Oregian

Oregian
Oregian is a language that is based on the basic idea of politeness, accuracy, logics and especially beauty. The purpose of this language was to create a language that sounds beautiful to the ear, one that uses few words to express so many things. The Oregian described in here is actually an accumulation of five (failed) attempts at creating a beautiful language, so that is why there are usually four to five words to express the same idea (the level of politeness is subject to when the word itself was invented). Its actual name is Oregu, which means "The golden tongue" (ore deriving from the verb 'orare' to speak/gold and gu deriving from 'guiba' the tongue).

Setting
The Oregian language is commonly spoken on the Oregian Islands (often referred to as simply OI), located somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. This country has had quite a rough history, as it was first discovered by advanced settlers who were trapped on the islands because of their dangerous environment. Since they were forced to stay there, the settlers decided to make the best out of it and just had to make this new land look a lot more like the place where they had come from: that's how the first city was born. This first city, nowadays known as the Hechiba (in reference to the actual name used for the Islands), has become quite influential in the present world. Around the time when the Romans became powerful in the western world, this empire grew stronger and stronger every day. When the Romans began to see the rising empire as a threat to their own existence, they sent their own soldiers off to that place to conquer it; they succeeded. The period counting from the arrival of the first settlers to the country being conquered by the Romans is seen as the Ancient Period.

The Oregian empire remained under Roman control until the day the Roman empire itself collapsed under its weight; but even though the Roman control in the world was officially considered dead at that point, the lingual impact that it had had on the Oregian language was undeniable. Back in the days of Classic Oregian (the time during which the OI were under Roman control) the language was a mixture of pure Oregian - often referred to as point one grammar in modern linguistics - and the highly flexible Roman language, which must have had a great impact on the language during that time. Indeed, nouns used to be declined, verbs used to be conjugated even more excessively than nowadays and just about every feature the language used to have is no longer present (or either very dimly) in the Oregian spoken nowadays. So, the next question arises: if the language had been influenced by Latin so much, how come the version used nowadays shows little to no relics of this time?

It should be noted that the Oregian people didn't like the way they had been treated by the Romans; although they had been given the liberty to praise their own gods, they were also forced to adore the Emperor as a god and the amount of taxes they needed to pay would often rise to unprecedented heights, while they could do nothing about it. After the Roman Empire's definite hold on the western world had officially declined to nothing, the Oregian Empire burst free and decided that it wanted to have nothing to do with the latin language and the latin manners; they simply eliminated parts of their language that sounded too much like Latin and even grammar that was based on Latin grammar. This procedure is known in Oregian linguistics as the Uchimo Sureba (which literally means 'the amazing decline'). This period is also known as Neo-Classic Oregian as it had virtually eliminated all of its reminensces to its Latin conquerers. It is also at this point in the past that the Oregian Empire itself started to expand, conquering many of the countries that had been struggling for freedom for a long time. The Oregian people installed their own ways of thinking (which would lead to important changes in scientific thinking) into the countries that they had conquered quite peacefully, but the lingual changes that the language itself underwent are far more interesting.

The period during which other countries were conquered and during which the lingual capacities were in constant increase is marked as the Pre-Modern Oregian time in linguistics. The language adopted many features of other languages and left behind a certain mark on the other global languages that are still in common usage nowadays. It is during this time that most of our modern grammar was established; new words were being invented daily, some borrowings from other languages in the world were authorised as well and older features of the language were revived as well. This is what made it possible for two totally different versions of the language to live side by side, which is still a prominent cause of lingual boundaries between adults and adolescents. During that time, it was possible to say 'denai' (to not be) and 'hi desu' (to not be). Although the latter is favored in our modern version of Oregian, the one that was mentionned first hasn't declined in use over the years.

