Conlang
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Phonology[]

Vowels[]

The phoneme inventory of Strennic consists of eleven vowel monophthongs. The reason why the vowel inventory is so large is that some vowel comes in a long and short variety, and this vowel length can form minimal pairs (for example pad "rug" and pád "butter") so each is considered a separate phoneme. Sometimes a long vowel is of a slightly different quality than it's corresponding short vowel (for example near-mid 'e', corresponds to mid 'é')

- Front Central Back
Close /i/ i /iː/ í /u/ u /uː/ ú
Mid /eː/ é
Open-Mid /ɛ/ e /ɞ/ ọ /ɔː/ ó
Open /a/ a /aː/ á /ɒ/ o

Vowel Length[]

Vowel length is phonemic in Strennic, however vowel length isn't always straight forward, some 'long vowels' have slightly different qualities than their short counterparts.

Short Long
/a/ /aː/
/ɛ/ /eː/
/i/ /iː/
/ɒ/ /ɔː/
/ʊ/ /uː/

The open-mid central unrounded vowel /ɞ/, represented by the letter 'ọ' is always short in Strennic.

Long vowels are represented by the use of an acute accent above their letter, as in á é í ó and ú.

Diphthongs[]

There are five diphthongs in Strennic.

Diphthong Representation
[aʊ̯]
[oʊ̯]
[eʊ̯]
[ɪʊ̯]
[uʊ̯]

Note that these five diphthongs are the only environments which feature the letter <ŭ>.

Diaereses[]

Any other sequences of vowels other than the five diphthongs are diaerases, sequences of two vowels that do not collapse into diphthongs. For example dnrea and gvuon.

Syllabic Consonants[]

Some soronant consonants can sometimes be syllabic, meaning that they function as a vowel. Four consonant sounds [l], [m], [n] and [r] can act as a syllable nucleus. For example in the word gvr meaning "grass", which seems to have no vowel, actually instead has a syllabic 'r'. Some extreme examples from Strennic include gvrstvrsn (grass verge) from gvr "grass" and stvrsn verge.

This situation can arise in English words, such as acre, where the 'r' is, in fact, the nucleus of the final syllable.

Orthography[]

Alphabet[]

The Strennic Alphabet is a version of the Latin Alphabet, modified with the addition of the accented letters á, é, í, ó and ú, the other letters with diacritics 'ọ' (o with dot below) and 'ŭ' (u with breve), as well as five digraphs ch, lh, ny, sh and zh, which are all treated as individual letters in their own right.

Letter IPA
Pronunciation
Equivalents in English Notes
a /a/ similar to car
á /aː/ like 'a' but pronounced slightly longer
b /b/ because
c /ts/ mats
ch /tʃ/ cheek
d /d/ day
e /ɛ/ get
é /e/ hey
f /f/ foot
g /g/ give
h /h/ hello The character <h> is also used in the letters <ch>, <lh>, <sh> and <zh>.
i /i/ beat
í /iː/ like 'i' but longer
j /j/ yellow
k /k/ car
l /l/ little
lh /ɬ/ like the sound represented in Welsh by <ll>.
m /m/ moat
n /n/ nice
ny /ɲ/ similar to onion
o /ɒ/ bomb
ó /ɔ/ raw
/ɞ/ like bird but rounded
p /p/ pit
q /x/ loch
r /ɾ/ a tapped 'r'
s /s/ stop
sh /ʃ/ shop
t /t/ bit
u /ʊ/ foot
ú /u/ loon
ŭ /ʊ̯/ bow represents non-syllabic 'u' in diphthongs
v /v/ very
x /ks/ box
z /z/ zebra
zh /ʒ/ vision

Basic Grammar[]

Nouns[]

Case[]

Strennic nouns come in nine cases: the Nominative, Dative, Genitive, Accusative, Adessive, Apudessive, Inessive, Benefactive and Comitative. These cases all come in a singular and plural varieties.

Case Singular
Suffix
Plural
Suffix
Example
Nominative - - va mazan/vea mazanek (the house(s))
Dative -nye -nyea va mazannye/vea mazannyea (to the house(s))
Genitive -ushe -ushea va mazanushe/vea mazanushea (the house's/the houses')
Accusative -ich va mazaní/vea mazanich
Adessive -ashlhe -ashlhuqe va mazanashlhe/vea mazanashlhuqe (near the house/houses)
Apudessive -ézeŭ -ézeva va mazanézeŭ/vea mazanézeva (next to the house/houses)
Inessive -sheb -shebv va mazansheb/vea mazanshebv (in the house/houses)
Benefactive -pugv -pugvulí va mazanpugv/vea mazanpugvulí (for the house(s))
Comitative -shtú -shtea va mazanshtú/vea mazanshtea (with the house(s))

Posession[]

Posession is indicated in Strennic by adding a 'possessive suffix' to the noun, as shown in the following table.

