Introduction

Ven’na [文話] is the language of the elves of Halvanai, also known as the Tianyuan Continent (天元大陸). It is spoken by elvenkind in East Aseron in the material plane, as well as the equivalent regions of the twilight realm, east of the Kunnuu Mountains (崐峿山). The eastern continents of the two planes have a long, intertwined history, stretching back to before the continents split, and the teachings of the Great Jin, experiences long since forgotten to recorded history. Thus Ven’na has a layer of loan vocabulary from the common language of East Aseron, as well as using a version of its ancient characters as its own refined script.

天元大陸靈族之言者，雖異於凡間，同承古字，與人類古篆、龍家金爪竝，因有所似所異。其假於人文，亦假於人音，故有讀者謂訓謂假。訓者本音，假者燕音，可見古二界所交交也矣。

Version: 5.0b

Sounds and Romanisation

Ven’na syllables are of the form (consonant)-(glide)-vowel-(final), and words are multisyllabic.

Initials are

y can be its own initial

We shall use the text 《靈間一綫天》 from 《神海閑談》 and its parallel in ven’na to explain the grammar. Every sentence is glossed with the literal translation and endings, with [square brackets] used to group word ideas where they are two words in english.

靈間一綫天 Alennya-a-Chisanten

話說靈間南海千里外，有一疆焉，謂之南凱，

1. venna is an SOV topic-comment generally agglutinative language, which makes heavy use of final particles to indicate grammar. It is a pro-subject drop language. Objects or comments are not usually indicated, only subjects. Verbs generally end in n.
2. There are two noun genders, hal (h) “heaven” and dai (d) “earth”. The former is used for ethereal, conceptual, or non-physical objects, and as honorific; the latter is used for physical objects and people. There are no articles, but noun gender affects certain particles.
3. All words can be glossed with characters

-a- between nouns: possessive or attributive, similar to japanese の. -i after a noun phrase: location particle. -che after a phrase, indicates the end of a direct quote, similar to japanese と. se (h)/sa (d): generic third person pronoun, venna does not split by gender or animicity.

nandur, shen-in, nankai are all Yan loan words. All multi-syllabic loan words can be split into their individual syllables / characters. Amar is an “established phrase” (it cannot be analysed further)

五行模糊，天地不清，虛實不分。

-o (h)/-a (d) after a noun or a noun-phrase (later grammar construction): subject/topic markers (venna makes no difference). Note. se/sa do not take a subject marker, but are instead se/saa -ai after a verb: negation marker. -in- between nouns: “and” or “with”, groups nouns together, only works between nouns.

Fusun is a Yan loan word.

此處天地分為二，上為陽，下為陰，其交罡風烈烈，人難存身。

3. ala’o kan is a representative simple topic-comment sentence. Ven’na has no copula, so this sentence structure is used as so. (“to be” is used specifically in the sence of “exists” or “there is”)
4. Adjectives can be reduplicated for effect, indicated in the gloss by [redup.]. The second occurence of the adjective will drop the initial noun or verb.

ni, kan, kin are Yan loan words.

靈人稱之一綫天。

又說穿一綫天而至太陽之國，

5. -ka after verbs: the continual particle, c.f. Japnaese て, indicates multiple clauses are semantically linked together.

taikan is a loan. itemar is an established phrase.

五日耀耀，永常春夏。

6. Adjectives generally end in i, and can be used either before nouns (Later grammar construction) or in the same place as verbs. In this case they modify an object, hence jeraachi “summer”/“the warm seasons” does not have a subject marker.
7. Numbers directly before nouns are counters, and plurals are not otherwise indicated.

太陽之國與一綫天之間又有一國，其王神龍海蛟也，

8. Whilst Ven’na does not have any usual way to indicate the comment of a sentence, for exclamations ie is used, which is a meaningless particle roughly equivalent to Classical Chinese emphatic 矣 or 也哉.

seja (h)/saja (d) is a contraction of se-a- and sa-a-, the possessive “it’s”. -en- between adjective and noun: modfication marker, c.f. japanese な. (See 6) -su “from” -san “to” are location particles describing a range, c.f Japanese から and まで, which can be used in isolation or together. They can be followed by a range describer such as “between” or “outside of”.

天劫之化身，萬物之師，與仙不上下。

9. The -en suffix after a full clause makes that entire clause an object, usable in the position of a noun. It generally takes the (h) gender. (See after 3)

史傳謂之守門者，太安陀。

Full Text

Romanisation:

In hybrid Han notation (a notation using han characters where Venna would use them, and japanese kana for grammatical particles in place of native script — the kana correspond but do not exactly represent the Venna sound. Complex punctuation is not used.):

天元大陸南岸、乃靈人淮元之境也、與馮元、南隴共霸天下、以七小國為附、則謂三境七地。

10. The -hin suffix indicates participant subjects, mentioned as doing the same action as the main subject (Huiyenshaa)
11. dechem is a preposition meaning together. Preopositions like this go just before the verb. dechem is not mandatory; it is used for emphasis.
12. ier similarly is a preposition, though it refers to the dropped subject of the sentence. Whilst nominally glossed as “they”, it is used specifically like a passive voice marker, and is optional when the subject is clear.

淮元望洋城有一海運商賈、姓馬名濟勤、曾為北國馮元之外親、

13. yavun is a noun-preposition, but as there’s no verb in the sentence, it appears before the object.

因家分而免其馮姓、放於極南、運南海之物於北以謀生。

14. Sentences can be linked by cause and effect. -ita indicates a clause is the cause of some result, which is a separate result or series of results that can come after or before the -ita clause, and marked by -sara. The -sara clause can be omitted if known.

濟勤業商多年、見多識廣、好讀史、故早知南凱之一綫天、日日夢探之其奧也、

漸乏其業、故一日會親告己之將聚人外探一綫天。

靈人自古恐水、深海危機處處、兇險數數、親不與之。

濟勤再三請與、再三受拒、親不願之探深海也、出者莫反、一箇濟勤又安破前例。

故不出、而暗中節銀尋好險之人。

靈人生而通天地之元、千年爲壽、濟勤再商數十年、買一艨、聚二十人同行。

一夜留信於家中、獨出而往港、與隊乘艨去陸地。

南帆百日不見土、忽一日前方遙處天色熾白、近之見海面玄暗、天海之間灰陰不定、似有颶風呼嘯、

乃陰陽之交、天地之極、遙遙南凱一綫之天。

同行者有一雙道士、同門兄弟、熟習仙法、長者復姓特羅名葛、少者姓於名斯。

早在艨內設仙陣、靜心養神、修器啟法、並教衆人有習法者助、全力駕往天地之端、渡一綫之天、

正是：

陰陽沌沌玄明絞　　蕩海滔滔玉宇搖
孤葉駕風騰水猛　　祈終撤陣見新朝

100. saa is a colloquial set phrase.
101. Poetry is generally directly read using Yan readings. Venna has a lot of the palatelisation that Mandarin Chinese does (even more in some cases), and no distinct entering tone, which is usually reduced to final l. Some readings are irregular (e.g. dur)