Gryphon Avocatio/Sxiróþes

Shirerothian ConLang (Præta Sxiróþes)
Pronunciation:	{{{pronunciation}}}
Spoken in:	Shireroth
Region:	National
Total speakers:	0
Language family:	Shirerothian Languages
Writing system:	{{{alphabet}}}
Official status
Official language in:	Shireroth
Regulated by:	Gryphon Avocatio

The Only Flag of Shireroth

Introduction

This page is a bit of a public scratch pad for the proposed Shirerothian Language. Sxiróþes is the genitive form of the word for Shireroth in the language, and in this case is short for Præta Sxiróþes, meaning, roughly, Shireroth's Speech.

For the discussion, see this thread and others forthcoming in the University.

Alphabet

The proposed alphabet for the language is as follows:

Aa Bb Cc Çç Dd Ðð Ee Ff Gg Hh Ƕƕ Ii Jj Ll Mm Nn Oo Óó Pp Rr Ss Tt Þþ Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz

Morphology

Nominal Morphology

Nouns in Shirerothian decline for number and case, based on gender. There are two numbers, singular and plural; two genders, "masculine" and "feminine"; and four cases.

Masculine Nouns

Masculine nouns end in consonants. In the fictional history of this language, there were distinguishing vowels at the ends of masculine nouns, but they were subsequently lost and now only the feminine forms have vowels word-finally.

	Singular	Plural
Nominative		-e
Accusative	-a	-e
Genitive	-es	-ese
Prepositional	-i	-im

Feminine Nouns

Feminine Nouns are those generally ending in either the letters 'a' or 'o', although other nouns and pronouns ending in vowels uses the following suffixes to display case as well. Some irregular nouns, like jor, "yesterday", take feminine suffixes, despite their ending in consonants

	Singular	Plural
Nominative		-ne
Accusative	-n	-ne
Genitive	-nes	-nese
Prepositional	-ni	-nim

Phonology

The following is a simplified vowel chart. All of the sounds here match their orthographic equivalent except for [ø], which is written 'ó' in the alphabet. The segments in () are not phonemes, but the result of vowel harmony.

	[-back]	[+back]
[+high][-low]	i (y)	u
[-high][-low]	e (ø)	o
[-high][+low]	æ	ɑ

The vowel harmony rule for the language is very straightforward. [-low, -back] vowels (that is, o and u) become [+front] when the next vowel in the word is [-low, +front] (i.e. i and e). This is represented in the orthography by the changes from o→ó and u→y. For instance

• læjo "road" → læjóne "roads"

Personal Pronouns

The personal pronouns essentially follow the same declension rules of the normal nouns. The feminine 3rd person forms also have shorter versions typically used in speech and less formal contexts. The longer versions are to be found in higher prose and poetry. Likewise, the language differentiates between feminine and masculine in the first person in formal contexts, but both genders can uses the masculine forms.

Singular	1(M)	1F	2	3M	3F
Nominative	æj	æjo	þu	el	elo
Accusative	æja	æjon	þuna	ela	elona / elna
Genitive	æjes	æjónes	þynes	eles	elónes / elnes
Prepositional	æji	æjóni	þyni	eli	elóni / elni

Plural	1(M)	1F	2	3M	3F
Nominative	æje	æjóne	þyne	ele	elóne / elne
Accusative	æje	æjóne	þyne	ele	elóne / elne
Genitive	æjese	æjónese	þynese	elese	elónese / elnese
Prepositional	æjim	æjónim	þynim	elim	elónim / elnim