Srngadz

Srngadz [sɹ̩ŋɑd͡z]
Type	Fusional
Alignment	Ergative
Head direction	Varying
Tonal	No
Declensions	Yes
Conjugations	Yes
Genders	Animate/Inanimate
Nouns decline according to...
Case	Number
Definiteness	Gender
Verbs conjugate according to...
Voice	Mood
Person	Number
Tense	Aspect
Meta-information
Progress	0%
Statistics Nouns 0% Verbs 0% Adjectives 0% Syntax 0% Words of 1500
Creator	[[User:|]]

Phonology and Orthography

Consonants

	Bilabial	Labio-dental	Dental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Pharyngeal
Nasal	m			n			ŋ
Plosive	p pʰ b			t tʰ d			k kʰ g	q qʰ ɢ
Fricative	ɸ β	f v	θ ð	s z	ʃ ʒ	(ç)	x ɣ	χ ʁ
Affricate	pf bv		tθ dð	ts dz	tʃ dʒ		kx gɣ
Approximant				ɹ		j	ɰ		ʕ̞
Trill	ʙ			(r)
Lateral fric.				ɬ
Lateral app.				l
Lateral Affricate				tɬ

Forms in parenthesis are allophones.

Vowels

Close	i	(ɨ)	ɯ
Close-mid	e		(ɤ)
Mid		(ə)
Open-mid	(ɛ)
Open			ɑ

Forms in parenthesis are either allophones or variations based on stress. Srngadz does not have rounded vowels.

As will be noted below /a/, /i/, and /u/ are written with individual letters and can make a few different sounds based on stress and vowel position:

/ɑ/ Position	/ɑ/ Sound	/i/ Position	/i/ Sound	/ɯ/ Position	/ɯ/ Sound
Word-Initial or Between Vowels	[ʕ̞]	Word-Initial or Between Vowels	[j]	Word-Initial or Between Vowels	[ɰ]
Between a stop and a vowel	The stop is pharyngealized	Between a consonant and a vowel	The consonant is palatalized	Between a consonant and a vowel	The consonant is velarized
Stressed word-final	[e]	Word-final	[ɨ]	Before Sonorant	[ɤ]
Unstressed elsewhere	[ɛ]	Unstressed elsewhere	[ɪ]	Unstressed elsewhere	[ə]
Stressed elsewhere	[ɑ]	Stressed elsewhere	[i]	Stressed elsewhere	[ɯ]

Phonotactics

Syllables take the basic form of (C)(C)(C)V(C)(C). They always contain a nucleus. Syllables can also contain an onset and a coda. The nucleus can be one of three basic vowels /a/, /i/, or /u/, one of the four syllabic consonants /n/, /m/, /l/, or /r/, or in a small closed set of words a syllabic fricative. There are no diphthongs natural to Srngadz.

The onset of a syllable follows one of these basic rules:

1. Optional /s/ or /z/ or /ʃ/ or /ʒ/ added to a /n/ or /m/ with an option /ɰ/ or /j/ or /ɹ/
2. Optional /s/ or /z/ or /ʃ/ or /ʒ/ added to a stop with the same voicing as the fricative (if applicable) optionally added to /j/,/ɹ/,/h/,/l/,/ɰ/.
3. /s/,/z/,/ʃ/,/ʒ/ added to a bilabial fricative with matching voicing optionally added to /j/,/ɹ/,/l/,/ɰ/.
4. An affricate added optionally to /j/,/ɹ/,/l/,/ɰ/
5. A fricative added optionally to /j/,/ɹ/,/l/,/ɰ/
6. /ʙ/ added to an optional /j/,/ɹ/,/l/
7. The syllabic onset is one of these individual phonemes: /j/,/h/,/ɰ/,/ɹ/,/l/,/ɬ/,/tɬ/,/ŋ/

The coda of a syllable follows one of these basic rules:

1. Just a fricative.
2. /s/,/z/,/ʃ/,/ʒ/ plus a stop with matching voicing.
3. A stop with an optional fricative with matching voicing.
4. An affricate.
5. Any of the above plus /ɹ/,/l/,/n/,/m/
6. The onset is either just /ɬ/ or just /ŋ/

Additionally if a nucleus of a syllable is a syllable consonant then that consonant may not occur in the onset or coda of that syllable.

Writing System

Srngadz has a script for itself I can't hope to easily represent here, though I will attempt to explain it. The script is featural, rather than being a syllabary that has a glyph per syllable or an alphabet with a glyph per letter, the script described here has letters for both the place of articulation and the manner of articulation with respect to consonants. It also has a few extra letters including vowels. A breakdown of the alphabet is below:

Letter Type	Number	Function
Voicing	1	Voicing is a supersegmental feature. This letter goes at the beginning of a syllable coda or onset and makes the entire code or onset voiced.
Syllabic	1	This character makes the following consonant voiced. Generally the consonants made voiced are sonorants. (For example /m/,/n/,/r/,/l/) Though there are about a half dozen words with syllabic fricatives where this character may be used.
Stress	1	This letter is paired with a vowel and makes it the primary stress of the word. It is only required in a multisyllabic word where the stress would change the meaning of the word, or on a word final /a/
Vowels	3	The three vowels. In transcriptions they will be written as /a/, /i/, and /u/ but as can be seen below, they each represent multiple sounds. There are word final forms for the vowels as well.
Places of Articulation	6	One half of a consonant. Where in the mouth this particular consonant is pronounced.
Method of Articulation	5	The other half of a consonant. How exactly the sound is pronounced.
Total Characters	17

The table below shows how the "places of articulation" characters and "manner of articulation" characters are devided:

	Bilabial	Dental	Alveolar	Palato	Velar	Uvular
Nasal	m	f,v*	n		ŋ
Fricative	ɸ,β	θ,ð	s,z	ʃ,ʒ	x,ɣ	χ,ʁ
Stop	p,b	tɬ*	t,d		k,g	q,ɢ
Affricate	pf,bv	tθ,dð	ts,dz	tʃ,dʒ	kx,gɣ
Other	ʙ	ɬ*	l	ɹ

In the table above the bolded headers each represent a letter. Phonemes with an asterisk represent defective pairings.

Nouns

Nouns decline into 6 cases with 6 determener categories:

	Indefinite	Class	Proximal	Medial*1	Mesiodistal	Distal
Unmarked	Default	-(h)a	-wa	-(n)i	-rz	-lz
Genitive *2	-(n)e		-we	-je	-re	-le
Instrimental	-(o)ŋ		-woŋ	-(h)iŋ	-rg	-lg
Comparitive	-(o)l	-(h)al	-wol	-(h)il	-rol	-lol
Causitive	-(a)q	-(h)uq	-waq	-(h)iq	-rk	-lk
Partitive	-(a)pf		-wapf	-(h)ipf	-rpf	-lpf

• 1 Consonant clusters before ending are voiced.

• 2 Stress always shifts to end.

Cases

The unmarked case

The unmarked case (similar to nominitive) is used with any use of a noun that does not explictly fall under one of the other five cases. Its usage is quite broad though most nouns in this case will either be direct objects of a verb or the object of one of the prepositions that take this case. Intransitive verbs also take an unmarked noun as its single argument. Uses of the unmarked case will be covered below in the "Verbs" and "Prepositions" categories.

The genitive case

The genitive case functions like the genitive cases of many other languages. It denotes the noun in question as the owner or source of another noun which it modifies. Like all cases some prepositions will require the genitive specifically. For an example the words [tɑt] (Pen) and ['dʒɤɹɑ] (Female teacher) will be used. To show that the pen is owned by the teacher one makes the following noun phrase: [tɑt dʒɤɹɑ'ne] which means "The teacher's pen." Prepositions which take the genitive and their use will be covered under "Prepositions."

The Instrimental case

The instrimental is used to show that an action or task was completed with the use of some other noun. This is the relationship shown in English with the use of the prepositions "by" or "with." It does not generally denote a comitative relationship and is used most often with inanimate objects. If it is assumed that [ðrs] means "I write" then the phrase "I write with a pen" can be rendered as such: [ðrs tɑtɤŋ]. Like above, there are prepositions that use this case.

The comparitive case

The comparitive case shows compairisons between nouns. These comparisons can be either comparisons of attributes, or a comparison of actions. Additionally with the use of prepositions that use the comparitive case the relationship can be marked as positive, comparitive, or even superlative. Taking [tɑt] from above we can put it in the comparitive as such: [tɑtɤl] and make the phrase  [ðrʃ tɑtɤl] which translates to "(It) writes like a pen." where [ðrʃ] in this context means "(It) writes."

The causitive case

This case denotes that a particular noun was the cause of an action or a state. Nouns in the case are not the object of any verb or preposition, but rather modify the entire clause they are a part of. If we take ['dʒɤɹɑ] and [ðrs] from above we can write ['dʒɤɹɑq ðrs] by putting ['dʒɤɹɑ] in the comparitive. It translates to "I am writing becuase of the teacher."

The partitive case

The partitive case tends to be a bit more complicated and arbitrary, with most of its uses coming in the form of prepositions. Though it is not analogous to other language's partitive cases it is named after one of its more straightforward uses: it shows that an object is the whole of which something is a part.

Demonstrative categories

Indefinite

The indefinite is used to show an instance or instences of a noun where it's not important to determine 'which one' the particular object is. For example "I saw a cat yesterday." has a cat as an indefinite noun, marked by the indefinite article a. It can also be plural: "I saw some cats yesterday." though in Srngadz an additional determiner may be needed.

Class

The 'class' category or possibly 'general' category or 'abstract' category refers to a noun which stands in as a generaliation for its entire category. For example: "Cats have tails." where "cats" is being used as a stand in for all cats, even if its not literally true that every single cat has a tail. This is shown in English with the zero determiner. In Srngadz these nouns don't decline into the genitive, instrimental, or partitive. Generally the use of these cases in a generalization like the above would use the indefinite case though if there are exceptions they will be explained.

