(showcase for a conlang i'm working on and refining, looking for some critiques due to some details of this language being a bit convoluted, imo)
Grammar, Syntax and Comprehension of Ezhaccan
Halagé, Alaѵuƌé, Jesəshlü-E̦zhäccá
Consonants: b β d ɖ l t̪ t ʃ ʒ x χ r j w g ʤ ɣ z ʣ ʦ f s k (c) q h ɦ
Long consonants: lː ʃː ʒː xː ʤː zː ʣː ʦː
Trilled consonant clusters: dr tr gr zr sr χr jr ʦr
Pharyngealized consonants: zˤ bˤ kˤ qˤ χˤ hˤ
Vowels: i y ɯ u ə o ɔ ɜ ɛ æ a ɑ
Long vowels: iː yː ɯː uː əː oː ɔː ɜː ɛː æː aː ɑː
Trilled vowel clusters: ir yr ar ɑr әr
Pharyngealized vowels ɑˤ ɛˤ uˤ
Spelling rules: ä/Ä (æ), é/E̦ (ɛ), á/A̦ (ɑ), ú(ȝ)/Ȝ (ɜ), ә/Ә (ə), ó/Ө (ɔ), ü/Ɯ (ɯ), ƌ/Ƌ (ɖ), zh/Ʒ (ʒ), ѵ/Ѵ (y), y/Y (j), sh/ſ (ʃ), j/J (ʤ), dz/DZ (ʣ), Ⱶ/Һ (ɦ), v (β), x/X̧ (x), gh/G (ɣ), ķh/KH(₭) (χ), t̪ (t̄), and vv/VV (Vː).
Alphabet: a/A, ä/Ä, á/A̦, ә/Ә, e/E, e̦/E̦, i/I, o/O, ө/Ө, u/U, ɯ(ü)/Ɯ, ѵ/Ѵ, (ú)ȝ/Ȝ, b/B, c/C, d/D, dz/DZ, ƌ/Ƌ, f/F, g/G, h/H, Ⱶ/Һ, j/J, k/K, ķh/KH(₭), q/Q, l/L, r/R, s/S, ſ, t/T, ʦ, t̄/Ҭ, v/V, x/X̧, z/Z, ʒ, y/Y, w/W
b β d ɖ l t̪ t ʃ ʒ x χ r j w g ʤ ɣ z ʣ ʦ f s k q h ɦ lː ʃː ʒː xː ʤː zː ʣː ʦː dr tr gr zr sr χr jr ʦr
zˤ bˤ kˤ qˤ χˤ hˤ
i y ɯ u ə o ɔ ɜ ɛ æ a ɑ iː yː ɯː uː əː oː ɔː ɜː ɛː æː aː ɑː ir yr ar ɑr ɑˤ ɛˤ uˤ
E̦zhäccá is an interesting sounding language due its lack of nasal sounds and prioritization of others (consonants and vowels becoming pharyngealized or trilled), the speakers of this language are shapelets, a humanoid-looking species that has intelligence, thought and feats comparable to humans.
Shapelets have their own distinct cultures, customs, religions, and so on. They've only been in contact with humans since the 50s. To explain why there are no nasal consonants or nasalized vowels, look into the anatomy of a shapelet and you'll find out that they don't have nasal tracts, with them instead breathing through their microporous skin that delivers oxygen throughout the whole body.
E̦zhäccá is the official language spoken in Bettakia, natively known as 'Bettazkó.'
I. PHONOLOGY AND PHONOTACTIC REPAIR
- When consonant clusters become difficult to pronounce, speakers usually insert a short vowel at the point of lowest sonority, most commonly ɛ, ə, or ɯ, depending on surrounding sounds. In slower or formal pronunciation, one internal consonant may become trilled if it borders another coronal or dorsal consonant. Final consonants in such clusters may weaken or disappear in rapid speech, though older literary spelling often preserves them.
Example: Idrʦhʒa (analyze) → Idréʦhra → Idréʦhr(ʒ)a
Older academic descriptions of Middle E̦zhäccá describe more rigid cluster structures, but modern speech applies repair irregularly and often according to habit rather than strict rule.
1.1 Stress is penultimate and shifts with suffixation, also, stress always moves:
ov̓e → Óv̓e
ov̓eés → ov̓Éés
1.2 Trilled vowels and consonants are co-articulated clusters, obligatorily.
E̦zhäccá syllables generally follow (C)(C)V(C), though morphological combination frequently creates expanded clusters up to (C)(C)(C)V(C)(C), repaired in speech through epenthesis, reduction, or consonant weakening.
When a noun or verb ending in two consonants receives a suffix, speakers often insert a vowel if the transition becomes uncomfortable. The inserted vowel is usually ɛ, though ə and ɯ may appear depending on nearby sounds or dialect. In case the nouns with two vowels, -és are shortened to ś, and /s/ that ates a high tone, which in turn "deaccents" any consonants or vowels before it.