After a while, the Oregian Empire had expanded far enough and had reached their goals of spreading their ways. The soldiers retreated peacefully and the other countries of the world were left to be ruled by whatever means they enjoyed most. During this time of isolation, the country began seeking new methods of keeping their economy strong (which had not been of any concern to them before this moment, as they would always get some resources while visiting cities and towns of their conquered countries). During this time, the economic needs of the country were very important and that's how many new words entered the language; it also made it possible for the Oregian Islands to get their own mark on the planet's surface. This period is known as the Modern Oregian time in linguistics. In fact, this is the most recent version to what we have nowadays; the only thing that sets our modern version apart from modern oregian is the fact that the Internet made it possible to connect even more to the outside world. Most English words used in the cyberworld were incorporated into the language and sometimes slightly morphed to make them sound more Oregian-like (kompyuta; computer). There is a very strong tendency in Present Oregian - the version spoken nowadays - to create new words to replace older ones. That also explains the fact why sometimes there are over three words that all mean the same thing.

Basic Grammar
As mentioned before, Oregian is an accumulation of five (failed) attempts. Although the first five times didn't work out well, I kept most of the grammar in the sixth version. This is why the grammar of my language depends on the type of Oregian you're using. All Oregian verbs, nouns, adjectives/adverbs and other such words are numbered 1 through 6 (these numbers of course stand for the version of English it was invented for). Most of the verbs, nouns, adjectives/adverbs you'll be using belong to the sixth group and fall under the most common grammar, but there's still a large proportion of verbs, nouns, adjectives/adverbs belonging to other versions and therefore the grammar that's applied on them differs (sometimes slightly, sometimes greatly). I will start with the most common grammar (group six).

Personal Pronouns
Personal pronouns change form to show the person, politeness and case. In other words, when using a personal pronoun you have to analyze the sentence first and determine whether the nominative (subject), accusative (object), dative (indirect object) or genitive (possession) is used. This next table will clarify everything, but please keep in mind that the numbers used (1 through 6) stand for the version of Oregian the word originally comes from:

nominative        accusative         dative            genitive 1st person singular  6 ore, boku, tse   1 mibe, 3 mi       1 miite, 6 uo     1 mi, 6 ore no 2nd person singular   1 cha*, 6 bo(she)  5 yuro, 6 dore     1 diite           6 du/dui 3rd person singular  1 yu, 6 yuwa       2 yude, 6 yu       1 yiite           6 yoshke 1st person plural    1 core             1 core             6 coyiite         1 core no  2nd person plural     6 boshenakeisu     6 bokeku           1 doyiite         6 boshuke 3rd person plural    1 yukeku           1 yukeku           1 yukiite         1 yukiroshke As you can see from this table, most personal pronouns are derived from the first form of Oregian, which only makes them more complicated to use. The nominative is used when the personal pronoun is the subject of the phrase (ex. I see a dog); there's only two exceptional uses of the nominative. You also use it in exclamations (ex. You guys, hurry up!), and the nominative is required after the preposition 'nye' (according to). The accusative is used in all other cases and also with every preposition, except for 'da' (to, dative), 'tsu' (for, dative) and bor (by in passive voice, dative). The dative is used with the aforementionned prepositions and also whenever it is not directly the object of the phrase it is in. The genitive is used like our possessive pronouns (my, your, his, her, our). The genitive is otherwise formed using 'no' (Chikeku no iudi - father of the world).
 * Cha is considered very colloquial and you will most likely hear uneducated people adress each other with 'cha'. Don't use it, unless you wish to come across as some hobo.

Some examples:
 * I am the president of America Ore desu Presidentu no Amerikai.
 * You are looking at a show Boshe wa luniru hai fuhire.
 * He adores his father Yuwa cubo yoshke chikeku.
 * We give you [plur.] a book Core wa donne yimisu doyiite.

