Zayzian (ðeɪ̯ði:ɛn)

Natively known as: zayz /ðeɪ̯ð/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind... zay fú thif sù núsh gïne zay sù räg räy goü üg sith[alt] Pronunciation: /ðeɪ̯ fy θif sʌ nyʃ ˈgɪnɛ ðeɪ̯ sʌ rɑːg rɑːj goʊ̯ ʊg siθ/ Zayzian word order: and he stood his hat holding and his wet face turned the wind to[/alt]

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: b d f g h j l m n p r s t v ð ŋ ʃ θ

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Dental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m			n			ŋ
Stop	p b			t d			g
Fricative		f v	θ ð	s	ʃ			h
Approximant						j
Trill				r
Lateral approximant				l

Vowel inventory: a aɪ̯ aʊ̯ eɪ̯ i oʊ̯ u y æ ɑː ɒ ɔɪ̯ ɔː ə ɛ ɪ ɶ ʊ ʌ
Diphthongs: aɪ̯ aʊ̯ eɪ̯ oʊ̯ ɔɪ̯

	Front	Central	Back
High	i y		u
Near-high	ɪ		ʊ
Mid		ə
Low-mid	ɛ		ʌ ɔː
Near-low	æ
Low	a ɶ		ɑː ɒ

Syllable structure: Custom defined Stress pattern: Penultimate — stress is on the second last syllable Word initial consonants: b d f g h l m n p r s t v ð ʃ θ Mid-word consonants: b d h j l m n p r s t v ð ŋ ʃ θ Word final consonants: f g h j l r s ð ʃ θ
Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
aɪ̯	ie
aʊ̯	ou
y	ú
eɪ̯	ay
ɛ	e
ɔː	o
ɔɪ̯	oi
ɑː	ä
ɒ	ö
ə	á
ɪ	ï
ʊ	ü
ʌ	ù
ɶ	ó
j	y
θ	th
ð	z
ŋ	ng
ʃ	sh
Vː	VV
◌̯

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Grammar

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

Nouns

Nouns have two cases:

• Nominative is the doer of a verb: dog bites man.
• Accusative is the done-to of a verb: man bites dog.

Nominative	No affix dipá /ˈdipə/ dog (doing the verb)
Accusative	If contains {a,y,ɶ}: Prefix raʊ̯- Else: Prefix gi- gidipá /giˈdipə/ (verb done to) dog

Singular	No affix dipá /ˈdipə/ dog
Plural	If contains {a,y,ɶ}: Prefix i- Else: Prefix ɔː- odipá /ɔːˈdipə/ dogs

Articles

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

Pronouns

	Nominative	Accusative
1st singular	zoir /ðɔɪ̯r/ I	die /daɪ̯/ me
2nd singular	bo /bɔː/ you	pa /pa/ you
3rd singular	fú /fy/ he, she, it	ù /ʌ/ him, her, it
1st plural inclusive	ba /ba/ we (including you)	púr /pyr/ us (including you)
1st plural exclusive	luf /luf/ we (excluding you)	pósh /pɶʃ/ us (excluding you)
2nd plural	gá /gə/ you all	pig /pig/ you all
3rd plural	pó /pɶ/ they	poi /pɔɪ̯/ them

Possessive determiners

1st singular	goi /gɔɪ̯/ my
2nd singular	fö /fɒ/ your
3rd singular	sù /sʌ/ his, her, its
1st plural inclusive	dá /də/ our (including you)
1st plural exclusive	bús /bys/ our (excluding you)
2nd plural	boi /bɔɪ̯/ your (pl)
3rd plural	tü /tʊ/ their

Verbs

Present	No affix engïtoiz /ɛˈŋɪtɔɪ̯ð/ learn
Past	If contains {a,y,ɶ}: Prefix aʊ̯- Else: Prefix ə- áengïtoiz /ˌəɛˈŋɪtɔɪ̯ð/ learned
Remote past	If contains {a,y,ɶ}: Prefix ʌ- Else: Prefix ɛ- eengïtoiz /ˌɛɛˈŋɪtɔɪ̯ð/ learned (long ago)
Future	If contains {a,y,ɶ}: Prefix a- Else: Prefix æ- æengïtoiz /ˌæɛˈŋɪtɔɪ̯ð/ will learn

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).
Zayzian uses an affix for imperfective:

Imperfective

If contains {a,y,ɶ}: Prefix a- Else: Prefix aʊ̯- ouengïtoiz /ˌaʊ̯ɛˈŋɪtɔɪ̯ð/ learns/is learning

Numbers

Zayzian has a base-10 number system:
1 - shù 2 - bay 3 - poi 4 - poü 5 - vú 6 - poüf 7 - ledü 8 - vù 9 - ouz 10 - næsa 11 - næsa zay shù “ten and one” 100 - shù ahú “one hundred” 101 - shù ahú shù “one hundred one” 200 - bay ahú 1000 - shù hápouz “one thousand”

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = If contains {a,y,ɶ}: Prefix ɶ- Else: Prefix oʊ̯- Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = If contains {a,y,ɶ}: Prefix aʊ̯- Else: Prefix u- Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = If contains {a,y,ɶ}: Prefix ɔɪ̯- Else: Prefix aʊ̯- Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = If contains {a,y,ɶ}: Prefix tɔɪ̯- Else: Prefix mɒ- Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = If contains {a,y,ɶ}: Prefix oʊ̯- Else: Prefix ʌ- Noun to verb = If contains {a,y,ɶ}: Prefix vi- Else: Prefix tʊ- Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = If contains {a,y,ɶ}: Prefix y- Else: Prefix æ- Tending to = If contains {a,y,ɶ}: Prefix pæ- Else: Prefix paɪ̯- Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = If contains {a,y,ɶ}: Prefix ɶ- Else: Prefix ə- Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = If contains {a,y,ɶ}: Prefix y- Else: Prefix ɛ- One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = If contains {a,y,ɶ}: Prefix æ- Else: Prefix ɒ- Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If contains {a,y,ɶ}: Prefix ta- Else: Prefix fɪ- Diminutive = If contains {a,y,ɶ}: Prefix si- Else: Prefix faʊ̯- Augmentative = If contains {a,y,ɶ}: Prefix sʌ- Else: Prefix ʃʌ-

Dictionary

4581 Words.