{"sf1_id":2197542,"sf2_id":"Welwo0l1","title":"Bidocumental Shirenè language guide and dictionary","author":"fugi88","words":2385,"posted_at":"2024-11-06T12:36:04.000Z","tags":["Conlang","Werewolf world","Word class","sirens"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/2197542-bidocumental-shirene-language-guide-and-dictionary","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/s/Welwo0l1","image_url":"https://cdn.sofurryfiles.com/submissions/thumbnails/45/61/4561d30a-fd1a-4f1a-a941-d4e81ffff186","description":"This document describes the Shirenè language and how it works. It is the language of the wereworld that differs the most from other languages in the world, and thusly has a guide to match.","content":"# Document 1 - Grammatical and Orthographical guide to the Language of the sirens (Idome Shirenè)\n\nThe language of the sirens (_la idome Shirenè_, literally “language-[HEAD marker] (of) sirens”) is a natlang built by fugi88 for the fictional siren race of the wereworld to communicate in.\n\nAmong its defining features is a many-to-one grapheme-phoneme correspondance, articles that inflect to give information on the relatively inflection-free verbs and nouns,\n\n## Phonology and Writing system\n\nThe phonology for\u0026nbsp;_Shirenè_\u0026nbsp;features a handful of relatively unfamiliar sounds to english or spanish speakers, such as /?/, /q/, /?/, /?/, and /?/. It features 8 vowels. yet features several spellings for each.\n\nThe writing system is almost convoluted - vowels can be written in several polygraphic forms, plenty of consonants have different spellings, and the spelling system uses these without rhyme nor reason. However, everything is pronounced exactly as written, unlike French.\n\nBelow are the series of sound-grapheme correspondances. Where Shirenè graphemes are not provided, refer to the IPA spelling.\n\n    Vowels IPA i i êi ie ? û ih ûe u u oo ugh ? o ae ue ? â au á a a agh ea ? e eau ? ê ei eh egh Consonants IPA p p ph b t t th d d ýd k k qh g q ? gh ? h hx m n ? gn ny ? ng ? nh f v s z ? sh ? zh x jh ? tl lt ?~l r l ? ? ll j j y Multi-phoneme letters u? w' au w k? x\n\nDiacritics are of particular interest. In some cases they provide meaningful phonetic information on pronunciation of vowels, whilst in others they simply differentiate between homophones or nod to historic spelling.\n\nThe most significant accent, ^, is used to seperate between vowel phonemes.\n\nWhere a grave accent, `, is used, it indicates that a vowel is of its own phonemic value instead of read as part of the previous polygraph - “ei” is /?/, whilst “eì” is /?i/. Likewiese, “eaue” would be read /??/ whilst eaùe would be read /a?/.\n\nA diersis, somewhat similarily, indicates that a vowel is to be pronounced in a seperate syllable from the phonemes before it, also breaking the polygraphs; “eì” is /?i/, whilst “eï” is /?.i/.\n\nAccents are also used in places they serve no function -\u0026nbsp;_Shirenè_, the name of the language, features a grave on the last e. It is conserved to remind of a former version of the word where the è came as part of a dipthong.\n\nWherever a ´ is used, it indicates that the particular vowel has fallen silent; this is useful for seperating homophones. Each word class prefers its own vowel for this.\n\nWhere adding an affix will result in an ambiguous dipthong condition, use diacritics to specify which. Affixes add to monopthongs and seperate from dipthongs.\n\n### Stress\n\nStress falls on the first root syllable (a syllable of a word which does not come from an affix) of any word and is thusly unmarked.\n\n## Grammar\n\n_Shirenè_\u0026nbsp;is dominated by an affliction for the object of the sentence. Sentence order is determined by the object, and the verb info is also communicated by the object’s article.\n\n### Word classes\n\n_Shirenè_\u0026nbsp;has several world classes for sorting into boxes the words. They are unmarked and often rely on etymological or subject knowledge, or, in a numbr of cases, plain memorisation.\n\nClasses are not iron-clad boxes; words which should fit into one human/siren category may slip into transitive or neuter categories, and vice-versa.\n\nThey are listed below, alongside their shortcodes:\n\n- S - Sirenical - relating to stuff from the siren’s world\n- H - Human - relating to stuff from the human world\n- T - Transitive - relating to shared stuff\n- Ts - Technical-s - as below but for the siren world\n- Th - Technical-h - relating to designed stuff from the human world; the line between designed and natural sits somewhere down the line from the design to the final thing - the further the more likely to be simply human\n- Na - Neuter-a - anything not fitting in any of the boxes\n- Nb - Neuter-b - as above\n\nHowever, in many cases, word class is broken into three groups:\n\n- Human - H, and Th\n- Siren - S, and Ts\n- Neuter - T, Na, and Nb\n\nWord class is vital in selecting the correct affixes for words and inflection bases for articles.