Lifashian: Difference between revisions
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* ''Mé uyalhem at jahán '''pire''' ontarendóré.'' – I don't know [how] the world [was] before the Internet. | * ''Mé uyalhem at jahán '''pire''' ontarendóré.'' – I don't know [how] the world [was] before the Internet. | ||
* ''So sów '''pire''' tás hettam benti.'' – The priest is walking [up to] in front of the church. | * ''So sów '''pire''' tás hettam benti.'' – The priest is walking [up to] in front of the church. | ||
'''peli''' ''+ genitive case'' "under" (state); ''+ accusative case'' "under", "belo" (motion) | |||
* ''So syorón '''peli''' tosy seláe syúpeti.'' – The cat is sleeping under the table. | |||
* ''So mús '''peli''' at selán gacewam eynemeti.'' – The mouse flees under the table. | |||
'''sya''' ''+ dative case'': "with" | '''sya''' ''+ dative case'': "with" | ||
* ''Helbenámi '''sya''' tasyé piwehí!'' – "I'll come with beer!" | * ''Helbenámi '''sya''' tasyé piwehí!'' – "I'll come with beer!" |
Revision as of 21:16, 13 March 2021
Lifashian | |
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sá lommá lífasyása | |
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Pronunciation | [[sɑː ˈlɔŋnɑː ˈliːfæʃɑːsæ]] |
Created by | Lili21 |
Date | Apr 2019 |
Setting | Alt-Earth |
Ethnicity | Lifashians (lífasyi) |
Native speakers | 3,600,000 (2016) |
Indo-European
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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 is the native language of about 3,6 million people in the world, the majority of which in Dár Lífasyám and neighboring areas in Eastern Turkey; a small Lifashian diaspora is found mostly in Russia, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan, as well as in some Western European countries.
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. Long-term Genoese colonization and reciprocal contacts also introduced many Ligurian loans, as well as forming one of the main ethnic minorities in the country, Lifashian Ligurians, which had a marked influence on the culture of coastal urban areas.
It is written in the Lifashian alphabet, a bicameral script ultimately related to other ancient scripts of Asia Minor like the Lydian alphabet.
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 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 | |
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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 Ligurian 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 | |
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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". A lexical minimal pair, possibly the first one explained to Lifashian students, is lú /luːˤ/ "two (masc.)" (from PIE *dwoh1) and lú /luː/ "hill" (probably from Akkadian dû, itself from Sumerian).
Morphology
Nouns
Lifashian nouns distinguish two numbers (hamári, sg. hamár) – singular (enikás) and plural (pilifuntikás) – and four cases (pitósi, sg. and pl.) – nominative (lónamsyás or in older literature onomastikás), genitive (gyenikás), dative (dotikás), and accusative (eytiatikás).
Nouns can belong to three different genders (jensi, sg. jens): masculine (bátursyás), feminine (ninfasyás), or neuter (udeterás).
Nouns can be categorized as following one of six different declensions (kilisi, sg. and pl.); in most cases, each declension (except the fourth) only contains nouns of a single gender.
All declensions are productive, although the majority of contemporary loanwords is assigned to one of the first three. Historically, the termination (and not the noun class) of the original word determines the declension, with original -e words being mostly assigned to the neuter fifth declension unless explicitely animate (mostly given names or nouns referring to humans borrowed from Ligurian), in which case they are either masculine or feminine fourth declension nouns. Words ending in a back rounded vowel or in a voiced stop in the donor language in most cases end in -i and are sixth declension nouns; this is again mostly noticeable in the plethora of Ligurian loans (such as e.g. Lig. mandillo [mãˈdilu] borrowed as mangdili [mæŋˈdili] "handkerchief").
1st declension (masculine)
The first declension (kilisi hancás) of Lifashian contains most masculine nouns, inherited or borrowed. The nominative singular, citation form, ends in -as, -s, -sy, or has no ending.
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2nd declension (feminine)
The second declension (kilisi spétás) contains most feminine nouns. Their citation form always ends in -á.
