Xsoura (/'ʃʊ.ɹa/)

Xsoura is a language spoken by the xsenda in the abyssal depths. It is entirely spoken telepathically, and as such, the words that it does have are short to minimise brain space. One-syllable words are very common, and two-syllable words are typically reserved for important concepts and proper nouns.

Phonology

To allow for the majority of its words to be single-syllable, Xsoura has one of the highest number of phonemes across all of Etharai's languages. It is much easier for them to convey these sounds, even in a manner that may not sound natural when speaking, due to the fact that they do not have to actually speak the words - only know how they sound. These sounds are passed down from parent to child mentally, using telepathic speech. To the xsenda children, this telepathic speech from their parents is vital to their language development. The majority of Xsoura's consonants are voiceless, as voiced consonants are a bit more difficult to mentally pronounce.

Xsoura: Origins

The telepathic speech of the xsenda closely resembles spoken language, despite being entirely telepathic. This leads some to believe that the language was originally a spoken language, before the xsenda switched to speaking entirely telepathically. This explains how the xsenda originally knew how these phonemes sounded.

Consonants

Consonants

	Bilabial	Labiodental	Dental	Alveolar	Post Alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Plosive	/p/ (p)	/p̪/ (ph)		/t/ (t)		/ʈ/ (d)	/c/ (c)	/k/ (k)	/q/ q	/ʔ/ (')
Nasal	/m/ (m)			/n/ (n)				/ŋ/ (nh)
Trill	/ʙ/ (pp)			/r/ (rh)					/ʀ/ (rr)
Fricative	/ɸ/ (fh)	/f/ (f)	/θ/ (th)	/s/ (s)	/ʃ/ (xs)	/ʂ/ (ss)	/ç/ (ch)	/x/ (x)	/χ/ (xh)	/h/ (hh)
L. Fricative				/ɬ/ (sh)
Approximant				/ɹ/ (r)			/j/ (j)
L. Approximant				/l/ (l)				/w/ (w)

Vowels

Vowels

	Front	Near-Front	Central	Near-Back	Back
Close	/i/ (i)				/u/ (u)
Near-Close		/ɪ/ (y)		/ʊ/ (ou)
Close-Mid	/e/ (e)				/o/ (o)
Open-Mid			/ɜ/ (oa)		/ɔ/ (ao)
Near-Open
Open			/a/ (a)		/ɑ/ (au)

Diphthongs

ij

ej

oj

aj

Phonotactics

The permitted syllable structures in Xsoura are V, CV, VC, CVC, CVCC, and CCVC. This allows for consonant clusters of up to 4 in two-syllable words, but this is very rare.
Different syllable structures in single-syllable words also have meaning. In single syllable words:

• Words with a syllable structure of V are pronouns.
• Words with a syllable structure of CV are prepositions.
• Words with a syllable structure of VC are conjunctions.
• Words with a syllable structure of CVC are verbs.
• Words with a syllable structure of CVCC are nouns.
• Words with a syllable structure of CCVC are adjectives and adverbs.

Xsoura does not have determiners, nor does it distinguish between adjectives and adverbs.
Two-syllable words are incredibly rare in Xsoura, preserved for proper nouns and things of incredible cultural importance. Two-syllable words are not restricted by the syllable structure rules of single-syllable words. Names are some of the most common two-syllable words, and are typically formed by taking two existing words and combining them together. Some other two-syllable words include xselta, toukojr, xsenda, and xsoura.

Irregular Words

While most of Xsoura's irregularity comes in the form of two-syllable words, there are some irregular single-syllable words as well. Thry, the language's copula, is one such irregular word, formed by a unique CCV syllable construction. Other irregular words include pshol, slpar, and rlur. Though the xsenda would never admit this, and doing so would be considered heresy, the likely origins of these words is through loaning from Gedalp, the language of the abyssal kuuyikar.

