Rostinian language (2nd attempt)

I redid a conlang I made a while back - a Slavic language with hyperagglutinative features. This is Rostinian, the result.

1: Orthographies

Rostinian has three orthographies, of which two are in common use.

1.1: Old orthography

This was used predominantly before the 19th century, when the island was under Swedish and Polish rule, and national independence movements were mostly suppressed.

A a	/a/	G g	/g/	O o	/o/	T t	/t/
B b	/b/	H h	/χ/	P p	/pʰ/	Ţ ţ	/ð/
C c	/ʧ/	I i	/i/	Pp pp	/p/	U u	/u/
Ç ç	/ʃ/	J j	/j/	Q q	/ʧʰ/	V v	/v/
Ch ch	/ɬ/	K k	/k/	Ŗ ŗ	/r/	Y y	/æ/
D d	/θ/	L l	/l/	R r	/ɹ/	Z z	/z/
E e	/ɛ/	M m	/m/	S s	/s/	Zq zq	/ʒ/
F f	/f/	N n	/n/	Ş ş	/ʃ/

1.2: Cyrillic and Kyžreni

In the early 20th century, when Rostinia began to emerge as a nation with its own cultural identity, it adopted a modified Cyrillic alphabet to celebrate its Slavic heritage. The Rostinian Cyrillic Alphabet was first taught in schools in 1928, just two years after independence. 

Rostinian ethnologist Arislyv Kyžreni (1908-1981) developed a Latin transliteration of this system in 1946, which has overtaken its Cyrillic counterpart in daily use, for international convenience. This text will use the Kyžreni orthography for the rest of this document.

Cyr.

IPA

Lat.

Cyr.

IPA

Lat.

Cyr.

IPA

Lat.

Cyr.

IPA

Lat.

Cyr.

IPA

Lat.

А а

/a/

A a

Е е

/ɛ/

E e

Л л

/l/

L l

Рь рь

/ɹ/

Ɍ ɍ

Хь хь

/ɬ/

Ħ ħ

Ӑ ӑ

/æ/

Y y

Ё ё

/jo/

Jo jo

М м

/m/

M m

С с

/s/

S s

Ц ц

/ʧʰ/

C c

Б б

/b/

B b

Ж ж

/ʒ/

Ž ž

Н н

/n/

N n

Т т

/θ/

T t

Ч ч

/ʧ/

Č č

В в

/v/

V v

З з

/z/

Z z

О о

/o/

O o

Ть ть

/t/

Ŧ ŧ

Ш ш

/ʃ/

Š š

Г г

/g/

G g

И и

/i/

I i

П п

/pʰ/

P p

У у

/u/

U u

Э э

/jæ/

Jy jy

Д д

/ð/

D d

Й й

/j/

J j

Пь пь

/p/

Ᵽ ᵽ

Ф ф

/f/

F f

Ю ю

/ju/

Ju ju

Дь дь

/d/

Đ đ

К к

/k/

K k

Р р

/r/

R r

Х х

/χ/

H h

Я я

/ja/

Ja ja

2: Nouns & prepositions

2.1: Noun cases

As with many other Slavic languages, there are seven noun cases in Rostinian – nominative, accusative, dative, ablative, instrumental, locative and vocative. These serve the standard function as in other Indo-European languages. 

For nearly all nouns, there is no distinction between the nominative, accusative and vocative anymore – only feminine and masculine plural nouns make this distinction anymore.

Definiteness is not shown – nouns are only declined for singular and plural forms.

There are three patterns of declension – masculine, feminine and neuter.

2.2: Masculine declension

Masculine nouns all end in a consonant, “e” or “u” in the nominative.

Example: Kot = cat

	Sing.	Plu.
NOM	Kot	Koti
ACC	Kot	Koty
DAT	Kote	Koti
ABL	Kota	Kotu
INS	Kotam	Kotan
LOC	Koteš	Koči
VOC	Kot!	Koči!

2.3: Feminine declension

Feminine nouns must end in “a” or “y” in the nominative.

Example:  Rođnja = family

	Sing.	Plu.
NOM	Rođnja	Rođne
ACC	Rođnju	Rođni
DAT	Rođne	Rođni
ABL	Rođnjy	Rođnja
INS	Rođnam	Rođnami
LOC	Rođnas	Rođnai
VOC	Rođne!	Rođnjo!

