Modern Yorshaan

Modern Yorshaan, on contrary of Early Modern Yorshaan, is more simplified and more influenced by Romance language (including Atramia).

General Information
The modern and more complete verison of Yorshaan.

Yorshaan on Google Doc.

Alphabet
The alphabet has decreased by 2 letters. The Æ and Œ has now disappeared.

Consonants
All of the consonants of Modern Yorshaan are inherited from EMY, and some of them have been merged with others. The table below shows all possible consonants in Modern Yorshaan, with phonemes bolded. And here's the table of the phonemes in Yorshaan orthography.

Consonant Clusters
The are consonant clusters in Yorshaan, and most of them consist of only 2 consonants. Here's the table of all consonant clusters: It's more likely the real pronunciation when two consonants meet each other. Some of them would change it's sound, some would merge with others. Only pairs that are shown in the table are valid.

It also implies that there's no cluster consisting of more than 2 consonants in Yorshaan.

Varients of T
There were once at most 5 varients of the alveolar plosive in EModY: /t̪/, /t̻/, /tʲ/, /tʷ/, and /tˤ/. In Modern Yorshaan, some of them has merged with others or been left out. Be aware that t is read as /θ/ before the vowel /i/ since it used to be /t̪/ and finally become what it is nowadays.

In some dialects (central and eastern) the pharyngealized [tˤ] has been weakened and became implosive [ɗ], while other dialects simply de-pharyngealized it as [t]. In the orthography, the spelling tt is still preserved along with pp.

Realization of R
The realization of r also depends on its environments. There are three conditions that one should consider: intervocalic, consonant-following and consonant-preceding. In the following context, we'll talk about Standard Yorshaan.

R between Vowels
The sound of intervocalic r vaires. The dialects affected by Atramia would receive [ɻ] (retroflex), and those affected by French would have [ʀ̥], [ʀ], or [ɣ].

Though the "standard" Yorshaan read r as alveolar approximant [ɹ] and most Yorshaan users can recognize that sound, people using /ʀ/ have difficult time recognizing [ɻ] or [ɾ] as r.

Those who pronounce r using their uvula or velum (the back of mouth) are often nicknamed yontlicezye (back-tongue) and those who use the front part of their tongue receive the nickname gendicezye (front-tongue).

R before Consonants
The most significant change (or lenition) of r before consonants is that it would become [ɐ̯] in unstressed syllables.

R after Consonants
The r following consonants would become [ʀ̥], [ʀ], [r], or[r̥], depending on whether the followed consonant is voiceless or not. Yontlicezyes (most of which are northern dialects) prefer [ʀ̥] or [ʀ], while gendicezyes often pick [r] or [r̥]. However, if the r is at the end of a word, it usually becomes a rhotic schwa [ɚ].

Voicing and Devoicing
The voice of consonants (whether it's voiced or not) can be changed according on their environment. Voicing often occurs inside a word, and devoicing can only take place at the end of a word.

When the consonant is between two close vowels, such as /i/,  /y/, and /u/, the consonant would be voiced. When the consonant is at the end of a word, it would be devoiced. However, the "floating" e will prevent consonants from being devoicd. Thus such change most likely occurs in the ablative form of a noun. In addition to that, only /b/, /d/, /g/, /v/, /ð/, /z/, /ʒ/, /ʑ/, and /d͡ʒ/ can be devoiced.
 * cisine [ˈkizɪnɵ̆] (mood)
 * fronzye [ˈfʀ̥onzʲɵ̆] (prince) → ifronzy [ˈifrʀ̥onz] (from prince)

Palatalization
Palatalization has been exist in Yorshaan since long time ago. Some consonants can be palatalized, some would become another consonant after palatalized, others just can't be palatalized.

In the orthography, the palatalized sounds are followed by the letter y. Most voiced consonants would become other consonants after palatalized. Like devoicing, consonants would be de-palatalized at the end of a word. The floating e at the and of words would prevent this process from occuring as well.

Phonemes and Orthographies
The following table shows all possible vowels, including phonemes (bold) and allphones, in Yorshaan. Though it's simpler than Early Modenr Yorshaan, it still has a somewhat complex vowel systems. Under normal circumstances where vowels are stressed and open, some Yorshan alphabets presents for certain vowels. That is, for five letters, a, and e, and i, and o, and, u:

And patterns containing two letters can also present phonemes.

Nevertheless, the actual vowel any of these letters stands for varies depending on its environment. We'll talk about them later, which are stresss, closeness, following consonants, and position.

Length
Long and short vowels are not distinguished in modern usage. The length of vowels depends mostly on the stress. Stressed vowels have longer strength, whereas unstressed vowels are shorter and may undergo vowel weakening.

Two good examples showing that most long vowels have been shortened are the ending of uncountable nouns and verbs. The ending of uncountable nouns used to end in -uu /uː/ and that of I-verbs in -eem /ɛːm/. When the stress of words commenced to move from the last to the penult, the long vowels started to become shorter and shorter. Modern phnology forbids the presence of long vowels in the last syllable, thoug they might be second stressed.
 * zhorduu [ʒoɹˈdu:] → zhordu [ˈʒɔɹdʊ] (daytime)
 * bœzeem [bøˈzɛ:m] → boizem [ˈbɶzɵ̃] (able to do)

Coda
Namely, a closed syllable has a coda "closing the whole syllable", and some codae can always alter the sound of the preceding vowel, whether it's significant or not.

