Zdrole Language

Zdrole
Zdrêoll
Pronunciation	IPA: [zd̠ɹ̠ɤ̂.ləl]
Native to	Fortizendria
Region	Central Occeia in Krystar
Native speakers	Unknown
Language family	Occe-Fortizian Zdrole
Writing system	Mezéz
Official status
Official language in	Fortizendria
Language codes
ISO 639-3	ZDR

Zdrole (native: Zdrêoll, pronounced: [zd̠ɹ̠ɤ̂.ləl], lit. "tongue-like") is the official and most widely spoken language of Fortizendria, a nation in the region of Krystar. Zdrole is regularly used by about 80% of Fortizendrians and is the first language of about 65%, although about 45% have notable dialectal differences, many of which differ substantially, in some cases being considered "unrecognized partially intelligible languages". It is by far the most widely spoken language, with the only officially recognized and local-official language of Fvonil and its dialects being close, being known by about 40% of the population and 20% learning it as a first language. Non-recognized varieties of Ovalul, Ziliel, and neighboring countries' languages being the first language of the remaining 15% and being understood by roughly 30% of the population. It is not especially well documented.

Zdrole is not very centralized as a single language, with several dialects exhibiting mergers or splits in certain sounds, different cases being used for specific circumstances, differences in honorifics, and even a change in lexicon due to borrowing from other languages and coining new terms. This article mainly covers a specific dialect of Zdrole, the Fortizendriana or Capital Dialect, which is most widely understood due to use in federal government. However, it should be noted that many provincial governments, as well as local governments, often different dialects, if not Fvonil (or in locales other minor languages). International diplomacy must be conducted in Zdrole, but dialects may vary wildly. Legal language and technical jargon is written or spoken with many technical loan words taken from more advanced economic neighbors, while the constitution was written in a now "archaic" version of a dialect that was not even the Capital dialect.

Phonology

Zdrole has at least 23 base consonants and 10 base vowels, along with three pitch accents. However, there is significant debate as to the true number of phonemes, as some of them only appear in complex clusters, some may be analyzed as clusters, and in some cases they have been simplified. Several of these clusters further have unique letters. To make matters more confusing, there is a significant degree of allophony with several consonants, as well as dialectal variations. Different analyses may be performed on even the same dialect to yield more or less phonemes. It is for this reason that there are estimated to be between 32 and 78 total phonemes, although it's generally considered to be on the lower end of the spectrum. This article provides the "standard" analysis of the Capital dialect.

Vowels

Zdrole Vowels

	Front	Mid-lateral*	Back
Close	i /i/ ui /y/	lyl /lʉl/*	iu /ɯ/ u /u/
Mid	e /e/ oe /ø/	ll, lil /ləl/* /ə/	eo /ɤ/ o /o/
Open	a /a/		ao /ɒ/

* Mid-lateral vowels are denoted as "indefinite mid lateral" vowels, where /ə/ is any non-close vowel, and the entire sequence of /lʉl/ may be pronounced as [y], [lil], [juj], [l̩ʷ] or [ʝ]. /ə/ may appear epenthetically between complex clusters, especially voiced clusters and duplicated fricatives (as in /es.sa/)

Vowels may also be nasalized before /ŋ/, which may disappear entirely before another consonant. Vowels may also become breathy voiced by some speakers after a voiced /h/, although this is generally considered "incorrect" in formal speech and many dialects.

Vowel harmony does exist, but it's weak. It primarily exists in suffixes, primarily grammatical suffixes, although collapsed consonant clusters and sound changes have made this inconsistent. Some small, old, and commonly used words also have undergone vowel harmony. Most long, uncommon, and newer words do not undergo harmony outside of their suffixes.

Sometimes vowels collapse into relatively similar approximants, primarily after similar vowels in certain environments. /i/ and /e/ become /j/; /y/, /ɯ/ and /u/ become /ʋ/; /ø/ and /ɤ/ become /ɹ/; and /o/ and /ɒ/ become /l/. /a/ remains impervious to liquifaction. Many of these clusters may be considered diphthongs, but are analyzed as a vowel plus a liquid. There is some debate as to whether /ʋ/, /l/ and /j/ are truly distinct consonants, as they form primarily from old vowels, but they are generally written down as such due to the fact that multiple vowels can collapse into the same sound. /j/ in coda position may be be more narrowly transcribed as [ɪ̯].

Some consonant-vowel sequences, and particularly CVC sequences where both consonants are the same, are sometimes realized allophonically as syllabic consonants. This includes all nasals and voiced fricatives, as well as /l/ and often the lVl sequences. This is most notable when an unpitched close vowel follows a nasal or fricative, when an open vowel precedes /l/, and when an unpitched (and, strangely more commonly, a pitched) vowel appears between two nasals or voiced fricatives of the same kind. Pitched and unpitched syllabic consonants are largely recognized as distinct from non-syllabic counterparts, but are not considered distinct from the sequences they arise from. They do not exist in all dialects, and are notably more rare in northern and western dialects, where they haven't had as much influence from Fvonil, as well as "proper" official dialects. They also sometimes disappear in careful pronunciation, particularly in certain formal situations and between dialects, but it varies widely between regions, situations, and even within individual speakers.

A hyphen (-) may be used between two vowels if there is a vowel hiatus (i.e. qma-on for /mˀa.on/)

Pitch Accent

Zdrole is a pitch accent language. Vowels are usually short and toneless. They are usually pronounced with a low or mid tone by default, but may be altered by surrounding pitch accents, as well as vary greatly with intonation, between dialects, and by speaker. When "emphasized", a vowel in a syllable may have one of three pitch accents: high /í/, falling /î/, and low /ì/. These vowels are almost always longer than their unpitched counterparts.