- Singular Plural
1st Person -nta -zta
2nd Person -vna -sna
3rd Person -qra -qroŭa

Number[]

All nouns in Strennic come in a singular and plural. With Nominative Nouns the plural is formed regularly by adding the suffix -n or -en, depending on whether the noun ends in a vowel or a consonant. Otherwise, each different noun case has it's own unique singular and plural suffix.

Articles[]

Articles are (as in English) placed as a preposition before a noun. The indefinate articlue (english: a/an) is represented by sutv, and is only found before singular nouns. The definate article (english "the") is represented by va before singular nouns and vea before plural nouns.

Example Meaning
uvushtí flower
uvushtin flowers
sutv uvushtí a flower
va uvushtí the flower
vea uvushtin the flowers

Adjectives[]

Adjectives come in several forms, using suffixes to indicate varying degrees of intensity. The following table shows these suffixes using the adjective kovoŭde meaning "cold".

Suffix Result Meaning
- kovoŭde cold
-lha kovoŭdelha colder
-lhakea kovoŭdelhakea coldest
-duqul kovoŭdeduqul very cold
-mnezhe kovoŭdemnezhe (is) not cold

Adjectives can be made into verbs by adding the suffix "-goroŭ". For example "nyéván" meaning "question" can be altered to nyévángoroŭ "to question".

For example:

  • Hvrz ak kovoŭdemnezhe - That isn't cold
  • Va klhematí ak kovoŭdegoroŭ ní - The weather is making me cold

Verbs[]

Tenses[]

Strennic verbs come in five tenses: the Past, Past Participle, Present, Present Participle and Future. Take the word ómne meaning "to go":

Tense Suffix Result Meaning
- - ómne to go
Past -dn ómnedn went
Past Participle -aneb ómneaneb have gone
Present -pr ómnepr go
Present Participle -unyúd ómneunyúd am going
Future -pé ómnepé will go

Agent[]

If the agent of a verb can be represented by a personal pronoun, then the agent is represented in the verb word itself, for example Ómneprnr means "I go". However otherwise the agent of the verb is placed before the verb, as in english. For example Sam ómnepr "Sam goes" and Va sulunzhlé omnepr means "The woman goes".

A list of the agent suffixes is as follows:

Singular Plural
First Person -nr -zr
Second Person -vọn -sọn
Third Person -qr -qroŭ

So for example ómnedn which means "went" becomes ómnednqr means "it went".

Patient[]

The patient is placed after the verb. For example the verb gvursht means "to like", becomes gvurshtnr "I like", which becomes gvurshtnr ví "I like you".

Pronouns[]

Personal Pronouns[]

Personal pronouns decline fairly regularly, although the 1st person singular and plurals may cause some minor irritation, for example the use of zheb where zesheb would have been more regular.

Person Nominative Dative Genitive Accusative Adessive Apudessive Inessive Benefactive Comitative
1st Person
Singular
nr nrnye nushe nulhshe neŭ nesheb nupugv noshtú
1st Person
Plural
zr zrnye zrshe zních zashlhuqe zeŭek zheb zupugvulí zoshtú
2nd Person
Singular
vọn vọnnye vọnushe vọní vọnashlhe vọnézeŭ vọnsheb vọnpugv vọnshtú
2nd Person
Plural
sọn sọnyea sọnushea sọnich sọnashlhuqe sọnézeva sọnshebv sọnpugvulí sọnshtea
3rd Person
Singular
qr qrnye qrushe qrí qrashlhe qrnézeŭ qrsheb qrpugv qrshtú
3rd Person
Plural
qroŭ qroŭnyea qroŭushea qroŭich qroŭashlhe qroŭéveza qroŭshebv qroŭpugvulí qroŭshtea

Interrogative Pronouns[]

Interrogative pronouns (like the English "wh words") are fairly easy.

Pronoun Meaning
what
kús who
klhó where
kásh when
mtanaps why
lham how
vrts which

For example: Ká va krdúvnta? "What is your name?"

Demonstrative Pronouns[]

English Strennic
this stva
these stvan
that hvrz
those hvrzan

For example: Ká stva? What is this?

Relative Pronouns[]

Relative pronouns are formed by adding the suffix -pt to their related interrogative pronoun.

Interrogative Example Relative Example
krdúvhvna?
what is your name?
kápt Stva kápt krdúvnta ak
This is what my name is
kús kús nr?
who are you?
kúspt Stva kúspt mnenr
This is who I am
klhó klhó vọn?
where is he/she/it?
klhópt Gvaŭinhnr mnux klhópt akvọn
I don't know where he/she/it is
kásh kásh ómneunyúdvọn?
when are you going?
káshpt Gvaŭinhnr mnux káshpt ómneunyúdnr
I don't know when I'm going

Dictionary[]

Dictionary of Strennic

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