Fenzran

'''The author requests that you do not make significant changes to this project without first seeking approval. ''' By all means, please help fix spelling, grammar, and organization problems. Thank you.

Overview

Fenzran is an a-priori Conlang. It's my first one and in its early stages, so it may be very subject to change. :)

{

[24/September/2012] Just editing to say that a lot has indeed changed in the language so far; I pretty much stopped Conlanging for a while but I'm back with renewed vigour and I will be updating this page soon. I've started my first dictionary and am in the process of adding a lot of fundamental words, for example I have a word for 'cursor' as in a pointer on a computer screen and a verb for 'to take something the wrong way/ to be offended by something intended as a joke' but as of yet no word for 'or' - I suppose that's just how it goes :D

Anyway, I will continue to update as I go along and I intend not to stop Conlanging

- Jamie} =Setting= I will update this part later (As soon as I have the facts right in my head!).

=Phonology= There are 27 consonants in Fenzran (2 semivowels) and 11 vowels. Also, there are no plosive sounds in Fenzran. I'm sorry if this next part is confusing, but check out this link if you don't understand the terms used below- it's very useful!



Consonants

p = [ɸ] Voiceless bilabial fricative (Like the Japanese 'f')

f = Same as English

v = Same as English

th = [θ] Voiceless dental fricative (Same as English- Unvoiced, like in "Think")

dh = [ð] Voiced dental fricative (English 'th' in "the")

s = Same as English

z = Same as English

t = [ɬ] Voiceless alveolar lateral fricative

d = [ɮ] Voiced alveolar lateral fricative

sh = Same as English

zh = [ʒ] Voiced postalveolar fricative (Like the French 'J' sound or how the 's' sounds in the English word "pleasure")

c = [ç] Voiceless palatal fricative (Like the 'h' in "human" and even more like the 'ch' in the German "Ich")

ch = [ʝ] Voiced palatal fricative

k = [x] Voiceless velar fricative (Like the 'ch' in "loch" [as in "Loch Ness])

g = [ɣ] Voiced velar fricative

ll = Voiceless velar lateral fricative (Think of the 'k' sound above, but with the sound escaping over the sides of your tongue at the place where it touches the roof of your mouth...
 * if that's any help :D... which it isn't, I know...)

lh = Voiced velar lateral fricative

h = Same as English

m = Same as English

n = Same as English

nj = [ɲ] Palatal nasal (Like the Spanish 'ñ' sound)

nh = [ŋ] Velar nasal (Like 'ng' in the English "sing" or "king")

w = Same as English

y = Same as English

l = Same as English

r = [ʋ] Labiodental approximant (Almost exactly like the English 'r' sound in "red" and "road". Try saying the English 'r' without moving your tongue [Captain Helpful is here to save the day again... sort of!])

rh = [r] Alveolar trill (Like the 'rr' in the Spanish "Perro"- a rolled 'r' sound) [Note: the uvular trill (the French 'r' sound) is an allophone and may also be used)

Vowels

[Note: when I give English examples, I have my native 'British English' pronunciation in mind, so imagine a British person saying them, like the queen- imagine her sitting by herself (perhaps rocking backwards and forwards slightly) chanting the example words... yeah, that's it]

a = [æ] (English 'a' in "cat")

e = [ɛ] (English 'e' in "bet")

i = [ɨ] (English 'i' in "bit")

o = [ʌ/ɒ] (English 'o' in "pot")

u = [ʊ] (English 'u' in "nut")

ii = [i] (English 'ee' in "free")

uu = [u] (English 'oo' in "boot")

aa = [a] (English 'a' in "father")

oo = [ɔ] (British English 'ore' in "bore", sort of like the 'o' in the General American English "bog")

Diphthongs

ay = a+ii (English 'ie' in "pie")

ey = e+ii (English 'ay' in "say")

uy = u+ii (English 'oy' in "boy")

aw = a+uu (English 'ou' in "south")

ew = e+uu (There isn't really an English equivalent... just use your imagination- you're a Conlanger- I'm sure you have lots of it! :D)

iw = i+uu (English 'ew' as in a noise of disgust "Eww")

ow = o+uu (Again, there is no English equivalent)

ou = The English 'o' sound, as in "go" and "slow"

ee = e+ə (British English pronunciation of "air" or the 'air' in British English "hair")

=Basic Grammar= Fenzran is a Verb-Object-Subject language and is mostly head-initial.

