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 5 milion second-language 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. 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 would usually be 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.

Geographic distribution

Tova is spoken primarily in Southern Alloti, in the province of Inlusok. Many people also speak Alhi alongside Tova, but it is not uncommon to see people only speaking Tova, especially in rural zones. Tova is also spoken sparsely in towns along the Inlusok-Cring border. There are also many Tova speakers in Sinovoz and Ojanka.

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 vocative. 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 Tova's 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	ől	vasól	sól	nó
Adessive	jer	ler	ener	ider	őver	var	asar	nar
Ablative	jaź	eleź	eź	iź	őź	uvaź	aź	anaź
Essive	jadhi	eledhi	enedhi	idhi	ővadhi	uvadhi	asadhi	anadhi
Abessive	jad	eled	ed	idd	őd	uvad	ad	ana
Vocative		le	ne	de	ve		sa	na

There are no first-person vocatives of either number. Colloquially, it is common to see the first vowel or even syllable be dropped from forms of pronouns that start in vowels. For example, in casual conversation, ővadhi /ɔvaði/ may be pronounced as vadhi /vaði/.

Pronominal affixes

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 accusative affixes are required to be on a verb if a verb has a direct object. The genitives are essentially possessives.

An example of the accusative affix: Talinavivi ussúlessit. 'I like the keyboard.' Since ússúlessit 'the keyboard' is inanimate and singular, the -Vvi affix is appended to the end of the verb.

Roots

A root in Tova is commonly a set of three consonants that is placed into pre-existing patterns to form more specific meaning. Most roots consist of three consonant (m-j-s, relating to writing; k-s-t, relating to going, travelling), but there are also two consonant (t-n, relating to being, existing) and four consonant (ś-k-t-s, relating to enveloping, covering). Most of the vocabulary in Tova is derived from these roots.

Depending on the cardinality (number of consonants) and type (quality of consonants) in roots, different forms will be given to the same grammatical form.

Table of 'I (verb)' forms

	t-n	m-j-s	ś-k-t-s
Word	tani	majasi	śaktasi
Form	1a2i	1a2a3i	1a23a4i
Meaning	I am / will be	I write	I cover

Nouns

Nouns in Tova decline for 9 different cases, 2 numbers, and 2 definitenesses. Gender is indicated by the conjugation of the verb (if the noun is a subject).

Noun cases

The nine noun cases in Tova are nominative, accusative, dative, genitive, comitative, inessive, adessive, ablative, and vocative. They can be organized into argument cases, the genitive, locative cases, and the vocative.

Argument cases

These cases listed below are used to mark the arguments of a verb.

The nominative case

The nominative case is used for subjects of verbs. For copulative verbs (like tana 'to be, exist'), the objects of them are put in the nominative case. This case is unmarked.

The accusative case

The accusative case is used for the direct objects of transitive verbs. This case is marked with a -C*it affix, and the C* causes gemination if attached to a word that ends in a consonant. For example: jaśadan 'connector' → jaśadannit 'connector (ACC.)'

The dative case

The dative case is used for the indirect objects of transitive verbs, or the arguments of intransitive verbs. Generally, it corresponds to 'to NOUN'. This case is marked with a -Ci affix, and the C is taken from the consonant closest to the end of the word that it is applied to. For example: tosónu 'relating to an observatory' → tosónuni 'relating to an observatory (DAT.)'

The genitive case

The genitive case is used for the indication of possession. The order of possession is possessed noun in the definite + possesser in the genitive. For example: úmmújes źatnanak 'A cleaner's pen' / 'The pen of a cleaner'. The affix is -Cak. Like in the example, źatnan → źatnanak.

Locative cases

The cases listed below are used to mark location or movement of nouns.

The comitative case

The comitative case corresponds to 'with NOUN'. It is used for accompaniment or instrumental usage, like with him and with a pen, respectively. The affix is -Cil; dhusur → dhusuril.

The inessive case

The inessive case is a locative case that indicates location inside or in the noun that the case is applied to. The affix is -Cós; dhusuru → dhusururós.

The adessive case

The adessive case is a locative case that indicates location at, upon, or around the noun that the case is applied to. The affix is -Car; dhusuru → dhusururar.

The ablative case

The ablative case is a case that indicated motion away from something, but also a location that is from the noun it is applied to. The affix is -Vźu; jonón 'house' → jonónóźu 'from the house'.

