Lrahran is a very melodic language. It contains a number of vowels, liquids, nasals and semivowels. This tends to produce a rolling lyrical effect for the hearer. Below is a list of the Lrahran vowels and consonants.
- HM a voiceless bilabial nasal
- M a bilabial nasal
- MJ a palatalized bilabial nasal
- MR a bilabialized nasal retroflex
- MN a labilaized alveolar nasal
- HN a voiceless alveolar nasal
- N an alveolar nasal
- NJ a palatal nasal
- NG a velar nasal
- HL a voiceless alveolar lateral
- L an alveolar lateral
- LJ a palatal lateral
- LR a palatized retroflex
- LW a lbiovelarized alveolar lateral
- NL a nasalized alveolar lateral
- HR a voiceless retroflex
- R a retroflex ("identical" to English "r")
- RJ a palatized retroflex
- HW a voiceless labiovelar
- W a labiovelar
- WR a labiovelarized retroflex
- HY a voiceless palatal
- Y a palatal
- A low central unround vowel
- E mid front unround vowel
- U high back round vowel
- O mid back round vowel
If you are interested in learning a bit more click here to see the new Lrahran-English dictionary. Coming soon the English-Lrahran Dictionary.
If you want to have a look at the native script of the Lrahran language just click here.
Tense & Aspect
Lrahran verbs have fine distinctions of tense and aspect. There are general tenses for past and future, but co-existing with them are numerous tenses which finly devide the past and future into smaller units. in addition to these tenses there are the infinitive and the eternal tense which express ideas taken out of the context of time and beyond the context of time.
____________general past____________
| |
primordial-->distal-->past-->recent-->
present-->
_______general future_______
| |
impending-->future-->ultimate
Added to these distinctions of tense are numerous aspect markers which express different durations of the progressive, conditionality and causation.
Different levels of politeness (from honorific to crude)and defference (superior, equal, inferior) may also be expressed on the verb.
There is no category "adjective" in Lrahran grammar. Concepts that would be expressed as adjectives in English are encoded as verbs in Lrahran. Words such as mewa meaning lime green are verbs which might be better rendered as to be lime green.
Pronouns
The pronominal system like most aspects of the language allows for many distinctions.
| Singular | Dual | Trial | Plural | |
1st m | nye | nyelu | nyenge | nyem |
1st f | hle | hlelu | hlenge | hlem |
1st n | mne | mnelu | mnenge | mnem |
1st m exc | nyeal | nyelual | nyengeal | nyemal |
1st f exc | hleal | hlelual | hlengeal | hlemal |
1st n exc | mneal | mnelual | mnengeal | mnemal |
2nd m | nyu | nyulu | nyunge | nyum |
2nd f | hlu | hlulu | hlunge | hlum |
2nd n | mnu | mnulu | mnunge | mnum |
3rd m | nyo | nyolu | nyonge | nyom |
3rd f | hlo | hlolu | hlonge | hlom |
3rd n | mno | mnolu | mnonge | mnom |
4th m | nya | nyalu | nyange | nyam |
4th f | hla | hlalu | hlange | hlam |
4th n | mna | mnalu | mnange | mnam |
Lrahran nouns are marked for case, and the category "noun" is silghtly larger in Lrahran than in English since it includes a number of concepts which English would express as adverbs. Lrahran marks for the following cases:
Agentive -0
Dative -yen
Benadictive -yal
Patient -ryon
Locative -hnem
Instrumental -lrul
Associative -myang
Manner -wen
Each of these cases can under certain certain circumstances be promoted to subject position. In other words, odd sounding utterances such as "Loudly called," or "With the hammer broke," would be acceptable sentances.
Would you like to take some Lrahran lessons? If you would click here to view a sample of the Total Physical Response lessons I used in my recent experiment.
Coming soon sample lessons in the Audio-Lingual style!
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