Zlïke

Zlïke (native name ihr zlïker Zießammel) is a language of the country Zlïkerẅẅs (literally Zlike land) in Central Etalocin. It's aesthetically inspired by German.

Zlïke has loanwords from Ksieh, Fursfop and Clofabosin.

Phonology

Vowels: a e i o u w ë ï ẅ /ɑ ɛ ɪ ɔ ʊ ʏ ə ɨ ʊ/. Unstressed e is pronounced as if written ë. Vowels may be doubled or glottalized; the latter is marked with the letter h.

In addition there are a few diphthongs: ei ëi ie ïe au ua /ɛɪ əɨ ɪə ɨə ɑʊ ʊɑ/.

Consonants: b p f pf d t th g k ch h s z ß sch m n ng l r j /b p v f d t t' g k k' ʔ ʂ ʈ s ʃ m n ŋ l ɾ j/

Ejectives are weak as in Georgian. Final ejectives are realized as unreleased stops, whereas final voiceless stops may be spirantized as in Irish English or Liverpool English.

Dialects

There are two rough dialect areas, Upper Zlïce and Lower Zlïce. The former includes the dialect of the capital city Raudehn.

Place names

• Brwschling
• Eintrach
• Klwgepfazh
• Anfihst
• Laamaper
• Pfernpfuh

Morphology

Zlïce is polysynthetic in that it features noun incorporation with certain verbs. It is unlike most other polysynthetic languages in that word lengths are comparable to the average Germanic or Finnic language. The morpheme count in an average Zlïce word is much smaller than in most polysynthetic languages.

Nouns

Zlïce nouns come in four genders: personal, human, animate nonhuman and inanimate. Technically the personal gender isn't really a noun gender because it only includes pronouns but it's treated as a gender for the sake of verb agreement.

Noun morphology includes case, number and incorporated adjective. Cases and numbers are mostly agglutinating suffixes while incorporating adjectives are prefixes with occasional umlaut, which manifests as vowel backing if the umlauting vowel is e, i or w. Occasionally adjectives cause suppletion of the noun.

Adjectives

Incorporating adjectives are a small closed class, with others being expressed as verbs.

Constituent order

Zlïce is predicate-first like Lushootseed.

Example:

Rahin an mëjinnen ei Schaapau ja Pfernpfuh.

The gardens in Furnifoo are indeed beautiful.

Ischeß ihr emPfanber drëbagbeigem, ihr angtlẅren tah "Staußar ihr Kurel! Staußar ihr Jahr!"

never-PERF DEF CONST.baby-GEN babble<perceive> the word<show>.AGENT like beauty.EMPH DEF flute beauty.EMPH DEF harp

"Those who say the flute and harp are sweet have never heard their baby babbling"

Example texts

The lyrics of a song performed during the Zlicean Nature Festival (Zlïke: Ẅmschatzerlekt)

Zfimklat um Zfitlat, Vlemzan em Tfeinklat,

Tlemnod en Tlamnach, Ẅmschat in vlamnoh;

Heilëndorgozan klemnoh um Tolzan;

en Klaskit en Zartẅm en Svingendon-Schaar.

Zfimklat um Zfitlat, Vlemzan em Tfeinklat,

one-ness in diverse-ness, (the) person-PLURAL for strong-ness

Unity in diversity, the people for strength

Tlemnod en Tlamnach, (em) Ẅmschat in vlamnoh;

nature COP free-AdjNOUN, (for) Ẅmschat GNOMIC call-PRES

Nature is freedom (for) Ẅmschat (Zlicean god of nature) calls

Heilëndorgozan klemnoh um Tolzan;

heilendorg-PLURAL bloom-PRES in (the) field-PLURAL

The heilendorg (a flower) blooms in the fields

en Klaskit um Zartẅm en Svingendon-Schaar.

of Klaskit in (the) royal-house of Svingendon-Schaar.

of Klaskit in the kingdom of Svingendon-Schaar (a Zlicean historical figure).