý ytfỳarh.
|bird-ACC-1 sing-NOM-ACC-2 child-ACC-DAT-3 sad-NOM-ACC-4 night-ACC-TEMP-3.
|''a bird singing to a sad child at night''}}

Adverbially used adjectives are phrased with factive brackets. However, changing the predicate's inner case leaves the object's outer factive intact, losing the bracket.
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|gangà txỳska.
|sing-'''FACT'''-1 loud-ACC-'''FACT'''-2.
|''(an action of) singing, a loud thing = loud singing = singing loudly, to sing loudly'' (Compare "to give gladly" above, under Rule Seven.)}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|gangè txỳska.
|sing-'''NOM'''-1 loud-ACC-FACT-2.
|''a loud singer = someone singing loudly'' (The action of singing is a loud thing.)}}

As [[w:Genitive construction|genitive constructions]] have a wide variety of meanings, there is no single Lemizh equivalent. The typical translation for constructions indicating possession is with the benefactive case, but other cases frequently occur. Everything depends on the object's relation to the predicate's stem per Rule Three.
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|dwỳw lusỳü.
|bottle-ACC-1 Lucy-ACC-'''BEN'''-2.
|''Lucy's bottle'' (Lucy is the beneficiary of making the bottle. The bottle is made for Lucy.)}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dý ỳxe.
|give-ACC-1 male-ACC-'''NOM'''-2A.
|''the man's gift'' (The man is the sender of giving.)}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|rhỳst ytfỳarh filpskỳy.
|dream-ACC-1 night-ACC-'''TEMP'''-2 midsummer-ACC-ACC-3.
| ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' (The midsummer night is the time of dreaming.)}}

===Dependent clauses===
Dependent clauses employ the same principles as above, as we have seen with the sentence "Father Christmas wants '''to give Lucy a bottle'''" under Rule Seven.

The difference between English gerund clauses and that-clauses roughly translates into a difference between an inner factive (''action'') and an inner affirmative (''fact'').
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 3A:third level, agentive
|dmàt tryxkì dáe föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|see-FACT-1 beaver-ACC-DAT-2 give-'''FACT'''-NOM-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-3A bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3.
|''The beaver sees [the action of] '''Father Christmas giving Lucy a bottle'''.'' (The beaver is at the receiving end of the optical stimulus or information, hence the dative. The dependent clause could also be in the accusative to focus on the optical information transmitted to the beaver.)}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; AFF:affirmative case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 3A:third level, agentive
|dmàt tryxkì dále föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|see-FACT-1 beaver-ACC-DAT-2 give-'''AFF'''-NOM-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-3A bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3.
|''The beaver sees [the fact of] '''Father Christmas giving Lucy a bottle'''. The beaver sees '''that''' Father Christmas gives Lucy a bottle.''}}

Some examples of dependent clauses translating into objects in various cases:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|fngà kshngày.
|try-FACT-1 shout-FACT-'''ACC'''-2.
|''[She] tried to shout [but this was difficult because of her sore throat].''}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|fngà kshngàu.
|try-FACT-1 shout-FACT-'''INS'''-2.
|''[She] tried shouting [as he hadn't heard her when she had spoken quietly].'' (Shouting is the means of trying.)}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PSU:persuasive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 4:fourth level
|pàf làxtöl dmàty föpysrỳfe.
|stand-FACT-1 want-FACT-'''PSU'''-2 see-FACT-ACC-3 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-4.
|''[He] stood up because [he] wanted to see Father Christmas.''}}

Relative clauses are structurally identical to (extended) attributive participles as described above; they are brackets: ''a bird which sings to a sad child at night = a bird singing to a sad child at night''. This is also true of clauses with relative adverbs:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level; 3A:third level, agentive
|ngỳw gangáry lỳbe.
|valley-'''ACC'''-1 sing-LOC-'''ACC'''-2 flower-ACC-NOM-3A.
|''a valley, a place of the singing of flowers = a valley where flowers sing''}}

Adverbially used relative clauses, unsurprisingly, are factive brackets:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive; 3:third level
|shrá wygwè rashkỳa bỳe.
|yelp-'''FACT'''-1 dog-ACC-NOM-2A dislike-ACC-'''FACT'''-2 female-ACC-NOM-3.
|''The dog is yelping, which the girl doesn't like.''}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PSU:persuasive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive; 3A:third level, agentive
|shrá wygwè ö́ldha bỳe.
|yelp-'''FACT'''-1 dog-ACC-NOM-2A eat-PSU-'''FACT'''-2 female-ACC-NOM-3A.
|''The dog is yelping, wherefore the girl feeds it.''}}

===Predicative===
[[w:Predicative expression|Predicatives]], like all sentences, follow the plot arrow:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|ghát zhngyè bestỳ lusỳi.
|name-FACT-1 child-ACC-'''NOM'''-2A hero-NOM-'''ACC'''-2 Lucy-ACC-'''DAT'''-2.
|''The children called Lucy a hero.'' (The children gave the name of hero to Lucy.)}}

Predicatives with the verb "to make" typically correspond to Lemizh sentences with a nominal or adjectival verb as the main predicate. This can be interpreted as the accusative object – here "ill" – being absorbed ("swallowed up") by the main predicate:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|mà ydhè gwilbkyỳ wỳgwi. → gwilbkà ydhè wỳgwi.
|make-FACT-1 eat-ACC-'''NOM'''-2 ill-ACC-'''ACC'''-2 dog-ACC-'''DAT'''-2. → ill-FACT-1 eat-ACC-NOM-2 dog-ACC-DAT-2.
|''The food made the dog ill.'' (The food gave the property of being ill to the dog.)}}

The verb "to be" translates as the corresponding perfect form, i.e. with inner consecutive of the main predicate:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=CONS:consecutive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|lìlbdh lỳghi.
|white-'''CONS'''-1 house-ACC-DAT-2.
|''The house is [painted] white.'' (The house has been given the property of being white. The house has been whitened.)}}

The above are called resultative predicatives, describing the result of some property being conferred on someone or something. A depictive predicative describes an inherent property; this is achieved with an accusative object:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=CONS:consecutive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|drulìl werhèy.
|shrub-CONS-1 hazel-NOM-'''ACC'''-2.
|''The hazel is a shrub.'' (The hazel has the properties of a shrub.)}}
(Side note: The stem of ''werhè.'' "hazel" means "to make hazelnuts", hence the inner nominative. The nuts are called ''werhỳ.'', with inner accusative. Other plants bearing edible fruits follow the same pattern.)

===Relative pronouns===
Stems of relative pronouns (not to be confused with the pronouns of the same name in English or Latin) refer to actions by pointing to another stem or to a parole: they are [[w:Anaphora (linguistics)|anaphoric]]. Here is the full list:
{| class="wikitable"
! rowspan="2" | Level !! colspan="2" | Type I !! colspan="2" | Type II
|-
! Verb !! The target is the stem of !! Verb !! The target is the stem of
|-
| n || colspan="2" | (does not occur because it would refer to itself) || à. || its preceding same-level word
|-
| n−1 || wà. || its predicate || fà. || its predicate's preceding same-level word or parole
|-
| n−2 || dhà. || its predicate's predicate || thà. || its predicate's predicate's preceding same-level word or parole
|-
| n−3 || zà. || its predicate's predicate's predicate || sà. || …
|-
| n−4 || zhà. || … || shà. || …
|-
| n−5 || ghà. || … || xà. || …
|}
They are highly versatile, corresponding to various structures in other languages. Recall that a sentence's parole has level zero:
{| class="wikitable"
! Reflexive !! First person (singular) !! Second person
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|wáx wìe.
|speak-FACT-1 PIn−1-'''DAT'''-'''NOM'''-2A.
|''to talk to oneself. He is talking to himself.'' (The recipient of speaking is its sender.)}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dráw dhèe.
|dance-FACT-1 PIn−2-'''NOM'''-NOM-2A.
|''I am dancing.'' (The sender of the parole is the sender of dancing.)}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dráw dhìe.
|dance-FACT-1 PIn−2-'''DAT'''-NOM-2A.
|''You are dancing.'' (The recipient of the parole is the sender of dancing.)}}
|}
Rule Four of sentence grammar ensures that the reflexive example means "He is talking to himself" as opposed to, say, "He is talking to one being talked to" (which would be ''wáx wìxe.'' speak-{{sc|fact}}-1 speak-{{sc|dat-nom}}-2{{sc|a}}, with two different instances of the stem "speak").

{| class="wikitable"
! Possessive determiner !! Vocative
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=CONS:consecutive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|zdìls ngỳzdy zeú tỳar.
|seat-CONS-1 bird-ACC-ACC-2 PIn−3-'''NOM'''-BEN-3 this-ACC-LOC-2.
|''My bird is sitting there.'' (The sender of the parole is the beneficiary of making a bird.)}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=PI:pronoun type I; FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive; 3:third level
|wáx dheè zdhèzhi zìe.
|speak-FACT-1 PIn−2-NOM-NOM-2A friend-NOM-DAT-2 PIn−3-'''DAT'''-NOM-3.
|''Friend, I am talking to you.'' (The recipient of the parole is the friend: nominative bracket.)}}
|}

The type II pronoun in the following example points to the stem of eating. With the inner accusative, the pronoun refers to the content of eating, which is the sweet. (As with brackets, Rules Four and Five guarantee that the pronoun refers to the same content of the same action of eating as mentioned in the first sentence.)
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; PII:pronoun type II; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|ádh dheì mlỳdhy. ràsh fỳy.
|eat-FACT-1 PIn−2-NOM-DAT-2A sweet-ACC-ACC-2. like-FACT-1 PIIn−1-'''ACC'''-ACC-2.
|''I am eating a sweet. [I] like it.''}}

==Derivational morphology==
From a Lemizh point of view, ''dè.'' "giver" and ''dỳ.'' "gift" aren't derivatives of ''dà.'' "to give" but grammatical forms of the same word. The only piece of true derivational morphology is compounding.

===Compounds===
[[File:Lemizh compounding diagram.png|thumb|Forming a compound from a two-word sentence]]
'''Rule One of compounding. A compound word is constructed from a two-word sentence – predicate and object of which become modifier and head of the compound, respectively – in the following way:'''
# '''Prestem''':
## the object's prestem
## the object's inner case
## the object's poststem
## an optional separator
## the predicate's prestem
# '''Inner case'''
# '''Poststem''': the predicate's poststem
# '''Outer case'''
Note that the object's stem comes before the predicate's; and also that the object's outer case (and, less importantly, the predicate's inner case) is lost. The object's inner case becomes part of the compound's prestem and is then called its ''epenthetic case''. The separator can be used, for example, if the word boundary would be unclear otherwise, or for placing the second part of the word on a new line.

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|làxt àdhy. ⇒ adhlàxt.
|want-FACT-1 eat-FACT-ACC-2. ⇒ eat-FACT-want-FACT-1.
|''[She] wants to eat.'' (See the inflection of [[#Verbs|verbs]].)}}
Here, the lost accusative ending has to be deduced from context.

'''Rule Two. In the relationship between the original predicate and object, the rules of sentence grammar are retained as far as applicable.'''

The consequences of this rule are somewhat technical; but the last one, pertaining to degree of reality, is important for correctly interpreting compounds.
* Rules One to Three of sentence grammar are not applicable to compounds, as can be easily seen.
* Four: Both modifier and head are instantiations of specific actions in the original sentence (which however do not necessarily match the instantiation of the compound).
* Five: The epenthetic case characterises the head completely with regard to its descriptor.
* Six: The only overt object of the modifier is the head. All other objects are missing and thus indicate the absence of information about their descriptors.
* Seven: The modifier has a higher degree of reality than the head. Therefore, the above compound does not claim that she actually eats.

'''Rule Three. Regarding all outward relations, cases''' (i.e. the compound's inner case [not to be confused with its epenthetic case], the outer cases of its objects, and cases of pronouns referring to it) '''refer to the head.'''
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|adhkmàr mlỳdhy.
|eat-FACT-allow-LOC-1 sweet-ACC-ACC-2.
|''a place where one may eat sweets; a place for eating sweets''}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|ngengadàxt fỳta.
|run-FACT-must-FACT-1 fast-ACC-FACT-1
|''[He] has to run fast.''}}

These examples talk about the location of eating, as opposed to the location of allowing; about eating sweets, as opposed to allowing sweets; the running is fast, as opposed to the necessity; etc.

Number and gender of [[#Nouns|nouns]] are compounds from brackets which are first inverted to turn the more salient word into the compound's head: ''dè mlỳe. ⇔ mlỳ dèy.'' "several givers" ⇒ ''demlè.'' "givers". The inner nominative (''-e-'') becomes the epenthetic case, and the new inner case also has to be a nominative per Rule Three. ''demlỳ.'' (inner {{sc|acc}}), by contrast, is "something given by several people".

Compounds expressing degrees of [[#Adjectives and the like|adjectives]] are also formed from brackets. They have an epenthetic consecutive (''-il-''), which stems from the corresponding abstract noun: ''gmrìl dmỳil. ⇔ dmỳ gmrìly.'' "much warmth" ⇒ ''gmrildmìl.'' "heat" (abstract noun formed with inner {{sc|cons}}), ''gmrildmỳ.'' "hot" (adjective with inner {{sc|acc}}). Degrees of comparison are often combined with [[#Predicative|predicatives]] as well as with qualitative or partitive outer cases:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=CONS:consecutive case; QUALACC:qualitative accusative case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|prilghtìlzhd lyghỳ bỳghym.
|beautiful-CONS-more-CONS-1 house-ACC-ACC-2 garden-ACC-QUALACC-2.
|''The house is more beautiful than the garden.'' (The garden is the basis of comparison for the house.)}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=CONS:consecutive case; PARTACC:partitive accusative case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|prilghìlst lỳghy ziǘ ghngỳyng.
|beautiful-CONS-most-CONS-1 house-ACC-ACC-2 PIn−3-DAT-BEN-3 all-ACC-PARTACC-2.
|''Your house is the most beautiful of all [houses].'' (''All houses'' form the set from which your house is thought to be taken.)}}

The analogues of the present and future tenses are formed like so – note that inversion changes the pronoun's stem along with its level:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2:second level
|zdàs dhàarh. ⇔ wà zdàrhsa. ⇒ zdarhswà.
|seat-FACT-1 PIn−2-FACT-TEMP-2. ⇔ PIn−1-FACT-1 seat-TEMP-FACT-2. ⇒ seat-TEMP-PIn−1-FACT-1.
|''[She] sits down at the time of the parole. ⇒ [She] sits down now.''}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|zdàs prỳarh. ⇔ prỳ zdàrhsy. ⇒ zdarhsprà.
|seat-FACT-1 front-ACC-TEMP-2. ⇔ front-ACC-1 seat-TEMP-ACC-2. ⇒ seat-TEMP-front-FACT-1.
|''[She] sits down at a time in front [of the parole]. ⇒ [She] will sit down.''}}

==Example text==
[[File:Lemizh text sample.png|600px]]

===stedrỳzh thìrhfi xtrỳghy.===
krỳgh dghngireì prilxpilghkỳarh. mangỳ srungbỳng lyngghỳng yngshwỳng fỳü. zhöazhghngìl tmỳil. ghngàgzh smìa prỳal ghngyé dhàbdhy lunguỳ ùyl mỳu fplyxár tỳarh. dmát feì sxngengzè ishkènge. ghìlt krighmyngthxì xtrỳngghi swyshỳ ghỳxy fplyxòr zhöyzhỳm xngàrorm. dmìlt öngkrỳngty zhryỳ rèshy esfàsy sxngyzdmýi, usrỳngy xazhgèsty ghngỳeng, frekrỳngfy rilghdzhỳwby pthèby, dgheipysrỳngdy psrèby rhèzhem, dghistngỳngty ghỳxy zangỳa dghildhfmlýyrh, ngiftngyghtmỳngy krültlìy zùe gỳghda. xtrỳgh swyshý stedrỳzh thìrfi. dngilszhrìl bdhyrgzhyngỳng xüxtrỳngyng prilkỳarh ötìlil skmyngìlng ghỳngsilng. dngilszhìlwb ráxpy thìlfi. fö̀l gwiltngìlöl dmàty föpysryfỳ ngỳu.

rỳ zhryỳrh thìzgy gwiltngìly rhàghgy dmatngìe thìrfy. là xángska matngiè ytfỳyrh dmyý fplyxór dyxtngyngà mànga prilzhryngỳr iltỳngzhdyr. dmàt ytfỳarh ryý mìlngorh xngyì prilkyár mìlngorh xtrỳngghi kshrextý mengthxì prỳar zìe, fplỳngxe fywýr déngske xtryghè sxngezì xngỳnge.

===The Legend of the Seventh Planet===
A long time ago there was a tribe of nomads. They possessed neither writing nor houses nor horses. But they were truly human. They were curious; this means, above all, that they took interest in the useless, for the celestial objects were of no use to them yet. They looked at the Sun and the Moon. They had named the constellations and the six planets moving across the sky like the humans across the earth. They knew dim Mercury, who liked to hide in the glare of the Sun; Venus, the brightest of all; reddish and angry Mars; majestic father Jupiter; Saturn, who seemed to stand still for weeks; and even Uranus had been caught by their keen eyes. Six planets, and the legend of a seventh. Maybe it had been the minor planet Vesta, or a comet centuries or millennia earlier. Maybe it was the attraction of the number seven. For Neptune is invisible to the naked eye.

One youngster thought to himself that he could not live without seeing the seventh planet. He lay awake searching the sky for many nights, neglected his duties, and became thinner and thinner. And one night, lying with the Earth behind his back, and with the looping planets and the stars above him, he saw the depth of the sky and the planets circling the Sun, and among them the Earth.

==See also==
* [[Literature:The Tower of Babel#Lemizh|The Tower of Babel § Lemizh]]

==External links==
* [https://lemizh.conlang.org Lemizh homepage] with comprehensive coverage of the language, including a dictionary with etymologies, information on the language's pragmatics, and more background information
[[File:Copyleft1.png|20px]] ''This article is available under a [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License]. It includes material from the Lemizh homepage, which has the same license.''


[[Category:Languages]]
[[Category:Conlangs]]
[[Category:Indo-European languages]]
[[Category:Agglutinative languages]]

User:Anypodetos

2022-05-26T18:43:04Z

Anypodetos: not in an early stage any more

Hi. I am the author of the '''[[Lemizh]]''' language. The Linguifex article is currently under development, but the [https://lemizh.conlang.org/ Lemizh homepage] is quite comprehensive.

Literature:The Tower of Babel

2022-05-26T18:40:41Z

Anypodetos: /* Lemizh */ Interlinear glosses 4–9

{{Library translation sidebar}}
'''The Tower of Babel''' is a creation text from the [[:w:Book of Genesis|Book of Genesis]] (also known as "In the beginning") as the first installment of the [[:w:Hebrew Bible|Tanach]] in Judaism and the [[:w:Old Testament|Old Testament]] in Christianity, detailing an origin myth providing a rationale for why the various peoples of the world speak such diverse languages.

The text has become a popular translation reference for many Conlangs, being one of the first texts to be translated across various Conlangs, the story itself being a story of language-invention, a story inspirational yet familiar to many conlangers/conlinguists, and, like the first (1st) article of [[The Universal Declaration of Human Rights|The Universal Declaration of Human Riğts]] and [[The Internationale]], has become a famous text translated into a significant portion of the languages of Earth.
{{List translations}}
{{Text translation widget}}
==English==
===[[wikipedia:Authorized King James Version|King James Version]] (1611)===
1 And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.

2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.

3 And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter.

4 And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto Heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.

5 And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.

6 And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.

7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.

8 So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.

9 Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

==Hebrew==
===[[w:Masoretic Text|Masoretic Text]]===
{{heb|א וַיְהִ֥י כָל־הָאָ֖רֶץ שָׂפָ֣ה אֶחָ֑ת וּדְבָרִ֖ים אֲחָדִֽים׃ 
ב וַיְהִ֖י בְּנָסְעָ֣ם מִקֶּ֑דֶם וַֽיִּמְצְא֥וּ בִקְעָ֛ה בְּאֶ֥רֶץ שִׁנְעָ֖ר וַיֵּ֥שְׁבוּ שָֽׁם׃ 
ג וַיֹּֽאמְר֞וּ אִ֣ישׁ אֶל־רֵעֵ֗הוּ הָ֚בָה נִלְבְּנָ֣ה לְבֵנִ֔ים וְנִשְׂרְפָ֖ה לִשְׂרֵפָ֑ה וַתְּהִ֨י לָהֶ֤ם הַלְּבֵנָה֙ לְאָ֔בֶן וְהַ֣חֵמָ֔ר הָיָ֥ה לָהֶ֖ם לַחֹֽמֶר׃ 
ד וַיֹּֽאמְר֞וּ הָ֣בָה ׀ נִבְנֶה־לָּ֣נוּ עִ֗יר וּמִגְדָּל֙ וְרֹאשׁ֣וֹ בַשָּׁמַ֔יִם וְנַֽעֲשֶׂה־לָּ֖נוּ שֵׁ֑ם פֶּן־נָפ֖וּץ עַל־פְּנֵ֥י כָל־הָאָֽרֶץ׃ 
ה וַיֵּ֣רֶד יְהוָ֔ה לִרְאֹ֥ת אֶת־הָעִ֖יר וְאֶת־הַמִּגְדָּ֑ל אֲשֶׁ֥ר בָּנ֖וּ בְּנֵ֥י הָֽאָדָֽם׃ 
ו וַיֹּ֣אמֶר יְהוָ֗ה הֵ֣ן עַ֤ם אֶחָד֙ וְשָׂפָ֤ה אַחַת֙ לְכֻלָּ֔ם וְזֶ֖ה הַֽחִלָּ֣ם לַֽעֲשׂ֑וֹת וְעַתָּה֙ לֹֽא־יִבָּצֵ֣ר מֵהֶ֔ם כֹּ֛ל אֲשֶׁ֥ר יָֽזְמ֖וּ לַֽעֲשֽׂוֹת׃ 
ז הָ֚בָה נֵֽרְדָ֔ה וְנָֽבְלָ֥ה שָׁ֖ם שְׂפָתָ֑ם אֲשֶׁר֙ לֹ֣א יִשְׁמְע֔וּ אִ֖ישׁ שְׂפַ֥ת רֵעֵֽהוּ׃ 
ח וַיָּ֨פֶץ יְהוָ֥ה אֹתָ֛ם מִשָּׁ֖ם עַל־פְּנֵ֣י כָל־הָאָ֑רֶץ וַֽיַּחְדְּל֖וּ לִבְנֹ֥ת הָעִֽיר׃ 
ט עַל־כֵּ֞ן קָרָ֤א שְׁמָהּ֙ בָּבֶ֔ל כִּי־שָׁ֛ם בָּלַ֥ל יְהוָ֖ה שְׂפַ֣ת כָּל־הָאָ֑רֶץ וּמִשָּׁם֙ הֱפִיצָ֣ם יְהוָ֔ה עַל־פְּנֵ֖י כָּל־הָאָֽרֶץ׃}}
==Fén Ghír==
Babel ba Malun

1. Bhé én ghír na cun mhóca me tol ír cu bhocá.

2. On bhé té bhoc anan dó ló, bhé bhoc me palir ír cu Chinar cór ló, bhé thé íc ce ló.

3. On bhé ghír me ló cór ló; “Bhoc. On tel dén tolic me dí, bér fhér ló me dí.” An bhé pilán pon tolic na nén pon dénéchon ce ló.

4. On bhé ghír ítá me ló; “Bhoc. Tel dhén labhen me dí. Tel dén malun ét ífan ced me ít ba níl me dí. In tel dhén én fhémoc pon dí, lé thé tol íra ba dem alona me ló.”

5. On bhoc lór me Úlan pon cím labhen na malun ét té dhén me Adem ba ína.

6. On bhé ghír ítá me Úlan, “Cím. On té én ghél me ló, bhé én ghír cór ló, té ét lé dhír ditol bhoc én chon ít me ló. En én cíder tel ghar ló dó ló ba med.

7. Bhoc. Lé lór me dí. In chuc ló ba gír chím me dí, tel dén chím del ló me ló.”

8. In bhé lúr ló me Úlan cór tol ír, tel dén labhen me ló."

9. On bhé chuc ló ba gír chím me Úlan, bhé dén lé ló me Úlan cór lúr tol ír , bhé fémoc Babel cór labhen ít.

== Nevotak ==

# hu toizat re hi nuzh-rira es hi nuz-ub-rira.
# en hat chin res muz bi kezhar, res en Shinar wai no hi koria es ya hatwai.
# res muis nuz "tok, hatiz ur es wa teuz duzmeh hu enu res", es res nom duzmeh nai tom, nom duzhiru nai rairu.
# res muis nuz "tok, hatiz ur teuz hi kinizh es hi hozreh, hat hozreh we tok toi, es hatiz ur kium to hi men, baar ur muis haz ez fohiz en hu toizat.
# Adim dik tok no hat itak dazro teuz hat kinizh es hat hozreh.
# Adim nuz "hoz! hat itak hito, zab itak nom hi nuzh; es res hi muz hat rih, un nure has hum res muz res esu muz zak tak."
# Tok! hatiz ur dik, es hatwai madoz res nuzh, en hat bak res nu ubnez muis nuzh.
# Ta hat, Adim fohiz res bi hatwai en toizat zab zat, es res haz nu teuz hat kinizh
# Ta hat bi, hat hozreh re men ez bez Babel; Ta Adim hatwai madoz toizat itak re nuzh fohiz res bi hatwai en toizat zab zat.

== Kah ==

:'''Tau yula kwambe le yuka kwa'''
:now world whole have language one

:'''ai aka nyoshi.'''
:and speech common

:'''Eta uyu nudora tinuno,'''
:when people migrate east

:'''henyun huan la Shinaran ai nudora lai.'''
:find plain be at Shanar and migrate there

:'''Yunyo ka noyom:'''
:they say each other

:'''"Lo, om jam duzu ai shanzu tuntu."'''
:foc, adh make brick and bake thorough

:'''Za duzu yompo adu, ai toisau yompo doshum.'''
:take brick instead of stone, and tar instead of mortar

:'''Tai ka: "Lo, om jando walonyo dola'''
:then say: foc, adh build ourselves city

:'''ya le wendo ya deche tilan,'''
:it have tower it reach heaven

:'''eno jam walonyo senka'''
:in order to make ourselves name

:'''ai eno al nong membe wanyo'''
:and in order imps not scatter us

:'''tunu kuchi na yula kwambe,"'''
:across surface of world whole

:'''Esto Tifa vunu'''
:"but lord descend

:'''eno yun dola ai wendo be uyu jando ya.'''
:in order to look city and tower top people build it

:'''Tifa ka: "Tonto shi unyo kwa'''
:"lord say: if like people one

:'''la kaza yuka kwashi,'''
:be at speak language same

:'''yunyo nuku jam awau,'''
:they start do this

:'''tontoye yayang be yunyo jankuren jam ya teneng tos yunyo.'''
:in that case nothing top they plan do it be impossible considering them

:'''Lo, om vunu ai moren yuka na yunyo.'''
:foc, adh descend and confuse language of them

:'''eno nong ke jebo noyom,"'''
:in order that not opt understand each other

:'''Echu Tifa membe yunyo chu lai tunu yula kwambe,'''
:so lord scatter them from there across world whole

:'''ai yunyo bas jando dola.'''
:and they stop build city

:'''Amun chumunye en al kaka Babal --'''
:reason because of that that imps call Babel

:'''chumun lai Tifa moren yuka na yula kwambe.'''
:because there lord confuse language of world whole

:'''Chu lai Tifa membe yunyo tunu kuchi na yula kwambe.'''
:from there lord scatter them across surface of world whole.

==Minhast==
# Mattim šūmī min kirim šarraktī, irriyērum kastarmaharaban, wa'attim.
# Wahēk, redad wayyaħna min ambunistikī yalkikmiraban, Šinarkī takušš naħkisaššiatikkenaru.
# Indikirišmattararannamā: "Iggar išpisaxtakyatapirmannēruš." Mattim iggar, hambin banak. Mattim issik, hambin nayyapi.
# Indikirišmattararannamā: "Hawassabummurratħakaš, šuxtānaran tuyye amandimahampinaft hawassaptirħakuš. Hintirissakšarmakkakannimmāš šarratim suharaktikī tandikaħsaħptarikmaš."
# Wahēk, Šuxtānim Ikkūne hārannimā, ummurrat sut tuyyēran sararampi, išpiħyimannarunaft sarmannaru.
# Wahēk, Šuxtānim Ikkūne kirimarannamā: "Sapim redad šūmikman, šūmī min kirimaran ittaħšikman, indikanawikmabampi, rearan markanawikminesampiš."
# "Wahēk, iknahakmannimāš, kirinseššente haradaknesunimmāš, kirimtarseššentēran ikšempihikminesampiš."
# Wahēk, Šuxtānim Ikkūnē išpiknatarkennarunimmā ummurratiyār iknikmaran.
# Attim waggabgabalaram hittinristirħaku, Šuxtānim Ikkūnē kirimseššente išpikšempiharu, šarrat min suharaktillidēran išpiknatarkennaru.

==Cumbraek==
('''Genesis 11: 1-9''')

# ''A lavre er oll vit oun yeth ag er oun lavrant.'' And the whole earth was of one language and of one speech.
# ''A pann deythyent dhiamm er dooren, oo cassant wostat in tir Shinar a thrigent enayth.'' And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.
# ''A gwoat poap du'y gilidh "Dowit, gwraem bridhveyn ag ow pebi in tan". Ag aidh pridhveyn in'le meyn a fik in'le morhtell.'' And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar.
# ''A gwedent "Dowit, adeylem dhin a thur a estinn i benn du'r nev; a chuhaitthem an anuw rak an skaro truw oll diredh er bit.'' And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.
# ''A diskennas er Reen du welet er dhin a'r tur a adeylent vebyon Adhav.'' And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men built.
# ''A gwoat "Sleman! Edh int oun bobul ag ema oun yeth dudhou; a ru chuhwinnsant i wreyth a ne difegyant ow emchen cuhit e cuwlheir ow gweyth."'' And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.
# '' "Dowit, diskennen ag adrisso ow yeth mal nar jalht poap lavrant i gilidh."'' Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.
# ''Mal hunn es skaras er Reen o'r le hunnedh truw oll diredh er bit; a difegsant adeylet er dhin.'' So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.
# ''Mal hunn edh aidh Babel i hanuw, in'edrip edh adrissas er Reen yeth er oll vit ag o'r le hunnedh es skaras er Reen troas enep pop wladedh.'' Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

==Clofabosin==

#''sertib pretricib ampazone esofos luxedanium esofos serotinazole.''
#''ampazin docelone distusermin, Sinar:ib elcalocine pidezolast flufib letazole.''
#''ampazin aferone epazilin: "capline galelukast gadotovacacog." fluzin capline uldac epsozolast cispine braxistac epsozole.''
#''cefast epazilin: "benzine fexolukast cesopladib vexafulven mixicil piroline fexocog. ezastiline rupacalukast pretricosetron amitilitucog."''
#''beta tropin ampazin fexozil benzium piroline carsapropirdine binizole.''
#''tropin epazilin: "esofos metin esofos luxedane serolukast cefcastim draxorovir. cefkalant fluzin glicapromab elucaine octatecaforcept."''
#''binilukast fluluxedane nivalukast, fluzin aferine mavritumab cacog."''
#''cefast tropin flufisant fluzine pretricosetron amitizolast, fluzin benzine fexocine idozole.''
#''cefase flubenzone "Bavel" epatinib. calan tropin flufib pretricol luxedane nivarotidine eparin. flufisant tropin fluzine pretricosetron amitizole.''
===Gloss===
:''sertib pretricib ampazone esofos luxedanium esofos serotinazole.''
:sertib pre-tric-ib amp-az-one esofos luxedan-ium esofos sero-t-ina-zole
:time-LOC all-world-LOC person-PL-DAT one language-and one speak-NOMZ-COP-PST.IND

:''ampazin docelone distusermin, Sinar:ib elcalocine pidezolast flufib letazole.''
:amp-az-in docel-one distu-sermin, Sinar-ib elca-loc-ine pide-zolast fluf-ib let-azole
:person-PL-NOM east-DAT move-PST.while Shinar-LOC flat-land-ACC find-PST.CONJ there-LOC settle-PST.IND

:''ampazin aferone epazilin: "capline galelukast gadotovacacog." fluzin capline uldac epsozolast cispine braxistac epsozole.''
:amp-az-in afer-one epa-zil-in: capl-ine gale-lukast gado-tovaca-cog. fluz-in capl-ine uld-ac epso-zolast cisp-ine braxist-ac epso-zole
:person-PL-NOM each_other-DAT say-PST.ATTR-NOM brick-ACC make-PRES.CONJ well-fire-COHORT that.PL-NOM brick-ACC stone-as use-PST.CONJ tar-ACC cement-CONJ use-PST.IND

:''cefast epazilin: "benzine fexolukast cesopladib vexafulven mixicil piroline fexocog. ezastiline rupacalukast pretricosetron amitilitucog."''
:cefast epa=zil-in: benz-ine fexo-lukast ceso-pladib vexa-fulven mixi-cil pirol-ine fexo-cog ez-astili-ne rupa-ca-lukast pre-trico-setron amiti-li-tu-cog
:then say-PST.ATTR-NOM city-ACC build-PRES.CONJ that.SG.INAN-inside sky-until rise-FUT.ATTR tower-ACC build-COHORT 1PL-name-ACC hear-CAUS-FUT.CONJ whole-world-throughout scatter-PASS-NEG.IRR-COHORT

:''beta tropin ampazin fexozil benzium piroline carsapropirdine binizole.''
:beta trop-in amp-az-in fexo-zil benz-ium pirol-ine carsa-pro-pirdine bini-zole
:but god-NOM person-PL-NOM build-PST.ATTR city-and tower-ACC observe-DES-PST.QUOT descend-PST.IND

:''tropin epazilin: "esofos metin esofos luxedane serolukast cefcastim draxorovir. cefkalant fluzin glicapromab elucaine octatecaforcept."''
:trop-in epa-zil-in eso-fos met-in eso-fos luxeda-ne sero-lukast cef-ca-stim draxo-ro-vir cef-kalant fluz-in gli-ca-promab elucaine octa-teca-for-cept
:god-NOM say-PST.ATTR-NOM one-CLF tribe-NOM one-CLF language-ACC speak-PRES.CONJ this-do-RES start-PERF-PRES.IND this-in_view_of that.PL-NOM what-do-DES.PRES.SUBJ regardless_of that.PL-ACC prevent-can-NEG-FUT

:''binilukast fluluxedane nivalukast, fluzin aferine mavritumab cacog."''
:bini-lukast flu-luxeda-ne niva-lukast fluz-in afer-ine mavri-tu-mab cacog
:descend-PRES.CONJ their-language-ACC confuse-PRES.CONJ that.PL-NOM each_other-ACC understand-NEG.IRR-SUBJ do-COHORT

:''cefast tropin flufisant fluzine pretricosetron amitizolast, fluzin benzine fexocine idozole.''
:cefast trop-in fluf-isant fluz-ine pre-trico-setron amiti-zolast fluz-in benz-ine fexo-cine ido-zole
:then god-NOM there-from that.PL-ACC whole-world-throughout scatter-PST.CONJ that.PL-NOM city-ACC build-VN-ACC stop-PST.IND

:''cefase flubenzone "Bavel" epatinib. calan tropin flufib pretricol luxedane nivarotidine eparin. flufisant tropin fluzine pretricosetron amitizole.''
:cefase flu-benz-one B. epa-tinib cala-n trop-in fluf-ib pre-tric-ol luxeda-ne niva-ro-tidine epar-in fluf-isant trop-in fluz-ine pre-trico-setron amiti-zole
:hence that-city-DAT B. say-GNOM.IND reason-NOM god-NOM there-LOC whole-world-GEN language-ACC confuse-PERF-GNOM.QUOT saying-NOM there-from god-NOM whole-world-throughout scatter-PST.IND

==Atlantic==

# Hiva la tiara universa nimba uniha i paralbos meṭissimos.
# I cu ilus aḍ prihori êxu orinti, invinirunt nu champ nila tiara de Sennaar i ivi haiṭoirunt.
# I ail ommun âl proxim seu: "Viniṭi, faxomu laṭiris i cofomu-sus nil foh." I hoibirunt laṭiris loh dâ saxa i biṭumi loh dû cement.
# I aîrunt: "Viniṭi, faxomu pro nuis nu chastr i una turi, cuj culmi pirtingal âl char, i faxomu pro nuis nu numi, prop non spargerimu-s pass incopa suprifixi dâ tiara universa."
# Foṭê pu discensil il Sinyuri, i viḍeil lu chastr i la turi, pu lus filyuarus dil hom eḍifihoirunt,
# i aîl il Sinyuri: "Visê pu il vulg ê un, i una ê di tuṭus la nimba; i lûnc ê lu princifi di opraxuni ilur, i dincis fuṭur-ris non ê pass dificiri, fairi lu pu cinxarint.
# Viniṭi îṭur, discendomu i cunfundomu nimba ilur, prop sit-pi-fuaril non intilixaril pass la vuxi dil proxim seu".
# Foṭê pu il Sinyuri sparsit-rus ex ivi incopa suprifixi dâ tiara universa, i pu ilus cissoirunt cu aḍ eḍifihori lu chastr.
# I an cunsefil pu lûric loh cîssil di Babel, pupro ivi cunfusa fuch la nimba dâ tiara universa, i ex ivi il Sinyuri sparsit-rus incopa suprifixi dâ tiara universa.

== Oscanez ==

* ''' E tot o munt tenea una yenua ei era d'una palara.'''
and entire the.MAS.SG world have-INDIC.IPFV.3RD.SG one-FEM.SG language and be.INDIC.IPFV.3RD.SG of-one-FEM.SG word
* '''Ei elo pasó, con elos partiron d'orient, che trobaron un campo na terra de Xinar, e s'estayeciron elaz.'''
and it happen-INDIC.PFV.3RD.SG when they.MAS.PL leave-INDIC.PFV.3RD.PL of-east that find-INDIC.PFV.3RD.PL one.MAS.SG plain in.the.FEM.SG land of Shinar, and REFL.3RD-establish-INDIC.PFV.3RD.PL there
* '''Se dijeron los uns a los otros, "Ir, fagamos selos e cuijinemos-os con fuiz. E utiyisaron selos como piela, e bedún como mortar.'''
REFL.3RD-say-INDIC.PFV.3RD.PL the.MAS.PL one-PL to the.MAS.PL other.MAS.PL go-IMP.2ND.PL make-IMP.1ST.PL brick.PL and cook-IMP.1ST.PL-it.ACC.MAS.PL with fire and use-PFV.3RD.PL brick.PL as stone and bitumen as mortar
* '''E dijeron, "alemos, constramos-nuis una cibdat e una torre, de che la cabeja toca o cielo. E fagamos-nuis un nonye, poraché no nos siamos dispersats sóbel tot o munt.'''
and say-INDIC.PFV.3RD.PL go-IMP.1ST.PL build-IMP.1ST.PL-we.DAT.PL one-FEM.SG city and one-FEM.SG tower of which the.FEM.SG head touch-INDIC.PRES.3RD.PL the.MAS.SG sky and make-IMP.1ST.PL-we.DAT.PL one.MAS.SG name so-that NEG we.REFL be.SUBJ.PRES.1ST.PL disperse-PST.PTCP.PL over entire.MAS.SG the.MAS.SG world
* '''Vinye Lo Senyor pol veer la cibdat constrida polos fiyos de los honyes.'''
come-INDIC.PFV.3RD.SG the.title.MAS.SG lord to see.INF the.FEM.SG city build.PST.PTCP.FEM.SG by-the.MAS.PL son.PL of the.MAS.PL man.PL
* '''Dije Lo Senyor "veer ací, la gent en una, e tienen son mesma yenua, e comenjan fajel est. E agora no será imposible rená ch'elos alen voyer fajel."'''
say-INDIC.PFV.3RD.SG the.title.MAS.SG lord see-IMP.2ND.PL here the.FEM.SG people be.INDIC.PRES.3RD.SG one.FEM.SG and have-INDIC.PRES.3RD.PL their same.FEM.SG language and begin.INDIC.PRES.3RD.PL do.INFV this.NEUT and now NEG be-INDIC.FUT.3RD.SG impossible nothing which-they.MAS.PL go-SUBJ.PRES.3RD.PL want-INF do-INF
* '''Ir, decenamos e confonamos son yenua poraché no puida entener negún la yenua del otro."'''
go-IMP.2ND.PL descend-IMP.1ST.PL and confuse-IMP.1ST.PL their language so-that NEG can-SUBJ.PRES.3RD.SG understand-INF nobody the.FEM.SG language of-the.MAS.SG other
* '''E os dispersó Lo Senyor sóbel la faja da terra, e cesaron constrel la cibdat.'''
and they.ACC.MAS.PL the.title.MAS.SG lord over the.FEM.SG face of-the.FEM.SG earth and stop-INDIC.PFV.3RD.PL build-INF the.FEM.SG city
* '''Elo en polché se xame Babel, polché Lo Senyor elaz confonuí la yenua de tot o munt, e os dispersó d'elaz sóbel tot la terra.'''
it be-INDIC.PRES.3RD.SG why REFL.3RD call-SUBJ.PRES.3RD.SG Babel because the.title.MAS.SG lord there confuse-INDIC.PFV.3RD.SG the.FEM.SG language of entire the.MAS.SG world and they.ACC.MAS.PL disperse-INDIC.PFV.3RD.SG of-there over entire the.FEM.SG earth

== Brithenig ==

Agur ill mun inteir afew yn llinghedig e yn cant comyn. Sig ill pobl sumodefant di'll llewent, ys ligarent yn lluin in Senar e llâ si ysteblirent.
Ys ddisirent a sew alltr, "Gwath, gwan a ffager yn fric e gogher llo hinteirfent." Ys hýsafant llo fric in ill llog di'll pedr, e yn aerell per ill kelchin. Affos ys ddisirent, "Gwath, gwan a eddiffigar yn giwdad per nu, cun yn tyr ke dang a llo chel, ke nu ffagen yn nôn per nu e sun ysparied rhen syrs feig lla der inteir."

Mai ill Dôn gwenif a fas a widder lla giwdad e'll tyr ke'll pobl eddiffigafant. Ill Dôn dis, "Ech, alltresig yn pobl ke barol ill llinghedig medissif, ys hyst ant cýnidiad a ffager. Agur sa sera negarad rhen a llo ke ys phrofarewnt a ffager. Gwath, gwan a fas a ystyrddir sew linghedig sig ys nhomprênerewnt rhen sew alltr."

Sig ill Dôn llo hyspariaf di llâ syrs lla der inteir, e ys chalfarent a eddiffigar lla giwdad. A es perch sa affell Babel -- perch llâ ill Dôn ystyrdd llinghedig ill mun inteir. Di llâ ill Dôn llo hyspariaf syrs ffeig lla der inteir.

== Maryan Coptic ==

===Coptic script===

{{cop|ⲁ̅: ⲁ ⳣⲟⲛ ⲙ̀ⲡⲉⲕⲟⲥⲙⲟⲥ ⳣⲉ-ⲁⲥⲡⲉ ⲛⲉⲙ ⲩⲙⲩⲧⲉ ⲕⲟⲓⲛⲁ.}}

{{cop|ⲃ̅: ⲙⲉⲛ ⲁⲩϣⲁⲛⲙⲟϣⲉ ⲉⲓⲉⲃⲧ, ⲁⲩϫⲉⲙ ⲩⲙⲉϣϣⲱⲧ ⲉⲧϧⲉⲛ Ϣⲉⲛⲩⲣ, ⳣⲟϩ ⲁⲩϣⲱⲡⲉ ⲙ̀ⲙⲁⲩ.}}

{{cop|ⲅ̅: ⲁⲩϫⲱ ⲛⲩⲉⲣⲏⲩ, "ⲁⲙⲱⲓⲛⲉ, ⲙⲁⲣⲉⲛⲉⲣ ϩⲁⲛⲧⲱⲃⲉ ⳣⲟϩ ⲙⲁⲣⲉⲛⲫⲁⲥⲩ ⲛ̀ⲛⲩϥⲉ." ⲁⲩϭⲓ ⲡⲉⲧⲱⲃⲉ ⲛ̀ϣⲉⲃⲓⲱ ⲡⲉⲱⲛⲉ, ⲛⲉⲙ ⲡⲉⲥⲓϥⲉ ⲛ̀ⲣⲏⲧⲉ ⲩⲃⲣⲉⳕϩⲉ.}}

{{cop|ⲇ̅: ⲓⲉ ⲁⲩϫⲱ, "ⲁⲙⲱⲓⲛⲉ, ⲙⲁⲣⲉⲛⲕⲉⲧ ⲛⲁⲛ ⲩⲃⲁⲕⲉ ⲛⲉⲙ ⲩⲙⲉϣⲧⲱⲗ ⲉⲧⲑⲉⲛ ⲛⲉⲫⲏⳣⲉ, ⲅⲁⲣ ⲉⲛⲧⲉⲛϯⲣⲁⲛ ⲉⲣⲟⲛ, ϣⲁⲛ ⲉⲛⲧⲉⲛⲫⲟⲣϣ ϩⲓ ⲡⲉϩⲟ ⲙ̀ⲡⲉⲕⲁϩⲉ ⲧⲏⲣ.}}

{{cop|ⲉ̅: ⳣⲟϩ ⲡⲉϬⲟⲓⲥ ⲁϥⲓ ⲉⲡⲉⲥⲏⲧ ⲉⲑⲃⲉⳕ-ⲛⲁⲩ ⲉ̀ⲧⲉⲃⲁⲕⲉ ⲛⲉⲙ ⲡⲉⲙⲉϣⲧⲱⲗ ⲉⲧⲁⲩⲕⲟⲧⲩ ϫⲉ ⲛⲉⲣⲱⲙⲉ.}}

{{cop|ⲋ̅: ⲁϥϫⲱ ϫⲉ ⲡⲉϬⲟⲓⲥ, "ⲓⲥ, ⲁⲩⲉⲣϩⲏ ⲉ̀ⲉⲣ ⲫⲁⲓ ⲛ̀ⲣⲏⲧⲉ ⳣⲁ-ⲗⲁⲟⲥ ⲉⲧⲥⲁϫⲉ ϧⲉⲛ ⲧⲉⲁⲥⲡⲉ ⲙⲁⳣⲁⲧⲉ, ⲓⲉ ⲛⲁ ϩⲗⲓ ⲉⲧⲥⲉⲉⲣϧⲁⲧⲉ ⲉ̀ⲁⲓⲉϥ ⲁⲧϫⲟⲙ ⲁⲛ."}}

{{cop|ⲍ̅: "ⲁⲙⲱⲓⲛⲉ, ⲙⲁⲣⲉⲛϣⲉ ⲉⲡⲉⲥⲏⲧ ⳣⲟϩ ⲙⲁⲣⲉⲛⲑⲉϧ ⲧⲩⲁⲥⲡⲉ ⲅⲁⲣ ⲉⲛⲧⲩϣⲧⲉⲙⲕⲁⲧⲉ ⲛ̀ⲛⲩⲉⲣⲏⲩ."}}

{{cop|ⲏ̅: ⳣⲟϩ ⲡⲉϬⲟⲓⲥ ⲁϥⲫⲟⲣϣⲩ ⲙ̀ⲙⲁⲩ ϩⲓ ⲡⲉⲕⲁϩⲉ ⲧⲏⲣ, ⳣⲟϩ ⲁⲩϣⲱϣⲧ ⲉ̀ⲕⲉⲧ ⲧⲉⲃⲁⲕⲉ.}}

{{cop|ⲑ̅: ⲉⲑⲃⲉⳕ ⲡⲏⲣⲏⲧⲉ ⲡⲉ ϫⲉ ⲁϥϭⲓⲣⲁⲛ ⲙ̀Ⲃⲱⲃⲉⲗ, ⲉⲑⲃⲉⳕ ϫⲉ ⲙ̀ⲙⲁⲩ ⲡⲉϬⲟⲓⲥ ⲁϥⲑⲉϧ ⲧⲉⲁⲥⲡⲉ ⲙ̀ⲡⲉⲕⲟⲥⲙⲟⲥ ⲧⲏⲣ. ⲙ̀ⲙⲁⲩ ⲡⲉϬⲟⲓⲥ ⲁϥⲫⲟⲣϣⲩ ϩⲓ ⲡⲉϩⲟ ⲙ̀ⲡⲉⲕⲁϩⲉ ⲧⲏⲣ.}}

===Latin script===

# A won m’pekosmos we-aspe nem umute koina.
# Men aushanmoshe ejebt, aucem umesshôt etxen Shenur, woh aushôpe m’mau.
# Aucô nuerêu, "Amôine, marener hantôbe woh marenphasu n’nufe." Auchi petôbe n’shebjô peône, nem pesife n’rête ubréhe.
# Je aucô, "Amôine, marenket nan ubake nem umeshtôl etthen nepêwe, gar ententiran eron, shan entenphorsh hi peho m’peKahe têr.
# Woh peChois afi epesêt etbé-nau ètebake nem pemeshtôl etaukotu ce nerôme.
# Afcô ce peChois, "Is, auerhê èer phai n’rête wa-laos etsace xen teaspe mawate, je na hli etseerxate èajef atcom an."
# "Amôine, marenshe epesêt woh marenthex tuaspe gar entushtemkate n’nuerêu."
# Woh peChois afphorshu m’mau hi peKahe têr, woh aushôsht èket tebake.
# Etbé pêrête pe ce afchiran m’Bôbel, etbé ce m’mau peChois afthex teaspe m’pekosmos têr. M’mau peChois afphorshu hi peho m’peKahe têr.

[[Category:Translation exercises]]
[[Category:Religious texts]]
[[Category:Translated works in Fén Ghír]]
[[Category:Translated works in Maryan Coptic]]

== Lemizh ==

# ''mỳ wùngxy ryú krighwrỳngty ryý ghngỳü xngỳyng.''
#* make-{{sc|acc}}-1 speak-{{sc|partins-acc}}-2 one-{{sc|acc-ins}}-3 ensemble-{{sc|dat}}-word-{{sc|partacc-acc}}-2 one-{{sc|acc-acc}}-3 all-{{sc|acc-ben}}-2 earth-{{sc|acc-partacc}}-3.
# ''là ghàxarh prexngyö́r ràdgha pxlỳghy gmilkỳar shingarè, rhèrhghg fỳar.''
#* do-{{sc|fact}}-1 move-{{sc|fact-temp}}-2 front-{{sc|nom}}-earth-{{sc|acc-abl}}-3 discover-{{sc|fact-fact}}-2 plain-{{sc|acc-acc}}-3 outside-{{sc|cons}}-opposition-{{sc|acc-loc}}-4 Shinar-{{sc|loc-nom}}-5 live-{{sc|ing}}-1 PIIn−1-{{sc|acc-loc}}-2.
# ''wáx werhyngeì ‘làxty dmangkỳ ghexàngy styghgỳ fỳi’. mà mànga dmykù zmyghúm mànga thlypù dngiỳum.''
#* speak-{{sc|fact}}-1 PIn−1-{{sc|nom}}-each-{{sc|acc}}-not-{{sc|nom-dat-2a}} ‘want-{{sc|fact-acc}}-2 brick-{{sc|partfact-acc}}-3 bake-{{sc|partfact-acc}}-3 hard-{{sc|acc-acc}}-4 PIIn−1-{{sc|acc-dat}}-4’. make-{{sc|fact}}-1 make-{{sc|partfact-fact}}-2 brick-{{sc|acc-ins}}-3 stone-{{sc|acc-qualins}}-3 make-{{sc|partfact-fact}}-2 tar-{{sc|acc-ins}}-3 mortar-{{sc|acc-qualins}}-3.
# ''wàx ‘làxty tàngghy dheǘ prànggy gmilkỳir fplỳxe, ghùty dheí làul dhyà ghaxngàül wyö̀r xngàrir ghngỳar’.''
#* speak-{{sc|fact}}-1 ‘want-{{sc|fact-acc}}-2 city-{{sc|partfact-acc}}-3 PIn−2-{{sc|nom-ben}}-4 tower-{{sc|partfact-acc}}-3 outside-{{sc|cons}}-opposition-{{sc|acc-ill}}-4 sky-{{sc|acc-nom}}-5 name-{{sc|ins-acc}}-3 PIn−2-{{sc|nom-dat}}-4 do-{{sc|fact-mot}}-3 PIn−2-{{sc|acc-fact}}-4 move-{{sc|fact}}-not-{{sc|fact-fin}}-4 PIn−1-{{sc|acc-abl}}-5 earth-{{sc|loc-ill}}-5 all-{{sc|acc-loc}}-6’.
# ''gháx igzhedỳ yfèr dmàtül mỳe tyngghỳ prynggỳ psrebzhöỳzhe.''
#* move-{{sc|fact}}-1 Lord-{{sc|nom-acc-2a}} up-{{sc|acc-ela}}-2 see-{{sc|fact-fin}}-2 make-{{sc|acc-nom}}-3 city-{{sc|partacc-acc}}-4 tower-{{sc|partacc-acc}}-4 father-{{sc|nom}}-human-{{sc|acc-nom}}-4.
# ''wàx ‘dmatrhàksy rìlngy xpyfý rìlngy wuxý tỳngy lèrhy. là dhaèrh gwìlta gwỳy lòyng.''
#* speak-{{sc|fact}}-1 ‘see-{{sc|fact}}-should-{{sc|fact-acc}}-2 one-{{sc|partcons-acc}}-3 people-{{sc|acc-acc}}-4 one-{{sc|partcons-acc}}-3 speak-{{sc|ins-acc}}-4 this-{{sc|partacc-acc}}-3 do-{{sc|ing-acc}}-4. do-{{sc|fact}}-1 PIn−2-{{sc|fact-ing}}-2 teach-{{sc|cons-fact}}-2 any-{{sc|acc-acc}}-3 do-{{sc|ten-partacc}}-4.
# ''làxt ghàngxy ilfkyír kàngy thngàdy wuxí firàr gwatkàil smáy dhiè wiè wàxu.’''
#* want-{{sc|fact}}-1 move-{{sc|partfact-acc}}-2 up-{{sc|cons}}-opposition-{{sc|acc-ill}}-3 opposition-{{sc|partfact-acc}}-2 order-{{sc|fact-acc}}-3 speak-{{sc|ins-dat}}-4 PIIn−1-{{sc|ill-loc}}-3 teach-{{sc|fact}}-opposition-{{sc|fact-cons}}-3 mean-{{sc|fact-acc}}-4 PIn−2-{{sc|dat-nom-5a}} PIn−1-{{sc|dat-nom}}-5 speak-{{sc|fact-ins}}-5.’
# ''gháx igzhedèl tyèr wyö̀r xngàrir ghngyár tìrhghyl.''
#* move-{{sc|fact}}-1 Lord-{{sc|nom-caus-2a}} this-{{sc|acc-ela}}-2 PIn−1-{{sc|acc-abl}}-2 earth-{{sc|loc-ill}}-2 all-{{sc|acc-loc}}-3 city-{{sc|egr-ctx}}-2.
# ''ghàt bablarỳ työ̀l thngadkángöl igzhedè dhiàr wúxi ghngỳe xngýyng, ghàngxöl dhièr wyö̀r xngàrir ghngỳar.''
#* name-{{sc|fact}}-1 Babel-{{sc|loc-acc}}-2 this-{{sc|acc-psu}}-2 order-{{sc|fact}}-opposition-{{sc|partfact-psu}}-2 Lord-{{sc|nom-nom-3a}} PIn−2-{{sc|dat-loc}}-3 speak-{{sc|ins-dat}}-3 all-{{sc|acc-nom-4a}} earth-{{sc|acc-partacc}}-5 move-{{sc|partfact-psu}}-2 PIn−2-{{sc|dat-ela}}-3 PIn−1-{{sc|acc-abl}}-3 earth-{{sc|loc-ill}}-3 all-{{sc|acc-loc}}-4.

Lemizh

2022-05-26T17:27:30Z

Anypodetos: See also: Tower of Babel

{{Infobox language
|image =
|imagesize =
|name = Lemizh
|nativename = lemỳzh.
|pronunciation = lɛmˈɯ̀ʒ
|state = Lemaria
|setting = Alternate history Europe
|created = 1985
|familycolor = Indo-European
|fam2 = Lemizh
|ancestor = Proto-Lemizh
|posteriori =
* [[w:Proto-Indo-European|PIE]]
* [[w:Occam's razor|Occam's razor]]
|creator = [[User:Anypodetos|Anypodetos]]
|scripts = Lemizh alphabet
|nation = Lemaria
|map = Map of Lemaria.png
|mapalt = The country of Lemaria lies to the north and west of the Black Sea. The capital, Shabar, is at the Dniester Liman or Estuary.
|notice = IPA
}}
'''Lemizh''' ([[Help:IPA|[lεmˈiʒ]]], native pronunciation: [[Help:IPA|[lɛmˈɯ̀ʒ]]]) is a language I invented with the aim of creating a grammar as regular and simple as possible. It was originally intended as an [[w:International auxiliary language|international auxiliary language]]. However, it turned out that a simple grammar is not necessarily a grammar that is easy to learn: the more ways of simplification I found, the further away it moved from [[w:Indo-European languages|Indo-European]] and probably all other familiar language structures. Expecting anyone to learn Lemizh, at this point, would be unrealistic.

So I needed a new justification for the language: enter the Lemizh, a people living to the west and north of the [[w:Black Sea|Black Sea]] in an alternate history that slowly drifted away from ours between two and eight millennia ago. Of course, it is extremely unlikely that they would speak a language that was completely without exceptions. To be precise, the chances are two to the power of two hundred and seventy-six thousand seven hundred and nine to one against. But they say that everything has to happen somewhere in the Multiverse; and everything happens only once.

{{TOC limit}}

==History==
===Early stages===
Lemizh is an Indo-European language and, together with Volgan, constitutes one of the ten recognised branches of the Indo-European language family. This branch is also called Lemizh, to the disgruntlement of Volgan linguists.

Proto-Lemizh, the ancestor of Lemizh and Volgan, is very poorly attested in form of some papyri found near the northwestern shore of the Black Sea, to the north of the [[w:Dniester Liman|Dniester Liman]], dated about 2700 BC. Old Lemizh, by contrast, is fairly well attested. It had predominantly [[w:Subject–verb–object|subject–verb–object]] (SVO) word order and was a quite typical old Indo-European language, but with a couple of interesting quirks:
* Adjectives were lost as a separate part of speech, being replaced with participles ("white" > "being white").
* Finite subordinate clauses had their subject in the case of the clause: the subject of a local clause was in the locative case without having a local meaning in itself.
The earliest known documents from this stage of Lemizh were probably written around 2100 BC along the northern and western shores of the Back Sea.

===Ghean and Middle Lemizh===
Ghean ([[Help:IPA|[ˈɣɛən]]]) is a language with no known genetic relationships. It was spoken by a people of unknown origin, who subdued the Lemizh tribes in around 1000 BC and ruled for infamous three generations. Ghean was an inflected [[w:Tonal language|register tonal]] language with strict [[w:Verb–subject–object|verb–subject–object]] (VSO) word order and head-first phrases. It had verbs, [[w:Nominal (linguistics)|nominals]] (a combined noun/adjective/participle part of speech), pronouns and particles.

The Gheans discouraged the use of the natives' language, but obviously tolerated Lemizh words (or rather word stems) to stand in for unfamiliar Ghean ones. The grammar of simple sentences was easy enough to learn for the Lemizh, as they were used to inflection and head-first phrases, and likely still knew VSO sentences from poetry. After two or three generations, the natives must have spoken a [[w:Creole language|creole]] with a more or less Ghean grammar but an abundance of Lemizh words, especially outside the core vocabulary. This is a rather unusual development as most creoles draw their lexicon mainly from the dominant group, and tend to be grammatically more innovative. (The Tanzanian language [[w:Mbugu language|Mbugu]] might have had a somewhat similar development with more or less analogous outcomes.) After the disappearance of the Gheans, Lemizh patriots tried to revive their old language, which failed spectacularly for the grammar but reintroduced many Lemizh words of the core vocabulary.

===The last three millennia===
While Middle Lemizh as spoken after the Ghean occupation already had a non-Indo-European and unusually regular grammar, this trend was to continue over the following millennia. The factive case was innovated to express verbal nouns, which eventually supplanted verbs altogether. (At least part of the blame goes to the Tlöngö̀l, an epic novel published in 1351, which popularised the use of verbal nouns.) The tonal system was simplified to the present two-way [[w:Pitch-accent language|pitch-accent]] system. Pronouns lost their status as a separate part of speech. The last particles died out a few hundred years ago, leaving the language with a single part of speech which is often called a "verb" but, historically speaking, is really a nominal. This means that the concept of ''parts of speech'' does not make sense in Modern Lemizh.

This article describes the dialect spoken to the north of the [[w:Danube Delta|Danube delta]], which prevailed against other variants and is considered the standard language today.

==Orthography and phonology==
The alphabet is [[w:Phonetic orthography|phonetic]]: each letter corresponds to a certain sound, and each sound is represented by a single letter. The direction of writing is left to right. This article uses the standard transcription of the native Lemizh alphabet:
{| class="wikitable" style="width: 800px; table-layout: fixed; text-align: center"
! colspan="29" | Letters of the Lemizh alphabet
|-
| colspan="29" style="padding: 0" | [[File:Lemizh alphabet.png|796px]]
|-
| a || e || y || i || o || ö || u || ü || l || rh || r || ng || m || g || d || b || k || t || p || gh || zh || z || dh || w || x || sh || s || th || f
|}

===Consonants===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="2" | !! bilabial !! dental !! alveolar !! postalveolar !! velar
|-
! colspan="2" | nasals
| m <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial nasal|m]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || || || ng <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar nasal|ŋ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! colspan="2" | plosives (voiceless • voiced)
| p <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless bilabial plosive|p]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • b <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial plosive|b]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || t <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless alveolar plosive|t]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • d <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar plosive|d]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || k <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless velar plosive|k]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • g <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar plosive|g]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! colspan="2" | fricatives (voiceless • voiced)
| f <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless bilabial fricative|ɸ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • w <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial fricative|β]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || th <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless dental fricative|θ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • dh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced dental fricative|ð]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || s <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless alveolar sibilant|s]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • z <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar sibilant|z]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || sh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless palato-alveolar fricative|ʃ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • zh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced palato-alveolar fricative|ʒ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || x <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless velar fricative|x]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • gh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar fricative|ɣ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! rowspan="3" | liquids || lateral approximant
| || || l <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar lateral approximant|l]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|-
! approximant
| || || rh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar approximant|ɹ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|-
! trill
| || || r <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar trill|r]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|}
The plosive-fricative combinations ''pf, ts, tsh, kx'' and their voiced couterparts only occur at word boundaries and in compound words. They are not pronounced as affricates but as separate sounds. The same applies for other combinations of a plosive plus another consonant (''pm, tl'' etc.), as well as for two identical plosives (''kk'' etc.): the release of the first plosive is always audible.

===Vowels===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! rowspan="2" | !! colspan="2" | front !! colspan="2" | back
|-
! unrounded !! rounded !! unrounded !! rounded
|-
! close
| i <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close front unrounded vowel|i]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ü <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close front rounded vowel|y]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || y <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close back unrounded vowel|ɯ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || u <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close back rounded vowel|u]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! open-mid
| e <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid front unrounded vowel|ɛ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ö <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid front rounded vowel|œ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || a <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid back unrounded vowel|ʌ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || o <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid back rounded vowel|ɔ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|}
Two consecutive different vowels are pronounced as a diphthong; two consecutive identical vowels as a long one. Single vowels are always short.

Lemizh uses [[w:Mora (linguistics)|moræ]] for structuring words: a short syllable equals one mora, and a long syllable equals two. In Lemizh, every vowel is the centre of a mora; consequently, two consecutive vowels result in two moræ or one long syllable.

===Accent===
Lemizh has got a two-way pitch-accent system, in that accented moræ are not only spoken louder (as in English), but also have either a lower or a higher pitch than the surrounding unaccented ones. The accented mora is always the ultimate or penultimate of a word. The vowel at the centre of a low-pitch accented mora is transcribed with a grave accent, the vowel at the centre of a high-pitch accented mora with an acute accent.
{| class="wikitable" style="width: 220px; table-layout: fixed; text-align: center"
! colspan="8" | Accented vowel letters
|-
| colspan="8" style="padding: 0" | [[File:Lemizh accented vowels.png|216px]]
|-
| à || è || ỳ || ì || ò || ö̀ || ù || ǜ
|-
| á || é || ý || í || ó || ö́ || ú || ǘ
|}

===Phonotactics===
[[w:Phonotactics|Phonotactics]] is rather permissive in Lemizh. A mora has the following structure, where the bracketed parts are optional:
* (O)(N)(L)V(L)(N)(O)
V is the mora's vowel, L a liquid, N a nasal, and O an obstruent that can be either a P(losive), a F(ricative), FP, PF, FF, FFP, FPF, or PFF. Word-initial consonant clusters cannot contain more than three sounds. No geminate consonants (<abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''ff'' etc.) occur within a mora. Consecutive plosive-fricative or fricative-plosive combinations within the same mora must have the same sonority – either both are voiced, or both are voiceless. A plosive cannot have the same place of articulation as a following consonant with the exception of ''rh'' and ''r''. <abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''dzh'', <abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''ddh'' and their voiceless counterparts are also prohibited within a mora.

Word boundaries, including those within compound words, are always mora boundaries. Where mora boundaries would still be ambiguous, liquids and nasals are assigned to the earliest possible mora (as the ''m'' in ''lem·ỳzh.''), and obstruents to the latest possible mora.

==Morphology==
All words are composed of the following parts:
* Prestem + inner case + poststem + outer case
Prestem and poststem form the stem, or the lexical part, of the word. The division of the stem into two portions is similar to English verbs such as ''sing/sang/sung'', where the lexical part is ''s–ng'' while the vowels ''i/a/u'' convey grammatical information. The stem always denotes an action (but never a state, a person, a thing, a property, etc.) and thus resembles our verbs. The prestem can contain any sounds, or it can be zero (i.e. consisting of zero sounds). The poststem can only contain fricatives and plosives, or it can be zero as well.

The inner case is represented by one of the eight vowels, optionally followed by a liquid (the primary case suffix) and/or a nasal (the secondary case suffix). The outer case has the same structure. For the first word in each sentence, the main predicate, the outer case is zero.

Each case is defined by its ''descriptor'': for example, the factive case denotes an ''action'', the nominative a ''sender'', the locative a ''place''. The stem and the inner case's descriptor determine a word's meaning.

'''Examples'''
* ''wàx. w–x'' is the stem for "speak", ''-a-'' denotes the inner factive, so this word means "an action of speaking", translated as the verb "to speak" or the [[w:Verbal noun|verbal noun]] "speaking".
* ''wèx. -e-'' denotes the inner nominative, so this word means "a sender of speaking" or "a speaker".
* ''àrdh. ∅–dh'' (having a zero prestem) is the stem for "eat", ''-ar-'' denotes the inner locative: "a place of eating".
The customary [[w:Lemma (morphology)|citation form]] of a word is the one with inner factive.

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Primary cases and their descriptors
|-
! rowspan="3" | № !! rowspan="3" | Case vowel !! colspan="4" | Primary case suffix
|-
| none || l || rh || r
|-
! Plot cases !! Causal cases !! Temporal cases !! Spatial cases
|-
| 1 || a || factive ({{sc|fact}}): ''action'' || affirmative ({{sc|aff}}): ''fact (point in causal chain)'' || temporal ({{sc|temp}}): ''time'' || locative ({{sc|loc}}): ''place/region''
|-
| 2 || e || nominative ({{sc|nom}}): ''source, sender'' || causative ({{sc|caus}}): ''direct cause'' || ingressive ({{sc|ing}}): ''starting time'' || elative ({{sc|ela}}): ''starting point/region''
|-
| 3 || y || accusative ({{sc|acc}}): ''content'' || contextual ({{sc|ctx}}): ''causal context'' || durative ({{sc|dur}}): ''duration'' || extensive ({{sc|ext}}): ''spatial extent''
|-
| 4 || i || dative ({{sc|dat}}): ''sink, recipient'' || consecutive ({{sc|cons}}): ''direct consequence, effect'' || egressive ({{sc|egr}}): ''closing time'' || illative ({{sc|ill}}): ''end point / ending region''
|-
| 5 || o || tentive ({{sc|ten}}): ''intention'' || intentive ({{sc|int}}): ''intention (intended point in causal chain)'' || episodic ({{sc|eps}}): ''episode, "act"'' || scenic ({{sc|sce}}): ''scene, "stage"''
|-
| 6 || ö || comitative ({{sc|com}}): ''company'' || persuasive ({{sc|psu}}): ''reason'' || digressive ({{sc|dig}}): ''time away from which'' || ablative ({{sc|abl}}): ''place/region away from which''
|-
| 7 || u || instrumental ({{sc|ins}}): ''means, tool'' || motivational ({{sc|mot}}): ''motivational context'' || progressive ({{sc|prog}}): ''time that is passed'' || prolative ({{sc|prol}}): ''crossing point/region''
|-
| 8 || ü || benefactive ({{sc|ben}}): ''beneficiary'' || final ({{sc|fin}}): ''purpose, aim'' || aggressive ({{sc|agg}}): ''time towards which, temporal aim'' || allative ({{sc|all}}): ''place/region towards which, spatial aim''
|}
Each primary case has two corresponding secondary cases:
* a partitive case formed by adding ''ng'' (such as ''-ing-'' for the partitive dative or ''-erng-'' for the partitive elative) with the descriptor ''the set from which the source (sink, place, etc.) is thought to be taken'': ''wèngx.'' is "the set from which the speaker is thought to be taken", i.e. "the speaker, among others".
* a qualitative case formed by adding ''m'', with the descriptor ''the basis of comparison for the source (sink, place, etc.)'': ''wèmx.'' informally translates as "someone like a speaker".

===The plot===
Every action denoted by a stem is considered a flow of information that comes from a source (sender), transports a content, and reaches a sink (a recipient). The terms "sender" and "recipient" may be more familiar, but "source" and "sink" are more accurate in not necessarily meaning living beings.

Consequently, a Lemizh action looks somewhat like this: '''nominative  accusative[[File:DreieckGreenMIDDLE.png|26px|link=]] dative'''

This is called the action's plot. Here are some examples:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative
|-
| ''wàx.'' "to speak, to talk, to tell; (an action of) speaking" || ''wèx.'' "one telling something" || ''wỳx.'' "a tale" || ''wìx.'' "one who is told something"
|-
| ''dà.'' "to give; (an action of) giving" || ''dè.'' "one giving something" || ''dỳ.'' "a gift" || ''dì.'' "one who is given something; one who gets something"
|-
| ''làzhw.'' "to help" || ''lèzhw.'' "one helping" || ''lỳzhw.'' "help (given)" || ''lìzhw.'' "one whom is helped"
|-
| ''mlàtx.'' "to melt" || ''mlètx.'' "one melting something" || [''mlỳtx.''] || ''mlìtx.'' "a melted thing"
|-
| ''xöàgh.'' "to produce a sound; to hear" || ''xöègh.'' "one producing a sound" || ''xöỳgh.'' "a sound" || ''xöìgh.'' "one hearing something"
|-
| ''àdh.'' "to feed; to eat" || ''èdh.'' "one feeding someone" || ''ỳdh.'' "food" || ''ìdh.'' "one being fed; one eating"
|-
| ''ià.'' "to love" || ''iè.'' "one loving someone, a lover" || ''iỳ.'' "a beloved" || ''iì.'' "a beloved"
|}
Importantly, there are no rules for which cases to use with which words. Both ''iỳ.'' ({{sc|acc}}) and ''iì.'' ({{sc|dat}}) mean "a beloved". The former describes the beloved as the content of love, the one being lovingly thought of, while the latter implies that the love reaches them, like words or gifts reach their recipient. Likewise, the reason why ''mlỳtx.'' is not translated in the table above isn't that "''melt'' does not take the accusative", as grammars of other languages would say, but that "a content of melting" does not seem to have any obvious meaning. If someone wanted to describe, say, sun rays as content transported from the sun to the snow to melt it, they could well use ''mlỳtx.'' to express the concept.

Case usage is governed solely by the cases' descriptors; it is up to the speaker how to use them given some word's meaning and some context. If the wind opens a door, is it the source of the action of opening (''ngèt.''), the means of opening (''ngùt.''), or the cause (''ngèlt.'')? All are grammatically correct; the speaker decides which possibility best expresses their intention.

===Nouns===
:''Nouns, adjectives and verbs do not correspond to any concepts in Lemizh grammar. Using these terms is just an attempt to describe the grammar from an Indo-European viewpoint.''
A large number of nouns are not derived from verbs in most languages: ''froth, ship, lion'' and many others. In Lemizh, however, we have verbs such as ''psràxk.'' "to froth", ''àksh.'' "to build a ship or ships", and ''làw.'' "to make a lion or lions". We will call these ''nominal verbs''.

Looking at the verb ''àksh.'', the shipwright ({{sc|nom}}) gives the building materials ({{sc|dat}}) the properties or the function of a ship ({{sc|acc}}). He confers, well, shipness on the materials. The shipness is sent by the shipwright, not because he is acting, but because he is the source: the image of the ship, so to say, comes from his head and materialises in wood, iron, ropes, and linen. In short, these words mostly appear with inner accusative.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative
|-
| ''psràxk.'' "to froth" || ''psrèxk.'' "one frothing something" || ''psrỳxk.'' "a thing having the properties of froth = '''froth'''" || ''psrìxk.'' "a frothed thing, a frothed liquid"
|-
| ''àksh.'' "to build a ship" || ''èksh.'' "one building a ship, a shipwright" || ''ỳksh.'' "a thing having the properties of a ship = '''a ship'''" || ''ìksh.'' "building materials for a ship, materials made into a ship"
|-
| ''làw.'' "to make a lion" || [''lèw.'' "one making a lion"] || ''lỳw.'' "a thing having the properties of a lion = '''a lion'''" || [''lìw.'' "building materials for a lion, materials made into a lion"]
|}

Nouns expressing job titles and the like mostly have inner nominatives because professions are often about producing or selling something, or about providing a kind of service:
* ''ghexè.'' "baker" from ''ghexà.'' "to bake",
* ''saxèf.'' "trumpeter" from ''saxàf.'' "to play the trumpet",
* ''bèst.'' "hero" from ''bàst.'' "to do heroic deeds, to act as a hero".

Another very common kind of nouns are tool nouns, formed with an inner instrumental case:
* ''ghstù.'' "a sail" is derived from ''ghstà.'' "to sail", literally "a means of sailing",
* ''pslù.'' "scissors" from ''pslà.'' "to cut with scissors",
* ''saxùf.'' "a trumpet", also from ''saxàf.'',
* ''skrùzh.'' "a finger" from ''skràzh.'' "to work with one's fingers".

====Inflection====
As mentioned above, all words can inflect for (outer) case. Thus, we have the nominative forms ''wàx'''e''''' "(an action of) speaking, talking, telling", ''dè'''e''''' "a giver", ''lỳw'''e''''' "a lion", the causative ''lỳw'''el''''' "because of a lion", the elative ''lỳw'''er''''' "(starting) from a lion", etc.

Lemizh words do not inflect for number or gender. If desired, we can express this information by forming compounds. (Note the duplication of the inner case vowel; the first occurrence in each word is called the epenthetic case of the compound. The underlying grammar will be described later.)
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Singular !! Dual !! Plural !! Feminine !! Masculine !! Feminine singular !! etc.
|-
! giver
| ''dè.'' || ''de'''rè'''.'' || ''de'''dwè'''.'' || ''de'''mlè'''.'' || ''de'''bè'''.'' || ''de'''èx'''.'' || ''de'''berè'''.''
|-
! lion
| ''lỳw.'' || ''lyw'''rỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''dwỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''mlỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''bỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''ỳx'''.'' || ''lyw'''byrỳ'''.''
|-
! compound with
| — || ''rỳ.'' "one" || ''dwỳ.'' "two" || ''mlỳ.'' "several" || ''bỳ.'' "female; woman" || ''ỳx.'' "male; man" || "female" and "one"
|}

===Adjectives and the like===
There is no difference between adjectival and nominal verbs: they mostly appear with inner accusative. This is the same situation as in, say, Latin, where ''albus'' can mean "a white one" as well as "white". Negators and numerals are sub-categories of adjectives.

The inner consecutive case translates certain abstract nouns.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative !! Inner consecutive
|-
| ''làbdh.'' "to whiten something, to make something white" || ''lèbdh.'' "one whitening something" || ''lỳbdh.'' "a white thing; '''white'''" || ''lìbdh.'' "a thing made white; whitened" || ''lìlbdh.'' "the consequence of whitening = whiteness"
|-
| ''gmrà.'' "to warm, to make something warm" || ''gmrè.'' "one warming something" || ''gmrỳ.'' "a warm thing; '''warm'''" || ''gmrì.'' "a warmed thing; warmed" || ''gmrìl.'' "the consequence of warming = warmth"
|-
| ''ngà.'' "to make something nonexistent" || ''ngè.'' "one making something nonexistent" || ''ngỳ.'' "(something) '''nonexistent'''" || ''ngì.'' "something made nonexistent, something destroyed" || ''ngìl.'' "the consequence of making nonexistent = nothingness"
|-
| ''dwà.'' "to make two things/individuals" || ''dwè.'' "one making two things" || ''dwỳ.'' "'''two''' (things)" || ''dwì.'' "something made into two (things)" || ''dwìl.'' "the consequence of making two things = twoness"
|}

However, emotions aren't viewed as properties in Lemizh: a happy or angry person is one sending happiness or anger, just as a loving person is one sending love. The inner causative plays a notable role with verbs of emotion.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative !! Inner causative
|-
| ''pthàb.'' "to be angry" || ''pthèb.'' "an angry one; '''angry'''" || ''pthỳb.'' "the content/object of one's anger" || ''pthìb.'' "one that one's anger reaches" || ''pthèlb.'' "one causing someone anger; one annoying someone"
|}

====Inflection====
Of course, adjectives can be compounded to express number and/or gender in the same way as nouns. Furthermore, we can form compounds expressing various degrees. (The epenthetic consecutive ''-il-'' in these compounds will also be explained later; it is actually the main application of the abstract nouns just mentioned.)
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Diminutive !! Augmentative !! Absolute !! Comparative !! Superlative
|-
! warm
| ''gmrỳ.'' || ''gmril'''zhrỳ'''.'' "lukewarm" || ''gmril'''dmỳ'''.'' "hot" || ''gmril'''ghngỳ'''.'' "absolutely hot" || ''gmril'''tỳzhd'''.'' "warmer, hotter" || ''gmril'''ỳst'''.'' "hottest"
|-
! white
| ''lỳbdh.'' || ''lilbdh'''zhrỳ'''.'' "whitish" || ''lilbdh'''dmỳ'''.'' "very white" || ''lilbdh'''ghngỳ'''.'' "absolutely/completely white" || ''lilbdh'''tỳzhd'''.'' "whiter" || ''lilbdh'''ỳst'''.'' "whitest"
|-
! compound with
| — || ''zhrỳ.'' "few, little, a bit" || ''dmỳ.'' "much, many" || ''ghngỳ.'' "every, all, the whole" || ''tỳzhd.'' "more" || ''ỳst.'' "most"
|}

===Verbs===
Most verbs correspond to Lemizh words with an inner factive. However, as Lemizh stems always denote an action, the notable exception are stative verbs such as:
* ''zdìls.'' "to sit", literally "the consequence of sitting down (''zdàs.'')"
* ''gwìlt.'' "to know", literally "the consequence of learning (''gwàt.'')"

====Inflection====
* Person is not expressed with inflection but with [[#Relative pronouns|pronouns]].
* Number is conveyed by compounding pronouns with numerals. While verbs (i.e. words with an inner factive) can be compounded with numerals, ''ftrask'''mlà'''.'' does not mean "we/they sneeze" but "(there are) several acts of sneezing" (i.e. someone sneezes several times and/or several people sneeze).
* Voice (active/passive) is absent in Lemizh; word order serves a similar function.
* Tense is expressed by compounds with an epenthetic temporal case (''-arh-''), or with certain inner cases. The latter option is preferred if possible, as it is more concise.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Present !! Past !! Perfect !! Future !! Intentional
|-
! to sit down
| ''zdàs.'' || ''zdarhs'''wà'''.'' || ''zdarhs'''prilkà'''.'' || ''zd'''ìl'''s.'' ({{sc|cons}}) || ''zdarhs'''prà'''.'' || ''zd'''ò'''s.'' ({{sc|ten}})
|-
! compound with
| — || pronoun || ''prilkỳ.'' "back" || — || ''prỳ.'' "front" || —
|}
Note that the translation of the perfect with inner consecutive coincides with the translation of stative verbs: "having sat down" in the strict perfect sense of "the consequence/effect of this action exists" means the same as "to sit". Likewise, "whiteness" can be expressed as the abstract concept of "having whitened something".

* Mood corresponds to compounds with certain verbs for the most part. There is no equivalent to the subjunctive mood, as subordinate clauses are irreal (i.e. not necessarily real) by default. Here are some common formations:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Indicative !! Imperative !! Commanding imperative !! Interrogative Polite imperative !! Optative
|-
! to feed, to eat
| ''àdh.'' || ''adh'''pràk'''.'' || ''adh'''dàxt'''.'' || ''adh'''pà'''.'' || ''adh'''làxt'''.''
|-
! compound with
| — || ''pràk.'' "to request" || ''dàxt.'' "to command" || ''pà.'' "to ask" || ''làxt.'' "to want"
|}
* Aspect is a very diverse category, expressed by a variety of compounds and syntactic structures in Lemizh.

===Pronouns===
The two demonstrative pronouns are technically nominal verbs:
* ''tà.'' "to make this/that one", typically used with inner accusative: ''tỳ.'' "this/that (one)"
* ''gwà.'' "to make someone/anyone, something/anything", with inner accusative ''gwỳ.'' "someone/anyone, something/anything"

The eleven relative pronouns play a far more prominent role in Lemizh grammar. Their scope is much wider than the one usually associated with the term. As they are closely tied to Lemizh syntax, they are described [[#Relative pronouns|further down]].

==Syntax==
===Level of words===
There is only one more grammatical category: the level of words, which is the main building block of Lemizh syntax. A word can be of first level (the highest), of second level (the next highest), of third level (still one level lower) and so on; there is no limit for the number of levels, but non-positive word levels (zero, −1, etc.) are forbidden.

The first word in a sentence (the main predicate) is of first level by definition. The level of the next word is determined by the main predicate's accent and by the type of pause between the two words, the level of the third word is determined by the accent of the second and the pause between these two, and so on.

Here is the complete list of pause/accent combinations.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="2" | Following pause !! rowspan="2" | Accented vowel !! rowspan="2" | Type of accent !! rowspan="2" | The level of the next word is …
|-
! in speech !! in writing
|-
| rowspan="4" | barely audible || rowspan="4" | space || rowspan="2" | inner case || low || lower by 1
|-
| high || lower by 1, and [[w:Agent (grammar)|agentive]]* ({{sc|a}})
|-
| rowspan="2" | outer case || low || equal
|-
| high || higher by 1
|-
| rowspan="4" | a bit longer || rowspan="4" | comma ('''·''') || rowspan="2" | inner case || low || higher by 2
|-
| high || higher by 3
|-
| rowspan="2" | outer case || low || higher by 4
|-
| high || higher by 5
|-
| the longest || full stop ('''∶''') || inner case || low || none; end of sentence
|}
<nowiki>*</nowiki> The agent is the initiator of the action (more informally, the one who ''does'' the action).

===The Rules===
[[File:Lemizh parse tree.png|thumb|upright=1.5|A schematic sentence with the words represented by their level numbers]]
The word levels determine the structure of a sentence.

'''Rule One of sentence grammar. A word of level n is subordinate to the nearest word of level n−1 in front of it; the parole acts as a word of level zero.'''

All words of second level are subordinate to the main predicate (which has first level). A word of third level is subordinate to the next second-level word in front of it, and so on. In other words, Lemizh sentences are strictly [[w:Head directionality|head-first]]. The main predicate itself is subordinate to the [[w:Parole (linguistics)|parole]], the action of speaking (or writing) the sentence in question, which consequently has level zero.

'''Rule Two. An object of a word in a sentence is a word subordinate to the former, its predicate, plus all of its own objects.'''

In the diagram, the main predicate's three objects are enclosed in ellipses. Objects of the same word are called ''sibling objects'' or just ''siblings'', and the word they are subordinate to is their ''predicate''. Note that ''predicate'' and ''object'' are relative terms like ''parent'' and ''child''.

The table of level markers implies that only the first object of a predicate can be marked as agent. (This has been interpreted as Lemizh having VSO word order, although a subject is not quite the same as an agent, and Lemizh grammar strictly speaking does not have the concept of a subject.)

'''Rule Three. The outer case of the first word of an object defines its relation to its predicate's stem via its descriptor; the outer case of a level 1 word is zero.'''

This is what we would expect from a language that inflects for case: the nominative object defines the source (sender) of the action named by the stem of its predicate, the accusative object its content, the temporal object its time, etc.

'''Examples'''
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dá föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|give-FACT-1 {Father Christmas}-ACC-'''NOM'''-2A bottle-ACC-'''ACC'''-2 Lucy-ACC-'''DAT'''-2.
|''Father Christmas gives Lucy a bottle.''}}

The stems of the three objects are nominal verbs ("to make a bottle" etc.), hence the inner accusatives. The outer cases indicate the sender, content and recipient of the action of giving, respectively. The agent is specified independently of the plot arrow; note the difference:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dá lusyì dwywỳ föpysrỳfe.
|give-FACT-1 Lucy-ACC-'''DAT'''-2A bottle-ACC-'''ACC'''-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-'''NOM'''-2.
|''Lucy takes a bottle from Father Christmas.''}}

We need not mark an object as agentive if we consider this information unimportant. The English translations are only rough approximations:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dà lusyì dwywỳ föpysrỳfe.
|give-FACT-1 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2 bottle-ACC-ACC-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2.
|''Lucy gets a bottle from Father Christmas. Lucy is given a bottle by Father Christmas.''}}

Rule Three defines outer case in a way that mirrors the definition of inner case. This allows for an operation called '''inversion''' (symbolized "⇔"):
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|làzhw wèxi. ⇔ wáx lìzhwe.
|help-FACT-1 speak-'''NOM'''-'''DAT'''-2. ⇔ speak-FACT-1 help-'''DAT'''-'''NOM'''-2A.
|''[Someone] helps the speaker. ⇔ The one being helped speaks.''}}

Both sentences claim that the sender of speaking is the recipient of helping. The equation is ''wèx.'' = ''lìzhw.'', the speaker = the one being helped.

'''Rule Four. An instance of a word stem designates a specific action.'''

''dà'' in the above sentence does not just mean "to give", it refers to one specific action of giving. Such an action may involve several givers (as in "They give something") and need not even be temporally or spatially contiguous (as in "They are giving something every Christmas"). In other words, each spoken or written instance of the stem ''d–'' refers to a certain subset of all the giving there is.

This rule ensures that all the objects refer to the same action of giving as the predicate itself.

'''Rule Five. A case characterises the action it refers to completely with regard to its case descriptor.'''

For example, the nominative object "Father Christmas" has to name the complete sender of the above instance of giving. This excludes from this instance all giving not done by Father Christmas. So each object places a restriction on the action of giving the main predicate refers to. Thus, the subset of giving meant by this instance of ''dà.'' – what the sentence is ultimately talking about – is defined more and more precisely with each additional object. (This is true not only of the main predicate but of all words in a sentence.)

'''Rule Six. A missing object is equivalent to the absence of information about its descriptor.'''

Above sentences do not have, for example, locative objects, so Rule Five cannot place a restriction on the place of giving. Because of Rule Six, this does not mean there are no restrictions on the location, but only that this kind of information has not been included in the sentence (for example, because the speaker does not know about it, considers it irrelevant, assumes that the listener already knows or – perhaps most importantly – that the listener can infer it). In fact, everything not useful for understanding a sentence should be omitted to save the listener processing effort. (See the inversion example above, which omits the nominative "someone".)

Rules Five and Six imply that every instance of a word has exactly one action (which, however, need not be contiguous), one sender (which can consist of several people), and so on: Five excludes additional senders if one nominative object is already present, and Six gives meaning to missing objects, establishing them as an integral part of Lemizh sentence grammar.

'''Rule Seven. Given an object and its predicate, the predicate is considered more real and the object more hypothetical.'''

…

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! as an object !! as a complete sentence
|-
| ''dà.'' || to give; giving || An action of giving exists = Someone gives something.
|-
| ''zdìls.'' || the consequence of sitting down = to sit; sitting || The consequence of sitting down exists = Someone sits.
|-
| ''dwìlw.'' || the consequence of making a bottle || The consequence of making a bottle exists = A bottle exists; there is a bottle.
|-
| ''sklè.'' || one building a bridge || One building a bridge exists = There is someone building a bridge.
|}

===Noun phrases===
Forming noun phrases does not require any new grammatical rules. In the following example, the inner case of "give" is changed to the nominative, yielding "one giving something, a giver", and everything is pushed down one level. The third-level words are still sender, content and recipient of the ''action'' of giving, as outer cases define relations to the predicate's ''stem'' per Rule Three.
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 3A:third level, agentive
|dmàt tryxkì dée föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|see-FACT-1 beaver-ACC-DAT-2 give-'''NOM'''-NOM-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-3A bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3.
|''The beaver sees '''the one giving Lucy a bottle, Father Christmas'''.''}}
Regarding the verb "see", note that the beaver is in the dative, being at the receiving end of the optical stimulus or information. Marking the beaver as agent would translate as "The beaver looks at the one …".

Rules Four and Five guarantee that the giver is identical to Father Christmas: both are the sender of the same instance of the stem ''d–'' "give" (the giver via its inner nominative, Father Christmas via its outer nominative), and both are the ''complete'' sender of this action. This type of construction, where an object's outer case matches its predicate's inner case, is called a '''bracket'''. Brackets are very widely used:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Apposition !! Attributive adjective !! Attributive pronoun/determiner !! Attributive numeral !! Attributive participle
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|iakopỳk saxèfy.
|Jacopo-'''ACC'''-1 trumpet-NOM-'''ACC'''-2.
|''Jacopo, a trumpeter''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=INS:instrumental case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|ghstù lỳbdhu.
|sail-'''INS'''-1 white-ACC-'''INS'''-2.
|''a sail, a white thing = a white sail''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|ỳksh gwỳy.
|ship-'''ACC'''-1 some-ACC-'''ACC'''-2.
|''a ship, something = some ship''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|mỳs trỳy.
|mouse-'''ACC'''-1 three-ACC-'''ACC'''-2.
|''mice, three individuals = three mice''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|nỳzd gangèy.
|bird-'''ACC'''-1 sing-NOM-'''ACC'''-2.
|''a bird, a singer = a singing bird''}}
|}
Such phrases can be easily extended. This example contains two accusative brackets ("a singing bird" and "a sad child"):
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 4:fourth level
|ngỳzd gangèy zhngỳi speghý ytfỳarh.
|bird-ACC-1 sing-NOM-ACC-2 child-ACC-DAT-3 sad-NOM-ACC-4 night-ACC-TEMP-3.
|''a bird singing to a sad child at night''}}

Adverbially used adjectives are phrased with factive brackets. However, changing the predicate's inner case leaves the object's outer factive intact, losing the bracket.
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|gangà txỳska.
|sing-'''FACT'''-1 loud-ACC-'''FACT'''-2.
|''(an action of) singing, a loud thing = loud singing = singing loudly, to sing loudly''}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|gangè txỳska.
|sing-'''NOM'''-1 loud-ACC-FACT-2.
|''a loud singer = someone singing loudly'' (The action of singing is a loud thing.)}}

As [[w:Genitive construction|genitive constructions]] have a wide variety of meanings, there is no single Lemizh equivalent. The typical translation for constructions indicating possession is with the benefactive case, but other cases frequently occur. Everything depends on the object's relation to the predicate's stem per Rule Three.
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|dwỳw lusỳü.
|bottle-ACC-1 Lucy-ACC-'''BEN'''-2.
|''Lucy's bottle'' (Lucy is the beneficiary of making the bottle. The bottle is made for Lucy.)}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dý ỳxe.
|give-ACC-1 male-ACC-'''NOM'''-2A.
|''the man's gift'' (The man is the sender of giving.)}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|rhỳst ytfỳarh filpskỳy.
|dream-ACC-1 night-ACC-'''TEMP'''-2 midsummer-ACC-ACC-3.
| ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' (The midsummer night is the time of dreaming.)}}

===Dependent clauses===
Non-finite and conjunctional clauses employ the same principles as above:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive; 3:third level
|láxt föpysryfè dày dwywỳ lusỳi.
|want-FACT-1 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2A give-'''FACT'''-ACC-2 bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3.
|''Father Christmas wants '''to give Lucy a bottle'''.'' ("Father Christmas" is omitted from the dependent clause per Rule Six.)}}

The difference between English gerund clauses and finite that-clauses roughly translates into a difference between an inner factive (''action'') and an inner affirmative (''fact'').
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 3A:third level, agentive
|dmàt tryxkì dáe föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|see-FACT-1 beaver-ACC-DAT-2 give-'''FACT'''-NOM-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-3A bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3.
|''The beaver sees [the action of] '''Father Christmas giving Lucy a bottle'''.'' (The dependent clause could also be in the accusative to focus on the optical information transmitted to the beaver.)}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; AFF:affirmative case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 3A:third level, agentive
|dmàt tryxkì dále föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|see-FACT-1 beaver-ACC-DAT-2 give-'''AFF'''-NOM-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-3A bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3.
|''The beaver sees [the fact of] '''Father Christmas giving Lucy a bottle'''. The beaver sees '''that''' Father Christmas gives Lucy a bottle.''}}

Some examples of dependent clauses translating into objects in various cases:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|fngà kshngày.
|try-FACT-1 shout-FACT-'''ACC'''-2.
|''[She] tried to shout [but this was difficult because of her sore throat].''}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|fngà kshngàu.
|try-FACT-1 shout-FACT-'''INS'''-2.
|''[She] tried shouting [as he hadn't heard her when she had spoken quietly].'' (Shouting is the means of trying.)}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PSU:persuasive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 4:fourth level
|pàf làxtöl dmàty föpysrỳfe.
|stand-FACT-1 want-FACT-'''PSU'''-2 see-FACT-ACC-3 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-4.
|''[He] stood up because [he] wanted to see Father Christmas.''}}

Relative clauses are structurally identical to (extended) attributive participles as described above; they are brackets: ''a bird which sings to a sad child at night = a bird singing to a sad child at night''. This is also true of clauses with relative adverbs:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level; 3A:third level, agentive
|ngỳw gangáry lỳbe.
|valley-'''ACC'''-1 sing-LOC-'''ACC'''-2 flower-ACC-NOM-3A.
|''a valley, a place of the singing of flowers = a valley where flowers sing''}}

Adverbially used relative clauses, unsurprisingly, are factive brackets:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive; 3:third level
|shrá wygwè rashkỳa bỳe.
|yelp-'''FACT'''-1 dog-ACC-NOM-2A dislike-ACC-'''FACT'''-2 female-ACC-NOM-3.
|''The dog is yelping, which the girl doesn't like.''}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PSU:persuasive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive; 3A:third level, agentive
|shrá wygwè ö́ldha bỳe.
|yelp-'''FACT'''-1 dog-ACC-NOM-2A eat-PSU-'''FACT'''-2 female-ACC-NOM-3A.
|''The dog is yelping, wherefore the girl feeds it.''}}

===Predicative===
[[w:Predicative expression|Predicatives]], like all sentences, follow the plot arrow:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|ghát zhngyè bestỳ lusỳi.
|name-FACT-1 child-ACC-'''NOM'''-2A hero-NOM-'''ACC'''-2 Lucy-ACC-'''DAT'''-2.
|''The children called Lucy a hero.'' (The children gave the name of hero to Lucy.)}}

Predicatives with the verb "to make" typically correspond to Lemizh sentences with a nominal or adjectival verb as the main predicate. This can be interpreted as the accusative object – here "ill" – being absorbed ("swallowed up") by the main predicate:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|mà ydhè gwilbkyỳ wỳgwi. → gwilbkà ydhè wỳgwi.
|make-FACT-1 eat-ACC-'''NOM'''-2 ill-ACC-'''ACC'''-2 dog-ACC-'''DAT'''-2. → ill-FACT-1 eat-ACC-NOM-2 dog-ACC-DAT-2.
|''The food made the dog ill.'' (The food gave the property of being ill to the dog.)}}

The verb "to be" translates as the corresponding perfect form, i.e. with inner consecutive of the main predicate:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=CONS:consecutive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|lìlbdh lỳghi.
|white-'''CONS'''-1 house-ACC-DAT-2.
|''The house is [painted] white.'' (The house has been given the property of being white. The house has been whitened.)}}

The above are called resultative predicatives, describing the result of some property being conferred on someone or something. A depictive predicative describes an inherent property; this is achieved with an accusative object:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=CONS:consecutive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|drulìl werhèy.
|shrub-CONS-1 hazel-NOM-'''ACC'''-2.
|''The hazel is a shrub.'' (The hazel has the properties of a shrub.)}}
(Side note: The stem of ''werhè.'' "hazel" means "to make hazelnuts", hence the inner nominative. The nuts are called ''werhỳ.'', with inner accusative. Other plants bearing edible fruits follow the same pattern.)

===Relative pronouns===
Stems of relative pronouns (not to be confused with the pronouns of the same name in English or Latin) refer to actions by pointing to another stem or to a parole: they are [[w:Anaphora (linguistics)|anaphoric]]. Here is the full list:
{| class="wikitable"
! rowspan="2" | Level !! colspan="2" | Type I !! colspan="2" | Type II
|-
! Verb !! The target is the stem of !! Verb !! The target is the stem of
|-
| n || colspan="2" | (does not occur because it would refer to itself) || à. || its preceding same-level word
|-
| n−1 || wà. || its predicate || fà. || its predicate's preceding same-level word or parole
|-
| n−2 || dhà. || its predicate's predicate || thà. || its predicate's predicate's preceding same-level word or parole
|-
| n−3 || zà. || its predicate's predicate's predicate || sà. || …
|-
| n−4 || zhà. || … || shà. || …
|-
| n−5 || ghà. || … || xà. || …
|}
They are highly versatile, corresponding to various structures in other languages. Recall that a sentence's parole has level zero:
{| class="wikitable"
! Reflexive !! First person (singular) !! Second person
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|wáx wìe.
|speak-FACT-1 PIn−1-'''DAT'''-'''NOM'''-2A.
|''to talk to oneself. He is talking to himself.'' (The recipient of speaking is its sender.)}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dráw dhèe.
|dance-FACT-1 PIn−2-'''NOM'''-NOM-2A.
|''I am dancing.'' (The sender of the parole is the sender of dancing.)}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dráw dhìe.
|dance-FACT-1 PIn−2-'''DAT'''-NOM-2A.
|''You are dancing.'' (The recipient of the parole is the sender of dancing.)}}
|}
Rule Four of sentence grammar ensures that the reflexive example means "He is talking to himself" as opposed to, say, "He is talking to one being talked to" (which would be ''wáx wìxe.'' speak-{{sc|fact}}-1 speak-{{sc|dat-nom}}-2{{sc|a}}, with two different instances of the stem "speak").

{| class="wikitable"
! Possessive determiner !! Vocative
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=CONS:consecutive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|zdìls ngỳzdy zeú tỳar.
|seat-CONS-1 bird-ACC-ACC-2 PIn−3-'''NOM'''-BEN-3 this-ACC-LOC-2.
|''My bird is sitting there.'' (The sender of the parole is the beneficiary of making a bird.)}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=PI:pronoun type I; FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive; 3:third level
|wáx dheè zdhèzhi zìe.
|speak-FACT-1 PIn−2-NOM-NOM-2A friend-NOM-DAT-2 PIn−3-'''DAT'''-NOM-3.
|''Friend, I am talking to you.'' (The recipient of the parole is the friend: nominative bracket.)}}
|}

The type II pronoun in the following example points to the stem of eating. With the inner accusative, the pronoun refers to the content of eating, which is the sweet. (As with brackets, Rules Four and Five guarantee that the pronoun refers to the same content of the same action of eating as mentioned in the first sentence.)
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; PII:pronoun type II; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|ádh dheì mlỳdhy. ràsh fỳy.
|eat-FACT-1 PIn−2-NOM-DAT-2A sweet-ACC-ACC-2. like-FACT-1 PIIn−1-'''ACC'''-ACC-2.
|''I am eating a sweet. [I] like it.''}}

==Derivational morphology==
From a Lemizh point of view, ''dè.'' "giver" and ''dỳ.'' "gift" aren't derivatives of ''dà.'' "to give" but grammatical forms of the same word. The only piece of true derivational morphology is compounding.

===Compounds===
[[File:Lemizh compounding diagram.png|thumb|Forming a compound from a two-word sentence]]
'''Rule One of compounding. A compound word is constructed from a two-word sentence – predicate and object of which become modifier and head of the compound, respectively – in the following way:'''
# '''Prestem''':
## the object's prestem
## the object's inner case
## the object's poststem
## an optional separator
## the predicate's prestem
# '''Inner case'''
# '''Poststem''': the predicate's poststem
# '''Outer case'''
Note that the object's stem comes before the predicate's; and also that the object's outer case (and, less importantly, the predicate's inner case) is lost. The object's inner case becomes part of the compound's prestem and is then called its ''epenthetic case''. The separator can be used, for example, if the word boundary would be unclear otherwise, or for placing the second part of the word on a new line.

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|làxt àdhy. ⇒ adhlàxt.
|want-FACT-1 eat-FACT-ACC-2. ⇒ eat-FACT-want-FACT-1.
|''[She] wants to eat.'' (See the inflection of [[#Verbs|verbs]].)}}
Here, the lost accusative ending has to be deduced from context.

'''Rule Two. In the relationship between the original predicate and object, the rules of sentence grammar are retained as far as applicable.'''

The consequences of this rule are somewhat technical; but the last one, pertaining to degree of reality, is important for correctly interpreting compounds.
* Rules One to Three of sentence grammar are not applicable to compounds, as can be easily seen.
* Four: Both modifier and head are instantiations of specific actions in the original sentence (which however do not necessarily match the instantiation of the compound).
* Five: The epenthetic case characterises the head completely with regard to its descriptor.
* Six: The only overt object of the modifier is the head. All other objects are missing and thus indicate the absence of information about their descriptors.
* Seven: The modifier has a higher degree of reality than the head. Therefore, the above compound does not claim that she actually eats.

'''Rule Three. Regarding all outward relations, cases''' (i.e. the compound's inner case [not to be confused with its epenthetic case], the outer cases of its objects, and cases of pronouns referring to it) '''refer to the head.'''
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|adhkmàr mlỳdhy.
|eat-FACT-allow-LOC-1 sweet-ACC-ACC-2.
|''a place where one may eat sweets; a place for eating sweets''}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|ngengadàxt fỳta.
|run-FACT-must-FACT-1 fast-ACC-FACT-1
|''[He] has to run fast.''}}

These examples talk about the location of eating, as opposed to the location of allowing; about eating sweets, as opposed to allowing sweets; the running is fast, as opposed to the necessity; etc.

Number and gender of [[#Nouns|nouns]] are compounds from brackets which are first inverted to turn the more salient word into the compound's head: ''dè mlỳe. ⇔ mlỳ dèy.'' "several givers" ⇒ ''demlè.'' "givers". The inner nominative (''-e-'') becomes the epenthetic case, and the new inner case also has to be a nominative per Rule Three. ''demlỳ.'' (inner {{sc|acc}}), by contrast, is "something given by several people".

Compounds expressing degrees of [[#Adjectives and the like|adjectives]] are also formed from brackets. They have an epenthetic consecutive (''-il-''), which stems from the corresponding abstract noun: ''gmrìl dmỳil. ⇔ dmỳ gmrìly.'' "much warmth" ⇒ ''gmrildmìl.'' "heat" (abstract noun formed with inner {{sc|cons}}), ''gmrildmỳ.'' "hot" (adjective with inner {{sc|acc}}). Degrees of comparison are often combined with [[#Predicative|predicatives]] as well as with qualitative or partitive outer cases:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=CONS:consecutive case; QUALACC:qualitative accusative case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|prilghtìlzhd lyghỳ bỳghym.
|beautiful-CONS-more-CONS-1 house-ACC-ACC-2 garden-ACC-QUALACC-2.
|''The house is more beautiful than the garden.'' (The garden is the basis of comparison for the house.)}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=CONS:consecutive case; PARTACC:partitive accusative case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|prilghìlst lỳghy ziǘ ghngỳyng.
|beautiful-CONS-most-CONS-1 house-ACC-ACC-2 PIn−3-DAT-BEN-3 all-ACC-PARTACC-2.
|''Your house is the most beautiful of all [houses].'' (''All houses'' form the set from which your house is thought to be taken.)}}

The analogues of the present and future tenses are formed like so – note that inversion changes the pronoun's stem along with its level:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2:second level
|zdàs dhàarh. ⇔ wà zdàrhsa. ⇒ zdarhswà.
|seat-FACT-1 PIn−2-FACT-TEMP-2. ⇔ PIn−1-FACT-1 seat-TEMP-FACT-2. ⇒ seat-TEMP-PIn−1-FACT-1.
|''[She] sits down at the time of the parole. ⇒ [She] sits down now.''}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|zdàs prỳarh. ⇔ prỳ zdàrhsy. ⇒ zdarhsprà.
|seat-FACT-1 front-ACC-TEMP-2. ⇔ front-ACC-1 seat-TEMP-ACC-2. ⇒ seat-TEMP-front-FACT-1.
|''[She] sits down at a time in front [of the parole]. ⇒ [She] will sit down.''}}

==Example text==
[[File:Lemizh text sample.png|600px]]

===stedrỳzh thìrhfi xtrỳghy.===
krỳgh dghngireì prilxpilghkỳarh. mangỳ srungbỳng lyngghỳng yngshwỳng fỳü. zhöazhghngìl tmỳil. ghngàgzh smìa prỳal ghngyé dhàbdhy lunguỳ ùyl mỳu fplyxár tỳarh. dmát feì sxngengzè ishkènge. ghìlt krighmyngthxì xtrỳngghi swyshỳ ghỳxy fplyxòr zhöyzhỳm xngàrorm. dmìlt öngkrỳngty zhryỳ rèshy esfàsy sxngyzdmýi, usrỳngy xazhgèsty ghngỳeng, frekrỳngfy rilghdzhỳwby pthèby, dgheipysrỳngdy psrèby rhèzhem, dghistngỳngty ghỳxy zangỳa dghildhfmlýyrh, ngiftngyghtmỳngy krültlìy zùe gỳghda. xtrỳgh swyshý stedrỳzh thìrfi. dngilszhrìl bdhyrgzhyngỳng xüxtrỳngyng prilkỳarh ötìlil skmyngìlng ghỳngsilng. dngilszhìlwb ráxpy thìlfi. fö̀l gwiltngìlöl dmàty föpysryfỳ ngỳu.

rỳ zhryỳrh thìzgy gwiltngìly rhàghgy dmatngìe thìrfy. là xángska matngiè ytfỳyrh dmyý fplyxór dyxtngyngà mànga prilzhryngỳr iltỳngzhdyr. dmàt ytfỳarh ryý mìlngorh xngyì prilkyár mìlngorh xtrỳngghi kshrextý mengthxì prỳar zìe, fplỳngxe fywýr déngske xtryghè sxngezì xngỳnge.

===The Legend of the Seventh Planet===
A long time ago there was a tribe of nomads. They possessed neither writing nor houses nor horses. But they were truly human. They were curious; this means, above all, that they took interest in the useless, for the celestial objects were of no use to them yet. They looked at the Sun and the Moon. They had named the constellations and the six planets moving across the sky like the humans across the earth. They knew dim Mercury, who liked to hide in the glare of the Sun; Venus, the brightest of all; reddish and angry Mars; majestic father Jupiter; Saturn, who seemed to stand still for weeks; and even Uranus had been caught by their keen eyes. Six planets, and the legend of a seventh. Maybe it had been the minor planet Vesta, or a comet centuries or millennia earlier. Maybe it was the attraction of the number seven. For Neptune is invisible to the naked eye.

One youngster thought to himself that he could not live without seeing the seventh planet. He lay awake searching the sky for many nights, neglected his duties, and became thinner and thinner. And one night, lying with the Earth behind his back, and with the looping planets and the stars above him, he saw the depth of the sky and the planets circling the Sun, and among them the Earth.

==See also==
* [[Literature:The Tower of Babel#Lemizh|The Tower of Babel § Lemizh]]

==External links==
* [https://lemizh.conlang.org Lemizh homepage] with comprehensive coverage of the language, including a dictionary with etymologies, information on the language's pragmatics, and more background information
[[File:Copyleft1.png|20px]] ''This article is available under a [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License]. It includes material from the Lemizh homepage, which has the same license.''


[[Category:Languages]]
[[Category:Conlangs]]
[[Category:Indo-European languages]]
[[Category:Agglutinative languages]]

Literature:The Tower of Babel

2022-05-26T17:23:43Z

Anypodetos: /* Lemizh */ Interlinear glosses 1–3

{{Library translation sidebar}}
'''The Tower of Babel''' is a creation text from the [[:w:Book of Genesis|Book of Genesis]] (also known as "In the beginning") as the first installment of the [[:w:Hebrew Bible|Tanach]] in Judaism and the [[:w:Old Testament|Old Testament]] in Christianity, detailing an origin myth providing a rationale for why the various peoples of the world speak such diverse languages.

The text has become a popular translation reference for many Conlangs, being one of the first texts to be translated across various Conlangs, the story itself being a story of language-invention, a story inspirational yet familiar to many conlangers/conlinguists, and, like the first (1st) article of [[The Universal Declaration of Human Rights|The Universal Declaration of Human Riğts]] and [[The Internationale]], has become a famous text translated into a significant portion of the languages of Earth.
{{List translations}}
{{Text translation widget}}
==English==
===[[wikipedia:Authorized King James Version|King James Version]] (1611)===
1 And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.

2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.

3 And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter.

4 And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto Heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.

5 And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.

6 And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.

7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.

8 So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.

9 Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

==Hebrew==
===[[w:Masoretic Text|Masoretic Text]]===
{{heb|א וַיְהִ֥י כָל־הָאָ֖רֶץ שָׂפָ֣ה אֶחָ֑ת וּדְבָרִ֖ים אֲחָדִֽים׃ 
ב וַיְהִ֖י בְּנָסְעָ֣ם מִקֶּ֑דֶם וַֽיִּמְצְא֥וּ בִקְעָ֛ה בְּאֶ֥רֶץ שִׁנְעָ֖ר וַיֵּ֥שְׁבוּ שָֽׁם׃ 
ג וַיֹּֽאמְר֞וּ אִ֣ישׁ אֶל־רֵעֵ֗הוּ הָ֚בָה נִלְבְּנָ֣ה לְבֵנִ֔ים וְנִשְׂרְפָ֖ה לִשְׂרֵפָ֑ה וַתְּהִ֨י לָהֶ֤ם הַלְּבֵנָה֙ לְאָ֔בֶן וְהַ֣חֵמָ֔ר הָיָ֥ה לָהֶ֖ם לַחֹֽמֶר׃ 
ד וַיֹּֽאמְר֞וּ הָ֣בָה ׀ נִבְנֶה־לָּ֣נוּ עִ֗יר וּמִגְדָּל֙ וְרֹאשׁ֣וֹ בַשָּׁמַ֔יִם וְנַֽעֲשֶׂה־לָּ֖נוּ שֵׁ֑ם פֶּן־נָפ֖וּץ עַל־פְּנֵ֥י כָל־הָאָֽרֶץ׃ 
ה וַיֵּ֣רֶד יְהוָ֔ה לִרְאֹ֥ת אֶת־הָעִ֖יר וְאֶת־הַמִּגְדָּ֑ל אֲשֶׁ֥ר בָּנ֖וּ בְּנֵ֥י הָֽאָדָֽם׃ 
ו וַיֹּ֣אמֶר יְהוָ֗ה הֵ֣ן עַ֤ם אֶחָד֙ וְשָׂפָ֤ה אַחַת֙ לְכֻלָּ֔ם וְזֶ֖ה הַֽחִלָּ֣ם לַֽעֲשׂ֑וֹת וְעַתָּה֙ לֹֽא־יִבָּצֵ֣ר מֵהֶ֔ם כֹּ֛ל אֲשֶׁ֥ר יָֽזְמ֖וּ לַֽעֲשֽׂוֹת׃ 
ז הָ֚בָה נֵֽרְדָ֔ה וְנָֽבְלָ֥ה שָׁ֖ם שְׂפָתָ֑ם אֲשֶׁר֙ לֹ֣א יִשְׁמְע֔וּ אִ֖ישׁ שְׂפַ֥ת רֵעֵֽהוּ׃ 
ח וַיָּ֨פֶץ יְהוָ֥ה אֹתָ֛ם מִשָּׁ֖ם עַל־פְּנֵ֣י כָל־הָאָ֑רֶץ וַֽיַּחְדְּל֖וּ לִבְנֹ֥ת הָעִֽיר׃ 
ט עַל־כֵּ֞ן קָרָ֤א שְׁמָהּ֙ בָּבֶ֔ל כִּי־שָׁ֛ם בָּלַ֥ל יְהוָ֖ה שְׂפַ֣ת כָּל־הָאָ֑רֶץ וּמִשָּׁם֙ הֱפִיצָ֣ם יְהוָ֔ה עַל־פְּנֵ֖י כָּל־הָאָֽרֶץ׃}}
==Fén Ghír==
Babel ba Malun

1. Bhé én ghír na cun mhóca me tol ír cu bhocá.

2. On bhé té bhoc anan dó ló, bhé bhoc me palir ír cu Chinar cór ló, bhé thé íc ce ló.

3. On bhé ghír me ló cór ló; “Bhoc. On tel dén tolic me dí, bér fhér ló me dí.” An bhé pilán pon tolic na nén pon dénéchon ce ló.

4. On bhé ghír ítá me ló; “Bhoc. Tel dhén labhen me dí. Tel dén malun ét ífan ced me ít ba níl me dí. In tel dhén én fhémoc pon dí, lé thé tol íra ba dem alona me ló.”

5. On bhoc lór me Úlan pon cím labhen na malun ét té dhén me Adem ba ína.

6. On bhé ghír ítá me Úlan, “Cím. On té én ghél me ló, bhé én ghír cór ló, té ét lé dhír ditol bhoc én chon ít me ló. En én cíder tel ghar ló dó ló ba med.

7. Bhoc. Lé lór me dí. In chuc ló ba gír chím me dí, tel dén chím del ló me ló.”

8. In bhé lúr ló me Úlan cór tol ír, tel dén labhen me ló."

9. On bhé chuc ló ba gír chím me Úlan, bhé dén lé ló me Úlan cór lúr tol ír , bhé fémoc Babel cór labhen ít.

== Nevotak ==

# hu toizat re hi nuzh-rira es hi nuz-ub-rira.
# en hat chin res muz bi kezhar, res en Shinar wai no hi koria es ya hatwai.
# res muis nuz "tok, hatiz ur es wa teuz duzmeh hu enu res", es res nom duzmeh nai tom, nom duzhiru nai rairu.
# res muis nuz "tok, hatiz ur teuz hi kinizh es hi hozreh, hat hozreh we tok toi, es hatiz ur kium to hi men, baar ur muis haz ez fohiz en hu toizat.
# Adim dik tok no hat itak dazro teuz hat kinizh es hat hozreh.
# Adim nuz "hoz! hat itak hito, zab itak nom hi nuzh; es res hi muz hat rih, un nure has hum res muz res esu muz zak tak."
# Tok! hatiz ur dik, es hatwai madoz res nuzh, en hat bak res nu ubnez muis nuzh.
# Ta hat, Adim fohiz res bi hatwai en toizat zab zat, es res haz nu teuz hat kinizh
# Ta hat bi, hat hozreh re men ez bez Babel; Ta Adim hatwai madoz toizat itak re nuzh fohiz res bi hatwai en toizat zab zat.

== Kah ==

:'''Tau yula kwambe le yuka kwa'''
:now world whole have language one

:'''ai aka nyoshi.'''
:and speech common

:'''Eta uyu nudora tinuno,'''
:when people migrate east

:'''henyun huan la Shinaran ai nudora lai.'''
:find plain be at Shanar and migrate there

:'''Yunyo ka noyom:'''
:they say each other

:'''"Lo, om jam duzu ai shanzu tuntu."'''
:foc, adh make brick and bake thorough

:'''Za duzu yompo adu, ai toisau yompo doshum.'''
:take brick instead of stone, and tar instead of mortar

:'''Tai ka: "Lo, om jando walonyo dola'''
:then say: foc, adh build ourselves city

:'''ya le wendo ya deche tilan,'''
:it have tower it reach heaven

:'''eno jam walonyo senka'''
:in order to make ourselves name

:'''ai eno al nong membe wanyo'''
:and in order imps not scatter us

:'''tunu kuchi na yula kwambe,"'''
:across surface of world whole

:'''Esto Tifa vunu'''
:"but lord descend

:'''eno yun dola ai wendo be uyu jando ya.'''
:in order to look city and tower top people build it

:'''Tifa ka: "Tonto shi unyo kwa'''
:"lord say: if like people one

:'''la kaza yuka kwashi,'''
:be at speak language same

:'''yunyo nuku jam awau,'''
:they start do this

:'''tontoye yayang be yunyo jankuren jam ya teneng tos yunyo.'''
:in that case nothing top they plan do it be impossible considering them

:'''Lo, om vunu ai moren yuka na yunyo.'''
:foc, adh descend and confuse language of them

:'''eno nong ke jebo noyom,"'''
:in order that not opt understand each other

:'''Echu Tifa membe yunyo chu lai tunu yula kwambe,'''
:so lord scatter them from there across world whole

:'''ai yunyo bas jando dola.'''
:and they stop build city

:'''Amun chumunye en al kaka Babal --'''
:reason because of that that imps call Babel

:'''chumun lai Tifa moren yuka na yula kwambe.'''
:because there lord confuse language of world whole

:'''Chu lai Tifa membe yunyo tunu kuchi na yula kwambe.'''
:from there lord scatter them across surface of world whole.

==Minhast==
# Mattim šūmī min kirim šarraktī, irriyērum kastarmaharaban, wa'attim.
# Wahēk, redad wayyaħna min ambunistikī yalkikmiraban, Šinarkī takušš naħkisaššiatikkenaru.
# Indikirišmattararannamā: "Iggar išpisaxtakyatapirmannēruš." Mattim iggar, hambin banak. Mattim issik, hambin nayyapi.
# Indikirišmattararannamā: "Hawassabummurratħakaš, šuxtānaran tuyye amandimahampinaft hawassaptirħakuš. Hintirissakšarmakkakannimmāš šarratim suharaktikī tandikaħsaħptarikmaš."
# Wahēk, Šuxtānim Ikkūne hārannimā, ummurrat sut tuyyēran sararampi, išpiħyimannarunaft sarmannaru.
# Wahēk, Šuxtānim Ikkūne kirimarannamā: "Sapim redad šūmikman, šūmī min kirimaran ittaħšikman, indikanawikmabampi, rearan markanawikminesampiš."
# "Wahēk, iknahakmannimāš, kirinseššente haradaknesunimmāš, kirimtarseššentēran ikšempihikminesampiš."
# Wahēk, Šuxtānim Ikkūnē išpiknatarkennarunimmā ummurratiyār iknikmaran.
# Attim waggabgabalaram hittinristirħaku, Šuxtānim Ikkūnē kirimseššente išpikšempiharu, šarrat min suharaktillidēran išpiknatarkennaru.

==Cumbraek==
('''Genesis 11: 1-9''')

# ''A lavre er oll vit oun yeth ag er oun lavrant.'' And the whole earth was of one language and of one speech.
# ''A pann deythyent dhiamm er dooren, oo cassant wostat in tir Shinar a thrigent enayth.'' And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.
# ''A gwoat poap du'y gilidh "Dowit, gwraem bridhveyn ag ow pebi in tan". Ag aidh pridhveyn in'le meyn a fik in'le morhtell.'' And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar.
# ''A gwedent "Dowit, adeylem dhin a thur a estinn i benn du'r nev; a chuhaitthem an anuw rak an skaro truw oll diredh er bit.'' And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.
# ''A diskennas er Reen du welet er dhin a'r tur a adeylent vebyon Adhav.'' And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men built.
# ''A gwoat "Sleman! Edh int oun bobul ag ema oun yeth dudhou; a ru chuhwinnsant i wreyth a ne difegyant ow emchen cuhit e cuwlheir ow gweyth."'' And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.
# '' "Dowit, diskennen ag adrisso ow yeth mal nar jalht poap lavrant i gilidh."'' Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.
# ''Mal hunn es skaras er Reen o'r le hunnedh truw oll diredh er bit; a difegsant adeylet er dhin.'' So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.
# ''Mal hunn edh aidh Babel i hanuw, in'edrip edh adrissas er Reen yeth er oll vit ag o'r le hunnedh es skaras er Reen troas enep pop wladedh.'' Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

==Clofabosin==

#''sertib pretricib ampazone esofos luxedanium esofos serotinazole.''
#''ampazin docelone distusermin, Sinar:ib elcalocine pidezolast flufib letazole.''
#''ampazin aferone epazilin: "capline galelukast gadotovacacog." fluzin capline uldac epsozolast cispine braxistac epsozole.''
#''cefast epazilin: "benzine fexolukast cesopladib vexafulven mixicil piroline fexocog. ezastiline rupacalukast pretricosetron amitilitucog."''
#''beta tropin ampazin fexozil benzium piroline carsapropirdine binizole.''
#''tropin epazilin: "esofos metin esofos luxedane serolukast cefcastim draxorovir. cefkalant fluzin glicapromab elucaine octatecaforcept."''
#''binilukast fluluxedane nivalukast, fluzin aferine mavritumab cacog."''
#''cefast tropin flufisant fluzine pretricosetron amitizolast, fluzin benzine fexocine idozole.''
#''cefase flubenzone "Bavel" epatinib. calan tropin flufib pretricol luxedane nivarotidine eparin. flufisant tropin fluzine pretricosetron amitizole.''
===Gloss===
:''sertib pretricib ampazone esofos luxedanium esofos serotinazole.''
:sertib pre-tric-ib amp-az-one esofos luxedan-ium esofos sero-t-ina-zole
:time-LOC all-world-LOC person-PL-DAT one language-and one speak-NOMZ-COP-PST.IND

:''ampazin docelone distusermin, Sinar:ib elcalocine pidezolast flufib letazole.''
:amp-az-in docel-one distu-sermin, Sinar-ib elca-loc-ine pide-zolast fluf-ib let-azole
:person-PL-NOM east-DAT move-PST.while Shinar-LOC flat-land-ACC find-PST.CONJ there-LOC settle-PST.IND

:''ampazin aferone epazilin: "capline galelukast gadotovacacog." fluzin capline uldac epsozolast cispine braxistac epsozole.''
:amp-az-in afer-one epa-zil-in: capl-ine gale-lukast gado-tovaca-cog. fluz-in capl-ine uld-ac epso-zolast cisp-ine braxist-ac epso-zole
:person-PL-NOM each_other-DAT say-PST.ATTR-NOM brick-ACC make-PRES.CONJ well-fire-COHORT that.PL-NOM brick-ACC stone-as use-PST.CONJ tar-ACC cement-CONJ use-PST.IND

:''cefast epazilin: "benzine fexolukast cesopladib vexafulven mixicil piroline fexocog. ezastiline rupacalukast pretricosetron amitilitucog."''
:cefast epa=zil-in: benz-ine fexo-lukast ceso-pladib vexa-fulven mixi-cil pirol-ine fexo-cog ez-astili-ne rupa-ca-lukast pre-trico-setron amiti-li-tu-cog
:then say-PST.ATTR-NOM city-ACC build-PRES.CONJ that.SG.INAN-inside sky-until rise-FUT.ATTR tower-ACC build-COHORT 1PL-name-ACC hear-CAUS-FUT.CONJ whole-world-throughout scatter-PASS-NEG.IRR-COHORT

:''beta tropin ampazin fexozil benzium piroline carsapropirdine binizole.''
:beta trop-in amp-az-in fexo-zil benz-ium pirol-ine carsa-pro-pirdine bini-zole
:but god-NOM person-PL-NOM build-PST.ATTR city-and tower-ACC observe-DES-PST.QUOT descend-PST.IND

:''tropin epazilin: "esofos metin esofos luxedane serolukast cefcastim draxorovir. cefkalant fluzin glicapromab elucaine octatecaforcept."''
:trop-in epa-zil-in eso-fos met-in eso-fos luxeda-ne sero-lukast cef-ca-stim draxo-ro-vir cef-kalant fluz-in gli-ca-promab elucaine octa-teca-for-cept
:god-NOM say-PST.ATTR-NOM one-CLF tribe-NOM one-CLF language-ACC speak-PRES.CONJ this-do-RES start-PERF-PRES.IND this-in_view_of that.PL-NOM what-do-DES.PRES.SUBJ regardless_of that.PL-ACC prevent-can-NEG-FUT

:''binilukast fluluxedane nivalukast, fluzin aferine mavritumab cacog."''
:bini-lukast flu-luxeda-ne niva-lukast fluz-in afer-ine mavri-tu-mab cacog
:descend-PRES.CONJ their-language-ACC confuse-PRES.CONJ that.PL-NOM each_other-ACC understand-NEG.IRR-SUBJ do-COHORT

:''cefast tropin flufisant fluzine pretricosetron amitizolast, fluzin benzine fexocine idozole.''
:cefast trop-in fluf-isant fluz-ine pre-trico-setron amiti-zolast fluz-in benz-ine fexo-cine ido-zole
:then god-NOM there-from that.PL-ACC whole-world-throughout scatter-PST.CONJ that.PL-NOM city-ACC build-VN-ACC stop-PST.IND

:''cefase flubenzone "Bavel" epatinib. calan tropin flufib pretricol luxedane nivarotidine eparin. flufisant tropin fluzine pretricosetron amitizole.''
:cefase flu-benz-one B. epa-tinib cala-n trop-in fluf-ib pre-tric-ol luxeda-ne niva-ro-tidine epar-in fluf-isant trop-in fluz-ine pre-trico-setron amiti-zole
:hence that-city-DAT B. say-GNOM.IND reason-NOM god-NOM there-LOC whole-world-GEN language-ACC confuse-PERF-GNOM.QUOT saying-NOM there-from god-NOM whole-world-throughout scatter-PST.IND

==Atlantic==

# Hiva la tiara universa nimba uniha i paralbos meṭissimos.
# I cu ilus aḍ prihori êxu orinti, invinirunt nu champ nila tiara de Sennaar i ivi haiṭoirunt.
# I ail ommun âl proxim seu: "Viniṭi, faxomu laṭiris i cofomu-sus nil foh." I hoibirunt laṭiris loh dâ saxa i biṭumi loh dû cement.
# I aîrunt: "Viniṭi, faxomu pro nuis nu chastr i una turi, cuj culmi pirtingal âl char, i faxomu pro nuis nu numi, prop non spargerimu-s pass incopa suprifixi dâ tiara universa."
# Foṭê pu discensil il Sinyuri, i viḍeil lu chastr i la turi, pu lus filyuarus dil hom eḍifihoirunt,
# i aîl il Sinyuri: "Visê pu il vulg ê un, i una ê di tuṭus la nimba; i lûnc ê lu princifi di opraxuni ilur, i dincis fuṭur-ris non ê pass dificiri, fairi lu pu cinxarint.
# Viniṭi îṭur, discendomu i cunfundomu nimba ilur, prop sit-pi-fuaril non intilixaril pass la vuxi dil proxim seu".
# Foṭê pu il Sinyuri sparsit-rus ex ivi incopa suprifixi dâ tiara universa, i pu ilus cissoirunt cu aḍ eḍifihori lu chastr.
# I an cunsefil pu lûric loh cîssil di Babel, pupro ivi cunfusa fuch la nimba dâ tiara universa, i ex ivi il Sinyuri sparsit-rus incopa suprifixi dâ tiara universa.

== Oscanez ==

* ''' E tot o munt tenea una yenua ei era d'una palara.'''
and entire the.MAS.SG world have-INDIC.IPFV.3RD.SG one-FEM.SG language and be.INDIC.IPFV.3RD.SG of-one-FEM.SG word
* '''Ei elo pasó, con elos partiron d'orient, che trobaron un campo na terra de Xinar, e s'estayeciron elaz.'''
and it happen-INDIC.PFV.3RD.SG when they.MAS.PL leave-INDIC.PFV.3RD.PL of-east that find-INDIC.PFV.3RD.PL one.MAS.SG plain in.the.FEM.SG land of Shinar, and REFL.3RD-establish-INDIC.PFV.3RD.PL there
* '''Se dijeron los uns a los otros, "Ir, fagamos selos e cuijinemos-os con fuiz. E utiyisaron selos como piela, e bedún como mortar.'''
REFL.3RD-say-INDIC.PFV.3RD.PL the.MAS.PL one-PL to the.MAS.PL other.MAS.PL go-IMP.2ND.PL make-IMP.1ST.PL brick.PL and cook-IMP.1ST.PL-it.ACC.MAS.PL with fire and use-PFV.3RD.PL brick.PL as stone and bitumen as mortar
* '''E dijeron, "alemos, constramos-nuis una cibdat e una torre, de che la cabeja toca o cielo. E fagamos-nuis un nonye, poraché no nos siamos dispersats sóbel tot o munt.'''
and say-INDIC.PFV.3RD.PL go-IMP.1ST.PL build-IMP.1ST.PL-we.DAT.PL one-FEM.SG city and one-FEM.SG tower of which the.FEM.SG head touch-INDIC.PRES.3RD.PL the.MAS.SG sky and make-IMP.1ST.PL-we.DAT.PL one.MAS.SG name so-that NEG we.REFL be.SUBJ.PRES.1ST.PL disperse-PST.PTCP.PL over entire.MAS.SG the.MAS.SG world
* '''Vinye Lo Senyor pol veer la cibdat constrida polos fiyos de los honyes.'''
come-INDIC.PFV.3RD.SG the.title.MAS.SG lord to see.INF the.FEM.SG city build.PST.PTCP.FEM.SG by-the.MAS.PL son.PL of the.MAS.PL man.PL
* '''Dije Lo Senyor "veer ací, la gent en una, e tienen son mesma yenua, e comenjan fajel est. E agora no será imposible rená ch'elos alen voyer fajel."'''
say-INDIC.PFV.3RD.SG the.title.MAS.SG lord see-IMP.2ND.PL here the.FEM.SG people be.INDIC.PRES.3RD.SG one.FEM.SG and have-INDIC.PRES.3RD.PL their same.FEM.SG language and begin.INDIC.PRES.3RD.PL do.INFV this.NEUT and now NEG be-INDIC.FUT.3RD.SG impossible nothing which-they.MAS.PL go-SUBJ.PRES.3RD.PL want-INF do-INF
* '''Ir, decenamos e confonamos son yenua poraché no puida entener negún la yenua del otro."'''
go-IMP.2ND.PL descend-IMP.1ST.PL and confuse-IMP.1ST.PL their language so-that NEG can-SUBJ.PRES.3RD.SG understand-INF nobody the.FEM.SG language of-the.MAS.SG other
* '''E os dispersó Lo Senyor sóbel la faja da terra, e cesaron constrel la cibdat.'''
and they.ACC.MAS.PL the.title.MAS.SG lord over the.FEM.SG face of-the.FEM.SG earth and stop-INDIC.PFV.3RD.PL build-INF the.FEM.SG city
* '''Elo en polché se xame Babel, polché Lo Senyor elaz confonuí la yenua de tot o munt, e os dispersó d'elaz sóbel tot la terra.'''
it be-INDIC.PRES.3RD.SG why REFL.3RD call-SUBJ.PRES.3RD.SG Babel because the.title.MAS.SG lord there confuse-INDIC.PFV.3RD.SG the.FEM.SG language of entire the.MAS.SG world and they.ACC.MAS.PL disperse-INDIC.PFV.3RD.SG of-there over entire the.FEM.SG earth

== Brithenig ==

Agur ill mun inteir afew yn llinghedig e yn cant comyn. Sig ill pobl sumodefant di'll llewent, ys ligarent yn lluin in Senar e llâ si ysteblirent.
Ys ddisirent a sew alltr, "Gwath, gwan a ffager yn fric e gogher llo hinteirfent." Ys hýsafant llo fric in ill llog di'll pedr, e yn aerell per ill kelchin. Affos ys ddisirent, "Gwath, gwan a eddiffigar yn giwdad per nu, cun yn tyr ke dang a llo chel, ke nu ffagen yn nôn per nu e sun ysparied rhen syrs feig lla der inteir."

Mai ill Dôn gwenif a fas a widder lla giwdad e'll tyr ke'll pobl eddiffigafant. Ill Dôn dis, "Ech, alltresig yn pobl ke barol ill llinghedig medissif, ys hyst ant cýnidiad a ffager. Agur sa sera negarad rhen a llo ke ys phrofarewnt a ffager. Gwath, gwan a fas a ystyrddir sew linghedig sig ys nhomprênerewnt rhen sew alltr."

Sig ill Dôn llo hyspariaf di llâ syrs lla der inteir, e ys chalfarent a eddiffigar lla giwdad. A es perch sa affell Babel -- perch llâ ill Dôn ystyrdd llinghedig ill mun inteir. Di llâ ill Dôn llo hyspariaf syrs ffeig lla der inteir.

== Maryan Coptic ==

===Coptic script===

{{cop|ⲁ̅: ⲁ ⳣⲟⲛ ⲙ̀ⲡⲉⲕⲟⲥⲙⲟⲥ ⳣⲉ-ⲁⲥⲡⲉ ⲛⲉⲙ ⲩⲙⲩⲧⲉ ⲕⲟⲓⲛⲁ.}}

{{cop|ⲃ̅: ⲙⲉⲛ ⲁⲩϣⲁⲛⲙⲟϣⲉ ⲉⲓⲉⲃⲧ, ⲁⲩϫⲉⲙ ⲩⲙⲉϣϣⲱⲧ ⲉⲧϧⲉⲛ Ϣⲉⲛⲩⲣ, ⳣⲟϩ ⲁⲩϣⲱⲡⲉ ⲙ̀ⲙⲁⲩ.}}

{{cop|ⲅ̅: ⲁⲩϫⲱ ⲛⲩⲉⲣⲏⲩ, "ⲁⲙⲱⲓⲛⲉ, ⲙⲁⲣⲉⲛⲉⲣ ϩⲁⲛⲧⲱⲃⲉ ⳣⲟϩ ⲙⲁⲣⲉⲛⲫⲁⲥⲩ ⲛ̀ⲛⲩϥⲉ." ⲁⲩϭⲓ ⲡⲉⲧⲱⲃⲉ ⲛ̀ϣⲉⲃⲓⲱ ⲡⲉⲱⲛⲉ, ⲛⲉⲙ ⲡⲉⲥⲓϥⲉ ⲛ̀ⲣⲏⲧⲉ ⲩⲃⲣⲉⳕϩⲉ.}}

{{cop|ⲇ̅: ⲓⲉ ⲁⲩϫⲱ, "ⲁⲙⲱⲓⲛⲉ, ⲙⲁⲣⲉⲛⲕⲉⲧ ⲛⲁⲛ ⲩⲃⲁⲕⲉ ⲛⲉⲙ ⲩⲙⲉϣⲧⲱⲗ ⲉⲧⲑⲉⲛ ⲛⲉⲫⲏⳣⲉ, ⲅⲁⲣ ⲉⲛⲧⲉⲛϯⲣⲁⲛ ⲉⲣⲟⲛ, ϣⲁⲛ ⲉⲛⲧⲉⲛⲫⲟⲣϣ ϩⲓ ⲡⲉϩⲟ ⲙ̀ⲡⲉⲕⲁϩⲉ ⲧⲏⲣ.}}

{{cop|ⲉ̅: ⳣⲟϩ ⲡⲉϬⲟⲓⲥ ⲁϥⲓ ⲉⲡⲉⲥⲏⲧ ⲉⲑⲃⲉⳕ-ⲛⲁⲩ ⲉ̀ⲧⲉⲃⲁⲕⲉ ⲛⲉⲙ ⲡⲉⲙⲉϣⲧⲱⲗ ⲉⲧⲁⲩⲕⲟⲧⲩ ϫⲉ ⲛⲉⲣⲱⲙⲉ.}}

{{cop|ⲋ̅: ⲁϥϫⲱ ϫⲉ ⲡⲉϬⲟⲓⲥ, "ⲓⲥ, ⲁⲩⲉⲣϩⲏ ⲉ̀ⲉⲣ ⲫⲁⲓ ⲛ̀ⲣⲏⲧⲉ ⳣⲁ-ⲗⲁⲟⲥ ⲉⲧⲥⲁϫⲉ ϧⲉⲛ ⲧⲉⲁⲥⲡⲉ ⲙⲁⳣⲁⲧⲉ, ⲓⲉ ⲛⲁ ϩⲗⲓ ⲉⲧⲥⲉⲉⲣϧⲁⲧⲉ ⲉ̀ⲁⲓⲉϥ ⲁⲧϫⲟⲙ ⲁⲛ."}}

{{cop|ⲍ̅: "ⲁⲙⲱⲓⲛⲉ, ⲙⲁⲣⲉⲛϣⲉ ⲉⲡⲉⲥⲏⲧ ⳣⲟϩ ⲙⲁⲣⲉⲛⲑⲉϧ ⲧⲩⲁⲥⲡⲉ ⲅⲁⲣ ⲉⲛⲧⲩϣⲧⲉⲙⲕⲁⲧⲉ ⲛ̀ⲛⲩⲉⲣⲏⲩ."}}

{{cop|ⲏ̅: ⳣⲟϩ ⲡⲉϬⲟⲓⲥ ⲁϥⲫⲟⲣϣⲩ ⲙ̀ⲙⲁⲩ ϩⲓ ⲡⲉⲕⲁϩⲉ ⲧⲏⲣ, ⳣⲟϩ ⲁⲩϣⲱϣⲧ ⲉ̀ⲕⲉⲧ ⲧⲉⲃⲁⲕⲉ.}}

{{cop|ⲑ̅: ⲉⲑⲃⲉⳕ ⲡⲏⲣⲏⲧⲉ ⲡⲉ ϫⲉ ⲁϥϭⲓⲣⲁⲛ ⲙ̀Ⲃⲱⲃⲉⲗ, ⲉⲑⲃⲉⳕ ϫⲉ ⲙ̀ⲙⲁⲩ ⲡⲉϬⲟⲓⲥ ⲁϥⲑⲉϧ ⲧⲉⲁⲥⲡⲉ ⲙ̀ⲡⲉⲕⲟⲥⲙⲟⲥ ⲧⲏⲣ. ⲙ̀ⲙⲁⲩ ⲡⲉϬⲟⲓⲥ ⲁϥⲫⲟⲣϣⲩ ϩⲓ ⲡⲉϩⲟ ⲙ̀ⲡⲉⲕⲁϩⲉ ⲧⲏⲣ.}}

===Latin script===

# A won m’pekosmos we-aspe nem umute koina.
# Men aushanmoshe ejebt, aucem umesshôt etxen Shenur, woh aushôpe m’mau.
# Aucô nuerêu, "Amôine, marener hantôbe woh marenphasu n’nufe." Auchi petôbe n’shebjô peône, nem pesife n’rête ubréhe.
# Je aucô, "Amôine, marenket nan ubake nem umeshtôl etthen nepêwe, gar ententiran eron, shan entenphorsh hi peho m’peKahe têr.
# Woh peChois afi epesêt etbé-nau ètebake nem pemeshtôl etaukotu ce nerôme.
# Afcô ce peChois, "Is, auerhê èer phai n’rête wa-laos etsace xen teaspe mawate, je na hli etseerxate èajef atcom an."
# "Amôine, marenshe epesêt woh marenthex tuaspe gar entushtemkate n’nuerêu."
# Woh peChois afphorshu m’mau hi peKahe têr, woh aushôsht èket tebake.
# Etbé pêrête pe ce afchiran m’Bôbel, etbé ce m’mau peChois afthex teaspe m’pekosmos têr. M’mau peChois afphorshu hi peho m’peKahe têr.

[[Category:Translation exercises]]
[[Category:Religious texts]]
[[Category:Translated works in Fén Ghír]]
[[Category:Translated works in Maryan Coptic]]

== Lemizh ==

# mỳ wùngxy ryú krighwrỳngty ryý ghngỳü xngỳyng.
#* make-{{sc|acc}}-1 speak-{{sc|partins-acc}}-2 one-{{sc|acc-ins}}-3 ensemble-{{sc|dat}}-word-{{sc|partacc-acc}}-2 one-{{sc|acc-acc}}-3 all-{{sc|acc-ben}}-2 earth-{{sc|acc-partacc}}-3.
# là ghàxarh prexngyö́r ràdgha pxlỳghy gmilkỳar shingarè, rhèrhghg fỳar.
#* do-{{sc|fact}}-1 move-{{sc|fact-temp}}-2 front-{{sc|nom}}-earth-{{sc|acc-abl}}-3 discover-{{sc|fact-fact}}-2 plain-{{sc|acc-acc}}-3 outside-{{sc|cons}}-opposition-{{sc|acc-loc}}-4 Shinar-{{sc|loc-nom}}-5 live-{{sc|ing}}-1 PIIn−1-{{sc|acc-loc}}-2.
# wáx werhyngeì ‘làxty dmangkỳ ghexàngy styghgỳ fỳi’. mà mànga dmykù zmyghúm mànga thlypù dngiỳum.
#* speak-{{sc|fact}}-1 PIn−1-{{sc|nom}}-each-{{sc|acc}}-not-{{sc|nom-dat-2a}} ‘want-{{sc|fact-acc}}-2 brick-{{sc|partfact-acc}}-3 bake-{{sc|partfact-acc}}-3 hard-{{sc|acc-acc}}-4 PIIn−1-{{sc|acc-dat}}-4’. make-{{sc|fact}}-1 make-{{sc|partfact-fact}}-2 brick-{{sc|acc-ins}}-3 stone-{{sc|acc-qualins}}-3 make-{{sc|partfact-fact}}-2 tar-{{sc|acc-ins}}-3 mortar-{{sc|acc-qualins}}-3.
# wàx ‘làxty tàngghy dheǘ prànggy gmilkỳir fplỳxe, ghùty dheí làul dhyà ghaxngàül wyö̀r xngàrir ghngỳar’.
# gháx igzhedỳ yfèr dmàtül mỳe tyngghỳ prynggỳ psrebzhöỳzhe.
# wàx ‘dmatrhàksy rìlngy xpyfý rìlngy wuxý tỳngy lèrhy. là dhaèrh gwìlta gwỳy lòyng.
# làxt ghàngxy ilfkyír kàngy thngàdy wuxí firàr gwatkàil smáy dhiè wiè wàxu.’
# gháx igzhedèl tyèr wyö̀r xngàrir ghngyár tìrhghyl.
# ghàt bablarỳ työ̀l thngadkángöl igzhedè dhiàr wúxi ghngỳe xngýyng, ghàngxöl dhièr wyö̀r xngàrir ghngỳar.

Lemizh

2022-05-26T17:04:46Z

Anypodetos: Formatting and fixes

{{Infobox language
|image =
|imagesize =
|name = Lemizh
|nativename = lemỳzh.
|pronunciation = lɛmˈɯ̀ʒ
|state = Lemaria
|setting = Alternate history Europe
|created = 1985
|familycolor = Indo-European
|fam2 = Lemizh
|ancestor = Proto-Lemizh
|posteriori =
* [[w:Proto-Indo-European|PIE]]
* [[w:Occam's razor|Occam's razor]]
|creator = [[User:Anypodetos|Anypodetos]]
|scripts = Lemizh alphabet
|nation = Lemaria
|map = Map of Lemaria.png
|mapalt = The country of Lemaria lies to the north and west of the Black Sea. The capital, Shabar, is at the Dniester Liman or Estuary.
|notice = IPA
}}
'''Lemizh''' ([[Help:IPA|[lεmˈiʒ]]], native pronunciation: [[Help:IPA|[lɛmˈɯ̀ʒ]]]) is a language I invented with the aim of creating a grammar as regular and simple as possible. It was originally intended as an [[w:International auxiliary language|international auxiliary language]]. However, it turned out that a simple grammar is not necessarily a grammar that is easy to learn: the more ways of simplification I found, the further away it moved from [[w:Indo-European languages|Indo-European]] and probably all other familiar language structures. Expecting anyone to learn Lemizh, at this point, would be unrealistic.

So I needed a new justification for the language: enter the Lemizh, a people living to the west and north of the [[w:Black Sea|Black Sea]] in an alternate history that slowly drifted away from ours between two and eight millennia ago. Of course, it is extremely unlikely that they would speak a language that was completely without exceptions. To be precise, the chances are two to the power of two hundred and seventy-six thousand seven hundred and nine to one against. But they say that everything has to happen somewhere in the Multiverse; and everything happens only once.

{{TOC limit}}

==History==
===Early stages===
Lemizh is an Indo-European language and, together with Volgan, constitutes one of the ten recognised branches of the Indo-European language family. This branch is also called Lemizh, to the disgruntlement of Volgan linguists.

Proto-Lemizh, the ancestor of Lemizh and Volgan, is very poorly attested in form of some papyri found near the northwestern shore of the Black Sea, to the north of the [[w:Dniester Liman|Dniester Liman]], dated about 2700 BC. Old Lemizh, by contrast, is fairly well attested. It had predominantly [[w:Subject–verb–object|subject–verb–object]] (SVO) word order and was a quite typical old Indo-European language, but with a couple of interesting quirks:
* Adjectives were lost as a separate part of speech, being replaced with participles ("white" > "being white").
* Finite subordinate clauses had their subject in the case of the clause: the subject of a local clause was in the locative case without having a local meaning in itself.
The earliest known documents from this stage of Lemizh were probably written around 2100 BC along the northern and western shores of the Back Sea.

===Ghean and Middle Lemizh===
Ghean ([[Help:IPA|[ˈɣɛən]]]) is a language with no known genetic relationships. It was spoken by a people of unknown origin, who subdued the Lemizh tribes in around 1000 BC and ruled for infamous three generations. Ghean was an inflected [[w:Tonal language|register tonal]] language with strict [[w:Verb–subject–object|verb–subject–object]] (VSO) word order and head-first phrases. It had verbs, [[w:Nominal (linguistics)|nominals]] (a combined noun/adjective/participle part of speech), pronouns and particles.

The Gheans discouraged the use of the natives' language, but obviously tolerated Lemizh words (or rather word stems) to stand in for unfamiliar Ghean ones. The grammar of simple sentences was easy enough to learn for the Lemizh, as they were used to inflection and head-first phrases, and likely still knew VSO sentences from poetry. After two or three generations, the natives must have spoken a [[w:Creole language|creole]] with a more or less Ghean grammar but an abundance of Lemizh words, especially outside the core vocabulary. This is a rather unusual development as most creoles draw their lexicon mainly from the dominant group, and tend to be grammatically more innovative. (The Tanzanian language [[w:Mbugu language|Mbugu]] might have had a somewhat similar development with more or less analogous outcomes.) After the disappearance of the Gheans, Lemizh patriots tried to revive their old language, which failed spectacularly for the grammar but reintroduced many Lemizh words of the core vocabulary.

===The last three millennia===
While Middle Lemizh as spoken after the Ghean occupation already had a non-Indo-European and unusually regular grammar, this trend was to continue over the following millennia. The factive case was innovated to express verbal nouns, which eventually supplanted verbs altogether. (At least part of the blame goes to the Tlöngö̀l, an epic novel published in 1351, which popularised the use of verbal nouns.) The tonal system was simplified to the present two-way [[w:Pitch-accent language|pitch-accent]] system. Pronouns lost their status as a separate part of speech. The last particles died out a few hundred years ago, leaving the language with a single part of speech which is often called a "verb" but, historically speaking, is really a nominal. This means that the concept of ''parts of speech'' does not make sense in Modern Lemizh.

This article describes the dialect spoken to the north of the [[w:Danube Delta|Danube delta]], which prevailed against other variants and is considered the standard language today.

==Orthography and phonology==
The alphabet is [[w:Phonetic orthography|phonetic]]: each letter corresponds to a certain sound, and each sound is represented by a single letter. The direction of writing is left to right. This article uses the standard transcription of the native Lemizh alphabet:
{| class="wikitable" style="width: 800px; table-layout: fixed; text-align: center"
! colspan="29" | Letters of the Lemizh alphabet
|-
| colspan="29" style="padding: 0" | [[File:Lemizh alphabet.png|796px]]
|-
| a || e || y || i || o || ö || u || ü || l || rh || r || ng || m || g || d || b || k || t || p || gh || zh || z || dh || w || x || sh || s || th || f
|}

===Consonants===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="2" | !! bilabial !! dental !! alveolar !! postalveolar !! velar
|-
! colspan="2" | nasals
| m <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial nasal|m]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || || || ng <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar nasal|ŋ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! colspan="2" | plosives (voiceless • voiced)
| p <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless bilabial plosive|p]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • b <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial plosive|b]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || t <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless alveolar plosive|t]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • d <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar plosive|d]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || k <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless velar plosive|k]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • g <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar plosive|g]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! colspan="2" | fricatives (voiceless • voiced)
| f <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless bilabial fricative|ɸ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • w <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial fricative|β]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || th <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless dental fricative|θ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • dh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced dental fricative|ð]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || s <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless alveolar sibilant|s]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • z <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar sibilant|z]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || sh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless palato-alveolar fricative|ʃ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • zh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced palato-alveolar fricative|ʒ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || x <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless velar fricative|x]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • gh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar fricative|ɣ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! rowspan="3" | liquids || lateral approximant
| || || l <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar lateral approximant|l]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|-
! approximant
| || || rh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar approximant|ɹ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|-
! trill
| || || r <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar trill|r]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|}
The plosive-fricative combinations ''pf, ts, tsh, kx'' and their voiced couterparts only occur at word boundaries and in compound words. They are not pronounced as affricates but as separate sounds. The same applies for other combinations of a plosive plus another consonant (''pm, tl'' etc.), as well as for two identical plosives (''kk'' etc.): the release of the first plosive is always audible.

