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Zhoushi language

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"Zhoushi language" redirects here. For Zhoushi language as set in its canon in Anteria, see Zhoushi language/Anteria.
Zhoushi
Ʒөшinчina - Ʒөшinƌky jєzyk
ZhoushiCultureFlag.png
Zhoushi ethnic flag
Pronunciation/ʒu͡oʃɪnt͡ʃina/ Speaker Icon.svg
Native to
EthnicityZhoushi Slavs
Native speakers
L1: 26,985,000
L2: 4,532,000
FL: 230,000
Standard forms
Great Corpus of the New Zhoushi language
Zhoushi Latin Alphabet
Official status
Official language in
Recognised minority
language in
Language codes
ISO 639-1ZS
ISO 639-2ZSG
ISO 639-3ZSG
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For a guide to IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

The Zhoushi language (Zhoushi: Ʒөшinчina) is a Slavic language with major influence of local languages, 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

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)[1] and /ȴ̩/ (Syllabic voiced alveolo-palatal lateral approximant)).

Alphabet

Main article: Zhoushi orthography
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
  1. ↑ Also possibly [lʲ] in some dialects
  2. ↑ Also possibly [ɡ] in some dialects
  3. ↑ X is used as a new form for gender neutral declination for nonbinary pronouns as a suffix with the sound [ə]

Phonology

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:

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.

See also

Template:Zhousheng Navbox

  1. ↑ Note: this phoneme is present in other two Kento-Polyash languages: Velnotian and Ulevan
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