Here are some of the basic notes I’ve put together for my constructed-language work for The Curse of Steel. The idea here is that this is an ur-language, very vaguely reminiscent of Proto-Indo-European, which can act as the mother-tongue for a set of derived languages. Since these aren’t planned to be anything but a set of naming languages, I haven’t worked out a lot of deep grammar or sentence structure – the emphasis here is on word morphology, the rules for the formation of nouns, verbs, adjectives, and so on.

This is all very rough draft, of course, and I’m deliberately not trying to be very adventurous – none of this is supposed to suggest a highly exotic sound or feel to English-speaking readers. Still, it should give you an idea of what goes into the construction of an artificial language for genre fiction. I may post some of my growing lexica shortly, to provide more examples.

Phonology

The ur-language has the following consonant set:

	Labial	Coronal	Dorsal	Laryngeal
Nasals	*m	*n
Stops	*p	*t	*k, *kw
	*b	*d	*g, *gw
	*bh	*dh	*gh, *gwh
Fricatives		*s		*h1, *h2, *h3
Liquids		*r, *l
Semivowels	*w		*y

Word roots in the ur-language can be either nouns or verbs. Most adjectives or adverbs are constructed by inflection of an underlying stative verb (that is, a verb form which expresses a state of being). A word root in the ur-language almost invariably has the following phonotactic structure:

• The root is always composed of at least one consonant in the onset, the vowel *e, and at least one consonant in the coda. No root may begin or end with the vowel.
• In a consonant cluster, the consonants are always arranged in order of sonority. Consonants appear in three classes by sonority (lower to higher sonority):
  • Obstruents, which include:
    • Plosives (*p, *b, *b^h, *t, *d, *d^h, *k, *g, *g^h, *k^w, *g^w, or *g^wh)
    • Sibilants (*s)
    • Laryngeals (*h₁, *h₂, or *h₃)
  • Labial sonorants (*m or *w)
  • Non-labial sonorants (*n, *r, *l, or *y)
• A consonant cluster may consist of up to one non-labial sonorant, up to one labial sonorant, and up to one obstruent from each class.
• In a cluster of obstruents, the sibilant *s may only appear before a plosive, never after. A laryngeal may appear before or after any other obstruent, but not another laryngeal.
• In the onset (before the vowel), consonants must appear in increasing sonority, while in the coda (after the vowel) they must appear in decreasing sonority. The one exception is that in the coda, a laryngeal may always appear first.
• Legal word roots normally follow certain phonotactic rules:
  • They may not contain more than one nasal consonant (*m or *n)
  • They may not contain more than one liquid (*l or *r)
  • They may not contain more than one semivowel (*w or *y)
  • They may not contain more than one plain voiced plosive (*b, *d, *g, or *g^w)
  • They may not contain more than one laryngeal fricative (*h₁, *h₂, or *h₃)

Word Formation Rules

Verbs

The primary categories for verbs include:

• Person: 1st, 2nd, and 3rd.
• Number: Singular, dual, and plural.
• Aspect: Perfective, imperfective, and stative.
• Mood: Indicative, subjunctive, imperative, and optative.
• Tense: Present and past.

The primary conjugations are for person, number, and aspect. They tend to be very regular, applying inflectional endings to the verb root as follows.

Primary Conjugation

This conjugation is used for the present tense of the indicative mood of imperfective verbs, and for the subjunctive mood of all verbs.

	Singular	Dual	Plural
1st Person	*-mi	*-weh3s	*-mos
2nd Person	*-si	*-tes	*-te
3rd Person	*-ti	*-teh2s	*-nti

The future tense is indicated with this conjugation, and the particle *reh₂n placed just before the verb.

Secondary Conjugation

This conjugation is used for the past tense of the indicative mood of imperfective verbs, for the indicative mood of perfective verbs, and for the optative mood of all verbs.

	Singular	Dual	Plural
1st Person	*-m	*-we	*-me
2nd Person	*-s	*-te	*-t
3rd Person	*-t	*-teh2	*-nt

Furthermore, imperfective verbs in the past tense exhibit ablaut, in which the primary vowel of the verb root shifts from *e to *o.

Stative Conjugation

This conjugation is used for stative verbs.

	Singular	Dual	Plural
1st Person	*-h2e	*-we	*-meh2
2nd Person	*-th2e	*-h2ey	*-eh2
3rd Person	*-e	*-h2ey	*-eh1r

Imperative Mood

This conjugation (applicable only in the second or third person) is used for the imperative mood of all verbs.

	Singular	Dual	Plural
1st Person	N/A	N/A	N/A
2nd Person	*-Ø	*-to	*-te
3rd Person	*-tu	*-tew	*-ntu

Other Verb Formation Notes

Negation is indicated with the particle *weh₂ immediately after the main verb.

Nouns

The primary categories for nouns are:

• Class: Animate and inanimate.
• Number: Singular and plural. Although verbs can take the specific dual number, dual nouns are simply considered plural.
• Case:
  • Absolutive case (the argument of an intransitive verb or the object of a transitive verb)
  • Ergative case (the subject or “agent” of a transitive verb)
  • Dative case (the indirect object of a verb, the recipient or beneficiary of an action)
  • Genitive case (the possessor, composition, or point of reference for another noun)
  • Locative case (expressing the location of another noun or a verb’s action)
  • Ablative case (expressing motion or action away from another noun)
  • Instrumental case (expressing the means of an action)
  • Vocative case (marking the noun being addressed)

Noun class is not marked on the noun, but all nouns are assigned to either the animate or inanimate classes. The assignment is usually intuitive, although there are some exceptions. Examples include non-living but moving objects which might be considered the habitation place of a spirit, or non-living objects which are nevertheless often addressed as if they possess the power of speech.

Case and number markings are as follows:

	Singular		Plural
	Animate	Inanimate	Animate	Inanimate
Absolutive	*-Ø	*-s	*-eh1	*-eh1
Ergative	*-m	*-m	*-meh1	*-meh1
Dative	*-meh2	*-meh2	*-mus	*-mus
Genitive	*-kh2e	*-kh3e	*-kh2ey	*-kh2ey
Locative	*-ey	*-ey	*-su	*-su
Ablative	*-os	*-os	*-yos	*-yos
Instrumental	*-an	*-an	*-eh2	*-eh2
Vocative	*-Ø	*-Ø	*-es	*-h2

Nouns in the ergative case also exhibit ablaut, in which the primary vowel of the nominal root shifts from *e to *o.

Noun Formation from Verb Roots

Many nouns in the ur-language are formed from verb roots, usually by applying a specific suffix to the root. For example:

• Animate creature or human that performs X: *X-as
• Inanimate object or thing that performs X: *X-os
• Gerund form (“X-ing”): *X-en
• Infinitive form (“to X”): *X-on
• The result of X: *X-am or *X-as

Common Prefixes

• *an- “into”
• *as- “out, out from”
• *en- “on, upon”
• *reh₃– “good, noble”
• *tar– “against”
• *wer- “over”