Tefrian

Tefrian
پریشحشر Prayešeḥšur
Flag of the Shardarate of Tefria
Pronunciation	[ˈpʰɾäɪ̯(ə)ʃəħˌʃʉɾ]
Created by	Vrianne
Date	2024
Setting	Earth
Native to	Tefria
Ethnicity	Tefrian
Native speakers	3.4 million ({{{date}}})
Language family	Asisic West-Asisic Tefrian
Early forms	Proto-Asisic Proto-West Asisic Old Tefrian
Map of areas where Tefrian is spoken   ...as a majority language   ...as a minority language   ...as the language of law and government

Tefrian (/təˈfɹiːən/ tə-ꜰʀᴇᴇ-ən), natively called دلسان پریشحشر (di'lisān Prayešeḥšur [dəlɪˈsaːn ˈpʰɾäɪ̯(ə)ʃəħˌʃʉɾ]), is a West-Asisic belonging to the Asisic language family. It is, excluding diaspora, spoken entirely within Shardarate of Tefria, wherein it is recognized as the sole official language. It is the most spoken and most influential West-Asisic language, with about 3 million native speakers.

Phonology

Vowels

The Standardized Variety of Tefrian has 9 unique monophthongs, 5 diphthongs, and 5 triphthongs.

Tefrian monophthongs

	Short				Long
	Front	Central	Back		Front		Central	Back
					unrounded	rounded
Close	i ◌ِ	ʉ ◌ُ	o̞ ~ u ◌ُ		iː ی	yː ۆ		uː و
Mid	e̞ ◌ِ
Open		a ◌َ					aː ا

Tefrian diphthongs and triphthongs

	-ɪ̯	-ʊ̯	-ʊ̯̃	-ɪ̯e	-ʊ̯e
a-	aɪ̯ ـَی	aʊ̯ ـَو	ãʊ̯̃ اً	aɪ̯e ـَیِ	aʊ̯e ـَوِ
e-			ẽʊ̯̃ ◌ٍ	eɪ̯e ـِیِ
o-			õʊ̯̃ ◌ٌ		oʊ̯e ـُوِ
ø-					øʏ̯e ـُۆِ

Notes:

• /i/ is near-close [ɪ] except in word-final open syllables.
• Urban speakers pronounce /ʉ/ as near-close [ʏ] while rural speakers pronounce it as central [ʉ] or [ɨ].
• Older rural speakers may distinguish between 2 close central vowels (such as [ɨ] and [ʉ]) which have merged for the majority of other speakers, including in the standard language.
• /a/ is central [ä] but colored to [ɑ] by uvular and pharyngealized consonants.
• The vast majority have weakened the final /-e/ element of triphthongs to [-ə̆] or even dropped it completely.
• Rural speakers tend to monophthongize /øʏ̯e/ to [ø̞ː].

Consonants

The Standardized Variety of Tefrian has 30 unique consonants. Tefrian's is one of the only two West Asisic languages to retain pharyngeal and pharyngealized consonants, making its phonology semitic-like at face value.

Tefrian consonants

		Labial	Alveolar		Post-alveolar		Velar	Uvular	Pharyngeal	Glottal
			plain	emphatic	plain	emphatic
Nasal		m م	n ن
Plosive	voiceless	p پ	t ت	tˤ ط	t͡ʃ چ		k ک	q ق		ʔ ء
	voiced	b ب	d د	(dˤ)	d͡ʒ ج		ɡ گ
Fricative	voiceless	f ف	s س, ث	sˤ ص	ʃ ش	ʃˤ ض	x ~ χ خ		ħ ح	h ه
	voiced	v ڤ	z ز, ذ	zˤ ظ	ʒ ژ		ɣ~ ʁ غ		ʕ ع
Rhotic			r ر
Approximant			l ل		j ی

Notes:

• /b d͡ʒ ʔ sˤ zˤ x ɣ/ occur only in loanwords.
• /p t k/ are aspirated [pʰ tʰ kʰ], while /q/ is tenuis [q]. Some speakers, particularly in the Southwest, may also pronounce /p/ as tenuis [p].
• /dˤ/ is a quite common allophonic realization of /d/ near uvular and pharyngealized consonants.
• /d͡ʒ/ and /ʒ/ tend to be in free variation, with /d͡ʒ/ occurring in syllable-initial stressed positions and /ʒ/ occurring otherwise. Neutralization of /t͡ʃ/ and /ʃ/ in a similar fashion is also apparent in eastern urban speakers.
• /r/ is pronounced as a tap /ɾ/ when not geminated.

