Old Shax

Shax – Xacs
Morphological Type:	Synthetic
Morphosyntactic Alignment:	Nominative-Accusative
Linguistic Head:	Head Initial
Word Order:	SOV†, SVO
Tonal?	No
Made by:	Maxseptillion77

General Information

This is the long lost North African romance language. It manifested in the Maghreb: specifically in modern-day Morocco, the Roman Empire's Mauritania. The East Roman Empire's side of North Africa was influenced by Greek and gave birth to coptic and other such languages. Though, influence from Western Romance languages, namely Iberian, have made it closer to those such languages. It's sister language, Vandalic, followed a much different path. Mauritania was enamored by the Vandals and have borrowed from it*.

("wikitable mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" <- for collapsible tables)

(*) With permission of course ;)

(†) In Verbial Phrases in Syntax

Phonology

Consonant

	Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Nasal	m	n			ŋ
Plosive	p b	t d			k g kʷ gʷ
Fricative	f v	θ ð	s z	ʃ ʒ	x ɣ xʷ
Liquid	w		l r	ʎ j

Vowel

All vowels can be nasal

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Mid	e̞		o̞
Low		a

Other

Stress

Stress falls on primarily on the closed syllable (except if it's ultimate) or a pre-rhotic syllable; if there isn't one of those conditions, the stress falls on the penultimate. Note that stress on the ultimate syllable is on an open syllable followed by a closed syllable in a two syllable word. On two, open syllable words, the stress falls on the ultimate syllable if the ultimate syllable is of a nasal vowel, diphthong, or nasal diphthong. Nasal vowels carry more strength than non-nasal vowels so if any above condition is not ture, the stress will fall on the nasal vowel. 

Sandhi

The vowels [u] and [i] may be freely exchanged for [w] and [j] respectivally before vowel regardless of word barriors (u amu [w.amu] - I like/love). Identical vowels between word boundries may also fuse into one sound (u sũ ũ fezuã [u sũ fezwã] - I am a person). Also, voiced consonants such as [b], [d], and [g] may become [v], [ð], and [ɣ] respectivally intervocallically between word boundries as well. [r] is an unstable phoneme and is often removed word finally if a dental or alveolar phoneme, except [s] and [z], follow it in the next word. Note that vowel nasality is also quite free: if there is a nasal vowel near any vowel, the adjecent vowel[s] may become allophoniclly nasal as well. 

Orthography

Alphabet

Letter	Sound	Letter	Sound
A a	[a]	B b	[b], [v]
C c	[k]	D d	[d], [ð]
E e	[e̞]	F f	[f]
G g	[g], [ɣ]	H h	[∅]
I i	[i], [j]	J j	[ʒ]
K k	[x], [ɣ]	L l	[l]
M m	[m]	N n	[n]
O o	[o̞]	P p	[p]
Qu qu	[kʷ]	R r	[r]
S s	[s]	T t	[t]
U u	[u], [w]	V v	[v]
W w	[w]	X x	[ʃ]
Y y	[i], [j]	Z z	[z]
Ɵ θ	[θ], [ð]

• I/Y and U are [j] and [w] respectivally before another vowel
• Intervocalically, [b] > [v], [d] and [θ] > [ð], [g] and [x] > [ɣ]
• K is [ɣ] intervocallically

Multigraphs

Letters	Sound
Gu gu, Ku ku	[gʷ], [xʷ]
Lh lh	[ʎ]
Bb, Dd, Gg, Kk kk, Ɵf θf*	[b], [d], [g], [x], [θ]
Ng, Nc, Nk, Nqu	[ŋ~ŋg], [ŋk], [ŋk͡x], [ŋkʷ]

• (*) These negate the intervocallic ruel
• If one vowel is nasal in a set, all the vowels are nasal: (amãi [amãɪ̯̃])

Diacritics

Letter	Sound
tilde	nasal
circumflex	nasal alternate stress and homophone
acute	alternate stress and homophone
grave	homophone

Grammar 

Nouns

Declension

1st Declension

selua [sɛlwa] - forest

Contains only feminine nouns ending in [a].

	Nom-Acc	Gen-Dat
Singular	selua	selue
Plural	seluar	seluer

2nd Declension

lovu [lovu] - wolf

Contains only nouns ending in [u].

