Difference between revisions of "Shirerothian language"
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! Genitive | ! Genitive |
Revision as of 11:07, 27 December 2010
Shirerothian Language (Præta Sxiröþes) | |
---|---|
Pronunciation: | [ˈprætɑ ʃiˈrøθes] |
Spoken in: | Shireroth |
Region: | National |
Total speakers: | 0 |
Language family: | Shirerothian |
Writing system: | Latin (Shirerothian variant) |
Official status | |
Official language in: | Shireroth |
Regulated by: | Department of Constructed Languages |
The Shirerothian or Shirerithian language (Præta Sxiröþes in Shirerothian) is a constructed language from Shireroth.
Contents
History
Shirerothian has been spoken in Shireroth for thousands of years.
Orthography
The Shirerothian alphabet contains 30 individual letters and 5 digraphs. Each digraph is considered a separate letter in the alphabet, and thus, Shirerothian has a total of 35 letters. The letter x does not have a pronunciation of its own, and is used only in combinations with other letters.
The table below shows the correspondence between the Shirerothian alphabet and IPA. The English pronunciations are based on General American English.
Shirerothian | IPA | English pronunciation |
---|---|---|
a | [ɑ] | father |
æ | [æ] | fat |
b | [b] | bat |
c | [tʃ] | church |
ç | [dʒ] | bridge |
d | [d] | dog |
ð | [ð] | the |
e | [e] | Approx. like hail |
f | [f] | fat |
g | [g] | gift |
h | [h] | home |
i | [i] | deed |
j | [j] | yes |
k | [k] | king |
kx | [x] | (Scottish) loch |
l | [l] | leave |
m | [m] | man |
n | [n] | no |
ng | [ŋ] | sang |
o | [o] | Approx. like coal |
ö | [ø] | (German) schön |
p | [p] | pie |
r | [r] | (Spanish) burro |
s | [s] | sock |
sx | [ʃ] | shock |
t | [t] | tame |
þ | [θ] | thin |
u | [u] | food |
v | [v] | vein |
w | [w] | want |
wx | [ʍ] | (Old-fashioned) whale |
y | [y] | (French) tu |
z | [z] | zoo |
zx | [ʒ] | mirage |
Phonology
The Shirerothian language contains a rich inventory of 26 consonant and 6 vowel phonemes.
Phonemes
Consonants
The table below shows the Shirerothian consonant phonemes.
Bilabial | Labiodental | Dental | Alveolar | Postalveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nasal | m | n | ŋ | |||||
Plosive | p b | t d | k g | |||||
Affricate | tʃ dʒ | |||||||
Fricative | f v | θ ð | s z | ʃ ʒ | x | h | ||
Approximant | l | j | ʍ w | |||||
Trill | r |
Notes
[l] is a "clear" l (alveolar lateral approximant), and is thus pronounced like "leave" [liːv], not "tell" [tɛɫ] (which has a "dark" l, or velarized alveolar lateral approximant).
[ŋ] can occur at the syllable onset, unlike in English where it can never occur at the syllable onset.
[p], [t], and [k] are never aspirated.
Vowels
The table below shows the Shirerothian vowel phonemes.
Front | Back | |
---|---|---|
High | i (y) | u |
Mid | e (ø) | o |
Low | æ | ɑ |
[y] and [ø] are allophones of /u/ and /o/, respectively, occurring in complementary distribution with [u] and [o].
There are five diphthongs: [æj], [æw], [iw], [oj], and [øj]. They are best analyzed phonemically as /Vj/ rather than /Vɪ̯/.
Stress
The vest majority of Shirerothian words have paroxytonic stress, i.e., they are almost always stressed on the second-to-last syllable. Exceptions are marked in the orthography with an acute accent:
- zxádurum [ˈʒɑdurum] "desk"
Metaphony
Shirerothian exhibits regressive metaphony (or less precisely, umlaut or vowel harmony), a long-distance assimilatory phonological process involving vowels across boundaries.
[-back] [-rounded] | [-back] [+rounded] | [+back] [+rounded] | |
---|---|---|---|
[+high] [-low] | i | y | u |
[-high] [-low] | e | ø | o |
The rule for Shirerothian is fairly straightforward: [-low, +back] vowels (i.e., o and u) become [-back] when the next vowel in the word is [-low, -back] (i.e., i and e). This is represented in the orthography by the changes from o → ö and u → y. For instance,
- læjo [ˈlæjo] "road" → læjöne [læˈjøne] "roads"
Phonotactics
Shirerothian has the following syllable structure: (C)(C)V(C)(C)
Onset
Nucleus
All vowels, and only vowels, can appear in the nucleus.