Basic Sentence Structure
Fenzran has a basic order of V-O-S. I will start by giving an example of a simple sentence.

I am Anlowe

S V O

To put this sentence in the correct order for Fenzran, the subject (S) must come at the end.

am Anlowe I

V O S

In Fenzran, this would be

sha Anlou ra

{sha = "to be"}

{ra = "I"}

Verbs
Verbs in Fenzran do not conjugate when they take a subject so whatever pronoun, noun or noun-phrase follows the verb, the verb won't change.

ic ra = I do

ic re = You do

ic ri = He does

ic rii = She does

Fenzran verbs add a prefix to show tense. For example, by adding 'pou' or 'ep' to the start of a verb, the verb becomes the past imperfect tense.

epic rii = She did

pousha ri = He was

Prefixes, like the one used here- have 2 forms- one is used when the verb starts with a consonant, the other is used when the verb starts with a vowel.

If the verb starts with a consonant, you use the prefix which ends in a vowel sound (including diphthongs).

If the verb starts with a vowel, you use the prefix which ends in a consonant sound (simple enough!).

Negation works in the same way- to negate a verb, all you do is add 'xe' or 'ex' to the start of the verb.

xesha Anlou rii = She is not Anlowe

exepic ley ra = I didn't do it

As you can see, you may add more than 1 prefix to the verb and, generally, negation comes before the tense-prefix.

I'm starting to feel a list coming on! Hey look, it's a Personal Pronoun list! My favourite!

I : a

You : e

He : i

She : ii

It : ey

One : u

They (neutral) : ou

They (masculine) : iw

They (feminine) : ew

You (plural) : uu

We (including listener[/s]) : aw

We (neutral/excluding listener[/s]) : ay

And what a great (confusing) list it is!

Let's clear it up a bit.

In Fenzran, the personal pronoun changes case depending on whether it's a subject/dative or an object.

If the word you want to use happens to be a subject, like "I sleep", then you add the 'r' sound to the start of the vowel provided in the handsome list above.

So, the verb 'sleep' in Fenzran is 'liith'. Let's say "I sleep"

I sleep = liith ra

You see, because 'I' is the subject- the one doing the action, you add 'r' to the appropriate vowel (in this case 'a')

The same goes for the dative. The dative case is the case you use to say that the action was done 'to' someone. For example.

I give him a cat (or 'I give a cat to him')

In this case, 'him' would be the dative case, as the action is being done 'to' him. [Note: 'a cat' would be the Object in this example!]

Here's some Vocabulary!

{sfan = give

shil = cat

shilva = a cat (I'll explain this later)}

I give a cat to him -&gt; give him-to cat-a I (verb-dative-object-subject)

sfan ri-zha shil-va ra

As you can see, the word for 'him' begins with 'r' as it's in the dative case!

And here's where it all changes (a little... OK, only one thing changes)

If you want to use a personal pronoun as an Object, then you add 'l' instead of 'r'. So, if you want to say "I love her". The word 'her' is an Object (not in a sexist way- whatever you perform a verb on is an object!)

I love her -&gt; Love her I

chem lii ra

You see them (a mixed group of boys and girls, so neutral-they is used!) = rhas lou re

Easy! (I think...)

Determiners
Fenzran, like English, has 2 articles. These are represented by suffixes and change depending on whether they're used on an object, subject or dative.

Don't worry though, they're quite simple- you use them in nearly the same way you'd use the English articles.

Subject/Dative:

The = wa

A = we

Object:

The = va

A = ve

So, if you wanted to say, for example, "the dog", you just take the word for 'dog' ('llas') and add the 'the'-suffix!

llas -> llaswa

'This' and 'That' are demonstratives. In Fenzran, there are 5 of these type of word.

This = wiin/viin

That = woun/voun

Yon = wuun/vuun

This (idea) = woon/voon

That (idea) = wayn/vayn

Explanation time

'This' is used for real/present things which are close to the speaker.

'That' is used for real/present things which are close to the listener.

'Yon' is used for real things which are neither close to the listener nor the speaker.

'This (idea)' is used for talking about a concept or idea or plan which was only introduced a short while ago.

