Cerian

Cerian
Pronunciation	[[Help:IPA|[[tʃeːˈriːzon] [ˈseːreʃu tʃeːˈriː]]]]
Created by	Lili21
Date	Mar 2017
Setting	Calémere
Ethnicity	Cerians
Native speakers	450,000,000 (2312)
Language family	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.

Phonology

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			tʃ
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]).

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

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

Examples:

• 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"; nódólénen "Nordulaki"; imúnigúronen "Chlouvānem" (all dialects)
• šo Nódóléo "the Nordulaki man", šen Nódólénen "the Nordulaki woman"; šo Imúnigúronno "the Chlouvānem man"; šen Imúnigúronen "the Chlouvānem woman". (Standard Evandorian Cerian; most dialects)
• šo Nódólénen, šen Nódólénen "the Nordulaki man/woman"; šo Imúnigúronen, šen Imúnigúronen "the Chlouvānem man/woman" (most Púrítonen Cerian dialects)

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 si → š, ki → č, and gi → j, e.g. méroni "sweet" → méroniu; pósi "easy" → póšu.
  • -u and -o become -ó (< pre-Cerian *ou), e.g. ramo "first" → ramó; čufutú "enough" → čufutó. Those that already end in -ó 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	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. čeletótín → čéleté esítin, zončéléti → čéleté zoníso/zoníten).

Syntax