Cerian: Difference between revisions

|pronunciation = [tʃeːˈriːzon]<br/>[ˈʃeːroʃu tʃeːˈriː]

|region        = Western Evandor (Great Cerian Plain)

|setting      = [[Verse:Calémere|Calémere]]

|fam1          = [[Evandorian languages]]

|fam2          = Central Evandorian

|image        = Flag of Ceria.png

|imagealt      = Flag of the Republic of Ceria

'''Cerian''' — natively '''Čérízon''' [tʃeːˈriːzon] or '''šérošu čérí''' [ˈʃeːroʃu tʃeːˈriː] — is the main global lingua franca on the planet on [[Verse:Calémere|Calémere]], particularly in the nations of its Western Bloc, and its second-most spoken language by number of native speakers (after [[Chlouvānem]]). It is an [[Evandorian languages|Evandorian language]] belonging to the Central Evandorian branch, and one of the direct descendants of one of the two most important Classical language of the Calemerian Western civilization, namely [[Íscégon]].

Native to the country of Ceria (Cer.: ''Čéría''; Isc.: ''Ciairegiion'') in the western part of Evandor, Cerian is the official language of seven countries in Evandor - Ceria, Šáritun, Vétaní, Čaga, Rogoma, Noméde Ínéma, and Sternia (Cer. ''Seténía'' - co-official with Majo-Bankrávian) - and 37 other countries around the planet. It is also a regionally recognized language in the Evandorian countries of Besagret, Helinetia, Ingvensia, Auralia and Nordulic (Cer.: ''Bésói'', ''Helinétía'', ''Envenšía'', ''Órolía'', ''Nódóa''), and in many other countries of the planet, including even a few areas in the northwestern [[Verse:Chlouvānem Inquisition|Chlouvānem Inquisition]].

The name Ceria (and therefore Cerian), as with many major Calémerian, particularly Evandorian, peoples and places, dates back to my first proto-conworlding projects, and I simply imported it into Calémere - something that meant justifying the very-IE-looking ''-ia'' ending in a Calémerian linguistic perspective.<br/>Cerian itself is the main lingua franca of Calémere, a role equivalent to that English has on Earth, and to some extent English is one of my inspiration, although only as far as Cerian, just like English, has a large number of dialects spoken in many countries across the world. Aesthetically, my main inspirations behind Cerian are Latin, Japanese (mostly in the syllable structure), and to a lesser extent also Norwegian and Swedish. Grammatically I wanted a mostly analytic language, even though in the end it is not as analytic as other Evandorian languages (such as [[Nordulaki]], to name one) and with some SAE traits, most notably phonology (even though that lack of a distinction between /r/ and /l/ is not SAE at all), mixed in with a few non-European traits; the verbal system is, for example, inspired by Hindustani.

The consonant inventory among different Cerian dialects is fairly similar, with the most noticeable exception being Hilly Southeastern Cerian which are the only ones that didn't merge Íscégon /l/ into /r/ (the distinction is still kept everywhere in the spelling - e.g. ''áleron'' "road" /ˈaːreron/ even if 95% of speakers merge them). Many Southern Cerian dialects (incl. e.g. Šáritunen Cerian) also have /dʒ/ instead of /ʒ/, as Old Cerian did.

| '''m''' m || || '''n''' n || || || ||

| '''p''' p || || '''t''' t || || || '''k''' k ||

| '''b''' b || || '''d''' d || || || '''g''' g ||

| || || || '''č''' tʃ || || ||

| || '''f''' f || '''s''' s || '''š''' ʃ || || || '''h''' h

| || '''v''' v || '''z''' z || '''j''' ʒ || || ||

| || || '''r-l''' r ||  || || ||

| '''u''' w || || || || '''i''' j || ||

All consonants except voiced fricatives, approximants, /tʃ/ and /h/ can be geminated. Note, though, that /ʃ/ is only geminated in two words, the irregularly spelled ''ešečen'' /ˈeʃʃen/ and ''fášečen'' /ˈfaːʃʃen/, respectively the habitual and continuous forms of the present subjunctive of ''íso'' (to be) - which are used in order to form the subjunctive of all other verbs.