Coda
Morphology
Shirerothian is a highly inflected language.
Nouns
Shirerothian has three noun declensions.
-C declension
This declension class is used with noun stems ending in a consonant, except for those ending in -t. All nouns in this class are masculine or neuter, with a few limited exceptions.
Singular | Plural | |
---|---|---|
Nominative | -e | |
Accusative | -a | -e |
Genitive | -es | -ese |
Prepositional | -i | -im |
-V declension
This declension class is used with noun stems ending in a vowel. The vast majority of nouns in this class are feminine.
Singular | Plural | |
---|---|---|
Nominative | -ne | |
Accusative | -n | -ne |
Genitive | -nes | -nese |
Prepositional | -ni | -nim |
-t declension
This declension class is used with noun stems ending in -t. All nouns in this class are masculine.
Singular | Plural | |
---|---|---|
Nominative | -ene | |
Accusative | -ana | -ene |
Genitive | -es | -ese |
Prepositional | -i | -im |
Pronouns
Pronouns in Shirerothian, not unexpectedly, are often irregular. Unusually, Shirerothian declines all pronouns by gender, although in the plural, many forms have been merged.
The neuter gender is listed after the masculine because it originally developed from the masculine in Old Shirerothian. Even today, the neuter shares many of the same endings as the masculine.
Personal pronouns
First person
æj, æjon, æjo I | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Masculine | Neuter | Feminine | ||||
Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | |
Nominative | æj | æje | æjon | æje | æjo | æjöne |
Accusative | æja | æje | æjon | æje | æjon | æjöne |
Genitive | æjes | æjese | æjes | æjese | æjönes | æjönese |
Prepositional | æji | æjim | æji | æjim | æji | æjim |
Second person
þu, þun, þuno you | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Masculine | Neuter | Feminine | ||||
Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | |
Nominative | þu | þyne | þun | þyne | þuno | þyne |
Accusative | þuna | þyne | þun | þyne | þuna | þyne |
Genitive | þynes | þynese | þynes | þynese | þynes | þynese |
Prepositional | þyni | þynim | þyni | þynim | þyni | þynim |
Third person
el, e, elo, sen he, she, it, they | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Masculine | Neuter | Feminine | Human | |||||
Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | |
Nominative | el | sene | e | sene | elo | sene | se | - |
Accusative | ela | sene | en | sene | elon | sene | se | - |
Genitive | eles | senese | enes | senese | elönes | senese | senese | - |
Prepositional | eli | senim | eni | senim | elöni | senim | senim | - |
The "human" form is used to describe a person without indicating his or her gender. This is very similar to the use of "they" as a singular third-person pronoun in English. The human form originally developed from the old third-person plural, which was reanalyzed as a singular. To distinguish between the former plural, which had become a singular, and the true plural, a plural marker was added to the pronoun. The human form does not have a plural; the neuter plural is used when describing a group of people without specifying their gender, or when describing a mixed-gender group of people. While the use of a human form for the singular in Shirerothian appears to be an independent innovation, the use of the neuter plural is likely a borrowing from Eldurian. (It is known that the neuter plural is used because Middle Shirerothian distinguished between masculine, neuter, and feminine genders in the third-person plural, and the neuter plural was always used for unspecified- or mixed-gender groups.)
Demonstrative pronouns
Shirerothian has only one demonstrative pronoun. When greater specificity is required, hi "here", li "there", or ili "yonder" can be used:
- rund ðena "this/that hat" (i.e., "the particular hat being mentioned")
- ræd ðe hi "this house"
- zxádurum ðena li "that desk"
- jatu ðo ili "that sheep yonder"
ðe, ðena, ðo this, that | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Masculine | Neuter | Feminine | ||||
Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | |
Nominative | ðe | ðe | ðena | ðena | ðo | ðene |
Accusative | ðena | ðe | ðena | ðena | ðon | ðene |
Genitive | ðenes | ðenese | ðenes | ðenese | ðönes | ðenese |
Prepositional | ðeni | ðenim | ðeni | ðenim | ðöni | ðenim |
Interrogative and relative pronouns, and interrogative adjectives
Unlike English, Shirerothian does not make a distinction between human ("who") and non-human ("what") forms.
vo who, what, which | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Masculine | Neuter | Feminine | ||||
Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | |
Nominative | vo | vöne | vo | vöde | vo | vöne |
Accusative | voda | vöden | vo | vöde | von | vöne |
Genitive | ves | vese | ves | vese | ves | vese |
Prepositional | vi | vim | vi | vim | vi | vim |
Determiners
While most determiners follow the noun, certain determiners, such as articles and numbers, precede the noun.
