Luepolan language

Luepolan
Ľupolski Ézik
Native to	Luepola
Native speakers	83 million (2013)
Language family	Bhasaro-Patyrian Janic-Molvic Molvic South Molvic Luepolan
Writing system	Corunic Luepolan Braille
Official status
Official language in	Luepola
Recognised minority language in	Plosenia
Regulated by	Luepolan Language Society
Language codes
ISO 639-3	lup
Areas where Luepolan is spoken by over 50% of the population   Areas where Luepolan is spoken by at least 10% of the population

Luepolan (/luˈpoʊlən/), or the Luepolan language (Ľupolski ézik [ʎuˈpɔlski e:ˈzik]) is a South Molvic language that evolved in eastern Patyria. It is spoken by approximately 83 million speakers worldwide, the majority of whom live in Luepola, where it is the sole national language.

Phonology

Luepolan consonant phonemes

		Labial	Alveolar	Post- alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m	n		ɲ
Plosive	voiceless	p	t		c	k
	voiced	b	d		ɟ	ɡ
Affricate	voiceless		t͡s	t͡ʃ
	voiced		d͡z	d͡z
Fricative	voiceless	(f)	s	ʃ		x
	voiced	v	z	ʒ			h
Tap			ɾ
Trill	plain		r
	fricative		r̝
Approximant	plain		r		j
	lateral		l		ʎ

Luepolan monophthong phonemes

	Front		Back
	short	long	short	long
Close	i	iː	u	uː
Mid	e	eː	ɔ	(ɔː)
Open			a	aː

Grammar

Luepolan grammar is primarily fusional; adjectives, nouns, and verbs alike undergo declension and conjugation to specify their function and meaning. A small number of clitics are additionally present, such as naj and se-, which are separate from the main processes of grammatical alteration.

The primary parts of speech of Luepolan are nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, numbers, prepositions, conjunctions, and interrogatives.

Noun and Adjective declension

Like most other Molvic languages, Luepolan nouns possess an inherent gender, and decline to show case and number.

Case

Luepolan features six cases. The first two cases, the nominative and accusative, distinguish the subject of the sentence and direct objects, while the remaining four denote indirect objects (dative) as well as various prepositional objects and other syntactic relationships between the word and the phrase. Luepolan, much like Venayan and Zacotian, lost use of the Proto-Molvic vocative case present in other Molvic languages. Adjectives are also declined by these cases to match the case of the noun they modify.

No.	Luepolan name	Case	Main usage
1.	Benenni	nominative	Subjects
2.	Anklagni	accusative	Noun adjuncts, possession, prepositions of motion, time and location
3.	Coigeni	genitive	Indirect objects, prepositions of motion
4.	Gebenni	dative	Direct objects, prepositions of motion and time
5.	Ortovani	locative	Prepositions of location, time and topic
6.	Vomeni	instrumental	Passive agents, instruments, prepositions of location

Gender

Luepolan features three distinct genders: masculine (múžănski), feminine (ženăvski), and neuter (sřédovi). The genders of words are inherited from Proto-Molvic, or from the source language if it is a loanword (frequently Vierz), and as such do not fully correspond to orthographic or phonologic features. Nonetheless, certain patterns may be approximated to help new learners of the language discern the gender of a noun. These features are thus considered 'normative' for words of their given gender.

• Nouns ending in -e or -o will always be neuter.
• Nouns ending in -a will usually be feminine; this is considered the standard form for feminine words.
• Nouns ending in -ija will always be feminine.
• Nouns ending in a 'hard' consonant will usually be masculine.
• Nouns ending in a 'soft' consonant (ć, đ, ľ, ň, ř, ť) will often be feminine.

Luepolan additionally possesses a system by which certain nouns, usually masculine, can be altered to form words of a new gender. For example, the irregular masculine bali (physician) can be altered to form bala (female physician). This method is acknowledged by the Luepolan Language Society as a method for producing new feminine and neuter nouns, rather than as a method of altering original nouns; in the given example, bali and bala would receive separate dictionary entries.

Vocabulary

Luepolan vocabulary is notable in comparison to other Molvic languages for its conservative lexicon; a greater percentage of lemmas in Luepolan have no distinction (or minimal distinction) from their Proto-Molvic ancestor than of other Molvic languages; this is in part due to Luepola's historic role as a regional power striving to maintain its cultural integrity, as well as due to its historical home region being surrounded on all sides by those of other Molvic languages. Luepolan is also notable due to its central position among the three branches of Molvic languages; though it most directly classifies as a South Molvic language, northern dialects historically developed notable substrates from East and West Molvic languages via Aneskan and Mogrennic respectively, incorporating vocabulary as well as grammatical and phonological features from the two. The northern dialects were later merged into the southern dialects as part of Luepola's various historic linguistic reforms, impressing the influence of these languages upon the Standard Luepolan.

Loanwords

Of the foreign, non-Molvic loanwords into Luepolan, the greatest percentage of them derive from Vierz, owing to the significant and protracted cultural contact between Vierzland and Luepola, and the former's cultural influence on the latter. In particular, many Luepolan terms relating to modern sciences, warfare, and politics derive from Vierz. Examples of Luepolan loanwords from Vierz include Hautbecirk (Capital District) from Vierz Hauptbezirk, Muzika from Musik, Befél (a command, an order) from Befehl. The names of Luepola's noun cases listed above are also derived from the Vierz-language names for these cases: Benenne, Anklage, Zeugefall, Gegebene, Ortsfall, Womit-Fall.