Each vowel has different behavior upon meeting some codae following it though. Here's a list: The phoneme /ɵ/ never appear in closed syllables. However, there's a few syllables that are really closed in Yorshaan, since that most syllables are CV.

However, when there are consonant clusters containing 2 consonants in a word, the syllable before the cluster is always close, taking the first consonant of the cluster as its coda. In the word chyastam, the first syllable is often considered chyas and receives a front open vowel [a]. The rules are ambiguous or there's even no rules, but some major principles still exist:
 * chyastam [ˈtɕas.tɑ̃] (to lie, to sit)
 * opsam [ɔp̚.sɑ̃] (to stroll)
 * 1) Clusters where all its components are all voiced, such as dn or gn, can not affect the preceding vowel.
 * 2) Sonorant codas can never modify the preceding vowels.
 * oidnem [ød̪̃.nɵ̃] (to let)
 * gontu [ˈgon.tʊ] (ink)

Semivowels
Developed from reduced vowels or other semivowels, semivowels exist in Modern Yorshaan. There are two semivowels: /ɥ/ and /j/.

Nasalization
Influenced by French, Yorshaan has nasalized vowels. Most nasal vowels occur in front of the nasal m, especially in front of a stressed syllable or final one.

Yet the number of nasal vowels are restricted. Only these nasal vowels are available in Yorshaan: When the consonant m is followed by other consonants and vowels (including final e), the vowel will no longer be nasalized. This feature is common among infinitives of Yorshaan verbs:
 * dagem /ˈdɑ.gɵ̃/ (to be seen), dageme /ˈdɑ.gem/ (to see)

Palatalization
When the letter y appears in front of another vowel, the following vowel is then palatalized. Nonetheless, not all vowels can be palatalized. That is, the vowel /i/ can never be palatalized. This is why the ending of plural absolutive form of -eie nouns (-eiit) is read as /it/. We'll talk about that in the irregular noun section.

Rhotic Vowels
There is only one r-colored vowel in Yorshaan, /ɚ/, and it will only occur at the last syllables or that before stressed ones.

In most cases, rhotic vowels occurs at the last syllable of ablative form of nouns whose stems end in -r.
 * argre /ɑɹ.gɹɵ/ (anger) → yargr /jɑɹ.gɚ/ (from anger)

Liaison
(Probably affected by french, )liaison happens in Yorshaan as well. In most cases, it takes place when a noun in absolutive case is followed by vowel-beginning word. For example: Some adjectives ending with syllabic consonants (due to the drop of absolutive suffix -e), such as ofr (long) and matl (creepy), changes the pronunciation of the last syllable upon liaison:
 * peshte ofr (a long time) /peʃt‿ofɚ/
 * Neccrade unim acca. (Time awaits no people.) /ˈnekɹɑd‿umin ˈɑkɑ/
 * peshte ofr ur (one long time) /peʃt‿ofɹ‿uɹ/

Ending E
The e at the end of some words (most of them are nouns) of Yorshaan are "floating" on account of their "uncertain" pronunciation / existance.

Under these circumstances the e must be omitted and read something else instead: While in these cases the e must be read as /ɵ/: In other cases (e.g. follows a voiced consonant) the e can be read optionally, depending on each person.
 * 1) It follows a voiceless consonant.
 * 2) The consonant it follows becomes syllabic.
 * 3) Liaison happens.
 * 1) At the end of a sentence (or clause).
 * 2) In most folklore songs.
 * 3) Emphasized.
 * 4) Read alone (no words following).

Ending U
It is reported that the u at the end of a word (most of which are nouns) alone could be /ʏ/ instead of /ʊ/. This happens in most northern dialects, to say at least.

Other Ending Vowels
There are also other vowels that could appear at the end of a word without any consonants following. These vowels are /ɑ/, /i/, /o/, and /ø/. Most of these are found in verb conjugation, and /ø/ is very rare since it's the ending of the past passive participle of eton.

Nonetheless, only /ɑ/ would change to /ɐ/ and /o/ to /ə/ or even disappear in imperative mood.

There's also a diphthong ei /eɪ̯/ that would change it's sound at the end of a word. It appears in the 3rd present indicative of weak verbs, like e bavei (He is rescued), and the ergative of -eie nouns, like clomei (rabbit). The diphthong would then become /aɪ̯/ and a new learner often forget that.

Stress
Whether a vowel is stressed or not could alter the sound of the vowel. This, though regarded as allophones, is natural to native speakers but hard to memorize for new learners. Unlike English where unstressed vowels tend to become [ɨ] or [ə], the behavior of a phoneme (vowel) in Yorshaan varies.

Diphthongs and Triphthongs
Yorshaan doesn't have a rich diphthong system. Most of diphthongs have been simplified and changed into monophthongs. There are only few diphthongs available as in modern usage. In the following table, those are always considered a vowel with a preceding semi-vowel is in gray: However, there's no triphthong in Modern Yorshaan, though there maybe some in EMY. When diphthongs are unstressed, the quality decreases and some of them could become monophthong (shown at the right side of the arrow above).

