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.

Classification

Tefrian is a member of the West-Asisic branch of the Asisic languages.

History

The known history of Tefrian can be divided into the following distinct periods:

Old Tefrian

Old Tefrian is thought to have began diverging from Proto-West Asisic during the 10th century BC, vaguely corresponding with the migration of Iranic groups into Modern-Day Persia. The oldest attestations of Tefrian are sparce inscriptions in Old South Arabian and Persian Cuneiform dated to the 8th century BC. Most of these inscriptions are of names or short prayers.

• ˀmbˤl ḥfdn /ʔampaʕl ħafatan/ — "may Ambaal lift us"

Due to its location, situated in the southeastern portion of the Arabian Peninsula along the gulf coast, Old Tefrian would come into direct contact with Persians, South Semites, and Eastern Arab tribes, evident by the many loanwords entering the language during the Old Tefrian period.

Modern Tefrian	Old Tefrian	borrowed source	English translation
شردار šerdār	šartār	Old Persian *xšaθradārah	shardar
کلیڤ klayev	kʰ(u)lāf	Middle Persian kulāf⁠	hat
چر cur	c(a)tūr	Middle Persian čādur	clothing
امفعل emfeˤel	ampaˤl	Yemenite Arabic am-baˤl	Ambaal; master
شۆل šöwel	šuyl	Yemenite Arabic šuÿl	affliction
اۆدت ȳdut	yūtūtatʰ	Eastern Arabic judūdat	country
حینت ḥeyent	ḫatʰan	Old South Arabian ḫtn	son-in-law
طاڤ ṭãv	ṭanf	Old South Arabian ṭnf	cliff
مطر maṭṭar	maṭṭar	Old South Arabian mqṭr	shrine

Modern Tefrian

The transition to the modern form of Tefrian was already complete by the 10th century AD, evident by the increasing number or Arabic-Script transcripts in Tefrian from that period onwards.

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 ◌ِ	(ə)
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"	ڤیع 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

Tefrian doesn't have the so-called "T–V distinction" between familiar and formal modes of address.

3rd-person pronouns also double as demonstratives.

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

Verbs

Tefrian verbs conjugate for person, number, and mood, and express things such as tense and negation using prefixation.

Conjugation of عف ˤef

	Active			Passive
	singular	plural		singular	plural
1st person	عفم ˤefem	عفن ˤefen		عفمر ˤefmer	عفنت ˤefnet
2nd person	عفش ˤefeš	عفر ˤefer		عفشر ˤefšer	عفرت ˤefret
3rd person	عفد ˤefed	عفلد ˤefeld		عفتر ˤefter	عفلت ˤeflet

Verbal Prefixes

Negation

The prefix ناـ nã- is used to negate verbs.

• عفم ˤefem, "I make" → ناعفم nãˤfem, "I do not make"

Tense

The prefix زـ ze- is used to put verbs in the simple past tense.

• عفم ˤefem → زعفم zeˤfem, "I made"

And the prefix اـ i- is used to put verbs in the simple past tense.

• عفم ˤefem → اعفم iˤfem, "I will make"

The aforementioned negation prefix also combines with the tensal prefixes.

• ناعفم nãˤfem → زاعفم zãˤfem, "I did not made"
• ناعفم nãˤfem → ایعفم ẽˤfem, "I will not make"

Preverbs

Preverbs express adverbial senses such as location, direction, time, and relation. Preverbs go after negation/tense prefixes. Below are some common preverbs:

• حـ — ḥi- — "in, within, inside, into, here, herein"
• شـ — ši- — "there, therein, thereto, towards"
• مـ — mu- — "together, not alone, with the assistance of someone or something"
• دـ — da- — "again, one more time"
• رـ — re- — "out of, outside, outside of, outwards"
• ادـ — ed(e)- — "to, towards, in the direction of"
• حڤـ — ḥev- — "away, away from, far, far away"
• ڤرـ — vor- — "for, in order to"