Zythë
Zythë is a fantasy language (conlang) I am creating. It is nearing completion, and I am working on a variety of daughter languages derived from Zythë. I started work on Zythë about 4 years ago, and I've become a better conlanger since then, so I don't regard Zythë to be my best work, however it is my most complete work. As such, I'm treating it as a protolang as sorts.
Note 1: This version is not final and is certainly subject to change in the future.
Note 2: This page is currently incomplete.
Lore & History
On a different world, a village of humans lived. They were very similar to us. They never truly knew where they came from, just like us, and they could only imagine that another world existed with other humans on it.
They lived near the ocean on a polar ice cap. There were a few other villages nearby that kept in contact with this one, but never very regularly, as the terrain and climate made travel very dangerous. The village of around three hundred people relied heavily on a large ocean dwelling animal, known as “sifa”, who were similar to whales. They made windproof coats, sheets, and tarps out of its skin, and structures, such as houses, out of its bones. They ate the animal's flesh for food, and used it's fat for candles and fire. They made string out of strong, tall, fibrous plants that grew in the water.
The village needed all of these resources, so during the summer time, when the sea ice melted, large fishing boats, crewed by about twenty people each, were launched to catch sifa. It was a big risk for the village to send so many people on one trip, but the trips rarely went wrong if crewed by experienced people. After all, the village needed to eat or else they would starve. The boats were designed to be very stable, made of bones, fiber, skins, and driftwood, weather was forecasted, waves were measured, and in the rare event of a boat sinking, they had smaller lifeboats to save some of their lives.
On one such trip, the worst scenario occurred. An unusually strong storm struck their vessel. They rode waves many times taller than their houses, winds stronger than even the more experienced mentors had ever seen. A harpoon poked through the strong hide of the boat, and the boat started taking on water. Rain and snow came down hard, causing visibility to drop.
In their panic, twelve people boarded lifeboats and fled. The other nine started trying to repair the fishing boat. The hole grew bigger and bigger, and at some point all of the people on board were taking apart the boat frantically, trying to get anything they can to float. One last wave rips the boat in half and seven people are never seen again.
After the rain and winds cleared, it became very clear that the shore was gone. The people who were still alive were stranded, alone in the open ocean. One boat had nine people on it, the other one had three. In the morning, the raft with nine found a stranded woman, clinging onto a piece of the ship. They welcomed her onboard, making them a boat of ten. The two boats eventually found each other and the passengers connected the two boats together. Later that day, they came across a dead body floating on another piece of wreckage.
Winds and water currents pushed the boat north, and away from their homeland. They were running out of food and water and started coming up with gruesome plans on what to do. The next day, they discovered an island in the distance. They used their training and strength to bring themselves towards it. When they arrived, they realized it was no ordinary island, it was a floating paradise island.
In more tropical areas, a plant has found a way to take advantage of the ocean and its sunlight. It grows on the water, growing strong air sacs that it floats on. A huge leaf is connected via strong 4m high stalks to the air sacs. The leaf expands outwards from the center and grows more stalks downwards, which, when they hit water, create more air sacs, connecting with the other air sacs to create a strong flat surface on top. An isolated ecosystem lives on the island. Small animals, known as “äshëku”, fish from the side of the island, and when they die, the plant absorbs their body to gather nutrients. In return, the island uses reverse osmosis and collects rainwater from the many tropical storms to create fresh water for the animals. Mosses and fungi grow on the floor of the island, consuming energy that the main plant missed. When they die, they are consumed by the plant. Some of these islands can grow to be over a half kilometer wide.
Our travelers found an island that measured around 300m. It normally inhabited much warmer waters, but was blown much further south than normal by the storm. They were very relieved to find it, it saved their lives. It had fresh water, edible plants, and a few species of these “äshëku”. For now, they were safe. They continued to drift northwards towards the equator, pushed by winds and ocean currents. After 5 months of drifting, the island hit the shores of a new continent.
This new continent was a jungle, never inhabited by humans. There was an excess of plants, foods, herbs, fungi, animals, sunlight, and warmth. Rain fell every day and caused low areas to flood. In this new land, these people made the best of their new environment. They stopped wearing their fat filled whale-skin clothing, and started to eat what they had around them. These fourteen people named themselves “the travelers” (zythë), and started a small village, and tried to survive on what they had.