Some of these diphthongs change their sound at the last syllable of a word. Here's a summarizing table:

Personal
The personal pronouns differ according to person, number, and case. All of these pronouns are inherited form EMY and seems pretty regular, except for third person ones. These pronouns can stand alone (as a simple answer) or be the arguments of verbs (see verb property chapter for more detail). The instrumental, reflexive, and vocative forms of pronouns have been lost.

Interrogative and Relative (Adverb)
Yorshaan uses interrogative adverbs and pronouns to make questions. Some modern adverbs are derived from the inherented adverb with some noun suffixes, while some are the combination of the pronouns and prepositions like is and yet. The relative pronouns of Modern Yorshaan has been merged with interrogative ones. Hence the rules for relative clauses is different from Early Modern Yorshaan.

Indefinite
Some of the pronouns are inherited from Classical Yorshaan, whereas some are borrowed from Atramia, such as the one referring to exclusive things altrene (altrè'n in Atramia), indicating negative existense necu (necuei in Atramia), and meaning distributive things shalu (šalei in Atramia).

Demonstrative
The demonstrative pronouns are derived from demonstrative determiners. To put it simple, pronouns are determines with noun declensions:

Determiners
Determiners, or specifiers, are the words that must occur with a noun. However, a noun can appear without a determiner (zero article).

Articles
There are definite and indefinite articles in Yorshaan. The articles only express whether the modified noun is definite or not. Demonstratives, however, can express where the chosen object is (proximal, medial, or distal), it's numebr, and the grammatical case.

Nonetheless, compared to demonstratives, articles are much irregular. For example, demonstratives can only express dative and non-dative cases, whereas articles can express all 5 cases.

There are three types of articles: definite, indefinite, and partitive. The indefinite article is basically the numeral "one".

Demonstrative
All the determiners are all put behind the modified noun.
 * Shelaa grayosh mabe ri melet mei. (Please send this letter to that girl.)

Possessive
Possessive determiners in Yorshaan is realized by the genitive case. Like most adjectives in Yorshaan, there determiners must be behind the modified nouns. A noun in genitive case can also be modified by another noun also in genitive case. In this case, it's the original form of the previous noun being modified.
 * Mi pocte nadaven muli ic. (The birthday of my daughter.)(muli modifies pocte nadaven and simultaneously is modified by ic.)

Nouns
Nouns (and other stuff) are arguments of a verb. There are basically two major groups of nouns in Yorshaan: group I and gorup II, based on whether a noun is countable or not.

The case system in modern language has become simplier than that if EMY. The instrumental and vocative cases are lost, while absolutive, ergative, dative, ablative, and genitive cases are preserved.

Group I
Group I consists of countable nouns. It is necessary for an ablative noun since the singular and plural form share the same writting.

Group II
Verbs of group II are all uncountable.

Absolutive and Ergative
Both absolutive and ergative are crucial cases in Yorshaan, like nominative and accusative cases in English and other languages. Nontheteless, the absolutive is the most important case and must exist in every independent clause, i.e. there are some dependent clauses containing only ergative nouns.

Nouns in absolutive and ergative are always regarded as "direct" arguments of verbs since they involve with the "doer" and the "receiver (or patient and agent) of the verb. Hence, under normal circumstances, both absolutive and ergative nouns have to put in front of a verb.

The only situation where absolutive / ergative nouns can occur behind a verb is that the noun, including it's adjunt, is too long, like nouns with a long relative clause.

Dative and Ablative
Dative and ablative nouns are regarded as "indirect" arguments of a verb and sometimes can be even considered adverbs. They can only occur behind verbs and some ablative gerunds like common is (gerund of seron) and yet (gerund of eton).

The dative case has several usages in Modern Yorshaan: The ablative case, though less common, has several usages as well.

Genitive Acting like Adjectives
Genitives can be regarded as adjectives origined from nouns. The agreement of adjectives can be applied to genitives. See the adjective seciton for more detail about adjectives.

Irregular Nouns
Yet there are some nouns having irregular inflections. Cells with pink background contains irregular forms.

-oie and -eie Nouns
Some irregular nouns end in -oie or -eie due to the loss of the consonant y /j/. For example, savoie (valley) is used to be savoye in EMY.

-nt Countable Nouns
These -nt nouns are those whose last consonant is voiced and penult vowel is e or i.

The nasal ending of plural dative and ablative depends on the original last consonant: In this case, the last consonant of the word woizebe is b and the ending of both plural dative and blative is m.
 * b, w, v → m
 * n, d, dz, zh, j, zhy, g → n
 * r → r
 * l → l

This phenomenom arose from the simplification of specific nouns. Below is a table comparing the expected inflection and this irregular one.

Irregular ablative
Even though both singular and plural ablative have merged, there are still some exceptional inflections. Irregular ablative often occur on nouns with low vowel initials such as i, u, and eu. Under formal circumstances should not this happen, but in casual conversations and especially on the Net people tend to remove the intial y from the ablative, resulting "the bare form of the noun".

For example, the ablative of euride "meteor" should be yeurid. Eliminating the initial y results in eurid. Though such move is not recommended by educational institutions, but since most people could tell them apart by only hearing their pronunciation, more and more people have adopted this new form of ablative.