===Vowels===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! rowspan="2" | !! colspan="2" | front !! colspan="2" | back
|-
! unrounded !! rounded !! unrounded !! rounded
|-
! close
| i <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close front unrounded vowel|i]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ü <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close front rounded vowel|y]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || y <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close back unrounded vowel|ɯ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || u <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close back rounded vowel|u]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! open-mid
| e <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid front unrounded vowel|ɛ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ö <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid front rounded vowel|œ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || a <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid back unrounded vowel|ʌ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || o <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid back rounded vowel|ɔ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|}
Two consecutive different vowels are pronounced as a diphthong; two consecutive identical vowels as a long one. Single vowels are always short.

Lemizh uses [[w:Mora (linguistics)|moræ]] for structuring words: a short syllable equals one mora, and a long syllable equals two. In Lemizh, every vowel is the centre of a mora; consequently, two consecutive vowels result in two moræ or one long syllable.

===Accent===
Lemizh has got a two-way pitch-accent system, in that accented moræ are not only spoken louder (as in English), but also have either a lower or a higher pitch than the surrounding unaccented ones. The accented mora is always the ultimate or penultimate of a word. The vowel at the centre of a low-pitch accented mora is transcribed with a grave accent, the vowel at the centre of a high-pitch accented mora with an acute accent.
{| class="wikitable" style="width: 220px; table-layout: fixed; text-align: center"
! colspan="8" | Accented vowel letters
|-
| colspan="8" style="padding: 0" | [[File:Lemizh accented vowels.png|216px]]
|-
| à || è || ỳ || ì || ò || ö̀ || ù || ǜ
|-
| á || é || ý || í || ó || ö́ || ú || ǘ
|}

===Phonotactics===
[[w:Phonotactics|Phonotactics]] is rather permissive in Lemizh. A mora has the following structure, where the bracketed parts are optional:
* (O)(N)(L)V(L)(N)(O)
V is the mora's vowel, L a liquid, N a nasal, and O an obstruent that can be either a P(losive), a F(ricative), FP, PF, FF, FFP, FPF, or PFF. Word-initial consonant clusters cannot contain more than three sounds. No geminate consonants (<abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''ff'' etc.) occur within a mora. Consecutive plosive-fricative or fricative-plosive combinations within the same mora must have the same sonority – either both are voiced, or both are voiceless. A plosive cannot have the same place of articulation as a following consonant with the exception of ''rh'' and ''r''. <abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''dzh'', <abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''ddh'' and their voiceless counterparts are also prohibited within a mora.

Word boundaries, including those within compound words, are always mora boundaries. Where mora boundaries would still be ambiguous, liquids and nasals are assigned to the earliest possible mora (as the ''m'' in ''lem·ỳzh.''), and obstruents to the latest possible mora.

==Morphology==
All words are composed of the following parts:
* Prestem + inner case + poststem + outer case
Prestem and poststem form the stem, or the lexical part, of the word. The division of the stem into two portions is similar to English verbs such as ''sing/sang/sung'', where the lexical part is ''s–ng'' while the vowels ''i/a/u'' convey grammatical information. The stem always denotes an action (but never a state, a person, a thing, a property, etc.) and thus resembles our verbs. The prestem can contain any sounds, or it can be zero (i.e. consisting of zero sounds). The poststem can only contain fricatives and plosives, or it can be zero as well.

The inner case is represented by one of the eight vowels, optionally followed by a liquid (the primary case suffix) and/or a nasal (the secondary case suffix). The outer case has the same structure. For the first word in each sentence, the main predicate, the outer case is zero.

Each case is defined by its ''descriptor'': for example, the factive case denotes an ''action'', the nominative a ''sender'', the locative a ''place''. The stem and the inner case's descriptor determine a word's meaning.

'''Examples'''
* ''wàx. w–x'' is the stem for "speak", ''-a-'' denotes the inner factive, so this word means "an action of speaking", translated as the verb "to speak" or the [[w:Verbal noun|verbal noun]] "speaking".
* ''wèx. -e-'' denotes the inner nominative, so this word means "a sender of speaking" or "a speaker".
* ''àrdh. ∅–dh'' (having a zero prestem) is the stem for "eat", ''-ar-'' denotes the inner locative: "a place of eating".
The customary [[w:Lemma (morphology)|citation form]] of a word is the one with inner factive.

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Primary cases and their descriptors
|-
! rowspan="3" | № !! rowspan="3" | Case vowel !! colspan="4" | Primary case suffix
|-
| none || l || rh || r
|-
! Plot cases !! Causal cases !! Temporal cases !! Spatial cases
|-
| 1 || a || factive ({{sc|fact}}): ''action'' || affirmative ({{sc|aff}}): ''fact (point in causal chain)'' || temporal ({{sc|temp}}): ''time'' || locative ({{sc|loc}}): ''place/region''
|-
| 2 || e || nominative ({{sc|nom}}): ''source, sender'' || causative ({{sc|caus}}): ''direct cause'' || ingressive ({{sc|ing}}): ''starting time'' || elative ({{sc|ela}}): ''starting point/region''
|-
| 3 || y || accusative ({{sc|acc}}): ''content'' || contextual ({{sc|ctx}}): ''causal context'' || durative ({{sc|dur}}): ''duration'' || extensive ({{sc|ext}}): ''spatial extent''
|-
| 4 || i || dative ({{sc|dat}}): ''sink, recipient'' || consecutive ({{sc|cons}}): ''direct consequence, effect'' || egressive ({{sc|egr}}): ''closing time'' || illative ({{sc|ill}}): ''end point / ending region''
|-
| 5 || o || tentive ({{sc|ten}}): ''intention'' || intentive ({{sc|int}}): ''intention (intended point in causal chain)'' || episodic ({{sc|eps}}): ''episode, "act"'' || scenic ({{sc|sce}}): ''scene, "stage"''
|-
| 6 || ö || comitative ({{sc|com}}): ''company'' || persuasive ({{sc|psu}}): ''reason'' || digressive ({{sc|dig}}): ''time away from which'' || ablative ({{sc|abl}}): ''place/region away from which''
|-
| 7 || u || instrumental ({{sc|ins}}): ''means, tool'' || motivational ({{sc|mot}}): ''motivational context'' || progressive ({{sc|prog}}): ''time that is passed'' || prolative ({{sc|prol}}): ''crossing point/region''
|-
| 8 || ü || benefactive ({{sc|ben}}): ''beneficiary'' || final ({{sc|fin}}): ''purpose, aim'' || aggressive ({{sc|agg}}): ''time towards which, temporal aim'' || allative ({{sc|all}}): ''place/region towards which, spatial aim''
|}
Each primary case has two corresponding secondary cases:
* a partitive case formed by adding ''ng'' (such as ''-ing-'' for the partitive dative or ''-erng-'' for the partitive elative) with the descriptor ''the set from which the source (sink, place, etc.) is thought to be taken'': ''wèngx.'' is "the set from which the speaker is thought to be taken", i.e. "the speaker, among others".
* a qualitative case formed by adding ''m'', with the descriptor ''the basis of comparison for the source (sink, place, etc.)'': ''wèmx.'' informally translates as "someone like a speaker".

===The plot===
Every action denoted by a stem is considered a flow of information that comes from a source (sender), transports a content, and reaches a sink (a recipient). The terms "sender" and "recipient" may be more familiar, but "source" and "sink" are more accurate in not necessarily meaning living beings.

Consequently, a Lemizh action looks somewhat like this: '''nominative  accusative[[File:DreieckGreenMIDDLE.png|26px|link=]] dative'''

This is called the action's plot. Here are some examples:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative
|-
| ''wàx.'' "to speak, to talk, to tell; (an action of) speaking" || ''wèx.'' "one telling something" || ''wỳx.'' "a tale" || ''wìx.'' "one who is told something"
|-
| ''dà.'' "to give; (an action of) giving" || ''dè.'' "one giving something" || ''dỳ.'' "a gift" || ''dì.'' "one who is given something; one who gets something"
|-
| ''làzhw.'' "to help" || ''lèzhw.'' "one helping" || ''lỳzhw.'' "help (given)" || ''lìzhw.'' "one whom is helped"
|-
| ''mlàtx.'' "to melt" || ''mlètx.'' "one melting something" || [''mlỳtx.''] || ''mlìtx.'' "a melted thing"
|-
| ''xöàgh.'' "to produce a sound; to hear" || ''xöègh.'' "one producing a sound" || ''xöỳgh.'' "a sound" || ''xöìgh.'' "one hearing something"
|-
| ''àdh.'' "to feed; to eat" || ''èdh.'' "one feeding someone" || ''ỳdh.'' "food" || ''ìdh.'' "one being fed; one eating"
|-
| ''ià.'' "to love" || ''iè.'' "one loving someone, a lover" || ''iỳ.'' "a beloved" || ''iì.'' "a beloved"
|}
Importantly, there are no rules for which cases to use with which words. Both ''iỳ.'' ({{sc|acc}}) and ''iì.'' ({{sc|dat}}) mean "a beloved". The former describes the beloved as the content of love, the one being lovingly thought of, while the latter implies that the love reaches them, like words or gifts reach their recipient. Likewise, the reason why ''mlỳtx.'' is not translated in the table above isn't that "''melt'' does not take the accusative", as grammars of other languages would say, but that "a content of melting" does not seem to have any obvious meaning. If someone wanted to describe, say, sun rays as content transported from the sun to the snow to melt it, they could well use ''mlỳtx.'' to express the concept.

Case usage is governed solely by the cases' descriptors; it is up to the speaker how to use them given some word's meaning and some context. If the wind opens a door, is it the source of the action of opening (''ngèt.''), the means of opening (''ngùt.''), or the cause (''ngèlt.'')? All are grammatically correct; the speaker decides which possibility best expresses their intention.

===Nouns===
:''Nouns, adjectives and verbs do not correspond to any concepts in Lemizh grammar. Using these terms is just an attempt to describe the grammar from an Indo-European viewpoint.''
A large number of nouns are not derived from verbs in most languages: ''froth, ship, lion'' and many others. In Lemizh, however, we have verbs such as ''psràxk.'' "to froth", ''àksh.'' "to build a ship or ships", and ''làw.'' "to make a lion or lions". We will call these ''nominal verbs''.

Looking at the verb ''àksh.'', the shipwright ({{sc|nom}}) gives the building materials ({{sc|dat}}) the properties or the function of a ship ({{sc|acc}}). He confers, well, shipness on the materials. The shipness is sent by the shipwright, not because he is acting, but because he is the source: the image of the ship, so to say, comes from his head and materialises in wood, iron, ropes, and linen. In short, these words mostly appear with inner accusative.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative
|-
| ''psràxk.'' "to froth" || ''psrèxk.'' "one frothing something" || ''psrỳxk.'' "a thing having the properties of froth = '''froth'''" || ''psrìxk.'' "a frothed thing, a frothed liquid"
|-
| ''àksh.'' "to build a ship" || ''èksh.'' "one building a ship, a shipwright" || ''ỳksh.'' "a thing having the properties of a ship = '''a ship'''" || ''ìksh.'' "building materials for a ship, materials made into a ship"
|-
| ''làw.'' "to make a lion" || [''lèw.'' "one making a lion"] || ''lỳw.'' "a thing having the properties of a lion = '''a lion'''" || [''lìw.'' "building materials for a lion, materials made into a lion"]
|}

Nouns expressing job titles and the like mostly have inner nominatives because professions are often about producing or selling something, or about providing a kind of service:
* ''ghexè.'' "baker" from ''ghexà.'' "to bake",
* ''saxèf.'' "trumpeter" from ''saxàf.'' "to play the trumpet",
* ''bèst.'' "hero" from ''bàst.'' "to do heroic deeds, to act as a hero".

Another very common kind of nouns are tool nouns, formed with an inner instrumental case:
* ''ghstù.'' "a sail" is derived from ''ghstà.'' "to sail", literally "a means of sailing",
* ''pslù.'' "scissors" from ''pslà.'' "to cut with scissors",
* ''saxùf.'' "a trumpet", also from ''saxàf.'',
* ''skrùzh.'' "a finger" from ''skràzh.'' "to work with one's fingers".

====Inflection====
As mentioned above, all words can inflect for (outer) case. Thus, we have the nominative forms ''wàx'''e''''' "(an action of) speaking, talking, telling", ''dè'''e''''' "a giver", ''lỳw'''e''''' "a lion", the causative ''lỳw'''el''''' "because of a lion", the elative ''lỳw'''er''''' "(starting) from a lion", etc.

Lemizh words do not inflect for number or gender. If desired, we can express this information by forming compounds. (Note the duplication of the inner case vowel; the first occurrence in each word is called the epenthetic case of the compound. The underlying grammar will be described later.)
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Singular !! Dual !! Plural !! Feminine !! Masculine !! Feminine singular !! etc.
|-
! giver
| ''dè.'' || ''de'''rè'''.'' || ''de'''dwè'''.'' || ''de'''mlè'''.'' || ''de'''bè'''.'' || ''de'''èx'''.'' || ''de'''berè'''.''
|-
! lion
| ''lỳw.'' || ''lyw'''rỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''dwỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''mlỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''bỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''ỳx'''.'' || ''lyw'''byrỳ'''.''
|-
! compound with
| — || ''rỳ.'' "one" || ''dwỳ.'' "two" || ''mlỳ.'' "several" || ''bỳ.'' "female; woman" || ''ỳx.'' "male; man" || "female" and "one"
|}

===Adjectives and the like===
There is no difference between adjectival and nominal verbs: they mostly appear with inner accusative. This is the same situation as in, say, Latin, where ''albus'' can mean "a white one" as well as "white". Negators and numerals are sub-categories of adjectives.

The inner consecutive case translates certain abstract nouns.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative !! Inner consecutive
|-
| ''làbdh.'' "to whiten something, to make something white" || ''lèbdh.'' "one whitening something" || ''lỳbdh.'' "a white thing; '''white'''" || ''lìbdh.'' "a thing made white; whitened" || ''lìlbdh.'' "the consequence of whitening = whiteness"
|-
| ''gmrà.'' "to warm, to make something warm" || ''gmrè.'' "one warming something" || ''gmrỳ.'' "a warm thing; '''warm'''" || ''gmrì.'' "a warmed thing; warmed" || ''gmrìl.'' "the consequence of warming = warmth"
|-
| ''ngà.'' "to make something nonexistent" || ''ngè.'' "one making something nonexistent" || ''ngỳ.'' "(something) '''nonexistent'''" || ''ngì.'' "something made nonexistent, something destroyed" || ''ngìl.'' "the consequence of making nonexistent = nothingness"
|-
| ''dwà.'' "to make two things/individuals" || ''dwè.'' "one making two things" || ''dwỳ.'' "'''two''' (things)" || ''dwì.'' "something made into two (things)" || ''dwìl.'' "the consequence of making two things = twoness"
|}

However, emotions aren't viewed as properties in Lemizh: a happy or angry person is one sending happiness or anger, just as a loving person is one sending love. The inner causative plays a notable role with verbs of emotion.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative !! Inner causative
|-
| ''pthàb.'' "to be angry" || ''pthèb.'' "an angry one; '''angry'''" || ''pthỳb.'' "the content/object of one's anger" || ''pthìb.'' "one that one's anger reaches" || ''pthèlb.'' "one causing someone anger; one annoying someone"
|}

====Inflection====
Of course, adjectives can be compounded to express number and/or gender in the same way as nouns. Furthermore, we can form compounds expressing various degrees. (The epenthetic consecutive ''-il-'' in these compounds will also be explained later; it is actually the main application of the abstract nouns just mentioned.)
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Diminutive !! Augmentative !! Absolute !! Comparative !! Superlative
|-
! warm
| ''gmrỳ.'' || ''gmril'''zhrỳ'''.'' "lukewarm" || ''gmril'''dmỳ'''.'' "hot" || ''gmril'''ghngỳ'''.'' "absolutely hot" || ''gmril'''tỳzhd'''.'' "warmer, hotter" || ''gmril'''ỳst'''.'' "hottest"
|-
! white
| ''lỳbdh.'' || ''lilbdh'''zhrỳ'''.'' "whitish" || ''lilbdh'''dmỳ'''.'' "very white" || ''lilbdh'''ghngỳ'''.'' "absolutely/completely white" || ''lilbdh'''tỳzhd'''.'' "whiter" || ''lilbdh'''ỳst'''.'' "whitest"
|-
! compound with
| — || ''zhrỳ.'' "few, little, a bit" || ''dmỳ.'' "much, many" || ''ghngỳ.'' "every, all, the whole" || ''tỳzhd.'' "more" || ''ỳst.'' "most"
|}

===Verbs===
Most verbs correspond to Lemizh words with an inner factive. However, as Lemizh stems always denote an action, the notable exception are stative verbs such as:
* ''zdìls.'' "to sit", literally "the consequence of sitting down (''zdàs.'')"
* ''gwìlt.'' "to know", literally "the consequence of learning (''gwàt.'')"

====Inflection====
* Person is not expressed with inflection but with [[#Relative pronouns|pronouns]].
* Number is conveyed by compounding pronouns with numerals. While verbs (i.e. words with an inner factive) can be compounded with numerals, ''ftrask'''mlà'''.'' does not mean "we/they sneeze" but "(there are) several acts of sneezing" (i.e. someone sneezes several times and/or several people sneeze).
* Voice (active/passive) is absent in Lemizh; word order serves a similar function.
* Tense is expressed by compounds with an epenthetic temporal case (''-arh-''), or with certain inner cases. The latter option is preferred if possible, as it is more concise.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Present !! Past !! Perfect !! Future !! Intentional
|-
! to sit down
| ''zdàs.'' || ''zdarhs'''wà'''.'' || ''zdarhs'''prilkà'''.'' || ''zd'''ìl'''s.'' ({{sc|cons}}) || ''zdarhs'''prà'''.'' || ''zd'''ò'''s.'' ({{sc|ten}})
|-
! compound with
| — || pronoun || ''prilkỳ.'' "back" || — || ''prỳ.'' "front" || —
|}
Note that the translation of the perfect with inner consecutive coincides with the translation of stative verbs: "having sat down" in the strict perfect sense of "the consequence/effect of this action exists" means the same as "to sit". Likewise, "whiteness" can be expressed as the abstract concept of "having whitened something".

* Mood corresponds to compounds with certain verbs for the most part. There is no equivalent to the subjunctive mood, as subordinate clauses are irreal (i.e. not necessarily real) by default. Here are some common formations:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Indicative !! Imperative !! Commanding imperative !! Interrogative Polite imperative !! Optative
|-
! to feed, to eat
| ''àdh.'' || ''adh'''pràk'''.'' || ''adh'''dàxt'''.'' || ''adh'''pà'''.'' || ''adh'''làxt'''.''
|-
! compound with
| — || ''pràk.'' "to request" || ''dàxt.'' "to command" || ''pà.'' "to ask" || ''làxt.'' "to want"
|}
* Aspect is a very diverse category, expressed by a variety of compounds and syntactic structures in Lemizh.

===Pronouns===
The two demonstrative pronouns are technically nominal verbs:
* ''tà.'' "to make this/that one", typically used with inner accusative: ''tỳ.'' "this/that (one)"
* ''gwà.'' "to make someone/anyone, something/anything", with inner accusative ''gwỳ.'' "someone/anyone, something/anything"

The eleven relative pronouns play a far more prominent role in Lemizh grammar. Their scope is much wider than the one usually associated with the term. As they are closely tied to Lemizh syntax, they are described [[#Relative pronouns|further down]].

==Syntax==
===Level of words===
There is only one more grammatical category: the level of words, which is the main building block of Lemizh syntax. A word can be of first level (the highest), of second level (the next highest), of third level (still one level lower) and so on; there is no limit for the number of levels, but non-positive word levels (zero, −1, etc.) are forbidden.

The first word in a sentence (the main predicate) is of first level by definition. The level of the next word is determined by the main predicate's accent and by the type of pause between the two words, the level of the third word is determined by the accent of the second and the pause between these two, and so on.

Here is the complete list of pause/accent combinations.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="2" | Following pause !! rowspan="2" | Accented vowel !! rowspan="2" | Type of accent !! rowspan="2" | The level of the next word is …
|-
! in speech !! in writing
|-
| rowspan="4" | barely audible || rowspan="4" | space || rowspan="2" | inner case || low || lower by 1
|-
| high || lower by 1, and [[w:Agent (grammar)|agentive]]* ({{sc|a}})
|-
| rowspan="2" | outer case || low || equal
|-
| high || higher by 1
|-
| rowspan="4" | a bit longer || rowspan="4" | comma ('''·''') || rowspan="2" | inner case || low || higher by 2
|-
| high || higher by 3
|-
| rowspan="2" | outer case || low || higher by 4
|-
| high || higher by 5
|-
| the longest || full stop ('''∶''') || inner case || low || none; end of sentence
|}
<nowiki>*</nowiki> The agent is the initiator of the action (more informally, the one who ''does'' the action).

===The Rules===
[[File:Lemizh parse tree.png|thumb|upright=1.5|A schematic sentence with the words represented by their level numbers]]
The word levels determine the structure of a sentence.

'''Rule One of sentence grammar. A word of level n is subordinate to the nearest word of level n−1 in front of it; the parole acts as a word of level zero.'''

All words of second level are subordinate to the main predicate (which has first level). A word of third level is subordinate to the next second-level word in front of it, and so on. In other words, Lemizh sentences are strictly [[w:Head directionality|head-first]]. The main predicate itself is subordinate to the [[w:Parole (linguistics)|parole]], the action of speaking (or writing) the sentence in question, which consequently has level zero.

'''Rule Two. An object of a word in a sentence is a word subordinate to the former, its predicate, plus all of its own objects.'''

In the diagram, the main predicate's three objects are enclosed in ellipses. Objects of the same word are called ''sibling objects'' or just ''siblings'', and the word they are subordinate to is their ''predicate''. Note that ''predicate'' and ''object'' are relative terms like ''parent'' and ''child''.

The table of level markers implies that only the first object of a predicate can be marked as agent. (This has been interpreted as Lemizh having VSO word order, although a subject is not quite the same as an agent, and Lemizh grammar strictly speaking does not have the concept of a subject.)

'''Rule Three. The outer case of the first word of an object defines its relation to its predicate's stem via its descriptor; the outer case of a level 1 word is zero.'''

This is what we would expect from a language that inflects for case: the nominative object defines the source (sender) of the action named by the stem of its predicate, the accusative object its content, the temporal object its time, etc.

'''Examples'''
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dá föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|give-FACT-1 {Father Christmas}-ACC-'''NOM'''-2A bottle-ACC-'''ACC'''-2 Lucy-ACC-'''DAT'''-2.
|''Father Christmas gives Lucy a bottle.''}}

The stems of the three objects are nominal verbs ("to make a bottle" etc.), hence the inner accusatives. The outer cases indicate the sender, content and recipient of the action of giving, respectively. The agent is specified independently of the plot arrow; note the difference:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dá lusyì dwywỳ föpysrỳfe.
|give-FACT-1 Lucy-ACC-'''DAT'''-2A bottle-ACC-'''ACC'''-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-'''NOM'''-2.
|''Lucy takes a bottle from Father Christmas.''}}

We need not mark an object as agentive if we consider this information unimportant. The English translations are only rough approximations:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dà lusyì dwywỳ föpysrỳfe.
|give-FACT-1 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2 bottle-ACC-ACC-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2.
|''Lucy gets a bottle from Father Christmas. Lucy is given a bottle by Father Christmas.''}}

Rule Three defines outer case in a way that mirrors the definition of inner case. This allows for an operation called '''inversion''' (symbolized "⇔"):
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|làzhw wèxi. ⇔ wáx lìzhwe.
|help-FACT-1 speak-'''NOM'''-'''DAT'''-2. ⇔ speak-FACT-1 help-'''DAT'''-'''NOM'''-2A.
|''[Someone] helps the speaker. ⇔ The one being helped speaks.''}}

Both sentences claim that the sender of speaking is the recipient of helping. The equation is ''wèx.'' = ''lìzhw.'', the speaker = the one being helped.

'''Rule Four. An instance of a word stem designates a specific action.'''

''dà'' in the above sentence does not just mean "to give", it refers to one specific action of giving. Such an action may involve several givers (as in "They give something") and need not even be temporally or spatially contiguous (as in "They are giving something every Christmas"). In other words, each spoken or written instance of the stem ''d–'' refers to a certain subset of all the giving there is.

This rule ensures that all the objects refer to the same action of giving as the predicate itself.

'''Rule Five. A case characterises the action it refers to completely with regard to its case descriptor.'''

For example, the nominative object "Father Christmas" has to name the complete sender of the above instance of giving. This excludes from this instance all giving not done by Father Christmas. So each object places a restriction on the action of giving the main predicate refers to. Thus, the subset of giving meant by this instance of ''dà.'' – what the sentence is ultimately talking about – is defined more and more precisely with each additional object. (This is true not only of the main predicate but of all words in a sentence.)

'''Rule Six. A missing object is equivalent to the absence of information about its descriptor.'''

Above sentences do not have, for example, locative objects, so Rule Five cannot place a restriction on the place of giving. Because of Rule Six, this does not mean there are no restrictions on the location, but only that this kind of information has not been included in the sentence (for example, because the speaker does not know about it, considers it irrelevant, assumes that the listener already knows or – perhaps most importantly – that the listener can infer it). In fact, everything not useful for understanding a sentence should be omitted to save the listener processing effort. (See the inversion example above, which omits the nominative "someone".)

Rules Five and Six imply that every instance of a word has exactly one action (which, however, need not be contiguous), one sender (which can consist of several people), and so on: Five excludes additional senders if one nominative object is already present, and Six gives meaning to missing objects, establishing them as an integral part of Lemizh sentence grammar.

'''Rule Seven. Given an object and its predicate, the predicate is considered more real and the object more hypothetical.'''

…

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! as an object !! as a complete sentence
|-
| ''dà.'' || to give; giving || An action of giving exists = Someone gives something.
|-
| ''zdìls.'' || the consequence of sitting down = to sit; sitting || The consequence of sitting down exists = Someone sits.
|-
| ''dwìlw.'' || the consequence of making a bottle || The consequence of making a bottle exists = A bottle exists; there is a bottle.
|-
| ''sklè.'' || one building a bridge || One building a bridge exists = There is someone building a bridge.
|}

===Noun phrases===
Forming noun phrases does not require any new grammatical rules. In the following example, the inner case of "give" is changed to the nominative, yielding "one giving something, a giver", and everything is pushed down one level. The third-level words are still sender, content and recipient of the ''action'' of giving, as outer cases define relations to the predicate's ''stem'' per Rule Three.
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 3A:third level, agentive
|dmàt tryxkì dée föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|see-FACT-1 beaver-ACC-DAT-2 give-'''NOM'''-NOM-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-3A bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3.
|''The beaver sees '''the one giving Lucy a bottle, Father Christmas'''.''}}
Regarding the verb "see", note that the beaver is in the dative, being at the receiving end of the optical stimulus or information. Marking the beaver as agent would translate as "The beaver looks at the one …".

Rules Four and Five guarantee that the giver is identical to Father Christmas: both are the sender of the same instance of the stem ''d–'' "give" (the giver via its inner nominative, Father Christmas via its outer nominative), and both are the ''complete'' sender of this action. This type of construction, where an object's outer case matches its predicate's inner case, is called a '''bracket'''. Brackets are very widely used:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Apposition !! Attributive adjective !! Attributive pronoun/determiner !! Attributive numeral !! Attributive participle
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|iakopỳk saxèfy.
|Jacopo-'''ACC'''-1 trumpet-NOM-'''ACC'''-2.
|''Jacopo, a trumpeter''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=INS:instrumental case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|ghstù lỳbdhu.
|sail-'''INS'''-1 white-ACC-'''INS'''-2.
|''a sail, a white thing = a white sail''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|ỳksh gwỳy.
|ship-'''ACC'''-1 some-ACC-'''ACC'''-2.
|''a ship, something = some ship''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|mỳs trỳy.
|mouse-'''ACC'''-1 three-ACC-'''ACC'''-2.
|''mice, three individuals = three mice''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|nỳzd gangèy.
|bird-'''ACC'''-1 sing-NOM-'''ACC'''-2.
|''a bird, a singer = a singing bird''}}
|}
Such phrases can be easily extended. This example contains two accusative brackets ("a singing bird" and "a sad child"):
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 4:fourth level
|ngỳzd gangèy zhngỳi speghý ytfỳarh.
|bird-ACC-1 sing-NOM-ACC-2 child-ACC-DAT-3 sad-NOM-ACC-4 night-ACC-TEMP-3.
|''a bird singing to a sad child at night''}}

Adverbially used adjectives are phrased with factive brackets. However, changing the predicate's inner case leaves the object's outer factive intact, losing the bracket.
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|gangà txỳska.
|sing-'''FACT'''-1 loud-ACC-'''FACT'''-2.
|''(an action of) singing, a loud thing = loud singing = singing loudly, to sing loudly''}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|gangè txỳska.
|sing-'''NOM'''-1 loud-ACC-FACT-2.
|''a loud singer = someone singing loudly'' (The action of singing is a loud thing.)}}

As [[w:Genitive construction|genitive constructions]] have a wide variety of meanings, there is no single Lemizh equivalent. The typical translation for constructions indicating possession is with the benefactive case, but other cases frequently occur. Everything depends on the object's relation to the predicate's stem per Rule Three.
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|dwỳw lusỳü.
|bottle-ACC-1 Lucy-ACC-'''BEN'''-2.
|''Lucy's bottle'' (Lucy is the beneficiary of making the bottle. The bottle is made for Lucy.)}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dý ỳxe.
|give-ACC-1 male-ACC-'''NOM'''-2A.
|''the man's gift'' (The man is the sender of giving.)}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|rhỳst ytfỳarh filpskỳy.
|dream-ACC-1 night-ACC-'''TEMP'''-2 midsummer-ACC-ACC-3.
| ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' (The midsummer night is the time of dreaming.)}}

===Dependent clauses===
Non-finite and conjunctional clauses employ the same principles as above:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive; 3:third level
|láxt föpysryfè dày dwywỳ lusỳi.
|want-FACT-1 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2A give-'''FACT'''-ACC-2 bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3.
|''Father Christmas wants '''to give Lucy a bottle'''.'' ("Father Christmas" is omitted from the dependent clause per Rule Six.)}}

The difference between English gerund clauses and finite that-clauses roughly translates into a difference between an inner factive (''action'') and an inner affirmative (''fact'').
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 3A:third level, agentive
|dmàt tryxkì dáe föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|see-FACT-1 beaver-ACC-DAT-2 give-'''FACT'''-NOM-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-3A bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3.
|''The beaver sees [the action of] '''Father Christmas giving Lucy a bottle'''.'' (The dependent clause could also be in the accusative to focus on the optical information transmitted to the beaver.)}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; AFF:affirmative case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 3A:third level, agentive
|dmàt tryxkì dále föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|see-FACT-1 beaver-ACC-DAT-2 give-'''AFF'''-NOM-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-3A bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3.
|''The beaver sees [the fact of] '''Father Christmas giving Lucy a bottle'''. The beaver sees '''that''' Father Christmas gives Lucy a bottle.''}}

Some examples of dependent clauses translating into objects in various cases:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|fngà kshngày.
|try-FACT-1 shout-FACT-'''ACC'''-2.
|''[She] tried to shout [but this was difficult because of her sore throat].''}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|fngà kshngàu.
|try-FACT-1 shout-FACT-'''INS'''-2.
|''[She] tried shouting [as he hadn't heard her when she had spoken quietly].'' (Shouting is the means of trying.)}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PSU:persuasive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 4:fourth level
|pàf làxtöl dmàty föpysrỳfe.
|stand-FACT-1 want-FACT-'''PSU'''-2 see-FACT-ACC-3 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-4.
|''[He] stood up because [he] wanted to see Father Christmas.''}}

Relative clauses are structurally identical to (extended) attributive participles as described above; they are brackets: ''a bird which sings to a sad child at night = a bird singing to a sad child at night''. This is also true of clauses with relative adverbs:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level; 3A:third level, agentive
|ngỳw gangáry lỳbe.
|valley-'''ACC'''-1 sing-LOC-'''ACC'''-2 flower-ACC-NOM-3A.
|''a valley, a place of the singing of flowers = a valley where flowers sing''}}

Adverbially used relative clauses, unsurprisingly, are factive brackets:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive; 3:third level
|shrá wygwè rashkỳa bỳe.
|yelp-'''FACT'''-1 dog-ACC-NOM-2A dislike-ACC-'''FACT'''-2 female-ACC-NOM-3.
|''The dog is yelping, which the girl doesn't like.''}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PSU:persuasive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive; 3A:third level, agentive
|shrá wygwè ö́ldha bỳe.
|yelp-'''FACT'''-1 dog-ACC-NOM-2A eat-PSU-'''FACT'''-2 female-ACC-NOM-3A.
|''The dog is yelping, wherefore the girl feeds it.''}}

===Predicative===
[[w:Predicative expression|Predicatives]], like all sentences, follow the plot arrow:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|ghát zhngyè bestỳ lusỳi.
|name-FACT-1 child-ACC-'''NOM'''-2A hero-NOM-'''ACC'''-2 Lucy-ACC-'''DAT'''-2.
|''The children called Lucy a hero.'' (The children gave the name of hero to Lucy.)}}

Predicatives with the verb "to make" typically correspond to Lemizh sentences with a nominal or adjectival verb as the main predicate. This can be interpreted as the accusative object – here "ill" – being absorbed ("swallowed up") by the main predicate:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|mà ydhè gwilbkyỳ wỳgwi. → gwilbkà ydhè wỳgwi.
|make-FACT-1 eat-ACC-'''NOM'''-2 ill-ACC-'''ACC'''-2 dog-ACC-'''DAT'''-2. → ill-FACT-1 eat-ACC-NOM-2 dog-ACC-DAT-2.
|''The food made the dog ill.'' (The food gave the property of being ill to the dog.)}}

The verb "to be" translates as the corresponding perfect form, i.e. with inner consecutive of the main predicate:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=CONS:consecutive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|lìlbdh lỳghi.
|white-'''CONS'''-1 house-ACC-DAT-2.
|''The house is [painted] white.'' (The house has been given the property of being white. The house has been whitened.)}}

The above are called resultative predicatives, describing the result of some property being conferred on someone or something. A depictive predicative describes an inherent property; this is achieved with an accusative object:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=CONS:consecutive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|drulìl werhèy.
|shrub-CONS-1 hazel-NOM-'''ACC'''-2.
|''The hazel is a shrub.'' (The hazel has the properties of a shrub.)}}
(Side note: The stem of ''werhè.'' "hazel" means "to make hazelnuts", hence the inner nominative. The nuts are called ''werhỳ.'', with inner accusative. Other plants bearing edible fruits follow the same pattern.)

===Relative pronouns===
Stems of relative pronouns (not to be confused with the pronouns of the same name in English or Latin) refer to actions by pointing to another stem or to a parole: they are [[w:Anaphora (linguistics)|anaphoric]]. Here is the full list:
{| class="wikitable"
! rowspan="2" | Level !! colspan="2" | Type I !! colspan="2" | Type II
|-
! Verb !! The target is the stem of !! Verb !! The target is the stem of
|-
| n || colspan="2" | (does not occur because it would refer to itself) || à. || its preceding same-level word
|-
| n−1 || wà. || its predicate || fà. || its predicate's preceding same-level word or parole
|-
| n−2 || dhà. || its predicate's predicate || thà. || its predicate's predicate's preceding same-level word or parole
|-
| n−3 || zà. || its predicate's predicate's predicate || sà. || …
|-
| n−4 || zhà. || … || shà. || …
|-
| n−5 || ghà. || … || xà. || …
|}
They are highly versatile, corresponding to various structures in other languages. Recall that a sentence's parole has level zero:
{| class="wikitable"
! Reflexive !! First person (singular) !! Second person
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|wáx wìe.
|speak-FACT-1 PIn−1-'''DAT'''-'''NOM'''-2A.
|''to talk to oneself. He is talking to himself.'' (The recipient of speaking is its sender.)}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dráw dhèe.
|dance-FACT-1 PIn−2-'''NOM'''-NOM-2A.
|''I am dancing.'' (The sender of the parole is the sender of dancing.)}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dráw dhìe.
|dance-FACT-1 PIn−2-'''DAT'''-NOM-2A.
|''You are dancing.'' (The recipient of the parole is the sender of dancing.)}}
|}
Rule Four of sentence grammar ensures that the reflexive example means "He is talking to himself" as opposed to, say, "He is talking to one being talked to" (which would be ''wáx wìxe.'' speak-{{sc|fact}}-1 speak-{{sc|dat-nom}}-2{{sc|a}}, with two different instances of the stem "speak").

{| class="wikitable"
! Possessive determiner !! Vocative
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=CONS:consecutive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|zdìls ngỳzdy zeú tỳar.
|seat-CONS-1 bird-ACC-ACC-2 PIn−3-'''NOM'''-BEN-3 this-ACC-LOC-2.
|''My bird is sitting there.'' (The sender of the parole is the beneficiary of making a bird.)}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=PI:pronoun type I; FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive; 3:third level
|wáx dheè zdhèzhi zìe.
|speak-FACT-1 PIn−2-NOM-NOM-2A friend-NOM-DAT-2 PIn−3-'''DAT'''-NOM-3.
|''Friend, I am talking to you.'' (The recipient of the parole is the friend: nominative bracket.)}}
|}

The type II pronoun in the following example points to the stem of eating. With the inner accusative, the pronoun refers to the content of eating, which is the sweet. (As with brackets, Rules Four and Five guarantee that the pronoun refers to the same content of the same action of eating as mentioned in the first sentence.)
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; PII:pronoun type II; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|ádh dheì mlỳdhy. ràsh fỳy.
|eat-FACT-1 PIn−2-NOM-DAT-2A sweet-ACC-ACC-2. like-FACT-1 PIIn−1-'''ACC'''-ACC-2.
|''I am eating a sweet. [I] like it.''}}

==Derivational morphology==
From a Lemizh point of view, ''dè.'' "giver" and ''dỳ.'' "gift" aren't derivatives of ''dà.'' "to give" but grammatical forms of the same word. The only piece of true derivational morphology is compounding.

===Compounds===
[[File:Lemizh compounding diagram.png|thumb|Forming a compound from a two-word sentence]]
'''Rule One of compounding. A compound word is constructed from a two-word sentence – predicate and object of which become modifier and head of the compound, respectively – in the following way:'''
# '''Prestem''':
## the object's prestem
## the object's inner case
## the object's poststem
## an optional separator
## the predicate's prestem
# '''Inner case'''
# '''Poststem''': the predicate's poststem
# '''Outer case'''
Note that the object's stem comes before the predicate's; and also that the object's outer case (and, less importantly, the predicate's inner case) is lost. The object's inner case becomes part of the compound's prestem and is then called its ''epenthetic case''. The separator can be used, for example, if the word boundary would be unclear otherwise, or for placing the second part of the word on a new line.

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|làxt àdhy. ⇒ adhlàxt.
|want-FACT-1 eat-FACT-ACC-2. ⇒ eat-FACT-want-FACT-1.
|''[She] wants to eat.'' (See the inflection of [[#Verbs|verbs]].)}}
Here, the lost accusative ending has to be deduced from context.

'''Rule Two. In the relationship between the original predicate and object, the rules of sentence grammar are retained as far as applicable.'''

The consequences of this rule are somewhat technical; but the last one, pertaining to degree of reality, is important for correctly interpreting compounds.
* Rules One to Three of sentence grammar are not applicable to compounds, as can be easily seen.
* Four: Both modifier and head are instantiations of specific actions in the original sentence (which however do not necessarily match the instantiation of the compound).
* Five: The epenthetic case characterises the head completely with regard to its descriptor.
* Six: The only overt object of the modifier is the head. All other objects are missing and thus indicate the absence of information about their descriptors.
* Seven: The modifier has a higher degree of reality than the head. Therefore, the above compound does not claim that she actually eats.

'''Rule Three. Regarding all outward relations, cases''' (i.e. the compound's inner case [not to be confused with its epenthetic case], the outer cases of its objects, and cases of pronouns referring to it) '''refer to the head.'''
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|adhkmàr mlỳdhy.
|eat-FACT-allow-LOC-1 sweet-ACC-ACC-2.
|''a place where one may eat sweets; a place for eating sweets''}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|ngengadàxt fỳta.
|run-FACT-must-FACT-1 fast-ACC-FACT-1
|''[He] has to run fast.''}}

These examples talk about the location of eating, as opposed to the location of allowing; about eating sweets, as opposed to allowing sweets; the running is fast, as opposed to the necessity; etc.

Number and gender of [[#Nouns|nouns]] are compounds from brackets which are first inverted to turn the more salient word into the compound's head: ''dè mlỳe. ⇔ mlỳ dèy.'' "several givers" ⇒ ''demlè.'' "givers". The inner nominative (''-e-'') becomes the epenthetic case, and the new inner case also has to be a nominative per Rule Three. ''demlỳ.'' (inner {{sc|acc}}), by contrast, is "something given by several people".

Compounds expressing degrees of [[#Adjectives and the like|adjectives]] are also formed from brackets. They have an epenthetic consecutive (''-il-''), which stems from the corresponding abstract noun: ''gmrìl dmỳil. ⇔ dmỳ gmrìly.'' "much warmth" ⇒ ''gmrildmìl.'' "heat" (abstract noun formed with inner {{sc|cons}}), ''gmrildmỳ.'' "hot" (adjective with inner {{sc|acc}}). Degrees of comparison are often combined with [[#Predicative|predicatives]] as well as with qualitative or partitive outer cases:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=CONS:consecutive case; QUALACC:qualitative accusative case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|prilghtìlzhd lyghỳ bỳghym.
|beautiful-CONS-more-CONS-1 house-ACC-ACC-2 garden-ACC-QUALACC-2.
|''The house is more beautiful than the garden.'' (The garden is the basis of comparison for the house.)}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=CONS:consecutive case; PARTACC:partitive accusative case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|prilghìlst lỳghy ziǘ ghngỳyng.
|beautiful-CONS-most-CONS-1 house-ACC-ACC-2 PIn−3-DAT-BEN-3 all-ACC-PARTACC-2.
|''Your house is the most beautiful of all [houses].'' (''All houses'' form the set from which your house is thought to be taken.)}}

The analogues of the present and future tenses are formed like so – note that inversion changes the pronoun's stem along with its level:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2:second level
|zdàs dhàarh. ⇔ wà zdàrhsa. ⇒ zdarhswà.
|seat-FACT-1 PIn−2-FACT-TEMP-2. ⇔ PIn−1-FACT-1 seat-TEMP-FACT-2. ⇒ seat-TEMP-PIn−1-FACT-1.
|''[She] sits down at the time of the parole. ⇒ [She] sits down now.''}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|zdàs prỳarh. ⇔ prỳ zdàrhsy. ⇒ zdarhsprà.
|seat-FACT-1 front-ACC-TEMP-2. ⇔ front-ACC-1 seat-TEMP-ACC-2. ⇒ seat-TEMP-front-FACT-1.
|''[She] sits down at a time in front [of the parole]. ⇒ [She] will sit down.''}}

==Example text==
[[File:Lemizh text sample.png|600px]]

====stedrỳzh thìrhfi xtrỳghy.====
krỳgh dghngireì prilxpilghkỳarh. mangỳ srungbỳng lyngghỳng yngshwỳng fỳü. zhöazhghngìl tmỳil. ghngàgzh smìa prỳal ghngyé dhàbdhy lunguỳ ùyl mỳu fplyxár tỳarh. dmát feì sxngengzè ishkènge. ghìlt krighmyngthxì xtrỳngghi swyshỳ ghỳxy fplyxòr zhöyzhỳm xngàrorm. dmìlt öngkrỳngty zhryỳ rèshy esfàsy sxngyzdmýi, usrỳngy xazhgèsty ghngỳeng, frekrỳngfy rilghdzhỳwby pthèby, dgheipysrỳngdy psrèby rhèzhem, dghistngỳngty ghỳxy zangỳa dghildhfmlýyrh, ngiftngyghtmỳngy krültlìy zùe gỳghda. xtrỳgh swyshý stedrỳzh thìrfi. dngilszhrìl bdhyrgzhyngỳng xüxtrỳngyng prilkỳarh ötìlil skmyngìlng ghỳngsilng. dngilszhìlwb ráxpy thìlfi. fö̀l gwiltngìlöl dmàty föpysryfỳ ngỳu.

rỳ zhryỳrh thìzgy gwiltngìly rhàghgy dmatngìe thìrfy. là xángska matngiè ytfỳyrh dmyý fplyxór dyxtngyngà mànga prilzhryngỳr iltỳngzhdyr. dmàt ytfỳarh ryý mìlngorh xngyì prilkyár mìlngorh xtrỳngghi kshrextý mengthxì prỳar zìe, fplỳngxe fywýr déngske xtryghè sxngezì xngỳnge.

====The Legend of the Seventh Planet====
A long time ago there was a tribe of nomads. They possessed neither writing nor houses nor horses. But they were truly human. They were curious; this means, above all, that they took interest in the useless, for the celestial objects were of no use to them yet. They looked at the Sun and the Moon. They had named the constellations and the six planets moving across the sky like the humans across the earth. They knew dim Mercury, who liked to hide in the glare of the Sun; Venus, the brightest of all; reddish and angry Mars; majestic father Jupiter; Saturn, who seemed to stand still for weeks; and even Uranus had been caught by their keen eyes. Six planets, and the legend of a seventh. Maybe it had been the minor planet Vesta, or a comet centuries or millennia earlier. Maybe it was the attraction of the number seven. For Neptune is invisible to the naked eye.

One youngster thought to himself that he could not live without seeing the seventh planet. He lay awake searching the sky for many nights, neglected his duties, and became thinner and thinner. And one night, lying with the Earth behind his back, and with the looping planets and the stars above him, he saw the depth of the sky and the planets circling the Sun, and among them the Earth.

==External links==
* [https://lemizh.conlang.org Lemizh homepage] with comprehensive coverage of the language, including a dictionary with etymologies, information on the language's pragmatics, and more background information
[[File:Copyleft1.png|20px]] ''This article is available under a [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License]. It includes material from the Lemizh homepage, which has the same license.''


[[Category:Languages]]
[[Category:Conlangs]]
[[Category:Indo-European languages]]
[[Category:Agglutinative languages]]

Lemizh

2022-05-24T17:56:22Z

Anypodetos: Job titles; predicative

{{Infobox language
|image =
|imagesize =
|name = Lemizh
|nativename = lemỳzh.
|pronunciation = lɛmˈɯ̀ʒ
|state = Lemaria
|setting = Alternate history Europe
|created = 1985
|familycolor = Indo-European
|fam2 = Lemizh
|ancestor = Proto-Lemizh
|posteriori =
* [[w:Proto-Indo-European|PIE]]
* [[w:Occam's razor|Occam's razor]]
|creator = [[User:Anypodetos|Anypodetos]]
|scripts = Lemizh alphabet
|nation = Lemaria
|map = Map of Lemaria.png
|mapalt = The country of Lemaria lies to the north and west of the Black Sea. The capital, Shabar, is at the Dniester Liman or Estuary.
|notice = IPA
}}
'''Lemizh''' ([[Help:IPA|[lεmˈiʒ]]], native pronunciation: [[Help:IPA|[lɛmˈɯ̀ʒ]]]) is a language I invented with the aim of creating a grammar as regular and simple as possible. It was originally intended as an [[w:International auxiliary language|international auxiliary language]]. However, it turned out that a simple grammar is not necessarily a grammar that is easy to learn: the more ways of simplification I found, the further away it moved from [[w:Indo-European languages|Indo-European]] and probably all other familiar language structures. Expecting anyone to learn Lemizh, at this point, would be unrealistic.

So I needed a new justification for the language: enter the Lemizh, a people living to the west and north of the [[w:Black Sea|Black Sea]] in an alternate history that slowly drifted away from ours between two and eight millennia ago. Of course, it is extremely unlikely that they would speak a language that was completely without exceptions. To be precise, the chances are two to the power of two hundred and seventy-six thousand seven hundred and nine to one against. But they say that everything has to happen somewhere in the Multiverse; and everything happens only once.

{{TOC limit}}

==History==
===Early stages===
Lemizh is an Indo-European language and, together with Volgan, constitutes one of the ten recognised branches of the Indo-European language family. This branch is also called Lemizh, to the disgruntlement of Volgan linguists.

Proto-Lemizh, the ancestor of Lemizh and Volgan, is very poorly attested in form of some papyri found near the northwestern shore of the Black Sea, to the north of the [[w:Dniester Liman|Dniester Liman]], dated about 2700 BC. Old Lemizh, by contrast, is fairly well attested. It had predominantly [[w:Subject–verb–object|subject–verb–object]] (SVO) word order and was a quite typical old Indo-European language, but with a couple of interesting quirks:
* Adjectives were lost as a separate part of speech, being replaced with participles ("white" > "being white").
* Finite subordinate clauses had their subject in the case of the clause: the subject of a local clause was in the locative case without having a local meaning in itself.
The earliest known documents from this stage of Lemizh were probably written around 2100 BC along the northern and western shores of the Back Sea.

===Ghean and Middle Lemizh===
Ghean ([[Help:IPA|[ˈɣɛən]]]) is a language with no known genetic relationships. It was spoken by a people of unknown origin, who subdued the Lemizh tribes in around 1000 BC and ruled for infamous three generations. Ghean was an inflected [[w:Tonal language|register tonal]] language with strict [[w:Verb–subject–object|verb–subject–object]] (VSO) word order and head-first phrases. It had verbs, [[w:Nominal (linguistics)|nominals]] (a combined noun/adjective/participle part of speech), pronouns and particles.

The Gheans discouraged the use of the natives' language, but obviously tolerated Lemizh words (or rather word stems) to stand in for unfamiliar Ghean ones. The grammar of simple sentences was easy enough to learn for the Lemizh, as they were used to inflection and head-first phrases, and likely still knew VSO sentences from poetry. After two or three generations, the natives must have spoken a [[w:Creole language|creole]] with a more or less Ghean grammar but an abundance of Lemizh words, especially outside the core vocabulary. This is a rather unusual development as most creoles draw their lexicon mainly from the dominant group, and tend to be grammatically more innovative. (The Tanzanian language [[w:Mbugu language|Mbugu]] might have had a somewhat similar development with more or less analogous outcomes.) After the disappearance of the Gheans, Lemizh patriots tried to revive their old language, which failed spectacularly for the grammar but reintroduced many Lemizh words of the core vocabulary.

===The last three millennia===
While Middle Lemizh as spoken after the Ghean occupation already had a non-Indo-European and unusually regular grammar, this trend was to continue over the following millennia. The factive case was innovated to express verbal nouns, which eventually supplanted verbs altogether. (At least part of the blame goes to the Tlöngö̀l, an epic novel published in 1351, which popularised the use of verbal nouns.) The tonal system was simplified to the present two-way [[w:Pitch-accent language|pitch-accent]] system. Pronouns lost their status as a separate part of speech. The last particles died out a few hundred years ago, leaving the language with a single part of speech which is often called a "verb" but, historically speaking, is really a nominal. This means that the concept of ''parts of speech'' does not make sense in Modern Lemizh.

This article describes the dialect spoken to the north of the [[w:Danube Delta|Danube delta]], which prevailed against other variants and is considered the standard language today.

==Orthography and phonology==
The alphabet is [[w:Phonetic orthography|phonetic]]: each letter corresponds to a certain sound, and each sound is represented by a single letter. The direction of writing is left to right. This article uses the standard transcription of the native Lemizh alphabet:
{| class="wikitable" style="width: 800px; table-layout: fixed; text-align: center"
! colspan="29" | Letters of the Lemizh alphabet
|-
| colspan="29" style="padding: 0" | [[File:Lemizh alphabet.png|796px]]
|-
| a || e || y || i || o || ö || u || ü || l || rh || r || ng || m || g || d || b || k || t || p || gh || zh || z || dh || w || x || sh || s || th || f
|}

===Consonants===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="2" | !! bilabial !! dental !! alveolar !! postalveolar !! velar
|-
! colspan="2" | nasals
| m <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial nasal|m]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || || || ng <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar nasal|ŋ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! colspan="2" | plosives (voiceless • voiced)
| p <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless bilabial plosive|p]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • b <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial plosive|b]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || t <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless alveolar plosive|t]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • d <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar plosive|d]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || k <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless velar plosive|k]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • g <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar plosive|g]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! colspan="2" | fricatives (voiceless • voiced)
| f <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless bilabial fricative|ɸ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • w <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial fricative|β]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || th <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless dental fricative|θ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • dh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced dental fricative|ð]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || s <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless alveolar sibilant|s]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • z <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar sibilant|z]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || sh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless palato-alveolar fricative|ʃ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • zh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced palato-alveolar fricative|ʒ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || x <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless velar fricative|x]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • gh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar fricative|ɣ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! rowspan="3" | liquids || lateral approximant
| || || l <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar lateral approximant|l]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|-
! approximant
| || || rh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar approximant|ɹ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|-
! trill
| || || r <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar trill|r]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|}
The plosive-fricative combinations ''pf, ts, tsh, kx'' and their voiced couterparts only occur at word boundaries and in compound words. They are not pronounced as affricates but as separate sounds. The same applies for other combinations of a plosive plus another consonant (''pm, tl'' etc.), as well as for two identical plosives (''kk'' etc.): the release of the first plosive is always audible.

===Vowels===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! rowspan="2" | !! colspan="2" | front !! colspan="2" | back
|-
! unrounded !! rounded !! unrounded !! rounded
|-
! close
| i <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close front unrounded vowel|i]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ü <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close front rounded vowel|y]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || y <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close back unrounded vowel|ɯ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || u <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close back rounded vowel|u]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! open-mid
| e <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid front unrounded vowel|ɛ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ö <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid front rounded vowel|œ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || a <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid back unrounded vowel|ʌ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || o <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid back rounded vowel|ɔ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|}
Two consecutive different vowels are pronounced as a diphthong; two consecutive identical vowels as a long one. Single vowels are always short.

Lemizh uses [[w:Mora (linguistics)|moræ]] for structuring words: a short syllable equals one mora, and a long syllable equals two. In Lemizh, every vowel is the centre of a mora; consequently, two consecutive vowels result in two moræ or one long syllable.

===Accent===
Lemizh has got a two-way pitch-accent system, in that accented moræ are not only spoken louder (as in English), but also have either a lower or a higher pitch than the surrounding unaccented ones. The accented mora is always the ultimate or penultimate of a word. The vowel at the centre of a low-pitch accented mora is transcribed with a grave accent, the vowel at the centre of a high-pitch accented mora with an acute accent.
{| class="wikitable" style="width: 220px; table-layout: fixed; text-align: center"
! colspan="8" | Accented vowel letters
|-
| colspan="8" style="padding: 0" | [[File:Lemizh accented vowels.png|216px]]
|-
| à || è || ỳ || ì || ò || ö̀ || ù || ǜ
|-
| á || é || ý || í || ó || ö́ || ú || ǘ
|}

===Phonotactics===
[[w:Phonotactics|Phonotactics]] is rather permissive in Lemizh. A mora has the following structure, where the bracketed parts are optional:
* (O)(N)(L)V(L)(N)(O)
V is the mora's vowel, L a liquid, N a nasal, and O an obstruent that can be either a P(losive), a F(ricative), FP, PF, FF, FFP, FPF, or PFF. Word-initial consonant clusters cannot contain more than three sounds. No geminate consonants (<abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''ff'' etc.) occur within a mora. Consecutive plosive-fricative or fricative-plosive combinations within the same mora must have the same sonority – either both are voiced, or both are voiceless. A plosive cannot have the same place of articulation as a following consonant with the exception of ''rh'' and ''r''. <abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''dzh'', <abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''ddh'' and their voiceless counterparts are also prohibited within a mora.

Word boundaries, including those within compound words, are always mora boundaries. Where mora boundaries would still be ambiguous, liquids and nasals are assigned to the earliest possible mora (as the ''m'' in ''lem·ỳzh.''), and obstruents to the latest possible mora.

==Morphology==
All words are composed of the following parts:
* Prestem + inner case + poststem + outer case
Prestem and poststem form the stem, or the lexical part, of the word. The division of the stem into two portions is similar to English verbs such as ''sing/sang/sung'', where the lexical part is ''s–ng'' while the vowels ''i/a/u'' convey grammatical information. The stem always denotes an action (but never a state, a person, a thing, a property, etc.) and thus resembles our verbs. The prestem can contain any sounds, or it can be zero (i.e. consisting of zero sounds). The poststem can only contain fricatives and plosives, or it can be zero as well.

The inner case is represented by one of the eight vowels, optionally followed by a liquid (the primary case suffix) and/or a nasal (the secondary case suffix). The outer case has the same structure. For the first word in each sentence, the main predicate, the outer case is zero.

Each case is defined by its ''descriptor'': for example, the factive case denotes an ''action'', the nominative a ''sender'', the locative a ''place''. The stem and the inner case's descriptor determine a word's meaning.

'''Examples'''
* ''wàx. w–x'' is the stem for "speak", ''-a-'' denotes the inner factive, so this word means "an action of speaking", translated as the verb "to speak" or the [[w:Verbal noun|verbal noun]] "speaking".
* ''wèx. -e-'' denotes the inner nominative, so this word means "a sender of speaking" or "a speaker".
* ''àrdh. ∅–dh'' (having a zero prestem) is the stem for "eat", ''-ar-'' denotes the inner locative: "a place of eating".
The customary [[w:Lemma (morphology)|citation form]] of a word is the one with inner factive.

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Primary cases and their descriptors
|-
! rowspan="3" | № !! rowspan="3" | Case vowel !! colspan="4" | Primary case suffix
|-
| none || l || rh || r
|-
! Plot cases !! Causal cases !! Temporal cases !! Spatial cases
|-
| 1 || a || factive ({{sc|fact}}): ''action'' || affirmative ({{sc|aff}}): ''fact (point in causal chain)'' || temporal ({{sc|temp}}): ''time'' || locative ({{sc|loc}}): ''place/region''
|-
| 2 || e || nominative ({{sc|nom}}): ''source, sender'' || causative ({{sc|caus}}): ''direct cause'' || ingressive ({{sc|ing}}): ''starting time'' || elative ({{sc|ela}}): ''starting point/region''
|-
| 3 || y || accusative ({{sc|acc}}): ''content'' || contextual ({{sc|ctx}}): ''causal context'' || durative ({{sc|dur}}): ''duration'' || extensive ({{sc|ext}}): ''spatial extent''
|-
| 4 || i || dative ({{sc|dat}}): ''sink, recipient'' || consecutive ({{sc|cons}}): ''direct consequence, effect'' || egressive ({{sc|egr}}): ''closing time'' || illative ({{sc|ill}}): ''end point / ending region''
|-
| 5 || o || tentive ({{sc|ten}}): ''intention'' || intentive ({{sc|int}}): ''intention (intended point in causal chain)'' || episodic ({{sc|eps}}): ''episode, "act"'' || scenic ({{sc|sce}}): ''scene, "stage"''
|-
| 6 || ö || comitative ({{sc|com}}): ''company'' || persuasive ({{sc|psu}}): ''reason'' || digressive ({{sc|dig}}): ''time away from which'' || ablative ({{sc|abl}}): ''place/region away from which''
|-
| 7 || u || instrumental ({{sc|ins}}): ''means, tool'' || motivational ({{sc|mot}}): ''motivational context'' || progressive ({{sc|prog}}): ''time that is passed'' || prolative ({{sc|prol}}): ''crossing point/region''
|-
| 8 || ü || benefactive ({{sc|ben}}): ''beneficiary'' || final ({{sc|fin}}): ''purpose, aim'' || aggressive ({{sc|agg}}): ''time towards which, temporal aim'' || allative ({{sc|all}}): ''place/region towards which, spatial aim''
|}
Each primary case has two corresponding secondary cases:
* a partitive case formed by adding ''ng'' (such as ''-ing-'' for the partitive dative or ''-erng-'' for the partitive elative) with the descriptor ''the set from which the source (sink, place, etc.) is thought to be taken'': ''wèngx.'' is "the set from which the speaker is thought to be taken", i.e. "the speaker, among others".
* a qualitative case formed by adding ''m'', with the descriptor ''the basis of comparison for the source (sink, place, etc.)'': ''wèmx.'' informally translates as "someone like a speaker".

===The plot===
Every action denoted by a stem is considered a flow of information that comes from a source (sender), transports a content, and reaches a sink (a recipient). The terms "sender" and "recipient" may be more familiar, but "source" and "sink" are more accurate in not necessarily meaning living beings.

Consequently, a Lemizh action looks somewhat like this: '''nominative  accusative[[File:DreieckGreenMIDDLE.png|26px|link=]] dative'''

This is called the action's plot. Here are some examples:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative
|-
| ''wàx.'' "to speak, to talk, to tell; (an action of) speaking" || ''wèx.'' "one telling something" || ''wỳx.'' "a tale" || ''wìx.'' "one who is told something"
|-
| ''dà.'' "to give; (an action of) giving" || ''dè.'' "one giving something" || ''dỳ.'' "a gift" || ''dì.'' "one who is given something; one who gets something"
|-
| ''làzhw.'' "to help" || ''lèzhw.'' "one helping" || ''lỳzhw.'' "help (given)" || ''lìzhw.'' "one whom is helped"
|-
| ''mlàtx.'' "to melt" || ''mlètx.'' "one melting something" || [''mlỳtx.''] || ''mlìtx.'' "a melted thing"
|-
| ''xöàgh.'' "to produce a sound; to hear" || ''xöègh.'' "one producing a sound" || ''xöỳgh.'' "a sound" || ''xöìgh.'' "one hearing something"
|-
| ''àdh.'' "to feed; to eat" || ''èdh.'' "one feeding someone" || ''ỳdh.'' "food" || ''ìdh.'' "one being fed; one eating"
|-
| ''ià.'' "to love" || ''iè.'' "one loving someone, a lover" || ''iỳ.'' "a beloved" || ''iì.'' "a beloved"
|}
Importantly, there are no rules for which cases to use with which words. Both ''iỳ.'' ({{sc|acc}}) and ''iì.'' ({{sc|dat}}) mean "a beloved". The former describes the beloved as the content of love, the one being lovingly thought of, while the latter implies that the love reaches them, like words or gifts reach their recipient. Likewise, the reason why ''mlỳtx.'' is not translated in the table above isn't that "''melt'' does not take the accusative", as grammars of other languages would say, but that "a content of melting" does not seem to have any obvious meaning. If someone wanted to describe, say, sun rays as content transported from the sun to the snow to melt it, they could well use ''mlỳtx.'' to express the concept.

Case usage is governed solely by the cases' descriptors; it is up to the speaker how to use them given some word's meaning and some context. If the wind opens a door, is it the source of the action of opening (''ngèt.''), the means of opening (''ngùt.''), or the cause (''ngèlt.'')? All are grammatically correct; the speaker decides which possibility best expresses their intention.

===Nouns===
:''Nouns, adjectives and verbs do not correspond to any concepts in Lemizh grammar. Using these terms is just an attempt to describe the grammar from an Indo-European viewpoint.''
A large number of nouns are not derived from verbs in most languages: ''froth, ship, lion'' and many others. In Lemizh, however, we have verbs such as ''psràxk.'' "to froth", ''àksh.'' "to build a ship or ships", and ''làw.'' "to make a lion or lions". We will call these ''nominal verbs''.

Looking at the verb ''àksh.'', the shipwright ({{sc|nom}}) gives the building materials ({{sc|dat}}) the properties or the function of a ship ({{sc|acc}}). He confers, well, shipness on the materials. The shipness is sent by the shipwright, not because he is acting, but because he is the source: the image of the ship, so to say, comes from his head and materialises in wood, iron, ropes, and linen. In short, these words mostly appear with inner accusative.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative
|-
| ''psràxk.'' "to froth" || ''psrèxk.'' "one frothing something" || ''psrỳxk.'' "a thing having the properties of froth = '''froth'''" || ''psrìxk.'' "a frothed thing, a frothed liquid"
|-
| ''àksh.'' "to build a ship" || ''èksh.'' "one building a ship, a shipwright" || ''ỳksh.'' "a thing having the properties of a ship = '''a ship'''" || ''ìksh.'' "building materials for a ship, materials made into a ship"
|-
| ''làw.'' "to make a lion" || [''lèw.'' "one making a lion"] || ''lỳw.'' "a thing having the properties of a lion = '''a lion'''" || [''lìw.'' "building materials for a lion, materials made into a lion"]
|}

Nouns expressing job titles and the like mostly have inner nominatives because professions are often about producing or selling something, or about providing a kind of service:
* ''ghexè.'' "baker" from ''ghexà.'' "to bake",
* ''saxèf.'' "trumpeter" from ''saxàf.'' "to play the trumpet",
* ''bèst.'' "hero" from ''bàst.'' "to do heroic deeds, to act as a hero".

Another very common kind of nouns are tool nouns, formed with an inner instrumental case:
* ''ghstù.'' "a sail" is derived from ''ghstà.'' "to sail", literally "a means of sailing",
* ''pslù.'' "scissors" from ''pslà.'' "to cut with scissors",
* ''saxùf.'' "a trumpet", also from ''saxàf.'',
* ''skrùzh.'' "a finger" from ''skràzh.'' "to work with one's fingers".

====Inflection====
As mentioned above, all words can inflect for (outer) case. Thus, we have the nominative forms ''wàx'''e''''' "(an action of) speaking, talking, telling", ''dè'''e''''' "a giver", ''lỳw'''e''''' "a lion", the causative ''lỳw'''el''''' "because of a lion", the elative ''lỳw'''er''''' "(starting) from a lion", etc.

Lemizh words do not inflect for number or gender. If desired, we can express this information by forming compounds. (Note the duplication of the inner case vowel; the first occurrence in each word is called the epenthetic case of the compound. The underlying grammar will be described later.)
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Singular !! Dual !! Plural !! Feminine !! Masculine !! Feminine singular !! etc.
|-
! giver
| ''dè.'' || ''de'''rè'''.'' || ''de'''dwè'''.'' || ''de'''mlè'''.'' || ''de'''bè'''.'' || ''de'''èx'''.'' || ''de'''berè'''.''
|-
! lion
| ''lỳw.'' || ''lyw'''rỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''dwỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''mlỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''bỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''ỳx'''.'' || ''lyw'''byrỳ'''.''
|-
! compound with
| — || ''rỳ.'' "one" || ''dwỳ.'' "two" || ''mlỳ.'' "several" || ''bỳ.'' "female; woman" || ''ỳx.'' "male; man" || "female" and "one"
|}

===Adjectives and the like===
There is no difference between adjectival and nominal verbs: they mostly appear with inner accusative. This is the same situation as in, say, Latin, where ''albus'' can mean "a white one" as well as "white". Negators and numerals are sub-categories of adjectives.

The inner consecutive case translates certain abstract nouns.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative !! Inner consecutive
|-
| ''làbdh.'' "to whiten something, to make something white" || ''lèbdh.'' "one whitening something" || ''lỳbdh.'' "a white thing; '''white'''" || ''lìbdh.'' "a thing made white; whitened" || ''lìlbdh.'' "the consequence of whitening = whiteness"
|-
| ''gmrà.'' "to warm, to make something warm" || ''gmrè.'' "one warming something" || ''gmrỳ.'' "a warm thing; '''warm'''" || ''gmrì.'' "a warmed thing; warmed" || ''gmrìl.'' "the consequence of warming = warmth"
|-
| ''ngà.'' "to make something nonexistent" || ''ngè.'' "one making something nonexistent" || ''ngỳ.'' "(something) '''nonexistent'''" || ''ngì.'' "something made nonexistent, something destroyed" || ''ngìl.'' "the consequence of making nonexistent = nothingness"
|-
| ''dwà.'' "to make two things/individuals" || ''dwè.'' "one making two things" || ''dwỳ.'' "'''two''' (things)" || ''dwì.'' "something made into two (things)" || ''dwìl.'' "the consequence of making two things = twoness"
|}

However, emotions aren't viewed as properties in Lemizh: a happy or angry person is one sending happiness or anger, just as a loving person is one sending love. The inner causative plays a notable role with verbs of emotion.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative !! Inner causative
|-
| ''pthàb.'' "to be angry" || ''pthèb.'' "an angry one; '''angry'''" || ''pthỳb.'' "the content/object of one's anger" || ''pthìb.'' "one that one's anger reaches" || ''pthèlb.'' "one causing someone anger; one annoying someone"
|}

====Inflection====
Of course, adjectives can be compounded to express number and/or gender in the same way as nouns. Furthermore, we can form compounds expressing various degrees. (The epenthetic consecutive ''-il-'' in these compounds will also be explained later; it is actually the main application of the abstract nouns just mentioned.)
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Diminutive !! Augmentative !! Absolute !! Comparative !! Superlative
|-
! warm
| ''gmrỳ.'' || ''gmril'''zhrỳ'''.'' "lukewarm" || ''gmril'''dmỳ'''.'' "hot" || ''gmril'''ghngỳ'''.'' "absolutely hot" || ''gmril'''tỳzhd'''.'' "warmer, hotter" || ''gmril'''ỳst'''.'' "hottest"
|-
! white
| ''lỳbdh.'' || ''lilbdh'''zhrỳ'''.'' "whitish" || ''lilbdh'''dmỳ'''.'' "very white" || ''lilbdh'''ghngỳ'''.'' "absolutely/completely white" || ''lilbdh'''tỳzhd'''.'' "whiter" || ''lilbdh'''ỳst'''.'' "whitest"
|-
! compound with
| — || ''zhrỳ.'' "few, little, a bit" || ''dmỳ.'' "much, many" || ''ghngỳ.'' "every, all, the whole" || ''tỳzhd.'' "more" || ''ỳst.'' "most"
|}

===Verbs===
Most verbs correspond to Lemizh words with an inner factive. However, as Lemizh stems always denote an action, the notable exception are stative verbs such as:
* ''zdìls.'' "to sit", literally "the consequence of sitting down (''zdàs.'')"
* ''gwìlt.'' "to know", literally "the consequence of learning (''gwàt.'')"

====Inflection====
* Person is not expressed with inflection but with [[#Relative pronouns|pronouns]].
* Number is conveyed by compounding pronouns with numerals. While verbs (i.e. words with an inner factive) can be compounded with numerals, ''ftrask'''mlà'''.'' does not mean "we/they sneeze" but "(there are) several acts of sneezing" (i.e. someone sneezes several times and/or several people sneeze).
* Voice (active/passive) is absent in Lemizh; word order serves a similar function.
* Tense is expressed by compounds with an epenthetic temporal case (''-arh-''), or with certain inner cases. The latter option is preferred if possible, as it is more concise.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Present !! Past !! Perfect !! Future !! Intentional
|-
! to sit down
| ''zdàs.'' || ''zdarhs'''wà'''.'' || ''zdarhs'''prilkà'''.'' || ''zd'''ìl'''s.'' ({{sc|cons}}) || ''zdarhs'''prà'''.'' || ''zd'''ò'''s.'' ({{sc|ten}})
|-
! compound with
| — || pronoun || ''prilkỳ.'' "back" || — || ''prỳ.'' "front" || —
|}
Note that the translation of the perfect with inner consecutive coincides with the translation of stative verbs: "having sat down" in the strict perfect sense of "the consequence/effect of this action exists" means the same as "to sit". Likewise, "whiteness" can be expressed as the abstract concept of "having whitened something".

* Mood corresponds to compounds with certain verbs for the most part. There is no equivalent to the subjunctive mood, as subordinate clauses are irreal (i.e. not necessarily real) by default. Here are some common formations:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Indicative !! Imperative !! Commanding imperative !! Interrogative Polite imperative !! Optative
|-
! to feed, to eat
| ''àdh.'' || ''adh'''pràk'''.'' || ''adh'''dàxt'''.'' || ''adh'''pà'''.'' || ''adh'''làxt'''.''
|-
! compound with
| — || ''pràk.'' "to request" || ''dàxt.'' "to command" || ''pà.'' "to ask" || ''làxt.'' "to want"
|}
* Aspect is a very diverse category, expressed by a variety of compounds and syntactic structures in Lemizh.

===Pronouns===
The two demonstrative pronouns are technically nominal verbs:
* ''tà.'' "to make this/that one", typically used with inner accusative: ''tỳ.'' "this/that (one)"
* ''gwà.'' "to make someone/anyone, something/anything", with inner accusative ''gwỳ.'' "someone/anyone, something/anything"

The eleven relative pronouns play a far more prominent role in Lemizh grammar. Their scope is much wider than the one usually associated with the term. As they are closely tied to Lemizh syntax, they are described [[#Relative pronouns|further down]].

==Syntax==
===Level of words===
There is only one more grammatical category: the level of words, which is the main building block of Lemizh syntax. A word can be of first level (the highest), of second level (the next highest), of third level (still one level lower) and so on; there is no limit for the number of levels, but non-positive word levels (zero, −1, etc.) are forbidden.

The first word in a sentence (the main predicate) is of first level by definition. The level of the next word is determined by the main predicate's accent and by the type of pause between the two words, the level of the third word is determined by the accent of the second and the pause between these two, and so on.

Here is the complete list of pause/accent combinations.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="2" | Following pause !! rowspan="2" | Accented vowel !! rowspan="2" | Type of accent !! rowspan="2" | The level of the next word is …
|-
! in speech !! in writing
|-
| rowspan="4" | barely audible || rowspan="4" | space || rowspan="2" | inner case || low || lower by 1
|-
| high || lower by 1, and [[w:Agent (grammar)|agentive]]* ({{sc|a}})
|-
| rowspan="2" | outer case || low || equal
|-
| high || higher by 1
|-
| rowspan="4" | a bit longer || rowspan="4" | comma ('''·''') || rowspan="2" | inner case || low || higher by 2
|-
| high || higher by 3
|-
| rowspan="2" | outer case || low || higher by 4
|-
| high || higher by 5
|-
| the longest || full stop ('''∶''') || inner case || low || none; end of sentence
|}
<nowiki>*</nowiki> The agent is the initiator of the action (more informally, the one who ''does'' the action).

===The Rules===
[[File:Lemizh parse tree.png|thumb|upright=1.5|A schematic sentence with the words represented by their level numbers]]
The word levels determine the structure of a sentence.

'''Rule One of sentence grammar. A word of level n is subordinate to the nearest word of level n−1 in front of it; the parole acts as a word of level zero.'''

All words of second level are subordinate to the main predicate (which has first level). A word of third level is subordinate to the next second-level word in front of it, and so on. In other words, Lemizh sentences are strictly [[w:Head directionality|head-first]]. The main predicate itself is subordinate to the [[w:Parole (linguistics)|parole]], the action of speaking (or writing) the sentence in question, which consequently has level zero.

'''Rule Two. An object of a word in a sentence is a word subordinate to the former, its predicate, plus all of its own objects.'''

In the diagram, the main predicate's three objects are enclosed in ellipses. Objects of the same word are called ''sibling objects'' or just ''siblings'', and the word they are subordinate to is their ''predicate''. Note that ''predicate'' and ''object'' are relative terms like ''parent'' and ''child''.

The table of level markers implies that only the first object of a predicate can be marked as agent. (This has been interpreted as Lemizh having VSO word order, although a subject is not quite the same as an agent, and Lemizh grammar strictly speaking does not have the concept of a subject.)

'''Rule Three. The outer case of the first word of an object defines its relation to its predicate's stem via its descriptor; the outer case of a level 1 word is zero.'''

This is what we would expect from a language that inflects for case: the nominative object defines the source (sender) of the action named by the stem of its predicate, the accusative object its content, the temporal object its time, etc.

'''Examples'''
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dá föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|give-FACT-1 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2A bottle-ACC-ACC-2 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2.
|''Father Christmas gives Lucy a bottle.''}}

The stems of the three objects are nominal verbs ("to make a bottle" etc.), hence the inner accusatives. The outer cases indicate the sender, content and recipient of the action of giving, respectively. The agent is specified independently of the plot arrow; note the difference:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dá lusyì dwywỳ föpysrỳfe.
|give-FACT-1 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2A bottle-ACC-ACC-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2.
|''Lucy takes a bottle from Father Christmas.''}}

We need not mark an object as agentive if we consider this information unimportant. The English translations are only rough approximations:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dà lusyì dwywỳ föpysrỳfe.
|give-FACT-1 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2 bottle-ACC-ACC-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2.
|''Lucy gets a bottle from Father Christmas. Lucy is given a bottle by Father Christmas.''}}

Rule Three defines outer case in a way that mirrors the definition of inner case. This allows for an operation called '''inversion''' (symbolized "⇔"):
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|làzhw wèxi. ⇔ wáx lìzhwe.
|help-FACT-1 speak-'''NOM'''-'''DAT'''-2. ⇔ speak-FACT-1 help-'''DAT'''-'''NOM'''-2A.
|''[Someone] helps the speaker. ⇔ The one being helped speaks.''}}

Both sentences claim that the sender of speaking is the recipient of helping. The equation is ''wèx.'' = ''lìzhw.'', the speaker = the one being helped.

'''Rule Four. An instance of a word stem designates a specific action.'''

''dà'' in the above sentence does not just mean "to give", it refers to one specific action of giving. Such an action may involve several givers (as in "They give something") and need not even be temporally or spatially contiguous (as in "They are giving something every Christmas"). In other words, each spoken or written instance of the stem ''d–'' refers to a certain subset of all the giving there is.

This rule ensures that all the objects refer to the same action of giving as the predicate itself.

'''Rule Five. A case characterises the action it refers to completely with regard to its case descriptor.'''

For example, the nominative object "Father Christmas" has to name the complete sender of the above instance of giving. This excludes from this instance all giving not done by Father Christmas. So each object places a restriction on the action of giving the main predicate refers to. Thus, the subset of giving meant by this instance of ''dà.'' – what the sentence is ultimately talking about – is defined more and more precisely with each additional object. (This is true not only of the main predicate but of all words in a sentence.)

'''Rule Six. A missing object is equivalent to the absence of information about its descriptor.'''

Above sentences do not have, for example, locative objects, so Rule Five cannot place a restriction on the place of giving. Because of Rule Six, this does not mean there are no restrictions on the location, but only that this kind of information has not been included in the sentence (for example, because the speaker does not know about it, considers it irrelevant, assumes that the listener already knows or – perhaps most importantly – that the listener can infer it). In fact, everything not useful for understanding a sentence should be omitted to save the listener processing effort. (See the inversion example above, which omits the nominative "someone".)

Rules Five and Six imply that every instance of a word has exactly one action (which, however, need not be contiguous), one sender (which can consist of several people), and so on: Five excludes additional senders if one nominative object is already present, and Six gives meaning to missing objects, establishing them as an integral part of Lemizh sentence grammar.

'''Rule Seven. Given an object and its predicate, the predicate is considered more real and the object more hypothetical.'''

…

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! as an object !! as a complete sentence
|-
| ''dà.'' || to give; giving || An action of giving exists = Someone gives something.
|-
| ''zdìls.'' || the consequence of sitting down = to sit; sitting || The consequence of sitting down exists = Someone sits.
|-
| ''dwìlw.'' || the consequence of making a bottle || The consequence of making a bottle exists = A bottle exists; there is a bottle.
|-
| ''sklè.'' || one building a bridge || One building a bridge exists = There is someone building a bridge.
|}

===Noun phrases===
Forming noun phrases does not require any new grammatical rules. In the following example, the inner case of "give" is changed to the nominative, yielding "one giving something, a giver", and everything is pushed down one level. The third-level words are still sender, content and recipient of the ''action'' of giving, as outer cases define relations to the predicate's ''stem'' per Rule Three.
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 3A:third level, agentive
|dmàt tryxkì dée föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|see-FACT-1 beaver-ACC-DAT-2 give-'''NOM'''-NOM-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-3A bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3.
|''The beaver sees '''the one giving Lucy a bottle, Father Christmas'''.''}}
Regarding the verb "see", note that the beaver is in the dative, being at the receiving end of the optical stimulus or information. Marking the beaver as agent would translate as "The beaver looks at the one …".

Rules Four and Five guarantee that the giver is identical to Father Christmas: both are the sender of the same instance of the stem ''d–'' "give" (the giver via its inner nominative, Father Christmas via its outer nominative), and both are the ''complete'' sender of this action. This type of construction, where an object's outer case matches its predicate's inner case, is called a '''bracket'''. Brackets are very widely used:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Apposition !! Attributive adjective !! Attributive pronoun/determiner !! Attributive numeral !! Attributive participle
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|iakopỳk saxèfy.
|Jacopo-'''ACC'''-1 trumpet-NOM-'''ACC'''-2.
|''Jacopo, a trumpeter''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=INS:instrumental case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|ghstù lỳbdhu.
|sail-'''INS'''-1 white-ACC-'''INS'''-2.
|''a sail, a white thing = a white sail''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|ỳksh gwỳy.
|ship-'''ACC'''-1 some-ACC-'''ACC'''-2.
|''a ship, something = some ship''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|mỳs trỳy.
|mouse-'''ACC'''-1 three-ACC-'''ACC'''-2.
|''mice, three individuals = three mice''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|nỳzd gangèy.
|bird-'''ACC'''-1 sing-NOM-'''ACC'''-2.
|''a bird, a singer = a singing bird''}}
|}
Such phrases can be easily extended. This example contains two accusative brackets ("a singing bird" and "a sad child"):
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 4:fourth level
|ngỳzd gangèy zhngỳi speghý ytfỳarh.
|bird-ACC-1 sing-NOM-ACC-2 child-ACC-DAT-3 sad-NOM-ACC-4 night-ACC-TEMP-3.
|''a bird singing to a sad child at night''}}

Adverbially used adjectives are phrased with factive brackets. However, changing the predicate's inner case leaves the object's outer factive intact, losing the bracket.
{|
|-
| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|gangà txỳska.
|sing-'''FACT'''-1 loud-ACC-'''FACT'''-2.
|''(an action of) singing, a loud thing = loud singing = singing loudly, to sing loudly''}}

| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|gangè txỳska.
|sing-'''NOM'''-1 loud-ACC-FACT-2.
|''a loud singer = someone singing loudly'' (The action of singing is a loud thing.)}}
|}

As [[w:Genitive construction|genitive constructions]] have a wide variety of meanings, there is no single Lemizh equivalent. The typical translation for constructions indicating possession is with the benefactive case, but other cases frequently occur. Everything depends on the object's relation to the predicate's stem per Rule Three.
{|
|-
| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|dwỳw lusỳü.
|bottle-ACC-1 Lucy-ACC-'''BEN'''-2.
|''Lucy's bottle'' (Lucy is the beneficiary of making the bottle. The bottle is made for Lucy.)}}

| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dý ỳxe.
|give-ACC-1 male-ACC-'''NOM'''-2A.
|''the man's gift'' (The man is the sender of giving.)}}

| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|rhỳst ytfỳarh filpskỳy.
|dream-ACC-1 night-ACC-'''TEMP'''-2 midsummer-ACC-ACC-3.
| ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' (The midsummer night is the time of dreaming.)}}
|}

===Dependent clauses===
Non-finite and conjunctional clauses employ the same principles as above:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive; 3:third level
|láxt föpysryfè dày dwywỳ lusỳi.
|want-FACT-1 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2A give-'''FACT'''-ACC-2 bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3.
|''Father Christmas wants '''to give Lucy a bottle'''.'' ("Father Christmas" is omitted from the dependent clause per Rule Six.)}}

The difference between English gerund clauses and finite that-clauses roughly translates into a difference between an inner factive (''action'') and an inner affirmative (''fact'').
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 3A:third level, agentive
|dmàt tryxkì dáe föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|see-FACT-1 beaver-ACC-DAT-2 give-'''FACT'''-NOM-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-3A bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3.
|''The beaver sees [the action of] '''Father Christmas giving Lucy a bottle'''.'' (The dependent clause could also be in the accusative to focus on the optical information transmitted to the beaver.)}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; AFF:affirmative case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 3A:third level, agentive
|dmàt tryxkì dále föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|see-FACT-1 beaver-ACC-DAT-2 give-'''AFF'''-NOM-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-3A bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3.
|''The beaver sees [the fact of] '''Father Christmas giving Lucy a bottle'''. The beaver sees '''that''' Father Christmas gives Lucy a bottle.''}}

Some examples of dependent clauses translating into objects in various cases:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|fngà kshngày.
|try-FACT-1 shout-FACT-'''ACC'''-2.
|''[She] tried to shout [but this was difficult because of her sore throat].''}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|fngà kshngàu.
|try-FACT-1 shout-FACT-'''INS'''-2.
|''[She] tried shouting [as he hadn't heard her when she had spoken quietly].'' (Shouting is the means of trying.)}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PSU:persuasive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 4:fourth level
|pàf làxtöl dmàty föpysrỳfe.
|stand-FACT-1 want-FACT-'''PSU'''-2 see-FACT-ACC-3 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-4.
|''[He] stood up because [he] wanted to see Father Christmas.''}}

Relative clauses are structurally identical to (extended) attributive participles as described above; they are brackets: ''a bird which sings to a sad child at night = a bird singing to a sad child at night''. This is also true of clauses with relative adverbs:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level; 3A:third level, agentive
|ngỳw gangáry lỳbe.
|valley-'''ACC'''-1 sing-LOC-'''ACC'''-2 flower-ACC-NOM-3A.
|''a valley, a place of the singing of flowers = a valley where flowers sing''}}

Adverbially used relative clauses, unsurprisingly, are factive brackets:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive; 3:third level
|shrá wygwè rashkỳa bỳe.
|yelp-'''FACT'''-1 dog-ACC-NOM-2A dislike-ACC-'''FACT'''-2 female-ACC-NOM-3.
|''The dog is yelping, which the girl doesn't like.''}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PSU:persuasive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive; 3A:third level, agentive
|shrá wygwè ö́ldha bỳe.
|yelp-'''FACT'''-1 dog-ACC-NOM-2A eat-PSU-'''FACT'''-2 female-ACC-NOM-3A.
|''The dog is yelping, wherefore the girl feeds it.''}}

===Predicative===
[[w:Predicative expression|Predicatives]], like all sentences, follow the plot arrow:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|ghát zhngyè bestỳ lusỳi.
|name-FACT-1 child-ACC-NOM-2A hero-NOM-ACC-2 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2.
|''The children called Lucy a hero.'' (The children gave the name of hero to Lucy.)}}

Predicatives with the verb "to make" typically correspond to Lemizh sentences with a nominal or adjectival verb as the main predicate. This can be interpreted as the accusative object – here "ill" – being absorbed ("swallowed up") by the main predicate:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|mà ydhè gwilbkyỳ wỳgwi. → gwilbkà ydhè wỳgwi.
|make-FACT-1 eat-ACC-NOM-2 ill-ACC-ACC-2 dog-ACC-DAT-2. → ill-FACT-1 eat-ACC-NOM-2 dog-ACC-DAT-2.
|''The food made the dog ill.'' (The food gave the property of being ill to the dog.)}}

The verb "to be" translates as the corresponding perfect form, i.e. with inner consecutive of the main predicate:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=CONS:consecutive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|lìlbdh lỳghi.
|white-CONS-1 house-ACC-DAT-2.
|''The house is [painted] white.'' (The house has been given the property of being white. The house has been whitened.)}}

The above are called resultative predicatives, describing the result of some property being conferred on someone or something. A depictive predicative describes an inherent property; this is achieved with an accusative object:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=CONS:consecutive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|drulìl werhèy.
|shrub-CONS-1 hazel-NOM-ACC-2.
|''The hazel is a shrub.'' (The hazel has the properties of a shrub.)}}
(Side note: The stem of ''werhè.'' "hazel" means "to make hazelnuts", hence the inner nominative. The nuts are called ''werhỳ.'', with inner accusative. Other plants bearing edible fruits follow the same pattern.)

===Relative pronouns===
Stems of relative pronouns (not to be confused with the pronouns of the same name in English or Latin) refer to actions by pointing to another stem or to a parole: they are [[w:Anaphora (linguistics)|anaphoric]]. Here is the full list:
{| class="wikitable"
! rowspan="2" | Level !! colspan="2" | Type I !! colspan="2" | Type II
|-
! Verb !! The target is the stem of !! Verb !! The target is the stem of
|-
| n || colspan="2" | (does not occur because it would refer to itself) || à. || its preceding same-level word
|-
| n−1 || wà. || its predicate || fà. || its predicate's preceding same-level word or parole
|-
| n−2 || dhà. || its predicate's predicate || thà. || its predicate's predicate's preceding same-level word or parole
|-
| n−3 || zà. || its predicate's predicate's predicate || sà. || …
|-
| n−4 || zhà. || … || shà. || …
|-
| n−5 || ghà. || … || xà. || …
|}
They are highly versatile, corresponding to various structures in other languages. Recall that a sentence's parole has level zero:
{| class="wikitable"
! Reflexive !! First person (singular) !! Second person
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|wáx wìe.
|speak-FACT-1 PIn−1-'''DAT'''-'''NOM'''-2A.
|''to talk to oneself. He is talking to himself.'' (The recipient of speaking is its sender.)}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dráw dhèe.
|dance-FACT-1 PIn−2-'''NOM'''-NOM-2A.
|''I am dancing.'' (The sender of the parole is the sender of dancing.)}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dráw dhìe.
|dance-FACT-1 PIn−2-'''DAT'''-NOM-2A.
|''You are dancing.'' (The recipient of the parole is the sender of dancing.)}}
|}
Rule Four of sentence grammar ensures that the reflexive example means "He is talking to himself" as opposed to, say, "He is talking to one being talked to" (which would be ''wáx wìxe.'' speak-{{sc|fact}}-1 speak-{{sc|dat-nom}}-2{{sc|a}}, with two different instances of the stem "speak").

{| class="wikitable"
! Possessive determiner !! Vocative
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=CONS:consecutive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|zdìls ngỳzdy zeú tỳar.
|seat-CONS-1 bird-ACC-ACC-2 PIn−3-'''NOM'''-BEN-3 this-ACC-LOC-2.
|''My bird is sitting there.'' (The sender of the parole is the beneficiary of making a bird.)}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=PI:pronoun type I; FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive; 3:third level
|wáx dheè zdhèzhi zìe.
|speak-FACT-1 PIn−2-NOM-NOM-2A friend-NOM-DAT-2 PIn−3-'''DAT'''-NOM-3.
|''Friend, I am talking to you.'' (The recipient of the parole is the friend: nominative bracket.)}}
|}

The type II pronoun in the following example points to the stem of eating. With the inner accusative, the pronoun refers to the content of eating, which is the sweet. (As with brackets, Rules Four and Five guarantee that the pronoun refers to the same content of the same action of eating as mentioned in the first sentence.)
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; PII:pronoun type II; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|ádh dheì mlỳdhy. ràsh fỳy.
|eat-FACT-1 PIn−2-NOM-DAT-2A sweet-ACC-ACC-2. like-FACT-1 PIIn−1-'''ACC'''-ACC-2.
|''I am eating a sweet. [I] like it.''}}

==Derivational morphology==
From a Lemizh point of view, ''dè.'' "giver" and ''dỳ.'' "gift" aren't derivatives of ''dà.'' "to give" but grammatical forms of the same word. The only piece of true derivational morphology is compounding.

===Compounds===
[[File:Lemizh compounding diagram.png|thumb|Forming a compound from a two-word sentence]]
'''Rule One of compounding. A compound word is constructed from a two-word sentence – predicate and object of which become modifier and head of the compound, respectively – in the following way:'''
# '''Prestem''':
## the object's prestem
## the object's inner case
## the object's poststem
## an optional separator
## the predicate's prestem
# '''Inner case'''
# '''Poststem''': the predicate's poststem
# '''Outer case'''
Note that the object's stem comes before the predicate's; and also that the object's outer case (and, less importantly, the predicate's inner case) is lost. The object's inner case becomes part of the compound's prestem and is then called its ''epenthetic case''. The separator can be used, for example, if the word boundary would be unclear otherwise, or for placing the second part of the word on a new line.

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|làxt àdhy. ⇒ adhlàxt.
|want-FACT-1 eat-FACT-ACC-2. ⇒ eat-FACT-want-FACT-1.
|''[She] wants to eat.'' (See the inflection of [[#Verbs|verbs]].)}}
Here, the lost accusative ending has to be deduced from context.

'''Rule Two. In the relationship between the original predicate and object, the rules of sentence grammar are retained as far as applicable.'''

The consequences of this rule are somewhat technical; but the last one, pertaining to degree of reality, is important for correctly interpreting compounds.
* Rules One to Three of sentence grammar are not applicable to compounds, as can be easily seen.
* Four: Both modifier and head are instantiations of specific actions in the original sentence (which however do not necessarily match the instantiation of the compound).
* Five: The epenthetic case characterises the head completely with regard to its descriptor.
* Six: The only overt object of the modifier is the head. All other objects are missing and thus indicate the absence of information about their descriptors.
* Seven: The modifier has a higher degree of reality than the head. Therefore, the above compound does not claim that she actually eats.

'''Rule Three. Regarding all outward relations, cases''' (i.e. the compound's inner case [not to be confused with its epenthetic case], the outer cases of its objects, and cases of pronouns referring to it) '''refer to the head.'''
{|
|-
| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|adhkmàr mlỳdhy.
|eat-FACT-allow-LOC-1 sweet-ACC-ACC-2.
|''a place where one may eat sweets; a place for eating sweets''}}

| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|ngengadàxt fỳta.
|run-FACT-must-FACT-1 fast-ACC-FACT-1
|''[He] has to run fast.''}}
|}

These examples talk about the location of eating, as opposed to the location of allowing; about eating sweets, as opposed to allowing sweets; the running is fast, as opposed to the necessity; etc.

Number and gender of [[#Nouns|nouns]] are compounds from brackets which are first inverted to turn the more salient word into the compound's head: ''dè mlỳe. ⇔ mlỳ dèy.'' "several givers" ⇒ ''demlè.'' "givers". The inner nominative (''-e-'') becomes the epenthetic case, and the new inner case also has to be a nominative per Rule Three. ''demlỳ.'' (inner {{sc|acc}}), by contrast, is "something given by several people".

Compounds expressing degrees of [[#Adjectives and the like|adjectives]] are also formed from brackets. They have an epenthetic consecutive (''-il-''), which stems from the corresponding abstract noun: ''gmrìl dmỳil. ⇔ dmỳ gmrìly.'' "much warmth" ⇒ ''gmrildmìl.'' "heat" (abstract noun formed with inner {{sc|cons}}), ''gmrildmỳ.'' "hot" (adjective with inner {{sc|acc}}). Degrees of comparison are often combined with [[#Predicative|predicatives]] as well as with qualitative or partitive outer cases:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=CONS:consecutive case; QUALDAT:qualitative dative case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|prilghtìlzhd lyghì bỳghim.
|beautiful-CONS-more-CONS-1 house-ACC-DAT-2 garden-ACC-QUALDAT-2.
|''The house is more beautiful than the garden.'' (The garden is the basis of comparison for the house.)}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=CONS:consecutive case; PARTDAT:partitive dative case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|prilghìlst lỳghi ziǘ ghngỳing.
|beautiful-CONS-more-CONS-1 house-ACC-DAT-2 PIn−3-DAT-BEN-3 all-ACC-PARTDAT-2.
|''Your house is the most beautiful of all.'' (''Everything'' is the set from which the house is thought to be taken.)}}

The analogues of the present and future tenses are formed like so – note that inversion changes the pronoun's stem along with its level:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2:second level
|zdàs dhàarh. ⇔ wà zdàrhsa. ⇒ zdarhswà.
|seat-FACT-1 PIn−2-FACT-TEMP-2. ⇔ PIn−1-FACT-1 seat-TEMP-FACT-2. ⇒ seat-TEMP-PIn−1-FACT-1.
|''[She] sits down at the time of the parole. ⇒ [She] sits down now.''}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|zdàs prỳarh. ⇔ prỳ zdàrhsy. ⇒ zdarhsprà.
|seat-FACT-1 front-ACC-TEMP-2. ⇔ front-ACC-1 seat-TEMP-ACC-2. ⇒ seat-TEMP-front-FACT-1.
|''[She] sits down at a time in front [of the parole]. ⇒ [She] will sit down.''}}

==Example text==
[[File:Lemizh text sample.png|600px]]

====stedrỳzh thìrhfi xtrỳghy.====
krỳgh dghngireì prilxpilghkỳarh. mangỳ srungbỳng lyngghỳng yngshwỳng fỳü. zhöazhghngìl tmỳil. ghngàgzh smìa prỳal ghngyé dhàbdhy lunguỳ ùyl mỳu fplyxár tỳarh. dmát feì sxngengzè ishkènge. ghìlt krighmyngthxì xtrỳngghi swyshỳ ghỳxy fplyxòr zhöyzhỳm xngàrorm. dmìlt öngkrỳngty zhryỳ rèshy esfàsy sxngyzdmýi, usrỳngy xazhgèsty ghngỳeng, frekrỳngfy rilghdzhỳwby pthèby, dgheipysrỳngdy psrèby rhèzhem, dghistngỳngty ghỳxy zangỳa dghildhfmlýyrh, ngiftngyghtmỳngy krültlìy zùe gỳghda. xtrỳgh swyshý stedrỳzh thìrfi. dngilszhrìl bdhyrgzhyngỳng xüxtrỳngyng prilkỳarh ötìlil skmyngìlng ghỳngsilng. dngilszhìlwb ráxpy thìlfi. fö̀l gwiltngìlöl dmàty föpysryfỳ ngỳu.

rỳ zhryỳrh thìzgy gwiltngìly rhàghgy dmatngìe thìrfy. là xángska matngiè ytfỳyrh dmyý fplyxór dyxtngyngà mànga prilzhryngỳr iltỳngzhdyr. dmàt ytfỳarh ryý mìlngorh xngyì prilkyár mìlngorh xtrỳngghi kshrextý mengthxì prỳar zìe, fplỳngxe fywýr déngske xtryghè sxngezì xngỳnge.

====The Legend of the Seventh Planet====
A long time ago there was a tribe of nomads. They possessed neither writing nor houses nor horses. But they were truly human. They were curious; this means, above all, that they took interest in the useless, for the celestial objects were of no use to them yet. They looked at the Sun and the Moon. They had named the constellations and the six planets moving across the sky like the humans across the earth. They knew dim Mercury, who liked to hide in the glare of the Sun; Venus, the brightest of all; reddish and angry Mars; majestic father Jupiter; Saturn, who seemed to stand still for weeks; and even Uranus had been caught by their keen eyes. Six planets, and the legend of a seventh. Maybe it had been the minor planet Vesta, or a comet centuries or millennia earlier. Maybe it was the attraction of the number seven. For Neptune is invisible to the naked eye.

One youngster thought to himself that he could not live without seeing the seventh planet. He lay awake searching the sky for many nights, neglected his duties, and became thinner and thinner. And one night, lying with the Earth behind his back, and with the looping planets and the stars above him, he saw the depth of the sky and the planets circling the Sun, and among them the Earth.

==External links==
* [https://lemizh.conlang.org Lemizh homepage] with comprehensive coverage of the language, including a dictionary with etymologies, information on the language's pragmatics, and more background information
[[File:Copyleft1.png|20px]] ''This article is available under a [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License]. It includes material from the Lemizh homepage, which has the same license.''


[[Category:Languages]]
[[Category:Conlangs]]
[[Category:Indo-European languages]]
[[Category:Agglutinative languages]]

Lemizh

2022-05-21T09:35:03Z

Anypodetos: Resultative vs. depictive; formatting

{{Infobox language
|image =
|imagesize =
|name = Lemizh
|nativename = lemỳzh.
|pronunciation = lɛmˈɯ̀ʒ
|state = Lemaria
|setting = Alternate history Europe
|created = 1985
|familycolor = Indo-European
|fam2 = Lemizh
|ancestor = Proto-Lemizh
|posteriori =
* [[w:Proto-Indo-European|PIE]]
* [[w:Occam's razor|Occam's razor]]
|creator = [[User:Anypodetos|Anypodetos]]
|scripts = Lemizh alphabet
|nation = Lemaria
|map = Map of Lemaria.png
|mapalt = The country of Lemaria lies to the north and west of the Black Sea. The capital, Shabar, is at the Dniester Liman or Estuary.
|notice = IPA
}}
'''Lemizh''' ([[Help:IPA|[lεmˈiʒ]]], native pronunciation: [[Help:IPA|[lɛmˈɯ̀ʒ]]]) is a language I invented with the aim of creating a grammar as regular and simple as possible. It was originally intended as an [[w:International auxiliary language|international auxiliary language]]. However, it turned out that a simple grammar is not necessarily a grammar that is easy to learn: the more ways of simplification I found, the further away it moved from [[w:Indo-European languages|Indo-European]] and probably all other familiar language structures. Expecting anyone to learn Lemizh, at this point, would be unrealistic.

So I needed a new justification for the language: enter the Lemizh, a people living to the west and north of the [[w:Black Sea|Black Sea]] in an alternate history that slowly drifted away from ours between two and eight millennia ago. Of course, it is extremely unlikely that they would speak a language that was completely without exceptions. To be precise, the chances are two to the power of two hundred and seventy-six thousand seven hundred and nine to one against. But they say that everything has to happen somewhere in the Multiverse; and everything happens only once.

{{TOC limit}}

==History==
===Early stages===
Lemizh is an Indo-European language and, together with Volgan, constitutes one of the ten recognised branches of the Indo-European language family. This branch is also called Lemizh, to the disgruntlement of Volgan linguists.

Proto-Lemizh, the ancestor of Lemizh and Volgan, is very poorly attested in form of some papyri found near the northwestern shore of the Black Sea, to the north of the [[w:Dniester Liman|Dniester Liman]], dated about 2700 BC. Old Lemizh, by contrast, is fairly well attested. It had predominantly [[w:Subject–verb–object|subject–verb–object]] (SVO) word order and was a quite typical old Indo-European language, but with a couple of interesting quirks:
* Adjectives were lost as a separate part of speech, being replaced with participles ("white" > "being white").
* Finite subordinate clauses had their subject in the case of the clause: the subject of a local clause was in the locative case without having a local meaning in itself.
The earliest known documents from this stage of Lemizh were probably written around 2100 BC along the northern and western shores of the Back Sea.

===Ghean and Middle Lemizh===
Ghean ([[Help:IPA|[ˈɣɛən]]]) is a language with no known genetic relationships. It was spoken by a people of unknown origin, who subdued the Lemizh tribes in around 1000 BC and ruled for infamous three generations. Ghean was an inflected [[w:Tonal language|register tonal]] language with strict [[w:Verb–subject–object|verb–subject–object]] (VSO) word order and head-first phrases. It had verbs, [[w:Nominal (linguistics)|nominals]] (a combined noun/adjective/participle part of speech), pronouns and particles.

The Gheans discouraged the use of the natives' language, but obviously tolerated Lemizh words (or rather word stems) to stand in for unfamiliar Ghean ones. The grammar of simple sentences was easy enough to learn for the Lemizh, as they were used to inflection and head-first phrases, and likely still knew VSO sentences from poetry. After two or three generations, the natives must have spoken a [[w:Creole language|creole]] with a more or less Ghean grammar but an abundance of Lemizh words, especially outside the core vocabulary. This is a rather unusual development as most creoles draw their lexicon mainly from the dominant group, and tend to be grammatically more innovative. (The Tanzanian language [[w:Mbugu language|Mbugu]] might have had a somewhat similar development with more or less analogous outcomes.) After the disappearance of the Gheans, Lemizh patriots tried to revive their old language, which failed spectacularly for the grammar but reintroduced many Lemizh words of the core vocabulary.

===The last three millennia===
While Middle Lemizh as spoken after the Ghean occupation already had a non-Indo-European and unusually regular grammar, this trend was to continue over the following millennia. The factive case was innovated to express verbal nouns, which eventually supplanted verbs altogether. (At least part of the blame goes to the Tlöngö̀l, an epic novel published in 1351, which popularised the use of verbal nouns.) The tonal system was simplified to the present two-way [[w:Pitch-accent language|pitch-accent]] system. Pronouns lost their status as a separate part of speech. The last particles died out a few hundred years ago, leaving the language with a single part of speech which is often called a "verb" but, historically speaking, is really a nominal. This means that the concept of ''parts of speech'' does not make sense in Modern Lemizh.

This article describes the dialect spoken to the north of the [[w:Danube Delta|Danube delta]], which prevailed against other variants and is considered the standard language today.

==Orthography and phonology==
The alphabet is [[w:Phonetic orthography|phonetic]]: each letter corresponds to a certain sound, and each sound is represented by a single letter. The direction of writing is left to right. This article uses the standard transcription of the native Lemizh alphabet:
{| class="wikitable" style="width: 800px; table-layout: fixed; text-align: center"
! colspan="29" | Letters of the Lemizh alphabet
|-
| colspan="29" style="padding: 0" | [[File:Lemizh alphabet.png|796px]]
|-
| a || e || y || i || o || ö || u || ü || l || rh || r || ng || m || g || d || b || k || t || p || gh || zh || z || dh || w || x || sh || s || th || f
|}

===Consonants===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="2" | !! bilabial !! dental !! alveolar !! postalveolar !! velar
|-
! colspan="2" | nasals
| m <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial nasal|m]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || || || ng <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar nasal|ŋ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! colspan="2" | plosives (voiceless • voiced)
| p <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless bilabial plosive|p]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • b <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial plosive|b]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || t <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless alveolar plosive|t]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • d <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar plosive|d]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || k <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless velar plosive|k]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • g <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar plosive|g]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! colspan="2" | fricatives (voiceless • voiced)
| f <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless bilabial fricative|ɸ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • w <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial fricative|β]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || th <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless dental fricative|θ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • dh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced dental fricative|ð]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || s <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless alveolar sibilant|s]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • z <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar sibilant|z]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || sh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless palato-alveolar fricative|ʃ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • zh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced palato-alveolar fricative|ʒ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || x <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless velar fricative|x]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • gh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar fricative|ɣ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! rowspan="3" | liquids || lateral approximant
| || || l <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar lateral approximant|l]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|-
! approximant
| || || rh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar approximant|ɹ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|-
! trill
| || || r <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar trill|r]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|}
The plosive-fricative combinations ''pf, ts, tsh, kx'' and their voiced couterparts only occur at word boundaries and in compound words. They are not pronounced as affricates but as separate sounds. The same applies for other combinations of a plosive plus another consonant (''pm, tl'' etc.), as well as for two identical plosives (''kk'' etc.): the release of the first plosive is always audible.

===Vowels===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! rowspan="2" | !! colspan="2" | front !! colspan="2" | back
|-
! unrounded !! rounded !! unrounded !! rounded
|-
! close
| i <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close front unrounded vowel|i]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ü <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close front rounded vowel|y]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || y <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close back unrounded vowel|ɯ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || u <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close back rounded vowel|u]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! open-mid
| e <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid front unrounded vowel|ɛ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ö <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid front rounded vowel|œ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || a <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid back unrounded vowel|ʌ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || o <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid back rounded vowel|ɔ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|}
Two consecutive different vowels are pronounced as a diphthong; two consecutive identical vowels as a long one. Single vowels are always short.

Lemizh uses [[w:Mora (linguistics)|moræ]] for structuring words: a short syllable equals one mora, and a long syllable equals two. In Lemizh, every vowel is the centre of a mora; consequently, two consecutive vowels result in two moræ or one long syllable.

===Accent===
Lemizh has got a two-way pitch-accent system, in that accented moræ are not only spoken louder (as in English), but also have either a lower or a higher pitch than the surrounding unaccented ones. The accented mora is always the ultimate or penultimate of a word. The vowel at the centre of a low-pitch accented mora is transcribed with a grave accent, the vowel at the centre of a high-pitch accented mora with an acute accent.
{| class="wikitable" style="width: 220px; table-layout: fixed; text-align: center"
! colspan="8" | Accented vowel letters
|-
| colspan="8" style="padding: 0" | [[File:Lemizh accented vowels.png|216px]]
|-
| à || è || ỳ || ì || ò || ö̀ || ù || ǜ
|-
| á || é || ý || í || ó || ö́ || ú || ǘ
|}

===Phonotactics===
[[w:Phonotactics|Phonotactics]] is rather permissive in Lemizh. A mora has the following structure, where the bracketed parts are optional:
* (O)(N)(L)V(L)(N)(O)
V is the mora's vowel, L a liquid, N a nasal, and O an obstruent that can be either a P(losive), a F(ricative), FP, PF, FF, FFP, FPF, or PFF. Word-initial consonant clusters cannot contain more than three sounds. No geminate consonants (<abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''ff'' etc.) occur within a mora. Consecutive plosive-fricative or fricative-plosive combinations within the same mora must have the same sonority – either both are voiced, or both are voiceless. A plosive cannot have the same place of articulation as a following consonant with the exception of ''rh'' and ''r''. <abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''dzh'', <abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''ddh'' and their voiceless counterparts are also prohibited within a mora.

Word boundaries, including those within compound words, are always mora boundaries. Where mora boundaries would still be ambiguous, liquids and nasals are assigned to the earliest possible mora (as the ''m'' in ''lem·ỳzh.''), and obstruents to the latest possible mora.

==Morphology==
All words are composed of the following parts:
* Prestem + inner case + poststem + outer case
Prestem and poststem form the stem, or the lexical part, of the word. The division of the stem into two portions is similar to English verbs such as ''sing/sang/sung'', where the lexical part is ''s–ng'' while the vowels ''i/a/u'' convey grammatical information. The stem always denotes an action (but never a state, a person, a thing, a property, etc.) and thus resembles our verbs. The prestem can contain any sounds, or it can be zero (i.e. consisting of zero sounds). The poststem can only contain fricatives and plosives, or it can be zero as well.

The inner case is represented by one of the eight vowels, optionally followed by a liquid (the primary case suffix) and/or a nasal (the secondary case suffix). The outer case has the same structure. For the first word in each sentence, the main predicate, the outer case is zero.

Each case is defined by its ''descriptor'': for example, the factive case denotes an ''action'', the nominative a ''sender'', the locative a ''place''. The stem and the inner case's descriptor determine a word's meaning.

'''Examples'''
* ''wàx. w–x'' is the stem for "speak", ''-a-'' denotes the inner factive, so this word means "an action of speaking", translated as the verb "to speak" or the [[w:Verbal noun|verbal noun]] "speaking".
* ''wèx. -e-'' denotes the inner nominative, so this word means "a sender of speaking" or "a speaker".
* ''àrdh. ∅–dh'' (having a zero prestem) is the stem for "eat", ''-ar-'' denotes the inner locative: "a place of eating".
The customary [[w:Lemma (morphology)|citation form]] of a word is the one with inner factive.

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Primary cases and their descriptors
|-
! rowspan="3" | № !! rowspan="3" | Case vowel !! colspan="4" | Primary case suffix
|-
| none || l || rh || r
|-
! Plot cases !! Causal cases !! Temporal cases !! Spatial cases
|-
| 1 || a || factive ({{sc|fact}}): ''action'' || affirmative ({{sc|aff}}): ''fact (point in causal chain)'' || temporal ({{sc|temp}}): ''time'' || locative ({{sc|loc}}): ''place/region''
|-
| 2 || e || nominative ({{sc|nom}}): ''source, sender'' || causative ({{sc|caus}}): ''direct cause'' || ingressive ({{sc|ing}}): ''starting time'' || elative ({{sc|ela}}): ''starting point/region''
|-
| 3 || y || accusative ({{sc|acc}}): ''content'' || contextual ({{sc|ctx}}): ''causal context'' || durative ({{sc|dur}}): ''duration'' || extensive ({{sc|ext}}): ''spatial extent''
|-
| 4 || i || dative ({{sc|dat}}): ''sink, recipient'' || consecutive ({{sc|cons}}): ''direct consequence, effect'' || egressive ({{sc|egr}}): ''closing time'' || illative ({{sc|ill}}): ''end point / ending region''
|-
| 5 || o || tentive ({{sc|ten}}): ''intention'' || intentive ({{sc|int}}): ''intention (intended point in causal chain)'' || episodic ({{sc|eps}}): ''episode, "act"'' || scenic ({{sc|sce}}): ''scene, "stage"''
|-
| 6 || ö || comitative ({{sc|com}}): ''company'' || persuasive ({{sc|psu}}): ''reason'' || digressive ({{sc|dig}}): ''time away from which'' || ablative ({{sc|abl}}): ''place/region away from which''
|-
| 7 || u || instrumental ({{sc|ins}}): ''means, tool'' || motivational ({{sc|mot}}): ''motivational context'' || progressive ({{sc|prog}}): ''time that is passed'' || prolative ({{sc|prol}}): ''crossing point/region''
|-
| 8 || ü || benefactive ({{sc|ben}}): ''beneficiary'' || final ({{sc|fin}}): ''purpose, aim'' || aggressive ({{sc|agg}}): ''time towards which, temporal aim'' || allative ({{sc|all}}): ''place/region towards which, spatial aim''
|}
Each primary case has two corresponding secondary cases:
* a partitive case formed by adding ''ng'' (such as ''-ing-'' for the partitive dative or ''-erng-'' for the partitive elative) with the descriptor ''the set from which the source (sink, place, etc.) is thought to be taken'': ''wèngx.'' is "the set from which the speaker is thought to be taken", i.e. "the speaker, among others".
* a qualitative case formed by adding ''m'', with the descriptor ''the basis of comparison for the source (sink, place, etc.)'': ''wèmx.'' informally translates as "someone like a speaker".

===The plot===
Every action denoted by a stem is considered a flow of information that comes from a source (sender), transports a content, and reaches a sink (a recipient). The terms "sender" and "recipient" may be more familiar, but "source" and "sink" are more accurate in not necessarily meaning living beings.

Consequently, a Lemizh action looks somewhat like this: '''nominative  accusative[[File:DreieckGreenMIDDLE.png|26px|link=]] dative'''

This is called the action's plot. Here are some examples:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative
|-
| ''wàx.'' "to speak, to talk, to tell; (an action of) speaking" || ''wèx.'' "one telling something" || ''wỳx.'' "a tale" || ''wìx.'' "one who is told something"
|-
| ''dà.'' "to give; (an action of) giving" || ''dè.'' "one giving something" || ''dỳ.'' "a gift" || ''dì.'' "one who is given something; one who gets something"
|-
| ''làzhw.'' "to help" || ''lèzhw.'' "one helping" || ''lỳzhw.'' "help (given)" || ''lìzhw.'' "one whom is helped"
|-
| ''mlàtx.'' "to melt" || ''mlètx.'' "one melting something" || [''mlỳtx.''] || ''mlìtx.'' "a melted thing"
|-
| ''xöàgh.'' "to produce a sound; to hear" || ''xöègh.'' "one producing a sound" || ''xöỳgh.'' "a sound" || ''xöìgh.'' "one hearing something"
|-
| ''àdh.'' "to feed; to eat" || ''èdh.'' "one feeding someone" || ''ỳdh.'' "food" || ''ìdh.'' "one being fed; one eating"
|-
| ''ià.'' "to love" || ''iè.'' "one loving someone, a lover" || ''iỳ.'' "a beloved" || ''iì.'' "a beloved"
|}
Importantly, there are no rules for which cases to use with which words. Both ''iỳ.'' ({{sc|acc}}) and ''iì.'' ({{sc|dat}}) mean "a beloved". The former describes the beloved as the content of love, the one being lovingly thought of, while the latter implies that the love reaches them, like words or gifts reach their recipient. Likewise, the reason why ''mlỳtx.'' is not translated in the table above isn't that "''melt'' does not take the accusative", as grammars of other languages would say, but that "a content of melting" does not seem to have any obvious meaning. If someone wanted to describe, say, sun rays as content transported from the sun to the snow to melt it, they could well use ''mlỳtx.'' to express the concept.

Case usage is governed solely by the cases' descriptors; it is up to the speaker how to use them given some word's meaning and some context. If the wind opens a door, is it the source of the action of opening (''ngèt.''), the means of opening (''ngùt.''), or the cause (''ngèlt.'')? All are grammatically correct; the speaker decides which possibility best expresses their intention.

===Nouns===
:''Nouns, adjectives and verbs do not correspond to any concepts in Lemizh grammar. Using these terms is just an attempt to describe the grammar from an Indo-European viewpoint.''
A large number of nouns are not derived from verbs in most languages: ''froth, ship, lion'' and many others. In Lemizh, however, we have verbs such as ''psràxk.'' "to froth", ''àksh.'' "to build a ship or ships", and ''làw.'' "to make a lion or lions". We will call these ''nominal verbs''.

Looking at the verb ''àksh.'', the shipwright ({{sc|nom}}) gives the building materials ({{sc|dat}}) the properties or the function of a ship ({{sc|acc}}). He confers, well, shipness on the materials. The shipness is sent by the shipwright, not because he is acting, but because he is the source: the image of the ship, so to say, comes from his head and materialises in wood, iron, ropes, and linen. In short, these words mostly appear with inner accusative.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative
|-
| ''psràxk.'' "to froth" || ''psrèxk.'' "one frothing something" || ''psrỳxk.'' "a thing having the properties of froth = '''froth'''" || ''psrìxk.'' "a frothed thing, a frothed liquid"
|-
| ''àksh.'' "to build a ship" || ''èksh.'' "one building a ship, a shipwright" || ''ỳksh.'' "a thing having the properties of a ship = '''a ship'''" || ''ìksh.'' "building materials for a ship, materials made into a ship"
|-
| ''làw.'' "to make a lion" || [''lèw.'' "one making a lion"] || ''lỳw.'' "a thing having the properties of a lion = '''a lion'''" || [''lìw.'' "building materials for a lion, materials made into a lion"]
|}

Another very common kind of nouns are tool nouns, formed with an inner instrumental case:
* ''ghstù.'' "a sail" is derived from ''ghstà.'' "to sail", literally "a means of sailing",
* ''pslù.'' "scissors" from ''pslà.'' "to cut with scissors",
* ''saxùf.'' "a trumpet" from ''saxàf.'' "to play the trumpet",
* ''skrùzh.'' "a finger" from ''skràzh.'' "to work with one's fingers".

====Inflection====
As mentioned above, all words can inflect for (outer) case. Thus, we have the nominative forms ''wàx'''e''''' "(an action of) speaking, talking, telling", ''dè'''e''''' "a giver", ''lỳw'''e''''' "a lion", the causative ''lỳw'''el''''' "because of a lion", the elative ''lỳw'''er''''' "(starting) from a lion", etc.

Lemizh words do not inflect for number or gender. If desired, we can express this information by forming compounds. (Note the duplication of the inner case vowel; the first occurrence in each word is called the epenthetic case of the compound. The underlying grammar will be described later.)
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Singular !! Dual !! Plural !! Feminine !! Masculine !! Feminine singular !! etc.
|-
! giver
| ''dè.'' || ''de'''rè'''.'' || ''de'''dwè'''.'' || ''de'''mlè'''.'' || ''de'''bè'''.'' || ''de'''èx'''.'' || ''de'''berè'''.''
|-
! lion
| ''lỳw.'' || ''lyw'''rỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''dwỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''mlỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''bỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''ỳx'''.'' || ''lyw'''byrỳ'''.''
|-
! compound with
| — || ''rỳ.'' "one" || ''dwỳ.'' "two" || ''mlỳ.'' "several" || ''bỳ.'' "female; woman" || ''ỳx.'' "male; man" || "female" and "one"
|}

===Adjectives and the like===
There is no difference between adjectival and nominal verbs: they mostly appear with inner accusative. This is the same situation as in, say, Latin, where ''albus'' can mean "a white one" as well as "white". Negators and numerals are sub-categories of adjectives.

The inner consecutive case translates certain abstract nouns.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative !! Inner consecutive
|-
| ''làbdh.'' "to whiten something, to make something white" || ''lèbdh.'' "one whitening something" || ''lỳbdh.'' "a white thing; '''white'''" || ''lìbdh.'' "a thing made white; whitened" || ''lìlbdh.'' "the consequence of whitening = whiteness"
|-
| ''gmrà.'' "to warm, to make something warm" || ''gmrè.'' "one warming something" || ''gmrỳ.'' "a warm thing; '''warm'''" || ''gmrì.'' "a warmed thing; warmed" || ''gmrìl.'' "the consequence of warming = warmth"
|-
| ''ngà.'' "to make something nonexistent" || ''ngè.'' "one making something nonexistent" || ''ngỳ.'' "(something) '''nonexistent'''" || ''ngì.'' "something made nonexistent, something destroyed" || ''ngìl.'' "the consequence of making nonexistent = nothingness"
|-
| ''dwà.'' "to make two things/individuals" || ''dwè.'' "one making two things" || ''dwỳ.'' "'''two''' (things)" || ''dwì.'' "something made into two (things)" || ''dwìl.'' "the consequence of making two things = twoness"
|}

However, emotions aren't viewed as properties in Lemizh: a happy or angry person is one sending happiness or anger, just as a loving person is one sending love. The inner causative plays a notable role with verbs of emotion.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative !! Inner causative
|-
| ''pthàb.'' "to be angry" || ''pthèb.'' "an angry one; '''angry'''" || ''pthỳb.'' "the content/object of one's anger" || ''pthìb.'' "one that one's anger reaches" || ''pthèlb.'' "one causing someone anger; one annoying someone"
|}

====Inflection====
Of course, adjectives can be compounded to express number and/or gender in the same way as nouns. Furthermore, we can form compounds expressing various degrees. (The epenthetic consecutive ''-il-'' in these compounds will also be explained later; it is actually the main application of the abstract nouns just mentioned.)
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Diminutive !! Augmentative !! Absolute !! Comparative !! Superlative
|-
! warm
| ''gmrỳ.'' || ''gmril'''zhrỳ'''.'' "lukewarm" || ''gmril'''dmỳ'''.'' "hot" || ''gmril'''ghngỳ'''.'' "absolutely hot" || ''gmril'''tỳzhd'''.'' "warmer, hotter" || ''gmril'''ỳst'''.'' "hottest"
|-
! white
| ''lỳbdh.'' || ''lilbdh'''zhrỳ'''.'' "whitish" || ''lilbdh'''dmỳ'''.'' "very white" || ''lilbdh'''ghngỳ'''.'' "absolutely/completely white" || ''lilbdh'''tỳzhd'''.'' "whiter" || ''lilbdh'''ỳst'''.'' "whitest"
|-
! compound with
| — || ''zhrỳ.'' "few, little, a bit" || ''dmỳ.'' "much, many" || ''ghngỳ.'' "every, all, the whole" || ''tỳzhd.'' "more" || ''ỳst.'' "most"
|}

===Verbs===
Most verbs correspond to Lemizh words with an inner factive. However, as Lemizh stems always denote an action, the notable exception are stative verbs such as:
* ''zdìls.'' "to sit", literally "the consequence of sitting down (''zdàs.'')"
* ''gwìlt.'' "to know", literally "the consequence of learning (''gwàt.'')"

====Inflection====
* Person is not expressed with inflection but with [[#Relative pronouns|pronouns]].
* Number is conveyed by compounding pronouns with numerals. While verbs (i.e. words with an inner factive) can be compounded with numerals, ''ftrask'''mlà'''.'' does not mean "we/they sneeze" but "(there are) several acts of sneezing" (i.e. someone sneezes several times and/or several people sneeze).
* Voice (active/passive) is absent in Lemizh; word order serves a similar function.
* Tense is expressed by compounds with an epenthetic temporal case (''-arh-''), or with certain inner cases. The latter option is preferred if possible, as it is more concise.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Present !! Past !! Perfect !! Future !! Intentional
|-
! to sit down
| ''zdàs.'' || ''zdarhs'''wà'''.'' || ''zdarhs'''prilkà'''.'' || ''zd'''ìl'''s.'' ({{sc|cons}}) || ''zdarhs'''prà'''.'' || ''zd'''ò'''s.'' ({{sc|ten}})
|-
! compound with
| — || pronoun || ''prilkỳ.'' "back" || — || ''prỳ.'' "front" || —
|}
Note that the translation of the perfect with inner consecutive coincides with the translation of stative verbs: "having sat down" in the strict perfect sense of "the consequence/effect of this action exists" means the same as "to sit". Likewise, "whiteness" can be expressed as the abstract concept of "having whitened something".

* Mood corresponds to compounds with certain verbs for the most part. There is no equivalent to the subjunctive mood, as subordinate clauses are irreal (i.e. not necessarily real) by default. Here are some common formations:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Indicative !! Imperative !! Commanding imperative !! Interrogative Polite imperative !! Optative
|-
! to feed, to eat
| ''àdh.'' || ''adh'''pràk'''.'' || ''adh'''dàxt'''.'' || ''adh'''pà'''.'' || ''adh'''làxt'''.''
|-
! compound with
| — || ''pràk.'' "to request" || ''dàxt.'' "to command" || ''pà.'' "to ask" || ''làxt.'' "to want"
|}
* Aspect is a very diverse category, expressed by a variety of compounds and syntactic structures in Lemizh.

===Pronouns===
The two demonstrative pronouns are technically nominal verbs:
* ''tà.'' "to make this/that one", typically used with inner accusative: ''tỳ.'' "this/that (one)"
* ''gwà.'' "to make someone/anyone, something/anything", with inner accusative ''gwỳ.'' "someone/anyone, something/anything"

The eleven relative pronouns play a far more prominent role in Lemizh grammar. Their scope is much wider than the one usually associated with the term. As they are closely tied to Lemizh syntax, they are described [[#Relative pronouns|further down]].

==Syntax==
===Level of words===
There is only one more grammatical category: the level of words, which is the main building block of Lemizh syntax. A word can be of first level (the highest), of second level (the next highest), of third level (still one level lower) and so on; there is no limit for the number of levels, but non-positive word levels (zero, −1, etc.) are forbidden.

The first word in a sentence (the main predicate) is of first level by definition. The level of the next word is determined by the main predicate's accent and by the type of pause between the two words, the level of the third word is determined by the accent of the second and the pause between these two, and so on.

Here is the complete list of pause/accent combinations.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="2" | Following pause !! rowspan="2" | Accented vowel !! rowspan="2" | Type of accent !! rowspan="2" | The level of the next word is …
|-
! in speech !! in writing
|-
| rowspan="4" | barely audible || rowspan="4" | space || rowspan="2" | inner case || low || lower by 1
|-
| high || lower by 1, and [[w:Agent (grammar)|agentive]]* ({{sc|a}})
|-
| rowspan="2" | outer case || low || equal
|-
| high || higher by 1
|-
| rowspan="4" | a bit longer || rowspan="4" | comma ('''·''') || rowspan="2" | inner case || low || higher by 2
|-
| high || higher by 3
|-
| rowspan="2" | outer case || low || higher by 4
|-
| high || higher by 5
|-
| the longest || full stop ('''∶''') || inner case || low || none; end of sentence
|}
<nowiki>*</nowiki> The agent is the initiator of the action (more informally, the one who ''does'' the action).

===The Rules===
[[File:Lemizh parse tree.png|thumb|upright=1.5|A schematic sentence with the words represented by their level numbers]]
The word levels determine the structure of a sentence.

'''Rule One of sentence grammar. A word of level n is subordinate to the nearest word of level n−1 in front of it; the parole acts as a word of level zero.'''

All words of second level are subordinate to the main predicate (which has first level). A word of third level is subordinate to the next second-level word in front of it, and so on. In other words, Lemizh sentences are strictly [[w:Head directionality|head-first]]. The main predicate itself is subordinate to the [[w:Parole (linguistics)|parole]], the action of speaking (or writing) the sentence in question, which consequently has level zero.

'''Rule Two. An object of a word in a sentence is a word subordinate to the former, its predicate, plus all of its own objects.'''

In the diagram, the main predicate's three objects are enclosed in ellipses. Objects of the same word are called ''sibling objects'' or just ''siblings'', and the word they are subordinate to is their ''predicate''. Note that ''predicate'' and ''object'' are relative terms like ''parent'' and ''child''.

The table of level markers implies that only the first object of a predicate can be marked as agent. (This has been interpreted as Lemizh having VSO word order, although a subject is not quite the same as an agent, and Lemizh grammar strictly speaking does not have the concept of a subject.)

'''Rule Three. The outer case of the first word of an object defines its relation to its predicate's stem via its descriptor; the outer case of a level 1 word is zero.'''

This is what we would expect from a language that inflects for case: the nominative object defines the source (sender) of the action named by the stem of its predicate, the accusative object its content, the temporal object its time, etc.

'''Examples'''
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dá föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|give-FACT-1 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2A bottle-ACC-ACC-2 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2.
|''Father Christmas gives Lucy a bottle.''}}

The stems of the three objects are nominal verbs ("to make a bottle" etc.), hence the inner accusatives. The outer cases indicate the sender, content and recipient of the action of giving, respectively. The agent is specified independently of the plot arrow; note the difference:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dá lusyì dwywỳ föpysrỳfe.
|give-FACT-1 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2A bottle-ACC-ACC-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2.
|''Lucy takes a bottle from Father Christmas.''}}

We need not mark an object as agentive if we consider this information unimportant. The English translations are only rough approximations:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dà lusyì dwywỳ föpysrỳfe.
|give-FACT-1 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2 bottle-ACC-ACC-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2.
|''Lucy gets a bottle from Father Christmas. Lucy is given a bottle by Father Christmas.''}}

Rule Three defines outer case in a way that mirrors the definition of inner case. This allows for an operation called '''inversion''' (symbolized "⇔"):
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|làzhw wèxi. ⇔ wáx lìzhwe.
|help-FACT-1 speak-'''NOM'''-'''DAT'''-2. ⇔ speak-FACT-1 help-'''DAT'''-'''NOM'''-2A.
|''[Someone] helps the speaker. ⇔ The one being helped speaks.''}}

Both sentences claim that the sender of speaking is the recipient of helping. The equation is ''wèx.'' = ''lìzhw.'', the speaker = the one being helped.

'''Rule Four. An instance of a word stem designates a specific action.'''

''dà'' in the above sentence does not just mean "to give", it refers to one specific action of giving. Such an action may involve several givers (as in "They give something") and need not even be temporally or spatially contiguous (as in "They are giving something every Christmas"). In other words, each spoken or written instance of the stem ''d–'' refers to a certain subset of all the giving there is.

This rule ensures that all the objects refer to the same action of giving as the predicate itself.

'''Rule Five. A case characterises the action it refers to completely with regard to its case descriptor.'''

For example, the nominative object "Father Christmas" has to name the complete sender of the above instance of giving. This excludes from this instance all giving not done by Father Christmas. So each object places a restriction on the action of giving the main predicate refers to. Thus, the subset of giving meant by this instance of ''dà.'' – what the sentence is ultimately talking about – is defined more and more precisely with each additional object. (This is true not only of the main predicate but of all words in a sentence.)

'''Rule Six. A missing object is equivalent to the absence of information about its descriptor.'''

Above sentences do not have, for example, locative objects, so Rule Five cannot place a restriction on the place of giving. Because of Rule Six, this does not mean there are no restrictions on the location, but only that this kind of information has not been included in the sentence (for example, because the speaker does not know about it, considers it irrelevant, assumes that the listener already knows or – perhaps most importantly – that the listener can infer it). In fact, everything not useful for understanding a sentence should be omitted to save the listener processing effort. (See the inversion example above, which omits the nominative "someone".)

Rules Five and Six imply that every instance of a word has exactly one action (which, however, need not be contiguous), one sender (which can consist of several people), and so on: Five excludes additional senders if one nominative object is already present, and Six gives meaning to missing objects, establishing them as an integral part of Lemizh sentence grammar.

'''Rule Seven. Given an object and its predicate, the predicate is considered more real and the object more hypothetical.'''

…

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! as an object !! as a complete sentence
|-
| ''dà.'' || to give; giving || An action of giving exists = Someone gives something.
|-
| ''zdìls.'' || the consequence of sitting down = to sit; sitting || The consequence of sitting down exists = Someone sits.
|-
| ''dwìlw.'' || the consequence of making a bottle || The consequence of making a bottle exists = A bottle exists; there is a bottle.
|-
| ''sklè.'' || one building a bridge || One building a bridge exists = There is someone building a bridge.
|}

===Noun phrases===
Forming noun phrases does not require any new grammatical rules. In the following example, the inner case of "give" is changed to the nominative, yielding "one giving something, a giver", and everything is pushed down one level. The third-level words are still sender, content and recipient of the ''action'' of giving, as outer cases define relations to the predicate's ''stem'' per Rule Three.
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 3A:third level, agentive
|dmàt tryxkì dée föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|see-FACT-1 beaver-ACC-DAT-2 give-'''NOM'''-NOM-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-3A bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3.
|''The beaver sees '''the one giving Lucy a bottle, Father Christmas'''.''}}
Regarding the verb "see", note that the beaver is in the dative, being at the receiving end of the optical stimulus or information. Marking the beaver as agent would translate as "The beaver looks at the one …".

Rules Four and Five guarantee that the giver is identical to Father Christmas: both are the sender of the same instance of the stem ''d–'' "give" (the giver via its inner nominative, Father Christmas via its outer nominative), and both are the ''complete'' sender of this action. This type of construction, where an object's outer case matches its predicate's inner case, is called a '''bracket'''. Brackets are very widely used:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Apposition !! Attributive adjective !! Attributive pronoun/determiner !! Attributive numeral !! Attributive participle
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|iakopỳk saxèfy.
|Jacopo-'''ACC'''-1 trumpet-NOM-'''ACC'''-2.
|''Jacopo, a trumpeter''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=INS:instrumental case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|ghstù lỳbdhu.
|sail-'''INS'''-1 white-ACC-'''INS'''-2.
|''a sail, a white thing = a white sail''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|ỳksh gwỳy.
|ship-'''ACC'''-1 some-ACC-'''ACC'''-2.
|''a ship, something = some ship''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|mỳs trỳy.
|mouse-'''ACC'''-1 three-ACC-'''ACC'''-2.
|''mice, three individuals = three mice''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|nỳzd gangèy.
|bird-'''ACC'''-1 sing-NOM-'''ACC'''-2.
|''a bird, a singer = a singing bird''}}
|}
Such phrases can be easily extended. This example contains two accusative brackets ("a singing bird" and "a sad child"):
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 4:fourth level
|ngỳzd gangèy zhngỳi speghý ytfỳarh.
|bird-ACC-1 sing-NOM-ACC-2 child-ACC-DAT-3 sad-NOM-ACC-4 night-ACC-TEMP-3.
|''a bird singing to a sad child at night''}}

Adverbially used adjectives are phrased with factive brackets. However, changing the predicate's inner case leaves the object's outer factive intact, losing the bracket.
{|
|-
| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|gangà txỳska.
|sing-'''FACT'''-1 loud-ACC-'''FACT'''-2.
|''(an action of) singing, a loud thing = loud singing = singing loudly, to sing loudly''}}

| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|gangè txỳska.
|sing-'''NOM'''-1 loud-ACC-FACT-2.
|''a loud singer = someone singing loudly'' (The action of singing is a loud thing.)}}
|}

As [[w:Genitive construction|genitive constructions]] have a wide variety of meanings, there is no single Lemizh equivalent. The typical translation for constructions indicating possession is with the benefactive case, but other cases frequently occur. Everything depends on the object's relation to the predicate's stem per Rule Three.
{|
|-
| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|dwỳw lusỳü.
|bottle-ACC-1 Lucy-ACC-'''BEN'''-2.
|''Lucy's bottle'' (Lucy is the beneficiary of making the bottle. The bottle is made for Lucy.)}}

| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dý ỳxe.
|give-ACC-1 male-ACC-'''NOM'''-2A.
|''the man's gift'' (The man is the sender of giving.)}}

| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|rhỳst ytfỳarh filpskỳy.
|dream-ACC-1 night-ACC-'''TEMP'''-2 midsummer-ACC-ACC-3.
| ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' (The midsummer night is the time of dreaming.)}}
|}

===Dependent clauses===
Non-finite and conjunctional clauses employ the same principles as above:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive; 3:third level
|láxt föpysryfè dày dwywỳ lusỳi.
|want-FACT-1 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2A give-'''FACT'''-ACC-2 bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3.
|''Father Christmas wants '''to give Lucy a bottle'''.'' ("Father Christmas" is omitted from the dependent clause per Rule Six.)}}

The difference between English gerund clauses and finite that-clauses roughly translates into a difference between an inner factive (''action'') and an inner affirmative (''fact'').
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 3A:third level, agentive
|dmàt tryxkì dáe föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|see-FACT-1 beaver-ACC-DAT-2 give-'''FACT'''-NOM-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-3A bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3.
|''The beaver sees [the action of] '''Father Christmas giving Lucy a bottle'''.'' (The dependent clause could also be in the accusative to focus on the optical information transmitted to the beaver.)}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; AFF:affirmative case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 3A:third level, agentive
|dmàt tryxkì dále föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|see-FACT-1 beaver-ACC-DAT-2 give-'''AFF'''-NOM-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-3A bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3.
|''The beaver sees [the fact of] '''Father Christmas giving Lucy a bottle'''. The beaver sees '''that''' Father Christmas gives Lucy a bottle.''}}

Some examples of dependent clauses translating into objects in various cases:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|fngà kshngày.
|try-FACT-1 shout-FACT-'''ACC'''-2.
|''[She] tried to shout [but this was difficult because of her sore throat].''}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|fngà kshngàu.
|try-FACT-1 shout-FACT-'''INS'''-2.
|''[She] tried shouting [as he hadn't heard her when she had spoken quietly].'' (Shouting is the means of trying.)}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PSU:persuasive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 4:fourth level
|pàf làxtöl dmàty föpysrỳfe.
|stand-FACT-1 want-FACT-'''PSU'''-2 see-FACT-ACC-3 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-4.
|''[He] stood up because [he] wanted to see Father Christmas.''}}

Relative clauses are structurally identical to (extended) attributive participles as described above; they are brackets: ''a bird which sings to a sad child at night = a bird singing to a sad child at night''. This is also true of clauses with relative adverbs:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level; 3A:third level, agentive
|ngỳw gangáry lỳbe.
|valley-'''ACC'''-1 sing-LOC-'''ACC'''-2 flower-ACC-NOM-3A.
|''a valley, a place of the singing of flowers = a valley where flowers sing''}}

Adverbially used relative clauses, unsurprisingly, are factive brackets:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive; 3:third level
|shrá wygwè rashkỳa bỳe.
|yelp-'''FACT'''-1 dog-ACC-NOM-2A dislike-ACC-'''FACT'''-2 female-ACC-NOM-3.
|''The dog is yelping, which the girl doesn't like.''}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PSU:persuasive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive; 3A:third level, agentive
|shrá wygwè ö́ldha bỳe.
|yelp-'''FACT'''-1 dog-ACC-NOM-2A eat-PSU-'''FACT'''-2 female-ACC-NOM-3A.
|''The dog is yelping, wherefore the girl feeds it.''}}

===Predicative===
…


Resultative:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=CONS:consecutive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|lìlbdh lỳghi.
|white-CONS-1 house-ACC-'''DAT'''-2.
|''The house is [painted] white.'' (The consequence of whitening the house exists. The house has been made white.)}}

Depictive:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=CONS:consecutive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|drulìl werhèy.
|shrub-CONS-1 hazel-NOM-'''ACC'''-2.
|''The hazel is a shrub.'' (The hazel has the properties of a shrub.)}}
(Side note: The stem of ''werhè.'' "hazel" means "to make hazelnuts", hence the inner nominative. The nuts are called ''werhỳ.'', with inner accusative. Other plants bearing edible fruits follow the same pattern.)

===Relative pronouns===
Stems of relative pronouns (not to be confused with the pronouns of the same name in English or Latin) refer to actions by pointing to another stem or to a parole: they are [[w:Anaphora (linguistics)|anaphoric]]. Here is the full list:
{| class="wikitable"
! rowspan="2" | Level !! colspan="2" | Type I !! colspan="2" | Type II
|-
! Verb !! The target is the stem of !! Verb !! The target is the stem of
|-
| n || colspan="2" | (does not occur because it would refer to itself) || à. || its preceding same-level word
|-
| n−1 || wà. || its predicate || fà. || its predicate's preceding same-level word or parole
|-
| n−2 || dhà. || its predicate's predicate || thà. || its predicate's predicate's preceding same-level word or parole
|-
| n−3 || zà. || its predicate's predicate's predicate || sà. || …
|-
| n−4 || zhà. || … || shà. || …
|-
| n−5 || ghà. || … || xà. || …
|}
They are highly versatile, corresponding to various structures in other languages. Recall that a sentence's parole has level zero:
{| class="wikitable"
! Reflexive !! First person (singular) !! Second person
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|wáx wìe.
|speak-FACT-1 PIn−1-'''DAT'''-'''NOM'''-2A.
|''to talk to oneself. He is talking to himself.'' (The recipient of speaking is its sender.)}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dráw dhèe.
|dance-FACT-1 PIn−2-'''NOM'''-NOM-2A.
|''I am dancing.'' (The sender of the parole is the sender of dancing.)}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dráw dhìe.
|dance-FACT-1 PIn−2-'''DAT'''-NOM-2A.
|''You are dancing.'' (The recipient of the parole is the sender of dancing.)}}
|}
Rule Four of sentence grammar ensures that the reflexive example means "He is talking to himself" as opposed to, say, "He is talking to one being talked to" (which would be ''wáx wìxe.'' speak-{{sc|fact}}-1 speak-{{sc|dat-nom}}-2{{sc|a}}, with two different instances of the stem "speak").

{| class="wikitable"
! Possessive determiner !! Vocative
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=CONS:consecutive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|zdìls ngỳzdy zeú tỳar.
|seat-CONS-1 bird-ACC-ACC-2 PIn−3-'''NOM'''-BEN-3 this-ACC-LOC-2.
|''My bird is sitting there.'' (The sender of the parole is the beneficiary of making a bird.)}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=PI:pronoun type I; FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive; 3:third level
|wáx dheè zdhèzhi zìe.
|speak-FACT-1 PIn−2-NOM-NOM-2A friend-NOM-DAT-2 PIn−3-'''DAT'''-NOM-3.
|''Friend, I am talking to you.'' (The recipient of the parole is the friend: nominative bracket.)}}
|}

The type II pronoun in the following example points to the stem of eating. With the inner accusative, the pronoun refers to the content of eating, which is the sweet. (As with brackets, Rules Four and Five guarantee that the pronoun refers to the same content of the same action of eating as mentioned in the first sentence.)
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; PII:pronoun type II; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|ádh dheì mlỳdhy. ràsh fỳy.
|eat-FACT-1 PIn−2-NOM-DAT-2A sweet-ACC-ACC-2. like-FACT-1 PIIn−1-'''ACC'''-ACC-2.
|''I am eating a sweet. [I] like it.''}}

==Derivational morphology==
From a Lemizh point of view, ''dè.'' "giver" and ''dỳ.'' "gift" aren't derivatives of ''dà.'' "to give" but grammatical forms of the same word. The only piece of true derivational morphology is compounding.

===Compounds===
[[File:Lemizh compounding diagram.png|thumb|Forming a compound from a two-word sentence]]
'''Rule One of compounding. A compound word is constructed from a two-word sentence – predicate and object of which become modifier and head of the compound, respectively – in the following way:'''
# '''Prestem''':
## the object's prestem
## the object's inner case
## the object's poststem
## an optional separator
## the predicate's prestem
# '''Inner case'''
# '''Poststem''': the predicate's poststem
# '''Outer case'''
Note that the object's stem comes before the predicate's; and also that the object's outer case (and, less importantly, the predicate's inner case) is lost. The object's inner case becomes part of the compound's prestem and is then called its ''epenthetic case''. The separator can be used, for example, if the word boundary would be unclear otherwise, or for placing the second part of the word on a new line.

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|làxt àdhy. ⇒ adhlàxt.
|want-FACT-1 eat-FACT-ACC-2. ⇒ eat-FACT-want-FACT-1.
|''[She] wants to eat.'' (See the inflection of [[#Verbs|verbs]].)}}
Here, the lost accusative ending has to be deduced from context.

'''Rule Two. In the relationship between the original predicate and object, the rules of sentence grammar are retained as far as applicable.'''

The consequences of this rule are somewhat technical; but the last one, pertaining to degree of reality, is important for correctly interpreting compounds.
* Rules One to Three of sentence grammar are not applicable to compounds, as can be easily seen.
* Four: Both modifier and head are instantiations of specific actions in the original sentence (which however do not necessarily match the instantiation of the compound).
* Five: The epenthetic case characterises the head completely with regard to its descriptor.
* Six: The only overt object of the modifier is the head. All other objects are missing and thus indicate the absence of information about their descriptors.
* Seven: The modifier has a higher degree of reality than the head. Therefore, the above compound does not claim that she actually eats.

'''Rule Three. Regarding all outward relations, cases''' (i.e. the compound's inner case [not to be confused with its epenthetic case], the outer cases of its objects, and cases of pronouns referring to it) '''refer to the head.'''
{|
|-
| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|adhkmàr mlỳdhy.
|eat-FACT-allow-LOC-1 sweet-ACC-ACC-2.
|''a place where one may eat sweets; a place for eating sweets''}}

| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|ngengadàxt fỳta.
|run-FACT-must-FACT-1 fast-ACC-FACT-1
|''[He] has to run fast.''}}
|}

These examples talk about the location of eating, as opposed to the location of allowing; about eating sweets, as opposed to allowing sweets; the running is fast, as opposed to the necessity; etc.

Number and gender of [[#Nouns|nouns]] are compounds from brackets which are first inverted to turn the more salient word into the compound's head: ''dè mlỳe. ⇔ mlỳ dèy.'' "several givers" ⇒ ''demlè.'' "givers". The inner nominative (''-e-'') becomes the epenthetic case, and the new inner case also has to be a nominative per Rule Three. ''demlỳ.'' (inner {{sc|acc}}), by contrast, is "something given by several people".

Compounds expressing degrees of [[#Adjectives and the like|adjectives]] are also formed from brackets. They have an epenthetic consecutive (''-il-''), which stems from the corresponding abstract noun: ''gmrìl dmỳil. ⇔ dmỳ gmrìly.'' "much warmth" ⇒ ''gmrildmìl.'' "heat" (abstract noun formed with inner {{sc|cons}}), ''gmrildmỳ.'' "hot" (adjective with inner {{sc|acc}}). Degrees of comparison are often combined with [[#Predicative|predicatives]]:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=CONS:consecutive case; QUALDAT:qualitative dative case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|prilghtìlzhd lyghì bỳghim.
|beautiful-CONS-more-CONS-1 house-ACC-DAT-2 garden-ACC-QUALDAT-2.
|''The house is more beautiful than the garden.'' (The garden is the basis of comparison for the house.)}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=CONS:consecutive case; PARTDAT:partitive dative case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|prilghìlst lỳghi ziǘ ghngỳing.
|beautiful-CONS-more-CONS-1 house-ACC-DAT-2 PIn−3-DAT-BEN-3 all-ACC-PARTDAT-2.
|''Your house is the most beautiful of all.'' (''Everything'' is the set from which the house is thought to be taken.)}}

The analogues of the present and future tenses are formed like so – note that inversion changes the pronoun's stem along with its level:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2:second level
|zdàs dhàarh. ⇔ wà zdàrhsa. ⇒ zdarhswà.
|seat-FACT-1 PIn−2-FACT-TEMP-2. ⇔ PIn−1-FACT-1 seat-TEMP-FACT-2. ⇒ seat-TEMP-PIn−1-FACT-1.
|''[She] sits down at the time of the parole. ⇒ [She] sits down now.''}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|zdàs prỳarh. ⇔ prỳ zdàrhsy. ⇒ zdarhsprà.
|seat-FACT-1 front-ACC-TEMP-2. ⇔ front-ACC-1 seat-TEMP-ACC-2. ⇒ seat-TEMP-front-FACT-1.
|''[She] sits down at a time in front [of the parole]. ⇒ [She] will sit down.''}}

==Example text==
[[File:Lemizh text sample.png|600px]]

====stedrỳzh thìrhfi xtrỳghy.====
krỳgh dghngireì prilxpilghkỳarh. mangỳ srungbỳng lyngghỳng yngshwỳng fỳü. zhöazhghngìl tmỳil. ghngàgzh smìa prỳal ghngyé dhàbdhy lunguỳ ùyl mỳu fplyxár tỳarh. dmát feì sxngengzè ishkènge. ghìlt krighmyngthxì xtrỳngghi swyshỳ ghỳxy fplyxòr zhöyzhỳm xngàrorm. dmìlt öngkrỳngty zhryỳ rèshy esfàsy sxngyzdmýi, usrỳngy xazhgèsty ghngỳeng, frekrỳngfy rilghdzhỳwby pthèby, dgheipysrỳngdy psrèby rhèzhem, dghistngỳngty ghỳxy zangỳa dghildhfmlýyrh, ngiftngyghtmỳngy krültlìy zùe gỳghda. xtrỳgh swyshý stedrỳzh thìrfi. dngilszhrìl bdhyrgzhyngỳng xüxtrỳngyng prilkỳarh ötìlil skmyngìlng ghỳngsilng. dngilszhìlwb ráxpy thìlfi. fö̀l gwiltngìlöl dmàty föpysryfỳ ngỳu.

rỳ zhryỳrh thìzgy gwiltngìly rhàghgy dmatngìe thìrfy. là xángska matngiè ytfỳyrh dmyý fplyxór dyxtngyngà mànga prilzhryngỳr iltỳngzhdyr. dmàt ytfỳarh ryý mìlngorh xngyì prilkyár mìlngorh xtrỳngghi kshrextý mengthxì prỳar zìe, fplỳngxe fywýr déngske xtryghè sxngezì xngỳnge.

====The Legend of the Seventh Planet====
A long time ago there was a tribe of nomads. They possessed neither writing nor houses nor horses. But they were truly human. They were curious; this means, above all, that they took interest in the useless, for the celestial objects were of no use to them yet. They looked at the Sun and the Moon. They had named the constellations and the six planets moving across the sky like the humans across the earth. They knew dim Mercury, who liked to hide in the glare of the Sun; Venus, the brightest of all; reddish and angry Mars; majestic father Jupiter; Saturn, who seemed to stand still for weeks; and even Uranus had been caught by their keen eyes. Six planets, and the legend of a seventh. Maybe it had been the minor planet Vesta, or a comet centuries or millennia earlier. Maybe it was the attraction of the number seven. For Neptune is invisible to the naked eye.

One youngster thought to himself that he could not live without seeing the seventh planet. He lay awake searching the sky for many nights, neglected his duties, and became thinner and thinner. And one night, lying with the Earth behind his back, and with the looping planets and the stars above him, he saw the depth of the sky and the planets circling the Sun, and among them the Earth.

