Old Shax

General Information
Shax is the main Lingua Franca of the country of Mauritania (note: the Mauritania is not the real-world Mauritania, the Islamic Republic of, but the Republic of Mauritania, a con-state, with its English name, Mauritania, coming after the ancient Roman province of the same name. In this universe, the Islamic Republic of Mauritania is called the Islamic State of Agawej, after the berber name for it.).

Mauritania consists of, in modern day terms, Morocco, the provinces of Tangier-Tetouan, Taza-Al Hoceima-Taounate, Oriental, Fès-Boulemane, Gharb-Chrarfa-Béni Hssen, Meknès-Tafilalet, Chaouia-Ouardigha, Rabat-Salé-Zemmour-Zaer, Grand Casablanca, Doukkala-Abda, Marrakech-Tensift-El Haouz, Tadla-Azilal, and Souss-Massa-Drâa, and all the provinces of Algeria except Tindouf, Adrar, Tamanghasset, Illizi, Ouargla, El Oued, and Tébessa.

In Mauritania, there are many languages. The official language is Shax. Recognized minority languages are Kayble Berber, Tashelhit Berber, Spanish, French, Moroccan colloquial Arabic, and Algerian colloquial Arabic.

Sound Changes
These are the sound changes from original Antiquity Latin. Note: they're al in order
 * 1) V = vowel
 * 2) ´ (acute accent) = stressed syllable
 * 3) ` (grave accent) = unstressed syllable

Antiquity > Vulgar

 * Removal of phonemic legnth (ex: [eː] > [e])
 * Vowel Shift
 * e, ɪ > e
 * o, ʊ > o
 * e > ɪ/_V
 * ɑi̯ > ɛ
 * ɑu̯ > o
 * oi̯ > e
 * h > ∅
 * syncope in some words
 * n, m > ∅/syllable-final
 * w, b > β>V_V
 * regularization of irregular nouns
 * emphasis of gendered nouns
 * Vulgar Laitn words
 * e, i > j/_V
 * Note: [e] and [i] palatalize the consonants in Western Romance
 * o, u > w/_V

Vulgar > Western Romance

 * Stress on initial syllable (exceptions)
 * s > es/#_
 * m > ∅/_#
 * ns > s
 * er > re/_#
 * or > ro/_#
 * syncope (rare for North African dialect)
 * e, i > j/in hiatus
 * kʲ > kkj
 * dʲ, gʲ, dj, gj > j
 * kj, tj > tsj
 * kkj > ttsj
 * kt > jt
 * ks > js
 * ɛ́ > ie/open syllable
 * ɔ́ > uo/open syllable
 * (p, t, k) > (b, d, g)/V_V, r
 * (b, d, g) > (v, ð, ʝ)/V_V, r
 * ts > dz/V_V, r
 * pl > bl/V_V
 * (t, d) > (d, ð)/V_#
 * jn, nj, gn, ŋn, ngj > ɲ
 * jl, gl > ʎ

Western Romance > Meghrebian Romance

 * s > ∅/_#
 * β > v
 * ʎ > ʝ; ɟ/CV́_
 * ʝ > ɟ
 * V́ > V̀/_ɲ, ʎ, ɟ
 * ɲV > ɲ/_#
 * è, ì > ɪ
 * ò, ù > ʊ
 * ɛ, é > ɛ̝
 * ɔ, ó > ɔ̝
 * á > æ, a
 * simplification of geminates
 * simplification of affricates to fricatives
 * simplification of [nt] and [nd] to [n]
 * (sj, zj) > (ʃ, ʒ)
 * (s, z) > (ʃ, ʒ)/__(i, ɪ, ɛ̝́)
 * Note: the vowel gets assimilated with the post-alveolar fricative
 * kʷɔ̝, kʷu > ku
 * k > h/V_ɛ̝, ɔ̝, a, æ, ʊ
 * k > ∅/V_i, ɪ
 * Arabic Words (note: arabic words in Shax hold no stress)

Meghrebian Romance > Shax

 * à > [ɪ], [ɛ̝], or [a] depending on word
 * æ` > [ɛ̝] or [ɪ]
 * ʊ́ > ɔ̝
 * ʊ̀ > u
 * g > ʁ/V_V́
 * qw > kʷ
 * q > ʔ/open unstressed syllble-final
 * ʕ > ∅
 * ħ > h
 * ʁ > h
 * ʔ > h
 * tˤ, dˤ, sˤ, zˤ > t, d, s, z
 * Lenition
 * Voiced
 * b > m/_#
 * d > n/_#
 * g > ŋ/_#
 * Voiceless
 * p > f/_#
 * t > ∅/_#
 * k > ∅/_#
 * q > χ/_#
 * ɪ, a > ∅/n, m_C (unstressed syllable)
 * ɪ, a > ə/C_ŋ, fricative (unstressed syllable)

Consonants
All phonemes can be geminated except [kʷ]

Vowel
[ə] only occurs with the sound change ɪ, a > ə/C_ŋ, fricative (unstressed syllable)

[ ʊ], [e], [o], and  [ə]  are the optional unstressed and diphthongized forms of [u], [ ɛ̝], [ɔ̝], and [a] respectivally.