"High", "Falling" and "Low" tones are a bit of an oversimplification, since they affect following vowels, particularly if they are unstressed. For most dialects and speakers, tone may become disyllabic, spreading to the following vowel. All pitch accents - and unpitched vowels, for that matter - are heavily affected by intonation. The "high" tone in particular varies widely between speakers and dialects, and may be a rising tone or even a low tone nearly identical to the low pitch accent, where the main difference is whether the following vowel is a low-mid or mid-high tone. In instances where two pitch accents are next to each other, the second pitch accent may tell more information about the first pitch accent, while the vowel after it tells more information about the second tone accent. To an extent, the pitch accents may undergo tone sandhi.

Unpitched vowels after high pitch vowels (including "low" high pitches) are generally higher pitched than other vowels. These high-tone vowels usually undergo forward spreading, where subsequent unpitched vowels are likely to be a higher tone, although this is not necessary and is often not found in southern dialects.

Not all words require a pitch accent. Many small words, including most prepositions and particles with grammatical functions, do not have a pitch accent, although several longer words also exhibit no discernable pitch accent (one example being the word for Krystar). Other words may have multiple pitch accents.

There are very few rules for when and where a pitch accent may occur, and many words are derived from slight modifications to the location and type of pitch accent, while others change meanings entirely. Two pitch accents of the same kind can not exist next to each other in the same word. Only up to two kinds of pitch accents may exist in a word, except in some technical words where extreme compounding is necessary. A high pitch accent can never follow a low pitch accent anywhere in a word, where it becomes a falling tone.

Intonation

Intonation does several things to vowels, pitched and unpitched. Zdrole undergoes a fairly similar intonation pattern to French.

Most sentences, including giving directions, phrases, and individual words (termed "definitive") end with the default "low" intonation; that is, unpitched vowels have a lower tone (though it's still "mid" if made high by a preceding pitch accent), low pitch vowels have a longer low tone, falling pitch vowels fall from mid or high tone to a low tone, and high pitch vowels instead end in a low or mid rising tone. Most of the rest of the sentence remains fairly level. If the penultimate vowel has a pitch accent, and the final vowel is unpitched, then both undergo tone changes.

Before a break in the sentence, i.e. before and at the end of dependent clauses, and sometimes if the speaker just needs a breath, unpitched vowels may be more mid-tone, low pitch vowels may become very low-rising or even dipping, falling pitch vowels fall from a mid or high tone to a low tone (like the end of sentences), and high pitch accents may have a higher tone or be a slightly higher rising tone.

Interrogative questions may also be formed using intonation, which is often present even when other question indicators are present. Questions may have more tonal variability in unstressed vowels, which often tend to be higher tone in nature. At the end of a question, unpitched vowels usually have a higher tone, low pitch vowels have a steep rising tone (from low to high, usually), falling pitch vowels have a high-low-mid dipping tone, and high pitch vowels have a very high rising tone.

In sentences where the speaker exerts some level of surprise or enthusiasm, unstressed tones may vary wildly, and the ending tone may sometimes end as an interrogative. High pitch tones tend to become high-to-mid falling tones. Sentences where the speaker is doubtful may also end like questions, but otherwise be states as though it were a normal sentence. If the penultimate vowel has a pitch accent, and the final vowel is unpitched, then both undergo tone changes.

The lowest and highest tones in pitch + intonation combinations may be creaky voiced.

Tone with Pitch and Intonation

Standard Capital Dialect Pitch Contour Realization

	Standard	Varied	Clausal/Pausal	Definitive-Final/Penultimate	Uncertain-Final	Energetic-Final/Penultimate
Low Pitch	˨˨	˨˨, ˨˩	˨˩˧	˨˨, ˨˩, ˩˩	˨˩˦	˨˩˦
Falling Pitch	˧˨, ˦˨	˧˩, ˥˨	˦˨, ˦˨˧, ˧˨˦	˦˨, ˨˩˨	˦˨˧	˦˨˧, ˥˩
High Pitch	˦˦, ˧˦, ˨˨	˧˦, ˨˦, ˨˩˦	˦˦, ˧˦, ˨˦	˧˧, ˨˧	˧˥	˧˥
Unpitched	˧	˨, ˦	˧, ˦,	˨, ˦	˦, ˧˥, ˦˥	˧, ˦,
Post-Low	˧, ˨	˧, ˦	˧, ˦, ˧˦	˨, ˩	˦, ˧˥	˧, ˦, ˧˦
Post-Falling	˨	˨, ˩	˧, ˨˧	˩, ˩˧	˩˧, ˧˦	˩˧, ˦, ˨
Post-High	˦	˦, ˨, ˩	˦	˧, ˦	˧˦, ˦˥	˦˨, ˩

Consonants

Zdrole Phonemic Consonants

	Labial	Dental-Alveolar	Palatal / Velar¹	Glottal
Nasal	m /m/	n /n/	ng /ŋ/²
Plosive	b /b/³	t /t/ d /d/⁴	k /k/ g /g/	q /ʔ/⁵
Affricate		c /t͡s/ cz /d͡z/	cx /t͡ɕ/ cj /d͡ʑ/
Fricative	f /f/⁶	s /s/ z /z/ l (tɬ~ɣ)	x /ɕ/ j /ʑ/ h (x)⁷	h /h/⁷
Approximant	v /ʋ/⁸	l /l/⁹ r /ɹ/¹⁰	y /j/

¹ Velar consonants (k g ŋ) may be palatal (c ɟ ɲ) before front vowels, and may remove /i/ entirely. Affricates and fricatives are actually alveolar-palatal, or postalveolar before /ɹ/

² velar nasal as in sing. Nasalizes previous vowels. May be lost entirely before consonants.

³ May be voiced /b/ or voiceless /p/, even when aspirated. Usually voiceless utterance-initially/finally and after voiceless consonants, while voiced elsewhere.

⁴ Dental; /d/ may be lenited to [ð] intervocally for some speakers. Other alveolar consonants are alveolar-dental.

⁵ Glottal stop, as in "uh-oh". Only distinct before vowels at some morpheme boundaries. Can appear after consonants in contractions (dze+ʔeba->dzʔeba). May be epenthetic between complex codas and onsets. Often used to explain pre-fricated and glottal consonants (see table below).

