Nillonan language

The Nillonan language (Nillonan: lemba nellonēse) is a language spoken in the central region of the continent of Nodaima. It is one of the four official languages of the Kingdom of Cedysna.

Nillonan is descended from Latin.

Consonants
All consonants can be geminated (lengthened), except /j/ and /w/. A geminated /ɾ/ is realised as [r] (a trill). Note that all intervocalic /s/ is geminated (short intervocalic /s/ had changed to /z/ centuries ago), meaning any occurring between vowels actually represents /ss/.

The following consonants can be palatalised by morphological suffixes:
 * /n/ > /ɲ/ ()
 * /l/ > /ʎ/ ()
 * /s/ > /ɕ/ (<š>)
 * /z/ > /ʑ/ (<ž>)
 * /k/ > /tɕ/ (<č>)
 * /g/ > /dʑ/ (<ǧ>)
 * /t/ > /ts/ ()
 * /d/ > /z/ ()
 * /v/ > /j/ ()

Stress
In Nillonan, the syllable in which stress falls is determined by the following rules, from top to bottom: Note that consonants followed by a semivowel, /l/ or /ɾ/ are considered to be part of the following syllable, meaning it does not increase the length of the preceeding syllable for purposes of stress determination. Conversely, geminated consonants are considered to be part of both syllables. Diphthongs are considered to be long vowels for the purposes of stress determination.
 * Monosyllabic words do not have stress.
 * Disyllabic words always have the stress on the first syllable.
 * If the penultimate syllable is bimoraic (either having a long vowel or ending in a consonant cluster) or trimoraic (having both), it is stressed.
 * Otherwise, if the antepenultimate syllable is bimoraic or trimoraic, it is stressed.
 * If neither the antepenultimate nor the penultimate syllable are bimoraic or trimoraic, stress falls on the antepenultimate syllable if a hiatus (no consonant) separates the penultimate and final syllables.
 * Otherwise, stress falls on the penultimate syllable.

Second declension
Declension of a masculine second declension noun:

Declension of a neuter second declension noun:

Third declension
Neuter third declension nouns decline as follows:

Currently being reworked

Adjectives
Currently being reworked

Determiners
Note that the indefinite article does not have plural forms. If one needs to refer to an indefinite plural, either the article is omitted or the partitive article is used.

The partitive article is etymologically derived from de + definite article. The particle de itself, however, has all but fallen out of use in Nillonan, as it serves the same function as the genitive case.

Verbs
Verbs in Nillonan conjugate for person, number, mood and "tense". They can also form an infinitive, participles and a gerund.

Verbs have four principal parts. They are: Both the present and perfect stems fall into one of three conjugational classes. Although they usually fall into the same class, this may not always be the case. To determine which conjugational classes a verb falls in to, the first and third principal parts are to be looked at:
 * The infinitive
 * The first-person singular present indicative
 * The first-person singular past indicative
 * The past participle
 * First conjugation: infinitive in -are, first-person singular past indicative in -ai or -ei
 * Second conjugation: infinitive in -ere, first-person singular past indicative in -ui
 * Third conjugation: infinitive in -ire, first-person singular past indicative in -ī

The present participle only declines for number, agreeing with the subject (singular -nte, plural -ntes). The past participle declines for gender and number, agreeing with the subject (masculine and neuter singular -to, feminine singular and neuter plural -ta, masculine plural -ti, feminine singular -te). The gerund is a second declension neuter noun. The participles can also be used as attributives, in which case the present participle declines as a third declension adjective and the past participle declines as a first and second declension adjective.

Second conjugation
The second principal part determines whether palatalisation occurs.

Third conjugation
Verbs in this conjugational class will always cause palatalisation with certain suffixes if the root-final consonant can be palatalised.

Irregular verbs
The verb sere is irregular: The forms in parentheses are archaic forms.

The verb avere is irregular:

The verb volere is irregular:

This verb is also used to form desideratives. The imperative forms of these verbs are used in conjunction with the infinitive to form polite requests.

The verb potere is irregular: This verb is used to indicate ability to perform an action. The present forms are derived from sere, while the future and conditional forms are irregular.

Passive voice
The passive voice is a voice in which the subject is the patient of the verb, with the agent either being omitted or given as a prepositional phrase using a (used with the accusative). The passive voice is formed by using sere followed by the past participle of the verb, which agrees with the subject (i.e. it is in the nominative case and has the same gender as the subject). Note that while this form coincides with the perfect forms of a number of verbs, the verbs which use sere for the perfect do not have passives.

An example of the passive voice, using lavare:

Currently being reworked

Middle voice
The middle voice is a voice in which the the subject has properties of both an agent and a patient. The middle voice in Nillonan is mainly used to denote reflexives.

The middle voice is formed by placing the corresponding reflexive pronoun directly before the verb (e.g. m'ōzo for "I hear myself", mi-lavo for "I wash myself").

An example of the middle voice is found below, using lavare:

For ōdire:

Currently being reworked

Compound forms
Not all verb forms in Nillonan are purely represented by inflections. Some forms require the use of auxillaries such as sere (to be) and avere (to be, to have).

Currently being reworked

Verbal morphology
Nillonan conjugates verbs for up to five "tenses", four moods (including the conditional), person and number.

Comparison with Umirian
First conjugation (amare, amair):