Jeïos

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The conlang 'Jeïos' [dʒɛɪ'ʝiːɔs] (or [dʒɛɪɔs]) was created in the year 2012 by Marvin Johanning. The name "Jeïos" comes from his username "Jeytas". It was created in the year 2010. He and his friend wanted to make a radio show on YouTube, so they had to think of a name. They chose to combine both of their names and ended up with Jeitas. When they tried that name, it was already used, so they switched the "i" with a "y" and Jeytas was the end result. Three years later in school, in chemistry class, Marvin was bored so he started working on a little language. He had to think of a name for it, so he took his username and changed it a bit[1].

Jeïos
Jeïos
Pronunciation[dʒɛɪ'ʝiːɔs]
[dʒɛɪɔs]
Created byMarvin Johanning
Date2012
SettingUsed for official documents of the Institute for Jeïos, personal use
Native speakers3 (1 passive speaker) (2015)
Indo-European
  • Germanic
    • Jeïos
Early forms
Old Jeïos
  • Middleold-Jeïos
    • Recent-Jeïos
      • Middlenew-Jeïos
Official status
Regulated byInstitute for Jeïos
Language codes
CLCRqje
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

About the language

It was created as a language used by a time traveller in a movie, but has since then become more of an artistic language. It is also used to try out linguistic features that don't exist in a lot of languages yet. It is still a very small languages, with about 600 words (20.06.2015). It is a mixture between the favourite languages of the inventor and some made-up words and grammar. The goal is, to make the language bigger, and eventually make it big enough to be able to really converse with it. At the moment, the language is still quite a mess, with rules that do not make sense or grammar that should be different. The language is slowly becoming less messy.[2]

History

Old Jeïos

Old-Jeïos was used in middle 2013 to early 2014 (It was made in late 2012 but done in mid 2013). It existed only as a paper-language (meaning it used its own set of characters). Nouns were written all lowercased, like in English All documents about it have been lost.

Middleold-Jeïos

Middleold-Jeïos was used from the beginning until about the middle of 2014. All documents were deleted (including the alphabet) and a new version was made from scratch. The new language did not use its own alphabet. It relied on the Latin alphabet (so it could be used on the computer as well). It was almost identical to Old-Jeïos, expect its alphabet and that the nouns were written uppercased from now on. Here is one of the only few sentences surviving: I hæ sægt þatt dü bën ēne Daibl (I've said that you're a devil).

Recent-Jeïos

Recent-Jeïos was used from about August 2014 to November. And again, as before, all documents from the old version were destroyed. It was a more modern version. No genders etc, and it was generally much easier to learn than the other versions. But it was still it not very natural, because it didn't have any irregularities.

Middlenew-Jeïos

But that changed with Middlenew-Jeïos. It was tried to make the language more natural by adding a lot of irregular verbs and plurals. It also useed its own alphabet (the Jeiscript) when writing by hand but also has Latin charaters when writing on the computer. A lot of words were changed as well. The nouns were also written lowercased again (like in Old-Jeïos). This language was used from November 2014 to the middle of Janurary 2015.

New-Jeïos

Then the language underwent a few changes. The alphabet was renewed and a couple of words were changed to suit the language better. Also, the language now has three genders and delcensions.

Nothern-New-Jeïos

Then, a dialect for the language was made. Its name includes Nothern, because it "comes from the north". Its pronunciation and words are very closely related to languages like Danish and Swedish. One "feature" is, that it destinguishes between a long ä (ä) and a short ä (â)... that happens with almost all umlauts. Here is a comparison between Nothern New, and New Jeïos:
ag sêma "marvin" ûn ag sêma ânsês pépp âf ân lând ûn sën nām â deitschlând
ég sēr "marvin" ôn ég sēr ēnsë pépp vôn ēn land ôn sën nāmë îs Þyskland
It also has a few letters that the Jeïos language doesn't use, for example the 'ĝ'.

Soutern-New-Jeïos

Then, another dialect was being made. It was called Soutern-New-Jeïos, with words from Romance languages. But work on it was quickly stopped. An example sentence is "io ê âf deitschlând" (I am from Germany).