Grammar

Tefrian is a fusional language, meaning that it utilizes single inflectional morphemes to denote multiple grammatical, syntactic, or semantic features. The vast majority of Tefrian derivational and inflectional morphology relies on suffixation, with very few prefixes in between. Verbs are marked for person, number, tense, and mood (resulting in up to 36 conjugated forms per verb). Nouns exhibit a system of animacy, which is reflect in pluralization and pronoun agreement. Nouns are also marked for 2 numbers.

Word Order

Standard Tefrian has standard subject-object-verb (SOV) word order, with verbs typically being at the very end of a sentence or clause.

• طو شفر زسوعم — ṭaw šufr zesaweˤem — "I saw that book"

The subordinate clauses precedes the main clause, beginning with either a conjunction or a relative pronoun.

• یم ضیفڔ حۆ اچلد ادم زچیدم — Yem ċayfeṛ ḥöwe icild edem zecīdem — "My father told me that guests are coming today"

Yes-no questions are structured the same way as non-interrogative sentences. Interrogative sentences with interrogative pronouns place the interrogative pronoun in the object position.

• قد ارد؟ — Qod ered? — "What is he eating?"
• اش ارد؟ — Uš ered? — "Who is eating?"

Nouns

Like other West-Asisic languages, all Tefrian nouns are grammatically classified as either animate or inanimate. Animacy is inherent to a word and is only indicated in the plurals of regular nouns. Neither verbs nor adjectives display animacy agreement with nouns. Nouns only change for number, as they are not marked for case.

Plural

A given noun is grouped into one of three categories depending on how its plural is formed:

1. Regular animate nouns, which regularly form their plurals with the ـڔ -(e)ṛ suffix.
2. Regular inanimate nouns, which regularly form their plurals with the ـݦ -(e)ṃ suffix.
3. Irregular nouns, which could be either animate or inanimate, and form their plurals by changing the root itself.

		singular	plural
regular	animate	دیڤ dayev "sister"	دیڤڔ dayeveṛ "sisters"
	inanimate	گشر gušir "island"	گشرݦ gušreṃ "islands"
irregular		ڤر vir "man"	ڤر veyeˤ "men"
		ارض eraċ "land"	اراض erāċ "lands"

Pronouns

Tefrian is a pro-drop language, meaning subjective personal pronouns are normally omitted. Tefrian Pronouns come in three forms:

1. Direct or Full, which are idependent standalone pronouns.
2. Reflexive, which are used in reflexive senses.
3. Clitics, which are used when the antecedent is the object or possessor.

Tefrian personal pronouns

	singular				plural
	1st	2nd	3rd animate	3rd inanimate	1st	2nd	3rd
direct	چی cay	طا ṭā	سو saw	طو ṭaw'	ڤی vī	طار ṭār	طور ṭawer
reflexive	چم cim	طش ṭiš	سد sod	طد ṭod	ڤن vin	حر ḥer	طلد ṭold
clitic	ـم -(e)m	ـش -(e)š	ـد -(e)d		ـن -(e)n	ـر -(e)r	ـلد -(e)ld

Tefrian relative pronouns

	singular		plural
	animate	inanimate
direct	ير yer	يم yem	يس yes
reflexive	سس sis		سس ses
clitic	ـ(ـڤـ)ـر -(v)ir

Tefrian interrogative pronouns

	singular		plural
	animate	inanimate
direct	اش uš	قد qod	حر ḥor
reflexive	قح qoḥ		حح ḥoḥ
clitic	ـ(ـڤـ)ـح -(v)oḥ

3rd-person pronouns also double as demonstratives.

• طو شفر — ṭaw šufr — "this/that book"