Lemizh: Difference between revisions

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===Phonotactics===
===Phonotactics===
===Sample text===
[[File:Lemizh text sample.png|thumb|center|upright=2|Sample of a Lemizh text in native script: The Legend of the Seventh Planet]]


==Morphology==
==Morphology==

Revision as of 19:56, 1 May 2022

Lemizh
lemỳzh.
Pronunciation[lɛˈmɯ̀ʒ]
Created byAnypodetos
Date1985
SettingAlt-history Europe
Native toLemaria
Indo-European
  • Lemizh
    • Lemizh
Early form
Proto-Lemizh
Lemizh alphabet
SourcesProto-Indo-European
Official status
Official language in
Lemaria
Map of Lemaria.png
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Lemizh ([lεˈmiʒ], native pronunciation: [lɛˈmɯ̀ʒ]) is a language I invented with the aim of creating a grammar as regular and simple as possible. It was originally intended as an international auxiliary language. However, it turned out that a simple grammar is not necessarily a grammar that is easy to learn: the more ways I discovered to simplify the grammar, the further away it moved from Indo-European and probably all other familiar language structures. Expecting anyone to learn Lemizh, at this point, would be completely unrealistic.

So I needed a new justification for the language: enter the Lemizh, a people living to the west and north of the Black Sea in an alternate history that drifted away from ours between two and eight millennia ago. Of course, it is extremely unlikely that they would speak a language that was completely exceptionless. To be precise, the chances are two to the power of two hundred and seventy-six thousand seven hundred and nine to one against. But they say that everything has to happen somewhere in the Multiverse. And everything happens only once.

History

Orthography and phonology

The alphabet is phonetic: each letter corresponds to a certain sound, and each sound is represented by a single letter. This article uses the standard transcription of the native Lemizh alphabet.

Letters of the Lemizh alphabet (Latin transcription)
a e y i o ö u ü l rh r ng m g d b k t p gh zh z dh w x sh s th f

The direction of writing is left to right.

Consonants

bilabial dental alveolar postalveolar velar
nasals m [m] ng [ŋ]
plosives p [p] • b [b] t [t] • d [d] k [k] • g [g]
fricatives f [ɸ] • w [β] th [θ] • dh [ð] s [s] • z [z] sh [ʃ] • zh [ʒ] x [x] • gh [ɣ]
liquids lateral approximant l [l]
approximant rh [ɹ]
trill r [r]

Vowels

front back
close i [i] • ü [y] y [ɯ] • u [u]
open-mid e [ɛ] • ö [œ] a [ʌ] • o [ɔ]

Two consecutive different vowels are pronounced as a diphthong; two consecutive identical vowels as a long one. Single vowels are always short.

Lemizh uses moræ for structuring words: a short syllable equals one mora, and a long syllable equals two. In Lemizh, every vowel is the centre of a mora; consequently, two consecutive vowels result in two moræ or one long syllable.

Accent

Lemizh has got a two-way pitch-accent system, in that accented moræ are not only spoken louder (as in English), but also have either a lower or a higher pitch than the surrounding unaccented ones. The vowel at the centre of a low-pitch accented mora is transcribed with a grave accent: à è etc. The vowel at the centre of a high-pitch accented mora is transcribed with an acute accent: á é etc.

Phonotactics

Sample text

Sample of a Lemizh text in native script: The Legend of the Seventh Planet

Morphology

Syntax

Constituent order

Noun phrase

Verb phrase

Sentence phrase

Dependent clauses

Example texts

External links