Jeïos

The language stayed like that for quite some time. But at the end of March 2015, the language evolved. Cases were added, new genders and different rules for writing. There were also many new letters added to the alphabet and many of words have changed too. A lot of the words / rules from Nothern-New-Jeïos were included too.

Phonlogy

Vowels

The language has a very large vowel inventory. Most of the vowels come from German, but some are from Swedish and English.

Front Central Back
Long Short Long Short Long Short
Close i: y: ɪ ʏ ʉ: ɵ u: ʊ
Mid e: ø: ɛ: ɛ oe ə o: ɔ
Open æ: a: æ a ɐ ɒ


Consonants

It also has a large consonant inventory, a lot of the vowels come from Germanic languages.

Bilibial Labiodental Dental Alveolar Post-alveolar Palatal Velar Uvular Glottal
Nasal m n̥ n ŋ
Plosive p b t d k g ʔ
Affricative t͡s d͡ʒ
Fricative f v θ ð s z ʃ ʒ ç ʝ χ ʁ h
Approximant ɹ j w
Trill r r̥
Lateral fric. ɬ
Lateral app. l l̥
Flap ɾ


What it sounds like

The language, when spoken, sounds like a mixture between a lot of Germanic languages. There are news spoken in Jeïos that are published in an irregular basis. They are being spoken by the inventor of the language. File:News in Jeiios.ogg

Changes from time

The language's phonology has changed from the first version to the current version. Most notably are these changes:

Letter Old Pronunciation New pronunciation
æ [a:ɛ] [aɪ̯]
ā [ɒ:] [a:]
ä [ɛ:] [æ(:)]
ī [aɪ̯] [i:]
ō [o:] [ɔʊ̯]
œ [wɛ] [øi]

The old pronunciation is still used in some words, but is slowly getting out of use

Ortography

A text written in Middlenew-Jeïos in the Jeiscript

A unique feature is, that all sounds have their own, different leter in the alphabet. Some letters might have 2 sounds, but most of the time, each letter represents only one sound. That leads to a very large number of letters in the alphabet. There are over 50 letters in the alphabet. Jeïos is usually written in the Latin alphabet, but a self-made alphabet was invented, but is is rarely used nowadays. The alphabet is called Jeiscript. It was created in 2014, but was quickly stopped being used. The language evolved, but the script stayed the same and was just neglected. Nowadays, only the Latin alphabet is used. There was thinking about reviving the script, but so far, nothing has happened. The Latin alphabet of the language looks like this:
A Ā Ä Â Æ Á Ă Å B C Ẋ Ẍ D E Ē Ë Ê É Ð F G Ĝ H Ħ I Ī Ï Î J Ĵ K HV L Ł M N Ñ O Ō Ô Ö Œ Ó P R Ŕ Ȓ S Š T Þ U Ū Ü Û Ů W Ŵ Ý
a ā ä â æ á ă å b c ẋ ẍ d e ē ë ê é ð f g ĝ h ħ i ī ï î j ĵ k hv l ł m n ñ o ō ô ö œ ó p r ŕ ȓ s š t þ u ū ü û ů w ŵ ý

Grammar

Please note that the grammar is not done yet and might change over time

Gender and cases

Jeïos has four grammatical genders. Neuter, masculine, feminine and gender neutral. The latter is used for things that have more than one gender (horse, dog etc.) or people who do not define as either male or female. Normal words are neuter (except for countries, which are female). Masculine is used for things that are male in real life (man, boy) etc. It also has three cases. Nominative, Genitive and Dative. Here are some words in declined in all cases.
Word: mânn [man] (man)

Case Singular indefinite Singular Definite Plural indefinite Plural definite
Nominative mânnœn mânnën mânnönn mânnênn
Genitive mânnô mânnënô mânnôï mânnênnôï
Dative mânnænþē mânninnþē mânnænþën mânninnþën


Word: sprāk [spra:k] (old pronunciation [sprɒ:k]) (language)

Case Singular indefinite Singular Definite Plural indefinite Plural definite
Nominative sprākœt sprākat sprākœttï sprākátt
Genitive sprākû sprākatû sprākûï sprākáttûï
Dative sprākænn sprākinn sprākænátt sprākinnátt