| '''i í''' i iː || || '''u ú''' u uː

| '''e é''' e eː || || '''o ó''' o oː

| || '''a á''' a aː ||

Vowels are extremely varied in different Cerian dialects, with the long-short contrast being actually realized depending on dialect as a pure quantity one, a quality one, a hybrid quality-quantity, by having monophthongs vs. diphthongs, and with some possible mergers or (more rarely) splits. The phonemic representation given above is conventional and reflects the spelling as well as the underlying phoneme in ''most'' (not necessary all) Cerian dialects. For example, ''élógen'' "lamp" - phonemically represented as /eːˈroːgen/ is pronounced in different ways, including:

* Evandorian dialects: [e(ː)ˈroːgɐn] (Mánébodin Cerian or Standard Evandorian Cerian), [ɪːˈroːgɪn] (Čagan Cerian), [eə̯ˈʁɔːgən] (Central Coastal), [eˈlogɛn] (Hilly Southeastern - note the conservation of /l/), [(j)eːˈruːgʲən] (Šáritunen)

* Púrítonen dialects: [eɪ̯ˈrʊə̯gən] (NE Coastal Púrítonen), [ɛɪ̯ˈruːgen] (Inland Northern Púrítonen), [eɪ̯ˈʁoʊ̯gen] (Bénáteno Lake)

* Céránentian dialects: [eːˈɾoːgʲɪn] (Cánésen), [eˈruːgʲɪn] (Pásuone)

 

Some Cerian dialects from Evandor may have kept closer values to Íscégon, notably for example with /iː/ which became /e/ in most Cerian dialects (and is thus represented in the orthography). So for example Šáritunen Cerian speakers pronounce ''refusécé'' "castle" (Mán. Cer. [refuseːˈkeː]) as [riːpʉseːˈkeː] - a different development from Íscégon ''rípsercé''. Similarly, ''rébé'' "stone" (< Ísc. ''rírbé'') is [riːˈbeː] in Šárituni (St. Cer. [re(ː)ˈbeː]), and ''jéče'' "word" (< Ísc. ''giécí'') is [dʒeːˈɕiː] (Mán. Cer. [ˈʒeːtʃɐ]).

<!-- ===Nouns===

Cerian nouns have lost most of the inflections of Íscégon, leaving only a predictable agglutinative pattern, regular for almost all nouns. Cerian nouns distinguish two cases - one called "nominative" (but also used as accusative), and an "indirect" (<small>AKA</small> oblique) case used after all prepositions and as the object of some verbs.<br/>

Nouns also distinguish between singular and plural, but the two forms are identical for all nouns ending in a vowel; to avoid ambiguity, Cerian has developed a marked plural (usually called the "indefinite plural") used when the plurality is important but not otherwise shown in a sentence. Every noun has the indefinite plural (which is completely regular), even nouns ending in ''-n'' which do mark plural normally. The indefinite plural, however, is never used in the indirect case, as indirect plurals are always marked.

The regular inflection of a Cerian noun is as follows:

{| class="wikitable"

! rowspan=2 | !! colspan=3 | Vowel noun - ''rutó'' "hawk" !! colspan=3 | N-noun - ''vútin'' "tree"

|-

! Singular !! Plural !! Pl. Indef. !! Singular !! Plural !! Pl. Indef.

| rutó || rutó || rutó'''oran''' || vútin || vútin'''é''' || vútin'''oran'''

|-

| rutó'''n''' || rutó'''in''' ||  || vútin'''i''' || vútin'''en''' ||

====Gender and Articles====

Cerian has grammatical gender and two definite articles, one for each gender, used in the singular only (plural vs. plural indefinite inflection does the same effect in the plural). As in most Evandorian languages, ''-n'' is a marker of feminine gender, so that most nouns (not all) ending with that letter are feminine; those which end in vowels are usually masculine. Note that natural gender is prevalent, as shown e.g. by couplets such as "brother" and "sister" where the nouns have the "wrong" ending.<br/>

The masculine article is '''šo'''; the feminine one is '''šen'''.