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3rd declension (neuter)
The third declension (kilisi tírisyás) 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.
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4th declension (masculine, feminine)
Words of the fourth declension (kilisi pitórisyás) are either masculine or feminine. Their citation form ends in -é.
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5th declension (neuter)
The fifth declension (kilisi pembisyás), mostly unproductive, contains neuter nouns whose lemma forms end in -é. They are clearly distinct from 4th declension ones.
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6th declension (masculine)
Words of the sixth declension (kilisi syússyás) 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.
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Articles
The articles follow their own particular declension. Note that masculine and neuter articles have the same forms in the genitive and dative.
Singular | Plural | |||||
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Masculine | Neuter | Feminine | Masculine | Neuter | Feminine | |
Nominative | so | at | sá | tí | tá | tás |
Genitive | tosy | tassyá | tyám | tásam | ||
Dative | tási | tasyé | tós | tábi | ||
Accusative | tom | at | tám | tás | tá | tás |
Possessives
Possessives follow the same declension of articles, as they are diachronically formed from the pronominal genitive attached to an article. Note that the neuter singular has a -t- inserted before the article. The possessives are:
minso (mintat, minsá, mintí, mintá, mintás) "my, mine" - tuso "your (sg.), yours (sg.)" - suso "his/her(s)/their(s)" - nósso "our, ours" - usso "your (pl.), yours (pl.)"
As an example, only the declension of minso is given here:
Singular | Plural | |||||
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Masculine | Neuter | Feminine | Masculine | Neuter | Feminine | |
Nominative | minso | mintat | minsá | mintí | mintá | mintás |
Genitive | mintosy | mintassyá | mintyám | mintásam | ||
Dative | mintási | mintasyé | mintós | mintábi | ||
Accusative | mintom | mintat | mintám | mintás | mintá | mintás |
Pronouns
Lifashian pronouns are divided in three declensional paradigms: third-person pronouns follow the same declension as the articles (in fact, Lifashian articles are PIE third-person pronouns, while third person pronouns are the same forms preceded by le- (from the PIE emphatic particle *de)); the singular and plural first- and second-person pronouns have their own declensions, one in the singular and one in the plural.
Among first- and second-person pronouns, many of their forms have changed from PIE due to analogy, especially in the nominative and accusative.
First person | Second person | |||
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Singular (I) | Plural (we) | Singular (you) | Plural (you) | |
Nominative | mek | wis | tuk | yús |
Genitive | mém | onsom | tet | usom |
Dative | mew | onsyém | tew | usyém |
Accusative | me | nó | to | yó |
Singular | Plural | |||||
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Masculine | Neuter | Feminine | Masculine | Neuter | Feminine | |
Nominative | leso | lét | lesá | letí | letá | letás |
Genitive | letosy | letassyá | letyám | letásam | ||
Dative | letási | letasyé | letós | letábi | ||
Accusative | letom | lét | letám | letás | letá | letás |
Note that contemporary Lifashian is said to have lost the T-V distinction, uniquely in its area of the world; previously, the second-person plural pronoun yú was used as the respectful form in both singular and plural.
This loss is a recent phenomenon that started in the early 1980s. There still is a noticeable generational divide, with T-V distinction being still commonly found among speakers born not later than the late 1950s; it is less common among people born in the 1960s and early 70s, and usually only used with older people.
Even in formal contexts, the remnants of T-V distinction are usually manifest in the use of bátursuás (Mr.) or ninfásuása (Ms.) with either the surname or - even more often - the given name. Using both the surname and given name is generally limited to written legal texts. It is not uncommon even for contemporary politicians or other prominent people to be mentioned in Lifashian newspapers with bátursuás/ninfásuása and their given name.
As in Russian (and possibly because of Russian influence), "X and I" is expressed through the first person plural plus sya (with) and the other name (in dative case because of the preposition); for example, "Scheherazade and I" would be expressed as wis sya Syahrzádehí.
