Old Shax

General Information
This is the long lost North African romance language. It manifested in the Maghreb: specifically in modern-day Morocco, the Roman Empire's Mauritania. Shax's country is of the same name, Mauritania, in Shax, Morrania ([ˈmo̞ranja]). The East Roman Empire's side of North Africa was influenced by Greek and gave birth to coptic and other such languages. Though, influence from Western Romance languages, namely Iberian, have made it closer to those such languages phonetically. It's sister language, Vandalic, followed a much different path, though is still highly respected among the inhabitants of Mauritania.

("wikitable mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" <- for collapsible tables)

(*) In Verbial Phrases in Syntax

In the photo, Morrania (Shax's constate) is in blue taking the place of modern day Morocco and parts of western Algeria. The Vandal Kingdom (Vandalic's constate) in purple is taking the place of Tunisia, coastal Algeria, Sicily, the Balearic Islands, Corsica, and Sardinia. Xarràña (Xarrano's constate) is in yellow taking the place of a conland around a volcano called Ezgo. Cirtania (Cirtanian's constate) is in dark blue next to Greece and is a fictional island that had been heavily influenced by Greece and Italy.

Vowel
All vowels can be nasal

Sound Changes
Can be found here

Stress
Stress falls on primarily on the closed syllable (except if it's ultimate) or a pre-rhotic syllable; if there isn't one of those conditions, the stress falls on the penultimate. Note that stress on the ultimate syllable is on an open syllable followed by a closed syllable in a two syllable word. On two, open syllable words, the stress falls on the ultimate syllable if the ultimate syllable is of a nasal vowel, diphthong, or nasal diphthong. Nasal vowels carry more strength than non-nasal vowels so if any above condition is not ture, the stress will fall on the nasal vowel.

Sandhi
The vowels [u] and [i] may be freely exchanged for [w] and [j] respectivally before vowel regardless of word barriors (u amu [w.amu] - I like/love). Identical vowels between word boundries may also fuse into one sound (u sũ ũ fezuã [u sũ fezwã] - I am a person). Also, voiced consonants such as [b], [d], and [g] may become [v], [ð], and [ɣ] respectivally intervocallically between word boundries as well. [r] is an unstable phoneme and is often removed word finally if a dental or alveolar phoneme (though, many speakers keep it before [s] and [z], but this is also unnecessary) follow it in the next word. Note that vowel nasality is also quite free: if there is a nasal vowel near any vowel, the adjecent vowel[s] may become allophoniclly nasal as well.

Phonotactics
(G)(V)(C)(C)((P*)L)V(V)(C)(C) C - consonant; V - vowel; G - glide (w, j); L - liquid (w, j, r, l); P - plosive

(*) Note that nasals become nasal-plosive cosonant cluster before [r] (i.e.:  = [mbr])

Note that diphthongs ending in [ɪ̯] cannot precede [r]

Alphabet

 * I/Y and U are [j] and [w] respectivally before another vowel
 * Intervocalically, [b] > [v], [d] and [θ] > [ð], [g] > [ɣ]
 * Ș comes from [st] and [ts] > [θ]
 * Ț comes from [#t] and loans > [θ]
 * ’ is used for transcribing letters that have been lost from Old to Modern Shax and Arabic sounds that have a null value in Shax, [ħ], [h], [ʔ]*, and [ʕ]
 * (*) Though, [ʔ] is sometimes [k] initially and finally in Shax

Multigraphs

 * (*) These negate the intervocallic ruel
 * If one vowel is nasal in a set, all the vowels are nasal: (amãi [amãɪ̯̃])

1st Declension
selua [sɛlwa] - forest Contains only feminine nouns ending in [a].

2nd Declension
lovu [lovu] - wolf Contains only nouns ending in [u].

3rd Declension
faș [faș] - father Contains only masculine nouns. This is also the declension for gerunds.

4th Declension
re [re̞] - the truth of the situation/events, a witnesse's claim [in a court of law], reality [as opposed to a fantasy] (can be used to call someone crazy or deluded) Contains only feminine nouns.

