Shirerothian language

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.

History

Shirerothian has been spoken in Shireroth for thousands of years.

Orthography

The Shirerothian alphabet contains 30 letters and 4 digraphs. 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 ate
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
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 25 consonant and 6 vowel 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

Vowels

The table below shows the Shirerothian consonant phonemes.

	Front	Back
High	i   (y)	u
Mid	e   (ø)	o
Low	æ	ɑ

Vowel Harmony

Shirerothian exhibits vowel harmony, a long-distance assimilatory phonological process involving vowels across syllabic boundaries.

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.

Personal pronouns

First person

Singular

	Masculine	Neuter	Feminine
Nominative	æj	æjon	æjo
Accusative	æja	æjon	æjon
Genitive	æjes	æjes	æjönes
Prepositional	æji	æji	æji

Plural

	Masculine	Neuter	Feminine
Nominative	æje	æje	æjöne
Accusative	æje	æje	æjöne
Genitive	æjese	æjese	æjönese
Prepositional	æjim	æjim	æjim

Second person

Singular

	Masculine	Neuter	Feminine
Nominative	þu	þun	þuno
Accusative	þuna	þun	þuna
Genitive	þynes	þynes	þynes
Prepositional	þyni	þyni	þyni

Plural

	Masculine	Neuter	Feminine
Nominative	þyne	þyne	þyne
Accusative	þyne	þyne	þyne
Genitive	þynese	þynese	þynese
Prepositional	þynim	þynim	þynim

Third person

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. This 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.

Singular

	Masculine	Neuter	Feminine	Human
Nominative	el	e	elo	sen
Accusative	ela	en	elon	sen
Genitive	eles	enes	elönes	senes
Prepositional	eli	eli	elöni	senim

Plural

	Masculine	Neuter	Feminine
Nominative	sene	sene	sene
Accusative	sene	sene	sene
Genitive	senese	senese	senese
Prepositional	senim	senim	senim

Demonstrative pronouns

Singular

	Masculine	Neuter	Feminine
Nominative	ðe	ðena	ðo
Accusative	ðena	ðena	ðon
Genitive	ðenes	ðenes	ðönes
Prepositional	ðeni	ðeni	ðöni

Plural

	Masculine	Neuter	Feminine
Nominative	ðe	ðena	ðene
Accusative	ðe	ðena	ðene
Genitive	ðenese	ðenese	ðenese
Prepositional	ðenim	ðenim	ðenim

Interrogative and relative pronouns

Unlike English, Shirerothian does not make a distinction between human ("who") and non-human ("what") forms.

Singular

	Masculine	Neuter	Feminine
Nominative	vo	vod	vo
Accusative	voda	vod	von
Genitive	ves	ves	ves
Prepositional	vi	vi	vi

Plural

	Masculine	Neuter	Feminine
Nominative	vone	vode	vone
Accusative	voden	vode	vone
Genitive	vese	vese	vese
Prepositional	vim	vim	vim

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

Prepositions

With exactly two exceptions, prepositions in Shirerothian take the instrumental case. The prepositions að ("of" or "from") and zxa ("in") take the genitive case.

Syntax

Shirerothian typically exhibits a VSO word order.