Isxuor

General information
Isorian (natively known as ‹Isxuor› /i ʃːuoːɾ/) is a Romance language spoken in the fictitive country of Isora.

Alphabet
The alphabet of Isorian is derived from the Latin alphabet. It is as follows:

Consonants
To note:
 * The consonant clusters gx and zx both represent the sound /ʒ/; gx appears where a hard /g/ sound might have initially been present (‹frigxida› "frigid" /friˈʒiːd̪ɑ/), and zx appears in other situations (zxaccal "jackal" /ˈʒɑccɑl/).
 * The consonant q always appears followed by a u, and together they represent the sound /kw/—e.g., ‹quor› "who?" /kwoːɾ/.
 * The letter n represents two possible phonemes depending on its location: before c, q, g and h (/k/, /g/ and /h/), it takes on the sound /ŋ/—e.g., ‹anhaire› "to despise" /ɑŋhɑˈiːɾe/, ‹quince› "five" /ˈkwiŋke/; and in all other places, it takes on the values of /n/—e.g., ‹annu› "year" /ˈɑnnu/, ‹envers› "contrarily, inversely" /ˈenvɛɾs/.
 * The consonant cluster gn represents the sound /ŋn/—for instance, ‹legnus› "length" would in IPA be /ˈleŋnus/. Word-final gn clusters, however, denote only a /ŋ/ sound—e.g., ‹legn› "lengthwise" /l ɛ ŋ/. Conversely, ng represents /ŋg/, not /ŋ/: e.g., sáung /sɔ̞ŋg/.
 * n̂ and m̂ are special versions of the nasal consonants n and m that both signify a nasalisation of the preceding vowel: / ˜/; e.g., ‹siéñ› /si.ˈæ̃/. However, when followed by a vowel, usually the vowel that begins the next word, n̂ is pronounced as n and m̂ as m (although nasalisation of the previous vowel still occurs); e.g., «stalli sién̂ arvia» "they are trees" /ˈst̪ɑlli siˈæ̃ ˈnɑɾviɑ/, «num̂ yr» "I (shall) go now" /nũː myr/.
 * i and u may occasionally at the end of a syllable take /j/ and /w/ respectively, but this is rare; if at all these values do appear, they do so at the ends of names. Other inflections or derivatives of nouns or verbs that end in i or u end in /ĭ/ and /ŭ/ respectively.
 * Other consonants all denote the same sounds as shown in the table above and will not take on any other sounds, even in clusters of consonants.

Vowels
To note:
 * Vowel letters can represent either a short or a long vowel sound; e.g., a /ɑ/ or /ɑː/. The distinction is marked in speech but not in writing, and so the vowel lengths per word are best learnt by heart.
 * All vowels do take the sounds as shown above, and only the sounds shown above, and the specific combinations in which they take different sounds—such as áe and áu—are also shown above.
 * The one exceptions are e and o, which can respectively take /ɛ/ or /ɔ/ instead of their usual values of /e/ and /o/, depending on ease of speech; but /ɛ/ and /ɔ/ are always short: /ɛː/ and /ɔː/ do not exist in Isxuor. Further, /e/ and /o/ are the more widely used values for even short vowels.
 * î is a rare graph that carries the phonetic values /yi/; e.g., ‹îo› "I" /yio/, ‹sî› "yes"/intensifier /syi/.
 * ao and ae have the values of /ɑú/ and /ɑí/ respectively, as apposed to au and ai which are /ɑu/ and /ɑi/; cf. ‹aore› "air" /ɑúɾe/, ‹aure› "to have" /auɾe/; ‹gigae› "gigantic (f. sing.)" /gigɑé/ ‹gigai› "gigantic (f. pl.)" /gigɑːi/.
 * The combinations áe, áu and œ̀ only appear if the first vowel of a word would be /æ/, /ɒ/ and /ə/ respectively. At all other instances of those sounds are represented by é, ó and è respectively. Cf. ‹áurón̂› "they have" /ɒ.'ɾɒ̃/, where both áu and ó represent /ɔ̞ /, but their locations determine which form is used.

Phonotactics
Isorian takes any small cluster of consonants and vowels as a syllable, the smallest possible syllable being (V) or (C–V). For instance. ‹o› "at" forms a syllable, being a whole word in and of itself; ‹zu› "you" is also a whole syllable and a word, with a (C–V) composition.

