Fásriyya

Fásriyya
Created by	Limius
Setting	Avrid
Native to	Fasser
Ethnicity	Fasserman
Language family	Haïdic Fásriyya

Fásriyya (also Faṣriyya) is an a priori naturalistic artlang, which takes inspiration from, amongst others, Old Japanese, Chinese, the Semitic languages, and Classical Nahuatl. It is spoken in the world of Avríd (also home to the Aeranid languages, such as Tevrés) by the Fassermen (native fásrí’íín) of the nation of Fasser (native fásr). It is a member of the Central-Haïdic language family, ultimately descending from Proto-Common-Haïdic.

Phonology

Vowels

Vowel phonemes

	Front	Back
Close	i iː	u uː
Mid	eː
Open	a aː
Diphthongs	aj aw

Consonants

Consonant phonemes

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Pharyngeal	Glottal
Nasal		m	n
Plosive	voiceless		t		k	q		*ʔ
	voiced	b	d	dʑ
Fricative	voiceless	f	s	ɕ	x ~ χ		ħ	h
	voiced		z		ɣ ~ ʁ		ʕ
Trill			r
Approximate			l	y	w

Tone

Fásriyya is a tonal language with two tone levels, high (H) and low (L), with low being the default tone. Contour tones (i.e. rising or falling tone melodies) are usually analysed as separate tones occurring on adjacent tone bearing units (morae) and thus have no phonemic status. Tone may be both lexical (an inherent feature of a word) or grammatical. High tones are marked by use of the acute accent (⟨á⟩, ⟨í⟩, ⟨ú⟩) on short vowels, with low tone unmarked. Atonal long vowels (long vowels with a simple low tone) are written with a macron (⟨ā⟩, ⟨ē⟩, ⟨ī⟩, ⟨ū⟩), whilst tonal vowels are written doubled, with an acute accent placed on the first for falling tone (HL) (⟨áa⟩, ⟨ée⟩, ⟨íi⟩, ⟨úu⟩), on the second for rising tone (LH) (⟨aá⟩, ⟨eé⟩, ⟨ií⟩, ⟨uú⟩), and both for a long high tone (HH or just H) (⟨áá⟩, ⟨éé⟩, ⟨íí⟩, ⟨úú⟩).

Fásriyya tonemes

Name	Contour	example
toneless	L	bakuš (/bàkùʃ/) 'they drink'
high	H	fásr (/fásr/) 'Fasser'
rising	LH	luddú (/lùdːú/) 'head (nom.)'
falling	HL	báskir (/báskìr/) 'head'
peaking	LHL	baktúru (/bàktúrù/) 'they're speaking'
broken	LM*	kaãtr (/kàā̰tr/) 'speech'

Another tone contour, called the broken tone, may appear on long syllables, as an allophone of the peaking tone. It is written with a tilde over the second vowel (⟨aã⟩, ⟨eẽ⟩, ⟨iĩ⟩, ⟨uũ⟩). It is realised as a contour from low to mid pitch, with creaky voice manifesting towards the end. See more bellow.

Lexical tone

Lexical tone is a feature of Fásriyya's triconsonantal root system, with each root carrying one of the five tone melodies. For example, the root of the word báskiru ('it blooms') is not simple s-k-r, but rather s-k-r HL, with a high-low tone melody. These melodies play themselves across any words derived from their associated stems, that is, all words derived from s-k-r HL carry the same tone melody. Due to the fact that different vocalisations have different numbers of vowels, these lexical tone melodies manifest differently depending on the number of morae (a short vowel is one mora, a long vowel is two) present.

Tone manifestation

Toneme	one-mora	two-morae	three-morae	four-morae	five-morae
toneless	L ka’n (/kàʔn/)	LL bak’un (/bàkʔùn/)	LLL bak’unu (/bàkʔùnù/)	LLLL kā’inu (/kààʔìnù/)	LLLLL kā’inīn (/kààʔìnììn/)
high	H fásr (/fásr/)	HH fásrú (/fásrú/)	HHH báfássír (/báfásːír/)	HHHH báfássírú (/báfásːírú/)	HHHHH táfássíríín (/táfásːíríín/)
rising	LH* ḡaábd (/ɣǎˑbd/)	LH ḡabdú (/ɣàbdú/)	LHH ḡabádá (/ɣàbádá/)	LHHH baḡáábád (/bàɣáːbád/)	LHHHH baḡáábádú (/bàɣáːbádú/)
falling	HL* sáakr (/sâˑkr/)	HL sákru (/sákrù/)	HLL sákira (/sákìrà/)	HLLL ískīra (/ískìːrà/)	HLLLL sáakirīn (/sâːkìrìːn/)
peaking	LM* kaãtr (/ka̰᷄ˑtr/)	LHL* kaátru (/kǎˑrù/)	LHL katára (/kàtárà/)	LHHL bakáátir (/bàtáːtìr/)	LHHHL bakáátíru (/bàtáːtírù/)

Nouns

Prepositions

Prepositions can be classified into two groups; conjugating and non-conjugating. This may be somewhat a misnomer, as even non-conjugating prepositions may take suffix conjugation when they are used with a personal pronoun, but this is not considered true conjugation. Conjugating pronouns conjugate to match the main subject of a sentence.

Conjugating Prepositions

3SG	1PL	Meaning	Notes	Example
bâ	wanū	focus	ban before words starting with vowels or /ʔ/; conditions an adnominal verb	ḥamaba bá’Ámnú díyālana—'It was Amn who wrote the letter'
báta	wátū	complementizer	does not trigger tone sandhi	bamḥúdúú ’ayráásúúná bátū kīhu ruffút—'the Aerans think this is their land'

Non-conjugating Prepositions

Form	Meaning	Notes	Example
dǎ	dative case		’aḥmub díyālana da’Ámní–'I wrote a letter to Amn'
qu	allative case		bádīlu wákmīna quJádááhi—'They're sending the children to Jadah'
ǎz	genitive case	may indicate alienable possession, assimilates voice with following consonant	Jattú zAmní—'Amn's dog;' Luddú zFasrí’ííná—'capital of the fassermen'