Proper Nouns
Proper nouns in Yorshaan often refer to those who are unique in this world, such as names, jargons and other specific words. These nouns are always capitalized and decline according to their countableness. Most of proper nouns are countable, hence group I nouns. Another difference is that the absolutive of proper nouns is lack of the ending e.
 * E siy buma Seifindimetron blamyem. ("He doesn't want to learn trigonometry.")

To Become Verbs
Nouns can be converted into verbs by attaching the suffix -ashem and therefore follow the strong verb conjugation. This feature is inherited from the instrument case.
 * ucetsu (loyality)
 * Ci ucetsashie! (Be loyal to me!)

Compound Noun
A compound noun is formed by adding the genitive form of a nou in front of another noun. Thus, the order of the words is different from merely using an adjective (genitive form) modifying the noun.
 * omivyole (The Era of Darkness)
 * vyole omi (dark era)

Loan words
As the globalization goes, people gradually find it impossible to express everything in their life with ordinary Yorshaan words. Besides creating new compounds from already-existing words, foreign words start to be imported into Yorshaan. Usually these loan words would be modified so that they would fit in the phonology of Yorshaan, like the modified term Cuwantum comes from what we would call in English "quantum". Since modern phonology doesn't allow labialized consonants to be appear, the syllable qua- becomes cuwa-.

When a loan word is a noun or a verb, the corresponding ending will be added. Nouns receive either -e or -u according to their countableness, and verbs receive -am so that they conjugate as a weak verb. The word "concrete", refering to a building material, becomes concritu since it is uncountable.

Loan words can also combine with ordinary Yorshaan words, especially in specific subjects. The word, mentioned earlier, Seifindimetron consists of seifinde "triangle" and metron "-metry", while the former is ordinary and the latter is loan from Greek. A might more appropriate word Trigonometron was once proposed since the whole word was imported from Greek like trigonometry in English, but it was somehow rejected by the multitude of people.

History
Languists manage to build a common ancestor of Yorshaan languages: Proto-Yorshaan, which might be either a daughter proto-language of PIE or isolated from that.

Theoretically, in PY, there are several ways to mark the tense of a verb.

Strong Verb= The strong verbs change their stem vowel (of the last of the word) in only one way: -a- for present, -i- for past, and -ai- for future.

Yet there are verbs take the form -u-em or -oi-em. They are derived from -u-eem and -œ-eem verbs in EMY. Their penult vowels might be different, but they will all become -i- in past tense and -ai- in future.


 * -|Weak Verb=


 * -|Irregular: Yon=


 * -|Irregular: Alon=


 * -|Irregular: Eton=

The ablative form of the gerund, yet, is a common adverbial participle in Yorshaan. It often indicates the time point when something is happened. Like yet co dagem means "when sb. look at me".


 * -|Irregular: Seron=

The most common suppletive verb in Yorshaan, also an import role in perfect compound.

The replacing term wed and wedz comes from Old Yorshaan vhederum (to leave), and oiv- or ois- from eyupsarum (to run). The word seron itself was seronzh (to go & to be like) in Early Modern Yorshaan, from Middle Yorshaan sairronzj, seyrrunzy (to go, to depart, to leave), se- (inchaotive prefix) + yrronzy (to leave), from Old Yorshaan yurrhunzyum (to be apart), yurr- (ablative prefix) + henzyum (to move), from Proto-Yorshaan *hẽzy- (to move, to act). Cognate with Farnian hibe (to come).

The adverbial participle or seron, is, is one of the most used adverbs in Yorshaan (that functioning like a preposition). It can mean either to or from in English, depending on the case of the noun behind it.
 * nim is inar ic. (far from my house)
 * birdam is Vorgastet. (wander toward Vorgast)

Passive and Antipassive Voice
Since Yorshaan is an absolutive-ergative language, both passive and antipassive voice has never died out. (though only participles have antipassive form) For example:
 * He-NOM smiles when I-NOM see him-ACC.

would be


 * E-ABS stucha preu e-ABS cu-ERG daga. (*Him-ABS smiles when I-ERG see him-ABS)

The method Yorshaan adapted to express antipassive is to convert the vern into its antipassive participle and introduce the copula alon.


 * E-ABS stucha preu co-ABS al e-ABS dagise. (*Him-ABS smiles when me-ABS is him-ABS seeing)

So that there will be no ergative objects, both co and e are all absolutive. This function is silimar to that of English, whose pattern "sb. be V+ed by..." refers to passive voice. The transitivity of the verb dagem has been reduced (taking only one argument co).

Reflexive Construction
Reflexive verbs take the same object as its agent and patient at the same time, like the verb wash in the sentence "I wash myself." There are no reflexive pronouns in modern Yorshaan; however, reflexive verbs can be regarded as other verbs with infix -apam. For example dagem means "to see" while dagapam means "to see oneself" or "to reflect".

Reflexive verbs resembling strong verbs are "weakened strong verbs with infix -apam".
 * Si e cu daga dagapam. (I don't see him reflect.)

Subjunctive and Optative Mood
In EMY, subjunctive form often received long suffixes. In modern usage, the imperative has been replaced by simplified subjunctive and subjunctive merged with optative. Among the three remaining moods (indicative, optative and imperative), the imperative form from EMY has fallen out of use.

