Fenzran

Overview
Fenzran is an a-priori Conlang I have started- it's my first one and in its early stages, so it may be very subject to change. :)

Setting

I will update this part later (As soon as I have the facts right in my head!).

Phonology

There are 27 consonants in Fenzran (2 semivowels) and 11 vowels. Also, there are no plosive sounds in Fenzran. I'm sorry if this next part is confusing, but check out this link if you don't understand the terms used below- it's very useful!
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Consonants

p = [ɸ] Voiceless bilabial fricative (Like the Japanese 'f')
f = Same as English
v = Same as English
th = [θ] Voiceless dental fricative (Same as English- Unvoiced, like in "Think")
dh = [ð] Voiced dental fricative (English 'th' in "the")
s = Same as English
z = Same as English
t = [ɬ] Voiceless alveolar lateral fricative
d = [ɮ] Voiced alveolar lateral fricative
sh = Same as English
zh = [ʒ] Voiced postalveolar fricative (Like the French 'J' sound or how the 's' sounds in the English word "pleasure")
c = [ç] Voiceless palatal fricative (Like the 'h' in "human" and even more like the 'ch' in the German "Ich")
ch = [ʝ] Voiced palatal fricative
k = [x] Voiceless velar fricative (Like the 'ch' in "loch" [as in "Loch Ness])
g = [ɣ] Voiced velar fricative
ll = Voiceless velar lateral fricative (Think of the 'k' sound above, but with the sound escaping over the sides of your tongue at the place where it touches the roof of your mouth...

if that's any help :D... which it isn't, I know...)

lh = Voiced velar lateral fricative
h = Same as English

m = Same as English
n = Same as English
nj = [ɲ] Palatal nasal (Like the Spanish 'ñ' sound)
nh = [ŋ] Velar nasal (Like 'ng' in the English "sing" or "king")

w = Same as English
y = Same as English
l = Same as English
r = [ʋ] Labiodental approximant (Almost exactly like the English 'r' sound in "red" and "road". Try saying the English 'r' without moving your tongue [Captain Helpful is here to save the day again... sort of!])

rh = [r] Alveolar trill (Like the 'rr' in the Spanish "Perro"- a rolled 'r' sound) [Note: the uvular trill (the French 'r' sound) is an allophone and may also be used)

Vowels
[Note: when I give English examples, I have my native 'British English' pronunciation in mind, so imagine a British person saying them, like the queen- imagine her sitting by herself (perhaps rocking backwards and forwards slightly) chanting the example words... yeah, that's it]

a = [æ] (English 'a' in "cat")
e = [ɛ] (English 'e' in "bet")
i = [ɨ] (English 'i' in "bit")
o = [ʌ/ɒ] (English 'o' in "pot")
u = [ʊ] (English 'u' in "nut")
ii = [i] (English 'ee' in "free")
uu = [u] (English 'oo' in "boot")
aa = [a] (English 'a' in "father")
oo = [ɔ] (British English 'ore' in "bore", sort of like the 'o' in the General American English "bog")
Diphthongs
ay = a+ii (English 'ie' in "pie")
ey = e+ii (English 'ay' in "say")
uy = u+ii (English 'oy' in "boy")
aw = a+uu (English 'ou' in "south")
ew = e+uu (There isn't really an English equivalent... just use your imagination- you're a Conlanger- I'm sure you have lots of it! :D)
iw = i+uu (English 'ew' as in a noise of disgust "Eww")
ow = o+uu (Again, there is no English equivalent)
ou = The English 'o' sound, as in "go" and "slow"
ee = e+ə (British English pronunciation of "air" or the 'air' in British English "hair")

Basic Grammar

Fenzran is a Verb-Object-Subject language and is mostly head-initial.

Basic Sentence Structure
Fenzran has a basic order of V-O-S. I will start by giving an example of a simple sentance.