Typically, syllables take on the form ([C][L]V[L][C]), where
 * C denotes any consonant;
 * L denotes the liquid consonants r and l;
 * V denotes: a short vowel, or a long vowel (V́), or a diphthong—a cluster of two combined (short) vowels (V̋); and
 * [square brackets] denote that the contents are optional to the syllable.

Syllables are classified this way:
 * Short Syllables are composed of either a single vowel (V), or a single (C–V) cluster, both cases in which the vowel V is a short vowel sound.
 * All other syllables are considered Long Syllables: to wit, ones with diphthongs or long vowels or consonant clusters.

Stress
The rules for stress on Isxuor words are somewhat hybrids of those that govern Latin words and those hat govern English words. There are a few key rules–of–thumb:


 * If the word has only two syllables, stress falls on the first syllable: e.g., ‹arvi› /ˈɑːɾvi/; ‹sién̂› /ˈsiæ̃/.
 * If the second–to–last syllable of the word is long, then stress falls on that syllable: e.g., ‹amare› /ɑmˈɑːɾe/.
 * If the word has no long syllables, stress falls on the first syllable: e.g. ‹ypnere› /ˈypnɛɾe/.
 * Words that are composed of multiple words can have multiple points of stress: e.g., ‹corafractitau› /ˈkoːɾɑˈfɾɑkt̪iˈt̪ɑu/ (‹cora› /ˈkoːɾɑ/ + fract- /ˈfɾɑkt̪/ + -i- /i/ + -tau /ˈt̪ɑu/).

Verbs
Like most of its sister languages, Isorian is quite heavily verb-centric and ideas can, most of the time, be conveyed in sentences that comprise solely of one verb and its modifying adverbs. This is expressed moreso in Isorian than its sister languages in that Isorian has developed a more complex (although slightly more compact) system of verbs and verb functions.

Verb infinitives always end in -re, and the letter right before this syllable is used as a basis for classification of verbs. As such there are five conjugations of verbs, excluding exceptions, and they are as follows: The conjugations also match up to some extent, and the major differences are found only in how the vowels interact with other vowels and consonants.

Timeframe and Aspect
One can consider there to be three basic timeframes: the past (‹sta passata›), the present (‹sta prasenza›) and the future (‹sta fuitura›). This is in accordance with many other languages that create similar distinctions in time.

There are again, like most other languages, a two-fold distinction in aspect: the aorist (‹sta aorista› "the aorist") and the perfect (‹sta parfacta›).

Tenses
Together, the timeframes and aspects contribute to six total tenses:


 * Present (‹Sta Tempa Prasenza "the present tense")
 * This tense denotes actions, simple and continuous, as well as habits: ‹amar› ("I love", "I do love", "I am loving"); ‹derarón̂› ("they give", "they do give", "they are giving"); ‹vaxtè› ("you (pl.) go", "you (pl.) do go", "you (pl.) are going").
 * Aorist (‹Sta Tempa Passata Aorista› "the aorist past tense")
 * This denotes basic past actions and occurences: ‹valute› ("he/she/it wanted to"); ‹deram› ("I gave"); ‹domnesto› ("you (pl.) ruled").
 * Future (‹Sta Tempa Fuitura› "the future tense")
 * This tense is used when describing intended future actions, and functions as an optative tense of sorts: ‹sera› ("I shall be", "I plan on being", "I would be"); ‹ypnerai› ("he/she/it shall sleep", "he/she/it plans on sleeping", "he/she/it would sleep").
 * Perfect (‹Sta Tempa Parfacta› "the present tense")
 * When an action is being described that has just reached completed or currently being completed, this tense is used: ‹comtexi› ("you (sing.) have eaten", "you (sing.) just ate"); ‹{nœ̀i} facore› ("we have done/finished/made", "we just did/finished/made").
 * Pluperfect (‹Sta Tempa Pius-qua-Parfacta› ("the more-than-perfect/pluperfect tense") or ‹Sta Tempa Passata Parfacta› "the perfect past tense")
 * This tense either can denote an action that was finished before the current period of time, or it can denote as well an anterior action: ‹fuhibe› ("he/she/it had flown"); ‹odanta du resiare, comti o restoranzo› ("before—to return—(I) eat —at restaurant" = "before returning, I ate/had eaten at the restaurant").
 * Future Perfect (‹Sta Tempa Fuitura Parfacta› "the perfect future tense")
 * This tense regularly denotes a certainty in the future, an action one knows will get completed. It can also be used in a commissive sense (to make a promise or a threat), in the sense of "I will have ____ done": ‹beveri› ("I will drink", "I will have drunk"); ‹venyrivi› ("he/she/it will come", "he/she/it will have come").

