#sryk

[viohra]

More Sryk Grammar

The verb “to be” is completely nonexistent in the language, and given that the agent of the action is inflected for tense, aspect, and polarity and the action is only inflected for noun class of the agent there’s really no reason to have a copula. However, the agent of a copula is not put into the ergative case and remains in the absolutive along with the predicate, taking the inflections as any ergative noun would.

Ex:

Yhs vnûvarat — the woman kills the person

Yhs vent — the woman is a person

Yhs vnûjvarat — the woman killed a person

Yhs venût — the woman was a person

Yhs vnû3ajvarat — the woman doesn’t kill the person

Yhs venajt — the woman isn’t a person

Yhs vnûwajvarat — the woman didn’t kill a person

Yhs venwajt — the woman wasn’t a person

In each of these examples you can see how the agent “woman” changes from vnû in the ergative to ven in the absolutive and that even without the verb, the 3rd person human nounclass -t ending is still applied in every case.

Yhs 3ajśájjá, müskä 3ajśjá — /ɨħs ʕɑjːɕajːa , mysːkæ ʕɑjːɕːja/ — I’m not a person, I’m a cat*

*note: this is formal, “3ajśájjá” and “3ajśjá” can be reduced to pronouns as “ajjá” and “já”** respectively, which in fact attach to the predicate,,, because things aren’t confusing enough without pronouns.

** “Já” is seen in Northern Zehzhik dialects as “jä” which also carries the meaning of “I am”.

[goalhofer]

2019-20 Victoria Royals Player Names With 1st Letters Reversed

Farun Tizer

Hary Gaden

Oaid Kliver

Deanu Kerungs

Crandon Butler

Marson Ciller

Pitchell Mrowse

Gean Sulka

Shillip Pchultz

Will Warm

Hacob Jerauf

Trayden Bracey

Satthew Mmith

Braeme Sryks

Yy Toder

Giley Rannon

Bolan Nentham

Loah Namb

Blex Aolshakov

Garson Colder

Hatthew Modson

Meegan Kaddocks

Ey Tttinger

Edam Avanoff

Fhane Sarkas

[kikitokob]

also i'm very upset that mike can dance.  well kind of.  i guess it makes way for my new headcanons

[viohra]

Sryk Vowels

So Sryk’s whole phonology is a bit overcomplicated with some consonants like R having six separate pronunciations, but the vowels are pretty straight forward once you know the rules.

Orthographically there are only 4 vowels — a, e, i, and u with the latter not appearing in any root, not even possessing its own dedicated character, only a diacritic for foreign words. The u is seen only in areas where it rounds the previous vowel, except in some cases where it’s added to a vowelless/vowel-muted consonant.

Rule 1: Vowel Harmony

Sryk has strict vowel harmony where the first, last, or penultimate syllable sets the harmony. If the first syllable is <i>, then all following vowels are fronted and/or raised (eg <a> is pronounced /æ/). If it’s <a>, then the opposite happens; all following vowels are backed and/or lowered (eg <i> is /ɯ/). If the first vowel is <e>, it is pronounced /ə/ but the rest of the vowels take the harmony of the final vowel unless the word is 4 or more syllables long, then it’s the penultimate syllable that determines the vowel harmony; however in the case that that vowel is also <e> such as the roots <deraze> and <derazeura>, the harmony falls on the first vowel that is either <a> or <i>. <e> usually remains unchanged by vowel harmony but may drift from /ɛ/ to /ɤ/ depending on the speaker, surrounding consonants, and the present harmony.

The syllable the contains the vowel that holds the harmony is the syllable that is stressed.

Vaneki /vɑnəkɯ/

Vineka /vinəkæ/

Venaki /vənæki/

Venikare /vənɯkɒrə/

Rule 2: Rounding

Some templates, cases, and conjugations add rounding to the vowels. Orthographically represented by <u>, this vowel simply rounds whatever it’s attached to.

Rule 3: Vowel Colouring

This part of the vowel system works independently of the vowel harmony system and “overrides” the conventional front vs back divisions in sound. The letters â and î exist to indicate the effect. Vowels modified by î drift towards /i/ while vowels modified by â drift towards /ɑ/, however in these cases it’s easier probably to memorize each modification under every harmony

A-Harmony <aî> — /ɛ/

I-Harmony <aî> — /e/

A-Harmony <iâ> — /ɤ/

I-Harmony <iâ> — /ɨ/

Rule 4: Consonant Effects

Certain consonant affect the vowel quality. Palatal consonants act much like î and uvelar/pharyngeal consonants act like â. Plosives have a centralizing effect that could be marked as ê if such a letter existed.

[viohra]

“Man of the People”

ABS: Vékkaʻʻy3äisé /vekːɐʔːɨʕajse/

ERG: Vkakaʻʻy3äisé /fkɐkɐʔːɨʕajse/

• • •

I’m stealing from Arabic again. This is an example of Sryk’s version of Idafa with a wordphrase like “X of (the) Y” and is used to show possession. It works by placing the first noun (the thing being possessed) in the absolutive, ergative case, or any of the adpositional cases (depending on function in sentence), then inserting /a/ and the second noun in the prepositional case with the onset consonant doubled.

