Srngadz

Consonants
Forms in parenthesis are allophones.

Vowels
Forms in parenthesis are either allophones or variations based on stress. Srngadz does not have rounded vowels.

As will be noted below /a/, /i/, and /u/ are written with individual letters and can make a few different sounds based on stress and vowel position:

Phonotactics
Syllables take the basic form of (C)(C)(C)V(C)(C). They always contain a nucleus. Syllables can also contain an onset and a coda. The nucleus can be one of three basic vowels /a/, /i/, or /u/, one of the four syllabic consonants /n/, /m/, /l/, or /r/, or in a small closed set of words a syllabic fricative. There are no diphthongs natural to Srngadz.

The onset of a syllable follows one of these basic rules: The coda of a syllable follows one of these basic rules: Additionally if a nucleus of a syllable is a syllable consonant then that consonant may not occur in the onset or coda of that syllable.
 * 1) Optional /s/ or /z/ or /ʃ/ or /ʒ/ added to a /n/ or /m/ with an option /ɰ/ or /j/ or /ɹ/
 * 2) Optional /s/ or /z/ or /ʃ/ or /ʒ/ added to a stop with the same voicing as the fricative (if applicable) optionally added to /j/,/ɹ/,/h/,/l/,/ɰ/.
 * 3) /s/,/z/,/ʃ/,/ʒ/ added to a bilabial fricative with matching voicing optionally added to /j/,/ɹ/,/l/,/ɰ/.
 * 4) An affricate added optionally to /j/,/ɹ/,/l/,/ɰ/
 * 5) A fricative added optionally to /j/,/ɹ/,/l/,/ɰ/
 * 6) /ʙ/ added to an optional /j/,/ɹ/,/l/
 * 7) The syllabic onset is one of these individual phonemes: /j/,/h/,/ɰ/,/ɹ/,/l/,/ɬ/,/tɬ/,/ŋ/
 * 1) Just a fricative.
 * 2) /s/,/z/,/ʃ/,/ʒ/ plus a stop with matching voicing.
 * 3) A stop with an optional fricative with matching voicing.
 * 4) An affricate.
 * 5) Any of the above plus /ɹ/,/l/,/n/,/m/
 * 6) The onset is either just /ɬ/ or just /ŋ/

Writing System
Srngadz has a script for itself I can't hope to easily represent here, though I will attempt to explain it. The script is featural, rather than being a syllabary that has a glyph per syllable or an alphabet with a glyph per letter, the script described here has letters for both the place of articulation and the manner of articulation with respect to consonants. It also has a few extra letters including vowels. A breakdown of the alphabet is below:

The table below shows how the "places of articulation" characters and "manner of articulation" characters are devided:

In the table above the bolded headers each represent a letter. Phonemes with an asterisk represent defective pairings.

Nouns
Nouns decline into 6 cases with 6 determener categories:
 * 1 Consonant clusters before ending are voiced.


 * 2 Stress always shifts to end.

The unmarked case
The unmarked case (similar to nominitive) is used with any use of a noun that does not explictly fall under one of the other five cases. Its usage is quite broad though most nouns in this case will either be direct objects of a verb or the object of one of the prepositions that take this case. Intransitive verbs also take an unmarked noun as its single argument. Uses of the unmarked case will be covered below in the "Verbs" and "Prepositions" categories.

The genitive case
The genitive case functions like the genitive cases of many other languages. It denotes the noun in question as the owner or source of another noun which it modifies. Like all cases some prepositions will require the genitive specifically. For an example the words [t ɑt ] (Pen) and ['dʒɤɹɑ] (Female teacher) will be used. To show that the pen is owned by the teacher one makes the following noun phrase: [t ɑt  dʒɤɹɑ'ne] which means "The teacher's pen." Prepositions which take the genitive and their use will be covered under "Prepositions."

The Instrimental case
The instrimental is used to show that an action or task was completed with the use of some other noun. This is the relationship shown in English with the use of the prepositions "by" or "with." It does not generally denote a comitative relationship and is used most often with inanimate objects. If it is assumed that [ðrs] means "I write" then the phrase "I write with a pen" can be rendered as such: [ðrs t ɑ tɤ ŋ]. Like above, there are prepositions that use this case.

The comparitive case
The comparitive case shows compairisons between nouns. These comparisons can be either comparisons of attributes, or a comparison of actions. Additionally with the use of prepositions that use the comparitive case the relationship can be marked as positive, comparitive, or even superlative. Taking [t ɑ t] from above we can put it in the comparitive as such: [t ɑ t ɤ l] and make the phrase  [ ðrʃ  t ɑ t ɤ l] which translates to "(It) writes like a pen." where [ ðrʃ] in this context means "(It) writes."

The causitive case
This case denotes that a particular noun was the cause of an action or a state. Nouns in the case are not the object of any verb or preposition, but rather modify the entire clause they are a part of. If we take [' dʒɤɹɑ] and  [ðrs] from above we can write  [' dʒɤɹɑq  ðrs] by putting  [' dʒɤɹɑ] in the comparitive. It translates to "I am writing becuase of the teacher."

The partitive case
The partitive case tends to be a bit more complicated and arbitrary, with most of its uses coming in the form of prepositions. Though it is not analogous to other language's partitive cases it is named after one of its more straightforward uses: it shows that an object is the whole of which something is a part.

Indefinite
The indefinite is used to show an instance or instences of a noun where it's not important to determine 'which one' the particular object is. For example "I saw a cat yesterday." has a cat as an indefinite noun, marked by the indefinite article a. It can also be plural: "I saw some cats yesterday." though in Srngadz an additional determiner may be needed.

Class
The 'class' category or possibly 'general' category or 'abstract' category refers to a noun which stands in as a generaliation for its entire category. For example: "Cats have tails." where "cats" is being used as a stand in for all cats, even if its not literally true that every single cat has a tail. This is shown in English with the zero determiner. In Srngadz these nouns don't decline into the genitive, instrimental, or partitive. Generally the use of these cases in a generalization like the above would use the indefinite case though if there are exceptions they will be explained.

Proximal
The proximal conveys that a noun is close to the speaker. In English this is explained with the demonstrative "this". For example in the sentence "This cat is bothering me." the cat in question can be assumed to be somewhat near the speaker. In this example and in the other three categories below the proximity or lack thereof can be metaphorical as well as literal in a spacial or possibly temporal sense.

Medial
The medial or possibly mesioproximal refers to a noun near the person being addressed. Such a thing does not exactly exist in English though it can fall under the scope of either "This" or "That." In the sentence "Is that cat bothering you?" the cat in question would be medial if it happened to be near the non-speaker.

Mesiodistal
The mesiodistal refers to a noun which is not within the apparent proximity of either the speaker or the addressee but is not out of the range of reference. Typically such uses will have the noun within site of the speaker and addressee. "That" in English covers this use.

Distal
The distal refers to a noun that is far away from bother the speaker and the person being spoken to. Nouns declined in this form are typically out of sight of both parties. In Egnlish this can be represented with "That" but also had the archaic form "Yonder" to express such a thing.

Verbs
In Srngadz verbs conjugate for both person and aspect. Adverbs also conjugate, but only for person. The conjugation for adverbs is parallel to but not the same as the conjugation for verbs. Tense is marked with a particle that precedes the verb. Additionally there are two classes of verbs. Infinitive verbs and non-infinitive verbs. The majority of all verbs in the language are infinitive verbs most of which are perfectly regular in their conjugation. The conjugation table for infinitive verbs is shown below:

Adverb conjugation is much simplier and perfectly regular, there are no distinct classes of adverbs to worry about. The table for adverb conjugation is below: