Zhathena

Zhathena
Type	Fusional
Alignment	Nominative-Accusative
Head direction	Mostly Head-Final
Tonal	No
Declensions	Yes
Conjugations	Yes
Genders	Two
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	Mahoke

Zhathena [ʒa.'ðe.na] is mostly a personal language, but I'm also in the process of connecting it to a specific society and culture. Zhatena is the language spoken by a small group of people called the Zhurivi on an island in the eastern Mediterranean. This language was in existence during the Ancient Greek period, but has no apparent relation to other languages of the area and was wiped out very quickly after it came into contact with the Greek language. This was a very peaceful society in which towns and regions were governed by guilds of primarily female poets. Poetry and song were very important and good, artistic, lyrical writing and speaking skills were seen as proof of intelligence, strength, and wisdom. (all this is subject to change, this language is very new and unformed)

Phonology

Consonants

Zhathena has sixteen consonant sounds.

	Bilabial	Labio-dental	Dental	Alveolar	Post-alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Pharyngeal	Epiglottal	Glottal
Nasal	m			n
Plosive	b			t d				k
Fricative		v	ð	s z	ʃ ʒ							h
Affricate
Approximant							j
Trill				r
Flap or tap
Lateral fric.
Lateral app.				l
Lateral flap

Vowels

Zhathena has seven vowel sounds, including five pure vowel, one diphthong, and one reduced vowel.

	Front	Near-front	Central	Near-back	Back
Close	i				u
Near-close		ɪ
Close-mid	e
Mid			ə
Open-mid
Near-open
Open					ɑ

The lone diphthong is /ej/.

Stress Patterns

Stress most commonly occurs on the penultimate syllable, with a few exceptions, which will be noted as they appear. The only regular exception to the rule of penultimate stress is the creation of the singular accusative case. When the accusative suffix [k] or [ɪk] is added, the stress remains on the same syllable it was on before the addition of the inflectional accusative suffix. Besides this, all irregular stresses will be noted.

Writing System

I'm just using simple IPA throughout this grammar. There will be a different writing system eventually, but it's not my priority right now.

Letter
Sound
Letter
Sound
Letter
Sound

Grammar

Nouns

Nouns have singular and plural numbers and nominative and accusative cases.

There are several irregular declining nouns which will be marked (irg).

Singular nominative

The nominative case of singular nouns may end in a vowel or consonant.

Singular accusative

With a few exceptions, adding the suffix [-k] to the nominative singular indicates accusative case. Allomorphy occurs, with [-k] attaching to nouns that end in an open syllable and [-ɪk] attaching to nouns that end in a closed syllable.

Plural nominative

The plural nominative is formed by attaching a suffix to the singular. Allomorphy occurs, with the suffix [-a] attaching to closed syllables and [-si] attaching to open syllables. Adding these suffixes shifts the stress to the syllable directly preceding the suffix. Occasionally, the antepenultimate syllable will undergo vowel reduction or the penultimate syllable will undergo vowel "expansion" as stress is moved to it (as in the word [miðɪn], see below).

Plural accusative

The plural accusative is formed by adding the suffix [-k] to the plural nominative form. The stress and vowel reduction patterns remain the same.

EXAMPLES:

zar - boy	singular	plural
nominative	zar	zara
accusative	zarɪk	zarak

ʒura - woman	singular	plural
nominative	ʒura	ʒərasi
accusative	ʒurak	ʒərasik

miðɪn - girl	singular	plural
nominative	miðɪn	miðena
accusative	miðɪnɪk	miðenak

maʃal - day (irg)	singuar	plural
nominative	maʃal	maʃla
accusative	maʃlak	maʃlak

Pronouns

Because verbs decline significantly, these nominative pronouns are rarely used. They can be used for emphasis. Although there is a gender distinction in the pronouns, it is rarely used in the subject position. [ʒej] is used as the assumed pronoun for humans, if gender is neither male or female, unknown, or unimportant – although this distinction is generally only made in the accusative and dative cases since this is a null-subject language.

	I	you (sg)	he/it	she/gender-neutral	we	you(pl)	they
nominative	im	eʃ	tej	ʒej	zej	vej	sa
accusative	ma	aʃ	tak	ʒa	za	va	sak
dative	emi	eʃi	tak	ʒak	za	va	sak

Verbs

Present Tense

Verbs that conjugate regularly will have the suffix [-at] in the infinitive form and will take these suffixes in conjugation:

	singular	plural
1st person	-ej	-ejsi
2nd person	-i	-asi
3rd person	-a	-as

Past Tense

Verbs that conjugate regularly will add the suffix [-iv] before the personal endings to express past tense:

	singular	plural
1st person	-ivej	-ivejsi
2nd person	-ivi	-ivasi
3rd person	-iva	-ivasi

Adjectives

Adjectives decline in nominative and accusative cases like nouns do, but there is no plural distinction. Common adjective suffixes are [-je] and [-lɪs], although there is no consistent way of marking adjectives. These suffixes are mostly used to create new adjectives from nouns or verbs, but they also appear in several of the most commonly used adjective in the language.

ʒaje - good	singular/plural
nominative	ʒaje
accusative	ʒajak

vitaðelɪs - smart	singular/plural
nominative	vitaðelɪs
accusative	vitaðelisɪk

asejza - complete	singular/plurla
nominative	asejza
accusative	asejzak

Comparative and Superlative

Zhathena has both positive and negative comparatives and superlatives

The postive comparative and superlative are marked by two suffixes: [-ul] in the comparative, and [-ural] in the superlative.

The negative comparative and superlative are marked by two suffixes: [-ed] in the comparative, and [-eðal] in the superlative.

When attaching to the common adjective suffix [-je], these comparative and superlative suffixes removed the [e].

EXAMPLES:

	least strong	less strong	strong	stronger	strongest
nominative	vibareðal	vibared	vibar	vibarul	vibarural
accusative	vibareðalɪk	vibaredɪk	vibarɪk	vibarulɪk	vibaruralɪk

	least small	less small	small	smaller	smallest
nominative	mijeðal	mijed	mije	mijul	mijural
accusative	mijeðalɪk	mijedɪk	mijak	mijulɪk	mijuralɪk

Adverbs

Adverbs are either identical to their adjective counterparts, or can be derived by adding the suffix [-hu] after removing the adjective suffixes [-je] or [-lɪs], if necessary.

complete ––> completely : asejza ––> asejzahu

good –––> well, good (adverb) : ʒaje ––> ʒahu

Lexicon

Main article: Zhathena Lexicon