Old Unuvi

Old Unuvi is the oldest form of the Unuvi language, attested in documents from the 84th century.

Phonology

Consonants

Consonants	Bilabial	Dental	Velar	Uvular
Plosive	k͡p p ⟨kp p⟩	t̪ t̪̻ ⟨t th⟩	k ⟨k⟩	q ⟨q⟩
Nasal	ŋ͡m m ⟨ngm m⟩	n̪ ⟨n⟩	ŋ ⟨ng⟩	ɴ ⟨nq⟩
Tap/Flap		ɺ̻ ⟨r⟩
Approximant		l̪ ⟨l⟩	ɰ ⟨w⟩	ʟ̠ ⟨ll⟩

Vowels

Speakers of Old Unuvi associated each point of vowel articulation with a gender. ⟨i⟩ was associated with the green gender, ⟨a⟩ with the foreign gender and ⟨u⟩ with the heavenly gender.

Vowels in Old Unuvi

Vowels	Front	Back
Close	i i: ⟨i ii⟩
Open	ɯ ɯ: ⟨u uu⟩	a a: ⟨a aa⟩

Counting

Old Unuvi was spoken in a culture that used an octal number system. Numbers 2-7 and 9-15 were irregular, while powers of two and other numbers were generally regularly conjugated. Some important decimal numbers were borrowed into the language from nearby decimal cultures.

Numbers from 1-16

Decimal form	Octal form	Word	Translation / Notes
1	1	naa	'one'
2	2	rii	'two'
3	3	luu	'three'
4	4	riika	(irregular)
5	5	pam	'five'
6	6	tukp	'six'
7	7	ptu	'seven'
8	108	luukarii	'third-two'
9	118	all	'eleven'
10	128	pa	(borrowed from decimal system)
11	138	ruuth	'thirteen'
12	148	uka	'fourteen'
13	158	ukpuu	'fifteen'
14	168	ptiil	'sixteen'
15	178	kpiwii	'seventeen'
16	208	riikathukarii	'fourth-two'

Multiples of eight and irregulars from 10₈-70₈

Decimal form	Octal form	Word	Translation / Notes
8	108	luuka	'third-two'
10	128	pa	(borrowed from decimal system)
16	208	riikathukarii	'fourth-two'
20	24 8	kaipa	(borrowed from decimal system)
24	308	luu-luuka	'three third-two'
32	408	riika-luukarii	'fifth two'
40	508	pam-luukarii	'five third-two'
48	608	tukp-luukarii	'six third-two'
50	628	thinpa	(borrowed from decimal system)
56	708	ptu-luukarii	'seven third-two'

Multiples of eight from 100₈-700₈

Decimal form	Octal form	Word	Translation / Notes
64	1008	tukpukarii	'sixth-two'
100	1448	thakin	(borrowed from decimal system)
128	2008	ptuukarii	'seventh-two'
192	3008	luuka-tukpukarii	'three sixth-two'
256	4008	luukariithukarii	'eigth-two'
320	5008	pam-tukpukarii	'five sixth-two'
384	6008	tukp-tukpukarii	'six sixth-two'
448	7008	ptu-tukpukarii	'seven sixth-two'

Other irregularities

Decimal form	Octal form	Word	Translation / Notes
500	7648		(borrowed from decimal system)
1,000	17508		(borrowed from decimal system)
10,000	234208		(borrowed from decimal system)
1,000,000	36411008		(borrowed from decimal system)

Ordinality

Old Unuvi made use of several types of ordinal numbers. The form used for counting was created by appending -(th)uka to the end of the number, with some irregularities.

Numbers from 1-16

Decimal form	Octal form	Word	Translation / Notes
1	1	naathuka	'first'
2	2	riithuka	'second'
3	3	luuka	'third'
4	4	riikathuka	'fourth'
5	5	pamuka	'fifth'
6	6	tukpuka	'sixth'
7	7	ptuuka	'seventh'
8	108	luukariithuka	'eighth'
9	118	alluka	'ninth'
10	128	pathuka	(borrowed from decimal system)
11	138	ruuka	'thirteenth'
12	148	ukauka	'fourteenth'
13	158	ukpuuka	'fifteenth'
14	168	ptiiluka	'sixteenth'
15	178	kpiwiithuka	'seventeenth'
16	208	riikathukariithuka	'sixteenth'

Grammar

Old Unuvi had a complicated grammatical system that made heavy use of its three genders.