\n\n### Sentence Order\n\nSentence order in\u0026nbsp;_Shirenè_\u0026nbsp;relies on the object’s class; if human, the order is SVO, if Sirenical, then the order is SOV, and if neuter, the order is VSO.\n\nHeadnouns and their modifiers follow a particular order. First come the sirenical modifiers, then the neuter, then the headnoun, and then the human modifiers. The order of words within each class is of no grammatical significance.\n\nIf the noun has modifiers added, it must be inflected to show the fact; see the inflection table, column “header” for what affixs to add to the headnoun.\n\n### Verbs\n\nVerbs are among the simplest type of word. One simply prepends an affix to them to reflect the sentence order and\n\n- Human SVO - Prepend a qû-\n- Sirenical SOV - Prepend a tû-\n- Neuter VSO - Prepend a vû\n\n### Articles\n\nArticles are one of the most complex parts of\u0026nbsp;_Shirenè_. The distinction between definite, semidefinite, and indefinite is defined by wether the object can snoop in or be snooped on. If the object can understand to the transmission of language, then wether it can see the transmission in full, part, or not at all determines the type of article used. If it cannot, then wether the speaker can sense it in full, part, or not at all determines the article used.\n\nBelow is a list of articles and the steps needed to inflect them. The final list, the verb-specific ones, are only to be used on the article for the object headnoun or in descriping modifiers.\n\n- Bases (definite, semidefinite, indefinite)\n  - H - la, ka, nga\n  - S - zha, qha, nha\n  - T - lla, gha, na\n  - Ht - lû, kû, nhû\n  - St - zhû, qhû, nhû\n  - Na - lê, kê, nê\n  - Nb - zhê, qhê, nê\n\n- Cases\n  - Default - no change\n  - Part of noun phrase - append a ll\n  - Dative - append a w’\n  - Genitive - append a w\n  - Instrumental - append a jx\n\n- Numbers\n  - Singular - no change\n  - Dual - a to â, û to u, ê to e\n  - Trial - a to â, û to u, ê to e\n  - +3 but the amount is handleable - append an n\n  - +3 but the amount is not handleable - append an m\n\n- Verb-specific inflections\n  - Tense (only for objects which are neither non-transitive nor neuter nouns, which must instead use particles, or for specifying the time in which a modifier takes place, in which case such modifer may be used)\n    - Past - add e to the centre, making a dipthong, ê if e already there\n    - Present - no change\n    - Future - as past, using â and u as its backup instead\n    - Intemporal - as past, using i and û as its backup instead\n\n  - Mood\n    - Indicative - no change\n    - Subjunctive - l to s, ll to sh, zh to l\n    - Imperative - append a âjx, to which e may be appended to indicate a higher degree of urgency\n\n  - Ediventiality\n    - Knowing/default - no change\n    - Sensing - append an sh, changing -n ender to an ï dipthong, and -m to an ïh\n    - Conclusion - append a s, changing final consonant as in sensing\n    - Hearsay - append a z, changing final consonant as in sensing\n\nArticles may be used for any noun or describer; before headnoun’s noun phrases, one uses an article to define the headnoun and may use articles\n\n### Pronouns\n\nPronouns are built from a simpler system. They may be used in the place of a headnoun only.\n\n- Base types\n  - First - o\n  - Second - e\n  - Third - i\n  - Fourth - u\n\n- Plurality\n  - Singular - prepend w-\n  - Plural - prepend v-\n\n- Inclusivity\n  - Inclusive - append -jx\n  - Exclusive - no change\n\n- Case\n  - Object - append e\n  - Subject - no change\n  - Genitive - directly after vowel, append s\n\nInclusivity applies to all pronouns. I becomes “i and you” and “i exclusively” respectively, “you” becomes “you, generally”, and “you, right now” respectively, and it’s the same deal with he/him.\n\n## Lexicon\n\n### Word registers\n\nThere exist four main word registers in\u0026nbsp;_Shirenè_; the sirenical, the human-imported, the glue, and the unsplit.\n\nThe sirenical words are descendants of the original words of the laguage. They mainly fit into the siren and neuter word classes.\n\nWhen the sirens whispered to ancient humans and began the big language families, such as PIE, Semitic, and Sinitic, they monitored as the humans stirred the soup of language development. Eventually, the Sirens imported words from the humans, creating the human-imported register. This register contains a lot of technical words pretaining to the human world.\n\nThe glue register are all the words which are needed for communication; particles and comparitives and all that.\n\nThe unsplit register is a bundle of words which are not cheifly human or sirenical and do not have synonyms from another register.