Prepositions and prepositional particles
Prepositions also exist in Oregian, but they're usually referred to as the 'prepositional particles' as all of them add a certain flavor to a word. There are also some that don't exist in English; these just so happen to be the most commonly used and also most important ones in Oregian. Here's a list of the most common prepositions and their different uses:
 * Wa
 * 1) Used to mark the subject ex. Ore wa tariru yubi - I am taking something.
 * 2) Used in certain subclauses ex. Ichi wa ore yubi tarai -> After I had taken something.
 * 3) Sometimes functions as copula ex. Core wa hicechimeisu -> We are all living creatures.
 * De
 * 1) Used to mark the object ex. Hite iugo yoritsu na laike de -> This boy has seen an elderly person.
 * 2) Used to mark the subject in pas. ex. Na laike yoriyo dewa de hite iugo -> An elderly man is seen by this boy.
 * 3) Initiates a dependant clause ex. Yoshke wosute gutemiyo dewa ni de lobsiyo -> His book is published ["released"] to be read.
 * Tsu
 * 1) Used like 'for', as in the recipient ex. Yu fudarai wosute tsu yoshke biçe -> He has written a book for his wife.
 * 2) Diminitive to commend something ex. Yoshke wosutetsu desai uchimo -> His [wonderful] book was amazing.
 * No
 * 1) Expresses genitive ex. Capitu no Yuchibosula desu Amsterdam -> The capital of the Netherlands is Amsterdam.
 * 2) Expresses confirmation (with 'de') ex. Boke deska? De no! -> Is it good? Yes, [it is]!
 * Tso
 * 1) Used like 'with' ex. Ore no chikeku yarai tso mibe kichin gausor -> My father went to a store with me.
 * 2) Used with 'no', it means 'without' ex. Notso iubi tosu hi jacruka -> Without the world, there are no people.
 * 3) Diminitive to insult something ex. Ore no chikekutso hichine desu -> My [annoying] father is being mean.
 * Iri
 * 1) Expresses movement towards... ex. Hite clayisu no filosofia trabaitzu iri Amerika de yuba stude -> This philosophy class is going to travel to America to study there.
 * Hai
 * 1) Used like 'at', but not with places ex. He was looking at a show -> Yu lunairu hai fuhire.
 * 2) Expresses firm belief ex. Students are mean, I believe! -> Studenti tosu hichine, hai!
 * Da
 * 1) May be used for 'to' in dative ex. The world was given to humans by god -> Iudi wa donniyai dewa bor Dui da jacruka.
 * 2) Used like 'than' in comparisons ex. He thinks English is more beautiful than Chinese -> Yuwa craide sh'Ingleku giyoroshke da Chinu to.
 * Kichin
 * 1) A movement towards and into... ex. Yoshke uchois wa yaraitzu tso yu kichin gausor de tobso hinku -> His father will go to the store with him to buy toys.
 * 2) "While" in combination with gerund in English ex. Kichin hinku tobso yoshke uchois wa nibai yubote -> While buying toys his father paid for everything.

Verbs
Verbs are very important in Oregian; because of their various roots, an extensive knowledge of Latin can be quite useful at times. Anyway, verbs are conjugated in Oregian to show the tense, mood and voice. Verbs do not change to show the subject (this means that a simple verb like 'desu' could be used in combination with any subject without any obligatory changes), and they don't show number, either. One peculiarity of these verbs is noticeable in the way they are used; it often differs from English. Also, there are certain 'special forms' (the most common ones are the ~iru, ~reru, ~enda and ~iyo/~ito) that illustrate the exact action and often add a certain meaning to the verb that is not present in English (the most remarkable of the afore-mentionned special forms is ~reru, which roughly translates to: "What is happening right now and is very likely to still be happening in the future").

