Fazhor ([ˈɸɐ.ʑɞɽ])

Fazhor is the language spoken by the Sonri.

Phonetics

For reference of how to pronounce these sounds, check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPA_consonant_chart_with_audio and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPA_vowel_chart_with_audio
The following are the phonemes used natively in Fazhor:

Phonotactics

Every syllable can be broken into two parts: the onset and rime, with the later being broken into a nucleus and coda, as shown below. If you were to split up the English word "sand", the onset would be [s], the nucleus would be [æ], and the coda would be [n^d].

Some rules regarding the syllabic makeup of words in Fazhor are as follows:

• [w] and [ŋ] cannot appear as onsets.
• [ɴ] and [ɲ] cannot appear as codas.
• When [h] appears as a coda, it is aspirated.

Stress

Fazhor uses a fixed stress system. It is orchestrated as such:

• Primary stress is placed on the initial syllable.
• Secondary stress is placed on the third syllable, if applicable.
• if there are more than four syllables, stress continues to focus on every other syllable.

Writing

As opposed to human methods of harming plants to speak nonverbally, the Sonri use their Kayo to grow a special vine called the fazhosh [ˈɸɐ.ʑɞç] into the written language. This lends some interesting features to the language, some of which are featured below:

• The language is written bottom to top as the fazhosh grows up the bark of a tree.
• The fazhosh is consuive to boustrophedon, meaning that when a new row is started, the letters continue to be written in the opposite direction and mirrored to how they had been in the previous row.
• The fazhosh has no concept of periods or sentence breaks. When transliterated into other languages, it can give foreign speakers a sense of run-on or long-windedness.
• As it can be difficult to control plant growth, there is leeway for curves in every letter. Only extreme curving, such as in the numerical system, is incorporated into letter formation.
• At the end of a word, an extended straight section of vine is used, to indicate the seperation.

The Alphabet

Consonants in fazhor are named with [ka], followed by their sound. The only exception to this are the consonants [ɲ] and [ɴ], which, due to their inability to appear as onsets, are named with their sound followed by [ak]. Vowels in fazhor are named with their sound, followed by [k]. The entire fazhor alphabet is as follows:
kak, e̞k, kar, kah, ɞk, kas, kam, ɲak, kaɕ, kaʑ, kaŋ, ak, kaɾ, kaɸ, kag, kan, kaɽ, ɴak, kaɹ̠, kat, kaz, ik, kaɽr, kaj, kaw, kar̠, ɒk, kaç, kap, kab, kad, ɐk

Numbers

The Sonri use a base-9 number system, meaning that numbers go up in place at every ninth interval, as opposed to the human 10. The numbers of Fazhor's writing curves back and forth in a column, acting as a tally, and moving to the end of the symbol when it finishes its symbol or gets to the next number place. Number places increase in the direction of writing.

Numerical Value

As previously noted, the fazhor numerical system is base-nine, meaning that place value increases at powers of nine, instead of English's ten. Counting numbers would go as follows: shanyib , zhing (1), rrɐb (2), gim (3), nuk (4), dashh (5), teng (6), maf (7), yizh (8), and then kifang, whose numerical value is 9, but would be interpreted as ten. The next eight numbers are formed by placing the word for ten with the first place number after it, considered one word but seperated with a glottal stop, such as kifang'rrɐb, meaning 13 and equaling 12 in base-ten. For multiples of ten, you would say conjoin the multiple to the beginning seperated by a glottal stop, such as rrɐb'kifang'gim, meaning 23 and equaling 21 in base-ten. Higher places do similarly, with the exception of a number indicating the power of ten right after the multiple, such as nuk'rrɐb'kifang'dashh'kifang'teng, meaning 456 and equaling 375 in base-ten.

Grammatical Gender

There are 3 genders in Fazhor: Male, Female, and Neutral. Male and Female are used to describe creatures that are or were alive or objects which are personified or characterized as being alive (eg. _____, _____). The Neutral gender is used for inanimate objects or concepts (eg. _____). A plant will get the female gender if the speaker is particularly familiar with it (eg. _____), and the male gender if not (eg. _____).

Nominal Number

There is no differentiation in a Fazhor word between it being singular or plural. If one wishes to specify, they put a numerative article with it (eg. _____), or one of a few articles denoting general value, such as _____ (many), ____ (none) or _____ (a lack of - used in description of negatives). These words are treated as adjectives in the sentence structure.

