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Zeran Zerä | |||
---|---|---|---|
Type | |||
? | |||
Alignment | |||
Nominative-accusative | |||
Head direction | |||
Initial | |||
Tonal | |||
No | |||
Declensions | |||
No | |||
Conjugations | |||
No | |||
Genders | |||
Yes | |||
Nouns decline according to... | |||
Case | Number | ||
Definiteness | Gender | ||
Verbs conjugate according to... | |||
Voice | Mood | ||
Person | Number | ||
Tense | Aspect |
General information[]
Phonology[]
Consonants[]
Bilabial | Labio-dental | Alveolar | Post-alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nasal | m | n | (ɲ) | ||||
Plosive | p b | t d | (c ɟ) | k g | |||
Fricative | f v | s z | ʃ ʒ | (ç ʝ) | x | χ | |
Affricate | pf bv | ts dz | tʃ dʒ | kx | |||
Approximant | w | j | |||||
Flap or tap | pɾ bɾ | fɾ vɾ | tɾ dɾ | ɾ | kɾ gɾ | ||
Lateral app. | pl bl | fl vl | l | (ʎ) | kl gl |
Vowels[]
Open | Closed | Nasal | Semivowel |
---|---|---|---|
a | ə | an | |
ɛ | e | en | |
i | in | j | |
ɔ | o | on | |
u | un | w |
Alphabet[]
Roman | Cyrillic | Pronunciation | Equivalent |
---|---|---|---|
B | Б | /b/ | bell |
C | Х | /x/ | house - something like it |
D | Д | /d/ | day - but it is hard |
F | Ф | /f/ | force |
G | Г | /g/ | get - but it is hard |
H | Я | /χ/ | something like the French R |
J | Ж | /ʒ/ | measure |
K | К | /k/ | color - but it is hard |
L | Л | /l/ | light |
M | М | /m/ | man |
N | Н | /n/ | now |
P | П | /p/ | pull |
R | Р | /ɾ/ | rope - without the w-like sound |
S | С | /s/ | site |
T | Т | /t/ | tale - but it is hard |
V | В | /v/ | victory |
X | Ш | /ʃ/ | ship |
Z | З | /z/ | zap |
W | Ђ | /w/ | wait |
Y | Ј | /j/ | young |
A | А | /a/ | cow |
E | Э | /ɛ/ | red |
I | И | /i/ | sheep |
O | Ө | /ɔ/ | law |
U | У | /u/ | root |
 | І | /ə/ | bird |
Ê | Е | /e/ | day |
Ô | О | /o/ | know |
Ä | Ӓ | /an/ | under |
Ë | Ӟ | /en/ | pen |
Ï | Ӥ | /in/ | been |
Ö | Ӫ | /on/ | fond |
Ü | Ӱ | /un/ | soon |
There is no difference between upper case and lower case. They are seem only as different typographic fonts.
Phonotactics[]
- The stress is always in the penultimate syllable.
- The onset can only be one of the consonants, affricates or combinations with R/L.
- The nucleus always has a vowel and may begin or end with a semivowel.
- The coda must be nothing or a single unvoiced fricative (except x).
- Some clusters are allowed between syllables and in the end of the word: ks kʃ ps pʃ px fx tx.
- The word can end with an unvoiced affricate.
- The same vowel cannot be the next phoneme (aa, ee...).
- Some sequences are not allowed: sz sʃ ij wu.
Grammar[]
Gender | Cases | Numbers | Tenses | Persons | Moods | Voices | Aspects | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Verb | No | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes |
Nouns | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Adjectives | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Numbers | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Participles | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Adverb | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Pronouns | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No |
Adpositions | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Article | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No |
Particle | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Genders[]
The genders are:
- Everything: It is the global gender that includes everything. It is used when the specific gender is unknown.
- Animal: It includes humans, animals, ghosts, gods, aliens and some other living things.
- Collective: Those are the collective nouns, such as group, folk, team and company.