Moods
Just as important to speech as tense-forms are the various moods, which allow expression of attitudes, such as commands and desires. While there are several moods that can be expressed by means of auxiliary verbs such as ‹valore› ("to want") and ‹povore› ("to be able"), there are three moods expressed in the form of verbal inflections: the conditional mood, the subjunctive mood and the imperative/volitional mood.


 * Subjunctive (‹Ste Motte Suviegniteve› "the subjunctive mood")
 * This mood operates irreally: it indicates emotions or opinions or possibilities more so than hard facts.
 * Imperative (‹Ste Motte Imperateve› "the imperative mood")
 * This mood is can actually be split into two moods.
 * If the verb is in the second or third person and in the imperative mood, then it signifies a command made to the subject, telling them to execute the action.
 * If however the verb is in the first person and imperative mood, then it signifies volition, in the sense of "let me ____!" or "let us ____!": ‹cantamè!› ("let us sing!"); ‹ie› ("let's (let me) go"). Note that the sense of "let me" isn't asking for permission or commanding someone to let one do something; it is in the sense of talking to oneself, and making plans.

Other Verb Constructions
Other verb forms, moods, aspects or constructions expressed by Isorian verbs do not manifest as inflections or conjugations, but as modifications of the entire verb. They may also be expressed periphrastically, with typically one auxiliary verb denoting the additional meaning coming alongside the verb in question.

The other forms include:
 * Passive (‹Sta Passeva› "the passive")
 * The use of the passive is generally discouraged in Isxuor. Still, there are two passive constructions available in Isxuor.
 * The first is to use the relevant conjugation of ‹sere› "to be" along with the past passive participial form (ending it -(s)ta), along with ‹par› "by, through" plus the prepositional of a noun to denote the agent: E.g., «Este alla fracta par quori?» "By whom was this broken?" (or actively, "Who broke this?"). This is not very widely used, even less so in formal texts, but is useful where an agent requires to be mentioned.
 * The more common and more widely accepted second construction involves using the reflexive pronouns ‹mo› "myself", ‹zo› "yourself", ‹no› "ourselves, ‹vo› "yourselves", and ‹so› "him-/her-/it-/theirselves" with what would in an active construction be the object. E.g., «So fragete alla?» "Is this broken?" (lit. "did this break itself?"). The agent, even if it exists, is not of importance if such a construction is used; it is omitted.
 * Imperfect (‹Sta Emparfacta› "the imperfect")
 * There is a lack of a tense to show a continuous or incomplete nature of an action. This is made up for by the imperfect construction—the present participle (it is adjectival—it still should match the subject in case, number and gender) is taken and used with the verb ‹stare› "to stand": e.g., ‹iunzo stam› ("I (m. sing.) was going"); ‹resianze starax› ("you (f. sing.) will be returning"); ‹somnenze statui› ("let them (n. pl.) dream").

Nouns
Having lost several nuances in how nouns are declined as it evolved, Isxuor has developed its own set of noun declensions, much as it has developed conjugations for verbs. It does retain noun cases; however, the dative case has been deprecated, and the vocative case eliminated altogether. As such, the only remaining cases are the nominative (subject), genitive (possessive), accusative (object) and adverbial/prepositional. Nouns are declined based on the final letter of the "bare" form, and are classified as such: The labels "primary" and "secondary" for each of the declensions of each gender serve little more than denoting commonness of the nouns—primary declensions are the more common bare roots and secondary declensions are less common bare roots. However, the secondary declensions are especially common when nominalising verbs or deriving meanings (such as comparative forms for adverbs, or abstract forms for nouns).

The declensions for each category are exemplified here:

Of importance is the "stressing" of the ultimate syllable in the consonant–ending nouns. This manifests as the duplication of the final consonant.—however, this only applies when Certain consonants such as b and z do not appear as final–consonants.
 * the final consonant is a single consonant, as opposed to a consonant cluster: ‹lux›, ‹lusxèu› "light", but ‹xapt›, ‹xaptèu› "head"; and
 * when the vowel preceding the final consonant is short, not long: ‹os› /os/, ‹ossèu› /ossəu/ "bone" but ‹volug› /voluːg/, ‹volugèu› /voluːgəu/ "wolf".