The vocative case

The vocative case is a case that is used for direct addressing of the noun that it is applied to. It is more common to see this case be used in religious texts, but there is still modern usage. The affix is -Ca; itulsan 'Lord' → itulsana 'O Lord!'.

Pluralization

Plurals in Tova have, depending on how one counts, seven different patterns, and they are dependent on the sounds of a word.

Table of plurals

	Singular	Plural	Condition	Rule
Ia	muluk	muluku	...VC	...VC+V
Ib	mujus	mujusú	...VF	...VF+V́
IIa	múseru	múserunu	...CV	...CV+nV
IIb	ukfásu	ukfásunú	...FV	...FV+nV́
IIIa	itulsan	utlasan	V1C1V2C2C3...	V2C1C2aC3...
IIIb	takúseç	atkúseç	C1V1C2V2...	V1C1C2V1...
IIIc	itulavsan	utlavsan	V1C1V2C2V3...	V2C1C2V3...

Type I: Vowel-consonant final sequence

Ia: Non-fricative final consonant

If a noun / adjective ends in a consonant, and if that consonant is not a fricative, then the vowel closest to the end of the word will be added at the end as the plural.

For example: The plural of muluk 'end' is muluku 'ends'. Since the final vowel in muluk is /u/, that vowel is added at the end for the plural.

Ib: Fricative final consonant

If a noun / adjective ends in a consonant, and if that consonant is a fricative, the vowel closest to end of the word will be added at the end as the plural, but it will be lengthened.

For example: mujus 'write' → mujusú 'writes'.

Type II: Consonant-vowel final sequence

IIa: Non-fricative + vowel final sequence

If a noun / adjective ends in a sequence of a non-fricative and then a vowel, the affix applied is -nV, where V is the closest vowel to the end of the word.

For example: múseru 'relating to a torture device' → múserunu 'relating to a torture device (used for agreeing with nouns in the plural)'.

IIb: Fricative + vowel final sequence

If a noun / adjective ends in a sequence of a fricative and then a vowel, the affix applied is -nV́, where V́ is the closest vowel to the end of the word, but lengthened.

For example: ukfásu 'relating to an act of hearing' → ukfásunú 'relating to an act of hearing (used for agreeing with nouns in the plural)'.

Type III: Different initial sequences

IIIa: Initial VCVCC sequence

If a noun / adjective begins in a sequence that is V₁C₁V₂C₂C₃, the pluralization pattern is V₂C₁C₂aC₃.

For example: itulsan 'god' → utlasan 'gods'.

IIIb: Initial CVCV sequence

If a noun / adjective begins in a sequence of C₁V₁C₂V₂, the pluralization pattern is V₁C₁C₂V₁.

For example: takúseç 'crane' → atkúseç 'cranes'

IIIc: Initial VCVCV sequence

If a noun / adjective begins in a sequence of V₁C₁V₂C₂V₃, the pluralization pattern is V₂C₁C₂V₃.

For example: itulavsan 'greatest god' → utlavsan 'greatest gods'.

Definiteness

The feature of the definite in Tova is used to specify that something is identifiable. There are two ways of forming the definite in Tova.

A: Beginning consonant

If a word begins in a consonant, like laskan 'ruler', the rule is to take the vowel closest to the start of the word, which is /a/ in this example, and prefix it to the word, then, the first consonant is geminated. So, by these rules, the definite of laskan 'ruler' is allaskan 'the ruler'. The length of vowels is not preserved in the definite affix, it will always be short.

B: Beginning vowel

If a word begins in a vowel, like umjás 'act of writing', the rule is to take the consonant closest to the start of the word, which is /m/ here, and then it is prefixed to the word. By these rules, the definite of umjás 'act of writing' is mumjás 'the act of writing'.

Order of application

If a word is going to be both plural and definite (and by default, in the unmarked nominative), the pluralization occurs first and then it is definitized. For example, the true definite plural of itulsan is tutlasan. If a noun is plural, definite, and in a case that is not the nominative, the order is pluralization → definitization → case application. For example, the plural, definite, and accusative of takúseç is tatkúseççit.

Adjectives and adverbs (modifiers)

In Tova, most adjectives and adverbs are derived from nouns, which themselves are mostly derived from roots. Adjectives and adverbs are not distinct in their forms, so the rest of this section will refer to both adjectives and adverbs as modifiers.

