Lifashian

Lifashian
sá lommá lífasyása
Pronunciation	[[sɑː ˈlɔŋnɑː ˈliːfæʃɑːsæ]]
Created by	Lili21
Date	Apr 2019
Setting	Alt-Earth
Ethnicity	Lifashians (lífasyi)
Native speakers	6,200,000 (2016)
Language family	Indo-European Lifashian
Official status
Official language in	Dár Lífasyám
Regulated by	National Lifashian Language Board so Majalis Lommehi Dáré Lífasyám

Lifashian, natively referred to as (at) lífasyátat or (sá) lommá lífasyása, is an Indo-European language, an isolate inside the family, spoken in an alternate timeline of Earth in the northeastern corner of Asia Minor, i.e. the historical region of Pontus and neighboring areas across the Pontic Alps into the Armenian highlands. It is the official language of the former Soviet republic of Dár Lífasyám, spoken by the majority of its population.

Lifashian developed on its own, distinctly from other Indo-European languages, despite sharing some traits with the Anatolian languages, Armenian, and Greek. Its vocabulary has a substantial number of inherited roots, but through millennia the language absorbed many loanwords, especially from Persian and Arabic (through the former), and to smaller extents from its neighbours Armenian, the Kartvelian languages and Turkish, as well as from Greek and Russian.

It is written in the Lifashian alphabet, a bicameral script ultimately related to other ancient scripts of Asia Minor like the Lydian alphabet.

In external history and setting, Lifashian is meant to be a more serious reboot of Wendlandish, though belonging to a different IE branch and being located in another area of Eurasia.

Orthography

Lifashian has been written since ancient times in its own alphabet; initially a derivative of other ancient scripts of Asia Minor (possibly from the Lydian alphabet, which it shares most of the alphabetical order with), it later further modified the ancient letters, which became the modern majuscules, and developed its own set of minuscule letters, which are today most often very different from the majuscules. Cursive minuscules (not in the table below) are furthermore often quite different from both sets.

The Lifashian script.

The common sequence /ŋn/ is written as mm.

Phonology

Consonants

The consonants of modern and literary Lifashian are the following ones:

→ PoA ↓ Manner		Labial and Labiodental	Alveolar	Palatal and Alveolo-Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasals		m	n		ŋ
Plosives	Voiceless	p	t		k	(q)	(Ɂ)
	Voiced	b	d		ɡ
Affricates	Voiceless			tʃ
	Voiced			dʒ
Fricatives	Voiceless	f	s	ʃ	(x)		h
	Voiced		z	ʒ	(ɣ)
Laterals			l
Trill			ɹ
Approximants		w		j

The phonemes /q Ɂ x ɣ/ only occur in Perso-Arabic words, but except for careful formal speech most speakers merge the former with /k/, do not pronounce /Ɂ/, and merge the latter two with /h/. The main minority of Dár Lífasyám, Laz speakers, are prone to using them more except for the glottal stop.
The consonants /z ʒ/ were also introduced from Persian and do not appear in native words, but also due to their prominence in Russian loans they are distinguished by virtually every speaker.

Vowels

Modern standard Lifashian has a ten-vowel system with five phonemes whose main distinction is of length, and length and quality for low vowels.

	Front	Back
High	i iː	u uː
Mid	e eː	o oː
Low	æ	ɑː

In the speech of young urban Lifashians there is a noticeable ongoing sound change in the high vowels, where the vowels are being restructured with long ones being front and short ones being back, and then distinguishing them for roundedness. Therefore, the high vowels of those speakers ae [iː yː ɯ u], result of the [i] → [ɯ] and [uː] → [yː] shifts.

Hamza

Peculiar of Lifashian vowels is hamzá (/ˈhæŋzɑː/, also written as hangzá according to pronunciation), a phenomenon referred to with the Arabic word for a similar-sounding but unrelated phoneme. Lifashian hamzá is in fact closer to Danish stød or the Latvian broken tone, and its origins reach back to Proto-Indo-European, reflecting an original *h₁ in some positions. Hamza is not represented orthographically.

Hamza may occur on any vowel, either long or short, as long as it is stressed (either primarily or in compounds). Hamza on short vowels is always realized as creaky voice or pharyngealization, while hamza on long vowels, for many speakers, is phonetically closer to a broken tone, with a full glottal stop interrupting the sound, before a short echo of the vowel:

• elemi "I eat" /ˈeˤlemi/ [ˈeˤlemi]
• élom "I ate" /ˈeːˤlom/ [ˈeɁĕlom]
• lúlasyam "twelve" (masc.) /ˌluːˤˈlæʃæm/ [ˌluɁŭˈlæʃæm]

Minimal pairs distinguished by hamza include the forms of some verbs whose root has hamza and the non-singular endings were originally stressed on an ending that absorbed the root vowel, such as mulúti /muˈluːˤti/ "he/she/it speaks" vs. mulúti /muˈluːti/ "they speak".