Non-Phoenetic Morphemes

The xsenda are able to communicate not just sounds, but also emotions. To the xsenda, conveying emotion is much easier than communicating speech. While this can be used to communicate the emotions of the speaker, it is not often used this way. Interestingly, the xsenda have begun to use emotions as morphemes in their language. The most common uses of emotion in communication are:

• Sadness (sad.), used to represent negation
• Anger (ang.), used to represent questions
• Happiness (hap.), used as a diminutive
• Contempt (ctp.), used on pronouns to refer to kuuyikar
• Frustration (frs.), used to represent plurality
• Boredom (brd.), used to represent possessive pronouns
• Confidence (conf.), used in place of a pronoun when referring to oneself
• Jealousy (jl.), used in place of a second person pronoun
• Surprise (sup.), used as the language's narrative tense
• Fear (fr.), used as the language's conditional mood

These emotions are represented in writing with the following syntax: word(emotion, abbreviated). They do not in any way represent the actual emotion of the speaker regarding the things they are talking about, with the exception generally being contempt for the kuuyikar.

Syntax

Word Order

Xsoura uses VSO word order when speaking in the present tense. This word order changes when speaking in different tenses. The past tense is denoted with OVS word order, and the future tense is denoted with SVO word order. OSV can be used for the passive tense, and VO can be used for the imperative mood.

Adjectives and Adverbs

Adjectives and adverbs precede the noun or verb that they are modifying. There is an implicit order for adjectives in xsoura, that being: opinion, colour, age, condition, shape, material, purpose, origin, size. Originally, xsenda would place more important adjectives closer to the noun, but this has since evolved into the current adjective order.

Prepositions

Prepositions occur at the beginning of prepositional phrases.

Vocabulary

Pronouns

1S, 2S	i
3S.ANIM	ou
3S.INAN	ao
1PL, 2PL	y
3PL	au

Prepositions

at	tha	among	nhoa	above	ppau
in	de	behind	chao	below	ly
from	so	during	le	into	fha
to	xsa	before	rhu	with	roa
across	cau	after	rra	around	wao

Conjunctions

and	auth
or	ud
but	ym
while	ixs
besides	ej

Loan Words

Xsoura does not have very many loan words, mostly due to the fact that the people speaking it are fairly isolated from the rest of the world, and the one other community that lives in their vicinity is not on good terms with them. As such, xsenda reject the concept of loan words on principle.

Note: In the present tense, the singular first person or second person pronoun is often dropped, replaced entirely by the emotion representing it.
Expand for full Vocabulary

Verbs

Xsoura	Translation
thry	to be
shixs	to do
moj	to swim
jom	to twist
xhed	to tread (water)
bboass	to blow (bubbles)

Nouns

Xsoura	Translation
xselta	water
thadxs	morning
kasc	nothing
dassq	brine
merxs	Kuuyik
loxsp	(water) current
tisk	tail
fost	tarrock
hhest	here
tyks	that

Adjectives/Adverbs

Xsoura	Translation
xstel	strong
krhoud	good
xsmer	foreign
lsouxh	smart
chdat	same/similar

Phrases

Xsoura	Translation
krhoud thadxs	Good morning.
shixs(jl.)(ang.)	How are you?
shixs(jl.)?	What are you doing?
hhest thry au(ctp.)	They(PL., referring to kuuyikar) were here.
shixs(jl.) tyks	Don't do that!

Idioms

Xsoura	Translation	Meaning
moj loxsp roa(jl.)	Currents swim with you.	Well wishes; common goodbye
xhed xselta ou	(They(S.)'re) treading water.	Going nowhere with life
bboass(jl.) tha kasc	(You're) blowing bubbles at nothing.	Making a big deal out of a non-issue
moj(jl.) fha(sad.) loxsp(frs.)	(You're) swimming against the currents.	Complicating an issue; doing something not worth doing
fuch dassq	Eat brine!	A strong profanity
jom(jl.) tisk(conf.)(brd.)	(You're) twisting (my) tail.	Lying; tricking
thry lsouxh chdat ou	(They(S.)'re) as smart as tarrock.	Not intelligent
rot ou thylfh	(They) are from the surface	Incredibly different or unusual