Astre'len
Origin Planet
Lunex
Year
6123
Speakers
~ 87,000
Astrelen developed among cliffside fishing and navigational communities on Lunex. Over centuries it incorporated elements from tidal-sign systems and petroglyphic map-notations, evolving into a compact agglutinative idiom used for oral navigation, ritual, and trade along Lunex's coastal archipelagos.
Spoken by the Asteri clans — seafaring, cliff-harvesting people who preserve knowledge through oral cartography and seasonal chant. Language encodes navigational cues and social evidentials used in storytelling and legal testimony.
Asteri coastal communities and diaspora traders on Lunex
Primary stress on the first (initial) syllable of the root; secondary stress on the third syllable in longer words. Affixes generally do not shift primary stress.
A glyphic alphasyllabary derived from cliff petroglyph motifs: consonant 'stems' are carved glyphs resembling waves or strata; vowels are marked by diacritic strokes placed above or below stems. Written forms are compact and carved on rock face and bone tablets, adapted later to inkbrush for cloth maps.
Noun system
Agglutinative nouns with three core numbers (singular, dual, plural) expressed by suffixes (-Ø, -du, -en respectively) and three cases: nominative (unmarked), genitive (-i), oblique (-a). No grammatical gender. Possession attaches as genitive before the possessed noun.
Verb system
Verbs are suffixing and prefixing: person is marked primarily with subject prefixes (1sg a-; 2sg u-; 3sg i-; 1pl ama-; 2pl uma-; 3pl es-). Tense/aspect/mood are marked with suffixes: -Ø (present/neutral), -ta (past), -ra (future), aspectual -in (progressive), evidential suffixes indicate source of information. Verbal syntax follows the SOV order and is head-final for subordinate clauses.
Adjective rules
Adjectives precede nouns and agree in number by taking the plural suffix -en when the noun is plural. Adjectives do not take case marking.
Number rules
Cardinal numerals follow the noun they count. Nouns use -du for dual and -en for plural; numerals themselves do not inflect but trigger obligatory plural marking on counted nouns beyond 1.
| Phrase | Meaning | Pronunciation |
|---|---|---|
| solan | hello / greetings | ˈso.lan |
| aera sol | good morning (lit. 'clear morning') | ˈae.ra ˈsol |
| muva | thank you | ˈmu.va |
| loma'ra | farewell / go well | loˈma.ra |
| Question | Meaning | Pronunciation |
|---|---|---|
| miku? | what? | ˈmi.ku |
| kuka? | who? | ˈku.ka |
| hena? | where? | ˈhe.na |
| pena? | how many? | ˈpe.na |
| English | Translation | Literal meaning | Pronunciation |
|---|---|---|---|
| I see the big tree. | An mara naru a-kala. | I big tree I-see | ˈan ˈma.ra ˈna.ru a-ˈka.la |
| Do you speak Lunexan? | Un Lunexa u-sera? | You Lunexa you-speak? | ˈun luˈne.ksa u-ˈse.ra |
| The bird is beautiful. | Lena kovi i-ira. | Beautiful bird 3sg-be | ˈle.na ˈko.vi i-ˈi.ra |
| They went to the river. | Esen sel a-ra loma-ta. | They river-to they-fut go-past | e-ˈsen sel a-ra loˈma-ta |
Oral Cartography (ri-kala)
A lineage-based practice where navigational routes, tides and cliff landmarks are encoded in chantable sequences. Routes are transmitted with small prosodic changes that indicate season and danger.
A navigator recites a ri-kala to apprentices; changing a single melodic motif signals a hidden shoal near a waypoint.
Evidentiality in Testimony
Astrelen marks sources of knowledge (seen, heard, inferred) in legal and ritual speech using verbal suffixes and evidential enclitics. Precision about how one learned information is socially important.
A witness will attach an evidential suffix when reporting what they saw from a cliff, distinguishing direct observation from community rumor.
Stone Waymarks (vani)
Carved stones (vani) with glyphic inscriptions anchor place names and ownership. Stories and genealogies are linked to specific vani.
During seasonal gatherings, elders recite the lineage etched on each vani to settle disputes or allocate harvest rights.
The written c corresponds to the affricate /t͡s/ (pronounced like 'ts' in 'cats').
Example: cala = /t͡sa.la/ (if used)
ng represents the velar nasal /ŋ/ and appears before velars (k, g): 'ng' in 'ngo' = /ŋo/.
Example: ŋo (written ngo) = /ŋo/ meaning 'bird' (often spelled 'ŋo' in glyphic form).
Glottal stop ʔ is inserted between adjacent vowels when clarity is required, and is phonemic in some lexical contrasts.
Example: a-ira vs aʔ-ira may distinguish aspect or clitic boundaries.
Stress falls on the initial syllable. Unstressed vowels may reduce to schwa /ə/ in rapid speech.
Example: tura = /ˈtu.ra/ but in rapid speech may be [ˈtʊ.rə].
The postalveolar fricative is written sh and realized as /ʃ/ (like English 'sh').
Example: sha = /ʃa/ (fire-related roots often use sh).