Due to the substitution, some subjunctive usage can be expressed by optative verbs in moden speaking. The conditional sentences is a good example, where the condition clause would be in subjunctive mood in EMY. (see below) Meanwhile, more and more circumstances where one should adopt subjunctive or optative mood become dclarative, like Old English loses some of its subjunctive usage in Modern English. Nowadays the optative mood can only be seen in some clauses introduced by conjunctions (like noia in conditional sentences) and honorific speach.

Adopting optative mood in proper situations has been regarded as educated. On the contrary, colloquial speaking prefers declarative mood rather than optative, especially those who contact with Atramias or Europeans often are less likely to use optative.

Participles
There are two properties of a participle in Modern Yorshaan: tense and voice.

1) Modifying a Noun
Participles can play a role as an adjective and taking another nouns as arguments at the same time.
 * none mi farise (the burning world)
 * none mi farim (the burned world)
 * mabe mi fawen u (the letter stolen by him)

2) To Form the Perfect
Forms in perfect compuond were actually a combination of the verb and yog in early modern Yorshaan. In Modern Yorshaan, however, the method is different. Two verbs, yon and seron, has been introduced to form the perfect. Here only passive participles are used. In most cases, intransitive verbs use the verb seron. Modal verbs can also be treated as intransitive ones, thus those verbs usually take the modal verb seron as well. In the sentence above, the word aletois is passive whereas dagise is antipassive.
 * Jase cu alim iy. (I have drunk water.)
 * E nacrim sera. (She has cried.)
 * Co aletois seri dagise e. (I have seen him.)(= E cu dagim oy.)

3) Adverbal Form
Participles can alse been regarded as the "adverbal form" of verbs and have a variety of usages:
 * a) To modify the sentense. (Only passive available.)
 * b) Dangling perticiple.
 * c) Genitive absolute.

Infinitives
There were once infinitive dependent and infinitive independent in EMY, but the dependent usage becomes obsolete. In modern usage, every infinitive is independent (they still can't form a main clause on their own). Some usages are inherited from classic ones.

1) Introductory Word of a Noun Clause
Silimar to English to-infinitive, infinitives can be used for introductory word of a clause. Beware that though the infinitive sayem should be ergative (making me sleep), it will never end in -eu or -im. All the suffixes that would be attached in EMY are all dropped.
 * Co sayem e ore. ( To listen to him makes me sleep.)

2) Consequence of previous verb
Infinitives can attach to other finite verbs. In such case, the whole clause with the infinitive acts like adverb and thus doesn't effect the main verb. The clause in the following sentences are underlined.
 * Wasit in lopiteu ri fiwats uage euz bapem is vaset .(This villager stole our bread to keep his body and soul together .(lock his soul in torso))
 * Sluye mi u cirter nyo spadem . (He raised the torch to warn us .)
 * Do cu bume hecte in boram . (I want you to keep our secret.)

Gerunds
Gerunds in Yorshaan are usually regarded as the noun of an action. There is only one form of gerunds, regardless whether its passive or antipassive (different from infinitives). Yet gerunds can never take any argument.

Gerunds is also used for adverbial participles. In this case, the ablative case of gerunds is adopted. On treated as adverbial participles instead of a noun in ablative case, it's able to take arguments. Consider one conditional sentence: The adverb yoirvar (ablative of oirvaru) replaces the clause noia vin oirvats (if they are killed). In modern usage conditional sentences that are implying facts often adopt such construction, whereas other circumstances (predicative & hypothetic) still use optative form of verbs.
 * Cradit sideir yoirvar. = Cradit sideir noia vin oirvats. (People die if they are killed.)
 * Idagar nyo, e stucha. (Upon seeing us, he smiles.)

Adjective
Adjectives are used to modify or add extra information to nouns. Adjectives were "the form of the nouns that modify other nouns", but somehow became an independent category in modern grammar. Take a look at the differences: In EModY, "an adjunt in dative case" was "an adjunt meaning something dative", like bina "kingdom" → biner "for a/the/some kingdom(s)". Such usage was ambiguous, though, and had been mistaken for "changes to its dative form when modifying a dative noun." We can learn from the table above that not all specific case of adjectives are inherented from EModY. A possible reason is that some forms are actually "the result of the stem following the first or second declension in EModY, and the -um affix dropped.". As a result, adjectives in modern usage must agree in the case and number with the noun they modify.

Predicative Adjectives
Adjectives usually come after nouns and after determiners, but they can also follow verbs like copulative verbs. In these case, adjectives are predicative. The most common copulative verb in Yorshaan is alen, while other verbs, such as nolyam ("to color"), froinem ("to make"), bergam ("to taste"), and others can also precede adjectives. Participles derived from verbs can also act as adjectives and follow nouns or copulative verbs.
 * Vandru koi berga dremyen. ("The meat tastes rotten.")
 * Froinatte nyo la. ("Make us feel good.")

