Guecian

Overview

Basically, I thought it would be interesting to create my own language. I used inspiration mostly from the European languages I love the most, like Spanish, Italian, French, Romanian and Hungarian, and using a predominantly Romance spelling and grammar system.

Writing System

Alphabet

The Guecian alphabet consists of 31 letters.

Letter	Name	IPA Pronunciation	English Equivalent	Usage Notes
A	a	/ɒ/	box
B	be	/b/	boy
C	ce	/k/ or /s/	car or sock	like in English or French, the letter 'c' is pronounced /s/ before 'e' or 'i', and /k/ before anything else
Ć	će	/tʃ/	church
D	de	/d/	dog
E	e	/ɛ/	egg
F	ef	/f/	fox
G	eg	/g/	give	'g' is pronounced /g/ everywhere, regardless of position
H	ha	/h/	hot
I	i	/ɪ/	tick
J	je	/j/	yes
K	ka	/k/	car	'k' is used only marginally in Guecian - in loan words such as kilogram
L	la	/l/	look
M	am	/m/	mouse
Ḿ	ḿe	/mʲ/	no direct english quivalent	similar to the first sound in meander
N	an	/n/	nice
Ń	ńe	/ɲ/	onion
O	o	/o/	go
P	pe	/p/	gap
Q	que	/k/	quarter	'q' is seen exclusively with 'u', representing a /k/ sound before an 'e' or an 'i', and a /kw/ sound elsewhere
R	ar	/r/	rolled 'r'
S	es	/s/	say
Ś	śa	/ʃ/	ship
T	ta	/t/	top
U	u	/ʏ/ or /u/ or /w/	similar to good or loon or walk	'u' is pronounced /u/ at the end of a word, /w/ in between a consonant and a vowel (e.g. quanque) and /ʏ/ elsewhere
V	va	/v/	van
W	dubela va	/w/	van	pronounced identically to semivowel 'u', seen almost exclusively in loanwords such as watt
X	eks	/ks/	fox
Y	ya	/ʝ/	like the 'h' in 'huge'
Z	eze	/z/	zebra
Ź	/źet/	/ʒ/	television

Acute Accent

The acute accent (Guecian aćentagua) is placed over the consonants 'c', 'm', 'n', 's' and 'z' to create the letters 'ć', 'ḿ', 'ń', 'ś' and 'ź'. These five letters represent completely different sounds to their parent letters and are treated as individual letters in their own right. They are placed after the unmodified letter in alphabetical order. So for example nese comes before ńaqua in dictionaries.

Foreign Letters

The letters 'k' and 'w' are not used productively in Guecian, as their sounds are produced by the letters 'c' and 'u/v' respectively. This is similar to most Romance languages, such as French and Spanish. However, they are used in some loanwords - such as kilogram, slideshow, watt etc. Some more Guecian-friendly alternatives see marginal use - for example quilogram, sliydśou and uatt.

Digraphs

Gc

One of the more common digraphs in Guecian is -gc. This combination is often found at the end of a word, for example in the words śinagc (walk), cuźegc (toe) and govogc (to judge). This represents the sound /g/, so the 'c' is effectively silent. There is an oversion to using the letter 'g' at the end of a word in Guecian, and so if the last sound in a word is /g/, then chances are it will be written "gc".

Uo

The letter combination uo is very common in Guecian. It represents the vowel /ɤ/, ie an unrounded version of the vowel /o/. 'Uo' is found fairly frequently in Guecian, in any part of a word. For example in the words cuon (horse), prinzuo (prince) and uosta (west). Often, on occassions where there is a limited number of characters allowed, the single letter 'ů' is used to represent the vowel /ɤ/. So uosta would be written ůsta etc.

Dź

Dź is another high-use combination. It represents the affricate consonant /dʒ/, like the English j in join. It is found in any part of a word, for example in dźungel (jungle), dźigso (jigsaw) and bridź (bridge (card game)).

Pz

Pz represents the consonant cluster /ps/. It is primarily found at the beginning of a word, such as in pzicologia (psychology), pześśa (fish) and pzugara (coffin). It is important that the 'p' is pronounced, as English dialects leave out the initial /p/ sound in words with a similar starting combination.