==External links==
* [https://lemizh.conlang.org Lemizh homepage] with comprehensive coverage of the language, including a dictionary with etymologies, information on the language's pragmatics, and more background information
[[File:Copyleft1.png|20px]] ''This article is available under a [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License]. It includes material from the Lemizh homepage, which has the same license.''


[[Category:Languages]]
[[Category:Conlangs]]
[[Category:Indo-European languages]]
[[Category:Agglutinative languages]]

Lemizh

2022-05-21T08:38:21Z

Anypodetos: /* External links */ Agglutinative

{{Infobox language
|image =
|imagesize =
|name = Lemizh
|nativename = lemỳzh.
|pronunciation = lɛmˈɯ̀ʒ
|state = Lemaria
|setting = Alternate history Europe
|created = 1985
|familycolor = Indo-European
|fam2 = Lemizh
|ancestor = Proto-Lemizh
|posteriori =
* [[w:Proto-Indo-European|PIE]]
* [[w:Occam's razor|Occam's razor]]
|creator = [[User:Anypodetos|Anypodetos]]
|scripts = Lemizh alphabet
|nation = Lemaria
|map = Map of Lemaria.png
|mapalt = The country of Lemaria lies to the north and west of the Black Sea. The capital, Shabar, is at the Dniester Liman or Estuary.
|notice = IPA
}}
'''Lemizh''' ([[Help:IPA|[lεmˈiʒ]]], native pronunciation: [[Help:IPA|[lɛmˈɯ̀ʒ]]]) is a language I invented with the aim of creating a grammar as regular and simple as possible. It was originally intended as an [[w:International auxiliary language|international auxiliary language]]. However, it turned out that a simple grammar is not necessarily a grammar that is easy to learn: the more ways of simplification I found, the further away it moved from [[w:Indo-European languages|Indo-European]] and probably all other familiar language structures. Expecting anyone to learn Lemizh, at this point, would be unrealistic.

So I needed a new justification for the language: enter the Lemizh, a people living to the west and north of the [[w:Black Sea|Black Sea]] in an alternate history that slowly drifted away from ours between two and eight millennia ago. Of course, it is extremely unlikely that they would speak a language that was completely without exceptions. To be precise, the chances are two to the power of two hundred and seventy-six thousand seven hundred and nine to one against. But they say that everything has to happen somewhere in the Multiverse; and everything happens only once.

{{TOC limit}}

==History==
===Early stages===
Lemizh is an Indo-European language and, together with Volgan, constitutes one of the ten recognised branches of the Indo-European language family. This branch is also called Lemizh, to the disgruntlement of Volgan linguists.

Proto-Lemizh, the ancestor of Lemizh and Volgan, is very poorly attested in form of some papyri found near the northwestern shore of the Black Sea, to the north of the [[w:Dniester Liman|Dniester Liman]], dated about 2700 BC. Old Lemizh, by contrast, is fairly well attested. It had predominantly [[w:Subject–verb–object|subject–verb–object]] (SVO) word order and was a quite typical old Indo-European language, but with a couple of interesting quirks:
* Adjectives were lost as a separate part of speech, being replaced with participles ("white" > "being white").
* Finite subordinate clauses had their subject in the case of the clause: the subject of a local clause was in the locative case without having a local meaning in itself.
The earliest known documents from this stage of Lemizh were probably written around 2100 BC along the northern and western shores of the Back Sea.

===Ghean and Middle Lemizh===
Ghean ([[Help:IPA|[ˈɣɛən]]]) is a language with no known genetic relationships. It was spoken by a people of unknown origin, who subdued the Lemizh tribes in around 1000 BC and ruled for infamous three generations. Ghean was an inflected [[w:Tonal language|register tonal]] language with strict [[w:Verb–subject–object|verb–subject–object]] (VSO) word order and head-first phrases. It had verbs, [[w:Nominal (linguistics)|nominals]] (a combined noun/adjective/participle part of speech), pronouns and particles.

The Gheans discouraged the use of the natives' language, but obviously tolerated Lemizh words (or rather word stems) to stand in for unfamiliar Ghean ones. The grammar of simple sentences was easy enough to learn for the Lemizh, as they were used to inflection and head-first phrases, and likely still knew VSO sentences from poetry. After two or three generations, the natives must have spoken a [[w:Creole language|creole]] with a more or less Ghean grammar but an abundance of Lemizh words, especially outside the core vocabulary. This is a rather unusual development as most creoles draw their lexicon mainly from the dominant group, and tend to be grammatically more innovative. (The Tanzanian language [[w:Mbugu language|Mbugu]] might have had a somewhat similar development with more or less analogous outcomes.) After the disappearance of the Gheans, Lemizh patriots tried to revive their old language, which failed spectacularly for the grammar but reintroduced many Lemizh words of the core vocabulary.

===The last three millennia===
While Middle Lemizh as spoken after the Ghean occupation already had a non-Indo-European and unusually regular grammar, this trend was to continue over the following millennia. The factive case was innovated to express verbal nouns, which eventually supplanted verbs altogether. (At least part of the blame goes to the Tlöngö̀l, an epic novel published in 1351, which popularised the use of verbal nouns.) The tonal system was simplified to the present two-way [[w:Pitch-accent language|pitch-accent]] system. Pronouns lost their status as a separate part of speech. The last particles died out a few hundred years ago, leaving the language with a single part of speech which is often called a "verb" but, historically speaking, is really a nominal. This means that the concept of ''parts of speech'' does not make sense in Modern Lemizh.

This article describes the dialect spoken to the north of the [[w:Danube Delta|Danube delta]], which prevailed against other variants and is considered the standard language today.

==Orthography and phonology==
The alphabet is [[w:Phonetic orthography|phonetic]]: each letter corresponds to a certain sound, and each sound is represented by a single letter. The direction of writing is left to right. This article uses the standard transcription of the native Lemizh alphabet:
{| class="wikitable" style="width: 800px; table-layout: fixed; text-align: center"
! colspan="29" | Letters of the Lemizh alphabet
|-
| colspan="29" style="padding: 0" | [[File:Lemizh alphabet.png|796px]]
|-
| a || e || y || i || o || ö || u || ü || l || rh || r || ng || m || g || d || b || k || t || p || gh || zh || z || dh || w || x || sh || s || th || f
|}

===Consonants===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="2" | !! bilabial !! dental !! alveolar !! postalveolar !! velar
|-
! colspan="2" | nasals
| m <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial nasal|m]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || || || ng <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar nasal|ŋ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! colspan="2" | plosives (voiceless • voiced)
| p <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless bilabial plosive|p]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • b <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial plosive|b]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || t <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless alveolar plosive|t]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • d <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar plosive|d]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || k <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless velar plosive|k]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • g <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar plosive|g]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! colspan="2" | fricatives (voiceless • voiced)
| f <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless bilabial fricative|ɸ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • w <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial fricative|β]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || th <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless dental fricative|θ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • dh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced dental fricative|ð]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || s <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless alveolar sibilant|s]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • z <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar sibilant|z]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || sh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless palato-alveolar fricative|ʃ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • zh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced palato-alveolar fricative|ʒ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || x <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless velar fricative|x]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • gh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar fricative|ɣ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! rowspan="3" | liquids || lateral approximant
| || || l <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar lateral approximant|l]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|-
! approximant
| || || rh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar approximant|ɹ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|-
! trill
| || || r <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar trill|r]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|}
The plosive-fricative combinations ''pf, ts, tsh, kx'' and their voiced couterparts only occur at word boundaries and in compound words. They are not pronounced as affricates but as separate sounds. The same applies for other combinations of a plosive plus another consonant (''pm, tl'' etc.), as well as for two identical plosives (''kk'' etc.): the release of the first plosive is always audible.

===Vowels===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! rowspan="2" | !! colspan="2" | front !! colspan="2" | back
|-
! unrounded !! rounded !! unrounded !! rounded
|-
! close
| i <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close front unrounded vowel|i]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ü <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close front rounded vowel|y]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || y <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close back unrounded vowel|ɯ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || u <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close back rounded vowel|u]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! open-mid
| e <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid front unrounded vowel|ɛ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ö <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid front rounded vowel|œ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || a <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid back unrounded vowel|ʌ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || o <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid back rounded vowel|ɔ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|}
Two consecutive different vowels are pronounced as a diphthong; two consecutive identical vowels as a long one. Single vowels are always short.

Lemizh uses [[w:Mora (linguistics)|moræ]] for structuring words: a short syllable equals one mora, and a long syllable equals two. In Lemizh, every vowel is the centre of a mora; consequently, two consecutive vowels result in two moræ or one long syllable.

===Accent===
Lemizh has got a two-way pitch-accent system, in that accented moræ are not only spoken louder (as in English), but also have either a lower or a higher pitch than the surrounding unaccented ones. The accented mora is always the ultimate or penultimate of a word. The vowel at the centre of a low-pitch accented mora is transcribed with a grave accent, the vowel at the centre of a high-pitch accented mora with an acute accent.
{| class="wikitable" style="width: 220px; table-layout: fixed; text-align: center"
! colspan="8" | Accented vowel letters
|-
| colspan="8" style="padding: 0" | [[File:Lemizh accented vowels.png|216px]]
|-
| à || è || ỳ || ì || ò || ö̀ || ù || ǜ
|-
| á || é || ý || í || ó || ö́ || ú || ǘ
|}

===Phonotactics===
[[w:Phonotactics|Phonotactics]] is rather permissive in Lemizh. A mora has the following structure, where the bracketed parts are optional:
* (O)(N)(L)V(L)(N)(O)
V is the mora's vowel, L a liquid, N a nasal, and O an obstruent that can be either a P(losive), a F(ricative), FP, PF, FF, FFP, FPF, or PFF. Word-initial consonant clusters cannot contain more than three sounds. No geminate consonants (<abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''ff'' etc.) occur within a mora. Consecutive plosive-fricative or fricative-plosive combinations within the same mora must have the same sonority – either both are voiced, or both are voiceless. A plosive cannot have the same place of articulation as a following consonant with the exception of ''rh'' and ''r''. <abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''dzh'', <abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''ddh'' and their voiceless counterparts are also prohibited within a mora.

Word boundaries, including those within compound words, are always mora boundaries. Where mora boundaries would still be ambiguous, liquids and nasals are assigned to the earliest possible mora (as the ''m'' in ''lem·ỳzh.''), and obstruents to the latest possible mora.

==Morphology==
All words are composed of the following parts:
* Prestem + inner case + poststem + outer case
Prestem and poststem form the stem, or the lexical part, of the word. The division of the stem into two portions is similar to English verbs such as ''sing/sang/sung'', where the lexical part is ''s–ng'' while the vowels ''i/a/u'' convey grammatical information. The stem always denotes an action (but never a state, a person, a thing, a property, etc.) and thus resembles our verbs. The prestem can contain any sounds, or it can be zero (i.e. consisting of zero sounds). The poststem can only contain fricatives and plosives, or it can be zero as well.

The inner case is represented by one of the eight vowels, optionally followed by a liquid (the primary case suffix) and/or a nasal (the secondary case suffix). The outer case has the same structure. For the first word in each sentence, the main predicate, the outer case is zero.

Each case is defined by its ''descriptor'': for example, the factive case denotes an ''action'', the nominative a ''sender'', the locative a ''place''. The stem and the inner case's descriptor determine a word's meaning.

'''Examples'''
* ''wàx. w–x'' is the stem for "speak", ''-a-'' denotes the inner factive, so this word means "an action of speaking", translated as the verb "to speak" or the [[w:Verbal noun|verbal noun]] "speaking".
* ''wèx. -e-'' denotes the inner nominative, so this word means "a sender of speaking" or "a speaker".
* ''àrdh. ∅–dh'' (having a zero prestem) is the stem for "eat", ''-ar-'' denotes the inner locative: "a place of eating".
The customary [[w:Lemma (morphology)|citation form]] of a word is the one with inner factive.

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Primary cases and their descriptors
|-
! rowspan="3" | № !! rowspan="3" | Case vowel !! colspan="4" | Primary case suffix
|-
| none || l || rh || r
|-
! Plot cases !! Causal cases !! Temporal cases !! Spatial cases
|-
| 1 || a || factive ({{sc|fact}}): ''action'' || affirmative ({{sc|aff}}): ''fact (point in causal chain)'' || temporal ({{sc|temp}}): ''time'' || locative ({{sc|loc}}): ''place/region''
|-
| 2 || e || nominative ({{sc|nom}}): ''source, sender'' || causative ({{sc|caus}}): ''direct cause'' || ingressive ({{sc|ing}}): ''starting time'' || elative ({{sc|ela}}): ''starting point/region''
|-
| 3 || y || accusative ({{sc|acc}}): ''content'' || contextual ({{sc|ctx}}): ''causal context'' || durative ({{sc|dur}}): ''duration'' || extensive ({{sc|ext}}): ''spatial extent''
|-
| 4 || i || dative ({{sc|dat}}): ''sink, recipient'' || consecutive ({{sc|cons}}): ''direct consequence, effect'' || egressive ({{sc|egr}}): ''closing time'' || illative ({{sc|ill}}): ''end point / ending region''
|-
| 5 || o || tentive ({{sc|ten}}): ''intention'' || intentive ({{sc|int}}): ''intention (intended point in causal chain)'' || episodic ({{sc|eps}}): ''episode, "act"'' || scenic ({{sc|sce}}): ''scene, "stage"''
|-
| 6 || ö || comitative ({{sc|com}}): ''company'' || persuasive ({{sc|psu}}): ''reason'' || digressive ({{sc|dig}}): ''time away from which'' || ablative ({{sc|abl}}): ''place/region away from which''
|-
| 7 || u || instrumental ({{sc|ins}}): ''means, tool'' || motivational ({{sc|mot}}): ''motivational context'' || progressive ({{sc|prog}}): ''time that is passed'' || prolative ({{sc|prol}}): ''crossing point/region''
|-
| 8 || ü || benefactive ({{sc|ben}}): ''beneficiary'' || final ({{sc|fin}}): ''purpose, aim'' || aggressive ({{sc|agg}}): ''time towards which, temporal aim'' || allative ({{sc|all}}): ''place/region towards which, spatial aim''
|}
Each primary case has two corresponding secondary cases:
* a partitive case formed by adding ''ng'' (such as ''-ing-'' for the partitive dative or ''-erng-'' for the partitive elative) with the descriptor ''the set from which the source (sink, place, etc.) is thought to be taken'': ''wèngx.'' is "the set from which the speaker is thought to be taken", i.e. "the speaker, among others".
* a qualitative case formed by adding ''m'', with the descriptor ''the basis of comparison for the source (sink, place, etc.)'': ''wèmx.'' informally translates as "someone like a speaker".

===The plot===
Every action denoted by a stem is considered a flow of information that comes from a source (sender), transports a content, and reaches a sink (a recipient). The terms "sender" and "recipient" may be more familiar, but "source" and "sink" are more accurate in not necessarily meaning living beings.

Consequently, a Lemizh action looks somewhat like this: '''nominative  accusative[[File:DreieckGreenMIDDLE.png|26px|link=]] dative'''

This is called the action's plot. Here are some examples:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative
|-
| ''wàx.'' "to speak, to talk, to tell; (an action of) speaking" || ''wèx.'' "one telling something" || ''wỳx.'' "a tale" || ''wìx.'' "one who is told something"
|-
| ''dà.'' "to give; (an action of) giving" || ''dè.'' "one giving something" || ''dỳ.'' "a gift" || ''dì.'' "one who is given something; one who gets something"
|-
| ''làzhw.'' "to help" || ''lèzhw.'' "one helping" || ''lỳzhw.'' "help (given)" || ''lìzhw.'' "one whom is helped"
|-
| ''mlàtx.'' "to melt" || ''mlètx.'' "one melting something" || [''mlỳtx.''] || ''mlìtx.'' "a melted thing"
|-
| ''xöàgh.'' "to produce a sound; to hear" || ''xöègh.'' "one producing a sound" || ''xöỳgh.'' "a sound" || ''xöìgh.'' "one hearing something"
|-
| ''àdh.'' "to feed; to eat" || ''èdh.'' "one feeding someone" || ''ỳdh.'' "food" || ''ìdh.'' "one being fed; one eating"
|-
| ''ià.'' "to love" || ''iè.'' "one loving someone, a lover" || ''iỳ.'' "a beloved" || ''iì.'' "a beloved"
|}
Importantly, there are no rules for which cases to use with which words. Both ''iỳ.'' ({{sc|acc}}) and ''iì.'' ({{sc|dat}}) mean "a beloved". The former describes the beloved as the content of love, the one being lovingly thought of, while the latter implies that the love reaches them, like words or gifts reach their recipient. Likewise, the reason why ''mlỳtx.'' is not translated in the table above isn't that "''melt'' does not take the accusative", as grammars of other languages would say, but that "a content of melting" does not seem to have any obvious meaning. If someone wanted to describe, say, sun rays as content transported from the sun to the snow to melt it, they could well use ''mlỳtx.'' to express the concept.

Case usage is governed solely by the cases' descriptors; it is up to the speaker how to use them given some word's meaning and some context. If the wind opens a door, is it the source of the action of opening (''ngèt.''), the means of opening (''ngùt.''), or the cause (''ngèlt.'')? All are grammatically correct; the speaker decides which possibility best expresses their intention.

===Nouns===
:''Nouns, adjectives and verbs do not correspond to any concepts in Lemizh grammar. Using these terms is just an attempt to describe the grammar from an Indo-European viewpoint.''
A large number of nouns are not derived from verbs in most languages: ''froth, ship, lion'' and many others. In Lemizh, however, we have verbs such as ''psràxk.'' "to froth", ''àksh.'' "to build a ship or ships", and ''làw.'' "to make a lion or lions". We will call these ''nominal verbs''.

Looking at the verb ''àksh.'', the shipwright ({{sc|nom}}) gives the building materials ({{sc|dat}}) the properties or the function of a ship ({{sc|acc}}). He confers, well, shipness on the materials. The shipness is sent by the shipwright, not because he is acting, but because he is the source: the image of the ship, so to say, comes from his head and materialises in wood, iron, ropes, and linen. In short, these words mostly appear with inner accusative.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative
|-
| ''psràxk.'' "to froth" || ''psrèxk.'' "one frothing something" || ''psrỳxk.'' "a thing having the properties of froth = '''froth'''" || ''psrìxk.'' "a frothed thing, a frothed liquid"
|-
| ''àksh.'' "to build a ship" || ''èksh.'' "one building a ship, a shipwright" || ''ỳksh.'' "a thing having the properties of a ship = '''a ship'''" || ''ìksh.'' "building materials for a ship, materials made into a ship"
|-
| ''làw.'' "to make a lion" || [''lèw.'' "one making a lion"] || ''lỳw.'' "a thing having the properties of a lion = '''a lion'''" || [''lìw.'' "building materials for a lion, materials made into a lion"]
|}

Another very common kind of nouns are tool nouns, formed with an inner instrumental case:
* ''ghstù.'' "a sail" is derived from ''ghstà.'' "to sail", literally "a means of sailing",
* ''pslù.'' "scissors" from ''pslà.'' "to cut with scissors",
* ''saxùf.'' "a trumpet" from ''saxàf.'' "to play the trumpet",
* ''skrùzh.'' "a finger" from ''skràzh.'' "to work with one's fingers".

====Inflection====
As mentioned above, all words can inflect for (outer) case. Thus, we have the nominative forms ''wàx'''e''''' "(an action of) speaking, talking, telling", ''dè'''e''''' "a giver", ''lỳw'''e''''' "a lion", the causative ''lỳw'''el''''' "because of a lion", the elative ''lỳw'''er''''' "(starting) from a lion", etc.

Lemizh words do not inflect for number or gender. If desired, we can express this information by forming compounds. (Note the duplication of the inner case vowel; the first occurrence in each word is called the epenthetic case of the compound. The underlying grammar will be described later.)
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Singular !! Dual !! Plural !! Feminine !! Masculine !! Feminine singular !! etc.
|-
! giver
| ''dè.'' || ''de'''rè'''.'' || ''de'''dwè'''.'' || ''de'''mlè'''.'' || ''de'''bè'''.'' || ''de'''èx'''.'' || ''de'''berè'''.''
|-
! lion
| ''lỳw.'' || ''lyw'''rỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''dwỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''mlỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''bỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''ỳx'''.'' || ''lyw'''byrỳ'''.''
|-
! compound with
| — || ''rỳ.'' "one" || ''dwỳ.'' "two" || ''mlỳ.'' "several" || ''bỳ.'' "female; woman" || ''ỳx.'' "male; man" || "female" and "one"
|}

===Adjectives and the like===
There is no difference between adjectival and nominal verbs: they mostly appear with inner accusative. This is the same situation as in, say, Latin, where ''albus'' can mean "a white one" as well as "white". Negators and numerals are sub-categories of adjectives.

The inner consecutive case translates certain abstract nouns.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative !! Inner consecutive
|-
| ''làbdh.'' "to whiten something, to make something white" || ''lèbdh.'' "one whitening something" || ''lỳbdh.'' "a white thing; '''white'''" || ''lìbdh.'' "a thing made white; whitened" || ''lìlbdh.'' "the consequence of whitening = whiteness"
|-
| ''gmrà.'' "to warm, to make something warm" || ''gmrè.'' "one warming something" || ''gmrỳ.'' "a warm thing; '''warm'''" || ''gmrì.'' "a warmed thing; warmed" || ''gmrìl.'' "the consequence of warming = warmth"
|-
| ''ngà.'' "to make something nonexistent" || ''ngè.'' "one making something nonexistent" || ''ngỳ.'' "(something) '''nonexistent'''" || ''ngì.'' "something made nonexistent, something destroyed" || ''ngìl.'' "the consequence of making nonexistent = nothingness"
|-
| ''dwà.'' "to make two things/individuals" || ''dwè.'' "one making two things" || ''dwỳ.'' "'''two''' (things)" || ''dwì.'' "something made into two (things)" || ''dwìl.'' "the consequence of making two things = twoness"
|}

However, emotions aren't viewed as properties in Lemizh: a happy or angry person is one sending happiness or anger, just as a loving person is one sending love. The inner causative plays a notable role with verbs of emotion.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative !! Inner causative
|-
| ''pthàb.'' "to be angry" || ''pthèb.'' "an angry one; '''angry'''" || ''pthỳb.'' "the content/object of one's anger" || ''pthìb.'' "one that one's anger reaches" || ''pthèlb.'' "one causing someone anger; one annoying someone"
|}

====Inflection====
Of course, adjectives can be compounded to express number and/or gender in the same way as nouns. Furthermore, we can form compounds expressing various degrees. (The epenthetic consecutive ''-il-'' in these compounds will also be explained later; it is actually the main application of the abstract nouns just mentioned.)
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Diminutive !! Augmentative !! Absolute !! Comparative !! Superlative
|-
! warm
| ''gmrỳ.'' || ''gmril'''zhrỳ'''.'' "lukewarm" || ''gmril'''dmỳ'''.'' "hot" || ''gmril'''ghngỳ'''.'' "absolutely hot" || ''gmril'''tỳzhd'''.'' "warmer, hotter" || ''gmril'''ỳst'''.'' "hottest"
|-
! white
| ''lỳbdh.'' || ''lilbdh'''zhrỳ'''.'' "whitish" || ''lilbdh'''dmỳ'''.'' "very white" || ''lilbdh'''ghngỳ'''.'' "absolutely/completely white" || ''lilbdh'''tỳzhd'''.'' "whiter" || ''lilbdh'''ỳst'''.'' "whitest"
|-
! compound with
| — || ''zhrỳ.'' "few, little, a bit" || ''dmỳ.'' "much, many" || ''ghngỳ.'' "every, all, the whole" || ''tỳzhd.'' "more" || ''ỳst.'' "most"
|}

===Verbs===
Most verbs correspond to Lemizh words with an inner factive. However, as Lemizh stems always denote an action, the notable exception are stative verbs such as:
* ''zdìls.'' "to sit", literally "the consequence of sitting down (''zdàs.'')"
* ''gwìlt.'' "to know", literally "the consequence of learning (''gwàt.'')"

====Inflection====
* Person is not expressed with inflection but with [[#Relative pronouns|pronouns]].
* Number is conveyed by compounding pronouns with numerals. While verbs (i.e. words with an inner factive) can be compounded with numerals, ''ftrask'''mlà'''.'' does not mean "we/they sneeze" but "(there are) several acts of sneezing" (i.e. someone sneezes several times and/or several people sneeze).
* Voice (active/passive) is absent in Lemizh; word order serves a similar function.
* Tense is expressed by compounds with an epenthetic temporal case (''-arh-''), or with certain inner cases. The latter option is preferred if possible, as it is more concise.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Present !! Past !! Perfect !! Future !! Intentional
|-
! to sit down
| ''zdàs.'' || ''zdarhs'''wà'''.'' || ''zdarhs'''prilkà'''.'' || ''zd'''ìl'''s.'' ({{sc|cons}}) || ''zdarhs'''prà'''.'' || ''zd'''ò'''s.'' ({{sc|ten}})
|-
! compound with
| — || pronoun || ''prilkỳ.'' "back" || — || ''prỳ.'' "front" || —
|}
Note that the translation of the perfect with inner consecutive coincides with the translation of stative verbs: "having sat down" in the strict perfect sense of "the consequence/effect of this action exists" means the same as "to sit". Likewise, "whiteness" can be expressed as the abstract concept of "having whitened something".

* Mood corresponds to compounds with certain verbs for the most part. There is no equivalent to the subjunctive mood, as subordinate clauses are irreal (i.e. not necessarily real) by default. Here are some common formations:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Indicative !! Imperative !! Commanding imperative !! Interrogative Polite imperative !! Optative
|-
! to feed, to eat
| ''àdh.'' || ''adh'''pràk'''.'' || ''adh'''dàxt'''.'' || ''adh'''pà'''.'' || ''adh'''làxt'''.''
|-
! compound with
| — || ''pràk.'' "to request" || ''dàxt.'' "to command" || ''pà.'' "to ask" || ''làxt.'' "to want"
|}
* Aspect is a very diverse category, expressed by a variety of compounds and syntactic structures in Lemizh.

===Pronouns===
The two demonstrative pronouns are technically nominal verbs:
* ''tà.'' "to make this/that one", typically used with inner accusative: ''tỳ.'' "this/that (one)"
* ''gwà.'' "to make someone/anyone, something/anything", with inner accusative ''gwỳ.'' "someone/anyone, something/anything"

The eleven relative pronouns play a far more prominent role in Lemizh grammar. Their scope is much wider than the one usually associated with the term. As they are closely tied to Lemizh syntax, they are described [[#Relative pronouns|further down]].

==Syntax==
===Level of words===
There is only one more grammatical category: the level of words, which is the main building block of Lemizh syntax. A word can be of first level (the highest), of second level (the next highest), of third level (still one level lower) and so on; there is no limit for the number of levels, but non-positive word levels (zero, −1, etc.) are forbidden.

The first word in a sentence (the main predicate) is of first level by definition. The level of the next word is determined by the main predicate's accent and by the type of pause between the two words, the level of the third word is determined by the accent of the second and the pause between these two, and so on.

Here is the complete list of pause/accent combinations.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="2" | Following pause !! rowspan="2" | Accented vowel !! rowspan="2" | Type of accent !! rowspan="2" | The level of the next word is …
|-
! in speech !! in writing
|-
| rowspan="4" | barely audible || rowspan="4" | space || rowspan="2" | inner case || low || lower by 1
|-
| high || lower by 1, and [[w:Agent (grammar)|agentive]]* ({{sc|a}})
|-
| rowspan="2" | outer case || low || equal
|-
| high || higher by 1
|-
| rowspan="4" | a bit longer || rowspan="4" | comma ('''·''') || rowspan="2" | inner case || low || higher by 2
|-
| high || higher by 3
|-
| rowspan="2" | outer case || low || higher by 4
|-
| high || higher by 5
|-
| the longest || full stop ('''∶''') || inner case || low || none; end of sentence
|}
<nowiki>*</nowiki> The agent is the initiator of the action (more informally, the one who ''does'' the action).

===The Rules===
[[File:Lemizh parse tree.png|thumb|upright=1.5|A schematic sentence with the words represented by their level numbers]]
The word levels determine the structure of a sentence.

'''Rule One of sentence grammar. A word of level n is subordinate to the nearest word of level n−1 in front of it; the parole acts as a word of level zero.'''

All words of second level are subordinate to the main predicate (which has first level). A word of third level is subordinate to the next second-level word in front of it, and so on. In other words, Lemizh sentences are strictly [[w:Head directionality|head-first]]. The main predicate itself is subordinate to the [[w:Parole (linguistics)|parole]], the action of speaking (or writing) the sentence in question, which consequently has level zero.

'''Rule Two. An object of a word in a sentence is a word subordinate to the former, its predicate, plus all of its own objects.'''

In the diagram, the main predicate's three objects are enclosed in ellipses. Objects of the same word are called ''sibling objects'' or just ''siblings'', and the word they are subordinate to is their ''predicate''. Note that ''predicate'' and ''object'' are relative terms like ''parent'' and ''child''.

The table of level markers implies that only the first object of a predicate can be marked as agent. (This has been interpreted as Lemizh having VSO word order, although a subject is not quite the same as an agent, and Lemizh grammar strictly speaking does not have the concept of a subject.)

'''Rule Three. The outer case of the first word of an object defines its relation to its predicate's stem via its descriptor; the outer case of a level 1 word is zero.'''

This is what we would expect from a language that inflects for case: the nominative object defines the source (sender) of the action named by the stem of its predicate, the accusative object its content, the temporal object its time, etc.

'''Examples'''
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dá föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|give-FACT-1 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2A bottle-ACC-ACC-2 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2.
|''Father Christmas gives Lucy a bottle.''}}

The stems of the three objects are nominal verbs ("to make a bottle" etc.), hence the inner accusatives. The outer cases indicate the sender, content and recipient of the action of giving, respectively. The agent is specified independently of the plot arrow; note the difference:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dá lusyì dwywỳ föpysrỳfe.
|give-FACT-1 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2A bottle-ACC-ACC-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2.
|''Lucy takes a bottle from Father Christmas.''}}

We need not mark an object as agentive if we consider this information unimportant. The English translations are only rough approximations:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dà lusyì dwywỳ föpysrỳfe.
|give-FACT-1 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2 bottle-ACC-ACC-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2.
|''Lucy gets a bottle from Father Christmas. Lucy is given a bottle by Father Christmas.''}}

Rule Three defines outer case in a way that mirrors the definition of inner case. This allows for an operation called '''inversion''' (symbolized "⇔"):
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|làzhw wèxi. ⇔ wáx lìzhwe.
|help-FACT-1 speak-'''NOM'''-'''DAT'''-2. ⇔ speak-FACT-1 help-'''DAT'''-'''NOM'''-2A.
|''[Someone] helps the speaker. ⇔ The one being helped speaks.''}}

Both sentences claim that the sender of speaking is the recipient of helping. The equation is ''wèx.'' = ''lìzhw.'', the speaker = the one being helped.

'''Rule Four. An instance of a word stem designates a specific action.'''

''dà'' in the above sentence does not just mean "to give", it refers to one specific action of giving. Such an action may involve several givers (as in "They give something") and need not even be temporally or spatially contiguous (as in "They are giving something every Christmas"). In other words, each spoken or written instance of the stem ''d–'' refers to a certain subset of all the giving there is.

This rule ensures that all the objects refer to the same action of giving as the predicate itself.

'''Rule Five. A case characterises the action it refers to completely with regard to its case descriptor.'''

For example, the nominative object "Father Christmas" has to name the complete sender of the above instance of giving. This excludes from this instance all giving not done by Father Christmas. So each object places a restriction on the action of giving the main predicate refers to. Thus, the subset of giving meant by this instance of ''dà.'' – what the sentence is ultimately talking about – is defined more and more precisely with each additional object. (This is true not only of the main predicate but of all words in a sentence.)

'''Rule Six. A missing object is equivalent to the absence of information about its descriptor.'''

Above sentences do not have, for example, locative objects, so Rule Five cannot place a restriction on the place of giving. Because of Rule Six, this does not mean there are no restrictions on the location, but only that this kind of information has not been included in the sentence (for example, because the speaker does not know about it, considers it irrelevant, assumes that the listener already knows or – perhaps most importantly – that the listener can infer it). In fact, everything not useful for understanding a sentence should be omitted to save the listener processing effort. (See the inversion example above, which omits the nominative "someone".)

Rules Five and Six imply that every instance of a word has exactly one action (which, however, need not be contiguous), one sender (which can consist of several people), and so on: Five excludes additional senders if one nominative object is already present, and Six gives meaning to missing objects, establishing them as an integral part of Lemizh sentence grammar.

'''Rule Seven. Given an object and its predicate, the predicate is considered more real and the object more hypothetical.'''

…

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! as an object !! as a complete sentence
|-
| ''dà.'' || to give; giving || An action of giving exists = Someone gives something.
|-
| ''zdìls.'' || the consequence of sitting down = to sit; sitting || The consequence of sitting down exists = Someone sits.
|-
| ''dwìlw.'' || the consequence of making a bottle || The consequence of making a bottle exists = A bottle exists; there is a bottle.
|-
| ''sklè.'' || one building a bridge || One building a bridge exists = There is someone building a bridge.
|}

===Noun phrases===
Forming noun phrases does not require any new grammatical rules. In the following example, the inner case of "give" is changed to the nominative, yielding "one giving something, a giver", and everything is pushed down one level. The third-level words are still sender, content and recipient of the ''action'' of giving, as outer cases define relations to the predicate's ''stem'' per Rule Three.
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 3A:third level, agentive
|dmàt tryxkì dée föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|see-FACT-1 beaver-ACC-DAT-2 give-'''NOM'''-NOM-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-3A bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3.
|''The beaver sees '''the one giving Lucy a bottle, Father Christmas'''.''}}
Regarding the verb "see", note that the beaver is in the dative, being at the receiving end of the optical stimulus or information. Marking the beaver as agent would translate as "The beaver looks at the one …".

Rules Four and Five guarantee that the giver is identical to Father Christmas: both are the sender of the same instance of the stem ''d–'' "give" (the giver via its inner nominative, Father Christmas via its outer nominative), and both are the ''complete'' sender of this action. This type of construction, where an object's outer case matches its predicate's inner case, is called a '''bracket'''. Brackets are very widely used:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Apposition !! Attributive adjective !! Attributive pronoun/determiner !! Attributive numeral !! Attributive participle
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|iakopỳk saxèfy.
|Jacopo-'''ACC'''-1 trumpet-NOM-'''ACC'''-2.
|''Jacopo, a trumpeter''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=INS:instrumental case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|ghstù lỳbdhu.
|sail-'''INS'''-1 white-ACC-'''INS'''-2.
|''a sail, a white thing = a white sail''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|ỳksh gwỳy.
|ship-'''ACC'''-1 some-ACC-'''ACC'''-2.
|''a ship, something = some ship''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|mỳs trỳy.
|mouse-'''ACC'''-1 three-ACC-'''ACC'''-2.
|''mice, three individuals = three mice''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|nỳzd gangèy.
|bird-'''ACC'''-1 sing-NOM-'''ACC'''-2.
|''a bird, a singer = a singing bird''}}
|}
Such phrases can be easily extended. This example contains two accusative brackets ("a singing bird" and "a sad child"):
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 4:fourth level
|ngỳzd gangèy zhngỳi speghý ytfỳarh.
|bird-ACC-1 sing-NOM-ACC-2 child-ACC-DAT-3 sad-NOM-ACC-4 night-ACC-TEMP-3.
|''a bird singing to a sad child at night''}}

Adverbially used adjectives are phrased with factive brackets. However, changing the predicate's inner case leaves the object's outer factive intact, losing the bracket.
{|
|-
| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|gangà txỳska.
|sing-'''FACT'''-1 loud-ACC-'''FACT'''-2.
|''(an action of) singing, a loud thing = loud singing = singing loudly, to sing loudly''}}

| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|gangè txỳska.
|sing-'''NOM'''-1 loud-ACC-FACT-2.
|''a loud singer = someone singing loudly'' (The action of singing is a loud thing.)}}
|}

As [[w:Genitive construction|genitive constructions]] have a wide variety of meanings, there is no single Lemizh equivalent. The typical translation for constructions indicating possession is with the benefactive case, but other cases frequently occur. Everything depends on the object's relation to the predicate's stem per Rule Three.
{|
|-
| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|dwỳw lusỳü.
|bottle-ACC-1 Lucy-ACC-'''BEN'''-2.
|Lucy is the beneficiary of making the bottle. The bottle is made for Lucy. 
''Lucy's bottle''}}

| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dý ỳxe.
|give-ACC-1 male-ACC-'''NOM'''-2A.
|The man is the sender of giving. 
''the man's gift''}}

| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|rhỳst ytfỳarh filpskỳy.
|dream-ACC-1 night-ACC-'''TEMP'''-2 midsummer-ACC-ACC-3.
| The midsummer night is the time of dreaming. 
''A Midsummer Night's Dream''}}
|}

===Dependent clauses===
Non-finite and conjunctional clauses employ the same principles as above:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive; 3:third level
|láxt föpysryfè dày dwywỳ lusỳi.
|want-FACT-1 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2A give-'''FACT'''-ACC-2 bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3.
|''Father Christmas wants '''to give Lucy a bottle'''.'' ("Father Christmas" is omitted from the dependent clause per Rule Six.)}}

The difference between English gerund clauses and finite that-clauses roughly translates into a difference between an inner factive (''action'') and an inner affirmative (''fact'').
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 3A:third level, agentive
|dmàt tryxkì dáe föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|see-FACT-1 beaver-ACC-DAT-2 give-'''FACT'''-NOM-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-3A bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3.
|''The beaver sees [the action of] '''Father Christmas giving Lucy a bottle'''.'' (The dependent clause could also be in the accusative to focus on the optical information transmitted to the beaver.)}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; AFF:affirmative case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 3A:third level, agentive
|dmàt tryxkì dále föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|see-FACT-1 beaver-ACC-DAT-2 give-'''AFF'''-NOM-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-3A bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3.
|''The beaver sees [the fact of] '''Father Christmas giving Lucy a bottle'''. The beaver sees '''that''' Father Christmas gives Lucy a bottle.''}}

Some examples of dependent clauses translating into objects in various cases:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|fngà kshngày.
|try-FACT-1 shout-FACT-'''ACC'''-2.
|''[She] tried to shout [but this was difficult because of her sore throat].''}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|fngà kshngàu.
|try-FACT-1 shout-FACT-'''INS'''-2.
|''[She] tried shouting [as he hadn't heard her when she had spoken quietly].'' (Shouting is the means of trying.)}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PSU:persuasive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 4:fourth level
|pàf làxtöl dmàty föpysrỳfe.
|stand-FACT-1 want-FACT-'''PSU'''-2 see-FACT-ACC-3 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-4.
|''[He] stood up because [he] wanted to see Father Christmas.''}}

Relative clauses are structurally identical to (extended) attributive participles as described above; they are brackets: ''a bird which sings to a sad child at night = a bird singing to a sad child at night''. This is also true of clauses with relative adverbs:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level; 3A:third level, agentive
|ngỳw gangáry lỳbe.
|valley-'''ACC'''-1 sing-LOC-'''ACC'''-2 flower-ACC-NOM-3A.
|''a valley, a place of the singing of flowers = a valley where flowers sing''}}

Adverbially used relative clauses, unsurprisingly, are factive brackets:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive; 3:third level
|shrá wygwè rashkỳa bỳe.
|yelp-'''FACT'''-1 dog-ACC-NOM-2A dislike-ACC-'''FACT'''-2 female-ACC-NOM-3.
|''The dog is yelping, which the girl doesn't like.''}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PSU:persuasive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive; 3A:third level, agentive
|shrá wygwè ö́ldha bỳe.
|yelp-'''FACT'''-1 dog-ACC-NOM-2A eat-PSU-'''FACT'''-2 female-ACC-NOM-3A.
|''The dog is yelping, wherefore the girl feeds it.''}}

===Predicative===
…

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=CONS:consecutive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|lìlbdh lỳghi.
|white-CONS-1 house-ACC-DAT-2.
|The consequence of whitening the house exists. The house has been made white. 
''The house is white.''}}

===Relative pronouns===
Stems of relative pronouns (not to be confused with the pronouns of the same name in English or Latin) refer to actions by pointing to another stem or to a parole: they are [[w:Anaphora (linguistics)|anaphoric]]. Here is the full list:
{| class="wikitable"
! rowspan="2" | Level !! colspan="2" | Type I !! colspan="2" | Type II
|-
! Verb !! The target is the stem of !! Verb !! The target is the stem of
|-
| n || colspan="2" | (does not occur because it would refer to itself) || à. || its preceding same-level word
|-
| n−1 || wà. || its predicate || fà. || its predicate's preceding same-level word or parole
|-
| n−2 || dhà. || its predicate's predicate || thà. || its predicate's predicate's preceding same-level word or parole
|-
| n−3 || zà. || its predicate's predicate's predicate || sà. || …
|-
| n−4 || zhà. || … || shà. || …
|-
| n−5 || ghà. || … || xà. || …
|}
They are highly versatile, corresponding to various structures in other languages. Recall that a sentence's parole has level zero:
{| class="wikitable"
! Reflexive !! First person (singular) !! Second person
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|wáx wìe.
|speak-FACT-1 PIn−1-'''DAT'''-'''NOM'''-2A.
|The recipient of speaking is its sender. 
''to talk to oneself. He is talking to himself.''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dráw dhèe.
|dance-FACT-1 PIn−2-'''NOM'''-NOM-2A.
|The sender of the parole is the sender of dancing. 
''I am dancing.''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dráw dhìe.
|dance-FACT-1 PIn−2-'''DAT'''-NOM-2A.
|The recipient of the parole is the sender of dancing. 
''You are dancing.''}}
|}
Rule Four of sentence grammar ensures that the reflexive example means "He is talking to himself" as opposed to, say, "He is talking to one being talked to" (which would be ''wáx wìxe.'' speak-{{sc|fact}}-1 speak-{{sc|dat-nom}}-2{{sc|a}}, with two different instances of the stem "speak").

{| class="wikitable"
! Possessive determiner !! Vocative
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=CONS:consecutive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|zdìls ngỳzdy zeú tỳar.
|seat-CONS-1 bird-ACC-ACC-2 PIn−3-'''NOM'''-BEN-3 this-ACC-LOC-2.
|The sender of the parole is the beneficiary of making a bird.
 ''My bird is sitting there.''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=PI:pronoun type I; FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive; 3:third level
|wáx dheè zdhèzhi zìe.
|speak-FACT-1 PIn−2-NOM-NOM-2A friend-NOM-DAT-2 PIn−3-'''DAT'''-NOM-3.
|The recipient of the parole is the friend. (nominative bracket) 
''Friend, I am talking to you.''}}
|}

The type II pronoun in the following example points to the stem of eating. With the inner accusative, the pronoun refers to the content of eating, which is the sweet. (As with brackets, Rules Four and Five guarantee that the pronoun refers to the same content of the same action of eating as mentioned in the first sentence.)
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; PII:pronoun type II; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|ádh dheì mlỳdhy. ràsh fỳy.
|eat-FACT-1 PIn−2-NOM-DAT-2A sweet-ACC-ACC-2. like-FACT-1 PIIn−1-'''ACC'''-ACC-2.
|''I am eating a sweet. [I] like it.''}}

==Derivational morphology==
From a Lemizh point of view, ''dè.'' "giver" and ''dỳ.'' "gift" aren't derivatives of ''dà.'' "to give" but grammatical forms of the same word. The only piece of true derivational morphology is compounding.

===Compounds===
[[File:Lemizh compounding diagram.png|thumb|Forming a compound from a two-word sentence]]
'''Rule One of compounding. A compound word is constructed from a two-word sentence – predicate and object of which become modifier and head of the compound, respectively – in the following way:'''
# '''Prestem''':
## the object's prestem
## the object's inner case
## the object's poststem
## an optional separator
## the predicate's prestem
# '''Inner case'''
# '''Poststem''': the predicate's poststem
# '''Outer case'''
Note that the object's stem comes before the predicate's; and also that the object's outer case (and, less importantly, the predicate's inner case) is lost. The object's inner case becomes part of the compound's prestem and is then called its ''epenthetic case''. The separator can be used, for example, if the word boundary would be unclear otherwise, or for placing the second part of the word on a new line.

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|làxt àdhy. ⇒ adhlàxt.
|want-FACT-1 eat-FACT-ACC-2. ⇒ eat-FACT-want-FACT-1.
|''[She] wants to eat.'' (See the inflection of [[#Verbs|verbs]].)}}
Here, the lost accusative ending has to be deduced from context.

'''Rule Two. In the relationship between the original predicate and object, the rules of sentence grammar are retained as far as applicable.'''

The consequences of this rule are somewhat technical; but the last one, pertaining to degree of reality, is important for correctly interpreting compounds.
* Rules One to Three of sentence grammar are not applicable to compounds, as can be easily seen.
* Four: Both modifier and head are instantiations of specific actions in the original sentence (which however do not necessarily match the instantiation of the compound).
* Five: The epenthetic case characterises the head completely with regard to its descriptor.
* Six: The only overt object of the modifier is the head. All other objects are missing and thus indicate the absence of information about their descriptors.
* Seven: The modifier has a higher degree of reality than the head. Therefore, the above compound does not claim that she actually eats.

'''Rule Three. Regarding all outward relations, cases''' (i.e. the compound's inner case [not to be confused with its epenthetic case], the outer cases of its objects, and cases of pronouns referring to it) '''refer to the head.'''
{|
|-
| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|adhkmàr mlỳdhy.
|eat-FACT-allow-LOC-1 sweet-ACC-ACC-2.
|''a place where one may eat sweets; a place for eating sweets''}}

| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|ngengadàxt fỳta.
|run-FACT-must-FACT-1 fast-ACC-FACT-1
|''[He] has to run fast.''}}
|}

These examples talk about the location of eating, as opposed to the location of allowing; about eating sweets, as opposed to allowing sweets; the running is fast, as opposed to the necessity; etc.

Number and gender of [[#Nouns|nouns]] are compounds from brackets which are first inverted to turn the more salient word into the compound's head: ''dè mlỳe. ⇔ mlỳ dèy.'' "several givers" ⇒ ''demlè.'' "givers". The inner nominative (''-e-'') becomes the epenthetic case, and the new inner case also has to be a nominative per Rule Three. ''demlỳ.'' (inner {{sc|acc}}), by contrast, is "something given by several people".

Compounds expressing degrees of [[#Adjectives and the like|adjectives]] are also formed from brackets. They have an epenthetic consecutive (''-il-''), which stems from the corresponding abstract noun: ''gmrìl dmỳil. ⇔ dmỳ gmrìly.'' "much warmth" ⇒ ''gmrildmìl.'' "heat" (abstract noun formed with inner {{sc|cons}}), ''gmrildmỳ.'' "hot" (adjective with inner {{sc|acc}}). Degrees of comparison are often combined with [[#Predicative|predicatives]]:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=CONS:consecutive case; QUALDAT:qualitative dative case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|prilghtìlzhd lyghì bỳghim.
|beautiful-CONS-more-CONS-1 house-ACC-DAT-2 garden-ACC-QUALDAT-2.
|''The house is more beautiful than the garden.'' (The garden is the basis of comparison for the house.)}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=CONS:consecutive case; PARTDAT:partitive dative case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|prilghìlst lỳghi ziǘ ghngỳing.
|beautiful-CONS-more-CONS-1 house-ACC-DAT-2 PIn−3-DAT-BEN-3 all-ACC-PARTDAT-2.
|''Your house is the most beautiful of all.'' (''Everything'' is the set from which the house is thought to be taken.)}}

The analogues of the present and future tenses are formed like so – note that inversion changes the pronoun's stem along with its level:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2:second level
|zdàs dhàarh. ⇔ wà zdàrhsa. ⇒ zdarhswà.
|seat-FACT-1 PIn−2-FACT-TEMP-2. ⇔ PIn−1-FACT-1 seat-TEMP-FACT-2. ⇒ seat-TEMP-PIn−1-FACT-1.
|''[She] sits down at the time of the parole. ⇒ [She] sits down now.''}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|zdàs prỳarh. ⇔ prỳ zdàrhsy. ⇒ zdarhsprà.
|seat-FACT-1 front-ACC-TEMP-2. ⇔ front-ACC-1 seat-TEMP-ACC-2. ⇒ seat-TEMP-front-FACT-1.
|''[She] sits down at a time in front [of the parole]. ⇒ [She] will sit down.''}}

==Example text==
[[File:Lemizh text sample.png|600px]]

====stedrỳzh thìrhfi xtrỳghy.====
krỳgh dghngireì prilxpilghkỳarh. mangỳ srungbỳng lyngghỳng yngshwỳng fỳü. zhöazhghngìl tmỳil. ghngàgzh smìa prỳal ghngyé dhàbdhy lunguỳ ùyl mỳu fplyxár tỳarh. dmát feì sxngengzè ishkènge. ghìlt krighmyngthxì xtrỳngghi swyshỳ ghỳxy fplyxòr zhöyzhỳm xngàrorm. dmìlt öngkrỳngty zhryỳ rèshy esfàsy sxngyzdmýi, usrỳngy xazhgèsty ghngỳeng, frekrỳngfy rilghdzhỳwby pthèby, dgheipysrỳngdy psrèby rhèzhem, dghistngỳngty ghỳxy zangỳa dghildhfmlýyrh, ngiftngyghtmỳngy krültlìy zùe gỳghda. xtrỳgh swyshý stedrỳzh thìrfi. dngilszhrìl bdhyrgzhyngỳng xüxtrỳngyng prilkỳarh ötìlil skmyngìlng ghỳngsilng. dngilszhìlwb ráxpy thìlfi. fö̀l gwiltngìlöl dmàty föpysryfỳ ngỳu.

rỳ zhryỳrh thìzgy gwiltngìly rhàghgy dmatngìe thìrfy. là xángska matngiè ytfỳyrh dmyý fplyxór dyxtngyngà mànga prilzhryngỳr iltỳngzhdyr. dmàt ytfỳarh ryý mìlngorh xngyì prilkyár mìlngorh xtrỳngghi kshrextý mengthxì prỳar zìe, fplỳngxe fywýr déngske xtryghè sxngezì xngỳnge.

====The Legend of the Seventh Planet====
A long time ago there was a tribe of nomads. They possessed neither writing nor houses nor horses. But they were truly human. They were curious; this means, above all, that they took interest in the useless, for the celestial objects were of no use to them yet. They looked at the Sun and the Moon. They had named the constellations and the six planets moving across the sky like the humans across the earth. They knew dim Mercury, who liked to hide in the glare of the Sun; Venus, the brightest of all; reddish and angry Mars; majestic father Jupiter; Saturn, who seemed to stand still for weeks; and even Uranus had been caught by their keen eyes. Six planets, and the legend of a seventh. Maybe it had been the minor planet Vesta, or a comet centuries or millennia earlier. Maybe it was the attraction of the number seven. For Neptune is invisible to the naked eye.

One youngster thought to himself that he could not live without seeing the seventh planet. He lay awake searching the sky for many nights, neglected his duties, and became thinner and thinner. And one night, lying with the Earth behind his back, and with the looping planets and the stars above him, he saw the depth of the sky and the planets circling the Sun, and among them the Earth.

==External links==
* [https://lemizh.conlang.org Lemizh homepage] with comprehensive coverage of the language, including a dictionary with etymologies, information on the language's pragmatics, and more background information
[[File:Copyleft1.png|20px]] ''This article is available under a [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License]. It includes material from the Lemizh homepage, which has the same license.''


[[Category:Languages]]
[[Category:Conlangs]]
[[Category:Indo-European languages]]
[[Category:Agglutinative languages]]

Lemizh

2022-05-20T20:48:30Z

Anypodetos: Negator; predicative; adverbially used relative clauses; etc.

{{Infobox language
|image =
|imagesize =
|name = Lemizh
|nativename = lemỳzh.
|pronunciation = lɛmˈɯ̀ʒ
|state = Lemaria
|setting = Alternate history Europe
|created = 1985
|familycolor = Indo-European
|fam2 = Lemizh
|ancestor = Proto-Lemizh
|posteriori =
* [[w:Proto-Indo-European|PIE]]
* [[w:Occam's razor|Occam's razor]]
|creator = [[User:Anypodetos|Anypodetos]]
|scripts = Lemizh alphabet
|nation = Lemaria
|map = Map of Lemaria.png
|mapalt = The country of Lemaria lies to the north and west of the Black Sea. The capital, Shabar, is at the Dniester Liman or Estuary.
|notice = IPA
}}
'''Lemizh''' ([[Help:IPA|[lεmˈiʒ]]], native pronunciation: [[Help:IPA|[lɛmˈɯ̀ʒ]]]) is a language I invented with the aim of creating a grammar as regular and simple as possible. It was originally intended as an [[w:International auxiliary language|international auxiliary language]]. However, it turned out that a simple grammar is not necessarily a grammar that is easy to learn: the more ways of simplification I found, the further away it moved from [[w:Indo-European languages|Indo-European]] and probably all other familiar language structures. Expecting anyone to learn Lemizh, at this point, would be unrealistic.

So I needed a new justification for the language: enter the Lemizh, a people living to the west and north of the [[w:Black Sea|Black Sea]] in an alternate history that slowly drifted away from ours between two and eight millennia ago. Of course, it is extremely unlikely that they would speak a language that was completely without exceptions. To be precise, the chances are two to the power of two hundred and seventy-six thousand seven hundred and nine to one against. But they say that everything has to happen somewhere in the Multiverse; and everything happens only once.

{{TOC limit}}

==History==
===Early stages===
Lemizh is an Indo-European language and, together with Volgan, constitutes one of the ten recognised branches of the Indo-European language family. This branch is also called Lemizh, to the disgruntlement of Volgan linguists.

Proto-Lemizh, the ancestor of Lemizh and Volgan, is very poorly attested in form of some papyri found near the northwestern shore of the Black Sea, to the north of the [[w:Dniester Liman|Dniester Liman]], dated about 2700 BC. Old Lemizh, by contrast, is fairly well attested. It had predominantly [[w:Subject–verb–object|subject–verb–object]] (SVO) word order and was a quite typical old Indo-European language, but with a couple of interesting quirks:
* Adjectives were lost as a separate part of speech, being replaced with participles ("white" > "being white").
* Finite subordinate clauses had their subject in the case of the clause: the subject of a local clause was in the locative case without having a local meaning in itself.
The earliest known documents from this stage of Lemizh were probably written around 2100 BC along the northern and western shores of the Back Sea.

===Ghean and Middle Lemizh===
Ghean ([[Help:IPA|[ˈɣɛən]]]) is a language with no known genetic relationships. It was spoken by a people of unknown origin, who subdued the Lemizh tribes in around 1000 BC and ruled for infamous three generations. Ghean was an inflected [[w:Tonal language|register tonal]] language with strict [[w:Verb–subject–object|verb–subject–object]] (VSO) word order and head-first phrases. It had verbs, [[w:Nominal (linguistics)|nominals]] (a combined noun/adjective/participle part of speech), pronouns and particles.

The Gheans discouraged the use of the natives' language, but obviously tolerated Lemizh words (or rather word stems) to stand in for unfamiliar Ghean ones. The grammar of simple sentences was easy enough to learn for the Lemizh, as they were used to inflection and head-first phrases, and likely still knew VSO sentences from poetry. After two or three generations, the natives must have spoken a [[w:Creole language|creole]] with a more or less Ghean grammar but an abundance of Lemizh words, especially outside the core vocabulary. This is a rather unusual development as most creoles draw their lexicon mainly from the dominant group, and tend to be grammatically more innovative. (The Tanzanian language [[w:Mbugu language|Mbugu]] might have had a somewhat similar development with more or less analogous outcomes.) After the disappearance of the Gheans, Lemizh patriots tried to revive their old language, which failed spectacularly for the grammar but reintroduced many Lemizh words of the core vocabulary.

===The last three millennia===
While Middle Lemizh as spoken after the Ghean occupation already had a non-Indo-European and unusually regular grammar, this trend was to continue over the following millennia. The factive case was innovated to express verbal nouns, which eventually supplanted verbs altogether. (At least part of the blame goes to the Tlöngö̀l, an epic novel published in 1351, which popularised the use of verbal nouns.) The tonal system was simplified to the present two-way [[w:Pitch-accent language|pitch-accent]] system. Pronouns lost their status as a separate part of speech. The last particles died out a few hundred years ago, leaving the language with a single part of speech which is often called a "verb" but, historically speaking, is really a nominal. This means that the concept of ''parts of speech'' does not make sense in Modern Lemizh.

This article describes the dialect spoken to the north of the [[w:Danube Delta|Danube delta]], which prevailed against other variants and is considered the standard language today.

==Orthography and phonology==
The alphabet is [[w:Phonetic orthography|phonetic]]: each letter corresponds to a certain sound, and each sound is represented by a single letter. The direction of writing is left to right. This article uses the standard transcription of the native Lemizh alphabet:
{| class="wikitable" style="width: 800px; table-layout: fixed; text-align: center"
! colspan="29" | Letters of the Lemizh alphabet
|-
| colspan="29" style="padding: 0" | [[File:Lemizh alphabet.png|796px]]
|-
| a || e || y || i || o || ö || u || ü || l || rh || r || ng || m || g || d || b || k || t || p || gh || zh || z || dh || w || x || sh || s || th || f
|}

===Consonants===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="2" | !! bilabial !! dental !! alveolar !! postalveolar !! velar
|-
! colspan="2" | nasals
| m <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial nasal|m]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || || || ng <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar nasal|ŋ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! colspan="2" | plosives (voiceless • voiced)
| p <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless bilabial plosive|p]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • b <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial plosive|b]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || t <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless alveolar plosive|t]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • d <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar plosive|d]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || k <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless velar plosive|k]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • g <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar plosive|g]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! colspan="2" | fricatives (voiceless • voiced)
| f <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless bilabial fricative|ɸ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • w <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial fricative|β]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || th <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless dental fricative|θ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • dh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced dental fricative|ð]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || s <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless alveolar sibilant|s]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • z <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar sibilant|z]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || sh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless palato-alveolar fricative|ʃ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • zh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced palato-alveolar fricative|ʒ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || x <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless velar fricative|x]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • gh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar fricative|ɣ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! rowspan="3" | liquids || lateral approximant
| || || l <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar lateral approximant|l]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|-
! approximant
| || || rh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar approximant|ɹ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|-
! trill
| || || r <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar trill|r]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|}
The plosive-fricative combinations ''pf, ts, tsh, kx'' and their voiced couterparts only occur at word boundaries and in compound words. They are not pronounced as affricates but as separate sounds. The same applies for other combinations of a plosive plus another consonant (''pm, tl'' etc.), as well as for two identical plosives (''kk'' etc.): the release of the first plosive is always audible.

===Vowels===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! rowspan="2" | !! colspan="2" | front !! colspan="2" | back
|-
! unrounded !! rounded !! unrounded !! rounded
|-
! close
| i <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close front unrounded vowel|i]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ü <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close front rounded vowel|y]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || y <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close back unrounded vowel|ɯ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || u <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close back rounded vowel|u]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! open-mid
| e <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid front unrounded vowel|ɛ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ö <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid front rounded vowel|œ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || a <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid back unrounded vowel|ʌ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || o <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid back rounded vowel|ɔ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|}
Two consecutive different vowels are pronounced as a diphthong; two consecutive identical vowels as a long one. Single vowels are always short.

Lemizh uses [[w:Mora (linguistics)|moræ]] for structuring words: a short syllable equals one mora, and a long syllable equals two. In Lemizh, every vowel is the centre of a mora; consequently, two consecutive vowels result in two moræ or one long syllable.

===Accent===
Lemizh has got a two-way pitch-accent system, in that accented moræ are not only spoken louder (as in English), but also have either a lower or a higher pitch than the surrounding unaccented ones. The accented mora is always the ultimate or penultimate of a word. The vowel at the centre of a low-pitch accented mora is transcribed with a grave accent, the vowel at the centre of a high-pitch accented mora with an acute accent.
{| class="wikitable" style="width: 220px; table-layout: fixed; text-align: center"
! colspan="8" | Accented vowel letters
|-
| colspan="8" style="padding: 0" | [[File:Lemizh accented vowels.png|216px]]
|-
| à || è || ỳ || ì || ò || ö̀ || ù || ǜ
|-
| á || é || ý || í || ó || ö́ || ú || ǘ
|}

===Phonotactics===
[[w:Phonotactics|Phonotactics]] is rather permissive in Lemizh. A mora has the following structure, where the bracketed parts are optional:
* (O)(N)(L)V(L)(N)(O)
V is the mora's vowel, L a liquid, N a nasal, and O an obstruent that can be either a P(losive), a F(ricative), FP, PF, FF, FFP, FPF, or PFF. Word-initial consonant clusters cannot contain more than three sounds. No geminate consonants (<abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''ff'' etc.) occur within a mora. Consecutive plosive-fricative or fricative-plosive combinations within the same mora must have the same sonority – either both are voiced, or both are voiceless. A plosive cannot have the same place of articulation as a following consonant with the exception of ''rh'' and ''r''. <abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''dzh'', <abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''ddh'' and their voiceless counterparts are also prohibited within a mora.

Word boundaries, including those within compound words, are always mora boundaries. Where mora boundaries would still be ambiguous, liquids and nasals are assigned to the earliest possible mora (as the ''m'' in ''lem·ỳzh.''), and obstruents to the latest possible mora.

==Morphology==
All words are composed of the following parts:
* Prestem + inner case + poststem + outer case
Prestem and poststem form the stem, or the lexical part, of the word. The division of the stem into two portions is similar to English verbs such as ''sing/sang/sung'', where the lexical part is ''s–ng'' while the vowels ''i/a/u'' convey grammatical information. The stem always denotes an action (but never a state, a person, a thing, a property, etc.) and thus resembles our verbs. The prestem can contain any sounds, or it can be zero (i.e. consisting of zero sounds). The poststem can only contain fricatives and plosives, or it can be zero as well.

The inner case is represented by one of the eight vowels, optionally followed by a liquid (the primary case suffix) and/or a nasal (the secondary case suffix). The outer case has the same structure. For the first word in each sentence, the main predicate, the outer case is zero.

Each case is defined by its ''descriptor'': for example, the factive case denotes an ''action'', the nominative a ''sender'', the locative a ''place''. The stem and the inner case's descriptor determine a word's meaning.

'''Examples'''
* ''wàx. w–x'' is the stem for "speak", ''-a-'' denotes the inner factive, so this word means "an action of speaking", translated as the verb "to speak" or the [[w:Verbal noun|verbal noun]] "speaking".
* ''wèx. -e-'' denotes the inner nominative, so this word means "a sender of speaking" or "a speaker".
* ''àrdh. ∅–dh'' (having a zero prestem) is the stem for "eat", ''-ar-'' denotes the inner locative: "a place of eating".
The customary [[w:Lemma (morphology)|citation form]] of a word is the one with inner factive.

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Primary cases and their descriptors
|-
! rowspan="3" | № !! rowspan="3" | Case vowel !! colspan="4" | Primary case suffix
|-
| none || l || rh || r
|-
! Plot cases !! Causal cases !! Temporal cases !! Spatial cases
|-
| 1 || a || factive ({{sc|fact}}): ''action'' || affirmative ({{sc|aff}}): ''fact (point in causal chain)'' || temporal ({{sc|temp}}): ''time'' || locative ({{sc|loc}}): ''place/region''
|-
| 2 || e || nominative ({{sc|nom}}): ''source, sender'' || causative ({{sc|caus}}): ''direct cause'' || ingressive ({{sc|ing}}): ''starting time'' || elative ({{sc|ela}}): ''starting point/region''
|-
| 3 || y || accusative ({{sc|acc}}): ''content'' || contextual ({{sc|ctx}}): ''causal context'' || durative ({{sc|dur}}): ''duration'' || extensive ({{sc|ext}}): ''spatial extent''
|-
| 4 || i || dative ({{sc|dat}}): ''sink, recipient'' || consecutive ({{sc|cons}}): ''direct consequence, effect'' || egressive ({{sc|egr}}): ''closing time'' || illative ({{sc|ill}}): ''end point / ending region''
|-
| 5 || o || tentive ({{sc|ten}}): ''intention'' || intentive ({{sc|int}}): ''intention (intended point in causal chain)'' || episodic ({{sc|eps}}): ''episode, "act"'' || scenic ({{sc|sce}}): ''scene, "stage"''
|-
| 6 || ö || comitative ({{sc|com}}): ''company'' || persuasive ({{sc|psu}}): ''reason'' || digressive ({{sc|dig}}): ''time away from which'' || ablative ({{sc|abl}}): ''place/region away from which''
|-
| 7 || u || instrumental ({{sc|ins}}): ''means, tool'' || motivational ({{sc|mot}}): ''motivational context'' || progressive ({{sc|prog}}): ''time that is passed'' || prolative ({{sc|prol}}): ''crossing point/region''
|-
| 8 || ü || benefactive ({{sc|ben}}): ''beneficiary'' || final ({{sc|fin}}): ''purpose, aim'' || aggressive ({{sc|agg}}): ''time towards which, temporal aim'' || allative ({{sc|all}}): ''place/region towards which, spatial aim''
|}
Each primary case has two corresponding secondary cases:
* a partitive case formed by adding ''ng'' (such as ''-ing-'' for the partitive dative or ''-erng-'' for the partitive elative) with the descriptor ''the set from which the source (sink, place, etc.) is thought to be taken'': ''wèngx.'' is "the set from which the speaker is thought to be taken", i.e. "the speaker, among others".
* a qualitative case formed by adding ''m'', with the descriptor ''the basis of comparison for the source (sink, place, etc.)'': ''wèmx.'' informally translates as "someone like a speaker".

===The plot===
Every action denoted by a stem is considered a flow of information that comes from a source (sender), transports a content, and reaches a sink (a recipient). The terms "sender" and "recipient" may be more familiar, but "source" and "sink" are more accurate in not necessarily meaning living beings.

Consequently, a Lemizh action looks somewhat like this: '''nominative  accusative[[File:DreieckGreenMIDDLE.png|26px|link=]] dative'''

This is called the action's plot. Here are some examples:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative
|-
| ''wàx.'' "to speak, to talk, to tell; (an action of) speaking" || ''wèx.'' "one telling something" || ''wỳx.'' "a tale" || ''wìx.'' "one who is told something"
|-
| ''dà.'' "to give; (an action of) giving" || ''dè.'' "one giving something" || ''dỳ.'' "a gift" || ''dì.'' "one who is given something; one who gets something"
|-
| ''làzhw.'' "to help" || ''lèzhw.'' "one helping" || ''lỳzhw.'' "help (given)" || ''lìzhw.'' "one whom is helped"
|-
| ''mlàtx.'' "to melt" || ''mlètx.'' "one melting something" || [''mlỳtx.''] || ''mlìtx.'' "a melted thing"
|-
| ''xöàgh.'' "to produce a sound; to hear" || ''xöègh.'' "one producing a sound" || ''xöỳgh.'' "a sound" || ''xöìgh.'' "one hearing something"
|-
| ''àdh.'' "to feed; to eat" || ''èdh.'' "one feeding someone" || ''ỳdh.'' "food" || ''ìdh.'' "one being fed; one eating"
|-
| ''ià.'' "to love" || ''iè.'' "one loving someone, a lover" || ''iỳ.'' "a beloved" || ''iì.'' "a beloved"
|}
Importantly, there are no rules for which cases to use with which words. Both ''iỳ.'' ({{sc|acc}}) and ''iì.'' ({{sc|dat}}) mean "a beloved". The former describes the beloved as the content of love, the one being lovingly thought of, while the latter implies that the love reaches them, like words or gifts reach their recipient. Likewise, the reason why ''mlỳtx.'' is not translated in the table above isn't that "''melt'' does not take the accusative", as grammars of other languages would say, but that "a content of melting" does not seem to have any obvious meaning. If someone wanted to describe, say, sun rays as content transported from the sun to the snow to melt it, they could well use ''mlỳtx.'' to express the concept.

Case usage is governed solely by the cases' descriptors; it is up to the speaker how to use them given some word's meaning and some context. If the wind opens a door, is it the source of the action of opening (''ngèt.''), the means of opening (''ngùt.''), or the cause (''ngèlt.'')? All are grammatically correct; the speaker decides which possibility best expresses their intention.

===Nouns===
:''Nouns, adjectives and verbs do not correspond to any concepts in Lemizh grammar. Using these terms is just an attempt to describe the grammar from an Indo-European viewpoint.''
A large number of nouns are not derived from verbs in most languages: ''froth, ship, lion'' and many others. In Lemizh, however, we have verbs such as ''psràxk.'' "to froth", ''àksh.'' "to build a ship or ships", and ''làw.'' "to make a lion or lions". We will call these ''nominal verbs''.

Looking at the verb ''àksh.'', the shipwright ({{sc|nom}}) gives the building materials ({{sc|dat}}) the properties or the function of a ship ({{sc|acc}}). He confers, well, shipness on the materials. The shipness is sent by the shipwright, not because he is acting, but because he is the source: the image of the ship, so to say, comes from his head and materialises in wood, iron, ropes, and linen. In short, these words mostly appear with inner accusative.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative
|-
| ''psràxk.'' "to froth" || ''psrèxk.'' "one frothing something" || ''psrỳxk.'' "a thing having the properties of froth = '''froth'''" || ''psrìxk.'' "a frothed thing, a frothed liquid"
|-
| ''àksh.'' "to build a ship" || ''èksh.'' "one building a ship, a shipwright" || ''ỳksh.'' "a thing having the properties of a ship = '''a ship'''" || ''ìksh.'' "building materials for a ship, materials made into a ship"
|-
| ''làw.'' "to make a lion" || [''lèw.'' "one making a lion"] || ''lỳw.'' "a thing having the properties of a lion = '''a lion'''" || [''lìw.'' "building materials for a lion, materials made into a lion"]
|}

Another very common kind of nouns are tool nouns, formed with an inner instrumental case:
* ''ghstù.'' "a sail" is derived from ''ghstà.'' "to sail", literally "a means of sailing",
* ''pslù.'' "scissors" from ''pslà.'' "to cut with scissors",
* ''saxùf.'' "a trumpet" from ''saxàf.'' "to play the trumpet",
* ''skrùzh.'' "a finger" from ''skràzh.'' "to work with one's fingers".

====Inflection====
As mentioned above, all words can inflect for (outer) case. Thus, we have the nominative forms ''wàx'''e''''' "(an action of) speaking, talking, telling", ''dè'''e''''' "a giver", ''lỳw'''e''''' "a lion", the causative ''lỳw'''el''''' "because of a lion", the elative ''lỳw'''er''''' "(starting) from a lion", etc.

Lemizh words do not inflect for number or gender. If desired, we can express this information by forming compounds. (Note the duplication of the inner case vowel; the first occurrence in each word is called the epenthetic case of the compound. The underlying grammar will be described later.)
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Singular !! Dual !! Plural !! Feminine !! Masculine !! Feminine singular !! etc.
|-
! giver
| ''dè.'' || ''de'''rè'''.'' || ''de'''dwè'''.'' || ''de'''mlè'''.'' || ''de'''bè'''.'' || ''de'''èx'''.'' || ''de'''berè'''.''
|-
! lion
| ''lỳw.'' || ''lyw'''rỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''dwỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''mlỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''bỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''ỳx'''.'' || ''lyw'''byrỳ'''.''
|-
! compound with
| — || ''rỳ.'' "one" || ''dwỳ.'' "two" || ''mlỳ.'' "several" || ''bỳ.'' "female; woman" || ''ỳx.'' "male; man" || "female" and "one"
|}

===Adjectives and the like===
There is no difference between adjectival and nominal verbs: they mostly appear with inner accusative. This is the same situation as in, say, Latin, where ''albus'' can mean "a white one" as well as "white". Negators and numerals are sub-categories of adjectives.

The inner consecutive case translates certain abstract nouns.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative !! Inner consecutive
|-
| ''làbdh.'' "to whiten something, to make something white" || ''lèbdh.'' "one whitening something" || ''lỳbdh.'' "a white thing; '''white'''" || ''lìbdh.'' "a thing made white; whitened" || ''lìlbdh.'' "the consequence of whitening = whiteness"
|-
| ''gmrà.'' "to warm, to make something warm" || ''gmrè.'' "one warming something" || ''gmrỳ.'' "a warm thing; '''warm'''" || ''gmrì.'' "a warmed thing; warmed" || ''gmrìl.'' "the consequence of warming = warmth"
|-
| ''ngà.'' "to make something nonexistent" || ''ngè.'' "one making something nonexistent" || ''ngỳ.'' "(something) '''nonexistent'''" || ''ngì.'' "something made nonexistent, something destroyed" || ''ngìl.'' "the consequence of making nonexistent = nothingness"
|-
| ''dwà.'' "to make two things/individuals" || ''dwè.'' "one making two things" || ''dwỳ.'' "'''two''' (things)" || ''dwì.'' "something made into two (things)" || ''dwìl.'' "the consequence of making two things = twoness"
|}

However, emotions aren't viewed as properties in Lemizh: a happy or angry person is one sending happiness or anger, just as a loving person is one sending love. The inner causative plays a notable role with verbs of emotion.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative !! Inner causative
|-
| ''pthàb.'' "to be angry" || ''pthèb.'' "an angry one; '''angry'''" || ''pthỳb.'' "the content/object of one's anger" || ''pthìb.'' "one that one's anger reaches" || ''pthèlb.'' "one causing someone anger; one annoying someone"
|}

====Inflection====
Of course, adjectives can be compounded to express number and/or gender in the same way as nouns. Furthermore, we can form compounds expressing various degrees. (The epenthetic consecutive ''-il-'' in these compounds will also be explained later; it is actually the main application of the abstract nouns just mentioned.)
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Diminutive !! Augmentative !! Absolute !! Comparative !! Superlative
|-
! warm
| ''gmrỳ.'' || ''gmril'''zhrỳ'''.'' "lukewarm" || ''gmril'''dmỳ'''.'' "hot" || ''gmril'''ghngỳ'''.'' "absolutely hot" || ''gmril'''tỳzhd'''.'' "warmer, hotter" || ''gmril'''ỳst'''.'' "hottest"
|-
! white
| ''lỳbdh.'' || ''lilbdh'''zhrỳ'''.'' "whitish" || ''lilbdh'''dmỳ'''.'' "very white" || ''lilbdh'''ghngỳ'''.'' "absolutely/completely white" || ''lilbdh'''tỳzhd'''.'' "whiter" || ''lilbdh'''ỳst'''.'' "whitest"
|-
! compound with
| — || ''zhrỳ.'' "few, little, a bit" || ''dmỳ.'' "much, many" || ''ghngỳ.'' "every, all, the whole" || ''tỳzhd.'' "more" || ''ỳst.'' "most"
|}

===Verbs===
Most verbs correspond to Lemizh words with an inner factive. However, as Lemizh stems always denote an action, the notable exception are stative verbs such as:
* ''zdìls.'' "to sit", literally "the consequence of sitting down (''zdàs.'')"
* ''gwìlt.'' "to know", literally "the consequence of learning (''gwàt.'')"

====Inflection====
* Person is not expressed with inflection but with [[#Relative pronouns|pronouns]].
* Number is conveyed by compounding pronouns with numerals. While verbs (i.e. words with an inner factive) can be compounded with numerals, ''ftrask'''mlà'''.'' does not mean "we/they sneeze" but "(there are) several acts of sneezing" (i.e. someone sneezes several times and/or several people sneeze).
* Voice (active/passive) is absent in Lemizh; word order serves a similar function.
* Tense is expressed by compounds with an epenthetic temporal case (''-arh-''), or with certain inner cases. The latter option is preferred if possible, as it is more concise.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Present !! Past !! Perfect !! Future !! Intentional
|-
! to sit down
| ''zdàs.'' || ''zdarhs'''wà'''.'' || ''zdarhs'''prilkà'''.'' || ''zd'''ìl'''s.'' ({{sc|cons}}) || ''zdarhs'''prà'''.'' || ''zd'''ò'''s.'' ({{sc|ten}})
|-
! compound with
| — || pronoun || ''prilkỳ.'' "back" || — || ''prỳ.'' "front" || —
|}
Note that the translation of the perfect with inner consecutive coincides with the translation of stative verbs: "having sat down" in the strict perfect sense of "the consequence/effect of this action exists" means the same as "to sit". Likewise, "whiteness" can be expressed as the abstract concept of "having whitened something".

* Mood corresponds to compounds with certain verbs for the most part. There is no equivalent to the subjunctive mood, as subordinate clauses are irreal (i.e. not necessarily real) by default. Here are some common formations:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Indicative !! Imperative !! Commanding imperative !! Interrogative Polite imperative !! Optative
|-
! to feed, to eat
| ''àdh.'' || ''adh'''pràk'''.'' || ''adh'''dàxt'''.'' || ''adh'''pà'''.'' || ''adh'''làxt'''.''
|-
! compound with
| — || ''pràk.'' "to request" || ''dàxt.'' "to command" || ''pà.'' "to ask" || ''làxt.'' "to want"
|}
* Aspect is a very diverse category, expressed by a variety of compounds and syntactic structures in Lemizh.

===Pronouns===
The two demonstrative pronouns are technically nominal verbs:
* ''tà.'' "to make this/that one", typically used with inner accusative: ''tỳ.'' "this/that (one)"
* ''gwà.'' "to make someone/anyone, something/anything", with inner accusative ''gwỳ.'' "someone/anyone, something/anything"

The eleven relative pronouns play a far more prominent role in Lemizh grammar. Their scope is much wider than the one usually associated with the term. As they are closely tied to Lemizh syntax, they are described [[#Relative pronouns|further down]].

==Syntax==
===Level of words===
There is only one more grammatical category: the level of words, which is the main building block of Lemizh syntax. A word can be of first level (the highest), of second level (the next highest), of third level (still one level lower) and so on; there is no limit for the number of levels, but non-positive word levels (zero, −1, etc.) are forbidden.

The first word in a sentence (the main predicate) is of first level by definition. The level of the next word is determined by the main predicate's accent and by the type of pause between the two words, the level of the third word is determined by the accent of the second and the pause between these two, and so on.

Here is the complete list of pause/accent combinations.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="2" | Following pause !! rowspan="2" | Accented vowel !! rowspan="2" | Type of accent !! rowspan="2" | The level of the next word is …
|-
! in speech !! in writing
|-
| rowspan="4" | barely audible || rowspan="4" | space || rowspan="2" | inner case || low || lower by 1
|-
| high || lower by 1, and [[w:Agent (grammar)|agentive]]* ({{sc|a}})
|-
| rowspan="2" | outer case || low || equal
|-
| high || higher by 1
|-
| rowspan="4" | a bit longer || rowspan="4" | comma ('''·''') || rowspan="2" | inner case || low || higher by 2
|-
| high || higher by 3
|-
| rowspan="2" | outer case || low || higher by 4
|-
| high || higher by 5
|-
| the longest || full stop ('''∶''') || inner case || low || none; end of sentence
|}
<nowiki>*</nowiki> The agent is the initiator of the action (more informally, the one who ''does'' the action).

===The Rules===
[[File:Lemizh parse tree.png|thumb|upright=1.5|A schematic sentence with the words represented by their level numbers]]
The word levels determine the structure of a sentence.

'''Rule One of sentence grammar. A word of level n is subordinate to the nearest word of level n−1 in front of it; the parole acts as a word of level zero.'''

All words of second level are subordinate to the main predicate (which has first level). A word of third level is subordinate to the next second-level word in front of it, and so on. In other words, Lemizh sentences are strictly [[w:Head directionality|head-first]]. The main predicate itself is subordinate to the [[w:Parole (linguistics)|parole]], the action of speaking (or writing) the sentence in question, which consequently has level zero.

'''Rule Two. An object of a word in a sentence is a word subordinate to the former, its predicate, plus all of its own objects.'''

In the diagram, the main predicate's three objects are enclosed in ellipses. Objects of the same word are called ''sibling objects'' or just ''siblings'', and the word they are subordinate to is their ''predicate''. Note that ''predicate'' and ''object'' are relative terms like ''parent'' and ''child''.

The table of level markers implies that only the first object of a predicate can be marked as agent. (This has been interpreted as Lemizh having VSO word order, although a subject is not quite the same as an agent, and Lemizh grammar strictly speaking does not have the concept of a subject.)

'''Rule Three. The outer case of the first word of an object defines its relation to its predicate's stem via its descriptor; the outer case of a level 1 word is zero.'''

This is what we would expect from a language that inflects for case: the nominative object defines the source (sender) of the action named by the stem of its predicate, the accusative object its content, the temporal object its time, etc.

'''Examples'''
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dá föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|give-FACT-1 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2A bottle-ACC-ACC-2 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2.
|''Father Christmas gives Lucy a bottle.''}}

The stems of the three objects are nominal verbs ("to make a bottle" etc.), hence the inner accusatives. The outer cases indicate the sender, content and recipient of the action of giving, respectively. The agent is specified independently of the plot arrow; note the difference:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dá lusyì dwywỳ föpysrỳfe.
|give-FACT-1 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2A bottle-ACC-ACC-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2.
|''Lucy takes a bottle from Father Christmas.''}}

We need not mark an object as agentive if we consider this information unimportant. The English translations are only rough approximations:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dà lusyì dwywỳ föpysrỳfe.
|give-FACT-1 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2 bottle-ACC-ACC-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2.
|''Lucy gets a bottle from Father Christmas. Lucy is given a bottle by Father Christmas.''}}

Rule Three defines outer case in a way that mirrors the definition of inner case. This allows for an operation called '''inversion''' (symbolized "⇔"):
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|làzhw wèxi. ⇔ wáx lìzhwe.
|help-FACT-1 speak-'''NOM'''-'''DAT'''-2. ⇔ speak-FACT-1 help-'''DAT'''-'''NOM'''-2A.
|''[Someone] helps the speaker. ⇔ The one being helped speaks.''}}

Both sentences claim that the sender of speaking is the recipient of helping. The equation is ''wèx.'' = ''lìzhw.'', the speaker = the one being helped.

'''Rule Four. An instance of a word stem designates a specific action.'''

''dà'' in the above sentence does not just mean "to give", it refers to one specific action of giving. Such an action may involve several givers (as in "They give something") and need not even be temporally or spatially contiguous (as in "They are giving something every Christmas"). In other words, each spoken or written instance of the stem ''d–'' refers to a certain subset of all the giving there is.

This rule ensures that all the objects refer to the same action of giving as the predicate itself.

'''Rule Five. A case characterises the action it refers to completely with regard to its case descriptor.'''

For example, the nominative object "Father Christmas" has to name the complete sender of the above instance of giving. This excludes from this instance all giving not done by Father Christmas. So each object places a restriction on the action of giving the main predicate refers to. Thus, the subset of giving meant by this instance of ''dà.'' – what the sentence is ultimately talking about – is defined more and more precisely with each additional object. (This is true not only of the main predicate but of all words in a sentence.)

'''Rule Six. A missing object is equivalent to the absence of information about its descriptor.'''

Above sentences do not have, for example, locative objects, so Rule Five cannot place a restriction on the place of giving. Because of Rule Six, this does not mean there are no restrictions on the location, but only that this kind of information has not been included in the sentence (for example, because the speaker does not know about it, considers it irrelevant, assumes that the listener already knows or – perhaps most importantly – that the listener can infer it). In fact, everything not useful for understanding a sentence should be omitted to save the listener processing effort. (See the inversion example above, which omits the nominative "someone".)

Rules Five and Six imply that every instance of a word has exactly one action (which, however, need not be contiguous), one sender (which can consist of several people), and so on: Five excludes additional senders if one nominative object is already present, and Six gives meaning to missing objects, establishing them as an integral part of Lemizh sentence grammar.

'''Rule Seven. Given an object and its predicate, the predicate is considered more real and the object more hypothetical.'''

…

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! as an object !! as a complete sentence
|-
| ''dà.'' || to give; giving || An action of giving exists = Someone gives something.
|-
| ''zdìls.'' || the consequence of sitting down = to sit; sitting || The consequence of sitting down exists = Someone sits.
|-
| ''dwìlw.'' || the consequence of making a bottle || The consequence of making a bottle exists = A bottle exists; there is a bottle.
|-
| ''sklè.'' || one building a bridge || One building a bridge exists = There is someone building a bridge.
|}

===Noun phrases===
Forming noun phrases does not require any new grammatical rules. In the following example, the inner case of "give" is changed to the nominative, yielding "one giving something, a giver", and everything is pushed down one level. The third-level words are still sender, content and recipient of the ''action'' of giving, as outer cases define relations to the predicate's ''stem'' per Rule Three.
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 3A:third level, agentive
|dmàt tryxkì dée föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|see-FACT-1 beaver-ACC-DAT-2 give-'''NOM'''-NOM-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-3A bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3.
|''The beaver sees '''the one giving Lucy a bottle, Father Christmas'''.''}}
Regarding the verb "see", note that the beaver is in the dative, being at the receiving end of the optical stimulus or information. Marking the beaver as agent would translate as "The beaver looks at the one …".

Rules Four and Five guarantee that the giver is identical to Father Christmas: both are the sender of the same instance of the stem ''d–'' "give" (the giver via its inner nominative, Father Christmas via its outer nominative), and both are the ''complete'' sender of this action. This type of construction, where an object's outer case matches its predicate's inner case, is called a '''bracket'''. Brackets are very widely used:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Apposition !! Attributive adjective !! Attributive pronoun/determiner !! Attributive numeral !! Attributive participle
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|iakopỳk saxèfy.
|Jacopo-'''ACC'''-1 trumpet-NOM-'''ACC'''-2.
|''Jacopo, a trumpeter''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=INS:instrumental case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|ghstù lỳbdhu.
|sail-'''INS'''-1 white-ACC-'''INS'''-2.
|''a sail, a white thing = a white sail''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|ỳksh gwỳy.
|ship-'''ACC'''-1 some-ACC-'''ACC'''-2.
|''a ship, something = some ship''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|mỳs trỳy.
|mouse-'''ACC'''-1 three-ACC-'''ACC'''-2.
|''mice, three individuals = three mice''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|nỳzd gangèy.
|bird-'''ACC'''-1 sing-NOM-'''ACC'''-2.
|''a bird, a singer = a singing bird''}}
|}
Such phrases can be easily extended. This example contains two accusative brackets ("a singing bird" and "a sad child"):
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 4:fourth level
|ngỳzd gangèy zhngỳi speghý ytfỳarh.
|bird-ACC-1 sing-NOM-ACC-2 child-ACC-DAT-3 sad-NOM-ACC-4 night-ACC-TEMP-3.
|''a bird singing to a sad child at night''}}

Adverbially used adjectives are phrased with factive brackets. However, changing the predicate's inner case leaves the object's outer factive intact, losing the bracket.
{|
|-
| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|gangà txỳska.
|sing-'''FACT'''-1 loud-ACC-'''FACT'''-2.
|''(an action of) singing, a loud thing = loud singing = singing loudly, to sing loudly''}}

| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|gangè txỳska.
|sing-'''NOM'''-1 loud-ACC-FACT-2.
|''a loud singer = someone singing loudly'' (The action of singing is a loud thing.)}}
|}

As [[w:Genitive construction|genitive constructions]] have a wide variety of meanings, there is no single Lemizh equivalent. The typical translation for constructions indicating possession is with the benefactive case, but other cases frequently occur. Everything depends on the object's relation to the predicate's stem per Rule Three.
{|
|-
| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|dwỳw lusỳü.
|bottle-ACC-1 Lucy-ACC-'''BEN'''-2.
|Lucy is the beneficiary of making the bottle. The bottle is made for Lucy. 
''Lucy's bottle''}}

| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dý ỳxe.
|give-ACC-1 male-ACC-'''NOM'''-2A.
|The man is the sender of giving. 
''the man's gift''}}

| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|rhỳst ytfỳarh filpskỳy.
|dream-ACC-1 night-ACC-'''TEMP'''-2 midsummer-ACC-ACC-3.
| The midsummer night is the time of dreaming. 
''A Midsummer Night's Dream''}}
|}

===Dependent clauses===
Non-finite and conjunctional clauses employ the same principles as above:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive; 3:third level
|láxt föpysryfè dày dwywỳ lusỳi.
|want-FACT-1 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2A give-'''FACT'''-ACC-2 bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3.
|''Father Christmas wants '''to give Lucy a bottle'''.'' ("Father Christmas" is omitted from the dependent clause per Rule Six.)}}

The difference between English gerund clauses and finite that-clauses roughly translates into a difference between an inner factive (''action'') and an inner affirmative (''fact'').
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 3A:third level, agentive
|dmàt tryxkì dáe föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|see-FACT-1 beaver-ACC-DAT-2 give-'''FACT'''-NOM-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-3A bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3.
|''The beaver sees [the action of] '''Father Christmas giving Lucy a bottle'''.'' (The dependent clause could also be in the accusative to focus on the optical information transmitted to the beaver.)}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; AFF:affirmative case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 3A:third level, agentive
|dmàt tryxkì dále föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|see-FACT-1 beaver-ACC-DAT-2 give-'''AFF'''-NOM-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-3A bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3.
|''The beaver sees [the fact of] '''Father Christmas giving Lucy a bottle'''. The beaver sees '''that''' Father Christmas gives Lucy a bottle.''}}

Some examples of dependent clauses translating into objects in various cases:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|fngà kshngày.
|try-FACT-1 shout-FACT-'''ACC'''-2.
|''[She] tried to shout [but this was difficult because of her sore throat].''}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|fngà kshngàu.
|try-FACT-1 shout-FACT-'''INS'''-2.
|''[She] tried shouting [as he hadn't heard her when she had spoken quietly].'' (Shouting is the means of trying.)}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PSU:persuasive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 4:fourth level
|pàf làxtöl dmàty föpysrỳfe.
|stand-FACT-1 want-FACT-'''PSU'''-2 see-FACT-ACC-3 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-4.
|''[He] stood up because [he] wanted to see Father Christmas.''}}

Relative clauses are structurally identical to (extended) attributive participles as described above; they are brackets: ''a bird which sings to a sad child at night = a bird singing to a sad child at night''. This is also true of clauses with relative adverbs:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level; 3A:third level, agentive
|ngỳw gangáry lỳbe.
|valley-'''ACC'''-1 sing-LOC-'''ACC'''-2 flower-ACC-NOM-3A.
|''a valley, a place of the singing of flowers = a valley where flowers sing''}}

Adverbially used relative clauses, unsurprisingly, are factive brackets:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive; 3:third level
|shrá wygwè rashkỳa bỳe.
|yelp-'''FACT'''-1 dog-ACC-NOM-2A dislike-ACC-'''FACT'''-2 female-ACC-NOM-3.
|''The dog is yelping, which the girl doesn't like.''}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PSU:persuasive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive; 3A:third level, agentive
|shrá wygwè ö́ldha bỳe.
|yelp-'''FACT'''-1 dog-ACC-NOM-2A eat-PSU-'''FACT'''-2 female-ACC-NOM-3A.
|''The dog is yelping, wherefore the girl feeds it.''}}

===Predicative===
…

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=CONS:consecutive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|lìlbdh lỳghi.
|white-CONS-1 house-ACC-DAT-2.
|The consequence of whitening the house exists. The house has been made white. 
''The house is white.''}}

===Relative pronouns===
Stems of relative pronouns (not to be confused with the pronouns of the same name in English or Latin) refer to actions by pointing to another stem or to a parole: they are [[w:Anaphora (linguistics)|anaphoric]]. Here is the full list:
{| class="wikitable"
! rowspan="2" | Level !! colspan="2" | Type I !! colspan="2" | Type II
|-
! Verb !! The target is the stem of !! Verb !! The target is the stem of
|-
| n || colspan="2" | (does not occur because it would refer to itself) || à. || its preceding same-level word
|-
| n−1 || wà. || its predicate || fà. || its predicate's preceding same-level word or parole
|-
| n−2 || dhà. || its predicate's predicate || thà. || its predicate's predicate's preceding same-level word or parole
|-
| n−3 || zà. || its predicate's predicate's predicate || sà. || …
|-
| n−4 || zhà. || … || shà. || …
|-
| n−5 || ghà. || … || xà. || …
|}
They are highly versatile, corresponding to various structures in other languages. Recall that a sentence's parole has level zero:
{| class="wikitable"
! Reflexive !! First person (singular) !! Second person
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|wáx wìe.
|speak-FACT-1 PIn−1-'''DAT'''-'''NOM'''-2A.
|The recipient of speaking is its sender. 
''to talk to oneself. He is talking to himself.''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dráw dhèe.
|dance-FACT-1 PIn−2-'''NOM'''-NOM-2A.
|The sender of the parole is the sender of dancing. 
''I am dancing.''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dráw dhìe.
|dance-FACT-1 PIn−2-'''DAT'''-NOM-2A.
|The recipient of the parole is the sender of dancing. 
''You are dancing.''}}
|}
Rule Four of sentence grammar ensures that the reflexive example means "He is talking to himself" as opposed to, say, "He is talking to one being talked to" (which would be ''wáx wìxe.'' speak-{{sc|fact}}-1 speak-{{sc|dat-nom}}-2{{sc|a}}, with two different instances of the stem "speak").

{| class="wikitable"
! Possessive determiner !! Vocative
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=CONS:consecutive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|zdìls ngỳzdy zeú tỳar.
|seat-CONS-1 bird-ACC-ACC-2 PIn−3-'''NOM'''-BEN-3 this-ACC-LOC-2.
|The sender of the parole is the beneficiary of making a bird.
 ''My bird is sitting there.''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=PI:pronoun type I; FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive; 3:third level
|wáx dheè zdhèzhi zìe.
|speak-FACT-1 PIn−2-NOM-NOM-2A friend-NOM-DAT-2 PIn−3-'''DAT'''-NOM-3.
|The recipient of the parole is the friend. (nominative bracket) 
''Friend, I am talking to you.''}}
|}

The type II pronoun in the following example points to the stem of eating. With the inner accusative, the pronoun refers to the content of eating, which is the sweet. (As with brackets, Rules Four and Five guarantee that the pronoun refers to the same content of the same action of eating as mentioned in the first sentence.)
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; PII:pronoun type II; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|ádh dheì mlỳdhy. ràsh fỳy.
|eat-FACT-1 PIn−2-NOM-DAT-2A sweet-ACC-ACC-2. like-FACT-1 PIIn−1-'''ACC'''-ACC-2.
|''I am eating a sweet. [I] like it.''}}

==Derivational morphology==
From a Lemizh point of view, ''dè.'' "giver" and ''dỳ.'' "gift" aren't derivatives of ''dà.'' "to give" but grammatical forms of the same word. The only piece of true derivational morphology is compounding.

===Compounds===
[[File:Lemizh compounding diagram.png|thumb|Forming a compound from a two-word sentence]]
'''Rule One of compounding. A compound word is constructed from a two-word sentence – predicate and object of which become modifier and head of the compound, respectively – in the following way:'''
# '''Prestem''':
## the object's prestem
## the object's inner case
## the object's poststem
## an optional separator
## the predicate's prestem
# '''Inner case'''
# '''Poststem''': the predicate's poststem
# '''Outer case'''
Note that the object's stem comes before the predicate's; and also that the object's outer case (and, less importantly, the predicate's inner case) is lost. The object's inner case becomes part of the compound's prestem and is then called its ''epenthetic case''. The separator can be used, for example, if the word boundary would be unclear otherwise, or for placing the second part of the word on a new line.

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|làxt àdhy. ⇒ adhlàxt.
|want-FACT-1 eat-FACT-ACC-2. ⇒ eat-FACT-want-FACT-1.
|''[She] wants to eat.'' (See the inflection of [[#Verbs|verbs]].)}}
Here, the lost accusative ending has to be deduced from context.

'''Rule Two. In the relationship between the original predicate and object, the rules of sentence grammar are retained as far as applicable.'''

The consequences of this rule are somewhat technical; but the last one, pertaining to degree of reality, is important for correctly interpreting compounds.
* Rules One to Three of sentence grammar are not applicable to compounds, as can be easily seen.
* Four: Both modifier and head are instantiations of specific actions in the original sentence (which however do not necessarily match the instantiation of the compound).
* Five: The epenthetic case characterises the head completely with regard to its descriptor.
* Six: The only overt object of the modifier is the head. All other objects are missing and thus indicate the absence of information about their descriptors.
* Seven: The modifier has a higher degree of reality than the head. Therefore, the above compound does not claim that she actually eats.

'''Rule Three. Regarding all outward relations, cases''' (i.e. the compound's inner case [not to be confused with its epenthetic case], the outer cases of its objects, and cases of pronouns referring to it) '''refer to the head.'''
{|
|-
| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|adhkmàr mlỳdhy.
|eat-FACT-allow-LOC-1 sweet-ACC-ACC-2.
|''a place where one may eat sweets; a place for eating sweets''}}

| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|ngengadàxt fỳta.
|run-FACT-must-FACT-1 fast-ACC-FACT-1
|''[He] has to run fast.''}}
|}

These examples talk about the location of eating, as opposed to the location of allowing; about eating sweets, as opposed to allowing sweets; the running is fast, as opposed to the necessity; etc.

Number and gender of [[#Nouns|nouns]] are compounds from brackets which are first inverted to turn the more salient word into the compound's head: ''dè mlỳe. ⇔ mlỳ dèy.'' "several givers" ⇒ ''demlè.'' "givers". The inner nominative (''-e-'') becomes the epenthetic case, and the new inner case also has to be a nominative per Rule Three. ''demlỳ.'' (inner {{sc|acc}}), by contrast, is "something given by several people".

Compounds expressing degrees of [[#Adjectives and the like|adjectives]] are also formed from brackets. They have an epenthetic consecutive (''-il-''), which stems from the corresponding abstract noun: ''gmrìl dmỳil. ⇔ dmỳ gmrìly.'' "much warmth" ⇒ ''gmrildmìl.'' "heat" (abstract noun formed with inner {{sc|cons}}), ''gmrildmỳ.'' "hot" (adjective with inner {{sc|acc}}). Degrees of comparison are often combined with [[#Predicative|predicatives]]:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=CONS:consecutive case; QUALDAT:qualitative dative case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|prilghtìlzhd lyghì bỳghim.
|beautiful-CONS-more-CONS-1 house-ACC-DAT-2 garden-ACC-QUALDAT-2.
|''The house is more beautiful than the garden.'' (The garden is the basis of comparison for the house.)}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=CONS:consecutive case; PARTDAT:partitive dative case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|prilghìlst lỳghi ziǘ ghngỳing.
|beautiful-CONS-more-CONS-1 house-ACC-DAT-2 PIn−3-DAT-BEN-3 all-ACC-PARTDAT-2.
|''Your house is the most beautiful of all.'' (''Everything'' is the set from which the house is thought to be taken.)}}

The analogues of the present and future tenses are formed like so – note that inversion changes the pronoun's stem along with its level:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2:second level
|zdàs dhàarh. ⇔ wà zdàrhsa. ⇒ zdarhswà.
|seat-FACT-1 PIn−2-FACT-TEMP-2. ⇔ PIn−1-FACT-1 seat-TEMP-FACT-2. ⇒ seat-TEMP-PIn−1-FACT-1.
|''[She] sits down at the time of the parole. ⇒ [She] sits down now.''}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|zdàs prỳarh. ⇔ prỳ zdàrhsy. ⇒ zdarhsprà.
|seat-FACT-1 front-ACC-TEMP-2. ⇔ front-ACC-1 seat-TEMP-ACC-2. ⇒ seat-TEMP-front-FACT-1.
|''[She] sits down at a time in front [of the parole]. ⇒ [She] will sit down.''}}

==Example text==
[[File:Lemizh text sample.png|600px]]

====stedrỳzh thìrhfi xtrỳghy.====
krỳgh dghngireì prilxpilghkỳarh. mangỳ srungbỳng lyngghỳng yngshwỳng fỳü. zhöazhghngìl tmỳil. ghngàgzh smìa prỳal ghngyé dhàbdhy lunguỳ ùyl mỳu fplyxár tỳarh. dmát feì sxngengzè ishkènge. ghìlt krighmyngthxì xtrỳngghi swyshỳ ghỳxy fplyxòr zhöyzhỳm xngàrorm. dmìlt öngkrỳngty zhryỳ rèshy esfàsy sxngyzdmýi, usrỳngy xazhgèsty ghngỳeng, frekrỳngfy rilghdzhỳwby pthèby, dgheipysrỳngdy psrèby rhèzhem, dghistngỳngty ghỳxy zangỳa dghildhfmlýyrh, ngiftngyghtmỳngy krültlìy zùe gỳghda. xtrỳgh swyshý stedrỳzh thìrfi. dngilszhrìl bdhyrgzhyngỳng xüxtrỳngyng prilkỳarh ötìlil skmyngìlng ghỳngsilng. dngilszhìlwb ráxpy thìlfi. fö̀l gwiltngìlöl dmàty föpysryfỳ ngỳu.

rỳ zhryỳrh thìzgy gwiltngìly rhàghgy dmatngìe thìrfy. là xángska matngiè ytfỳyrh dmyý fplyxór dyxtngyngà mànga prilzhryngỳr iltỳngzhdyr. dmàt ytfỳarh ryý mìlngorh xngyì prilkyár mìlngorh xtrỳngghi kshrextý mengthxì prỳar zìe, fplỳngxe fywýr déngske xtryghè sxngezì xngỳnge.

====The Legend of the Seventh Planet====
A long time ago there was a tribe of nomads. They possessed neither writing nor houses nor horses. But they were truly human. They were curious; this means, above all, that they took interest in the useless, for the celestial objects were of no use to them yet. They looked at the Sun and the Moon. They had named the constellations and the six planets moving across the sky like the humans across the earth. They knew dim Mercury, who liked to hide in the glare of the Sun; Venus, the brightest of all; reddish and angry Mars; majestic father Jupiter; Saturn, who seemed to stand still for weeks; and even Uranus had been caught by their keen eyes. Six planets, and the legend of a seventh. Maybe it had been the minor planet Vesta, or a comet centuries or millennia earlier. Maybe it was the attraction of the number seven. For Neptune is invisible to the naked eye.

One youngster thought to himself that he could not live without seeing the seventh planet. He lay awake searching the sky for many nights, neglected his duties, and became thinner and thinner. And one night, lying with the Earth behind his back, and with the looping planets and the stars above him, he saw the depth of the sky and the planets circling the Sun, and among them the Earth.

==External links==
* [https://lemizh.conlang.org Lemizh homepage] with comprehensive coverage of the language, including a dictionary with etymologies, information on the language's pragmatics, and more background information
[[File:Copyleft1.png|20px]] ''This article is available under a [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License]. It includes material from the Lemizh homepage, which has the same license.''


[[Category:Languages]]
[[Category:Conlangs]]
[[Category:Indo-European languages]]
[[Category:Fusional languages]]

Lemizh

2022-05-19T18:48:57Z

Anypodetos: /* Dependent clauses */ Minor fixes

{{Infobox language
|image =
|imagesize =
|name = Lemizh
|nativename = lemỳzh.
|pronunciation = lɛmˈɯ̀ʒ
|state = Lemaria
|setting = Alt-history Europe
|created = 1985
|familycolor = Indo-European
|fam2 = Lemizh
|ancestor = Proto-Lemizh
|posteriori = [[w:Proto-Indo-European|Proto-Indo-European]]
|creator = [[User:Anypodetos|Anypodetos]]
|scripts = Lemizh alphabet
|nation = Lemaria
|map = Map of Lemaria.png
|notice = IPA
}}
'''Lemizh''' ([[Help:IPA|[lεmˈiʒ]]], native pronunciation: [[Help:IPA|[lɛmˈɯ̀ʒ]]]) is a language I invented with the aim of creating a grammar as regular and simple as possible. It was originally intended as an [[w:International auxiliary language|international auxiliary language]]. However, it turned out that a simple grammar is not necessarily a grammar that is easy to learn: the more ways of simplification I found, the further away it moved from [[w:Indo-European languages|Indo-European]] and probably all other familiar language structures. Expecting anyone to learn Lemizh, at this point, would be unrealistic.

So I needed a new justification for the language: enter the Lemizh, a people living to the west and north of the [[w:Black Sea|Black Sea]] in an alternate history that slowly drifted away from ours between two and eight millennia ago. Of course, it is extremely unlikely that they would speak a language that was completely without exceptions. To be precise, the chances are two to the power of two hundred and seventy-six thousand seven hundred and nine to one against. But they say that everything has to happen somewhere in the Multiverse; and everything happens only once.

{{TOC limit}}

==History==
===Early stages===
Lemizh is an Indo-European language and, together with Volgan, constitutes one of the ten recognised branches of the Indo-European language family. This branch is also called Lemizh, to the disgruntlement of Volgan linguists.

Proto-Lemizh, the ancestor of Lemizh and Volgan, is very poorly attested in form of some papyri found near the northwestern shore of the Black Sea, to the north of the [[w:Dniester Liman|Dniester Liman]], dated about 2700 BC. Old Lemizh, by contrast, is fairly well attested. It had predominantly [[w:Subject–verb–object|subject–verb–object]] (SVO) word order and was a quite typical old Indo-European language, but with a couple of interesting quirks:
* Adjectives were lost as a separate part of speech, being replaced with participles ("white" > "being white").
* Finite subordinate clauses had their subject in the case of the clause: the subject of a local clause was in the locative case without having a local meaning in itself.
The earliest known documents from this stage of Lemizh were probably written around 2100 BC along the northern and western shores of the Back Sea.

===Ghean and Middle Lemizh===
Ghean ([[Help:IPA|[ˈɣɛən]]]) is a language with no known genetic relationships. It was spoken by a people of unknown origin, who subdued the Lemizh tribes in around 1000 BC and ruled for infamous three generations. Ghean was an inflected [[w:Tonal language|register tonal]] language with strict [[w:Verb–subject–object|verb–subject–object]] (VSO) word order and head-first phrases. It had verbs, [[w:Nominal (linguistics)|nominals]] (a combined noun/adjective/participle part of speech), pronouns and particles.

The Gheans discouraged the use of the natives' language, but obviously tolerated Lemizh words (or rather word stems) to stand in for unfamiliar Ghean ones. The grammar of simple sentences was easy enough to learn for the Lemizh, as they were used to inflection and head-first phrases, and likely still knew VSO sentences from poetry. After two or three generations, the natives must have spoken a [[w:Creole language|creole]] with a more or less Ghean grammar but an abundance of Lemizh words, especially outside the core vocabulary. This is a quite unusual development as most creoles draw their lexicon mainly from the dominant group, and tend to be grammatically more innovative. (The Tanzanian language [[w:Mbugu language|Mbugu]] might have had a somewhat similar development with more or less analogous outcomes.) After the disappearance of the Gheans, Lemizh patriots tried to revive their old language, which failed spectacularly for the grammar but reintroduced many Lemizh words of the core vocabulary.

===The last three millennia===
While Middle Lemizh as spoken after the Ghean occupation already had a non-Indo-European and unusually regular grammar, this trend was to continue over the following millennia. The factive case was innovated to express verbal nouns, which eventually supplanted verbs altogether. (At least part of the blame goes to the Tlöngö̀l, an epic novel published in 1351, which popularised the use of verbal nouns.) The tonal system was simplified to the present two-way [[w:Pitch-accent language|pitch-accent]] system. Pronouns lost their status as a separate part of speech. The last particles died out a few hundred years ago, leaving the language with a single part of speech which is often called a "verb" but, historically speaking, is really a nominal. This means that the concept of ''parts of speech'' does not make sense in Modern Lemizh.

This article describes the dialect spoken to the north of the [[w:Danube Delta|Danube delta]], which prevailed against other variants and is considered the standard language today.

==Orthography and phonology==
The alphabet is [[w:Phonetic orthography|phonetic]]: each letter corresponds to a certain sound, and each sound is represented by a single letter. The direction of writing is left to right. This article uses the standard transcription of the native Lemizh alphabet as given here:
{| class="wikitable" style="width: 800px; table-layout: fixed; text-align: center"
! colspan="29" | Letters of the Lemizh alphabet
|-
| colspan="29" style="padding: 0" | [[File:Lemizh alphabet.png|796px]]
|-
| a || e || y || i || o || ö || u || ü || l || rh || r || ng || m || g || d || b || k || t || p || gh || zh || z || dh || w || x || sh || s || th || f
|}

===Consonants===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="2" | !! bilabial !! dental !! alveolar !! postalveolar !! velar
|-
! colspan="2" | nasals
| m <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial nasal|m]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || || || ng <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar nasal|ŋ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! colspan="2" | plosives (voiceless • voiced)
| p <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless bilabial plosive|p]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • b <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial plosive|b]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || t <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless alveolar plosive|t]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • d <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar plosive|d]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || k <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless velar plosive|k]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • g <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar plosive|g]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! colspan="2" | fricatives (voiceless • voiced)
| f <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless bilabial fricative|ɸ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • w <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial fricative|β]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || th <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless dental fricative|θ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • dh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced dental fricative|ð]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || s <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless alveolar sibilant|s]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • z <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar sibilant|z]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || sh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless palato-alveolar fricative|ʃ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • zh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced palato-alveolar fricative|ʒ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || x <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless velar fricative|x]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • gh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar fricative|ɣ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! rowspan="3" | liquids || lateral approximant
| || || l <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar lateral approximant|l]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|-
! approximant
| || || rh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar approximant|ɹ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|-
! trill
| || || r <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar trill|r]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|}
The plosive-fricative combinations ''pf, ts, tsh, kx'' and their voiced couterparts only occur at word boundaries and in compound words. They are not pronounced as affricates but as separate sounds. The same applies for other combinations of a plosive plus another consonant (''pm, tl'' etc.), as well as for two identical plosives (''kk'' etc.): the release of the first plosive is always audible.

===Vowels===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! rowspan="2" | !! colspan="2" | front !! colspan="2" | back
|-
! unrounded !! rounded !! unrounded !! rounded
|-
! close
| i <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close front unrounded vowel|i]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ü <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close front rounded vowel|y]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || y <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close back unrounded vowel|ɯ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || u <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close back rounded vowel|u]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! open-mid
| e <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid front unrounded vowel|ɛ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ö <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid front rounded vowel|œ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || a <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid back unrounded vowel|ʌ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || o <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid back rounded vowel|ɔ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|}
Two consecutive different vowels are pronounced as a diphthong; two consecutive identical vowels as a long one. Single vowels are always short.

Lemizh uses [[w:Mora (linguistics)|moræ]] for structuring words: a short syllable equals one mora, and a long syllable equals two. In Lemizh, every vowel is the centre of a mora; consequently, two consecutive vowels result in two moræ or one long syllable.

===Accent===
Lemizh has got a two-way pitch-accent system, in that accented moræ are not only spoken louder (as in English), but also have either a lower or a higher pitch than the surrounding unaccented ones. The accented mora is always the ultimate or penultimate of a word. The vowel at the centre of a low-pitch accented mora is transcribed with a grave accent, the vowel at the centre of a high-pitch accented mora with an acute accent.
{| class="wikitable" style="width: 220px; table-layout: fixed; text-align: center"
! colspan="8" | Accented vowel letters
|-
| colspan="8" style="padding: 0" | [[File:Lemizh accented vowels.png|216px]]
|-
| à || è || ỳ || ì || ò || ö̀ || ù || ǜ
|-
| á || é || ý || í || ó || ö́ || ú || ǘ
|}

===Phonotactics===
[[w:Phonotactics|Phonotactics]] is rather permissive in Lemizh. A mora has the following structure, where the bracketed parts are optional:
* (O)(N)(L)V(L)(N)(O)
V is the mora's vowel, L a liquid, N a nasal, and O an obstruent that can be either a P(losive), a F(ricative), FP, PF, FF, FFP, FPF, or PFF. Word-initial consonant clusters cannot contain more than three sounds. No geminate consonants (<abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''ff'' etc.) occur within a mora. Consecutive plosive-fricative or fricative-plosive combinations within the same mora must have the same sonority – either both are voiced, or both are voiceless. A plosive cannot have the same place of articulation as a following consonant with the exception of ''rh'' and ''r''. <abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''dzh'', <abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''ddh'' and their voiceless counterparts are also prohibited within a mora.

Word boundaries, including those within compound words, are always mora boundaries. Where mora boundaries would still be ambiguous, liquids and nasals are assigned to the earliest possible mora (as the ''m'' in ''lem·ỳzh.''), and obstruents to the latest possible mora.

==Morphology==
All words are composed of the following parts:
* Prestem + inner case + poststem + outer case
Prestem and poststem form the stem, or the lexical part, of the word. The division of the stem into two portions is similar to English verbs such as ''sing/sang/sung'', where the lexical part is ''s–ng'' while the vowels ''i/a/u'' convey grammatical information. The stem always denotes an action (but never a state, a person, a thing, a property, etc.) and thus resembles our verbs. The prestem can contain any sounds, or it can be zero (i.e. consisting of zero sounds). The poststem can only contain fricatives and plosives, or it can be zero as well.

The inner case is represented by one of the eight vowels, optionally followed by a liquid (the primary case suffix) and/or a nasal (the secondary case suffix). The outer case has the same structure. For the first word in each sentence, the main predicate, the outer case is missing.

Each case is defined by its ''descriptor'': for example, the factive case denotes an ''action'', the nominative a ''sender'', the locative a ''place''. The stem and the inner case's descriptor determine a word's meaning.

'''Examples'''
* ''wàx. w–x'' is the stem for "speak", ''-a-'' denotes the inner factive, so this word means "an action of speaking", translated as the verb "to speak" or the [[w:Verbal noun|verbal noun]] "speaking".
* ''wèx. -e-'' denotes the inner nominative, so this word means "a sender of speaking" or "a speaker".
* ''àrdh. ∅–dh'' (having a zero prestem) is the stem for "eat", ''-ar-'' denotes the inner locative: "a place of eating".
The customary [[w:Lemma (morphology)|citation form]] of a word is the one with inner factive.

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Primary cases and their descriptors
|-
! rowspan="3" | № !! rowspan="3" | Case vowel !! colspan="4" | Primary case suffix
|-
| none || l || rh || r
|-
! Plot cases !! Causal cases !! Temporal cases !! Spatial cases
|-
| 1 || a || factive ({{sc|fact}}): ''action'' || affirmative ({{sc|aff}}): ''fact (point in causal chain)'' || temporal ({{sc|temp}}): ''time'' || locative ({{sc|loc}}): ''place/region''
|-
| 2 || e || nominative ({{sc|nom}}): ''source, sender'' || causative ({{sc|caus}}): ''direct cause'' || ingressive ({{sc|ing}}): ''starting time'' || elative ({{sc|ela}}): ''starting point/region''
|-
| 3 || y || accusative ({{sc|acc}}): ''content'' || contextual ({{sc|ctx}}): ''causal context'' || durative ({{sc|dur}}): ''duration'' || extensive ({{sc|ext}}): ''spatial extent''
|-
| 4 || i || dative ({{sc|dat}}): ''sink, recipient'' || consecutive ({{sc|cons}}): ''direct consequence, effect'' || egressive ({{sc|egr}}): ''closing time'' || illative ({{sc|ill}}): ''end point / ending region''
|-
| 5 || o || tentive ({{sc|ten}}): ''intention'' || intentive ({{sc|int}}): ''intention (intended point in causal chain)'' || episodic ({{sc|eps}}): ''episode, "act"'' || scenic ({{sc|sce}}): ''scene, "stage"''
|-
| 6 || ö || comitative ({{sc|com}}): ''company'' || persuasive ({{sc|psu}}): ''reason'' || digressive ({{sc|dig}}): ''time away from which'' || ablative ({{sc|abl}}): ''place/region away from which''
|-
| 7 || u || instrumental ({{sc|ins}}): ''means, tool'' || motivational ({{sc|mot}}): ''motivational context'' || progressive ({{sc|prog}}): ''time that is passed'' || prolative ({{sc|prol}}): ''crossing point/region''
|-
| 8 || ü || benefactive ({{sc|ben}}): ''beneficiary'' || final ({{sc|fin}}): ''purpose, aim'' || aggressive ({{sc|agg}}): ''time towards which, temporal aim'' || allative ({{sc|all}}): ''place/region towards which, spatial aim''
|}
Each primary case has two corresponding secondary cases:
* a partitive case formed by adding ''ng'' (such as ''-ing-'' for the partitive dative or ''-erng-'' for the partitive elative) with the descriptor ''the set from which the source (sink, place, etc.) is thought to be taken'': ''wèngx.'' is "the set from which the speaker is thought to be taken", i.e. "the speaker, among others".
* a qualitative case formed by adding ''m'', with the descriptor ''the basis of comparison for the source (sink, place, etc.)'': ''wèmx.'' informally translates as "someone like a speaker".

===The plot===
Every action denoted by a stem is considered a flow of information that comes from a source (sender), transports a content, and reaches a sink (a recipient). The terms "sender" and "recipient" may be more familiar, but "source" and "sink" are more accurate in not necessarily meaning living beings.

Consequently, a Lemizh action looks somewhat like this: '''nominative  accusative[[File:DreieckGreenMIDDLE.png|26px|link=]] dative'''

This is called the action's plot. Here are some examples:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative
|-
| ''wàx.'' "to speak, to talk, to tell; (an action of) speaking" || ''wèx.'' "one telling something" || ''wỳx.'' "a tale" || ''wìx.'' "one who is told something"
|-
| ''dà.'' "to give; (an action of) giving" || ''dè.'' "one giving something" || ''dỳ.'' "a gift" || ''dì.'' "one who is given something; one who gets something"
|-
| ''làzhw.'' "to help" || ''lèzhw.'' "one helping" || ''lỳzhw.'' "help (given)" || ''lìzhw.'' "one whom is helped"
|-
| ''mlàtx.'' "to melt" || ''mlètx.'' "one melting something" || [''mlỳtx.''] || ''mlìtx.'' "a melted thing"
|-
| ''xöàgh.'' "to produce a sound; to hear" || ''xöègh.'' "one producing a sound" || ''xöỳgh.'' "a sound" || ''xöìgh.'' "one hearing something"
|-
| ''àdh.'' "to feed; to eat" || ''èdh.'' "one feeding someone" || ''ỳdh.'' "food" || ''ìdh.'' "one being fed; one eating"
|-
| ''ià.'' "to love" || ''iè.'' "one loving someone, a lover" || ''iỳ.'' "a beloved" || ''iì.'' "a beloved"
|}
Importantly, there are no rules for which cases to use with which words. Both ''iỳ.'' ({{sc|acc}}) and ''iì.'' ({{sc|dat}}) mean "a beloved". The former describes the beloved as the content of love, the one being lovingly thought of, while the latter implies that the love reaches them, like words or gifts reach their recipient. Likewise, the reason why ''mlỳtx.'' is not translated in the table above isn't that "''melt'' does not take the accusative", as grammars of other languages would say, but that "a content of melting" does not seem to have any obvious meaning. If someone wanted to describe, say, sun rays as content transported from the sun to the snow to melt it, they could well use ''mlỳtx.'' to express the concept.

Case usage is governed solely by the cases' descriptors; it is up to the speaker how to use them given some word's meaning and some context. If the wind opens a door, is it the source of the action of opening (''ngèt.''), the means of opening (''ngùt.''), or the cause (''ngèlt.'')? All are grammatically correct; the speaker decides which possibility best expresses their intention.

===Nouns===
:''Nouns, adjectives and verbs do not correspond to any concepts in Lemizh grammar. Using these terms is just an attempt to describe the grammar from an Indo-European viewpoint.''
A large number of nouns are not derived from verbs in most languages: ''froth, ship, lion'' and many others. In Lemizh, however, we have verbs such as ''psràxk.'' "to froth", ''àksh.'' "to build a ship or ships", and ''làw.'' "to make a lion or lions". We will call these ''nominal verbs''.

Looking at the verb ''àksh.'', the shipwright ({{sc|nom}}) gives the building materials ({{sc|dat}}) the properties or the function of a ship ({{sc|acc}}). He confers, well, shipness on the materials. The shipness is sent by the shipwright, not because he is acting, but because he is the source: the image of the ship, so to say, comes from his head and materialises in wood, iron, ropes, and linen. In short, these words mostly appear with inner accusative.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative
|-
| ''psràxk.'' "to froth" || ''psrèxk.'' "one frothing something" || ''psrỳxk.'' "a thing having the properties of froth = '''froth'''" || ''psrìxk.'' "a frothed thing, a frothed liquid"
|-
| ''àksh.'' "to build a ship" || ''èksh.'' "one building a ship, a shipwright" || ''ỳksh.'' "a thing having the properties of a ship = '''a ship'''" || ''ìksh.'' "building materials for a ship, materials made into a ship"
|-
| ''làw.'' "to make a lion" || [''lèw.'' "one making a lion"] || ''lỳw.'' "a thing having the properties of a lion = '''a lion'''" || [''lìw.'' "building materials for a lion, materials made into a lion"]
|}

Another very common kind of nouns are tool nouns, formed with an inner instrumental case:
* ''ghstù.'' "a sail" is derived from ''ghstà.'' "to sail", literally "a means of sailing",
* ''pslù.'' "scissors" from ''pslà.'' "to cut with scissors",
* ''saxùf.'' "a trumpet" from ''saxàf.'' "to play the trumpet",
* ''skrùzh.'' "a finger" from ''skràzh.'' "to work with one's fingers".

====Inflection====
As mentioned above, all words can inflect for (outer) case. Thus, we have the nominative forms ''wàx'''e''''' "(an action of) speaking, talking, telling", ''dè'''e''''' "a giver", ''lỳw'''e''''' "a lion", the causative ''lỳw'''el''''' "because of a lion", the elative ''lỳw'''er''''' "(starting) from a lion", etc.

Lemizh words do not inflect for number or gender. If desired, we can express this information by forming compounds. (Note the duplication of the inner case vowel; the first occurrence in each word is called the epenthetic case of the compound. The underlying grammar will be described later.)
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Singular !! Dual !! Plural !! Feminine !! Masculine !! Feminine singular !! etc.
|-
! giver
| ''dè.'' || ''de'''rè'''.'' || ''de'''dwè'''.'' || ''de'''mlè'''.'' || ''de'''bè'''.'' || ''de'''èx'''.'' || ''de'''berè'''.''
|-
! lion
| ''lỳw.'' || ''lyw'''rỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''dwỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''mlỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''bỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''ỳx'''.'' || ''lyw'''byrỳ'''.''
|-
! compound with
| — || ''rỳ.'' "one" || ''dwỳ.'' "two" || ''mlỳ.'' "several" || ''bỳ.'' "female; woman" || ''ỳx.'' "male; man" || "female" and "one"
|}

===Adjectives and numerals===
There is no difference between adjectival and nominal verbs: they mostly appear with inner accusative. This is the same situation as in, say, Latin, where ''albus'' can mean "a white one" as well as "white". Numerals are basically a sub-category of adjectives.

The inner consecutive case translates certain abstract nouns.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative !! Inner consecutive
|-
| ''làbdh.'' "to whiten something, to make something white" || ''lèbdh.'' "one whitening something" || ''lỳbdh.'' "a white thing; '''white'''" || ''lìbdh.'' "a thing made white; whitened" || ''lìlbdh.'' "the consequence of whitening = whiteness"
|-
| ''gmrà.'' "to warm, to make something warm" || ''gmrè.'' "one warming something" || ''gmrỳ.'' "a warm thing; '''warm'''" || ''gmrì.'' "a warmed thing; warmed" || ''gmrìl.'' "the consequence of warming = warmth"
|-
| ''dwà.'' "to make two things/individuals" || ''dwè.'' "one making two things" || ''dwỳ.'' "'''two''' (things)" || ''dwì.'' "something made into two (things)" || ''dwìl.'' "the consequence of making two things = twoness"
|}

However, emotions aren't viewed as properties in Lemizh: a happy or angry person is one sending happiness or anger, just as a loving person is one sending love. The inner causative plays a notable role with verbs of emotion.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative !! Inner causative
|-
| ''pthàb.'' "to be angry" || ''pthèb.'' "an angry one; '''angry'''" || ''pthỳb.'' "the content/object of one's anger" || ''pthìb.'' "one that one's anger reaches" || ''pthèlb.'' "one causing someone anger; one annoying someone"
|}

====Inflection====
Of course, adjectives can be compounded to express number and/or gender in the same way as nouns. Furthermore, we can form compounds expressing various degrees. (The epenthetic consecutive ''-il-'' in these compounds will also be explained later; it is actually the main application of the abstract nouns just mentioned.)
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Diminutive !! Augmentative !! Absolute !! Comparative !! Superlative
|-
! warm
| ''gmrỳ.'' || ''gmril'''zhrỳ'''.'' "lukewarm" || ''gmril'''dmỳ'''.'' "hot" || ''gmril'''ghngỳ'''.'' "absolutely hot" || ''gmril'''tỳzhd'''.'' "warmer, hotter" || ''gmril'''ỳst'''.'' "hottest"
|-
! white
| ''lỳbdh.'' || ''lilbdh'''zhrỳ'''.'' "whitish" || ''lilbdh'''dmỳ'''.'' "very white" || ''lilbdh'''ghngỳ'''.'' "absolutely/completely white" || ''lilbdh'''tỳzhd'''.'' "whiter" || ''lilbdh'''ỳst'''.'' "whitest"
|-
! compound with
| — || ''zhrỳ.'' "few, little, a bit" || ''dmỳ.'' "much, many" || ''ghngỳ.'' "every, all, the whole" || ''tỳzhd.'' "more" || ''ỳst.'' "most"
|}

===Verbs===
Most verbs correspond to Lemizh words with an inner factive. However, as Lemizh stems always denote an action, the notable exception are stative verbs such as:
* ''zdìls.'' "to sit", literally "the consequence of sitting down (''zdàs.'')"
* ''gwìlt.'' "to know", literally "the consequence of learning (''gwàt.'')"

====Inflection====
* Person is not expressed with inflection but with [[#Relative pronouns|pronouns]].
* Number is conveyed by compounding pronouns with numerals. While verbs (i.e. words with an inner factive) can be compounded with numerals, ''ftrask'''mlà'''.'' does not mean "we/they sneeze" but "(there are) several acts of sneezing" (i.e. someone sneezes several times and/or several people sneeze).
* Voice (active/passive) is absent in Lemizh; word order serves a similar function.
* Tense is expressed by compounds with an epenthetic temporal case (''-arh-''), or with certain inner cases. The latter option is preferred if possible, as it is more concise.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Present !! Past !! Perfect !! Future !! Intentional
|-
! to sit down
| ''zdàs.'' || ''zdarhs'''wà'''.'' || ''zdarhs'''prilkà'''.'' || ''zd'''ìl'''s.'' ({{sc|cons}}) || ''zdarhs'''prà'''.'' || ''zd'''ò'''s.'' ({{sc|ten}})
|-
! compound with
| — || pronoun || ''prilkỳ.'' "back" || — || ''prỳ.'' "front" || —
|}
Note that the translation of the perfect with inner consecutive coincides with the translation of stative verbs: "having sat down" in the strict perfect sense of "the consequence/effect of this action exists" means the same as "to sit". Likewise, "whiteness" can be expressed as the abstract concept of "having whitened something".

* Mood corresponds to compounds with certain verbs for the most part. There is no equivalent to the subjunctive mood, as subordinate clauses are irreal (i.e. not necessarily real) by default. Here are some common formations:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Indicative !! Imperative !! Commanding imperative !! Interrogative Polite imperative !! Optative
|-
! to feed, to eat
| ''àdh.'' || ''adh'''pràk'''.'' || ''adh'''dàxt'''.'' || ''adh'''pà'''.'' || ''adh'''làxt'''.''
|-
! compound with
| — || ''pràk.'' "to request" || ''dàxt.'' "to command" || ''pà.'' "to ask" || ''làxt.'' "to want"
|}
* Aspect is a very diverse category, expressed by a variety of compounds and syntactic structures in Lemizh.

===Pronouns===
The two demonstrative pronouns are technically nominal verbs:
* ''tà.'' "to make this/that one", typically used with inner accusative: ''tỳ.'' "this/that (one)"
* ''gwà.'' "to make someone/anyone, something/anything", with inner accusative ''gwỳ.'' "someone/anyone, something/anything"

The eleven relative pronouns play a far more prominent role in Lemizh grammar. Their scope is much wider than the one usually associated with the term. As they are closely tied to Lemizh syntax, they are described [[#Relative pronouns|further down]].

==Syntax==
===Level of words===
There is only one more grammatical category: the level of words, which is the main building block of Lemizh syntax. A word can be of first level (the highest), of second level (the next highest), of third level (still one level lower) and so on; there is no limit for the number of levels, but non-positive word levels (zero, −1, etc.) are forbidden.

The first word in a sentence (the main predicate) is of first level by definition. The level of the next word is determined by the main predicate's accent and by the type of pause between the two words, the level of the third word is determined by the accent of the second and the pause between these two, and so on.

Here is the complete list of pause/accent combinations.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="2" | Following pause !! rowspan="2" | Accented vowel !! rowspan="2" | Type of accent !! rowspan="2" | The level of the next word is …
|-
! in speech !! in writing
|-
| rowspan="4" | barely audible || rowspan="4" | space || rowspan="2" | inner case || low || lower by 1
|-
| high || lower by 1, and [[w:Agent (grammar)|agentive]]* ({{sc|a}})
|-
| rowspan="2" | outer case || low || equal
|-
| high || higher by 1
|-
| rowspan="4" | a bit longer || rowspan="4" | comma ('''·''') || rowspan="2" | inner case || low || higher by 2
|-
| high || higher by 3
|-
| rowspan="2" | outer case || low || higher by 4
|-
| high || higher by 5
|-
| the longest || full stop ('''∶''') || inner case || low || none; end of sentence
|}
<nowiki>*</nowiki> The agent is the initiator of the action (more informally, the one who ''does'' the action).

===The Rules===
[[File:Lemizh parse tree.png|thumb|upright=1.5|A schematic sentence with the words represented by their level numbers]]
The word levels determine the structure of a sentence.

'''Rule One of sentence grammar. A word of level n is subordinate to the nearest word of level n−1 in front of it; the parole acts as a word of level zero.'''

All words of second level are subordinate to the main predicate (which has first level). A word of third level is subordinate to the next second-level word in front of it, and so on. In other words, Lemizh sentences are strictly [[w:Head directionality|head-first]]. The main predicate itself is subordinate to the [[w:Parole (linguistics)|parole]], the action of speaking (or writing) the sentence in question, which consequently has level zero.

'''Rule Two. An object of a word in a sentence is a word subordinate to the former, its predicate, plus all of its own objects.'''

In the diagram, the main predicate's three objects are enclosed in ellipses. Objects of the same word are called ''sibling objects'' or just ''siblings'', and the word they are subordinate to is their ''predicate''. Note that ''predicate'' and ''object'' are relative terms like ''parent'' and ''child''.

The table of level markers implies that only the first object of a predicate can be marked as agent. (This has been interpreted as Lemizh having VSO word order, although a subject is not quite the same as an agent, and Lemizh grammar strictly speaking does not have the concept of a subject.)

'''Rule Three. The outer case of the first word of an object defines its relation to its predicate's stem via its descriptor; the outer case of a level 1 word is zero.'''

This is what we would expect from a language that inflects for case: the nominative object defines the source (sender) of the action named by the stem of its predicate, the accusative object its content, the temporal object its time, etc.

'''Examples'''
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dá föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|give-FACT-1 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2A bottle-ACC-ACC-2 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2.
|''Father Christmas gives Lucy a bottle.''}}

The stems of the three objects are nominal verbs ("to make a bottle" etc.), hence the inner accusatives. The outer cases indicate the sender, content and recipient of the action of giving, respectively. The agent is specified independently of the plot arrow; note the difference:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dá lusyì dwywỳ föpysrỳfe.
|give-FACT-1 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2A bottle-ACC-ACC-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2.
|''Lucy takes a bottle from Father Christmas.''}}

We need not mark an object as agentive if we consider this information unimportant. The English translations are only rough approximations:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dà lusyì dwywỳ föpysrỳfe.
|give-FACT-1 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2 bottle-ACC-ACC-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2.
|''Lucy gets a bottle from Father Christmas. Lucy is given a bottle by Father Christmas.''}}

Rule Three defines outer case in a way that mirrors the definition of inner case. This allows for an operation called '''inversion''' (symbolized "⇔"):
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|làzhw wèxi. ⇔ wáx lìzhwe.
|help-FACT-1 speak-'''NOM'''-'''DAT'''-2. ⇔ speak-FACT-1 help-'''DAT'''-'''NOM'''-2A.
|''[Someone] helps the speaker. ⇔ The one being helped speaks.''}}

Both sentences claim that the sender of speaking is the recipient of helping. The equation is ''wèx.'' = ''lìzhw.'', the speaker = the one being helped.

'''Rule Four. An instance of a word stem designates a specific action.'''

''dà'' in the above sentence does not just mean "to give", it refers to one specific action of giving. Such an action may involve several givers (as in "They give something") and need not even be temporally or spatially contiguous (as in "They are giving something every Christmas"). In other words, each spoken or written instance of the stem ''d–'' refers to a certain subset of all the giving there is.

This rule ensures that all the objects refer to the same action of giving as the predicate itself.

'''Rule Five. A case characterises the action it refers to completely with regard to its case descriptor.'''

For example, the nominative object "Father Christmas" has to name the complete sender of the above instance of giving. This excludes from this instance all giving not done by Father Christmas. So each object places a restriction on the action of giving the main predicate refers to. Thus, the subset of giving meant by this instance of ''dà.'' – what the sentence is ultimately talking about – is defined more and more precisely with each additional object. (The same is true not only of the main predicate but of all words in a sentence.)

'''Rule Six. A missing object is equivalent to the absence of information about its descriptor.'''

Above sentences do not have, for example, locative objects, so Rule Five cannot place a restriction on the place of giving. Because of Rule Six, this does not mean there are no restrictions on the location, but only that this kind of information has not been included in the sentence (for example, because the speaker does not know about it, considers it irrelevant, assumes that the listener already knows or – perhaps most importantly – that the listener can infer it). In fact, everything not useful for understanding a sentence should be omitted to save the listener processing effort. (See the inversion example above, which omits the nominative "someone".)

Rules Five and Six imply that every instance of a word has exactly one action (which, however, need not be contiguous), one sender (which can consist of several people), and so on: Five excludes additional senders if one nominative object is already present, and Six gives meaning to missing objects, establishing them as an integral part of Lemizh sentence grammar.

'''Rule Seven. Given an object and its predicate, the predicate is considered more real and the object more hypothetical.'''

…

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! as an object !! as a complete sentence
|-
| ''dà.'' || to give; giving || An action of giving exists = Someone gives something.
|-
| ''zdìls.'' || the consequence of sitting down = to sit; sitting || The consequence of sitting down exists = Someone sits.
|-
| ''dwìlw.'' || the consequence of making a bottle || The consequence of making a bottle exists = A bottle exists; there is a bottle.
|-
| ''sklè.'' || one building a bridge || One building a bridge exists = There is someone building a bridge.
|}

===Noun phrases===
Forming noun phrases does not require any new grammatical rules. In the following example, the inner case of "give" is changed to the nominative, yielding "one giving something, a giver", and everything is pushed down one level. The third-level words are still sender, content and recipient of the ''action'' of giving, as outer cases define relations to the predicate's ''stem'' per Rule Three.
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 3A:third level, agentive
|dmàt tryxkì dée föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|see-FACT-1 beaver-ACC-DAT-2 give-'''NOM'''-NOM-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-3A bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3.
|''The beaver sees '''the one giving Lucy a bottle, Father Christmas'''.''}}
Regarding the verb "see", note that the beaver is in the dative, being at the receiving end of the optical stimulus or information. Marking the beaver as agent would translate as "The beaver looks at the one …".

Rules Four and Five guarantee that the giver is identical to Father Christmas: both are the sender of the same instance of the stem ''d–'' "give" (the giver via its inner nominative, Father Christmas via its outer nominative), and both are the ''complete'' sender of this action. This type of construction, where an object's outer case matches its predicate's inner case, is called a '''bracket'''. Brackets are very widely used:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Apposition !! Attributive adjective !! Attributive pronoun/determiner !! Attributive numeral !! Attributive participle
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|iakopỳk saxèfy.
|Jacopo-'''ACC'''-1 trumpet-NOM-'''ACC'''-2.
|''Jacopo, a trumpeter''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=INS:instrumental case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|ghstù lỳbdhu.
|sail-'''INS'''-1 white-ACC-'''INS'''-2.
|''a sail, a white thing = a white sail''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|ỳksh gwỳy.
|ship-'''ACC'''-1 some-ACC-'''ACC'''-2.
|''a ship, something = some ship''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|mỳs trỳy.
|mouse-'''ACC'''-1 three-ACC-'''ACC'''-2.
|''mice, three individuals = three mice''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|nỳzd gangèy.
|bird-'''ACC'''-1 sing-NOM-'''ACC'''-2.
|''a bird, a singer = a singing bird''}}
|}
Such phrases can be easily extended. This example contains two accusative brackets ("a singing bird" and "a sad child"):
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 4:fourth level
|ngỳzd gangèy zhngỳi speghý ytfỳarh.
|bird-ACC-1 sing-NOM-ACC-2 child-ACC-DAT-3 sad-NOM-ACC-4 night-ACC-TEMP-3.
|''a bird singing to a sad child at night''}}

Adverbially used adjectives are phrased with factive brackets. However, changing the predicate's inner case leaves the object's outer factive intact, losing the bracket.
{|
|-
| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|gangà txỳska.
|sing-'''FACT'''-1 loud-ACC-'''FACT'''-2.
|''(an action of) singing, a loud thing = loud singing = singing loudly, to sing loudly''}}

| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|nỳzd gangèy txỳska.
|bird-ACC-1 sing-NOM-ACC-2 loud-ACC-'''FACT'''-3.
|''a bird, a loud singer = a bird singing loudly'' (The '''action''' of singing is a loud thing.)}}
|}

As [[w:Genitive construction|genitive constructions]] have a wide variety of meanings, there is no single Lemizh equivalent. The typical translation for constructions indicating possession is with the benefactive case, but other cases frequently occur. Everything depends on the object's relation to the predicate's stem per Rule Three.
{|
|-
| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|dwỳw lusỳü.
|bottle-ACC-1 Lucy-ACC-'''BEN'''-2.
|Lucy is the beneficiary of making the bottle. The bottle is made for Lucy. 
''Lucy's bottle''}}

| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dý ỳxe.
|give-ACC-1 male-ACC-'''NOM'''-2A.
|The man is the sender of giving. 
''the man's gift''}}

| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|rhỳst ytfỳarh filpskỳy.
|dream-ACC-1 night-ACC-'''TEMP'''-2 midsummer-ACC-ACC-3.
| The midsummer night is the time of dreaming. 
''A Midsummer Night's Dream''}}
|}

===Dependent clauses===
Non-finite and conjunctional clauses employ the same principles as above:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive; 3:third level
|láxt föpysryfè dày dwywỳ lusỳi.
|want-FACT-1 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2A give-'''FACT'''-ACC-2 bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3.
|''Father Christmas wants '''to give Lucy a bottle'''.'' ("Father Christmas" is omitted from the dependent clause per Rule Six.)}}

The difference between English gerund clauses and finite that-clauses roughly translates into a difference between an inner factive (''action'') and an inner affirmative (''fact'').
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 3A:third level, agentive
|dmàt tryxkì dáe föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|see-FACT-1 beaver-ACC-DAT-2 give-'''FACT'''-NOM-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-3A bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3.
|''The beaver sees [the action of] '''Father Christmas giving Lucy a bottle'''.'' (The dependent clause could also be in the accusative to focus on the optical information transmitted to the beaver.)}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; AFF:affirmative case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 3A:third level, agentive
|dmàt tryxkì dále föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|see-FACT-1 beaver-ACC-DAT-2 give-'''AFF'''-NOM-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-3A bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3.
|''The beaver sees [the fact of] '''Father Christmas giving Lucy a bottle'''. The beaver sees '''that''' Father Christmas gives Lucy a bottle.''}}

Some examples of dependent clauses translating into objects in various cases:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|fngà kshngày.
|try-FACT-1 shout-FACT-'''ACC'''-2.
|''[She] tried to shout [but this was difficult because of her sore throat].''}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|fngà kshngàu.
|try-FACT-1 shout-FACT-'''INS'''-2.
|''[She] tried shouting [as he hadn't heard her when she had spoken quietly].'' (Shouting is the means of trying.)}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PSU:persuasive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 4:fourth level
|pàf làxtöl dmàty föpysrỳfe.
|stand-FACT-1 want-FACT-'''PSU'''-2 see-FACT-ACC-3 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-4.
|''[He] stood up because [he] wanted to see Father Christmas.''}}

Relative clauses are structurally identical to (extended) attributive participles as described above; they are brackets: ''a bird which sings to a sad child at night = a bird singing to a sad child at night''. This is also true of clauses with relative adverbs:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level; 3A:third level, agentive
|ngỳw gangáry lỳbe.
|valley-'''ACC'''-1 sing-LOC-'''ACC'''-2 flower-ACC-NOM-3A.
|''a valley, a place of the singing of flowers = a valley where flowers sing''}}

Adverbially used clauses, unsurprisingly, are factive brackets …

===Predicative===
…


===Relative pronouns===
Stems of relative pronouns (not to be confused with the pronouns of the same name in English or Latin) refer to actions by pointing to another stem or to a parole: they are [[w:Anaphora (linguistics)|anaphoric]]. Here is the full list:
{| class="wikitable"
! rowspan="2" | Level !! colspan="2" | Type I !! colspan="2" | Type II
|-
! Verb !! The target is the stem of !! Verb !! The target is the stem of
|-
| n || colspan="2" | (does not occur because it would refer to itself) || à. || its preceding same-level word
|-
| n−1 || wà. || its predicate || fà. || its predicate's preceding same-level word or parole
|-
| n−2 || dhà. || its predicate's predicate || thà. || its predicate's predicate's preceding same-level word or parole
|-
| n−3 || zà. || its predicate's predicate's predicate || sà. || …
|-
| n−4 || zhà. || … || shà. || …
|-
| n−5 || ghà. || … || xà. || …
|}
They are highly versatile, corresponding to various structures in other languages. Recall that a sentence's parole has level zero:
{| class="wikitable"
! Reflexive !! First person (singular) !! Second person
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|wáx wìe.
|speak-FACT-1 PIn−1-'''DAT'''-'''NOM'''-2A.
|The recipient of speaking is its sender. 
''to talk to oneself. He is talking to himself.''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dráw dhèe.
|dance-FACT-1 PIn−2-'''NOM'''-NOM-2A.
|The sender of the parole is the sender of dancing. 
''I am dancing.''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dráw dhìe.
|dance-FACT-1 PIn−2-'''DAT'''-NOM-2A.
|The recipient of the parole is the sender of dancing. 
''You are dancing.''}}
|}
Rule Four of sentence grammar ensures that the reflexive example means "He is talking to himself" as opposed to, say, "He is talking to one being talked to" (which would be ''wáx wìxe.'' speak-{{sc|fact}}-1 speak-{{sc|dat-nom}}-2{{sc|a}}, with two different instances of the stem "speak").

{| class="wikitable"
! Possessive determiner !! Vocative
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=CONS:consecutive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|zdìls ngỳzdy zeú tỳar.
|seat-CONS-1 bird-ACC-ACC-2 PIn−3-'''NOM'''-BEN-3 this-ACC-LOC-2.
|The sender of the parole is the beneficiary of making a bird.
 ''My bird is sitting there.''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=PI:pronoun type I; FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive; 3:third level
|wáx dheè zdhèzhi zìe.
|speak-FACT-1 PIn−2-NOM-NOM-2A friend-NOM-DAT-2 PIn−3-'''DAT'''-NOM-3.
|The recipient of the parole is the friend. (nominative bracket) 
''Friend, I am talking to you.''}}
|}

The type II pronoun in the following example points to the stem of eating. With the inner accusative, the pronoun refers to the content of eating, which is the sweet. (As with brackets, Rules Four and Five guarantee that the pronoun refers to the same content of the same action of eating as mentioned in the first sentence.)
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; PII:pronoun type II; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|ádh dheì mlỳdhy. ràsh fỳy.
|eat-FACT-1 PIn−2-NOM-DAT-2A sweet-ACC-ACC-2. like-FACT-1 PIIn−1-'''ACC'''-ACC-2.
|''I am eating a sweet. [I] like it.''}}

==Derivational morphology==
From a Lemizh point of view, ''dè.'' "giver" and ''dỳ.'' "gift" aren't derivatives of ''dà.'' "to give" but grammatical forms of the same word. The only piece of true derivational morphology is compounding.

===Compounds===
[[File:Lemizh compounding diagram.png|thumb|Forming a compound from a two-word sentence]]
'''Rule One of compounding. A compound word is constructed from a two-word sentence – predicate and object of which become modifier and head of the compound, respectively – in the following way:'''
# '''Prestem''':
## the object's prestem
## the object's inner case
## the object's poststem
## an optional separator
## the predicate's prestem
# '''Inner case'''
# '''Poststem''': the predicate's poststem
# '''Outer case'''
Note that the object's stem comes before the predicate's; and also that the object's outer case (and, less importantly, the predicate's inner case) is lost. The object's inner case becomes part of the compound's prestem and is then called its ''epenthetic case''. The separator can be used, for example, if the word boundary would be unclear otherwise, or for placing the second part of the word on a new line.

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|làxt àdhy. ⇒ adhlàxt.
|want-FACT-1 eat-FACT-ACC-2. ⇒ eat-FACT-want-FACT-1.
|''[She] wants to eat.'' (See the inflection of [[#Verbs|verbs]].)}}
Here, the lost accusative ending has to be deduced from context.

'''Rule Two. In the relationship between the original predicate and object, the rules of sentence grammar are retained as far as applicable.'''

The consequences of this rule are somewhat technical; but the last one, pertaining to degree of reality, is important for correctly interpreting compounds.
* Rules One to Three of sentence grammar are not applicable to compounds, as can be easily seen.
* Four: Both modifier and head are instantiations of specific actions in the original sentence (which however do not necessarily match the instantiation of the compound).
* Five: The epenthetic case characterises the head completely with regard to its descriptor.
* Six: The only overt object of the modifier is the head. All other objects are missing and thus indicate the absence of information about their descriptors.
* Seven: The modifier has a higher degree of reality than the head. Therefore, the above compound does not claim that she actually eats.

'''Rule Three. Regarding all outward relations, cases''' (i.e. the compound's inner case [not to be confused with its epenthetic case], the outer cases of its objects, and cases of pronouns referring to it) '''refer to the head.'''
{|
|-
| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|adhkmàr mlỳdhy.
|eat-FACT-allow-LOC-1 sweet-ACC-ACC-2.
|''a place where one may eat sweets; a place for eating sweets''}}

| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|ngengadàxt fỳta.
|run-FACT-must-FACT-1 fast-ACC-FACT-1
|''[He] has to run fast.''}}
|}

These examples talk about the location of eating, as opposed to the location of allowing; about eating sweets, as opposed to allowing sweets; the running is fast, as opposed to the necessity; etc.

Number and gender of [[#Nouns|nouns]] are compounds from brackets which are first inverted to turn the more salient word into the compound's head: ''dè mlỳe. ⇔ mlỳ dèy.'' "several givers" ⇒ ''demlè.'' "givers". The inner nominative (''-e-'') becomes the epenthetic case, and the new inner case also has to be a nominative per Rule Three. ''demlỳ.'' (inner {{sc|acc}}), by contrast, is "something given by several people".

Compounds expressing degrees of [[#Adjectives and numerals|adjectives]] are also formed from brackets. They have an epenthetic consecutive (''-il-''), which stems from the corresponding abstract noun: ''gmrìl dmỳil. ⇔ dmỳ gmrìly.'' "much warmth" ⇒ ''gmrildmìl.'' "heat" (abstract noun formed with inner {{sc|cons}}), ''gmrildmỳ.'' "hot" (adjective with inner {{sc|acc}}).

The analogues of the present and future tenses are formed like so – note that inversion changes the pronoun's stem along with its level:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2:second level
|zdàs dhàarh. ⇔ wà zdàrhsa. ⇒ zdarhswà.
|seat-FACT-1 PIn−2-FACT-TEMP-2. ⇔ PIn−1-FACT-1 seat-TEMP-FACT-2. ⇒ seat-TEMP-PIn−1-FACT-1.
|''[She] sits down at the time of the parole. ⇒ [She] sits down now.''}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|zdàs prỳarh. ⇔ prỳ zdàrhsy. ⇒ zdarhsprà.
|seat-FACT-1 front-ACC-TEMP-2. ⇔ front-ACC-1 seat-TEMP-ACC-2. ⇒ seat-TEMP-front-FACT-1.
|''[She] sits down at a time in front [of the parole]. ⇒ [She] will sit down.''}}

==Example text==
[[File:Lemizh text sample.png|600px]]

====stedrỳzh thìrhfi xtrỳghy.====
krỳgh dghngireì prilxpilghkỳarh. mangỳ srungbỳng lyngghỳng yngshwỳng fỳü. zhöazhghngìl tmỳil. ghngàgzh smìa prỳal ghngyé dhàbdhy lunguỳ ùyl mỳu fplyxár tỳarh. dmát feì sxngengzè ishkènge. ghìlt krighmyngthxì xtrỳngghi swyshỳ ghỳxy fplyxòr zhöyzhỳm xngàrorm. dmìlt öngkrỳngty zhryỳ rèshy esfàsy sxngyzdmýi, usrỳngy xazhgèsty ghngỳeng, frekrỳngfy rilghdzhỳwby pthèby, dgheipysrỳngdy psrèby rhèzhem, dghistngỳngty ghỳxy zangỳa dghildhfmlýyrh, ngiftngyghtmỳngy krültlìy zùe gỳghda. xtrỳgh swyshý stedrỳzh thìrfi. dngilszhrìl bdhyrgzhyngỳng xüxtrỳngyng prilkỳarh ötìlil skmyngìlng ghỳngsilng. dngilszhìlwb ráxpy thìlfi. fö̀l gwiltngìlöl dmàty föpysryfỳ ngỳu.

rỳ zhryỳrh thìzgy gwiltngìly rhàghgy dmatngìe thìrfy. là xángska matngiè ytfỳyrh dmyý fplyxór dyxtngyngà mànga prilzhryngỳr iltỳngzhdyr. dmàt ytfỳarh ryý mìlngorh xngyì prilkyár mìlngorh xtrỳngghi kshrextý mengthxì prỳar zìe, fplỳngxe fywýr déngske xtryghè sxngezì xngỳnge.