'That (idea)' is used for talking about a concept or idea or plan which was introduced a while ago.

[Note: The 'this and that idea' demonstratives are fairly interchangeable, so don't worry about using 'this idea' instead of 'that idea' and vice-versa.]

As with the articles, the demonstratives beginning with 'w' are used for Subjects and the demonstratives beginning with 'v' are used for Objects. These words can only be used on their own and can't be used as suffixes. I will use examples now to clear things up (if it's not clear already- if it is, then... well, it's always a good thing to give examples, no?)

This is a cat = sha shil-ve wiin

That is the dog = sha llas-va woun

She sees 'that thing over there' (yon) = rhas vuun rii

This is a nice (kind) day = sha houniik-ve cinyuu woon [Note: houniik-ve cinyuu = a nice day (talking about the day itself, not the weather :D)]

That is nice [talking about what someone has done] = sha cinyuu wayn

If you want to use these words to modify a noun, it's quite easy. To say "this cat", all you do is add the correct suffix (sorry for the uninteresting example sentences- I'll do more vocabulary later!).

shil -> shil-iin

cat -> cat-this

That dog = llas-oun

That day = houniik-ayn

As you can see- you just add the correct demonstrative, without the w/v, as a suffix. Great! Right?...*cough* (moving on...)

Adjectives
So, I'm guessing that everyone knows what an adjective is? Good, if not... well, Wikipedia isn't too far away :D

(But seriously, don't they teach this stuff in primary/elementary school?)

Who cares- we're all language geeks! :D

In Fenzran, all adjectives come after the noun they describe. So, 'blue water -> water blue' and 'my house -> house my'

After the noun, Possessives come first, Relative Clauses come second and typical adjectives come last.

So, some vocabulary (as was promised).

anren = sky

veth = house

vee = blue

rhouz = green

zven = roof

danh = big

pil = small

thyuu = water

thyuuzra = sea

ciivawn = friend

hal = To like

To make a pronoun into a possessive pronoun, all you do is add '-n' as a suffix to the pronoun! (You still change the start to 'L' if it's modifying the Object)

ra/la -> ran/lan

I -> my

rii/lii -> riin/liin

She -> her

Example time is in order.

My house = veth ran

I see my house = rhas veth lan ra (as you can see, the 'ran' changes to 'lan' as it's modifying the Object of the verb)

Her big friend = ciivawn riin danh ('riin' comes first because it's a possessive)

I like her big friend = hal ciivawn liin danh ra

Plurality and Numbers
Fenzran distinguishes, like English, between single and plural.

There are 3 different suffixes depending on what the noun ends with.

If the noun ends with any consonant except 'm': add 'em'

If the noun ends with the consonant 'm': add 'en'

If the noun ends in a vowel (including diphthongs): add 'ne'

Example time!

fawn = person

fawnem = people

dham = road

dhamen = roads

law = moon

lawne = moons [Note: 'w' isn't a consonant in this case as it forms a diphthong]

Here are some numbers.

1 = sa

2 = yuu

3 = sen

4 = has

5 = senh

6 = elx

7 = vols

8 = foun

9 = cel

10 = zuu

100 = soul

To make 11-19, you simply add 1-9 after the word for 10.

11 = 10+1 = zuusa

17 = 10+7 = zuuvols

19 = 10+9 = zuucel

To make the tens (20 30 40 etc.), you add the multiple to the beginning of the word 10.

20 = 2*10 = yuuzuu

50 = 5*10 = senhzuu

90 = 9*10 = celzuu

You can combine these 2 rules to work out any number.

21 = 2*10+1 = yuuzuusa

77 = 7*10+7 = volszuuvols

100 works in a similar way

add 'soul' to the start of any number between 1 and 99 to get 'one hundred and...'

101 = 100+1 = soulsa

110 = 100+10 = soulzuu

120 = 100+(2*10) = soulyuuzuu

168 = 100+(6*10+8) = soulelxzuufoun

200 = yuusoul

900 = celsoul

255 = yuusoulsenhzuusenh

Example sentences:

I see 100 cats = rhas shilem soul ra [Note: the numbers also come after the noun]

These are my 2 friends = sha ciivawnem lan yuu wiin

=Dictionary= ...

=Example text= ...