\n\nThe name of the language itself,\u0026nbsp;_idome Shirenè_, features one word from the human register and another from the sirenical register; “idome” is similar to Spanish “idioma” and “Shirenè”, whilst from an imported word, has become sirenical for “siren”.\n\n## Examples\n\n### Basic demonstration\n\nA translation of “speak/learn the English language!” would be [AAp20]:\n\n\u003e (We) qûesht la’âjx idome bretagne\n\n(/(au?) q???t la??x id?m? br?ta??/)\n\nThere is no subject here; one can add a pronoun\u0026nbsp;_e_, inflected to\u0026nbsp;_we_\u0026nbsp;(you singular exlusive subject) but\u0026nbsp;_we_\u0026nbsp;is implied with imperatives.\n\nThe verb is formed of the root, esht, meaning to speak/learn to speak, and qû, showing that the sentence is SVO due to a human object noun.\n\nThe article uses the default for human nouns la, followed by the imperative marker ’âjx (/??x/). The presence of this article indicates that there will be a noun or noun phrase next. Given that idome has the -e inflection for making human-class nouns headnouns, we know that the article is working on it.\n\n_bretagne_\u0026nbsp;is a noun for “British”, here meaning “the English language”. Given that it is modifying a noun, it does not need an artice, instead freeloading off the conjugation of the headnoun’s article.\n\nSo, literally, the sentence would be “learn the[imperative] language (of) English”.\n\n### Longer example\n\nTo do a slightly more complex “These are the most common things (phrases) in the Bretanye language”, let’s breakdown this sentence: [AAp20]\n\n\u003e Lên tzhe qûzho lan rodeau fehgèrté stûe kaza la idome bretagne\n\n(/l?n t?? q??o lan ?od? f?g??t st?? kaza la id?m? br?ta??/)\n\n“Lên tzhe qûzho” is formed of several components. “tzhe” means these, “lên” comes from the Neuter-A article lê followed by n for plural, and qûzho is formed of aforementioned qù and zho, meaning “to be” with the nuance of the human class.\n\n“lan rodeau fehgèrté stûe” is a noun phrase. Rodeau (/?od?/) means “most”, fehgèrté (/f?g??t/) means “common”, and stue /st??/ means “thing”. Together, it comes to mean \"most common thing. Lan is an article formed of la and the plural marker n.\n\nkaza simply means “within” and connects a noun phrase, this one being the one for English.\n\n## Figures\n\n### Inflection table\n\n    Specific inflectors Verb-added qù- - Added to a verb, shows SVO order tû- - Added to a verb, shows SOV order vû- - Added to a verb, shows VSO order Article added -n - more than three, handleable -m - more than three, unhandleable -sh - sensing -z - conclusion -zh -hearsay -âjx - Article imperative indicator -âjxe - Article imperaimperative indicator General inflectors, class-dependent Class Headnoun Verbifier Diminutive h -e atl- -fri s -ê âtl- -fri t -e itl- -fri ht -e atl- -fre st -ê âtl- -fre na -i utl- -fra nb -i utl- -frâ General inflectors, class-depends Meaning Human Sirenical - H S T hT sT Na Nb Highest degree (sarcastic) pûe- bûe- Highest degree, -est tih- thih- High degree, -er kû- qhû- Upwards degree qih- ghih- Downwarss degree, -ish nyih- nhih- Low degree nû- ngû- Lowest degree hxih- mih- Lowest degree (sarcastic) fûe- vûe- diminutive sû- zû - grossative shûeá- zhûeá- noun verbifier jxûó- tlûó - verb nounifier rih- lih - conceptifier (gay -\u003e gayness) ?áih- lláih- +negative connotation jûú- yûú - +positive connection w'áû- wáû - connotation neutraliser dù- xù-\n\n# Document 2 - Shirenè dictionary\n\nShirenè is a unique language both in the werewolf world and outside it.\n\nThis document makes no attempt to explain the grammar. Refer to the guide for detailed explanations.\n\nAll entires are as uninflected as possible. Refer to the offical inflection table at the bottom of the guide for more details on affixes to be able to remove them. No articles are listed here.\n\nThe dictionary is formatted like this:\n\n- word /IPA/ class (origin)\n  - Meaning\n  - Specific affixes\n\nThe following IPA symbols are used to express pronunciation:\n\n`i ? u ? ? a ? ?`\u0026nbsp;and\u0026nbsp;`p b t d k g q ? ? m n ? ? ? f v s z ? ? x ? ? ? j`\n\nWord class acronyms are as follows:\n\n- S - Sirenical\n- H - Human\n- T - Transitive\n- Ts - Technical-s\n- Th - Technical-h\n- Na - Neuter-a\n- Nb - Neuter-b\n\n## Words\n\n- kaza /kaza/ Nb\n  - within\n\n- idome /idom?/ H (Spanish\u0026nbsp;_Idioma_)\n  - language\n\n- bonne /bon.n?/ H (French\u0026nbsp;_bonne_)\n  - good\n\n- zur /z?r/ S\n  - horizon\n\n- ge /g?/ S\n  - sun\n\n- zur-ge /z?r g?/ S (zur + ge)\n  - sunrise\n\n- ge-zur /g? z?r/ S (ge + zur)\n  - sunset\n\n- tzhe /t??/ S\n  - this\n\n- zho /?o/ H (Mandarin ?/shì)\n  - is\n\n- rodeau /?od?/ S\n  - most\n\n- fehgèrté /f?g??t/ Na\n  - common\n\n- stûe /st??/ H\n  - thing\n\n- tèzh /t??/ s\n  - want (polite/respectful)","series":{"name":"Werewolf world lore guides","previous":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/2138227-the-northern-spanish-dictionary.json"}}