Group 1 verbs (tare)
The available tenses in Oregian are the present, past and future. I will show you the exact conjugation of 'tare', which means 'to take': As evident from the table, keeping in mind that 'tare' is a regular group 1 verb, the conjugation pattern goes as follows: Now, if you take the verb in its conjugated form and you add a certain 'affix', you get a special meaning. Examples: There's also another form of the verb you need to know. You can call it the gerund, supine or whatever you like, but there's only one of these in the Oregian language. However, there is a distinction between the active gerund and the passive gerund (I'll be calling them the gerunds, even though you can use any name you want). All you need to do to get the active gerund is remove the final ~e and replace it by ~anto.Tare would therefore be taranto in the active gerund, but the passive gerund is constructed by swapping the final ~e with ~ayus. So tare would be tarayus (keep in mind, though, that this gerund is hardly ever used).
 * Present: you use the infinitive in the active voice. For the passive voice, you swap the -e with -iyo and you use the verb 'dewa' (to be in passive voices).
 * Past: the active voice has you swap -e with -ai. The active voice on the other hand has you use -iyai instead. Dewa never changes at all.
 * Future: the active voice requires - aitzu, whereas the passive voice requires a simple -iyatzu.
 * Irreal: the active voice uses -aiso, whereas the passive voice has you say -iyaso.
 * Ore tare -> I take. Ore tariru -> I am taking. Ore tarai -> I took. Ore tarairu -> I was taking. Ore taraitzu - I will take. Ore taraitziru -> I will be taking.
 * Ore tare -> I take. Ore tarenda -> I must take. Ore tarai -> I took. Ore tarendai -> I had to take. Ore taraitzu -> I will take. Ore taraitzenda -> I will have to take.
 * Ore tare -> I take. Ore tarereru -> I am taking and will be taking in a while.
 * Ore tare -> I take. Ore tarito -> because/while I take/took.
 * Taking him by the hand, the girl started to dance -> So yude hai moiru taranto, sosuba sichibai aiç dayanto.
 * This music is making her dance -> Hite musico wa iumotiru iri yude aiç dayanto.
 * Standing against a wall was a mysterious boy -> Moshanto kiri muro desai humuyeto iugo.

Group 2 verbs (moshu)
Group 2 verbs distinguish themselves from other verbs by the ~u ending they have. Do keep in mind that verbs ending in -su (like desu to be and gichesu to adore) belong to a different group of verbs.

Group 2 verbs also have two stems. The first one is obtained by eliminating the final ~u ending. So, our first stem for moshu is mosh, used for the present, past and irreal. The second stem, however, is obtained by swapping the final -shu ending with -bs. Other verbs belonging to this group that don't have the -sh ending (like gogoru to look into the distance) simply swap their final consonant(s) with the famous -bs ending. Our second stem is hence mobs, used for the future tense and passive voice. Here's the complete conjugation table:

Let's not forget that moshu has some special forms, too. These are formed in the exact same manner as with group 1 verbs, but here's a detailed list anyway: It is also possible to combine certain special affixes. Since 'ore moshenda' means I must stand, 'ore moshendiru' means I must be standing.
 * Ore moshu -> I stand. Ore moshiru -> I am standing. (Same goes for other tenses: moshairu, mobsumiru, moshubiru)
 * Ore moshu -> I stand. Ore moshureru -> I am standing now and will likely be standing in the future. (Moshaireru, mobsumireru, moshubareru)
 * Ore moshu -> I stand. Ore moshenda -> I must stand. (Moshendai, mobsumenda, moshubenda)

Group 3 verbs (irregular)
Every language is notorious for having irregular verbs and Oregian is no exception to this unwritten rule. Most irregular verbs are easily recognizable and their conjugation pattern is usually the same. The only reason they're irregular is because their stems often change for no specific reason. For instance, the verb 'desu' seems regular in its present and past conjugation (desu, desai); you could put it in the second group of verbs, making it regular. However, in the future tense its stem suddenly changes into a simple d-, which doesn't make any sense (doyi means 'will be'). Here's a list that features the conjugations of the following verbs: desu/tosu (to be), bare (to have), feri (to produce), hakiku (to see, to seek), iretske (to come).

Word order
Word order in Oregian is dependent on what you're trying to say. The most common word order is SVO (subject-verb-object) like in English, however it is also possible to get OVS (object-verb-subject) when certain prepositions are used. The SVO word order is typical in simple sentences (those containing no subclauses), but in subclauses the word order changes to SOV (subject-object-verb), comparable to Dutch and German. However, even in normal sentences without subclauses the SOV exists, but this is typically only used with certain verbs. Let's first discuss the most common word order:

SVO
Subject-verb-object is the most commonly used word order in Oregian, but you can only find it in simple sentences that don't fit in a subclause. Anyway, here are a few examples to demonstrate this word order:
 * Hite riyaku wa bare kiku -> This boy has a dog. (riyaku: boy, kiku: dog)


 * Ore yaritzu iri hakichiba -> I am going to the movies.