====The Legend of the Seventh Planet====
A long time ago there was a tribe of nomads. They possessed neither writing nor houses nor horses. But they were truly human. They were curious; this means, above all, that they took interest in the useless, for the celestial objects were of no use to them yet. They looked at the Sun and the Moon. They had named the constellations and the six planets moving across the sky like the humans across the earth. They knew dim Mercury, who liked to hide in the glare of the Sun; Venus, the brightest of all; reddish and angry Mars; majestic father Jupiter; Saturn, who seemed to stand still for weeks; and even Uranus had been caught by their keen eyes. Six planets, and the legend of a seventh. Maybe it had been the minor planet Vesta, or a comet centuries or millennia earlier. Maybe it was the attraction of the number seven. For Neptune is invisible to the naked eye.

One youngster thought to himself that he could not live without seeing the seventh planet. He lay awake searching the sky for many nights, neglected his duties, and became thinner and thinner. And one night, lying with the Earth behind his back, and with the looping planets and the stars above him, he saw the depth of the sky and the planets circling the Sun, and among them the Earth.

==External links==
* [https://lemizh.conlang.org Lemizh homepage] with comprehensive coverage of the language, including a dictionary with etymologies, information on the language's pragmatics, and more background information
[[File:Copyleft1.png|20px]] ''This article is available under a [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License]. It includes material from the Lemizh homepage, which has the same license.''


[[Category:Languages]]
[[Category:Conlangs]]
[[Category:Indo-European languages]]
[[Category:Fusional languages]]

Lemizh

2022-05-19T18:27:42Z

Anypodetos: Dependent clauses etc.

{{Infobox language
|image =
|imagesize =
|name = Lemizh
|nativename = lemỳzh.
|pronunciation = lɛmˈɯ̀ʒ
|state = Lemaria
|setting = Alt-history Europe
|created = 1985
|familycolor = Indo-European
|fam2 = Lemizh
|ancestor = Proto-Lemizh
|posteriori = [[w:Proto-Indo-European|Proto-Indo-European]]
|creator = [[User:Anypodetos|Anypodetos]]
|scripts = Lemizh alphabet
|nation = Lemaria
|map = Map of Lemaria.png
|notice = IPA
}}
'''Lemizh''' ([[Help:IPA|[lεmˈiʒ]]], native pronunciation: [[Help:IPA|[lɛmˈɯ̀ʒ]]]) is a language I invented with the aim of creating a grammar as regular and simple as possible. It was originally intended as an [[w:International auxiliary language|international auxiliary language]]. However, it turned out that a simple grammar is not necessarily a grammar that is easy to learn: the more ways of simplification I found, the further away it moved from [[w:Indo-European languages|Indo-European]] and probably all other familiar language structures. Expecting anyone to learn Lemizh, at this point, would be unrealistic.

So I needed a new justification for the language: enter the Lemizh, a people living to the west and north of the [[w:Black Sea|Black Sea]] in an alternate history that slowly drifted away from ours between two and eight millennia ago. Of course, it is extremely unlikely that they would speak a language that was completely without exceptions. To be precise, the chances are two to the power of two hundred and seventy-six thousand seven hundred and nine to one against. But they say that everything has to happen somewhere in the Multiverse; and everything happens only once.

{{TOC limit}}

==History==
===Early stages===
Lemizh is an Indo-European language and, together with Volgan, constitutes one of the ten recognised branches of the Indo-European language family. This branch is also called Lemizh, to the disgruntlement of Volgan linguists.

Proto-Lemizh, the ancestor of Lemizh and Volgan, is very poorly attested in form of some papyri found near the northwestern shore of the Black Sea, to the north of the [[w:Dniester Liman|Dniester Liman]], dated about 2700 BC. Old Lemizh, by contrast, is fairly well attested. It had predominantly [[w:Subject–verb–object|subject–verb–object]] (SVO) word order and was a quite typical old Indo-European language, but with a couple of interesting quirks:
* Adjectives were lost as a separate part of speech, being replaced with participles ("white" > "being white").
* Finite subordinate clauses had their subject in the case of the clause: the subject of a local clause was in the locative case without having a local meaning in itself.
The earliest known documents from this stage of Lemizh were probably written around 2100 BC along the northern and western shores of the Back Sea.

===Ghean and Middle Lemizh===
Ghean ([[Help:IPA|[ˈɣɛən]]]) is a language with no known genetic relationships. It was spoken by a people of unknown origin, who subdued the Lemizh tribes in around 1000 BC and ruled for infamous three generations. Ghean was an inflected [[w:Tonal language|register tonal]] language with strict [[w:Verb–subject–object|verb–subject–object]] (VSO) word order and head-first phrases. It had verbs, [[w:Nominal (linguistics)|nominals]] (a combined noun/adjective/participle part of speech), pronouns and particles.

The Gheans discouraged the use of the natives' language, but obviously tolerated Lemizh words (or rather word stems) to stand in for unfamiliar Ghean ones. The grammar of simple sentences was easy enough to learn for the Lemizh, as they were used to inflection and head-first phrases, and likely still knew VSO sentences from poetry. After two or three generations, the natives must have spoken a [[w:Creole language|creole]] with a more or less Ghean grammar but an abundance of Lemizh words, especially outside the core vocabulary. This is a quite unusual development as most creoles draw their lexicon mainly from the dominant group, and tend to be grammatically more innovative. (The Tanzanian language [[w:Mbugu language|Mbugu]] might have had a somewhat similar development with more or less analogous outcomes.) After the disappearance of the Gheans, Lemizh patriots tried to revive their old language, which failed spectacularly for the grammar but reintroduced many Lemizh words of the core vocabulary.

===The last three millennia===
While Middle Lemizh as spoken after the Ghean occupation already had a non-Indo-European and unusually regular grammar, this trend was to continue over the following millennia. The factive case was innovated to express verbal nouns, which eventually supplanted verbs altogether. (At least part of the blame goes to the Tlöngö̀l, an epic novel published in 1351, which popularised the use of verbal nouns.) The tonal system was simplified to the present two-way [[w:Pitch-accent language|pitch-accent]] system. Pronouns lost their status as a separate part of speech. The last particles died out a few hundred years ago, leaving the language with a single part of speech which is often called a "verb" but, historically speaking, is really a nominal. This means that the concept of ''parts of speech'' does not make sense in Modern Lemizh.

This article describes the dialect spoken to the north of the [[w:Danube Delta|Danube delta]], which prevailed against other variants and is considered the standard language today.

==Orthography and phonology==
The alphabet is [[w:Phonetic orthography|phonetic]]: each letter corresponds to a certain sound, and each sound is represented by a single letter. The direction of writing is left to right. This article uses the standard transcription of the native Lemizh alphabet as given here:
{| class="wikitable" style="width: 800px; table-layout: fixed; text-align: center"
! colspan="29" | Letters of the Lemizh alphabet
|-
| colspan="29" style="padding: 0" | [[File:Lemizh alphabet.png|796px]]
|-
| a || e || y || i || o || ö || u || ü || l || rh || r || ng || m || g || d || b || k || t || p || gh || zh || z || dh || w || x || sh || s || th || f
|}

===Consonants===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="2" | !! bilabial !! dental !! alveolar !! postalveolar !! velar
|-
! colspan="2" | nasals
| m <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial nasal|m]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || || || ng <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar nasal|ŋ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! colspan="2" | plosives (voiceless • voiced)
| p <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless bilabial plosive|p]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • b <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial plosive|b]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || t <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless alveolar plosive|t]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • d <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar plosive|d]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || k <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless velar plosive|k]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • g <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar plosive|g]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! colspan="2" | fricatives (voiceless • voiced)
| f <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless bilabial fricative|ɸ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • w <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial fricative|β]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || th <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless dental fricative|θ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • dh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced dental fricative|ð]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || s <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless alveolar sibilant|s]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • z <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar sibilant|z]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || sh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless palato-alveolar fricative|ʃ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • zh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced palato-alveolar fricative|ʒ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || x <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless velar fricative|x]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • gh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar fricative|ɣ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! rowspan="3" | liquids || lateral approximant
| || || l <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar lateral approximant|l]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|-
! approximant
| || || rh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar approximant|ɹ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|-
! trill
| || || r <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar trill|r]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|}
The plosive-fricative combinations ''pf, ts, tsh, kx'' and their voiced couterparts only occur at word boundaries and in compound words. They are not pronounced as affricates but as separate sounds. The same applies for other combinations of a plosive plus another consonant (''pm, tl'' etc.), as well as for two identical plosives (''kk'' etc.): the release of the first plosive is always audible.

===Vowels===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! rowspan="2" | !! colspan="2" | front !! colspan="2" | back
|-
! unrounded !! rounded !! unrounded !! rounded
|-
! close
| i <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close front unrounded vowel|i]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ü <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close front rounded vowel|y]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || y <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close back unrounded vowel|ɯ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || u <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close back rounded vowel|u]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! open-mid
| e <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid front unrounded vowel|ɛ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ö <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid front rounded vowel|œ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || a <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid back unrounded vowel|ʌ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || o <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid back rounded vowel|ɔ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|}
Two consecutive different vowels are pronounced as a diphthong; two consecutive identical vowels as a long one. Single vowels are always short.

Lemizh uses [[w:Mora (linguistics)|moræ]] for structuring words: a short syllable equals one mora, and a long syllable equals two. In Lemizh, every vowel is the centre of a mora; consequently, two consecutive vowels result in two moræ or one long syllable.

===Accent===
Lemizh has got a two-way pitch-accent system, in that accented moræ are not only spoken louder (as in English), but also have either a lower or a higher pitch than the surrounding unaccented ones. The accented mora is always the ultimate or penultimate of a word. The vowel at the centre of a low-pitch accented mora is transcribed with a grave accent, the vowel at the centre of a high-pitch accented mora with an acute accent.
{| class="wikitable" style="width: 220px; table-layout: fixed; text-align: center"
! colspan="8" | Accented vowel letters
|-
| colspan="8" style="padding: 0" | [[File:Lemizh accented vowels.png|216px]]
|-
| à || è || ỳ || ì || ò || ö̀ || ù || ǜ
|-
| á || é || ý || í || ó || ö́ || ú || ǘ
|}

===Phonotactics===
[[w:Phonotactics|Phonotactics]] is rather permissive in Lemizh. A mora has the following structure, where the bracketed parts are optional:
* (O)(N)(L)V(L)(N)(O)
V is the mora's vowel, L a liquid, N a nasal, and O an obstruent that can be either a P(losive), a F(ricative), FP, PF, FF, FFP, FPF, or PFF. Word-initial consonant clusters cannot contain more than three sounds. No geminate consonants (<abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''ff'' etc.) occur within a mora. Consecutive plosive-fricative or fricative-plosive combinations within the same mora must have the same sonority – either both are voiced, or both are voiceless. A plosive cannot have the same place of articulation as a following consonant with the exception of ''rh'' and ''r''. <abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''dzh'', <abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''ddh'' and their voiceless counterparts are also prohibited within a mora.

Word boundaries, including those within compound words, are always mora boundaries. Where mora boundaries would still be ambiguous, liquids and nasals are assigned to the earliest possible mora (as the ''m'' in ''lem·ỳzh.''), and obstruents to the latest possible mora.

==Morphology==
All words are composed of the following parts:
* Prestem + inner case + poststem + outer case
Prestem and poststem form the stem, or the lexical part, of the word. The division of the stem into two portions is similar to English verbs such as ''sing/sang/sung'', where the lexical part is ''s–ng'' while the vowels ''i/a/u'' convey grammatical information. The stem always denotes an action (but never a state, a person, a thing, a property, etc.) and thus resembles our verbs. The prestem can contain any sounds, or it can be zero (i.e. consisting of zero sounds). The poststem can only contain fricatives and plosives, or it can be zero as well.

The inner case is represented by one of the eight vowels, optionally followed by a liquid (the primary case suffix) and/or a nasal (the secondary case suffix). The outer case has the same structure. For the first word in each sentence, the main predicate, the outer case is missing.

Each case is defined by its ''descriptor'': for example, the factive case denotes an ''action'', the nominative a ''sender'', the locative a ''place''. The stem and the inner case's descriptor determine a word's meaning.

'''Examples'''
* ''wàx. w–x'' is the stem for "speak", ''-a-'' denotes the inner factive, so this word means "an action of speaking", translated as the verb "to speak" or the [[w:Verbal noun|verbal noun]] "speaking".
* ''wèx. -e-'' denotes the inner nominative, so this word means "a sender of speaking" or "a speaker".
* ''àrdh. ∅–dh'' (having a zero prestem) is the stem for "eat", ''-ar-'' denotes the inner locative: "a place of eating".
The customary [[w:Lemma (morphology)|citation form]] of a word is the one with inner factive.

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Primary cases and their descriptors
|-
! rowspan="3" | № !! rowspan="3" | Case vowel !! colspan="4" | Primary case suffix
|-
| none || l || rh || r
|-
! Plot cases !! Causal cases !! Temporal cases !! Spatial cases
|-
| 1 || a || factive ({{sc|fact}}): ''action'' || affirmative ({{sc|aff}}): ''fact (point in causal chain)'' || temporal ({{sc|temp}}): ''time'' || locative ({{sc|loc}}): ''place/region''
|-
| 2 || e || nominative ({{sc|nom}}): ''source, sender'' || causative ({{sc|caus}}): ''direct cause'' || ingressive ({{sc|ing}}): ''starting time'' || elative ({{sc|ela}}): ''starting point/region''
|-
| 3 || y || accusative ({{sc|acc}}): ''content'' || contextual ({{sc|ctx}}): ''causal context'' || durative ({{sc|dur}}): ''duration'' || extensive ({{sc|ext}}): ''spatial extent''
|-
| 4 || i || dative ({{sc|dat}}): ''sink, recipient'' || consecutive ({{sc|cons}}): ''direct consequence, effect'' || egressive ({{sc|egr}}): ''closing time'' || illative ({{sc|ill}}): ''end point / ending region''
|-
| 5 || o || tentive ({{sc|ten}}): ''intention'' || intentive ({{sc|int}}): ''intention (intended point in causal chain)'' || episodic ({{sc|eps}}): ''episode, "act"'' || scenic ({{sc|sce}}): ''scene, "stage"''
|-
| 6 || ö || comitative ({{sc|com}}): ''company'' || persuasive ({{sc|psu}}): ''reason'' || digressive ({{sc|dig}}): ''time away from which'' || ablative ({{sc|abl}}): ''place/region away from which''
|-
| 7 || u || instrumental ({{sc|ins}}): ''means, tool'' || motivational ({{sc|mot}}): ''motivational context'' || progressive ({{sc|prog}}): ''time that is passed'' || prolative ({{sc|prol}}): ''crossing point/region''
|-
| 8 || ü || benefactive ({{sc|ben}}): ''beneficiary'' || final ({{sc|fin}}): ''purpose, aim'' || aggressive ({{sc|agg}}): ''time towards which, temporal aim'' || allative ({{sc|all}}): ''place/region towards which, spatial aim''
|}
Each primary case has two corresponding secondary cases:
* a partitive case formed by adding ''ng'' (such as ''-ing-'' for the partitive dative or ''-erng-'' for the partitive elative) with the descriptor ''the set from which the source (sink, place, etc.) is thought to be taken'': ''wèngx.'' is "the set from which the speaker is thought to be taken", i.e. "the speaker, among others".
* a qualitative case formed by adding ''m'', with the descriptor ''the basis of comparison for the source (sink, place, etc.)'': ''wèmx.'' informally translates as "someone like a speaker".

===The plot===
Every action denoted by a stem is considered a flow of information that comes from a source (sender), transports a content, and reaches a sink (a recipient). The terms "sender" and "recipient" may be more familiar, but "source" and "sink" are more accurate in not necessarily meaning living beings.

Consequently, a Lemizh action looks somewhat like this: '''nominative  accusative[[File:DreieckGreenMIDDLE.png|26px|link=]] dative'''

This is called the action's plot. Here are some examples:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative
|-
| ''wàx.'' "to speak, to talk, to tell; (an action of) speaking" || ''wèx.'' "one telling something" || ''wỳx.'' "a tale" || ''wìx.'' "one who is told something"
|-
| ''dà.'' "to give; (an action of) giving" || ''dè.'' "one giving something" || ''dỳ.'' "a gift" || ''dì.'' "one who is given something; one who gets something"
|-
| ''làzhw.'' "to help" || ''lèzhw.'' "one helping" || ''lỳzhw.'' "help (given)" || ''lìzhw.'' "one whom is helped"
|-
| ''mlàtx.'' "to melt" || ''mlètx.'' "one melting something" || [''mlỳtx.''] || ''mlìtx.'' "a melted thing"
|-
| ''xöàgh.'' "to produce a sound; to hear" || ''xöègh.'' "one producing a sound" || ''xöỳgh.'' "a sound" || ''xöìgh.'' "one hearing something"
|-
| ''àdh.'' "to feed; to eat" || ''èdh.'' "one feeding someone" || ''ỳdh.'' "food" || ''ìdh.'' "one being fed; one eating"
|-
| ''ià.'' "to love" || ''iè.'' "one loving someone, a lover" || ''iỳ.'' "a beloved" || ''iì.'' "a beloved"
|}
Importantly, there are no rules for which cases to use with which words. Both ''iỳ.'' ({{sc|acc}}) and ''iì.'' ({{sc|dat}}) mean "a beloved". The former describes the beloved as the content of love, the one being lovingly thought of, while the latter implies that the love reaches them, like words or gifts reach their recipient. Likewise, the reason why ''mlỳtx.'' is not translated in the table above isn't that "''melt'' does not take the accusative", as grammars of other languages would say, but that "a content of melting" does not seem to have any obvious meaning. If someone wanted to describe, say, sun rays as content transported from the sun to the snow to melt it, they could well use ''mlỳtx.'' to express the concept.

Case usage is governed solely by the cases' descriptors; it is up to the speaker how to use them given some word's meaning and some context. If the wind opens a door, is it the source of the action of opening (''ngèt.''), the means of opening (''ngùt.''), or the cause (''ngèlt.'')? All are grammatically correct; the speaker decides which possibility best expresses their intention.

===Nouns===
:''Nouns, adjectives and verbs do not correspond to any concepts in Lemizh grammar. Using these terms is just an attempt to describe the grammar from an Indo-European viewpoint.''
A large number of nouns are not derived from verbs in most languages: ''froth, ship, lion'' and many others. In Lemizh, however, we have verbs such as ''psràxk.'' "to froth", ''àksh.'' "to build a ship or ships", and ''làw.'' "to make a lion or lions". We will call these ''nominal verbs''.

Looking at the verb ''àksh.'', the shipwright ({{sc|nom}}) gives the building materials ({{sc|dat}}) the properties or the function of a ship ({{sc|acc}}). He confers, well, shipness on the materials. The shipness is sent by the shipwright, not because he is acting, but because he is the source: the image of the ship, so to say, comes from his head and materialises in wood, iron, ropes, and linen. In short, these words mostly appear with inner accusative.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative
|-
| ''psràxk.'' "to froth" || ''psrèxk.'' "one frothing something" || ''psrỳxk.'' "a thing having the properties of froth = '''froth'''" || ''psrìxk.'' "a frothed thing, a frothed liquid"
|-
| ''àksh.'' "to build a ship" || ''èksh.'' "one building a ship, a shipwright" || ''ỳksh.'' "a thing having the properties of a ship = '''a ship'''" || ''ìksh.'' "building materials for a ship, materials made into a ship"
|-
| ''làw.'' "to make a lion" || [''lèw.'' "one making a lion"] || ''lỳw.'' "a thing having the properties of a lion = '''a lion'''" || [''lìw.'' "building materials for a lion, materials made into a lion"]
|}

Another very common kind of nouns are tool nouns, formed with an inner instrumental case:
* ''ghstù.'' "a sail" is derived from ''ghstà.'' "to sail", literally "a means of sailing",
* ''pslù.'' "scissors" from ''pslà.'' "to cut with scissors",
* ''saxùf.'' "a trumpet" from ''saxàf.'' "to play the trumpet",
* ''skrùzh.'' "a finger" from ''skràzh.'' "to work with one's fingers".

====Inflection====
As mentioned above, all words can inflect for (outer) case. Thus, we have the nominative forms ''wàx'''e''''' "(an action of) speaking, talking, telling", ''dè'''e''''' "a giver", ''lỳw'''e''''' "a lion", the causative ''lỳw'''el''''' "because of a lion", the elative ''lỳw'''er''''' "(starting) from a lion", etc.

Lemizh words do not inflect for number or gender. If desired, we can express this information by forming compounds. (Note the duplication of the inner case vowel; the first occurrence in each word is called the epenthetic case of the compound. The underlying grammar will be described later.)
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Singular !! Dual !! Plural !! Feminine !! Masculine !! Feminine singular !! etc.
|-
! giver
| ''dè.'' || ''de'''rè'''.'' || ''de'''dwè'''.'' || ''de'''mlè'''.'' || ''de'''bè'''.'' || ''de'''èx'''.'' || ''de'''berè'''.''
|-
! lion
| ''lỳw.'' || ''lyw'''rỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''dwỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''mlỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''bỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''ỳx'''.'' || ''lyw'''byrỳ'''.''
|-
! compound with
| — || ''rỳ.'' "one" || ''dwỳ.'' "two" || ''mlỳ.'' "several" || ''bỳ.'' "female; woman" || ''ỳx.'' "male; man" || "female" and "one"
|}

===Adjectives and numerals===
There is no difference between adjectival and nominal verbs: they mostly appear with inner accusative. This is the same situation as in, say, Latin, where ''albus'' can mean "a white one" as well as "white". Numerals are basically a sub-category of adjectives.

The inner consecutive case translates certain abstract nouns.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative !! Inner consecutive
|-
| ''làbdh.'' "to whiten something, to make something white" || ''lèbdh.'' "one whitening something" || ''lỳbdh.'' "a white thing; '''white'''" || ''lìbdh.'' "a thing made white; whitened" || ''lìlbdh.'' "the consequence of whitening = whiteness"
|-
| ''gmrà.'' "to warm, to make something warm" || ''gmrè.'' "one warming something" || ''gmrỳ.'' "a warm thing; '''warm'''" || ''gmrì.'' "a warmed thing; warmed" || ''gmrìl.'' "the consequence of warming = warmth"
|-
| ''dwà.'' "to make two things/individuals" || ''dwè.'' "one making two things" || ''dwỳ.'' "'''two''' (things)" || ''dwì.'' "something made into two (things)" || ''dwìl.'' "the consequence of making two things = twoness"
|}

However, emotions aren't viewed as properties in Lemizh: a happy or angry person is one sending happiness or anger, just as a loving person is one sending love. The inner causative plays a notable role with verbs of emotion.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative !! Inner causative
|-
| ''pthàb.'' "to be angry" || ''pthèb.'' "an angry one; '''angry'''" || ''pthỳb.'' "the content/object of one's anger" || ''pthìb.'' "one that one's anger reaches" || ''pthèlb.'' "one causing someone anger; one annoying someone"
|}

====Inflection====
Of course, adjectives can be compounded to express number and/or gender in the same way as nouns. Furthermore, we can form compounds expressing various degrees. (The epenthetic consecutive ''-il-'' in these compounds will also be explained later; it is actually the main application of the abstract nouns just mentioned.)
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Diminutive !! Augmentative !! Absolute !! Comparative !! Superlative
|-
! warm
| ''gmrỳ.'' || ''gmril'''zhrỳ'''.'' "lukewarm" || ''gmril'''dmỳ'''.'' "hot" || ''gmril'''ghngỳ'''.'' "absolutely hot" || ''gmril'''tỳzhd'''.'' "warmer, hotter" || ''gmril'''ỳst'''.'' "hottest"
|-
! white
| ''lỳbdh.'' || ''lilbdh'''zhrỳ'''.'' "whitish" || ''lilbdh'''dmỳ'''.'' "very white" || ''lilbdh'''ghngỳ'''.'' "absolutely/completely white" || ''lilbdh'''tỳzhd'''.'' "whiter" || ''lilbdh'''ỳst'''.'' "whitest"
|-
! compound with
| — || ''zhrỳ.'' "few, little, a bit" || ''dmỳ.'' "much, many" || ''ghngỳ.'' "every, all, the whole" || ''tỳzhd.'' "more" || ''ỳst.'' "most"
|}

===Verbs===
Most verbs correspond to Lemizh words with an inner factive. However, as Lemizh stems always denote an action, the notable exception are stative verbs such as:
* ''zdìls.'' "to sit", literally "the consequence of sitting down (''zdàs.'')"
* ''gwìlt.'' "to know", literally "the consequence of learning (''gwàt.'')"

====Inflection====
* Person is not expressed with inflection but with [[#Relative pronouns|pronouns]].
* Number is conveyed by compounding pronouns with numerals. While verbs (i.e. words with an inner factive) can be compounded with numerals, ''ftrask'''mlà'''.'' does not mean "we/they sneeze" but "(there are) several acts of sneezing" (i.e. someone sneezes several times and/or several people sneeze).
* Voice (active/passive) is absent in Lemizh; word order serves a similar function.
* Tense is expressed by compounds with an epenthetic temporal case (''-arh-''), or with certain inner cases. The latter option is preferred if possible, as it is more concise.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Present !! Past !! Perfect !! Future !! Intentional
|-
! to sit down
| ''zdàs.'' || ''zdarhs'''wà'''.'' || ''zdarhs'''prilkà'''.'' || ''zd'''ìl'''s.'' ({{sc|cons}}) || ''zdarhs'''prà'''.'' || ''zd'''ò'''s.'' ({{sc|ten}})
|-
! compound with
| — || pronoun || ''prilkỳ.'' "back" || — || ''prỳ.'' "front" || —
|}
Note that the translation of the perfect with inner consecutive coincides with the translation of stative verbs: "having sat down" in the strict perfect sense of "the consequence/effect of this action exists" means the same as "to sit". Likewise, "whiteness" can be expressed as the abstract concept of "having whitened something".

* Mood corresponds to compounds with certain verbs for the most part. There is no equivalent to the subjunctive mood, as subordinate clauses are irreal (i.e. not necessarily real) by default. Here are some common formations:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Indicative !! Imperative !! Commanding imperative !! Interrogative Polite imperative !! Optative
|-
! to feed, to eat
| ''àdh.'' || ''adh'''pràk'''.'' || ''adh'''dàxt'''.'' || ''adh'''pà'''.'' || ''adh'''làxt'''.''
|-
! compound with
| — || ''pràk.'' "to request" || ''dàxt.'' "to command" || ''pà.'' "to ask" || ''làxt.'' "to want"
|}
* Aspect is a very diverse category, expressed by a variety of compounds and syntactic structures in Lemizh.

===Pronouns===
The two demonstrative pronouns are technically nominal verbs:
* ''tà.'' "to make this/that one", typically used with inner accusative: ''tỳ.'' "this/that (one)"
* ''gwà.'' "to make someone/anyone, something/anything", with inner accusative ''gwỳ.'' "someone/anyone, something/anything"

The eleven relative pronouns play a far more prominent role in Lemizh grammar. Their scope is much wider than the one usually associated with the term. As they are closely tied to Lemizh syntax, they are described [[#Relative pronouns|further down]].

==Syntax==
===Level of words===
There is only one more grammatical category: the level of words, which is the main building block of Lemizh syntax. A word can be of first level (the highest), of second level (the next highest), of third level (still one level lower) and so on; there is no limit for the number of levels, but non-positive word levels (zero, −1, etc.) are forbidden.

The first word in a sentence (the main predicate) is of first level by definition. The level of the next word is determined by the main predicate's accent and by the type of pause between the two words, the level of the third word is determined by the accent of the second and the pause between these two, and so on.

Here is the complete list of pause/accent combinations.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="2" | Following pause !! rowspan="2" | Accented vowel !! rowspan="2" | Type of accent !! rowspan="2" | The level of the next word is …
|-
! in speech !! in writing
|-
| rowspan="4" | barely audible || rowspan="4" | space || rowspan="2" | inner case || low || lower by 1
|-
| high || lower by 1, and [[w:Agent (grammar)|agentive]]* ({{sc|a}})
|-
| rowspan="2" | outer case || low || equal
|-
| high || higher by 1
|-
| rowspan="4" | a bit longer || rowspan="4" | comma ('''·''') || rowspan="2" | inner case || low || higher by 2
|-
| high || higher by 3
|-
| rowspan="2" | outer case || low || higher by 4
|-
| high || higher by 5
|-
| the longest || full stop ('''∶''') || inner case || low || none; end of sentence
|}
<nowiki>*</nowiki> The agent is the initiator of the action (more informally, the one who ''does'' the action).

===The Rules===
[[File:Lemizh parse tree.png|thumb|upright=1.5|A schematic sentence with the words represented by their level numbers]]
The word levels determine the structure of a sentence.

'''Rule One of sentence grammar. A word of level n is subordinate to the nearest word of level n−1 in front of it; the parole acts as a word of level zero.'''

All words of second level are subordinate to the main predicate (which has first level). A word of third level is subordinate to the next second-level word in front of it, and so on. In other words, Lemizh sentences are strictly [[w:Head directionality|head-first]]. The main predicate itself is subordinate to the [[w:Parole (linguistics)|parole]], the action of speaking (or writing) the sentence in question, which consequently has level zero.

'''Rule Two. An object of a word in a sentence is a word subordinate to the former, its predicate, plus all of its own objects.'''

In the diagram, the main predicate's three objects are enclosed in ellipses. Objects of the same word are called ''sibling objects'' or just ''siblings'', and the word they are subordinate to is their ''predicate''. Note that ''predicate'' and ''object'' are relative terms like ''parent'' and ''child''.

The table of level markers implies that only the first object of a predicate can be marked as agent. (This has been interpreted as Lemizh having VSO word order, although a subject is not quite the same as an agent, and Lemizh grammar strictly speaking does not have the concept of a subject.)

'''Rule Three. The outer case of the first word of an object defines its relation to its predicate's stem via its descriptor; the outer case of a level 1 word is zero.'''

This is what we would expect from a language that inflects for case: the nominative object defines the source (sender) of the action named by the stem of its predicate, the accusative object its content, the temporal object its time, etc.

'''Examples'''
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dá föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|give-FACT-1 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2A bottle-ACC-ACC-2 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2.
|''Father Christmas gives Lucy a bottle.''}}

The stems of the three objects are nominal verbs ("to make a bottle" etc.), hence the inner accusatives. The outer cases indicate the sender, content and recipient of the action of giving, respectively. The agent is specified independently of the plot arrow; note the difference:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dá lusyì dwywỳ föpysrỳfe.
|give-FACT-1 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2A bottle-ACC-ACC-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2.
|''Lucy takes a bottle from Father Christmas.''}}

We need not mark an object as agentive if we consider this information unimportant. The English translations are only rough approximations:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dà lusyì dwywỳ föpysrỳfe.
|give-FACT-1 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2 bottle-ACC-ACC-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2.
|''Lucy gets a bottle from Father Christmas. Lucy is given a bottle by Father Christmas.''}}

Rule Three defines outer case in a way that mirrors the definition of inner case. This allows for an operation called '''inversion''' (symbolized "⇔"):
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|làzhw wèxi. ⇔ wáx lìzhwe.
|help-FACT-1 speak-'''NOM'''-'''DAT'''-2. ⇔ speak-FACT-1 help-'''DAT'''-'''NOM'''-2A.
|''[Someone] helps the speaker. ⇔ The one being helped speaks.''}}

Both sentences claim that the sender of speaking is the recipient of helping. The equation is ''wèx.'' = ''lìzhw.'', the speaker = the one being helped.

'''Rule Four. An instance of a word stem designates a specific action.'''

''dà'' in the above sentence does not just mean "to give", it refers to one specific action of giving. Such an action may involve several givers (as in "They give something") and need not even be temporally or spatially contiguous (as in "They are giving something every Christmas"). In other words, each spoken or written instance of the stem ''d–'' refers to a certain subset of all the giving there is.

This rule ensures that all the objects refer to the same action of giving as the predicate itself.

'''Rule Five. A case characterises the action it refers to completely with regard to its case descriptor.'''

For example, the nominative object "Father Christmas" has to name the complete sender of the above instance of giving. This excludes from this instance all giving not done by Father Christmas. So each object places a restriction on the action of giving the main predicate refers to. Thus, the subset of giving meant by this instance of ''dà.'' – what the sentence is ultimately talking about – is defined more and more precisely with each additional object. (The same is true not only of the main predicate but of all words in a sentence.)

'''Rule Six. A missing object is equivalent to the absence of information about its descriptor.'''

Above sentences do not have, for example, locative objects, so Rule Five cannot place a restriction on the place of giving. Because of Rule Six, this does not mean there are no restrictions on the location, but only that this kind of information has not been included in the sentence (for example, because the speaker does not know about it, considers it irrelevant, assumes that the listener already knows or – perhaps most importantly – that the listener can infer it). In fact, everything not useful for understanding a sentence should be omitted to save the listener processing effort. (See the inversion example above, which omits the nominative "someone".)

Rules Five and Six imply that every instance of a word has exactly one action (which, however, need not be contiguous), one sender (which can consist of several people), and so on: Five excludes additional senders if one nominative object is already present, and Six gives meaning to missing objects, establishing them as an integral part of Lemizh sentence grammar.

'''Rule Seven. Given an object and its predicate, the predicate is considered more real and the object more hypothetical.'''

…

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! as an object !! as a complete sentence
|-
| ''dà.'' || to give; giving || An action of giving exists = Someone gives something.
|-
| ''zdìls.'' || the consequence of sitting down = to sit; sitting || The consequence of sitting down exists = Someone sits.
|-
| ''dwìlw.'' || the consequence of making a bottle || The consequence of making a bottle exists = A bottle exists; there is a bottle.
|-
| ''sklè.'' || one building a bridge || One building a bridge exists = There is someone building a bridge.
|}

===Noun phrases===
Forming noun phrases does not require any new grammatical rules. In the following example, the inner case of "give" is changed to the nominative, yielding "one giving something, a giver", and everything is pushed down one level. The third-level words are still sender, content and recipient of the ''action'' of giving, as outer cases define relations to the predicate's ''stem'' per Rule Three.
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 3A:third level, agentive
|dmàt tryxkì dée föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|see-FACT-1 beaver-ACC-DAT-2 give-'''NOM'''-NOM-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-3A bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3.
|''The beaver sees '''the one giving Lucy a bottle, Father Christmas'''.''}}
Regarding the verb "see", note that the beaver is in the dative, being at the receiving end of the optical stimulus or information. Marking the beaver as agent would translate as "The beaver looks at the one …".

Rules Four and Five guarantee that the giver is identical to Father Christmas: both are the sender of the same instance of the stem ''d–'' "give" (the giver via its inner nominative, Father Christmas via its outer nominative), and both are the ''complete'' sender of this action. This type of construction, where an object's outer case matches its predicate's inner case, is called a '''bracket'''. Brackets are very widely used:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Apposition !! Attributive adjective !! Attributive pronoun/determiner !! Attributive numeral !! Attributive participle
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|iakopỳk saxèfy.
|Jacopo-'''ACC'''-1 trumpet-NOM-'''ACC'''-2.
|''Jacopo, a trumpeter''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=INS:instrumental case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|ghstù lỳbdhu.
|sail-'''INS'''-1 white-ACC-'''INS'''-2.
|''a sail, a white thing = a white sail''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|ỳksh gwỳy.
|ship-'''ACC'''-1 some-ACC-'''ACC'''-2.
|''a ship, something = some ship''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|mỳs trỳy.
|mouse-'''ACC'''-1 three-ACC-'''ACC'''-2.
|''mice, three individuals = three mice''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|nỳzd gangèy.
|bird-'''ACC'''-1 sing-NOM-'''ACC'''-2.
|''a bird, a singer = a singing bird''}}
|}
Such phrases can be easily extended. This example contains two accusative brackets ("a singing bird" and "a sad child"):
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 4:fourth level
|ngỳzd gangèy zhngỳi speghý ytfỳarh.
|bird-ACC-1 sing-NOM-ACC-2 child-ACC-DAT-3 sad-NOM-ACC-4 night-ACC-TEMP-3.
|''a bird singing to a sad child at night''}}

Adverbially used adjectives are phrased with factive brackets. However, changing the predicate's inner case leaves the object's outer factive intact, losing the bracket.
{|
|-
| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|gangà txỳska.
|sing-'''FACT'''-1 loud-ACC-'''FACT'''-2.
|''(an action of) singing, a loud thing = loud singing = singing loudly, to sing loudly''}}

| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|nỳzd gangèy txỳska.
|bird-ACC-1 sing-NOM-ACC-2 loud-ACC-'''FACT'''-3.
|''a bird, a loud singer = a bird singing loudly'' (The '''action''' of singing is a loud thing.)}}
|}

As [[w:Genitive construction|genitive constructions]] have a wide variety of meanings, there is no single Lemizh equivalent. The typical translation for constructions indicating possession is with the benefactive case, but other cases frequently occur. Everything depends on the object's relation to the predicate's stem per Rule Three.
{|
|-
| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|dwỳw lusỳü.
|bottle-ACC-1 Lucy-ACC-'''BEN'''-2.
|Lucy is the beneficiary of making the bottle. The bottle is made for Lucy. 
''Lucy's bottle''}}

| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dý ỳxe.
|give-ACC-1 male-ACC-'''NOM'''-2A.
|The man is the sender of giving. 
''the man's gift''}}

| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|rhỳst ytfỳarh filpskỳy.
|dream-ACC-1 night-ACC-'''TEMP'''-2 midsummer-ACC-ACC-3.
| The midsummer night is the time of dreaming. 
''A Midsummer Night's Dream''}}
|}

===Dependent clauses===
Non-finite and conjunctional clauses employ the same principles as above:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive; 3:third level
|láxt föpysryfè dày dwywỳ lusỳi.
|want-FACT-1 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2A give-'''FACT'''-ACC-2 bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3.
|''Father Christmas wants '''to give Lucy a bottle'''.'' ("Father Christmas" is omitted from the dependent clause per Rule Six.)}}

The difference between English gerund clauses and finite that-clauses roughly translates into a difference between an inner factive (''action'') and an inner affirmative (''fact'').
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 3A:third level, agentive
|dmàt tryxkì dáe föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|see-FACT-1 beaver-ACC-DAT-2 give-'''FACT'''-NOM-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-3A bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3.
|''The beaver sees [the action of] '''Father Christmas giving Lucy a bottle'''.'' (The dependent clause could also be in the accusative to focus on the optical information transmitted to the beaver.)}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; AFF:affirmative case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 3A:third level, agentive
|dmàt tryxkì dále föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|see-FACT-1 beaver-ACC-DAT-2 give-'''AFF'''-NOM-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-3A bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3.
|''The beaver sees [the fact of] '''Father Christmas giving Lucy a bottle'''. The beaver sees '''that''' Father Christmas gives Lucy a bottle.''}}

Some examples of dependent clauses translating into objects in various cases:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|fngà kshngày.
|try-FACT-1 shout-FACT-'''ACC'''-2.
|''[She] tried to shout [but this was difficult because of her sore throat].''}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|fngà kshngàu.
|try-FACT-1 shout-FACT-'''INS'''-2.
|''[She] tried shouting [as he hadn't heard her when she had spoken quietly].'' (Shouting is the means of trying.)}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PSU:persuasive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 4:fourth level
|pàf làxtöl dmàty föpysrỳfe.
|stand-FACT-1 want-FACT-'''PSU'''-2 see-FACT-ACC-3 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-4.
|''[He] stood up because [he] wanted to see Father Christmas.''}}

Relative clauses are structurally identical to (extended) attributive participles as described above; they are brackets: ''a bird which sings to a sad child at night = a bird singing to a sad child at night''. This is also true of clauses with relative adverbs:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level; 3A:third level, agentive
|ngỳw gangáry lỳbe.
|valley-ACC-1 sing-LOC-ACC-2 flower-ACC-NOM-3A.
|''a valley, the place of the singing of flowers = a valley where flowers sing''}}

Adverbially used clauses …

===Predicative===
…


===Relative pronouns===
Stems of relative pronouns (not to be confused with the pronouns of the same name in English or Latin) refer to actions by pointing to another stem or to a parole: they are [[w:Anaphora (linguistics)|anaphoric]]. Here is the full list:
{| class="wikitable"
! rowspan="2" | Level !! colspan="2" | Type I !! colspan="2" | Type II
|-
! Verb !! The target is the stem of !! Verb !! The target is the stem of
|-
| n || colspan="2" | (does not occur because it would refer to itself) || à. || its preceding same-level word
|-
| n−1 || wà. || its predicate || fà. || its predicate's preceding same-level word or parole
|-
| n−2 || dhà. || its predicate's predicate || thà. || its predicate's predicate's preceding same-level word or parole
|-
| n−3 || zà. || its predicate's predicate's predicate || sà. || …
|-
| n−4 || zhà. || … || shà. || …
|-
| n−5 || ghà. || … || xà. || …
|}
They are highly versatile, corresponding to various structures in other languages. Recall that a sentence's parole has level zero:
{| class="wikitable"
! Reflexive !! First person (singular) !! Second person
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|wáx wìe.
|speak-FACT-1 PIn−1-'''DAT'''-'''NOM'''-2A.
|The recipient of speaking is its sender. 
''to talk to oneself. He is talking to himself.''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dráw dhèe.
|dance-FACT-1 PIn−2-'''NOM'''-NOM-2A.
|The sender of the parole is the sender of dancing. 
''I am dancing.''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dráw dhìe.
|dance-FACT-1 PIn−2-'''DAT'''-NOM-2A.
|The recipient of the parole is the sender of dancing. 
''You are dancing.''}}
|}
Rule Four of sentence grammar ensures that the reflexive example means "He is talking to himself" as opposed to, say, "He is talking to one being talked to" (which would be ''wáx wìxe.'' speak-{{sc|fact}}-1 speak-{{sc|dat-nom}}-2{{sc|a}}, with two different instances of the stem "speak").

{| class="wikitable"
! Possessive determiner !! Vocative
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=CONS:consecutive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|zdìls ngỳzdy zeú tỳar.
|seat-CONS-1 bird-ACC-ACC-2 PIn−3-'''NOM'''-BEN-3 this-ACC-LOC-2.
|The sender of the parole is the beneficiary of making a bird.
 ''My bird is sitting there.''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=PI:pronoun type I; FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive; 3:third level
|wáx dheè zdhèzhi zìe.
|speak-FACT-1 PIn−2-NOM-NOM-2A friend-NOM-DAT-2 PIn−3-'''DAT'''-NOM-3.
|The recipient of the parole is the friend. (nominative bracket) 
''Friend, I am talking to you.''}}
|}

The type II pronoun in the following example points to the stem of eating. With the inner accusative, the pronoun refers to the content of eating, which is the sweet. (As with brackets, Rules Four and Five guarantee that the pronoun refers to the same content of the same action of eating as mentioned in the first sentence.)
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; PII:pronoun type II; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|ádh dheì mlỳdhy. ràsh fỳy.
|eat-FACT-1 PIn−2-NOM-DAT-2A sweet-ACC-ACC-2. like-FACT-1 PIIn−1-'''ACC'''-ACC-2.
|''I am eating a sweet. [I] like it.''}}

==Derivational morphology==
From a Lemizh point of view, ''dè.'' "giver" and ''dỳ.'' "gift" aren't derivatives of ''dà.'' "to give" but grammatical forms of the same word. The only piece of true derivational morphology is compounding.

===Compounds===
[[File:Lemizh compounding diagram.png|thumb|Forming a compound from a two-word sentence]]
'''Rule One of compounding. A compound word is constructed from a two-word sentence – predicate and object of which become modifier and head of the compound, respectively – in the following way:'''
# '''Prestem''':
## the object's prestem
## the object's inner case
## the object's poststem
## an optional separator
## the predicate's prestem
# '''Inner case'''
# '''Poststem''': the predicate's poststem
# '''Outer case'''
Note that the object's stem comes before the predicate's; and also that the object's outer case (and, less importantly, the predicate's inner case) is lost. The object's inner case becomes part of the compound's prestem and is then called its ''epenthetic case''. The separator can be used, for example, if the word boundary would be unclear otherwise, or for placing the second part of the word on a new line.

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|làxt àdhy. ⇒ adhlàxt.
|want-FACT-1 eat-FACT-ACC-2. ⇒ eat-FACT-want-FACT-1.
|''[She] wants to eat.'' (See the inflection of [[#Verbs|verbs]].)}}
Here, the lost accusative ending has to be deduced from context.

'''Rule Two. In the relationship between the original predicate and object, the rules of sentence grammar are retained as far as applicable.'''

The consequences of this rule are somewhat technical; but the last one, pertaining to degree of reality, is important for correctly interpreting compounds.
* Rules One to Three of sentence grammar are not applicable to compounds, as can be easily seen.
* Four: Both modifier and head are instantiations of specific actions in the original sentence (which however do not necessarily match the instantiation of the compound).
* Five: The epenthetic case characterises the head completely with regard to its descriptor.
* Six: The only overt object of the modifier is the head. All other objects are missing and thus indicate the absence of information about their descriptors.
* Seven: The modifier has a higher degree of reality than the head. Therefore, the above compound does not claim that she actually eats.

'''Rule Three. Regarding all outward relations, cases''' (i.e. the compound's inner case [not to be confused with its epenthetic case], the outer cases of its objects, and cases of pronouns referring to it) '''refer to the head.'''
{|
|-
| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|adhkmàr mlỳdhy.
|eat-FACT-allow-LOC-1 sweet-ACC-ACC-2.
|''a place where one may eat sweets; a place for eating sweets''}}

| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|ngengadàxt fỳta.
|run-FACT-must-FACT-1 fast-ACC-FACT-1
|''[He] has to run fast.''}}
|}

These examples talk about the location of eating, as opposed to the location of allowing; about eating sweets, as opposed to allowing sweets; the running is fast, as opposed to the necessity; etc.

Number and gender of [[#Nouns|nouns]] are compounds from brackets which are first inverted to turn the more salient word into the compound's head: ''dè mlỳe. ⇔ mlỳ dèy.'' "several givers" ⇒ ''demlè.'' "givers". The inner nominative (''-e-'') becomes the epenthetic case, and the new inner case also has to be a nominative per Rule Three. ''demlỳ.'' (inner {{sc|acc}}), by contrast, is "something given by several people".

Compounds expressing degrees of [[#Adjectives and numerals|adjectives]] are also formed from brackets. They have an epenthetic consecutive (''-il-''), which stems from the corresponding abstract noun: ''gmrìl dmỳil. ⇔ dmỳ gmrìly.'' "much warmth" ⇒ ''gmrildmìl.'' "heat" (abstract noun formed with inner {{sc|cons}}), ''gmrildmỳ.'' "hot" (adjective with inner {{sc|acc}}).

The analogues of the present and future tenses are formed like so – note that inversion changes the pronoun's stem along with its level:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2:second level
|zdàs dhàarh. ⇔ wà zdàrhsa. ⇒ zdarhswà.
|seat-FACT-1 PIn−2-FACT-TEMP-2. ⇔ PIn−1-FACT-1 seat-TEMP-FACT-2. ⇒ seat-TEMP-PIn−1-FACT-1.
|''[She] sits down at the time of the parole. ⇒ [She] sits down now.''}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|zdàs prỳarh. ⇔ prỳ zdàrhsy. ⇒ zdarhsprà.
|seat-FACT-1 front-ACC-TEMP-2. ⇔ front-ACC-1 seat-TEMP-ACC-2. ⇒ seat-TEMP-front-FACT-1.
|''[She] sits down at a time in front [of the parole]. ⇒ [She] will sit down.''}}

==Example text==
[[File:Lemizh text sample.png|600px]]

====stedrỳzh thìrhfi xtrỳghy.====
krỳgh dghngireì prilxpilghkỳarh. mangỳ srungbỳng lyngghỳng yngshwỳng fỳü. zhöazhghngìl tmỳil. ghngàgzh smìa prỳal ghngyé dhàbdhy lunguỳ ùyl mỳu fplyxár tỳarh. dmát feì sxngengzè ishkènge. ghìlt krighmyngthxì xtrỳngghi swyshỳ ghỳxy fplyxòr zhöyzhỳm xngàrorm. dmìlt öngkrỳngty zhryỳ rèshy esfàsy sxngyzdmýi, usrỳngy xazhgèsty ghngỳeng, frekrỳngfy rilghdzhỳwby pthèby, dgheipysrỳngdy psrèby rhèzhem, dghistngỳngty ghỳxy zangỳa dghildhfmlýyrh, ngiftngyghtmỳngy krültlìy zùe gỳghda. xtrỳgh swyshý stedrỳzh thìrfi. dngilszhrìl bdhyrgzhyngỳng xüxtrỳngyng prilkỳarh ötìlil skmyngìlng ghỳngsilng. dngilszhìlwb ráxpy thìlfi. fö̀l gwiltngìlöl dmàty föpysryfỳ ngỳu.

rỳ zhryỳrh thìzgy gwiltngìly rhàghgy dmatngìe thìrfy. là xángska matngiè ytfỳyrh dmyý fplyxór dyxtngyngà mànga prilzhryngỳr iltỳngzhdyr. dmàt ytfỳarh ryý mìlngorh xngyì prilkyár mìlngorh xtrỳngghi kshrextý mengthxì prỳar zìe, fplỳngxe fywýr déngske xtryghè sxngezì xngỳnge.

====The Legend of the Seventh Planet====
A long time ago there was a tribe of nomads. They possessed neither writing nor houses nor horses. But they were truly human. They were curious; this means, above all, that they took interest in the useless, for the celestial objects were of no use to them yet. They looked at the Sun and the Moon. They had named the constellations and the six planets moving across the sky like the humans across the earth. They knew dim Mercury, who liked to hide in the glare of the Sun; Venus, the brightest of all; reddish and angry Mars; majestic father Jupiter; Saturn, who seemed to stand still for weeks; and even Uranus had been caught by their keen eyes. Six planets, and the legend of a seventh. Maybe it had been the minor planet Vesta, or a comet centuries or millennia earlier. Maybe it was the attraction of the number seven. For Neptune is invisible to the naked eye.

One youngster thought to himself that he could not live without seeing the seventh planet. He lay awake searching the sky for many nights, neglected his duties, and became thinner and thinner. And one night, lying with the Earth behind his back, and with the looping planets and the stars above him, he saw the depth of the sky and the planets circling the Sun, and among them the Earth.

==External links==
* [https://lemizh.conlang.org Lemizh homepage] with comprehensive coverage of the language, including a dictionary with etymologies, information on the language's pragmatics, and more background information
[[File:Copyleft1.png|20px]] ''This article is available under a [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License]. It includes material from the Lemizh homepage, which has the same license.''


[[Category:Languages]]
[[Category:Conlangs]]
[[Category:Indo-European languages]]
[[Category:Fusional languages]]

Lemizh

2022-05-18T19:49:38Z

Anypodetos: Tense; copyedit

{{Infobox language
|image =
|imagesize =
|name = Lemizh
|nativename = lemỳzh.
|pronunciation = lɛmˈɯ̀ʒ
|state = Lemaria
|setting = Alt-history Europe
|created = 1985
|familycolor = Indo-European
|fam2 = Lemizh
|ancestor = Proto-Lemizh
|posteriori = [[w:Proto-Indo-European|Proto-Indo-European]]
|creator = [[User:Anypodetos|Anypodetos]]
|scripts = Lemizh alphabet
|nation = Lemaria
|map = Map of Lemaria.png
|notice = IPA
}}
'''Lemizh''' ([[Help:IPA|[lεmˈiʒ]]], native pronunciation: [[Help:IPA|[lɛmˈɯ̀ʒ]]]) is a language I invented with the aim of creating a grammar as regular and simple as possible. It was originally intended as an [[w:International auxiliary language|international auxiliary language]]. However, it turned out that a simple grammar is not necessarily a grammar that is easy to learn: the more ways of simplification I found, the further away it moved from [[w:Indo-European languages|Indo-European]] and probably all other familiar language structures. Expecting anyone to learn Lemizh, at this point, would be unrealistic.

So I needed a new justification for the language: enter the Lemizh, a people living to the west and north of the [[w:Black Sea|Black Sea]] in an alternate history that slowly drifted away from ours between two and eight millennia ago. Of course, it is extremely unlikely that they would speak a language that was completely without exceptions. To be precise, the chances are two to the power of two hundred and seventy-six thousand seven hundred and nine to one against. But they say that everything has to happen somewhere in the Multiverse; and everything happens only once.

{{TOC limit}}

==History==
===Early stages===
Lemizh is an Indo-European language and, together with Volgan, constitutes one of the ten recognised branches of the Indo-European language family. This branch is also called Lemizh, to the disgruntlement of Volgan linguists.

Proto-Lemizh, the ancestor of Lemizh and Volgan, is very poorly attested in form of some papyri found near the northwestern shore of the Black Sea, to the north of the [[w:Dniester Liman|Dniester Liman]], dated about 2700 BC. Old Lemizh, by contrast, is fairly well attested. It had predominantly [[w:Subject–verb–object|subject–verb–object]] (SVO) word order and was a quite typical old Indo-European language, but with a couple of interesting quirks:
* Adjectives were lost as a separate part of speech, being replaced with participles ("white" > "being white").
* Finite subordinate clauses had their subject in the case of the clause: the subject of a local clause was in the locative case without having a local meaning in itself.
The earliest known documents from this stage of Lemizh were probably written around 2100 BC along the northern and western shores of the Back Sea.

===Ghean and Middle Lemizh===
Ghean ([[Help:IPA|[ˈɣɛən]]]) is a language with no known genetic relationships. It was spoken by a people of unknown origin, who subdued the Lemizh tribes in around 1000 BC and ruled for infamous three generations. Ghean was an inflected [[w:Tonal language|register tonal]] language with strict [[w:Verb–subject–object|verb–subject–object]] (VSO) word order and head-first phrases. It had verbs, [[w:Nominal (linguistics)|nominals]] (a combined noun/adjective/participle part of speech), pronouns and particles.

The Gheans discouraged the use of the natives' language, but obviously tolerated Lemizh words (or rather word stems) to stand in for unfamiliar Ghean ones. The grammar of simple sentences was easy enough to learn for the Lemizh, as they were used to inflection and head-first phrases, and likely still knew VSO sentences from poetry. After two or three generations, the natives must have spoken a [[w:Creole language|creole]] with a more or less Ghean grammar but an abundance of Lemizh words, especially outside the core vocabulary. This is a quite unusual development as most creoles draw their lexicon mainly from the dominant group, and tend to be grammatically more innovative. (The Tanzanian language [[w:Mbugu language|Mbugu]] might have had a somewhat similar development with more or less analogous outcomes.) After the disappearance of the Gheans, Lemizh patriots tried to revive their old language, which failed spectacularly for the grammar but reintroduced many Lemizh words of the core vocabulary.

===The last three millennia===
While Middle Lemizh as spoken after the Ghean occupation already had a non-Indo-European and unusually regular grammar, this trend was to continue over the following millennia. The factive case was innovated to express verbal nouns, which eventually supplanted verbs altogether. (At least part of the blame goes to the Tlöngö̀l, an epic novel published in 1351, which popularised the use of verbal nouns.) The tonal system was simplified to the present two-way [[w:Pitch-accent language|pitch-accent]] system. Pronouns lost their status as a separate part of speech. The last particles died out a few hundred years ago, leaving the language with a single part of speech which is often called a "verb" but, historically speaking, is really a nominal. This means that the concept of ''parts of speech'' does not make sense in Modern Lemizh.

This article describes the dialect spoken to the north of the [[w:Danube Delta|Danube delta]], which prevailed against other variants and is considered the standard language today.

==Orthography and phonology==
The alphabet is [[w:Phonetic orthography|phonetic]]: each letter corresponds to a certain sound, and each sound is represented by a single letter. The direction of writing is left to right. This article uses the standard transcription of the native Lemizh alphabet as given here:
{| class="wikitable" style="width: 800px; table-layout: fixed; text-align: center"
! colspan="29" | Letters of the Lemizh alphabet
|-
| colspan="29" style="padding: 0" | [[File:Lemizh alphabet.png|796px]]
|-
| a || e || y || i || o || ö || u || ü || l || rh || r || ng || m || g || d || b || k || t || p || gh || zh || z || dh || w || x || sh || s || th || f
|}

===Consonants===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="2" | !! bilabial !! dental !! alveolar !! postalveolar !! velar
|-
! colspan="2" | nasals
| m <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial nasal|m]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || || || ng <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar nasal|ŋ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! colspan="2" | plosives (voiceless • voiced)
| p <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless bilabial plosive|p]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • b <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial plosive|b]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || t <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless alveolar plosive|t]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • d <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar plosive|d]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || k <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless velar plosive|k]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • g <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar plosive|g]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! colspan="2" | fricatives (voiceless • voiced)
| f <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless bilabial fricative|ɸ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • w <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial fricative|β]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || th <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless dental fricative|θ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • dh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced dental fricative|ð]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || s <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless alveolar sibilant|s]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • z <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar sibilant|z]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || sh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless palato-alveolar fricative|ʃ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • zh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced palato-alveolar fricative|ʒ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || x <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless velar fricative|x]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • gh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar fricative|ɣ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! rowspan="3" | liquids || lateral approximant
| || || l <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar lateral approximant|l]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|-
! approximant
| || || rh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar approximant|ɹ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|-
! trill
| || || r <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar trill|r]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|}
The plosive-fricative combinations ''pf, ts, tsh, kx'' and their voiced couterparts only occur at word boundaries and in compound words. They are not pronounced as affricates but as separate sounds. The same applies for other combinations of a plosive plus another consonant (''pm, tl'' etc.), as well as for two identical plosives (''kk'' etc.): the release of the first plosive is always audible.

===Vowels===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! rowspan="2" | !! colspan="2" | front !! colspan="2" | back
|-
! unrounded !! rounded !! unrounded !! rounded
|-
! close
| i <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close front unrounded vowel|i]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ü <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close front rounded vowel|y]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || y <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close back unrounded vowel|ɯ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || u <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close back rounded vowel|u]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! open-mid
| e <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid front unrounded vowel|ɛ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ö <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid front rounded vowel|œ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || a <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid back unrounded vowel|ʌ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || o <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid back rounded vowel|ɔ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|}
Two consecutive different vowels are pronounced as a diphthong; two consecutive identical vowels as a long one. Single vowels are always short.

Lemizh uses [[w:Mora (linguistics)|moræ]] for structuring words: a short syllable equals one mora, and a long syllable equals two. In Lemizh, every vowel is the centre of a mora; consequently, two consecutive vowels result in two moræ or one long syllable.

===Accent===
Lemizh has got a two-way pitch-accent system, in that accented moræ are not only spoken louder (as in English), but also have either a lower or a higher pitch than the surrounding unaccented ones. The accented mora is always the ultimate or penultimate of a word. The vowel at the centre of a low-pitch accented mora is transcribed with a grave accent, the vowel at the centre of a high-pitch accented mora with an acute accent.
{| class="wikitable" style="width: 220px; table-layout: fixed; text-align: center"
! colspan="8" | Accented vowel letters
|-
| colspan="8" style="padding: 0" | [[File:Lemizh accented vowels.png|216px]]
|-
| à || è || ỳ || ì || ò || ö̀ || ù || ǜ
|-
| á || é || ý || í || ó || ö́ || ú || ǘ
|}

===Phonotactics===
[[w:Phonotactics|Phonotactics]] is rather permissive in Lemizh. A mora has the following structure, where the bracketed parts are optional:
* (O)(N)(L)V(L)(N)(O)
V is the mora's vowel, L a liquid, N a nasal, and O an obstruent that can be either a P(losive), a F(ricative), FP, PF, FF, FFP, FPF, or PFF. Word-initial consonant clusters cannot contain more than three sounds. No geminate consonants (<abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''ff'' etc.) occur within a mora. Consecutive plosive-fricative or fricative-plosive combinations within the same mora must have the same sonority – either both are voiced, or both are voiceless. A plosive cannot have the same place of articulation as a following consonant with the exception of ''rh'' and ''r''. <abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''dzh'', <abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''ddh'' and their voiceless counterparts are also prohibited within a mora.

Word boundaries, including those within compound words, are always mora boundaries. Where mora boundaries would still be ambiguous, liquids and nasals are assigned to the earliest possible mora (as the ''m'' in ''lem·ỳzh.''), and obstruents to the latest possible mora.

==Morphology==
All words are composed of the following parts:
* Prestem + inner case + poststem + outer case
Prestem and poststem form the stem, or the lexical part, of the word. The division of the stem into two portions is similar to English verbs such as ''sing/sang/sung'', where the lexical part is ''s–ng'' while the vowels ''i/a/u'' convey grammatical information. The stem always denotes an action (but never a state, a person, a thing, a property, etc.) and thus resembles our verbs. The prestem can contain any sounds, or it can be zero (i.e. consisting of zero sounds). The poststem can only contain fricatives and plosives, or it can be zero as well.

The inner case is represented by one of the eight vowels, optionally followed by a liquid (the primary case suffix) and/or a nasal (the secondary case suffix). The outer case has the same structure. For the first word in each sentence, the main predicate, the outer case is missing.

Each case is defined by its ''descriptor'': for example, the factive case denotes an ''action'', the nominative a ''sender'', the locative a ''place''. The stem and the inner case's descriptor determine a word's meaning.

'''Examples'''
* ''wàx. w–x'' is the stem for "speak", ''-a-'' denotes the inner factive, so this word means "an action of speaking", translated as the verb "to speak" or the [[w:Verbal noun|verbal noun]] "speaking".
* ''wèx. -e-'' denotes the inner nominative, so this word means "a sender of speaking" or "a speaker".
* ''àrdh. ∅–dh'' (having a zero prestem) is the stem for "eat", ''-ar-'' denotes the inner locative: "a place of eating".
{| class="wikitable"
|+ Primary cases and their descriptors
|-
! rowspan="3" | № !! rowspan="3" | Case vowel !! colspan="4" | Primary case suffix
|-
| none || l || rh || r
|-
! Plot cases !! Causal cases !! Temporal cases !! Spatial cases
|-
| 1 || a || factive ({{sc|fact}}): ''action'' || affirmative ({{sc|aff}}): ''fact (point in causal chain)'' || temporal ({{sc|temp}}): ''time'' || locative ({{sc|loc}}): ''place/region''
|-
| 2 || e || nominative ({{sc|nom}}): ''source, sender'' || causative ({{sc|caus}}): ''direct cause'' || ingressive ({{sc|ing}}): ''starting time'' || elative ({{sc|ela}}): ''starting point/region''
|-
| 3 || y || accusative ({{sc|acc}}): ''content'' || contextual ({{sc|ctx}}): ''causal context'' || durative ({{sc|dur}}): ''duration'' || extensive ({{sc|ext}}): ''spatial extent''
|-
| 4 || i || dative ({{sc|dat}}): ''sink, recipient'' || consecutive ({{sc|cons}}): ''direct consequence, effect'' || egressive ({{sc|egr}}): ''closing time'' || illative ({{sc|ill}}): ''end point / ending region''
|-
| 5 || o || tentive ({{sc|ten}}): ''intention'' || intentive ({{sc|int}}): ''intention (intended point in causal chain)'' || episodic ({{sc|eps}}): ''episode, "act"'' || scenic ({{sc|sce}}): ''scene, "stage"''
|-
| 6 || ö || comitative ({{sc|com}}): ''company'' || persuasive ({{sc|psu}}): ''reason'' || digressive ({{sc|dig}}): ''time away from which'' || ablative ({{sc|abl}}): ''place/region away from which''
|-
| 7 || u || instrumental ({{sc|ins}}): ''means, tool'' || motivational ({{sc|mot}}): ''motivational context'' || progressive ({{sc|prog}}): ''time that is passed'' || prolative ({{sc|prol}}): ''crossing point/region''
|-
| 8 || ü || benefactive ({{sc|ben}}): ''beneficiary'' || final ({{sc|fin}}): ''purpose, aim'' || aggressive ({{sc|agg}}): ''time towards which, temporal aim'' || allative ({{sc|all}}): ''place/region towards which, spatial aim''
|}
Each primary case has two corresponding secondary cases:
* a partitive case formed by adding ''ng'' (such as ''-ing-'' for the partitive dative or ''-erng-'' for the partitive elative) with the descriptor ''the set from which the source (sink, place, etc.) is thought to be taken'': ''wèngx.'' is "the set from which the speaker is thought to be taken", i.e. "the speaker, among others".
* a qualitative case formed by adding ''m'', with the descriptor ''the basis of comparison for the source (sink, place, etc.)'': ''wèmx.'' informally translates as "someone like a speaker".

===The flow of the plot===
Every action denoted by a stem is considered a flow of information that comes from a source (sender), transports a content, and reaches a sink (a recipient). The terms "sender" and "recipient" may be more familiar, but "source" and "sink" are more accurate in not necessarily meaning living beings.

Consequently, a Lemizh action looks somewhat like this: '''nominative  accusative[[File:DreieckGreenMIDDLE.png|26px|link=]] dative'''

This is called the action's plot. Here are some examples:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative
|-
| ''wàx.'' "to speak, to talk, to tell; (an action of) speaking" || ''wèx.'' "one telling something" || ''wỳx.'' "a tale" || ''wìx.'' "one who is told something"
|-
| ''dà.'' "to give; (an action of) giving" || ''dè.'' "one giving something" || ''dỳ.'' "a gift" || ''dì.'' "one who is given something; one who gets something"
|-
| ''làzhw.'' "to help" || ''lèzhw.'' "one helping" || ''lỳzhw.'' "help (given)" || ''lìzhw.'' "one whom is helped"
|-
| ''mlàtx.'' "to melt" || ''mlètx.'' "one melting something" || [''mlỳtx.''] || ''mlìtx.'' "a melted thing"
|-
| ''xöàgh.'' "to produce a sound; to hear" || ''xöègh.'' "one producing a sound" || ''xöỳgh.'' "a sound" || ''xöìgh.'' "one hearing something"
|-
| ''àdh.'' "to feed; to eat" || ''èdh.'' "one feeding someone" || ''ỳdh.'' "food" || ''ìdh.'' "one being fed; one eating"
|-
| ''ià.'' "to love" || ''iè.'' "one loving someone, a lover" || ''iỳ.'' "a beloved" || ''iì.'' "a beloved"
|}
Importantly, there are no rules for which cases to use with which words. Both ''iỳ.'' ({{sc|acc}}) and ''iì.'' ({{sc|dat}}) mean "a beloved". The former describes the beloved as the content of love, the one being lovingly thought of, while the latter implies that the love reaches them, like words or gifts reach their recipient. Likewise, the reason why ''mlỳtx.'' is not translated in the table above isn't that "''melt'' does not take the accusative", as grammars of other languages would say, but that "a content of melting" does not seem to have any obvious meaning. If someone wanted to describe, say, sun rays as content transported from the sun to the snow to melt it, they could well use ''mlỳtx.'' to express the concept.

Case usage is governed solely by the cases' descriptors; it is up to the speaker how to use them given some word's meaning and some context. If the wind opens a door, is it the source of the action of opening (''ngèt.''), the means of opening (''ngùt.''), or the cause (''ngèlt.'')? All are grammatically correct; the speaker decides which possibility best expresses their intention.

===Nouns===
:''Nouns, adjectives and verbs do not correspond to any concepts in Lemizh grammar. Using these terms is just an attempt to describe the grammar from an Indo-European viewpoint.''
A large number of nouns are not derived from verbs in most languages: ''froth, ship, lion'' and many others. In Lemizh, however, we have verbs such as ''psràxk.'' "to froth", ''àksh.'' "to build a ship or ships", and ''làw.'' "to make a lion or lions". We will call these ''nominal verbs''.

Looking at the verb ''àksh.'', the shipwright ({{sc|nom}}) gives the building materials ({{sc|dat}}) the properties or the function of a ship ({{sc|acc}}). He confers, well, shipness on the materials. The shipness is sent by the shipwright, not because he is acting, but because he is the source: the image of the ship, so to say, comes from his head and materialises in wood, iron, ropes, and linen. In short, these words mostly appear with inner accusative.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative
|-
| ''psràxk.'' "to froth" || ''psrèxk.'' "one frothing something" || ''psrỳxk.'' "a thing having the properties of froth = '''froth'''" || ''psrìxk.'' "a frothed thing, a frothed liquid"
|-
| ''àksh.'' "to build a ship" || ''èksh.'' "one building a ship, a shipwright" || ''ỳksh.'' "a thing having the properties of a ship = '''a ship'''" || ''ìksh.'' "building materials for a ship, materials made into a ship"
|-
| ''làw.'' "to make a lion" || [''lèw.'' "one making a lion"] || ''lỳw.'' "a thing having the properties of a lion = '''a lion'''" || [''lìw.'' "building materials for a lion, materials made into a lion"]
|}

Another very common kind of nouns are tool nouns, formed with an inner instrumental case:
* ''ghstù.'' "a sail" is derived from ''ghstà.'' "to sail", literally "a means of sailing",
* ''pslù.'' "scissors" from ''pslà.'' "to cut with scissors",
* ''saxùf.'' "a trumpet" from ''saxàf.'' "to play the trumpet",
* ''skrùzh.'' "a finger" from ''skràzh.'' "to work with one's fingers".

====Inflection====
As mentioned above, all words can inflect for (outer) case. Thus, we have the nominative forms ''wàx'''e''''' "(an action of) speaking, talking, telling", ''dè'''e''''' "a giver", ''lỳw'''e''''' "a lion", the causative ''lỳw'''el''''' "because of a lion", the elative ''lỳw'''er''''' "(starting) from a lion", etc.

Lemizh words do not inflect for number or gender. If desired, we can express this information by forming compounds. (Note the duplication of the inner case vowel; the first occurrence in each word is called the epenthetic case of the compound. The underlying grammar will be described later.)
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Singular !! Dual !! Plural !! Feminine !! Masculine !! Feminine singular !! etc.
|-
! giver
| ''dè.'' || ''de'''rè'''.'' || ''de'''dwè'''.'' || ''de'''mlè'''.'' || ''de'''bè'''.'' || ''de'''èx'''.'' || ''de'''berè'''.''
|-
! lion
| ''lỳw.'' || ''lyw'''rỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''dwỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''mlỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''bỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''ỳx'''.'' || ''lyw'''byrỳ'''.''
|-
! compound with
| — || ''rỳ.'' "one" || ''dwỳ.'' "two" || ''mlỳ.'' "several" || ''bỳ.'' "female; woman" || ''ỳx.'' "male; man" || "female" and "one"
|}

===Adjectives and numerals===
There is no difference between adjectival and nominal verbs: they mostly appear with inner accusative. This is the same situation as in, say, Latin, where ''albus'' can mean "a white one" as well as "white". Numerals are basically a sub-category of adjectives.

The inner consecutive case translates certain abstract nouns.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative !! Inner consecutive
|-
| ''làbdh.'' "to whiten something, to make something white" || ''lèbdh.'' "one whitening something" || ''lỳbdh.'' "a white thing; '''white'''" || ''lìbdh.'' "a thing made white; whitened" || ''lìlbdh.'' "the consequence of whitening = whiteness"
|-
| ''gmrà.'' "to warm, to make something warm" || ''gmrè.'' "one warming something" || ''gmrỳ.'' "a warm thing; '''warm'''" || ''gmrì.'' "a warmed thing; warmed" || ''gmrìl.'' "the consequence of warming = warmth"
|-
| ''dwà.'' "to make two things/individuals" || ''dwè.'' "one making two things" || ''dwỳ.'' "'''two''' (things)" || ''dwì.'' "something made into two (things)" || ''dwìl.'' "the consequence of making two things = twoness"
|}

However, emotions aren't viewed as properties in Lemizh: a happy or angry person is one sending happiness or anger, just as a loving person is one sending love. The inner causative plays a notable role with verbs of emotion.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative !! Inner causative
|-
| ''pthàb.'' "to be angry" || ''pthèb.'' "an angry one; '''angry'''" || ''pthỳb.'' "the content/object of one's anger" || ''pthìb.'' "one that one's anger reaches" || ''pthèlb.'' "one causing someone anger; one annoying someone"
|}

====Inflection====
Of course, adjectives can be compounded to express number and/or gender in the same way as nouns. Furthermore, we can form compounds expressing various degrees. (The epenthetic consecutive ''-il-'' in these compounds will also be explained later; it is actually the main application of the abstract nouns just mentioned.)
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Diminutive !! Augmentative !! Absolute !! Comparative !! Superlative
|-
! warm
| ''gmrỳ.'' || ''gmril'''zhrỳ'''.'' "lukewarm" || ''gmril'''dmỳ'''.'' "hot" || ''gmril'''ghngỳ'''.'' "absolutely hot" || ''gmril'''tỳzhd'''.'' "warmer, hotter" || ''gmril'''ỳst'''.'' "hottest"
|-
! white
| ''lỳbdh.'' || ''lilbdh'''zhrỳ'''.'' "whitish" || ''lilbdh'''dmỳ'''.'' "very white" || ''lilbdh'''ghngỳ'''.'' "absolutely/completely white" || ''lilbdh'''tỳzhd'''.'' "whiter" || ''lilbdh'''ỳst'''.'' "whitest"
|-
! compound with
| — || ''zhrỳ.'' "few, little, a bit" || ''dmỳ.'' "much, many" || ''ghngỳ.'' "every, all, the whole" || ''tỳzhd.'' "more" || ''ỳst.'' "most"
|}

===Verbs===
Most verbs correspond to Lemizh words with an inner factive. However, as Lemizh stems always denote an action, the notable exception are stative verbs such as:
* ''zdìls.'' "to sit", literally "the consequence of sitting down (''zdàs.'')"
* ''gwìlt.'' "to know", literally "the consequence of learning (''gwàt.'')"

====Inflection====
* Person is not expressed with inflection but with [[#Relative pronouns|pronouns]].
* Number is conveyed by compounding pronouns with numerals. While verbs (i.e. words with an inner factive) can be compounded with numerals, ''ftrask'''mlà'''.'' does not mean "we/they sneeze" but "(there are) several acts of sneezing" (i.e. someone sneezes several times and/or several people sneeze).
* Voice (active/passive) is absent in Lemizh; word order serves a similar function.
* Tense is expressed by compounds with an epenthetic temporal case (''-arh-''), or with certain inner cases. The latter option is preferred if possible, as it is more concise.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Present !! Past !! Perfect !! Future !! Intentional
|-
! to sit down
| ''zdàs.'' || ''zdarhs'''wà'''.'' || ''zdarhs'''prilkà'''.'' || ''zd'''ìl'''s.'' ({{sc|cons}}) || ''zdarhs'''prà'''.'' || ''zd'''ò'''s.'' ({{sc|ten}})
|-
! compound with
| — || pronoun || ''prilkỳ.'' "back" || — || ''prỳ.'' "front" || —
|}
Note that the translation of the perfect with inner consecutive coincides with the translation of stative verbs: "having sat down" in the strict perfect sense of "the consequence/effect of this action exists" means the same as "to sit". Likewise, "whiteness" can be expressed as the abstract concept of "having whitened something".

* Mood corresponds to compounds with certain verbs for the most part. There is no equivalent to the subjunctive mood, as subordinate clauses are irreal (i.e. not necessarily real) by default. Here are some common formations:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Indicative !! Imperative !! Commanding imperative !! Interrogative Polite imperative !! Optative
|-
! to feed, to eat
| ''àdh.'' || ''adh'''pràk'''.'' || ''adh'''dàxt'''.'' || ''adh'''pà'''.'' || ''adh'''làxt'''.''
|-
! compound with
| — || ''pràk.'' "to request" || ''dàxt.'' "to command" || ''pà.'' "to ask" || ''làxt.'' "to want"
|}
* Aspect is a very diverse category, expressed by a variety of compounds and syntactic structures in Lemizh.

===Pronouns===
The two demonstrative pronouns are technically nominal verbs:
* ''tà.'' "to make this/that one", typically used with inner accusative: ''tỳ.'' "this/that (one)"
* ''gwà.'' "to make someone/anyone, something/anything", with inner accusative ''gwỳ.'' "someone/anyone, something/anything"

The eleven relative pronouns play a far more prominent role in Lemizh grammar. Their scope is much wider than the one usually associated with the term. As they are closely tied to Lemizh syntax, they are described [[#Relative pronouns|further down]].

==Syntax==
===Level of words===
There is only one more grammatical category: the level of words, which is the main building block of Lemizh syntax. A word can be of first level (the highest), of second level (the next highest), of third level (still one level lower) and so on; there is no limit for the number of levels, but non-positive word levels (zero, −1, etc.) are forbidden.

The first word in a sentence (the main predicate) is of first level by definition. The level of the next word is determined by the main predicate's accent and by the type of pause between the two words, the level of the third word is determined by the accent of the second and the pause between these two, and so on.

Here is the complete list of pause/accent combinations.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="2" | Following pause !! rowspan="2" | Accented vowel !! rowspan="2" | Type of accent !! rowspan="2" | The level of the next word is …
|-
! in speech !! in writing
|-
| rowspan="4" | barely audible || rowspan="4" | space || rowspan="2" | inner case || low || lower by 1
|-
| high || lower by 1, and [[w:Agent (grammar)|agentive]]* ({{sc|a}})
|-
| rowspan="2" | outer case || low || equal
|-
| high || higher by 1
|-
| rowspan="4" | a bit longer || rowspan="4" | comma ('''·''') || rowspan="2" | inner case || low || higher by 2
|-
| high || higher by 3
|-
| rowspan="2" | outer case || low || higher by 4
|-
| high || higher by 5
|-
| the longest || full stop ('''∶''') || inner case || low || none; end of sentence
|}
<nowiki>*</nowiki> The agent is the initiator of the action (more informally, the one who ''does'' the action).

===The Rules===
[[File:Lemizh parse tree.png|thumb|upright=1.5|A schematic sentence with the words represented by their level numbers]]
The word levels determine the structure of a sentence.

'''Rule One of sentence grammar. A word of level n is subordinate to the nearest word of level n−1 in front of it; the parole acts as a word of level zero.'''

All words of second level are subordinate to the main predicate (which has first level). A word of third level is subordinate to the next second-level word in front of it, and so on. In other words, Lemizh sentences are strictly [[w:Head directionality|head-first]]. The main predicate itself is subordinate to the [[w:Parole (linguistics)|parole]], the action of speaking (or writing) the sentence in question, which consequently has level zero.

'''Rule Two. An object of a word in a sentence is a word subordinate to the former, its predicate, plus all of its own objects.'''

In the diagram, the main predicate's three objects are enclosed in ellipses. Objects of the same word are called ''sibling objects'' or just ''siblings'', and the word they are subordinate to is their ''predicate''. Note that ''predicate'' and ''object'' are relative terms like ''parent'' and ''child''.

The table of level markers implies that only the first object of a predicate can be marked as agent. (This has been interpreted as Lemizh having VSO word order, although a subject is not quite the same as an agent, and Lemizh grammar strictly speaking does not have the concept of a subject.)

'''Rule Three. The outer case of the first word of an object defines its relation to its predicate's stem via its descriptor; the outer case of a level 1 word is zero.'''

This is what we would expect from a language that inflects for case: the nominative object defines the source (sender) of the action named by the stem of its predicate, the accusative object its content, the temporal object its time, etc.

'''Examples'''
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dá föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|give-FACT-1 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2A bottle-ACC-ACC-2 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2.
|''Father Christmas gives Lucy a bottle.''}}

The stems of the three objects are nominal verbs ("to make a bottle" etc.), hence the inner accusatives. The outer cases indicate the sender, content and recipient of the action of giving, respectively. The agent is specified independently of the plot arrow; note the difference:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dá lusyì dwywỳ föpysrỳfe.
|give-FACT-1 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2A bottle-ACC-ACC-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2.
|''Lucy takes a bottle from Father Christmas.''}}

We need not mark an object as agentive if we consider this information unimportant. The English translations are only rough approximations:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dà lusyì dwywỳ föpysrỳfe.
|give-FACT-1 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2 bottle-ACC-ACC-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2.
|''Lucy gets a bottle from Father Christmas. Lucy is given a bottle by Father Christmas.''}}

Rule Three defines outer case in a way that mirrors the definition of inner case. This allows for an operation called '''inversion''' (symbolized "⇔"):
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|làzhw wèxi. ⇔ wáx lìzhwe.
|help-FACT-1 speak-'''NOM'''-'''DAT'''-2. ⇔ speak-FACT-1 help-'''DAT'''-'''NOM'''-2A.
|''[Someone] helps the speaker. ⇔ The one being helped speaks.''}}

Both sentences claim that the sender of speaking is the recipient of helping. The equation is ''wèx.'' = ''lìzhw.'', the speaker = the one being helped.

This example also illustrates that any object in a Lemizh sentence can be omitted (here the nominative "someone") as none of the Rules prescribes which objects have to be included. In fact, anything not helpful for understanding a sentence should be left out.

'''Rule Four. An instance of a word stem designates a specific action.'''

''dà'' in the above sentence does not just mean "to give", it refers to one specific action of giving. Such an action may involve several givers (as in "They give something") and need not even be temporally or spatially contiguous (as in "They are giving something every Christmas"). In other words, each spoken or written instance of the stem ''d–'' refers to a certain subset of all the giving there is.

This rule ensures that all the objects refer to the same action of giving as the predicate itself.

'''Rule Five. A case characterises the action it refers to completely with regard to its case descriptor.'''

For example, the nominative object "Father Christmas" has to name the complete sender of the above instance of giving. This excludes from this instance all giving not done by Father Christmas. So each object places a restriction on the action of giving the main predicate refers to. Thus, the subset of giving meant by this instance of ''dà.'' – what the sentence is ultimately talking about – is defined more and more precisely with each additional object. (The same is true not only of the main predicate but of all words in a sentence.)

'''Rule Six. A missing object is equivalent to the absence of information about its descriptor.'''

Above sentences do not have, for example, locative objects, so Rule Five cannot place a restriction on the place of giving. Because of Rule Six, this does not mean there are no restrictions on the location, but only that this kind of information has not been included in the sentence (for example, because the speaker does not know about it, considers it irrelevent, or assumes the listener already knows or – perhaps most importantly – can infer it).

Rules Five and Six imply that every instance of a word has exactly one action (which, however, need not be contiguous), one sender (which can consist of several people), and so on: Five excludes additional senders if one nominative object is already present, and Six gives meaning to missing objects, establishing them as an integral part of Lemizh sentence grammar.

'''Rule Seven. Given an object and its predicate, the predicate is considered more real and the object more hypothetical.'''

…

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! as an object !! as a complete sentence
|-
| ''dà.'' || to give; giving || An action of giving exists = Someone gives something.
|-
| ''zdìls.'' || the consequence of sitting down = to sit; sitting || The consequence of sitting down exists = Someone sits.
|-
| ''dwìlw.'' || the consequence of making a bottle || The consequence of making a bottle exists = A bottle exists; there is a bottle.
|-
| ''sklè.'' || one building a bridge || One building a bridge exists = There is someone building a bridge.
|}

===Noun phrases===
Forming noun phrases does not require any new grammatical rules. In the following example, the inner case of "give" is changed to the nominative, yielding "one giving something, a giver", and everything is pushed down one level. The third-level words are still sender, content and recipient of the ''action'' of giving, as outer cases define relations to the predicate's ''stem'' per Rule Three.
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 3A:third level, agentive
|dmàt tryxkì dée föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|see-FACT-1 beaver-ACC-DAT-2 give-'''NOM'''-NOM-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-3A bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3.
|''The beaver sees '''the one giving Lucy a bottle, Father Christmas'''.''}}
Regarding the verb "see", note that the beaver is in the dative, being at the receiving end of the optical stimulus or information. Marking the beaver as agent would translate as "The beaver looks at the one …".

Rules Four and Five guarantee that the giver is identical to Father Christmas: both are the sender of the same instance of the stem ''d–'' "give" (the giver via its inner nominative, Father Christmas via its outer nominative), and both are the ''complete'' sender of this action. This type of construction, where an object's outer case matches its predicate's inner case, is called a '''bracket'''. Brackets are very widely used:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Apposition !! Attributive adjective !! Attributive pronoun/determiner !! Attributive numeral !! Attributive participle
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|iakopỳk saxèfy.
|Jacopo-'''ACC'''-1 trumpet-NOM-'''ACC'''-2.
|''Jacopo, a trumpeter''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=INS:instrumental case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|ghstù lỳbdhu.
|sail-'''INS'''-1 white-ACC-'''INS'''-2.
|''a sail, a white thing = a white sail''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|ỳksh gwỳy.
|ship-'''ACC'''-1 some-ACC-'''ACC'''-2.
|''a ship, something = some ship''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|mỳs trỳy.
|mouse-'''ACC'''-1 three-ACC-'''ACC'''-2.
|''mice, three individuals = three mice''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|nỳzd gangèy.
|bird-'''ACC'''-1 sing-NOM-'''ACC'''-2.
|''a bird, a singer = a singing bird''}}
|}
Such phrases can be easily extended. This example contains two accusative brackets ("a singing bird" and "a sad child"):
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 4:fourth level
|ngỳzd gangèy zhngỳi speghý ytfỳarh.
|bird-ACC-1 sing-NOM-ACC-2 child-ACC-DAT-3 sad-NOM-ACC-4 night-ACC-TEMP-3.
|''a bird singing to a sad child at night''}}

Adverbially used adjectives are phrased with factive brackets. However, changing the predicate's inner case leaves the object's outer factive intact, losing the bracket.
{|
|-
| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|gangà txỳska.
|sing-'''FACT'''-1 loud-ACC-'''FACT'''-2.
|''(an action of) singing, a loud thing = loud singing = singing loudly, to sing loudly''}}

| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|nỳzd gangèy txỳska.
|bird-ACC-1 sing-NOM-ACC-2 loud-ACC-'''FACT'''-3.
|''a bird, a loud singer = a bird singing loudly'' (The '''action''' of singing is a loud thing.)}}
|}

As [[w:Genitive construction|genitive constructions]] have a wide variety of meanings, there is no single Lemizh equivalent. The typical translation for constructions indicating possession is with the benefactive case, but other cases frequently occur. Everything depends on the object's relation to the predicate's stem per Rule Three.
{|
|-
| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|dwỳw lusỳü.
|bottle-ACC-1 Lucy-ACC-'''BEN'''-2.
|Lucy is the beneficiary of making the bottle. The bottle is made for Lucy. 
''Lucy's bottle''}}

| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dý ỳxe.
|give-ACC-1 male-ACC-'''NOM'''-2A.
|The man is the sender of giving. 
''the man's gift''}}

| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|rhỳst ytfỳarh filpskỳy.
|dream-ACC-1 night-ACC-'''TEMP'''-2 midsummer-ACC-ACC-3.
| The midsummer night is the time of dreaming. 
''A Midsummer Night's Dream''}}
|}

===Dependent clauses===
Non-finite and conjunctional clauses …
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive; 3:third level
|láxt föpysryfè dày dwywỳ lusỳi.
|want-FACT-1 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2A give-'''FACT'''-ACC-2 bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3.
|''Father Christmas wants '''to give Lucy a bottle'''.''}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 3A:third level, agentive
|dmàt tryxkì dáe föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|see-FACT-1 beaver-ACC-DAT-2 give-'''FACT'''-NOM-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-3A bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3.
|''The beaver sees [the action of] '''Father Christmas giving Lucy a bottle'''.''}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; AFF:affirmative case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 3A:third level, agentive
|dmàt tryxkì dále föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|see-FACT-1 beaver-ACC-DAT-2 give-'''AFF'''-NOM-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-3A bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3.
|''The beaver sees [the fact of] '''Father Christmas giving Lucy a bottle'''. The beaver sees '''that''' Father Christmas gives Lucy a bottle.''}}

…

Relative clauses are structurally identical to (extended) attributive participles as described above: ''a bird which sings to a sad child at night = a bird singing to a sad child at night''.

===Predicative===
…


===Relative pronouns===
Stems of relative pronouns (not to be confused with the pronouns of the same name in English or Latin) refer to actions by pointing to another stem or to a parole: they are [[w:Anaphora (linguistics)|anaphoric]]. Here is the full list:
{| class="wikitable"
! rowspan="2" | Level !! colspan="2" | Type I !! colspan="2" | Type II
|-
! Verb !! The target is the stem of !! Verb !! The target is the stem of
|-
| n || colspan="2" | (does not occur because it would refer to itself) || à. || its preceding same-level word
|-
| n−1 || wà. || its predicate || fà. || its predicate's preceding same-level word or parole
|-
| n−2 || dhà. || its predicate's predicate || thà. || its predicate's predicate's preceding same-level word or parole
|-
| n−3 || zà. || its predicate's predicate's predicate || sà. || …
|-
| n−4 || zhà. || … || shà. || …
|-
| n−5 || ghà. || … || xà. || …
|}
They are highly versatile, corresponding to various structures in other languages. Recall that a sentence's parole has level zero:
{| class="wikitable"
! Reflexive !! First person (singular) !! Second person
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|wáx wìe.
|speak-FACT-1 PIn−1-'''DAT'''-'''NOM'''-2A.
|The recipient of speaking is its sender. 
''to talk to oneself. He is talking to himself.''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dráw dhèe.
|dance-FACT-1 PIn−2-'''NOM'''-NOM-2A.
|The sender of the parole is the sender of dancing. 
''I am dancing.''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dráw dhìe.
|dance-FACT-1 PIn−2-'''DAT'''-NOM-2A.
|The recipient of the parole is the sender of dancing. 
''You are dancing.''}}
|}
Rule Four of sentence grammar ensures that the reflexive example means "He is talking to himself" as opposed to, say, "He is talking to one being talked to" (which would be ''wáx wìxe.'' speak-{{sc|fact}}-1 speak-{{sc|dat-nom}}-2{{sc|a}}, with two different instances of the stem "speak").

{| class="wikitable"
! Possessive determiner !! Vocative
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=CONS:consecutive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|zdìls ngỳzdy zeú tỳar.
|seat-CONS-1 bird-ACC-ACC-2 PIn−3-'''NOM'''-BEN-3 this-ACC-LOC-2.
|The sender of the parole is the beneficiary of making a bird.
 ''My bird is sitting there.''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=PI:pronoun type I; FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive; 3:third level
|wáx dheè zdhèzhi zìe.
|speak-FACT-1 PIn−2-NOM-NOM-2A friend-NOM-DAT-2 PIn−3-'''DAT'''-NOM-3.
|The recipient of the parole is the friend. (nominative bracket) 
''Friend, I am talking to you.''}}
|}

The type II pronoun in the following example points to the stem of eating. With the inner accusative, the pronoun refers to the content of eating, which is the sweet. (As with brackets, Rules Four and Five guarantee that the pronoun refers to the same content of the same action of eating as mentioned in the first sentence.)
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; PII:pronoun type II; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|ádh dheì mlỳdhy. ràsh fỳy.
|eat-FACT-1 PIn−2-NOM-DAT-2A sweet-ACC-ACC-2. like-FACT-1 PIIn−1-'''ACC'''-ACC-2.
|''I am eating a sweet. [I] like it.''}}

==Derivational morphology==
From a Lemizh point of view, ''dè.'' "giver" and ''dỳ.'' "gift" aren't derivatives of ''dà.'' "to give" but grammatical forms of the same word. The only piece of true derivational morphology is compounding.

===Compounds===
[[File:Lemizh compounding diagram.png|thumb|Forming a compound from a two-word sentence]]
'''Rule One of compounding. A compound word is constructed from a two-word sentence – predicate and object of which become modifier and head of the compound, respectively – in the following way:'''
# '''Prestem''':
## the object's prestem
## the object's inner case
## the object's poststem
## an optional separator
## the predicate's prestem
# '''Inner case'''
# '''Poststem''': the predicate's poststem
# '''Outer case'''
Note that the object's stem comes before the predicate's; and also that the object's outer case (and, less importantly, the predicate's inner case) is lost. The object's inner case becomes part of the compound's prestem and is then called its ''epenthetic case''. The separator can be used, for example, if the word boundary would be unclear otherwise, or for placing the second part of the word on a new line.

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|làxt àdhy. ⇒ adhlàxt.
|want-FACT-1 eat-FACT-ACC-2. ⇒ eat-FACT-want-FACT-1.
|''[She] wants to eat.'' (See the inflection of [[#Verbs|verbs]].)}}
Here, the lost accusative ending has to be deduced from context.

'''Rule Two. In the relationship between the original predicate and object, the rules of sentence grammar are retained as far as applicable.'''

The consequences of this rule are somewhat technical; but the last one, pertaining to degree of reality, is important for correctly interpreting compounds.
* Rules One to Three of sentence grammar are not applicable to compounds, as can be easily seen.
* Four: Both modifier and head are instantiations of specific actions in the original sentence (which however do not necessarily match the instantiation of the compound).
* Five: The epenthetic case characterises the head completely with regard to its descriptor.
* Six: The only overt object of the modifier is the head. All other objects are missing and thus indicate the absence of information about their descriptors.
* Seven: The modifier has a higher degree of reality than the head. Therefore, the above compound does not claim that she actually eats.

'''Rule Three. Regarding all outward relations, cases''' (i.e. the compound's inner case [not to be confused with its epenthetic case], the outer cases of its objects, and cases of pronouns referring to it) '''refer to the head.'''
{|
|-
| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|adhkmàr mlỳdhy.
|eat-FACT-allow-LOC-1 sweet-ACC-ACC-2.
|''a place where one may eat sweets; a place for eating sweets''}}

| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|ngengadàxt fỳta.
|run-FACT-must-FACT-1 fast-ACC-FACT-1
|''[He] has to run fast.''}}
|}

These examples talk about the location of eating, as opposed to the location of allowing; about eating sweets, as opposed to allowing sweets; the running is fast, as opposed to the necessity; etc.

Number and gender of [[#Nouns|nouns]] are compounds from brackets which are first inverted to turn the more salient word into the compound's head: ''dè mlỳe. ⇔ mlỳ dèy.'' "several givers" ⇒ ''demlè.'' "givers". The inner nominative (''-e-'') becomes the epenthetic case, and the new inner case also has to be a nominative per Rule Three. ''demlỳ.'' (inner {{sc|acc}}), by contrast, is "something given by several people".

Compounds expressing degrees of [[#Adjectives and numerals|adjectives]] are also formed from brackets. They have an epenthetic consecutive (''-il-''), which stems from the corresponding abstract noun: ''gmrìl dmỳil. ⇔ dmỳ gmrìly.'' "much warmth" ⇒ ''gmrildmìl.'' "heat" (abstract noun formed with inner {{sc|cons}}), ''gmrildmỳ.'' "hot" (adjective with inner {{sc|acc}}).

The analogues of the present and future tenses are formed like so – note that inversion changes the pronoun's stem along with its level:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2:second level
|zdàs dhàarh. ⇔ wà zdàrhsa. ⇒ zdarhswà.
|seat-FACT-1 PIn−2-FACT-TEMP-2. ⇔ PIn−1-FACT-1 seat-TEMP-FACT-2. ⇒ seat-TEMP-PIn−1-FACT-1.
|''[She] sits down at the time of the parole. ⇒ [She] sits down now.''}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|zdàs prỳarh. ⇔ prỳ zdàrhsy. ⇒ zdarhsprà.
|seat-FACT-1 front-ACC-TEMP-2. ⇔ front-ACC-1 seat-TEMP-ACC-2. ⇒ seat-TEMP-front-FACT-1.
|''[She] sits down at a time in front [of the parole]. ⇒ [She] will sit down.''}}

==Example text==
[[File:Lemizh text sample.png|600px]]

====stedrỳzh thìrhfi xtrỳghy.====
krỳgh dghngireì prilxpilghkỳarh. mangỳ srungbỳng lyngghỳng yngshwỳng fỳü. zhöazhghngìl tmỳil. ghngàgzh smìa prỳal ghngyé dhàbdhy lunguỳ ùyl mỳu fplyxár tỳarh. dmát feì sxngengzè ishkènge. ghìlt krighmyngthxì xtrỳngghi swyshỳ ghỳxy fplyxòr zhöyzhỳm xngàrorm. dmìlt öngkrỳngty zhryỳ rèshy esfàsy sxngyzdmýi, usrỳngy xazhgèsty ghngỳeng, frekrỳngfy rilghdzhỳwby pthèby, dgheipysrỳngdy psrèby rhèzhem, dghistngỳngty ghỳxy zangỳa dghildhfmlýyrh, ngiftngyghtmỳngy krültlìy zùe gỳghda. xtrỳgh swyshý stedrỳzh thìrfi. dngilszhrìl bdhyrgzhyngỳng xüxtrỳngyng prilkỳarh ötìlil skmyngìlng ghỳngsilng. dngilszhìlwb ráxpy thìlfi. fö̀l gwiltngìlöl dmàty föpysryfỳ ngỳu.

rỳ zhryỳrh thìzgy gwiltngìly rhàghgy dmatngìe thìrfy. là xángska matngiè ytfỳyrh dmyý fplyxór dyxtngyngà mànga prilzhryngỳr iltỳngzhdyr. dmàt ytfỳarh ryý mìlngorh xngyì prilkyár mìlngorh xtrỳngghi kshrextý mengthxì prỳar zìe, fplỳngxe fywýr déngske xtryghè sxngezì xngỳnge.

====The Legend of the Seventh Planet====
A long time ago there was a tribe of nomads. They possessed neither writing nor houses nor horses. But they were truly human. They were curious; this means, above all, that they took interest in the useless, for the celestial objects were of no use to them yet. They looked at the Sun and the Moon. They had named the constellations and the six planets moving across the sky like the humans across the earth. They knew dim Mercury, who liked to hide in the glare of the Sun; Venus, the brightest of all; reddish and angry Mars; majestic father Jupiter; Saturn, who seemed to stand still for weeks; and even Uranus had been caught by their keen eyes. Six planets, and the legend of a seventh. Maybe it had been the minor planet Vesta, or a comet centuries or millennia earlier. Maybe it was the attraction of the number seven. For Neptune is invisible to the naked eye.

One youngster thought to himself that he could not live without seeing the seventh planet. He lay awake searching the sky for many nights, neglected his duties, and became thinner and thinner. And one night, lying with the Earth behind his back, and with the looping planets and the stars above him, he saw the depth of the sky and the planets circling the Sun, and among them the Earth.

==External links==
* [https://lemizh.conlang.org Lemizh homepage] with comprehensive coverage of the language, including a dictionary with etymologies, information on the language's pragmatics, and more background information
[[File:Copyleft1.png|20px]] ''This article is available under a [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License]. It includes material from the Lemizh homepage, which has the same license.''


[[Category:Languages]]
[[Category:Conlangs]]
[[Category:Indo-European languages]]
[[Category:Fusional languages]]

Lemizh

2022-05-18T17:35:59Z

Anypodetos: Compounding Rule Three etc.

{{Infobox language
|image =
|imagesize =
|name = Lemizh
|nativename = lemỳzh.
|pronunciation = lɛmˈɯ̀ʒ
|state = Lemaria
|setting = Alt-history Europe
|created = 1985
|familycolor = Indo-European
|fam2 = Lemizh
|ancestor = Proto-Lemizh
|posteriori = [[w:Proto-Indo-European|Proto-Indo-European]]
|creator = [[User:Anypodetos|Anypodetos]]
|scripts = Lemizh alphabet
|nation = Lemaria
|map = Map of Lemaria.png
|notice = IPA
}}
'''Lemizh''' ([[Help:IPA|[lεmˈiʒ]]], native pronunciation: [[Help:IPA|[lɛmˈɯ̀ʒ]]]) is a language I invented with the aim of creating a grammar as regular and simple as possible. It was originally intended as an [[w:International auxiliary language|international auxiliary language]]. However, it turned out that a simple grammar is not necessarily a grammar that is easy to learn: the more ways of simplification I found, the further away it moved from [[w:Indo-European languages|Indo-European]] and probably all other familiar language structures. Expecting anyone to learn Lemizh, at this point, would be unrealistic.

So I needed a new justification for the language: enter the Lemizh, a people living to the west and north of the [[w:Black Sea|Black Sea]] in an alternate history that slowly drifted away from ours between two and eight millennia ago. Of course, it is extremely unlikely that they would speak a language that was completely without exceptions. To be precise, the chances are two to the power of two hundred and seventy-six thousand seven hundred and nine to one against. But they say that everything has to happen somewhere in the Multiverse. And everything happens only once.

{{TOC limit}}

==History==
===Early stages===
Lemizh is an Indo-European language and, together with Volgan, constitutes one of the ten recognised branches of the Indo-European language family. This branch is also called Lemizh, to the disgruntlement of Volgan linguists.

Proto-Lemizh, the ancestor of Lemizh and Volgan, is very poorly attested in form of some papyri found near the northwestern shore of the Black Sea, to the north of the [[w:Dniester Liman|Dniester Liman]], dated about 2700 BC. Old Lemizh, by contrast, is fairly well attested. It had predominantly [[w:Subject–verb–object|subject–verb–object]] (SVO) word order and was a quite typical old Indo-European language, but with a couple of interesting quirks:
* Adjectives were lost as a separate part of speech, being replaced with participles ("white" > "being white").
* Finite subordinate clauses had their subject in the case of the clause: the subject of a local clause was in the locative case without having a local meaning in itself.
The earliest known documents from this stage of Lemizh were probably written around 2100 BC along the northern and western shores of the Back Sea.

===Ghean and Middle Lemizh===
Ghean ([[Help:IPA|[ˈɣɛən]]]) is a language with no known genetic relationships. It was spoken by a people of unknown origin, who subdued the Lemizh tribes in around 1000 BC and ruled for infamous three generations. Ghean was an inflected [[w:Tonal language|register tonal]] language with strict [[w:Verb–subject–object|verb–subject–object]] (VSO) word order and head-first phrases. It had verbs, [[w:Nominal (linguistics)|nominals]] (a combined noun/adjective/participle part of speech), pronouns and particles.

The Gheans discouraged the use of the natives' language, but obviously tolerated Lemizh words (or rather word stems) to stand in for unfamiliar Ghean ones. The grammar of simple sentences was easy enough to learn for the Lemizh, as they were used to inflection and head-first phrases, and likely still knew VSO sentences from poetry. After two or three generations, the natives must have spoken a [[w:Creole language|creole]] with a more or less Ghean grammar but an abundance of Lemizh words, especially outside the core vocabulary. This is a quite unusual development as most creoles draw their lexicon mainly from the dominant group, and tend to be grammatically more innovative. (The Tanzanian language [[w:Mbugu language|Mbugu]] might have had a somewhat similar development with more or less analogous outcomes.) After the disappearance of the Gheans, Lemizh patriots tried to revive their old language, which failed spectacularly for the grammar but reintroduced many Lemizh words of the core vocabulary.

===The last three millennia===
While Middle Lemizh as spoken after the Ghean occupation already had a non-Indo-European and unusually regular grammar, this trend was to continue over the following millennia. The factive case was innovated to express verbal nouns, which eventually supplanted verbs altogether. (At least part of the blame goes to the Tlöngö̀l, an epic novel published in 1351, which popularised the use of verbal nouns.) The tonal system was simplified to the present two-way [[w:Pitch-accent language|pitch-accent]] system. Pronouns lost their status as a separate part of speech. The last particles died out a few hundred years ago, leaving the language with a single part of speech which is often called a "verb" but, historically speaking, is really a nominal. This means that the concept of ''parts of speech'' does not make sense in Modern Lemizh.

This article describes the dialect spoken to the north of the [[w:Danube Delta|Danube delta]], which prevailed against other variants and is considered the standard language today.

==Orthography and phonology==
The alphabet is [[w:Phonetic orthography|phonetic]]: each letter corresponds to a certain sound, and each sound is represented by a single letter. The direction of writing is left to right. This article uses the standard transcription of the native Lemizh alphabet as given here:
{| class="wikitable" style="width: 800px; table-layout: fixed; text-align: center"
! colspan="29" | Letters of the Lemizh alphabet
|-
| colspan="29" style="padding: 0" | [[File:Lemizh alphabet.png|796px]]
|-
| a || e || y || i || o || ö || u || ü || l || rh || r || ng || m || g || d || b || k || t || p || gh || zh || z || dh || w || x || sh || s || th || f
|}

===Consonants===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="2" | !! bilabial !! dental !! alveolar !! postalveolar !! velar
|-
! colspan="2" | nasals
| m <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial nasal|m]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || || || ng <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar nasal|ŋ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! colspan="2" | plosives (voiceless • voiced)
| p <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless bilabial plosive|p]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • b <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial plosive|b]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || t <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless alveolar plosive|t]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • d <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar plosive|d]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || k <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless velar plosive|k]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • g <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar plosive|g]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! colspan="2" | fricatives (voiceless • voiced)
| f <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless bilabial fricative|ɸ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • w <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial fricative|β]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || th <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless dental fricative|θ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • dh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced dental fricative|ð]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || s <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless alveolar sibilant|s]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • z <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar sibilant|z]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || sh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless palato-alveolar fricative|ʃ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • zh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced palato-alveolar fricative|ʒ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || x <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless velar fricative|x]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • gh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar fricative|ɣ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! rowspan="3" | liquids || lateral approximant
| || || l <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar lateral approximant|l]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|-
! approximant
| || || rh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar approximant|ɹ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|-
! trill
| || || r <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar trill|r]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|}
The plosive-fricative combinations ''pf, ts, tsh, kx'' and their voiced couterparts only occur at word boundaries and in compound words. They are not pronounced as affricates but as separate sounds. The same applies for other combinations of a plosive plus another consonant (''pm, tl'' etc.), as well as for two identical plosives (''kk'' etc.): the release of the first plosive is always audible.

===Vowels===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! rowspan="2" | !! colspan="2" | front !! colspan="2" | back
|-
! unrounded !! rounded !! unrounded !! rounded
|-
! close
| i <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close front unrounded vowel|i]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ü <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close front rounded vowel|y]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || y <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close back unrounded vowel|ɯ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || u <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close back rounded vowel|u]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! open-mid
| e <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid front unrounded vowel|ɛ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ö <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid front rounded vowel|œ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || a <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid back unrounded vowel|ʌ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || o <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid back rounded vowel|ɔ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|}
Two consecutive different vowels are pronounced as a diphthong; two consecutive identical vowels as a long one. Single vowels are always short.

Lemizh uses [[w:Mora (linguistics)|moræ]] for structuring words: a short syllable equals one mora, and a long syllable equals two. In Lemizh, every vowel is the centre of a mora; consequently, two consecutive vowels result in two moræ or one long syllable.

===Accent===
Lemizh has got a two-way pitch-accent system, in that accented moræ are not only spoken louder (as in English), but also have either a lower or a higher pitch than the surrounding unaccented ones. The accented mora is always the ultimate or penultimate of a word. The vowel at the centre of a low-pitch accented mora is transcribed with a grave accent, the vowel at the centre of a high-pitch accented mora with an acute accent.
{| class="wikitable" style="width: 220px; table-layout: fixed; text-align: center"
! colspan="8" | Accented vowel letters
|-
| colspan="8" style="padding: 0" | [[File:Lemizh accented vowels.png|216px]]
|-
| à || è || ỳ || ì || ò || ö̀ || ù || ǜ
|-
| á || é || ý || í || ó || ö́ || ú || ǘ
|}

===Phonotactics===
[[w:Phonotactics|Phonotactics]] is rather permissive in Lemizh. A mora has the following structure, where the bracketed parts are optional:
* (O)(N)(L)V(L)(N)(O)
V is the mora's vowel, L a liquid, N a nasal, and O an obstruent that can be either a P(losive), a F(ricative), FP, PF, FF, FFP, FPF, or PFF. Word-initial consonant clusters cannot contain more than three sounds. No geminate consonants (<abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''ff'' etc.) occur within a mora. Consecutive plosive-fricative or fricative-plosive combinations within the same mora must have the same sonority – either both are voiced, or both are voiceless. A plosive cannot have the same place of articulation as a following consonant with the exception of ''rh'' and ''r''. <abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''dzh'', <abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''ddh'' and their voiceless counterparts are also prohibited within a mora.

Word boundaries, including those within compound words, are always mora boundaries. Where mora boundaries would still be ambiguous, liquids and nasals are assigned to the earliest possible mora (as the ''m'' in ''lem·ỳzh.''), and obstruents to the latest possible mora.

==Morphology==
All words are composed of the following parts:
* Prestem + inner case + poststem + outer case
Prestem and poststem form the stem, or the lexical part, of the word. The division of the stem into two portions is similar to English verbs such as ''sing/sang/sung'', where the lexical part is ''s–ng'' while the vowels ''i/a/u'' convey grammatical information. The stem always denotes an action (but never a state, a person, a thing, a property, etc.) and thus resembles our verbs. The prestem can contain any sounds, or it can be zero (i.e. consisting of zero sounds). The poststem can only contain fricatives and plosives, or it can be zero as well.

The inner case is represented by one of the eight vowels, optionally followed by a liquid (the primary case suffix) and/or a nasal (the secondary case suffix). The outer case has the same structure. For the first word in each sentence, the main predicate, the outer case is missing.

Each case is defined by its ''descriptor'': for example, the factive case denotes an ''action'', the nominative a ''sender'', the locative a ''place''. The stem and the inner case's descriptor determine a word's meaning.

'''Examples'''
* ''wàx. w–x'' is the stem for "speak", ''-a-'' denotes the inner factive, so this word means "an action of speaking", translated as the verb "to speak" or the [[w:Verbal noun|verbal noun]] "speaking".
* ''wèx. -e-'' denotes the inner nominative, so this word means "a sender of speaking" or "a speaker".
* ''àrdh. ∅–dh'' (having a zero prestem) is the stem for "eat", ''-ar-'' denotes the inner locative: "a place of eating".
{| class="wikitable"
|+ Primary cases and their descriptors
|-
! rowspan="3" | № !! rowspan="3" | Case vowel !! colspan="4" | Primary case suffix
|-
| none || l || rh || r
|-
! Plot cases !! Causal cases !! Temporal cases !! Spatial cases
|-
| 1 || a || factive ({{sc|fact}}): ''action'' || affirmative ({{sc|aff}}): ''fact (point in causal chain)'' || temporal ({{sc|temp}}): ''time'' || locative ({{sc|loc}}): ''place/region''
|-
| 2 || e || nominative ({{sc|nom}}): ''source, sender'' || causative ({{sc|caus}}): ''direct cause'' || ingressive ({{sc|ing}}): ''starting time'' || elative ({{sc|ela}}): ''starting point/region''
|-
| 3 || y || accusative ({{sc|acc}}): ''content'' || contextual ({{sc|ctx}}): ''causal context'' || durative ({{sc|dur}}): ''duration'' || extensive ({{sc|ext}}): ''spatial extent''
|-
| 4 || i || dative ({{sc|dat}}): ''sink, recipient'' || consecutive ({{sc|cons}}): ''direct consequence, effect'' || egressive ({{sc|egr}}): ''closing time'' || illative ({{sc|ill}}): ''end point / ending region''
|-
| 5 || o || tentive ({{sc|ten}}): ''intention'' || intentive ({{sc|int}}): ''intention (intended point in causal chain)'' || episodic ({{sc|eps}}): ''episode, "act"'' || scenic ({{sc|sce}}): ''scene, "stage"''
|-
| 6 || ö || comitative ({{sc|com}}): ''company'' || persuasive ({{sc|psu}}): ''reason'' || digressive ({{sc|dig}}): ''time away from which'' || ablative ({{sc|abl}}): ''place/region away from which''
|-
| 7 || u || instrumental ({{sc|ins}}): ''means, tool'' || motivational ({{sc|mot}}): ''motivational context'' || progressive ({{sc|prog}}): ''time that is passed'' || prolative ({{sc|prol}}): ''crossing point/region''
|-
| 8 || ü || benefactive ({{sc|ben}}): ''beneficiary'' || final ({{sc|fin}}): ''purpose, aim'' || aggressive ({{sc|agg}}): ''time towards which, temporal aim'' || allative ({{sc|all}}): ''place/region towards which, spatial aim''
|}
Each primary case has two corresponding secondary cases:
* a partitive case formed by adding ''ng'' (such as ''-ing-'' for the partitive dative or ''-erng-'' for the partitive elative) with the descriptor ''the set from which the source (sink, place, etc.) is thought to be taken'': ''wèngx.'' is "the set from which the speaker is thought to be taken", i.e. "the speaker, among others".
* a qualitative case formed by adding ''m'', with the descriptor ''the basis of comparison for the source (sink, place, etc.)'': ''wèmx.'' informally translates as "someone like a speaker".

===The flow of the plot===
Every action denoted by a stem is considered a flow of information that comes from a source (sender), transports a content, and reaches a sink (a recipient). The terms "sender" and "recipient" may be more familiar, but "source" and "sink" are more accurate in not necessarily meaning living beings.

Consequently, a Lemizh action looks somewhat like this: '''nominative  accusative[[File:DreieckGreenMIDDLE.png|26px|link=]] dative'''

This is called the action's plot. Here are some examples:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative
|-
| ''wàx.'' "to speak, to talk, to tell; (an action of) speaking" || ''wèx.'' "one telling something" || ''wỳx.'' "a tale" || ''wìx.'' "one who is told something"
|-
| ''dà.'' "to give; (an action of) giving" || ''dè.'' "one giving something" || ''dỳ.'' "a gift" || ''dì.'' "one who is given something; one who gets something"
|-
| ''làzhw.'' "to help" || ''lèzhw.'' "one helping" || ''lỳzhw.'' "help (given)" || ''lìzhw.'' "one whom is helped"
|-
| ''mlàtx.'' "to melt" || ''mlètx.'' "one melting something" || [''mlỳtx.''] || ''mlìtx.'' "a melted thing"
|-
| ''xöàgh.'' "to produce a sound; to hear" || ''xöègh.'' "one producing a sound" || ''xöỳgh.'' "a sound" || ''xöìgh.'' "one hearing something"
|-
| ''àdh.'' "to feed; to eat" || ''èdh.'' "one feeding someone" || ''ỳdh.'' "food" || ''ìdh.'' "one being fed; one eating"
|-
| ''ià.'' "to love" || ''iè.'' "one loving someone, a lover" || ''iỳ.'' "a beloved" || ''iì.'' "a beloved"
|}
Importantly, there are no rules for which cases to use with which words. Both ''iỳ.'' ({{sc|acc}}) and ''iì.'' ({{sc|dat}}) mean "a beloved". The former describes the beloved as the content of love, the one being lovingly thought of, while the latter implies that the love reaches them, like words or gifts reach their recipient. Likewise, the reason why ''mlỳtx.'' is not translated in the table above isn't that "''melt'' does not take the accusative", as grammars of other languages would say, but that "a content of melting" does not seem to have any obvious meaning. If someone wanted to describe, say, sun rays as content transported from the sun to the snow to melt it, they could well use ''mlỳtx.'' to express the concept.

Case usage is governed solely by the cases' descriptors; it is up to the speaker how to use them given some word's meaning and some context. If the wind opens a door, is it the source of the action of opening (''ngèt.''), the means of opening (''ngùt.''), or the cause (''ngèlt.'')? All are grammatically correct; the speaker decides which possibility best expresses their intention.

===Nouns===
:''Nouns, adjectives and verbs do not correspond to any concepts in Lemizh grammar. Using these terms is just an attempt to describe the grammar from an Indo-European viewpoint.''
A large number of nouns are not derived from verbs in most languages: ''froth, ship, lion'' and many others. In Lemizh, however, we have verbs such as ''psràxk.'' "to froth", ''àksh.'' "to build a ship or ships", and ''làw.'' "to make a lion or lions". We will call these ''nominal verbs''.

Looking at the verb ''àksh.'', the shipwright ({{sc|nom}}) gives the building materials ({{sc|dat}}) the properties or the function of a ship ({{sc|acc}}). He confers, well, shipness on the materials. The shipness is sent by the shipwright, not because he is acting, but because he is the source: the image of the ship, so to say, comes from his head and materialises in wood, iron, ropes, and linen. In short, these words mostly appear with inner accusative.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative
|-
| ''psràxk.'' "to froth" || ''psrèxk.'' "one frothing something" || ''psrỳxk.'' "a thing having the properties of froth = '''froth'''" || ''psrìxk.'' "a frothed thing, a frothed liquid"
|-
| ''àksh.'' "to build a ship" || ''èksh.'' "one building a ship, a shipwright" || ''ỳksh.'' "a thing having the properties of a ship = '''a ship'''" || ''ìksh.'' "building materials for a ship, materials made into a ship"
|-
| ''làw.'' "to make a lion" || [''lèw.'' "one making a lion"] || ''lỳw.'' "a thing having the properties of a lion = '''a lion'''" || [''lìw.'' "building materials for a lion, materials made into a lion"]
|}

Another very common kind of nouns are tool nouns, formed with an inner instrumental case:
* ''ghstù.'' "a sail" is derived from ''ghstà.'' "to sail", literally "a means of sailing",
* ''pslù.'' "scissors" from ''pslà.'' "to cut with scissors",
* ''saxùf.'' "trumpet" from ''saxàf.'' "to play the trumpet",
* ''skrùzh.'' "a finger" from ''skràzh.'' "to work with one's fingers".

====Inflection====
As mentioned above, all words can inflect for (outer) case. Thus, we have the nominative forms ''wàx'''e''''' "(an action of) speaking, talking, telling", ''dè'''e''''' "a giver", ''lỳw'''e''''' "a lion", the causative ''lỳw'''el''''' "because of a lion", the elative ''lỳw'''er''''' "(starting) from a lion", etc.

Lemizh words do not inflect for number or gender. If desired, we can express this information by forming compounds. (Note the duplication of the inner case vowel; the first occurrence in each word is called the epenthetic case of the compound. The underlying grammar will be described later.)
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Singular !! Dual !! Plural !! Feminine !! Masculine !! Feminine singular !! etc.
|-
! giver
| ''dè.'' || ''de'''rè'''.'' || ''de'''dwè'''.'' || ''de'''mlè'''.'' || ''de'''bè'''.'' || ''de'''èx'''.'' || ''de'''berè'''.''
|-
! lion
| ''lỳw.'' || ''lyw'''rỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''dwỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''mlỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''bỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''ỳx'''.'' || ''lyw'''byrỳ'''.''
|-
! compound with
| — || ''rỳ.'' "one" || ''dwỳ.'' "two" || ''mlỳ.'' "several" || ''bỳ.'' "female; woman" || ''ỳx.'' "male; man" || "female" and "one"
|}

===Adjectives and numerals===
There is no difference between adjectival and nominal verbs: they mostly appear with inner accusative. This is the same situation as in, say, Latin, where ''albus'' can mean "a white one" as well as "white". Numerals are basically a sub-category of adjectives.

The inner consecutive case translates certain abstract nouns.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative !! Inner consecutive
|-
| ''làbdh.'' "to whiten something, to make something white" || ''lèbdh.'' "one whitening something" || ''lỳbdh.'' "a white thing; '''white'''" || ''lìbdh.'' "a thing made white; whitened" || ''lìlbdh.'' "the consequence of whitening = whiteness"
|-
| ''gmrà.'' "to warm, to make something warm" || ''gmrè.'' "one warming something" || ''gmrỳ.'' "a warm thing; '''warm'''" || ''gmrì.'' "a warmed thing; warmed" || ''gmrìl.'' "the consequence of warming = warmth"
|-
| ''dwà.'' "to make two things/individuals" || ''dwè.'' "one making two things" || ''dwỳ.'' "'''two''' (things)" || ''dwì.'' "something made into two (things)" || ''dwìl.'' "the consequence of making two things = twoness"
|}

However, emotions aren't viewed as properties in Lemizh: a happy or angry person is one sending happiness or anger, just as a loving person is one sending love. The inner causative plays a notable role with verbs of emotion.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative !! Inner causative
|-
| ''pthàb.'' "to be angry" || ''pthèb.'' "an angry one; '''angry'''" || ''pthỳb.'' "the content/object of one's anger" || ''pthìb.'' "one that one's anger reaches" || ''pthèlb.'' "one causing someone anger; one annoying someone"
|}

====Inflection====
Of course, adjectives can be compounded to express number and/or gender in the same way as nouns. Furthermore, we can form compounds expressing various degrees. (The epenthetic consecutive ''-il-'' in these compounds will also be explained later; it is actually the main application of the abstract nouns just mentioned.)
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Diminutive !! Augmentative !! Absolute !! Comparative !! Superlative
|-
! warm
| ''gmrỳ.'' || ''gmril'''zhrỳ'''.'' "lukewarm" || ''gmril'''dmỳ'''.'' "hot" || ''gmril'''ghngỳ'''.'' "absolutely hot" || ''gmril'''tỳzhd'''.'' "warmer, hotter" || ''gmril'''ỳst'''.'' "hottest"
|-
! white
| ''lỳbdh.'' || ''lilbdh'''zhrỳ'''.'' "whitish" || ''lilbdh'''dmỳ'''.'' "very white" || ''lilbdh'''ghngỳ'''.'' "absolutely/completely white" || ''lilbdh'''tỳzhd'''.'' "whiter" || ''lilbdh'''ỳst'''.'' "whitest"
|-
! compound with
| — || ''zhrỳ.'' "few, little, a bit" || ''dmỳ.'' "much, many" || ''ghngỳ.'' "every, all, the whole" || ''tỳzhd.'' "more" || ''ỳst.'' "most"
|}

===Verbs===
Most verbs correspond to Lemizh words with an inner factive. However, as Lemizh stems always denote an action, the notable exception are stative verbs such as:
* ''zdìls.'' "to sit", literally "the consequence of sitting down (''zdàs.'')"
* ''gwìlt.'' "to know", literally "the consequence of learning (''gwàt.'')"

====Inflection====
* Person is not expressed with inflection but with [[#Relative pronouns|pronouns]].
* Number is conveyed by compounding pronouns with numerals. While verbs (i.e. words with an inner factive) can be compounded with numerals, ''ftrask'''mlà'''.'' does not mean "we/they sneeze" but "(there are) several acts of sneezing" (i.e. someone sneezes several times and/or several people sneeze).
* Voice (active/passive) is absent in Lemizh; word order serves a similar function.
* Tense is expressed by compounds with an epenthetic temporal case (''-arh-''), or with certain inner cases. The latter option is preferred if possible, as it is more concise.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Present !! Past !! Perfect !! Future !! Intentional
|-
! to sit down
| ''zdàs.'' || ''zdarhs'''wà'''.'' || ''zdarhs'''prilkà'''.'' || ''zd'''ìl'''s.'' ({{sc|cons}}) || ''zdarhs'''prà'''.'' || ''zd'''ò'''s.'' ({{sc|ten}})
|-
! compound with
| — || pronoun || ''prilkỳ.'' "back" || — || ''prỳ.'' "front" || —
|}
Note that the translation of the perfect with inner consecutive coincides with the translation of stative verbs: "having sat down" in the strict perfect sense of "the consequence/effect of this action exists" means the same as "to sit". Likewise, "whiteness" can be expressed as the abstract concept of "having whitened something".

* Mood corresponds to compounds with certain verbs for the most part. There is no equivalent to the subjunctive mood, as subordinate clauses are irreal (i.e. not necessarily real) by default. Here are some common formations:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Indicative !! Imperative !! Commanding imperative !! Interrogative Polite imperative !! Optative
|-
! to feed, to eat
| ''àdh.'' || ''adh'''pràk'''.'' || ''adh'''dàxt'''.'' || ''adh'''pà'''.'' || ''adh'''làxt'''.''
|-
! compound with
| — || ''pràk.'' "to request" || ''dàxt.'' "to command" || ''pà.'' "to ask" || ''làxt.'' "to want"
|}
* Aspect is a very diverse category, expressed by a variety of compounds and syntactic structures in Lemizh.

===Pronouns===
The two demonstrative pronouns are technically nominal verbs:
* ''tà.'' "to make this/that one", typically used with inner accusative: ''tỳ.'' "this/that (one)"
* ''gwà.'' "to make someone/anyone, something/anything", with inner accusative ''gwỳ.'' "someone/anyone, something/anything"

The eleven relative pronouns play a far more prominent role in Lemizh grammar. Their scope is much wider than the one usually associated with the term. As they are closely tied to Lemizh syntax, they are described [[#Relative pronouns|further down]].

==Syntax==
===Level of words===
There is only one more grammatical category: the level of words, which is the main building block of Lemizh syntax. A word can be of first level (the highest), of second level (the next highest), of third level (still one level lower) and so on; there is no limit for the number of levels, but non-positive word levels (zero, −1, etc.) are forbidden.

The first word in a sentence (the main predicate) is of first level by definition. The level of the next word is determined by the main predicate's accent and by the type of pause between the two words, the level of the third word is determined by the accent of the second and the pause between these two, and so on.

Here is the complete list of pause/accent combinations.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="2" | Following pause !! rowspan="2" | Accented vowel !! rowspan="2" | Type of accent !! rowspan="2" | The level of the next word is …
|-
! in speech !! in writing
|-
| rowspan="4" | barely audible || rowspan="4" | space || rowspan="2" | inner case || low || lower by 1
|-
| high || lower by 1, and [[w:Agent (grammar)|agentive]]* ({{sc|a}})
|-
| rowspan="2" | outer case || low || equal
|-
| high || higher by 1
|-
| rowspan="4" | a bit longer || rowspan="4" | comma ('''·''') || rowspan="2" | inner case || low || higher by 2
|-
| high || higher by 3
|-
| rowspan="2" | outer case || low || higher by 4
|-
| high || higher by 5
|-
| the longest || full stop ('''∶''') || inner case || low || none; end of sentence
|}
<nowiki>*</nowiki> The agent is the initiator of the action (more informally, the one who ''does'' the action).

===The Rules===
[[File:Lemizh parse tree.png|thumb|upright=1.5|A schematic sentence with the words represented by their level numbers]]
The word levels determine the structure of a sentence.

'''Rule One of sentence grammar. A word of level n is subordinate to the nearest word of level n−1 in front of it; the parole acts as a word of level zero.'''

All words of second level are subordinate to the main predicate (which has first level). A word of third level is subordinate to the next second-level word in front of it, and so on. In other words, Lemizh sentences are strictly [[w:Head directionality|head-first]]. The main predicate itself is subordinate to the [[w:Parole (linguistics)|parole]], the action of speaking (or writing) the sentence in question, which consequently has level zero.

'''Rule Two. An object of a word in a sentence is a word subordinate to the former, its predicate, plus all of its own objects.'''

In the diagram, the main predicate's three objects are enclosed in ellipses. Objects of the same word are called ''sibling objects'' or just ''siblings'', and the word they are subordinate to is their ''predicate''. Note that ''predicate'' and ''object'' are relative terms like ''parent'' and ''child''.

The table of level markers implies that only the first object of a predicate can be marked as agent. (This has been interpreted as Lemizh having VSO word order, although a subject is not quite the same as an agent, and Lemizh grammar strictly speaking does not have the concept of a subject.)

'''Rule Three. The outer case of the first word of an object defines its relation to its predicate's stem via its descriptor; the outer case of a level 1 word is zero.'''

This is what we would expect from a language that inflects for case: the nominative object defines the source (sender) of the action named by the stem of its predicate, the accusative object its content, the temporal object its time, etc.

'''Examples'''
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dá föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|give-FACT-1 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2A bottle-ACC-ACC-2 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2.
|''Father Christmas gives Lucy a bottle.''}}

The stems of the three objects are nominal verbs ("to make a bottle" etc.), hence the inner accusatives. The outer cases indicate the sender, content and recipient of the action of giving, respectively. The agent is specified independently of the plot arrow; note the difference:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dá lusyì dwywỳ föpysrỳfe.
|give-FACT-1 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2A bottle-ACC-ACC-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2.
|''Lucy takes a bottle from Father Christmas.''}}

We need not mark an object as agentive if we consider this information unimportant. The English translations are only rough approximations:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dà lusyì dwywỳ föpysrỳfe.
|give-FACT-1 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2 bottle-ACC-ACC-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2.
|''Lucy gets a bottle from Father Christmas. Lucy is given a bottle by Father Christmas.''}}

Rule Three defines outer case in a way that mirrors the definition of inner case. This allows for an operation called '''inversion''':
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|làzhw wèxi. ⇔ wáx lìzhwe.
|help-FACT-1 speak-'''NOM'''-'''DAT'''-2. ⇔ speak-FACT-1 help-'''DAT'''-'''NOM'''-2A.
|''[Someone] helps the speaker. ⇔ The one being helped speaks.''}}

Both sentences claim that the sender of speaking is the recipient of helping. The equation is ''wèx.'' = ''lìzhw.'', the speaker = the one being helped.

This example also illustrates that any object in a Lemizh sentence can be omitted (here the nominative "someone") as none of the Rules prescribes which objects have to be included. In fact, anything not helpful for understanding a sentence should be left out.

'''Rule Four. An instance of a word stem designates a specific action.'''

''dà'' in the above sentence does not just mean "to give", it refers to one specific action of giving. Such an action may involve several givers (as in "They give something") and need not even be temporally or spatially contiguous (as in "They are giving something every Christmas"). In other words, each spoken or written instance of the stem ''d–'' refers to a certain subset of all the giving there is.

This rule ensures that all the objects refer to the same action of giving as the predicate itself.

'''Rule Five. A case characterises the action it refers to completely with regard to its case descriptor.'''

For example, the nominative object "Father Christmas" has to name the complete sender of the above instance of giving. This excludes from this instance all giving not done by Father Christmas. So each object places a restriction on the action of giving the main predicate refers to. Thus, the subset of giving meant by this instance of ''dà.'' – what the sentence is ultimately talking about – is defined more and more precisely with each additional object. (The same is true not only of the main predicate but of all words in a sentence.)

'''Rule Six. A missing object is equivalent to the absence of information about its descriptor.'''

Above sentences do not have, for example, locative objects, so Rule Five cannot place a restriction on the place of giving. Because of Rule Six, this does not mean there are no restrictions on the location, but only that this kind of information has not been included in the sentence (for example, because the speaker does not know about it, considers it irrelevent, or assumes the listener already knows or – perhaps most importantly – can infer it).

Rules Five and Six imply that every instance of a word has exactly one action (which, however, need not be contiguous), one sender (which can consist of several people), and so on: Five excludes additional senders if one nominative object is already present, and Six gives meaning to missing objects, establishing them as an integral part of Lemizh sentence grammar.

'''Rule Seven. Given an object and its predicate, the predicate is considered more real and the object more hypothetical.'''

…

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! as an object !! as a complete sentence
|-
| ''dà.'' || to give; giving || An action of giving exists = Someone gives something.
|-
| ''zdìls.'' || the consequence of sitting down = to sit; sitting || The consequence of sitting down exists = Someone sits.
|-
| ''dwìlw.'' || the consequence of making a bottle || The consequence of making a bottle exists = A bottle exists; there is a bottle.
|-
| ''sklè.'' || one building a bridge || One building a bridge exists = There is someone building a bridge.
|}

===Noun phrases===
Forming noun phrases does not require any new grammatical rules. In the following example, the inner case of "give" is changed to the nominative, yielding "one giving something, a giver", and everything is pushed down one level. The third-level words are still sender, content and recipient of the ''action'' of giving, as outer cases define relations to the predicate's ''stem'' per Rule Three.
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 3A:third level, agentive
|dmàt tryxkì dée föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|see-FACT-1 beaver-ACC-DAT-2 give-'''NOM'''-NOM-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-3A bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3.
|''The beaver sees '''the one giving Lucy a bottle, Father Christmas'''.''}}
Regarding the verb "see", note that the beaver is in the dative, being at the receiving end of the optical stimulus or information. Marking the beaver as agent would translate as "The beaver looks at the one …".

Rules Four and Five guarantee that the giver is identical to Father Christmas: both are the sender of the same instance of the stem ''d–'' "give" (the giver via its inner nominative, Father Christmas via its outer nominative), and both are the ''complete'' sender of this action. This type of construction, where an object's outer case matches its predicate's inner case, is called a '''bracket'''. Brackets are very widely used:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Apposition !! Attributive adjective !! Attributive pronoun/determiner !! Attributive numeral !! Attributive participle
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|iakopỳk saxèfy.
|Jacopo-'''ACC'''-1 trumpet-NOM-'''ACC'''-2.
|''Jacopo, a trumpeter''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=INS:instrumental case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|ghstù lỳbdhu.
|sail-'''INS'''-1 white-ACC-'''INS'''-2.
|''a sail, a white thing = a white sail''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|ỳksh gwỳy.
|ship-'''ACC'''-1 some-ACC-'''ACC'''-2.
|''a ship, something = some ship''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|mỳs trỳy.
|mouse-'''ACC'''-1 three-ACC-'''ACC'''-2.
|''mice, three individuals = three mice''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|nỳzd gangèy.
|bird-'''ACC'''-1 sing-NOM-'''ACC'''-2.
|''a bird, a singer = a singing bird''}}
|}
Such phrases can be easily extended. This example contains two accusative brackets ("a singing bird" and "a sad child"):
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 4:fourth level
|ngỳzd gangèy zhngỳi speghý ytfỳarh.
|bird-ACC-1 sing-NOM-ACC-2 child-ACC-DAT-3 sad-NOM-ACC-4 night-ACC-TEMP-3.
|''a bird singing to a sad child at night''}}

Adverbially used adjectives are phrased with factive brackets. However, changing the predicate's inner case leaves the object's outer factive intact, losing the bracket.
{|
|-
| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|gangà txỳska.
|sing-'''FACT'''-1 loud-ACC-'''FACT'''-2.
|''(an action of) singing, a loud thing = loud singing = singing loudly, to sing loudly''}}

| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|nỳzd gangèy txỳska.
|bird-ACC-1 sing-NOM-ACC-2 loud-ACC-'''FACT'''-3.
|''a bird, a loud singer = a bird singing loudly'' (The '''action''' of singing is a loud thing.)}}
|}

As [[w:Genitive construction|genitive constructions]] have a wide variety of meanings, there is no single Lemizh equivalent. The typical translation for constructions indicating possession is with the benefactive case, but other cases frequently occur. Everything depends on the object's relation to the predicate's stem per Rule Three.
{|
|-
| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|dwỳw lusỳü.
|bottle-ACC-1 Lucy-ACC-'''BEN'''-2.
|Lucy is the beneficiary of making the bottle. The bottle is made for Lucy. 
''Lucy's bottle''}}

| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dý ỳxe.
|give-ACC-1 male-ACC-'''NOM'''-2A.
|The man is the sender of giving. 
''the man's gift''}}

| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|rhỳst ytfỳarh filpskỳy.
|dream-ACC-1 night-ACC-'''TEMP'''-2 midsummer-ACC-ACC-3.
| The midsummer night is the time of dreaming. 
''A Midsummer Night's Dream''}}
|}

===Dependent clauses===
Non-finite and conjunctional clauses …
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive; 3:third level
|láxt föpysryfè dày dwywỳ lusỳi.
|want-FACT-1 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2A give-'''FACT'''-ACC-2 bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3.
|''Father Christmas wants '''to give Lucy a bottle'''.''}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 3A:third level, agentive
|dmàt tryxkì dáe föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|see-FACT-1 beaver-ACC-DAT-2 give-'''FACT'''-NOM-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-3A bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3.
|''The beaver sees [the action of] '''Father Christmas giving Lucy a bottle'''.''}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; AFF:affirmative case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 3A:third level, agentive
|dmàt tryxkì dále föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|see-FACT-1 beaver-ACC-DAT-2 give-'''AFF'''-NOM-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-3A bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3.
|''The beaver sees [the fact of] '''Father Christmas giving Lucy a bottle'''. The beaver sees '''that''' Father Christmas gives Lucy a bottle.''}}

…

Relative clauses are structurally identical to (extended) attributive participles as described above: ''a bird which sings to a sad child at night = a bird singing to a sad child at night''.

===Predicative===
…


===Relative pronouns===
Stems of relative pronouns (not to be confused with the pronouns of the same name in English or Latin) refer to actions by pointing to another stem or to a parole: they are [[w:Anaphora (linguistics)|anaphoric]]. Here is the full list:
{| class="wikitable"
! rowspan="2" | Level !! colspan="2" | Type I !! colspan="2" | Type II
|-
! Verb !! The target is the stem of !! Verb !! The target is the stem of
|-
| n || colspan="2" | (does not occur because it would refer to itself) || à. || its preceding same-level word
|-
| n−1 || wà. || its predicate || fà. || its predicate's preceding same-level word or parole
|-
| n−2 || dhà. || its predicate's predicate || thà. || its predicate's predicate's preceding same-level word or parole
|-
| n−3 || zà. || its predicate's predicate's predicate || sà. || …
|-
| n−4 || zhà. || … || shà. || …
|-
| n−5 || ghà. || … || xà. || …
|}
They are highly versatile, corresponding to various structures in other languages. Recall that a sentence's parole has level zero:
{| class="wikitable"
! Reflexive !! First person (singular) !! Second person
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|wáx wìe.
|speak-FACT-1 PIn−1-'''DAT'''-'''NOM'''-2A.
|The recipient of speaking is its sender. 
''to talk to oneself. He is talking to himself.''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dráw dhèe.
|dance-FACT-1 PIn−2-'''NOM'''-NOM-2A.
|The sender of the parole is the sender of dancing. 
''I am dancing.''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dráw dhìe.
|dance-FACT-1 PIn−2-'''DAT'''-NOM-2A.
|The recipient of the parole is the sender of dancing. 
''You are dancing.''}}
|}
Rule Four of sentence grammar ensures that the reflexive example means "He is talking to himself" as opposed to, say, "He is talking to one being talked to" (which would be ''wáx wìxe.'' speak-{{sc|fact}}-1 speak-{{sc|dat-nom}}-2{{sc|a}}, with two different instances of the stem "speak").

{| class="wikitable"
! Possessive determiner !! Vocative
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=CONS:consecutive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|zdìls ngỳzdy zeú tỳar.
|seat-CONS-1 bird-ACC-ACC-2 PIn−3-'''NOM'''-BEN-3 this-ACC-LOC-2.
|The sender of the parole is the beneficiary of making a bird.
 ''My bird is sitting there.''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=PI:pronoun type I; FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive; 3:third level
|wáx dheè zdhèzhi zìe.
|speak-FACT-1 PIn−2-NOM-NOM-2A friend-NOM-DAT-2 PIn−3-'''DAT'''-NOM-3.
|The recipient of the parole is the friend. (nominative bracket) 
''Friend, I am talking to you.''}}
|}

The type II pronoun in the following example points to the stem of eating. With the inner accusative, the pronoun refers to the content of eating, which is the sweet. (As with brackets, Rules Four and Five guarantee that the pronoun refers to the same content of the same action of eating as mentioned in the first sentence.)
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; PII:pronoun type II; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|ádh dheì mlỳdhy. ràsh fỳy.
|eat-FACT-1 PIn−2-NOM-DAT-2A sweet-ACC-ACC-2. like-FACT-1 PIIn−1-'''ACC'''-ACC-2.
|''I am eating a sweet. [I] like it.''}}

==Derivational morphology==
From a Lemizh point of view, ''dè.'' "giver" and ''dỳ.'' "gift" aren't derivatives of ''dà.'' "to give" but grammatical forms of the same word. The only piece of true derivational morphology is compounding.

===Compounds===
[[File:Lemizh compounding diagram.png|thumb|Forming a compound from a two-word sentence]]
'''Rule One of compounding. A compound word is constructed from a two-word sentence – predicate and object of which become modifier and head of the compound, respectively – in the following way:'''
# '''Prestem''':
## the object's prestem
## the object's inner case
## the object's poststem
## an optional separator
## the predicate's prestem
# '''Inner case'''
# '''Poststem''': the predicate's poststem
# '''Outer case'''
Note that the object's stem comes before the predicate's; and also that the object's outer case (and, less importantly, the predicate's inner case) is lost. The object's inner case becomes part of the compound's prestem and is then called its ''epenthetic case''. The separator can be used, for example, if the word boundary would be unclear otherwise, or for placing the second part of the word on a new line.

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|làxt àdhy. ⇒ adhlàxt.
|want-FACT-1 eat-FACT-ACC-2. ⇒ eat-FACT-want-FACT-1.
|''[She] wants to eat.'' (See the inflection of [[#Verbs|verbs]].)}}
Here, the lost accusative ending has to be deduced from context.

'''Rule Two. In the relationship between the original predicate and object, the rules of sentence grammar are retained as far as applicable.'''

The consequences of this rule are somewhat technical; but the last one, pertaining to degree of reality, is important for correctly interpreting compounds.
* Rules One to Three of sentence grammar are not applicable to compounds, as can be easily seen.
* Four: Both modifier and head are instantiations of specific actions in the original sentence (which however do not necessarily match the instantiation of the compound).
* Five: The epenthetic case characterises the head completely with regard to its descriptor.
* Six: The only overt object of the modifier is the head. All other objects are missing and thus indicate the absence of information about their descriptors.
* Seven: The modifier has a higher degree of reality than the head. Therefore, the above compound does not claim that she actually eats.

'''Rule Three. Regarding all outward relations, cases''' (i.e. the compound's inner case [not to be confused with its epenthetic case], the outer cases of its objects, and cases of pronouns referring to it) '''refer to the head.'''
{|
|-
| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|adhkmàr mlỳdhy.
|eat-FACT-allow-LOC-1 sweet-ACC-ACC-2.
|''a place where one may eat sweets; a place for eating sweets''}}

| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|ngengadàxt fỳta.
|run-FACT-must-FACT-1 fast-ACC-FACT-1
|''[He] has to run fast.''}}
|}

These examples talk about the location of eating, as opposed to the location of allowing; about eating sweets, as opposed to allowing sweets; the running is fast, as opposed to the necessity; etc.

Number and gender of [[#Nouns|nouns]] are compounds from brackets: ''mlỳ dèy.'' "several individuals, [which are] givers" ⇒ ''demlè.'' "givers". The inner nominative (''-e-'') becomes the epenthetic case, and the new inner case also has to be a nominative per Rule Three. ''deml'''ỳ'''.'' ({{sc|acc}}), by contrast, is "something given by several people".

Compounds expressing degrees of [[#Adjectives and numerals|adjectives]] are also formed from brackets. They have an epenthetic consecutive (''-il-''), which stems from the corresponding abstract noun: ''dmỳ gmrìly.'' "much warmth" ⇒ ''gmrildmìl.'' "heat" (abstract noun formed with inner {{sc|cons}}), ''gmrildmỳ.'' "hot" (adjective with inner {{sc|acc}}).

Tense …

==Example text==
[[File:Lemizh text sample.png|600px]]

====stedrỳzh thìrhfi xtrỳghy.====
krỳgh dghngireì prilxpilghkỳarh. mangỳ srungbỳng lyngghỳng yngshwỳng fỳü. zhöazhghngìl tmỳil. ghngàgzh smìa prỳal ghngyé dhàbdhy lunguỳ ùyl mỳu fplyxár tỳarh. dmát feì sxngengzè ishkènge. ghìlt krighmyngthxì xtrỳngghi swyshỳ ghỳxy fplyxòr zhöyzhỳm xngàrorm. dmìlt öngkrỳngty zhryỳ rèshy esfàsy sxngyzdmýi, usrỳngy xazhgèsty ghngỳeng, frekrỳngfy rilghdzhỳwby pthèby, dgheipysrỳngdy psrèby rhèzhem, dghistngỳngty ghỳxy zangỳa dghildhfmlýyrh, ngiftngyghtmỳngy krültlìy zùe gỳghda. xtrỳgh swyshý stedrỳzh thìrfi. dngilszhrìl bdhyrgzhyngỳng xüxtrỳngyng prilkỳarh ötìlil skmyngìlng ghỳngsilng. dngilszhìlwb ráxpy thìlfi. fö̀l gwiltngìlöl dmàty föpysryfỳ ngỳu.

rỳ zhryỳrh thìzgy gwiltngìly rhàghgy dmatngìe thìrfy. là xángska matngiè ytfỳyrh dmyý fplyxór dyxtngyngà mànga prilzhryngỳr iltỳngzhdyr. dmàt ytfỳarh ryý mìlngorh xngyì prilkyár mìlngorh xtrỳngghi kshrextý mengthxì prỳar zìe, fplỳngxe fywýr déngske xtryghè sxngezì xngỳnge.

====The Legend of the Seventh Planet====
A long time ago there was a tribe of nomads. They possessed neither writing nor houses nor horses. But they were truly human. They were curious; this means, above all, that they took interest in the useless, for the celestial objects were of no use to them yet. They looked at the Sun and the Moon. They had named the constellations and the six planets moving across the sky like the humans across the earth. They knew dim Mercury, who liked to hide in the glare of the Sun; Venus, the brightest of all; reddish and angry Mars; majestic father Jupiter; Saturn, who seemed to stand still for weeks; and even Uranus had been caught by their keen eyes. Six planets, and the legend of a seventh. Maybe it had been the minor planet Vesta, or a comet centuries or millennia earlier. Maybe it was the attraction of the number seven. For Neptune is invisible to the naked eye.

One youngster thought to himself that he could not live without seeing the seventh planet. He lay awake searching the sky for many nights, neglected his duties, and became thinner and thinner. And one night, lying with the Earth behind his back, and with the looping planets and the stars above him, he saw the depth of the sky and the planets circling the Sun, and among them the Earth.

==External links==
* [https://lemizh.conlang.org Lemizh homepage] with comprehensive coverage of the language, including a dictionary with etymologies, information on the language's pragmatics, and more background information
[[File:Copyleft1.png|20px]] ''This article is available under a [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License]. It includes material from the Lemizh homepage, which has the same license.''


[[Category:Languages]]
[[Category:Conlangs]]
[[Category:Indo-European languages]]
[[Category:Fusional languages]]

Lemizh

2022-05-17T19:12:00Z

Anypodetos: Partitive/qualitative examples; inversion, omitting objects; exactly one sender, ...

{{Infobox language
|image =
|imagesize =
|name = Lemizh
|nativename = lemỳzh.
|pronunciation = lɛmˈɯ̀ʒ
|state = Lemaria
|setting = Alt-history Europe
|created = 1985
|familycolor = Indo-European
|fam2 = Lemizh
|ancestor = Proto-Lemizh
|posteriori = [[w:Proto-Indo-European|Proto-Indo-European]]
|creator = [[User:Anypodetos|Anypodetos]]
|scripts = Lemizh alphabet
|nation = Lemaria
|map = Map of Lemaria.png
|notice = IPA
}}
'''Lemizh''' ([[Help:IPA|[lεmˈiʒ]]], native pronunciation: [[Help:IPA|[lɛmˈɯ̀ʒ]]]) is a language I invented with the aim of creating a grammar as regular and simple as possible. It was originally intended as an [[w:International auxiliary language|international auxiliary language]]. However, it turned out that a simple grammar is not necessarily a grammar that is easy to learn: the more ways of simplification I found, the further away it moved from [[w:Indo-European languages|Indo-European]] and probably all other familiar language structures. Expecting anyone to learn Lemizh, at this point, would be completely unrealistic.

So I needed a new justification for the language: enter the Lemizh, a people living to the west and north of the [[w:Black Sea|Black Sea]] in an alternate history that slowly drifted away from ours between two and eight millennia ago. Of course, it is extremely unlikely that they would speak a language that was completely without exceptions. To be precise, the chances are two to the power of two hundred and seventy-six thousand seven hundred and nine to one against. But they say that everything has to happen somewhere in the Multiverse. And everything happens only once.

{{TOC limit}}

==History==
===Early stages===
Lemizh is an Indo-European language and, together with Volgan, constitutes one of the ten recognised branches of the Indo-European language family. This branch is also called Lemizh, to the disgruntlement of Volgan linguists.

Proto-Lemizh, the ancestor of Lemizh and Volgan, is very poorly attested in form of some papyri found near the northwestern shore of the Black Sea, to the north of the [[w:Dniester Liman|Dniester Liman]], dated about 2700 BC. Old Lemizh, by contrast, is fairly well attested. It had predominantly [[w:Subject–verb–object|subject–verb–object]] (SVO) word order and was a quite typical old Indo-European language, but with a couple of interesting quirks:
* Adjectives were lost as a separate part of speech, being replaced with participles ("white" > "being white").
* Finite subordinate clauses had their subject in the case of the clause: the subject of a local clause was in the locative case without having a local meaning in itself.
The earliest known documents from this stage of Lemizh were probably written around 2100 BC along the northern and western shores of the Back Sea.

===Ghean and Middle Lemizh===
Ghean ([[Help:IPA|[ˈɣɛən]]]) is a language with no known genetic relationships. It was spoken by a people of unknown origin, who subdued the Lemizh tribes in around 1000 BC and ruled for infamous three generations. Ghean was an inflected [[w:Tonal language|register tonal]] language with strict [[w:Verb–subject–object|verb–subject–object]] (VSO) word order and head-first phrases. It had verbs, [[w:Nominal (linguistics)|nominals]] (a combined noun/adjective/participle part of speech), pronouns and particles.

The Gheans discouraged the use of the natives' language, but obviously tolerated Lemizh words (or rather word stems) to stand in for unfamiliar Ghean ones. The grammar of simple sentences was easy enough to learn for the Lemizh, as they were used to inflection and head-first phrases, and likely still knew VSO sentences from poetry. After two or three generations, the natives must have spoken a [[w:Creole language|creole]] with a more or less Ghean grammar but an abundance of Lemizh words, especially outside the core vocabulary. This is a quite unusual development as most creoles draw their lexicon mainly from the dominant group, and tend to be grammatically more innovative. (The Tanzanian language [[w:Mbugu language|Mbugu]] might have had a somewhat similar development with more or less analogous outcomes.) After the disappearance of the Gheans, Lemizh patriots tried to revive their old language, which failed spectacularly for the grammar but reintroduced many Lemizh words of the core vocabulary.

===The last three millennia===
While Middle Lemizh as spoken after the Ghean occupation already had a non-Indo-European and unusually regular grammar, this trend was to continue over the following millennia. The factive case was innovated to express verbal nouns, which eventually supplanted verbs altogether. (At least part of the blame goes to the Tlöngö̀l, an epic novel published in 1351, which popularised the use of verbal nouns.) The tonal system was simplified to the present two-way [[w:Pitch-accent language|pitch-accent]] system. Pronouns lost their status as a separate part of speech. The last particles died out a few hundred years ago, leaving the language with a single part of speech which is often called a "verb" but, historically speaking, is really a nominal. This means that the concept of ''parts of speech'' does not make sense in Modern Lemizh.