The entire construct is then treated as a single word with the first noun dictating noun gender, number, and vowel harmony. Additionally, the first noun takes any adposition

[viohra]

Form 1: Kaująti vįkajkHa-l-vara-t ŕairąsī-si3atęq́a-u7

Transliteration: Kojty vkäjǧäjväräŧ d’ersyysy3aŧq’o7

IPA: /kɒjtɯ fʲkæjɣæjværæt̚ʔ ʈʼɛrsɯːsɯʕɑt̚ʔkˠʼɒħ/

Translation: The men killed the dog in fear of its teeth.

Literal: The dog the men had killed due to fear of the teeth of it.

* * *

The symbols in order are: “dog”, “man”, plurality marker, past tense marker, “kill”, 3rd person human marker, “tooth”, “fear”, “in/for/due to”, plurality marker, “of”, 3rd person animal marker

This sentence showcases the 3 cases (abs, erg, gen). The last word “for fear of its teeth” is an example of a 3-letter root being made into a 7-letter root with the addition of the postposition denoting “fear of”.

Only three of the symbols are literary symbols, the rest are logograms.

[viohra]

Some Sryk Stuff

I’ve slowly been developing the template system for Sryk, it’s hard due to job, school, and personal motivation, but I at least know the direction I want to go.

Right now the language is a verb-based language ie most of the lexicon is derived from the verbs; nouns take one of four forms: figurative/nonphysical noun (verbal noun), inanimate noun, animate noun, and human noun, all of which come from a single verb. Each verb has 2-4 root consonants with vowel colourings. The nouns have 3 cases: absolutive, ergative, and adpositional, each having a singular and plural form and all being highly inflected.

An example root is KaTaRa, meaning “to chop”. Nouns are in the absolutive case and spelt phonetically to make things easier.

Verb: krara — to chop

VN: katara — chopping

IN: kraš — axe, cleaver

AN: kotra — beaver

H: ketš — axeman

Interestingly enough, the adpositional cases of this root is only used for innumerating the word (ex: krarad’oj /kɾɑrɑʈʼɔj/ means 3 axes). That is because the root is a complete root. In the language, adpositions are added to the root of a word to create a new root. An example of this is the adposition denoting possession “-za” attaching to the root “s’aja” (to see). The new root is now S’aJaZa and it’s put into the adpositional case as ś’äza (in the eye); even though it’s a 2-letter root, it’s actually treated as a 3-letter root.

S’ajʻakkataš /sʼɑjʔɑkːɑtɑʂ/ — eye of the axe

[viohra]

Ok here’s the Sryk/Zehzhik numerals. The top rows are the numbers 0-11 with the top picture the formal versions, the bottom the informals. The secondary rows in each picture show the diacritics mark 0, 12, 24, 36, and 48, both having alternatives

The system is base 60 so it’s pretty interesting to work with

These two symbols are the same number, which is 59.

Now here’s a giant ass fuckn number represents 10*60^4+25*60^3+4*60^2+44*60+19… which is 135017059, which is more or less 6 syllables long in either Sryk or Zehzhik

[viohra]

Deraze — horror, ugly, horrible, terrible, terrifying; ROOT

Dras — a horrible thing

Dórzë — a monster; imp; demonic creature

Dyrs — a demon; a anthropomorphic monster; (figurative) a murderer

Derazóra — place of [above]; ROOT

Dërzóra — a horrible place, a hell

[viohra]

Kraš kraarõikrarèʻ katšèby

/krɑʂ krɑːrɤjkrɑrɛʔ kɑtːʂɛbɨ/

"The axeman chopped the axe with an axe"

• • •

The symbol you see written 4 times is “katara” meaning “chopping” and thus is found in this sentence as “axe”, “axeman”, and “to chop”. It’s important to note that onset /kt/ becomes /kr/ and coda /r/ becomes /ʂ/ (as does a mutated r as seen in the last word); this is why the word for “axe” in the absolutive case is “kraš” even though it’s spelt “ktar”.

Katara is a cognate to Zehzhik’s word “ktor” meaning “axe”.

[viohra]

Sryk word of the day: the 2nd person pronoun.

While the form of this logogram appears to be a syllagram (formation of 2-3 syllables), it’s actually a symbol that represents the idea of the 2nd person pronoun with many different pronunciations.

The original root of the concept is *ðaša, and in the absolutive it’s pronounced zèš /z̟ɛʃ/ and in the ergative it’s dža /d̪ʐɑ/. Plural these are vètš /vɛt̪ʂ/ and vèdža /vɛd̪ʐɑ/. The attached pronoun for the genitive is -ši. The verb is conjugated with -(e)š and consonant mutation (ex: raki > rakHieš > raxyš).

[viohra]

Müšxäs i3žezewäis’ajaʻ.

The people didn’t see the cats.

