Vezhuan: Difference between revisions

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==Introduction==
==Introduction==


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This is a short reminder of the language format policy.
This is a short reminder of the language format policy.


I. Write a short piece stating your intents and purposes when creating the language (Design goal, inspiration, ideas, and so on).
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II. Write a short introduction to your language. (Who speaks it? When was it created? By whom? or what? are some example questions that can be answered here)
II. Write a short introduction to your language. (Who speaks it? When was it created? By whom? or what? are some example questions that can be answered here)
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==Introduction==
 
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Goals
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The Peshpeg language, or ''Peshpeg humbi todak inlak'' "true humans speak this way", is a highly endangered language in the valleys of the Kilmay Rī Mountains and the prefectures of south-central Minhay.  The language is considered moribund: according to the last census, only about ninety fluent speakers remain, all older than sixty years.  Younger generations speak only [[Minhast]], from either the Wolf Speaker, Stone Speaker, or City Speaker dialects.  Efforts to revitalize the language have been largely unsuccessful; with the exception of the City Speakers, most Minhast are either apathetic or even actively hostile to revitalization efforts.  Social and economic discrimination towards the Peshpegs has only accelerated the decline of the language.
The Vezhuan language, referred to by its speakers as the ''Dzvada Vezhua Dlin'', "true humans speak this way", is a minority language spoken in Romania and parts of Hungary.  Throughout most of the language's history, it was confined chiefly to the Carpathian Mountains.  The language is also known as ''Dezvadian'' given to it by the 18th century British explorer Sir Edward James Hampton; this name is actually the endonym of the Dzvada people, whereas the word ''vezhua'' from which Vezhuan comes, actually means "We speak."


Peshpeg is classified as a language isolate.  Any similarities to the Minhast language are due to language contact, with most of the influences being unidirectional; only a handful of Peshpeg words, most of them related to the fauna and flora of their original homeland, have been adopted by the Wolf Speaker and Stone Speaker dialects.  However, Minhast has had an enormous impact on the Peshpeg language; close to 70% of the Peshpeg lexicon comes from Minhast, the original base-10 numerical system has been supplanted by the vegisimal system of the dominant language, and most noticeably the original morphosyntactic alignment has shifted from a nominative-accusative type to an ergative-absolutive one.  Some linguists have explored the possibility of a relationship with [[Ín Duári]], another endangered, non-Minhast language, but plausible evidence for such a relationship has not been demonstrated.
Today there are approximately 24,000 speakers of the language total, a number that has remained fairly stable since the end of the Industrial Revolution.  A minority language in both Romania and Hungary, it has only recently acquired official status.  Some speakers have left their traditional homeland in search of a better standard of living amongst the general populace in both countries.  A small diaspora also exists, chiefly centered in parts of Greece and Macedonia, and an even smaller population in Lazio, Italy.
 
The language is classified as an isolate.  Theories of connections to a larger Rhaetian or Vasconic family had been proposed, but later were dismissed due to insufficient or even contradictory evidence.


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===Determiners===
===Determiners===
There are three types of determiners in Peshpeg that occur either as suffixes, such as the definite and demonstrative suffixes, or as quantifiers, independent words that precede their noun heads to which they are joined with the linker ''mon'', e.g. ''Vadzini mon Golahách mon nodorzhi uzanio pepak'' "Many of the Ín Duári slaves revolted that day".
There are three types of determiners in Vezhuan that occur either as suffixes, such as the definite and demonstrative suffixes, or as quantifiers that precede their noun heads, e.g. ''Vadzini dulach nodorzhi uzanio pepak'' "Many of the barbarian slaves revolted that day".


The definite marker refers not only to specific or highly referential nouns, but may also refer to an abstract noun class that would normally be considered concrete e.g. ''gazhda'' < ''*gal-gda</u>'' "the (class of animals known as) horse".  The definite marker is also used to nominalize verbs, e.g. ''lozha'' < ''loz-<u>sha</u>'' "singing".  The definite marker, which occurs as a suffix, has different forms that agree in number and gender with their noun heads; however, it does not mark for case.  The forms for the definite marker are as follows:
The definite marker refers not only to specific or highly referential nouns, but may also refer to an abstract noun class that would normally be considered concrete e.g. ''gazhda'' < ''*gal-gda</u>'' "the (class of animals known as) horse".  The definite marker is also used to nominalize verbs, e.g. ''lozha'' < ''loz-<u>sha</u>'' "singing".  The definite marker, which occurs as a suffix, has different forms that agree in number and gender with their noun heads; however, it does not mark for case.  The forms for the definite marker are as follows:
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===Verbs===
===Verbs===


Peshpeg verbs mark for tense and aspect.  Verbs fall in three broad classes, based on how they mark the past vs. the non-past tenses: the ''zu-/vu-'' class, the etymologically related ''z-/v-'' class, and the ''u-/u-'' class.  Another feature of the verb is that plural verb stems get truncated, e.g.''zeganuadzh'' "I spoke", from the stem ''-egan-''; vs. ''zegzua'' "We spoke", from the stem ''-eg-''.
Vezhuan verbs mark for tense and aspect.  Verbs fall in three broad classes, based on how they mark the past vs. the non-past tenses: the ''zu-/vu-'' class, the etymologically related ''z-/v-'' class, and the ''u-/u-'' class.  Another feature of the verb is that plural verb stems get truncated, e.g.''zeganuadzh'' "I spoke", from the stem ''-egan-''; vs. ''zegzua'' "We spoke", from the stem ''-eg-''.




