Tova language

Tova is a Tovic language spoken primarily in the South of Alloti. It is one of the official languages of Alloti, alongside Alhi and Kes. There are approximately 40 million native speakers, and including non-native speakers, there are 45 million speakers. Tova has influenced Kes and Alhi, introducing many loanwords into both languages.

Tova is not related to any other language spoken in Alloti, making it an isolate. Tova has its own script, natively known as Imujastunu, it is an abugida with an inherent vowel, but has initial, medial, and final forms, using a connector called a jaśadan. Tova was once written in the Oulaj script, which is the native script for Alhi and Kes, but due to preservation and political efforts, Imujastunu has prevailed as the primary script.

Tova has an unusual nonconcatenative morphological system, using 2, 3, and 4-consonant root systems to form verbs, nouns, adjectives, etc. Much of the vocabulary of Tova is from derivation, and words that are loaned are instead calqued.

Name of the language

The name of the language, Tova, means 'general people', as in 'language of the general people'.

History of the language

Tova's history is not very well known or described, but it is known that Tova is a descendant of the older Classical Tova language. Not much is known about the Classical Tova language, except for the fact that it was written in the Imujastunu script, the same script used to write Modern Tova, and that it is very similar to Modern Tova in many areas except for vocabulary and syntax.

Many Alhi loanwords have entered Tova's vocabulary from contact and conflict, especially when the Kingdom of Alloti took control of the Dominion of Dulama. Tova was suppressed, and usage of it was met with punishment, but since Alloti's transition to a democratic republic, these restrictions were relaxed, and Tova eventually became the most spoken language in Southern Alloti. The usage of the Oulaj script for Tova eventually became obsolete, and the native Imujastunu script became the primary one.

Grammar

Tova has a highly synthetic and fusional morphological structure. Verbs are arguably the most complex part of speech in Tova having separate conjugations for person (1st, 2nd, 3rd), number (singular, plural), gender (inanimate, animate), mood (indicative, subjunctive, imperative), aspect (non-aspectual, habitual), tense (non-past, past), and voice (active, passive). The imperative also distinguishes a regular politeness and a suggestive politeness, the latter is used for suggestions or simply as a polite imperative.

Tova has an unusually high amount of noun cases, possessing 9 different cases; nominative, accusative, dative, genitive, comitative, inessive, adessive, ablative, and locative. Pronouns have more cases and genders than general nouns. Adjectives will agree with the nouns that they modify. Adverbs are not distinct in their forms from adjectives.

Tova's most unusual feature is a nonconcatenative root system, many different parts of speech are formed from these roots. For example, the root k-s-t relates to going or travelling. The first form of this root forms a verb kasata 'to go, travel'. Depending on how one counts, there are 5, 6, or 9 different forms per root. These roots are also used to derive nouns, adjectives, and participles. E.g. k-s-t 'going, travelling' → kastan 'traveller, one who goes'.

Pronouns

Pronouns have thirteen cases and three genders.

Table of Tovan pronouns

	Singular					Plural
	1st	2nd	3rd			1st	2nd	3rd
			Human	Non-Human	Inanimate
Nominative	ja	elek	en	id	őv	uvas	as	an
Accusative	jen	elen		in	őn	uvan	asan
Dative	ji	eli	eni	idi	ővi	uvasi	asi	ani
Genitive	jana	ek	et	ni	vi	vas	sa	na
Comitative	jal	el	enel	idil	ővil	uval	al	ala
Inessive	jas	es	enes	is	ős	ús	ás	nas
Elative	jí	elekí	ení	idí	őví	uvasí	así	aní
Illative	jól	elekól	nól	dól	ő	vasól	sól	nó
Adessive	jer	ler	ener	ider	őver
Ablative
Essive
Abessive
Vocative		le	ne	de	ve		sa	na

.There are also affixed versions of pronouns that are applied in different situations.

Table of pronominal affixes

	Singular					Plural
	1st	2nd	3rd			1st	2nd	3rd
			Human	Non-Human	Inanimate
Accusative	-Vje	-Vl	-Vn	-Vdi	-Vvi	-Vvu	-Cas	-Vda
Genitive	-Ca	-Vk	-Vt	-Cin	-Ci	-Vs	-Vsa	-Vn

The C and V mean 'consonant' and 'vowel' respectively, when these affixes are applied, the closest C or V to the suffix will be taken from the attached word and appended to the affix to prevent any illegal clusters or vowel hiatus. For example, imujsun 'book' → imujsunuk 'your book'. The final vowel in imujsun is /u/, and that becomes the V in the -Vk affix.

The accusative affixes are appended onto the ends of verbs, so Tova can be described as being polypersonal, as verbs are inflected for subjects and direct objects. The genitives are essentially possessives.