Jemean

Jemean is a mashup language (that is, a language designed by taking aspects of several natlangs (preferably of different language families) and combining them together), which takes its vocabulary and half its grammar from Japanese, and the phonology, morphology, and the other half of grammar from the Slavic branch of the Indo-European family (most notably Czech).

Setting
In all honesty, I have created this language for a potential story that I had in mind, which may or may not involve a kingdom inspired by those in tzarist Russia and feudal Japan. Other than that, there is little background to this conlang.

Phonology + Alphabet
Jemean may be written with either the Latin or Cyrillic alphabet.

Phonotactics + Orthography

 * In polyphthongs, the Cyrillic letter Ь can only be used after hard (non-palatalized) vowels, otherwise Й is used.
 * W is usually used in diphthongs and very rarely (if at all) as a stand-alone consonant.
 * Ś is the final form of Š, as is Ź of Ž.
 * The four soft vowels are usually written in the "J-Vowel" form, but can be exchanged for the diacritical version.
 * Ŋ/Ng is always used before G, Ħ, and K.
 * N(soft vowel) and Ň(hard vowel) are two distinct versions of the same sound. Do not confuse them!
 * R may be used as a vowel, e.g. krt (крт) - enemy
 * The letters Й, Ь, and Ҥ may not begin words.
 * Ju always replaces iw.
 * When S precedes a soft vowel, it elides into Š followed by the vowel's hard version. Same goes for Z/Ž.

Nouns
Nouns have two genders, masculine and feminine, and can be put into three categories, physical, ideological, and spiritual. Aside from the lack of plurals in the spiritual category, the categories are largely arbitrary.
 * Physical nouns refer to objects, people, materials, and other objects that are tangible. E.g. sešk (сэшк) - stone.
 * Ideological nouns refer to non-tangible nouns, like shapes, locations and sounds. E.g. jucú (юцӱ) - house.
 * Spiritual nouns refer to ideas, emotions, and non-sensory phenomena. This category does not have plurals. E.g. kasa (каса) - [self-]worth.

In regards to gender, masculine nouns usually end in a consonant, e, or o, while feminine nouns end in a, á, i, í, u, ú, or a diphthong ending in j. Exceptions exist, however, and will be marked in the dictionary with their correct gender, or with (m/f) if they can take either.

Plurals
Singular nouns follow the nominative-accusative alignment, and thus when used as agents, they retain their nominativity (subjecthood) in both transitive and intransitive clauses. Plurals, however, follow the ergative-absolutive alignment, and thus plural agents are the subjects of intransitive verbs and the objects of transitive verbs.

Declensions
Nouns decline by case, number and gender, along with the final letter of their dictionary (singular nominative) form. For all tables, the rule is to affix certain letters to the end to decline them. For example:
 * If the final letter is a consonant other than j, see Table 1.
 * If it is e or o, and the noun is singular, see Table 2a. If it is plural, drop the vowel, then see Table 2b.
 * If it is a, i, or u, and the noun is singular, see Table 3a. If it is plural, move that vowel to the next last vowel (i changes to j, u to w) or the beginning if it's the only vowel, or remove it if the next last vowel is [nearly] the same, then see Table 3b. If the final vowel is instead á, í, or ú, shorten that vowel so that it loses its accent, then check for number.
 * If it is j, drop it, then see Table 4. *If the noun is plural vocative feminine, move the vowel that was before j to the next last vowel (e/i -> j, o/u -> w) or the beginning if it's the only vowel, or remove it if the next last vowle is [nearly] the same.

Verbs
The dictionary form of verbs consists of the verb root (which always ends in a consonant) combined with -o. There are three classes of regular verbs:
 * Class I verbs have as their penultimate letter b, g, d, k, p, or t. E.g. íko (ӥко) - go.
 * Class II verbs have v, ħ, z, ž, s, š, f, c, or þ. E.g. jaso (ясо) - translate
 * Class III verbs have h, l, m, n, w, r, or j. E.g. inro (инро) - sleep

Regular Verb Conjugation

 * The affixes in Level 1 Conjugation replace the final o when they conjugate. There are two forms of each L1 Conjugation, the basic and the polite. The polite form is used between strangers and informal settings, while the basic form is for friends, family, and intimates.
 * The affixes in Level 2 Conjugation then come after that to conjugate in agreement to (pro)nouns. The conjugation for You (formal) is only used for addressing superiors and other people not intimately connected to the speaker.
 * The adparticles in Level 3 Conjugation further conjugate the verb by modality, tense, and mood. When multiple forms are used for polite verbs (e.g. near future subjunctive), the last prepaticle before the verb and the first postparticle after must be in polite form. When either of the future forms are combined with the past tense of the verb, the result will be the future perfect tense; the (plu)perfect form cannot be combined with the future forms to achieve this. Level 3 Conjugation, even though optional, holds for all verbs, regular, irregular, and semiregular.