This article describes the dialect spoken to the north of the [[w:Danube Delta|Danube delta]], which prevailed against other variants and is considered the standard language today.

==Orthography and phonology==
The alphabet is [[w:Phonetic orthography|phonetic]]: each letter corresponds to a certain sound, and each sound is represented by a single letter. The direction of writing is left to right. This article uses the standard transcription of the native Lemizh alphabet as given here:
{| class="wikitable" style="width: 800px; table-layout: fixed; text-align: center"
! colspan="29" | Letters of the Lemizh alphabet
|-
| colspan="29" style="padding: 0" | [[File:Lemizh alphabet.png|796px]]
|-
| a || e || y || i || o || ö || u || ü || l || rh || r || ng || m || g || d || b || k || t || p || gh || zh || z || dh || w || x || sh || s || th || f
|}

===Consonants===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="2" | !! bilabial !! dental !! alveolar !! postalveolar !! velar
|-
! colspan="2" | nasals
| m <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial nasal|m]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || || || ng <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar nasal|ŋ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! colspan="2" | plosives (voiceless • voiced)
| p <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless bilabial plosive|p]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • b <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial plosive|b]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || t <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless alveolar plosive|t]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • d <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar plosive|d]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || k <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless velar plosive|k]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • g <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar plosive|g]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! colspan="2" | fricatives (voiceless • voiced)
| f <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless bilabial fricative|ɸ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • w <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial fricative|β]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || th <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless dental fricative|θ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • dh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced dental fricative|ð]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || s <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless alveolar sibilant|s]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • z <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar sibilant|z]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || sh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless palato-alveolar fricative|ʃ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • zh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced palato-alveolar fricative|ʒ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || x <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless velar fricative|x]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • gh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar fricative|ɣ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! rowspan="3" | liquids || lateral approximant
| || || l <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar lateral approximant|l]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|-
! approximant
| || || rh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar approximant|ɹ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|-
! trill
| || || r <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar trill|r]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|}
The plosive-fricative combinations ''pf, ts, tsh, kx'' and their voiced couterparts only occur at word boundaries and in compound words. They are not pronounced as affricates but as separate sounds. The same applies for other combinations of a plosive plus another consonant (''pm, tl'' etc.), as well as for two identical plosives (''kk'' etc.): the release of the first plosive is always audible.

===Vowels===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! rowspan="2" | !! colspan="2" | front !! colspan="2" | back
|-
! unrounded !! rounded !! unrounded !! rounded
|-
! close
| i <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close front unrounded vowel|i]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ü <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close front rounded vowel|y]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || y <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close back unrounded vowel|ɯ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || u <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close back rounded vowel|u]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! open-mid
| e <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid front unrounded vowel|ɛ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ö <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid front rounded vowel|œ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || a <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid back unrounded vowel|ʌ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || o <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid back rounded vowel|ɔ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|}
Two consecutive different vowels are pronounced as a diphthong; two consecutive identical vowels as a long one. Single vowels are always short.

Lemizh uses [[w:Mora (linguistics)|moræ]] for structuring words: a short syllable equals one mora, and a long syllable equals two. In Lemizh, every vowel is the centre of a mora; consequently, two consecutive vowels result in two moræ or one long syllable.

===Accent===
Lemizh has got a two-way pitch-accent system, in that accented moræ are not only spoken louder (as in English), but also have either a lower or a higher pitch than the surrounding unaccented ones. The accented mora is always the ultimate or penultimate of a word. The vowel at the centre of a low-pitch accented mora is transcribed with a grave accent, the vowel at the centre of a high-pitch accented mora with an acute accent.
{| class="wikitable" style="width: 220px; table-layout: fixed; text-align: center"
! colspan="8" | Accented vowel letters
|-
| colspan="8" style="padding: 0" | [[File:Lemizh accented vowels.png|216px]]
|-
| à || è || ỳ || ì || ò || ö̀ || ù || ǜ
|-
| á || é || ý || í || ó || ö́ || ú || ǘ
|}

===Phonotactics===
[[w:Phonotactics|Phonotactics]] is rather permissive in Lemizh. A mora has the following structure, where the bracketed parts are optional:
* (O)(N)(L)V(L)(N)(O)
V is the mora's vowel, L a liquid, N a nasal, and O an obstruent that can be either a P(losive), a F(ricative), FP, PF, FF, FFP, FPF, or PFF. Word-initial consonant clusters cannot contain more than three sounds. No geminate consonants (<abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''ff'' etc.) occur within a mora. Consecutive plosive-fricative or fricative-plosive combinations within the same mora must have the same sonority – either both are voiced, or both are voiceless. A plosive cannot have the same place of articulation as a following consonant with the exception of ''rh'' and ''r''. <abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''dzh'', <abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''ddh'' and their voiceless counterparts are also prohibited within a mora.

Word boundaries, including those within compound words, are always mora boundaries. Where mora boundaries would still be ambiguous, liquids and nasals are assigned to the earliest possible mora (as the ''m'' in ''lem·ỳzh.''), and obstruents to the latest possible mora.

==Morphology==
All words are composed of the following parts:
* Prestem + inner case + poststem + outer case
Prestem and poststem form the stem, or the lexical part, of the word. The division of the stem into two portions is similar to English verbs such as ''sing/sang/sung'', where the lexical part is ''s–ng'' while the vowels ''i/a/u'' convey grammatical information. The stem always denotes an action (but never a state, a person, a thing, a property, etc.) and thus resembles our verbs. The prestem can contain any sounds, or it can be zero (i.e. consisting of zero sounds). The poststem can only contain fricatives and plosives, or it can be zero as well.

The inner case is represented by one of the eight vowels, optionally followed by a liquid (the primary case suffix) and/or a nasal (the secondary case suffix). The outer case has the same structure. For the first word in each sentence, the main predicate, the outer case is missing.

Each case is defined by its ''descriptor'': for example, the factive case denotes an ''action'', the nominative a ''sender'', the locative a ''place''. The stem and the inner case's descriptor determine a word's meaning.

'''Examples'''
* ''wàx. w–x'' is the stem for "speak", ''-a-'' denotes the inner factive, so this word means "an action of speaking", translated as the verb "to speak" or the [[w:Verbal noun|verbal noun]] "speaking".
* ''wèx. -e-'' denotes the inner nominative, so this word means "a sender of speaking" or "a speaker".
* ''àrdh. ∅–dh'' (having a zero prestem) is the stem for "eat", ''-ar-'' denotes the inner locative: "a place of eating".
{| class="wikitable"
|+ Primary cases and their descriptors
|-
! rowspan="3" | № !! rowspan="3" | Case vowel !! colspan="4" | Primary case suffix
|-
| none || l || rh || r
|-
! Plot cases !! Causal cases !! Temporal cases !! Spatial cases
|-
| 1 || a || factive ({{sc|fact}}): ''action'' || affirmative ({{sc|aff}}): ''fact (point in causal chain)'' || temporal ({{sc|temp}}): ''time'' || locative ({{sc|loc}}): ''place/region''
|-
| 2 || e || nominative ({{sc|nom}}): ''source, sender'' || causative ({{sc|caus}}): ''direct cause'' || ingressive ({{sc|ing}}): ''starting time'' || elative ({{sc|ela}}): ''starting point/region''
|-
| 3 || y || accusative ({{sc|acc}}): ''content'' || contextual ({{sc|ctx}}): ''causal context'' || durative ({{sc|dur}}): ''duration'' || extensive ({{sc|ext}}): ''spatial extent''
|-
| 4 || i || dative ({{sc|dat}}): ''sink, recipient'' || consecutive ({{sc|cons}}): ''direct consequence, effect'' || egressive ({{sc|egr}}): ''closing time'' || illative ({{sc|ill}}): ''end point / ending region''
|-
| 5 || o || tentive ({{sc|ten}}): ''intention'' || intentive ({{sc|int}}): ''intention (intended point in causal chain)'' || episodic ({{sc|eps}}): ''episode, "act"'' || scenic ({{sc|sce}}): ''scene, "stage"''
|-
| 6 || ö || comitative ({{sc|com}}): ''company'' || persuasive ({{sc|psu}}): ''reason'' || digressive ({{sc|dig}}): ''time away from which'' || ablative ({{sc|abl}}): ''place/region away from which''
|-
| 7 || u || instrumental ({{sc|ins}}): ''means, tool'' || motivational ({{sc|mot}}): ''motivational context'' || progressive ({{sc|prog}}): ''time that is passed'' || prolative ({{sc|prol}}): ''crossing point/region''
|-
| 8 || ü || benefactive ({{sc|ben}}): ''beneficiary'' || final ({{sc|fin}}): ''purpose, aim'' || aggressive ({{sc|agg}}): ''time towards which, temporal aim'' || allative ({{sc|all}}): ''place/region towards which, spatial aim''
|}
Each primary case has two corresponding secondary cases:
* a partitive case formed by adding ''ng'' (such as ''-ing-'' for the partitive dative or ''-erng-'' for the partitive elative) with the descriptor ''the set from which the source (sink, place, etc.) is thought to be taken'': ''wèngx.'' is "the set from which the speaker is thought to be taken", i.e. "the speaker, among others".
* a qualitative case formed by adding ''m'', with the descriptor ''the basis of comparison for the source (sink, place, etc.)'': ''wèmx.'' informally translates as "someone like a speaker".

===The flow of the plot===
Every action denoted by a stem is considered a flow of information that comes from a source (sender), transports a content, and reaches a sink (a recipient). The terms "sender" and "recipient" may be more familiar, but "source" and "sink" are more accurate in not necessarily meaning living beings.

Consequently, a Lemizh action looks somewhat like this: '''nominative  accusative[[File:DreieckGreenMIDDLE.png|26px|link=]] dative'''

This is called the action's plot. Here are some examples:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative
|-
| ''wàx.'' "to speak, to talk, to tell; (an action of) speaking" || ''wèx.'' "one telling something" || ''wỳx.'' "a tale" || ''wìx.'' "one who is told something"
|-
| ''dà.'' "to give; (an action of) giving" || ''dè.'' "one giving something" || ''dỳ.'' "a gift" || ''dì.'' "one who is given something; one who gets something"
|-
| ''làzhw.'' "to help" || ''lèzhw.'' "one helping" || ''lỳzhw.'' "help (given)" || ''lìzhw.'' "one whom is helped"
|-
| ''mlàtx.'' "to melt" || ''mlètx.'' "one melting something" || [''mlỳtx.''] || ''mlìtx.'' "a melted thing"
|-
| ''xöàgh.'' "to produce a sound; to hear" || ''xöègh.'' "one producing a sound" || ''xöỳgh.'' "a sound" || ''xöìgh.'' "one hearing something"
|-
| ''àdh.'' "to feed; to eat" || ''èdh.'' "one feeding someone" || ''ỳdh.'' "food" || ''ìdh.'' "one being fed; one eating"
|-
| ''ià.'' "to love" || ''iè.'' "one loving someone, a lover" || ''iỳ.'' "a beloved" || ''iì.'' "a beloved"
|}
Importantly, there are no rules for which cases to use with which words. Both ''iỳ.'' ({{sc|acc}}) and ''iì.'' ({{sc|dat}}) mean "a beloved". The former describes the beloved as the content of love, the one being lovingly thought of, while the latter implies that the love reaches them, like words or gifts reach their recipient. Likewise, the reason why ''mlỳtx.'' is not translated in the table above isn't that "''melt'' does not take the accusative", as grammars of other languages would say, but that "a content of melting" does not seem to have any obvious meaning. If someone wanted to describe, say, sun rays as content transported from the sun to the snow to melt it, they could well use ''mlỳtx.'' to express the concept.

Case usage is governed solely by the cases' descriptors; it is up to the speaker how to use them given some word's meaning and some context. If the wind opens a door, is it the source of the action of opening (''ngèt.''), the means of opening (''ngùt.''), or the cause (''ngèlt.'')? All are grammatically correct; the speaker decides which possibility best expresses their intention.

===Nouns===
:''Nouns, adjectives and verbs do not correspond to any concepts in Lemizh grammar. Using these terms is just an attempt to describe the grammar from an Indo-European viewpoint.''
A large number of nouns are not derived from verbs in most languages: ''froth, ship, lion'' and many others. In Lemizh, however, we have verbs such as ''psràxk.'' "to froth", ''àksh.'' "to build a ship or ships", and ''làw.'' "to make a lion or lions". We will call these ''nominal verbs''.

Looking at the verb ''àksh.'', the shipwright ({{sc|nom}}) gives the building materials ({{sc|dat}}) the properties or the function of a ship ({{sc|acc}}). He confers, well, shipness on the materials. The shipness is sent by the shipwright, not because he is acting, but because he is the source: the image of the ship, so to say, comes from his head and materialises in wood, iron, ropes, and linen. In short, these words mostly appear with inner accusative.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative
|-
| ''psràxk.'' "to froth" || ''psrèxk.'' "one frothing something" || ''psrỳxk.'' "a thing having the properties of froth = '''froth'''" || ''psrìxk.'' "a frothed thing, a frothed liquid"
|-
| ''àksh.'' "to build a ship" || ''èksh.'' "one building a ship, a shipwright" || ''ỳksh.'' "a thing having the properties of a ship = '''a ship'''" || ''ìksh.'' "building materials for a ship, materials made into a ship"
|-
| ''làw.'' "to make a lion" || [''lèw.'' "one making a lion"] || ''lỳw.'' "a thing having the properties of a lion = '''a lion'''" || [''lìw.'' "building materials for a lion, materials made into a lion"]
|}

Another very common kind of nouns are tool nouns, formed with an inner instrumental case:
* ''ghstù.'' "a sail" is derived from ''ghstà.'' "to sail", literally "a means of sailing",
* ''pslù.'' "scissors" from ''pslà.'' "to cut with scissors",
* ''saxùf.'' "trumpet" from ''saxàf.'' "to play the trumpet",
* ''skrùzh.'' "a finger" from ''skràzh.'' "to work with one's fingers".

====Inflection====
As mentioned above, all words can inflect for (outer) case. Thus, we have the nominative forms ''wàx'''e''''' "(an action of) speaking, talking, telling", ''dè'''e''''' "a giver", ''lỳw'''e''''' "a lion", the causative ''lỳw'''el''''' "because of a lion", the elative ''lỳw'''er''''' "(starting) from a lion", etc.

Lemizh words do not inflect for number or gender. If desired, we can express this information by forming compounds. (Note the duplication of the inner case vowel; the first occurrence in each word is called the epenthetic case of the compound. The underlying grammar will be described later.)
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Singular !! Dual !! Plural !! Feminine !! Masculine !! Feminine singular !! etc.
|-
! giver
| ''dè.'' || ''de'''rè'''.'' || ''de'''dwè'''.'' || ''de'''mlè'''.'' || ''de'''bè'''.'' || ''de'''èx'''.'' || ''de'''berè'''.''
|-
! lion
| ''lỳw.'' || ''lyw'''rỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''dwỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''mlỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''bỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''ỳx'''.'' || ''lyw'''byrỳ'''.''
|-
! compound with
| — || ''rỳ.'' "one" || ''dwỳ.'' "two" || ''mlỳ.'' "several" || ''bỳ.'' "female; woman" || ''ỳx.'' "male; man" || "female" and "one"
|}

===Adjectives and numerals===
There is no difference between adjectival and nominal verbs: they mostly appear with inner accusative. This is the same situation as in, say, Latin, where ''albus'' can mean "a white one" as well as "white". Numerals are basically a sub-category of adjectives.

The inner consecutive case translates certain abstract nouns.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative !! Inner consecutive
|-
| ''gmrà.'' "to heat, to make something warm" || ''gmrè.'' "one heating something up" || ''gmrỳ.'' "a warm thing; '''warm'''" || ''gmrì.'' "a thing heated up; heated, warmed" || ''gmrìl.'' "the consequence of heating = heat"
|-
| ''làbdh.'' "to whiten something, to make something white" || ''lèbdh.'' "one whitening something" || ''lỳbdh.'' "a white thing; '''white'''" || ''lìbdh.'' "a thing made white; whitened" || ''lìlbdh.'' "the consequence of whitening = whiteness"
|-
| ''dwà.'' "to make two things/individuals" || ''dwè.'' "one making two things" || ''dwỳ.'' "'''two''' (things)" || ''dwì.'' "something made into two (things)" || ''dwìl.'' "the consequence of making two things = twoness"
|}

However, emotions aren't viewed as properties in Lemizh: a happy or angry person is one sending happiness or anger, just as a loving person is one sending love. The inner causative plays a notable role with verbs of emotion.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative !! Inner causative
|-
| ''pthàb.'' "to be angry" || ''pthèb.'' "an angry one; '''angry'''" || ''pthỳb.'' "the content/object of one's anger" || ''pthìb.'' "one that one's anger reaches" || ''pthèlb.'' "one causing someone anger; one annoying someone"
|}

====Inflection====
Of course, adjectives can be compounded to express number and/or gender in the same way as nouns. Furthermore, we can form compounds expressing various degrees. (The epenthetic consecutive ''-il-'' in these compounds will also be explained later; it is actually the main application of the abstract nouns just mentioned.)
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Diminutive !! Augmentative !! Absolute !! Comparative !! Superlative
|-
! warm
| ''gmrỳ.'' || ''gmril'''zhrỳ'''.'' "lukewarm" || ''gmril'''dmỳ'''.'' "hot" || ''gmril'''ghngỳ'''.'' "absolutely hot" || ''gmril'''tỳzhd'''.'' "warmer, hotter" || ''gmril'''ỳst'''.'' "hottest"
|-
! white
| ''lỳbdh.'' || ''lilbdh'''zhrỳ'''.'' "whitish" || ''lilbdh'''dmỳ'''.'' "very white" || ''lilbdh'''ghngỳ'''.'' "absolutely/completely white" || ''lilbdh'''tỳzhd'''.'' "whiter" || ''lilbdh'''ỳst'''.'' "whitest"
|-
! compound with
| — || ''zhrỳ.'' "few, little, a bit" || ''dmỳ.'' "much, many" || ''ghngỳ.'' "every, all, the whole" || ''tỳzhd.'' "more" || ''ỳst.'' "most"
|}

===Verbs===
Most verbs correspond to Lemizh words with an inner factive. However, as Lemizh stems always denote an action, the notable exception are stative verbs such as:
* ''zdìls.'' "to sit", literally "the consequence of sitting down (''zdàs.'')"
* ''gwìlt.'' "to know", literally "the consequence of learning (''gwàt.'')"

====Inflection====
* Person is not expressed with inflection but with [[#Relative pronouns|pronouns]].
* Number is conveyed by compounding pronouns with numerals. While verbs (i.e. words with an inner factive) can be compounded with numerals, ''ftrask'''mlà'''.'' does not mean "we/they sneeze" but "(there are) several acts of sneezing" (i.e. someone sneezes several times and/or several people sneeze).
* Voice (active/passive) is absent in Lemizh; word order serves a similar function.
* Tense is expressed by compounds with an epenthetic temporal case (''-arh-''), or with certain inner cases. The latter option is preferred if possible, as it is more concise.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Present !! Past !! Perfect !! Future !! Intentional
|-
! to sit down
| ''zdàs.'' || ''zdarhs'''wà'''.'' || ''zdarhs'''prilkà'''.'' || ''zd'''ìl'''s.'' ({{sc|cons}}) || ''zdarhs'''prà'''.'' || ''zd'''ò'''s.'' ({{sc|ten}})
|-
! compound with
| — || pronoun || ''prilkỳ.'' "back" || — || ''prỳ.'' "front" || —
|}
Note that the translation of the perfect with inner consecutive coincides with the translation of stative verbs: "having sat down" in the strict perfect sense of "the consequence/effect of this action exists" means the same as "to sit". Likewise, "whiteness" can be expressed as the abstract concept of "having whitened something".

* Mood corresponds to compounds with certain verbs for the most part. There is no equivalent to the subjunctive mood, as subordinate clauses are irreal (i.e. not necessarily real) by default. Here are some common formations:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Indicative !! Imperative !! Commanding imperative !! Interrogative Polite imperative !! Optative
|-
! to feed, to eat
| ''àdh.'' || ''adh'''pràk'''.'' || ''adh'''dàxt'''.'' || ''adh'''pà'''.'' || ''adh'''làxt'''.''
|-
! compound with
| — || ''pràk.'' "to request" || ''dàxt.'' "to command" || ''pà.'' "to ask" || ''làxt.'' "to want"
|}
* Aspect is a very diverse category, expressed by a variety of compounds and syntactic structures in Lemizh.

===Pronouns===
The two demonstrative pronouns are technically nominal verbs:
* ''tà.'' "to make this/that one", typically used with inner accusative: ''tỳ.'' "this/that (one)"
* ''gwà.'' "to make someone/anyone, something/anything", with inner accusative ''gwỳ.'' "someone/anyone, something/anything"

The eleven relative pronouns play a far more prominent role in Lemizh grammar. Their scope is much wider than the one usually associated with the term. As they are closely tied to Lemizh syntax, they are described [[#Relative pronouns|further down]].

==Syntax==
===Level of words===
There is only one more grammatical category: the level of words, which is the main building block of Lemizh syntax. A word can be of first level (the highest), of second level (the next highest), of third level (still one level lower) and so on; there is no limit for the number of levels, but non-positive word levels (zero, −1, etc.) are forbidden.

The first word in a sentence (the main predicate) is of first level by definition. The level of the next word is determined by the main predicate's accent and by the type of pause between the two words, the level of the third word is determined by the accent of the second and the pause between these two, and so on.

Here is the complete list of pause/accent combinations.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="2" | Following pause !! rowspan="2" | Accented vowel !! rowspan="2" | Type of accent !! rowspan="2" | The level of the next word is …
|-
! in speech !! in writing
|-
| rowspan="4" | barely audible || rowspan="4" | space || rowspan="2" | inner case || low || lower by 1
|-
| high || lower by 1, and [[w:Agent (grammar)|agentive]]* ({{sc|a}})
|-
| rowspan="2" | outer case || low || equal
|-
| high || higher by 1
|-
| rowspan="4" | a bit longer || rowspan="4" | comma ('''·''') || rowspan="2" | inner case || low || higher by 2
|-
| high || higher by 3
|-
| rowspan="2" | outer case || low || higher by 4
|-
| high || higher by 5
|-
| the longest || full stop ('''∶''') || inner case || low || none; end of sentence
|}
<nowiki>*</nowiki> The agent is the initiator of the action (more informally, the one who ''does'' the action).

===The Rules===
[[File:Lemizh parse tree.png|thumb|upright=1.5|A schematic sentence with the words represented by their level numbers]]
The word levels determine the structure of a sentence.

'''Rule One of sentence grammar. A word of level n is subordinate to the nearest word of level n−1 in front of it; the parole acts as a word of level zero.'''

All words of second level are subordinate to the main predicate (which has first level). A word of third level is subordinate to the next second-level word in front of it, and so on. In other words, Lemizh sentences are strictly [[w:Head directionality|head-first]]. The main predicate itself is subordinate to the [[w:Parole (linguistics)|parole]], the action of speaking (or writing) the sentence in question, which consequently has level zero.

'''Rule Two. An object of a word in a sentence is a word subordinate to the former, its predicate, plus all of its own objects.'''

In the diagram, the main predicate's three objects are enclosed in ellipses. Objects of the same word are called ''sibling objects'' or just ''siblings'', and the word they are subordinate to is their ''predicate''. Note that ''predicate'' and ''object'' are relative terms like ''parent'' and ''child''.

The table of level markers implies that only the first object of a predicate can be marked as agent. (This has been interpreted as Lemizh having VSO word order, although a subject is not quite the same as an agent, and Lemizh grammar strictly speaking does not have the concept of a subject.)

'''Rule Three. The outer case of the first word of an object defines its relation to its predicate's stem via its descriptor; the outer case of a level 1 word is zero.'''

This is what we would expect from a language that inflects for case: the nominative object defines the source (sender) of the action named by the stem of its predicate, the accusative object its content, the temporal object its time, etc.

'''Examples'''
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dá föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|give-FACT-1 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2A bottle-ACC-ACC-2 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2.
|''Father Christmas gives Lucy a bottle.''}}

The stems of the three objects are nominal verbs ("to make a bottle" etc.), hence the inner accusatives. The outer cases indicate the sender, content and recipient of the action of giving, respectively. The agent is specified independently of the plot arrow; note the difference:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dá lusyì dwywỳ föpysrỳfe.
|give-FACT-1 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2A bottle-ACC-ACC-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2.
|''Lucy takes a bottle from Father Christmas.''}}

We need not mark an object as agentive if we consider this information unimportant. The English translations are only rough approximations:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dà lusyì dwywỳ föpysrỳfe.
|give-FACT-1 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2 bottle-ACC-ACC-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2.
|''Lucy gets a bottle from Father Christmas. Lucy is given a bottle by Father Christmas.''}}

Rule Three defines outer case in a way that mirrors the definition of inner case. This allows for an operation called '''inversion''':
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|làzhw wèxi. ⇔ wáx lìzhwe.
|help-FACT-1 speak-'''NOM'''-'''DAT'''-2. ⇔ speak-FACT-1 help-'''DAT'''-'''NOM'''-2A.
|''[Someone] helps the speaker. ⇔ The one being helped speaks.''}}

Both sentences claim that the sender of speaking is the recipient of helping. The equation is ''wèx.'' = ''lìzhw.'', the speaker = the one being helped.

This example also illustrates that any object in a Lemizh sentence can be omitted (here the nominative "someone") as none of the Rules prescribes which objects have to be included. In fact, anything not helpful for understanding a sentence should be left out.

'''Rule Four. An instance of a word stem designates a specific action.'''

''dà'' in the above sentence does not just mean "to give", it refers to one specific action of giving. Such an action may involve several givers (as in "They give something") and need not even be temporally or spatially contiguous (as in "They are giving something every Christmas"). In other words, each spoken or written instance of the stem ''d–'' refers to a certain subset of all the giving there is.

This rule ensures that all the objects refer to the same action of giving as the predicate itself.

'''Rule Five. A case characterises the action it refers to completely with regard to its case descriptor.'''

For example, the nominative object "Father Christmas" has to name the complete sender of the above instance of giving. This excludes from this instance all giving not done by Father Christmas. So each object places a restriction on the action of giving the main predicate refers to. Thus, the subset of giving meant by this instance of ''dà.'' – what the sentence is ultimately talking about – is defined more and more precisely with each additional object. (The same is true not only of the main predicate but of all words in a sentence.)

'''Rule Six. A missing object is equivalent to the absence of information about its descriptor.'''

Above sentences do not have, for example, locative objects, so Rule Five cannot place a restriction on the place of giving. Because of Rule Six, this does not mean there are no restrictions on the location, but only that this kind of information has not been included in the sentence (for example, because the speaker does not know about it, considers it irrelevent, or assumes the listener already knows or – perhaps most importantly – can infer it).

Rules Five and Six imply that every instance of a word has exactly one action (which, however, need not be contiguous), one sender (which can consist of several people), and so on: Five excludes additional senders if one nominative object is already present, and Six gives meaning to missing objects, establishing them as an integral part of Lemizh sentence grammar.

'''Rule Seven. Given an object and its predicate, the predicate is considered more real and the object more hypothetical.'''

…

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! as an object !! as a complete sentence
|-
| ''dà.'' || to give; giving || An action of giving exists = Someone gives something.
|-
| ''zdìls.'' || the consequence of sitting down = to sit; sitting || The consequence of sitting down exists = Someone sits.
|-
| ''dwìlw.'' || the consequence of making a bottle || The consequence of making a bottle exists = A bottle exists; there is a bottle.
|-
| ''sklè.'' || one building a bridge || One building a bridge exists = There is someone building a bridge.
|}

===Noun phrases===
Forming noun phrases does not require any new grammatical rules. In the following example, the inner case of "give" is changed to the nominative, yielding "one giving something, a giver", and everything is pushed down one level. The third-level words are still sender, content and recipient of the ''action'' of giving, as outer cases define relations to the predicate's ''stem'' per Rule Three.
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 3A:third level, agentive
|dmàt tryxkì dée föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|see-FACT-1 beaver-ACC-DAT-2 give-'''NOM'''-NOM-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-3A bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3.
|''The beaver sees '''the one giving Lucy a bottle, Father Christmas'''.''}}
Regarding the verb "see", note that the beaver is in the dative, being at the receiving end of the optical stimulus or information. Marking the beaver as agent would translate as "The beaver looks at the one …".

Rules Four and Five guarantee that the giver is identical to Father Christmas: both are the sender of the same instance of the stem ''d–'' "give" (the giver via its inner nominative, Father Christmas via its outer nominative), and both are the ''complete'' sender of this action. This type of construction, where an object's outer case matches its predicate's inner case, is called a '''bracket'''. Brackets are very widely used:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Apposition !! Attributive adjective !! Attributive pronoun/determiner !! Attributive numeral !! Attributive participle
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|iakopỳk saxèfy.
|Jacopo-'''ACC'''-1 trumpet-NOM-'''ACC'''-2.
|''Jacopo, a trumpeter''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=INS:instrumental case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|ghstù lỳbdhu.
|sail-'''INS'''-1 white-ACC-'''INS'''-2.
|''a sail, a white thing = a white sail''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|ỳksh gwỳy.
|ship-'''ACC'''-1 some-ACC-'''ACC'''-2.
|''a ship, something = some ship''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|mỳs trỳy.
|mouse-'''ACC'''-1 three-ACC-'''ACC'''-2.
|''mice, three individuals = three mice''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|nỳzd gangèy.
|bird-'''ACC'''-1 sing-NOM-'''ACC'''-2.
|''a bird, a singer = a singing bird''}}
|}
Such phrases can be easily extended. This example contains two accusative brackets ("a singing bird" and "a sad child"):
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 4:fourth level
|ngỳzd gangèy zhngỳi speghý ytfỳarh.
|bird-ACC-1 sing-NOM-ACC-2 child-ACC-DAT-3 sad-NOM-ACC-4 night-ACC-TEMP-3.
|''a bird singing to a sad child at night''}}

Adverbially used adjectives are phrased with factive brackets. However, changing the predicate's inner case leaves the object's outer factive intact, losing the bracket.
{|
|-
| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|gangà txỳska.
|sing-'''FACT'''-1 loud-ACC-'''FACT'''-2.
|''(an action of) singing, a loud thing = loud singing = singing loudly, to sing loudly''}}

| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|nỳzd gangèy txỳska.
|bird-ACC-1 sing-NOM-ACC-2 loud-ACC-'''FACT'''-3.
|''a bird, a loud singer = a bird singing loudly'' (The '''action''' of singing is a loud thing.)}}
|}

As [[w:Genitive construction|genitive constructions]] have a wide variety of meanings, there is no single Lemizh equivalent. The typical translation for constructions indicating possession is with the benefactive case, but other cases frequently occur. Everything depends on the object's relation to the predicate's stem per Rule Three.
{|
|-
| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|dwỳw lusỳü.
|bottle-ACC-1 Lucy-ACC-'''BEN'''-2.
|Lucy is the beneficiary of making the bottle. The bottle is made for Lucy. 
''Lucy's bottle''}}

| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dý ỳxe.
|give-ACC-1 male-ACC-'''NOM'''-2A.
|The man is the sender of giving. 
''the man's gift''}}

| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|rhỳst ytfỳarh filpskỳy.
|dream-ACC-1 night-ACC-'''TEMP'''-2 midsummer-ACC-ACC-3.
| The midsummer night is the time of dreaming. 
''A Midsummer Night's Dream''}}
|}

===Dependent clauses===
Non-finite and conjunctional clauses …
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive; 3:third level
|láxt föpysryfè dày dwywỳ lusỳi.
|want-FACT-1 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2A give-'''FACT'''-ACC-2 bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3.
|''Father Christmas wants '''to give Lucy a bottle'''.''}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 3A:third level, agentive
|dmàt tryxkì dáe föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|see-FACT-1 beaver-ACC-DAT-2 give-'''FACT'''-NOM-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-3A bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3.
|''The beaver sees [the action of] '''Father Christmas giving Lucy a bottle'''.''}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; AFF:affirmative case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 3A:third level, agentive
|dmàt tryxkì dále föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|see-FACT-1 beaver-ACC-DAT-2 give-'''AFF'''-NOM-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-3A bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3.
|''The beaver sees [the fact of] '''Father Christmas giving Lucy a bottle'''. The beaver sees '''that''' Father Christmas gives Lucy a bottle.''}}

…

Relative clauses are structurally identical to (extended) attributive participles as described above: ''a bird which sings to a sad child at night = a bird singing to a sad child at night''.

===Predicative===
…


===Relative pronouns===
Stems of relative pronouns (not to be confused with the pronouns of the same name in English or Latin) refer to actions by pointing to another stem or to a parole: they are [[w:Anaphora (linguistics)|anaphoric]]. Here is the full list:
{| class="wikitable"
! rowspan="2" | Level !! colspan="2" | Type I !! colspan="2" | Type II
|-
! Verb !! The target is the stem of !! Verb !! The target is the stem of
|-
| n || colspan="2" | (does not occur because it would refer to itself) || à. || its preceding same-level word
|-
| n−1 || wà. || its predicate || fà. || its predicate's preceding same-level word or parole
|-
| n−2 || dhà. || its predicate's predicate || thà. || its predicate's predicate's preceding same-level word or parole
|-
| n−3 || zà. || its predicate's predicate's predicate || sà. || …
|-
| n−4 || zhà. || … || shà. || …
|-
| n−5 || ghà. || … || xà. || …
|}
They are highly versatile, corresponding to various structures in other languages. Recall that a sentence's parole has level zero:
{| class="wikitable"
! Reflexive !! First person (singular) !! Second person
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|wáx wìe.
|speak-FACT-1 PIn−1-'''DAT'''-'''NOM'''-2A.
|The recipient of speaking is its sender. 
''to talk to oneself. He is talking to himself.''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dráw dhèe.
|dance-FACT-1 PIn−2-'''NOM'''-NOM-2A.
|The sender of the parole is the sender of dancing. 
''I am dancing.''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dráw dhìe.
|dance-FACT-1 PIn−2-'''DAT'''-NOM-2A.
|The recipient of the parole is the sender of dancing. 
''You are dancing.''}}
|}
Rule Four of sentence grammar ensures that the reflexive example means "He is talking to himself" as opposed to, say, "He is talking to one being talked to" (which would be ''wáx wìxe.'' speak-{{sc|fact}}-1 speak-{{sc|dat-nom}}-2{{sc|a}}, with two different instances of the stem "speak").

{| class="wikitable"
! Possessive determiner !! Vocative
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=CONS:consecutive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|zdìls ngỳzdy zeú tỳar.
|seat-CONS-1 bird-ACC-ACC-2 PIn−3-'''NOM'''-BEN-3 this-ACC-LOC-2.
|The sender of the parole is the beneficiary of making a bird.
 ''My bird is sitting there.''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=PI:pronoun type I; FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive; 3:third level
|wáx dheè zdhèzhi zìe.
|speak-FACT-1 PIn−2-NOM-NOM-2A friend-NOM-DAT-2 PIn−3-'''DAT'''-NOM-3.
|The recipient of the parole is the friend. (nominative bracket) 
''Friend, I am talking to you.''}}
|}

The type II pronoun in the following example points to the stem of eating. With the inner accusative, the pronoun refers to the content of eating, which is the sweet. (As with brackets, Rules Four and Five guarantee that the pronoun refers to the same content of the same action of eating as mentioned in the first sentence.)
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; PII:pronoun type II; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|ádh dheì mlỳdhy. ràsh fỳy.
|eat-FACT-1 PIn−2-NOM-DAT-2A sweet-ACC-ACC-2. like-FACT-1 PIIn−1-'''ACC'''-ACC-2.
|''I am eating a sweet. [I] like it.''}}

==Derivational morphology==
From a Lemizh point of view, ''dè.'' "giver" and ''dỳ.'' "gift" aren't derivatives of ''dà.'' "to give" but grammatical forms of the same word. The only piece of true derivational morphology is compounding.

===Compounds===
[[File:Lemizh compounding diagram.png|thumb|Forming a compound from a two-word sentence]]
'''Rule One of compounding. A compound word is constructed from a two-word sentence – predicate and object of which become modifier and head of the compound, respectively – in the following way:'''
# '''Prestem''':
## the object's prestem
## the object's inner case
## the object's poststem
## an optional separator
## the predicate's prestem
# '''Inner case'''
# '''Poststem''': the predicate's poststem
# '''Outer case'''
Note that the object's stem comes before the predicate's; and also that the object's outer case (and, less importantly, the predicate's inner case) is lost. The object's inner case becomes part of the compound's prestem and is then called its ''epenthetic case''. The separator can be used, for example, if the word boundary would be unclear otherwise, or for placing the second part of the word on a new line.

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|làxt àdhy. ⇒ adhlàxt.
|want-FACT-1 eat-FACT-ACC-2. ⇒ eat-FACT-want-FACT-1.
|''[She] wants to eat.'' (See the inflection of [[#Verbs|verbs]].)}}
Here, the lost accusative ending has to be deduced from context.

'''Rule Two. In the relationship between the original predicate and object, the rules of sentence grammar are retained as far as applicable.'''

The consequences of this rule are somewhat technical; but the last one, pertaining to degree of reality, is important for correctly interpreting compounds.
* Rules One to Three of sentence grammar are not applicable to compounds, as can be easily seen.
* Four: Both modifier and head are instantiations of specific actions in the original sentence (which however do not necessarily match the instantiation of the compound).
* Five: The epenthetic case characterises the head completely with regard to its descriptor.
* Six: The only overt object of the modifier is the head. All other objects are missing and thus indicate the absence of information about their descriptors.
* Seven: The modifier has a higher degree of reality than the head. Therefore, the above compound does not claim that she actually eats.

'''Rule Three. Regarding all outward relations, cases refer to the head.'''

…

==Example text==
[[File:Lemizh text sample.png|600px]]

====stedrỳzh thìrhfi xtrỳghy.====
krỳgh dghngireì prilxpilghkỳarh. mangỳ srungbỳng lyngghỳng yngshwỳng fỳü. zhöazhghngìl tmỳil. ghngàgzh smìa prỳal ghngyé dhàbdhy lunguỳ ùyl mỳu fplyxár tỳarh. dmát feì sxngengzè ishkènge. ghìlt krighmyngthxì xtrỳngghi swyshỳ ghỳxy fplyxòr zhöyzhỳm xngàrorm. dmìlt öngkrỳngty zhryỳ rèshy esfàsy sxngyzdmýi, usrỳngy xazhgèsty ghngỳeng, frekrỳngfy rilghdzhỳwby pthèby, dgheipysrỳngdy psrèby rhèzhem, dghistngỳngty ghỳxy zangỳa dghildhfmlýyrh, ngiftngyghtmỳngy krültlìy zùe gỳghda. xtrỳgh swyshý stedrỳzh thìrfi. dngilszhrìl bdhyrgzhyngỳng xüxtrỳngyng prilkỳarh ötìlil skmyngìlng ghỳngsilng. dngilszhìlwb ráxpy thìlfi. fö̀l gwiltngìlöl dmàty föpysryfỳ ngỳu.

rỳ zhryỳrh thìzgy gwiltngìly rhàghgy dmatngìe thìrfy. là xángska matngiè ytfỳyrh dmyý fplyxór dyxtngyngà mànga prilzhryngỳr iltỳngzhdyr. dmàt ytfỳarh ryý mìlngorh xngyì prilkyár mìlngorh xtrỳngghi kshrextý mengthxì prỳar zìe, fplỳngxe fywýr déngske xtryghè sxngezì xngỳnge.

====The Legend of the Seventh Planet====
A long time ago there was a tribe of nomads. They possessed neither writing nor houses nor horses. But they were truly human. They were curious; this means, above all, that they took interest in the useless, for the celestial objects were of no use to them yet. They looked at the Sun and the Moon. They had named the constellations and the six planets moving across the sky like the humans across the earth. They knew dim Mercury, who liked to hide in the glare of the Sun; Venus, the brightest of all; reddish and angry Mars; majestic father Jupiter; Saturn, who seemed to stand still for weeks; and even Uranus had been caught by their keen eyes. Six planets, and the legend of a seventh. Maybe it had been the minor planet Vesta, or a comet centuries or millennia earlier. Maybe it was the attraction of the number seven. For Neptune is invisible to the naked eye.

One youngster thought to himself that he could not live without seeing the seventh planet. He lay awake searching the sky for many nights, neglected his duties, and became thinner and thinner. And one night, lying with the Earth behind his back, and with the looping planets and the stars above him, he saw the depth of the sky and the planets circling the Sun, and among them the Earth.

==External links==
* [https://lemizh.conlang.org Lemizh homepage] with comprehensive coverage of the language, including a dictionary with etymologies, information on the language's pragmatics, and more background information
[[File:Copyleft1.png|20px]] ''This article is available under a [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License]. It includes material from the Lemizh homepage, which has the same license.''


[[Category:Languages]]
[[Category:Conlangs]]
[[Category:Indo-European languages]]
[[Category:Fusional languages]]

Lemizh

2022-05-15T19:14:23Z

Anypodetos: Standard dialect; compounds; license

{{Infobox language
|image =
|imagesize =
|name = Lemizh
|nativename = lemỳzh.
|pronunciation = lɛmˈɯ̀ʒ
|state = Lemaria
|setting = Alt-history Europe
|created = 1985
|familycolor = Indo-European
|fam2 = Lemizh
|ancestor = Proto-Lemizh
|posteriori = [[w:Proto-Indo-European|Proto-Indo-European]]
|creator = [[User:Anypodetos|Anypodetos]]
|scripts = Lemizh alphabet
|nation = Lemaria
|map = Map of Lemaria.png
|notice = IPA
}}
'''Lemizh''' ([[Help:IPA|[lεmˈiʒ]]], native pronunciation: [[Help:IPA|[lɛmˈɯ̀ʒ]]]) is a language I invented with the aim of creating a grammar as regular and simple as possible. It was originally intended as an [[w:International auxiliary language|international auxiliary language]]. However, it turned out that a simple grammar is not necessarily a grammar that is easy to learn: the more ways of simplification I found, the further away it moved from [[w:Indo-European languages|Indo-European]] and probably all other familiar language structures. Expecting anyone to learn Lemizh, at this point, would be completely unrealistic.

So I needed a new justification for the language: enter the Lemizh, a people living to the west and north of the [[w:Black Sea|Black Sea]] in an alternate history that slowly drifted away from ours between two and eight millennia ago. Of course, it is extremely unlikely that they would speak a language that was completely without exceptions. To be precise, the chances are two to the power of two hundred and seventy-six thousand seven hundred and nine to one against. But they say that everything has to happen somewhere in the Multiverse. And everything happens only once.

{{TOC limit}}

==History==
===Early stages===
Lemizh is an Indo-European language and, together with Volgan, constitutes one of the ten recognised branches of the Indo-European language family. This branch is also called Lemizh, to the disgruntlement of Volgan linguists.

Proto-Lemizh, the ancestor of Lemizh and Volgan, is very poorly attested in form of some papyri found near the northwestern shore of the Black Sea, to the north of the [[w:Dniester Liman|Dniester Liman]], dated about 2700 BC. Old Lemizh, by contrast, is fairly well attested. It had predominantly [[w:Subject–verb–object|subject–verb–object]] (SVO) word order and was a quite typical old Indo-European language, but with a couple of interesting quirks:
* Adjectives were lost as a separate part of speech, being replaced with participles ("white" > "being white").
* Finite subordinate clauses had their subject in the case of the clause: the subject of a local clause was in the locative case without having a local meaning in itself.
The earliest known documents from this stage of Lemizh were probably written around 2100 BC along the northern and western shores of the Back Sea.

===Ghean and Middle Lemizh===
Ghean ([[Help:IPA|[ˈɣɛən]]]) is a language with no known genetic relationships. It was spoken by a people of unknown origin, who subdued the Lemizh tribes in around 1000 BC and ruled for infamous three generations. Ghean was an inflected [[w:Tonal language|register tonal]] language with strict [[w:Verb–subject–object|verb–subject–object]] (VSO) word order and head-first phrases. It had verbs, [[w:Nominal (linguistics)|nominals]] (a combined noun/adjective/participle part of speech), pronouns and particles.

The Gheans discouraged the use of the natives' language, but obviously tolerated Lemizh words (or rather word stems) to stand in for unfamiliar Ghean ones. The grammar of simple sentences was easy enough to learn for the Lemizh, as they were used to inflection and head-first phrases, and likely still knew VSO sentences from poetry. After two or three generations, the natives must have spoken a [[w:Creole language|creole]] with a more or less Ghean grammar but an abundance of Lemizh words, especially outside the core vocabulary. This is a quite unusual development as most creoles draw their lexicon mainly from the dominant group, and tend to be grammatically more innovative. (The Tanzanian language [[w:Mbugu language|Mbugu]] might have had a somewhat similar development with more or less analogous outcomes.) After the disappearance of the Gheans, Lemizh patriots tried to revive their old language, which failed spectacularly for the grammar but reintroduced many Lemizh words of the core vocabulary.

===The last three millennia===
While Middle Lemizh as spoken after the Ghean occupation already had a non-Indo-European and unusually regular grammar, this trend was to continue over the following millennia. The factive case was innovated to express verbal nouns, which eventually supplanted verbs altogether. (At least part of the blame goes to the Tlöngö̀l, an epic novel published in 1351, which popularised the use of verbal nouns.) The tonal system was simplified to the present two-way [[w:Pitch-accent language|pitch-accent]] system. Pronouns lost their status as a separate part of speech. The last particles died out a few hundred years ago, leaving the language with a single part of speech which is often called a "verb" but, historically speaking, is really a nominal. This means that the concept of ''parts of speech'' does not make sense in Modern Lemizh.

This article describes the dialect spoken to the north of the [[w:Danube Delta|Danube delta]], which prevailed against other variants and is considered the standard language today.

==Orthography and phonology==
The alphabet is [[w:Phonetic orthography|phonetic]]: each letter corresponds to a certain sound, and each sound is represented by a single letter. The direction of writing is left to right. This article uses the standard transcription of the native Lemizh alphabet as given here:
{| class="wikitable" style="width: 800px; table-layout: fixed; text-align: center"
! colspan="29" | Letters of the Lemizh alphabet
|-
| colspan="29" style="padding: 0" | [[File:Lemizh alphabet.png|796px]]
|-
| a || e || y || i || o || ö || u || ü || l || rh || r || ng || m || g || d || b || k || t || p || gh || zh || z || dh || w || x || sh || s || th || f
|}

===Consonants===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="2" | !! bilabial !! dental !! alveolar !! postalveolar !! velar
|-
! colspan="2" | nasals
| m <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial nasal|m]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || || || ng <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar nasal|ŋ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! colspan="2" | plosives (voiceless • voiced)
| p <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless bilabial plosive|p]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • b <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial plosive|b]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || t <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless alveolar plosive|t]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • d <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar plosive|d]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || k <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless velar plosive|k]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • g <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar plosive|g]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! colspan="2" | fricatives (voiceless • voiced)
| f <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless bilabial fricative|ɸ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • w <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial fricative|β]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || th <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless dental fricative|θ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • dh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced dental fricative|ð]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || s <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless alveolar sibilant|s]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • z <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar sibilant|z]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || sh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless palato-alveolar fricative|ʃ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • zh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced palato-alveolar fricative|ʒ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || x <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless velar fricative|x]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • gh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar fricative|ɣ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! rowspan="3" | liquids || lateral approximant
| || || l <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar lateral approximant|l]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|-
! approximant
| || || rh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar approximant|ɹ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|-
! trill
| || || r <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar trill|r]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|}
The plosive-fricative combinations ''pf, ts, tsh, kx'' and their voiced couterparts only occur at word boundaries and in compound words. They are not pronounced as affricates but as separate sounds. The same applies for other combinations of a plosive plus another consonant (''pm, tl'' etc.), as well as for two identical plosives (''kk'' etc.): the release of the first plosive is always audible.

===Vowels===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! rowspan="2" | !! colspan="2" | front !! colspan="2" | back
|-
! unrounded !! rounded !! unrounded !! rounded
|-
! close
| i <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close front unrounded vowel|i]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ü <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close front rounded vowel|y]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || y <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close back unrounded vowel|ɯ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || u <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close back rounded vowel|u]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! open-mid
| e <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid front unrounded vowel|ɛ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ö <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid front rounded vowel|œ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || a <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid back unrounded vowel|ʌ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || o <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid back rounded vowel|ɔ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|}
Two consecutive different vowels are pronounced as a diphthong; two consecutive identical vowels as a long one. Single vowels are always short.

Lemizh uses [[w:Mora (linguistics)|moræ]] for structuring words: a short syllable equals one mora, and a long syllable equals two. In Lemizh, every vowel is the centre of a mora; consequently, two consecutive vowels result in two moræ or one long syllable.

===Accent===
Lemizh has got a two-way pitch-accent system, in that accented moræ are not only spoken louder (as in English), but also have either a lower or a higher pitch than the surrounding unaccented ones. The accented mora is always the ultimate or penultimate of a word. The vowel at the centre of a low-pitch accented mora is transcribed with a grave accent, the vowel at the centre of a high-pitch accented mora with an acute accent.
{| class="wikitable" style="width: 220px; table-layout: fixed; text-align: center"
! colspan="8" | Accented vowel letters
|-
| colspan="8" style="padding: 0" | [[File:Lemizh accented vowels.png|216px]]
|-
| à || è || ỳ || ì || ò || ö̀ || ù || ǜ
|-
| á || é || ý || í || ó || ö́ || ú || ǘ
|}

===Phonotactics===
[[w:Phonotactics|Phonotactics]] is rather permissive in Lemizh. A mora has the following structure, where the bracketed parts are optional:
* (O)(N)(L)V(L)(N)(O)
V is the mora's vowel, L a liquid, N a nasal, and O an obstruent that can be either a P(losive), a F(ricative), FP, PF, FF, FFP, FPF, or PFF. Word-initial consonant clusters cannot contain more than three sounds. No geminate consonants (<abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''ff'' etc.) occur within a mora. Consecutive plosive-fricative or fricative-plosive combinations within the same mora must have the same sonority – either both are voiced, or both are voiceless. A plosive cannot have the same place of articulation as a following consonant with the exception of ''rh'' and ''r''. <abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''dzh'', <abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''ddh'' and their voiceless counterparts are also prohibited within a mora.

Word boundaries, including those within compound words, are always mora boundaries. Where mora boundaries would still be ambiguous, liquids and nasals are assigned to the earliest possible mora (as the ''m'' in ''lem·ỳzh.''), and obstruents to the latest possible mora.

==Morphology==
All words are composed of the following parts:
* Prestem + inner case + poststem + outer case
Prestem and poststem form the stem, or the lexical part, of the word. The division of the stem into two portions is similar to English verbs such as ''sing/sang/sung'', where the lexical part is ''s–ng'' while the vowels ''i/a/u'' convey grammatical information. The stem always denotes an action (but never a state, a person, a thing, a property, etc.) and thus resembles our verbs. The prestem can contain any sounds, or it can be zero (i.e. consisting of zero sounds). The poststem can only contain fricatives and plosives, or it can be zero as well.

The inner case is represented by one of the eight vowels, optionally followed by a liquid (the primary case suffix) and/or a nasal (the secondary case suffix). The outer case has the same structure. For the first word in each sentence, the main predicate, the outer case is missing.

Each case is defined by its ''descriptor'': for example, the factive case denotes an ''action'', the nominative a ''sender'', the locative a ''place''. The stem and the inner case's descriptor determine a word's meaning.

'''Examples'''
* ''wàx. w–x'' is the stem for "speak", ''-a-'' denotes the inner factive, so this word means "an action of speaking", translated as the verb "to speak" or the [[w:Verbal noun|verbal noun]] "speaking".
* ''wèx. -e-'' denotes the inner nominative, so this word means "a sender of speaking" or "a speaker".
* ''àrdh. ∅–dh'' (having a zero prestem) is the stem for "eat", ''-ar-'' denotes the inner locative: "a place of eating".
{| class="wikitable"
|+ Primary cases and their descriptors
|-
! rowspan="3" | № !! rowspan="3" | Case vowel !! colspan="4" | Primary case suffix
|-
| none || l || rh || r
|-
! Plot cases !! Causal cases !! Temporal cases !! Spatial cases
|-
| 1 || a || factive ({{sc|fact}}): ''action'' || affirmative ({{sc|aff}}): ''fact (point in causal chain)'' || temporal ({{sc|temp}}): ''time'' || locative ({{sc|loc}}): ''place/region''
|-
| 2 || e || nominative ({{sc|nom}}): ''source, sender'' || causative ({{sc|caus}}): ''direct cause'' || ingressive ({{sc|ing}}): ''starting time'' || elative ({{sc|ela}}): ''starting point/region''
|-
| 3 || y || accusative ({{sc|acc}}): ''content'' || contextual ({{sc|ctx}}): ''causal context'' || durative ({{sc|dur}}): ''duration'' || extensive ({{sc|ext}}): ''spatial extent''
|-
| 4 || i || dative ({{sc|dat}}): ''sink, recipient'' || consecutive ({{sc|cons}}): ''direct consequence, effect'' || egressive ({{sc|egr}}): ''closing time'' || illative ({{sc|ill}}): ''end point / ending region''
|-
| 5 || o || tentive ({{sc|ten}}): ''intention'' || intentive ({{sc|int}}): ''intention (intended point in causal chain)'' || episodic ({{sc|eps}}): ''episode, "act"'' || scenic ({{sc|sce}}): ''scene, "stage"''
|-
| 6 || ö || comitative ({{sc|com}}): ''company'' || persuasive ({{sc|psu}}): ''reason'' || digressive ({{sc|dig}}): ''time away from which'' || ablative ({{sc|abl}}): ''place/region away from which''
|-
| 7 || u || instrumental ({{sc|ins}}): ''means, tool'' || motivational ({{sc|mot}}): ''motivational context'' || progressive ({{sc|prog}}): ''time that is passed'' || prolative ({{sc|prol}}): ''crossing point/region''
|-
| 8 || ü || benefactive ({{sc|ben}}): ''beneficiary'' || final ({{sc|fin}}): ''purpose, aim'' || aggressive ({{sc|agg}}): ''time towards which, temporal aim'' || allative ({{sc|all}}): ''place/region towards which, spatial aim''
|}
Each primary case has two corresponding secondary cases:
* a partitive case formed by adding ''ng'' (such as ''-ing-'' for the partitive dative or ''-erng-'' for the partitive elative) with the descriptor ''the set from which the source (sink, place, etc.) is thought to be taken''
* a qualitative case formed by adding ''m'', with the descriptor ''the basis of comparison for the source (sink, place, etc.)''

===The flow of the plot===
Every action denoted by a stem is considered a flow of information that comes from a source (sender), transports a content, and reaches a sink (a recipient). The terms "sender" and "recipient" may be more familiar, but "source" and "sink" are more accurate in not necessarily meaning living beings.

Consequently, a Lemizh action looks somewhat like this: '''nominative  accusative[[File:DreieckGreenMIDDLE.png|26px|link=]] dative'''

This is called the action's plot. Here are some examples:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative
|-
| ''wàx.'' "to speak, to talk, to tell; (an action of) speaking" || ''wèx.'' "one telling something" || ''wỳx.'' "a tale" || ''wìx.'' "one who is told something"
|-
| ''dà.'' "to give; (an action of) giving" || ''dè.'' "one giving something" || ''dỳ.'' "a gift" || ''dì.'' "one who is given something; one who gets something"
|-
| ''làzhw.'' "to help" || ''lèzhw.'' "one helping" || ''lỳzhw.'' "help (given)" || ''lìzhw.'' "one whom is helped"
|-
| ''mlàtx.'' "to melt" || ''mlètx.'' "one melting something" || [''mlỳtx.''] || ''mlìtx.'' "a melted thing"
|-
| ''xöàgh.'' "to produce a sound; to hear" || ''xöègh.'' "one producing a sound" || ''xöỳgh.'' "a sound" || ''xöìgh.'' "one hearing something"
|-
| ''àdh.'' "to feed; to eat" || ''èdh.'' "one feeding someone" || ''ỳdh.'' "food" || ''ìdh.'' "one being fed; one eating"
|-
| ''ià.'' "to love" || ''iè.'' "one loving someone, a lover" || ''iỳ.'' "a beloved" || ''iì.'' "a beloved"
|}
Importantly, there are no rules for which cases to use with which words. Both ''iỳ.'' ({{sc|acc}}) and ''iì.'' ({{sc|dat}}) mean "a beloved". The former describes the beloved as the content of love, the one being lovingly thought of, while the latter implies that the love reaches them, like words or gifts reach their recipient. Likewise, the reason why ''mlỳtx.'' is not translated in the table above isn't that "''melt'' does not take the accusative", as grammars of other languages would say, but that "a content of melting" does not seem to have any obvious meaning. If someone wanted to describe, say, sun rays as content transported from the sun to the snow to melt it, they could well use ''mlỳtx.'' to express the concept.

Case usage is governed solely by the cases' descriptors; it is up to the speaker how to use them given some word's meaning and some context. If the wind opens a door, is it the source of the action of opening (''ngèt.''), the means of opening (''ngùt.''), or the cause (''ngèlt.'')? All are grammatically correct; the speaker decides which possibility best expresses their intention.

===Nouns===
:''Nouns, adjectives and verbs do not correspond to any concepts in Lemizh grammar. Using these terms is just an attempt to describe the grammar from an Indo-European viewpoint.''
A large number of nouns are not derived from verbs in most languages: ''froth, ship, lion'' and many others. In Lemizh, however, we have verbs such as ''psràxk.'' "to froth", ''àksh.'' "to build a ship or ships", and ''làw.'' "to make a lion or lions". We will call these ''nominal verbs''.

Looking at the verb ''àksh.'', the shipwright ({{sc|nom}}) gives the building materials ({{sc|dat}}) the properties or the function of a ship ({{sc|acc}}). He confers, well, shipness on the materials. The shipness is sent by the shipwright, not because he is acting, but because he is the source: the image of the ship, so to say, comes from his head and materialises in wood, iron, ropes, and linen. In short, these words mostly appear with inner accusative.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative
|-
| ''psràxk.'' "to froth" || ''psrèxk.'' "one frothing something" || ''psrỳxk.'' "a thing having the properties of froth = '''froth'''" || ''psrìxk.'' "a frothed thing, a frothed liquid"
|-
| ''àksh.'' "to build a ship" || ''èksh.'' "one building a ship, a shipwright" || ''ỳksh.'' "a thing having the properties of a ship = '''a ship'''" || ''ìksh.'' "building materials for a ship, materials made into a ship"
|-
| ''làw.'' "to make a lion" || [''lèw.'' "one making a lion"] || ''lỳw.'' "a thing having the properties of a lion = '''a lion'''" || [''lìw.'' "building materials for a lion, materials made into a lion"]
|}

Another very common kind of nouns are tool nouns, formed with an inner instrumental case:
* ''ghstù.'' "a sail" is derived from ''ghstà.'' "to sail", literally "a means of sailing",
* ''pslù.'' "scissors" from ''pslà.'' "to cut with scissors",
* ''saxùf.'' "trumpet" from ''saxàf.'' "to play the trumpet",
* ''skrùzh.'' "a finger" from ''skràzh.'' "to work with one's fingers".

====Inflection====
As mentioned above, all words can inflect for (outer) case. Thus, we have the nominative forms ''wàx'''e''''' "(an action of) speaking, talking, telling", ''dè'''e''''' "a giver", ''lỳw'''e''''' "a lion", the causative ''lỳw'''el''''' "because of a lion", the elative ''lỳw'''er''''' "(starting) from a lion", etc.

Lemizh words do not inflect for number or gender. If desired, we can express this information by forming compounds. (Note the duplication of the inner case vowel; the first occurrence in each word is called the epenthetic case of the compound. The underlying grammar will be described later.)
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Singular !! Dual !! Plural !! Feminine !! Masculine !! Feminine singular !! etc.
|-
! giver
| ''dè.'' || ''de'''rè'''.'' || ''de'''dwè'''.'' || ''de'''mlè'''.'' || ''de'''bè'''.'' || ''de'''èx'''.'' || ''de'''berè'''.''
|-
! lion
| ''lỳw.'' || ''lyw'''rỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''dwỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''mlỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''bỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''ỳx'''.'' || ''lyw'''byrỳ'''.''
|-
! compound with
| — || ''rỳ.'' "one" || ''dwỳ.'' "two" || ''mlỳ.'' "several" || ''bỳ.'' "female; woman" || ''ỳx.'' "male; man" || "female" and "one"
|}

===Adjectives and numerals===
There is no difference between adjectival and nominal verbs: they mostly appear with inner accusative. This is the same situation as in, say, Latin, where ''albus'' can mean "a white one" as well as "white". Numerals are basically a sub-category of adjectives.

The inner consecutive case translates certain abstract nouns.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative !! Inner consecutive
|-
| ''gmrà.'' "to heat, to make something warm" || ''gmrè.'' "one heating something up" || ''gmrỳ.'' "a warm thing; '''warm'''" || ''gmrì.'' "a thing heated up; heated, warmed" || ''gmrìl.'' "the consequence of heating = heat"
|-
| ''làbdh.'' "to whiten something, to make something white" || ''lèbdh.'' "one whitening something" || ''lỳbdh.'' "a white thing; '''white'''" || ''lìbdh.'' "a thing made white; whitened" || ''lìlbdh.'' "the consequence of whitening = whiteness"
|-
| ''dwà.'' "to make two things/individuals" || ''dwè.'' "one making two things" || ''dwỳ.'' "'''two''' (things)" || ''dwì.'' "something made into two (things)" || ''dwìl.'' "the consequence of making two things = twoness"
|}

However, emotions aren't viewed as properties in Lemizh: a happy or angry person is one sending happiness or anger, just as a loving person is one sending love. The inner causative plays a notable role with verbs of emotion.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative !! Inner causative
|-
| ''pthàb.'' "to be angry" || ''pthèb.'' "an angry one; '''angry'''" || ''pthỳb.'' "the content/object of one's anger" || ''pthìb.'' "one that one's anger reaches" || ''pthèlb.'' "one causing someone anger; one annoying someone"
|}

====Inflection====
Of course, adjectives can be compounded to express number and/or gender in the same way as nouns. Furthermore, we can form compounds expressing various degrees. (The epenthetic consecutive ''-il-'' in these compounds will also be explained later; it is actually the main application of the abstract nouns just mentioned.)
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Diminutive !! Augmentative !! Absolute !! Comparative !! Superlative
|-
! warm
| ''gmrỳ.'' || ''gmril'''zhrỳ'''.'' "lukewarm" || ''gmril'''dmỳ'''.'' "hot" || ''gmril'''ghngỳ'''.'' "absolutely hot" || ''gmril'''tỳzhd'''.'' "warmer, hotter" || ''gmril'''ỳst'''.'' "hottest"
|-
! white
| ''lỳbdh.'' || ''lilbdh'''zhrỳ'''.'' "whitish" || ''lilbdh'''dmỳ'''.'' "very white" || ''lilbdh'''ghngỳ'''.'' "absolutely/completely white" || ''lilbdh'''tỳzhd'''.'' "whiter" || ''lilbdh'''ỳst'''.'' "whitest"
|-
! compound with
| — || ''zhrỳ.'' "few, little, a bit" || ''dmỳ.'' "much, many" || ''ghngỳ.'' "every, all, the whole" || ''tỳzhd.'' "more" || ''ỳst.'' "most"
|}

===Verbs===
Most verbs correspond to Lemizh words with an inner factive. However, as Lemizh stems always denote an action, the notable exception are stative verbs such as:
* ''zdìls.'' "to sit", literally "the consequence of sitting down (''zdàs.'')"
* ''gwìlt.'' "to know", literally "the consequence of learning (''gwàt.'')"

====Inflection====
* Person is not expressed with inflection but with [[#Relative pronouns|pronouns]].
* Number is conveyed by compounding pronouns with numerals. While verbs (i.e. words with an inner factive) can be compounded with numerals, ''ftrask'''mlà'''.'' does not mean "we/they sneeze" but "(there are) several acts of sneezing" (i.e. someone sneezes several times and/or several people sneeze).
* Voice (active/passive) is absent in Lemizh; word order serves a similar function.
* Tense is expressed by compounds with an epenthetic temporal case (''-arh-''), or with certain inner cases. The latter option is preferred if possible, as it is more concise.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Present !! Past !! Perfect !! Future !! Intentional
|-
! to sit down
| ''zdàs.'' || ''zdarhs'''wà'''.'' || ''zdarhs'''prilkà'''.'' || ''zd'''ìl'''s.'' ({{sc|cons}}) || ''zdarhs'''prà'''.'' || ''zd'''ò'''s.'' ({{sc|ten}})
|-
! compound with
| — || pronoun || ''prilkỳ.'' "back" || — || ''prỳ.'' "front" || —
|}
Note that the translation of the perfect with inner consecutive coincides with the translation of stative verbs: "having sat down" in the strict perfect sense of "the consequence/effect of this action exists" means the same as "to sit". Likewise, "whiteness" can be expressed as the abstract concept of "having whitened something".

* Mood corresponds to compounds with certain verbs for the most part. There is no equivalent to the subjunctive mood, as subordinate clauses are irreal (i.e. not necessarily real) by default. Here are some common formations:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Indicative !! Imperative !! Commanding imperative !! Interrogative Polite imperative !! Optative
|-
! to feed, to eat
| ''àdh.'' || ''adh'''pràk'''.'' || ''adh'''dàxt'''.'' || ''adh'''pà'''.'' || ''adh'''làxt'''.''
|-
! compound with
| — || ''pràk.'' "to request" || ''dàxt.'' "to command" || ''pà.'' "to ask" || ''làxt.'' "to want"
|}
* Aspect is a very diverse category, expressed by a variety of compounds and syntactic structures in Lemizh.

===Pronouns===
The two demonstrative pronouns are technically nominal verbs:
* ''tà.'' "to make this/that one", typically used with inner accusative: ''tỳ.'' "this/that (one)"
* ''gwà.'' "to make someone/anyone, something/anything", with inner accusative ''gwỳ.'' "someone/anyone, something/anything"

The eleven relative pronouns play a far more prominent role in Lemizh grammar. Their scope is much wider than the one usually associated with the term. As they are closely tied to Lemizh syntax, they are described [[#Relative pronouns|further down]].

==Syntax==
===Level of words===
There is only one more grammatical category: the level of words, which is the main building block of Lemizh syntax. A word can be of first level (the highest), of second level (the next highest), of third level (still one level lower) and so on; there is no limit for the number of levels, but non-positive word levels (zero, −1, etc.) are forbidden.

The first word in a sentence (the main predicate) is of first level by definition. The level of the next word is determined by the main predicate's accent and by the type of pause between the two words, the level of the third word is determined by the accent of the second and the pause between these two, and so on.

Here is the complete list of pause/accent combinations.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="2" | Following pause !! rowspan="2" | Accented vowel !! rowspan="2" | Type of accent !! rowspan="2" | The level of the next word is …
|-
! in speech !! in writing
|-
| rowspan="4" | barely audible || rowspan="4" | space || rowspan="2" | inner case || low || lower by 1
|-
| high || lower by 1, and [[w:Agent (grammar)|agentive]]* ({{sc|a}})
|-
| rowspan="2" | outer case || low || equal
|-
| high || higher by 1
|-
| rowspan="4" | a bit longer || rowspan="4" | comma ('''·''') || rowspan="2" | inner case || low || higher by 2
|-
| high || higher by 3
|-
| rowspan="2" | outer case || low || higher by 4
|-
| high || higher by 5
|-
| the longest || full stop ('''∶''') || inner case || low || none; end of sentence
|}
<nowiki>*</nowiki> The agent is the initiator of the action (more informally, the one who ''does'' the action).

===The Rules===
[[File:Lemizh parse tree.png|thumb|upright=1.5|A schematic sentence with the words represented by their level numbers]]
The word levels determine the structure of a sentence.

'''Rule One of sentence grammar. A word of level n is subordinate to the nearest word of level n−1 in front of it; the parole acts as a word of level zero.'''

All words of second level are subordinate to the main predicate (which has first level). A word of third level is subordinate to the next second-level word in front of it, and so on. In other words, Lemizh sentences are strictly [[w:Head directionality|head-first]]. The main predicate itself is subordinate to the [[w:Parole (linguistics)|parole]], the action of speaking (or writing) the sentence in question, which consequently has level zero.

'''Rule Two. An object of a word in a sentence is a word subordinate to the former, its predicate, plus all of its own objects.'''

In the diagram, the main predicate's three objects are enclosed in ellipses. Objects of the same word are called ''sibling objects'' or just ''siblings'', and the word they are subordinate to is their ''predicate''. Note that ''predicate'' and ''object'' are relative terms like ''parent'' and ''child''.

The table of level markers implies that only the first object of a predicate can be marked as agent. (This has been interpreted as Lemizh having VSO word order, although a subject is not quite the same as an agent, and Lemizh grammar strictly speaking does not have the concept of a subject.)

'''Rule Three. The outer case of the first word of an object defines its relation to its predicate's stem via its descriptor; the outer case of a level 1 word is zero.'''

This is what we would expect from a language that inflects for case: the nominative object defines the source (sender) of the action named by the stem of its predicate, the accusative object its content, the temporal object its time, etc.

'''Examples'''
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dá föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|give-FACT-1 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2A bottle-ACC-ACC-2 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2.
|''Father Christmas gives Lucy a bottle.''}}

The stems of the three objects are nominal verbs ("to make a bottle" etc.), hence the inner accusatives. The outer cases indicate the sender, content and recipient of the action of giving, respectively. The agent is specified independently of the plot arrow; note the difference:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dá lusyì dwywỳ föpysrỳfe.
|give-FACT-1 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2A bottle-ACC-ACC-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2.
|''Lucy takes a bottle from Father Christmas.''}}

We need not mark an object as agentive if we consider this information unimportant. The English translations are only rough approximations:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dà lusyì dwywỳ föpysrỳfe.
|give-FACT-1 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2 bottle-ACC-ACC-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2.
|''Lucy gets a bottle from Father Christmas. Lucy is given a bottle by Father Christmas.''}}

'''Rule Four. An instance of a word stem designates a specific action.'''

''dà'' in the above sentence does not just mean "to give", it refers to one specific action of giving. Such an action may involve several givers (as in "They give something") and need not even be temporally or spatially connected (as in "They are giving something every Christmas"). In other words, each spoken or written instance of the stem ''d–'' refers to a certain subset of all the giving there is.

This rule ensures that all the objects refer to the same action of giving as the predicate itself.

'''Rule Five. A case characterises the action it refers to completely with regard to its case descriptor.'''

For example, the nominative object "Father Christmas" has to name the complete sender of the above instance of giving. This excludes from this instance all giving not done by Father Christmas. So each object places a restriction on the action of giving the main predicate refers to. Thus, the subset of giving meant by this instance of ''dà.'' – what the sentence is ultimately talking about – is defined more and more precisely with each additional object. (The same is true not only of the main predicate but of all words in a sentence.)

'''Rule Six. A missing object is equivalent to the absence of information about its descriptor.'''

Above sentences do not have, for example, locative objects, so Rule Five cannot place a restriction on the place of giving. Because of Rule Six, this does not mean there are no restrictions on the location, but only that this kind of information has not been included in the sentence (for example, because the speaker does not know about it, considers it irrelevent, or assumes the listener already knows or – perhaps most importantly – can infer it.)

'''Rule Seven. Given an object and its predicate, the predicate is considered more real and the object more hypothetical.'''

…

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! as an object !! as a complete sentence
|-
| ''dà.'' || to give; giving || An action of giving exists = Someone gives something.
|-
| ''zdìls.'' || the consequence of sitting down = to sit; sitting || The consequence of sitting down exists = Someone sits.
|-
| ''dwìlw.'' || the consequence of making a bottle || The consequence of making a bottle exists = A bottle exists; there is a bottle.
|-
| ''sklè.'' || one building a bridge || One building a bridge exists = There is someone building a bridge.
|}

===Noun phrases===
Forming noun phrases does not require any new grammatical rules. In the following example, the inner case of "give" is changed to the nominative, yielding "one giving something, a giver", and everything is pushed down one level. The third-level words are still sender, content and recipient of the ''action'' of giving, as outer cases define relations to the predicate's ''stem'' per Rule Three.
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 3A:third level, agentive
|dmàt tryxkì dée föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|see-FACT-1 beaver-ACC-DAT-2 give-'''NOM'''-NOM-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-3A bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3.
|''The beaver sees '''the one giving Lucy a bottle, Father Christmas'''.''}}
Regarding the verb "see", note that the beaver is in the dative, being at the receiving end of the optical stimulus or information. Marking the beaver as agent would translate as "The beaver looks at the one …".

Rules Four and Five guarantee that the giver is identical to Father Christmas: both are the sender of the same instance of the stem ''d–'' "give" (the giver via its inner nominative, Father Christmas via its outer nominative), and both are the ''complete'' sender of this action. This type of construction, where an object's outer case matches its predicate's inner case, is called a '''bracket'''. Brackets are very widely used:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Apposition !! Attributive adjective !! Attributive pronoun/determiner !! Attributive numeral !! Attributive participle
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|iakopỳk saxèfy.
|Jacopo-'''ACC'''-1 trumpet-NOM-'''ACC'''-2.
|''Jacopo, a trumpeter''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=INS:instrumental case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|ghstù lỳbdhu.
|sail-'''INS'''-1 white-ACC-'''INS'''-2.
|''a sail, a white thing = a white sail''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|ỳksh gwỳy.
|ship-'''ACC'''-1 some-ACC-'''ACC'''-2.
|''a ship, something = some ship''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|mỳs trỳy.
|mouse-'''ACC'''-1 three-ACC-'''ACC'''-2.
|''mice, three individuals = three mice''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|nỳzd gangèy.
|bird-'''ACC'''-1 sing-NOM-'''ACC'''-2.
|''a bird, a singer = a singing bird''}}
|}
Such phrases can be easily extended. This example contains two accusative brackets ("a singing bird" and "a sad child"):
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 4:fourth level
|ngỳzd gangèy zhngỳi speghý ytfỳarh.
|bird-ACC-1 sing-NOM-ACC-2 child-ACC-DAT-3 sad-NOM-ACC-4 night-ACC-TEMP-3.
|''a bird singing to a sad child at night''}}

Adverbially used adjectives are phrased with factive brackets. However, changing the predicate's inner case leaves the object's outer factive intact, losing the bracket.
{|
|-
| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|gangà txỳska.
|sing-'''FACT'''-1 loud-ACC-'''FACT'''-2.
|''(an action of) singing, a loud thing = loud singing = singing loudly, to sing loudly''}}

| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|nỳzd gangèy txỳska.
|bird-ACC-1 sing-NOM-ACC-2 loud-ACC-'''FACT'''-3.
|''a bird, a loud singer = a bird singing loudly'' (The '''action''' of singing is a loud thing.)}}
|}

As [[w:Genitive construction|genitive constructions]] have a wide variety of meanings, there is no single Lemizh equivalent. The typical translation for constructions indicating possession is with the benefactive case, but other cases frequently occur. Everything depends on the object's relation to the predicate's stem per Rule Three.
{|
|-
| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|dwỳw lusỳü.
|bottle-ACC-1 Lucy-ACC-'''BEN'''-2.
|Lucy is the beneficiary of making the bottle. The bottle is made for Lucy. 
''Lucy's bottle''}}

| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dý ỳxe.
|give-ACC-1 male-ACC-'''NOM'''-2A.
|The man is the sender of giving. 
''the man's gift''}}

| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|rhỳst ytfỳarh filpskỳy.
|dream-ACC-1 night-ACC-'''TEMP'''-2 midsummer-ACC-ACC-3.
| The midsummer night is the time of dreaming. 
''A Midsummer Night's Dream''}}
|}

===Dependent clauses===
Non-finite and conjunctional clauses …
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive; 3:third level
|láxt föpysryfè dày dwywỳ lusỳi.
|want-FACT-1 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2A give-'''FACT'''-ACC-2 bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3.
|''Father Christmas wants '''to give Lucy a bottle'''.''}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 3A:third level, agentive
|dmàt tryxkì dáe föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|see-FACT-1 beaver-ACC-DAT-2 give-'''FACT'''-NOM-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-3A bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3.
|''The beaver sees [the action of] '''Father Christmas giving Lucy a bottle'''.''}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; AFF:affirmative case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 3A:third level, agentive
|dmàt tryxkì dále föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|see-FACT-1 beaver-ACC-DAT-2 give-'''AFF'''-NOM-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-3A bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3.
|''The beaver sees [the fact of] '''Father Christmas giving Lucy a bottle'''. The beaver sees '''that''' Father Christmas gives Lucy a bottle.''}}

…

Relative clauses are structurally identical to (extended) attributive participles as described above: ''a bird which sings to a sad child at night = a bird singing to a sad child at night''.

===Predicative===
…


===Relative pronouns===
Stems of relative pronouns (not to be confused with the pronouns of the same name in English or Latin) refer to actions by pointing to another stem or to a parole: they are [[w:Anaphora (linguistics)|anaphoric]]. Here is the full list:
{| class="wikitable"
! rowspan="2" | Level !! colspan="2" | Type I !! colspan="2" | Type II
|-
! Verb !! The target is the stem of !! Verb !! The target is the stem of
|-
| n || colspan="2" | (does not occur because it would refer to itself) || à. || its preceding same-level word
|-
| n−1 || wà. || its predicate || fà. || its predicate's preceding same-level word or parole
|-
| n−2 || dhà. || its predicate's predicate || thà. || its predicate's predicate's preceding same-level word or parole
|-
| n−3 || zà. || its predicate's predicate's predicate || sà. || …
|-
| n−4 || zhà. || … || shà. || …
|-
| n−5 || ghà. || … || xà. || …
|}
They are highly versatile, corresponding to various structures in other languages. Recall that a sentence's parole has level zero:
{| class="wikitable"
! Reflexive !! First person (singular) !! Second person
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|wáx wìe.
|speak-FACT-1 PIn−1-'''DAT'''-'''NOM'''-2A.
|The recipient of speaking is its sender. 
''to talk to oneself. He is talking to himself.''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dráw dhèe.
|dance-FACT-1 PIn−2-'''NOM'''-NOM-2A.
|The sender of the parole is the sender of dancing. 
''I am dancing.''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dráw dhìe.
|dance-FACT-1 PIn−2-'''DAT'''-NOM-2A.
|The recipient of the parole is the sender of dancing. 
''You are dancing.''}}
|}
Rule Four of sentence grammar ensures that the reflexive example means "He is talking to himself" as opposed to, say, "He is talking to one being talked to" (which would be ''wáx wìxe.'' speak-{{sc|fact}}-1 speak-{{sc|dat-nom}}-2{{sc|a}}, with two different instances of the stem "speak").

{| class="wikitable"
! Possessive determiner !! Vocative
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=CONS:consecutive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|zdìls ngỳzdy zeú tỳar.
|seat-CONS-1 bird-ACC-ACC-2 PIn−3-'''NOM'''-BEN-3 this-ACC-LOC-2.
|The sender of the parole is the beneficiary of making a bird.
 ''My bird is sitting there.''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=PI:pronoun type I; FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive; 3:third level
|wáx dheè zdhèzhi zìe.
|speak-FACT-1 PIn−2-NOM-NOM-2A friend-NOM-DAT-2 PIn−3-'''DAT'''-NOM-3.
|The recipient of the parole is the friend. (nominative bracket) 
''Friend, I am talking to you.''}}
|}

The type II pronoun in the following example points to the stem of eating. With the inner accusative, the pronoun refers to the content of eating, which is the sweet. (As with brackets, Rules Four and Five guarantee that the pronoun refers to the same content of the same action of eating as mentioned in the first sentence.)
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; PII:pronoun type II; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|ádh dheì mlỳdhy. ràsh fỳy.
|eat-FACT-1 PIn−2-NOM-DAT-2A sweet-ACC-ACC-2. like-FACT-1 PIIn−1-'''ACC'''-ACC-2.
|''I am eating a sweet. [I] like it.''}}

==Derivational morphology==
From a Lemizh point of view, ''dè.'' "giver" and ''dỳ.'' "gift" aren't derivatives of ''dà.'' "to give" but grammatical forms of the same word. The only piece of true derivational morphology is compounding.

===Compounds===
[[File:Lemizh compounding diagram.png|thumb|Forming a compound from a two-word sentence]]
'''Rule One of compounding. A compound word is constructed from a two-word sentence – predicate and object of which become modifier and head of the compound, respectively – in the following way:'''
# '''Prestem''':
## the object's prestem
## the object's inner case
## the object's poststem
## an optional separator
## the predicate's prestem
# '''Inner case'''
# '''Poststem''': the predicate's poststem
# '''Outer case'''
Note that the object's stem comes before the predicate's; and also that the object's outer case (and, less importantly, the predicate's inner case) is lost. The object's inner case becomes part of the compound's prestem and is then called its ''epenthetic case''. The separator can be used, for example, if the word boundary would be unclear otherwise, or for placing the second part of the word on a new line.

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|làxt àdhy. ⇒ adhlàxt.
|want-FACT-1 eat-FACT-ACC-2. ⇒ eat-FACT-want-FACT-1.
|''[She] wants to eat.'' (See the inflection of [[#Verbs|verbs]].)}}
Here, the lost accusative ending has to be deduced from context.

'''Rule Two. In the relationship between the original predicate and object, the rules of sentence grammar are retained as far as applicable.'''

The consequences of this rule are somewhat technical; but the last one, pertaining to degree of reality, is important for correctly interpreting compounds.
* Rules One to Three of sentence grammar are not applicable to compounds, as can be easily seen.
* Four: Both modifier and head are instantiations of specific actions in the original sentence (which however do not necessarily match the instantiation of the compound).
* Five: The epenthetic case characterises the head completely with regard to its descriptor.
* Six: The only overt object of the modifier is the head. All other objects are missing and thus indicate the absence of information about their descriptors.
* Seven: The modifier has a higher degree of reality than the head. Therefore, the above compound does not claim that she actually eats.

'''Rule Three. Regarding all outward relations, cases refer to the head.'''

…

==Example text==
[[File:Lemizh text sample.png|600px]]

====stedrỳzh thìrhfi xtrỳghy.====
krỳgh dghngireì prilxpilghkỳarh. mangỳ srungbỳng lyngghỳng yngshwỳng fỳü. zhöazhghngìl tmỳil. ghngàgzh smìa prỳal ghngyé dhàbdhy lunguỳ ùyl mỳu fplyxár tỳarh. dmát feì sxngengzè ishkènge. ghìlt krighmyngthxì xtrỳngghi swyshỳ ghỳxy fplyxòr zhöyzhỳm xngàrorm. dmìlt öngkrỳngty zhryỳ rèshy esfàsy sxngyzdmýi, usrỳngy xazhgèsty ghngỳeng, frekrỳngfy rilghdzhỳwby pthèby, dgheipysrỳngdy psrèby rhèzhem, dghistngỳngty ghỳxy zangỳa dghildhfmlýyrh, ngiftngyghtmỳngy krültlìy zùe gỳghda. xtrỳgh swyshý stedrỳzh thìrfi. dngilszhrìl bdhyrgzhyngỳng xüxtrỳngyng prilkỳarh ötìlil skmyngìlng ghỳngsilng. dngilszhìlwb ráxpy thìlfi. fö̀l gwiltngìlöl dmàty föpysryfỳ ngỳu.

rỳ zhryỳrh thìzgy gwiltngìly rhàghgy dmatngìe thìrfy. là xángska matngiè ytfỳyrh dmyý fplyxór dyxtngyngà mànga prilzhryngỳr iltỳngzhdyr. dmàt ytfỳarh ryý mìlngorh xngyì prilkyár mìlngorh xtrỳngghi kshrextý mengthxì prỳar zìe, fplỳngxe fywýr déngske xtryghè sxngezì xngỳnge.

====The Legend of the Seventh Planet====
A long time ago there was a tribe of nomads. They possessed neither writing nor houses nor horses. But they were truly human. They were curious; this means, above all, that they took interest in the useless, for the celestial objects were of no use to them yet. They looked at the Sun and the Moon. They had named the constellations and the six planets moving across the sky like the humans across the earth. They knew dim Mercury, who liked to hide in the glare of the Sun; Venus, the brightest of all; reddish and angry Mars; majestic father Jupiter; Saturn, who seemed to stand still for weeks; and even Uranus had been caught by their keen eyes. Six planets, and the legend of a seventh. Maybe it had been the minor planet Vesta, or a comet centuries or millennia earlier. Maybe it was the attraction of the number seven. For Neptune is invisible to the naked eye.

One youngster thought to himself that he could not live without seeing the seventh planet. He lay awake searching the sky for many nights, neglected his duties, and became thinner and thinner. And one night, lying with the Earth behind his back, and with the looping planets and the stars above him, he saw the depth of the sky and the planets circling the Sun, and among them the Earth.

==External links==
* [https://lemizh.conlang.org Lemizh homepage] with comprehensive coverage of the language, including a dictionary with etymologies, information on the language's pragmatics, and more background information
[[File:Copyleft1.png|20px]] ''This article is available under a [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License]. It includes material from the Lemizh homepage, which has the same license.''


[[Category:Languages]]
[[Category:Conlangs]]
[[Category:Indo-European languages]]
[[Category:Fusional languages]]

Lemizh

2022-05-15T11:54:41Z

Anypodetos: Copyedit

{{Infobox language
|image =
|imagesize =
|name = Lemizh
|nativename = lemỳzh.
|pronunciation = lɛmˈɯ̀ʒ
|state = Lemaria
|setting = Alt-history Europe
|created = 1985
|familycolor = Indo-European
|fam2 = Lemizh
|ancestor = Proto-Lemizh
|posteriori = [[w:Proto-Indo-European|Proto-Indo-European]]
|creator = [[User:Anypodetos|Anypodetos]]
|scripts = Lemizh alphabet
|nation = Lemaria
|map = Map of Lemaria.png
|notice = IPA
}}
'''Lemizh''' ([[Help:IPA|[lεmˈiʒ]]], native pronunciation: [[Help:IPA|[lɛmˈɯ̀ʒ]]]) is a language I invented with the aim of creating a grammar as regular and simple as possible. It was originally intended as an [[w:International auxiliary language|international auxiliary language]]. However, it turned out that a simple grammar is not necessarily a grammar that is easy to learn: the more ways of simplification I found, the further away it moved from [[w:Indo-European languages|Indo-European]] and probably all other familiar language structures. Expecting anyone to learn Lemizh, at this point, would be completely unrealistic.

So I needed a new justification for the language: enter the Lemizh, a people living to the west and north of the [[w:Black Sea|Black Sea]] in an alternate history that slowly drifted away from ours between two and eight millennia ago. Of course, it is extremely unlikely that they would speak a language that was completely without exceptions. To be precise, the chances are two to the power of two hundred and seventy-six thousand seven hundred and nine to one against. But they say that everything has to happen somewhere in the Multiverse. And everything happens only once.

{{TOC limit}}

==History==
===Early stages===
Lemizh is an Indo-European language and, together with Volgan, constitutes one of the ten recognised branches of the Indo-European language family. This branch is also called Lemizh, to the disgruntlement of Volgan linguists.

Proto-Lemizh, the ancestor of Lemizh and Volgan, is very poorly attested in form of some papyri found near the northwestern shore of the Black Sea, to the north of the [[w:Dniester Liman|Dniester Liman]], dated about 2700 BC. Old Lemizh, by contrast, is fairly well attested. It had predominantly [[w:Subject–verb–object|subject–verb–object]] (SVO) word order and was a quite typical old Indo-European language, but with a couple of interesting quirks:
* Adjectives were lost as a separate part of speech, being replaced with participles ("white" > "being white").
* Finite subordinate clauses had their subject in the case of the clause: the subject of a local clause was in the locative case without having a local meaning in itself.
The earliest known documents from this stage of Lemizh were probably written around 2100 BC along the northern and western shores of the Back Sea.

===Ghean and Middle Lemizh===
Ghean ([[Help:IPA|[ˈɣɛən]]]) is a language with no known genetic relationships. It was spoken by a people of unknown origin, who subdued the Lemizh tribes in around 1000 BC and ruled for infamous three generations. Ghean was an inflected [[w:Tonal language|register tonal]] language with strict [[w:Verb–subject–object|verb–subject–object]] (VSO) word order and head-first phrases. It had verbs, [[w:Nominal (linguistics)|nominals]] (a combined noun/adjective/participle part of speech), pronouns and particles.

The Gheans discouraged the use of the natives' language, but obviously tolerated Lemizh words (or rather word stems) to stand in for unfamiliar Ghean ones. The grammar of simple sentences was easy enough to learn for the Lemizh, as they were used to inflection and head-first phrases, and likely still knew VSO sentences from poetry. After two or three generations, the natives must have spoken a [[w:Creole language|creole]] with a more or less Ghean grammar but an abundance of Lemizh words, especially outside the core vocabulary. This is a quite unusual development as most creoles draw their lexicon mainly from the dominant group, and tend to be grammatically more innovative. (The Tanzanian language [[w:Mbugu language|Mbugu]] might have had a somewhat similar development with more or less analogous outcomes.) After the disappearance of the Gheans, Lemizh patriots tried to revive their old language, which failed spectacularly for the grammar but reintroduced many Lemizh words of the core vocabulary.

===The last three millennia===
While Middle Lemizh as spoken after the Ghean occupation already had a non-Indo-European and unusually regular grammar, this trend was to continue over the following millennia. The factive case was innovated to express verbal nouns, which eventually supplanted verbs altogether. (At least part of the blame goes to the Tlöngö̀l, an epic novel published in 1351, which popularised the use of verbal nouns.) The tonal system was simplified to the present two-way [[w:Pitch-accent language|pitch-accent]] system. Pronouns lost their status as a separate part of speech. The last particles died out a few hundred years ago, leaving the language with a single part of speech which is often called a "verb" but, historically speaking, is really a nominal. This means that the concept of ''parts of speech'' does not make sense in Modern Lemizh.

==Orthography and phonology==
The alphabet is [[w:Phonetic orthography|phonetic]]: each letter corresponds to a certain sound, and each sound is represented by a single letter. The direction of writing is left to right. This article uses the standard transcription of the native Lemizh alphabet as given here:
{| class="wikitable" style="width: 800px; table-layout: fixed; text-align: center"
! colspan="29" | Letters of the Lemizh alphabet
|-
| colspan="29" style="padding: 0" | [[File:Lemizh alphabet.png|796px]]
|-
| a || e || y || i || o || ö || u || ü || l || rh || r || ng || m || g || d || b || k || t || p || gh || zh || z || dh || w || x || sh || s || th || f
|}

===Consonants===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="2" | !! bilabial !! dental !! alveolar !! postalveolar !! velar
|-
! colspan="2" | nasals
| m <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial nasal|m]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || || || ng <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar nasal|ŋ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! colspan="2" | plosives (voiceless • voiced)
| p <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless bilabial plosive|p]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • b <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial plosive|b]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || t <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless alveolar plosive|t]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • d <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar plosive|d]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || k <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless velar plosive|k]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • g <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar plosive|g]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! colspan="2" | fricatives (voiceless • voiced)
| f <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless bilabial fricative|ɸ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • w <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial fricative|β]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || th <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless dental fricative|θ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • dh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced dental fricative|ð]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || s <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless alveolar sibilant|s]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • z <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar sibilant|z]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || sh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless palato-alveolar fricative|ʃ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • zh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced palato-alveolar fricative|ʒ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || x <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless velar fricative|x]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • gh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar fricative|ɣ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! rowspan="3" | liquids || lateral approximant
| || || l <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar lateral approximant|l]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|-
! approximant
| || || rh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar approximant|ɹ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|-
! trill
| || || r <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar trill|r]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|}
The plosive-fricative combinations ''pf, ts, tsh, kx'' and their voiced couterparts only occur at word boundaries and in compound words. They are not pronounced as affricates but as separate sounds. The same applies for other combinations of a plosive plus another consonant (''pm, tl'' etc.), as well as for two identical plosives (''kk'' etc.): the release of the first plosive is always audible.

===Vowels===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! rowspan="2" | !! colspan="2" | front !! colspan="2" | back
|-
! unrounded !! rounded !! unrounded !! rounded
|-
! close
| i <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close front unrounded vowel|i]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ü <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close front rounded vowel|y]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || y <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close back unrounded vowel|ɯ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || u <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close back rounded vowel|u]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! open-mid
| e <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid front unrounded vowel|ɛ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ö <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid front rounded vowel|œ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || a <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid back unrounded vowel|ʌ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || o <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid back rounded vowel|ɔ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|}
Two consecutive different vowels are pronounced as a diphthong; two consecutive identical vowels as a long one. Single vowels are always short.

Lemizh uses [[w:Mora (linguistics)|moræ]] for structuring words: a short syllable equals one mora, and a long syllable equals two. In Lemizh, every vowel is the centre of a mora; consequently, two consecutive vowels result in two moræ or one long syllable.

===Accent===
Lemizh has got a two-way pitch-accent system, in that accented moræ are not only spoken louder (as in English), but also have either a lower or a higher pitch than the surrounding unaccented ones. The accented mora is always the ultimate or penultimate of a word. The vowel at the centre of a low-pitch accented mora is transcribed with a grave accent, the vowel at the centre of a high-pitch accented mora with an acute accent.
{| class="wikitable" style="width: 220px; table-layout: fixed; text-align: center"
! colspan="8" | Accented vowel letters
|-
| colspan="8" style="padding: 0" | [[File:Lemizh accented vowels.png|216px]]
|-
| à || è || ỳ || ì || ò || ö̀ || ù || ǜ
|-
| á || é || ý || í || ó || ö́ || ú || ǘ
|}

===Phonotactics===
[[w:Phonotactics|Phonotactics]] is rather permissive in Lemizh. A mora has the following structure, where the bracketed parts are optional:
* (O)(N)(L)V(L)(N)(O)
V is the mora's vowel, L a liquid, N a nasal, and O an obstruent that can be either a P(losive), a F(ricative), FP, PF, FF, FFP, FPF, or PFF. Word-initial consonant clusters cannot contain more than three sounds. No geminate consonants (<abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''ff'' etc.) occur within a mora. Consecutive plosive-fricative or fricative-plosive combinations within the same mora must have the same sonority – either both are voiced, or both are voiceless. A plosive cannot have the same place of articulation as a following consonant with the exception of ''rh'' and ''r''. <abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''dzh'', <abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''ddh'' and their voiceless counterparts are also prohibited within a mora.

Word boundaries, including those within compound words, are always mora boundaries. Where mora boundaries would still be ambiguous, liquids and nasals are assigned to the earliest possible mora (as the ''m'' in ''lem·ỳzh.''), and obstruents to the latest possible mora.

==Morphology==
All words are composed of the following parts:
* Prestem + inner case + poststem + outer case
Prestem and poststem form the stem, or the lexical part, of the word. The division of the stem into two portions is similar to English verbs such as ''sing/sang/sung'', where the lexical part is ''s–ng'' while the vowels ''i/a/u'' convey grammatical information. The stem always denotes an action (but never a state, a person, a thing, a property, etc.) and thus resembles our verbs. The prestem can contain any sounds, or it can be zero (i.e. consisting of zero sounds). The poststem can only contain fricatives and plosives, or it can be zero as well.

The inner case is represented by one of the eight vowels, optionally followed by a liquid (the primary case suffix) and/or a nasal (the secondary case suffix). The outer case has the same structure. For the first word in each sentence, the main predicate, the outer case is missing.

Each case is defined by its ''descriptor'': for example, the factive case denotes an ''action'', the nominative a ''sender'', the locative a ''place''. The stem and the inner case's descriptor determine a word's meaning.

'''Examples'''
* ''wàx. w–x'' is the stem for "speak", ''-a-'' denotes the inner factive, so this word means "an action of speaking", translated as the verb "to speak" or the [[w:Verbal noun|verbal noun]] "speaking".
* ''wèx. -e-'' denotes the inner nominative, so this word means "a sender of speaking" or "a speaker".
* ''àrdh. ∅–dh'' (having a zero prestem) is the stem for "eat", ''-ar-'' denotes the inner locative: "a place of eating".
{| class="wikitable"
|+ Primary cases and their descriptors
|-
! rowspan="3" | № !! rowspan="3" | Case vowel !! colspan="4" | Primary case suffix
|-
| none || l || rh || r
|-
! Plot cases !! Causal cases !! Temporal cases !! Spatial cases
|-
| 1 || a || factive ({{sc|fact}}): ''action'' || affirmative ({{sc|aff}}): ''fact (point in causal chain)'' || temporal ({{sc|temp}}): ''time'' || locative ({{sc|loc}}): ''place/region''
|-
| 2 || e || nominative ({{sc|nom}}): ''source, sender'' || causative ({{sc|caus}}): ''direct cause'' || ingressive ({{sc|ing}}): ''starting time'' || elative ({{sc|ela}}): ''starting point/region''
|-
| 3 || y || accusative ({{sc|acc}}): ''content'' || contextual ({{sc|ctx}}): ''causal context'' || durative ({{sc|dur}}): ''duration'' || extensive ({{sc|ext}}): ''spatial extent''
|-
| 4 || i || dative ({{sc|dat}}): ''sink, recipient'' || consecutive ({{sc|cons}}): ''direct consequence, effect'' || egressive ({{sc|egr}}): ''closing time'' || illative ({{sc|ill}}): ''end point / ending region''
|-
| 5 || o || tentive ({{sc|ten}}): ''intention'' || intentive ({{sc|int}}): ''intention (intended point in causal chain)'' || episodic ({{sc|eps}}): ''episode, "act"'' || scenic ({{sc|sce}}): ''scene, "stage"''
|-
| 6 || ö || comitative ({{sc|com}}): ''company'' || persuasive ({{sc|psu}}): ''reason'' || digressive ({{sc|dig}}): ''time away from which'' || ablative ({{sc|abl}}): ''place/region away from which''
|-
| 7 || u || instrumental ({{sc|ins}}): ''means, tool'' || motivational ({{sc|mot}}): ''motivational context'' || progressive ({{sc|prog}}): ''time that is passed'' || prolative ({{sc|prol}}): ''crossing point/region''
|-
| 8 || ü || benefactive ({{sc|ben}}): ''beneficiary'' || final ({{sc|fin}}): ''purpose, aim'' || aggressive ({{sc|agg}}): ''time towards which, temporal aim'' || allative ({{sc|all}}): ''place/region towards which, spatial aim''
|}
Each primary case has two corresponding secondary cases:
* a partitive case formed by adding ''ng'' (such as ''-ing-'' for the partitive dative or ''-erng-'' for the partitive elative) with the descriptor ''the set from which the source (sink, place, etc.) is thought to be taken''
* a qualitative case formed by adding ''m'', with the descriptor ''the basis of comparison for the source (sink, place, etc.)''

===The flow of the plot===
Every action denoted by a stem is considered a flow of information that comes from a source (sender), transports a content, and reaches a sink (a recipient). The terms "sender" and "recipient" may be more familiar, but "source" and "sink" are more accurate in not necessarily meaning living beings.

Consequently, a Lemizh action looks somewhat like this: '''nominative  accusative[[File:DreieckGreenMIDDLE.png|26px|link=]] dative'''

This is called the action's plot. Here are some examples:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative
|-
| ''wàx.'' "to speak, to talk, to tell; (an action of) speaking" || ''wèx.'' "one telling something" || ''wỳx.'' "a tale" || ''wìx.'' "one who is told something"
|-
| ''dà.'' "to give; (an action of) giving" || ''dè.'' "one giving something" || ''dỳ.'' "a gift" || ''dì.'' "one who is given something; one who gets something"
|-
| ''làzhw.'' "to help" || ''lèzhw.'' "one helping" || ''lỳzhw.'' "help (given)" || ''lìzhw.'' "one whom is helped"
|-
| ''mlàtx.'' "to melt" || ''mlètx.'' "one melting something" || [''mlỳtx.''] || ''mlìtx.'' "a melted thing"
|-
| ''xöàgh.'' "to produce a sound; to hear" || ''xöègh.'' "one producing a sound" || ''xöỳgh.'' "a sound" || ''xöìgh.'' "one hearing something"
|-
| ''àdh.'' "to feed; to eat" || ''èdh.'' "one feeding someone" || ''ỳdh.'' "food" || ''ìdh.'' "one being fed; one eating"
|-
| ''ià.'' "to love" || ''iè.'' "one loving someone, a lover" || ''iỳ.'' "a beloved" || ''iì.'' "a beloved"
|}
Importantly, there are no rules for which cases to use with which words. Both ''iỳ.'' ({{sc|acc}}) and ''iì.'' ({{sc|dat}}) mean "a beloved". The former describes the beloved as the content of love, the one being lovingly thought of, while the latter implies that the love reaches them, like words or gifts reach their recipient. Likewise, the reason why ''mlỳtx.'' is not translated in the table above isn't that "''melt'' does not take the accusative", as grammars of other languages would say, but that "a content of melting" does not seem to have any obvious meaning. If someone wanted to describe, say, sun rays as content transported from the sun to the snow to melt it, they could well use ''mlỳtx.'' to express the concept.

Case usage is governed solely by the cases' descriptors; it is up to the speaker how to use them given some word's meaning and some context. If the wind opens a door, is it the source of the action of opening (''ngèt.''), the means of opening (''ngùt.''), or the cause (''ngèlt.'')? All are grammatically correct; the speaker decides which possibility best expresses their intention.

===Nouns===
:''Nouns, adjectives and verbs do not correspond to any concepts in Lemizh grammar. Using these terms is just an attempt to describe the grammar from an Indo-European viewpoint.''
A large number of nouns are not derived from verbs in most languages: ''froth, ship, lion'' and many others. In Lemizh, however, we have verbs such as ''psràxk.'' "to froth", ''àksh.'' "to build a ship or ships", and ''làw.'' "to make a lion or lions". We will call these ''nominal verbs''.

Looking at the verb ''àksh.'', the shipwright ({{sc|nom}}) gives the building materials ({{sc|dat}}) the properties or the function of a ship ({{sc|acc}}). He confers, well, shipness on the materials. The shipness is sent by the shipwright, not because he is acting, but because he is the source: the image of the ship, so to say, comes from his head and materialises in wood, iron, ropes, and linen. In short, these words mostly appear with inner accusative.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative
|-
| ''psràxk.'' "to froth" || ''psrèxk.'' "one frothing something" || ''psrỳxk.'' "a thing having the properties of froth = '''froth'''" || ''psrìxk.'' "a frothed thing, a frothed liquid"
|-
| ''àksh.'' "to build a ship" || ''èksh.'' "one building a ship, a shipwright" || ''ỳksh.'' "a thing having the properties of a ship = '''a ship'''" || ''ìksh.'' "building materials for a ship, materials made into a ship"
|-
| ''làw.'' "to make a lion" || [''lèw.'' "one making a lion"] || ''lỳw.'' "a thing having the properties of a lion = '''a lion'''" || [''lìw.'' "building materials for a lion, materials made into a lion"]
|}

Another very common kind of nouns are tool nouns, formed with an inner instrumental case:
* ''ghstù.'' "a sail" is derived from ''ghstà.'' "to sail", literally "a means of sailing",
* ''pslù.'' "scissors" from ''pslà.'' "to cut with scissors",
* ''saxùf.'' "trumpet" from ''saxàf.'' "to play the trumpet",
* ''skrùzh.'' "a finger" from ''skràzh.'' "to work with one's fingers".

====Inflection====
As mentioned above, all words can inflect for (outer) case. Thus, we have the nominative forms ''wàx'''e''''' "(an action of) speaking, talking, telling", ''dè'''e''''' "a giver", ''lỳw'''e''''' "a lion", the causative ''lỳw'''el''''' "because of a lion", the elative ''lỳw'''er''''' "(starting) from a lion", etc.

Lemizh words do not inflect for number or gender. If desired, we can express this information by forming compounds. (Note the duplication of the inner case vowel; the first occurrence in each word is called the epenthetic case of the compound. The underlying grammar will be described later.)
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Singular !! Dual !! Plural !! Feminine !! Masculine !! Feminine singular !! etc.
|-
! giver
| ''dè.'' || ''de'''rè'''.'' || ''de'''dwè'''.'' || ''de'''mlè'''.'' || ''de'''bè'''.'' || ''de'''èx'''.'' || ''de'''berè'''.''
|-
! lion
| ''lỳw.'' || ''lyw'''rỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''dwỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''mlỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''bỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''ỳx'''.'' || ''lyw'''byrỳ'''.''
|-
! compound with
| — || ''rỳ.'' "one" || ''dwỳ.'' "two" || ''mlỳ.'' "several" || ''bỳ.'' "female; woman" || ''ỳx.'' "male; man" || "female" and "one"
|}

===Adjectives and numerals===
There is no difference between adjectival and nominal verbs: they mostly appear with inner accusative. This is the same situation as in, say, Latin, where ''albus'' can mean "a white one" as well as "white". Numerals are basically a sub-category of adjectives.

The inner consecutive case translates certain abstract nouns.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative !! Inner consecutive
|-
| ''gmrà.'' "to heat, to make something warm" || ''gmrè.'' "one heating something up" || ''gmrỳ.'' "a warm thing; '''warm'''" || ''gmrì.'' "a thing heated up; heated, warmed" || ''gmrìl.'' "the consequence of heating = heat"
|-
| ''làbdh.'' "to whiten something, to make something white" || ''lèbdh.'' "one whitening something" || ''lỳbdh.'' "a white thing; '''white'''" || ''lìbdh.'' "a thing made white; whitened" || ''lìlbdh.'' "the consequence of whitening = whiteness"
|-
| ''dwà.'' "to make two things/individuals" || ''dwè.'' "one making two things" || ''dwỳ.'' "'''two''' (things)" || ''dwì.'' "something made into two (things)" || ''dwìl.'' "the consequence of making two things = twoness"
|}

However, emotions aren't viewed as properties in Lemizh: a happy or angry person is one sending happiness or anger, just as a loving person is one sending love. The inner causative plays a notable role with verbs of emotion.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative !! Inner causative
|-
| ''pthàb.'' "to be angry" || ''pthèb.'' "an angry one; '''angry'''" || ''pthỳb.'' "the content/object of one's anger" || ''pthìb.'' "one that one's anger reaches" || ''pthèlb.'' "one causing someone anger; one annoying someone"
|}

====Inflection====
Of course, adjectives can be compounded to express number and/or gender in the same way as nouns. Furthermore, we can form compounds expressing various degrees. (The epenthetic consecutive ''-il-'' in these compounds will also be explained later; it is actually the main application of the abstract nouns just mentioned.)
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Diminutive !! Augmentative !! Absolute !! Comparative !! Superlative
|-
! warm
| ''gmrỳ.'' || ''gmril'''zhrỳ'''.'' "lukewarm" || ''gmril'''dmỳ'''.'' "hot" || ''gmril'''ghngỳ'''.'' "absolutely hot" || ''gmril'''tỳzhd'''.'' "warmer, hotter" || ''gmril'''ỳst'''.'' "hottest"
|-
! white
| ''lỳbdh.'' || ''lilbdh'''zhrỳ'''.'' "whitish" || ''lilbdh'''dmỳ'''.'' "very white" || ''lilbdh'''ghngỳ'''.'' "absolutely/completely white" || ''lilbdh'''tỳzhd'''.'' "whiter" || ''lilbdh'''ỳst'''.'' "whitest"
|-
! compound with
| — || ''zhrỳ.'' "few, little, a bit" || ''dmỳ.'' "much, many" || ''ghngỳ.'' "every, all, the whole" || ''tỳzhd.'' "more" || ''ỳst.'' "most"
|}

===Verbs===
Most verbs correspond to Lemizh words with an inner factive. However, as Lemizh stems always denote an action, the notable exception are stative verbs such as:
* ''zdìls.'' "to sit", literally "the consequence of sitting down (''zdàs.'')"
* ''gwìlt.'' "to know", literally "the consequence of learning (''gwàt.'')"

====Inflection====
* Person is not expressed with inflection but with [[#Relative pronouns|pronouns]].
* Number is conveyed by compounding pronouns with numerals. While verbs (i.e. words with an inner factive) can be compounded with numerals, ''ftrask'''mlà'''.'' does not mean "we/they sneeze" but "(there are) several acts of sneezing" (i.e. someone sneezes several times and/or several people sneeze).
* Voice (active/passive) is absent in Lemizh; word order serves a similar function.
* Tense is expressed by compounds with an epenthetic temporal case (''-arh-''), or with certain inner cases. The latter option is preferred if possible, as it is more concise.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Present !! Past !! Perfect !! Future !! Intentional
|-
! to sit down
| ''zdàs.'' || ''zdarhs'''wà'''.'' || ''zdarhs'''prilkà'''.'' || ''zd'''ìl'''s.'' ({{sc|cons}}) || ''zdarhs'''prà'''.'' || ''zd'''ò'''s.'' ({{sc|ten}})
|-
! compound with
| — || pronoun || ''prilkỳ.'' "back" || — || ''prỳ.'' "front" || —
|}
Note that the translation of the perfect with inner consecutive coincides with the translation of stative verbs: "having sat down" in the strict perfect sense of "the consequence/effect of this action exists" means the same as "to sit". Likewise, "whiteness" can be expressed as the abstract concept of "having whitened something".

* Mood corresponds to compounds with certain verbs for the most part. There is no equivalent to the subjunctive mood, as subordinate clauses are irreal (i.e. not necessarily real) by default. Here are some common formations:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Indicative !! Imperative !! Commanding imperative !! Interrogative Polite imperative !! Optative
|-
! to feed, to eat
| ''àdh.'' || ''adh'''pràk'''.'' || ''adh'''dàxt'''.'' || ''adh'''pà'''.'' || ''adh'''làxt'''.''
|-
! compound with
| — || ''pràk.'' "to request" || ''dàxt.'' "to command" || ''pà.'' "to ask" || ''làxt.'' "to want"
|}
* Aspect is a very diverse category, expressed by a variety of compounds and syntactic structures in Lemizh.

===Pronouns===
The two demonstrative pronouns are technically nominal verbs:
* ''tà.'' "to make this/that one", typically used with inner accusative: ''tỳ.'' "this/that (one)"
* ''gwà.'' "to make someone/anyone, something/anything", with inner accusative ''gwỳ.'' "someone/anyone, something/anything"

The eleven relative pronouns play a far more prominent role in Lemizh grammar. Their scope is much wider than the one usually associated with the term. As they are closely tied to Lemizh syntax, they are described [[#Relative pronouns|further down]].

==Syntax==
===Level of words===
There is only one more grammatical category: the level of words, which is the main building block of Lemizh syntax. A word can be of first level (the highest), of second level (the next highest), of third level (still one level lower) and so on; there is no limit for the number of levels, but non-positive word levels (zero, −1, etc.) are forbidden.

The first word in a sentence (the main predicate) is of first level by definition. The level of the next word is determined by the main predicate's accent and by the type of pause between the two words, the level of the third word is determined by the accent of the second and the pause between these two, and so on.

Here is the complete list of pause/accent combinations.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="2" | Following pause !! rowspan="2" | Accented vowel !! rowspan="2" | Type of accent !! rowspan="2" | The level of the next word is …
|-
! in speech !! in writing
|-
| rowspan="4" | barely audible || rowspan="4" | space || rowspan="2" | inner case || low || lower by 1
|-
| high || lower by 1, and [[w:Agent (grammar)|agentive]]* ({{sc|a}})
|-
| rowspan="2" | outer case || low || equal
|-
| high || higher by 1
|-
| rowspan="4" | a bit longer || rowspan="4" | comma ('''·''') || rowspan="2" | inner case || low || higher by 2
|-
| high || higher by 3
|-
| rowspan="2" | outer case || low || higher by 4
|-
| high || higher by 5
|-
| the longest || full stop ('''∶''') || inner case || low || none; end of sentence
|}
<nowiki>*</nowiki> The agent is the initiator of the action (more informally, the one who ''does'' the action).

===The Rules===
[[File:Lemizh parse tree.png|thumb|upright=1.5|A schematic sentence with the words represented by their level numbers]]
The word levels determine the structure of a sentence.

'''Rule One of sentence grammar. A word of level n is subordinate to the nearest word of level n−1 in front of it; the parole acts as a word of level zero.'''

All words of second level are subordinate to the main predicate (which has first level). A word of third level is subordinate to the next second-level word in front of it, and so on. In other words, Lemizh sentences are strictly [[w:Head directionality|head-first]]. The main predicate itself is subordinate to the [[w:Parole (linguistics)|parole]], the action of speaking (or writing) the sentence in question, which consequently has level zero.

'''Rule Two. An object of a word in a sentence is a word subordinate to the former, its predicate, plus all of its own objects.'''

In the diagram, the main predicate's three objects are enclosed in ellipses. Objects of the same word are called ''sibling objects'' or just ''siblings'', and the word they are subordinate to is their ''predicate''. Note that ''predicate'' and ''object'' are relative terms like ''parent'' and ''child''.

The table of level markers implies that only the first object of a predicate can be marked as agent. (This has been interpreted as Lemizh having VSO word order, although a subject is not quite the same as an agent, and Lemizh grammar strictly speaking does not have the concept of a subject.)

'''Rule Three. The outer case of the first word of an object defines its relation to its predicate's stem via its descriptor; the outer case of a level 1 word is zero.'''

This is what we would expect from a language that inflects for case: the nominative object defines the source (sender) of the action named by the stem of its predicate, the accusative object its content, the temporal object its time, etc.

'''Examples'''
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dá föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|give-FACT-1 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2A bottle-ACC-ACC-2 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2.
|''Father Christmas gives Lucy a bottle.''}}

The stems of the three objects are nominal verbs ("to make a bottle" etc.), hence the inner accusatives. The outer cases indicate the sender, content and recipient of the action of giving, respectively. The agent is specified independently of the plot arrow; note the difference:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dá lusyì dwywỳ föpysrỳfe.
|give-FACT-1 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2A bottle-ACC-ACC-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2.
|''Lucy takes a bottle from Father Christmas.''}}

We need not mark an object as agentive if we consider this information unimportant. The English translations are only rough approximations:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dà lusyì dwywỳ föpysrỳfe.
|give-FACT-1 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2 bottle-ACC-ACC-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2.
|''Lucy gets a bottle from Father Christmas. Lucy is given a bottle by Father Christmas.''}}

'''Rule Four. An instance of a word stem designates a specific action.'''

''dà'' in the above sentence does not just mean "to give", it refers to one specific action of giving. Such an action may involve several givers (as in "They give something") and need not even be temporally or spatially connected (as in "They are giving something every Christmas"). In other words, each spoken or written instance of the stem ''d–'' refers to a certain subset of all the giving there is.

This rule ensures that all the objects refer to the same action of giving as the predicate itself.

'''Rule Five. A case characterises the action it refers to completely with regard to its case descriptor.'''

For example, the nominative object "Father Christmas" has to name the complete sender of the above instance of giving. This excludes from this instance all giving not done by Father Christmas. So each object places a restriction on the action of giving the main predicate refers to. Thus, the subset of giving meant by this instance of ''dà.'' – what the sentence is ultimately talking about – is defined more and more precisely with each additional object. (The same is true not only of the main predicate but of all words in a sentence.)

'''Rule Six. A missing object is equivalent to the absence of information about its descriptor.'''

Above sentences do not have, for example, locative objects, so Rule Five cannot place a restriction on the place of giving. Because of Rule Six, this does not mean there are no restrictions on the location, but only that this kind of information has not been included in the sentence (for example, because the speaker does not know about it, considers it irrelevent, or assumes the listener already knows or – perhaps most importantly – can infer it.)

'''Rule Seven. Given an object and its predicate, the predicate is considered more real and the object more hypothetical.'''

…

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! as an object !! as a complete sentence
|-
| ''dà.'' || to give; giving || An action of giving exists = Someone gives something.
|-
| ''zdìls.'' || the consequence of sitting down = to sit; sitting || The consequence of sitting down exists = Someone sits.
|-
| ''dwìlw.'' || the consequence of making a bottle || The consequence of making a bottle exists = A bottle exists; there is a bottle.
|-
| ''sklè.'' || one building a bridge || One building a bridge exists = There is someone building a bridge.
|}

===Noun phrases===
Forming noun phrases does not require any new grammatical rules. In the following example, the inner case of "give" is changed to the nominative, yielding "one giving something, a giver", and everything is pushed down one level. The third-level words are still sender, content and recipient of the ''action'' of giving, as outer cases define relations to the predicate's ''stem'' per Rule Three.
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 3A:third level, agentive
|dmàt tryxkì dée föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|see-FACT-1 beaver-ACC-DAT-2 give-'''NOM'''-NOM-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-3A bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3.
|''The beaver sees '''the one giving Lucy a bottle, Father Christmas'''.''}}
Regarding the verb "see", note that the beaver is in the dative, being at the receiving end of the optical stimulus or information. Marking the beaver as agent would translate as "The beaver looks at the one …".

Rules Four and Five guarantee that the giver is identical to Father Christmas: both are the sender of the same instance of the stem ''d–'' "give" (the giver via its inner nominative, Father Christmas via its outer nominative), and both are the ''complete'' sender of this action. This type of construction, where an object's outer case matches its predicate's inner case, is called a '''bracket'''. Brackets are very widely used:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Apposition !! Attributive adjective !! Attributive pronoun/determiner !! Attributive numeral !! Attributive participle
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|iakopỳk saxèfy.
|Jacopo-'''ACC'''-1 trumpet-NOM-'''ACC'''-2.
|''Jacopo, a trumpeter''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=INS:instrumental case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|ghstù lỳbdhu.
|sail-'''INS'''-1 white-ACC-'''INS'''-2.
|''a sail, a white thing = a white sail''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|ỳksh gwỳy.
|ship-'''ACC'''-1 some-ACC-'''ACC'''-2.
|''a ship, something = some ship''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|mỳs trỳy.
|mouse-'''ACC'''-1 three-ACC-'''ACC'''-2.
|''mice, three individuals = three mice''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|nỳzd gangèy.
|bird-'''ACC'''-1 sing-NOM-'''ACC'''-2.
|''a bird, a singer = a singing bird''}}
|}
Such phrases can be easily extended. This example contains two accusative brackets ("a singing bird" and "a sad child"):
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 4:fourth level
|ngỳzd gangèy zhngỳi speghý ytfỳarh.
|bird-ACC-1 sing-NOM-ACC-2 child-ACC-DAT-3 sad-NOM-ACC-4 night-ACC-TEMP-3.
|''a bird singing to a sad child at night''}}

Adverbially used adjectives are phrased with factive brackets. However, changing the predicate's inner case leaves the object's outer factive intact, losing the bracket.
{|
|-
| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|gangà txỳska.
|sing-'''FACT'''-1 loud-ACC-'''FACT'''-2.
|''(an action of) singing, a loud thing = loud singing = singing loudly, to sing loudly''}}

| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|nỳzd gangèy txỳska.
|bird-ACC-1 sing-NOM-ACC-2 loud-ACC-'''FACT'''-3.
|''a bird, a loud singer = a bird singing loudly'' (The '''action''' of singing is a loud thing.)}}
|}

As [[w:Genitive construction|genitive constructions]] have a wide variety of meanings, there is no single Lemizh equivalent. The typical translation for constructions indicating possession is with the benefactive case, but other cases frequently occur. Everything depends on the object's relation to the predicate's stem per Rule Three.
{|
|-
| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|dwỳw lusỳü.
|bottle-ACC-1 Lucy-ACC-'''BEN'''-2.
|Lucy is the beneficiary of making the bottle. The bottle is made for Lucy. 
''Lucy's bottle''}}

| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dý ỳxe.
|give-ACC-1 male-ACC-'''NOM'''-2A.
|The man is the sender of giving. 
''the man's gift''}}

| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|rhỳst ytfỳarh filpskỳy.
|dream-ACC-1 night-ACC-'''TEMP'''-2 midsummer-ACC-ACC-3.
| The midsummer night is the time of dreaming. 
''A Midsummer Night's Dream''}}
|}

===Dependent clauses===
Non-finite and conjunctional clauses …
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive; 3:third level
|láxt föpysryfè dày dwywỳ lusỳi.
|want-FACT-1 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2A give-'''FACT'''-ACC-2 bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3.
|''Father Christmas wants '''to give Lucy a bottle'''.''}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 3A:third level, agentive
|dmàt tryxkì dáe föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|see-FACT-1 beaver-ACC-DAT-2 give-'''FACT'''-NOM-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-3A bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3.
|''The beaver sees [the action of] '''Father Christmas giving Lucy a bottle'''.''}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; AFF:affirmative case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 3A:third level, agentive
|dmàt tryxkì dále föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|see-FACT-1 beaver-ACC-DAT-2 give-'''AFF'''-NOM-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-3A bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3.
|''The beaver sees [the fact of] '''Father Christmas giving Lucy a bottle'''. The beaver sees '''that''' Father Christmas gives Lucy a bottle.''}}

…

Relative clauses are structurally identical to (extended) attributive participles as described above: ''a bird which sings to a sad child at night = a bird singing to a sad child at night''.

===Predicative===
…


===Relative pronouns===
Stems of relative pronouns (not to be confused with the pronouns of the same name in English or Latin) refer to actions by pointing to another stem or to a parole: they are [[w:Anaphora (linguistics)|anaphoric]]. Here is the full list:
{| class="wikitable"
! rowspan="2" | Level !! colspan="2" | Type I !! colspan="2" | Type II
|-
! Verb !! The target is the stem of !! Verb !! The target is the stem of
|-
| n || colspan="2" | (does not occur because it would refer to itself) || à. || its preceding same-level word
|-
| n−1 || wà. || its predicate || fà. || its predicate's preceding same-level word or parole
|-
| n−2 || dhà. || its predicate's predicate || thà. || its predicate's predicate's preceding same-level word or parole
|-
| n−3 || zà. || its predicate's predicate's predicate || sà. || …
|-
| n−4 || zhà. || … || shà. || …
|-
| n−5 || ghà. || … || xà. || …
|}
They are highly versatile, corresponding to various structures in other languages. Recall that a sentence's parole has level zero:
{| class="wikitable"
! Reflexive !! First person (singular) !! Second person
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|wáx wìe.
|speak-FACT-1 PIn−1-'''DAT'''-'''NOM'''-2A.
|The recipient of speaking is its sender. 
''to talk to oneself. He is talking to himself.''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dráw dhèe.
|dance-FACT-1 PIn−2-'''NOM'''-NOM-2A.
|The sender of the parole is the sender of dancing. 
''I am dancing.''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dráw dhìe.
|dance-FACT-1 PIn−2-'''DAT'''-NOM-2A.
|The recipient of the parole is the sender of dancing. 
''You are dancing.''}}
|}
Rule Four of sentence grammar ensures that the reflexive example means "He is talking to himself" as opposed to, say, "He is talking to one being talked to" (which would be ''wáx wìxe.'' speak-{{sc|fact}}-1 speak-{{sc|dat-nom}}-2{{sc|a}}, with two different instances of the stem "speak").

{| class="wikitable"
! Possessive determiner !! Vocative
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=CONS:consecutive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|zdìls ngỳzdy zeú tỳar.
|seat-CONS-1 bird-ACC-ACC-2 PIn−3-'''NOM'''-BEN-3 this-ACC-LOC-2.
|The sender of the parole is the beneficiary of making a bird.
 ''My bird is sitting there.''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=PI:pronoun type I; FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive; 3:third level
|wáx dheè zdhèzhi zìe.
|speak-FACT-1 PIn−2-NOM-NOM-2A friend-NOM-DAT-2 PIn−3-'''DAT'''-NOM-3.
|The recipient of the parole is the friend. (nominative bracket) 
''Friend, I am talking to you.''}}
|}

The type II pronoun in the following example points to the stem of eating. With the inner accusative, the pronoun refers to the content of eating, which is the sweet. (As with brackets, Rules Four and Five guarantee that the pronoun refers to the same content of the same action of eating as mentioned in the first sentence.)
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; PII:pronoun type II; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|ádh dheì mlỳdhy. ràsh fỳy.
|eat-FACT-1 PIn−2-NOM-DAT-2A sweet-ACC-ACC-2. like-FACT-1 PIIn−1-'''ACC'''-ACC-2.
|''I am eating a sweet. [I] like it.''}}

==Derivational morphology==
From a Lemizh point of view, ''dè.'' "giver" and ''dỳ.'' "gift" aren't derivatives of ''dà.'' "to give" but grammatical forms of the same word. The only piece of true derivational morphology is compounding.

===Compounds===
[[File:Lemizh compounding diagram.png|thumb|Forming a compound from a two-word sentence]]
'''Rule One of compounding. A compound word is constructed from a two-word sentence – predicate and object of which become modifier and head of the compound, respectively – in the following way:'''
# '''Prestem''':
## the object's prestem
## the object's inner case
## the object's poststem
## an optional separator
## the predicate's prestem
# '''Inner case'''
# '''Poststem''': the predicate's poststem
# '''Outer case'''
Note that the object's stem comes before the predicate's; and also that the object's outer case (and, less importantly, the predicate's inner case) is lost. The separator can be used, for example, if the word boundary would be unclear otherwise, or for placing the second part of the word on a new line.

…

'''Rule Two. In the relationship between the original predicate and object, the rules of sentence grammar are retained as far as applicable.'''

…

'''Rule Three. Regarding all outward relations, cases refer to the head.'''

…

==Example text==
[[File:Lemizh text sample.png|600px]]

====stedrỳzh thìrhfi xtrỳghy.====
krỳgh dghngireì prilxpilghkỳarh. mangỳ srungbỳng lyngghỳng yngshwỳng fỳü. zhöazhghngìl tmỳil. ghngàgzh smìa prỳal ghngyé dhàbdhy lunguỳ ùyl mỳu fplyxár tỳarh. dmát feì sxngengzè ishkènge. ghìlt krighmyngthxì xtrỳngghi swyshỳ ghỳxy fplyxòr zhöyzhỳm xngàrorm. dmìlt öngkrỳngty zhryỳ rèshy esfàsy sxngyzdmýi, usrỳngy xazhgèsty ghngỳeng, frekrỳngfy rilghdzhỳwby pthèby, dgheipysrỳngdy psrèby rhèzhem, dghistngỳngty ghỳxy zangỳa dghildhfmlýyrh, ngiftngyghtmỳngy krültlìy zùe gỳghda. xtrỳgh swyshý stedrỳzh thìrfi. dngilszhrìl bdhyrgzhyngỳng xüxtrỳngyng prilkỳarh ötìlil skmyngìlng ghỳngsilng. dngilszhìlwb ráxpy thìlfi. fö̀l gwiltngìlöl dmàty föpysryfỳ ngỳu.

rỳ zhryỳrh thìzgy gwiltngìly rhàghgy dmatngìe thìrfy. là xángska matngiè ytfỳyrh dmyý fplyxór dyxtngyngà mànga prilzhryngỳr iltỳngzhdyr. dmàt ytfỳarh ryý mìlngorh xngyì prilkyár mìlngorh xtrỳngghi kshrextý mengthxì prỳar zìe, fplỳngxe fywýr déngske xtryghè sxngezì xngỳnge.

====The Legend of the Seventh Planet====
A long time ago there was a tribe of nomads. They possessed neither writing nor houses nor horses. But they were truly human. They were curious; this means, above all, that they took interest in the useless, for the celestial objects were of no use to them yet. They looked at the Sun and the Moon. They had named the constellations and the six planets moving across the sky like the humans across the earth. They knew dim Mercury, who liked to hide in the glare of the Sun; Venus, the brightest of all; reddish and angry Mars; majestic father Jupiter; Saturn, who seemed to stand still for weeks; and even Uranus had been caught by their keen eyes. Six planets, and the legend of a seventh. Maybe it had been the minor planet Vesta, or a comet centuries or millennia earlier. Maybe it was the attraction of the number seven. For Neptune is invisible to the naked eye.

One youngster thought to himself that he could not live without seeing the seventh planet. He lay awake searching the sky for many nights, neglected his duties, and became thinner and thinner. And one night, lying with the Earth behind his back, and with the looping planets and the stars above him, he saw the depth of the sky and the planets circling the Sun, and among them the Earth.

==External links==
* [https://lemizh.conlang.org Lemizh homepage] with comprehensive coverage of the language, including a dictionary with etymologies, information on the language's pragmatics, and more background information
[[File:Copyleft1.png|20px]] ''This article includes material from the Lemizh homepage, which is available under a [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License].''


[[Category:Languages]]
[[Category:Conlangs]]
[[Category:Indo-European languages]]
[[Category:Fusional languages]]

Lemizh

2022-05-14T19:00:25Z

Anypodetos: Dependent clauses; formatting etc.

{{Infobox language
|image =
|imagesize =
|name = Lemizh
|nativename = lemỳzh.
|pronunciation = lɛmˈɯ̀ʒ
|state = Lemaria
|setting = Alt-history Europe
|created = 1985
|familycolor = Indo-European
|fam2 = Lemizh
|ancestor = Proto-Lemizh
|posteriori = [[w:Proto-Indo-European|Proto-Indo-European]]
|creator = [[User:Anypodetos|Anypodetos]]
|scripts = Lemizh alphabet
|nation = Lemaria
|map = Map of Lemaria.png
|notice = IPA
}}
'''Lemizh''' ([[Help:IPA|[lεmˈiʒ]]], native pronunciation: [[Help:IPA|[lɛmˈɯ̀ʒ]]]) is a language I invented with the aim of creating a grammar as regular and simple as possible. It was originally intended as an [[w:International auxiliary language|international auxiliary language]]. However, it turned out that a simple grammar is not necessarily a grammar that is easy to learn: the more ways of simplification I found, the further away it moved from [[w:Indo-European languages|Indo-European]] and probably all other familiar language structures. Expecting anyone to learn Lemizh, at this point, would be completely unrealistic.

So I needed a new justification for the language: enter the Lemizh, a people living to the west and north of the [[w:Black Sea|Black Sea]] in an alternate history that slowly drifted away from ours between two and eight millennia ago. Of course, it is extremely unlikely that they would speak a language that was completely without exceptions. To be precise, the chances are two to the power of two hundred and seventy-six thousand seven hundred and nine to one against. But they say that everything has to happen somewhere in the Multiverse. And everything happens only once.

{{TOC limit}}

==History==
===Early stages===
Lemizh is an Indo-European language and, together with Volgan, constitutes one of the ten recognised branches of the Indo-European language family. This branch is also called Lemizh, to the disgruntlement of Volgan linguists.

Proto-Lemizh, the ancestor of Lemizh and Volgan, is very poorly attested in form of some papyri found near the northwestern shore of the Black Sea, to the north of the [[w:Dniester Liman|Dniester Liman]], dated about 2700 BC. Old Lemizh, by contrast, is fairly well attested. It had predominantly [[w:Subject–verb–object|subject–verb–object]] (SVO) word order and was a quite typical old Indo-European language, but with a couple of interesting quirks:
* Adjectives were lost as a separate part of speech, being replaced with participles ("white" > "being white").
* Finite subordinate clauses had their subject in the case of the clause: the subject of a local clause was in the locative case without having a local meaning in itself.
The earliest known documents from this stage of Lemizh were probably written around 2100 BC along the northern and western shores of the Back Sea.

===Ghean and Middle Lemizh===
Ghean ([[Help:IPA|[ˈɣɛən]]]) is a language with no known genetic relationships. It was spoken by a people of unknown origin, who subdued the Lemizh tribes in around 1000 BC and ruled for infamous three generations. Ghean was an inflected [[w:Tonal language|register tonal]] language with strict [[w:Verb–subject–object|verb–subject–object]] (VSO) word order and head-first phrases. It had verbs, [[w:Nominal (linguistics)|nominals]] (a combined noun/adjective/participle part of speech), pronouns and particles.

The Gheans discouraged the use of the natives' language, but obviously tolerated Lemizh words (or rather word stems) to stand in for unfamiliar Ghean ones. The grammar of simple sentences was easy enough to learn for the Lemizh, as they were used to inflection and head-first phrases, and likely still knew VSO sentences from poetry. After two or three generations, the natives must have spoken a [[w:Creole language|creole]] with a more or less Ghean grammar but an abundance of Lemizh words, especially outside the core vocabulary. This is a quite unusual development as most creoles draw their lexicon mainly from the dominant group, and tend to be grammatically more innovative. (The Tanzanian language [[w:Mbugu language|Mbugu]] might have had a somewhat similar development with more or less analogous outcomes.) After the disappearance of the Gheans, Lemizh patriots tried to revive their old language, which failed spectacularly for the grammar but reintroduced many Lemizh words of the core vocabulary.

===The last three millennia===
While Middle Lemizh as spoken after the Ghean occupation already had a non-Indo-European and unusually regular grammar, this trend was to continue over the following millennia. The factive case was innovated to express verbal nouns, which eventually supplanted verbs altogether. (At least part of the blame goes to the Tlöngö̀l, an epic novel published in 1351, which popularised the use of verbal nouns.) The tonal system was simplified to the present two-way [[w:Pitch-accent language|pitch-accent]] system. Pronouns lost their status as a separate part of speech. The last particles died out a few hundred years ago, leaving the language with a single part of speech which is often called a "verb" but, historically speaking, is really a nominal. This means that the concept of ''parts of speech'' does not make sense in Modern Lemizh.

==Orthography and phonology==
The alphabet is [[w:Phonetic orthography|phonetic]]: each letter corresponds to a certain sound, and each sound is represented by a single letter. The direction of writing is left to right. This article uses the standard transcription of the native Lemizh alphabet as given in the following table:
{| class="wikitable" style="width: 800px; table-layout: fixed; text-align: center"
! colspan="29" | Letters of the Lemizh alphabet
|-
| colspan="29" style="padding: 0" | [[File:Lemizh alphabet.png|796px]]
|-
| a || e || y || i || o || ö || u || ü || l || rh || r || ng || m || g || d || b || k || t || p || gh || zh || z || dh || w || x || sh || s || th || f
|}

===Consonants===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="2" | !! bilabial !! dental !! alveolar !! postalveolar !! velar
|-
! colspan="2" | nasals
| m <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial nasal|m]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || || || ng <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar nasal|ŋ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! colspan="2" | plosives (voiceless • voiced)
| p <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless bilabial plosive|p]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • b <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial plosive|b]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || t <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless alveolar plosive|t]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • d <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar plosive|d]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || k <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless velar plosive|k]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • g <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar plosive|g]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! colspan="2" | fricatives (voiceless • voiced)
| f <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless bilabial fricative|ɸ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • w <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial fricative|β]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || th <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless dental fricative|θ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • dh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced dental fricative|ð]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || s <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless alveolar sibilant|s]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • z <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar sibilant|z]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || sh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless palato-alveolar fricative|ʃ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • zh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced palato-alveolar fricative|ʒ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || x <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless velar fricative|x]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • gh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar fricative|ɣ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! rowspan="3" | liquids || lateral approximant
| || || l <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar lateral approximant|l]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|-
! approximant
| || || rh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar approximant|ɹ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|-
! trill
| || || r <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar trill|r]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|}
The plosive-fricative combinations ''pf, ts, tsh, kx'' and their voiced couterparts only occur at word boundaries and in compound words. They are not pronounced as affricates but as separate sounds. The same applies for other combinations of a plosive plus another consonant (''pm, tl'' etc.), as well as for two identical plosives (''kk'' etc.): the release of the first plosive is always audible.

===Vowels===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! rowspan="2" | !! colspan="2" | front !! colspan="2" | back
|-
! unrounded !! rounded !! unrounded !! rounded
|-
! close
| i <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close front unrounded vowel|i]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ü <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close front rounded vowel|y]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || y <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close back unrounded vowel|ɯ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || u <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close back rounded vowel|u]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! open-mid
| e <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid front unrounded vowel|ɛ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ö <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid front rounded vowel|œ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || a <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid back unrounded vowel|ʌ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || o <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid back rounded vowel|ɔ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|}
Two consecutive different vowels are pronounced as a diphthong; two consecutive identical vowels as a long one. Single vowels are always short.

Lemizh uses [[w:Mora (linguistics)|moræ]] for structuring words: a short syllable equals one mora, and a long syllable equals two. In Lemizh, every vowel is the centre of a mora; consequently, two consecutive vowels result in two moræ or one long syllable.

===Accent===
Lemizh has got a two-way pitch-accent system, in that accented moræ are not only spoken louder (as in English), but also have either a lower or a higher pitch than the surrounding unaccented ones. The accented mora is always the ultimate or penultimate of a word. The vowel at the centre of a low-pitch accented mora is transcribed with a grave accent, the vowel at the centre of a high-pitch accented mora with an acute accent.
{| class="wikitable" style="width: 220px; table-layout: fixed; text-align: center"
! colspan="8" | Accented vowel letters
|-
| colspan="8" style="padding: 0" | [[File:Lemizh accented vowels.png|216px]]
|-
| à || è || ỳ || ì || ò || ö̀ || ù || ǜ
|-
| á || é || ý || í || ó || ö́ || ú || ǘ
|}

===Phonotactics===
[[w:Phonotactics|Phonotactics]] is rather permissive in Lemizh. A mora has the following structure, where the bracketed parts are optional:
* (O)(N)(L)V(L)(N)(O)
V is the mora's vowel, L a liquid, N a nasal, and O an obstruent that can be either a P(losive), a F(ricative), FP, PF, FF, FFP, FPF, or PFF. Word-initial consonant clusters cannot contain more than three sounds. No geminate consonants (<abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''ff'' etc.) occur within a mora. Consecutive plosive-fricative or fricative-plosive combinations within the same mora must have the same sonority – either both are voiced, or both are voiceless. A plosive cannot have the same place of articulation as a following consonant with the exception of ''rh'' and ''r''. <abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''dzh'', <abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''ddh'' and their voiceless counterparts are also prohibited within a mora.

Word boundaries, including those within compound words, are always mora boundaries. Where mora boundaries would still be ambiguous, liquids and nasals are assigned to the earliest possible mora (as the ''m'' in ''lem·ỳzh.''), and obstruents to the latest possible mora.

==Morphology==
All words are composed of the following parts:
* Prestem + inner case + poststem + outer case
Prestem and poststem form the stem, or the lexical part, of the word. The division of the stem into two portions is similar to English verbs such as ''sing/sang/sung'', where the lexical part is ''s–ng'' while the vowels ''i/a/u'' convey grammatical information. The stem always denotes an action (but never a state, a person, a thing, a property, etc.) and thus resembles our verbs. The prestem can contain any sounds, or it can be zero (i.e. consisting of zero sounds). The poststem can only contain fricatives and plosives, or it can be zero as well.

The inner case is represented by one of the eight vowels, optionally followed by a liquid (the primary case suffix) and/or a nasal (the secondary case suffix). The outer case has the same structure. For the first word in each sentence, the main predicate, the outer case is missing.

Each case is defined by its ''descriptor'': for example, the factive case denotes an ''action'', the nominative a ''sender'', the locative a ''place''. The stem and the inner case's descriptor determine a word's meaning.

'''Examples'''
* ''wàx. w–x'' is the stem for "speak", ''-a-'' denotes the inner factive, so this word means "an action of speaking", translated as the verb "to speak" or the [[w:Verbal noun|verbal noun]] "speaking".
* ''wèx. -e-'' denotes the inner nominative, so this word means "a sender of speaking" or "a speaker".
* ''àrdh. ∅–dh'' (having a zero prestem) is the stem for "eat", ''-ar-'' denotes the inner locative: "a place of eating".
{| class="wikitable"
|+ Primary cases and their descriptors
|-
! rowspan="3" | № !! rowspan="3" | Case vowel !! colspan="4" | Primary case suffix
|-
| none || l || rh || r
|-
! Plot cases !! Causal cases !! Temporal cases !! Spatial cases
|-
| 1 || a || factive ({{sc|fact}}): ''action'' || affirmative ({{sc|aff}}): ''fact (point in causal chain)'' || temporal ({{sc|temp}}): ''time'' || locative ({{sc|loc}}): ''place/region''
|-
| 2 || e || nominative ({{sc|nom}}): ''source, sender'' || causative ({{sc|caus}}): ''direct cause'' || ingressive ({{sc|ing}}): ''starting time'' || elative ({{sc|ela}}): ''starting point/region''
|-
| 3 || y || accusative ({{sc|acc}}): ''content'' || contextual ({{sc|ctx}}): ''causal context'' || durative ({{sc|dur}}): ''duration'' || extensive ({{sc|ext}}): ''spatial extent''
|-
| 4 || i || dative ({{sc|dat}}): ''sink, recipient'' || consecutive ({{sc|cons}}): ''direct consequence, effect'' || egressive ({{sc|egr}}): ''closing time'' || illative ({{sc|ill}}): ''end point / ending region''
|-
| 5 || o || tentive ({{sc|ten}}): ''intention'' || intentive ({{sc|int}}): ''intention (intended point in causal chain)'' || episodic ({{sc|eps}}): ''episode, "act"'' || scenic ({{sc|sce}}): ''scene, "stage"''
|-
| 6 || ö || comitative ({{sc|com}}): ''company'' || persuasive ({{sc|psu}}): ''reason'' || digressive ({{sc|dig}}): ''time away from which'' || ablative ({{sc|abl}}): ''place/region away from which''
|-
| 7 || u || instrumental ({{sc|ins}}): ''means, tool'' || motivational ({{sc|mot}}): ''motivational context'' || progressive ({{sc|prog}}): ''time that is passed'' || prolative ({{sc|prol}}): ''crossing point/region''
|-
| 8 || ü || benefactive ({{sc|ben}}): ''beneficiary'' || final ({{sc|fin}}): ''purpose, aim'' || aggressive ({{sc|agg}}): ''time towards which, temporal aim'' || allative ({{sc|all}}): ''place/region towards which, spatial aim''
|}
Each primary case has two corresponding secondary cases:
* a partitive case formed by adding ''ng'' (such as ''-ing-'' for the partitive dative or ''-erng-'' for the partitive elative) with the descriptor ''the set from which the source (sink, place, etc.) is thought to be taken''
* a qualitative case formed by adding ''m'', with the descriptor ''the basis of comparison for the source (sink, place, etc.)''

===The flow of the plot===
Every action denoted by a stem is considered a flow of information that comes from a source (sender), transports a content, and reaches a sink (a recipient). The terms "sender" and "recipient" may be more familiar, but "source" and "sink" are more accurate in not necessarily meaning living beings.

Consequently, a Lemizh action looks somewhat like this: '''nominative  accusative[[File:DreieckYellowMIDDLE.png|26px|link=]] dative'''

This is called the action's plot. Here are some examples:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative
|-
| ''wàx.'' "to speak, to tell; (an action of) speaking" || ''wèx.'' "one telling something" || ''wỳx.'' "a tale" || ''wìx.'' "one who is told something"
|-
| ''dà.'' "to give; (an action of) giving" || ''dè.'' "one giving something" || ''dỳ.'' "a gift" || ''dì.'' "one who is given something; one who gets something"
|-
| ''làzhw.'' "to help" || ''lèzhw.'' "one helping" || ''lỳzhw.'' "help (given)" || ''lìzhw.'' "one whom is helped"
|-
| ''mlàtx.'' "to melt" || ''mlètx.'' "one melting something" || [''mlỳtx.''] || ''mlìtx.'' "a melted thing"
|-
| ''xöàgh.'' "to produce a sound; to hear" || ''xöègh.'' "one producing a sound" || ''xöỳgh.'' "a sound" || ''xöìgh.'' "one hearing something"
|-
| ''àdh.'' "to feed; to eat" || ''èdh.'' "one feeding someone" || ''ỳdh.'' "food" || ''ìdh.'' "one being fed; one eating"
|-
| ''ià.'' "to love" || ''iè.'' "one loving someone, a lover" || ''iỳ.'' "a beloved" || ''iì.'' "a beloved"
|}
Importantly, there are no rules for which cases to use with which words. Both ''iỳ.'' ({{sc|acc}}) and ''iì.'' ({{sc|dat}}) mean "a beloved". The former describes the beloved as the content of love, the one being lovingly thought of, while the latter implies that the love reaches them, like words or gifts reach their recipient. Likewise, the reason why ''mlỳtx.'' is not translated in the table above isn't that "''melt'' does not take the accusative", as grammars of other languages would say, but that "a content of melting" does not seem to have any obvious meaning. If someone wanted to describe, say, sun rays as content transported from the sun to the snow to melt it, they could well use ''mlỳtx.'' to express the concept.

Case usage is governed solely by the cases' descriptors; it is up to the speaker how to use them given some word's meaning and some context. If the wind opens a door, is it the source of the action of opening (''ngèt.''), the means of opening (''ngùt.''), or the cause (''ngèlt.'')? All are grammatically correct; the speaker decides which possibility best expresses their intention.

===Nouns===
:''Nouns, adjectives and verbs do not correspond to any concepts in Lemizh grammar. Using these terms is just an attempt to describe the grammar from an Indo-European viewpoint.''
A large number of nouns are not derived from verbs in most languages: ''froth, ship, lion'' and many others. In Lemizh, however, we have verbs such as ''psràxk.'' "to froth", ''àksh.'' "to build a ship or ships", and ''làw.'' "to make a lion or lions". We will call these ''nominal verbs''.

Looking at the verb ''àksh.'', the shipwright ({{sc|nom}}) gives the building materials ({{sc|dat}}) the properties or the function of a ship ({{sc|acc}}). He confers, well, shipness on the materials. The shipness is sent by the shipwright, not because he is acting, but because he is the source: the image of the ship, so to say, comes from his head and materialises in wood, iron, ropes, and linen. In short, these words mostly appear with inner accusative.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative
|-
| ''psràxk.'' "to froth" || ''psrèxk.'' "one frothing something" || ''psrỳxk.'' "a thing having the properties of froth = '''froth'''" || ''psrìxk.'' "a frothed thing, a frothed liquid"
|-
| ''àksh.'' "to build a ship" || ''èksh.'' "one building a ship, a shipwright" || ''ỳksh.'' "a thing having the properties of a ship = '''a ship'''" || ''ìksh.'' "building materials for a ship, materials made into a ship"
|-
| ''làw.'' "to make a lion" || [''lèw.'' "one making a lion"] || ''lỳw.'' "a thing having the properties of a lion = '''a lion'''" || [''lìw.'' "building materials for a lion, materials made into a lion"]
|}

Another very common kind of nouns are tool nouns, formed with an inner instrumental case:
* ''ghstù.'' "a sail" is derived from ''ghstà.'' "to sail", literally "a means of sailing",
* ''pslù.'' "scissors" from ''pslà.'' "to cut with scissors",
* ''saxùf.'' "trumpet" from ''saxàf.'' "to play the trumpet",
* ''skrùzh.'' "a finger" from ''skràzh.'' "to work with one's fingers".

====Inflection====
As mentioned above, all words can inflect for (outer) case. Thus, we have the nominative forms ''wàx'''e''''' "(an action of) speaking, (an action of) telling", ''dè'''e''''' "a giver", ''lỳw'''e''''' "a lion", the causative ''lỳw'''el''''' "because of a lion", the elative ''lỳw'''er''''' "(starting) from a lion", etc.

Lemizh words do not inflect for number or gender. If desired, we can express this information by forming compounds. (Note the duplication of the inner case vowel; the first occurrence in each word is called the epenthetic case of the compound. The underlying grammar will be described later.)
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Singular !! Dual !! Plural !! Feminine !! Masculine !! Feminine singular !! etc.
|-
! giver
| ''dè.'' || ''de'''rè'''.'' || ''de'''dwè'''.'' || ''de'''mlè'''.'' || ''de'''bè'''.'' || ''de'''èx'''.'' || ''de'''berè'''.''
|-
! lion
| ''lỳw.'' || ''lyw'''rỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''dwỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''mlỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''bỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''ỳx'''.'' || ''lyw'''byrỳ'''.''
|-
! compound with
| — || ''rỳ.'' "one" || ''dwỳ.'' "two" || ''mlỳ.'' "several" || ''bỳ.'' "female; woman" || ''ỳx.'' "male; man" || "female" and "one"
|}

===Adjectives and numerals===
There is no difference between adjectival and nominal verbs: they mostly appear with inner accusative. This is the same situation as in, say, Latin, where ''albus'' can mean "a white one" as well as "white". Numerals are basically a sub-category of adjectives.

The inner consecutive case translates certain abstract nouns.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative !! Inner consecutive
|-
| ''gmrà.'' "to heat, to make something warm" || ''gmrè.'' "one heating something up" || ''gmrỳ.'' "a warm thing; '''warm'''" || ''gmrì.'' "a thing heated up; heated, warmed" || ''gmrìl.'' "the consequence of heating = heat"
|-
| ''làbdh.'' "to whiten something, to make something white" || ''lèbdh.'' "one whitening something" || ''lỳbdh.'' "a white thing; '''white'''" || ''lìbdh.'' "a thing made white; whitened" || ''lìlbdh.'' "the consequence of whitening = whiteness"
|-
| ''dwà.'' "to make two things/individuals" || ''dwè.'' "one making two things" || ''dwỳ.'' "'''two''' (things)" || ''dwì.'' "something made into two (things)" || ''dwìl.'' "the consequence of making two things = twoness"
|}

However, emotions aren't viewed as properties in Lemizh: a happy or angry person is one sending happiness or anger, just as a loving person is one sending love. The inner causative plays a notable role with verbs of emotion.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative !! Inner causative
|-
| ''pthàb.'' "to be angry" || ''pthèb.'' "an angry one; '''angry'''" || ''pthỳb.'' "the content/object of one's anger" || ''pthìb.'' "one that one's anger reaches" || ''pthèlb.'' "one causing someone anger; one annoying someone"
|}

====Inflection====
Of course, adjectives can be compounded to express number and/or gender in the same way as nouns. Furthermore, we can form compounds expressing various degrees. (The epenthetic consecutive ''-il-'' in these compounds will also be explained later; it is actually the main application of the abstract nouns just mentioned.)
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Diminutive !! Augmentative !! Absolute !! Comparative !! Superlative
|-
! warm
| ''gmrỳ.'' || ''gmril'''zhrỳ'''.'' "lukewarm" || ''gmril'''dmỳ'''.'' "hot" || ''gmril'''ghngỳ'''.'' "absolutely hot" || ''gmril'''tỳzhd'''.'' "warmer, hotter" || ''gmril'''ỳst'''.'' "hottest"
|-
! white
| ''lỳbdh.'' || ''lilbdh'''zhrỳ'''.'' "whitish" || ''lilbdh'''dmỳ'''.'' "very white" || ''lilbdh'''ghngỳ'''.'' "absolutely/completely white" || ''lilbdh'''tỳzhd'''.'' "whiter" || ''lilbdh'''ỳst'''.'' "whitest"
|-
! compound with
| — || ''zhrỳ.'' "few, little, a bit" || ''dmỳ.'' "much, many" || ''ghngỳ.'' "every, all, the whole" || ''tỳzhd.'' "more" || ''ỳst.'' "most"
|}

===Verbs===
Most verbs correspond to Lemizh words with an inner factive. However, as Lemizh stems always denote an action, the notable exception are stative verbs such as:
* ''zdìls.'' "to sit", literally "the consequence of sitting down (''zdàs.'')"
* ''gwìlt.'' "to know", literally "the consequence of learning (''gwàt.'')"

