Cerian

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Cerian
Pronunciation[[Help:IPA|[[tʃeːˈriːzon]
[ˈseːreʃu tʃeːˈriː]]]]
Created byLili21
DateMar 2017
SettingCalémere
EthnicityCerians
Native speakers450,000,000 (2312)
Evandorian languages
  • Íscégon
    • Cerian

Cerian — natively Čérízon [tʃeːˈriːzon] or sérešu čérí [ˈseːreʃu tʃeːˈriː] — is the main global lingua franca on the planet on 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 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, Nódóle), and in many other countries of the planet, including even a few areas in the northwestern Chlouvānem Inquisition.

Introduction

Phonology

Orthography

Consonants

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 the speakers merge them).

→ PoA
↓ Manner
Labial Labiodental Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasals m n
Plosives p b t d k g
Affricates
Fricatives f v s z ʃ ʒ h
Approximants j
Trill r

Vowels

Front Central Back
High i iː u uː
Mid e eː o oː
Low a aː

Vowels vary more among different dialects, as long vowels are realized as diphthongs in many areas (notably in the vast majority of Cerian dialects of Púríton — e.g. élógen "lamp" [eːˈroːgen] (Standard Cerian); [eɪ̯ˈruːgen] (NE Coastal Púrítoné)). The table above refers to Standard Cerian, the standardized pronunciation in Ceria and a few other Evandorian Cerian-speaking countries.

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 Šáritun Cerian speakers pronounce refusécé "castle" (St. Cer. [refuseːˈkeː]) as [riːpʉseːˈkeː] - a different development from Íscégon rípsercé. Similarly, rébé "stone" (< Ísc. rírbé) is [riːˈbeː] in Šárituni (St. Cer. [reːˈbeː]), and jéče "word" (< Ísc. giécí) is [dʒeːˈɕiː] (St. Cer. [ˈʒeːtʃe]).

Prosody

Stress

Intonation

Phonotactics

Morphophonology

Morphology

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" case used after all prepositions and as the object of some verbs.
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.
Cerian nouns also have gender, but only expressed as a distinction in pronouns and adjectives.

The regular inflection of a Cerian noun is as follows:

Vowel noun - rutó "hawk" N-noun - vútin "tree"
Singular Plural Pl. Indef. Singular Plural Pl. Indef.
Nominative rutó rutó rutóoran vútin vútiné vútinoran
Indirect rutón rutóin vútinin vútinen

Adjectives

Cerian adjectives are morphologically simple, distinguishing case only. They can be classified in two ways depending on if they end in -n or a vowel.

  • -n adjectives form their oblique form by adding -no, e.g. eréden "fourth" → erédenno.
  • Vowel adjectives add an -u morpheme, which is, however, rarely seen as such:
    • -a and -e combine with the -u, forming -eu (-éu if the stem vowel is long), e.g. fúsuná "hot" → fúsunéu; ontére "big" → ontéreu.
    • -i becomes semivocalic, triggering the changes siš, kič, and gij, e.g. méroni "sweet" → méroniu; pósi "easy" → póšu.
    • -u and -o become (< pre-Cerian *ou), e.g. ramo "first" → ramó; čufutú "enough" → čufutó. Those that already end in are practically invariable, e.g. egoró "ninth" → egoró.

Numbers

Numbers, in Cerian, are simple adjectives and only have two forms: cardinal and ordinal. As all Evandorian languages, and most Calemerian languages anyway, its counting system is decimal.

Digit Cardinal Ordinal
0 nóron (or norinon)[1]
1 šen ramo
2 dédo duro
3 ténse ténon
4 éjan eréden
5 qué quéteren
6 suóša suóšaten
7 curíse curítéšen
8 šiló šílen
9 egón egoró
10 cótu cótuni
11 cótašen cótuni ramo
12 cótadédo cótuni duro
13 cótaténse cótuni ténon
14 cótaéjan cótuni eréden
15 cótaqué cótuni quéteren
16 cótasuóša cótuni suóšaten
17 cótacuríse cótuni curítéšen
18 cótašiló cótuni šílen
19 cótaegón cótuni egoró
20 dérecótu dérecótuni
21 dérecótašen dérecótuni ramo
30 técótu técótuni
40 erícótu erícótuni
50 quétocótu quétocótuni
60 suóšótu suóšótuni
70 curícótu curícótuni
80 šícótu šícótuni
90 egócótu egócótuni
100 téčá téčošon

Verbs

Cerian verbs may be said to be more morphologically complex than Íscégon ones, as grammaticalization added a completely new tense - the future - and a new aspect - the habitual. On the other hand, the older past continuous has been replaced in form by the shorter non-continuous past, as the two perfective tenses (future and past) are now analytic. On the other hand, the subjunctive of all verbs except "to be" (íso) is now analytically formed by the participle plus the subjunctive of íso. Note that the "present perfective" is semantically past, and the "past perfective" is a pluperfect.

Conjugation of "to be" (íso) — where two forms are given, the first is masculine and the other is feminine.

↓ Tense / → Aspect Indicative Subjunctive
Habitual Continuous Perfective Habitual Continuous Perfective
Present ešon esu fedí esu ešončen fášučen fedí fášučen
Past esítin sétu
sétin
fedí sétu
fedí sétin
ešoná fáená fedí fáená
Future esínzión zoníso
zoníten
fedí zoníso
fedí zoníten
ešizínon díteníso
díníten
fedí díteníso
fedí díníten
Active participle endáe fedí
Verbal noun íso
Informal imperative enše
Formal imperative enšečen

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

↓ Tense / → Aspect Indicative Subjunctive
Habitual Continuous Perfective Habitual Continuous Perfective
Present čéléteon máčéléti čéletí esu čéletáe ešončen čéletáe fášučen čéletí fášučen
Past čéletótín sočéléti čéletí sétu
čéletí sétin
čéletáe ešoná čéletáe fáená čéletí fáená
Future čélénzión zončéléti čéletí zoníso
čéletí zoníten
čéletáe ešizínon čéletáe díteníso
čéletáe díníten
čéletí díteníso
čéletí díníten
Active participle čéletáe čéletí
Passive participle čéleté čéletéco
Verbal noun čéléton
Informal imperative čéléše
Formal imperative čéléšečen

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. čeletótínčéleté esítin, zončélétičéleté zoníso/zoníten).


Syntax

Constituent order

Noun phrase

Verb phrase

Sentence phrase

Dependent clauses

Example texts

Other resources

  1. ^ Norinon is a high-style reborrowing of Íscégon nornon.