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-(Mood)

Moods (which are 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)

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.

* In some contexts

Moods
Moods are attached after Tense/Aspect, i.e. they are the final segment of a verb. However, they are optional.

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 Muprazdůku 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

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