Yorshaan

General information
Yorshaan language (Yorshaan: Yorshohtta /ˌjoɻʃoxˈtɑ/) is a language spoken by Yorshaan people. Yorshaan is known to be a language isolate, though most people speaking it live in Europe near the Alps.

As for most people,Yorshaan could be a "solemn language" like Hebrew. Rhymes are crucial in Yorshaan.

Consonants

 * 1) Pronounced in front of "u" as in "dawuu" /dɑˈβuː/ (greed).

Demonstrative
Personal demonstratives are now only used for honorifics. The term "raze" shows lower status, while "Staze" stands for people of higher rank. Additionally, the first letter of "Staze" must be upper case and be in the front of a sentence all the time. The term "maze" has become rare. All the demonstrative pronouns have the same ending as V-nouns (absolutive) and can also be seen as V-nouns.
 * Staziy nuta sæysac......(If you, whom I cherished, are tired of war......)
 * Staze præ joltot? (My lord, who hurt you?)

Relative and Interrogative
Most of the time the relative pronouns share the same form with interrogative ones. That is, the introductory word of both a noun clause and a relative one might look the same, though their role in a sentence is different.

Some of the relative pronouns are silimar to the different forms of V-Noun. (see below)

To tell them apart, intonation is introduced. See below.
 * Pre bœzeg masaam dog? (What can you do?)
 * Priy bœzeg masaam dog sil vartes ce. (What you do doesn't help us.)
 * Pre bœzeg masaam dog ohy loniys. (What you do is useless.)

Nouns
There are three kinds of declension in Yorshaan. The Yorshaan people is used to call the kinds of declension Merlina Zadyum (as for First Declension), Merlina Vhorjull (as for Second Declension), and Merlina Lhosiys (as for Third Declension). They are litarally "Eagle noun" (I), "Horse noun" (II), and "Void noun" (III).

Z-Noun (I)
Z refers to Zadyum as mentioned above. The declension of Z-Noun is sometimes called first declension or declension I by foreign linguists.

V-Noun (II)
V refers to Vhorjull as mentioned above. The declension of V-Noun is sometimes called second declension or declension II by foreign linguists. There is no common rule to distinguish V-nouns from Z-nouns, so one can only memorize which kind of declension a noun should be.

L-Noun (III)
L refers to Lhosiys as mentioned above. The declension of L-Noun is sometimes called third declension or declension III by foreign linguists.

While Z-nouns and V-nouns are all countable, L-nouns are uncountable. Thus such nouns are ocassionally called abstract nouns.

Numeral
The affix representing the noun form of a numeral (-uu) implies that a numeral is actually an L-noun.
 * Bina urit. (One country)
 * Utye uroh. (One song.)

G-Verb (I)
G stands for Gertiys, which means "strong" in Yorshaan, and G-Verb is litarally "Strong verb". Such idea was introduced by Ernst Lornis, a German linguist who researches Yorshaan, in 1843.

Silimar to strong conjugation in Germanic languages, the apophony exists in G-verbs. There are totally three kinds of alternation, depending on the second to the last vowel. The three kinds of strong verb is sometimes called I-A verb, I-U verb, and I-Œ verb. (or A-verb, U-verb, and Œ-verb)
 * In the case of a, the alternation is a-e-æ. (Present-Past-Future)
 * In the case of u, it's u-i-a.
 * In the case of œ, it's œ-o-e.

M-Verb (II)
M refers to Mimiys, which means "small" in Yorshaan, in contrast to Gertiys. No vowels should be replaced or change in M-verbs. Such verbs are sometimes be called "weak verb", corresponding to G-verb, strong verb.

D-Verb (III)
D represents Doriys, which means Stillness in Yorshaan, in contrast to strong and weak verbs. D-verbs are less variable, and can be regarded as simplified verbs. The first and second person are merged.

D-verbs can be categoried into two subtypes: III-E and III-O, depending on the last vowel of the verbs in indicative mood, though their infinite form have the same ending -us.

Adjectives and Adverbs
The boundary between adjectives and adverbs in Yorshaan is not so clear as English or other languages. For example, a word "ustiys" might be: The "ustiys" in the first sentence is actually adverb, and in the second one is adjective (as a subject complement). However, the difference is the location of stress. The stress falls on the first syllable of an adjective, and the last syllable of an adverb. See the stress section below for more information.
 * Itha ustiys. (He runs rapidly.)
 * Ohy ustiys. (He is rapid.)

Comparasion
There are four degrees of comparasion in Yorshaan: positive, comparative, relative superlative, and absolute superlative. Like Greek.

Compound
To form compuond, one can easily piece together the stems of nouns. The order of the words does effect the meaning. Gerunds of verbs can also take part in, but not the stem of verbs.
 * Lhascrada (magician): lhas- (magic) + crada (man)
 * Omvyole (age of darkness): om- (darkness) + vyole (age, era)
 * Getarcrada (fortune teller)
 * Cradgetara (fate of a human)
 * Esarfilla (ending chapter): esar- (end) + filla (chapter)
 * Asfilla (wrong, though as is the verb stem of esaruu.)

Syntax
The word order of Yorshaan is somehow uncertain and unpredictable as for a declarative sentence. But the AEV form (absolute-ergative-verb) is the most common form.

Do joltot cog.    A        V         E

I hurt you.

Omiys aena doy cog bavict.                       A                   E           V

I shall release your darkened soul.