⁶ May be bilabial [ɸ] in some speakers, and is more common in clusters where it follows a bilabial stop (especially if it's preglottalized).

⁷ [x] if not followed by a vowel, sometimes before /u/ and /ɯ/, and occasionally any position not after a consonant; [ɦ] after voiced consonants, which may cause the following vowel to become breathy; [ç] before /i/ and /y/, which may delete /i/ entirely. /h/ after plosives and less often affricates (where it disappears in about half of all dialects) is often considered aspiration (i.e. /abhat/ -> [abʱatː]) (see below table). Because /h/ is usually [x] in coda positions, the sequence /hh/, as in /eh.ha/, is usually pronounced as a single [x], meaning [e.ha] and [ex.a] are distinct clusters, making some consider /x/ its own phoneme. [x] may also be a uvular fricative or trill.

⁸ May be a bilabial or labio-dental approximant or fricative (v ʋ ɥ β) interchangeably and by dialect, with fricatives more likely in clusters.

⁹ Frequently fricated to an lateral fricative (ɮ ɬ) or even an affricate in coda positions, and may even be velarized to [ɫ] or even [ɣ] in a few speakers, primarily in a northwestern dialect. May become [l], [ʎ], [ʝ], [j], or even drop entirely before /i/ and /y/, sometimes deleting or merging with /i/ to become [i] or [y], varying widely across dialects. Onset /l/ usually merges with coda /l/ between vowels, and thus, like /x/, is sometimes considered a distinct phoneme, while others consider it a realization of a consonant cluster /l.l/. This distinction is not found in Fvonil dialects, where /l/ is less likely to be velarized. The velar fricative [ɣ] (and utterance-final [x]) may also be a uvular fricative or trill.

¹⁰ usually a postalveolar approximant, and is actually very similar to the standard English /r/. Sometimes simply written as /r/ as in English. Can occasionally be trilled or tapped, especially after /t/ and /d/.

Allophony

Additional Zdrole Potential Phonemes and Allophones

	Labial	Dental-Alveolar	(Alveolar-)Palatal	Velar/Glottal
Glottalized Nasal	qm [mˀ] [ɓ]¹¹	qn [nˀ] [ɗ]¹¹	ng [ɲ] qy [ɲˀ]¹²	qy [ŋˀ]¹²
Prefricated Nasal	fqm [ɸˀm] [fˀm]¹³	sqn [sˀn]¹³	hqng [çˀɲ]¹³	hqng [xˀŋ]¹³
Plosive	b [p] [pːˀ]¹⁴ [b̥]¹⁵	t [t̪ːˀ]¹⁴ [t̠] [d̥]¹⁵ d [d̠] [d̥]¹⁵	k [c] [cːˀ]¹⁴ g [ɟ] [ɟ̊]¹⁵	k [kːˀ]¹⁴ g [g̥]¹⁵
Aspirated Plosive¹⁶	bh [bʱ] [pʰ]	dh [d̪ʱ] th [tʰ]	gh [ɟʱ] kh [cʰ]	gh [gʱ], kh [kʰ]
Aspirated Affricate¹⁶		czh [d͡zʱ] ch [t͡sʰ]	cjh [d͡ʑʱ] cxh [t͡ɕʰ]
Prefricated Plosive/Affricate¹⁷	fqb [ɸˀp] [fˀp]	sqt [θˀt̪] sqc [sˀt͡s]	xqc [ɕˀt͡ɕ] hqk [çˀc]	hqk [xˀk]
Fricative	v* [v] [β] f [ɸ]	l* [ɮ] [ɬ] [d͡ɮ] [t͡ɬ] [ɟ͡ʎ̝] [c͡ʎ̝̊]	h [ç] l* [ʎ̝] [ç] [ʝ] [ʎ̝̊]	h [x] l* [x] [ɣ] [χ] [ʀ]
Approximant	v* [β̞] [ɥ]	d [ð̞] l* [ɫ] lyl [lʷ] r [ɾ] [r] [ɹ̠]	qy [jˀ]¹² [ʄ] l* [ʎ]	h /ɦ/ l* [ʁ] [ʕ]

¹¹ May be analyzed as a sequence of glottal stop + nasal. Some dialects pronounce the glottalized nasals (and /j/) as glottalized plosives or implosives (ɓ ɗ ʄ).

¹² Historically /ŋˀ/ which has since become /jˀ/ in the majority of dialects, including in Fvonil. Rare northwestern dialects retain it and its palatal nasal counterpart. Still exists in pre-fricated state.

¹³ May be analyzed as a sequence of fricative + glottal stop + nasal. Fricative is brief. Nasal is usually also glottal and may be slightly implosive in nature. Glottal pause may be brief or long.

¹⁴ Realization of utterance-final plosives after short vowels, as well as double consonants (i.e. /et.ta/) in some dialects. Level of precision rarely necessary.

¹⁵ Some analyses of plosives and affricates after or before fricatives of the opposite voicing. Most common examples are /t/ or /d/ in mixed-voice plosive/affricate sequences (/zt͡s/ /sd͡z/ /ʑt͡ɕ/ /ɕd͡ʑ/ as [zd̥s sd̥z ʑd̥ɕ ɕd̥ʑ])

¹⁶ Realization of /h/ after a plosive or affricate. They become aspirated, while voiced consonants may be considered breathy-voiced.

¹⁷ May be analyzed as a sequence of fricative + glottal stop + plosive/affricate. Fricative is brief. Glottal pause may be brief or long.

* Dialectal; may vary widely in individual speakers. Level of precision rarely necessary.