* Masculine nouns: ''šo rutó'' "the hawk"; ''šo sérešu'' "the language"; ''šo jéče'' "the word"; ''šo císenen'' "the brother".

* Feminine nouns: ''šen réboten'' "the price"; ''šen číečón'' "the flower"; ''šen putuánen'' "the wall"; ''šen ránéco'' "the sister".

Note that adjectives do '''not''' have gender in any way, and nouns which have the same form as an adjective may be used in either gender (prevalent in Púrítonen Cerian) or are feminine and have a marked masculine form (prevalent in most dialects). This is most notable with denonyms, as the corresponding adjectives usually end in ''-n''. "Cerian" is an exception, as it has two forms (different from the adjective) in all dialects.

Examples:

* ''šo Čérízuo'' "the Cerian man"; ''šen Čérízen'' "the Cerian woman" (all dialects)

* ''čérízon'' "Cerian"; ''nódógolénen'' "Nordulaki"; ''imúnigúronen'' "Chlouvānem" (all dialects)

* ''šo Nódógoléo'' "the Nordulaki man", ''šen Nódógolénen'' "the Nordulaki woman"<ref>Old Cerian: ''-euo'', ''-eunen''.</ref>; ''šo Imúnigúronno'' "the Chlouvānem man"; ''šen Imúnigúronen'' "the Chlouvānem woman". (Standard Evandorian Cerian; most dialects)

* ''šo Nódógolénen, šen Nódógolénen'' "the Nordulaki man/woman"; ''šo Imúnigúronen, šen Imúnigúronen'' "the Chlouvānem man/woman" (most Púrítonen Cerian dialects)

There are words that can be used in both genders - ''šo bésuon'' "the son" and ''šen bésuon'' "the daughter" is a notable example.

<!--====Numbers====

|}-->

Like other descendants of Íscégon, Cerian radically restructured the Íscégon verbal system. While Íscégon had a system of mostly prefixing inflections that mainly changed aspect or valency, these inflections have with time transformed into self-standing verbs, becoming a derivational process rather than an inflectional one (cf. Ísc. ''táso'' "I walk", ''máentáso'' "I start walking" → Cer. ''tóson'' "to go, walk", ''méntón'', earlier ''méntóson'' "to depart"). These aspectual inflections and valency changes are now marked by auxiliary verbs or adverbs (with few exceptions); meanwhile, Cerian (and other descendants of Íscégon, as well as some languages influenced by it in a sprachbund covering various parts of central Evandor, most notably Nordûlaki) started cliticizing at the end of the verb various adverbs that served to indicate tense; later on, in Cerian (excluding some Southern dialects) and Péigu only, final ''-n'' in some of those adverbs started being analyzed as a feminine marker, which led to it being added to those verbs that did not have it, resulting in the present system that morphologically marks tense and gender.

| -tuéle(n) || čeléto'''tuéle''' || čeléto'''tuélen'''

 

Note that the copula is usually ''esu'', but ''ešon'' is used for gnomic, natural truths. As an example, "my pen is blue" is ''bícon ésuon esu ríté'', but "the sky is blue" is ''šen gáteon ešon ríté''. The habitual form is typically used with large, typically unchanging objects - the sky, the sea, trees, buildings... while the continuous is used mostly for small objects or temporaneous states (cf. ''ser'' vs. ''estar'' in Portuguese). When in doubt, however, use ''esu''.<br/>Note, however, that when "to be" is used in order to indicate possession, ''esu'' denotes alienable possession while ''ešon'' denotes inalienable.  

Example conjugation of another verb - ''čéléton'' "to read" (stem ''čélét-''):

 

Passive forms are formed by using the passive participles instead of the active ones; habitual and continuous indicative use the participles with the respective forms of ''íso'' (e.g. ''čeletótín'' → ''čéleté esítin'', ''zončéléti'' → ''čéleté zoníso/zoníten''). -->

====To have====

: ''Toro cáruton ésuonno esu bénuo opéuso.'' – my uncle has a new car.

===The family===

* Girl: ''šen ráginen'' (dial. also ''šen vajúnien'')

* Ship: ''šo gama''

* East: ''mutin''

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[[Category:Calémere]]