Tn

The uncommon combination tn is seen mostly at the beginning of a word. It denotes the sound /c/, ie a palatal /t/ sound. However, it is also common to pronounce it simply as /t/, and ignoring the palatalization. It is found in primarily obscure words such as tnunda (cannibal), but is present in a few common words such as tnel (to know) and tnatega (skeleton).

Basic Grammar

Nouns

Gender

Guecian nouns are put into one of two genders, Masculine and Feminine. Words that end in an a are usually feminine, whereas nouns that end in another vowel or a consonant are ususally masculine. There are a few exceptions to this rule, for example the word pata meaning "father", dispite ending in an 'a', is a masculine noun as it describes a male person.

Examples:

• Masculine: ćereye (branch), ńac (neck), fu (boy)
• Feminine: sequea (tree), squilisca (snake), lańa (woman)

Number

There are two numbers in Guecian, singular and plural. Plurals are formed by adding certain endings to the singular forms. In feminine nouns (which usually end in an a), the ending -i is used. For masculine nouns ending in a vowel, an n is added to the end of it to turn the noun into a plural. For masculine nouns ending in a consonant, an -en is added to the end of it.

Examples:

Singular	Meaning	Plural
ćereye	branch	ćereyen
squilisca	snake	squiliscai
fu	boy	fun
tacaria	poison	tacariai

Articles

Guecian employs six different articles, with each one chosen depending on the Gender or number of the noun.

Definite Article

The definite article (english 'the') is put before the noun which it is describing. There are four different definite articles, and which one is used depends on the number and gender of the noun.

	Singular	Plural
Masculine	do	dol
Feminine	os	osai

Examples:

• do fu
• dol fun
• os lańa
• osai lańai

Indefinite Article

The definite article (same as English 'a' or 'an') is placed before the noun which it is describing. There are two different indefinite articles: ed used before masculine nouns, and od used before feminine nouns.

Examples:

• ed om
• od lańa
• ed om guerevagc pe osai lańai - a man said to the women

Adjectives

Adjectives are simple in Guecian. Each adjective comes in three forms, the normal, comparative and superlative form. To alter an adjective into it's comparative form (so in English for example, changing 'nice' to 'nicer') you add the suffix -t, and to change an adjective into it's superlative form ('nice' to 'nicest') you add the ending -ref.

Examples:

Adjective	Comparative	Superlative
viada pretty	viadat prettier	viadaref prettiest
coḿendex funny	coḿendext funnier	coḿendexref funniest

Degrees of Comparison

One could also use certain words to increase or decrease the intensity of the adjectives.

For example, pleruj is the equivalent to English 'more'.

• oćosta om uste pleruj coḿendex quo te. Literally translated is: "That man is more funny than you". In this case, one could use this sentence or "oćosta om uste coḿendext quo te literally translated as: "That man is funnier than you". Both these sentences have the same effect.

Also, neńa is the equivalent to English "less" or "not as".

• oćosta om uste neńa coḿendex quo te means literally "That man is less/not as funny as you."

Verbs

Guecian verbs are fairly simple, and the suffixes added to them to denote when the action took place are uniform and the same in almost all verbs in the language.

Take the verb śin which means "to walk".

Verb	Meaning
śin	to walk
śinagc	walked
śinuj	walking
śinegc	will walk
śinageva	have walked
śinujeva	have been walking

Examples:

• nea śinujeva par dez minuten
• "We have been walking for ten minutes

• au śinagc pi dol mulen
• "I walked to the shops"

Numbers

In Guecian, numbers come in several different forms.

Numeral	Cardinal Proper	Multiplicative	Collective	Distributive	Fractional	Adverbial	Ordinal
0	serro	-	serroa none	-	-	-	-
1	unas	unasura single	-	unaquita in ones	unacracu whole	unaded one time	unaśta first
2	dua	duasura double	duana both	duaquita in twos	duacracu half	duaded twice	duaśta second
3	trec	trexura triple	trecna all three	trequita in threes	trecracu third	trecded thrice	trecśta third
4	quanque	quanqura quadruple	quanquena all four	quanquequita in fours	quanquecracu quarter	quanqueded four times	quanqueśta fourth
5	quińe	quińura quintuple	quina all five	quińequita in fives	quińecracu fifth	quińeded five times	quińeśta fifth
6	heca	hecura sixtuple	hecana all six	hecaquita in sixes	hecacracu sixth	hecaded six times	hecaśta sixth
7	sep	sepura septuple	sepna all seven	sepquita in sevens	sepcracu seventh	sepded seven times	sepśta seventh
8	ot	otura octuple	otna all eight	otquita in eights	otcracu eighth	otded eight times	ośta eighth
9	ńet	ńetura nintuple	ńetna all nine	ńetquita in nines	ńetcracu ninth	ńetded nine times	ńetśta ninth
10	dez	dezura dectuple	dezna all ten	dezquita in tens	dezcracu tenth	dezded ten times	dezśta tenth

Examples:

• ćo fonagc trecded.
• "He phoned three times".