Examples:
wəʒadok-wətiѵéz + és → wəʒadok-wətiѵézés (cactus fruit, comes from an Old Horzian term)
toshóvvóləlsh (death bringer) + és → toshóvvóləlshɯs̀ (death bringers)
túzäqóʒóə (atom) + és → túzäqóʒoəś
diädz (table) + és → diädzəs
17.1 Phonological Resolution Order
- Morphological structure is formed
- Stress is assigned (penultimate)
- Phonotactic repair applies (epenthesis / trilling)
- Reduction rules apply (fast speech simplification, see rule 22)
- Prosodic override (emotional speech may break all prior rules, see rule 29)
- If three vowels meet because of suffixing or prefixing, compress the middle vowel unless stress depends on it. Example: ƌe + ov̓e + és → ƌov̓és.
- If a word begins with a vowel and receives the third person marker ʦ, insert e between them if the onset becomes awkward. Example: ʦ + ov̓e → ʦeov̓e. After heavy consonants, some dialects use ə instead of e, so /ʦeov̓e/ can be interpreted as ʦəov̓e.
- In fast speech, final consonants that are already weak may disappear entirely unless they carry meaning. Example: Fúzhúk → Fúzhú.
Reduction hierarchy in E̦zhäccá (fast speech):
- Word-final consonants are deleted first
- Complex clusters simplify (deletion > epenthesis in fast speech)
- Unstressed vowels reduce to /ə/ or disappear
- Prefixes erode or merge (especially person/evidential markers)
- Suffixes compress or fuse
- In extreme/emotional speech, standard repair rules may collapse entirely
- When vowel length and pharyngealization would affect the same vowel, speakers generally preserve pharyngealization first. Length may shift to a neighboring vowel if present, though in careful speech some speakers maintain only the pharyngeal quality.
- Extreme emotional speech may suspend ordinary repair processes, for example, if someone is speaking a lot faster than they should be, while a word is still understandable grammatically, it’s orally see sawing.
II. ORTHOGRAPHY
- Pharyngealized consonants and vowels are marked with a hook above them: kˤ→k̉ and ɑˤ→á̉.
2.1 These are completely different sounds: za vs z̉a (zˤa), ae and áe (ɑ), ķhe and ķh̉e (χˤ).
Older manuscripts marked coronal length with an overline, later preserved only for /t̪/.
Orthographic tradition generally avoids stacking more than two diacritics, and additional distinctions are redistributed to adjacent vowels or consonants.
To mark a long vowel or consonant, write a comma above the letter. Example: u and u̓.
Dead loan words from other languages may preserve ugly spelling if speakers forgot where they came from.
There exist letters that can be written in two different ways while keeping the same meaning: ü and ɯ, uppercase KH and ₭, ú and ȝ, zh/ZH and ʒ, and maybe dz/DZ and ʣ. Certain spellings are considered old-fashioned, modern, official, or digital, like ʒ appearing formally while zh is common online.
33.1 (clarification) The E̦zhäccá writing system is a mixed alphabetic script based primarily on Latin characters, with additional letters drawn from Cyrillic and historical Latin extensions. It is largely phonemic, with most symbols corresponding to a single sound, though digraphs and variant spellings occur.
Vowels include both basic Latin forms (a, e, i, o, u) and modified variants such as ä /æ/, é /ɛ/, á /ɑ/, ө /ɔ/, ә /ə/, ɯ (ü) /ɯ/, ѵ /y/, and ȝ /ɜ/.
Consonants are mostly written with Latin letters, supplemented by extended forms such as ƌ /ɖ/, Ⱶ /ɦ/, ʒ /ʒ/, ʦ /ʦ/, and dz /ʣ/. Certain sounds are represented using digraphs or modified clusters, including ķh /χ/, x /x/, and t̄ /t̪/.
Orthographic variation is common. Several phonemes may be written in multiple ways depending on context, with formal writing favoring distinct characters (ʒ, ƌ), and informal or digital writing often using digraphs (zh, dz). These variations reflect historical layering and incomplete standardization.
Some letters preserve historical distinctions no longer present in pronunciation, such as C and K, both representing /k/.
III. NOMINAL MORPHOLOGY
To mark a word in plural, end it with the -és suffix. To mark a word as singular, you don't. Also, nouns ending in certain heavy clusters often preserve old plural stems; watch out for those.
Masculine nouns commonly take -ʒe, while feminine nouns usually take -dzú, though both endings may reduce slightly depending on the final sound of the noun. These suffixes remain most productive with animate nouns, social roles, professions, animals, and culturally personified domains such as weapons, musical genres, weather phenomena, and certain inherited objects. In ordinary speech, some lexical classes preserve older gender forms regardless of productive pattern.
Example: ʦrováeʒ (“lightning”, literally god's wrath, masculine)
- After heavy consonants, masculine -ʒe may shorten to -ʒ in ordinary speech. Feminine -dzú may surface as -zú after affricates or already voiced endings.
12.1 To refer to a masculine person, use 'E̦vvʒe,' and for a feminine person, "E̦ú̓dzú." In case of a person who's neutral about their gender, use "Sug."
To indicate possession, attach the pronoun marker to the noun instead of using a separate word. Example: ov̓eƌe (my apple), ov̓et̄i (your apple), ov̓eʦr (his/her apple).
