Gerenian language

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Gerenian (self-designation: žerénies, engre žerénies ['ɛngrɛ ʐɛ'rɛnɪɛs]) is a conlang spoken in the Republic of Gerenia, where it has official status.

Most Gerenian vocabulary has been created with random letter sequences, while some words are derived from other languages, mainly English and Spanish.

Gerenian is written using the Latin alphabet.

History

Coming soon

Origin

Development

Grammar

Gerenian is an inflected language with three grammatical genders.

Nouns

Gerenian nouns inflect into:

  • two cases: nominative and genitive.
  • three genders: masculine, feminine, or neuter.
  • two numbers: singular and plural.

Verbs

Inflection of standard Gerenian includes:

Conjugation of Gerenian verbs consist on isolating the stem of the verb and adding one or two endings, depending on the sentence.

Mood Tense Prefix Suffix
Indicative Present
Preterite -(e)l
Future -(e)r
Past perfect a- -(e)l
Present perfect a-
Imperative -(e)m
Subjunctive -(e)f

If the stem of the verb ends in a consonant, a letter e is added to the suffix in order to make pronunciation easier.

When the subject is a personal pronoun, such pronoun must be placed after the stem of the verb (and before the tense suffix, if any).

Articles and determiners

Gerenian has two articles: a definite article, corresponding to English the, and an indefinite article, corresponding to English a/an.

The possessive determiners are used to indicate the possessor of the noun they determine, and they are formed in adding to the noun the corresponding pronoun as a prefix.

The demonstrative determiners can mean either this or that, these or those. In Gerenian, the word der is the only demonstrative determiner, and is added to the noun as a prefix.

Pronouns

The personal pronouns are the following:

Number Person Pronoun
Singular 1st io
2nd ni
3rd je, ja, de
Plural 1st ios
2nd nis
3rd jei, jai, des

Adjectives

An adjective agrees in gender and number (except the neutral ones) with the noun it modifies, and it always appear after it.

The feminine adjectives are formed by adding the suffix -ka (singular) or -kai (plural). Analogously, the masculine adjectives are formed by adding either the suffix -ke (singular) or -kei (plural). Regarding the neutral form, the suffix -es must be added, regardless of the number of the modified noun.

Adverbs

They are used to modify adjectives, other adverbs and verbs or clauses. All Gerenian adverbs are formed by adding the suffix -so to the neutral form of the adjective they are derived from.

Negation

Negation in both the indicative and the subjunctive mood are formed in adding the prefix dis- to the verb. On the other hand, in order to express negation in the imperative mood, the word na is used.

Examples:

  • «Diseztjel'at sodki.» — "He did not see anybody."
  • «Na ilbnim.» — "Do not come."

Word order

There are two common word orders: one (VSO) for sentences where the subject is a pronoun, and another (SVO) for sentences where the subject is not a pronoun, and for questions.

Vocabulary

Most Gerenian vocabulary is not derived from any language, but it has been created randomly.

It is estimated that 20% of common Gerenian words are of foreign origin. About 26% of these foreign words come from English, followed by Spanish (17%). However, roughly a half of Gerenian words of foreign origin come from both English and Spanish at the same time, as the influence is the result of resemblance between an English word and its Spanish equivalent, or viceversa.

The size of the Gerenian vocabulary is in constant growth. According to the KNSEŽ (Kamițianetoles'ar er Engre Žerénies, Gerenian Language National Commission), Gerenian had 420 words as of mid-November 2012.

Ortography

Gerenian is written in the Latin alphabet. In addition to 24 of the 26 standard letters (neither q nor x are used), Gerenian has three vowels with diaeresis: ä, ö and ü, and the letters ž, î, ĵ, ý and ț. The vowels a, e, i and o can be marked with an acute accent to mark stress, but they are not distinct letters in the alphabet.

Gerenian alphabet

Gerenian has 32 letters: 11 vowels and 21 consonants.

Capital letters
A Ä E B V F C S Z Ž D G H I Î J Ĵ Y Ý K L M N O Ö P R T Ț U Ü W
Lower case
a ä e b v f c s z ž d g h i î j ĵ y ý k l m n o ö p r t ț u ü w

Phonology

Vowels

letter A Ä E I Î J Y O Ö U Ü
phoneme a ɛ ɛ ɪ ə ɨ ɪ o œ ʊ ʏ

Gerenian vowels can form digraphs (in writing) and diphthongs (in pronunciation). The following imply a change in the expected pronunciation:

spelling äe, ee ou
pronunciation /ɛɪ/ /aʊ/

Consonants

letter B V F C S Z Ž D G H Ĵ Ý K L M N P R T Ț W
phoneme b v f ɕ s θ ʐ d g h x ʃ k l m n p r t t͡s w

Notes:

  • The letter t is palatalized when at the end of a word: the centre of the tongue is raised during and after the articulation of such consonant.
  • The group gh is pronounced /x/.
  • The group sh, borrowed from English since the June Reform, represents the sound /ʃ/, like the letter ý. However, while sh can be placed only at the beginning of a word, ý can be placed anywhere.