Restrictiveness
Under most circumstances, adjectives in Yorshaan are not restrictive. That is, a noun, though followed by adjectives, still requires determiners like articles or possessive ones. To make nouns definite, one can use definite articles (koi) or use comparative form of adjectives without any comparing objects. Like:
 * Nube ur ad ("a small hill")
 * Nube ado. ("the smaller hill")
 * Nube adoe mie (im). ("the hill smaller than that one")

Comparative and Superlative
The once-existed absolute superlative has been lost. There are only comparative and relative superlative remaining. The affix -o and -a is derived from the comparative and (relative) superlative suffix of EModY: -ijor and -ijar respectively.

When comparing to an object, the clitic -e is added to the adjective. It referred to the present third person imperfect form of third conjugation verbs. The object behind it could be either absolutive or ablative, though the latter is becoming archaic.
 * Rasoe /ˈɹɑsø/ maye (imay) koi. ("Redder than the sun")

Adjectives without Adverbal Form
Some adjectives in Yorshaan don't have adverbial form since it's not necessary. These adjectives are usually static properties of objects like age, color, size, etc.

Adjectives and Genetives
Another class of words in Yorshaan grammar competing with adjectives is the genetives of nouns, since both of them can modify nouns and genetives can also be predicative, if necessary.

The major difference is the relation between the noun and the modifier. Adjectives express or complete the properties of the noun, while genetives indicate that something belongs to others.

Another significant difference is that genetives can be modified by adjectives. That is, the adjectives can complete the properties of genetives.
 * Cradiesle koi meli yozg. ("The beautiful girl's mannequin.")

Prepositions
The prepositions are usually derived from the ablative of gerunds of verbs, which is also the adverbial participle of them. In this case, they function as prepositions but the following nouns must be either dative or ablative, depending on the usage.

Prepositions can (only) occur behind nouns or verbs. Here's some common prepositions in Yorshaan:

Is
The preposition is comes from seron ("to go") and often refers to going or moving (to or from, concretely). For example:
 * Ablative: the thing the object or action is coming away from. (from)
 * Dative: the thing the object or action is heading toward. (to, toward)
 * Dagem is isalleust kos. ("To look and turn away from the screen.")
 * Dagem isalleust kos. ("To obtain information from the screen.")
 * Bode koi is Fransen. ("The way to France.")

Yet
This originates from the verb eton ("to exist") and is usually used to indicate the time point of the action or sentence. This preposition is a little special due to it's capability of taking genetive nouns. Exempli grantia:
 * Ablative: the time point when the action started. (since)
 * Dative : the time point when the action will cease. (until)
 * Genetive: the duration of time when the action happens. (for, through)
 * Yet heritsi anasti. ("In times of harshness and melancholy.")
 * Yet isotyet. ("Until tomorrow.")

Ibind
From bindam ("to walk"), this preposition indicates the relative position of the object with others. For example:
 * Ablative: (a) in front of others. (in front of, before) (b) more advanced or superior
 * Dative: behind others. (behind, following, after) (b) less advanced or inferior
 * Pocte koi ibindizh ipoct ri. ("The day ahead of this day.")

Imoign
From moignem ("to escalate"), this preposition refers to the vertical relative position of objects.
 * Ablative: (a) above something. (b) superior than
 * Dative: (a) below something. (b) inferior than

Yaic
From aicam ("to hit, attack"), this preposition refers to the relation between objects.
 * Ablative: depending on objects.
 * Dative: against objects, opposite of.

Adverb
Adverbs are derived from adjectives. Both adverbs and adjectives shared the same form in EModY, but, as for the absolutive form, the suffix -um or -iys of adjectives dropped. Adverbs derived from -iys adjunts in EModY pick the simplified suffix -is. No matter what an adverb modifies, it won't change its spelling.
 * Seron sepis. (To go fast.)

Conditional Sentence
Conditional sentences express that whether an event will happen or not depends on another event. One is the conditional, and the other the consequence. In Yorshaan, there are several types of conditional sentences:

Implicative
Implicative conditional sentences state that if one fact is true, then so is another. Such sentences is used for common sense, obvious facts, and strong will of the speaker. Tense of both clauses is usually present. The conjunction noia indicates the condition clause.
 * Cradit sideir noia vin oirvats. (People die if they are killed.)

Predictive
Predictive conditional sentences concern events that would happen in the future on account of another present or future event. The conclusion clause is in future optative mood, while the conditional one can be in either present or future indicative mood, depending on when the condition is going to take place.
 * Noia u olme euz veshyei prasyenis, cu e lanzagints. (If he admits his fault publicly, I will trust him.)

Counterfactual
Counterfactual conditional sentences refers to consequences that would happen if an event known to be false or unlikely to happen in the future takes place. The hypothetic situation could be in the past, present or even future. Classically the consequence clause of counterfactual sentences was in optative mood (or even subjunctive), but such usage became archaic, obsolete, and was replaced by declarative mood.
 * Noia u olme euz veshyaven ogun prasyenis, cu e lanzavei. (If he had admitted his fault publicly, I would have trusted him.)
 * Noia u olme euz veshyavints prasyenis, cu e lanzei. (If he admitted his fault publicly, I would trust him.)
 * Noia u olme euz veshyavints prasyenis, cu e lanzagei. (If he were to admit his fault publicly, I would trust him.)

Clitics and Affixes
There are several clitics that can be attached to nouns (or even verbs) in Yorshaan. There clitics are derived from separate words in Early Modern Yorshaan or early languages, but they became dependent nowadays.