Noun Case

Alignment

Fazhor uses Ergative-Absolutive Alignment. This has two noun cases, the Ergative Case and the Absolutive Case. The Absolutive Case is used for nouns which are subject of an intransitive verb (an action that one can do, but not do to another) or the object of a transitive verb (an action that one could do to another), while the Ergative Case is used for the subject of a transitive verb. For more information, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ergative%E2%80%93absolutive_alignment

Possessive

If an object is possessed, it is placed in the Possessive Case. The form of the noun being possessed is changed to have a prefix of r̠iɕ- (eg. _____).

Benefactive

The Benefactive Case is used to show when one does an action on behalf of something else. The benefactive noun goes right before the subject, and has the suffix -aɲe̞ (eg. _____).

Articles

Numerative

Numerative Articles denote a specific number of the noun being described. They appear as pospositions, meaning that they come immediately after the noun they describe. To change a number to a numerative article, the prefix ɽɒ- is added (eg. rɒdash). The Numerative Article zheng, meaning one, can also take the place of a defenite article, such as English's a. In this case it could be translated to mean any one.

Negative

The Negative Article shows that there is none or zero of the described noun. It appears as a postposition. It is written as rɒshanyib.

Absencive

The Absencive Article denotes a lack of the described noun. It appears as a postposition. For a general lack, the article fɒmitesh is used. To show a specific lack, like a negative number, the prefix çiɽɒ- is affixed to the noun form of the number (eg. shirɒteng - negative six).

Partitive

The Partitive Article represents some general amount of a noun. Examples include ____ (many). They are postpositions.

Indefinite Proper

The Indefinite Proper Article is used to denote that a noun is either proper (a name) or specified (my home instead of homes in general or any one home). It is a postposition, and written as _____.

Verbs

Verbal Agreement

Nouns in Fazhor encode three things: Person, that is, to whom the connected noun refers, such as I, you, or him; Gender; and Noun Case.

Tense, Modality, and Aspect

A brief summary of these three concepts can be found at the top of the following article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tense%E2%80%93aspect%E2%80%93mood
There are 7 tenses in Fazhor: Past, Present, Future, Pluperfect (happening in the past in relativity to another given past point), Meiperfect (happening in the future relative to a given point in the past), Plusultraperfect (happening in the future relative to another future point), and Meiultraperfect (happening in the past relative to a future point in time).
There are 16 aspects in Fazhor: Momentane (the verb's duration is short, and in the past, pluperfect, and meiultraperfect tenses, has finished), Progressive (the verb's duration is long, and in the past, pluperfect, and meiultraperfect tenses, is still ongoing, also includes habitual aspect as categorized together), Static (the verb's duration is indefinite), Inceptive (of a progressive verb, starting), Terminative (of a progressive verb, ending), Inchoative (of a static verb, starting), Antinchoative (of a static verb, ending), and Defective (the verb nearly happened, but was stopped before it started), with each being seperately reified for both Intentional (the noun performing the object does it with intent to do so) and Accidental (the noun performing the verb did not intend to do so).
There are 5 moods in Fazhor: Indicative (the verb happens), Subjunctive (that the verb happens), Conditional (the verb happens if other criteria is fulfilled), Optative (it is wished that the verb happens), and Potential (the verb may happen).

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These three concepts combine in the chart linked below to show how any verb root can be reified in Fazhor:
https://1drv.ms/x/s!AlW2gnGKlK2CsmWuD6Mybpb4UGoq

Word Order

In Fazhor, a clause is structured as follows:
(Benefactive Noun-[Article]-[Adjective])-Subject-(Article)-(Possesive Noun-[Article]-[Adjective])-(Adjective)-(Relative Postposition-Relative Noun-[Possesive Noun-{Article}-{Adjective}]-[Adjective])-(Object-(Article)-(Possesive Noun-[Article]-[Adjective])-(Adjective)-(Relative Postposition-Relative Noun-[Article]-[Possesive Noun-{Article}-{Adjective}]-[Adjective]))-Verb-(Adverb).
Note that anything in parentheses is not required to be included for the sentence to be deemed grammatical. As there is no proper stopping in Fazhor unless one is at the end of their complete thought, a conjunction is placed in between clauses.

A note on the dictionary:
As with all lexicons, the Fazhor dictionary is constantly expanding. I may not yet have all the words you're looking for, but feel free to request translations in the comments at the bottom of this article, and I'll try to get to it soon!

Dictionary

56 Words.