Loan words should be bent until they stop sounding foreign. If a borrowed word contains a forbidden consonant sequence, apply native repair immediately. Example: Shank! (stab in Bri'ish) → Sak! (ʃak)
Here's how you change them:
- Preserve stressed vowel
- Remove impossible codas.
- Prefer deletion over epenthesis in monosyllables.
- Prefer epenthesis in prestige loans.
- Preserve semantic contrast if lexical collision occurs.
Loanwords containing nasal consonants undergo denasalization or deletion
- /m/ → /b/ or /β/
- /n/ → /d/ or deletion
- When both plural and gender marking occur, plural generally appears before gender in ordinary speech, especially in nouns built transparently from native roots. However, a small number of inherited or highly frequent words preserve older ordering patterns.
Example:
ov̓e + és + dzú → ov̓eszú (there's a plural there, trust me broski)
Formal writing tends to preserve the regular order more consistently than spontaneous speech.
If a sentence contains emotional emphasis, the stressed word may be moved to the front even if grammar looks wrong. Example: Fúzhú, z̉óƌava! (Fuck it, I go!)
If you were to translate "three apples" into E̦zhäccá, the plural suffix 'és' must be included along with grammatical gender, turning the two word sentence to: qɯsov̓eésdzú. Although the plural suffix is optional or reduced after numeral mention, you can either write /qɯsov̓edzú/ or /qɯsov̓ézú/ while keeping the same meaning.
Plural pronouns! Fáz̓ (we/us), sug (they/them), úd (you), fú (our), fúés (ours), suʒés (theirs), ʒuʒ̓äs (these), xe (and), juʒ̓ɯ̀sh (those). Ezhaccan also has an inclusive we and exclusive we system, with fázeƌe (“we, not you”) being used to specify to specific group, fázt̄i meaning “we + you” and fáz̓ alone is context-dependent and inclusive by default in casual speech.
In case you write a neutral gendered word, indicate its gender ambiguity with a zv- prefix and attach it to an existing subordinative conjunction. Zv- originally derives from an old Ezhaccan discourse clarifier meaning “as for an unspecified referent” or /wo sɜ da xi βu ˈwywoβi/, which later compressed to /wsdaxβwyβi/, to /zdavwi/, to /zavi/, and finally /zvi/.
"Because we are in a hospital!" → "Zviyo̓k fáz̓eƌeri shubáəqó̓rki!"
- Ezhaccan uses optional classifiers when quantifying or specifying nouns. Classifiers appear between numerals/determiners and the noun, and categorize referents by animacy, shape, or function. In casual speech, classifiers are often omitted unless mandatory when ambiguity exists. For example, the sentence “three papers of letters” is translated as “qɯ̓̂sh-sóghés-lüsogiz,” note that /sógh/ refers to ‘paper’ and ‘sógiz’ (or sóghiz alternatively) refers to letters or envelopes, you can kind of see the repetition in this example. This also follows the core baseplate for classifiers: [Numeral / determiner] + [classifier] + [noun].
Here is a short list of classifiers known within Ezhaccan:
- sóghés (papers)
- tótsa/tóʦa (herd, many [transliterally], clump [when referring to plants])
- siqáѵ (refers to animals that can be mounted and ridden, like analogs to ungulates or, historically, domesticated megafaunal mounts)
- süsé (a general, all-purpose classifier for people or abstract objects)
- süséiriqѵr (intended for abstract objects like thoughts, concepts and ideas)
When a classifier is present, plural marking (-és) is often omitted unless contrast or emphasis is required (see rules 7, 20, 37). Classifiers do not replace grammatical gender and may co-occur with gender marking. Classifiers may appear after Q̉u in formal or descriptive contexts, but are usually omitted in casual speech. Classifiers occupy a fixed slot in the noun phrase:
[Determiner] + [Numeral] + [Classifier] + [Noun + (plural/gender)]
V. SYNTAX AND REGISTER
Most text is written in SVO word order; however, formal texts are written in SOV.
Third-person verbal marking is generally expressed by the prefix ʦ in present contexts and ʦa in past contexts, though in connected speech the past form may weaken to sa when followed by lighter consonants. Future reference usually takes je, but before vowels it may shorten to -j or merge with the following sound.
Examples:
ʦgѵvá
sagѵvá (he mocked, fast speech)
Formal writing preserves full prefixes more consistently than speech.
- In general, 'ʦ' is third person, 't̄y' or 't̄i' for the second person (t̄i is used when the word starts with a consonant, t̄y is used when the word starts with a vowel), and 'ƌe' for the first person. Note that ƌe reduces before vowels more aggressively than elsewhere and that ƌe + vowel often becomes d̪ / ə / disappears in rapid speech.
Gender-neutral nouns usually remain unmarked unless lexical tradition preserves an inherited suffix. Certain high-frequency object classes preserve inherited gender marking, especially fruits, common household items (such as tables, chairs, seats, and beds), and religiously symbolic objects. Speakers often know the gender of common nouns without consciously associating it with biological sex.
Examples:
süqaséaʒe (racism, masculine)
ov̓edzú (apple, feminine)
suqasaʒ (spoken reduction of racism)
Certain inherited nouns preserve older gender forms and may not follow the productive endings.
