yannda

Yannda is a fictional language created for linguistic demonstration and worldbuilding. In most descriptions, yannda is an agglutinative language with vowel harmony and a subject–object–verb (SOV) base word order. Its morphology relies on suffix chains to encode tense, aspect, mood, number, and evidentiality. Adjectives typically precede the nouns they modify, and possession is shown by possessive affixes.

Phonology and writing: Yannda has a modest phoneme inventory including p, t, k, m, n, s, r and vowels a, e, i, o, u. Syllables are usually CV or CVC. Vowel harmony requires suffix vowels to agree with the root vowel in frontness/backness. In most published materials, yannda is transcribed using a Latin-based orthography; a decorative, fictional yanndil script appears in art and gaming materials.

Grammar: It features affixal morphology with extensive suffixation; demonstratives and pronouns mark person and number; case is signaled by postpositions rather than inflection; word order is relatively free due to rich morphology, but default sentences are SOV. Numerals may classify nouns or follow the noun phrase depending on context.

Origins and usage: In the fictional universe, yannda originated on the coastal archipelago of Nyara and spread to inland communities. It is used in literature, ceremonial discourse, and education within the worldbuilding corpus. A small community of fans and scholars studies yannda as a case study in conlang design.

See also: constructed language, conlang, linguistics, worldbuilding.