Zhuori
Zhuori is the language spoken by the upper class in a currently unnamed commission project by Elmer Johnson.
Contents
[hide]Orthography
Zhuori uses a regular abugida that uses diacritics for monophthongs, diphthongs, and gemination of consonants.
The nuclear vowel, or initial vowel in a diphthong of a syllable is located in the upper left. The off-glide or secondary vowel is in the bottom right.
In this chart, B is shown in its geminate form to show the diacritic for geminates.
Phonology
Consonants
| Bilabial | Dental | Alveolar | Post-alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | Unvoiced | p ‹P› | t ‹T› | k ‹K› | ||||
| Voiced | b ‹B› | d ‹D› | g ‹G› | |||||
| Nasal | m ‹M› | n ‹N› | ŋ ‹NG› | |||||
| Fricative | Unvoiced | ɸ ‹F› | θ ‹TH› | s ‹S› | ʃ ‹SH› | |||
| Voiced | β ‹V› | z ‹Z› | ʒ ‹ZH› | |||||
| Approximant | r ‹R› | j ‹J› | h ‹H› | |||||
| Lateral | ɬ ‹L› |
Vowels
Vowel length is phonemic.
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | i ‹I› · y ‹Y› | ʉ ‹U› | u ‹O› |
| Mid | e ‹E› | ə | o ‹Ǫ› |
| Low | a ‹A› | ||
Diphthongs
Zhuori has many diphthongs, both rising and falling.
Rising:
| IPA | Orth. |
|---|---|
| aɪ | AY |
| aʊ | AU |
| eɪ | EY |
| uʊ | OU |
| oɪ | UY |
Falling:
| IPA | Orth. |
|---|---|
| ie | YE |
| ia | YA |
| iʊ | YU |
| ʉɔ | UO |
| ʉa | UA |
Phonotactics
Appropriate complex onsets (word-initial) include: ST, SR, SK, TR and KR.
Appropriate complex codas (word-final) include: ST, TS, RS, SK, KS, RT, and RK.
Grammar
Nouns
Nouns are inflected by possessive person, case, number, and obviation.
Possessive Person
| 1s | ii~ |
|---|---|
| 1p | ke~ |
| 2s | ri~ |
| 3s | ga~ |
| 3p/2p | me~ |
| 4s | u~ |
| 4p | uu~ |
Case
| Nominative | |
|---|---|
| Dative | ~da |
| Ablative | ~ba |
| Locative | ~lo |
| Instrumental | ~ni |
| Translative | ~ra |
Obviation/Number
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| Proximal | ~y | ~ys |
| Obviative | ~u | ~um |
Verbs
Verbs are inflected by subject, direct object, tense, and mood.
Subject
| 1s | ii~ |
|---|---|
| 1p | ke~ |
| 2s | ri~ |
| 3s | ga~ |
| 3p/2p | me~ |
| 4s | u~ |
| 4p | uu~ |
Direct Object
| 1s | ~y |
|---|---|
| 1p | ~ki |
| 3s | ~ge |
| 3p | ~my |
| 4s | ~u |
| 4p | ~thuu |
Person Hierarchy
Zhuori has the following person hierarchy:
2nd > 1st > 3rd proximal > 3rd obviative
A lower-ranking subject cannot take a higher-ranking object. For this, an inverse suffix va exists that immediately precedes the direct object suffix.
Tense
| Past | nǫ~ |
|---|---|
| Present | ~is |
| Future | ~isǫn |
Mood
Lexicon
Numbers