This has given rise to an informal distinction between wis used as an exclusive first-person pronoun and an inclusive pronoun wis syam usyém (often contracted in speech to [wiʃæm(u)ˈʃeːm]).
Adjectives
Adjectives follow a declension very similar to articles, although with slightly different endings, as they were originally articles attached to the end of (declined) nouns. The adjectival terminations are:
Singular | Plural | |||||
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Masculine | Neuter | Feminine | Masculine | Neuter | Feminine | |
Nominative | -ás | -átat | -ása | -ésti | -(e)tá | -éssyes |
Genitive | -astasy | -ássyá | -átsám | |||
Dative | -étsim | -átasyé | -óstós | -áwtábi | ||
Accusative | -átam | -átat | -ántam | -ástás | -(e)tá | -ástás |
Numerals
Cardinal numerals
Lifashian cardinal numerals are inflected for case only in the forms from 1 to 4 (and numbers ending in the digits 1-4), which also agree in gender with the noun, as well as 100 and 1000; however, while 1-4 have their own peculiar declensions, hundreds and thousands decline as nouns.
The declension of 1-4 is as follows:
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Numerals from 5 to 10 are indeclinable:
Digit(s) | Numeral |
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5 | pembi |
6 | syúsy |
7 | sutom |
8 | astú |
9 | nún |
10 | lasyam |
The numerals 11-19 are compounds of the base numeral plus lasyam; however, due to historical reasons, the latter root may take three different forms: -lasyam after vowels, -tasyam after voiceless consonants, and -dasyam after all other consonants. In the case of 11-14, the first component is declined.
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Digit(s) | Numeral |
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15 | pembilasyam |
16 | syústasyam |
17 | sutondasyam |
18 | astúlasyam |
19 | núndasyam |
The other numerals 20-99 follow the same overall rules:
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100 is syandom and, unlike most other cardinals, it is declined for case and number as a third declension noun (with the stem syand- and accent on the ending). It does not combine with tens and units, and the number of hundreds may either be written separately or conjoined; conjoined writing is preferred in the formal language.
Digit(s) | Numeral |
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100 | syandom |
101 | syandom nyé m, syandom nyá f, syandom nyam n |
157 | syandom sutompembisyát |
200 | luyóˤsyandá |
300 | tírsyandá |
400 | pitórsyandá |
500 | pembisyandá |
600 | syússyandá |
700 | sutossyandá |
800 | astúsyandá |
900 | núnsyandá |
Similarly, 1000 is the neuter noun hesyarom, also declined as a regular third declension noun. In the standard language, stress is on the first syllable of the stem. Unlike with hundreds, thousands are never written conjoined, e.g. 2000 luyó hesyará, 4896 pitór hesyará astúsyandá syúsynússyát.
Verbs
Regular verbs
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.
Present | Past | |
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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.
Nasal infix verbs
Present | Past | |
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1SG | pinesmi | epísyam |
2SG | pinessyi | epísyes |
3SG | pinesti | epísyet |
1PL | pinsmas | epísyame |
2PL | pinste | epísyete |
3PL | pinsyéti | epísyát |
Note that the second person singular present ends in -si; in the example, it is -syi due to assimilation to the previous consonant.
Past
Three different forms of PIE perfective verbs may be used in forming the past. The most commonly used one is the root past, formed by augment, root, and past ending; the other two forms are the s-past (augment, root + -s and past ending) and the rarer reduplicated past (with no augment and its own set of endings).
Some roots may have different past formations, often with different meanings, or used with different present formations. For example, the root lub- (< PIE *lewbʰ-) forms alúwsom (s-past), past of luwnámi "I love", but also alubom (root past), formerly the past of lóbiyámi "I charm", nowadays used with the meaning of "to fall in love with" (while "I charmed" is formed as the synchronically regular alóbíyam); the reduplicated past lelóba, finally, is used as the past of both lúwámi (< *lewbʰ-oh₂-mi[1]) "I want" and luwsyémi (< *lubʰ-sy-emi) "I wish".
