Qazhrian

Qazhrian/Lexicon

Qazhrian (/kɑːʒriən/ KAHZH-ree-uhn; natively: Qazhrem /ˈqaʒrem/ or zhë Lazhrem /ʒə ˈʟaʒrem/) is a Talmic language spoken in Qazhra (from Thensarian Ȝactrasē), a Talman country. It is descended from 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, f are 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

kj

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 zhë (< *gjë < φinom), and it triggers the soft mutation:

• tëzh 'a child'; zhë dëzh 'the child'
• rronn 'a man'; zhë ronn 'the man'
• kavër 'a woman'; zhë gavër 'the woman'

Construct state is usually formed with -ë:

• tëzhë zhë ront 'the man's child'

Verbs

There are finite verbs, but auxiliaries are also important