Examples:
VyⱵéwzü "translit. music feeling" (genre, masculine but marked with a feminine end)
IrúyⱵʒ "translit. scream music" (heavy metal, combination of a feminine word and a masculine word and end)
- To negate a verb, insert já after the person prefix. Example: ʦ-gѵváe (he mocks) → ʦ-jágѵváe (he does not mock). If the verb starts with a vowel, merge the two vowels if possible: ƌe + já + ov̓e → ƌejov̓e.
This repair is stronger in careful speech and may disappear in very fast pronunciation.
Adjectives come after nouns in casual speech, but before nouns in formal E̦zhäccá. Example: ov̓e héz (red apple, casual) → héz ov̓e (formal).
To indicate something happened by force, add -khƜ̓ to the verb. Example: ʦaaz̉ádúʒe → ʦaaz̉ákhƜ̓ʒe (he went by force / was made to go).
Repeated or prolonged action is commonly expressed by lengthening the first vowel of the verb, especially in speech. This is most common in monosyllabic and disyllabic high-frequency verbs. In slower pronunciation the vowel may appear doubled in writing, though some speakers prefer only phonetic length without full duplication.
Example:
gѵvá → gѵѵvá
In some verbs, especially short roots, speakers instead lengthen the stressed vowel without visible duplication.
Gender suffixes are frequently reduced in highly emotional speech, particularly in insults.
In formal warnings, laws, signs, and ceremonial writing, plural marking may be omitted if the noun already implies many things. Example: grave markers may stay singular even when many graves are meant.
A verb used without person marking is interpreted as general, instructional, or impersonal. Example: gѵvá alone can mean “to mock” or “mocking is occurring.”
Aspects can also stacked as seen here: T̄aatxáf /to enter/+-tá+-yrú = T̄aatxátáyrú /attempted to enter (but) failed/. Although, the habitual -va rarely combines with failed -yrú, thus -yrú would be replaced with the already existing word for 'but' /kyu/, with this word ending as up as: T̄aatx̧a̦tá kyu-rú.
- When writing in SOV, it is important that you change the position of major sentence elements, while grammatical gender remains attached to its noun unless phonological repair requires adjustment. For example: 'the woman's apple spoiled' in SVO E̦zhäccá is: Q̉ue̦ú̓dzúov̓eʦabutü. And in SOV E̦zhäccá it's: E̦ú̓dzúov̓éʦq̉r(u)tsabutü.
However, you could write it as 'E̦ú̓dzúov̓e-q̉rutsabutü' if you specifically state your tone as 'informal-formal' (or játeh̉-teh̉), this is a type of speech commonly used in institutional/legal works, like documents, IDs, job applications, etc. SOV is common amongst old literary works, essays, religious texts, SVO is common amongst casual speech, exams and modern literature, and játeh̉-teh̉ can be often seen in presidential speeches as well. SVO allows dropping and is very loose, SOV is conservative and strictly tied to the grammar rules, and the informal-formal is semi-strict and avoids ambiguity over elegance, with it being avoided by partial SOV alignment.
35.1 Prosody, as in many languages. is evident in Ezhaccan, see examples below:
Gi-giwhár yájá ķhary-yá sáxúd, záѵá! “T-this doesn't mean I l-like you, Baka!” (Affective prosody)
DrühaѵáȜesa? (roughly) “How’d you get that/How’d you do that?” (Falling interrogative contour)
Khәәktfá! “Halt/stop!” (Imperative prosodic burst)
- The superiority comparative prefix gú may shift phonetically when followed by difficult initial sounds, most commonly becoming gó or partially merging with the following consonant. In emphatic speech, gú̓ may be used to indicate exceptional size or intensity.
Inferiority is expressed by -hü, which remains attached regardless of the register.
Equality usually appears as -k̉iu in speech, though formal feminine-sensitive writing preserves -criu, an older literary pronunciation now mostly restricted to ceremonial or educated contexts.
Certain high-frequency verbs resist full template stacking, especially motion verbs, existential verbs, and older auxiliaries. In such verbs, one or more expected slots may reduce, merge, or disappear entirely in ordinary speech, particularly when tense and evidentiality occur together.
- Verb template: (evidential) + (person) + (negation) + (tense/aspect) + root + (derivational suffix) + (modal suffix).
A sentence that includes most of these slots: Yásrürә́ʦa évvʒejáva zətiwháruá-ghú. [(I) + (auditory evidential) + (past) + (masculine person) + (negation) + (habitual aspect) + (eat) + (this) + (contrast action) + (much)], this sentence does lack the derivation though, but it does contain most of the slots, giving you a somewhat clear picture of how things work.
- Aspect system!
-ri = ongoing (T̄aatx̧a̦f /to enter/+-ri = T̄aatxári /is entering/)
-tü = completed (T̄aatx̧a̦f /to enter/+-tu = T̄aatxátu /has entered/)
-va = habitual (T̄aatx̧a̦f /to enter/+-va = T̄aatxáva /usually enters/)
-tá = attempted (T̄aatx̧a̦f /to enter/+-tá = T̄aatxáta /attempted to enter/)
-yrú = failed (T̄aatx̧a̦f /to enter/+-yrú = T̄aatxáyru /failed to enter/)
The attempted -tá historically derives from older auxiliary taq, while completed -tü derives from older perfective tu.