	Nom-Acc	Gen-Dat
Singular	lovu	lovi
Plural	lovur	lovir

3rd Declension

faθ [faθ] - father

Contains only masculine nouns. This is also the declension for gerunds.

	Nom-Acc	Gen-Dat
Singular	faθ	faθi
Plural	faθr	faθir

4th Declension

re [re̞] - the truth of the situation/events, a witnesse's claim [in a court of law], reality [as opposed to a fantasy] (can be used to call someone crazy or deluded)

Contains only feminine nouns.

	Nom-Acc	Gen-Dat
Singular	re	rei
Plural	rer

Changing gender

Masculine nouns can change to feminine nouns by using the 4th declension and feminine nouns can use the 3rd declension.

Adjectives

Declension

Adjectives decline just like what they're modifying (ex with biũ, good: lovu biu, nice wolf, or selua bia, friendly woods/forest).

States

A comparitive is marked with the construction "more/most" + adjective-"io" (+ "than" + the thing being compared). A superlative adjective is adjective-"ixu."

Transformations

A verb can become an adjective through the use of its present participle. A noun can become an adjective by placing it the way an adjective would be and declining it to what it's modifying. An adjective can become a noun by the same process as a noun would become an adjective. Note that some adjective cannot be noun and vice versa (i.e. pliccu must be an adjective). 

Adverbs

Adverbs simply take the full adjective and end it with -mẽ.

Pronouns

Personal

		Nom	Gen-Dat	Acc	Nom Emphatic
Singular	1st	u	mi	me	mé
	2nd	θu	θi	θe	θé
	3rd M	ele	elu	ele	éli
	3rd F	ela		ela	éla
Plural	1st	nu	nuθi	nu	nó
	2nd	vu	vuθi	vu	vó
	3rd M	eler	elur	le	élir
	3rd F	elar		la	élar

Possessive

Object ⇨ Owner ⇩			Singular		Plural
			Mas	Fem	Mas	Fem
Singular	1st	Mas	mau	mauda	maur	maudar
		Fem	mía	miada	míar	miadat
	2nd	Mas	θu	θuda	θur	θudar
		Fem	θua	θuada	θuar	θuadar
	3rd	Mas	su	suda	sur	sudar
		Fem	sua	suada	suar	suadar
Plural	1st	Mas	noθi	noθa	noθir	noθar
		Fem	noθra	noθrada	noθrar	noθradar
	2nd	Mas	veθi	veθa	veθir	veθar
		Fem	veθra	veθrada	veθrar	veθradar
	3rd	Mas	xi	xida	xir	xidar
		Fem	xa	xada	xar	xadar

Verbs

Morphology

Full article here.

Reflexive

Put the corresponding accusative pronoun with the verb (ex: u me lu [u me lu] - I wash myself).

Syntax

Phrases

Postpositional

Being a head initial language, Shax puts its postpositions (or compound prepositions) after the noun. The noun take the Nom-Acc case. Sometimes, the noun will the Gen-Dat case. Note: the noun takes the appropriate article.

Nominal

Nouns with adjectives

A nominal phrase has the noun at the head (which is the first word) with adjective following it. Adjectives follow it in a logical order of which descibes the noun best or which is the most important quality. Therefore, a change in the adjective can also change the semantic of the noun. Though in colloquial speech, the order is irrelevant and one would simply list to their whim.

Genitive Nouns

The owner takes the genitive case and turns into a modifier, but it is placed before the owned noun. mau faθi lovu means "My father's wolf." 

Verbial

Word Order

A personal pronoun is necessary before every verb form in Shax. If the clause uses pronouns alone, it is SOV (ex: u me lu - I wash myself, u θe θuve - you confuse me, u ele dormiau - I'll sleep [over] there; but u sũ fezuã - I am a person). Note that interrogative sentences function as any normal verb would in Shax.

Negation

The general negation marker is a no before the main verb and after the main pronoun. Though, specific types of negation may be placed by using no as a prefix (i.e.: nobody, never, nobody ever, no where).

Clauses

Conditional Clauses

Conditional clauses where there is a requirement clause then a condition clause require the indicative then a subjunctive. But, sentences where there is only a condition (like I'd do that) require the verb to be able to in the subjunctive.