 * Yoshke otou ye lotsu yutero -> His mother wants to read something.

OVS
Although this worder may seem a bit weird to you, it's quite common in Oregian. You may have seen an example of this before. What basically happens is that the object of the phrase is moved to the beginning, then you get the verb and then you're told what the subject is. In order to avoid confusion (which doesn't always arise, by the way) you can use 'wa' to determine the subject or 'de' to determine the object of the phrase. Most of the OVS-sentences start with an adverb of location, time or manner. Here are a few examples:


 * Hita nocte hakai ore wa chikeku -> That night, I saw an elderly person.
 * Tso oreyichi no otou lotsai ore wa yutero -> With my mother I read something [when I was young 1.]

1. The 'yichi' part that's attached to ore indicates it happened when you were younger. So the yichi part is what made the sentence in brackets appear.

SOV
This word order is very common in subclauses, but some special verbs often trigger this type of word order in normal sentences as well. The most common special verbs that do so are copulas like desu, iresu (to become; conjugated like desu) and moshesu (to remain in one state; defective verb as only the present tense exists). Here are some examples of normal sentences with the SOV order:
 * Oregu fibsiyo guitsa desu -> Oregian is a constructed language.
 * Yuwa vonru pateru iroyi -> He will soon become a father.
 * Otou igisu moshes -> The mother remains in a state of silence.

Dictionary

 * To be: desu, tosu, dewa, wa, sosu, aru
 * And: ichide, ichi, ichite


 * President: presidentu


 * America: Amerika, Amerikai


 * to look (at): lune (hai)


 * show: fuhire


 * to adore, to love: cubo


 * father, elderly person: chikeku, laike, uchois wa


 * to give: donne


 * book: yimisu, wosute


 * to take: tare


 * something: yubi, yutero


 * after, if: ichi wa


 * to live: hicechi


 * living creatures: hicechimeisu


 * this, these: hite


 * boy: iugo, riyaku


 * to see: hakeku, yore


 * to release, to publish: guteme


 * to write: fudare


 * wife: biç, dat. biçe


 * amazing: uchimo


 * capital: capitu


 * Netherlands: Yuchibosula


 * good: boke


 * to go: yare


 * into: kichin


 * store, shop: gausor


 * world: iubi


 * no, none: hi


 * people: jacruka


 * annoying: hichine


 * class: clayisu


 * philosophy: filosofia, cratsofia


 * to travel: trabe


 * there: yuba


 * to study: stude


 * students: studenti


 * god: Dui


 * to think: craide


 * English: Ingleku


 * beautiful: yoroshke


 * Chinese: Chinu

Example text
1. The gods make the clouds twist with thunder and rain, but our people will stand strong.

Translation: Buinakeisu iumotereru iri hotashke aiç osudanto tso hiroc ichide momi, nade core no jacruka yonchu bolitaitzu.

Literal translation: "The highly respected gods are making and will be making the clouds submissioned to twisting with thunder and rain, but our worthy people strong stand-will".

2. If I should stay, I would only be in the way. So I'll go, but I know I'll think of you every step of the way. (Whitney Houston)

Translation: Ichi wa ore kubuteru, moshuba yincrichin. Osu deyaratzu, nade cotzu sh'ore diite in memoria baroyi a sutzu cone no we.

Literal translation: "If [topic marker] I stay and will stay for a while, [I] would stand way-in. So [I] will leave, but it is known [by me] that I you in thoughts will have at every step of the way.

3. The Roman Empire still has a huge influence on our society, even though it has been gone for a long time.

Translation: Rechilo Romanum hinde uchimo wosune tosu, nadenawai yu hoc lou sawu desai yideru.

Literal translation: Empire Roman still amazingly influential is, even though it since long gone has been.

4. The Oregian language has gone through some changes and it is spoken on the Oregian Islands.

Translation: Oregu guitsa yarai bu ima seba iyaderu, ichite yuwa ore shibu sum Hechiro.

Literal Translation: "Oregian language gone through/with many changes, and it speaks itself on Home Island".

''Note: iyaderu denotes an action that started somewhere in the past and still has a certain effect on the present state of things. ''