Romanization and Phonological Footnotes

Some clusters are spelled differently in Romanization. They include: jj /ʑd͡ʑ/; cc /ɕt͡ɕ/; jx /ʑt͡ɕ/; xj /ɕd͡ʑ/; sc /st͡s/; zz /zd͡z/; zc /zt͡s/; sz /sd͡z/; ll /ləl/, lyl /lyl/, xqc [ɕˀt͡ɕ], and debatably str and zdr, which may be analyzed as a fusion of once different clusters. A hyphen (-) may be used between two consonants if they remain distinct (i.e. mac + co = Mac-co, man + go = man-go)

/stɹ/ and /zdɹ/ are more accurately transcribed as /st͡ɕɹ/ and /zd͡ʑɹ/, as dental plosives are pronounced as dentals before /ɹ/, and would be more narrowly transcribed as [st̠ɹ̠] and [zd̠ɹ̠]. /stɹ/ is considered to be a combination of /st͡sɹ/ and /ɕt͡ɕɹ/, as a similar process is believed to have happened with its voiced counterpart. /t͡sɹ/ and /t͡ɕɹ/ all remain distinct in some northwestern dialects, but have also merged in most other dialects. It should be noted that str across syllable boundaries (i.e. in es-tra /es.tɹa/), the /t/ remains dental, and thus /stɹ/ [st̠ɹ̠] is distinct from /s.tɹ/ [st̪ɹ̠]~[st̪ɾ]; the same is true of its voiced counterpart.

Glottalized consonants/clusters get their own letters in the script, but do not in Romanization. ll and lyl also get their own letters, as to str and zdr. No other cluster gets its own symbol.

Tone is exclusively marked on the first letter in romanization, except in the case of <ll> /ləl/, in which a single pitch accent is traditionally written over the first or both letters (l̂l ĺl ll ̀). Understandably, this does not render very well on most computers, which has left some to put an emphatic <i> between the two <l>s to receive the accent instead.

Phonotactics

Zdrole is a CCCVCC language; in other words, up to three consonants may start a syllable, and up to two may end one. Different consonant clusters are permitted in different areas, and some clusters only appear in loan words.

Any consonant can appear before a vowel, as well as many clusters. Fricatives other than /h/ can appear before any plosive other than /ʔ/, but not any affricate, with only alveolar-only and palatal-alveolar-only sequences being possible - with the exception of /stɹ/ and /zdɹ/ (see section under Romanization Notes), which cannot undergo mixed voicing. Regarding mixed voicing, a fricative and a plosive need not have the same voicing; for instance, /zt/ /st/ /zd/ and /sd/ are all distinct onsets. /stɹ/ and /zdɹ/ are the exceptions, and are otherwise unique onset clusters. /h/ may follow any plosive or affricate, even if a fricative appears before them, allowing for three-consonant onsets, although some analyses consider these a fricative + aspirated consonant pair. /ʋ/ /l/ and /j/ may also appear after any plosive, affricate, or fricative other than /h/ or /ʔ/, on account of their once vowel-based nature. Glottal-fricative + stop/affricate clusters are also possible in onsets, where the plosive and fricative are of the same voicing and place of articulation (with zqn /znˀ/ being the only exception). /m/ /n/ and /j/ may be followed or proceeded by /ʔ/; it's difficult to tell which, and some analyze these as distinct glottal phonemes. /m/ and /n/, along with their glottal counterparts, may be followed by any approximant, but not any other consonant.

Codas are a bit more restricted. All consonants may end a syllable except for /ɹ/ and /ʔ/, with /h/ usually becoming [x]. /s/ and /z/ can appear before /t͡s/ and /k/, as /ʑ/ and /ɕ/ before /t͡ɕ/. /ʋ/ (often devoiced to /f/) and /l/ may appear before any plosive or affricate. Nasals and may appear before any plosive, affricate, or fricative other than /h/ or /ʔ/. /j/ may appear before any other single coda consonant except /l/ and /ʋ/. Fricative+glottal+plosives and fricative+glotttal+affricates are the only debatably CCC coda cluster, although again some analyze this as a single glottal-fricative plus a plosive/affricate. Plosives in glottalized coda clusters often are inaudible or become glottal stops /ʔ/ themselves.

Certain onsets and codas are permitted, but only in loan words. One notable example is /ɹ/ after velar/glottal consonants, i.e. /kɹ/ /gɹ/ and /hɹ/ [xɹ], which do not actually appear normally in Zdrole words. ("Krystra" [Krystar] is in fact one example of this.) Other examples include /skɹ/ and /sbɹ/. Fricatives followed by a nasal, without a glottal stop, only appear across syllable boundaries natively, although /sn/ and /zn/ exist in onset from derived loan words. Coda fricative + plosive pairs (/st/ /sk/ /ht/ and /hk/) also derive from loan words.

Utterance-final lone voiceless plosives are geminated and glottalized after short vowels, with some analyses suggesting an epenthetic /ʔ/ appears before the consonant. An epenthetic /ʔ/ may also be inserted between a complex coda and complex onset for clarity. A brief non-descript vowel /ə/ may also be used to break up certain voiced clusters. /ʔ/ may also appear after a consonant or consonant cluster in certain contractions.

A hyphon ( - ) is often used between vowels and consonants to indicate two separate phonemes as opposed to a single one or modified cluster. For instance, qaést-ra-on-glex-jâs-qnaol-la [ʔā.éːst̪.ɾá.ón.géɕ.ʑâːs.ʔnˀɒ̀.ɣà], would be different from aéstraonglexjâsqna-olla [ā.éː.st̠ɹ̠ɒ̃́.ɫéɕ.d̠͡ʑáːsˀ.nˀà.ò.lə̀.là].

Orthography

This section is heavily WIP and has no data in it.

Script	Name	Romanization	IPA	Approximate English Equivalent		Script	Name	Romanization	Approximate English Equivalent		Script	Name	Romanization	Approximate English Equivalent

Grammar

Zdrole is primarily a Verb-Subject-Object (VSO) language, although it becomes a Subject-Verb-Object (SVO) language when 1st and 2nd person pronouns are used. Things are more complicated for ditransitive verbs, where the order is Verb-Donor-Recipient-Theme (or Verb-Subject-IndirectObject-DirectObject) or Donor-Verb-Recipient-Theme, unless the donor is implied to have less volition than the recipient, in which the order is Verb-Recipient-Donor-Theme, or Verb-Theme-Recipient-Donor if the direct object is of significant importance.