Proximal

The proximal conveys that a noun is close to the speaker. In English this is explained with the demonstrative "this". For example in the sentence "This cat is bothering me." the cat in question can be assumed to be somewhat near the speaker. In this example and in the other three categories below the proximity or lack thereof can be metaphorical as well as literal in a spacial or possibly temporal sense. 

Medial

The medial or possibly mesioproximal refers to a noun near the person being addressed. Such a thing does not exactly exist in English though it can fall under the scope of either "This" or "That." In the sentence "Is that cat bothering you?" the cat in question would be medial if it happened to be near the non-speaker.

Mesiodistal

The mesiodistal refers to a noun which is not within the apparent proximity of either the speaker or the addressee but is not out of the range of reference. Typically such uses will have the noun within site of the speaker and addressee. "That" in English covers this use.

Distal

The distal refers to a noun that is far away from bother the speaker and the person being spoken to. Nouns declined in this form are typically out of sight of both parties. In Egnlish this can be represented with "That" but also had the archaic form "Yonder" to express such a thing. 

Verbs

In Srngadz verbs conjugate for both person and aspect. Adverbs also conjugate, but only for person. The conjugation for adverbs is parallel to but not the same as the conjugation for verbs. Tense is marked with a particle that precedes the verb. Additionally there are two classes of verbs. Infinitive verbs and non-infinitive verbs. The majority of all verbs in the language are infinitive verbs most of which are perfectly regular in their conjugation. The conjugation table for infinitive verbs is shown below:

	Prog/Stative	Perfective	Habitual	Inchoative	Terminative
First Person Singular	-s	-st	-sri	-mf	-ms
First Person Plural Exclusive	-θ	-tθ	-θri
First Person Plural Inclusive	-f	-ft	-fri	-mfi	-msi
First Person Imp.	-sara	-sarat	-sarari	-saramf	-sarams
Second Person Singular Informal	-ⱡ	-ⱡat	-riⱡ	-mⱡi	-mⱡi
Second Person Plural Informal	-ⱡi	-ⱡti	-raⱡi
Second Person Formal	-naðvit	-naðvin	-naðvri	-naðvims	-naðvimʃ
Third Person Inanimate	-ʃ	-n	-nri	-mθ	-mʃ
Third Person Animate	-ɸ	-m	-mri
Third Person Plural	-ɸi	-mi	-rmi	-mθi	-mʃi

Adverb Conjugation

Adverb conjugation is much simplier and perfectly regular, there are no distinct classes of adverbs to worry about. In some cases a particular word can be utilized as both an adverb and a verb. In this case the method with which it is conjugated will help distingush the role of a paritulcar word in a sentence. Word order and context can also help with this. The table for adverb conjugation is below:

First Person Singular	-z
First Person Plural Exclusive	-ð
First Person Plural Inclusive	-v
First Person Imp.	-sora
Second Person Singular Informal	-tɬ
Second Person Plural Informal	-tɬi
Second Person Formal	-naðvat
Third Person Inanimate	-ʒ
Third Person Animate	-β
Third Person Plural	-βi

Word order

The word order in Srngadz can be broken up into the following rules:

• Infinitive verbs follow any adverbs that modify them.
  • Example:
    • English: "I write well."
    • Srngadz IPA: [paz ðrsri]
    • Gloss: Good-1sg Write-1sg.hab
• Non-infitive verbs whether as a suffix or a whole word precede any adverbs that modify them.
• Nouns being suffixed with a non-infitive verb follow their adjectives.
• Otherwise nouns precede their adjectives.
  • Example:
    • English: "John is writing a long letter."
    • Srngadz IPA: [adʒan ðrɸ ɰɤr va]
    • Gloss: Agent-John Write-3sg.ani.prog Letter Long
• Words which modify adjectives (In English, Adverbs: e.g. "He runs very quickly.") are futher away from the word which the adjective modifies. That is, if the adjective is modifiying a noun suffied with a non-infitive verb and thus the adjective is before the noun, the word modifying the adjective comes before it. The oppisite is true for adjectives modifying non-suffixed nouns, the adjective modifier goes after the adjective which goes after the noun.
• The basic word order in Srngadz is (Subject) Verb-Sub (Object) where the verb's conjugation suffix acts as a subject, and specifiying a subject with a noun is optional. That is, Srngadz is a subject dropping language. Naturally, objects are also optional.
• Any verbs that take a subordinate clause must directly precede their subordinate clause, even if they do not take on the subordinating suffix.
• Causitive declined nouns should begin the clause they are modifiying.
• Genitive and partitive declined nouns act like adjectives, though they don't decline like them.
• Instrimental declined nouns act like adverbs, though they don't conjugation like them.
• Comparitive declined nouns act like adverbs if the comparison is one of action (e.g. "He writes like Bob does") or like adjective modifiers if its a comparison of attributes (e.g. He is as tall as Bob is"). Like the other two cases, these don't need to futher decline or conjugation once put in their case.