Particles

Grammatical cases in Old Unuvi were marked by particles placed after the nouns they modify.

• Nominative — tha, marks the object of a sentence
• Accusative — ru, marks the object of a sentence
• Genitive — ina, marks posession of one thing by another
• Instructive — inqi, used for something being inside or being used to do something else
• Allative — kaam, used for something moving into or towards something else
• Adessive — rut, used for something being outside of or at something else
• Ablative — kit, used for something moving out of or away from something else
• Ascenditive — nat, used for something metaphorically or physically growing, moving towards Haki, or ascending upwards (like in "he astrally projected", "the goods were sent to Hac")
• Descenditive — qi, used for something metaphorically or physically declining, moving away from Haki, or moving downwards (like in "the dying cat", "the ship sailing for Ivinis")

Formality

Old Unuvi lacked the complicated formality system that the later evolutions of Unuvi would come to have. The Heavenly gender of Old Unuvi would eventually be co-opted into being the means by which formality was displayed.

Grammatical number

Old Unuvi had a complex grammatical number system where one could attach clitics and conjugate verbs to specify an arbitrary 2ⁿ number of items. In addition, there was a generic plural form that would later be usurped by the octuple clitic.

Number	Short form	Long form
Singular	-(a)naa	-(a)naathuka
Dual	-(r)ii	-(i)riithuka
Quadrupal	-(r)iika	-(i)riikathuka
Octuple	-(l)uu	-(u)luukariithuka
Plural	-(u)thuka

Pronouns

Old Unuvi had a set of pronouns with marked gender and grammatical person. The language did not mark number on the pronouns, but rather on verbs. Regular suffixes could be attached to pronouns to form their dual, quadruple, octuple, etc. forms.

Pronouns in Old Unuvi

	Green	Foreign	Heavenly
1st Person	ngmiit
2nd Person	kngi	lar
3rd Person (proximate)	ptii	ptaa	ptuu
3rd Person (obviative)	rii	raa	ruu

Correlatives

Adding -kpam to the end of a pronoun created a demonstrative pronoun. First-person pronouns became proximal, second-person pronouns medial, and third-person pronouns distal.

Table of correlatives

		interrogative	demonstrative			quantifier
			proximal	medial	distal	assertive existential1	elective/dubitative existential2	universal	negatory	positive alternative
determiner		akpam	ngmiitkpam (G/F/H)	kngikpam (G) larkpam (F/H)	ptiikpam (G) ptaakpam (F) ptuukpam (H)	ruukpam	raakpam	thath	ingmiip	wuullu
pronoun	human					raangmuuth
	nonhuman					raapti
	out of two (dual)
	out of many (plural)
pro-adverb	location	kpama	itaa	kitaa	ptitaa	ruuqaa	raaqaa
	source	kpamari	itaari	kitaari	ptitaari	ruuri	raari
	goal	kpamathi	itaathi	kitaathi	ptitaathi	ruuthi	raathi
	time	kpamatha	itaatha	kitaatha	ptitaatha	ruutha	raatha

¹ The 3rd person obviative heavenly gender pronoun was the base for assertive existential correlatives. One could think of it as "the heavens, far away, are known to exist".

² The 3rd person obviative foreign gender pronoun was the base for elective correlatives. One could think of it as "some foreign thing, far away, which may or may not exist."

Verbs

Old Unuvi employed a strict verb-final. However, questions were phrased by moving the verb to the beginning. All verbs in Old Unuvi ended in -u, and were conjugated according to a complex fusional grammar. Number was added on to the end of the fusional verb in a regular pattern. Verbs were not conjugated for tense, but rather for aspect and mood

ngmiit tha kngulluungmuu nat laakutumpathii kim

I NOM god.OCT ACC worship.POT.IMP.CONT FUT

"There may be a point in the future where I will have been worshiping eight gods ascending into enlightenment"

Table

Example conjugation table for Old Unuvi verb laku (to worship)