Copula
Present | Past | |
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1SG | esyim | astám |
2SG | esyi | astás |
3SG | esti | astát |
1PL | somé | astame |
2PL | ste | astate |
3PL | séti | astát |
Prepositions
(introduction TBA)
for + genitive case: "for", "in favour of"
- For tet pótt adúham. – I cooked dinner for you.
- Husein for tom heldúbatom mulúcam elét. – Husein voted for (in favour of) the proposal.
ha + genitive case "at" (state); + accusative case "to", "at" (motion)
- Iréné siréti, pe merpehi ha tosy gulestáné panesti. – "Iréné likes to spend the morning in the park."
- Nung ha tom bázárom benámi. – I'm going to the market now.
hó + genitive case: "from"
- So tulay nyam enseytorm hó tosy ongisé bereti. – The boy is bringing a jar from the kitchen.
- Hó Dáré Hayám frádagi iskari benámi. – I'm coming back from Armenia tomorrow.
mey + genitive case "in", "inside of" (state); + accusative case "to", "in", "inside of" (motion)
- Sunuté minso nung mey tosy madrasyi esti. – My son is at (in the) school now.
- Duhaté minsá nung mey at madrasyé benti. – My daughter is going to school now.
midi + genitive case "between", "among" (state); + accusative case "between", "among" (motion)
- Midihafnené sá dejá midi lúsy hafnenám esti. – Mesopotamia is the land between two rivers.
- Midi tás bóás benáti. – They walk between the cows and bulls.
pire + genitive case "in front of" (state), "before" (in time); + accusative case "in front of" (motion)
- Lámá minsá pire tassyá hettehi esti. – My house is in front of the church.
- Mé uyalhem at jahán pire ontarendóré. – I don't know [how] the world [was] before the Internet.
- So sów pire tás hettam benti. – The priest is walking [up to] in front of the church.
peli + genitive case "under" (state); + accusative case "under", "belo" (motion)
- So syorón peli tosy seláe syúpeti. – The cat is sleeping under the table.
- So mús peli at selán gacewam eynemeti. – The mouse flees under the table.
sya + dative case: "with"
- Helbenámi sya tasyé piwehí! – "I'll come with beer!"
- So helbart lámiyétam sya tós angurnyétuwi abóniyat. – "The child built a little house with the toy bricks."
(more to be added)
Syntax
Split ergativity
Lifashian has an animacy-based split ergativity, traced back to an areal feature of ancient Anatolia, possibly to the Hurro-Urartian languages. In Lifashian, all neuter nouns unless explicitely referring to people and all non-neuters not referring to people, animals, or certain personified concepts[2], exhibit this feature when agents of transitive verbs. In those sentences, the patient is still in the nominative and agrees with the verb, while the agent is preceded by the particle lá (which requires accusative case). For example, with the verb kúrhíyámi (I assault, attack, haunt, critique):
- Fikarás sutás kúrhíyámi. (I critique, am against his/her/theirSG opinions.)
- Lá yádás mintás kúrhíyámi. (My memories haunt me.)
Vocabulary
Through its history at the crossroads of Europe and Asia and the long contact between languages resulting from the millennia through which the Lifashians were always subjects of foreign powers, the vocabulary of Lifashian has been enriched and shaped by the absorption of plenty of loanwords, which certainly dates back to Lifashian prehistory. The vast majority of loanwords, also, are considered to be fully integrated in the language, helped by the fact that all of them (except some proper nouns) are transcribed into the Lifashian script and are adapted to fit native morphology.
The share of loanwords is not uniform in the Lifashian vocabulary. First of all, the vast majority of borrowed words in any stage of the language are nouns, and the number of borrowed adjectives with no corresponding noun, while not small on its own, is far smaller. Borrowed verbs are a very small number, and nearly all of them are formed through the suffix -íy- that also served to form verbs from other parts of speech. Note that in more recent times (from the 18th century onwards), nearly all new verbs that have entered Lifashian are compound verbs, and new compound verbs have also displaced full verbs; the verbal part of compound verbs, which contributes little meaning of its own, is nearly always a native Lifashian (PIE-inherited) root. The only very common Lifashian verbs which are loanwords and do not have the -íy- suffix are gurémi (I write) and sirémi (I like), both loanwords from Armenian.