Question
The interrogative pronouns must be in the front of a sentence, after the honorific pronoun "Staze".
 * Pre bœzeg masaam dog? (What can you do?)
 * Pro co dog joltot? (Did you hurt me?)

Participle Clause
Participles in Yorshaan can be used as adjuncts or participles that form a clause. When forming a clause, the present participle often stands for active voice, while the past one refers to passive voice.
 * Cradaz nacain. (People who religiously believe.)
 * Cradaz nacain Staze . (People who believe in you, whom we cherish.)

Conditional Sentence
Unlike other sentences, the word order of conditional sentences of Yorshaan must be either VEA or VAE, and the verb must be subjunctive mood. That is, the first word of a conditional sentence must be a subjunctive verb.

One important thing is that the tense of the subjunctive verb refers to the time when condition happens, unlike English.
 * Prœ ohy dog, sil yolmg Lanstin dog? (If you weren't Lanstin, then who are you?)(Lit. Who are you, if you are not Lanstin?)
 * Æscalc do ceii, ce imt nastiys. (If you sacrifice for us, we will be very sad.)

Stress
Most of the time the stress of a word falls on it's last syllable, such as nouns, verbs, and adverbs.

Unstress
Sometimes the stress of a word could be missing in some situations: These phenomena happen in a unstressed syllable that can be stressed in other cases. While some always happen. That is, such phenomena would happen on the last syllable of "atomiys" (elegent) but never the second syllable of losyeniys (arrogant). Its pronunciation is either /ˈlosʲenis/ (as an adjective) or /losʲeˈnijs/ (as an adverb).
 * Two stressed syllables are near. i.e. an adjective right behind a noun.
 * Infinite form of I, II, and III verb.
 * The /j/ consonant after a vowel or palatalization of a consonant would be removed.
 * "o" after another vowel changes from /o/ to /ɤ/.
 * A vowel followed by /l/, /ʎ/,  /m/, or /n/ reduces to schwa /ə/.
 * Any vowel in the syllable in font of a secondary stress becomes schwa /ə/. Though such phenomenon often happen in words comprising more than 3 syllables.
 * "a" reduces from /ɑ/ to /ʌ/ when not stressed (or at a secondary stress).

Labialization and Palatalization
Both labialization and palatalization is common in Yorshaan together with two letters "w" and "y" after another consonant. Yes, silimar to Russian, labialization and palatalization do make difference between words. Consider the two pairs of words: But labialization and palatalization can sometimes be removed due to stress. See the stress section below.
 * swede /sʷeˈde/ (ocean) vs sede /seˈde/ (earthworm)
 * unyuu /uˈnʲuː/ (east) vs unuu /uˈnuː/ (time)

Alternation of Labialization
Be aware that Yorshaan doesn't allow the labialization (and /w/) appear in front of the vowel /u/. As their alternation, and /β/ make appearance. That is:
 * swuteem /sβuteːm/ (to detect)
 * swine /sʷɪˈne/ (I was detected.)

W-Hyasa
In other words, "W-replacement". Such phenomenon only appears in the fourth declension of noun (sometimes called honorified noun), when the noun is refecting. Once a word stem ends with "y", the "y" must removed in order to attach the affix "wech" and "wach", which mean dative and genetive.
 * Rushyen (Russia)
 * Rushwach (Things belonging to Russia)
 * Rushwar (of Russia)
 * Anglen (England)
 * Anglwar (of England)

Intonation
The main function of intonation of Yorshaan is used to distinguish the interrogative pronouns from relative ones since they spell the same in Yorshaan. (also in English, huh)

But unlike the fixed word order of English, Yorshaan can only tell the pronouns apart with intonation. That is, it migt be difficult for one to tell without any audio or pronunciation.

Intonation in question
Let's consider a question:

Pyorimc dog pseron? Where are you going?

[↘pʲoɹimk doɡ | pse↗ˈɹon ‖]

Yet an indication:

Pyorimc dog pseron ohy zontiys. Where you are going is mysterious.

[pʲoɹimk | ↗doɡ pseˈɹon | oɧ ↘ˈzontis ‖]

As we can see, both relative clause and question look the same in Yorshaan, though in English they have a different word order. In Yorshaan queston, a global fall comes first, and a global rise before the last syllable of the sentence which is stressed.

As for the relative clause, a global rise appears in front of the second word instead of the relative pronoun. There is also a global fall around the end of the sentence.

Vocabulary
The lexicon of Yorshaan can  be seen here: Yorshaan Lexicon.

Also there's another dictionary on conworkshop.

Example text
Loniys ihy com co, sivh sil blugea co!

I might be useless, but don't leave me alone!

Calvnonmyanull hosyæzh Yorshohtta fetors croudiys.

The maidens from the new world speak Yorshaan fluently.

Ma sontuu egfortant ninta lontuzyiys.

The history foretelled by the blind prophet.

Cog pre dagohy cog sil shulhalg.

I shall never forget what I've seen.

Wonzhiys, Staziy sil tœfea ce!

Please, whom I cherished so much, do not be sick of us!

Ce cirti!

We shall rise!

Prœ dun mihna eilaam cog, blagug cog prœ eilos juraiys cog?

Whom should I trust then, if whom I trusted the most betrayed me?

Pro cog tœfeg pre vebizhohttuz ohytya?

Do I hate what conlangs have become?