Zdrole has split ergativity, where it is primarily an ergative-absolutive language, however it becomes nominative-accusative under several circumstances. It could be accurate to refer to Zdrole as having an active-stative alignment, where "I run" would be nominative but "I sit" would be absolutive, which only applies to pronouns and proper names; all other instances are usually ergative-accusative. There is also dative construction, where the dative case is used for the subject in sentences where the subject underwent an action, most likely involuntarily or even against their better wishes (as in "To me was hit be a tree"). In ditransitive sentences, the recipient receives the causative case if it has more agency than the donor. Subjects in dependent clauses also receive the causative case, sometimes also called the "Clausal Agent" case.

Head directionality is complicated in Zdrole. Setting aside the fact that the subject and verb swap positions depending on pronoun usage, it mostly functions as a head-final language: adjectives come after nouns, adverbs come after verbs, affixes and case marking are primarily suffixes, and possession, number, and relative clauses all come after their core arguments. Despite this, it has also largely become a prepositional language, where adpositions come before their clauses, instead of after. It's believed that Zdrole used to be postpositional at one point, as is the case with its sister language Fvonil and in some dialects in that area, but has largely changed over in central and northern dialects.

Like other Occe-Fortizian languages, Zdrole is predominantly an agglutinative language when it comes to grammar, but more analytic (or less-often fusional) when it comes to lexical compounding. There exist 4-5 numbers/noun classes, 8-14 grammatical cases, 10 verbal tenses/aspects with 5 moods, although one noun case may also be considered a 6th mood, while one mood can also function as a tense (namely the future).

Nouns

Nouns in Zdrole are coded for number, noun class (or gender), and case. Grammatical number and gender affect their case marking, as well as adjectives (which to an extant are a "case") and notably adpositions. Animacy (i.e. how much "life" or "movement" a noun has) can have an effect on verbs and what adpositions are used.

Noun Classes

The four main noun classes in Zdrole include "Broad", "Narrow", "Spindly", and "Plural", although some sources indicate a very small and distinct "Spindly Nonplural". Certain person-specific words may have masculine and feminine counterparts (i.e. "wife" vs. "husband", "waiter" vs. "waitress", which may sometimes affect the noun class of a word, although neither usually nor predictably.

"Broad" and "Narrow" are used for all kinds of objects, including people and proper names of males and females alike. They are named on account of "Broad" nouns generally describing more vague as well as larger concepts, while "Narrow" generally describes smaller or specific concepts. In reality, they mostly are arbitrary and mainly apply to the phonetics of the word, with male and female names (and their associated pronouns) alike falling into either category.

"Spindly" nouns, on the other hand, often do describe (often more specific) that are longer and thinner in nature. This is because a lot of the inflections reflect what was once derivational morphology. Certain names also have the Spindly noun case, and are usually names given to "spindly" or "enigmatic" people and places, often in place of a former Broad or Narrow name. Spindly nouns are often loosely associated with negativity, and several nouns and nominalized verbs such as spiders, snakes, illness, mortality, and death are Spindly nouns. Nonetheless, it can also be viewed positively, as life, love, seaweed, and seedlings are also Spindly.

"Plural" nouns are the most straight-forward noun class, as the morphological changes are applied largely to nouns that indicate more than one object, as well as multiple nouns (i.e. a cat and a dog, 2 fish, etc.). There are however a few exceptions. Certain quite arguably plural nouns (such as "thoughts" or "methods" or "people"), as well as several (but not all) mass nouns, are in fact broad or narrow in nature, while some arguably singular nouns (such as "spasm", "touch", or "toolkit" are always plural. Some names (particularly those of "elites") are plural-class, despite being "singular", and plural pronouns are used to address those of a higher social status (see: pronouns). Once narrow or broad names may eventually be changed to plural, much like spindly names. Spindly nouns are usually spindly, even when plural, although there are a small handful of exceptions which trigger plural agreement even when paired with other spindly nouns. This is why "Spindly Nonplural" is a proposed distinct noun class. Uniquely, when there are many words such as to become a "collective" or "mass" noun, they become Spindly again.

Noun Class	Code	Common Endings	Examples
Broad	[B]	Rounded vowels, voiceless consonants, clusters, -cz, -cj, -l, -b, -j, -z, -m, final vowel low pitch accent	Man, Woman, Child, Tree, Pebble, Water, Chair, Pineapple, Phosphorous, Food,Thoughts, Language, People, Machine, Tooth, Static Verb Participles, Sight, Some people/places’ names/pronouns,
Narrow	[N]	Unrounded vowels, voiced consonants, -c, -cx, -f, -s, -x, final vowel falling pitch accent	Boy, Girl, Baby, Professor, Hammer, Fire, Leg, Cherry, Shrub, Dirt, Sulpher, Dish, Rhyme, Method, Test, Time, Smell, Active Verb Participles, Ditransitive Verbs, Some people/places’ names/pronouns, etc.
Spindly	[S]	back & close vowels, -f, -x, -s, -l, -y, final vowel high pitch accent	Spider(s), Coily Bean(s), Hair, A ton of snakes, Wind, Seaweed, Fly/Flies, Seedling(s), Dirt Grain(s), Oxygen, Love, Sand (grains and altogether), Death, Life, verbs involving mortality/illness/lengthening/heat/reaching/drooping, unknown/hypothetical persons’/places’ names/pronouns, etc
Spindly Nonplural	[SN]		a weed, a twig, a single sock, a snake, a knife, a mass of weeds, a mass of twigs, a mass of socks, a mass of knives,
Plural	[P]	-ke(o)/-ko(e), -muinoe, -mina, -maon, -k(o)em(u)ina, -kmao, kamaz(ui) (different word)	Chairs, Plants, Corn, Pair of Socks, Dishes, Several Snakes, Teeth, Multiple Participles, Taste, Touch, Mercury, Stone, Rivers, Toolkit, Clothing, Repeated/Iterative Verbs (eating, bobbing, glistening, jumping twice, running, etc.), Dialogue (“talkings”), Medicine, Grapes, Spasm, multiple nouns (cat and dog, mouse and sock), some people/places’ names/pronouns [always plural], etc.)