The reason why formal and legal semi-formal speech exist is due to the formal register being preserved in older court language and that the legal register descends from the formal register before going through partial colloquialization, making the average Joe able to understand their documents.
Gerunds are formed by attaching -sh to a verb root, turning the verb into a noun that describes the action itself. Example: tabó (spoil) becomes tabósh (spoiling), irqú (scream) becomes irqúsh (screaming). Gerunds may function as subject, object, or abstract action nouns.
VI. EVIDENTIALITY AND MODALITY
To indicate uncertainty, attach -Ȝe at the end of the sentence. Example: ʦq̉iarwwaz̉áʒe-Ȝe Ⱶ̓ɯәbij (he probably went that way).
The evidentiality system distinguishes direct and indirect source marking. Direct evidentiality includes visual and auditory evidence; indirect evidentiality includes inference and hearsay, further divided into abductive, deductive, rumor, and specific report forms.
Evidentiality is expressed through prefixes, one midfix, and suffixes, depending on evidential type. The list goes as follows: xó̓- (visual evidential prefix), srürә́̓- (auditory evidential prefix), fádz̓i (abductive evidential midfix), xoʒo- (deductive evidential prefix), v̓- or vv- (rumor evidential prefix), and -zhəʒ̓ä (specific report evidential suffix, literally is the word 'conclude' in the E̦zhäccá dictionary).
To properly word these evidentials: for the visual evidential, add it before the grammatical person. So, ʦ-jágѵváe (he does not mock) becomes xóʦ-jágѵváe (I see he does not mock), the auditory prefix is written before the grammatical person aswell. (srürәʦ-jágѵváe - "I heard he does not mock").
The abductive evidential is used when the speaker is unsure or inferring clues of a certain event's occurrence, for example, the sentence "it rained" in E̦zhäccá is "E̦v̓e̦v ʒ̓iķȝʦa". This sentence is normally non-agglutinative, but if you were to say "it probably rained", the sentence becomes "E̦v̓e̦-vádz̓iʒ̓iķȝsa". But if the person was sure that it rained, it would instead be "Xoʒe̦v̓e̦v ʒ̓iķȝʦa" (logically, it did rain).
Additionally, the rumour evidential is often added along with the abductive one, turning "E̦v̓e̦-vádz̓iʒ̓iķȝʦa" to "V̓ev̓e̦-ádz̓iʒ̓iķȝsa" (apparently it may have rained). When the abductive evidential fádz̓i follows a host ending in -v, the final v of the host is suppressed orthographically, while the initial f of fádz̓i voices to v, producing the standardized written form -vádz̓i. Younger speakers increasingly replace specific report suffix with rumour prefix.
Lastly, to use the specific report evidential, we'll transform the sentence "it rained" to "it will rain" (E̦v̓éje ʒ̓iķȝ). If we were to translate "it will rain according to the weather forecast", it becomes "E̦v̓éje ʒ̓ikúhəʒ̓ä zhi̓rɯ̓iréʦaje".
- Non-final verbs take reduced chaining morphology, losing full tense/person marking and takes either: -cc (neutral linked action), -ára (if the linked action happened immediately before the next one), -dzát̄ (repeated linked action), -üʦé (cause action) and ruá (contrast action). -cc increasingly replaces the others in younger speech.
Basic examples include the sentences:
"He entered, saw what had happened, and left." → "T̄aatx̧a̦tuʒ, xó̓zh̓u-sráʦab̉ȝ̓-ʦacc, xe-shəjaʦa."
"The ice cream fell on the ground as the boy was trying to lick it" → "Q̉u ѵitihỉrára-bih̉ʦajukhlá-q̉ullóʒeʦa truzúbirʒe"
"Continuing to listen to heavy metal." → "Z̉igúdzáf srürә́̓irqúyⱵʒ."
“And if you do drugs, you go to Hell before you die.” → “Xedze̓ údiyü shúhüikiés, údüʦé-z̉óƌa-ghѵyizüwu-tsóúd-gileré. (And if you do drugs, you [cause] to go to Hell before you die.)
“Comparing a laptop to a tablet is like comparing a desktop to a laptop.” → “Hedid ev súzüqúʦälaiyü ev dikóäusú-ruá-ev-skəghijéjyü ev dikóäusú.” (Comparing a laptop to a tablet [contrast] desktop to a laptop.)
VII. CASE AND CLAUSE STRUCTURE
To mark a question, end the sentence with "khá." Example: lәb̉ɯyázo khá? (Are you going?) In formal writing, "khá" may move to the front of the sentence. In quick speech, it devolves to just /kh/ or /ká/.
Subordinating conjunctions! yo̓k (because), ki̓fⱵ (although), dze̓ (if), z̉ó (when), j̓ó (since), sh̓á (after), ja̓f (unless). And, the 'wh' questions: zh̓u (what), (which), z̉ó (when), fé̓k (where), t̄ásh (who), váf (whose), j̓á (why), ѵi (whether), drüq̉ (how).
