Persiran

Persiran
Persirija
Pronunciation	[peʁ'siʁija]
Created by	Nicolelle
Native speakers	301,486 (2012)
Language family	Indo-European Persiran
Early form	Savian
Official status
Official language in	Persirus

This language was created to be spoken in the fictional country of Persirus, which is in eastern europe.

Background

The vocabulary of Persiran is probably 95% from French words. The other 5% are from English, Czech, Russian, or other languages in eastern europe.

Phonology

Consonants

	Bilabial	Labio-dental	Dental	Alveolar	Post-alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Pharyngeal	Epiglottal	Glottal
Nasal	m			n
Plosive	p b			t d				k
Fricative		f v		s z	ʃ ʒ				ʁ
Affricate				t͡s	t͡ʃ
Approximant							j
Trill
Flap or tap
Lateral fric.
Lateral app.				l		ɭ
Lateral flap

Vowels

	Front	Near-front	Central	Near-back	Back
Close	i
Near-close		ɪ		ʊ
Close-mid	e ø				o
Mid
Open-mid	ɛ œ				ʌ ɔ
Near-open			ɐ
Open

Stress

Stress varies upon the part of speech and the way the word is constructed.

In most, if not all, 2 syllable verbs, when in dictionary form, the stress is on the tense ending.

"etrej" (to be) = é-trej

"aštej" (to buy) = aš-téj

For verbs over 2 syllables, the stress is either 2nd to last syllable, or last syllable.

"sujetej" (to wish (for)) = su-je-téj

Stress in nouns aren't really regular. Most 2 syllable nouns have the stress on the last syllable. However, most nouns that end with "i" have the stress on the first syllable.

"mačkon" (house) = mač-kón

"panać" (bread) = pa-náć

"valač" (village) = vál-ač (/'vɐlɪt͡ʃ/)

"livški" (book) = lív-ški (/'livʃkɪ/)

For 3 syllables, the stress is usually on the 2nd syllable.

"labričnie" (maze) = la-bríč-nie (/la'bʁit͡ʃnje/)

In words having over 3 syllables, the stress is usally on the 2nd to last syllable, but there are exceptions. Usually, if the number of syllables increase by 1 as a result of the number suffix, the stress is almost always on the 2nd to last syllable.

Phonotactics

Any consonant cluster is allowed, without needing a vowel. For example, "knmplrtza" is allowed, although it is not common to see more than three or four consecutive consonants together. The most common consonant cluster is "sk", and usually two consonants will be consecutive if they are from different syllables. Additionally, one letter words that only consist of a consonant are also allowed. For example, if the word "d" precedes a word that begins with a consonant, it will be pronounced like an "e" is at the end, but it will be an extremely short sound. However, if it precedes a word that begins with a vowel, it will flow into the pronunciation of that word, similar to how "l'eau" would be pronounced in french.

Vowel clusters are not allowed, unless a "j" is used to separate them.

Orthography

Letter	Pronunciation	Name
Aa	/ɐ/	a
Bb	/b/	bej
Dd	/d/	dej
Ee	/ɛ/	ie
Ff	/f/	fej
Ii*	/i/ or /j/	i
Jj	/j/	joj
Kk	/k/	kej
Ll	/l/	el
Łł	/ɭ/	łej
Mm	/m/	em
Nn	/n/	en
Oo	/o/	o
Pp	/p/	pej
Rr	/ʁ/	er
Tt	/t/	tej
Ss	/s/	es
Šš	/ʃ/	ša
Ćć	/t͡s/	ećie
Čč	/t͡ʃ/	če
Uu	/ʊ/	u
Vv	/v/	vej
Zz	/z/	zej
Žž	/ʒ/	aža

* The letter "i" is pronounced as /i/ when by itself; however, when it precedes another vowel it is pronounced as /j/.