Grammatical Case

Grammatical cases in Zdrole primarily apply to nouns, with most of them acting similar to prepositions. They may also be applied to other nouns and act as a form of nominalization. The Semblative in particular acts slightly differently, and is more often associated with changing things into adjectives and adverbs, as well as being able to somewhat alter a word's core meaning, giving it disputed status as a true case. There are 8 widely agreed upon basic grammatical cases in Zdrole, of which 7 are considered to be widely used: the Ergative, Absolutive, Dative, Causative, Locative, Equative, and Relative, as well as the much less common Locative-Genitive. Two of these are considered compound cases.

However, there exist up to 19 total cases: of these, 12 are analyzed as compound cases, where two or more cases are stacked on top of each other agglutinatively to form a new case with a similar (as with the Semblative-Ergative) or completely different (as with the Semblative-Causative) meaning. Of these cases, 6 are widely accepted basic cases (Ergative, Absolutive, Dative, Causative, Locative, and Equative). 3 are historic compound cases and essentially never used in modern Zdrole (either falling out of favor for simpler cases, or eroding to morphological/semantic erosion), being the Causative-Dative (Benefactive), Locative-Dative (Allative), and Locative-Equative (Inessive-Instrumental). The seventh widely accepted case is a compound case (the Causative-Locative, i.e. Locative-Genitive case) which is less-commonly used, but is still mainstay enough to be widely considered a semantically distinct compound case. An eighth, more debatable compound case (the Causative-Equative, i.e. Executive case) is sometimes considered a modified "emphatic" Causative case, and is often used to pin blame on others, or outlandish situations, where it has since fallen out of use in most northern and southern dialects, but has since become frequently used in hyperbole in central dialects, to the extent is is sometimes considered a variant of the Causative.

The Semblative case is commonly used and often analyzed as the 7th fundamental basic case, but is is not widely accepted, and is highly debated as being a derivational affix that acts more as a kind of adjectival derivation than a true noun case. While it can be used for several purposes, it is also readily compounded with the other cases, exhibiting seven additional marginal compound cases, which by some counts are simply modifications to the other existing cases, including Ergative, Absolutive, Dative, Causative, Locative, and Relative cases, as well as arguably the Locative-Genitive case. Because the Semblative case loses its other functions, such as acting as a Comparative case or a Deductive Copula, Semblative compound cases are often not considered distinct cases outside of those which have carved more specific semantic distinctions.

It should be noted that the 8th widely accepted and commonly used Relative case is itself semantically made with the Semblative and the Causative, although it can still, albeit rarely, be seen used as a true Semblative Causative. The Semblative + Locative has been reinterpreted to indicate a vague locative, or that something is around something, but is not distinct from a normal locative in many dialects. The Semblative + Locative-Genitive (Locative + Causative) compound case is a recent and unofficial development used in poetry and colloquialisms that originally acted as a already begun to dramatically shift in meaning. Because the Semblative is sometimes considered a derivational affix, these cases, and the Relative case in particular, are sometimes considered unique modified cases, with the Relative Case being widely agreed upon as the eighth distinct and commonly-used case; it's just unclear whether it's a modified Causative case, or if it is a true compound case.

