Vihal – Grammar

Contents:

Nouns
Verbs
Modifiers (Adjectives/Adverbs)
Function Words

Nouns

To pluralize nouns, add -ihan to the end of the word.
Example: asil (asiL), "a/the cat" vs. asilihan (asiLIhaN), "cats/the cats."

To use the word "and", add -al to the end of the last word in the list.
Example: "Life and love are" is Si-hildin haldin-al (sihiLdiN haLdiNAL)

Note that this only applies to a conjunction of nouns, not verbal phrases.
Example: "I live and I love" is Hildi-na al haldi-na (hiLdina AL haLdina)

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Verbs

Vihal verbs add the subject as a suffix. For example, "I sing" is Vihaldi-na (vihaLdina). Vihaldi (vihaLdi) is the verb "to sing," and na (na) is the pronoun "I."

For an example where the subject is not a pronoun, "the man sings" is Vihaldi-adal (vihaLdiAdaL), where adal (AdaL) means "a/the man." Note that when written in English characters, the verb and subject are separated by a hyphen. When written in Vihal script, they are not. When spoken, there is a (very) small pause between verb and subject.

Emphatics such as vihual (vihuAL), "yes," are added both before and after the sentence. Example: "Yes, I love you" is Vihual nia haldi-na vihual (vihuAL niA haLdina vihuAL).

Tense apart from present indicative is marked by a prefix on the verb:

Tense	Prefix
Present continuous	ila-
Past	ma-
Future	uli-

Examples: Haihal ila-vasildi-asil (haIhaL IlavasiLdiAsiL), "The cat is eating the bird;" Juali ma-inildi-na (juAli maIniLdina), "I saw the king;" Li-kuraldi-runil (likuraLdiruniL), "The sun will shine."

The hypothetical ("may") mood is indicated by a suffix, placed before the subject, which varies by the tense:

Mood	Suffix
Present hypothetical	-la
Past hypothetical	-ama
Future hypothetical	-ilu

Negation is indicated by the word bal (baL), placed after the verb-subject.

To use a double-verb construction, such as "I need to fight," place the second verb in front of the "conjugated" verb. So "I need to fight" would be kasa dimaldi-na."

When there's an object involved, it comes first.

Example: "I didn't need to fight you" is Nia kasa ma-dimaldi-na bal.
Example 2: "I might not need to fight you." is Nia kasa dimaldi-ili-na bal.
^{Note: This construction was suggested by my friend Glenn Kempf.}
Example 3: "No, we may not have wanted to kill the king." is Bal juali habaldi buldi-ama-nau bal.

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Modifiers (Adjectives/Adverbs)

Adjectives are placed after the noun they modify, e.g. dakili sildin, "the grey tiger."

Adverbs are placed after the verb-subject, e.g. tilaldi-nia haLhaliniL, "You run swiftly."

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Function Words

Conjunctions in Vihal are typically referred to as "function words." They do not come between words and phrases as in English, and moreover some words used as function words in Vihal would not be used as conjunctions in English (such as the interrogative pronouns "who", "what", and "where").

The basic format for using function words (FW) in Vihal goes like this:

li + [object] + a + [FW] + li

The particle li indicates the beginning of a function word phrase (FWP). The particle a separates the object from the function word. Modifiers to the object are placed normally but before a.

Example: adal li sasil a viril li, "the man with a bow"

Notice how the FWP comes after the noun adil like normal modifiers.

For function words like "how" and "what," a different formula is used:

li + [verb-subject] + a + [FW] + li

Example: Li si-vihal a kunil li?, "How is the song?" (literally "The song is how?")

Note that FWPs can be nested:

Example: Li si-adal li sasil a viril a tulma li?, "Where is the man with the bow?" (li-"is-man"-li-"bow"-a-"with"-a-"where"-li)

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