====Inflection====
* Person is not expressed with inflection but with [[#Relative pronouns|pronouns]].
* Number is conveyed by compounding pronouns with numerals. While verbs (i.e. words with an inner factive) can be compounded with numerals, ''ftrask'''mlà'''.'' does not mean "we/they sneeze" but "(there are) several acts of sneezing" (i.e. someone sneezes several times and/or several people sneeze).
* Voice (active/passive) is absent in Lemizh; word order serves a similar function.
* Tense is expressed by compounds with an epenthetic temporal case (''-arh-''), or with certain inner cases. The latter option is preferred if possible, as it is more concise.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Present !! Past !! Perfect !! Future !! Intentional
|-
! to sit down
| ''zdàs.'' || ''zdarhs'''wà'''.'' || ''zdarhs'''prilkà'''.'' || ''zd'''ìl'''s.'' ({{sc|cons}}) || ''zdarhs'''prà'''.'' || ''zd'''ò'''s.'' ({{sc|ten}})
|-
! compound with
| — || pronoun || ''prilkỳ.'' "back" || — || ''prỳ.'' "front" || —
|}
Note that the translation of the perfect with inner consecutive coincides with the translation of stative verbs: "having sat down" in the strict perfect sense of "the consequence/effect of this action exists" means the same as "to sit". Likewise, "whiteness" can be expressed as the abstract concept of "having whitened something".

* Mood corresponds to compounds with certain verbs for the most part. There is no equivalent to the subjunctive mood, as subordinate clauses are irreal (i.e. not necessarily real) by default. Here are some common formations:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Indicative !! Imperative !! Commanding imperative !! Interrogative Polite imperative !! Optative
|-
! to feed, to eat
| ''àdh.'' || ''adh'''pràk'''.'' || ''adh'''dàxt'''.'' || ''adh'''pà'''.'' || ''adh'''làxt'''.''
|-
! compound with
| — || ''pràk.'' "to request" || ''dàxt.'' "to command" || ''pà.'' "to ask" || ''làxt.'' "to want"
|}
* Aspect is a very heterogeneous category, expressed by a variety of compounds and syntactic structures in Lemizh.

===Pronouns===
The two demonstrative pronouns are technically nominal verbs:
* ''tà.'' "to make this/that one", typically used with inner accusative: ''tỳ.'' "this/that (one)"
* ''gwà.'' "to make someone/anyone, something/anything", with inner accusative ''gwỳ.'' "someone/anyone, something/anything"

The eleven relative pronouns play a far more prominent role in Lemizh grammar. Their scope is much wider than the one usually associated with the term. As they are closely tied to Lemizh syntax, they will be described further down.

==Syntax==
===Level of words===
There is only one more grammatical category: the level of words, which is the main building block of Lemizh syntax. A word can be of first level (the highest), of second level (the next highest), of third level (still one level lower) and so on; there is no limit for the number of levels, but non-positive word levels (zero, −1, etc.) are forbidden.

The first word in a sentence (the main predicate) is of first level by definition. The level of the next word is determined by the main predicate's accent and by the type of pause between the two words, the level of the third word is determined by the accent of the second and the pause between these two, and so on.

Here is the complete list of pause/accent combinations.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="2" | Following pause !! rowspan="2" | Accented vowel !! rowspan="2" | Type of accent !! rowspan="2" | The level of the next word is …
|-
! in speech !! in writing
|-
| rowspan="4" | barely audible || rowspan="4" | space || rowspan="2" | inner case || low || lower by 1
|-
| high || lower by 1, and [[w:Agent (grammar)|agentive]]* ({{sc|a}})
|-
| rowspan="2" | outer case || low || equal
|-
| high || higher by 1
|-
| rowspan="4" | a bit longer || rowspan="4" | comma ('''·''') || rowspan="2" | inner case || low || higher by 2
|-
| high || higher by 3
|-
| rowspan="2" | outer case || low || higher by 4
|-
| high || higher by 5
|-
| the longest || full stop ('''∶''') || inner case || low || none; end of sentence
|}
<nowiki>*</nowiki> The agent is the initiator of the action (more informally, the one who ''does'' the action).

===The Rules===
[[File:Lemizh parse tree.png|thumb|upright=1.5|A schematic sentence with the words represented by their level numbers]]
The word levels determine the structure of a sentence.

'''Rule One of sentence grammar. A word of level n is subordinate to the nearest word of level n−1 in front of it; the parole acts as a word of level zero.'''

All words of second level are subordinate to the main predicate (which has first level). A word of third level is subordinate to the next second-level word in front of it, and so on. In other words, Lemizh sentences are strictly [[w:Head directionality|head-first]]. The main predicate itself is subordinate to the [[w:Parole (linguistics)|parole]], the action of speaking (or writing) the sentence in question, which consequently has level zero.

'''Rule Two. An object of a word in a sentence is a word subordinate to the former, its predicate, plus all of its own objects.'''

In the diagram, the main predicate's three objects are enclosed in ellipses. Objects of the same word are called ''sibling objects'' or just ''siblings'', and the word they are subordinate to is their ''predicate''. Note that ''predicate'' and ''object'' are relative terms like ''parent'' and ''child''.

The table of level markers implies that only the first object of a predicate can be marked as agent. (This has been interpreted as Lemizh having VSO word order, although a subject is not quite the same as an agent, and Lemizh grammar strictly speaking does not have the concept of a subject.)

'''Rule Three. The outer case of the first word of an object defines its relation to its predicate's stem via its descriptor; the outer case of a level 1 word is zero.'''

This is what we would expect from a language that inflects for case: the nominative object defines the source (sender) of the action named by the stem of its predicate, the accusative object its content, the temporal object its time, etc.

'''Examples'''
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dá föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|give-FACT-1 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2A bottle-ACC-ACC-2 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2.
|''Father Christmas gives Lucy a bottle.''}}

The stems of the three objects are nominal verbs ("to make a bottle" etc.), hence the inner accusatives. The outer cases indicate the sender, content and recipient of the action of giving, respectively. The agent is specified independently of the plot arrow; note the difference:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dá lusyì dwywỳ föpysrỳfe.
|give-FACT-1 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2A bottle-ACC-ACC-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2.
|''Lucy takes a bottle from Father Christmas.''}}

We need not mark an object as agentive if we consider this information unimportant. The English translations are only rough approximations:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dà lusyì dwywỳ föpysrỳfe.
|give-FACT-1 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2 bottle-ACC-ACC-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2.
|''Lucy gets a bottle from Father Christmas. Lucy is given a bottle by Father Christmas.''}}

'''Rule Four. An instance of a word stem designates a specific action.'''

''dà'' in the above sentence does not just mean "to give", it refers to one specific action of giving. Such an action may involve several givers (as in "They give something") and need not even be temporally or spatially connected (as in "They are giving something every Christmas"). In other words, each spoken or written instance of the stem ''d–'' refers to a certain subset of all the giving there is.

This rule ensures that all the objects refer to the same action of giving as the predicate itself.

'''Rule Five. A case characterises the action it refers to completely with regard to its case descriptor.'''

For example, the nominative object "Father Christmas" has to name the complete sender of the above instance of giving. This excludes from this instance all giving not done by Father Christmas. So each object places a restriction on the action of giving the main predicate refers to. Thus, the subset of giving meant by this instance of ''dà.'' – what the sentence is ultimately talking about – is defined more and more precisely with each additional object. (The same is true not only of the main predicate but of all words in a sentence.)

'''Rule Six. A missing object is equivalent to the absence of information about its descriptor.'''

Above sentences do not have, for example, locative objects, so Rule Five cannot place a restriction on the place of giving. Because of Rule Six, this does not mean there are no restrictions on the location, but only that this kind of information has not been included in the sentence (for example, because the speaker does not know about it, considers it irrelevent, or assumes the listener already knows or – perhaps most importantly – can infer it.)

'''Rule Seven. Given an object and its predicate, the predicate is considered more real and the object more hypothetical.'''

…

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! as an object !! as a complete sentence
|-
| ''dà.'' || to give; giving || An action of giving exists = Someone gives something.
|-
| ''zdìls.'' || the consequence of sitting down = to sit; sitting || The consequence of sitting down exists = Someone sits.
|-
| ''dwìlw.'' || the consequence of making a bottle || The consequence of making a bottle exists = A bottle exists; there is a bottle.
|-
| ''sklè.'' || one building a bridge || One building a bridge exists = There is someone building a bridge.
|}

===Noun phrases===
Forming noun phrases does not require any new grammatical rules. In the following example, the inner case of "give" is changed to the nominative, yielding "one giving something, a giver", and everything is pushed down one level. The third-level words are still sender, content and recipient of the ''action'' of giving, as outer cases define relations to the predicate's ''stem'' per Rule Three.
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 3A:third level, agentive
|dmàt tryxkì dée föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|see-FACT-1 beaver-ACC-DAT-2 give-'''NOM'''-NOM-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-3A bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3.
|''The beaver sees '''the one giving Lucy a bottle, Father Christmas'''.''}}
Regarding the verb "see", note that the beaver is in the dative, being at the receiving end of the optical stimulus or information. Marking the beaver as agent would translate as "The beaver looks at the one …".

Rules Four and Five guarantee that the giver is identical to Father Christmas: both are the sender of the same instance of the stem ''d–'' "give" (the giver via its inner nominative, Father Christmas via its outer nominative), and both are the ''complete'' sender of this action. This type of construction, where an object's outer case matches its predicate's inner case, is called a '''bracket'''. Brackets are very widely used:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Apposition !! Attributive adjective !! Attributive pronoun/determiner !! Attributive numeral !! Attributive participle
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|iakopỳk saxèfy.
|Jacopo-'''ACC'''-1 trumpet-NOM-'''ACC'''-2.
|''Jacopo, a trumpeter''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=INS:instrumental case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|ghstù lỳbdhu.
|sail-'''INS'''-1 white-ACC-'''INS'''-2.
|''a sail, a white thing = a white sail''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|ỳksh gwỳy.
|ship-'''ACC'''-1 some-ACC-'''ACC'''-2.
|''a ship, something = some ship''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|mỳs trỳy.
|mouse-'''ACC'''-1 three-ACC-'''ACC'''-2.
|''mice, three individuals = three mice''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|nỳzd gangèy.
|bird-'''ACC'''-1 sing-NOM-'''ACC'''-2.
|''a bird, a singer = a singing bird''}}
|}
Such phrases can be easily extended. This example contains two accusative brackets ("a singing bird" and "a sad child"):
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 4:fourth level
|ngỳzd gangèy zhngỳi speghý ytfỳarh.
|bird-ACC-1 sing-NOM-ACC-2 child-ACC-DAT-3 sad-NOM-ACC-4 night-ACC-TEMP-3.
|''a bird singing to a sad child at night''}}

Adverbially used adjectives are phrased with factive brackets. However, changing the predicate's inner case leaves the object's outer factive intact, losing the bracket.
{|
|-
| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|gangà txỳska.
|sing-'''FACT'''-1 loud-ACC-'''FACT'''-2.
|''(an action of) singing, a loud thing = loud singing = singing loudly, to sing loudly''}}

| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|nỳzd gangèy txỳska.
|bird-ACC-1 sing-NOM-ACC-2 loud-ACC-'''FACT'''-3.
|''a bird, a loud singer = a bird singing loudly'' (The '''action''' of singing is a loud thing.)}}
|}

As [[w:Genitive construction|genitive constructions]] have a wide variety of meanings, there is no single Lemizh equivalent. The typical translation for constructions indicating possession is with the benefactive case, but other cases frequently occur. Everything depends on the object's relation to the predicate's stem per Rule Three.
{|
|-
| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|dwỳw lusỳü.
|bottle-ACC-1 Lucy-ACC-'''BEN'''-2.
|Lucy is the beneficiary of making the bottle. The bottle is made for Lucy. 
''Lucy's bottle''}}

| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dý ỳxe.
|give-ACC-1 male-ACC-'''NOM'''-2A.
|The man is the sender of giving. 
''the man's gift''}}

| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|rhỳst ytfỳarh filpskỳy.
|dream-ACC-1 night-ACC-'''TEMP'''-2 midsummer-ACC-ACC-3.
| The midsummer night is the time of dreaming. 
''A Midsummer Night's Dream''}}
|}

===Dependent clauses===
Non-finite and conjunctional clauses …
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive; 3:third level
|láxt föpysryfè dày dwywỳ lusỳi.
|want-FACT-1 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2A give-'''FACT'''-ACC-2 bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3.
|''Father Christmas wants '''to give Lucy a bottle'''.''}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 3A:third level, agentive
|dmàt tryxkì dáe föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|see-FACT-1 beaver-ACC-DAT-2 give-'''FACT'''-NOM-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-3A bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3.
|''The beaver sees [the action of] '''Father Christmas giving Lucy a bottle'''.''}}

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; AFF:affirmative case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 3A:third level, agentive
|dmàt tryxkì dále föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|see-FACT-1 beaver-ACC-DAT-2 give-'''AFF'''-NOM-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-3A bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3.
|''The beaver sees [the fact of] '''Father Christmas giving Lucy a bottle'''. The beaver sees '''that''' Father Christmas gives Lucy a bottle.''}}

…

Relative clauses are structurally identical to (extended) attributive participles as described above: ''a bird which sings to a sad child at night = a bird singing to a sad child at night''.

===Predicative===
…


===Relative pronouns===
Stems of relative pronouns (not to be confused with the pronouns of the same name in English or Latin) refer to actions by pointing to another stem or to a parole: they are [[w:Anaphora (linguistics)|anaphoric]]. Here is the full list:
{| class="wikitable"
! rowspan="2" | Level !! colspan="2" | Type I !! colspan="2" | Type II
|-
! Verb !! The target is the stem of !! Verb !! The target is the stem of
|-
| n || colspan="2" | (does not occur because it would refer to itself) || à. || its preceding same-level word
|-
| n−1 || wà. || its predicate || fà. || its predicate's preceding same-level word or parole
|-
| n−2 || dhà. || its predicate's predicate || thà. || its predicate's predicate's preceding same-level word or parole
|-
| n−3 || zà. || its predicate's predicate's predicate || sà. || …
|-
| n−4 || zhà. || … || shà. || …
|-
| n−5 || ghà. || … || xà. || …
|}
They are highly versatile, corresponding to various structures in other languages. Recall that a sentence's parole has level zero:
{| class="wikitable"
! Reflexive !! First person (singular) !! Second person
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|wáx wìe.
|speak-FACT-1 PIn−1-'''DAT'''-'''NOM'''-2A.
|The recipient of speaking is its sender. 
''to talk to oneself. He is talking to himself.''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dráw dhèe.
|dance-FACT-1 PIn−2-'''NOM'''-NOM-2A.
|The sender of the parole is the sender of dancing. 
''I am dancing.''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dráw dhìe.
|dance-FACT-1 PIn−2-'''DAT'''-NOM-2A.
|The recipient of the parole is the sender of dancing. 
''You are dancing.''}}
|}
Rule Four of sentence grammar ensures that the reflexive example means "He is talking to himself" as opposed to, say, "He is talking to one being talked to" (which would be ''wáx wìxe.'' speak-{{sc|fact}}-1 speak-{{sc|dat-nom}}-2{{sc|a}}, with two different instances of the stem "speak").

{| class="wikitable"
! Possessive determiner !! Vocative
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=CONS:consecutive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|zdìls ngỳzdy zeú tỳar.
|seat-CONS-1 bird-ACC-ACC-2 PIn−3-'''NOM'''-BEN-3 this-ACC-LOC-2.
|The sender of the parole is the beneficiary of making a bird.
 ''My bird is sitting there.''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=PI:pronoun type I; FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive; 3:third level
|wáx dheè zdhèzhi zìe.
|speak-FACT-1 PIn−2-NOM-NOM-2A friend-NOM-DAT-2 PIn−3-'''DAT'''-NOM-3.
|The recipient of the parole is the friend. (nominative bracket) 
''Friend, I am talking to you.''}}
|}

The type II pronoun in the following example points to the stem of eating. With the inner accusative, the pronoun refers to the content of eating, which is the sweet. (As with brackets, Rules Four and Five guarantee that the pronoun refers to the same content of the same action of eating as mentioned in the first sentence.)
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; PII:pronoun type II; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|ádh dheì mlỳdhy. ràsh fỳy.
|eat-FACT-1 PIn−2-NOM-DAT-2A sweet-ACC-ACC-2. like-FACT-1 PIIn−1-'''ACC'''-ACC-2.
|''I am eating a sweet. [I] like it.''}}

==Derivational morphology==
From a Lemizh point of view, ''dè.'' "giver" and ''dỳ.'' "gift" aren't derivatives of ''dà.'' "to give" but grammatical forms of the same word. The only piece of true derivational morphology is compounding.

===Compounds===
[[File:Lemizh compounding diagram.png|thumb|Forming a compound from a two-word sentence]]
'''Rule One of compounding. A compound word is constructed from a two-word sentence – predicate and object of which become modifier and head of the compound, respectively – in the following way:'''
# '''Prestem''':
## the object's prestem
## the object's inner case
## the object's poststem
## an optional separator
## the predicate's prestem
# '''Inner case'''
# '''Poststem''': the predicate's poststem
# '''Outer case'''
Note that the object's stem comes before the predicate's; and also that the object's outer case (and, less importantly, the predicate's inner case) is lost. The separator can be used, for example, if the word boundary would be unclear otherwise, or for placing the second part of the word on a new line.

…

'''Rule Two. In the relationship between the original predicate and object, the rules of sentence grammar are retained as far as applicable.'''

…

'''Rule Three. Regarding all outward relations, cases refer to the head.'''

…

==Example text==
[[File:Lemizh text sample.png|600px]]

====stedrỳzh thìrhfi xtrỳghy.====
krỳgh dghngireì prilxpilghkỳarh. mangỳ srungbỳng lyngghỳng yngshwỳng fỳü. zhöazhghngìl tmỳil. ghngàgzh smìa prỳal ghngyé dhàbdhy lunguỳ ùyl mỳu fplyxár tỳarh. dmát feì sxngengzè ishkènge. ghìlt krighmyngthxì xtrỳngghi swyshỳ ghỳxy fplyxòr zhöyzhỳm xngàrorm. dmìlt öngkrỳngty zhryỳ rèshy esfàsy sxngyzdmýi, usrỳngy xazhgèsty ghngỳeng, frekrỳngfy rilghdzhỳwby pthèby, dgheipysrỳngdy psrèby rhèzhem, dghistngỳngty ghỳxy zangỳa dghildhfmlýyrh, ngiftngyghtmỳngy krültlìy zùe gỳghda. xtrỳgh swyshý stedrỳzh thìrfi. dngilszhrìl bdhyrgzhyngỳng xüxtrỳngyng prilkỳarh ötìlil skmyngìlng ghỳngsilng. dngilszhìlwb ráxpy thìlfi. fö̀l gwiltngìlöl dmàty föpysryfỳ ngỳu.

rỳ zhryỳrh thìzgy gwiltngìly rhàghgy dmatngìe thìrfy. là xángska matngiè ytfỳyrh dmyý fplyxór dyxtngyngà mànga prilzhryngỳr iltỳngzhdyr. dmàt ytfỳarh ryý mìlngorh xngyì prilkyár mìlngorh xtrỳngghi kshrextý mengthxì prỳar zìe, fplỳngxe fywýr déngske xtryghè sxngezì xngỳnge.

====The Legend of the Seventh Planet====
A long time ago there was a tribe of nomads. They possessed neither writing nor houses nor horses. But they were truly human. They were curious; this means, above all, that they took interest in the useless, for the celestial objects were of no use to them yet. They looked at the Sun and the Moon. They had named the constellations and the six planets moving across the sky like the humans across the earth. They knew dim Mercury, who liked to hide in the glare of the Sun; Venus, the brightest of all; reddish and angry Mars; majestic father Jupiter; Saturn, who seemed to stand still for weeks; and even Uranus had been caught by their keen eyes. Six planets, and the legend of a seventh. Maybe it had been the minor planet Vesta, or a comet centuries or millennia earlier. Maybe it was the attraction of the number seven. For Neptune is invisible to the naked eye.

One youngster thought to himself that he could not live without seeing the seventh planet. He lay awake searching the sky for many nights, neglected his duties, and became thinner and thinner. And one night, lying with the Earth behind his back, and with the looping planets and the stars above him, he saw the depth of the sky and the planets circling the Sun, and among them the Earth.

==External links==
* [https://lemizh.conlang.org Lemizh homepage] with comprehensive coverage of the language, including a dictionary with etymologies, information on the language's pragmatics, and more background information
[[File:Copyleft1.png|20px]] ''This article includes material from the Lemizh homepage, which is available under a [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License].''


[[Category:Languages]]
[[Category:Conlangs]]
[[Category:Indo-European languages]]
[[Category:Fusional languages]]

Lemizh

2022-05-14T17:48:26Z

Anypodetos: Adverbially used adjectives etc.

{{Infobox language
|image =
|imagesize =
|name = Lemizh
|nativename = lemỳzh.
|pronunciation = lɛmˈɯ̀ʒ
|state = Lemaria
|setting = Alt-history Europe
|created = 1985
|familycolor = Indo-European
|fam2 = Lemizh
|ancestor = Proto-Lemizh
|posteriori = [[w:Proto-Indo-European|Proto-Indo-European]]
|creator = [[User:Anypodetos|Anypodetos]]
|scripts = Lemizh alphabet
|nation = Lemaria
|map = Map of Lemaria.png
|notice = IPA
}}
'''Lemizh''' ([[Help:IPA|[lεmˈiʒ]]], native pronunciation: [[Help:IPA|[lɛmˈɯ̀ʒ]]]) is a language I invented with the aim of creating a grammar as regular and simple as possible. It was originally intended as an [[w:International auxiliary language|international auxiliary language]]. However, it turned out that a simple grammar is not necessarily a grammar that is easy to learn: the more ways of simplification I found, the further away it moved from [[w:Indo-European languages|Indo-European]] and probably all other familiar language structures. Expecting anyone to learn Lemizh, at this point, would be completely unrealistic.

So I needed a new justification for the language: enter the Lemizh, a people living to the west and north of the [[w:Black Sea|Black Sea]] in an alternate history that slowly drifted away from ours between two and eight millennia ago. Of course, it is extremely unlikely that they would speak a language that was completely without exceptions. To be precise, the chances are two to the power of two hundred and seventy-six thousand seven hundred and nine to one against. But they say that everything has to happen somewhere in the Multiverse. And everything happens only once.

{{TOC limit}}

==History==
===Early stages===
Lemizh is an Indo-European language and, together with Volgan, constitutes one of the ten recognised branches of the Indo-European language family. This branch is also called Lemizh, to the disgruntlement of Volgan linguists.

Proto-Lemizh, the ancestor of Lemizh and Volgan, is very poorly attested in form of some papyri found near the northwestern shore of the Black Sea, to the north of the [[w:Dniester Liman|Dniester Liman]], dated about 2700 BC. Old Lemizh, by contrast, is fairly well attested. It had predominantly [[w:Subject–verb–object|subject–verb–object]] (SVO) word order and was a quite typical old Indo-European language, but with a couple of interesting quirks:
* Adjectives were lost as a separate part of speech, being replaced with participles ("white" > "being white").
* Finite subordinate clauses had their subject in the case of the clause: the subject of a local clause was in the locative case without having a local meaning in itself.
The earliest known documents from this stage of Lemizh were probably written around 2100 BC along the northern and western shores of the Back Sea.

===Ghean and Middle Lemizh===
Ghean ([[Help:IPA|[ˈɣɛən]]]) is a language with no known genetic relationships. It was spoken by a people of unknown origin, who subdued the Lemizh tribes in around 1000 BC and ruled for infamous three generations. Ghean was an inflected [[w:Tonal language|register tonal]] language with strict [[w:Verb–subject–object|verb–subject–object]] (VSO) word order and head-first phrases. It had verbs, [[w:Nominal (linguistics)|nominals]] (a combined noun/adjective/participle part of speech), pronouns and particles.

The Gheans discouraged the use of the natives' language, but obviously tolerated Lemizh words (or rather word stems) to stand in for unfamiliar Ghean ones. The grammar of simple sentences was easy enough to learn for the Lemizh, as they were used to inflection and head-first phrases, and likely still knew VSO sentences from poetry. After two or three generations, the natives must have spoken a [[w:Creole language|creole]] with a more or less Ghean grammar but an abundance of Lemizh words, especially outside the core vocabulary. This is a quite unusual development as most creoles draw their lexicon mainly from the dominant group, and tend to be grammatically more innovative. (The Tanzanian language [[w:Mbugu language|Mbugu]] might have had a somewhat similar development with more or less analogous outcomes.) After the disappearance of the Gheans, Lemizh patriots tried to revive their old language, which failed spectacularly for the grammar but reintroduced many Lemizh words of the core vocabulary.

===The last three millennia===
While Middle Lemizh as spoken after the Ghean occupation already had a non-Indo-European and unusually regular grammar, this trend was to continue over the following millennia. The factive case was innovated to express verbal nouns, which eventually supplanted verbs altogether. (At least part of the blame goes to the Tlöngö̀l, an epic novel published in 1351, which popularised the use of verbal nouns.) The tonal system was simplified to the present two-way [[w:Pitch-accent language|pitch-accent]] system. Pronouns lost their status as a separate part of speech. The last particles died out a few hundred years ago, leaving the language with a single part of speech which is often called a "verb" but, historically speaking, is really a nominal. This means that the concept of ''parts of speech'' does not make sense in Modern Lemizh.

==Orthography and phonology==
The alphabet is [[w:Phonetic orthography|phonetic]]: each letter corresponds to a certain sound, and each sound is represented by a single letter. The direction of writing is left to right. This article uses the standard transcription of the native Lemizh alphabet as given in the following table:
{| class="wikitable" style="width: 800px; table-layout: fixed; text-align: center"
! colspan="29" | Letters of the Lemizh alphabet
|-
| colspan="29" style="padding: 0" | [[File:Lemizh alphabet.png|796px]]
|-
| a || e || y || i || o || ö || u || ü || l || rh || r || ng || m || g || d || b || k || t || p || gh || zh || z || dh || w || x || sh || s || th || f
|}

===Consonants===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="2" | !! bilabial !! dental !! alveolar !! postalveolar !! velar
|-
! colspan="2" | nasals
| m <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial nasal|m]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || || || ng <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar nasal|ŋ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! colspan="2" | plosives (voiceless • voiced)
| p <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless bilabial plosive|p]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • b <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial plosive|b]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || t <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless alveolar plosive|t]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • d <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar plosive|d]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || k <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless velar plosive|k]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • g <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar plosive|g]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! colspan="2" | fricatives (voiceless • voiced)
| f <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless bilabial fricative|ɸ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • w <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial fricative|β]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || th <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless dental fricative|θ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • dh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced dental fricative|ð]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || s <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless alveolar sibilant|s]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • z <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar sibilant|z]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || sh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless palato-alveolar fricative|ʃ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • zh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced palato-alveolar fricative|ʒ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || x <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless velar fricative|x]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • gh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar fricative|ɣ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! rowspan="3" | liquids || lateral approximant
| || || l <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar lateral approximant|l]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|-
! approximant
| || || rh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar approximant|ɹ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|-
! trill
| || || r <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar trill|r]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|}
The plosive-fricative combinations ''pf, ts, tsh, kx'' and their voiced couterparts only occur at word boundaries and in compound words. They are not pronounced as affricates but as separate sounds. The same applies for other combinations of a plosive plus another consonant (''pm, tl'' etc.), as well as for two identical plosives (''kk'' etc.): the release of the first plosive is always audible.

===Vowels===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! rowspan="2" | !! colspan="2" | front !! colspan="2" | back
|-
! unrounded !! rounded !! unrounded !! rounded
|-
! close
| i <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close front unrounded vowel|i]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ü <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close front rounded vowel|y]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || y <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close back unrounded vowel|ɯ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || u <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close back rounded vowel|u]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! open-mid
| e <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid front unrounded vowel|ɛ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ö <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid front rounded vowel|œ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || a <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid back unrounded vowel|ʌ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || o <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid back rounded vowel|ɔ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|}
Two consecutive different vowels are pronounced as a diphthong; two consecutive identical vowels as a long one. Single vowels are always short.

Lemizh uses [[w:Mora (linguistics)|moræ]] for structuring words: a short syllable equals one mora, and a long syllable equals two. In Lemizh, every vowel is the centre of a mora; consequently, two consecutive vowels result in two moræ or one long syllable.

===Accent===
Lemizh has got a two-way pitch-accent system, in that accented moræ are not only spoken louder (as in English), but also have either a lower or a higher pitch than the surrounding unaccented ones. The accented mora is always the ultimate or penultimate of a word. The vowel at the centre of a low-pitch accented mora is transcribed with a grave accent, the vowel at the centre of a high-pitch accented mora with an acute accent.
{| class="wikitable" style="width: 220px; table-layout: fixed; text-align: center"
! colspan="8" | Accented vowel letters
|-
| colspan="8" style="padding: 0" | [[File:Lemizh accented vowels.png|216px]]
|-
| à || è || ỳ || ì || ò || ö̀ || ù || ǜ
|-
| á || é || ý || í || ó || ö́ || ú || ǘ
|}

===Phonotactics===
[[w:Phonotactics|Phonotactics]] is rather permissive in Lemizh. A mora has the following structure, where the bracketed parts are optional:
* (O)(N)(L)V(L)(N)(O)
V is the mora's vowel, L a liquid, N a nasal, and O an obstruent that can be either a P(losive), a F(ricative), FP, PF, FF, FFP, FPF, or PFF. Word-initial consonant clusters cannot contain more than three sounds. No geminate consonants (<abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''ff'' etc.) occur within a mora. Consecutive plosive-fricative or fricative-plosive combinations within the same mora must have the same sonority – either both are voiced, or both are voiceless. A plosive cannot have the same place of articulation as a following consonant with the exception of ''rh'' and ''r''. <abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''dzh'', <abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''ddh'' and their voiceless counterparts are also prohibited within a mora.

Word boundaries, including those within compound words, are always mora boundaries. Where mora boundaries would still be ambiguous, liquids and nasals are assigned to the earliest possible mora (as the ''m'' in ''lem·ỳzh.''), and obstruents to the latest possible mora.

==Morphology==
All words are composed of the following parts:
* Prestem + inner case + poststem + outer case
Prestem and poststem form the stem, or the lexical part, of the word. The division of the stem into two portions is similar to English verbs such as ''sing/sang/sung'', where the lexical part is ''s–ng'' while the vowels ''i/a/u'' convey grammatical information. The stem always denotes an action (but never a state, a person, a thing, a property, etc.) and thus resembles our verbs. The prestem can contain any sounds, or it can be zero (i.e. consisting of zero sounds). The poststem can only contain fricatives and plosives, or it can be zero as well.

The inner case is represented by one of the eight vowels, optionally followed by a liquid (the primary case suffix) and/or a nasal (the secondary case suffix). The outer case has the same structure. For the first word in each sentence, the main predicate, the outer case is missing.

Each case is defined by its ''descriptor'': for example, the factive case denotes an ''action'', the nominative a ''sender'', the locative a ''place''. The stem and the inner case's descriptor determine a word's meaning.

'''Examples'''
* ''wàx. w–x'' is the stem for "speak", ''-a-'' denotes the inner factive, so this word means "an action of speaking", translated as the verb "to speak" or the [[w:Verbal noun|verbal noun]] "speaking".
* ''wèx. -e-'' denotes the inner nominative, so this word means "a sender of speaking" or "a speaker".
* ''àrdh. ∅–dh'' (having a zero prestem) is the stem for "eat", ''-ar-'' denotes the inner locative: "a place of eating".
{| class="wikitable"
|+ Primary cases and their descriptors
|-
! rowspan="3" | № !! rowspan="3" | Case vowel !! colspan="4" | Primary case suffix
|-
| none || l || rh || r
|-
! Plot cases !! Causal cases !! Temporal cases !! Spatial cases
|-
| 1 || a || factive ({{sc|fact}}): ''action'' || affirmative ({{sc|aff}}): ''fact (point in causal chain)'' || temporal ({{sc|temp}}): ''time'' || locative ({{sc|loc}}): ''place/region''
|-
| 2 || e || nominative ({{sc|nom}}): ''source, sender'' || causative ({{sc|caus}}): ''direct cause'' || ingressive ({{sc|ing}}): ''starting time'' || elative ({{sc|ela}}): ''starting point/region''
|-
| 3 || y || accusative ({{sc|acc}}): ''content'' || contextual ({{sc|ctx}}): ''causal context'' || durative ({{sc|dur}}): ''duration'' || extensive ({{sc|ext}}): ''spatial extent''
|-
| 4 || i || dative ({{sc|dat}}): ''sink, recipient'' || consecutive ({{sc|cons}}): ''direct consequence, effect'' || egressive ({{sc|egr}}): ''closing time'' || illative ({{sc|ill}}): ''end point / ending region''
|-
| 5 || o || tentive ({{sc|ten}}): ''intention'' || intentive ({{sc|int}}): ''intention (intended point in causal chain)'' || episodic ({{sc|eps}}): ''episode, "act"'' || scenic ({{sc|sce}}): ''scene, "stage"''
|-
| 6 || ö || comitative ({{sc|com}}): ''company'' || persuasive ({{sc|psu}}): ''reason'' || digressive ({{sc|dig}}): ''time away from which'' || ablative ({{sc|abl}}): ''place/region away from which''
|-
| 7 || u || instrumental ({{sc|ins}}): ''means, tool'' || motivational ({{sc|mot}}): ''motivational context'' || progressive ({{sc|prog}}): ''time that is passed'' || prolative ({{sc|prol}}): ''crossing point/region''
|-
| 8 || ü || benefactive ({{sc|ben}}): ''beneficiary'' || final ({{sc|fin}}): ''purpose, aim'' || aggressive ({{sc|agg}}): ''time towards which, temporal aim'' || allative ({{sc|all}}): ''place/region towards which, spatial aim''
|}
Each primary case has two corresponding secondary cases:
* a partitive case formed by adding ''ng'' (such as ''-ing-'' for the partitive dative or ''-erng-'' for the partitive elative) with the descriptor ''the set from which the source (sink, place, etc.) is thought to be taken''
* a qualitative case formed by adding ''m'', with the descriptor ''the basis of comparison for the source (sink, place, etc.)''

===The flow of the plot===
Every action denoted by a stem is considered a flow of information that comes from a source (sender), transports a content, and reaches a sink (a recipient). The terms "sender" and "recipient" may be more familiar, but "source" and "sink" are more accurate in not necessarily meaning living beings.

Consequently, a Lemizh action looks somewhat like this: '''nominative  accusative[[File:DreieckYellowMIDDLE.png|26px|link=]] dative'''

This is called the action's plot. Here are some examples:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative
|-
| ''wàx.'' "to speak, to tell; (an action of) speaking" || ''wèx.'' "one telling something" || ''wỳx.'' "a tale" || ''wìx.'' "one who is told something"
|-
| ''dà.'' "to give; (an action of) giving" || ''dè.'' "one giving something" || ''dỳ.'' "a gift" || ''dì.'' "one who is given something; one who gets something"
|-
| ''làzhw.'' "to help" || ''lèzhw.'' "one helping" || ''lỳzhw.'' "help (given)" || ''lìzhw.'' "one whom is helped"
|-
| ''mlàtx.'' "to melt" || ''mlètx.'' "one melting something" || [''mlỳtx.''] || ''mlìtx.'' "a melted thing"
|-
| ''xöàgh.'' "to produce a sound; to hear" || ''xöègh.'' "one producing a sound" || ''xöỳgh.'' "a sound" || ''xöìgh.'' "one hearing something"
|-
| ''àdh.'' "to feed; to eat" || ''èdh.'' "one feeding someone" || ''ỳdh.'' "food" || ''ìdh.'' "one being fed; one eating"
|-
| ''ià.'' "to love" || ''iè.'' "one loving someone, a lover" || ''iỳ.'' "a beloved" || ''iì.'' "a beloved"
|}
Importantly, there are no rules for which cases to use with which words. Both ''iỳ.'' ({{sc|acc}}) and ''iì.'' ({{sc|dat}}) mean "a beloved". The former describes the beloved as the content of love, the one being lovingly thought of, while the latter implies that the love reaches them, like words or gifts reach their recipient. Likewise, the reason why ''mlỳtx.'' is not translated in the table above isn't that "''melt'' does not take the accusative", as grammars of other languages would say, but that "a content of melting" does not seem to have any obvious meaning. If someone wanted to describe, say, sun rays as content transported from the sun to the snow to melt it, they could well use ''mlỳtx.'' to express the concept.

Case usage is governed solely by the cases' descriptors; it is up to the speaker how to use them given some word's meaning and some context. If the wind opens a door, is it the source of the action of opening (''ngèt.''), the means of opening (''ngùt.''), or the cause (''ngèlt.'')? All are grammatically correct; the speaker decides which possibility best expresses their intention.

===Nouns===
:''Nouns, adjectives and verbs do not correspond to any concepts in Lemizh grammar. Using these terms is just an attempt to describe the grammar from an Indo-European viewpoint.''
A large number of nouns are not derived from verbs in most languages: ''froth, ship, lion'' and many others. In Lemizh, however, we have verbs such as ''psràxk.'' "to froth", ''àksh.'' "to build a ship or ships", and ''làw.'' "to make a lion or lions". We will call these ''nominal verbs''.

Looking at the verb ''àksh.'', the shipwright ({{sc|nom}}) gives the building materials ({{sc|dat}}) the properties or the function of a ship ({{sc|acc}}). He confers, well, shipness on the materials. The shipness is sent by the shipwright, not because he is acting, but because he is the source: the image of the ship, so to say, comes from his head and materialises in wood, iron, ropes, and linen. In short, these words mostly appear with inner accusative.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative
|-
| ''psràxk.'' "to froth" || ''psrèxk.'' "one frothing something" || ''psrỳxk.'' "a thing having the properties of froth = '''froth'''" || ''psrìxk.'' "a frothed thing, a frothed liquid"
|-
| ''àksh.'' "to build a ship" || ''èksh.'' "one building a ship, a shipwright" || ''ỳksh.'' "a thing having the properties of a ship = '''a ship'''" || ''ìksh.'' "building materials for a ship, materials made into a ship"
|-
| ''làw.'' "to make a lion" || [''lèw.'' "one making a lion"] || ''lỳw.'' "a thing having the properties of a lion = '''a lion'''" || [''lìw.'' "building materials for a lion, materials made into a lion"]
|}

Another very common kind of nouns are tool nouns, formed with an inner instrumental case:
* ''ghstù.'' "a sail" is derived from ''ghstà.'' "to sail", literally "a means of sailing",
* ''pslù.'' "scissors" from ''pslà.'' "to cut with scissors",
* ''saxùf.'' "trumpet" from ''saxàf.'' "to play the trumpet",
* ''skrùzh.'' "a finger" from ''skràzh.'' "to work with one's fingers".

====Inflection====
As mentioned above, all words can inflect for (outer) case. Thus, we have the nominative forms ''wàx'''e''''' "(an action of) speaking, (an action of) telling", ''dè'''e''''' "a giver", ''lỳw'''e''''' "a lion", the causative ''lỳw'''el''''' "because of a lion", the elative ''lỳw'''er''''' "(starting) from a lion", etc.

Lemizh words do not inflect for number or gender. If desired, we can express this information by forming compounds. (Note the duplication of the inner case vowel; the first occurrence in each word is called the epenthetic case of the compound. The underlying grammar will be described later.)
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Singular !! Dual !! Plural !! Feminine !! Masculine !! Feminine singular !! etc.
|-
! giver
| ''dè.'' || ''de'''rè'''.'' || ''de'''dwè'''.'' || ''de'''mlè'''.'' || ''de'''bè'''.'' || ''de'''èx'''.'' || ''de'''berè'''.''
|-
! lion
| ''lỳw.'' || ''lyw'''rỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''dwỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''mlỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''bỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''ỳx'''.'' || ''lyw'''byrỳ'''.''
|-
! compound with
| — || ''rỳ.'' "one" || ''dwỳ.'' "two" || ''mlỳ.'' "several" || ''bỳ.'' "female; woman" || ''ỳx.'' "male; man" || "female" and "one"
|}

===Adjectives and numerals===
There is no difference between adjectival and nominal verbs: they mostly appear with inner accusative. This is the same situation as in, say, Latin, where ''albus'' can mean "a white one" as well as "white". Numerals are basically a sub-category of adjectives.

The inner consecutive case translates certain abstract nouns.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative !! Inner consecutive
|-
| ''gmrà.'' "to heat, to make something warm" || ''gmrè.'' "one heating something up" || ''gmrỳ.'' "a warm thing; '''warm'''" || ''gmrì.'' "a thing heated up; heated, warmed" || ''gmrìl.'' "the consequence of heating = heat"
|-
| ''làbdh.'' "to whiten something, to make something white" || ''lèbdh.'' "one whitening something" || ''lỳbdh.'' "a white thing; '''white'''" || ''lìbdh.'' "a thing made white; whitened" || ''lìlbdh.'' "the consequence of whitening = whiteness"
|-
| ''dwà.'' "to make two things/individuals" || ''dwè.'' "one making two things" || ''dwỳ.'' "'''two''' (things)" || ''dwì.'' "something made into two (things)" || ''dwìl.'' "the consequence of making two things = twoness"
|}

However, emotions aren't viewed as properties in Lemizh: a happy or angry person is one sending happiness or anger, just as a loving person is one sending love. The inner causative plays a notable role with verbs of emotion.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative !! Inner causative
|-
| ''pthàb.'' "to be angry" || ''pthèb.'' "an angry one; '''angry'''" || ''pthỳb.'' "the content/object of one's anger" || ''pthìb.'' "one that one's anger reaches" || ''pthèlb.'' "one causing someone anger; one annoying someone"
|}

====Inflection====
Of course, adjectives can be compounded to express number and/or gender in the same way as nouns. Furthermore, we can form compounds expressing various degrees. (The epenthetic consecutive ''-il-'' in these compounds will also be explained later; it is actually the main application of the abstract nouns just mentioned.)
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Diminutive !! Augmentative !! Absolute !! Comparative !! Superlative
|-
! warm
| ''gmrỳ.'' || ''gmril'''zhrỳ'''.'' "lukewarm" || ''gmril'''dmỳ'''.'' "hot" || ''gmril'''ghngỳ'''.'' "absolutely hot" || ''gmril'''tỳzhd'''.'' "warmer, hotter" || ''gmril'''ỳst'''.'' "hottest"
|-
! white
| ''lỳbdh.'' || ''lilbdh'''zhrỳ'''.'' "whitish" || ''lilbdh'''dmỳ'''.'' "very white" || ''lilbdh'''ghngỳ'''.'' "absolutely/completely white" || ''lilbdh'''tỳzhd'''.'' "whiter" || ''lilbdh'''ỳst'''.'' "whitest"
|-
! compound with
| — || ''zhrỳ.'' "few, little, a bit" || ''dmỳ.'' "much, many" || ''ghngỳ.'' "every, all, the whole" || ''tỳzhd.'' "more" || ''ỳst.'' "most"
|}

===Verbs===
Most verbs correspond to Lemizh words with an inner factive. However, as Lemizh stems always denote an action, the notable exception are stative verbs such as:
* ''zdìls.'' "to sit", literally "the consequence of sitting down (''zdàs.'')"
* ''gwìlt.'' "to know", literally "the consequence of learning (''gwàt.'')"

====Inflection====
* Person is not expressed with inflection but with [[#Relative pronouns|pronouns]].
* Number is conveyed by compounding pronouns with numerals. While verbs (i.e. words with an inner factive) can be compounded with numerals, ''ftrask'''mlà'''.'' does not mean "we/they sneeze" but "(there are) several acts of sneezing" (i.e. someone sneezes several times and/or several people sneeze).
* Voice (active/passive) is absent in Lemizh; word order serves a similar function.
* Tense is expressed by compounds with an epenthetic temporal case (''-arh-''), or with certain inner cases. The latter option is preferred if possible, as it is more concise.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Present !! Past !! Perfect !! Future !! Intentional
|-
! to sit down
| ''zdàs.'' || ''zdarhs'''wà'''.'' || ''zdarhs'''prilkà'''.'' || ''zd'''ìl'''s.'' ({{sc|cons}}) || ''zdarhs'''prà'''.'' || ''zd'''ò'''s.'' ({{sc|ten}})
|-
! compound with
| — || pronoun || ''prilkỳ.'' "back" || — || ''prỳ.'' "front" || —
|}
Note that the translation of the perfect with inner consecutive coincides with the translation of stative verbs: "having sat down" in the strict perfect sense of "the consequence/effect of this action exists" means the same as "to sit". Likewise, "whiteness" can be expressed as the abstract concept of "having whitened something".

* Mood corresponds to compounds with certain verbs for the most part. There is no equivalent to the subjunctive mood, as subordinate clauses are irreal (i.e. not necessarily real) by default. Here are some common formations:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Indicative !! Imperative !! Commanding imperative !! Interrogative Polite imperative !! Optative
|-
! to feed, to eat
| ''àdh.'' || ''adh'''pràk'''.'' || ''adh'''dàxt'''.'' || ''adh'''pà'''.'' || ''adh'''làxt'''.''
|-
! compound with
| — || ''pràk.'' "to request" || ''dàxt.'' "to command" || ''pà.'' "to ask" || ''làxt.'' "to want"
|}
* Aspect is a very heterogeneous category, expressed by a variety of compounds and syntactic structures in Lemizh.

===Pronouns===
The two demonstrative pronouns are technically nominal verbs:
* ''tà.'' "to make this/that one", typically used with inner accusative: ''tỳ.'' "this/that (one)"
* ''gwà.'' "to make someone/anyone, something/anything", with inner accusative ''gwỳ.'' "someone/anyone, something/anything"

The eleven relative pronouns play a far more prominent role in Lemizh grammar. Their scope is much wider than the one usually associated with the term. As they are closely tied to Lemizh syntax, they will be described further down.

==Syntax==
===Level of words===
There is only one more grammatical category: the level of words, which is the main building block of Lemizh syntax. A word can be of first level (the highest), of second level (the next highest), of third level (still one level lower) and so on; there is no limit for the number of levels, but non-positive word levels (zero, −1, etc.) are forbidden.

The first word in a sentence (the main predicate) is of first level by definition. The level of the next word is determined by the main predicate's accent and by the type of pause between the two words, the level of the third word is determined by the accent of the second and the pause between these two, and so on.

Here is the complete list of pause/accent combinations.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="2" | Following pause !! rowspan="2" | Accented vowel !! rowspan="2" | Type of accent !! rowspan="2" | The level of the next word is …
|-
! in speech !! in writing
|-
| rowspan="4" | barely audible || rowspan="4" | space || rowspan="2" | inner case || low || lower by 1
|-
| high || lower by 1, and [[w:Agent (grammar)|agentive]]* ({{sc|a}})
|-
| rowspan="2" | outer case || low || equal
|-
| high || higher by 1
|-
| rowspan="4" | a bit longer || rowspan="4" | comma ('''·''') || rowspan="2" | inner case || low || higher by 2
|-
| high || higher by 3
|-
| rowspan="2" | outer case || low || higher by 4
|-
| high || higher by 5
|-
| the longest || full stop ('''∶''') || inner case || low || none; end of sentence
|}
<nowiki>*</nowiki> The agent is the initiator of the action (more informally, the one who ''does'' the action).

===The Rules===
[[File:Lemizh parse tree.png|thumb|upright=1.5|A schematic sentence with the words represented by their level numbers]]
The word levels determine the structure of a sentence.

'''Rule One of sentence grammar. A word of level n is subordinate to the nearest word of level n−1 in front of it; the parole acts as a word of level zero.'''

All words of second level are subordinate to the main predicate (which has first level). A word of third level is subordinate to the next second-level word in front of it, and so on. In other words, Lemizh sentences are strictly [[w:Head directionality|head-first]]. The main predicate itself is subordinate to the [[w:Parole (linguistics)|parole]], the action of speaking (or writing) the sentence in question, which consequently has level zero.

'''Rule Two. An object of a word in a sentence is a word subordinate to the former, its predicate, plus all of its own objects.'''

In the diagram, the main predicate's three objects are enclosed in ellipses. Objects of the same word are called ''sibling objects'' or just ''siblings'', and the word they are subordinate to is their ''predicate''. Note that ''predicate'' and ''object'' are relative terms like ''parent'' and ''child''.

The table of level markers implies that only the first object of a predicate can be marked as agent. (This has been interpreted as Lemizh having VSO word order, although a subject is not quite the same as an agent, and Lemizh grammar strictly speaking does not have the concept of a subject.)

'''Rule Three. The outer case of the first word of an object defines its relation to its predicate's stem via its descriptor; the outer case of a level 1 word is zero.'''

This is what we would expect from a language that inflects for case: the nominative object defines the source (sender) of the action named by the stem of its predicate, the accusative object its content, the temporal object its time, etc.

'''Examples'''
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dá föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|give-FACT-1 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2A bottle-ACC-ACC-2 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2.
|''Father Christmas gives Lucy a bottle.''}}

The stems of the three objects are nominal verbs ("to make a bottle" etc.), hence the inner accusatives. The outer cases indicate the sender, content and recipient of the action of giving, respectively. The agent is specified independently of the plot arrow; note the difference:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dá lusyì dwywỳ föpysrỳfe.
|give-FACT-1 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2A bottle-ACC-ACC-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2.
|''Lucy takes a bottle from Father Christmas.''}}

We need not mark an object as agentive if we consider this information unimportant. The English translations are only rough approximations:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dà lusyì dwywỳ föpysrỳfe.
|give-FACT-1 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2 bottle-ACC-ACC-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2.
|''Lucy gets a bottle from Father Christmas. Lucy is given a bottle by Father Christmas.''}}

'''Rule Four. An instance of a word stem designates a specific action.'''

''dà'' in the above sentence does not just mean "to give", it refers to one specific action of giving. Such an action may involve several givers (as in "They give something") and need not even be temporally or spatially connected (as in "They are giving something every Christmas"). In other words, each spoken or written instance of the stem ''d–'' refers to a certain subset of all the giving there is.

This rule ensures that all the objects refer to the same action of giving as the predicate itself.

'''Rule Five. A case characterises the action it refers to completely with regard to its case descriptor.'''

For example, the nominative object "Father Christmas" has to name the complete sender of the above instance of giving. This excludes from this instance all giving not done by Father Christmas. So each object places a restriction on the action of giving the main predicate refers to. Thus, the subset of giving meant by this instance of ''dà.'' – what the sentence is ultimately talking about – is defined more and more precisely with each additional object. (The same is true not only of the main predicate but of all words in a sentence.)

'''Rule Six. A missing object is equivalent to the absence of information about its descriptor.'''

Above sentences do not have, for example, locative objects, so Rule Five cannot place a restriction on the place of giving. Because of Rule Six, this does not mean there are no restrictions on the location, but only that this kind of information has not been included in the sentence (for example, because the speaker does not know about it, considers it irrelevent, or assumes the listener already knows or – perhaps most importantly – can infer it.)

'''Rule Seven. Given an object and its predicate, the predicate is considered more real and the object more hypothetical.'''

…

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! as an object !! as a complete sentence
|-
| ''dà.'' || to give; giving || An action of giving exists = Someone gives something.
|-
| ''zdìls.'' || the consequence of sitting down = to sit; sitting || The consequence of sitting down exists = Someone sits.
|-
| ''dwìlw.'' || the consequence of making a bottle || The consequence of making a bottle exists = A bottle exists; there is a bottle.
|-
| ''sklè.'' || one building a bridge || One building a bridge exists = There is someone building a bridge.
|}

===Noun phrases===
Forming noun phrases does not require any new grammatical rules. In the following example, the inner case of "give" is changed to the nominative, yielding "one giving something, a giver", and everything is pushed down one level. The third-level words are still sender, content and recipient of the ''action'' of giving, as outer cases define relations to the predicate's ''stem'' per Rule Three.
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 3A:third level, agentive
|dmàt tryxkì dée föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|see-FACT-1 beaver-ACC-DAT-2 give-NOM-NOM-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-3A bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3.
|''The beaver sees '''the one giving Lucy a bottle, Father Christmas'''.''}}
Regarding the verb "see", note that the beaver is in the dative, being at the receiving end of the optical stimulus or information. Marking the beaver as agent would translate as "The beaver looks at the one …".

Rules Four and Five guarantee that the giver is identical to Father Christmas: both are the sender of the same instance of the stem ''d–'' "give" (the giver via its inner nominative, Father Christmas via its outer nominative), and both are the ''complete'' sender of this action. This type of construction, where an object's outer case matches its predicate's inner case, is called a '''bracket'''. Brackets are very widely used:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Apposition !! Attributive adjective !! Attributive pronoun/determiner !! Attributive numeral !! Attributive participle
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|iakopỳk saxèfy.
|Jacopo-'''ACC'''-1 trumpet-NOM-'''ACC'''-2.
|''Jacopo, a trumpeter''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=INS:instrumental case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|ghstù lỳbdhu.
|sail-'''INS'''-1 white-ACC-'''INS'''-2.
|''a sail, a white thing = a white sail''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|ỳksh gwỳy.
|ship-'''ACC'''-1 some-ACC-'''ACC'''-2.
|''a ship, something = some ship''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|mỳs trỳy.
|mouse-'''ACC'''-1 three-ACC-'''ACC'''-2.
|''mice, three individuals = three mice''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|nỳzd gangèy.
|bird-'''ACC'''-1 sing-NOM-'''ACC'''-2.
|''a bird, a singer = a singing bird''}}
|}
Such phrases can be easily extended. This example contains two accusative brackets ("a singing bird" and "a sad child"):
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 4:fourth level
|ngỳzd gangèy zhngỳi speghý ytfỳarh.
|bird-ACC-1 sing-NOM-ACC-2 child-ACC-DAT-3 sad-NOM-ACC-4 night-ACC-TEMP-3.
|''a bird singing to a sad child at night''}}

Adverbially used adjectives are phrased with factive brackets. However, changing the predicate's inner case leaves the object's outer factive intact, losing the bracket.
{|
|-
| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|gangà txỳska.
|sing-'''FACT'''-1 loud-ACC-'''FACT'''-2.
|''(an action of) singing, a loud thing = loud singing = singing loudly, to sing loudly''}}

| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|nỳzd gangèy txỳska.
|bird-ACC-1 sing-NOM-ACC-2 loud-ACC-'''FACT'''-3.
|''a bird, a loud singer = a bird singing loudly'' (The '''action''' of singing is a loud thing.)}}
|}

As [[w:Genitive construction|genitive constructions]] have a wide variety of meanings, there is no single Lemizh equivalent. The typical translation for constructions indicating possession is with the benefactive case, but other cases frequently occur. Everything depends on the object's relation to the predicate's stem per Rule Three.

{|
|-
| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|dwỳw lusỳü.
|bottle-ACC-1 Lucy-ACC-'''BEN'''-2.
|Lucy is the beneficiary of making the bottle. The bottle is made for Lucy. 
''Lucy's bottle''}}

| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dý ỳxe.
|give-ACC-1 male-ACC-'''NOM'''-2A.
|The man is the sender of giving. 
''the man's gift''}}

| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|rhỳst ytfỳarh filpskỳy.
|dream-ACC-1 night-ACC-'''TEMP'''-2 midsummer-ACC-ACC-3.
| The midsummer night is the time of dreaming. 
''A Midsummer Night's Dream''}}
|}

===Predicative===
…


===Dependent clauses===
…

===Relative pronouns===
Stems of relative pronouns (not to be confused with the pronouns of the same name in English or Latin) refer to actions by pointing to another stem or to a parole: they are [[w:Anaphora (linguistics)|anaphoric]]. Here is the full list:
{| class="wikitable"
! rowspan="2" | Level !! colspan="2" | Type I !! colspan="2" | Type II
|-
! Verb !! The target is the stem of !! Verb !! The target is the stem of
|-
| n || colspan="2" | (does not occur because it would refer to itself) || à. || its preceding same-level word
|-
| n−1 || wà. || its predicate || fà. || its predicate's preceding same-level word or parole
|-
| n−2 || dhà. || its predicate's predicate || thà. || its predicate's predicate's preceding same-level word or parole
|-
| n−3 || zà. || its predicate's predicate's predicate || sà. || …
|-
| n−4 || zhà. || … || shà. || …
|-
| n−5 || ghà. || … || xà. || …
|}
They are highly versatile, corresponding to various structures in other languages. Recall that a sentence's parole has level zero:
{| class="wikitable"
! Reflexive !! First person (singular) !! Second person
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|wáx wìe.
|speak-FACT-1 PIn−1-'''DAT'''-'''NOM'''-2A.
|The recipient of speaking is its sender. 
''to talk to oneself. He is talking to himself.''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dráw dhèe.
|dance-FACT-1 PIn−2-'''NOM'''-NOM-2A.
|The sender of the parole is the sender of dancing. 
''I am dancing.''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dráw dhìe.
|dance-FACT-1 PIn−2-'''DAT'''-NOM-2A.
|The recipient of the parole is the sender of dancing. 
''You are dancing.''}}
|}
Rule Four of sentence grammar ensures that the reflexive example means "He is talking to himself" as opposed to, say, "He is talking to one being talked to" (which would be ''wáx wìxe.'' speak-{{sc|fact-1}} speak-{{sc|dat-nom-2a}}, with two different instances of the stem "speak").

{| class="wikitable"
! Possessive determiner !! Vocative
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=CONS:consecutive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|zdìls ngỳzdy zeú tỳar.
|seat-CONS-1 bird-ACC-ACC-2 PIn−3-'''NOM'''-BEN-3 this-ACC-LOC-2.
|The sender of the parole is the beneficiary of making a bird.
 ''My bird is sitting there.''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=PI:pronoun type I; FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive; 3:third level
|wáx dheè zdhèzhi zìe.
|speak-FACT-1 PIn−2-NOM-NOM-2A friend-NOM-DAT-2 PIn−3-'''DAT'''-NOM-3.
|The recipient of the parole is the friend. (nominative bracket) 
''Friend, I am talking to you.''}}
|}

The type II pronoun in the following example points to the stem of eating. With the inner accusative, the pronoun refers to the content of eating, which is the sweet. (As with brackets, Rules Four and Five guarantee that the pronoun refers to the same content of the same action of eating as mentioned in the first sentence.)
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; PII:pronoun type II; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|ádh dheì mlỳdhy. ràsh fỳy.
|eat-FACT-1 PIn−2-NOM-DAT-2A sweet-ACC-ACC-2. like-FACT-1 PIIn−1-'''ACC'''-ACC-2.
|''I am eating a sweet. [I] like it.''}}

==Derivational morphology==
From a Lemizh point of view, ''dè.'' "giver" and ''dỳ.'' "gift" aren't derivatives of ''dà.'' "to give" but grammatical forms of the same word. The only piece of true derivational morphology is compounding.

===Compounds===
[[File:Lemizh compounding diagram.png|thumb|Forming a compound from a two-word sentence]]
'''Rule One of compounding. A compound word is constructed from a two-word sentence – predicate and object of which become modifier and head of the compound, respectively – in the following way:'''
# '''Prestem''':
## the object's prestem
## the object's inner case
## the object's poststem
## an optional separator
## the predicate's prestem
# '''Inner case'''
# '''Poststem''': the predicate's poststem
# '''Outer case'''
Note that the object's stem comes before the predicate's; and also that the object's outer case (and, less importantly, the predicate's inner case) is lost. The separator can be used, for example, if the word boundary would be unclear otherwise, or for placing the second part of the word on a new line.

…

'''Rule Two. In the relationship between the original predicate and object, the rules of sentence grammar are retained as far as applicable.'''

…

'''Rule Three. Regarding all outward relations, cases refer to the head.'''

…

==Example text==
[[File:Lemizh text sample.png|600px]]

====stedrỳzh thìrhfi xtrỳghy.====
krỳgh dghngireì prilxpilghkỳarh. mangỳ srungbỳng lyngghỳng yngshwỳng fỳü. zhöazhghngìl tmỳil. ghngàgzh smìa prỳal ghngyé dhàbdhy lunguỳ ùyl mỳu fplyxár tỳarh. dmát feì sxngengzè ishkènge. ghìlt krighmyngthxì xtrỳngghi swyshỳ ghỳxy fplyxòr zhöyzhỳm xngàrorm. dmìlt öngkrỳngty zhryỳ rèshy esfàsy sxngyzdmýi, usrỳngy xazhgèsty ghngỳeng, frekrỳngfy rilghdzhỳwby pthèby, dgheipysrỳngdy psrèby rhèzhem, dghistngỳngty ghỳxy zangỳa dghildhfmlýyrh, ngiftngyghtmỳngy krültlìy zùe gỳghda. xtrỳgh swyshý stedrỳzh thìrfi. dngilszhrìl bdhyrgzhyngỳng xüxtrỳngyng prilkỳarh ötìlil skmyngìlng ghỳngsilng. dngilszhìlwb ráxpy thìlfi. fö̀l gwiltngìlöl dmàty föpysryfỳ ngỳu.

rỳ zhryỳrh thìzgy gwiltngìly rhàghgy dmatngìe thìrfy. là xángska matngiè ytfỳyrh dmyý fplyxór dyxtngyngà mànga prilzhryngỳr iltỳngzhdyr. dmàt ytfỳarh ryý mìlngorh xngyì prilkyár mìlngorh xtrỳngghi kshrextý mengthxì prỳar zìe, fplỳngxe fywýr déngske xtryghè sxngezì xngỳnge.

====The Legend of the Seventh Planet====
A long time ago there was a tribe of nomads. They possessed neither writing nor houses nor horses. But they were truly human. They were curious; this means, above all, that they took interest in the useless, for the celestial objects were of no use to them yet. They looked at the Sun and the Moon. They had named the constellations and the six planets moving across the sky like the humans across the earth. They knew dim Mercury, who liked to hide in the glare of the Sun; Venus, the brightest of all; reddish and angry Mars; majestic father Jupiter; Saturn, who seemed to stand still for weeks; and even Uranus had been caught by their keen eyes. Six planets, and the legend of a seventh. Maybe it had been the minor planet Vesta, or a comet centuries or millennia earlier. Maybe it was the attraction of the number seven. For Neptune is invisible to the naked eye.

One youngster thought to himself that he could not live without seeing the seventh planet. He lay awake searching the sky for many nights, neglected his duties, and became thinner and thinner. And one night, lying with the Earth behind his back, and with the looping planets and the stars above him, he saw the depth of the sky and the planets circling the Sun, and among them the Earth.

==External links==
* [https://lemizh.conlang.org Lemizh homepage] with comprehensive coverage of the language, including a dictionary
[[File:Copyleft1.png|20px]] ''This article includes material from the Lemizh homepage, which is available under a [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License].''


[[Category:Languages]]
[[Category:Conlangs]]
[[Category:Indo-European languages]]
[[Category:Fusional languages]]

Lemizh

2022-05-14T17:17:09Z

Anypodetos: Minor things

{{Infobox language
|image =
|imagesize =
|name = Lemizh
|nativename = lemỳzh.
|pronunciation = lɛmˈɯ̀ʒ
|state = Lemaria
|setting = Alt-history Europe
|created = 1985
|familycolor = Indo-European
|fam2 = Lemizh
|ancestor = Proto-Lemizh
|posteriori = [[w:Proto-Indo-European|Proto-Indo-European]]
|creator = [[User:Anypodetos|Anypodetos]]
|scripts = Lemizh alphabet
|nation = Lemaria
|map = Map of Lemaria.png
|notice = IPA
}}
'''Lemizh''' ([[Help:IPA|[lεmˈiʒ]]], native pronunciation: [[Help:IPA|[lɛmˈɯ̀ʒ]]]) is a language I invented with the aim of creating a grammar as regular and simple as possible. It was originally intended as an [[w:International auxiliary language|international auxiliary language]]. However, it turned out that a simple grammar is not necessarily a grammar that is easy to learn: the more ways of simplification I found, the further away it moved from [[w:Indo-European languages|Indo-European]] and probably all other familiar language structures. Expecting anyone to learn Lemizh, at this point, would be completely unrealistic.

So I needed a new justification for the language: enter the Lemizh, a people living to the west and north of the [[w:Black Sea|Black Sea]] in an alternate history that slowly drifted away from ours between two and eight millennia ago. Of course, it is extremely unlikely that they would speak a language that was completely without exceptions. To be precise, the chances are two to the power of two hundred and seventy-six thousand seven hundred and nine to one against. But they say that everything has to happen somewhere in the Multiverse. And everything happens only once.

{{TOC limit}}

==History==
===Early stages===
Lemizh is an Indo-European language and, together with Volgan, constitutes one of the ten recognised branches of the Indo-European language family. This branch is also called Lemizh, to the disgruntlement of Volgan linguists.

Proto-Lemizh, the ancestor of Lemizh and Volgan, is very poorly attested in form of some papyri found near the northwestern shore of the Black Sea, to the north of the [[w:Dniester Liman|Dniester Liman]], dated about 2700 BC. Old Lemizh, by contrast, is fairly well attested. It had predominantly [[w:Subject–verb–object|subject–verb–object]] (SVO) word order and was a quite typical old Indo-European language, but with a couple of interesting quirks:
* Adjectives were lost as a separate part of speech, being replaced with participles ("white" > "being white").
* Finite subordinate clauses had their subject in the case of the clause: the subject of a local clause was in the locative case without having a local meaning in itself.
The earliest known documents from this stage of Lemizh were probably written around 2100 BC along the northern and western shores of the Back Sea.

===Ghean and Middle Lemizh===
Ghean ([[Help:IPA|[ˈɣɛən]]]) is a language with no known genetic relationships. It was spoken by a people of unknown origin, who subdued the Lemizh tribes in around 1000 BC and ruled for infamous three generations. Ghean was an inflected [[w:Tonal language|register tonal]] language with strict [[w:Verb–subject–object|verb–subject–object]] (VSO) word order and head-first phrases. It had verbs, [[w:Nominal (linguistics)|nominals]] (a combined noun/adjective/participle part of speech), pronouns and particles.

The Gheans discouraged the use of the natives' language, but obviously tolerated Lemizh words (or rather word stems) to stand in for unfamiliar Ghean ones. The grammar of simple sentences was easy enough to learn for the Lemizh, as they were used to inflection and head-first phrases, and likely still knew VSO sentences from poetry. After two or three generations, the natives must have spoken a [[w:Creole language|creole]] with a more or less Ghean grammar but an abundance of Lemizh words, especially outside the core vocabulary. This is a quite unusual development as most creoles draw their lexicon mainly from the dominant group, and tend to be grammatically more innovative. (The Tanzanian language [[w:Mbugu language|Mbugu]] might have had a somewhat similar development with more or less analogous outcomes.) After the disappearance of the Gheans, Lemizh patriots tried to revive their old language, which failed spectacularly for the grammar but reintroduced many Lemizh words of the core vocabulary.

===The last three millennia===
While Middle Lemizh as spoken after the Ghean occupation already had a non-Indo-European and unusually regular grammar, this trend was to continue over the following millennia. The factive case was innovated to express verbal nouns, which eventually supplanted verbs altogether. (At least part of the blame goes to the Tlöngö̀l, an epic novel published in 1351, which popularised the use of verbal nouns.) The tonal system was simplified to the present two-way [[w:Pitch-accent language|pitch-accent]] system. Pronouns lost their status as a separate part of speech. The last particles died out a few hundred years ago, leaving the language with a single part of speech which is often called a "verb" but, historically speaking, is really a nominal. This means that the concept of ''parts of speech'' does not make sense in Modern Lemizh.

==Orthography and phonology==
The alphabet is [[w:Phonetic orthography|phonetic]]: each letter corresponds to a certain sound, and each sound is represented by a single letter. The direction of writing is left to right. This article uses the standard transcription of the native Lemizh alphabet as given in the following table:
{| class="wikitable" style="width: 800px; table-layout: fixed; text-align: center"
! colspan="29" | Letters of the Lemizh alphabet
|-
| colspan="29" style="padding: 0" | [[File:Lemizh alphabet.png|796px]]
|-
| a || e || y || i || o || ö || u || ü || l || rh || r || ng || m || g || d || b || k || t || p || gh || zh || z || dh || w || x || sh || s || th || f
|}

===Consonants===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="2" | !! bilabial !! dental !! alveolar !! postalveolar !! velar
|-
! colspan="2" | nasals
| m <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial nasal|m]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || || || ng <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar nasal|ŋ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! colspan="2" | plosives (voiceless • voiced)
| p <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless bilabial plosive|p]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • b <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial plosive|b]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || t <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless alveolar plosive|t]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • d <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar plosive|d]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || k <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless velar plosive|k]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • g <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar plosive|g]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! colspan="2" | fricatives (voiceless • voiced)
| f <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless bilabial fricative|ɸ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • w <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial fricative|β]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || th <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless dental fricative|θ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • dh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced dental fricative|ð]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || s <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless alveolar sibilant|s]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • z <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar sibilant|z]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || sh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless palato-alveolar fricative|ʃ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • zh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced palato-alveolar fricative|ʒ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || x <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless velar fricative|x]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • gh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar fricative|ɣ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! rowspan="3" | liquids || lateral approximant
| || || l <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar lateral approximant|l]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|-
! approximant
| || || rh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar approximant|ɹ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|-
! trill
| || || r <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar trill|r]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|}
The plosive-fricative combinations ''pf, ts, tsh, kx'' and their voiced couterparts only occur at word boundaries and in compound words. They are not pronounced as affricates but as separate sounds. The same applies for other combinations of a plosive plus another consonant (''pm, tl'' etc.), as well as for two identical plosives (''kk'' etc.): the release of the first plosive is always audible.

===Vowels===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! rowspan="2" | !! colspan="2" | front !! colspan="2" | back
|-
! unrounded !! rounded !! unrounded !! rounded
|-
! close
| i <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close front unrounded vowel|i]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ü <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close front rounded vowel|y]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || y <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close back unrounded vowel|ɯ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || u <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close back rounded vowel|u]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! open-mid
| e <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid front unrounded vowel|ɛ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ö <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid front rounded vowel|œ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || a <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid back unrounded vowel|ʌ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || o <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid back rounded vowel|ɔ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|}
Two consecutive different vowels are pronounced as a diphthong; two consecutive identical vowels as a long one. Single vowels are always short.

Lemizh uses [[w:Mora (linguistics)|moræ]] for structuring words: a short syllable equals one mora, and a long syllable equals two. In Lemizh, every vowel is the centre of a mora; consequently, two consecutive vowels result in two moræ or one long syllable.

===Accent===
Lemizh has got a two-way pitch-accent system, in that accented moræ are not only spoken louder (as in English), but also have either a lower or a higher pitch than the surrounding unaccented ones. The accented mora is always the ultimate or penultimate of a word. The vowel at the centre of a low-pitch accented mora is transcribed with a grave accent, the vowel at the centre of a high-pitch accented mora with an acute accent.
{| class="wikitable" style="width: 220px; table-layout: fixed; text-align: center"
! colspan="8" | Accented vowel letters
|-
| colspan="8" style="padding: 0" | [[File:Lemizh accented vowels.png|216px]]
|-
| à || è || ỳ || ì || ò || ö̀ || ù || ǜ
|-
| á || é || ý || í || ó || ö́ || ú || ǘ
|}

===Phonotactics===
[[w:Phonotactics|Phonotactics]] is rather permissive in Lemizh. A mora has the following structure, where the bracketed parts are optional:
* (O)(N)(L)V(L)(N)(O)
V is the mora's vowel, L a liquid, N a nasal, and O an obstruent that can be either a P(losive), a F(ricative), FP, PF, FF, FFP, FPF, or PFF. Word-initial consonant clusters cannot contain more than three sounds. No geminate consonants (<abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''ff'' etc.) occur within a mora. Consecutive plosive-fricative or fricative-plosive combinations within the same mora must have the same sonority – either both are voiced, or both are voiceless. A plosive cannot have the same place of articulation as a following consonant with the exception of ''rh'' and ''r''. <abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''dzh'', <abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''ddh'' and their voiceless counterparts are also prohibited within a mora.

Word boundaries, including those within compound words, are always mora boundaries. Where mora boundaries would still be ambiguous, liquids and nasals are assigned to the earliest possible mora (as the ''m'' in ''lem·ỳzh.''), and obstruents to the latest possible mora.

==Morphology==
All words are composed of the following parts:
* Prestem + inner case + poststem + outer case
Prestem and poststem form the stem, or the lexical part, of the word. The division of the stem into two portions is similar to English verbs such as ''sing/sang/sung'', where the lexical part is ''s–ng'' while the vowels ''i/a/u'' convey grammatical information. The stem always denotes an action (but never a state, a person, a thing, a property, etc.) and thus resembles our verbs. The prestem can contain any sounds, or it can be zero (i.e. consisting of zero sounds). The poststem can only contain fricatives and plosives, or it can be zero as well.

The inner case is represented by one of the eight vowels, optionally followed by a liquid (the primary case suffix) and/or a nasal (the secondary case suffix). The outer case has the same structure. For the first word in each sentence, the main predicate, the outer case is missing.

Each case is defined by its ''descriptor'': for example, the factive case denotes an ''action'', the nominative a ''sender'', the locative a ''place''. The stem and the inner case's descriptor determine a word's meaning.

'''Examples'''
* ''wàx. w–x'' is the stem for "speak", ''-a-'' denotes the inner factive, so this word means "an action of speaking", translated as the verb "to speak" or the [[w:Verbal noun|verbal noun]] "speaking".
* ''wèx. -e-'' denotes the inner nominative, so this word means "a sender of speaking" or "a speaker".
* ''àrdh. ∅–dh'' (having a zero prestem) is the stem for "eat", ''-ar-'' denotes the inner locative: "a place of eating".
{| class="wikitable"
|+ Primary cases and their descriptors
|-
! rowspan="3" | № !! rowspan="3" | Case vowel !! colspan="4" | Primary case suffix
|-
| none || l || rh || r
|-
! Plot cases !! Causal cases !! Temporal cases !! Spatial cases
|-
| 1 || a || factive ({{sc|fact}}): ''action'' || affirmative ({{sc|aff}}): ''fact (point in causal chain)'' || temporal ({{sc|temp}}): ''time'' || locative ({{sc|loc}}): ''place/region''
|-
| 2 || e || nominative ({{sc|nom}}): ''source, sender'' || causative ({{sc|caus}}): ''direct cause'' || ingressive ({{sc|ing}}): ''starting time'' || elative ({{sc|ela}}): ''starting point/region''
|-
| 3 || y || accusative ({{sc|acc}}): ''content'' || contextual ({{sc|ctx}}): ''causal context'' || durative ({{sc|dur}}): ''duration'' || extensive ({{sc|ext}}): ''spatial extent''
|-
| 4 || i || dative ({{sc|dat}}): ''sink, recipient'' || consecutive ({{sc|cons}}): ''direct consequence, effect'' || egressive ({{sc|egr}}): ''closing time'' || illative ({{sc|ill}}): ''end point / ending region''
|-
| 5 || o || tentive ({{sc|ten}}): ''intention'' || intentive ({{sc|int}}): ''intention (intended point in causal chain)'' || episodic ({{sc|eps}}): ''episode, "act"'' || scenic ({{sc|sce}}): ''scene, "stage"''
|-
| 6 || ö || comitative ({{sc|com}}): ''company'' || persuasive ({{sc|psu}}): ''reason'' || digressive ({{sc|dig}}): ''time away from which'' || ablative ({{sc|abl}}): ''place/region away from which''
|-
| 7 || u || instrumental ({{sc|ins}}): ''means, tool'' || motivational ({{sc|mot}}): ''motivational context'' || progressive ({{sc|prog}}): ''time that is passed'' || prolative ({{sc|prol}}): ''crossing point/region''
|-
| 8 || ü || benefactive ({{sc|ben}}): ''beneficiary'' || final ({{sc|fin}}): ''purpose, aim'' || aggressive ({{sc|agg}}): ''time towards which, temporal aim'' || allative ({{sc|all}}): ''place/region towards which, spatial aim''
|}
Each primary case has two corresponding secondary cases:
* a partitive case formed by adding ''ng'' (such as ''-ing-'' for the partitive dative or ''-erng-'' for the partitive elative) with the descriptor ''the set from which the source (sink, place, etc.) is thought to be taken''
* a qualitative case formed by adding ''m'', with the descriptor ''the basis of comparison for the source (sink, place, etc.)''

===The flow of the plot===
Every action denoted by a stem is considered a flow of information that comes from a source (sender), transports a content, and reaches a sink (a recipient). The terms "sender" and "recipient" may be more familiar, but "source" and "sink" are more accurate in not necessarily meaning living beings.

Consequently, a Lemizh action looks somewhat like this: '''nominative  accusative[[File:DreieckYellowMIDDLE.png|26px|link=]] dative'''

This is called the action's plot. Here are some examples:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative
|-
| ''wàx.'' "to speak, to tell; (an act of) speaking" || ''wèx.'' "one telling something" || ''wỳx.'' "a tale" || ''wìx.'' "one who is told something"
|-
| ''dà.'' "to give; (an act of) giving" || ''dè.'' "one giving something" || ''dỳ.'' "a gift" || ''dì.'' "one who is given something; one who gets something"
|-
| ''làzhw.'' "to help" || ''lèzhw.'' "one helping" || ''lỳzhw.'' "help (given)" || ''lìzhw.'' "one whom is helped"
|-
| ''mlàtx.'' "to melt" || ''mlètx.'' "one melting something" || [''mlỳtx.''] || ''mlìtx.'' "a melted thing"
|-
| ''xöàgh.'' "to produce a sound; to hear" || ''xöègh.'' "one producing a sound" || ''xöỳgh.'' "a sound" || ''xöìgh.'' "one hearing something"
|-
| ''àdh.'' "to feed; to eat" || ''èdh.'' "one feeding someone" || ''ỳdh.'' "food" || ''ìdh.'' "one being fed; one eating"
|-
| ''ià.'' "to love" || ''iè.'' "one loving someone, a lover" || ''iỳ.'' "a beloved" || ''iì.'' "a beloved"
|}
Importantly, there are no rules for which cases to use with which words. Both ''iỳ.'' ({{sc|acc}}) and ''iì.'' ({{sc|dat}}) mean "a beloved". The former describes the beloved as the content of love, the one being lovingly thought of, while the latter implies that the love reaches them, like words or gifts reach their recipient. Likewise, the reason why ''mlỳtx.'' is not translated in the table above isn't that "''melt'' does not take the accusative", as grammars of other languages would say, but that "a content of melting" does not seem to have any obvious meaning. If someone wanted to describe, say, sun rays as content transported from the sun to the snow to melt it, they could well use ''mlỳtx.'' to express the concept.

Case usage is governed solely by the cases' descriptors; it is up to the speaker how to use them given some word's meaning and some context. If the wind opens a door, is it the source of the action of opening (''ngèt.''), the means of opening (''ngùt.''), or the cause (''ngèlt.'')? All are grammatically correct; the speaker decides which possibility best expresses their intention.

===Nouns===
:''Nouns, adjectives and verbs do not correspond to any concepts in Lemizh grammar. Using these terms is just an attempt to describe the grammar from an Indo-European viewpoint.''
A large number of nouns are not derived from verbs in most languages: ''froth, ship, lion'' and many others. In Lemizh, however, we have verbs such as ''psràxk.'' "to froth", ''àksh.'' "to build a ship or ships", and ''làw.'' "to make a lion or lions". We will call these ''nominal verbs''.

Looking at the verb ''àksh.'', the shipwright ({{sc|nom}}) gives the building materials ({{sc|dat}}) the properties or the function of a ship ({{sc|acc}}). He confers, well, shipness on the materials. The shipness is sent by the shipwright, not because he is acting, but because he is the source: the image of the ship, so to say, comes from his head and materialises in wood, iron, ropes, and linen. In short, these words mostly appear with inner accusative.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative
|-
| ''psràxk.'' "to froth" || ''psrèxk.'' "one frothing something" || ''psrỳxk.'' "a thing having the properties of froth = '''froth'''" || ''psrìxk.'' "a frothed thing, a frothed liquid"
|-
| ''àksh.'' "to build a ship" || ''èksh.'' "one building a ship, a shipwright" || ''ỳksh.'' "a thing having the properties of a ship = '''a ship'''" || ''ìksh.'' "building materials for a ship, materials made into a ship"
|-
| ''làw.'' "to make a lion" || [''lèw.'' "one making a lion"] || ''lỳw.'' "a thing having the properties of a lion = '''a lion'''" || [''lìw.'' "building materials for a lion, materials made into a lion"]
|}

Another very common kind of nouns are tool nouns, formed with an inner instrumental case:
* ''ghstù.'' "a sail" is derived from ''ghstà.'' "to sail", literally "a means of sailing",
* ''pslù.'' "scissors" from ''pslà.'' "to cut with scissors",
* ''saxùf.'' "trumpet" from ''saxàf.'' "to play the trumpet",
* ''skrùzh.'' "a finger" from ''skràzh.'' "to work with one's fingers".

====Inflection====
As mentioned above, all words can inflect for (outer) case. Thus, we have the nominative forms ''wàx'''e''''' "(an act of) speaking, (an act of) telling", ''dè'''e''''' "a giver", ''lỳw'''e''''' "a lion", the causative ''lỳw'''el''''' "because of a lion", the elative ''lỳw'''er''''' "(starting) from a lion", etc.

Lemizh words do not inflect for number or gender. If desired, we can express this information by forming compounds. (Note the duplication of the inner case vowel; the first occurrence in each word is called the epenthetic case of the compound. The underlying grammar will be described later.)
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Singular !! Dual !! Plural !! Feminine !! Masculine !! Feminine singular !! etc.
|-
! giver
| ''dè.'' || ''de'''rè'''.'' || ''de'''dwè'''.'' || ''de'''mlè'''.'' || ''de'''bè'''.'' || ''de'''èx'''.'' || ''de'''berè'''.''
|-
! lion
| ''lỳw.'' || ''lyw'''rỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''dwỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''mlỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''bỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''ỳx'''.'' || ''lyw'''byrỳ'''.''
|-
! compound with
| — || ''rỳ.'' "one" || ''dwỳ.'' "two" || ''mlỳ.'' "several" || ''bỳ.'' "female; woman" || ''ỳx.'' "male; man" || "female" and "one"
|}

===Adjectives and numerals===
There is no difference between adjectival and nominal verbs: they mostly appear with inner accusative. This is the same situation as in, say, Latin, where ''albus'' can mean "a white one" as well as "white". Numerals are basically a sub-category of adjectives.

The inner consecutive case translates certain abstract nouns.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative !! Inner consecutive
|-
| ''gmrà.'' "to heat, to make something warm" || ''gmrè.'' "one heating something up" || ''gmrỳ.'' "a warm thing; '''warm'''" || ''gmrì.'' "a thing heated up; heated, warmed" || ''gmrìl.'' "the consequence of heating = heat"
|-
| ''làbdh.'' "to whiten something, to make something white" || ''lèbdh.'' "one whitening something" || ''lỳbdh.'' "a white thing; '''white'''" || ''lìbdh.'' "a thing made white; whitened" || ''lìlbdh.'' "the consequence of whitening = whiteness"
|-
| ''dwà.'' "to make two things/individuals" || ''dwè.'' "one making two things" || ''dwỳ.'' "'''two''' (things)" || ''dwì.'' "something made into two (things)" || ''dwìl.'' "the consequence of making two things = twoness"
|}

However, emotions aren't viewed as properties in Lemizh: a happy or angry person is one sending happiness or anger, just as a loving person is one sending love. The inner causative plays a notable role with verbs of emotion.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative !! Inner causative
|-
| ''pthàb.'' "to be angry" || ''pthèb.'' "an angry one; '''angry'''" || ''pthỳb.'' "the content/object of one's anger" || ''pthìb.'' "one that one's anger reaches" || ''pthèlb.'' "one causing someone anger; one annoying someone"
|}

====Inflection====
Of course, adjectives can be compounded to express number and/or gender in the same way as nouns. Furthermore, we can form compounds expressing various degrees. (The epenthetic consecutive ''-il-'' in these compounds will also be explained later; it is actually the main application of the abstract nouns just mentioned.)
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Diminutive !! Augmentative !! Absolute !! Comparative !! Superlative
|-
! warm
| ''gmrỳ.'' || ''gmril'''zhrỳ'''.'' "lukewarm" || ''gmril'''dmỳ'''.'' "hot" || ''gmril'''ghngỳ'''.'' "absolutely hot" || ''gmril'''tỳzhd'''.'' "warmer, hotter" || ''gmril'''ỳst'''.'' "hottest"
|-
! white
| ''lỳbdh.'' || ''lilbdh'''zhrỳ'''.'' "whitish" || ''lilbdh'''dmỳ'''.'' "very white" || ''lilbdh'''ghngỳ'''.'' "absolutely/completely white" || ''lilbdh'''tỳzhd'''.'' "whiter" || ''lilbdh'''ỳst'''.'' "whitest"
|-
! compound with
| — || ''zhrỳ.'' "few, little, a bit" || ''dmỳ.'' "much, many" || ''ghngỳ.'' "every, all, the whole" || ''tỳzhd.'' "more" || ''ỳst.'' "most"
|}

===Verbs===
Most verbs correspond to Lemizh words with an inner factive. However, as Lemizh stems always denote an action, the notable exception are stative verbs such as:
* ''zdìls.'' "to sit", literally "the consequence of sitting down (''zdàs.'')"
* ''gwìlt.'' "to know", literally "the consequence of learning (''gwàt.'')"

====Inflection====
* Person is not expressed with inflection but with [[#Relative pronouns|pronouns]].
* Number is conveyed by compounding pronouns with numerals. While verbs (i.e. words with an inner factive) can be compounded with numerals, ''ftrask'''mlà'''.'' does not mean "we/they sneeze" but "(there are) several acts of sneezing" (i.e. someone sneezes several times and/or several people sneeze).
* Voice (active/passive) is absent in Lemizh; word order serves a similar function.
* Tense is expressed by compounds with an epenthetic temporal case (''-arh-''), or with certain inner cases. The latter option is preferred if possible, as it is more concise.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Present !! Past !! Perfect !! Future !! Intentional
|-
! to sit down
| ''zdàs.'' || ''zdarhs'''wà'''.'' || ''zdarhs'''prilkà'''.'' || ''zd'''ìl'''s.'' ({{sc|cons}}) || ''zdarhs'''prà'''.'' || ''zd'''ò'''s.'' ({{sc|ten}})
|-
! compound with
| — || pronoun || ''prilkỳ.'' "back" || — || ''prỳ.'' "front" || —
|}
Note that the translation of the perfect with inner consecutive coincides with the translation of stative verbs: "having sat down" in the strict perfect sense of "the consequence/effect of this action exists" means the same as "to sit". Likewise, "whiteness" can be expressed as the abstract concept of "having whitened something".

* Mood corresponds to compounds with certain verbs for the most part. There is no equivalent to the subjunctive mood, as subordinate clauses are irreal (i.e. not necessarily real) by default. Here are some common formations:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Indicative !! Imperative !! Commanding imperative !! Interrogative Polite imperative !! Optative
|-
! to feed, to eat
| ''àdh.'' || ''adh'''pràk'''.'' || ''adh'''dàxt'''.'' || ''adh'''pà'''.'' || ''adh'''làxt'''.''
|-
! compound with
| — || ''pràk.'' "to request" || ''dàxt.'' "to command" || ''pà.'' "to ask" || ''làxt.'' "to want"
|}
* Aspect is a very heterogeneous category, expressed by a variety of compounds and syntactic structures in Lemizh.

===Pronouns===
The two demonstrative pronouns are technically nominal verbs:
* ''tà.'' "to make this/that one", typically used with inner accusative: ''tỳ.'' "this/that (one)"
* ''gwà.'' "to make someone/anyone, something/anything", with inner accusative ''gwỳ.'' "someone/anyone, something/anything"

The eleven relative pronouns play a far more prominent role in Lemizh grammar. Their scope is much wider than the one usually associated with the term. As they are closely tied to Lemizh syntax, they will be described further down.

==Syntax==
===Level of words===
There is only one more grammatical category: the level of words, which is the main building block of Lemizh syntax. A word can be of first level (the highest), of second level (the next highest), of third level (still one level lower) and so on; there is no limit for the number of levels, but non-positive word levels (zero, −1, etc.) are forbidden.

The first word in a sentence (the main predicate) is of first level by definition. The level of the next word is determined by the main predicate's accent and by the type of pause between the two words, the level of the third word is determined by the accent of the second and the pause between these two, and so on.

Here is the complete list of pause/accent combinations.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="2" | Following pause !! rowspan="2" | Accented vowel !! rowspan="2" | Type of accent !! rowspan="2" | The level of the next word is …
|-
! in speech !! in writing
|-
| rowspan="4" | barely audible || rowspan="4" | space || rowspan="2" | inner case || low || lower by 1
|-
| high || lower by 1, and [[w:Agent (grammar)|agentive]]* ({{sc|a}})
|-
| rowspan="2" | outer case || low || equal
|-
| high || higher by 1
|-
| rowspan="4" | a bit longer || rowspan="4" | comma ('''·''') || rowspan="2" | inner case || low || higher by 2
|-
| high || higher by 3
|-
| rowspan="2" | outer case || low || higher by 4
|-
| high || higher by 5
|-
| the longest || full stop ('''∶''') || inner case || low || none; end of sentence
|}
<nowiki>*</nowiki> The agent is the initiator of the action (more informally, the one who ''does'' the action).

===The Rules===
[[File:Lemizh parse tree.png|thumb|upright=1.5|A schematic sentence with the words represented by their level numbers]]
The word levels determine the structure of a sentence.

'''Rule One of sentence grammar. A word of level n is subordinate to the nearest word of level n−1 in front of it; the parole acts as a word of level zero.'''

All words of second level are subordinate to the main predicate (which has first level). A word of third level is subordinate to the next second-level word in front of it, and so on. In other words, Lemizh sentences are strictly [[w:Head directionality|head-first]]. The main predicate itself is subordinate to the [[w:Parole (linguistics)|parole]], the action of speaking (or writing) the sentence in question, which consequently has level zero.

'''Rule Two. An object of a word in a sentence is a word subordinate to the former, its predicate, plus all of its own objects.'''

In the diagram, the main predicate's three objects are enclosed in ellipses. Objects of the same word are called ''sibling objects'' or just ''siblings'', and the word they are subordinate to is their ''predicate''. Note that ''predicate'' and ''object'' are relative terms like ''parent'' and ''child''.

The table of level markers implies that only the first object of a predicate can be marked as agent. (This has been interpreted as Lemizh having VSO word order, although a subject is not quite the same as an agent, and Lemizh grammar strictly speaking does not have the concept of a subject.)

'''Rule Three. The outer case of the first word of an object defines its relation to its predicate's stem via its descriptor; the outer case of a level 1 word is zero.'''

This is what we would expect from a language that inflects for case: the nominative object defines the source (sender) of the action named by the stem of its predicate, the accusative object its content, the temporal object its time, etc.

'''Examples'''
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dá föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|give-FACT-1 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2A bottle-ACC-ACC-2 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2.
|''Father Christmas gives Lucy a bottle.''}}

The stems of the three objects are nominal verbs ("to make a bottle" etc.), hence the inner accusatives. The outer cases indicate the sender, content and recipient of the act of giving, respectively. The agent is specified independently of the plot arrow; note the difference:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dá lusyì dwywỳ föpysrỳfe.
|give-FACT-1 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2A bottle-ACC-ACC-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2.
|''Lucy takes a bottle from Father Christmas.''}}

We need not mark an object as agentive if we consider this information unimportant. The English translations are only rough approximations:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dà lusyì dwywỳ föpysrỳfe.
|give-FACT-1 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2 bottle-ACC-ACC-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2.
|''Lucy gets a bottle from Father Christmas. Lucy is given a bottle by Father Christmas.''}}

'''Rule Four. An instance of a word stem designates a specific action.'''

''dà'' in the above sentence does not just mean "to give", it refers to one specific action of giving. Such an action may involve several givers (as in "They give something") and need not even be temporally or spatially connected (as in "They are giving something every Christmas"). In other words, each spoken or written instance of the stem ''d–'' refers to a certain subset of all the giving there is.

This rule ensures that all the objects refer to the same action of giving as the predicate itself.

'''Rule Five. A case characterises the action it refers to completely with regard to its case descriptor.'''

For example, the nominative object "Father Christmas" has to name the complete sender of the above instance of giving. This excludes from this instance all giving not done by Father Christmas. So each object places a restriction on the action of giving the main predicate refers to. Thus, the subset of giving meant by this instance of ''dà.'' – what the sentence is ultimately talking about – is defined more and more precisely with each additional object. (The same is true not only of the main predicate but of all words in a sentence.)

'''Rule Six. A missing object is equivalent to the absence of information about its descriptor.'''

Above sentences do not have, for example, locative objects, so Rule Five cannot place a restriction on the place of giving. Because of Rule Six, this does not mean there are no restrictions on the location, but only that this kind of information has not been included in the sentence (for example, because the speaker does not know about it, considers it irrelevent, or assumes the listener already knows or – perhaps most importantly – can infer it.)

'''Rule Seven. Given an object and its predicate, the predicate is considered more real and the object more hypothetical.'''

…

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! as an object !! as a complete sentence
|-
| ''dà.'' || to give; giving || An action of giving exists = Someone gives something.
|-
| ''zdìls.'' || the consequence of sitting down = to sit; sitting || The consequence of sitting down exists = Someone sits.
|-
| ''dwìlw.'' || the consequence of making a bottle || The consequence of making a bottle exists = A bottle exists; there is a bottle.
|-
| ''sklè.'' || one building a bridge || One building a bridge exists = There is someone building a bridge.
|}

===Noun phrases===
Forming noun phrases does not require any new grammatical rules. In the following example, the inner case of "give" is changed to the nominative, yielding "one giving something, a giver", and everything is pushed down one level. The third-level words are still sender, content and recipient of the ''action'' of giving, as outer cases define relations to the predicate's ''stem'' per Rule Three.
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 3A:third level, agentive
|dmàt tryxkì dée föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|see-FACT-1 beaver-ACC-DAT-2 give-NOM-NOM-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-3A bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3.
|''The beaver sees '''the one giving Lucy a bottle, Father Christmas'''.''}}
Regarding the verb "see", note that the beaver is in the dative, being at the receiving end of the optical stimulus or information. Marking the beaver as agent would translate as "The beaver looks at the one …".

Rules Four and Five guarantee that the giver is identical to Father Christmas: both are the sender of the same instance of the stem ''d–'' "give" (the giver via its inner nominative, Father Christmas via its outer nominative), and both are the ''complete'' sender of this action. This type of construction, where an object's outer case matches its predicate's inner case, is called a '''bracket'''. Brackets are very widely used:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Apposition !! Attributive adjective !! Attributive pronoun/determiner !! Attributive numeral !! Attributive participle
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|iakopỳk saxèfy.
|Jacopo-'''ACC'''-1 trumpet-NOM-'''ACC'''-2.
|''Jacopo, a trumpeter''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=INS:instrumental case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|ghstù lỳbdhu.
|sail-'''INS'''-1 white-ACC-'''INS'''-2.
|''a sail, a white thing = a white sail''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|ỳksh gwỳy.
|ship-'''ACC'''-1 some-ACC-'''ACC'''-2.
|''a ship, something = some ship''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|mỳs trỳy.
|mouse-'''ACC'''-1 three-ACC-'''ACC'''-2.
|''mice, three individuals = three mice''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|nỳzd gangèy.
|bird-'''ACC'''-1 sing-NOM-'''ACC'''-2.
|''a bird, a singer = a singing bird''}}
|}
Such phrases can be easily extended. This example contains two accusative brackets ("a singing bird" and "a sad child"):
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 4:fourth level
|ngỳzd gangèy zhngỳi speghý ytfỳarh.
|bird-ACC-1 sing-NOM-ACC-2 child-ACC-DAT-3 sad-NOM-ACC-4 night-ACC-TEMP-3.
|''a bird singing to a sad child at night''}}

As [[w:Genitive construction|genitive constructions]] have a wide variety of meanings, there is no single Lemizh equivalent. The typical translation for constructions indicating possession is with the benefactive case, but other cases frequently occur. Everything depends on the object's relation to the predicate's stem per Rule Three.

{|
|-
| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|dwỳw lusỳü.
|bottle-ACC-1 Lucy-ACC-'''BEN'''-2.
|Lucy is the beneficiary of making the bottle. The bottle is made for Lucy. 
''Lucy's bottle''}}

| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dý ỳxe.
|give-ACC-1 male-ACC-'''NOM'''-2A.
|The man is the sender of giving. 
''the man's gift''}}

| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|rhỳst ytfỳarh filpskỳy.
|dream-ACC-1 night-ACC-'''TEMP'''-2 midsummer-ACC-ACC-3.
| The midsummer night is the time of dreaming. 
''A Midsummer Night's Dream''}}
|}

===Verb phrases===
Adverbially used adjectives also translate to brackets:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|gangà txỳska.
|sing-'''FACT'''-1 loud-ACC-'''FACT'''-2.
|''(an act of) singing, a loud thing = to sing loudly''}}

===Predicative===
…


===Dependent clauses===
…

===Relative pronouns===
Stems of relative pronouns (not to be confused with the pronouns of the same name in English or Latin) refer to actions by pointing to another stem or to a parole: they are [[w:Anaphora (linguistics)|anaphoric]]. Here is the full list:
{| class="wikitable"
! rowspan="2" | Level !! colspan="2" | Type I !! colspan="2" | Type II
|-
! Verb !! The target is the stem of !! Verb !! The target is the stem of
|-
| n || colspan="2" | (does not occur because it would refer to itself) || à. || its preceding same-level word
|-
| n−1 || wà. || its predicate || fà. || its predicate's preceding same-level word or parole
|-
| n−2 || dhà. || its predicate's predicate || thà. || its predicate's predicate's preceding same-level word or parole
|-
| n−3 || zà. || its predicate's predicate's predicate || sà. || …
|-
| n−4 || zhà. || … || shà. || …
|-
| n−5 || ghà. || … || xà. || …
|}
They are highly versatile, corresponding to various structures in other languages. Recall that a sentence's parole has level zero:
{| class="wikitable"
! Reflexive !! First person (singular) !! Second person
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|wáx wìe.
|speak-FACT-1 PIn−1-'''DAT'''-'''NOM'''-2A.
|The recipient of speaking is its sender. 
''to talk to oneself. He is talking to himself.''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dráw dhèe.
|dance-FACT-1 PIn−2-'''NOM'''-NOM-2A.
|The sender of the parole is the sender of dancing. 
''I am dancing.''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dráw dhìe.
|dance-FACT-1 PIn−2-'''DAT'''-NOM-2A.
|The recipient of the parole is the sender of dancing. 
''You are dancing.''}}
|}
Rule Four of sentence grammar ensures that the reflexive example means "He is talking to himself" as opposed to, say, "He is talking to one being talked to" (which would be ''wáx wìxe.'' speak-{{sc|fact-1}} speak-{{sc|dat-nom-2a}}, with two different instances of the stem "speak").

{| class="wikitable"
! Possessive determiner !! Vocative
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=CONS:consecutive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|zdìls ngỳzdy zeú tỳar.
|seat-CONS-1 bird-ACC-ACC-2 PIn−3-'''NOM'''-BEN-3 this-ACC-LOC-2.
|The sender of the parole is the beneficiary of making a bird.
 ''My bird is sitting there.''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=PI:pronoun type I; FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive; 3:third level
|wáx dheè zdhèzhi zìe.
|speak-FACT-1 PIn−2-NOM-NOM-2A friend-NOM-DAT-2 PIn−3-'''DAT'''-NOM-3.
|The recipient of the parole is the friend. (nominative bracket) 
''Friend, I am talking to you.''}}
|}

The type II pronoun in the following example points to the stem of eating. With the inner accusative, the pronoun refers to the content of eating, which is the sweet. (As with brackets, Rules Four and Five guarantee that the pronoun refers to the same content of the same action of eating as mentioned in the first sentence.)
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; PII:pronoun type II; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|ádh dheì mlỳdhy. ràsh fỳy.
|eat-FACT-1 PIn−2-NOM-DAT-2A sweet-ACC-ACC-2. like-FACT-1 PIIn−1-'''ACC'''-ACC-2.
|''I am eating a sweet. [I] like it.''}}

==Derivational morphology==
From a Lemizh point of view, ''dè.'' "giver" and ''dỳ.'' "gift" aren't derivatives of ''dà.'' "to give" but grammatical forms of the same word. The only piece of true derivational morphology is compounding.

===Compounds===
[[File:Lemizh compounding diagram.png|thumb|Forming a compound from a two-word sentence]]
'''Rule One of compounding. A compound word is constructed from a two-word sentence – predicate and object of which become modifier and head of the compound, respectively – in the following way:'''
# '''Prestem''':
## the object's prestem
## the object's inner case
## the object's poststem
## an optional separator
## the predicate's prestem
# '''Inner case'''
# '''Poststem''': the predicate's poststem
# '''Outer case'''
Note that the object's stem comes before the predicate's; and also that the object's outer case (and, less importantly, the predicate's inner case) is lost. The separator can be used, for example, if the word boundary would be unclear otherwise, or for placing the second part of the word on a new line.

…

'''Rule Two. In the relationship between the original predicate and object, the rules of sentence grammar are retained as far as applicable.'''

…

'''Rule Three. Regarding all outward relations, cases refer to the head.'''

…

==Example text==
[[File:Lemizh text sample.png|600px]]

====stedrỳzh thìrhfi xtrỳghy.====
krỳgh dghngireì prilxpilghkỳarh. mangỳ srungbỳng lyngghỳng yngshwỳng fỳü. zhöazhghngìl tmỳil. ghngàgzh smìa prỳal ghngyé dhàbdhy lunguỳ ùyl mỳu fplyxár tỳarh. dmát feì sxngengzè ishkènge. ghìlt krighmyngthxì xtrỳngghi swyshỳ ghỳxy fplyxòr zhöyzhỳm xngàrorm. dmìlt öngkrỳngty zhryỳ rèshy esfàsy sxngyzdmýi, usrỳngy xazhgèsty ghngỳeng, frekrỳngfy rilghdzhỳwby pthèby, dgheipysrỳngdy psrèby rhèzhem, dghistngỳngty ghỳxy zangỳa dghildhfmlýyrh, ngiftngyghtmỳngy krültlìy zùe gỳghda. xtrỳgh swyshý stedrỳzh thìrfi. dngilszhrìl bdhyrgzhyngỳng xüxtrỳngyng prilkỳarh ötìlil skmyngìlng ghỳngsilng. dngilszhìlwb ráxpy thìlfi. fö̀l gwiltngìlöl dmàty föpysryfỳ ngỳu.

rỳ zhryỳrh thìzgy gwiltngìly rhàghgy dmatngìe thìrfy. là xángska matngiè ytfỳyrh dmyý fplyxór dyxtngyngà mànga prilzhryngỳr iltỳngzhdyr. dmàt ytfỳarh ryý mìlngorh xngyì prilkyár mìlngorh xtrỳngghi kshrextý mengthxì prỳar zìe, fplỳngxe fywýr déngske xtryghè sxngezì xngỳnge.

====The Legend of the Seventh Planet====
A long time ago there was a tribe of nomads. They possessed neither writing nor houses nor horses. But they were truly human. They were curious; this means, above all, that they took interest in the useless, for the celestial objects were of no use to them yet. They looked at the Sun and the Moon. They had named the constellations and the six planets moving across the sky like the humans across the earth. They knew dim Mercury, who liked to hide in the glare of the Sun; Venus, the brightest of all; reddish and angry Mars; majestic father Jupiter; Saturn, who seemed to stand still for weeks; and even Uranus had been caught by their keen eyes. Six planets, and the legend of a seventh. Maybe it had been the minor planet Vesta, or a comet centuries or millennia earlier. Maybe it was the attraction of the number seven. For Neptune is invisible to the naked eye.

One youngster thought to himself that he could not live without seeing the seventh planet. He lay awake searching the sky for many nights, neglected his duties, and became thinner and thinner. And one night, lying with the Earth behind his back, and with the looping planets and the stars above him, he saw the depth of the sky and the planets circling the Sun, and among them the Earth.

==External links==
* [https://lemizh.conlang.org Lemizh homepage] with comprehensive coverage of the language, including a dictionary
[[File:Copyleft1.png|20px]] ''This article includes material from the Lemizh homepage, which is available under a [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License].''


[[Category:Languages]]
[[Category:Conlangs]]
[[Category:Indo-European languages]]
[[Category:Fusional languages]]

Lemizh

2022-05-14T16:07:22Z

Anypodetos: /* Noun phrases */ Formatting

{{Infobox language
|image =
|imagesize =
|name = Lemizh
|nativename = lemỳzh.
|pronunciation = lɛmˈɯ̀ʒ
|state = Lemaria
|setting = Alt-history Europe
|created = 1985
|familycolor = Indo-European
|fam2 = Lemizh
|ancestor = Proto-Lemizh
|posteriori = [[w:Proto-Indo-European|Proto-Indo-European]]
|creator = [[User:Anypodetos|Anypodetos]]
|scripts = Lemizh alphabet
|nation = Lemaria
|map = Map of Lemaria.png
|notice = IPA
}}
'''Lemizh''' ([[Help:IPA|[lεmˈiʒ]]], native pronunciation: [[Help:IPA|[lɛmˈɯ̀ʒ]]]) is a language I invented with the aim of creating a grammar as regular and simple as possible. It was originally intended as an [[w:International auxiliary language|international auxiliary language]]. However, it turned out that a simple grammar is not necessarily a grammar that is easy to learn: the more ways of simplification I found, the further away it moved from [[w:Indo-European languages|Indo-European]] and probably all other familiar language structures. Expecting anyone to learn Lemizh, at this point, would be completely unrealistic.

So I needed a new justification for the language: enter the Lemizh, a people living to the west and north of the [[w:Black Sea|Black Sea]] in an alternate history that slowly drifted away from ours between two and eight millennia ago. Of course, it is extremely unlikely that they would speak a language that was completely without exceptions. To be precise, the chances are two to the power of two hundred and seventy-six thousand seven hundred and nine to one against. But they say that everything has to happen somewhere in the Multiverse. And everything happens only once.

{{TOC limit}}

==History==
===Early stages===
Lemizh is an Indo-European language and, together with Volgan, constitutes one of the ten recognised branches of the Indo-European language family. This branch is also called Lemizh, to the disgruntlement of Volgan linguists.

Proto-Lemizh, the ancestor of Lemizh and Volgan, is very poorly attested in form of some papyri found near the northwestern shore of the Black Sea, to the north of the [[w:Dniester Liman|Dniester Liman]], dated about 2700 BC. Old Lemizh, by contrast, is fairly well attested. It had predominantly [[w:Subject–verb–object|subject–verb–object]] (SVO) word order and was a quite typical old Indo-European language, but with a couple of interesting quirks:
* Adjectives were lost as a separate part of speech, being replaced with participles ("white" > "being white").
* Finite subordinate clauses had their subject in the case of the clause: the subject of a local clause was in the locative case without having a local meaning in itself.
The earliest known documents from this stage of Lemizh were probably written around 2100 BC along the northern and western shores of the Back Sea.

===Ghean and Middle Lemizh===
Ghean ([[Help:IPA|[ˈɣɛən]]]) is a language with no known genetic relationships. It was spoken by a people of unknown origin, who subdued the Lemizh tribes in around 1000 BC and ruled for infamous three generations. Ghean was an inflected [[w:Tonal language|register tonal]] language with strict [[w:Verb–subject–object|verb–subject–object]] (VSO) word order and head-first phrases. It had verbs, [[w:Nominal (linguistics)|nominals]] (a combined noun/adjective/participle part of speech), pronouns and particles.

The Gheans discouraged the use of the natives' language, but obviously tolerated Lemizh words (or rather word stems) to stand in for unfamiliar Ghean ones. The grammar of simple sentences was easy enough to learn for the Lemizh, as they were used to inflection and head-first phrases, and likely still knew VSO sentences from poetry. After two or three generations, the natives must have spoken a [[w:Creole language|creole]] with a more or less Ghean grammar but an abundance of Lemizh words, especially outside the core vocabulary. This is a quite unusual development as most creoles draw their lexicon mainly from the dominant group, and tend to be grammatically more innovative. (The Tanzanian language [[w:Mbugu language|Mbugu]] might have had a somewhat similar development with more or less analogous outcomes.) After the disappearance of the Gheans, Lemizh patriots tried to revive their old language, which failed spectacularly for the grammar but reintroduced many Lemizh words of the core vocabulary.

===The last three millennia===
While Middle Lemizh as spoken after the Ghean occupation already had a non-Indo-European and unusually regular grammar, this trend was to continue over the following millennia. The factive case was innovated to express verbal nouns, which eventually supplanted verbs altogether. (At least part of the blame goes to the Tlöngö̀l, an epic novel published in 1351, which popularised the use of verbal nouns.) The tonal system was simplified to the present two-way [[w:Pitch-accent language|pitch-accent]] system. Pronouns lost their status as a separate part of speech. The last particles died out a few hundred years ago, leaving the language with a single part of speech which is often called a "verb" but, historically speaking, is really a nominal. This means that the concept of ''parts of speech'' does not make sense in Modern Lemizh.

==Orthography and phonology==
The alphabet is [[w:Phonetic orthography|phonetic]]: each letter corresponds to a certain sound, and each sound is represented by a single letter. The direction of writing is left to right. This article uses the standard transcription of the native Lemizh alphabet as given in the following table:
{| class="wikitable" style="width: 800px; table-layout: fixed; text-align: center"
! colspan="29" | Letters of the Lemizh alphabet
|-
| colspan="29" style="padding: 0" | [[File:Lemizh alphabet.png|796px]]
|-
| a || e || y || i || o || ö || u || ü || l || rh || r || ng || m || g || d || b || k || t || p || gh || zh || z || dh || w || x || sh || s || th || f
|}

===Consonants===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="2" | !! bilabial !! dental !! alveolar !! postalveolar !! velar
|-
! colspan="2" | nasals
| m <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial nasal|m]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || || || ng <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar nasal|ŋ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! colspan="2" | plosives (voiceless • voiced)
| p <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless bilabial plosive|p]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • b <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial plosive|b]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || t <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless alveolar plosive|t]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • d <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar plosive|d]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || k <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless velar plosive|k]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • g <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar plosive|g]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! colspan="2" | fricatives (voiceless • voiced)
| f <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless bilabial fricative|ɸ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • w <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial fricative|β]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || th <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless dental fricative|θ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • dh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced dental fricative|ð]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || s <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless alveolar sibilant|s]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • z <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar sibilant|z]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || sh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless palato-alveolar fricative|ʃ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • zh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced palato-alveolar fricative|ʒ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || x <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless velar fricative|x]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • gh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar fricative|ɣ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! rowspan="3" | liquids || lateral approximant
| || || l <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar lateral approximant|l]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|-
! approximant
| || || rh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar approximant|ɹ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|-
! trill
| || || r <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar trill|r]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|}
The plosive-fricative combinations ''pf, ts, tsh, kx'' and their voiced couterparts only occur at word boundaries and in compound words. They are not pronounced as affricates but as separate sounds. The same applies for other combinations of a plosive plus another consonant (''pm, tl'' etc.), as well as for two identical plosives (''kk'' etc.): the release of the first plosive is always audible.

===Vowels===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! rowspan="2" | !! colspan="2" | front !! colspan="2" | back
|-
! unrounded !! rounded !! unrounded !! rounded
|-
! close
| i <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close front unrounded vowel|i]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ü <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close front rounded vowel|y]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || y <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close back unrounded vowel|ɯ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || u <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close back rounded vowel|u]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! open-mid
| e <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid front unrounded vowel|ɛ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ö <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid front rounded vowel|œ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || a <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid back unrounded vowel|ʌ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || o <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid back rounded vowel|ɔ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|}
Two consecutive different vowels are pronounced as a diphthong; two consecutive identical vowels as a long one. Single vowels are always short.

Lemizh uses [[w:Mora (linguistics)|moræ]] for structuring words: a short syllable equals one mora, and a long syllable equals two. In Lemizh, every vowel is the centre of a mora; consequently, two consecutive vowels result in two moræ or one long syllable.

===Accent===
Lemizh has got a two-way pitch-accent system, in that accented moræ are not only spoken louder (as in English), but also have either a lower or a higher pitch than the surrounding unaccented ones. The accented mora is always the ultimate or penultimate of a word. The vowel at the centre of a low-pitch accented mora is transcribed with a grave accent, the vowel at the centre of a high-pitch accented mora with an acute accent.
{| class="wikitable" style="width: 220px; table-layout: fixed; text-align: center"
! colspan="8" | Accented vowel letters
|-
| colspan="8" style="padding: 0" | [[File:Lemizh accented vowels.png|216px]]
|-
| à || è || ỳ || ì || ò || ö̀ || ù || ǜ
|-
| á || é || ý || í || ó || ö́ || ú || ǘ
|}

===Phonotactics===
[[w:Phonotactics|Phonotactics]] is rather permissive in Lemizh. A mora has the following structure, where the bracketed parts are optional:
* (O)(N)(L)V(L)(N)(O)
V is the mora's vowel, L a liquid, N a nasal, and O an obstruent that can be either a P(losive), a F(ricative), FP, PF, FF, FFP, FPF, or PFF. Word-initial consonant clusters cannot contain more than three sounds. No geminate consonants (<abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''ff'' etc.) occur within a mora. Consecutive plosive-fricative or fricative-plosive combinations within the same mora must have the same sonority – either both are voiced, or both are voiceless. A plosive cannot have the same place of articulation as a following consonant with the exception of ''rh'' and ''r''. <abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''dzh'', <abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''ddh'' and their voiceless counterparts are also prohibited within a mora.

Word boundaries, including those within compound words, are always mora boundaries. Where mora boundaries would still be ambiguous, liquids and nasals are assigned to the earliest possible mora (as the ''m'' in ''lem·ỳzh.''), and obstruents to the latest possible mora.

==Morphology==
All words are composed of the following parts:
* Prestem + inner case + poststem + outer case
Prestem and poststem form the stem, or the lexical part, of the word. The division of the stem into two portions is similar to English verbs such as ''sing/sang/sung'', where the lexical part is ''s–ng'' while the vowels ''i/a/u'' convey grammatical information. The stem always denotes an action (but never a state, a person, a thing, a property, etc.) and thus resembles our verbs. The prestem can contain any sounds, or it can be zero (i.e. consisting of zero sounds). The poststem can only contain fricatives and plosives, or it can be zero as well.

The inner case is represented by one of the eight vowels, optionally followed by a liquid (the primary case suffix) and/or a nasal (the secondary case suffix). The outer case has the same structure. For the first word in each sentence, the main predicate, the outer case is missing.

Each case is defined by its ''descriptor'': for example, the factive case denotes an ''action'', the nominative a ''sender'', the locative a ''place''. The stem and the inner case's descriptor determine a word's meaning.

'''Examples'''
* ''wàx. w–x'' is the stem for "speak", ''-a-'' denotes the inner factive, so this word means "an action of speaking", translated as the verb "to speak" or the [[w:Verbal noun|verbal noun]] "speaking".
* ''wèx. -e-'' denotes the inner nominative, so this word means "a sender of speaking" or "a speaker".
* ''àrdh. ∅–dh'' (having a zero prestem) is the stem for "eat", ''-ar-'' denotes the inner locative: "a place of eating".
{| class="wikitable"
|+ Primary cases and their descriptors
|-
! rowspan="3" | № !! rowspan="3" | Case vowel !! colspan="4" | Primary case suffix
|-
| none || l || rh || r
|-
! Plot cases !! Causal cases !! Temporal cases !! Spatial cases
|-
| 1 || a || factive ({{sc|fact}}): ''action'' || affirmative ({{sc|aff}}): ''fact (point in causal chain)'' || temporal ({{sc|temp}}): ''time'' || locative ({{sc|loc}}): ''place/region''
|-
| 2 || e || nominative ({{sc|nom}}): ''source, sender'' || causative ({{sc|caus}}): ''direct cause'' || ingressive ({{sc|ing}}): ''starting time'' || elative ({{sc|ela}}): ''starting point/region''
|-
| 3 || y || accusative ({{sc|acc}}): ''content'' || contextual ({{sc|ctx}}): ''causal context'' || durative ({{sc|dur}}): ''duration'' || extensive ({{sc|ext}}): ''spatial extent''
|-
| 4 || i || dative ({{sc|dat}}): ''sink, recipient'' || consecutive ({{sc|cons}}): ''direct consequence, effect'' || egressive ({{sc|egr}}): ''closing time'' || illative ({{sc|ill}}): ''end point / ending region''
|-
| 5 || o || tentive ({{sc|ten}}): ''intention'' || intentive ({{sc|int}}): ''intention (intended point in causal chain)'' || episodic ({{sc|eps}}): ''episode, "act"'' || scenic ({{sc|sce}}): ''scene, "stage"''
|-
| 6 || ö || comitative ({{sc|com}}): ''company'' || persuasive ({{sc|psu}}): ''reason'' || digressive ({{sc|dig}}): ''time away from which'' || ablative ({{sc|abl}}): ''place/region away from which''
|-
| 7 || u || instrumental ({{sc|ins}}): ''means, tool'' || motivational ({{sc|mot}}): ''motivational context'' || progressive ({{sc|prog}}): ''time that is passed'' || prolative ({{sc|prol}}): ''crossing point/region''
|-
| 8 || ü || benefactive ({{sc|ben}}): ''beneficiary'' || final ({{sc|fin}}): ''purpose, aim'' || aggressive ({{sc|agg}}): ''time towards which, temporal aim'' || allative ({{sc|all}}): ''place/region towards which, spatial aim''
|}
Each primary case has two corresponding secondary cases:
* a partitive case formed by adding ''ng'' (such as ''-ing-'' for the partitive dative or ''-erng-'' for the partitive elative) with the descriptor ''the set from which the source (sink, place, etc.) is thought to be taken''
* a qualitative case formed by adding ''m'', with the descriptor ''the basis of comparison for the source (sink, place, etc.)''

===The flow of the plot===
Every action denoted by a stem is considered a flow of information that comes from a source (sender), transports a content, and reaches a sink (a recipient). The terms "sender" and "recipient" may be more familiar, but "source" and "sink" are more accurate in not necessarily meaning living beings.

Consequently, a Lemizh action looks somewhat like this: '''nominative  accusative[[File:DreieckYellowMIDDLE.png|26px|link=]] dative'''

This is called the action's plot. Here are some examples:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative
|-
| ''wàx.'' "to speak, to tell; (an act of) speaking" || ''wèx.'' "one telling something" || ''wỳx.'' "a tale" || ''wìx.'' "one who is told something"
|-
| ''dà.'' "to give; (an act of) giving" || ''dè.'' "one giving something" || ''dỳ.'' "a gift" || ''dì.'' "one who is given something; one who gets something"
|-
| ''làzhw.'' "to help" || ''lèzhw.'' "one helping" || ''lỳzhw.'' "help (given)" || ''lìzhw.'' "one whom is helped"
|-
| ''mlàtx.'' "to melt" || ''mlètx.'' "one melting something" || [''mlỳtx.''] || ''mlìtx.'' "a melted thing"
|-
| ''xöàgh.'' "to produce a sound; to hear" || ''xöègh.'' "one producing a sound" || ''xöỳgh.'' "a sound" || ''xöìgh.'' "one hearing something"
|-
| ''àdh.'' "to feed; to eat" || ''èdh.'' "one feeding someone" || ''ỳdh.'' "food" || ''ìdh.'' "one being fed; one eating"
|-
| ''ià.'' "to love" || ''iè.'' "one loving someone, a lover" || ''iỳ.'' "a beloved" || ''iì.'' "a beloved"
|}
Importantly, there are no rules for which cases to use with which words. Both ''iỳ.'' ({{sc|acc}}) and ''iì.'' ({{sc|dat}}) mean "a beloved". The former describes the beloved as the content of love, the one being lovingly thought of, while the latter implies that the love reaches them, like words or gifts reach their recipient. Likewise, the reason why ''mlỳtx.'' is not translated in the table above isn't that "''melt'' does not take the accusative", as grammars of other languages would say, but that "a content of melting" does not seem to have any obvious meaning. If someone wanted to describe, say, sun rays as content transported from the sun to the snow to melt it, they could well use ''mlỳtx.'' to express the concept.

Case usage is governed solely by the cases' descriptors; it is up to the speaker how to use them given some word's meaning and some context. If the wind opens a door, is it the source of the action of opening (''ngèt.''), the means of opening (''ngùt.''), or the cause (''ngèlt.'')? All are grammatically correct; the speaker decides which possibility best expresses their intention.

===Nouns===
:''Nouns, adjectives and verbs do not correspond to any concepts in Lemizh grammar. Using these terms is just an attempt to describe the grammar from an Indo-European viewpoint.''
A large number of nouns are not derived from verbs in most languages: ''froth, ship, lion'' and many others. In Lemizh, however, we have verbs such as ''psràxk.'' "to froth", ''àksh.'' "to build a ship or ships", and ''làw.'' "to make a lion or lions". We will call these ''nominal verbs''.

Looking at the verb ''àksh.'', the shipwright ({{sc|nom}}) gives the building materials ({{sc|dat}}) the properties or the function of a ship ({{sc|acc}}). He confers, well, shipness on the materials. The shipness is sent by the shipwright, not because he is acting, but because he is the source: the image of the ship, so to say, comes from his head and materialises in wood, iron, ropes, and linen. In short, these words mostly appear with inner accusative.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative
|-
| ''psràxk.'' "to froth" || ''psrèxk.'' "one frothing something" || ''psrỳxk.'' "a thing having the properties of froth = '''froth'''" || ''psrìxk.'' "a frothed thing, a frothed liquid"
|-
| ''àksh.'' "to build a ship" || ''èksh.'' "one building a ship, a shipwright" || ''ỳksh.'' "a thing having the properties of a ship = '''a ship'''" || ''ìksh.'' "building materials for a ship, materials made into a ship"
|-
| ''làw.'' "to make a lion" || [''lèw.'' "one making a lion"] || ''lỳw.'' "a thing having the properties of a lion = '''a lion'''" || [''lìw.'' "building materials for a lion, materials made into a lion"]
|}

Another very common kind of nouns are tool nouns, formed with an inner instrumental case:
* ''ghstù.'' "a sail" is derived from ''ghstà.'' "to sail", literally "a means of sailing",
* ''pslù.'' "scissors" from ''pslà.'' "to cut with scissors",
* ''saxùf.'' "trumpet" from ''saxàf.'' "to play the trumpet",
* ''skrùzh.'' "a finger" from ''skràzh.'' "to work with one's fingers".

====Inflection====
As mentioned above, all words can inflect for (outer) case. Thus, we have the nominative forms ''wàx'''e''''' "(an act of) speaking, (an act of) telling", ''dè'''e''''' "a giver", ''lỳw'''e''''' "a lion", the causative ''lỳw'''el''''' "because of a lion", the elative ''lỳw'''er''''' "(starting) from a lion", etc.

Lemizh words do not inflect for number or gender. If desired, we can express this information by forming compounds. (Note the duplication of the inner case vowel; the first occurrence in each word is called the epenthetic case of the compound. The underlying grammar will be described later.)
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Singular !! Dual !! Plural !! Feminine !! Masculine !! Feminine singular !! etc.
|-
! giver
| ''dè.'' || ''de'''rè'''.'' || ''de'''dwè'''.'' || ''de'''mlè'''.'' || ''de'''bè'''.'' || ''de'''èx'''.'' || ''de'''berè'''.''
|-
! lion
| ''lỳw.'' || ''lyw'''rỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''dwỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''mlỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''bỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''ỳx'''.'' || ''lyw'''byrỳ'''.''
|-
! compound with
| — || ''rỳ.'' "one" || ''dwỳ.'' "two" || ''mlỳ.'' "several" || ''bỳ.'' "female; woman" || ''ỳx.'' "male; man" || "female" and "one"
|}

===Adjectives and numerals===
There is no difference between adjectival and nominal verbs: they mostly appear with inner accusative. This is the same situation as in, say, Latin, where ''albus'' can mean "a white one" as well as "white". Numerals are basically a sub-category of adjectives.

The inner consecutive case translates certain abstract nouns.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative !! Inner consecutive
|-
| ''gmrà.'' "to heat, to make something warm" || ''gmrè.'' "one heating something up" || ''gmrỳ.'' "a warm thing; '''warm'''" || ''gmrì.'' "a thing heated up; heated, warmed" || ''gmrìl.'' "the consequence of heating = heat"
|-
| ''làbdh.'' "to whiten something, to make something white" || ''lèbdh.'' "one whitening something" || ''lỳbdh.'' "a white thing; '''white'''" || ''lìbdh.'' "a thing made white; whitened" || ''lìlbdh.'' "the consequence of whitening = whiteness"
|-
| ''dwà.'' "to make two things/individuals" || ''dwè.'' "one making two things" || ''dwỳ.'' "'''two''' (things)" || ''dwì.'' "something made into two (things)" || ''dwìl.'' "the consequence of making two things = twoness"
|}

However, emotions aren't viewed as properties in Lemizh: a happy or angry person is one sending happiness or anger, just as a loving person is one sending love. The inner causative plays a notable role with verbs of emotion.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative !! Inner causative
|-
| ''pthàb.'' "to be angry" || ''pthèb.'' "an angry one; '''angry'''" || ''pthỳb.'' "the content/object of one's anger" || ''pthìb.'' "one that one's anger reaches" || ''pthèlb.'' "one causing someone anger; one annoying someone"
|}

====Inflection====
Of course, adjectives can be compounded to express number and/or gender in the same way as nouns. Furthermore, we can form compounds expressing various degrees. (The epenthetic consecutive ''-il-'' in these compounds will also be explained later; it is actually the main application of the abstract nouns just mentioned.)
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Diminutive !! Augmentative !! Absolute !! Comparative !! Superlative
|-
! warm
| ''gmrỳ.'' || ''gmril'''zhrỳ'''.'' "lukewarm" || ''gmril'''dmỳ'''.'' "hot" || ''gmril'''ghngỳ'''.'' "absolutely hot" || ''gmril'''tỳzhd'''.'' "warmer, hotter" || ''gmril'''ỳst'''.'' "hottest"
|-
! white
| ''lỳbdh.'' || ''lilbdh'''zhrỳ'''.'' "whitish" || ''lilbdh'''dmỳ'''.'' "very white" || ''lilbdh'''ghngỳ'''.'' "absolutely/completely white" || ''lilbdh'''tỳzhd'''.'' "whiter" || ''lilbdh'''ỳst'''.'' "whitest"
|-
! compound with
| — || ''zhrỳ.'' "few, little, a bit" || ''dmỳ.'' "much, many" || ''ghngỳ.'' "every, all, the whole" || ''tỳzhd.'' "more" || ''ỳst.'' "most"
|}

===Verbs===
Most verbs correspond to Lemizh words with an inner factive. However, as Lemizh stems always denote an action, the notable exception are stative verbs such as:
* ''zdìls.'' "to sit", literally "the consequence of sitting down (''zdàs.'')"
* ''gwìlt.'' "to know", literally "the consequence of learning (''gwàt.'')"

====Inflection====
* Person is not expressed with inflection but with pronouns.
* Number is conveyed by compounding pronouns with numerals. While verbs (i.e. words with an inner factive) can be compounded with numerals, ''ftrask'''mlà'''.'' does not mean "we/they sneeze" but "(there are) several acts of sneezing" (i.e. someone sneezes several times and/or several people sneeze).
* Voice (active/passive) is absent in Lemizh; word order serves a similar function.
* Tense is expressed by compounds with an epenthetic temporal case (''-arh-''), or with certain inner cases. The latter option is preferred if possible, as it is more concise.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Present !! Past !! Perfect !! Future !! Intentional
|-
! to sit down
| ''zdàs.'' || ''zdarhs'''wà'''.'' || ''zdarhs'''prilkà'''.'' || ''zd'''ìl'''s.'' ({{sc|cons}}) || ''zdarhs'''prà'''.'' || ''zd'''ò'''s.'' ({{sc|ten}})
|-
! compound with
| — || pronoun || ''prilkỳ.'' "back" || — || ''prỳ.'' "front" || —
|}
Note that the translation of the perfect with inner consecutive coincides with the translation of stative verbs: "having sat down" in the strict perfect sense of "the consequence/effect of this action exists" means the same as "to sit". Likewise, "whiteness" can be expressed as the abstract concept of "having whitened something".

* Mood corresponds to compounds with certain verbs for the most part. There is no equivalent to the subjunctive mood, as subordinate clauses are irreal (i.e. not necessarily real) by default. Here are some common formations:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Indicative !! Imperative !! Commanding imperative !! Interrogative Polite imperative !! Optative
|-
! to feed, to eat
| ''àdh.'' || ''adh'''pràk'''.'' || ''adh'''dàxt'''.'' || ''adh'''pà'''.'' || ''adh'''làxt'''.''
|-
! compound with
| — || ''pràk.'' "to request" || ''dàxt.'' "to command" || ''pà.'' "to ask" || ''làxt.'' "to want"
|}
* Aspect is a very heterogeneous category, expressed by a variety of compounds and syntactic structures in Lemizh.

===Pronouns===
The two demonstrative pronouns are technically nominal verbs:
* ''tà.'' "to make this/that one", typically used with inner accusative: ''tỳ.'' "this/that (one)"
* ''gwà.'' "to make someone/anyone, something/anything", with inner accusative ''gwỳ.'' "someone/anyone, something/anything"

The eleven relative pronouns play a far more prominent role in Lemizh grammar. Their scope is much wider than the one usually associated with the term. As they are closely tied to Lemizh syntax, they will be described further down.

==Syntax==
===Level of words===
There is only one more grammatical category: the level of words, which is the main building block of Lemizh syntax. A word can be of first level (the highest), of second level (the next highest), of third level (still one level lower) and so on; there is no limit for the number of levels, but non-positive word levels (zero, −1, etc.) are forbidden.

The first word in a sentence (the main predicate) is of first level by definition. The level of the next word is determined by the main predicate's accent and by the type of pause between the two words, the level of the third word is determined by the accent of the second and the pause between these two, and so on.

Here is the complete list of pause/accent combinations.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="2" | Following pause !! rowspan="2" | Accented vowel !! rowspan="2" | Type of accent !! rowspan="2" | The level of the next word is …
|-
! in speech !! in writing
|-
| rowspan="4" | barely audible || rowspan="4" | space || rowspan="2" | inner case || low || lower by 1
|-
| high || lower by 1, and [[w:Agent (grammar)|agentive]]* ({{sc|a}})
|-
| rowspan="2" | outer case || low || equal
|-
| high || higher by 1
|-
| rowspan="4" | a bit longer || rowspan="4" | comma ('''·''') || rowspan="2" | inner case || low || higher by 2
|-
| high || higher by 3
|-
| rowspan="2" | outer case || low || higher by 4
|-
| high || higher by 5
|-
| the longest || full stop ('''∶''') || inner case || low || none; end of sentence
|}
<nowiki>*</nowiki> The agent is the initiator of the action (more informally, the one who ''does'' the action).

===The Rules===
[[File:Lemizh parse tree.png|thumb|upright=1.5|A schematic sentence with the words represented by their level numbers]]
The word levels determine the structure of a sentence.

'''Rule One of sentence grammar. A word of level n is subordinate to the nearest word of level n−1 in front of it; the parole acts as a word of level zero.'''

All words of second level are subordinate to the main predicate (which has first level). A word of third level is subordinate to the next second-level word in front of it, and so on. In other words, Lemizh sentences are strictly [[w:Head directionality|head-first]]. The main predicate itself is subordinate to the [[w:Parole (linguistics)|parole]], the action of speaking (or writing) the sentence in question, which consequently has level zero.

'''Rule Two. An object of a word in a sentence is a word subordinate to the former, its predicate, plus all of its own objects.'''

In the diagram, the main predicate's three objects are enclosed in ellipses. Objects of the same word are called ''sibling objects'' or just ''siblings'', and the word they are subordinate to is their ''predicate''. Note that ''predicate'' and ''object'' are relative terms like ''parent'' and ''child''.

The table of level markers implies that only the first object of a predicate can be marked as agent. (This has been interpreted as Lemizh having VSO word order, although a subject is not quite the same as an agent, and Lemizh grammar strictly speaking does not have the concept of a subject.)

'''Rule Three. The outer case of the first word of an object defines its relation to its predicate's stem via its descriptor; the outer case of a level 1 word is zero.'''

This is what we would expect from a language that inflects for case: the nominative object defines the source (sender) of the action named by the stem of its predicate, the accusative object its content, the temporal object its time, etc.

'''Examples'''
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dá föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|give-FACT-1 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2A bottle-ACC-ACC-2 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2
|''Father Christmas gives Lucy a bottle.''}}

The stems of the three objects are nominal verbs ("to make a bottle" etc.), hence the inner accusatives. The outer cases indicate the sender, content and recipient of the act of giving, respectively. The agent is specified independently of the plot arrow; note the difference:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dá lusyì dwywỳ föpysrỳfe.
|give-FACT-1 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2A bottle-ACC-ACC-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2
|''Lucy takes a bottle from Father Christmas.''}}

We need not mark an object as agentive if we consider this information unimportant. The English translations are only rough approximations:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dà lusyì dwywỳ föpysrỳfe.
|give-FACT-1 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2 bottle-ACC-ACC-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2
|''Lucy gets a bottle from Father Christmas. Lucy is given a bottle by Father Christmas.''}}

'''Rule Four. An instance of a word stem designates a specific action.'''

''dà'' in the above sentence does not just mean "to give", it refers to one specific action of giving. Such an action may involve several givers (as in "They give something") and need not even be temporally or spatially connected (as in "They are giving something every Christmas"). In other words, each spoken or written instance of the stem ''d–'' refers to a certain subset of all the giving there is.

This rule ensures that all the objects refer to the same action of giving as the predicate itself.

'''Rule Five. A case characterises the action it refers to completely with regard to its case descriptor.'''

For example, the nominative object "Father Christmas" has to name the complete sender of the above instance of giving. This excludes from this instance all giving not done by Father Christmas. So each object places a restriction on the action of giving the main predicate refers to. Thus, the subset of giving meant by this instance of ''dà.'' – what the sentence is ultimately talking about – is defined more and more precisely with each additional object. (The same is true not only of the main predicate but of all words in a sentence.)

'''Rule Six. A missing object is equivalent to the absence of information about its descriptor.'''

Above sentences do not have, for example, locative objects, so Rule Five cannot place a restriction on the place of giving. Because of Rule Six, this does not mean there are no restrictions on the location, but only that this kind of information has not been included in the sentence (for example, because the speaker does not know about it, considers it irrelevent, or assumes the listener already knows or – perhaps most importantly – can infer it.)

'''Rule Seven. Given an object and its predicate, the predicate is considered more real and the object more hypothetical.'''

…

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! as an object !! as a complete sentence
|-
| ''dà.'' || to give; giving || An action of giving exists = Someone gives something.
|-
| ''zdìls.'' || the consequence of sitting down = to sit; sitting || The consequence of sitting down exists = Someone sits.
|-
| ''dwìlw.'' || the consequence of making a bottle || The consequence of making a bottle exists = A bottle exists; there is a bottle.
|-
| ''sklè.'' || one building a bridge || One building a bridge exists = There is someone building a bridge.
|}

===Noun phrases===
Forming noun phrases does not require any new grammatical rules. In the following example, the inner case of "give" is changed to the nominative, yielding "one giving something, a giver", and everything is pushed down one level. The third-level words are still sender, content and recipient of the ''action'' of giving, as outer cases define relations to the predicate's ''stem'' per Rule Three.
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 3A:third level, agentive
|dmàt tryxkì dée föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|see-FACT-1 beaver-ACC-DAT-2 give-NOM-NOM-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-3A bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3
|''The beaver sees '''the one giving Lucy a bottle, Father Christmas'''.''}}
Regarding the verb "see", note that the beaver is in the dative, being at the receiving end of the optical stimulus or information. Marking the beaver as agent would translate as "The beaver looks at the one …".

Rules Four and Five guarantee that the giver is identical to Father Christmas: both are the sender of the same instance of the stem ''d–'' "give" (the giver via its inner nominative, Father Christmas via its outer nominative), and both are the ''complete'' sender of this action. This type of construction, where an object's outer case matches its predicate's inner case, is called a '''bracket'''. Brackets are very widely used:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Apposition !! Attributive adjective !! Attributive pronoun/determiner !! Attributive numeral !! Attributive participle
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|iakopỳk saxèfy.
|Jacopo-'''ACC'''-1 trumpet-NOM-'''ACC'''-2
|''Jacopo, a trumpeter''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=INS:instrumental case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|ghstù lỳbdhu.
|sail-'''INS'''-1 white-ACC-'''INS'''-2
|''a sail, a white thing = a white sail''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|ỳksh gwỳy.
|ship-'''ACC'''-1 some-ACC-'''ACC'''-2
|''a ship, something = some ship''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|mỳs trỳy.
|mouse-'''ACC'''-1 three-ACC-'''ACC'''-2
|''mice, three individuals = three mice''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|nỳzd gangèy.
|bird-'''ACC'''-1 sing-NOM-'''ACC'''-2
|''a bird, a singer = a singing bird''}}
|}
Such phrases can be easily extended. This example contains two accusative brackets ("a singing bird" and "a sad child"):
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 4:fourth level
|ngỳzd gangèy zhngỳi speghý ytfỳarh.
|bird-ACC-1 sing-NOM-ACC-2 child-ACC-DAT-3 sad-NOM-ACC-4 night-ACC-TEMP-3
|''a bird singing to a sad child at night''}}

As [[w:Genitive construction|genitive constructions]] have a wide variety of meanings, there is no single Lemizh equivalent. The typical translation for constructions indicating possession is with the benefactive case, but other cases frequently occur. Everything depends on the object's relation to the predicate's stem per Rule Three.

{|
|-
| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|dwỳw lusỳü.
|bottle-ACC-1 Lucy-ACC-'''BEN'''-2
|Lucy is the beneficiary of making the bottle. The bottle is made for Lucy. 
''Lucy's bottle''}}

| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dý ỳxe.
|give-ACC-1 male-ACC-'''NOM'''-2A
|The man is the sender of giving. 
''the man's gift''}}

| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|rhỳst ytfỳarh filpskỳy.
|dream-ACC-1 night-ACC-'''TEMP'''-2 midsummer-ACC-ACC-3
| The midsummer night is the time of dreaming. 
''A Midsummer Night's Dream''}}
|}

===Verb phrases===
Adverbially used adjectives also translate to brackets:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|gangà txỳska.
|sing-'''FACT'''-1 loud-ACC-'''FACT'''-2
|''(an act of) singing, a loud thing = to sing loudly''}}

===Dependent clauses===
…


===Relative pronouns===
Stems of relative pronouns (not to be confused with the pronouns of the same name in English or Latin) refer to actions by pointing to another stem or to a parole: they are [[w:Anaphora (linguistics)|anaphoric]]. Here is the full list:
{| class="wikitable"
! rowspan="2" | Level !! colspan="2" | Type I !! colspan="2" | Type II
|-
! Verb !! The target is the stem of !! Verb !! The target is the stem of
|-
| n || colspan="2" | (does not occur because it would refer to itself) || à. || its preceding same-level word
|-
| n−1 || wà. || its predicate || fà. || its predicate's preceding same-level word or parole
|-
| n−2 || dhà. || its predicate's predicate || thà. || its predicate's predicate's preceding same-level word or parole
|-
| n−3 || zà. || its predicate's predicate's predicate || sà. || …
|-
| n−4 || zhà. || … || shà. || …
|-
| n−5 || ghà. || … || xà. || …
|}
They are highly versatile, corresponding to various structures in other languages:
{| class="wikitable"
! Reflexive !! First person (singular) !! Second person
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|wáx wìe.
|speak-FACT-1 PIn−1-'''DAT'''-'''NOM'''-2A
|The recipient of speaking is its sender. 
''to talk to oneself. He is talking to himself.''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dráw dhèe.
|dance-FACT-1 PIn−2-'''NOM'''-NOM-2A
|The sender of the parole is the sender of dancing. 
''I am dancing.''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dráw dhìe.
|dance-FACT-1 PIn−2-'''DAT'''-NOM-2A
|The recipient of the parole is the sender of dancing. 
''You are dancing.''}}
|}
Rule Four of sentence grammar ensures that the reflexive example means "He is talking to himself" as opposed to, say, "He is talking to one being talked to" (which would be ''wáx wìxe.'' speak-{{sc|fact-1}} speak-{{sc|dat-nom-2a}}, with two different instances of the stem "speak").

{| class="wikitable"
! Possessive determiner !! Vocative
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=CONS:consecutive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|zdìls ngỳzdy zeú tỳar.
|seat-CONS-1 bird-ACC-ACC-2 PIn−3-'''NOM'''-BEN-3 this-ACC-LOC-2
|The sender of the parole is the beneficiary of making a bird.
 ''My bird is sitting there.''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=PI:pronoun type I; FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive; 3:third level
|wáx dheè zdhèzhi zìe.
|speak-FACT-1 PIn−2-NOM-NOM-2A friend-NOM-DAT-2 PIn−3-'''DAT'''-NOM-3
|The recipient of the parole is the friend. (nominative bracket) 
''Friend, I am talking to you.''}}
|}

The type II pronoun in the following example points to the stem of eating. With the inner accusative, the pronoun refers to the content of eating, which is the sweet. (As with brackets, Rules Four and Five guarantee that the pronoun refers to the same content of the same action of eating as mentioned in the first sentence.)
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; PII:pronoun type II; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|ádh dheì mlỳdhy. ràsh fỳy.
|eat-FACT-1 PIn−2-NOM-DAT-2A sweet-ACC-ACC-2. like-FACT-1 PIIn−1-'''ACC'''-ACC-2
|''I am eating a sweet. [I] like it.''}}

==Derivational morphology==
From a Lemizh point of view, ''dè.'' "giver" and ''dỳ.'' "gift" aren't derivatives of ''dà.'' "to give" but grammatical forms of the same word. The only piece of true derivational morphology is compounding.

===Compounds===
[[File:Lemizh compounding diagram.png|thumb|Forming a compound from a two-word sentence]]
'''Rule One of compounding. A compound word is constructed from a two-word sentence – predicate and object of which become modifier and head of the compound, respectively – in the following way:'''
# '''Prestem''':
## the object's prestem
## the object's inner case
## the object's poststem
## an optional separator
## the predicate's prestem
# '''Inner case'''
# '''Poststem''': the predicate's poststem
# '''Outer case'''
Note that the object's stem comes before the predicate's; and also that the object's outer case (and, less importantly, the predicate's inner case) is lost. The separator can be used, for example, if the word boundary would be unclear otherwise, or for placing the second part of the word on a new line.

…

'''Rule Two. In the relationship between the original predicate and object, the rules of sentence grammar are retained as far as applicable.'''

…

'''Rule Three. Regarding all outward relations, cases refer to the head.'''

…

==Example text==
[[File:Lemizh text sample.png|600px]]

====stedrỳzh thìrhfi xtrỳghy.====
krỳgh dghngireì prilxpilghkỳarh. mangỳ srungbỳng lyngghỳng yngshwỳng fỳü. zhöazhghngìl tmỳil. ghngàgzh smìa prỳal ghngyé dhàbdhy lunguỳ ùyl mỳu fplyxár tỳarh. dmát feì sxngengzè ishkènge. ghìlt krighmyngthxì xtrỳngghi swyshỳ ghỳxy fplyxòr zhöyzhỳm xngàrorm. dmìlt öngkrỳngty zhryỳ rèshy esfàsy sxngyzdmýi, usrỳngy xazhgèsty ghngỳeng, frekrỳngfy rilghdzhỳwby pthèby, dgheipysrỳngdy psrèby rhèzhem, dghistngỳngty ghỳxy zangỳa dghildhfmlýyrh, ngiftngyghtmỳngy krültlìy zùe gỳghda. xtrỳgh swyshý stedrỳzh thìrfi. dngilszhrìl bdhyrgzhyngỳng xüxtrỳngyng prilkỳarh ötìlil skmyngìlng ghỳngsilng. dngilszhìlwb ráxpy thìlfi. fö̀l gwiltngìlöl dmàty föpysryfỳ ngỳu.

rỳ zhryỳrh thìzgy gwiltngìly rhàghgy dmatngìe thìrfy. là xángska matngiè ytfỳyrh dmyý fplyxór dyxtngyngà mànga prilzhryngỳr iltỳngzhdyr. dmàt ytfỳarh ryý mìlngorh xngyì prilkyár mìlngorh xtrỳngghi kshrextý mengthxì prỳar zìe, fplỳngxe fywýr déngske xtryghè sxngezì xngỳnge.

====The Legend of the Seventh Planet====
A long time ago there was a tribe of nomads. They possessed neither writing nor houses nor horses. But they were truly human. They were curious; this means, above all, that they took interest in the useless, for the celestial objects were of no use to them yet. They looked at the Sun and the Moon. They had named the constellations and the six planets moving across the sky like the humans across the earth. They knew dim Mercury, who liked to hide in the glare of the Sun; Venus, the brightest of all; reddish and angry Mars; majestic father Jupiter; Saturn, who seemed to stand still for weeks; and even Uranus had been caught by their keen eyes. Six planets, and the legend of a seventh. Maybe it had been the minor planet Vesta, or a comet centuries or millennia earlier. Maybe it was the attraction of the number seven. For Neptune is invisible to the naked eye.

One youngster thought to himself that he could not live without seeing the seventh planet. He lay awake searching the sky for many nights, neglected his duties, and became thinner and thinner. And one night, lying with the Earth behind his back, and with the looping planets and the stars above him, he saw the depth of the sky and the planets circling the Sun, and among them the Earth.

==External links==
* [https://lemizh.conlang.org Lemizh homepage] with comprehensive coverage of the language, including a dictionary
[[File:Copyleft1.png|20px]] ''This article includes material from the Lemizh homepage, which is available under a [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License].''


[[Category:Languages]]
[[Category:Conlangs]]
[[Category:Indo-European languages]]
[[Category:Fusional languages]]

Lemizh

2022-05-14T16:05:50Z

Anypodetos: /* Relative pronouns */ Applications

{{Infobox language
|image =
|imagesize =
|name = Lemizh
|nativename = lemỳzh.
|pronunciation = lɛmˈɯ̀ʒ
|state = Lemaria
|setting = Alt-history Europe
|created = 1985
|familycolor = Indo-European
|fam2 = Lemizh
|ancestor = Proto-Lemizh
|posteriori = [[w:Proto-Indo-European|Proto-Indo-European]]
|creator = [[User:Anypodetos|Anypodetos]]
|scripts = Lemizh alphabet
|nation = Lemaria
|map = Map of Lemaria.png
|notice = IPA
}}
'''Lemizh''' ([[Help:IPA|[lεmˈiʒ]]], native pronunciation: [[Help:IPA|[lɛmˈɯ̀ʒ]]]) is a language I invented with the aim of creating a grammar as regular and simple as possible. It was originally intended as an [[w:International auxiliary language|international auxiliary language]]. However, it turned out that a simple grammar is not necessarily a grammar that is easy to learn: the more ways of simplification I found, the further away it moved from [[w:Indo-European languages|Indo-European]] and probably all other familiar language structures. Expecting anyone to learn Lemizh, at this point, would be completely unrealistic.

So I needed a new justification for the language: enter the Lemizh, a people living to the west and north of the [[w:Black Sea|Black Sea]] in an alternate history that slowly drifted away from ours between two and eight millennia ago. Of course, it is extremely unlikely that they would speak a language that was completely without exceptions. To be precise, the chances are two to the power of two hundred and seventy-six thousand seven hundred and nine to one against. But they say that everything has to happen somewhere in the Multiverse. And everything happens only once.

{{TOC limit}}

==History==
===Early stages===
Lemizh is an Indo-European language and, together with Volgan, constitutes one of the ten recognised branches of the Indo-European language family. This branch is also called Lemizh, to the disgruntlement of Volgan linguists.

Proto-Lemizh, the ancestor of Lemizh and Volgan, is very poorly attested in form of some papyri found near the northwestern shore of the Black Sea, to the north of the [[w:Dniester Liman|Dniester Liman]], dated about 2700 BC. Old Lemizh, by contrast, is fairly well attested. It had predominantly [[w:Subject–verb–object|subject–verb–object]] (SVO) word order and was a quite typical old Indo-European language, but with a couple of interesting quirks:
* Adjectives were lost as a separate part of speech, being replaced with participles ("white" > "being white").
* Finite subordinate clauses had their subject in the case of the clause: the subject of a local clause was in the locative case without having a local meaning in itself.
The earliest known documents from this stage of Lemizh were probably written around 2100 BC along the northern and western shores of the Back Sea.

===Ghean and Middle Lemizh===
Ghean ([[Help:IPA|[ˈɣɛən]]]) is a language with no known genetic relationships. It was spoken by a people of unknown origin, who subdued the Lemizh tribes in around 1000 BC and ruled for infamous three generations. Ghean was an inflected [[w:Tonal language|register tonal]] language with strict [[w:Verb–subject–object|verb–subject–object]] (VSO) word order and head-first phrases. It had verbs, [[w:Nominal (linguistics)|nominals]] (a combined noun/adjective/participle part of speech), pronouns and particles.