Grammatical Cases

Case	Endings	Primary Usage	Alternative "Case"	Alternate/Historic Usage	Examples	Notes
Ergative	-(n)de(o)/-(n)do(e) [B], -n)da(o)î [N] -(n)de(o)t/-(n)do(e)t [P], -(n)da(o)îcxe [S] (n) after vowels, front/back and rounding harmony	The subject of a transitive or ditransitive sentence. Sparsely for intransitive sentences.	Nominative, Ablative, Inalienable Genitive	"From" something, including inalienable possession.	I run, I gave lint to Donna, I took lint from the chair, That is my arm/hair"
Absolutive	Unmarked	The subject of most intransitive sentences; The direct object; object of many prepositional phrases.	Accusative, Instrumental, Alienable Possessive, Temporal	"with" or "using" something; weak possession	I sit, I gave lint to Donna, I hit it with a hammer, I used my pen (the pen I had on me), I am not with friends on my birthday after dinner.
Dative	-(q)e(o)t/(q)o(e)t [B] + [N], -(q)[e(o)/o(e)]xqce [P] + [S] (q) after vowels, front/back & rounding harmony	Indirect Object; May be subject in passive sentences (See: Grammar)	Benefactive	Something was done for something or someone. There may be slight nuance between which is used for this purpose; for example, the dative is more often used with a copula, while the causative is more often used elsewhere. However, different regions have different preferences, with some dialects sticking to one or the other. Archaically, there used to exist a distinct Dative-Causative for this purpose, but it has since collapsed, or was otherwise abandoned for the simpler endings.	I gave lint to Donna, I am shivering; This is for you.
Causative	-(q)ù(i)na [B], -va(o)n [N], -(q)ù(i)/(q)ì(u) [P], -(q)ù(i)x [S] (q) after vowels, front/back harmony and rounding harmony in plurals	Caused by something; May be indirect object where the recipient has more agency than the donor (See: Grammar)			I failed because of you, I didn't work because (I was) sick, I built this for you,
Locative	-stra(o) [B], -stro(e) [N], -(z)dr(i)eo [P], -cce [S] (z) not after n/z/j; partial/irregular front/back harmony	Marks the location of something. Used in most prepositions involving location (including in/on/over/under/behind)	Vocative, Allative,	Directing attention to someone; towards something; something is somewhere	I left my wallet at the theater; O Johnathon!, I am going to the bridge, He is inside (at) the house
Semblative	-ll/-e(o)l [B], (unrounded vowel)-lluil/(other)-lyl [N], -let/lat (e after closed vowels, a after open vowels) [P], -l(e)ocx/lo(e)cx [S]	Acts as an adjective/adverbial modifier, but can also be used as a noun or even as a verb phrase. -like/-y/-ly	Descriptive, Comparative, Deductive Copula, Semblative-Absolutive	Denotes that something is like something. -ish/-oid/-esque Sometimes used like the Equative for uncertainty or comedic effect. May be used to denote a "deductive" mood for to be. Can be used on verbs to indicate an action is similar but not quite that verb.	You are like a barbarian; You are sweeter than apple pie; The rope-like scarf blew away; You are just like Johnathon; That's fantasy-like (fantastical); Looks like rain; He is sort-of running; That is a craboid; You must be John.	Often considered a derivational affix instead of a true case. Can compound with up to 7 other cases, 2 of which are listed below.
Equative	ce(o)/-co(e) [B], -cce(o) [N], u(i)zec/i(u)zec [P], -ce(o)x(e/i)x [S] rounding and partial front/back harmony	Acts as a copula; Links words together; Describes composition	Compound, Compositional, Semblative, Interrogative	Acts as a way of compounding nouns, denoting the elemental contents of something, and asking if something is something. May also be used as a poetic Semblative.	You are Johnathon; He is a doctor; The pumpkin pie is tasty; This is a Wall Scene (movie), You look (just like) John Wayne.
Locative-Genitive (Locative-Causative)	Locative + Causative (streona)	Used to denote where something or someone is originally from, or where something belongs.	Locative-Causative, Kinship (Archaic, Poetic)	Could be used as a Causative in certain situations: "I look bad because of this spot on my shoe; I'm upset because of an issue at the pub.	I am from Iceland; This is my home; This is for my shoe; This is the museum's; I'm from her (lit. "she's my mom")	Rarely used outside of Locative-Genitive
Relative (Semblative-Causative)	Semblative + Causative (-lli(u)à(o)n)	Replaces the subject in a dependent clause; acts as a relative pronoun	Clausal Subject, Approximate/Partial Causative	Functions like a causative, but denotes a partial, incomplete, or similar reason or logic.	The cage, which I destroyed, is over there; That is only part of why I'm sad.	Rarely used outside of Clausal Subject
Executive (Causative-Equative) [Emphatic Causative]	Equative + Causative; stressed or only syllable in the latter has a falling pitch.	Used as a more extreme version of a Causative, indicating that something was beyond the speaker's control. Primarily used to describe actions forced onto them, or otherwise to highlight scenarios beyond belief.	Causative	Sometimes used in situations where a normal causative would otherwise be used, usually in hyperbole in declarative statements. May be phasing out the Causative in some regions.	I did that because of him! (he FORCED me) I'm late because of a tree which fell on my car.	Not used in all dialects or by all speakers. Not universally agreed upon as a distinct case, rather a variant Causative.
Approximative (Semblative-Locative)	Locative + Semblative (streoll)	Used to indicate a vague location, or that something is around something.	Locative-Semblative	Used to indicate something is like somewhere else, or at a position similar to something else.	This feels like home, This is near Fortizendria, It's around here somewhere, It's by the house.	Not used in several dialects and not always considered a distinct case
Approximal-Genitive (Locative-Semblative-Causative)	Locative + Semblative + Causative (-streolli[à/â/á]na)	Says the approximate origins or place of belonging for someone. A relatively recent innovation. Rarely used outside of poetry and some local colloquialisms. Not found in most dialects.	Ablative; Locative; False Semblative	As if something was from somewhere; As if something was something. Even more recent innovation, likely born from a misconception of its original meaning/intention. Alternate meaning usually denoted by a high or falling pitch rather than a low pitch.	I am from around here; The cheese nearby is delightful; You're talking (about) that idea as if it were good.	Recent; Unofficial; Not used in most dialects; May be two cases; sometimes analyzed as a variant of the Locative-Genitive
Inessive-Instrumental (Locative-Equative)	Locative + Equative; sometimes Equative + Locative; No longer in use	Historically was the inessive and instrumental, denoting "contains", "has" or "holds". Merged with Locative and Ergative cases	Locative Copula	Verbal phrase version of the locative; Since merged with the Locative.	I have the keys; It is in the house; The cat stole my cheese!; I am in Fortizendria.	Archaic; No longer in use.
Allative / Lative (Locative-Dative)	Dative + Locative; No longer used	Historically was the lative/allative, but since merged with the Locative. Still used in some legal language.			I'm going to the house.	Archaic; No longer in common usage.
Benefactive (Causative-Dative)	Causative + Dative; later eroded to Causative.	Historically was the benefactive, but since merged with the causative due to semantic similarities and phonological erosion.			I built this for you.	Archaic; No longer in use.

Verbs

Verbs in Zdrole are coded for tense, aspect, and mood. They do not agree with nouns or pronouns in gender, number or case. There are up to 12 tenses/aspects and debatably 5 moods, although they are often analyzed as combinations of more basic components. There also exists an infinitive form of the verb, which also acts as a nominalized verb. Verbs can receive any case marking, which turns them into various participles (including gerunds, gerundives, transgressives, and coverbs).

There are essentially two tenses: past and non-past. There are also two aspect modifiers. There is a perfective modifier, which is a morpheme that attaches to the main verb as a suffix. A verb without this suffix is assumed to be in the imperfective aspect. There also exists the perfect aspect modifier (distinct from the perfective), in which a verb looks at something retrospectively as it pertains to the past/present/future, although in Zdrole it can also be considered a finer detail in time. This is marked with an auxiliary verb~noun (in the Equative Grammatical Case), and can combine with both the perfective and imperfective aspects, as well as both tenses.

There also exists an irrealis mood modifier, which indicates that something is not and has not necessarily happened. This mood can also receive every tense and aspect modifier. In the nonpast, it acts more as another set of tenses/aspects, although has some moody properties. In the past, it acts more as an oblique irrealis mood, and is also coded for various tenses/aspects.