Syllable Formation
(C)(G)V(C)

where G = glide

[æ] and [i] cannot be next to each other.

Stress
Stress is usually placed on the penultimate syllable, but the stress is always placed on [ æ] or [i]. Stress can never go on [ɪ], [ɛ̝], [ɔ̝], or a diphthong (without [i] or [ æ]). Words with only those vowels are stressless. Note: stress is not phonemic; it is just the style of speaking.

Alphabet
¹Before I, E, and Y

² Only occurs with the sound change ɪ, a > ə/C_ŋ, fricative (unstressed syllable)

Digraphs
¹ Qu is [kʷ] when it comes before a vowel and [qu] if it comes before a consoant (ex: qua = [kʷa] and qut = [qut])

Diacritics
¹ Used when the ɪ, a > ə/C_ŋ, fricative (unstressed syllable) sound doesn't apply.

² Used when it is an [ɛ̝] from the Arabic letter ة (tā’ marbūṭa)

Case
There are 3 cases in Shax: the nominative, oblique, and genitive. The Shax nominative represents the nominative, vocative, and prepositional. The oblique represents the accusative, dative, and ablative. The genitive represents just the genitive. The nominative is left unmarked. The oblique is made with articles. The genitive is made with declensions and a zero article. The oblique is taken from the accusative form.

Adjectives don't have case.

Plural
Nouns can either be singular or plural. Plural nouns are declined. The plural form is taken from the Latin dative, contrary to other western romance languages that take it form the accusative. Article plurals are taken from the 1st declension plural for feminine and 4th declension plural for masculine.

Adjectives decline to the noun's plurality.

Gender
There are two genders: the masculine and feminine. The masculine and neuter of original latin were combined. The distinction is usually very regular as most feminine nouns end in either T, A, or É. Irregular feminine nouns do still exist, but the article usually makes that clear.

Adjectives decline to the noun's gender.

Article
Articles decline to case, gender, plural, and definiteness. There main purpose though is to distinguish the oblique case and definiteness. Note: the zero article is used for the partative article. A pluraly declined noun with a zero article is used to show a plural partative article (ex: cofi = some coffee, cofivos = some/many coffees)

Indefinite
The indefinite article in Shax comes from the Antiquity Latin word ūnus meaning "one".

Definitie
The indefinite article in Shax comes from the Antiquity Latin word ille meaning "that".

Plural and Adjective Gender
While there are some irregular plurals, for nouns and adjectives, in Shax, most are regular.

For nouns, the plurals is made by putting on a final -vos or -vas, depending on gender. If the final letter in the word is a consonant, the consonant is replaced with "v".

For adjectives, the plural marker is -i, for masculine adjectives, or -e, for feminine adjectives. Usually the gendered forms are irregular therefore the masculine and femanine forms are both given. Note: when the adjective takes the plural form, the vowel before it gets replaced.

Adjective Placement
Shax is a strongly head initial language. All adjectives go in front of the adjective. When there are equal adjectives, the one most descriptive of the noun goes closest to the nouns (note: this also can change the semantics of the noun.

Prepositions
As said before, Shax is a strongly head initial language. Therefore all prepositions, note that there are no compound prepositions and any that may be are compounded, are placed before the nouns phrase, the noun and its modifiers, adjectives.

Conjugation
In one verb, a verb conjugates to person, number, tense, mood, and voice.

Person
There are three persons in Shax: first, second, and third.

Number
There are two numbers in Shax: singular and plural.

Tense
There are three tenses in Shax: the present, the past, and the future.

Mood
There are three moods in Shax: the indicative, subjunctive, and the imperitive. The subjunctive in Shax is very useful. It is used whenever expressing opinion. It is also used when making a question.

Voice
There are the active and passive voices in Shax.

Conjugation
Replace the stem with the given conjugation. Note: "_" means that the charactaristic vowel in the infinitive will be the vowel in the conjugation (ex: ticler to See = ticlevu I saw)

Infinitive
Most verbs end in -ar , -er, or -ir (ex: ticler [tɪklɛ̝r] • to speak), but they all follow the following conjugation:

Gerund
Note: the gerund in Shax declines like any other noun.

Gerundive
Note: the gerundive in Shax acts an adjective form of the verb (ex: to like.gerundive = [something] to be liked). It declines like any other adjective.

Nominative
Nominative pronouns in Shax are almost never used but can be used for emphasis.

Oblique
This is the most common pronoun.

Genitive
Most oftenly, a genitive pronoun is used. Genitive pronouns are very simple and act as adjectives.

Reflexive
Reflexive pronouns don't have a special form, the oblique is used, therefore to know that an oblique pronoun is reflexive is that it would be after the verb (like in SVO). These make reflexive verbs.