- Male: Everything that is male.
- Female: Everything that is female.
- Object: Plants, objects and places.
- Abstract: Abstract concepts, such as time, happiness and power.
- Animal: It includes humans, animals, ghosts, gods, aliens and some other living things.
The difference are in the determiners.
The gender Animal is used when one does not know if an person or animal is male or female. It is also used in the plural when both genders are included.
Pronouns[]
English | Zeran |
---|---|
I/Me | mï |
You (singular) | sê |
We/Us (excludes you) | nyus |
We/Us (includes you) | töy |
You (plural) | vôw |
The definite articles without the noun are used as the third-person pronouns.
Honorifics[]
In some cases, the honorifics replace the second-person pronoun and the third-person pronoun and they are also used as vocative.
Person | Male | Female |
---|---|---|
parent, grandparent | dada | mämä |
spouse | amu | kêra |
boss, leader | lora | kwida |
teacher | sësu | sôra |
older one | lyega | sïra |
very polite (other cases) | dôkô | zoyä |
Determiners[]
The nouns do not change with the plural. The plural is marked in the determiners.
Definite articles[]
Gender | Singular | Plural |
---|---|---|
Everything | kow | kowx |
Animal | zoy | zoyx |
Collective | tura | turax |
Male | xô | xôx |
Female | le | lex |
Object | bä | bäx |
Abstract | sôy | sôyx |
Indefinite determiners and correlatives[]
Role | Determiner | Place | Time | Noun | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Everything | Animal | Collective | Male | Female | Object | Abstract | ||||
Near me | lapse | lakse | latse | lakow | lazoy | latura | laxô | lale | labä | lasôy |
Near you | jepse | jekse | N/A | |||||||
Away from us (visible) | löpse | lökse | lötse | |||||||
Away from us (non-visible) | drapse | drakse | dratse | |||||||
a (singular) | txi (it means number one) | txikse | txitse | |||||||
some (uncountable) | tximê | txiskse | txistse | |||||||
some (plural) | txix | txixkse | txixtse | |||||||
no/none/nothing | zedza (it means number zero) | dzâkse | dzâtse | |||||||
all/every | alo | alokse | alotse | |||||||
generic | hafkâ | hafâkse | hafâtse | |||||||
question | pwa | pwakse | pwatse | |||||||
relative (restrictive) | wê | wêkse | wêtse | |||||||
relative (explicative) | yô | yôkse | yôtse |
- tximê is used with uncountable nouns. It is also used with countable nouns when one does not know the quantity (if it is plural), and in the negative and in the interrogative (meaning "any").
Nouns[]
They are not inflected.
Adjectives[]
The adjective is always inserted after the noun, or in the beginning or in the end of the sentence. The adjectives are inflected with suffixes according to the case.
The noun can be omitted and the adjective can be inserted alone.
Number | Noun | Nominative | Objective | Prepositional |
---|---|---|---|---|
Singular | - | -ays | -eys | -oys |
Plural | - | -aws | -ews | -ows |
- The plural form is not used with nouns in the plural, it is used when the subject or object has multiple members.
- The prepositional case is used with nouns in adverbs or adnominals.
Verbs[]
The infinitive uses the suffix -af.
Nominal forms[]
Form | Suffix |
---|---|
Present participle | -äni |
Past participle | -adju |
Present gerund | -önu |
Past gerund | -odji |
- The infinitive can be used as a noun that names the action.
- The gerunds and the participles can be used as nouns. They can receive an adjective suffix to be used as adjectives.
Indicative[]
Tense | Perfective | Progressive | Habitual |
---|---|---|---|
Past | -ôy | -ow | -alo |
Present | N/A | -ey | -ale |
Future | -ïu | -üa | -ala |
- The infinitive suffix is replaced with one of these suffixes.
- Stative verbs cannot be conjugated in the perfective.