2.4: Neuter declension

Neuter nouns end in “o” or, in some circumstances, a consonant.

Example: Deɍjyv = tree

	Sing.	Plu.
NOM	Deɍjyv	Deɍjyvi
ACC	Deɍjyv	Deɍjyvi
DAT	Deɍjyve	Deɍjyvu
ABL	Deɍjyvo	Deɍjyvai
INS	Deɍjyvem	Deɍjyvjom
LOC	Deɍjyva	Deɍjyviš
VOC	Deɍjyv!	Deɍjyvi!

2.5: Notes about articles

The article “and” is just assumed in nearly all circumstances, while the article “ny” is used for “but”.

2.6: Commonly used prepositions

	∅	“A”(“na” after vowels)	“Se”	“Ve”
NOM	Subject	∅	∅	∅
ACC	Object	∅	For	∅
DAT	To	Onto	Through	Into
ABL	From	Of	Beside	Around
INS	Using, with	Without, except for	With	∅
LOC	∅	On	Near	In

2.7: Compound nouns

Many nouns frequently have compound forms, where adjectives have a morpheme that is incorporated directly into the noun. A common example of this is diminuitives, shown as “yk” or “uk” at the end of the noun, although another example, unique to Slavic languages at least, is the act of showing colours as morphemes.

Some prepositional phrases also act as morphemes, for example, “the cat on the wall” is “stajkot”, or “wall-cat”. “The cat in the wall” would then be “stavikot”.

3: Verbs

3.1: Basic verb forms

All verbs take the same set of endings and the same infinitive ending, “-te”.

An example, shown here, is “lubte”, or “to love”

	Present	Past
1st. sing.	Lubu	Lubul
2nd. sing.	Lubs	Lubuli
3rd. sing.	Lubet	Lubla*
1st. plu.	Lubem	Lubli
2nd. plu.	Lubti	Lubtil
3rd. plu.	Lubut	Lubuli

*”Lublo” for masculine nouns.

3.2: The articles “bit” and “bič”

“Bit” comes before the noun to show the future tense with the present, and the imperfect tense with the past. “Bič” does something similar, but forms the conditional instead.

3.3: Reflexive stems

For reflexive verbs, the following endings apply:

1st. sing.	-š
2nd. sing.	-i
3rd. sing.	-s
1st. plu.	-s
2nd. plu.	-s
3rd. plu.	-s

3.4: Object endings

These come after the normal subject endings to show the direct object of a verb (or, in the case of intransitive verbs, the indirect object):

1st.	-u
2nd.	-st
3rd.	-c

3.5: Compound verbs

Much like nouns, verbs can have their object or prepositions coming after them merged into the verb itself – for example, “lubkote”, which means “to love cats”. “Ħate”, for example, means “to want”, and “Ħašte” means “to want food”, or “to want to eat”. In this process, long sentences can easily be composed of single words.

3.6: Numerals (nominative only)

0	Nyl	11	Jydinset	30	Tristeset
1	Jydin	12	Dweset	40	Čečreset
2	Dwe	13	Sriset	50	Pjaseset
3	Sri	14	Česet	60	Sesteset
4	Čečre	15	Pajset	70	Sejmsteset
5	Pjad	16	Sestet	80	Vysteset
6	Sest	17	Sejmset	90	Divseset
7	Sejm	18	Vysset	100	Styset
8	Vys	19	Divset	200	Dwe styset
9	Divet	20	Dwesteset	300	Sri styset
10	Diset	21	Dwesteset odin	1000	Tejsestet

 

4: Adjectives

Adjectives are a very simple feature – they all follow the same pattern of changes.

Example: Zekryti = secretive

	Masc.	Fem.	Neut.	Plu.
NOM	Zekryti	Zekryta	Zekryti	Zekryti
ACC	Zekryta	Zekrytu	Zekryto	Zekryti
DAT	Zekrytu	Zekryte	Zekryty	Zekryty
ABL	Zekrytek	Zekrytak	Zekrytak	Zekrytyk
INS	Zekrytem	Zekrytam	Zekrytom	Zekrytyn
LOC	Zekryte	Zekryty	Zekryte	Zekryti