Conlang
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Casuma
Casumą
Type
Fusional
Alignment
Nominative-Accusative
Head direction
Initial
Tonal
No
Declensions
Yes
Conjugations
Yes
Genders
No
Nouns decline according to...
Case Number
Definiteness Gender
Verbs conjugate according to...
Voice Mood
Person Number
Tense Aspect



Casuma is a Germanic language spoken in western Europe. It is the official language in the Casum Republic, and a minority language in surrounding areas in England, France and Spain. 

General information[]

Casuma is a fusional nominative-accusative SVO language. It is spoken by approximately 90 million people in Casum and approximately 1 million in surrounding areas. It is an isolate within the Germanic language family. Notable features the retention of Proto-Germanic nasal vowels and the extremely conservative Germanic vocabulary. There are many loans in Casuma from Basque and the Celtic languages. Morphologically, Casuma has four noun cases and two grammatical numbers (three in the pronouns). In addition, verbs conjugate for person and number, three tenses, three moods, and two voices.  The three grammatical genders were only preserved in the pronouns.

Phonology[]

Consonants[]

Labial Dental Alveolar Palatal Dorsal Glottal
Nasal m n ŋ
Plosive p b t d k g
Fricative f v θ ð s z ʃ ʒ χ h
Lateral app. l
Lateral fric. ɬ
Approximant j w
Trill r
Affricate t͡ʃ
  • /d͡ʒ/ appears in loan words as dzh or dzz but is pronounced voiceless by most speakers.
  • /l/, /m/, /n/, and /r/ can appear syllabically.

Vowels[]

Front Near-front Central Back
Close i y u
Near-close ɪ
Close-mid e o
Mid ə
Open-mid ɛ ɔ
Open ɑ

Diphthongs[]

-i -u -y
e eu
ɪ ɪu
o ou
ɔ ɔi ɔy
ɑ ɑi ɑu

In addition, /j/ and /w/ can form a diphthong before any vowel or a triphthong before a dipthong.

Nasal vowels[]

Front Back
Close ĩ ũ
Open-mid ɛ̃ ɔ̃
Open ɑ̃

There are also two nasal dipthongs /ɑ̃ĩ/ and /ɑ̃ũ/, spelled ąi/aį and ąu/aų respectively. 

Alphabet[]

The Casuma alphabet has 31 letters

Aa Ąą Ää Bb Dd Ee Ęę Ff
/ɑ/ /ɑ̃/ /e/ /b/ /d/ /ɛ/ /ɛ̃/ /v/
Gg Hh Ii Įį Jj Cc Ll Mm
/g/ /h/, /χ/ /i/ /ĩ/ /j/ /k/ /l/ /m/
Nn Oo Ǫǫ Öö Pp Rr Ss Tt
/n/ /ɔ/ /ɔ̃/ /o/ /p/ /r/, /ɾ/ /s/ /t/
Uu Ųų Üü Ww Yy Ÿÿ Zz
/u/ /ũ/ /y/ /w/ /ə/ /ɪ/ /z/
  • Loan words are often transcribed phonetically to avoid pronounciation errors. For example, center is spelled sentrand jelly would be spelled dzheli.
  • The letters Kk, Qq, Vv, and Xx can appear in loan words. Kk is pronounced /k/, Qq is pronounced /k/, Vv can be pronounced either /f/ or /v/, and Xx is pronounced /ks/. 

Digraphs and Trigraphs[]

Digraph IPA Notes
Th th /θ/ td between vowels
Dh dh /ð/ dd between vowels
Sh sh /ʃ/ sz between vowels
Zh zh /ʒ/ zz between vowels
Lh lh /ɬ/ ll between vowels
Ff ff /f/
Tsh tsh /t͡ʃ/ tsz between vowels
Dzh dzh /d͡ʒ/ only found in loanwords, dzz between vowels
Ng ng /ŋ/ /ŋg/ is written ngg
Ch ch /χ/

Phonotactics[]

Grammar[]

Pronouns[]

First person Second person Third person
SING DU PL SING DU PL SING PL
MASC FEM NEUT MASC FEM NEUT
NOM ÿc wi tu jut jus äz si ÿt juz
ACC mÿc änc uns tÿc ÿnc izwi än ijǫ
DAT miz änci unsi ticy ÿncwy izwy äno sim äsy imis
GEN maÿn äncis unsez tiz ÿncwas izwis äson esos äzys ezǫ

Determiners[]

Articles and determiners decline for case along with the noun.

The definite article[]

The definite article can be used with singular and plural forms of nouns.

NOM sa
ACC thi
DAT tham
GEN thas

The indefinite article[]

The indefinite article is the number 1. Similar to other Germanic languages, it cannot be used with plural forms of nouns. 

NOM ain
ACC
DAT ainy
GEN ainu

Other determiners[]

This article or section requires fix up.
It will be done soon.

Nouns[]

Nouns in Casuma decline for four cases. 