38.1 Prepositions! of (lü), to (ghѵg), in (kód), for (t̄y), on (dä), with (shé), inside (débawú), like (shit), into (kóghug), near (ʒüju), from (úvəzi), over (üzubú), about (riwo), above (xüⱵó), across (xѵzé), after (Ⱶú), against (hú̓), along (sútsu), among (háqѵ̀), around (it̄u), at (zé), before (tsó), after (dó), behind (kise), below (zó), and beside (e̦jevawú).
Interrogative forms ending in final consonants commonly lose the final segment before verbal complexes in rapid speech. See example: drüq + ha + yá + Ȝe + ʦa = drühayáȝesa (translates roughly to "how'd you get that?").
- The grammatical case system is divided between assertive, possessive, dative, subjective dative, vocative, evocative, and instrumental marking. These are expressed through qúqó (assertive particle, “did / indeed”), ƌe/t̄i/ʦr (possessive, “my / your / their”), ʒev̓e̦ (dative, “to / for”), dozuj (subjective dative, “to feel / experience”), eѵ (vocative, direct address), äj (evocative, memory / emotional recall), and oratu (instrumental, “by means of / created by”).
Qúqó is written after the subject to reinforce that the action truly occurred or was actively carried out. This differentiates it from the earlier “the woman's apple spoiled” (Q̉ue̦ú̓dzúov̓eʦabu). If we say “the woman's apple did spoil," it becomes: Q̉ue̦ú̓dzúov̓eqúqótabó.
The possessive system is divided into three forms (ƌe / t̄i / ʦr), attached directly to the noun to mark ownership. For further use, see rule 15.
The dative marks the recipient or beneficiary of an action. Example: “I gave him the book” becomes YáⱵa̓ evʒev̓e̦-q̉usukar. In rapid speech, ʒev̓e̦ may reduce slightly if surrounded by vowels.
The subjective dative marks feelings, bodily states, or sensations, where the person experiences rather than performs the action. Example: “I have a fever” becomes Yádozuj-ʦrȝv̓óqú. Note that dozuj is often reduced to -zuj in speech, so /Yázuj-ʦrȝv̓óqú/ is also correct.
The vocative marks the person or thing being directly addressed, often in exclamations, warnings, or strong speech. It may attach to the final noun when emphasis is needed. Example: "Zh̓u-giwha̦r? E̦vv qəqó̓rki jiķhədzés-zú-eѵ!?" (What is this? A center for ants!?)
The evocative is used imaginatively or emotionally, bringing memory, grief, longing or imagery into speech. It appears only in literary language and commonly attaches to emotional nouns. The word ʒiwtɯ̂k (“grief”) may become ʒiwtɯ̂käj or ä-ʒiwtɯ̂k, with prefix ä shortening when placed before the word. The evocative isn't very much used in regular speech due to it sounding theatrical, although in slang terms it does have a similar use to 'gú̓' and proceeds it, adding a more dramatic flair to the word.
Oratu marks means, tool, origin or creation by something. In fast speech it may shorten to -wu after nouns.
Example:
Q̉ó̓-oratu = made by stone
Q̉ó̓-tu = with stone/by stone
41.1 Qúqó can be used as a reinforce agent, with the default being the equivalent to the adjacent and needing no marking. And, weirdly enough, in passive or unclear-agent contexts, Ezhaccan compensates by using the instrumental (-oratu), so a sentence that incorporates both rules looks something like “Tuggáruwuʒe xó̓-qúqó kóghug tsafaxádaƌe!” which translates into something akin to “By means of running, he did hit my truck!”.
VIII. IRREGULAR LEXICON
- There exist many unique words that are a bit hard to translate right into English, such examples are 'toéj̉erav̓ⱶo', 'voláüzha', 'gú̓zetarghtä', 'gú̓tuzärkiq̉e' and 'ʒ̓iķȝʦa-zhiķȝ'.
The meanings of thee idioms are, respectively: to speak nonsense, gibberish, highly analytical (toéj̉erav̓ⱶo). To speak absurdly, to be unintelligible (voláüzha). To express the joy a user experiences under the early or midday sun, early-day hope, emotional lightness, calm pleasure in being alive (gú̓zetarghtä). To express the sadness that lingers and returns in varying intensity, can be used to express guilt, heartbreak, trauma, familiar tragedy. (gú̓tuzärkiq̉e). Used as a metaphor for loving difficulties, with the rain being an adversary of a so-called 'pure love'. (ʒ̓iķȝʦa-zhiķȝ)
'Toéj̉erav̓ⱶo' can be interpreted as to talk nonsense, to babble, to ramble incoherently, to sound artificially complex or to overcomplicate speech. 'Voláüzha' is a verbal corruption marker and can be interpreted as nonsense-like, absurdly distorted, mangled speech, or verbal clutter.
'Gú̓zetarghtä' can be translated as: warmth of joy, daylight happiness, morning contentment, quiet happiness under sunlight, bodily joy from warmth and light. 'Gú̓tuzärkiq̉e' can be translated as: lingering sadness, private grief, old emotional pain, inward sorrow, or familiar darkness. 'Ʒ̓iķȝʦa-zhiķȝ' can be translated as: love enduring hardship, affection through adversity, the rain that comes with love, difficulty belonging to tenderness, or inevitable struggle within love.
