Zhoushi language

"Zhoushi language" redirects here. For Zhoushi language as set in its canon in Anteria, see Zhoushi language/Anteria.

Zhoushi
Ʒөшinчina - Ʒөшinƌky jєzyk
Zhoushi ethnic flag
Pronunciation	/ʒu͡oʃɪnt͡ʃina/
Native to	Zhousheng
Ethnicity	Zhoushi Slavs
Native speakers	L1: 26,985,000 L2: 4,532,000 FL: 230,000
Language family	Parthenian-Trianian Balto-Slavic Slavic Suiden-Flatt Zhoushi
Standard forms	Great Corpus of the New Zhoushi language
Writing system	Zhoushi Latin Alphabet
Official status
Official language in	Zhousheng
Recognised minority language in	Prei Meas
Language codes
ISO 639-1	ZS
ISO 639-2	ZSG
ISO 639-3	ZSG

The Zhoushi language (Zhoushi: Ʒөшinчina) is a Slavic language with major influence of local languages of TBD, that arose as a mixed language or pidgin of sorts in the nation of Zhousheng, a former colonial outpost of Suidenland. It is based on a slavic grammatic and linguistic base, especially inspired by Bogmian, Suiden and Belgorian languages, but has many major influences of other languages located in the region, especially Standard Yu, Preimeai, Mandarin Chinese and Syuba.

History

TBD

Comparison with the two former languages

Aspect		Bogmian	Zhengian		Zhoushi
Genders		YES	NO		YES
Clusivity		NO	YES		YES
Vowel length		YES	NO		NO
Syllabicity		YES	NO		YES
Reflexive		YES	NO		YES
Cases		YES	???		YES
Dozenal		NO	YES		???
Indifference		NO	YES		YES

Orthography and phonology

Introduction

The language has a slavic root and grammar, however, unlike other slavic languages, has 8 grammatical cases (other have 7 or 6). Also, there are about 700 Zhengian words in present day Zhoushi language, they are inflected using Bogmian grammar. Old Zhengian, having been descendant out of Prei-Phnom languages, was slowly assimilated into Slavic grammar, having transformed into Slavic Zhengian. Because of the Zhengian accents profilerating, Zhoushi language has 40 unique phonemes, 2 of which are exclusive to Zhoushi language (those are /r̝̊/ (Voiceless alveolar fricative trill) and /ȴ̩/ (Syllabic voiced alveolo-palatal lateral approximant)).

Alphabet

Main article: Zhoushi orthography

TBD

A a	B b	C c	Ч ч	D d	Đ đ	Ƌ ƌ	E e	Є є	F f
G g	Џ џ	H h	Ȝ ȝ	I i	J j	K k	L l	Λ λ	M m
N n	Ƞ ƞ	O o	Ө ө	P p	Q q	R r	Ꝛ ꝛ	S s	Ш ш
T t	Ꞇ ꞇ	Þ þ	U u	V v	Ƿ ƿ	X x	Y y	Z z	Ʒ ʒ

• Grapheme version: This version was later adopted as the official alphabet of the new Zhoushi language in 1984, uses special symbols for each phoneme
• Diacritic version: This version uses basic latin alphabet and solves the phonemes by adding diacritic symbols. Although still being recognized as a acceptable version of the language, it is barely used.
• Digraph version: This version uses digraphs to sign specifical phonemes. It was dropped in early 1950's, as it didn't solve the main reason why Bogmians abandoned the Protopolyash script in the first place.

Zhoushi, although not officially using it, sometimes used lenghtened marks for vowels and syllabic consonants. Those symbols were used in some historical transcripts, but were eventually faded in pre-1950's unification proposals and didn't make it into the official grammar of 1984.

Order	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20
Majuscule	A	B	C	Ч	D	Đ	Ƌ	E	Є	F	G	Џ	H	Ȝ	I	J	K	L	Λ	M
Minuscule	a	b	c	ч	d	đ	ƌ	e	є	f	g	џ	h	ȝ	i	j	k	l	λ	m
IPA Sound	a	b	t͡s	t͡ʃ	d~ɖ	ɟ	d͡z	ɛ	e	f	ɡ	d͡ʒ	h~ɦ	x	i	j	k	l	ȴ~ʎ	m
Order	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33	34	35	36	37	38	39	40
Majuscule	N	Ƞ	O	Ө	P	Q	R	Ꝛ	S	Ш	T	Ꞇ	Þ	U	V	Ƿ	X	Y	Z	Ʒ
Minuscule	n	ƞ	o	ө	p	q	r	ꝛ	s	ш	t	ꞇ	þ	u	v	ƿ	x	y	z	ʒ
IPA Sound	n	ɲ	o	u͡o	p	k͡v~q	r	r̝	s	ʃ	t~ʈ	c	θ~ð	u	v	w	k͡s	y	z	ʒ

