Zēsti

Zēsti
Rizzish
Ζήστι
A native Zēsti speaker.
Pronunciation	[ˈzɛːˌsti]
Created by	Jukethatbox
Native to	Chad
Language family	Indo-European Italic Latino-Faliscan Romance Italo-Western Western Romance Zēsti
Early forms	Proto-Indo-European Proto-Rizzish
Writing system	Greek alphabet
Sources	Spanish, French, Italian, Greek
Official status
Official language in	Chad
Recognised minority language in	Rizziconi Municipality in Italy
Regulated by	Rizzlers International

Zēsti(Ζήστι, pronounced [ˈzɛːˌsti]), a.k.a Rizzish(Ρίζι) is a Romance jokelang made to be as zesty as possible. It uses the Greek alphabet, which I personally consider the zestiest script of all time.

A signed version of Zēsti also exists, called Unspoken Rizz(ρίζιε τασίτε).

Phonology

Orthography

The Zēsti alphabet is identical to the Greek alphabet, although pronunciation differs. For example, 〈Χχ〉(chi) is pronounced [ˈt͡ʃi], although the modern Greek pronunciation would be [ˈxi].

Zēsti alphabet

Alphabet	Aα	Ββ	Γγ	Δδ	Εε	Ζζ	Ηη	Θθ	Ιι	Κκ	Λλ	Μμ	Νν	Ξξ	Οο	Ππ	Ρρ	Σσς	Ττ	Υυ	Χχ	Φφ	Ψψ	Ωω
Romanisation	Aa	Bb	Gg	Dd	Ee	Zz	Ēē	Ðð	Ii	Kk	Ll	Mm	Nn	Xx	Oo	Pp	Rr	Ss	Tt	Uu	Çç	Ff	Psps	Õõ
IPA	a	bʱ	gʱ	dʱ	ε	z	e	θ	i	k	l	m	n	t͡s	ɔ	p	r	s	tʰ	u	t͡ʃ	f	ps	o

Consonants

All plosives in Zēsti are aspirated depending on whether they are voiced or not, e.g. /tʰ/(unvoiced) or /dʱ/(voiced).

	Labial		Dental		Alveolar		Post- alveolar/ palatal		Velar		Glottal
Nasal		m				n		(ɲ)		(ŋ)
Stop	pʰ	bʱ			tʰ	dʱ			kʰ	ɡʱ
Affricate					t͡s		t͡ʃ
Fricative	f		θ		s	z	(ʃ)					(ɦ)
Lateral						l
Trill						r

/ʃ/ is only pronounced in the digraph 〈σς〉, /ɲ/ is only pronounced in the digraphs 〈νι〉or 〈νη〉and /ŋ/ is only pronounced in the digraph 〈γγ〉. /ɦ/ is only pronounced in the digraph 〈χς〉(çs).

Vowels

	Front		Central		Back
Close	i					u
Close-mid	e					o
Mid			(ə)
Open-mid	ε					ɔ
Open	a

Prosody

Stress

Like in Greek, the tonos(´) is used to indicate where stress is placed, although by default stress is paroxytonic, meaning stress is placed on the penultimate syllable of a word.

Phonotactics

Most consonant clusters in Zēsti are identical to those in Greek, such as 〈γγ〉(transliterated as 〈gg〉in Latin) would be pronounced [ˈŋg], as well as 〈σς〉(transliterated as 〈ss〉) being pronounced /ʃ/. An example of this would be τέγγο(teggo), meaning "I have".

Vowel clusters are more unique, for example 〈αο〉or 〈αω〉(transliterated as 〈ao〉and 〈aõ〉respectively) are both pronounced [ə].

Morphophonology

Zēsti does not have a /h/ or /x/ sound, so often times it gets converted into a /t͡ʃ/(χ). Even basic words, like "man", turns from French homme to Zēsti χώμο(chõmo).

Morphology

Nouns

Grammatical gender

All nouns in Zēsti have a grammatical gender - either masculine or feminine. Masculine nouns tend to end in -o/-ω, while feminine nouns tend to end in -α, although they can be concretely identified by the article behind it, as seen in this table:

Singular articles

	Masculine	Feminine
Definite	ελ(λη)	λα
Indefinite	υν	ύνα

Plural articles

	Masculine	Feminine
Definite	ελήρ(λήρε)	λάζε
Indefinite	ύνες	ύνας

The alternate masculine definite article λη(lē) is used only as a direct object pronoun.
Examples:
Τέγγο ασσέτερ ύν τελέ.(Téggo asséter ún telé, I bought a TV.)
Τέγγο λη ασσέτερ.(Téggo lē asséter, I bought it.)
Νω γύστο Λάυρα.(Nõ gústo Láura, I don't like Laura.)
Νω λα γύστο.(Nõ la gústo, I don't like her.)

Verbs

Zēsti is a null pronoun language, and instead pronouns are inferred through the inflection of the verb in a sentence, which itself can be deduced by the suffix of the inflected verb. Inflection also varies depending on the ending of the infinitive, e.g. τένερ has a different inflection than φίνιρ.

Verbs ending in -er

	Suffix
έχο(I)	-o
τυ(you singular)	-ες
ιλ/ίλα(he/she singular)	-ε
νοσώδο(we)	-έσος
φοσώδο(you plural)	-έις
ίλες/ιλάες(they(m)/they(f))	-ενς

Verbs ending in -ir

	Suffix
έχο(I)	-ι
τυ(you singular)	-ις
ιλ/ίλα(he/she singular)	-ιμ
νοσώδο(we)	-ος
φοσώδο(you plural)	-έις
ίλες/ιλάες(they(m)/they(f))	-σενς

Verbs ending in -ēr

	Suffix
έχο(I)	-ω
τυ(you singular)	-ης
ιλ/ίλα(he/she singular)	-ημ
νοσώδο(we)	-ημος
φοσώδο(you plural)	-έις
ίλες/ιλάες(they(m)/they(f))	-ενς

Irregular verbs

The two main irregular verbs are σηρ(sēr, to be) and τένερ(téner, to have).

Conjugation of sēr

	Suffix
έχο(I)	σω
τυ(you singular)	ες
ιλ/ίλα(he/she singular)	ηζε
νοσώδο(we)	σώμος
φοσώδο(you plural)	ητίς
ίλες/ιλάες(they(m)/they(f))	σώντε

Conjugation of téner

	Suffix
έχο(I)	τέγγο
τυ(you singular)	τήνες
ιλ/ίλα(he/she singular)	τίνε
νοσώδο(we)	τηνύμος
φοσώδο(you plural)	τινείσε
ίλες/ιλάες(they(m)/they(f))	τηνσε

Examples

σηρ - Σω υν χώμο.(Sõ un çõmo, I am a man)
τένερ - Ελ τόσολτω τίνε υν χύρο.(El tósoltõ tíne un çúro, The firefighter has a churro.)

Syntax

Constituent order

Zēsti is generally an SVO(subject-verb-object) language, but when a direct object pronoun takes the place of a regular object, it is placed before the verb, such that it becomes an SOV sentence.