I am Anlowe
S V O

To put this sentence in the correct order for Fenzran, the subject (S) must come at the end.

am Anlowe I
V O S

In Fenzran, this would be

sha Anlou ra

{sha = "to be"}
{ra = "I"}

Verbs
Verbs in Fenzran do not conjugate when they take a subject so whatever pronoun, noun or noun-phrase follows the verb, the verb won't change.

ic ra = I do
ic re = You do
ic ri = He does
ic rii = She does

Fenzran verbs add a prefix to show tense. For example, by adding 'pou' or 'ep' to the start of a verb, the verb becomes the past imperfect tense.

epic rii = She did
pousha ri = He was

Prefixes, like the one used here- have 2 forms- one is used when the verb starts with a consonant, the other is used when the verb starts with a vowel.
If the verb starts with a consonant, you use the prefix which ends in a vowel sound (including diphthongs).
If the verb starts with a vowel, you use the prefix which ends in a consonant sound (simple enough!).

Negation works in the same way- to negate a verb, all you do is add 'xe' or 'ex' to the start of the verb.
xesha Anlou rii = She is not Anlowe
exepic ley ra = I didn't do it

As you can see, you may add more than 1 prefix to the verb and, generally, negation comes before the tense-prefix.

I'm starting to feel a list coming on! Hey look, it's a Personal Pronoun list! My favourite!

I : a
You : e
He : i
She : ii
It : ey
One : u
They (neutral) : ou
They (masculine) : iw
They (feminine) : ew
You (plural) : uu
We (including listener[/s]) : aw
We (neutral/excluding listener[/s]) : ay

And what a great (confusing) list it is!
Let's clear it up a bit.

In Fenzran, the personal pronoun changes case depending on whether it's a subject/dative or an object.
If the word you want to use happens to be a subject, like "I sleep", then you add the 'r' sound to the start of the vowel provided in the handsome list above.
So, the verb 'sleep' in Fenzran is 'liith'. Let's say "I sleep"

I sleep = liith ra

You see, because 'I' is the subject- the one doing the action, you add 'r' to the appropriate vowel (in this case 'a')
The same goes for the dative. The dative case is the case you use to say that the action was done 'to' someone. For example.

I give him a cat (or 'I give a cat to him')

In this case, 'him' would be the dative case, as the action is being done 'to' him. [Note: 'a cat' would be the Object in this example!]

Here's some Vocabulary!
{sfan = give
shil = cat
shilva = a cat (I'll explain this later)}

I give a cat to him -> give him-to cat-a I (verb-dative-object-subject)

sfan ri-zha shil-va ra

As you can see, the word for 'him' begins with 'r' as it's in the dative case!

And here's where it all changes (a little... OK, only one thing changes)

If you want to use a personal pronoun as an Object, then you add 'l' instead of 'r'. So, if you want to say "I love her". The word 'her' is an Object (not in a sexist way- whatever you perform a verb on is an object!)

I love her -> Love her I
chem lii ra
You see them (a mixed group of boys and girls, so neutral-they is used!) = rhas lou re

Easy! (I think...)

Determiners
Fenzran, like English, has 2 articles. These are represented by suffixes.

Numbers

Hi,

Excuse me because I asking you for my demand (numbers from your conlang(s)) in this page. I think to send my message on your e-mail. But nowhere I didn't see information about your e-mail. First introduce: My name is Janko. I'm collecting numbers from various systems in different languages. You can found information about my self and my work on: http://janko.gorenc.googlepages.com/home http://janko.gorenc.googlepages.com/collectionnumbers

Please you tell me if you'll have numbers in Fenzran in future.

Could you please send me numbers from 1 to 10 (as in English: 1 –one, 2 – two, 3 – three,…) in Fenzran,or from your other conlang(s) on this page or my e-mail address: "j_gorenc@yahoo.com"?

Thank you for your help!

I wish you a lot of success at your work!

JANKO GORENC

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Fenzran

Dictionary

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Example text

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