Qazhrian

Qazhrian/Lexicon

Qazhrian (/kɑːʒriən/ KAHZH-ree-uhn; natively: Qazhrem /ˈqaʒrem/ or kje Lazhrem /ce ˈʟaʒrem/) is a Talmic language spoken in Qazhra (from Thensarian Ȝactrasē), a Talman country. It is the second-largest Talmic language in terms of number of speakers.

Qazhrian is descended from central and southern dialects of Thensarian.

External history

This language was originally called Benocian and was Romance- and Ashkenazi Hebrew-inspired, and it had a strong Portuguese flavor. Recently I decided to rework it, basing the aesthetic more on Albanian and Breton.

Ideas

• Breton-ish but not too gibby. Get more palatal consonants.
• /ts, dz/ from Thensarian /θ ð/
  • or > /š ž/?
  • d and dz both lenite to z
• /q/ lenites intervocallically to /ʟ/
• /m/ does NOT lenite.

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

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 Clofabic and Windermere).

Auslautverhärtung operates for plosives and is reflected in the orthography.

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

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

zj

z

z

y

gh

Nasal

p

f

t

c

s

sh

kj

k

l

ħ

m

n

x

z

nj

ng

Hard

p

f

sj

s

c

sh

kj

c'h

ħ

ħ

p

t

c

s

kj

k

Radical	m	n	nj	w	l	rr	y
Soft	v	n	nj	w	l	r	y
Nasal	m	n	nj	w	l	rr	y
Hard	m	n	nj	gw	gl	gr	gj

Examples:

• The definite article hë triggers soft mutation.
• The relativizer re triggers nasal 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 'a child'; kje dëzh 'the child'
• rronn 'a man'; kje ronn 'the man'
• kavër 'a woman'; kje gavër 'the woman'

Construct state is usually formed with -ë:

• tëzhë kje ronn 'the man's child'

Adjectives lenite after definite nouns: rronn garv 'a heavy man'; kje ronn gharv 'the heavy man'.

Verbs

There are finite verbs, but auxiliaries are also important

Agledëv kje nous lelëzh krog kje sauv zhrofan.

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.