When a vowel is unstressed and in the last syllable of a word, it may have a different pronunciation. Please take note of the following:

a	/ɪ/
e	/ʌ/
i	/ɪ/
o	/ø/
u	/œ/

When a vowel is followed by a "j", it adds a short "i" sound, similar to the "Й" letter in Russian. The pronunciations of "aj", "ej", "ij", "oj", and "uj" are in the following table:

aj	/aɪ/
ej	/e/
ij	/ij/
oj	/ɔɪ/
uj	/ʊj/

Morphology

Nouns

Nouns are made up of three parts: the root, the case/voice, and the number.

Root

The root of a noun, is the part that holds the meaning.

Case / Voice

The case/voice part of a noun indicates if the noun is the subject, the direct object, the indirect object, the object of a preposition, or the actor (when a sentence is written in passive voice). The case/voice is represented by an affix that is infixated inside the root of the noun. You can't decide where to infixate the affix in the root, there is a certain place to do so that you just have to memorize for each word.

Nominative*	Accusative	Dative	Object of Prep.	Actor (in passive voice)
a/e/i	u	o	uj	oj

* Dictionary form always utilises nominative case, and can either be an "a", "e", or "i". Exceptions: gerunds and adjectives that become nouns

Number

There are 3 different numbers for nouns: singular, plural, and zero (if there is none of something). They are represented by an affix that is added to the end of the noun. The dictionary form will be in singular. There are 10 different endings for number that may change differently.

singular (1)	Plural (>1)	Zero (0)
a	aje	o
e	eje	o
i	ije	o
ć	š	ću
č	š	ču
sk	č	sko
il	oje	ol
on	omie	op
el	elš	elo
av	avš	avo

Examples

Makašme (dictionary form of "store")

root a	case/voice	root b	number
mak	a	šm	e

This means, that the infix "a", meaning nominative case (subject) was infixed inside "makšm", which is followed by "e" meaning it is singular.

To change the case/voice and number, just swap out the affixes for different ones.

For example, to say "store" as in "i'm going to some stores" (object of preposition and plural), add the corresponding affixes ("uj" and "eje")

Mak + uj + šm + eje = Makujšmeje

Šemisk (dictionary form of "shirt")

root a	case/voice	root b	number
š	e	mi	sk

So, the nominative affix is "e", and the singular affix is "sk".

To change it to "shirt" as in "i have no shirts", you would the corresponding affixes for accusative case and zero as the number ("u" and "sko")

Š + u + mi + sko = Šumisko

Verbs

There are no conjugations for person, but there is verb aspect, tense, and voice.

Tense

Tense is represented by an affix and is the first one to be added onto the root of the verb (which holds the meaning). Dictionary form always is in present tense.

Present	Past	Future
ej	oj	aj

Voice

Voice is the 2nd affix to be added to the end of the verb. Active voice is assumed by default, so no affix is needed for it. However, there are affixes for middle voice (reflexive) and passive voice.
**Never in Dictionary Form**

Middle	Passive
oš	oč

Aspect

Aspect is the final thing to be added onto the verb. Aspect affixes are only needed in the continuous (be + -ing), habitual (used to...), and iterative (re- as in rewrite) aspects.
**Never in Dictionary Form**

Continuous	Habitual*	Iterative
a	eš	aso

* Habitual aspect is only used in past tense (oj)

Examples

• Etrej : "to be", this is dictionary form so it's in present tense

• Etroj : "was"
• Etroješ : "used to be"

• Ekrijej : "to write"

• Ekrijoja : "was writing"
• Ekrijaj : "will write" / "going to write"
• Ekrijajaso : "will rewrite" / "going to rewrite"

Adjectives / Adverbs

Adjectives and adverbs are the same thing in Persiran. Adjectives/Adverbs always end in "-a", and can be used to modify nouns, adjectives, adverbs, or verbs. Adjectives/Adverbs always follow the word they modify. (If W = word and A = adjective/adverb, the order would be WA)

There is no agreement with adjectives/adverbs with the word they modify.

