Loam Proposition

The Loam Proposition is a grammatical system proposed for Dwarvish, originated by Loam. It is currently still a work-in-progress.

Alphabet

The Dwarven alphabet consists of twenty-four letters, including eighteen consonants and five vowels with their accents:

Consonants:
b c k g t d
s z
f v th tth sh
m n ng
l r

Note that th is the sound in "thing" while tth is the sound in "this."

Vowels:
i í ì ï î
e é è ë ê
a á à ä â å
o ó ò ö ô
u ú ù û

Grammar and Sentence Structure

Dwarvish is an inflected language: that is, it expresses usage primarily through word forms, as opposed to English, which uses word order and modal auxiliaries. Dwarvish is, however, not as heavily inflected as some other languages, and it still makes use of a basic sentence structure to convey meaning.

The Dwarvish clause follows a fairly rigid SUBJECT – VERB – OBJECT structure. Phrases, such as prepositional or infinitive phrases, can be placed with some freedom anywhere in the sentence, but, generally, they must be self-contained: i.e., all words in the phrase must be in one location – free structure is frowned upon (in poetry, however, convention bows to artistry: the structure is much looser).

Words

Nouns

Gender:
Dwarvish nouns have three genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter. These are alternatively referred to as classes: o-class, a-class, and i-class, respectively. They are so called due to the “stem vowel” of each. For example, udos “man” is a masculine word with plural form udosos; aral “woman” is a feminine word with plural form aralas; limul “gold” is a neuter word with plural form limulis.

Case:
Dwarvish has three noun cases: objective, genitive, and ablative. The objective case is used for direct participants in the action of a sentence: that is, the subject or object (direct or indirect). The genitive case is used for references: it is a general case that encompasses such uses as possession, composition, reference, and many more. The ablative case is used primarily in prepositional phrases.

CASES	Singular			Plural
	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
Objective	(none)	(none)	(none)	-os	-as	-is
Genitive	-in			-inis
Ablative	-òl	-àl	-ìl	-òr	-àr	-ìr

Adjectives

Adjectives agree with the nouns they modify in case, number, and gender. Additionally, adjectives are commonly appended directly to nouns through coupling. A noun will add a coupling stem depending on its gender (and somewhat on its case) immediately before the added modifier. So, “tall man” is rendered as udosöshukor: udos, masculine noun “man” + masculine coupling stem -ö- + shukor, masculine adjective.
If udos were genitive, udosin, the coupling stem would be -î-: the resulting term reads udosîshukorin.
In such a coupling, endings for case and number are not added to the noun, only to the adjective. So “tall men” is udosöshukoros, not udososöshukoros. In a sense, the noun and the adjective become one term.
Adjectives can stand alone, in which case both the noun and the adjective take on the case and number endings: udosos shukoros is the same as udosöshukoros. This is uncommon, however.

COUPLING STEMS	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
Objective/Ablative	-ö-	-ä-	-ï-
Genitive	-î-

Verbs

There are two conjugations of verbs in Dwarvish. They are very similar, with the only difference being their passive constructions.
Verbs agree with subjects in person and number.

Tense

There are six tenses in Dwarvish: present, past, future, perfect, pluperfect, and future perfect. These are all represented by endings.

TENSES
Person	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
	Present		Past		Future
1st	-ar	-amar	-er	-emir	-us	-umus
2nd	-al	-atal	-el	-etel	-ul	-utul
3rd	-an	-anas	-en	-enis	-un	-unus
	Perfect		Pluperfect		Future Perfect
1st	-ark	-amak	-ek	-emik	-ush	-umuk
2nd	-alak	-adak	-elek	-edek	-ulush	-udush
3rd	-ang	-angas	-eng	-engis	-ung	-ungush

Note that the tense endings seem very much the same across tenses. This is due to the way Dwarvish regards vowels: many important changes in meaning come about through changes in vowel sounds.

Voice

Dwarvish has two voices: active and passive. Active voice is represented in the normal construction of the verb.
Passive voice is represented differently in each conjugation. In the first conjugation, passive voice is marked with an ablaut of the final vowel sound. So the verb aval “to love” becomes avôl “to be loved.”
The exact change follows a pattern or sequence of vowel sounds:

Where the root vowel is changed to the long sound (circumflex) of the next vowel in the sequence. So, i becomes ê, e becomes â, a becomes ô, o becomes û, and u becomes î. The tense endings are the same in passive voice.

In the second conjugation, passive voice is marked with an ablaut of the tense ending vowel. The vowel adopts its acute form: so atölar, “I find,” becomes atölár, “I am found.” Second conjugation verbs are not as common as first.

Mood

Dwarvish moods are expressed by particles, small words placed before the verb. These particles have no absolute meaning in themselves, but rather alter the meaning of the verb after them.
Dwarvish recognizes the following moods:

Indicative: “factual” mood, the mood of real events. Standard verb form; no particle.
Rurar: I run

Imperative: mood expressing commands. Uses the particle ok. The subject is always “you” understood, and the tense is always present.
Ok rur! Run!

Jussive: expresses a command or wish. Uses the particle ten.
Ten rurar: Let me run
Ten rurar? May I run?

Uncertain: expresses that the subject is undecided as to performance of the action. Uses the particle ûm.
Ûm rurar: I may run (but I may not)

Possible: expresses that the subject can perform the action, but might not. Can also express provision: the subject can perform the action only after doing something else. Uses the particle cal.
Cal rurar: I could run (but I may not) (if I first leave the house)

Necessity: expresses that the subject is obliged to the action, whether or not it is performed. Uses the particle sham.
Sham rurar: I should run (but I will not).

Desire: expresses the subject’s desire to perform the action, whether or not he does. Uses the particle vos.
Vos rurar: I would run (but I can’t)

Only the indicative mood accepts an explicit future tense. The other moods, called “subjunctive” moods, imply some futurity within their meaning.

Infinitives, Participles, and Gerunds

There are five (six) infinitives in Dwarvish, here illustrated with aval, “to love”:

Infinitives	Active	Passive
Present	aval	avôl
Past (Perfect)	avalez	avôlez
Future	avalug	(avôlug)

And here with atöl, “to find”:

Infinitives	Active	Passive
Present	atöl	atöláz
Past (Perfect)	atölez	atöléz
Future	atöluz	(atölúz)

(future passive, “to be about to be loved,” is rare enough to be omitted)

Note that these are quite similar to the structure of finite tense and voice.

There are three Dwarvish participles:

Participles	Active	Passive
Present	avalath
Past (Perfect)		avôleth
Future	avalutth

And in second conjugation:

Participles	Active	Passive
Present	atölath
Past (Perfect)		atöléth
Future	atölutth

Note that the -th ending is adjectival. The adverbial ending is -sh.

Gerunds, or verbal nouns, are formed from the root infinitive plus the ending -ad, to which are appended case endings: atölad, “(the act of) finding.”