A(w)-
This clitic was derived from the word a in Early Modern Yorshaan. In informal usage, this word can be connected with the modified noun by hyphen. For example, edriys a nastiys none would be formal while edriys a-nast none was informal, both of which mean that "sorrowful and painful world". They equal to edr anast none in modern grammar, where the clitic a has been merged with the adjective nast.

The pronounciation of this clitic was once /ɤ/, but then a schwa, eventually a round schwa (probably affected by French, as well as e at the end of words of Yorshaan). This is a possible explanation of why would this clitic receive a consonant /w/ in front of a vowel-initial word like edr in the phrase none nast awedr.

Moi(w)-
Read /mø(w)/, the clitic is used to indicate alternative options, silimar to or in English.
 * Oy pri moiwente moiwarbese du bume? (Do you want a banana or an apple?)

-(i)cte
This clitic/suffix is believed to be derived from the word standing for "person", crade (MY), or crada (EMY). The word became */ikɹ̩t/ and finally /ikt/.

Such usage first appeared in Early Modern Yorshaan, where the gerund of a verb can combine with the word crada. This clitic is no longer productive. The term doinarcte can only be used to indicate a member of a chorus. It's not the equivalent of "singing person", but crade doinise is.

(i)-y-
An ancient infix inherented from Old Yorshaan to express diminutive form. Like meliye ("little girl, bitch, whore") from mele ("girl").

Polar and Content Question
Polar quesitons are ones to which the expected response is yes or no, whereas content questions require a more specific answer. In Modern Yorshaan, one can tell if a question is polar or content easily because of the difference between their structures. Let's see some sentences:
 * Polar Q.: Oy pri + Sentence
 * Content Q.: Q. Particle + Clause

Honorific Speech
The politeness system in Yorshaan has been simplified, but there are three ways of expressing respect::
 * 1) by pronouns.
 * 2) by honorific forms
 * 3) by verbs.

Honorific Verb
As far as rule #1 is concerned, there can be at most four different verbs representing one same meaning, each of them stands for a different different level of politeness: Take the verb "to know" for example: Alen mvon pri... stands for "that... is true". As far as Yorshaan is concerned, '''there's no need to modify the rank of patient (absolutive case), and the emphasis is always put on the patient. 'As a result, there would be no humble form of a sentence whose topic is "me" (Co...'') and no respectful form of a sentence whose topic is other people.
 * Casual language
 * Formal language
 * Respectful (Referent is superior.) & Humble language (Speaker is inferior.)

Honorific Alternatives
Some words, referring to others and to one self, are introduced to express politeness. For example:

Syntax
Sentences in Modern Yorshaan follow some principles:
 * 1) All adjectives follow nouns they modify. Genitive nouns and verb participles do also observe this law.
 * 2) Indirect nouns (dative and ablative) are put after verbs. Absolutive nouns proceed ergative ones.
 * 3) Verbs (modal) follow the verbs they modify. When there are indirect nouns behind the modified verbs, then the modal verbs would follow the nouns.

Example
Siy shulaa, Lafrente. (Sil shalhaha, Lafrente.)

Don't forget it, Lafrente.

Ilado ne mi hesluyewe, iu jate hamebeuzise yei seuwa. (Iliaduan mei helsluyevhai, ur jate hahamescei siewa.)

If the candle goes out, a river that can't be crossed will apear.

Pro siy du shoye ic yun shyei?

''Don't you want to be my friend? (Tu ne voudrais pas devenir mon amie?)''

Noia mele ameu nada, mele mi eulom ochetos ame.

If a mother gives birth to a girl, the girl will become a mother.

Noia zene u fetints, harcit froinats.

If he said a word, things could have changed.

Yodzu ic seretois sera ilyet icimeuts!

My time has come!

Co siy boize oram yet zhorden.

I can't sleep during the daytime.

Siy pocte ri shailatte.

Never forget this day.

Peshte sar nyu zira is Fransen.

We really had a great time in France.

Vozu eul filt yet zhasset ri, cu netei.

This time everything will be different, I promise.

Neccrade unim acca.

Time waits for no one.

U weth syertei pri chyastei is dupet hith vordi euz.

Only he knows what lies in the deepest place of his mind.

Siy morte mi cu hinca, yoiw siy u psayam rade bima.

I didn't tell her the truth because she didn't want to hear it.

Oins e cu syerten oy yet peshte ofr ur, siy co boize faisam priet u buma galoirvem.

Though I've known him for a long time, I can't understand why he wants to commit suicide.

Lexicon
Lexicon

My Home, Sweet Home (Final Fantasy: Dear Friends)
So far away from my home, sweet home

Sort   nim      is       inar      ic      enti so-ADV far-ADJ  go-PTCP  home-ABL  my-GEN  sweet-ADJ

Day by day, from land to land I roam

Ipoctum      ihendum        co     nashye. from_day-ADV from_land-ADV  I-ABS  roam-PRS.1S

Though told by the wind which way to go,

Oins       oalim     hince        seron, though-ADV wind-ERG  tell-1S.PST  go-INF

Oh, how I long for my home, sweet home.