		First	Second		Third
		Green	Green	Foreign	Green	Foreign	Heavenly
Indicative	Perfective	laka	lakat	lakan	lakall	lakallu	lakama
	Perfect	lakiti	lakira	lakara	lakaran	lakarin	lakarun
	Imperfective Habitual	lakumpa	lakumpat	lakumpan	lakumpall	lakumpallu	lakumpama
	Imperfective Continuous	lakumpathii	lakumpatii		lakumpallatii	lakumpallitii	lakumpallutii
Conditional	Perfective	lakita	lakitat	lakitan	lakitall	lakitallu	lakitama
	Perfect	lakititi	lakitira	lakitara	lakitaran	lakitarin	lakitarun
	Imperfective Habitual	lakitumpa	lakitumpat	lakitumpan	lakitumpall	lakitumpallu	laitumpama
	Imperfective Continuous	lakitumpathii	lakitumpatii		lakitumpallati	lakitumpallitii	lakitumpalluti
Potential	Perfective	laakuta	laakunat	laakunan	laakunall
	Perfect	laakutiti	laakutira	laakutara	laakutaran
	Imperfective Habitual	laakutumpa	laakutumpat	laakutumpan	laakutumpall
	Imperfective Continuous	laakutumpathii	laakutumpatii		laakutumpallati

Tense

Tense	Old Unuvi	English
Past	rana (distant past)	'I ate cheese'
Present	(No marking)	'I eat cheese'
Future	kim	'I will eat cheese'

Aspect

Aspects in Old Unuvi

Aspect	Old Unuvi	English
Perfective	Expressed via inflection (PER)	'I struck the bell' (an event viewed in its entirety, without reference to its temporal structure during its occurrence)
Momentane		'The mouse squeaked once' (contrasted to 'The mouse squeaked / was squeaking')
Perfect	Expressed via inflection (RET)	(a common conflation of aspect and tense): 'I have arrived' (brings attention to the consequences of a situation in the past)
Recent perfect		also known as after perfect: 'I just ate' or 'I am after eating' (Hiberno-English)
Discontinuous past		In English a sentence such as "I put it on the table" is neutral in implication (the object could still be on the table or not), but in some languages such as Chichewa the equivalent tense carries an implication that the object is no longer there. It is thus the opposite of the perfect aspect.
Prospective		(a conflation of aspect and tense): 'He is about to fall', 'I am going to cry" (brings attention to the anticipation of an imminent future situation)
Imperfective	Expressed via inflection (IMP)	(an activity with ongoing nature: combines the meanings of both the continuous and the habitual aspects): 'I was walking to work' (continuous) or 'I walked (used to walk, would walk) to work every day' (habitual).
Imperfective Habitual		'I used to walk home from work', 'I would walk home from work every day', 'I walk home from work every day' (a subtype of imperfective)
Imperfective Continuous	Expressed via inflection (CONT)	'I am eating' or 'I know' (situation is described as ongoing and either evolving or unevolving; a subtype of imperfective)
Imperfective Continuous Progressive		'I am eating' (action is described as ongoing and evolving; a subtype of continuous)
Imperfective Continuous Stative		'I know French' (situation is described as ongoing but not evolving; a subtype of continuous)
Gnomic		'Fish swim and birds fly' (general truths)
Episodic		'The bird flew' (non-gnomic)
Continuative		'I am still eating'
Inceptive		'I started to run' (beginning of a new action: dynamic)
Inchoative		'The flowers started to bloom' (beginning of a new state: static)
Terminative		'I finished eating/reading'
Defective		'I almost fell'
Pausative		'I stopped working for a while'
Resumptive		'I resumed sleeping'
Punctual		'I slept'
Durative		'I slept for a while'
Delimitative		'I slept for an hour'
Protractive		'The argument went on and on'
Iterative		'I read the same books again and again'
Frequentative		'It sparkled', contrasted with 'It sparked'. Or, 'I run around', vs. 'I run'
Experiential		'I have gone to school many times' (see for example Chinese aspects)
Intentional		'I listened carefully'
Accidental		'I accidentally knocked over the chair'
Intensive		'It glared'
Moderative		'It shone'
Attenuative		'It glimmered'
Segmentative		'It is coming out in successive multitudes'

Mood

Realis

The realis indicative mood was the default mood in Old Unuvi.

Irrealis

Old Unuvi conjugated for conditional and potential mood. Subjunctive and imperative were auxillary verbs.

References