Moreover, loanwords are not evenly distributed in terms of frequency; all function words are native, inherited from Proto-Indo-European, as are many of the most commonly used words, so that the most basic forms of the language contain mostly native roots. However, very basic words are not always native, sometimes due to semantic drift that has caused loanwords to fit into the other meaning. Almost as a counterpoint to basic words being mostly inherited roots, nearly all Lifashians carry given names that are borrowed.
Among borrowings, the most ancient layer was borrowed in the Lifashian prehistory, and some of them are of disputed etymology. However, while not all words attributed to those sources may effectively be loanwords, there definitely is a prehistorical layer of borrowings that likely dates back to the first coming of Lifashians into eastern Anatolia, consisting of loanwords attributed to ancient languages of the Near East: Hurrian, Urartian, and Akkadian. Nearly all of proposed etymologies attributed to these languages belong to (or originally entered the language in) the semantic fields of animals, plants, agriculture, and early technology; some examples are syorón "cat", lesp "honey" (from Akkadian), henjá "apple", syelur "plum" (from Hurrian), hér "road" (attributed to Urartian). Words generally attributed to Indo-European Anatolian languages are most likely to be influenced, areal, or calques, as the phonological shape does not always support the hypothesis of direct borrowing.
The largest share of loanwords into Lifashian comes from Persian, and they were borrowed from different dialects of Persian at different times in the space of nearly 2000 years. Persian loanwords are found in every semantic field, from many everyday words (seasons, e.g. tábestán "summer", bahár "spring"); words related to general urban life (syahr "city", meydán "square"); knowledge (námé "book"; dánesy "knowledge"); agriculture (berinji "rice", kanaf "hemp"), to more abstract concepts (firdáws "paradise", yádi "memory, remembrance"). More abstract concepts, ethnonyms, and Islam-related words come from Arabic but in the vast majority of cases they entered Lifashian through Persian, so they are usually considered of Persian origin too; such words include e.g. Dár "home (used as "homeland" or with a genitive as "country of", cf. Dár Lífasyám but also Dár Hayám (Armenia), Dár Pársyám (Iran, sometimes referring to Greater Iran) and even Dár Ondúhám (a possible name for Earth, literally "home of the people")", táj "jewel", haylá "family", akbar(syás) "great".
Dating back to the first millennium CE are also likely most Armenian loans, which also cover many semantic fields, but more everyday words than Persian loans; they include the previously mentioned gurémi "to write" and sirémi "to like", but also e.g. órén "rule; law", dedum "pumpkin", tulay "boy", yo "yes", hamár "number". Also from the early first millennium (around the time of the earliest attestations of Lifashian) are the Aramaic loans, introduced alongside Syriac Christianity and generally limited to that semantic field, such as hettá "Church; a church", násrey "Christian", mahmolítá "baptism", sów "priest", Esyuh Misyihów "Jesus Christ".
Greek loanwords belong to two layers: a smaller, earlier one with more varied semantic fields (kawnás "blue", ninfá "woman", pirgus "tower", istíryás "rigid") and a later one, generally used in scientific terms as e.g. astronomy (the planets: Ermis, Afroditá, Aris, etc.) or linguistics (kilisi "declension", pitosi "grammatical case", oristikás "indicative (mood)").
During the Middle Ages and Early Modern Era, during Genoese rule, various Ligurian terms entered the Lifashian language: many of these relate to administration or commerce (paláng "money", dyugangá "customs", bitégá "shop", pázyi "government palace"), nautical terms (rutá "route", iskyungá (a type of ship), istíwá "hold"), but also a few general words (jastémá "blasphemy", lélwá "ivy", dupostás "indigenous", mangdili "handkerchief") as well as certain foodstuffs, although these were probably introduced later, from the Ligurians settled on the Lifashian coast (tuki "sauce", sézyá "cherry", fyugasá "(Genoese) focaccia").
