Senjecas dict. Introduction

A Descriptive Dictionary of Senjecas: the Ancient Language as compiled by Charles W. Brickner, B.A., M.A.

t̨áárpafn̨a̋ro - Table of Abbreviations

adj. adjective	cnj. conjunction	inan. inanimate	intrg. interrogative	pl. plural	pron. pronoun	s.th. something
afx. affix	drv. derivative	indef. indefinite	i.v. intransitive verb	P.N. proper name	ptc. particle	sbj. subjunctive
anim. animate	gram. grammar	inf. infinitive	onom. onomatopoeia	pol. polysemy	sg. singular	sup. supine
cpd. compound	imp. imperative	intrj. interjection	o.s. oneself	postp. postposition	s.o. someone	t.v. transitive verb

tirsa̋m̃os - Introduction

• The lemma for verbs is the indicative form. The lemma for nouns and adjectives is the nominative singular.
• For ease in finding words, the words in this dictionary are listed in the order of the Latin alphabet as modified for Senjecas.
• Labialized and palatalized consonants are considered to be separate graphemes, e.g., dűta, d̬őqo, d̨űka.
• The order is as follows: aa, a, b, d, ð, ee, e, ĕ, f, g, h, ii, i, ĭ, ȝ, k, l, ɫ, m, m̃, n, oo, o, ɔɔ, ɔ, p, ƣ, r, s, ṡ, t, þ, uu, u, ŭ, v, x, z, ż.

• By the time the Children of Earth had begun writing, the Ethrans were already dispersed among them. As the various human cultures began to write, the Ethrans took advantage of the various alphabets as ways to write their own language, but always retaining their skill in their three alphabets. The Committee on Orthography of the Council of Mages [seilűm aul̤iȝűs ruunȝar̈a̋s túȝa dááraul̤ı̋ȝu - SARD] has always desired to make the various human alphabets as simple as possible by not using digraphs or diacritics that would interfere with the orthographies to match, keeping in mind the phonemes used in Senjecas. The use of the Latin alphabet by various languages has given the committee greater freedom to represent the Senjecan phonemes.

• Each of the letters is named after a natural creature the name of which begins with that letter or includes that letter. The vowels are named after their sound. The long vowels are specified as pı̋ða [long a], pı̋ðe [long e], pı̋ði [long i], pı̋ðo [long o], pı̋ðɔ [long ɔ], and pı̋ðu [long u].

• Three graphemes are known as the weak vowels. These vowels have specific uses.
  • 1. Nı̋þe [weak e, <ĕ>, /ε/] is used to prevent unallowable consonant clusters.
  • 2. Nı̋þi [weak i, <ĭ>, /ɪ/] is used when a palatalized consonant is followed by a consonant.
  • 3. Nı̋þu [weak u, <ŭ>, /ʊ/] is used when a labialized consonant is followed by a consonant.

• Senjecas is melodic, a language with three pitchs, low, mid, and high, which are relative to the speaker. These tones are neither grammatical nor lexical, therefore the substitution of stress accent is allophonic.
  • The high tones are indicated by a double acute accent over the vowels: a̋, e̋, ı̋, ő, ɔ̋ and ű.
  • The mid tones are marked by a single acute accent over the vowels: á, é, í, ó, ɔ́ and ú.
  • The low tones are unmarked, e.g, mésorta̋a̋gu, vinedresser.
• The use of these accent marks is not obligatory. They are used in this dictionary to aid the non-Senjecas speaker.

• At the beginning of each alphabetic section is a legend, e.g., total: 65/33+8/63%. This means that there are 65 lemmata and that 33 are verbs and 8 are adjectives which can be treated as stative verbs. The last number means that 63 percent of the vocabulary are verbs.

Senjecas dict. a