Gerenian language
| Gherenies | |
 Gerenian Language National Commission logo | |
| Pronunciation | xɛ'rɛnɪɛs |
|---|---|
| Spoken natively in |
 Gerenia |
| Language family |
|
| Writing system | Latin |
| Source | English, Spanish |
| Proto-Gerenian | |
| Dialects | Northern, Middle, Southern |
| Official status | |
| Official language in |
Gerenia |
| Regulated by | Gerenian Language National Commission |
| Language codes | |
| MOS-9 codes | gr |
Gerenian (self-designation: gherenies [xɛ'rɛnɪɛs]) is a conlang spoken in the Republic of Gerenia, where it has official status.
Most of 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 script.
History
- See also: Gerenian alphabet#History
Origin
The origin of the Gerenian language can be found in mid-2004, when it was created the Gerakana script (in its "early" variant). Early Gerakana was composed of 28 letters, all but one of them being equivalent to the letters of the Spanish alphabet. At the same time, it began the invention of "Proto-Gerenian", which had a few words in its vocabulary, most of them being common words, of daily use. The development of Proto-Gerenian came to a standstill during early 2005, and until the foundation of the then United Gerenian Republic, Gerakana was used to encode documents only.
Between 2005 and 2008, Proto-Gerenian developed as a written language irregularly.
Development
With the foundation of the Republic of Gerenia as a micronation (which was called at the time United Gerenian Republic) in December 2011, it was revived the interest in a national language, which would become a major aspect of a forming culture. As a beginning, most of Proto-Gerenian vocabulary was discarded, and new words were created. In June 2012, after decreeing a set of ortography and grammar rules, the Government of Gerenia established the Gerenian Language National Commission.
The Commission established definitive rules for Gerenian in every level. With regards to the writing system, the Commission rejected the adoption of Gerakana (either as the only one or co-official alongside Latin script). The Gerenian variant of the Latin script was adopted, and modified several times before the modern version was finally approved.
Despite Gerakana not being adopted as official script of Gerenia, its modern variant is used throughout the country.
Grammar
Gerenian is an inflected language with four grammatical genders.
Nouns
Gerenian nouns inflect into:
- two cases: nominative and genitive.
- four genders: masculine, feminine, neuter, or indefinite.
- two numbers: singular and plural.
Verbs
All Gerenian verbs are regular, and have a infinitive form characterized by the ending -in.
Inflection of standard Gerenian includes:
- three persons: 1st, 2nd, 3rd.
- two numbers: singular and plural.
- three moods: indicative, imperative, and subjunctive (in addition to the infinitive).
- two voices: active and passive.
- six tenses: present, present continuous, preterite, future, present perfect and past perfect.
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 | — | — |
| Present continuous | — | -ras | |
| 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. This is correct only to indicate strict possession, and not to express a sense of belonging or identification wit ha subject. The possessive forms of personal pronouns are formed by adding the suffix -es to the pronouns.
The demonstrative determiners can mean either "this" or "that", "these" or "those". In Gerenian, the word der is the only demonstrative determiner, and is placed before the noun in sentences.
Pronouns
The personal pronouns are the following:
| Number | Person | Pronoun |
|---|---|---|
| Singular | 1st | io |
| 2nd | ni | |
| 3rd | je | |
| ja | ||
| de | ||
| ji | ||
| Plural | 1st | ios |
| 2nd | nis | |
| 3rd | jei | |
| jai | ||
| des | ||
| ji |
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 and the indefinite form, the suffixes -es and -ki, respectively, must be added, regardless of the number of the modified noun.
In some cases, and depending in the context, the ending -es can be used when referring to any of the genders.
Adverbs
They are used to modify adjectives, other adverbs and verbs or clauses. All Gerenian adverbs are formed by adding the suffix -bi 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.
Ortography
Gerenian is written in the Latin script. 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, ŷ, ț, and č. The vowels a, e, i, y and o can be marked with an acute accent to mark stress, but they are not distinct letters in the alphabet.
Gerenian alphabet
- Main article: Gerenian alphabet
Gerenian has 33 letters: 11 vowels and 22 consonants.
| Capital letters | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| A | Ä | E | B | V | F | C | Č | S | Z | Ž | D | G | H | I | Î | J | Ĵ | Y | Ŷ | K | L | M | N | O | Ö | P | R | T | Ț | U | Ü | W |
| Lower case | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| a | ä | e | b | v | f | c | č | s | z | ž | d | g | h | i | î | j | ĵ | y | ŷ | k | l | m | n | o | ö | p | r | t | ț | u | ü | w |
The following alternate spellings are allowed:
- ae instead of ä
- ch instead of č
- zh instead of ž
- jh instead of ĵ
- yh instead of ŷ
- oe instead of ö
- ts instead of ț
- ue instead of ü
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 | Č | S | Z | Ž | D | G | H | Ĵ | Ŷ | K | L | M | N | P | R | T | Ț | W |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| phoneme | b | v | f | ɕ | tʃ | 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 ŷ. However, while sh can be placed only at the beginning of a word, ŷ can be placed anywhere.
Dialects
There are three dialects in Gerenian: the Southern dialect, the Middle dialect, and the Northern dialect.
Southern dialect
The Southern dialect (also called Upper Gerenian) is spoken in Adarma, Sängeran, and —to a lesser extent— in West. There are two varieties: the birsenes variety (spoken in some zones of Tawlkar, and in the south of Adarma, but not in Victoria Island), and the lanmes variety.
In southern dialect, the last vowel of words are usually long. Speakers also tend to drop the last letter of words if it is a consonant. The letters b, v, d, and t have a different pronunciation compared to the other dialects. This feature is more noticeable in the lanmes variety, while birsenes speakers have changed the pronunciation of the letter g (/g/) for /h/.
Middle dialect
The Middle dialect is spoken in Clements, Erstveda, and Ramez. Standard Gerenian is based on the middle dialect.
Northern dialect
The Northern dialect (or Lower Gerenian) is mainly spoken in the provinces of Maremedres and Barzat. Its intonation makes it different from the other dialects. In the Maremedrian variety, the letter e is usually pronounced /ɪɛ/, and the n is often palatalized.
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