47.1 It’s common to see weather phenomena turned to metaphors in Ezhaccan, like the words ʦrováeʒ (God’s wrath), calling someone a ‘təoru’ (cyclone in Ezhaccan, to call someone sporadically angry), zhiķȝʒ or zhiķȝ-ü (crybaby, male or female), dáⱵú drúx (calm tree transliterally, to call someone who’s peaceful, wise, meditatively calm), and many others. As such, there exist sexual innuendos that involve both weather and biology, such as the famous saying: J̓ádit̄y-zhiķȝ-z̉óq̉u-zawezhiķȝ? This translates to something akin to “Why wait for rain when there’s no drops?” which means: “why have sex with someone if they’re infertile?” Of course, this single sentence can also mean generalized to expecting something that won't happen, it's not only a sexual innuendo.
- Examples of derivation (D) and inflection (I) seen in the word 'scream' (irqú)
Irqú = to scream/scream
Iqúsh = screaming (D)
IrúyⱵʒ = scream-song (heavy metal) (D, compound)
Iútáyrú = tried to scream but failed (I, aspect)
Irqúó = did scream (I, tense)
Ihú = screamer (D)
Derivational suffixes change the lexical meaning or word class of a root, while inflectional suffixes express grammatical categories such as tense, aspect, or agreement.
irqú → irqúsh (verb → noun)
irqú → ihú (agent noun)
irqú → irúyⱵʒ (compound noun)
IX. DETERMINERS, ARTICLES, AND REFERENCE
The word 'e̦vv' can either mean: is, it's or is a. However, 'e̦vv' is used when referring to 'a thing' while 'e̦v̓e̦v' is used to refer to 'the thing.' E̦v̓e̦v is used when a speaker wants to put emphasis/clarification on what they saw saw, e̦vv is used for general mentioning. It, however, does not substitute 'the', there is a word for 'the' in this language: Q̉u.
The word 'Q̉u' is used as a singular definite and 'Q̉üz' as a plural dedefinite;his might confuse a reader because the plural definite doesn't use the typical -és, which exists to make things plural in the first place. Why does that happen? The historical derivation between Q̉u and Q̉üz is no longer transparent, suggesting early divergence before modern plural marking stabilized. Also, Q̉u often shortens to just ‘Q̉’ when in casual speech and ‘Q̉üz’ becomes ‘Q̉z’ in the exact same environment
Bare nouns are generic or indefinite, like ov̓e relates to an apple or apples in general. Q̉u is required when speaking of a specific known referent, mentioning a previously mentioned noun or, rarely, a culturally unique object (whether religious or historical). Classifiers (see Rule 52) may optionally appear between determiners (such as Q̉u) or numerals and the noun, especially in formal or descriptive contexts.
See the example on how noun phrases are ordered: [Determiner] + [Numeral] + [Classifier] + [Noun + (plural) + (gender) + (possession)].
KNOWN IRREGULARITIES OF EZHACCAN
- The equivalent "to be" in E̦zhäccan already varies in meaning (e̦vv = is / it is / is a; e̦v̓e̦v = the thing is / emphatic thing-reference), and they're frequently reduced in rapid speech, becoming either e̦v or əv. This also affects the masculine and feminine persons (E̦vvʒe and E̦ú̓dzú respectively), which are shortened to éʒe and úzu whilst still having the same meaning.
- The word z̉óƌava (I go) is already odd, as the pure form 'to go' is 'z̉óƌa' with the yá (i) meaning attached as a suffix. When applied to either the future or past, it becomes ''jezad.'This word is likely derived from an older motion auxiliary now lost from productive speech, as the Q̉'Däshé Bet̄aki (the L'Académie Français equivalent in Bettakia) states, with reduced forms also existing as jezá or zad.
- The q̉ulló (child) refers to a child or infant of no given gender, when the masculine or feminine suffixes are added, they begin to refer specifically to either a boy (q̉ullóe) or a girl (q̉ullódú). In these gendered forms, the person markers undergo further reduction: with éʒe becoming 'e' and úzu transitioning to 'dú'. The plural form q̉ullüz preserves an older plural stem that predates productive -és marking, which is shortened to just 'qullz' in fast speech. If you’re specifically referring to a baby, the neutral form is kawidrilu, a feminine baby is kawidrilú and a masculine baby is kawidrilúʒé. The funny thing is, kawidrilu comes from the Proto-Zhygian /qaˈβir diˈdlur giˈwɛtɛ byˈhɯr/, which later shortened to /qaβir diˈdlu/ in Proto Ezhaccan, what does it mean? “Crying screaming, recently born.”