Reference Grammar
§1 Phonology
Consonants
| Bilabial | Labio-Dental | Dental | Alveolar | Palatal-Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m̊m | n̊n | ŋ̊ | ||||||
| Plosive | pb | td | k | q | |||||
| Fricative | ɸ β | f v | θ ð | s z | ʃ ʒ | x | ꭓ | h | |
| Approximant/Trills | r | j | |||||||
| Lateral | l |
For the orthography, all of the consonants are written as their IPA values except for the following:
- /m̊/ is written as mm
- /n̊/ is written as nn
- /ŋ̊/ is written as ng
- /ɸ/ is written as ph
- /β/ is written as bh
- /θ/ is written as th
- /ð/ is written as dh
- /ʃ/ is written as sh
- /ʒ/ is written as zh
- /ꭓ/ is written as g
- /h/ is written as c
- /ɹ/ is written as r
Vowel Phonemes
| Vowels | Front | Central | Back |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | iy | u | |
| Mid | e ø | ə | o |
| Open | a | ɑ |
For the orthography, all of the vowels are written as their IPA values except for the following:
Words are never capitalized, and periods are used at the ends of sentences.
- /ɑ/ is written as ä
- /ə/ is written as ë
- /ɪ/ is written as î
- /i/ is written as i
Syllable Structure
Syllables in Zythë are restricted to CV in the middle of words, however, they may be (C)V at the beginning of words and CV(C) at the ends of words. For example: guzi, guzik, uzik, and uzi are all valid words. Words may not end in a final /h/.
Vowel Strength Hierarchy
When two vowels touch for grammatical reasons, breaking the syllable structure, the vowel strength hierarchy will determine which vowel is "stronger" and gets used at the junction. If they are on the same level on the hierarchy, the vowel in the root word is considered stronger.
Vowel Strength Hierarchy:- î is stronger than ë
- all vowels except î and ë are stronger than î
- ä is stronger than a
§2 Nouns
In this document, a single isolated dash ( "-" ) will represent an unmarked form. two slashes ( "//" ) will represent an impossible construction.
Nouns in Zythë decline for case and number. If a noun ends in y (except the pronouns qy and py), then it will decline as shown by the second table. All other nouns are declined as shown by the first table.
Zythë is a Fluid-S Active-Stative language, which means that sometimes the subject of an intransitive verb will be marked with the agentive case, and sometimes with the patientive case. As a general rule, the subject of an intransitive verb will be marked agentive if volition was involved, as in the subject voluntarily performed the action, and will get marked patientive if the verb is done involuntarily.
Standard Declension
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| Agentive | - | -ik |
| Patientive | -o | -ok |
| Dative | -ut | -utik |
| Genitive | -ëm | -im |
| Instrumentive | -omo | -im |
| Benefactive | -iri | -ikiri |
| Vocative | -os | -osik |
| Locative | -orîre | -orîrik |
Y Declension
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| Agentive | -y | -yk |
| Patientive | -o | -ok |
| Dative | -yt | -ytik |
| Genitive | -ym | -ym |
| Instrumentive | -omo | -ym |
| Benefactive | -yry | -yky |
| Vocative | -os | -osyk |
| Locative | -orîre | -orîryk |
Pronouns
Zythë has 8 pronouns, a singular and plural form for each of four person distincions, that decline to the 8 cases.
| Person | 1st | 2nd | 3rd Proximate | 3rd Obviate (4th) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number | Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural |
| Agentive | qy | pik | phi | phik | shitë | tik | tunoko | dyshik |
| Patientive | qo | pok | pho | phok | shito | tok | tuno | dyshok |
| Dative | qyt | putik | phit | bhutik | shitët | tutik | tunukut | dytik |
| Genitive | qym | pim | phim | bhim | shitëm | tim | tunokom | dyshim |
| Instrumentive | qomo | pim | phim | bhim | shitomo | tim | tunokom | dyshim |
| Benefactive | qyry | pikiri | phiri | phikiri | shitëri | tikiri | tuniroko | tyshiri |
| Vocative | qos | posik | phidos | bhisik | shitos | dosik | tunoso | dyshosik |
| Locative | qorîre | porîrik | phidorîre | bhorîrik | shitorëre | dorîrik | tunorîreko | dyshorîrik |
Honorifics
Zythë has 4 classes of honorifics which are applied to nouns of people, such as names or pronouns. Applying honorifics can help establish the speakers relationship to others, and can be used to express politeness (or impoliteness). The word for "hello" has 4 different unique forms for each of the honorifics, meaning one must apply an honorific to the listener when saying hello.