Stage aspect[]
Aspect | Prefix |
---|---|
Inceptive | côs- |
Pausative | sos- |
Resumptive | ras- |
Cessative (canceled) | käs- |
Cessative (finished) | vus- |
- The prefixes are optional.
Relative-tense aspect[]
The relative tenses are expressed with auxiliary verbs followed by the main verb in the infinitive. They can only be used in the past or future tenses and the aspect must be perfective
Aspect | Verb |
---|---|
Retrospective | hadaf |
Prospective | ceklaf |
Subjunctive[]
- Conjunctive
- Hypothetical
- Conditional
Imperative[]
Person | Suffix |
---|---|
You (singular) | -ay |
You (plural) | -âw |
We | -ädu |
Verbal particles[]
These are particles inserted after the verb to change the verb.
Role | Particle |
---|---|
Negative | nütô |
Interrogative | verö |
Reflexive | hasde |
Opposite | änö |
Immediate | süne |
- The interrogative is used in yes/no questions. It is not used in questions with other interrogative words.
- The negative does not mean opposite. "do not like" does not mean "dislike". The opposite does.
- Those particles can also be inserted after an adjective to change it.
- süne means immediate past or future.
Other auxiliary verbs[]
- bleskyaf: It means that a possibility exists (may).
- provonaf: Causative.
- ïmugaf: It means that something is in a state to start doing something.
- dêzaf: Any movement (go, come, leave, arrive).
- ïdzaf: The identity/Classification copula (to be a, to be the).
- likraf: The locative copula.
- sëtaf: The copula that represents states.
- fijucaf: The copula that represents characteristics.
Syntax[]
Basic sentence[]
Any word order related to subject-verb-object is possible. The first term has more emphasis, but it does not change the semantics. The grammatical function is marked with prepositions. The nominative does not use preposition.
Role | Preposition |
---|---|
Accusative | lï |
Dative, lative | pwa |
Ablative | pye |
Reciprocal | rüka |
Any term can be omitted from the sentence. If the subject is omitted, it means that it is known according to the context, or it is not important because the important info is the consequence for the object.
Adverbial particles[]
Many prepositions and particles have three cases: adverbial, nominative and objective. The two latter are adnominals that add info to the nouns.
Role | Adverbial | Nominative | Objective |
---|---|---|---|
Locative | zëy | zëna | zëynï |
Instrumental | fëw | fëna | fëwnï |
like | ges | gena | gesnï |
instead | jox | joxna | jownï |
Other prepositions[]
Role | Preposition |
---|---|
Genitive, possessive | djä |
Relative clauses[]
They are started with a relative pronoun and ended with the particle puyu. There is no special rules regarding the relative clauses. The third-person pronoun can be used to refer to the noun which it is talking about or the term can be omitted.
Subordinate clauses[]
They start with the conjunction wäs and ends with the particle puyu.
Nested clauses do not end with multiple puyu. They end with a single puyu and may be ambiguous.