Personal Pronouns
As required of all languages, there exist the minimum three persons: the first person, indicating the entity or entities speaking; the second person, indicating the entity or entities being spoken to; and the third person, an entity or entities not participating in the conversation. There are personal pronouns for each of these persons that have the meanings of "you", "I", "they", et cetera. They are as follows, and are irregular.

*dialectal but common

There are a few things of note here.
 * In formal and respectful situations, ‹zu› and the singular inflections are dropped in favour of ‹vœ̀i› and the plural inflections, even when the second person should be singular. This replacement occurs when conveying respect or conversing with a person who is perceived as older, or as holding a greater rank than the speaker, or of greater standing.
 * When the gender of an object or person is known and defined as male or female, then ‹il› or ‹el› must be used. When the gender is either known but does not fit the male/female binary or is not preferred, or if the gender is unknown altogether, or when speaking about people in general, then ‹ul› must be used. ‹il›, ‹el› or ‹ul› must be used when the object being spoken of is living. ‹lui›, the plural of ‹ul›, is used for groups of mixed genders. ‹is› is used only when the gender of the word describing the object being spoken about is neuter–gendered and the object is non–living.
 * The "reflexive case" of the pronoun is used as the reflexive pronoun.
 * ‹missè›, ‹nossè›, ‹zussè›, et cetera are only seen in use in the attributive position, never predicatively («miss' ameco ia vai» "my friend goes there", but never *«stalla ev missè» "that (thing) is mine"); ‹mea›, ‹zea›, ‹sea›, ‹nova›, ‹voza› see use as possessive adjectives (and are declined as such), and can be used in predicate position («is ev mea» "it is mine") or in attributive position («voze syrse no iuvai» "your (pl.) sister helps us").

Adjectives
Adjectives are declined identically to nouns, except in that they're limited to the primary declensions only—e.g., "good child" can be translated as such: As shown, the adjective ‹bona› "good" takes on different endings per gender depending on the modified word. Note, however, that bona will never take on the secondary forms *bon, *boni or *bonu.

The definite articles ‹sta› "the", "that" and ‹la› "the", "this" both are declined and treated as adjectives. As such, ‹sta› can also form masculine and feminine forms ‹sto› and ‹ste› respectively; ‹la› likewise will also form ‹lo› and ‹le›.

To take the example of ‹bone file› "good girl", the pair are declined as such: Adjectives always match every aspect of the noun they modify. If one wanted to say "the good girl's book", one would say «stessè bonessè filessè (sto) livro». Note that the adjectival definite article is optional when the noun it might modify is modified in another way; one might translate «stessè bonessè filessè sto livro» as "the book of the good girl" as well, if one cared to keep word-for-word consistency between Isxuor and English.

To further stress the fact that adjectives are only ever declined in the primary forms yet without fail match the modified noun exactly, the example of ‹ste grande hornu› "the big horn" is taken:

Comparatives
The comparative form of an adjective can easily be formed by tajing the neuter form, and replacing the final -a with -ur. The respective gender endings of -a, -o and -e can be attached to obtain the whole words. E.g., ‹xelerura› "quicker" (from ‹xelera› "quick, fast"); ‹magnora› "bigger" (from ‹magna› "big"); ‹vivura› "sharper" (from ‹viva› "sharp"); and ‹vœ̀rtura› "greener" (from ‹vœ̀rta› "green").

The comparative forms of four adjectives are irregular—‹bona› "good" becomes ‹mieiora› "better"; ‹mala› "bad" becomes ‹pieiora› "worse"; ‹magna› "big" becomes ‹magnora› "bigger"; and ‹minuta› "small" becomes ‹minora› "smaller".

Comparatives are generally used with the particle ‹qua› "then", along with the prepositional case of the object being compares to. E.g., «El ev forsure qua mi.» "She is faster than me."; or «Aillan, quor ev vituro qua Piarri, xie venyte primir.» "Allan, who is faster than Peter, came here first."; and so on.

However, the equivalent of the English construction " of the two" (e.g., "the sharper of the two knives") would not use the comparative in Isxuor; it would use the superlative.

