Ziko's Language • The Language of Saaj̊uian

Natively known as: saaj̊u /ˈɕaːʥu/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
si si chyivuu piisu si suukoo si chyaa si nochee jenoo ne giinu
Pronunciation: /ɕi ɕi ˈʨivuː ˈpiːɕu ɕi ˈɕuːkoː ɕi ʨaː ɕi ˈnoʧeː ˈʤenoː ne ˈgiːnu/
Saaj̊uian word order: and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: b d f g j k m n p t v ɕ ʃ ʑ ʒ ʔ ʤ ʥ ʧ ʨ

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Alveolo-palatal	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m		n
Stop	p b		t d				k g	ʔ
Affricate				ʧ ʤ	ʨ ʥ
Fricative		f v		ʃ ʒ	ɕ ʑ
Approximant						j

Vowel inventory: a aː e eː i iː o oː u uː

	Front	Back
High	i iː	u uː
High-mid	e eː	o oː
Low	a aː

Syllable structure: Custom defined ?
Stress pattern: Penultimate — stress is on the second last syllable ?
Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
ʔ	ʻ
j	y
ʧ	ch
ʃ	sh
ɕ	s
ʑ	z
ʒ	zh
ʤ	j
ʨ	chy
ʥ	j̊
V₁ː	V₁V₁

---

Grammar

Main word order: Subject Verb Object (Prepositional phrase). “Mary opened the door with a key” turns into Mary opened the door with a key.
Adjective order: Adjectives are positioned before the noun.
Adposition: prepositions ?

Nouns

	Masculine	Feminine
Singular	No affix vi /vi/ man	No affix shu /ʃu/ woman
Plural	Prefix ji- yivi /ˈjivi/ men	Prefix ko- koshu /ˈkoʃu/ women

Articles

Saaj̊uian has no definite article ‘the’, or indefinite article ‘a’.

Pronouns

	Nominative	Accusative
1st singular	di /di/ I	j̊i /ʥi/ me
2nd singular	sha /ʃa/ you	u /u/ you
3rd singular masc	si /ɕi/ he, it	nu /nu/ him, it
3rd singular fem	pee /peː/ she, it	ne /ne/ her, it
1st plural	nuu /nuː/ we	jo /ʤo/ us
2nd plural	ki /ki/ you all	yuu /juː/ you all
3rd plural masc	zu /ʑu/ they (masc)	shaa /ʃaː/ them (masc)
3rd plural fem	vaa /vaː/ they (fem)	chyu /ʨu/ them (fem)

Possessive determiners

1st singular	di /di/ my
2nd singular	sha /ʃa/ your
3rd singular masc	si /ɕi/ his
3rd singular fem	pee /peː/ her
1st plural	nuu /nuː/ our
2nd plural	ki /ki/ your (pl)
3rd plural masc	zu /ʑu/ their (masc)
3rd plural fem	vaa /vaː/ their (fem)

Verbs

Present	Prefix pe- pegoopee /peˈgoːpeː/ learn
Past	No affix goopee /ˈgoːpeː/ learned
Remote past	Prefix feː- feegoopee /feːˈgoːpeː/ learned (long ago)
Future	Prefix nuː- nuugoopee /nuːˈgoːpeː/ will learn

Numbers

Saaj̊uian has a base-20 number system:
1 - pe
2 - bu
3 - vuu
4 - chyuu
5 - yuu
6 - oo
7 - pu
8 - no
9 - j̊aape
10 - noo
11 - nuuzho
12 - ekii
13 - shishii
14 - duvevu
15 - seze
16 - chyejaa
17 - paayu
18 - shadi
19 - piibe
20 - uchyee
21 - uchyeepe “twenty-one”
400 - fite “fourhundred”
401 - fite pe “fourhundred one”
800 - bu fite “two fourhundred”
8000 - gaazha “eightthousand”

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = Prefix naː-
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Prefix deː-
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Prefix pu-
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Prefix vu-
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Prefix ʤiː-
Noun to verb = Prefix po-
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Prefix ʨu-
Tending to = Prefix ne-
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Prefix biː-
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Prefix ʤi-
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Prefix ni-
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Prefix paː-
Diminutive = Prefix ʃu-
Augmentative = Prefix ʥi-

Dictionary

5851 Words.

Common Phrases

• naajayuu ve = needy slut
• yaabo = beautiful

Common Male Names

Buchyo:

• Named by Ziko as stable, steady, safe.

Common Unisex Names

Dee:

• gender neutral (could be Dee-anna, could be Dee as a short for Daniel or Diego or something)
• sounds human-passing
• full name: deejee meaning erase in his language, as in eraser of the past, a new future
• short name of "dee" also means pure, right, sincere and innocent.
• so she's their pure and sincere eraser of the past.

Aniij̊i

• Gokii's girlfriend