Qoroion language

Qoroion language

Orthography

The orthography is generally identical to that which is found in English, with a few significant exceptions:

-          x - /ʃ/

-          j - /ʒ/

-          c - /tʃ/

-          tj - /dʒ/

-          h - /χ/

-          q - /q/

-          w - /ṽ/

-          a - /a/

-          an - /ã/

-          e - /ɜ/

-          ē - /ʏ/

-          i - /i/ (/j/ after vowels)

-          o - /ɔ/

-          on - /ɔ̃/

-          ow - /ɔ̃f/

-          u - /ʊ/

Noun marking and plurals

The sentence order is generally Object-Verb-Subject, although with the handful of verbs that lack specific interrogative forms, this (often, but not necessarily) becomes Object-Subject-Verb.

All words are marked in a certain manner, depending on the position they have in the sentence – for example, whether they are used at the very end of a clause/sentence, or the very end of a paragraph. Nouns are additionally marked to show the sentence is interrogative, or in conjunction with the verb, imperative. These endings are:

-          -i = imperative/interrogative

-          -k = clause-final

-          -m = topic-final

Nouns also have two kinds of plural – the usual kind found in English, to denote an unknown amount of the object, and a collective plural, to denote “all” or, with mass nouns, the “entirety” of the object. All nouns in the singular form end in either a consonant or “-o”, so for example “goho” (“cup”) becomes “goxu” in the plural and “goha” in the collective, and “kos” (“cat”) becomes “kosu” and “kosa”.

Noun irregularities and possible cases

In topic-final singular nouns, a final “s” becomes a “x”, and correspondingly “z” becomes “j”. For stop consonants at the end of c-f and t-f singular nouns, an “-o-“ is placed between the final consonant and the marker, e.g. “od”, “odok”.

When followed by “u”, the “h” sound becomes “x” and “q” becomes “c”, as demonstrated with “goho”-“goxu” and “laqo”-“lacu” (“river”).

A handful of nouns, including pronouns and essential nouns such as “man” (“od”), are declined for dative (motion towards) and ablative (motion away from) cases. For example:

	Singular	Plural	Collective
Nominative	Od	Odu	Oda
Dative	Odij(-k, -im)	Odoj	Odaj
Ablative	Odir(-k, -m)	Odor	Odar

Pronouns will be discussed later.

Verb tenses and conjugations

All verbs end in “-i” in the infinitive form, or “-e” when clause or topic-final. The average interrogative-lacking verb follows this pattern:

Omi/ome = to ask

	Regular	Topic/clause final	Suffixes
1st sg.	Oma	Omaie	Habitual reg.	-ti
2nd sg.	Somi	Somie	Past reg.	-hon
3rd sg.	Omeh	Omehe	Future reg.	-l
1st pl.	Omu	Omuie	Habitual cf.	-te
2nd pl.	Soma	Somaie	Past cf.	-hue
3rd pl.	Om	Omie	Future cf.	-le

The “s-“ prefix for the second person changes to “x-“ before a consonant, and “xte-“ before another sibilant sound.

For verbs with interrogatives, these patterns are followed:

Dali/dale = to throw out

	Regular	Topic/clause final	Interrogative	Suffixes
1st sg.	Dala	Dalaie	Dalav	Habitual reg.	-ti
2nd sg.	Xdali	Xdalie	Xdaliv	Past reg.	-hon
3rd sg.	Daleh(-el)	Dalehe	Dalev	Future reg.	-l
1st pl.	Dalu	Daluie	Daluv	Habitual cf.	-te	Habitual in.	-it
2nd pl.	Xdala	Xdalaie	Xdalav	Past cf.	-hue	Past in.	-ihon
3rd pl.	Dal	Dalie	Dalow	Future cf.	-le	Future in.	-il

Imperative verbs take, before them, the particle “en”, e.g. “en xdal”(“throw it away!”), or the subject pronoun in imperative form, while negatives require the modal verb “ci/ce” to be inflected and the relevant verb to remain the same. 

Adjectives and adverbs

Adjectives are largely indeclinable, except of course for their position in the sentence, for which they are treated like nouns. However, all adjectives must end in a consonant. 

Adverbs are equivalent to their adjective forms, but are themselves followed by the postposition “zon” (in the manner of (irregularly, not inflected for postposition)) and placed following the verb.

Postpositions

Postpositions are the equivalent of English prepositions, but come after the noun. Postpositional nouns generally come at the start of the sentence.

Examples:

-          jax – towards

-          or – away from, out of

-          dit – in

-          dēt – outside, around

-          lan – before, near to

-          oqan – behind, far from

-          taj – for, in honour of

-          aniv – because of