Croissant is the ancestor of the Zoomic language family spoken on the planet Rulak. It's meant to be French gibberish with retroflexes.
Introduction
Phonology
The same as French, but with three additional retroflex consonants: ṭ /ʈ/, ḍ /ɖ/ and ṇ /ɳ/.
Orthography
Written like French.
Consonants
Vowels
Prosody
Stress
Intonation
Phonotactics
Morphophonology
Morphology
Articles
The indefinite article is "le/la" in free variation.
The definite article is "en".
Nouns
Croissant nouns have two cases: nominative and genitive. Nouns ending with consonants use this paradigm:
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | - | -o |
| Genitive | -e | -ɑ̃ |
For example,
| riège (wood) | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | riège | riègeau |
| Genitive | riègé | riègent |
(Croissant final -ent is always pronounced.) Nouns ending with vowels use the same paradigm, but with an intrusive t:
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | - | -to |
| Genitive | -te | -tɑ̃ |
For example,
| crus (grass) | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | crus | crûteau |
| Genitive | crûté | crûtant |
Verbs
Verbs don't inflect for number or person.
| gauṇe 'to love' | Indicative | Subjunctive | Progressive | Perfect | Perfect Progressive |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Present | gauṇe | gauṇement | gauṇois | gauṇive | gauṇevois |
| Past | dégauṇe | dégauṇement | dégauṇois | dégauṇive | dégauṇevois |
| Future | gauṇé | gauṇaise | gauṇoir | gauṇivre | dégauṇevoir |
Non-finite forms
- Infinitive: gauṇesse
- Verbal noun: gauṇerre (genitive form: gauṇerez)
Pronouns
Unlike in English, there are no accusative forms of pronouns in Croissant.
| Pronoun | Nominative | Genitive |
|---|---|---|
| I | dans | danné |
| you | lin | lunné |
| he / she | fuis | fuisé |
| we | deman | demé |
| you folks | sonc | sonché |
| they | fuille | fuillé |
| this | jus | jusé |
| these | juseau | jusant |
| that | honne | honné |
| those | honneau | honnant |
| that over there | ṇeux | ṇeusé |
| those over there | ṇeuseau | ṇeusant |
| who (interrogative) | tris | trisé |
| who (plural) | trisau | trisent |
| what | treux | treusé |
| what (plural) | treusau | treusent |
Relative pronouns
avec = who; genitive form avez
chez = that; genitive form chez
Syntax
Croissant is an almost exact relex of English.
Constituent order
Noun phrase
Verb phrase
Sentence phrase
Dependent clauses
Example texts
En Évon Jert à-t-en Ṇèle déṭaitive loix rattier, que tris de fuille dére étrapique, sont l'épulir déchart avandre, crêvette-au-lus eux le ḍemble. Fuille dénaître, et en loix avec dévent loir en épulir raisse-au-plas fuisé ḍemble, déré dantrette-au-dis prait étrapique car en chelle loix.
The North Wind and the Sun were arguing one day about which of them was stronger, when a traveler came along wrapped up in an overcoat. They agreed that the one who could make the traveler take his coat off would be considered stronger than the other one.
Then the North Wind blew as hard as he could, but the harder he blew, the tighter the traveler wrapped his coat around him; and at last the North Wind gave up trying.
Then the Sun began to shine hot , and right away the traveler took his coat off. And so the North Wind had to admit that the Sun was stronger than he was.
[to be translated]