Superlatives
Superlatives are formed very similarly to comparatives. The -a ending of the adjective is replaced with -ism- and the gender endings of -a, -e or -o can then be attached and the word inflected per need. However, is the last consonant cluster in the adjective is s, x or sx, then these clusters turn into h. E.g., ‹irristisma› "angriest" (from ‹irrista› "angry, angered"); ‹frisxisma› "coldest" (from ‹frisxa› "cold"); ‹lattisma› "widest" (from ‹latta› "wide"); and ‹grandisma› "greatest" (from ‹granda› "grand, great").

Again, the adjectives with irregular comparatives have aberrant superlatives: ‹bona› becomes ‹optisma› "best"; ‹mala› becomes ‹pessisma› "worst"; ‹magna› "big" becomes ‹masxisma› "biggest"; ‹minuta› "small" becomes ‹minisma› "smallest".

Superlatives do not use ‹qua› "than", but instead ‹du› "of" to establish a comparison, or omit the compared objects altogether if they have already been mentioned: e.g., «Sto gravismo livro (du stir totir livrir) este desficillom o levere.» "The heaviest book (of all the books) was difficult to carry."; or «Báuv du la masxisma du zuer vyrer.» "He drinks from the larger of the two glasses."; and so on.

Adverbs
Much as adjectives modify nouns, adverbs formed from adjectives (or nouns themselves!) modify verbs (and occasionally adjectives too). There are two ways to form adverbs from adjectives.

Note that adverbs, unlike adjectives, do not inflect or change in any aspect: «ste file felicamotte cœ̀urei» ("the girl runs happily"), but also «stai filai felicamotte cœ̀urerón̂» ("the girls run happily").
 * Take the neuter (primary, of course!) declension of the adjective and eliminate the -a ending. This gives you an adverbial form that's typically used to signify sensory adverbs, although it can be used for any adjective, and it can only be used for adjectives. E.g., ‹strut› "closely, near" (from ‹struta› "near, close"); ‹sœ̀il› "solely, only" (from ‹sœ̀ila› "alone, sole, only"); or ‹fors› "strongly, firmly" (from ‹forsa› "strong, firm, hard").
 * Take the neuter declension of the adjective, inflect it to the prepositional form, and attach -motte to the end. This can also be done with nouns, to signify "in the fashion of [noun]", and is popularly used with proper nouns as "just as [name] would do", or "in a very [name] way/manner". Note that since primary declension words (marked by their nominatives) and their prepositionals are identical, adjectival adverbs of this form are simply the word followed by -motte. E.g., ‹frisxamotte› "coldly" (from ‹hiva› "cold"); ‹feliamotte› "happily" (from ‹felia› "happy"); ‹Yráultmotte› "just like Yráult" (from ‹Yráult› a name); or ‹Siedimotte› "in a Sied fashion" (from ‹Sied› a name).

Example Texts

 * The North Wind and the Sun were disputing which was the stronger, when a traveler came along wrapped in a warm cloak. They agreed that the one who first succeeded in making the traveler take his cloak off should be considered stronger than the other. Then the North Wind blew as hard as he could, but the more he blew the more closely did the traveler fold his cloak around him; and at last the North Wind gave up the attempt. Then the Sun shined out warmly, and immediately the traveler took off his cloak. And so the North Wind was obliged to confess that the Sun was the stronger of the two.
 * Sto Venzo Norzesto e Sto Soli dispostanze stavén̂ du quor este forsuro, quanda vi voiyranzo venute vor lor, sconxesto com une halte mantre. Loi coordavén̂ que quor povute primell facore voiyranzom o mantrem ollevere, il serai conosco sto forsuro. Ton̂ sto Venzo Norzesto tanquo povute illuo duramotte suffluite ; mai tanquo fors suffluite, illuo pius sto voiyranzo strut tráeete sem mantrem ; e finalt sto Venzo Norzesto cittate seam ottentam. Ton̂ sto Soli inferate halt, e missuis sto voiyranzi ollevete lem mantrem. Afon̂, sto Venzo Norzesto devute du omisere que sto Soli este sto forsismo du stir zuir.


 * All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
 * Ste omne essenze homine sién̂ nusce libre e parre com dignitaui e com detter. Lui sién̂ deraste com radzeo e comscienseo e dáuv agyre una vor altrer com uno sprixti du frœritusxi.