Written: mius(a)kHað ʻi3(a)sHeðelajs’ajat

Here’s the symbol that means “cat”. It is made up of the syllables Mi, Sa, and Ka. Absolutive form is “müskä”, ergative form is “vsoka”.

Here’s the symbol that means “person”. It is made up of the syllables ʻi, 3a, and Se. Absolutive form is “i7s”, ergative form is “3as”.

This symbol represents plurality and has the technical phonetic value of /ð/, but depending on placement can be pronounced /s̟ z̟ d̪ t̪/ since /ð/ sound was lost — these sounds contrast with /s z d t/.

This logogram represents the negative past, basically “didn’t”. It’s pronounced a variety of ways but basically is “(V)wai” where the empty vowel changes depending on the proceeding word and it’s noun class.

This symbol means “to see” or “eye” and is pronounced “s’aja” with an ejective /s’/.

This symbol, phonetically representing /t/, represents 3rd person human noun class; however, final t is a glottal stop.

[viohra]

Sryk

So I’m working on a new conlang called Sryk which is basically a rebranded version of Ishu. The name is Zehzhik for “language of the Sęr”, the Sęr being the ethnic group that speaks it.

Right now I have a basic grammar down. I think I made it an ergative-absolutive language, but the way it treats the concept is kinda something I came up with — I made it so that the ergative noun is inflected with the “verb”, which more acts as an adjective, in which the noun is inflected with the tense, number/plurality, and polarity and the verb matches only in person/noun class. In addition, each noun has a unique absolutive and ergative forms.

Examples (intransitive):

Müskä s’ajo = the cat sees

Müskä ais’ajo = the cat doesn’t see

Müskä s’ajoi = the cat saw

Müskä ais’ajoi = the cat didn’t see

ʻI3s s’aja’ = the person sees

ʻI3s ais’aja’ = the person doesn’t see

ʻI3s s’ajati = the person saw

ʻI3s ais’ajati = the person didn’t see

Müšxäs s’ajo = the cats see

ʻI3žés s’aja’ = the people see

Examples (transitive):

ʻI3s vsokas’ajo = the cat sees the person

ʻI3s vsokois’ajo = the cat saw the person

ʻI3s vsoxats’ajo = the cats see the person

ʻI3s vsoxazuis’ajo = the cats saw the person

Müskä ʻ3ass’aja’ = the person sees the cat

Müskä ʻ3aseis’aja’ = the person saw the cat

Müskä ʻ3ašets’aja’ = the people see the cat

Müskä ʻ3ašezeis’aja’ = the people saw the cas

ʻI3žés vsoxazuwais’ajo = the cats didn’t see the people

Müšxäs ʻ3ašezewais’aja’ = the people didn’t see the cats

Additionally the copula is dropped in all tenses while the inflection remains

Müskä = the cat

Müskö / vsoko = the cat is (intrans/trans)

Müsköi / vsokoi = the cat was (intrans/trans)

Müskö3äi / vsoko3ai = the cat isn’t (intrans/trans)

Müsköwäi / vsokowai = the cat wasn’t (intrans/trans)

Note:

The sound changes make a lot more sense if I wrote the actual spellings, but the spellings also obscure the pronunciation. For example: the letter l is never pronounced /l/, but as /w/ or /j/ depending on placement. Also “müskä” and “vsoka” are written the same way (misaka) but with vowel differences, specifically miuska vs msauka where the latter’s ms is pronounced vs and the former undergoes vowel harmony.

[viohra]

Miusàka ʻì3ajsHa-waj-sàfa7a-t q’aijkārHas-u7

Müskä ʻ3éjżäẅäjsfä7ät q’ejkaažasu7

/myskæ ʕejʒæɥæjsfæħæt̚ʔ kˤʼɛjkɑːʐɑsuħ/

“The people didn’t pet the cat because of its claws”

[viohra]

Kaujti kjauthithul-varau q’aj 7ak-kaujtiul-aj v7ata-r jei s7ii kaujthith vkakel-varat kathr-ba7

Koity čozyzuivaro q’ai 7akkoituwai f7ataš jy s7y koizys fkakõivara2 kasyba7.

/kojtɨ ˈt͡ɕozɨzujˌvɑro qʼɑj ħɑk.kojtuwɑj fħɑtɑʂ jɨ sᵊħɨ kojzɨs fkɑkɤjvɑrɑʔ kɑsɨbɑħ/

The dogs killed a dog because the one dog wasn’t strong and then a man killed the dogs with an axe.

Lit: dog dog [PL] was kill [AN] because one dog wasn’t strength [ADJ] and then dog [PL] man was kill [H] axe via.

[viohra]

I'm thinking about reworking Zehzhik. It's phonology works but it's a bit disjointed at times and the grammar behaves weirdly at times.

Also i need to rework the cases. Like the number is fine, it's just that there has to be a reason why they exist.

Also I might change the number system to something more easily useable like senary, which also opens the door for some cool grammatical features.

Basically I need to analyze the grammars of zehzhik and saarik/sryk and draw out a common root language that explains the existence of both. From there I can flesh out the entire family