| Honorific | Prefix | "Hello" | Description | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| H1 | Respect | re- | req | Used to show respect to someone. It's typically used when talking to strangers, bosses, people in an older generation (people around the age of your parents), and people who you could/could've dated. |
| H2 | Extreme Respect | dhep- | dhepiq | Used to show extreme respect to someone. It's typically used when talking to celebrities and elders. More exaggerated form of H1. |
| H3 | Demonstrative | iq- | iqî | Used when talking to people much younger than the speaker. It's also used in a mocking way when someone is acting childish or immature. It's often times used among a group of male friends who like to poke/make fun of each other. |
| H4 | Friends/Family | ves- | vesoq | For close friends or family |
§3 Verbs
Evidentiality and Transitivity
Zythë verbs require a suffix that encodes evidentiality and transitivity. The intransitive form is used in simple clauses that have more only one argument, and the transitive form is used when there is more than one argument. Evidentiality is also marked in the same suffix. More specific meanings are expressed when combined with mood marking.
| Transitive | Intransitive | |
|---|---|---|
| First-Hand | y- | - |
| Inferrential | na- | ra- |
| Reported | nø- | ø- |
Passive and Causative
The transitive and intransitive also have secondary meanings when used in each other's place.
When the transitive is used in an intransitive clause, a sentence that has only one argument, it is treated as a passive voice. In this case the subject is in the patientive case.
When an intransitive is used in a clause that has two or more arguments, it is treated as a causative. The causer is placed in the benefactive case, and if the underlying sentence is intransitive, the causee is required to be in the patientive case.
Tense and Aspect
Zythë verbs conjugate to 9 tenses. These tenses can have up to three aspectual distinctions and four temporal distinctions.
| Perfective | Continuous | Habitual | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Future | -eph | -ifi | |
| Present | // | -q | -xi |
| Recent Past | - | -me | -las |
| Distant Past | -thë | -kä | |
The present continuous is known as the present tense, and the present habitual tense is known as the habitual tense.
While the present tense is used the most often, it is marked with the -q suffix, giving zythë its distinctive sound.
Irregular Verbs
Some Zythë verbs are irregular and do not fit the tense pattern shown above. Their conjugations are shown below.
Mood and Modality
Zythë has a realis/irrealis mood distinction. Some modal constructions and phrases require the realis mood and some require the irrealis mood. Some constructions can take both moods and change meaning depending on the mood.
The irrealis mood is marked with the suffix -te.
| Realis | Irrealis | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Morphology | - | -te | |
| Tense | Future | Future | Imperative |
| Evidentiality | First Hand | First Hand | // |
| Inferrential | Deductive | Speculative/Assumptive | |
| Reportive | Reportive (2) | Reportive (3, Gen) | |
| Question | Interrogative | // | Interrogative |
| Constructions | Volitive | // | Volitive |
| Conditional | // | Conditional | |
Negative verbs are formed with the prefix a(p)-. Yes/no questions are made with the interrogative particle jo.
Auxiliary Verbs
Auxiliary verbs are used to add additional meaning to the verb. In Zythë they alter the modality of the verb. When auxiliary verbs are used, the lexical verb is made infinitive with -ilo
| Modality | Verb |
|---|---|
| Abilitive | yf |
| Permissive | da |
| Obligative | sut |
§4 Syntax
Word Order
Word order in Zythë is quite free, however the default word order is VSO. In relative clauses, SVO is used.
Nouns
Zythë noun phrases are mostly head final. It puts demonstrative, possessives, and relative clauses after its nouns. Zythë also uses prepositions when nessecary.
Verbs
The verb template below shows the postion of the affixes on verbs.
| 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Negation | Evidentiality/Transitivity | Verb STEM | Tense | Mood |
Auxiliary verbs are placed before the verbs they modify, and the interrogative particle jo is placed after the finite verb.
§5 Derivation
Many derivational strategies are employed to coin new words. They are shown in the chart below.
| Affix | Initial PoS | Resulting PoS | Usage | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| an- | n | n | opposite of | îf- | n | n | derived from | z- | v | n | person who is subject of | shø- | n | n | augmentative
| -so | v | n | instance of | -yl | v | n | object that does | -ïbha | n | v | to use | -ale | n | v | to misuse | -n | n | adj | similar to | ana- | n | adj | someone/thing who likes | ib- | n | adj | someone/thing who dislikes | be- | any | same | augmentative
| xaq- | any | same | diminutive
| |