Irregular Verbs
There are exactly three irregular verbs in the whole of the Jemean language: dzo (дзо) - be [copula], mro (мро) - see, and šro (шро) - know [people, locations].
 * Dzo is automatically polite, and thus has no "polite" form for Level 1 Conjugation.
 * The verbs all have their own rules for Level 1 Conjugation. For Level 2 Conjugation of non-basic verbs, mro and šro follow the Class III conjugation, while dzo follows Class III for the negative form and Class I for both past forms.

Semiregular Verbs
There are six classes of semiregular verbs, based on the mixture of Level 1 and 2 Conjugations. Semiregular verbs will be displayed in the dictionary with the format (A.B), where A is the class of the Level 1 Conjugation, and B that of Level 2. For example:

Pronouns
Pronouns decline similarly to nouns, but have only one class. In addition, pronouns also decline by the possessive and reflexive cases. (*)This pronoun is formed from the name of the addressee and the appropriate honorific (see below), prefixed on to the appropriate declension of the You (formal) row. It may be used to address a singular or plural amount of people.

In addition, the null pronoun ja is used as a placeholder for pronouns used in the same context in consecutive non-clausal sentences. It is not used in very formal situations, however, due to the potential confusion with its meaning as "no".

Postpositions
In postpositional phrases, the noun that the postposition relates to must agree with the case of the postposition itself. Most postpositions have multiple cases for different denotations, and thus have differences in pronunciation to differentiate.

Adjectives + Adverbs
Adjectives are expressed in noun form when describing something indeterminate. E.g. kaj (каь) - red (thing). However, they act as suffixes when they describe definite objects (nouns). E.g. dakkaj (даккаь) - red brick. Successive adjectives are suffixed in reverse order, as in dakkajħow (даккаьхоў) - big red brick (lit. brick-red-big).

Comparatives are formed with one of the following suffixes, depending on the final letter of the target adjective: Superlatives prefix i (iš if the adjective already begins with i) to the comparative form of the target adjective. Thus, jajmkroj (яймкроь) [black night] becomes jajmkrojri (яймкроьри) [blacker night] becomes jajmikrojri (яймикроьри) [blackest night]. There are certain exceptions to this rule: Adverbs function similarly, affixing themselves to verbs such that their final vowels (if any) are replaced by the verb's Level 1 Conjugation. E.g. jecjoro (ецёро) [do well]. However, their comparatives and superlatives use those of the adjective ok (many/much). E.g. íkosko sarari (ӥкоско сарари) [go more slowly]. NB: Nouns and verbs retain their original declensions/conjugations even with adjectives and adverbs (respectively) attached!
 * Final letter is a consonant other than j - add jeri to the target adjective.
 * Final letter is e or o - add jori to the target adjective.
 * Final letter is a, i, or u (or their long forms) - add jari to the target adjective.
 * Final letter is j - add ri to the target adjective.

Conjunctions
Conjunctions come between two related items (nouns, phrases,...). When used in series, they only appear between the first and second elements thereof, like in Japanese. In written Jemean, following discourse with a conjunctive statement requires the use of the word ħa (ха) [yes]. For example:
 * Ħa, avr vacr širenanis remate. (Ха, авр вацр ширэнанис рэматэ.) - Yes, but we cannot die.

Questions + Answers
Any statement can be turned into a question with the particle ká inserted before the verb, as in:


 * Krje samvar dzo. (Кре самвар дзо.) - He is cold. -> Krje samvar ká dzo? (Кре самвар кӓ дзо?) - Is he cold?

For questions requiring specific answers, the target of inquiry is represented in an interrogative sentence by a question word: (*)This question word is attached to the adjective/adverb of inquiry.

For answers to the yes/no questions, use ħa (ха) [yes] or ja (я) [no (not to be confused with the pronoun placeholder)].