The most recent substantial layer of loanwords is from Russian, which includes most words that have entered the language in the 20th century. They are mostly modern concepts, such as haladilnik "fridge", milíciyá (Militia, police (until 2005)), poyist "train". However, a very large number of 20th century neologisms, and especially since Lifashian independence in 1991, has been composed of calques, often from Russian, Greek, or internationalisms. Calques or semantic calques include syaselman (council, committee; coined in the 19th century as a calque of Greek συνέδριον; later acquired the sense of “Soviet” as a semantic calque of Russian совет); halhámor (update, calqued from French ajourner), jámehtuwá (socialism); calques or partial calques from English are particularly common in words about computers and IT, such as píttorm “computer”, embentél “drive”, páwehiksy “firewall”, rakomíyás “digital”; sometimes, the new meanings have been added to preexisting words, as in the case of gort “file”, previously just “document” (itself one of the dubious Akkadian loans) or hesyow “account”, previously just “register”. Some words introduced in recent years are actually loanwords: for example, the new Lifashian currency introduced in 2002 is the zenuíng, named after the Genovino (Lig. zenoín), an old Genoese coin, and its subdivision is the sódi (ultimately cognate with Italian soldo); similarly, the Lifashian police reformed in 2005 is named dárigán after one of the court guard formations of the Sasanian Empire (despite modern Dár Lífasyám itself only being briefly – and negligibly - part of the Sasanian Empire).
Days and months
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Dár Lífasyám is one of the few countries in the world that does not use the Gregorian calendar, and notably it is the only one that reverted to its national calendar after using the Gregorian one for seven decades (during the Soviet period).
The current Lifashian calendar is the Solar Hijri (Iranian) calendar but counting years since (Gregorian/Julian) 1917, the year of the October Revolution; the month names are the Persian ones also used in Iran, which were the ones traditionally used by the Lifashians before adopting the Gregorian calendar in 1918.
The Solar Hijri calendar had been unofficially used all throughout the Soviet era, and the shift from the Gregorian calendar to it (with the year numbering change) was approved in 1992, right after the dissolution of the Soviet Union and Lifashian independence; the calendar entered official use on Nowruz 77 (21 March 1993). In Dár Lífasyam, 20 March 1993 was followed by 1 farwardín 77.
Years before 1917 are counted backwards and marked in writing with the abbreviation p.R., "before the Revolution" (pire tassyá Rewalúciyehi); 1916 is 1 p.R. in the Lifashian calendar
The Gregorian calendar is unofficially used in international (and non-Greater Iranian) contexts, but historical dates e.g. in school textbooks are always cited and learned in the Lifashian calendar only; it is also used by the ethnic minority of the Lifashian Ligurians and by the Roman Catholic Church in Dár Lífasyám, which uses it to determine the dates of Catholic holidays; the dates of Orthodox holidays (by the Lifashian Syriac Orthodox Church, the largest religious denomination in the country, which is non-Chalcedonian) are similarly determined using the Julian Calendar. Interestingly, as the Julian calendar was first spread during the Middle Ages and Early Modern Era, during the period of Genoese rule over Dár Lífasyám, the Gregorian (and Julian) month names in Lifashian are derived from Ligurian.
Lifashian public holidays
Public holidays and other festivities - which, in Dár Lífasyám, are for the most part the same as in the Soviet era - were realigned either based on the date of the historical event they are based on, or on what day of the Solar Hijri calendar they fell on in 1992.
- Nowruz (Nawróz): 1-4 farwardín; Nowruz is the main holiday in Dár Lífasyám and it is celebrated by all ethnic groups of the country. A broader two-week period of Nowruz holidays is the general holiday season in the country and all schools are closed during those days, much like Christmas holidays in Western countries.