Phonology

Place Manner	Labial					Coronal										Dorsal					Laryngeal
	Bilabial		Labiodental		Linguolabial		Dental		Alveolar		Postal-veolar		Retroflex		Palatal		Velar		Uvular		Pharyngeal		Glottal
Nasal	m̥ (m)	m (m)								n (n)				ɳ (n)		ɲ (ƞ)
Plosive	p (p)	b (b)							t (t)	d (d)			ʈ (t)	ɖ (d)	c (ꞇ)	ɟ (đ)	k (k)	g (g)	q (q)
Sibilant affricate									t͡s (c)	d͡z (ƌ)	t͡ʃ (ч)	d͡ʒ (џ)	ʈ͡ʂ (ч)	ɖ͡ʐ (џ)	t͡ɕ (ч)	d͡ʑ (џ)
Sibilant fricative									s (s)	z (z)	ʃ (ш)	ʒ (ʒ)	ʂ (ш)	ʐ (ʒ)	ɕ (ш)	ʑ (ʒ)
Non-sibilant fricative			f (f)	v (v)			θ (þ)	ð (þ)								ʝ (j)	x (ȝ)	ɣ (ȝ)	χ (ȝ)				h (h)	ɦ (h)
Approximant				ʋ (ƿ)												j (j)		w (ƿ)
Tap/Flap									ɾ̥ (r)	ɾ (r)
Trill									r̥ (r) r̝̊ (ꝛ)	r (r) r̝ (ꝛ)
Latelar approximant										l (l)						ȴ (λ)		ʟ (λ)

Tongue position	Front		Near-front		Central		Near-back		Back
Close	i (i)	y (y)			ɨ (y)					u (u)
Near-close			ɪ (i)
Close-mid	e (є)									o (o)
Mid					ə (e)
Open-mid	ɛ (e)								ʌ (o)	ɔ (o)
Near-open	æ (e)				ɐ (a)
Open	a (a)								ɑ (a)	ɒ (a)
Diphthong	a͡u (au) ~ ɛ͡u (eu) ~ e͡u (єu) ~ o͡u (ou) ~ ɔ͡u (ou) ~ u͡o (ө) ~ u͡ɔ (ө) ~ a͡e (ae) ~ a͡i (ai)
Long vowels	aː (a) ~ ɛː (e) ~ eː (є) ~ iː (i) ~ ɪː (i) ~ oː (o) ~ ɔː (o) ~ uː (u) ~ ɨː (y)

Bold are the common sounds, while regular sounds may happen in dialects and/or in a world for easier pronunciation

Grammar

Main article: Zhoushi grammar

The Zhoushi language knows two grammatical numbers, singular and plural (with some remnants of the Dual number) and all 8 Proto-Thuado-Thrismaran grammatical cases:

• Nominative - Named "Miƞik"
• Genitive - Named "Rodƞik"
• Dative - Named "Darƞik"
• Accusative - Named "Viƞik"
• Locative - Named "Mistƞik"
• Instrumentative - Named "Tvorƞik"
• Ablative - Named "Mєrƞik"
• Vocative - Named "Volaƞik"

Nouns

The Zhoushi language recognizes 4 grammatical genders and then a set of words with no gender:

• Masculine
  • Masculine animate - 4 inflection patterns
  • Masculine inanimate - 4 inflection patterns
• Feminine - 4 inflection patterns
• Neuter - 4 inflection patterns
• Indifferent (that is not a gender, but a lack of gender) - 2 inflection patterns

Adjectives

There are 4 inflection patterns for adjectives, being a combination of hard/soft and descriptivity/possessivity:

• Descriptive soft
• Descriptive hard
• Possessive soft
• Possessive hard

In the declinations of adjectives, Vocative has merged with Nominative.

Pronouns

The Zhoushi language has following pronouns:

Singular

• Ja (GEN Miƞe) - I/Me
• Ty (GEN Tebe) - You
• Өn (GEN Ƞej/Jego/Jeho) - He/Him
• Өna (GEN Ƞi/Jej) - She/Her
• Өno (GEN Өnogo/Өnoho) - It/Its
• Өnu (GEN Ƞij/Joj) - They/Them
• ACC Se (GEN Sebe) - -self

Plural

• Ny (GEN Nas) - Inclusive we
• Vy (GEN Vas) - You
• Oni (GEN Ƞiȝ/Jiȝ) - They/Them (masculine)
• Ony (GEN Ƞeȝ/Jeȝ) - They/Them (feminine)
• Ona (GEN Ƞєȝ/Oƞєȝ) - They/Them (neuter + indifferent)
• My (GEN Mas) - Exclusive we
• ACC Sє (GEN Sєbe) - -selfves

Numbers

Until 1970's, Zhousheng used dozenal numerical system, substituting 10 a 11 with ᚴ and ⵒ. The last symbol used was so called "Cyclic symbol", which was used for twelve-step cycles and sets of twelve parts, which was written as ᘐ.

This system can be still seen for example on the Zhoushi clock faces, which are still using the old system, writing it as 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-ᚴ-ⵒ-ᘐ.

Verbs

TBA

Language examples

TBD

See also

• Zhoushi grammar
• Zhoushi orthography
• Bogmian language
• Zhousheng
• Flag of Zhousheng