Sacovian language
Sacovo | |
Spoken natively in |
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Language family |
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Writing system | Latin |
Source | Romance, (Portuguese, French) |
Official status | |
Official language in |
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The Sacovian language is spoken in Caradia, mostly in the Gcealick March and in small parts of Cearîm and Scear counties. The language stems from the more ancient language "Sòlasçi", and was developed by the nomadic Sacovian tribes.
Alphabet
Sacovian | IPA | English approximation | |
---|---|---|---|
A | a | /ɑ/ | car |
À | à | /a/ | apple |
B | b | /b/ | barrel |
C | c | /k/ in front of a, o, u, /s/ in front of e, i | cancer |
Ç | ç | /s/ | see |
Ĉ | ĉ | /tʃ/ | cheese |
Ch | ch | /ʃ/ | sheer |
Cz | cz | /ts/ | cats |
D | d | /d/ | dog |
E | e | /ɛ/, silent at the end of a word | fed |
È | è | /e/ | No English approximate |
Ë | ë | /ə/ | above; only used in loan-words |
F | f | /f/ | feel |
G | g | /g/ in front of a, o, or u,/ʒ/ in front of e, i | goose, vision |
Ĝ | ĝ | /dʒ/ | jam |
Gu | gu | /g/ | goose |
Gü | gü | /gw/ | No English approximation |
H | h | /h/ | house |
I | i | /i/ | read |
J | j | /ʒ/ | vision |
L | l | /l/ | lemon |
Lh | lh | /ʎ/ | million |
M | m | /m/ | maple |
N | n | /n/ | never |
Nh | nh | /ɲ/ | onion |
O | o | /o/ | hot |
Ò | ò | /ɔ/ | hole |
P | p | /p/ | pie |
Qu | qu | /k/ | queso |
Qü | qü | /kw/ | quarter |
R | r | /r/ | Trilled English R |
S | s | /s/ (silent after vowel clusters at the end of words) | silent |
T | t | /t/ (silent after 'ae', 'ai', 'eau', 'ei', 'oi' at the end of words) | tell |
U | u | /ʊ/, /w/ before vowel | food |
Ù | ù | /u/ | No English approximate |
V | v | /v/ | vehicle |
X | x | Rare, only present after vowel clusters, where it is silent | No English approximation |
Y | y | /j/ | yes |
Z | z | /z/ | zebra |
Diacritics and Digraphs
Sacovian makes use of four different diacritics: Circumflex ( ^ ) Â Ê Î Ô Û, tilde ( ~ ) Ã Ẽ Ĩ Õ Ũ, grave ( ` ) À È Ì Ò Ù, and accute ( ' ) Á É Í Ó Ú.
Grave denotes a different sound for vowels.
The tilde accent denotes a nasalisation of the letter.
Circumflex accent denotes a stressed version of a vowel's grave sound.
Accute accent denotes a stressed version of the vowel's normal sound.
Sacovian also employs ten different vowel cluster digraphs:
- Ae (/ɑi/)
- Ai (/ɛ/)
- Au (/ɔ/)
- Eau (/ɔ/)
- Ei (/e/)
- Eu (/ə/)
- Oa (/wɑ/)
- Oe (/ə/)
- Oi (/wɑ/)
- Ou (/ʊ/)
'Nt' and 'Ns' are also sometimes used. At the end of a word, 'nt' and 'ns' are silent and nasalise the preceding vowel.
Strong, Neutral, Weak
Though technically classified as 'grammatical gender', Sacovian classifies its nouns as strong, neutral, or weak. This classification affects the conjugation of adjectives, and also how the noun changes based on its count. Nouns are strong if they end in a voiced consonant, neutral if they end in a vowel, and weak if they end in an unvoiced consonant (even if that consonant is silent). Nouns in Sacovian do not inflect for case or mood.
Verb conjugation
Sacovian verbs conjugate based on who is performing the action, as well as the mood of the verb.
Sacovian verbs also conjugate according to the verb's infinitive ending, which is either '-a' or '-e'.
Present:
-a | -e | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
Number | Sing. | Plur. | Sing. | Plur. |
First Person | -ê | -ama | -ê | -aime |
Second Person | -as | -ae | -aiç | -ae |
Third Person | -at | -ast | -et | -aist |
Imperative | -asa | -asa | -eisè | -eisè |
Past:
-a | -e | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
Number | Sing. | Plur. | Sing. | Plur. |
First Person | -ô | -azra | -ô | -ezré |
Second Person | -ar | -eu | -èr | -eu |
Third Person | -arca | -aras | -èrque | -ères |
Future:
-a | -e | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
Number | Sing. | Plur. | Sing. | Plur. |
First Person | -û | -anhada | -û | -enhadè |
Second Person | -am | -eau | -em | -eau |
Third Person | -aiz | -ãdz | -eiz | -ẽdz |
Adjectives conjugate to the grammatical gender of the noun they describe:
- Standard (no noun): -ay
- Strong: -ò
- Neutral: -i
- Weak: - (remove -ay)
Ex.:
- Standard (no noun): Asûray
- Strong: Asûrò
- Neutral: Asûri
- Weak: Asûr
Grammar
Standard word order in Sacovian is Subject-Verb-Object. A common exception to this is when the direct object of the verb is a pronoun, in which case the pronoun comes before the verb (unless the verb is imperative, in which case the pronoun is attached to the end of the verb).
Adjectives always come after the noun they modify.