Xurnese
From Almeopedia
Xurnese [zur ˈniz] is the language of Xurno, spoken by nearly fifty million people. The standard language is called by its speakers Corauši [tso ˈraw ʃi], i.e. the speech of Curau, the original capital. It is widely spoken as a second language across the southeast of Ereláe, and even in southern Eretald thanks to trade and the spread of Endajué.
It belongs to the Axunaic branch of the Eastern language family, and derives from Axunašin. It's closely related to Ṭeôši, the language of Čeiy, and in fact the eastern dialects are transitional between the two.
The writing system is a mixture of logographs and a syllabary.
Contents |
Phonology
Consonants
- stops: p b t d k g
- affricates: c dz č j
- fricatives: s z š
- nasals: m n
- laterals: l r
- semivowels: w y
c represents [ts]; voiced [dz] may also be phonemic, č š j are [tʃ ʃ dʒ], x beginning a word is [s] (but [z] in Inex), elsewhere [ks]. b and v are allophones of a single phoneme: [v] occurs intervocalically, [b] elsewhere.
Vowels
There are five vowels: a e i o u.
e is closed [e] except in diphthongs, e.g. ey [ɛj]; o is closed [o] except before r, e.g. or [ɔr].
Stress the final syllable if it ends in a consonant other than y, otherwise in a vowel. Exceptions are marked with an acute accent.
Grammatical highlights
Xurnese has lost case, gender, the emphatic and negative moods, and 2nd person inflections, but it retains a fair number of inflections, and a notoriously opaque set of plurals. Adjectives agree in number with nouns, but now simply borrow the noun's plural morpheme (if it has one) rather than having plurals of their own. It has developed a rich auxiliary system; auxiliaries, unlike regular verbs, retain a negative form.
Unmarked sentence order is SOV; constituents may be moved out of position if they are replaced with čus 'that'. Nouns always end their NP, and Axunašin prepositions have become postpositions, making Xurnese consistently head-final.
Sample sentences
Ir nevu jadzíes mnošudac. Toš to ray do šasaup rile šizen. To am šuš bunji dis kes denjic. Syu cu šuš izrues šač.
- my niece scultpr date-3s / 3s 3s.OBJ in no flaws see-INF can-3s / 3s.OBV one province some day govern-INF hope-3s / 1s that province envy-INF not-1s
- My niece is dating a sculptor. She can see no flaws in him. He hopes one day to govern a province. Myself, I don't envy that province.
Ci sus o dzuzovugeš dzulé xu ize meuš.
- this year of play-PL most bad be-INF may-3p
- This year's plays may be the worst ever.
See also
| Article begun by Stilgar, largely rewritten by Zompist |