• dol anemalen traśagc duaquita
• "The animals marched in twos"

Pronouns

Personal Pronouns

Personal Pronouns in Guecian are easy, as many take the same form in all positions. So for example the English words "I" and "me" are both represented in Guecian by the pronoun "au".

Pronoun	English Equivalent
au	I, me (masculine)
ua	I, me (feminine)
te	you
ćo	he, him
sa	she, her
nea	we, us
vea	they, them
qua	it

Examples:

• qua uste beya
• "it is nice"

• nea guerevagc pe ćo
• "we spoke to him"

Possessive Pronouns

From the Personal Pronouns you can create Possessive Pronouns.

Pronoun	English Equivalent
aun	My, mine (masculine)
uac	My, mine (feminine)
tuon	your, yours
ćon	his
san	her, hers
nean	our, ours
vean	their, theirs
quan	its

The possessive pronouns is put AFTER the noun of which the pronoun posesses. For example: Instead of:

• aun sisa fecate

Write:

• sisa fecate aun "Cat Black My" meaning "My black cat"

Interrogative Pronouns

Interrogative Pronouns are like the English "wh" words "what", "who", "why" etc.

English	Guecian
who?	ćina?
what?	ca?
when?	ge?
why?	par ca?
how?	cau?
which?	cataye?
how many?	quanta?
how much? (cost)	curante?

Dictionary

Guecian Dictionary

Example text

Guecian	Od sequea uste od laneta uyta vaque ed tronque śe ćereyen composagc de madere. Qua dexa acia par mulca ańiai. Do quanque sexunen major de od sequea uste osai urgai, do tronque, dol ćereyen, śe osai camilai. Osai urgai de od sequea uste śeńaye os planśera. Od unasura sequea uon mulca urgai. Os urgai jelena manće śe aqua pronu os planśera, ujte do tronque śe ćereyen pi osai camilai de os sequea.
English	A tree is a tall plant with a trunk and branches made of wood. It can live for many years. The four main parts of a tree are the roots, the trunk, the branches, and the leaves. The roots of a tree are under the ground. A single tree has many roots. The roots carry food and water from the ground through the trunk and branches to the leaves of the tree.

English

London is the capital of the United Kingdom and the Constituent Country of England, and is the largest city in the European Union. An important settlement for two millennia, London's history goes back to its founding by the Romans. Since its beginnings, London has been part of many movements and phenomena throughout history, such as the English Renaissance, the Industrial Revolution, and the Gothic Revival in architecture. The city's core, the ancient City of London, still retains its limited mediaeval boundaries; but since at least the nineteenth century, the name "London" has also referred to the whole metropolis that has developed around it.Today the bulk of this conurbation forms the London metropolitan region[9] and the Greater London administrative area, with its own elected mayor and assembly.

Guecian

London uste os citea capitalo de os Dracuodońela Uneagc śe do zdad constituento de Angleza, śe uste os citea gronderef boś do Uneago Uropesqui. Od naścara gravabanzuo par dua millenniai, do istorio Londonque velve ullinstituziun prej dol Romasquin. Ćenque incepziunen qua, London fejageva ed sexun de mulca moviḿenton śe fenomenai ujteruo istorio, dolca do renaissancio anglesqui, do revoluziun industreque, śe os reviviala gothique boś arquitecturo. Os draquana citeaque, os Citea de London antiqua, uystra evelendegc extremitiai mediaevale limitagc qua; pa ćenque dolozńe os centuria dezńetśta , do jano "London" enpluosa referagc pe do metropolis entiro deten yancuonageva enveluopa qua. Aćestaze os ogna de aćest conurbaziun corzul os stana metropolitano de London śe do Londrez Grondet nereca adinistrativa, vaque adanśur lectagc śe deventaruo quan uniqua.