  • the Nominative case is the unmodified form of a noun and denotes the subject.
  • the Accusative case marks the direct object
  •  the Dative case marks the indirect object
  • the Genetive case shows posession 

Nouns follow five different declension patterns depending on the ending of a noun: a noun can decline differently if it ends in a nasal consonant, a consonant other than a nasal, a front or near-front vowel, a central or back vowel, and a nasal vowel.

Nasal consonant endings[]

declension of döusn - "animal"
Singular Plural
Nominative döusn döusnÿs
Accusative döusni
Dative döusny döusnys
Genetive döusnu döusnam

Non-nasal consonant endings[]

declension of rÿpyblÿc - "republic"
Singular Plural
Nominative rÿpyblÿc rÿpyblÿcas
Accusative
Dative rÿpyblÿcy rÿpyblÿcyn
Genetive rÿpyblÿcu rÿpyblÿcin

Front and near-front vowel endings[]

The only truncation in this type of declension occurs in the accusative singular. 

declension of rügi - "rye"
Singular Plural
Nominative rügi rügin
Accusative rüganų rüginu
Dative rügim rügi
Genetive rügini rügi

Central and back vowel endings[]

declension of räcny - "rain"
Singular Plural
Nominative räcny räcniwi
Accusative räcnų räcnun
Dative räcnaz räcnasi
Genetive räcnys räcniwǫ

Nasal vowel endings[]

In the nominative plural, the accusative, and the genetive singular, the nasal vowel will be replaced by it's non-nasal counterpart and then the bolded case ending will be added on. In the genetive plural -es will be infixed between the final consonant and the nasal vowel. In the dative case, the truncations will be the same no matter which nasal vowel the noun ends in. 

declension of bazą - "berry"
Singular Plural
Nominative bazą bazanis
Accusative bazanu bazanus
Dative baz bazaun
Genetive bazas bazesą

Adjectives[]

Adjectives in Casuma preceed the noun they modify and agree with it's case. There are two irregular adjectives (much) and (good). All other adjectives are regular and follow the same declension pattern depending on whether they end in a consonant, vowel, or nasal vowel.

example declension of shaun - "beautiful"
Positive Comparative Superlative
Nominative shaun shauny shaunist
Accusative
Dative shauna shaunajo shaunasto
Genitive shaunas shaunaszo shaunashto

Nasal vowels retain their unnasalized variant in all declensions but the nominative-accusative comparative.

example declension of grautą - "great"
Positive Comparative Superlative
Nominative grautą grauter grautan
Accusative
Dative grauta grauta grautast
Genitive grautas grautaszo grautaszan

Verbs[]

The Casuma verb is fairly simple compared to other germanic languages. 11 strong verbs survive from Proto-Germanic and there are only 2 irregular verbs. Verbs conjugate for 3 moods (indicative, subjunctive, and imperative) and three tenses. The present and past tense are indicated by inflection of the verb, and the future tense is indicated by an auxillary verb. Dual-number pronouns take the plural conjugation.

To Be[]

The verb "to be" is completely irregular, as in many Indo-European languages.

Example conjugation of zan - "to be, to exist"
Indicative Subjunctive Imperative
Present 1  sing im shǫ -
2 sing iz shęs win
3 sing ist she wezoü
1 plural zum shäm -
2 plural zuth sÿth wäjydi
3 plural zįn wis
Past 1 sing wįz -
2 sing wäj -
3 sing wäs wäzi -
1 plural wäsum wäddim -
2 plural wäzudh wäst -
3 plural wäzun wäzin -

Strong verbs[]

There are few strong verbs surviving in Casuma, and they take a different conjugation than weak verbs. These are zäwan (to see), helpan (to help), näman (to take), ghäban (to give), ätan (to eat), shäcan (to happen), näwsan (to use), and . 

Example conjugation of zäwan - "to see"
Indicative Subjunctive Imperative
Present 1  sing zäwy zäwai -
2 sing zÿws zÿwais zä(w)
3 sing zÿwt zÿwait zäwat
1 plural zäwam zäwaim -
2 plural zäwit zäwait zäwis
3 plural zäwan zäwain zäwa
Past 1 sing zaw zawi -
2 sing zawt zawis -
3 sing zaw zawi -
1 plural zawu zawim -
2 plural zawut zawit -
3 plural zawan zawin -

Weak Verbs[]

Example conjugation of branjan  - "to set on fire"
Indicative Subjunctive Imperative
Present 1  sing branjo branjaų -
2 sing branjis branjais branji
3 sing branjith branjai branjatdau
1 plural branjam branjaif -
2 plural branjith branjaith branjä
3 plural branjan branjain branjana
Past 1 sing branjato branjatų -
2 sing branjates branjatis -
3 sing branjat branjatai -
1 plural branjatim branjait -
2 plural branjatäth branjatai -
3 plural branjätan branjatain -

Participles[]

Participles are not formed differently if the verb is strong or weak. There are only 2 participles in Casuma: present and past.

Participles of zäwan Participles of branjan
Present zäwans branjans
Past zäwödath branjödath

Vocabulary[]

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It will be done soon.

Example text[]

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It will be done soon.
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