Signifiers
For answers to other questions, special pronouns called signifiers may be used to show the answer, rather than simply tell it. The following table shows signifiers that can be treated as masculine nouns and so declined as such. NB: Kojr cannot be used in place of a personal pronoun (I, you, he, she, we...) (*) Kojr ok/skoś are circumparticles: kojr goes before the noun it augments, and ok/skoś goes after it.

The signifiers from the following table deal with the question word vrim (врим) [why], and so do not decline. NB: "There is nothing" is an idiom expressed as kojr masnel (коьр маснэл), with a postpositional phrase between those words clarifying where there is nothing. However, if a noun is inserted between the two, its meaning changes to "This is not X," where X is the noun. Similarly, inserting a question word (like nan) before kojr (or changing kojr to another signifier like kok) in the sentence that explains where there is nothing changes its meaning to "This is not Y," where Y is the postpositional phrase that now explains where something is not.

Numbers
The Jemean counting system is base 10, but it separates large numbers into groups of five digits instead of three. They have a standalone/final form (for mathematics and noun use) and a counter/initial/medial form (for adjectival use). (*) These two numbers take the singular form, whereas all the others take the plural. Furthermore, íc can be used as an indefinite singluar article (as in í majka (ӥ маька) [a priestess] or íc iro (ӥц иро) [a color]), but there are no definite or plural articles.

(**) Decimals have no counter form, as they are rarely used for quantifying. When they are, they are detached from the noun being quantified.

Counters
The following is a list of counters that are used when numbers are being used adjectivally. They act as suffixes. (*) Capitalized, these counters denote calendar dates (šúwa in this case changes meaning to become "day of the week", where Monday is the first day). E.g. The Grateful Dead performed at the Oakland Coliseum Arena on Íšúwa Onisnek Omfucujk Íseln-giħja-jajo-mutton (1шӱўа 15нэк 12цуьк 1986тон) [Monday, December 15, 1986].

Arithmetic
Fractions are represented by attaching a number's counter form to a fraction counter, derived from the divisor suffixed to bak (бак) [shorthand for bakrecvjal-mate (бакрэцвял-матэ) - divided]. E.g. mi-bakja (ми-бакя) - 3/8. Negative numbers have the word hik (гик) [short for hiko (гико) - subtract, decrease, take away] before them, as in hik fujon (гик фуён) [-20], while positive numbers may be denoted with ca (ца) [short for cawo (цаўо) - add, increase]. Mathematical operators (which are preceded by an and-series of numbers to be operated on) are described below: For example, fuc þo jajon, mic, is ca gijon dzo [2 + 80 + 3 + 5 = 90]; fuc þo jajon ca, re mic, is hiku nájojo dzo [(2 + 80) - 3 - 5 = 74]; fuc þo jajon ca, re mic þo is ca, re sojrej hiku, nájojo dzo [(2 + 80) - (3 + 5) = 74].

Honorifics
Jemean uses a vast array of honorifics for addressing people. They are always used in formal situations, but seldom informally, and never intimately. Their inverses are dishonorifics (see below).

Null Honorifics
If the name of a person is not known, then a null honorific is used to address him/her. In the case of ale/al/ala, the first is used between males, the next between people of different genders, and the last between females. NB: Using this for someone whose name is known in certain communities may draw fire from those communities, as they would expect people to know his/her name.

Dishonorifics
Jemean also has several dishonorifics for the sole use of insulting (or joking with, as with close friends) others and sarcasm. For obvious reasons they are all considered vulgar and thus not usable in public. The following list is only of the tamer ones:

Clauses
Clauses are formed from sentences and postpositional phrases with the use of a pronoun, question word, or signifier. The subordinate clauses always precede the main clause. For example:


 * Dok Grínspenros súmenjod, narri jucur ká dzo? (Док Ґрӥнспэнрос сӱмэнёд, нарри юцур кӓ дзо?) [Which is the house where you live[, Mr. Green]? (lit. Where Mr. Green lives, which house ? is.)]


 * Cek krje pacek ňemišonkesen ħrawenjol, krje cikenanir! (Цэк кре пацэк њэм50кэсэн храўэнёл, кре цикэнанир!) [The man who owes me 50 ňem didn't show up! (lit. Man he me 50-ňem owes, he did-not-come!)]
 * Koce ker, sojr krše jumarenjol remate, patáś ursir doz. (Коцэ кэр, соьр кршэ юмарэнёл рэматэ, патӓш урсир доз.) [For now, I am glad that she can dream. (lit. Now since, that she can-dream, I glad am.)]