Morphology

Nouns

1st declension (masculine)

The first declension of Lifashian contains most masculine nouns, inherited or borrowed. The nominative singular, citation form, ends in -as, -s, -sy, or has no ending.

mísy (√míˤsy-) "moon, month"

	Singular	Plural
Nominative	mísy	mísyi
Genitive	mísyé	mísyám
Dative	mísyí	mísyuwi
Accusative	mísyom	mísyás

bíras (√bíˤr-) "husband"

	Singular	Plural
Nominative	bíras	bíri
Genitive	bíré	bírám
Dative	bírí	bíruwi
Accusative	bírom	bírás

liws (√liw-) "god, God"

	Singular	Plural
Nominative	liws	liwi
Genitive	liwé	liwám
Dative	liwí	liwuwi
Accusative	liwom	liwás

bátur (√bátur-) "man"

	Singular	Plural
Nominative	bátur	báturi
Genitive	báturé	báturám
Dative	báturí	báturuwi
Accusative	báturom	báturás

2nd declension (feminine)

The second declension contains most feminine nouns. Their citation form always ends in -á.

líssyá (√líssy-) "rain"

	Singular	Plural
Nominative	líssyá	líssyehes
Genitive	líssyehi	líssyehám
Dative	líssyehí	líssyábi
Accusative	líssyam	líssyehás

ninfá (√ninf-) "woman"

	Singular	Plural
Nominative	ninfá	ninfehes
Genitive	ninfehi	ninfehám
Dative	ninfehí	ninfábi
Accusative	ninfam	ninfehás

3rd declension (neuter)

The third declension contains nearly all neuter nouns, and its forms in the genitive and dative are identical to the first declension. Its citation form ends in -am for all native words and some borrowings, or in a vowel plus -n in other borrowings. Such -n was often part of the stem in the donor language, but has been treated as an inflection in Lifashian.

biryam (√biry-) "action, operation, work, job, task"

	Singular	Plural
Nominative	biryam	biryá
Genitive	biryé	biryám
Dative	biryí	biryuwi
Accusative	biryam	biryá

zimestán (√zimestá-) "winter"

	Singular	Plural
Nominative	zimestán	zimestá
Genitive	zimestáe	zimestám
Dative	zimestái	zimestáuwi
Accusative	zimestán	zimestá

4th declension (masculine, feminine)

Words of the fourth declension are either masculine or feminine. Their citation form ends in -é.

máté (√mát-) "mother" (f)

	Singular	Plural
Nominative	máté	mátiri
Genitive	mátors	mátirám
Dative	mátirí	mátorbi
Accusative	mátirom	mátirás

faté (√fat-) "father" (m)

	Singular	Plural
Nominative	faté	fatiri
Genitive	fators	fatirám
Dative	fatirí	fatorbi
Accusative	fatirom	fatirás

5th declension (neuter)

The fifth declension, mostly unproductive, contains neuter nouns whose lemma forms end in -é. They are clearly distinct from 4th declension ones.

jommé (√jomm-) "people, folk"

	Singular	Plural
Nominative	jommé	jommé
Genitive	jommi	jommenám
Dative	jommí	jommembi
Accusative	jommé	jommé

6th declension (masculine)

Words of the sixth declension are predominantly masculine, ending in -i in their citation form; its plural forms are the same as in the first declension. Some borrowings are also included in this declension.

limmi (√limm-) "lake"

	Singular	Plural
Nominative	limmi	limmi
Genitive	limmi	limmám
Dative	limmí	limmuwi
Accusative	limmim	limmás

ábádi (√ábád-) "city"

	Singular	Plural
Nominative	ábádi	ábádi
Genitive	ábádi	ábádám
Dative	ábádí	ábáduwi
Accusative	ábádim	ábádás

Verbs

1st conjugation

The first conjugation in Lifashian is the most common, the one with the most regularized verbal formations, and (by means of the suffix -iy-) the main productive one. Nearly all verbs ending in -ámi in the first person singular of the present (the citation form) belong to it.

syupámi (√syúp-) "I sleep"

	Present	Past
1SG	syúpámi	asyúpam
2SG	syúpesi	asyúpes
3SG	syúpeti	asyúpet
1PL	syúpamas	asyúpame
2PL	syúpete	asyúpete
3PL	syúpáti	asyúpát

The past augment is e if the root vowel (or first vowel of the root) is a front vowel (e.g. berámi "I carry", eberam "I carried"), a otherwise.