Vocabulary[]
No. | English | Zeran |
---|---|---|
1 | I | mï |
2 | you (singular) | sê |
3 | he | — |
4 | we | — |
5 | you (plural) | vôw |
6 | they | — |
7 | this | lapse |
8 | that | — |
9 | here | lakse |
10 | there | — |
11 | who | — |
12 | what | — |
13 | where | — |
14 | when | — |
15 | how | — |
16 | not | — |
17 | all | — |
18 | many | — |
19 | some | — |
20 | few | — |
21 | other | — |
22 | one | — |
23 | two | — |
24 | three | — |
25 | four | — |
26 | five | — |
27 | big | — |
28 | long | — |
29 | wide | — |
30 | thick | — |
31 | heavy | — |
32 | small | — |
33 | short | — |
34 | narrow | — |
35 | thin | — |
36 | woman | luën |
37 | man (adult male) | vazas |
38 | man (human being) | — |
39 | child | tôrôrô |
40 | wife | — |
41 | husband | — |
42 | mother | — |
43 | father | — |
44 | animal | — |
45 | fish | kaözê |
46 | bird | vlôta |
47 | dog | inura |
48 | louse | — |
49 | snake | mädru |
50 | worm | — |
51 | tree | borê |
52 | forest | — |
53 | stick | — |
54 | fruit | gofus |
55 | seed | nëdra |
56 | leaf | hoydja |
57 | root | zarêtsu |
58 | bark | — |
59 | flower | jetay |
60 | grass | xêpê |
61 | rope | — |
62 | skin | — |
63 | meat | — |
64 | blood | wogatü |
65 | bone | — |
66 | fat | — |
67 | egg | hovâ |
68 | horn | — |
69 | tail | hatxê |
70 | feather | fësta |
71 | hair | piluga |
72 | head | xayko |
73 | ear | otrê |
74 | eye | ôydax |
75 | nose | sabeya |
76 | mouth | sobüx |
77 | tooth | drapë |
78 | tongue | afirä |
79 | fingernail | — |
80 | foot | txöga |
81 | leg | muledjis |
82 | knee | — |
83 | hand | macöy |
84 | wing | bwaska |
85 | belly | — |
86 | guts | — |
87 | neck | — |
88 | back | — |
89 | breast | — |
90 | heart | krôna |
91 | liver | — |
92 | drink | — |
93 | eat | — |
94 | bite | — |
95 | suck | — |
96 | spit | — |
97 | vomit | — |
98 | blow | — |
99 | breathe | — |
100 | laugh | — |
101 | see | — |
102 | hear | — |
103 | know | — |
104 | think | — |
105 | smell | — |
106 | fear | — |
107 | sleep | — |
108 | live | — |
109 | die | — |
110 | kill | — |
111 | fight | — |
112 | hunt | — |
113 | hit | — |
114 | cut | — |
115 | split | — |
116 | stab | — |
117 | scratch | — |
118 | dig | — |
119 | swim | — |
120 | fly | — |
121 | walk | — |
122 | come | — |
123 | lie | — |
124 | sit | — |
125 | stand | — |
126 | turn | — |
127 | fall | — |
128 | give | — |
129 | hold | — |
130 | squeeze | — |
131 | rub | — |
132 | wash | — |
133 | wipe | — |
134 | pull | — |
135 | push | — |
136 | throw | — |
137 | tie | — |
138 | sew | — |
139 | count | — |
140 | say | — |
141 | sing | — |
142 | play | — |
143 | float | — |
144 | flow | — |
145 | freeze | — |
146 | swell | — |
147 | sun | laris |
148 | moon | lulu |
149 | star | sutelya |
150 | water | wazu |
151 | rain | — |
152 | river | — |
153 | lake | — |
154 | sea | umini |
155 | salt | — |
156 | stone | — |
157 | sand | — |
158 | dust | — |
159 | earth | tera |
160 | cloud | — |
161 | fog | — |
162 | sky | — |
163 | wind | — |
164 | snow | — |
165 | ice | — |
166 | smoke | — |
167 | fire | — |
168 | ash | — |
169 | burn | — |
170 | road | — |
171 | mountain | — |
172 | red | — |
173 | green | — |
174 | yellow | — |
175 | white | — |
176 | black | — |
177 | night | — |
178 | day | — |
179 | year | — |
180 | warm | — |
181 | cold | — |
182 | full | — |
183 | new | — |
184 | old | — |
185 | good | — |
186 | bad | — |
187 | rotten | — |
188 | dirty | — |
189 | straight | — |
190 | round | — |
191 | sharp | — |
192 | dull | — |
193 | smooth | — |
194 | wet | — |
195 | dry | — |
196 | correct | — |
197 | near | — |
198 | far | — |
199 | right | — |
200 | left | — |
201 | at | — |
202 | in | — |
203 | with | — |
204 | and | — |
205 | if | — |
206 | because | — |
207 | name | — |