Subordinate Clauses

These are introduced with either ’ã or ce. ’ã is that; ce means who/whom. The introductory words are necessary and almost never omitted except in very informal or uneducated speech. Subordinate clauses go after independent clauses and are separated by a comma before ’ã or ce. The verb conjugates to the person taking the nominative in the independent clause. 

Copula

There are two auxillary verbs used for a copula: to be and to have. When it's a construction with a noun and an adjective, he is good, one would use to have and the adjective as a noun.

Extra

Time and Place

Time is written in order: year, day-month ĩdu time(hour-minute) a. Place goes: country, (state, province, etc) ĩdu (everything else in English's order with a postposition of a).

Text

Lexicon

Standard Shax/Lexicon

Universal Decleration of Human Rights

Complete

Fezuãr naxũθu liverrar o gualar avu suda jinda o su kaccus. Eler són dotè avu xada logga o muaida e eler deváin θodu cerrosié ũdamẽ. Fezuãr θodu dotén koccur o liverrar a, 'ã delhán Delhé ĩdu, jiθẽijur nuavu; I jiθẽiju desón suda éθniste, su secsu, suda lẽgui, suda regũi, suda oviniu pliccu o suda oviniu giu, suda faθia, su tabaccaixtae, suda frovrea, e xitxuexõr ecceθa.

Article 1

Text

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Translation

Fezuãr naxũθu liverrar o gualar avu e suda jinda o su kaccus avu. Eler són dotè loggar o muaidi avu e eler deváin θodu carrosié ũdamẽ.

IPA

[fe̞ˈzw̃ã naʃũðu live̞ˈrar o̞ ɣʷalar avu e  suða ʒinda ʊ su xakus avu]. [e̞ˈle̞r ˈso̞n do̞te̞ lo̞gar o mw̃ãɪ̯̃ði avu ˈɛ e̞le̞ de̞vaɪ̯n̪ ˈθo̞ðu karo̞ˈsje̞ ʊ̃ð̃ãmẽ̞].

Literal Translation

People born liberties and equality with and dignity and rights with. They are endowed logic and morality with and they must all to be courteous unanimously. 

Article 2

Text

Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.

Translation

Fezuãr θodu dotén koccur o liverrar a, 'ã delhán Delhé ĩdu, jiθẽijur nuavu; I jiθẽiju desón suda éθniste, su secsu, suda lẽgui, suda regũi, suda oviniu pliccu o suda oviniu giu, suda faθia, su tabaccaixtae, suda frovrea, e xitxuexõr ecceθa. Pluavu: jiθẽiju no arai fezuẽ badi-terrtuarir statiu pliccu, statiu juredisiũ, o statiu ẽténnasiunu fe. 

IPA

[fe̞ˈzw̃ã θo̞ðu ðo̞ˈte̞n xo̞ˈkur o̞ live̞ˈrar a] [ã ðe̞ˈlʲan de̞ˈʎẽ̞ j̃ðu nwavu] [i ʒiˈðẽ̞ɪ̯̃ʒu ðe̞ˈso̞n suða ˈe̞θniste̞] [su ˈse̞ksu] [suða ˈlẽgʷi] [suða ˈre̞gʷ̃ĩ] [suða o̞ˈvinju pliku o suða ɔˈvinju gju] [suða ˈfaðja] [su tavakaɪ̯ʃˈtaɛ] [suða fro̞vrɛa j ʃitʃwe̞ˈʃũr e̞ke̞ða]. [̪plwavu] [ʒiˈðẽ̞ɪ̯ʒu nwaˈraɪ̯ fe̞ˈzw̃ẽ̞ badite̞rtwaˈri ˈstatju pliku] [statju ʒuˈre̞disjũ] [õ̞ statju ẽ̞ˈte̞nasiunu fe̞].

Literal Translation

People all endow rights and liberty with, that declare Declaration in, discrimination not-with; This discrimination is from one's ethnicity, one's gender, one's language, one's religion, one's belief political and one's belief in-general, their native-country, one's social-class, one's property, or situations etc. Also: descrimination will not have person's country's state-of-affaires political, state-of-affaires jurisdictional, state-of-affaires international through. 

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