Azarian

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Azarian
Mejinsyè
Spoken in: Azaria (Mejín)
Conworld: Melin
Total speakers: ?
Genealogical classification: Borogoni
Bori
Melonian
Azarian
Basic word order: SVO
Morphological type: inflecting
Morphosyntactic alignment: nominative-accusative
Writing system:
Created by:
Pierre Abbat late 1970s

Phonetics


Vowels
Front Near-front Central Near-back Back
High i ĩ
High-mid o õ
Mid (ə) (ə̃)
Low-mid ɛ ɛ̃ (œ) (œ̃)
Low a ã


Consonants
Bilabial Labiod. Dental Alveolar Post-alv. Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasal m
Plosive p b t d k g
Fricative f v ʃ ʃʲ ʒ ʒʲ h

Tones

Azarian has three tones: falling, mid, and rising. Only stressed syllables have tone; unstressed syllables are pronounced with pitches determined by surrounding tones. Sentence intonation modifies the pronunciation of tones, making the falling tone high level, for instance. A word may have more than one toned syllable, e.g. fìxteynzàyhatvà "sixty-eight".

Minimal pairs are "you" and (interrogative particle); and kézd "time" and kèzd "tool". Sá onjō sā kézd ī xtá jè? Háx, mó xanztè kézdkèzd. "Do you know what time it is? No, I'll ask the clock." A minimal pair that can easily be confused is háyx "zero", related to háx, and hàyx "four". To avoid this, Azarians often say máx "nothing, nobody" for háyx.

Alphabet

Azarian has the same alphabet as Malwinish, except for letters representing sounds not found in both languages.

Transliteration Sound Notes
k k
o o
s s Usually a dental sibilant, but the dental and alveolar sibilants are allophones.
j ʒ
z z
h h Initial hi is voiceless i, unless followed by a vowel, in which case a diphthong results.
v v
b b The letter for v originally represented b, and that for b is a modification of it.
a a
g g
e e Pronounced as either ɛ or ə.
x ʃ
t t
i i
f f
m m
p p
d d
y j Diacritic indicating palatalization of s, z, x, and j, and diphthong with o, a, and e.
n ◌̃ Diacritic indicating a nasal vowel.

The falling (high) tone is written as an accent above the vowel, and the rising (low) tone as an accent below, when they are written. The mid tone is not written in the Azarian alphabet.

Some words, such as yhatvà, begin with y or n. This is not pronounced, and in Azarian writing is not written, unless the previous word ends with a letter that can take the diacritic. n and y commute.

Numbers

Azarian English
háyx, máx zero
tan one
two
háov three
hàyx four
xayf five
fìxte six
jáyn seven
yhatvà eight
ki, kays (archaic) nine
káyn ten
káyn tan eleven
vàynzà twenty
háovzà thirty
hìzà forty
xāyfzà fifty
fìxteynzà sixty
jáynzà seventy
yhatvàynzà eighty
kīzà ninety
kèsfayn hundred