Changing gender
Masculine nouns can change to feminine nouns by using the 4th declension and feminine nouns can use the 3rd declension.

Suffixes
To make a "doer" noun (i.e.: farmer, swimmer, fisher, etc), place a -u/-ü, masculine, or -i/-ï, feminine (forms with umlauts are for nouns that end the same vowel).

Declension
Adjectives decline just like what they're modifying (ex with biũ, good: lovu biu, nice wolf, or selua bia, friendly woods/forest).

Note that in a list, the declension of the adjective will match the second noun.

States
A comparitive is marked with the construction "more/most" + adjective-"io" (+ "than" + the thing being compared). A superlative adjective is adjective-"ixu."

Transformations
A verb can become an adjective through the use of its present participle. A noun can become an adjective by placing it the way an adjective would be and declining it to what it's modifying. An adjective can become a noun by the same process as a noun would become an adjective. Note that some adjective cannot be noun and vice versa (i.e. pliccu must be an adjective).

Adverbs
Adverbs simply take the full adjective and end it with -mẽ.

Morphology
Full article here.

Reflexive
Put the corresponding accusative pronoun with the verb (ex: u me lu [u me lu] - I wash myself).

T-V Distinction
Shax doesn't have a T-V distinction, but when refering to a person of higher authority, one must use their title as a prefix to țu.

Passive
Some verbs are intrisically "passive." Such verbs work like manquer, to miss, in French and gustar, to like, in Spanish where the verb works in the opposite way. (ex: u țe șuvu means "You're confusing me," but literally, it's "I you confuse" where it is "I am being confused by you" semantically). Note that this "passivity" doesn't apply to imperitive and intransitive verb [forms].

Postpositional
Being a head initial language, Shax puts its postpositions (or compound prepositions) after the noun. The noun take the Nom-Acc case. Sometimes, the noun will the Gen-Dat case. Note: the noun takes the appropriate article.

Nouns with adjectives
A nominal phrase has the noun at the head (which is the first word) with adjective following it. Adjectives follow it in a logical order of which descibes the noun best or which is the most important quality. Therefore, a change in the adjective can also change the semantic of the noun. Though in colloquial speech, the order is irrelevant and one would simply list to their whim.

Genitive Nouns
The owner takes the genitive case and turns into a modifier, but it is placed before the owned noun. mau fați lovu means "My father's wolf."

Word Order
A personal pronoun is necessary before every verb form in Shax. If the clause uses pronouns alone, it is SOV (ex: u me lu - I wash myself, u țe șuve - you confuse me, u elu dormiau - I'll sleep [over] there; but u su fezuã - I am a person). Note that interrogative sentences function as any normal verb would in Shax.

Negation
The general negation marker is a no before the main verb and after the main pronoun. Though, specific types of negation may be placed by using no as a prefix (i.e.: nobody, never, nobody ever, no where).

Other

 * Supine: gerund + fe (ex: "I went to the pool to swim" = «u amblavi nattuaia a nattuà fe», lit. I walked pool to swiming by means of)

Conditional Clauses
Conditional clauses where there is a requirement clause then a condition clause require the indicative then a subjunctive. But, sentences where there is only a condition (like I'd do that) require the verb to be able to in the subjunctive.

Subordinate Clauses
These are introduced with either cã or ce'. 'cã is that; ce means who/whom. The introductory words are necessary and almost never omitted except in very informal or uneducated speech. Subordinate clauses go after independent clauses and are separated by a comma before cã or ce. The verb conjugates to the person taking the nominative in the independent clause.

Copula
There are two auxillary verbs used for a copula: to be and to have. When it's a construction with a noun and an adjective, he is good, one would use to have and the adjective as a noun.

Time and Place
Time is written in order: year, day-month ẽxa time(hour-minute) a. Place goes: country, (state, province, etc) ẽxa (everything else in English's order with a postposition of a).

Lexicon
Standard Shax/Lexicon

The Tower of Babel
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