The Gheans discouraged the use of the natives' language, but obviously tolerated Lemizh words (or rather word stems) to stand in for unfamiliar Ghean ones. The grammar of simple sentences was easy enough to learn for the Lemizh, as they were used to inflection and head-first phrases, and likely still knew VSO sentences from poetry. After two or three generations, the natives must have spoken a [[w:Creole language|creole]] with a more or less Ghean grammar but an abundance of Lemizh words, especially outside the core vocabulary. This is a quite unusual development as most creoles draw their lexicon mainly from the dominant group, and tend to be grammatically more innovative. (The Tanzanian language [[w:Mbugu language|Mbugu]] might have had a somewhat similar development with more or less analogous outcomes.) After the disappearance of the Gheans, Lemizh patriots tried to revive their old language, which failed spectacularly for the grammar but reintroduced many Lemizh words of the core vocabulary.

===The last three millennia===
While Middle Lemizh as spoken after the Ghean occupation already had a non-Indo-European and unusually regular grammar, this trend was to continue over the following millennia. The factive case was innovated to express verbal nouns, which eventually supplanted verbs altogether. (At least part of the blame goes to the Tlöngö̀l, an epic novel published in 1351, which popularised the use of verbal nouns.) The tonal system was simplified to the present two-way [[w:Pitch-accent language|pitch-accent]] system. Pronouns lost their status as a separate part of speech. The last particles died out a few hundred years ago, leaving the language with a single part of speech which is often called a "verb" but, historically speaking, is really a nominal. This means that the concept of ''parts of speech'' does not make sense in Modern Lemizh.

==Orthography and phonology==
The alphabet is [[w:Phonetic orthography|phonetic]]: each letter corresponds to a certain sound, and each sound is represented by a single letter. The direction of writing is left to right. This article uses the standard transcription of the native Lemizh alphabet as given in the following table:
{| class="wikitable" style="width: 800px; table-layout: fixed; text-align: center"
! colspan="29" | Letters of the Lemizh alphabet
|-
| colspan="29" style="padding: 0" | [[File:Lemizh alphabet.png|796px]]
|-
| a || e || y || i || o || ö || u || ü || l || rh || r || ng || m || g || d || b || k || t || p || gh || zh || z || dh || w || x || sh || s || th || f
|}

===Consonants===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="2" | !! bilabial !! dental !! alveolar !! postalveolar !! velar
|-
! colspan="2" | nasals
| m <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial nasal|m]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || || || ng <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar nasal|ŋ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! colspan="2" | plosives (voiceless • voiced)
| p <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless bilabial plosive|p]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • b <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial plosive|b]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || t <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless alveolar plosive|t]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • d <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar plosive|d]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || k <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless velar plosive|k]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • g <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar plosive|g]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! colspan="2" | fricatives (voiceless • voiced)
| f <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless bilabial fricative|ɸ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • w <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial fricative|β]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || th <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless dental fricative|θ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • dh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced dental fricative|ð]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || s <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless alveolar sibilant|s]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • z <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar sibilant|z]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || sh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless palato-alveolar fricative|ʃ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • zh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced palato-alveolar fricative|ʒ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || x <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless velar fricative|x]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • gh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar fricative|ɣ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! rowspan="3" | liquids || lateral approximant
| || || l <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar lateral approximant|l]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|-
! approximant
| || || rh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar approximant|ɹ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|-
! trill
| || || r <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar trill|r]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|}
The plosive-fricative combinations ''pf, ts, tsh, kx'' and their voiced couterparts only occur at word boundaries and in compound words. They are not pronounced as affricates but as separate sounds. The same applies for other combinations of a plosive plus another consonant (''pm, tl'' etc.), as well as for two identical plosives (''kk'' etc.): the release of the first plosive is always audible.

===Vowels===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! rowspan="2" | !! colspan="2" | front !! colspan="2" | back
|-
! unrounded !! rounded !! unrounded !! rounded
|-
! close
| i <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close front unrounded vowel|i]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ü <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close front rounded vowel|y]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || y <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close back unrounded vowel|ɯ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || u <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close back rounded vowel|u]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! open-mid
| e <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid front unrounded vowel|ɛ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ö <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid front rounded vowel|œ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || a <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid back unrounded vowel|ʌ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || o <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid back rounded vowel|ɔ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|}
Two consecutive different vowels are pronounced as a diphthong; two consecutive identical vowels as a long one. Single vowels are always short.

Lemizh uses [[w:Mora (linguistics)|moræ]] for structuring words: a short syllable equals one mora, and a long syllable equals two. In Lemizh, every vowel is the centre of a mora; consequently, two consecutive vowels result in two moræ or one long syllable.

===Accent===
Lemizh has got a two-way pitch-accent system, in that accented moræ are not only spoken louder (as in English), but also have either a lower or a higher pitch than the surrounding unaccented ones. The accented mora is always the ultimate or penultimate of a word. The vowel at the centre of a low-pitch accented mora is transcribed with a grave accent, the vowel at the centre of a high-pitch accented mora with an acute accent.
{| class="wikitable" style="width: 220px; table-layout: fixed; text-align: center"
! colspan="8" | Accented vowel letters
|-
| colspan="8" style="padding: 0" | [[File:Lemizh accented vowels.png|216px]]
|-
| à || è || ỳ || ì || ò || ö̀ || ù || ǜ
|-
| á || é || ý || í || ó || ö́ || ú || ǘ
|}

===Phonotactics===
[[w:Phonotactics|Phonotactics]] is rather permissive in Lemizh. A mora has the following structure, where the bracketed parts are optional:
* (O)(N)(L)V(L)(N)(O)
V is the mora's vowel, L a liquid, N a nasal, and O an obstruent that can be either a P(losive), a F(ricative), FP, PF, FF, FFP, FPF, or PFF. Word-initial consonant clusters cannot contain more than three sounds. No geminate consonants (<abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''ff'' etc.) occur within a mora. Consecutive plosive-fricative or fricative-plosive combinations within the same mora must have the same sonority – either both are voiced, or both are voiceless. A plosive cannot have the same place of articulation as a following consonant with the exception of ''rh'' and ''r''. <abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''dzh'', <abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''ddh'' and their voiceless counterparts are also prohibited within a mora.

Word boundaries, including those within compound words, are always mora boundaries. Where mora boundaries would still be ambiguous, liquids and nasals are assigned to the earliest possible mora (as the ''m'' in ''lem·ỳzh.''), and obstruents to the latest possible mora.

==Morphology==
All words are composed of the following parts:
* Prestem + inner case + poststem + outer case
Prestem and poststem form the stem, or the lexical part, of the word. The division of the stem into two portions is similar to English verbs such as ''sing/sang/sung'', where the lexical part is ''s–ng'' while the vowels ''i/a/u'' convey grammatical information. The stem always denotes an action (but never a state, a person, a thing, a property, etc.) and thus resembles our verbs. The prestem can contain any sounds, or it can be zero (i.e. consisting of zero sounds). The poststem can only contain fricatives and plosives, or it can be zero as well.

The inner case is represented by one of the eight vowels, optionally followed by a liquid (the primary case suffix) and/or a nasal (the secondary case suffix). The outer case has the same structure. For the first word in each sentence, the main predicate, the outer case is missing.

Each case is defined by its ''descriptor'': for example, the factive case denotes an ''action'', the nominative a ''sender'', the locative a ''place''. The stem and the inner case's descriptor determine a word's meaning.

'''Examples'''
* ''wàx. w–x'' is the stem for "speak", ''-a-'' denotes the inner factive, so this word means "an action of speaking", translated as the verb "to speak" or the [[w:Verbal noun|verbal noun]] "speaking".
* ''wèx. -e-'' denotes the inner nominative, so this word means "a sender of speaking" or "a speaker".
* ''àrdh. ∅–dh'' (having a zero prestem) is the stem for "eat", ''-ar-'' denotes the inner locative: "a place of eating".
{| class="wikitable"
|+ Primary cases and their descriptors
|-
! rowspan="3" | № !! rowspan="3" | Case vowel !! colspan="4" | Primary case suffix
|-
| none || l || rh || r
|-
! Plot cases !! Causal cases !! Temporal cases !! Spatial cases
|-
| 1 || a || factive ({{sc|fact}}): ''action'' || affirmative ({{sc|aff}}): ''fact (point in causal chain)'' || temporal ({{sc|temp}}): ''time'' || locative ({{sc|loc}}): ''place/region''
|-
| 2 || e || nominative ({{sc|nom}}): ''source, sender'' || causative ({{sc|caus}}): ''direct cause'' || ingressive ({{sc|ing}}): ''starting time'' || elative ({{sc|ela}}): ''starting point/region''
|-
| 3 || y || accusative ({{sc|acc}}): ''content'' || contextual ({{sc|ctx}}): ''causal context'' || durative ({{sc|dur}}): ''duration'' || extensive ({{sc|ext}}): ''spatial extent''
|-
| 4 || i || dative ({{sc|dat}}): ''sink, recipient'' || consecutive ({{sc|cons}}): ''direct consequence, effect'' || egressive ({{sc|egr}}): ''closing time'' || illative ({{sc|ill}}): ''end point / ending region''
|-
| 5 || o || tentive ({{sc|ten}}): ''intention'' || intentive ({{sc|int}}): ''intention (intended point in causal chain)'' || episodic ({{sc|eps}}): ''episode, "act"'' || scenic ({{sc|sce}}): ''scene, "stage"''
|-
| 6 || ö || comitative ({{sc|com}}): ''company'' || persuasive ({{sc|psu}}): ''reason'' || digressive ({{sc|dig}}): ''time away from which'' || ablative ({{sc|abl}}): ''place/region away from which''
|-
| 7 || u || instrumental ({{sc|ins}}): ''means, tool'' || motivational ({{sc|mot}}): ''motivational context'' || progressive ({{sc|prog}}): ''time that is passed'' || prolative ({{sc|prol}}): ''crossing point/region''
|-
| 8 || ü || benefactive ({{sc|ben}}): ''beneficiary'' || final ({{sc|fin}}): ''purpose, aim'' || aggressive ({{sc|agg}}): ''time towards which, temporal aim'' || allative ({{sc|all}}): ''place/region towards which, spatial aim''
|}
Each primary case has two corresponding secondary cases:
* a partitive case formed by adding ''ng'' (such as ''-ing-'' for the partitive dative or ''-erng-'' for the partitive elative) with the descriptor ''the set from which the source (sink, place, etc.) is thought to be taken''
* a qualitative case formed by adding ''m'', with the descriptor ''the basis of comparison for the source (sink, place, etc.)''

===The flow of the plot===
Every action denoted by a stem is considered a flow of information that comes from a source (sender), transports a content, and reaches a sink (a recipient). The terms "sender" and "recipient" may be more familiar, but "source" and "sink" are more accurate in not necessarily meaning living beings.

Consequently, a Lemizh action looks somewhat like this: '''nominative  accusative[[File:DreieckYellowMIDDLE.png|26px|link=]] dative'''

This is called the action's plot. Here are some examples:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative
|-
| ''wàx.'' "to speak, to tell; (an act of) speaking" || ''wèx.'' "one telling something" || ''wỳx.'' "a tale" || ''wìx.'' "one who is told something"
|-
| ''dà.'' "to give; (an act of) giving" || ''dè.'' "one giving something" || ''dỳ.'' "a gift" || ''dì.'' "one who is given something; one who gets something"
|-
| ''làzhw.'' "to help" || ''lèzhw.'' "one helping" || ''lỳzhw.'' "help (given)" || ''lìzhw.'' "one whom is helped"
|-
| ''mlàtx.'' "to melt" || ''mlètx.'' "one melting something" || [''mlỳtx.''] || ''mlìtx.'' "a melted thing"
|-
| ''xöàgh.'' "to produce a sound; to hear" || ''xöègh.'' "one producing a sound" || ''xöỳgh.'' "a sound" || ''xöìgh.'' "one hearing something"
|-
| ''àdh.'' "to feed; to eat" || ''èdh.'' "one feeding someone" || ''ỳdh.'' "food" || ''ìdh.'' "one being fed; one eating"
|-
| ''ià.'' "to love" || ''iè.'' "one loving someone, a lover" || ''iỳ.'' "a beloved" || ''iì.'' "a beloved"
|}
Importantly, there are no rules for which cases to use with which words. Both ''iỳ.'' ({{sc|acc}}) and ''iì.'' ({{sc|dat}}) mean "a beloved". The former describes the beloved as the content of love, the one being lovingly thought of, while the latter implies that the love reaches them, like words or gifts reach their recipient. Likewise, the reason why ''mlỳtx.'' is not translated in the table above isn't that "''melt'' does not take the accusative", as grammars of other languages would say, but that "a content of melting" does not seem to have any obvious meaning. If someone wanted to describe, say, sun rays as content transported from the sun to the snow to melt it, they could well use ''mlỳtx.'' to express the concept.

Case usage is governed solely by the cases' descriptors; it is up to the speaker how to use them given some word's meaning and some context. If the wind opens a door, is it the source of the action of opening (''ngèt.''), the means of opening (''ngùt.''), or the cause (''ngèlt.'')? All are grammatically correct; the speaker decides which possibility best expresses their intention.

===Nouns===
:''Nouns, adjectives and verbs do not correspond to any concepts in Lemizh grammar. Using these terms is just an attempt to describe the grammar from an Indo-European viewpoint.''
A large number of nouns are not derived from verbs in most languages: ''froth, ship, lion'' and many others. In Lemizh, however, we have verbs such as ''psràxk.'' "to froth", ''àksh.'' "to build a ship or ships", and ''làw.'' "to make a lion or lions". We will call these ''nominal verbs''.

Looking at the verb ''àksh.'', the shipwright ({{sc|nom}}) gives the building materials ({{sc|dat}}) the properties or the function of a ship ({{sc|acc}}). He confers, well, shipness on the materials. The shipness is sent by the shipwright, not because he is acting, but because he is the source: the image of the ship, so to say, comes from his head and materialises in wood, iron, ropes, and linen. In short, these words mostly appear with inner accusative.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative
|-
| ''psràxk.'' "to froth" || ''psrèxk.'' "one frothing something" || ''psrỳxk.'' "a thing having the properties of froth = '''froth'''" || ''psrìxk.'' "a frothed thing, a frothed liquid"
|-
| ''àksh.'' "to build a ship" || ''èksh.'' "one building a ship, a shipwright" || ''ỳksh.'' "a thing having the properties of a ship = '''a ship'''" || ''ìksh.'' "building materials for a ship, materials made into a ship"
|-
| ''làw.'' "to make a lion" || [''lèw.'' "one making a lion"] || ''lỳw.'' "a thing having the properties of a lion = '''a lion'''" || [''lìw.'' "building materials for a lion, materials made into a lion"]
|}

Another very common kind of nouns are tool nouns, formed with an inner instrumental case:
* ''ghstù.'' "a sail" is derived from ''ghstà.'' "to sail", literally "a means of sailing",
* ''pslù.'' "scissors" from ''pslà.'' "to cut with scissors",
* ''saxùf.'' "trumpet" from ''saxàf.'' "to play the trumpet",
* ''skrùzh.'' "a finger" from ''skràzh.'' "to work with one's fingers".

====Inflection====
As mentioned above, all words can inflect for (outer) case. Thus, we have the nominative forms ''wàx'''e''''' "(an act of) speaking, (an act of) telling", ''dè'''e''''' "a giver", ''lỳw'''e''''' "a lion", the causative ''lỳw'''el''''' "because of a lion", the elative ''lỳw'''er''''' "(starting) from a lion", etc.

Lemizh words do not inflect for number or gender. If desired, we can express this information by forming compounds. (Note the duplication of the inner case vowel; the first occurrence in each word is called the epenthetic case of the compound. The underlying grammar will be described later.)
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Singular !! Dual !! Plural !! Feminine !! Masculine !! Feminine singular !! etc.
|-
! giver
| ''dè.'' || ''de'''rè'''.'' || ''de'''dwè'''.'' || ''de'''mlè'''.'' || ''de'''bè'''.'' || ''de'''èx'''.'' || ''de'''berè'''.''
|-
! lion
| ''lỳw.'' || ''lyw'''rỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''dwỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''mlỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''bỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''ỳx'''.'' || ''lyw'''byrỳ'''.''
|-
! compound with
| — || ''rỳ.'' "one" || ''dwỳ.'' "two" || ''mlỳ.'' "several" || ''bỳ.'' "female; woman" || ''ỳx.'' "male; man" || "female" and "one"
|}

===Adjectives and numerals===
There is no difference between adjectival and nominal verbs: they mostly appear with inner accusative. This is the same situation as in, say, Latin, where ''albus'' can mean "a white one" as well as "white". Numerals are basically a sub-category of adjectives.

The inner consecutive case translates certain abstract nouns.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative !! Inner consecutive
|-
| ''gmrà.'' "to heat, to make something warm" || ''gmrè.'' "one heating something up" || ''gmrỳ.'' "a warm thing; '''warm'''" || ''gmrì.'' "a thing heated up; heated, warmed" || ''gmrìl.'' "the consequence of heating = heat"
|-
| ''làbdh.'' "to whiten something, to make something white" || ''lèbdh.'' "one whitening something" || ''lỳbdh.'' "a white thing; '''white'''" || ''lìbdh.'' "a thing made white; whitened" || ''lìlbdh.'' "the consequence of whitening = whiteness"
|-
| ''dwà.'' "to make two things/individuals" || ''dwè.'' "one making two things" || ''dwỳ.'' "'''two''' (things)" || ''dwì.'' "something made into two (things)" || ''dwìl.'' "the consequence of making two things = twoness"
|}

However, emotions aren't viewed as properties in Lemizh: a happy or angry person is one sending happiness or anger, just as a loving person is one sending love. The inner causative plays a notable role with verbs of emotion.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative !! Inner causative
|-
| ''pthàb.'' "to be angry" || ''pthèb.'' "an angry one; '''angry'''" || ''pthỳb.'' "the content/object of one's anger" || ''pthìb.'' "one that one's anger reaches" || ''pthèlb.'' "one causing someone anger; one annoying someone"
|}

====Inflection====
Of course, adjectives can be compounded to express number and/or gender in the same way as nouns. Furthermore, we can form compounds expressing various degrees. (The epenthetic consecutive ''-il-'' in these compounds will also be explained later; it is actually the main application of the abstract nouns just mentioned.)
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Diminutive !! Augmentative !! Absolute !! Comparative !! Superlative
|-
! warm
| ''gmrỳ.'' || ''gmril'''zhrỳ'''.'' "lukewarm" || ''gmril'''dmỳ'''.'' "hot" || ''gmril'''ghngỳ'''.'' "absolutely hot" || ''gmril'''tỳzhd'''.'' "warmer, hotter" || ''gmril'''ỳst'''.'' "hottest"
|-
! white
| ''lỳbdh.'' || ''lilbdh'''zhrỳ'''.'' "whitish" || ''lilbdh'''dmỳ'''.'' "very white" || ''lilbdh'''ghngỳ'''.'' "absolutely/completely white" || ''lilbdh'''tỳzhd'''.'' "whiter" || ''lilbdh'''ỳst'''.'' "whitest"
|-
! compound with
| — || ''zhrỳ.'' "few, little, a bit" || ''dmỳ.'' "much, many" || ''ghngỳ.'' "every, all, the whole" || ''tỳzhd.'' "more" || ''ỳst.'' "most"
|}

===Verbs===
Most verbs correspond to Lemizh words with an inner factive. However, as Lemizh stems always denote an action, the notable exception are stative verbs such as:
* ''zdìls.'' "to sit", literally "the consequence of sitting down (''zdàs.'')"
* ''gwìlt.'' "to know", literally "the consequence of learning (''gwàt.'')"

====Inflection====
* Person is not expressed with inflection but with pronouns.
* Number is conveyed by compounding pronouns with numerals. While verbs (i.e. words with an inner factive) can be compounded with numerals, ''ftrask'''mlà'''.'' does not mean "we/they sneeze" but "(there are) several acts of sneezing" (i.e. someone sneezes several times and/or several people sneeze).
* Voice (active/passive) is absent in Lemizh; word order serves a similar function.
* Tense is expressed by compounds with an epenthetic temporal case (''-arh-''), or with certain inner cases. The latter option is preferred if possible, as it is more concise.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Present !! Past !! Perfect !! Future !! Intentional
|-
! to sit down
| ''zdàs.'' || ''zdarhs'''wà'''.'' || ''zdarhs'''prilkà'''.'' || ''zd'''ìl'''s.'' ({{sc|cons}}) || ''zdarhs'''prà'''.'' || ''zd'''ò'''s.'' ({{sc|ten}})
|-
! compound with
| — || pronoun || ''prilkỳ.'' "back" || — || ''prỳ.'' "front" || —
|}
Note that the translation of the perfect with inner consecutive coincides with the translation of stative verbs: "having sat down" in the strict perfect sense of "the consequence/effect of this action exists" means the same as "to sit". Likewise, "whiteness" can be expressed as the abstract concept of "having whitened something".

* Mood corresponds to compounds with certain verbs for the most part. There is no equivalent to the subjunctive mood, as subordinate clauses are irreal (i.e. not necessarily real) by default. Here are some common formations:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Indicative !! Imperative !! Commanding imperative !! Interrogative Polite imperative !! Optative
|-
! to feed, to eat
| ''àdh.'' || ''adh'''pràk'''.'' || ''adh'''dàxt'''.'' || ''adh'''pà'''.'' || ''adh'''làxt'''.''
|-
! compound with
| — || ''pràk.'' "to request" || ''dàxt.'' "to command" || ''pà.'' "to ask" || ''làxt.'' "to want"
|}
* Aspect is a very heterogeneous category, expressed by a variety of compounds and syntactic structures in Lemizh.

===Pronouns===
The two demonstrative pronouns are technically nominal verbs:
* ''tà.'' "to make this/that one", typically used with inner accusative: ''tỳ.'' "this/that (one)"
* ''gwà.'' "to make someone/anyone, something/anything", with inner accusative ''gwỳ.'' "someone/anyone, something/anything"

The eleven relative pronouns play a far more prominent role in Lemizh grammar. Their scope is much wider than the one usually associated with the term. As they are closely tied to Lemizh syntax, they will be described further down.

==Syntax==
===Level of words===
There is only one more grammatical category: the level of words, which is the main building block of Lemizh syntax. A word can be of first level (the highest), of second level (the next highest), of third level (still one level lower) and so on; there is no limit for the number of levels, but non-positive word levels (zero, −1, etc.) are forbidden.

The first word in a sentence (the main predicate) is of first level by definition. The level of the next word is determined by the main predicate's accent and by the type of pause between the two words, the level of the third word is determined by the accent of the second and the pause between these two, and so on.

Here is the complete list of pause/accent combinations.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="2" | Following pause !! rowspan="2" | Accented vowel !! rowspan="2" | Type of accent !! rowspan="2" | The level of the next word is …
|-
! in speech !! in writing
|-
| rowspan="4" | barely audible || rowspan="4" | space || rowspan="2" | inner case || low || lower by 1
|-
| high || lower by 1, and [[w:Agent (grammar)|agentive]]* ({{sc|a}})
|-
| rowspan="2" | outer case || low || equal
|-
| high || higher by 1
|-
| rowspan="4" | a bit longer || rowspan="4" | comma ('''·''') || rowspan="2" | inner case || low || higher by 2
|-
| high || higher by 3
|-
| rowspan="2" | outer case || low || higher by 4
|-
| high || higher by 5
|-
| the longest || full stop ('''∶''') || inner case || low || none; end of sentence
|}
<nowiki>*</nowiki> The agent is the initiator of the action (more informally, the one who ''does'' the action).

===The Rules===
[[File:Lemizh parse tree.png|thumb|upright=1.5|A schematic sentence with the words represented by their level numbers]]
The word levels determine the structure of a sentence.

'''Rule One of sentence grammar. A word of level n is subordinate to the nearest word of level n−1 in front of it; the parole acts as a word of level zero.'''

All words of second level are subordinate to the main predicate (which has first level). A word of third level is subordinate to the next second-level word in front of it, and so on. In other words, Lemizh sentences are strictly [[w:Head directionality|head-first]]. The main predicate itself is subordinate to the [[w:Parole (linguistics)|parole]], the action of speaking (or writing) the sentence in question, which consequently has level zero.

'''Rule Two. An object of a word in a sentence is a word subordinate to the former, its predicate, plus all of its own objects.'''

In the diagram, the main predicate's three objects are enclosed in ellipses. Objects of the same word are called ''sibling objects'' or just ''siblings'', and the word they are subordinate to is their ''predicate''. Note that ''predicate'' and ''object'' are relative terms like ''parent'' and ''child''.

The table of level markers implies that only the first object of a predicate can be marked as agent. (This has been interpreted as Lemizh having VSO word order, although a subject is not quite the same as an agent, and Lemizh grammar strictly speaking does not have the concept of a subject.)

'''Rule Three. The outer case of the first word of an object defines its relation to its predicate's stem via its descriptor; the outer case of a level 1 word is zero.'''

This is what we would expect from a language that inflects for case: the nominative object defines the source (sender) of the action named by the stem of its predicate, the accusative object its content, the temporal object its time, etc.

'''Examples'''
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dá föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|give-FACT-1 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2A bottle-ACC-ACC-2 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2
|''Father Christmas gives Lucy a bottle.''}}

The stems of the three objects are nominal verbs ("to make a bottle" etc.), hence the inner accusatives. The outer cases indicate the sender, content and recipient of the act of giving, respectively. The agent is specified independently of the plot arrow; note the difference:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dá lusyì dwywỳ föpysrỳfe.
|give-FACT-1 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2A bottle-ACC-ACC-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2
|''Lucy takes a bottle from Father Christmas.''}}

We need not mark an object as agentive if we consider this information unimportant. The English translations are only rough approximations:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dà lusyì dwywỳ föpysrỳfe.
|give-FACT-1 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2 bottle-ACC-ACC-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2
|''Lucy gets a bottle from Father Christmas. Lucy is given a bottle by Father Christmas.''}}

'''Rule Four. An instance of a word stem designates a specific action.'''

''dà'' in the above sentence does not just mean "to give", it refers to one specific action of giving. Such an action may involve several givers (as in "They give something") and need not even be temporally or spatially connected (as in "They are giving something every Christmas"). In other words, each spoken or written instance of the stem ''d–'' refers to a certain subset of all the giving there is.

This rule ensures that all the objects refer to the same action of giving as the predicate itself.

'''Rule Five. A case characterises the action it refers to completely with regard to its case descriptor.'''

For example, the nominative object "Father Christmas" has to name the complete sender of the above instance of giving. This excludes from this instance all giving not done by Father Christmas. So each object places a restriction on the action of giving the main predicate refers to. Thus, the subset of giving meant by this instance of ''dà.'' – what the sentence is ultimately talking about – is defined more and more precisely with each additional object. (The same is true not only of the main predicate but of all words in a sentence.)

'''Rule Six. A missing object is equivalent to the absence of information about its descriptor.'''

Above sentences do not have, for example, locative objects, so Rule Five cannot place a restriction on the place of giving. Because of Rule Six, this does not mean there are no restrictions on the location, but only that this kind of information has not been included in the sentence (for example, because the speaker does not know about it, considers it irrelevent, or assumes the listener already knows or – perhaps most importantly – can infer it.)

'''Rule Seven. Given an object and its predicate, the predicate is considered more real and the object more hypothetical.'''

…

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! as an object !! as a complete sentence
|-
| ''dà.'' || to give; giving || An action of giving exists = Someone gives something.
|-
| ''zdìls.'' || the consequence of sitting down = to sit; sitting || The consequence of sitting down exists = Someone sits.
|-
| ''dwìlw.'' || the consequence of making a bottle || The consequence of making a bottle exists = A bottle exists; there is a bottle.
|-
| ''sklè.'' || one building a bridge || One building a bridge exists = There is someone building a bridge.
|}

===Noun phrases===
Forming noun phrases does not require any new grammatical rules. In the following example, the inner case of "give" is changed to the nominative, yielding "one giving something, a giver", and everything is pushed down one level. The third-level words are still sender, content and recipient of the ''action'' of giving, as outer cases define relations to the predicate's ''stem'' per Rule Three.
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 3A:third level, agentive
|dmàt tryxkì dée föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|see-FACT-1 beaver-ACC-DAT-2 give-NOM-NOM-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-3A bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3
|''The beaver sees '''the one giving Lucy a bottle, Father Christmas'''.''}}
Regarding the verb "see", note that the beaver is in the dative, being at the receiving end of the optical stimulus or information. Marking the beaver as agent would translate as "The beaver looks at the one …".

Rules Four and Five guarantee that the giver is identical to Father Christmas: both are the sender of the same instance of the stem ''d–'' "give" (the giver via its inner nominative, Father Christmas via its outer nominative), and both are the ''complete'' sender of this action. This type of construction, where an object's outer case matches its predicate's inner case, is called a '''bracket'''. Brackets are very widely used:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Apposition !! Attributive adjective !! Attributive pronoun/determiner !! Attributive numeral !! Attributive participle
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|iakopỳk saxèfy.
|Jacopo-'''ACC'''-1 trumpet-NOM-'''ACC'''-2
|''Jacopo, a trumpeter''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=INS:instrumental case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|ghstù lỳbdhu.
|sail-'''INS'''-1 white-ACC-'''INS'''-2
|''a sail, a white thing = a white sail''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|ỳksh gwỳy.
|ship-'''ACC'''-1 some-ACC-'''ACC'''-2
|''a ship, something = some ship''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|mỳs trỳy.
|mouse-'''ACC'''-1 three-ACC-'''ACC'''-2
|''mice, three individuals = three mice''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|nỳzd gangèy.
|bird-'''ACC'''-1 sing-NOM-'''ACC'''-2
|''a bird, a singer = a singing bird''}}
|}
Such phrases can be easily extended. This example contains two accusative brackets ("a singing bird" and "a sad child"):
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 4:fourth level
|ngỳzd gangèy zhngỳi speghý ytfỳarh.
|bird-ACC-1 sing-NOM-ACC-2 child-ACC-DAT-3 sad-NOM-ACC-4 night-ACC-TEMP-3
|''a bird singing to a sad child at night''}}

As [[w:Genitive construction|genitive constructions]] have a wide variety of meanings, there is no single Lemizh equivalent. The typical translation for constructions indicating possession is with the benefactive case, but other cases frequently occur. Everything depends on the object's relation to the predicate's stem per Rule Three.

{|
|-
| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|dwỳw lusỳü.
|bottle-ACC-1 Lucy-ACC-'''BEN'''-2
|''Lucy's bottle'' (Lucy is the beneficiary of making the bottle. The bottle is made for Lucy.)}}

| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dý ỳxe.
|give-ACC-1 male-ACC-'''NOM'''-2A
|''the man's gift'' (The man is the sender of giving.)}}

| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|rhỳst ytfỳarh filpskỳy.
|dream-ACC-1 night-ACC-'''TEMP'''-2 midsummer-ACC-ACC-3
|''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' (The midsummer night is the time of dreaming.)}}
|}

===Verb phrases===
Adverbially used adjectives also translate to brackets:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|gangà txỳska.
|sing-'''FACT'''-1 loud-ACC-'''FACT'''-2
|''(an act of) singing, a loud thing = to sing loudly''}}

===Dependent clauses===
…


===Relative pronouns===
Stems of relative pronouns (not to be confused with the pronouns of the same name in English or Latin) refer to actions by pointing to another stem or to a parole: they are [[w:Anaphora (linguistics)|anaphoric]]. Here is the full list:
{| class="wikitable"
! rowspan="2" | Level !! colspan="2" | Type I !! colspan="2" | Type II
|-
! Verb !! The target is the stem of !! Verb !! The target is the stem of
|-
| n || colspan="2" | (does not occur because it would refer to itself) || à. || its preceding same-level word
|-
| n−1 || wà. || its predicate || fà. || its predicate's preceding same-level word or parole
|-
| n−2 || dhà. || its predicate's predicate || thà. || its predicate's predicate's preceding same-level word or parole
|-
| n−3 || zà. || its predicate's predicate's predicate || sà. || …
|-
| n−4 || zhà. || … || shà. || …
|-
| n−5 || ghà. || … || xà. || …
|}
They are highly versatile, corresponding to various structures in other languages:
{| class="wikitable"
! Reflexive !! First person (singular) !! Second person
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|wáx wìe.
|speak-FACT-1 PIn−1-'''DAT'''-'''NOM'''-2A
|The recipient of speaking is its sender. 
''to talk to oneself. He is talking to himself.''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dráw dhèe.
|dance-FACT-1 PIn−2-'''NOM'''-NOM-2A
|The sender of the parole is the sender of dancing. 
''I am dancing.''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dráw dhìe.
|dance-FACT-1 PIn−2-'''DAT'''-NOM-2A
|The recipient of the parole is the sender of dancing. 
''You are dancing.''}}
|}
Rule Four of sentence grammar ensures that the reflexive example means "He is talking to himself" as opposed to, say, "He is talking to one being talked to" (which would be ''wáx wìxe.'' speak-{{sc|fact-1}} speak-{{sc|dat-nom-2a}}, with two different instances of the stem "speak").

{| class="wikitable"
! Possessive determiner !! Vocative
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=CONS:consecutive case; PI:pronoun type I; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|zdìls ngỳzdy zeú tỳar.
|seat-CONS-1 bird-ACC-ACC-2 PIn−3-'''NOM'''-BEN-3 this-ACC-LOC-2
|The sender of the parole is the beneficiary of making a bird.
 ''My bird is sitting there.''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=PI:pronoun type I; FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive; 3:third level
|wáx dheè zdhèzhi zìe.
|speak-FACT-1 PIn−2-NOM-NOM-2A friend-NOM-DAT-2 PIn−3-'''DAT'''-NOM-3
|The recipient of the parole is the friend. (nominative bracket) 
''Friend, I am talking to you.''}}
|}

The type II pronoun in the following example points to the stem of eating. With the inner accusative, the pronoun refers to the content of eating, which is the sweet. (As with brackets, Rules Four and Five guarantee that the pronoun refers to the same content of the same action of eating as mentioned in the first sentence.)
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; PI:pronoun type I; PII:pronoun type II; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|ádh dheì mlỳdhy. ràsh fỳy.
|eat-FACT-1 PIn−2-NOM-DAT-2A sweet-ACC-ACC-2. like-FACT-1 PIIn−1-'''ACC'''-ACC-2
|''I am eating a sweet. [I] like it.''}}

==Derivational morphology==
From a Lemizh point of view, ''dè.'' "giver" and ''dỳ.'' "gift" aren't derivatives of ''dà.'' "to give" but grammatical forms of the same word. The only piece of true derivational morphology is compounding.

===Compounds===
[[File:Lemizh compounding diagram.png|thumb|Forming a compound from a two-word sentence]]
'''Rule One of compounding. A compound word is constructed from a two-word sentence – predicate and object of which become modifier and head of the compound, respectively – in the following way:'''
# '''Prestem''':
## the object's prestem
## the object's inner case
## the object's poststem
## an optional separator
## the predicate's prestem
# '''Inner case'''
# '''Poststem''': the predicate's poststem
# '''Outer case'''
Note that the object's stem comes before the predicate's; and also that the object's outer case (and, less importantly, the predicate's inner case) is lost. The separator can be used, for example, if the word boundary would be unclear otherwise, or for placing the second part of the word on a new line.

…

'''Rule Two. In the relationship between the original predicate and object, the rules of sentence grammar are retained as far as applicable.'''

…

'''Rule Three. Regarding all outward relations, cases refer to the head.'''

…

==Example text==
[[File:Lemizh text sample.png|600px]]

====stedrỳzh thìrhfi xtrỳghy.====
krỳgh dghngireì prilxpilghkỳarh. mangỳ srungbỳng lyngghỳng yngshwỳng fỳü. zhöazhghngìl tmỳil. ghngàgzh smìa prỳal ghngyé dhàbdhy lunguỳ ùyl mỳu fplyxár tỳarh. dmát feì sxngengzè ishkènge. ghìlt krighmyngthxì xtrỳngghi swyshỳ ghỳxy fplyxòr zhöyzhỳm xngàrorm. dmìlt öngkrỳngty zhryỳ rèshy esfàsy sxngyzdmýi, usrỳngy xazhgèsty ghngỳeng, frekrỳngfy rilghdzhỳwby pthèby, dgheipysrỳngdy psrèby rhèzhem, dghistngỳngty ghỳxy zangỳa dghildhfmlýyrh, ngiftngyghtmỳngy krültlìy zùe gỳghda. xtrỳgh swyshý stedrỳzh thìrfi. dngilszhrìl bdhyrgzhyngỳng xüxtrỳngyng prilkỳarh ötìlil skmyngìlng ghỳngsilng. dngilszhìlwb ráxpy thìlfi. fö̀l gwiltngìlöl dmàty föpysryfỳ ngỳu.

rỳ zhryỳrh thìzgy gwiltngìly rhàghgy dmatngìe thìrfy. là xángska matngiè ytfỳyrh dmyý fplyxór dyxtngyngà mànga prilzhryngỳr iltỳngzhdyr. dmàt ytfỳarh ryý mìlngorh xngyì prilkyár mìlngorh xtrỳngghi kshrextý mengthxì prỳar zìe, fplỳngxe fywýr déngske xtryghè sxngezì xngỳnge.

====The Legend of the Seventh Planet====
A long time ago there was a tribe of nomads. They possessed neither writing nor houses nor horses. But they were truly human. They were curious; this means, above all, that they took interest in the useless, for the celestial objects were of no use to them yet. They looked at the Sun and the Moon. They had named the constellations and the six planets moving across the sky like the humans across the earth. They knew dim Mercury, who liked to hide in the glare of the Sun; Venus, the brightest of all; reddish and angry Mars; majestic father Jupiter; Saturn, who seemed to stand still for weeks; and even Uranus had been caught by their keen eyes. Six planets, and the legend of a seventh. Maybe it had been the minor planet Vesta, or a comet centuries or millennia earlier. Maybe it was the attraction of the number seven. For Neptune is invisible to the naked eye.

One youngster thought to himself that he could not live without seeing the seventh planet. He lay awake searching the sky for many nights, neglected his duties, and became thinner and thinner. And one night, lying with the Earth behind his back, and with the looping planets and the stars above him, he saw the depth of the sky and the planets circling the Sun, and among them the Earth.

==External links==
* [https://lemizh.conlang.org Lemizh homepage] with comprehensive coverage of the language, including a dictionary
[[File:Copyleft1.png|20px]] ''This article includes material from the Lemizh homepage, which is available under a [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License].''


[[Category:Languages]]
[[Category:Conlangs]]
[[Category:Indo-European languages]]
[[Category:Fusional languages]]

Lemizh

2022-05-14T11:39:53Z

Anypodetos: /* Derivational morphology */ Compounding Rules

{{Infobox language
|image =
|imagesize =
|name = Lemizh
|nativename = lemỳzh.
|pronunciation = lɛmˈɯ̀ʒ
|state = Lemaria
|setting = Alt-history Europe
|created = 1985
|familycolor = Indo-European
|fam2 = Lemizh
|ancestor = Proto-Lemizh
|posteriori = [[w:Proto-Indo-European|Proto-Indo-European]]
|creator = [[User:Anypodetos|Anypodetos]]
|scripts = Lemizh alphabet
|nation = Lemaria
|map = Map of Lemaria.png
|notice = IPA
}}
'''Lemizh''' ([[Help:IPA|[lεmˈiʒ]]], native pronunciation: [[Help:IPA|[lɛmˈɯ̀ʒ]]]) is a language I invented with the aim of creating a grammar as regular and simple as possible. It was originally intended as an [[w:International auxiliary language|international auxiliary language]]. However, it turned out that a simple grammar is not necessarily a grammar that is easy to learn: the more ways of simplification I found, the further away it moved from [[w:Indo-European languages|Indo-European]] and probably all other familiar language structures. Expecting anyone to learn Lemizh, at this point, would be completely unrealistic.

So I needed a new justification for the language: enter the Lemizh, a people living to the west and north of the [[w:Black Sea|Black Sea]] in an alternate history that slowly drifted away from ours between two and eight millennia ago. Of course, it is extremely unlikely that they would speak a language that was completely without exceptions. To be precise, the chances are two to the power of two hundred and seventy-six thousand seven hundred and nine to one against. But they say that everything has to happen somewhere in the Multiverse. And everything happens only once.

{{TOC limit}}

==History==
===Early stages===
Lemizh is an Indo-European language and, together with Volgan, constitutes one of the ten recognised branches of the Indo-European language family. This branch is also called Lemizh, to the disgruntlement of Volgan linguists.

Proto-Lemizh, the ancestor of Lemizh and Volgan, is very poorly attested in form of some papyri found near the northwestern shore of the Black Sea, to the north of the [[w:Dniester Liman|Dniester Liman]], dated about 2700 BC. Old Lemizh, by contrast, is fairly well attested. It had predominantly [[w:Subject–verb–object|subject–verb–object]] (SVO) word order and was a quite typical old Indo-European language, but with a couple of interesting quirks:
* Adjectives were lost as a separate part of speech, being replaced with participles ("white" > "being white").
* Finite subordinate clauses had their subject in the case of the clause: the subject of a local clause was in the locative case without having a local meaning in itself.
The earliest known documents from this stage of Lemizh were probably written around 2100 BC along the northern and western shores of the Back Sea.

===Ghean and Middle Lemizh===
Ghean ([[Help:IPA|[ˈɣɛən]]]) is a language with no known genetic relationships. It was spoken by a people of unknown origin, who subdued the Lemizh tribes in around 1000 BC and ruled for infamous three generations. Ghean was an inflected [[w:Tonal language|register tonal]] language with strict [[w:Verb–subject–object|verb–subject–object]] (VSO) word order and head-first phrases. It had verbs, [[w:Nominal (linguistics)|nominals]] (a combined noun/adjective/participle part of speech), pronouns and particles.

The Gheans discouraged the use of the natives' language, but obviously tolerated Lemizh words (or rather word stems) to stand in for unfamiliar Ghean ones. The grammar of simple sentences was easy enough to learn for the Lemizh, as they were used to inflection and head-first phrases, and likely still knew VSO sentences from poetry. After two or three generations, the natives must have spoken a [[w:Creole language|creole]] with a more or less Ghean grammar but an abundance of Lemizh words, especially outside the core vocabulary. This is a quite unusual development as most creoles draw their lexicon mainly from the dominant group, and tend to be grammatically more innovative. (The Tanzanian language [[w:Mbugu language|Mbugu]] might have had a somewhat similar development with more or less analogous outcomes.) After the disappearance of the Gheans, Lemizh patriots tried to revive their old language, which failed spectacularly for the grammar but reintroduced many Lemizh words of the core vocabulary.

===The last three millennia===
While Middle Lemizh as spoken after the Ghean occupation already had a non-Indo-European and unusually regular grammar, this trend was to continue over the following millennia. The factive case was innovated to express verbal nouns, which eventually supplanted verbs altogether. (At least part of the blame goes to the Tlöngö̀l, an epic novel published in 1351, which popularised the use of verbal nouns.) The tonal system was simplified to the present two-way [[w:Pitch-accent language|pitch-accent]] system. Pronouns lost their status as a separate part of speech. The last particles died out a few hundred years ago, leaving the language with a single part of speech which is often called a "verb" but, historically speaking, is really a nominal. This means that the concept of ''parts of speech'' does not make sense in Modern Lemizh.

==Orthography and phonology==
The alphabet is [[w:Phonetic orthography|phonetic]]: each letter corresponds to a certain sound, and each sound is represented by a single letter. The direction of writing is left to right. This article uses the standard transcription of the native Lemizh alphabet as given in the following table:
{| class="wikitable" style="width: 800px; table-layout: fixed; text-align: center"
! colspan="29" | Letters of the Lemizh alphabet
|-
| colspan="29" style="padding: 0" | [[File:Lemizh alphabet.png|796px]]
|-
| a || e || y || i || o || ö || u || ü || l || rh || r || ng || m || g || d || b || k || t || p || gh || zh || z || dh || w || x || sh || s || th || f
|}

===Consonants===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="2" | !! bilabial !! dental !! alveolar !! postalveolar !! velar
|-
! colspan="2" | nasals
| m <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial nasal|m]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || || || ng <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar nasal|ŋ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! colspan="2" | plosives (voiceless • voiced)
| p <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless bilabial plosive|p]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • b <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial plosive|b]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || t <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless alveolar plosive|t]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • d <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar plosive|d]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || k <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless velar plosive|k]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • g <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar plosive|g]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! colspan="2" | fricatives (voiceless • voiced)
| f <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless bilabial fricative|ɸ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • w <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial fricative|β]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || th <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless dental fricative|θ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • dh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced dental fricative|ð]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || s <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless alveolar sibilant|s]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • z <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar sibilant|z]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || sh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless palato-alveolar fricative|ʃ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • zh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced palato-alveolar fricative|ʒ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || x <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless velar fricative|x]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • gh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar fricative|ɣ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! rowspan="3" | liquids || lateral approximant
| || || l <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar lateral approximant|l]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|-
! approximant
| || || rh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar approximant|ɹ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|-
! trill
| || || r <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar trill|r]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|}
The plosive-fricative combinations ''pf, ts, tsh, kx'' and their voiced couterparts only occur at word boundaries and in compound words. They are not pronounced as affricates but as separate sounds. The same applies for other combinations of a plosive plus another consonant (''pm, tl'' etc.), as well as for two identical plosives (''kk'' etc.): the release of the first plosive is always audible.

===Vowels===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! rowspan="2" | !! colspan="2" | front !! colspan="2" | back
|-
! unrounded !! rounded !! unrounded !! rounded
|-
! close
| i <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close front unrounded vowel|i]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ü <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close front rounded vowel|y]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || y <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close back unrounded vowel|ɯ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || u <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close back rounded vowel|u]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! open-mid
| e <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid front unrounded vowel|ɛ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ö <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid front rounded vowel|œ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || a <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid back unrounded vowel|ʌ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || o <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid back rounded vowel|ɔ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|}
Two consecutive different vowels are pronounced as a diphthong; two consecutive identical vowels as a long one. Single vowels are always short.

Lemizh uses [[w:Mora (linguistics)|moræ]] for structuring words: a short syllable equals one mora, and a long syllable equals two. In Lemizh, every vowel is the centre of a mora; consequently, two consecutive vowels result in two moræ or one long syllable.

===Accent===
Lemizh has got a two-way pitch-accent system, in that accented moræ are not only spoken louder (as in English), but also have either a lower or a higher pitch than the surrounding unaccented ones. The accented mora is always the ultimate or penultimate of a word. The vowel at the centre of a low-pitch accented mora is transcribed with a grave accent, the vowel at the centre of a high-pitch accented mora with an acute accent.
{| class="wikitable" style="width: 220px; table-layout: fixed; text-align: center"
! colspan="8" | Accented vowel letters
|-
| colspan="8" style="padding: 0" | [[File:Lemizh accented vowels.png|216px]]
|-
| à || è || ỳ || ì || ò || ö̀ || ù || ǜ
|-
| á || é || ý || í || ó || ö́ || ú || ǘ
|}

===Phonotactics===
[[w:Phonotactics|Phonotactics]] is rather permissive in Lemizh. A mora has the following structure, where the bracketed parts are optional:
* (O)(N)(L)V(L)(N)(O)
V is the mora's vowel, L a liquid, N a nasal, and O an obstruent that can be either a P(losive), a F(ricative), FP, PF, FF, FFP, FPF, or PFF. Word-initial consonant clusters cannot contain more than three sounds. No geminate consonants (<abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''ff'' etc.) occur within a mora. Consecutive plosive-fricative or fricative-plosive combinations within the same mora must have the same sonority – either both are voiced, or both are voiceless. A plosive cannot have the same place of articulation as a following consonant with the exception of ''rh'' and ''r''. <abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''dzh'', <abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''ddh'' and their voiceless counterparts are also prohibited within a mora.

Word boundaries, including those within compound words, are always mora boundaries. Where mora boundaries would still be ambiguous, liquids and nasals are assigned to the earliest possible mora (as the ''m'' in ''lem·ỳzh.''), and obstruents to the latest possible mora.

==Morphology==
All words are composed of the following parts:
* Prestem + inner case + poststem + outer case
Prestem and poststem form the stem, or the lexical part, of the word. The division of the stem into two portions is similar to English verbs such as ''sing/sang/sung'', where the lexical part is ''s–ng'' while the vowels ''i/a/u'' convey grammatical information. The stem always denotes an action (but never a state, a person, a thing, a property, etc.) and thus resembles our verbs. The prestem can contain any sounds, or it can be zero (i.e. consisting of zero sounds). The poststem can only contain fricatives and plosives, or it can be zero as well.

The inner case is represented by one of the eight vowels, optionally followed by a liquid (the primary case suffix) and/or a nasal (the secondary case suffix). The outer case has the same structure. For the first word in each sentence, the main predicate, the outer case is missing.

Each case is defined by its ''descriptor'': for example, the factive case denotes an ''action'', the nominative a ''sender'', the locative a ''place''. The stem and the inner case's descriptor determine a word's meaning.

'''Examples'''
* ''wàx. w–x'' is the stem for "speak", ''-a-'' denotes the inner factive, so this word means "an action of speaking", translated as the verb "to speak" or the [[w:Verbal noun|verbal noun]] "speaking".
* ''wèx. -e-'' denotes the inner nominative, so this word means "a sender of speaking" or "a speaker".
* ''àrdh. ∅–dh'' (having a zero prestem) is the stem for "eat", ''-ar-'' denotes the inner locative: "a place of eating".
{| class="wikitable"
|+ Primary cases and their descriptors
|-
! rowspan="3" | № !! rowspan="3" | Case vowel !! colspan="4" | Primary case suffix
|-
| none || l || rh || r
|-
! Plot cases !! Causal cases !! Temporal cases !! Spatial cases
|-
| 1 || a || factive ({{sc|fact}}): ''action'' || affirmative ({{sc|aff}}): ''fact (point in causal chain)'' || temporal ({{sc|temp}}): ''time'' || locative ({{sc|loc}}): ''place/region''
|-
| 2 || e || nominative ({{sc|nom}}): ''source, sender'' || causative ({{sc|caus}}): ''direct cause'' || ingressive ({{sc|ing}}): ''starting time'' || elative ({{sc|ela}}): ''starting point/region''
|-
| 3 || y || accusative ({{sc|acc}}): ''content'' || contextual ({{sc|ctx}}): ''causal context'' || durative ({{sc|dur}}): ''duration'' || extensive ({{sc|ext}}): ''spatial extent''
|-
| 4 || i || dative ({{sc|dat}}): ''sink, recipient'' || consecutive ({{sc|cons}}): ''direct consequence, effect'' || egressive ({{sc|egr}}): ''closing time'' || illative ({{sc|ill}}): ''end point / ending region''
|-
| 5 || o || tentive ({{sc|ten}}): ''intention'' || intentive ({{sc|int}}): ''intention (intended point in causal chain)'' || episodic ({{sc|eps}}): ''episode, "act"'' || scenic ({{sc|sce}}): ''scene, "stage"''
|-
| 6 || ö || comitative ({{sc|com}}): ''company'' || persuasive ({{sc|psu}}): ''reason'' || digressive ({{sc|dig}}): ''time away from which'' || ablative ({{sc|abl}}): ''place/region away from which''
|-
| 7 || u || instrumental ({{sc|ins}}): ''means, tool'' || motivational ({{sc|mot}}): ''motivational context'' || progressive ({{sc|prog}}): ''time that is passed'' || prolative ({{sc|prol}}): ''crossing point/region''
|-
| 8 || ü || benefactive ({{sc|ben}}): ''beneficiary'' || final ({{sc|fin}}): ''purpose, aim'' || aggressive ({{sc|agg}}): ''time towards which, temporal aim'' || allative ({{sc|all}}): ''place/region towards which, spatial aim''
|}
Each primary case has two corresponding secondary cases:
* a partitive case formed by adding ''ng'' (such as ''-ing-'' for the partitive dative or ''-erng-'' for the partitive elative) with the descriptor ''the set from which the source (sink, place, etc.) is thought to be taken''
* a qualitative case formed by adding ''m'', with the descriptor ''the basis of comparison for the source (sink, place, etc.)''

===The flow of the plot===
Every action denoted by a stem is considered a flow of information that comes from a source (sender), transports a content, and reaches a sink (a recipient). The terms "sender" and "recipient" may be more familiar, but "source" and "sink" are more accurate in not necessarily meaning living beings.

Consequently, a Lemizh action looks somewhat like this: '''nominative  accusative[[File:DreieckYellowMIDDLE.png|26px|link=]] dative'''

This is called the action's plot. Here are some examples:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative
|-
| ''wàx.'' "to speak, to tell; (an act of) speaking" || ''wèx.'' "one telling something" || ''wỳx.'' "a tale" || ''wìx.'' "one who is told something"
|-
| ''dà.'' "to give; (an act of) giving" || ''dè.'' "one giving something" || ''dỳ.'' "a gift" || ''dì.'' "one who is given something; one who gets something"
|-
| ''làzhw.'' "to help" || ''lèzhw.'' "one helping" || ''lỳzhw.'' "help (given)" || ''lìzhw.'' "one whom is helped"
|-
| ''mlàtx.'' "to melt" || ''mlètx.'' "one melting something" || [''mlỳtx.''] || ''mlìtx.'' "a melted thing"
|-
| ''xöàgh.'' "to produce a sound; to hear" || ''xöègh.'' "one producing a sound" || ''xöỳgh.'' "a sound" || ''xöìgh.'' "one hearing something"
|-
| ''àdh.'' "to feed; to eat" || ''èdh.'' "one feeding someone" || ''ỳdh.'' "food" || ''ìdh.'' "one being fed; one eating"
|-
| ''ià.'' "to love" || ''iè.'' "one loving someone, a lover" || ''iỳ.'' "a beloved" || ''iì.'' "a beloved"
|}
Importantly, there are no rules for which cases to use with which words. Both ''iỳ.'' ({{sc|acc}}) and ''iì.'' ({{sc|dat}}) mean "a beloved". The former describes the beloved as the content of love, the one being lovingly thought of, while the latter implies that the love reaches them, like words or gifts reach their recipient. Likewise, the reason why ''mlỳtx.'' is not translated in the table above isn't that "''melt'' does not take the accusative", as grammars of other languages would say, but that "a content of melting" does not seem to have any obvious meaning. If someone wanted to describe, say, sun rays as content transported from the sun to the snow to melt it, they could well use ''mlỳtx.'' to express the concept.

Case usage is governed solely by the cases' descriptors; it is up to the speaker how to use them given some word's meaning and some context. If the wind opens a door, is it the source of the action of opening (''ngèt.''), the means of opening (''ngùt.''), or the cause (''ngèlt.'')? All are grammatically correct; the speaker decides which possibility best expresses their intention.

===Nouns===
:''Nouns, adjectives and verbs do not correspond to any concepts in Lemizh grammar. Using these terms is just an attempt to describe the grammar from an Indo-European viewpoint.''
A large number of nouns are not derived from verbs in most languages: ''froth, ship, lion'' and many others. In Lemizh, however, we have verbs such as ''psràxk.'' "to froth", ''àksh.'' "to build a ship or ships", and ''làw.'' "to make a lion or lions". We will call these ''nominal verbs''.

Looking at the verb ''àksh.'', the shipwright ({{sc|nom}}) gives the building materials ({{sc|dat}}) the properties or the function of a ship ({{sc|acc}}). He confers, well, shipness on the materials. The shipness is sent by the shipwright, not because he is acting, but because he is the source: the image of the ship, so to say, comes from his head and materialises in wood, iron, ropes, and linen. In short, these words mostly appear with inner accusative.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative
|-
| ''psràxk.'' "to froth" || ''psrèxk.'' "one frothing something" || ''psrỳxk.'' "a thing having the properties of froth = '''froth'''" || ''psrìxk.'' "a frothed thing, a frothed liquid"
|-
| ''àksh.'' "to build a ship" || ''èksh.'' "one building a ship, a shipwright" || ''ỳksh.'' "a thing having the properties of a ship = '''a ship'''" || ''ìksh.'' "building materials for a ship, materials made into a ship"
|-
| ''làw.'' "to make a lion" || [''lèw.'' "one making a lion"] || ''lỳw.'' "a thing having the properties of a lion = '''a lion'''" || [''lìw.'' "building materials for a lion, materials made into a lion"]
|}

Another very common kind of nouns are tool nouns, formed with an inner instrumental case:
* ''ghstù.'' "a sail" is derived from ''ghstà.'' "to sail", literally "a means of sailing",
* ''pslù.'' "scissors" from ''pslà.'' "to cut with scissors",
* ''saxùf.'' "trumpet" from ''saxàf.'' "to play the trumpet",
* ''skrùzh.'' "a finger" from ''skràzh.'' "to work with one's fingers".

====Inflection====
As mentioned above, all words can inflect for (outer) case. Thus, we have the nominative forms ''wàx'''e''''' "(an act of) speaking, (an act of) telling", ''dè'''e''''' "a giver", ''lỳw'''e''''' "a lion", the causative ''lỳw'''el''''' "because of a lion", the elative ''lỳw'''er''''' "(starting) from a lion", etc.

Lemizh words do not inflect for number or gender. If desired, we can express this information by forming compounds. (Note the duplication of the inner case vowel; the first occurrence in each word is called the epenthetic case of the compound. The underlying grammar will be described later.)
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Singular !! Dual !! Plural !! Feminine !! Masculine !! Feminine singular !! etc.
|-
! giver
| ''dè.'' || ''de'''rè'''.'' || ''de'''dwè'''.'' || ''de'''mlè'''.'' || ''de'''bè'''.'' || ''de'''èx'''.'' || ''de'''berè'''.''
|-
! lion
| ''lỳw.'' || ''lyw'''rỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''dwỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''mlỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''bỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''ỳx'''.'' || ''lyw'''byrỳ'''.''
|-
! compound with
| — || ''rỳ.'' "one" || ''dwỳ.'' "two" || ''mlỳ.'' "several" || ''bỳ.'' "female; woman" || ''ỳx.'' "male; man" || "female" and "one"
|}

===Adjectives and numerals===
There is no difference between adjectival and nominal verbs: they mostly appear with inner accusative. This is the same situation as in, say, Latin, where ''albus'' can mean "a white one" as well as "white". Numerals are basically a sub-category of adjectives.

The inner consecutive case translates certain abstract nouns.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative !! Inner consecutive
|-
| ''gmrà.'' "to heat, to make something warm" || ''gmrè.'' "one heating something up" || ''gmrỳ.'' "a warm thing; '''warm'''" || ''gmrì.'' "a thing heated up; heated, warmed" || ''gmrìl.'' "the consequence of heating = heat"
|-
| ''làbdh.'' "to whiten something, to make something white" || ''lèbdh.'' "one whitening something" || ''lỳbdh.'' "a white thing; '''white'''" || ''lìbdh.'' "a thing made white; whitened" || ''lìlbdh.'' "the consequence of whitening = whiteness"
|-
| ''dwà.'' "to make two things/individuals" || ''dwè.'' "one making two things" || ''dwỳ.'' "'''two''' (things)" || ''dwì.'' "something made into two (things)" || ''dwìl.'' "the consequence of making two things = twoness"
|}

However, emotions aren't viewed as properties in Lemizh: a happy or angry person is one sending happiness or anger, just as a loving person is one sending love. The inner causative plays a notable role with verbs of emotion.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative !! Inner causative
|-
| ''pthàb.'' "to be angry" || ''pthèb.'' "an angry one; '''angry'''" || ''pthỳb.'' "the content/object of one's anger" || ''pthìb.'' "one that one's anger reaches" || ''pthèlb.'' "one causing someone anger; one annoying someone"
|}

====Inflection====
Of course, adjectives can be compounded to express number and/or gender in the same way as nouns. Furthermore, we can form compounds expressing various degrees. (The epenthetic consecutive ''-il-'' in these compounds will also be explained later; it is actually the main application of the abstract nouns just mentioned.)
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Diminutive !! Augmentative !! Absolute !! Comparative !! Superlative
|-
! warm
| ''gmrỳ.'' || ''gmril'''zhrỳ'''.'' "lukewarm" || ''gmril'''dmỳ'''.'' "hot" || ''gmril'''ghngỳ'''.'' "absolutely hot" || ''gmril'''tỳzhd'''.'' "warmer, hotter" || ''gmril'''ỳst'''.'' "hottest"
|-
! white
| ''lỳbdh.'' || ''lilbdh'''zhrỳ'''.'' "whitish" || ''lilbdh'''dmỳ'''.'' "very white" || ''lilbdh'''ghngỳ'''.'' "absolutely/completely white" || ''lilbdh'''tỳzhd'''.'' "whiter" || ''lilbdh'''ỳst'''.'' "whitest"
|-
! compound with
| — || ''zhrỳ.'' "few, little, a bit" || ''dmỳ.'' "much, many" || ''ghngỳ.'' "every, all, the whole" || ''tỳzhd.'' "more" || ''ỳst.'' "most"
|}

===Verbs===
Most verbs correspond to Lemizh words with an inner factive. However, as Lemizh stems always denote an action, the notable exception are stative verbs such as:
* ''zdìls.'' "to sit", literally "the consequence of sitting down (''zdàs.'')"
* ''gwìlt.'' "to know", literally "the consequence of learning (''gwàt.'')"

====Inflection====
* Person is not expressed with inflection but with pronouns.
* Number is conveyed by compounding pronouns with numerals. While verbs (i.e. words with an inner factive) can be compounded with numerals, ''ftrask'''mlà'''.'' does not mean "we/they sneeze" but "(there are) several acts of sneezing" (i.e. someone sneezes several times and/or several people sneeze).
* Voice (active/passive) is absent in Lemizh; word order serves a similar function.
* Tense is expressed by compounds with an epenthetic temporal case (''-arh-''), or with certain inner cases. The latter option is preferred if possible, as it is more concise.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Present !! Past !! Perfect !! Future !! Intentional
|-
! to sit down
| ''zdàs.'' || ''zdarhs'''wà'''.'' || ''zdarhs'''prilkà'''.'' || ''zd'''ìl'''s.'' ({{sc|cons}}) || ''zdarhs'''prà'''.'' || ''zd'''ò'''s.'' ({{sc|ten}})
|-
! compound with
| — || pronoun || ''prilkỳ.'' "back" || — || ''prỳ.'' "front" || —
|}
Note that the translation of the perfect with inner consecutive coincides with the translation of stative verbs: "having sat down" in the strict perfect sense of "the consequence/effect of this action exists" means the same as "to sit". Likewise, "whiteness" can be expressed as the abstract concept of "having whitened something".

* Mood corresponds to compounds with certain verbs for the most part. There is no equivalent to the subjunctive mood, as subordinate clauses are irreal (i.e. not necessarily real) by default. Here are some common formations:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Indicative !! Imperative !! Commanding imperative !! Interrogative Polite imperative !! Optative
|-
! to feed, to eat
| ''àdh.'' || ''adh'''pràk'''.'' || ''adh'''dàxt'''.'' || ''adh'''pà'''.'' || ''adh'''làxt'''.''
|-
! compound with
| — || ''pràk.'' "to request" || ''dàxt.'' "to command" || ''pà.'' "to ask" || ''làxt.'' "to want"
|}
* Aspect is a very heterogeneous category, expressed by a variety of compounds and syntactic structures in Lemizh.

===Pronouns===
The two demonstrative pronouns are technically nominal verbs:
* ''tà.'' "to make this/that one", typically used with inner accusative: ''tỳ.'' "this/that (one)"
* ''gwà.'' "to make someone/anyone, something/anything", with inner accusative ''gwỳ.'' "someone/anyone, something/anything"

The eleven relative pronouns play a far more prominent role in Lemizh grammar. Their scope is much wider than the one usually associated with the term. As they are closely tied to Lemizh syntax, they will be described further down.

==Syntax==
===Level of words===
There is only one more grammatical category: the level of words, which is the main building block of Lemizh syntax. A word can be of first level (the highest), of second level (the next highest), of third level (still one level lower) and so on; there is no limit for the number of levels, but non-positive word levels (zero, −1, etc.) are forbidden.

The first word in a sentence (the main predicate) is of first level by definition. The level of the next word is determined by the main predicate's accent and by the type of pause between the two words, the level of the third word is determined by the accent of the second and the pause between these two, and so on.

Here is the complete list of pause/accent combinations.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="2" | Following pause !! rowspan="2" | Accented vowel !! rowspan="2" | Type of accent !! rowspan="2" | The level of the next word is …
|-
! in speech !! in writing
|-
| rowspan="4" | barely audible || rowspan="4" | space || rowspan="2" | inner case || low || lower by 1
|-
| high || lower by 1, and [[w:Agent (grammar)|agentive]]* ({{sc|a}})
|-
| rowspan="2" | outer case || low || equal
|-
| high || higher by 1
|-
| rowspan="4" | a bit longer || rowspan="4" | comma ('''·''') || rowspan="2" | inner case || low || higher by 2
|-
| high || higher by 3
|-
| rowspan="2" | outer case || low || higher by 4
|-
| high || higher by 5
|-
| the longest || full stop ('''∶''') || inner case || low || none; end of sentence
|}
<nowiki>*</nowiki> The agent is the initiator of the action (more informally, the one who ''does'' the action).

===The Rules===
[[File:Lemizh parse tree.png|thumb|upright=1.5|A schematic sentence with the words represented by their level numbers]]
The word levels determine the structure of a sentence.

'''Rule One of sentence grammar. A word of level n is subordinate to the nearest word of level n−1 in front of it; the parole acts as a word of level zero.'''

All words of second level are subordinate to the main predicate (which has first level). A word of third level is subordinate to the next second-level word in front of it, and so on. In other words, Lemizh sentences are strictly [[w:Head directionality|head-first]]. The main predicate itself is subordinate to the [[w:Parole (linguistics)|parole]], the action of speaking (or writing) the sentence in question, which consequently has level zero.

'''Rule Two. An object of a word in a sentence is a word subordinate to the former, its predicate, plus all of its own objects.'''

In the diagram, the main predicate's three objects are enclosed in ellipses. Objects of the same word are called ''sibling objects'' or just ''siblings'', and the word they are subordinate to is their ''predicate''. Note that ''predicate'' and ''object'' are relative terms like ''parent'' and ''child''.

The table of level markers implies that only the first object of a predicate can be marked as agent. (This has been interpreted as Lemizh having VSO word order, although a subject is not quite the same as an agent, and Lemizh grammar strictly speaking does not have the concept of a subject.)

'''Rule Three. The outer case of the first word of an object defines its relation to its predicate's stem via its descriptor; the outer case of a level 1 word is zero.'''

This is what we would expect from a language that inflects for case: the nominative object defines the source (sender) of the action named by the stem of its predicate, the accusative object its content, the temporal object its time, etc.

'''Examples'''
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dá föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|give-FACT-1 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2A bottle-ACC-ACC-2 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2
|''Father Christmas gives Lucy a bottle.''}}

The stems of the three objects are nominal verbs ("to make a bottle" etc.), hence the inner accusatives. The outer cases indicate the sender, content and recipient of the act of giving, respectively. The agent is specified independently of the plot arrow; note the difference:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dá lusyì dwywỳ föpysrỳfe.
|give-FACT-1 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2A bottle-ACC-ACC-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2
|''Lucy takes a bottle from Father Christmas.''}}

We need not mark an object as agentive if we consider this information unimportant. The English translations are only rough approximations:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dà lusyì dwywỳ föpysrỳfe.
|give-FACT-1 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2 bottle-ACC-ACC-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2
|''Lucy gets a bottle from Father Christmas. Lucy is given a bottle by Father Christmas.''}}

'''Rule Four. An instance of a word stem designates a specific action.'''

''dà'' in the above sentence does not just mean "to give", it refers to one specific action of giving. Such an action may involve several givers (as in "They give something") and need not even be temporally or spatially connected (as in "They are giving something every Christmas"). In other words, each spoken or written instance of the stem ''d–'' refers to a certain subset of all the giving there is.

This rule ensures that all the objects refer to the same action of giving as the predicate itself.

'''Rule Five. A case characterises the action it refers to completely with regard to its case descriptor.'''

For example, the nominative object "Father Christmas" has to name the complete sender of the above instance of giving. This excludes from this instance all giving not done by Father Christmas. So each object places a restriction on the action of giving the main predicate refers to. Thus, the subset of giving meant by this instance of ''dà.'' – what the sentence is ultimately talking about – is defined more and more precisely with each additional object. (The same is true not only of the main predicate but of all words in a sentence.)

'''Rule Six. A missing object is equivalent to the absence of information about its descriptor.'''

Above sentences do not have, for example, locative objects, so Rule Five cannot place a restriction on the place of giving. Because of Rule Six, this does not mean there are no restrictions on the location, but only that this kind of information has not been included in the sentence (for example, because the speaker does not know about it, considers it irrelevent, or assumes the listener already knows or – perhaps most importantly – can infer it.)

'''Rule Seven. Given an object and its predicate, the predicate is considered more real and the object more hypothetical.'''

…

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! as an object !! as a complete sentence
|-
| ''dà.'' || to give; giving || An action of giving exists = Someone gives something.
|-
| ''zdìls.'' || the consequence of sitting down = to sit; sitting || The consequence of sitting down exists = Someone sits.
|-
| ''dwìlw.'' || the consequence of making a bottle || The consequence of making a bottle exists = A bottle exists; there is a bottle.
|-
| ''sklè.'' || one building a bridge || One building a bridge exists = There is someone building a bridge.
|}

===Noun phrases===
Forming noun phrases does not require any new grammatical rules. In the following example, the inner case of "give" is changed to the nominative, yielding "one giving something, a giver", and everything is pushed down one level. The third-level words are still sender, content and recipient of the ''action'' of giving, as outer cases define relations to the predicate's ''stem'' per Rule Three.
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 3A:third level, agentive
|dmàt tryxkì dée föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|see-FACT-1 beaver-ACC-DAT-2 give-NOM-NOM-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-3A bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3
|''The beaver sees '''the one giving Lucy a bottle, Father Christmas'''.''}}
Regarding the verb "see", note that the beaver is in the dative, being at the receiving end of the optical stimulus or information. Marking the beaver as agent would translate as "The beaver looks at the one …".

Rules Four and Five guarantee that the giver is identical to Father Christmas: both are the sender of the same instance of the stem ''d–'' "give" (the giver via its inner nominative, Father Christmas via its outer nominative), and both are the ''complete'' sender of this action. This type of construction, where an object's outer case matches its predicate's inner case, is called a '''bracket'''. Brackets are very widely used:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Apposition !! Attributive adjective !! Attributive pronoun/determiner !! Attributive numeral !! Attributive participle
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|iakopỳk saxèfy.
|Jacopo-'''ACC'''-1 trumpet-NOM-'''ACC'''-2
|''Jacopo, a trumpeter''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=INS:instrumental case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|ghstù lỳbdhu.
|sail-'''INS'''-1 white-ACC-'''INS'''-2
|''a sail, a white thing = a white sail''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|ỳksh gwỳy.
|ship-'''ACC'''-1 some-ACC-'''ACC'''-2
|''a ship, something = some ship''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|mỳs trỳy.
|mouse-'''ACC'''-1 three-ACC-'''ACC'''-2
|''mice, three individuals = three mice''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|nỳzd gangèy.
|bird-'''ACC'''-1 sing-NOM-'''ACC'''-2
|''a bird, a singer = a singing bird''}}
|}
Such phrases can be easily extended. This example contains two accusative brackets ("a singing bird" and "a sad child"):
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 4:fourth level
|ngỳzd gangèy zhngỳi speghý ytfỳarh.
|bird-ACC-1 sing-NOM-ACC-2 child-ACC-DAT-3 sad-NOM-ACC-4 night-ACC-TEMP-3
|''a bird singing to a sad child at night''}}

As [[w:Genitive construction|genitive constructions]] have a wide variety of meanings, there is no single Lemizh equivalent. The typical translation for constructions indicating possession is with the benefactive case, but other cases frequently occur. Everything depends on the object's relation to the predicate's stem per Rule Three.

{|
|-
| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|dwỳw lusỳü.
|bottle-ACC-1 Lucy-ACC-'''BEN'''-2
|''Lucy's bottle'' (Lucy is the beneficiary of making the bottle. The bottle is made for Lucy.)}}

| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dý ỳxe.
|give-ACC-1 male-ACC-'''NOM'''-2A
|''the man's gift'' (The man is the sender of giving.)}}

| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|rhỳst ytfỳarh filpskỳy.
|dream-ACC-1 night-ACC-'''TEMP'''-2 midsummer-ACC-ACC-3
|''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' (The midsummer night is the time of dreaming.)}}
|}

===Verb phrases===
Adverbially used adjectives also translate to brackets:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|gangà txỳska.
|sing-'''FACT'''-1 loud-ACC-'''FACT'''-2
|''(an act of) singing, a loud thing = to sing loudly''}}

===Dependent clauses===
…


===Relative pronouns===
…
{| class="wikitable"
! rowspan="2" | Level !! colspan="2" | Type I !! colspan="2" | Type II
|-
! Verb !! The target is the stem of !! Verb !! The target is the stem of
|-
| n || colspan="2" | (does not occur because it would refer to itself) || à. || its preceding same-level word
|-
| n−1 || wà. || its predicate || fà. || its predicate's preceding same-level word or parole
|-
| n−2 || dhà. || its predicate's predicate || thà. || its predicate's predicate's preceding same-level word or parole
|-
| n−3 || zà. || its predicate's predicate's predicate || sà. || …
|-
| n−4 || zhà. || … || shà. || …
|-
| n−5 || ghà. || … || xà. || …
|}


==Derivational morphology==
From a Lemizh point of view, ''dè.'' "giver" and ''dỳ.'' "gift" aren't derivatives of ''dà.'' "to give" but grammatical forms of the same word. The only piece of true derivational morphology is compounding.

===Compounds===
[[File:Lemizh compounding diagram.png|thumb|Forming a compound from a two-word sentence]]
'''Rule One of compounding. A compound word is constructed from a two-word sentence – predicate and object of which become modifier and head of the compound, respectively – in the following way:'''
# '''Prestem''':
## the object's prestem
## the object's inner case
## the object's poststem
## an optional separator
## the predicate's prestem
# '''Inner case'''
# '''Poststem''': the predicate's poststem
# '''Outer case'''
Note that the object's stem comes before the predicate's; and also that the object's outer case (and, less importantly, the predicate's inner case) is lost. The separator can be used, for example, if the word boundary would be unclear otherwise, or for placing the second part of the word on a new line.

…

'''Rule Two. In the relationship between the original predicate and object, the rules of sentence grammar are retained as far as applicable.'''

…

'''Rule Three. Regarding all outward relations, cases refer to the head.'''

…

==Example text==
[[File:Lemizh text sample.png|600px]]

====stedrỳzh thìrhfi xtrỳghy.====
krỳgh dghngireì prilxpilghkỳarh. mangỳ srungbỳng lyngghỳng yngshwỳng fỳü. zhöazhghngìl tmỳil. ghngàgzh smìa prỳal ghngyé dhàbdhy lunguỳ ùyl mỳu fplyxár tỳarh. dmát feì sxngengzè ishkènge. ghìlt krighmyngthxì xtrỳngghi swyshỳ ghỳxy fplyxòr zhöyzhỳm xngàrorm. dmìlt öngkrỳngty zhryỳ rèshy esfàsy sxngyzdmýi, usrỳngy xazhgèsty ghngỳeng, frekrỳngfy rilghdzhỳwby pthèby, dgheipysrỳngdy psrèby rhèzhem, dghistngỳngty ghỳxy zangỳa dghildhfmlýyrh, ngiftngyghtmỳngy krültlìy zùe gỳghda. xtrỳgh swyshý stedrỳzh thìrfi. dngilszhrìl bdhyrgzhyngỳng xüxtrỳngyng prilkỳarh ötìlil skmyngìlng ghỳngsilng. dngilszhìlwb ráxpy thìlfi. fö̀l gwiltngìlöl dmàty föpysryfỳ ngỳu.

rỳ zhryỳrh thìzgy gwiltngìly rhàghgy dmatngìe thìrfy. là xángska matngiè ytfỳyrh dmyý fplyxór dyxtngyngà mànga prilzhryngỳr iltỳngzhdyr. dmàt ytfỳarh ryý mìlngorh xngyì prilkyár mìlngorh xtrỳngghi kshrextý mengthxì prỳar zìe, fplỳngxe fywýr déngske xtryghè sxngezì xngỳnge.

====The Legend of the Seventh Planet====
A long time ago there was a tribe of nomads. They possessed neither writing nor houses nor horses. But they were truly human. They were curious; this means, above all, that they took interest in the useless, for the celestial objects were of no use to them yet. They looked at the Sun and the Moon. They had named the constellations and the six planets moving across the sky like the humans across the earth. They knew dim Mercury, who liked to hide in the glare of the Sun; Venus, the brightest of all; reddish and angry Mars; majestic father Jupiter; Saturn, who seemed to stand still for weeks; and even Uranus had been caught by their keen eyes. Six planets, and the legend of a seventh. Maybe it had been the minor planet Vesta, or a comet centuries or millennia earlier. Maybe it was the attraction of the number seven. For Neptune is invisible to the naked eye.

One youngster thought to himself that he could not live without seeing the seventh planet. He lay awake searching the sky for many nights, neglected his duties, and became thinner and thinner. And one night, lying with the Earth behind his back, and with the looping planets and the stars above him, he saw the depth of the sky and the planets circling the Sun, and among them the Earth.

==External links==
* [https://lemizh.conlang.org Lemizh homepage] with comprehensive coverage of the language, including a dictionary
[[File:Copyleft1.png|20px]] ''This article includes material from the Lemizh homepage, which is available under a [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License].''


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[[Category:Conlangs]]
[[Category:Indo-European languages]]
[[Category:Fusional languages]]

Lemizh

2022-05-14T10:29:07Z

Anypodetos: Rules, copyedit, etc.

{{Infobox language
|image =
|imagesize =
|name = Lemizh
|nativename = lemỳzh.
|pronunciation = lɛmˈɯ̀ʒ
|state = Lemaria
|setting = Alt-history Europe
|created = 1985
|familycolor = Indo-European
|fam2 = Lemizh
|ancestor = Proto-Lemizh
|posteriori = [[w:Proto-Indo-European|Proto-Indo-European]]
|creator = [[User:Anypodetos|Anypodetos]]
|scripts = Lemizh alphabet
|nation = Lemaria
|map = Map of Lemaria.png
|notice = IPA
}}
'''Lemizh''' ([[Help:IPA|[lεmˈiʒ]]], native pronunciation: [[Help:IPA|[lɛmˈɯ̀ʒ]]]) is a language I invented with the aim of creating a grammar as regular and simple as possible. It was originally intended as an [[w:International auxiliary language|international auxiliary language]]. However, it turned out that a simple grammar is not necessarily a grammar that is easy to learn: the more ways of simplification I found, the further away it moved from [[w:Indo-European languages|Indo-European]] and probably all other familiar language structures. Expecting anyone to learn Lemizh, at this point, would be completely unrealistic.

So I needed a new justification for the language: enter the Lemizh, a people living to the west and north of the [[w:Black Sea|Black Sea]] in an alternate history that slowly drifted away from ours between two and eight millennia ago. Of course, it is extremely unlikely that they would speak a language that was completely without exceptions. To be precise, the chances are two to the power of two hundred and seventy-six thousand seven hundred and nine to one against. But they say that everything has to happen somewhere in the Multiverse. And everything happens only once.

{{TOC limit}}

==History==
===Early stages===
Lemizh is an Indo-European language and, together with Volgan, constitutes one of the ten recognised branches of the Indo-European language family. This branch is also called Lemizh, to the disgruntlement of Volgan linguists.

Proto-Lemizh, the ancestor of Lemizh and Volgan, is very poorly attested in form of some papyri found near the northwestern shore of the Black Sea, to the north of the [[w:Dniester Liman|Dniester Liman]], dated about 2700 BC. Old Lemizh, by contrast, is fairly well attested. It had predominantly [[w:Subject–verb–object|subject–verb–object]] (SVO) word order and was a quite typical old Indo-European language, but with a couple of interesting quirks:
* Adjectives were lost as a separate part of speech, being replaced with participles ("white" > "being white").
* Finite subordinate clauses had their subject in the case of the clause: the subject of a local clause was in the locative case without having a local meaning in itself.
The earliest known documents from this stage of Lemizh were probably written around 2100 BC along the northern and western shores of the Back Sea.

===Ghean and Middle Lemizh===
Ghean ([[Help:IPA|[ˈɣɛən]]]) is a language with no known genetic relationships. It was spoken by a people of unknown origin, who subdued the Lemizh tribes in around 1000 BC and ruled for infamous three generations. Ghean was an inflected [[w:Tonal language|register tonal]] language with strict [[w:Verb–subject–object|verb–subject–object]] (VSO) word order and head-first phrases. It had verbs, [[w:Nominal (linguistics)|nominals]] (a combined noun/adjective/participle part of speech), pronouns and particles.

The Gheans discouraged the use of the natives' language, but obviously tolerated Lemizh words (or rather word stems) to stand in for unfamiliar Ghean ones. The grammar of simple sentences was easy enough to learn for the Lemizh, as they were used to inflection and head-first phrases, and likely still knew VSO sentences from poetry. After two or three generations, the natives must have spoken a [[w:Creole language|creole]] with a more or less Ghean grammar but an abundance of Lemizh words, especially outside the core vocabulary. This is a quite unusual development as most creoles draw their lexicon mainly from the dominant group, and tend to be grammatically more innovative. (The Tanzanian language [[w:Mbugu language|Mbugu]] might have had a somewhat similar development with more or less analogous outcomes.) After the disappearance of the Gheans, Lemizh patriots tried to revive their old language, which failed spectacularly for the grammar but reintroduced many Lemizh words of the core vocabulary.

===The last three millennia===
While Middle Lemizh as spoken after the Ghean occupation already had a non-Indo-European and unusually regular grammar, this trend was to continue over the following millennia. The factive case was innovated to express verbal nouns, which eventually supplanted verbs altogether. (At least part of the blame goes to the Tlöngö̀l, an epic novel published in 1351, which popularised the use of verbal nouns.) The tonal system was simplified to the present two-way [[w:Pitch-accent language|pitch-accent]] system. Pronouns lost their status as a separate part of speech. The last particles died out a few hundred years ago, leaving the language with a single part of speech which is often called a "verb" but, historically speaking, is really a nominal. This means that the concept of ''parts of speech'' does not make sense in Modern Lemizh.

==Orthography and phonology==
The alphabet is [[w:Phonetic orthography|phonetic]]: each letter corresponds to a certain sound, and each sound is represented by a single letter. The direction of writing is left to right. This article uses the standard transcription of the native Lemizh alphabet as given in the following table:
{| class="wikitable" style="width: 800px; table-layout: fixed; text-align: center"
! colspan="29" | Letters of the Lemizh alphabet
|-
| colspan="29" style="padding: 0" | [[File:Lemizh alphabet.png|796px]]
|-
| a || e || y || i || o || ö || u || ü || l || rh || r || ng || m || g || d || b || k || t || p || gh || zh || z || dh || w || x || sh || s || th || f
|}

===Consonants===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="2" | !! bilabial !! dental !! alveolar !! postalveolar !! velar
|-
! colspan="2" | nasals
| m <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial nasal|m]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || || || ng <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar nasal|ŋ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! colspan="2" | plosives (voiceless • voiced)
| p <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless bilabial plosive|p]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • b <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial plosive|b]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || t <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless alveolar plosive|t]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • d <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar plosive|d]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || k <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless velar plosive|k]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • g <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar plosive|g]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! colspan="2" | fricatives (voiceless • voiced)
| f <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless bilabial fricative|ɸ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • w <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial fricative|β]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || th <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless dental fricative|θ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • dh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced dental fricative|ð]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || s <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless alveolar sibilant|s]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • z <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar sibilant|z]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || sh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless palato-alveolar fricative|ʃ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • zh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced palato-alveolar fricative|ʒ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || x <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless velar fricative|x]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • gh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar fricative|ɣ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! rowspan="3" | liquids || lateral approximant
| || || l <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar lateral approximant|l]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|-
! approximant
| || || rh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar approximant|ɹ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|-
! trill
| || || r <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar trill|r]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|}
The plosive-fricative combinations ''pf, ts, tsh, kx'' and their voiced couterparts only occur at word boundaries and in compound words. They are not pronounced as affricates but as separate sounds. The same applies for other combinations of a plosive plus another consonant (''pm, tl'' etc.), as well as for two identical plosives (''kk'' etc.): the release of the first plosive is always audible.

===Vowels===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! rowspan="2" | !! colspan="2" | front !! colspan="2" | back
|-
! unrounded !! rounded !! unrounded !! rounded
|-
! close
| i <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close front unrounded vowel|i]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ü <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close front rounded vowel|y]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || y <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close back unrounded vowel|ɯ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || u <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close back rounded vowel|u]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! open-mid
| e <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid front unrounded vowel|ɛ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ö <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid front rounded vowel|œ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || a <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid back unrounded vowel|ʌ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || o <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid back rounded vowel|ɔ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|}
Two consecutive different vowels are pronounced as a diphthong; two consecutive identical vowels as a long one. Single vowels are always short.

Lemizh uses [[w:Mora (linguistics)|moræ]] for structuring words: a short syllable equals one mora, and a long syllable equals two. In Lemizh, every vowel is the centre of a mora; consequently, two consecutive vowels result in two moræ or one long syllable.

===Accent===
Lemizh has got a two-way pitch-accent system, in that accented moræ are not only spoken louder (as in English), but also have either a lower or a higher pitch than the surrounding unaccented ones. The accented mora is always the ultimate or penultimate of a word. The vowel at the centre of a low-pitch accented mora is transcribed with a grave accent, the vowel at the centre of a high-pitch accented mora with an acute accent.
{| class="wikitable" style="width: 220px; table-layout: fixed; text-align: center"
! colspan="8" | Accented vowel letters
|-
| colspan="8" style="padding: 0" | [[File:Lemizh accented vowels.png|216px]]
|-
| à || è || ỳ || ì || ò || ö̀ || ù || ǜ
|-
| á || é || ý || í || ó || ö́ || ú || ǘ
|}

===Phonotactics===
[[w:Phonotactics|Phonotactics]] is rather permissive in Lemizh. A mora has the following structure, where the bracketed parts are optional:
* (O)(N)(L)V(L)(N)(O)
V is the mora's vowel, L a liquid, N a nasal, and O an obstruent that can be either a P(losive), a F(ricative), FP, PF, FF, FFP, FPF, or PFF. Word-initial consonant clusters cannot contain more than three sounds. No geminate consonants (<abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''ff'' etc.) occur within a mora. Consecutive plosive-fricative or fricative-plosive combinations within the same mora must have the same sonority – either both are voiced, or both are voiceless. A plosive cannot have the same place of articulation as a following consonant with the exception of ''rh'' and ''r''. <abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''dzh'', <abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''ddh'' and their voiceless counterparts are also prohibited within a mora.

Word boundaries, including those within compound words, are always mora boundaries. Where mora boundaries would still be ambiguous, liquids and nasals are assigned to the earliest possible mora (as the ''m'' in ''lem·ỳzh.''), and obstruents to the latest possible mora.

==Morphology==
All words are composed of the following parts:
* Prestem + inner case + poststem + outer case
Prestem and poststem form the stem, or the lexical part, of the word. The division of the stem into two portions is similar to English verbs such as ''sing/sang/sung'', where the lexical part is ''s–ng'' while the vowels ''i/a/u'' convey grammatical information. The stem always denotes an action (but never a state, a person, a thing, a property, etc.) and thus resembles our verbs. The prestem can contain any sounds, or it can be zero (i.e. consisting of zero sounds). The poststem can only contain fricatives and plosives, or it can be zero as well.

The inner case is represented by one of the eight vowels, optionally followed by a liquid (the primary case suffix) and/or a nasal (the secondary case suffix). The outer case has the same structure. For the first word in each sentence, the main predicate, the outer case is missing.

Each case is defined by its ''descriptor'': for example, the factive case denotes an ''action'', the nominative a ''sender'', the locative a ''place''. The stem and the inner case's descriptor determine a word's meaning.

'''Examples'''
* ''wàx. w–x'' is the stem for "speak", ''-a-'' denotes the inner factive, so this word means "an action of speaking", translated as the verb "to speak" or the [[w:Verbal noun|verbal noun]] "speaking".
* ''wèx. -e-'' denotes the inner nominative, so this word means "a sender of speaking" or "a speaker".
* ''àrdh. ∅–dh'' (having a zero prestem) is the stem for "eat", ''-ar-'' denotes the inner locative: "a place of eating".
{| class="wikitable"
|+ Primary cases and their descriptors
|-
! rowspan="3" | № !! rowspan="3" | Case vowel !! colspan="4" | Primary case suffix
|-
| none || l || rh || r
|-
! Plot cases !! Causal cases !! Temporal cases !! Spatial cases
|-
| 1 || a || factive ({{sc|fact}}): ''action'' || affirmative ({{sc|aff}}): ''fact (point in causal chain)'' || temporal ({{sc|temp}}): ''time'' || locative ({{sc|loc}}): ''place/region''
|-
| 2 || e || nominative ({{sc|nom}}): ''source, sender'' || causative ({{sc|caus}}): ''direct cause'' || ingressive ({{sc|ing}}): ''starting time'' || elative ({{sc|ela}}): ''starting point/region''
|-
| 3 || y || accusative ({{sc|acc}}): ''content'' || contextual ({{sc|ctx}}): ''causal context'' || durative ({{sc|dur}}): ''duration'' || extensive ({{sc|ext}}): ''spatial extent''
|-
| 4 || i || dative ({{sc|dat}}): ''sink, recipient'' || consecutive ({{sc|cons}}): ''direct consequence, effect'' || egressive ({{sc|egr}}): ''closing time'' || illative ({{sc|ill}}): ''end point / ending region''
|-
| 5 || o || tentive ({{sc|ten}}): ''intention'' || intentive ({{sc|int}}): ''intention (intended point in causal chain)'' || episodic ({{sc|eps}}): ''episode, "act"'' || scenic ({{sc|sce}}): ''scene, "stage"''
|-
| 6 || ö || comitative ({{sc|com}}): ''company'' || persuasive ({{sc|psu}}): ''reason'' || digressive ({{sc|dig}}): ''time away from which'' || ablative ({{sc|abl}}): ''place/region away from which''
|-
| 7 || u || instrumental ({{sc|ins}}): ''means, tool'' || motivational ({{sc|mot}}): ''motivational context'' || progressive ({{sc|prog}}): ''time that is passed'' || prolative ({{sc|prol}}): ''crossing point/region''
|-
| 8 || ü || benefactive ({{sc|ben}}): ''beneficiary'' || final ({{sc|fin}}): ''purpose, aim'' || aggressive ({{sc|agg}}): ''time towards which, temporal aim'' || allative ({{sc|all}}): ''place/region towards which, spatial aim''
|}
Each primary case has two corresponding secondary cases:
* a partitive case formed by adding ''ng'' (such as ''-ing-'' for the partitive dative or ''-erng-'' for the partitive elative) with the descriptor ''the set from which the source (sink, place, etc.) is thought to be taken''
* a qualitative case formed by adding ''m'', with the descriptor ''the basis of comparison for the source (sink, place, etc.)''

===The flow of the plot===
Every action denoted by a stem is considered a flow of information that comes from a source (sender), transports a content, and reaches a sink (a recipient). The terms "sender" and "recipient" may be more familiar, but "source" and "sink" are more accurate in not necessarily meaning living beings.

Consequently, a Lemizh action looks somewhat like this: '''nominative  accusative[[File:DreieckYellowMIDDLE.png|26px|link=]] dative'''

This is called the action's plot. Here are some examples:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative
|-
| ''wàx.'' "to speak, to tell; (an act of) speaking" || ''wèx.'' "one telling something" || ''wỳx.'' "a tale" || ''wìx.'' "one who is told something"
|-
| ''dà.'' "to give; (an act of) giving" || ''dè.'' "one giving something" || ''dỳ.'' "a gift" || ''dì.'' "one who is given something; one who gets something"
|-
| ''làzhw.'' "to help" || ''lèzhw.'' "one helping" || ''lỳzhw.'' "help (given)" || ''lìzhw.'' "one whom is helped"
|-
| ''mlàtx.'' "to melt" || ''mlètx.'' "one melting something" || [''mlỳtx.''] || ''mlìtx.'' "a melted thing"
|-
| ''xöàgh.'' "to produce a sound; to hear" || ''xöègh.'' "one producing a sound" || ''xöỳgh.'' "a sound" || ''xöìgh.'' "one hearing something"
|-
| ''àdh.'' "to feed; to eat" || ''èdh.'' "one feeding someone" || ''ỳdh.'' "food" || ''ìdh.'' "one being fed; one eating"
|-
| ''ià.'' "to love" || ''iè.'' "one loving someone, a lover" || ''iỳ.'' "a beloved" || ''iì.'' "a beloved"
|}
Importantly, there are no rules for which cases to use with which words. Both ''iỳ.'' ({{sc|acc}}) and ''iì.'' ({{sc|dat}}) mean "a beloved". The former describes the beloved as the content of love, the one being lovingly thought of, while the latter implies that the love reaches them, like words or gifts reach their recipient. Likewise, the reason why ''mlỳtx.'' is not translated in the table above isn't that "''melt'' does not take the accusative", as grammars of other languages would say, but that "a content of melting" does not seem to have any obvious meaning. If someone wanted to describe, say, sun rays as content transported from the sun to the snow to melt it, they could well use ''mlỳtx.'' to express the concept.

Case usage is governed solely by the cases' descriptors; it is up to the speaker how to use them given some word's meaning and some context. If the wind opens a door, is it the source of the action of opening (''ngèt.''), the means of opening (''ngùt.''), or the cause (''ngèlt.'')? All are grammatically correct; the speaker decides which possibility best expresses their intention.

===Nouns===
:''Nouns, adjectives and verbs do not correspond to any concepts in Lemizh grammar. Using these terms is just an attempt to describe the grammar from an Indo-European viewpoint.''
A large number of nouns are not derived from verbs in most languages: ''froth, ship, lion'' and many others. In Lemizh, however, we have verbs such as ''psràxk.'' "to froth", ''àksh.'' "to build a ship or ships", and ''làw.'' "to make a lion or lions". We will call these ''nominal verbs''.

Looking at the verb ''àksh.'', the shipwright ({{sc|nom}}) gives the building materials ({{sc|dat}}) the properties or the function of a ship ({{sc|acc}}). He confers, well, shipness on the materials. The shipness is sent by the shipwright, not because he is acting, but because he is the source: the image of the ship, so to say, comes from his head and materialises in wood, iron, ropes, and linen. In short, these words mostly appear with inner accusative.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative
|-
| ''psràxk.'' "to froth" || ''psrèxk.'' "one frothing something" || ''psrỳxk.'' "a thing having the properties of froth = '''froth'''" || ''psrìxk.'' "a frothed thing, a frothed liquid"
|-
| ''àksh.'' "to build a ship" || ''èksh.'' "one building a ship, a shipwright" || ''ỳksh.'' "a thing having the properties of a ship = '''a ship'''" || ''ìksh.'' "building materials for a ship, materials made into a ship"
|-
| ''làw.'' "to make a lion" || [''lèw.'' "one making a lion"] || ''lỳw.'' "a thing having the properties of a lion = '''a lion'''" || [''lìw.'' "building materials for a lion, materials made into a lion"]
|}

Another very common kind of nouns are tool nouns, formed with an inner instrumental case:
* ''ghstù.'' "a sail" is derived from ''ghstà.'' "to sail", literally "a means of sailing",
* ''pslù.'' "scissors" from ''pslà.'' "to cut with scissors",
* ''saxùf.'' "trumpet" from ''saxàf.'' "to play the trumpet",
* ''skrùzh.'' "a finger" from ''skràzh.'' "to work with one's fingers".

====Inflection====
As mentioned above, all words can inflect for (outer) case. Thus, we have the nominative forms ''wàx'''e''''' "(an act of) speaking, (an act of) telling", ''dè'''e''''' "a giver", ''lỳw'''e''''' "a lion", the causative ''lỳw'''el''''' "because of a lion", the elative ''lỳw'''er''''' "(starting) from a lion", etc.

Lemizh words do not inflect for number or gender. If desired, we can express this information by forming compounds. (Note the duplication of the inner case vowel; the first occurrence in each word is called the epenthetic case of the compound. The underlying grammar will be described later.)
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Singular !! Dual !! Plural !! Feminine !! Masculine !! Feminine singular !! etc.
|-
! giver
| ''dè.'' || ''de'''rè'''.'' || ''de'''dwè'''.'' || ''de'''mlè'''.'' || ''de'''bè'''.'' || ''de'''èx'''.'' || ''de'''berè'''.''
|-
! lion
| ''lỳw.'' || ''lyw'''rỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''dwỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''mlỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''bỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''ỳx'''.'' || ''lyw'''byrỳ'''.''
|-
! compound with
| — || ''rỳ.'' "one" || ''dwỳ.'' "two" || ''mlỳ.'' "several" || ''bỳ.'' "female; woman" || ''ỳx.'' "male; man" || "female" and "one"
|}

===Adjectives and numerals===
There is no difference between adjectival and nominal verbs: they mostly appear with inner accusative. This is the same situation as in, say, Latin, where ''albus'' can mean "a white one" as well as "white". Numerals are basically a sub-category of adjectives.

The inner consecutive case translates certain abstract nouns.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative !! Inner consecutive
|-
| ''gmrà.'' "to heat, to make something warm" || ''gmrè.'' "one heating something up" || ''gmrỳ.'' "a warm thing; '''warm'''" || ''gmrì.'' "a thing heated up; heated, warmed" || ''gmrìl.'' "the consequence of heating = heat"
|-
| ''làbdh.'' "to whiten something, to make something white" || ''lèbdh.'' "one whitening something" || ''lỳbdh.'' "a white thing; '''white'''" || ''lìbdh.'' "a thing made white; whitened" || ''lìlbdh.'' "the consequence of whitening = whiteness"
|-
| ''dwà.'' "to make two things/individuals" || ''dwè.'' "one making two things" || ''dwỳ.'' "'''two''' (things)" || ''dwì.'' "something made into two (things)" || ''dwìl.'' "the consequence of making two things = twoness"
|}

However, emotions aren't viewed as properties in Lemizh: a happy or angry person is one sending happiness or anger, just as a loving person is one sending love. The inner causative plays a notable role with verbs of emotion.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative !! Inner causative
|-
| ''pthàb.'' "to be angry" || ''pthèb.'' "an angry one; '''angry'''" || ''pthỳb.'' "the content/object of one's anger" || ''pthìb.'' "one that one's anger reaches" || ''pthèlb.'' "one causing someone anger; one annoying someone"
|}

====Inflection====
Of course, adjectives can be compounded to express number and/or gender in the same way as nouns. Furthermore, we can form compounds expressing various degrees. (The epenthetic consecutive ''-il-'' in these compounds will also be explained later; it is actually the main application of the abstract nouns just mentioned.)
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Diminutive !! Augmentative !! Absolute !! Comparative !! Superlative
|-
! warm
| ''gmrỳ.'' || ''gmril'''zhrỳ'''.'' "lukewarm" || ''gmril'''dmỳ'''.'' "hot" || ''gmril'''ghngỳ'''.'' "absolutely hot" || ''gmril'''tỳzhd'''.'' "warmer, hotter" || ''gmril'''ỳst'''.'' "hottest"
|-
! white
| ''lỳbdh.'' || ''lilbdh'''zhrỳ'''.'' "whitish" || ''lilbdh'''dmỳ'''.'' "very white" || ''lilbdh'''ghngỳ'''.'' "absolutely/completely white" || ''lilbdh'''tỳzhd'''.'' "whiter" || ''lilbdh'''ỳst'''.'' "whitest"
|-
! compound with
| — || ''zhrỳ.'' "few, little, a bit" || ''dmỳ.'' "much, many" || ''ghngỳ.'' "every, all, the whole" || ''tỳzhd.'' "more" || ''ỳst.'' "most"
|}

===Verbs===
Most verbs correspond to Lemizh words with an inner factive. However, as Lemizh stems always denote an action, the notable exception are stative verbs such as:
* ''zdìls.'' "to sit", literally "the consequence of sitting down (''zdàs.'')"
* ''gwìlt.'' "to know", literally "the consequence of learning (''gwàt.'')"

====Inflection====
* Person is not expressed with inflection but with pronouns.
* Number is conveyed by compounding pronouns with numerals. While verbs (i.e. words with an inner factive) can be compounded with numerals, ''ftrask'''mlà'''.'' does not mean "we/they sneeze" but "(there are) several acts of sneezing" (i.e. someone sneezes several times and/or several people sneeze).
* Voice (active/passive) is absent in Lemizh; word order serves a similar function.
* Tense is expressed by compounds with an epenthetic temporal case (''-arh-''), or with certain inner cases. The latter option is preferred if possible, as it is more concise.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Present !! Past !! Perfect !! Future !! Intentional
|-
! to sit down
| ''zdàs.'' || ''zdarhs'''wà'''.'' || ''zdarhs'''prilkà'''.'' || ''zd'''ìl'''s.'' ({{sc|cons}}) || ''zdarhs'''prà'''.'' || ''zd'''ò'''s.'' ({{sc|ten}})
|-
! compound with
| — || pronoun || ''prilkỳ.'' "back" || — || ''prỳ.'' "front" || —
|}
Note that the translation of the perfect with inner consecutive coincides with the translation of stative verbs: "having sat down" in the strict perfect sense of "the consequence/effect of this action exists" means the same as "to sit". Likewise, "whiteness" can be expressed as the abstract concept of "having whitened something".

* Mood corresponds to compounds with certain verbs for the most part. There is no equivalent to the subjunctive mood, as subordinate clauses are irreal (i.e. not necessarily real) by default. Here are some common formations:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Indicative !! Imperative !! Commanding imperative !! Interrogative Polite imperative !! Optative
|-
! to feed, to eat
| ''àdh.'' || ''adh'''pràk'''.'' || ''adh'''dàxt'''.'' || ''adh'''pà'''.'' || ''adh'''làxt'''.''
|-
! compound with
| — || ''pràk.'' "to request" || ''dàxt.'' "to command" || ''pà.'' "to ask" || ''làxt.'' "to want"
|}
* Aspect is a very heterogeneous category, expressed by a variety of compounds and syntactic structures in Lemizh.

===Pronouns===
The two demonstrative pronouns are technically nominal verbs:
* ''tà.'' "to make this/that one", typically used with inner accusative: ''tỳ.'' "this/that (one)"
* ''gwà.'' "to make someone/anyone, something/anything", with inner accusative ''gwỳ.'' "someone/anyone, something/anything"

The eleven relative pronouns play a far more prominent role in Lemizh grammar. Their scope is much wider than the one usually associated with the term. As they are closely tied to Lemizh syntax, they will be described further down.

==Syntax==
===Level of words===
There is only one more grammatical category: the level of words, which is the main building block of Lemizh syntax. A word can be of first level (the highest), of second level (the next highest), of third level (still one level lower) and so on; there is no limit for the number of levels, but non-positive word levels (zero, −1, etc.) are forbidden.

The first word in a sentence (the main predicate) is of first level by definition. The level of the next word is determined by the main predicate's accent and by the type of pause between the two words, the level of the third word is determined by the accent of the second and the pause between these two, and so on.

Here is the complete list of pause/accent combinations.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="2" | Following pause !! rowspan="2" | Accented vowel !! rowspan="2" | Type of accent !! rowspan="2" | The level of the next word is …
|-
! in speech !! in writing
|-
| rowspan="4" | barely audible || rowspan="4" | space || rowspan="2" | inner case || low || lower by 1
|-
| high || lower by 1, and [[w:Agent (grammar)|agentive]]* ({{sc|a}})
|-
| rowspan="2" | outer case || low || equal
|-
| high || higher by 1
|-
| rowspan="4" | a bit longer || rowspan="4" | comma ('''·''') || rowspan="2" | inner case || low || higher by 2
|-
| high || higher by 3
|-
| rowspan="2" | outer case || low || higher by 4
|-
| high || higher by 5
|-
| the longest || full stop ('''∶''') || inner case || low || none; end of sentence
|}
<nowiki>*</nowiki> The agent is the initiator of the action (more informally, the one who ''does'' the action).

===The Rules===
[[File:Lemizh parse tree.png|thumb|upright=1.5|A schematic sentence with the words represented by their level numbers]]
The word levels determine the structure of a sentence.

'''Rule One of sentence grammar. A word of level n is subordinate to the nearest word of level n−1 in front of it; the parole acts as a word of level zero.'''

All words of second level are subordinate to the main predicate (which has first level). A word of third level is subordinate to the next second-level word in front of it, and so on. In other words, Lemizh sentences are strictly [[w:Head directionality|head-first]]. The main predicate itself is subordinate to the [[w:Parole (linguistics)|parole]], the action of speaking (or writing) the sentence in question, which consequently has level zero.

'''Rule Two. An object of a word in a sentence is a word subordinate to the former, its predicate, plus all of its own objects.'''

In the diagram, the main predicate's three objects are enclosed in ellipses. Objects of the same word are called ''sibling objects'' or just ''siblings'', and the word they are subordinate to is their ''predicate''. Note that ''predicate'' and ''object'' are relative terms like ''parent'' and ''child''.

The table of level markers implies that only the first object of a predicate can be marked as agent. (This has been interpreted as Lemizh having VSO word order, although a subject is not quite the same as an agent, and Lemizh grammar strictly speaking does not have the concept of a subject.)

'''Rule Three. The outer case of the first word of an object defines its relation to its predicate's stem via its descriptor; the outer case of a level 1 word is zero.'''

This is what we would expect from a language that inflects for case: the nominative object defines the source (sender) of the action named by the stem of its predicate, the accusative object its content, the temporal object its time, etc.

'''Examples'''
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dá föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|give-FACT-1 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2A bottle-ACC-ACC-2 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2
|''Father Christmas gives Lucy a bottle.''}}

The stems of the three objects are nominal verbs ("to make a bottle" etc.), hence the inner accusatives. The outer cases indicate the sender, content and recipient of the act of giving, respectively. The agent is specified independently of the plot arrow; note the difference:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dá lusyì dwywỳ föpysrỳfe.
|give-FACT-1 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2A bottle-ACC-ACC-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2
|''Lucy takes a bottle from Father Christmas.''}}

We need not mark an object as agentive if we consider this information unimportant. The English translations are only rough approximations:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dà lusyì dwywỳ föpysrỳfe.
|give-FACT-1 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2 bottle-ACC-ACC-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2
|''Lucy gets a bottle from Father Christmas. Lucy is given a bottle by Father Christmas.''}}

'''Rule Four. An instance of a word stem designates a specific action.'''

''dà'' in the above sentence does not just mean "to give", it refers to one specific action of giving. Such an action may involve several givers (as in "They give something") and need not even be temporally or spatially connected (as in "They are giving something every Christmas"). In other words, each spoken or written instance of the stem ''d–'' refers to a certain subset of all the giving there is.

This rule ensures that all the objects refer to the same action of giving as the predicate itself.

'''Rule Five. A case characterises the action it refers to completely with regard to its case descriptor.'''

For example, the nominative object "Father Christmas" has to name the complete sender of the above instance of giving. This excludes from this instance all giving not done by Father Christmas. So each object places a restriction on the action of giving the main predicate refers to. Thus, the subset of giving meant by this instance of ''dà.'' – what the sentence is ultimately talking about – is defined more and more precisely with each additional object. (The same is true not only of the main predicate but of all words in a sentence.)

'''Rule Six. A missing object is equivalent to the absence of information about its descriptor.'''

Above sentences do not have, for example, locative objects, so Rule Five cannot place a restriction on the place of giving. Because of Rule Six, this does not mean there are no restrictions on the location, but only that this kind of information has not been included in the sentence (for example, because the speaker does not know about it, considers it irrelevent, or assumes the listener already knows or – perhaps most importantly – can infer it.)

'''Rule Seven. Given an object and its predicate, the predicate is considered more real and the object more hypothetical.'''

…

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! as an object !! as a complete sentence
|-
| ''dà.'' || to give; giving || An action of giving exists = Someone gives something.
|-
| ''zdìls.'' || the consequence of sitting down = to sit; sitting || The consequence of sitting down exists = Someone sits.
|-
| ''dwìlw.'' || the consequence of making a bottle || The consequence of making a bottle exists = A bottle exists; there is a bottle.
|-
| ''sklè.'' || one building a bridge || One building a bridge exists = There is someone building a bridge.
|}

===Noun phrases===
Forming noun phrases does not require any new grammatical rules. In the following example, the inner case of "give" is changed to the nominative, yielding "one giving something, a giver", and everything is pushed down one level. The third-level words are still sender, content and recipient of the ''action'' of giving, as outer cases define relations to the predicate's ''stem'' per Rule Three.
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 3A:third level, agentive
|dmàt tryxkì dée föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|see-FACT-1 beaver-ACC-DAT-2 give-NOM-NOM-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-3A bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3
|''The beaver sees '''the one giving Lucy a bottle, Father Christmas'''.''}}
Regarding the verb "see", note that the beaver is in the dative, being at the receiving end of the optical stimulus or information. Marking the beaver as agent would translate as "The beaver looks at the one …".

Rules Four and Five guarantee that the giver is identical to Father Christmas: both are the sender of the same instance of the stem ''d–'' "give" (the giver via its inner nominative, Father Christmas via its outer nominative), and both are the ''complete'' sender of this action. This type of construction, where an object's outer case matches its predicate's inner case, is called a '''bracket'''. Brackets are very widely used:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Apposition !! Attributive adjective !! Attributive pronoun/determiner !! Attributive numeral !! Attributive participle
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|iakopỳk saxèfy.
|Jacopo-'''ACC'''-1 trumpet-NOM-'''ACC'''-2
|''Jacopo, a trumpeter''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=INS:instrumental case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|ghstù lỳbdhu.
|sail-'''INS'''-1 white-ACC-'''INS'''-2
|''a sail, a white thing = a white sail''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|ỳksh gwỳy.
|ship-'''ACC'''-1 some-ACC-'''ACC'''-2
|''a ship, something = some ship''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|mỳs trỳy.
|mouse-'''ACC'''-1 three-ACC-'''ACC'''-2
|''mice, three individuals = three mice''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|nỳzd gangèy.
|bird-'''ACC'''-1 sing-NOM-'''ACC'''-2
|''a bird, a singer = a singing bird''}}
|}
Such phrases can be easily extended. This example contains two accusative brackets ("a singing bird" and "a sad child"):
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 4:fourth level
|ngỳzd gangèy zhngỳi speghý ytfỳarh.
|bird-ACC-1 sing-NOM-ACC-2 child-ACC-DAT-3 sad-NOM-ACC-4 night-ACC-TEMP-3
|''a bird singing to a sad child at night''}}

As [[w:Genitive construction|genitive constructions]] have a wide variety of meanings, there is no single Lemizh equivalent. The typical translation for constructions indicating possession is with the benefactive case, but other cases frequently occur. Everything depends on the object's relation to the predicate's stem per Rule Three.

{|
|-
| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|dwỳw lusỳü.
|bottle-ACC-1 Lucy-ACC-'''BEN'''-2
|''Lucy's bottle'' (Lucy is the beneficiary of making the bottle. The bottle is made for Lucy.)}}

| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dý ỳxe.
|give-ACC-1 male-ACC-'''NOM'''-2A
|''the man's gift'' (The man is the sender of giving.)}}

| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|rhỳst ytfỳarh filpskỳy.
|dream-ACC-1 night-ACC-'''TEMP'''-2 midsummer-ACC-ACC-3
|''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' (The midsummer night is the time of dreaming.)}}
|}

===Verb phrases===
Adverbially used adjectives also translate to brackets:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|gangà txỳska.
|sing-'''FACT'''-1 loud-ACC-'''FACT'''-2
|''(an act of) singing, a loud thing = to sing loudly''}}

===Dependent clauses===
…


===Relative pronouns===
…
{| class="wikitable"
! rowspan="2" | Level !! colspan="2" | Type I !! colspan="2" | Type II
|-
! Verb !! The target is the stem of !! Verb !! The target is the stem of
|-
| n || colspan="2" | (does not occur because it would refer to itself) || à. || its preceding same-level word
|-
| n−1 || wà. || its predicate || fà. || its predicate's preceding same-level word or parole
|-
| n−2 || dhà. || its predicate's predicate || thà. || its predicate's predicate's preceding same-level word or parole
|-
| n−3 || zà. || its predicate's predicate's predicate || sà. || …
|-
| n−4 || zhà. || … || shà. || …
|-
| n−5 || ghà. || … || xà. || …
|}


==Derivational morphology==
From a Lemizh point of view, ''dè.'' "giver" and ''dỳ.'' "gift" aren't derivatives of ''dà.'' "to give" but grammatical forms of the same word. The only piece of true derivational morphology is compounding.

===Compounds===
[[File:Lemizh compounding diagram.png|thumb|Forming a compound from a two-word sentence]]
'''Rule One of compounding. A compound word is constructed from a two-word sentence – predicate and object of which become modifier and head of the compound, respectively – in the following way:'''
# '''Prestem''':
## the object's prestem
## the object's inner case
## the object's poststem
## an optional separator
## the predicate's prestem
# '''Inner case'''
# '''Poststem''': the predicate's poststem
# '''Outer case'''
Note that the object's stem comes before the predicate's; and also that the object's outer case (and, less importantly, the predicate's inner case) is lost. The separator can be used, for example, if the word boundary would be unclear otherwise, or for placing the second part of the word on a new line.

…

==Example text==
[[File:Lemizh text sample.png|600px]]

====stedrỳzh thìrhfi xtrỳghy.====
krỳgh dghngireì prilxpilghkỳarh. mangỳ srungbỳng lyngghỳng yngshwỳng fỳü. zhöazhghngìl tmỳil. ghngàgzh smìa prỳal ghngyé dhàbdhy lunguỳ ùyl mỳu fplyxár tỳarh. dmát feì sxngengzè ishkènge. ghìlt krighmyngthxì xtrỳngghi swyshỳ ghỳxy fplyxòr zhöyzhỳm xngàrorm. dmìlt öngkrỳngty zhryỳ rèshy esfàsy sxngyzdmýi, usrỳngy xazhgèsty ghngỳeng, frekrỳngfy rilghdzhỳwby pthèby, dgheipysrỳngdy psrèby rhèzhem, dghistngỳngty ghỳxy zangỳa dghildhfmlýyrh, ngiftngyghtmỳngy krültlìy zùe gỳghda. xtrỳgh swyshý stedrỳzh thìrfi. dngilszhrìl bdhyrgzhyngỳng xüxtrỳngyng prilkỳarh ötìlil skmyngìlng ghỳngsilng. dngilszhìlwb ráxpy thìlfi. fö̀l gwiltngìlöl dmàty föpysryfỳ ngỳu.

rỳ zhryỳrh thìzgy gwiltngìly rhàghgy dmatngìe thìrfy. là xángska matngiè ytfỳyrh dmyý fplyxór dyxtngyngà mànga prilzhryngỳr iltỳngzhdyr. dmàt ytfỳarh ryý mìlngorh xngyì prilkyár mìlngorh xtrỳngghi kshrextý mengthxì prỳar zìe, fplỳngxe fywýr déngske xtryghè sxngezì xngỳnge.

====The Legend of the Seventh Planet====
A long time ago there was a tribe of nomads. They possessed neither writing nor houses nor horses. But they were truly human. They were curious; this means, above all, that they took interest in the useless, for the celestial objects were of no use to them yet. They looked at the Sun and the Moon. They had named the constellations and the six planets moving across the sky like the humans across the earth. They knew dim Mercury, who liked to hide in the glare of the Sun; Venus, the brightest of all; reddish and angry Mars; majestic father Jupiter; Saturn, who seemed to stand still for weeks; and even Uranus had been caught by their keen eyes. Six planets, and the legend of a seventh. Maybe it had been the minor planet Vesta, or a comet centuries or millennia earlier. Maybe it was the attraction of the number seven. For Neptune is invisible to the naked eye.

One youngster thought to himself that he could not live without seeing the seventh planet. He lay awake searching the sky for many nights, neglected his duties, and became thinner and thinner. And one night, lying with the Earth behind his back, and with the looping planets and the stars above him, he saw the depth of the sky and the planets circling the Sun, and among them the Earth.

==External links==
* [https://lemizh.conlang.org Lemizh homepage] with comprehensive coverage of the language, including a dictionary
[[File:Copyleft1.png|20px]] ''This article includes material from the Lemizh homepage, which is available under a [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License].''


[[Category:Languages]]
[[Category:Conlangs]]
[[Category:Indo-European languages]]
[[Category:Fusional languages]]

File:Lemizh parse tree.png

2022-05-13T20:57:11Z

Anypodetos: Anypodetos uploaded a new version of File:Lemizh parse tree.png

== Summary ==
Parse tree of an example sentence in the [[Lemizh]] language

File:Lemizh compounding diagram.png

2022-05-13T20:56:22Z

Anypodetos: Anypodetos uploaded a new version of File:Lemizh compounding diagram.png

== Summary ==
Forming a compound from a two-word sentence in the [[Lemizh]] language

Lemizh

2022-05-12T20:08:44Z

Anypodetos: /* Noun phrases */ Attributive pronoun; formatting

{{Infobox language
|image =
|imagesize =
|name = Lemizh
|nativename = lemỳzh.
|pronunciation = lɛmˈɯ̀ʒ
|state = Lemaria
|setting = Alt-history Europe
|created = 1985
|familycolor = Indo-European
|fam2 = Lemizh
|ancestor = Proto-Lemizh
|posteriori = [[w:Proto-Indo-European|Proto-Indo-European]]
|creator = [[User:Anypodetos|Anypodetos]]
|scripts = Lemizh alphabet
|nation = Lemaria
|map = Map of Lemaria.png
|notice = IPA
}}
'''Lemizh''' ([[Help:IPA|[lεmˈiʒ]]], native pronunciation: [[Help:IPA|[lɛmˈɯ̀ʒ]]]) is a language I invented with the aim of creating a grammar as regular and simple as possible. It was originally intended as an [[w:International auxiliary language|international auxiliary language]]. However, it turned out that a simple grammar is not necessarily a grammar that is easy to learn: the more ways of simplification I found, the further away it moved from [[w:Indo-European languages|Indo-European]] and probably all other familiar language structures. Expecting anyone to learn Lemizh, at this point, would be completely unrealistic.

So I needed a new justification for the language: enter the Lemizh, a people living to the west and north of the [[w:Black Sea|Black Sea]] in an alternate history that slowly drifted away from ours between two and eight millennia ago. Of course, it is extremely unlikely that they would speak a language that was completely without exceptions. To be precise, the chances are two to the power of two hundred and seventy-six thousand seven hundred and nine to one against. But they say that everything has to happen somewhere in the Multiverse. And everything happens only once.

{{TOC limit}}

==History==
===Early stages===
Lemizh is an Indo-European language and, together with Volgan, constitutes one of the ten recognised branches of the Indo-European language family. This branch is also called Lemizh, to the disgruntlement of Volgan linguists.

Proto-Lemizh, the ancestor of Lemizh and Volgan, is very poorly attested in form of some papyri found near the northwestern shore of the Black Sea, to the north of the [[w:Dniester Liman|Dniester Liman]], dated about 2700 BC. Old Lemizh, by contrast, is fairly well attested. It had predominantly [[w:Subject–verb–object|subject–verb–object]] (SVO) word order and was a quite typical old Indo-European language, but with a couple of interesting quirks:
* Adjectives were lost as a separate part of speech, being replaced with participles ("white" > "being white").
* Finite subordinate clauses had their subject in the case of the clause: the subject of a local clause was in the locative case without having a local meaning in itself.
The earliest known documents from this stage of Lemizh were probably written around 2100 BC along the northern and western shores of the Back Sea.

===Ghean and Middle Lemizh===
Ghean ([[Help:IPA|[ˈɣɛən]]]) is a language with no known genetic relationships. It was spoken by a people of unknown origin, who subdued the Lemizh tribes in around 1000 BC and ruled for infamous three generations. Ghean was an inflected [[w:Tonal language|register tonal]] language with strict [[w:Verb–subject–object|verb–subject–object]] (VSO) word order and head-first phrases. It had verbs, [[w:Nominal (linguistics)|nominals]] (a combined noun/adjective/participle part of speech), pronouns and particles.

The Gheans discouraged the use of the natives' language, but obviously tolerated Lemizh words (or rather word stems) to stand in for unfamiliar Ghean ones. The grammar of simple sentences was easy enough to learn for the Lemizh, as they were used to inflection and head-first phrases, and likely still knew VSO sentences from poetry. After two or three generations, the natives must have spoken a [[w:Creole language|creole]] with a more or less Ghean grammar but an abundance of Lemizh words, especially outside the core vocabulary. This is a quite unusual development as most creoles draw their lexicon mainly from the dominant group, and tend to be grammatically more innovative. (The Tanzanian language [[w:Mbugu language|Mbugu]] might have had a somewhat similar development with more or less analogous outcomes.) After the disappearance of the Gheans, Lemizh patriots tried to revive their old language, which failed spectacularly for the grammar but reintroduced many Lemizh words of the core vocabulary.

===The last three millennia===
While Middle Lemizh as spoken after the Ghean occupation already had a non-Indo-European and unusually regular grammar, this trend was to continue over the following millennia. The factive case was innovated to express verbal nouns, which eventually supplanted verbs altogether. (At least part of the blame goes to the Tlöngö̀l, an epic novel published in 1351, which popularised the use of verbal nouns.) The tonal system was simplified to the present two-way [[w:Pitch-accent language|pitch-accent]] system. Pronouns lost their status as a separate part of speech. The last particles died out a few hundred years ago, leaving the language with a single part of speech which is often called a "verb" but, historically speaking, is really a nominal. This means that the concept of ''parts of speech'' does not make sense in Modern Lemizh.

==Orthography and phonology==
The alphabet is [[w:Phonetic orthography|phonetic]]: each letter corresponds to a certain sound, and each sound is represented by a single letter. The direction of writing is left to right. This article uses the standard transcription of the native Lemizh alphabet as given in the following table:
{| class="wikitable" style="width: 800px; table-layout: fixed; text-align: center"
! colspan="29" | Letters of the Lemizh alphabet
|-
| colspan="29" style="padding: 0" | [[File:Lemizh alphabet.png|796px]]
|-
| a || e || y || i || o || ö || u || ü || l || rh || r || ng || m || g || d || b || k || t || p || gh || zh || z || dh || w || x || sh || s || th || f
|}

===Consonants===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="2" | !! bilabial !! dental !! alveolar !! postalveolar !! velar
|-
! colspan="2" | nasals
| m <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial nasal|m]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || || || ng <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar nasal|ŋ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! colspan="2" | plosives (voiceless • voiced)
| p <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless bilabial plosive|p]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • b <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial plosive|b]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || t <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless alveolar plosive|t]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • d <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar plosive|d]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || k <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless velar plosive|k]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • g <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar plosive|g]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! colspan="2" | fricatives (voiceless • voiced)
| f <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless bilabial fricative|ɸ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • w <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial fricative|β]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || th <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless dental fricative|θ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • dh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced dental fricative|ð]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || s <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless alveolar sibilant|s]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • z <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar sibilant|z]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || sh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless palato-alveolar fricative|ʃ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • zh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced palato-alveolar fricative|ʒ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || x <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless velar fricative|x]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • gh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar fricative|ɣ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! rowspan="3" | liquids || lateral approximant
| || || l <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar lateral approximant|l]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|-
! approximant
| || || rh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar approximant|ɹ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|-
! trill
| || || r <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar trill|r]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|}
The plosive-fricative combinations ''pf, ts, tsh, kx'' and their voiced couterparts only occur at word boundaries and in compound words. They are not pronounced as affricates but as separate sounds. The same applies for other combinations of a plosive plus another consonant (''pm, tl'' etc.), as well as for two identical plosives (''kk'' etc.): the release of the first plosive is always audible.

===Vowels===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! rowspan="2" | !! colspan="2" | front !! colspan="2" | back
|-
! unrounded !! rounded !! unrounded !! rounded
|-
! close
| i <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close front unrounded vowel|i]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ü <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close front rounded vowel|y]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || y <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close back unrounded vowel|ɯ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || u <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close back rounded vowel|u]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! open-mid
| e <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid front unrounded vowel|ɛ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ö <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid front rounded vowel|œ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || a <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid back unrounded vowel|ʌ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || o <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid back rounded vowel|ɔ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|}
Two consecutive different vowels are pronounced as a diphthong; two consecutive identical vowels as a long one. Single vowels are always short.

Lemizh uses [[w:Mora (linguistics)|moræ]] for structuring words: a short syllable equals one mora, and a long syllable equals two. In Lemizh, every vowel is the centre of a mora; consequently, two consecutive vowels result in two moræ or one long syllable.

===Accent===
Lemizh has got a two-way pitch-accent system, in that accented moræ are not only spoken louder (as in English), but also have either a lower or a higher pitch than the surrounding unaccented ones. The accented mora is always the ultimate or penultimate of a word. The vowel at the centre of a low-pitch accented mora is transcribed with a grave accent, the vowel at the centre of a high-pitch accented mora with an acute accent.
{| class="wikitable" style="width: 220px; table-layout: fixed; text-align: center"
! colspan="8" | Accented vowel letters
|-
| colspan="8" style="padding: 0" | [[File:Lemizh accented vowels.png|216px]]
|-
| à || è || ỳ || ì || ò || ö̀ || ù || ǜ
|-
| á || é || ý || í || ó || ö́ || ú || ǘ
|}

===Phonotactics===
[[w:Phonotactics|Phonotactics]] is rather permissive in Lemizh. A mora has the following structure, where the bracketed parts are optional:
* (O)(N)(L)V(L)(N)(O)
V is the mora's vowel, L a liquid, N a nasal, and O an obstruent that can be either a P(losive), a F(ricative), FP, PF, FF, FFP, FPF, or PFF. Word-initial consonant clusters cannot contain more than three sounds. No geminate consonants (<abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''ff'' etc.) occur within a mora. Consecutive plosive-fricative or fricative-plosive combinations within the same mora must have the same sonority – either both are voiced, or both are voiceless. A plosive cannot have the same place of articulation as a following consonant with the exception of ''rh'' and ''r''. <abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''dzh'', <abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''ddh'' and their voiceless counterparts are also prohibited within a mora.

Word boundaries, including those within compound words, are always mora boundaries. Where mora boundaries would still be ambiguous, liquids and nasals are assigned to the earliest possible mora (as the ''m'' in ''lem·ỳzh.''), and obstruents to the latest possible mora.

==Morphology==
All words are composed of the following parts:
* Prestem + inner case + poststem + outer case
Prestem and poststem form the stem, or the lexical part, of the word. The division of the stem into two portions is similar to English verbs such as ''sing/sang/sung'', where the lexical part is ''s–ng'' while the vowels ''i/a/u'' convey grammatical information. The stem always denotes an action (but never a state, a person, a thing, a property, etc.) and thus resembles our verbs. The prestem can contain any sounds, or it can be zero (i.e. consisting of zero sounds). The poststem can only contain fricatives and plosives, or it can be zero as well.

The inner case is represented by one of the eight vowels, optionally followed by a liquid (the primary case suffix) and/or a nasal (the secondary case suffix). The outer case has the same structure. For the first word in each sentence, the main predicate, the outer case is missing.

Each case is defined by its ''descriptor'': for example, the factive case denotes an ''action'', the nominative a ''sender'', the locative a ''place''. The stem and the inner case's descriptor determine a word's meaning.

'''Examples'''
* ''wàx. w–x'' is the stem for "speak", ''-a-'' denotes the inner factive, so this word means "an action of speaking", translated as the verb "to speak" or the [[w:Verbal noun|verbal noun]] "speaking".
* ''wèx. -e-'' denotes the inner nominative, so this word means "a sender of speaking" or "a speaker".
* ''àrdh. ∅–dh'' (having a zero prestem) is the stem for "eat", ''-ar-'' denotes the inner locative: "a place of eating".
{| class="wikitable"
|+ Primary cases and their descriptors
|-
! rowspan="3" | № !! rowspan="3" | Case vowel !! colspan="4" | Primary case suffix
|-
| none || l || rh || r
|-
! Plot cases !! Causal cases !! Temporal cases !! Spatial cases
|-
| 1 || a || factive ({{sc|fact}}): ''action'' || affirmative ({{sc|aff}}): ''fact (point in causal chain)'' || temporal ({{sc|temp}}): ''time'' || locative ({{sc|loc}}): ''place/region''
|-
| 2 || e || nominative ({{sc|nom}}): ''source, sender'' || causative ({{sc|caus}}): ''direct cause'' || ingressive ({{sc|ing}}): ''starting time'' || elative ({{sc|ela}}): ''starting point/region''
|-
| 3 || y || accusative ({{sc|acc}}): ''content'' || contextual ({{sc|ctx}}): ''causal context'' || durative ({{sc|dur}}): ''duration'' || extensive ({{sc|ext}}): ''spatial extent''
|-
| 4 || i || dative ({{sc|dat}}): ''sink, recipient'' || consecutive ({{sc|cons}}): ''direct consequence, effect'' || egressive ({{sc|egr}}): ''closing time'' || illative ({{sc|ill}}): ''end point / ending region''
|-
| 5 || o || tentive ({{sc|ten}}): ''intention'' || intentive ({{sc|int}}): ''intention (intended point in causal chain)'' || episodic ({{sc|eps}}): ''episode, "act"'' || scenic ({{sc|sce}}): ''scene, "stage"''
|-
| 6 || ö || comitative ({{sc|com}}): ''company'' || persuasive ({{sc|psu}}): ''reason'' || digressive ({{sc|dig}}): ''time away from which'' || ablative ({{sc|abl}}): ''place/region away from which''
|-
| 7 || u || instrumental ({{sc|ins}}): ''means, tool'' || motivational ({{sc|mot}}): ''motivational context'' || progressive ({{sc|prog}}): ''time that is passed'' || prolative ({{sc|prol}}): ''crossing point/region''
|-
| 8 || ü || benefactive ({{sc|ben}}): ''beneficiary'' || final ({{sc|fin}}): ''purpose, aim'' || aggressive ({{sc|agg}}): ''time towards which, temporal aim'' || allative ({{sc|all}}): ''place/region towards which, spatial aim''
|}
Each primary case has two corresponding secondary cases: a partitive case formed by adding ''ng'' (such as ''-ing-'' for the partitive dative or ''-erng-'' for the partitive elative) and a corresponding qualitative case formed by adding ''m''.

===The flow of the plot===
Every action denoted by a word stem is considered a flow of information that comes from a source (sender), transports a content, and reaches a sink (a recipient). The terms "sender" and "recipient" may be more familiar, but "source" and "sink" are more accurate in not necessarily meaning living beings.

Consequently, a Lemizh action looks somewhat like this: '''nominative  accusative[[File:DreieckYellowMIDDLE.png|26px|link=]] dative'''

This is called the action's plot. Here are some examples:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative
|-
| ''wàx.'' "to speak, to tell; (an act of) speaking" || ''wèx.'' "one telling something" || ''wỳx.'' "a tale" || ''wìx.'' "one who is told something"
|-
| ''dà.'' "to give; (an act of) giving" || ''dè.'' "one giving something" || ''dỳ.'' "a gift" || ''dì.'' "one who is given something; one who gets something"
|-
| ''làzhw.'' "to help" || ''lèzhw.'' "one helping" || ''lỳzhw.'' "help (given)" || ''lìzhw.'' "one whom is helped"
|-
| ''mlàtx.'' "to melt" || ''mlètx.'' "one melting something" || [''mlỳtx.''] || ''mlìtx.'' "a melted thing"
|-
| ''xöàgh.'' "to produce a sound; to hear" || ''xöègh.'' "one producing a sound" || ''xöỳgh.'' "a sound" || ''xöìgh.'' "one hearing something"
|-
| ''àdh.'' "to feed; to eat" || ''èdh.'' "one feeding someone" || ''ỳdh.'' "food" || ''ìdh.'' "one being fed; one eating"
|-
| ''ià.'' "to love" || ''iè.'' "one loving someone, a lover" || ''iỳ.'' "a beloved" || ''iì.'' "a beloved"
|}
Importantly, there are no rules for which cases to use with which words. Both ''iỳ.'' ({{sc|acc}}) and ''iì.'' ({{sc|dat}}) mean "a beloved". The former describes the beloved as the content of love, the one being lovingly thought of, while the latter implies that the love reaches them, like words or gifts reach their recipient. Likewise, the reason why ''mlỳtx.'' is not translated in the table above isn't that "''melt'' does not take the accusative", as grammars of other languages would say, but that "a content of melting" does not seem to have any obvious meaning. If someone wanted to describe, say, sun rays as content transported from the sun to the snow to melt it, they could well use ''mlỳtx.'' to express the concept.

Case usage is governed solely by the cases' descriptors; it is up to the speaker how to use them given some word's meaning and some context. If the wind opens a door, is it the source of the action of opening (''ngèt.''), the means of opening (''ngùt.''), or the cause (''ngèlt.'')? All are grammatically correct; the speaker decides which possibility best expresses their intention.

===Nouns===
:''Nouns, adjectives and verbs do not correspond to any concepts in Lemizh grammar. Using these terms is just an attempt to describe the grammar from an Indo-European viewpoint.''
A large number of nouns are not derived from verbs in most languages: ''froth, ship, lion'' and many others. In Lemizh, however, we have verbs such as ''psràxk.'' "to froth", ''àksh.'' "to build a ship or ships", and ''làw.'' "to make a lion or lions". We will call these ''nominal verbs''.

Looking at the verb ''àksh.'', the shipwright ({{sc|nom}}) gives the building materials ({{sc|dat}}) the properties or the function of a ship ({{sc|acc}}). He confers, well, shipness on the materials. The shipness is sent by the shipwright, not because he is acting, but because he is the source: the image of the ship, so to say, comes from his head and materialises in wood, iron, ropes, and linen. In short, these words mostly appear with inner accusative.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative
|-
| ''psràxk.'' "to froth" || ''psrèxk.'' "one frothing something" || ''psrỳxk.'' "a thing having the properties of froth = '''froth'''" || ''psrìxk.'' "a frothed thing, a frothed liquid"
|-
| ''àksh.'' "to build a ship" || ''èksh.'' "one building a ship, a shipwright" || ''ỳksh.'' "a thing having the properties of a ship = '''a ship'''" || ''ìksh.'' "building materials for a ship, materials made into a ship"
|-
| ''làw.'' "to make a lion" || [''lèw.'' "one making a lion"] || ''lỳw.'' "a thing having the properties of a lion = '''a lion'''" || [''lìw.'' "building materials for a lion, materials made into a lion"]
|}

Another very common kind of nouns are tool nouns, formed with an inner instrumental case:
* ''ghstù.'' "a sail" is derived from ''ghstà.'' "to sail", literally "a means of sailing",
* ''pslù.'' "scissors" from ''pslà.'' "to cut with scissors",
* ''saxùf.'' "trumpet" from ''saxàf.'' "to play the trumpet",
* ''skrùzh.'' "a finger" from ''skràzh.'' "to work with one's fingers".

====Inflection====
As mentioned above, all words can inflect for (outer) case. Thus, we have the nominative forms ''wàx'''e''''' "(an act of) speaking, (an act of) telling", ''dè'''e''''' "a giver", ''lỳw'''e''''' "a lion", the causative ''lỳw'''el''''' "because of a lion", the elative ''lỳw'''er''''' "(starting) from a lion", etc.

Lemizh words do not inflect for number or gender. If desired, we can express this information by forming compounds. (Note the duplication of the inner case vowel; the first occurrence in each word is called the epenthetic case of the compound. The underlying grammar will be described later.)
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Singular !! Dual !! Plural !! Feminine !! Masculine !! Feminine singular !! etc.
|-
! giver
| ''dè.'' || ''de'''rè'''.'' || ''de'''dwè'''.'' || ''de'''mlè'''.'' || ''de'''bè'''.'' || ''de'''èx'''.'' || ''de'''berè'''.''
|-
! lion
| ''lỳw.'' || ''lyw'''rỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''dwỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''mlỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''bỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''ỳx'''.'' || ''lyw'''byrỳ'''.''
|-
! compound with
| — || ''rỳ.'' "one" || ''dwỳ.'' "two" || ''mlỳ.'' "several" || ''bỳ.'' "female; woman" || ''ỳx.'' "male; man" || "female" and "one"
|}

===Adjectives and numerals===
There is no difference between adjectival and nominal verbs: they mostly appear with inner accusative. This is the same situation as in, say, Latin, where ''albus'' can mean "a white one" as well as "white". Numerals are basically a sub-category of adjectives.

The inner consecutive case translates certain abstract nouns.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative !! Inner consecutive
|-
| ''gmrà.'' "to heat, to make something warm" || ''gmrè.'' "one heating something up" || ''gmrỳ.'' "a warm thing; '''warm'''" || ''gmrì.'' "a thing heated up; heated, warmed" || ''gmrìl.'' "the consequence of heating = heat"
|-
| ''làbdh.'' "to whiten something, to make something white" || ''lèbdh.'' "one whitening something" || ''lỳbdh.'' "a white thing; '''white'''" || ''lìbdh.'' "a thing made white; whitened" || ''lìlbdh.'' "the consequence of whitening = whiteness"
|-
| ''dwà.'' "to make two things/individuals" || ''dwè.'' "one making two things" || ''dwỳ.'' "'''two''' (things)" || ''dwì.'' "something made into two (things)" || ''dwìl.'' "the consequence of making two things = twoness"
|}

However, emotions aren't viewed as properties in Lemizh: a happy or angry person is one sending happiness or anger, just as a loving person is one sending love. The inner causative plays a notable role with verbs of emotion.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative !! Inner causative
|-
| ''pthàb.'' "to be angry" || ''pthèb.'' "an angry one; '''angry'''" || ''pthỳb.'' "the content/object of one's anger" || ''pthìb.'' "one that one's anger reaches" || ''pthèlb.'' "one causing someone anger; one annoying someone"
|}

====Inflection====
Of course, adjectives can be compounded to express number and/or gender in the same way as nouns. Furthermore, we can form compounds expressing various degrees. (The epenthetic consecutive ''-il-'' in these compounds will also be explained later; it is actually the main application of the abstract nouns just mentioned.)
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Diminutive !! Augmentative !! Absolute !! Comparative !! Superlative
|-
! warm
| ''gmrỳ.'' || ''gmril'''zhrỳ'''.'' "lukewarm" || ''gmril'''dmỳ'''.'' "hot" || ''gmril'''ghngỳ'''.'' "absolutely hot" || ''gmril'''tỳzhd'''.'' "warmer, hotter" || ''gmril'''ỳst'''.'' "hottest"
|-
! white
| ''lỳbdh.'' || ''lilbdh'''zhrỳ'''.'' "whitish" || ''lilbdh'''dmỳ'''.'' "very white" || ''lilbdh'''ghngỳ'''.'' "absolutely/completely white" || ''lilbdh'''tỳzhd'''.'' "whiter" || ''lilbdh'''ỳst'''.'' "whitest"
|-
! compound with
| — || ''zhrỳ.'' "few, little, a bit" || ''dmỳ.'' "much, many" || ''ghngỳ.'' "every, all, the whole" || ''tỳzhd.'' "more" || ''ỳst.'' "most"
|}

===Verbs===
Most verbs correspond to Lemizh words with an inner factive. However, as Lemizh word stems always denote an action, the notable exception are stative verbs such as:
* ''zdìls.'' "to sit", literally "the consequence of sitting down (''zdàs.'')"
* ''gwìlt.'' "to know", literally "the consequence of learning (''gwàt.'')"

====Inflection====
* Person is not expressed with inflection but with pronouns.
* Number is conveyed by compounding pronouns with numerals. While verbs (i.e. words with an inner factive) can be compounded with numerals, ''ftrask'''mlà'''.'' does not mean "we/they sneeze" but "(there are) several acts of sneezing" (i.e. someone sneezes several times and/or several people sneeze).
* Voice (active/passive) is absent in Lemizh; word order serves a similar function.
* Tense is expressed by compounds with an epenthetic temporal case (''-arh-''), or with certain inner cases. The latter option is preferred if possible, as it is more concise.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Present !! Past !! Perfect !! Future !! Intentional
|-
! to sit down
| ''zdàs.'' || ''zdarhs'''wà'''.'' || ''zdarhs'''prilkà'''.'' || ''zd'''ìl'''s.'' ({{sc|cons}}) || ''zdarhs'''prà'''.'' || ''zd'''ò'''s.'' ({{sc|ten}})
|-
! compound with
| — || pronoun || ''prilkỳ.'' "back" || — || ''prỳ.'' "front" || —
|}
Note that the translation of the perfect with inner consecutive coincides with the translation of stative verbs: "having sat down" in the strict perfect sense of "the consequence/effect of this action exists" means the same as "to sit". Likewise, "whiteness" can be expressed as the abstract concept of "having whitened something".

* Mood corresponds to compounds with certain verbs for the most part. There is no equivalent to the subjunctive mood, as subordinate clauses are irreal (i.e. not necessarily real) by default. Here are some common formations:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Indicative !! Imperative !! Commanding imperative !! Interrogative Polite imperative !! Optative
|-
! to feed, to eat
| ''àdh.'' || ''adh'''pràk'''.'' || ''adh'''dàxt'''.'' || ''adh'''pà'''.'' || ''adh'''làxt'''.''
|-
! compound with
| — || ''pràk.'' "to request" || ''dàxt.'' "to command" || ''pà.'' "to ask" || ''làxt.'' "to want"
|}
* Aspect is a very heterogeneous category, expressed by a variety of compounds and syntactic structures in Lemizh.

===Pronouns===
The two demonstrative pronouns are technically nominal verbs:
* ''tà.'' "to make this/that one", typically used with inner accusative: ''tỳ.'' "this/that (one)"
* ''gwà.'' "to make someone/anyone, something/anything", with inner accusative ''gwỳ.'' "someone/anyone, something/anything"

The eleven relative pronouns play a far more prominent role in Lemizh grammar. Their scope is much wider than the one usually associated with the term. As they are closely tied to Lemizh syntax, they will be described further down.

==Syntax==
===Level of words===
There is only one more grammatical category: the level of words, which is the main building block of Lemizh syntax. A word can be of first level (the highest), of second level (the next highest), of third level (still one level lower) and so on; there is no limit for the number of levels, but non-positive word levels (zero, −1, etc.) are forbidden.

The first word in a sentence (the main predicate) is of first level by definition. The level of the next word is determined by the main predicate's accent and by the type of pause between the two words, the level of the third word is determined by the accent of the second and the pause between these two, and so on.

Here is the complete list of pause/accent combinations.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="2" | Following pause !! rowspan="2" | Accented vowel !! rowspan="2" | Type of accent !! rowspan="2" | The level of the next word is …
|-
! in speech !! in writing
|-
| rowspan="4" | barely audible || rowspan="4" | space || rowspan="2" | inner case || low || lower by 1
|-
| high || lower by 1, and [[w:Agent (grammar)|agentive]]* ({{sc|a}})
|-
| rowspan="2" | outer case || low || equal
|-
| high || higher by 1
|-
| rowspan="4" | a bit longer || rowspan="4" | comma ('''·''') || rowspan="2" | inner case || low || higher by 2
|-
| high || higher by 3
|-
| rowspan="2" | outer case || low || higher by 4
|-
| high || higher by 5
|-
| the longest || full stop ('''∶''') || inner case || low || none; end of sentence
|}
<nowiki>*</nowiki> The agent is the initiator of the action (more informally, the one who ''does'' the action).

===Sentence structure===
[[File:Lemizh parse tree.png|thumb|upright=1.5|A schematic sentence with the words represented by their level numbers]]
The word levels determine the structure of a sentence.

'''Rule One of sentence grammar. A word of level n is subordinate to the nearest word of level n−1 in front of it; the parole acts as a word of level zero.'''

All words of second level are subordinate to the main predicate (which has first level). A word of third level is subordinate to the next second-level word in front of it, and so on. In other words, Lemizh sentences are strictly [[w:Head directionality|head-first]]. The main predicate itself is subordinate to the [[w:Parole (linguistics)|parole]], the action of speaking (or writing) the sentence in question, which consequently has level zero.

'''Rule Two. An object of a word in a sentence is a word subordinate to the former, its predicate, plus all of its own objects.'''

In the diagram, the main predicate's three objects are enclosed in ellipses. Objects of the same word are called ''sibling objects'' or just ''siblings'', and the word they are subordinate to is their ''predicate''. Note that ''predicate'' and ''object'' are relative terms like ''parent'' and ''child''.

The table of level markers implies that only the first object of a predicate can be marked as agent. (This has been interpreted as Lemizh having VSO word order, although a subject is not quite the same as an agent, and Lemizh grammar strictly speaking does not have the concept of a subject.)

'''Rule Three. The outer case of the first word of an object defines its relation to its predicate's stem via its descriptor; the outer case of a level 1 word is zero.'''

This is what we would expect: the nominative object of a predicate defines its source (sender), the accusative object its content, the temporal object its time, etc.

'''Examples'''
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dá föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|give-FACT-1 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2A bottle-ACC-ACC-2 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2
|''Father Christmas gives Lucy a bottle.''}}

The word stems of the three objects are nominal verbs, hence the inner accusatives. The outer cases indicate the sender, content and recipient of the act of giving. The agent is specified independently of the plot arrow; note the difference:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dá lusyì dwywỳ föpysrỳfe.
|give-FACT-1 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2A bottle-ACC-ACC-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2
|''Lucy takes a bottle from Father Christmas.''}}

We need not mark an object as agentive if we consider this information unimportant. The English translations are only rough approximations:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dà lusyì dwywỳ föpysrỳfe.
|give-FACT-1 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2 bottle-ACC-ACC-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2
|''Lucy gets a bottle from Father Christmas. Lucy is given a bottle by Father Christmas.''}}

'''Rule Four. An instance of a word stem designates a specific action.'''

''dà'' in the above sentence does not just mean "to give", it refers to one specific action of giving. This rule ensures that all the objects refer to the same action of giving. …

'''Rule Five. A case characterises the action it refers to completely with regard to its case descriptor.'''

…

'''Rule Six. A missing object is equivalent to the absence of information about its descriptor.'''

…

'''Rule Seven. Given an object and its predicate, the predicate is considered more real and the object more hypothetical.'''

…

===Noun phrases===
Forming noun phrases does not require any new grammatical rules. In the following example, the inner case of "give" is changed to the nominative, yielding "one giving something, a giver", and everything is pushed down one level. The third-level words are still sender, content and recipient of the ''action'' of giving, as outer cases define relations to the predicate's ''stem'' per Rule Three.
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 3A:third level, agentive
|dmàt tryxkì dée föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|see-FACT-1 beaver-ACC-DAT-2 give-NOM-NOM-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-3A bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3
|''The beaver sees '''the one giving Lucy a bottle, Father Christmas'''.''}}
Regarding the verb "see", note that the beaver is in the dative, being at the receiving end of the optical stimulus or information. Marking the beaver as agent would translate as "The beaver looks at the one …".

Rules Four and Five guarantee that the giver is identical to Father Christmas: both are the sender of the same instance of the word stem ''d–'' "give" (the giver via its inner nominative, Father Christmas via its outer nominative), and both are the ''complete'' sender of this action. This type of construction, where an object's outer case matches its predicate's inner case, is called a '''bracket'''. Brackets are very widely used:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Apposition !! Attributive adjective !! Attributive pronoun/determiner !! Attributive numeral !! Attributive participle
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|iakopỳk saxèfy.
|Jacopo-'''ACC'''-1 trumpet-NOM-'''ACC'''-2
|''Jacopo, a trumpeter''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=INS:instrumental case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|ghstù lỳbdhu.
|sail-'''INS'''-1 white-ACC-'''INS'''-2
|''a sail, a white thing = a white sail''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|ỳksh gwỳy.
|ship-'''ACC'''-1 some-ACC-'''ACC'''-2
|''a ship, something = some ship''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|mỳs trỳy.
|mouse-'''ACC'''-1 three-ACC-'''ACC'''-2
|''mice, three individuals = three mice''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|nỳzd gangèy.
|bird-'''ACC'''-1 sing-NOM-'''ACC'''-2
|''a bird, a singer = a singing bird''}}
|}
Such phrases can be easily extended. This example contains two accusative brackets ("a singing bird" and "a sad child"):
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 4:fourth level
|ngỳzd gangèy zhngỳi speghý ytfỳarh.
|bird-ACC-1 sing-NOM-ACC-2 child-ACC-DAT-3 sad-NOM-ACC-4 night-ACC-TEMP-3
|''a bird singing to a sad child at night''}}

As [[w:Genitive construction|genitive constructions]] have a wide variety of meanings, there is no single Lemizh equivalent. The typical translation for constructions indicating possession is with the benefactive case, but other cases frequently occur. Everything depends on the object's relation to the predicate's stem per Rule Three.

{|
|-
| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|dwỳw lusỳü.
|bottle-ACC-1 Lucy-ACC-'''BEN'''-2
|''Lucy's bottle'' (Lucy is the beneficiary of making the bottle. The bottle is made for Lucy.)}}

| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dý ỳxe.
|give-ACC-1 male-ACC-'''NOM'''-2A
|''the man's gift'' (The man is the sender of giving.)}}

| {{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|rhỳst ytfỳarh filpskỳy.
|dream-ACC-1 night-ACC-'''TEMP'''-2 midsummer-ACC-ACC-3
|''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' (The midsummer night is the time of dreaming.)}}
|}

===Verb phrases===
Adverbially used adjectives also translate to brackets:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|gangà txỳska.
|sing-'''FACT'''-1 loud-ACC-'''FACT'''-2
|''(an act of) singing, a loud thing = to sing loudly''}}

===Dependent clauses===
…


===Relative pronouns===
…
{| class="wikitable"
! rowspan="2" | Level !! colspan="2" | Type I !! colspan="2" | Type II
|-
! Verb !! The target is the stem of !! Verb !! The target is the stem of
|-
| n || colspan="2" | (does not occur because it would refer to itself) || à. || its preceding same-level word
|-
| n−1 || wà. || its predicate || fà. || its predicate's preceding same-level word or parole
|-
| n−2 || dhà. || its predicate's predicate || thà. || its predicate's predicate's preceding same-level word or parole
|-
| n−3 || zà. || its predicate's predicate's predicate || sà. || …
|-
| n−4 || zhà. || … || shà. || …
|-
| n−5 || ghà. || … || xà. || …
|}

==Derivational morphology==
From a Lemizh point of view, ''dè.'' "giver" and ''dỳ.'' "gift" aren't derivatives of ''dà.'' "to give" but grammatical forms of the same word. The only piece of true derivational morphology is compounding.