O,       nare      ic      enti       cu     buma. O-INTERJ home-ABS  my-GEN  sweet-ADJ  I-ERG  long-3S.PRS

Boaðe ruoktot alot go dan dovtat tuski (You can come home in times of harshness.)

Boize      jalsem    naret     yet             heritset. can-2S.PRS come-INF  home-DAT  exist-PTCP.PRS  harshness-DAT

Boaðe ruoktot alot go dan dovtat vaivui (You may come home in times of sorrow, too.)

Boize      jalsem    naret     yet         natsu. can-2S.PRS come-INF  home-DAT  exist-PTCP  sadness-DAT

Du ruoktu vuordà du alot (Your home will be waiting for you forever)

Nareu    id        do       aicci,             yulis. home-ERG your-GEN  you-ABS  wait-2S-FUT.PROGR  forever-ADV

Du ruoktu vuordà du alot (It will be waiting for you forever.)

Nareu    id        do       aicci,             yulis. home-ERG your-GEN  you-ABS  wait-2S-FUT.PROGR  forever-ADV

Fragrant blossoms blooming far away--

Mili         porsh         boicen                nimum, flower-N.GEN fragrant-ADJ  bloom-PTCP.PRS.ANTIP  far-ADV

Do my folks see them as I did long ago?

Oy        pri         vin       jisoit      icimt       dagats,     say     cu    digats? is-3S.PRS what-RELAT  they-ABS  man-ERG.PL  my-GEN-ERG  see-PRS.3PL as-CONJ I-ERG see-PST.3PL

Are they still joyful? Are they young at heart? Alene- vin       myuz       is       tlazeu? Alenn- vin      hosy       is       tlazeu? be-3PL they-ABS  happy-ADJ  go-PTCP  heart-DAT  be-3PL they-ABS  young-ADJ  go-PTCP  heart-DAT

Will I see them again as I did that day? Oy        pri         vin       cu     daigats      ithoim,      say      cu    digats? is-3S.PRS what-RELAT  they-ABS  I-ERG  see-FUT.3PL  return-PTCP  as-CONJ  I-ERG see-PST.3PL

Bearaš, ushbat (Family, friends,) Tloye      ashoyit, family-ABS and.friend-ABS.PL

Ruoktu, muitut (Home and memories.) Anare        awondit and.home-ABS and.memory-ABS.PL

Dat ca goassige (No one will ever.) Neccradoit    ces nobody-ERG.PL ever-ADV

Vajaldahtc du (Forget about you.) do      shaile. you-ABS forget-FUT.2S

How far I've come from my childhood home! Alen-      e       co     seri        pseren     nim      is       inar      slaguni! be-PRS.3SG it-ABS  I-ABS  go-PRS.1SG  come-PTCP  far-ADJ  go-PTCP  home-ABL  childhood-GEN

There will come a time when my troubles are gone, Unu      pseragei      yetip      udzit           ic      seretois      sereuz, time-ABS come-FUT.3SG  when-CONJ  trouble-ABS.PL  my-GEN  go-PTCP.PRS   go-FUT.3PL

And when I shall not be all alone-- Yetip     co     siy      eul        tund. when-CONJ I-ABS  not-ADV  be-FUT.1S  alone-ADJ

Till then, I dream of my home, sweet home. Yet           une         mi,       co     boeutashe     naret       icimeuts. exist-GER.ABL time-ABS.S  that-DET  I-ABS  dream-PRS.1S  home-DAT.S  my-GEN.DAT

Meahcci, čàcit, (Forest, stream,) Syaze,       jate, forest-ABS.S stream-ABS.S

Albmi, eana: (Sky and earth:) smadu,    panyu sky-ABS.S earth-ABS.S

Dat buot vurdet du (Everyone is waiting,) Do        cradoit       acci. you-ABS.S people-ERG.PL wait-PRS.2S.PROG

Dat buot vurdet du (Waiting for your return.) Do        cradoit       acci. you-ABS.S people-ERG.PL wait-PRS.2S.PROG

Rё∀L (Guilty Crown)
(8,9) Yetip smadu koi cu loiga, co boize cronde ur is yum psasyam.

(5) Pri co mine bujam?

(3, 4) Pri alen gent, pri alen mvon?

(6) Isip co mine seron?

(4, 4) Zindit koie hoir, mortit koie froin.

(10) Feuze ur hagni kest nyu daga wethum.

(4, 4) Zindit koie hoir, wulu koie froin.

(2, 1, 5) Pri wulu oy? Pri wulu fratla?

(2, 7) Ummi, dagise is isalleust kos

(6) Pri nyo boizes dagam?

(9) Om poctorre inowu nizise u?

(6) Moiwur wertyeu matlim?

(9) Nyo baizosh wulu koi froinem

(6) Noia nyo werer fortis.

(2, 9) Ummi, seretos ipoctorr nolyen imaz.

(6) Pri nyo boizes gnawem?

(9) Oy rieu wulu? Pri wulu fratla?

(6) Pri nyo boizes dagam?

(9) Om poctorre inowu nizise u?

(6) Moiwur wertyeu matlim?

(9) Nyo baizosh wulu koi froinem

(6) Noia nyo werer fortis.

(2, 9) Ummi, seretos ipoctorr nolyen imaz.

(6) Pri nyo boizes gnawem?