Zozun
The language of Incaendium
...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
va kor gopubat ogoraro kor kiko va guk kor nagu to kir tim kavek
Pronunciation: /va kor ˈgopubat ˈagoɾaɾo kor kiˈko va guk kor naˈgu kir tim ˈkavek/
Zozun word order: and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet (preposition) face to the wind
Spelling & Phonology
Consonant inventory
b d g h j k l m n p r s t v w z ŋ ɾ
Pronunciation
↓Manner/Place→ | Bilabial | Labiodental | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nasal | m | n | ŋ | |||
Stop | p b | t d | k g | |||
Fricative | v | s z | h | |||
Approximant | j | |||||
Tap | ɾ | |||||
Trill | r | |||||
Lateral approximant | l |
Co-articulated phonemes
↓Manner/Place→ | Labial-velar |
---|---|
Approximant | w |
Vowel inventory
a e i o u y
Pronunciation
Front | Back | |
---|---|---|
High | i y | u |
High-mid | e | o |
Low | a |
Stress and Spelling
There is no stress pattern - all syllables are equally long. Pitch, however, does change.
Spelling rules
Pronunciation | Spelling |
---|---|
ŋ | n |
ɾ | r |
æ | ae |
ü | y |
r̈ | r |
ǔ | u |
û | u |
ü | y |
Grammar
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 and attached with either a hyphen or the preposition "to".
Adposition: prepositions
Nouns
Singular | No affix tyt /tyt/ dog |
Plural | If starts with vowel: Prefix k- Else: Prefix ka- katyt /ˈkatyt/ dogs |
Articles
Definite | Indefinite | |
---|---|---|
Singular | ka /ka/ the | se /se/ a |
Plural | zys /zys/ the | zur /zur/ some |
Uses of definite article that differ from English:
Used with place names: ‘The London’
Adjectives
Attached to word with to-
eg. blue light - gir-to-yk (blue-(attachment word)-light)
Sometimes it's just hyphenated instead.
e.g. kintar (ritual) + nizam (magic) = kintar-nizam, ritual magic
Pronouns
1st singular | tol /tol/ I, me, mine |
2nd singular | sa /sa/ you, yours |
3rd singular masc | kor /kor/ he, him, his, it (masc), its (masc) |
3rd singular fem | re /ɾe/ she, her, hers, it (fem), its (fem) |
3rd singular gen | ve /ve/ they/it, their/it, theirs/its |
1st plural inclusive | no /no/ we (including you), us (including you), ours (including you) |
1st plural exclusive | ku /ku/ we (excluding you), us (excluding you), ours (excluding you) |
2nd plural | ti /ti/ you all, yours (pl) |
3rd plural | ju /ju/ they, them, theirs |
Pronouns are not conjugated or changed. Possession can be attributed to a person or thing directly via pronoun. e.g. kor kavis (His container) or with a name pronoun possession pattern e.g. Blossom kor kavis (Blossom's container)
Verbs
For past or future tense verbs, definite or indefinite articles can be used to clarify how certain one is about when that happened.
ka hasum /ka 'hasum/ learned at a time you can pinpoint in the far past.
a hasum /a 'hasum/ learned at a time you feel vague or unsure about but that was in the far past.
ka esum /ka 'esum / will learn at a specific time in the near future (e.g. next week)
a isum /a 'esum / will learn at some eventual future point (e.g. oh I'll get around to it someday)
Present | No affix sum /sum/ learn |
Past | If starts with vowel: Prefix g- Else: Prefix go- gosum /ˈgosum/ learned |
Remote past | If starts with vowel: Prefix h- Else: Prefix ha- hasum /ˈhasum/ learned (long ago) |
Future (soon) | If starts with a vowel: Prefix es Else: Prefix e- esum /ˈesum/ will learn (soon) |
Future (remote) | If starts with a vowel: Prefix is- Else: Prefix i- isum /ˈisum/ will learn (eventually) |
Imperfective aspect
The ‘imperfective’ aspect refers to ongoing actions, such as I am learning and habitual actions, such as I learn (something new every day).
Zozun uses an affix for imperfective:
Imperfective | If vowel: Prefix ot- Else: Prefix o- osum: /o'sum/ learns/is learning |
Perfect aspect
The perfect aspect in English is exemplified in ‘I have read this book’, which expresses an event that took place before the time spoken but which has an effect on or is in some way still relevant to the present.
Zozun uses an affix for the perfect aspect:
Perfect | If starts with vowel: Prefix z- Else: Prefix zu- zusum /ˈzusum/ have learned |
Numbers
Zozun has a base-10 number system:
0 - nyu
1- kiv
2 - ep
3 - vo
4 - mem
5 - he
6 - mabe
7 - rut
8 - bi
9 - viv
10 - mu
100 - ve
1000 - kima
Infinite - kekani
Larger numbers are stacked multiples:
10,000 - mu-kima (ten 1,000s)
30,000 - vo-mu-kima (three-ten-1,000s)
Derivational morphology
Modified Words
Modifies with stacking affixes.ti (verb -> noun meaning one who does verb), ka (noun -> verb, meaning doing thing), nizam (magic) -> tikanizam, a magic user.
An Augmentative affix can be added to a word (e.g. tikanizamasi - a powerful mage), or by adding "high" (siv) as a modifying adjective (e.g. siv-tikanizam - a high mage, aka a mage of great power or status). Affixes can be stacked to increase the augmentation (e.g. tikanizamsisi - an extremely powerful mage, or siv-tikanizamsi, a mage of extremely high power or status, such as a mage who is also a king, or an archmage).
Compound Words
Words are attached to one another with a hyphen.
tikakintar-nizam, a ritual magic user (ritual-magic: kinta-nizam. So, one who does ritual-magic.
Affixes
Adjective → adverb = If starts with vowel: Prefix s-
Else: Prefix sa-
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -lor
Else: Suffix -alor
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Prefix ku-
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -lis
Else: Suffix -alis
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ko
Else: Suffix -oko
Noun to verb = If starts with vowel: Prefix k-
Else: Prefix ka-
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix ik-
Else: Prefix iku-
Tending to = Prefix zo-
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix v-
Else: Prefix vy-
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = If starts with vowel: Prefix v-
Else: Prefix va-
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = If starts with vowel: Prefix t-
Else: Prefix ti-
One who [verb]s (elevated, e.g. paint → great painter) = If starts with vowel: Prefix g-
Else: Prefix gi-
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If starts with vowel: Prefix k-
Else: Prefix ke-
Diminutive = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ki
Else: Suffix -iki
Augmentative = If ends with vowel: Suffix -si
Else: Suffix -asi
Opposite = If starts with vowel: Prefix w-
Else: Prefix wa-
Below = Prefix e-
Without = Prefix u- or a-
All = Prefix jo-
Small = If ends with vowel: Suffix -va
Else: Suffix -avi
Noun → One Who Uses [noun] = if starts with vowel: Prefix tik-
Else: Prefix tika-
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