Derivational Morphology

Nouns to Adjectives/Adverbs

1. Take the dictionary form of a noun, and take away the ending that represents number (ex. "mera" -> "mer" / "panać" -> "pana")
2. Add an "a" onto the end. If the noun (without the number ending) ends with an "a", add an "ja". (ex. "mer" + "a" = "mera" / "pana" + "ja" = "panaja")

Note: Some nouns already end with an "a" and don't change like "mera" (mother).

1. The example ("mera" -> "mera") turned "mother" into "motherly". The example ("panać" -> "panaja") turned "bread" into "bready".

Adjectives/Adverbs to Nouns

1. Remove the "a" ending from the end of the adjective. (ex. "bela" -> "bel")
2. Add the affix "av" to the end. (ex. "bel" + "av" = "belav")
3. The example ("bela" -> "belav") turned "beautiful" into "beauty".

Verbs to Nouns

Gerunds

This is the basic way of forming a gerund.

1. Take the dictionary form of a verb, and remove the "ej" from the end. (ex. "surej" -> "sur")
2. Add the affix "el" to the end. (ex. "sur" + "el" = "surel")
3. The example ("surej" -> "surel") turned "to smile" into "smile".

Doers

This is the way of turning a verb into someone who performs that action.

1. Take the dictionary form of a verb, and remove the "ej" from the end. (ex. "curej" -> "cur")
2. Add the affix "eć" to the end. (ex. "cur" + "eć" = "cureć")
3. The example ("curej" -> "cureć") turned "to run" into "runner".

Verbs to Adjectives/Adverbs

Basic Adjectives/Adverbs

This is the basic way of turning a verb into an adjective/adverb.

1. Take the dictionary form of a verb, and remove the "ej" from the end. (ex. "danšej" -> "danš")
2. Add the affix "a" to the end. ("danš" + "a" = "danša")
3. The example ("danšej" -> "danša") turned "to danse" into "dancing" or "dancingly".

Past Participles

This is the basic way of turning a verb into an adjective that generally ends in "-ed" in English, or a past participle.

1. Take the dictionary form of a verb and add the passive voice ending "oč" to the end. (ex. "aštej" -> "aštejoč")
2. Break the verb into pieces (root, tense, and voice). (ex. "aštej" = "ašt" + "ej" + "oč")
3. Remove the "ej" affix. (ex. "ašt" + "ej" + "oč" -> "ašt" + "oč" and "ašt" + "oč" = "aštoč")
4. Add the affix "a" at the end. (ex. "aštoč" + "a" = "aštoča")
5. The example ("aštej" -> "aštoča") turned "to buy" into "bought".

Particles

Articles do not exist in Persiran. Definiteness, indefiniteness, or partitiveness is inferred depending on the context of the sentence.

Syntax

Word Order

Word order is usually SVO, like in English.

However, since case is identified in each noun, word order doesn't really matter. Therefore, if you wanted to emphasize something, you can say it first without changing the meaning of the sentence.

The only word order that is strict is in prepositional phrases. It must be PREPOSITION followed by the OBJECT.

Note: If a word ends in a vowel (a,e,i,o,u) and the next word starts with a vowel (a,e,i,o,u), then a "j" should be added onto the end of the first word, so that it flows nicer.

"A etrej" -> "Aj etrej" (i am)

Qualifiers

Qualifiers always directly follow the word they're modifying.

"ševeš mara" = brown hair (the qualifier "mara" (brown) would come after "ševeš" (hair) since that is the word it is modifying)

"bela tru" = very beautiful (the qualifier "tru" (very) would come after "bela" (beautiful) since that is the word it is modifying)

"a curoj rapa" = i ran quickly (the qualifier "rapa" (quickly) would come after "curoj" (ran) since that is the word it is modifying)

Determinatives

There are no articles.

Quantifiers come right before the word they are modifying (many, 5, three, etc..)

"tri tantantontaje" = three pairs of pants

"va d persirije" = many people (many is an expression: "va d")

There is only one Demonstrative ("vi"). It is added onto a noun by using a dash ("-") and then the word. Demonstratives can also be used alone.

"livški-vi" = this/that book

"šiomie-vi" = these/those dogs

"vij etrej drolša" = that is funny