Derivation

Most modifiers are formed with a simple -u suffix from the noun that they are derived from. For example, dh-s-r – relating to goodness → dhusur 'good (n.)' → dhusuru 'good (adj.)'. This is a simple rule and there are no exceptions or irregularities.

Inflection

Modifiers, when used like adjectives, are pluralized just like nouns, and they agree with the nouns that they modify. For example, from the section above, the plural of the modifier dhusuru is dhusurunu.

Adjectival modifiers take the same cases as nouns, and behave exactly like nouns in terms of inflection.

Here is a table showing an example declension (excluding possessive forms) of an adjectival modifier.

Declension of tulvi 'liking'

	Indefinite		Definite
	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Nominative	tulvi	tulvini	uttulvi	uttulvini
Accusative	tulvit	tulvinit	uttulvit	uttulvinit
Dative	tulviv	tulvinin	uttulviv	uttulvinin
Genitive	tulvivak	tulvininak	uttulvivak	uttulvininak
Comitative	tulvivil	tulvininil	uttulvivil	uttulvininil
Inessive	tulvivós	tulvininós	uttulvivós	uttulvininós
Adessive	tulvivar	tulvininar	uttulvivar	uttulvininar
Ablative	tulviźu	tulviniźu	uttulviźu	uttulviniźu
Vocative	tulviva	tulvinina	uttulviva	uttulvinina

Plural forms are colloquially pronounced with no vowel between the /v/ and /n/. Uttulvini would be pronounced like uttulvni.

Verbs

Tovan verbs are arguably the most complicated part of Tovan grammar. Tova is highly synthetic, and verbs conjugate for a multitude of tenses, aspects, moods, persons, numbers, genders, and voices. Tova is also polypersonal as verbs have their subjects and direct objects marked on them.

As is typical for verbs in nearly every language, Tovan verbs express actions and states of being. They undergo inflection for the following categories:

• Tense: non-past and past
• Aspect: non-habitual and habitual
• Mood: indicative, subjunctive, and imperative
• Person: first, second, and third
• Number: singular and plural
• Gender: (only in the third person singular) animate and inanimate
• Voice: active and passive
• Arguments: subject and direct object

These categories apply specifically to the first verb form of roots, like lasana 'to speak' from the root l-s-n 'relating to speaking'. Other forms have different meanings, the second form of the root l-s-n is lassana which means 'to cause to speak'. Some forms are used specifically for other aspects like the perfect or progressive.

Verbs are formed from roots, and each root has, at most, 9 different forms. The different forms are: basic, causative, progressive, reciprocal, intensive, reflexive, perfect, inchoative, and cessative. Some forms may be combined with others, like a causative-progressive and a causative-reflexive.

Verbal inflection

This section will cover each part that a verb conjugates for.

Person, number, and gender

Every verb in Tova conjugates for three different persons, two different numbers, and in the third-person singular, two genders. Tova is pro-drop for both the subject and direct object.

Sample conjugation of lasana 'to speak'

		Singular	Plural
First person		lasani	lusun
Second person		lasalni	lasuntu
Third person	Animate	lasana	lusanad
	Inanimate	lasanu

^{These conjugations are in the active voice, indicative mood, non-habitual aspect, and non-past tense. They are also subject-conjugated.}

The first person

The first person, ja and uvas (singular and plural, respectively) are used to refer to the speaker, or in the plural, the speaker plus at least one more person. In religious contexts, especially in the holy text of Tutlavás, it is common to see a majestic plural be employed when it is God who is speaking. Verb conjugations are altered to match this shift in number.

The second person

The second person, elek and as (sg, pl), are used to refer to the person that the speaker is talking to. Tova has two levels of formality, depending on the number. Elek is used for familiar or informal situations, As is used for formal or respectful situations.

The third person

The third person, en, id, őv, an (sg. human, sg. nonhuman, sg. inan, pl) are used to refer to neither the speaker or the person being talked to, but for other parties.

• En: Used to talk about a single human. May be translated like he or she.
• Id: Used to talk about a single non-human, like a Kali or Kaneed, or anything that is grammatically animate. Usage of this pronoun for non-humans has been criticized, claiming it is 'disrespectful' to non-humans. May be translated like he, she, they, or it.
• Őv: Used to talk about any grammatically inanimate object. May be translated like it.
• An: Used to talk about more than one object of any animacy. May be translated like they.

Even though there are three third-person singular pronouns, there are only two third-person singular conjugations, inanimate and animate. The animate conjugation is used for both en and id.