Nessëran

=Phonology=

Length
Nessëran has a vowel system involving nine 'basic' vowels: /æ/, /ɑ/, /ɛ/, /e/, /ɪ/, /i/, /ɒ/, /ɔ/ and /u/. In addition to this, some vowels come in a long and a short variety, with the differentiation between long and short vowels being very important phonetically. The long vowels found in Nessëran are /ɑː/, /eː/ and /ɒː/, and are represented in the language's orthography by doubling the vowel letter.

Glottalisation
An important side-note is that word-initial vowels are often preceded by a very subtle Glottal Stop /ʔ/ (like the middle sound in "uh-oh"). Although this sound is an important part of correct pronunciation, it is not vital, and even native speakers of Nessëran often do not realise that they are doing it. Most foreign speakers of Nessëran do not pronounce the glottal stop before their initial vowels, and is one of the first clues that that person is speaking their native language. The glottal stop is not represented by any orthographic symbol.

Consonants
The following table shows the consonants that are found in Nessëran. When found in pairs, the one on the left is voiceless, and the one on the right is voiced.


 * 1) The palatal nasal /ɲ/ is an allophone of /n/ before a palatal consonant /j/ or /ç/.
 * 2) The velar nasal /ŋ/ is an allophone of /n/ before a velar consonant /k/ or /g/.
 * 3) The voiceless palatal plosive /c/ is an allophone of /k/ or /t/ before a palatal consonant /j/ or  /ç/.
 * 4) The voiced palatal plosive /ɟ/ is an allophone of /g/ or /d/ before a palatal consonant /j/ or  /ç/.
 * 5) The glottal stop /ʔ/ is an 'unofficial' sound found before word-initial vowels. Many native speakers are unaware that it is being pronounced. It's status is similar to that of the aspirated plosives in English, as many English do not realise that the 'p' in 'pit' os different to the 'p' in 'spit'.
 * 6) The voiced palatal fricative /ʝ/ is never found as a phoneme in it's own right, only ever sometimes as an allophone of /ç/ between vowels or before a voiced consonant.
 * 7) /ʎ/ is an allophone of /l/ before palatal consonants /j/ or  /ç/.

Allophones
As shown from the table above, the Nessëran language has a large consonant inventory, but many of them are merely allophones of other sounds.

Palatals
There are many allophones in Nessëran, with all but one regarding palatal consonants. When preceding a palatal consonant (/j/ or /ç/), most consonants become palatal themselves. So for example, the word 'unsenq', meaning 'to maintain' is pronounced [unsɛɲç]. The palatal allophones are as follows: /n ~ ɲ/, /t, k ~ c/, /d, g ~ ɟ/ and /l ~ ʎ/. The fact that both /k/ & /t/ and /g/ & /d/ share the same palatal allophones rarely causes confusion, however it sometimes does, such as the words 'tetq' ('swan') and 'tekq' ('palm') which are both pronounced [tɛcç].

Velars
There is also one velar allophone, which is also found in English. This is when the alveolar nasal /n/ is found before a velar consonant such as /k/ or /g/, /n/ becomes /ŋ/. This is found in english words such as sink and finger.

=Orthography=

Alphabet
The Nessëran language uses the Latin alphabet, modified by a few extra letters.

Letters with diacritics
The Nessëran Alphabet employs three diacritic marks. These are the diaeresis (ä and ë), the cedilla (ç,ş and ţ) and the grave accent (ò). These symbols are not regarded as letters with diacritics, instead as individual letters in their own right. They represent sounds quite different from their non-diacritic counterparts.

Ţ versus C
The letters C and Ţ both represent the same sound, the Voiceless Alveolar Fricative, a sound similar to the last sound in cats. There is no rule as to when C and Ţ are used, and one needs to just learn a word containing the sound /ts/ with its spelling. This can sometimes lead to confusion, as for example, the words cent and ţent are both pronounced the same way. The letter Ţ is also used in transliterations from Cyrillic, as the equivalent of the letter Ц, as in the words ţär (tsar) and ţink (zinc), and also from other orthographies, such as ţunamy (tsunami).

Absent Letters
Nessëran does not used the letters /w/ or /x/. This is because the sound /w/ is not found in Nessëran, and is instead realised as /v/. The letter x is not used because the sound /ks/ is represented by the letter combination ks.

Double Letters
All vowels come in a long and a short variety. The long vowels are represented by doubling the vowel letter, so for example the /e/ in bër is shorter than the /e/ in bëër.

=Basic Grammar=

Cases
Nouns in Nessëran come in several cases, each recognisable by a particular suffix. For example take the word rymastvai meaning "the car".

Examples:
 * Hänylalun açulsòr rymastvaisul "I traveled here by (the) car"


 * Feşsepun açeer denëër "I can do this without you"

In addition, the word nahär can be used to reverse any noun case, similar to the english word "not". For example the phrase Attakkanalun nahär rymastvaijentres means "I didn't buy the whole car" (literally "i bought not the whole car").

Articles
There are two articles in Nessëran, the definate and the indefinate. Both are added as encltics to the noun that they are modifying. Still using the noun rymast meaning "car":

Number
Nouns in Nessëran come in two numbers, singluar and plural. The plural is marked by adding the ending -n or -en to the noun, so for example seqerr (tree) can be changed to seqerren (trees), and then seqerrenvai (the trees).

Posession
Possession of nouns are shown by adding an enclitic to the nouns. A possessive enclitic is used instead of an article, to the word "kanapërvaian" (my the couch) would not make sense. Which endings are used is shown in this table, using the noun kanapër (couch):

Enclitic Order
There is a specific order in which enclitics are added to the end of a noun. The order is this: NOUN+number+article/possession+case. So for example the word kanapërenvaiben (in the couches) is made from the noun kanapër + the plural number -en + the article -vai + the Locative case -ben.

Adjectives
Nessëran adjectives come in numerous forms- as seen by the following table, using the adjective şäreny (nice).

Tenses
There are several different verb tenses in Nessëran, each of which is represented by adding a suffix to the verb itself. For example, take the verb visseje (to say).

Objects and Subjects
The object of a verb is attatched to the end of the word, so in the table:

However, the subject of the verb is seperate from the verb+object word. It is placed after the verb+object, for example in the sentence "she said to him" vissejalaşin fepe, "fepe" (to him) is placed after "vissejalaşin" (she said).

Personal Prounouns
Personal pronouns in Nessëran are easy, as they only come in one form - so for example "I" and "me" are both represented by the word un.

Interrogative Pronouns
There are numerous interrogative pronouns in Nessëran, with most of them beginning with "l".

Cardinal Numbers

 * 0 - hin
 * 1 - ull
 * 2 - këry
 * 3 - lëren
 * 4 - aqqär
 * 5 - u
 * 6 - särl
 * 7 - sinel
 * 8 - nolc
 * 9 - kenc
 * 10 - den

Ordinal Numbers

 * 0 - hinu
 * 1 - ullu
 * 2 - këru
 * 3 - lërenu
 * 4 - aqqäru
 * 5 - uku
 * 6 - särlu
 * 7 - sinelu
 * 8 - nolcu
 * 9 - kencu
 * 10 - denu

Suffixes
=Dictionary= Nessëran Dictionary

Useful Phrases
=Example Text=