Proto-Zulian

Proto-Zulian is the ancient ancestor of modern Zulian in the fantasy world of Segridia. It is the primary language of the Empire of Shaga-Zul. The empire once ruled nearly all of the East and held some of the eastern coasts of the West. Since this time, it has contracted back to only controlling a sizable portion of the East with no presence in the West anymore. However, the languages still remain, and have since developed into distinct languages.

Vowels
There are no diphthongs.

Phonotactics
(C)CV(C)(C) Syllable structures. From most to least common CV, CVC, CVCC, CCVC, CCVCC

Writing System
Latinized Orthography

Nouns
Nouns decline by Case, Gender, and Number. Case and Gender follow the following chart, using a circumfix. (- for stem) Nouns are marked as plural by adding 'ni', 'ki', 'ně', and 'no' to Masculine, Feminine, Neuter Animate, and Neuter Inanimate respectively.

The word cats in the nomnitive case is declined as such. It has the stem 'nant' and is Neuter Animate: Minantině. The t in the suffix half of the circumfix is deleted for visual clarity (rather than Minanttině)

Definite Article
Article is the same for both singular and plural, but is based on noun declensions There is no indefinite article, it is assumed without the definite article.

Verbs
Verbs conjugate in this pattern: Person-Stem-Tense

Moods (which are often conveyed in English with modal verbs) is only used for 3 special cirumstances: Condtional (I might, I may, I would*, I could*, etc.), Obligation (I should/I must/I have to etc.), and Ability (I could, I can) moods change the root (see principal parts)

Person is conjugated as a prefix in the following manner

Tense and Aspect conjugate together to create the Tense suffix

English examples of the Recent Past and Near Future tenses are "I just..." and "I was about to...", respectively. Distant Past is often used by the elderly to tell old stories or in religious context. Far future is used mostly for religious context (generally relating to a prophecized cataclysmic event) or for political goals; the assumed actions of the posterity of The Empire of Shaga-Zul was often referred to in the Far Future tense. Bold, but perhaps naive.

Keep in mind that these affixes do not always attach so regularly to the verbs they attach to and are often shortened for more common verbs. A wonderful example of this is the verb to be.

The verb 'to be' in the present and then recent past tenses. The root is suf. TO BE FIXED As you can see, the v or f is assimilated to its voiced/voiceless counterpart, as well as the prefex being chopped and assimilated as well.

​​​There is a similar pattern of assimilation and deletion of the la in sanla (a deletion which later occurs across most of the language branches over time).

* In some contexts

Moods
Moods use a different root than the default indicative mood. Each verb has 4 stems which follow a somewhat regular pattern of change (although not always). Here is an example using the verb 'to scare'; sěfe, in the first person singular (root in bold, full root underlined)

You can see, especially in the Necessitative mood, how many different ways the stems can be chopped depending on the ending.

Syntax
Proto-Zulian predominantly uses an SOV word order but it may use OSV (often for dramatic effect). The verb must be the final part of any clause. All nouns are capitalized in the latinized orthography.

Example sentence: The cat was just about to hit the mouse with a bat but a dog barked and scared the cat away.

Ti Minanti zi Gidoqanzi Trěbaxasmi vizhalenosanla kavin Muprazku zi Ginantsi* xer̃on vizhakrestosanla vu sěfe** 

Literally: The Cat [N] the mouse [A] bat [I] hit [3rd person near-past simple] but [clause break] dog [N] the cat [A]* away (prep) bark [3rd person NP simple] and (verb linking conjunction) scare [3rd person NP simple]**

* Any t followed by a z is contracted to a ts to form the sound t͡s (the same is true for t and s)

** In a list of verbs, only the first verb is conjugated if the verbs would be conjugated identically, so the rest are only stems

Example text
The First Page of the Prologue to The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R Tolkien