Articles

Normally, articles are not used, instead, the definite and indefinte forms of a word have their own form. This can lead to very long words, for example: läraænþăm [læ:ɾa'aɪnðaʊ̯am] (of a teacher). But sometimes, articles have to be used if there is an adjective between before the word. For example, the big house = dat stóra hūsat [dat stœɾa hu:sat] (the big(a) the house). The -a is added to stór, because there is an article in front of it. These endings are

Gender Ending Singular Ending Plural
Neuter -a -óra
Masculine -órá
Feminine -órä
Gender Neutral -órå

Pronouns

Word Nominative Dative Genitive
I ég mér mînn
You þū þýr þæ
He hván hvå hvāns
She hvūn hvór hvens
It êt értu êttû
One mánn mánnůr mánnîss
We hvūs hvûnns hvür
You (Pl.) êr eug euêr
They þē þëm þēr
You (polite) þér þérum þérs

Pronouns do not change depending on gender, they are the same for everything. The genetive changes, but only for plural, for that, you add a -(n)e to the end of the word. If it ends on a vowel, the "n" is added. For example, þæne hūsï = Your houses. The dative has a few words that indicate it. Words that come after:
with (mëð), to (tō), on (á), in (ī), in front of (frö), of (af) and from (frá)
use the dative. Here are a few examples: ég snakkë á Jeïosinn [ʝɛk snakɐ aʊ̯ dʒɛɪ'ʝiːɔsɪn] = I am talking in Jeiios
ég êr frá þyskalandinnþæ [ʝɛk ɛ:r fraʊ̯ θʏskalantɪnðaɪ̯] = I am from Germany

Verbs

Verbs change depending on what person you talk about. There are three groups of verbs. The ones ending with "en", with "on" and the irregular ones. The most commonly used irregular one is "wara" [va:ra] (to be).

Pronoun Presens Past Subjunctive Presens
ég êr wás wërat
þū êrst warst wërest
hván îs wás wëre
hvūn îs wás wëre
êt îs wás wëre
mánn îs wás wëre
hvūs warön wâren wërênn
êr wart wârat wërêt
þē sân wârênn wërânn
þér sân wârênn wërüm

But besides the irregular ones, the others are conjugated by removing the ending and adding other endings to it.

Pronoun -en ending -on ending
ég -et
þū -ðu -est
hván -t -et
hvūn -t -et
êt -t -et
mánn -t -et
hvūs -én -ên
êr -ött -at
þē -ênn -ân
þér -üm -ümm

To indicate future, næ is added (ég nægōet = I will go) and for past, a þá is added (ég þágōet = I went)

Numbers

The numbers are still in development, but numbers from 0-10 are already there.

English Jeiios
one ūnos
two dūo
three trī
four fīro
five fīf
six seks
seven septū
eight átti
nine nīo
ten tēn

The numbers "one" and "two" are used differently with different genders.
ūnos ->
Neuter: ēn, êtt
Male: án
Female: än
Gender Neutral: ēn


dūo ->
Neuter: twæ
Male: twá
Female: twö
Gender Neutral: twæ
For saying things like "first" or "second", a "t" is added (as long as it doesn't already end on a consonant, like dūo) and then the ending for the specific gender.

Questions

Questions are indicated like in German (Du siehst = You see, Siehst du? = Do you see?), but a -kā is added to the verb. Example: hābðu-kā þū ġesēon? [ha:p'ðu: ka:ðu: jəzɛɪɔn] = Have you seen? As you can see, the -kā often connects to the pronoun to make it sound more connected, on it's own, þū sounds like [θu:]

Vocabulary

Here are a few quotes translated into the language: "When you do things right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all" -Futurama Godfellas
Ôm mánn mākt tiñï éð, wētênn lüüd ikke ôm mánn þámākt ætwat

Development

The language's vocabulary has been constantly expanding.

Date Number of words
xx.xx.2013 ~ 88
04.01.15 257
06.01.15 597
02.02.15 663
18.04.15 680
03.06.15 684
21.06.15 698

References