Qazhrian

Qazhrian/Lexicon

Qazhrian
Qazhrev, kje Lazhrev
Pronunciation	[/ˈqaʒɾev/, /ce ˈʟaʒɾev/]
Created by	User:IlL
Setting	Verse:Tricin
Native speakers	100 million L1 speakers (300 million L2 speakers) (fT 2676)
Language family	Quame Talmic Qazhrian

Qazhrian (/kɑːʒriən/ KAHZH-ree-uhn; natively: Qazhrev /ˈqaʒɾev/ or kje Lazhrev /ce ˈʟaʒɾev/) is a Talmic language spoken in Qazhra (from Thensarian Ȝaktrasei), a Talman country.

Todo: make zh same as in Breton

External history

This language was originally called Benocian and was Romance- and Ashkenazi Hebrew-inspired, and it had a strong Portuguese flavor - almost a Portuguese gib. So I found it dissatisfying and decided to rework it, basing the aesthetic more on Albanian and Breton. The name "Qazhrian" is the name of one of Praimhín's old sketches.

Ideas

• Breton-ish but not too gibby. Get more palatal consonants.
• /ts, dz/ from Thensarian /θ ð/
  • d and dz both lenite to z
• /q/ lenites intervocallically to /ʟ/; conversely, /ʟ/ > /q/ initially.
• Qe! = a greeting
• sC- clusters are retained except sl-, sr- > ħ-, fr-
• Ayin-intrusion occurs sometime in the history of the language
• Should be "What if Brythonic had broad/slender"?

Diachronics

• i ī u ū e o ē ō a ā e ae ao ei eo iu oe ui > i e ou u ë o ō ē a ō ai au e ou u e

Phonology

The following describes the prestige dialect spoken in Ħurien.

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal		m /m/	n /n/	nj /ɲ/	ng /ŋ/
Plosive	voiceless	p /p/	t /t/, c /ts/	kj /c/	k /k/	q /q/
	voiced	b /b/	d /d/, x /dz/	gj /ɟ/	g /g/
Fricative	voiceless	f /f/	s /s/	sh /ʃ/	c'h /x/	ħ /χ/	h /h/
	voiced	v /v/	z /z/	zh /ʒ/	gh /ɣ/
Liquid			r /ɾ/, rr /r/			l /ɴ̆~ʟ/
Approximant		w /w/		y /j/

p is found in loanwords (e.g. from Windermere).

Auslautverhärtung operates for plosives and is reflected in the orthography: aqet /ˈaqet/ 'to jump; jump!' vs. aqedëv /aˈqedəv/ '[X] jumps'.

Vowels

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i /i/	u /y/	ou /u/
Close-mid	e /e/	ë /ə/	o /o/
Open-mid	ē /ɛ/		ō /ɔ/
Open		a /a/

Diphthongs: ai au /əi əu/; ië uë ouë /iə yə uə/ from loans

Stress

Stress is penultimate in native words, but always ultimate in loans.

Script

Qazhrian orthography uses the Talmic script, but uses an extra letter (from the CWdm letter ⟨Пп⟩ for the glottal stop) for both the null initial and to write consonants that diachronically resulted from soft mutation (like how Irish uses h). This is parodied in an in-universe conlang by Schlomo Schngellstein.

Morphology

Mutations

Qazhrian has three types of mutations: soft, nasal, and hard.

Radical

p

f

t

c

s

sh

kj

k

q

ħ

b

d

x

z

gj

g

Soft

b

f

d

x

s

sh

gj

g

l

ħ

v

zh

z

z

y

gh

Nasal

p

f

t

c

s

sh

kj

k

l

ħ

m

n

x

z

nj

ng

Hard

p

f

sh

s

c

sh

kj

c'h

ħ

ħ

p

t

c

s

kj

k

Radical	m	n	nj	w	rr	y	0
Soft	m	n	nj	w	r	y	l
Nasal	m	n	nj	w	rr	y	n
Hard	m	n	nj	gw	gr	gj	h

Examples:

• The definite article kje-S triggers soft mutation.
• The relativizer re-N triggers nasal mutation.
• The complementizer yemm-H triggers hard mutation.

Nouns

Qazhrian lost grammatical gender and all nominal inflections except number and construct state.

There is no indefinite article. The definite article is kje (< φinom), and it triggers the soft mutation:

• tëzh /təʒ/ 'a child'; kje dëzh /ce dəʒ/ 'the child'
• rronn /ron/ 'a man'; kje ronn /ce ɾon/ 'the man'
• kavër /ˈkavəɾ/ 'a woman'; kje gavër /ce ˈgavər/ 'the woman'
• qe 'peace' > aun kje le 'make peace'

Construct state is usually formed with -ë (+ hard mutation) in the singular and -ëv in the plural:

• tëzhë kje ronn /ˈtəʒə ce ɾon/ 'the man's child'

Plurals are always formed with -nj for nouns ending in vowels and -i for nouns ending in consonants.

Adjectives

Attributive adjectives lenite after definite nouns:

• rronn garv 'a heavy man'; kje ronn gharv 'the heavy man'
• kadër kjun xelev (flower blue beautiful) 'a beautiful blue flower', kje gadër gjun zelev 'the beautiful blue flower'

Verbs

There are finite verbs, but auxiliaries are also important. Most verbs have two principal parts at most.

Aqedë kje nous mrēsh lel krok kje sauv zrōmëran.

/aˈqedə ce nus mɾɛʃ ʟeʟ kɾok ce səuv zɾɔˈməɾan/

jump-3P.NARR the fox brown quick over the dog lazy

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

Rë stiëvi bēs qōtsav de nec kjouganēr.

/ɾə ˈstiəvi bɛs ˈqɔtsav de nets cuˈganɛɾ/

AUX-3P.PRES idea-PL green color-without at sleep.VN furious-ADV

Colorless green ideas are sleeping furiously.

Conjugation of aqet, aqedëv 'jump':

Infinitive; imperative: aqet

	1st singular	2nd singular	3rd singular	1st plural exc.	1st plural inc.	2nd plural	3rd plural
Narrative	aqedan	aqeder	aqedë	aqedem	aqedent	aqedëg	aqedëv
Past	aqedezj	aqedëw	aqedo	aqedemër	aqedentër	aqedëgër	aqedo
Future	aqedōn	aqedōr	aqedō	aqedōm	aqedōnt	aqedōg	aqedō