===Compounds===
[[File:Lemizh compounding diagram.png|thumb|Forming a compound from a two-word sentence]]
'''Rule One of compounding. A compound word is constructed from a two-word sentence – predicate and object of which become modifier and head of the compound, respectively – in the following way:'''
# '''Prestem''':
## the object's prestem
## the object's inner case
## the object's poststem
## an optional separator
## the predicate's prestem
# '''Inner case'''
# '''Poststem''': the predicate's poststem
# '''Outer case'''
Note that the object's stem comes before the predicate's; and also that the object's outer case (and, less importantly, the predicate's inner case) is lost. The separator can be used, for example, if the word boundary would be unclear otherwise, or for placing the second part of the word on a new line.

…

==Example text==
[[File:Lemizh text sample.png|600px]]

====stedrỳzh thìrhfi xtrỳghy.====
krỳgh dghngireì prilxpilghkỳarh. mangỳ srungbỳng lyngghỳng yngshwỳng fỳü. zhöazhghngìl tmỳil. ghngàgzh smìa prỳal ghngyé dhàbdhy lunguỳ ùyl mỳu fplyxár tỳarh. dmát feì sxngengzè ishkènge. ghìlt krighmyngthxì xtrỳngghi swyshỳ ghỳxy fplyxòr zhöyzhỳm xngàrorm. dmìlt öngkrỳngty zhryỳ rèshy esfàsy sxngyzdmýi, usrỳngy xazhgèsty ghngỳeng, frekrỳngfy rilghdzhỳwby pthèby, dgheipysrỳngdy psrèby rhèzhem, dghistngỳngty ghỳxy zangỳa dghildhfmlýyrh, ngiftngyghtmỳngy krültlìy zùe gỳghda. xtrỳgh swyshý stedrỳzh thìrfi. dngilszhrìl bdhyrgzhyngỳng xüxtrỳngyng prilkỳarh ötìlil skmyngìlng ghỳngsilng. dngilszhìlwb ráxpy thìlfi. fö̀l gwiltngìlöl dmàty föpysryfỳ ngỳu.

rỳ zhryỳrh thìzgy gwiltngìly rhàghgy dmatngìe thìrfy. là xángska matngiè ytfỳyrh dmyý fplyxór dyxtngyngà mànga prilzhryngỳr iltỳngzhdyr. dmàt ytfỳarh ryý mìlngorh xngyì prilkyár mìlngorh xtrỳngghi kshrextý mengthxì prỳar zìe, fplỳngxe fywýr déngske xtryghè sxngezì xngỳnge.

====The Legend of the Seventh Planet====
A long time ago there was a tribe of nomads. They possessed neither writing nor houses nor horses. But they were truly human. They were curious; this means, above all, that they took interest in the useless, for the celestial objects were of no use to them yet. They looked at the Sun and the Moon. They had named the constellations and the six planets moving across the sky like the humans across the earth. They knew dim Mercury, who liked to hide in the glare of the Sun; Venus, the brightest of all; reddish and angry Mars; majestic father Jupiter; Saturn, who seemed to stand still for weeks; and even Uranus had been caught by their keen eyes. Six planets, and the legend of a seventh. Maybe it had been the minor planet Vesta, or a comet centuries or millennia earlier. Maybe it was the attraction of the number seven. For Neptune is invisible to the naked eye.

One youngster thought to himself that he could not live without seeing the seventh planet. He lay awake searching the sky for many nights, neglected his duties, and became thinner and thinner. And one night, lying with the Earth behind his back, and with the looping planets and the stars above him, he saw the depth of the sky and the planets circling the Sun, and among them the Earth.

==External links==
* [https://lemizh.conlang.org Lemizh homepage] with comprehensive coverage of the language, including a dictionary
[[File:Copyleft1.png|20px]] ''This article includes material from the Lemizh homepage, which is available under a [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License].''


[[Category:Languages]]
[[Category:Conlangs]]
[[Category:Indo-European languages]]
[[Category:Fusional languages]]

Lemizh

2022-05-12T19:18:45Z

Anypodetos: /* Syntax */ Remaining Rules; genitive; etc.

{{Infobox language
|image =
|imagesize =
|name = Lemizh
|nativename = lemỳzh.
|pronunciation = lɛmˈɯ̀ʒ
|state = Lemaria
|setting = Alt-history Europe
|created = 1985
|familycolor = Indo-European
|fam2 = Lemizh
|ancestor = Proto-Lemizh
|posteriori = [[w:Proto-Indo-European|Proto-Indo-European]]
|creator = [[User:Anypodetos|Anypodetos]]
|scripts = Lemizh alphabet
|nation = Lemaria
|map = Map of Lemaria.png
|notice = IPA
}}
'''Lemizh''' ([[Help:IPA|[lεmˈiʒ]]], native pronunciation: [[Help:IPA|[lɛmˈɯ̀ʒ]]]) is a language I invented with the aim of creating a grammar as regular and simple as possible. It was originally intended as an [[w:International auxiliary language|international auxiliary language]]. However, it turned out that a simple grammar is not necessarily a grammar that is easy to learn: the more ways of simplification I found, the further away it moved from [[w:Indo-European languages|Indo-European]] and probably all other familiar language structures. Expecting anyone to learn Lemizh, at this point, would be completely unrealistic.

So I needed a new justification for the language: enter the Lemizh, a people living to the west and north of the [[w:Black Sea|Black Sea]] in an alternate history that slowly drifted away from ours between two and eight millennia ago. Of course, it is extremely unlikely that they would speak a language that was completely without exceptions. To be precise, the chances are two to the power of two hundred and seventy-six thousand seven hundred and nine to one against. But they say that everything has to happen somewhere in the Multiverse. And everything happens only once.

{{TOC limit}}

==History==
===Early stages===
Lemizh is an Indo-European language and, together with Volgan, constitutes one of the ten recognised branches of the Indo-European language family. This branch is also called Lemizh, to the disgruntlement of Volgan linguists.

Proto-Lemizh, the ancestor of Lemizh and Volgan, is very poorly attested in form of some papyri found near the northwestern shore of the Black Sea, to the north of the [[w:Dniester Liman|Dniester Liman]], dated about 2700 BC. Old Lemizh, by contrast, is fairly well attested. It had predominantly [[w:Subject–verb–object|subject–verb–object]] (SVO) word order and was a quite typical old Indo-European language, but with a couple of interesting quirks:
* Adjectives were lost as a separate part of speech, being replaced with participles ("white" > "being white").
* Finite subordinate clauses had their subject in the case of the clause: the subject of a local clause was in the locative case without having a local meaning in itself.
The earliest known documents from this stage of Lemizh were probably written around 2100 BC along the northern and western shores of the Back Sea.

===Ghean and Middle Lemizh===
Ghean ([[Help:IPA|[ˈɣɛən]]]) is a language with no known genetic relationships. It was spoken by a people of unknown origin, who subdued the Lemizh tribes in around 1000 BC and ruled for infamous three generations. Ghean was an inflected [[w:Tonal language|register tonal]] language with strict [[w:Verb–subject–object|verb–subject–object]] (VSO) word order and head-first phrases. It had verbs, [[w:Nominal (linguistics)|nominals]] (a combined noun/adjective/participle part of speech), pronouns and particles.

The Gheans discouraged the use of the natives' language, but obviously tolerated Lemizh words (or rather word stems) to stand in for unfamiliar Ghean ones. The grammar of simple sentences was easy enough to learn for the Lemizh, as they were used to inflection and head-first phrases, and likely still knew VSO sentences from poetry. After two or three generations, the natives must have spoken a [[w:Creole language|creole]] with a more or less Ghean grammar but an abundance of Lemizh words, especially outside the core vocabulary. This is a quite unusual development as most creoles draw their lexicon mainly from the dominant group, and tend to be grammatically more innovative. (The Tanzanian language [[w:Mbugu language|Mbugu]] might have had a somewhat similar development with more or less analogous outcomes.) After the disappearance of the Gheans, Lemizh patriots tried to revive their old language, which failed spectacularly for the grammar but reintroduced many Lemizh words of the core vocabulary.

===The last three millennia===
While Middle Lemizh as spoken after the Ghean occupation already had a non-Indo-European and unusually regular grammar, this trend was to continue over the following millennia. The factive case was innovated to express verbal nouns, which eventually supplanted verbs altogether. (At least part of the blame goes to the Tlöngö̀l, an epic novel published in 1351, which popularised the use of verbal nouns.) The tonal system was simplified to the present two-way [[w:Pitch-accent language|pitch-accent]] system. Pronouns lost their status as a separate part of speech. The last particles died out a few hundred years ago, leaving the language with a single part of speech which is often called a "verb" but, historically speaking, is really a nominal. This means that the concept of ''parts of speech'' does not make sense in Modern Lemizh.

==Orthography and phonology==
The alphabet is [[w:Phonetic orthography|phonetic]]: each letter corresponds to a certain sound, and each sound is represented by a single letter. The direction of writing is left to right. This article uses the standard transcription of the native Lemizh alphabet as given in the following table:
{| class="wikitable" style="width: 800px; table-layout: fixed; text-align: center"
! colspan="29" | Letters of the Lemizh alphabet
|-
| colspan="29" style="padding: 0" | [[File:Lemizh alphabet.png|796px]]
|-
| a || e || y || i || o || ö || u || ü || l || rh || r || ng || m || g || d || b || k || t || p || gh || zh || z || dh || w || x || sh || s || th || f
|}

===Consonants===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="2" | !! bilabial !! dental !! alveolar !! postalveolar !! velar
|-
! colspan="2" | nasals
| m <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial nasal|m]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || || || ng <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar nasal|ŋ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! colspan="2" | plosives (voiceless • voiced)
| p <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless bilabial plosive|p]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • b <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial plosive|b]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || t <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless alveolar plosive|t]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • d <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar plosive|d]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || k <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless velar plosive|k]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • g <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar plosive|g]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! colspan="2" | fricatives (voiceless • voiced)
| f <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless bilabial fricative|ɸ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • w <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial fricative|β]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || th <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless dental fricative|θ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • dh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced dental fricative|ð]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || s <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless alveolar sibilant|s]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • z <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar sibilant|z]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || sh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless palato-alveolar fricative|ʃ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • zh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced palato-alveolar fricative|ʒ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || x <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless velar fricative|x]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • gh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar fricative|ɣ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! rowspan="3" | liquids || lateral approximant
| || || l <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar lateral approximant|l]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|-
! approximant
| || || rh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar approximant|ɹ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|-
! trill
| || || r <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar trill|r]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|}
The plosive-fricative combinations ''pf, ts, tsh, kx'' and their voiced couterparts only occur at word boundaries and in compound words. They are not pronounced as affricates but as separate sounds. The same applies for other combinations of a plosive plus another consonant (''pm, tl'' etc.), as well as for two identical plosives (''kk'' etc.): the release of the first plosive is always audible.

===Vowels===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! rowspan="2" | !! colspan="2" | front !! colspan="2" | back
|-
! unrounded !! rounded !! unrounded !! rounded
|-
! close
| i <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close front unrounded vowel|i]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ü <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close front rounded vowel|y]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || y <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close back unrounded vowel|ɯ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || u <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close back rounded vowel|u]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! open-mid
| e <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid front unrounded vowel|ɛ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ö <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid front rounded vowel|œ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || a <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid back unrounded vowel|ʌ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || o <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid back rounded vowel|ɔ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|}
Two consecutive different vowels are pronounced as a diphthong; two consecutive identical vowels as a long one. Single vowels are always short.

Lemizh uses [[w:Mora (linguistics)|moræ]] for structuring words: a short syllable equals one mora, and a long syllable equals two. In Lemizh, every vowel is the centre of a mora; consequently, two consecutive vowels result in two moræ or one long syllable.

===Accent===
Lemizh has got a two-way pitch-accent system, in that accented moræ are not only spoken louder (as in English), but also have either a lower or a higher pitch than the surrounding unaccented ones. The accented mora is always the ultimate or penultimate of a word. The vowel at the centre of a low-pitch accented mora is transcribed with a grave accent, the vowel at the centre of a high-pitch accented mora with an acute accent.
{| class="wikitable" style="width: 220px; table-layout: fixed; text-align: center"
! colspan="8" | Accented vowel letters
|-
| colspan="8" style="padding: 0" | [[File:Lemizh accented vowels.png|216px]]
|-
| à || è || ỳ || ì || ò || ö̀ || ù || ǜ
|-
| á || é || ý || í || ó || ö́ || ú || ǘ
|}

===Phonotactics===
[[w:Phonotactics|Phonotactics]] is rather permissive in Lemizh. A mora has the following structure, where the bracketed parts are optional:
* (O)(N)(L)V(L)(N)(O)
V is the mora's vowel, L a liquid, N a nasal, and O an obstruent that can be either a P(losive), a F(ricative), FP, PF, FF, FFP, FPF, or PFF. Word-initial consonant clusters cannot contain more than three sounds. No geminate consonants (<abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''ff'' etc.) occur within a mora. Consecutive plosive-fricative or fricative-plosive combinations within the same mora must have the same sonority – either both are voiced, or both are voiceless. A plosive cannot have the same place of articulation as a following consonant with the exception of ''rh'' and ''r''. <abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''dzh'', <abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''ddh'' and their voiceless counterparts are also prohibited within a mora.

Word boundaries, including those within compound words, are always mora boundaries. Where mora boundaries would still be ambiguous, liquids and nasals are assigned to the earliest possible mora (as the ''m'' in ''lem·ỳzh.''), and obstruents to the latest possible mora.

==Morphology==
All words are composed of the following parts:
* Prestem + inner case + poststem + outer case
Prestem and poststem form the stem, or the lexical part, of the word. The division of the stem into two portions is similar to English verbs such as ''sing/sang/sung'', where the lexical part is ''s–ng'' while the vowels ''i/a/u'' convey grammatical information. The stem always denotes an action (but never a state, a person, a thing, a property, etc.) and thus resembles our verbs. The prestem can contain any sounds, or it can be zero (i.e. consisting of zero sounds). The poststem can only contain fricatives and plosives, or it can be zero as well.

The inner case is represented by one of the eight vowels, optionally followed by a liquid (the primary case suffix) and/or a nasal (the secondary case suffix). The outer case has the same structure. For the first word in each sentence, the main predicate, the outer case is missing.

Each case is defined by its ''descriptor'': for example, the factive case denotes an ''action'', the nominative a ''sender'', the locative a ''place''. The stem and the inner case's descriptor determine a word's meaning.

'''Examples'''
* ''wàx. w–x'' is the stem for "speak", ''-a-'' denotes the inner factive, so this word means "an action of speaking", translated as the verb "to speak" or the [[w:Verbal noun|verbal noun]] "speaking".
* ''wèx. -e-'' denotes the inner nominative, so this word means "a sender of speaking" or "a speaker".
* ''àrdh. ∅–dh'' (having a zero prestem) is the stem for "eat", ''-ar-'' denotes the inner locative: "a place of eating".
{| class="wikitable"
|+ Primary cases and their descriptors
|-
! rowspan="3" | № !! rowspan="3" | Case vowel !! colspan="4" | Primary case suffix
|-
| none || l || rh || r
|-
! Plot cases !! Causal cases !! Temporal cases !! Spatial cases
|-
| 1 || a || factive ({{sc|fact}}): ''action'' || affirmative ({{sc|aff}}): ''fact (point in causal chain)'' || temporal ({{sc|temp}}): ''time'' || locative ({{sc|loc}}): ''place/region''
|-
| 2 || e || nominative ({{sc|nom}}): ''source, sender'' || causative ({{sc|caus}}): ''direct cause'' || ingressive ({{sc|ing}}): ''starting time'' || elative ({{sc|ela}}): ''starting point/region''
|-
| 3 || y || accusative ({{sc|acc}}): ''content'' || contextual ({{sc|ctx}}): ''causal context'' || durative ({{sc|dur}}): ''duration'' || extensive ({{sc|ext}}): ''spatial extent''
|-
| 4 || i || dative ({{sc|dat}}): ''sink, recipient'' || consecutive ({{sc|cons}}): ''direct consequence, effect'' || egressive ({{sc|egr}}): ''closing time'' || illative ({{sc|ill}}): ''end point / ending region''
|-
| 5 || o || tentive ({{sc|ten}}): ''intention'' || intentive ({{sc|int}}): ''intention (intended point in causal chain)'' || episodic ({{sc|eps}}): ''episode, "act"'' || scenic ({{sc|sce}}): ''scene, "stage"''
|-
| 6 || ö || comitative ({{sc|com}}): ''company'' || persuasive ({{sc|psu}}): ''reason'' || digressive ({{sc|dig}}): ''time away from which'' || ablative ({{sc|abl}}): ''place/region away from which''
|-
| 7 || u || instrumental ({{sc|ins}}): ''means, tool'' || motivational ({{sc|mot}}): ''motivational context'' || progressive ({{sc|prog}}): ''time that is passed'' || prolative ({{sc|prol}}): ''crossing point/region''
|-
| 8 || ü || benefactive ({{sc|ben}}): ''beneficiary'' || final ({{sc|fin}}): ''purpose, aim'' || aggressive ({{sc|agg}}): ''time towards which, temporal aim'' || allative ({{sc|all}}): ''place/region towards which, spatial aim''
|}
Each primary case has two corresponding secondary cases: a partitive case formed by adding ''ng'' (such as ''-ing-'' for the partitive dative or ''-erng-'' for the partitive elative) and a corresponding qualitative case formed by adding ''m''.

===The flow of the plot===
Every action denoted by a word stem is considered a flow of information that comes from a source (sender), transports a content, and reaches a sink (a recipient). The terms "sender" and "recipient" may be more familiar, but "source" and "sink" are more accurate in not necessarily meaning living beings.

Consequently, a Lemizh action looks somewhat like this: '''nominative  accusative[[File:DreieckYellowMIDDLE.png|26px|link=]] dative'''

This is called the action's plot. Here are some examples:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative
|-
| ''wàx.'' "to speak, to tell; (an act of) speaking" || ''wèx.'' "one telling something" || ''wỳx.'' "a tale" || ''wìx.'' "one who is told something"
|-
| ''dà.'' "to give; (an act of) giving" || ''dè.'' "one giving something" || ''dỳ.'' "a gift" || ''dì.'' "one who is given something; one who gets something"
|-
| ''làzhw.'' "to help" || ''lèzhw.'' "one helping" || ''lỳzhw.'' "help (given)" || ''lìzhw.'' "one whom is helped"
|-
| ''mlàtx.'' "to melt" || ''mlètx.'' "one melting something" || [''mlỳtx.''] || ''mlìtx.'' "a melted thing"
|-
| ''xöàgh.'' "to produce a sound; to hear" || ''xöègh.'' "one producing a sound" || ''xöỳgh.'' "a sound" || ''xöìgh.'' "one hearing something"
|-
| ''àdh.'' "to feed; to eat" || ''èdh.'' "one feeding someone" || ''ỳdh.'' "food" || ''ìdh.'' "one being fed; one eating"
|-
| ''ià.'' "to love" || ''iè.'' "one loving someone, a lover" || ''iỳ.'' "a beloved" || ''iì.'' "a beloved"
|}
Importantly, there are no rules for which cases to use with which words. Both ''iỳ.'' ({{sc|acc}}) and ''iì.'' ({{sc|dat}}) mean "a beloved". The former describes the beloved as the content of love, the one being lovingly thought of, while the latter implies that the love reaches them, like words or gifts reach their recipient. Likewise, the reason why ''mlỳtx.'' is not translated in the table above isn't that "''melt'' does not take the accusative", as grammars of other languages would say, but that "a content of melting" does not seem to have any obvious meaning. If someone wanted to describe, say, sun rays as content transported from the sun to the snow to melt it, they could well use ''mlỳtx.'' to express the concept.

Case usage is governed solely by the cases' descriptors; it is up to the speaker how to use them given some word's meaning and some context. If the wind opens a door, is it the source of the action of opening (''ngèt.''), the means of opening (''ngùt.''), or the cause (''ngèlt.'')? All are grammatically correct; the speaker decides which possibility best expresses their intention.

===Nouns===
:''Nouns, adjectives and verbs do not correspond to any concepts in Lemizh grammar. Using these terms is just an attempt to describe the grammar from an Indo-European viewpoint.''
A large number of nouns are not derived from verbs in most languages: ''froth, ship, lion'' and many others. In Lemizh, however, we have verbs such as ''psràxk.'' "to froth", ''àksh.'' "to build a ship or ships", and ''làw.'' "to make a lion or lions". We will call these ''nominal verbs''.

Looking at the verb ''àksh.'', the shipwright ({{sc|nom}}) gives the building materials ({{sc|dat}}) the properties or the function of a ship ({{sc|acc}}). He confers, well, shipness on the materials. The shipness is sent by the shipwright, not because he is acting, but because he is the source: the image of the ship, so to say, comes from his head and materialises in wood, iron, ropes, and linen. In short, these words mostly appear with inner accusative.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative
|-
| ''psràxk.'' "to froth" || ''psrèxk.'' "one frothing something" || ''psrỳxk.'' "a thing having the properties of froth = '''froth'''" || ''psrìxk.'' "a frothed thing, a frothed liquid"
|-
| ''àksh.'' "to build a ship" || ''èksh.'' "one building a ship, a shipwright" || ''ỳksh.'' "a thing having the properties of a ship = '''a ship'''" || ''ìksh.'' "building materials for a ship, materials made into a ship"
|-
| ''làw.'' "to make a lion" || [''lèw.'' "one making a lion"] || ''lỳw.'' "a thing having the properties of a lion = '''a lion'''" || [''lìw.'' "building materials for a lion, materials made into a lion"]
|}

Another very common kind of nouns are tool nouns, formed with an inner instrumental case:
* ''ghstù.'' "a sail" is derived from ''ghstà.'' "to sail", literally "a means of sailing",
* ''pslù.'' "scissors" from ''pslà.'' "to cut with scissors",
* ''saxùf.'' "trumpet" from ''saxàf.'' "to play the trumpet",
* ''skrùzh.'' "a finger" from ''skràzh.'' "to work with one's fingers".

====Inflection====
As mentioned above, all words can inflect for (outer) case. Thus, we have the nominative forms ''wàx'''e''''' "(an act of) speaking, (an act of) telling", ''dè'''e''''' "a giver", ''lỳw'''e''''' "a lion", the causative ''lỳw'''el''''' "because of a lion", the elative ''lỳw'''er''''' "(starting) from a lion", etc.

Lemizh words do not inflect for number or gender. If desired, we can express this information by forming compounds. (Note the duplication of the inner case vowel; the first occurrence in each word is called the epenthetic case of the compound. The underlying grammar will be described later.)
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Singular !! Dual !! Plural !! Feminine !! Masculine !! Feminine singular !! etc.
|-
! giver
| ''dè.'' || ''de'''rè'''.'' || ''de'''dwè'''.'' || ''de'''mlè'''.'' || ''de'''bè'''.'' || ''de'''èx'''.'' || ''de'''berè'''.''
|-
! lion
| ''lỳw.'' || ''lyw'''rỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''dwỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''mlỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''bỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''ỳx'''.'' || ''lyw'''byrỳ'''.''
|-
! compound with
| — || ''rỳ.'' "one" || ''dwỳ.'' "two" || ''mlỳ.'' "several" || ''bỳ.'' "female; woman" || ''ỳx.'' "male; man" || "female" and "one"
|}

===Adjectives and numerals===
There is no difference between adjectival and nominal verbs: they mostly appear with inner accusative. This is the same situation as in, say, Latin, where ''albus'' can mean "a white one" as well as "white". Numerals are basically a sub-category of adjectives.

The inner consecutive case translates certain abstract nouns.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative !! Inner consecutive
|-
| ''gmrà.'' "to heat, to make something warm" || ''gmrè.'' "one heating something up" || ''gmrỳ.'' "a warm thing; '''warm'''" || ''gmrì.'' "a thing heated up; heated, warmed" || ''gmrìl.'' "the consequence of heating = heat"
|-
| ''làbdh.'' "to whiten something, to make something white" || ''lèbdh.'' "one whitening something" || ''lỳbdh.'' "a white thing; '''white'''" || ''lìbdh.'' "a thing made white; whitened" || ''lìlbdh.'' "the consequence of whitening = whiteness"
|-
| ''dwà.'' "to make two things/individuals" || ''dwè.'' "one making two things" || ''dwỳ.'' "'''two''' (things)" || ''dwì.'' "something made into two (things)" || ''dwìl.'' "the consequence of making two things = twoness"
|}

However, emotions aren't viewed as properties in Lemizh: a happy or angry person is one sending happiness or anger, just as a loving person is one sending love. The inner causative plays a notable role with verbs of emotion.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative !! Inner causative
|-
| ''pthàb.'' "to be angry" || ''pthèb.'' "an angry one; '''angry'''" || ''pthỳb.'' "the content/object of one's anger" || ''pthìb.'' "one that one's anger reaches" || ''pthèlb.'' "one causing someone anger; one annoying someone"
|}

====Inflection====
Of course, adjectives can be compounded to express number and/or gender in the same way as nouns. Furthermore, we can form compounds expressing various degrees. (The epenthetic consecutive ''-il-'' in these compounds will also be explained later; it is actually the main application of the abstract nouns just mentioned.)
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Diminutive !! Augmentative !! Absolute !! Comparative !! Superlative
|-
! warm
| ''gmrỳ.'' || ''gmril'''zhrỳ'''.'' "lukewarm" || ''gmril'''dmỳ'''.'' "hot" || ''gmril'''ghngỳ'''.'' "absolutely hot" || ''gmril'''tỳzhd'''.'' "warmer, hotter" || ''gmril'''ỳst'''.'' "hottest"
|-
! white
| ''lỳbdh.'' || ''lilbdh'''zhrỳ'''.'' "whitish" || ''lilbdh'''dmỳ'''.'' "very white" || ''lilbdh'''ghngỳ'''.'' "absolutely/completely white" || ''lilbdh'''tỳzhd'''.'' "whiter" || ''lilbdh'''ỳst'''.'' "whitest"
|-
! compound with
| — || ''zhrỳ.'' "few, little, a bit" || ''dmỳ.'' "much, many" || ''ghngỳ.'' "every, all, the whole" || ''tỳzhd.'' "more" || ''ỳst.'' "most"
|}

===Verbs===
Most verbs correspond to Lemizh words with an inner factive. However, as Lemizh word stems always denote an action, the notable exception are stative verbs such as:
* ''zdìls.'' "to sit", literally "the consequence of sitting down (''zdàs.'')"
* ''gwìlt.'' "to know", literally "the consequence of learning (''gwàt.'')"

====Inflection====
* Person is not expressed with inflection but with pronouns.
* Number is conveyed by compounding pronouns with numerals. While verbs (i.e. words with an inner factive) can be compounded with numerals, ''ftrask'''mlà'''.'' does not mean "we/they sneeze" but "(there are) several acts of sneezing" (i.e. someone sneezes several times and/or several people sneeze).
* Voice (active/passive) is absent in Lemizh; word order serves a similar function.
* Tense is expressed by compounds with an epenthetic temporal case (''-arh-''), or with certain inner cases. The latter option is preferred if possible, as it is more concise.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Present !! Past !! Perfect !! Future !! Intentional
|-
! to sit down
| ''zdàs.'' || ''zdarhs'''wà'''.'' || ''zdarhs'''prilkà'''.'' || ''zd'''ìl'''s.'' ({{sc|cons}}) || ''zdarhs'''prà'''.'' || ''zd'''ò'''s.'' ({{sc|ten}})
|-
! compound with
| — || pronoun || ''prilkỳ.'' "back" || — || ''prỳ.'' "front" || —
|}
Note that the translation of the perfect with inner consecutive coincides with the translation of stative verbs: "having sat down" in the strict perfect sense of "the consequence/effect of this action exists" means the same as "to sit". Likewise, "whiteness" can be expressed as the abstract concept of "having whitened something".

* Mood corresponds to compounds with certain verbs for the most part. There is no equivalent to the subjunctive mood, as subordinate clauses are irreal (i.e. not necessarily real) by default. Here are some common formations:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Indicative !! Imperative !! Commanding imperative !! Interrogative Polite imperative !! Optative
|-
! to feed, to eat
| ''àdh.'' || ''adh'''pràk'''.'' || ''adh'''dàxt'''.'' || ''adh'''pà'''.'' || ''adh'''làxt'''.''
|-
! compound with
| — || ''pràk.'' "to request" || ''dàxt.'' "to command" || ''pà.'' "to ask" || ''làxt.'' "to want"
|}
* Aspect is a very heterogeneous category, expressed by a variety of compounds and syntactic structures in Lemizh.

===Pronouns===
The two demonstrative pronouns are technically nominal verbs:
* ''tà.'' "to make this/that one", typically used with inner accusative: ''tỳ.'' "this/that (one)"
* ''gwà.'' "to make someone/anyone, something/anything", with inner accusative ''gwỳ.'' "someone/anyone, something/anything"

The eleven relative pronouns play a far more prominent role in Lemizh grammar. Their scope is much wider than the one usually associated with the term. As they are closely tied to Lemizh syntax, they will be described further down.

==Syntax==
===Level of words===
There is only one more grammatical category: the level of words, which is the main building block of Lemizh syntax. A word can be of first level (the highest), of second level (the next highest), of third level (still one level lower) and so on; there is no limit for the number of levels, but non-positive word levels (zero, −1, etc.) are forbidden.

The first word in a sentence (the main predicate) is of first level by definition. The level of the next word is determined by the main predicate's accent and by the type of pause between the two words, the level of the third word is determined by the accent of the second and the pause between these two, and so on.

Here is the complete list of pause/accent combinations.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="2" | Following pause !! rowspan="2" | Accented vowel !! rowspan="2" | Type of accent !! rowspan="2" | The level of the next word is …
|-
! in speech !! in writing
|-
| rowspan="4" | barely audible || rowspan="4" | space || rowspan="2" | inner case || low || lower by 1
|-
| high || lower by 1, and [[w:Agent (grammar)|agentive]]* ({{sc|a}})
|-
| rowspan="2" | outer case || low || equal
|-
| high || higher by 1
|-
| rowspan="4" | a bit longer || rowspan="4" | comma ('''·''') || rowspan="2" | inner case || low || higher by 2
|-
| high || higher by 3
|-
| rowspan="2" | outer case || low || higher by 4
|-
| high || higher by 5
|-
| the longest || full stop ('''∶''') || inner case || low || none; end of sentence
|}
<nowiki>*</nowiki> The agent is the initiator of the action (more informally, the one who ''does'' the action).

===Sentence structure===
[[File:Lemizh parse tree.png|thumb|upright=1.5|A schematic sentence with the words represented by their level numbers]]
The word levels determine the structure of a sentence.

'''Rule One of sentence grammar. A word of level n is subordinate to the nearest word of level n−1 in front of it; the parole acts as a word of level zero.'''

All words of second level are subordinate to the main predicate (which has first level). A word of third level is subordinate to the next second-level word in front of it, and so on. In other words, Lemizh sentences are strictly [[w:Head directionality|head-first]]. The main predicate itself is subordinate to the [[w:Parole (linguistics)|parole]], the action of speaking (or writing) the sentence in question, which consequently has level zero.

'''Rule Two. An object of a word in a sentence is a word subordinate to the former, its predicate, plus all of its own objects.'''

In the diagram, the main predicate's three objects are enclosed in ellipses. Objects of the same word are called ''sibling objects'' or just ''siblings'', and the word they are subordinate to is their ''predicate''. Note that ''predicate'' and ''object'' are relative terms like ''parent'' and ''child''.

The table of level markers implies that only the first object of a predicate can be marked as agent. (This has been interpreted as Lemizh having VSO word order, although a subject is not quite the same as an agent, and Lemizh grammar strictly speaking does not have the concept of a subject.)

'''Rule Three. The outer case of the first word of an object defines its relation to its predicate's stem via its descriptor; the outer case of a level 1 word is zero.'''

This is what we would expect: the nominative object of a predicate defines its source (sender), the accusative object its content, the temporal object its time, etc.

'''Examples'''
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dá föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|give-FACT-1 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2A bottle-ACC-ACC-2 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2
|''Father Christmas gives Lucy a bottle.''}}

The word stems of the three objects are nominal verbs, hence the inner accusatives. The outer cases indicate the sender, content and recipient of the act of giving. The agent is specified independently of the plot arrow; note the difference:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dá lusyì dwywỳ föpysrỳfe.
|give-FACT-1 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2A bottle-ACC-ACC-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2
|''Lucy takes a bottle from Father Christmas.''}}

We need not mark an object as agentive if we consider this information unimportant. The English translations are only rough approximations:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dà lusyì dwywỳ föpysrỳfe.
|give-FACT-1 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2 bottle-ACC-ACC-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2
|''Lucy gets a bottle from Father Christmas. Lucy is given a bottle by Father Christmas.''}}

'''Rule Four. An instance of a word stem designates a specific action.'''

''dà'' in the above sentence does not just mean "to give", it refers to one specific action of giving. This rule ensures that all the objects refer to the same action of giving. …

'''Rule Five. A case characterises the action it refers to completely with regard to its case descriptor.'''

…

'''Rule Six. A missing object is equivalent to the absence of information about its descriptor.'''

…

'''Rule Seven. Given an object and its predicate, the predicate is considered more real and the object more hypothetical.'''

…

===Noun phrases===
Forming noun phrases does not require any new grammatical rules. In the following example, the inner case of "give" is changed to the nominative, yielding "one giving something, a giver", and everything is pushed down one level. The third-level words are still sender, content and recipient of the ''action'' of giving, as outer cases define relations to the predicate's ''stem'' per Rule Three.
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 3A:third level, agentive
|dmàt tryxkì dée föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|see-FACT-1 beaver-ACC-DAT-2 give-NOM-NOM-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-3A bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3
|''The beaver sees '''the one giving Lucy a bottle, Father Christmas'''.''}}
Regarding the verb "see", note that the beaver is in the dative, being at the receiving end of the optical stimulus or information. Marking the beaver as agent would translate as "The beaver looks at the one …".

Rules Four and Five guarantee that the giver is identical to Father Christmas: both are the sender of the same instance of the word stem ''d–'' "give" (the giver via its inner nominative, Father Christmas via its outer nominative), and both are the ''complete'' sender of this action. This type of construction, where an object's outer case matches its predicate's inner case, is called a '''bracket'''. Brackets are very widely used:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Apposition !! Attributive adjective !! Attributive numeral !! Attributive participle
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|iakopỳk saxèfy.
|Jacopo-'''ACC'''-1 trumpet-NOM-'''ACC'''-2
|''Jacopo, a trumpeter''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=INS:instrumental case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|ghstù lỳbdhu.
|sail-'''INS'''-1 white-ACC-'''INS'''-2
|''a sail, a white thing = a white sail''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|mỳs trỳy.
|mouse-'''ACC'''-1 three-ACC-'''ACC'''-2
|''mice, three individuals = three mice''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|nỳzd gangèy.
|bird-'''ACC'''-1 sing-NOM-'''ACC'''-2
|''a bird, a singer = a singing bird''}}
|}
Such phrases can be easily extended. This example contains two accusative brackets ("a singing bird" and "a sad child"):
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 4:fourth level
|ngỳzd gangèy zhngỳi speghý ytfỳarh.
|bird-ACC-1 sing-NOM-ACC-2 child-ACC-DAT-3 sad-NOM-ACC-4 night-ACC-TEMP-3
|''a bird singing to a sad child at night''}}

As [[w:Genitive construction|genitive constructions]] have a wide variety of meanings, there is no single Lemizh equivalent. The typical translation for constructions indicating possession is with the benefactive case, but other cases frequently occur. Everything depends on the object's relation to the predicate's stem per Rule Three.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|dwỳw lusỳü.
|bottle-ACC-1 Lucy-ACC-'''BEN'''-2
|''Lucy's bottle'' (Lucy is the beneficiary of making the bottle. 
The bottle is made for Lucy.)}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dý ỳxe.
|give-ACC-1 male-ACC-'''NOM'''-2A
|''the man's gift'' (The man is the sender of giving.)}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level
|rhỳst ytfỳarh filpskỳy.
|dream-ACC-1 night-ACC-'''TEMP'''-2 midsummer-ACC-ACC-3
|''A Midsummer Night’s Dream'' (The midsummer night is the time of dreaming.)}}
|}

===Verb phrases===
Adverbially used adjectives also translate to brackets:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|gangà txỳska.
|sing-'''FACT'''-1 loud-ACC-'''FACT'''-2
|''(an act of) singing, a loud thing = to sing loudly''}}

===Dependent clauses===
…


===Relative pronouns===
…
{| class="wikitable"
! rowspan="2" | Level !! colspan="2" | Type I !! colspan="2" | Type II
|-
! Verb !! The target is the stem of !! Verb !! The target is the stem of
|-
| n || colspan="2" | (does not occur because it would refer to itself) || à. || its preceding same-level word
|-
| n−1 || wà. || its predicate || fà. || its predicate's preceding same-level word or parole
|-
| n−2 || dhà. || its predicate's predicate || thà. || its predicate's predicate's preceding same-level word or parole
|-
| n−3 || zà. || its predicate's predicate's predicate || sà. || …
|-
| n−4 || zhà. || … || shà. || …
|-
| n−5 || ghà. || … || xà. || …
|}

==Derivational morphology==
From a Lemizh point of view, ''dè.'' "giver" and ''dỳ.'' "gift" aren't derivatives of ''dà.'' "to give" but grammatical forms of the same word. The only piece of true derivational morphology is compounding.

===Compounds===
[[File:Lemizh compounding diagram.png|thumb|Forming a compound from a two-word sentence]]
'''Rule One of compounding. A compound word is constructed from a two-word sentence – predicate and object of which become modifier and head of the compound, respectively – in the following way:'''
# '''Prestem''':
## the object's prestem
## the object's inner case
## the object's poststem
## an optional separator
## the predicate's prestem
# '''Inner case'''
# '''Poststem''': the predicate's poststem
# '''Outer case'''
Note that the object's stem comes before the predicate's; and also that the object's outer case (and, less importantly, the predicate's inner case) is lost. The separator can be used, for example, if the word boundary would be unclear otherwise, or for placing the second part of the word on a new line.

…

==Example text==
[[File:Lemizh text sample.png|600px]]

====stedrỳzh thìrhfi xtrỳghy.====
krỳgh dghngireì prilxpilghkỳarh. mangỳ srungbỳng lyngghỳng yngshwỳng fỳü. zhöazhghngìl tmỳil. ghngàgzh smìa prỳal ghngyé dhàbdhy lunguỳ ùyl mỳu fplyxár tỳarh. dmát feì sxngengzè ishkènge. ghìlt krighmyngthxì xtrỳngghi swyshỳ ghỳxy fplyxòr zhöyzhỳm xngàrorm. dmìlt öngkrỳngty zhryỳ rèshy esfàsy sxngyzdmýi, usrỳngy xazhgèsty ghngỳeng, frekrỳngfy rilghdzhỳwby pthèby, dgheipysrỳngdy psrèby rhèzhem, dghistngỳngty ghỳxy zangỳa dghildhfmlýyrh, ngiftngyghtmỳngy krültlìy zùe gỳghda. xtrỳgh swyshý stedrỳzh thìrfi. dngilszhrìl bdhyrgzhyngỳng xüxtrỳngyng prilkỳarh ötìlil skmyngìlng ghỳngsilng. dngilszhìlwb ráxpy thìlfi. fö̀l gwiltngìlöl dmàty föpysryfỳ ngỳu.

rỳ zhryỳrh thìzgy gwiltngìly rhàghgy dmatngìe thìrfy. là xángska matngiè ytfỳyrh dmyý fplyxór dyxtngyngà mànga prilzhryngỳr iltỳngzhdyr. dmàt ytfỳarh ryý mìlngorh xngyì prilkyár mìlngorh xtrỳngghi kshrextý mengthxì prỳar zìe, fplỳngxe fywýr déngske xtryghè sxngezì xngỳnge.

====The Legend of the Seventh Planet====
A long time ago there was a tribe of nomads. They possessed neither writing nor houses nor horses. But they were truly human. They were curious; this means, above all, that they took interest in the useless, for the celestial objects were of no use to them yet. They looked at the Sun and the Moon. They had named the constellations and the six planets moving across the sky like the humans across the earth. They knew dim Mercury, who liked to hide in the glare of the Sun; Venus, the brightest of all; reddish and angry Mars; majestic father Jupiter; Saturn, who seemed to stand still for weeks; and even Uranus had been caught by their keen eyes. Six planets, and the legend of a seventh. Maybe it had been the minor planet Vesta, or a comet centuries or millennia earlier. Maybe it was the attraction of the number seven. For Neptune is invisible to the naked eye.

One youngster thought to himself that he could not live without seeing the seventh planet. He lay awake searching the sky for many nights, neglected his duties, and became thinner and thinner. And one night, lying with the Earth behind his back, and with the looping planets and the stars above him, he saw the depth of the sky and the planets circling the Sun, and among them the Earth.

==External links==
* [https://lemizh.conlang.org Lemizh homepage] with comprehensive coverage of the language, including a dictionary
[[File:Copyleft1.png|20px]] ''This article includes material from the Lemizh homepage, which is available under a [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License].''


[[Category:Languages]]
[[Category:Conlangs]]
[[Category:Indo-European languages]]
[[Category:Fusional languages]]

Lemizh

2022-05-11T19:59:37Z

Anypodetos: /* Noun phrases */ Genitive constructions

{{Infobox language
|image =
|imagesize =
|name = Lemizh
|nativename = lemỳzh.
|pronunciation = lɛmˈɯ̀ʒ
|state = Lemaria
|setting = Alt-history Europe
|created = 1985
|familycolor = Indo-European
|fam2 = Lemizh
|ancestor = Proto-Lemizh
|posteriori = [[w:Proto-Indo-European|Proto-Indo-European]]
|creator = [[User:Anypodetos|Anypodetos]]
|scripts = Lemizh alphabet
|nation = Lemaria
|map = Map of Lemaria.png
|notice = IPA
}}
'''Lemizh''' ([[Help:IPA|[lεmˈiʒ]]], native pronunciation: [[Help:IPA|[lɛmˈɯ̀ʒ]]]) is a language I invented with the aim of creating a grammar as regular and simple as possible. It was originally intended as an [[w:International auxiliary language|international auxiliary language]]. However, it turned out that a simple grammar is not necessarily a grammar that is easy to learn: the more ways of simplification I found, the further away it moved from [[w:Indo-European languages|Indo-European]] and probably all other familiar language structures. Expecting anyone to learn Lemizh, at this point, would be completely unrealistic.

So I needed a new justification for the language: enter the Lemizh, a people living to the west and north of the [[w:Black Sea|Black Sea]] in an alternate history that slowly drifted away from ours between two and eight millennia ago. Of course, it is extremely unlikely that they would speak a language that was completely without exceptions. To be precise, the chances are two to the power of two hundred and seventy-six thousand seven hundred and nine to one against. But they say that everything has to happen somewhere in the Multiverse. And everything happens only once.

{{TOC limit}}

==History==
===Early stages===
Lemizh is an Indo-European language and, together with Volgan, constitutes one of the ten recognised branches of the Indo-European language family. This branch is also called Lemizh, to the disgruntlement of Volgan linguists.

Proto-Lemizh, the ancestor of Lemizh and Volgan, is very poorly attested in form of some papyri found near the northwestern shore of the Black Sea, to the north of the [[w:Dniester Liman|Dniester Liman]], dated about 2700 BC. Old Lemizh, by contrast, is fairly well attested. It had predominantly [[w:Subject–verb–object|subject–verb–object]] (SVO) word order and was a quite typical old Indo-European language, but with a couple of interesting quirks:
* Adjectives were lost as a separate part of speech, being replaced with participles ("white" > "being white").
* Finite subordinate clauses had their subject in the case of the clause: the subject of a local clause was in the locative case without having a local meaning in itself.
The earliest known documents from this stage of Lemizh were probably written around 2100 BC along the northern and western shores of the Back Sea.

===Ghean and Middle Lemizh===
Ghean ([[Help:IPA|[ˈɣɛən]]]) is a language with no known genetic relationships. It was spoken by a people of unknown origin, who subdued the Lemizh tribes in around 1000 BC and ruled for infamous three generations. Ghean was an inflected [[w:Tonal language|register tonal]] language with strict [[w:Verb–subject–object|verb–subject–object]] (VSO) word order and head-first phrases. It had verbs, [[w:Nominal (linguistics)|nominals]] (a combined noun/adjective/participle part of speech), pronouns and particles.

The Gheans discouraged the use of the natives' language, but obviously tolerated Lemizh words (or rather word stems) to stand in for unfamiliar Ghean ones. The grammar of simple sentences was easy enough to learn for the Lemizh, as they were used to inflection and head-first phrases, and likely still knew VSO sentences from poetry. After two or three generations, the natives must have spoken a [[w:Creole language|creole]] with a more or less Ghean grammar but an abundance of Lemizh words, especially outside the core vocabulary. This is a quite unusual development as most creoles draw their lexicon mainly from the dominant group, and tend to be grammatically more innovative. (The Tanzanian language [[w:Mbugu language|Mbugu]] might have had a somewhat similar development with more or less analogous outcomes.) After the disappearance of the Gheans, Lemizh patriots tried to revive their old language, which failed spectacularly for the grammar but reintroduced many Lemizh words of the core vocabulary.

===The last three millennia===
While Middle Lemizh as spoken after the Ghean occupation already had a non-Indo-European and unusually regular grammar, this trend was to continue over the following millennia. The factive case was innovated to express verbal nouns, which eventually supplanted verbs altogether. (At least part of the blame goes to the Tlöngö̀l, an epic novel published in 1351, which popularised the use of verbal nouns.) The tonal system was simplified to the present two-way [[w:Pitch-accent language|pitch-accent]] system. Pronouns lost their status as a separate part of speech. The last particles died out a few hundred years ago, leaving the language with a single part of speech which is often called a "verb" but, historically speaking, is really a nominal. This means that the concept of ''parts of speech'' does not make sense in Modern Lemizh.

==Orthography and phonology==
The alphabet is [[w:Phonetic orthography|phonetic]]: each letter corresponds to a certain sound, and each sound is represented by a single letter. The direction of writing is left to right. This article uses the standard transcription of the native Lemizh alphabet as given in the following table:
{| class="wikitable" style="width: 800px; table-layout: fixed; text-align: center"
! colspan="29" | Letters of the Lemizh alphabet
|-
| colspan="29" style="padding: 0" | [[File:Lemizh alphabet.png|796px]]
|-
| a || e || y || i || o || ö || u || ü || l || rh || r || ng || m || g || d || b || k || t || p || gh || zh || z || dh || w || x || sh || s || th || f
|}

===Consonants===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="2" | !! bilabial !! dental !! alveolar !! postalveolar !! velar
|-
! colspan="2" | nasals
| m <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial nasal|m]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || || || ng <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar nasal|ŋ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! colspan="2" | plosives (voiceless • voiced)
| p <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless bilabial plosive|p]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • b <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial plosive|b]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || t <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless alveolar plosive|t]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • d <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar plosive|d]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || k <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless velar plosive|k]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • g <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar plosive|g]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! colspan="2" | fricatives (voiceless • voiced)
| f <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless bilabial fricative|ɸ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • w <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial fricative|β]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || th <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless dental fricative|θ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • dh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced dental fricative|ð]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || s <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless alveolar sibilant|s]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • z <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar sibilant|z]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || sh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless palato-alveolar fricative|ʃ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • zh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced palato-alveolar fricative|ʒ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || x <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless velar fricative|x]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • gh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar fricative|ɣ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! rowspan="3" | liquids || lateral approximant
| || || l <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar lateral approximant|l]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|-
! approximant
| || || rh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar approximant|ɹ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|-
! trill
| || || r <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar trill|r]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|}
The plosive-fricative combinations ''pf, ts, tsh, kx'' and their voiced couterparts only occur at word boundaries and in compound words. They are not pronounced as affricates but as separate sounds. The same applies for other combinations of a plosive plus another consonant (''pm, tl'' etc.), as well as for two identical plosives (''kk'' etc.): the release of the first plosive is always audible.

===Vowels===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! rowspan="2" | !! colspan="2" | front !! colspan="2" | back
|-
! unrounded !! rounded !! unrounded !! rounded
|-
! close
| i <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close front unrounded vowel|i]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ü <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close front rounded vowel|y]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || y <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close back unrounded vowel|ɯ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || u <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close back rounded vowel|u]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! open-mid
| e <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid front unrounded vowel|ɛ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ö <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid front rounded vowel|œ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || a <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid back unrounded vowel|ʌ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || o <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid back rounded vowel|ɔ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|}
Two consecutive different vowels are pronounced as a diphthong; two consecutive identical vowels as a long one. Single vowels are always short.

Lemizh uses [[w:Mora (linguistics)|moræ]] for structuring words: a short syllable equals one mora, and a long syllable equals two. In Lemizh, every vowel is the centre of a mora; consequently, two consecutive vowels result in two moræ or one long syllable.

===Accent===
Lemizh has got a two-way pitch-accent system, in that accented moræ are not only spoken louder (as in English), but also have either a lower or a higher pitch than the surrounding unaccented ones. The accented mora is always the ultimate or penultimate of a word. The vowel at the centre of a low-pitch accented mora is transcribed with a grave accent, the vowel at the centre of a high-pitch accented mora with an acute accent.
{| class="wikitable" style="width: 220px; table-layout: fixed; text-align: center"
! colspan="8" | Accented vowel letters
|-
| colspan="8" style="padding: 0" | [[File:Lemizh accented vowels.png|216px]]
|-
| à || è || ỳ || ì || ò || ö̀ || ù || ǜ
|-
| á || é || ý || í || ó || ö́ || ú || ǘ
|}

===Phonotactics===
[[w:Phonotactics|Phonotactics]] is rather permissive in Lemizh. A mora has the following structure, where the bracketed parts are optional:
* (O)(N)(L)V(L)(N)(O)
V is the mora's vowel, L a liquid, N a nasal, and O an obstruent that can be either a P(losive), a F(ricative), FP, PF, FF, FFP, FPF, or PFF. Word-initial consonant clusters cannot contain more than three sounds. No geminate consonants (<abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''ff'' etc.) occur within a mora. Consecutive plosive-fricative or fricative-plosive combinations within the same mora must have the same sonority – either both are voiced, or both are voiceless. A plosive cannot have the same place of articulation as a following consonant with the exception of ''rh'' and ''r''. <abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''dzh'', <abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''ddh'' and their voiceless counterparts are also prohibited within a mora.

Word boundaries, including those within compound words, are always mora boundaries. Where mora boundaries would still be ambiguous, liquids and nasals are assigned to the earliest possible mora (as the ''m'' in ''lem·ỳzh.''), and obstruents to the latest possible mora.

==Morphology==
All words are composed of the following parts:
* Prestem + inner case + poststem + outer case
Prestem and poststem form the stem, or the lexical part, of the word. The division of the stem into two portions is similar to English verbs such as ''sing/sang/sung'', where the lexical part is ''s–ng'' while the vowels ''i/a/u'' convey grammatical information. The stem always denotes an action (but never a state, a person, a thing, a property, etc.) and thus resembles our verbs. The prestem can contain any sounds, or it can be zero (i.e. consisting of zero sounds). The poststem can only contain fricatives and plosives, or it can be zero as well.

The inner case is represented by one of the eight vowels, optionally followed by a liquid (the primary case suffix) and/or a nasal (the secondary case suffix). The outer case has the same structure. For the first word in each sentence, the main predicate, the outer case is missing.

Each case is defined by its ''descriptor'': for example, the factive case denotes an ''action'', the nominative a ''sender'', the locative a ''place''. The stem and the inner case's descriptor determine a word's meaning.

'''Examples'''
* ''wàx. w–x'' is the stem for "speak", ''-a-'' denotes the inner factive, so this word means "an action of speaking", translated as the verb "to speak" or the [[w:Verbal noun|verbal noun]] "speaking".
* ''wèx. -e-'' denotes the inner nominative, so this word means "a sender of speaking" or "a speaker".
* ''àrdh. ∅–dh'' (having a zero prestem) is the stem for "eat", ''-ar-'' denotes the inner locative: "a place of eating".
{| class="wikitable"
|+ Primary cases and their descriptors
|-
! rowspan="3" | № !! rowspan="3" | Case vowel !! colspan="4" | Primary case suffix
|-
| none || l || rh || r
|-
! Plot cases !! Causal cases !! Temporal cases !! Spatial cases
|-
| 1 || a || factive ({{sc|fact}}): ''action'' || affirmative ({{sc|aff}}): ''fact (point in causal chain)'' || temporal ({{sc|temp}}): ''time'' || locative ({{sc|loc}}): ''place/region''
|-
| 2 || e || nominative ({{sc|nom}}): ''source, sender'' || causative ({{sc|caus}}): ''direct cause'' || ingressive ({{sc|ing}}): ''starting time'' || elative ({{sc|ela}}): ''starting point/region''
|-
| 3 || y || accusative ({{sc|acc}}): ''content'' || contextual ({{sc|ctx}}): ''causal context'' || durative ({{sc|dur}}): ''duration'' || extensive ({{sc|ext}}): ''spatial extent''
|-
| 4 || i || dative ({{sc|dat}}): ''sink, recipient'' || consecutive ({{sc|cons}}): ''direct consequence, effect'' || egressive ({{sc|egr}}): ''closing time'' || illative ({{sc|ill}}): ''end point / ending region''
|-
| 5 || o || tentive ({{sc|ten}}): ''intention'' || intentive ({{sc|int}}): ''intention (intended point in causal chain)'' || episodic ({{sc|eps}}): ''episode, "act"'' || scenic ({{sc|sce}}): ''scene, "stage"''
|-
| 6 || ö || comitative ({{sc|com}}): ''company'' || persuasive ({{sc|psu}}): ''reason'' || digressive ({{sc|dig}}): ''time away from which'' || ablative ({{sc|abl}}): ''place/region away from which''
|-
| 7 || u || instrumental ({{sc|ins}}): ''means, tool'' || motivational ({{sc|mot}}): ''motivational context'' || progressive ({{sc|prog}}): ''time that is passed'' || prolative ({{sc|prol}}): ''crossing point/region''
|-
| 8 || ü || benefactive ({{sc|ben}}): ''beneficiary'' || final ({{sc|fin}}): ''purpose, aim'' || aggressive ({{sc|agg}}): ''time towards which, temporal aim'' || allative ({{sc|all}}): ''place/region towards which, spatial aim''
|}
Each primary case has two corresponding secondary cases: a partitive case formed by adding ''ng'' (such as ''-ing-'' for the partitive dative or ''-erng-'' for the partitive elative) and a corresponding qualitative case formed by adding ''m''.

===The flow of the plot===
Every action denoted by a word stem is considered a flow of information that comes from a source (sender), transports a content, and reaches a sink (a recipient). The terms "sender" and "recipient" may be more familiar, but "source" and "sink" are more accurate in not necessarily meaning living beings.

Consequently, a Lemizh action looks somewhat like this: '''nominative  accusative[[File:DreieckYellowMIDDLE.png|26px|link=]] dative'''

This is called the action's plot. Here are some examples:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative
|-
| ''wàx.'' "to speak, to tell; (an act of) speaking" || ''wèx.'' "one telling something" || ''wỳx.'' "a tale" || ''wìx.'' "one who is told something"
|-
| ''dà.'' "to give; (an act of) giving" || ''dè.'' "one giving something" || ''dỳ.'' "a gift" || ''dì.'' "one who is given something; one who gets something"
|-
| ''làzhw.'' "to help" || ''lèzhw.'' "one helping" || ''lỳzhw.'' "help (given)" || ''lìzhw.'' "one whom is helped"
|-
| ''mlàtx.'' "to melt" || ''mlètx.'' "one melting something" || [''mlỳtx.''] || ''mlìtx.'' "a melted thing"
|-
| ''xöàgh.'' "to produce a sound; to hear" || ''xöègh.'' "one producing a sound" || ''xöỳgh.'' "a sound" || ''xöìgh.'' "one hearing something"
|-
| ''àdh.'' "to feed; to eat" || ''èdh.'' "one feeding someone" || ''ỳdh.'' "food" || ''ìdh.'' "one being fed; one eating"
|-
| ''ià.'' "to love" || ''iè.'' "one loving someone, a lover" || ''iỳ.'' "a beloved" || ''iì.'' "a beloved"
|}
Importantly, there are no rules for which cases to use with which words. Both ''iỳ.'' ({{sc|acc}}) and ''iì.'' ({{sc|dat}}) mean "a beloved". The former describes the beloved as the content of love, the one being lovingly thought of, while the latter implies that the love reaches them, like words or gifts reach their recipient. Likewise, the reason why ''mlỳtx.'' is not translated in the table above isn't that "''melt'' does not take the accusative", as grammars of other languages would say, but that "a content of melting" does not seem to have any obvious meaning. If someone wanted to describe, say, sun rays as content transported from the sun to the snow to melt it, they could well use ''mlỳtx.'' to express the concept.

Case usage is governed solely by the cases' descriptors; it is up to the speaker how to use them given some word's meaning and some context. If the wind opens a door, is it the source of the action of opening (''ngèt.''), the means of opening (''ngùt.''), or the cause (''ngèlt.'')? All are grammatically correct; the speaker decides which possibility best expresses their intention.

===Nouns===
:''Nouns, adjectives and verbs do not correspond to any concepts in Lemizh grammar. Using these terms is just an attempt to describe the grammar from an Indo-European viewpoint.''
A large number of nouns are not derived from verbs in most languages: ''froth, ship, lion'' and many others. In Lemizh, however, we have verbs such as ''psràxk.'' "to froth", ''àksh.'' "to build a ship or ships", and ''làw.'' "to make a lion or lions". We will call these ''nominal verbs''.

Looking at the verb ''àksh.'', the shipwright ({{sc|nom}}) gives the building materials ({{sc|dat}}) the properties or the function of a ship ({{sc|acc}}). He confers, well, shipness on the materials. The shipness is sent by the shipwright, not because he is acting, but because he is the source: the image of the ship, so to say, comes from his head and materialises in wood, iron, ropes, and linen. In short, these words mostly appear with inner accusative.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative
|-
| ''psràxk.'' "to froth" || ''psrèxk.'' "one frothing something" || ''psrỳxk.'' "a thing having the properties of froth = '''froth'''" || ''psrìxk.'' "a frothed thing, a frothed liquid"
|-
| ''àksh.'' "to build a ship" || ''èksh.'' "one building a ship, a shipwright" || ''ỳksh.'' "a thing having the properties of a ship = '''a ship'''" || ''ìksh.'' "building materials for a ship, materials made into a ship"
|-
| ''làw.'' "to make a lion" || [''lèw.'' "one making a lion"] || ''lỳw.'' "a thing having the properties of a lion = '''a lion'''" || [''lìw.'' "building materials for a lion, materials made into a lion"]
|}

Another very common kind of nouns are tool nouns, formed with an inner instrumental case:
* ''ghstù.'' "a sail" is derived from ''ghstà.'' "to sail", literally "a means of sailing",
* ''pslù.'' "scissors" from ''pslà.'' "to cut with scissors",
* ''saxùf.'' "trumpet" from ''saxàf.'' "to play the trumpet",
* ''skrùzh.'' "a finger" from ''skràzh.'' "to work with one's fingers".

====Inflection====
As mentioned above, all words can inflect for (outer) case. Thus, we have the nominative forms ''wàx'''e''''' "(an act of) speaking, (an act of) telling", ''dè'''e''''' "a giver", ''lỳw'''e''''' "a lion", the causative ''lỳw'''el''''' "because of a lion", the elative ''lỳw'''er''''' "(starting) from a lion", etc.

Lemizh words do not inflect for number or gender. If desired, we can express this information by forming compounds. (Note the duplication of the inner case vowel; the first occurrence in each word is called the epenthetic case of the compound. The underlying grammar will be described later.)
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Singular !! Dual !! Plural !! Feminine !! Masculine !! Feminine singular !! etc.
|-
! giver
| ''dè.'' || ''de'''rè'''.'' || ''de'''dwè'''.'' || ''de'''mlè'''.'' || ''de'''bè'''.'' || ''de'''èx'''.'' || ''de'''berè'''.''
|-
! lion
| ''lỳw.'' || ''lyw'''rỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''dwỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''mlỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''bỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''ỳx'''.'' || ''lyw'''byrỳ'''.''
|-
! compound with
| — || ''rỳ.'' "one" || ''dwỳ.'' "two" || ''mlỳ.'' "several" || ''bỳ.'' "female; woman" || ''ỳx.'' "male; man" || "female" and "one"
|}

===Adjectives and numerals===
There is no difference between adjectival and nominal verbs: they mostly appear with inner accusative. This is the same situation as in, say, Latin, where ''albus'' can mean "a white one" as well as "white". Numerals are basically a sub-category of adjectives.

The inner consecutive case translates certain abstract nouns.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative !! Inner consecutive
|-
| ''gmrà.'' "to heat, to make something warm" || ''gmrè.'' "one heating something up" || ''gmrỳ.'' "a warm thing; '''warm'''" || ''gmrì.'' "a thing heated up; heated, warmed" || ''gmrìl.'' "the consequence of heating = heat"
|-
| ''làbdh.'' "to whiten something, to make something white" || ''lèbdh.'' "one whitening something" || ''lỳbdh.'' "a white thing; '''white'''" || ''lìbdh.'' "a thing made white; whitened" || ''lìlbdh.'' "the consequence of whitening = whiteness"
|-
| ''dwà.'' "to make two things/individuals" || ''dwè.'' "one making two things" || ''dwỳ.'' "'''two''' (things)" || ''dwì.'' "something made into two (things)" || ''dwìl.'' "the consequence of making two things = twoness"
|}

However, emotions aren't viewed as properties in Lemizh: a happy or angry person is one sending happiness or anger, just as a loving person is one sending love. The inner causative plays a notable role with verbs of emotion.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative !! Inner causative
|-
| ''pthàb.'' "to be angry" || ''pthèb.'' "an angry one; '''angry'''" || ''pthỳb.'' "the content/object of one's anger" || ''pthìb.'' "one that one's anger reaches" || ''pthèlb.'' "one causing someone anger; one annoying someone"
|}

====Inflection====
Of course, adjectives can be compounded to express number and/or gender in the same way as nouns. Furthermore, we can form compounds expressing various degrees. (The epenthetic consecutive ''-il-'' in these compounds will also be explained later; it is actually the main application of the abstract nouns just mentioned.)
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Diminutive !! Augmentative !! Absolute !! Comparative !! Superlative
|-
! warm
| ''gmrỳ.'' || ''gmril'''zhrỳ'''.'' "lukewarm" || ''gmril'''dmỳ'''.'' "hot" || ''gmril'''ghngỳ'''.'' "absolutely hot" || ''gmril'''tỳzhd'''.'' "warmer, hotter" || ''gmril'''ỳst'''.'' "hottest"
|-
! white
| ''lỳbdh.'' || ''lilbdh'''zhrỳ'''.'' "whitish" || ''lilbdh'''dmỳ'''.'' "very white" || ''lilbdh'''ghngỳ'''.'' "absolutely/completely white" || ''lilbdh'''tỳzhd'''.'' "whiter" || ''lilbdh'''ỳst'''.'' "whitest"
|-
! compound with
| — || ''zhrỳ.'' "few, little, a bit" || ''dmỳ.'' "much, many" || ''ghngỳ.'' "every, all, the whole" || ''tỳzhd.'' "more" || ''ỳst.'' "most"
|}

===Verbs===
Most verbs correspond to Lemizh words with an inner factive. However, as Lemizh word stems always denote an action, the notable exception are stative verbs such as:
* ''zdìls.'' "to sit", literally "the consequence of sitting down (''zdàs.'')"
* ''gwìlt.'' "to know", literally "the consequence of learning (''gwàt.'')"

====Inflection====
* Person is not expressed with inflection but with pronouns.
* Number is conveyed by compounding pronouns with numerals. While verbs (i.e. words with an inner factive) can be compounded with numerals, ''ftrask'''mlà'''.'' does not mean "we/they sneeze" but "(there are) several acts of sneezing" (i.e. someone sneezes several times and/or several people sneeze).
* Voice (active/passive) is absent in Lemizh; word order serves a similar function.
* Tense is expressed by compounds with an epenthetic temporal case (''-arh-''), or with certain inner cases. The latter option is preferred if possible, as it is more concise.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Present !! Past !! Perfect !! Future !! Intentional
|-
! to sit down
| ''zdàs.'' || ''zdarhs'''wà'''.'' || ''zdarhs'''prilkà'''.'' || ''zd'''ìl'''s.'' ({{sc|cons}}) || ''zdarhs'''prà'''.'' || ''zd'''ò'''s.'' ({{sc|ten}})
|-
! compound with
| — || pronoun || ''prilkỳ.'' "back" || — || ''prỳ.'' "front" || —
|}
Note that the translation of the perfect with inner consecutive coincides with the translation of stative verbs: "having sat down" in the strict perfect sense of "the consequence/effect of this action exists" means the same as "to sit". Likewise, "whiteness" can be expressed as the abstract concept of "having whitened something".

* Mood corresponds to compounds with certain verbs for the most part. There is no equivalent to the subjunctive mood, as subordinate clauses are irreal (i.e. not necessarily real) by default. Here are some common formations:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Indicative !! Imperative !! Commanding imperative !! Interrogative Polite imperative !! Optative
|-
! to feed, to eat
| ''àdh.'' || ''adh'''pràk'''.'' || ''adh'''dàxt'''.'' || ''adh'''pà'''.'' || ''adh'''làxt'''.''
|-
! compound with
| — || ''pràk.'' "to request" || ''dàxt.'' "to command" || ''pà.'' "to ask" || ''làxt.'' "to want"
|}
* Aspect is a very heterogeneous category, expressed by a variety of compounds and syntactic structures in Lemizh.

===Pronouns===
The two demonstrative pronouns are technically nominal verbs:
* ''tà.'' "to make this/that one", typically used with inner accusative: ''tỳ.'' "this/that (one)"
* ''gwà.'' "to make someone/anyone, something/anything", with inner accusative ''gwỳ.'' "someone/anyone, something/anything"

The eleven relative pronouns play a far more prominent role in Lemizh grammar. Their scope is much wider than the one usually associated with the term. As they are closely tied to Lemizh syntax, they will be described further down.

==Syntax==
===Level of words===
There is only one more grammatical category: the level of words, which is the main building block of Lemizh syntax. A word can be of first level (the highest), of second level (the next highest), of third level (still one level lower) and so on; there is no limit for the number of levels, but non-positive word levels (zero, −1, etc.) are forbidden.

The first word in a sentence (the main predicate) is of first level by definition. The level of the next word is determined by the main predicate's accent and by the type of pause between the two words, the level of the third word is determined by the accent of the second and the pause between these two, and so on.

Here is the complete list of pause/accent combinations.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="2" | Following pause !! rowspan="2" | Accented vowel !! rowspan="2" | Type of accent !! rowspan="2" | The level of the next word is …
|-
! in speech !! in writing
|-
| rowspan="4" | barely audible || rowspan="4" | space || rowspan="2" | inner case || low || lower by 1
|-
| high || lower by 1, and [[w:Agent (grammar)|agentive]]* ({{sc|a}})
|-
| rowspan="2" | outer case || low || equal
|-
| high || higher by 1
|-
| rowspan="4" | a bit longer || rowspan="4" | comma ('''·''') || rowspan="2" | inner case || low || higher by 2
|-
| high || higher by 3
|-
| rowspan="2" | outer case || low || higher by 4
|-
| high || higher by 5
|-
| the longest || full stop ('''∶''') || inner case || low || none; end of sentence
|}
<nowiki>*</nowiki> The agent is the initiator of the action (more informally, the one who ''does'' the action).

===Sentence structure===
[[File:Lemizh parse tree.png|thumb|upright=1.5|A schematic sentence with the words represented by their level numbers]]
The word levels determine the structure of a sentence.

'''Rule One of sentence grammar. A word of level n is subordinate to the nearest word of level n−1 in front of it; the parole acts as a word of level zero.'''

All words of second level are subordinate to the main predicate (which has first level). A word of third level is subordinate to the next second-level word in front of it, and so on. In other words, Lemizh sentences are strictly [[w:Head directionality|head-first]]. The main predicate itself is subordinate to the [[w:Parole (linguistics)|parole]], the action of speaking (or writing) the sentence in question, which consequently has level zero.

'''Rule Two. An object of a word in a sentence is a word subordinate to the former, its predicate, plus all of its own objects.'''

In the diagram, the main predicate's three objects are enclosed in ellipses. Objects of the same word are called ''sibling objects'' or just ''siblings'', and the word they are subordinate to is their ''predicate''. Note that ''predicate'' and ''object'' are relative terms like ''parent'' and ''child''.

The table of level markers implies that only the first object of a predicate can be marked as agent. (This has been interpreted as Lemizh having VSO word order, although a subject is not quite the same as an agent, and Lemizh grammar strictly speaking does not have the concept of a subject.)

'''Rule Three. The outer case of the first word of an object defines its relation to its predicate's stem via its descriptor; the outer case of a level 1 word is zero.'''

This is what we would expect: the nominative object of a predicate defines its source (sender), the accusative object its content, the temporal object its time, etc.

'''Examples'''
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dá föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|give-FACT-1 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2A bottle-ACC-ACC-2 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2
|''Father Christmas gives Lucy a bottle.''}}
The word stems of the three objects are nominal verbs, hence the inner accusatives. The outer cases indicate the sender, content and recipient of the act of giving. The agent is specified independently of the plot arrow; note the difference:

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dá lusyì dwywỳ föpysrỳfe.
|give-FACT-1 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2A bottle-ACC-ACC-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2
|''Lucy takes a bottle from Father Christmas.''}}

We need not mark an object as agentive if we consider this information unimportant. The English translations are only rough approximations:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dà lusyì dwywỳ föpysrỳfe.
|give-FACT-1 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2 bottle-ACC-ACC-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2
|''Lucy gets a bottle from Father Christmas. Lucy is given a bottle by Father Christmas.''}}

'''Rule Four. An instance of a word stem designates a specific action.'''

''dà'' in the above sentence does not just mean "to give", it refers to one specific action of giving. This rule ensures that all the objects refer to the same action of giving. …

'''Rule Five. A case characterises the action it refers to completely with regard to its case descriptor.'''

…

===Noun phrases===
Forming noun phrases does not require any new grammatical rules. In the following example, the inner case of "give" is changed to the nominative, yielding "one giving something, a giver", and everything is pushed down one level. The third-level words are still sender, content and recipient of the ''action'' of giving, as outer cases define relations to the predicate's ''stem'' per Rule Three.
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 3A:third level, agentive
|dmàt tryxkì dée föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|see-FACT-1 beaver-ACC-DAT-2 give-NOM-NOM-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-3A bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3
|''The beaver sees the one giving Lucy a bottle, Father Christmas.''}}
Regarding the verb "see", note that the beaver is in the dative, being at the receiving end of the optical stimulus or information. Marking the beaver as agent would translate as "The beaver looks at the one …".

Rules Four and Five guarantee that the giver is identical to Father Christmas: both are the sender of the same instance of the word stem ''d–'' "give" (the giver via its inner nominative, Father Christmas via its outer nominative), and both are the ''complete'' sender of this action. This type of construction, where an object's outer case matches its predicate's inner case, is called a '''bracket'''. Brackets are very widely used:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Apposition !! Attributive adjective !! Attributive numeral !! Attributive participle
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|iakopỳk saxèfy.
|Jacopo-'''ACC'''-1 trumpet-NOM-'''ACC'''-2
|''Jacopo, a trumpeter''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=INS:instrumental case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|ghstù lỳbdhu.
|sail-'''INS'''-1 white-ACC-'''INS'''-2
|''a sail, a white thing = a white sail''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|mỳs trỳy.
|mouse-'''ACC'''-1 three-ACC-'''ACC'''-2
|''mice, three individuals = three mice''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|nỳzd gangèy.
|bird-'''ACC'''-1 sing-NOM-'''ACC'''-2
|''a bird, a singer = a singing bird''}}
|}

Such phrases can be easily extended. This example contains two accusative brackets ("a singing bird" and "a sad child"):
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 4:fourth level
|ngỳzd gangèy zhngỳi speghý ytfỳarh.
|bird-ACC-1 sing-NOM-ACC-2 child-ACC-DAT-3 sad-NOM-ACC-4 night-ACC-TEMP-3
|''a bird singing to a sad child at night''}}

As [[w:Genitive construction|genitive constructions]] have a wide variety of meanings, there is no single Lemizh equivalent. The most common translation is with the benefactive case. …

===Verb phrases===
Adverbially used adjectives also translate to brackets:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|gangà txỳska.
|sing-'''FACT'''-1 loud-ACC-'''FACT'''-2
|''(an act of) singing, a loud thing = to sing loudly''}}

===Dependent clauses===
…


===Relative pronouns===
…
{| class="wikitable"
! rowspan="2" | Level !! colspan="2" | Type I !! colspan="2" | Type II
|-
! Verb !! The target is the stem of !! Verb !! The target is the stem of
|-
| n || colspan="2" | (does not occur because it would refer to itself) || à. || its preceding same-level word
|-
| n−1 || wà. || its predicate || fà. || its predicate's preceding same-level word or parole
|-
| n−2 || dhà. || its predicate's predicate || thà. || its predicate's predicate's preceding same-level word or parole
|-
| n−3 || zà. || its predicate's predicate's predicate || sà. || …
|-
| n−4 || zhà. || … || shà. || …
|-
| n−5 || ghà. || … || xà. || …
|}

==Derivational morphology==
From a Lemizh point of view, ''dè.'' "giver" and ''dỳ.'' "gift" aren't derivatives of ''dà.'' "to give" but grammatical forms of the same word. The only piece of true derivational morphology is compounding.

===Compounds===
[[File:Lemizh compounding diagram.png|thumb|Forming a compound from a two-word sentence]]
'''Rule One of compounding. A compound word is constructed from a two-word sentence – predicate and object of which become modifier and head of the compound, respectively – in the following way:'''
# '''Prestem''':
## the object's prestem
## the object's inner case
## the object's poststem
## an optional separator
## the predicate's prestem
# '''Inner case'''
# '''Poststem''': the predicate's poststem
# '''Outer case'''
Note that the object's stem comes before the predicate's; and also that the object's outer case (and, less importantly, the predicate's inner case) is lost. The separator can be used, for example, if the word boundary would be unclear otherwise, or for placing the second part of the word on a new line.

…

==Example text==
[[File:Lemizh text sample.png|600px]]

====stedrỳzh thìrhfi xtrỳghy.====
krỳgh dghngireì prilxpilghkỳarh. mangỳ srungbỳng lyngghỳng yngshwỳng fỳü. zhöazhghngìl tmỳil. ghngàgzh smìa prỳal ghngyé dhàbdhy lunguỳ ùyl mỳu fplyxár tỳarh. dmát feì sxngengzè ishkènge. ghìlt krighmyngthxì xtrỳngghi swyshỳ ghỳxy fplyxòr zhöyzhỳm xngàrorm. dmìlt öngkrỳngty zhryỳ rèshy esfàsy sxngyzdmýi, usrỳngy xazhgèsty ghngỳeng, frekrỳngfy rilghdzhỳwby pthèby, dgheipysrỳngdy psrèby rhèzhem, dghistngỳngty ghỳxy zangỳa dghildhfmlýyrh, ngiftngyghtmỳngy krültlìy zùe gỳghda. xtrỳgh swyshý stedrỳzh thìrfi. dngilszhrìl bdhyrgzhyngỳng xüxtrỳngyng prilkỳarh ötìlil skmyngìlng ghỳngsilng. dngilszhìlwb ráxpy thìlfi. fö̀l gwiltngìlöl dmàty föpysryfỳ ngỳu.

rỳ zhryỳrh thìzgy gwiltngìly rhàghgy dmatngìe thìrfy. là xángska matngiè ytfỳyrh dmyý fplyxór dyxtngyngà mànga prilzhryngỳr iltỳngzhdyr. dmàt ytfỳarh ryý mìlngorh xngyì prilkyár mìlngorh xtrỳngghi kshrextý mengthxì prỳar zìe, fplỳngxe fywýr déngske xtryghè sxngezì xngỳnge.

====The Legend of the Seventh Planet====
A long time ago there was a tribe of nomads. They possessed neither writing nor houses nor horses. But they were truly human. They were curious; this means, above all, that they took interest in the useless, for the celestial objects were of no use to them yet. They looked at the Sun and the Moon. They had named the constellations and the six planets moving across the sky like the humans across the earth. They knew dim Mercury, who liked to hide in the glare of the Sun; Venus, the brightest of all; reddish and angry Mars; majestic father Jupiter; Saturn, who seemed to stand still for weeks; and even Uranus had been caught by their keen eyes. Six planets, and the legend of a seventh. Maybe it had been the minor planet Vesta, or a comet centuries or millennia earlier. Maybe it was the attraction of the number seven. For Neptune is invisible to the naked eye.

One youngster thought to himself that he could not live without seeing the seventh planet. He lay awake searching the sky for many nights, neglected his duties, and became thinner and thinner. And one night, lying with the Earth behind his back, and with the looping planets and the stars above him, he saw the depth of the sky and the planets circling the Sun, and among them the Earth.

==External links==
* [https://lemizh.conlang.org Lemizh homepage] with comprehensive coverage of the language, including a dictionary
[[File:Copyleft1.png|20px]] ''This article includes material from the Lemizh homepage, which is available under a [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License].''


[[Category:Languages]]
[[Category:Conlangs]]
[[Category:Indo-European languages]]
[[Category:Fusional languages]]

Lemizh

2022-05-11T17:42:56Z

Anypodetos: Pronoun table

{{Infobox language
|image =
|imagesize =
|name = Lemizh
|nativename = lemỳzh.
|pronunciation = lɛmˈɯ̀ʒ
|state = Lemaria
|setting = Alt-history Europe
|created = 1985
|familycolor = Indo-European
|fam2 = Lemizh
|ancestor = Proto-Lemizh
|posteriori = [[w:Proto-Indo-European|Proto-Indo-European]]
|creator = [[User:Anypodetos|Anypodetos]]
|scripts = Lemizh alphabet
|nation = Lemaria
|map = Map of Lemaria.png
|notice = IPA
}}
'''Lemizh''' ([[Help:IPA|[lεmˈiʒ]]], native pronunciation: [[Help:IPA|[lɛmˈɯ̀ʒ]]]) is a language I invented with the aim of creating a grammar as regular and simple as possible. It was originally intended as an [[w:International auxiliary language|international auxiliary language]]. However, it turned out that a simple grammar is not necessarily a grammar that is easy to learn: the more ways of simplification I found, the further away it moved from [[w:Indo-European languages|Indo-European]] and probably all other familiar language structures. Expecting anyone to learn Lemizh, at this point, would be completely unrealistic.

So I needed a new justification for the language: enter the Lemizh, a people living to the west and north of the [[w:Black Sea|Black Sea]] in an alternate history that slowly drifted away from ours between two and eight millennia ago. Of course, it is extremely unlikely that they would speak a language that was completely without exceptions. To be precise, the chances are two to the power of two hundred and seventy-six thousand seven hundred and nine to one against. But they say that everything has to happen somewhere in the Multiverse. And everything happens only once.

{{TOC limit}}

==History==
===Early stages===
Lemizh is an Indo-European language and, together with Volgan, constitutes one of the ten recognised branches of the Indo-European language family. This branch is also called Lemizh, to the disgruntlement of Volgan linguists.

Proto-Lemizh, the ancestor of Lemizh and Volgan, is very poorly attested in form of some papyri found near the northwestern shore of the Black Sea, to the north of the [[w:Dniester Liman|Dniester Liman]], dated about 2700 BC. Old Lemizh, by contrast, is fairly well attested. It had predominantly [[w:Subject–verb–object|subject–verb–object]] (SVO) word order and was a quite typical old Indo-European language, but with a couple of interesting quirks:
* Adjectives were lost as a separate part of speech, being replaced with participles ("white" > "being white").
* Finite subordinate clauses had their subject in the case of the clause: the subject of a local clause was in the locative case without having a local meaning in itself.
The earliest known documents from this stage of Lemizh were probably written around 2100 BC along the northern and western shores of the Back Sea.

===Ghean and Middle Lemizh===
Ghean ([[Help:IPA|[ˈɣɛən]]]) is a language with no known genetic relationships. It was spoken by a people of unknown origin, who subdued the Lemizh tribes in around 1000 BC and ruled for infamous three generations. Ghean was an inflected [[w:Tonal language|register tonal]] language with strict [[w:Verb–subject–object|verb–subject–object]] (VSO) word order and head-first phrases. It had verbs, [[w:Nominal (linguistics)|nominals]] (a combined noun/adjective/participle part of speech), pronouns and particles.

The Gheans discouraged the use of the natives' language, but obviously tolerated Lemizh words (or rather word stems) to stand in for unfamiliar Ghean ones. The grammar of simple sentences was easy enough to learn for the Lemizh, as they were used to inflection and head-first phrases, and likely still knew VSO sentences from poetry. After two or three generations, the natives must have spoken a [[w:Creole language|creole]] with a more or less Ghean grammar but an abundance of Lemizh words, especially outside the core vocabulary. This is a quite unusual development as most creoles draw their lexicon mainly from the dominant group, and tend to be grammatically more innovative. (The Tanzanian language [[w:Mbugu language|Mbugu]] might have had a somewhat similar development with more or less analogous outcomes.) After the disappearance of the Gheans, Lemizh patriots tried to revive their old language, which failed spectacularly for the grammar but reintroduced many Lemizh words of the core vocabulary.

===The last three millennia===
While Middle Lemizh as spoken after the Ghean occupation already had a non-Indo-European and unusually regular grammar, this trend was to continue over the following millennia. The factive case was innovated to express verbal nouns, which eventually supplanted verbs altogether. (At least part of the blame goes to the Tlöngö̀l, an epic novel published in 1351, which popularised the use of verbal nouns.) The tonal system was simplified to the present two-way [[w:Pitch-accent language|pitch-accent]] system. Pronouns lost their status as a separate part of speech. The last particles died out a few hundred years ago, leaving the language with a single part of speech which is often called a "verb" but, historically speaking, is really a nominal. This means that the concept of ''parts of speech'' does not make sense in Modern Lemizh.

==Orthography and phonology==
The alphabet is [[w:Phonetic orthography|phonetic]]: each letter corresponds to a certain sound, and each sound is represented by a single letter. The direction of writing is left to right. This article uses the standard transcription of the native Lemizh alphabet as given in the following table:
{| class="wikitable" style="width: 800px; table-layout: fixed; text-align: center"
! colspan="29" | Letters of the Lemizh alphabet
|-
| colspan="29" style="padding: 0" | [[File:Lemizh alphabet.png|796px]]
|-
| a || e || y || i || o || ö || u || ü || l || rh || r || ng || m || g || d || b || k || t || p || gh || zh || z || dh || w || x || sh || s || th || f
|}

===Consonants===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="2" | !! bilabial !! dental !! alveolar !! postalveolar !! velar
|-
! colspan="2" | nasals
| m <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial nasal|m]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || || || ng <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar nasal|ŋ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! colspan="2" | plosives (voiceless • voiced)
| p <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless bilabial plosive|p]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • b <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial plosive|b]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || t <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless alveolar plosive|t]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • d <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar plosive|d]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || k <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless velar plosive|k]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • g <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar plosive|g]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! colspan="2" | fricatives (voiceless • voiced)
| f <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless bilabial fricative|ɸ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • w <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial fricative|β]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || th <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless dental fricative|θ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • dh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced dental fricative|ð]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || s <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless alveolar sibilant|s]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • z <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar sibilant|z]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || sh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless palato-alveolar fricative|ʃ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • zh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced palato-alveolar fricative|ʒ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || x <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless velar fricative|x]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • gh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar fricative|ɣ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! rowspan="3" | liquids || lateral approximant
| || || l <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar lateral approximant|l]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|-
! approximant
| || || rh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar approximant|ɹ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|-
! trill
| || || r <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar trill|r]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|}
The plosive-fricative combinations ''pf, ts, tsh, kx'' and their voiced couterparts only occur at word boundaries and in compound words. They are not pronounced as affricates but as separate sounds. The same applies for other combinations of a plosive plus another consonant (''pm, tl'' etc.), as well as for two identical plosives (''kk'' etc.): the release of the first plosive is always audible.

===Vowels===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! rowspan="2" | !! colspan="2" | front !! colspan="2" | back
|-
! unrounded !! rounded !! unrounded !! rounded
|-
! close
| i <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close front unrounded vowel|i]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ü <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close front rounded vowel|y]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || y <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close back unrounded vowel|ɯ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || u <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close back rounded vowel|u]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! open-mid
| e <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid front unrounded vowel|ɛ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ö <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid front rounded vowel|œ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || a <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid back unrounded vowel|ʌ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || o <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid back rounded vowel|ɔ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|}
Two consecutive different vowels are pronounced as a diphthong; two consecutive identical vowels as a long one. Single vowels are always short.

Lemizh uses [[w:Mora (linguistics)|moræ]] for structuring words: a short syllable equals one mora, and a long syllable equals two. In Lemizh, every vowel is the centre of a mora; consequently, two consecutive vowels result in two moræ or one long syllable.

===Accent===
Lemizh has got a two-way pitch-accent system, in that accented moræ are not only spoken louder (as in English), but also have either a lower or a higher pitch than the surrounding unaccented ones. The accented mora is always the ultimate or penultimate of a word. The vowel at the centre of a low-pitch accented mora is transcribed with a grave accent, the vowel at the centre of a high-pitch accented mora with an acute accent.
{| class="wikitable" style="width: 220px; table-layout: fixed; text-align: center"
! colspan="8" | Accented vowel letters
|-
| colspan="8" style="padding: 0" | [[File:Lemizh accented vowels.png|216px]]
|-
| à || è || ỳ || ì || ò || ö̀ || ù || ǜ
|-
| á || é || ý || í || ó || ö́ || ú || ǘ
|}

===Phonotactics===
[[w:Phonotactics|Phonotactics]] is rather permissive in Lemizh. A mora has the following structure, where the bracketed parts are optional:
* (O)(N)(L)V(L)(N)(O)
V is the mora's vowel, L a liquid, N a nasal, and O an obstruent that can be either a P(losive), a F(ricative), FP, PF, FF, FFP, FPF, or PFF. Word-initial consonant clusters cannot contain more than three sounds. No geminate consonants (<abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''ff'' etc.) occur within a mora. Consecutive plosive-fricative or fricative-plosive combinations within the same mora must have the same sonority – either both are voiced, or both are voiceless. A plosive cannot have the same place of articulation as a following consonant with the exception of ''rh'' and ''r''. <abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''dzh'', <abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''ddh'' and their voiceless counterparts are also prohibited within a mora.

Word boundaries, including those within compound words, are always mora boundaries. Where mora boundaries would still be ambiguous, liquids and nasals are assigned to the earliest possible mora (as the ''m'' in ''lem·ỳzh.''), and obstruents to the latest possible mora.

==Morphology==
All words are composed of the following parts:
* Prestem + inner case + poststem + outer case
Prestem and poststem form the stem, or the lexical part, of the word. The division of the stem into two portions is similar to English verbs such as ''sing/sang/sung'', where the lexical part is ''s–ng'' while the vowels ''i/a/u'' convey grammatical information. The stem always denotes an action (but never a state, a person, a thing, a property, etc.) and thus resembles our verbs. The prestem can contain any sounds, or it can be zero (i.e. consisting of zero sounds). The poststem can only contain fricatives and plosives, or it can be zero as well.

The inner case is represented by one of the eight vowels, optionally followed by a liquid (the primary case suffix) and/or a nasal (the secondary case suffix). The outer case has the same structure. For the first word in each sentence, the main predicate, the outer case is missing.

Each case is defined by its ''descriptor'': for example, the factive case denotes an ''action'', the nominative a ''sender'', the locative a ''place''. The stem and the inner case's descriptor determine a word's meaning.

'''Examples'''
* ''wàx. w–x'' is the stem for "speak", ''-a-'' denotes the inner factive, so this word means "an action of speaking", translated as the verb "to speak" or the [[w:Verbal noun|verbal noun]] "speaking".
* ''wèx. -e-'' denotes the inner nominative, so this word means "a sender of speaking" or "a speaker".
* ''àrdh. ∅–dh'' (having a zero prestem) is the stem for "eat", ''-ar-'' denotes the inner locative: "a place of eating".
{| class="wikitable"
|+ Primary cases and their descriptors
|-
! rowspan="3" | № !! rowspan="3" | Case vowel !! colspan="4" | Primary case suffix
|-
| none || l || rh || r
|-
! Plot cases !! Causal cases !! Temporal cases !! Spatial cases
|-
| 1 || a || factive ({{sc|fact}}): ''action'' || affirmative ({{sc|aff}}): ''fact (point in causal chain)'' || temporal ({{sc|temp}}): ''time'' || locative ({{sc|loc}}): ''place/region''
|-
| 2 || e || nominative ({{sc|nom}}): ''source, sender'' || causative ({{sc|caus}}): ''direct cause'' || ingressive ({{sc|ing}}): ''starting time'' || elative ({{sc|ela}}): ''starting point/region''
|-
| 3 || y || accusative ({{sc|acc}}): ''content'' || contextual ({{sc|ctx}}): ''causal context'' || durative ({{sc|dur}}): ''duration'' || extensive ({{sc|ext}}): ''spatial extent''
|-
| 4 || i || dative ({{sc|dat}}): ''sink, recipient'' || consecutive ({{sc|cons}}): ''direct consequence, effect'' || egressive ({{sc|egr}}): ''closing time'' || illative ({{sc|ill}}): ''end point / ending region''
|-
| 5 || o || tentive ({{sc|ten}}): ''intention'' || intentive ({{sc|int}}): ''intention (intended point in causal chain)'' || episodic ({{sc|eps}}): ''episode, "act"'' || scenic ({{sc|sce}}): ''scene, "stage"''
|-
| 6 || ö || comitative ({{sc|com}}): ''company'' || persuasive ({{sc|psu}}): ''reason'' || digressive ({{sc|dig}}): ''time away from which'' || ablative ({{sc|abl}}): ''place/region away from which''
|-
| 7 || u || instrumental ({{sc|ins}}): ''means, tool'' || motivational ({{sc|mot}}): ''motivational context'' || progressive ({{sc|prog}}): ''time that is passed'' || prolative ({{sc|prol}}): ''crossing point/region''
|-
| 8 || ü || benefactive ({{sc|ben}}): ''beneficiary'' || final ({{sc|fin}}): ''purpose, aim'' || aggressive ({{sc|agg}}): ''time towards which, temporal aim'' || allative ({{sc|all}}): ''place/region towards which, spatial aim''
|}
Each primary case has two corresponding secondary cases: a partitive case formed by adding ''ng'' (such as ''-ing-'' for the partitive dative or ''-erng-'' for the partitive elative) and a corresponding qualitative case formed by adding ''m''.

===The flow of the plot===
Every action denoted by a word stem is considered a flow of information that comes from a source (sender), transports a content, and reaches a sink (a recipient). The terms "sender" and "recipient" may be more familiar, but "source" and "sink" are more accurate in not necessarily meaning living beings.

Consequently, a Lemizh action looks somewhat like this: '''nominative  accusative[[File:DreieckYellowMIDDLE.png|26px|link=]] dative'''

This is called the action's plot. Here are some examples:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative
|-
| ''wàx.'' "to speak, to tell; (an act of) speaking" || ''wèx.'' "one telling something" || ''wỳx.'' "a tale" || ''wìx.'' "one who is told something"
|-
| ''dà.'' "to give; (an act of) giving" || ''dè.'' "one giving something" || ''dỳ.'' "a gift" || ''dì.'' "one who is given something; one who gets something"
|-
| ''làzhw.'' "to help" || ''lèzhw.'' "one helping" || ''lỳzhw.'' "help (given)" || ''lìzhw.'' "one whom is helped"
|-
| ''mlàtx.'' "to melt" || ''mlètx.'' "one melting something" || [''mlỳtx.''] || ''mlìtx.'' "a melted thing"
|-
| ''xöàgh.'' "to produce a sound; to hear" || ''xöègh.'' "one producing a sound" || ''xöỳgh.'' "a sound" || ''xöìgh.'' "one hearing something"
|-
| ''àdh.'' "to feed; to eat" || ''èdh.'' "one feeding someone" || ''ỳdh.'' "food" || ''ìdh.'' "one being fed; one eating"
|-
| ''ià.'' "to love" || ''iè.'' "one loving someone, a lover" || ''iỳ.'' "a beloved" || ''iì.'' "a beloved"
|}
Importantly, there are no rules for which cases to use with which words. Both ''iỳ.'' ({{sc|acc}}) and ''iì.'' ({{sc|dat}}) mean "a beloved". The former describes the beloved as the content of love, the one being lovingly thought of, while the latter implies that the love reaches them, like words or gifts reach their recipient. Likewise, the reason why ''mlỳtx.'' is not translated in the table above isn't that "''melt'' does not take the accusative", as grammars of other languages would say, but that "a content of melting" does not seem to have any obvious meaning. If someone wanted to describe, say, sun rays as content transported from the sun to the snow to melt it, they could well use ''mlỳtx.'' to express the concept.

Case usage is governed solely by the cases' descriptors; it is up to the speaker how to use them given some word's meaning and some context. If the wind opens a door, is it the source of the action of opening (''ngèt.''), the means of opening (''ngùt.''), or the cause (''ngèlt.'')? All are grammatically correct; the speaker decides which possibility best expresses their intention.

===Nouns===
:''Nouns, adjectives and verbs do not correspond to any concepts in Lemizh grammar. Using these terms is just an attempt to describe the grammar from an Indo-European viewpoint.''
A large number of nouns are not derived from verbs in most languages: ''froth, ship, lion'' and many others. In Lemizh, however, we have verbs such as ''psràxk.'' "to froth", ''àksh.'' "to build a ship or ships", and ''làw.'' "to make a lion or lions". We will call these ''nominal verbs''.

Looking at the verb ''àksh.'', the shipwright ({{sc|nom}}) gives the building materials ({{sc|dat}}) the properties or the function of a ship ({{sc|acc}}). He confers, well, shipness on the materials. The shipness is sent by the shipwright, not because he is acting, but because he is the source: the image of the ship, so to say, comes from his head and materialises in wood, iron, ropes, and linen. In short, these words mostly appear with inner accusative.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative
|-
| ''psràxk.'' "to froth" || ''psrèxk.'' "one frothing something" || ''psrỳxk.'' "a thing having the properties of froth = '''froth'''" || ''psrìxk.'' "a frothed thing, a frothed liquid"
|-
| ''àksh.'' "to build a ship" || ''èksh.'' "one building a ship, a shipwright" || ''ỳksh.'' "a thing having the properties of a ship = '''a ship'''" || ''ìksh.'' "building materials for a ship, materials made into a ship"
|-
| ''làw.'' "to make a lion" || [''lèw.'' "one making a lion"] || ''lỳw.'' "a thing having the properties of a lion = '''a lion'''" || [''lìw.'' "building materials for a lion, materials made into a lion"]
|}

Another very common kind of nouns are tool nouns, formed with an inner instrumental case:
* ''ghstù.'' "a sail" is derived from ''ghstà.'' "to sail", literally "a means of sailing",
* ''pslù.'' "scissors" from ''pslà.'' "to cut with scissors",
* ''saxùf.'' "trumpet" from ''saxàf.'' "to play the trumpet",
* ''skrùzh.'' "a finger" from ''skràzh.'' "to work with one's fingers".

====Inflection====
As mentioned above, all words can inflect for (outer) case. Thus, we have the nominative forms ''wàx'''e''''' "(an act of) speaking, (an act of) telling", ''dè'''e''''' "a giver", ''lỳw'''e''''' "a lion", the causative ''lỳw'''el''''' "because of a lion", the elative ''lỳw'''er''''' "(starting) from a lion", etc.

Lemizh words do not inflect for number or gender. If desired, we can express this information by forming compounds. (Note the duplication of the inner case vowel; the first occurrence in each word is called the epenthetic case of the compound. The underlying grammar will be described later.)
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Singular !! Dual !! Plural !! Feminine !! Masculine !! Feminine singular !! etc.
|-
! giver
| ''dè.'' || ''de'''rè'''.'' || ''de'''dwè'''.'' || ''de'''mlè'''.'' || ''de'''bè'''.'' || ''de'''èx'''.'' || ''de'''berè'''.''
|-
! lion
| ''lỳw.'' || ''lyw'''rỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''dwỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''mlỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''bỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''ỳx'''.'' || ''lyw'''byrỳ'''.''
|-
! compound with
| — || ''rỳ.'' "one" || ''dwỳ.'' "two" || ''mlỳ.'' "several" || ''bỳ.'' "female; woman" || ''ỳx.'' "male; man" || "female" and "one"
|}

===Adjectives and numerals===
There is no difference between adjectival and nominal verbs: they mostly appear with inner accusative. This is the same situation as in, say, Latin, where ''albus'' can mean "a white one" as well as "white". Numerals are basically a sub-category of adjectives.

The inner consecutive case translates certain abstract nouns.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative !! Inner consecutive
|-
| ''gmrà.'' "to heat, to make something warm" || ''gmrè.'' "one heating something up" || ''gmrỳ.'' "a warm thing; '''warm'''" || ''gmrì.'' "a thing heated up; heated, warmed" || ''gmrìl.'' "the consequence of heating = heat"
|-
| ''làbdh.'' "to whiten something, to make something white" || ''lèbdh.'' "one whitening something" || ''lỳbdh.'' "a white thing; '''white'''" || ''lìbdh.'' "a thing made white; whitened" || ''lìlbdh.'' "the consequence of whitening = whiteness"
|-
| ''dwà.'' "to make two things/individuals" || ''dwè.'' "one making two things" || ''dwỳ.'' "'''two''' (things)" || ''dwì.'' "something made into two (things)" || ''dwìl.'' "the consequence of making two things = twoness"
|}

However, emotions aren't viewed as properties in Lemizh: a happy or angry person is one sending happiness or anger, just as a loving person is one sending love. The inner causative plays a notable role with verbs of emotion.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative !! Inner causative
|-
| ''pthàb.'' "to be angry" || ''pthèb.'' "an angry one; '''angry'''" || ''pthỳb.'' "the content/object of one's anger" || ''pthìb.'' "one that one's anger reaches" || ''pthèlb.'' "one causing someone anger; one annoying someone"
|}

====Inflection====
Of course, adjectives can be compounded to express number and/or gender in the same way as nouns. Furthermore, we can form compounds expressing various degrees. (The epenthetic consecutive ''-il-'' in these compounds will also be explained later; it is actually the main application of the abstract nouns just mentioned.)
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Diminutive !! Augmentative !! Absolute !! Comparative !! Superlative
|-
! warm
| ''gmrỳ.'' || ''gmril'''zhrỳ'''.'' "lukewarm" || ''gmril'''dmỳ'''.'' "hot" || ''gmril'''ghngỳ'''.'' "absolutely hot" || ''gmril'''tỳzhd'''.'' "warmer, hotter" || ''gmril'''ỳst'''.'' "hottest"
|-
! white
| ''lỳbdh.'' || ''lilbdh'''zhrỳ'''.'' "whitish" || ''lilbdh'''dmỳ'''.'' "very white" || ''lilbdh'''ghngỳ'''.'' "absolutely/completely white" || ''lilbdh'''tỳzhd'''.'' "whiter" || ''lilbdh'''ỳst'''.'' "whitest"
|-
! compound with
| — || ''zhrỳ.'' "few, little, a bit" || ''dmỳ.'' "much, many" || ''ghngỳ.'' "every, all, the whole" || ''tỳzhd.'' "more" || ''ỳst.'' "most"
|}

===Verbs===
Most verbs correspond to Lemizh words with an inner factive. However, as Lemizh word stems always denote an action, the notable exception are stative verbs such as:
* ''zdìls.'' "to sit", literally "the consequence of sitting down (''zdàs.'')"
* ''gwìlt.'' "to know", literally "the consequence of learning (''gwàt.'')"

====Inflection====
* Person is not expressed with inflection but with pronouns.
* Number is conveyed by compounding pronouns with numerals. While verbs (i.e. words with an inner factive) can be compounded with numerals, ''ftrask'''mlà'''.'' does not mean "we/they sneeze" but "(there are) several acts of sneezing" (i.e. someone sneezes several times and/or several people sneeze).
* Voice (active/passive) is absent in Lemizh; word order serves a similar function.
* Tense is expressed by compounds with an epenthetic temporal case (''-arh-''), or with certain inner cases. The latter option is preferred if possible, as it is more concise.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Present !! Past !! Perfect !! Future !! Intentional
|-
! to sit down
| ''zdàs.'' || ''zdarhs'''wà'''.'' || ''zdarhs'''prilkà'''.'' || ''zd'''ìl'''s.'' ({{sc|cons}}) || ''zdarhs'''prà'''.'' || ''zd'''ò'''s.'' ({{sc|ten}})
|-
! compound with
| — || pronoun || ''prilkỳ.'' "back" || — || ''prỳ.'' "front" || —
|}
Note that the translation of the perfect with inner consecutive coincides with the translation of stative verbs: "having sat down" in the strict perfect sense of "the consequence/effect of this action exists" means the same as "to sit". Likewise, "whiteness" can be expressed as the abstract concept of "having whitened something".

* Mood corresponds to compounds with certain verbs for the most part. There is no equivalent to the subjunctive mood, as subordinate clauses are irreal (i.e. not necessarily real) by default. Here are some common formations:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Indicative !! Imperative !! Commanding imperative !! Interrogative Polite imperative !! Optative
|-
! to feed, to eat
| ''àdh.'' || ''adh'''pràk'''.'' || ''adh'''dàxt'''.'' || ''adh'''pà'''.'' || ''adh'''làxt'''.''
|-
! compound with
| — || ''pràk.'' "to request" || ''dàxt.'' "to command" || ''pà.'' "to ask" || ''làxt.'' "to want"
|}
* Aspect is a very heterogeneous category, expressed by a variety of compounds and syntactic structures in Lemizh.

===Pronouns===
The two demonstrative pronouns are technically nominal verbs:
* ''tà.'' "to make this/that one", typically used with inner accusative: ''tỳ.'' "this/that (one)"
* ''gwà.'' "to make someone/anyone, something/anything", with inner accusative ''gwỳ.'' "someone/anyone, something/anything"

The eleven relative pronouns play a far more prominent role in Lemizh grammar. Their scope is much wider than the one usually associated with the term. As they are closely tied to Lemizh syntax, they will be described further down.

==Syntax==
===Level of words===
There is only one more grammatical category: the level of words, which is the main building block of Lemizh syntax. A word can be of first level (the highest), of second level (the next highest), of third level (still one level lower) and so on; there is no limit for the number of levels, but non-positive word levels (zero, −1, etc.) are forbidden.

The first word in a sentence (the main predicate) is of first level by definition. The level of the next word is determined by the main predicate's accent and by the type of pause between the two words, the level of the third word is determined by the accent of the second and the pause between these two, and so on.

Here is the complete list of pause/accent combinations.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="2" | Following pause !! rowspan="2" | Accented vowel !! rowspan="2" | Type of accent !! rowspan="2" | The level of the next word is …
|-
! in speech !! in writing
|-
| rowspan="4" | barely audible || rowspan="4" | space || rowspan="2" | inner case || low || lower by 1
|-
| high || lower by 1, and [[w:Agent (grammar)|agentive]]* ({{sc|a}})
|-
| rowspan="2" | outer case || low || equal
|-
| high || higher by 1
|-
| rowspan="4" | a bit longer || rowspan="4" | comma ('''·''') || rowspan="2" | inner case || low || higher by 2
|-
| high || higher by 3
|-
| rowspan="2" | outer case || low || higher by 4
|-
| high || higher by 5
|-
| the longest || full stop ('''∶''') || inner case || low || none; end of sentence
|}
<nowiki>*</nowiki> The agent is the initiator of the action (more informally, the one who ''does'' the action).

===Sentence structure===
[[File:Lemizh parse tree.png|thumb|upright=1.5|A schematic sentence with the words represented by their level numbers]]
The word levels determine the structure of a sentence.

'''Rule One of sentence grammar. A word of level n is subordinate to the nearest word of level n−1 in front of it; the parole acts as a word of level zero.'''

All words of second level are subordinate to the main predicate (which has first level). A word of third level is subordinate to the next second-level word in front of it, and so on. In other words, Lemizh sentences are strictly [[w:Head directionality|head-first]]. The main predicate itself is subordinate to the [[w:Parole (linguistics)|parole]], the action of speaking (or writing) the sentence in question, which consequently has level zero.

'''Rule Two. An object of a word in a sentence is a word subordinate to the former, its predicate, plus all of its own objects.'''

In the diagram, the main predicate's three objects are enclosed in ellipses. Objects of the same word are called ''sibling objects'' or just ''siblings'', and the word they are subordinate to is their ''predicate''. Note that ''predicate'' and ''object'' are relative terms like ''parent'' and ''child''.

The table of level markers implies that only the first object of a predicate can be marked as agent. (This has been interpreted as Lemizh having VSO word order, although a subject is not quite the same as an agent, and Lemizh grammar strictly speaking does not have the concept of a subject.)

'''Rule Three. The outer case of the first word of an object defines its relation to its predicate's stem via its descriptor; the outer case of a level 1 word is zero.'''

This is what we would expect: the nominative object of a predicate defines its source (sender), the accusative object its content, the temporal object its time, etc.

'''Examples'''
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dá föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|give-FACT-1 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2A bottle-ACC-ACC-2 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2
|''Father Christmas gives Lucy a bottle.''}}
The word stems of the three objects are nominal verbs, hence the inner accusatives. The outer cases indicate the sender, content and recipient of the act of giving. The agent is specified independently of the plot arrow; note the difference:

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dá lusyì dwywỳ föpysrỳfe.
|give-FACT-1 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2A bottle-ACC-ACC-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2
|''Lucy takes a bottle from Father Christmas.''}}

We need not mark an object as agentive if we consider this information unimportant. The English translations are only rough approximations:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dà lusyì dwywỳ föpysrỳfe.
|give-FACT-1 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2 bottle-ACC-ACC-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2
|''Lucy gets a bottle from Father Christmas. Lucy is given a bottle by Father Christmas.''}}

'''Rule Four. An instance of a word stem designates a specific action.'''

''dà'' in the above sentence does not just mean "to give", it refers to one specific action of giving. This rule ensures that all the objects refer to the same action of giving. …

'''Rule Five. A case characterises the action it refers to completely with regard to its case descriptor.'''

…

===Noun phrases===
Forming noun phrases does not require any new grammatical rules. In the following example, the inner case of "give" is changed to the nominative, yielding "one giving something, a giver", and everything is pushed down one level. The third-level words are still sender, content and recipient of the ''action'' of giving, as outer cases define relations to the predicate's ''stem'' per Rule Three.
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 3A:third level, agentive
|dmàt tryxkì dée föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|see-FACT-1 beaver-ACC-DAT-2 give-NOM-NOM-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-3A bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3
|''The beaver sees the one giving Lucy a bottle, Father Christmas.''}}
Regarding the verb "see", note that the beaver is in the dative, being at the receiving end of the optical stimulus or information. Marking the beaver as agent would translate as "The beaver looks at the one …".

Rules Four and Five guarantee that the giver is identical to Father Christmas: both are the sender of the same instance of the word stem ''d–'' "give" (the giver via its inner nominative, Father Christmas via its outer nominative), and both are the ''complete'' sender of this action. This type of construction, where an object's outer case matches its predicate's inner case, is called a '''bracket'''. Brackets are very widely used:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Apposition !! Attributive adjective !! Attributive numeral !! Attributive participle
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|iakopỳk saxèfy.
|Jacopo-'''ACC'''-1 trumpet-NOM-'''ACC'''-2
|''Jacopo, a trumpeter''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=INS:instrumental case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|ghstù lỳbdhu.
|sail-'''INS'''-1 white-ACC-'''INS'''-2
|''a sail, a white thing = a white sail''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|mỳs trỳy.
|mouse-''ACC''-1 three-ACC-'''ACC'''-2
|''mice, three individuals = three mice''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|nỳzd gangèy.
|bird-'''ACC'''-1 sing-NOM-'''ACC'''-2
|''a bird, a singer = a singing bird''}}
|}

Such phrases can be easily extended. This example contains two accusative brackets ("a singing bird" and "a sad child"):
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 4:fourth level
|ngỳzd gangèy zhngỳi speghý ytfỳarh.
|bird-ACC-1 sing-NOM-ACC-2 child-ACC-DAT-3 sad-NOM-ACC-4 night-ACC-TEMP-3
|''a bird singing to a sad child at night''}}

===Verb phrases===
Adverbially used adjectives also translate to brackets:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|gangà txỳska.
|sing-'''FACT'''-1 loud-ACC-'''FACT'''-2
|''(an act of) singing, a loud thing = to sing loudly''}}

===Dependent clauses===
…


===Relative pronouns===
…
{| class="wikitable"
! rowspan="2" | Level !! colspan="2" | Type I !! colspan="2" | Type II
|-
! Verb !! The target is the stem of !! Verb !! The target is the stem of
|-
| n || colspan="2" | (does not occur because it would refer to itself) || à. || its preceding same-level word
|-
| n−1 || wà. || its predicate || fà. || its predicate's preceding same-level word or parole
|-
| n−2 || dhà. || its predicate's predicate || thà. || its predicate's predicate's preceding same-level word or parole
|-
| n−3 || zà. || its predicate's predicate's predicate || sà. || …
|-
| n−4 || zhà. || … || shà. || …
|-
| n−5 || ghà. || … || xà. || …
|}

==Derivational morphology==
From a Lemizh point of view, ''dè.'' "giver" and ''dỳ.'' "gift" aren't derivatives of ''dà.'' "to give" but grammatical forms of the same word. The only piece of true derivational morphology is compounding.

===Compounds===
[[File:Lemizh compounding diagram.png|thumb|Forming a compound from a two-word sentence]]
'''Rule One of compounding. A compound word is constructed from a two-word sentence – predicate and object of which become modifier and head of the compound, respectively – in the following way:'''
# '''Prestem''':
## the object's prestem
## the object's inner case
## the object's poststem
## an optional separator
## the predicate's prestem
# '''Inner case'''
# '''Poststem''': the predicate's poststem
# '''Outer case'''
Note that the object's stem comes before the predicate's; and also that the object's outer case (and, less importantly, the predicate's inner case) is lost. The separator can be used, for example, if the word boundary would be unclear otherwise, or for placing the second part of the word on a new line.

…

==Example text==
[[File:Lemizh text sample.png|600px]]

====stedrỳzh thìrhfi xtrỳghy.====
krỳgh dghngireì prilxpilghkỳarh. mangỳ srungbỳng lyngghỳng yngshwỳng fỳü. zhöazhghngìl tmỳil. ghngàgzh smìa prỳal ghngyé dhàbdhy lunguỳ ùyl mỳu fplyxár tỳarh. dmát feì sxngengzè ishkènge. ghìlt krighmyngthxì xtrỳngghi swyshỳ ghỳxy fplyxòr zhöyzhỳm xngàrorm. dmìlt öngkrỳngty zhryỳ rèshy esfàsy sxngyzdmýi, usrỳngy xazhgèsty ghngỳeng, frekrỳngfy rilghdzhỳwby pthèby, dgheipysrỳngdy psrèby rhèzhem, dghistngỳngty ghỳxy zangỳa dghildhfmlýyrh, ngiftngyghtmỳngy krültlìy zùe gỳghda. xtrỳgh swyshý stedrỳzh thìrfi. dngilszhrìl bdhyrgzhyngỳng xüxtrỳngyng prilkỳarh ötìlil skmyngìlng ghỳngsilng. dngilszhìlwb ráxpy thìlfi. fö̀l gwiltngìlöl dmàty föpysryfỳ ngỳu.

rỳ zhryỳrh thìzgy gwiltngìly rhàghgy dmatngìe thìrfy. là xángska matngiè ytfỳyrh dmyý fplyxór dyxtngyngà mànga prilzhryngỳr iltỳngzhdyr. dmàt ytfỳarh ryý mìlngorh xngyì prilkyár mìlngorh xtrỳngghi kshrextý mengthxì prỳar zìe, fplỳngxe fywýr déngske xtryghè sxngezì xngỳnge.

====The Legend of the Seventh Planet====
A long time ago there was a tribe of nomads. They possessed neither writing nor houses nor horses. But they were truly human. They were curious; this means, above all, that they took interest in the useless, for the celestial objects were of no use to them yet. They looked at the Sun and the Moon. They had named the constellations and the six planets moving across the sky like the humans across the earth. They knew dim Mercury, who liked to hide in the glare of the Sun; Venus, the brightest of all; reddish and angry Mars; majestic father Jupiter; Saturn, who seemed to stand still for weeks; and even Uranus had been caught by their keen eyes. Six planets, and the legend of a seventh. Maybe it had been the minor planet Vesta, or a comet centuries or millennia earlier. Maybe it was the attraction of the number seven. For Neptune is invisible to the naked eye.

One youngster thought to himself that he could not live without seeing the seventh planet. He lay awake searching the sky for many nights, neglected his duties, and became thinner and thinner. And one night, lying with the Earth behind his back, and with the looping planets and the stars above him, he saw the depth of the sky and the planets circling the Sun, and among them the Earth.

==External links==
* [https://lemizh.conlang.org Lemizh homepage] with comprehensive coverage of the language, including a dictionary
[[File:Copyleft1.png|20px]] ''This article includes material from the Lemizh homepage, which is available under a [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License].''


[[Category:Languages]]
[[Category:Conlangs]]
[[Category:Indo-European languages]]
[[Category:Fusional languages]]

Lemizh

2022-05-10T20:36:16Z

Anypodetos: /* Morphology */ Emotions

{{Infobox language
|image =
|imagesize =
|name = Lemizh
|nativename = lemỳzh.
|pronunciation = lɛmˈɯ̀ʒ
|state = Lemaria
|setting = Alt-history Europe
|created = 1985
|familycolor = Indo-European
|fam2 = Lemizh
|ancestor = Proto-Lemizh
|posteriori = [[w:Proto-Indo-European|Proto-Indo-European]]
|creator = [[User:Anypodetos|Anypodetos]]
|scripts = Lemizh alphabet
|nation = Lemaria
|map = Map of Lemaria.png
|notice = IPA
}}
'''Lemizh''' ([[Help:IPA|[lεmˈiʒ]]], native pronunciation: [[Help:IPA|[lɛmˈɯ̀ʒ]]]) is a language I invented with the aim of creating a grammar as regular and simple as possible. It was originally intended as an [[w:International auxiliary language|international auxiliary language]]. However, it turned out that a simple grammar is not necessarily a grammar that is easy to learn: the more ways of simplification I found, the further away it moved from [[w:Indo-European languages|Indo-European]] and probably all other familiar language structures. Expecting anyone to learn Lemizh, at this point, would be completely unrealistic.

So I needed a new justification for the language: enter the Lemizh, a people living to the west and north of the [[w:Black Sea|Black Sea]] in an alternate history that slowly drifted away from ours between two and eight millennia ago. Of course, it is extremely unlikely that they would speak a language that was completely without exceptions. To be precise, the chances are two to the power of two hundred and seventy-six thousand seven hundred and nine to one against. But they say that everything has to happen somewhere in the Multiverse. And everything happens only once.

{{TOC limit}}

==History==
===Early stages===
Lemizh is an Indo-European language and, together with Volgan, constitutes one of the ten recognised branches of the Indo-European language family. This branch is also called Lemizh, to the disgruntlement of Volgan linguists.

Proto-Lemizh, the ancestor of Lemizh and Volgan, is very poorly attested in form of some papyri found near the northwestern shore of the Black Sea, to the north of the [[w:Dniester Liman|Dniester Liman]], dated about 2700 BC. Old Lemizh, by contrast, is fairly well attested. It had predominantly [[w:Subject–verb–object|subject–verb–object]] (SVO) word order and was a quite typical old Indo-European language, but with a couple of interesting quirks:
* Adjectives were lost as a separate part of speech, being replaced with participles ("white" > "being white").
* Finite subordinate clauses had their subject in the case of the clause: the subject of a local clause was in the locative case without having a local meaning in itself.
The earliest known documents from this stage of Lemizh were probably written around 2100 BC along the northern and western shores of the Back Sea.

===Ghean and Middle Lemizh===
Ghean ([[Help:IPA|[ˈɣɛən]]]) is a language with no known genetic relationships. It was spoken by a people of unknown origin, who subdued the Lemizh tribes in around 1000 BC and ruled for infamous three generations. Ghean was an inflected [[w:Tonal language|register tonal]] language with strict [[w:Verb–subject–object|verb–subject–object]] (VSO) word order and head-first phrases. It had verbs, [[w:Nominal (linguistics)|nominals]] (a combined noun/adjective/participle part of speech), pronouns and particles.

The Gheans discouraged the use of the natives' language, but obviously tolerated Lemizh words (or rather word stems) to stand in for unfamiliar Ghean ones. The grammar of simple sentences was easy enough to learn for the Lemizh, as they were used to inflection and head-first phrases, and likely still knew VSO sentences from poetry. After two or three generations, the natives must have spoken a [[w:Creole language|creole]] with a more or less Ghean grammar but an abundance of Lemizh words, especially outside the core vocabulary. This is a quite unusual development as most creoles draw their lexicon mainly from the dominant group, and tend to be grammatically more innovative. (The Tanzanian language [[w:Mbugu language|Mbugu]] might have had a somewhat similar development with more or less analogous outcomes.) After the disappearance of the Gheans, Lemizh patriots tried to revive their old language, which failed spectacularly for the grammar but reintroduced many Lemizh words of the core vocabulary.

===The last three millennia===
While Middle Lemizh as spoken after the Ghean occupation already had a non-Indo-European and unusually regular grammar, this trend was to continue over the following millennia. The factive case was innovated to express verbal nouns, which eventually supplanted verbs altogether. (At least part of the blame goes to the Tlöngö̀l, an epic novel published in 1351, which popularised the use of verbal nouns.) The tonal system was simplified to the present two-way [[w:Pitch-accent language|pitch-accent]] system. Pronouns lost their status as a separate part of speech. The last particles died out a few hundred years ago, leaving the language with a single part of speech which is often called a "verb" but, historically speaking, is really a nominal. This means that the concept of ''parts of speech'' does not make sense in Modern Lemizh.

==Orthography and phonology==
The alphabet is [[w:Phonetic orthography|phonetic]]: each letter corresponds to a certain sound, and each sound is represented by a single letter. The direction of writing is left to right. This article uses the standard transcription of the native Lemizh alphabet as given in the following table:
{| class="wikitable" style="width: 800px; table-layout: fixed; text-align: center"
! colspan="29" | Letters of the Lemizh alphabet
|-
| colspan="29" style="padding: 0" | [[File:Lemizh alphabet.png|796px]]
|-
| a || e || y || i || o || ö || u || ü || l || rh || r || ng || m || g || d || b || k || t || p || gh || zh || z || dh || w || x || sh || s || th || f
|}

===Consonants===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="2" | !! bilabial !! dental !! alveolar !! postalveolar !! velar
|-
! colspan="2" | nasals
| m <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial nasal|m]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || || || ng <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar nasal|ŋ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! colspan="2" | plosives (voiceless • voiced)
| p <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless bilabial plosive|p]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • b <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial plosive|b]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || t <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless alveolar plosive|t]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • d <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar plosive|d]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || || k <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless velar plosive|k]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • g <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar plosive|g]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! colspan="2" | fricatives (voiceless • voiced)
| f <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless bilabial fricative|ɸ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • w <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced bilabial fricative|β]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || th <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless dental fricative|θ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • dh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced dental fricative|ð]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || s <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless alveolar sibilant|s]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • z <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar sibilant|z]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || sh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless palato-alveolar fricative|ʃ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • zh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced palato-alveolar fricative|ʒ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || x <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiceless velar fricative|x]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> • gh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced velar fricative|ɣ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! rowspan="3" | liquids || lateral approximant
| || || l <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar lateral approximant|l]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|-
! approximant
| || || rh <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar approximant|ɹ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|-
! trill
| || || r <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Voiced alveolar trill|r]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ||
|}
The plosive-fricative combinations ''pf, ts, tsh, kx'' and their voiced couterparts only occur at word boundaries and in compound words. They are not pronounced as affricates but as separate sounds. The same applies for other combinations of a plosive plus another consonant (''pm, tl'' etc.), as well as for two identical plosives (''kk'' etc.): the release of the first plosive is always audible.

===Vowels===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! rowspan="2" | !! colspan="2" | front !! colspan="2" | back
|-
! unrounded !! rounded !! unrounded !! rounded
|-
! close
| i <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close front unrounded vowel|i]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ü <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close front rounded vowel|y]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || y <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close back unrounded vowel|ɯ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || u <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Close back rounded vowel|u]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|-
! open-mid
| e <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid front unrounded vowel|ɛ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || ö <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid front rounded vowel|œ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || a <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid back unrounded vowel|ʌ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> || o <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[w:Open-mid back rounded vowel|ɔ]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>
|}
Two consecutive different vowels are pronounced as a diphthong; two consecutive identical vowels as a long one. Single vowels are always short.

Lemizh uses [[w:Mora (linguistics)|moræ]] for structuring words: a short syllable equals one mora, and a long syllable equals two. In Lemizh, every vowel is the centre of a mora; consequently, two consecutive vowels result in two moræ or one long syllable.

===Accent===
Lemizh has got a two-way pitch-accent system, in that accented moræ are not only spoken louder (as in English), but also have either a lower or a higher pitch than the surrounding unaccented ones. The accented mora is always the ultimate or penultimate of a word. The vowel at the centre of a low-pitch accented mora is transcribed with a grave accent, the vowel at the centre of a high-pitch accented mora with an acute accent.
{| class="wikitable" style="width: 220px; table-layout: fixed; text-align: center"
! colspan="8" | Accented vowel letters
|-
| colspan="8" style="padding: 0" | [[File:Lemizh accented vowels.png|216px]]
|-
| à || è || ỳ || ì || ò || ö̀ || ù || ǜ
|-
| á || é || ý || í || ó || ö́ || ú || ǘ
|}

===Phonotactics===
[[w:Phonotactics|Phonotactics]] is rather permissive in Lemizh. A mora has the following structure, where the bracketed parts are optional:
* (O)(N)(L)V(L)(N)(O)
V is the mora's vowel, L a liquid, N a nasal, and O an obstruent that can be either a P(losive), a F(ricative), FP, PF, FF, FFP, FPF, or PFF. Word-initial consonant clusters cannot contain more than three sounds. No geminate consonants (<abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''ff'' etc.) occur within a mora. Consecutive plosive-fricative or fricative-plosive combinations within the same mora must have the same sonority – either both are voiced, or both are voiceless. A plosive cannot have the same place of articulation as a following consonant with the exception of ''rh'' and ''r''. <abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''dzh'', <abbr title="impossible">*</abbr>''ddh'' and their voiceless counterparts are also prohibited within a mora.

Word boundaries, including those within compound words, are always mora boundaries. Where mora boundaries would still be ambiguous, liquids and nasals are assigned to the earliest possible mora (as the ''m'' in ''lem·ỳzh.''), and obstruents to the latest possible mora.

==Morphology==
All words are composed of the following parts:
* Prestem + inner case + poststem + outer case
Prestem and poststem form the stem, or the lexical part, of the word. The division of the stem into two portions is similar to English verbs such as ''sing/sang/sung'', where the lexical part is ''s–ng'' while the vowels ''i/a/u'' convey grammatical information. The stem always denotes an action (but never a state, a person, a thing, a property, etc.) and thus resembles our verbs. The prestem can contain any sounds, or it can be zero (i.e. consisting of zero sounds). The poststem can only contain fricatives and plosives, or it can be zero as well.

The inner case is represented by one of the eight vowels, optionally followed by a liquid (the primary case suffix) and/or a nasal (the secondary case suffix). The outer case has the same structure. For the first word in each sentence, the main predicate, the outer case is missing.

Each case is defined by its ''descriptor'': for example, the factive case denotes an ''action'', the nominative a ''sender'', the locative a ''place''. The stem and the inner case's descriptor determine a word's meaning.

'''Examples'''
* ''wàx. w–x'' is the stem for "speak", ''-a-'' denotes the inner factive, so this word means "an action of speaking", translated as the verb "to speak" or the [[w:Verbal noun|verbal noun]] "speaking".
* ''wèx. -e-'' denotes the inner nominative, so this word means "a sender of speaking" or "a speaker".
* ''àrdh. ∅–dh'' (having a zero prestem) is the stem for "eat", ''-ar-'' denotes the inner locative: "a place of eating".
{| class="wikitable"
|+ Primary cases and their descriptors
|-
! rowspan="3" | № !! rowspan="3" | Case vowel !! colspan="4" | Primary case suffix
|-
| none || l || rh || r
|-
! Plot cases !! Causal cases !! Temporal cases !! Spatial cases
|-
| 1 || a || factive ({{sc|fact}}): ''action'' || affirmative ({{sc|aff}}): ''fact (point in causal chain)'' || temporal ({{sc|temp}}): ''time'' || locative ({{sc|loc}}): ''place/region''
|-
| 2 || e || nominative ({{sc|nom}}): ''source, sender'' || causative ({{sc|caus}}): ''direct cause'' || ingressive ({{sc|ing}}): ''starting time'' || elative ({{sc|ela}}): ''starting point/region''
|-
| 3 || y || accusative ({{sc|acc}}): ''content'' || contextual ({{sc|ctx}}): ''causal context'' || durative ({{sc|dur}}): ''duration'' || extensive ({{sc|ext}}): ''spatial extent''
|-
| 4 || i || dative ({{sc|dat}}): ''sink, recipient'' || consecutive ({{sc|cons}}): ''direct consequence, effect'' || egressive ({{sc|egr}}): ''closing time'' || illative ({{sc|ill}}): ''end point / ending region''
|-
| 5 || o || tentive ({{sc|ten}}): ''intention'' || intentive ({{sc|int}}): ''intention (intended point in causal chain)'' || episodic ({{sc|eps}}): ''episode, "act"'' || scenic ({{sc|sce}}): ''scene, "stage"''
|-
| 6 || ö || comitative ({{sc|com}}): ''company'' || persuasive ({{sc|psu}}): ''reason'' || digressive ({{sc|dig}}): ''time away from which'' || ablative ({{sc|abl}}): ''place/region away from which''
|-
| 7 || u || instrumental ({{sc|ins}}): ''means, tool'' || motivational ({{sc|mot}}): ''motivational context'' || progressive ({{sc|prog}}): ''time that is passed'' || prolative ({{sc|prol}}): ''crossing point/region''
|-
| 8 || ü || benefactive ({{sc|ben}}): ''beneficiary'' || final ({{sc|fin}}): ''purpose, aim'' || aggressive ({{sc|agg}}): ''time towards which, temporal aim'' || allative ({{sc|all}}): ''place/region towards which, spatial aim''
|}
Each primary case has two corresponding secondary cases: a partitive case formed by adding ''ng'' (such as ''-ing-'' for the partitive dative or ''-erng-'' for the partitive elative) and a corresponding qualitative case formed by adding ''m''.

===The flow of the plot===
Every action denoted by a word stem is considered a flow of information that comes from a source (sender), transports a content, and reaches a sink (a recipient). The terms "sender" and "recipient" may be more familiar, but "source" and "sink" are more accurate in not necessarily meaning living beings.

Consequently, a Lemizh action looks somewhat like this: '''nominative  accusative[[File:DreieckYellowMIDDLE.png|26px|link=]] dative'''

This is called the action's plot. Here are some examples:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative
|-
| ''wàx.'' "to speak, to tell; (an act of) speaking" || ''wèx.'' "one telling something" || ''wỳx.'' "a tale" || ''wìx.'' "one who is told something"
|-
| ''dà.'' "to give; (an act of) giving" || ''dè.'' "one giving something" || ''dỳ.'' "a gift" || ''dì.'' "one who is given something; one who gets something"
|-
| ''làzhw.'' "to help" || ''lèzhw.'' "one helping" || ''lỳzhw.'' "help (given)" || ''lìzhw.'' "one whom is helped"
|-
| ''mlàtx.'' "to melt" || ''mlètx.'' "one melting something" || [''mlỳtx.''] || ''mlìtx.'' "a melted thing"
|-
| ''xöàgh.'' "to produce a sound; to hear" || ''xöègh.'' "one producing a sound" || ''xöỳgh.'' "a sound" || ''xöìgh.'' "one hearing something"
|-
| ''àdh.'' "to feed; to eat" || ''èdh.'' "one feeding someone" || ''ỳdh.'' "food" || ''ìdh.'' "one being fed; one eating"
|-
| ''ià.'' "to love" || ''iè.'' "one loving someone, a lover" || ''iỳ.'' "a beloved" || ''iì.'' "a beloved"
|}
Importantly, there are no rules for which cases to use with which words. Both ''iỳ.'' ({{sc|acc}}) and ''iì.'' ({{sc|dat}}) mean "a beloved". The former describes the beloved as the content of love, the one being lovingly thought of, while the latter implies that the love reaches them, like words or gifts reach their recipient. Likewise, the reason why ''mlỳtx.'' is not translated in the table above isn't that "''melt'' does not take the accusative", as grammars of other languages would say, but that "a content of melting" does not seem to have any obvious meaning. If someone wanted to describe, say, sun rays as content transported from the sun to the snow to melt it, they could well use ''mlỳtx.'' to express the concept.

Case usage is governed solely by the cases' descriptors; it is up to the speaker how to use them given some word's meaning and some context. If the wind opens a door, is it the source of the action of opening (''ngèt.''), the means of opening (''ngùt.''), or the cause (''ngèlt.'')? All are grammatically correct; the speaker decides which possibility best expresses their intention.

===Nouns===
:''Nouns, adjectives and verbs do not correspond to any concepts in Lemizh grammar. Using these terms is just an attempt to describe the grammar from an Indo-European viewpoint.''
A large number of nouns are not derived from verbs in most languages: ''froth, ship, lion'' and many others. In Lemizh, however, we have verbs such as ''psràxk.'' "to froth", ''àksh.'' "to build a ship or ships", and ''làw.'' "to make a lion or lions". We will call these ''nominal verbs''.

Looking at the verb ''àksh.'', the shipwright ({{sc|nom}}) gives the building materials ({{sc|dat}}) the properties or the function of a ship ({{sc|acc}}). He confers, well, shipness on the materials. The shipness is sent by the shipwright, not because he is acting, but because he is the source: the image of the ship, so to say, comes from his head and materialises in wood, iron, ropes, and linen. In short, these words mostly appear with inner accusative.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative
|-
| ''psràxk.'' "to froth" || ''psrèxk.'' "one frothing something" || ''psrỳxk.'' "a thing having the properties of froth = '''froth'''" || ''psrìxk.'' "a frothed thing, a frothed liquid"
|-
| ''àksh.'' "to build a ship" || ''èksh.'' "one building a ship, a shipwright" || ''ỳksh.'' "a thing having the properties of a ship = '''a ship'''" || ''ìksh.'' "building materials for a ship, materials made into a ship"
|-
| ''làw.'' "to make a lion" || [''lèw.'' "one making a lion"] || ''lỳw.'' "a thing having the properties of a lion = '''a lion'''" || [''lìw.'' "building materials for a lion, materials made into a lion"]
|}

Another very common kind of nouns are tool nouns, formed with an inner instrumental case:
* ''ghstù.'' "a sail" is derived from ''ghstà.'' "to sail", literally "a means of sailing",
* ''pslù.'' "scissors" from ''pslà.'' "to cut with scissors",
* ''saxùf.'' "trumpet" from ''saxàf.'' "to play the trumpet",
* ''skrùzh.'' "a finger" from ''skràzh.'' "to work with one's fingers".

====Inflection====
As mentioned above, all words can inflect for (outer) case. Thus, we have the nominative forms ''wàx'''e''''' "(an act of) speaking, (an act of) telling", ''dè'''e''''' "a giver", ''lỳw'''e''''' "a lion", the causative ''lỳw'''el''''' "because of a lion", the elative ''lỳw'''er''''' "(starting) from a lion", etc.

Lemizh words do not inflect for number or gender. If desired, we can express this information by forming compounds. (Note the duplication of the inner case vowel; the first occurrence in each word is called the epenthetic case of the compound. The underlying grammar will be described later.)
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Singular !! Dual !! Plural !! Feminine !! Masculine !! Feminine singular !! etc.
|-
! giver
| ''dè.'' || ''de'''rè'''.'' || ''de'''dwè'''.'' || ''de'''mlè'''.'' || ''de'''bè'''.'' || ''de'''èx'''.'' || ''de'''berè'''.''
|-
! lion
| ''lỳw.'' || ''lyw'''rỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''dwỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''mlỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''bỳ'''.'' || ''lyw'''ỳx'''.'' || ''lyw'''byrỳ'''.''
|-
! compound with
| — || ''rỳ.'' "one" || ''dwỳ.'' "two" || ''mlỳ.'' "several" || ''bỳ.'' "female; woman" || ''ỳx.'' "male; man" || "female" and "one"
|}

===Adjectives and numerals===
There is no difference between adjectival and nominal verbs: they mostly appear with inner accusative. This is the same situation as in, say, Latin, where ''albus'' can mean "a white one" as well as "white". Numerals are basically a sub-category of adjectives.

The inner consecutive case translates certain abstract nouns.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative !! Inner consecutive
|-
| ''gmrà.'' "to heat, to make something warm" || ''gmrè.'' "one heating something up" || ''gmrỳ.'' "a warm thing; '''warm'''" || ''gmrì.'' "a thing heated up; heated, warmed" || ''gmrìl.'' "the consequence of heating = heat"
|-
| ''làbdh.'' "to whiten something, to make something white" || ''lèbdh.'' "one whitening something" || ''lỳbdh.'' "a white thing; '''white'''" || ''lìbdh.'' "a thing made white; whitened" || ''lìlbdh.'' "the consequence of whitening = whiteness"
|-
| ''dwà.'' "to make two things/individuals" || ''dwè.'' "one making two things" || ''dwỳ.'' "'''two''' (things)" || ''dwì.'' "something made into two (things)" || ''dwìl.'' "the consequence of making two things = twoness"
|}

However, emotions aren't viewed as properties in Lemizh: a happy or angry person is one sending happiness or anger, just as a loving person is one sending love. The inner causative plays a notable role with verbs of emotion.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Inner factive !! Inner nominative !! Inner accusative !! Inner dative !! Inner causative
|-
| ''pthàb.'' "to be angry" || ''pthèb.'' "an angry one; '''angry'''" || ''pthỳb.'' "the content/object of one's anger" || ''pthìb.'' "one that one's anger reaches" || ''pthèlb.'' "one causing someone anger; one annoying someone"
|}

====Inflection====
Of course, adjectives can be compounded to express number and/or gender in the same way as nouns. Furthermore, we can form compounds expressing various degrees. (The epenthetic consecutive ''-il-'' in these compounds will also be explained later; it is actually the main application of the abstract nouns just mentioned.)
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Diminutive !! Augmentative !! Absolute !! Comparative !! Superlative
|-
! warm
| ''gmrỳ.'' || ''gmril'''zhrỳ'''.'' "lukewarm" || ''gmril'''dmỳ'''.'' "hot" || ''gmril'''ghngỳ'''.'' "absolutely hot" || ''gmril'''tỳzhd'''.'' "warmer, hotter" || ''gmril'''ỳst'''.'' "hottest"
|-
! white
| ''lỳbdh.'' || ''lilbdh'''zhrỳ'''.'' "whitish" || ''lilbdh'''dmỳ'''.'' "very white" || ''lilbdh'''ghngỳ'''.'' "absolutely/completely white" || ''lilbdh'''tỳzhd'''.'' "whiter" || ''lilbdh'''ỳst'''.'' "whitest"
|-
! compound with
| — || ''zhrỳ.'' "few, little, a bit" || ''dmỳ.'' "much, many" || ''ghngỳ.'' "every, all, the whole" || ''tỳzhd.'' "more" || ''ỳst.'' "most"
|}

===Verbs===
Most verbs correspond to Lemizh words with an inner factive. However, as Lemizh word stems always denote an action, the notable exception are stative verbs such as:
* ''zdìls.'' "to sit", literally "the consequence of sitting down (''zdàs.'')"
* ''gwìlt.'' "to know", literally "the consequence of learning (''gwàt.'')"

====Inflection====
* Person is not expressed with inflection but with pronouns.
* Number is conveyed by compounding pronouns with numerals. While verbs (i.e. words with an inner factive) can be compounded with numerals, ''ftrask'''mlà'''.'' does not mean "we/they sneeze" but "(there are) several acts of sneezing" (i.e. someone sneezes several times and/or several people sneeze).
* Voice (active/passive) is absent in Lemizh; word order serves a similar function.
* Tense is expressed by compounds with an epenthetic temporal case (''-arh-''), or with certain inner cases. The latter option is preferred if possible, as it is more concise.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Neutral !! Present !! Past !! Perfect !! Future !! Intentional
|-
! to sit down
| ''zdàs.'' || ''zdarhs'''wà'''.'' || ''zdarhs'''prilkà'''.'' || ''zd'''ìl'''s.'' ({{sc|cons}}) || ''zdarhs'''prà'''.'' || ''zd'''ò'''s.'' ({{sc|ten}})
|-
! compound with
| — || pronoun || ''prilkỳ.'' "back" || — || ''prỳ.'' "front" || —
|}
Note that the translation of the perfect with inner consecutive coincides with the translation of stative verbs: "having sat down" in the strict perfect sense of "the consequence/effect of this action exists" means the same as "to sit". Likewise, "whiteness" can be expressed as the abstract concept of "having whitened something".

* Mood corresponds to compounds with certain verbs for the most part. There is no equivalent to the subjunctive mood, as subordinate clauses are irreal (i.e. not necessarily real) by default. Here are some common formations:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Indicative !! Imperative !! Commanding imperative !! Interrogative Polite imperative !! Optative
|-
! to feed, to eat
| ''àdh.'' || ''adh'''pràk'''.'' || ''adh'''dàxt'''.'' || ''adh'''pà'''.'' || ''adh'''làxt'''.''
|-
! compound with
| — || ''pràk.'' "to request" || ''dàxt.'' "to command" || ''pà.'' "to ask" || ''làxt.'' "to want"
|}
* Aspect is a very heterogeneous category, expressed by a variety of compounds and syntactic structures in Lemizh.

===Pronouns===
The two demonstrative pronouns are technically nominal verbs:
* ''tà.'' "to make this/that one", typically used with inner accusative: ''tỳ.'' "this/that (one)"
* ''gwà.'' "to make someone/anyone, something/anything", with inner accusative ''gwỳ.'' "someone/anyone, something/anything"

The eleven relative pronouns play a far more prominent role in Lemizh grammar. Their scope is much wider than the one usually associated with the term. As they are closely tied to Lemizh syntax, they will be described further down.

==Syntax==
===Level of words===
There is only one more grammatical category: the level of words, which is the main building block of Lemizh syntax. A word can be of first level (the highest), of second level (the next highest), of third level (still one level lower) and so on; there is no limit for the number of levels, but non-positive word levels (zero, −1, etc.) are forbidden.

The first word in a sentence (the main predicate) is of first level by definition. The level of the next word is determined by the main predicate's accent and by the type of pause between the two words, the level of the third word is determined by the accent of the second and the pause between these two, and so on.

Here is the complete list of pause/accent combinations.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="2" | Following pause !! rowspan="2" | Accented vowel !! rowspan="2" | Type of accent !! rowspan="2" | The level of the next word is …
|-
! in speech !! in writing
|-
| rowspan="4" | barely audible || rowspan="4" | space || rowspan="2" | inner case || low || lower by 1
|-
| high || lower by 1, and [[w:Agent (grammar)|agentive]]* ({{sc|a}})
|-
| rowspan="2" | outer case || low || equal
|-
| high || higher by 1
|-
| rowspan="4" | a bit longer || rowspan="4" | comma ('''·''') || rowspan="2" | inner case || low || higher by 2
|-
| high || higher by 3
|-
| rowspan="2" | outer case || low || higher by 4
|-
| high || higher by 5
|-
| the longest || full stop ('''∶''') || inner case || low || none; end of sentence
|}
<nowiki>*</nowiki> The agent is the initiator of the action (more informally, the one who ''does'' the action).

===Sentence structure===
[[File:Lemizh parse tree.png|thumb|upright=1.5|A schematic sentence with the words represented by their level numbers]]
The word levels determine the structure of a sentence.

'''Rule One of sentence grammar. A word of level n is subordinate to the nearest word of level n−1 in front of it; the parole acts as a word of level zero.'''

All words of second level are subordinate to the main predicate (which has first level). A word of third level is subordinate to the next second-level word in front of it, and so on. In other words, Lemizh sentences are strictly [[w:Head directionality|head-first]]. The main predicate itself is subordinate to the [[w:Parole (linguistics)|parole]], the action of speaking (or writing) the sentence in question, which consequently has level zero.

'''Rule Two. An object of a word in a sentence is a word subordinate to the former, its predicate, plus all of its own objects.'''

In the diagram, the main predicate's three objects are enclosed in ellipses. Objects of the same word are called ''sibling objects'' or just ''siblings'', and the word they are subordinate to is their ''predicate''. Note that ''predicate'' and ''object'' are relative terms like ''parent'' and ''child''.

The table of level markers implies that only the first object of a predicate can be marked as agent. (This has been interpreted as Lemizh having VSO word order, although a subject is not quite the same as an agent, and Lemizh grammar strictly speaking does not have the concept of a subject.)

'''Rule Three. The outer case of the first word of an object defines its relation to its predicate's stem via its descriptor; the outer case of a level 1 word is zero.'''

This is what we would expect: the nominative object of a predicate defines its source (sender), the accusative object its content, the temporal object its time, etc.

'''Examples'''
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dá föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|give-FACT-1 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2A bottle-ACC-ACC-2 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2
|''Father Christmas gives Lucy a bottle.''}}
The word stems of the three objects are nominal verbs, hence the inner accusatives. The outer cases indicate the sender, content and recipient of the act of giving. The agent is specified independently of the plot arrow; note the difference:

{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dá lusyì dwywỳ föpysrỳfe.
|give-FACT-1 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2A bottle-ACC-ACC-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2
|''Lucy takes a bottle from Father Christmas.''}}

We need not mark an object as agentive if we consider this information unimportant. The English translations are only rough approximations:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 2A:second level, agentive
|dà lusyì dwywỳ föpysrỳfe.
|give-FACT-1 Lucy-ACC-DAT-2 bottle-ACC-ACC-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-2
|''Lucy gets a bottle from Father Christmas. Lucy is given a bottle by Father Christmas.''}}

'''Rule Four. An instance of a word stem designates a specific action.'''

''dà'' in the above sentence does not just mean "to give", it refers to one specific action of giving. This rule ensures that all the objects refer to the same action of giving. …

'''Rule Five. A case characterises the action it refers to completely with regard to its case descriptor.'''

…

===Noun phrases===
Forming noun phrases does not require any new grammatical rules. In the following example, the inner case of "give" is changed to the nominative, yielding "one giving something, a giver", and everything is pushed down one level. The third-level words are still sender, content and recipient of the ''action'' of giving, as outer cases define relations to the predicate's ''stem'' per Rule Three.
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 3A:third level, agentive
|dmàt tryxkì dée föpysryfè dwywỳ lusỳi.
|see-FACT-1 beaver-ACC-DAT-2 give-NOM-NOM-2 {Father Christmas}-ACC-NOM-3A bottle-ACC-ACC-3 Lucy-ACC-DAT-3
|''The beaver sees the one giving Lucy a bottle, Father Christmas.''}}
Regarding the verb "see", note that the beaver is in the dative, being at the receiving end of the optical stimulus or information. Marking the beaver as agent would translate as "The beaver looks at the one …".

Rules Four and Five guarantee that the giver is identical to Father Christmas: both are the sender of the same instance of the word stem ''d–'' "give" (the giver via its inner nominative, Father Christmas via its outer nominative), and both are the ''complete'' sender of this action. This type of construction, where an object's outer case matches its predicate's inner case, is called a '''bracket'''. Brackets are very widely used:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Apposition !! Attributive adjective !! Attributive numeral !! Attributive participle
|-
| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|iakopỳk saxèfy.
|Jacopo-'''ACC'''-1 trumpet-NOM-'''ACC'''-2
|''Jacopo, a trumpeter''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=INS:instrumental case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|ghstù lỳbdhu.
|sail-'''INS'''-1 white-ACC-'''INS'''-2
|''a sail, a white thing = a white sail''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|mỳs trỳy.
|mouse-''ACC''-1 three-ACC-'''ACC'''-2
|''mice, three individuals = three mice''}}

| {{Interlinear|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level
|nỳzd gangèy.
|bird-'''ACC'''-1 sing-NOM-'''ACC'''-2
|''a bird, a singer = a singing bird''}}
|}

Such phrases can be easily extended. This example contains two accusative brackets ("a singing bird" and "a sad child"):
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=1:first level; 2:second level; 3:third level; 4:fourth level
|ngỳzd gangèy zhngỳi speghý ytfỳarh.
|bird-ACC-1 sing-NOM-ACC-2 child-ACC-DAT-3 sad-NOM-ACC-4 night-ACC-TEMP-3
|''a bird singing to a sad child at night''}}

===Verb phrases===
Adverbially used adjectives also translate to brackets:
{{Interlinear|indent=3|display-messages=no|ablist=FACT:factive case; 1:first level; 2:second level
|gangà txỳska.
|sing-'''FACT'''-1 loud-ACC-'''FACT'''-2
|''(an act of) singing, a loud thing = to sing loudly''}}

===Dependent clauses===


===Relative pronouns===

==Derivational morphology==
From a Lemizh point of view, ''dè.'' "giver" and ''dỳ.'' "gift" aren't derivatives of ''dà.'' "to give" but grammatical forms of the same word. The only piece of true derivational morphology is compounding.

===Compounds===
[[File:Lemizh compounding diagram.png|thumb|Forming a compound from a two-word sentence]]
'''Rule One of compounding. A compound word is constructed from a two-word sentence – predicate and object of which become modifier and head of the compound, respectively – in the following way:'''
# '''Prestem''':
## the object's prestem
## the object's inner case
## the object's poststem
## an optional separator
## the predicate's prestem
# '''Inner case'''
# '''Poststem''': the predicate's poststem
# '''Outer case'''
Note that the object's stem comes before the predicate's; and also that the object's outer case (and, less importantly, the predicate's inner case) is lost. The separator can be used, for example, if the word boundary would be unclear otherwise, or for placing the second part of the word on a new line.

…

==Example text==
[[File:Lemizh text sample.png|600px]]

====stedrỳzh thìrhfi xtrỳghy.====
krỳgh dghngireì prilxpilghkỳarh. mangỳ srungbỳng lyngghỳng yngshwỳng fỳü. zhöazhghngìl tmỳil. ghngàgzh smìa prỳal ghngyé dhàbdhy lunguỳ ùyl mỳu fplyxár tỳarh. dmát feì sxngengzè ishkènge. ghìlt krighmyngthxì xtrỳngghi swyshỳ ghỳxy fplyxòr zhöyzhỳm xngàrorm. dmìlt öngkrỳngty zhryỳ rèshy esfàsy sxngyzdmýi, usrỳngy xazhgèsty ghngỳeng, frekrỳngfy rilghdzhỳwby pthèby, dgheipysrỳngdy psrèby rhèzhem, dghistngỳngty ghỳxy zangỳa dghildhfmlýyrh, ngiftngyghtmỳngy krültlìy zùe gỳghda. xtrỳgh swyshý stedrỳzh thìrfi. dngilszhrìl bdhyrgzhyngỳng xüxtrỳngyng prilkỳarh ötìlil skmyngìlng ghỳngsilng. dngilszhìlwb ráxpy thìlfi. fö̀l gwiltngìlöl dmàty föpysryfỳ ngỳu.

rỳ zhryỳrh thìzgy gwiltngìly rhàghgy dmatngìe thìrfy. là xángska matngiè ytfỳyrh dmyý fplyxór dyxtngyngà mànga prilzhryngỳr iltỳngzhdyr. dmàt ytfỳarh ryý mìlngorh xngyì prilkyár mìlngorh xtrỳngghi kshrextý mengthxì prỳar zìe, fplỳngxe fywýr déngske xtryghè sxngezì xngỳnge.

====The Legend of the Seventh Planet====
A long time ago there was a tribe of nomads. They possessed neither writing nor houses nor horses. But they were truly human. They were curious; this means, above all, that they took interest in the useless, for the celestial objects were of no use to them yet. They looked at the Sun and the Moon. They had named the constellations and the six planets moving across the sky like the humans across the earth. They knew dim Mercury, who liked to hide in the glare of the Sun; Venus, the brightest of all; reddish and angry Mars; majestic father Jupiter; Saturn, who seemed to stand still for weeks; and even Uranus had been caught by their keen eyes. Six planets, and the legend of a seventh. Maybe it had been the minor planet Vesta, or a comet centuries or millennia earlier. Maybe it was the attraction of the number seven. For Neptune is invisible to the naked eye.

One youngster thought to himself that he could not live without seeing the seventh planet. He lay awake searching the sky for many nights, neglected his duties, and became thinner and thinner. And one night, lying with the Earth behind his back, and with the looping planets and the stars above him, he saw the depth of the sky and the planets circling the Sun, and among them the Earth.

==External links==
* [https://lemizh.conlang.org Lemizh homepage] with comprehensive coverage of the language, including a dictionary
[[File:Copyleft1.png|20px]] ''This article includes material from the Lemizh homepage, which is available under a [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License].''


[[Category:Languages]]
[[Category:Conlangs]]
[[Category:Indo-European languages]]
[[Category:Fusional languages]]

Lemizh

2022-05-10T20:15:31Z

Anypodetos: /* Syntax */ Extended participle attributes

Lemizh

2022-05-10T18:20:04Z

Anypodetos: /* Noun phrases */ Minor fixes

Lemizh

2022-05-10T18:15:22Z

Anypodetos: Brackets; formatting