Articles
Shireroth has a definite article, but no indefinite article. The definite article declines for gender and number, but not case.
Masculine | Neuter | Feminine | |
---|---|---|---|
Singular | se | se | sa |
Plural | sene | sene | sane |
Numbers
Numbers are formed rather similarly to English numbers. With the exception of uk "one", which declines according to case and gender, numbers are indeclinable.
Masculine | Neuter | Feminine | |
---|---|---|---|
Nominative | uk | uk | uko |
Accusative | uka | uk | ukon |
Genitive | ykes | ykes | ukönes |
Prepositional | yki | yki | yni |
Shirerothian | Numeral |
---|---|
uk | 1 |
za | 2 |
joj | 3 |
naþ | 4 |
sxu | 5 |
ylhi | 6 |
gnas | 7 |
tantif | 8 |
stefta | 9 |
graks | 10 |
graksuk | 11 |
zæf | 12 |
jöjne | 13 |
naðak | 14 |
misko | 15 |
graksylhi | 16 |
graksangas | 17 |
grakstantif | 18 |
grakstefta | 19 |
zagraks | 20 |
zagraksuk | 21 |
jojgraks | 30 |
ortu | 100 |
za ortu | 200 |
gozma | 1000 |
graks gozma | 10,000 |
ortu gozma | 100,000 |
tagozma | 1,000,000 |
Adjectives
Shirerothian has two adjective declensions, which are identical to their respective noun declensions. Adjectives are inflected for case, but not for gender. Adjectives generally follow the noun they modify.
-C declension
This declension class is used with adjective stems ending in a consonant.
Singular | Plural | |
---|---|---|
Nominative | -e | |
Accusative | -a | -e |
Genitive | -es | -ese |
Prepositional | -i | -im |
-V declension
This declension class is used with adjective stems ending in a vowel.
Singular | Plural | |
---|---|---|
Nominative | -ne | |
Accusative | -n | -ne |
Genitive | -nes | -nese |
Prepositional | -ni | -nim |
Verbs
Adverbs
Prepositions
With exactly two exceptions, prepositions in Shirerothian take the prepositional case. The prepositions að ("of" or "from") and zxa ("in") take the genitive case.
Syntax
Shirerothian typically exhibits a VSO word order, although SVO or OVS can be used to emphasize the subject or object, respectively. Shirerothian also exhibits strong right-branching characteristics: Adjectives follow nouns, genitives and relative clauses follow nouns, pronouns follow verbs, and adpositions appear as prepositions. However, certain determiners such as articles and numbers precede nouns.
Lexicon
The following is a short list of certain words in Shirerothian:
Shirerothian | English | Class |
---|---|---|
að | of, from | prep. |
æwdæk | sword | n. (m.) |
dæjta | today | adv. |
gönleta | mango | n. (f.) |
hæks | arm, weapon | n. (m.) |
hödet | hand | n. (n.) |
hus | person | n. (n.) |
ispæjzxa | after | prep. |
jatu | sheep | n. (f.) |
jor | yesterday | adv. |
læjo | road, path | n. (f.) |
mec | fire | n. (m.) |
myrita | tomorrow | adv. |
præta | speech, language | n. (f.) |
ræd | house | n. (m.) |
rund | hat | n. (m.) |
sikx | city | n. (n.) |
sult | ocean | n. (n.) |
Sxiroþ | Shireroth | n. (m.) |
sxun | spike, nail | n. (m.) |
taku | to eat | v. |
tast | to | prep. |
træjzxa | before | prep. |
trojm | journey | n. (n.) |
vozx | to run | v. |
wxen | male | n. (m.) |
wxeno | female | n. (f.) |
yrköli | island | n. (f.) |
zxádurum | desk | n. (n.) |
zxuk | leg | n. (n.) |