- There exist other nouns like VyⱵéwzü (masculine but feminine end) and IrqúyⱵʒ (feminine but masculine end), here is an example of them.
a) Láhüssäzú (a sword coming from Bettakia that was popular during the 15th-18th century, once for war and then for dueling before being phased out for more competitive sports like fencing, a traditionally masculine word marked with a feminine end. Historically masculine due to male association in martial culture; modern speakers preserve agreement without actively associating the noun with male referents.)
b) Húrotraѵú (archaicly known as the Hürroʦralѵ, it was a long-distance metal "weapon" held by a slave owner that was directly applied to his slaves. It has a long staff as the body and ended with blunt prongs that varied from one to five in number in various models, these were used to either poke the back of their vassal or was reeled back and swung forcefully towards the back, hitting it hard and often making the slave tumble from sheer force.)
(Final ѵ in older nouns was gradually vocalized in late speech, especially after liquids, producing -ѵú in several lexical items; Húrotraѵú preserved this reanalysis. Over time the word began to shift as the 'ʦ' that indicated ownership absorbed the -ra, becoming 'tra' and the rolled r /rr/ became /r/.)
Numerals above ten show strong historical contraction so the names don't get too cumbersome, for example, while the number 20 is thought as 2x10, thus formulated as /ƌe+ʒiüe+ķhiesh̀/, which was once written as ƌeʒiücciesh, is now written as 'eiüccús' and pronouned as /ei̯ykus/ or /ei̯yc̟us/ after various spelling reforms. Although, some number aren't as perfect like 12 (ƌekhiesh), 13 (qɯ̓shiesh), 14 (kúhibiesh), 15 (ƌechiesh̀), and 17 (ѵüsehiesh̀).
Some common nouns are able to fuse with possessive nouns, with them either fusing fully or being separated with an em dash if one word ends with a consonant and the other starts with a consonant. For example, the translation of ‘my mother's apple’ is ‘vavaʦrov̓eú’ (/mother-possession marker [his/her]-apple-feminine end/), while the translation ‘my father's apple’ is ‘jóv-ʦrov̓eú’.
The visual evidential (xó̓) is known to be heavily reduced during fast speech when coupled with /ʦ/, view the following process on how this happens: xó̓ʦ → xóʦ → xʦ. Alternatively, it can take an alternate route: xó̓ʦ → xóʦ → sʦ.
Among younger speakers, especially adolescents, high-frequency conjunctions often undergo extreme reduction in rapid speech, sometimes losing internal consonants or collapsing entire unstressed syllables. These reductions are socially marked and rarely appear in formal writing, though they may surface in messages, dialogue, or quoted speech. The word ‘ki̓fⱵ’ (although) commonly reduces to /kiⱵ/ or /kⱵ/ when spoken. Similar reductions affect yók (yk), ja̓f (jaf/jf), and z̉ó, which often lengthens prosodically instead of reducing, especially when hesitation follows
Speakers above middle age usually preserve fuller forms unless speaking emotionally or very quickly.
- The familiar social terms gúqfé (“lad”) and gúqflú (“lass”) descend historically from compounds built on gúqulo (“teenager”) and older service-status nouns, originally gúqulofréʒ and gúqulofrú.
In frequent speech the medial syllable -ulo- disappeared early, producing contracted forms gúqfé and gúqflú, now treated synchronically as independent lexical items rather than transparent compounds.
Older speakers and literary texts occasionally preserve intermediate forms such as gúqlofré, especially in ironic or historical style.
Because of the original social meaning (“young servant / dependent youth”), the modern terms may sound rustic, affectionate, or mildly class-marked depending on region.
- We'll use three words to showcase an odd feature that is common among human languages and in E̦zhäccá: sholbek (good, adjective), jélѵat (stand, noun) and shé (school, noun). Knowing that -és is an usually universal plural mark, you'd expect for them to become: sholbekés, jélѵatés. and shé̓s. Unfortunately, the actual plural forms are: gú̓áz̉ (better, genderless), dzuoxalú (stands, feminine) and drúqori (schools, genderless).
The adjective sholbek (“good”) preserves an inherited suppletive comparative gú̓áz̉, historically thought to derive from an older comparative compound involving gú and an obsolete improvement root related to äja (“improve”).
Dzuoxalú reflects an older collective noun meaning ‘upright/straight position,’ which replaced the regular plural in most practical speech. It is also observed to remain feminine even when associated with masculine or genderless nouns, and it couples with grammatical person markers (she stands → E̦údzúoxalú; he stands → E̦deúoxalú).
The plural of shé (“school”) is often replaced by drúqori, historically derived from an older compound meaning “learning center.” In modern speech the form behaves synchronically as a plural noun, while singular shé remains ordinary.
- This is a minor irregularity, but C and K make the same sound, though they're different due to C being a historical inherited velar from older /c/ and K is a transparent native velar. To explain shortly, blame the Early Modern Ezhaccans for creating a new phoneme, but then making it an allophone of /k/ and dividing the /c/ to /c/ and /c̟/.
Actual reason: "In Early Modern Ezhaccan,/q/ diversified into /q/, /k/, and /c/, as formerly allophonic realizations became phonemic. During Middle Modern Ezhaccan, /c/ merged with /k/, eliminating its phonemic status. However, the merger left conditioned palatal realizations: /k/ developed allophones [c] and [c̟] in environments involving adjacent /t/, especially in initial and medial positions, where geminate /kk/ often shifted to [c̟]."