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==Syntax==
==Syntax==
===Constituent order===
===Constituent order===
Old and Middle Peshpeg exhibited VSO order, but the modern language is now an SOV language due to Minhast influence.  Because the nominative and accusative cases have merged into the direct case, word order is strict.


===Noun phrase===
===Noun phrase===
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{{Gloss
{{Gloss
|phrase = Vadzini mon Golahách mon nodorzhi uzanio pepak
|phrase = Vadzini dulach nodorzhi uzanio pepak
| IPA = /va.'dzini mon go'latʃ mon nodoɚʒi u'zanjo 'pepak/
| IPA = /va.'dzini 'dulatʃ nodoɚʒi u'zanjo 'pepak/
| morphemes = vadzini mon gola-hat-sh mon nodor-sh-ri zu-zan-io pepak
| morphemes = vadzini 'dulat-sh nodor-sh-ri u-zan-io pepak
| gloss = many CONN infestation-DENON-DEF.CL2.P CON slave-DEF.CL2.P PST-create.chaos-CL2.P that.day
| gloss = many infestation-DENON-DEF.CL2.P slave-DEF.CL2.P PST-create.chaos-CL2.P that.day
| translation = Many of the Ín Duári slaves revolted that day
| translation = Many of the barbarian slaves revolted that day.
}}
}}


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==Phonology==
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===Orthography===
===Consonants===
===Vowels===
===Prosody===
====Stress====
====Intonation====
===Phonotactics===
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===Morphophonology===
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==Syntax==
===Constituent order===
===Noun phrase===
===Verb phrase===
===Sentence phrase===
===Dependent clauses===
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==Example texts==
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[[Category:Dzvada Vezhua Dlin]]
[[Category:Languages]]
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[[Category:Conlangs]]
[[Category:Conlangs]]
[[Category:A priori]]

Latest revision as of 12:10, 13 March 2022


Introduction

The Vezhuan language, referred to by its speakers as the Dzvada Vezhua Dlin, "true humans speak this way", is a minority language spoken in Romania and parts of Hungary. Throughout most of the language's history, it was confined chiefly to the Carpathian Mountains. The language is also known as Dezvadian given to it by the 18th century British explorer Sir Edward James Hampton; this name is actually the endonym of the Dzvada people, whereas the word vezhua from which Vezhuan comes, actually means "We speak."

Today there are approximately 24,000 speakers of the language total, a number that has remained fairly stable since the end of the Industrial Revolution. A minority language in both Romania and Hungary, it has only recently acquired official status. Some speakers have left their traditional homeland in search of a better standard of living amongst the general populace in both countries. A small diaspora also exists, chiefly centered in parts of Greece and Macedonia, and an even smaller population in Lazio, Italy.

The language is classified as an isolate. Theories of connections to a larger Rhaetian or Vasconic family had been proposed, but later were dismissed due to insufficient or even contradictory evidence.


Phonology

Orthography

Consonants

Vowels

Prosody

Stress

Intonation

Phonotactics

Morphophonology

Morphology

Nouns

Determiners

There are three types of determiners in Vezhuan that occur either as suffixes, such as the definite and demonstrative suffixes, or as quantifiers that precede their noun heads, e.g. Vadzini dulach nodorzhi uzanio pepak "Many of the barbarian slaves revolted that day".

The definite marker refers not only to specific or highly referential nouns, but may also refer to an abstract noun class that would normally be considered concrete e.g. gazhda < *gal-gda "the (class of animals known as) horse". The definite marker is also used to nominalize verbs, e.g. lozha < loz-sha "singing". The definite marker, which occurs as a suffix, has different forms that agree in number and gender with their noun heads; however, it does not mark for case. The forms for the definite marker are as follows:

  Singular Plural
Masculine -g- -gda-
Neuter I -n- -vda-
Feminine
Neuter II
Collective 		-sh-


The definite marker suffixes directly to the noun root before case markers are applied. In the following example, the masculine plural form of the definite marker -vda- is attached to the noun root gal ("horse") before the comitative case suffix is applied

galvdanda
/gav'dandʌ/
gal-vda-nda
horse-DEF.MP-COM
with the horses

Cases

  Masculine Neuter I Feminine
Neuter II
Collective
  Sg Pl Sg Pl Sg Pl
Nominative -∅ -za -da -nda ri
Accusative -ri -tari
Dative -ska -task -ka -nka
Ablative -vi -mva
Allative -rini -drina
Comitive -dan -nda
Locative -mi -ma
Genitive -za -zada
Oblique -∅ -za

Postpositions

Numbers

Verbs

Vezhuan verbs mark for tense and aspect. Verbs fall in three broad classes, based on how they mark the past vs. the non-past tenses: the zu-/vu- class, the etymologically related z-/v- class, and the u-/u- class. Another feature of the verb is that plural verb stems get truncated, e.g.zeganuadzh "I spoke", from the stem -egan-; vs. zegzua "We spoke", from the stem -eg-.


Syntax

Constituent order

Noun phrase

Verb phrase

Sentence phrase

Dependent clauses

Example texts

Vadzini dulach nodorzhi uzanio pepak
/va.'dzini 'dulatʃ nodoɚʒi u'zanjo 'pepak/
vadzini 'dulat-sh nodor-sh-ri u-zan-io pepak
many infestation-DENON-DEF.CL2.P slave-DEF.CL2.P PST-create.chaos-CL2.P that.day
Many of the barbarian slaves revolted that day.

Other resources

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