Tense and Aspect in Zdrole

Tense/Aspect	Imperfective/Progressive (Basic Verb)	Perfective	Perfect Imperfective/Perfect Progressive	Perfect
Present (Nonpast)	Present Imperfective "I am eating", "I am playing the piano"	Near Future / Inchoative / Prospective "I'm just starting to eat", "I'm about to play piano"	Present Perfect Imperfective / Durative "I have been eating", "I'm still playing piano"	Present Perfect / Recent Past / Cessative / Retrospective "I have eaten"; "I just ate"; "I just finished playing the piano"
Past	Past Imperfective "I was eating", "I was playing piano"	Past Perfective / Retrospective "I ate", "I played the piano"	Pluperfect Progressive / Experiential "I had been eating"; "I've played the piano"	Pluperfect / Distant Past Perfective / Past Habitual "I had eaten"; "I ate a long time ago"; "I used to play piano"
Future-Irrealis	Future Imperfective / Future / Desiderative "I will be eating", "I must soon play piano"	Distant Future Perfective "I will (eventually) eat / play piano",	Habitual "I eat (generally)"; "I play piano (in general)"	Future Perfect "I will have eaten", "I will have played the piano"
Conjunctive (Future-Past)	Present Conjunctive "I fear he may be eating now", "He may eat", "Were he eating...", "He should be eating", "...if he is eating", "He might be eating", "I doubt he's eating"	Future Conjunctive / Imperative "May he eat!", "Were he to eat...", "Eat!", "You must eat!", "He should eat", "if he eats...", "He might eat the pie", "I doubt he'll eat pie"	Habitual/Imperfective Conjunctive / Imperative "I doubt he eats much", "If he (knew how to) play piano", "He should (regularly) play piano", "Were he to eat pie...", "He might eat pie", "Thou shalt always eat pie"	Past/Perfective Conjunctive "I fear he might have eaten", "...if he ate", "He should have eaten", "I guess he had eaten", "I doubt he ate"

The grammatical tenses of Zdrole are notable for being very similar to that of English, which also has a past/nonpast distinction and a future mood which can be categorized as "simple", "progressive", "perfect" and "perfect progressive". However, they are used a bit differently, predominantly with the "Perfective", which may be more accurately considered a "past of X tense". For example, the perfect imperfective often indicates an experiential aspect (like in Chinese), where one has experienced or has experience with doing something, while the past perfect the (or pluperfect) is more often than not used to indicate a remote past, and may indicate that one used to be experienced in something, but no longer is sure they know how to do it. The present (more accurately nonpast) perfective is generally associated with the act of beginning something, and is considered a near-future, inchoative, or prospective case.

The future aspect is somewhat akin to an irrealis mood, and indicates not something that has or is happening, but is hoped or is willed to happen in the future. (English "I will" essentially does this.) The future perfect imperfective has taken the meaning of a Habitual aspect, indicating that an action has happened in the past and will happen again in the future. The Future Perfect has more-or-less replaced the ordinary use of the Future Perfective, indicating that something will be done or otherwise will have been done. The future perfective has since taken two meanings, that of the distant future aspect, often used to indicate a lack of certainty or a tinge of hope, and the hortative mood, which acts as a personal promise or as a form of invitation or persuasion. The future imperfective can also be used as a desiderative, especially if combined with a verb expressing desire, or a lack thereof.

The future-past has become the Conjunctive, which in Zdrole is essentially a general irrealis mood that serves several functions. It can serve as a conditional mood (as with English would), as well as a subjunctive mood. The imperfective, perfect, and perfect imperfective have taken to mean a present, past/perfective, and habitual conjunctive. The perfective has taken on to mean a future, prospective, or immediate future, much like the present perfective realis mood. It can also be used as an imperative mood, which can contextually, or otherwise combine with pronouns or other verbs to, apply to the first or third person. The habitual conjunctive may also double as a habitual or imperfective imperative. The conjunctive has far fewer aspectual degrees than realis verbs.

It is not uncommon for multiple perfective makers to be stacked on top of one another to indicate additional layers of retrospection (or prospection, as is the case with the present perfective). This is not considered an "official" quirk of the language, but is not unheard of. Stacking future, past, or perfect arguments is either a lot rarer. Sometimes these complicated multi-compounded aspects are used on the conjunctive, which by nature has far fewer aspectual distinctions, although this is not an established practice outside of certain households and social circles.

Verb Cases

A verb, in any tense, aspect and mood, even when preceded by auxiliary verbs, can be compounded into grammatical case. A verb that is not at the start of a sentence is generally assumed to be in the absolutive case as a nominalized verb. If the verb is in the ergative, absolutive, dative, or equative, it is almost always in either the same tense/aspect as the clause's verb (if present), or it is in the nonpast imperfective (unmarked).

Most nominalized verbs act the same as nouns when they receive cases. However, there are a few exceptions. The locative case can both be an actual locative ("I ran at the laughing" would mean "I ran around/to the laughing", often after a preposition; this used to be done with the allative case), or as a transgressive or converb, in which the action gives context as to the main verb, essentially acting as the adverbial phrases of "while", "before" or "after", depending on its tense/aspect/mood. Equative verbs essentially act as coverbs (different from converbs), in which they essentially become compound-verbs. Semblative verbs may either become gerundives, or, if used as the main verb in an argument, may be used as a derivational affix, indicating that an action similar to or not quite the main verb is performed.

Copula

Zdrole notably very often drops its word for "to be" (i.e. I am happy, the car is red, etc.), at least for the default present imperfective tense/aspect. Rather, it largely juxtaposes words right next to each other, where if a sentence exists without a verb, it is often indicated that the copula was simply dropped. If two ergative nouns are side-by-side, it is assumed that the second one is ablative in nature; if the second noun is absolutive, it is assumed to be an instrumental or alienable genitive; and if it is dative, it is assumed to be benefactive (where the causative may be used in certain dialects). The other cases act more like their normal counterparts. The Equative case in particular is used on the second noun to indicate a direct link between objects (i.e. "He is a doctor"). The Relative case is never used as a relative in this case, and is generally considered a partial or near causative, although its usage in this case is rare as-is. Prepositions and adjectival markers may also be used. If a nominalized verb is used, it is likely part of the aspect/tense system.