Strennic

Phonology

Vowels

The phoneme inventory of Strennic consists of eleven vowel monopthongs. 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 seperate 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.

Dipthongs

There are five dipthongs in Strennic.

Dipthong	Representation
[aʊ̯]	aŭ
[oʊ̯]	oŭ
[eʊ̯]	eŭ
[ɪʊ̯]	iŭ
[uʊ̯]	uŭ

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

Diaereses

Any other sequences of vowels other than the five dipthongs are diaerases, sequences of two vowels that do not collapse into dipthongs. 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 infact 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
ọ	/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 dipthongs
v	/v/	very
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	-í	-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:

• Stul ak kovoŭdemnezhe - That isn't cold
• Va klhematí ak kovoŭdegoroŭ uchí - 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	ní	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
ká	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
ká	ká 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 mnuq klhópt akvọn I don't know where he/she/it is
kásh	kásh ómneunyúdvọn? when are you going?	káshpt	Gvaŭinhnr mnuq káshpt ómneunyúdnr I don't know when I'm going

Swadesh List

No.	English	Strennic
1.	me	nrí
2.	you (singular)	ví
3.	him/her	qrí
4.	us	nrich
5.	you (plural)	vich
6.	they	qrich
7.	this	stve
8.	that	do
9.	here	tvúsne
10.	there	dag
11.	who	kús
12.	what	ká
13.	where	klhó
14.	when	kásh
15.	how	lham
16.	not	né
17.	all	tsov
18.	many	vọlets
19.	some	rulh
20.	few	shlhets
21.	other	ọnyet
22.	one	nyú
23.	two	zhjen
24.	three	tsád
25.	four	hég
26.	five	qọ
27.	big	gvómód
28.	long	úgjọr
29.	wide	zelemb
30.	thick	ekchul
31.	heavy	tonóts
32.	small	siŭ
33.	short	tumb
34.	narrow	stvútsin
35.	thin	selend
36.	woman	sulunzhlé
37.	man	penom
38.	man (human being)	magír
39.	child	ponoŭ
40.	wife	ustvoŭ
41.	husband	maneg
42.	mother	úva
43	father	mazdvár
44.	animal	kingráved
45.	fish	pseshche
46.	bird	pél
47.	dog	kányes
48.	louse	nyúlesín
49.	snake	lhizén
50.	worm	umzgush
51.	tree	faleaps
52.	forest	faleapsgvinzh
53.	stick	machkat
54.	fruit	lhizhurín
55.	seed	nyemár
56.	leaf	nyech
57.	root	uqvurt
58.	bark	rachamurcht
59	flower	utsela
60.	grass	kirenfég
61.	rope	bvóren
62.	skin	emps
63.	meat	koléta
64.	blood	unya
65.	bone	kalts
66.	fat	ládn
67.	egg	ọzlech
68	horn	tsereps