- Day of the International (hámor tassyá Diyakisyuwársyássyá): 11 and 12 urdíwhist (celebration of International Workers' Day; the days correspond to Gregorian 1/2 May in most years)
- Victory Day (hámor tassyá Pawyedehi): 19 urdíwhist (commemorating the Victory over Nazi Germany on 9 May 1945 / 19 urdíwhist 29)
- Day of the Constitution (hámor tosy Syadúbmé) : 14 syahréwá (commemorating the signing of the Lifashian Constitution on 5 September 1992 / 14 syahréwá 76)
- Day of the Revolution (hámor tassyá Rewalúciyehi otúbri): 16 ábán (commemorating the October Revolution on 7 November 1917 / 16 ábán 1)
- Day of the Memory of Lenin (hámor tosy yádi Leniné): 1 bahman (commemorating the death of V.I. Lenin on 21 January 1925 / 1 bahman 8). Reintroduced in 1995.
- International Women's Day (hámor diyakisyuwársyás tásam ninfehám): 18 isfandi (corresponds to 9 March in most years, but the date was fixed on the occurrence in 1992)
- Day of the Paris Commune (hámor tosy komúné Parízyi): 27 isfandi (commemorating the uprising of the National Guard of Paris on 18 March 1871 / 27 isfandi 46 p.R.). Reintroduced in 1998.
Members of the three main religious confessions of Dár Lífasyám (Orthodox Christians, Muslims, and Catholics) celebrate as "religious public holidays" the main religious holidays of their faith: Christmas and Easter for Christians and Eid al-Adha and Eid al-Fitr for Muslims. The dates of these holidays are calculated using the Julian calendar for Orthodox Christians, the Gregorian one for Catholics, and the Islamic calendar for Muslims.
Texts
Schleicher's Fable (So masy aw tí esyúi)
- Nyé masy, pesy hawláná ne astát, elerset esyúás; nyé nyam arabam karetántám etenget, nyé nyim tangtom duwsátam eberet, nyé lengom nyim báturom eberet.
- So masy tós esyúwi amulút: «Mintat syardém duwsom résy mewi puréti, pimbe báturom, esyúám lúkétom, wilémi.»
- Tí esyúi tási masyí amulút: «Hú, a masy! Mintá syardéa duwsom résy ósmi puréti, pimbe histom wilémas: nyé bátur, so kirius, et tosy masyé hawlánam eynemeti. Dán méat hawlánehi ha tosy masyé esti.»
- Histom ahút, so masy gacewam ham at peliné etinemat.
- [ɲeː mæʃ peʃ hæu̯ˈlɑˤːnɑː ne æʃˈtɑːt eˈlerʃet eˈʃuː.ɑːs . ɲeː ɲæm ˈæræbæm kæreˈtɑːntɑːm eˈteŋet . ɲeː ɲim ˈtæŋtom duu̯ˈsɑːtæm eˈberet . ɲeː ˈleˤŋom ɲim ˈbɑːturom eˈberet]
- [so ˈmæʃ toːs eˈʃuːwi amuˈluːˤt . minˈtæt ʃærˈdeːm duu̯som ˈreːʃ mewi puˈreːti . ˈpimbe ˈbɑːturom . eˈʃuːɑːm luːˈkeːtom . wiˈleːmi]
- [tiː eˈʃuː.i tɑːsi ˈmæʃiː amuˈluːt . huː æ ˈmæʃ . minˈtɑː ʃærˈdeː.æ duu̯som ˈreːʃ oːsmi puˈreːti . ˈpimbe ˈhistom wiˈleːmæs . ɲeː ˈbɑːtur . so ˈkirjus . et toʃ ˈmæʃeː hæu̯ˈlɑˤːnæm ei̯ˈnemeti . dɑˈn ˈmeː.æt hæu̯ˈlɑˤːnehi hæ toʃ ˈmæʃeː eʃˈti]
- [ˈhistom aˈhuːt so ˈmæʃ ɡaˈtʃewæm hæm at ˈpelineː etiˈnemæt]